THE OUTPOST
Grant Hickey, calm and lonely. Stoic, eager.
Vanessa 98949, sharp and commanding, modern
Lassiter, on Janice (another nearby outpost)
Nocturne Boulevard? Not far. When you hit
Howard, hang a right. Howard meets Phillip
at a weird kind of angle, then you cross
James and Poe. You can't miss Nocturne -
strange, and supernatural. Tonight's story
Did you have any trouble finding it? What
do you mean, what kind of a place is it?
Why, it's an outpost in an asteroid cloud,
INSIDE OUTPOST MU LAMBDA EPSILON [Millie]
MACHINE AND ELECTRONIC NOISES, SLOSHING OF
Don't be stupid. It's Vanessa 98949. How
Nonsense. I am ordering you to tell me--
Now there ain't no call to get huffy, miss.
[altering slightly] Your Vox? The one who
What the hell kind of place is this? [pain]
yourself some rest. [fogging out] Waking
RADIO UNIT BEING SHAKEN, CRACKLES TO LIFE
[hesitant] Frequency 12? Is there anyone
Your comm unit isn't set to recognize my
All righty. I have to finish up something,
SHAKES RADIO UNIT - SOMETHING SHAKES LOOSE
DOOR SWOOSHES OPEN, FOOTSTEPS ENTER, DOOR
[sigh] All righty. Brought you some chow.
[seething] It's been almost an entire hour!
Was quicker to finish what I was doing than
to come in and get back out again later.
There must be someone else here - I will
[indignant] What? How can you even look me
[beat, then sigh] Call me again when you're
[up] The-- [deep breath, forces herself to
Hmm. Looks like I'm gonna have to get in
But I still don't understand what you're
saying about-- [sees her eating, makes an
[real relief] Finally - a civilized voice!
Final log entry of star cruiser Xanadu. G-
vector, Delta quadrant, encountered space
debris. Explosion. Unknown cause. Xanadu
evac mandated. Pods loosed at ship day 172,
Calculating. One thousand, three hundred
Cruiser Xanadu, bound for Ganymede 800 in
I don't know what all your specs there are,
but first, no one much comes this far out,
cruiser Xanadu, I command you to take me to
[off, leaning in] Wish I could. Left you
The room? [working up] You kept me locked up
Door don't even lock. I was wondering why
Well o'course not. Doors don't have ears.
You're an underengineer sub chief thingee
Well, I guess we're all a bit old fashioned
here. This is how you open the door. Wave
You said we're all a bit old fashioned - who
[controlling some strong emotion, at being
slammed against a wall] Well - um - I was
including the doors and all. [deep breath]
DOOR SWOOSHES OPEN. A COUPLE OF FOOTSTEPS,
[pride] Yup. Millie's brain center. There
are 42 more just like her spread throughout
[hurt, but covering] Millie has 12 chambers
Out! How do you call out! I need to make
arrangements to get the hell out of here!
Nothing here works! Nothing works at all!
Now I'm real sorry about that, but you need
to breathe. And let me finish my sentences.
Well, not here, you couldn't. [sigh] Now,
other outposts, or the quarterly supply ship
- if he's in range. Just might be - he come
[disgusted noise] Males have been proven
inferior and in the civilized galaxy have
functional capacity. We keep enough genetic
material around to promote healthy offspring
and breed a few males each generation for
You mean where you come from is all ladies?
genetic material, and it's automatically
No one "has" children - you make it sound
like they're dogs, [snide] or men. Children
belong to the community, and are raised in a
proper safe environment, under supervision.
But - those poor little boys and girls--
[sigh] them poor little kids, never knowing
personnel. Much better for their long-term
someone like me, with a career on a star
immersed in study of childhood ailments and
[hurt, slightly annoyed] Look, you can mock
me, and turn your nose up at Millie, but
[scratchy, on filter] Hey Grant? You there?
[scratchy, on filter] That capsule thing you
[hurried] Ah, hell. Let me call you back,
SLIGHT SCUFFLE, SHE BLOCKS HIM FROM LEAVING
[not quite screaming] Was he talking about a
You sold a - a - a PERSON to that - that
What makes you think the pod weren't empty?
Don't matter. Sides, what would I do with
The same as you're doing with one - nothing
I'm talking to you, I'm doing nothing at
Yes! [lower, into the mike] Lassiter? Come
[scratchy, on filter] Excellent - it did
work! You tell Grant to let me know what he
[scratchy, on filter] Yeah. [eager] I can't
[warning] Lassiter. You do know it's vastly
illegal to rescue someone and then force
committing high seas slavery, according to
[scratchy, on filter] Is Grant there? Can
Lassiter. I will make a bargain with you.
I will help you revive the survivor, if you
will -- let me talk to her as soon as she
And if you understand that I will find a way
to come over there and kill you if you hurt
Aye-aye, Vox. Data mode for now. I await
Remind him I will kill him if he hurts you.
He doesn't seem very threatening. I could
We were part of the same crew. I have rank,
so I told her I would protect her. It's my
Protect her? From Lassiter? He ain't some
[thinks, then] You hold all the cards. All
you have to do is refuse me food, and I'm
wanted to actually hurt you, I gotta blaster
for that. I just wanted you to think twice
Of the deepsub pods. Did you just find the
the last to revive, so all of y'all are all
You gotta learn to stop giving me orders.
She died. Since then. [shrug] I got work
[belligerent] What is this work that seems
You ask nice, you'll get a lot more answers.
[beat, then making an effort] What is it
Salvage. Used to be mining, but the cloud
here grabs every lump of crap out of the
nearest 10-20 sectors, so salvage pays a
And maintenance. Millie here's old. I keep
her limping along, but it's truly full time.
Come on. I'll show you where the food units
are. Then you ain't gotta wait on me if you
So this switch here changes the band - you
gotta jiggle it a bit, sometimes. And this
list here shows all the other habitats -
the ones up top are closest - most reliable
for contact. Next down, these three - well
- I ain't heard from them in a while. Not
No one vacates. Not unless-- But [trying
to convince himself] comm equipment goes
down sometimes - a lot - and it's a bitch to
All the habitats are as old as .this one?
Yeah, they were built for miners - never
really meant to be permanent, but you know
somewhere. Someone must be buying it. Why
You say it's a full time job just keeping
this place from falling down around your
But this is my home. I was born right here
It is falling apart. I hope you don't think
[beat, then neutral] Course not. But you do
I rescued you. I pulled your damn pod in
And I've been feeding you and letting you
breathe my air - which ain't cheap, I should
[a little winded] I patched your antenna
into the router from the pod's emergency
signal - some serious interface issues, let
Half my damn solar cells were damaged in the
SOLDERING IRON SPARKS, STOPS, FACEPLATE UP
Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Well, chicken, but yes - you get the idea.
I still have to code the machine's other
foodstuff options in for voice. I'll need
to get your voice into the system sometime,
[mood dropping] Right. O'course. So I can
You didn't have any trouble making contact?
I appear to be at the very butt end of the
cloud, so they're out of my range from here.
Helen 74589, and Griselda 80281 . um. do
They have become attached to this place.
Griselda declined any details, but Helen
seems to find some - companionship in the
Oh, yeah - many hands make light work, like
momma used to say, but there's always more
[hurt but covering] Never hurts - could put
some more hydroponics in there, maybe put in
some greens and generate oxy of my own. Why
You'd be better off with algae tanks. They
take more processing to make them palatable
for eating - much more - but they've been
Shouldn't be difficult - most cruisers have
algae tanks, and all you need is a dip to
start with and some growth media. The tank
- well you could pretty much put anything
together, if you're not too concerned about
production, anything that will contain the
growth medium and keep the temp stable will
--you could re-make one room for food plant
There's even better technology out there,
listen and whatever, this algae thing is the
only one that seems like it'd fit into my
beyond me, I don't see it mattering much.
Something to worry about not having? Nah.
I figure, easier just to assume you're gonna
tell me you can shit blueberry cobbler -
it's all well and good, but I don't wanna do
it. And goodness knows I don't wanna eat
[breath] Nah. It's all outside - I gotta
SHE STOPS HIM AND PULLS HIM ROUND TO FACE
simulators, plus over 300 hours working on
the hull in stagnant space. Shoot - you've
[finally snappish] Look! If things didn't
have to be done, I'd never get into one of
those damn things myself! There's no way
You don't - you don't like being out there?
You don't want to be here and that's fine.
I'd rather see you leave on the cargo ship
than [barely controlled] floating off into
[on filter] You can talk to him yourself.
I just want to know about suit drifts in
[overly casual] Just something Grant said.
Ah, here he is - You can help Vanessa, can't
[on filter] Sure. What you need? [snickers,
[tightly controlled] Why do you care? You
don't even have a father. [beat] I should
No. Unless you actually physically move me,
you're not leaving this room. Talk to me.
[swallows, then sighs, speaks very quietly]
The more I talk to you, the more I'll miss
having someone to talk to - later. [sniff]
No. I've lost people in space too - I did
my time in the corps, shipboard accidents.
I was 12 when my father's line got tangled,
and he had to cut it - then something in the
piece he was salvaging blew, and - it took
sight - he kept talking right up to the edge
[pause, then sincere, if dry] I feel for
That's all right. [deep breath] I've got
I want to - offer him sympathy, but he just
That's part of it - you have to admit it's
But don't you want to go back to your job?
Your home? Don't you want your life to have
[dry] You would have impressed everyone.
I would. The ship would. Everyone on it.
And someday someone would reach that rank
even younger, and when you retired, someone
else who could do the job just as well would
take over, and no one would even remember
Unless you did something like discover an
alien race or die to save a bunch of people
- but how often does that really happen?
And I'll bet every person you saved came and
BOTH - this scene - on filter throughout
Do you think the person inside is still all
Won't know if she is till we clear some of
Help me shift this plate - I think it'll
Hold on - No, not that. There's too much
leaning on it, and we don't know which way
This. I think this is the key piece, and I
don't see anything it can bring down with
At least we should be able to get it clear,
Let's lighten the load - get the corpse out
You want to just dump her out, right here?
She still deserves some respect. I'll do
Let me-- [sigh] You shoulda come back in
earlier - your fingers are nearly blue. I
told you the heat circulation in that suit
BEAT, THEN SKIN ON SKIN, AS HE SLOWLY CHAFES
They just come that way. Here, hold your
I don't like that nail color there. Can you
[long gasp, startled, amazed, and aroused]
[talking around her finger] Stop squirming.
Need to get the circulation back. Heat and
SLIGHT STRUGGLE, SHE PULLS HER HAND FREE
don't like about this - is it worth losing a
[long beat, erratic breathing] No. [gasp
[talking on the radio] Thanks for the heads
up Lassiter, but it'll happen or it won't.
Glad you're doing well, and. and congrats.
I didn't mean to sound. I'm just confused.
quarterly cargo ship will be here in the
Don't worry - by my calculations - we're
pretty much square, in fact you're a bit
ahead, hooking up those solar panels and
I appreciate your help here, uh, Vanessa.
Got me ahead of my schedule. [cracking a
little] Um, I should go and get the cargo
Would you-- Do you-- [a breath] What will
You should have kept Yasmin or Helen - they
Yup. I looked at you and knew that if I was
ever gonna take a chance, it'd have to be on
You go home. Have a good life. I got cargo
I'm doing all right. Even ordered an algae
Oh, I'm still ahead, even after her ticket--
Course. [breaking down] She - sh-she don't
I had to get used to being all alone. How
What-- What happened? Did they-? Did you
I decided there was a better use for the
cost of my passage - negotiated for three
more solar panels, and a couple more oxygen
You said it every time you couldn't look me
We build a tank for the algae. Many hands
Not bad. You could use a little practice.
[gasping a bit for breath, making a joke]
Well - I may have had my 100 - and then some
- hours of simulation, but I never actually
[laughs] Wait till you see the rest of the
Now that you know how to find us, you'll
have to come back. Maybe next week? Don't
UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL “DOS SIGLOS DE REVOLUCIONES EN MÉXICO” EN LA PRIMERA REPÚBLICA FEDERAL (1824-1835): ENTRE SOBERANÍA, DEBATES CONFLICTIVOS Y PUESTA EN ESCENA En la segunda sesión del congreso constituyente de Michoacán, el 7 de abril del año 1824, yo cito las actas “se presentó el Diputado Lloreda y habiendo hecho el juram
C H A P T E R 3 Coccidian Parasites Cyclospora cayetanensis, Isospora belli, 3.1 PREFACE Cyclospora cayetanensis , Isospora belli , and the Sarcocystis spp. Sarcocystis homi-nis and Sarcocystis suihominis are parasites that infect the enteric tract of humans(Beck et al ., 1955; Frenkel et al ., 1979; Ortega et al ., 1993). These parasites causedisease when infectious oocysts