EP316: Site Fourteen

[eytanz]

EP316: Site Fourteen

By Laura Anne Gilman

Read by Mat Weller

First appeared in ReVISIONS from Daw Boooks

This one isn’t for the kids, because of language and heavy content.
---

“Nereus Shuttle Four to Gateway Station, you have control.”

Robinachec nodded confirmation as though the pilot could see him.  ”Roger that.  Bringing you in.” Palming the flat-topped lever, I watched as he moved it gently back towards him, pulling the bullet-shaped transport into the shed, an external framework of metal beams just large enough to hold two minisubs, or one shuttle.

Robinechec has nightmares sometimes about something going wrong here.  Forget the fact that it’s the safest maneuver in the entire procedure; he still talks about waking up in a cold sweat because he screwed up.

You’d never know it to watch him.

When you’re six hundred feet down – well below the twilight zone, in the bathypelagic or ‘deep water’ zone– your perception shifts.  Nothing as arcane as the chemical balance in your brain changing, although there’s some of that, too.  No, it’s more the realization, slow sinking into your brain, that there’s not damn-all between you and dying but a duraplas shield and some canned oxy-blend.

You realize that, really process the concept, and you’re okay.  If you can’t, you get the screamin’ meemies and they cart you Topside where you spend the rest of your life on solid dirt, carefully looking anywhere but ocean-ward.

Not everyone’s cut out to be an aquanaut. No shame to it.  Even now, only about a third of the applicants make it into training, and more than half of them dry out before graduation.

Listen to this week’s Escape Pod!

[raetsel]

I'll start with the positive:

I loved the narration on this, Matt did a great job on the hard bitten commander and I liked the extra audio production for the pings and the klaxons. (Though in a real situation wouldn't they switch the alarms off after a few mins? Once they were in the control room and knew the problem, it wouldn't distract their attention then )

However saying all that is a bit like going to see a film and coming out and saying it was beautifully shot.

Where was the story? I listened on my drive to work. It was 20 minutes of set up: info dumps about the history of sea exploration and the current political situation or the detailed layout of the gate station. Way too long. I arrived at work just as the alarms went off.

I hadnt looked at the length of the episode so when I listened to the rest of the story on my drive home I was expecting much more than just "oh it blew up, we have to leave & the government won't be interested in doing anything for a while"

At the very least I thought we'd find out what caused the explosion and hopefully some actual scenes from down there.

Very disappointing.

[eytanz]

I see at least one person has managed to download this episode - itunes refuses to grab it for me. Am I the only one?

[raetsel]

I see at least one person has managed to download this episode - itunes refuses to grab it for me. Am I the only one?

It was just there in my iTunes feed when I synced this morning. I'm in the UK if that makes any difference to which iTunes store servers I might hit.

[eytanz]

I see at least one person has managed to download this episode - itunes refuses to grab it for me. Am I the only one?

It was just there in my iTunes feed when I synced this morning. I'm in the UK if that makes any difference to which iTunes store servers I might hit.

I'm also in the UK, so I don't think that's it.

[ElectricPaladin]

I'll start with the positive:

I loved the narration on this, Matt did a great job on the hard bitten commander and I liked the extra audio production for the pings and the klaxons. (Though in a real situation wouldn't they switch the alarms off after a few mins? Once they were in the control room and knew the problem, it wouldn't distract their attention then )

However saying all that is a bit like going to see a film and coming out and saying it was beautifully shot.

Where was the story? I listened on my drive to work. It was 20 minutes of set up: info dumps about the history of sea exploration and the current political situation or the detailed layout of the gate station. Way too long. I arrived at work just as the alarms went off.

I hadnt looked at the length of the episode so when I listened to the rest of the story on my drive home I was expecting much more than just "oh it blew up, we have to leave & the government won't be interested in doing anything for a while"

At the very least I thought we'd find out what caused the explosion and hopefully some actual scenes from down there.

Very disappointing.

I basically agree with everything you said. Great set-up, fascinating alternate history, interesting and atmospheric scenes... and then nothing. I have narrative blue balls now.

[Scatcatpdx]

Like others the story is incomplete. I am wondering leaving the story hanging has become an over used clichéd plot device.  The writer may think he or she is being artistic and hip  I see as cliché and down right annoying.

[matweller]

I'll start with the positive:

I loved the narration on this, Matt did a great job on the hard bitten commander and I liked the extra audio production for the pings and the klaxons. (Though in a real situation wouldn't they switch the alarms off after a few mins? Once they were in the control room and knew the problem, it wouldn't distract their attention then )

Thanks! I thought about turning off the alarms shortly in, but after listening a couple times, I found that I liked the way it kept the feeling urgent and then when it wasn't there for the conclusion, the starkness seeped in. I was going to offer an alternate with the alarms faded down after like 20 seconds, but I wanted to see how it played out first. As long as it didn't make it impossible to listen to the story, I stand by it.

I had some of the same feeling about the story. I would have like to see it play out more. I would really like to see it drawn into a full novel, I think there's a huge amount of potential here for that. I agree that it had a lot of development for an unresolved ending, but I think too that the point was to make the day seem so completely normal until everything went to hell that it would be front heavy no matter how you played it. I think something probably should have been done to identify the source of the cataclysm. Read the text, maybe the author hinted more strongly at that and I failed to emphasize it properly in the reading.

Regardless, overall I liked it. I just want more.

[slag]

Friggin land lubber haters. What I liked about the story is that while there wasn't very much story to it, it had
a nice grizzled mariner in it that reminded me of all the other grizzled mariner types that swore by the sea.
Who needs a spouse? I have the sea!  Who needs kids? I have ther sea! Who needs a hand? A leg? Or an eye?
Give me a hook, peg leg, or eye patch. Then give me the sea!   

[SwingsetPark]

I liked all the "What if the space race was an ocean race?" stuff, what with the aquanauts, Kennedy, cold war, etc.

Then I blinked.  The next thing I knew, our hero was ruminating about how he'll be the last to leave Site Fourteen, and maybe there will be a sequel.  We went straight from setup to climactic action to falling action.

Here's the issue:  20 minute opening stasis, 5 minutes of mystery, 1 minute of realization, and 5 minutes of closing stasis.  The question the readers (listeners) are presented is, "Just what the hell is going on?".  When we get an answer a few minutes later, there's no more struggle.  I like to see opening stasis, a catalyst, a fateful decision, some struggle, the darkest night, and conclusion.  We went from stasis to catalyst to conclusion.  In other words, we skipped the story.

Who needs building action?  I have the sea!   

[Rain]

Like most others i liked the narration, liked the build up, but then we got "The station blew up. The end"

[raetsel]

....................I have narrative blue balls now.

  Love the concept!

[raetsel]

Thanks! I thought about turning off the alarms shortly in, but after listening a couple times, I found that I liked the way it kept the feeling urgent and then when it wasn't there for the conclusion, the starkness seeped in.

Don't get me wrong, from a dramatic, story telling point of view I thought it worked great, really added to the tension without obscuring the narration. I was just putting my real world head on and wondering if they would leave the alarm going in the real world that long.

[ElectricPaladin]

....................I have narrative blue balls now.

  Love the concept!

I'm pretty sure I stole it from Scattercat at some point.

[Kaa]

I have narrative blue balls now.

I wish forums had a "like" button.

[Scattercat]

I demand attribution!

Nah, not really.

This story... well, I agree with the same criticism everyone else had.  I was really enjoying the setup, but then it just kind of ended while my back was turned.

(So was I imagining it or was this a deadly-serious rendition of Sealab 2021's standard joke plot of "And then the whole station exploded for no apparent reason"?)

(I miss Captain Murphy...)

[Dem]

I'll start with the positive:

I loved the narration on this, Matt did a great job on the hard bitten commander and I liked the extra audio production for the pings and the klaxons. (Though in a real situation wouldn't they switch the alarms off after a few mins? Once they were in the control room and knew the problem, it wouldn't distract their attention then )

I think something probably should have been done to identify the source of the cataclysm. Read the text, maybe the author hinted more strongly at that and I failed to emphasize it properly in the reading.

Usually I do read the text, but this time there was none beyond the opening para or two I actually thought I'd nodded off and missed the best bit, but it turns out there wasn't one! Mat, no reflection on your narration (and I liked the sound effects too); this seemed to go nowhere, leaving a whole wall of potential falling in on itself.

[Devoted135]

I can see two ways of looking at this story. Either it's a "day in the life of" an aquanaut (awesome concept, by the way) who happens to be stationed on site fourteen. In which case, that was a ridiculously strange way to end the narrative. Or, it's the story of the mysterious destruction of site fourteen. In which case, where's the rest of the story???

So, either the story takes an indulgent and unnecessary sharp left or the reader is gypped out of the promised climax and resolution, being left with only the first third of a very good story. Not a good dichotomy, and (in my opinion) bad form in both cases.


On the positive side, I thought the reading was quite well done and I really liked the inclusion of the sirens and alarms.

[Bill]

I wish I could download it. "Playing Doctor" didn't download in Itunes and this one either. I've tried a number of times and it keeps hanging up.

[kubagami]

It didn't go anywhere. disappointing for a Halloween story.

[Gamercow]

Like a crab getting sucked into a pipeline at the bottom of the ocean, this story was going along fine, and then all of a sudden was no longer there.  I really enjoyed the narration, stellar job by Matt as usual, and enjoyed the setting, but that seems like all it was, a setting and concept. 

And I liked the klaxons continuing on into the story, it added to the urgency, tension, and confusion of the story line.

[InfiniteMonkey]

For some reason, I wasn't bothered that the story seemed to lack a narrative resolution. I think I liked it on the strength of its narration.

And I was puzzling over the "40 years ago Kennedy said we'd reclaim the oceans" but was too thick to see it as alternate history.

[Max e^{i pi}]

Alternate universe Apollo 13 story? YES PLEASE!

I loved the first 20 minutes. It was a wonderful bit of world-building, there was space there to introduce some excellent character development (meaning: we have some great characters here and given time they can do some really interesting things), and just when I was thinking "this is great, but where's the story?" stuff started to happen.
I agree that the setup:action ratio was far too large for a short story, but OK for a novella. Yes, it wasn't resolved, and no, we don't know what happened, but in my eyes (ears?) that's not the point. To me this was a teaser-trailer or introductory story to a wonderful universe whose only difference from ours is that instead of trying to spread outwards (to space) humanity is trying to go back to its roots (oceans). I would love to explore that universe, the people who live in it, how they differ from us, perhaps even the fundamental psychological difference of out (forward) vs. in (back).

And before the history buffs or professional nitpickers go "But in Apollo 13 they came back safely and the project wasn't scuttled" let me just say that I am aware of that. The stories are similar, but not identical. That's the advantage of fiction. You get to make stuff up, create a new ending.
It's just that the whole setting (cold war, Kennedy) and the name of the project got me to thinking of the Apollo program.

[Mercurywaxing]

I liked this for the most part.  It's a great idea for a story, and relayed in a very realistic way for its point of view.  If you listen to someone who was at the controll center during a fast moving disaster the actual disaster part of the story is secondary to the feelings of loss experienced.  They ruminate on the hope they had before, then pass the disaster quickly before dwelling on the feeling of loss in the aftermath.  Very well done.

[Talia]

My mind is completely boggled there's any negative feedback at all for this story. This is one of my favorite EP episodes of all time. Fascinating setup with tense, exciting action. Thrilling! Seemed like plenty of story to me - so much hope lay in this last station, all the protagonist's desires lay under the sea. And then it all went horribly wrong. This story isn't so much about the deaths of the crewmen, its about the death of dreams.

Kinda makes me think of the U.S. space program, though I'm not sure how I'd work the comparison.

So good. I would totally watch a movie version!

[Balu]

Thanks! I thought about turning off the alarms shortly in, but after listening a couple times, I found that I liked the way it kept the feeling urgent and then when it wasn't there for the conclusion, the starkness seeped in. I was going to offer an alternate with the alarms faded down after like 20 seconds, but I wanted to see how it played out first. As long as it didn't make it impossible to listen to the story, I stand by it.

Keeping the alarms in really worked for me.

It was a bold move, and it could have tanked, but as things turned out it worked to intensify rather than to distract from the action.

It's also one of the reasons this reminded me of Avatar - outstanding production sugar-coating a cookie cutter plot. Not that I mind. Enjoyed both.

[statisticus]

For those for whom this story didn't download (eytanx, Bill), did you sort this out?  If not, did you try going to the web site & downloading it directly?

The story page is:
http://escapepod.org/2011/11/03/ep317-boxed-in/

The direct link to download it is:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/escapepod/EP317__BoxedIn.mp3

FWIW, I use Itunes also, & it downloaded fine for me.

Agree with most of the comments.  This one had an interesting set up, but ending was a bit flat.  I liked the alternative history aspect of it - in this world we have the Sea Race instead of the Space Race, and Cold War rivalry occurs deep under water.  I like also that there was a practical aspect; that the sea bases were used for energy (OTEC) as well as national prestige.  It was well thought out and, as others have noted, the narration/production was done very well, but the ending of the story left me wanting more - just not in a good way.

[SF.Fangirl]

Ditto.  I was really enjoying this story until it just ended after a huge amount of interesting world building, but world building alone does not a plot make.  After that much of an info dump, I expect at least as much length devoted to an actual plot.  Site 14 lost, main character has to deals with the loss of him dream/job by saying "oh well" was very disappointing and not a coherent plot.

But I agree the effects were great and added to the reading.

I'll start with the positive:

I loved the narration on this, Matt did a great job on the hard bitten commander and I liked the extra audio production for the pings and the klaxons. (Though in a real situation wouldn't they switch the alarms off after a few mins? Once they were in the control room and knew the problem, it wouldn't distract their attention then )

However saying all that is a bit like going to see a film and coming out and saying it was beautifully shot.

Where was the story? I listened on my drive to work. It was 20 minutes of set up: info dumps about the history of sea exploration and the current political situation or the detailed layout of the gate station. Way too long. I arrived at work just as the alarms went off.

I hadnt looked at the length of the episode so when I listened to the rest of the story on my drive home I was expecting much more than just "oh it blew up, we have to leave & the government won't be interested in doing anything for a while"

At the very least I thought we'd find out what caused the explosion and hopefully some actual scenes from down there.

Very disappointing.

[Unblinking]

I listened for about fifteen minutes, but I kept zoning out.  It was a neat idea to have a Sea Race instead of a Space Race, and so that was neat, but that was pretty much all I got out of it.  I didn't find the setting details all that interesting, and in that first 15 minutes that's pretty much all there was. 

[Leevi]

Good story and surprising how just two alarm sounds turned it from a simple good reading to audio drama. Props to Mr. Weller.

[knigget]

It did feel like an old-time audio drama - complete with Mom telling me to take out the garbage and coming back having missed the best part.

Someone needs to go and write the middle. And splice it into the narration. With klaxons and all!

[CryptoMe]

It did feel like an old-time audio drama - complete with Mom telling me to take out the garbage and coming back having missed the best part.

Brilliant! I totally agree.

I must say, the best part of this story for me was all the wonderfully creative and funny ways the forumites have come up with for summing up their almost identical feelings for this story. Absolutely delightful!

[Dem]

It did feel like an old-time audio drama - complete with Mom telling me to take out the garbage and coming back having missed the best part.

Brilliant! I totally agree.

I must say, the best part of this story for me was all the wonderfully creative and funny ways the forumites have come up with for summing up their almost identical feelings for this story. Absolutely delightful!

I'm entertained by the notion of being a forumite. Brings to mind an organism that hangs from the ceiling and spits acid at passers-by.
Yep, that works 

[rotheche]

This story isn't so much about the deaths of the crewmen, its about the death of dreams.

This is what I took from it as well - and I did enjoy it.  The lack of information doesn't bother me: like spaceflight disasters, the inquiries and analyses will come later.  Right now, though, the story's about how he still wants to be a part of this program and for the program to continue.  We're built to explore, even in the face of adversity and death.

[El Barto]

Bah!   This story was such a disappointment.  It wasn't just missing an ending -- it was missing an entire middle.   

I was waiting for the "real story" to start as we received hints of what happened below, and it never came.  Aliens?   Found artifacts?   Intelligent squid?   Mulder and Scully's bodies?  What?

Also, I pictured the station where the action happened as being a mid-point between the surface and the ocean floor, and thought the author was setting up a situation where the crew at the station was going to have no choice (because of life support failure) but to descend to the ocean floor facility and be cut off from the entire topside world.

Narrative blueballs indeed.

I did love the narration and usually can't remember the names of narrators but this one was so good that I went back and listened to Norm's intro again just so I could catch the name of Matt Weller again.  Good stuff.

[FireTurtle]

*finishes story and frantically checks the comments, utters a huge sigh of relief* and says: Oh Thank You Lord I Did Not Have a Stroke While Listening to This.

Sadly, my mental capacities do not encompass the ability to pay attention to long info dumps. I am sure it was fascinating, but I have a short attention span when to many facts are thrust upon me. Basically I heard the "Wah, wah, wah" of the Peanuts origin and then... the story was over.

I was pretty certain I either had a stroke or experienced some sort of hop forward in time. While moving around in time might be incredibly awesome, the feeling of having possibly had a little stroke, not so much.

Many people funnier than I have described it far better. I'm just glad my brain is ok.

[hardware]

I think this was a pretty neat idea, a well thought out environment but the end product lacked in a few areas.

Most obviously, and as many pointed out the story was somehow short-circuited. It was much too straightforward, it is almost bewildering to listen to a story where everything goes exactly in the direction it seems to from the start without any twists or surprises.

Second, while the deep sea race instead of space race is an intriguing idea, this story doesn't make much out of it. It felt a bit too much like a re-telling of the space race, just with a Find and Replace of 'Space' with 'Sea'. Also, there is not really anything happening in this mission that couldn't have happened in a space mission. I was expecting some serious Das Boot vibes. 

[jwbjerk]

Sometimes when the quality of the atmosphere and worldbuilding is high enough, i don't miss the lack of a plot.  Add solid narration, and it's a win.  Actually, i don't know if i would have liked the story if i read it-- the narration probably raised the quality of the whole.

This sort of story reminds me of some of the later golden age radio shows (Suspense, Escape, Nightfall). Not so much about the story going somewhere, as a compelling experience.  For me, this episode really brought the undersea world to life.

[LaShawn]

Why isn't this a novel? WHY ISN'T THIS A NOVEL?

Infodumps aside, this had me riveted. It was a fascinating look at a waystation beneath the sea. When the narrator mentions the demise of other sites, I figured something would happen to this site too, so I was prepared for that. Like everyone else, I found the ending was too abrupt. But man, if the writer can expand on this, use this as a leaping base for a novel, that would be awesome.

[matweller]

If you aren't already, subscribe to Leviathan Chronicles, it's not exactly the same, but it tickles some of the same itches.