Welcome back Wolf 359 friends and fans to another installment of Wolf 359 Daily! Today is December 28, and it’s Mission Day 583. Let’s take a look at Episode 15: “What’s Up, Doc?”
Well, the dust is beginning to settle after the events of Christmas day, but the intrigue just keeps coming. We get some good reveals, and another big ol’ mystery today.
We’re now three days out from the mutiny, and Hilbert’s spent that time corralled first in the broom closet, then the observation deck. Meanwhile, Eiffel and Minkowski have been having to run the station on manual. While some elements were likely left damaged from the fire, Minkowski reports that 51 systems are malfunctioning without Hera overseeing everything. This situation will only continue to deteriorate over the next two weeks until “Painfully Ever After,” but at least the alarms aren’t actively going off today.
Of course, the maintenance sweep and processor tests Minkowksi and Eiffel are doing are really just a cover to comb through the station for any additional signs from Captain Lovelace. While they don’t turn anything up, making Eiffel skeptical of Lovelace’s message (understandable, given Goddard’s track record with unannounced psychological experiments), Minkowksi is sure she’d heard the name before. What she’s trying to remember is the log from Selberg’s lab, uncovered in “Extreme Danger Bug.” Can’t fault her for not remembering, to be honest, that was a month or more ago and... some stuff’s happened since then, y’know?
Lacking other leads, Minkowski and Eiffel decide to interrogate Hilbert for information, since he’s the only one who seems to actually know what’s been going on with Goddard this whole time. Unfortunately, Hilbert’s worked fairly closely under Mr. Cutter for years, and his last mission debrief was with Major Warren Kepler, so, regrettably Minkowski and Eiffel lack the level of intimidation required to break the doctor, even after three days of starvation. Though, my favorite part was that Eiffel going into the room and talking to him for a minute was what Hilbert called “cruel and unusual.”
Eventually they do uncover Hilbert’s weak spot: his research. Taking a hammer to his hard drives at least gets a rise out of him, though it ultimately takes the rather drastic threat of destroying his real research—Officer Eiffel—to break him. And finally we get to hear the real purpose of the Hephaestus mission: Project Decima. The incredibly destructive retrovirus that Hilbert’s been secretly incubating in Eiffel’s system for nearly two years.
We’ll eventually see just how committed Goddard is to the “bigger picture” ideology, but man, this is a serious example of it. You’ve got a chance to develop a virus to repair cellular degradation, which could have untold medical applications. But there’s no ethical way to do human experimentation with this, since it currently absolutely destroys your cellular structures... unless I guess you’re going to stop at utilitarian ethics, in which case it could be argued that a space crew or two is a reasonable sacrifice for something that could save and improve countless lives. But is the chance to improve the lives of many worth the definite slow and painful deaths of a few unwitting sacrifices? Ehhh.
Well, Goddard’s set themselves to come out on top either way. If they don’t succeed and get the miracle cure of human history, they at least get the consolation prize of the worst bioweapon ever.
Besides the big Decima reveal, we also get the most overt tease of Eiffel’s questionable past yet. When he goes in to talk with Hilbert, Hilbert turns the tables by threatening to reveal things that were wiped from Eiffel’s files. Things that he clearly thinks will change how Minkowski thinks of him. You may remember this little trail of breadcrumbs can be traced all the way back to the beginning, with the DSSPPM introduction mentioning being in space for “disciplinary” reasons, but this is the first time we’ve seen that Eiffel is clearly hiding something. We’ve still got a long road ahead until the final reveal of his backstory, but today it’s being brought to the front.
This episode was also an interesting moment for Minkowski’s character. Finding out she’s only really been the mission commander on paper, and Hilbert was always the one with all the information and the secret overrides to take command has to suck. She has wanted so badly for so long to lead, but she’s not a particularly effective leader at this point. I mean, she can’t even get Eiffel to pronounce her name correctly. And I just feel for her so much in this episode. Everything’s gone sideways, and she’s trying so hard to wrest some control from the situation, and she just can’t get a grip on it. We’ll get to talk about this some more when this spiral hits peak velocity in “Minkowski Commanding,” but this really has not been Reneé’s best week ever.
Alright, I think we’ll wrap up here for now. I hope you all have a happy new year, and will join us again in 2025 for Episode 16: “Painfully Ever After” on January 11!
Today’s rejected Pryce & Carter tip:
Always use the right tool for the job.
The right tool is always a hammer.
Anything can be used as a hammer.
Wolf 359 Daily is written and recorded by Rina Cerame.
Wolf 359 is a product of Kinda Evil Genius Productions. More information on the show can be found on their website at wolf359.fm
We hope you’ll join us on January 11 for Episode 16: “Painfully Ever After.” Thank you for listening!
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