"Sir, Miss Asakura is here to see you."
Malcolm looked up from the paperwork on his desk and nodded. "Thank you Alice. Show her in." HIs secretary nodded and moved out of the way, allowing Ryoko to step into the Mayors office. Standing as she entered, Malcom studied the woman. Her usual friendly cheerfulness was gone, replaced by clear unease at the situation. It seemed that the collection of reporters that had gathered outside were good for something. "Miss Asakura, welcome. I believe you remember Commander Hayes?" Despite herself, Ryoko paled slightly as she nodded politely to the other woman. For her part, Lisa merely nodded back, her expression professionally blank. "And allow me to introduce Sheriff Katherine Roberts."
Holding out her hand, the vixen bared her teeth in a rather unnerving smile. "Good morning," she said.
"Sheriff," Ryoko replied, using the handshake as an excuse to look away from Lisa. "Thank you for agreeing to see me Mayor," she continued, turning back towards the only man in the room.
"It would have been sooner, but there were matters that needed tending to first," Malcolm replied. "Please, have a seat. Would you care for any refreshments?"
She shook her head slightly. "No, that's quite alright, thank you."
Smiling, he looked over at Lisa. "Commander? Sheriff?" Both women shook their heads as well, and he shrugged slightly. "Well then, perhaps we should just get to business then." Smile fading, he placed a hand on a folder sitting on his desk. "These are the preliminary reports from the Milita and Sheriff's office on yesterdays incident. From your pilots reckless flying when you originally docked, all the way to the Professor and Miss Glears processing." Reaching under his desk, he revealed a second, much larger folder. "And this is the Professors file on his previous actions on Ganymede. The time he modified the Serenity interwave beacon into a translation field that left everyone speaking a language they didn't actually understand. Meddling in the production of the a new colony dome, somehow turning it into a Klein bottle. And of course, there's the Cucco Incident," he said, shivering slightly at the memory.
Ryoko winced slightly as each example was listed, shrinking in on herself. Malcolm actually felt slightly sorry for her. It wasn't easy having your mistakes waved in your face, after all. "I admit the Professor isn't perfect," she said after a moment. "I've never denied that. But it's the price of his genius, and if you're going to bring up all his mistakes without discussing the ways he has benefited Fenspace, you're doing him a considerable disservice."
To her surprise, the mayor didn't seem to argue. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and considered her for a moment. "Off the top of my head," he said at last, "the translator technology used by every air traffic control network in space. Handwavium sensors, at least six strains of handwavium I can think of, next generation lie detector technology, automated manufacturing I'm pretty sure he had something to do with Solid Air..." he shrugged. "I could go on listing things for quite a while. I'm sure wikipedia has quite a list."
"There's no question about it," Lisa agreed, almost reluctantly. "He's played a vital role in Fenspace's existence and survival. Without him, it's all too possible that the 'wave simply wouldn't have been enough to sustain us."
"But in the end," the Sheriff continued, "that doesn't mean a damn thing." Ryoko twitched, and the vixen bared her teeth again. "Fenspace isn't just a band of thugs Miss Asakura. We're a society, and most of us tend to believe in Justice. The fact that someone can invent technological wonders doesn't excuse them when their instability leads to people being hurt or killed."
Before Ryoko could argue or protest, the mayor took over. It wasn't fair really, tag teaming the woman like this, but they'd agreed that keeping her off-balance was the best way of countering her devotion to the Professor, hopefully to the point she would be willing to consider their proposal. "We're not talking about simply throwing him out the airlock, or even locking him up. Everyone here is well aware of the Professors... nature, for lack of a better word. We know that the longer he's awake, the more... inspired his mind becomes."
"His increasingly inability to think of anything besides his experiments," Lisa noted.
"He has the potential to be a danger to people," Kate said. "But at the same time, he also has the potential to do them so much good. Captain Wood was nearly killed because of the former, because he stood between an unstable Professor and innocent people his mind could only see as experiments. But at the same time," she continued, eyes gleaming, "when he realized someone was dying, he ran to help him, completely failing to notice the guns that were aimed at him, and administered an emergency biomod. Captain Wood is alive because of his quick thinking."
Coughing politely, the mayor drew Ryoko's attention back to him. "When he wakes up from the drug induced sleep the medics put him in, I intend to have a psychiatric evaluation performed. I expect that its findings will be more or less similar to what we've determined ourselves, just in more technobabbley terms," he added with a faint smile, earning a faint snort of amusement from Lisa and a raised eyebrow from Kate. Even Ryoko, despite the situation, couldn't quite suppress a smile of her own.
Expression turning serious again, he clasped his hands in front of him and leaned forward, looking Ryoko in the eye. "The Professor needs to face the consequences of his actions. It's my responsibility as the Mayor of Serenity Valley to see that justice is served. But at the same time, it's my responsibility to help him, to ensure this doesn't happen again."
Ryoko's eyes narrowed, anger flashing in them suddenly. "You can't 'cure' him," she growled.
"Of course not," Malcolm said, cutting off her rant before it could start. "Just because he doesn't think like other people doesn't mean there's something 'wrong' with him. But he still needs to be able to function without endangering others."
Kate leaned forward, the movement drawing the androids attention. "Which is what you and your sisters have been trying to do for years," she observed. Ryoko raised an eyebrow, but Kate gave her a gentle smile that was shockingly different to her earlier predator animal smiles. "It's what you do for your loved ones," she pointed out.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Ryoko sighed. "We should have stopped this," she admitted. "We were supposed to look after him, but we got careless. We just assumed..." Opening her eyes, she waved a hand at the window behind Malcolm, and the city outside. "We just assumed," she repeated.
"And now we need to do what we can to fix it," Malcolm said. "Can I count on your help?"
Eyes narrowing, the woman leaned forward. "I'm not going to just jump in blindly," she told him. "But I'll try and keep an open mind."
Malcolm looked up from the paperwork on his desk and nodded. "Thank you Alice. Show her in." HIs secretary nodded and moved out of the way, allowing Ryoko to step into the Mayors office. Standing as she entered, Malcom studied the woman. Her usual friendly cheerfulness was gone, replaced by clear unease at the situation. It seemed that the collection of reporters that had gathered outside were good for something. "Miss Asakura, welcome. I believe you remember Commander Hayes?" Despite herself, Ryoko paled slightly as she nodded politely to the other woman. For her part, Lisa merely nodded back, her expression professionally blank. "And allow me to introduce Sheriff Katherine Roberts."
Holding out her hand, the vixen bared her teeth in a rather unnerving smile. "Good morning," she said.
"Sheriff," Ryoko replied, using the handshake as an excuse to look away from Lisa. "Thank you for agreeing to see me Mayor," she continued, turning back towards the only man in the room.
"It would have been sooner, but there were matters that needed tending to first," Malcolm replied. "Please, have a seat. Would you care for any refreshments?"
She shook her head slightly. "No, that's quite alright, thank you."
Smiling, he looked over at Lisa. "Commander? Sheriff?" Both women shook their heads as well, and he shrugged slightly. "Well then, perhaps we should just get to business then." Smile fading, he placed a hand on a folder sitting on his desk. "These are the preliminary reports from the Milita and Sheriff's office on yesterdays incident. From your pilots reckless flying when you originally docked, all the way to the Professor and Miss Glears processing." Reaching under his desk, he revealed a second, much larger folder. "And this is the Professors file on his previous actions on Ganymede. The time he modified the Serenity interwave beacon into a translation field that left everyone speaking a language they didn't actually understand. Meddling in the production of the a new colony dome, somehow turning it into a Klein bottle. And of course, there's the Cucco Incident," he said, shivering slightly at the memory.
Ryoko winced slightly as each example was listed, shrinking in on herself. Malcolm actually felt slightly sorry for her. It wasn't easy having your mistakes waved in your face, after all. "I admit the Professor isn't perfect," she said after a moment. "I've never denied that. But it's the price of his genius, and if you're going to bring up all his mistakes without discussing the ways he has benefited Fenspace, you're doing him a considerable disservice."
To her surprise, the mayor didn't seem to argue. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and considered her for a moment. "Off the top of my head," he said at last, "the translator technology used by every air traffic control network in space. Handwavium sensors, at least six strains of handwavium I can think of, next generation lie detector technology, automated manufacturing I'm pretty sure he had something to do with Solid Air..." he shrugged. "I could go on listing things for quite a while. I'm sure wikipedia has quite a list."
"There's no question about it," Lisa agreed, almost reluctantly. "He's played a vital role in Fenspace's existence and survival. Without him, it's all too possible that the 'wave simply wouldn't have been enough to sustain us."
"But in the end," the Sheriff continued, "that doesn't mean a damn thing." Ryoko twitched, and the vixen bared her teeth again. "Fenspace isn't just a band of thugs Miss Asakura. We're a society, and most of us tend to believe in Justice. The fact that someone can invent technological wonders doesn't excuse them when their instability leads to people being hurt or killed."
Before Ryoko could argue or protest, the mayor took over. It wasn't fair really, tag teaming the woman like this, but they'd agreed that keeping her off-balance was the best way of countering her devotion to the Professor, hopefully to the point she would be willing to consider their proposal. "We're not talking about simply throwing him out the airlock, or even locking him up. Everyone here is well aware of the Professors... nature, for lack of a better word. We know that the longer he's awake, the more... inspired his mind becomes."
"His increasingly inability to think of anything besides his experiments," Lisa noted.
"He has the potential to be a danger to people," Kate said. "But at the same time, he also has the potential to do them so much good. Captain Wood was nearly killed because of the former, because he stood between an unstable Professor and innocent people his mind could only see as experiments. But at the same time," she continued, eyes gleaming, "when he realized someone was dying, he ran to help him, completely failing to notice the guns that were aimed at him, and administered an emergency biomod. Captain Wood is alive because of his quick thinking."
Coughing politely, the mayor drew Ryoko's attention back to him. "When he wakes up from the drug induced sleep the medics put him in, I intend to have a psychiatric evaluation performed. I expect that its findings will be more or less similar to what we've determined ourselves, just in more technobabbley terms," he added with a faint smile, earning a faint snort of amusement from Lisa and a raised eyebrow from Kate. Even Ryoko, despite the situation, couldn't quite suppress a smile of her own.
Expression turning serious again, he clasped his hands in front of him and leaned forward, looking Ryoko in the eye. "The Professor needs to face the consequences of his actions. It's my responsibility as the Mayor of Serenity Valley to see that justice is served. But at the same time, it's my responsibility to help him, to ensure this doesn't happen again."
Ryoko's eyes narrowed, anger flashing in them suddenly. "You can't 'cure' him," she growled.
"Of course not," Malcolm said, cutting off her rant before it could start. "Just because he doesn't think like other people doesn't mean there's something 'wrong' with him. But he still needs to be able to function without endangering others."
Kate leaned forward, the movement drawing the androids attention. "Which is what you and your sisters have been trying to do for years," she observed. Ryoko raised an eyebrow, but Kate gave her a gentle smile that was shockingly different to her earlier predator animal smiles. "It's what you do for your loved ones," she pointed out.
Closing her eyes for a moment, Ryoko sighed. "We should have stopped this," she admitted. "We were supposed to look after him, but we got careless. We just assumed..." Opening her eyes, she waved a hand at the window behind Malcolm, and the city outside. "We just assumed," she repeated.
"And now we need to do what we can to fix it," Malcolm said. "Can I count on your help?"
Eyes narrowing, the woman leaned forward. "I'm not going to just jump in blindly," she told him. "But I'll try and keep an open mind."