Sime~Gen Roleplaying on IRC: Snake River Dam Scenario
Episode #129: Eco-Raiders (2/24/01)
Racknie stealthily leaves the back door of the Narosian bath house, bundled up as if he plans to hike farther than just back to his quarters.
Racknie sets off across the snow, peering over his shoulder every once in a while.
Racknie loves clandestine activity, particularly in a good cause.
Nikki has found her wandering slightly curtailed after the problem with Haji Klyzer and her promise to Nick.
Racknie's current cause is of the noblest and best.
Nikki, however, has found that she has a multitude of big brothers and sisters as well as cousins and aunts and relatives of all kinds shapes and sizes.
Racknie sets off for the Tecton complex, leaving clear tracks in the previous night's fresh snow.
Nikki comes around the tent to see her other big brother, Racknie, sneaking off somewhere. Nikki likes to sneak herself. She decides to catch up to him.
Racknie is clutching a package under his cape.
Nikki can move pretty quickly on her short legs but Racknie has a good lead on her. She hurries as fast as she can without slipping on ice or falling into the snow.
Nikki picks her way across the compound keeping Racknie in sight but not really gaining on him much. Nikki has decided that she likes Racknie but she didn't at first.
Racknie spots the Tecton administrative complex (if such a name should be awarded a collection of thrown-together shanties) ahead.
Nikki finds the ice has given way to nice soft snow. She can catch up to Racknie if she runs.
Nikki does run and sneaks up behind her brother.
Nikki has learned not to pounce on people from behind as they tend to fall down. Well the Gens do anyway, which makes the Simes unhappy.
Racknie notes with satisfaction that his timing is perfect: the majority of the day staff has not arrived, but there is a thin wisp of smoke coming from the chimney of the Controller's office, showing that the fire there has been lit.
Racknie therefore can expect that his destination will be unsecured.
Nikki: [still behind her brother] Hi Racknie! What ya doin'?
Racknie yelps and drops his package.
Racknie whirls.
Racknie: Nikki! What are you doing here?
Nikki jumps back and look round eyed at her brother.
Nikki: I didn't mean to scare you!
Racknie: It's just that, well, I wasn't expecting anybody to be following me.
Racknie was rather counting on it, actually.
Nikki: I just... I saw you and I... I'm sorry.
Nikki has learned to say she is sorry even if she can't figure out what she did wrong.
Nikki: What's that? [points to the package]
Racknie was born and raised in Naros, and therefore he has a pretty good idea of how long he can expect to keep his clandestine expedition secret, if Nikki learns that it is a secret.
Racknie reaches for the bundle.
Nikki has the mercurial attention span of a seven year old. But she knows sneaking when she sees it and is intrigued.
Racknie: It's just a bit of compost, mixed with ash from the boiler. You remember that I explained to your class how important organic matter and minerals are to plant nutrition?
Racknie certainly remembers explaining about compost, and that Nikki was not as whole-heartedly enthusiastic about learning the details of plant mineral deficiencies as one might think, considering the innate fascination of the subject.
Nikki nods.
Nikki: What are you gonna do with it?
Racknie tries hard to look innocent -- rather well, as 75% Riyyh and 100% Narosian, he has the features for it.
Racknie: Why, I'm just going to treat a sick plant, that's all.
Racknie inspects Nikki hopefully for signs of waning interest.
Nikki smiles her semitoothless smile up at Racknie.
Nikki: Can I -- may I come?
Racknie really does not want to have to explain how this particular plant got to its current location to Sectuib, or worse yet, any of the Tecton authorities in charge of said location.
Nikki would love to know where Racknie is sneaking off to. She has asked nicely but if he says no....
Nikki: I can keep it a secret if you want me to.
Racknie winces, recognizing blackmail at its semitoothless best.
Racknie: Well, all right. But you must be very quiet, and do exactly as I say.
Nikki: Okay! [reaches for her brother's hand]
Racknie: There are a lot of people who just wouldn't understand, if they saw what we are doing.
Nikki's eyes get big and her smile gets bigger. A secret! This is fun.
Racknie puts the package of fertilizer under one arm, and reaches for Nikki's hand.
Nikki takes Racknie's hand and follows him closely.
Racknie leads Nikki firmly towards a seldom-used side entrance to the Tecton infirmary.
Nikki is now in sneak mode so she is very quiet and moves very quickly.
Racknie: You know, Nikki, the infirmary is where people get better, but plants can get better there, too.
Racknie: Well, I hope they can, at least.
Nikki: You put sick plants in here to get better?
Racknie: Well, I'd have preferred a proper greenhouse, but that wasn't practical at the time.
Racknie: And, well, there are reasons why I couldn't use the bath house.
Nikki is a bit distracted as she looks around. She had promised Nick she wouldn't go sneaking around the infirmary. But Racknie was sneaking and he is an adult.
Nikki: Oh. The plant wouldn't like the bath house?
Racknie: Well, not exactly.
Racknie would rather not have to explain about his abortive attempt to rescue the abused plants of Salmonton, and just how upset Sectuib was about it.
Racknie: But it might cause other kinds of problems.
Nikki: Why?
Racknie pauses by the side door, casts a look around to see if anyone is watching, then slips through.
Nikki is right on his heels. After all she is a master sneaker in her own right.
Nikki is now wondering what sort of plant could be so special that Racknie would have to sneak to get to it.
Nikki has visions of a candy plant growing butter drops. They have run out of them and they are her favorite.
Racknie tiptoes across the empty corridor and pauses by a door, listening carefully.
Racknie relaxes after a moment.
Nikki is a silent as snowfall. She waits, anticipation growing. Butterdrops!
Racknie: Good. The morning fires have been built, and no one should be back here for a while.
Racknie opens the door and slips inside.
Nikki can't wait to see the plant. She slips in right after Racknie and looks around.
Nikki doesn't see any butterdrop plants though.
Nikki, unfortunately, has her mother's features and can look very stern when she is displeased. There is nothing but firewood and coal in here.
Racknie notes Nikki's expression with some trepidation.
Racknie: It's not a proper coal cellar; they didn't want to take the time to dig it out.
Racknie: Which means that there's a window, and since it doesn't freeze....
Nikki has a sudden hope. Maybe the butterdrop plant is hiding.
Racknie leads the way around the coal, back to where a very small, dirty window looks out at not much of anything.
Nikki follows Racknie to the hiding place.
Racknie: The window faces south, you see, so it gets light a lot of the day. Well, some light.
Racknie: I put a second pane in, from the leftovers used to build the bath house, to help keep the cold out.
Nikki still can't see anything but knows that plants need light. Sort of like Simes need selyn.
Racknie didn't wait for the pane to actually be left over, but that's just a technicality, isn't it?
Racknie: And over here....
Nikki's mind goes off on a tangent. Is selyn like light or are Simes walking plants?
Racknie points with triumph to a ledge hollowed out of the back of the woodpile at approximately window height.
Racknie smiles in pride at the three rather sickly-looking, one-tuft spider plants sharing a pot improvised from a packing crate.
Nikki looks where Racknie is pointing. There are no butterdrops! All this sneaking around and there are no butterdrops!
Racknie: They were all I could save, when I had to return the rest to Salmonton.
Nikki would shudder if she could see her mother's expression on her little face. She is not amused!
Nikki looks up at Racknie intending to let him know how not amused she is.
Racknie: I cut them off the mother plant when I was packing it for the trip. I do hope it had a safe journey.
Racknie: It wasn't very healthy, you see: it hadn't been repotted in far too long.
Nikki pauses. Plants have mothers?
Nikki: Plants have mothers?
Racknie runs a loving finger over a thin leaf.
Racknie: You see the streaks here? That's from lack of iron.
Racknie: Poor thing, we'll have you right before spring.
Racknie pats the leaf reassuringly.
Nikki watches her brother pet the plant. It is a rather sorry looking thing like its siblings.
Racknie: We've brought you some nice compost, just think how happy that will make your roots.
Nikki looks sideways at Racknie and then back at the plant.
Nikki: Why don't you take it home? It doesn't seem to like it here.
Racknie: Well... truth to tell, I'm not sure Sectuib would be happy that I took cuttings. He did want all the plants returned intact.
Racknie smiles sheepishly.
Nikki has long since given up on butterdrops but the plants don't look right.
Racknie: But they were so unhappy, I just couldn't bear to see them all die of neglect. Not when it was so simple to save just a few.
Racknie looks at Nikki pleadingly, hoping that she will understand.
Nikki: You know daddy won't say anything. He would let you keep them.
Nikki has learned this to be true of their father. It went a long way to calming her fears when she leaned it.
Racknie expects that Riyyh would have quite a bit to say; he is a Sectuib, after all, and has the responsibility to keep Naros running smoothly.
Racknie: Well, yes, but he would be so disappointed. You wouldn't want him to be disappointed, would you?
Nikki blinks at this. She hadn't thought of that.
Racknie: After all, no real harm has been done, has it?
Nikki: But what if someone finds them in here?
Nikki is now giving into her pragmatic genes -- the ones she inherited from both parents but only seem to come out on the Meana side.
Racknie: Nikki, I know it's hard to believe, but outside of Naros, people look at plants as, well, furniture. Objects, not living things at all.
Nikki: But we eat them.
Nikki has decided at this point that Simes can't be plant because they eat plants.
Racknie winces; this is a part of artichoke-growing that makes him feel a bit uncomfortable.
Racknie: Well, one does have to eat something.
Racknie is Gen enough to have reached that conclusion long since.
Racknie: But as for these plants: I doubt that anyone will think twice about them, even if they did find them.
Nikki is losing interest in the nonbutterdrop plants anyway.
Racknie is conveniently overlooking the disturbance his own unauthorized presence in Tecton territory might cause.
Racknie carefully unwraps his package, revealing some crumbling leaves mixed with ashes.
Nikki: If you take them home you can make sure that they are happy. You don't have to tell daddy.
Nikki has no idea what all the sneaking is about for the ugly plants anyway. Now a butterdrop plant would be worth sneaking and hiding.
Racknie thinks that Nikki still has a great deal to learn about the efficiency of the Narosian information exchange system.
Racknie: Even if I don't tell Sectuib, he'd find out before long. Narosians notice plants, you see.
Nikki: Oh, well. [shrugs]
Racknie carefully spreads his mixture around the base of the straggly plants.
Nikki watches her brother tend the ugly little plants.
Rifan opens the door, then turns back to shout to the hallway and the building at large:
Rifan: I'm going to get my own coal now. Everybody take notice. It's come to this.
Rifan mutters something about people who were unemployable elsewhere not magically becoming employable just by virtue of being trapped at the Dam site, and enters the wood and coal room.
Racknie gives a yip of alarm and ducks behind the woodpile, dragging Nikki after him.
Rifan stops in confusion as at least one person dives for cover. He hears rustlings and foot falls behind a stack of wood.
Rifan is a Second Order channel of dark complexion, not very tall, and is carrying a tin can marked "Fuel".
Rifan: Who's there? [zlinning; he does not recognize Racknie and can't zlin Nikki]
Nikki has the breath knocked out of her and her temper starts to rise.
Nikki would have yelled if she had the breath for it.
Racknie's nager is nothing close to as strong as Nick's, but there is a family resemblance.
Racknie pauses for a moment, just in case the questioner is a Gen and decides that it was a mouse.
Rifan hears nothing, and begins to become a bit annoyed. He's kind of a touchy person.
Rifan: Look, if you're the coal boy you may as well come out.
Rifan: We've been waiting for an hour.
Nikki is struggling to catch her breath.
Rifan isn't as much of a prima donna as some channels, but he does draw the line at making patients wait so he can go find fuel for the hand wash station.
Racknie reaches the unpleasant conclusion that he has been zlinned, and the somewhat less unpleasant conclusion that he has not been recognized.
Racknie stands up cautiously.
Racknie: I am sorry.
Racknie inches out from behind the woodpile, motioning for Nikki to stay put.
Rifan studies Racknie.
Rifan: What, did you think you could just loaf around in here all day and nobody would notice?
Rifan: We require coal all around, and the wood is getting a bit low in places too.
Rifan: It's a bit much when the channels have to fetch it, don't you think?
Rifan gives the coal tin to Racknie.
Racknie: Er, I was just tending to the poor plants. I didn't mean to inconvenience anyone.
Rifan: Come again? [puzzled]
Racknie takes the coal tin, and blinks at it a moment.
Rifan does not, of course, know about the plants.
Nikki has finally caught her breath and is preparing to make her ire known to all.
Rifan notices Racknie's utter lack of familiarity with the coal tin and starts to wonder if the coal boy is simple. Well, wouldn't that just take the cake.
Nikki: Racknie ambrov Naros! Don't you ever do that again!
Rifan nearly jumps out of his skin at the high pitched shriek of Nikki.
Racknie looks over his shoulder, reprovingly.
Racknie: Nikki! You didn't have to scare the gentleman.
Nikki couldn't care less what her brother thinks.
Nikki: You hurt me!
Rifan sees Nikki for the first time. He knows exactly who she is.
Rifan points at Nikki.
Rifan: You are not allowed in here.
Nikki: He brought me in here. I am not allowed in here without an adult. He is an adult!
Racknie qualifies as an adult only by the technicality of having Established.
Racknie: She only wanted to help me with the plants.
Nikki is now under the driving influence of her mother's genes and seven years of her mother's example of correct behavior.
Racknie: ~~ apologetic ~~
Rifan waves his hands in exasperation.
Rifan: What plants?
Racknie: The poor, mistreated baby spider plants that I rescued. Even if I couldn't save their mother.
Racknie: ~~ sadness ~~
Racknie: Nikki, would you bring them out here to show Hajene....
Racknie doesn't know many of the Tecton channeling staff, since the Narosians have been keeping to themselves, transfer-wise.
Rifan looks at Racknie as if he is nuts.
Rifan: Rifan. [a bit distractedly]
Rifan: Look, are you, or are you not, the coal boy?
Racknie: Well, not exactly. I breed artichokes, usually.
Racknie: But if you require someone to help with the coal, I'm sure that Nikki and I would be glad to assist.
Racknie learned as a child that offering to help out can get one out of quite a few difficulties.
Rifan waves his hands again, this time in denial.
Rifan: I can't be in charge of hiring.
Rifan: If you're not supposed to be working here, then you'll just have to leave.
Nikki stops mid fume. Did he say help?
Rifan: I've got patients waiting.
Rifan: The hand wash stations have gone cold, and the waiting room has no fire lit.
Rifan: I don't have time to stand here arguing with... with... [lacks the mental agility to summarize Nikki and Racknie accurately on such short notice]... you.
Nikki: We can help if you want us to, Racknie.
Racknie: Of course we will. Help me fill this pail with coal, Nikki.
Nikki smiles. Nikki storms are loud but brief.
Racknie: If you'll show us where the fires are to be lit, we'll keep them burning until your regular person shows up.
Racknie starts picking up chunks of coal, and dropping them in the bucket.
Racknie eyes the bucket more closely.
Racknie: You know, this sort of bucket would make a decent planter, if you just punched a few holes in the bottom.
Racknie is fortunately too eager to avoid further trouble to dare follow through on the idea. At least for now.
Nikki looks at the coal and then at her nice clean clothes. Daddy will not be pleased if she wrecks another winter coat.
Rifan sighs. This is going to take even more time. But at least then maybe he will not have to worry about it for the rest of the morning.
Racknie: Or you can go back and get some breakfast, if you'd rather, Nikki. Can you find the way?
Rifan: Yes, why don't you?
Nikki: I can carry some wood. [likes to help]
Rifan is eager to get Nikki out of the building; he doesn't want to be called down by the Powers that Be for not taking care of that little detail.
Racknie vaguely recalls that there was some trouble regarding Nikki and the infirmary, and that she was not supposed to be there.
Nikki has no idea that her Narosian genes are responsible for her innate desire to help but....
Racknie already has the pail half full of coal, and his coat liberally sprinkled with coal dust.
Rifan: Now Nikki [her name was in all the memos] I think you should go and let your friend work. You really shouldn't be around the infirmary or Controller Arat and Sosu Nick might write more memos about you. You wouldn't want that.
Nikki picks up two small pieces of wood.
Racknie: Besides, this could take a while, and Sectuib might worry about you. You didn't tell him you were coming here, did you?
Nikki looks at the two men and drops the wood.
Nikki: No, I didn't tell daddy where I was going. But you didn't either.
Racknie: Would you take my fertilizer back for me?
Nikki is not as happy with her big brother as she was at the start of this adventure.
Racknie grew up in Naros, after all, and knows that the best way to get a Narosian kid to do something is to make a case that it is helpful.
Nikki: Yes, I will take it.
Nikki is not as much Narosian as her sib, but she does have the genes.
Racknie: Thank you.
Rifan casts a grateful look at Racknie.
Racknie tops off the bucket of coal.
Rifan is going to have a very unusual idea of how helpful and practical Racknie is, for at least a while.
Go on to Episode #130: Three Warnings
Return to the Index of Episodes