REBEL CONTACT

[interstellarnpcs]

SHEP

GOLD

SILVER

Comments

[oceantier]

[Though her words were questioning, her resolve was actually not unclear whatsoever. In truth, the question had been far more of a statement.]

If you were generating your own, then it wouldn't need to be a secret.

Which means that you're taking it from somewhere else.

[There's a flatness creeping into her voice, and it's dangerous.]

Are you taking any of it from the musicians or the other rescuers?

[interstellarebels]

No.

[Or Silver isn't, at least.]

And you're drawing false conclusions based on limited data. We've got secret identities. What makes you think that we can explain our power sources without compromising that?

[oceantier]

[Even though it's not visible, her fingers tighten at her sides, curling.] There are two reasons there's limited data.

I don't want to be some pawn to you. Some object or tool like the musicians are to the heads of the labels -- and I won't let them become that either.

I don't need an explanation. But I do need to be able to believe neither of you are doing what those two are doing to them.

I need to be able to trust that both of you aren't doing that to them.

[interstellarebels]

What gives you the right to demand proof of innocence when you have no proof of wrongdoing?

[oceantier]

[There's a long pause, quiet. When she speaks, her voice is quiet too -- still resolute, but with so much less of the charged rage running through it.]

Because I've already done it. Lived it.

And because if you didn't need us, you wouldn't have taken all the time to bring us here. If you didn't need us to trust you, you wouldn't have bothered with any of this.

Sometimes trust . . . means sacrifice.

[That last part sounds like she's first putting into words something that's lingered at the back of her mind for some time.]

[interstellarebels]

Okay you lost me, what are you saying you did?

And you'll kindly remember that Shep brought you here, not me.