I've worked at Nasa for almost 30 years long enough that I got to see the ISS get put in orbit it's generally regarded as one of the best things we've ever done and I agree the amount of scientific data Discovery disaster observation it's just Priceless we'd all be living in a worse world without that hunk of metal orbiting our planet it's a strange feeling to see everyone talking about taking it out of the sky on one hand the thing is getting pretty old it was built for 15 years of operation but it's been functional for
21 now on the other I'm well a little sentimental maybe all the talk of dismantling it is making me feel old predex first there are many things I'm not going to tell you about myself for obvious reasons but I can tell you my experience with NASA they're very open about things inside the agency as well as outside a lot of people like to think NASA is holding some serious Secrets but that's just not true sometimes you can't walk 20 ft without hearing a young excited scientist nerding out about some new discovery or Theory to their
colleagues management puts it how it is because in this line of work everyone needs to know and if anyone miscalculates it can mean disaster all big scientific discoveries are put on paper within 24 hours and released to the public you all get the picture point is in 30 years years of working here I've never encountered much dishonesty unless a politician walked in the door I know everyone really well and we get along just fine recent events have changed everything the excited chatter has mostly stopped the US government has people in suits crawling all over the
place and the higher ups obviously haven't gotten sleep since it was announced that the ISS was to be decommissioned despite all this we're to continue like it's business as usual but every now and then one of will get called up for an interview with the suits sometimes they'd be gone for a few minutes sometimes they'd be gone for hours but when they return to work we'd all ask what was going on every time we'd get the same answer the suits would bring them into a room with a table ask them some confusing uncontextualized [Music] in
their eye the look begging you not to talk to them but they can't tell you not to everyone else is as confused as I am and work has slowed to a crawl occasionally we'll get an exciting announcement that renews our wondrous exploratory child brains but for the most part it's become dreary a few days in I got pulled into a room with the suits there were a lot of formalities to get through like my name age place of birth Etc but then the questions started their demeanor changed on a dime as soon as the first
word was spoken and given what that question was I would have laughed if I hadn't been dragged into a room with government agents what is your opinion on the color green I didn't know how to respond at first but eventually I said I guess it's an okay color I mean it's not my favorite but it's nice I remember feeling like I was back in elementary school with the entire class talking about what color was the best it was awkward and due to the situation quite jarring below I've got the rest of the questions and my
responses that I remember do you have any aspirations besides working at Nasa I've got a bucket list skydiving seeing the world that kind of thing and do you believe you will come to complete that bucket list well yeah got to retire at some point right good do you wish upon falling stars what no that's ridiculous if you did is there anything you'd wish for well I don't know biological immortality do you hang posters in your room not since I was a kid no what is one thing you consider objectively good kittens I said it in
Gest of course sometimes I try and break tension with a little comedy and it was out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying even so I at least expected a slight smile before I was scolded but the only thing the agent did was straighten his tie and repeat the question with a somehow even more serious look fine fine making sure those around you live their best lives I suppose you suppose no I figure of no that doesn't apply listen this is awkward I stick by what I said final answer can we move
on it was at this point I realized that when the agent had straightened his tie it had changed from a formal black to a dark green either the agent had just pulled a magic trick with the smoothness of someone from Vegas or I just hadn't realized it had been green the entire time the brain has a tendency to find patterns and lie to you so in that moment I brushed it off but the other two agents in the room still had black ties on yes we can tell me what is sound well Airwaves specifically vibrations
right now when you speak you are sending air particles crashing into each other sending them to me and my ears are picking it up do you mind if we take your temperature number I had mine taken at the door but I guess you can hear too it was true the agents had been taking everyone's temperature at the door these days I didn't know why they'd need to do it a second time but I wasn't about to argue one of them walked over and used an unbranded digital temperature gun after they had finished the agent nodded
to the others and I was escorted back to my floor and told to have a pleasant day I was bombarded with questions from my colleagues as was everyone else who got interviewed but I didn't really have much of anything new to say after that day I started doing a bit of investigating I had only been interviewed for a few minutes so I started asking for specifics from those who had been taken for far longer as far as the questions themselves go I had no luck they were still ridiculous things like have you tasted dog water
or have you ever gone hiking but there were some consistencies too when I brought up the green tie they said they saw the same but brushed it off for the same reasons I did the temperature check it happens at the end of every interview to everyone regardless of time but for those who got interviewed for over an hour there was another through line all of them were asked what the International Space Station was to them at this point I knew for absolute certain that something was being kept from us regarding the ISS no more rumors
no more speculation no more conspiracy theories the agents were interested in our space station 2 I had to get to the bottom of this so I contacted the guys in charge of doing the math for wait on the next Supply run to the ISS did I mention they're still sending things up there because they are apparently they were in a tough spot usually you know exactly what is going into space you have to for literally hundreds of safety reasons but the agents had been interfering since they appeared they'd say that something new had been added
to the list tell them the wait and then informed them that they needed to update their math to include the mystery item it was so against code that they tried to take it up to management several times but every time management shot them down I was told that one guy was considering quitting in protest due to how unsafe just randomly adding unknown things to a spacecraft was but the next day someone else showed up up in his position the kid was friendly excited and under the impression the position had been left vacant for a while
he had no idea he just replaced someone I tried to get into contact with the person who was fired but no dice the phone number must have been bad and I didn't know him well enough to get in contact any other way decided given the situation it was a bad idea for me to do so anyways those agents kept giving me stares when I started asking asking for his number but I'd been working there for 30 years and I had my contacts decided to hit up some of the old ISS crew members I was buddy
buddy with a few of them even taking them out for drinks on occasion I had been joking with a few of them not even a few months ago and while our current predicament probably had nothing to do with them I had to be certain I went through every single number but they all went to voicemail I know people sometimes change their numbers but all of them I branched out beyond the US wasn't too close to these guys but I'd still shared a beer with a few of them still nothing not a peep nothing but the
robotic voice telling me to leave a message after the tone at this point I got anxious not a single ISS astronaut was answering the phone I knew where a few of them lived and started compiling the addresses but while searching them up I came across their Pages they all have Google profiles of course but now all of them had death dates I sat there shocked as I saw my co-workers friends and Associates all described as having died while in the woods in gas explosions car accidents even a serial killer had gotten one of them as
of now rumors about weapons being smuggled onto the ISS are circulating no one is allowed to go to the upper floors anymore and people are starting to get replaced faster and faster one of my colleagues who's been doing some investigating on his own said he looked at the ISS through his telescope and swears to God that it was spinning out of control and half covered in something black I took a look myself but I couldn't find the station at all it's definitely not on its projected orbital path no one outside the agency is talking about
this for all the public knows NASA plans to decommission the ISS in 2031 and land its remains at Point Nemo which I will add is the furthest point point from Human civilization on the planet they even denied letting museums keep pieces of it opting to just get rid of the whole thing I'm too afraid to go to the Press about it I don't want to be replaced because I'm pretty sure everyone who's replaced isn't just going back home unemployed and those agents they've asserted even more control I pretty much report directly to them now and
they're the only ones allowed upstairs no one has seen anyone from upper management in weeks to make matters worse I haven't even seen the agents Express a hint of remorse or any emotion really it's just the stone cold stair 24/7 I'm starting to think they're robots I'm also starting to think I'm going crazy like I've been cooped up in a cage for too long with eyes on me at every waking moment does anyone have any idea what's going on I need to get out of this before I end up in a cell or worse I
think they know I'm looking into it and I don't know what I'm going to do my friends are gone along with my colleagues I just feel helpless [Music]
