26 characters: Larissa, Renata, Random One, Random Two, Random Three, Random Four, Random Five, Tojo, Announcer, Priest, Ex-mayor, Lawrence, Saetang, Stone, Hernandez, Marissa, Alien Three, Alien Four, Therapist, Peters, Monk, Judge, Alien One, Ambassador One, Jim, Crowd
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Peters (7 lines, 82 words, 2.95%) - [David Loftus] Salish Peters, chief mechanic. Great-grandfather was the first mission commander, and he never tires of telling people so and relating the stories of Earth he remembers hearing from great-grandpa. Sensible, direct, kind of average working Joe. Now about to turn 70, he has a husband and two grown kids.
Tojo (10 lines, 100 words, 3.6%) - [Gwenith Knight] Farah Tojo is a bright young adult who's an apprentice mechanic. Brings a youthful eagerness and excitement to the job.
Saetang (12 lines, 183 words, 6.59%) - [Sova Reign] Detective Aranya Saetang has now been on the job for 22 years. Sometimes she's still a little annoyed about having to share the office with Ahmadi, but she tries to bury her resentment.
Renata (45 lines, 494 words, 17.8%) - [Kathleen Li] Renata Mutombo is the mayor for 22 years now. Now around 50 years old. Ambitious and competent. No longer in campaign mode, she should sound more natural and less practiced than before.
Ambassador One (10 lines, 88 words, 3.17%) - [Azure] Ambassador One is a Centaurian. They communicate non-verbally, so in order to be understood by humans they wear machine translators.
Priest (6 lines, 177 words, 6.38%) - [David Nagel] The asteroid's sole religious services provider is 18 years older and wiser than last season, but his role hasn't changed much.
Therapist (8 lines, 151 words, 5.44%) - [Ahmad Joudeh] Doctor Tam Peters is the husband of Salish Peters and therapist to all.
Monk (8 lines, 121 words, 4.36%) - [George Worrall] The evil monk is now acting as a sort of demon, again representing the fears of the ex-mayor.
Ex-mayor (29 lines, 277 words, 9.98%) - [Roger Arnold] Mayor Renata Mutombo's father, a former mayor himself, really misses being in the middle of everything. At 80 years old, he's struggling to reconcile with his declining years and wants to find a way to matter again.
Jim (4 lines, 37 words, 1.33%) - [SlimSamVO] Jim O'Hara is an ore extractor who works in the mines. He has a chip on his shoulder and is a little resentful of the desk jockeys who run things and know nothing of real work and real danger. In short, he has an attitude when dealing with the detectives. A fairly macho guy.
Hernandez (3 lines, 17 words, 0.61%) - [Lindsay White] Eva Hernandez is lending a hand in medical at the moment.
Lawrence (7 lines, 70 words, 2.52%) - [James Lorenz] Chief Lawrence heads up astronomy section.
Judge (8 lines, 68 words, 2.45%) - [Rachel Pulliam] Judge Lee is still the justice, but approaching retirement.
Ambassador One (10 lines, 88 words, 3.17%) - [Azure] Ambassador One is a Centaurian. They communicate non-verbally, so in order to be understood by humans they wear machine translators.
Larissa (14 lines, 185 words, 6.66%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Chief Mech Larissa Flint is now 40 years old and much more experienced than last season.
Marissa (6 lines, 53 words, 1.91%) - [Virginia Hargrove] Communications Chief Marissa Flint is 48 years old and enjoys the responsibilities of her new job. She's now married to Arash Ahmadi... turns out there was some jealousy behind her previous spite for him, but they're still playfully combative at times.
Stone (16 lines, 254 words, 9.15%) - [John Gaunce] Doctor Stone has become ever more wrapped up in his research over the years and resents being torn away from it.
Alien One (13 lines, 181 words, 6.52%) - [Meghan Schmitt] A six-legged, one meter tall, sturdily-built hermaphrodite alien with a trunk.
Alien Three (1 line, 5 words, 0.18%) - [??] A six-legged, one meter tall, sturdily-built hermaphrodite alien with a trunk.
Alien Four (1 line, 3 words, 0.11%) - [??] A six-legged, one meter tall, sturdily-built hermaphrodite alien with a trunk.
Random One (1 line, 7 words, 0.25%) - Background person having a bad day.
Random Two (1 line, 9 words, 0.32%) - Background person having a bad day.
Random Three (1 line, 10 words, 0.36%) - Background person having a bad day.
Random Four (1 line, 3 words, 0.11%) - Background person having a bad day.
Random Five (1 line, 10 words, 0.36%) - Background person having a bad day.
Crowd (4 lines, 46 words, 1.66%) - [??] Crowd noises.
Announcer (3 lines, 57 words, 2.05%) - [Erin Suminsby] Reads opening, closing and credits.
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
Listen along as you read:
1 SOUND: room tone
2 Larissa: It was a series of three explosions in the primary reactor and the interswitch.
3 Renata: [sfx: processed] Safe to assume it's no accident?
4 Larissa: Yes, looks like somebody planted charges, presumably it's more of Ahmadi's work but was on a timer or something.
5 Renata: Can you get the power back online? We have less than an hour before the invasion fleet lands.
6 Larissa: I'll try.
7 SOUND: call end
8 Larissa: Tojo, you're with me.
9 SOUND: they start jogging, pass a few people having urgent conversations in the background as they speak along with sparking sounds
10 Random One: [worried] Have you heard anything from level eight?
11 Random Two: Nothing yet, but we're all the in same boat.
12 Random Three: [panic] How am I supposed to maintain the tanks without power?
13 Random Four: [panic] Have they landed?!
14 Random Five: [panic] I heard someone say they're already here and shooting people!
15 Tojo: Where are we going?
16 Larissa: We've got to bypass the interswitch.
17 SOUND: they reach same room as episode 1 and have a look. sparky sounds of loose wires.
18 Tojo: That can't be good.
19 Larissa: I think we'll have to bypass about 20 meters.
20 Tojo: Do we have that much spare cable on hand?
21 Larissa: Not this kind, and there's no time to make more, so we'll have to borrow it from somewhere.
22 Tojo: Where?
23 Larissa: The end of a line, somewhere non-essential...
24 Tojo: How 'bout ore processing? Doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere anyway.
25 Larissa: Yeah, good idea. Tell you what, you run down there and get me 20 meters and I'll stay here working on removing the bad segment.
26 Tojo: Sure thing, Chief.
27 SOUND: Tojo scampers off while Larissa works, maybe flipped switches for safing it before cut and a wrench turn sound
28 SOUND: opening theme
29 Announcer: Quiet Please dot org presents Two Fifty Three Mathilde. In the early 22nd century, the crewed asteroid 253 Mathilde left the solar system on an interstellar mission. Generations later, after a hundred and fourteen years, a new star system stretches out in front of them…
30 Announcer: Episode 14 - Invasion
31 SOUND: observation command center, door opens and footsteps enter
32 Renata: What are *you* doing here?
33 Priest: It's customary for me to try to provide comfort and guidance to those who are about to pass over to the afterlife, and to pray for their souls.
34 Renata: We're not about to die.
35 Priest: Are you basing that on any facts, or blind faith?
36 Renata: You of all people should appreciate faith.
37 Priest: Not so much when it gets everyone needlessly killed.
38 Ex-mayor: I agree, Father. But we haven't reached that point yet. We can resist but surrender once there's no hope.
39 Priest: After how many die? You remember 22 years ago when we were about to go to war with the returnists?
40 Ex-mayor: When you helped convinced me to resign and call an election to diffuse the situation.
41 Renata: [impatient and a little angry] The ships on their way right now aren't interested in holding a vote on whether to seize our home from us. Anyone who doesn't want to fight for what's ours is welcome to go to the arboretum now. And I wish you would, dad -- there's no need for you to get hurt.
42 Ex-mayor: I'm staying as long as you're staying, Renata.
43 Priest: I'm staying as long as there are people here to minister to.
44 Renata: Then keep out of my way. Chief Lawrence, are you still tracking them?
45 Lawrence: Automated tracking is down but I've got them on manual scopes. The bad news is there's more of them now, I'd estimate 30 ships.
46 Renata: And the good news?
47 Lawrence: They've stopped launching more.
48 Saetang: Based on their negotiator's ship, they probably don't have more than a handful of troops in each. So we shouldn't be outnumbered.
49 Ex-mayor: Just very badly outgunned.
50 Renata: We have home field, that makes a difference.
51 Saetang: We do need be ready for the possibility that we're quickly overwhelmed and need to switch to asymmetric warfare.
52 Renata: You mean an insurgency?
53 Saetang: Jim O'Hara from mining came to me with an idea, the mines could be a good place to hide out.
54 Renata: Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
55 SOUND: medical, sound of boxes being moved
56 Stone: Can you give me a hand, Hernandez?
57 Hernandez: [bitter] You've already taken one, now you want the other?
58 Stone: Sorry about the wording. I need help moving some medical supplies, take this box to the arboretum and I'll take the other to mining.
59 Hernandez: Okay.
60 Stone: Lucky there's no patients to move, at least.
61 Hernandez: You'll have plenty of them very soon.
62 SOUND: back to Larissa in the computery area from start as Tojo returns to her with cable
63 SOUND: footsteps approach while Larissa works
64 Tojo: Got the cable, here you go.
65 Larissa: Okay, hold it up level for me while I splice in this end.
66 SOUND: sound of tools at work, maybe welding
67 Tojo: Chief, I've been thinking, these aliens are ten thousand years ahead of us...
68 Larissa: So?
69 Tojo: So what chance do we have? It's like a caveman trying to defend his cave against an army with modern weapons.
70 Larissa: Hold the middle while I splice the other end.
71 SOUND: sound of shifting and a few steps
72 Tojo: If they want to take us back to Earth, is that so bad? Isn't it what a lot of people wanted anyway? Why get ourselves killed resisting?
73 SOUND: sound of tools at work, maybe welding
74 Larissa: All I really know about these aliens is that they've taken over my brother-in-law's brain and made him abduct my sister and blow up our reactor. That doesn't make me feel inclined to trust their good intentions and throw myself at their mercy. And I don't want to give up on our mission either.
75 SOUND: back to observation
76 Lawrence: They should be landing any moment now.
77 Renata: Can you tell where?
78 Lawrence: Sorry, they got too low for our telescopes and the cameras have been out.
79 SOUND: power coming on sound
80 Lawrence: Power's back!
81 Renata: Just in the nick of time, Chief Flint. Now, Lawrence, tell me where those ships are landing.
82 SOUND: shaking sound
83 Renata: Was that an explosion?
84 Ex-mayor: Felt more like something really big landing nearby.
85 Renata: Could the reverb through the ground from a ship landing be that strong?
86 Ex-mayor: I don't know, maybe if they all land in sync...
87 :
88 Lawrence: They're right on top of us!
89 SOUND: a muffled drilling sound
90 Ex-mayor: They're coming through the ceiling!
91 Renata: But this is the top level!
92 Lawrence: They landed on the surface directly above and they're drilling down through the regolith!
93 Renata: So much for depressurizing a hallway on them after they come out of the airlock.
94 SOUND: ceiling kicked through and clatters to floor... slowly since it's low-g
95 Priest: [softly and slowly reciting prayer in background] Eternal God, we pray for ourselves. We stand where life is brought to death. Deliver us from grief, fear and doubt, from despair and unbelief, and bring us to the light of your presence. Grant us that peace which the world cannot give, so that we may trust in you and find our life through you. Lord, gather us to yourself and grant those things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart imagined. Watch over us this day. Give us the strength to accept what is happening. Grant us peac-- *grunts from being shot*
96 Renata: Defensive positions, find cover! Those of you who are armed, shoot as soon as you see them!
97 Marissa: [sfx: speaker] Intruders reported on top level!
98 SOUND: sound of gas canister releasing
99 Saetang: They're using knockout gas! Everyone put your masks on!
100 SOUND: mask donning. remember subsequent voices will be muffled through masks
101 Ex-mayor: Here they come!
102 SOUND: weapons fire
103 Saetang: They seem to have energy shields that absorb my laser fire!
104 Ex-mayor: I'll try an explosive, maybe their shield won't work against that.
105 SOUND: grenade style weapon arm and toss and explosion like ep 5
106 Ex-mayor: Damn, point blank explosion and that one hardly seems to have felt it!
107 Saetang: We've got to think of something else, right now!
108 Ex-mayor: I don't see-- *grunt from being hit*
109 Renata: Dad!
110 Saetang: They got him.
111 Renata: [shouting over noise] Fall back if you can! Try to get to the storage levels!
112 SOUND: people attempting to flee
113 Saetang: There's another group coming at us from the direction of the elevator. I don't thin-- *grunts from being hit*
114 Renata: [shouting over noise] [with some panic] Who's left?! Follow me if you can, let's make a run-- *grunts from being hit*
115 SOUND: weapons fire ceases
116 Alien Three: Agbegbe ni ifipamo. Tesiwaju siwaju!
117 Alien Four: Oye, yorisi lori.
118 SOUND: aliens march on, end scene
119 SOUND: Peters quarters room tone
120 Marissa: [sfx: speaker] [speaking quickly with some panic but still trying to sound professional] Intruders have reached level three, advancing rapidly, weapons are useless, nearing my location, good luck everybody.
121 Therapist: Do you think there's still time to make it to the arboretum? Aniket and Judy are there, they're worried about us.
122 Peters: Probably not, and I wouldn't go anyway. But I'm glad the kids are safe.
123 Therapist: I'm surprised at you, Salish. I thought you had some sympathy for the returnists, your old friend Jesús Maradona certainly thought so.
124 Peters: That was a long time ago, and returning of our own free will was a whole different question from being hijacked and herded by aliens.
125 Therapist: Well, it sure sounds like we've lost the fight and won't have any say in the matter. We're unarmed, so just promise me you'll put your hands in the air when they break in and not make some suicidal lunge at them.
126 SOUND: Salish stands up and walks, grabs toolbox
127 Therapist: What are you doing?
128 Peters: Creating a third alternative.
129 Therapist: [sarcastic] Household maintenance is an alternative?
130 Peters: I'm going into the crawlspace between levels.
131 Therapist: But it's tiny, and you'll get lost or trapped and won't be able to turn around and there'll be nobody to call for help!
132 Peters: I've done it before for repairs. I know my way around.
133 Therapist: But what can you accomplish?
134 Peters: I don't know. Hopefully it'll buy me enough time to think of a plan.
135 Therapist: Well... good luck, Salish... but please don't be stuck in a crawlspace as the only human left after they've moved us all onto a ship to Earth.
136 Peters: That wouldn't be my ideal scenario either.
137 SOUND: end scene
138 SOUND: nightmare soundscape, maybe hell with screaming
139 Ex-mayor: [frightened and confused] Hello?
140 Renata: [sfx: softly and echoy] Why don't they show themselves?
141
Ex-mayor:
Renata, are you there?
Anyone?
We were being invaded, I think I was shot... what is this place?!
142 Monk: [sinisterly] Your own personal hell.
143 Ex-mayor: Where'd you come from?! You seem vaguely familiar.
144 Monk: I come from within.
145 Ex-mayor: Am I dead?
146 Monk: You might as well be. You've done everything you'll ever do. All that remains is to wait patiently for death to get around to you.
147 Ex-mayor: That's not true. I proved it wasn't true when I helped rescue Peters.
148 Monk: The last convulsion of a dying mind. Now you'll be a prisoner, the rest of your life wasted in transit to a world you've never known and never will know.
149 Ex-mayor: Earth.
150 Monk: The world you fought so hard to prevent returning to. A world where, if you were unlucky enough to survive the whole journey, you'd be an alien.
151 Judge: [sfx: echoy] [shouting instructions to crowd] Everyone, please try to gather yourselves into groups of ten and then don't move! Just for a few minutes!
152 Ex-mayor: I heard that! That was Judge Lee!
153 Monk: So?
154 Ex-mayor: So there's something happening out there in the real world, and I should be there!
155 Monk: What's the point? You're more doomed out there than you are in here.
156 Ex-mayor: There's always a point to trying.
157 Renata: [sfx: soft and echoy] Doctor, are you sure he'll be okay?
158 Monk: What about in a completely hopeless situation, where all you have to look forward to is incarceration?
159 Ex-mayor: There's always hope, there has to be. As long as I'm alive, I have to keep hoping and trying.
160 Stone: [sfx: louder and echoy] Can you hear me?
161 SOUND: nightmare fades out. fade in arboretum, with some mildly panicky crowd noise, include some babies crying
162 Ex-mayor: *groans awake*
163 Stone: He's coming around.
164 SOUND: footsteps approach
165 Renata: How do you feel, dad?
166 Ex-mayor: Like somebody took a hammer to my head.
167 Renata: We all know the feeling, the headache wears off, you were out for longer than anyone though.
168 Stone: Probably a matter of age, recovery time slows.
169 Ex-mayor: Thanks for reminding me I'm ancient. What's our situation?
170 Renata: They've dumped us all in the arboretum and sealed the exits.
171 Ex-mayor: At least we haven't been taken off our world yet. Did they get everyone?
172 Renata: We don't know. They haven't dumped anybody new in for a while so we think they've finished their initial sweep, I've got Judge Lee doing a head count... oh, here she comes now.
173 Judge: One hundred and eighty nine.
174 Renata: Including the ambassadors?
175 Judge: The ambassadors aren't here.
176 Ex-mayor: Our invaders probably wouldn't have been expecting any non-humans, maybe they're being given a special interrogation.
177 Renata: I prefer to think they're still free, along with ten of our people, working to get us out of here.
178 Judge: There is another possibility, of course.
179 Renata: What's that?
180 Judge: Everyone not here may have been killed.
181 SOUND: end scene
182 SOUND: interrogation room
183 Alien One: Who are you?
184 Ambassador One: I am Ambassador One.
185 Alien One: Ambassador from where?
186 Ambassador One: Another Earth country.
187 Alien One: You're obviously not human.
188 Ambassador One: We are another Earth species.
189 Alien One: Humans were the only Earth species during the last survey capable of even simple technology, and that was less than ten thousand years ago. Another could not have evolved so quickly.
190 Ambassador One: Genetic experiments created us.
191 Alien One: Horux, extract a genetic sample from Ambassador One.
192 Ambassador One: No, you do not understand our physiology, this could...
193 SOUND: slight struggle and extraction and handing over
194 Alien One: Thank you. I'll put this into the analyzer, and... I see you're from the planet known to humans as Gliese 667 Cc, Ambassador. Small population in the twilight zone of a tidally-locked world, achieved space travel a couple thousand years ago and interstellar flight more recently.
195 Ambassador One: It seems you do not need me to tell you anything.
196 Alien One: Why did you lie to me?
197 Ambassador One: Protecting our home is our first priority.
198 Alien One: It says here you use hibernation for your interstellar travel. That's a legal method, only relativistic speeds are illegal. Your home is in no danger from us.
199 Ambassador One: I am pleased to hear that.
200 Alien One: We found one other type of alien among you, but have been unable to establish communication.
201 Ambassador One: There are no other species but our kind and humans on board.
202 SOUND: com activation
203 Alien One: Bring in the small unidentified one.
204 SOUND: door opens, hexasteps enter while cat struggles and snarls
205 Ambassador One: Ah, I can see your mistake now. Despite the attitude of superiority, this is actually a lower Earth species which you will find incapable of complex communication.
206 SOUND: arboretum with crowd a little calmer
207 Judge: Besides the Ambassadors, I've figured out the missing people include Detective Ahmadi, Peters, and a bunch of ore miners.
208 Marissa: Safe to assume they're still holding Arash in one of their ships, they never sent him back.
209 Stone: Their refusal to return him, and the reactor explosion, suggests they may not have been on the level about removing his nanobots.
210 Marissa: [sarcastic] Thanks for that insight, genius.
211 Ex-mayor: So what happened to the miners?
212 Saetang: They were going to try to disguise a mine entrance and hide out below.
213 Renata: That's great, but how do we contact them?
214 SOUND: group walking on gravel
215 Saetang: We figured multicoms would be confiscated, so we hid a simple radio in the arboretum knowing at least some of us would be here for a while... that bush I believe.
216 SOUND: reaching into bush and pulling out radio
217 Saetang: Mayor, would you like to do the honors?
218 SOUND: tap to activate radio
219 Renata: Hello, anyone in the mines listening to me?
220 Jim: Jim O'Hara here.
221 Renata: Mr. O'Hara, What's your situation?
222 Jim: All quiet here, mayor. Are we winning?
223 Renata: I'm afraid not, your group and the ambassadors are the only ones not imprisoned in the arboretum at the moment.
224 Judge: And Peters.
225 Jim: Will you be wanting a jailbreak, then?
226 Ex-mayor: We don't have a plan yet, we'd just get recaptured and lose our only trump card.
227 Renata: Hold off on that, Mr. O'Hara.
228 Jim: Don't take too long, I'd hate to get up there and find they've already moved you over to their asteroid.
229 Renata: We'll be in touch every hour if the coast is clear.
230 SOUND: conversation end tone
231 Ex-mayor: Their weapons and defenses are too powerful to take them on directly.
232 Renata: Alternatives, anyone? Even if we could retake Mathilde, we also need a way to keep their asteroid from coming after us.
233 Saetang: More likely just destroying us at a distance with a relativisitic weapon if we prove too much trouble.
234 Stone: I might have an idea, though it's a long shot.
235 Renata: Explain.
236 Stone: They used Ahmadi to sabotage Mathilde, maybe we could use the same method to sabotage them. I have some nanobots I took out of Ahmadi, they're stashed in the bushes here with some other medical supplies I stowed.
237 Renata: You think you could reprogram them to work for us?
238 Stone: No, not a chance even if I had my lab and a year, but there's a chance we won't need to.
239 Renata: How's that?
240 Stone: From what we've seen they convince the controlled person that sabotage is the way to prevent conflict and make peace. If we could inject one of them over there, maybe they'd carry out the same program of sabotage there and try to prevent them from trying to destroy us?
241 Renata: Seems like a really tenuous extrapolation.
242 Stone: Well, yes. I'm not saying I think it's likely to work, it's just the only idea I have.
243 Renata: And would the nanobots work on their species?
244 Stone: That's another unknown. They might be targeted to humans or they might be adaptable to any brain structure.
245 Renata: And it took weeks to drive Ahmadi to sabotage, didn't it?
246 Stone: True, though that might've been because it had weeks to spare.
247 Renata: And the idea that their programming would be so vaugue as 'sabotage to bring peace', I just don't think I buy it. There are a hell of a lot of uncertainties there.
248 Stone: No doubt about that.
249 Renata: And it doesn't help us take back Mathilde.
250 Stone: True again. It's just all I've got, forget it.
251 SOUND: door opens, alien hexapod steps
252 Judge: Look, it's one of the aliens!
253 SOUND: crowd quiets in anticipation
254 Alien One: Attention, humans! Which one of you is your chief mechanic?
255 Marissa: [quietly] Don't tell them!
256 Larissa: That's me, Chief Mech Larissa Flint.
257 Alien One: Chief Mech Larissa Flint, you will come with me.
258 Marissa: Why? What do you want her for?
259 Alien One: That will be revealed to her shortly, not to you. Come, Larissa Flint.
260 SOUND: human footsteps, then both alien and human footsteps, door opens again
261 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode fourteen: Invasion.
262 Crowd: What do you think will happen to us?
263 Crowd: We should just wait it out, we can't control what happens anyway.
264 Crowd: It's for the best, I'll be happy to see Earth.
265 Crowd: I don't trust them. What've they herded us all in here for? Will they kill us?