Chapter Two [video]

[thebestseller]

Who: (a glitchy) Richard Castle and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva hallways
When: All week

Action

[Castle hadn't noticed it before, but all of a sudden he'd become very, very aware of a mechanical hum inside the walls. He figured every ship had its own unique background noise, but this was something different. Oh, finally, something for him to investigate! He wasn't sure it would get him very far, but it was something.

All throughout the week, people could find Castle pacing the hallways like a restless tiger, trying to locate the source of the noise.

Or, perhaps, fellow engineers or maintenance folks could find him attempting to remove a wall panel, or tinkering with what was inside, or else carefully transcribing what he was finding onto his device.

Anybody else with an augment that didn't fit? Well, that's up to you.]


Broadcast

I think my memory's starting to go, folks. I'm getting a serious sense of deja vu when I walk the hallways every day, but damned if I know what's setting it off. Like I know something should be there, but there's a big blank. Just me?

Comments

[thebestseller]

[Castle laughed.]

Honestly, I think if we were gonna get fired or kicked off, it would've happened by now. And either way, we've got nothing to lose.

[dancingmd]

[Maybe not nothing... There are her friends and her crew to consider but his point is taken.]

And hopefully it will lead us to some clues about what is really going on in this place.

[thebestseller]

At this point I'd settle for just knowing if the audience is actually there or not.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly opens the door and starts out into the hallway.]

Any real information at all, really, I'd be satisfied with. I've been her for over six months now and this is the first time we've even had Diamond or Beau respond to us.

[thebestseller]

Six months? Really? Man, they're doggedly determined to keep us as in the dark as possible, aren't they?

[dancingmd]

Which tells me that they are worried we actually might be able to do something about the situation. If we were truly powerless against them, they wouldn't be so careful about hiding things from us.

[thebestseller]

Exactly. And that could be why their narrative has, thus far, always been "you're all so happy to be our guests!" even when everything people tell them should show them otherwise. Like if they keep repeating it enough, we'll be pacified.

[dancingmd]

If they think I'll ever be pacified about this, they're severely misguided.

[She's never going to forgive Atroma for taking her from Wesley, and she rather suspects Castle feels the same about Alexis.]

[thebestseller]

Me, too. I got a wedding to plan back home. They can go ahead and vote me off any time they want.

[dancingmd]

[It must be particularly difficult for him, having a fiance to get back to. At least Beverly doesn't have to worry about anything like that. So she gives him a sympathetic smile before getting down to business.]

Is there a specific section of the hallway giving you the deja vu?

[thebestseller]

Not yet, it's...

[He paused. There it was- the humming that was different from the normal noise of the ship.]

That humming again. Mechanical noises in the walls. That's what starts it for me.

[dancingmd]

[Beverly stops and frowns, straining to hear.]

I don't hear anything unusual.

[Nevertheless, she flips open her tricorder and starts scanning.]

Can you tell which direction it's coming from?

[thebestseller]

Is "everywhere" an appropriate response? Because I can't really pinpoint one source... it's like I can suddenly hear the ship's innards.

[dancingmd]

Hmm... the tricorder isn't picking up anything. Perhaps if we pulled away one of the wall panels?

[thebestseller]

Yeah... let's do that. [And Castle went to work doing just that.] And now... now that I'm doing it, I remember. Inside, I'll find the inner workings of the ship... some of them, anyway.

[dancingmd]

[Well, that sounds familiar...]

If it's anything like last time, the tricorder won't be able to take any video or pictures of it...but if you still want a record, you could describe what you're seeing as we go along. It has a voice recorder too.

[thebestseller]

Yeah, let's do that. OK. I'm opening the wall panel, and inside, there are a lot of moving parts. Including mechanical arms I can pull out and manipulate, but... they're not long enough to grasp anything that's not up close.

[dancingmd]

[Frowning.]

I can’t see any of this. It just looks like the usual set of wires and circuitry to me.

[She runs a hand through her hair as she thinks.]

What’s your augment again?

[thebestseller]

You... can't? [Castle paused in the middle of trying to make two arms grasp each other, looking trouble at that.] Uh, maintenance.

[dancingmd]

Do you think it has something to do with that? I mean... it sounds like an engineering or maintenance issue to me.

[thebestseller]

Hrmmm... or it's the augment itself. I mean, we know they've been on the fritz, so that could explain why different people can see different things.

[dancingmd]

Possibly. [Her brow furrows.] My augment has malfunctioned in the past... perhaps it's preventing me from seeing what's really there again.

[thebestseller]

So, not only are all the augments screwed up, they're screwing up in different ways. It's an interesting observation, though. I always kind of assumed we all got a universal augment that got programmed to whatever they decided to give us, but what if each is different somehow?

[dancingmd]

They'd almost have to be, to fit our individual neural patterns, especially when you've got several different species on board.

[thebestseller]

And even with humans, you'd also have to take into account a person's physical size and whatnot. Like, I'm a huge guy, but a child would need one of a smaller size. I'll have to file this information away...