9 characters: Marcus, Ahmadi, Announcer, Marissa, Stone, Therapist, Larissa, Alien One, Computer
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Marcus (45 lines, 1371 words, 56.37%) - [Glenn Hascall] Marcus Flint, father of Larissa and Marissa.
Ahmadi (44 lines, 630 words, 25.9%) - [Paul Knierim] Detective Arash Ahmadi is now 46 and married to Marissa Flint.
Therapist (5 lines, 86 words, 3.54%) - [Ahmad Joudeh] Doctor Tam Peters is the husband of Salish Peters and therapist to all.
Marissa (5 lines, 75 words, 3.08%) - [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.
Stone (4 lines, 57 words, 2.34%) - [John Gaunce] Doctor Stone has become ever more wrapped up in his research over the years and resents being torn away from it.
Larissa (2 lines, 40 words, 1.64%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Chief Mech Larissa Flint is now 40 years old and much more experienced than last season.
Alien One (1 line, 64 words, 2.63%) - [Meghan Schmitt] A six-legged, one meter tall, sturdily-built hermaphrodite alien with a trunk.
Computer (11 lines, 48 words, 1.97%) - [Ty DollaTree] The voice of the asteroid's central computer and individual multicoms and also the ship.
Announcer (3 lines, 61 words, 2.51%) - [Erin Suminsby] Reads opening, closing and credits.
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
Listen along as you read:
1 SOUND: ship room tone with engine noise
2
Marcus:
I hope somebody back there can hear me. I wish you'd reply, wish you'd let me know if you're safe, but maybe your transmitter took battle damage and maybe your receiver is still working. Or if you aliens are in control and are hearing me, please let me know.
I've only been in flight for a day, and I'm already going a bit stir crazy. Makes me wonder how I'm going to handle another 6 weeks. But at least my reward at the end will be epic wide open vistas as I've never seen outside the holotainments.
Maybe it's not the confinement that's getting to me so much as it's who I'm confined with. I volunteered for this thinking I'd have to deal with being alone forever, but it turns out I have to deal with being stuck in a tin can with my bastard of a son-in-law and the alien devices in his brain that've turned him into something even worse than usual.
3 Ahmadi: [tries to object through gag]
4
Marcus:
I've got him trussed up and gagged. Strictly speaking the gag may not be necessary, and I know I can't keep him gagged the whole trip, but it's creepy as hell hearing him talk. He tried to persuade me that he and his alien friends mean no harm, just days after he kidnapped my daughter and shot her in the leg, and they invaded our world.
And there's absolutely no privacy here, just a single room, even the toilet isn't separated, because this ship was never meant to have more than one person in it. So by gagging him, I guess it gives me a little illusion of alone time.
5 SOUND: alert beep, marcus moves to console and sits down to address it
6 Marcus: [business-like] Relativistic dust particles, they warned me about this... confirming the autopilot's evasive action plan and aligning the ship for maximal protection by the tanker.
7 SOUND: opening theme
8 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…
9 Announcer: Episode 15 - To Boldly Go
10 SOUND: ahmadi's dream, possibly all voices echoey
11 SOUND: running and screaming and weapons fire as heard muffled from a closet
12 Ahmadi: [frightened] What's going on out there?
13 Marissa: None of your concern. Patience.
14 Ahmadi: But, I'm responsible for it!
15 Stone: Your brain is not your own.
16 Ahmadi: I should've been strong enough to stop it, to keep control.
17 Stone: That would be like an ant who's being stepped on deciding to lift the person up by their foot and push them away.
18 Ahmadi: I could've warned somebody about me. Requested another examination. Something.
19 Stone: We're designed to not make you aware of our existence until we're fully able to control your decisions.
20 Ahmadi: Are you ever going to release me?
21 Marissa: We have no need for you at the moment so we'll relax control for now. Our instructions are to wait until the threat is gone and then deactivate.
22 Ahmadi: When will the threat be gone?
23 Marissa: Three weeks at currently projected fuel consumption.
24 Ahmadi: How am I supposed to live with this guilt? With the memories of what you've made me do, especially to my wife?
25 SOUND: therapist room tone?
26 Therapist: Tell me about it. How does it make you feel?
27 Ahmadi: Like a tool. Used.
28 Therapist: Have you considered that being used is a complement? It means somebody found you useful.
29 Ahmadi: I'd rather have gone on being called useless. A boring job was a lot better than being used by you, I didn't know how good I had it.
30 Therapist: The worst thing that could possibly happen to a person is to not be used for anything by anybody. Someday you'll thank me for using you, even though you didn't want to be used by anybody.
31 Ahmadi: I'll never be glad to have been forced to do evil.
32 Stone: We aren't evil, nor have we done evil with you.
33 Ahmadi: From where I'm standing you sure look evil.
34 Therapist: Without your assistance, the invasion would've happened just the same, only it would've taken a little longer and somebody might've been hurt.
35 Ahmadi: You don't know what happened. Maybe they beat you despite me.
36 Therapist: An absurd delusion.
37 SOUND: communications alert
38 Ahmadi: *yawning and stretching* Wake up, Marcus! It's gotta be for you, and my hands are tied.
39 Marcus: [hopeful] *yawning* Finally, they're answering my messages!
40 SOUND: rushes to chair, beep to accept transmission
41 Larissa: [sfx: processed] Hi dad, we don't have much time. The invaders are in control, but I think we're all alive.
42 Marissa: [sfx: processed] They dumped us in the arboretum and they're taking a few at a time over to their asteroid.
43 Larissa: They'll be demolishing the communications dish shortly so we don't have much time, but I wanted to let you know we survived.
44 Marissa: And we'll still get out of this and regain control somehow, dad. They haven't beaten us yet.
45 Alien One: They have assuredly been defeated, but we're gracious victors. We will deliver them them back to Earth, and we will take the opportunity to warn Earth of the consequences of repeating your bad behavior. And you will be allowed to continue your mission as long as you continue decelerating. You will be allowed one reply message not to exceed thirty seconds length. End transmission.
46 Marcus: [to self] You must be afraid of our people getting control back and telling Earth something about you...
47 Ahmadi: Wow. What should we say?
48 Marcus: *You* don't need to say anything. Computer, begin thirty second recording for transmission.
49 Computer: Recording initiated.
50 Marcus: It's good to hear your voices and know you're at least alive even though you're not free. In case you haven't figured it out, Ahmadi stowed away with me and remotely detonated your reactor.
51 Ahmadi: Marissa, I'm so sorry, I should've been able--
52 Marcus: Shut up Ahmadi, I'm on the clock here. 15 seconds now to try to say the things I could never say when we were togeather. But I guess all I really want to say is I'm sorry, I wish we could've had a better relationship, and I'm proud of you both. And I know your mother would've been proud if she could see you today.
53 SOUND: beep to indicate time up
54 Computer: Time has elapsed.
55 Marcus: Transmit.
56 SOUND: transition music (use same each time)
57 Marcus: Computer, begin report for day 10.
58 Computer: Recording, you may begin.
59 Marcus: Things have settled into a routine. I get up each morning -- well, I call it morning whenever I get up -- and review the night's sensor logs and any trajectory adjustments that were made to keep us out of the path of dangerous particles. We're still at 63% of light speed, so pretty much everything is dangerous except for the interstellar medium -- a few hydrogen atoms won't hurt me. We're approaching from below the stellar plane to reduce the dust risk, and luckily Tau Ceti's Oort cloud is thinner than normal despite the inner system being so much denser than normal. Or is the latter the reason for the former? Anyway, the ship is holding up well so far.
60 Ahmadi: Calling it 'the ship' doesn't seem right, it needs a name.
61 Marcus: There's only one of them. You only need names when there's two or more.
62 Ahmadi: But it seems wrong.
63 Marcus: I don't think Prospero named the boat he and Miranda were cast to sea in.
64 Ahmadi: Is that how you see us?
65 Marcus: Isn't it how we are? I've fled my home, not with my daughter but with my son-in-law, and we're going to spend the rest of our lives marooned on one of two probably-desolate islands in the galactic sea. One of them's even named Miranda.
66 Ahmadi: Well then, I propose we name the ship Ariel.
67 Marcus: You can call it that if you'd like.
68 SOUND: transition music
69 Marcus: Ariel, begin journal for day 20.
70 Computer: Recording, you may begin.
71 Marcus: I've had a lot of time to think lately. Almost all of my time. I've been doing some self-reflection. In the process, I've realized I've been a bit unfair to Ahmadi.
72 Ahmadi: Oh?
73 Marcus: I've made some terrible decisions in my time, I've made enemies of family and friends, and I didn't have nanobots controlling my prefrontal cortex. It's not really fair of me to hold him responsible for what he did while under their control, especially when I haven't been able to control myself. But that's part of why I had such a visceral reaction to Ahmadi, because he reminded me that I have no excuse for my own failures. To come to grips with my own past, I think I need to forgive him.
74 Ahmadi: I wish I could forgive myself.
75 Marcus: And really, I've been resenting him for years. No, well over a decade if I'm honest. Maybe it's because he was able to turn Marissa's hate for him into love, while I couldn't. Somehow he did in a year what I never could. So he's been a reminder that something deep inside me is broken, the part of me that should be able to reach out and apologize and mend broken fences.
76 Ahmadi: Apology accepted.
77 SOUND: ahmadi stumbles and falls
78 Ahmadi: *cries out in pain* I can't take much more of this gravity. I almost wish you hadn't untied me.
79 Marcus: I feel heavy, but not that bad. I guess the injections have been worth something.
80 Ahmadi: What is it at the moment, five gees?
81 Marcus: Two point eight gee. As we shed more fuel mass it's going to get a lot worse.
82 Ahmadi: I don't think I'll be able to handle that!
83 Marcus: Pretty soon you'll have to wear the gee suit and spend all your time horizontal, strapped into the takeoff couch to prevent your blood pooling in your feet.
84 Ahmadi: Great. What are *you* going to do though?
85 Marcus: I'm going to wish we had more than one couch, but I've already been doing that. I'll have to lie on the floor most of the time when it gets extreme.
86 SOUND: transition music
87 Ahmadi: Ariel, begin my personal journal for day 30.
88 Computer: Recording, you may begin.
89 Marcus: Should I plug my ears?
90
Ahmadi:
I think they're gone. They said they'd be gone. But there's no way to make sure without Doctor Stone putting me under a scanner, and I'm never going to see him again. The only thing I can do is hope and assume that my thoughts are my own and not being determined by an outside agency. I suppose that's all anybody has ever been able to do, it's just most of them have never been proved wrong about it before like I have. It's such a bizarre, jarring experience to realize that a lot of the things you'd been thinking weren't your own choice, but not knowing exactly how much. But maybe my experience is like some mental illnesses, where you may recognize you weren't in control of your mind for a while and you never know if or when you'll lose control again. Because nothing is guaranteed to last, everything can be lost in an instant.
The isolation has been hard. Marcus chose this, I didn't. I've never wanted to explore strange new worlds, though I look forward to it now as an alternative to being trapped in here. It's hard to come to terms with being cut off from your loved ones forever, and even from the people who you didn't really like much at the time but kinda miss now, like Detective Saetang and the mayor. I miss the normality, the routine of being surrounded by the same two hundred people I'd always been around -- I mean, there were births and deaths, but those are gradual.
91 Marcus: You're rambling, Arash.
92 Ahmadi: Hey, it's my journal, let me ramble.
93 SOUND: transition music
94 SOUND: party music sounds
95 Marcus: Ariel, begin mission report for day 40.
96 Computer: Recording, you may begin.
97
Marcus:
As you can hear, we've in a festive mood right now. That's because we've officially crossed the heliosheath, meaning we're now inside the Tau Ceti system by all definitions! It's been a long time in the void and this marks the start of the home stretch. We're going to cover a distance that took 20th century Earth's Voyager probes 40 years, within the next 5 days. But we've slowed down so much already that we're safe from the expected sizes of dust particles.
Normally these days we'd be lying down trying to endure the force of our deceleration, but I've dialed back the engines for a little while so we can celebrate this moment. I've been having to dial it back a few times a day just so we can stand up to feed ourselves and relieve ourselves... lucky I can do it by voice command or we'd be stuck.
98 SOUND: transition music
99 Marcus: Ariel, begin mission report for day 45.
100 Computer: Recording, you may begin.
101 Marcus: This is it. The big day. What it's all been for. I'd be leaping for joy about it, but that's impossible in this gravity.
102 Ahmadi: [struggling] You should feel it without your injections. I can't lift a finger and I can barely stay conscious.
103 Marcus: Hey, you got the only gee suit. It was meant for me.
104 Computer: Primary burn will end in ten seconds.
105 Marcus: In a moment, the struggle be over. We'll go from heavier than you can imagine to weightless in the blink of an eye.
106 SOUND: engine noise stops
107 Ahmadi: Whew! I feel like an elephant just got off my chest.
108 SOUND: momentary engine spurt, pause, then another
109 Marcus: We're turning over...
110 Computer: Prepare for orbital insertion burn in ten seconds.
111 Marcus: Now the gravity will come back for about five seconds, but not so extreme as before.
112 SOUND: 5 seconds engine noise
113 Marcus: With any luck...
114 Computer: Orbital insertion confirmed.
115 Marcus: [getting excited] And that's what we've been waiting to hear for 45 days!
116 SOUND: dedocking sound
117 Computer: Undocking from tanker is complete.
118 Ahmadi: Have you picked a landing spot?
119 Marcus: It'll have to be equatorial to be warm enough. And we were advised to pick an island if possible to limit our contamination of the native ecosystem.
120 Ahmadi: How about that one? It's a big island, and you can see something's growing there.
121 Marcus: We also need a safe landing spot, something flat, there's a lot of hills there and the vegetation may be too thick.
122 Ahmadi: This little mesa looks pretty bare.
123 Marcus: But does that mean it's too dry and we wouldn't find water?
124 Ahmadi: There's a river about... 3 kilometers from it. If we can get down to it.
125 Marcus: Shouldn't be an issue. On the off chance we can't find a hiking path, the gravity and air density of Eddington will let us glide down on simple wings. I think this'll be a good spot.
126 Ahmadi: Watch out Eddington, here we come!
127 SOUND: descent, wind and hull stress and plasma noise
128 Ahmadi: [loudly over noise] Are you sure it's supposed to do this?!
129 Marcus: [loudly over noise] How many times do you think I've landed on another world?
130 Ahmadi: [loudly over noise] Didn't they train you?!
131 Marcus: [loudly over noise] Well, they said there'd be turbulence.
132 Ahmadi: [loudly over noise] But the hull is glowing hot! And those sparks!
133 Marcus: [loudly over noise] Superheated plasma. I mean, we might be about to die, but there's nothing I can do about it. The ship is landing itself.
134 Ahmadi: [loudly over noise] Let's hope it knows what it's doing.
135 SOUND: powered touchdown sounds, perhaps from an outside perspective
136 Marcus: Welcome to Eddington!
137 Ahmadi: We're alive!
138 Marcus: Don't know about you, but I'm ready to get out there and enjoy some wide open spaces!
139 Ahmadi: Go ahead, open the hatch.
140 SOUND: hatch opens, marcus stands up and walks a few paces
141 Ahmadi: You go first, of course.
142 SOUND: sound of jumping down to dirt
143 Marcus: That's one small step for me, one giant leap for the people who got us here but will never know we made it or what we found.
144 SOUND: closing theme
145 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode fifteen: To Boldly Go.