keeps_a_cool_head

Log 0007

[In Zero, Scorpius does what he does best: he plans. Giving him space and time to think through what he wants and how to get it is one of the unintended gifts of his cell space, and he appreciates every moment of it.

After several days, he addresses the Barge]

A question to my fellow shipmates;

When an inmate commits a grievous crime, who is to blame for it? Obviously the inmate must share some, but what percentage is attributed to them and what percentage is attributed to their warden, who may be unfit to command them? A warden may fail just as easily by not admitting to something that could be most assuredly out of their control.

And what of inmates who aren't paired and no one has taken the time to explain to them the rules?

My apologies to Alex Summers. While it was certainly my intent to hurt him, he had done nothing to harm me and was simply in the correct place at the correct time.

[Private to Crichton]

Of course, John, we all know that you are the one fully to blame.

More like Alex will follow. You cannot hope to save them all.

In a few days' time they will be forced to release me. What has changed between the time of my entering this cell and the time of my leaving it? As a deterrent towards behavior, Zero leaves much to be desired.

I am willing to entertain ideas of a deal between us.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

'Ello sweetheart. I aim to please.

I mean, it were a good try? But you don't 'ave the face for injured innocence. And Alex were a bad choice, I think you'll find.

Because of his score of friends and allies. Yes, I am aware. But the timing was impossible to resist.

I don't know if you are aware of this, but it is very boring to be an unpaired inmate waiting for their graduation. Is there a way to jumpstart the process?

I'm very aware of it, my darling, which is why I make a point of spending time with unpaired folks. There's not, though. All down to the Admiral's whimsy - or, which is my theory, the boat 'erself checking you for compatibility.

Who'd you fancy? Out of the unpaired wardens?

And how do I make myself more compatible to her? Although I find it interesting that you, myself, and David Cain share the same theory.

An intriguing question, with multiple parts to it. Which do I think I can most easily manipulate? Or which do I think stand an honest chance of leading me away from my goals and towards graduation?

Edited 2014-03-02 14:37 (UTC)

Cain and me are close, as I'm sure you know already. Which isn't to say either of us is soaking up the other's opinions; but we generally find we're coming from the same place.

Are any of your goals compatible with staying on this boat forever?

Do you and Cain have experience with living ships?

None, I'm afraid.

'E spent six months living on mine recently. I reckon that counts.

That, see? Oh, I wish I could take on two inmates. That's the idea you're going to need to dismantle. 'Cause I flat-out don't believe you. Well. I do, if you admit that your main goal's only revenge genocide and take out the window dressing about keeping the galaxy safe. I'd actually love to 'elp you take that apart and rebuild it. But I wouldn't drop Victor for any price, so we'll just 'ave to stay friends.

You have a Leviathan, Iris?

Keeping the galaxy safe is a beneficial side effect to the entire purpose. Plus, it removes what the Scarrans want most from their grasp.

Please keep wardening Victor. He needs you far more than I do.

A timeship. She is alive, though. So's the Barge. She's ...I don't knw what, exactly, the barge is, but she does 'ave a living heart, same as our timeships do. She doesn't feel quite the same, but she works in a very familiar fashion - some kind of parallel evolution, I expect.

What's a Leviathan like?

As I suspected. I have been attempting to map out the heart of the Barge, but it's buried and inaccessible, for obvious reasons. Is the Admiral a symbiote pilot?

A living ship, with a memory and emotions and an incredible urge towards freedom at any cost. Crichton would know more about them than I, having lived on one. While it is true that Peacekeepers have been capturing Leviathans for some time, I'm told that their behavior in captivity does not mirror that of a truly free ship.

People 'ave reached it before now. They died, and couldn't remember bugger all about 'ow it 'appened. And it won't be mappable. Our timeships can reform their interior configurations at will, and I know damn well this boat can too.

No one knows what the Admiral is, but I reckon some kind of symbiotic connection's a given. Ships like this need it.

John's still operating on the misapprehension that my friendship's a zero sum game, I'm afraid. I doubt 'e'll talk to me. What's the point in enslaving a ship that wants to be free? Mine'd implode your brain for you if you tried that. Bless 'er.

Then it would make sense why the Admiral has not yet been seen. I have to wonder if they are as tied to the ship as a Leviathan's pilot may need to be.

My fault, I'm afraid. A shame; he's usually very clever and talkative.

Travel and warfare, primarily. Leviathans are not warships and have no weaponry, but there were efforts to produce captive Leviathan offspring: hybrids that could both perform the uniquely Leviathan trait of starburst while simultaneously carrying in-built offensive weaponry.

I was not a part of this project. My work was focused entirely on wormholes: the same objective, but with different paths.

Oh, 'e'll come around. I've been guilty of it meself; when you've spent a lot of your life fighting people that be'ave certain ways, it's a bit of a readjustment to come 'ere and ally yourself to 'em. But like you say, 'e's smart.

What's a starburst? Some kind of hyperspace deal, I take it? Can they travel in time, at all?

He is. And I can only hope he'll come around, despite your friendship with me.

Not to my knowledge, but Peacekeeper information on Leviathans has been woefully lacking.

As another interested party-- purely scientific as I refuse to engage the most woefully bland attempts at the Blame Game since I left the Prison for the Criminally Gifted--as the longest standing engineer on the ship, I can sure you that the barge is:

Alive, unmappable, and she can get very, very testy when you muck about her guts the wrong way. And yes, the Admiral is as much a part of her as anything could be.

Just an FYI, for those who need to know.

Then very much like a Leviathan.

Interesting. I'd be curious to know if this Barge shares any ancestry with that class of starship.

I can't say, really. I don't know anything about your world's ships.

I would be happy to provide you with schematics, but I'm afraid that, taken from memory, they would not be exceptionally detailed.

The Leviathan is a living ship, practically its own sentient species. It has a heart and can self-maintain and do as it likes without the guidance of a crew.