Fanfic: “The Cultivated Mind” by Mosca (2003) - So Farscape!

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Fanfic: “The Cultivated Mind” by Mosca (2003)

This week's fanfic is “The Cultivated Mind” by Mosca, first published in 2003 at https://www.shriftweb.org/leviathan/archive/5/thecultivated.html

Thanks to Kernezelda for recommending it!

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Transcript
Kay:

Hello, and welcome to tales of the unchartered

Khaki:

I'm cocky

Kay:

K

Khaki:

and okay.

Khaki:

Quick bit of intro before we get to today's fantastic.

Khaki:

Because we've had some technical issues in the past and because

Khaki:

of, the, contributions of our many Patrion supporters for whom we very

Khaki:

grateful, uh, we've upgraded our recording interface to one that should

Khaki:

be a little bit more reliable, but.

Khaki:

today is the first time that we're using it.

Khaki:

And so we realized after we.

Khaki:

just.

Khaki:

This recording that we did that we hadn't pressed the record button.

Khaki:

that this machine has.

Kay:

this is again, like we are again, experiencing some technical

Khaki:

difficulties That's

Kay:

as, piloting, has informed us, which is very appropriate because

Kay:

today's story is all about pilot.

Khaki:

Okay.

Khaki:

So let's brace ourselves for the solar storm once again it'll be totally

Khaki:

listening and we promise we'll press record.

Khaki:

Next time.

Khaki:

Hey Kay.

Khaki:

Cocky.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

I've been thinking about how we can do the intro in a way that sort of feels less

Khaki:

sort of flailing it's we're just having a chat and like I thought maybe we could

Khaki:

just introduce ourselves to each other.

Khaki:

Okay.

Khaki:

All right.

Khaki:

Well, Didn't really improve anything.

Khaki:

Did it?

Khaki:

It's not like less awkward, but, well, that's kind of weird, but yes.

Khaki:

Welcome to another, uh, reading of fanfic for Farscape farfetched

Khaki:

fantasy Farscape fanfic.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

You never ceased to find like new combinations for up, honestly,

Khaki:

a very limited set of syllables.

Khaki:

This pleasure of being dyslectic.

Khaki:

Oh God.

Khaki:

Okay.

Khaki:

I didn't mean to put you, I mean, it's like it's turning

Khaki:

this advantage into an advantage.

Khaki:

I can just like, I can just randomly keep mixing up syllables without.

Khaki:

Making a difference and they kick it.

Khaki:

The kids call that remix culture.

Khaki:

Don't they?

Khaki:

I think so.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

So to their stories, the cultivated mind by.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

This was sent to us by current Zelda who also provided us with

Khaki:

the pronunciation of their names.

Khaki:

So we've, read stories of theirs before.

Khaki:

And we, we said accredits elder because we're like that, but it

Khaki:

turns out Curtis Zelda, Who saw?

Khaki:

I think, let me see.

Khaki:

It has been a little bit, but I think they saw our Zhaan Pickathon, uh, and

Khaki:

like via Cathy who got in touch with them over live journal or dream with, or

Khaki:

like, and apparently they really enjoyed that, that like blast from the past.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

I couldn't imagine it was really fun to see their responses

Khaki:

to going like, oh my gosh.

Khaki:

Someone found out all stuff from 15 years ago.

Khaki:

Although, I'm just realizing I'm probably mixing up Astro girl and curls couldn't

Khaki:

sell, but this is a great intro, very professional, but I know it's current

Khaki:

Zelda who sent this story because I had that in my handy-dandy database.

Khaki:

Um, and as is my want I don't check those too closely.

Khaki:

Like I, cause I like it to be a surprise, but I had to look at

Khaki:

the first paragraph on everything.

Khaki:

He really wanted to read this story about.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

So the story notes are spoilers continuity decidedly first season, perhaps between

Khaki:

the human reaction and nerve, but with an eye to later events Farscape

Khaki:

is the intellectual property there?

Khaki:

Yada, yada yada, yada.

Khaki:

There was something I think.

Khaki:

Ooh.

Khaki:

Oh yes.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

So Moscow had thanks to Kate and Katisha for the betas and to the

Khaki:

distraction, whoever that is.

Khaki:

And to my parents who gave me the season one box at 400.

Khaki:

Oh, that sounds, that sounds like a fantastic prison.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

It just keeps on going if only just kept on going like the.

Khaki:

The Hanukkah candles know, like he wasn't leaving oil for one night,

Khaki:

but they kept it going for eight.

Khaki:

Oh, if only you had Farscape but he actually got off.

Khaki:

What do you mean for eight and the movie?

Khaki:

Oh, yes, that's right.

Khaki:

One day, one day.

Khaki:

Okay.

Khaki:

Here and now here's the paragraph that hooked me.

Khaki:

Pilot became a pilot because he wanted to see the galaxy.

Khaki:

There were things, one sacrificed like companionship, but then he had a constant.

Khaki:

Moyers symbiotic running commentary, always taking up half this consciousness

Khaki:

with status reports, waves of panic and frustration, burst of joy.

Khaki:

When the baby shifted Moira was not so intelligent.

Khaki:

She was the best, a rather perceptive beast, but she was loyal and responsive.

Khaki:

Moyer had learned that she was fond of him as labeling laboring animals

Khaki:

often were a fond of their masters and he plucked thoughts of reassurance

Khaki:

and affection when he was otherwise.

Khaki:

Good Moyer, strong lawyer.

Khaki:

My brave LA.

Khaki:

Pilots had more idle time than pilots were intended to have when the

Khaki:

peacekeepers controlled Moyer he'd always have numerous tasks to manage.

Khaki:

Sometimes the barrage of demands frazzled him, but they also comforted him in

Khaki:

that they gave him a sense of purpose.

Khaki:

Now, when systems were normal and his crew of six were occupied with their

Khaki:

usual bipedal elsewheres, he had plenty of brain left from using and reflecting

Khaki:

for opinions and emotions for all of the things that his own species obsessed

Khaki:

by the Juul values of efficiency.

Khaki:

And.

Khaki:

Strove to eliminate poker nights with the DRD pick up poker games.

Khaki:

Yeah, it was the bipeds and the way a pilot could get to know them when they

Khaki:

were only six, perhaps it was quite, and specifically having never seen

Khaki:

any life beyond that of is backwards.

Khaki:

Now, presumably isolate home planet.

Khaki:

He had no reason to see pilots, intelligence and skills as inherently

Khaki:

less valuable than those of the Delvian.

Khaki:

Lacking a frame of reference.

Khaki:

Creighton was a true egalitarian Greitens, denseness, and the, and the odd tricks of

Khaki:

language that he called a sense of humor.

Khaki:

Tried pay pilots.

Khaki:

Patients frightened had a welcoming attitude toward the universe

Khaki:

that he understood with sometimes astonishing, scientific precision

Khaki:

pilots, occasionally envied Crighton's instinctive comprehension

Khaki:

of the way things fit together.

Khaki:

And he always admired it.

Khaki:

Public was surprised to find that he liked.

Khaki:

You have grown accustomed to the peacekeepers abuses the way they barked

Khaki:

demands and treated him like part of the circuitry bypass was something to

Khaki:

be endured in exchange for the joys of being a pilot, not something whose company

Khaki:

one enjoyed, and indeed pilot despise.

Khaki:

Most of them, the shouting ignorant Luxan the spastic Nebari stupid and

Khaki:

self-important, Hynerian accurate.

Khaki:

Ooh.

Khaki:

Most of all.

Khaki:

Well, for all of her claims of higher awareness and compassion would never

Khaki:

understand the being as different from her in both physical form and

Khaki:

way of thinking as pilot was, Ooh, well, this is early on, right?

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

Fair enough.

Khaki:

Ease his pain while they had to have his arm, the pain.

Khaki:

Wasn't the point arms grew back.

Khaki:

I mean, this points story's incredible, but then pilot had

Khaki:

never been one for liking other.

Khaki:

He said over and over that he'd become a pilot to see the galaxy,

Khaki:

but it was just as much to escape the Dean of his Homeworld.

Khaki:

His people filled each other's minds with bickering and trivia wasted

Khaki:

their capabilities on pointless webs of family relationships and

Khaki:

convoluted architectural projects.

Khaki:

The telepathic and multitasking abilities of his species did not protect

Khaki:

them from pettiness and tediousness.

Khaki:

You can take the slug off the swamp planet, but you can't take

Khaki:

the planet out of the flood.

Khaki:

As soon as he'd become old enough for pilot training pilots had fled his nest

Khaki:

of squabbling brothers and critical aunts.

Khaki:

He wondered if the bipedal Moyer realized that his name had not always been.

Khaki:

Certainly they didn't know, not know that he distract, discarded his

Khaki:

given name because of the unpleasant memory associations abroad of a life.

Khaki:

He eagerly abandoned the peacekeepers called him pilot because they could not

Khaki:

pronounce his real name and lack the creativity to give him a new one beyond

Khaki:

the acknowledgements of this office.

Khaki:

It kind of like thinking of all pilots were called pilot, but that could

Khaki:

just be like a peacekeeper affectation as, uh, I mean we've met three and

Khaki:

they were all at a pistol control.

Khaki:

They were always addressed as pilots.

Khaki:

So yeah.

Khaki:

The pilots had come to like the nickname it did after all represent what he was.

Khaki:

He might not have been the best pilot in the galaxy is merely competent

Khaki:

performance in pilot training had earned him this replacement posting on a prison

Khaki:

transport, a job that made up for its lack of prestige with its SurfAid of

Khaki:

danger, but he was a pilot nonetheless.

Khaki:

And so he would be until he and Moya drifted lifeless into that

Khaki:

great unknown field of stars.

Khaki:

So, yeah, we here clearly see here that this is written before

Khaki:

the author knew about the way we.

Khaki:

Oh, yes, that's right.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

They don't know about that yet.

Khaki:

Wait, no.

Khaki:

Hold on.

Khaki:

Replacement posting.

Khaki:

Right?

Khaki:

They did know about the way we weren't.

Khaki:

Ooh.

Khaki:

I mean, I mean, he, he replaced another pilot.

Khaki:

That's an uncommon pilot.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

That might be that be a replace.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

Okay.

Khaki:

Very good point.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

I hadn't considered that.

Khaki:

The publication date.

Khaki:

I don't know that it says, does it say on your screen 2003.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

That will be, yeah.

Khaki:

We are like our subject.

Khaki:

We have to use a June, 2001.

Khaki:

Thereabouts.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

I've lost my, uh, position or was my credit onto back tediousness start.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

Got it.

Khaki:

Hey, by the way, I am loving this prose.

Khaki:

I'm going to look for more stories by Moscow because this is my jam.

Khaki:

Although not a lot of voices so far.

Khaki:

No.

Khaki:

So which is probably like comes one though.

Khaki:

Quite and like to try to convince pilots that he was more capable than he really

Khaki:

was and grasp we're in yet, Creighton would say emphasize that you're the

Khaki:

only one here who appreciates sarcasm.

Khaki:

Great and sarcasm.

Khaki:

Didn't quite chime in Euphonix with the hummingbirds of the

Khaki:

translator microbes, but pilots had come to know what he meant by it.

Khaki:

The opposite of a true statement that lent emphasis to unpleasant truth.

Khaki:

The opposite of a true statement that led emphasis to unpleasant truth Tam.

Khaki:

If that interpretation was correct, then sarcasm was indeed

Khaki:

something that pilot appreciated.

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It was the only way, or at least pilot's only way of forcing himself to blink

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and obey, to show no trace of recognition that with one snip of a claw or better,

Khaki:

the judicious adjustment of certain life support systems pilots could reduce a

Khaki:

foolish and demeaning commander into a puddle of fluid and spent flesh.

Khaki:

But pilot knew that as compelling as his revenge fantasies became, wow,

Khaki:

their execution would destroy him, his power lay in potential and vague.

Khaki:

And he kept his claws, his controls, and his homicidal impulses

Khaki:

to himself and his Leviathan.

Khaki:

Sorry, I'm still stuck on a puddle of fluids and spent

Khaki:

flesh, but we've all been there.

Khaki:

Certain parties, we're creating an officer soon.

Khaki:

We're concerned.

Khaki:

Palace restraint went beyond simply acknowledgement of the

Khaki:

danger of murdering bipeds.

Khaki:

It went to the fact that he would miss them if they were gone.

Khaki:

In fact, Ms.

Khaki:

Creighton or leaf and the others insisted they continued to search for

Khaki:

him long after it seemed hopeless.

Khaki:

Oh, Jeremiah.

Khaki:

Yeah, but it was officer son.

Khaki:

We thought it was, but it was officer soon who he thought he would miss that.

Khaki:

Yeah, I observed recently that officer soon had ceased to be officer soon in

Khaki:

his mind, but rather Aaron, the name that was who she was not what she was

Khaki:

pilot did not only tolerate and respect her, although he did both of those

Khaki:

things, his feelings for Aaron approach.

Khaki:

But the bypass seem to mean when they call it talks about affection.

Khaki:

And for that reason pilots, didn't like to think about Aaron,

Khaki:

oh, this is a hell of a story.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

Pilot new, how to keep himself from thinking about things that

Khaki:

he didn't want to think about.

Khaki:

This species began in early childhood to learn how to streamline thoughts

Khaki:

and information and to assign them the needed amount of concentration.

Khaki:

God, that sounds great.

Khaki:

In pilot training pilots have refined his skill to the point where he could

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push undesirable trains of thought into nooks of such low priority of

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so little concentration that he no longer noticed that he was thinking of.

Khaki:

That sounds amazing.

Khaki:

It's not as great as you think it is.

Khaki:

Without this ability, he would have been an acute psychiatric case.

Khaki:

He would dwell ceaselessly on the misery of his early life believe and

Khaki:

now irrelevant mother's accusations of inherent inadequacy and allow

Khaki:

the probe of her tentacled mind into his pilot, survived by turning his

Khaki:

memories into ghosts that could no longer knock at the walls of his.

Khaki:

On the rare occasion that they might, he could simply refuse to let them in.

Khaki:

When Aaron knocked, it was much more difficult to turn her away.

Khaki:

Pilot knew that she was unaccustomed to being alone.

Khaki:

And in the final balance, she didn't distract him too much.

Khaki:

So he permitted her to sit with him in his chamber, although he

Khaki:

never openly encouraged it often, she would say nothing to him.

Khaki:

The refuge from the terrible echo of a near empty Leviathan was enough.

Khaki:

It was enough for pilot to.

Khaki:

The acoustics in his gigantic chamber.

Khaki:

It must be pretty amazing.

Khaki:

I mean, uh, D'Argo gave a fantastic she'll pin concert there.

Khaki:

Oh yes.

Khaki:

And you might actually, occasionally you've heard the

Khaki:

gurgle of Moira, I suppose.

Khaki:

Oh yes.

Khaki:

It might resonate a little bit.

Khaki:

She's still got those Pathfinder to dissolve down at them.

Khaki:

Yes.

Khaki:

We're going to get there.

Khaki:

Just got rid of that.

Khaki:

How would they oh yes.

Khaki:

When they were passing close to an object of astronomical interest, or if

Khaki:

pilots had discovered, had discovered something in Moyer scientific files

Khaki:

that he thought was worth sharing, he would point it out to Aaron.

Khaki:

Sometimes she would ask a question or two, but for the most part, she

Khaki:

absorbed the knowledge silently.

Khaki:

Aaron pretended to be closed-minded like peacekeepers were generally brought up.

Khaki:

The pilot had observed that her curiosity was almost bottomless.

Khaki:

She snapped up new information, like a hungry Hynerian Creighton was teaching

Khaki:

her a few words of his native language, the idioms and double entendres that

Khaki:

the microbes couldn't fully translate.

Khaki:

And she would bound into pilot's chamber eager to demonstrate her new vocabulary.

Khaki:

Perhaps when I'm finished learning English, you could

Khaki:

teach me some of your language.

Khaki:

Aaron said one day, I'm afraid that will be a useless exercise by.

Khaki:

You wouldn't be able to pronounce any of the sounds, but that's

Khaki:

unfair veteran could do it.

Khaki:

Uh, he bought us to reassign two DRDs to a flickering light source on tier 19.

Khaki:

To be fair.

Khaki:

I doubt I'm physiologically, equipped to speak.

Khaki:

Sebacean the concepts wouldn't transfer.

Khaki:

Well, anyway, she said your species thinks quite differently than.

Khaki:

Not so differently than we fail to communicate by that said checking

Khaki:

the waste energy output levels of Moyers, dorsal propulsion

Khaki:

units, differently enough.

Khaki:

Aaron said, and an expression of pure horror across their face pilot remembered

Khaki:

that it was not so easy for a bypass to shut out such terrible memories.

Khaki:

Impossible.

Khaki:

In fact to do so with pilots efforts, effortless efficient.

Khaki:

Oh, Navitar yeah.

Khaki:

I suppose you would have some idea pilots.

Khaki:

He stared out through Moyers optical receptors at the field of stars before

Khaki:

him, it was foolish of him to think for even a moment that she might grow to

Khaki:

understand him enough to care for him.

Khaki:

It was a great irony.

Khaki:

This compelling mind in a body.

Khaki:

So incompatible with his, in every respect.

Khaki:

One of the things pilot had sacrificed in order to become a pilot was the

Khaki:

opportunity to find a mate that was not the kind of affinity he felt for Aaron,

Khaki:

but he rather wished that he could design.

Khaki:

It would unravel the paradoxes of his affection for her pilots had become

Khaki:

a pilot because he wanted to see the galaxy and he reminded himself

Khaki:

frequently of how much it was going to see how much more he would experience

Khaki:

and most of the species and with how much more freedom than other pilot.

Khaki:

None of my other crew knew much about the unchartered territories and they left most

Khaki:

of the navigational decisions to palace.

Khaki:

It was conceivable that he might see everything that he'd ever dreamed.

Khaki:

So many things that all the undesirable memories would be

Khaki:

pushed clear out of his brain.

Khaki:

There was so much out there.

Khaki:

It would be a wasted opportunity to stop with Aaron.

Khaki:

Ah, why is this all up there is where's the rest of this novel.

Khaki:

Muskox, I'm yelling through the sort of channels of the internet.

Khaki:

I hope that I hope that you're out there on that.

Khaki:

I don't know exactly when this is going to be.

Khaki:

I think Hannukah will have passed by the time that this regrettably but I hope that

Khaki:

you had a, that you had a good one and I hope that you wrote more stories like this

Khaki:

because I'm, I'm captivated, I, another one, not supposed to play favorites,

Khaki:

but this like this story is so my jam.

Khaki:

Oh, it's, it's lovely to read.

Khaki:

Lovely.

Khaki:

To think about the machinations of pilot's mind.

Khaki:

Yes, exactly.

Khaki:

Like this.

Khaki:

It's so much calmer than Farscape usually is it's so much more introspective.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

It sort of fits with pilots who sits in his chamber and, you know, we only

Khaki:

see him when there's, when there's shit going on in a bypass shit.

Khaki:

Yeah.

Khaki:

So what's his experience like, and I mean, I guess he's like pretty much

Khaki:

aware of everything that goes on.

Khaki:

A lot of things going on in my, yeah.

Khaki:

So he's kind of like, yeah, the DRDs are always listening.

Khaki:

Or playing poker.

Khaki:

Laser quest actually has a secret, a selection of all sorts of Polaroids

Khaki:

that he's keeping somewhere behind his desk where he's like, oh, that's right.

Khaki:

Because they have, and one day everybody in all the compromising

Khaki:

positions that they've ever been found.

Khaki:

Well, that includes like some of the fanfic that we've read.

Khaki:

Like what's under John's level.

Khaki:

There you go.

Khaki:

John stumbling out of his quarters, starting, still

Khaki:

trying to get his pants on.

Khaki:

So, you know, it was like a few seconds before that

Khaki:

I surely would like to see how once again, he managed to get into skin,

Khaki:

tight leather pants in no time flat, but then he struggled with the Bluetooth.

Khaki:

Is there a talcum powder dispenser or something?

Khaki:

I mean, that's, isn't that vinyl, I mean, there's a word for leather as well.

Khaki:

I don't know.

Khaki:

Oh, well, I don't know.

Khaki:

You're a person who's worn leather pants, like, yeah, but

Khaki:

they're not that tight, tight, so.

Khaki:

Anyway,

Khaki:

I forgot that we were podcasting there.

Khaki:

I thought that we were just having a chat.

Khaki:

Let's that's this one we started so, so casual.

Khaki:

Right.

Khaki:

I've kind of gotten that.

Khaki:

So thank you for joining us for another episode of tales

Khaki:

of the unchartered territories.

Khaki:

We'll be back next week with a proper episode of Farscape and we

Khaki:

will be discussing a season three episode eight green-eyed monster,

Khaki:

which I did off the top of my head.

Khaki:

I didn't even want to do a data.

Khaki:

thank you for joining us.

Khaki:

So Farscape so good.

Khaki:

So Farscape so good.

Khaki:

Bye-bye

Khaki:

did it record that we weren't, we weren't seriously, which

Khaki:

seriously worked with Courtney.

Khaki:

Okay.

Khaki:

I guess we need to get into the new workflow Yeah no let's

Khaki:

let's get a new record locally, so we don't run the risk of.

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So Farscape!
A fun-filled Farscape fancast in which a longtime fan introduces his bestie to the marvel that is Farscape, seen through fresh eyes and discussed with insight, wit, and love!

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About your host

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Khaki and Kay

Best friends for decades, Khaki and Kay are passionate nerds. Kay is a veteran of the Kerbal Space Program, while Khaki is a student of sci-fi TV obscura, and a keeper of the Deep Lore.