John Scalzi: Walk the Plank

CHENZIRA EL-MASRI: — okay, I’m not really interested in who you have in the medical bay, Aurel. Right now I’m focused on finding those damn cargo containers. If we don’t track those down, it’s not going to be a very happy next few months around here.

AUREL SPURLEA: If I didn’t think the two of them were related, I wouldn’t be bothering you, Chen. Are you recording this, Magda?

MAGDA GANAS: Just started the recorder.

SPURLEA: Chen, the guy in the sick bay isn’t from around here.

EL-MASRI: What do you mean, “not from around here”? We’re a wildcat colony. It’s not like there’s anywhere else to be from around here.

SPURLEA: He says he’s from the Erie Morningstar .

EL-MASRI: That doesn’t make any sense. The Erie Morningstar isn’t supposed to be landing anyone. It’s supposed to be sending down the containers on autopilot. The whole point of doing it this way is to take humans out of it.

GANAS: We know that, Chen. We were there when the cargo schedules were drawn up, too. That’s why you need to see this guy. No matter what else, he’s not one of us. He’s come from somewhere . And since the Erie Morningstar was supposed to deliver two days ago, and he’s here today, it’s not a bad guess that he’s telling the truth when he says he’s from there.

EL-MASRI: So you think he came down on one of the containers.

GANAS: It seems likely.

EL-MASRI: That wouldn’t have been a fun ride.

SPURLEA: Here we are. Chen, a couple of things real quick. One, he’s messed up physically and we have him on pain relievers.

EL-MASRI: I thought I gave orders-

SPURLEA: Before you bitch at me, we’ve watered them down as much as we can and still have them have any effect. But believe me, this guy needs something . Two, he’s got the Rot in his leg.

EL-MASRI: How bad?

SPURLEA: Real bad. I cleaned it out best I can, but it’s a pretty good chance it’s in the bloodstream by now, and you know what that means. But he’s not from around here and he doesn’t know what that means, and I don’t see much point in telling him at this point. My goal is to keep him coherent long enough for you to talk to him and then keep him from too much pain while we figure out what to do with him after that.

EL-MASRI: Christ, Aurel. If he’s got the Rot, I think you know what to do with him.

SPURLEA: I’m still waiting for the blood work to come back. If it’s not set in there, we can take the leg and save him.

EL-MASRI: And then do what with him? Look around, Aurel. It’s not like we can support anyone else here, much less a recovering amputee who can’t do any work.

GANAS: Maybe you should talk to him first before deciding to leave him out for the packs.

EL-MASRI: I’m not unsympathetic to his situation, Magda. But my job is to think about the whole colony.

GANAS: What the whole colony needs right now is for you to hear this guy’s story. Then you’ll have a better idea what to think.

EL-MASRI: What’s this guy’s name?

SPURLEA: Malik Damanis.

EL-MASRI: Malik. Fine.

[Door opening, stops.]

EL-MASRI (quietly): Lovely.

SPURLEA: There’s a reason we call it the Rot.

EL-MASRI: Yeah.

[Door opens all the way.]

EL-MASRI: Malik…Hey, Malik.

MALIK DAMANIS: Yes. Sorry, I was dozing.

EL-MASRI: That’s fine.

DAMANIS: Is Doctor Spurlea here? I think the pain is coming back.

SPURLEA: I’m here. I’ll give you another shot, Malik, but it’s going to have to wait for a few minutes. I need you to be all here for your conversation with our colony leader.

DAMANIS: That’s you?

EL-MASRI: That’s me. My name is Chenzira El-Masri.

DAMANIS: Malik Damanis. Uh, I guess you knew that.

EL-MASRI: I did. Malik, Aurel and Magda here tell me that you say you’re from the Erie Morningstar .

DAMANIS: I am.

EL-MASRI: What do you do there?

DAMANIS: I’m an ordinary deckhand. I mostly work loading and unloading cargo.

EL-MASRI: You look pretty young. This your first ship?

DAMANIS: I’m nineteen standard, sir. No, I was on another ship before this, the Shining Star . I’ve been doing this since I turned twenty in Erie years, which is about sixteen years standard. This is my first tour on the Morningstar, though. Or was.

EL-MASRI: Was, you say.

DAMANIS: Yes, sir. She’s gone, sir.

EL-MASRI: Gone as in left? She’s gone off to her next destination.

DAMANIS: No. Gone as in gone, sir. She was taken. And I think everyone else who was on her might be dead now.

EL-MASRI: Malik, I think you need to explain this to me a little better. Was the ship all right when you skipped into our system?

DAMANIS: As far as I know. The ship stays on Erie time, and it was the middle of the night when we skipped. Captain Gahzini prefers to do it that way so that when we move cargo, we do it in the morning when we’re fresh. Or that’s what he tells us. Since the cargo we had for you was already packed when it came on board, it didn’t really matter. The captain does what the captain does. So we arrived in the middle of the night for us.

EL-MASRI: Were you working then?

DAMANIS: No, sir, I was asleep in the crew quarters, along with most of the rest of the crew. We had a night’s watch on at the time. The first thing I knew about anything going on was the captain sounding a general alert. It blasted on and everyone fell out of their bunks. We didn’t think anything of it at the time.

EL-MASRI: You didn’t think anything of a general alert? Doesn’t that usually mean you’re in an emergency?

DAMANIS: It does, but Captain Gahzini runs a lot of drills, sir. He says that just because we’re a merchant ship doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have discipline. So every three or four skips he’ll run a drill, and since the captain likes to skip in the middle of the night, that means we get woken up by a lot of general alerts.

EL-MASRI: All right.

DAMANIS: So we fall out of bunks, get dressed and then wait for the announcement about what the drill is this time. Is it a micrometeor puncture, or is a systems failure of some sort, or what is it. Then finally Chief Officer Khosa comes on the public address system and says, “We are being boarded.” And we all look at each other, because this is a new one; we haven’t ever practiced something like this. We have no idea what to do. Doctor, my leg is really hurting.

SPURLEA: I know, Malik. I’ll give you something as soon as you’re done talking.

DAMANIS: Can I get something in the meantime? Anything?

GANAS: I can give him some ibuprofen.

SPURLEA: We’re running low on that, Magda.

GANAS: I’ll take it out of my own stash.

SPURLEA: All right.

GANAS: Malik, I’m going to go get you that ibuprofen. It will be just a minute.

DAMANIS: Thank you, Doctor Ganas.

EL-MASRI: You said you never drilled for being boarded. But there have always been pirates.

DAMANIS: We’ve drilled for being pursued by pirates. For that, most of the crew locks down while defensive teams prep countermeasures and the cargo crew preps to jettison the cargo. We work in space. Pirates can’t swing over on ropes and take a ship. They run you down and threaten you to get you to hand over your cargo. Only then do they board the ship, take the cargo and go. That’s why the last resort is throwing out the cargo. If you don’t have it anymore, they have no reason to keep pursuing you.

EL-MASRI: So these weren’t pirates.

DAMANIS: We didn’t know what they were. At first we didn’t know that there was anyone. We still thought it was a drill. Chief Khosa tells us we’re being boarded and we have about two or three seconds to wonder what that means, and then he comes back on the PA and says, “This is not a drill.” That’s when we knew something was really up. But we didn’t know what to think. We weren’t drilled on this. We stood around looking at each other. Then Bosun Zarrani came into the quarters, told us we were being boarded and that we were to stay in quarters until they heard from him or the captain sounded an “all clear.” Then he picked seven of us to follow him. I was one of the ones he picked.