Retro Rockets fires off with "Spirit Drive". A space ranger take the final report of a scientist on the death of his colleague on a far-distant moon. But, was it an accident?
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The Mutual Audio Network
Retro Rockets Presents: Spirit Drive(072424)
this podcast brought to you by ring with ring cameras you can check on your pets to catch them in the act Or just keep them company Make sure they're okay while you're away with ring learn more at ring.com/pets Next up on the mutual audio network fiction from our future you The following audio drama is rated PG for parental guidance As the Pearl Drive Rockets begin their landing pattern I look to my lab at the captain of the small scout vessel Loki Captain Pellegrion gives me a thumbs up We have only enough fuel to land interrogate chief lab technician Malcolm Bearden as to the death of his assistant Davis Dallum and leave in quick order Fuel is an economy and space flight Even if an investigated death proves to be murder From the Golden Age of science fiction to the undiscovered worlds of the future Through time and space the mutual audio network brings you the original stories of parallel planets and alien adventure fire retro riots My name is Special Ranger Elias Taggart The following is my report as to the Dallum death incident on the Neptunian moon Triton We exited the Loki and Captain Pellegrion walked with me to the main docking station of Triton Like most outer rim moons Triton is fully automated robots unload spent fuel canister Auto belts take raw mind and material and space gunk that is dumped here to the station's furnace Everything is burned down to their essences Triton is a science station mostly and the two station crew use a wide variety of elements for experimentation Hey Eternity ethereals what your pendant man that fiery box thing ain't that from the turtles? The Beathemat. Yeah, ain't they from office and sorry? Yeah, it's a coat, right? Some things so you don't Captain Pellegrion, you know is what I do that Earth Central has outlawed any religious or spiritual beliefs, of course It's all primitive behavior, man. When humans went to space we left that all behind Cults on earth disappeared on account that science kind of made the whole idea of a god move So what about the turtles? I mean the be out the muts. Oh, what about them? Ain't they been in space before we were by thousands of years well, I'll be a Thousand years he makes you think don't it what about well it wasn't space for like 500 years and We was torturing folk for pin witches. I guess that's right. So Why'd you wear the symbol? Here's the living pot dr. Beartley will be waiting for me through there. We got about 20 minutes before we got to leave that long, huh? That's the only window we got for three months we missed this and we ain't got enough fuel for our next rendezvous Now give me a call on the Comblink five minutes before just in case I get into it with the lab chief You expect in trouble No his reports pretty straightforward. It looks like his assistant Delum had a heart problem Happened sometimes in deep space the human body can act weird for long-term exposure to differing gravities Well, I'll wait for you back at the Loki. Oh, or if you need anything We'll do hey tagger. Yeah, you never said while you wear that flamebox symbol on your chain Are you know the regulations requiring people to report deviant behavior to earth central? Yeah? See you later. Yeah, well good luck You Chief lab technician Malcolm Beartley what an odd question Why is it odd? There's only one other living human on this tin can of a station and you just left him on the ship Unless they sent more than a pilot. Oh, no standard procedure for military bases is to keep possible contamination to a minimum one pilot and one extra territorial special ranger I'm special Ranger Elias Taggart Please to make your acquaintance, please sit down have some coffee. I just made a pot This will just take a few minutes Coffee is one of the few pleasures that remind me of earth You don't have any chocolate do I'll make a note of your request for the next rocket shipment hmm now if we could just you don't use a portable computer well I prefer to use pencil and paper for my preliminary notes. You're the special Ranger. So Where's the body? Davis. Oh, he's in a container in the bay death certificate filled out here on the log tapes They're down. I'm showing you signs of sickness No, we just sort of drop dead one day One day is alive next day is dead. Just sort of flicking a light switch Fascinating that What's your work here on trident well as you know our work is classified well For the purposes of this investigation. What is the nature of your work? Did you know that at the moment of death a biological being produces an incredible release of energy? It does. Yes previously it had gone undetected but Davis had a cat poor thing was sick I'm not a veterinarian but it had all the signs of cancer and Davis decided that the humane thing was to put the little furball out of its misery. He did Seriously this coffee is incredible. I mean the machine is quite extraordinary The station has limited power energy is a premium and I couldn't get it working before but now I'm fine. Thank you. Yes for the cat. Yes the cat well We were in the midst of analyzing various means of energy containment, you know scanning frequencies Hitherto never really considered The cat jumped up on the pad very same pad see that desk that one over there It's the largest flat surface and Davis a dr. Talam. He was scanning the poor thing got in the way It was humane at least and that was the end of the cat like flipping off a switch But the cat had uses long beyond its existence. I mean as it crossed the beam It was absorbed by the containment Davis measured a massive release of energy at the very moment the cat Perished What kind of energy unknown really? But it was contained where we looked into past a similar occurrences similar occurrences Now the work of Peck and course chiefly among them, but they were replete with religious overtones What kind of religious overtones? Oh The typical Cultish mumbo jumbo it's hard to get through the religiosity of it all chakras and the like but even researchers such as bird Curly and hunt and Zimmerman identified two types of energies Veritable and putative one second doctor Veritable those that can be measured in detectable forms like what oh the usual suspects sound vibrations visible light laser beams and rays from the electromagnetic spectrum and Putative those that cannot or rather have not until this moment and You had measured this putative energy from the cat and Contained it contained it how well that was Dallam's mistake He held the creature's energy for a short time before he accidentally siphoned it off And it dissipated into the ether Such an energy alone could have powered this station for perhaps a month. I fell the least energy was massive But it took us a while to identify how to keep it contained and This was unique to the cat there was our question but there was very little information on the subject you see most studies were on the dead and dying and Well, they had no means to contain such power But if a biological species on such a tiny genus of feed line could provide such energy imagine the magnitude release of a larger species like a dog or a cow or man Exactly think of all the beings that perish on battlefields or through illness or even at the point of natural death If that released bioenergy could be harnessed and contained you could use it to provide power the applications are endless Imagine rockets that wouldn't require mind numbing astral calculations to research the tiniest trajectories to make leaps from the solar worlds to home You believe it could power a rocket? definitely oh Of course Dallam had his doubts. He was Uncomfortable of the thought old superstitions die hard. Don't you see? Superstations Yes Dallam said that this energy might be proof of something else What by the soul of course? Imagine a scientist in the modern age worried about some primitive belief of a an immortal soul the very concept is Ridiculous yes Ridiculous I did my best to persuade him. You see I see But he threatened to report what we were doing is immoral non-ethical I Understand but the stakes are too high. Don't you see the minds of Kuiper belt are strangling the economy? Just bringing back the radioactive ore from the outer rims is too costly the entire human experience in space is threatened I understand your concerns It was only by pure chance that Dallam passed away pure chance Yes, he had made a terrible error. Perhaps he thought he had turned off the energy containment system But he was caught in the beam and flipped off Like a light switch it was pure chance that a lot of pure chance in your science professor birtly Yes, but like so many others his sacrifice towards science. What sacrifice? Davis Dr. Dallam had proved our theory. Well, so Why the subsequent release of energy at his passing had been repurposed repurposed Yes, I told you the limitations of this station Now we have coffee Big coffee machine Dallam is it's in there. Oh, don't be up to special Ranger dr. Dallam is dead He's passed away. This is just surplus energy surplus enough to power the coffee maker for almost 10 years Weirdly just imagine how something so small could Ready to go Ranger fire it up Captain Pellegrion Hey, what's that you got under your arm? We're going to need to change course We ain't heading back to Earth Central. Well, we will but we'll have to make a close pass to the Sun first Why's that gonna drop this thing off you dropping that off into the Sun. Yes, and this little excursion stays off the books You're the boss. I'll just have to make some calculations energy ain't free. You know No, it isn't Looks like a coffee maker It does you're gonna have us change course just to drop a coffee maker into the Sun. Yeah, that's about the size of it What about the professor Sadly, no one was alive Radiation leak damaged even their tapes and notes. I guess we'll never find out what happened They'll have to send new scientists. I guess or in the meantime I'm recommending it to be retrofitted for refining from the Kuiper belt If they bring in the ore here Manufacturing can produce the fuel and we can change trident into a gas pump Seems like a lot of effort you think they'd come up with a cheaper way to power rockets Some science just can't break natural loss. I guess not Hey, where can I get one of those flame-box symbols this oh? You have to be able to spend some time with the Beathen mutt Learn their way somewhat. Yeah, I'm a born spacer couldn't imagine staying off the Loki for long Interesting people. Do you know they believe that the soul is undying and sacred. Is that what they mean by eternity ethereals? Yeah, that's a translation from their language It means all beings in the universe have a responsibility for not just our own souls, but to protect the souls of others Come on primitive peoples. What's he gonna do, huh? Loki rocket ready to lift off standby. Yep, primitive peoples Standing by retro rockets online firing me The responsibility of all living souls making their way across the ebb and curtain of night on their way home Retro rockets is an anthology series based on the explorations of science fiction from the golden age for a new audience Spirit Drive was written and directed by Jack J. Ward Starring Jeff biller is Captain Peligrey Tom Conkel is Professor Beardley and with Joe Stoffko a special ranger tagger This episode was produced by John Bell. I am your host Loth our teller. Good night (upbeat music) (logo whooshing)