outer_divide | [Video]

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[Video] | Tuesday

[The ship corridor Rumple is transmitting from-- using Belle's communicator, for those who can tell such things-- is a little bit dimmer than it should be, and there's a few flashes off to one side. And a bit of a hissing, fizzing sort of sound... like ruined electronics might make.

Rumple ignores it all. He looks upset, angry, but not to the extent that he hasn't calmed down a little since his initial rage. The network has officially missed the worst of his temper tantrum.]

This ship is stealing people.

[All right, not quite all of the temper tantrum. He bashes at something off-screen with his cane.]

Belle is gone. She was here one minute, and gone the next. And it is this damn ship that took her!

[Good luck convincing him otherwise.]

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[It's always sad when people disappear, but this also sounds like an opportunity to learn something.]

I'm sorry. Were you with her? Did you see it happen?

I was standing right beside her. I turned away, and then there was a clatter, and I turned back, and she was gone. And this thieving ship claims she is not on board!

[The forcefield containing him gets another whap with the handle of his cane.]

The AI says she's gone? Something else may have taken her.

What else is there? There's no magic on this ship. And no one in the hallway. I did look.

[He actually looked a little before his panic turned into anger (like it usually does).]

[She doesn't trust the AI either, she's just pretty sure that it can't do that.]

That thing is programmed to protect us. I can see it justifying taking us back to the stasis chambers as part of its mandate, but sending us somewhere else?

Maybe someone got around the ship's wards, or activated part of the internal transport system -- I don't know what else there is.

[Maybe she'd somehow ended up in that place where Inara had gone when Elissa had poisoned her, but she knows better than to say that to someone who is already smashing things.]

[He growls at her this time, angry at her calm rationality when he knows it will do no good here.]

If it were the internal transport system, or someone who whisked her away into another corridor, she would still be on the ship!

We don't know that. So many systems on the ship are still broken. She could be in a location where the sensors are not functioning.

[There's a stricken sort of pause as Rumple digests that. They hadn't really gotten very far in their questioning of the vessel-- and honestly, he's not all that well-informed about the ship's problems, in general.

After that pause while he recalibrates his thinking a little, he demands, less angrily and more hoarsely with worry:]

Tell me what else is broken, here.

I know that both the AI and the transport system have only been brought online recently, and repair efforts are ongoing. Honestly, this ship crashed and has sat untouched for over a century, we're lucky that life support to the stasis chambers is still working properly. I'm sorry, I'm not a mechanic. If you want a full rundown, you'd be better off speaking to someone who's been working up there, like Kaylee or Kaidan Alenko.

"Life support"? You mean there are parts of this place where "life support" isn't working properly?

[Even more alarm, here. The thought of someone whisking Belle away through the transportation system to somewhere the ship is unaware of is bad enough-- to think of her being whisked off somewhere to where there is no "support" for "life" is even worse.]

I don't know if it's so important outside of stasis, considering we're in atmosphere right now. Obviously we can't know what's going on in sections of the ship that the AI can't access but it might be able to extrapolate if it has schematics in memory. Someone would have to ask it.

[He visibly throttles down the panic, though the wall does get another good thwack with his cane for good measure in the process, before answering with a taut:]

Well, I certainly can't go anywhere. This damn ship decided to fence me in. And it's not talking to me anymore.

[Maybe if you stopped hitting it, it would let you go.]

I know that the ship has thrown up that kind of security before. Our people working up there should be able to let you out.

I've already spoken with one of them. She declined to do anything about this.

[But hitting things is how he deals with everything, Inara! At least when he can't turn problems into rats, anyway.]

[If Kaylee wants you in there then Inara's not helping you, sorry]

I see.

Yes, I'm sure you do.

[And if she's not going to help him, he's done with her. Sorry, Inara. He severs the call.]

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