1 00:00:01,400 --> 00:00:05,400 Speaker 1: Follows the production of I are reading of This episode 2 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:33,199 Speaker 1: contains depictions of drug use. The second oilistic products, and 3 00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: you've heard text America on America one. It all reinforces 4 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: this inland narrative that recombined people shouldn't be part of 5 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 1: normal society, that we're not human enough. It's the same 6 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:45,800 Speaker 1: sort of repression and exclusion we've seen throughout history, and 7 00:00:45,840 --> 00:00:49,800 Speaker 1: here we are doing it again. We talked, or I 8 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: let her talk. She didn't require a lot of encouragement. 9 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:57,400 Speaker 1: Utex is complicit too. They profit from the pact and 10 00:00:57,440 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: depend on recombined labor, but they're also the first to 11 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 1: don themselves from the coastal communities when they need to 12 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,959 Speaker 1: appeal to landlocked minds. I think she hoped these barbs 13 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: would prick me as well, that I'd take criticism of 14 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,800 Speaker 1: my corporate overlords personally. But of course that's not how 15 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,679 Speaker 1: I saw it. I agreed with most of it, except 16 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: for the notion that anything could be done. I was 17 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,199 Speaker 1: through thinking the world could be fixed. All I wanted 18 00:01:25,280 --> 00:01:28,240 Speaker 1: was to act and to find who I was through action. 19 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: Just particles of a blade stirred to sharpness. Did you 20 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:40,240 Speaker 1: grow up unlocked? No? We moved around. I saw the 21 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:46,039 Speaker 1: coastal communities from which side. You know which side, But 22 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: you've been there, right, that's your line of work, I had, 23 00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:56,480 Speaker 1: and it was we polished off the whiskey. She lectured 24 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:58,840 Speaker 1: me more on the failings of you dex until she 25 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,160 Speaker 1: fell asleep on the cat, curled up beside my gear 26 00:02:02,240 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: and knives. But I couldn't sleep, even if I'd wanted to. 27 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:12,480 Speaker 1: I paced. I walked back into the cargo hold and 28 00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:17,399 Speaker 1: inspected the farm tab crate. It was exactly as she'd 29 00:02:17,440 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: described it, a hollowed out burrow beny three rows of 30 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:25,800 Speaker 1: prepackaged meals. I found a pillow, a travel urinal, and 31 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:30,760 Speaker 1: a half empty water thermis. A satchel contained spare clothes, 32 00:02:30,800 --> 00:02:34,519 Speaker 1: and a locked communit. I checked the other crates as well, 33 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: but found only the expected towels, beer, prepackaged junk food. 34 00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: One contained nothing but crab crisps. I looked up veil 35 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,560 Speaker 1: on my communit. In the old days of the World 36 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:51,280 Speaker 1: Wide Web, they say you could turn up anything with 37 00:02:51,320 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: a few choice searches. But of course, now beyond each 38 00:02:55,480 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: communit's standard info base, everything's regional firewalled periodic, an online 39 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,040 Speaker 1: police state to keep all the cyber crime, cyber war, 40 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: and self replicating malware in check. I flagged her for 41 00:03:10,200 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: a more detailed web snapshot the next time I connected 42 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: for a packet, but the basic info seemed to check out. 43 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:20,839 Speaker 1: I pulled up a holographic low res head shot, as 44 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: well as a handful of her recent reports on recombined 45 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:28,720 Speaker 1: populations and human rights, or at least titles and audio 46 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: fragments due diligence, something to occupy my mind and fingers. 47 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: While the basilisk coursed through me, I leaned against the 48 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 1: cargo holds enormous wheeled door and quieted my suspicions. She 49 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: was still asleep when I walked back into the cabin. 50 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 1: I collected my knives and gear from the cot and 51 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:59,200 Speaker 1: throw a blanket over her. That was the moment I 52 00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:08,640 Speaker 1: decided not to turn her in. Are you tired of 53 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,800 Speaker 1: this happening to you? Hey? Honey? What's for dinner? We're 54 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: having Taker times cole slaw and crab sticks. Crab sticks again? 55 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: I don't even know what these are made of. What 56 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:23,040 Speaker 1: part of the crab is this again? And why is 57 00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:26,880 Speaker 1: it spelled with the K like cow? Give your family 58 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 1: the delicious farm grown meal they deserve straight to your 59 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:33,920 Speaker 1: table from the American heartland. They're fast, easy, and deliver 60 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:37,360 Speaker 1: all the nutrition a land dwelling mammal like yourself requires. 61 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:40,799 Speaker 1: Each dish is a bountiful harvest of non GMO veggies 62 00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 1: and all your favorite meats, cow, pig, chicken, and of 63 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:50,719 Speaker 1: course wrong worn fraghn. This is delicious mob farm tab 64 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,160 Speaker 1: because crab with a K is not okay, it's human 65 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:57,840 Speaker 1: and non human right. I for one, I'm sick to 66 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: death of the traitorous liberal lean is a big media 67 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:06,800 Speaker 1: and big government recombined noncombined. Please, if someone walks up 68 00:05:06,839 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 1: to you on the street and calls you non combined, 69 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:11,279 Speaker 1: then you have the right to punch him in the 70 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: face and check for gills. As far as I'm concerned, 71 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: that's their game, people, infiltration, misapeciation. But you keep your 72 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:22,040 Speaker 1: fist jeans away from me and mine. Because I'm a mammal, 73 00:05:22,400 --> 00:05:26,200 Speaker 1: my heart gushes warm blood, I have nails and hair 74 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:28,680 Speaker 1: and nipples. I mean, they don't lack tape. Because I'm 75 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,679 Speaker 1: a man, not a fruit bat. I'm certainly not gonna 76 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:34,280 Speaker 1: stand by it. Let a bunch of half human monsters 77 00:05:34,320 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: come and threaten my family with their slimy coon by 78 00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:56,240 Speaker 1: politics that color. I told Vail the truth that I 79 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,360 Speaker 1: wouldn't say a word unless they asked, and even then 80 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 1: I'd only my shin a suspicious crate in the cargo bay. 81 00:06:02,839 --> 00:06:07,080 Speaker 1: Maybe some sounds I couldn't quite explain. It was all 82 00:06:07,160 --> 00:06:11,680 Speaker 1: on her. I helped her crawl back into a crate, 83 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:17,680 Speaker 1: breaking her in meal after prepackaged meal. I hope you 84 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,480 Speaker 1: find your missing person. Sure you don't want me to 85 00:06:20,520 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: ask around you never know. I don't think you want 86 00:06:23,520 --> 00:06:26,840 Speaker 1: any part of it. You might be surprised what an 87 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: impartial reporter can learn over a corporate mercenary. I'm not 88 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: really a mercenary. I'm more of an agent. Potato Potato. 89 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:43,599 Speaker 1: I hope your land your story. I really do. And 90 00:06:43,680 --> 00:06:46,440 Speaker 1: with one last look at her eyes, I bricked them over, 91 00:06:47,120 --> 00:06:50,479 Speaker 1: replacing them with the garish smile of a cartoon farmer 92 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:56,839 Speaker 1: and his cows. I packed in the rest. I stepped 93 00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:00,720 Speaker 1: back and listened to her stir inside the crate, positioning 94 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:05,680 Speaker 1: herself for the rest of the descent. And then everything 95 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:11,280 Speaker 1: was silent, just the hum and pulse of our artificial shell. 96 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: I walked back into the cabin and sealed the door 97 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:20,160 Speaker 1: behind me. I pulled my communit back out and checked 98 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:24,520 Speaker 1: the progress meter. Then I flipped over to the sub's 99 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 1: external camera and watched the feet bloom into holographic life 100 00:07:28,640 --> 00:07:34,320 Speaker 1: before my eyes. The metallic bulk of Atlas Station loomed 101 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:39,280 Speaker 1: below me, like some sunken god of industrial excess. Multiple 102 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:43,800 Speaker 1: arms coiled about the surrounding sea floor, connecting its central 103 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:48,760 Speaker 1: cathedral like body to various outlying facilities and sub hangers. 104 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 1: Its baleful lights seemed to fight back against the darkness 105 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:57,760 Speaker 1: of the abyssal plane, as if standing sentinel against any 106 00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:03,320 Speaker 1: traveler seeking the dark trench beyond its watch. It was 107 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:10,200 Speaker 1: at once beautiful and blasphemous, steel and chemical glass and circuitry, 108 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:14,280 Speaker 1: so much of the natural world remade and repurposed into 109 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:24,440 Speaker 1: a squatting giant, impossible to indefinitely only to very I 110 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:31,239 Speaker 1: be found the drug was wearing off a bit early. 111 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: It's an inexact science, subject to the effects of stress 112 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:41,080 Speaker 1: an environment. I shot off the communit. I slid two 113 00:08:41,160 --> 00:08:45,240 Speaker 1: knives into my belt, sheaths another into my boot. I 114 00:08:45,280 --> 00:08:49,120 Speaker 1: grabbed the basilisk applicator and ejected the spent vial into 115 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 1: the sink. I fumbled almost dropped the fresh dose before 116 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:57,720 Speaker 1: loading it into place. I moved the applicator to my 117 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:01,560 Speaker 1: right shoulder and shot the stuff home. The sub shook 118 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,720 Speaker 1: and I fell to one knee. I heard the groan 119 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:08,440 Speaker 1: of mechanical arms reaching out to embrace the sub, the 120 00:09:08,559 --> 00:09:12,000 Speaker 1: labor of its joints resonating through the high pressure waters 121 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:16,040 Speaker 1: all around us. The drug began to take hold, and 122 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:19,720 Speaker 1: I swept sweat from my scalp, flicked my fingers, and 123 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:26,120 Speaker 1: watched blood spattered to the floor grids. No, not blood, 124 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:33,680 Speaker 1: but darkness, the earth's black riches. No. I could taste 125 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:38,400 Speaker 1: it on my lips, neither oil nor blood, but only sweat. 126 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 1: I smelled the feckin sharpness of my animal fear. The 127 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: rest was mere vision. I looked down to my other 128 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:51,480 Speaker 1: hand and saw that I'd redrawn the knife from my boot, 129 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:58,760 Speaker 1: its edge gleaming. Our best self is a thing summoned. 130 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:04,960 Speaker 1: It depends on chemical balance, a careful cocktail of external stimuli, 131 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:11,440 Speaker 1: ideal weather, job relationship upbringing the right pharmaceutical fix for 132 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: all the gaps. I think most people never confront that truth, 133 00:10:18,520 --> 00:10:21,800 Speaker 1: but I did. That's why I walked out of my 134 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:27,040 Speaker 1: old life and into the U dex Apathis program. Once more, 135 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:29,880 Speaker 1: I drowned it all in the depths of the treatment. 136 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: They wanted an untouchable agent, one who could stand unflinching 137 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:40,720 Speaker 1: in the face of the Triton's power, especially their nariats. 138 00:10:41,520 --> 00:10:46,280 Speaker 1: Triton's engineered in the deep to have human likenesses. They 139 00:10:46,280 --> 00:10:50,760 Speaker 1: were sirens, created to walk among us and further the 140 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 1: Triton's uncertain ends. And I'd been conditioned to resist them 141 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: body and mind. Fine, change me, refine me, just make 142 00:11:05,920 --> 00:11:10,160 Speaker 1: me something other than this cluster of anxieties and dashed hopes. 143 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: The cargo bay door rumbled in the next room. I 144 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: heard the audible hiss of air as the sub opened 145 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:24,560 Speaker 1: itself to the vast, sprawling uncertainty of Atlas Station. But 146 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:29,359 Speaker 1: I felt my breath begin to still. The claw unclenched 147 00:11:29,480 --> 00:11:36,040 Speaker 1: from my heart, My awareness tightened, the blade slipped soundlessly 148 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:40,679 Speaker 1: back into its boot sheath, and I stood to greet 149 00:11:40,760 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 1: my hosts, M M M. The second oil age was 150 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:08,240 Speaker 1: produced by Robert Lamb, Alex Williams, Lauren Vogelbaum, and Josh Thame. 151 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:12,839 Speaker 1: This episode featured on Joo Masters as sinov Pon. Lauren 152 00:12:12,960 --> 00:12:16,920 Speaker 1: Vogelbaum as Tabitha Vale and Noel Brown as tex America. 153 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 1: Supporting voice work by Jed Drummond, Gina Rakiki, Nicholas Takowski, 154 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:26,800 Speaker 1: Eden Brown, and Jason Coke intro outro, and supporting music 155 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:31,960 Speaker 1: created by the Wielding Module. Learn more at Module dot 156 00:12:31,960 --> 00:12:36,079 Speaker 1: bandcamp dot com. Music for the Farm tab media segment 157 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:40,840 Speaker 1: New Toy Syndrome by Calvin Cardioid provided by King DeLux Records. 158 00:12:41,200 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: Learn more at king DeLux dot c a M. For 159 00:13:14,760 --> 00:13:18,079 Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, 160 00:13:18,400 --> 00:13:21,720 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or whinner We listen to your favorite shows