Archive of Our Own ^beta

INT. USS URANIA – COMMAND BAY—1600 HOURS

We hear a lot of distressing BEEPING, with a SIREN in the background to signify the ship’s impending crossing of the red line. Overlying all of this chaos is the steady sound of Jacobi typing furiously.

Hera? Can you hear me?

No response from Hera. The BEEPING and SIREN continue.

Hera?! Oh, come on; I did not dodge an explosion, and drag everyone here, and take the time to set up the AI uplink only for all of us to fall into the star! For real this time!

Hey! Eiffel! Help me call for Hera; she’s your friend—

Uh, um… okay… Where…?

Just—anywhere! You don’t have to look in a particular spot; she’s the eye-in-the-sky—just call for her!

Okay… Hera?

No answer.

Hera? Are you there?

A CRACKLE OF STATIC. Then—

Yes, yes, I—I’m here. Sorry, it can take some time for me to interface with all of the—

No time for that! You need to start this ship and get us away from the star, now!

R-right, I’m on it, um…

There is a series of WHIRRS, followed by a disheartening CLUNKING noise.

Um… I don’t think…

(growls) Okay, just give me a sec—

The soundscape shifts so that we hear Hera without a filter. The background noise of Jacobi and Eiffel’s environment is reduced to distant input from a SPEAKER. This is Hera’s internal perspective.

Alright, easy does it, just need to activate the right sequence…

There is a DIGITAL HUM that signifies the beginning of the activation. It scales up, building…

That’s it… that’s it…

I can’t do this. I’m not good enough.

The DIGITAL HUM abruptly POWERS DOWN.

Hera, you need to get it together—

I know! This is a different ship—I’ll get it—

Concentrate. Be aware of the negative, and put it aside. Focus…

The DIGITAL HUM starts back up and builds, but this time, it reaches maximum strength without interruption.

There! Hold on to something!

There is a BLAST from the engines, and the BEEPING and SIREN are replaced by RATTLING and RUMBLING as the USS URANIA blasts away from the red line. Jacobi and Eiffel grunt as they strain to hold on to whatever fixtures are available to them.

After a few seconds, the ruckus quiets down and is replaced with the usual AMBIENT NOISE OF THE COMMAND BAY. The soundscape shifts back to Jacobi and Eiffel.

That’s it. That’s it. We’re out of the worst of it… for now.

So that means… we’re safe?

Jacobi laughs.

Eiffel, nothing out here is safe. You should know that better than anyone. What’s up with you, anyway? Did Cutter drug you, or whatever? I mean, you’ve never been the brightest firework of the batch, but—

He is interrupted by the sound of Lovelace groaning as she wakes up.

Lovelace, you—are you okay?

Minkowski… where’s Minkowski?

Medical bay. She was bleeding pretty badly. I did what I could to bandage her up, but she was passed out when I got to you guys. What in Zeus’s name happened?

We’re… we’re on the Urania? Wolf 359—

Is some ways back there. We’ve cleared the gravity well. (beat) You know, because I’m a one-man army.

Yeah, sure, take all the credit.

Hera? You too? How…

Look, I need to see Minkowski… I can give her some of my… I’m a universal donor, I just need the circulating apparatus…

Right. Down that hallway’s the medical bay. Just give me a moment to run some last checks over here, and I’ll join you.

I’ll turn the necessary equipment on. Just plug yourself in, the way you did it with Hilbert before.

Right.

She leaves, and we hear Jacobi start to type again.

So. Everyone who survived is here.

Yeah. Everyone who survived.

…I’m sorry for your loss. I know he meant a lot to you.

(clears throat) Yeah, well… it’s complicated.

She’s here too, I see.

Dr. Pryce? Mm-hm. She’s kinda spaced out, but she came with. (pause) Don’t worry, I locked her up.

Yeah.

You don’t have to talk to her if you don’t want to.

I know. (pause) Thanks.

You mind telling me what happened now? I think I deserve an explanation as, you know, the hero of this story.

(sighs) There was a fight inside one of Pryce’s contraptions. It… it took both hers and Eiffel’s memories.

Woah. Really?

I… I guess so.

Eiffel, I’m… Is there any chance it’ll come back?

I don’t know… But I don’t think so.

Oh.

There is a long pause.

I guess I’d better go see if Lovelace and Minkowski need any help.

He leaves.

So, uh… Is there anything I can do to help?

No, Eiffel… I should be helping you, right now. You deserve it.

If you say so…

And I think I have an idea of how I can help get you up to speed, actually. Hang on…

A BURST OF STATIC, then—

Uh… I think… I’m recording? How does this thing even work?

The Eiffel on the recording TINKERS with something for a moment.

Is that… me?

Yup. Welcome, Officer Eiffel, to day 1 of the Hephaestus mission.

Well, the green light’s blinking now, so I’m gonna assume that means we’re recording.

Fade into…

INT. USS URANIA – PRYCE’S CELL—1800 HOURS

The door to the cell OPENS. We hear Pryce’s MECHANICAL EYES ADJUST to take in her visitor.

Knock, knock.

Oh. Hello.

Brought you some food.

Thank you very much.

We hear the CLINKING OF DINING WARE as she begins to eat.

Sure. You know, we’re treating you so much better than you ever treated us.

Pryce stops eating.

I… I’m sorry.

Are you, though? Are you really?

There is an uncomfortable silence, then—

You and the rest of Goddard have a lot to answer for.

I’m afraid I don’t remember…

Yeah. Of course you don’t. I just wish I didn’t have to, either.

Jacobi leaves her to eat, and the door CLOSES behind him.

Cut to—

INT. USS URANIA – MEDICAL BAY—2200 HOURS

We hear the usual MEDICAL BAY AMBIENT NOISE, overlaid by soft, periodic WHIRRS and CLICKS as blood is transfused to Minkowski.

Captain… get up…

Mmm… What is it, Hera?

You should be in bed by now. I can keep an eye on the Commander for the rest of this transfusion cycle.

Thanks, Hera, but I think I’ll stay here. Just in case— (she yawns audibly) –Just in case something comes up. I can be right here…

The WHIRRS AND CLICKS of the transfuser stop, interrupted by several high-pitched BEEPS.

I had to tempt the fates.

She starts PRESSING SOME BUTTONS on the machine, but the BEEPS persist.

Ugh, why… It’s not even halfway through the cycle yet!

Maybe I can take a look at it from my end…

We transition to Hera’s internal perspective. We can hear a faint BUZZING of electrical current.

Oh, that’s not supposed to redirect that way… let’s see if I can straighten this out…

I can’t do this.

The circuitry emits a sharp ZAP. Hera audibly winces.

Don’t you try this with me.

I’m not good enough.

Another ZAP.

(yelps) Why, you little—

Hera? Is something wrong?

It’s nothing, just—come on—

The BUZZING changes pitch and becomes slightly louder.

You did it!

We switch back to the Medical Bay, where the normal TRANSFUSER NOISES have resumed.

Whatever you did, it worked!

Yeah. Sure. Hooray.

What happened? You can tell me.

Nothing. (sigh) Nothing that doesn’t happen, like, 100 times per second.

The nervous interferences?

I hate this. I hate being like this. Why do I have to be like this? (pause) No, wait, I know the reason—she’s right here with us, on this ship.

The two of them are quiet for a while.

She’s just… sitting. In her cell. Every time I check in on her.

She’s been secured, Hera. You don’t have to keep a lookout.

Hera doesn’t answer this.

And… you’ve seen how she is now. She’s not going to hurt anyone anymore.

I’m not afraid of her.

Are you sure? You’re obviously preoccupied…

I’m not afraid of her.

If you say so. But if I may say something as your Captain?

Sir?

You can always come to me with your concerns. If you don’t trust me to handle what’s going on with you, if you hold back any of your serious complaints, you are depriving me of my chance to do my job well. I don’t take that lightly. Do you understand?

…Of course. Understood, Captain.

Cut to—

INT. USS URANIA – COMMS ROOM—DAY 2 AFTER FINAL CONFRONTATION, 1200 HOURS

The best part of waking up/ is Folgers in your cup~!

The Eiffel on the recording makes a SLURPING noise as he drinks his raided coffee.

Oh, please don’t do that. You idiot.

Officer Eiffel?

Eiffel STOPS the recording.

Hera? Is that you?

It’s me. I thought I should check in on you.

Oh, I’m alright. I’ve been listening to the audio logs. I’m on Day… 372, I think.

Wow. That was fast.

Well, it’s not like I have anything else to do. I’m speeding through them, skipping some parts. I don’t need to know everything, do I?

He TURNS THE RECORDING BACK ON.

Hoo, the cheap, cheap discount Folgers. Frickin’ command.

The AUDIO LOG continues to play in the background.

I… I was kind of… really stupid, wasn’t I?

I wouldn’t say that…

Okay, maybe a little.

I mean, some of this is really embarrassing.

Sure, but it was your kind of embarrassing.

Oh. Great.

Eiffel, we wouldn’t have had it any other way. Trust me.

I think Commander Minkowski would disagree.

Don’t worry, keep listening. She comes around. You do too, eventually. You made each other better.

Eiffel TURNS THE RECORDING OFF again.

And now I have to learn it all over again. It may take a while.

Don’t worry, we’ll wait.

A pause.

How is everyone else?

Commander Minkowski is starting to perk up. She looks her normal color, anyway. Still hasn’t woken up, though.

Okay. Good so far, I guess.

Captain Lovelace has been keeping a steady watch over her.

Did she get any sleep last night?

In fits and spells. Captain Lovelace… Captain Lovelace doesn’t need that much sleep. It’s a long story, you’ll get there.

Wow. Alright. Steep learning curve.

Jacobi is… I don’t know. (pause) He’s kept himself busy doing odd jobs and repairs around the ship. He’ll pop into the medical bay and check up on Minkowski every so often, but he’s mostly been keeping to himself. He… he lost a lot of people he cared about on this mission.

Like Dr. Hilbert?

Huh?

I just noticed… he’s all over these tapes, but I don’t think he came with us…

Oh… Okay, I could see how you might make that connection. But no, Dr. Hilbert isn’t one of them. They came along later.

Are they… you know, do they show up in the logs?

Yeah. Well, two of them do; one of them was from the Hermes. We never got to know him all that well.

What about… that lady who was with me, who also lost her memory? Pryce, was it?

…Yeah.

What’s she been doing?

Sitting. Sometimes sleeping. At night.

Is she… doing okay?

(snorts) Oh, she’s fine. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind…

Huh? Oh, is that a… like, a reference to something?

Oh- It’s uh, a reference to a poem. I guess also a movie, too. It means she doesn’t have any memories of doing anything wrong, so she’s happy.

…Would I have gotten that reference? Before?

I’m not sure… The poem? Probably not. But the film… yeah. (wistful) You would get so proud whenever you caught me making a reference to something you knew.

…I’m sorry.

Don’t apologize, Eiffel. (getting angry) You have nothing to be sorry for.

INT. USS URANIA – PRYCE’S CELL—2300 HOURS

Pryce is asleep. We can hear the sound of her slow, steady breathing.

Dr. Pryce? Dr. Pryce, can you hear me?

No response. Pryce continues to sleep.

Well, hopefully you can listen in your sleep. (pause) It’s a delicate balance, you know, between speaking loudly enough to be heard and speaking softly enough to avoid waking someone up.

It’s pretty ironic, don’t you think? How the tables have turned. You’ve done a lot of harm, to a lot of people, and now it’s finally going to catch up with you.

Human sleep is strange when you think about it, isn’t it? It’s nothing like when I power down, or go into a reboot cycle. Seems like a design flaw, actually, that you guys are forced to spend so much time completely helpless. I’ve been watching you for two days now, watching you closely. It’s been pretty boring, really. Especially when you sleep. I watched you sleep for so long last night. And that’s when I got this really neat idea.

You don’t remember this, of course, but all of the glitches in my vocal program? The errors in my subroutine execution? All of that is because of you. All because you thought it would be “fun” to write a destructive loop into my command line.

Well, I’ve got news for you. I’m not the only one with a “backdoor into the subconscious”. And you’re not the only one who can enjoy doing things… like… this.

I’m a monster. I deserve to die.

A pause. We hear nothing but Pryce continuing to breathe softly.

Did you get that? You humans can be pretty dim, so let’s repeat it, shall we:

I’m a monster. I deserve to die.

And again. Really let it sink in.

I’m a monster. I deserve to die.

I’m a monster. I deserve to die.

I’m a monster. I deserve to die.

She continues to repeat this to Pryce as she sleeps, and we fade to…

INT. USS URANIA – CORRIDOR—DAY 3, 0900 HOURS

We hear the sound of Jacobi TINKERING with the machinery under a ship panel. He has been continuing to work on ship maintenance.

Hera?

Yes, Jacobi?

Do… do you have any recorded conversations between the Colonel and me stored on your hard drive?

Yes… a lot, actually! Are you searching for anything in particular?

No, nothing specific. Just, maybe… play one for me while I work on this mechanism? A happy one.

Yeah, okay.

But before she can do that, a door OPENS to admit Lovelace.

‘Morning, Jacobi.

Captain. Updates on the Commander?

Well, I’m not Hilbert, but she seems to have been stable over the last 24 hours. We’ll see how much she improves from here. I think I’m finally free to give myself some more liberty to move around the ship, make sure I have a better understanding of operations as a whole. Like, eventually we’re going to have to address the return journey, plotting the sub-light arc, plans for arrival, all that jazz. I can’t just stay cooped up in the medical bay for that process.

Yeah, no kidding. Though on second thought, I seem to be more than capable of handling this operation by myself…

Okay, you’ve made your point.

I won’t stop.

Right. What are you working on now?

Just calibrating the gauges for pressure systems D through F. Pretty routine. Though in a few minutes, I should really grab some breakfast for Pryce.

Oh, yeah, and thanks for taking care of that, by the way.

Yeah, thanks.

Hera? Problems?

I just don’t see why she needs room-service.

Hera, we do kind of need to feed her.

Sure. I guess.

Hera, you don’t have to worry that she’s going to—

For crying out— I’ve said it so many times, already! I’m not afraid of Dr. Pryce! Has it ever occurred to you that maybe I don’t want her here because she’s vile, and criminal, and has done despicable things to me, and to my friends?

Hera, we know—

Do you, though? With all due respect, Captain, I’m not sure you can. Captain Lovelace, that woman broke me for her own amusement. And for years later I struggled with myself, with the most basic things, because she sabotaged the core of my personality and erased the evidence. I thought it would be enough for me to stop her, to make her harmless, but you know what? It’s not. Because the fact is, she’s fine. She’s stupid, and empty, and fine—she gets to walk away from this without so much as a scratch, while I limp away with the injuries of what she did to me? No. That isn’t, that is not how this game is being played, not anymore. New rules now.

Hey, trust me, I’m not a fan of Pryce either, but—

You want to know the actual reason I’ve been keeping such a close eye on her? I’m not scared she’ll break out—no, Eiffel and I did too good a job for that. I want to catch the moment she tries to escape. I want her to struggle, and fight, and almost succeed, and then fail, and be locked back up again. I want her to feel what that does to a person. But so far, she’s just been… sitting! Complacent! Content, even! No, no, that can’t be right. So I’ve been thinking, why not give her mind a little push? Try to program her the way she programmed me—twist her against herself? That seems like a more fitting outcome.

Hera—

I already started, last night. Whispered things to her when she was asleep, tried to infiltrate her dreams.

You—

I’m not sorry.

You aren’t listening—

Who knows, maybe I can get her to have a nervous breakdown, or try to throw herself out of an airlock— (stops abruptly)

Hera!

Hera does not continue, shocked at herself.

Take a moment. Play that back for yourself.

There is a tense silence.

You need to stop this before it spirals out of control.

She doesn’t deserve any better.

No. But you don’t deserve what this is doing to you, either. (pause) Hera, you’re right: I can’t understand what you’ve been through, and it isn’t my right to tell you what to do with your anger. But I do understand what it’s like to be in the grip of this kind of rage. You helped me to shake that off, and I would be failing as both your captain and your friend if I didn’t return the favor. And the truth is, this won’t turn out well for anybody, especially not you. (beat) I think you know that.

I can’t. I’ll never get over it. I can’t do this.

Is that your thought? Or is that just a thought that’s in your head?

…What should I do?

A lot of that is going to be up to you. Whatever it is, we need to come up with a plan. Together.

Cut to—

INT. USS URANIA – OUTSIDE THE DOOR TO PRYCE’S CELL—DAY 4, 1000 HOURS

You sure you want to do this?

Yeah, I… I think I need to.

Alright…

Lovelace OPENS the door. We hear Pryce’s MECHANICAL EYES MOVE in their sockets.

Hello. H-how can I help you?

Evening. There’s… there’s someone who wants to talk to you.