Sécurité

**"Sécurité"** is the thirty-first episode of the podcast. It was originally released 14 March 2016.

## Episode Description

Sécurité. (noun) An international radio signal, used to convey messages concerning safety of navigation or important warnings. Plus, sensitive information, sun tanning opportunities, surreal nightmares, bunny slippers, and the end of the known universe.

## Plot Summary

Over the radio, an unknown voice (soon revealed to be Daniel Jacobi) sends a radio message out to the U.S.S. Hephaestus from the U.S.S. Urania, informing the station of their approach, initially receiving no response. The currently unnamed Warren Kepler tells him to send the message again, with the addition of the command authentication codes. The second message gets a reply from Hephaestus, giving details on how the Urania can finalize their approach. After Jacobi attempts a joke that falls flat, Kepler tells him to get them ready for docking.

Clearly on edge, the crew of the Hephaestus are carrying weapons when the crew of the Urania come on board, not lowering them when Kepler says that they are unarmed. After confirming he’s speaking to Renée Minkowski and introducing himself and Jacobi - not without another sarcastic comment - he goes through the others. He seems to have met Doctor Alexander Hilbert before, given the man greets Kepler with his former title (Major), and says he will keep Hera’s preference for her name rather than given unit number in mind. When Isabel Lovelace introduces herself, Kepler doesn’t react with any surprise at Lovelace having joined the crew, despite Command having declared her dead.

Kepler attempts to invite Minkowski and Lovelace into a private conversation, which the two refuse. While he tries to pull them aside, there is some movement in the background and Hera begins to try and get Minkowski’s attention. After being brushed aside a few times, Minkowski listens and sees Douglas Eiffel for the first time since Episode 28, “Who’s There”, when he was ejected into space and presumed dead. Jacobi makes another sarcastic quip about bringing Eiffel back to the station - “the tag on his collar had this address on it” - and Kepler points out that this shows they mean no harm, and Minkowski lowers her gun.

Minkowski and Lovelace accompany Kepler, Jacobi, and Eiffel aboard the Urania, taking them into his quarters. He tells them a little about the Urania, prompting Eiffel to make a Star Wars reference, before offering them all a drink of his personal stash of whiskey. When Minkowski asks why they’re there, Kepler tells them that Command at Cape Canaveral had received an SOS message over the pulse beacon relay. When there was no response to their attempts to open communications with the station - Jacobi suggests that there might be an issue with the pulse beacon relay system or that there’s too much interference from radiation - Marcus Cutter instructed Kepler to put a team together to take up to the station with him. Jacobi says that it was luck they managed to find Eiffel, who was nearly on an intercept vector with the Hermes Station, but Eiffel’s story is cut off by Kepler asking for a rundown on the situation, saying that the “other member” of SI-5 will be with the other crew members.

While this meeting continues, Hera is attempting to run scans on the Urania, telling Hilbert that none of them have managed to get through, leaving them with no idea what is happening on board. Hilbert says that he feels something isn’t right about the situation, as SI-5 are Cutter’s top men and that Kepler, specifically, is “the most dangerous man you will ever meet”, besides Cutter himself.

Doctor Alana Maxwell surprises him when she says that she doesn’t think Kepler is *that* scary, apologizing for interrupting as she greets them. She brushes off Hilbert’s attempt at an introduction, making it apparent that she had been solely greeting Hera, to whom she introduces herself.

Obviously irritated at being brushed aside, Hilbert begins to question Maxwell on what she’s doing, repeatedly asking why she’s doing something before she brushes him aside by saying he “wouldn’t get it.” They are distracted from how insulted Hilbert is by the lights flickering, which Hera apologizes for. Maxwell begins to type something to fix the problem, Hilbert making an attempt to stop Hera from listening to the command that’s cut off by the lights steadying.

Hera asks Maxwell how she did that and she begins to respond before cutting herself off, asking why Hilbert is staring at her before revealing her PhD is in Machine Computations and that she is an A.I. developer. This sparks confusion in both Hera and Hilbert, the latter asking why Command would send an A.I. specialist on a rescue mission, before Maxwell reveals that it isn’t a rescue mission at all.

Back on the Urania, Minkowski is wrapping up her story on what’s been going on, revealing that there have been no further transmissions since Wolf 359 turned blue (towards the end of Episode 26, "Do No Harm"), and saying that she’s sure everyone will be happy to leave the Hephaestus. Kepler and Jacobi point out that it was never stated to be a rescue mission, just that they said they were there to help. He says they are moving on to “phase two of the Hephaestus Mission,” which Minkowski, Lovelace, and Eiffel react to angrily.

Minkowski and Lovelace begin to point out reasons they can’t continue the Hephaestus mission - a lack of supplies and the station’s stress fractures - which Kepler shuts down quickly by suggesting solutions. Eiffel says that Cutter is a “murderous fruit loop” who doesn’t care about the crewmembers and that Command “doesn’t give a crap about what happens to any of us,” which Kepler and Jacobi are both unsurprised by.

Kepler describes what they’re doing at Wolf 359 as “pushing,” saying that they are working to expand the known boundaries of science and that he has an expectation for the Hephaestus crew to stay focused on the “big picture,” loosely outlining the goals of phase two of the mission: to learn what’s going on with the star itself, and the origin of the transmissions. He refers to the contact they made with aliens as the “ginormous picture”, telling the three Hephaestus crewmembers to “get with the program.”

When Lovelace asks what happens if they don’t do what he’s telling them to, Kepler gives a speech on how they are ultimately disposable, comparing them to his favorite bottle of scotch - he says that they’re “nice to have, but nothing more than that.” Minkowski recognizes it as a threat and Lovelace says that they would fight. Jacobi unconcernedly responds by saying that he knows SI-5 would win. His area of expertise is revealed to be ballistics and explosives, and he and Kepler declare that the forty minutes they’ve been docked is more than enough time for Maxwell to have established a connection to Hera’s mainframe. They go on to say that she would be able to make Hera pull the breathable air from any room with only an order, and that Hera would not have a choice in the matter.

After Kepler gives them the night off, Jacobi tells Eiffel that he can now stop calling Minkowski “Commander,” as Kepler is now the commanding officer of the Hephaestus, with Jacobi in the role of second-in-command. Minkowski’s demotion puts her at the rank of Lieutenant, and in the role of the station’s Navigations Officer. Kepler tells Jacobi to take them back to the Hephaestus after picking up some essentials.

Later, on the Hephaestus, Eiffel finds Minkowski alone, attempting to make lighthearted small talk before he’s cut off by her hugging him tightly, as they’re finally able to reunite privately. He calls her “Commander” while saying he’s glad to see her, saying that SI-5 can “go screw themselves” when she reminds him he doesn’t need to call her that anymore. Their moment is interrupted by Hilbert and Lovelace, Eiffel expressing confusion as to why Hilbert isn’t locked in the observation deck, a concern brushed aside in favor of discussing the matter at hand.

Lovelace says the plan is to cooperate with them until the right moment for a coup presents itself, at which point she says they’ll transfer Hera’s consciousness to the Urania and use it to go back to Earth. Hilbert says that it won’t work, giving a little detail on his previous encounter with Kepler - he had been the head of the team there for recovery at the end of the previous Hephaestus mission, only moving in after Lovelace had knocked Hilbert out before making her escape - and how he had been the one to tell him Lovelace’s shuttle had been consumed by the star.

Minkowski points out that this is why Kepler was unsurprised by Lovelace’s presence on the station, but Hilbert disagrees, saying that “Kepler is never surprised” and that they won’t be able to outsmart him. Hera says that he would have made the same argument when he was taking control of the station, and that she would be standing with Minkowski. She begins to ask how he can be sure she won’t be after Hilbert disagrees again, when he points out that she has begun referring to Minkowski as “Lieutenant”. He says that SI-5’s work will be subtle in similar ways, as this had gone entirely unnoticed by Hera, saying that if they do anything rash, they will be “totally screwed.”

## External links

* Listen on Libsyn.
* Official script.