EPISODE 4: NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY (1)
INTRO
X: Sometimes, you just want things to stay the way they are forever. But you can't. And they won't.
And maybe it's for the best.
It's Girl In Space.
[[SFX: INTRO MUSIC, 1:10]]
PROLOGUE
X, played back over a tape recorder: [[Lower-pitched voice]] … Yeah… the Tyrannosaur doesn't obey any set patterns or park schedules. The essence of chaos.
[[Higher-pitched voice]] I'm still not clear on chaos.
[[Lower-pitched voice]] Oh, it simply deals with, uh, unpredictability in complex systems. The shorthand is the butterfly effect.
...Math is super romantic…
SCENE 1
[[SFX: Enforcer One, Infirmary]]
X: [[Sounds ill/weak, tone is unusually serious]] Day... 10,311 or 12, I'm guessing. Hour unknown.
There's something wrong with Ra.
I haven't seen it for myself, or even been permitted to leave the Enforcer One's infirmary -- but I can feel it.
And before you dismiss that outright as unsubstantiated mumbo-jumbo, or worse, some kind of psychological projection, Ra's condition has been substantiated -- by no less than Captain Miles Chen himself, in a series of increasingly frequent updates.
At first, it didn't sound too concerning -- just a slight increase in solar flare activity. Electromagnetic radiation emissions just a little higher than normal.
But then… Ra began to dim. Visibly. Significantly.
The solar flares became more erratic. Radiation levels left the zone of acceptable stability.
Then -- again, according to Captain Miles Chen -- in light of the lack of Ra's light, the plants in the Cavatica's glasshouse pod began to wilt.
And the on-board atmo, which is hooked up to the hydroponic system in the glasshouse, stopped cycling entirely. And two of the birds in the aviary have died.
And Daisy -- I think I've mentioned her before, but she's the dairy goat -- Daisy is sick.
Apparently, her symptoms are similar to (if milder than) mine -- lethargy, loss of appetite, mild seizures, and headaches.
...I don't know how you can tell if a goat has a headache, but I guess that's just one more reason I'm not a doctor.
[[Momentary frustration/anger breaks through]] These people… their… blockheaded meddling is causing irreparable damage. I don't know why they can't see it. Or why, if they can, they don't seem to care.
[[Composes self]] On the lighter side... apparently, Charlotte has become even more uncooperative, if you can believe it. The Caldwell Enterprises personnel aboard the Cavatica have reported that her aural receptors are malfunctioning, and that she sent two of their engineers to the infirmary -- one with a broken arm, and the other with three broken ribs.
I advised Captain Miles Chen to have someone look into disabling her, but he said they had already tried -- and curiously, she didn't seem to be tied to the ship. They couldn't figure out what was powering her, so they couldn't cut that power.
He did ask me for an explanation of her behavior (which we all know is inexplicable), but I just told him that, to my knowledge, A.I.s can only act within the parameters of their programming, and I had no idea who'd programmed her. (It certainly wasn't me.)
He gave me a funny look, like he still expected some kind of answer, so I told him she was probably just mad that I'd left her locked in the glasshouse when they had kidnapped me. Either that, or someone accidentally called her “Char”, which she totally hates.
...I know… I shouldn't joke. But I don't know what else to do. I've never been good at taking things as seriously as I should. It used to drive my parents insane.
And in a way, it is kind of funny, if not, like, ha-ha funny. A whole fleet of the universe's top scientists and engineers floundering around in my lab, doing as much damage as a T-rex loose in a museum.
Sorry -- their lab, as they've continued to impress upon me.
Not that I'm bitter.
...All right, maybe I'm a little bitter.
I told Captain Miles Chen that they didn't have to keep figuratively stumbling around in the dark. That I could help. That the Cavatica needed me -- that I wasn't boasting or lying or suffering from delusions of grandeur when I said Ra couldn't function without me. That if he let me go back, I could get Ra under control. I could get the Cavatica's atmo cycling again. I could help.
But he only responded that Caldwell Enterprises had their ‘best people' working on it, and that I should ‘calm down and get some rest.' I told him that a.) I didn't appreciate being patronized, and b.) I knew the Cavatica better than anyone, which is why they were foolish to turn down my help.
That was when Captain Miles Chen did something weird.
He took a step really close to my enclosure, like, actually leaned over the clear protective fencing -- and his voice got all quiet and scary, even though it was a little shaky around the edges. He gritted his teeth together and said, very slowly, “Don't you understand? I am trying to help you, but my hands are tied.”
[[Momentary pause]] I responded by jangling my restrained wrists at him to berate his poor choice of words.
[[Regretful sigh]] I don't know why I did that. I think that despite my mask of apathetic bravado, I was upset, too -- we were both angry and frustrated and tired and scared and confused and, you know, I couldn't stop throwing up.
Anyway, after I did that, he took a step back and said I should be grateful he had convinced them to let me keep the recorder. And with that, he stormed out.
[[Small pause]] The recorder, incidentally, now has a giant blue “PROPERTY OF CALDWELL ENTERPRISES” sticker affixed to the side. It makes me miss my lil' penguin dude even more. He was so chill.
[[Exhales]] I don't know. Is this what the rest of my life is going to be? Strapped to an upright gurney with my arms crossed over my chest, puking up fake food pellets, reciting poetry and passages from “Jurassic Park” to keep myself sane?
… The morning shadows wear away, But these grow longer all the day; But oh, love's day is short, if love decay. Love is a growing, or full constant light, And his first minute, after noon, is night.
...Aw yeah. Still got it. I'll let you guess whether that's from a poem or “Jurassic Park”.
...Speaking of which, the velociraptors and the T-rex got out, eventually. No man-made system works perfectly forever. No prison can hold me forever. Tropical storms arise. Power goes out. And who knows what can change in the darkness…?
[[SFX: Distant door opening, single pair of footsteps]]
Hmm. Hold on. Someone's coming. ...If it's Captain Miles Chen, I might… I'm thinking about apologizing, and telling him I understand he was just following orders. Maybe. I don't know.
SCENE 2
[[SFX: Enforcer One, Infirmary]]
X: [[Sounds groggy, achey]] So… [[Groans]] I just woke up, but… I don't remember falling asleep? All I remember is Dr. Keane coming in and adjusting my… ah. Yep. My IVs. They must have drugged me? I mean, more than they're already drugging me?
Hey, maybe they've administered some sort of miracle cure! ...Though if they did, I would probably feel better, not worse. And I probably wouldn't feel like there was something… wrong. And Dr. Keane wouldn't have looked so… apologetic.
[[SFX: Soft fabric and metallic sounds of X moving]]
Hmm. Preliminary tests show that I can move my neck, wiggle my toes and my fingers… though it's weird… I can move my left hand to press the buttons on my recorder, but not… [[slight grunt]]
[[SFX: Recorder dropping, voice sounds far away]] Ah crap. I didn't mean to do that. Great. [[Raises voice]] Welp, I hope that the recorder's still recording, and that you can still hear me.
[[SFX: Soft fabric and metallic sounds of X moving]]
Wait. Hold on. If I crane my neck and push my chin down against its restraint, then I can kind of see…
Oh my gosh.
[[Silence, then sound of disbelief]] That's… yeah. I'm… pretty sure that's a tattoo. Around my right wrist, like a cuff. It's all glossy with some kind of translucent salve, but beneath that it says, “PROPERTY OF CALDWELL ENTERPRISES” in big blue letters.
[[Processes]] I guess they really took issue with my claim that “I'm not anyone's anything.”
[[Processes; another pause]] Man. I wish they would have said something to me first. I would've requested purple ink instead of blue.
[[Hums theme song for “Jurassic Park” until recorder cuts off]]
SCENE 3 [[SFX: Enforcer One, Council Room]]
X: [[Recorder cuts in abruptly; her voice sounds far away]] Okay. You've got me here. I feel like crap. What do you want to know?
Cpt Miles Chen: [[Directly into recorder; sounds more human and less militaristic than usual]] Testing… one… two… Uh. Chen here. I told X I would hold on to her recorder while she was being questioned.
Council Member 1: [[Flatly, voice modulated by hazmat suit]] One of the Cavatica's two escape pods has been jettisoned. Please explain.
X: I already told you, I don't know anything about that. I thought they were both still there. And I could have sworn Charlotte told me that both pods were intact when she was prepping the ship for the arrival of your fleet.
Council Member 1: Prepping the ship?
X: [[Irritably]] I don't know… what were we supposed to do? Proceed to Conference Room B, twiddle our thumbs, and await capture?
Council Member 1: Hrmmm. [[Unamused]] Is it possible Dr. Rousseau could have taken the pod?
X: I... guess? Like I said, I don't know. Or the pod could have misfired, jettisoned itself when the Cavatica began to die. Or maybe one of my parents jettisoned it thousands of days ago. Or maybe some kind of mysterious sentient galactic entity took it for a joyride. I mean, we live in a freaking majestic age of space travel. Anything is possible.
[[Pause, slyly]] Or hey, maybe Dr. Singh took it and sailed away to --
Council Member 1: No. Next question: Where is the master control console for the A.I. entity named Charlotte?
X: I've told you before -- as far as I know, she doesn't have one. She's self-sufficient. I'm just as clueless as you are there. Trust me.
Council Member 1: If you say so. [[Confers/mutters with unseen individuals:]] Have Thorsson and one of the engineers get back to work trying to open the two sealed pods. The A.I.'s controls are likely in there.
[[To X]] You've mentioned several times now that you know how to bring Ra Ten-Seventy-Nine back to a stable state. Please relay this process to us so that we may prevent further losses within the Cavatica's ecosystem.
X: I can't… ugh. I've told you like a million times: it's more than just… In part, it's biometrics, which you should know, but in part, I just need to be there. He's dimming because I'm not there. There's no process anyone can follow.
Council Member 1: Let me get this straight. Are you insinuating that a red dwarf star is capable of... somehow recognizing another entity?
X: [[Aghast]] ...You really don't know anything about the Ra Initiative, do you?
Council Member 1: [[Confers/mutters with unseen individuals:]] Add a psychiatric screening to the tests.
Cpt Miles Chen: [[Professionally]] Permission to speak freely, sir?
Council Member 1: [[To Chen]] Denied. [[To X:]] Despite increasingly aggressive medical treatment, your health continues to steadily degenerate. What is your endgame, exactly?
X: What? You think I'm purposefully making myself sick?! I can be petty sometimes, but I'm not that petty. Jeez.
Dr Keane: Excuse me, Councillor. I have a theory. I believe my patient's body has adapted to the unique radiation given off by Ra Ten-Seventy-Nine. This far removed from its source, she is going into withdrawal. Think of it as... reverse radiation poisoning. While I can't speak to the necessity of my patient's role and work aboard the Cavatica, I can say that she needs to be there, for her own physical well-being.