And I for one think that’s pretty darn cool.

Chapter 6 in your browser

(In case you missed them, here’s Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5. Soon, I’ll have a PDF and an e-book up. I’m also going to be submitting the book to some ebook sites. It’ll also soon be for sale on Amazon. Yes, you can get it for free and I expect nothing more than you enjoy it. But I’m not going to turn down money if you want to give it to me

If you have any questions about anything in the story, it is possible that the answer is somewhere in the Crimson Lien Wiki which I put together for just that purpose.

Chapter 5 in your browser

(In case you missed them, here’s Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 4. You’ll still have to wait for chapter 6, but after that you’ve read the whole story!)

If you have any questions about anything in the story, it is possible that the answer is somewhere in the Crimson Lien Wiki which I put together for just that purpose.

Chapter 4 in your browser

(In case you missed them, here’s Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 3. You’ll still have to wait for chapters 5, and 6, but we’re officially PAST the halfway point!)

If you have any questions about anything in the story, it is possible that the answer is somewhere in the Crimson Lien Wiki which I put together for just that purpose.

Chapter 3 in your browser

(In case you missed them, here’s Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. You’ll still have to wait for chapters 4, 5, and 6)

If you have any questions about anything in the story, it is possible that the answer is somewhere in the Crimson Lien Wiki which I put together for just that purpose.

Chapter 2 in your browser

I dropped the e-reader file. If you for some reason want one, I can easily make it (I’m actually still doing that, and extracting the chapters from it to make them easy to read on the web) but I don’t think anybody wants just an “e-book” of a single chapter. When the final chapter is released, I’ll be releasing the entire book in at least 3 formats: web, e-book, and pdf. There will also likely be a physical book you can buy (squee!) from Amazon or somewhere. I haven’t gotten the details on that hammered out yet, but stay tuned!

If you have any questions about anything in the story, it is possible that the answer is somewhere in the Crimson Lien Wiki which I put together for just that purpose.

I am going to release the book in chapters, and announce each one here. There are 6 chapters in this first small book, so it will take 6 weeks to get through each chapter. When I’m done with that, I’ll release the whole thing in a more convenient package.

But for now, Read Chapter 1 here!

Note: I am releasing this work into the public domain with a very nonrestrictive license. The only two things I am restricting is attribution and share-alike. In other words, you can do ANYTHING you want with this work, so long as you acknowledge I wrote it AND allow others to modify whatever you do in the same way. Learn more at the Creative Commons Site on CC-BY-SA licenses. If you can think of ANYWHERE to distribute this, do so. Print it out if you want and put it on a wall. Cut out part of it and put it on your website. Just make sure you let people know where you got it. And let me know what you did!

And don’t let the above scare you. If you want to just read it, go ahead.

Attached to this show is the promo. If it sounds like something you’d like to hear give it a try at weekly.pulpaudio.com

I have gotten far enough into my writing to make it VERY apparent that I need not keep this a secret any longer: I’m rewriting the first two episodes of The Log Of The Crimson Lien as stories. I’ve already finished (first draft) Too Good To Be True which, for the most part, parallels the events in the episode you listened to way back in 2007. Wow. Was it really 2007?

I am probably halfway through the rewrite of Salvage, which I have renamed to The Relic. I did not want to release this final script, so as to maintain some surprise at the ending when you finally got the chance to read (or listen to from Podiobooks) the story in what I consider to be a much superior form.

However, unlike the first story this second story is diverging greatly from what you heard (and didn’t hear) on the podcast. It is so different - in fact - that I have no fears whatsoever of your enjoyment of the story being spoiled by reading the original script.

So, after the cut, you will find the working script we used when recording the doomed 3rd (and final) episode of Salvage, which was the second (and final - for now) Crimson Lien story.

Enjoy!

(( ACT 3 ))

————SCENE34
(last few shots and explosions)
(thuds)
CHUCK: Wow! That was close.
QUINCY: Good thing we blew the hole in the door *before* those guns came out!
CHUCK: Yeah. But this room only has one exit.
QUINCY: Hopefully, the guns were only shooting in reaction to the door being blown up.
CHUCK: Yeah.
QUINCY: Well, there are plenty of boxes in here. Let’s see if they’ve got anything good in ‘em.
(crate opening)
CHUCK: Whistles.
QUINCY: I guess that answers it.
CHUCK: These guns make ours look like pea shooters.
(gun charge sound)
QUINCY: Remember, they’re 500 years old, they may not…
(blaster sound)
CHUCK: (happy) They do.

————SCENE35
URSULA: I saw a flash on the screen.
JACK: I did as well, through the door they broke through.
BONNIE: Then they /did/ survive. They must be in that room. That’s the armory, right?
URSULA: Why would they fire a blaster?
JACK: Maybe one of them turned on the other.
BONNIE: We won’t be so lucky. They’re probably testing the weapons in there, and those weapons seem to work. They could be worth a fortune.
JACK: This whole ship is worth a fortune, if we can get it running.
URSULA: Captain?
BONNIE: Yes?
URSULA: We have a problem here…
BONNIE: What?
URSULA: These numbers here…
BONNIE: Yeah?
URSULA: They’re counting down.
BONNIE: And?
URSULA: And they represent time. About 29 minutes actually.
BONNIE: And?
URSULA: They weren’t counting down before those two shot through that door.
(pause)
BONNIE: What are you thinking?
URSULA: Well, the ship may have figured out by now that nobody’s actually in charge. And it’s been attacked.
JACK: It could assume that the prisoners have killed the guards, and are trying to take over.
BONNIE: Which would make it start a self destruct?
URSULA: Makes sense.
(pause)
BONNIE: Well crap.

————SCENE36
CHUCK: One crate then. I think we can handle that. It’ll only be hard for the first 30 or 40 meters.
QUINCY: Those 40 meters, I remind you, are straight up.
(Bonnie and Jack are over the loudspeaker)
BONNIE: Attention! Interlopers!
CHUCK: (surprised yelp)
QUINCY: Was that the pirate?
BONNIE: Yes. That was the pirate. You may call me Bonnie though.
CHUCK: Bonnie?
BONNIE: Yes.
QUINCY: Why?
BONNIE: Because that’s my name.
(pause)
CHUCK: Bonnie the pirate.
BONNIE: Look, we don’t have much time.
CHUCK: You may want to consider a name change.
(next 2 on same mic)
BONNIE: I can’t do this…
JACK: …Hello. This is Jack. I am first mate on the Scimitar.
CHUCK: There we go. Jack. Scimitar. Those are pirate names.
JACK: Yes. Listen. We have a problem.
QUINCY: What?
JACK: Your little light show down there in the armory has upset the ship’s computer.
QUINCY: Well, tell it we’re sorry, but we’re all done now.
JACK: I would love to, but it’s not in the mood to listen. You know this is a prison ship, correct?
CHUCK: Prison ship?
JACK: What did you think all those cages were for?
QUINCY: Of course!
CHUCK: When you think of it as a long room and not a deep pit, I guess the cages do kind of look like prison cells.
JACK: Yes. Wonderful deduction there.
CHUCK: Thanks.
JACK: So anyway, your shooting up the door to the armory has upset the computer…
QUINCY: We saw. It tried to shoot at us.
CHUCK: Or was that you?
JACK: (annoyed) Can I finish my sentence please? (pause) Thank you. The computer has decided to self destruct the ship.
(next 2 together)
CHUCK: What!?
QUINCY: What!?
JACK: And we have approximately 27 minutes to stop it. We’ve located the engine core and you are already halfway there. We’d have to rush to reach it in time, but you could make it with time to spare.
CHUCK: Even if we can get there, what can we do to stop it?
JACK: We’re working on that now. Hopefully, we’ll have something by the time you get there.
QUINCY: How can we know you’re not bluffing?
(pause)
JACK: You can’t.
CHUCK: And you’re pirates.
JACK: We are.
BONNIE: (coming back on mic) What can we possibly gain by lying?
CHUCK: Our inability to figure out your goals hardly means you’re telling the truth.
BONNIE: 26 minutes. Until we DIE.
(pause)
QUINCY: I really can’t think of why they’d lie.
CHUCK: Okay, where are we going?
BONNIE: (obviously relieved) To aft. We’re midship, you’re about halfway between mid and aft. We need you back where the engines are.
QUINCY: Gravity will be twice normal there.
BONNIE: I know. There’s no choice.
CHUCK: We do this, the relic’s ours.
BONNIE: We’ll negotiate that when you’re done.
CHUCK: No. We negotiate it now.
(afar)
JACK: Captain…
BONNIE: Fine. When this is over, we split the relic 50/50.
CHUCK: NO. When this is over, you leave.
QUINCY: Chuck…
CHUCK: Well?
JACK: 25 minutes.
BONNIE: Fine. Deal. You save our lives, this ship is yours.
CHUCK: Good. Quincy, grab an extra rifle. Let’s get moving.

————SCENE37
BONNIE: At the end of that corridor, take a right and…
(this time chuck/quincy are on the radio)
CHUCK: You mean down this pit, take a right. It’s 7 meters straight down you know.
BONNIE: This is the route with the shortest drops.
QUINCY: And we’re already at 1.2 gees. So that 7 meters is closer to 10 if we slip and fall.
BONNIE: Just do it, okay? We’ll check back in when you’re at the bottom.
(click)
JACK: I’m ready, captain.
URSULA: I wish it was me going down there. I can take those two.
BONNIE: Jack has high-gee training, and he’s a master of stealth. We need them to not know he’s coming, so when they stop the timer he can pounce on them right away. It’s the best way. Your time will come.

————SCENE38
(grunting)
CHUCK: 7 frickin’ meters.
QUINCY: It’s going to just get worse too. And we’re almost down to 20 minutes.
CHUCK: Great.
QUINCY: I think you should have taken their offer of splitting the ship half and half.
CHUCK: Quincy! They’re pirates! They wouldn’t have honored it.
QUINCY: What makes you think they’ll honor this one?
CHUCK: I don’t. But now I don’t have to worry about if /we’re/ going to honor it.
QUINCY: I just have a feeling that we’d have been better off.
CHUCK: We wouldn’t have been any better off.

————SCENE39
BONNIE: Happy hunting
(door close)
URSULA: 20 minutes.
BONNIE: I wish they’d have accepted splitting the ship in half. I was willing to honor that agreement. They seem like decent guys, and they /are/ saving our lives.
URSULA: They’re just too greedy for their own good.
BONNIE: Well, greed is the folly of man.
URSULA: Since when did man only have one folly?
BONNIE: (amused) Heh. (stern) And you follow that up with captain.
URSULA: (at attention) Captain. Of course, captain.

————SCENE40
QUINCY: The good news is, I can see the control panel.
CHUCK: And the bad news?
QUINCY: It’s on the far side of the room. Or, more accurately, it’s straight down.
CHUCK: Oh come /on/! We’re at a full 2 gees down here and the room’s 20 meters deep!
QUINCY: Well, I did say it was the bad news.
BONNIE: (over radio) Ten minutes.
CHUCK: (yelling) And that’s not helping!
QUINCY: Okay. I think we can climb down the wall.
CHUCK: Quince, we gotta weigh two hundred kilograms each!
QUINCY: Closer to 150, but yeah. I didn’t say it’d be easy.
BONNIE: Getting close to 9 minutes.
CHUCK: (yelling) At least we’re not on a time limit or anything!
QUINCY: (climbing down noises) let’s get going.

————SCENE41
JACK: (to self) That’s right. You two do all the work. I’ll be waiting up here to take you out when the timer turns off. Actually, I may have a better vantage point over… here. Yes, now that this room’s ceiling is a wall, these light fixtures make a perfect perch.

————SCENE42
BONNIE: (radio) Jack, don’t talk if you don’t need to, but I’d like a status report as we can’t find the video feed for the engine room. We’ve got 6 minutes, how are they doing?
JACK: (whisper) They’ve just reached the bottom now, and the Quillian is looking at the control panel. If I may make a suggestion, you may want to retreat to the shuttle. It is possible that they’ll only be able to cut the tractor beam, and not the self destruct.
BONNIE: We’re not leaving you, Jack.
JACK: I appreciate the sentiment, captain, but there is no way I can climb out of here in the time we have left. And there’s nothing you can do from there. It only makes sense.
(pause)
BONNIE: Aye. You’re right, first officer.
JACK: That’s why I’m first officer, remember?
BONNIE: (shaken but trying not to show it) Okay. We’re retreating to the shuttle. When you’re done, we’ll meet you there. I’m not quite ready for you to not be my first officer any more.
JACK: Aye captain. Understood.
BONNIE: (Now over loudspeaker) You have 5 minutes, guys. You may want to pick up the pace!

————SCENE43
CHUCK: (yelling) Oh shut it!
QUINCY: This is bad.
CHUCK: You’re only supposed to remark on when our situation actually /changes/.
QUINCY: No. This is really bad. The self destruct controls are locked. I could decrypt them eventually, but not in 5 minutes.
CHUCK: What about ejecting the core?
QUINCY: No, it’s locked down with a manual switch that’s only accessable from the outside.
CHUCK: So what other options do we have?
QUINCY: I’ve got controls over almost every other part of the ship. Engines. Environment. Gravity. Even the tractor beam. But there is no way to stop the self destruct.
CHUCK: Damn it, Quincy! We have less than 5 minutes!
QUINCY: We can’t even climb out of here in 5 minutes. We’re dead. Oh my God. We’re actually going to die. Wait. We can’t climb, but I bet we could run it in 5 minutes.
CHUCK: Oh, run up the walls?
QUINCY: No. Across the floor! If I turn on grav and inertial dampeners, we can /run/ back to the ship!
CHUCK: Genius!
(beeps)

————SCENE44
(next two together)
QUINCY: Woah!
CHUCK: Woah! The grav change always makes me…
JACK: (far away) Aaaaah!
(far away crash)
CHUCK: What was that!?
QUINCY: I think that’s a pirate!
JACK: Ow!
CHUCK: We gotta move.
QUINCY: He’s got a gun!
CHUCK: Use the console as cover!
(laser blasts)
QUINCY: Whew! That was close! Where’s our guns!?
CHUCK: Against the wall over there. We’ll never reach ‘em in time.
QUINCY: I’m gonna run for it, it’s our only chance.
CHUCK: Hold it! I have a better idea!
(beeps)
(next two togeher)
CHUCK: Woah!
QUINCY: Woah! Why’d you turn off the….
JACK: (far away, coming closer) AaaahwaaahwaaaahWAAAHWAAH!!!!
(very nearby crash)
QUINCY: Oh! Ow. That looked painful.
CHUCK: 20 meters at 2 gees… It was deadly.
(beeps)
QUINCY: And now to turn grav back on…. And now the tractor beam’s off… and we’ve got 4 minutes!
CHUCK: Let’s go!
(running footsteps)

————SCENE45
BONNIE: Jack!? JACK!
URSULA: The Scimitar has confirmed that the tractor beam’s off. And grav’s back. It was on, then off, but now it seems to be back on for good. But the countdown is still going. The ship’s going to blow in 2 minutes. Captain…
BONNIE: Damn it. DAMN IT! Scimitar, this is Captain Bonnie. Give us 1 more minute, then shoot the hangar doors and red line it directly away from the ship. You can pick us up after it blows. Hear that? 45 seconds from now.
URSULA: Captian! The access door!
BONNIE: It’s about time he… Wait… That’s them!

————SCENE46
(both panting)
CHUCK: Come on, ship… Open!
(door open)
(running footsteps up the ramp)
QUINCY: Close!
(door)
(more footsteps)
CHUCK: Okay, up to the bridge…
(waah waah noise)
(footsteps)
(flop in chair)
CHUCK: Engines!
(engines on)
QUINCY: Oh crap.
CHUCK: What?
QUINCY: The hangar door.
CHUCK: Oh crap. Think we can blast through it?
QUINCY: Not in the minute we have left
(Explosion)

————SCENE47
CHUCK: Hey! We have a minute still!
QUINCY: That’s not the ship! It’s the hangar door! The Scimitar must have…
CHUCK: I don’t care what it was, here we go!
(engines)
CHUCK: The pirate ship’s already red lining. Before I kick in the main drive, I need a red line as close to 90 degrees from them as we can get while still giving us a route to a jump gate or Voris.
QUINCY: Give me 30 seconds.
CHUCK: 30 seconds!? we’ve got less than a minute!
QUINCY: You want to do the math!?
CHUCK: Work away.

————SCENE48
BONNIE: You hear me!? Ignore us. We’ll fly clear! Your target is that ship!
PILOT: Captain, you ordered us to red line as soon as we blasted the hangar door. We’ve already committed our course. We can’t turn at this speed, and can’t slow until we’re sure of being clear of the blast and… Oh no.
BONNIE: Oh no?
PILOT: They just hit their own red line. 87 degrees off of our course. Captain, by the time we flip around, stop, recalculate our red line…
BONNIE: No. They can’t get away. They took our prize. They took half my crew. They almost took out the Scimitar. And Jack. They took… They took Jack…
URSULA: Captain, the relic…
(big explosion)
BONNIE: They took everything.

————SCENE49
CHUCK: Man. Quincy. That was some good red line calculating there.
QUINCY: Thanks.
CHUCK: And there’s no chance of them coming after us?
QUINCY: By the time they turn around and match our line, we’ll already be cruising. And we’ve got the distress call out so they’d be dumb to chase us very far. No, I think we’re good.
CHUCK: Amazing. And in 30 seconds.
QUINCY: and on 5 hours’ sleep.
CHUCK: Is that a hint?
QUINCY: I wouldn’t mind a nap.
CHUCK: You earned it, I’ll take us all the way to Voris. Looks like we’ll be a couple hours late on the mail.
QUINCY: (slightly amused) Which means we’ll get less money for the run.
CHUCK: Which means you were right.
QUINCY: (more amused) Nice of you to notice.
CHUCK: I can’t believe we didn’t get anything from the relic.
QUINCY: (very amused) Neither can I.
CHUCK: We even left the guns! And there were probably dozens of items we could have grabbed on the way back, but we didn’t have time. We were running so fast, and we barely made it out as it was. We just didn’t have time.
QUINCY: Actually, I managed to grab this.
(pockets noise)
CHUCK: Is that a mobile interface unit?
QUINCY: Yeah. And this.
(pockets noise)
CHUCK: A… What is that?
QUINCY: I don’t know. But it’s gotta be worth something. But that’s not the best part. I took something else. This.
(pockets noise)
CHUCK: A holographic datacard?
QUINCY: Yup. Full ship’s logs, probably everything that happened to it up ’til the war. I heard something like this sold for 50 grand at Graxil University.
CHUCK: I don’t get it, though. How’d you grab those things? We were at a full sprint…
QUINCY: No we weren’t. You only thought to take things on the way out. Me, I picked these up on the way /in/.
CHUCK: Niiiiiiice. So this whole thing was worth it after all!
QUINCY: Yup. Okay, time for that sleep. When I get up, I’ll plot our course to Graxil.
CHUCK: 50 thousand credits. I think things are finally starting to go our way…

————SCENE50
(music)
(announcer)

…so I guess I just did
(If you notice anything blatantly wrong, feel free to edit it. It is a wiki after all. However, don’t “correct” any actual factual information about the story as that information may have changed now that I’m doing the books)