19 characters: Announcer, Ravi, Anton, Peters, Hernandez, Singh, Marissa, Saetang, Lawrence, Stone, Priest, Zainab, Mateo, Therapist, Larissa, Doomer Priest, Henry, Ekkert, Lambert
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Marissa (14 lines, 252 words, 7.95%) - [Virginia Hargrove] Marissa Flint is 68 years old, still communications chief because she likes her job. [complete]
Larissa (5 lines, 48 words, 1.51%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Larissa Flint. Younger sister of Marissa. Formerly chief mechanic, now retired at age 62. [complete]
Ekkert (10 lines, 163 words, 5.14%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Larissa's evil twin. [complete]
Peters (33 lines, 469 words, 14.79%) - [David Loftus] Salish Peters, former chief mechanic and former mission specialist, now retired. Now aged 92 years. Developing dementia, but doesn't know it yet. [complete]
Therapist (14 lines, 423 words, 13.34%) - [Ahmad Joudeh] Tam Peters, therapist to all and husband of Salish Peters. [complete]
Hernandez (16 lines, 388 words, 12.24%) - [Lindsay White] Eva Hernandez has been the mayor's aide for 20 years. She'd kinda like a crack at the big job herself, since she feels like she's already doing most of the work. But she loves Mayor Hu (more than he'll ever know), so she's not going to make her move while he's in charge. [complete]
Singh (15 lines, 150 words, 4.73%) - [Loretta Chang] Doctor Yen Singh is a competent medic who cares about her patients with solid bedside manner. She's not nearly as interested in theoretical stuff and research as her predecessor Doctor Stone was. [complete]
Henry (3 lines, 32 words, 1.01%) - [Steve Ezeta] Now serving as moderator for a mayoral candidate statement event. [complete]
Doomer Priest (1 line, 88 words, 2.78%) - [Kiersten Greenfield] Luca Patel, leader of the doomsday cult. Believes that the end of the world is just and should be accelerated. [complete]
Ravi (7 lines, 105 words, 3.31%) - [Ed Shalayda] Ravi Davis. [complete]
Mateo (13 lines, 162 words, 5.11%) - [Richard N] Mission candidate. [complete]
Zainab (14 lines, 153 words, 4.83%) - [Roo Ryder] Mission candidate. [complete]
Priest (10 lines, 116 words, 3.66%) - [David Nagel] Long-serving religious services provider. [complete]
Lawrence (11 lines, 291 words, 9.18%) - [James Lorenz] Astronomy chief Lawrence. [complete]
Lambert (2 lines, 10 words, 0.32%) - [Walter Mack] Random person working in hydroponics. [complete]
Stone (11 lines, 86 words, 2.71%) - [John Gaunce] John Stone, acting botany chief. [complete]
Saetang (10 lines, 137 words, 4.32%) - [Sova Reign] Detective Aranya Saetang. [complete]
Anton (1 line, 24 words, 0.76%) - [Briar Rogers] Repair detail member. [complete]
Announcer (5 lines, 73 words, 2.3%) - [Erin Suminsby] Reads opening, closing and credits. [complete]
Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)
Listen along as you read:
1 Announcer: Previously on 253 Mathilde...
2 SOUND: will insert clips of important things to remember at beginning of each episode
3 Announcer: And now...
4 SOUND: medical, couple of bed beeps
5 Ravi: [weakly, injured] We were lucky to discover the bomb, that's why only Anton and I were hurt.
6 Anton: [sfx: from side] [weakly, injured] If Chief Davis hadn't recognized it and had me order immediate evcuation, I doubt everyone would've made it out before the air was gone.
7 Peters: Do you think, were they trying to kill you?
8 Ravi: [weakly, injured] Working out the motivations of doomers isn't really our area, mayor.
9 Peters: Wait, do we know it was doomers?
10 Hernandez: [annoyed] Who else would it be?
11 Peters: Oh. Well, uh... [struggles to remember name] Davis, when do you think you can have it fixed?
12 Singh: [sfx: approaching] Mayor, these two aren't going back on duty for at least a week, they need to heal.
13 Ravi: [weakly, injured] We -- or somebody else -- can close up the hole in a couple days. You'd better talk to the people who are actually out there instead of in bed, but I've been told nothing outside that one room was damaged.
14 Peters: So we can just close that room and do the level 4 re-opening ceremony soon?
15 Hernandez: Surely you won't want to consider repopulating until after Detective Saetang finishes her investigation...
16 Ravi: [weakly, injured] Mayor, given what happened we shouldn't repopulate until we've got air on level 3 so it's harder to breach to a vaccuum. And that could be a while.
17 Peters: You think it might happen again?
18 Ravi: [weakly, injured] Don't you?
19 Peters: This wasn't an accident, it was intentional?
20 Ravi: [frustrated] We've been through this, I literally saw the bomb!
21 Peters: Do you think they were trying to kill you?
22 Ravi: [sighs with frustration]
23 Hernandez: Excuse me, mayor... I have an appointment to get to.
24 Peters: Oh? Okay.
25 Singh: [sfx: approaching again] Mayor, these two should get some sleep now.
26 SOUND: she walks out, door closes
27 SOUND: opening theme
28 Announcer: Quiet Please dot org presents Two Fifty Three Mathilde. After leaving the solar system in the 22nd century, the asteroid 253 Mathilde now travels the galaxy at near light speed. For her residents, the journey has been 134 years... for the rest of the galaxy, it's been hundreds of thousands of years.
29 Announcer: Episode 26 - The Twin Paradox
30 SOUND: medical, door opens, footsteps enter
31 Singh: Marissa, what can I do for you?
32 Marissa: It's about my sister again.
33 Singh: You know, there are patient confidentiality rules.
34 Marissa: I think I just need to vent.
35 Singh: Vent away.
36 Marissa: During those memory lapses, she becomes so different. So cold, so distant, like I'm looking at a stranger. First few times I thought I might be imagining it, but it's a pattern so now I know when she's having one of those episodes before she does. Sometimes she has that little bit of nausea too, sometimes not.
37 Singh: Why haven't you brought her to me during one of her episodes?
38 Marissa: Because like I said, she's a stranger and I can't get through to her, and she usually walks out, and I don't see her again until she's herself again and wondering where the time went.
39 Singh: Still...
40 Marissa: You're right, next time I'll call security if I have to. But the lapses seem to have subsided the last few days.
41 Singh: That's good news.
42 Marissa: I'm not so sure.
43 SOUND: they walk a little bit, doctor fiddles with some equipment, eventually sits down in office chair
44 Singh: Huh?
45 Marissa: Because ever since the lapses subsided, she's been a mess.
46 Singh: How?
47 Marissa: She seems to be sleeping as long as ever, but she doesn't feel rested in the mornings. Each of the past few mornings she's woken up seeming more tired than when she went to bed.
48 Singh: Any idea why?
49 Marissa: She says her nightmares have gotten more intense.
50 SOUND: gets out of chair
51 Singh: I think this is all more Doctor Peters' area than mine. I wish I could listen more, but if you'll excuse me, there's a section chiefs meeting I've got to get to... actually you should be heading there too Chief Flint, so we can talk a little more on the way.
52 SOUND: end scene
53 SOUND: some meeting room background
54 Hernandez: Chiefs, we've got a serious problem on our hands. The doomers have changed their weapon of choice from words to bombs. How we react now will decide the future of our world.
55 Saetang: I have to agree. We need some inspired leadership.
56 Hernandez: Unfortunately, Mayor Peters doesn't know what he's saying half the time and he's getting worse every day. Don't tell him I told you, but if anybody hasn't figured it out yet, he has dementia. He just froze up and went blank while interviewing the mission candidates. And he's always repeating himself.
57 Saetang: The doomers have been capitalizing on the mayor's weakness, I'd estimate their followers have tripled in the month and a half he's been in office.
58 Hernandez: People are worried, they're scared. Everybody can feel we're at critical juncture. The mayor doesn't have a coherent narrative to offer them, and the doomers do.
59 Lawrence: There must be somebody neutral we could agree on as a new acting mayor. How about Doctor Singh?
60 Singh: I don't have the time or patience for politics, leave me out of this.
61 Hernandez: Why not just hold the election we promised? We could do it real quick.
62 Stone: We did one fast 40 years ago, when Renata Mutumbo was elected after her father resigned.
63 Lawrence: Really it boils down to how much campaign time we need to fairly judge our candidates.
64 Hernandez: Everybody in our world knows everybody else, I don't think we need to wait for voters to get to know the candidates.
65 Lawrence: So how quickly are you suggesting, Eva?
66 Hernandez: We could hold the election tomorrow. We can't afford to let this situation go on like this.
67 Lawrence: You feel you're the default candidate and a snap election will limit chances for a strong opponent to emerge. And you're desperate to take over before the mission launches so you can cancel it.
68 Hernandez: You should see Doctor Peters about your paranoia, Chief Lawrence.
69 SOUND: door opens, footsteps enter
70 Peters: THERE you all are!
71 SOUND: somebody coughs
72 Hernandez: [awkwardly] Mayor.
73 Peters: What's going on, why are the section chiefs meeting without me?!
74 SOUND: chair swivel, perhaps singh rises
75 Singh: Mayor... you can't just keep carrying on as if nothing has changed. Things can't be as they were.
76 Peters: So you're all conspiring behind my back?! Chief Lawrence, you begged me to take this job, this is how you repay me?! And you, Eva... even you?! Et tu, Brute?
77 Hernandez: We're just trying to accelerate the election you wanted.
78 Peters: The one you wanted me to organize, and you're doing it behind my back?!
79 Hernandez: We didn't want to bother you.
80 Singh: You need your rest, mayor.
81 SOUND: temple
82 Priest: I've been expecting the two of you. Welcome.
83 Zainab: Father, you've talked with so many people just before they our world...
84 Priest: 24 who left the way you and Mateo are leaving, and probably close to a hundred who passed on to the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.
85 Mateo: [wryly] All of our explorers also went to undiscovered countries from which return was an impossibility, so I don't think you've actually distinguished the two scenarios.
86 Priest: Well, they have managed to send us transmissions and that's more than I can say for our dead. But I think your wife had a question for me?
87 Zainab: I want to know they felt. The ones whose footsteps we're following.
88 SOUND: pause
89 Priest: Should they all have felt the same?
90 Zainab: Their situations were the same. That should make their feelings the same.
91 Priest: Oh?
92 Zainab: There must've been commonalities, at least.
93 Mateo: Sorry, she gets like this sometimes.
94 SOUND: pause
95 Priest: I suppose they all seemed worried, a bit somber.
96 Zainab: Afraid?
97 Priest: Maybe. Or maybe more of a natural hesitancy about leaving everyone and everything they'd ever known behind them.
98 Zainab: I see.
99 Priest: But I don't sense that from either of you...
100 Mateo: Our circumstances are different.
101 Priest: How?
102 Mateo: We're going to our ancestral planet, reclaiming what we've all left behind us. And we're taking each other along.
103
Priest:
I see.
Do you have a sacrifice?
104 Zainab: I brought this necklace. It was made on Earth in 2033.
105 SOUND: sound of necklace removal.
106 Mateo: And I brought my old gen 2 holo projector. Won't be needing it anymore and it doesn't have much salvage value, feels appropriate to burn it.
107 SOUND: things burn
108 SOUND: therapy room, door opens
109 Therapist: Salish, what brings you to my work?
110 Peters: Have you got a few minutes, Tam?
111 Therapist: Twenty before my next appointment.
112 Peters: Well... I'm not sure if I need you to be my husband or my therapist, either way I need to talk.
113 Therapist: Sit down. Are you feeling tired and confused, any other dementia symptoms? Maybe Doctor Singh can adjust your meds...
114 Peters: I don't need more meds. It's this... this job.
115 Therapist: Not as easy as it was 20 years ago, is it?
116 Peters: They're outright conspiring against me behind my back now, Tam. It's not paranoia, I caught them. And sometimes they yell at me... I mean outright yell.
117 Therapist: You're not the only one in pain right now, Salish.
118 Peters: What?
119 Therapist: And for a lot of people, you're the symbol and constant stinging reminder of their deepest wound.
120 Peters: I am?
121 Therapist: For you, Mayor Hu was just your 4th mayor... for a lot of people, he's the only mayor they can remember. You worked with him briefly during the transition but then you were retired and barely saw him for 20 years. His death didn't really matter to you.
122 Peters: That's not true.
123 Therapist: You didn't feel it the way others did. Like Eva Hernandez, do you realize how close she and Mayor Hu became? And now you're sitting in his chair all day, giving her instructions, when she feels like she should've been his successor. Is it any wonder if she resents you?
124 Peters: Well...
125 Therapist: And all the section chiefs, they miss Mayor Hu. They're trying to process the loss, trying to mourn, but they haven't had a chance because we've been in crisis mode. Most people knew somebody else who died that day too. And then the loss of Chief Tojo right after. It's been blow after blow.
126 Peters: I... I understand that, it affects me too.
127 Therapist: But let's be honest Salish, none of the people we lost have been at the top of your mind. Not just because you didn't know them as well, but because you learned about your own condition and you've been trying to process that.
128 Peters: Admittedly my own impending death has kind of moved the deaths of others to the background.
129 Therapist: You're in pain, but people don't know that, and they don't see you sharing *their* pain. They see you pushing ahead with the mission to Earth and telling them how inspirational it is while they feel empty inside.
130 Peters: So you think we shouldn't go...
131 Therapist: I didn't say that, I agree with the Earth mission, I think most of the chiefs agree with it too, but they can't feel the same way about it as you do. For you, it's the feather in your cap. The culmination of your life's work.
132 Peters: The last great thing I get to oversee before I die.
133 Therapist: Exactly. For you the Earth mission is your legacy, the thing that makes it easier to cope with your terminal illness. But for most of our people, it's in their middle of their lives. It's the last exploration they get to participate in, but they feel sad about that. And scared... scared for the future, for their children's future. And you're not speaking to them, not in their emotional language.
134 Peters: Maybe I wasn't the right choice for this job.
135 Therapist: Maybe nobody was, except for Mayor Hu.
136 SOUND: scene end
137 SOUND: marissa's quarters
138 SOUND: door beep as in ep 5
139 SOUND: marissa gets up and goes to open door
140 Marissa: Detective, what can I do for you?
141 Saetang: Is Larissa home?
142 Marissa: Right over there on the couch.
143 Saetang: I need to speak with her.
144 Marissa: Well, come in.
145 SOUND: she enters, door closes, they go to couch
146 Larissa: Detective?
147 Saetang: Larissa, I need to ask you a few questions.
148 Larissa: Sure, happy to help.
149 Saetang: Where were you at three o'clock yesterday morning?
150 Larissa: We're day shift, so I was asleep... having more nightmares I think.
151 Saetang: Marissa, can you confirm?
152 Marissa: Well, I was asleep too... but I can tell you she went to bed at her usual time and I got up before she did this morning. What's this about?
153 Saetang: [awkwardly] I suppose you should know... Larissa, your access code was used by the people who planted the bomb. They used your code to access level 4 and disable the cameras.
154 Larissa: Damn, I wonder how they got that?
155 Marissa: But the code shouldn't have been enough, what about the biometric layer? The computer wouldn't accept a code that doesn't match the biometrics!
156 Saetang: Biometric scanners might be fooled or bypassed by someone clever enough, that's why we require both layers.
157 Larissa: Have you tried tracing nearby cameras to see if they show one of the doomers traveling to or from the scene of the crime?
158 Saetang: I do know how to do my job, yes. Unfortunately they took out the cameras worldwide for 15 minutes, just looked like a system bug at the time.
159 SOUND: end scene
160 SOUND: footsteps approach
161 Peters: [sfx: voice approaches] Mateo, Zainab!
162 Mateo: Yes mayor?
163 Peters: Just, just call me Salish, you're about to leave my jurisdiction, and I guess I'm not gonna be mayor long, much longer, anyway. Before, I mean before you go, I wanted to give you this.
164 SOUND: book handover
165 Zainab: [confused/curious] An old book?
166 SOUND: opening and thumbing pages
167 Mateo: 'Gravitation'...
168 Peters: An original, 20th century... what year was it?
169 SOUND: thumbs to title
170 Mateo: 1973. A bit yellowed, a few page tears, but looking pretty good for... [calculates] 268 years old.
171 Zainab: So what's the story behind it, why do you want us to take it?
172 Peters: It's because, I mean, Commander Peters. My great grandfather, Commander Peters. He gave it to me, for my 10th birthday -- that was just before he died. Could hardly understand a word, just gobbledygook to me that age, but it inspired. Inspired me to keep learning, 'till I could make sense of it, follow the math. Prolly what made me the kinda engineer I am, I mean was.
173 Zainab: But mayor... I mean, Salish, why would you give us something so precious to you? It belongs with you and your family!
174 Peters: It came from Earth, it should return to Earth. I'd of passed it to my children, I mean someday, an inheritance, you know, but you know Aniket and Judy were taken, taken in the invasion, taken back to Earth by those aliens who fancied themselves the galactic police. So I'd consider, y'know, consider it a favor... if you'd take the book with you, take it to the eternal resting place of my children, their children, hopefully many more generations.
175 Mateo: We'd be honored.
176 Peters: [kidding] Now you'd better get going, don't want the ship to take off without you!
177 SOUND: transition
178 SOUND: ship
179 Zainab: It's hard to believe this is really it. Our very last minutes on the only world we've ever known.
180 Mateo: [joking] Yes, we're about to pass on to a better world and join the spirits of our ancestors... regardless of whether this ship blows up on launch or not.
181 Zainab: Don't joke about that. It's bad luck.
182 SOUND: communications beep, press to accept
183 Lawrence: [sfx: processed] Congratulations, you two! I only wish I could go with you!
184 Mateo: You'll be with us in spirit.
185 Zainab: We'll try to send you a signal when we get there.
186 Lawrence: [sfx: processed] We're going so fast now I think it'll be at least 10 years for us before we can receive your message.
187 Mateo: Which would make it, what, another couple hundred thousand for us on Earth to hear your reply?
188 Lawrence: [sfx: processed] [kidding] Don't wait up for it.
189 Peters: [sfx: processed] The chief, he may be around then, ten years, to hear... no chance for me.
190 SOUND: awkward silence
191 Zainab: Well you may live a lot longer than us, since you'll pass a hundred Earth years in like a week your time.
192 Mateo: Requesting permission to depart before this conversation gets any more morbid, mayor.
193 Peters: [sfx: processed] Granted. Godspeed.
194 SOUND: engines rev up and launch, fades into epically wistful music link
195 SOUND: public space for candidate statements
196 Doomer Priest: I am the only candidate for mayor who can help you all face the end with dignity. All of them will peddle you the lie that things can go on as they were, I tell you the truth that this world is ending and I offer you the choice to be happy and embrace it! My first action as mayor will be to stop repairs to the damaged levels. My second action will be to eliminate all food rationing. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!
197 Henry: Thank you, Ms. Patel. Our next candidate statement will be from Astronomy Chief Lawrence.
198 Lawrence: I believe in looking outward for our inspiration. We're a world of explorers. The era of sending our envoys to alien planets ended when Mateo and Zainab Juma launched for Earth, but our journey is only beginning. Our engines are no longer running to keep our course curved within our galaxy, so we've started to fly off at a tangent into the intergalactic void. What are we going to learn about this new region of our universe? And what will we discover when we become the first people to see our milky way galaxy from the outside? I believe some of our most exciting science is still ahead of us. We need a mayor who values that, a mayor who'll keep us looking outward instead of turning inward on ourselves.
199 Henry: Finally, let's hear from candidate Eva Hernandez.
200 Hernandez: We don't need big ideas. That era is over and done. What we need is stable competent management, an experienced leader who can restore order and get everything running smoothly. I've been working in the mayor's office for 20 years and I know how to get things done, I just need your authorization. Our final generation has been born, so it's time to plan and allocate for their needs over the next century. Things will change, their lives won't always be as easy, but we can give them a good shot to enjoy their lives to the very end. My administration will be the first step in this careful process of making sure our children have a future they can look forward to, one where they'll be able to maintain systems and keep themselves fed as our population dwindles. There's no time to lose.
201 Lawrence: That's rich, Eva Hernandez presenting herself as the picture of stability and reliability.
202 Hernandez: And WHAT do you mean by THAT?
203 Lawrence: You know, most everybody knows your story. The outbursts, the weeks you wouldn't report for work, the bipolar diagnosis...
204 Hernandez: [angry] I've had that under control with medication for *decades* and it's DEEPLY inappropriate for you to make it a campaign issue!
205 Lawrence: You don't sound calm and stable and composed right now, Eva. A mayor has to keep their cool.
206 Henry: Let's please turn the discussion to the issues facing our world.
207 SOUND: transition
208 SOUND: hydroponics, door opens
209 Ekkert: Lambert, can you direct me to Chief Stone?
210 Lambert: He's in his office, over there.
211 Ekkert: You've been helpful.
212 SOUND: footsteps
213 Lambert: [sfx: receding] I aim to please.
214 SOUND: opens and closes office door, which shuts out the noise of hydroponics
215 Stone: Larissa, what can I do for you?
216 Ekkert: [spite] There's no fixing what you already did for me 42 years ago.
217 Stone: Huh?
218 Ekkert: Stand up slowly, keep your hands where I can see them and move away from the desk.
219 SOUND: he does so during following line
220 SOUND: unsheathing knife
221 Stone: Larissa! What are you doing with that knife?!
222 Ekkert: It's not just a knife, it's a very special kind of knife. You of all people should recognize it.
223 Stone: A scalpel?
224 Ekkert: Just like the one you used to murder me. Fitting, isn't it? I do like to get these details just right so I can savor my moment of revenge.
225 Stone: [panic building] What did I ever do to you?! What's wrong with you, Larissa?!
226 Ekkert: [derisively] I'm not Larissa, you old idiot. I'm Ekkert, the clone of Larissa you created 42 years ago. The person you brought to life solely to destroy and harvest. I suppose that makes you my father in a way.
227 Stone: What? You mean two minds in one body? But you had no experiences, your brain tissue should've fully integrated!
228 Ekkert: Guess you're not quite the genius you think you are.
229 SOUND: a few steps
230 Stone: [scared] You're not really going to...
231 Ekkert: I am.
232 Stone: [panic] It was nothing personal, I was trying to save a life!
233 Ekkert: I'm going to slice your wrinkled old body from end to end, and we'll see how the great Doctor Stone enjoys a dose of his own medicine.
234 SOUND: footsteps approach
235 Stone: [scared] Stay back! Get away from me!
236 SOUND: knife plunge and squishy tissue and struggle and tussle
237 Stone: [give me 30 seconds of screams of being repeatedly stabbed and sliced while desperately failing to fend off an attacker, and I'll cut it down]
238 SOUND: end theme
239 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode twenty six: The Twin Paradox.