† 009 [31 july, shortly after fitz's post]

[klutziness]

[even though the feed is garbled, rikkus' frustration and something akin to fear are clear in her voice]

Don't be ▒▓▒▓ing idiots. Get to medbay or somewhere not en▒▓neering! Trust me, you don't want a▒▓ of what's here.

[there's a short pause]

I need my engineering cr▒▓ on deck though. Stay together, stay safe. Find Fitz, stick with him. He'll ▒▓▓▒▒▒

[the feed abruptly cuts to white noise]

Comments

[altercate]

You saw the manticores. What they're planning could be worse.

[fullmoon]

I'm not sure what they're planning matters. They aren't prepared for us.

[altercate]

What makes you think they aren't? They've had one of us on their side for two years.

audio

[alsohawkeye]

When we jumped onto their ships and started fucking shit up they seemed pretty unprepared.

[altercate]

So you're willing to gamble on us having another momentary stroke of luck?

[fullmoon]

It's not luck. They have no idea what we are. I don't think she sold us out.

[altercate]

That's naive, Remus.

[fullmoon]

You think so?

[ If text had vocal tones this one would be so mild mannered. ]

[altercate]

Yes.

[alsohawkeye]

It's not naive or luck. I was there, I saw their reaction. They didn't know we had people who could do this kind of stuff. They're prepared for a normal battle and for normal prisoners, not for us. Unlike this ship, which has always been able to handle us no matter what we throw at it.

[altercate]

We haven't thrown anything like this at the ship before.

And we won't be able to keep pulling these kinds of stunts forever. Not once we turn ourselves over to them.

[alsohawkeye]

We don't know if it will work and even if it does it could kill us. The strain of it could kill us, or the jump could go wrong and kill us or we could jump into a star or a planet or an asteroid and that'd kill us. And even if it all goes perfectly then we're still just stuck on this ship and now we're all exhausted and this thing that's been torturing us for years is even more angry and what are we going to do? Keep pressure on it constantly so it can't jump us right back? Force every jump ourselves with our fingers crossed? This plan is insanely shortsighted.

[altercate]

It's a better plan than hoping we can maybe get lucky and Van Rijn gets sloppy.

[alsohawkeye]

No, it really, really isn't. People getting sloppy is basically inevitable and your plan is like trying to win five separate lotteries on the same day.

[altercate]

It's not.

[alsohawkeye]

Seriously, is this your argument? We're just going to do a 'yes it is', 'no it's not' thing now? Have you people actually thought through the realities of this at all instead of just going kneejerk 'no I hate authority and don't trust Van Rijn so ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING must be better'?? You've been on this ship too fucking long. Remember that whole it wants to keep you thing?

[lostsoldier]

Much as I hate to agree with Magneto on anything, it frankly doesn't matter if we can or can't get away from Van Rijn. His people are conquerors. Van Rijn idolizes Alexander the Great, their home planet is called Alexandria, they've had space travel and lived lightyears away from anything remotely resembling Earth for thousands of years but there's not a goddamn plant, animal, or sentient being left alive that didn't come from it. They built this ship, and the jump drive, and the manticore army and that goddamn hive-mind tech on Strela to try to find a habitable planet in another universe and kill every living thing on it that isn't them.

And the only universes we know they can get to? Are ours. So by all means, hand over the technology for them to get there, and let the soul-sucking space alien that sure seems happy to see them hitch a ride.

[alsohawkeye]

So your alternative is what, we run away and hope that they don't manage to design it again? Hope he gives up trying to get there? If we're so fucking scared of Van Rijn and what he might do then let's go to his home and destroy his tech for good and end the bastard.

[lostsoldier]

This isn't the kind of science somebody just picks up where someone else left off. If they could replicate this tech, they wouldn't be chasing us. If they were even close, they wouldn't have spent a hundred years or whatever the hell it's been sending scouts all over the universe trying to get this ship back. Their planets are dying, they're running out of time and out of resources, and the only way they'd dedicate this many of those precious resources to finding us is if they're out of other options.

All of them are out of options. It isn't just Van Rijn. Are you going to take out the whole Miraxian government? Their planets, if you have to? Are you willing to bet the safety of your planet on your success? When we have a chance to get this tech away from them right now?

[alsohawkeye]

If this tech is really their only hope then we're taking them out by not helping them. We're destroying an entire civilization and billions of people without even taking a minute to hear them out. There's no option here that doesn't involve terrible loss of life one way or another.

Besides, they know how to find us now. They'll just track us down again and again and the ship isn't going to get less beat up, we're not going to get better odds. They'll wear us down. We're better off saving our energy right now and trying to do something from within. By your argument we'd be better off just destroying the ship and killing ourselves and I can't let you do that, not when there are children and innocent people on board who didn't sign up for this.

[lostsoldier]

[ He's silent for a beat. She's right, about a lot of that at least, and unlike Erik maybe he isn't willing to sacrifice everybody who doesn't agree. His voice sounds tired, when he does answer. ]

They're targeting our life support, Kate. They don't need to take us prisoner. They don't need to board us at all while we've still got air.

[alsohawkeye]

Then we surrender and we draw them in. We get onto their ships and we take them out and take them over. We wizard in, snatch Van Rijn, and negotiate a new option.

This plan is so incredibly unlikely and people are acting like that's okay because it's our only choice. It's not.

[lostsoldier]

You want to surrender and see if they stop firing, try it. I wouldn't, if I were them.

They might not have known what we could do when they got here, but you all didn't blow up every ship you hopped onto. There'll be witnesses. Surveillance. If nothing else they know now they can't control us or predict us as easily as they thought, and they already knew they didn't need us. It would be a mistake for them to let us live now.