Log 0007

[keeps_a_cool_head]

[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.

Comments

[keeps_a_cool_head]

What use would I have for you, Aeryn Sun, other than a tool to use against Crichton?

Do you fear being useless?

[soliterraneous]

But I am an insignificant tool, you just said so yourself.

Do you? Most Peacekeepers do. The ones who are intelligent to imagine such a thing.

[keeps_a_cool_head]

Perhaps they'll keep you an inmate here until you learn to be a little more interesting.

[soliterraneous]

That's not how it works. You know that.

What do you imagine you'll be like when you graduate, Scorpius? Or are we not allowed to talk about you, because angering me is so much more fun?

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I imagine I'll be much the same person I am now, albeit one stripped of purpose and with a newfound resolve not to use force to get what I want.

[what did you think he had not been thinking on this]

Do you have the capacity to even imagine your own future as a graduated inmate?

[soliterraneous]

You could find a new purpose.

[ She gives Scorpius more credit than he gives her. But then again she's trying, for reasons.

Still wants to kill him though. Still will consider not doing it a strange victory over him. ]

I do possess the capacity, yes.

What will you do if you manage to get John's brain open and don't find what you're looking for? What will you do if this is all for nothing?

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I could, yes. However, I've grown sentimentally attached to the one I have now.

[It's interesting, he finds, that Aeryn will not let the conversation dwell for very long on her and keeps turning it back on him. She'd make a fair interrogator]

If it turns out that in fact the wormhole tech has been effectively stripped from his mind, I'll leave him be and pursue other courses that do not involve John Crichton.

[soliterraneous]

Of course you have. You've killed for it. You would kill for it.

[ Seems simple enough to her.]

What is the difference between 'wormhole tech' and the technology to create a weapon from it? What if he possess the first but not the latter?

[keeps_a_cool_head]

It isn't John's responsibility to create a weapon from what he knows. That task falls to me.

May I ask where this line of questioning is coming from, Officer Sun? John and I have already established the grounds for our future interactions. Or are you attempting to branch off of him and make yourself an independent agent?

[soliterraneous]

But it will affect him. Whatever you do with that information. Not to mention your method of extracting it in the first place.

It's coming from my curiosity, Scorpius. I won't be rid of you. I refuse to ignore that you exist in a complicated manner with John.

He and I are already independent of one another. Did you not realize that?

[keeps_a_cool_head]

Of course. But so will not extracting it. Therefore he and I must come to a compromise.

I realize that you and he come from different points in our timeline. As, I suspect, I do as well.

That must make for enlightening conversations between the two of you.

[soliterraneous]

Not extracting it will only affect him if you ensure it does.

[ Her eyes narrow. ]

What have you done?

[keeps_a_cool_head]

It no longer matters. We are all trapped here, and my latest attempt before I died was unsuccessful.

[soliterraneous]

You're lying.

[ It is that simple. ]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I suspect John would not want me to tell you the truth.

But either way, the extraction process will need to be updated in consideration for the tools I have on hand and how much cooperation he is willing to give me.

[soliterraneous]

I suspect you're saying that to find out what I do know. Consideration for John's wishes has not seemed to be high in your esteem.

[ Aeryn shakes her head. ]

All this to destroy the Scarrans? It seems like a very little and quite a lot all at once.

[keeps_a_cool_head]

You're wrong, Aeryn. I respect John's privacy, as he respects mine. If I were to go around telling his secrets, he would do me the same discourtesy and our minute trust in one another would diminish even further.

All this to destroy the Scarrans. Yes.

Have you ever met a Scarran?

[soliterraneous]

I am surprised there is even room for minute trust at all.

[ But maybe not. This is John they're talking about. ]

No. Not in person. I suspect you don't count.

[keeps_a_cool_head]

As am I. But I don't plan to abuse it.


I don't. But had you ever met one, I would suspect there would be far less questioning of my motivation.

[soliterraneous]

Not blatantly, I'm sure.

It is unlikely here.

[keeps_a_cool_head]

Not at all.

Unlikely, yes. There is nothing redeemable about a Scarran.

[soliterraneous]

Does that mean that you are, in part, irredeemable?

[keeps_a_cool_head]

That all depends on what you think I need to redeem. But I don't believe so.

[soliterraneous]

I don't know you well enough to even begin to imagine what you need to redeem.

[keeps_a_cool_head]

Fortunately, we have all the time in the world to better learn about each other, Officer Sun.

I know John Crichton. And in the past I have mistakenly passed you off as another insignificant, carbon-copy of a Peacekeeper who fell out of rank.

What is it about you that so fascinates him?