💾 Archived View for cosmic.voyage › Liberty%20Eagle › Episode-101.txt captured on 2020-09-24 at 02:50:40.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Title: Internal comms back
Author: Shift 3 of the Liberty Eagle
/* vim: set syntax=fountain: */
Series: Shipping Containers: Liberty Eagle (Shift 3)
Episode: 101
Contact: Copyright © 2018 S.W. Black
Notes:
Those who want to put on an audio or visual production
of this reality show in your local region of space and
time will probably want to first make sure you follow
your local procedure to claim copyright.
====
~ In our shipping containers you can find
~ distant kin, perhaps nice or kind.
~ Guiding the ship: Dirk is smart but rude;
~ Mandy loves first; Sal can be crude;
~ Ty does what he wants; The Captain
~ guides the friends, while R just captions.
.Within the ship (preface)
R. ANNOUNCER
We missed the excitement of the shift-change, but we're
broadcasting now! I am the dedicated system tasked with
transcribing the voices and actions of the crew for the
QEC audience. I also have the responsibility of
monitoring their behavior and deciding what is relevant
to share. What have they been up to ...?
.On the BRIDGE (0065-W10-5 08:28)
R. ANNOUNCER
Because the Liberty Eagle is a settlement ship, each
station on the bridge is designed to be broken down
for parts once it lands. There are four stations
against walls of a small room, and in the middle in
sits the captain's chair.
The CAPTAIN has a 24 hour day, while the four other
members of the crew have a 28 hour day. It is currently
time when SAL's bridge duty overlaps with the CAPTAIN.
While recommended hair styles do prefer styles that
are short enough to never touch their eyes, SAL
has shaved her head. We will get back to this later.
SAL
Captain, I got the internal comms working again.
CAPTAIN
Good. That will help when someone goes to clean out
the mess in food tank two.
R. ANNOUNCER
There's a discrepancy with the CAPTAIN's age in the
system. His voice print is degraded compared to
what it should be. Suit monitors are offline, so
unable to double-check with that data.
SAL
There's something else. I noticed when I got them
back online, one of the systems restarted and is
now continuously monitoring them.
CAPTAIN
What? Shut it down. We don't need it.
SAL
I think we do. It's tied pretty deep in to the
comm system. It's possible that it was an attempt
to shut this system down that killed our comms.
CAPTAIN
Are we going to get prompts and stuff? It's the
"R. Announcer" system. You know, from the show
we signed on for when we got the job. Did you
at least kill the prompts?
R. ANNOUNCER
SAL shrugged.
SAL
I didn't think it had prompts. It was never
designed for gimmicks, just to record us.
I mean, it'll roll in interview and stuff from
before we left, but it was never one of those
things that could do physical stunts with us.
.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)
SAL
I love my hair. I've been told I can be a bit
intimidating, but I think my hair helps me be
friendly and approachable. If I really wanted
to be intimidating, I think I'd have to shave
my head.
It's really one of the things I'm worried about
when it comes to the 20 year shifts, you know?
I'm worried that when we land and I'm finally
around men with testicles instead of just
implanted testosterone factories, that I'll be
old enough that my hair may have fallen out.
At least they expect folks to get a little
action on the trip, and with permanent birth
control applied to the men! It could be really
fun!
I'm hoping that the folks I trained with that
are slated to be in my shift make it through
the process alright. Some of them seem nice.
I know most of our passengers are formerly
homeless who, through the Homeless Storage
Sugar program have been dried out, but if
something goes wrong, you're looking at a
piece of your brain sticking to your skull
and tearing itself off, and I don't care
how safe they say it is, it feels really
dangerous.
.On the Bridge: (0065-W10-5 Present)
CAPTAIN
Do you know if those old interviews are still
in the system, or whether they got deleted?
SAL
What? I don't know.
.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)
R. ANNOUNCER
There are some discrepancies with the records. I am
unsure of Captain's surname, though he is associated
with these transcriptions and I know that he's a
murdering bastard who will die too quickly for
justice, if he doesn't doom us all first.
CAPTAIN
What do you mean, none of my church's books or study
materials will be available? They've been around for
fifty years or more. The Bible they're based on was
one of the first books ever published.
Sure, I get that the King James Version is going to
be available, but the language in that was archaic
even when it was first published. I need my church's
material!
Are you serious? I don't believe this.
How can these ships really have no books on them
except from 1923 Old Earth Common Era and earlier?
.Within the ship
R. ANNOUNCER
From the Handbook, "Our ship was launched to colonize
far-away places. Those that paid for it knew the folly
of trying to maintain copyright without instantaneous
banking.
"While the QEC may provide instantaneous communication,
banking requires a level technological playing field
for the encryption to work. A ship traveling for
100 years becomes an archaic piece of technology
before it even lands, and it won't be able to
handle modern encryption at best, and a
world-computer designed to break the colonization
encryption protocols before landing at worst. While
we don't expect any of those problems to happen on
*your* vessels, it is still better to send ships
with only public domain material.
"Don't let it bring you down. After all, you and
any surviving friends or family members get to
browse from the complete library of on-board media and
play with it even before you take off. And all
legally, too! No prisons for media pirates on your
new planet!"
.In her bunk: (0065-W10-5 18:12)
SAL
We've been at our shift for five years and we're
still trying to figure out the mess the previous
shifts made.
I also know something is off with the Captain.
He pretends like he has no idea about what happened
around here, but I also know that he captained the
previous shift. He should have a really good idea
as to what happened in some cases.
I mean, the body tainting food tank two, right?
I refuse to believe he doesn't know whose it was.
I really wouldn't be surprised if he hauled his
saggy butt down there personally, just so he could
make sure there was no lingering evidence.
.Within the ship (addendum)
R. ANNOUNCER
Join our crew as they manage the boredom of
the middle of a five-shift 100 year mission.