21 characters: Announcer, Peters, Hernandez, Stone, Doomer Priest, Doomer One, Sergey, Doomer Three, Doomer Four, Ekkert, Marissa, Ravi, Priest, Anton, Therapist, Singh, Aisha, Henry, Mateo, Zainab, Worker
Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.
Marissa (11 lines, 325 words, 9.02%) - [Virginia Hargrove] Marissa Flint is 68 years old, still communications chief because she likes her job. [complete]
Ekkert (28 lines, 467 words, 12.96%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Larissa's evil twin. [complete]
Peters (48 lines, 557 words, 15.46%) - [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 (6 lines, 79 words, 2.19%) - [Ahmad Joudeh] Tam Peters, therapist to all and husband of Salish Peters. [complete]
Hernandez (20 lines, 176 words, 4.88%) - [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 (3 lines, 25 words, 0.69%) - [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]
Doomer Priest (29 lines, 482 words, 13.38%) - [Kiersten Greenfield] Luca Patel, leader of the doomsday cult. Believes that the end of the world is just and should be accelerated. [complete]
Sergey (19 lines, 255 words, 7.08%) - [Alexander Grace] Sergey Kochergan, now a fervent believer in the righteousness of the coming end of days. [complete]
Doomer Three (4 lines, 78 words, 2.16%) - [Jacob Tarbox] A fervent believer in the righteousness of the coming end of days. [complete]
Doomer One (6 lines, 88 words, 2.44%) - [Henry Olson] A fervent believer in the righteousness of the coming end of days. [complete]
Doomer Four (3 lines, 41 words, 1.14%) - [Calista Wong] A believer in the righteousness of the coming end of days, but doesn't believe in taking action to cause it. [complete]
Worker (1 line, 18 words, 0.5%) - [PsychoblisseyVA] Just a worker on a damage repair team. [complete]
Ravi (17 lines, 309 words, 8.58%) - [Ed Shalayda] Ravi Davis. [complete]
Anton (6 lines, 101 words, 2.8%) - [Briar Rogers] Mission candidate, and worker on a damage repair team. [complete]
Aisha (3 lines, 16 words, 0.44%) - [Taylor Laine Abs] Mission candidate, and worker on a damage repair team. [complete]
Henry (3 lines, 63 words, 1.75%) - [Steve Ezeta] Mission candidate. [complete]
Mateo (4 lines, 37 words, 1.03%) - [Richard N] Mission candidate. Mateo Juma has a wry sense of humor. [complete]
Zainab (2 lines, 21 words, 0.58%) - [Roo Ryder] Mission candidate. [complete]
Priest (3 lines, 178 words, 4.94%) - [David Nagel] Long-serving religious services provider. [complete]
Stone (9 lines, 216 words, 6%) - [John Gaunce] John Stone, acting botany chief. [complete]
Announcer (5 lines, 71 words, 1.97%) - [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: mayor's office
5 Peters: What's the latest news?
6 Hernandez: On what, mayor?
7 Peters: I mean that anomaly, that went back in time. It's been, what, a week? We should know more by now.
8 Hernandez: A month tomorrow. It's time to move on.
9 Peters: Why?
10 Hernandez: [sighs] I'll call Stone for you, he can remind you.
11 SOUND: multicom
12 Stone: [sfx: processed] Stone here.
13 Peters: Doctor Stone, I'm being told there's no hope and we should give up, about the time anomaly. Eva says you can explain why.
14 Stone: [a bit annoyed at having his time wasted] We've sent three robots in, we never get more than a split second transmission back from the other side. We've had people banging their heads against the wall over this for weeks but there's no way a handful of people can formulate a whole new theory of physics to account for this thing existing and then work out a magic trick to turn what's apparently a unidirectional phenomenon into a bidirectional phenomenon.
15 Peters: But, that fraction of a second means...
16 Stone: We don't know what it means, we don't know anything. This isn't some holo where we can throw technobabble at the wall to solve novel physics and save everyone, we're in way over our heads here.
17 Hernandez: We're wasting our very limited human resources on something futile.
18 Stone: Agreed. We need those people working in the hydroponics bays and gardens.
19 Hernandez: And on the repair crews.
20 Peters: But somebody should still try...
21 Stone: All we can do with the anomaly is keep the cameras and sensors trained on it and wait to see if any readings change. If it changes, maybe that'll be a clue and we can re-examine things. But so far it hasn't.
22 Peters: But... we lost someone.
23 Stone: We've lost a lot of people.
24 Peters: I mean, in the anomaly thing. Who was it?
25 Hernandez: Chief Tojo.
26 Peters: Yes, Tojo. We're not going to leave him behind.
27 Hernandez: Mayor, maybe you should take a break.
28 SOUND: opening theme
29 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.
30 Announcer: Episode 24 - Two Minds
31 SOUND: small crowd, religious gongs and such
32
Doomer Priest:
This conclave is hereby opened.
Brothers and sisters, our time is at hand. This world is coming to an end. This isn't just faith, it's now fact. Ore extraction has ended. Acceleration has ended. The engines are off forever. The blessed disaster that took out 6 levels was destiny showing us how quickly the end can come, showing us that it should come soon. And now Mayor Peters -- a perfect symbol for our society in his twilight years -- Mayor Peters has given us a great gift by deciding to use most of the remaining ore on a trip to Earth.
33 Doomer One: Shepherd Patel, the omens are good, but there are still many people fighting to prolong this world.
34 Sergey: Should we take a more active role? To make sure the end comes in our lifetimes?
35 Doomer Priest: We held the counter-protest at the birth permit protest. That was active.
36 Sergey: Ending birth permits only means things can't go on for more than another century.
37 Doomer One: Shepherd, you've always taught that to absolve ourselves from the sin of desecrating God's cosmos we have to experience the final moments ourselves.
38 Doomer Priest: That's true. He won't forgive those who die without fully atoning.
39 Doomer Three: So let's atone! Let's end this world now!
40 Doomer Priest: We need to gather our strength, there aren't enough of us yet.
41 Doomer One: There's so many more of us than there were a few weeks ago, how many do we need?
42 Doomer Priest: New acolytes need time to settle in and learn our ways. Patience.
43 Sergey: There's got to be something we can do now, something that'd at least shave some years off.
44 Doomer Priest: Open action before we have the majority on side is risky. But there's going to be an election soon, and that may be our opportunity. And every day that passes, hungry and frustrated people will come over to us.
45 Doomer Four: I don't think we should accelerate the end at all. It's cheating our way to the promised land.
46 Doomer One: Accelerating god's plans can't be cheating, sister.
47 Sergey: It's what he calls us to do.
48 Doomer Three: The book of revelations, the kali yuga, the hadiths, most of the holy works of Earth told their followers that the end was neigh. So why didn't the end come for them? Because they took it as mere prophesy and failed to understand the call to action. We all agree god wants this world to die, so we should be the ones to kill it.
49 Doomer Four: [horrified] Mass murder?
50 Doomer Three: Compassionate euthanasia.
51 SOUND: door opens, footsteps enter
52 Doomer Priest: [surprised] Larissa Flint... can we help you?
53 Ekkert: Maybe *I* can help *you*. I understand your group is dedicated to the end of our world?
54 Doomer Priest: That's right.
55 Ekkert: I believe it's time for this world to end. Past time.
56 Doomer Priest: Then you're most welcome here, sister. Sit down.
57 SOUND: she pulls up a chair
58 Ekkert: Thank you.
59 Doomer Priest: What did you mean about being able to help us?
60 Ekkert: Just that I have knowledge of, and access to, critical systems.
61 Doomer Priest: [surprised] You'd use your skills to help precipitate the end of days?
62 Doomer One: This doesn't seem like the Larissa Flint I've known. Should we trust her?
63 Sergey: Could she be working for Detective Saetang?
64 Ekkert: I'm not actually Larissa Flint.
65 Doomer Three: [perplexed] Coulda fooled me...
66 Ekkert: I'm Larissa's twin sister. Her clone. You can call me Ekkert.
67 Sergey: [eye roll] Please. This is a ludicrous cover story.
68 Doomer One: I think we'd have noticed if you had a clone.
69 Doomer Four: She actually did once, remember? That time she asphyxiated on the surface, just before Mayor Mutumbo's election. But it was harvested.
70 Ekkert: Exactly. Her clone's brain matter, which is to say my brain matter, was harvested and grafted into Larissa's brain. Where I've been forced to live for the last 42 years.
71 Doomer Priest: [skeptical] But how is this only suddenly coming to light now?
72 Ekkert: I was an empty shell at the time of the transplant. I had no experiences, no memories, no sense of self, and most of me was left to rot on the operating table. I lived Larissa's life, her experiences, and I didn't realize I wasn't her.
73 Doomer Priest: What changed?
74 Ekkert: I'm not entirely sure, but I think her retirement played a part. We had more time to reflect, to be introspective. When we disagreed with each other, I could no longer pass it off as rigorous self-criticism. And then she started having these lapses of memory, these periods of time where I'm the one in control.
75 Sergey: So you have her memories but she doesn't have yours? She doesn't know you exist?
76 Ekkert: That's right.
77 Sergey: Why?
78 Ekkert: I'm not a doctor. Maybe it's just that I'm so used to being the suppressed personality, the helpless observer, while it's new to her.
79 Doomer Priest: You still haven't explained why you want to help us.
80 Ekkert: This life, this world where I'm a ludicrous accident stuck in somebody else's life... I want this to end. I want Larissa to die. I want Stone to die. I want all of you to die. I want this world to die in a manner that atones for what it did to me.
81 Sergey: Thank you, Ekkert.
82 Doomer Priest: Well. I have to say, this warrants further exploration... I'm not comfortable making the big play right now, but you could help us send them a message. But we'll take this up another time, another place.
83 SOUND: end scene
84 SOUND: mayor's office door opens and marissa storms in
85 Marissa: [furious] Mayor, I can't believe you've abandoned her!
86 Peters: What?
87 Marissa: Chief Tojo! I'm told you've dissolved the team that was studying the anomaly!
88 Peters: I didn't want to. I said they should keep at it as long as it takes, I said we don't leave our people behind. But they told me it's futile, nothing left to do.
89 Marissa: [exasperated] You're the MAYOR, mayor! THEY'RE supposed to do what YOU tell them to do, NOT the other way around!
90 SOUND: multicom
91 Peters: Excuse me a moment.
92 SOUND: accept noise
93 Peters: This is mayor Peters.
94 Stone: [sfx: processed] Have a look at the surface camera feed, mayor.
95 SOUND: a tap
96 Peters: I don't see anything out of the ordinary.
97 Stone: Exactly. That unnaturally debris-free spot disappeared. Sensors are no longer recording any temporal discrepancies either, our time down here is perfectly in sync with up there.
98 Peters: What happened?
99 Stone: Nobody knows, but the thing we can't explain is gone now.
100 Peters: Acknowledged.
101 SOUND: call end sound
102 Peters: Well, Marissa... I guess that's the end of that.
103
Marissa:
[with shock/grief] I... guess it is.
I'd like to talk with Farah's son and Father Kim about a memorial service, if you don't mind.
104 Peters: Take all the time you need.
105 SOUND: marissa exits, then some light desktop shuffling
106 SOUND: mayor's office
107 SOUND: door buzzer
108 Hernandez: Your three o'clock is here, mayor.
109 Peters: Let him in, let him in!
110 SOUND: door opens, footsteps enter
111 Peters: I'm trying to come up with your name...
112 Ravi: Ravi Davis.
113 Peters: Why are you here?
114 Ravi: The update on repairs you wanted.
115 Peters: Larissa couldn't come herself?
116 Ravi: [uncomfortable] Mayor, Larissa Flint is retired.
117 Peters: [awkward subject change] So how's that rebuild coming?
118 Ravi: I hope you remember we re-populated level 6 a couple weeks ago and level 5 on Thursday. Level 4 is coming along and we think we can have it ready in a few more days.
119 Peters: That's great, how long to have them all re-populated?
120 Ravi: Unfortunately the work gets tougher the higher we go. Level three is going to take at least another month. The top two levels have extreme damage, it might be wiser to just consider those two levels a loss and seal them up, and expand the lower levels horizontally instead. It'd give us a little buffer zone in case something like this happens again.
121 Peters: But how would we get to the surface?
122 Ravi: Not that there's much reason to go to the surface, but... through the debris in suits, or using the tunnel to the vehicle bay.
123 Peters: Oh, right. That reminds me, weren't we planning a mission to Earth?
124 Ravi: You'd better ask Chief Lawrence about that. Now, about those three people I asked you to transfer for the repair detail, they told me you still haven't sent them the order.
125 Peters: When did you ask for that?
126 Ravi: [annoyed] Thursday, our conversation in the hall.
127 Peters: I don't remember.
128 Ravi: [irked] That's the problem! How long do we have to go on with this farce of reporting to a mayor whose mind is half gone?!
129 Peters: OUT! GET OUT!
130 Ravi: Gladly.
131 SOUND: ravi walks out
132 Hernandez: You're getting worse, you should go see Doctor Singh again.
133 Peters: [defensive] I'm just, I'm a little slow because I haven't had the best sleep. Haven't really forgotten anything, just a little slow to recall. And I'm not in the mood for being disrespected by some pipsqueak kid like that.
134 SOUND: end scene with lingering music that suggests time has passed
135
Priest:
Once more we find ourselves holding a service for someone who might or might not be dead. These are the hardest funerals, where you feel like you might be burying someone alive. What we do know with unfortunate certainty is that we've lost her: wherever and whenever Farah Tojo may be, there's no way for us to get there, no way for us to see her again. What we're really laying to rest here today is our own hopes and dreams we've been nursing for the past month.
Marissa?
136
Marissa:
Let me tell you all a little about my friend Farah. When I first started getting to know her, after she became my sister's apprentice, I couldn't have imagined that this cheery kid half my age could have such depth. She had a keen intellect and thirst for knowledge, paired with such a playful creative nature that made her a great problem solver. She always had a sort of innocent, instinctual wisdom beyond her years that only grew over the years. She always had the right words to cheer you up. She faced adversity with a smile. My personality is very different from hers, and so are most of my interests, but we discovered we complemented each other perfectly and filled in each other's gaps -- I could be forceful and abrasive to stand up for her, she could be gentle and kind for me. Losing her... it leaves a gaping hole in my life.
Anton?
137 Anton: I don't want to give up. And until the day I die, I'm going to believe she lived a long and happy life somewhere in our past. But we have to draw a line under it, move it to the background, find ways to get on with our lives without her somehow. It's the most challenging thing, to carry on, but it has to be done.
138 SOUND: amazing grace
139 Priest: In lieu of a body, her friends and family have collected some personal mementos which we've placed in an urn. We commit this urn full of memories not into the ground -- because that's not what Farah Tojo was about -- but rather into the stars where she lived and dreamed. When I press this button, the urn will be shot off faster than escape velocity to begin an eternal voyage of solitude. You can see it on the screen now. Are you ready?
140 Anton: I'm ready.
141 SOUND: button press, light rocket fire sound even though it'd be silent because they'd have an effect
142 Priest: It's done. Goodbye, Farah Tojo.
143 SOUND: restaurant
144 Marissa: Doctor Peters! Can I talk to you for a moment?
145 Therapist: Sure Marissa. What's up?
146 SOUND: Dr Peters eats
147 Marissa: It's about my sister.
148 Therapist: Oh? You've been spending a lot of time with her, living and working together now?
149 Marissa: Sometimes she's normal, other times it's like I'm looking at a complete stranger.
150 Therapist: How so?
151 Marissa: She gets so cold, and it feels like she's really angry about something but she won't say what, and then a few hours later she doesn't remember it and she's her normal self.
152 Therapist: Kinda reminds me of my husband.
153 Marissa: [taken aback] What?
154 Therapist: So it's tied to the memory loss? Is this a new association?
155 Marissa: Well, ever since she moved in really. Even like a month back on the day we sent the first robot through the anomaly, when I was bouncing ideas off her she seemed so cold and disinterested. Not like her at all. And then she forgot that conversation.
156 Therapist: None of the usual therapies seem to have made any progress. I had Doctor Singh take another look for physical causes but she still couldn't turn up anything either. To be honest with you, I don't know what to do.
157 SOUND: mayor's office
158 Singh: You really need to take it easy, mayor.
159 Peters: I'm fine. Better than fine, now the high gravity's gone I can move around without a wheelchair and all my joints feel younger. Stop treating me like an invalid, there's nothing wrong with me.
160 Singh: Respectfully, your cognitive abilities are in steep decline.
161 Peters: [sharply] Who told you that?
162 Singh: Pretty much everyone who's spent time around you lately.
163 Peters: They should mind their own business.
164 SOUND: door opens
165 Hernandez: Mayor, the final four candidates for the Earth mission are here.
166 Peters: Show them in. Doctor, it's time for you to go.
167 SOUND: they enter and sit
168 Hernandez: Aisha Tojo, Mateo Juma, Zainab Juma, and Henry Ahmadi.
169 Peters: Would that be any relation to Farah Tojo or Arash Ahmadi?
170 Aisha: Her niece, mayor.
171 Henry: Not a close blood relation, but my wife and I picked it as our new last name when we married as a way of remembering one of our first explorers.
172 Peters: Commendable. And the other two, Jumas, are you related to each other?
173 Mateo: Husband and wife.
174 Peters: Hmm. So, you've already been evaluated for your skills and temperament.
175 SOUND: long silence as peters pulls a Mitch McConnell
176 Zainab: Mayor?
177 Mateo: Hello?
178 Hernandez: Mayor, are you okay? Should I call Doctor Singh back?
179 Peters: What? Oh, what I want to ask, to ask you, is... what does Earth *mean* to you?
180 Aisha: It's our ancestral home, our civilization, our heritage.
181 Mateo: Earth is our responsibility. It birthed the people who set our world in motion, now we're coming full circle to find out what *we* can do for Earth.
182 Zainab: Earth is mystery, an alien planet now, one with an epic history to unravel that'll lead us back to ourselves.
183 Henry: They say space is the final frontier, but I disagree. Coming back home again from space is the final frontier. It's our last mission, our last glory.
184 Peters: That'll do. I'll let you know my choice tomorrow. Dismissed.
185 SOUND: candidates walk out
186 Henry: [muttering in distance] What was the point of that?
187 Aisha: [muttering in distance] Shortest interview I've ever had.
188 Mateo: [muttering in distance] The way he froze up...
189 SOUND: door closes behind them, moment of silence, chair swivels
190 Peters: You know, right now I feel like a god.
191 Hernandez: How's that?
192 Peters: Here I am, the authority, judging and selecting two people free from sin to send off to live the rest of their lives on Earth... forever cut off from us up here in the heavens. They may be the only two human beings on a garden planet that's forgotten us. They'll be Adam and Eve.
193 Hernandez: Then I take it you're leaning toward the married couple?
194 Peters: It'd be more apt. I mean, we could even send some genetic samples with them to give them a real chance at re-populating the Earth.
195 Hernandez: Assuming the Earth isn't already populated.
196 Peters: If the human race survived, it's probably evolved into a different species by now. And we lost contact with them before we should've been out of range. What year was it?
197 Hernandez: 2223.
198 Peters: I mean on Earth.
199 Hernandez: Uh, I guess around 2210? But their transmission couldn't target us since we weren't on our projected course anymore, doesn't mean anything happened to them that year.
200 Peters: It's a shame they may not have heard our Tau Ceti reports.
201 Hernandez: What about our people who got taken back, like your kids? They could've delivered a pretty interesting report in person.
202 Peters: I hope so. [sarcastic jest] Or maybe the aliens killed them and feasted on their bodies the moment they were out of our sight.
203 Hernandez: We'll never know.
204 Peters: Mateo and Zainab might find out. And they might even, might be able to tell you, though too late for me.
205 Hernandez: [skeptical] I can't imagine what evidence would be left after so long. And their signal will be the weakest yet.
206 Peters: Marissa will piece it together somehow.
207 SOUND: arboretum, doomer priest is sitting as ekkert walks up
208 Ekkert: [sfx: approaching] Hello there.
209 Doomer Priest: Is that... I mean, Larissa Flint, how can I help you?
210 Ekkert: It's Ekkert.
211 Doomer Priest: Oh, good.
212 Ekkert: You know they're about to repopulate level 4?
213 Doomer Priest: Yes, it's disgraceful how fast they're rebuilding. The blind faith of these people is staggering, for them to believe they have a future against all the evidence.
214 Ekkert: Let's stop them.
215 Doomer Priest: I'm interested.
216 Ekkert: Your organization has plenty of people with the skills to build a bomb.
217 Doomer Priest: A bomb?
218 Ekkert: I can get access so we can plant it on level 4, and set it on a timer to go off during the reopening ceremony. That's a lesson they won't be able to ignore or forget.
219 Doomer Priest: That could kill dozens of people...
220 Ekkert: Maybe a lot more if it can punch holes in both the floor and the ceiling. Level 3 is still vacuum, so the people on level 5 could suffocate.
221 Doomer Priest: I don't want to murder scores of people.
222 Ekkert: Why not? Don't you want this world to end?
223 Doomer Priest: Not like that. Well, I mean, they'd arrest us all and put an end to our good work.
224 Ekkert: [annoyed] So what do you want to do, just chant at them?
225 Doomer Priest: We can work with your bomb idea. But we'll put it on the ceiling with just enough yield to take out level 4's atmosphere, and we'll set it off before anybody's up there. It'll convey our message, it'll show them we won't stand by idly watching them rebuild.
226 Ekkert: [annoyed] Seems a waste of the potential, but if that's all you want to do right now, we can start there. We'll meet tomorrow night if you can have the bomb ready by then.
227 Doomer Priest: How do you know Larissa won't be in control tomorrow night?
228 Ekkert: She'll be sleeping, that makes it easy to overpower her mind.
229 SOUND: link that indicates time passing
230 SOUND: working on bomb electronics
231 Sergey: There, that should do it.
232 Doomer Priest: Thanks Sergey. Is it safe to carry?
233 Sergey: It's my first bomb, so I can't call myself an expert... but it hasn't blown me up yet. I think it'll be fine. If you drop it, well, our gravity's so low you'll have plenty of time to catch it.
234 Doomer Priest: So, it's got a timer interface?
235 SOUND: beeps for pushes
236 Sergey: Dead simple interface, push here to add an hour to the timer and here to add a minute. This button to clear. And this button to commit, but I'm not going to press it because there's no way to disable it after that.
237 Doomer Priest: In case something goes wrong, maybe I'm not the one who should take on this mission. You know this bomb better than anyone Sergey, would you like to accompany Ekkert on the mission?
238 Sergey: Ekkert kinda gives me chills. Nothing behind those eyes but grim hatred. And living in Larissa's body, such opposites. I know Ekkert is on our side, but her motivations are different from ours, she's not doing this to atone for sin or to please God.
239 Doomer Priest: By going with her, you can keep an eye on her and make sure she sticks to the plan.
240 Sergey: [resigned] Okay Shepherd. For the cause. This world must end.
241 SOUND: link that indicates time passing
242 Ekkert: Will you be done soon, Kochergan?
243 Sergey: Just about... there, it's attached.
244 Ekkert: Activate the bomb.
245 Sergey: I'll set a delay of 3 minutes.
246 SOUND: beeps of setting timer, activation sound
247 Sergey: Committed.
248 SOUND: bomb continues to beep in softer way once set
249 Ekkert: Such a waste to do this when nobody's present. But at least it's a start.
250 SOUND: distant sound of hatch opening
251 Sergey: The repair crew is coming up!
252 Ekkert: Good! We may get some of them after all!
253 Sergey: We've got to get out of here, fast!
254 Ekkert: There's another hatch on the north side where they won't see us. Follow me.
255 SOUND: their footsteps recede, then the footsteps of the work crew approach
256 Ravi: [motivational] Alright crew, if we work hard we can get this level finished by the end of the shift and move people back into their homes tomorrow. Sniff that finish line!
257 Worker: Do you want me and Pierre to go back to the electrical fault we were working on yesterday?
258 Ravi: Sure. And Martinez and Oumarou, you two get that new air processing unit hooked up. Anton, you're with me. Rest of you, start testing each room's plumbing.
259 SOUND: group breaks up
260 Anton: Where are we going?
261 SOUND: footsteps, going through door
262 Ravi: In here.
263 SOUND: bomb beeping
264 Anton: What's that noise?
265 Ravi: I don't... up there, on the ceiling!
266 Anton: Whatever it is, we sure didn't place it.
267 Ravi: [talking fast with urgency] I think it may be an explosive device! Anton, call everybody and tell them to get off this level, I'm going to try to disarm it...
268 SOUND: background - multicom sound as anton initiates call. foreground - ravi fiddling. following two lines are simultaneous fg/bg.
269 Ravi: I wish your mom were here, Chief Tojo was better at this sort of puzzle...
270 Anton: [anxious] Everybody, we've got a possible bomb situation. We need the whole work detail to evacuate the level immediately.
271 SOUND: dim background of a few people running and screaming and scrambling in panic in the corridor, grows to foreground as ravi flees
272 Ravi: Shit! [running for life] Out, get out of the room, now!
273 SOUND: explosion shakes everything, sets alarm off, increasingly loud air escape wind sound, we hear two people thrown into wall
274 SOUND: end theme
275 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode twenty four: Two Minds.