un: mori

[setpoint]

This morning, I received a message on my communicator from the username m.muller. When I tried to message them back, all I received was an error. I don't recognize her, but maybe someone else will.

[So Mako attaches a video file. There's a woman with frizzy red hair and freckles on screen, looking slightly panicked. "My name is Martina Muller," she says, and her voice is calm and slightly accented. There's a sudden crash behind her, and she cuts herself off with a gasp. "You have to warn the others! There is a traitor on board. Wherever you are, there is a traitor on board, you have to–"

And then the message cuts off.]

It seems like not everyone received it, so it wasn't a network wide broadcast. As far as I can tell, it came from the station, but I don't know where.

I also tried to unlock one of the doors. I've figured out which wires control the locking mechanism, but nothing I did to override or overload them seemed to work. Has anyone else had any luck?

Comments

[setpoint]

Listens? Do you mean that literally?

[donkeyballs]

For the Roci, sure. She's set up for vocal control - all I gotta do is talk and she'll give me whatever answers I need.

[Honestly he probably thought about her as more of a person than literally anyone else on his crew would - he'd accidentally mentioned himself and the ship as 'we' a couple times and gotten some weird looks. But look. They had a good relationship, and he loved her.]

Some of the big hauler you gotta use direct input, but even then, you can set that to voice. But the Roci is state of the art, and a good partner.

[setpoint]

[It's okay. Mako gets it completely, and it endears him to her almost instantly.]

I was a pilot, too. Not of a ship, of a large robot. She was controlled through a neural bridge.

[donkeyballs]

No kiddin'?

That must have been a helluva ride. When you say neural bridge - you saying you had a direct connection?

[setpoint]

Yes. Each Jaeger is controlled by two pilots who interface with it using specialized suits.

[donkeyballs]

Damn. That kind of response time...

Wait, how would that work with two pilots? What if you each wanted to do somethin' different?

[setpoint]

The neural load on one pilot was too high, so the two pilot system was developed. Each pilot controls one half of the Jaeger, and the pilots connect through a mind meld we call the drift. It doesn't work if the two aren't compatible.

[donkeyballs]

[Well damn, that almost sounds romantic, but he's not gonna say that out loud.]

Can't say I ever heard anything like it. That sounds incredible. How big were these robots, anyhow?

[setpoint]

[It is kind of romantic, Alex, don't worry.]

Gipsy Danger was 260 feet tall and just under 2000 tons.

[Was being the key word. Mako misses her.]

[donkeyballs]

[He whistles to himself. Damn. A robot bigger than the Rocinante?]

That makes her almost twice the size of the Roci - I can't even wrap my head around it. What would you even need somethin' that big for?

[setpoint]

A race of aliens were trying to colonize Earth, and they bioengineered creatures to act as their weapons. Massive monsters that we call kaiju. The fallout from nuclear weapons was too dangerous, and the kaiju's blood is toxic, so the Jaegers were developed to fight them in close quarters.

[donkeyballs]

[He feels a sort of chill go down his spine.]

... Just Earth?

Did they get Mars, too?

[setpoint]

Mars?

[That strikes her as an odd question.]

No. Mars can't sustain life.

[donkeyballs]

[Damn. He was trying to get used to this - what had Apollo called it? Multiverse? - but damn if it wasn't difficult. She must have been from a different version of Earth altogether.]

Right, sorry. Forget that for most of you, the Mars colonies don't even exist. She may not be able to sustain life, but she's got it. Can't help but worry, even in universes' that ain't mine.

These aliens of yours - they aren't blue and glowing, by any chance?

[setpoint]

I've never seen them, only the kaiju.

[And she and Raleigh haven't had much time to discuss what actually happened to him in the Breach.]

Some of the kaiju had glowing blue organs, and their blood is blue.

[donkeyballs]

But they didn't like - infect things, when they touched them, did they?

I mean don't get me wrong, it sounds terrible enough, but we've only come across one type of alien life in my time. Spread like a cancer, or a plague, and reporposed anything it could come across. Ate pure energy, as far as what we could tell. I wouldn't wish that on Earth no matter how many wars were waged.

[setpoint]

No. They weren't anything like a virus, but their blood is deadly. I've never heard of anything like you're talking about. I don't know what wars you mean, either.

[donkeyballs]

Let's just say relations between Earth and Mars ain't all that friendly, back home. I know a lot of Martians would would be all too happy to hear about something invading Earth, but I ain't one of them.

But I don't think you and I can be from anywhere near the same timeline, partner. I'm starting to find that's true for a lot of the folks here.

[setpoint]

It was 2025 back home. Humans haven't gone any farther than the moon.

[donkeyballs]

[Damn. Okay. Why did he people finding people hundreds of years out from him?]

Well, there sure as hell weren't any 25 storey robots on Earth at that time, at least as far as history tells me. But I'm over three hundred years later than you, all things considered.

One day I'll be able to wrap my head around that, but it sure as hell ain't now.

[setpoint]

Three hundred years?

[Okay, she can't help it. She's going to get off topic.]

What's Mars like?

[donkeyballs]

About the same as you know her. The population all live in domes - have done for three generations. Not that much different to living anywhere else in the system, save on Earth.

She'll be terraformed, one day. But like I said, relations aren't great - all the resources that would have gone into turning her green went into the fleet, instead. By the time water flows on Mars, I'll be long dead. But that don't mean it ain't worth fighting for.

[setpoint]

That's terrible. I'm sorry.

[Not living in domes, necessarily—that the terraforming plug was pulled so blatantly.]

How does anyone survive?

[donkeyballs]

Same way humans survive anywhere. They find what they need, and use it and reuse it as many times as possible. It ain't like Earth. Earth makes waste and then just - leaves it, from what I hear. Giant mountains of the stuff. Poluting the water. There ain't room for that on Mars, or in the Belt. Oxygen is breathed, then carbon dioxide is recycled. Every drop of water you drink has been through nearly every other person in your habitat, at one time or another. Purified and reused. What losses we take we make up for by mining for Ice in the belt, or around Saturn.

It ain't easy, but it ain't a death sentence.

[setpoint]

What made them change their minds about terraforming? What made them want to build a fleet instead?