What he wants: Ruan’s first ever desire was to live free. This initially included not having to sneak around and kill people, but since then he has learned more about the ‘verse, himself, and his past. He’s realized that maybe his plan needs tweaking.
Ruan’s new plan is: Living well is the best revenge.
While the idea of going to some back water planet, growing plants, and indulging in the occasional snow globe shopping excursion was intriguing, it is missing one key ingredient: Naomi. There is no way Naomi is going to be happy with that lifestyle. She likes core worlds, fancy technology, and expensive toys. So, if Ruan wants the girl (which he does) he’ll need more than a medic’s salary. Plus there are more personal reasons that I’ll go into below.
This means Ruan wants to go back to work. Here’s why and how he plans to do it.
After reviewing the material that Locke provided him, Ruan came up with his new plan which is based on a few things:
- The cost of making him what he is was very very high. It cost the suffering and ultimately the deaths of his immediate family. It also cost his extended family their livelihood.
- There was civilian conspiracy (the Malfi) that cost the lives of others (including Ronnie’s wife). Not to mention, his own memories and identity were taken from him.
- This is what he is best at. When Ruan tries to do other things, he does them well enough, but he is always drawn back into reading people and killing them if he has to.
- He has some definite weaknesses. Making plans to go in and more importantly get out, never go smoothly if there is any complication. This is because he had support in the form of Locke. He needs to learn to work on his own. (So Ruan is going to contact Ronnie and Campbell to see if they will be his mentors.)
What would Ruan do: He wants to be an “information finder”. For a fee, he can get information from a target without being detected. For a considerably higher fee, the target won’t talk again.
Who would Ruan work for:
- Individuals seeking information (like Long Zi Tai).
- Private investigators like Rachel Harris. Ruan particularly liked the missing persons aspect and would like to look for more lost people.
- Captain Windsor’s mysterious Londinium Browncoat pals. They’ve always been helpful and Ruan can tell they have a larger agenda. Maybe they need information.
Who Ruan wouldn’t work for:
- No evil people. The meatballs were good, but he’s not going to work for Niska again.
- No Alliance jobs. For obvious reasons.
- Badger. They probably have irreconcilable differences given all the work he did for Niska.
- The Malfi. What do they need him for? Plus, no guns, which is dumb.
- Certain Tong Families. Some might not like that Ruan killed one of their patriarchs. Others might be okay with it.
In order to make this happen:
Ruan needs cooperation from Windsor. At times Ruan will need transportation to a job and it puts the ship and crew at additional risk (especially if the “extra fee special services” are in play). In return, Windsor would get paid. Ruan would pay the crew too if they got involved somehow.
In addition, Ruan would need to make some additional contacts on his own and through the crew.
- Such as tapping Junior’s and/or pals for help with dirty work (like disposing of a body)
- Making friends with Naomi’s hacker friends
Ruan understands that Naomi might not be interested in him of course. It’s why he provided her with a copy of the material from Locke. He hopes that with full understanding of what he is and why he is the way he is, she might find him more trustworthy.
If that plan fails, Ruan plans to donate generously both in cash and services (if asked) to Silas’ Free the Mudders of Higgins Moon campaign. Silas doesn’t talk about it ever, but he thinks about it all the time. Ruan thinks its a good idea. He might help anyway, even if he does get the girl in the end.
I’ve always felt a person’s journey of self-discovery takes place along the path of the stepping stones of their lowest points. In Ruan’s case, he’s had a pretty short life (that he can remember) and all but one of his low points occurred during this campaign:
- “Coming around” on Ezra and realizing what he was doing, but not who he was. He just wanted to be free.
- Getting shot by Quintus on Persephone. Ruan discovered that not only did he like being free, he really didn’t want to die either. He had also recently discovered he was psychic and it was on that failed mission that Ruan first understood how his two skills were meant to be used together. (And that by using them wrong, he nearly died.)
- Being captured and then discovered by Locke on Persephone. Finally clarifying who Locke was and the nature of their relationship showed Ruan that he was more than just a slave running from his captors. He’d been part of something much more sinister and complex than he’d realized.
- Failing to save Cid at Johnson’s Rock. It solidified a problem that Ruan had been struggling with for a while: being a medic doesn’t feel natural. Not to mention, being psychically connected to your patient when they die is terrible. He’d rather have people die by his hand which is somehow less painful.
