TRAVEL ADVISORY

[navarch]

[At precisely 7 A.M. on the Peregrine's standard time, both CommLink screens and wardens' cabin control panels flicker to life with a live video stream.

The Navarch herself stands in the observatory. Outer space ahead is just stars with a thin yellow streak of light across the middle.]

Good morning, passengers.

Tomorrow we will be passing through an asteroid belt. Our shields are quite formidable and built for navigating these occasional obstacles, but you may notice slight vibrations, tremors, and adjustments through the Peregrine's systems to accommodate the additional power needed for full operation. It is my hope that these fluctuations will be almost entirely unnoticeable, but as this is the ship's first astroid field since its recommissioning, it may be more turbulent than usual.

[A beatific smile.]

When I passed through my first asteroid field, I found it difficult to sleep. If it eludes you as it did me, reflect upon that some cultures consider one's first passage through these circumstances a rite everyone must take at least once in their life. What it means varies from culture to culture, but perhaps you will discover what it means to you.

And if you still cannot sleep, see the infirmary; I trust we have a warden capable of dispensing sleep aids.

[They will, however, give users incredibly exuberant technicolor dreams about cartoon unicorns. An inconvenient side effect, but sleep is sleep.]

Comments

[counterstep]

Cause you're always trying to get out of working with me.

( which is just. true. so. )

[kaijuice]

I've taken some pains toward cooperation.

[ see: this soup. not throwing it. ]

[counterstep]

( no, silco, that's just called manners. )

So I see. ( bucky taps his fork against the tray idly before sitting back slightly, clearly comfortable even under the hanging threat of silco's frustrations. ) And what is it you're hoping to get in return?

[kaijuice]

What is there to ask for?

[ the fork stabs down. not a great choice for soup — ]

You've given me a roof over my head. Square meals. Why, one of you even dangled pain on a string,

[ that isn't what william meant. he knows it; he also listened to their little dust-up. ]

I'm sure you think it magnanimous.

[counterstep]

( he watches the fork, quite aware of the implication choosing not to remark. )

Pain on a string? Dunno what you're really on about, but I'm not the one who's housing, feeding, and clothing you. ( a shrug as he takes another bite. for as wrong as it tastes, it's still a lot better than the worst things he's had to devour. ) That's up to the guys running this show.

I'm just trying to work with what we've got, and I've made no secret of that. If you're just gonna keep being dramatic about the situation you're in, then there's not much to discuss. I haven't asked for anything from you, and your quarrel is with someone else.

( unless it has to do with being called silky. )

[kaijuice]

Then you'd rather bring nothing to the table.

[ a noodle swirls over tine. dramatically. ]

What makes you so eager to disclaim responsibility?

[counterstep]

I have plenty on the table outside of what I can't control. You're just far too obsessed with what's out of reach to bother seeing what's in front of you. That's hardly on me. I don't have to be eager to realize we're both stuck in space too and that I can't just hop off and return to where I'm from whenever I please.

I'm stuck eating from a broken food machine just the same as you.

[kaijuice]

You asked, [ Hissed. ] To come here. Have you asked again? To Leave?

[counterstep]

( squinting, ) They were orbiting my planet at the time I boarded. We're lightyears away now. That's. Not how space travel works.

[kaijuice]

You haven't asked.

[counterstep]

( he fights the urge to roll his eyes. )

I already know. I don't need to ask. I can't go back whenever I want. That's only for special cases. Beyond resigning outright, I'd still be stuck on this ship if I want to help people on it. I don't control the means or the method. I wasn't the one who conceived the program.

[kaijuice]

So resign. You can't name a means of aid — you won't name a thing at all.

[counterstep]

( he hasn't named any since he hasn't any need to. silco is only badgering, not actually wanting help or wanting to now a real way to be helped outside of his superficial notions of it. how silly it is that these inmates act as if they're enduring the most dreadful thing in the universe — nay, the multiverse — and haven't any idea of what it means to truly suffer. surely, it is as they say: ignorance is bliss. )

Why waste the effort to? You don't really want an answer. You just want to be freed.

[kaijuice]

[ snarled: ]

Show me a man in a cage who doesn't.