Move 16 Recap

This section describes the team's activity on the Wasp and Station Moongray around 04:00-05:00 on Monday.

Iawa, Sulen, Virmad; messages from Sasha

Iawa learns that Imsayed (Istradez) is hurt from Virmad, and plans to head to the station to provide medical assistance or at least support. Sulen offers to accompany Iawa, in large part because they are concerned about Avrayen (Mikodez)'s actions. They inform Alaric and Sasha of this plan, and ask Sasha to provide regular updates. Sasha messages Iawa to apologize for not taking Iawa's earlier inquiries about Mikodez' whereabouts seriously. After Iawa and Sulen have left for the station, she sends Sulen an update on her activities.

Alaric and Sasha

Sasha checks station surveillance photos and discovers that Mikodez left the visitors' quarters shortly before the medical team arrived and found Istradez. She asks Alaric to go to the station to retrieve Mikodez, and tells him not to let Mikodez slip away. Alaric asks whether to use force if necessary. Sasha replies, "His file says it's imperative he not be killed. I don't know why he's special, but he is. So. Talk him down if you can, pick him up and carry him if you have to." Alaric asks whether there's anything in the medical bay he could use to drug Mikodez. Sasha gives him a red sleeping pill she got from Iawa, and a green pill to create an apparent allergy attack that Ashari suggested taking in order to avoid unwanted meetings. She passes on Iawa's warning that combining the sleeping pill with alcohol will induce sleep paralysis. Alaric observes, "Sleep paralysis seems like a perfectly useful side-effect for an abduction anyway."

Fluffy, Mikodez, the mothling Crowned-With-Eyes, and Vana; messages from Sasha and Virmad

Mikodez finds a gene scanner and confirms that Istradez is indeed his brother. He then heads to Remi's favorite bubble tea shop, bringing Fluffy in her carrier and the mothling in his backpack, under some black Andan fabric. At the tea shop, he meets Remi's assistant Vana, and offers to tell his shipmates that she is looking for Remi. She notices the squirming backpack but is appeased by Mikodez' explanation that the Andan are involved, and gives him her business card.

Mikodez moves to a boring corridor. He messages Sulen and tells them that Vana is looking for a man who more or less fits Remi's description. He then messages Sasha with the text "got what you asked for, gotta find more food" together with a number of garbled emoji, the jeng-zai symbols for page of gears minus nine of gears, and the string "8888888888". The jeng-zai symbols are intended to imply, on the surface, "'a reliable friend' diminished by his intent to get food to recover from the arduous journey" of recovering Fluffy, and to describe for an omniscient observer "a garble of void fronds, named for the signifier associated with the Deuce of Gears". The 8s are either a cheery goodbye or a reference to Sasha's use of Naxorian profanity describing eight hells. After sending the message, he checks his surveillance of the visitors' quarters, and finds that his brother has been moved to Medical.

Sasha wonders whether Mikodez intended to curse her, and messages Virmad to ask about the meaning of the jeng-zai symbols. He recognizes Jedao's connection to the Deuce of Gears, but only describes the face meanings of the page and nine of gears to Sasha.

Meanwhile, Sasha places a voice call to Mikodez. During the call, she whistles a wild pseudo-dragon call to Fluffy, and activates the pingback function on Mikodez' lokwor; this causes it to transmit silent messages she can use to track his movements. Through voice and text message, Mikodez and Sasha conduct a coded conversation about mango cookies, from which Mikodez can infer that the rest of the team has made contact with Remi. The conversation reminds Sasha to eat something.

Kaliyan and Sasha

Kaliyan tells Sasha that she has noticed a problem with the oxygen recyclers, probably triggered by the renovations to create living quarters for the mothlings. Sasha agrees to look into the problem. She notices that Kaliyan is exhausted and has stayed up till around the time she usually wakes, and shows Kaliyan how to program grid alarms for different potential emergencies so she can get some sleep.

Around 04:85, Sasha starts the oxygen recycler diagnostics, and queues the water recycler diagnostics to start once they finish. She reads the maintenance logs left by the previous tech, also a rebellion member, and is frustrated at the lack of attention to ship function beyond routine procedures.

Information Transfer: Successes and Failures

Though the team lacks established protocols for reporting and transferring information, it is evolving an informal collection of strategies and workarounds. Sulen, who is assuming the mantle of Ashari's second-in-command while the Kel are ill, successfully directs Sasha to keep them updated on ship activities. Mikodez and Sasha, though at odds, are able to communicate in an improvised code, and Virmad provides useful cultural analysis. However, the lack of clarity in roles and duties causes some friction. Alaric and Sasha are unable to access Ashari's expertise on tranquilizers; Kaliyan asks Sasha to troubleshoot only after failing to persuade Alaric that her concerns are well-founded.