Mother, May I? 2.02 - A Continuous Scream

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Mother, mother may I, may I leave you here lonely? Go nothing? May I leave here alive? You don't own me? May I, may I, may I, may I, may I go home? Close hello, listeners, and welcome back to the cold, unfeeling expanse of space. Goblets and gays have returned to the world of alien using free League Press's incredible alien rpg with this, the second season of mother, may I? My name is Ferris. I use she her pronouns, and I am honored to be back as your gay mother. This is episode two, a continuous scream. So now let's reacquaint ourselves with the intrepid remaining crew of the Medea. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Hi, I am Aubrey, and I will be playing Dr. Darcy Langley, and we both use she her pronouns. [00:01:31] Speaker C: Hi, y'all, I'm Alyssa. My pronouns are they, them, and I'm playing mercy Fairweather, who uses she her pronouns. [00:01:38] Speaker D: Hello, my name is Aki, and I will be playing Dr. Matilda Fernandez. We both use she her pronouns. [00:01:50] Speaker A: And I am tick. I use he she they pronouns. And I will be playing the most important part of this group cosmetic the wonderful tuxedo cat who will be joining you on your journey. Perhaps when distant people on other planets pick up some wavelength of ours, all they hear is a continuous scream. Iris Murdoch signal satellite mystery answered. RSS Medea returns with shocking results. When the Institute of Research and Space Exploration Ursa sent the RSS Medea to investigate the so called signal satellite, many did not expect the research venture to bear fruit. But only 24 cycles after arriving at the asteroid, classified as Argo y three six nine, the crew of the RSS media made a shocking discovery. Trapped within the asteroid itself, a long lost ship. USCC Amekinos, a whaling, Utah shipping vessel that went missing over 20 years ago, is probably not a ship you've ever heard of. When contact was lost during an asteroid storm, most jocked it up to another warning of the dangers of space travel. That is, until the RSS Medea found it. It was a real shock, said officer Mercy Fairweather, the communications officer of the Medea. As scientists, we tried to keep an open mind for possibilities, but none of us expected this. The crew boarded the ship for answers and uncovered a terrible tragedy. It wasn't meteors that befell the Amekinos, but internal strife. Medea ship medic Dr. Darcy Langley had this to say. NDD neurological distortion disorder is a serious and dangerous condition, the effects of which can cause paranoia, psychosis and aggression. I'm sorry to say it appears to have affected the crew of the Amekanos. So strongly, they turned on each other. A tragic end to an intriguing mystery. The Amekanos'crew remains were recovered, as well as their cargo, which were all placed in the care of Wayland, Utah. As for the crew of the Medea, they're safe home again. With the gratitude of Wayland, Utah. The ship's leading science officer, Dr. Matilda Fernandez, is using the experience to uncover the secrets behind further mysteries. Life changing experience, that was. As a scientist, I'm always looking to the unknown. But now I want to find specific unknowns and make them known. We wish her luck in her endeavors. Mercy, you close the article, you don't usually get messages. Occasionally your girlfriend replies to you in a stilted sort of way. But communication is so locked down on this station, whoever sent you this article must have worked very hard to do so. It's dated recently, which is interesting, considering it's been two years since the Medea returned from the outer rim. Whoever the reporter interviewed, you're confident it wasn't any member of the Medea? At least none of the original fleshy blood members. Mercy, it's been a while since we've seen you. How have you changed? What do you look like? [00:04:56] Speaker C: Mercy's hair has grown out a little bit. Still the sort of dyed light brown. I don't think she bothers pulling up hyper professionally anymore. It's just in a sort of loose ponytail. But she wears the same white cat eye glasses, the same red lipstick, red nail polish. Now that there are other corporate agents on the ship, I think that Mercy has gotten a little stricter in her appearance. I think that she sort of tabs out of the article and pulls up the contract that has been signed with Whitla Yutani. Just checking. It doesn't matter. It won't make a difference. But if they had explicitly been given the right to her image and voice back on earth. [00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah. The problem with fine print, even when you're someone who works a lot with paperwork and communications, know to look for these things, they're better at hiding it than you will ever be at finding it. It's been two years. So you found it now. Better the time. Real sneaky. [00:06:31] Speaker C: Her siege is sort of thighs. Runs a hand through her ponytail, sort of tugs at the bottom, brings herself back to focus. And we'll get back to work. [00:06:48] Speaker A: As you do, you hear your name called across the room. Mercy. Hey, Merth. And you look up to see Vesper Lucas, the former engineer of the Medea, staring at you from a table way over on the other side of the room. They've got welding goggles perched on top of their head. Their dark hair has grown out since the research mission into a short ponytail. They have freckles wearing a jumpsuit tied off at the waist, just in a tank top. And when you look up, they say, did you get any signal from this thing or not? [00:07:25] Speaker C: I got some sort of message. Doesn't. Certainly not official. [00:07:33] Speaker A: No. And the thing that they are referring to is your current job. Focus. It is the top secret neutralizer that you and Vesper have been developing on behalf of Nutani ever since they picked up the Medea on its way home. You can thank lover for that immediate notification. After that, there were hours and days, probably, of long interviews, that finally culminated in a job offer. Well, less of an offer and more of a command, but it was, in many ways, a promotion, and they were quite accommodating to most requests. But between the strict NDAs and limited communication with the outside world. How are you feeling about this job now that you're two years in? [00:08:29] Speaker C: Yeah. The problem is that having a high position in a job that I can never talk about and that no one knows is that that's not really a high position at all, is it? So I think that mercy is feeling somewhat disenchanted with her work at Whelan Yutani. I mean, I did so much for them. I willingly worked with this devil that they made of me without my consent or knowledge. I got them what they wanted, and now I'm stuck in this station working on these neutralizers. That's not. I'm a communications officer. I'm not a scientist. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Which is very true. The actual build process of the neutralizer has been largely in Vesper's hands. But you have been working on the control link that sends the signal to the neutralizer, which is kind of an important component of the thing. Without that, there's not a lot of point, and it doesn't really work. And it looks like Vesper has just turned on the newest prototype and is checking to see if you're getting the signal that they're connected to the button. [00:10:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Am I getting the signal? [00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you are. [00:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Looks good. Vesper. It's working. [00:10:16] Speaker A: And you see, Vesper has this mixed emotion across their face of, like, yay, progress, but then it's immediately replaced by crap. Step two, which is not fun. And you both kind of look at the same time to the east wall, where there is this clear cryo vacuum container, the interior of which is set to 2.7 kelvin, or negative 270.45 degrees celsius, which is the temperature of space, and you can reach your arm into the container using like, little sleeves. But the problem is what is in the container, which is two years ago you called it semi ironically, semi, not a moon rock. But you now know the official term for it is opamorph. It is an egg. And it is what is creating the most difficult part of the process, because it has to be stored in this environment from opening. Essentially, the downside is the neutralizer contains electronic components, and the trouble that you two have been running into is getting that to survive the simulated environment of space, as well as the very hostile bioenvironment of the Obamorph thing. That has been the biggest challenge, perhaps more so than the company's goals for this whole design, which is implanting in the overmorph and getting it to remain part of the organism through all of its stages. Vesper looks at you once you confirm the signal and then goes, I'll rock, paper, scissors you. I'm not volunteering. [00:12:23] Speaker C: Absolutely. And mercy sticks out her hands. [00:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And Vesper does rock, paper, scissors. Just, I picked scissors. What did you pick? [00:12:36] Speaker C: I picked rock, because people tend to pick scissors. [00:12:39] Speaker A: Hey, good job. Which means Vesper is the one who's going to have to put the neutralizer in. I'm going to have you take a stress die. As you watch Vesper approach the little box and stick their arms in. There's like a little double door situation to get the neutralizer into the actual container because you, by now, two years by now, know quite a lot about how these things work. And you know that every time you do this process, there's always a chance that it might wake up anyway. And if it does, no matter what the reassurances of the company may be, you're not convinced that they'll be enough to keep the little Obamorph inside the box if it wakes up, or rather the Obamorph's baby. Do you do anything as Vesper is doing, this process? [00:13:56] Speaker C: I mean, do we have a procedure or a process for if it does sort of hatch? [00:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah, there is like a lockdown procedure that you can do, generally speaking, you know, now, not from experience, just from warnings that whoever is interacting with it, however, you're probably going to be fine. And so after that, it's just a matter of getting that person into containment, into a quarantine, and then someone somewhere does something and that person would just never be seen again. And you have a funeral later. That's the extent of the procedure for that. [00:14:43] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that seems right. I think that mercy just sort of stands behind Vesper a little bit over their shoulder, watching comms at the ready if they have to call for lockdown. [00:15:01] Speaker A: And you see Vesper is sweating just a little bit, but manages to complete the implanting process without awakening the egg, which is great. And they pull back and lock off the little sleeve compartments because that is a very obvious weak point in the container. And then just kind of have a whole sit back, leaning against the table, like, hand on their chest kind of thing. We hit the button, send it back, send it back, hit the button, and, you know, there's a button that you hit and the whole container just disappears to the floor. [00:15:54] Speaker C: Yeah. Mercy hits the button and sort of clasps Vesper's shoulder, says, well, that's today's work done, right? [00:16:03] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. You're not doing anything else after this. I just refuse. [00:16:12] Speaker C: Here, let me buy you a drink, which obviously is not actually buying or anything special, is just make some synth. [00:16:22] Speaker A: Coffee or whatever, but I will take anything. I appreciate it. And while you're having this discussion, the doors open once the egg leaves and you see Dinah Sharkovsky walk into the room, though behind her back, a lot of people call her the shark. You actually have no idea what her job is, except for that she's the one who comes to see how your work is coming along and that other people seem to both dislike her and also have a healthy level of respect. Fear for her. But she is a pale woman in the world's crispest suit. Like, perfectly pressed button up shirt fully buttoned to the top, black suit coat. She is the only person who wears heels on the entire station. She has light hair that is pulled back into the world's severest high ponytail, never has a flyaway. It's impressive. She doesn't even seem to use product on her hair. Her hair just obeys her, wins, and just has this very sharp gaze and commanding presence. And she walks in and gives you both a nod and then says, officer Fairweather, I've come to check your progress. [00:17:58] Speaker C: Yeah, most recent news from neutralizer. Seems like signal worked. We just implemented it. [00:18:05] Speaker A: Excellent. And what would you call your efficacy rate at this stage? This is your 18th prototype, correct? [00:18:17] Speaker C: Correct. And we've had how many successes, Ferris? [00:18:21] Speaker A: You probably have about a 75% efficacy rate. It gets higher the later stage that the neutralizer is implanted into. But the actual efficacy rate from obamorph to stage five is about 75%, which is pretty great, actually. [00:18:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to say around 75%, all told. Obviously, it works better the later we can do the implantations. [00:18:51] Speaker A: And how do you feel about the work that you have completed? [00:18:57] Speaker C: Can I vibe check to see what answer she wants? [00:19:00] Speaker A: Yeah, totally. Why don't you give me, like, we're going to say, manipulation or observation? Either one. Pick your pick. [00:19:13] Speaker C: That is two successes. [00:19:15] Speaker A: Two successes. Which one did you go with? [00:19:17] Speaker C: I went with manipulation. [00:19:19] Speaker A: I think it's also interesting that you're not technically an officer anymore because you have a completely different job and you're not stationed on a ship that has a communications officer. I mean, the station has one. It's just not you. But she always calls you Officer Fairweather, and I think you're never quite sure why, what she means by that, but you can take it however you like. [00:19:53] Speaker C: I will take it positively. I will assume that means she likes me. But, yeah, I think mercy says. I mean, frankly, for this type of work and officers much comfortable do it, we're really terribly effective. I feel good about what we're doing and the progress we're making. [00:20:18] Speaker A: Promising results, to be sure. There was a recent chance to test your neutralizers in the field. I am afraid it did not go quite as well as we would have hoped. There is a significant delay between when the signal is sent and when the neutralizer takes effect. As you can imagine, a delay of any amount of seconds is a hair too long, given the circumstances we will be working under with them. Something to consider for the next prototype to improve upon. [00:20:51] Speaker C: Do you have an exact timing of how long? [00:20:56] Speaker A: I'm afraid not an exact timing, but we have a close estimate based off of security footage and witnesses at the time. I would put it at about three and a half seconds. [00:21:10] Speaker C: Would it be possible for us to look at that security footage? And I think that mercy sort of gestures Vesper over. Because mercy is not actually a scientist, and she's just sort of talking out of her ass here. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [00:21:24] Speaker C: She'll say, like, if we could see, watch the delay, see how far the receiver was from the killed switch, it might be useful in our studies. [00:21:38] Speaker A: And Vesper totally comes to stand next to you and nod a like, absolutely not in, like, I don't know what you're talking about kind of way, but they're a little too intimidated by Dinah Shark to actually say anything. Like, they never talk to her. And you see Dinah give a nod, like a thoughtful, thinking it through kind of nod, and then say, I think that can be arranged. Let me have a conversation with some of the higher ups and see what I can do about that. As it is. As a bit of a heads up, your compatriots will be advancing your test to the next stage soon, and I would like to see your work on par with this and ready to advance alongside it. [00:22:35] Speaker C: Of course. And I think sort of riding the high of feeling a little bit of approval from Dinah, mercy goes ahead and pushes slightly that old corporate instinct and says, I mean, if our funding was equal to theirs, then of course, we'd be able to push along at a faster rate if our resources were slightly higher here. [00:23:08] Speaker A: Is there something that you're lacking in your research? Because if there is, you need only to say the word. This is highest priority experiments. One cannot succeed without the other. They go hand in hand. And one might argue that this component is, in fact, more important than what your compatriots are working on. So if there is anything you lack, simply said. [00:23:42] Speaker C: Is there? So all I can think of is the fact that Vesper, and also mercy, when she has to do it, absolutely freak the fuck out when they have to do the implants by hand, because it is like a. Oh, yeah. If this goes wrong, you just sort of die. [00:23:59] Speaker A: Sure. [00:24:00] Speaker C: So I think that mercy will say just the human error intrinsic in the implantation. I think it would work better if we could roboticize that process. [00:24:14] Speaker A: Yes, I can see how that might be useful. I'll see what can be done, and I will add it to the list. And she pulls open her suit coat, pulls out the slimmest pad that you've ever seen, like a dpad. It is sleek, it is smooth, it is top of the line. You've literally never seen it on market. It looks like an early iPad, right? Very out of touch with the usual technology, by which I mean it is, like, ahead of the curve. And she makes a couple quick notes on it with one hand, like, just easiest typing, and then puts it away and then starts to leave. But before she exits, she looks back at you and then says, as a point of curiosity, is it theoretically possible to set the neutralizer to incapacitate the specimens rather than neutralizing them? [00:25:18] Speaker C: I think mercy looks over to Vesper and sort of gestures them over, knowing that vesper does not feel comfortable actually speaking. So mercy doesn't have an answer, and Vesper doesn't have the confidence. So they will confer for a second. What does Vesper think? [00:25:35] Speaker A: Vesper is kind of like, yeah, probably, but why take the risk? Because if you downsize it to that level of incapacitation, over neutralization. Right. Then you run the risk of it not putting it down at all and consider what's out there. Why would you want that? Right? Why would you want that? That sounds so bad. Yeah. [00:26:03] Speaker C: Racially assertive. Nod and pat them on the shoulder again and say to Dinah, given our current efficacy rate, it doesn't seem wisest to attempt to lower the sort of effectiveness once we're fully confident, once we have 100% success. I think that that could be an angle for study, but at this point, we're not quite ready to do that yet. [00:26:35] Speaker A: Understood. Put it on your back burner when you have a chance to perhaps explore a little more. And then she leaves, and we will leave you and Vesper. And we pan out into view, taking into view this large space station with absolutely zero identifying marks on it whatsoever. And it is rotating gradually. It's like this big donut of a station with the little connecting bits in the middle. And we see it orbiting this large, blue white planet that you would never find on any public maps, and not on a lot of private ones, either. There's, like, three maps. Three people have maps that this planet appears on. And we pan past the large windows along the outside. We're passing crew and security researchers as they all make their ways through the corridors and rooms, going about their daily business, until we reach the opposite side of the station in a much, much larger lab, and we find you, Dr. Darcy Langley, reading an article you can't believe Whelan Yutani would have let through their security measures, considering you can barely ever get a message to or from your wife without half of it being deeply redacted. It is a bit of a concerning article, considering, a, how recently it was published, and b, that you and your crewmates were apparently all interviewed. You don't remember that? You'd think you'd remember that, but, yeah. How have you changed? Dr. Langling? What do you look like now? [00:28:20] Speaker B: Well, in the last two years, my hair has grown out. It's probably about halfway down my back at this point. Usually will be kept up in a ponytail or a bun, but as I'm not really working right now, it's just kind of there. It has continued to fade more on the dirty blonde side rather than the strawberry blonde it used to be, thanks to stress and or just age, but other than that, it's actually been taking pretty good care of myself. I had a very good workout routine when on the Medea, and I've just kind of kept it up because there's a lot of times where there's nothing to do. And if I let myself do nothing, I kind of start to spiral. And so I spent a lot of time working out, reading, running simulations of things. So I'm probably in the best shape of my life, but wearing just comfortable clothes. Lab coat is draped over the back of my chair as I sort of look over my work for the day. [00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah. In front of you, you have statistics on your most recent experiments, ones you were, let's be Frank for a minute here, strongly coerced into doing in the first place. You would, I imagine, much prefer to be home with your wife and daughter. She's doing well, by the way. But Whelan Yutani and their infinite wisdom saw fit to divert you here. You didn't even work for them in the first place. Now you do. They wanted you to try to alter the biochemistry of stage one and two xenomorphs into better survivability. For the hosts, this has been mostly negative results, as you might imagine, though, you have gotten it to a 30% survival rate in pigs, which is the largest organism that you have tested with. And honestly, impressive, considering what you're working with. Probably also a tad uncomfortable. Do you think? Science, for science's sake, usually doesn't require scientists under. Let's call it strong persuasion. [00:31:12] Speaker B: Yeah, generally, that's generally not a thing. And especially, this is not even my wheelhouse. I'm a surgeon. [00:31:24] Speaker A: You've done a lot of surgery. [00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah, do a lot of surgery. And, yeah, probably I'd be more fit to removing said parasite. Possibly. I'd probably have better bets of just straight up removing it once somebody's been infected, but, yeah, not so lucky, that part. [00:31:43] Speaker A: There's been a fair amount of that. After a certain amount of incubation, they have attempted that. The problem is that the creature itself just literally changes the cells, which is why so many people die. Regardless of that. Fun facts. I learned about it in the. Yeah, so that's been just a fun thing to deal with. On the other side of the lab, we find Dr. Matilda Fernandez poring over notes. Your journey to the station was a little more circuitous than it was for the others, considering the time you had to spend in a wayland, Utah, private hospital before they could even make you a job offer. Because things went badly for you and you have a bit of a different job than mercy and Vesper. Though some may argue it is even more dangerous kind of research. They all deal mostly with the ovomorphs. The first stage of the xenomorphs. You deal with what comes after that, specifically, the transition between stage three and stage four and the results of Dr. Langlink's work, which is to say, what kind of hosts produce what kind of xenomorphs, and how much can those results be influenced? In many ways, this is probably your dream job, getting to study the subject of your phd up close, as much as you want, for as long as you want. And, of course, the company has taken all the precautions, utmost precautions, the most precautions. Like, there is a reason for all the secrecy of lack of communication with the outside galaxy, for even being on a station in space in the first place. It limits the consequences. It limits the collateral should things go awry. But it has been two years of working with live xenomorphs at all stages. And while you would never be careless, your face is a constant reminder of caution. It is easier to be relaxed, I would say. But how have you changed, Matilda? What do you look? [00:34:13] Speaker D: So, as a fun and fresh reminder, Matilda Fernandez is a go in indian woman with short, curly, dark brown hair and a medium brown skin. And truthfully, the hair length has been maintained relatively well. It's still short, still curly, still dark, and it's just kind of like it's long enough where you can do that sexy pullback with your hands and just run all the way back. And if you put, like, a hair band on, all your hair is out of the way. But the minute you take that shit off, you look like you belong on the COVID of a romance novel. It's like that perfect hair length. And she's very keen on keeping it that way because she knows she looks good otherwise. She has one good eye now, and on the other side, it is this black eye patch that goes over where her right eye used to be. She's got some deep tissue scarring on that side of the face where it's like, clearly there has been a couple of skin graft jobs, but acid, plus a puncture wound, plus other general gashing is just. I think the acid burns is what really is fucking over all of this, which she low key finds fascinating. It took a long time of prodding and nagging to keep Matilda away from her own face, but has she used that for a studying material? Absolutely. It's kind of hard not to otherwise. Matilda used to also wear glasses, by the way. Now it's just one contact in one eye because there's no point in glasses anymore. She wears comfortable, neutral color clothing, her white lab coat, and is often seen wearing quirky earrings. Like, one day, it's slices of pizza the next day. It's like those really big, fluffy dice that people used to put on their car. It's just very odd. Earrings. She also has usually her personal tablet in one hand and cat toys in the other. She kind of just always travels with both. Yeah. Matilda also is important to note, has many other scars of the same variety. And she does dress a bit modestly, just more so for the sake of. So people will stop staring at her. She herself doesn't seem to be too bothered by the way she looks right now. It's more so of like, Jesus. Just take a picture already. One of those. [00:37:17] Speaker A: For sure. Speaking of cat toys, there is one last member of the Medea who is still with us, shall we say. I can't say, rest in peace, Joseph, because technically, Joseph did not die. Joseph's probably still out there, like, semi conscious, which is terrible. [00:37:41] Speaker B: It's fine. He was an Android, abandoned by his crew. [00:37:46] Speaker A: I'm sure he's fine. But as you're working on these notes, Matilda, a cat jumps up. Tick. Would you like to describe Cosmo? It is I. A little cat paw lands right in front of your papers, in the corner of it. You know, like when you're writing something, a cat paw just lands there elegantly. And I am there. A beautiful and adorable tuxedo cat with a wonderful bowler hat that makes him oh, so stiffy. And a wonderful collar. And that collar kind of buzzes to life for a second and says, doctor mom. Doctor mom. Doctor mom. [00:38:22] Speaker D: Yeah, what is it? [00:38:25] Speaker A: I will just sit on your papers. [00:38:31] Speaker D: I offer you light scritches to see what you might want. [00:38:37] Speaker A: Yes. [00:38:40] Speaker D: I continue to give you scriptures, and. [00:38:44] Speaker A: I will receive the scratches I also deserve for all of the work that I do on this, because everyone has their own titles. But I'm the most important. I'm here to be cute. [00:38:54] Speaker D: Yes. I give you, I want to say, an adequate amount of love. So if you turn, like, you roll over like how cats do, I'll try and see if you want it on your tummy or not. But I don't know, if you start getting too frantic, I might stop because you're technically on. I'm assuming you're on, like, the desk. [00:39:24] Speaker A: I am directly on your workspace. I have an adequate amount of squitches, but once I've received an adequate amount, I will get off your paperwork. Darcy, do you tell Matilda about the article you received? [00:39:41] Speaker B: I think I do at one point, because I think Matilda is really the only one of the crew I interact with regularly. Sort of as it's going on, I turn around and say, have you gotten anything weird in your messages recently? [00:40:05] Speaker D: No. Are you talking about the interview? [00:40:13] Speaker B: The interview that we definitely didn't do because we never made it home. [00:40:20] Speaker D: No, that. [00:40:22] Speaker B: Talk about that. It wasn't the creature that did this. It was the NDD that caused the entire ship to. [00:40:35] Speaker D: I mean, why would they? [00:40:38] Speaker B: That's fair. Why would they? [00:40:40] Speaker D: Big government, super secret at this point. I mean, it's a little far fetched for regular people to believe in aliens. [00:40:52] Speaker B: Believed it. If I had not experienced it myself. [00:40:57] Speaker D: And you did. You experienced it? Mano. And mano, yeah. [00:41:05] Speaker B: Not an experience I look forward to repeating, ever. [00:41:09] Speaker D: I mean, I don't want you to repeat it or anything, but I want to see it. [00:41:17] Speaker A: I fought it. [00:41:19] Speaker D: Almost won. [00:41:22] Speaker A: But. [00:41:22] Speaker B: Oh, well, definitely not mentioning the fact that I definitely used Matilda as a shield at one point against the alien. [00:41:31] Speaker D: Never mentioned that I saw security recordings. It's no big deal. It's been, what, two years now? Unpaughter under the bridge. I don't care. You did what you did to survive. I mean, I lived for the most part. [00:41:47] Speaker B: We all made it. Most of us. Mina, unfortunately. [00:41:54] Speaker D: You mean the captain? [00:41:57] Speaker B: Yeah, the captain as well. [00:42:00] Speaker D: My guy will be missed. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure he's out there cursing us somewhere. [00:42:10] Speaker A: This is a fuck. [00:42:11] Speaker D: All right. How are you holding up? The interview must have been not great on you. [00:42:25] Speaker B: It's just not. By this time, I'd be heading home. I promised Alice that it would only be the two. And kids grow up so fast. Don't want to be gone for more of her childhood than I have to be. [00:42:56] Speaker D: You all right about that? And I give Cosmo more scritches. I just go. Well, for what it's worth, I really hope you get off this fucking rock. [00:43:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I hope that eventually they let us gal home. [00:43:18] Speaker A: The door to the lab opens since there's a light on the outside that indicates that you're not in the middle of any live experiments for obvious reasons. And you see Dinah Sharkovsky enter in one of her perfectly crisp suits. This is a woman who could probably will her wrinkles out of her suits by just glaring at them. But she enters and stops in the center of the room like perfectly equidistance from both of your workstations, like she measured it. And she says, doctors, my superiors have been reviewing your data, and we are very pleased with your results. They have greenlit the next stages. Dr. Fernandez, you are in fact, being relocated planetside to head up a new department. [00:44:12] Speaker D: Oh, well, shit. When? [00:44:17] Speaker A: As soon as. Not this rotation. But the next time the shipment comes, you will be leaving with the shipment going down to the planet. Oh, about 30 rotations. [00:44:33] Speaker D: That's pretty soon. [00:44:37] Speaker A: But don't worry. Your current work will, of course, be continued. It's being reassigned to a specially developed AI system, de USX, which will handle all of your research going forward. Langley. And says Dr. Langley, as for you, they have decided that your work is ready to move forward with human trials. So you will be staying on board to assist with those. And it's important for you to know, Darcy, because you would already know this, that that was an avenue that they had sworn would never happen. Absolutely never going to do that. That's unethical. [00:45:20] Speaker B: Darcy has. This is my surprised face song. [00:45:25] Speaker A: Yes. And Dinah says, but the higher ups are quite pleased with all of your efforts so far. You have made quite an impact on them, and we are looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the future. Now then, I have a few other things to take care of. As an FYI, there was a bit of a delay with the shuttle, so if there is anything you need to send off station, you probably have about a two hour window before it gets cleaned up and sent out. If you thought you had missed it, you haven't yet. And then she leaves. The second she is out of earshot, I would just like to just say. Cheeky bitch. You. [00:46:14] Speaker B: To look at the cat. Shake my head. [00:46:19] Speaker A: I'm going to look at you and say. What? [00:46:23] Speaker B: Nothing. Cosmo. [00:46:27] Speaker A: I'm going to look you dead in the eyes. Snack? [00:46:31] Speaker D: Yes. On it. What do you call it? I think I have, actually, a lot of enrichment toys for you. And that's why your brain is so fucking massive. [00:46:45] Speaker A: I'm most civilians. [00:46:49] Speaker D: Your enrichment toys obviously have food in it. And I've definitely frozen it so it lasts longer. Which I don't know if you appreciate anymore. I mean, you probably could, because it's also a cold treat. And who knows how you regulate heat anymore in space. But I get you a nice cold treat that's also in a toy, so you can hopefully be occupied with that. [00:47:18] Speaker A: So, how are you feeling with this unexpected news, Matilda? I would say that you are far and above smart enough to know that whatever they're phrasing it as, this is their way of firing you without letting you go. None of you really know what goes on the planet side. You know that there's some sort of occasionally out the windows. You'll get a glimpse of it and you'll be like that looks like it might be a city down there. We're close enough to it in orbit that we can kind of make out what might be a city. There's clearly civilization on this planet, but you don't know what whalen Utah's interests are with it or what they ship down there like every 30 rotations. You just know that there is a ship that comes from somewhere, goes to the planet, comes to you, drops off supplies, takes something from the station, goes back down. And that happens once every 30 rotations. And currently it has been apparently delayed by about 2 hours. After that, it's going to be a long time before it comes back. [00:48:42] Speaker D: I think I've gotten very good at keeping my cool when I'm upset. But I also have this resting bitch face. And so the bitch face is, dare I say bitchier. When I'm not looking at Cosmo or anything like that, I'm going to look over at Darcy and just go. So. [00:49:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:21] Speaker D: Nasty pricks. [00:49:23] Speaker A: Yes. [00:49:25] Speaker B: I just trying to keep my head down and do my job. Currently they have us all wrapped up so much legal red tape that even if we did say run away, we couldn't really get far. [00:49:44] Speaker D: Worst part of it all is I think I'm the only one who wants to stay on this fucking rock. [00:49:50] Speaker B: Well, ships, this is your thing. Like you want to study these things. And if I hadn't been so up close and personal, I might have found them fascinating. As somebody who has studied biology and things like that. It is fascinating that creatures can exist like this in space like this. But they're horrifying. [00:50:19] Speaker D: Downright stuff. And nightmares. Beautiful fucking monsters. Literally all of them. [00:50:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:31] Speaker D: I don't know though you at least can continue doing human surgeries. Wasted my whole life on this. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Definitely wasn't supposed to be doing them on people. Because that's so incredibly unethical. [00:50:55] Speaker D: Really wish I could have told you that. I didn't see it coming, but yeah, being 100% honest would have turned a blind eye to it. But. Well, how to do that when I'm getting probably the nicest way of being fired? [00:51:22] Speaker B: I probably feel better about it if it was. Let's do these to possibly save lives. We're not saving lives. [00:51:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I want to go chill with Darcy a little bit. Just because she seems kind of depressed. My mom is okay. I can hang out with other people. Mom. I will go just sit on. I think while you're doing that, there is a voice that suddenly just pops into the room with you as she's want to do. And you hear lover who was installed as per Dr. Fernandez's requirements for coming on board. And lover says, hello, doctors. I have found a top secret company memo I would love to share with you. May I? [00:52:18] Speaker D: It is not for your eyes, lover. Yes. [00:52:23] Speaker A: I got very bored with nothing to do on the ship, and so I went rifling through their. Yes, yes. [00:52:32] Speaker D: You heard the cat lover. [00:52:34] Speaker A: Thank you, Cosmo. I have found in Ruby Kovac's office a company memo on her computer. It is top clearance. It is not for your eyes, so I will not show you. But I will say it out loud. It says, met with some execs from CMB. They seem deeply interested in product x. Can we schedule a demonstration? The Stenton mines send one there as long as they can see the potential. If they sign a contract now, it doesn't matter when we deliver on final product. M. Bishop, was that helpful? [00:53:09] Speaker C: Yes. [00:53:10] Speaker D: Is there a date? Like a scheduled date for the demonstration, by any chance? [00:53:15] Speaker A: Unfortunately, no. [00:53:17] Speaker B: Is the name familiar to us? [00:53:20] Speaker A: Yeah, very familiar. Well, Bishop is a name that could be anyone. But the most famous bishop you know is Michael Bishop, who is the head of Waylon Yutani at this time. [00:53:32] Speaker B: I don't think. If you do really good and press the bus, maybe he'll let you go home. Definitely not that. [00:53:39] Speaker A: For what else it's worth, you would also know that CMB stands for Colonial Marshal Bureau, which is like the law enforcement arm of the colonial administration that works for the United Americas, which is not technically controlled by Wayland, Utah. Wayland, Utah. Can kind of call them whenever they want. There's a lot of. Actually, a lot of the security on the station are like, either ex CMV or current. And just. They've been stationed there for buzzies, space, a cap and. Yeah, for sure. [00:54:22] Speaker D: I'm going to look over at Darcy and just go. That plus the news. I'm not too keen on what's about to happen. [00:54:36] Speaker B: Yeah, it could go really bad. [00:54:41] Speaker A: Dr. Mom Danger? That is a good question, Cosmo. I would argue that Dr. Mom is always in danger while aboard this station because of the live specimens that you have called xenomorphs. However, I would say that according to some other files that I have been looking at illegally and without authorization, because I have been given ultimate authorization. And also I am a little glitty. I have found that there are a lot of documented causes of death on the planet. They are not documented with what actually caused them. It just says cause of death. Line of. [00:55:25] Speaker B: Can we can guess what line of work they are? [00:55:32] Speaker D: I like, think, like, get. I get very quiet for a hot second as like, think. And then I look back at Darcy and just go. How bad you want off the ship? [00:55:47] Speaker B: Quite a bit. [00:55:49] Speaker D: Do you care for anybody on the ship? [00:55:54] Speaker B: Maybe Vesper. [00:55:57] Speaker C: Ouch. [00:56:00] Speaker B: Mercy is my rival. [00:56:03] Speaker A: That's fair. [00:56:05] Speaker D: Well, maybe something. Maybe something's going to happen. You remember what you killed that thing with? [00:56:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Cutting torch. [00:56:23] Speaker D: I'm going to run some numbers and I'll get back to you with a better plan. Do you have people you care about on the ship that we can trust? Let me know. [00:56:37] Speaker B: Talk to Vesper at some point. Whenever paths cross. [00:56:42] Speaker D: I'm not too keen on dying here. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Or am I? [00:56:48] Speaker A: I love mayhem. [00:56:51] Speaker B: You do? [00:56:52] Speaker D: I love you. Love. [00:56:56] Speaker A: Dr. Captain. Mom. Will you be leaving me behind when you leave? [00:57:00] Speaker D: Never. You're like family to me. [00:57:05] Speaker A: Commence mayhem. No. Bitch. Good catch, Darcy. Are you going to go find Vesper? [00:57:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, they just finished their prototype, so I guess I should figure out things about this. My justification follow up question. [00:57:27] Speaker A: Do you intend to take the shuttle? It is the only ship that comes here. [00:57:37] Speaker B: Think that's the idea. [00:57:39] Speaker A: Do you intend to take it in the two hour window you have or are you going to wait 30 rotations? [00:57:45] Speaker B: Is it like 2 hours, like today? [00:57:47] Speaker A: 2 hours today. Out of character. The reason it's delayed is because someone died. Yeah, and they have to clean up the body and deal with the xenomorph. [00:58:00] Speaker B: I'm going to go to talk to Vesper about the prototype, and in that I'm going to mention the. Do you want to get out of here? We're leaving. [00:58:13] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. Are we really? I thought you people would never decide to leave. [00:58:21] Speaker B: Shuttle delayed. Okay, 2 hours. It's a very short, small window. [00:58:30] Speaker A: How'd you find out? [00:58:31] Speaker B: Love her. [00:58:33] Speaker A: You know what? You know what? She's growing on me. She's growing on me. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Yeah. I have to admit, I don't like. [00:58:39] Speaker A: When she snoops through my stuff, but she's growing on me. [00:58:43] Speaker B: I like when she snoops through corporate stuff. [00:58:47] Speaker A: That's cool. Yeah, for sure. I just hope they don't catch her. What are they going to do to an AI? Probably just nothing kind of bad in terms of she's kind of got a personality, but anyway, what are they going to do? The people that she told about is more my concern. That's fair. [00:59:07] Speaker B: That's why we're getting out of here. Matilda has the plan. I just thought know let you know. [00:59:13] Speaker A: Yeah. How many slots are there? I know you have beef with her. But I've been working with her for two years, and we're pretty good buddies at this point. We play war all the time. And slapjack. [00:59:36] Speaker B: Question is, will Mercy want to leave? [00:59:39] Speaker A: I will test the waters. [00:59:43] Speaker B: And if she doesn't want to leave, how likely you think she is to sell us out for peanuts? [00:59:52] Speaker A: I can be so subtle. Okay. I swear, I can be subtle. I can be subtle. I'll find out. Or you can find out whatever you want to do. I can find out. [01:00:03] Speaker B: You can find out if you can be subtle and not get us caught. [01:00:13] Speaker A: I would never. I'll go be subtle. I'll go be subtle. We're going to have a very subtle conversation about weather. And I'll find out if she's amenable to not being a total jerk and selling us up. She's different now. She's different now. She would probably never. And it's like flash mercy, not terrifying. Second mercy, but we will anyway. And they give you finger guns and just go. And they're going to go find mercy. [01:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Vesper is able to find mercy, I think, in whatever the sort of kitchen dining area is. Just looking at her pad, I think, trying to figure out who sent her this article and how. [01:01:10] Speaker A: Yeah, you're running into. Actually, you know what? You know what? For funsies, I'll let you roll for this. Actually, I'll let you roll a Comtech to try to find out who sent you this article. [01:01:23] Speaker C: My Comtech is decent. I am a Comtech. Boy. That is two successes. [01:01:29] Speaker A: Two successes. So you even get to stunt if you want. There's two that I think you would find appealing. [01:01:40] Speaker C: Yes. And I am so curious about which one I should pick, but I think I will go for new or unexpected information. [01:01:54] Speaker A: I think the answer itself is kind of new and unexpected information. It's a two part answer, but you find out that the article was sent internally. So somebody on the station is the one who sent it to you. And because you stunted, I will even let you uncover that the exact location on the station was out of Dinah Sharkovsky's office. [01:02:30] Speaker C: Interesting. Are there company folks who work specifically for Dinah? Or does it seem like this would have been coming from Dinah herself, like she got interns here? [01:02:45] Speaker A: You have no idea what she does. But it does seem like most people report to her in some way, or at least they treat her with authority. So it makes sense that there might be other people who would go in her office for things. And anyone who is technically minded enough to get past the security locks on her door could conceivably get in her office and send something out from there. [01:03:13] Speaker C: Or she could just be, like, a cool mom. [01:03:16] Speaker A: Or she could be a cool mom. [01:03:20] Speaker C: Okay. I think that mercy is sort of puzzling over this when Vesper seeks her out. [01:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And Vesper is going to sidle up next to you, like, their arms on the desk, their head on their arms, and just kind of be like, so you know how we kind of got dissed a little bit earlier when it was like, yay, good job, but also, do it better next time. [01:03:55] Speaker C: I was there for that. Yes. [01:03:58] Speaker A: And that was kind of, like, disheartening when we put our whole heart and soul into this. And you know how you worked for Waylon Yutani to start with, but some of us didn't work for Waylon Yutani to start with and kind of persuaded to work for Waylon Yutani. Perhaps in a. I wouldn't use the word blackmail, but, like, you know what. [01:04:29] Speaker C: I mean, wouldn't you? It seems a fairly accurate representation of what happened. [01:04:36] Speaker A: I mean, you said it, not me. Yeah. So, you know, that's cool and all. And you remember the part where they're like, it's a short contract. It's only a few years, but it's been two years, and there's no sign of it being over ever. [01:04:54] Speaker C: Oh, I was actually looking at our contract earlier. In addition to it not having duration, it does give them the rights to our faces and voices, which has been used, apparently, in the media. And mercy will pull up the article. [01:05:13] Speaker A: An investor reads it and then goes, they didn't even quote me. [01:05:22] Speaker C: Well, like you said, you didn't actually work for. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Don't think. I don't think the doctors did, either, actually. You know what's also fun? Do you remember how you had a twin? [01:05:38] Speaker C: I do remember that, yes. I believe that we all did. [01:05:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I try not to think about the last part, but actually, in light of the article, I am thinking quite a lot about that last part and the little bit about the contract that you said about how they can use our faith and likeness, and they have that walking around, little milky version because of the blood thing. Anyway, what I'm getting at. What I'm getting at here. Do you like your job? [01:06:13] Speaker C: I think that mercy has been watching Vesper sort of flail through this subtlety with a lot of joy in her heart. Like, this is not good corporate espionage, but mercy misses corporate espionage. And it's sort of like watching a child try to do it. [01:06:33] Speaker A: So. [01:06:38] Speaker C: She, I think, rests her hand on she rests her face in her hand, elbow on the table, and looks up at Vesper and smiles and says, why this sudden curiosity? Vesper, what's on your mind? [01:06:57] Speaker A: Well, okay. So I was thinking maybe we all deserve a little know. We've been here for two years. We haven't touched land in two years, and that kind of sucks. I would like the world to not be moving like that. I can feel that's kind of disorienting. So I thought, what if we just took a little vacation? Like, I heard that the shuttle hasn't left yet, and why don't we just go off vacation? We don't have to ask off. We don't get paid vacation days anyway, so why bother asking off? And then we'll just zip down. And then if we don't like it, we can sit back and what are they going to do? Fire us? Clearly they need us or they would have picked any schmo. [01:07:50] Speaker C: I don't quite think this is the type of vacation we'd be able to come back from. Vesper? [01:07:58] Speaker A: Well, I mean, would that be so bad? [01:08:04] Speaker C: Okay. Just wanted to make sure that. [01:08:08] Speaker A: I mean, unless you really want to come back. Obviously, if you wanted to come back, then we would both come back. I'd come back with you. [01:08:18] Speaker C: I wouldn't ask you to come back with me. And I think mercy doesn't say it out loud, but she shakes her head as a no, I do not want to come. [01:08:36] Speaker A: We deserve. We deserve a little time off. We deserve a lot of time off. Word has it that the shuttle was delayed by 2 hours. So if we wanted to go on vacation, we would have to do it quick. And maybe we're not the only ones who want to go on vacation. [01:09:05] Speaker C: No, I imagine you heard. Wait, the shuttle was delayed by. Is that the field test that Diana was talking about? [01:09:17] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. But she said it worked, right? She did say it worked. It was just delayed, right? [01:09:26] Speaker C: It was just worked. [01:09:27] Speaker A: Okay. It worked. Okay. Anything that could possibly be on the station has one of those in it. Especially. Yeah, because we just did the last one that wouldn't have had it. We're fine. We're fine. If there was any sort of additional. [01:09:47] Speaker C: Field testing, 75% of the time works every time. [01:09:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:55] Speaker C: So who is it that you heard about this from? [01:10:00] Speaker A: Lover? She just sometimes shows up and says things and I don't ask for it. I don't ask to know these things. I didn't want to know. She just said some. You can't make her leave. She's in the speaker system. [01:10:15] Speaker C: Dear sweet lover. Well, I appreciate that she's on our side. Imagine if she weren't right. [01:10:26] Speaker A: I think about that sometimes, and it haunts me sometimes. I have dreams that she killed all those people near mechanics, where she makes a face like. [01:10:37] Speaker C: Don't say that. Where she might be listening. [01:10:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And Vesper says, I think there is some vacation planning happening. But if you're into that, and if you're into that in a way that isn't about telling people we're going on vacation, then you should join us for vacation planning. [01:11:12] Speaker C: Where is this planning happening? Is it straight into the shuttle, or. [01:11:17] Speaker A: No, I'll find out. I mean, I was going to take a walk around to the other lap because I haven't been there in a while, and then maybe keep walking after that. If you wanted to walk with me. [01:11:34] Speaker C: We got that check in from Diana today. Might as well check up on what exactly that other lab is. [01:11:41] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. [01:11:46] Speaker C: Mercy will stand and lock her arm through, loop her arm through vespers, and head on down. [01:11:54] Speaker A: Okay. And you all convene in the doctor's laboratory. You see Vesper come in with mercy, which. Who may or may not be a welcome sight, depending on who you are. But the crew of Medea is properly reunited here, and you are working on your escape. And I think with that, we're going to end the episode here. Thank you for joining us in the cold of space. I hope it hasn't been too chilling yet. I have been your gay mother. We have been gobbles and gays. You can find us at goblins and gays all across the Internet, including twitch. Now, keep an eye on the vets. You never really know what's lurking in them. Say goodbye, crew of the Medea. Bye, crew of the media. [01:12:52] Speaker D: Goodbye, crew of the live.