EPISODE 5: VALUABLE HUMAN RESOURCES (2)
Chance: Why'd you shut it?
X: [[Distantly]] I didn't. [[Turns attention back to Chance.]] Hey, can we just go over there? If they open it... I want to be there.
Chance: Sorry, no can do.
X: I won't try anything -- promise. You can keep your gun pointed at me the whole time. [[Pause]] [[Overly sentimental]] I just want to be there. Please. It's where my dad taught me to read. It's where my mother used sing. When she shut that pod and sealed it off... it was like I lost part of who I was.
Chance: [[Sighs]] As much as I'd like to help you out, I can't. Sorry.
X: All right. Now.
Chance: [[Confused]] What?
[[SFX: Electric crackling sounds]]
Chance: [[Yelps]]
Charlotte: Welding complete.
X: Clever girl.
[[SFX: Footsteps in vacuum suit, Charlotte's hydraulics. Doors open.]]
SCENE 4
[[SFX: Cavatica, Dash Core Hallways]]
X: Wow. Not only are the Caldwell Enterprises personnel still occupied with the crashed fighter, but said crash did enough structural damage that one of the girders smashed up through Sublevel A and tore a giant hole in the bulkhead outside of my parents' suite.
The hole is roughly a meter high and a meter across, jagged around the edges, and leaking some kind of oily liquid from a pipe that burst farther up in the wall. There's a wispy, singed substance poking out in places, too -- perhaps some kind of insulation.
I tried to peek into the suite, but it's really hazy in there -- dust that's still settling, or maybe smoke. Another thing -- even if the hydroponic system were functioning correctly, this pod isn't hooked up to it -- and yet there's still a bit of pale blue light shining through the dust from the inside.
[[Deep breath.]] Okay. Charlotte, you stand guard. I'm going to crawl in and have a look.
Charlotte: Are you sure you wish to proceed?
X: Uh, yeah. Why?
Charlotte: Willful self-endangerment is in direct violation of Caldwell Enterprises Preservation of Human Resources Protocols.
X: [[Dryly]] Unfortunately for Caldwell Enterprises, I'm prioritizing my family over protocol. Deal with it.
Charlotte: One moment please --
X: [[Suspicious]] You are acting way more cagey than usual, Charlotte. What's up?
Charlotte: Do not judge us too harshly.
X: ...What does that mean? Judge who? You're not making any sense.
Charlotte: Find me. Find me. Find me. Find me. Find -- [[Shuts down]]
X: Great. Well, at least when she reboots she'll be able to weld anyone who gets too close.
[[Deep breath]] All right. Wish me luck. I'm going in.
[[SFX: Crouches, vacuum suit crinkling. Crawls in.]]
[[SFX: Stands, brushes self off.]]
X: Oh. Okay. This is… this is way creepy. Like, it's a familiar setting, but... different. Abandoned. Alien, even. Like in “Jurassic Park”, in the main bunker, when they turn off the lights and they can't get them back on again.
Though... there is light in here, kind of -- light produced by a blue-green bioluminescent fungi growing all over the ceiling. We have some of it back in the glasshouse pod -- Panellus… uh, Panellus stipticus, I think. Or something close to it.
Uh. Anyway. I'm... I'm in my mother's study, which branches off of my parents' main sitting room. It's an interior room, so no windows, but she made up for that with... oh my gosh. I had forgotten. She had a painting of the ocean over her desk. [[SFX: Vague ocean waves.]] Choppy gray water and greenish cliffs descending onto rocks and sand...
[[Pauses momentarily]]
Uh... There's still a coffee cup on her desk, crusted over inside with white clouds of mold, and some dried coffee remains that must be thousands of days old. I remember never understanding the joke on it. There's a little round cartoon guy on it that says, “Dieting is a losing battle!”
[[Pause]] ...Yeah, I still don't understand it.
Next to the mug... a data pad, hardly used. [[SFX: Small click/beep on.]] Huh. Looks like it needs a password. I'll figure that out later.
[[SFX: Small click off.]]
[[SFX: Slips the data pad into her pocket.]]
[[SFX: Opens and shuts several drawers.]] Pens… paper clips… papers… old key cards… engine schematics… ha! A copy of Les Fleurs du mal, by Baudelaire. [SFX: Opens book]] Oh. The paper's all crumbly, but I can still remember --
The Poet is like that wild inheritor of the cloud, A rider of storms, above the range of arrows and slings; Exiled on earth, at bay amid the jeering crowd, He cannot walk for his unmanageable wings.
“The Albatross”. George Dillon translation. Though... she's not the one who had me memorize it. That was you.
[[SFX: Reflects momentarily, sets down the book.]]
Across from her desk is her workbench, which is way less cluttered than I remember it. [[SFX: Picks up heavy gadget, sets it back down.]] Just some random tools and spare parts, clogged with oil and dust.
[[SFX: Takes a few steps.]]
OK. And here's the door that leads out into the sitting room. Hold onto your butts.
[[SFX: Button press; silence. Button presses several more times to no result.]]
Oh, no. I can't… [[Frustrated sound]] Right, there's no power. [[SFX: Smacks palm against metal door.]] I wonder if I can… [[SFX: Picks up tool from workbench, attempts to pry/beat door open with several clangs and bangs.]]
Not so much. Bummer.
[[Exhales, disappointed.]] Well, folks, our tour might be over for today.
Now, the question becomes -- what do I do with myself? Escape, hide, eradicate the remaining Caldwell Enterprises personnel…
Just kidding. I'm going to head back to the glasshouse and see if I can pin all of this on Charlotte.
SCENE 5
[[SFX: Cavatica, Glasshouse Pod]]
X: Day 10,317, hour 23:55. [[Yawns]] So… I got back to the glasshouse pod and saw that Chance was still unconscious, so I just pretended I'd been there the whole time, and when he woke up I explained that Charlotte had malfunctioned and shot electricity and inert gases everywhere.
And when he asked Charlotte about it, she just kind of sputtered and glitched, which really just gave extra credence to my story.
It probably shouldn't have been that easy, but… I don't know. Kind of nice to have something go my way for once.
Now I'm curled up on my cot, between the insect terrariums and the bromeliads, hiding under my thermal blanket, the chirping of the crickets and the warm light of Ra making me feel all happy and sleepy.
[[SFX: Shifts under the covers]]
I'm holding the datapad that I took from my mother's study. I keep turning it on briefly, just to see the little box where you enter the password to unlock it. I've tried a couple phrases, but so far, no dice.
Even if I never unlock it, it's still just kind of nice to have.
[[SFX: Pause, quiet breathing & reflection -- turns the data pad on and off a couple more times. Then the door opens, distant. Footsteps enter and stop.]]
Thor: [[Distant]] Chance?
Chance: [[Distant]] Yeah. I'm here.
Thor: You look terrible.
Chance: The A.I. glitched out on me a little, but no big deal. Find what you need?
Thor: Heh. Yeah. Speaking of that glitchy A.I… just… do me a favor and stay away from it for a while. [[Glances around.]] Where is it?
Chance: Probably in sleep mode somewhere. [[Lowers voice.]] The experiment's asleep, too. So, what'dja find out?
Thor: Someone programmed the fighter to hit the Cavatica. We're still figuring out who. But it wasn't a glitch.
Chance: Huh. Any progress with those locked pods? Management seems pretty serious about them.
Thor: That's tomorrow. Or heck, I might even pull an all-nighter and get it over with now. I'm really sick of them docking my pay.
Chance: Cool. See you in the morning.
Thor: 'Night.
Chance: 'Night.
[[SFX: Thor's footsteps. Door opens, closes.]]
X: [[SFX: Turns the data pad on and off a couple more times.]] Alphanumeric, six characters. I've tried birthdates, notable anniversaries, nicknames, real names -- including, narcissitically, my own name -- and nothing works. I just... it's been an incredibly long and irritating day. I'll try again tomorrow when my brain is fresh.
... 'Night.
SCENE 6
[[SFX: Cavatica, Glasshouse Pod]]
[[SFX: Door to glasshouse opens manually, abruptly stage right. Footsteps.]]
X: [[Groggily]] Oh man. Day 10,318, hour 04:36? Someone just opened the doors to the glasshouse. It is way too early...
Thor: [[Stage right]] Kai! Experiment girl! Chen wants all hands on deck, now.
Kai: What?
X: [[SFX: Sits up.]] Why?
Thor: It's crazy -- I was up all night working on that stupid portside pod, and about an hour ago, I finally got it open.
Kai: What did you find inside?
Thor: Oh, at first it was just normal stuff -- lamps, papers, books, personal items. But about five minutes ago we found a dead body in that pod.
[[SFX: OUTRO MUSIC]]
-Fin-
