FOURTEEN: video

[puppydogeyes]

[Taylor's walking as she talks, clearly not caring about keeping the camera steady with the way it dips around. But from what you get to see of her face, she looks pissed off and tired, and when she talks she's clipped and fast, not looking for a discussion.]

These fuckers are loud, I don't need to tell any of you what's going on. And I'm not waiting around to see if they're gonna back up their threats.

Everyone should take what they can carry from their rooms and the nearest kitchen and proceed like we did during the emergency lockdown. If you weren't here for that, grab a member of my team or someone who's been here longer, ask them in person. Communications are compromised.

SEC, I want you escorting people or down there setting shit up. Passenger safety is our priority.

Comments

[thatsaflaregun]

[Somewhat anxiously.]

Have they taken anyone?

[puppydogeyes]

No. They're saying they don't want people.

[thatsaflaregun]

You think they'd actually tell us that if they did?

[Hey, at least he's more rational than the last time they talked. Even if this is more "crazy island bullshit." Hostiles liked kidnapping people.]

[puppydogeyes]

The captain threatened to airlock any stowaways.

[So no, she wouldn't expect them to say that they would, but she believes that they don't.]

[thatsaflaregun]

Well, that's a hard case to argue.

[Not that he buys it, but until people turn up missing, he can't really argue it.]

Have you been hearing what they're saying about us, then?

[puppydogeyes]

I'm assessing all the available information.

[thatsaflaregun]

Right. Well, I'm certain the other planets out there are lovely, assuming they're telling the truth, sistah. But what keeps throwing me off is the implication that we're squatting on a warship.

[puppydogeyes]

They think we took it. That we're like them.

[thatsaflaregun]

Yeah. Just one thing- we did.

[Not like they did, and certainly not by choice, but in the grand scheme of things...]

[puppydogeyes]

Not like them. We can't leave.

[thatsaflaregun]

Which means a great deal to us, but doesn't mean much to them.

[A beat] Have any of them said whether or not they know what happened to this ship? Before we arrived?

[puppydogeyes]

They don't believe it.

[From the conversations she's seen, anyway. She hadn't actually tried to have that argument herself.]

Something about it being missing. That's it.

[thatsaflaregun]

Aye. It's all a bit unbelievable, yeah? [Says Mr. Crazy Island Magic Guy.]

Says something about them if they're desperate enough to loot what's essentially a ghost ship.

[puppydogeyes]

Is for people arriving here, most of the time. Makes sense outsiders'd think the same.

[But also shows there isn't even any precedent for the whole thing in the universe the Tranquility is from - not that Taylor really thought they'd get any help from outside, not after their experiences with the stations they've stopped at, but for a moment it makes the sensation of isolation even stronger.]

Desperate, or thought it'd be an easy run.

[thatsaflaregun]

I don't know about you, sistah, but I'd have to be hurting before I'd raid a vanished ship that just appeared back on the radar all of a sudden.

[puppydogeyes]

Pirates take what's there.

[thatsaflaregun]

They were a lot more superstitious in the stories, yeah?

[puppydogeyes]

Everyone was superstitious back then. Pirates just had more of it cause they were dealing with the ocean.

[thatsaflaregun]

I'd bring the old ways back if I were them. The trouble with space is there's not exactly a beginning or an end to it. And a ship like this? I don't think it's us they ought to worry about.

[puppydogeyes]

They're not gonna listen.

[thatsaflaregun]

'Course not. That would make this easier on everyone.