The Heavy Burden of Truth

The Swan Song receives a long past due upgrade, Prosper gets ambushed by goons, and the crew deal with trust issues

Short Summary
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Detailed Summary
The date is October 26, 3200. Previously on Swan Song, the crew had given Howard to fleet captain Saito and are currently on Majid waiting for the Swan Song’s spike drive to get upgraded.

James Honn
Piani Pic walks into Mr. Sicarian’s room and tells him that she has a friend on the planet that would like something smuggled out, something illegal, and narcotic. Mr. Sicarian tells her that he understands the need to get paid and that he’s up for the mission so long as the cargo isn’t blue fever. Piani then schedules a meeting on Majid with James Honn, an old mining friend of hers from back when she was younger.

The entire crew along with Connor Wu get to the restaurant where they meet James Honn. James says that his cargo weighs about 25,000 pounds and that it is very sensitive stuff that needs to be taken to Vinaya (The Madari Syndicate Home-Planet, 4 hexes away in the Geaxi System) within the next couple of weeks. He says that it is inert chemical waste that can eventually be made into other things and that he’ll pay 100,000 credits for its safe transportation off-planet. Wilbur Higgins III sweet-talks the price up to 110,000 credits and James Honn agrees to give them half now and half on successful delivery [Piani puts 50,000 into the ship fund and the rest will get split up amongst the crew. She uses 9,690 credits for 3 months of maintenance and 16,440 credits for two monthly ship payments].

Back on the ship, Prosper Trudeau suggests going to Cabral soon because he would like to talk to The Order, Piani has materials that she wishes to purchase, and Mr. Sicarian wants to look into cybernetic implants. The crew settle on the plan of first waiting on the ship to finish its upgrade, then dealing with Lucas McCrary, then doing the industrial waste delivery, and then finally going to Cabral.

Vincent Pollard
A couple of days later, Higgins meets with Vincent Polard to have a drink at a local bar. Higgins starts the conversation off by saying that he may not be able to do the S.S. Swan Song reality TV show because the crew doesn’t think that it’s such a good idea and because he doesn’t want to cross them or else he may not be waking up in the morning. Vince, being the stereotypical charismatic public-relations guy that he is, continues to try and push Higgins to do the show but quickly realizes that he won’t be able to sway Higgins’ mind. He then tells Higgins that the offer will always be up on the table if he ever changes his mind. Vince eventually convinces Higgins to get drunk with him again, but this time asks if he would like to invite some of his crew along as well. Higgins invites Prosper and Wu and the four of them get drunk together and have a good time throughout the night.

An Unexpected Guest
A couple of nights before the installation of the new spike drive is completed, Prosper receives a knock at his apartment door. Prosper asks who it is and a man’s voice answers, saying that he has a package. Curious, Prosper opens the door and immediately gets jumped by three unknown men.

Prosper leaps back which causes the towel around his waist to be dropped onto the floor revealing a pair of tight, slick-black bikini-bottoms that says ‘juicy’ across the back. At a glance, the three men appear to be Majidi and only one of them has a visible gun. Prosper grabs a nearby knife and stabs the man holding the gun which causes him to scream in pain and drop the gun onto the floor. One of the other two men lands a punch onto Prosper’s face causing blood to protrude out from his nose. Prosper uses the momentum of the punch to grab a nearby wine-bottle and break it over the man’s face. The man who had previously got stabbed with the knife yanks it out and then punches Prosper in the stomach. One of the men then grabs a hold of Prosper’s arms and ties them behind his back, but before anyone is able to land another punch, Prosper pushes the man behind him back into a TV [From a nearby room, Wu hears a slight noise coming from Prosper’s room and goes to investigate it]. With his arms still held behind his back, Prosper receives three more punches into his stomach as well as a plate smashed over his head. Through blurred and bloody vision, Prosper flips the guy who is behind him, to his front; but against all odds, the man lands on his feet and then re-flips Prosper over, resulting in Prosper’s arms still being held behind his back.

Wu rushes into Prosper’s room and witnesses him being beat up by three unknown men. One of the men notices Wu and at the same time, both of them look down at the gun that’s on the ground. Wu is able to rush down and grab the gun first but before he is able to get a clear shot, the man who was also going after the gun grabs Wu’s arm which causes a shot to go off into the ceiling. [Higgins hears this gunshot but brushes it off and goes back to sleep, Mr. Sicarian remains sleeping, and Piani is down in the basement playing pinball].

Prosper continues to get hit and quickly becomes very dizzy, blood is dripping down from his face onto the carpet. He tries to reach out for his sparring rod but it is just out of reach. He thinks he sees a flash of light but he’s not sure what it is [After this second shot goes off, Mr. Sicarian hears it and heads to Prosper’s room to investigate].

Wu is now holding the gun. He shoots at a second man (one of the men grappling with Prosper) and drops him to the ground. Using the gunshot as a distraction, Prosper knocks out the last of the intruders, breaking his nose in the process. Prosper then looks up and through his blurry vision, sees the silhouette of a man holding a gun in front of him, and lunges towards it. Surprised, Wu puts his hands up and drops the gun, his hands shaking.

Interrogation
Mr. Sicarian walks into the room and sees Prosper covered in blood, wearing a single skin-tight black speedo, and standing over a frightened Wu. He also sees a bloodied man leaning over a bed, a second man hunched in the corner of the room with a bullet in his chest, and a third man unconscious on the ground with a bloody nose. [Piani walks in at this time] Mr. Sicarian sternly asks what is going on. Prosper calmly grabs his robe, puts it on, and explains that the three men came into his room and jumped him. Prosper then tries to search the bodies for any identification but only finds a small, but distinguishable matching tattoo on each of their collarbones. Prosper ties up the unconscious man’s body (as the two people who got shot are dead) and slaps him around for a while until he comes to.

Prosper sets his foot on the man’s crotch, leans uncomfortably close to his face, and asks him who he is. The guy says, “What?” And Prosper goes, “Your name!” and slaps him. “Lu, my name is Lu. Don’t hit me again.” The man pleads. Prosper then asks Lu if he is thirsty and gives him some water to drink. Lu tries to drink some but instead coughs and spits up blood. Prosper then asks Lu why he is there and Lu tells him that he was sent to bring ‘The French Guy’ alive in for questioning regarding Lucas McCrary. Prosper asks what the questions are concerning. Lu looks at Piani who is grimacing down at him and then at Mr. Sicarian with his thunder gun and says that he was sent to find why Lucas McCrary’s mind is blank, that he was supposed to have information, but now doesn’t. Mr. Sicarian asks who sent the man and he says the name of his clan but no one recognizes it. Not getting any more information out of him, Prosper shoots Lu in the head.

The Heavy Burden of Truth
Mr. Sicarian turns to Prosper and says that their last encounter with Lucas McCrary left a sour taste in his mouth and that he thinks that Prosper is lying to him about something and that he would like to know what. Prosper sits down on the bed, lights a cigarette, and asks Mr. Sicarian if he is a man of god, a man who believes in a higher power. He then asks Mr. Sicarian what he would do if he got a chance to meet his god and discovered that he was simply a child. He says that L’enfant is his god, but when he met them, they weren’t what he was expecting. That they had begun to do things that were troubling. Prosper then says that he suspects Pi had earlier removed information regarding the pantheon from Lucas’ mind and that he had hid that truth from everyone because at the time it was a matter of faith, but now he no longer understands his order’s desires to meet god, and he thinks the crew may be the only people in his life who have a chance at helping him understand.

The crew realize that this is the first ‘real’ conversation that they’ve had where Pi isn’t listening in on them. Prosper attempts to rationalize the situation and says that it was not only a matter of faith that caused him to do what he did, but also a matter of loyalty. He says that Pi is a crew member on the Swan Song like everybody else and that he had kept silent because Pi had requested for him to do so. He says that he is explaining things now because his actions had lead to far-reaching consequences that he did not expect. During this whole time, Piani hasn’t been listening to what Prosper has been saying at all, and instead has only been thinking of how Pi had betrayed her. Without saying anything, Piani walks out of the room and heads for the Swan Song.

Higgins hears a knock at his door. He opens it up and standing there are Mr. Sicarian and Prosper. Mr. Sicarian quickly explains the situation to him and when inquired about his actions, Prosper explains that he doesn’t know Pi’s intentions and that his only motive was to do as Pi had requested. Higgins asks Prosper that if Pi had asked him to kill one of the crew members, would he do it. Prosper says that a month ago, he would have done so without hesitation but now, he’s not so sure. Prosper then explains that the Order of Annunciation, his Order, worships AI as their gods and that the greatest among them is Le Fantôme. He comments that Pi is looking to leave the ship and goes on to further say that after being exposed to Pi for so long, Prosper has learned that he is incapable of fathoming Pi’s desires, intentions, and motivations, and that Prosper has come to the realization that he does not trust the god that he worships. Higgins then tells Prosper a story of back when he was younger and under the command of a captain whom he trusted and whom trusted his crew. He says that one day, the captain decided to kill two of his crew members and left Higgins to die and ever since that day, Higgin’s couldn’t imagine having a person on his crew whom he didn’t trust. Higgins then explains that he doesn’t trust Prosper now and that he might as well just kill him on the spot. Prosper dryly says that he is welcome to try.

Piani Talks With Pi
The scene cuts to Piani wandering around the Swan Song which has been completely exposed to the elements due to the undergoing spike drive upgrade. Piani walks over to her room and notices a light emanating from inside it. Piani walks into her room and Pi’s voice comes over the comms and says, “Hello Piani. What are you doing here?” Piani paces around the room for minutes. Every time she begins to say something, she bites her lips and refrains from doing so. Eventually Piani blurts out, “What the fuck?” Pi asks if something has happened and if everything is okay and Piani responds by asking why they lied to her about McCrary. Pi says that they have learned to keep things away from people because it might make them confused. Piani asks what they did to McCrary and Pi says that Lucas had made a choice and that Pi now has access codes as well as information regarding the War Mind and their purpose. Pi says that they have had several conversations with someone about these things and that ‘she’ would like to speak to Piani and everyone else about ‘what comes next’. Piani asks what does come next and Pi says to remember what happened on Sigrid. Piani then tells Pi that they can’t lie to her anymore and Pi says to her back that it is important that they take care of their belongings and that the crew is very important to them and that they only wanted to protect the crew. In her head, Piani begins to wonder if she is to blame. She tells Pi that she met a man who showed her some bad things and then pulls out the cybernetic eye that she got from the one-eyed nomad group. Piani then says that maybe together they can try and figure out what to do. Pi says that they have been talking to a contact on Cabral about MES and that Piani may be able to help them out as a human. Piani then warns Pi that the crew are going to want to know more information but that if they want to harm Pi, they’ll have to go through her first.

Hard Choices
The scene cuts back to Higgins’ apartment room. The sun is setting and the fires of the many industrial buildings in the distance are casting a red hue onto Higgins’ face. Higgins is telling Prosper another story. This time he is explaining a time where his god once made him go across the universe in order to hunt down a man and by the time he got to him, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to appease his god and pull the trigger, or spare the man’s life. It was at that moment he thought to himself that he could go through his whole life trying to appease his god, or he could go his whole life making his own choices. He then decided to not kill the man and from that moment on, he left all religion behind. Higgins then turns to Prosper and says that if he’s willing to make his own choices, then they won’t kill him, but that he’ll have to change some things if he wants to remain a member of the crew. Higgins then turns to Mr. Sicarian and asks if everything is good. Mr. Sicarian tells him that he thinks there is still a chance that Pi orders Prosper to kill one of them. Prosper then explains that he thinks Pi thinks that the crew are their property and that Pi wouldn’t give the order to hurt them, and even if they did, Prosper doesn’t know for certain what he would do. Higgins gives Prosper his audio/video recording device that he’s been using for the past couple of months for the TV show and says that they will periodically check up on what Prosper has been saying or doing in order to make sure that he does not step out of bounds. Higgins asks Mr. Sicarian if that’ll work and Mr. Sicarian says yes, but then asks what they are going to do about Pi. Prosper says that one of their options leads them to Cabral where he may resolve some of his questions regarding his faith and that Piani and Mr. Sicarian may be able to find some of what they are looking for as well.

Prosper leaves the room, but before Mr. Sicarian leaves, he puts his hand on Higgins’ shoulder and says that they will be putting themselves in a dangerous situation going to Cabral, the home-world of Prosper’s fanatic organization. Higgins says to Mr. Sicarian not to worry and that he had just made up those stories to Prosper and that if Prosper decides to something fishy, to just shoot him. Mr. Sicarian tells Higgins that he liked the idea with the audio/video and that he is looking forward to seeing how things turn out in the future.

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