Character · 2-3
Dr Robert Murray
Chief botanist, expedition leader. Chief botanist at the Temporal Research Centre, obsessed with drawing energy from plants from another world, according to the Director.
- First met
- 2-3 Dahne’s Laboratory
Their story
Show their story (spoilers)Story spoiler
His greenhouse holds his energy plants and the battery bulb, and his recorded messages scold Sean. He led the expedition beyond the rift: the tapes have the Director questioning him about the loss of Lewis and Sen during the Theta Splice test, and a doctor's note says he needs sedatives. He went back anyway. His logs in the Farpoint Outpost tell of Emily's runes, the macrophage that swallowed the splice and his doubts about Norček's plan ("what do we do in a hundred years time, when we've sucked this planet dry"). He gives the order to abandon the base, which is rescinded. His last recording, at the Theta Splice, lays out the final choice.
Documents
Writes
- I heard you've requested more of the anemone like samples we sent back… 2-3
- Climate Controls 5-4
- If scando advena will revolutionise construction, fulmen advena will… 5-4
- The macrophage just won't budge! 7-4
- How do we know if an organism is sentient? 7-4
- Keep the experiments isolated! Nothing enters, nothing leaves! 7-4
- Order rescinded. 7-5
Addressed to them
- To reiterate: a total news blackout is the only way to maintain staff… 3-6
- While I was rummaging, through some old files looking for something… 4-3
- This is a problem for future generations to solve, and I am confident… 7-4
- Concerning: Dr. Robert Murray, Expedition Team 7-4
- I know we have our differences, but surely we can agree. 7-5
Named in it
Audio logs
Speaks
- Audio log 4: I know this is hard, but I need you to focus. 4-4
- Audio log 9: It wasn't a forest, it was a garden. 5-4
- Audio log 10: I know this is hard, but I need you to focus. 5-4
- Audio log 11: WILL SOMEONE TURN THE ALARM OFF - 7-4
- Audio log 12: Alan and Emily's 'runes' have got everyone excited. 7-4
- Audio log 13: I told her I shouldn't come back. 7-4
- Audio log 14: We're going to save the world. 7-4
- Audio log 15: What is life, if not just ever longer chains of matter strung… 7-4
- Audio log 16: Day five of Emily's mad experiment. 7-4
- Audio log 17: Kathleen, you know I'm not the kind to make a fuss, 7-4
- Audio log 18: Today was near-death experience uhm... Eleven, twelve? 7-4
- Audio log 19: Sean, until I say stop looking at that plant, 7-4
- Audio log 20: I have never believed in intelligent design, 7-4
- Audio log 21: For every 50 runes Emily makes, 49 are failures. 7-4
- Audio log 22: Today Emily successfully fused organic alien tech 7-4
- Audio log 23: When we first discovered the power of these 'runes', 7-4
What they say
Their lines as the game's subtitles show them, in the order the game numbers them, with the checkpoint where each is first heard.
Show every line (19)Story spoiler
Hello, this is Dr Murray and the automated greenhouse system thing. Climate stability is good, so um, don't forget to sterilise your trowel. Sean, that means you.
This is another automated message. The climate stability's dropping, so fix that. Now. Sean.
I know someone's opened the lockbox and removed the source-seed, and we log everyone's cards so it's not like I won't know this was you Sean...
Recorded message: This section is now in lockdown. Which means YOU'VE messed up. Sean - report to my office. NOW.
[Murray] It wasn't a forest, it was a garden. There was a path, spiralling towards a central point - a stone at its heart, pulsing with light. The light became the roots, became the forest, and rose up to the sky. [Bowe] So? We're describing something alien, we don’t understand how this world behaves… [Murray] But the fundamental rules still apply. Carbon bonded to oxygen, magnetic induction creates electrical flow... ...and if the basic rules of physics, why not the basic rules of nature? Competition, evolution. What does a gardener do? She gives one part of nature an edge over another. And I am telling you - something more than nature made that forest grow.
What is life, if not just ever longer chains of matter strung together? Carbon and hydrogen and oxygen, woven into ever more complex shapes. At home - home - we take complexity for granted. Here though, it's as if even the most complex organisms constantly try to break into their simplest parts.
Day five of Emily's mad experiment. "It's all just electrons," she says, "I'm confident we can safely interface" she says. And I'm no engineer, but even I know she's never going to be able to make her own runes.
...WILL SOMEONE TURN THE ALARM OFF - Emily find me a rune that stops it - slows it YES I CAN SEE THAT IT'S SWALLOWED THE SPLICE THANK YOU SEAN. Someone do SOMETHING!
Today Emily successfully fused organic alien tech with our hardware, and made a rune. The process is painful and slow, but still... I hope she didn't take our bet seriously, I really cannae afford to buy her tea for life.
Sean, until I say stop looking at that plant, you will keep looking until your eyes plop out, do you understand? We're too far along now.
I have never believed in intelligent design, but in this place, it-it has another meaning. Here, everything is in symbiosis with everything else, constantly changing... It's as if the world wants to be seen, and in being seen, it evolves.
For every 50 runes Emily makes, 49 are failures. But even one or two... We could change the world.
When we first discovered the power of these 'runes', I thought we would re-define material science itself. Instead Dr. Dahne made a hook and a goop gun. Maybe it's just his process.
Alan and Emily's 'runes' have got everyone excited. Imagine it though - a symbolic object producing real physical change. I mean, even if we can't solve the energy crisis, with these we could change the world...
Today was near-death experience uhm... Eleven, twelve? This time it was nearly being devoured by one of the tentacle-monsters. Funny thing though, as it tried to swallow me whole, the thing that struck me most was the universality of teeth. Even on another planet, evolution loves rows and rows of sharp, pointy teeth.
Kathleen, you know I'm not the kind to make a fuss, but this isn't 'absent without leave'. This is 'eaten alive on an alien world'! This isn't a human resources issue - it's a digestive one!
We're going to save the world. What a pretentious thing for a botanist to say. But here, with the energy of this planet... Maybe it's true. Maybe our children won't have to freeze in another long winter, the cupboards will be full again. I just want my family to be safe. What else is there?
I told her I shouldn't come back. I told her I wasn't ready. After what happened to Lewis, Sen... I should have just stayed behind. Instead I'm here, letting my crew down. I don't know how to fix this. I never did.
I don't know if anyone will hear this. I don't know if... If you've turned the machine on then you understand. Stabilise the rift, save the Earth... ...but kill this world. Or close the rift forever. Earth will continue to suffer, to starve, its people, our people... ...but this world will live! I don't know what I'd do if it was me. And I don't think I'll get the chance to find out.