4 004

[The military defense platform Sun Tzu also known as "the Hub", in orbit over the planet Janus. This is a massive multinational station - the best a bloated, a runaway military budget can buy; it's all hyper efficient solar cells, magrail cannons, orbital drop shots for special forces deployment on the planet below and all of it in this harsh brutalist design. Admiral Sima Qian strides so swiftly that the station commander, Blake Marcus has to noticeably jog to keep pace.]

SIMA: How long was she out there?

MARCUS: Nearly a week.

[Marcus actually runs a few steps to get ahead of the Admiral and indicate a door. The officers stop. Admiral Sima retrieves a Green Marble (a leaf wrapped tobacco cigarette with 50% marijuana cut), lights it and draws deep.]

SIMA: [Clears his throat.] What did she say it said?

MARCUS: The same as the two last month. The exact same. It pulled out a chart and...word for word. [He hands the Admiral an important looking stack of transcript papers.]

SIMA: [Not even bothering to look at the documents.] ...Your body.

MARCUS: Yes.

[The Admiral drops his newly lit addiction, crushes it under his well polished heel and swipes the door open and enters.]

TIARA: ...'Til forever, on it goes through the circle, fast and slow, I know it can't stop, I wonder…

SIMA: ...Mrs. Petscop.

TIARA: … Have you ever seen the rain? I want to know…

SIMA: Mrs. Petscop. You don't have to tell the whole story again.

TIARA: ...Someone told me long ago there's a calm before the storm… [It's hard to tell if Tiara is crying or if her eyes are just watering from her refusal to blink. Her eyes are sunken and her skin is pallid.] ...shinin' down like water.

SIMA: You were on holiday with your husband. Two weeks on the boat and one on Iris.

TIARA: ...Yes.

SIMA: [He checks one of the important papers he is holding.] Eight days out it happened. Something you never saw struck and attached itself to the Cleopatra and ...uh, "the orange ones" started cutting through the hull. How do you know it was attached?

TIARA: ...I want to know...The Captain...said so on the intercom…he didn't...

SIMA: Of course. Were they only separated by augs and color or are there any other differences between them?

TIARA: ...The orange and yellow ones have hands...the blue and green ones have...claws...knives with thumbs. The yellow ones have wings. [She was crying for sure now.]

SIMA: That's how it was able to speak to you.

TIARA: I - [Tiara was shaking like a leaf.]

SIMA: It was able to affect speech with its wing beats.

TIARA: I - I - You have to believe me. You have to!

[Admiral Sima offers Tiara the pack of Green Marbles and a lighter. She takes one and lights it.]

SIMA: Mrs. Petscop, I believe every word that you've said to my men today. But I need you to say just a few more to me. After it forced you to watch ...the execution, before it put you in the lifeboat, what did it do? What did it say?

TIARA: It...It took out this little holomap of the solar system...waved its hands around it like a crystal ball and said…and it said...

SIMA: What did it say, Tiara?

TIARA: It waved its hands around the solar system and it said "your body is now ours."