1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,120 Speaker 1: Oh. The following is a production by r reading of 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:08,320 Speaker 1: this episode contains depictions of drug use and strong violence. 3 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:39,919 Speaker 1: A second oil age. Who were the Tritons? Were they 4 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:44,279 Speaker 1: the underwater beings described in our myths? Or did they 5 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:50,320 Speaker 1: simply emerge into a world conveniently primed to accept them. 6 00:00:50,320 --> 00:00:58,960 Speaker 1: Were they our ancestors, our distant cousins, something else? A 7 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:02,680 Speaker 1: path has had honed me to endure them and their 8 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:06,560 Speaker 1: narread forms, so I knew as much as anyone about 9 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: their abilities. I recognized the whorls and the wet stone 10 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:15,400 Speaker 1: beneath me for what they were, the work of the Proteus, 11 00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:21,320 Speaker 1: the Triton bio techniq, so coveted by UDX, so necessary 12 00:01:21,360 --> 00:01:27,640 Speaker 1: to its undersea megaprojects. The things toiled in the darkness, 13 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:34,560 Speaker 1: far from observation, but footage existed, frightful and amorphous masses 14 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:38,920 Speaker 1: that bored through stone and huge drilling templates and foundations 15 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:44,400 Speaker 1: from the sea floor itself. Everywhere they left this pattern, 16 00:01:47,400 --> 00:01:51,280 Speaker 1: I drifted in and out of consciousness. I heard the 17 00:01:51,360 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: rumble of the Proteus in the stone halls around me, 18 00:01:55,600 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: but it might have just been the nadier of the 19 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: black drug's influence. Unreality bleeding in with the uncertainty and fear. 20 00:02:06,720 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: But I woke at last, not to the drone of 21 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:15,960 Speaker 1: some writhing alien burrower, but to the wine of surface technology, 22 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,359 Speaker 1: the scan of a graph Inc tattoo applicator. I felt 23 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:25,000 Speaker 1: it pressed cold against my chest tattoo, the tingle of 24 00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:29,799 Speaker 1: the particles realigning beneath my skin. I lashed out. Jesus 25 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: calmed down. I swung wildly and tried to spring to 26 00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:36,480 Speaker 1: my feet, but the shackle on my ankle caught, chained 27 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: to a loop in the stone. Hoffman, dressed in a 28 00:02:40,880 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 1: black skin suit, backed away from me to just outside 29 00:02:44,720 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: the limits of my leash. He had a graph Inc 30 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: applicator in hand. I caught movement to my left and 31 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: saw Jack's as well, identically dressed and armed with her 32 00:02:55,880 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: taped squid gun. A vicious slash wound bisected of face, 33 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,360 Speaker 1: which had been hastily stabled back together with suit. Youre, Jill, 34 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:08,560 Speaker 1: Are you done, unchained me? You're going to make the 35 00:03:08,600 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 1: last ones difficult, aren't you. I glanced down at the 36 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,560 Speaker 1: mark on my chest and saw that it was now 37 00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:19,079 Speaker 1: a series of meaningless black bars. The lower marks were 38 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: the same, Fastard, do you think I'm happy with this. 39 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: Do you think I wanted to squeeze into one of 40 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: those things and come down here? I ask you. You promised, 41 00:03:31,639 --> 00:03:34,120 Speaker 1: and then you went ahead and exceeded even my most 42 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: pessimistic expectations. You are barely here a day, and we've 43 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:43,640 Speaker 1: slid from a carefully calculated piece to the threshold of disaster, 44 00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: incalculable productivity loss, multiple fatalities, trite, and relations set back 45 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:54,920 Speaker 1: fifty years. And you know what, I was really looking 46 00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: forward to our town and now that's not gonna happen. 47 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:01,480 Speaker 1: I mean, all you had to do was going there 48 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: and put on your show and report back to the surface. 49 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:08,040 Speaker 1: I honestly don't know if you're just an apathist burnout 50 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: or an actual traitor, but you're not my problem anymore. 51 00:04:17,920 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: As soon as we get those last two elder signs off, 52 00:04:21,680 --> 00:04:28,080 Speaker 1: let me that's not how I do things. You forced 53 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:32,400 Speaker 1: everyone's hand here upon. It wasn't me. It was that 54 00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: thing posing as a journalist. A journalist, not the drug 55 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:40,520 Speaker 1: dup maniac for the crazy knives. You did this. You're 56 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:43,719 Speaker 1: the one who answer to them. We'll see about that. 57 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,760 Speaker 1: I flexed the other phantom muscle in my body. But 58 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: instead of an explosion of basilisk A sharp pain cut 59 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:56,560 Speaker 1: through my thigh. I reached down and felt blood and 60 00:04:56,720 --> 00:04:59,320 Speaker 1: suit your Joe. We cut that out as soon as 61 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,719 Speaker 1: we got here. We also extracted the neurotoxin cap, the 62 00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:05,400 Speaker 1: one that busts if your cortisol levels get too high. 63 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:07,880 Speaker 1: They probably didn't tell you about that one, did they 64 00:05:08,839 --> 00:05:13,120 Speaker 1: anti interrogation measure. But we can't have your stroking out 65 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 1: on our hosts. They're sending someone new up early, just 66 00:05:19,279 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 1: for you. I came here for Buchlan, that's it, not 67 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:28,120 Speaker 1: as an apathis weapons test, not to assassinate anyone. You're 68 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:30,840 Speaker 1: the one disarming a DX agent and a Triton dungeon. 69 00:05:31,040 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: I am risking everything for you, Dex right now, for 70 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,000 Speaker 1: our world, our children, not that you care anything about it. 71 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: As I stared up at him, the purple orbs pulsated 72 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:47,880 Speaker 1: behind him, or seemed to twisting. The recesses of the 73 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: proteus is carved whorls. Hoffman's shadow lengthened. I saw the 74 00:05:54,560 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: shadowed Saint Bob and its depths like something drowned. Chane me. 75 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:06,440 Speaker 1: I need those last marks, No, you need me. I'm 76 00:06:06,480 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: your only shot at getting back to the surface alive, 77 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:10,919 Speaker 1: warning you dex about what really happened, and if you 78 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:15,680 Speaker 1: that's when the butt of Jacks's squid gun connected with 79 00:06:15,800 --> 00:06:30,719 Speaker 1: the back of my head and I saw no more. Hello, 80 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:36,839 Speaker 1: this is Sandy Holland and you're listening to. By the way, 81 00:06:38,240 --> 00:06:41,400 Speaker 1: joining me in the studio is Cameron Lack, author, techno 82 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:45,160 Speaker 1: shaman and leading novelty theory proponent. Thanks for joining us, Cameron. 83 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,360 Speaker 1: Thanks for having me Sandy. Before we go any further, 84 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: I feel like we have to get this out of 85 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:57,560 Speaker 1: the way. Is novelty theory or religion? Uh No. And 86 00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:00,240 Speaker 1: we don't hold Terrence McKenna to be a prophety there. 87 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:02,680 Speaker 1: I think that's one of the last things he would 88 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: have wanted, of course, But I understand the temptation to 89 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:09,080 Speaker 1: call us by the R word, because we do what 90 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:13,040 Speaker 1: religions do. We look for order in the cosmos, and 91 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,840 Speaker 1: we do have a few sacred texts and programs, and 92 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:18,840 Speaker 1: of course some of our central ideas go back thousands 93 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:23,280 Speaker 1: of years. You're talking about the eaching, the ancient form 94 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:27,280 Speaker 1: of Chinese divination. Yes, but it's not just that. It's 95 00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:31,160 Speaker 1: more than rare divination. The Book of Changes at least 96 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:35,640 Speaker 1: from our perspective, from a human perspective, is an uncertainty engine. 97 00:07:36,760 --> 00:07:40,160 Speaker 1: We truly analyze it specifically, there's a sequence in it 98 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:44,080 Speaker 1: called the King Wind sequence, and it reveals the way 99 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:50,679 Speaker 1: time flows through our world. And this is the time wave. Yes, 100 00:07:50,920 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: and just like a wave, it has peaks and valleys, 101 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:56,320 Speaker 1: and when we look at those peaks and valleys, we 102 00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:59,360 Speaker 1: find they line up just right, just right with major 103 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:04,400 Speaker 1: events human history. Now, critics point out that during his 104 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: own lifetime, McKenna believe time would end in How do 105 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:13,200 Speaker 1: you respond to that he was wrong? I mean, McKenna 106 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: died in the year two thousand. I feel like that's 107 00:08:15,920 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: important to note here. Yes, of course, and he was 108 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:23,680 Speaker 1: making a prediction, ultimately an inaccurate one based on a 109 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,600 Speaker 1: limited computing power. They didn't have what we have back 110 00:08:26,640 --> 00:08:29,840 Speaker 1: in the bay. But what he observed and what he 111 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 1: measured that was all real. There's a fractal pattern in 112 00:08:34,160 --> 00:08:37,880 Speaker 1: the flow of time, the rate of change in our lives, 113 00:08:37,920 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 1: in our universe, as we are pulled toward a singularity 114 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 1: of infinite complexity, infinite interconnectedness. It's the hidden part of 115 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:51,920 Speaker 1: the future. It's what's over the wave, and you still 116 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:55,400 Speaker 1: believe that the time wave will reach its zero point. 117 00:08:56,200 --> 00:09:07,800 Speaker 1: Oh yes it will. Very autopsy findings here on the 118 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:13,679 Speaker 1: number of need not open on from ports. Post mortem 119 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:16,320 Speaker 1: lividity matches up with reports of the corpsus position in 120 00:09:16,320 --> 00:09:22,120 Speaker 1: the has found by the mariners. Female blonde, mid thirties. 121 00:09:23,040 --> 00:09:25,840 Speaker 1: Cause of death appears to be severe cranial cerebral injury. 122 00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 1: Clear science of traumatic intercranial hemorrhage. Some of the exposed 123 00:09:30,320 --> 00:09:34,080 Speaker 1: brain tissues unlike anything I've ever seen before. Only two 124 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:37,559 Speaker 1: full brain autopsy here. First agreed Mike. We have burn 125 00:09:37,600 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: marks to the forehead and scalp, seemingly in the shape 126 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:47,800 Speaker 1: of a human hand. Curious, no communit, no physical documentation, 127 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: I think we need no no. I was only out 128 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:01,880 Speaker 1: long enough for them to wipe the last of the 129 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,480 Speaker 1: elder signs from my skin, leaving rows of impotent black 130 00:10:06,559 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: bars in their place. I looked up, fresh blood dripping 131 00:10:12,320 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: from my scalp, just in time to see Jack's vanished 132 00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:21,720 Speaker 1: through a nearby tunnel aperture. I marked it. That was 133 00:10:21,760 --> 00:10:27,199 Speaker 1: the way. Probably not a direct physical connection back to Atlas, 134 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,760 Speaker 1: but at least do you think I wanted to squeeze 135 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:33,800 Speaker 1: into one of those things. The tunnels had to connect 136 00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:37,959 Speaker 1: to a subport or an airlock, but suits didn't work 137 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:44,040 Speaker 1: this deep, at least not for landsfolk. I tugged on 138 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: the chain, but it was set into the stone, and 139 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:51,080 Speaker 1: I realized now that the chain and shackle weren't metal 140 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:58,559 Speaker 1: at all, but something else. Triton manufacture, something excreted by 141 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:04,400 Speaker 1: their blob like automatons. The lynx felt ceramic that held 142 00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:09,520 Speaker 1: like steel. They'd cut away my outer clothing, leaving me 143 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:13,959 Speaker 1: nothing but a vest in shorts. I was unarmed and 144 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:19,360 Speaker 1: pharmaceutically bare, chained like an animal, and what little at 145 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:29,160 Speaker 1: this would be recalled counting backwoods. Now ten nine, I 146 00:11:29,280 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: heard a sound in the gloom. I recognized the silhouette 147 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 1: of a Triton standing just outside the glow of the 148 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 1: floating lamps. I caught the faintest glimpse of its dark 149 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:51,960 Speaker 1: eyes watching me, but it didn't advance. Instead, another emerged 150 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:55,840 Speaker 1: from the shadows beside it and stalked toward me across 151 00:11:55,920 --> 00:12:00,880 Speaker 1: the great domed chamber. She was an aread. That much 152 00:12:00,960 --> 00:12:06,160 Speaker 1: was obvious by her stature and the symmetry of her features, 153 00:12:06,200 --> 00:12:12,640 Speaker 1: But there was something unfinished in her appearance. Her skin 154 00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:17,480 Speaker 1: had all the pallor of a corpse near translucent. Her 155 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: black hair clung like beached kelp. She wore a purple 156 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:29,080 Speaker 1: biotechnic skin suit, and the body beneath it seemed preternatural, 157 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:33,720 Speaker 1: as if she had too many ribs. She regarded me 158 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:40,760 Speaker 1: with bloodshot eyes and grinned. So you're the one sinof pan. 159 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:45,800 Speaker 1: I'm an official Eudex agent. Hush, you'll have your chance 160 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:49,600 Speaker 1: to talk for the purposes of our time together. You 161 00:12:49,679 --> 00:12:53,959 Speaker 1: can call me fetus, another name from your myths. I'm 162 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:57,280 Speaker 1: an official Eudex agent. I invoke ambassador status in the 163 00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,839 Speaker 1: terms of the oceanic cicle. Doesn't matter anymore. Were be 164 00:13:00,040 --> 00:13:04,199 Speaker 1: on that. You've crossed the line. You belong to the 165 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:10,120 Speaker 1: deep now. I felt her terrible waves begin to move 166 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:13,839 Speaker 1: through my mind, teasing the pleasure circuits a path this 167 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:18,160 Speaker 1: worked so hard to deaden. The oilman prepared you well. 168 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:22,440 Speaker 1: Do you feel it shadows of what it felt to 169 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:28,760 Speaker 1: be human? I feel nothing before they carved it out 170 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,720 Speaker 1: of you in order to shield your desire from the 171 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:37,480 Speaker 1: likes of me. It intensified and I collapsed, trembling, ripping 172 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:41,880 Speaker 1: the spirals in the floor. She stood over me now 173 00:13:42,720 --> 00:13:46,120 Speaker 1: just beyond the limits of my chain, but close enough 174 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:50,080 Speaker 1: for me to smell the fragrance of sea water, and honey, 175 00:13:52,559 --> 00:14:23,240 Speaker 1: now tell me, tell me are The second oil age 176 00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: was produced by Robert Lamb, Alex Williams, Lauren Vogelbaum, and 177 00:14:27,240 --> 00:14:31,600 Speaker 1: Josh Stain. This episode featured an jel Masters as sinov Pon, 178 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: Robin Bludworth as kin Hoffman, Annie Reese as Jack's, Eileen 179 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:41,160 Speaker 1: Loyd as Thetis, Joe McCormick as Cameron Lack, and Dylan 180 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:45,400 Speaker 1: Fagin as Sandy Holland supporting voice work by Holly Fry 181 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: and Scott Benjamin intro outro, and supporting music created by 182 00:14:51,200 --> 00:15:18,800 Speaker 1: the Weirding Mondule. Learn more at Module dot bandcamp dot com. 183 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:21,200 Speaker 1: M from more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the 184 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,800 Speaker 1: I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or Women We listen 185 00:15:24,880 --> 00:15:25,960 Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.