Episode 711: Bridge to Heaven

Air Date: 13 Mar 2012
Present: Andy, Bobby, Kim, Maer, and Terri

Part 1, 2, Special Features

We leave Athens after our rendezvous with Kiera's father, fueled up and resolved to find out just what Beglan's mystery point in space really is. Is it really one of the lost Ark ships from Earth-That-Was? Or just a really large piece of flotsam spinning in space? Of course, during the four week trip out, speculation is rife aboard Exeter. Alien invaders is a favorite one, even though it's not really taken seriously. The hope it really is an Ark ship runs high, even though we have no guarantee that anyone aboard might still be alive. After all, why did it deviate from course and why hasn't it gone back on course after so long, unless no one is alive to correct it? It's not something we voice often—the prospect of going all the way out there on a fool's errand is too depressing to entertain for long. Too much is riding on our finding a cure with the genetic material that could be on board. And so the weeks pass, with each of the crew members dealing as they can with the enormity of the task we've undertaken and the consequences should we fail.

Friday, 04 Feb 2524
Somewhere far off the ecliptic
First watch

Joshua's standing watch on the bridge and manning the sensors. After weeks of nothing, we finally get a ping on our long range scanners. It's big. Watching the readouts, Joshua sees it's got a weird energy signature. It's also tumbling in slow motion, bow over stern, starboard over port. It's also huge—damned huge, roughly five miles long. It's got to be an Ark ship. It just has to be.

Joshua wakes up Nika in her quarters. You definitely wake up the Captain for something like this. She looks at the scanner and orders Joshua to get on the comms and see if he can hail that ship. Joshua does, but nothing comes back in answer. Together he and Nika stand he rest of the watch before telling the others.

When the word goes out to the crew, everyone crowds aboard the bridge. The ship is still too far to do anything but look at it, but it's too momentous an event to ignore it. Beglan gets the best seat in the house, since it was his find. Being the quiet man he is, he keeps his thoughts on it to himself but you can get a sense of pride of accomplishment off him. Kiera and Arden are wondering just what sort of genetic material they'll find aboard. Until now, it was all just speculation what was out here but with the massive ship now a real thing in front of them, there's no telling what they'll find aboard. Joshua is just off-the-charts enthused about everything and it's not just because he isn't on the maintenance drugs—no, it's because this is a freakin' Ark Ship, people! All the way from Earth-That-Was! 500 year old ancestors are sleeping away even as we speak! It's five miles long! It's bigger than anything we've ever seen! Rina is particularly interested in the details, being the ship fanatic she is, and after a while she turns from the bridge windows, suitably awed. Even so, she can't help injecting a little pessimism.

Rina: Captain? I'll tell you now, if it's an alien invasion, we don't have enough grenades.

Some hours later, we're still on approach. The ship fills up a considerable amount of our sky now, still tumbling, still silent. A leviathan of the deep. Nika has Joshua hail it periodically and after a break, he gets on the comms again. He and the rest of the crew have been brushing up on Japanese in anticipation of having someone on the ship to talk to and so he tries the language out.

Joshua: Kon'nichiwa, Amenoukihashi.

Two beams shoot out from the ship and narrowly miss us.

Rina: Automatic defense systems. Damn!
Joshua: (in Japanese) Kon'nichiwa, Automatic Defense Systems. Stop firing. Please. We are harmless!

Arden starts picking up more energy signals from the ship. Various thrusters all over the ship fire and the ship changes course. It's still spinning, though. Nika tells Arden to warn her of any more power signatures so she can take evasive action. For now, however, she's going to fly casual. Joshua continues hailing them in Japanese.

Joshua: Japanese Tourist Attraction. We are here to visit all your amusement parks and shopping centers. Please power down your weapons so that we may spend our money and rescue your colonists. Thank you for your support.

Nika slowly approaches and the ship fires at us again. Two beams like the last blaze out for us. She dodges with her lightning reflexes and we get jostled a bit but we escape getting hit by whatever those beams are. Nika barely rights us when the ship fires another pair of bolts at us and again she evades them.

We fly closer. We don't have much choice. We have to board that ship and see if there is anything we can use for a cure. Besides, it's a long trip home.

Another pair of beams is unleashed on our ship and this time despite Nika's best efforts, we get clipped by one. We've armor plating on our girl but even so we get damaged. Nika decides to get in even closer. The guns will stop firing at some point to avoid shooting their own ship, right?

The Ark is tumbling in space and to get in close, Nika will have to match the spin on two different axes. Not only that, since we cannot see any open landing bays, we're going to have to match its spin and mate to its airlocks before we can board.

Which Nika does beautifully. Hell, the woman makes it look easy. Which it isn't.

There's a boom that echoes through our ship when we match airlocks and we waste no time getting a hard seal. The entire crew prepares to go aboard and there are a few minutes spent deciding what to take. Everyone agrees on earbuds for communication between crew if we get split up. Arden takes his doctors bag and a data book to download information on. Rina slings her tool bag over her shoulder and likewise packs her data book in case she needs to hack into anything. She also steps off the boat with her usual suspects of mesh vest, gun with three extra clips, and her knife. For all that the ship might be manned by human popsicles, she's not going aboard unprotected.

We walk through the mated airlocks and enter a vast corridor. Like the ship it's huge. It's fully fifteen to twenty feet high and roughly the same wide if not a little wider. The walls are angled floor to ceiling. There don't seem to be any doors along this corridor and darned little in the way of lights. There are a few here and there from emergency exit signs to dispel the murk, but that's about it. We walk on, hoping to find an info screen or a terminal or something that we can hack into to find out more about the ship. We finally find one and Rina sets to hacking into it.

It takes a while. The ship might have been easy to walk onto but hacking into its systems isn't exactly a traipse in the park. The systems are at least 500 years old and the outdated equipment isn't going to match precisely. Rina manages to rig up a connection and finds out that while the equipment might be outdated, the security locks on the ship's network is still robust, thank you. Of course, everything is in Japanese, to boot, so it will take a while to get around it.

While she's busy doing that, Nika and Joshua both hear a faint whirring sound coming from the bow end of the ship. Of course, since the corridor we're in is massive and runs on beyond sight fore and aft, there's no telling how far away the source of the sound is. Nika and Joshua go forward to look. Beglan and the others stay behind.

The Captain and the XO see a winged ball flying above the deck, like a flying baseball, the wings a blur to either side. It pauses about ten meters away from and by the sounds coming off it, it seems like it's taking pictures of our advance party. Then it flies onward, toward the rest of the crew. Nika and Joshua hear something opening and closing ahead. Joshua goes to investigate. It takes a little bit of walking thanks to the size of the ship but he eventually finds it. It's a huge set of blast doors. It cuts off the corridor from top to bottom and side to side.

Joshua: (to himself) Don't close the blast doors to your heart.

There is no indication what's beyond the door but there is a control panel mounted on the bulkhead next to it. Everything's in Japanese. Joshua tries pushing the button that is most likely labeled "Open" and gets nothing but red lights and a loud bwahhhh from the panel. Nika earcomms the rest of her crew.

Nika: Team Two. We've got a blast door here that we're in the process of trying to open.
Rina: (via comm) On my way. (a beat) Tell my husband not to touch anything.
Nika: He broke it.
Joshua: I was just pressing a button.

Rina's finally gotten past the code and she's breaking down her equipment when she and the others hear a whirring noise. It's the flying baseball that Nika and Joshua saw earlier. It flies right on past the crew and continues on toward our airlock. Curious about how it works and also a little worried what it will do once it finds our airlock standing open, Arden follows it to see what it will do. He's barely swallowed up by the darkness before another sound makes itself heard and from out of the murk trundles a robot. Rina moves to draw her gun. Kiera stops her—no telling what that robot will do if it sees her weapon. Rina reluctantly leaves her gun holstered, hidden by her coveralls. But she unzips her coveralls a little lower to get at it quickly, just in case. She pulls the leads of her hacking equipment and sticks everything back in her bag. She follows the robot, looking it over to see how it's made and also if there's a way to turn it off.

The robot itself crude by today's standards in that there aren't a lot of humanoid features. It has no legs but moves on a wheeled platform. It has a long square pillar for a torso and articulated arms where human would have them, but the head is hardly more than a square box with sensors on top. The 'torso' is hinged about a third of the way up, allowing it to bend. It ignores the crew and goes on for the airlock. Kiera comms Arden that there's a little robot coming his way.

Nika hears this coming over her earcomms and turns right around to get back to her crew. God knows what they'll do without her riding herd on them.

It continues inexorably toward its goal—the airlock—and isn't long before the robot appears before Arden. And when it becomes apparent to him that the robot means to go to the airlock, Arden blocks its path. It maneuvers around him and trundles for the airlock again. Arden backpedals and blocks its path a second time. He tries to talk to it.

Arden: I want to talk to someone.

One of its arms rises at the shoulder and Arden can see it has blue sparks arcing between the pincers of its claw-like hand. It looks like it's going to shock Arden. Arden tries to evade the sparking end then body checks the non-sparking end. Of course, the robot is metal and gears and doesn't feel pain when Arden hits it. In fact, Arden's not able to make much of a dent in it. Arden manages to kick it on the torso hinge and the robot folds forward. Thinking quickly, Arden jams his gun into the back of the hinge to prevent the robot from straightening up. He's successful and now he has to decide what to do with a bent-over robot.

Oh, and he'd like his gun back.

Rina catches up with him, Kiera in tow, and they all consider what to do with the robot. At the moment it's trying to straighten and it can't, and the crew doesn't want to just leave it able to move around and either follow them or mess with something it shouldn't—like Exeter or its airlock. Tipping it over would disable it enough.

It's bottom heavy, designed to resist tipping over. Rina looks for a way to turn the robot off but finds no panels she can open without stripping the screw heads. She has tools on her and more are just a few steps away through the airlock. If she needs to, she could take the robot apart and permanently disable it that way. She sighs and comms Nika.

Rina: Captain, do you want me to break the robot or keep it in one piece?
Nika: What's it doing?
Rina: Nothing at the moment.
Kiera: It was trying to shock Arden from what we could tell.
Rina: Well, that, but like I said, nothing at the moment.
Nika: Restrain it if you can but try not to break it.
Kiera: With what shall we restrain it? It's a robot.
Rina: (sighs) Arden's gun is doing a good job. Okay, let's just leave it in there.

There's a small debate what to do with it next. Take it aboard? Arden and Rina don't want it on the ship. No telling what it might do while we're gone. Joshua breaks into the comms and a conversation ensues.

Joshua: Somebody open this door.
Arden: Are you on the other side of it?
Joshua: No. I want you to open it so I can get to the other side of it.
Arden: Get back here and help us with the robot and then we'll go investigate the door.
Joshua: You said you had the robot under control.
Kiera: Actually if we move the robot to the door, the door might open for him.
Joshua: That's an excellent idea. Quick. Do it.

Rina hits on the idea of putting it on our hoverpallet. After a half-hour's hard work with crowbars and muscle, we manage to get it aboard the pallet and tipped on its side to keep it from trundling off again. Meanwhile, Nika and Joshua comm back and forth with the rest of the party.

Arden: I'm going to wait here at the ship.
Nika: If you see anything near the airlock, don't let anything near the airlock door.
Arden: (of the others) Being stupid and foolish and exploring the rest of the ship without help. I wish them luck.
Joshua: Do you have any more of those robots?
Rina: If there is, you're taking care of the next one.
Nika: It came from the other direction so maybe we should go back that way.
Joshua: But …

Joshua's crushed. He really wants to see what's beyond the blast door he found. Kiera also wants to see if her idea with the robot and the door will work. However, Joshua shakes off his disappointment. He suggests we weld a plate over the airlock door controls if we're worried about more robots coming along and pushing the buttons. Arden and Rina point out that the sparking blue thing on the end of the current robot's arm is most likely a cutting torch and welder. Any plate Rina might weld over the controls wouldn't be much of an obstacle to the next robot with the same built-in equipment. That being the case …

Joshua: Then let's go back to the door.
Arden: I'll be waiting here for you.
Joshua: You're really in a snit. What's your problem.
Arden: You're being stupid.
Joshua: I'm not being stupid.
Arden: Yes you are. You're trying to go through a door we don't know what's on the other side of and everyone there with you is being stupid.
Kiera: But we flew this whole way to see something.
Joshua: I'm going to say, this whole ship is a big door. We're going through the other side and see what's on the other side of the ship.
Arden: Then wait for us to catch up and then do it.
Rina: (to Arden) You said you weren't coming.
Arden: I'm not. I have to guard the airlock.
Kiera: I have a robot.

She does. Joshua's TOPIO, on which he hasn't made a single payment on yet.

Rina: All right. (sighs) I'll just stay quiet and wait for everyone to get their shit together. We've got the robot if you need it.
Nika: Bring everybody.
Arden: But what if another robot comes and tries to weld the ship out?
Rina: I have my torch. I will torch it back open.
Nika: If our ship is jettisoned from the airlock, you can't.
Arden: Well you could. Then we'll all die. Fast, instead of slow.
Rina: Then we'll just repair the engines on this one and we'll take home.
Arden: You're a great engineer but I don't think you're that great an engineer.
Rina: Poshel na khuĭ, Arden.

The engines are going to be 500 years old, technologically speaking. How hard can they be?

Nika: You know what? Screw it. We'll take our chances.
Rina: (agreeing) We're dead anyway.
Arden: If you want me to unguard the airlock, I'll come.
Nika: Just leave the door. Everyone come on and let's see if we can't get the door open. If we can't, we'll decide about the airlock then.
Arden: Okay. Coming.

Jeez. Couldn't we have just skipped to this part of the argument way back at the beginning? Joshua comms Nika.

Joshua: Everything will be fine.
Nika: I wish I believed that.

The party gathers at the blast doors and we're a little disappointed that bringing the maintenance robot to it doesn't cause it to automatically open. Huh. Now what?

Nika: There may be somebody awake up there.
Joshua: (to the door) Kon'nichiwa.
Nika: If there's anybody awake up there, they're not answering us.
Joshua: I did not break the button but the door won't open.
Kiera: Then press it again.
Arden: Why don't you let the engineer take a look at it? If you want to talk to it, then talk to it but let her in so she can fix it.

Rina breaks out her tools and Arden lends his expertise to the task of hacking the door controls. For the next half hour while she and Arden slave over the controls, Nika paces down to the airlock and back, keeping an eye on things. All the while, the little flying baseball-like robot follows her. On a thought, she goes past the airlock to the far end of the corridor, where she sees another set of blast doors just like the ones Rina and Arden are trying to hack through. Having established the boundaries on the space they're in, Nika goes back to the crew in time to see the lights on the door panel blink green.

The doors rise with a loud hum and crash. Beyond is a corridor much like the one they're standing in. However, there is also another robot waiting on the other side. It's taller than the maintenance bot, a little more humanoid in shape. There is a screen embedded in its torso and on the screen is a picture of a person, albeit a somewhat creepy computerized image of one. Remember, this robot dates with the ship and its software will be 500 years old.

Joshua: Kon'nichiwa.
Robot: (in Japanese) I am Ome Kami.
Joshua: I have no idea what you're saying.

Arden actually translates it first and passes it on. The robot reassures us it is a Nigi Ni Tama (Gentle Spirit), as opposed to the Ara Ni Tama (Aggressive Spirit). As our XO, Joshua's the one to make first contact in situations like this. He brushes off his rusty Japanese and tries again, translating any answers he gets.

Joshua: Greetings. We are newcomers to the ship.
Ome Kami: (in Japanese) There are no unaccounted for humans permitted on this vessel.
Kiera: (softly) How many humans are there besides us?
Joshua: How many humans are on the ship that are accounted for. Your numbers may not be great.
Ome Kami: Just a moment …

The face on the screen goes a little blank, as a person's would when trying to remember something. Obviously the robot is going through its data to come up with an answer.

Arden: Tell it we believe the ship is off course and we've come to correct the matter.
Joshua: That sounds reasonable thing to say.
Ome Kami: Just a moment. Recognizing patterns … (switching to—) … English.
Arden: Ah. So it can speak English. So we believe your ship is off course and we've come to hopefully correct the matter.
Ome Kami: That's impossible.
Arden: No. It's impossible for unauthorized humans to be aboard this ship, too.
Joshua: And yet, here we are.
Ome Kami: Our scans indicate that you are human. Mostly human.
Arden: But we're unauthorized.
Joshua: Really? That's where you're going to go with that?
Arden: (whoa, what?!) Mostly?
Kiera: Mostly?
Nika: (to the robot) The rest of the ships that have departed Earth have already arrived at their destination and begun colonization.
Ome Kami: That information is irrelevant.
Nika: You're ship is not on the correct course to get to the same solar neighborhood.
Ome Kami: Information irrelevant.
Nika: Where are you headed?
Ome Kami: Access denied.
Arden: Is there a commander or a human aboard who's awake that we can talk to?
Ome Kami: (long pause) I am the Wise One.
Arden: That's not an answer. Is there someone we can talk to other than you?
Ome Kami: I possess all the knowledge there of this vessel.
Joshua: Do you have a map?
Ome Kami: I have many maps.
Joshua: Do you have a map of this ship?
Ome Kami: I do.
Joshua: Can you display it for us?
Ome Kami: I could but I will not.
Joshua: (grinning) See? I like you. You're so very polite. (chuckles) What can we do to make us authorized?
Ome Kami: Follow me.
Rina: (kisses Joshua) That's my man.

It turns and trundles off. Finally! Results. Rina takes out one of her grease pencils during the walk and discreetly marks their path on the walls, just in case they need to find their way back on their own. Ome Kami takes us on a freakin' LONG walk. The ship is miles long and by the end of our trip, we feel as if we've traversed its entire length even though we estimate that in reality it's only over a kilometer. Ome Kami doesn't seem affected by the duration at all. Every now and then we pass hatches and doorways and even occasional windows, which show us views of the Black outside. We see signs to things, like "Lifepod 125" and "Horticultural Resource Center". Ome Kami leads us to a room that has the feel of a low-budget museum, the sort one finds at tourist attractions that never really hit it big. Artifacts are displayed in cases at various spots on the floor, some art is on the walls, and so forth. What we see is pretty much like all the other displays and artifacts we've seen in school trips to the Ark on Bernadette, where relics from Earth were highlighted. Here, relics from Old Japan and the Philippines are shown. Even so, it's old hat to the crew, save one. Thanks to Blue Sun wiping Joshua's memories, this is all new to him.

Joshua: Wow!
Nika: Contain yourself.
Joshua: Yes, Ma'am!

The robot leads the crew to a little theatre and Joshua eagerly sits down. Rina sits next to him to keep him contained but his enthusiasm is pretty … out there. Of course, unlike the rest of the crew, he has refused to take the maintenance meds and so he's running pretty … out there 24/7. But this? This is like the trip of a lifetime, a wonderland of the impossibly new and unanticipated. To say he's excited to be here is pretty much an understatement. Of course, the fact that he's not taking his meds means he's also pretty much wide open to the minds around him.

Joshua: I can read all of you judging me. Don't.
Rina: (smiling) Oh, I'm not entirely judging you.
Kiera: Wait. Read this. (thinks hard)
Joshua: (Read her) Wow, you can do that?
Rina: Hey, you should send it my way.
Joshua: She already did.
Rina: Whisper it in my ear, sweetie.
Arden: Let's just see the movie.

Everyone takes a seat, the lights go down, and the movie starts. The picture is grainy and the numbers on the screen count down. Joshua prepares himself to be amazed at the awesomeness.

Film: Welcome to Amenoukihashi. Your job on Phase One of this Journey to the Core is to prepare the ship for the final installations before the robots take control for the duration of the flight. Your work will ensure—

Arden leans over to Nika.

Arden: (whispering) Does anybody think it's a bad idea to have robots taking over?
Nika: Shh!
Film: (continuing) Your work will take three to four months. You should finish final checks on all the facilities and ensure proper trajectory. Barring miniscule chance of deep space interference you should be waking up with your families on beautiful Eridani 17. You'll be no older than you are now. But in that time hundreds of years will have passed you by.
Joshua: (whispers to Rina) Can you imagine? Waking up in the Core like that?
Rina: (whispers back) Helluva long sleep.
Film: (continuing) One of your jobs will be to educate future generations about the traditions and culture of Earth as well as the dangers that the Earthly lifestyle have led to the destruction of our home planet …

Anyone on the crew that had a Core based education will recognize Earth in the pictures shown, a big blue marble in the Black. Arden joins Joshua in the uninformed camp.

Film: Man's hubris has caused many dangers and it led us to attempt to restart the Earth's core—
Arden: Restart the Earth's core?
Film: Which had lost significant heat due to various activities Man had wrought upon—
Joshua: (enthralled) Oh no…
Film: But that same technology is making terraforming on the new planets possible.
Joshua: Yay!

The film wraps up with a moral lesson on ecology and technological irresponsibility and how Mankind must not squander the second chance it's been given. The movie ends, the lights go up, and Ome Kami trundles up.

Ome Kami: Are you prepared for medical scans.
Joshua: (pfft!) I have medical scans all the time.
Rina: (stands up) Sure.
Arden: I have one question before we go, please.
Ome Kami: What is your question?
Arden: What is the projected amount of time this trip was supposed to take?
Ome Kami: Our journey took longer than we anticipated.
Arden: Could it be accounted for by going off course?
Ome Kami: We did not go off course. We had to elude a rogue gas giant.
Arden: A rogue gas giant?
Ome Kami: So you see we didn't go off course.
Kiera: So why are you tumbling?
Ome Kami: There was no need to do anything else.
Kiera: So where do you think you're going to land?
Ome Kami: That's not relevant.
Arden: What system do you think you're going to?
Ome Kami: That's not relevant.
Kiera: Do you know where you're going?
Joshua: (softly) It's irrelevant.
Ome Kami: The ship has calculated the necessary trajectories.
Kiera: Are you sure you know where you're going?
Ome Kami: Your safety is our primary concern.
Rina: Do you know how to repair the ship if it got damaged?
Ome Kami: The ship is in working condition.
Arden: (fed up) Yes, we're ready for medical scans.
Joshua: (to Aden) Thank you. Good God! People complain about arguing with me and you're sitting here arguing with a robot.
Rina: I guess nobody heard me say "sure" before you started asking questions.
Joshua: I heard you.
Kiera: We needed to see what it actually knew.

Ome Kami starts leading us on another long walk.

Ome Kami: Those of you in adequate physical shape can be brought into the crew. The others will be … (pauses)
Arden: Recycled.
Ome Kami: (finds word) … Rejected.
Nika: Or put into cold sleep.
Kiera: What does rejected mean?
Ome Kami: Not part of the crew.
Kiera: What does the crew currently do?
Arden: (intoning) There is no one on board who is not part of the crew.
Ome Kami: Crew awaits our instructions.
Kiera: Are they awake?
Ome Kami: Access denied.
Rina: (intones) Open the pod bay doors, Hal.
Joshua: (shushing her) Yeah, yeah. (to Ome Kami) Hit me with that medical scan.

Arden stops, pissed off. Everyone comes to a halt.

Arden: You know, I've noticed that if it's something you want to do, you have all the patience in the world but if someone else wants to do something then it's "Get it over with, I want to do something else."
Joshua: Wow, you took that long to come to that conclusion? Damn.
Arden: No, I've just been quiet about it.
Joshua: Can you tell me what you'd prefer me to do?
Arden: Not yet.
Joshua: Is there anything you'd prefer me not to do?
Arden: Not yet.
Kiera: I say we let him be scanned first.
Joshua: That's what I was actually offering.
Kiera: That way when it all goes to hell in a handbasket, we'll be fine. He'll be scanned. We'll be fine.
Arden: I'm in the same boat as he is.
Rina: We all are.
Nika: Guys! Let’s not have this conversation.
Joshua: It's getting a little loud in here.
Arden: (intones) Not in front of the robot, children.

Our walk resumes and it's another long one. Maybe this is how the robot tests us for suitability? At journey's end, we find ourselves in a huge hospital facility, with the lights coming on as we progress further into it. It's kind of sad, actually—the technology doesn't look that much different than what you can find on the Rim now. The scanning equipment, however, doesn't seem that much different from that in the Core either, since the principles of how it works has remained relatively unchanged. Arden takes it all in and whispers to the crew.

Arden: I'm not a social historian but I'd say taking the initiative out of the citizens of the Core did not speed up the development of anything at all.
Joshua: Maybe Psycho is right. Thank you.
Nika: Oh god …

Joshua goes over to the still-recognizable scanning bed and hops right onto it and stretches out. It hums and lights up and gets to work. Arden watches the equipment carefully, making sure it's not injecting anything into Joshua or otherwise doing anything to besides scanning him.

Kiera: Hey, can we get a copy of this? If I'm going to die, at least I can have it on a chip.

Kiera and Rina also watch the process avidly. The scan sweeps Joshua and displays start showing up, hovering overhead. Diagostics, mostly, and it's all in Japanese. Kiera tells Joshua to translate and he complains he can't see it from his position. Arden notes that the diagnostics seem to be highlighting the sites of possible imperfections. In short, Joshua's lit up like a Christmas tree. Little blinking red lights everywhere on the holographic projection of his body. The scan catches all his injuries, all the surgeries done on Joshua over the years, including the surgeries that Blue Sun had done on his brain.

Rina: Great. Put the Russian on the scanner. She's all red.
Kiera: Can you translate this into English?
Ome Kami: It's not necessary
Kiera: Can you print it?
Ome Kami: On a printout?
Kiera: Yes. I'm a doctor.
Ome Kami: We don't use … (searches for word)
Kiera: You don't use paper?
Joshua: Environmentally unfriendly.
Nika: I realize it's not necessary but can you please display it in English? For purposes of additional information? We would like to understand our own scans.
Ome Kami: (smiles) It's good if you do not understand.
Rina: That bad, huh?

The robot doesn't answer. The scan continues. Joshua enthuses.

Joshua: This is neat. (when Rina pats his cheek) You're getting in the way of the diagnostics.
Ome Kami: Hold a moment.

Ome Kami trundles forward and gently takes Joshua's hand in its own. The robot's hand warms slightly. It feels kinda weird.

Ome Kami: (politely, gently) What is your name?
Joshua: Joshua Drake.
Ome Kami: Joshua Drake, you should know that your sacrifice means life for countless of others.
Joshua: That's excellent. By what do you mean by sacrifice?
Ome Kami: (gently) Our medical scans indicate that you are unsuitable.
Joshua: Yay! (a beat) So what does that mean?
Ome Kami: Your body has numerous abnormalities that would not be suitable for the rigorous space flight and future colonization.
Joshua: That's fair.

Rina checks the zipper on her coveralls, seeing it's down far enough to allow her to draw her gun.

Nika: What sort of abnormalities?
Ome Kami: Considerably more than would be present in a normal human.
Joshua: So what does that mean?

Arden steps in and tells the robot exactly what's happened to Joshua, using all the correct medical terms. Ome Kami listens impassively and when Arden is done, responds with the same polite tone it's been using.

Ome Kami: Yes. That seems possible. You're interpretation is not far from the truth.
Arden: That is because I am a doctor. How is it not far from the truth? What did I miss?

Ome Kami starts detailing—in Japanese, alas—everything from the scan.

Kiera: English, please.
Ome Kami: Not present in translation data base.
Arden: (pulling out recorder) Could you repeat it please?

Ome Kami does.

Joshua: All right. Can we get back to what all that actually means?
Kiera: It means you're gonna be fertilizer.
Joshua: Okay, but I just want to verify it.
Ome Kami: Your biomass could be added to the resources of the ship.
Arden: You're going to be recycled.
Joshua: What are my other choices? What if I want to sacrifice in some other way?
Ome Kami: Your desire to sacrifice is very noble and will be taken into account.
Joshua: Great. Are you going to scan the rest of them before you, like, eliminate me?
Ome Kami: That is appropriate.
Rina: No it's not.
Joshua: Sure it is. (hops off) Hop on board, everybody.
Arden: I'll go next.
Kiera: No, I'll go next. It needs a normal-maybe. We'll find out.
Arden: But we're all going to have this.

He points to the Halcyon mutations in Joshua's scan.

Kiera: I know but I'm kinda curious now.
Joshua: She is more normal than me.
Arden: Everyone is. (Off Rina's look) Well, maybe not you.

Kiera gets scanned, then Arden, then … everybody, actually. No one refuses it. Rina goes last because she has to divest herself of her usual suspects—primarily her mesh vest, since it would foul the scan. Sure enough, all of us are deemed unsuitable. Rina pulls her usual suspects back on and grouses at the crew.

Rina: I could have told you that. Two hours ago.
Ome Kami: Would you feel more comfortable going back to the museum to discuss this? Or does this location suit you? We have a shrine if it would make you feel more comfortable.
Rina: Yes, let's see the shrine.
Joshua: (off Nika and Kiera's looks) We need to have a discussion. It's a big moment for us. You understand. (thinks) Is the shrine a long way from here?
Ome Kami: The shrine is fifty-two meters away.
Arden: Shrine is another name for a room.
Joshua: Let's go to the shrine.
Kiera: We'll get the tour and then we're gonna want to go to the kitchen and talks some more. And then I wanna see the crew. (undertone) I'll bet the coffee machine is more rational.

Ome Kami leads the crew to a shrine and sure enough it's only fifty-two meters away. It's a small Shinto shrine. The interior is Buddhist, with a square gravel and rock garden centered on the rear wall, encircled by a meter wide moat of water. It's beautifully lit, serene, tranquil, quiet. There are padded areas for people to sit or kneel. Joshua gets comfortable on one of them and immediately falls into one of his Aikkido meditations. Ome Kami says gently to the rest of the crew.

Ome Kami: It is quite possible you are feeling shame and … fear. These are normal feelings. You should know that your sacrifice makes it possible for others to live.
Kiera: Define sacrifice.

How about: Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die?

Ome Kami: Willing participation of the Biomass Reclamation Project will prevent the potential damage to the ship and … use of scarce ammunition to force you to do so.

Yup: Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die.

Part 1, 2, Special Features

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