trans_9 | Case studies [Open]

Tarrant didn't comment on Howard's choice of positioning, but he did smile slightly at the greeting. "Thank you. On both counts. It was a close race, or so I hear."

In fact, he was surprised at how many people had turned out to support Lash. This was supposedly a civilian position and most of her credentials had been in military service. "What brings you here? Or do you often make trips to the river?"

"I like to check and make sure the water's still running." He pantomimes leaning in to see it, seeing that it is in fact okay, and nodding with satisfaction. "Honestly, you were the only one I figured wasn't going to sit around or blow us all up. It wouldn't have been a close race if people weren't dumb."

He tosses a rock into the river. "Apparently I'm a liaison to you guys."

Well, it looked like Howard was the type to get right down to the point. Tarrant appreciated that. "Some of the other candidates had experience, but in a completely different arena than the one we find ourselves in now. And I suspect what the Council responds to best is someone who can play politics. Or maybe that's just what the crew wants. Part of the crew."

"In any event, I intend to get a few things done, regardless of whether or not I have help from within. You're welcome to make suggestions, the same as anyone else. I meant what I said when I promised I'd listen." For reasons he probably wasn't eager to get into at the moment, Tarrant took his promises seriously. Very seriously.

He arched an eyebrow at Howard. "I thought Mer Bight was our liaison. Is he sharing that position now?"

"I suspect that people respond best to candidates who aren't proven liars or explosion junkies." A chance to bash the Council? Howard says sure! He tosses another rock in. "Do you have plans for making us self-sufficient?"

Because if not, Howard's going to regret his vote. He hopes that datapad's about fish.

"He's the liaison with the crew. I'm the liaison with Command. What's left of it, that is." Figures he'd get hired and then his boss would leave his first week on the job.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, though true self-sufficiency will take quite some time." Tarrant motioned to the water. "I thought I'd start off by stocking the river with some freshwater fish species. That is, after all, what the Council is for -- civilian legislation, public improvements. Or so I'm told, anyway."

He'd be absolutely crushed if you regretted your vote, Howard. Really.

"How... specific. And the reason the Council can't liaise with the crew and Command on its own?"

"That's a beautiful idea." Howard smiles the widest he has in about a week now. "What are the fish going to eat, though? You gonna introduce mosquitoes?"

Not like Howard is opposed to that if it means fish.

"Because Command's a bunch of incompetent nobodies who can't do their own job, so they outsource it to teenagers. Feeling excited about working with them yet?"

Edited 2012-03-14 00:22 (UTC)

"I'm afraid that might get me thrust out of office before I can even put the plan into motion," said Tarrant. "Algae, freshwater vegetation, waterborne insects that already exist in the river, fish fry. It may require some supplementary fish meal, though the extent to which we may need some of these is dependent on the species we want to stock." Hence the river study!

"As for Command, perhaps I can provide some needed impetus. Or maybe it's the crew that will bear Command forward. A significant portion of the crew appears set on acting whether the chain of command is prepared or not." He wasn't too worried about the people in charge. In his experience, a small, agile force, guided properly, could vastly outmaneuver any bureaucracy.

"Maybe you could invest in frogs too. They're pretty tasty and some fish eat tadpoles." Then again, the more that gets introduced to an ecosystem, the more needs to be added - things sort of build like that. He sits down on the grass.

"I've noticed that. Not that I want to be around when the fireworks go off, but if they're not going to involve Command, wouldn't it be better to shuffle Command out of the way so they can't interfere?" He laces his fingers together and rests his head on them. "Unless you want them to interfere...?"

"Frogs would require insects to sustain them and I'm not sure how many of the crew would actually eat them. They may just end up being largely ornamental." Not that Tarrant had a problem with ornamentals; they just didn't contribute to a nice, tight ecosystem.

"Command seems to have shuffled itself out of the way. But I'd prefer to have them involved, if only to circumvent a panicked defense of the status quo once things are set into motion. Leaders can be... erratic, once they sense that the people under their command are suddenly no longer on board. I'd rather not have to deal with our own people in an armed conflict."

People could be so irrational.

"I'd eat the frogs." But while Howard would be quite happy to have a live food source for himself, Tarrant does have a point. The fish would be a better investment, at least for the overall well-being of the crew, and it would be easier to manage an ecosystem of only one life form eating one type of food.

"Well, I can keep them updated once there's a plan. But what I'm saying is using the current political climate to our advantage." Howard figures that he's probably just saying something Tarrant's already thought of, since Tarrant seems pretty savvy, so this is partially just Howard untangling his own thoughts. "Make it look to our enemies like the civilian and military parts of our ship are so totally out of touch that it would be crazy to expect them to work together."

Tarrant sighed. "Now, that would require some cooperation, wouldn't it? Collaboration. There have been multiple overtures from the side of those who want to take action. All unheard or discounted. Or acknowledged in cursory fashion and subsequently ignored. If anyone in an official position of power -- save perhaps myself -- has acted on any of those suggestions, I have seen no evidence of it. We can't exactly form plans with a group that covers its ears and creeps under a table every time they're called upon, can we?"

His expression hardened, pale eyes glittering in the light of the City's artificial sun. "I think there is a very real possibility, the way things are going, that there will be actual conflict between the crew and the military command."

Then he turned to Howard, smiling. "But I'm sure you're aware of that. I, personally, would prefer if that conflict were avoided. Or at least deferred to a later date, when we can better afford to squabble amongst ourselves. What we need is a plan. An ironclad one, one that even the Command structure will be forced to acknowledge as preferable to remaining under Daligig control. Something to goad into action even the most leaden proponent of the status quo."

Howard folds up his arms and looks out at the river. "No, we don't have time or energy for a fight between the powers that be and the powers that don't right now, and even if we did we don't want to do it while the Daligig can exploit it."

He bites his lip. "You have that ironclad plan?"

Tarrant looked amused. "Of course not, or I would have acted already. But the pieces are there. What we need is the means to string them all together. For instance: yes, we could have the crew and Command work together to deceive the Daligig into thinking we're at each other's throats. It would even be believable, I'm sure. But to what end?"

He folded his hands behind his back. "They hold all the cards. Control of the ship. An unsavory collection of brutal bodyguards, whom I'm told we have no chance against." Tarrant's voice carried a hint of condescension at the mention of the Kessek. Superstrength or no, he had a feeling they wouldn't like having their nerves neatly severed from within their own bodies, or having their forebrains pulped inside their skulls. "And let's not forget an unwillingness to set a single foot outside the safe little areas we're barred from entering. What would it matter if we throw twenty pawns at them or forty?"

"Right now it's information we need. How do we wrest control of the ship away from them? Because that's the real question. Even if we murder every Daligig currently aboard the ship, there are many more who would no doubt seek revenge against us. Our own revenge, in this instance, must be secondary to survival."

"Leon mentioned some stuff to me before he got stuffed back into the pods. Something about how he thought we could coax the Daligig into letting us have Stacy back if we kissed their ass enough. But I doubt they'd give it to us if it looked like we'd use it to stab them in the back."

Howard plays with his hands, curling up his fingers and lacing and unlacing them. "They wouldn't be in the safe zones if they didn't have something to hide from us. That means there's something to find out. Or they're not as strong as they think."

Tarrant fixated on Howard. "Let us have the ship back? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean them leaving the ship and disabling the preprogrammed course. More aunotomy. I mean, I'm sure they'd still boobytrap the place, but it's a step up from the way things are now. Right now even if we ran they'd know exactly where to find us."

Tarrant considered this new little nugget of information. Or perhaps tasted it, inhaled it, like one might sample the bouquet of a fine wine.

"They would have to be incredibly trusting to simply bestow those kinds of favors on us," he said, musing. "Or monumentally stupid. If I were in their position, I wouldn't even consider slackening the leash. What makes you think we can inspire that amount of trust in them, even if they truly believed we'd had a change of heart?"

If he'd only been allowed access to them, this would have been so simple. All the answers would have been his for the taking, and they would have been none the wiser.

"I know, it sounds hella stupid, but Leon's been following them around for months now. If anyone's got an idea what's going through their heads, it's him. Or was, since, you know." Howard makes a hand gesture like shoving a sleeping bag into a sack. "But they might be playing at the same game we are. Getting our trust, giving us the illusion of control before they bring the hammer down."

Tarrant's expression really said all there was to say about Leon's activities up until this point. Perhaps the man had been busy. Perhaps the Daligig were a handful. No reason to leave his crew casting about, playing guessing games about what their commanding officer was doing.

"So you believe that even if we do gain their trust, we'll be playing into their trap. Perhaps they won't really remove the preprogrammed course. Or they'll keep a contingent of their people on board to make sure we toe the line." Geez, Howard, make up your mind.

"No, what I'm saying is - we might get something we want, but we need to watch our backs. If we get off the preprogrammed course, there's no reason to thing the Daligig still won't have us bugged or have Stacy relay information to us."

Howard does not believe in committing to a plan without second-guessing it into the ground.

"Leon thought he probably shouldn't have a big role on the ship because an active captain would get repodded." Howard frowns, because clearly he thinks this plan was complete bullshit and just an excuse for apathy and bad communication. "So I'm thinking he had reason to believe the Daligig could do it on purpose, so either the avia thing's bullshit, or the Daligig would do it anyway, or the Daligig can fuck with your soul, which is fun to think about."

He's rambling a bit. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that they're afraid of the crew enough to be underhanded. So maybe don't expect a trap, but totally be ready for it."

He waved Howard's talk of traps aside as largely irrelevant. "They've already set up traps on the ship. And I'd be a fool if I didn't assume they've taken the opportunity of being on the ship for months unopposed to construct even more." They'd have to watch their backs no matter what action they took.

So. The only evidence they had in favor of pretending to cooperate with the Daligig was (a) some overheard chatter and (b) a secondhand account of one absentee captain's feeling that it would somehow work. Not particularly what Tarrant would consider assurance at all.

And yet... as unlikely as the route of kowtowing to the Daligig seemed to be, what did they have to lose? Either way, the Daligig would be leaving the ship soon, leaving him an opportunity to see them off. And once they were gone, work could continue on getting control of the ship, unencumbered by their presence. If their plan failed, they had nothing to lose but their pride -- as unpalatable as that might sound. If it succeeded, the rewards might be considerable.

Sometimes the only choice was between a plan that had little chance of working and one that had no chance at all. Tarrant just wished those choices would stop presenting themselves one after the other. They were getting irritating.

"A masterful plan," he remarked almost idly, returning his attention to Howard. "Be an active captain, return to the pods, and leave the ship without a leader. Alternatively, be a nonentity, leave your crew doubting your competence, and leave the ship without a leader. Still, the Daligig have apparently confirmed his theory about the repoddings. Someone overheard them discussing it."

He spared himself a brief moment to listen to the strange, alien music of the dark fae as it curled about the banks of the river around them. Strange how quickly one became accustomed to having it ever-present. "I'm planning to pay a visit to the Tapestry," he said finally. "I don't know how likely the Daligig are to fall victim to the kind of farce you've suggested, but I'll explore the possibility. It may not net us anything, even if we play things as convincingly as possible. But I believe we have little to lose in the attempt. Rest assured that I'll present the crew with my results. All of the crew, naturally."

"Hey, I didn't say I liked Leon's leadership style. I've been pretty vocal for Team Leon Sucks." Howard raises his eyebrows. "So we know for sure that they're repodding people? That explains where all the department heads went, I guess."

Howard nods. He figured no one would take the idea very seriously because, let's face it, it's a long shot, so he expects Tarrant's mostly humoring him about exploring the idea. But at least Tarrant sounds genuine enough. "Makes no diff to me, I'm out of here tomorrow. Got my papers and everything."

"Yes. Although to be honest, even without confirmation, the timing of the repoddings was extremely suspicious.

Tarrant glanced at Howard once more, as if appraising him. "Are you? Congratulations." Of course, it would leave them without a liaison to Command, but hopefully they wouldn't need Howard. Hopefully.

"It was. But they were also all people who showed up around the same time. At least this confirms that it wasn't like, some degeneration of the weird soul thingy."

He nods. "I'm not risking my life for this ship's bullshit missions anymore. I'm over it. You guys have fun."

"True. But as far as I can tell, repoddings don't generally follow that pattern."

"I'm not sure 'fun' is quite the way I'd put it. But thank you for your well wishes all the same." Tarrant clasped his hands behind his back. "It was nice speaking with you, Mer... Bassem, was it?"

(no subject)

iselldrugstothecommunity - 2012-03-20 04:15 (UTC) - Expand