Audio Clip #7
“Last week our golden gods left us. No more ceremonies, no
more dancing, no more singing. Morale has wavered but not broken. For most of
us at least. Actually, it feels like a haze has been lifted… as if the weeks of
chanting with and praising those fluorescent beings were a dream. Gamma Draconis
looms larger and larger on our horizon, metaphorically speaking. We are all
focused on the advent of starting a new life there. Of honouring our past lives
as well. Of honouring Dave. How could I have forgotten him so easily before…”
*Captain Sheffield does not speak for a few seconds
and audibly wrings her hands.
“A haze… a dream.”
*here there is a knock on the cabin door, and Captain
Sheffield speaks briefly with a crewmate. Audio is muffled and inaudible. Captain
Sheffield returns to the recording after 1 minute and 15 seconds.
“That was Jorge. He’s worried about Liz. She has not been
doing so well since our golden gods left us. Where the others have begun
focusing on building our new lives and choosing genetically… ideal… partners,
so that we can begin a strong colony on our new home, Liz has regressed. She
has locked herself in her crew quarters and is even more inconsolable than when
we first mysteriously appeared in the Gamma Draconis system.
“Jorge is my partner now, and Liz’s. Mike paired with Lin
and Olivia. Jorge has been checking in on Liz, trying to build a rapport I
suppose. She does not even respond to him anymore. She just taps on the
bulkhead and door over and over, with very minimal rest.
“Jorge believes she is imitating the rhythm of our old
fluorescent friends… I don’t know how he can be so sure. I can hardly remember
it now that the haze, the fog has lifted.”
*a loud tapping sound begins as Captain Sheffield speaks
the word ‘fluorescent’ and continues from here onwards until the end of the audio
clip. Captain Sheffield is presumably alone in her cabin and therefore is
the source of this tapping; however, she does not seem aware of it. She continues
speaking 23 seconds later, changing to a happier tone.
“I always wanted to have children with Dave. I dreamt of
them, their names, their faces, their first words and knee scrapes. Lost dreams
of a happier time.”
*tapping continues in a rhythm similar to that in Audio
Clip #6.
“I suppose children with Jorge in our new planet will have
to do. There is an excitement in this as well. We will be pioneers of a new
generation of humanity.”
Audio Clip #8
*audio clip begins with Captain Sheffield sobbing.
She begins to speak through her tears.
“Liz blew the airlock door open a few hours ago… the one she
opened before, before when she wanted to let them in. She exposed
herself to the void, to the black. She made her way there during our sleep
cycle. Only Mike was awake, and he… he didn’t make it either. He was too close
when she did it.
“Without cycling the airlock, she overrode the controls and
blew the door. The Soothsayer is a smart, quick ship, otherwise we would
all be dead like Liz and Mike. Automatic sealing of the cargo bay and machine
shop surrounding the airlock saved my life. The others are broken up, I don’t know
how we can keep it together. We lost a lot of oxygen when those compartments
were evacuated, and Jorge will have to set up an emergency airlock bubble to
salvage what we can from there… and to bring Mike and Liz in. The Soothsayer
closed the outer airlock door automatically as well, an automatic function
to conserve air. Now Mike and Liz have been laid to rest in an airless coffin, weighed down under
the pressure of the ship’s thrust gravity, and trapped, like the rest of us, a
million lifetimes from home.”
*a loud beep sounds 7 seconds after Captain
Sheffield stops speaking. Jorge Reynolds’ voice can be heard from her
terminal.
“Cap you have to see this. Sending feed from the cargo bay.”
*Video Clip #2: 15 seconds of video data attached
to Audio Clip #8 from Captain Sheffield of the Soothsayer.
Video is of the cargo bay; red klaxon lights are flashing but there is no audio
(presumably because the compartment is in vacuum). Elizabeth Stone is
standing over the body of Mike Drmic, and staring into the camera. She is not
wearing a space or environmental suit. Her chest is moving in and out as if she
is breathing; her feet are visibly tapping. At the 12 second mark her head leans
subtly towards her right shoulder, but the eye contact with the camera lens is
never lost.
*Jorge Reynolds speaks again before the audio clip
ends. “Cap… what the [redacted]. I’ve checked the oxygen
levels in there eight times. She’s breathing void.”
Image from: https://images.nasa.gov/details-KSC-20170322-PH_SWW01_0046
Comments
Post a Comment