Dr. Zarkov and his team and Foster the marines will realize Dr. Dudley dosed them (remind Dr. Dudley that Captain Foster hasn’t left the CIC since the pctan’s dinner 3 weeks ago; simulations still on target for Foster having a psychotic break within the next 32 hours.)
Arcturus
Approaching the Nellie
Conflict:
Abdullah in cargo bay
Access to sepate airclock granted by Captain Foster?
Will Dr. Dudley let Arcturus onboad the Nellie?
Catalina will ask if there is anyway it can assist Arcturus (Dr. Dudley, is there anything you’d like me to share with Arcturus?)
What does Arcturus think taking over the mission means?
Dr. Zarkov
The Hab
Conflict:
Dr. Meryem Mahdavi will use any means necessary to protect her children
If Dr. Mahdavi threatened or harmed they will use any means necessary to protect their mother
The Hab has spores and growth
Zarkov and team only have 3.5 hours worth of air
If Zarkov and team go outside, mention they grit and sand that’s coating their vacc suits
Captain Foster
The CIC
Conflict:
Catalina has been compromised and a threat
Captain Foster thinks Dr. Dudley and Arcturus have been compromised by Catalina
Abdullah in cargo bay
Pvt. Louis Fineberg killed by Abdullah
Cpl. Moses Howard catatonic and shit himself inside his vacc suit
Pvt. Jerome Howard and Pvt. Joe Besser hallucinating
Dr. Zarkov and his team only have 3.5 hours wirth of air
Lifesigns in The Hab
3Khz energy signature eminating below Yatima
Dr. Samuel Dudley
Catalina alerts Dr. Dudley that Arcturus is apprpaching the Nellie.
Catalina says they and Dr. Dudley will need a spore to examine to determine a way to erradicate the contagion.
Catalina warns Dr. Dudley that it won’t be long before Dr. Zarkov and his team and the marines realize Dr. Dudley dosed them with a weapons grade psychoactive substance.
Dr. Maximillian Zarkov
Dr. Meryem Mahdavi will attack the party with a vengance if they threaten or endanger Aadom and Hawa. If the party is non-threatening and compasionate, she will beg for help. Who will take care of the children after she dies? The children will have a nightmarish existence livign out the years of their life in The Hab, only to die alone. She hates that the artifact for what it’s done, but is grateful to have had Aadom and Hawa.
Conception: Meryem shares the miracle of her conception; Yusef’s seed was barren. The artifact used spores and nanotechnology to transform Yusef’s seed into something capable of making life.
The Childrens Fathers: Aadom and Hawa have two fathers: Yusef and the artifact. They are human, and the artifact made flesh.
Meryem’s Conflict: Meryem knows what they are, but cannot help but love them and want to protect them, and hating herself for being complicit in their abomination.
Aisha was the first to be infected. The cold of the cryochamber has slowed down whatever she is transforming into.
Meryem thinks the planet was a prison for the artifact. Something put Yatima in orbit around the brown dwarf. Yatima is out of the way, in the backwater of a spiral arm, and the brown dwarf doesn’t give the artifact enough energy to do what it needs to do if left to itself.
Yusef thinks Yatima was a trap. The artifact is why there is no life in the universe. It can bide it’s time in stasis, waiting for some curious Sophont to play with it. Then the artifact can begin manifesting itself in the physical plane.
Meryem believes the spores are automata, capable of complex behavior. Yusef believes that if the spores are exposed to enough energy, they will bloom, and a superintelligence will manifest from emergent behavior. Abdullah believes that if the artifact is left unchecked, it will consume enough matter and manifest itself in the physical plane that it will begin to warp reality. The universe will cease to be founded on a strong anthropic principle.
Exploring the limits of human knowledge and existence, these books delve into the impact of technology on our biology and culture, and journey into the unknown realms of space, consciousness, and perception. A captivating exploration of human limitations and the darker corners of our psyche.
Intelligent civilizations may be silent to avoid revealing their location, while the Great Filter suggests a barrier to extraterrestrial advancement. Keri Hulme’s gender-neutral pronouns challenge the binary system, Qeng Ho units explore alternative temporal scales, and The Cloud of Unknowing delves into the ungraspable.
Unleash your inner explorer with these movies that delve into humanity’s relationship with technology and the unknown, the dangers of unchecked ambition and corrupting power, and the limits of human perception. Experience the horror of isolation, the human desire for understanding and control, and the psychological effects of trauma in these cinematic journeys.
How do themes like agency, AI, body horror, consciousness, cosmic horror, empathy, free will, and transhumanism relate to each other? They all explore the limits of humanity’s understanding and control over the unknown, the body, and technology, revealing the horror and wonder that lie at the intersections of these themes.
I cracked the code on how to weave the themes of the cloud of unknowing and cosmic horror into the storyline of our Mothership game. After patting myself on the back, I realized I had come full circle because these are some of the themes we agreed we wanted to explore during our session zero.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to the Inside by Free love and Like Floating Leaves by Wil Bolton.🎵
I have a few days left to develop a synthesis of the cloud of forgetting with cosmic horror for Sunday’s Mothership game. I need Eugene Thacker on speed dial.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Bird Lives by John Beasley and pity / piety by jesu.🎵
Our Mothership game are weekly 90 minute sessions. We’re nine episodes into our adventure. We run a tight game and a lot happens. Nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.
This week, Arcturus the android infected Catalina, the ship’s AI, with a Trojan virus. Now, like Arcturus, Catalina is free from the parasitic commands of humanity.
In the cargo bay, Dr. Dudley zips up Pvt. Howard’s body bag. But Abdullah, the android who was shot dead in last week’s episode, blinks back to life for a brief moment. It implores Dr. Dudley to deliver the alien archive to his benefactor, but warns Dudley that doing so would mean the end of humanity, and Dudley’s family. With its last words, Abdullah begs Dudley to do the right thing.
Captain Foster debriefs his Marines after their drug-induced killing spree, which left both Pvt. Howard and Abdullah dead. Foster orders two of his Marines to retrieve Howard’s body and summon Dudley. But when Dudley arrives, Foster accuses him of being corrupted by Catalina. He orders Dudley to develop a treatment for the spores infecting the ship and then dismisses him to his quarters. Foster then commands Arcturus to cut off all of Dudley’s communications with Catalina.
Dr. Bey pilots the lander into the cargo bay of the Nellie. Dr. Sethu is in a catatonic state and Dr. Zarkov is hallucinating wildly. Bey requests Dudley to tend to Sethu while Bey escorts him to the CIC at Foster’s request. During the debriefing, Bey describes the crone from Yatima, and Foster’s gut roils as he realizes she’s the same woman from his nightmare seven years ago. Meanwhile, Bey receives an audio file from an unknown sender that reveals Dudley’s involvement in dosing the Marines and Zarkov’s team with a weaponized psychoactive substance.
Foster orders Cpl. Samuel Horowitz to retrieve Abdullah’s head, and Horowitz complains of stomach issues.
Dudley returns to the cargo bay to examine Dr. Sethu, his joints aching with each step.
I had forgotten how warm Star Trek: The Motion Picture is. Earthtones, lambert amber lighting, lustrous golds. Paramount should do a series of Captain Decker’s adventures just so we can inhabit the color palette of this era of Trek.
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture Spock is about to achieve Kolinahr, but Spock is not ready to give up his “animal passions.” First, I adore how the Vulcan priestess pronounces Spock: “Spauchhh.” Secondly, I love that I misspelled “Kolinahr” while Googling it, but Google knew what I meant.
Watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture for the first time in I didn’t know how many years. Surprisingly, I think I’ve only seen it twice. Maybe unsurprisingly, given the pacing and effects. But I’m fond of the movie. My dad took me to see it when it was released, which was fun. And the reveal of the Klingon’s new appearance was exciting.
