🚀The Dark Age: We all jumped
Hello, friends!
Hope that you enjoyed last week's excerpt from my ongoing work-in-progress. I mentioned that it was the first of a three-part prologue, and today, I'm going to share the second part.
As always, this is a rough draft, not finished work.
Interview transcript (Excerpt)
Argus, TK date
12 hours before crew hibernation
Anja Torkelson, interviewer: Things seem a little rowdy there. I almost feel like a sports reporter in a championship locker room. Would you say everyone is riding high?
Philip Ocean, communications specialist: Wouldn't you be, Annie? It's the last night of all time.
T: It's Anja. Is that how it feels to you?
O: (Shouts off-camera) I'm sorry, Annie, what was that?
T: Anja. Philip, I'd love to know— As you probably are aware, some in the scientific community here have said your contribution to the mission is particularly—
O: I'm so sorry. Sorry. It's pretty loud here. What's that? I'm listening, truly.
T: They've called your contribution "one of those rare and epic moments in human achievement".
O: Aw. No kidding, they're too kind. They're— (Laughs off-camera) Seriously. I'm just happy to be on the team.
T: Philip, if I may—
O: Please.
T: That's the thing about your role here, isn't it. You could've stopped with your contribution, with the algorithm, and that would've put you in the history books. Why not just deliver your work to the ISA and call it a day? Certainly no one expected more.
O: Well—
John Lim, researcher: Because your boy here gots swagger. Hero illusions, you know what I'm—
O: Sorry about that. You're asking me why I'm out here, nearly a billion miles from home?
L: He did it for the [expletive]. It's just—
O: John, seriously, man—
L: It's just raining [expletive] in deep space, they say, don't they say that, Philip? Don't they—?
[Ocean shoves Lim out of frame]
T: Philip.
O: Uh, John Lim, everybody. Pride of Earth. Sorry. You were saying?
T: Why join the crew?
O: Right. Well, listen. We're all excited to be here. Of course we are, who wouldn't be? When history calls, you either step up or you don't. And everyone in this crew— Well. We all stepped up. It's... (Pauses) It's like... It's about the sheer exuberance of standing in the airplane door, you know, and asking, 'What if I jumped?' We all jumped. We're jumpers.
T: But it's about more than that rush, don't you think? An extreme athlete isn't exactly saving the world.
O: Sure, right. Well, hey, if I wasn't bad at metaphor, they wouldn't call me a communications specialist, would they.
T: Philip... If I may—?
O: Please.
T: How do you explain that choice to your loved ones?
O: Our families all recognize the importance of what we're doing here. They get the greater good of it. They've been so supportive, you know what I—?
T: But in your case specifically.
O: I'm sorry?
T: Philip, you famously became a father on launch day. You never got to hold your daughter. What I'm asking— How do you explain your absence to her? Won't she grow up knowing her father didn't actually have to go?
O: Now hold on, Annie, that's not an accurate—
T: There's a video in the news this week. Have you seen it? Your daughter is—
Laila McBride, mission commander: I don't believe this line of questioning is productive for my crew.
T: She knows, don't you think, Philip, that you weren't exactly conscripted? That you chose to go. Which means you chose to leave her behind. Chose your job over your newborn girl. Did you request dismissal when your wife announced her pregnancy, Philip? Choosing to abandon a newborn, what an unusual choice for someone who knows exactly how that f—
M: I'm afraid that concludes this interview, Ms. Torkelson. (To Philip) Please go, Philip.
T: (Loudly) Have you seen the video, Philip?
M: That's all, Ms. Torkelson. (Turns to camera operator, draws finger across throat) (To Philip) Philip, please join me in my—
[Feed terminates]
—From an early draft of The Dark Age, by Olivia E. Ledger