March 20, 2022 • 37 mins
Orpheus is a science fiction audio drama, and is the eleventh horror story release by Tremorphonic.
In this sci fi horror story, the crew of the Orpheus conduct a research mission, past Mars, and out to the asteroid belt. We hear a series of recordings from communications officer Will Stevens as he tells of the crew's experiences.
Tremorphonic - The Sounds of Fear - is a collection of horror audio stories in a mixture of storytelling styles that are best served by the audio format.
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(00:00):
welcome to Tremorphonic audio stories
Tremorphonic sounds of fear is a
collection of original horror stories
presented in audio format
today's story Orpheus was written as a
project of passion and is free to listen
to
please visit Tremorphonic.com follow our
Tremorphonic social media and podcast
accounts and share our posts and stories
(00:21):
to a wider audience
you can also find us on patreon and buy
me a coffee.com if you want to support
the development of future stories this
is Orpheus
archive philo
rp278 designation classified property of
international aerospace research
(00:43):
institute unauthorised possession
distribution and playing of this
recording is considered a violation of
earth security article 7 and is
punishable by up to 50 years in prison
the following series of transmissions
was received the 14th of october 2167
following salvage operations in belt
quadrant gamma
(01:04):
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day 278
the orpheus is now on day 278 of our
mission from mars base hawking
the transmission that spurred this
mission has now become separable from
the background radiation
(01:24):
while in the original recordings the
signal was only detectable by frequency
analysis
it's now audible to the human ear
to me this is an incredibly exciting
development
but my enthusiasm is not shared by the
crew
for reference here is the original
recording from base hawking the only
base to have detected the frequency as
(01:46):
their deep space sound equipment is the
best in the vicinity of mars
and here is the recording i made from
the orpheus yesterday
[Music]
(02:13):
our initial suspicions were correct
there is something deliberate and
patterned about this transmission
its waveform and repetition
implies some form of intelligence and
technology at its source
so having reached the decision window
location
(02:33):
we are making that decision to continue
the outward journey away from mars to
attempt to locate a more definite source
there's still skepticism among many of
the crew
i get the feeling that at least half the
crew never believed that there was a
likelihood we'd make this decision and
(02:53):
continue the outward journey
i think they were hoping that we would
have made the alternate decision to
divert course for outer orbit base
bergson which is around 30 days travel
from here
but as both comms officer and mission
specialist
i was required to make the unpopular
decision to send us further into unknown
(03:15):
space
for potentially another year
however it has been agreed that if after
another 150 days we have not reached the
transmission source we will be forced to
turn back to base bergson as the nearest
fueling and supply station
now that i have a clearer signal to work
(03:37):
with
our pilots and i can start to put
together an estimated distance and
vector
it will of course be an estimate but
given the amount of background
interference i
currently believe it's unlikely to be
more than 100 days from our current
location
i will update this log as and when
significant progress has been made
(04:00):
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hi mum hi dad
if i've timed this right you should be
receiving this in time for mum's 70th
birthday
so happy birthday
dad don't forget that card i left for
mum i know what your memory is like
(04:22):
so our project up here among the planets
has made some significant progress as
you know i can't tell you all the
details but it will mean that i'll be
traveling for another year at least
before i return to earth
i know we all thought i'd be out here
for a long time but it's only when
you're living it that you realize the
reality of this length of time
(04:44):
do you remember me saying that i
technically age more slowly this far out
well i calculated it
file corrupted
time is such a strange dimension
you can tell the ricohs that their son
laurie is getting on well uh for his
first long haul assignment he's
(05:04):
performing admirably
he's only an ensign now but roddy sorry
rodriguez his engineering mentor
reckons he'll be working independently
before his mission ends
captain jay shares the opinion too
he still won't let me forget that um
insisted on calling him captain jason
repeatedly when you met him
(05:25):
it may be unusual for a captain to go by
his first name but it's not a difficult
name
anyway it's time for dinner here i'll
catch up with you soon love you hugs and
kisses
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day 294
(05:48):
it's been over two weeks since my last
mission log update
tensions are high amongst the orpheus
crew
four of us including captain jay
see the value and purpose behind this
mission but the other five have formed
their own
social clique separate from us
they're still performing their duties
(06:09):
they recognize that responsibility
and they're at least behaving
appropriately but the tensions during
our downtime
could be cut with a knife
i have been religiously checking and
rechecking the signal
as frequently as my responsibilities
allow me
the problem is that when you listen to
(06:30):
and analyze the same sound too
frequently
you fail to notice when a minute change
becomes
something significant
yesterday i compared the up-to-date
signal sound to the first
clean recording we made two weeks ago
and it's definitely clearing up
(06:50):
i don't know if it's decipherable to the
human ear but the frequency graphs are
showing more separation in the spikes of
frequency
here is the latest recording
[Music]
i will continue to make definitive
(07:12):
comparison points with time-stamped
signal recordings from the last few
weeks
this would have been a futile exercise
before this time but the changing sounds
might be a way
of triangulating a more definitive
destination point
i will update again in one week
end recording
(07:35):
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day 301
the crew have become more accepting of
the mission now
this could simply be down to their
concession that holding a grudge in a
confined space for a year is not going
to help anyone especially when it can't
be changed
(07:56):
but i also hope that my sharing of data
also played a part in convincing them of
the value of this mission
while all my research is in the ship's
central computer and i know the captain
checks it regularly i don't think the
rest of the crew have ever had the
vested interest to keep an eye on it
(08:16):
after dinner a few days back at captain
jay's request
i put on a short demonstration of the
progress that has been made
and the improvements we've heard in the
signal
i may not have won everyone over but i
think there's more investment in the
mission from a few of the naysayers
anyway here is the latest signal
(08:36):
recording
not much to comment on at this stage
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hi mum and dad
(08:58):
so lovely to hear back from you and such
wonderful news about lisa's new baby boy
it breaks my heart that i won't be able
to meet my nephew while he's so little
i'll have to make up for lost time when
i'm home
i've had some
difficult times with the crew here not
everyone's been on the same page with
the mission
(09:18):
you remember tiffany
from the bbq before we left she's our
pilot and she's always had my back in
these disagreements
but sometimes it feels like it's just
me and her against the world
the research institute doesn't allow
relationships between mission crew but
mom you did call it she and i have grown
(09:40):
close
part of me hopes
for that reason that we don't get
assigned to another ship together
i'll get her to join me on one of these
messages sometime
speak to you soon hugs and kisses
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
(10:02):
orpheus mission log day 305
it's only been four days since my last
entry but that's because
i was right
three weeks of tracing the signal has
given me the information needed to
triangulate a more precise location
we now know that it's emanating from a
(10:22):
location in the asteroid belts
until we get closer we can't say much
more than that
it could be the source but it could also
be a relay or even a deflected signal
gravity affects radio waves too after
all just like it does with visible light
(10:42):
there's also
too much interference from the moving
rocks in the belt and
the metals that are contained within
those rocks
the sound of the transmission is
probably not going to get much clearer
until we can establish
a more direct line of transmission which
will mean maneuvering around the belt
(11:03):
until we can pinpoint a position
our pilot tiff believes she can get us
into
what did she call it
a slightly spiraling sun synchronous
orbit
near the belt
at a safe distance allowing us to
maximize our ability to scan the
suspected area
(11:25):
i think people forget just how
vast the asteroid belt is
and how few known rocks exist there
our point of interest is about as far
from series vesta or eros as you can
find and there's no real reference
points to base our search on
(11:46):
i will update this log when tiff has
positioned us at the belt
end recording
communications officer will stevens
obvious mission log day 315.
we're here at the belt
and
well
(12:07):
it's
stunningly beautiful dangerous
but beautiful
we have to remain constantly aware that
the belt is not a finite structure and
has no defined edges of course
so we have to keep the sensors on watch
for stray rocks at all times
what i didn't realize was how the
gravity and the dust of the belt plays
(12:30):
with the light
it's almost as if the red light is
dulled but the greens and blues are
accentuated
our infrared cameras seem to be picking
up
literally nothing
and we have to assume it's some strange
effect of the asteroid metals and
refractions of the red end of the light
spectrum
(12:51):
our resident physicist ozell
is fascinated and will be recording his
own findings and theories on the matter
tiff did position us well in order to
scan the asteroids and we are already
receiving a less interrupted signal
i'm actually beginning to wonder
if the signal is
more than just an intelligent data
(13:12):
communication
but in fact is transmitted audio
recording
the pitch shifts seem to imply that
there's a grammar and a speech pattern
in the transmission
listen for yourself
it couldn't be human as there have been
(13:33):
no recorded expeditions to this region
before
but that being said
many expeditions over time have gone
missing
and presumed to have gone beyond the
belt
if it turns out we're here on a rescue
mission
it certainly won't be a wasted journey
i will update again when we pinpoint
(13:53):
location
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hey lisa congratulations i can't wait to
meet little joseph so glad you went with
that name after all
but you know i'm calling him joey right
fair warning
(14:14):
i heard you had to stay in hospital for
a few days i hope everything's okay i'm
sure andy's taking care of you though
mum and dad seem well in their messages
but i can always read their tone of
voice
give mom an extra big hug from me
i told you about tiff before right
uh she's been harassing me for baby
(14:35):
pictures so you better be sending me
some soon
honestly i think it'll actually help the
whole crew it's always good to get a
little reminder of life continuing as
normal back on earth
you were at school with lorenzo rico
right he's up here with us as a trainee
engineer he mentioned you in passing the
other day completely slipped my mind
that he knew you
(14:57):
i never met him until our first mission
briefing
but it seemed he knows the rest of my
family already
anyway i'll speak to you soon
take care
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day317
(15:17):
it's not taken us long to find a
location
it appears and disappears behind an
asymmetrical rotating asteroids so
we have to maneuver into the belt
with
an estimated
million kilometers between each
significant rock this shouldn't be too
dangerous
but our path will still require careful
(15:40):
plotting
tiff believes she'll have the
calculations confirmed by tomorrow
in other news four members of the crew
have been experiencing
some strange occurrences while we've
been in orbit here
they've been reporting an overwhelming
sense of not being alone
(16:01):
like catching a glimpse of movement in
their peripheral vision when no one's
around
or
moments of deja vu
but so significantly that they've been
predicting events
even catching dropped objects as if they
knew it would happen
the crew's reports of these experiences
have been remarkably similar
(16:24):
our doctor simmons is interviewing each
of the crew that have reported these
experiences but doesn't believe there's
any reason for any sort of
group
hallucination i believe simmons will be
writing up his own reports and theories
on this
once we make progress with our journey
into the belt i will report further
(16:45):
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hi mum i hope dad is watching this too
and that his golf game doesn't get in
the way of sending your next message
baby joseph is adorable the whole crew
agrees
i've asked tiff to come and say hi to
(17:05):
you today she should be here in a moment
the mission's been
weird
i wish i could share more of the details
with you
tiff must have lost track of time
track of time
in the meantime
(17:29):
file corrupted supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
office mission log day 319
tiff moved us into our new position
yesterday
the location we receive the strongest
signal from
the gravity
(17:50):
magnetism and mineral constituents of
the belt
are clearly having further unexpected
effects on the light here
as we moved amongst the rocks the light
distortion became more
pronounced
having already lost the red light
spectrum at the edge of the belt we seem
to have now lost the greens and yellows
(18:11):
of our vision too
everything is now only visible in hues
of blue
it's making reading some of the computer
outputs especially hard
and distinguishing color-coded control
panels now requires us to look more
carefully at the labels
more worryingly
six out of the nine crew members have
(18:32):
now reported visions of some kind of
presence on the ship
myself included
last night
i was doing the final checks of the
transmission tower
when i felt a chill like
a draft behind me
the only way that happens in a closed
environment like this
(18:53):
is when someone or something passes you
none of the crew were anywhere near the
transmission tower though
when i looked along the link corridor i
saw
in the blue light
something it it's so difficult to put it
into words like
(19:14):
a bright
glowing
sphere of energy
but not a solid sphere
it was like it was gaseous
see-through
and emitting what looks like vapor
trails
but the strangest thing of all
was its pattern of movement
(19:36):
after i watched it for a second or two
it stopped
stationary for about
five seconds
it was as if it noticed me and was
staring back at me somehow although it
was of course completely faceless so i
can't be sure of that
then
with a sense of urgency it started
(19:57):
moving again this time
about three times as fast
continuing away from me down the
corridor and turning the corner at the
end
there was clearly something sentient
about this
thing
i've reported all of this to doc simmons
he has a detailed log but i'm starting
(20:17):
to wonder if these entities are
connected to the signal somehow
they're appearing more vivid as we move
closer
but
everything we see
is so much more difficult to be certain
of
due to the lack of contrast in colors
that we can see here
with everything in shades of blue it's
(20:37):
hard to be
100 sure of what i saw
but i'm not the only one that's seen
them
doc and tiff both report similar
sightings
unfortunately
the signal is no clearer here than
before
(20:58):
but we do have a new location to head
for deeper inside the belt where we
believe it's originating from
tiff will get us there in a couple of
days
end recording
communications officer will stevens
office mission log day
(21:21):
323
323 i think
i'm
a couple of days late with my entry
uh it's
been difficult to make this report
while
deep blues continue to be the only color
(21:42):
we can see around us
we've started experiencing
[Music]
can only call them time dilations
i don't mean simply things
going faster or slower like movement or
speech i'm talking about
missing and
(22:03):
repeating time
all the crew experiencing it
i
lost
the last two days
i don't know where i was
or what happened
but i'm gradually experiencing episodes
of it
out of order
(22:24):
but not memories these are
experiences like i'm living the moment
there and then i can
feel the objects i can hear the sounds
but
seconds later
i'm back in the present
it's
like i'm experiencing my own actions in
a different timeline
(22:46):
but as a result it's getting harder to
know when the present is
i can't remember if i'm
in a flashback experience now
or if this is real time
the
only unifying factor that the crew can
find for these time lapses
(23:07):
is that they coincide with
our experiences of the glowing energy
sphere entities or
geese as we've started to refer to them
when one of these geese
is near us for any length of time
we find ourselves
(23:27):
somewhere else
unable to account for the time between
only later do we start
re-experiencing the missed episode
a couple of days late with my entry
the two days i just lost
is the longest period of time yet
(23:49):
that anybody is unable to account for
seemingly nobody saw me in those two
days
and the crew were worried about where i
could have gone
we're all in a defined and limited space
i certainly wasn't outside the ship
no airlock activity was detected
(24:11):
we've
also
lost a crew member
ensen rico
was assisting engineer ramirez in
replacing faulty equipment
but in front of ramirez's eyes
rico started
getting
to taller
(24:33):
but also
thinner
stretched like toffee is how ramirez
described it
all this time rico's eyes were fixed on
him
and a look of shock became
froze on his face
when the doc arrived on the scene
(24:55):
it was too late
rico's
ribbon-like body
had stretched more than double his
original height
and was
curled into a pile on the floor
the crew were already suffering mentally
and
this has really thrown a punch as our
sanity
(25:18):
i do wonder if
the geese
have always been here
just
in a different visible light spectrum
perhaps
their proximity is
just as responsible for experiences of
deja vu in normal life
just a theory
(25:39):
it's
like i'm experiencing my own actions in
a different timeline
the latest recording of the signal
follows
we're still on course for the signal
source point
hopefully we'll be there any day now
(26:02):
and recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
mum
dad
i'm not permitted to tell you details
but captain jay has allowed me to say
something
it's
like i'm experiencing my own actions in
(26:23):
a different timeline
uh we don't know if this message will
even send
so i wanted to let you know
somehow
about lorenzo rico
his parents will probably here about the
same time
same time
same time
(26:54):
file corrupted
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
obvious mission log
day
i honestly have no idea anymore
so
(27:16):
tiff managed to get us to the source
points
the location we were certain the signal
was coming from
but as soon as we got here
the signal
vanished
as if
we triggered it to stop somehow
(27:37):
but getting here
made our situation a whole lot worse
we didn't realize how bad until too late
otherwise
captain jay would have turned us around
the blue spectrum
is gone
in other words the entire visible light
(27:58):
spectrum
is now just
darkness
fortunately
before we entered this zone of
invisibility for want of a better term
physicist orzelle had hypothesized this
possibility and had already found the
ultraviolet goggles
the ultraviolet spectrum is still
(28:20):
visible
but
at times i
wish it wasn't
we only have
two pairs of prototype ultraviolet
vision goggles
so we have to take it in turns to
perform our duties and the rest of the
time we're
in the dark
(28:41):
ozell suggested that maybe the light
spectrum frequencies and wavelengths are
being
dimensionally altered in some way
it's in some way similar to our
experience of time maybe
it could all be connected
one of the pairs of goggles is
permanently with tiff as she tries to
(29:03):
work out why the ship
won't move from our current position
and why we can't leave this location
once we were locked on course for this
location the computer locked us out
we've been without control of the ship
for a couple of days at least
the other pair is passed by the captain
(29:26):
to the next person whose duty is most
necessary
until 20 minutes ago that was me and
this record is
absolutely necessary
so i made sure to have the recording
controls at hand while i sit here in my
quarters
in the dark
(29:48):
time lapses we've been suffering
are getting worse
we often find ourselves getting stuck in
loops for periods of time unaware
and unable to remove ourselves unless
someone interferes
which is increasingly difficult
in the dark
the most terrifying thing though
(30:10):
is what the ultraviolet spectrum shows
us
the geese
are not just energy beings they exist in
three-dimensional space
just
not
our three-dimensional space
our shift into the
ultraviolet spectrum
(30:33):
or is it even perhaps
an ultraviolet dimension
either way
it has enabled us to see them more
clearly and
they're
alternate versions of
us
each of the crew
has found their ultraviolet
(30:53):
doppelganger
in their own workspace seemingly
performing their
the same duties
in a few minutes ahead or behind each
other
the
only ones that have been truly aware of
us
seem to be wearing goggles similar to
(31:16):
our own ultraviolet goggles
but while we're able to see through some
sort of
ultraviolet dimensional gateway
interaction
isn't possible between us and them
we have tried
objects cannot be passed between us
(31:39):
and sounds cannot be heard
writing works but requires the
doppelganger to also be wearing the
goggles
the only thing we do know
is
not to try and touch our own
doppelganger
we found that out the hard way
(32:00):
the two versions of ourselves
that we're aware of
may actually just be two of many
tiff
bless her with her goggles
saw engineer ramirez interacting
with his own doppelganger
on the bridge
(32:20):
but when the two entered the same
physical space
parts of them
stretched and entwined
while other parts
did not
she said it was like
somebody part solidified like stone
while others stretched like a putty
(32:41):
until his body was
no longer recognizable as human
and
his stretched screaming face
resembled that edward munch painting
other than the unfortunate ramirez
doc simmons has spent the longest time
(33:03):
with his doppelganger
and through careful written interaction
has confirmed most of the established
facts and theories i've spoken of which
he fills us in on while we sit together
in the dark at meal times
it's strange though
our doppelgangers always seem
(33:28):
a few steps ahead of us
like they're performing similar duties
to us
in the same order
but asynchronously to us
about two minutes ahead
it's like a weird childhood nightmare i
used to have of arriving at school to
find
(33:48):
another version of myself already
sitting in my seat in the classroom
at least
now
i'm wondering if that was only a dream
ensign andres suggested that the two
versions of ourselves
that we're aware of
(34:09):
may actually just be two of many
perhaps even
infinite versions of ourselves
perhaps all inhabiting the same space in
a few minutes ahead or behind each other
(34:30):
that one really got my head spinning
my first call of duty on my shift was to
send for help from vase bergson
but
like the last week or so we seemingly
(34:51):
can't transmit from the belt
i don't want to undermine captain jay's
command but i do wonder if
instead i should be sending a warning to
not follow us into the belt
but in any case
we're too deep now
(35:11):
in the belt
for
any call of any kind
we can't
transmit
it's likely we're trapped here
indefinitely
we can't
transmit
it's likely we're trapped here
(35:37):
is
(36:12):
data corrupted file ends
archive note the international aerospace
research institute has no record of an
orpheus mission
records indicate that this log describes
the crew of the research vessel arbo
captain jay weathers pilot tiffany
haywood and mission specialist
communications officer will stevens are
confirmed members of the argo research
(36:34):
mission
the argo went missing after losing
communication when passing mars base
berkson in october 2167
the content of philo rp278
has been deemed a hoax and classified to
prevent speculation
end of archive philo rp278
(36:58):
thank you for listening to Orpheus
presented by Tremorphonic
Orpheus was written performed recorded
and edited by Richard Wilson with music
by carl casey at white bat audio the
music samples and foley effects from
fesleyan studios pixabay and mixit.com
don't forget to follow Tremorphonic on
(37:19):
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and Tremorphonic.com
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forward slash Tremorphonic or buy me a
coffee dot com forward slash Tremorphonic
(37:39):
thank you for listening
welcome to Tremorphonic audio stories
Tremorphonic sounds of fear is a
collection of original horror stories
presented in audio format
today's story Orpheus was written as a
project of passion and is free to listen
to
please visit Tremorphonic.com follow our
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accounts and share our posts and stories
(00:21):
to a wider audience
you can also find us on patreon and buy
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the development of future stories this
is Orpheus
archive philo
rp278 designation classified property of
international aerospace research
(00:43):
institute unauthorised possession
distribution and playing of this
recording is considered a violation of
earth security article 7 and is
punishable by up to 50 years in prison
the following series of transmissions
was received the 14th of october 2167
following salvage operations in belt
quadrant gamma
(01:04):
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day 278
the orpheus is now on day 278 of our
mission from mars base hawking
the transmission that spurred this
mission has now become separable from
the background radiation
(01:24):
while in the original recordings the
signal was only detectable by frequency
analysis
it's now audible to the human ear
to me this is an incredibly exciting
development
but my enthusiasm is not shared by the
crew
for reference here is the original
recording from base hawking the only
base to have detected the frequency as
(01:46):
their deep space sound equipment is the
best in the vicinity of mars
and here is the recording i made from
the orpheus yesterday
[Music]
(02:13):
our initial suspicions were correct
there is something deliberate and
patterned about this transmission
its waveform and repetition
implies some form of intelligence and
technology at its source
so having reached the decision window
location
(02:33):
we are making that decision to continue
the outward journey away from mars to
attempt to locate a more definite source
there's still skepticism among many of
the crew
i get the feeling that at least half the
crew never believed that there was a
likelihood we'd make this decision and
(02:53):
continue the outward journey
i think they were hoping that we would
have made the alternate decision to
divert course for outer orbit base
bergson which is around 30 days travel
from here
but as both comms officer and mission
specialist
i was required to make the unpopular
decision to send us further into unknown
(03:15):
space
for potentially another year
however it has been agreed that if after
another 150 days we have not reached the
transmission source we will be forced to
turn back to base bergson as the nearest
fueling and supply station
now that i have a clearer signal to work
(03:37):
with
our pilots and i can start to put
together an estimated distance and
vector
it will of course be an estimate but
given the amount of background
interference i
currently believe it's unlikely to be
more than 100 days from our current
location
i will update this log as and when
significant progress has been made
(04:00):
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hi mum hi dad
if i've timed this right you should be
receiving this in time for mum's 70th
birthday
so happy birthday
dad don't forget that card i left for
mum i know what your memory is like
(04:22):
so our project up here among the planets
has made some significant progress as
you know i can't tell you all the
details but it will mean that i'll be
traveling for another year at least
before i return to earth
i know we all thought i'd be out here
for a long time but it's only when
you're living it that you realize the
reality of this length of time
(04:44):
do you remember me saying that i
technically age more slowly this far out
well i calculated it
file corrupted
time is such a strange dimension
you can tell the ricohs that their son
laurie is getting on well uh for his
first long haul assignment he's
(05:04):
performing admirably
he's only an ensign now but roddy sorry
rodriguez his engineering mentor
reckons he'll be working independently
before his mission ends
captain jay shares the opinion too
he still won't let me forget that um
insisted on calling him captain jason
repeatedly when you met him
(05:25):
it may be unusual for a captain to go by
his first name but it's not a difficult
name
anyway it's time for dinner here i'll
catch up with you soon love you hugs and
kisses
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day 294
(05:48):
it's been over two weeks since my last
mission log update
tensions are high amongst the orpheus
crew
four of us including captain jay
see the value and purpose behind this
mission but the other five have formed
their own
social clique separate from us
they're still performing their duties
(06:09):
they recognize that responsibility
and they're at least behaving
appropriately but the tensions during
our downtime
could be cut with a knife
i have been religiously checking and
rechecking the signal
as frequently as my responsibilities
allow me
the problem is that when you listen to
(06:30):
and analyze the same sound too
frequently
you fail to notice when a minute change
becomes
something significant
yesterday i compared the up-to-date
signal sound to the first
clean recording we made two weeks ago
and it's definitely clearing up
(06:50):
i don't know if it's decipherable to the
human ear but the frequency graphs are
showing more separation in the spikes of
frequency
here is the latest recording
[Music]
i will continue to make definitive
(07:12):
comparison points with time-stamped
signal recordings from the last few
weeks
this would have been a futile exercise
before this time but the changing sounds
might be a way
of triangulating a more definitive
destination point
i will update again in one week
end recording
(07:35):
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day 301
the crew have become more accepting of
the mission now
this could simply be down to their
concession that holding a grudge in a
confined space for a year is not going
to help anyone especially when it can't
be changed
(07:56):
but i also hope that my sharing of data
also played a part in convincing them of
the value of this mission
while all my research is in the ship's
central computer and i know the captain
checks it regularly i don't think the
rest of the crew have ever had the
vested interest to keep an eye on it
(08:16):
after dinner a few days back at captain
jay's request
i put on a short demonstration of the
progress that has been made
and the improvements we've heard in the
signal
i may not have won everyone over but i
think there's more investment in the
mission from a few of the naysayers
anyway here is the latest signal
(08:36):
recording
not much to comment on at this stage
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hi mum and dad
(08:58):
so lovely to hear back from you and such
wonderful news about lisa's new baby boy
it breaks my heart that i won't be able
to meet my nephew while he's so little
i'll have to make up for lost time when
i'm home
i've had some
difficult times with the crew here not
everyone's been on the same page with
the mission
(09:18):
you remember tiffany
from the bbq before we left she's our
pilot and she's always had my back in
these disagreements
but sometimes it feels like it's just
me and her against the world
the research institute doesn't allow
relationships between mission crew but
mom you did call it she and i have grown
(09:40):
close
part of me hopes
for that reason that we don't get
assigned to another ship together
i'll get her to join me on one of these
messages sometime
speak to you soon hugs and kisses
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
(10:02):
orpheus mission log day 305
it's only been four days since my last
entry but that's because
i was right
three weeks of tracing the signal has
given me the information needed to
triangulate a more precise location
we now know that it's emanating from a
(10:22):
location in the asteroid belts
until we get closer we can't say much
more than that
it could be the source but it could also
be a relay or even a deflected signal
gravity affects radio waves too after
all just like it does with visible light
(10:42):
there's also
too much interference from the moving
rocks in the belt and
the metals that are contained within
those rocks
the sound of the transmission is
probably not going to get much clearer
until we can establish
a more direct line of transmission which
will mean maneuvering around the belt
(11:03):
until we can pinpoint a position
our pilot tiff believes she can get us
into
what did she call it
a slightly spiraling sun synchronous
orbit
near the belt
at a safe distance allowing us to
maximize our ability to scan the
suspected area
(11:25):
i think people forget just how
vast the asteroid belt is
and how few known rocks exist there
our point of interest is about as far
from series vesta or eros as you can
find and there's no real reference
points to base our search on
(11:46):
i will update this log when tiff has
positioned us at the belt
end recording
communications officer will stevens
obvious mission log day 315.
we're here at the belt
and
well
(12:07):
it's
stunningly beautiful dangerous
but beautiful
we have to remain constantly aware that
the belt is not a finite structure and
has no defined edges of course
so we have to keep the sensors on watch
for stray rocks at all times
what i didn't realize was how the
gravity and the dust of the belt plays
(12:30):
with the light
it's almost as if the red light is
dulled but the greens and blues are
accentuated
our infrared cameras seem to be picking
up
literally nothing
and we have to assume it's some strange
effect of the asteroid metals and
refractions of the red end of the light
spectrum
(12:51):
our resident physicist ozell
is fascinated and will be recording his
own findings and theories on the matter
tiff did position us well in order to
scan the asteroids and we are already
receiving a less interrupted signal
i'm actually beginning to wonder
if the signal is
more than just an intelligent data
(13:12):
communication
but in fact is transmitted audio
recording
the pitch shifts seem to imply that
there's a grammar and a speech pattern
in the transmission
listen for yourself
it couldn't be human as there have been
(13:33):
no recorded expeditions to this region
before
but that being said
many expeditions over time have gone
missing
and presumed to have gone beyond the
belt
if it turns out we're here on a rescue
mission
it certainly won't be a wasted journey
i will update again when we pinpoint
(13:53):
location
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hey lisa congratulations i can't wait to
meet little joseph so glad you went with
that name after all
but you know i'm calling him joey right
fair warning
(14:14):
i heard you had to stay in hospital for
a few days i hope everything's okay i'm
sure andy's taking care of you though
mum and dad seem well in their messages
but i can always read their tone of
voice
give mom an extra big hug from me
i told you about tiff before right
uh she's been harassing me for baby
(14:35):
pictures so you better be sending me
some soon
honestly i think it'll actually help the
whole crew it's always good to get a
little reminder of life continuing as
normal back on earth
you were at school with lorenzo rico
right he's up here with us as a trainee
engineer he mentioned you in passing the
other day completely slipped my mind
that he knew you
(14:57):
i never met him until our first mission
briefing
but it seemed he knows the rest of my
family already
anyway i'll speak to you soon
take care
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
orpheus mission log day317
(15:17):
it's not taken us long to find a
location
it appears and disappears behind an
asymmetrical rotating asteroids so
we have to maneuver into the belt
with
an estimated
million kilometers between each
significant rock this shouldn't be too
dangerous
but our path will still require careful
(15:40):
plotting
tiff believes she'll have the
calculations confirmed by tomorrow
in other news four members of the crew
have been experiencing
some strange occurrences while we've
been in orbit here
they've been reporting an overwhelming
sense of not being alone
(16:01):
like catching a glimpse of movement in
their peripheral vision when no one's
around
or
moments of deja vu
but so significantly that they've been
predicting events
even catching dropped objects as if they
knew it would happen
the crew's reports of these experiences
have been remarkably similar
(16:24):
our doctor simmons is interviewing each
of the crew that have reported these
experiences but doesn't believe there's
any reason for any sort of
group
hallucination i believe simmons will be
writing up his own reports and theories
on this
once we make progress with our journey
into the belt i will report further
(16:45):
end recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
hi mum i hope dad is watching this too
and that his golf game doesn't get in
the way of sending your next message
baby joseph is adorable the whole crew
agrees
i've asked tiff to come and say hi to
(17:05):
you today she should be here in a moment
the mission's been
weird
i wish i could share more of the details
with you
tiff must have lost track of time
track of time
in the meantime
(17:29):
file corrupted supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
office mission log day 319
tiff moved us into our new position
yesterday
the location we receive the strongest
signal from
the gravity
(17:50):
magnetism and mineral constituents of
the belt
are clearly having further unexpected
effects on the light here
as we moved amongst the rocks the light
distortion became more
pronounced
having already lost the red light
spectrum at the edge of the belt we seem
to have now lost the greens and yellows
(18:11):
of our vision too
everything is now only visible in hues
of blue
it's making reading some of the computer
outputs especially hard
and distinguishing color-coded control
panels now requires us to look more
carefully at the labels
more worryingly
six out of the nine crew members have
(18:32):
now reported visions of some kind of
presence on the ship
myself included
last night
i was doing the final checks of the
transmission tower
when i felt a chill like
a draft behind me
the only way that happens in a closed
environment like this
(18:53):
is when someone or something passes you
none of the crew were anywhere near the
transmission tower though
when i looked along the link corridor i
saw
in the blue light
something it it's so difficult to put it
into words like
(19:14):
a bright
glowing
sphere of energy
but not a solid sphere
it was like it was gaseous
see-through
and emitting what looks like vapor
trails
but the strangest thing of all
was its pattern of movement
(19:36):
after i watched it for a second or two
it stopped
stationary for about
five seconds
it was as if it noticed me and was
staring back at me somehow although it
was of course completely faceless so i
can't be sure of that
then
with a sense of urgency it started
(19:57):
moving again this time
about three times as fast
continuing away from me down the
corridor and turning the corner at the
end
there was clearly something sentient
about this
thing
i've reported all of this to doc simmons
he has a detailed log but i'm starting
(20:17):
to wonder if these entities are
connected to the signal somehow
they're appearing more vivid as we move
closer
but
everything we see
is so much more difficult to be certain
of
due to the lack of contrast in colors
that we can see here
with everything in shades of blue it's
(20:37):
hard to be
100 sure of what i saw
but i'm not the only one that's seen
them
doc and tiff both report similar
sightings
unfortunately
the signal is no clearer here than
before
(20:58):
but we do have a new location to head
for deeper inside the belt where we
believe it's originating from
tiff will get us there in a couple of
days
end recording
communications officer will stevens
office mission log day
(21:21):
323
323 i think
i'm
a couple of days late with my entry
uh it's
been difficult to make this report
while
deep blues continue to be the only color
(21:42):
we can see around us
we've started experiencing
[Music]
can only call them time dilations
i don't mean simply things
going faster or slower like movement or
speech i'm talking about
missing and
(22:03):
repeating time
all the crew experiencing it
i
lost
the last two days
i don't know where i was
or what happened
but i'm gradually experiencing episodes
of it
out of order
(22:24):
but not memories these are
experiences like i'm living the moment
there and then i can
feel the objects i can hear the sounds
but
seconds later
i'm back in the present
it's
like i'm experiencing my own actions in
a different timeline
(22:46):
but as a result it's getting harder to
know when the present is
i can't remember if i'm
in a flashback experience now
or if this is real time
the
only unifying factor that the crew can
find for these time lapses
(23:07):
is that they coincide with
our experiences of the glowing energy
sphere entities or
geese as we've started to refer to them
when one of these geese
is near us for any length of time
we find ourselves
(23:27):
somewhere else
unable to account for the time between
only later do we start
re-experiencing the missed episode
a couple of days late with my entry
the two days i just lost
is the longest period of time yet
(23:49):
that anybody is unable to account for
seemingly nobody saw me in those two
days
and the crew were worried about where i
could have gone
we're all in a defined and limited space
i certainly wasn't outside the ship
no airlock activity was detected
(24:11):
we've
also
lost a crew member
ensen rico
was assisting engineer ramirez in
replacing faulty equipment
but in front of ramirez's eyes
rico started
getting
to taller
(24:33):
but also
thinner
stretched like toffee is how ramirez
described it
all this time rico's eyes were fixed on
him
and a look of shock became
froze on his face
when the doc arrived on the scene
(24:55):
it was too late
rico's
ribbon-like body
had stretched more than double his
original height
and was
curled into a pile on the floor
the crew were already suffering mentally
and
this has really thrown a punch as our
sanity
(25:18):
i do wonder if
the geese
have always been here
just
in a different visible light spectrum
perhaps
their proximity is
just as responsible for experiences of
deja vu in normal life
just a theory
(25:39):
it's
like i'm experiencing my own actions in
a different timeline
the latest recording of the signal
follows
we're still on course for the signal
source point
hopefully we'll be there any day now
(26:02):
and recording
supplemental officer stephen's personal
communication
mum
dad
i'm not permitted to tell you details
but captain jay has allowed me to say
something
it's
like i'm experiencing my own actions in
(26:23):
a different timeline
uh we don't know if this message will
even send
so i wanted to let you know
somehow
about lorenzo rico
his parents will probably here about the
same time
same time
same time
(26:54):
file corrupted
supplement ends
communications officer will stevens
obvious mission log
day
i honestly have no idea anymore
so
(27:16):
tiff managed to get us to the source
points
the location we were certain the signal
was coming from
but as soon as we got here
the signal
vanished
as if
we triggered it to stop somehow
(27:37):
but getting here
made our situation a whole lot worse
we didn't realize how bad until too late
otherwise
captain jay would have turned us around
the blue spectrum
is gone
in other words the entire visible light
(27:58):
spectrum
is now just
darkness
fortunately
before we entered this zone of
invisibility for want of a better term
physicist orzelle had hypothesized this
possibility and had already found the
ultraviolet goggles
the ultraviolet spectrum is still
(28:20):
visible
but
at times i
wish it wasn't
we only have
two pairs of prototype ultraviolet
vision goggles
so we have to take it in turns to
perform our duties and the rest of the
time we're
in the dark
(28:41):
ozell suggested that maybe the light
spectrum frequencies and wavelengths are
being
dimensionally altered in some way
it's in some way similar to our
experience of time maybe
it could all be connected
one of the pairs of goggles is
permanently with tiff as she tries to
(29:03):
work out why the ship
won't move from our current position
and why we can't leave this location
once we were locked on course for this
location the computer locked us out
we've been without control of the ship
for a couple of days at least
the other pair is passed by the captain
(29:26):
to the next person whose duty is most
necessary
until 20 minutes ago that was me and
this record is
absolutely necessary
so i made sure to have the recording
controls at hand while i sit here in my
quarters
in the dark
(29:48):
time lapses we've been suffering
are getting worse
we often find ourselves getting stuck in
loops for periods of time unaware
and unable to remove ourselves unless
someone interferes
which is increasingly difficult
in the dark
the most terrifying thing though
(30:10):
is what the ultraviolet spectrum shows
us
the geese
are not just energy beings they exist in
three-dimensional space
just
not
our three-dimensional space
our shift into the
ultraviolet spectrum
(30:33):
or is it even perhaps
an ultraviolet dimension
either way
it has enabled us to see them more
clearly and
they're
alternate versions of
us
each of the crew
has found their ultraviolet
(30:53):
doppelganger
in their own workspace seemingly
performing their
the same duties
in a few minutes ahead or behind each
other
the
only ones that have been truly aware of
us
seem to be wearing goggles similar to
(31:16):
our own ultraviolet goggles
but while we're able to see through some
sort of
ultraviolet dimensional gateway
interaction
isn't possible between us and them
we have tried
objects cannot be passed between us
(31:39):
and sounds cannot be heard
writing works but requires the
doppelganger to also be wearing the
goggles
the only thing we do know
is
not to try and touch our own
doppelganger
we found that out the hard way
(32:00):
the two versions of ourselves
that we're aware of
may actually just be two of many
tiff
bless her with her goggles
saw engineer ramirez interacting
with his own doppelganger
on the bridge
(32:20):
but when the two entered the same
physical space
parts of them
stretched and entwined
while other parts
did not
she said it was like
somebody part solidified like stone
while others stretched like a putty
(32:41):
until his body was
no longer recognizable as human
and
his stretched screaming face
resembled that edward munch painting
other than the unfortunate ramirez
doc simmons has spent the longest time
(33:03):
with his doppelganger
and through careful written interaction
has confirmed most of the established
facts and theories i've spoken of which
he fills us in on while we sit together
in the dark at meal times
it's strange though
our doppelgangers always seem
(33:28):
a few steps ahead of us
like they're performing similar duties
to us
in the same order
but asynchronously to us
about two minutes ahead
it's like a weird childhood nightmare i
used to have of arriving at school to
find
(33:48):
another version of myself already
sitting in my seat in the classroom
at least
now
i'm wondering if that was only a dream
ensign andres suggested that the two
versions of ourselves
that we're aware of
(34:09):
may actually just be two of many
perhaps even
infinite versions of ourselves
perhaps all inhabiting the same space in
a few minutes ahead or behind each other
(34:30):
that one really got my head spinning
my first call of duty on my shift was to
send for help from vase bergson
but
like the last week or so we seemingly
(34:51):
can't transmit from the belt
i don't want to undermine captain jay's
command but i do wonder if
instead i should be sending a warning to
not follow us into the belt
but in any case
we're too deep now
(35:11):
in the belt
for
any call of any kind
we can't
transmit
it's likely we're trapped here
indefinitely
we can't
transmit
it's likely we're trapped here
(35:37):
is
(36:12):
data corrupted file ends
archive note the international aerospace
research institute has no record of an
orpheus mission
records indicate that this log describes
the crew of the research vessel arbo
captain jay weathers pilot tiffany
haywood and mission specialist
communications officer will stevens are
confirmed members of the argo research
(36:34):
mission
the argo went missing after losing
communication when passing mars base
berkson in october 2167
the content of philo rp278
has been deemed a hoax and classified to
prevent speculation
end of archive philo rp278
(36:58):
thank you for listening to Orpheus
presented by Tremorphonic
Orpheus was written performed recorded
and edited by Richard Wilson with music
by carl casey at white bat audio the
music samples and foley effects from
fesleyan studios pixabay and mixit.com
don't forget to follow Tremorphonic on
(37:19):
facebook twitter instagram youtube
and Tremorphonic.com
and keep an eye on podcast channels for
our upcoming stories
as a self-funded project we would
appreciate any support you might be
willing to give us on patreon.com
forward slash Tremorphonic or buy me a
coffee dot com forward slash Tremorphonic
(37:39):
thank you for listening
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