Chapter 3
Warning
OUR SERVICES
"...“Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan. All stations, this is a distress call from the ISM. There has been a murder onboard and we are in urgent need of assistance and intervention. Is anyone out there? Damn it.” Grace slammed the headset back down, the static and silence driving her nuts.
“S-still dead?” Ray asked.
“Absolutely correct, Captain Obvious.” She watched as the man flinched away from her. “Sorry, it’s just,” she sighed, “The static’s getting to me.”"
Author's Comment
So Wayne is spaghetti, the long-range comms are down, and no one wants to eat the last cake slice. Chapter 3 is the first 'fallout' chapter, where the characters all gather around the table and try to have a serious discussion; in the first draft of this, the party immediately discusses the murder and possible culprit, but seeing as the fully-stocked Hermes six was sitting there ready to go I thought the more logical response was to try and get back to civilization before having an amateur detective session of Clue.
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Some fun notes:
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The transmission protocols Greene and Ramirez use are based on international radio codes, which may or not have been used appropriately.
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Writing the killer's perspective was really interesting, since it was hard not to give anything away.
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Lots of google searching went to corpse decomposition, with a special mention towards what happens to dead astronauts in space.
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Change Notes
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Cyril and Orianna's roles are actually reversed, with Orianna originally being quick to cut and run while Cyril had the more nuanced approach.
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Orianna's table scene is also relatively new, interrupting the dialogue better than her simply shouting in earlier drafts.
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Lots of rebalancing where perspectives were switched to fewer focuses rather than constantly rotating between 11 different characters