15 characters: Announcer, Tojo, Doctor, Guard, Interrogator, Marissa, Mayor Hu, Ramachandran, Cmdr Peters, Controller, Eight, Crew One, Crew Two, Patel, Silva
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Cmdr Peters (30 lines, 387 words, 8.77%) - [Brian Hunt] Commander Peters is a bigger than life personality, the face of the mission, the commander of the asteroid. He has a sense of humor and a temper. [complete]
Tojo (125 lines, 1445 words, 32.74%) - [Gwenith Knight] Chief Tojo is stuck in the past. [complete]
Controller (30 lines, 605 words, 13.71%) - [Mel Crochemore] Mission controller relaying Earth's decisions. Accent undetermined, but something non-American. [complete]
Interrogator (46 lines, 647 words, 14.66%) - [Steff Knappe] An interrogator working for some sort of security agency attached to the United Nations Space Agency. [complete]
Doctor (14 lines, 282 words, 6.39%) - [ShiroSakuraVA] A doctor specializing in decontamination exams, working for the United Nations Space Agency at a spaceport in Tamil Nadu, India. Tamil or Indian accent preferred but not required. A bit jaded and uncaring, going through the motions. [complete]
Ramachandran (20 lines, 475 words, 10.76%) - [Gwendolyn Lim] Dr. Devi Ramachandran. She's a physics professor and researcher from the University of Tirunelveli. Indian accent, preferably one prevalent in Tamil Nadu but I'll take what I can get, she could've moved from another state. [complete]
Guard (4 lines, 31 words, 0.7%) - [bot] A guard at a space agency facility in Tamil Nadu, India. Indian accent, preferably one prevalent in Tamil Nadu. [complete]
Marissa (11 lines, 141 words, 3.19%) - [Virginia Hargrove] Marissa Flint [complete]
Mayor Hu (5 lines, 107 words, 2.42%) - [Patrick McCook] Deceased mayor. [complete]
Crew One (4 lines, 42 words, 0.95%) - [CoreyVA] Just a random new crew member. Prefer non-American accent. [complete]
Crew Two (3 lines, 19 words, 0.43%) - [bot] Just a random new crew member. Prefer non-American accent. [complete]
Patel (6 lines, 39 words, 0.88%) - [Sweena Mangal] Newly-appointed mission commander. Indian accent. Gender flexible. [complete]
Eight (8 lines, 95 words, 2.15%) - [bot] A Centaurian. [complete]
Silva (2 lines, 37 words, 0.84%) - [Audrey J Williams] Distant future mayor Emiko Silva. In her 90s. [complete]
Announcer (5 lines, 62 words, 1.4%) - [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: weird medical sounds, look up various medical machines
5 Tojo: Do you really have to put me through all this?!
6 Doctor: [sfx: processed to echo through room speaker] You've made unbelievable claims. A complete battery of tests allows us to falsify more of your claims conclusively.
7 Tojo: How?
8 Doctor: The muscle tests will show if you've been living in low gravity your whole life as you claim.
9 Tojo: I didn't claim that, I said I'd been living on 253 Mathilde, our acceleration gave us near Earth gravity for the past 15 years!
10 Doctor: That's very convenient. Hold still while my tele-presence robot extracts a blood sample.
11 SOUND: telescoping arm
12 Tojo: Ow! What's this for?!
13
Doctor:
You won't tell us where you really came from, so we have to examine you for all manner of biological contagion.
Okay that's enough blood.
14 SOUND: applying band-aid
15 Tojo: Hey, doctor disembodied voice, whoever you are... suppose for a moment that I do come from the future.
16 Doctor: Alright, just for a brief moment.
17 Tojo: What tests could you run that would prove it?
18
Doctor:
That's an interesting question.
I suppose someone from the future would have a distinct micro-biota with bacteria immune to some of our current antibiotics. And they might have some viral DNA that's a more advanced mutation of a known virus.
19 Tojo: I don't think you have artificial wombs yet, do you?
20 Doctor: Of course not.
21 Tojo: Maybe you can find evidence that I was grown in one. Oh yeah, and my DNA had some bits modified and removed to better my health odds, you must not do that yet either.
22 Doctor: We do in a limited way in some cases, but it should be easy to recognize a more advanced technique from the future.
23 Tojo: Can you please humor me and run those tests?
24 Doctor: I'd be happy to, but it means more scans and tissue samples for you.
25 Tojo: That's okay. How much longer will I be in medical isolation?
26 Doctor: You're being released from quarantine into interrogation tomorrow if all goes well. When you meet Blackburn, you'll wish I'd kept you in quarantine.
27 Announcer: Quiet Please dot org presents Two Fifty Three Mathilde. The year is 2107. Fully equipped with engines and crew and launched last year, the asteroid 253 Mathilde is still in the main asteroid belt accelerating outward at a millimeter per second per second.
28 Announcer: Episode 25 - Earth's Past
29 SOUND: door opening
30 Tojo: [calling out] Who's there?
31 Guard: We have orders to move you.
32 Tojo: [apprehensive] Is this a release, or am I going to interrogation?
33 SOUND: they walk out and down hall
34 Tojo: [apprehensive] Where are we going?
35 Guard: Someone wants to talk to you.
36 SOUND: dragged/shoved into room
37 Interrogator: Thank you, guards. You can go, I'll take it from here.
38 Guard: Call us when you're done with her.
39 Interrogator: Will do. You'll want to find a stretcher, she's not going to be walking out.
40 SOUND: guards leave
41 Tojo: [terrified] What are you planning to do to me?
42 Interrogator: Take a seat. That one, yes.
43 SOUND: tojo sits in metal? chair.
44 Interrogator: [sizing up] So you're the notorious space-faring spy. Somehow I expected more. But I suppose a good spy never looks like what we'd imagine a spy looks like.
45 Tojo: What kind of spy would knock on an airlock door with a story as bizarre as mine? You people never listen to me!
46 Interrogator: [menacing] This is your last chance to tell me who you really are, where you're really from, and who you're really working for.
47 Tojo: [afraid] If I knew enough about this time period I'd make up a spy story for you. But I can only tell you the truth. I'm Farah Tojo, I'm from 253 Mathilde in your future where I'm the chief mechanic.
48 Interrogator: So be it. This is your choice.
49 SOUND: opening drawer, preparing syringe
50 Tojo: [afraid] What's in that syringe?
51 Interrogator: Hold out your arm, and you'll find out.
52 Tojo: If I don't?
53 Interrogator: Then you'll find out much more painfully.
54 SOUND: shot administered
55 Tojo: [nonverbal exclamation of brief pain from injection]
56 Interrogator: Relax. It'll happen quick.
57 Tojo: What will?
58 Interrogator: You'll see.
59 Tojo: [yawns]
60 Interrogator: You're feeling sleepy?
61 Tojo: Yes.
62 Interrogator: Good. [hypnotistesque] Listen to my voice. You can hear only my voice.
63 Tojo: [drugged] I can hear only your voice.
64 Interrogator: [slowly] Your mind is at peace, floating in a void. There's nothing in the world except for you and me. How do you feel?
65 Tojo: At peace.
66 Interrogator: Tojo. Farah. Do you know me?
67 Tojo: No, I don't know you.
68 Interrogator: You do know me, Farah. I'm a friend. Remember. I'm your best friend. Repeat that to me.
69 Tojo: You're my best friend.
70 Interrogator: Can you remember my name, Farah? The name of your best friend?
71 Tojo: Marissa Flint... you're Marissa Flint.
72 Marissa: That's right, I'm Marissa Flint. Do you remember where we first met, Farah? Think back to that day, when was it and where were we?
73 Interrogator: That's right, I'm Marissa Flint. Do you remember where we first met, Farah? Think back to that day, when was it and where were we?
74 Tojo: We've been around each other my whole life, it's a small community.
75 Marissa: But was there a particular day when you felt we became real friends?
76 Interrogator: But was there a particular day when you felt we became real friends?
77 Tojo: Maybe that day your sister suggested I fill in for her playing hoverball with you.
78 Marissa: [puzzled] Hoverball? [back to probing] How long ago was that?
79 Interrogator: [puzzled] Hoverball? [back to probing] How long ago was that?
80 Tojo: Almost 20 years ago. You've been great, at first I thought our friendship might be a little awkward with you being so much older than me, but it's never bothered us.
81 Marissa: You're back there now, living that moment.
82 Interrogator: You're back there now, living that moment.
83 SOUND: hoverball court, balls bouncing, buzzers... lift from episode 11
84 Marissa: Where are we?
85 Interrogator: Where are we?
86 Tojo: The hoverball court.
87 Marissa: In what city?
88 Interrogator: In what city?
89 Tojo: There's only one city in our world.
90 Marissa: What's that city called?
91 Interrogator: What's that city called?
92 Tojo: It doesn't have a name.
93 Marissa: All cities have names.
94 Interrogator: All cities have names.
95 Tojo: Not ours. Sometimes we call it 'the base'.
96 Marissa: You're fighting me, Farah. You're trying not to remember. I'm your friend, I'm Marissa, there's nothing to hide from me. I know all about the city, I just want to hear you say it.
97 Interrogator: You're fighting me, Farah. You're trying not to remember. I'm your friend, I'm Marissa, there's nothing to hide from me. I know all about the city, I just want to hear you say it.
98 Tojo: It's the only settlement on 253 Mathilde.
99 Marissa: What are you doing on 253 Mathilde?
100 Interrogator: What are you doing on 253 Mathilde?
101 Tojo: It's our home.
102 Marissa: We're in the year 2087, playing this game called hoverball. The Centaurians haven't reached Earth yet, 253 Mathilde is an uninhabited ball of rock no human has set foot on, the start of base construction is years away.
103 Interrogator: We're in the year 2087, playing this game called hoverball. The Centaurians haven't reached Earth yet, 253 Mathilde is an uninhabited ball of rock no human has set foot on, the start of base construction is years away.
104 Tojo: You're mistaken, Marissa. It's 2220, maybe 2221, we just left the Tau Ceti system.
105 Interrogator: [sternly] I'm not Marissa. I'm your superior officer. You're used to reporting to me, you obey me instinctively. Do you recall who I am?
106 SOUND: mayor's office
107 Tojo: Yes, mayor.
108 Mayor Hu: I'm ordering you repeat back to me what the object of your mission on 253 Mathilde was.
109 Interrogator: I'm ordering you repeat back to me what the object of your mission on 253 Mathilde was.
110 Tojo: Our mission was to explore the galaxy, launch deceleration ships to selected habitable planets, learn as much as possible from their transmissions.
111 Mayor Hu: That's your cover story, to make them think you're a harmless lunatic. But there's nobody but us two here. Tell me your *real* mission.
112 Interrogator: That's your cover story, to make them think you're a harmless lunatic. But there's nobody but us two here. Tell me your *real* mission.
113 Tojo: I don't understand.
114 Mayor Hu: You're in an airlock on 253 Mathilde. You don't have a spacesuit. The inner door is clear and you can see me on the other side of it. The airlock begins to cycle.
115 Interrogator: You're in an airlock on 253 Mathilde. You don't have a spacesuit. The inner door is clear and you can see me on the other side of it. The airlock begins to cycle.
116 SOUND: airlock depressurization effect as in ep 1
117 Tojo: [panicking] Help! Mayor, help, get me out of here!
118 Mayor Hu: I can't do that until you tell me the truth. You're gasping for air.
119 Interrogator: I can't do that until you tell me the truth. You're gasping for air.
120 Tojo: [gasping for air]
121 Mayor Hu: You have seconds to live. Tell me who you really are and where you really come from and I'll save you.
122 Interrogator: You have seconds to live. Tell me who you really are and where you really come from and I'll save you.
123 Tojo: [gasping for air] I'm Chief Mech Farah Tojo, I was born on 253 Mathilde, help me mayor!
124 Interrogator: You're back in the void, floating.
125 MUSIC: soft ethereal music probably good here to convey floating in void, turning sinister when the fire starts
126 Interrogator: You can feel every nerve ending on your skin distinctly. And now you can feel the heat from a great fire somewhere below you.
127 SOUND: fire crackle
128 Tojo: [heat discomfort sounds]
129 Interrogator: Will you admit that you've been lying to me?
130 Tojo: [desperately] Everything I've told you has been the truth!
131 Interrogator: You're a remarkable agent, Tojo. Your mental defenses are formidable. But nobody can hold out forever.
132 Tojo: [desperately] I'm not an agent!
133 Interrogator: I'm holding you safely above the flames. If you don't admit that you've been lying, I'll drop you. You'll be in excruciating, unending torment.
134 Tojo: [discomfort sounds]
135 SOUND: door opens, fire ends
136 Interrogator: [sharply] I gave strict orders that I was not to be interrupted!
137 Doctor: I'm sorry, but I have important information from the medical tests on your... subject... that should change how you view her.
138 Interrogator: Tojo, clear your mind. You will enter a deep sleep now. We'll discuss things further when you've recovered.
139 MUSIC: transition that releases the tension of the previous scene like an exhale
140 SOUND: different room with a more comfortable sound, maybe a window open to city noises
141 Tojo: [groggy awakening noises]
142 Doctor: She's waking up. The drug should be out of her system by now.
143 Tojo: [groggy] What's going on? Is this real?
144 Interrogator: Hello Ms. Tojo, I'm Martha Blackburn from UNSA security. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot.
145 Tojo: By which you mean you drugged and tortured me.
146 Interrogator: Yes, well... peace is fragile right now, sometimes people like me have to take extreme measures to preserve it. But we've decided you were telling the truth, and I'd like us to be friends now.
147 Tojo: You'll have to drug me again to make me think of *you* as a friend. But what changed your mind?
148 Interrogator: The good doctor here.
149 Doctor: I finished processing the medical samples. Your viral mutations, your antibiotic resistance, your lack of a belly button, your immunological profile, your bone development. Maybe some of that could be faked, but not all. Everything points to your development in low gravity in an artificial womb and your exposure to bacteria and viruses that don't exist yet, and a level DNA editing beyond ours.
150 Tojo: I wish you'd gotten that work done an hour sooner.
151 Doctor: [embarrassed] Sorry.
152 Tojo: So where do we go from here?
153 Interrogator: We'll find you a more comfortable room. Is there anything else you'd like?
154 Tojo: How about a scientific advisor who might know something about temporal wormholes to help me get back?
155 Interrogator: I'll ask the Univeristy of Tirunelveli to send someone over.
156 Tojo: And you know, it's my negative 90th birthday tomorrow. That's always a big one.
157 Interrogator: I'm sure we can get a cake delivered.
158 MUSIC: music link to suggest passage of time
159 SOUND: doorbell
160 Tojo: Come in.
161 SOUND: door opens
162 Ramachandran: Farah Tojo?
163 Tojo: That's me.
164 Ramachandran: I'm Dr. Devi Ramachandran. I've been told a rather bizarre story about you.
165 Tojo: I really don't feel like another round of convincing people.
166 Ramachandran: Don't worry, I've been told my role is to accept your story at face value and work with you.
167 Tojo: You're the one they sent from the university?
168 Ramachandran: That's right. But before we get started, this is for you.
169 SOUND: hands book over
170 Tojo: A book? Looks old.
171 Ramachandran: I was told it's your birthday, so I got you something that felt appropriate for your situation.
172 SOUND: tojo opens it
173 Tojo: 'Gravitation' by Charles Misner, Kip Thorne and John Wheeler.
174 Ramachandran: An original 1973 edition. Einstein and Rosen proposed wormholes in 1935, but 'Gravitation' was the seminal 20th century book on the subject.
175 SOUND: thumbs some pages
176 Tojo: Something in here can get me home?
177 Ramachandran: Maybe a model I've built on the shoulders of such giants can help, we'll see. I've published several papers on wormhole theory, so I'm pretty excited to meet the only person ever to discover one and walk through it. Which is perplexing since I thought your body would be spaghettified by the intense forces at work.
178 SOUND: tojo sets book down on table, they both sit on couch
179 Tojo: I'm glad you were wrong about that part.
180 Ramachandran: If the rest of my theories are correct, the other end -- the future -- is determining the movement. 253 Mathilde's future shields seem to have ensnared it somehow, and that caused it to also attach to the same asteroid here in 2107. But at some point it may have come free in the future, and that may move it in our time, or out of our time entirely.
181 Tojo: I appreciate that you've come well-informed and I don't have to repeat myself. But supposing I can find where this end of the wormhole has moved to, could I get back through? I tried twice already, maybe it'd already moved or maybe I just couldn't get through.
182 Ramachandran: I think it's a directional phenomena, there's an entrance and an exit, you can't enter through the exit.
183 Tojo: So there's no point in looking for the exit?
184 Ramachandran: What you need to do is flip it.
185 Tojo: Flipping a wormhole across hundreds of years -- actually hundreds of thousands Earth time. It sounds like one of those theoretical problems in science that might require harvesting a few Jupiter-mass planets for energy.
186 Ramachandran: No, not really... a wormhole is an incredibly unstable phenomenon, and it only has two modes, so even the slightest nudge could do it. And two years or two lakh should be equal energy.
187 Tojo: What kind of nudge?
188 Ramachandran: [thoughtfully] Something that influences the local spacetime quantum field. Actually that can save you the trouble of finding the wormhole too, because it should attract any in the area the same way it did for you in the future.
189 Tojo: Hmm, then what we're looking for is probably something that 253 Mathilde's shields did... I mean, will do. Could it be the harmonic graviton condensation oscillator?
190 Ramachandran: You'll have to explain to me what that is and what it does exactly...
191 MUSIC: musical transition to indicate time passing as they continue working up sciency solutions
192 SOUND: controller's office
193 Cmdr Peters: [angry] Public relations?!
194 Controller: Essentially. We feel that's the best way you can serve the mission at the moment. Except for deserters, you're the only one on this planet who knows what it's like up there... and we hope you can bring a more positive spin.
195 Cmdr Peters: I'm not *feeling* very positive.
196 MUSIC: transition
197 SOUND: tojo's room
198 Ramachandran: It's sort of like an electric charge, you attract it with the opposite spin.
199 Tojo: If it works and I bring the wormhole to 253 Mathilde and go through it there, do you think that means I'll come out on 253 Mathilde in the year I left? Or I could end up in some other place or time?
200 Ramachandran: Honestly, I'm not sure. I'm amazed we've come up with a theory that might make the wormhole jump to your location and flip the entry end to you, that's already going pretty far out on a limb, I can't go any further out to promise where it'll take you. Your origin might be a privileged point in the continuum, or it might not.
201 Tojo: If it takes me into deep space or a star, that'll be a pretty big problem.
202 Ramachandran: The fact that it was on the surface of Mathilde, even the same spot on the surface, in two time periods... I guess that suggests it has an inherent preference for both ends being in the same physical location. But I don't know if I'd want to bet your life on it, and we don't have any data to suggest what year you'll come out in.
203 SOUND: pause
204 Tojo: Well we've made pretty good progress.
205 Ramachandran: No sure things, but a lot better than I expected.
206 Tojo: Will you do me a favor?
207 Ramachandran: Sure.
208 Tojo: When people ask you, tell them we haven't made any progress.
209 Ramachandran: Why?
210 Tojo: Because I'm pretty sure they don't want me leaving. They wouldn't have sent you to me if they'd imagined there was any chance you could get me home.
211 Ramachandran: Okay, I understand.
212 Tojo: The notion that the two of us could invent new physics to explain the inexplicable in a matter of days and then apply that to return me to the future... I guess it is rather ludicrous when I think about it, no wonder they weren't worried. But I hope we've got something.
213 SOUND: door request sound
214 Tojo: I'd better answer that.
215 SOUND: walks to door and opens it
216 Guard: Ms. Tojo, I've been asked to escort you to the controller's office.
217 MUSIC: very brief music suggestive of scene change or movement
218 SOUND: controller's office, door opens and she enters
219 MUSIC: probably some sort of gradually building tension music under this long conversation that becomes an argument
220 Controller: Welcome, Ms. Tojo.
221 Tojo: Call me chief.
222 Controller: That feels odd, but as you wish. How are you liking your new accommodations, chief?
223 Tojo: They're a big improvement, but a cage is still a cage.
224 Controller: You're free to go, but you'd find life on the streets of Kulasekarapattinam a bit rough with no identification and not a single rupee in your pocket. We'd like to help by offering you a job.
225 Tojo: [suspicious] Doing what?
226 Controller: Something you're perfectly suited to -- designing and building technology, tinkering, inventing.
227 Tojo: I see. You mean you want me to make you things from your future.
228 Controller: If you must put it that way.
229 Tojo: I don't want to destroy my own past.
230 Controller: You're here, Chief Tojo. This is your present now. Why not help make it better? You'll be very well-compensated.
231 SOUND: phone rings
232 Controller: Excuse me just a moment.
233 SOUND: picks up phone
234 Controller: Tell Peters he damn well better get used to it and if he doesn't show up to the conference the coverage is going to take a decidedly unpleasant turn against him. I'm with someone right now, please don't interrupt again.
235 SOUND: puts down phone
236 Controller: Sorry about that.
237 Tojo: [worried] Was that about Commander Peters?
238 Controller: Former-commander Peters.
239 Tojo: [upset] It's absolutely essential that you send Commander Peters back to 253 Mathilde!
240 Controller: Why?
241 Tojo: Because that's the way it happened!
242 Controller: Do you recall reading about him being recalled to Earth briefly in the second year of the mission?
243 Tojo: No, I doubt that happened, though I probably wouldn't remember such a small detail.
244 Controller: Then your history has already changed because of your presence, and it's time for you to start living in your new reality.
245 Tojo: Maybe. But the bigger the change you make, the more far-reaching the consequences. Conceivably, replacing the commander could lead to a chain of events that causes me not to born or not to end up coming through the anomaly.
246 Controller: And what would that mean for us?
247 Tojo: We could be caught in a temporal paradox!
248 Controller: [highly dubious] You're saying if we replace Commander Peters we may destroy the entire universe?
249 Tojo: That's right! I mean, it's not a certainty, none of us knows what happens in a temporal paradox, but do you really want to be responsible for the destruction of the universe?!
250 Controller: Well. I could consider rescinding his transfer, if you can do something for us in return.
251 Tojo: What's that?
252 Controller: You'd agree that changes to life on Earth are fairly irrelevant to what happens on 253 Mathilde, right? Especially if we choose not to share any advancements with them without your approval?
253 Tojo: I suppose.
254 Controller: Then helping Earth develop future technology and avoid any historic disasters you may remember wouldn't cause a universe-destroying paradox, would it?
255 Tojo: [carefully] I guess probably not.
256 Controller: Then you'll take the job.
257 Tojo: You're literally trying to blackmail me into doing something I know is wrong by threatening the destruction of the universe if I won't!
258 Controller: You make me sound like quite the sinister super-villain. I'm just a bureaucrat trying to save lives and solve our world's problems. You know, this city like a lot of others is only escaping the rising ocean with an increasingly complex system of sea walls... and you know secrets from the 23rd century that might save it!
259 Tojo: Why don't you ask the Centaurians? They probably know more advanced tech than I do.
260 Controller: They see us as savages they can't trust, the ones still on Earth didn't even agree with helping build Mathilde. You're a human being, you know better. Maybe you don't know how to solve the sea level or other problems directly, but what you do know can set off a whole chain of new innovations that could make our planet a much better place!
261 Tojo: Or start a world war.
262 Controller: [animated] That's a cheap cop-out and you know it. And there's bound to be something you know that'd save lives. You think you can live with yourself knowing that, say, thousands of people will die in a flood you could've warned them about because you read about it as a kid? What if you become good friends with one of those people first? What if you marry someone and then realize he's supposed to die?
263 SOUND: pause
264 Tojo: I'm glad history wasn't my best subject.
265 Controller: I'll make this simpler for you. We're letting the world know about you. Everyone's going to know you're the woman from the future. Good luck explaining to everybody you meet for the rest of your life why you refuse to help them lead easier lives.
266 SOUND: end scene
267 SOUND: tojo's room
268 SOUND: door request beep
269 Tojo: Come in.
270 SOUND: door opens, footsteps approach
271 Cmdr Peters: You asked to see me?
272 Tojo: Yes, thank you for coming Commander Peters. How are things going for you?
273 Cmdr Peters: [with distaste] I'm exiled to Earth to live out my days working in public relations.
274 Tojo: We can't let that happen.
275 Cmdr Peters: I don't see that there's a choice.
276 Tojo: There's always a choice.
277 Cmdr Peters: Then tell me, what can I do?
278 Tojo: We. We're getting out of here, and we're not waiting for permission.
279 SOUND: door request beep
280 Cmdr Peters: Are you expecting someone?
281 Tojo: Our help.
282 SOUND: answers door
283 Eight: Farah Tojo?
284 Tojo: Come in, Ambassador!
285 SOUND: enters
286 Eight: Call me Eight.
287 Cmdr Peters: How's a Centaurian supposed to help us? And why?
288 Eight: We have common goals.
289 Cmdr Peters: Such as?
290 Eight: We want the timeline protected, and we don't want advanced technology falling into the hands of a planet not ready for it. We concluded the best solution to both issues is to help you.
291 Tojo: They've got stun weapons that'll get through metal detectors, they've got the knowledge, they can help us get where we need to go. And they can help me make the device I need to get back to my time.
292 Eight: We can also forge identification papers for you.
293 Cmdr Peters: Even if we stole a rocket somehow, we can't do the jobs of a hundred people to prepare a launch. And your average rocket can't reach Mathilde anyway.
294 Tojo: But they're going to be sending up your replacement.
295 Cmdr Peters: Yes, Commander Patel launches on Thursday.
296 Tojo: Then all we have to do is replace your replacement without anyone realizing until it's too late.
297 Eight: We have a voice-changing device which will allow you to impersonate Commander Patel over radio.
298 Cmdr Peters: Hmm. There'll be replacements for the deserters going up too.
299 Eight: Did you not hear the part about stun weapons?
300 Cmdr Peters: But even if it all works, even if I get back to Mathilde... Earth isn't going to leave me in command there.
301 Eight: We will use diplomatic pressure to encourage them to accept you, but ultimately, what can they do about it anyway?
302 Tojo: Eight is right. It's time for Mathilde to start acting as its own world, making its own decisions. I believe the people there want you back and Earth control will have to deal with the facts on the ground.
303 MUSIC: musical transition which is suggestive of action, stuff getting done, plans in motion. probably continues under following scene but fades to quieter background level.
304 SOUND: service elevator in launch tower
305 Cmdr Peters: So far we've illegally entered a United Nations Space Agency facility with forged identities, we've stunned three guards, we're currently trespassing our way up the launch tower... you ready to add a hijacking to the charges?
306 Tojo: [joking] If they sentence me to 130 years for it, that's one way to get back to my own time.
307 Cmdr Peters: Well I hope you know what you're doing, we've been pretty lucky so far.
308 Tojo: Just follow my lead.
309 SOUND: launch elevator opens, they step through with brief outside noises on metal gantry then press to open ship door and they enter and it closes during the following lines
310 Crew One: Hey, what are you two doing here?!
311 Crew Two: You can't be coming up here during the fuel load, it's dangerous!
312 Crew One: Wait, aren't you Commander Peters?! And you... you're that time traveler from the news today!
313 Tojo: [urgently] The fate of the universe depends on Commander Peters making this flight instead of Commander Patel, we're here to prevent a time paradox.
314 Crew Two: What's that thing you're holding?
315 Tojo: A weapon. Don't make me use it on you.
316 Crew Two: A hijacking?!
317 Cmdr Peters: I know it seems pretty extreme, but who am I to argue with a destiny that's already written for me? Things have to happen the way Tojo knows they did, or she might not end up time traveling again in 130 years, which could get us caught in a loop.
318 Crew One: But if the multiverse theory of time--
319 Tojo: Are you willing to bet the future of every sentient being in the universe on the multiverse theory of time being the correct one?
320 Crew One: ... I suppose not. But I don't want to participate in a hijacking either!
321 Cmdr Peters: That's okay, we can stun you.
322 SOUND: two stun weapon blasts, bodies collapse to floor
323 Cmdr Peters: There, absolved you both of all responsibility.
324 Tojo: That just leaves Commander Patel, right?
325 Cmdr Peters: Right. He'll be in the cockpit, let's go.
326 MUSIC: action music small link
327 SOUND: enters data into keypad, and the door opens.
328 MUSIC: should be getting dramatic/tense here
329 SOUND: door closes behind them, footsteps echo stealthily in the metallic corridor. heartbeat sound.
330 Tojo: [Whispering] This is it.
331 SOUND: punches panel to open door, when slides open
332 Patel: [Surprised] What- How?
333 Tojo: [steely] Headset off, hands up, don't say another word until it's off or I'll shoot.
334 SOUND: sets down headset
335 Patel: [Nervously] The time traveler and Commander Peters? Is this a hijacking?
336 Tojo: You've been dead to me for a century, so don't try anything.
337 Patel: [nervously] What's this about?
338 Cmdr Peters: I'm sorry Patel, nothing personal, but to keep the timeline intact we can't let you replace me.
339 Tojo: I'm taking you back into the launch tower. You'd better stay there if you don't want to be burnt to crisp when we launch. Okay, lets move slowly now, toward the hatch.
340 SOUND: moving
341 MUSIC: tension crest and release transition music
342 SOUND: back in cockpit
343 Cmdr Peters: Time to see if the Centaurian voice changer gadget works... I just have to put it over the microphone...
344 SOUND: picking up headset
345 Controller: [concerned] Commander Patel, where've you been?
346 Cmdr Peters: Sorry, had to take a restroom break. Let's continue with the countdown.
347 Patel: Sorry, had to take a restroom break. Let's continue with the countdown.
348 Controller: T minus nine minutes. How's your readouts?
349 Cmdr Peters: Everything's nominal. First stage fuel load nearly complete.
350 Patel: Everything's nominal. First stage fuel load nearly complete.
351 MUSIC: brief music link to indicate we're skipping ahead a few minutes
352 Controller: T minus one minute. Strongback retraction confirmed.
353 Cmdr Peters: Vehicle is in startup.
354 Patel: Vehicle is in startup.
355 Controller: Thank you, commander Patel. Countdown control has transferred to your vehicle's computer. Good luck out there!
356 SOUND: removes voice changer
357 Cmdr Peters: Then I may as well end this little charade.
358 MUSIC: has built tension behind scene and probably crests and drops around gere
359 Controller: Peters?!?
360 Cmdr Peters: Things are going to change when I get back to Mathilde, I look forward to our future conversations taking on a new dynamic.
361 Controller: [panicked, speaking of unseen people] There must be something we can do, some button for this!
362 SOUND: blastoff
363 MUSIC: long musical transition that conveys passage of weeks and feeling of relief, and probably continues lighter under following scene
364 Tojo: [sfx: space suit] Thanks for the ride, Commander. You're going to do a great job here and leave a proud legacy.
365 Cmdr Peters: [sfx: coms] I hope you're right. Before you go, did you know you left your book in the shuttle?
366 Tojo: I know. Somebody on Earth gave it to me as a gift, but I think it should stay in its own time, so you should keep it.
367 Cmdr Peters: Okay. I'm heading inside, are you far enough from the base and ready to open your wormhole?
368 Tojo: I'm initiating the pulse now.
369 SOUND: technobabble sound
370 Tojo: How does my voice sound to you now?
371 Cmdr Peters: [sfx: voice distortion] Very distorted and slow.
372 Tojo: Great! Yours sounds sped up! That's how it was when I went through the first time so it's a good sign it worked.
373 Cmdr Peters: Good luck, Farah! I'll see you again if I live to be a hundred and twenty something!
374 Tojo: At least you'll have the book to remember me by. Okay, here goes, I'm walking in...
375 SOUND: tojo walks into the anomaly
376 Tojo: Hello 253 Mathilde, this is Chief Tojo speaking, please tell me you can hear me!
377 SOUND: a few seconds silence
378 MUSIC: music should probably become foreboding/eerie here
379 Silva: Who did you say you are?
380 Tojo: Farah Tojo! I'm back!
381 Silva: Nice voice clone, Roberts. But it's not funny... she was a real person, my grandmother was her friend, her disappearance was a tragedy. Get back to work on that sanitation system.
382 SOUND: call cutoff, static
383
Tojo:
Hello? Hello?!
The sky... it's so empty!
384 SOUND: end theme
385 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode twenty five: Earth's Past.