001 - Video/Action - Welcome to space?

[helladoomed]

Who: Chloe Price and open!
Broadcast: Fleetwide, accidental
Action: For people on the Marsiva, if they like!
When: Right now! And on until shuffle

[There was a young woman with blue hair passed out on the floor of Marsiva. She looks maybe nineteen or twenty, her clothing seems to be a tad damp, and she shifting occasionally as if having a nightmare of some kind.]

-on't you forget about me..

[The words come out in a mumble against the floor, and maybe it's the way they sound in a spaceshiip that yanks her out of her sleep, but a second later her eyes flare open and she sits up in a shock.]

WAIT I- What? [Whatever she was expecting, the Marvisa was clearly not it, and after a quick, panicked look around, she scrambles to her feet.]

Okay, calm down. Maybe this a good thing. Okay. Okay [She is clearly talking to herself, with no idea anyone is watching. Trying to calm herself down, probably.] Still alive. What does that even...

[She finally seems to have noticed a nearby window and the void of space beyond it because she freezes, then immediately darts over to it, staring out for a long breath, one hand coming up to press against the glass, making sure it was there.]

...What the fuck. Am I in space?!

Comments

[helladoomed]

[Sigh. Wasted.]

Uh. We've been to the moon and shit. Not me but...other people. Astronauts.

[neverknight]

It's something. [And by that, inconceivably backwards. But.] If you have questions, I'm your guy. I haven't been in this fleet long, but I've been living like this for nearly as long as I can remember.

[helladoomed]

...Right. [Now she's suspicious.]

Why're you being so helpful?

[neverknight]

Altruism. Boredom. Take your pick.

[helladoomed]

[Hmm. Well, beggers can't be choosers.]

I need to know how to get to another ship. Called the...Paisley.

[neverknight]

Sorry, but you'll be waiting on that. Right now you're on the Marsiva. Until you're assigned, there's no shuttles that go to and from the flagship.

[helladoomed]

Great. Fuck.

Okay. So once I do get...assigned. What do I do?

[neverknight]

Find someone to pilot you over to the Paisley. [He won't just go advising people to go piloting shuttles unless they know how.] Or just go meet on the Starlight. I don't know if you can see it from the viewing bay, but we've recently docked somewhere with a little more space than these old freighters have.

[helladoomed]

I think I'll have to find a different window.

So, bribe somebody who likes to fly then they can get me to the Paisley. Or the Starlight. Great.

Now just four days of waiting.

[neverknight]

It's going to be a whole lot more than just four. This place is a waiting room made big. But you'll meet your friend at least.

[helladoomed]

One problem at a time man.

Once I fin Max...then I can start worrying about everything else.

[neverknight]

Hey, don't let me be the guy that overwhelms you. By all means, take your time.

[helladoomed]

Overwhelmed doesn't even begin to cover it, man.

[She moves a few feet away, pacing a bit as she thinks.]

But I guess it's better than not having any of this to worry about. [A beat.] How long you been stuck here?

[neverknight]

A few weeks. But I've been in and out of atmosphere for as long as I remember. I just wasn't being filmed during all of that.

[So in some ways, this is all very familiar. In other ways, he was in over his head.]

[helladoomed]

You're used to being in space?

[Well that's weird.]

Are you an astronaut?

[neverknight]

[Well there's a term you don't hear every day. It gives him pause.]

Not... really. You could say I do cargo delivery mostly.

[It's a very technical kind of truth.]

[helladoomed]

...But in space. Cargo delivery in space.

[That's the important part.]

[neverknight]

What's wrong with that? People in space need cargo too.

[helladoomed]

Nothing is wrong with it, man. It's hella awesome!

[neverknight]

[He chuckles.] It sounds that way, until you're stuck in a small ship for days on end between systems. Seeing as you're in space, you can't exactly pull over for some fresh air.

[helladoomed]

I guess. But okay, where I come from, there have been maybe forty people in space ever.

So this is pretty fuckin' sweet.

[neverknight]

... so that would make you forty-one, right?

[helladoomed]

Rough estimate, dude.

But 42. Max got here first.

[neverknight]

Close enough. Unfortunately I can't even claim to be among the first billion to have been in space on my planet.

[helladoomed]

That's...weird.

So is your whole civilization in space?