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1.7

18 November


H.S.F Pony Express

Cislunar Space



RECORDED TRANSCRIPT: RAIMYVAUGHT&OFFICIAL&
INTERVIEW-EDUARDOHALLADAY(UNEDITED-DRAFT).Mcenter

VAUGHT: Are we officially underway, now? Can I ask you some questions?

HALLADAY: We’re in coast phase, yes, so I have some time. Is this about the murder?

VAUGHT: This is an official inquiry, yes. My glasses are recording. Do you have coffee here, by the way?

HALLADAY: I don’t. Sorry. I’ve got Tang and Gatorade and beef bouillon, if you want.

VAUGHT: Ah. Not just now, thank you. And for the record, no one’s even ascertained yet, whether a murder has been committed.

HALLADAY: You kidding me? You Mars people are bugfuck crazy. I’m surprised it took this long for one of you to get offed. I was his pilot, too, by the way. He sat right where you’re sitting right now. Full of fucking enthusiasm. Going to the Moon! To learn even more about plants! Do you want to know what I think about Etsub Beyene?

VAUGHT: Please.

HALLADAY: He was definitely murdered, and not for personal reasons.

VAUGHT: What makes you say that?

HALLADAY: Okay, one: because everybody liked him. I liked him. Guy like that just lights up a room, you know? You ask most people how they’re doing, they say fine. Doing fine, thank you. We can all give a better response than that, but we don’t, even when we’ve got all the time in the world. But I asked Etsub that question, and he talked for two minutes about what a great day he was having, and then he asked about me, with what I’d call sincere interest. Mind you, he’d spent all day cooped up in here, with me and three other people, so that great day was all in his head, fabricated from indigenous materials. You see what I’m saying? I don’t see anyone hating on that, much less hating enough to kill it.

Two: because the Antilympus Project takes about half its donations in noncash forms. Bonds, shares, options, real estate, boats . . . It costs money to liquidate an asset, so people pledge their assets intact, right? But that means the value can fluctuate. And if you add up the real value of the Antilympus Project, it went up almost six percent the day Etsub died, and stayed there.

VAUGHT: How do you know this?

HALLADAY: I have a lot of time on my hands, and free network access. I read news, study patterns, compile reports. Call it a hobby.

VAUGHT: Huh. Okay. And why does . . . why do you think that number went up?

HALLADAY: I don’t know. Etsub’s death affected the markets in some particular way. I don’t understand chaos math, but I do know people profited from his death, and not just the fuckers in line behind him. You think they didn’t know that? You think some AI hadn’t worked that out in advance?

VAUGHT: Are you saying he was killed by an AI?

HALLADAY: Somebody did the math, is what I’m saying. Somebody profited.

VAUGHT: How about the other passengers on that trip? Were any of them behaving strangely?

HALLADAY: Hard to say. I didn’t know them. People tend to be bored and preoccupied on this trip, and the SpaceNet fees are pricey if you’re not a Harvest Moon employee. So, it’s not like people are glued to their devices. There’s a lot of napping, and a lot of looking out the windows.

VAUGHT: Did anyone seem nervous?

HALLADAY: Everyone’s nervous in outer space. You’re nervous. That’s just common sense. But I get what you’re asking, and the answer is no. Nobody was twirling their mustache and cackling. I don’t know who killed your boy.

VAUGHT: But you’re sure someone did.

HALLADAY: Absolutely. Sabotage.

VAUGHT: I see. Could it have happened here?

HALLADAY: Anything’s possible, but look around you. There’s no privacy. There’s a tool kit in that locker over there, but could you get to it without someone noticing? I would say not.

VAUGHT: So what do you think happened?

HALLADAY: I wouldn’t know, boss. These moon suits are complicated. Have you talked to General Spacesuit?

VAUGHT: I have.

HALLADAY: Well, it’s whatever they say happened. I’m sorry I can’t be more help than that.

VAUGHT: On the contrary. Your insight is very helpful.

HALLADAY: Are we through here? I actually do have work to do. You can ask me more questions later if you need to.

VAUGHT: I’ll do that. And if you think of anything else . . .

HALLADAY: Right. Will do.


RECORDED TRANSCRIPT: RAIMYVAUGHT&PERSONAL&
CALL-SHONDAVAUGHT(UNEDITED-DRAFT).Mcenter

SHONDAVAUGHT: Raimy, is that you?

RAIMYVAUGHT: Hi, Momma. Yep, it’s me. Can you see me?

SHONDAVAUGHT: I can now. Are you floating? Are you in zero gravity?

RAIMYVAUGHT: That’s right. I’m on my way to the Moon now. We’ll land at Shackleton Base, near the south pole, tomorrow evening.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Well, I guess you finally made it to outer space.

RAIMYVAUGHT: Yeah, I guess I did.

SHONDAVAUGHT: I always told you, you could accomplish anything you put your mind to.

RAIMYVAUGHT: I didn’t really accomplish this. It just sort of happened.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Not true. You were the only person in the whole world qualified to do this thing. Does that just happen randomly, to just anyone? People manifest the things they work toward. If you don’t make it to Mars on the first trip, it’s only because other people are actualizing, too.

RAIMYVAUGHT: All right, Momma.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Oh, don’t you patronize me. Don’t you even. What does that girlfriend think?

RAIMYVAUGHT: Deb? She moved back to Oregon a while ago. And I don’t think she’d’ve been too excited about anything space-related.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Aw. I thought she understood you.

RAIMYVAUGHT: That was the problem: she did. I loved Mars more than I loved her, and what kind of woman would put up with that? I don’t blame her a bit.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Well, I do. It’s her loss, baby. Does she think she can do better? I guess she’ll find that out.

RAIMYVAUGHT: Look, Momma, you don’t want to burn your Drip Feed allowance talking about my love life. Every second of this call is costing you a dollar twenty.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Which I don’t understand. I pay my Internet, don’t I? I haven’t paid to make a phone call in forty years.

RAIMYVAUGHT: We’re not on the Internet right now, Momma. The voice packets have to hop through a SpaceNet gateway, which is a totally different network, with a different, um, protocol. The regular Internet can’t handle these long distances, speed-of-light delays, relativity and stuff. You should text if you want to get in touch with me. Or turn off your video. Here, I’ll turn mine off.

SHONDAVAUGHT: You’ll do no such thing. I want to see my boy’s face at a time like this. I also want you to show me what you’re seeing. Can you wave that rollup around for me?

RAIMYVAUGHT: Fine. Fine. This is the inside of the ship.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Big!

RAIMYVAUGHT: It’s built to carry up to eight passengers, plus the pilot. Here he is, by the way.

HALLADAY: Hello.

RAIMYVAUGHT: This is the bow lock, which connects the ship to a docking port on a space station. I entered the ship through this door, when it docked to Transit Point. And this porthole . . . looks forward along our trajectory.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Where’s the Moon?

RAIMYVAUGHT: Over here. Can you . . . ? We’re pointing at the place the Moon is going to be tomorrow. Where it is right now is . . . Can you see that?

SHONDAVAUGHT: Yes. Yes, I can. My baby, you’re really headed there, aren’t you?

RAIMYVAUGHT: I really am. And thiiiis . . . is the side lock, which is where we’ll exit when we land. It has, well as you can see it has its own porthole, and if you look thiiiis way, you can see part of the Earth.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Amazing. It’s so small!

RAIMYVAUGHT: And getting smaller by the hour.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Cover it up for me, with your hand.

RAIMYVAUGHT: What?

SHONDAVAUGHT: Just do it. Indulge me.

RAIMYVAUGHT: Like this?

SHONDAVAUGHT: A little to the . . . yes. Like that. You’ve got all of history in your hand, Raimy. Everything that ever was.

RAIMYVAUGHT: Nearly everything. There are over a hundred people living in space at the moment.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Don’t you lawyer me. I’m trying to make a point.

RAIMYVAUGHT: Sorry.

SHONDAVAUGHT: Now cover up the Moon.

RAIMYVAUGHT: It’s too big for that. Momma, I’m really concerned about your budget, here. If you want to keep talking, can you text me? Please?

SHONDAVAUGHT: All right, all right. I love you!

RAIMYVAUGHT: I love you too, Momma. Take care of yourself.


RECORDED TRANSCRIPT: RAIMYVAUGHT&PERSONAL&
CALL-TRACYGREENE(UNEDITED-DRAFT).Mcenter

GREENE: Mr. Vaught? Hi, Tracy Greene, here.

VAUGHT: Hello, Ms. Greene. What can I do for you?

GREENE: I’m just calling to see how you’re doing.

VAUGHT: You can tell Mrs. Beseman the investigation is progressing. I’ve sped my way through about sixty hours of drone and glasses-cam footage, from every Mars candidate who might possibly be a suspect. So far I haven’t found anything suspicious, but I’m only about halfway through. The biggest problem I see here is that we haven’t got the raw camera data. These are edited feeds, and I wouldn’t expect them to preserve much in the way of suspicious activity. I’ve also got more interview footage to review, but that’s even less likely to tell us anything. Obviously, the most important things for me to do are visit the crime scene, examine the physical evidence, and speak to the prime suspects. It’s actually very unusual for that not to have happened by now.

GREENE: I’m aware of all that. I meant, how you’re doing on a personal level.

VAUGHT: Oh. Really? That surprises me.

GREENE: Does it?

VAUGHT: Well, um. Meaning no offense, but you haven’t struck me as the concerned type.

GREENE: Ah. Well, I guess it may look that way sometimes.

VAUGHT: To answer your question, I’m professionally frustrated, that I currently have access to only low-value evidence.

GREENE: I’m not asking you for a report, Raimy. I’m asking how you’re doing.

VAUGHT: Okay. Doing fine. Doing fine . . . . No, scratch that. Scratch that. I’m better than fine, and also worse, I guess. This is a very unstructured, very exciting environment, so I’m having a hard time concentrating on my work. Etsub considered this trip a stepping-stone to Mars, and I’ll confess I’m having some thoughts like that myself. And I’m concerned it’s distracting me, when he deserves my best work. So I’m trying not to be too excited.

GREENE: Hmm. Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on. Why . . . If you don’t mind my asking, why do you want to go to Mars so badly?

VAUGHT: Ma’am, I would think you, of all people, would understand.

GREENE: Can you speak to me like a normal person? Please? People’s motivations are not always obvious, and I’m honestly curious.

VAUGHT: Didn’t you ever look up at the sky, and see that red dot? And just think, that place is as real as the place I’m standing right now. A whole world, as old as Earth, with mountains and ice caps and weather and soil. Didn’t you ever just want to be there? I did. From a very early age. When Beseman announced the Antilympus competition, I thought, why not me? I still think that.

GREENE: Are you a restless person?

VAUGHT: I don’t know. Would I need to be? Beseman says I’ve had a lot of jobs, and he’s not wrong about that.

GREENE: Yeah, I wondered about that. Why’d you quit being a lawyer?

VAUGHT: A lot of reasons. A lot, really. I didn’t like the courtroom part of it, for one thing. It put me on the spot a lot, and I didn’t like that.

GREENE: You’re not on the spot as a police officer? Surely you still have to testify in court.

VAUGHT: I do. Yes, I do, but it’s not the same. Anyway, if we’re speaking like normal people, how are you doing?

GREENE: Frazzled, actually. Tired. I should apologize for the way I’ve been treating you, but it’s likely to keep happening, as a consequence of the job. Mrs. Beseman’s schedule is very demanding, and there’s only one of me. So if I need information from you . . .

VAUGHT: You need it immediately. I get it. But this isn’t a business call, right?

GREENE: No. Is that stupid?

VAUGHT: No, not stupid, but you’ve caught me off guard. I’m not quite sure what to think.

GREENE: Can you tell me what it’s like in outer space?

VAUGHT: Well, it’s no joke, I can tell you that. I’m in what I would call a heightened state of alertness, surrounded by vacuum. And as you can see, the ship is very small, even with just two of us onboard. I really can’t quite imagine what a full flight must be like. But on this trip I’m seeing a lot more than I would as a popsicle onboard Concordia, so if that were my first trip to space, I’d be missing out on a lot. It’s very . . . sensory.

GREENE: You’re probably not going to Mars, you know.

VAUGHT: I’m aware of that, yes. Neither are you, right? You’re not one of the applicants.

GREENE: Nope. I’ve got a five-day Marriott Stars vacation planned for the day after Carol leaves, but that’s all the outer space I’m ever going to need. I’ve got no interest spending the rest of my life indoors.

VAUGHT: Nah, most people don’t.

GREENE: I wish I could, you know, take you out to dinner.

VAUGHT: Um . . . oh. Well. That surprises me. I had the impression you didn’t like me. Is that why you’re calling?

GREENE. I can’t, though. I won’t be in Colorado Springs again anytime soon, unless Carol decides to go back for some reason. My time is really not my own. Very little of it, anyway, and it’s impossible to socialize. Her friends aren’t my friends, and my friends have forgotten my damn name. People like you are my only . . . This is stupid, isn’t it.

VAUGHT: No. It’s nice you thought of me.

GREENE: Your pilot is probably sitting right there, listening to every word.

VAUGHT: I’ve got my pips in right now, so he can’t hear you. But every word I say, yes.

GREENE: Well, it’s not going to happen right away, just so you know. Dinner or anything. I’m just saying. Carol’s going to Mars, and you’re not.

VAUGHT: I’m not sure I’m following what you’re saying here.

GREENE: I’m saying someday. Someday. That’s all. You and I will be on the same planet, and I won’t be on Carol’s leash.

VAUGHT: I see. Well, you’ve . . . given me something to think about.

GREENE: I know you’re not free to talk.

VAUGHT: That’s true.

GREENE: Oh, jeez. This is embarrassing. I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that. I’m not sure what I’m . . .

VAUGHT: It’s fine. I appreciate the thought.

GREENE: Wow, this is stupid. I just wanted to see you. I wanted to talk when it wasn’t on Carol’s time. I’ve been thinking about you. I probably should have said that first. But now I’m starting to feel a bit mortified. I’m glad you’re doing okay. I’m going to hang up now.

VAUGHT: You don’t have to.

GREENE: I think I do.

VAUGHT: Okay, well . . . thank you for calling?

GREENE: Oh, God.

<DISCONNECT>

<PAUSE>

VAUGHT: Wow.


RECORDED TRANSCRIPT: RAIMYVAUGHT&PERSONAL&
INTERVIEW-EDUARDOHALLADAY(UNEDITED-DRAFT).Mcenter

VAUGHT: Well, I’m on my way to the Moon now, courtesy of this man right here, Eduardo Halladay, a cislunar ferry pilot for Harvest Moon Industries.

HALLADAY: Hi. Pleasure. You’re actually the third Antilympus competitor to interview me in the past two months, so I’ll make an effort to say something original.

VAUGHT: That means the pressure’s on me to ask something original. But first, the basics: by the time we reach the Lunar surface, we’ll have been in transit for a little over two days. Can you talk a bit about that?

HALLADAY: Sure, yeah. It’s what we call a DISTL 50 trajectory, which stands for direct injection, straight to Lunar surface, fifty hours. Basically that means we go straight from Transit Point to Saint Joe, without ever establishing a high Earth orbit or Lunar orbit. It’s the fastest fuel-efficient way to make the trip, or the most fuel-efficient fast way if you prefer. For a very brief time, Renz Ventures was shuttling people between TPS and Lunar orbit, on ion-powered slow ferries that took almost a month. That was technically more mass-efficient, but it relied on tanks of xenon shipped up from Paramaribo, so it was expensive as well as slow. Harvest Moon uses hydrogen and oxygen mined from the Moon itself, so in one sense our chemical propellants are basically free.

VAUGHT: Free if you have a trillion dollars’ worth of Lunar infrastructure to extract it.

HALLADAY: Precisely. It’s a competitive advantage no one else can match. The irony is, when we leave the Lunar surface, we have to bring enough fuel with us to make it all the way back. Otherwise we’d be refueling at TPS, and paying whatever Orlov Petrochemical cares to charge us. Sir Lawrence is a firm believer that we should make profits for ourselves, and not for Grigory Orlov, but it’s wasteful of Lunar water resources, which are not infinite. Vast, but not infinite. That’s why the new mass driver is so important; it lets us ship raw materials using only electricity, which is also free.

VAUGHT: If you have the infrastructure, yeah. Fascinating. And how long have you been flying spaceships? When was the last time you were on Earth?

HALLADAY: That’s two separate questions, boss. I was actually on Earth about a year ago, for nearly a month, but that was my first time in a while. I’m one of two pilots currently flying this route, and I’ve been doing it off and on since Shackleton first opened for business five years ago. Does it get old? You bet. Believe me, the thrill of being in space wears off pretty quickly, like thrills do. But I like my job, if that’s what you’re asking, and I’m making a fuckload of money compared to anything else I could be doing. I have no plans to retire anytime soon.

VAUGHT: Can you say that again without “fuckload”?

HALLADAY: A lot of money.

VAUGHT: Can you say the whole thing again?

HALLADAY: What whole thing? How far back do you want me to go?

VAUGHT: Never mind, I’ll just bleep you. Do you have your own quarters at Shackleton?

HALLADAY: And at Transit Point, yes, although I share that one with one of the SLEO pilots. I’m also alone on this ship a lot of the time, when it’s hauling cargo instead of people. So this is my quarters, too.

VAUGHT: Does that get lonely?

HALLADAY: Not really. In space you spend a lot of time cheeked up against your fellow man, so it’s nice to be on a nearly empty flight for a couple days. Instead of a bus driver, I get to be a long-haul trucker. Remember truck drivers?

VAUGHT: My father was one.

HALLADAY: Really? Mine, too. Took it hard when they went robotic.

VAUGHT: Mine too. It’s half the reason I joined the Navy, to get away from all that negative energy.

HALLADAY: I hear you, boss. I hear that very clearly.

VAUGHT: What did you do before this?

HALLADAY: I was the pilot for Sir Lawrence’s personal jet. I begged him for this job, and he said okay. Fuck, though, he didn’t look happy about it. A really good personal pilot is hard to find.

VAUGHT: Can you . . . Never mind. I’ll bleep it out.

HALLADAY: I didn’t realize you guys ran such clean feeds.

VAUGHT: Not all of us. But I do try to minimize anything that might make a sponsor switch me off.

HALLADAY: Oh. Sorry, I didn’t realize.

VAUGHT: How do you pass the time on these trips? Those are nice AR glasses, and I see you a lot of the time, just staring into them. What do you read?

HALLADAY: News, mostly.

VAUGHT: All day?

HALLADAY: Maybe three to four hours a day. There’s a lot of content out there, and it makes me feel knowledgeable and connected. People can lose touch up here if they’re not careful.

VAUGHT: How much of that news feels personal to you in your life up here?

HALLADAY: Depends. During the blockade of Suriname, everything mattered. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get sent home in a hurry, or marooned out here forever, or what.

VAUGHT: And now?

HALLADAY: Now it varies. Even in space, nothing happens in a vacuum, pun intended. Oil prices affect launch costs, which affect how much it costs me to buy fresh fruit. The war? It looks like the Cartels lost, but I don’t think anyone believes they’ll stay gone, and that affects all kinds of things. And there are always rumors about what’s going on up here, but you have to paw through some sketchy sources to get that stuff.

VAUGHT: I met a guy who swears he saw an invisible spaceship.

HALLADAY: More than one.

VAUGHT: More than one spaceship?

HALLADAY: More than one guy. I know two who say they’ve seen it, and one more who swears too loudly that he hasn’t. There’s a lot of strange stuff happens up here, and all of it connects back down to Earth in one way or another. The Horsemen talk about breaking free, but even Antilympus is dependent on regular surface traffic. And the governments have people everywhere: Clementine, ESL1, Shackleton . . . Nobody’s independent, and nobody’s free.

VAUGHT: So, I mean, for example, what is the news telling you today?

HALLADAY: Well, supposedly somebody discovered antigravity, which could either put us out of a job up here, or make things way better. Except it’s bullshit, because that would be hard to suppress, and it’d be big news on more than just Rumor Mill and Zeitgeist. Given the level of chatter, I think something happened, but nobody knows exactly what. Also, the Americans are cutting their emissions ceiling again, which is going to play hell with the economy and maybe cost Tina Tompkins the election. But there’s an exemption for launch services operating out of the U.S., so it won’t affect Harvest Moon directly.

VAUGHT: Interesting. Given how much free time your job affords, you may be more in touch than the average Earthman.

HALLADAY: I like to think so. Yeah, I like to think that.

VAUGHT: Well, there you have it, dear viewers. A day in the life of a real spaceman.



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