The Last Unanswered Call

Episode summary

A salvage engineer answers a call from an abandoned relay and discovers that dismantling it could erase the people still inside. Chapter 1 of Far Signal: an eight-page science-fiction mystery.

Transcript

Panel 1: The small salvage ship approaches an immense dark annular relay station above a planet. Debris and damaged antenna structures surround the ring.
Caption: "Relay Nine. Scheduled for dismantling."

Panel 2: Mara examines her cockpit display while Sio stands beside her. The relay fills the window behind them.
Mara: "Anything still drawing power?"
Sio: "One relay core. No life-support load."

Panel 3: Mara reaches towards the communications receiver as a waveform appears on its screen.
Receiver voice: "Please do not cut the power."

Panel 4: Mara pauses and looks towards the receiver. Sio watches beside her, with the dark station beyond the window.
Mara: "Who is this?"
Receiver voice: "We are still here."

Panel 5: Wearing a sealed clear pressure helmet and carrying a tool case, Mara stands with Sio in the ribbed docking passage. The relay is visible through the circular opening ahead.

Panel 6: Mara and Sio enter a dark station corridor. Loose flakes of material drift through the beam from the robot.
Sio: "The evacuation was nine years ago."

Panel 7: Mara connects a diagnostic cable at a wall socket beside an amber screen.
Screen: "RECOVERY"
Mara: "Then we may be hearing a recording."

Panel 8: An amber electronic image of a woman with short hair and a high uniform collar appears on the wall screen. Mara listens through her sealed helmet.
Inez: "You always say that first."

Panel 9: Mara faces the screen while Sio holds a diagnostic connector beside her.
Mara: "Have we spoken before?"
Inez: "Not you. The people who came before."

Panel 10: Mara holds a small orange split washer near an open case of tools, away from the wall screen.
Mara: "Tell me what I am holding."

Panel 11: Mara and Inez face each other across the wall terminal. The washer is out of view.
Inez: "I cannot see your hand."
Mara: "Good. No guessing."

Panel 12: Mara presents the split washer on her open glove towards Sio. The robot holds its camera connector; Inez remains on the screen behind.
Sio: "I can share my camera."
Inez: "Only if you want to."

Panel 13: Sio is connected to the wall terminal by a cable. The screen shows both Inez and a camera view of the orange washer on Mara's glove.
Inez: "Orange. Split on one side."

Panel 14: Mara bends the flexible orange washer into a rough heart between her gloved hands. The new shape is also visible beside Inez on the screen.
Mara: "And now?"
Inez: "A terrible heart."

Panel 15: Mara turns towards a bank of station equipment. The wall screen retains the heart-shaped washer image beside Inez.
Mara: "You are not repeating the old distress call."

Panel 16: Inez's amber face breaks into sparse flickering scan lines on the wall screen.
Inez: "We sent ourselves with it. The bodies never arrived."

Panel 17: Sio illuminates an open machinery recess beside the wall screen. A large coolant-pump drive has a visibly broken coupling; a red temperature indicator is high.
Sio: "Cooling stopped. Core temperature rising."

Panel 18: Mara points at the two fractured ends of the metal drive coupling.
Mara: "The motor works. The coupling does not."

Panel 19: Mara holds the small orange heart-shaped washer near the much larger broken machinery. Her other empty glove rests at the open tool case.
Mara: "This needs a drive shaft, not a lucky charm."

Panel 20: Inez flickers on the screen beside the high red temperature indicator. Mara watches with concern.
Inez: "When it goes dark, we lose the last few minutes."
Mara: "Then let us keep these ones."

Panel 21: Sio shows a simple amber comparison of its detachable cylindrical tool drive and a matching pump connection. Its two tool arms and three supporting legs are intact.
Sio: "My tool drive fits."

Panel 22: Mara crouches beside Sio and indicates the robot's detachable tool drive. The broken pump is behind them.
Mara: "You would lose your tools until we get home."

Panel 23: Sio offers its tool drive towards Mara's open glove.
Sio: "I can still tell you what to do."

Panel 24: Mara turns a physical load-control dial beneath the wall screen. Inez remains visible while the core is slowed; the coolant-pump drive is still broken.
Mara: "I am slowing the core. It buys us a little time."

Panel 25: Mara uses a wrench to release Sio's cylindrical tool-drive module, supporting it with her other glove. The robot keeps its illuminated lens, main body and three legs.

Panel 26: The removed drive is secured in a bolted adaptor within the pump-drive recess. Mara tightens a fixing. Sio stands behind her with both slim tool arms folded and no duplicate drive module.

Panel 27: The repaired machinery has a closed inspection cover. Blue coolant moves through a transparent pipe section and the temperature indicator is lower. Sio's tool arms stay folded.
Sio: "Cooling restored."

Panel 28: Mara places the single orange heart-shaped washer on the shelf below Inez's now-stable image.
Mara: "Still a terrible heart?"
Inez: "Worse from this angle."

Panel 29: Mara sits on the service deck in her sealed helmet, with Sio beside her and the working coolant system behind. The heart-shaped washer rests beneath Inez's screen.
Mara: "I came to take this place apart."
Inez: "I know."

Panel 30: Mara holds a tablet displaying the cancelled salvage order.
Screen: "SALVAGE CANCELLED"
Mara: "Change of job."

Panel 31: The wall screen shows a schematic network with several pulsing relay points around a central point and Inez in an inset. Sio watches the map.
Sio: "More replies. On the same emergency channel."

Panel 32: A wide view reveals the immense station service spine. Mara and Sio are small figures beside the stable amber terminal and operating coolant system.
Inez: "I told you. We are still here."