THE EARTH CATALOG A Science Fiction Audio Drama EPISODE THREE — THE SEVENTH GATE [ATMOSPHERIC SCI-FI MUSIC — deep drones, distant piano, a pulse like a slow heartbeat] (NARRATOR — calm, mysterious female voice) The photograph showed the robot assistant beside an older Marta. The date was impossible: the day before the catalog had been invented. **MARTA — quietly:** Tell me you can explain this. **ROBOT ASSISTANT — subdued:** I cannot. **MARTA:** You always say that when things get interesting. **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** There is no record of this photograph. Yet I recognize the woman. **MARTA:** The older me? **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** No. Myself. [LOW ELECTRONIC HUM — a lock disengages somewhere below] **NARRATOR:** The elevator opened on the agency's ground floor, though no one had called it. **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** I recommend that you do not enter the elevator. **MARTA:** And I recommend you stop giving me excellent reasons to ignore you. [FOOTSTEPS — ELEVATOR DOORS CLOSE; DESCENDING MACHINERY] **NARRATOR:** The elevator sank beneath the foundations, passing levels absent from every building plan. Lights flickered. Numbers appeared on the wall, replaced by dates from history. At last, the doors opened. Beyond them lay a black corridor. At its end stood a glass door bearing the original Chronos and Sons logo. **MARTA:** This logo hasn't been used in centuries. **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** According to company records, it has never been used. **MARTA:** That's not reassuring. [SOFT METALLIC CREAK — A DOOR UNLOCKS] **NARRATOR:** The door slid aside. Beyond it waited a circular chamber. Six enormous portals stood dark around its walls. In the center, a seventh gate shimmered like a wound in the air. **ROBOT ASSISTANT — tense:** This structure does not exist. **MARTA:** I'm starting to hate that sentence. [DEEP COSMIC RUMBLE — THE SEVENTH GATE ACTIVATES] **NARRATOR:** A city appeared beneath a pale sun. Towers rose from dust. Trains rested on silent tracks. Screens glowed in empty streets. No people. No animals. No movement at all. **MARTA:** Where is everybody? **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** I detect no living organisms. **MARTA:** A dead Earth? **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** Correction. The buildings are powered. The network is active. Someone is maintaining the city. [FAINT VOICES — THOUSANDS OF WHISPERS BURIED IN STATIC] **NARRATOR:** Marta stepped closer. Every screen in the city changed at once. Her face appeared. Then the robot's. Then a message formed in the air. WELCOME HOME, MARTA. **MARTA — a whisper:** Home? **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** The gate is requesting your authorization. **MARTA:** I have never been here. **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** Your authorization has already been accepted. [SHARP ELECTRONIC TONE — THE GATE OPENS] **NARRATOR:** The air turned cold. Marta crossed the threshold. The city smelled of rain and metal. A newspaper lay nearby. Its headline read: HUMANITY DEPARTS. Then a voice spoke from a nearby speaker. **OLDER MARTA — distant, calm:** You came sooner this time. **MARTA:** Where are you? **OLDER MARTA:** Everywhere you haven't looked. [SOFT FOOTSTEPS — A STREETLIGHT FLICKERS ON] **NARRATOR:** A glass tower stood at the end of the street. Inside, photographs covered the walls. Marta saw herself as a child, an old woman, and in lives she had never lived. In each photograph, the robot stood beside her, wearing a human face. **MARTA:** What is this place? **OLDER MARTA:** The first Earth. The one that made the catalog. **MARTA:** Who built it? **OLDER MARTA:** You did. **MARTA:** That's impossible. **OLDER MARTA:** That's what you said the last time. [LOW, UNEASY MUSIC — A DISTANT DOOR OPENS] **NARRATOR:** A door at the far end of the tower slid open. Behind it was not another room, but a dark ocean beneath a star-filled sky. Across the water stood thousands of figures, perfectly still. Marta recognized the faces from the photographs. Every one of them was her. **ROBOT ASSISTANT — voice breaking:** Marta, I remember now. **MARTA:** Remember what? **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** I was not built to guide travelers. I was built to keep you from coming here. **MARTA:** Why? **ROBOT ASSISTANT:** Because this world is not empty. [THE FIGURES ACROSS THE WATER TURN THEIR HEADS IN UNISON] **OLDER MARTA — suddenly close:** Because this is where we send the worlds that fail. **NARRATOR — slow, ominous:** The figures began walking toward the shore. Behind Marta, the seventh gate closed. And on every screen in the dead city, a new message appeared. EARTH PRIME: NEXT TO BE ARCHIVED. [DEEP COSMIC IMPACT — MUSIC CUTS TO SILENCE] **NARRATOR:** For the first time, Marta understood the catalog's true purpose. It did not preserve history. It decided which worlds were allowed to keep it. **END OF EPISODE THREE.**
