13 characters: Announcer, Priest, Hernandez, Tojo, Lawrence, Stone, Singh, Computer, Peters, Roommate One, Roommate Two, Larissa, Therapist
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Larissa (6 lines, 66 words, 2.04%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Larissa Flint. Younger sister of Marissa. Now retired at age 62. [complete]
Priest (2 lines, 234 words, 7.23%) - [David Nagel] He's been the priest seemingly forever, more than 40 years. He's seen it all. Recently turned 71. [complete]
Singh (38 lines, 585 words, 18.07%) - [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]
Peters (41 lines, 408 words, 12.6%) - [David Loftus] Salish Peters, retired, aged 92 years. Developing dementia, but doesn't know it yet. [complete]
Stone (40 lines, 563 words, 17.39%) - [John Gaunce] John Stone, retired, now in his 80s but healthy enough. Long career as a doctor followed by brief second career as chief botanist. Still has an ego despite the humbling events of season two 20 years ago. [complete]
Therapist (6 lines, 106 words, 3.27%) - [Ahmad Joudeh] Tam Peters, therapist and husband of Salish Peters. Now middle aged. [complete]
Tojo (23 lines, 407 words, 12.57%) - [Gwenith Knight] Chief mechanic Farah Tojo is now in her early 40s and thriving. [complete]
Hernandez (23 lines, 303 words, 9.36%) - [Lindsay White] Eva Hernandez has been the mayor's assistant 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. [complete]
Lawrence (23 lines, 467 words, 14.43%) - [James Lorenz] Astronomy Chief Lawrence doesn't want to live in a world ruled by Eva Hernandez, so he's plotting an alternative. [complete]
Roommate One (1 line, 15 words, 0.46%) - [Eric Westin] ~30 year old male refugee relocated from level 3 with his family, now temporary roommate of Salish and Tam Peters. [complete]
Roommate Two (1 line, 4 words, 0.12%) - [bot] ~30 year old female refugee relocated from level 3 with her family, now temporary roommate of Salish and Tam Peters. [complete]
Computer (2 lines, 4 words, 0.12%) - [bot] The base computer. [complete]
Announcer (5 lines, 75 words, 2.32%) - [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: quiet crowd [maybe sound of chairs] in arboretum (let's say it's on bottom level and survives)
5 Priest: [sfx: loudspeaker] Thank you for that tribute, Eva.
6 MUSIC: amazing grace starts
7
Priest:
[sfx: loudspeaker] During my five decades as your priest, it's been my sad duty to come to this beautiful arboretum to oversee the departures of far too many of our friends and colleagues. But sometimes, as with Mayor Hu, the sadness is accompanied by a feeling of honor and privilege for having known such a person, for having been able to call him my friend.
These are dark days, with many challenges to come, with so much of our base damaged. As bad as things are, and even as we mourn our dead, we know the death toll could've been far worse -- were it not for the man whose quick calm leadership evacuated so many in time; the man who gave his life to try to evacuate one more person.
Mayor Hu was my third mayor, and he had a tough act to follow, and the extra challenge of taking office at a young age. He took over just a few months after our previous mayor gave her life to save us all from the relativistic kill vehicle that was bearing down on us. Maybe mayor Hu's stage wasn't quite as grand, but his spirit of selfless sacrifice was every bit as great as mayor Renata Mutumbo's. As we lay his ashes with our most honored dead, let his spirit inspire us to pull together through our current crisis.
8 SOUND: opening theme
9 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.
10 Announcer: Episode 21 - Time Out of Joint
11 SOUND: general shifting about and shuffling of pads
12 Hernandez: Let's start with Chief Tojo's report. Are we out of immediate danger?
13 Tojo: The shields recovered to full power. I just wish I could say exactly what happened and be sure it won't happen again. The graph of the power drain looks to me like we passed through some sort of... phenomenon. Can't really hazard a guess as to what... Chief Lawrence, was there anything unusual in our neighborhood?
14 Lawrence: Not that I know of, but at this speed we can't see anything ahead of us in any useful sense.
15 SOUND: pushing pad buttons and sliding pad across table
16 Tojo: Can you think of any spatial phenomenon that could theoretically drain our shields? Here, here's the pattern.
17 Lawrence: [carefully] It doesn't bring anything to mind.
18 Hernandez: Stone, I see you're representing botany section.
19 Stone: That's right, Chief Rogers and her assistant are missing and presumed dead so I've come out of retirement to help out. Since it's rather important that we eat.
20 Hernandez: About that, how's the food situation looking?
21 Stone: About 30% of our production was on the levels we lost. Since we haven't lost anywhere near that many lives, that means some serious rationing for the time being. But I think we can make it work, won't be comfortable and there won't be as much food variety but nobody will starve to death.
22 Hernandez: How long until we're back to normal food production?
23 Stone: Few months if all my personnel requests are approved, otherwise maybe years.
24 Hernandez: For the duration of the emergency, we should move all the personnel from non-essential sections like astronomy into critical places like botany and repair details.
25 Lawrence: [irritated] Eva, what in the world gave you the idea that you're in charge here?
26 Hernandez: Somebody has to be.
27 Lawrence: So you're just going to appoint yourself mayor before anybody has a chance to disagree?
28 Hernandez: According to our constitution, an acting mayor needs the approval of a majority of section chiefs. Shall we vote?
29 Lawrence: Hold on! This shouldn't be a one candidate farce, we need to consider other options!
30 Stone: I'm willing to volunteer.
31 Hernandez: Still haven't quite conquered that ego problem, have you Doctor Stone? I mean, Emeritus Botany Chief Stone.
32 Lawrence: Stone is a former chief filling in for someone we lost. Salish Peters served as our acting mayor last time something like this happened, why don't we bring *him* back?
33 Hernandez: Peters is what, 90-something years old?
34 Tojo: It's a good idea, but does he *want* the job?
35 Lawrence: I bet he won't say no in our moment of need, and it'll just be temporary. I'll explain to him that to have a fair election we need an acting mayor who doesn't have any long term ambitions for the job.
36 Hernandez: [offended] Just what are you implying?
37 SOUND: door opens, someone strides in
38 Hernandez: What is it, Doctor Singh?
39 Singh: Can I borrow Stone from you?
40 Stone: You know I don't practice medicine anymore, Doctor.
41 Singh: This is more of a data analysis and theoretical thinking issue than a treatment issue. I could use another pair of eyes, and I think you'll find this very interesting.
42 Hernandez: He's busy dealing with our food problem, so--
43 Stone: You've intrigued me, Doctor Singh. I can give you a couple hours, let's go.
44 SOUND: stone gets up and exits
45 Lawrence: We should adjourn until I've talked to Peters.
46 SOUND: sounds of people getting up and some chatter as meeting breaks up
47 Hernandez: [hopeless appeal] There's some things on the agenda here that really need to get done...
48 SOUND: fade out, then fade in to new scene with medical background
49 Singh: Based on the data here -- telomere length, cellular decay rate, methylation patterns, hormonal cycles -- how much time would you say passed between this patient's last two scans?
50 Stone: Oh, I'm a bit out of shape for this. The readings are similar though so not too long.
51 Singh: Precisely, please.
52 Stone: Well, that's a job for a computer. Computer, use the aging markers of these two physicals to determine the time between them.
53 Computer: 33 days, 11 hours, 47 minutes.
54 Stone: Margin of error?
55 Computer: 3 minutes.
56 Stone: There you have it... what of it?
57 Singh: The actual time is 33 days, 11 hours, 39 minutes.
58 Stone: So there's a slight error in the algorithm, some condition not anticipated, it happens.
59 Singh: What if I told you there's a discrepancy for all the evacuees who were working on the top two levels?
60 Stone: Could they all have been exposed to something that altered their biological markers slightly, made them effectively age a few extra minutes?
61 Singh: Except not all of them aged extra. Some aged slightly less than they should've.
62 Stone: All within a small margin of variance?
63 Singh: Anywhere from seconds -- although of course that's meaningless since it's within the margin of error -- to about 10 minutes off. I called in some people from other levels for scans, and those were all within the normal margin of error -- only the evacuees from levels 1 and 2 have the unexpected variance. And it's a stronger variance on level 1.
64
Stone:
Hmm. You were right, I *do* find this interesting.
Is there any way to know exactly where people may have been, more precisely than what floor?
65 SOUND: typing
66 Singh: There's workstation location records for those who were at work, and we could assume those not scheduled for a shift were in their bedrooms. Here, I've had the computer generate a list.
67 Stone: Computer, render this location data on a map so we can visualize it.
68 SOUND: rendering sound
69 Stone: There. Not wholly accurate but should give us a good idea.
70 Singh: Look at this. The negative aging is clustered on the north side, positive in the south.
71 Stone: And the largest variances in both directions are around this one spot on the top level.
72 Singh: That's in hydroponics bay 2.
73 Stone: If only we could get up there...
74 SOUND: jump cut or fade out/in into peters quarters in middle of conversation. noise in background from roommates, a background conversation between husband and wife and maybe a kid or baby crying occasionally.
75 Peters: I'm flattered, but I might be too old for the rigors of the mayor's office, especially in a crisis like this.
76 Lawrence: We'll all be there to help you. We need somebody who can make people feel safe during this disaster recovery, who can keep people from turning to the doomers for comfort. You know this is the doomers' dream scenario for gaining converts, they'll pull out the stops to take advantage of it. It's not the time for a greenhorn, the people need to hear a voice they've always known and always trusted.
77 Peters: Surely you or any of the other section chiefs could provide that voice.
78 Lawrence: We just need somebody to arbitrate between us, somebody we can all trust.
79 Peters: Are the section chiefs really so at odds, there's nobody who wants the job that you all trust?
80 Lawrence: I didn't want to come right out and say this, but I'm not convinced the internal candidates would give us a fair election. Because they've got ambitions to hold the job permanently.
81 Peters: Whereas I don't want it.
82 Roommate One: Salish, the wife and I want to borrow your holo projector. It calms the baby.
83 Peters: [loudly over shoulder, annoyed and dismissive] Knock yourselves out, it's your home now apparently.
84 Lawrence: Your not wanting the job is your best qualification. Means you can organize a clean election that'll allow our next mayor to rule without any whiff of scandal that might otherwise poison our community for a generation. Now that our mission is ending there's nothing external to unite us, so there's a risk we'll turn on each other if we can't trust that we have the right leader.
85 SOUND: crash of something being dropped and broken
86 Roommate Two: [calling from a distance] Sorry! We'll fix that!
87 Peters: Would being acting mayor make me exempt from hosting a displaced family?
88 Lawrence: If you say so, it will.
89 Peters: Well... how long would I have to do it?
90 Lawrence: Just until we're out of this crisis and can organize an election.
91 Peters: But is an election going to be anybody's priority right now?
92 Lawrence: A few months.
93 Peters: I'll hold you to that.
94 Lawrence: Then you're on board?
95 Peters: I can report for duty as soon as the section chiefs have voted. Might be more relaxing than staying home.
96 Lawrence: Great, I'll call a vote within the hour!
97 SOUND: therapy background
98 Larissa: It happened again, doc.
99 Therapist: More memory loss?
100 Larissa: This time I was at home.
101 Therapist: Both times there was nobody with you who you could ask about the missing time?
102 Larissa: That's right.
103 Therapist: I think being told what you were doing in your missing time would help break the mental block and speed your recovery. Someone could assure you that you were normal the whole time, that you were you.
104 Larissa: Hmm.
105 Therapist: Might be good for you to live with someone. Just for a little while you're dealing with this problem.
106 Larissa: As it happens, I don't have any choice in the matter with the refugee crisis. I'm moving in with Marissa today so we can meet the occupancy requirement for her unit size without taking in another family... we'll leave my unit to the refugees.
107 Therapist: Great, that'll be perfect. Hopefully she'll see your next incident.
108 Larissa: But what if it happens while she's at work?
109 Therapist: Maybe you could tag along to her work too? Bet she could use some help since she lost her prime shift assistant.
110 SOUND: mayor's office door opens
111 Stone: Congratulations, mayor!
112 Peters: Thanks, Doctor Stone.
113 Stone: Acting botany chief Stone.
114 Peters: Oh yeah.
115 Stone: Have you had a chance to read the report Doctor Singh just sent you?
116 Peters: About the aging anomalies? I was just skimming it when you came in.
117 Stone: We need to send somebody up there.
118 Peters: To the top level? But it's not pressurized.
119 Stone: We've got space suits and we can use level 7 like an airlock, same way we recovered mayor Hu's body.
120 Peters: Oh, I wasn't here for that, didn't think about how it was done. Can't imagine people who live on level 7 would appreciate another temporary evacuation though.
121 Stone: It's absolutely essential that we understand what happened to us to keep it from happening again, and these aging anomalies are telling me there's an important piece of the puzzle up there in hydroponics bay two.
122 Peters: I suppose you'd like to be the one to go?
123 Stone: [wistful] If I were ten years younger... but no, I'd suggest sending Doctor Singh.
124 Peters: She should have someone with her, someone to evaluate structural issues and the technical side of things. Say, Chief Mech Flint?
125 Stone: You mean Chief Tojo?
126 Peters: [confused] Tojo?
127 Stone: Farah Tojo. Larissa retired a few months ago, remember you were at her retirement party.
128 Peters: Oh, of course, yes.
129 SOUND: multicom signal
130 Hernandez: [sfx: processed] Eva Hernandez here, what is it mayor?
131 Peters: Eva, are you busy?
132 Hernandez: Not especially, just chatting with some of Mayor Hu's family, reminiscing.
133 Peters: Then I'd like you to organize a temporary evacuation of level seven right away. And have Chief Tojo and Doctor Singh report to my office.
134 SOUND: music transition to indicate passage of time
135 SOUND: suit rustle, helmet securing
136 Tojo: [sfx: suit voice] Testing, testing.
137 Singh: [sfx: suit voice] Loud and clear.
138 Tojo: Been a long time since I've been in one of these suits.
139 Singh: I never have.
140 Tojo: They should let everybody go to the surface at least once, it's a life-changing experience.
141 Singh: A potentially deadly one.
142 SOUND: touching buttons
143 Tojo: Okay, I'm evacuating the air.
144 SOUND: hiss of air removal, eventual silence
145 Tojo: Opening the hatch.
146 SOUND: hatch opens
147 Singh: So I use this button to jet upwards?
148 Tojo: Yes, the air jet. Use short bursts at 1/5th power, that's plenty with the low gravity now. Let's go.
149 SOUND: air jets and a few clunks of suits against metal
150 Singh: It's eerie. I lived on level six, and now to see it like this...
151 Tojo: I think we'll be able to repopulate this level pretty soon, just one hole and everything seems structurally sound.
152 Singh: Good news for me, and for the Ahmadis who have to put up with me until then.
153 Tojo: [squeamish] That... that smear up ahead?
154 Singh: It's blood, yes. That's where the mayor and Okonkwo died.
155 Tojo: It doesn't sublimate away?
156 Singh: Not if the staining happens while there's an atmosphere. Besides, it's pretty near absolute zero up here now. Okay, let's move up and check out level 5.
157 SOUND: hatch opens, air jets, more walking
158 Tojo: I think most of this level is okay, just going to be a couple rooms that take a lot longer to reopen than the rest.
159 SOUND: pushing multicom buttons
160 Singh: Mayor?
161 Peters: [sfx: processed] Yes, who is this?
162 Singh: Doctor Singh. Do you want us to check every room for bodies?
163 Peters: [confused] What? Bodies?
164 Singh: On the upper levels, mayor. Should we make a detailed study or prioritize our destination?
165 Peters: Oh! Uh... why don't you just get straight up to level one to see what we're dealing with, then on your way back down if there's time you can identify the dead.
166 Singh: Okay.
167 Peters: How's the damage look so far?
168 Tojo: About like I expected, actually not quite as bad. I'll make more detailed notes on our way back.
169 SOUND: switch perspective to mayor's office
170 Peters: [tired] Alright, call me again when you're on level one.
171 SOUND: call end sound
172 Hernandez: Are you feeling alright, mayor?
173 Peters: I'm not used to working anymore.
174 Hernandez: Maybe you should take a break.
175 Peters: Too much to do. What's this about personnel transfers?
176 Hernandez: You should really let me worry about these things for you, all it needs is your thumbprint.
177 Peters: But why are we shutting down astronomy section?
178 Hernandez: It was on the top level, it was completely destroyed.
179 Peters: But most of the telescopes on the surface are still out there, right? The people could do their work from a new location, or from home?
180 Hernandez: What purpose does astronomy section serve anymore? We can't change our velocity, we can hardly see anything through the relativistic distortion, and our exploration missions are over. We need those people transferred to help us rebuild and eat.
181 SOUND: door opens
182 Peters: It's still our mission! Exploration, observation, that's why we're here!
183 Hernandez: Chief Lawrence, your ears must've been burning. But why'd the door open for you?
184 Lawrence: [some smugness] I guess I'm pre-approved.
185 Peters: What can I do for you, Chief?
186 Lawrence: I expect you've been told we don't need astronomy section anymore.
187 Peters: Sounds familiar.
188 Lawrence: Well, I was doing some research and I've got a proposal I think you'll find very interesting.
189 Peters: What is it?
190 Lawrence: We've still got one deceleration vehicle, the backup vehicle from the last mission. And we've got enough ore. We can explore one last system.
191 Hernandez: [derisively] How many years would we be shaving off our future by wasting that ore? From this velocity, decelerating enough for a landing is a pretty crazy expensive proposition!
192 Lawrence: It'll take about 30 years worth. But that just means we'll have to stop issuing birth permits, we'll still have enough to cover the lives of everyone currently living.
193 Peters: Sounds good, let's get on that.
194 Hernandez: Mayor, I have to caution you to rethink what you're doing! You're sacrificing a whole future generation, just so two more people can go play on yet another alien planet!
195 Peters: But it's what we're out here for! We're explorers, we explore! This is the mission!
196 Lawrence: I'll get my people to compile a list of the most interesting potential systems for study.
197 Peters: Bring the chief... chief Tojo into it, with you. Once she's back.
198 SOUND: multicom alert
199 Peters: Peters here.
200 Tojo: This is Chief Tojo, we've reached the top level.
201 Peters: [sfx: processed] What's it look like?
202 Tojo: Massive damage up here, the walls are half-melted. A lot of holes overhead, I can see the sky.
203 SOUND: Geiger counter
204 Singh: Hold up Farah, radiation levels are unsafe that direction. Let's try this way...
205 Stone: Stone here. Doctor, are you close to the... let's call it the anomaly area?
206 Singh: The center of the aging anomalies would be about 30 meters ahead... but we're just coming up to a big hole in the floor. I think it'd be in the middle, no floor under it.
207 Tojo: Crossing the gap shouldn't be a problem in this gravity, even without the air jets.
208 Stone: [sfx: voice sped up] Stopping in the middle of it could be though.
209 Singh: You're sounding a bit odd, John.
210 Stone: [sfx: voice sped up] I was about to say the same to you, you're talking really slow and deep.
211 Tojo: I don't see anything, I'll try the scanner...
212 SOUND: scanner sound as in episode 9
213 Tojo: I'm reading entropic fluctuations in the spacetime field, and a strong distortion in the field... but it's not coming from the spot ahead of us, it's from somewhere above and beyond that. Pretty sure it's on the surface.
214 Singh: Temporal effects may be stronger up there. Radiation looks okay though.
215 Stone: [sfx: voice sped up] Well what are you waiting for, get on up there!
216 Singh: To be honest, I'm kinda scared about floating off where there's no walls or ceiling. I've never been in a wide open space.
217 Tojo: I'll go first, wait here Doc. I'll do a one second air jet and coast the rest of the way.
218 SOUND: air jet
219 Singh: Can you see anything yet?
220 Tojo: [sfx: sound modulates between slower and faster] Nothing where our anomaly source should be... some impact debris spread around the surface... actually what's really odd is there's an area you'd expect to have debris that doesn't, and I think that's right about where the anomaly ought to be centered.
221 Singh: I'm hearing a lot of odd distortions in your voice, like you're speeding up and slowing down. Not consistent like how Stone sounds so fast.
222 Tojo: Seems the field is causing localized disruptions to the flow of time, maybe sort of like relativistic effects on a very small scale, don't ask me how that's possible.
223 Stone: A lot of people are definitely going to be asking that.
224 SOUND: scanner sound
225 Tojo: [sfx: gets slower] I'm running another scan and approaching the exact source of the readings... Doctor, why don't you see if...
226 SOUND: elongated speech until it stops and perhaps an additional sound for Tojo disappearing into anomaly
227 Singh: [alarmed] Chief! Farah! Farah, can you hear me!?
228 Peters: What's going on?
229 Singh: I'm coming up there!
230 SOUND: air jet
231 Stone: [with some urgency] Doctor Singh, can you see Chief Tojo?
232 Singh: [disbelief and confusion] No... I'm at the surface, I took a three hundred and sixty degree look around me. I see the spot she was talking about where there's no debris, which she said was the center of the anomaly. But there's nobody in sight!
233 Stone: [urgently] Is there any sort of hole or depression she could've fallen into? Look carefully.
234 Singh: No, it's flat and smooth out here, remember we melted the surface. This doesn't make any sense. I'm moving toward that spot she said she was going to...
235 Stone: [virtually screaming with urgency] No, stop! Stay away from there!
236 Singh: Are you sure?
237 Stone: The closer you get to it, the slower your voice sounds to me. Same thing was happening with her.
238 Singh: And yours has been getting faster for me. You have a theory?
239 Stone: Only that the center of this anomaly is either frozen in time, or even in our past.
240 Peters: [struggling to follow along] Like a singularity?
241 Stone: [dismissively] There's no gravimetric gradient.
242 Singh: [considering] Maybe that could explain the lack of debris, if what I'm seeing is a time before we were hit. But where does that leave Chief Tojo?
243 Stone: I'm not sure, but losing *you* isn't going to help. Come on back inside.
244 Singh: I feel like I have to do *something*! I can't just leave her!
245 Stone: If she's frozen in time, then we have all the time in the world. If she's in the past, then we're too late already.
246 SOUND: end theme
247 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode twenty one: Time Out of Joint.