Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #110: Cash Crunch (1/25/01)
Edka strides grimly towards the Sime Shack.
Edka had hoped to avoid further embarrassing incidents involving his men, at least until they could get out of this mud hole, but such wishes are never realistic.
Edka gestures to HT to not let Storm lag.
HT gives Storm a bit of incentive in the form of a shove.
Storm struggles along behind the two striding men, wishing they'd slow down. The newly healed ribs are letting him know in no uncertain terms they want him to slow down, but HT isn't letting him.
Edka is not interested in how Storm feels.
Arat zlins the Gen's sharp stabbing rib pains well in advance and wonders what idiot let him walk around.
Arat like many other Simes feels that Gens with crippling pain should stay in bed preferably behind a well insulated curtain.
HT has no care for Storm's ribs. He is still nursing a pain in his foot from that refugee from a glue factory.
Storm would really, really like to know what he did.
Beni notes Arat's irritation.
Beni: Is something the matter, Arat?
Edka comes to a military halt in front of the Sime Shack and signals, rapping sharply on the door as well, just in case.
Arat zlins, on second notice, a portion of intense pain bobbing along somewhat separate from Storm's ribs, which turns out to be HT's foot.
Arat: The insulation in this building is far from adequate.
Arat has said this so many times nobody is really interested in hearing it anymore.
Beni tries to offer ~~ comfort ~~, as well as he can.
Beni is painfully aware that he still has a ways to go, before he can match Nick's skill.
Arat must make do with the limited resources available; the best insulation is in their work areas, and he rarely does anything channelling related in his office.
Beni looks up at the rapping noise.
Beni: Has a shutter come loose?
Moose has chewed through the rope holding him to the ground and is now trotting through camp, looking for his master. OK, the one he kicked.
HT has placed himself behind Storm to make sure he stays where he should be.
Beni catches Arat's pointed glance and answers the door, despite the unconventional signal.
Edka: We wish to see Controller Arat, on a matter of some urgency.
Beni looks back over his shoulder to see if Arat is willing to be interrupted.
Beni is pretty sure that at least six items on Arat's desk are of greater than "some" urgency.
Arat zlins Edka's bruised knuckles, HT's throbbing foot and the agonizing spikes of pain occasionally zapping through Storm's ribcage.
Arat accordingly is wearing kind of a wince.
Arat indicates that Beni should let them in anyway.
Beni: Come in.
Beni steps back, allowing the other Gens to enter.
Moose looks up, then trots off towards the river. He's thirsty.
Edka marches through the door, gesturing for HT to bring Storm along.
Beni hastily closes the door behind the visitors and returns to his seat, trying to protect Arat as much as he can.
HT, bringing up the rear, resists the urge to kick Storm. That would get him in a heap of trouble not to mention hurting his foot.
Arat looks none too pleased to see or zlin them. He has only allowed them in without an appointment because he feels a very small obligation due to Edka's rank. Very small.
Edka: Controller Arat. I regret that I must inform you of an incident involving one of my men--and one of yours.
Arat frowns.
Arat: What happened?
Edka is standing at attention, although of course he would never go so far as to salute someone who isn't in his chain of command.
Storm whips his head around and stares at Edka. He salutes Arat, out of habit, then drops it, still looking at Edka.
Arat, who is not familiar with the concept of saluting one person while looking directly at another, has no idea what that meant.
Arat simply waits for an answer to his question.
Arat: [none too patiently]
Edka: Yesterday, HT discovered that Storm here, and a Donor of some sort named Franses, were involved in an unauthorized activity.
Edka: HT, would you explain?
Storm still is lost.
HT: Yes Sir.
HT: I was coming to see if Private Storm was fit for duty.
HT: When I didn't find him in his tent I asked around and found him off in the woods with that Franses fellow.
HT clears his voice a bit and braces to tell the rest of it.
HT: They were making a bit of home brew, illegal hooch er, whiskey.
Storm: Uh. I wasn't. He was---asked me for a bit of advice.
Edka: That's enough, Private.
Storm: Uh, yes Sir.
HT gives Storm a dirty look.
Arat zlins both Storm and HT.
Storm wishes for some of that whiskey. Of course, he wouldn't touch Franses' hooch, even at 20 paces. Man didn't have the touch, you know.
Edka: It is not clear where the materials for the still came from, although the still did appear somewhat jury-rigged.
Edka ought to know, as his father--but I digress.
Edka: Since your man was involved, I thought that you should be informed.
Arat happens to know that there are dozens of such stills in various places around the camps. For some reason they tend to feature prominently in the circumstances of brawls, stabbings and non-work-related work injuries.
Arat: I see.
Arat: Thank you. I will look into it.
Arat really didn't want any news about additional drinking related incidents on Frances' part, but it isn't about what Arat wants, is it?
Storm: Look, I didn't build that hooch. Jeezus, the thing looked like it'd blow up any minute!
Storm is frantic to convince Edka he wouldn't build such a rickety still, let alone try to make hooch.
HT glances at the Sarge then gives Storm a shut-up look.
Storm catches the look from HT and shuts up.
HT will be making sure that Pvt. Storm has a refresher course in military protocol.
Edka makes a mental note to thank HT later; he really doesn't want any more of the military's dirty laundry aired in public than absolutely necessary.
Edka: While I am here, Controller Arat, I wonder if I might ask your assistance on another matter?
Arat nods.
Storm bites his fingernail, out of sheer nervousness.
Arat is a little distracted by Storm's emotional antics.
Arat wishes he knew whether Storm was desperate because he is innocent, or desperate because he is guilty. He decides it is none of his business, and that is a good thing too.
HT is aware that the Courier Corps can get a bit lax in the protocol department but not on his watch.
Arat looks back to Edka, belatedly.
HT tells himself that this is strictly a military matter and has nothing to do with his aching foot.
Edka: My men and I are in rather an awkward position, with regard to the IDAS, and I have not been able to get in to see Borgmann personally to get it straightened out.
Edka doesn't mention having tried to see Riyyh, as that is not a realistic possibility.
Edka: It appears that we must remain here through the winter, due to the unwillingness of the ferries to transport our inventory of explosives.
Arat: I see.
Storm wonders if the glee on HT's face is related to getting revenge on him for Moose's little snack.
Edka: Since we cannot work in this weather, the IDAS classes us with the other unemployed Gens.
Arat frowns.
Edka: To be brief, they wish us to move into their camp, as a condition of receiving food.
Arat: You cannot support yourselves?
Arat finds this difficult to believe.
Edka: We were supposed to be gone long since--would have gone, if we could move our supplies.
Edka: We will require additional food before long, our cook tells me.
HT thinks that the whole mess has something to do with that fancy Sime Riyyh belly aching about the guns. But then nobody asked his opinion.
Arat: You are entirely without funds?
Edka: However, we can't bring a large quantity of explosives into the middle of a teeming crowd of people.
Storm wishes he had refused this assignment. But can you say no to a cuckolded General?
Edka: Nor can we abandon them to the camp scavengers.
HT has learned that non-coms, particularly corporals, have no opinions until the higher-ups give them to them.
Arat notices that his question has been twice ignored.
Arat tries to imagine what circumstances would lead a military unit under FluCon contract to do civilian work could be entirely without resources only a month or two after completing the work.
Arat can't help but think that some very bad planning was involved.
Arat: What would you have me do?
Edka: If you see Borgmann, could you mention that it would be safer for all concerned if my men stayed in their present location, where we can guard our equipment?
Storm thinks, I need to see Borgmann, too, to get a renew on that visa.
Arat thinks about that for a few moments.
HT has no desire to cart all their equipment way across the camp. Not to mention having to put an even tighter guard on them to keep the riff-raff out of it.
Edka: If it would help, we would be quite willing to give him military vouchers for the value of the food we require. It's only cash that we lack.
Arat: If you are unable to support yourselves, why have you not taken the work FluCon offered you in the blasting of tunnels?
Arat knows such an offer was made, as he was present at the time.
Arat: That will be continuing all winter from what I have been told.
Arat has seen enough of Edka to know that Edka is fully authorized to make this type of executive decision.
Edka: Our orders specifically limited us to the cliff work--I believe there was some concern about keeping as much work as possible for the renSimes.
Arat is a bit sensitive about groups of people who ought to be able to support themselves but somehow can't seem to get it together, as he's been digging more and more deeply into his personal pocketbook to keep the Audnes supporters from freezing, starving, or going into default on their taxes.
Arat had had no idea there were so many of them in the camps, nor how truly pathetic most of them are.
HT is not the ground hog type. He has no intention of crawling around inside of dark dangerous tunnels and making with the boom-boom.
Arat would rather have nothing to do with them, and indeed has as little to do with them as possible, but repeated (if unwanted) exposure to them has begun to push his Noblesse Oblige buttons big time. It is quite vexing.
Storm would happily go home, if it wasn't for his orders. Storm has a sneaking feeling that Swift engineered all this....
Arat has been having increasing difficulty in inventing things to tell his local accountant about what he is buying the supplies for.
Arat: Why do you not sell your munitions to FluCon for their work?
Edka: I don't want to be court-martialled next spring, for one thing. And FluCon's miners aren't trained on military-grade explosives. There have been more than enough nasty accidents in the shafts already, don't you think?
Edka is, of course, unaware of the tendency of Farris channels to be ghoulish ambulance-chasers.
Arat: Sgt. Edka. Your options are not as limited as you portray them to be. I fail to understand why you do not take steps to resolve it in any one of several possible ways.
Arat: I will not attempt to influence IDAS policy on your behalf if you do not explain your motives to me now.
Storm is listening to all this. He can tell Arat why, using just two words--the Army. But he doesn't think the Controller would understand.
Edka: Controller Arat, my only motivation is to feed my men while obeying my orders.
Edka: If we were free entities, we would have more options, but we are soldiers on active duty.
Edka: We are no more free to abandon our equipment and take unauthorized employment than you are to desert your duties as Controller here.
Arat looks at Edka severely.
Edka looks back, uncowed.
Arat: I find it difficult to believe that you were put in charge of a foreign mission to a locality where communications are subject to blockage, without being granted some degree of autonomy.
Storm thinks, "Believe it."
HT can see this has just turned into a pissin' contest. It should be entertaining.
Edka: I realize that as a civilian, you are unfamiliar with military protocol.
Arat notes that Edka first likened his position to Arat's, and then quickly reversed himself.
Edka: I do have some autonomy with regards to some matters, but due to the protests of your government, on behalf of the renSime laborers, that autonomy does not extend to taking outside employment.
HT settles down out of the line of fire and tries not to look like he is amused.
Arat zlins HT's amusement.
Arat finds it distracting. He wonders if this entire visit was intended simply to yank his tail.
Arat's annoyance level is not helped, needless to say.
Storm knows that when higher-ups start doing this, it's best to step out of the line of fire. He does just that.
HT has forgotten that Simes don't go by looks. He has no nageric control however and couldn't do anything about it if he did remember.
Arat attempts to bring his temper under control.
Arat does not like games, and he especially does not like stupid games.
Arat particularly does not like stupid games that should not have anything to do with him, and yet for some reason do anyway.
Arat would like to know why Edka and his men were eager and resourceful when it came to blowing things up and invading Narosian bath houses with guns, but dig in their heels and stop dead in the face of practical and mundane issues like day to day survival in a work environment.
Arat is a bit like that himself, actually, but he has trained handlers.
Arat: And your orders permit you to surrender yourselves to the authorities here?
HT shifts his weight to ease his throbbing foot. Entertainment is all well and good if you can take a comfortable seat somewhere.
Edka: We have orders to cooperate with local authorities, where it doesn't compromise our mission. Abandoning our supply of explosives would be considered to compromise our mission, as would bringing them with us into the IDAS camp.
Arat: If you were detained by IDAS, would the explosives not be seized?
Arat thinks they would.
Arat in fact is certain they would.
Arat believes the standard course of action in such a situation would be for Borgmann to order the explosives seized, and then request aid in properly storing and guarding them from the military branch, of which representatives are present in the area.
Edka: The IDAS has issued us temporary visas; we are technically still legal. Unfortunately, we will shortly also be hungry, and the food merchants will only accept hard currency.
Storm thinks about the vouchers that Wise Snake gave him. He could use that to buy food, but the merchants around here like cold, hard cash... and vouchers ain't cash.
Arat cannot understand what has happened to all of their donation money, Army stipends and petty cash.
Arat as a fundamentally forward-planning and intensely organized individual cannot fathom how anybody could allow something like this to happen to such a small group of people, all of whom are inherently financially self-supporting by virtue of being Gen.
Arat consequently still feels like he's being jerked around.
Arat: Why will you not tell me how you came to be in these financial straits?
Edka sighs.
Edka: We would have our pay, but there's no bank here that would accept New Washington currency, even if our paychecks could get through.
Arat: And your donation payments?
HT isn't too fond of the possibility that his people will have to deal with the masses of unemployed and unemployable Gens in the internment camp.
Arat knows intellectually that a donation payment is enough to support a Gen in a minimal fashion. He'd never be able to live under such conditions himself, but he knows that many people do.
Storm had tried to get the vouchers cashed, but because of the weather the merchants were keeping cash everywhere they could--down their pants, mostly. Storm suspected they were using it for insulation. But he still couldn't get the money.
Edka: Your channels pay in the form of vouchers--and the private food venders will only accept cash.
Arat: The vouchers may be exchanged for cash with our bursar. [impatiently]
HT tries hard not to snort at the donation vouchers bit. But then the Controller probably doesn't know that supplies from the general merchants were now going at a better than premium price.
Arat: That has not changed.
Arat hadn't been informed that that had changed, at any rate. If it changed without him knowing and he found out later, heads would roll.
Arat could have careers ended for something like that.
Storm being a little too young to know better, smiles at that. The merchants have been giving them all, even Edka, the shaft.
Arat could have more than just heads and careers if the way he found out about it was some sidewinding, grinning request by an Army Sergeant for the favor of a word in the ear of IDAS' agent.
HT knows that the situation is only going to get worse the deeper into winter they go.
Arat wonders what Storm is grinning about.
Arat wonders why Edka is just sitting there.
Arat wonders why Beni isn't lifting a finger to do something to help him.
Arat casts a blistering look at the Donor.
Edka: The bursar will provide cash, but it is not sufficient to pay the inflated prices that the private food venders are demanding for basic supplies.
Storm makes a mental note to hunt a bit this afternoon, if he can just escape the eagle eye of the channels here. A nice deer would be good.
Edka: However, I can see that you are unwilling to aid us. That being so, I am sorry to have taken up your time.
Arat looks back at Edka, his expression not particularly difficult to read.
Beni catches Arat's glare and gulps, adjusting his nager for greater blockage.
HT almost got caught nappin'. He gives Storm an 'ATTENTION' look.
Arat is not pleased with Edka for having played this game - whatever it is - with him.
Storm thinks, also HT's eagle eye. Good thing Moose took a chunk out of HT's foot. He can just hear HT howling at him for hunting -- but that won't last long, not if he can get a deer.
Arat could have handled a straightforward complaint about food prices and selyn prices.
Arat could not handle this obstinate, defeatist insistence upon one dogged path, and only intermittent and partial unveiling of the crux of the problem.
Storm notices the look on Arat's face. It's the same look that General Swift had on his face right before he blew up at his staff. Storm starts looking for a exit.
Arat particularly could not handle the annoyance of HT and Storm sniggering silently in the background. Edka should have had more respect for Arat than to bring along such an undisciplined audience.
HT can't figure out why, but he gets the feeling that Storm has some more rule breaking in mind.
Arat thinks that the "I can see that you are unwilling to aid us" line was the last straw.
Arat has been doing nothing trying to aid Edka since he arrived, and meeting considerable resistance.
Arat gives Edka a long, hard look, then only nods.
Edka gestures curtly for HT and Storm to precede him out the door.
Storm escapes to the outside as fast as he can.
HT makes a quick step to the door.
Storm holds the door open for HT.
HT quick steps out the door and into the snow. This time he is happy to be in the weather.
Storm pulls his coat tighter around him. He can smell more snow coming, and is annoyed.
Arat gives Beni another dirty look, and then pulls his copy of the selyn accounting ledger for the month out of his pile.
Arat opens it and ponders the figures for a while. He cannot understand how a situation like Edka describes could exist; FluCon pays the many thousands of renSimes in cash, which they pay back to Arat in taxes. There are relatively few Gens, whose selyn is worth a variable amount based upon the local selyn economics - which has always heavily favored the Gens here.
Arat thinks the Gens should be flush.
Arat shakes his head, and resolves to order Jeniard and his staff to attempt to figure out what has happened in general, and to Edka and his men in particular.
Go on to Episode #111: Hard Sell
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