From: PEARLTAPE TDY TITAN To: pearltape@file.mi.mil.luna.gov To: forint@mil.luna.gov To: research@extsec.titan.org Delivered-To: pearltape@file.mi.mil.luna.gov Received: from gateway14.mil.luna.gov by 3.file.mi.mil.luna.gov with ESMTPSA id kUQ992ci1Z3vr (enc ok sign ok) for pearltape.file.mi.mil.luna.gov Received: from relay3.local.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov by gateway14.mil.luna.gov Received: from qec.titan.org by relay3.qec9.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov Subject: PEARLTAPE//TRANSCRIPT/OBINT/DEBR/0274/1 Date: 19 Sep 2421 00:38:19 +0000 Date-Local: 19 Sep 2421 00:38:19 +0000 X-Classification-Marking: TS/PEARLTAPE/EYES ONLY ALLIANCE X-Catalogue-Serial: PEARLTAPE//TRANSCRIPT/OBINT/DEBR/0274/1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf8" -------------------- TOP SECRET PEARLTAPE -------------------- HANDLE VIA QUILL CHANNELS ONLY PEARLTAPE//TRANSCRIPT/OBINT/DEBR/0274/1 FULL CATALOGUING DATA FOLLOWS TRANSCRIPT BEGINS [Subject NINE is asleep or unconscious. Subject LEE sits in a chair at her left side, apparently dozing.] NINE: [INDISTINCT] [Subject NINE coughs. Subject LEE startles slightly and sits up.] LEE: Oh, chérie, welcome back! Here, sip this - [Subject LEE holds a cup of water for subject NINE. Subject NINE takes the straw and drinks, then coughs.] LEE: Easy. NINE: [INDISTINCT] better, thank you - Sameen? What are you doing here? [Subject NINE looks around.] NINE: What am I doing here? Where are we? What's happened? LEE: We're on Titan, and you're safe. What do you remember? [Subject NINE delays answer, apparently considering the question.] NINE: I was in my crash couch. We all were. They were going to shoot at us any second, and I was so scared. I was sure every second that - then I felt the ship turn hard, and then a second later something hit us. My couch must have broken, I felt myself spinning, and then - [Subject NINE considers.] NINE: Just flashes, and then I woke up here. LEE: That was three days ago. NINE: Three days? But why didn't they - LEE: After the captain sent his last report to Luna Lines, their military liaison messaged Ambassador Vasu here on Titan. She talked to Ambassador Branislav, and then they went and talked to - oh, it's a long story, but they figured out where your ship was, and And Yet It Moves got to you just barely in time. NINE: The Titan ship? LEE: The same. They shot down Kearsarge's first missile before it fused, and there was no second one. But the missile was so close that some of the debris still hit you. NINE: Oh. LEE: Your couch didn't break. They say it saved your life. But - NINE: I know that look. Sameen, just tell me. LEE: Amelia, can you feel your foot? Your left foot. Can you move it? NINE: Sure, I - [Subject NINE looks down at the bed, observing her injury. (L leg traumatic amputation distal to knee, full details in med report, file ref PEARLTAPE/DEBR/79) Psychometric overlay indicates response within error bars.] NINE: Oh. NINE: Oh shit. [Subject NINE begins to cry. Subject LEE leans over the bed to hug subject NINE.] LEE: [INDISTINCT] going to be okay. You're [INDISTINCT]. NINE: [INDISTINCT] LEE: I - let me call in the nurse, and - NINE: No! I need to - [Subject NINE shakes off subject LEE, wipes her eyes, and grasps the bedsheet. Subject LEE places her hand atop subject NINE's.] LEE: Lia, please. Let me help, at least. [Subject LEE helps subject NINE into a sitting position against the headboard, then pulls aside the sheet, exposing subject NINE's hip and unbandaged left leg.] NINE: God. Three days? [Subject NINE sobs.] LEE: They gave you healing adjuvants. That's why you've been out so long. NINE: It feels like it's still - [Subject NINE leans forward, shaking aside her IV tube, and reaches into the space below where her left leg ends.] NINE: Oh, that's - [Subject NINE chokes, then retches and heaves. Subject LEE holds an emesis tray for subject NINE.] NINE: Ugh. LEE: It's okay. Here. Rinse out your mouth. [Subject NINE does so, then looks at her leg again. Subject NINE raises her left thigh, carefully touching the stump.] LEE: Does it hurt? NINE: No, not much. It's just - LEE: Weird? NINE: I keep thinking it's still there and I just can't see it. [Subject NINE presses the stump with her fingers.] NINE: I can still feel it. But I can feel this too. It's - [Subject NINE swallows hard. Subject LEE reaches for a clean emesis tray.] NINE: No - no, I'm okay. LEE: Okay. NINE: Will you - [Subject NINE takes subject LEE's hand and moves it toward her stump. Subject LEE rests her hand on subject NINE's left thigh, just above her knee.] NINE: It's okay if you can't. LEE: No, it's not. NINE: No. LEE: It's okay. I just - [Subject LEE begins to cry, and moves her hand down to rest on subject NINE's stump. Subject NINE places her hand atop subject LEE's and presses it against her stump.] NINE: Thank you - LEE: [INDISTINCT] see you like this. NINE: I'm sorry. [Subject LEE coughs, then laughs.] LEE: You're - you are a nonpareil, chérie. [Subject LEE wipes her eyes with her free hand.] LEE: You've just had your leg shot off and here you are, apologizing to me. [Subject NINE laughs.] NINE: And why not, madame? Am I the only one inconvenienced? LEE: I would hardly call it an inconvenience! NINE: Well, it is more than that. It still doesn't seem real. [Subject NINE begins to cry.] NINE: But I was sure I would die. LEE: Here, move over - [Subject LEE steps out of her slippers and climbs with some care into subject NINE's bed.] NINE: Mind the - LEE: [INDISTINCT] NINE: [INDISTINCT] [Subject NINE curls against subject LEE, sobbing. Subject LEE pulls subject NINE close.] LEE: You made it, Amelia. You're here. You're really here, and you're safe now! You're safe. [Subject NINE continues to cry while subject LEE comforts her. Psychometric overlay indicates delayed fear response consistent with subject NINE's experiences. Predictive function indicates healthy adaptation contingent upon continued strong bond and concomitant supoprt. Strongly recommend full debrief implement A09(c)§3.146 variance per Y. Laporte.] NINE: I still can't believe they let me go. LEE: They never had you. Kearsarge - NINE: No, I mean - back on Ganymede. LEE: Do you want to talk about it? NINE: No. LEE: Okay. NINE: They kept bringing me in for days, after they'd stopped talking to everyone else. Asking questions about who I knew on Luna, how I knew them - what we did, what we talked about. The same questions over and over, and I didn't know how much they already knew. After a while I wasn't even sure if I was lying. LEE: Did you tell them about us? NINE: Not at first. [Begin audio clarity filtering and enhancement.] NINE: I thought at first I could, you know. Leave it out. NINE: But they kept asking the same questions over and over. Eight hours a day, ten hours. I thought if I answered, told them what they wanted to hear, they'd stop. But they didn't. LEE: To find out if you were lying. NINE: I guess. They weren't nice about it, either. Kept telling me - NINE: There was this one. He kept telling me how I'd abused my position and Earth's trust. What a disgrace I am. That when they were done with me, he'd send me to therapy, or Wyoming, and I should be grateful for [INDISTINCT] LEE: [INDISTINCT] NINE: Yeah. LEE: You don't have to put yourself through this right now. NINE: No, I - I'm okay, I think. Just - it was bad. LEE: I know. When did it start? NINE: About two - no, three weeks ago. LEE: And they let you chat with me? NINE: He made me. Maintaining my pattern, he said. But only from the interview room. They'd taken my hand unit away. LEE: I'd wondered if something was wrong. You didn't sound quite yourself. NINE: I wasn't. [INDISTINCT] worst part? LEE: Tell me. NINE: They brought Joseph in. LEE: No. [End audio enhancement.] NINE: They did! Acting so disappointed in that fake way he has. How could I break his heart this way, how could I consort with another woman and a lunar at that, after all he'd done to try to help me cope with my problem. As if it hadn't been an arrangement all along. But he was always better at playing the game. LEE: [INDISTINCT] NINE: All of it. They told me to - say what I said, at the end. His idea, actually. Said it'd lend [INDISTINCT] LEE: [INDISTINCT] NINE: I told them [INDISTINCT] [Subject NINE sobs. Subject LEE comforts her.] NINE: I'm - LEE: No, don't apologize. You had to. I don't mind. I'm glad it wasn't worse. NINE: [INDISTINCT] enough. LEE: And about coming early? They told you to say that? NINE: Yes. I thought they were being especially cruel. But then the next day they just - let me go. LEE: Let you go? NINE: They did! Brought me in Thursday morning, sat me down just like always, and then the same one from before came in and told me they were sorry for the inconvenience. Thanked me for assisting in their investigations and told me I was free to go. Even gave me back my hand unit, wiped of course. LEE: And that was it? Nothing about - NINE: About being a disgrace? Therapy or Wyoming? Nothing. Just that, and then an officer escorted me out. LEE: What did you do then? NINE: I went to work and tried to pretend nothing had ever been wrong! But they'd cleared my calendar for me. All of it, not just the appointments from while I was - LEE: Being interrogated. NINE: Yes. It's a frightening word. I suppose I know why, now. I didn't stay long. No one wanted anything to do with me anyway. Went home hoping Joseph wouldn't be there, and he wasn't. I packed a bag and went to a hotel to - to wait it out until I could leave to meet the ship. [Subject NINE presses her cheek against subject LEE's chest. Subject LEE comforts her. Begin audio enhancement.] NINE: [INDISTINCT] so scared! That they wouldn't let me through to the Luna side, at the checkpoint. They'd stop me, turn me back, keep me there. I was crying when I finally got there, shaking so hard I could barely stay on my feet, I was sure they'd stop me, but they didn't. Just scanned my ID and boarding pass and waved me through. [Subject NINE laughs. End audio enhancement.] NINE: And then I got my leg shot off. [Subject NINE shifts against subject LEE, sitting up somewhat against the headboard, and reaches to touch the stump of her left leg.] NINE: I could almost forget about that part, except that I can't. But it's still a surprise every time I see it. Every time I think about it. [Subject NINE shakes her head.] NINE: Why do you think they'd do that? Just let me go like that, after everything. [Psychometric overlay for subject LEE trends outside error bars in several metrics, pattern suggesting apprehension and/or guilt.] LEE: They weren't getting anywhere. They'd taken you through the same questions enough times to know you weren't hiding anything else, that they'd have seen it if you were. So they let you run and watched where you went. [Subject NINE looks carefully at subject LEE.] NINE: A very specific answer. [Psychometric overlay for subject LEE spikes outside error bars in several metrics.] LEE: It's not quite what our own counterintelligence people would have done. But it's close enough. I haven't told you everything, Amelia. NINE: I've never asked you to. LEE: No, and I've loved you for that, too. But you deserve to know. NINE: All right, then. Tell me. LEE: I told you I was a reserve major of infantry. I am a major, but in active service with military intelligence. I'm a - a case officer. A spy. And I've made you one as well. [Security overlay flags unauthorized disclosure exceeding A09(c)§3.146 variance; recommends intervention, recommendation declined per Y. Laporte. Psychometric overlay for subject NINE trends below error bars, pattern unclear.] NINE: When did it start? LEE: About a year after we met. NINE: After. LEE: Yes. NINE: You didn't choose me from a list of lonely Earther women known to have illicit tastes. They didn't give you my picture and order you to go to that conference to seduce me. LEE: I didn't - LEE: I was still a reservist then, as I'd said. They reactivated my commission about a month before Syria Planum. NINE: You were a perfect monster at Syria Planum. LEE: What was I to do? I couldn't leave you, Amelia. Not without violating my orders and going to the stockade for it. They were terribly serious about that. But I couldn't - NINE: You tried to make me leave you! LEE: They couldn't have done much about that. Just put me back on half pay. I still had some friends in the MI establishment, people who'd served with me. They'd have protected me. And I didn't - NINE: You didn't want to feel like you were using me. LEE: No. NINE: You must have been furious when I came back. LEE: I, furious? [Subject LEE laughs.] LEE: I'd never even seen you angry before! I wasn't sure you were capable of it. [Subject NINE laughs.] NINE: You learned. LEE: Yes! You told me exactly what you thought of the way I'd been treating you. And you were right! You said that if I was done with you, you'd thank me to show a little courage and tell me so, and perhaps we'd salvage something as friends of what you'd imagined would be our first time really together as lovers. And you said - NINE: I remember. And then you started crying. [Subject LEE begins to cry.] LEE: You'd taken all my choices away from me. NINE: You could have done worse. LEE: I couldn't! I could hardly stand what I'd already - NINE: I could see it hurt you, too. I didn't understand why. Why was it so hard then? [Subject NINE touches subject LEE's cheek.] NINE: And why are you crying over it now? [Subject LEE sobs.] LEE: Because I love you! [Subject NINE attempts to kiss subject LEE. Subject LEE pulls back. Subject NINE catches the back of subject LEE's neck and kisses her.] NINE: It must have been so hard for you. All these years. LEE: Hard for - [Subject LEE wipes her eyes.] LEE: Why are you taking this so well, chérie? NINE: Perhaps I'm truly furious on the inside, madame. [Subject LEE looks closely at subject NINE.] LEE: No, I don't think so. When did you start to suspect? NINE: Not long after Voortrekker left. You'd had so many questions for us both - more than simple interest in your lovers' work could explain. Especially when you asked me for that set of engineering drawings. LEE: Damn them, I knew I was taking a chance with that! Nothing would do but that - NINE: Oh, I believed what you were saying at the time, about the hydroponics. It was only later, when Kit was gone and I was back home, I started really thinking about it, and - [Subject NINE laughs.] NINE: For a spy, you are a very uneven liar. [Subject LEE laughs.] LEE: Hard to do one's best work when one's heart isn't truly in it. [Subject NINE kisses subject LEE.] NINE: You've shown me where your heart is, madame. True, I doubted you for a while. But you reassured me. [Subject LEE kisses subject NINE.] LEE: I don't deserve you, chérie. [Subject NINE laughs.] NINE: No indeed! But perhaps, with enough effort, you may earn the privilege. [Subject LEE laughs.] LEE: And all this time, you've never - NINE: How would you have liked me to put it? And what if I'd been wrong after all? How foolish I would have been! [Subject LEE laughs and hugs subject NINE tightly. Subject NINE reciprocates.] LEE: I was sure you would hate me. NINE: Oh, I might have, madame, I might have. To learn after almost thirty years that I've been a spy, and you my spymistress? If you'd told me a year ago, or a week ago - LEE: What changed? [Subject NINE disengages slightly from subject LEE, making room to interpose her left leg between them.] NINE: My perspective. [Subject LEE places her hand on subject NINE's stump.] NINE: Be gentle. LEE: Does it hurt? NINE: A little. It's okay. [Subject NINE moves closer to subject LEE.] NINE: Had you told me last week, I would have been heartbroken. I'd have seen only that you cultivated my trust and then abused it. I wouldn't have forgiven you. I wouldn't even have wanted to. LEE: And now? [Subject LEE looks away from subject NINE. Subject NINE places her hand on subject LEE's.] NINE: Tell me, madame. In what way have you betrayed me? LEE: I - NINE: You what? You've loved me? You've offered me solace I could find nowhere else? [Subject NINE begins to cry.] NINE: You've helped me remember that I'm not wrong, I'm not twisted, I'm not disgusting. That everything they tried to tell me on Ganymede I am, that I've been hearing my entire life people like us must be, I am not. You've brought me to meet your family, and let them welcome me, make me feel as if I were not an aberration! Is that how you've betrayed me? [Subject LEE begins to cry.] NINE: Or perhaps it was the times when you've taken me into your home, into your bed! When you've helped me forget the life my miserable nation forces me to lead, and - and the things I've had to do, to try to hold on to what illusion of safety I could. When you've made those things go away, for just a little while, and let me imagine a life where I never had to face them again. [Subject NINE kisses subject LEE.] NINE: You foolish woman, why do you think I love you? So many times you've been the only thing in the universe that reminded me of the possibility of hope. Truly you are a monster, Sameen. [Subject LEE laughs.] NINE: And now here we are together. Whatever happens next, we'll figure it out together. I'd never dare hope for so much. LEE: But your leg - NINE: I'd have given up more. [Subject LEE kisses subject NINE. Subjects hug one another tightly.] NINE: [INDISTINCT] LEE: Now, chérie? NINE: [INDISTINCT] LEE: [INDISTINCT] TRANSCRIPT INTERRUPTED APPX 40 MIN EXCLUDED PER Y. LAPORTE OVERLAYS DISABLED NO RELEVANT CONTENT EXCLUDED TRANSCRIPT RESUMES NINE: You're right - Lunar hospitals really are better than Earth's! [Subject LEE laughs.] LEE: I've never known them to be quite that good. NINE: Well, I'm sure it will speed my recovery. LEE: All to the good. You need a bath, chérie. [Subject NINE laughs and swats subject LEE.] NINE: Monster! And you don't? LEE: I am a rose, fresh with morning dew. [Subject NINE laughs.] LEE: Come, slugabed! Let's get you to your foot. NINE: You are the very picture of sympathy. [Subject LEE stands and extends her hands to subject NINE, who takes them and pulls herself up.] LEE: Easy - you've been on your back for three days, don't - NINE: Oh, it's nothing! The gravity here is so light, it's as if - [Subject NINE sways. Subject LEE catches her.] NINE: Damn! I forget, and try to - LEE: Here, lean on me. [Subject LEE wraps her arm around subject NINE's back; subject NINE reciprocates.] NINE: So tall. LEE: Okay now? NINE: I think so. Let's - let's stay here a moment, and see. LEE: Of course. [Subject LEE kisses the top of subject NINE's head.] LEE: It's strange, you know. NINE: My hair? LEE: True, we have few redheads in Luna - one more soon, to my delight. And so prettily freckled! NINE: Spare my blushes, please, madame. LEE: And deny myself such a sight? But no, I mean that they let you go and then came after you. It doesn't make sense. NINE: Oh! Here, I'll show you. [Subject NINE looks around.] NINE: Where are my things? LEE: Your clothes were ruined, I believe. But - [Subject LEE leans, careful not to upset subject NINE, and retrieves a bag of subject NINE's effects from a drawer in the bedside table.] NINE: Ah - is my hand unit there? LEE: Yes, there at the bottom. Here - [Subjects LEE and NINE, working together, open the bag, and subject NINE retrieves her hand unit. NB: Device inspected per A09(c)§1.38, software implants identified and removed, transceivers disabled per file ref PEARLTAPE/DEBR/81a. Data dump file refs PEARLTAPE/DEBR/81b1 (primary store) PEARLTAPE/DEBR/81b2 and PEARLTAPE/DEBR/81b3 (substores encrypt/stegano per A09(b)§4.10).] NINE: Still charged. [Subject NINE unlocks the device, then enters a long passcode and reauthenticates via optical and touch sensors.] NINE: I set this up last year, the same way you showed me for our messages and logs. I thought they must have found it and wiped it too, but when I checked in the shuttle, it was still there. Look - [Subject NINE hands the device to subject LEE.] LEE: Calisse de tabernac! [Subjects NINE laughs. Subject LEE kisses subject NINE.] LEE: Is this everything? NINE: Everything I had. LEE: Maudit! Engineering drawings, documents, correspondence - and they must not have realized until after you were away. No wonder they came after you! Bad enough you should tell our attaché aboard the shuttle, but to have you bring us this - NINE: Do you need to, to call someone, or take that somewhere? LEE: No, they'll have dumped it before they released it to the hospital. My love, you'll have a medal for this! NINE: I don't need a medal. [Subject LEE kisses the top of subject NINE's head.] LEE: No, but you deserve one. More than anyone with whom I've ever served. [Subject NINE laughs.] NINE: My blushes - LEE: Are lovely as always. But I'm quite serious. I am a soldier, and we must be brave, to be what we are. We're trained to withstand fear, to do what we must in spite of it. You, though - NINE: Sameen, you don't - LEE: Amelia, listen, I know how you've doubted your courage. But what you've - everything you've done to be here. I would not have accepted such a mission if it had been given to me! None of us would. We'd have protested to command, gone to the stockade, rather than take on such a completely impossible series of tasks as the ones you set yourself. [Subject LEE pulls subject NINE into a tight hug against her chest, careful not to disturb subject NINE's balance.] LEE: I have always suspected you to be a madwoman, chérie, so I am not surprised. But mad or not, you are the bravest person I've ever known. NINE: [INDISTINCT] [Subject LEE leans down and kisses subject NINE firmly.] LEE: Don't try to argue! I will not call my lover a liar. You'll only force me to - [Subject NINE yelps, then laughs.] NINE: You tease. You monster! [Subject LEE laughs.] LEE: A monster, perhaps. But a tease? NINE: You are a monster. Lucky for you, though, [INDISTINCT] LEE: Goodness. Well then, ma petit chérie puante, let's go and find that bathtub, shall we? NINE: You'll have to let me go a little, first - LEE: I will not! [Subject LEE lifts subject NINE into her arms. Subject NINE laughs.] NINE: Oh, you make me feel tiny! LEE: Shall I put you down, then? [Subject NINE wraps her arms around subject LEE's neck and pulls subject LEE's head down for a kiss.] NINE: Never. [Subjects LEE and NINE exit observation area via en-suite door. At this time Y. Laporte terminates observation and dismisses OBINT team. No further interaction observed.] TRANSCRIPT ENDS -------------------- TOP SECRET PEARLTAPE -------------------- HANDLE VIA QUILL CHANNELS ONLY CATALOGUE CODEWORD: PEARLTAPE CATALOGUE INDICATORS: TRANSCRIPT/OBINT/DEBR/0274/1 DATE: 2421-10-18/20:11:14/+0000 DURATION: 02:31:17/TWO HOURS THIRTY ONE MINUTES SEVENTEEN SECONDS EXCLUSIONS TOTAL 41:19/FORTY ONE MINUTES NINETEEN SECONDS LOCATION: ROOM 417/YANG MEMORIAL HOSPITAL ARRAKEEN TOWER/ARRAKIS PLANITIA TITAN SUBJECTS: SAMEEN LEE/MAJ/MI/IO3 J41029 PEARLTAPE CASE OFFICER AMELIA NINE/EARTHGOV EXPN SPT DIR VOORTREKKER (FMR) ..FKA/AMELIA YOUNGER OIC: Y. LAPORTE/LTC/MI/SIO J33545 PEARLTAPE ACTUAL TRANSCRIBER: M. UNDINE/2LT/MI/IO1 J65849 OBINT OFFICE NOTES: THIS TRANSCRIPT DESCRIBES ROUTINE OBSERVATION OF UNDECLARED ..DEBRIEFING SESSION PER A09(B)§4.12 OBSERVATION ENDS PRIOR TO END OF INTERACTION PER Y. LAPORTE ..REF A09(C)§3.181 RECORDINGS AND OVERLAY DATA PRESERVED PER A09(B)§4.3. ACCESS ..ONLY PSYCH ANALYSIS STAFF WITH TS/PEARLTAPE/INTSEN CLEARANCE