Reverie: IC Inbox

[donkeyballs]

 

IC INBOX
text // voice // video


Alright, go ahead and leave me a message, an' I'll get back to you soon as I can.

Comments

text | on roster day

[solarcharged]

Soooo... Have you read the thing?

Re: text | on roster day

[donkeyballs]

Yeah, I read the thing.

Reads like a whole lot of horseshit to me.

Someone's messin' with us.

[solarcharged]

Yeah, the thing is fucked up.

But you know what's even more fucked up about it? If this is a station then where's the flight deck officer? Where's the traffic control?

[donkeyballs]

Damn I didn't even realise. I scanned for any flight systems, but you're right - if there's a hangar out there, there should at least be a berth officer.

What the hell would we need R&D for.

Maybe this was a research station, at some point, but even then - they'd need to get supply shipments, right? And there's gotta be some way to correct her orbit, so there's gotta be some kind of flight controls somewhere.

Honestly the whole thing reads like a damn psych test, to me.

Throw it into the heap and see who starts biting each other first.

[solarcharged]

Yeah but what kind of research station needs "wardens"?

A fucking prison research station.

[donkeyballs]

Damn, I'm going to have to tell you about some of the shit we saw.

Because I've been on stations with 'security' and 'wardens' like that and it don't need to be a prison.

Damn, damn, damn, this is the last thing I want to think about. If we're all part of some giant experiment....

[solarcharged]

Okay, I'm don't think I'm exaggerating when I say you should tell me EVERYTHING

[ alex give him the fuckin tea before apollo melts a hole in the side of the terminal ]

[donkeyballs]

Yeah, alright, where are you? I'll come find you.

Cause this ain't a short story.

[solarcharged]

I'm on the obs deck but I have a feeling that we should probably meet somewhere with a lot of alcohol. Bar??

[donkeyballs]

Yeah. You ain't wrong.

Bar.

[Which is where Alex will appear, ten minutes later, face grim as he heads straight for the counter.]

[solarcharged]

[ Apollo appears only a few minutes later with a harried expression and his communicator in his hands. This has not been a good day. Still, he summons a weary smile as he strides towards the bar, reaching out to clap Alex on the shoulder as he approaches. ]

Hey, sailor. [ Then with as much bright, breeziness as he can muster this morning: ] I'm not going to like this story, am I?

[donkeyballs]

Hey, cowboy. [Alex's clasps Apollo's elbow in turn, giving it a warm squeeze of greeting, despite the fact that he still looks pretty damn grim.]

No, you really ain't. And I ain't gonna enjoy telling you, either, but it's gonna need to be said. [He let go, before grabbing a bottle from behind the counter.]

So how much have I already told you about the protomolecule? [Because that's what everything comes back to, every time.]

[solarcharged]

Uh, blue, weird, fused a bunch of people to a ship?

[ That's about as much as he remembers, anyway. It's been a long two weeks. While Alex fetches a bottle Apollo manages to find some (relatively) clean and grime-free glassware. ]

Sounded pretty gross, all in all...

un: botanist

[contorta]

Alex. How's your arm?

un: rocipilot

[donkeyballs]

Hey, doc.

Healin', I think. But damn, it's slow. I miss the med bay on the Roci.

How you holdin' up?

[contorta]

I can understand that. Still keeping it still?

I'm all right. ( as all right as he can be, given mei isn't here. given everything that's happened. )

[donkeyballs]

[He leans over to pour them both out a glass.]

Gross ain't even half way it. [He frowns.] By itself, sure, it'd be gross as all hell - but it might have been containable. By itself, it's just - hell, I don't know what it is. An organism? A substance? The point it, by itself it seems to just grow the way a fungus would - direct itself toward energy, drag in what it can on the way. But it ain't just by itself. Someone found some, and wanted to know what it did.

[He looked up to meet Apollo's eyes grimly.]

Wanted to know how to turn it into a weapon.

[donkeyballs]

Yeah, but it ain't like I got a cast, so. Jarred it a couple times. Just hope it heals up alright.

Good.

I know it ain't... Look, I know it ain't easy. Bein' here. Trust me. But we'll get you home, somehow.

[solarcharged]

Jesus Christ. [ Apollo's words are murmured, distracted. When he meets Alex's eyes it's with a wary and quietly horrified expression. ]

So, what -- they experimented on it?

[contorta]

I just wish I knew if Mei is okay.

( that's all that matters — and the crew of the roci is helping, even if prax realised long before holden apologised that they were using him, too, in some way. ) Thank you.

[donkeyballs]

[There's a longer pause before the next message comes.]

Yeah, I know, Doc. And I wish I could say that I knew she was.

I'd give a hell of a lot, right now, to know that my son was okay.

But the best thing we can do for them is just keep marchin on and get back there as soon as we can, right?

I ain't about to give up, if you won't.

[donkeyballs]

[He put down the bottle and picked up the glass, though he just sort of held it and didn't drink from it yet.]

Wish I could put it like that. [Muttered to himself] But no.

They experimented with it.

[He let that sink in a few seconds before he continued.]

Don't know what happened on Phoebe- the whole moon got destroyed during the cover up - but I know what they did with it afterwards. They knew that it grew with access to radiation, and they knew it - I don't know how to put it - that it used humans, to grow itself.

So they thought, hey, you know what I think, let's give a hundred thousand belters on an asteroid a lethal dose of radiation and a bit of the protomolecule and see what the hell happens.

[solarcharged]

[ There's a hell of a difference between with and on. Apollo stares at his glass, untouched and full to the brim, as he tries to process what it is Alex is actually trying to tell him. It doesn't take a genius to guess that the end of the story is just as horrifying as the beginning. 'Radiation plus protomolecule plus innocent humans' can't be a good thing.

Experimentation. Mass experimentation on unwilling subjects. Apollo has no idea if the asteroid bit is relevant but the fact that it's in space is close enough to hit home and throw their own imprisonment on this station in to a grossly terrible light. ]

So what are you saying? [ His words sound harsh but it's not because of Alex himself, but the gradual dawning realisation of what he's trying to say. Apollo can put two and two together and read between the lines of what the other man's story may mean for what's happening here. But Apollo needs to hear it. ]

Are you saying -- do you mean that might happen here?

[contorta]

I didn't know you had a son. Tell me about him?

[donkeyballs]

[ It's always a hard subject, for Alex, and there's a reason that he hasn't really told Prax about it, but that was before. Saying 'my kid's safe on Mars' isn't exactly an empathetic way to have a conversation with a guy who's kid was missing. But now they were both far from home and Alex was worried that they weren't just far in space but far in time too. Who knew if Melas was still alive, or if he'd died generations ago.]

I had a picture on the Roci, but. Well. It didn't come with me, or I'd show you.

He's a damn bright kid. Takes after his mom a lot more than he takes after me, and lives with her on Mars. He's the cutest kid you've ever seen but already thinks he's thirty, if you know what I mean.