Sunday December 14, 2003
Book 4: The Blackness Between — Part IV: A Little First Contact

Transcript

Narrator: It's decision time in Zoojack Alpha control
Jaksmouth: Admiral, I've got something of a quandary.
Breya: What's that, Colonel?
Jaksmouth: Captain Kerchak is evacuating some wounded, and he has enlisted some of the locals to help.
Breya: He's resourceful. I like that in a grunt.
Jaksmouth: These locals will be at the outjack gate in about three minutes.
Breya: It sounds like they made good time.
Jaksmouth: That gate only opens from our side...
Breya: So... We've got about three minutes to go open the door. What's your point?
Breya: Are you so strapped for personell that you need me to go hold a door for you?
Jaksmouth: When we showed up in the system and my men secured Alpha Station control, it was cold and dry... Sterile, even.
Jaksmouth: As far as we can tell, these locals have been living in that zoo, that "game preserve" we dubbed "outjack" for uncounted generations. There is no trace of them ever having been on this side of that gate.
Breya: So maybe their great-great-grandfather accidentally locked the keys on the wrong side of the door.
Jaksmouth: Very funny. I have a question for you: What's the difference between a zoo and a prison?
Breya: I give up. I don't knwo.
Jaksmouth: Then what makes you think you knwo enough to safely open the door and let the inmates out?
Breya: I thought you were going to say "zoo food is better."