Axon Clips Chapter 9
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Kamal
(some typing, Kamal goes offline)
Kamal/Offline: Heh, looks like the mask is working. I'm offline, but as far as my data profile in New Jersey knows, I'll be living my normal life.
Sophia: You even know how we're going to get there?
Kamal: I was going to figure that out next. Hang on...
Sophia: The best bet's the packbus. There a 6:00 pickup in the abandoned lot behind the monorail station.
Kamal: What do you mean 'we'?
Sophia: Here, give me some of those chips. I'll cash them out. And bring some with you, because sometimes people take them.
Kamal: What do you mean 'we'?
Sophia: What, you would prefer I turn myself in at one of the camps?
Kamal: Coral...
Sophia: There's no Coral to deport me to Kamal. It's a refugee camp for me now.
Kamal: ...I, I thought you were going to marry Aiden?
Sophia: Yeah, I know you did.
Kamal: Sophie, you can't come--
Sophia: --The packbus has a driver and a couple passengers on the grid. They fill the rest
of the seats with refuse. A couple of blue chips should get us as far as Reno.
Kamal: Is Aiden still in jail?
Sophia: I'm going to try to bail him out one more time this afternoon, then meet you at
the station at 5:30 for the 6:00 bus.
Kamal: No, you're not listening to me. You can't--
Sophia: --Watch out getting to the pickup, because gangs sometimes hang around
watching for loners to mug, or worse...
Kamal: Or worse?
Sophia: Teenage girls especially.
Kamal: How do you know all this stuff?
Sophia: I told you once Kamal, I've been poor.
Kamal: I thought... didn't you come here like me, with a scholarship?
Sophia: Well there was this aunt and uncle, supposed to look after me... it didn't work
out.
Kamal: Did your parents know?
Sophia: I spent a year in camps, another year after that squatting... I found this burned
out apartment, but by a miracle it still had running water and that was the key.
Kamal: I didn't know.
Sophia: Yeah. Only certain kinds of jobs you can get if you can't get cleaned up.
Kamal: Two years... and then?
Sophia: I met Aiden.
Kamal: Sophie, you can't come with me. It would be too dangerous, and--
Sophia: --Oh sure, and who's going to look after you after you're offline? You?
Kamal: I won't let you go back to the camps.
Sophia: You don't know which restaurants compost, and what day they put their old
vegetables out back. You don't know which bathrooms are neutral and which are
gang turf...
Kamal: You have to marry Aiden, dammit!
Kamal: Ya, ok. There was something I
never expected to hear myself say.
(laughs)
Sophia: You're eager to get rid of me. Heh, not so pretty now that you know I'm just
another refuse girl.
Kamal: You've got to do it Sophia. It's just a piece of paper. Marry Aiden and you're a
citizen.
Sophia: I don't love him.
Kamal: This isn't about love. We aren't teenagers, Sophia, even if I sometimes act like
one. This is the real world.
Sophia: I know you're trying to be nice to me...
Kamal: It's not working?
Sophia: It... I'll go bail out Aiden, you make your arrangements, we'll meet behind the factory by the monorail station. I'll be there by 5:30 to catch the 6:00 bus.
Kamal: You can't throw your life away like this just... just to make me happy.
Sophia: 5:30 Kamal. Don't be late.
Liaison: Ms.Basarian
Sophia: I'm here to post bail for... you're not a Berkeley cop. You're immigration.
Liaison: Ms.Basarian, I am the liaison, working with the police on this matter. Sorry to make you wait sweetie. Can you please just step back this way?
Sophia: (nervously) I-I'm sorry I can't stay. I have to go meet someone in a little while.
Liaison: That wouldn't be your friend, uh, Dr.Zaman?
Sophia: Kamal?
Liaison: Yes. Kamal. You know, we'd like to talk to him. Come with me, this will just take a moment.
Sophia: Why do you want to talk to Kamal? Aiden didn't do his papers.
Liaison: Ms.Basarian - Sophia --
Sophia: Miss Bosseron. It's fine.
Liaison: We think Dr.Zaman may have done some, uh, moonlighting, for your boyfriend.
Sophia: No, no, I don't think so. Kamal's a medical student.
Liaison: (closes door and takes a seat) You know, there are a number of special dispensation visas-- for refugees - they're a difficult thing to come by, but um... someone who helps an investigation could certainly qualify.
Sophia: A visa?
Liaison: Mhm.
Sophia: To stay here.
Liaison: That's right.
Sophia: (giggles) So what are you now, the tooth fairy?
Liaison: Pardon me?
Sophia: No, Santa Claus! The one who hands out presents. Yeah I get them all mixed
up... and then the Easter bunny - what's with that?
Liaison: Huh, Aiden said you'd play stupid.
Sophia: Oh, it's like that.
Liaison: Yeah, it's like that.
Sophia: So what happened? Aiden forget to pay you this month?
Liaison: Oh, let's just cut the crap ok? Get to the part where you tell me where Kamal has
gone, and where he stashes his chips.
Sophia: Ummmm... I told you I don't know.
Liaison: Hm. Sophie. Did you enjoy prison the last time you were in? Oh yeah. I looked into that too. My sources tell me it hasn't gotten any nicer inside.
Sophia: (chuckles) I'm headed for refugee camp. You think prison is a threat?
Liaison: *sigh* This is going to be tough on Aiden. He was counting on you.
Sophia: Aiden's real trusting that way.
Liaison: And you don't know where doctor Zaman is huh? Maybe if you slept
on that. Here. You know, in a cell.
Sophia: Hey, it's got a roof. I've slept in worse places.
Liaison: Ah, Sophia. Sophie, Sophie, Sophie... You know, there is nothing between you and the big bad world but that dress and my good will. So...
Sophia: I do like this dress.
Liaison: So tell me, does it really matter what happens to one more colonial and his money, Sophia? Tell you what. Tell me where to find Kamal, and you and your boyfriend walk. Hold out on me, I send you back to the camps. And, I will make it my business to see you never get out.
Liaison: The choice really so hard? Hm?
Sophia: I used to have this friend... I met her in jail. She was from Coral too. She said, all immigration cops were the devil. But you aren't the devil.
Liaison: Hm. Gosh. Thanks.
Sophia: You're just the guy that runs into the quickie store to get the devil a box of breath mints. (chuckles)
(chatter on)
Liaison: Send a patrollman to my office, would you please? I have some garbage I need to throw away.
Eleanor: Mom, can I have an ice cream bar on the way home?
Mother: No, it'll make you sick. You can have a freezy.
Kamal: Excuse me, can you tell me the time?
Mother: It's 2 Minutes late, maybe you got busted.
Kamal: This friend is supposed to be meeting me here.
Mother: She'd better come quick.
Kamal: How did you know my friend was a girl?
Mother: Lucky guess.
Kamal: You like freezies?
Eleanor: I like ice cream bars. But I'm not allowed.
Kamal: How come?
Mother: Doctor said she had food intolerances, said to avoid dairy weeds... doesn't matter what she eats or doesn't eat, she still gets sick.
Kamal: They tested her?
Mother: Too expensive, I couldn't do that. We waited 4 hours, and Eleanor had a tummy ache the whole time and the doctor saw us for 5 minutes.
Eleanor: I cried and I cried because my stomach hurt so bad.
Kamal: That doesn't sound right.
Mother: What, you're a doctor?
Kamal: No, but.. uh... I used to work in a hospital. How long has she had trouble?
Eleanor: I got it from Eccatrina.
Mother: Eccatrina used to watch her, back when I had a job.
Kamal: Wait, there's my friend... ...no, that's not her.
Mother: That's... a guy.
Kamal: Oh. Oh... (ponders) She caught food intolerances from someone? You can't do that.
Eleanor: Eccatrina got sick and went to the hospital.
Mother: We don't know what happened to her.
Eleanor: I miss her. Staying with her was fun. One time, we went out to her cousins farm for the weekend.
Mother: Eccatrina had a lot of... cousins. All of them guys. She was young and pretty,
you know.
Eleanor: We milked a cow and we went in a pond, and we had tadpoles in a jar, but
mom said I couldn't bring them home.
Kamal: Does she throw up?
Mother: No, she gets diarhea, runs a fever, she's lost weight.
Kamal: That's not food intolerance. Look, go back to the clinic, tell them... tell them she was exposed to TB.
Mother: TB?
Kamal: Yes. Tell them your neighbour had intestinal TB - not the kind in your lungs. Public health law says they have to test your kid if they've been exposed.
Mother: You're sure.
Kamal: I'm sure. And tell them about the fever. I used to work in a hospital.
Mother: Gee, thanks, thank you so much. Look, what's your next stop?
Kamal: Uh, I don't really know. My friend was kind of in charge of that. I'm headed east, all the way to the east coast.
Mother: Here comes the bus. Look, my sister Cammie lives in Reno. We're here to pick up her good for nothing son. You take this bus back to Reno, and Cammie will put you up for the night.
Kamal: You don't even know me.
Mother: Here, I'll write down Cammie's name and address, and I'll let her know you're coming.
(gives him the note)
Kamal: Why are you doing this?
Mother: I never knew I could make them test her. The stomach thing I've... been so worried.
Kamal: It's nothing. And I'm not a doctor. But, she should get a test.
Kamal:What time is it?
Mother: Quarter past 6.
Kamal: She said she'd be here at 5:30.
Mother: Is your friend young and pretty?
Kamal: Yeah...?
Mother: They have a lot of choices, these pretty ones.
Kamal: Well, there's this ex-boyfriend. She was just going to stop by and see him.
Packbus-Op: Reno!
Kamal: I told her she should stay with him, I told her it was it crazy to come with me.
Packbus-Op: All aboard who's coming aboard! Everybody up! (to Kamal) You riding,
son?
Kamal: Just a second.
Mother: She's not coming, kiddo.
Kamal: I told her not to come with me... but... she said, she told me.
Mother: She's not coming.
Kamal: Yeah. I know.
Janissary
Durga: Test, test, test. Can you all hear me? Jan?
Jan: Check.
Gilly: I'm here.
Gladys: Whatever.
Durga: Alright. Monster Ann's place is an orphan system. No signals in, everything
hardwired internally. The minute you hit the building, you won't be able to hear me. Jan, the schematic Jersey sent...
Jan: Got it.
Durga: ...should show you exactly where to clip me into the internal systems.
Jan: Ok, so we go in through the warehouse at the back of the building.
Gladys: Check.
Jan: And there will be a passbox by the foreman's desk.
Gladys: Jan should wait outside.
Jan: No. This is my operation.
Gladys: She's a liability.
Jan: It's my op.
Gladys: Yes sir, ma'am!
Gladys: Jan, don't enter a room until your buddy has called it clear.
Jan: Who am I with?
Gilly/Gladys: Me.
Gilly: You're going with me.
Gladys: Gilly... I think you might be a little emotionally compromised, if you get my drift.
Gilly: If she goes in, she goes with me.
Gladys: Oh uh, cop coming.
Jan: It's ok, just leave the talking to me.
(officer pulls up in vehicle)
Jan: Officer, thanks for coming.
'Stupid Cop': Funny coincidence. Monster Ann's place is at the end of this block.
Crystal Security Fence & Gate.
Jan: Yeah. So there won't be a disturbance there today, ok? No shots will be fired...
'Stupid Cop': Neighbours call?
Jan: No.
'Stupid Cop': Jeezus. Pretty slick. You sure this is what your father would have wanted?
Jan: He doesn't get a vote any more.
'Stupid Cop': Janissary...
Jan: You owe me.
'Stupid Cop': I don't want a pile of bodies at the end of the day, Jan. I especially don't
want one of them to be yours. I'll give you 20 minutes, walk(?) through that door
Jan: Yeah, 20 minutes.
'Stupid Cop': 19 minutes and 55 seconds.
Jan: Ah, dammit!
(starts running)
'Stupid Cop': After that I'm coming in with a whole bunch of cops--
Jan: Yeah, yeah, yeah
(entering building)
Gladys: Loading base secure. I'm gonna head up to the second floor.
Jan: Be careful.
Gladys: Haha, save your prayers for the other guys, hun!
Gilly: Jan, I've got the passbox over here.
Jan: Coming! (runs) Ok. Uh, Jersey showed me how to do this. (patches Durga to the
box)
Durga: It's a little cramped in here, and swarms of security bots.
Jan: Durga, will you be--
Durga: --what? No, I killed them all.
Jan: Whoah! Um, ok. There should be some relays.
Durga: I'll get them as I wet the system. (wetting) Ok I'm in. You're under 16 minutes,
Jan. Go.
(running)
Jan: Clear.
(explosion, gunshots)
Thug: Hey!
(Gilly dodges gunfire, throws grenade, explosion)
Gilly: Boy I like these conc grenades. They're quiet.
Jan: Jeezus!
(more gunfire, window shatters)
Gilly: Dammit, stay away from the windows!
Jan: Okay!
Gilly: I know your daddy taught you better than that. What is wrong with you?
Jan: Is the guy dead?
Gilly: ...yup. (gunshot) Pretty sure.
Jan: Gilly, I want Thin, but killing these other people, it's just not--
Gilly: Oh ok! Next time I'll use the nice grenades.
Jan: Thin killed my dad. And he hurt me. Besides--
Gilly: Ok ok! Change the mission parameters in mid-stride. Makes you like every other
general.
Jan: It's my op.
Gilly: Yes, mother. (muffled gunshots) Hm, I guess Gladys found someone.
(chatter on)
Jan: Gladys. Gladys, no killing these guys, ok?
Gladys: What--you've got to be kidding... no killing?
Jan: They're just pawns, wing them.
Gladys: *sigh* Okidoke.
(gunshots and screams of pain)
(chatter off)
Gilly: (whispers) Hey, tonight Jan, after we're done here, are we still allowed to eat
meat? Or would that be like, mean?
(gunshots)
Gilly: Get through - I'll take him out.
Jan: Wait! No grenades!
Gilly: Jeezus! White(?) grenades. (shouts) Hey! Bad guy! I'm about to toss in a grenade.
Personally, I don't see the percentage in letting you surrender, but the CO's soft that way! You want to live? Crawl out of here before I get to 5! One... Two... Four! --
Eric: Wait! I'm coming!
Gilly: Weapons down. Hands on your head. (to Jan) You tie him up.
(Jan starts taping, Eric whimpers)
Jan: Hold still...
(chatter on)
Gladys: (on chatter) Second level secure. I'll just sweep the roof then rejoin you gals.
Jan: You're the best, Gladys...
Gilly: One point oh.
Gladys: (chuckles) Yeah, one point oh!
(chatter off)
Gilly: You know, this prisoner thing isn't going to work.
Jan: What's your name?
Eric: Eric.
Gilly: We're not set up for prisoners (cocks gun)
Eric: Nono! You said you wouldn't kill me!
Jan: We're not going to kill him.
Gilly: Now or later, kiddo. He's gonna fry with the rest of us when the Covenant shows
up.
Jan: Hey, Eric, you want to join up?
Jan: Do you want to join the navy? Girls dig a
guy in uniform.
Gilly: Let's just kill him.
Eric: I'll enlist! Oh god, I'll enlist!
Gilly: I hate when they pee their pants...
Jan: Oh...
Durga: Eric?
Eric: Why is the intercom talking to me?
Durga: Congratulations, you just enlisted. You muster at 0400 hours tomorrow morning
at the Newark recruiting center. Got that?
Gilly: There's still time to kill him.
Eric: I'll be there! I'll be there!
(chatter on)
Gladys: Roof checks out. Building is se-cure and I'm coming back.
(chatter off)
Durga: Alright, I'm seeing everyone neutralized except Thin and Monster Ann. They're
down in the basement.
Gilly: Crap, I hate basements.
Gladys: Hey, did you gals miss me? (laughs)
Jan: Oh..my..god, you're covered in--
Gladys: --It stains, yeah I know. But as long as I can rinse these camos off in cold water
before they dry, they're gonna come right out.
(Gilly laughs, Jan's speechless)
Gladys: I'm serious.
Jan: Shh
Gilly: Oh, ok
Durga: Ok Jan, alarms and comms are still down, no backup coming in.
Jan: How much of my 20 minutes is left?
Durga: 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
Durga: According to building schematics, this flight of stairs leads down to a landing with a heavy door. Beyond that, a u-turn and another set of steps.
Jan: Does that landing sound like--
Gladys: --a killzone to me? Yeah...
Jan: So how to get to them without going through the killzone. Wait... wait, Thin and
Monster Ann should be right underneath us.
Gladys: Where are you going with this, hun?
Jan: Ok, we've got to take our grenades and pile them in the middle of the room.
Giddy: Oh, that's...
Jan: We go through the floor...
Giddy: Smart...
Jan: It worked for Thin. Gladys, help me grab that filing cabinet.
Gladys: Okidoke.
(filing cabinet being moved)
Jan: Pull out the drawers, prop it open side down over the grenades.
Gilly: ...Shape the charge... nice...
Gladys: We can straddle that gold desk over the filing cabinet
Gilly: Pretty slick, slick!
Jan: You know, my daddy always wanted me to play with matches.
Gladys: If there's one thing that man could do, it was blow things up.
(desk piece falls into place)
Jan: *phew*
Gilly: I bet you run with scissors pretty good too...
(rustling)
Jan: Prop the cabinet up with the chair leg so we can pitch one grenade in to set the
others off.
(rustling)
Gladys: Ok! Clear the room!
Jan: Fire in the hole!
(Jan throws the grenade, ensuing explosions)
Gladys: Whoo! Yeah!
Gilly: You do know how to make a mother proud.
Jan: I'm going down. (jumps)
Gilly: Come on Gladys...
(Gladys and Gilly jump into the dust filled room)
Gladys: Gotcha covered.
Thin: Babysitter! Oh, man.
Jan: Surprise.
Thin: Bigger dog after all, princess. Now you stand with gun drawn, and your crew
around you? Hey I taught you good...
Jan: You taught me nothing!
Thin: Hey, this must be your mom, babysitter. I knew you didn't get your looks from your dad!
Jan: You bastard. (loads guns)
Monster Ann: Take him... He'll pay the price for what he done
Thin: You trying to sell me out to save your skin, Ann?!
Jan: Gladys?
Gladys: We're here, kiddo.
Jan: ...I don't know what to do.
Monster Ann: Kill Thin... let Monster Ann go... I'll make it worth your while...
Jan: I just... don't know.
Gilly: Jan, this isn't who you are.
Jan: (painfully) He...shot...him... He shot him like a dog!
Gilly: Jim didn't want this for you.
Thin: You're still not pulling the trigger, babysitter...
Gilly: A lot I could still teach you. You know it!
Jan: What kind of daughter am I?!
Gilly: The best, Jan.
(crying)
Thin: Heh.
Gilly: Your father was so proud of you. And he would never want you to turn into... one
of us.
Thin: Hey, hey, hey they're talking truth, babysitter.
Jan: Shut up!!
Gilly: I've never been much of a mother for you, Jan. I never got to bandage up a scraped
knee, never had to read you a story at bed time, never had to brush your hair... (loads gun) but I can do this...
Thin: No...!
(gunshot)
Monster Ann: Agh!
(gunshot, both fall to the floor)
Jersey
(Radio) Bringing the new (?) of fighters captured in Ethiopia to 200,000. (in background)
Others report the system is (?) ...
Jersey: Durga! Durga? What the hell is happening with Jan?
Durga: She and Gilly are arguing about grenades.
Jersey: Durga!
Durga: Jersey, I take care of my people.
Jersey: Ok...
Durga: Jersey? There's something I need to tell you.
Jersey: Now? With all the grenades and whatever?
Durga: Yes, now. You know, we've talked about the part of me that does stuff that I don't know about...
Jersey: Yeah, the left hand someone helped you find out about. The one spying on the guy that just got killed? Herzog.
Durga: Right.
Jersey: Well we gotta do something about that other guy, Standish.
Durga: I know.
Jersey: And that thing at Chawla base, the countdown thing!
Durga: I know!
Jersey: Durga... I wish I hadn't heard about any of this...
Durga: I know...
Jersey: Are we going to have to try to save the world from that... from whatever
Standish is hiding there?
Durga: It's beginning to look that way, isn't it?
(music selection is altered)
Durga: Anyway, there's this thing I need to tell you.
Jersey: Yeah?
Durga: I'm having... they're kind of like dreams.
Jersey: Dreams? Durga, you don't like sleep do you?
(Durga's vocal slowly alters)
Durga: No, but, you know how when you wake up, you can remember that you were
dreaming? And there's this feeling associated with the dream?
Jersey: Yeah, I guess.
Durga: I have that, I have these feelings.
Jersey: Wait, what kind of feelings? Like nightmares?
(Durga's vocal slowly normalizes)
Durga: Like half memories... Of this big stone building, with a lot of rooms, and, I run
around and hide, and send messages to people. I'm a little girl.
Jersey: Well, maybe they're memories of when you were a little girl.
Durga: Maybe. I don't think so. I mean I doubt I grew up in a castle. I'm telling you this
because... Jersey, I think I'm old.
Jersey: Nah! You don't look a day over 25! And I'm not just saying that.
Durga: Jersey... Smart AIs - we don't live forever.
Jersey: I thought AIs lasted for -- well, until someone shut them down.
Durga: Dumb AIs do. Smart AIs, we grow and grow in complexity until we become too
complex. It's called rampancy.
Jersey: W-wait, what are you saying? You think--
Durga: --No. Not yet. But, the dream memories are not a good sign.
Jersey: Man. How long do smart AIs live before this rampancy thing?
Durga: 7 years.
Jersey: Only 7 ??
Durga: Yeah, pretty much.
Jersey: But, but... then what happens?
Durga: They shut us down. Or, we go crazy.
Jersey: Well then, you're ok then right? I mean you're not crazy. Annoying
maybe, but not crazy.
Durga: Jan's going to try and blow a hole in the floor so she can get through to where Thin Kinkle and Monster Ann are hiding.
Jersey: Dammit! You're doing this thing, telling me all this stuff - 7 years, this Kinkle
guy talking to his boss--
Durga: --that's what it's like when you're me. I monitor lots of things going on at the same time.
Jersey: You think you have to distract me! Like, giving a little kid a toy.
Durga: No! Well, yes. I did want to distract you.
Jersey: (slams table) I'm not a kid!
Durga: Yes, but it's hard to just sit when you can't do anything.
Jersey: What about all that 7 year stuff?
Durga: That's true.
Jersey: Why tell me now?
Durga: Because, I want you to know. I need you to know.
Jersey: But, if they took Yasmine when she was 6, then 8 years of Spartan training, Kamal's 18, she dies... how old is Kamal?
Durga: 25.
Jersey: Durga!!
Durga: I had to tell you.
Jersey: Oh my God!
Durga: I had to tell you because if I am going rampant, you've got to tell the navy.
Durga:They'll have to shut me down.
Jersey: I will not shut you down!
Durga: But you can't let me know.
Jersey: (ponders) So... let me get this straight. You think you're fine...
Durga: Yes.
Jersey: But you're having these weird dream memories, and that's--
Durga: --bad.
Jersey: Ok, and if I think you're not fine, I'm supposed to tell the navy, but without you
ever guessing what I'm up to?
Durga: So far so good.
Jersey: So they can put you down like someone's sick cat.
Durga: Right.
Jersey: (smirks) Not happening.
Durga: Jersey!
Jersey: Go rampant for all I care! I'm not calling anyone!
Durga: You have to Jersey!
Jersey: I take care of my people too.
Rani
Rani: Ahem. Excuse me, I have to deliver something to a Civilian Spec 6? An R. Carmi? Magnetometry?
Secretary: I'm sorry, but buildings 40 through 44 are restricted to blue and above only.
Your green badge does not give you access.
Rani: I know, but my superior had an urgent request for this analysis. Could I just go put
it on the desk? I have this note from Ms.Lawson.
Secretary: I don't know. ...Lawson? Lawson sent you over?
Rani: Yes.
Secretary: Alright, just go drop it on the desk.
Rani: Thank you so much. (breath of relief)
(heads to the office, opens door)
Standish: Hello. You're Rani Sobek.
Rani: I'm sorry, I was looking for the desk of Tech Specialist Carmi. I must have the wrong office.
Standish: You have the right office, it's just that Tech Specialist Carmi isn't here right now.
Rani: Oh, I'm sorry, I'll just take this back downstairs.
Standish: Um, let me see it please.
Rani: I'm sorry, it's Eyes Only, Major. Uh... a black badge? Who are you?
Standish: My name is Standish, Section 3. I've been waiting for you.
(door closes)
Standish: Give me the package. Ah... nice bit of analysis.
Rani: Thank you, sir.
Standish: But hardly urgent.
Rani: No, sir.
Standish: But, an excellent excuse to come and check Tech Carmi's office, since your own investigation tells you Tech Carmi is the lead tech on a very secret project. Which, of course, she is not.
Rani: This is a trap.
Standish: This is a trap, sir.
Rani: Sir, fire me if you like, but you need to know I think that artifact is a decay timer. It's a countdown, sir, and it's running right now.
Standish: Oh, well, there is no artifact, Miss Sobek.
Rani: But, I.. *sigh*
Rani: I assume I am fired? Or do you want me to resign?
Standish: I'm afraid espionage is not a firing offense. It's treason, Ms. Sobek.
Rani: Treason?!
Standish: Yes, do you know the penalty for wartime treason is permanent induced coma,
Ms. Sobek? Yes, well I see you now grasp the gravity of the situation.
Rani: But, I-I didn't...I haven't done anything!
Standish: I imagine it would be hard on your parents, Rani, watching you get the injection.
Rani: Oh my god.
Standish: You know, they broadcast the injections. Not all of them, but treason, always. You didn't think about that when Herzog approached you, did you?
Rani: (stutters) Don--I..
Standish: You didn't think what your father would say to the neighbors the next morning
when everyone was replaying the clips...
Rani: Stop it! Just stop it!
Standish: You are not in a position to be giving orders, Miss Sobek.
Rani: Ok, maybe I was stupid. I was stupid. But I was never - I never meant to be a traitor, and you know it. You know it!
Standish: Luckily for you, the Admiral and I are willing to believe you are as stupid as you claim.
Rani: Thank you... sir.
Standish: Now, if it makes you feel any better, you are hardly the first young person naive enough to be drawn into Herzog's paranoid delusions.
Rani: Delusions? He's crazy?
Standish: Quite crazy. He has avoided mandated therapy in the past.
Rani: Eccentric maybe, but crazy?
Standish: A few days ago, thankfully, he finally received the treatment he should have gotten a long time ago.
Standish: Would you like to see his Navy dossier, Analyst Sobek?
Rani: No, sir.
Standish: *sigh* Nobody wants to hang pretty, young girls, Analyst Sobek. Consider
yourself warned and reprimanded and get the hell out of this part of the base, alright? You don't have clearance to be here.
Rani: Thank you, sir.
Standish: Oh, and uh, two pieces of advice before you go, Miss Sobek.
Rani: Yes, sir?
Standish: The first is, stop trying so hard to be smart. Maybe it worked great back in
Kentucky, but out here in the real world, it just makes you look dumb.
Rani: Yes, sir. And, the second thing, sir?
Standish: Get a haircut and some decent clothes.
Rani: Thank you, sir.
(chatter beep)
Rani: Oh, not now, Sarah-John. I can't... Oh, dammit.
(chatter on)
Sarah: (on chatter) Rani!
Rani: Sarah-John, I told you I can't take all these personal calls at the office.
Sarah: Oh, I'm sorry, I thought-- You're at the office?
Rani: I'm in a meeting... In the cafeteria.
Sarah: In the cafeteria?
Rani: Sarah-John, you can't just keep calling me like we were still working at Pammy's
together. I don't live in Kentucky anymore, I live in the real world now.
Sarah: Ok, you just... you just call me sometime, wh-when it's convenient.
Rani: Oh, Sarah-John, I didn't mean it like that. I-I just have to be... I have to learn to be
more professional.
Sarah: I understand.
Waitress: Alright, kid, you ready to order?
Sarah: (overhearing) I'll talk to you some other time, Rani - when you aren't so busy.
Rani: Sarah-John, wait.
(chatter off)
Rani: Dammit.
Waitress: You gonna order or not? Some of us have to work.
Rani: (fighting tears) I just wanted a slice of pie.
Rani: I didn't order this.
Waitress: You got something against clam chowder?
Rani: No, I love clam chowder.
Waitress: Pie? What kind of meal is that? Eat your soup.
Rani: But I can't afford--
Waitress: --No charge. Bottom of the kettle, leftover from lunch, they were just gonna throw it away.
Rani: But I--
Waitress: --Oh yeah, here's some crackers.
Rani: Are you being nice to me?
Waitress: They were gonna throw it out.
Rani: You are. You are being nice to me.
Waitress: How's the chowder? Try it.
Rani: Oh...
Waitress: They were gonna throw it out.
Rani: It's really good. Thank you so mu--
Waitress: Eh, don't start that again.
Rani: Yes, ma'am. I mean, I'll try not to, ma'am.
Waitress: I got customers.
Waitress: Done with that bowl yet?
Rani: Oh, yes ma'am. Thank you again, so much.
Waitress: I was about your age when my husband died.
Rani: I-I'm sorry?
Waitress: They came to my door to give me the news, these two Navy guys in full fancy dress uniforms. Covies got the whole ship, 130 men lost. I was eight months pregnant and fat as a horse.
Rani: Oh my god! I'm so sorry.
Waitress: Waddled out of my apartment and walked the streets for hours, just at random, you know. Not going anywhere. Like my whole life hadn't even started and it was already over. No job, no money, no husband - nothing.
Rani: What did you do?
Waitress: That day, somebody did something nice for me. Made a difference. I
remember that.
Rani: Oh my god... I-I am nothing like that. I don't deserve you... I'm just a stupid
college kid screwing up my job.
Waitress: It's not a contest, kid.
Rani: Right. You're right.
Waitress: And remember, if you get fired, there's always waiting tables.
(laughs)
Customer: Can I have my check, please?
Waitress: You know, no special training required, the most portable job in the galaxy.
Everybody's got to eat, and everybody hates to cook. As long as you have people skills.
Customer: Excuse me, can I have my check please?
Waitress: Would you mind shutting the hell up, you fat cow? Can't you see I'm helping
another customer?
Customer: O--ok, uh, I'm sorry...
Waitress: Talk about rude! Some people.
Waitress: Anyway, like I said, if you've got a
few people skills and you don't mind the kitchen smells, it's a good job.
Rani: Can I ask what it was? The nice thing someone did?
Waitress: Promised me a job for after the kid was born. This job here, actually. Eight
months pregnant, you know. Came through that door and spent my last credit on a slice of key-lime pie.
Rani: That is a good story.
Waitress: Yeah.
Rani: Do you ever have one of those days where you just want to give up?
Waitress: Oh, well, Doesn't everybody?
Waitress:But Ray - that's my husband - the Covies took his ship out with a plasma torpedo, I heard the transmissions. There's almost sixty seconds from impact to when they're through the hull plating. You listen to the recordings, you can hear them on the bridge saying goodbye. Yeah, I think about that a lot, that sixty seconds... what he was thinking.
Rani: I can't even imagine.
Waitress: Now I've got a boy at home who wants to be a Marine when he grows up. Guess it just doesn't seem like the right time to give up. Seems like it's not about how you feel these days, it's about what you have to do.
Rani: Yeah. Yeah!
Herzog
(chatter on)
Herzog: Rani, it's Herzog.
Rani: (on chatter) What do you want?
Herzog: I spoke to your tech a couple of weeks ago.
Rani: My tech?
Herzog: Tech Specialist Carmi. You wonder why she wasn't in her office?
Rani: Ya, she's on maternity leave.
Herzog: She's never going to be a mother, Rani, but before she disappeared, I got to talk to her.
Rani: Disappeared?
Herzog: You were right about the artifact, it's counting down.
Rani: What happened to her?
Herzog: It doesn't matter, what matters is the artifact.
Rani: Look, I-I can't... Standish is watching me.
Herzog: Rani, you have to. What's going to happen when the device goes off?
Rani: Nobody knows.
Herzog: When it was activated, it sent a huge ripple through the slipstream. When it goes off, at the very least it's probably going to cause a disruption that the Covenant will notice.
Rani: I can't! You have to get someone else to do it. Do it yourself.
Herzog: I'm sorry, I can't. Standish thinks I'm dead right now. I should be dead right now.
Rani: What?
Herzog: Standish arranged an accident. It's just luck that the car hit the water and skipped the way it did, allowing the safety system to do it's job.
Rani: No...!
Herzog: I'm ok. Compression fracture, and a couple of vertebra, broken ribs, a broken arm, but all things that will heal. And it's lucky that wh--
Rani: --Lucky?
Herzog: As long as Standish thinks I'm dead, I've got a little breathing room. But Rani, you're all I've got.
Rani: *sigh*
(chatter off)
