Juno Steel and the Terrible Waste (Part 1) is an episode of The Penumbra Podcast in the Juno Steel series. It is the ninth Juno Steel episode in season 5, and the 18th overall episode of the season.
Overview[]
Out in the furthest reaches of the Milky Way float piles of things best left forgotten: trash, refuse, the runoff and leftovers of a society that wants too much and produces too much. What better place, then, to put an impossible dream: that dead bodies, what we leave behind when we eventually exit life, might start to walk and talk and love again?
The Dokana group has chosen one of these trashteroids as their place to dream this dream. But be careful: it doesn't take much for a dream to become a nightmare.
Trigger Warnings[]
- Sudden loud noises
- Deception and betrayal
- Violence and threats of violence
- Use of firearms
- Death
- Abuse of the dead
- Abuse of authority
Episode Summary[]
The episode opens on Juno leaving Rita behind in the net cafe on Amun. She gives him a private comms range amplifer. Nureyev enters and deeply thanks Rita, bowing to her. Rita is uncomfortable and assures him that hed do the same for her.
After they saw the room full of bodies like Slip, they made themselves scarce and followed the tracker they had on Slip's bed. The tracker led them far out into space, passed any colonised planets, to an asteroid made of trash that was dumped into space centuries ago. Juno comments that it must make a nice secret base.
Juno edges on explaining his connection with the Ruby 7, and Nureyev is wary of it being able to refuse orders and doesnt like the idea that it can think. Juno weakly defends it, but doesn't elaborate to Nureyev. Juno realizes that the ruby is evolving more and changing more, and is a little uneasy about that as well. The Ruby does some scans on the asteroid, revealing there's an artificial gravity well there, making heavy duty space exploration equipment unnecessary. It also reveals that theres lots of surveilance, so they consult Rita for blindspots. The three of them work well as a team.
Juno spots someone looking at them in the distance who seems to have a spacesuit made of trash. Nureyev, incredibly on edge over being caught, panics and runs. Juno calls Rita on the comms and asks her to clear a path through the security cameras. Juno catches up to Nureyev, and neither of them can breathe. They are spotted by the security camera. Nureyev tries to play a new role, but Juno and the Ruby are shot with a stun net and captured by guards.
They wake up captured in a cell together. The guards mention The Executives wanting one of them alive in particular. Juno notes that he cant psychically feel the Ruby, to which Nureyev is incredulous, before Juno senses it in his coat pocket on the table outside the cell. The Ruby was heavily weakened by the stun net. They talk and it is revealed that Nureyev was the one who helped them break out of Aurinko Permanent Corrections. Nureyev tries to command the Ruby, but it is too weak to comply. Juno tells him off for being mean to him and especially to the Ruby. Nureyev eventually apologises for freaking out but then immediately freaks out more when they hear footsteps down the hall.
Melee comes into their cell, and Juno recognizes her as not being a crony for Dokana. She helps free them, and tells them off for not having ventilators, which is why they ran out of air and got caught. Together they hide in an old maintanence tunnel. Two Executives pass them by, conversing about a "product launch". The three of them continue to crawl deeper into the trashteroid. They find a pair of heavy iron gates in a large hollow chamber. Melee knocks on the gates and announces herself. She introduces them to Vivopolis, a cobbled together town where the junk itself makes up the buildings. the people there are exhausted, but driven. Melee shows them to her place and gives them tea made from a water recycler she fixed up.
Melee tells them her end of the deal- she wants them to use their car to take as many people as possible out of there. She says that tensions are getting higher closer to The Executives mysterious "product launch". She doesnt want to join them though, wanting to stay for her dad, who the Dokana Group are keeping on life support. Nureyev also says he cant leave for the same reason. Juno insists that the Dokana Group cannot bring people back to life, and that its one big con.
Mr Sosie comes on the loudspeaker and tells everyone in Vivopolis that the time has come for their loved ones to be resurrected, but some of them have been chosen for a more special procedure. Everyone wants to go to the gates and check if their loved ones are there, including Melee. Juno has to restrain Nureyev because he has a bad feeling about it. He tells him to give it a minute.
On the other side of the gates, someones loved one appears, back from the dead. The person who had been waiting years for this moment runs to her and wraps her arms around her. The resurrected person calmly takes a gun and shoots her in the head. Mr Sosie comes back on the loudspeaker, saying the LifeUp project is complete, and that all workers in Vivopolis are to be upgraded to the LifeUp worker model.
Cast and Crew[]
Cast[]
- Joshua Ilon as Juno Steel
- Noah Simes as Peter Nureyev
- Kate Jones as Rita
- Melody Perera as Melee
- Stewart Evan Smith as The Executives
Crew[]
- Ginny D'Angelo as Head of Merchandise and Outreach
- Melissa DeJesus and Grahame Turner on the Script editing team
- Harley Takagi Kaner as Co-creator, Head of Episode Development, Director, and Sound designer
- Joelle Kross as transcriptionist
- Noah Simes as Production manager
- Kevin Vibert as Co-creator, Head of Operations, and Lead writer
- Ryan Vibert as Composer and performer of original music
- Jeff Wright as Graphic designer