Move 18 Recap

We continue our review of the team's activity in the early morning hours.

Outside Medical: Alaric, Fluffy, Crowned-With-Eyes, Mikodez, and Sulen

Fluffy and the mothling Crowned-With-Eyes escape Mikodez' grasp. Sulen drops the drugged drink they are holding to grab at the mothling, who evades them. (They deeply regret the mess.) Alaric, startled, allows his null calendrical field to flare. Mikodez restores Fluffy to her cage, discusses the properties of voidmoths with Alaric, and gives the black Andan fabric to Sulen, who uses the fabric to trap the mothling. A puff of glitter that Mikodez had previously dumped on Crowned-With-Eyes materializes from nowhere. Alaric films the excitement on his lokwor.

A nurse threatens to call security if Mikodez and associated creatures don't stop making noise. Mikodez pleads for information about his "cousin" Istradez, to no avail. He then asks Alaric for information about other moths; Alaric suggests returning to the ship, to place the mothling in the prepared "moth biome". Sulen instructs Alaric to check on the injured Imsayed (Istradez); he complies.

Mikodez asks Sulen, "Will you use your Rahal powers on the moths?" Sulen is confused. They ask Mikodez how he obtained the moth. Mikodez states, "I found it hiding in the display supplies when I got back to the visitor quarters," which is technically not a lie. After some discussion, Mikodez holds his pack open and Sulen returns the mothling and the fabric to it.

A few minutes later, Alaric sticks his head out of the room where Istradez is resting, and tells Mikodez, "This is hospital, keep your voice down. And go flag down a nurse to get a hover chair and discharge paperwork."

Inside Medical: Iawa and Imsayed (Istradez), joined by Alaric

Iawa dismisses the usual questions to measure concussion as inappropriate for Istradez' situation, and asks him, "What's the last thing you remember?" He responds, "My br-- I mean, the very junior member of our crew has been up to shenanigans and I had no luck dragging him back onto the, er, Bumblebee." Iawa wonders why Istradez is pretending not to know his brother Avrayen (Mikodez), and fears that Istradez' brother attacked him.

Alaric appears and asks whether Istradez can walk. Iawa suggests Istradez should talk to a doctor first, and asks whether he has a regular doctor when not traveling through rifts. Istradez controls the urge to laugh hysterically, replying, "I value my privacy, thank you. I'd rather get back to the ship before something else disastrous happens." Iawa plans to warn Ashari about Istradez' dangerous state of health, and asks again whether he can walk. Istradez agrees that a float chair would be a good idea.

Gerae's room: Gerae and Virmad

Gerae thanks Virmad effusively, and tells him, "I was starting to fear that I'd be left here to starve to death... It's been a harrowing few weeks. I honestly was starting to think my luck had plunged me from bad to worse."

Environmental and Engineering: Sasha and the moth; messages from Ashari and Yehan

Sasha goes to Engineering to find some shop rags. She sings to the moth; the moth hums back. While cleaning filters next door in Environmental, Sasha teaches the moth to hum a Kirrish round. She intercepts a complaint from Ashari about the noise. She then messages Yehan to ask for suggestions on communicating ideas about noise level to the moth. Yehan suggests, "Can you get it to understand an X-Y coordinate system and then associate the x-axis with time, the y-axis with amplitude?" Because amplitude is typically measured on a logarithmic scale, Sasha teaches the moth high language notation for logarithms.

Habits and Strategies

Under stress, and in the absence of strong direction, many of the team members fall back on old habits. Mikodez and, to some extent, Virmad rely on charm. Sulen attempts to take charge and deal with Mikodez alone, rather than coordinating with Alaric to isolate him. Alaric and Sasha, though not technically Nirai, succumb to typical Nirai temptations and focus on the moths rather than their team members. Iawa, on the other hand, succeeds in inspiring Istradez to take reasonable precautions.