"Anchorage" by Samantha Mills
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi, I'm Will, and it's story time.
I'm so glad you're here. It's been a minute since we spent some time in deep space, in that vast emptiness between planets and galaxies, a place that feels eternal, infinite. I imagine it's pretty lonely. Today, we're boarding a starship that's been out there for quite some time, and its crew is starting to feel it. We're joining them when the sameness of their voyage has been interrupted, and not a moment too soon. So come with me. Come with us. Anchorage by Samantha Mills, originally published in Uncanny Magazine, issue 36. The Anchorage appeared on my radar screen as a blip, a blotch, one bit of detritus among many. The accompanying message was gentle but persistent. An invitation repeated on loop for anyone who might pick it up.
Visit if you like. The politest distress call in the universe. Visit if you like. And please bring food, printer fuel, next-gen wires. Conversation. I forwarded the signal to Captain Rousseff. This action revealed impatience on my part, excitement, and inability to wait until after breakfast. I couldn't help it. Novelty. Newness. I craved it like a subterranean lizard man craved phosphor. I craved it like Captain Rousseau craved silence. Over the past year, my crew, yes, my crew, my crew, the word still sounded the way I imagine liquor tastes, warming and biting and frightening and loud. My crew made medical deliveries to a dozen colonies. We saw titanium waterfalls and genetically enhanced caribou. We walked through bone-lined catacombs.
We rode air trams through toxic jungles. We stopped a necrotic worm outbreak and vaccinated 3,000 children against belly rot. More, more, everything I'd hoped for and more. But the crew was too busy bickering to appreciate any of it. Everyone was angry, and nobody would admit why. So they picked something inconsequential and battled a year's worth of hurt over it. I listened in through the mess hall intercom. I could have listened in through Captain Rousseau's cochlear chip, but then he would know. All four members of the Metrodora were licensed pharmaceutical technicians. But he was the only one who ever scrutinized my vitals. Terrifying. But I loved him for it. We're out of breakfast bars, Olivia complained.
I said to log things as they run out, Malala said. I would have if I knew somebody ate them all, Santiago grumbled. Just ask when resupply gets here. Either they have some or they don't. I pictured it, Olivia aggressively shoving waste into the trash chute because she always cleaned when she was angry. Malala mumble-hunching because it wasn't her fault, not according to Malala. Santiago interjecting, even though nobody would listen. And Captain Rousseau, my beautiful captain. Well, he was always a bit of mystery, a bit of light and shadow, a bit of dusty air wandering. But he would hold them all together in the end. Captain Rousseau cleared his throat and said in his beautiful voice, Geneva has picked up an anchorage.
A beat of silence. Then, no, Olivia said. Oh, fun, Malala said. No, Olivia said again. I'm not risking contamination for some, some obsolete religious experience. I was clawing inside my own chest to contradict her. A ship could travel years without encountering an anchorage. Decades. This was newness, exploration, questing, curiosity. This was a thousand-year flower at millennium's dawn. This was birth canal. This was sunlight through a canopy fire. Surely at least one of these metaphors was correct. I would hardly call the practice religious. Santiago, of course. He would know what he was talking about. He had taken three long-distance history courses. They're rich women with enough money to outfit a hundred-year pod and the nerve to expect everyone else to feed them.
Ridiculous, Malala said. Nobody commits to a lifetime of seclusion because they don't want to feed themselves. It's hardly seclusion if everybody stops to say hello, is it? You might not see anybody for years. I waited anxiously for Captain Rousseau to weigh in. I had tried to read him once, shortly after I came on board.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–6:08
2
What invitation does the mysterious Anchorage signal to passing starships?
6:08–9:23
3
How does Geneva describe life and tension aboard the Medrodora crew?
9:23–19:09
4
Why does the crew debate whether to let the anchorage dock?
19:09–57:31