Black Box Cassette 10: ABQ to SCL, LIT to ???

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## Black Box Cassette 10: ABQ to SCL, LIT to ???

### Air Date

25/01/2021

> *"Option two is... we keep flying."*
>
>

This cassette is a recording of the Pilot's flight from Albuquerque to Santiago de Chile, and from Little Rock to an unknown location, done by the automatic black box recording system.

The Pilot starts by apologising to Hester for taking so long to catch up to her. He had imagined numerous horrible scenarios about what had happened to her since they were split up, involving lots of conspiracy theories including aliens, cryptids, and shady government organisations. He was desperate to find her, but was scared of leading the people pursuing her right to her. In the end it was Paloma who found her, working in a diner in Albuquerque under the name Nell. It seemed risky to him, letting so many people see her face daily, but he supposed that a lot of people would not look past the uniform and name badge.

He tells Hester about the risks he's taken - namely finding Sam. He tries to figure out whether he made the right choice not trying to talk to her, reflecting that he thought it would be unfair on her at the time. He finds himself wondering about her interests, if she can whistle, and other things that seem relevant now that she is a real person in his mind and not a concept. He wonders if the Society is far enough from the Great Reckoning, with enough knowledge of how family systems cause tribalism and violence, that people might be allowed to know their children again. Since the Pilot was raised outside of a family system, he doesn't have the tribalistic values of the old society to pass on, so the cycle could be broken. He then dismisses the idea, saying that many scholars and learned people have studied the issue much closer than he has and probably know what they're talking about. He begins his next thought, but is cut off.

Seeming distressed, he tells Hester that he will not be able to help her on to Valparaíso because he needs to turn the plane around as soon as he lands. He doesn't want to abandon her when they just found her, but he has to go and help Sam. He tells Hester that Alejandro will be waiting for her at the airport and will help her to the boat. He apologises for the journey taking so long, but says he thinks that once she sees Oleta again, it will seem like no time at all.

The Pilot checks in with Sam, saying he won't talk much if she doesn't want him to, but he hopes she's okay. He wants to know what happened, because he doesn't even know how she knew to get a hold of him. The control tower at SCL told him in an urgent message that his wife had been in an accident - he wants to know whether or not it was an accident, and whether Coleen is okay. He apologises, telling her again that she doesn't have to explain anything, he's just overwhelmed and he will try to calm himself down while Sam rests. He talks again later to tell Sam that if she's hungry, there's some food in the blue container to her left.

He tells her that soon he will have to make a decision. They will be landing soon to refuel, and they will need to choose where they're going next, and whether he's going to return to his route to deliver his cargo, which he did not offload when Hester disembarked. Since he can't take Sam back to the Cradle campsite and the whole area will be crawling with IID agents, it would be difficult to find anyone she knew from the Cradle even if he knew how. The legal thing to do would be to take her to a Registry Office and get her signed in to a Childhood Centre, where she would be comfortable and safe for the next few months. Her memory would be erased when she turned ten, but that might have been better than living with the trauma of being seperated from her mom and losing her home. He thinks perhaps if he doesn't tell them the whole truth, they wouldn't erase his memory completely and he could even still visit sometimes, and reconnect her with Coleen if he ever found her. He speaks to the merits of the Society, being provided for, getting an education, being able to travel, and assures her that she would be happy. The second option is that they offload the cargo at the refuelling station so they're not branded as thieves and keep flying, stick together, find somewhere to lay low and get to know each other. He knows what the right decision is, but he doesn't know what he wants to do. The decision involves two of them, though - he asks Sam what she wants.