For Science

This is the fourth episode of SAYER, in which the resident has his first day in his new job.

Synopsis
As with any job, the first day in Ærolith’s new product testing department is always the toughest. Until all the subsequent days, that is. Those are just as tough.

Further Information
Resident Gorsen wakes and SAYER greets him a good morning, before explaining that the term 'morning' is relative. It takes 29.8 Earth days for the sun to track around the sky above Typhon and as residents could not adjust their circadian rhythm to cope with this, an artificial day/night cycle is provided similar to what is found on Earth.

Resident Gorsen's on the job orientation ended yesterday, so today is his first real day of work. SAYER informs the resident that he has been assigned to his new job as a Tier 1 Clinical Trial Technician in the Product Testing Department. This placement was chosen due to his adaptive nature in a number of situations. SAYER instructs the resident to get his uniform, name badge and protective equipment from his locker and proceed to his station on Floor 18.

Once in the elevator, SAYER comments that out of the thousands of elevators in Halcyon Tower, this happens to be the same elevator that previously took the resident to Floor 13. The elevator has been through reprogramming and this is its first day back on active service. Despite a brief false alarm given the timings from SAYER, the elevator delivers the resident to the correct floor.

SAYER instructs the resident on the security for entering the Clinical Trial facility. The resident must first scan the barcode on his name badge using the hole near the door. Then he must look into the hole for a retinal scan for secondary verification. Finally he must hold his thumb to the hole for blood sample for tertiary verification. SAYER cautions that the barcode scanner can cause blindness, and losing an eye would leave the resident unable to enter or leave the facility. Changes in scanning order will be communicated to residents within 48 hours. Once in the facility SAYER directs the resident to station 3C, which is the third desk on the left.

SAYER explains the equipment that is provided at the station and says that it will be recording changes in physical and mental state during experimentation. This means that there is no need for pen and paper recording of data, and Ærolith Dynamics will not lose any valuable data in the event that the resident loses use of his hands or brain.

SAYER instructs Resident Gorsen to inject himself with the syringe on the far left, which contains a very small amount of apitoxin. The resident hesitates, but eventually complies after some firm warnings from SAYER. Unfortunately it turns out that the resident is allergic to apitoxin, however SAYER sees this as a fortunate development for the study. Five minutes away from unconsciousness and ten minutes away from cardiac arrest, SAYER instructs the resident to continue with the trial and inject 5ml of fluid from the yellow bottle using the far right syringe. Believing it to be anti-venom the resident complies, however he is then informed that this was not anti-venom (which cannot be used to treat an allergic reaction anyway) but is instead a great deal more apitoxin. SAYER next instructs the resident to take the last syringe and fill it entirely with the contents of the blue bottle. The resident looks to other technicians for help, but SAYER informs them that they cannot interfere with the trial. Resident Gorsen injects the final syringe, which contains epinetharin, and SAYER reports that his vital signs are returning to normal and states that the experiment was a success.

Given the success of the first trial, SAYER decides to save the oxygen deprivation test for another day.

Trivia

 * We still do not find out the resident's name in this episode.
 * The technician at station 4C has been testing the ability for human consumption and processing of non-edible objects.
 * The technician at station 2C has been researching adaptations to the human body to create a bioluminescence in the event of a power outage. Something similar is accidentally achieved in a later episode.
 * Over the past 12 months there have been 35 instances where remote biometric recording was the only possible method of retrieving any post-trial data.

Plot Inconsistencies
Following the successful trial, SAYER states that "never ever have there been bees on Typhon". However in "Colony Collapse" we learn that many years ago scientists within Halcyon Tower had a healthy and flourishing hive of giant honey bees.

Changes in Remastered Version
Script changes:
 * There is extended introduction music before SAYER starts to speak
 * The music has been changed, and the emphasis and tone in many sentences has changed
 * The voice has been changed to sound more like SAYER from later seasons
 * The beeping alarm clock at the start of the episode has been removed

Credits
SAYER is voiced and produced by Adam Bash.

This episode was co-written with Nika Howard.

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.