Memorare

Murmuring a prayer, March Wildspring evades a bladed boobytrap in a mortuary chamber.  He speaks into a camcorder, documenting his perilous surroundings.  His narration describes a host of asteroids converted into memorials, some benign and some dangerous.

March tests the crypt’s defense system before hurrying outside.  He films the intricately carved exterior of the space rock, hoping to warn away mourners, tourists, and pilgrims.  Reflecting on the dead and the afterlife, March returns to his hopper.

Waking in his spacecraft, March receives a video message from Kit Carlsen.  The starlet offers to join March and host his documentary, Vaults in the Void.  She invites along her friend, Robin Redd.  Flustered, March sends a pining reply.

March films Jupiter and describes its popularity as an exotic tourist destination.  He ruminates on the memorials built in remembrance of those fallen prey to the gas giant’s gravitational pull.

Visiting a candlelit shrine, March reflects on its honorees lost to space.

Kit sends a flirtatious video to March, suggesting that she wear a transparent spacesuit on camera.  She insists on bringing Robin, who is in hiding from an abusive partner. 

Donning an aging spacesuit, March considers his weak financial position and identifies a tomb with a welcoming entrance.  A hologram of an elderly man opens the door to his final resting place.  He shares with March the details of his life, showcasing the body of his brother beneath glass.  The man warns March of Jupiter’s perils.

Kit flirts with March via video message, her hopper appearing next to his in space.  The pair link ships, and March boards Kit’s.  Removing their helmets, March and Kit share a long kiss.  March renews his request that Kit marry him, but she demurs.

Robin enters the cabin and greets March by a pet name.  Taken aback, March recognizes the battered woman as his ex-wife, Sue.  Kit demands clarity, and March describes his fractious relationship with Sue and their acrimonious divorce.  Attempting to ease tensions aboard the hopper, Kit offers dinner.

In her transparent spacesuit, Kit invites prospective viewers to visit the tomb of a long-dead chef.  She is greeted there by the voice of a woman, who shares secrets of the kitchen.  The deceased reflects on the institution of marriage and cautions against visiting a nearby memorial.

Kit undertakes a calisthenics routine while March and Robin snipe at one another.  Robin throws a pepper grinder at March, drawing a stern warning from Kit.  

Despite meeting resistance from March and Robin, Kit insists on visiting the gravesite mentioned by the cook.  March identifies the place as Number Nineteen, among the largest and most sinister of the mausoleums.  Reluctantly, March proposes that he and Kit first traverse Number Thirteen to sharpen her skills.

Kit serves dinner.  March describes modern death cults, religious violence, and the dangers awaiting unsuspecting visitors to the crypts.  Robin threatens March over the use of her old name.

Outside Number Thirteen, March again proposes to Kit.  She hesitates, thinking Robin may be listening over the intercom. Sidestepping March’s marital advances, Kit cites harm to her career among other reasons.  

March shows Kit how to operate her spacesuit and explains the ominous symbols etched into the exterior of the tomb. Entering the mausoleum, March starts his camera rolling and instructs Kit to do the same.  

A voice welcomes the pair to the final resting place of a purported prophet.  Noticing a menacing change in the air, March seals his suit and Kit’s.  A steel door slams shut, sealing Kit and March within the asteroid.  Kit wonders aloud whether they are trapped.  The chamber replies with reassurance and exposes a switch to activate the door.

A naked man and woman warmly greet March and Kit.  March identifies them as androids, and urges Kit to take caution.  The male robot grabs at Kit, and she kicks him.  March shoves the female droid against the door’s control panel, revealing a lethal trap.  Kit and March dodge projectiles while evaluating their options for escape.

The airlock opens, revealing Robin.  March grabs Kit, and the pair rush to freedom.

Kit and March reflect on their harrowing experience.  March credits Robin with their rescue but assures Kit that he could have thwarted the clockwork dangers of the crypt unassisted.  The threesome reflects on the unseen dangers of Number Thirteen and the mechanics of its android attendants.

March investigates a hopper newly stationed near his own.  Finding the craft derelict and deserted, he returns to his ship.

Back in his living quarters, March is confronted by a stranger.  The visitor asks for information about Kit’s hopper.  March questions whether the intruder intends harm.  Surmising the interloper’s purpose, March introduces himself as Robin’s ex-husband.  Taken aback, the man identifies himself as Jim Redd.

Jim admits to buying a cheap hopper and pursuing his battered wife across space.  He describes his plan to salvage their marriage by force or otherwise.  March offers to escort Jim to Kit’s ship in the morning, so long as he does not cause trouble overnight.

After Jim departs, March calls Kit.  He encourages her to flee with Robin, but she resolves to stand her ground.

March visits Jim’s hopper, and the pair talk over fresh coffee.  Jim probes March’s feelings for Robin. Allaying Jim’s suspicions, March acknowledges that Robin has taken refuge with Kit. 

Reflecting on their prior encounters, Kit and Jim are reacquainted.  Jim denies any intention to kidnap Robin but refuses to foreswear violence.  Kit explains that Robin snuck away to hide in Number Nineteen.  March instructs Jim and Kit to remain in the hopper while he tries to retrieve Robin.  Jim insists on joining and dons his spacesuit.

Uttering a prayer, March enters Number Nineteen.  He is greeted by the voice of a woman, Penny, who welcomes him to paradise.  March announces his mission to find Robin, and Penny invites him inside to carry out his search.  Penny indicates that March’s task will be difficult as appearances differ within the asteroid.

Wary of entrapment, March asks whether he may leave of his own volition.  Penny confirms March’s freedom but suggests that he will be persuaded to stay.

March accepts Penny’s invitation and passes through a massive airlock styled as a comfortable sitting room.  Penny greets March in the flesh and invites him to touch her.  She asks that March remove his spacesuit, but he declines.

Penny leads March from the entryway to reveal a vast vista of natural beauty.  March pans over the improbable green meadow and rolling hills with his camcorder. 

As the pair walk through the bucolic landscape, they are ringed by a group of scantily clad and attractive townsfolk.  March asks after Robin but is mocked.  A local man questions why March would remove Robin from the bliss of his idyllic town.  Calling him by a pet name, Penny intervenes and shows March away from the throng.

Pausing by a lake, Penny points out March’s handsome reflection.  She encourages him to shed his clothes but is gently rebuffed.  March takes several photographs of Penny posing by the water and notices a man asleep on a bridge. 

Penny mentions the city’s Founder and the emissaries he sends to Earth.  She reflects on distant regrets.  March offers an apology.  March wonders about the cleanliness of the village and whether he might gain access to a television set.  

March and Penny take in an oversized bronze sculpture of the Founder.  Penny admits to being a new arrival in the city, and March suggests that he knows Robin’s location.  The pair are interrupted by the effigy of the Founder announcing the arrival of Robin, Kit, March, and Jim to his community.   

The Founder commands his followers to return to their homes and pass the night in safety.  The lights dim and Penny, panicked, urges March to run in search of shelter.  Weighed down by his spacesuit, March encourages Penny to leave him.  As Penny departs, March offers to free her from the commune.

March narrates a recording of the darkening chamber for Vaults in the Void, noting the asteroid’s human population and artificial gravity.  He approaches a cottage but is turned away by its residents.

Alone, March faces the darkness.  He is confronted by specters from his past: his dying mother, unborn son, and ailing dog.  

Pressing onward, March finds a second house and demands to be admitted.  A naked man at the door refuses him entry.  From inside, Kit demands that Jim allow March passage. March muscles his way indoors, pummels Jim to the floor, and embraces Kit.

Kit suggests March expel Jim from their company but is disregarded.  March and Kit reflect on their distorted reality, although he indicates that she is unchanged to his eyes.  Kit recounts following March into Number Nineteen, finding a vacant home, and being assaulted by Jim.

March connects his camera to a television and plays back his recording of the mausoleum.  His film reveals Penny to be an altered version of Robin and the natural vistas to be dank caves lit with artificial lights. Jim grows angry with their circumstances, and March threatens him.  Kit asks to see a video of their immediate surroundings.

Kit, March, and Jim pass the night in the false home.  Jim proposes that they split up in search of Robin and rendezvous at the exit.  March and Kit agree to the plan, and Jim departs.

March explains how he deduced Penny’s identity from small details.  Noting her untorn clothes, March accuses Kit of welcoming Jim’s advances.  Kit offers a halfhearted defense before admitting her infidelity. Following a winding path, Kit suggests that she and March enjoy the illusion of natural beauty.  

The pair encounter a middle-aged man planting bushes by a quaint cottage along the roadside.  The villager, Hap Harper, provides March directions to the airlock.  Offering tea, Hap leads March and Kit into his well-kept home and introduces his wife.

March ruminates on illusions and the effect of love on perception.  He plays a recording showing Hap, clothed in rags, placing rotten plants in barren earth near a ramshackle hut.

Kit chastises March for exposing Hap and his wife to the reality of their condition. Suspecting the sleeping bodies strewn about the asteroid to be corpses, March speaks to the dangers of delusion.

Kit and March reach the airlock and talk with its operator, Nita.  March spots a crowd pursuing the far-off figures of Robin and Jim.  Robin stumbles.  Jim shoots into the mob before being overrun.

Before running to Robin’s aid, March orders Kit to flee.  The animated statue of the Founder joins the angry throng.  March retrieves Robin and returns to the exit, finding Nita departed.  Robin rushes to the control panel and opens the door to space.  March watches the portal close on Kit, splitting her in two.

Returning to his hopper, March speeds away from Number Nineteen.  He pauses to review the footage from his camcorder.

March composes a message to United Digital Network pitching his documentary.  He waits for a reply, reflecting on Kit’s final moments.

A network representative, Kim Granby, contacts March and indicates her company’s interest in Vaults in the Void.  March recounts the death of Kit and Jim and the loss of Robin.  Promising to reconnect with March, Kim departs to share the unhappy news with an executive.

Alone in space, March breaks down over the death of Kit.

Kim calls March and offers him a lucrative deal.  He accepts after professing his love for Kit and flirting with Kim.

Ruminating on the last actions of Jim and Robin, March resolves to return to Number Nineteen in search of his ex-wife.

March releases his film, its credits memorializing his two loves.

(c) Matthew Chiarello 2025