Lo has to resist rolling her eyes, instead steeling herself and clenching her jaw. She keeps her tone even, unfazed, and nods. “I am, of course, referring to the safest strategy in response to what happened. Safety measures were already in place prior to the incident, with protocol based — as you say — on the precedent set by INFERNO IX.” Lo lets her shoulders relax, trying to figure out her exit strategy, trying to mask her discomfort with speaking to Julien. She did not want to compromise the mission in any way, say something that would end up fucking them, but she wasn’t trained in this — hence her strange, robotic stance toward discussion with Julien. She was always fearful something might be used against her. Despite that, she is able, with great effort, to relax her voice.
“Unique circumstances require unique considerations, for which INFERNO IX can offer no blueprint. That’s my comment. As someone who does know a lot about space missions.” Lo pauses momentarily, casts her eyes downward, then back up. “You can try asking me later, but I won’t tell you anything different. That’s all you’re getting from me.”
“If safety measures were taken beforehand, how would you explain the incident?” Julien asked, making note of the way the doctor tensed up. “What this crew is going through is different but since you are an expert in space missions….How did this mistake happen?” He asked, head tilted slightly to the side. After all, if safety precautions had been taken, how did the specimen had escaped and how did they failed to contain it?
“I can see that the circumstances are unique” He looked down at his tablet, at the notes he had taken so far. “But as far as The Company is concerned, you are the best prepared team to know how to deal with such matters and yet, forgive my bluntness, it seems that you were not prepared at all. I understand this creature was new but if you weren’t ready to deal with the possible worse scenarios, why bringing it to the ship? Seems reckless to me but then again, I am no expert, you and your team are.” He says and smiles almost sweetly. “Or will stick to having no further comment, doc?”
“I’m fine,” Lo echoes. It’s all she knows how to do. Plunge forward. There also remains the small fact that Lo is aware Julien is writing, documenting, recording. She knows how this will look. She knows how her panic might appear – and she knows his loyalties likely don’t lie with them as individuals, but with the audience he serves. And if she feeds into the drama, she’ll be giving him a story. The wrong kind of story.
“From a personal and professional standpoint. Scientists are working in tandem with Captain Davies and the soldiers in order to determine the safest strategy.” She is speaking in her official report voice, the understanding being that she won’t be revealing anything further in terms of the confidential information currently being weighed by her, Scott, and Captain Davies. Lo has a general distrust toward media, and Julien is allied with the feds, which makes her bristle.
Bullshit. He wants to say. All of that is bullshit. He refrains, leaning against a wall instead, observing Lo, taking in how tired she looks, how unhinged. This incident has shook everyone to their core, that much is obvious. Not that it surprises Julien, death isn’t exactly the easiest to process, specially not when guilt lurks in the corners.
“Hmm….” It seemed that this was an official statement. Julien hadn’t come to Lo with the intention for an interview, he didn’t need statements from the crew….Yet. He had planned to give them some time to process what had happened but if Lo was ready to talk, he wasn’t going to stop her. “Well, doctor Liang, it seems to me that the safest strategy…” He makes air quotes. “Should’ve been discussed prior to this incident, don’t you think? I’m aware that the situation we are in isn’t common but we do have precedent of another crew exploring a planet, some safety measures should’ve been learned from that mission” He looks down at his tablet, taking a couple of notes, nothing too relevant. “What is your comment on that? Cause to me, someone who doesn’t know much about space missions, it seems that the crew is not in the same page regarding security.”
when: the morning after the incident / blue’s death
where: sleeping quarters
status: open
Though she sits on her bed, Lo has not actually been able to sleep since it happened. She is running on fumes. The creature is still loose, but they have more information. It seems impervious to most things: It caught fire, but was not killed. It spat out bullets. Tranquilizers had no effect. It grows rapidly. She is borderline talking to herself, just low murmurs, when she notices someone come in. “We’ve got one soldier in medical who looks like she stayed too long on the grill,” Lo grumbles, and then her tone drops lower, “and a casualty.” She repeats this in disbelief. She repeats this to process it.
She runs a hand roughly across her face, letting herself hide behind it a moment. The stress of space is sinking in. Someone has died because of her decision — her research. It was her order. Incubate the specimen. Her heart feels like it has stalled in her chest. She’s trying to be better about breathing, but it’s hard, and so she stops to take a few deep ones. In and out. In and out. Then she turns to the person beside her. “How are you holding up?”
He looks down at his tablet with a frown. He is supposed to write a report on things, document every moment spent on the ship, write a pretty story for the world to hear. It’s meant to be hopeful, heroic, is meant to be a wonderful story about hot wonderful people worked very hard to give the people on Earth their new home. It’s supposed to have a happy ending. A dead body is not a happy ending. It doesn’t fit in the narrative that Julien knows the politicians want, it doesn’t fit in the little basket with a bow that they want.
Did they had to get someone killed this early in the mission? It’s a cruel thing to think, he knows as much but he still thinks it, still feels the annoyance of it all. How do you document a dead in a story about hope and the start of new possibilities? Specially if what caused that dead is part of the planet that is supposed the best gift humanity has ever gotten?
“Hmm?” He looks up when he hears a voice, the frown in his face remaining there. Lo is the one talking to him and while he notes the concern in her voice, from the looks of it, he is the one that should be worried about her. “I’m fine.” He means it. Dead wasn’t exactly uncommon around him, people on Earth died all the time, usually at the consequences of their own actions and this didn’t seem that different and it wasn’t as if he was close to the one that had gotten themselves killed. “You….Don’t seem to be holding up that great. No offence.”
When: One hour after the crew returned to the Inferno
Where: The Mess Hall
Open Starter
Twinges of disappointment had tugged at the edges of her mind all day. A few of them had to stay back with the ship, it would have been irresponsible to have done otherwise, and she was aware that she didn’t bring much to the table for an exploratory mission unless some gear was broken along the way. However while she was aware of that fact, she couldn’t help the feelings of discontent that crept in when she watched the majority of the crew take off in the shuttle to go exploring the world they had all traveled so far to see.
As soon as the crew came back curiosity began to gnaw at her. Despite knowing the captain was going to hold a debriefing that evening, Mila decided to plant herself in the mess hall, sipping a cup of coffee as she waited for someone to meander in. She didn’t have to wait long.
“So,” she started, not seeing any point in exchanging pleasantries when they walked into the kitchen area, “What was it like down there?”
After being left in the decontamination shower and spending way more time than the necessary scrubbing his skin clean, trying to forget the fact that he had falling into a putrid corpse and staying a good amount of time buried under clean sheets trying to forget the horrid smell emanating from said decomposed animal, Julien’s stomach growled, demanding some food. It had been a long day full of…..Excitement and while all Julien wanted to do was sleep it all off, his body demanded different.
With a groan, he got up and made his way towards the mess hall, ready to grab some food. He was inspecting some of the possible items to have as a snack, debating between something healthy like a salad or something more delicious. Like one of those chocolate chip cookies that were somehow always warm.
“Hmm?” A voice made him stop his pondering, a soft sigh leaving his lips. “It was...Beautiful. New world and all that, the last of humanities hope or whatever. And then we went and fucked up, you know...The usual.”
CODENAME: comet
NAME: julien owens
PRONOUNS: he/him or they/them
AGE: 27 30
ROLE: documentor
LENGTH OF SERVICE: hired by the government
IN DEPTH DATA-
death and abuse mention tw
You were orphaned at a young age, left at the doors of a church in a chilly night, with nothing but a note in purple handwriting. I’m sorry. The only words you knew from those who had been your parents. In your head, memories of a someone came to mind, always blurry, making it hard to know if they were real or if it was just your head, trying to make up for the fact that you had never known a mother or a father. I’m sorry was all you had and while once upon a time it brought you a sense of comfort, knowing that whoever had left you cared….you grew to resent it. Sorry did nothing for you. Wear a condom next time.
You weren’t the only child that had no parents, the orphanage had plenty of children with no homes. In a world was going to shit, adoptions rates dropped, very few were able to feed another mouth and those who did always picked the youngest, the cutest, the ones that showed signs of becoming the best of the best. You were not that way, you didn’t like to listen, enjoyed getting in trouble. Scraped knees and a vivid imagination, you like to play pretend and paint in the walls. This decaying world didn’t have a place for a child who was bad at maths and enjoyed running around, always too loud and wild.
You were bad with authority, didn’t took them seriously. You were bad mouthed, rough around the edges. You cared more about your piers, took the blame for their mischief, got punished for it. With slaps through the face to time outs in the dark, going to bed without dinner or whatever other torment they disguised as discipline.
It didn’t took you long to learn that adults were assholes and that you couldn’t count on them, you only had yourself to trust, it was the way of the world: every person for themselves. When you turned eighteen, the lesson only proved to be true: you got kicked out of the only place you called home, nothing to aid you. In their eyes, you were supposed to be able to fend for yourself.
This was when you learned to stop being so kind to others, you had always helped the other kids in the orphanage but now you had to make sure you survived. You learned to pickpocket strangers, invisible in the crowd. You learned to shoplift, learned how to trade stolen objects, learned to decorate the truth to benefit you, make up stories of things you found to sell to naive strangers with a bright smile. You struggled but you managed, making your way in the world however you could, doing whatever it took.
Living in the streets made you hard, you didn’t trust easy and become more of a pessimist. The kid you used to be faded away, no longer enchanted by fantasy, hardened by the reality you lived in. Shitty neighbourhood, where trash piled up and the horrors of pollution were seen more often than not. Those with less in their pockets always got screwed over and you wanted out. Whatever it took, teeth and claws.
It wasn’t that easy, however, for someone like you to make it in the world. You didn’t have the schooling, didn’t have the interest in science that seemed to be the only way to get out of the gutter. You weren't as smart but you were clever and you work harder than anyone else, no matter how shitty the job.
It was luck that lead you to an interview in City Hall, you had never cared about the government, in fact you found their work useless, they didn’t care about the people, just some of the people and it showed but….It paid well. So you lied. You made up a story that you knew they would buy, decorated the truth of your life to make it prettier more appealing. The boy who came from nothing, who loved government work and wanted to make the world better. It was a lovely story, great for the news.
Your lies paid well, you were hired and while you were scared of getting caught on your lies, you worked hard, made sure that they needed you, that even if they’d find out the truth, they wouldn’t want to admit it. You took notes, kept things neat, made your bosses look good every single time. You worked on speeches, made hard truths pretty with lies, picking the right narrative, the right words, covering up flaws with bright lights and oh, how they loved you for it. No longer did you need to be thief, you made it on your own. Effort and will, proving to be at the level of those who thought of you as trash, invisible to their eyes for you were only a scrappy kid, skin and bones.
You made it to the big leagues but the world was still going to shit. You knew death, had seen it in the past, it didn’t scare you to die….It scared you to go back to the gutter, to the dirt and the trash, to fight for scraps. You couldn’t do it, not again so when the memo came, about a mission to go to space, you knew you needed to be the one picked. So you lied, you made sure that you were the best candidate, screwing up others to get ahead, ensuring your place in Inferno X. You knew your chances were slim if you left it to chance, you knew how the people had been picked for the first batch of humans to leave the Earth so you did what you had to do.
You are not exactly a photographer, but you know how to tell a story, you know what politicians want you to say and how. So what if you are younger than you claimed? What was three years? And yes, you might not be that smart and really, you have no clue what to do in mission like this? No one ever said you couldn’t learn as you went along. You’ve worked your ass off your whole life, this is no different. You’ve taken a risk and you are ready to face whatever comes your way.
