The Literal Meaning

The Literal Meaning

Summary: High times on the Ungstir landing pad get under a Vollistan ex-interrogator's skin.

Cast: Bini, Volaya, MacNamara, Esther, Newt, Wiendrbac, Kastaprulyi, Jared

Air Date: 2005.11.09

WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE AND SUBJECT MATTER

Ungstir Landing Pad, Ungstir.

Rough hewn walls of iron and basalt, grooved by machinery used to carve this spaceport facility out of the glinting black and gray rock, rise on all sides and arches above of the broad pad that provides ample room for starships to rest during their stay on Ungstir.

Bright sulfurous lights seem to cast the chamber in permanent daylight despite the gloomy darkness and stars that loom beyond the huge portals, protected by the hazy shimmer of the prot's atmospheric containment fields. Through the force screens, silhouetted by the glow of the distant star Perseverance, one can make out the rolling, drifting shapes of rocks and planetoids - remnants of the world to which this chunk once belonged.

Squat, dark-haired technicians with pale skin and gruff demeanors move from ship to ship, checking fuel levels and mechanical fitness of the vessels. An archway leads out of the landing facility and into the city of Resilience, via the customs station.

Several large bays are set aside for ship maintenance and repair, serving as a general purpose drydock facility.

Thu Nov 10 03:48:42 3005 The lights are set at their dimmest level, being deep into Third Shift.

Bini tries to stop a snicker, and fails, miserably. "Unh...s-sorry, Jack." She finally manages to splutter out before bursting into gales of laughter, the only thing keeping her upright her hand on the side of the ship. "He is so...high..."

Newt looks up at the top of the ship and then back to Mac, "No there isn't. You ok?"

Esther blinks at what Mac points at, and shakes her head, resuming her work - bandaging Wiendrbac's head. "You are drunk." she states.

Wiendrbac peers upwards, frowns at Mack and Bini, then slowly rises to his feet, wound all bandaged up. "Thanks Esther.. I think I'm gonna go back inside where it's safe. Or maybe just get a stun gun to put that dumb ass down before he hurts someone else."

A tattooed light singer chooses this moment to appear in the hatch of the Artemis, her aura surrounding her in a pale green light. She has a cane in hand, resting some weight on it.

MacNamara scratches his chin, staggering sideways a step. "Yeah, he'sh up there all right." Newt's question draws his attention back down to the young child standing in his shadow, and he tilts his head. After a moment, Mack wears a childish smile. "I'm good. There are so many colors ... and patterns, like ..." That's about when he spins, sees Volaya, and falls over backwards. "Holy shit."

"TIMBER!" Bini calls raucously at Mac, and then flops to the ground in a new fit of laughter, trying to stop, but unable to, holding her aching sides. "Shit...I'm sorry...Jack, honest...'e didn't 'ave to drink it..." She tries to pull herself back up, but falls over again. "..eh...heh..."

Esther nods to Wiendrbac, "Let me help you up... Slowly, your head may spin." she gestures to Volaya, "Hey, could you help me bring the Captain in, please?"

Esther glares to Bini, "I do not see what's funny."

Ice blue eyes do a careful circuit of the immediate chaos-- Newt, Mack, Bini, Jack, and finally Esther. "Yeah, um," Volaya says, limping down the ramp in the latter's direction, "what, exactly, is going on?"

Newt yiykes and hops back, "Mac!"

MacNamara tilts his head at Volaya after his ground-shaking impact, resting back on his butt and the heels of his palms, wide-eyed. "I - uh - well ..." At a loss for words, the cyborg's mouth hangs open. "Whoa."

Bini crawls over to Mac and wobbles unsteadily to her feet, offering a hand. "C'mon, big dude. Get yer ass off th'ground. Yer only 'igh, it's not like I even gave yeh that much." She ignores Esther, back steadily to her and the ship. She nods her chin at Newt. "'elp me get 'im up, wouldja?"

Newt stares at him for a while and then frowns, "You're off your nut aren't you?" He looks up at Bini and steps closer, looking back at Mac, offering his gloved hand also.

Unanswered, Volaya crosses her arms, cane dangling incongruously. Her aura sparks dark orange. "Jack," she says in a warning voice, "what happened?"

MacNamara just points wordlessly at Volaya, a tripping-out light show in and of herself.

Esther sighs for Volaya, "They are all crazy. Guess they got drunk, and Captain got whacked with a bottle, probably." she points to Newt, "He is the only sane one."

Bini rolls her eyes and kicks Mac in the ribs. "Get th' hell up, ya big lump! Honestly, aincha got any tol'rence at all?" She gives him another prod with her bare toes. "C'mon!"

Wiendrbac looks up at Volaya, offering a sardonic grin. "Got whacked by a drunk man who threw a bottle. I'm ok, I think. Esther cleared me."

"Okay," the Vollistan says tonelessly. She glances around, her aura dropping into invisibility against the dark-on-white tattooes on her skin, and with the aid of the cane she stalks towards the pile of tin man on the landing pad.

MacNamara doesn't seem to feel Bini's kick. He doesn't resist as they grab hold of him, but moving him may prove to be an issue - the cyborg weighs about a quarter-ton, and trying to lift him feels suitably hard. After a moment, he pulls himself to his feet. "Why am I shtanding?" He asks Bini, earnestly.

Esther grins to Wiendrbac, "Now I understand why your crew needs a nurse... You definitly have a tendancy to run into trouble wherever you go."

"How true." Wiendrbac responds absently, watching Volaya pass, then turning to watch whatever she was planning on doing. "Thanks, by the way. Bandaging myself would've been difficult."

Bini smirks and slaps the big man on the back, then winces and sucks on her fingers. "Cause yeh were in th'way..." She stops, seeing someone approach, and immediately ducks out of the line of fire, trying to stay out of any confrontation.

"Yeah," Volaya says to Mac, "hi." She clasps both hands lightly on the head of the cane, staring flatly at him.

Newt pulls with all his strength to get Mac up, until he almost break something inside and then the ever helpful Mac just stands up. Mac goes up, Newt comes down. Thud. "Ow!"

"Woops," Mack says, crouching unsteadily to look down at Newt. "Are you okay, little buddy?" Slowly, he rises again as he is addressed by Volaya. Clumsily brushing himself off, he smiles at the Vollistan with an off-kilter gaze. "Hi."

Esther chuckles to Wiendrbac, "You're welcome ; that's what you gave me that uniform for, right?" she sighs as Newt also falls. "Is that a game on that planet?" she asks earnestly.

Wiendrbac presses his hand to head, watching the happenings closely. "I don't know, but it definatly looks like something that happens with regularity." The La Terran remains where he is, making no effort to get involved with the group again, already having been banged up.

Newt hrmphs and begins to slowly get up, "That hurt."

Bini shoves her hands in her pockets and wanders over to the pile of crates where the bottle came from in the first place, leaning against it and very specifically not looking in the direction where all this is happening.

Volaya smiles back thinly. "Yeah. Hi. What in Nalia's shining ass are you doing?" Her tone is perfectly level, the aura merely a memory. The Vollistan's mind is poised like a spring, or a steel trap.

Jack is standing with Esther high upon on the boarding ramp, head freshly bandaged, talking with the resident nurse. Volaya is down near Mac and Newt, the green boy slowly rising back to his feet, and Bini has moved off to the side, doing her best to make sure she doesn't get involved.

MacNamara, however, is guileless. "I'm seeing things sho much differently than I did before," he explains in earnest. "There are patternsh everywhere!" He's swaying a little, obviously drunk in addition to whatever else. "And she gave me a hallu -" he points around, vaguely, finger finally waving near Bini, "Halluci - hallinocu -"

Esther nods to Wiendrbac. "I have never tried alcohol. But when I see the effects, I am not sure I want to try, really! How does it feel?"

"Right. Innocent victim?" the Vollistan asks tersely, not bothering to follow the finger with her eyes.

Kastaprulyi drifts from Athena's airlock, dropping over the edge after a moment of seeming to look around. The young Centauran makes its way over in the general direction of the Artemis.

"I washn't planning on seeing mushrooms coming out of your forehead, if thatsh you what mean," Mack says, tone indicating he thinks he's being a wit.

Bini casually slips another flask from her pocket and takes a small swig, and then secrets it somewhere around her person with a deft flick of her wrist. Her body language and expression radiate casual innocence, as if she has no idea why anyone would even bother to point in her direction.

Wiendrbac shakes his head, wincing slightly. "No, I think he took somethin' else... I'm not sure, though. Alcholol usually doesn't have that much of an effect.. usually."

Esther nods slowly, "That is sad..." she blinks as the centauran approaches, "This is a centauran, right? I never met any... They're spectacular!"

"Right," Volaya says again. "You wanna do me a favour?" Her tone is still totally flat, her hands loose atop the curve of the cane. Her mind reaches out, a deft flick of imperceptible alteration that seeks to ensure a positive answer to the incongruous request.

MacNamara probably would've said yes anyways. "Sure! What?"

"Go fuck your drug-peddling friend up the ass. Don't bother with lube," the Vollistan says conversationally. She even smiles. "If you haven't got a cock under all that, I'm sure you can find something else sufficiently large and blunt."

Kastaprulyi sends a feeling of greeting to those nearby the Artemis, slipping up the end of the ramp with its glassy pink eyes a few feet above the ground. Kas suggests a bit of puzzlement at the state of Wiendrbac and MacNamara, but doesn't yet comment on that. "Hello..." it offers aloud in the childlike synthesized voice, looking back curiously at Esther, among others. Volaya's comment only gets an uncertain feeling.

Wiendrbac winces, overhearing Volaya's response, totally forgetting to answer Esther's gleeful question about Kas. "Sunshine..."

MacNamara looks from Volaya to Bini, then back to Volaya. "I, um, don't you think she wouldn't like that, me being a shtranger and all?" He asks, curiously.

Esther rolls her eyes at Volaya's talk. "A convoluted way to tell him go somewhere else..." she looks back at the centauran, with intense curiosity.

"Thanks," Volaya says. She turns, leaning on the cane, and looks over at Jack. "Yeah?" Meanwhile, her mind tangles in the cyborg's own, sideskipping wires and circutry to deliver its imperative.

Jared comes walking down the Artemis' ramp, yawning just a bit as he looks out across the landing cavern.

Bini shoves her hands deep in her pockets and slinks towards the entrance to the customs station, keeping to the edges and out of the way.

Kastaprulyi sends Jared a feeling of greeting as he appears. "What were you talking about before?" Kas queries, shifting to the lower side of the ramp from Wiendrbac and Esther.

"I think it'll be ok," Mack says, turning to walk towards Bini with outstretched arms. "Hey Bini, c'mere."

Wiendrbac walks down to Volaya, raising an eyebrow as Mack turns around. "Oh Maza's spread thighs, tell me you didn't do your mental mojo on that big fucker?"

"What?" Volaya says. Her face is still neutral, a masklike thing with, perhaps, a touch of an upturn on one side of her mouth. "Shouldn't you be in bed, Jack?"

Esther shakes her head at the scene. "Can it get any more chaotic?" she asks Kasta.

Bini deftly turns around at the door to the customs station, surveying the lumbering mass of doped up cyborg. She raises an eyebrow eloquently, then smiles sweetly. "Yeh, yeh know what?" She raises her middle finger in an archaic, but effective gesture. "Skank."

Jared nods his head a little to Kas and he stops near the top of the ramp, trying to get a clue what is actually going on, his brow raised a little.

"Maybe we should help Mack take some medicine, go to the doctor..." Kas comments uncertainly, shifting for a better view of his departure. "Everybody's not sick," Kas answers optimistically.

Bini shakes her head and heads out, still well ahead of Mac.

Jack sighs in response, in exaggerated fustration, looking back to where Mack slowly ambles after the Timonae. "I can't let him just go mess with the girl. I wouldn't wish that on anybody." He turns to follow, adjusting the grip on his gloves. Now what he plans on doing isn't clear, but it's obvious he means to try.

"Hey! I have to fuck you in the ass!" Mack yells. "Come back!" MacNamara heads into the city through the customs station.

"Wait till the Nemoni show up," Volaya asides to Ester, her face flattened out into true expressionlessness again. Her aura springs to life, a sudden green release of light. "Yeah, good luck to him on that, Jack. Come on." She points up the ramp of the Artemis.

Wiendrbac makes a face at MacNamara's yelled response. "Oh sweet puppies, I changed my mind." He backpeddles a step, another, then turns with a shudder to head back into the Artemis. Something he might wish he had down earlier now. "I hope Bini can run fast."

Esther 's eyes open wide as she understands what Volaya did. "What.. But you canb't go into people's minds like that? It is like... like raping them!"

"See, you're smart," Volaya says to the La Terran. Her smile is sudden and quite real. "I like that." Peach flares and is gone, sliding into green once more as the girl turns to Ester. "Yeah, um, are you going to say that I can't rape people either?"

Kastaprulyi's aura turns to something of worry and concern. "Should I call for help?" Kas asks, remaining in place on the ramp.

Esther looks between Wiendrbac and Volaya, pale, but not moving. She nods to kas, "Sounds like an idea... Not like I could stop that giant man even if I could."

"I think it'll be ok, Mac is to messed up to be any real threat to Bini, she's smart enough to stay out of the way of a man to drunk to walk straight." Wiendrbac responds, rubbing at his head again, subtly moving between Esther and the Vollistan. "Though knowing Ungstir cops, they'll ignore the situation, or overreact." He looks back over to Volaya. "I appreciate why you did it, Volaya, but I really wish you hadn't."

"Right," the Vollistan says, directly to Ester. "Go look it up in the dictionary, if you want. You don't technically need the bits." She taps the tip of her cane on the ground suggestively, and turns then to Jack. "Okay. Jack. Give me one reason it's okay for his pusher to load him up and set him on innocent bystanders, namely you, but pretend for a moment it's her." She points to Ester. "Now, think about that reason, and tell me why it's not okay for me to do the same thing, with aim, on a non-innocent?"

Kastaprulyi returns an uncertain acknowledgment to Esther and Wiendrbac. "Doing stuff that might mean Mack gets in trouble isn't good..."

Esther shakes her head to Volaya, "Because it's not for you to do justice... There got other people for it. The fact I have been... Brainwashed and such doesn't give me the right to do the same to other people? If I'd do, yoy'd say I have learned nothing..."

"I don't think he hit me intentionally." The La Terran raises a hand to check his bandages again, responding with a little hesitation, as if unsure now. "Look, it doesn't matter. It's done. I'll go stop him." What a trooper, he finally turns away, moving back down the ramp.

"Yea, well, accredited by two empires. How much more legit do you get?" Volaya says to Ester, still stone-faced, "so I know justice pretty well. 'Scuse me." She turns quickly enough, cane tapping as she follows Jack.

Esther nods to Kasta, and sighs, "Just be cautious, Captain, OK? I'll be waiting for you on the ship."

Kastaprulyi shifts to the side of the boarding ramp, rubbing at a few arms but remaining quiet for the moment.

Wiendrbac leads the whoever happens to be following out of the Landing Field, talking with Volaya as he walks. "I can't believe you told him to ass rape the girl, Sunshine."

Jared's brow raises as he follows Jack, "Yo Jack.. I better not hear shit about shootin' people.." He says as what has actually happened sinks in, "Cyborgs being told to sodomize people is -way- worse then murder."

"Yeah. Because it's okay to drug people unwillingly even if the guy you're drugging is a tank and might kill people on a bad trip, especially if you're a girl," Volaya says, her tone quite apparently agreeable, "that's the part of human culture I forgot. Sorry."

MacNamara pages Bini, Wiendrbac, and Volaya: for anyone interested in the progress of the night, Mack winds up mostly naked under a row of hydroponic potato beds.

"Not, it's right.. and.. well, ya know. Evil justice is still evil. It's not really a concern, I imagine. He's to fucked up to be an intentional threat to anybody but a potato, I imagine." The La Terran nods at Jared. "I'm not sure, but it's close."

"He did seem to be havign trouble standing," Volaya says clinically, "on his feet, that is. Why, did you shoot someone?" the tattooed girl switches from Jack to Jared halfway through.

Kastaprulyi shifts down the ramp after Jared, following a bit of hesitation. "Those bad things don't keep each other from happening," Kas points out. "What was Mack doing when you met today?" the young Centauran queries.

"Not in a while." Jared admits with a little shrug, "Just kinda getting it out in the open just incase, though..."

Jack just shakes his head. "See the bandages on my head, Kas? He threw a bottle and nailed me with it, cut it up. So, gettin' drunk and takin' something, obviously."

"Yeah. No shooting above the knees," Volaya says rather firmly. She glances over her shoulder at Kas. "Whcih bad things don't do what, again?"

"I've seen Mack drink six little glasses of alcohol drink, not get drunk," Kas mentions. "Making people want to fight doesn't seem like it'd make someone who's drugged any better."

The La Terran rubs at the bridge of his nose, walking through the entrance of customs, continuing on.

Import Inspection Station, Ungstir

Crafted from smooth hewn stones of the Rock, the customs inspection station is a combination of rugged mining crafts and high technology. Longer that it is wide, the inspection station has a high ribbed vaults crossing the ceiling, with soft light drifts down from recessed coves. On either side of each door a pair of sturdy columns stretch to the ceiling, the first three meters a mirror black surface, with perhaps a hint of red sparkling deep within. Just beyond the entrance doors the customs workstation awaits, keeping watch on all who enter from the docks. Built of stone and composite surfacing, the long counter stretches towards the city, a series of checkpoints and inspection stations along its length. Behind the counter, set within its sculpted form is a practical collection of computer display and sensor repeaters, manned by both customs officials and specialists of the Ungstiri Militia.

At the far end of the room a pair of heavy steel doors lead out to Resilience. Near the room's entrance a second doorway leads to the custom station offices.

The lights are set at their brightest level as First Shift begins.

Wiendrbac is just a little off, frowning, kneeling down to study something disposed off on the ground, holding his balance with his free hand.

"Yeah, see, that's the thing. It didn't make him want to fight at all, and any incidental damage he does will be on a deserving target. It keeps him focused, so he doesn't bother anyone else," Volaya explains.

"Helping Mack sleep, get better still seems a lot safer," Kas comments uncertainly, shifting to look over Wiendrbac's shoulder.

Wiendrbac is holding Mack's discarded shirt, a pair of custom officers peering off into the gloom that leads further into Ungstir. "Jeez, that guy was huge." The La Terran tosses the article of clothing, starting forward again.

"Yeah, no one ever taught me that," Volaya says with a shrug.

Kastaprulyi slips around to the side of its crewmate and observes, "Healing's what doctors're for..."

"Better to protect the doctor from getting hit by a bottle, or whatever, and then worry about the healing," Volaya agrees cheerfully with Kas. She raises her voice. "Hey, Jack, are you really going after him?"

Wiendrbac sighs, and nods, slipping out into city commons. "Yep."

Kastaprulyi drifts toward the city after Wiendrbac. "Protecting's what police're supposed to be for," Kas adds in its childlike synthesized voice, though less certainly. "Maybe Captain Wiendrbac can help some..."

Volaya follows Kas through customs. "It's true. And like I said, I'm police." She smiles at the Centauran.

Wiendrbac spots the silvery hair, moments after bending over to pick up another waddled part of Mac's clothing, moving over to where Bini is curled up. "Girl, Bin. Look up."

Volaya keeps walking, past Jack and Kas, her limp appreciable. She goes towards the commercial district.