Ghost Signals, Episode 4: Part 3.3
ARU (interjecting) The device is sizable enough that installation will not be as readily easy to achieve. (to Steggy) If you wouldn't mind placing the feed from my cargo bay onto your main screen, Mz. Steggy.
STEGGY (confused, but accepting) 'Kay...
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The front screen in the command center moments later, after Aru's request is fulfilled. We see a large box-like device 10 feet tall with a circular hole big enough for a hand or arm to slip through to the side.
RAIVEN (examining the device carefully) That--That's a multi-chem Danverian Churn. I thought they use it on trade ships- the hells it doing on an Attacker ship?
ARU It just became standard on TASF aeros. AC only uses it if we're low on fuel and there aren't any refueling stations nearby.
STEGGY So- now, basically. How do we activate it?
RAIVEN (answering Steggy's question) There lies the problem. It's protected by a Grade-5 GeneLock. (turns her attention back to Aru) Which I'm guessing is tuned in to your bosso Dez-Lei. Right?
ARU Correct, Doctor. You can't activate the device without her print.
RAIVEN (annoyed sigh) ...I'll get the soljita. (to Steggy) Steggy, begin the extraction process once we're in orbit.
STEGGY Aye aye, Doc...
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An exterior space shot of the A-5 minutes later. From the base of the spacecraft, a hatch opens and we see an unmanned circular drone tracking its downward trajectory through the atmosphere; a sonic repulsor activating at the bottom of the device, slowing its speed over the course of a few moments before...
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It lands on the pale light pink ground without hardly making a sound. A second later, a hatch opens on its left side and a black bar the size of a Bluetooth speaker emerges. The speaker proceeds to play electric guitar at a high speed.
The camera focuses on the area as the soundwaves gradually chips away into the soil of the planet below. A few moments later, you can see the sample rise up from the ground, collected within the funnel of the waves themselves as they rise up to the base of the piece of tech.
AC SECOND CLASS DEZ-LEI (V.O., to Raiven) There's one thing I've meant to ask you, Mz. O'Ozahl.
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INT. CARGO BAY, DEZ-LEI'S SHIP- Minutes Later
Raiven and the AC Second Class standing in the middle of the cargo bay a second later; Dez-Lei's wrists are latched via a set of energy cuffs. They're both walking in the direction of the Danverian device.
RAIVEN Fire away, Dez.
AC SECOND CLASS DEZ-LEI What exactly is your issue with soldiers? I assumed when we first met that it had to do with anti- establishment thinking prevalent amongst you...intelligentsia types.
RAIVEN (mocking scoff) Look who's launching into assumptive diatribes based on slanted opinion.
AC SECOND CLASS DEZ-LEI (unfunny chuckle) Anyway- the more we've interacted, the more I realized that this view was incorrect ever so slightly. That the real answer has to do more with your personal psyche.
RAIVEN And what brilliant TA info-blurb brought you to that conclusion?
AC SECOND CLASS DEZ-LEI Observation, and four rohtlas of psychiatric therapeutics.
The news stuns the good Doctor at that moment who has stopped walking at a result; the AC Second Class following a half-second later.
RAIVEN You too? What brought you to that regimen, if I may ask?
AC SECOND CLASS DEZ-LEI A lifetime of dysfunctional and absuive parenting, tipified by my mater offing herself with a sharpened nivihl.
RAIVEN Yikes...my sympathies! I'll leave further queries to the wind.
AC SECOND CLASS DEZ-LEI Many thanks. Now, back to my original querium of thought.
RAIVEN Right. Well. You're right that there's more to my beefs with the military class. But it's not built on the things you think it is. (pause) My granpater was a High Priest in the Li'Freyan faith back in his home planet.
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INT. TAR'LIS- Many Years Ago
A flashback of Raiven's granpater bathed in dark blue vestments silently reciting the holy texts to his fellow congregants; a golden glow from the window shaped like a TARDIS behind him in the background.
RAIVEN (Narrative V.O.) He'd been a Priest since the moment he entered doltinhood, following in the footsteps of his pater. Funeraries, rohmnas, regenvors- he was an integral piece of the social structure. Every soul knew him, every soul held nothing but great affection for him.