There is, unfortunately, no escaping physics. Bound by the speed of light, even information must take its time to get birth going. And as we move farther into the void, that time grows until the distance becomes unspeakable.
Oh, man. Simmons oh, teleport pad is jacked. It's kind of a miracle as was able to land here at all. I don't even understand how this happened. Not only was the phase coil completely fried, but I had to basically rebuild the timing module. I've isolated the collision domain and worked up a program that duplicates the original timing on the packet headers for the pad. But I'm not a software guy, and you probably don't even know what I'm talking about. Anyway, long story short, I fixed some stuff, hope I fixed some other stuff, and fuck, I hope this works. I hope you get this message, too. This rock is in kind of a blind spot. Anyway, looks like I'm heading out on my own. As is staying here? I don't blame him. He's found some people. And I guess the guy that died was, like, a mentor father type. I think maybe he feels some kind of obligation or something. It makes sense. I'll teleport to the nearest relay and find someone that's headed your way. Shouldn't be too hard. You have a lot of fans. He is a little bit hot. You were right. Not really my type. But anyway oh, they have coffee here. Bona fide, genuine fucking coffee. I drank, like, I don't know, eight cups before I started to wonder if the caffeine levels in the mollusk coffee were, like, astronomical or something, because I felt nothing. But then someone mentioned it was decaf, and I was like, who the hell drinks decaf anymore?
Hey, Sergeant West.
It's just west, man. You don't have to if you're not military.
Yeah, okay.
Benny, right?
Yeah. I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute.
Sure. What's going on?
Well, you said you heard my message, and I just wanted to say nothing's really changed. As, is it any better? This place is killing him. I think. Like, you saw him, right? He's lost a lot of weight, and he's just not here when he looks at you.
He did look well, not sick, but I get it.
I really care about him, and I don't want to watch him fade out or whatever. So I was wondering if you could what?
Convince him to leave. I don't know, man. I've spent the last ten years of my life doing nothing but what other people wanted me to do. For the greater good and all that. I don't think I could stomach trying to talk as into something he doesn't want.
I think he does, though, deep down.
Well, then you should be the one to talk to him about it.
But if I tell him I think he should go, I'll take it. Like I don't want him here anymore.
Why do you want him to go?
What?
What's the main reason you think he should go with me?
Because he's a pilot and he should be out there. Piloting? He should be up there, free to go wherever and do whatever he wants, not stuck down here like me. He's caged, and it's killing him.
Tell him that. I can't just I think you should go talk to him and be as honest as you've ever been. Unless your deep down doesn't want him to go. You could always come with us.
No way. I belong here.
Well, I got about two more hours before I boot this thing up. As can stay here or come with me. I don't care. But if he does want to come with me, he needs to be here and be ready by 2100 tonight.
Okay.
Good luck, man.
Thanks.
It.
Oh, shit. Sorry, Simmons. I'm so used to just heading the record and letting it go. Yeah, not like the galaxy wasn't already all up in Azeriah below the sky's business. Anyway, we'll see what happens in a few hours. I'm going to get this thing up and running, and then, well, I'll either have a pilot or I'll be off to find another. Stay safe, Simmons. I'm coming for you.
Unspeakable Distance is an actual play podcast of communication delay by audio Quinn. A link to the game's. Itch IO page and credits for our players are available in the show notes linked to this episode. This podcast has been a production of the Library of Cursed Knowledge podcast. Doc.