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Source Melchizedek.0294
Approach β Hyi
Ascension 00h 25m 45.07036s
Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
Distance 24.33ly
Equinox J2000.0 SOL
Year 3781, QEC adjusted

[Autotranslator enabled...]

Jerome Somerset Pasani, Warrant Master
:::
Doctor Moussa Idjani led a full crew evaluation on the pods over
the last twelve hours. His recommendation for remaining awake
stands, unfortunately. The four of wardroom officers, myself,
Doctor Moussa Idjani, Prezzi Adeyemi, and Eva Hämäläinen, along
with Specialist First-class Stephanie Janssen, represent conscious
crew on the Melchizedek for next four months. We have a series of
course corrections to execute, some minor issues in hydroponics,
and what Adeyemi describes as "ick" growing over a quarter of the
cryo-pods. It is most likely unattended fungal growth, but we'll
investigate further.

Our ship is a Vos 144A from Visscher, sporting a pair of the
more-than-capable Peterse 773 Overtreffen Motoren. When launched,
the Melchy was a damn-fine ship, if I say so myself. She's held up
admirably while we slept.

We were commissioned in EY 2480, and set out on mission just three
years later. RS001 timestamps on my last transmission suggest that
just over 1300 years, relative, have transpired since we set out.

1300 years.

It's what we signed on for, of course. We all had the training and
the psy-evals to prep, but there's still that shock when it hits
you. There's no undo, no reset. Everyone we knew is long gone.
Hell, the Earth itself is long gone, at least in the way we knew
it. Adeyemi says she has a cousin who set out on a long-haul
colony support freighter at about the same time as us and their
star is only a few light-years off schedule from ours. She doesn't
remember which direction, but it's possible she's got people out
there somewhere. The math always gets away from me, but it's
possible some of my own ancestors' family could be thawing out
from craft launched before I was born. Oh, and don't even get me
started on reality-drive mechanics. Who knows how many blended
universes we've stirred up with that monstrosity. I can only hope
humanity learned their lesson and banned it while I was dreaming.

To the Speaker Elect of Cheer Systems, Susan, aboard the Starbloom
Communal Distributive Projection goes our many thanks. If the
disconnection of time weren't jarring enough, the silence that
awaits one's first lonely transmission is infinitely more terrible
for all its brevity. Your words, blessings, and spells are a salve
bringing healing. I queried Janssen about your ship designation
but nothing in our databases aligned. Based on relative time-debt
adjustments, it seems you may have set out long before us. We hope
your time has been peaceful.

I'll be setting a daily ordo and assigning work duties following
this transmission. Getting our hands busy will ground the
ineffable incongruity from reality that's rattled everyone. Our
navigation issues are of primary concern, so Hämäläinen and
Janssen will bear the brunt of that work. Doctor Idjani is the
closest crew member we have awake to a botanist, so he'll be
investigating our sensor abnormalities in food and air
circulation. No alarms were tripped, so we're hoping it's just
a mutation in one of the algae tanks or something equally trivial.
The cry-pod growth will fall to me, with possible assistance from
Adeyemi, though she has very little background to be of use.
Unless the fungus starts talking, I don't see how Adeyemi will
have much of anything to translate or negotiate. She's probably in
for a boring four months.

It's time to get moving. Our shifts will be light until muscle
regeneration reaches 60% and the doc clears us for full rotations
again. That's probably for the best. We'll take things slow.
.
