Title: Internal comms back
Author: Shift 3 of the Liberty Eagle
/* vim: set syntax=fountain: */
Series: Shipping Containers: Liberty Eagle (Shift 3)
Episode: 101
Contact: Copyright © 2018 S.W. Black

Notes:
    Those who want to put on an audio or visual production
    of this reality show in your local region of space and
    time will probably want to first make sure you follow
    your local procedure to claim copyright.

====

~ In our shipping containers you can find
~ distant kin, perhaps nice or kind.
~ Guiding the ship: Dirk is smart but rude;
~ Mandy loves first; Sal can be crude;
~ Ty does what he wants; The Captain 
~ guides the friends, while R just captions.

.Within the ship (preface)

R. ANNOUNCER 
    We missed the excitement of the shift-change, but we're
    broadcasting now! I am the dedicated system tasked with
    transcribing the voices and actions of the crew for the
    QEC audience. I also have the responsibility of
    monitoring their behavior and deciding what is relevant
    to share. What have they been up to ...?

.On the BRIDGE (0065-W10-5 08:28)

R. ANNOUNCER
    Because the Liberty Eagle is a settlement ship, each
    station on the bridge is designed to be broken down
    for parts once it lands. There are four stations
    against walls of a small room, and in the middle in
    sits the captain's chair.
    
    The CAPTAIN has a 24 hour day, while the four other
    members of the crew have a 28 hour day. It is currently
    time when SAL's bridge duty overlaps with the CAPTAIN.
    
    While recommended hair styles do prefer styles that
    are short enough to never touch their eyes, SAL
    has shaved her head. We will get back to this later.

SAL
    Captain, I got the internal comms working again.

CAPTAIN
    Good. That will help when someone goes to clean out
    the mess in food tank two.

R. ANNOUNCER
    There's a discrepancy with the CAPTAIN's age in the
    system. His voice print is degraded compared to
    what it should be. Suit monitors are offline, so
    unable to double-check with that data.

SAL
    There's something else. I noticed when I got them
    back online, one of the systems restarted and is
    now continuously monitoring them.

CAPTAIN
    What? Shut it down. We don't need it.

SAL
    I think we do. It's tied pretty deep in to the
    comm system. It's possible that it was an attempt
    to shut this system down that killed our comms.

CAPTAIN
    Are we going to get prompts and stuff? It's the
    "R. Announcer" system. You know, from the show
    we signed on for when we got the job. Did you
    at least kill the prompts?

R. ANNOUNCER
    SAL shrugged.

SAL
    I didn't think it had prompts. It was never
    designed for gimmicks, just to record us.
    I mean, it'll roll in interview and stuff from
    before we left, but it was never one of those
    things that could do physical stunts with us.

.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)

SAL
    I love my hair. I've been told I can be a bit
    intimidating, but I think my hair helps me be
    friendly and approachable. If I really wanted
    to be intimidating, I think I'd have to shave
    my head.
    
    It's really one of the things I'm worried about
    when it comes to the 20 year shifts, you know?
    I'm worried that when we land and I'm finally
    around men with testicles instead of just
    implanted testosterone factories, that I'll be
    old enough that my hair may have fallen out.
    
    At least they expect folks to get a little
    action on the trip, and with permanent birth
    control applied to the men! It could be really
    fun! 
    
    I'm hoping that the folks I trained with that
    are slated to be in my shift make it through
    the process alright. Some of them seem nice.
    
    I know most of our passengers are formerly
    homeless who, through the Homeless Storage
    Sugar program have been dried out, but if
    something goes wrong, you're looking at a
    piece of your brain sticking to your skull
    and tearing itself off, and I don't care
    how safe they say it is, it feels really
    dangerous.

.On the Bridge: (0065-W10-5 Present) 

CAPTAIN
    Do you know if those old interviews are still
    in the system, or whether they got deleted?

SAL
    What? I don't know.

.In a booth before launching (no timestamp) 

R. ANNOUNCER
    There are some discrepancies with the records. I am
    unsure of Captain's surname, though he is associated
    with these transcriptions and I know that he's a
    murdering bastard who will die too quickly for
    justice, if he doesn't doom us all first.

CAPTAIN
    What do you mean, none of my church's books or study
    materials will be available? They've been around for
    fifty years or more. The Bible they're based on was
    one of the first books ever published.
    
    Sure, I get that the King James Version is going to
    be available, but the language in that was archaic
    even when it was first published. I need my church's
    material!
    
    Are you serious? I don't believe this.
    
    How can these ships really have no books on them
    except from 1923 Old Earth Common Era and earlier?

.Within the ship

R. ANNOUNCER
    From the Handbook, "Our ship was launched to colonize
    far-away places. Those that paid for it knew the folly
    of trying to maintain copyright without instantaneous
    banking.
    
    "While the QEC may provide instantaneous communication,
    banking requires a level technological playing field
    for the encryption to work. A ship traveling for
    100 years becomes an archaic piece of technology
    before it even lands, and it won't be able to
    handle modern encryption at best, and a
    world-computer designed to break the colonization
    encryption protocols before landing at worst. While
    we don't expect any of those problems to happen on
    *your* vessels, it is still better to send ships
    with only public domain material.
    
    "Don't let it bring you down. After all, you and
    any surviving friends or family members get to
    browse from the complete library of on-board media and
    play with it even before you take off. And all
    legally, too! No prisons for media pirates on your
    new planet!"

.In her bunk: (0065-W10-5 18:12) 

SAL
    We've been at our shift for five years and we're
    still trying to figure out the mess the previous
    shifts made.
    
    I also know something is off with the Captain.
    He pretends like he has no idea about what happened
    around here, but I also know that he captained the
    previous shift. He should have a really good idea
    as to what happened in some cases.
    
    I mean, the body tainting food tank two, right?
    I refuse to believe he doesn't know whose it was.
    I really wouldn't be surprised if he hauled his
    saggy butt down there personally, just so he could
    make sure there was no lingering evidence.

.Within the ship (addendum)

R. ANNOUNCER
    Join our crew as they manage the boredom of
    the middle of a five-shift 100 year mission.

