S1E4 - West - It's Plants and Dirt and Bones... In Space

There is, unfortunately, no escaping physics. Bound by the speed of light, even information must take. It's time to get birth going. And as we move farther into the void, that time grows until the distance becomes unspeakable.

Hello, and welcome to Day 511 of Station Relays Mindless, orbiting around the big, ugly yellow planet known as Boxora Four. I'm your host, Sergeant Axel West, unwilling but necessary participant in this four year tour to study space stuff. You know, I was going to look up what that's called, and I forgot it's like biometrics or astrobiometry or something. Dr. Whelan calls her work botany, but Dr. Hines stuff is paleo palean something or other, so it gets confusing. Anyway, it's plants and dirt and bones in space. That's it. All right, listeners, I'll just jump right into it. I know you're sitting on the edge of your seats. I've heard your requests and questions and have come prepared this week. First, I've asked my captain and several of the crew, but no one can tell me why this planet was given the suffix four. To the best of their knowledge, there is no Boxora Three or two, or even just a boxora in general. The title apparently started at four, and that's all there is to it. If that's not totally terrifying on some level, I don't know what is. Second, and this is a question I get a lot. No, I am not a scientist. I'm an engineer. Huge difference. Scientists do things like take apart space leaves with tiny lasers, or make coffee from the dark stuff that comes out of a space mollusk's. Well, I won't talk about that, but it is weird how much it tastes like coffee. Yeah, that's science stuff. I do things like hole repair and clean out a lot of tubing and solder wires together when Dr. Ness's pretrometer thing stops working. I also clean a lot and make dinner like four times a week. And I don't really think that's fair, but I get voted down every time I try and bring up a change to the schedule. I'm being summoned. Oh, but one last thing before I go. I started reading the book you all recommended me by the one guy who did Space Cats and Other Tales. I initially cringed at the idea of an alien bug battle robot romance, but I gotta admit, you all were right. It's awesome. Keep sending me your questions, listeners. Stay cool, be kind to people, and say hi to your pets for me because I miss animals with fur. Good night, listeners.

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 network.