Season 1 Episode 3 - Sand and Sandwiches

As twangy fiddles play in the background, the crew is heading to Ariel to see Theodore Thompson to follow the clue given to them by Anton.

Tony is making stew. Steam rises from the pot.

Brah is in the captain’s chair, taking huge bong rips. Cheng Abram informs Brah that there is a beeping coming from the console. Brah tells him to ignore it, and is very convincing. Cheng decides to ignore it.

The camera pans back to the engine room where we find Cain cleaning the engine room. He checks on the beeping that was mentioned by Cheng. The camera pans behind a panel where we see scratched into the metal “Corvus was here”.

Cut to Blake. In his room, he is sitting at a tiny table, doing paperwork. He looks to be ‘connecting dots’ of the mystery put forth by Sev. On the wall is an old-style cork board with red string. In the upper left corner is a picture of Sev. Tony pops in the door to inform him that dinner will be ready in ten minutes. He is making soup.

We follow Tony down the hall to Zigg’s room. Zigg is practicing hand to hand combat by himself with a pillowcase. He seems to be winning. The echoes of bong rips can be heard from down the hall. Zigg seems to be embarrassed from being caught in his activities and tries to pretend to be folding laundry.

We follow Tony to Dandy’s room where she is doing actual gardening. There is religious significance in her actions for anyone familiar with the Gardener order. She accidentally snips the fabric of her fine green gloves. She speaks to the plant as if it were Sev: “Why would you choose me for this crazy adventure?”

Tony knocks on the door and asks Dandy for a favor: “Can I get some of that parsley?” She replies affirmatively. As Tony leaves, she looks back at the plant she was talking to. It is parsley. She cuts off a sprig of ‘Sev.’ Before Tony leaves, he asks Dandy why everyone is still here if they can disappear with the fake identities. She replies, “This is where I’m disappearing to.”

Everyone is now gathered in the mess hall. Tony serves the stew. It is not great, there is not enough salt and too much of ‘something else’.

Sersha announces the plan to go to Ariel, get the evidence from Theodore Thompson, and leave. There is contention about Sesha being violent. She explains she intends to knock on his door and ask for the evidence politely.

Cain gets on the cortex with Sersha. He is using lots of big words, and she doesn’t seem to follow. Once the actual files come up, she begins to explain. The deli where Anton worked was seized in the raid. He owned the deli at that point and it was taken as a part of the charges. According to Anton, there wasn’t even any human trafficking. According to Sev’s files, the cartel wasn’t into human trafficking, only drugs and counterfeit medicines.

They land in Itzin, a mid-sized city on Ariel. According to Sev’s files, he was only there to gather evidence of the cartel’s drug activities. Putting his story together with Anton’s, the cartel didn’t actually do any human trafficking. There was a local law enforcement officer that stumbled into the cartel’s activity which resulted in a raid of their facility. Before Sev could get to the local cops, the Feds were already there, covering up whatever was actually happening. Anton, Rhoda, and Jesse were rounded up and later charged with human trafficking.

The crew exits the ship. As Brah Crunkenstien steps off, he breathes deep and exclaims, “I’ve been here before.”

Flashback to summerfair. Anton recognizes Brah. He never gave Brah his last paycheck from when he worked at the Deli. Brah is completely confused.

Sersha challenges Brah who claims that he must have delivered pizza here. Cain brings up a cortex feed of Brah’s social media feed from the time. He worked at the Deli for over a year. One day he got on a spaceship when trying to deliver a sandwich. He eventually got dropped off on  another planet and fell ass-backwards into a different delivery job.

It turns out Brah also knows Theodore Thompson, who lives to make sandwiches for people.

Sersha orders a sUBERu which is a vehicle pod that comes on a multi-rail. It is an eight passenger van that can interface with the rail system. Cain tries to use one of his cards from his ‘deck’ but it doesn’t work. Brah tries blowing smoke into the slot which doesn’t work. Dandy pulls Brah’s license out of his pocket and scans it, which works. The camera zooms in, and we find out that Brah has a five-star rating as a driver. It is his license photo from when he lived on Ariel.

The vehicle zips onto the multi-rail. They are in the vehicle for a while talking about vampires when the dash begins to beep. Brah pulls off the platform and parks at a ‘kwik trip’. Blake proceeds to the meat section where he picks out a variety of fake and real meats. Dandy looks for produce. There is a montage of Dandy testing fruits and vegetables. She sees someone lick the outside of a fruit, to which she has a negative reaction. She squeezes a rotten peach and turns her head in disgust. Turning her head away from the peach, her eye catches the perfect pineapple.

Brah is in the cooler smoking with employees. He informs them he is looking for sandwich stuff. An employee hands him something from the cooler and says it is on the house.

Zigg is standing in the bakery section eating doughnuts. He is confronted by an employee. He attempts to flee. The employee attempts to tackle Zigg. Sersha trips zigg and explains to the employee that Zigg is a ‘special needs’ individual and all the doughnuts will be paid for.

Cain is in the cleaning products aisle. He is stocking up on all the essentials.

When everyone is back at the vehicle, Brah arrives dressed as an employee of the store.

Quick cut on the multirail to the door of an apartment. Sersha knocks on the door. An elderly black man greets them warmly: “Now what can I do for you fine folks?”

Commercial Break

-Dandy has repaired her gloves over the commercial break.

Sersha and the crew explain to Theo that they are looking for some evidence left with him by Anton almost two years ago. He confirms that he does know about the evidence, but first, it looks like they brought some sandwich makings.

Theo is making sandwiches. There is also a pot on the stove heating something up. Tony is just staring into the pot and smelling it. He is silently exclaiming and looking from the pot to Theo and back again.

Brah tries to get theo to hit a joint. He takes it from Brah, but declines to smoke it. Sersha grabs the joint and throws it in the sink and turns on the faucet.

Theo has made a sandwich for everyone and they are near-perfect for whatever the character likes. He talks about Nellie and her famous real-beef stew they used to serve at the deli.

They ask theo about the data stick and the ledger. He gives them the data stick which he had hidden in an air vent. He explains that the ledger was in the Deli when they seized everything in there.

Sersha suggests that if the contents of the deli were seized in a federal investigation, the items should still be in an alliance storage facility. They would just need to find out where it is.

The entire planet is covered in urban and suburban sprawl. The area they are in right now is mostly four-ish story apartment buildings. It is considered a middle class to upper middle class area.

Before they leave, Theodore asks them for a favor. There was a picture of Theo, Nellie, and Anton from when he had just gotten hired at seventeen years old. He would appreciate it if the crew would retrieve the picture for him. It isn’t worth anything, but it has a great deal of personal value.

Sersha takes Brah aside. She wants him to stay with Theo in order to make sure he doesn’t call the cops. She asks Zigg to stay as well since Brah apparently wants to go to work. Theo overhears the entire exchange and is understanding of the suspicion. He is more excited to have company and makes his intention known to take them to a saxamaphone show by a honest to god doctor of saxamaphoning. Dandy makes it known that her intention is to stay with the boys.

Sersha goes with Blake and Cain back to the ship. They plug the data stick into an air gapped system. Cain breaks the encryption. There is a video with the cartel and a ‘Man in a Suit’. The man in the suit explains to the cartel that his ‘partner’ has taken care of Alliance scrutiny. They talk about shipments of assets and how much effort should be put into concealing them. They also talk about the moral implications of sending ‘medicine that will not work’. Sersha explains that the video is four years old and that all the people involved are in prison. Except the ‘man in a suit’.

Cain has some difficulty looking for where the evidence was put and distracts himself with his cleaning supplies.

Cut to Theo and the rest of the crew in a Jazz Bar. Theo is on a bar stool holding a drink and jamming out to the saxamaphone. One of the artist’s albums is called “Blues Clues”. Theo would make ‘pastromity’ while listening to track six, “Pastromity Bomity Fever Love.”

Dandy is talking to one of the other patrons (Frederick) about the Gardener Order. He is open to the idea of studying the teachings of the order. Dandy orders an “herbed spirit’ and is served gin. He offers to crush up some parsley, which is a metaphor for Sev.

Brah is outside having a completely legal herb break. He is confronted by a woman. “What are you doing back here?” He remembers her name is Sheila. She claims he left her with his ‘hot stash’ when he left. He apparently owes her five hundred dollerydoos. He tries to get her to take a hit off his joint, but she refuses. She demands that he bring the cash to her place in the next two days or she will call the cops.

-Cut to commercial

Cain and Blake find the location of the evidence lockup. It is a large facility, five thousand square feet. There are four people in the rotation for the next few days:

Chad: tried to be a cop

Jenny: dated Chad

Rocket: Burnout, but decent at the job

Froggy: older man with financial trouble

Chad and Jenny are currently on shift, Rocket and Froggy will be coming on in about six hours.

As everyone is preparing to leave for the operation, Cain receives a popup. “Lt. Sand has been alerted to your presence on Ariel. Approximately 46 hr until arrival. Be aware of local Feds, but local police are not being told, which is not normal procedure. ~Threadmaster”

Sersha asks Cain to verify that local police are not being alerted to our presence. He confirms it. She explains that this is very much against protocol, which points toward the feds trying to keep this quiet.

The crew has a discussion of how to get the needed items out of the lockup. It is brought up that these security guards are low-skill labor who are simply a component of the security of the building.

Looking into Froggy, he is absolutely terrible with money. He doesn’t have much debt, but he is living paycheck to paycheck.

Sersha explains that if the crew can get the items out without anyone knowing, the Alliance wouldn’t know for years, likely. And even if they did, it would be seen as an administrative error.

It is decided that Dandy should approach Froggy to convince him to allow the crew into the building.

The normal security procedures are explained.

Dandy approaches Froggy at the local bar. She offers him empathy. He confuses this offer of empathy for a sexual advance. He is set straight when she pulls out the scripture of the Gardeners. Dandy convinces him wholeheartedly to embrace the Gardener faith. He pleads for a way to make a change. Dandy hints that she might just have a way. -Cut

Brah knocks on the security door and claims to be looking for a lighter. Rocket calls Froggy and asks if its OK to take a break. He proceeds to go smoke with Brah. They chill by the dumpster.

Cut to Zigg. His communication device buzzes. Threadmaster is requesting an additional item from the warehouse. “Imperative for Sev’s ongoing plan, please retrieve item 3476 from shelf 67. Zigg sneaks away from Sersha under false pretenses.

Cut to Dandy and Blake standing by a brick wall. Froggy opens a nearby door. He questions the presence of Blake. Dandy explains he is a ‘big time crime boss trying to reform his ways’. He shakes Blake’s hand and welcomes him to the fold.

Blake and Dandy enter the warehouse and look for the items. They find the photograph. It takes them some time. Froggy is getting nervous about Rocket getting back.

While they are looking through the items from the deli, they do not notice Zigg dropping down a zip line from one of the skylights. He climbs around on shelves for a while before finding a small wooden box. He goes back up the rope and disappears.

Zigg, upon returning to the van, attempts to grab Sersha’s ass. He receives a broken hand and a bloody nose.

Cut to Brah and Rocket. While they are smoking, Sheila shows up with two police officers named Tony. He attempts to distract them with an outlandish lie. He runs from the cops and gets away. Walking backwards in an ally, he bumps into Lt. Sand, who takes him into custody.

Commercial Break

Cain tracks the vehicle that they took Brah in.

As Froggy leads Dandy and Blake back out the door, he hugs them both and conveys that he will be heading to the local ‘garden’ tomorrow to dedicate himself to the order. He is just glad to be ‘part of something bigger than himself’. Blake gives him some money on a stick. Froggy says he is going to donate all the money to the local gardeners tomorrow. Froggy checks in with Rocket, who confirms everything is normal.

Cain tracks the feds and local police. Sand is back out looking for the rest of them. Brah is questioned for a while with no results. The interrogator gets a ping on his phone and leaves the room. Threadmaster speaks through the speakers and instructs him to leave to meet his friends. Brah barely makes it out.

Threadmaster sends Zigg a text to tell Sersha where to go. Cain sees the entire exchange and sends the same instructions to Sersha in order to conceal the exchange.

Cain plants information on the cortex that Lt. Sand is being impersonated by someone who has gone to the lengths of having facial reconstruction surgery, and she is currently on Ariel.

The crew heads back to Theodore’s place and presents him with the picture. He flips it over and shows everyone the back of the photo. He reveals that Nellie was a follower of the Gardeners and she wrote a poem on the back of the photo with a variety of plant metaphors. Before everyone leaves, he hands them a bag of personalized sandwiches complete with short notes about how much each of the crew means to him.

Cut to the ship. Sersha is frantic about taking the ship into space. She is flustered. It turns out the ship is landlocked by the Alliance docking systems. It is noticed that the entire spaceport is very quiet. Cain finds out that the entire space port is on lockdown. It is discussed that Sand does not know what ship the crew is on. She also does not know about the fake identities. She is, however, looking for everyone but Tony.

The crew creates a false report to indicate that the crew has been seen at the nearest larger space port. Lt. Sand pulls up to the spaceport and gets out. She is joined by Jazz, who the crew met in the Pilot episode. She does some tapping on a tablet and says something to Sand. Sand gets visibly angry. The feds start to get back in their vehicles. Jazz taps a bit on her tablet. She looks directly at the crew’s ship, winks, and gets in the vehicle. At the same time, a message from Threadmaster shows up on Cain’s feed: “Good work guys.”

After a few hours, the Administrative Hold is lifted and the Crew is able to leave Ariel.

As the credits roll, a small cut scene of each crewmember opening their sandwich.

End Credits Music

After Credits Scene:

In Zigg’s quarters. The camera only sees a fraction of the room. Vigorous exercise can be heard. Short flashes of naked limbs and pillowcases enter the frame momentarily. There is a small wooden box in the bottom of the frame. The box begins to vibrate. Cut to black.