Final Station

(Chronicler) “Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.”

[Two figures wearing a semblance of combat attire are in a sparse, low-lit room designed to maximize limited space. One sits and chronicles and the other paces.]

“Fools. Let’s not be so simple as to require sound and air for hearing. A scream begins as an emotion and an emotion can be felt in space. A scream begins within a body and a body can vibrate with fear, can tense, and can brace for shock and harm wherever it still lives. Those who make such sweeping statements about ‘hearing’ don’t know the physical partialities of life in space.

“Yesterday, I felt a scream in a human who was filled with fear, had just enough oxygen for a brief exhale, and was surrounded by the cold void. What I felt filled my brain with all the memories of screams I have ever heard and in that touch, I felt-heard a scream in space. Isn’t that what hearing via air vibration really boils down to anyway? If you think it was any less terrifying than a planet-based scream, you have a lot to learn.”

[sounds of crashes and rapid footfalls in a distant hall provoke a pause in the conversation]

(Chronicler) “Listen. I came up here to tell a good story for the people back home who are still aware enough to care. I had no idea that I would be fighting for my life. Yeah, I don’t know a lot of things still, but we need to tell what is happening now or it all could be lost.”

“Okay, fine. Let’s just say, it didn’t play out for me anywhere close to the way it was supposed to – this stupid station, this stupid mission, these stupid traitorous people. They are no better than those starry-eyed dreamers who don’t know the realistic potential of space colonization to back up their actions and words. They have become what we are fighting against – barely human tools. [fists clenched and then slowly released]

“This was supposed to be my big break, my skipping ahead and finally being able to put to use the rare abilities I have been given. There are so few substantial people left anymore. It’s a miracle that we got back into space at all. So many people are addicted to foolishness, and I hoped that this mission might inspire us out of our apathy and into something that mattered. I was wrong. The same capacities that allow us to positively augment ourselves have given more ways for manipulators to negatively augment people into passivity. This mission was to bring the best of us to our last functioning space station; to show us a way forward. We were supposed to be the hope –”

(Chronicler) “You were going to make a report in case we all die. Better get to it.”

“Yeah, I was gearing up to that… [buttons pushed on a device] Very few of us are still alive. Out of 185 people, only 17 of us are left, and we are still fighting each other. I have taken charge of our faction. I am 23 years old. I’ve abandoned so many of my beliefs to survive this – in order to win the fight. We have five more fools to kill if we are to reclaim the station.

“I am only able to record this because we are at a temporary standstill. The final five traitors have hidden themselves next to critical system junctures which require us to attack only with great care.

“So, I need to get into what we have found in the data we’ve captured. The truth is now proven. A specific set of corporations and government officials have profited from the exploitation of human proclivity for addiction and are a destructive collaboration that will continue to abandon basic ethics for their gain. They set this whole thing up to fail. They did not want a ‘beacon on a hill’ that would show the way out of the mess we are all in. They were willing to not only murder but also to continue to distort the minds and hopes of billions. We have samples and information here to prove this. If this station is destroyed or we are all dead, look for the blood samples and data chips we have protected and hidden. Look into the blood to see what we have guessed for decades; about how so many are being exploited.

“I and my team have had to kill over 100 extraordinarily talented people not just to survive, but to stop them. We have killed each other. It is all so wrong. I never wanted to be a killer. I didn’t want to know to what degree we have all been torn apart from within. Now, even though part of me has died, I hope we never forget.”

[warning lights flash and an announcement comes over the sound system]

“Air and water recycling systems damaged. Prep for emergency suit up. Air and water recycling systems damaged…”

“Okay, okay, I have to keep going… I can’t tell you everything that is happening. There are so many amazing things here, but I am going to focus on one part. The people were incredible in their abilities and hopes before the change. And the tech here, wow. The way we suit up to do space walks is an ingenious system. Our exit passageways are designed to allow a custom suit to be built around a colonist for every walk and reabsorbed into station resources when not needed. The passage membranes are like four sequential walls of clear gel with empty space in between that colonists walk through after putting the inner suit and helmet on. Each wall coats the suit with a new layer as the colonist passes through and it can be tested for flaws before proceeding to the next. It is a brilliant design that makes departures and entries far smoother, filters contaminants, and ensures a high degree of protection for every spacewalk. You can even block certain parts like the helmet so –”

[large explosion]

(Chronicler) “Hurry. It sounds like things are not going to plan and they will need us.”

“My enemy was a woman. In order to kill her, I had to see her as something else. The aug-drugs helped. She didn’t act like any woman I knew. That blaze in the eyes and flush in the face could almost be attractive at first, but by then we knew they were the prelude to inhumanity. How could these physical signs of heat betray such coldness of heart?

That was the supposed success of these ‘ampers’. These drugs made these colonist candidates have an edge in their performance because lower levels of the aug-drug gave few outward signs but boosted intellectual and physical performance. The combination of ‘soothing’ parts of the brain while also ramping up others gave a ‘calm in the storm’ state. We know this because we saw it happen in front of us – a high intensity but seemingly tranquil focus – and because we found some of their data.

“When the plot was revealed here, the traitors hooked themselves to amper-packs which would keep pumping them with a high dose so they wouldn’t need sleep and would have higher tactical abilities. We found a recording which appears to have been the brainwashing or hypnotic suggestions they had been given to make them believe we were the threat to humanity, and they were its destined future.

“I am not sure if the packs had unanticipated results or if what happened was planned, but many of the amped people became highly aggressive as they exhibited the ‘blaze and flush’ in the eyes and face. They then became highly committed to killing us, and occasionally they began killing themselves. We are guessing that the calming effect flipped on these people, and they were just extremely amped and kicked into their programed objective as the sole focus of existence.

[more loud sounds and crashes outside the door]

“We learned quickly that you can’t shoot through the suit-up membranes – they are made to slow things down – however, between the final two membranes was a unique opportunity that I exploited. The gap between these gel walls holds no oxygen and does allow the vacuum of space as a final test of the ‘suit’. I chased my amp lady into the membranes but was inspired to grab a long metal pipe on the way in. She was ahead of me and was pressing through the gel walls, intensely focused on some objective likely on the outside of the station. I was trying to press through quickly to catch up. I kept wiping the tip of the pipe as the walls coated me with suit layers because I needed to keep it clean and sharp. When she entered the final two membranes, I discovered I could press the pipe through the walls faster than my body and so I forced the pipe through the remaining layers toward her neck. It was like pushing through thick water, but I was mad about all our losses and what I had become so I shoved hard. When it pierced through the gel membranes, the suit coatings, and the skin of her neck, she screamed into the buffered, airless void. I felt the vibration in the pipe through my hands and arms and my mind translated that sensation into an auditory scream as she turned her enflamed eyes toward me with mouth frighteningly opened wide.

“Maybe it disturbed me more because we are both women who came up here to do science and not tear people apart -

[a voice comes over a local sound emitter]

“We will be making the final attack on the last five traitors in five minutes. Proceed to attack stations. We have sustained significant damage, so we need all hands on repairs after they are eliminated.”

[silence]

“That’s optimistic… I don’t know what else to say…”

(Chronicler) “You didn’t even tell them your name.”