"Have you ever heard of an organization called the 'Interstellar Institute for Social Sciences?"
My heart fell into my stomach. My head swam. The Institute was selling them food, and in return they were getting the compound they needed for their tests... and unwitting subjects to experiment on!
"What, what is it... you're doing that thing again. What's wrong?" Whiz asked. Her face was a mixture of concern and terror. I struggled to rein in my emotions. Melting everything in the room was not going to change anything.
I took deep breaths and counted to ten. I felt my skin cool. "So... Breaker didn't tell you in that message? I was taken by the Institute as a teenager. They experimented on me, trying to find a way to unlock my latent talents... and trying to find a way to replicate them in others. They used Trip to make me what I am today."
Her eyes grew wide. She realized she had been unknowingly abetting this atrocity... and then she realized the other half of the equation. The even more barbaric part. "So, you're telling me that all those refugees that they were supposedly smuggling out of the sector, they..." I nodded grimly. Whiz said "I think I'm going to be sick. What have I done? What have I done? Oh, please Ashton, please forgive me. I didn't know. I didn't know!"
[Milestone: Mark Progress on Vow "Uncover the Crimes of the Institute". +1 tick (now 2)]
I wanted to comfort her, to tell her that I forgave her, that she couldn't have known, but it was all I could do to contain my anger. The fact that she didn't know, didn't change anything. Whiz may have made me Ashton Frost, but she also had a hand in making me into this. I almost felt that roasting her alive and burning this place down would be poetic justice. "You didn't know, Whiz. But you know now. 'What you've done' is sitting here right in front of you. 'What you've done' is to hand innocent people over to a bio-weapons research firm... and given them the very thing they need to fuel those experiments. The question is: What do you intend to do about it?"
"I don't know, Ashton. I don't know. We'll... we'll destroy the Trip. When they come back, we'll tell them we don't have any more Trip, we don't have any new refugees. We don't need the food anymore. We'll call off the deal. They'll go away, maybe they won't come back."
"Have you not listened to anything I told you?" I shouted. "This is not some friendly business deal you can just opt out of. They'll take it personally. The only reason they haven't come back is because they've been searching for me."
She stood up so quickly that her chair toppled to the floor. "...And you led them to our door. Damn you Hellion," she screamed, "Damn you!"
I stood up as well. I was inches from her face. She could feel the heat of my skin. "No, you led them to your door," I growled. "You led them here when you decided to sell drugs for food. You signed that deal with the Devil before I ever came here. And if you hadn't, I'd never have wound up here in the first place.
"Oh, they'll be back, Whiz. You can count on it. But they won't be back to renegotiate your arrangement. If they come back, it will be to destroy this place, because now you're a loose end just like me. If they do, you ought to hope they don't bring others like me. You're better off hoping that they try to keep their hands clean and just turn you in to the Keepers instead.
Any way you look at this, Nyx isn't going to be around for much longer. So I'm going to ask you again... what do you intend to do about it?"
Whiz was beginning to panic. Her little empire was about to come tumbling down and she was running out of options. "We could move to Redhaven, we..."
"Don't you dare come near Redhaven!" I roared. "You're not leading them to my door. If I find you anywhere near Redhaven, I'll burn you alive, and send your remains to the Institute in a matchbox. No, you're not going to run from this. I don't care if they're going to take away this life you have. They did it to me, thanks in part to you. They took my home, my family... even my past. I can't just run and hide from it, so neither will you. When you figure out what you're going to do, send a message. I'm going home to decide what I need to do next."
* * *
I was readying the Acheron for my journey back to Redhaven when there came a chime at the airlock. I glanced at the viewscreen. It was Whiz. She looked contrite. "Ashton... I need to speak with you. Please." I walked over to the airlock and let her in.
"I know you'll probably never forgive me for what I've done. I can't ask you to. I don't deserve forgiveness. I just came to tell you... before they left, the crew of that trader left some supplies for you, to thank you for what you did. I didn't tell them who you were. I can have it all brought aboard if you want."
[Resupply: +Heart. 5+3 vs 2 and 8. Weak Hit. +2 Supply (+5)]
[Test Your Relationship: +Heart, 6+3 vs 6 and 10. Weak Hit. +2 Momentum (+7)]
[Develop Your Relationship: Mark Progress (+2 boxes, now 4)]
I let out a sigh and placed my hands on her shoulders. "I forgive you, Whiz. You had no way of knowing. I could be angry that you were trading Trip for food, but I brought a shipment to you myself. So if you're guilty of ignorance, then so am I. I'll help you bring the supplies on board."
She threw her arms around me, buried her face in my shoulder and wept. I didn't know how to respond to this, so I just let her cry it out. Soon she regained her composure, let go, and wiped tears from her eyes. Then she turned to the airlock and entered the base. I followed.
The grateful crew of the Ultraviolet had actually donated a fair amount of supplies. Spare parts, equipment, trade goods, food packs... coffee. I didn't need all of it. I loaded up the crates of parts I could use, kept the trade goods and coffee, took enough food packs to restock the galley, and told Whiz she could keep the rest. "Your people have a hard journey ahead of them, and you'll need all the help you can get to make it. When you get this all sorted out, come and see me. Breaker and I are going to need all the help we can get to take these bastards down." My anger was spent. I just wanted to be home already.
I sealed the airlock and watched as the pressure collar retracted. She stood in the gangway, her hand on the window, a tear in her eye.
[Ending Stats: Momentum +7 Health +5 Spirit +4 Supplies +5 Fire 4 Fugitive 1]