ep15 - the red door knock

Someone is up to something. A conspiracy is afoot. Meanwhile, something, or someone, wants to communicate with Jara. from beyond a vast, pitch black darkness. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hey there. This is Johan. I'm the facility manager at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department. Located on the coastal strip in East Antarctica. I'm uh signing in for yet another cold shift. I think I am on to something big. You know, because something something really strange is going on in this facility, let me tell you. And now I have developed a theory of what this might be. You see, Thomas and Ingrid are more quiet than usual. You know, of course, Thomas is still recovering from the chaos created by the iron sphere, but he should be up and about by now. I I've seen him peek out from his door, scouting the halls, but he doesn't leave his room at all. Then you have Ingrid. She just doesn't make a sound anymore at all. She just does her work and charges. Work charge, work, charge, work, charge, work, charge, you know. It doesn't even crack a joke anymore. So my theory about what is going on in this facility is that they are both secretly planning my birthday party. Which, according to my 1976 calendar, is in four days. You see, someone has been in my room while I was asleep. And I know this because the microphone was on the other side of the typewriter, and I am left-handed, and I like things that are convenient, even if I have to make it convenient myself, you know. These things I notice. You know, the devil is in the details, buddy, and I think that either Thomas or Ingrid snuck into my room while I was asleep to look for clues on what I might like for my birthday. If I am correct, I'll pretend like nothing, you know. Of course I I I'd hate to ruin it for them. I can't wait though, I I love birthdays. Anyways, the days go on. There's still no signs of Joshua or the iron sphere he took with him. I did, however, take a closer look at the photo of him with the fish, the photo on the cork board. And why I didn't check this before, I have no idea, but behind the photo was writing. And oddly enough the writing was in Norwegian and Joshua is not Norwegian. But it said it said I have it. It says Jagdren på länge. Min familje är trygg. Mine döttre är trygg. Håplig ha det fint prestationen. Ta varre på Docke bäge. Medlig hilsen Joshua Now I think he must have learned how to write Norwegian or he had someone help him, you know. Either way I was touched by his effort. Oh of course and sorry let me let me translate it for you in in English. So what he wrote in Norwegian is in English. I am doing good. I'm doing better than I have been in a long time. My family is safe. My daughters are safe. And I hope you are having a good time at your station. Take care of you both. All the best, Joshua. But yeah, this means that his faster-than-light device, or the galactic obeyer, or the go sometimes, worked. You know, it must have, because fish, beaches, and oceans are old, old, ancient gold. Which means that Joshua must be old and gone by now. If he stayed, of course. You know, perhaps he's out and about with his family in a time machine visiting history and all its glorious snooks and corners. You never know. Whatever he is up to, Godspeed, my good old friend. Godspeed. So at the moment it it all boils down to me still having to keep myself company, which uh I'm actually rather good at. You know. There's always stuff to do if you know what stuff there is to do in the place you are to do the stuff in. For instance, I once made a model of the Deep Earth Anomaly department in the snow outside. Same size and all. However, the blizzard erased it from the face of the earth like the war did with all those cities. But it was amazing. It even looked the same on the inside. However, because of the blizzard, I can't go out to create another one, so what I did was I went down to the basement to do some studying of my own. I went down to go study the red door. Which means I sat on a chair looking at the red door for hours. I sat looking at it, trying to figure out how to open it. And of course, there could be a door handle on the other side, you know that it simply can't be opened from this side. But that would mean that there is someone behind it. Which would mean that the mystery is oh so much greater than I initially imagined. I mean, if that is the case, who is it? Now when I first met Thomas Grind, the door was open, but I couldn't see anything but pitch black darkness going on and on and on and on ad infinitum. Not that I looked very hard, I I was quite occupied then by the fact that Ingri had been reduced to a pile of metal scraps. It's strange to think of that now. Now that I thought, you know, I remember thinking that Thomas Green was the overlord of all evil about to wreak havoc on my reality. You know, turns out he is well, weird. He's a cool guy, but he's weird. And don't get me wrong, I love weird. You know, if someone isn't weird, it's because they are hiding it. I mean, come on, friend. Be weird. Why waste such quality? Imagine a world where nobody is weird. You know, there are horrors here, believe you me, but none as frightening as the idea of a weirdless world. That would be weird. Anyways, I sat looking at the red door and um decided not to leave the chair I was sitting on until I figured out how to open it. Well, I was stubborn. I did leave the chair before I figured it out, I must admit I'm not that stubborn. Only because I had got a better idea, a somewhat radical idea. You wanna know what I did? Oh great divers from the far future? I knocked. I knocked five times, five solid times, if I can say so myself. Then I waited. Nothing. So I knocked another five times, then another five times, then another five times. There was nothing but the bussing from the lights in the ceiling. Nothing at all. It was it were worth a shot, I thought. At least I knew there was nobody on the other side, and my hypothesis my hypothesis had been debunked. Unless there was someone behind it. But they were asleep or busy doing something, you know. I I wouldn't hear knocking on this door if I were upstairs or sleeping, or doing whatever else I usually do. So my hypothesis wasn't really very solid, but it was the best I had. Also, I I had developed a need for a cup of coffee and decided to leave the basement when there came a heavy knock from the other side of the red door. Then another one. Then 18 more knocks. At that point I didn't need coffee anymore, let me tell you that much for a fact. I couldn't move, I was I was baffled. Like that fish in Joshua's photo was. I mean, what? You know, what? So I said, hello. Got two knocks in return, one for each syllable. So I asked, who is there? Then three knocks. Now I have no idea what three knocks means. There are many words with three syllables. It could mean I am here, but it could also mean chocolate, you know. So I said uh knock one knock for yes, two knocks for no, three for I don't know. I call this the language of simplicity. And then I asked, Who are you? But I got no knocks in return. Which makes sense, you know. Yes, no, or I don't know makes no sense of an answer to that question. My bad. So I said, I'm sorry. And instead I asked, Do you live here? One knock. Behind this door? I asked. Two knocks. I tried to think of what that meant, but before I managed to finish a thought, the knocking became hammering, scratching, pounding even. Then a scream that would shake the very fabric of time simmered through the steel door. And I I fell over, you know, and I ran out, up the stairs, locked the door, locked it up again, ran back down, got the spiders, the fluorescent spiders, and I ran back up and locked the door all over again. You know. I couldn't guarantee their safety down there after all of that, so I brought them up here. I set them up in the lab for the time being. I think they enjoyed the lights there because they immediately started webbing up. But yeah, I'm I'm not sure I want to know what's behind the red door anymore. Because it it didn't sound particularly friendly. You know, I I don't think I'll invite it to the next solar flare radiation celebration, let me tell you. But I logged it, um, and I will ask Thomas Grind the minute he's up for a chat about it. You know, after all, the door was wide open when I first met him, so he must have some sort of idea what is behind it. It was scary. Anyways, I'll put up a security camera down there to keep an eye on the door. You know, I would love to be a few steps ahead of whatever it is that lives behind it, should it decide to open up the door and come looking for protein, you know. Man, I wish Joshua was here. Joshua would have tackled it with a snap of his finger, you know, creating a shockwave with the force of a tactical hydrogen bomb. Oh well. I better go check on the little spideys before dawn, see if they have everything they need. Then I think I'll tuck in for the day. Hopefully I'll visit somewhere exotic in a dream, you know, get a subconscious tan, a subconscious lemonade, read a subconscious novel on a subconscious beach, somewhere subconscious. So yeah, a few itsy bitsy spiders need me, and then that's it for today. So this is Jaren signing off yet another cold shift.