EPISODE 7: YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS PLACE (1) EPISODE 7: SIE WERDEN DIESEN ORT NIE VERLASSEN (1) EPISODIO 7: NUNCA SALDRÁS DE ESTE LUGAR (1) EPISODE 7 : VOUS NE QUITTEREZ JAMAIS CET ENDROIT (1) EPISODIO 7: NON LASCERAI MAI QUESTO POSTO (1) エピソード 7: この場所を離れることはありません (1) 에피소드 7: 당신은 절대 이곳을 떠나지 않을 것입니다 (1) EPISÓDIO 7: NUNCA SAIRÁS DESTE LUGAR (1)

**INTRO** はじめに

**X:** I had a pet mouse, once, and I made a maze for it to run through. It escaped the maze onto a lab table, and then escaped the lab table into my hands. Ele escapou do labirinto para uma mesa de laboratório e então escapou da mesa de laboratório para minhas mãos. Next, it escaped my hands and flopped onto the floor, where it immediately began searching for yet another escape. Em seguida, ele escapou de minhas mãos e caiu no chão, onde imediatamente começou a procurar outra fuga.

[[Pause]]

I remember that I felt so sad for this little creature, and its eternal, pointless quest for escape. Because... where could it eventually hope to escape to?

[[Pause]]

It's Girl In Space.

[[SFX: INTRO MUSIC, 1:10]]

**SCENE 1**

[[SFX: Cavatica, Cockpit Pod. Enforcer One has been pumping atmo into the Cavatica since the Communications Pod breakaway, and the air is becoming breathable. It also now carries sound.]]

**X:** [[Voice echoes slightly]] Day 10,318, hour 21:03. Kai and I are currently hanging out in the Cavatica's defunct cockpit pod, celebrating our friendship!

Well, technically, we're waiting for Thor and Chance to meet up with us prior to the Caldwell Enterprises debrief aboard the Enforcer One.

And... technically, Kai is waiting for Thor and Chance to arrive. I'm hiding inside of a gutted electrical panel because, for whatever reason, there's an order out to all Caldwell Enterprises personnel to shoot me on sight.

Apparently, I make for a convenient scapegoat. Or maybe they've just decided that I'm more trouble than I'm worth.

Either way… I don't know. I prefer to think that I don't deserve it?

I mean, Caldwell Enterprises was pretty much ripe for a mutiny. I just… nudged it along. Well, Kai co-nudged it, but I said I'd take the fall for it because Kai is a good person and I'm just… I don't know.

Anyway, we're mutinying! Hence the me hiding and Kai pre-de-briefing the others. Pre… pre-briefing? Pre-de… Informing. Yessss.

[[SFX: Shifts around]]

[[Reflectively]] This might sound weird, but... being enclosed within this panel is kind of... soothing. Even beyond the fact that it's keeping me from potentially getting shot.

(Again.)

I've been thinking back to Day 10,303, when I first saw the Caldwell Enterprises fleet moving toward the Cavatica. How I was so alone then, but how I had made my peace with being alone. How I haven't been alone since the fleet's arrival.

Well, okay, I get bathroom breaks -- which the Caldwell Enterprises people delicately call “bio breaks” -- during which I'm alone for a couple moments, but… there's usually someone lurking outside the door haranguing me to “hurry up”, which isn't really conducive to any meaningful reflection.

I think this is reprieve.

Invisibility, oneness with the wires, the unseen inner workings of the station, where I can sit and be quiet and think.

Though… I feel like that sounds bad. I think I like having people in my life again, especially friends -- but I also kind of miss the solitude. The peace. The control. [[Frowns, reconsiders word choice]] ...I mean, not that I was ever really in control of anything before they arrived, either. Maybe I mean more the simplicity. All I had to worry about was me.

Well, and Charlotte.

[[Thinks]] And Ra.

[[SFX: The Cavatica makes falling-apart sounds]]

And the Cavatica falling apart.

[[Frowns]] And those little potato-destroying insects that I haven't seen in a suspiciously long time.

Hmm.

These days, it's all mutiny and guns and Councillors and psychological evaluations and tattoos and IVs and little old ladies getting their legs blown off and the constant, constant presence of other people.

I didn't ask for it.

[[Pause]] But… I don't hate it?

It's interesting, at least.

And friendship! I pretty much have my own Dr. Grant and Dr. Malcolm now. Maybe after all of this is done, I can --

**Kai:** [[Background, slightly muffled]] X, can you stop recording for a while, please? They're coming.

**X:** [[Lowered voice]] Ooooh. Kai says Thor and Chance are coming. I'll nix the stream-of-conscious updates, but leave the recorder running. For… you know. Posterity or whatever.

[[SFX: Footsteps approaching]]

**Thor:** Hey Kai. What's with the secret meeting?

**Chance:** Yeah, we're supposed to report to the Enforcer One A.S.A.P. This is… whichever letters mean the opposite of that.

**Kai:** [[Calmly, matter-of-factly]] We'll head over there in a minute. I just wanted to talk through a few Security Team things first.

**Thor:** Sure. What's up?

**Kai:** Something's… not sitting right with me. I know HQ said Chen stepped down voluntarily, but… I know him. We've been through a lot together. We all have. He doesn't step down. Or if he did, he would have at least mentioned it to us first.

**Chance:** [[Shrugs it off]] Maybe he didn't have time.

**Thor:** [[Catches on, worried]] You think something happened to him, and they're not telling us?

**Chance:** [[Cuts in, frowning]] Wait, are you saying they're… lying to us? Why would they bother lying to us, especially when we're contractually obligated to follow their orders?

**Kai:** [[Mildly]] I don't know -- and I'm not accusing anyone of anything, Chance. I simply think the situation warrants a closer look.

**Thor:** [[Gasps]] What if Experiment Girl got to him? They said she freaked out and escaped… Though… wait. [[Frowns, looks at Kai.]] Weren't you the one guarding her?

**Chance:** [[Catches on; To Kai]] Did she get to you? [[Increasingly horrified]] Did she reprogram you to serve her? !

**Kai:** [[Sighs wearily in facepalm manner]] For the forty-ninth time, Chance, I am not a robot. [[Pause]] But… this news about Chen… I think there's more to the story than they're telling us.

**Thor:** Think Chen finally said or did something to piss off the Senior Councillor?

**Kai:** Something like that. Earlier today, I went back to the Cavatica's cabin pod with X, but when we got there, her mother's body was missing. The fungus was gone, too. [[Brief pause, then significantly:]] And there was a Fixer poking around in an adjacent room.

**Thor:** [[Finally understands the gravity of the situation.]] Oh.

**Kai:** [[Significantly]] Yeah. [[Resumes story]] And that's when the Fixer told me my clearance code had been revoked, and ordered me to stun and arrest X.

**Thor:** Why?

**Kai:** [[Mildly]] She... didn't say.

**Chance:** Wait, so… you didn't do it? Are you insane? !

**Kai:** No. In fact, I am beginning to suspect that I possess one of the saner minds within an immediate light-year radius.

**Thor:** So… then what? Where's X?

**Kai:** Well, the whole situation felt... off. So I decided to go with my gut...

**Chance:** But you don't have --

**Kai:** [[Irritably]] Yes, Chance. I know that I do not possess an intestinal tract. I am speaking figuratively. [[Continues]] I decided to follow my instincts and ascertain the truth before taking any sort of irrevocable action.

**Chance:** Okay. So… things can't be that bad. I mean, it's not like the Fixer arrested you or anything. She's just after X. I'm sure when we find X, management will restore your codes and everything will be all right again.

**Kai:** [[Uncomfortably]] I... may have assisted X and secured our escape with the delivery of a… minor flesh wound to the Fixer.

[[Momentary silence]]

**Thor:** You're talking about __corporate mutiny.__

**Kai:** Yes.

**Thor:** Hmm. [[Brief pause]] Okay. I'm in.

**Kai:** [[Surprised]] Really?

**Thor:** [[Snorts, shrugs]] At this point, Caldwell Enterprises owes me six weeks of back pay. If they wanted my loyalty, they had their chance to buy it.

**Kai:** Huh. Okay. Chance?

**Chance:** [[Conflicted]] I don't know. I'm… I'm kind of not okay with this. You can't just decide not to follow orders whenever you “feel” like it. I mean, no offense, Kai, but it sounds like X has brainwashed you to side with her and screw over Caldwell Enterprises. After they've given you, like, __everything__.

**Thor:** [[Mutters]] Given and taken away.

**Kai:** I haven't been brainwashed, Chance, and I'm not trying to convince you to choose a particular side. I'm simply presenting you with all the information you need to make a rational decision.

**Chance:** [[Upset]] Mutiny isn't rational, Kai! I mean, what's your endgame? Force your friends and coworkers to “join you or die”? Send the fleet back to home base and… and live “happily ever after” out here with some random clone on a research station that's probably gonna explode within the next couple days? [[Exhales]] If this is what your “gut” is telling you to do… I'm out. Sorry.

[[SFX: Feet shifting, then heading down the hall, fading out. A door opens in the distance, then closes.]]

**Thor:** So… now what?

**Kai:** [[Seems surprised]] Uh… I had kind of planned on both of you joining me.

**Thor:** Huh.

[[Brief awkward silence]]

**Thor:** So… I'm assuming Experiment Girl is hiding inside of that electrical panel over there?

**X:** Uh. No one in here but us wires.

**Thor:** [[Rolls her eyes]] Come on out, X. I'm not gonna shoot you.

[[SFX: Locker opening. X steps out.]]

**X:** [[Casually]] Hey. [[Brushes dust, real or imagined, off of her pants]] So… even though that didn't really go like we had planned, I still want to rescue Chen and get my mother's body back from the Enforcer One. But I'd totally understand if either or both of you wanted to go tell Chance you were just kidding and join him in stopping me.

**Kai:** [[Firmly]] No. We're doing the right thing.

**Thor:** And I'm sick of working pro bono, so I'm pretty much like, “Screw everyone” at this point. [[Pause]] Well, except for you guys, obviously.

**X:** Obviously.

[[Beat]]

**Kai:** All right. We need to get aboard Enforcer One and find Chen. Any questions?

**X:** Oh! Actually, yeah. I'm wondering how this is all going to --

**Thor:** [[Interrupts X]] We're good. Let's move.

**X:** Hokay.

[[SFX: They exit the room, jog down the hall; fadeout.]]

[[SFX: Transition]]

**SCENE 2**

[[SFX: Cavatica, Dash Core]]

**X:** So... we're about to enter the remote connector that leads from the Cavatica to the Enforcer One. Thor's making sure the way is clear for us and then getting us through the Enforcer One's airlock, since her codes still work.

[[Brief pause]]

Bleh. And they must still be pumping in atmo from the Enforcer One, because the garbage-y smell is once again quite pervasive.

[[SFX: Static]]

**Thor:** [[Voice distorted by comm]] All clear.

**Kai:** [[Quietly]] There's the signal. You ready?

**X:** Yep.

[[SFX: Footsteps: Kai's boots and X's bare feet.]]

**X:** [[Lowers voice]] Oh man. It's like we're approaching the electrical bunker to turn the island's power back on, though this time we're on the lookout for velociraptors from all sides, and Mr. Arnold's severed arm is totally not going to drop onto my shoulder from a bunch of creepy pipes in the shadows. You know?? ?

**Kai:** I very seldom understand what you're talking about.

**X:** That's okay. Once we're back on the Cavatica, I'm going to introduce you to the best movie ever made.

**Kai:** __Citizen Kane__?

**X:** [[Perplexed and disgusted]] Um, no? !

**Kai: ***The Godfather*?

**X:** No.

**Kai:** … __Titanic__?

[[SFX: Short burst of static. Their footsteps stop.]]

**Council Member 1:** [[Distorted over comm]] This message is for rogue entity Kai. It has come to our attention that you have made a series of very, very unfortunate decisions. If you surrender now, you --

[[SFX: Beep, click, crunch as Kai tosses the comm onto the ground and steps on it.]]

**X:** Nice.

**Kai:** You were correct earlier in your assessment of that guy's suckiness. Come on. We need to keep moving.

**X:** Roger that. [[Pause]] Hey Kai, what are the odds that we're walking toward our very painful and untimely deaths?

**Kai:** Remember what I told you I was for, earlier?

**X:** Um. Danger?

**Kai:** Correct. Trust me. We're going to be just fine.

[[SFX: Airlock hiss, door opening. Thor is there to greet them.]]

[[SFX: Enforcer One sounds in background]]

**Thor:** All right. Looks like either Chance hasn't sold us out yet, or they're trying to lull me into a false sense of security. Either way, my codes still work. For now. I'll stay here to guard our exit and make sure the airlocks don't fully engage.