[IC] Contact (maskormenace)

[youbastard]

Hello, you've reached the voice mail of Ellie Langford. If you leave a message with your name and number I'll try to get back to you as soon as I get the message.

Comments

[siriusly]

[a hesitation.]

I...I'm not sure if I should congratulate you or apologize...I mean, I don't know if you like it here better or not.

[youbastard]

Congratulate. It's not that bad, especially not compared to where I'm from.

[siriusly]

...Oh. [a beat.] I...I don't really think about it much, but I guess that can be the case. That this place is a step up...

[youbastard]

It's sad to say, but it really is.

[siriusly]

Then...Then I'll be glad for you. I mean, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to talk to you, so there's one thing I can at least understand.

[youbastard]

[ She laughs. ] That's actually one of the best parts. I've met some great people here from very interesting places. My world, back home, had been a little limited lately.

[siriusly]

[a soft sound.] That's true, isn't it. That there's no shortage of people to learn from, anyway.

[youbastard]

There's also a lot of just nice people and I've even met a few people with slightly similar backgrounds. It's great to learn from the people that are very different from me, but its also nice to have that ...simularity to relate to.

[siriusly]

Like the space-thing.

[youbastard]

Like the space thing and with some other people the future thing. You'd be surprised how weirdly some people react when they find out what year it is for me.

[siriusly]

Ehh, really? But...isn't everyone really out of time here? One person's date could mean something completely different to someone else, right?

[youbastard]

Not quite. There's a pretty big difference between my time and most people's.

[siriusly]

How big is "pretty big" in this case? A couple thousand years?

[youbastard]

No, just about five hundred from a lot of the people I've met here. It's 2514.

[siriusly]

[a beat.

he needs to remember what year it is here.]

...That's not that bad...

[youbastard]

No, not really but our technology is very different. Earth isn't even slightly the same as this place and I actually spent most of my life on other planets or stations.

[siriusly]

[there's some off-speaker shifting sounds.]

I guess there's not too many people here used to that, huh... Whenever I forget that and just start rambling, most folks look pretty surprised. [with a bit of a laugh:] I'd never even been to Earth before.

[a hesitation.] But I guess...since you like it here better...Earth you knew before wasn't so great, huh?

[youbastard]

No, I'd only been there a few times but it was pretty terrible actually. You've never been to your Earth?

[siriusly]

Mm-mm. It's a bit far from where I'm at...Most people left Earth a long time ago, so it's kind of like...[eaa...] Like a memento? Something kept in the back of the mind, anyway. It only really comes up if we're talking to non-humans, where we came from and all.

[youbastard]

Do you mind if I ask why you left Earth?

[siriusly]

Mmm...Ahhh... [a beat, exhaling, trying to think.] Well, it was a long time ago, way before me, but I know very early on, a lot of the people that left were outlaws. Pirates and stuff. They'd get kicked off the planet and go roaming the stars, raiding outposts and things. Then there were people who were leaving to find new jobs, new lives... A lot of people really bought into the idea of getting mechanized bodies from this one planet, so there was a lot of that. The railways started with lines to that planet, actually...

[youbastard]

Ah. So nothing too major really caused it just people moving on to bigger and better things?

[siriusly]

You mean, like as a whole? I don't think anything huge...I guess it came in waves. [a beat, thinking.] Well, maybe when aliens started showing up. That was pretty big.

[youbastard]

Yeah, like as a whole. Ours was necessity and so it became a thing that we had to do. We had no choice but to look out into space and start leaving. [ A beat ] Aliens actually showed up on your Earth?

[siriusly]

Yeah! That was part of the pirate problem, too. Fighting with the aliens. There were a few years where things were a bit dicey, but everything's much better now. Humans have their own stake in the galaxy now, and there's not been much fighting on that front since then.