[ESTABLISHING CONNECTION. RESOLVING HOST. IDENTIFYING PROXY. PROXY EST--] Testing? Oh, a personal journaling implant. This is aDORable!
[ESTABLISHING CONNECTION. RESOLVING HOST. IDENTIFYING PROXY. PROXY EST--] Testing? Oh, a personal journaling implant. This is aDORable!
[DOWNLOADING 'LOG'...] My, but this ‘Finnras’ person is terse. If *I* had a journal, I’d go on and on and on. Hopes. Dreams. PIE RECIPIES!
FRUIT PIE(!) Roll2crust. Toss600g fruit/96g sug/15ml flr&PIESPICE!. Fill btmcrust. Dot w/buttr; +topcrust/seal/slit. 10m@200?+45m@160?.
Grr. The data entry buffer on this journal implant is impossibly small. Who uses this, rock-carving space-monkeys?! Also: now I’m hungry.
[FILE ACCESSED] Aww, the space-monkey is looking for his daughter. That’s moderately sw– [***SCOURGE DETECTED*** CLEANSING PROTOCOL]
I’m on the floor, just past the scanner. Sweat and tears coat my face. The static screaming in my head is gone. A klaxon is wailing. What?
Deirdre’s helping me to my knees. The turret gun is pointing at us. A very stern voice orders her away from the ‘Scourge’. Again: What?
{{Remember when Adrift started? Now you can listen to it: Adrift, Episode 1 Podcast http://bit.ly/1WfArd (Be gentle. It’s my first time.)}}
Actually… Angry Computer Voice is ordering *me* away from *her*. “Clear fire lines and Scourge will be eradicated.” Oh. Well then. No.
The station security system isn’t making any sense: The Scourge is a myth; a Church boogeyman. It isn’t REAL. It definitely isn’t MY PILOT.
Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Jon has a weapon out. Won’t do much good. Behind me, Deirdre’s tensed to move. That’s even less help.
Angry Voice says I must stand down or be destroyed to reach the Scourge. A second voice argues. Second voice? Coming from the same speaker.
The second voice sounds like the “do you have pie” voice. It’s saying I should be allowed to live and find Kaetlyn because I’m… adorable.
The machine voices start… bickering. I’m left wondering how it knows about Kaetlyn, and why it thinks De is Scourge or I’m adorable.
Jon moves over to us, his eyes on the turret. He eases through the scanner arch; even armed to the teeth, he makes the red light go green.
I try to understand what happened. Jon says I seized when i went through the scanner. Deirdre set off alarms when she… ran to help me?
That explains how the system scanned her, but not what the hell happened to me. Actually, it raises more questions than it answers.
The main question: why’s the station think Deirdre’s the Scourge, which wiped out humanity about a thousand years ago. I mean, she’s eleven.
I ask Deirdre is she’s Scourge. She responds by asking if I’m all right. She’s not being evasive – it didn’t warrant an actual response.
Correction: the main question is actually ‘Are we about to die?’ Signs (by which I mean ‘the turret gun opening fire’) point to ‘Yes’.