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Star Catcher · InkandNeon | Speculative Fiction Stories

• 0:00
  You know, I had a whole script prepared for this
• 0:02
  moment, but reading over it now and I don't think
• 0:06
  I'm gonna read it. Starcatchers. You and me,
• 0:12
  Alejandro. That's what they called us. Starcatchers.
• 0:17
  If you're listening to this then it probably
• 0:20
  means I didn't make it. I am sorry that I turned
• 0:25
  you down when you asked me to leave with you.
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  but I did the math and a corporate said that
• 0:36
  if they implemented the AI now it would have
• 0:40
  a 98 % success rate that would mean at least
• 0:45
  1076 people a year would die and I can't live
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  the rest of my life knowing that's going to happen
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  but I don't know if I can do this last one without
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  you man there's something that I haven't told
• 1:00
  anyone. Neuro degradation is getting worse. I
• 1:06
  saw a cyberneticist and he said that my jack
• 1:10
  chip is pretty much just swimming in my brain
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  fluid right now, barely holding on to the smallest
• 1:17
  fibres of my spine. He said that if I even got
• 1:23
  slightest whiplash it would disconnect and my
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  whole body would be paralysed forever. Let alone
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  doing what I'm about to do. I should have taken
• 1:34
  you up on your offer years ago before they even
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  implemented this machine. Before they started
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  tracing our skills. You and I, we could have
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  seen the world. Solar System went to that theme
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  park on Mars, skipped across the asteroids on
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  Saturn. I guess I just wanted to be with you.
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  to see your face. Eight years we worked together.
• 2:03
  They never allowed us to see one another. They
• 2:07
  said it would break the sink. Never could tell
• 2:10
  you much about myself. That was another one of
• 2:13
  their rules. What I'm gonna tell you now, you
• 2:18
  probably imagined me as some kind of genius.
• 2:23
  You said it a lot. I couldn't deny it. I wasn't
• 2:29
  allowed to deny it. I wanted to tell you my feelings
• 2:35
  for you, but I was too afraid of doing that too.
• 2:39
  You and I, we spent so much time together catching
• 2:42
  stars that we forgot to follow our dreams. You
• 2:47
  asked me once about my family, and well, here
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  it is. I was a vat -born child. wasn't even my
• 2:55
  parents first pick but my father never let me
• 3:01
  know that he never let me feel that way that
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  I was second rate my life was quite blessed my
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  parents loved me my sisters were a handful but
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  I was always there for them and they were there
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  for me they taught me true love What that meant
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  That is all that is how I know I feel for you
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  is real I'm sorry if it makes you awkward or
• 3:32
  don't feel the same way, but I feel like I have
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  to tell you we We grew up near one of the last
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  remaining pictures on earth one of five a playing
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  field could you imagine the Chance of that my
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  father and I would play catch on the weekends
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  when he got back from his work at the UCPA. He
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  was a terrible thrower. Nothing like yourself.
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  We had a lot of good times. My sisters would
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  watch from the grandstands. They would laugh
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  and giggle. God, I miss them. There was something
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  about me, I guess. I was born with a defect.
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  Something that made my eyes hypersensitive to
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  the world around me. I could trace the smallest
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  of movements, and apparently I could see a light
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  spectrum that no one else could. The doctors
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  and a cyberdeticist, they all said that it was
• 4:39
  a leftover mutation, something from what humans
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  used to be. They said they could cut it out during
• 4:47
  the augmentation process on my 10th birthday.
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  But I didn't want them to. I wanted to keep it,
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  you know. After that process, I knew it would
• 5:00
  be hard, but it was something that was special
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  to me, something that I had in doing, so I had
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  to wear glasses for most of my life to darken
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  the world around me. For someone with such good
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  sight, they had to limit it to barely a foot
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  in front of me. Otherwise I would have... terrible
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  migraines that felt like hot needles burning
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  into my brain. I wasn't an ace student at the
• 5:29
  academy. I think I placed 10th, I believe. That
• 5:34
  was stupid, too busy chasing girls and being
• 5:39
  an idiot. But a man approached me. He was a strange,
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  strange man. He was a cyberneticist from Darwin.
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  He... I don't know. He just... He rubbed me the
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  wrong way. But he said that he could get me augmentations
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  for the eyes. Not remove them, but enhance them.
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  All his credentials were fine and Tao entrusted
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  him and at the time my family and I thought nothing
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  of it and I said yes. That was how I got into
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  the arm program. I wasn't... Never the first
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  pick, but always the one they get, right? Being
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  10th in my class meant that I was 10th on the
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  rung. But they put me through a cadetship speed
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  run me through it all. I got massive numbers.
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  The best they've ever seen, they said. That is
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  how I ended up being a starcatcher alongside
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  you. When they put me in that pilot seat for
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  real, I remembered looking. up into space. I
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  could feel it calling to me. The echoes and the
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  subtle movement. The ships that came and went
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  were like wire moving through oil. They were
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  nice. I dreamt of just floating out into the
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  abyss. Then I realized how much I had lost. My
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  eyes were now just another tool, but I loved
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  it. this job, there's nothing else I would trade
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  for in the world. When those stray vessels that
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  careen off the magnetic line and come straight
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  for us, catching them in my hands, it was glorious
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  as the whole station would just pause, still
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  that watch behind the blast doors as I plucked
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  the ships from the lanes like a Surgeon, there
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  you were on the other end. As the ships came
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  towards me, you balanced it all. You threw another
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  one out and the centrifuge would go on and on
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  and on. And they started calling it a home run.
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  They said it because most of the workers would
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  bolt off back to their families and then they'd
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  have to come all the way back when they're given
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  the all clear. A home run. I like that. I've
• 8:19
  always liked that. I belong here. Even as they
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  replaced you on the other end with that cold,
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  silent machine. I need to be here. It'll be my
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  13th catch. And with it, the artificial intelligence
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  will reach max capacity. Not a single life will
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  be lost. Not another catcher. Nor another stray
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  ship being destroyed by Earth's automatic defense
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  systems to spare damages to the Dyson Sea grid
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  It'll just go on and on and on never thought
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  I'd be Sitting here afraid of my 13th catch They're
• 9:02
  gonna make a mock one up for me. That's how I
• 9:05
  know it's coming The shuttle itself is going
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  to be empty. No one inside. I think in some way
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  corporate might want me to miss I have no idea
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  but I'm going to catch it and I'm I'm going to
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  die Alejandro but it will be a good death a worthy
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  one I wish I could have seen it all with you
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  but I guess um I'll see you again one day right
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  I'll um I'll see you on the bright side of the
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  moon man They're calling my name now. Sorry,
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  Leandro. I guess this is it. I just wanted to
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  say now that we'll see each other again one day
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  soon. Eternity isn't that long, right? And I
• 10:03
  guess I'll see you on the bright side of the
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  moon, man. See you around, eh? Ross didn't survive
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  that day. Some still remember, others have forgotten.
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  Now where the man became myth evolved into a
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  legend, where corporate would want you to forget
• 10:28
  the shoulders in which really prop you up. Ross
• 10:31
  died in that armchair, catching his final home
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  run. There was a silence, a weariness to all
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  the operators there. They knew it would be his
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  last. and when they walked into the room saw
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  his body there his jack searing at the base of
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  his skull a defiant smile across his face he
• 10:54
  did not weep for the man they congratulated him
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  they gave him one last round of applause so next
• 11:02
  time you go off world and if you're out by the
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  south of that automatic system that catches throws
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  the ships out and keeps the centrifuge balance
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  have a look at the arm and on the end you will
• 11:15
  see we're in a permanent mark etched into that
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  billion dollar crane you will see his name and
• 11:22
  the lucky number that brings so many people home
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  safe as always everyone good night and good luck
• 11:32
  ink signing off