Flight of the Icaron: Ep 1 - Maiden Voyage

A bright summer sun shines out over the city of Mombasa. Clear blue sky, an occasional lazy cloud floating by. At the city's most humming landmark, New Dawn Plaza, the first thing that draws your eye is the ground itself. The entire plaza is paved in a vast mosaic of the Global Executive Council insignia. Two cupped hands stretched upward, palms open to the heavens. Around them, tiny inlaid tiles catch the sun in shifting colors, forming constellations and planets in brilliant whites, deep blues, and flecks of gold. When the light strikes just right, it looks as if the stars themselves are glittering beneath your feet. At the far end of the plaza, the space opens onto a viewing platform that looks directly toward the Mombasa airfield and the towering silhouette of its gravity web. From here, visitors can watch spacecrafts taxi across the strip, engines roaring before they rise into the sky and are carried upward into orbit around the shining blue-white column of the well. The air is alive with sound, distant turbines, sudden bursts of thrusters, and the smell of sea salt mixing with exhaust. Opposite the platform, a statue dedicated to the Mombasa Initiative. Six astronauts, arm in arm, rendered larger than life in gleaming alloy, stand together atop an artistic rendering of the lunar surface. Their helmets are polished to reflect the sunlight, and their stance is not martial, but communal, a symbol of unity. At the base lies a bronze plaque inscribed with the words of Dikembe Mbazzo, the UN leader who signed the New Dawn Act. Those technologies that once propelled our destruction will be turned to the heavens to launch humanity into a new age. Crowds gather in the bright equatorial sun. Tourists, schoolchildren on field trips, spacer families waiting for their departures. Some are taking hollows of the mosaic. Others linger at the rail of the viewing platform, shading their eyes against the glare. The plaza hums with life, broken only by the constant thunder of humanity's reach for the stars. Abrea, where do we find your character? Lachesis, who only ever responds to the name Kiki, is she's looking around, but is physically uncomfortable. She stands at just a little over five feet tall, and she tries her best to shrink away in this bright open plaza into the thing that looks the most like her home. the like cramped, artificially lit, but mostly dark and cool spaceship. But there's no space that's like that. So you just see her like backing away and trying to find a wall or a breeze or something without looking too uncomfortable because she knows that her handlers are probably close at hand. And she's just uncomfortable with how open and airy everything is. I think as Kiki is looking for a place that's like cramped, smaller, you see there's an overhang on one side of the plaza that is, you know, you can tell a series of benches meant to kind of keep people who have maybe spent a little bit too much time in the sun, give them a break. and you see flanking on either side. You see men and women who have these small carts with like, you smell hot oil and dough calling out, mandazi, mandazi. These little bits of fried bread are handed out at carts on either side. But in this overhang, you're able to kind of, I think, shrink back a little bit into something that is not as loud and not as open as the plaza itself. Nice. Then I'm going to move over to get a little piece of that fried bread to have a reason to move in that direction and then slink into the shadow. And I think Kiki's, she assumes arms folded across her front with her left hand over her mouth and nose. It smells good here. There's too much scent. She's wildly overstimulated. So much going on. I think even as you get closer to the cart, that smell, sweet as it may be, I think just kind of fills your nostrils along with the sweat of the crowd and other people standing beside you. You get up to the head of the cart. You see the guy cooking the fried bread, looks up at you. Best Mondasi in all of Mombasa. Best Mondasi. One, two. Oh, just one. Three. Three. Two? Split the difference? Two. Thank you. You see he prepares for two of you. I think as you, he hands you the fry bread in a small bag. And as you kind of step to the side for the next person in line, you do see your handler calling out from across the plaza. Miss Davis. Pat, over here? I'm just flexing a little bit to see if I can get him to move in my direction. You see he stands and waves to you. Miss Davis. Yeah, right over here. And I step more in the shadow. You see, standing there, a slim man, thinning, sandy hair, a narrow frame, his face marked by fine lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth, pale complexion, wearing a tailored black suit with gold trim. This is Chairman Dorian Dawes, who you've spent the last couple days with. He moves towards you, finally. and goes, sorry, I was having a hell of a time with the flight managers trying to get our time moved up. Thank you. I told them who I was and, of course, who I was traveling with, and they were nice enough to make arrangements. Would you like a piece of... Oh. It's really good. You're just shouting, and I would love for you to... This is a lot. Can we go now? Yes, the craft is ready. Oh, great. You can just start with that. We don't have to do all of that. It's fine. Sorry, I thought you were perhaps enjoying the plaza. No, thank you, Dorian. It's quite all right. I'm sorry. I thought it would be nice to visit Earth again, but for some spaces, I understand. It's just... It's a lot. There's just so much here, and it's all the time, and everyone yells and smells. And then she just like slowly takes a bite of the bread. And I think this is the one thing that she's experienced in the last like three or four days. This is the best little bite of food she's ever had. And it grounds her and she takes a nice deep breath through her mouth. Okay, we can go. This is great. Thank you. You're doing such a good job. Of course. I mean, I apologize. Oh, you're great. I think I built an itinerary that I think reflected some of my own taste rather than being considerate of yours. Okay. However, I promise this last bit is going to be incredibly special. Please, right this way. You see that he takes you across the plaza where there's like a small golf cart waiting for you that takes you through an open gate where he flashes his badge. And you drive onto the tarmac where you come upon a kind of a small jet craft. It's about the size of maybe like a regional jet built with clean lines and smooth white hull, black viewing strips and a dark metallic band that wraps around the futile lodge with the GEC insignia. That of the same hands open palmed up to the heavens that you stood upon in the plaza. Oh, is this the new model, or is this the one from a couple years ago that had that problem with the heat sink? Oh, that, uh, it is, it's the one that, it's the one from a couple of years ago. Yeah, that's great. I, oh, you prefer it? Look, everybody crosses a finger and a couple toes on the way up and out, but once you get into low orbit, nothing better. Well, of course, but I was going to have them put the dampeners on so that it flew a little bit more like the newer models. No, do whichever. That's fine. Do whichever you need to do. No, no, no, no, no. Can we take the dampeners off? Yeah! You see he looks at you and your excitement and like, yeah, take those things off. Take them off now. We want to feel it. Okay, I'm locked in. And you just see her staring at, like, all of, like, engineer personnel. And she's just looking at, like, tools and, like, large machines brought out and just listing them and loving them. You see that what was, like, a halfway done job to installing dampeners for the ride up are removed. Yeah! And you see that your pilot for today is standing kind of at the dang plank up into the jet craft. And you see bows. Any bags, miss? Oh, I don't carry my own bag. So did they get here or will they be? Don't worry about it. You see that Dorian steps forward. Sloan, it's quite all right. They've already been delivered. Apologies again, Miss Davis. No, it's OK. You got to stop apologizing. Sloan, is it? Yes. uh yeah how many what's how are you feeling like can you can you get this bird in the air without killing us without the dampeners do you need that is that for you it's not for me okay happy to fly okay confident incredibly we should have started here i had to see so many museums shit well i just thought miss i'm so sorry i'll hit you it's just i i wouldn't hit you oh that's Very kind. Well, this right this way. Oh, yeah, sure. You see that the two of you board the ship. Sloan, don't kill us. And I give them like a little pat on the shoulder. You see Sloan goes, wouldn't think of it, ma'am. You see that you and Dawes board the craft. Very plush, wide cushioned seats, you know, muted fabrics, leather textured recliners. You see that there's several privacy screens for rest. The flight to the moon and beyond is generally minimum of 10 hours. You see that Dorian sits into one of the seats and beckons you to sit down. Like by him? Yes. That guy. There's just so much room. All right. Well, I'm sure we can spread out. No, you're good. It's fine. I sit across from him. You sit across. Coming out from the back of the craft, you see a woman, carefully styled blonde hair that falls to her shoulders, sharp jaw lines softened by heavy makeup, Her skin fair, posture upright. She comes out, extends a hand. Talia. Talia. I don't... Okay. And she shakes hands. Doesn't love it. Oh. No, it's fine. Hi. How do I know you? I'm Mr. Dahl's wife. Oh. Oh, it's lovely to meet you. You see Dorian caught off guard. I'm sorry. She'll just be joining us for the weekend. Oh, lovely. What do you do? What keeps you busy? Um, home things. The light behind Kiki's eyes goes away. I recently acquired a series of vase. Of what? Vase. What's a vase? Like an urn. Urn? Ceramics. Oh, yeah. What for what? What are you keeping? Oh, nothing. It's decorative. You keep empty jugs in your house, and that's a thing that you share within minutes of meeting someone? I mean, you asked kind of... Damn, that's on me. Okay. Beautiful. Do you have photos? Of course. She pulls out her hollow, skims through a few photos of a kind of rather bland and muted home. lots of grays, lots of beige, lots of taupe. I think Kiki understands now that the way to get to go to her own little mine palace is to occasionally ask just enough of a follow-up question that she keeps getting more and more of a tour of this drab house. And then she can kind of just zone out for two to four minutes at a time before going, wow, tell me more. That goes on for about 10 minutes before you hear Sloan kind of step into the cabin. They're ready for us to depart. If everyone's ready to go. Yeah, let's do it. Fantastic. You see that he gets into the cockpit. You feel the ship begin to taxi. You see that the cabin lights dim. Tali, do you think we're going to die? I'm sorry. Yeah, just on the way out. We took the dampeners off. Dorian, well, it's just, our friend would like to feel it. You don't like to feel it? Dorian has a skill issue, bud. A skill issue. Oh my God, I gotta get off of Earth. This place fucking sucks. You feel a subtle hop through the floor as the old dampener, the existing dampener system does come online. And you see that Dorian begins to strap himself into a five-point kind of harness situation as you guys taxi. You feel yourself begin to pick up speed and take off. A faint shimmer runs across the windows as the glass polarizes. The engines thrum as you approach the well and are seized by it. For a split second, your stomach drops like you're on a roller coaster. And because you don't have the dampeners on, it sits there. You hear Talia start. What happened? As your weight is pulled forward, you can tell you are accelerating at impossibly fast speeds, even though they are somewhat muted, as though you are wrapped in layers of velvet. through the tinted windows, the world becomes a blur of light. The gravity well outside is a silver tower arcing into the sky as you ascend. You glimpse bands of plasma and magnetized particles racing along the conduits as they flank your ship. Lights of blue, violet, and gold chasing each other upward like lightning. The cabin floor vibrates faintly. You hear a glass shatter in the back. Talia, ah! You hear the structure of the ship groan under the intensity of the gravitational push, and then abruptly the sky outside darkens from blazing azure to the deep indigo of near space. Stars start winking into view as the ship bursts from Earth's pull, and you hear over the call sign from Sloane, Welcome to outer space. Woo, Sloane, you did it! I'm glad I could make it easy for you. Look, every time I get dragged back on planet side, that feeling, we don't get that where I'm from. I'm sorry, honey, if that was scary for you. You see that Talia's hair is a mess as she is gripping the sides of her seat, eyes clenched, her hands white as she goes, it was fine, it was fine. I believe that maybe a little more if your knuckles want the color of your vase. You see that she immediately lets go and unclips. Would anyone like champagne? Oh, yes, please. You see that she moves to the back. Dorian leans over to you, unbuckling his harness. Wow. Wow. It's just, it's great to feel it. Right? That's what I'm saying. Because like once we're up there and we're out there, you don't feel the scale of it. Of course, yes. You get it, bud. I totally get it. Speaking of which, out there, you, your work, this claim you've staked. Oh, yeah. You know, as the chairman of Rare Minerals for the GEC, it's my pleasure to kind of parlay what a possible deal could look like for us to be installing infrastructure and perhaps gleaming some of your resources. No, I love that because we've spent, oh God, maybe a good couple months at this point really upgrading gear. So what we've got going on that little rock, we're going to get things up pretty quickly. And I mean, if we're going to talk business, we're going to talk business. You are not our only offer. Of course, completely understand. So just knowing that, like, everything that's going to be happening with our little red friends. Yes. Things move quickly. Of course. So I'm excited for whatever this last thing you show me is, but I'm hoping we could, like, tie off an offer in the next 24 to 48. A hundred percent. the place we are going. There will be a number of members of the executive council there who will be excited to meet you. We'll all be able to discuss what a sum that makes you feel seen and make sure that we are able to get what we need. I feel confident we'll be able to come to a number. Okay. All right. I look forward to that. Of course, of course. I mean, you understand. Since tranquility and since... Sure. You know. Yeah, our voices all get low when we talk about that. Well, we respect and all that. No, I understand. No, but it's just our hope to be able to build defenses. Of course. And, I mean, the platinum resources on your asteroid. Does it have a name? We call it Jimmy, but we've got platinum, we've got a couple, there's iridium, and a couple. Kiki is normally quite sharp and on top of her business. That's all she has in Grey Space. the entire arc of her arc is bent to mining but i think there is something important in the way she's like jumping over words and thoughts and not naming everything even though in all of the docs that have been going back and forth there are like comprehensive lists and she's trying very very specifically to like sort of pussyfoot around a couple things about the asteroid But it's all in there. I'm sorry. I'm just a little, you know, it's been a big day. Give me a deception check against Dawes' insight. Natural 20. That beats the hell out of a four. You see that Dawes looks at you, goes, yes. And again, I know I'm not supposed to, but I'm doing everything I can to make sure that you know that the Global Executive Council is excited at a potential partnership with you, Ms. Davis. Thank you, Dorian. The GEC has been nothing but accommodating and generous in all of our discussions. And I do know that. And it'll be remembered. I wouldn't be here spending this amount of time with you if I didn't think we were going to get to like it. We're going to get to an amicable place. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Hey, but right now, how about champagne? I love that. Talia. You see Talia comes out. There's about 10 hours to kill. Is there anything that Kiki does during this time? If not, Talia is just going to show you more pictures of more things that are taupe. She has a folder. It's called My Favorite Things. And they're all taupe. At some point, there's like a middle stretch of there can't. How much taupe could there be? And she's now re-bought in on the like, this could only be like a 10 to 20 minute presentation, right? You know, something that's really exceptional is that I've actually been partnering with a paint company to create my own version of taupe. Oh, wait. hold on it's what do you mean they got it they got it in one well well this is called tope two hope to they made a sequel actually hold on i'm into this now it might be the champers but let's find out show me tope two here uh she she uh she takes you on a long walk uh through her process of divining the new color tope two is it cute is it like a little because there's that moment where you kind of lose the plot and you're like, oh no, I kind of fuck with it a little bit. Give me a wisdom saving throw. Yeah. Okay, okay. 13. Toktu's kind of cool. Okay. Alright, so my question for you now, dang, I feel like I stressed you out earlier, but I really like what you're putting down. There are some communal spaces on my arc that actually could maybe be a little calmer and give a what how did you phrase that uh the illusion of grandeur without the distraction of grandeur yes oh gosh can i how do i get tope two well you're on the right ship yeah we're gonna make a deal we are after a number of hours passing the colony of tranquility along the celestial highway, emerging kind of into deeper space. Here's Sloan come over the intercom. The vessel is coming into view. You'll be able to see it out the right side of the ship. Come on, Talia. Grab her by the hand and pull her to a viewing area. You see Dorian moves with you. So this is it. This, should we choose to partner, is what your resources will be going to. staring out into space as you approach the ichoron doesn't at first look like a ship it looks like a city stretched into the void its spine the arc line runs nearly eight kilometers long armored in hyperwood plating and reinforced with lattice running the full length of the spine you see the meridians. Four vast parallel arms, each as long as the ship itself. They frame the Ikaron like a colossal outrigger, balancing and bracing the vessel against the stresses of deep space. Each meridian is studded with detail. Defense arrays bristle along the outer faces, railguns, lasers, EMP projectors mounted on armored housing, and on the interfaces, docking spines glitter with magnetic capture coils and port rings, drawing in visiting ships much like your own. Near the zenith of the ship, a glass dome mushrooms outward like a lantern, and at the other end, another like an observation bell. Midway along the vessel, you notice reinforced housing and glowing conduits. And as your vessel draws closer, the scale becomes overwhelming. What seemed like smooth plating at a distance revealed itself to be dense with gantries, antenna masks, armored shutters, and faintly glowing observation galleries where crew and guests alike watch the void. You see that Dorian turns to you. This is the Ikharon. Earth's first S-Class battle station. There is no art-laden basilica, no statuary or feat of earth architecture that has ever moved her the way this has. That is the most beautiful thing she has ever seen and she is just quietly weeping and doesn hear dorian speak at first uh um i so sorry sugar what was that it it it the eukaran this is our defense yes you you you'll have to see it it is i've only seen plans but it is magnificent Dorian, my word is my bond. If this is as good as you say. Our deal is struck, and she simply puts her hand out to the side to shake. As Kiki fixates on the Ikaron, she does not see the ear-to-ear grin on Dorian Dawes' face as he quietly shakes your hand. And we move from this place to the Ikaron itself. Within the bowels of the Ikaron, a broad gantry, 15-foot-wide catwalk of grated metal, in an immense space nearly 3,200 feet tall and over 400 feet across. At its center, the thermoplastic routing port A massive glowing torus, 250 feet across, 40 feet thick The size of a ferris wheel turned on its side Along the walls, cooling towers and tall black pillars are built to quench and vent plasma instantly should anything falter And in this space, a sound hits you A low, thrumming bass of a drone Where among all of this do we find your character, Brenna? Andre Dalka is a 57-year-old man. Short, thick, earthy, graying hair. It's, you know, 90% salt, 10% pepper at this point. He is charmingly unattractive. He's got a kind of affinity to metal and welded material that makes him sort of almost like a, I think he harkens back to some kind of spirit of some Slavic folklore of like a deep earth, mind haunting creature. but in this moment he's got his white engineer's uniform with some high-vis strips on it in case lights suddenly go out the high-vis strips don't look that different it's like a slight yellow tint to the off-white or cream of the engineer's uniform right now he's hanging upside down whatever that means on a sideways torus but essentially just means that he's activated the grips on his knee pads and the tops of his shoes. So he's in a kneeling position, but with the artificial gravity is not on in the sector that he's working in. So he's just sort of like swaying kind of weightlessly as his knees and feet are attached to this panel. He's got a panel open. He's taken a small net that is pinned down over the panel that's open in case any tools get dropped so that they don't float off into the mechanism. So he's got like almost a mosquito netting over the panel that he's working on. And he's happily working away, fine-tuning something. This is not a problem. This is like a readout from a fail-safe protocol is not connected to the same network that it should be so that they can run diagnostics on it. So it's like, oh, we're not getting diagnostic input from the fail-safe program that's not even on right now. We're crossing T's that are not even in the final draft. We're going back and crossing T's from, like, earlier drafts that just need to be preserved for propriety. Otherwise, I am aware that it is go time, as they say. So just focus on work here for this moment. as andre works dedicated to his craft and his creation because of the immensity of the sound in here you all wear these communication collars that essentially just allow you to speak to each other and uh hear each other in in your ears more clearly over the many sounds in this cavernous space you hear coming over the comms uh your builder the person who's dedicated himself to actual like manifestation often of your most like complex ideas tubes macintyre uh comes over the comms uh yeah we got the same problem from before they want everything to be able to talk to everything else but also all be firewalls for maximum security so you know it's a contradiction yeah you get better get down here as fast as you can no can you come on down here tubes you want want me to come down there? You come on down here. What problem do you have as big as my problem? Oh, it's the coolant. Okay, coolant, bigger problem. I'll be right down. And he's gonna put his tools away, seal up the panel, open up his slate, which is this sort of wrist-mounted writing tablet, and type in a shorthand. I think my great shame in this moment is the document I'm supposed to have prepared to make everything user-friendly because this whole project is going to get handed off to GSEC. So everything here needs to be usable and readable. I have perfect faith in the military engineers that will be taking this over, but I know that this will be reviewed by military brass and it will need to feel knowable from people that are not engineers. So this document is my great shame because it is all engineers shorthand and not full sentences that can be read by someone who's not a scientist. And I just go, OK, this going to be OK, we're going to fix this. No, no, you know what? We're not going to fix this. This going to we're going to explain why this can't work like they want and takes the net away, puts it down. And it makes a note that like for this to stop reading as a malfunction, they will either have to open its operational security to let it talk with other systems and be exposed or make their peace with only being able to come down and read it manually. And says they're going to choose and he's going to head off to go find Tubes. You see Tubes is just on the gangplank below you, so you just have to kind of make your way off of the TRC and then safely down to the kind of catwalk that's kind of the base of operations for you guys. You see Tubes is there, weathered and wiry, older black man wearing a kind of half-buttoned formal shirt and a work-stained fabrication vest, deep-lined skin, looks up at you. Now I understand that we're doing this whole pass around the sun. Does the doctor understand how much coolant that's going to require? You can only put report so many times. We put report, we say how much coolant... It's half our reserve. It's half our goddamn reserve. Tubes, you want boss to catch plate, you have to let plate drop. We tell them how much coolant it takes. They say it's not a problem. We say here's what can go wrong. They say we need to do this for other reasons. So we do what we can. Our job is not to drive cars, it's to build. Yeah, all right. All right, all right. Are you going to the party? Of course I go to the party. All right. Make me sit and live in space for three months, I go to the party. I'm going to double my wage in crudity. Oh, yeah. The good snacks. The good snacks, yeah. The good snacks. You know, my daughter is coming. My other daughter is coming. No. Oh, Stella's on her way. Oh, God damn, I want to meet Stella. I tell you, if she's going to bring Mandazi, and if she don't, I disown. Oh, that's right. That's right. Are you going to go to the party? Just for a little bit. How much is little bit? You're going to get there like you're going to try to go for middle 15 minutes of party? Yeah, first five. The first five? Get in, nibble, get out. Oh, God. It's so rude to arrive to party on time. What? It's so rude to arrive to party on time. No, no, no, no. Why'd they make it to start time if they don't want you to be there right out there? No, no, no. Because, listen, what you are describing is not attending party. What you are describing is food heist. Well, yeah, well, it's the same thing. It's the same thing, if you ask me. Absolutely. You are cold-blooded. You are ruthless. Hey, don't call me tubes for nothing. All right. Hey, I cannot knock the hustle. If the goal is to get small cubes of cheese and get out, this is plan that will work. Well, you start with small cubes. Put them together. Big cube. I really sit with that for a long time. I think I go kind of classy-eyed and stare off into space. Small cubes into big cube. Yeah. Cubes are uniform. Small cube, you need minimum eight cubes to make next biggest cube. Then from there, you're going to need it. That's going to be 12. That's going to be 16. That's going to be 20. And then you need the corners. So it's going to be 24, 24 cubes for next size of cube. Yeah. Okay, let's get out of here. You see interrupting this conversation, entering the, walking onto the gangplank, wearing the same comms communicators. You actually start to hear them as they approach. You see a group of four people enter this engine room. You see leading the group is a small, slightly younger person. his enthusiasm kind of bubbling over pale skin sharp jawline wearing a slim black suit crisp white shirt and tie with a small pin in the symbol of the ichoron a kind of parentheses around a star fastened high and straight on his jacket uh so this is the thermoplastic routing core a power and energy distribution system for the vessel it takes raw energy from a number of sources solar, nuclear, magnetic, and refines them into stable, controllable plasma streams that are then facilitated throughout the rest of the ship depending on energy needs. And, um... Dr. Dolka. Oh, hello. Good to see you. I'm sorry. I was giving a tour to the, uh... Councilmember Resnick. Oh, very good to Councilmember Resnick. This is, you're explaining the routing core. You know, the plasma is actually not the only energy source. We convert to stable plasma stream, but the core itself still use some of the electromagnetism, nuclear, solar, because for the purposes of those energy streams. It's actually sort of interesting to dive into the specifics of it. But probably the short version to say is, yes, stable plasma streams. You see that Counselor Resnick, who is pale complexion, tall, angular, dark hair streaked with silver, immaculately dressed in the black and gold of her office, looks at you. Incredible. When Dr. Cortez told me that she had found someone who could build an engine for the vessel she was describing, it lifted, it really lifted our spirits. That is the number one quality I aspire to, spirit lifting. Am I doing it right now? It's quite an impressive room. Oh, this. As far as rooms go, this one way up there. Andrei smiles. He knows he's being funny. Like, I think he's trying. He's a very gregarious, like, you know, he smiles in a good natured way and says, I'm glad. Yes, the Taurus is something else. It is very strange to be a young man in university and have a piece of theory land in front of you. feels almost unfair that I am the one who gets to see it in real life after everyone did work so hard to draw it on paper so long ago. It must have been incredible to have access to the resources that Project Daedalus provided. Oh, of course. Yes, the resources. For this to happen, it requires so many hands. They don't all get to see. Very few eyes, very many hands. and we say thank you to the hands, you know. Of course. I brought along two of the engineers who will be working in here after you. Gentlemen, you see stepping forward two young men. One of them steps forward, absolutely sweat-drenched hand. Arjun, nice to meet you. Arjun, nice to meet you, young man. This is a lot. Sure. In terms of size or in terms of its significance? Jane, everything. It's just a lot going on. We've been reading over some of your notes that you've been providing to the GSEC, and they are dense, which is great. It's been great kind of jumping in, and we're really feeling wrapping my head around it. I'm going to lean in and go, it's not just the plasma streams. when you talk to the brass you say plasma stream stable plasma stream because that's the that's the showstopper that's what's actually powering the vessel's movement and the core systems weapons array thing like that but like for life support systems and things like that you don't want to actually there's a tangential uh energy efficiency losses if you're going to use systems that are already coming prefabricated from earth to use solar energy you want to divert some of that, to turn it from solar to plasma back to solar is a waste. Do you understand? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah, I got it. So the energy come through the thermoplastic? Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How many years you spent studying thermoplastics? Fourteen. Fourteen years? That's good. Okay. I'm genuinely very happy to hear that. So, okay, you understand the transition to plasma is, that is a recurrent loop and that we are going to be able to, in other words, you're drawing energy refracted off of the transition to fluid state and back again to solid. You see stepping forward here is the second engineer who introduces himself. Sorry, Louis. Yeah, man, we got it. All right, Louis. Big, your britches, they are so big. Well, you know, me and Arjun have been studying for, I mean, Arjun got there first, but we're feeling pretty good. All right, feeling pretty good. This emotion is always good to see in scientists. They call this hubris. I slap him on the arm and I go, Lewis, you are good. Confidence is necessary. If you don't mind, we were hoping to kind of look around, if that's all right. You want to look around right now? You want me to look around? I look over at Tubes and I say, I can do it, Tubes. No, no, no, no, you gotta go. You gotta go. You're gonna take one for the team. I put my hand on the back of Tubes' neck and I go, you are a good man and a good friend. I don't want to show the young ones the machine. I'm gonna run these boys through their bases. You see the tube puts on two climbing, like the same kind of climbing apparatus as you were and says, boys, if you wanna follow me. It's just climbing the side of the wall as Lewis goes, all right. I look up at tubes and I go, tubes, by the way, I was wrong before. Not 24, 27. Cubes. Yes. You need one cube and then you need eight and then you need 27. Exponential growth. This is why I like you. This is why I like you. I snap over to Lewis and I go, Lewis, what do you think I'm talking about? Cubes. You can't slip one past this guy, Lewis Sharp. You see breaking up this moment, arriving into the space, striding forward, spry Brazilian woman in her 70s, tightly braided gray hair, sharp discerning eyes, warm brown skin, wearing a formal black dress with kind of a lab coat over it. You recognize this to be Dr. Imani Cortez, leader of Project Daedalus. She walks in. You all aren't bothering my engineer, are you? You see that Nico goes, no, we were just doing the tour. She goes, it's quite alright, Nico. Dr. Cortez, thank you for defending me. My very valuable time. It is being mishandled. Yeah, of course. There's a big slide ball game tonight, and I mean, you need to get prepped. Okay, I'm gonna run to party. I'm gonna get cheese. Gonna grab Stella when she gets in. Gonna hope she bring Mondazi. Gonna go make sure we get a pregame pep talk with the servals. Go, servals. Do you want to walk with me for a second, Antra? Oh, of course. Let's have a walk. Alright, boys. Tube's gonna take you and show you everything you need to know. Remember, a minor issue can absolutely galvanize an entire chain reaction, negative consequences. Make sure all I's dotted T's crossed. You have a good one. You see that Arjun's face falls as Louis just quietly nods along and Nico and the counselor continue their tour. Dr. Cortez walks with you back towards the central lift. You're going to change? For party? Yeah. If you say so, this is You know, these are systems in which you are experts. So if I should wear nice clothes, I wear nice clothes. Just a little something. Little propeller hat? All right now, Andre. I could do it. We have members of the Global Executive Council visiting us. I wear a suit. I wear a suit, high collar, look like a good engineer. I keep propeller hat in my satchel. Oh, hey, if you wear the suit, you're more than welcome to wear the propeller hat. Break even. Oh, why not? I'm going to look at her and say, and I gesture to what I was working on before the young engineers got here. I say, this, look, I'm going to tell you, this whole thing with the comm system, you know, we've had the brief change once a day for the last three weeks in terms of new information coming in. So this is not going to be fixed in time. everything working. We're already in the backup of the backup of the backup, but this is, I understand the stakes, but this level of security means that it's not going to be, you can't have this much security and have it be functional. No, of course. I mean, I have been trying to keep General Manhold off of you, and believe me, he has been on me. I'm having the same issue up and down the arc line. Every station, Every lead is getting backwards directions to try and explain operations while also keeping them clandestine. I mean, it's all over the place. The transition is not—I think that GSEC is thinking that this transition is going to be seamless. And it's—I mean, I'm already getting ready to stay on the ship for an extra month or two after— I mean, you know, we were, I think most of us were hoping to load off next week, but I think I'm going to be here for at least another month. You are holding up the sky on this one, Imani. Big dreams need a strong foundation. I hope that I have done right by you. That I know that everything is riding on you, your reputation, the work you have done here. God, another month. If I'm not, I'm not going to lie. I have an escape pod with a back door in it. If they say I have to stay here one extra week, you're going to find me in gray space at some blackjack table. I'm going to change my name. I'm going to burn my fingerprints off. Is there room for two? I give her over the shoulder, like around that big hug and pull her close to me. I'm like shorter than her. Yeah, okay. We're going to make a brave getaway. I explain to my children. I try not to ruin my daughter's political career. We've done this whole... I plan this whole solar pass thing that I just thought would be a nice demonstration of everyone's hard work. And I think that it's... I mean, I have no worry that there's not... I have no fear that it's... The ship can manage it. I just, it's... Tubes, you know Tubes, he mentioned coolant to me again. I know, I know. I know they're landing on your desk, but it is going to be extremely taxing on this ship to do this pass. Reagan just thought if we could show the council how well their money was spent, that, you know, it would just ease everyone's hearts about this and make it easier to demonstrate to the public that this was a worthy endeavor. Cost analysis, this easing of hearts, gonna be about as much coolant as putting four X-class convoys to Mars and back. Yeah, yeah, I know. Just saying, these hearts, I hope they're worth a lot of money. They are. Okay. By the way, I know that you do have that slide ball game tonight against the Hydraxes. The Hydraxes, they're looking so strong. Hydraxes, that's it, yes. Well, I arranged for the sun viewing. We're keeping you off the command deck so that the mucky mucks can't encircle you. So I put you on one of the Meridian Operations Gallery with the kids from the COTS program. and that you're going to be giving them a lesson. I mean, you should be able to get out of there 10, 15 minutes, get your pregame pep talk in and all of that. Oh, that is so... I... Thank you. I prefer much to be at kids' table. This is not... Grown-ups' table, I need something a little bit more mature than grown-ups' table. Kids' table is perfect. Yeah. I just... I'll be down in Inhab tonight and just save me a beer or six. I do it. I save you a beer of six. Also, I tell Stella to bring Mondazi, so, you know... She's going to bring him, right? She better. I mean, I get it that she's an aide to one of the leaders of Earthspace, but, you know, it's not that hard. I just... I just know it's ten hours from Mombasa to Tranquility, and then it's... I just hope. I mean, Mandazi's best in like the 15 minutes right after it comes out of the oil. But you still have a little bit of that. Yeah, I just need a fraction. I just need a fraction. There's a lot riding on this one. Yeah, it's been, I'm not going to lie, I'm going to talk to some people about how much I've been thinking about the Mandazi, because it started to, even I recognize it's not healthy. It occupies my every waking moment. There'll be time for that soon. You guys ride the central lift down to NHAB for you guys to get changed for the event that is to come. As the airlock fits into place, we hear the release of pressure. Stepping off a not-so-luxurious shuttle, walking between two rows of seating bolted into the walls and into a wide receiving corridor where the block yellow letters you see read Welcome Zenith Docking Bay We see a group of children five kids kind of dressed up pile out of the ship into the open corridor pushing and shoving each other Behind them, a patient older man with a cowboy hat, broad-shouldered, full beard, heavyset frame, hold on, hold on, steps off. And behind them, another character. Erika, will you please describe who you'll be playing in this campaign? Vera Lamb, who is known to most people as fish cakes, is a small and skinny, very foldable looking human who is 19 but looks younger. A shock of white, frizzy hair, big, watery doe eyes, wearing functional clothes that were clearly not made for them. Fishcakes has clearly spent a lot of time drifting and is in one of those states right now of great alertness. You see the man in front of you, who you know as Boris Gough or Bogo, is wrangling the five younger children with whom you've traveled. and looks back to see you in this state, and is just going to offer a hand. As I take the hand, I look him in the eyes, and I say, So I did get the blueprints of the Icaran, but I did not get the blueprints for this station. Uh-oh. Well, kiddo, I asked, and they said those were government secrets. That's ridiculous. I mean, these children, we are all guests here. We should have some sort of a feeling of safety and knowing the ins and outs of this place. Pishcakes, they promised that there would be plenty of security and that at all times you would feel safe and secure. Okay. All right. Well, that's very kind of them. but be that as it may now especially since I'm helping out with some of the younger ones I think maybe perhaps they would feel a little safer if we just had a little more control. You see that running up to you as you speak of them, one of the kids who you know is Timo lanky teen curly hair runs up and goes, fish cakes come on okay well I just want to make sure that You know, before we get ahead of ourselves that, you know, everything's secure and in place. Come on, fish cakes. Bogo said there were lasers on the ship. There's lasers here. We have lasers back at the Cots house. Yeah, but like fun ones. These are big ones. Big lasers, fish cakes. All right. Well, I know you've been really looking forward to this, but, you know, you... we're going out there now and you haven't seen the things that i've seen yeah you say that like every day well you haven't not yet because i don't have your eyes i have my eyes well if you could see i uh fish cakes gets up real close to timo points at her eyes if you could see with the eyes that i have you'd know that it is it it's best to be prepared for anything And I pray, I pray that you would never have to look through eyes like mine. Go ahead and give me an intimidation check. It's an eight. You can see the sort of fluid because she has not blinked in a good 30 seconds. The water in her eyes sort of brims up and spills down over her cheeks. You see that Teemo looks at you, his face kind of curling. Your breath stinks, fishcakes. Yeah, it's the fishcakes. You see at this point, Bogo walks back over, now followed by a woman elegantly dressed in the black and gold of the Global Executive Council. Kids, I want you to meet Helena. She's going to be showing us around. You see this woman steps forward. Hi, I am aide to the vice counselor, Quill, who has invited all of you here this evening. We're just running a little bit late. So if you could just follow me, we're going to head right upstairs to the event. I'm going to take a look at this lady. What can I tell about her from her demeanor other than that she's on a council? She seems to be well to do. We're going to give me an insight check. Oh, natural 20. Natural 20. Nice. Is that our second nat 20? That's our second nat 20. Yeah, we're rolling hot, baby. Come get on the board, dog. You see this woman, Helena Voss, this person who's just introduced themselves as Helena Voss, tall, narrow shoulders, tightly pinned back, black hair, wearing rimless glasses, precise, minimal lines that match their kind of sharp posture, looks at you, especially fish cakes, I think on this Nat 20, you see that this person is very concerned with doing a good job. They want for anyone who sees them to imagine and understand that they are doing a good job and are a good representative of the Global Executive Council. On a Nat 20, you see that this woman is scanning the group of children that have landed here. but that her eyes rest especially on you. You see that she looks at you up and down and then actually leans forward. Vera, correct? Ah, yes. Hello, I am Vera Lamb. Helena, was it? Yes. You're doing a good job. Thank you so much for inviting us. You. We are thrilled to have the Children of the Stars here. It is your futures that we will be fighting for. And Mira, you especially. It means the world that you would join us. Mm-hmm. Right this way. You see that she takes you down corridors that are lined with clean white illumination, soft-edged panels set into walls, fiber-lit conduits run along the floor, glowing a steady blue. You see that she walks at a kind of quickened pace with a sense of urgency, kind of leaning back, talking to Bogo. So did you have any trouble getting in? I'm just wondering about the tardiness. Was it something on our end? No, no, it's just wrangling these kids. Sometimes people need a little more time. Of course, of course, that makes sense. Right this way. She takes you through a series of corridors. is you've entered on one of the meridians, kind of four tall, slightly curved parts of the ship extending out from the center. You see that she has kind of taken you from the docking area toward what looks like a connecting causeway that will take you from the meridian to the arc line, the center of the ship, as you pass through kind of bulkhead windows that allow you to see out into space into the connecting elements of the ship. As you wait for one of the lifts that looks like it's going to take you up to the causeway that'll inevitably cross you over into the center of the ship, the arc line, you see that she stops you and kind of more to the kids than to you says, do you all want to see something rather special? You see they go, yeah. Sure. You see one of them goes, yeah, what? That's a child. And she points off the causeway, looking down into one of the cargo lanes that seems to kind of take up the majority of the meridian. And she says, down there, gravity runs in a different direction. And Fishcake says, you step forward and look over. You do see that the gravity, the gravity here pulling you down. but that below you, in the cargo lane, workers and exoloaders are moving in a direction and have gravity-oriented to what is for you the wall. As you stand here on the causeway looking left and right, you see them moving up and down. Beneath you, you see a massive shipping container glides past you on magnetic tracks, appearing to defy your sense of the direction you would define as up. And you see that Helena steps forward, pointing. So the meridian, these meridians, the four of them attached to the arc line, they used localized graviton channels to optimize cargo flow. And so here, while we are able to walk this way, they are able to move more efficiently up and down. Pretty neat, right? You see he goes, kind of. As you're looking at the cargo moving up and down, Will you give me a perception check? Oh. Thirteen. Thirteen. On a thirteen, big tall men are pushing this cargo down the lane. There's a symbol on the cargo. A horizontal line. And then above it, two dashes connected by a curved line. There's something familiar about it. On a thirteen, you can't... It's not immediately coming to you, but you see this symbol, and there is just something in you that it evokes familiarity. That is a very efficient way of loading cargo. What all are they loading there? You see Helena looks down. I'm not sure. I know there are a number of finishings on the ship that are still being put in. Some of the habitats aren't fully complete. The life support systems have all been installed. But in terms of, you know, every little control panel, every little dial, you know. Right. I'm sure you don't have oversight in all of the manifest for the cargo hold. Myself, personally, no. Oh. Well, can I tell, everything being loaded by the men, do they look like locals? Give me a, like a lore check. 18. On an 18, these are definitely spacers. Your Cots Ward is on Tranquility. So I think you, as like a 19-year-old with your ability to roam and leave and come and go as you please, like you've interacted with a lot of different communities on the Tranquility colony. These are true spacers. These aren't, you wouldn't even call them GSEC. You would assume that these are the kind of people who operate in mining colonies, gray space, dock workers. Like it is that kind of, these people haven't seen Earth in a long time. The cargo, you said that it's very large. Very large. Very large. Huh. Now what kind of cargo would be needed for, in such massive containers? I turned to the kid who said it was kind of cool. Yeah. and saying you should familiarize yourself with the different ways that gravity can benefit or detract from your living. You see a younger girl, Zadie, looks at you and goes, Yeah, we talk about gravity all the time in school. Yeah, but talking about something in school is different than the practical application of the theory. Okay, Zadie? Okay. You gotta prepare yourself. Fishcake, your breath stinks. Again. It's the fish cakes. You guys say that every day. You think it hurts my feelings at this point? I'm called fish cakes. Yeah, and now we know why. You see that Helena leads you all into the lift, rising up, connecting to the causeway where you're then loaded onto a people mover, which moves you over to the top of the arc line. Stepping out, you see a broad sign that reads Zenith Habitat. The floors here are a polished, hyperwood composite, smoother and warmer than other spaces you've seen. Private rooms and offices line the outside of this kind of circular space. But stepping forward, you see that Helena leads you to a staircase that spirals up around the central pillar, bringing you to a viewing platform underneath a glass dome mushrooming out, looking out at the void. Wow. There you stand on a central platform ringed by greenery and what looks like temporary seating, much of which is occupied by a kind of small gathering of folks. You see a lot of them wearing the black and gold of official governmental uniforms. You see that in the corner there's a bartender serving drinks, a large table of little canapes, cheeses, rolled meats, and a race stage on which a man is currently giving a small speech. You see that Helena kind of ushers you into this area and says, All right, if you could all just stay here for a moment, I'm going to let Vice-Counselor Quill know that we've arrived. Ah, thank you so much. You see that Bogo immediately turns around and is like, No messing around, all right, guys? Just please act respectful. Yes, act respectfully, everyone. And then under my breath, I do say to the younger kids, I say, And what did we say about all the appetizers? In our pockets. Yes. For the ride home. Mm-hmm. That's right. That's right. Yeah, you see that the crowd up here mingles as the man on the stage giving a speech. As chairman of defense for the Global Executive Council, it has been my honor to oversee Project Daedalus, working with its architect, Dr. Imani Cortez. We are thrilled with the results of the project, and I believe, as you all will see today, the power of what is currently called the Ikaron, but will soon be, have its official GSEC call sign. This vessel is state-of-the-art and unlike anything existing in our solar system today. Now I know it's tempting to go for the sweets, but we need to, the caloric density of the meats and the cheeses is going to be what really puts us over the edge here. Can we do like a mix? All right. Okay. You can do a mix, but still keep it like a, like a, at least a 70-30 split between, you know, meats, cheeses, sweets. Okay. 70-30 split. 70-30. 70-30. 70-30. 30 no no no 70 sweets 30 jesus 70 jesus meats uh you see as you're having this conversation lena crosses to you could you all come with me could you all come with me and you see that the man on the stage is wrapping up his speech i would now like to uh bring to the stage to speak uh vice counselor everett quill all right everybody big smiles big smiles stepping up onto the stage, chasing the general off the stage with polite applause. Is Vice Counselor Everett Quill handsome in a boyish way with a quick smile and carefully styled hair that never seems out of place? Fair complexion and a narrow nose, his black and gold suit pristine. As he steps up to the mic. Fellow council members, crew, staff, thank you so much for being here. And an especially great thanks to Dr. Romani Cortez and her crew for their incredible work building this magnificent station. Now, I hope people won't mind if I remind us what we're all fighting for. The children. And you see that at this point, Helena pushes the four of you up onto the stage. Go, go, go, go, go. We shuffle up. I have Zadie's shoulders in my hands as I guide everybody up towards the stage. These here are Children of the Stars, an organization I'm sure we're all familiar with. Each of them has lost their parents or guardians to awful and avoidable space tragedies. and I wanted them all to be here on Dr. Cortez's solar pass, that they might know that their futures are safe. I think that's something worth clapping for. He turns to you, and an especially important person is here today. I'm not sure you all remember the stories about 10, 15 years ago, just before the attack on Tranquility. when a young girl was found floating in an escape pod in gray space, having just escaped from the horrors of Martian rule. That is Vera Lamb, who is with us today. I incline my head gratefully, and as I raise my head back up, you can see my eyes tilt upward, welling up once again. I poke Jax as well. What? And it starts... Oh, yeah. You see tears well at the corner of his eyes. It's you. It's you that brought us all here today so that other children don't have to have the experience that you've had. Never again. I think we can all say that together. Never again. You see that applause breaks out as he steps down. And now I'd like to welcome to the stage, Counselor Miriam Adeyemi. As he steps down with you, puts a hand on your shoulder. Nicely done. We are grateful for the honor of being here. You are so very brave. I don't see it as bravery. I see it as just doing what I had to do to survive. Oh, can we get a photo? You see that Helena slides up with a photo. He puts his arm around you. Click, click, click of a few hollows being taken as you are freed from your obligation. And you see that Jax walks up to you. Can we do the sweets now? Yeah, okay, maybe more of a 60-40 split. Yes. Pulling out from this moment, This is the welcome drinks and kind of snacks for all of the visiting guests and crew here on the ship. Where would we find Kiki and Andre? Kiki, I think she is over in a corner holding court. Now, she's going to be looking for a thing she cares about the most. She's trying to duck any government official and is trying to find something gambly, something just more interesting than listening to people give brief and unuseful speeches. I'm just trying to I'm looking for fun people with drinking hands. Give me a stealth check and an investigation check. That's a dirty 20 for stealth. And a two for investigation. Woo! We're back, baby! I'm not CB. You are able to effortlessly dart and move around the crowd as you multiple times catch Dorian, seem to find someone wearing an official kind of black and gold-looking uniform, and then kind of begin to move to wherever you just were. As he kind of moves around the space, you avoiding him seeking, you struggle to find anyone who looks like full party. There's just so much black and gold here. There's so much government. There's so many officials. Give me a perception check. Four. You eventually are looking for a crew or people who are just a little bit more with it. Yeah. And people who start to stand out to you are essentially secret service, like the kind of like people attached, the attachés traveling with these different executives. Among them, you're seeing, you're definitely seeing spacers, which I think is maybe odd, but not really. But you're seeing these like big guys, big guys with tattoos kind of creeping up above kind of black and gold collars, suits that don't exactly fit the way that maybe they're supposed to. I mean, it's been so long since you've been on earth. Yeah. And who knows, maybe they're just hiring new types of people. I think Kiki is of the opinion, like, this isn't working and she's not finding people that are interesting to her because she's dressed too much like the other officials. She's got like a crisp, pure black jumpsuit on and the formal wear she's got. She commissioned a 10 meter long sari when she was on Earth that cost her. It's gauche to say the number, not that she cares very much, but there are six places in it. Or maybe it hit a million. She wasn't really paying attention and taxes as a concept are confusing. and it's this like very like gossamer thin like silk fabric that's embroidered at the edges with like tessellated geometric patterns in actual platinum and studded with like clear sapphire and she's just now kind of looked down and was like oh my god i look like these fucking nerds got it okay and the ones that look like spacers look like a different breed of spacer than people I've dealt with. Is this like the beginning of the night? This is the very beginning of the night. Oh, well, it's because I'm here too damn early. Okay, okay. The next time I unfortunately get caught by Dorian long enough to like make eye contact, I'm going to do some like gesture to my outfit that would be like, I gotta fix it. Where do I go? Oh, down there are restrooms in the lower areas. I'll be right back. Of course. Over gesticulates and uses as an excuse to try to move across the room. She's gonna make it a retreat in the next couple of minutes. Like that's where her brain is at. 100%. You begin to take the initial steps in making your retreat. Andre. I am keeping an eye out primarily for Sophie, who I know lives up on Z-Hab. I'm in a sharp, I think it's like a little gray Nehru suit. There's not a tie that goes with it. It's like a high collar. It's sort of like, it looks spacey. You know, like I think there's certain things where they have like formal attire for non-military staff and they're like, make him look like a spaceman. So it's like everything has like, you're in your own society with its own conceptions about what it is that you're doing. And because we want to aspire to this ascent around the sun, I look, they have made the uniform such that non-military engineering corps have this little like sort of formal space. Like, look at this outer space engineer, man. But I am a little bit, I'm not the body type for it. I'm a little bit thicker and it is sort of squeezing my neck a little bit. But I'm rooting around looking for Stella. Bria, is your character near the catering tables or no? Yeah, she's going like she's trying to find a door and it just always like entrances and exits keep getting blocked by groups of officials that she doesn't want to talk to. So she keeps losing sight of it and then getting bored and a little hungry and grabbing food and then trying to find it again. I am lifting up one of the table covers with a foot to look if the catering coolers are underneath the tables for service. And if I notice you noticing me doing that weird thing, I'm going to look up and go, biggest cube you're going to be able to make is going to be five inch cheese cube, unless you mix cheeses. Because the serving packets, they come in, they don't have enough. It's a small serving packet. So you're going to do it. If you want pure cheddar the best you going to do mixing the little cubes together is a five inch cube which is How many of those cubes would that be 125 Oh Oh because they one inch each What Andre Dalka. Hi, Kiki Davis. She says her last name very quietly. Nice to meet you, Kiki. It's nice to meet you. Are you... Why are you making cube... What are you... Is there a door under that table? I'm trying to get out of here. My friend Tube's gonna come by. he's looking to get it make a quick getaway with cheese and get out so i'm trying to see if there's unopened the bags of this cheese for him to get well shit hold on and i'm gonna go ahead and like go to the like other end of the table and like do the like turn my back because it's hard with like the full sorry wrap so i gotta go heel heel back uh and i'll like flick my heel up and just try to like get a little can i get a little whiff i have a really good sense of smell can i can i check for cheese smell? Go ahead and give me an investigation check or perception check for cheese smell. That's a nine. There's no cheese down here. A perception for me as well? Oh, sure. Now that's a little bit, that's a little sharper there. That's going to be a dirty 20. Sharp like cheddar. They're keeping the cheese under the bartender station. I'm going to look over at the bartender station and I go, that's a bingo. that's where the good stuff is over there what i'm looking at is i'm looking at whatever cheese is the least populated general look from table to table because least amount means most popular in stomachs and not tables and i noticed this herbal white cheddar is moving very fast as you guys stand here over the canapes table uh you see that encroaching on you is a group of five children and a six larger child. Actually, I would like to say I rolled a combined 26 for stealth. Being by the bar, crouched down, hand in the cheese bag. Andra, you see a shape at the bar of someone as these five children, as five children approach your canapes table with hungry eyes. Oh my God. Why is there loose children? Excuse me. Excuse us. Ten hands just begin powering through canapes. Oh, hands up. You're losing. I'll look up and go, hey, everyone, everyone hungry. What do you like? You like the good stuff? You like sweets? 60-40. 60-40 sweets to not sweets or not sweets to sweets? You see one of the taller ones. We're interested in 60-40 sweets, 40% non-sweets. Okay. All right. You know what? How old are these kids around about? 10 to 15. The youngest probably around 10. The oldest 15. These yours? No, my children are politicians and engineers. And I'm going to turn around and go, okay, we're going to do 60-40, but some of the sweets, they're going to be healthy sweets. And I'm going to start passing out dried apricots to kids. You see them hold the dry apricots. What? Take a bite. This doesn't count. It has higher fructose than candy. Dad, what are you doing? I turn around. You see your daughter Stella dressed in the black and gold of the Global Executive Council steps forward. Are you giving these children apricots? Oh, Stella, my sweetie. And I'm going to just give her a big hug. Dad, she hugs you back. Dad, I'm at work. I'm at work. I want time at work, too. Your father not important? Oh, you're very important. It's just, you know. I turn around and I say, the children, they wish for sweets, but 60-40, that's a high ratio. None of those children are holding apricots anymore. I was immediately like, in my hand, in my hand, in my hand. Get him out of here. I turn back around and see the apricot has vanished, and I go, Miss Davis, you have seen where the apricot went off? Oh, they put them in the... I got hungry. Okay, we're going to learn about fuel input-output, because if you want these chocolate-covered espresso beans to go to these children, you're going to see a real output like you never believe. I'm going to point to Stella and say, one time she gets into chocolate-covered espresso beans when she is seven years old. You see that she lets you go on as she just shakes her head. You hear a whistle chirp. You see all five kids immediately turn their attention away from your story and rush towards the bartending station. I'm following the kids because what is that sound? We're on a spaceship. I'm going to look over at you and say, apricot, very sweet, have fiber, fiber. Oh, I've made that mistake before. Don't you worry. I'm a killer of a tube. I'll turn around to Stella. Darling, it is very good to see you. It's good to see you too, Dan. this is incredible I mean we've been getting the pictures and reading the updates but to see it in person Oh the ship! I thought you meant the spread Oh this is fine I mean for a spaceship it's not bad Hey I've been up here for three months to get a nice fresh cut of meat or to get something like a nice chicken and goat stew or some actually well cooked rice or get a mandazi Which, speaking of this... Dad, I tried. It's a small craft, all right? If I bring Mandazi on the ship, the whole ship smells like Mandazi. This is a fate worse than death? Dad, come on. Cut me some slack. All right. Hey, hey. It's okay. Next time you're... Hey, when you get home, it's on me. I was... It's a joke. It's a joke. Look, I'd like to re-abuse. You don't have to bring Mantaz. No, I wanted to. I tried. No, no, no. Hey, listen. I wanted a piece of home, and look, she is here. You look beautiful, my darling. Thank you. Is Sophie around? Yeah, she should be around here somewhere. She's supposed to give me pep talk because big game is tonight. We're going to take those higher axes down a peg. Are you playing slide ball again? Yeah, I start the league on the ship. I leave the children. I've heard a word I care about. You see, you come back over. That's awesome. Let's see if we find Sophie. She's around here. Hold on, have you all had your beautiful moment yet? I heard slide ball. You're looking to play? Always some players throw up out last minute. Hold up, what? I manage the league, so you need to listen. There's a league here? Somebody say slide ball? walking toward you wearing a souvenir jacket, tall and lean, close cropped hair, perpetual five o'clock shadow. Walking up to you is Nate Sharp, who has been the security consultant for the last couple of months on the Icaron. You know the Hyraxes are going to kick your ass tonight. I hope you're not telling our guests anything different. This man, he flagrant cheater. I don't know how, but we're going to prove. We're going to prove it? It's only cheating should get caught. It's going to come out. Wow. Everyone. Big words. Everyone distracted with the five o'clock shadow along the jawline. Everybody distracted. He wowed them with the sculpt from Marble Face. And then no one can play good. All right. All right. Well, hey, man, you stepped to the wah-wah. You better be prepared. Oh. Hey. Hey. You're going to come for the servals. Get ready. and this cat can jump. Not bad, not bad. Oh, that's kind. When's this happening? Oh, is there money on it? We're, you know, some people gamble, but I personally do it. The league frown on it. They do. Don't let me, it's supposed to be a team building, okay? You're gonna bet, make sure you bet with someone who's not gonna blow their whole commissary on it, okay? What's the color of the servals? Our uniform yellow and black. And by uniform, I do mean penny, because you can't get uniform shipped out to your secret military installation. Well, you know what you can get if you ask Yusef nicely. You see that he turns around and on the back of his souvenir jacket is embroidered the words the Wawa, which, of course, is the name of a group of Hyraxes. Is the Wawa. We all know that. underneath my actual like key card pass there is a small uh little pin of a serval jumping a little like a small hunting cat and i flick it and i go all right the wawa go where the wawa go you're gonna be a little rock rodents to scream i tell you what you're gonna be screaming oh no we lost so much, okay? I've been, I'm getting limber. I'm too stretch. There's never been a bigger Serval fan than me in this moment. I'm gonna pull out a little slate from like a little pocket in my jumpsuit and like quickly toggle through and like tap it. And every clear sapphire has like an LED sitting under it and they all turn yellow. So now she's in yellow and black. I whip my head over to you and I go like Oh, so you like important, important. Oh, I'm a huge deal. Let's get out of here. And yet a fun one. You see that Nate goes, well, I mean, we're not supposed to get up to anything until after the pass. So we'll be, we're going to head down to NHAB and cook up some food, you know, something a little bit more substantial. But after you guys do the whole sun thing, please come on down. I'm going to say, I'll be right down. Uh, Stella, uh, I can introduce you to my friend Kiki. Kiki, number one Servals fan. I am. Hello. Hi. Kiki, you are, uh, this your first time aboard the Icaron? It is. Welcome aboard the ship. I need to go get cheese for Tubes or he gonna be mad. Uh, and I want to turn and walk over to the bartending station. You move toward the bartending station where five children have all gathered around. and you see the bartender is now going, you guys, you can't take the cheese. Please, we, some of us have not had cheese for so long. I've never been. Can you have a persuasion check? 22. You see the guy leans down, goes, there's more cheese in the back. Really? I can get you some more cheese. Like the herbal kind? Okay, you specifically want the herbal kind? Yeah, it's a special treat from Timo's home. And I push Timo forward. Yeah, it's from my home. You see that he goes, I'm so sorry. Please go get the cheese. Yeah, I'm going to go. Special treat cheese. Yeah, I'm going to go. Thank you. Thank you. Quickly. Meanwhile, I'm taking cheese. So what you have to do, if you squish them into little, like, little, as flat as you can, the pancakes, You can just slip them under any sort of layers you might have. I'm going to walk out. Has the bartender just left? Has just left. And you see a group of children underneath the table mashing cheese together. I'm going to go look down and I go, oh, cheesecakes. Hello, may we help you? Hello, I am Andre. Pleasure to meet you. You are Vera, yes? Yes. Pleasure to meet you. Beryl am. Beryl am. Pleasure to meet you. Welcome to Icaran. I see that you are employed in the service of this ship. We thank you for your service. Hey, not that kind of service. My thank you come in the form of a paycheck. Would you care for some cheese? Oh, certainly. Actually, I'm grabbing for my friend. Bartender is gone. We grab and make a run for it? uh yeah uh he he's coming back with more cheese though and we do kind of you know what kind it is uh the herbal kind nice yes okay yes i wait for this i'm gonna walk over at this point be like what is the drinking age on earth because there's a lot of kids here from legal perspective you are on earth right now sure what is it it doesn't matter hi young child please make me a drink I look around at the ingredients that are in the bar, I can cook something up. Yeah, go ahead and give me like a chef's... I was about to call them chef's tools again. What is it? Go ahead and give me like a kitchen utensils proficiency check. Eleven. Massive glass of ice, a little bit of whiskey, and a lot of soda. You've done a terrible job. So you don't do this. Who are you? Oh, hello. I am. My name is Vera Lamb. We call her fish cakes. You smell like fish cakes. Mm-hmm. Yes. Oh, shit. You're one of the... You got found. Yes. It was a very tragic story, Miss... Oh, Davis. They were looking for you. Well, they came to my Ark trying to find you 15 years ago. You're from Ark? Mm-hmm. Well, it is nice to meet you, Miss Davis. I apologize. I don't have that much of a proficiency with mixing drinks. I'm much more used to sort of a... Don't apologize. Vera, I'm going to ask you. you are traveling here with the Children of the Stars, with COTS program, yes? Yes. So you're not planning to stay for a long time, though? Oh, no, I think we're just here for the photo opportunities, and then we will be back on our way. Well, you know, my daughter, she worked on the ship. She's a young woman, maybe a few years older than you, but she worked here as life support engineer. I know that you are partially here for promoting your program, but correct me if I'm wrong, you are adult, yes? In a manner of speaking, yes. Well, I'm going to... Oh, a vocational, sort of a vocational ride-along? If you are interested in this, you know, I'm happy to make the introduction. I just want to... Well, that's very kind of you, yes. I don't know what I'm going to do after this. I'm hanging around in the Cots house for a little while, just because everything that I've sort of tried to embark on, every enterprise since graduating, has not really panned out for one reason or another, so I would not want to disappoint you or your lovely daughter. I'm sure she's lovely. Ah. Well, I am very sure you could not disappoint me because I actually don't have any expectations for you. So, not possible to upset something that don't exist. But, yeah, why not? I'm getting the cheese. I'm going to kind of look around to see if Sophie is around anywhere. Yes, please. You do not see your daughter. Yeah, low roll. However, you do see your ex-wife. I didn't roll a nat one, man. I'm going to look over. I look over at Vera and go, you know, I... Good. Lisa. Is that your daughter? No. Who are we looking at? Over here, over there, the woman that had, there's some sort of a recognition. Ring check. I do not wear a wedding ring. Bantan. Bantan, yes. Got it. But old, old. Like, you know, one of those things. It's essentially like there's just an area that's... Like finger divot. Finger divot, yeah. I'm going to look over to you, Vera, and say, I don't see my daughter Sophie anywhere but listen if you want to take a tour of ship look around at some place I'm going to lean in and say I think sometimes very uncomfortable for everybody to know big thing about you so you want to go for a walk see tour of ship anything like that maybe bring other kids along. Maybe we can make that happen so you don't have to sit here and everybody ask you same question over and over. Do you have a breakdown of all the ventilation shafts? Hey, that is a question which, if Nate Sharp hear you, he gonna ask you follow-up questions about why you wanna know this. That's why I didn't ask, Mr. Sharp. Okay, Vera, well, you have a nice time. And I'm going to hear that question and peel off to go say hello to Nisha. He absolutely does know where all the ventilation shafts are. You do that just really quick. The language of everyone associated from Mars, is that like, is it a different language or do they just speak? They speak, most of the world speaks English. And so it's the predominant language in both Terran space and Martian space. Okay. I'd like to think there's like enough of a patois or something in it to like market as like Martian specifically. And I want to lean in and use sound trick just to get a little whisper in your ear as you make the like comment about the ventilation shafts. And to say, I think they were looking for you because they came to my arc asking questions years ago. just very quietly in your ear as I then chuckle about the ventilation shafts and like look over your shoulder out at the rest of the party. Just to see, I'm just like reaction checking you. I also look out over the party and I say very low. Oh, so you have an arc here. You're out in gray space, huh? Mm-hmm. Oh. Every now and then, they can convince me to come back. I never stay around these parts long, though. What about you? Oh, you know, we go from place to place where we're needed for a handshake or a reminder of the horrors of this war. You're not a child of the stars. Where do you belong? Fishcakes. I don't really belong. I say looking out over the crowd. This moment is interrupted by feedback from a microphone. Yeah, it's so loud. Dr. Imani Cortez steps up to the stage. Andre, how do you approach Nisha? I approach respectfully. Like, I don't want her to see me, like, walking across a beeline, but I'll walk up to join whatever circular conversation she's in just to say hello. She turns to you. Her face lights up. Andre. Nisha, good to see you. Welcome. Hope Trip, you travel up with Stella? Yes. Wonderful. I just see her. She did not bring any mandazi we need to discuss as family, as parents, what's going to do. Oh, Dr. Cortez, I think is about to speak. And I will take that minor rebuffing of a bit really hard on an interior level and turn around to look at Dr. Cortez about to speak. You see that she steps up. Hello, council members, esteemed guests, and of course, my fellow crew. My name is Dr. Amani Cortez. I serve as the GEC's Chief Technical Advisor on Fleet Development and is the lead architect of Project Daedalus. Ten years ago, when Mars struck us at tranquility, the world was faced with a choice. How should we respond? The decision was made by those in this room that our next steps would not be to strike back in vengeance, but to create a defense, one strong enough to protect Earth's space and allow our home to flourish in safety rather than become an aggressor in turn. Tasked with that mission, I dreamed of a wall, a protector, something to shield us, and what I most wanted to protect was not just our planet, but the sense of boldness that carried us to the stars in the first place. As the head of Project Daedalus, I had the privilege of naming it, and I, of course, chose Daedalus, my favorite inventor of legend, and it felt only right that the creation of Project Daedalus should bear the name of his son, Icarus, and thus the Icarum. In a few days' time, once he is formally commissioned into service by the Global Security Corps, he will take on his official name of the ESS Dikembe Mbatsu. And, you know, some of my colleagues found the name Icaran unusual, but I could think of no better one. The myth of Icarus is about a young man who flew too close to the sun, and that is exactly what we are doing here. There's nothing safe about going to space. There's no protection but the one you build for yourself. For me, the lesson of Icarus has never been about that we should not fly. The lesson is that we must be prepared for the fall. And ten years ago, we fell. However, today we rise, prepared to ensure the generations who come after us will inherit the same audacity that carried humanity to the stars in the first place. That's all I have for pros. And now I'm on a round to thank somewhere in the range of four to 600 people who made this all possible. I'd like to start with, you see that she begins to go on. Oh, she's really going to do it. Of course, I need to thank the members of the Global Executive Council. Those present today, she begins to go through it. I lean back under the bar and I hand you the full bottle of whiskey. Thank you, Vera. Give me a perception check, everyone. Twelve. Seven. Seventeen. Reeling from your ex-wife's rebuff and focused on the bottle of whiskey in your hand, fish kicks. You are the only one of these three who notice that multiple members dressed in black and gold at this moment produce their side arms and raise them up and begin firing shots into the air. There's a scream as people fall to the ground in terror and one of them steps forward and goes Nobody move. This ship is under our command. That was Erica Ishii as Vera Fishcakes Land. Abrea Iyengar as Kiki Davis. Brennan Lee Mulligan as Andre Dalka. And me, Lou Wilson, as everyone and everything else. Flight of the Icaran is produced by Fortunate Horse and Worlds Beyond Number Edit and sound design by Brian Flaherty of Many Sided Media and score by Will Savino For even more stories like this join us on our Patreon We'll see you there Thank you.