Luke's relief thins into contemplation, folding his arms as he takes that in. After a moment, he nods.
"I understand," he says. "I didn't feel like I had a choice, when it came down to it. Bill was either going to find another way to do it without me and hurt more people, or simply get his view that there's something outside himself that has the power to get him out of this reinforced."
There's a twisting in his gut at the knowledge that he's disappointed everyone, again. But that's the price maybe he has to pay. It's not about him.
"I'm sorry that it happened, but I don't know that I'd change my own actions in this. If that means demotion, so be it. Maybe I'll be more use to Bill as an example than a warden."
"Passenger casualties were...limited." Although not nonexistent, even excluding Luke himself.
"And I appreciate your concern for your inmate. But I also feel as though there must be consequences. Your job as a warden includes taking some initiative to circumvent situations like this, where you are cornered into such an impossible choice between your responsibilities to Mister Cipher and the welfare of the rest of the ship - let alone the world he inflicted us on, which I do not think will recover from his visit for many years."
The admiral clasps his hands behind his back.
"I gave him a choice, so I will give you one as well. Your universe is already the center of a considerable tangle, and I am disinclined to exert myself to provide you a miracle after this debacle. You have lost your chance to receive a deal from me. However, in recognition of your attempts to mitigate the damage, I will not confine you to the ship as an inmate. Your choice is this: you may go home alive and free, with no debts and no further contact from me. Or, if you wish to stay and see out your task, given the rapport you have built, you may remain as Mister Cipher's warden, for no deal. Would you like time to consider?"
His heart sinks at the news about the world, and the damage done--he'd tried to mitigate it, he had, but he'd known even then it wouldn't be enough.
But he looks up sharply at the offer, brow furrowed. The loss of his deal is nothing--he'd lost it the moment he'd met Kylo Ren, and known that no matter what he learned, his future was one in which no knowledge would avert disaster. But he's surprised to be asked if he wants to stay, after all that.
"No," he says quickly. He doesn't need time. He needs to ask one question. "I'm not abandoning him. If... you still think there's some chance he's learned something?"
"I'm not going to abandon him now," Luke says, shaking his head. He doesn't know if he knows what to do next, but he knows that, given the chance, he can't walk out on Bill now. "If I let you send me home, it's just another super-powered entity taking the choice from him, isn't it?"
"If you choose to go home, Mister Cipher will be confronted with the fact that his actions have had consequences for him. He has no particular right to make choices about your life," the Admiral points out.
"If you choose to remain, I will allow it. Perhaps your solidarity with him will have some benefit for your partnership, as you hoped. But do endeavor to remember that he is not the sole victim of powerful entities in his life, hm?"
He doesn't chuckle, but he sounds slightly amused, the first lightening of his somber tone in their conversation; the angle of the hat dips slightly, as if in a nod, and the glare of the light pours over it.
For a few seconds, all Luke can see is white. Then the ache of the death toll settles into his muscles, and he blinks awake in the infirmary. The previous conversation has gone a little hazy, as though he were waking from a genuine dream, but Luke certainly remembers the gist of it. When he checks his item, Bill still registers on it: currently alive, in the decks below.
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neverjoinyou) wrote2026-04-05 02:51 pm![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lastvoyages IC Inbox
no subject
Which is also worth something.
"Ordinarily, a warden who cooperated in a plot that caused so much damage to the barge - among other consequences - would be demoted."
no subject
"I understand," he says. "I didn't feel like I had a choice, when it came down to it. Bill was either going to find another way to do it without me and hurt more people, or simply get his view that there's something outside himself that has the power to get him out of this reinforced."
There's a twisting in his gut at the knowledge that he's disappointed everyone, again. But that's the price maybe he has to pay. It's not about him.
"I'm sorry that it happened, but I don't know that I'd change my own actions in this. If that means demotion, so be it. Maybe I'll be more use to Bill as an example than a warden."
no subject
"And I appreciate your concern for your inmate. But I also feel as though there must be consequences. Your job as a warden includes taking some initiative to circumvent situations like this, where you are cornered into such an impossible choice between your responsibilities to Mister Cipher and the welfare of the rest of the ship - let alone the world he inflicted us on, which I do not think will recover from his visit for many years."
The admiral clasps his hands behind his back.
"I gave him a choice, so I will give you one as well. Your universe is already the center of a considerable tangle, and I am disinclined to exert myself to provide you a miracle after this debacle. You have lost your chance to receive a deal from me. However, in recognition of your attempts to mitigate the damage, I will not confine you to the ship as an inmate. Your choice is this: you may go home alive and free, with no debts and no further contact from me. Or, if you wish to stay and see out your task, given the rapport you have built, you may remain as Mister Cipher's warden, for no deal. Would you like time to consider?"
no subject
But he looks up sharply at the offer, brow furrowed. The loss of his deal is nothing--he'd lost it the moment he'd met Kylo Ren, and known that no matter what he learned, his future was one in which no knowledge would avert disaster. But he's surprised to be asked if he wants to stay, after all that.
"No," he says quickly. He doesn't need time. He needs to ask one question. "I'm not abandoning him. If... you still think there's some chance he's learned something?"
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But it is a chance.
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"If you choose to remain, I will allow it. Perhaps your solidarity with him will have some benefit for your partnership, as you hoped. But do endeavor to remember that he is not the sole victim of powerful entities in his life, hm?"
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"I'm trying to get him out of thinking himself the victim at all," he says. Admiral interference notwithstanding.
no subject
He doesn't chuckle, but he sounds slightly amused, the first lightening of his somber tone in their conversation; the angle of the hat dips slightly, as if in a nod, and the glare of the light pours over it.
For a few seconds, all Luke can see is white. Then the ache of the death toll settles into his muscles, and he blinks awake in the infirmary. The previous conversation has gone a little hazy, as though he were waking from a genuine dream, but Luke certainly remembers the gist of it. When he checks his item, Bill still registers on it: currently alive, in the decks below.