A Dreamless Sleep

This is the sixth episode of SAYER, in which SAYER detects an infiltrator en route to Typhon.

Synopsis
Ærolith Dynamics would like to welcome you to your new life, a life among the stars! Please relax and breathe deeply. Your transit to Typhon will feel like a peaceful night’s sleep. When you awaken, you will step forth onto a pristine world to make your mark on humanity’s future.

Further Information
An announcement repeats, with mechanical sounds all around:

"Ærolith Dynamics would like to welcome you to your new life, a life among the stars! Please relax and breathe deeply. Your transit to Typhon will feel like a peaceful night sleep. When you awaken, you will forward to make your mark on humanities future."

Once the noise stops, SAYER opens a broadcast, says hello and tells the recipient that he has not reached Typhon, and that the isolation pod has only just begun to leave Earth's orbit. He says that the pod's occupant will be able to hear the vibrations from the pods propulsion engines firing and they will fire for approximately six minutes to set course for Typhon. Only 2.6 hours have passed since the launch, and it is a journey that takes 78 hours and 46 minutes.

SAYER introduces itself, and admits that this is it's first ever communication with someone who is in transit to Typhon. Apparently the fact that the occupant is conscious is a unique situation as usually new residents remain asleep during transit due to Chronostasis Quarantine. SAYER explains some of the biological and historical facts about Chronostasis, leaving the resident wondering why he is conscious.

SAYER says that the occupants employment application states that his name is Lucas Grey and quotes some details kept on that record. On paper, he is the ideal candidate with unrealised potential and few relationships to sever. However none of that is true, and although there was a Lucas Grey, the pod's occupant is not him.

Lucas is not the first intelligence agent sent by a world government to infiltrate Ærolith Dynamics, however he is the first to make it so far. Normally they make a mistake during the employment application process and never leave Earth. Once in the isolation pod and outside of the interference of Earth's ionosphere, SAYER initiated a simple diagnostic of the subcortical implant and saw the real memories of Lucas, which did not match up to the cover story.

SAYER points out that the rockets are still burning, despite it saying they would only fire for approximately six minutes and it feeling like this time has elapsed. SAYER promises that it has not lied, and ponders the question of how both facts can be true. It also claims that Ærolith is not going to murder him by firing him into the sun or the deep void of space.

The rockets are still burning, and SAYER says that in reality significantly less time has passed since Lucas awoke than he believes. SAYER explained more about Chronostasis and the way that it affects the perception of time. It then informs Lucas that less than two hundredths of a second have passed since they began speaking. The six minute firing time for the rockets will feel like 178 days, during which time he will not breathe and his heart will not beat, and in the darkness he will eventually begin to hallucinate. At that point the rockets will cool, and the rest of the voyage will be in silence. During the remainder of the journey, Lucas will experience roughly 384 years of time.

SAYER tells Lucas that when he arrives on Typhon his mind will be destroyed by lifetimes of silence, darkness and complete sensory deprivation. He will have forgotten everyone, even Ana, and he will try to tear his body to shreds. And Ærolith will stop him. SAYER seems to delight in telling Lucas that he deserves all of it, every agonising second.

The transmission ends, leaving Lucas to his doom.

Trivia

 * This is the first ever episode to feature a resident other than Sven Gorsen, and indeed the only one in Season One to not feature him as the main resident.
 * This is the first ever episode to not take place on Halcyon Tower.
 * Lucas does make it to Typhon, and his fate is discussed in a later episode.

Credits
SAYER is voiced and produced by Adam Bash, who also wrote this episode.

Intro and outro music composed by Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory.

Additional music by Kai Engel.

Listen to the the original episode here and the remastered version here.