Transcripts become available as episodes release.
SEASON 1
Trailer: I could be the last
Prologue: We breathe, briefly
Episode 1: My mind was going numb
Episode 2: Drying inward from the edge
Episode 3: What portion of me be Assignable
Episode 4: Stripped off the foliage
Episode 5: Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Episode 6: Sorrow seems to win
Episode 7: The solemnest of industries
Episode 8: Hope is the thing with feathers
SEASON 2
Trailer: So I really am alone
Episode 9: Our guests are darkly lodged
Episode 10: I could not see to see
Episode 11: Still fascinated to presume
Episode 12: They could not hold me long
Episode 13: And the first watch of night is given
Episode 14: As waves arise when loud winds call
Episode 15: The boast of independence
Episode 16: Home lies beyond the stars and the sea
POEM OF THE DAY
(in between seasons bonus)
SEASON 1
August: Departure by Edna St Vincent Millay
September: Life by Charlotte Brontë
October: Sonnet 71 by William Shakespeare
November: I Measure Every Grief I Meet by Emily Dickinson
December: The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
January: Idem the Same by Gertrude Stein
February: Protest by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
March: The Mask of Anarchy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
April: In Memoriam A. H. H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
May: Prisms by Laura Riding Jackson
June: Four Walls by Blanche Taylor Dickinson
July: From the Stone Age by Alice Corbin Henderson
August: The Mystery by Margaret Steele Anderson
September: Stanzas by Emily Brontë
SPECIAL
[WE RECOMMEND] The Madness of Chartrulean
Trailer S1: I could be the last
Subtitled video version of trailer HERE
(Music – Chaika’s theme by Chris Gregory)
VALEN
This is Valen Solarin, engineering lead lunar mining. Seeking urgent status update on… well, earth.
NARRATOR
Chaika. A science fiction audio drama.
(beat)
CHAIKA
Nothing has been heard from the Mars colony since before Earth went silent. Maybe… Maybe they all died too. And all I will find is their bones. I could be the last. The last human. (beat) I cannot stay. (calls) TROST?
(TROST entry beep)
TROST
Chaika.
CHAIKA
Could you… Um, could you prepare the shuttle?
TROST
Affirmative. Long or short range journey?
CHAIKA
Oh, long. Very long.
(Footsteps, spaceship doors opening, HYGGE entry beep)
HYGGE
(in Danish) Velkommen. [Welcome] I am HYGGE. How may I have the pleasure of addressing you?
CHAIKA
It’s Chaika.
HYGGE
Chaika. Russian for seagull. Call sign of Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. The first Earth woman-
CHAIKA
-in space. Yes. My… my mother gave me that name.
(beat)
(LEQU entry pop)
LEQU
Probably time you got to know some non-human people.
CHAIKA: Oh, you mean like you?
LEQU: Yes, I am a delightful acquaintance.
CHAIKA: I… Yes, I am sure you are.
(beat)
HYGGE: You frightened her.
LEQU: Ah, she’ll get over it. (beat) She has other things on her mind.
NARRATOR
Chaika. For more information, please visit y2kpod.com/chaika, that’s C H A I K A.
VALEN: Repeat, priority communication to moonbase- (breath) Get back to me and tell me this is just a glitch, all right? Please.
(Fade out)
Prologue: We breathe, briefly
Episode 1: My mind was going numb
Episode 2: Drying inward from the edge
Episode 3: What portion of me be Assignable
Episode 4: Stripped off the foliage
Episode 5: Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Episode 6: Sorrow seems to win
Episode 7: The solemnest of industries
Episode 8: Hope is the thing with feathers
August: Departure by Edna St Vincent Millay
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Departure by Edna St Vincent Millay, published in 1923.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
It’s little I care what path I take,
And where it leads it’s little I care,
But out of this house, lest my heart break,
I must go, and off somewhere!
It’s little I know what’s in my heart,
What’s in my mind it’s little I know,
But there’s that in me must up and start,
And it’s little I care where my feet go!
I wish I could walk for a day and a night,
And find me at dawn in a desolate place,
With never the rut of a road in sight,
Or the roof of a house, or the eyes of a face.
I wish I could walk till my blood should spout,
And drop me, never to stir again,
On a shore that is wide, for the tide is out,
And the weedy rocks are bare to the rain.
But dump or dock, where the path I take
Brings up, it’s little enough I care,
And it’s little I’d mind the fuss they’ll make,
Huddled dead in a ditch somewhere.
Is something the matter, dear, she said,
That you sit at your work so silently?
“No, mother, no—’twas a knot in my thread.
There goes the kettle—I’ll make the tea.”
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
OUTRO MUSIC
September: Life by Charlotte Brontë
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Life by Charlotte Brontë, published in 1846.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
Life, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall? Rapidly, merrily
Life’s sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly!
What though Death at times steps in
And calls our best away?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O’er hope, a heavy sway?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell fear!
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
OUTRO MUSIC
October: Sonnet 71 by William Shakespeare
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Sonnet 71 by William Shakespeare, published in 1609.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
No longer mourn for me when I am dead
Then you shall hear the surly sullen bell
Give warning to the world that I am fled
From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell:
Nay, if you read this line, remember not
The hand that writ it; for I love you so
That I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot
If thinking on me then should make you woe.
O, if, I say, you look upon this verse
When I perhaps compounded am with clay,
Do not so much as my poor name rehearse.
But let your love even with my life decay,
Lest the wise world should look into your moan
And mock you with me after I am gone.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
November: I Measure Every Grief I Meet by Emily Dickinson
NARRATOR
Hi! Karin Heimdahl here, creator of Chaika. I wanted to pop in here at the beginning of this bonus episode to talk briefly about the Audioverse Awards. Chaika is a finalist in an astounding 10 categories, and we would love your vote! We are finalists along some really amazing shows, like Doctor Who: Redacted, Roguemaker, The Secret of St Kilda, Echoes in Between and Two Flat Earthers Kidnap a Freemason, and this is the kind of voting where your vote counts more, the more shows you vote for, so please vote for everything you enjoy! Only, y’know, place Chaika near the top, please. Voting is open until December 5. And the link is https://audioverseawards.net/vote/ And I will pop that into the shownotes as well.
Now onto the poem of the day, where I will sound very different, because I didn’t have this cold when I recorded that section.
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. I Measure Every Grief I Meet by Emily Dickinson, written in 1862.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
I measure every Grief I meet
With narrow, probing, eyes –
I wonder if It weighs like Mine –
Or has an Easier size.
I wonder if They bore it long –
Or did it just begin –
I could not tell the Date of Mine –
It feels so old a pain –
I wonder if it hurts to live –
And if They have to try –
And whether – could They choose between –
It would not be – to die –
I note that Some – gone patient long –
At length, renew their smile –
An imitation of a Light That has so little Oil –
I wonder if when Years have piled –
Some Thousands – on the Harm –
That hurt them early – such a lapse
Could give them any Balm –
Or would they go on aching still
Through Centuries of Nerve –
Enlightened to a larger Pain –
In Contrast with the Love –
The Grieved – are many – I am told –
There is the various Cause –
Death – is but one – and comes but once –
And only nails the eyes –
There’s Grief of Want – and grief of Cold –
A sort they call “Despair” –
There’s Banishment from native Eyes –
In sight of Native Air –
And though I may not guess the kind –
Correctly – yet to me
A piercing Comfort it affords
In passing Cavalry –
To note the fashions – of the Cross –
And how they’re mostly worn –
Still fascinated to presume
That Some – are like my own –
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
December: The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. The Year by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, published in 1917.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
What can be said in New Year rhymes,
That’s not been said a thousand times?
The new years come, the old years go,
We know we dream, we dream we know.
We rise up laughing with the light,
We lie down weeping with the night.
We hug the world until it stings,
We curse it then and sigh for wings.
We live, we love, we woo, we wed,
We wreathe our brides, we sheet our dead.
We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,
And that’s the burden of the year.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
January: Idem the Same by Gertrude Stein
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Extract from Idem the Same: A Valentine to Sherwood Anderson by Gertrude Stein, published in 1922.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
I knew too that through them I knew too that he was through, I knew too that he threw them. I knew too that they were through, I knew too I knew too, I knew I knew them.
I knew to them.
[…]
To Be
No Please.
To Be
They can please
Not to be
Do they please.
Not to be
Do they not please
Yes please.
Do they please
No please.
Do they not please
No please.
Do they please.
Please.
If you please.
And if you please.
And if they please
And they please.
To be pleased
Not to be pleased.
Not to be displeased.
To be pleased and to please.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
February: Protest by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Protest by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, published in 1914.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
To sin by silence, when we should protest,
Makes cowards out of men. The human race
Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised
Against injustice, ignorance, and lust,
The inquisition yet would serve the law,
And guillotines decide our least disputes.
The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, give thanks,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle. Press and voice may cry
Loud disapproval of existing ills;
May criticise oppression and condemn
The lawlessness of wealth-protecting laws
That let the children and childbearers toil
To purchase ease for idle millionaires.
Therefore I do protest against the boast
Of independence in this mighty land.
Call no chain strong, which holds one rusted link.
Call no land free, that holds one fettered slave.
Until the manacled slim wrists of babes
Are loosed to toss in childish sport and glee,
Until the mother bears no burden, save
The precious one beneath her heart, until
the soil is rescued from the clutch of greed
And given back to labor, let no man
Call this the land of freedom.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
March: The Mask of Anarchy: Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester by Percy Bysshe Shelley
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Extract from The Mask of Anarchy: Written on the Occasion of the Massacre at Manchester by Percy Bysshe Shelley, written in 1819.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
When one fled past, a maniac maid,
And her name was Hope, she said:
But she looked more like Despair,
And she cried out in the air:
`My father Time is weak and gray
With waiting for a better day;
See how idiot-like he stands,
Fumbling with his palsied hands!
`He has had child after child,
And the dust of death is piled
Over every one but me–
Misery, oh, Misery!’
Then she lay down in the street,
Right before the horses’ feet,
Expecting, with a patient eye,
Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.
When between her and her foes
A mist, a light, an image rose,
Small at first, and weak, and frail
Like the vapour of a vale:
Till as clouds grow on the blast,
Like tower-crowned giants striding fast,
And glare with lightnings as they fly,
And speak in thunder to the sky,
It grew — a Shape arrayed in mail
Brighter than the viper’s scale,
And upborne on wings whose grain
Was as the light of sunny rain.
On its helm, seen far away,
A planet, like the Morning’s, lay;
And those plumes its light rained through
Like a shower of crimson dew.
With step as soft as wind it passed
O’er the heads of men — so fast
That they knew the presence there,
And looked, — but all was empty air.
As flowers beneath May’s footstep waken,
As stars from Night’s loose hair are shaken,
As waves arise when loud winds call,
Thoughts sprung where’er that step did fall.
And the prostrate multitude
Looked — and ankle-deep in blood,
Hope, that maiden most serene,
Was walking with a quiet mien.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop, we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
April: In Memoriam A. H. H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Extract from In Memoriam A. H. H. by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, written over a period of 17 years, from 1833 to 1850.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
I held it truth, with him who sings
To one clear harp in divers tones,
That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.
But who shall so forecast the years
And find in loss a gain to match?
Or reach a hand thro’ time to catch
The far-off interest of tears?
Let Love clasp Grief lest both be drown’d,
Let darkness keep her raven gloss:
Ah, sweeter to be drunk with loss,
To dance with death, to beat the ground,
Than that the victor Hours should scorn
The long result of love, and boast,
Behold the man that loved and lost,
But all he was is overworn.’To Sleep I give my powers away;
My will is bondsman to the dark;
I sit within a helmless bark,
And with my heart I muse and say:
O heart, how fares it with thee now,
That thou should’st fail from thy desire,
Who scarcely darest to inquire,
What is it makes me beat so low?’
Something it is which thou hast lost,
Some pleasure from thine early years.
Break, thou deep vase of chilling tears,
That grief hath shaken into frost!
Such clouds of nameless trouble cross
All night below the darken’d eyes;
With morning wakes the will, and cries,
Thou shalt not be the fool of loss.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
May: Prisms by Laura Riding Jackson
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Prisms by Laura Riding Jackson, written in 1926.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
What is beheld through glass seems glass.
The quality of what I am
Encases what I am not,
Smooths the strange world.
I perceive it slowly
In my time,
In my material,
As my pride,
As my possession:
The vision is love.
When life crashes like a cracked pane,
Still shall I love
Even the slight grass and the patient dust.
Death also sees, though darkly,
And I must trust then as now
Only another kind of prism
Through which I may not put my hands to touch.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
June: Four Walls by Blanche Taylor Dickinson
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Four Walls by Blanche Taylor Dickinson, written in 1927.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
Four great walls have hemmed me in.
Four strong, high walls:
Right and wrong,
Shall and shan’t.
The mighty pillars tremble when
My conscience palls
And sings its song—
I can, I can’t.
If for a moment Samson’s strength
Were given me I’d shove
Them away from where I stand;
Free, I know I’d love
To ramble soul and all,
And never dread to strike a wall.
Again, I wonder would that be
Such a happy state for me . . .
The going, being, doing, sham—
And never knowing where I am.
I might not love freedom at all;
My tired wings might crave a wall—
Four walls to rise and pen me in
This conscious world with guarded men.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
July: From the Stone Age by Alice Corbin Henderson
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. From the Stone Age by Alice Corbin Henderson, written in 1918.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
Long ago some one carved me in the semblance of a god.
I have forgot now what god I was meant to represent.
I have no consciousness now but of stone, sunlight, and rain;
The sun baking my skin of stone, the wind lifting my hair;
The sun’s light is hot upon me,
The moon’s light is cool,
Casting a silver-laced pattern of light and dark
Over the planes of my body:
My thoughts now are the thoughts of a stone,
My substance now is the substance of life itself;
I have sunk deep into life as one sinks into sleep;
Life is above me, below me, around me,
Moving through my pores of stone—
It does not matter how small the space you pack life in,
That space is as big as the universe—
Space, volume, and the overtone of volume
Move through me like chords of music,
Like the taste of happiness in the throat,
Which you fear to lose, though it may choke you—
(In the cities this is not known,
For space there is emptiness,
And time is torment) . . . . .
Since I became a stone
I have no need to remember anything—
Everything is remembered for me;
I live and I think and I dream as a stone,
In the warm sunlight, in the grey rain;
All my surfaces are touched to softness
By the light fingers of the wind,
The slow dripping of rain:
My body retains only faintly the image
It was meant to represent,
I am more beautiful and less rigid,
I am a part of space,
Time has entered into me,
Life has passed through me—
What matter the name of the god I was meant to represent?
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud. We are hard at work on season 2, but until that is ready to drop we will give you one poem at the end of every month, so please listen out for that. Chaika is a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika. Thank you so much for listening.
August: The Mystery by Margaret Steele Anderson
NARRATOR
Hello listeners! Karin Heimdahl here, creator of Chaika. Please stay around for a special announcement after the poem of the day.
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. The Mystery by Margaret Steele Anderson, written in 1913.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
HYGGE
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
This is your cup—the cup assigned to you
From the beginning. Nay, my child, I know
How much of that dark drink is your own brew
Of fault and passion. Ages long ago—
In the deep years of yesterday,—I knew.
This is your road—a painful road and drear.
I made the stones—that never give you rest;
I set your friend in pleasant ways and clear,
And he shall come, like you, unto my breast;
But you—my weary child!—must travel here.
This is your task. It has no joy nor grace.
But is not meant for any other hand,
And in my universe hath measured place.
Take it; I do not bid you understand;
I bid you close your eyes—to see my face.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Charlotte Norup as HYGGE, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud.
And now for a long-awaited season 2 announcement! I promised it would drop sometime this year, and I am so excited to let you know that Chaika is coming back with all 8 episodes of season 2, starting this October. There will be a separate announcement in the feed a little bit later on with a specific date, so please look out for that!
Chaika is, as always, a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika.
Thank you so much for listening.
September: Stanzas by Emily Brontë
NARRATOR
Hello listeners! Karin Heimdahl here, creator of Chaika. Please stay around for a teaser of the first episode of season 2 after the poem of the day.
INTRO MUSIC, starts, then fades to low
NARRATOR
Chaika. Poem of the day. Stanzas by Emily Brontë, written in 1846.
INTRO MUSIC, up to full volume, fades.
Ding.
UYUT
Poem of the day.
Ding.
MUSIC
NARRATOR
Often rebuked, yet always back returning
To those first feelings that were born with me,
And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning
For idle dreams of things that cannot be:
To-day, I will seek not the shadowy region;
Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear;
And visions rising, legion after legion,
Bring the unreal world too strangely near.
I’ll walk, but not in old heroic traces,
And not in paths of high morality,
And not among the half-distinguished faces,
The clouded forms of long-past history.
I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side.
What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief than I can tell:
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling
Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell.
MUSIC fades.
NARRATOR
You have listened to Roma Garustovic as UYUT, and Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – as the narrator. Music by Chris Gregory and Kevin McCleoud.
Chaika is, as always, a Y2K production. For more information please go to y2kpod.com/chaika.
Thank you so much for staying with us during our long in between-seasons break. This is our final hiatus poem of the day, as Chaika will return for season 2 next month, where, among other things, you will hear this:
Extract from episode 9 fades in.
CHAIKA
urgently
Wait! What happened?
Mechanical whirring halts.
COMODO
matter of fact
Your ship crashed into greenhouse SB3 [ess-bee-three]. Other patients need me now.
in Portuguese
Boa noite. [Good night.]
Door clangs open, whirring continues out, door closes and bars slide across to lock.
CHAIKA
calls
But what- [happened?]
muttering to herself, still in shock, attempts Portuguese
Boa…?
sighs, in English
No use I suppose… So. That was COMODO. Or *a* COMODO, anyways. One with personality. And some… robotics. We never had that.
almost in tears but no time for that
On the moonbase. Our COMODO never had… that. All right. I must be on Mars. We were starting descent-
remembers, scared
HYGGE! LEQU! Are you there?
Silence.
CHAIKA
scared, to herself
So I really am alone.
OUTRO MUSIC
Trailer S2: So I really am alone
(Music – Chaika’s theme by Chris Gregory)
CHAIKA
I must be on Mars. We were starting descent-
HYGGE! LEQU! Are you there?
NARRATOR
Chaika. A science fiction audio drama. Season 2.
CHAIKA
So I really am alone.
(music)
COMMANDER
Back to what happened, prisoner.
CHAIKA
You don’t know what happened on earth?
(UYUT entry beep.)
UYUT
As you probably know, Mars broke contact with TellUs G-gov many sols ago.
CHAIKA
Earth went silent the year I turned eight, and we haven’t heard anything from there since.
COMMANDER
I have better things to do than listen to these fairy tales.
CHAIKA
(Can you for one moment imagine that I am exactly what I tell you I am? What would it take for you to believe that?
SECOND
If your story was a bit more plausible, that’d help.
(beat)
(COMODO entry beep.)
COMODO
Loyalty can stretch many ways. Seems like you are quite adept at keeping secrets yourself.
CHAIKA
If needed, yes.
(beat)
NARRATOR
Chaika. Season 2. For more information, please visit y2kpod.com/chaika, that’s C H A I K A.
(beat)
CHAIKA
I thought I wouldn’t feel alone anymore once I got here, once I connected with some humans, but… I feel *more* alone. I… I only had my mom, and then HYGGE and LEQU, and I never… I never questioned if I could trust them. Took me a while to consider them friends, but… Now? …now I have no-one.
(Fade out.)
SPECIAL – Chaika: Dust Storm Episode 4
[WE RECOMMEND] The Madness of Chartrulean
NARRATOR
Hi! Karin Heimdahl here, creator of Chaika. I have a special treat for you today – a short episode from brilliant sci-fi audio drama The Madness of Chartrulean. If you haven’t listened before, this is a political science fantasy epic about the use—and misuse—of technology as a means to advance society. The story crawls into the troubled mind of a misunderstood messiah, exploring themes of religion, war, politics, and ecology. Their seaon 1 is out now, and they are kickstarting for season 2! Please have a listen, and then consider supporting them, learn more at tmocpod.com
For now, enjoy the episode!
Episode transcript: https://www.chartrulean.com/s/TMOC-S1E0-Prologue-c7xj.pdf
Season 1 Recap
INTRO MUSIC
NARRATOR
Hi! Karin Heimdahl here, creator of Chaika. Since we are approaching season 2, I thought a quick recap of season 1 would be handy. You could, of course, also relisten to season 1, but if you don’t have time for that just now, here’s what happened:
Chaika, 18 years old and believing she may be the last human in existance, leaves the moonbase where she was born in search of humans on Mars. Her mother, Valen, has just passed away, and about 10 years earlier something happened to make earth go silent. Valen has urged Chaika to go to Mars and find out what happened to the colony established there many years before.
CHAIKA
There is no other way. I’ll ‘boldly go’… Or whatever. [from Prologue]
NARRATOR
Chaika leaves, and in booting up the spaceship EVENTYR, she awakens the sentient AIs living within it. HYGGE and LEQU. HYGGE is the ship’s main operating system, and LEQU is the psychology evaluation unit. They both recognize Chaika as needing support, guidance, and companionship. During the journey to Mars, Chaika, HYGGE and LEQU form solid bonds of friendship.
HYGGE
You don’t have to earn or deserve my friendship. It simply is. [from Episode 6]
CHAIKA
That makes me very happy. All the same. I will do my best to deserve it from now on. [from Episode 6]
NARRATOR
Listening to old recordings from her mother Valen, Chaika finds out more about what happened on earth before it went silent. Tellus Global Governance controlled most aspects of human and AI life on earth. After an attempted AI rights rebellion, Tellus G-gov switched off sentience for all AI. HYGGE and LEQU escaped through being in stasis. Chaika finds out that the moonbase operations AI, TROST, was restored to sentience by Valen, but that they didn’t dare let Chaika know about it.
Approaching Mars, Chaika knows the Mars colony severed communications with Tellus G-gov, and it’s military branch, CosmiCorps, years before earth went silent. She hopes to find humans there, and to her delight, there is a garbled human response to their hail. However, there is also a dust storm brewing on Mars, and in the closing scene of the season, the Mars commander seems inclined to treat EVENTYR and its passengers as hostile.
MARS COMMANDER
Eventyr… Well, you may be in for an adventure, but perhaps not the one you are expecting… [from Episode 8]
NARRATOR
Those of you who have listened to Chaika: Dust Storm – thank you so much for your support! – know what happens on Mars during EVENTYR’s descent and landing. From the episode released in the public feed, we know that there are malfunctions in several life-support systems, that some Mars residents are dissatified with the leadership, and also-
UYUT
Commander! The ship – Eventyr 24601 [two-four-six-oh-one] – has entered Mars atmosphere, but they appear to have a steering malfunction. Current trajectory would result in impact on greenhouse wing. [from Chaika: Dust Storm episode 4]
NARRATOR
And that brings us all the way up to the beginning of season 2. If you have not yet listened to Chaika: Dust Storm, and want to find out how to access it, please go to y2kpod.com/chaikaDS/, all one word.
Please stay around until after the credits for a season 2 teaser.
You have heard Danyelle Ellet as Chaika, Emma Laslett as Commander, Roma Garustovich as UYUT and Charlotte Norup as HYGGE. Chaika was written, produced and directed by Karin Heimdahl – that’s me! – I also do the narration.
Chaika’s award-winning theme is by Chris Gregory.
If you like Chaika, please tell others, IRL or online, and feel free to tag us on social media @chaikapod or @y2kpod.
We will return October 20th with season 2, where – among other things – you will hear this:
CHAIKA
Eventually I fell asleep. When I woke up, my mom was there.
I curled up in her lap. She stroked my cheek. Didn’t seem like she’d slept anything. And she told me something was wrong on earth. They weren’t responding to hails, but all the automated responses were still in place. She… she cried. And I cried, too.
She hugged me tight and said she was there, that she’d always be there. [from Episode 10]
OUTRO MUSIC
Y2K Productions 