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Only once Cleve and Xiao have stepped outside of the hospital does the latter remove his surgical mask and gloves. Although Xiao offered his personal explanations, Cleve remains a bit uncomfortable about the matter. Inside the building, only healthcare professionals actively treating patients employed such protective equipment, not any guests, as far as Cleve could see. Still, it’s enough to make him second guess himself. Should I have been wearing a mask in there? Am I going to get someone sick and kill them?
Trying to put that out of mind and focus on the current mission, Cleve asks Xiao, “So what do you think about these rangers?”
“It’s a mixed bag,” Xiao says. “They provide a lot of services. They’re the only inland explorers we have. They’re the ones investigating a lot of new flora and fauna. They’re the ones who know the land and its topography the best. And they sometimes bring back interesting finds, like new strains of plants that our farms here can try to grow.”
“Do they bring that back to the council?” Cleve asks, still trying to sort out the role of the rangers in this society.
“Yes, generally speaking. And the council does support them. One, the council provides a certain amount of tacit reputational support, which lets them recruit among the populace. But also, two, weapons, equipment, and income. But mind you, if the council were to pull monetary support, well, if anyone could survive just off the land, it would be the rangers.
“So Gupta’s actions seem sort of roguish, based on your—”
Xiao snorts. “‘Sort of roguish’ is a very good euphemism for what she did. I believe ‘mad scientist’ is how we would refer to her.”
“I meant compared to the way that rangers normally operate.”
“Yes,” Xiao confirms. “In general, we do not task the rangers with specific missions. When we needed to send Marina and her support to Data Haven, that was a specific mission we asked them to do. And because she knew a ranger, it was a bit easier and smoother to arrange that. They don’t take direction very well, but they still provide enough services that it’s been a net positive for our society in my opinion. They do not try to enforce any local laws. They’re not a police force, and they don’t tend to get involved in any affairs in town. They do have a certain spooky reputation, I’ll admit. If you’re out in the wilderness, every now and then you’ll feel like you’re being watched, and if you’re really lucky, you might see a ranger looking out for you. But then you’ll swear that you see another ranger on your opposite side even though they don’t normally travel in pairs.” Xiao shrugs. “That’s just a story that people tell each other.”
“Right,” Cleve says, adding under his breath, “It’s probably craws watching you.” The rangers sound like spooky mercenaries, but Cleve has seen one dead and another gone crazy. Briar beasts and craws have managed to take them down, so he’s not impressed.
“Anyway,” Xiao continues, “the ranger that showed up the other night likely somehow got wind of the fact that briar beasts were on the loose in town. That’s not surprising, since it was causing a lot of chaos.”
Ranger headquarters is technically within the Garden of Chiron, but the building abuts wild jungle, out beyond the last of the miasma-dispersing windmills that power the settlement’s electronics. The walls and roof tiles are shelftop of a bluish-brown hue that fades into the trunks of the surrounding shroom trees and the shadows cast down by their canopy. The building would be hard to spot, were it not for the flag fluttering above it. It does not bear the seal of the Stepdaughters of Chiron with the “We adapt,” motto that appears on the money. Rather, it looks like a generic view of the Monsoon Jungle, a swirl of leafy and viney greens, blues, and reds. It’s hard to pick out many individual details, but close examination reveals rangers hidden throughout.
Xiao raps out a very distinctive knock against the door, which slides open in response, revealing a small foyer. It is occupied by a single fully equipped ranger, no different in appearance than the one who showed up at Dr. Gupta’s lab. In an artificially modulated voice, they inquire, “What can I help you with?” Looking past Xiao, they comment, “You’re Cleve, I believe I’ve heard?”
Cleve straightens up to his full six-foot-two putting him almost half a foot taller than the ranger. “Yes, I’m Datajack Prime Cleveland,” he says officially, establishing his authority right from the get-go.
The ranger echoes this correction in a tone of voice that suggests a raised eyebrow. “I’ll correct our records,” they say, and then ask, “Is your… associate healing well?”
“I believe so. He’s been through a lot. But the doctors at the hospital seem to be good.”
“That’s good. Is there something you need?”
Cleve glances over at Xiao, since he’s the one who arranged for this meeting. The mariner clears his throat. “Ah, yes,, I wanted to bring him to get you rangers connected up with Datajack Prime Cleveland—”
“You can just call me Cleve,” he tells Xiao.
“—so that you can sort out any potential differences that may have come up after the traumatic events of a few nights ago. I believe there may have been some miscommunication in the aftermath. In addition, we need Data Haven and the Stepdaughters of Chiron—i.e. the rangers—to coordinate a tactical response to the Morgan Industries army that is approaching. I’m sure you’ve heard that news by now.”
“I’ll just shoot straight here,” Cleve says. “Do we have unfinished business with the rangers regarding my colleague and whatever Dr. Gupta was attempting to do?” The ranger does not immediately speak into the pause that follows, so Cleve adds, “Are you the one to talk to about this?” He can’t tell whether this is the ranger who stole the sample.
“It doesn’t matter which ranger you talk to,” says the chiton-clad mystery person. “We’ve completed our memorial for Dr. Gupta. Were you hoping to see her grave? I understand she did a wrong to you and your friend.”
“Let me put this more plainly. Should we expect another attack? Do we need to worry about that?”
“Attack from who?” The modulated voice carries notes of perplexment.
“From the rangers. From any ranger.”
“Did a ranger attack you?”
“Was Dr. Gupta acting on behalf of the rangers?” Cleve counters. “Were her actions sanctioned by your group? If we’re going to work together to build a defense for the Stepdaughters of Chiron, it needs to be more consensual.”
“Dr. Gupta left the rangers years ago. We bury her with our honors for her service to the Stepdaughters of Chiron and to this planet. But we are certainly not connected to her research. We neither sanction nor dispute anyone’s actions. None of our active rangers currently nor previously worked in her lab.”
To Cleve, that answer dances unhelpfully around the central issue. “Do any of you have interest in Mr. Thorne specifically?” he asks more bluntly.
“Dr. Gupta did some horrible things to him,” Xiao adds, “because he’s possessed of… peculiar talents.”
“Yes, we’ve heard that your associate Mariah has some interesting abilities. We would be curious to talk to him to understand how he does these things. Some of our number are biologists who would be interested in studying this, certainly. Is that a possibility? Can we work something out? We’d be happy to come to some sort of agreement, offering you what technology we have or…” The ranger pauses in thought, looking Cleve up and down. “We might be able to teach you how to move faster and without being seen through the landscape.”
Although that sounds both cool and useful to Cleve, it’s not practical for the larger scale issues at play. “Cohesion within the Stepdaughters of Chiron is more important. If you’re willing to teach everybody how to do that, that might be really helpful in the upcoming conflict. But really, it all depends. Mr. Thorne is the one who makes the call on this exchange.”
“We can’t teach everyone, but there might be a few people…” The ranger regards Xiao for a moment, and Cleve realizes this isn’t just a matter of protecting a trade secret. There’s also the consideration of who the ranger thinks is capable of learning the knack. “But cohesion, you say… Bureaucratic threats are outside of our area.”
Cleve looks to Xiao for input, as this really is an internal problem and he doesn’t want to step on the council’s toes. He can handle negotiations on the personal level, for him and Mariah, but those on the societal level should really fall to Xiao. The council member takes the cue. “Look, the Stepdaughters of Chiron society is, of course, very grateful for everything that the rangers do to bring in new knowledge and protect people from the dangers of the planet. But the Stepdaughters of Chiron are facing an imminent danger not of the planet and are currently ill equipped to confront that without bringing to bear the full array of capabilities of its citizenry. The rangers have done great work in their independent operations, but in order to defend the Stepdaughters of Chiron as a whole, closer coordination will be required with the council. You know, the people who fund you and your equipment,” Xiao adds, implying that the council could tug on those purse strings. He’s not suggesting that the rangers have to do whatever he tells them, but they do need to start working more within the system. “Our society is growing. We need to work together better. Just like the rangers work as one, we need to work with the rangers as part of that one.”
“Morgan’s coming, and he doesn’t care about your differences,” Cleve says pragmatically.
The rangers are fiercely independent, but Xiao’s sugar-coating works. The spokesperson in the foyer holds up their hand for Cleve and Xiao to wait a moment and then turns to the comm mounted in the wall behind them. “I’m going to bring in some visitors,” they say. A light above cycles from blue to orange, and then the solitary ranger ushers the visitors inside for a productive discussion with a larger group.
When it comes time for the mariners to set off on their blockade of the domes, one ranger will accompany them. The rest will contribute to land-based defensive efforts, escorting any volunteer forces through the Monsoon Jungle to Data Haven, as it’s preferable to stop Morgan’s troops before they endanger that untouched zone of biodiversity. Obviously, there are still a lot of specifics to sort out, and just getting these plans started takes most of that afternoon.
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