001 [video]

[dogsanddaughters]

[Have a wide-eyed teenager fussing with her phone. The video is a little shaky. She's sitting in one of the apartments, Barnaby's head in her lap, and seems to be sincerely cheerful despite waking up someplace far from home. Miriam waves.]

Hi! Looks like we're all stuck here for a bit, so I figured I'd introduce myself and what not. It kinda sucks right now, but that doesn't mean I don't wanna meet you guys! Anyway, I'm Miriam, and this handsome dude is Barnaby.

[Barnaby sneezes.]

He's my guy, so don't shoot him or anything. He won't do anything bad.

Two things.

First, uh, I know it's a long shot and all, but anybody seen a lady named Bethany? She's really tall and she's got brown hair and she's my mom, so it'd be really cool if I could find her. Maybe she's not here, but I gotta ask.

Secondly--

[Miriam holds up a crude drawing to the phone. It's the logo for the Sons of Plunder - a human skull with blue roses for eyes.]

--anybody walking around wearing this? Asking for a friend.

Comments

[tongueamok]

Factory designation?

[dogsanddaughters]

Yeah, it's a space station. They make them standard? Or they used to, anyway. [Miriam shrugs, petting Barnaby.] It's an Echo class, and it was the sixth one. So, Echo Six.

[tongueamok]

Ah. Space.

[The way he says that indicates that's another topic he's not fond of.]

So... it wasn't a ship? More like some kind of... [Vague hand gesture.] Settlement? But in space?

[dogsanddaughters]

[Miriam grins.] Yeah! Ships move, but stations don't. I mean, we got a lot of ships who stopped there, but they don't stay. You ever been on one?

[tongueamok]

I've, er... been on a ship before. A space ship. The Tranquility.

[Been on a space ship, but never pet a dog. What an odd life you lead, Carlisle.]

[dogsanddaughters]

Oh, cool! Is it big? How many engines?

[tongueamok]

I- I couldn't tell you. I'm not terribly familiar with the sort of technology that powered it.

[Or technology at all. It took him a couple of days to even make it onto the network here.]

It was big, though. Larger than any vessel I've seen. Like a flying citadel.

[dogsanddaughters]

[Miriam scrunches up her nose, trying to picture a ship that big.] That might...might be a Phoenix class, but I don't really know. They don't make those anymore.

[She pauses.] So you've got ships, but no space stations?

[tongueamok]

Something like that. We didn't have space ships in Bear Den, either. Just, ah... Something I saw once I left home.

[dogsanddaughters]

Guess that was pretty different, huh?

[tongueamok]

Very.

[Unfortunately.]

[dogsanddaughters]

Is the Tranquility nice? I heard the big ships are supposed to be nice.

[tongueamok]

It was in some ways. At least compared to when the ship crashed.

[dogsanddaughters]

I'm sorry. [She's quiet for a moment, just petting Barnaby.] But you lived. So it's okay.

[tongueamok]

Hah. If only.

[Yeah, that's going to require some explanation.]

Not that it's bad that I survived, along with many others, but where we crashed was less than ideal. A dense jungle, full of hazards. We couldn't stay in the wreckage, either. It was unstable.

[dogsanddaughters]

[Miriam blinks.] But you didn't die. You make it better if you don't die.

[tongueamok]

I can't say some didn't try, but there's only so much you can do in a world like that.

[dogsanddaughters]

Is Hadriel better, then?

[tongueamok]

I haven't been here long enough to pass a fair judgment, but by the virtue of it not being a dense jungle, I'd say yes. At least there are some signs of civilization here.

[dogsanddaughters]

Yeah, they got houses and stuff.

[Miriam pauses.]

What's a jungle like?

[tongueamok]

Trees. Bugs. An endless landscape of things looking to kill you. Even the water was hostile, where we were.

[dogsanddaughters]

But there were trees? They had roots and stuff and they weren't just growing out of pots?

[tongueamok]

Who would try to grow a tree out of pot?

[dogsanddaughters]

'cause they don't have any dirt? [Miriam pauses.] Well, I guess they did one time. There was a park. But the Sons burned it down.

[tongueamok]

Why would they do something like that?