S1E21 - West - There Was Still Someone(S) Out There Needing Help

There is, unfortunately, no escaping physics. Bound by the speed of light, even information must take its time to get birth going. And as we move farther into the void that time grows until the distance becomes unspeakable.

Hello. Welcome back. I'm Sergeant West and this is day 370 of the mission around the Snot planet, et cetera, et cetera. First, before I get into today's agenda I want to let all of you that have been here for the last year know that I've read your messages. I have. I've read all of them. Thank you, Katie. And Amar and Paul and Navi and Jillian. And Razzie. Happy birthday, by the way, rozi ten is a good year. I promise all of your questions were very sweet and I promise to answer them as best I can or as best as I'm able. I would also like to say hello and welcome to all the new listeners that are not kids. The number of people tuning into this show has multiplied exponentially over the past week and I feel sort of weird that my highest demographic now is folks in their thirty s, I think. Anyway, hello. Welcome to a lot of complaining about scrubbing filters and bad romance book reviews. Okay, here we go. The topic on everyone's mind well, in conjunction with this show anyway is the situation surrounding the terraforming vessel Hypatia or, I guess the survey vessel Hypatia the same one we've discussed before on this show. I'm sure you all are also aware that a certain sanitation officer assigned to the Hypatia contacted me a few weeks ago. This probably wouldn't have been such a huge story if his messages hadn't been well, I can't really say leaked because they were out there, free to anyone. Okay, long story short, his messages were pulled from the network but apparently the AI that runs the semi central transparent portal link is malfunctioning or something. And Simmons messages were released which I'm kind of annoyed about because those messages were for me. But I'm also a little I'm glad the secret is out. I'm glad he's been heard and acknowledged. I'm sorry, Commander, but that's my opinion. Listeners, I have here, in my hands, on my tablet an official statement from Preservation in regards to well, everything. And I'm going to read it to you now. We of the Preservation the Rand Corporation Institute for Space Studies and its subsidiary, The Initiative regret to inform you that the class 13 survey vessel Hypatia, en route to Sector six, Z 41 in the Elias Galaxy experienced a system's malfunction which in turn triggered the ship's emergency evacuation procedures. The crew was forced to board life pods and follow a planned course to rendezvous in Sector eight near Jensen Star. In the last report from Captain Evergreen all personnel aboard the life pods are in good health and in good spirits. Captain Evergreen has also reported that they have plenty of emergency rations to keep them that way. Until the rescue team arrives in two weeks time. Regarding the status of the Hypatia's Sanitation Officer, the Command and Initiative has been in contact with him, and he has reported that he is also in good health. His report has detailed the events leading up to him being stranded and also the entirety of the system malfunction. Please rest assured, Preservation engineers are hard at work on a plan to help him gain control of the ship's operating systems. It must also be said that Preservation is not liable for any injuries sanitation Officer Simmons sustains during this interim period, as the officer was unreachable during the emergency evacuation and did not follow protocol to get himself to safety. Per Article F one three a three one five of the survey mission guidelines from all of us at the Preservation, the Rand Corporation Institute for Space Studies, and its subsidiary, the Initiative. Good luck, crew of the Hypatia, and may the Living Council bless us all. Well, now that I've read that statement, I'm going to go back to my regular show content, if that's okay with everyone. For those of you that sent in messages for Simmons, thank you. Thank you so much. I can't read them on air. Preservation won't let me. But I'm sure he appreciates it. I know he appreciates it. I'm going to tell a story, and fair warning, I've tried to keep this show clean for all my younger listeners out there, but I might maybe parents should listen to this part first and decide anyway. A long, long time ago on Earth or terra, whichever you prefer, before metal cities and hover cars and short range teleportation, there was lots and lots of land covered with grass and trees and sand and flowers. It was beautiful and open, and the weather wasn't timed or controlled. There was just rain and sun and snow and wind whenever the atmosphere decided it was crazy but was free. On one large stretch of land was a city made out of stone. It had tall spires and big metal gates, and inside were animals and people selling things like clothes and candles and bread and stuff. Here in this place lived a soldier. He wasn't important. He didn't have high rank or anything. He just did a job so he could pay for school. And really, the worst thing he had to do was deal with a grumpy scientist once in a while. One day, this soldier got a letter from a farmer. And if you're wondering how they're getting letters back in this time of no teleportation and stuff, I think it's birds. Yeah, go figure. Anyway, the farmer was an admirer of the soldier's work his swordsmanship or something. In the letter, the farmer told the soldier he was living on an island far away across the sea. He had been on a ship with a crew on a mission to find more land, to farm and grow more food for the people living in the stone city. But on the way, they had encountered a sea serpent, and the crew had abandoned the ship, leaving the farmer to fend for himself. The soldier was moved by the farmer's story and took the letter to the head of the guard, who in turn gave it to the general of the army. But instead of sending help to this farmer, the general gave a big speech and talked about the crew of the ship and how glad everyone was they were alive and never mentioned, even offhandedly, that there was still someone out there that needed help. Luckily, the soldier had friends all over the city, and he told them about the farmer living on that island. They told their friends and their friends told their friends. And the story grew and grew until the guard and the leadership and everyone else had to admit there was a man out there on an island far away escaping sea serpents and piloting ships he wasn't trained to sail, and just trying to do his fucking job. Out there all alone. They had to admit that he existed, that he was a person. The guard gave another speech. This time they talked about the farmer and, of course, waived all responsibility, but at least they admitted what happened and promised the people they were doing something. And the soldier went back to his post, and he did his job and wished that he could do more. If only Dr. Hines could see me now. You'll take no responsibility, Axel, for anything. Sure showed you, didn't I? I'm signing off for tonight, listeners. Hey, do me a favor. Be kind to one another. Take a moment and just get outside of your bubble for a minute or two and just listen to each other. Simmons, I thought of something earlier. You don't have to wait for dinner to have ice cream. You can eat ice cream whenever the fuck you want. Right. Anyway, good night, listeners.

Unspeakable Distance is an actual play podcast of communication delay by Audio Quinn a link to the game's. Itch IO page and credits for our players are available in the show. Notes linked to this episode. This podcast has been a production of the Library of Cursed Knowledge podcast network.