3. You have no pride. If you have it, misplace it. Under your mattress, in someone else’s cupboard. It’ll do you no favours.
4. That person you are when the camera’s having its way? That’s not you. That’s a Looking Glass Girl. She lives on the other side of the lens. She’s better than you are—prettier, more graceful, walks more properly, sparkles when she ought to, blushes when she ought to, fades to black before anyone gets bored. And better things happen to her than the sad little teas and flophouse fleas that happen to you. Love that Looking Glass Girl. Love her hard and love her true. Make obeisance; say your Aves. She is your personal god, and you’ll chase her for the rest of your life.
Ship’s Manifest,
Small Commercial Craft Clamshell
Owner-of-Record: Oxblood Films/ Franklin R. Edison
Port-of-Calclass="underline" Tithonus, Luna, United Kingdom
Built: 1940, Copernicus Ironworks
Manufacturer: Wernyhora Motors, Inc. (Subsidiary: J.P. Morgan & Company)
Modeclass="underline" Cerigo VI (Inner System Restricted Permit #NK55781432F00QWP)
Occupancy: 35
Tonnage: 5,771
Length: 425 ft.
Beam: 56 ft.
Propulsion: Ourania Class Cannon, Ford Quad-Firing Orbital Slugs, Carnegie Diesel-Balloon Braking, Foldback Magnetrisse Sails
Carriage Decks: Bridge, Crew Berths, Cantina, Observation, Passenger Berths, Radio Room, Darkroom, Cargo Bay, Engine Hold, Fire Room, Ballast
Preflight Condition: No Malfunctions. Kitchen Equipment, Data Transmission, and Interior Communication System Scheduled for Maintenance Upon Return to Dry Dock
Examined by: Piotr Krupin, Arkady Lagounov, Ekaterina Bogomolova, Depot Noviy Kitezh, Moscow, 11.6.44
Great Railway Merger Expected 2100 12.6.44, Anadyomene Junction, Switch 9.6.4.2
Film Crew:
Severin Unck: Director
Cristabel Ossina: 1st Assistant Director
Erasmo St. John: Director of Photography
Horace St. John: Cameraman
Maximo Varela: Lighting Master
Mariana Alfric: Sound Engineer
Santiago Zhang: Best Boy
Konrad and Franco Sallandar: Craft Services
Support:
Anastaas Dajo: Pilot (Inner System Transit Authority Certified 1919, Hesperides Medal 1924)
Griet Van Rooyen: Navigator (Junior Cartographer, British Railways, Corps of Engineers Special Commendation 1942 for Work on the Venus-Mercury Toll Artery)
Isaac Deerfoot: Conductor (M.S. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1938, Junior Conductor, Mohawk and Hudson Railway, Mars-Asteroid Corridor 1939–1942)
Ghanim Boulos: Signalman
Balazs Almassy: Security
Dr Margareta Nantakarn: Surgeon (Edinburgh School of Medicine, 1922, Specialization in Epidemiology. Offworld Residency: Mercury, Trismegistus, St. Talaria’s Children’s Hospital, 1925)
Aylin Novalis: Venus Liaison (White Peony Station)
Henry Lamb, Simon Poole, Jaromil Kysely: Stewards (Contracted from Tithonus Savoy, Term of Contract 29.5.44-8.8.46)
William Kaur: Sanitation Engineer
Carolyne Derrick: Wire Walker
Arlo Covington, C.P.A.: Oxblood Oversight
Mr Tobias: Ship’s Cat (Abyssinian, six years old, missing left ear)
Materieclass="underline"
1200 pounds beef
700 pounds mutton
775 pounds tinned beef
600 pounds veal, pork, sausage (beef-fennel, hot lamb-za’atar, chicken-tarragon)
1500 pounds chicken
250 tins preserved fruit
250 tins Dundee marmalade (orange, lemon, blood orange, muskbulb), Crosse & Blackwell jam (strawberry-peppercorn, gooseberry-port, cloudberry-champagne, Martian goji-serrano) and chutney (mango, cranberry, lunar coconut, Triton mint-miseryrose)
250 bottles pickles and sauces: Branston, Serapis Peppers, Nergal Morels, C&B Walnuts, HP Sauce, Hermeneus Fancy Catsup, Caloris Basin Hot Mustard, Worcestershire, Mount Penglai Soy Sauce, Tethys’ Tail Fish Sauce, Io’s Best Sweet Chili Sauce, McCollick’s Bird Pepper Sauce, Lyle’s Golden Syrup, Chinkiang Black Vinegar, Tethys’ Tail Shrimp Paste, Celestial Moose Maple Syrup (grade B), Rose’s Lime Juice. 65 bottles reserved for onsite sale/barter.
370 pounds Nereid roe (Interplanetary Quarantine cleared 2.5.44, Exotic Foodstuff Record #777121Ne, see attached form. Reserved for sale/barter in tot.)
250 pounds coffee
200 pounds tea
100 pounds potted fish (anchovy, salmon, herring, monkminnow)
900 pounds moist sugar (350 pounds reserved for sale/barter)
300 pounds lump sugar (100 pounds reserved for sale/barter)
660 pounds salt (200 pounds reserved for sale/barter)
510 pounds black pepper (200 pounds reserved for sale/barter)
825 pounds butter (various grades)
2 tonnes potatoes
1 tonne other vegetables
400 chickens, ducks, moonquail (live, egg-laying, to be bartered/sold upon landing in White Peony Station; buyer secured)
1.25 tonnes lard
78 barrels wheat flour
56 barrels rhea flour (Interplanetary Quarantine cleared 9.6.44, Exotic Foodstuff Record #413066Sa, see attached form)
40 barrels Phlegyas flour (Interplanetary Quarantine cleared 9.6.44, Exotic Foodstuff Record #900142Ma, see attached form)
7564 gallons fresh water
250 gallons callowmilk (Promotional Consideration Provided: 125 gallons Hathor Brand, 125 gallons Prithvi Brand)
21 quarts Prithvi ice cream (chocolate, vanilla, fig-pistachio, blueberry cider, black caramel, green-tea pink pecan, sweet potato, Saturn’s Bounty, Ionian Fire Tart, Quandong Ripple, Phobos Macadamia Surprise, Morning on Ganymede. Reserved for landing)
21 bottles Domain Aphros champagne (reserved for landing)
16 cosmetic cases (Provided by Elizabeth Arden, Fifty Daughters. Unused supply to be sold/bartered before departure)
27 cases perfume (Provided by Chanel, Madame Zed, Saturnalia, reserved for sale/barter in tot.)
4 Underwood typewriters
50 reams paper
46,500 feet Eastman 35 mm film
3 dollies (custom + collapsible tracks)
10 Pharos lenses, various lengths
3 cases Jotunn brand batteries
2 Aitnaios generators
2 jib cranes
3 tripods
5 Eastman light meters
4 Edison microphones + sleeves
4 cases flares
Assorted gels, lights, blackwrap, filters, tape, mixer, recorder, boom, cables
3 cases clamps
2 Edison Model G III handheld 35 mm camera
2 Edison Model B II handheld 35 mm camera
3 diving suits
1800 m. breathing tubes, various sizes
(Primary funding provided by Oxblood Films, Inc. Secondary funding provided by Prithvi Dairy Products, Hathor Brand Callowmilk, Crosse & Blackwell, Redrose Deep Mars Mining Corp., Chanel, Carnegie Steel Company, Lumen Molnar.)
I Left My Sugar Standing
in the Rain
Transcript from 1946 debriefing interview with Erasmo St. John, property of Oxblood Films, all rights reserved. Security clearance required.
CYTHERA BRASS: Begin recording. Session one, day one. The time is eight-fifteen in the morning on Tuesday, January third, 1946, at the Oxblood Industrial Park, 1770 Endymion Road, North Yemaya, Luna. I, Cythera Brass, Chief Security Officer for Oxblood Films, Ltd., am the sole conductor of this final postproduction interview. Would you please state your full name, age, and place of birth for the record?