SS572S | VOICE | D009

[2199]

[American, vaguely East Coast, female, an adult voice with a harsh cadence; she speaks in the dull tone of someone accustomed to terse military communication.]

This is Sierra-Sierra-Five-Seven-Two-Sierra, requesting Libra. I say again: Sierra-Sierra-Five-Seven-Two-Sierra, requesting Libra. Requesting November-Sierra-Charlie. Requesting... Requesting unknown station.

Possible India-Foxtrot-Tango bleed. Proceed with caution. Do not interact with any nonhuman organic life. I say again: do not interact with any nonhuman organic life, under any circumstance. This priority overrides all other orders. Authentication: Deep Waters.

Report... Report. [A long sigh. Something like fatigue creeps in, but it's quickly banished.] Reporting buildings on the horizon. Will attempt reconnaissance.

Please hail if assist is needed. Location unknown, but... well, if I can hear you on this thing, I should be able to get to you.

Sierra-Sierra-Five-Seven-Two-Sierra, over.

Comments

RE419S | audio

[aluminumandash]

This ain't a military channel. [ Welcome to Texas. The accent's slathered on, but underneath there's maybe a note of warning. ] You have rations?

[2199]

[Military protocol exists because it's easy, efficient and useful. Arguing with a civilian about it is about as needful as walking straight back into the ocean. She doesn't bother responding at first.]

[She will need rations eventually. If she doesn't find the Libra, she will need to touch the trees growing here, search for food and potentially damn herself and everyone else.] Not at the moment. Do you?

[aluminumandash]

No ma'am. [ Comes the response, even and prompt—a few minutes' delay at most. ] I've been catching as catch can.

Something in specific I ought to watch out for?

[2199]

[This is, technically, classified.]

Aquatic phenomena. Large creatures in the water-- the term I heard was 'leviathans'.

You seem... [calm] acclimated. how long do you remember being here? Do you know your year of departure?

[aluminumandash]

Evocative. [ Literary, fraught. He has to wonder who came up with it. ] Gnawed-on shark fin turned up a few days back.

Ah, been here at least a week. [ Oddly the time in the cell is what he kept track of best: a scratch in the floor every two hours. Voice gaining a guarded edge: ] I'm from '95.

[2199]

I need to ask you a question, and I can't elaborate on why.

[She doesn't wait for him to agree to these terms.]

How many suns have you seen in the sky at once?

[aluminumandash]

[ A pause.

Then, soft: ] How many've you seen?

audio | callsign TN811N

[hyakuoku]

[ Senku knows a lot of stuff, but military things are really outside his area of expertise. Sure, he's heard of this alphabet; it's international for a reason, something to do with NATO or whatever, but he's a scientist, not a soldier. ]

You don't really have to be formal on this network. Most of us aren't military or anything so you'll have an easier time just having regular conversations with people.

What kind of crazy lifeform did you find?

[ He's thinking about the crocodino (Senku named it this) that Squalo talked about, but he hasn't seen one himself yet. ]

[2199]

I've only been here a few hours. But just one.

Has it gotten cold, snowed? Have you seen two suns? This information is vital, Romeo-Echo.

[2199]

[This style of communication was made for ease of- don't start. Just a slightly sarcastic:] Affirmative.

I saw... it could have been a trilobite. Do you know what those are?

[aluminumandash]

No. [ The barest hesitation. ] And no. Climate's been consistent, constellations are where they oughta be, in the tropics.

Would the two suns be identical?

[2199]

[If one listens closely, between the scrape of static and the distant crash of waves, one might hear the smallest sigh of relief. It's all she'll allow herself.]

No. One would be what we're used to, and the other... a white hole in the sky.

Thank you. Your information is... a great help. Food and water might be safe, if handled carefully.

[hyakuoku]

Early marine arthropod, yeah, I know what a trilobite is. They'd be loooooong extinct in my time.

Wait, how big was this trilobite you saw? Was it in the ocean or river?

[2199]

Affirm- yes. Mine as well. One-niner-niner-seven.

It was a little over a foot. [#America.] I think I scared it; it went back into the ocean when I approached.

[She was crawling on all fours at the time- well, all threes. Not that that's anyone's business but her own.]

If you're a scientist-- wasn't the air very thin, in the time they were alive? Wasn't that part of what caused the extinction of many species? I remember hearing something like that, but I'm no expert.

[hyakuoku]

One-niner-niner-seven?
1997? Huh, I would have placed you later in time than that.

[ He might be misunderstanding, though. ]

Let's see…trilobites would have been extinct in the Permian-Triassic extinction. There was volcanic activity that turned the oceans acidic, which is why things like that couldn't survive anymore. They'd survived other extinctions, but that one got to them.

There was CO2 in the atmosphere during that last extinction, though, and a lot of species couldn't breathe all that, so…yeah, more or less. The air just wasn't breathable for a long ass time.

So the ten billion yen question: what is one doing here, right?

[2199]

Why would you assume that?

[Has there been an intelligence leak- but her worries are allayed, briefly, by his explanation. She's always found it very calming, being debriefed by scientists, and this time, it's not an explanation of why the world is wrong, broken, how she's about to be thrown into the hungry maw of time.]

Or: why can we breathe this air?

[There's no reason to assume they're in the anthropocene, as much as the thought makes her stomach churn.]

BT612L; voice

[ichoosefight]

What's your problem with nonhuman organic life? You know that's most of what food is, right?

[2199]

[Something like humor curls her voice.] I'm aware.

In past expeditions, interaction with nonhuman organic life was extremely dangerous. But if you've been eating food from here and nothing terrible has happened, I'm not concerned. My warning was... protocol.

[ichoosefight]

Do your expeditions often include waking up on a strange beach with no memory of how you got there?

Don't get me wrong, you should probably be concerned anyway. But I've got friends that fall under that category.

[2199]

No, but there's always room for error.

Which category? Amnesiacs on tropical islands, or... are you saying you know alien life?

[ichoosefight]

Why? Does your world not have aliens?

[ She should probably not go into detail about her caped acquaintances. ]

Does your world not have superheroes? It seems like nobody else's world has superheroes.

[2199]

[That's classified, kid.] I've never encountered an alien. There have been reports, however unsubstantiated.

Of course we have superheroes. I'm from America.

[ichoosefight]

Superman? The guy from Krypton? A different planet, not Earth? Does he not count or something?

[2199]

Yes, I'm familiar with Christopher Reeve.

[ichoosefight]

With--

[ Does she know that name? She kind of feels like she knows that name. It's definitely not 'Clark Kent' though, or anyone else associated with the Super family. ]

Who?