253 Mathilde
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253 Mathilde: Destiny

By Paul Knierim

© 2023

Estimated run time: 26 minutes


Cast of Characters

23 characters: Announcer, Peters, Hernandez, Singh, Stone, Ravi, Jim, Lawrence, Therapist, Hussein, Larissa, Marissa, Computer, Carson, Lee, Ekkert, Saetang, Protester, Protester Three, Sergey, Doomer Three, Doomer Priest, Protester Two

Click on a character's name to get their lines highlighted.

Larissa (10 lines, 106 words, 3.26%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Larissa Flint. Younger sister of Marissa. Now retired at age 62. [complete]

Ekkert (10 lines, 45 words, 1.38%) - [Lindsay Townsend] Larissa's evil twin. [complete]

Singh (12 lines, 229 words, 7.04%) - [Loretta Chang] Doctor Yen Singh is a competent medic who cares about her patients with solid bedside manner. She's not nearly as interested in theoretical stuff and research as her predecessor Doctor Stone was. [complete]

Peters (49 lines, 544 words, 16.73%) - [David Loftus] Salish Peters, retired, aged 92 years. Developing dementia, but doesn't know it yet. [complete]

Stone (19 lines, 290 words, 8.92%) - [John Gaunce] John Stone, retired, now in his 80s but healthy enough. Long career as a doctor followed by brief second career as chief botanist. Still has an ego despite the humbling events of season two 20 years ago. [complete]

Therapist (9 lines, 48 words, 1.48%) - [Ahmad Joudeh] Tam Peters, therapist and husband of Salish Peters. Now middle aged. [complete]

Hernandez (10 lines, 125 words, 3.84%) - [Lindsay White] Eva Hernandez has been the mayor's assistant for 20 years. She'd kinda like a crack at the big job herself, since she feels like she's already doing most of the work. [complete]

Lawrence (16 lines, 196 words, 6.03%) - [James Lorenz] Astronomy Chief Lawrence doesn't want to live in a world ruled by Eva Hernandez, so he's plotting an alternative. [complete]

Jim (11 lines, 200 words, 6.15%) - [SlimSamVO] Former ore extraction chief Jim O'Hara, now working in ore processing. [complete]

Ravi (5 lines, 156 words, 4.8%) - [Ed Shalayda] Assistant mechanic Ravi Davis. [complete]

Computer (7 lines, 56 words, 1.72%) - [bot] The station's computer. [complete]

Saetang (6 lines, 124 words, 3.81%) - [Sova Reign] Detective Aranya Saetang. [complete]

Marissa (34 lines, 391 words, 12.02%) - [Virginia Hargrove] Marissa Flint is 68 years old, still communications chief because she likes her job. [complete]

Carson (5 lines, 303 words, 9.32%) - [Sean Curran] Explorer on another planet. [complete]

Lee (4 lines, 161 words, 4.95%) - [Nicc Fury] Explorer on another planet. [complete]

Hussein (3 lines, 47 words, 1.45%) - [KC Cooper] An assistant in astronomy section. [complete]

Protester (6 lines, 58 words, 1.78%) - [Nahla Campbell] Pro birth permit protester. [complete]

Protester Two (3 lines, 10 words, 0.31%) - [bot] Pro birth permit protester. [complete]

Protester Three (2 lines, 13 words, 0.4%) - [Tony Westfield] Pro birth permit protester. [complete]

Sergey (3 lines, 16 words, 0.49%) - [Alexander Grace] Sergey Kochergan, now a fervent believer in the righteousness of the coming end of days and an anti birth permit counter-protester. [complete]

Doomer Priest (3 lines, 56 words, 1.72%) - [Kiersten Greenfield] Luca Patel, leader of the doomsday cult. Believes that the end of the world is just and should be accelerated, but feels conflicted when it gets down to the dirty business of actually murdering people. Enjoys the control and manipulation. [complete]

Doomer Three (1 line, 9 words, 0.28%) - [Jacob Tarbox] A fervent believer in the righteousness of the coming end of days. [complete]

Announcer (5 lines, 69 words, 2.12%) - [Erin Suminsby] Reads opening, closing and credits. [complete]

Highlight Sound

Script format: Margined | Marginless (for phone viewing)


Listen along as you read:


  1 Announcer: Previously on 253 Mathilde...

  2 SOUND: will insert clips of important things to remember at beginning of each episode

  3 Announcer: And now...

  4 SOUND: mayor's office, people talking at once

  5 Peters: [irritated] Can you get their attention for me?

  6 Hernandez: [shouting over noise] Chiefs! Come to order!

  7 SOUND: they quiet

  8 Peters: Can somebody report on what, I mean what the status is, with... the person we lost...

  9 Hernandez: Chief Tojo.

  10 Peters: Yes, Tojo, what happened to Chief Tojo?

  11 Singh: She's gone, mayor. That's pretty much what we know. The working theory is a temporal anomaly.

  12 Stone: I found the biological time anomalies in the evacuees were matched by their multicom logs.

  13 Peters: Whadaya mean?

  14 Stone: Their multicom log timestamps were off -- we didn't notice at first because they auto-corrected to network time.

  15 Peters: So what's that MEAN for us?

  16 Stone: It means there's definitely a temporal phenomenon, it was present before the upper levels got destroyed, and it doesn't appear to be responsible for the destruction.

  17 Ravi: Although I've got a theory that it *is* *indirectly* responsible -- I think this phenomenon may have been what temporarily drained the shield. I think we collided with this thing, maybe a sort of wormhole, and it got caught in some interaction with our shields that slowed it down and brought it to rest on the surface while doing the fatal damage to the shields.

  18 Peters: Wait, kid, who are you and what are you doing here?

  19 Ravi: [annoyed at the disrespect] I'm assistant mech Ravi Davis, the acting chief mechanic while Chief Tojo is missing.

  20 Stone: So getting back to your theory Ravi, why would it happen to land right on top of us?

  21 Ravi: Because that's where the shield emanates from. The phenomenon may have been attracted by the shields.

  22 Stone: But then why aren't we all dead, why did shield power go back to normal?

  23 Ravi: Maybe the shields were holding this thing slightly above the surface but when they dropped below a critical point the phenomenon passed through them to the inside so it's no longer a drain?

  24 Peters: [borderline angry] Nobody answered my question, what happened to Tojo?

  25 Singh: We don't really know. But she's not here anymore.

  26 Peters: Are we going to get her back?! Rescue mission?!

  27 Stone: I wouldn't advise sending anyone else into the anomaly, because we have no theories for how to get someone back out of it.

  28 Hernandez: And I think we need to focus on repairs right now, that's something we can control that needs our full attention.

  29 Peters: But what about Tojo, what happened to Tojo?

  30 Ravi: I'd like to take the former ore extraction team and convert them into another repair team, since we've finished with mining... if the mayor can approve the transfers.

  31 Jim: [upset] But we've already been retrained and reassigned to other sections, that was the deal, and most of us went to ore processing so you'd be leaving ore processing short handed right when we're needed most to power our recovery and to fuel that ship we're supposed to launch!

  32 Hernandez: The ship ought to be off the table until after repairs, no sense in a vanity project while we're fighting to survive.

  33 Lawrence: That's very narrow-minded of you, Hernandez... and you're not a section chief, why are you speaking anyway?

  34 Peters: [burst of anger] OUT! ALL OF YOU, GET OUT! I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU UNTIL, UNLESS, I MEAN, LEAVE ME ALONE!

  35 SOUND: stunned silence

  36 Lawrence: Are you feeling alright, mayor?

  37 Peters: DON'T YOU TRY AND MAKE FUN OF ME! I SAID *OUT*!

  38 Singh: Please come with me, mayor. Let's get you to medical.

  39 SOUND: opening theme

  40 Announcer: Quiet Please dot org presents Two Fifty Three Mathilde. After leaving the solar system in the 22nd century, the asteroid 253 Mathilde now travels the galaxy at near light speed. For her residents, the journey has been 134 years... for the rest of the galaxy, it's been hundreds of thousands of years.

  41 Announcer: Episode 22 - Destiny

  42 SOUND: cat/pet scan machine or similar sound

  43 Peters: [sfx: muffled] I'm okay now.

  44 Singh: Just hold still a moment please. Okay, done.

  45 SOUND: door opens, footsteps enter

  46 Therapist: [worried] What's going on? How is he?

  47 Peters: I'm okay now.

  48 Therapist: But I heard--

  49 Peters: [mix of embarrassment and anger and defensiveness] All those people trying to get something from me, trying to sink their teeth into me! All that arguing and scheming going on, of course I was overwhelmed!

  50 Therapist: Doctor Singh?

  51 Singh: The medical AI analyzed the brain scan I just took. I'm afraid it's not good news.

  52 Peters: What is it? Come on, I can take it.

  53 Singh: The scan shows beta-amyloid plaques and atrophy. You're developing dementia.

  54 Therapist: Oh no.

  55 Peters: Guess there's no cure for that.

  56 Singh: Not for this type, but there are strategies we can use to manage it.

  57 Therapist: Such as?

  58 Singh: Cognitive stimulation, exercise, structured routines. We can also give medication a try, maybe a Cholinesterase inhibitor.

  59 Peters: It's not too advanced yet, so I can still be mayor, right?

  60 Singh: The social contact and challenges of the job could be good for you, just keep a shorter schedule and have Eva structure the meetings better, it was a bit of a free-for-all. But whether you *should* be mayor with your faculties declining... well I guess that's a matter for the section chiefs to decide.

  61 Peters: I don't want word of this getting out, understand?

  62 Singh: That's your right as my patient, mayor. But I think you should trust them and let them make an informed decision.

  63 Peters: Last thing I need is for them to think I'm weak right now. Anyway, I feel fine.

  64 Singh: At least tell Eva Hernandez so she can manage your load intelligently.

  65 Peters: Fine, but just her. So how long do you think I have?

  66 Singh: There's no telling what rate it'll progress at. You could deteriorate rapidly and die in a few months, or you could still be functioning reasonably well for years. And you might be struggling one moment and doing better minutes later, or vice versa.

  67 Peters: I'll trust my luck.

  68 SOUND: end scene

  69 SOUND: hallway

  70 Hussein: Chief Lawrence?

  71 Lawrence: Yes, Hussein?

  72 Hussein: We finished the study of potential systems to explore, and this one here is everybody's favorite.

  73 SOUND: screen tap/zoom

  74 Lawrence: [laughs] Oh! I didn't realize we'd come full circle.

  75 Hussein: We haven't quite, but it'll take the ship a couple years to decelerate from this speed, so if we launch within a month or two it'll line up perfect.

  76 Lawrence: Good work Hussein, this should shut up the people arguing against the mission, even Eva.

  77 SOUND: end scene

  78 SOUND: communications room

  79 Larissa: What's next, sis?

  80 Marissa: There's a mission report coming in from the team on K2-72e, almost finished processing.

  81 Larissa: That's Carson and Lee?

  82 Marissa: Right. Quite a pair, those two.

  83 Larissa: I miss them. Bizarre to think they've been dead for a hundred thousand years but we're about to hear from them.

  84 Marissa: We've been almost outrunning their transmission. What amazes me is how good this error correction algorithm is at stitching together such a weak signal with so much interference at such an incredible distance.

  85 SOUND: completion beep

  86 Computer: Transmission is fully processed.

  87 Marissa: Thank you computer, begin playback.

  88 SOUND: windy alien background

  89 Carson: [sfx: processed] Hey Marissa, and anyone else back there who still cares about us. This is the end of day 15. Or as I like to say, still day 1 local time since we're tidally-locked.

You'll recall yesterday's expedition into the sunny side didn't go well, we came back to the terminator.

  90 Lee: [in background] Because ONE of us can't handle hiking in the heat, Carson... *I* was fine.

  91 Carson: Anyway, today we decided to use the drone for a more relaxing exploration of the sunny side. The part near the terminator, and for hundreds of kilometers further in, is nothing like the empty desert the whole sunny side appeared to be from orbit. Near here, it's more of a semi-tropical jungle. Almost like the arboretum if the heat and humidity controls were malfunctioning. Fortunately it's not dense everywhere, so there's plenty of spots we could see down through the treetops. The drone cameras identified a variety of animals, some of them we've seen around our camp but a lot are unique to the hotter climate.

  92 Lee: I think the best analogy for this place is Chile. Instead of the Andes mountains, here it's the fixed daylight terminator that gives us these long vertical lines of unique climates and the ability to traverse such a variety of climates horizontally in a matter of a few hours walk.

  93 Carson: Personally, my sweet spot has the sun slightly below the horizon. Lee likes it hotter.

  94 Lee: The thing that's totally different here from Chile is the wind, of course. Around the terminator, it's always so windy. No doubt you can hear. Glad we don't have allergies.

  95 Carson: Anyway, the drone is proving really useful despite the wind -- we've been surprised by the wind tolerances, tell Larissa she did a great job on that redesign. Tomorrow we're hoping the conditions will allow sending the drone out ahead of us on our northward trek. As we get closer to the pole, of course we're expecting the climate bands to widen as the axial tilt keeps the sunlight indirect.

  96 Lee: In the polar areas, you can actually experience a stationary night and day cycle on this planet -- it just takes months and only happens in specific regions. It's remarkable how the plant life adapts, so we're expecting to see some unique variations of life in such areas, maybe something more Earth-like in terms of being adapted to a concept of seasons that have differing light levels.

  97 Carson: Well, the auto-generated report has the species scan details and I'm feeling sleepy, so I think we'll sign off here. I hope you've figured out a way to capture and assemble these transmissions of ours because I don't think we can boost power or narrow the transmission beam any further. Anyway, good night and sweet dreams to you people up there in our future.

  98 SOUND: this conversation overlaps the mission report which continues playing in background

  99 Larissa: [sounds of feeling sick and light-headed]

  100 Marissa: [concerned] Larissa, you okay?

Larissa?

  101 Ekkert: What?

  102 Marissa: Should I take you to Doctor Singh?

  103 Ekkert: [dismissive] No, no, I'm fine.

  104 Marissa: You're sure?

  105 Ekkert: I'm sure.

  106 SOUND: a break of listening to the transmission until the drones part comes up

  107 Marissa: Do we have any more of those drones?

  108 Ekkert: I think so, why?

  109 Marissa: Maybe we could use one to try to find out what happened to Farah?

  110 Ekkert: She's gone. You should get over it.

  111 Marissa: [upset] She's like another sister to me.

  112 Ekkert: Funny you should say that.

  113 Marissa: Huh?

  114 Ekkert: Nothing.

  115 Marissa: I'm not giving up on her. So what do you think about the drone idea?

  116 Ekkert: A drone can't fly in a vacuum.

  117 Marissa: But could it be adapted? Or... actually, ore extraction section had some scouting and sampling robots, we know those work on Mathilde. Maybe we could use one of those.

  118 Ekkert: [disinterested] I suppose.

  119 SOUND: multicom beep

  120 Jim: [busy] Jim O'Hara here, what do you want?

  121 Marissa: Jim, do we still have any of the ore sampling robots?

  122 Jim: Yah, they got moved to storage until we need their parts for something else.

  123 Marissa: Do you think they'd be able to navigate through our upper level debris and make it to the surface to follow Chief Tojo into the anomaly?

  124 Jim: Well... they're not designed for obstacle courses or manipulating hatches, so I think somebody should carry it up. Once it's up there, it shouldn't have any trouble walking into the anomaly. But we'll need to swap out the ore sensors for something more useful to this mission.

  125 Marissa: Good idea. Let's just focus on optical sensors and fast transmission time though, no need to get complex until we find out if we can actually learn anything from it. Also, we'll need it set to automatically attempt to back out of the anomaly just after it enters.

  126 Jim: I had no idea you were such a scientist, Marissa.

  127 Marissa: I dabble, and this is personal. What do you think, how fast can you do it?

  128 Jim: It's really a two person job and I'm running behind schedule, can you come on down here and help me with it?

  129 Marissa: On my way.

  130 SOUND: call end sound, marissa stands and takes a couple steps then pauses

  131 Marissa: Larissa, do you want to come with me?

  132 Ekkert: [mentally distant] Nah, I'll stay here and cover communications for you, you go ahead.

  133 SOUND: leaves, scene ends

  134 MUSIC: bit of a music link to express time

  135 SOUND: still in communications, door opens and marissa enters

  136 Larissa: There you are, what happened to you?!

  137 Marissa: What? You know I went to work on the robot with O'Hara!

  138 Larissa: [confused] What robot?

  139 Marissa: To find Farah!

  140 Larissa: I don't remember what you're talking about. Or anything else from the last couple hours.

  141 Marissa: [concerned] What's the last thing you remember?

  142 Larissa: We were talking about Carson and Lee. You'd just started to play their report. Then you were gone, I was sitting here alone wondering what happened to you, and that was a couple minutes ago.

  143 Marissa: You don't remember our conversation about the drones?

  144 Larissa: No.

  145 Marissa: Do you remember you seemed to be feeling ill for a moment? I suggested seeing Doctor Singh but you didn't want to.

  146 Larissa: I felt a brief wave of nausea before the memory gap. Don't remember talking with you about it.

  147 Marissa: I wish you'd gone to the doctor.

  148 SOUND: scene ends

  149 SOUND: mayor's office

  150 Saetang: Since the rationing started, there's been 8 reported incidents of food theft.

  151 Peters: Doesn't sound that bad, considering.

  152 Saetang: But if we don't stop it now, it could get a lot worse as people get hungrier.

  153 Peters: Then I'd suggest you catch the culprits, detective.

  154 Saetang: Then there's these doomers. The cultists. I'm not comfortable with them, there's a threat they'll take advantage of our newly chaotic situation.

  155 Peters: Don't think anybody's comfortable around doomers, but whatdaya want *me* to do about them?

  156 Saetang: Well mayor, it would help stem their recruiting if you could reassure everybody that the rebuild is going well and the upper levels will be open soon and everybody will have their own home again and the rations will be increasing.

  157 Peters: So you want me to lie about everything?

  158 Saetang: Mayor, I just want you to put on a brave face and accentuate the positives as much as you can so people feel hopeful!

  159 Peters: I'm sorry Detective Saetang, but your meeting time has expired. I have another appointment waiting.

  160 Saetang: [with annoyed sigh] Guess I'll just make all the decisions myself then.

  161 SOUND: saetang strides out, door opens and closes

  162 Hernandez: Chief Lawrence is here. Are you sure you're up to this, mayor? You don't have to let him in.

  163 Peters: It's okay, it's just Chief Lawrence. I'm not an invalid.

  164 SOUND: door opens, lawrence strides in

  165 Lawrence: Good evening, mayor. Hope you're feeling better.

  166 Peters: Just hadn't eaten or slept well, sorry about my outburst. So you've got an update for me? What are our options?

  167 Lawrence: We've got the perfect planet coming up, no contest, don't think we need to consider any other options.

  168 Peters: What's that?

  169 Lawrence: Earth.

  170 Peters: What? Did you say Earth?

  171 Lawrence: Haven't you been following our position?

  172 Peters: Thought we were at least twenty thousand light years short of completing our first orbit of the galaxy.

  173 Lawrence: See, we're going so fast we'll cross twenty thousand light years in less than a year -- a year to us anyway. And our speed means the deceleration ship needs a long lead time to slow itself, so we'd have to launch it in the next couple months.

  174 Hernandez: We haven't heard from Earth in a long time.

  175 Lawrence: Naturally, we went out of range.

  176 Peters: Doesn't seem that long, but I guess it's been... [tries to work it out]

  177 Hernandez: 17 years. Do you think something happened to them?

  178 Lawrence: It's been about a hundred and sixty thousand years for them, so I suspect a lot of things happened.

  179 Peters: Do you suppose the human race still exists?

  180 Lawrence: I really doubt it. Except for us, of course.

  181 Hernandez: So whatever's there now...

  182 Lawrence: ... may be very alien to us.

  183 Peters: Hard to fathom.

  184 Lawrence: I don't think there could be any more appropriate way to wrap up our exploratory phase.

  185 Peters: Agreed. Let's set up a committee to pick the crew.

  186 Hernandez: I still think you should reconsider this, mayor... but, would it be just two crew again?

  187 Lawrence: Modifications to support a larger crew would take more time than we've got.

  188 Peters: Guess we'll be able to make a couple of returninsts very happy.

  189 Hernandez: I really think you should take a break now, mayor. Chief Lawrence and I can hammer out the committee details.

  190 Peters: Oh, alright, I'll go for a walk in the arboretum.

  191 SOUND: Peters strides out, door opens into hallway of chanting protesters and rowdy counter-protesters

  192 Protester: [repeated chant, to intersperse in scene] Bring back babies! Bring back babies! Bring back babies!

  193 Protester Three: [repeated chant, to intersperse in scene] Bring back babies! Bring back babies! Bring back babies!

  194 Sergey: [repeated chant, to intersperse in scene] End this world! End this world! End this world!

  195 Doomer Three: [repeated chant, to intersperse in scene] End this world! End this world! End this world!

  196 Doomer Priest: [repeated chant, to intersperse in scene] End this world! End this world! End this world!

  197 Protester Two: [shouting] Birth permits are our human rights!

  198 Protester Three: [shouting] Don't cancel our future!

  199 Peters: Okay, quiet down, quiet down!

  200 Protester: Well, mayor? Are you going to give us our future back or are you joining the doomers?

  201 Peters: I'm not, nobody said, wait a minute...

  202 Sergey: No more births!

  203 Peters: We all voted, for the mission, for exploration.

  204 Protester: That was 40 years ago, most of us weren't even born!

  205 Peters: Then you're not old enough to understand what this is all about, what life is all about, our place in the universe!

  206 Sergey: You tell her, mayor!

  207 Doomer Priest: We have a purpose here, we must fulfill it to achieve absolution! Our world must end!

  208 Protester: Doomer creeps!

  209 Peters: I didn't mean... I mean... we're going home!

  210 Protester Two: What?

  211 Peters: Earth! We're going to Earth!

  212 Protester: What are you talking about?

  213 Doomer Priest: He means the ore will be used to send our explorers to Earth! We're almost back there. It's a perfect way to bring our world to a close, a perfect symmetry!

  214 Protester Two: It's backwards, backwards!

  215 Protester: Earth is dead and gone. Our future is what matters, don't deprive us of one!

  216 Peters: I mean, if there were a way, a way to do both, I would, but we can't, we can't do, uh, the ore, not enough ore.

  217 SOUND: both sides get angrier as scene ends

  218 MUSIC: transition that conveys time passing

  219 SOUND: peters quarters, door opens

  220 Peters: [tired] Hey Tam, I'm home.

  221 Therapist: Been a tough day, has it?

  222 Peters: The disrespect I have to deal with, it's shocking. Nobody would've talked to a mayor in the old days like everybody talks to me.

  223 Therapist: These aren't the old days.

  224 Peters: Some are overt with it, others I can feel it simmering just below the surface. Even people I was sure I could trust. They're like... sharks, sharks that smell my blood in the water.

  225 Therapist: Maybe you should tell everyone what's going on with you, the dementia. They might be more understanding.

  226 Peters: [scoffing] You want me to throw chum into the water?

  227 Therapist: Or you could step down.

  228 Peters: Abandon them to chaos and infighting? Besides, I need a purpose right now, something to focus me so I don't have to think about my brain disintegrating.

  229 SOUND: apply appropriate time distortions through following. scene will take place from perspective of marissa and stone with their relevant room tone.

  230 Jim: [sfx: space suit] I'm on the surface.

  231 Marissa: Check your scanner.

  232 Stone: You should be detecting the direction of the center of the temporal disturbances with the new program I installed on it.

  233 Jim: Got it.

  234 Marissa: Now transfer those coordinates to the robot.

  235 Stone: Tell it to move slow and transmit continuously, and to retrace its path the moment contact is lost.

  236 Jim: It's off and moving. Are you seeing the video?

  237 Stone: Yes we are.

  238 Marissa: Thanks Jim, you can come back inside.

  239 Jim: I'll stay and watch it disappear, if it's all the same to you. Don't think I'll ever fully believe in this anomaly unless I see it in action myself.

  240 Marissa: Just don't go any closer to it.

  241 Stone: The distortions are getting stronger, it must be getting close.

  242 Jim: Just vanished. You guys still getting a transmission?

  243 Stone: [disappointed] No, the video cut out. And since the robot hasn't returned, I'd say we've confirmed that this is a unidirectional phenomenon.

  244 Marissa: I think I saw a flash of something different there at the end of the video.

  245 Stone: Well, let's check. Computer, play back the final half second of footage at 5% speed.

  246 Computer: Playback initiated.

  247 Marissa: Hmm, just a normal horizon and star field for now.

Wait, there!

  248 Stone: Computer, pause.

  249 Marissa: Wow, that star is close! That can't have been taken from here, it's clearly within a system!

  250 Stone: Computer, run a spectral analysis of the large star in this image, and summarize.

  251 Computer: Star is comprised of 74% hydrogen, 24% helium, additional trace elements. Surface temperature approximately five thousand eight hundred Kelvin. Radial velocity uncertain without further images. Moderate sunspot activity.

  252 Stone: Compare this with known stars in our database.

  253 Computer: One match found.

  254 Stone: Elaborate.

  255 Computer: High confidence match with the star Sol, colloquially known as the sun.

  256 Marissa: What?! How?!

  257 Stone: Computer, assuming the star is Sol and based on the size of it in the image and known data about the robot's camera, can you calculate how far away the star is from the camera?

  258 Computer: Approximate distance three hundred million kilometers.

  259 Stone: In the Sol system, where would that put the camera?

  260 Computer: Main asteroid belt.

  261 Marissa: [astonished] What does this mean?

  262 Stone: I think it means we're dealing with a doorway back through time, back to where it all started!

  263 SOUND: end theme

  264 Announcer: You've been listening to Two Fifty-Three Mathilde, episode twenty two: Destiny.

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