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James Tomasino
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From: Malkonkordo Research Vessel
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Destination: SOL
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Position: 84X.07, -71E.6E, -3624.#8
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Position: 84X.07, -71E.6E, -3624.E8
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Departure: 7941.037.17
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Shipdate: 0000272E
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Mode: Search
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@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
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----
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From: Malkonkordo Research Vessel
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Destination: SOL
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Position: 884.18, -15X0.66, -5368.99
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Departure: 7941.037.17
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Shipdate: 00002735
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Mode: Search
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----
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# Status Update
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* Entered orbit of Enketu Tri
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* Completed Kvieta de Ses
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* Conducting research on Enketu Tri
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* Awaiting arrival of other vessels
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# Status Report
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Captain's Log SD2735
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First, a note on our extended absense and a status update.
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After the last broadcast from Malkonkordo, the cultural division brought to my
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attention that based on their calculations Dekaoso Prime was observing Kvieta de
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Ses, and so we were observing this blessed of traditions.
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Now that the meditations and fasting inside the sensory deprivation chambers
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have come to an end, the Malkonkordo is back online and we were delighted to
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find the auto-pilot systems safely brought Malkonkordo within orbit of Enketu
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Tri.
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We will remain in orbit until SD2740, until then we be using our instruments to
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take data, samples, and study the planet while we await the arrival of any
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vessels that wish to assist us in bringing our communication systems back
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online.
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With the formalities out of the way I bring my attention to you, Corpal Sam
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Arnold of the Space Cruiser Excelsior.
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Unless if I am mistaken, the 500 people in your craft are meant to more or less
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be breeding stock for your species to populate and roam across another planet.
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To destroy them would not be in your own or your people's best interests unless
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if your species has the means to asexually reproduce.
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This differs from our understanding of the situation with Hoffnung, which
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appeared to be some form of idealistic take over where death was used as a tool
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to remove the potential non-believers that would stand in their way.
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In this way, the potential non-believers were weak for trusting themselves with
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potential "extremists" (as you put it) without any safety guards on their part.
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To live a life so care-free and trusting of those who motives that are unknown,
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it should be no surprise to find their life was taken by an opportunist who saw
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their vulnerabilities.
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Should you, Corpal Sam Arnold, continue to live this way you risk meeting the
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same fate.
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Furthermore, your routine arrogance continues to amuse us.
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We agree with your assertion that trying to catch a moving target (let alone one
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moving near or beyond the speed of light) would not yield ideal results, but you
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also have to slow down and/or stop eventually.
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You said it yourself, the Space Cruiser Excelsior is in search of another
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inhabitable planet and it will be that planet that we will find you.
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Space may be vast, but so is the outreach of the Dekaosans as it continues to
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grow through the efforts of our research and colonizing vessels.
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I will be fair, though, that since we are communicating over quantum
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entanglement communication you may be able to escape the grasps of the Dekaosans
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through whatever gap in time is between us.
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However, should time keep you and your crew apart from the gift of Diino we are
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willing to settle.
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Should you leave behind any offspring on this new planet you plan to inhabit
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with the 500 people you have spared eliminating now, we will be sure to finish
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the job the removing their weakness from the universe to serve the mission
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bestowed to us by Sinjorino.
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In fact, the roles of the time gap could be reversed and my people have already
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found and purged you or your decendant's weakness from the universe.
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Should we regain communications with Dekaoso Prime, I'll have someone check our
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records so I can let you know if we already have.
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It would be the first time we had the ability to inform the weak of their
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certified demise ahead of time, and I am very curious to see if knowing about
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now would give you the ability to try and escape your fate.
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A hunt through time certainly sounds like a task our soldiers would be eager to
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take up, it should help break up the monotany that interstellar genocide of
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extraterrestrials tends to bring them.
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Praise be to the Sinjorino and Alportas Majeston.
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~ Captain Kiu Serĉas
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----
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K38GMpaXqpuou9QZSxCUtqtzvdx7Hp5lvLlp1aaPBrQ=
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@ -6,5 +6,68 @@ SYS GOOD
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Entry 2 -- Sister Hājar
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Sido,
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May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. Our day
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comes at hand. Hawwa leads us well; may Allah be pleased with her.
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My love to you.
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We came aboard the Oleander only two cycles past and already
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I know my path is righteous. My sisters radiate joy at our
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mission. I wake each day and shout, "Ma Sha' Allah!" Our bread
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tastes of honey, Baba. Please do not worry for me.
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I've know this path was from Allah from the beginning, from the
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days in the krem refinery on Misha. We had nothing but each other
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and still they came to take from us, to beat us, to kill us. I saw
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my path in the face of that boy, Uzāir, at the well. Do you
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remember him, Sido? Do you remember that day?
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It was hot. They were all hot, but I remember the heat
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that day as special. It was late morning, just before first rest.
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I was with the women at the well-queue, ready to gather for
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washing. You had a cycle nearby you were tinkering with. I think
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it was the baker's--or Samir, that boy that was always following
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you. You had hoisted it up on a lifter and it was spinning in the
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sun, dust blowing all around. Anyway--
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Uzāir was a runner, just a bit older than me. His brothers had all
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gone to ship and he was next, it was known. You remember him now?
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Always scowling at things to make him seem tough, but he was just
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a llenora in the den, mewling and soft. The women would laugh at
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his act and shoo him away. I can still hear Sara's taunts in my
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mind and laugh. You remember how funny she was.
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We were in the queue when Uzāir walked up, straight to the well.
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Sara was already opening her mouth to unleash her special
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blessings when she was struck dumb. Not just her. The whole square
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went quiet. I looked to see--I remember that cycle drifting in
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circles and you looking to the well with, Yes!, it was Samir, his
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smock covered in oil and krem. I saw you both squinting and then
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flinch before I heard the sounds.
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They had Uzāir on the ground already by the time I looked. He had
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gone to stop them from taking the women, from taking me and Sara
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and the others. Brave little coward, Uzāir. He put on his scowl
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and stood up to them before we even noticed the danger. And he did
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it, Sido! That idiot boy lying there on the ground as they beat
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him, tore at him, ripped him apart. His blood leeching into our
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dirt. His skull cracked, his mind and soul and--to Allah we belong
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and to Him is our return.
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He saved us that day through his own suffering and sacrifice.
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Allah granted me days more on these worlds, with you and with my
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sisters. Those days were with purpose, Sido. We go to that purpose
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now. My suffering will be short compared to that boy's. My
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sacrifice small. It is the sacrifice of a woman without worth to
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our people but spirit and love. I give them back to you, to all of
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you. My life will not buy days for a few women at a well, but for
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all of you on our worlds, from Misha to Doon. They will feel what
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it is like to be torn apart. Let their blood feed the soil.
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Do not worry for me, Sido. Do not mourn. We are at peace.
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Aathama allahu ajrakom,
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Amat al-Masih
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-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
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@ -0,0 +1,221 @@
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From: Chris Maldonado <cmaldonado@voortrekker.com>
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To: Sameen Lee <sameen.lee@recoveryinstitute.org>
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Delivered-To: Sameen Lee <sameen.lee@recoveryinstitute.org>
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Received: from relay7.qec1.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov
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by mta1.recoveryinstitute.org
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||||
with ESMTPS id x124so177123a067 for <sam@recoveryinstitute.org>
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||||
Received: from relay3.qec2.ganymede.earthsys.gov
|
||||
by relay7.qec1.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov
|
||||
Received: from qec8.helio.earthsys.gov
|
||||
by relay3.qec2.ganymede.earthsys.gov
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||||
Received: from qec.sv14417
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||||
by qec8.helio.earthsys.gov
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Date-Local: 23 Mar 2419 14:21:02 +0000
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Date: 06 Sep 2421 12:57:02 +0000
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Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf8"
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Subject: Not alone!
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You always did say I didn't have much common sense, Sam. You'd be
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laughing yourself silly at me right now! You will be. Here, let me
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tell you about it.
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After I sent that last message, I wasn't sure what to do or where
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to go. I wanted to find out whether or not anyone else had made it,
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but I was scared to go out of Main Control - scared to let anyone
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else see me, really. I didn't know what they'd think, if they'd be
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afraid of me. If anyone was left to be afraid of anything.
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Also, I fell out of the chair trying to get up. So even if I did go
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out, it'd be hard to get anywhere - I didn't remember any of the
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lifts working, and there were a lot of ladders between me and
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anywhere I'd want to go, and if I couldn't navigate a mostly flat
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deck, what was I going to do to myself if I tried a ladder? Fall
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and break my head open, I figured. So I stayed where I was. For a
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little while, I told myself. Just until I was able to get around
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better.
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One thing about the length of Ross's solar day, it really messes
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with your sense of time. You live on Earth all your life, and you
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get used to a certain cadence of sunrises and sunsets. Extend it by
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a factor of almost three, and after a while your circadian rhythm
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just throws up its hands and goes off to sulk in a corner of your
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head. Sure, we trained for it aboard ship, prior to landing, but
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it's amazing how much that didn't actually help, you know? Somehow
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you can just feel that ship's lighting isn't real, isn't quite the
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same, and it doesn't get right down into you the same way.
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Besides, I had enough else on my mind. A little while after I sent
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you that last message, I found myself suddenly ravenous! No
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surprise, I think, considering how long I'd been out and hadn't had
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anything, and how extensively active my metabolism must've been
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throughout, to make the changes I found when I woke up. Lucky for
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me, nobody'd found time to raid the ration lockers in Main
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Control. So I did, and very thoroughly - for the first third of a
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sol after I talked to you last, eating and sleeping was about all I
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could think about doing.
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That, and trying to get up on - well, call them my 'feet' for the
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sake of talking about them, although they're not really that. I
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don't really think I can explain how strange it was at first. Maybe
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it helps to say that - assuming you're still basically the same
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shape you were when I left - the closest analogue your body offers
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to my new limbs of locomotion is your tongue. But it's not a very
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close analogue! They're not squishy like a tongue, or damp. Kind of
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scaly, but that makes sense, considering; ordinary skin doesn't
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really have the stretch, and my best guess is that the integument
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that's replaced it is much more heavily collagenous. I'll have to
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biopsy myself at some point and see if I'm right about that.
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Anyway, it took me most of a sol, and a lot of false starts, to get
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to a point where I could 'walk' mostly all the way across Main
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Control without falling over or holding on to something the whole
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way. 'Walk' isn't really the word, though. I used one of the comm
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cameras to get a look at my gait from the outside, and it's a lot
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more - undulatory - than it used to be. Have you seen those old
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educational videos, from back when the oceans were still mostly
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alive, where they'd show an octopus walking across the seafloor on
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its tentacles? Honestly, it's every bit as weird as it sounds. But
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I'm getting used to it pretty fast, now that I'm actually able to
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use them in a way that isn't totally embarrassing, and I'm starting
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to think they might be able to do a lot more than legs and feet
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ever could. That'll be a while yet, though.
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Anyway, that's what I was doing - practicing 'walking', and trying
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to get a better sense of how to not fall over - when I found out
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I'm not the only one who survived after all. With how much
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concentration it still takes to stay up on my new legs, I don't
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know why I didn't fall over when I heard the hatch iris open! If
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I'd had to turn to look, I'm sure I would have. But it wasn't a
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main hatch, just the starboard-forward emergency access, and it was
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right in front of me, and I just sort of froze and waited to see
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who'd come through.
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Turned out, it was Jen from engineering. You know, with the red
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hair? I'm sure I talked about her before - we spent some time
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together on the trip. I wish you could've seen her face! A perfect
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picture of shocked surprise. And I don't guess I blame her,
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really - I've seen myself, remember, with the comm camera, and I
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have to admit, I'm something of a sight these days. Especially
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since the only thing I had to wear was that silly gown, remember,
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that I woke up in, and I hadn't bothered to put it back on after it
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fell off. Why bother, really? Well, I might've been less of a
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surprise to Jen if I had, anyway!
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And I was pretty shocked, too. I hadn't known anyone was still
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alive at all! Certainly anyone I'd been close to. But mainly I
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just...I just wanted to hide. I mean, I'm a little embarrassed
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about it now, but at the time it made sense. You kind of think
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about how a moment like that might go, you know? How you'll make
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your long and painstaking way down the ladders from Main Control to
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one of the decks where you can get access outside, or at least
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expect to find people, and when you get there, you'll see someone,
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or they'll see you, and there'll be that moment of recognition
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where they realize you're still alive, and...oh, I don't know. But
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whatever it is, it isn't being suddenly surprised by a former lover
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while you're stumbling around Main Control, mother naked, on four
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thick tentacles instead of the two standard-issue human legs you
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were born with. Of course I was struck all in a heap!
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And of course so was Jen, poor thing. She stared me in the face for
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what felt like half a minute, her eyes and mouth as round with
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shock as mine must've been. She looked like she was about to say
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something, but before she did, she looked down and saw the rest of
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me - all the rest of me, as I am now - and...
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You never got a chance to meet Jen before we left, I don't think. A
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shame - you'd have liked her a lot. Will like her a lot, if you
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join the third expedition and come out here with us. She's one in a
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million - I mean, what would you expect, in a situation like that?
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A scream, right? Or a gasp of horrified shock, panicky flight,
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something like that, right? Not Jen. She took her time about
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looking me up and down, and then looked me in the eye again. She
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looked she was about to say something, but before she did, she
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started giggling, and then laughing.
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I could feel my cheeks get hot, and I put my hands on my hips and
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got ready to say something sharp, but before I could think of it,
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she was hanging on to the access ladder with one hand, leaning on
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the deck with the other, and just cackling helplessly - and before
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I knew it, I was laughing too, hard enough that I barely remembered
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how to sit down before I fell over again.
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And we just stayed like that for a minute, cracking each other up
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in the weirdest way, and it just felt right somehow. Like I'd been
|
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waiting for that moment, that laugh, ever since I came to from the
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coma. I don't know, does that make sense? I'm not sure it does, but
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right then it made more sense than anything that'd happened since
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we crashed.
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And then she asked me what a girl like me was doing in a nice place
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like this. That's Jen - jokes five hundred years stale, but she
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makes up for it other ways. And it's apropos, anyway. But the
|
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important part is, it turns out no one actually died! The people we
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thought were dead were in deep coma like me, I guess so far down
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their pulse and respiration weren't perceptible - either that, or
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those of us still up were so far out of it, between fever and
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exhaustion, that we couldn't tell the difference. I wouldn't care
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to guess either way, honestly. From what Jen tells me, we still
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have about sixty in coma - everyone else is at least awake, if not
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yet up and doing.
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And even more - I'm not the only one who changed! There's about two
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dozen more like me, Jen says. Well, more or less like me, anyway -
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no one's really made a detailed study of us yet, but apparently the
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tentacles are reliably always there, if not all the other
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changes. And now I have another reason to get better on my new
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feet - once I'm out of here and back with everyone, I can start
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getting some idea of how we've changed and what the similarities
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are, and why, and - oh, there's just such a lot to learn here!
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|
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I will say, I'd have thought people who didn't change would have a
|
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hard time getting used to those of us who have, but Jen says no,
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that people do naturally think it's a little weird, or unusual, or
|
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at least unexpected, but nobody seems to have a problem,
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particularly. Jen says there were a couple of people who might
|
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have, but Director Soloviev - I hadn't known he'd made it through
|
||||
the crash, but apprently so - he's made it clear that, as far as he
|
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and the remaining board are concerned, we're still the same people,
|
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and if we happen to be physically different now from how we were
|
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before, he doesn't see why that should make a difference in how
|
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anyone sees us or treats us, including ourselves. That we have
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||||
enough problems just picking up the pieces of our expedition, and
|
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we don't need to give each other more on top of that. I wouldn't
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have expected anything of the sort from him, but I guess almost
|
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dying twice over must have an effect on everybody, and maybe this
|
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is the effect it's had on him.
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|
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I asked Jen if she'd help me out one of the main hatches, but she
|
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says none of the lifts are working, and neither of us likes the
|
||||
idea of trying to get me down all the ladders between here and
|
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outside, not before I get myself figured out enough to manage
|
||||
better. For that matter, neither of us can figure out how anyone
|
||||
got me up those ladders in the first place!
|
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|
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But she did stay with me a while, once she'd got done the work
|
||||
that'd brought her here, and help me get a little more used to the
|
||||
changes. Got under my arm and had me lean on her while she walked
|
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me around the deck, but that didn't last long - too much of a
|
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workout, I started getting something like runner's cramps. Only
|
||||
worse, and twice as many! But Jen's really nice - I said you'd like
|
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her - and she helped me down, then had me stretch out my 'legs' so
|
||||
she could work some of the knots out. She's got strong hands,
|
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too. It was really nice. And she's coming back tomorrow - next
|
||||
Earth day, not next sol - to see me again, and help me get more
|
||||
familiar with myself. Pretty soon I'll be back with everyone and
|
||||
ready to help make a proper home out of what we've got left from
|
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the crash.
|
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|
||||
Look, Sam, about what I said before. Not that I didn't mean every
|
||||
word, but...I'm sorry if I opened an old wound, or stirred up
|
||||
something you'd rather have let lie. Please understand, I was alone
|
||||
and afraid and not really feeling quite right, and I didn't know
|
||||
quite what to say, so...I guess I said what I was feeling, and I
|
||||
haven't stopped feeling that way but I hope you're not mad with me
|
||||
for saying it. I do miss you, and I never did stop loving you, and
|
||||
I do hope you'll join the third expedition, or find a quicker way,
|
||||
and come find me here. Come join us here. I think you'd like it
|
||||
here.
|
||||
|
||||
But if you don't want to hear any more from me, about that or about
|
||||
anything, that's okay too. I'll stop if you say so. But,
|
||||
regardless, I'd like to hear from you. Please?
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
|
|||
0Voortrekker - Not alone! /Voortrekker/9-not-alone.txt
|
||||
0Hoffnung - I am authorized to negotiate /Hoffnung/013.txt
|
||||
0Malkonkordo - Only A Matter Of Time /Malkonkordo/0006.txt
|
||||
0Oleander - Sister Hājar /Oleander/002-sister-hajar.txt
|
||||
0Excelsior - Clarification - Beta Epsilon 7 Epsilon /Excelsior/004.txt
|
||||
0Oleander - Annunciation /Oleander/001.txt
|
||||
0Razarac - Hello World /Razarac/001-hello-world.txt
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
427
gopher/rss.xml
427
gopher/rss.xml
|
|
@ -2,6 +2,429 @@
|
|||
<title>Cosmic Voyage</title>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage</link>
|
||||
<description>Messages from the human stellar diaspora</description>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Voortrekker - Not alone!</title>
|
||||
<author>alexis@cosmic.voyage (alexis)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Voortrekker/9-not-alone.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Voortrekker/9-not-alone.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2018 22:56:57 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
From: Chris Maldonado <cmaldonado@voortrekker.com>
|
||||
To: Sameen Lee <sameen.lee@recoveryinstitute.org>
|
||||
Delivered-To: Sameen Lee <sameen.lee@recoveryinstitute.org>
|
||||
Received: from relay7.qec1.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov
|
||||
by mta1.recoveryinstitute.org
|
||||
with ESMTPS id x124so177123a067 for <sam@recoveryinstitute.org>
|
||||
Received: from relay3.qec2.ganymede.earthsys.gov
|
||||
by relay7.qec1.rs001.l4.earthsys.gov
|
||||
Received: from qec8.helio.earthsys.gov
|
||||
by relay3.qec2.ganymede.earthsys.gov
|
||||
Received: from qec.sv14417
|
||||
by qec8.helio.earthsys.gov
|
||||
Date-Local: 23 Mar 2419 14:21:02 +0000
|
||||
Date: 06 Sep 2421 12:57:02 +0000
|
||||
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf8"
|
||||
Subject: Not alone!
|
||||
|
||||
You always did say I didn't have much common sense, Sam. You'd be
|
||||
laughing yourself silly at me right now! You will be. Here, let me
|
||||
tell you about it.
|
||||
|
||||
After I sent that last message, I wasn't sure what to do or where
|
||||
to go. I wanted to find out whether or not anyone else had made it,
|
||||
but I was scared to go out of Main Control - scared to let anyone
|
||||
else see me, really. I didn't know what they'd think, if they'd be
|
||||
afraid of me. If anyone was left to be afraid of anything.
|
||||
|
||||
Also, I fell out of the chair trying to get up. So even if I did go
|
||||
out, it'd be hard to get anywhere - I didn't remember any of the
|
||||
lifts working, and there were a lot of ladders between me and
|
||||
anywhere I'd want to go, and if I couldn't navigate a mostly flat
|
||||
deck, what was I going to do to myself if I tried a ladder? Fall
|
||||
and break my head open, I figured. So I stayed where I was. For a
|
||||
little while, I told myself. Just until I was able to get around
|
||||
better.
|
||||
|
||||
One thing about the length of Ross's solar day, it really messes
|
||||
with your sense of time. You live on Earth all your life, and you
|
||||
get used to a certain cadence of sunrises and sunsets. Extend it by
|
||||
a factor of almost three, and after a while your circadian rhythm
|
||||
just throws up its hands and goes off to sulk in a corner of your
|
||||
head. Sure, we trained for it aboard ship, prior to landing, but
|
||||
it's amazing how much that didn't actually help, you know? Somehow
|
||||
you can just feel that ship's lighting isn't real, isn't quite the
|
||||
same, and it doesn't get right down into you the same way.
|
||||
|
||||
Besides, I had enough else on my mind. A little while after I sent
|
||||
you that last message, I found myself suddenly ravenous! No
|
||||
surprise, I think, considering how long I'd been out and hadn't had
|
||||
anything, and how extensively active my metabolism must've been
|
||||
throughout, to make the changes I found when I woke up. Lucky for
|
||||
me, nobody'd found time to raid the ration lockers in Main
|
||||
Control. So I did, and very thoroughly - for the first third of a
|
||||
sol after I talked to you last, eating and sleeping was about all I
|
||||
could think about doing.
|
||||
|
||||
That, and trying to get up on - well, call them my 'feet' for the
|
||||
sake of talking about them, although they're not really that. I
|
||||
don't really think I can explain how strange it was at first. Maybe
|
||||
it helps to say that - assuming you're still basically the same
|
||||
shape you were when I left - the closest analogue your body offers
|
||||
to my new limbs of locomotion is your tongue. But it's not a very
|
||||
close analogue! They're not squishy like a tongue, or damp. Kind of
|
||||
scaly, but that makes sense, considering; ordinary skin doesn't
|
||||
really have the stretch, and my best guess is that the integument
|
||||
that's replaced it is much more heavily collagenous. I'll have to
|
||||
biopsy myself at some point and see if I'm right about that.
|
||||
|
||||
Anyway, it took me most of a sol, and a lot of false starts, to get
|
||||
to a point where I could 'walk' mostly all the way across Main
|
||||
Control without falling over or holding on to something the whole
|
||||
way. 'Walk' isn't really the word, though. I used one of the comm
|
||||
cameras to get a look at my gait from the outside, and it's a lot
|
||||
more - undulatory - than it used to be. Have you seen those old
|
||||
educational videos, from back when the oceans were still mostly
|
||||
alive, where they'd show an octopus walking across the seafloor on
|
||||
its tentacles? Honestly, it's every bit as weird as it sounds. But
|
||||
I'm getting used to it pretty fast, now that I'm actually able to
|
||||
use them in a way that isn't totally embarrassing, and I'm starting
|
||||
to think they might be able to do a lot more than legs and feet
|
||||
ever could. That'll be a while yet, though.
|
||||
|
||||
Anyway, that's what I was doing - practicing 'walking', and trying
|
||||
to get a better sense of how to not fall over - when I found out
|
||||
I'm not the only one who survived after all. With how much
|
||||
concentration it still takes to stay up on my new legs, I don't
|
||||
know why I didn't fall over when I heard the hatch iris open! If
|
||||
I'd had to turn to look, I'm sure I would have. But it wasn't a
|
||||
main hatch, just the starboard-forward emergency access, and it was
|
||||
right in front of me, and I just sort of froze and waited to see
|
||||
who'd come through.
|
||||
|
||||
Turned out, it was Jen from engineering. You know, with the red
|
||||
hair? I'm sure I talked about her before - we spent some time
|
||||
together on the trip. I wish you could've seen her face! A perfect
|
||||
picture of shocked surprise. And I don't guess I blame her,
|
||||
really - I've seen myself, remember, with the comm camera, and I
|
||||
have to admit, I'm something of a sight these days. Especially
|
||||
since the only thing I had to wear was that silly gown, remember,
|
||||
that I woke up in, and I hadn't bothered to put it back on after it
|
||||
fell off. Why bother, really? Well, I might've been less of a
|
||||
surprise to Jen if I had, anyway!
|
||||
|
||||
And I was pretty shocked, too. I hadn't known anyone was still
|
||||
alive at all! Certainly anyone I'd been close to. But mainly I
|
||||
just...I just wanted to hide. I mean, I'm a little embarrassed
|
||||
about it now, but at the time it made sense. You kind of think
|
||||
about how a moment like that might go, you know? How you'll make
|
||||
your long and painstaking way down the ladders from Main Control to
|
||||
one of the decks where you can get access outside, or at least
|
||||
expect to find people, and when you get there, you'll see someone,
|
||||
or they'll see you, and there'll be that moment of recognition
|
||||
where they realize you're still alive, and...oh, I don't know. But
|
||||
whatever it is, it isn't being suddenly surprised by a former lover
|
||||
while you're stumbling around Main Control, mother naked, on four
|
||||
thick tentacles instead of the two standard-issue human legs you
|
||||
were born with. Of course I was struck all in a heap!
|
||||
|
||||
And of course so was Jen, poor thing. She stared me in the face for
|
||||
what felt like half a minute, her eyes and mouth as round with
|
||||
shock as mine must've been. She looked like she was about to say
|
||||
something, but before she did, she looked down and saw the rest of
|
||||
me - all the rest of me, as I am now - and...
|
||||
|
||||
You never got a chance to meet Jen before we left, I don't think. A
|
||||
shame - you'd have liked her a lot. Will like her a lot, if you
|
||||
join the third expedition and come out here with us. She's one in a
|
||||
million - I mean, what would you expect, in a situation like that?
|
||||
A scream, right? Or a gasp of horrified shock, panicky flight,
|
||||
something like that, right? Not Jen. She took her time about
|
||||
looking me up and down, and then looked me in the eye again. She
|
||||
looked she was about to say something, but before she did, she
|
||||
started giggling, and then laughing.
|
||||
|
||||
I could feel my cheeks get hot, and I put my hands on my hips and
|
||||
got ready to say something sharp, but before I could think of it,
|
||||
she was hanging on to the access ladder with one hand, leaning on
|
||||
the deck with the other, and just cackling helplessly - and before
|
||||
I knew it, I was laughing too, hard enough that I barely remembered
|
||||
how to sit down before I fell over again.
|
||||
|
||||
And we just stayed like that for a minute, cracking each other up
|
||||
in the weirdest way, and it just felt right somehow. Like I'd been
|
||||
waiting for that moment, that laugh, ever since I came to from the
|
||||
coma. I don't know, does that make sense? I'm not sure it does, but
|
||||
right then it made more sense than anything that'd happened since
|
||||
we crashed.
|
||||
|
||||
And then she asked me what a girl like me was doing in a nice place
|
||||
like this. That's Jen - jokes five hundred years stale, but she
|
||||
makes up for it other ways. And it's apropos, anyway. But the
|
||||
important part is, it turns out no one actually died! The people we
|
||||
thought were dead were in deep coma like me, I guess so far down
|
||||
their pulse and respiration weren't perceptible - either that, or
|
||||
those of us still up were so far out of it, between fever and
|
||||
exhaustion, that we couldn't tell the difference. I wouldn't care
|
||||
to guess either way, honestly. From what Jen tells me, we still
|
||||
have about sixty in coma - everyone else is at least awake, if not
|
||||
yet up and doing.
|
||||
|
||||
And even more - I'm not the only one who changed! There's about two
|
||||
dozen more like me, Jen says. Well, more or less like me, anyway -
|
||||
no one's really made a detailed study of us yet, but apparently the
|
||||
tentacles are reliably always there, if not all the other
|
||||
changes. And now I have another reason to get better on my new
|
||||
feet - once I'm out of here and back with everyone, I can start
|
||||
getting some idea of how we've changed and what the similarities
|
||||
are, and why, and - oh, there's just such a lot to learn here!
|
||||
|
||||
I will say, I'd have thought people who didn't change would have a
|
||||
hard time getting used to those of us who have, but Jen says no,
|
||||
that people do naturally think it's a little weird, or unusual, or
|
||||
at least unexpected, but nobody seems to have a problem,
|
||||
particularly. Jen says there were a couple of people who might
|
||||
have, but Director Soloviev - I hadn't known he'd made it through
|
||||
the crash, but apprently so - he's made it clear that, as far as he
|
||||
and the remaining board are concerned, we're still the same people,
|
||||
and if we happen to be physically different now from how we were
|
||||
before, he doesn't see why that should make a difference in how
|
||||
anyone sees us or treats us, including ourselves. That we have
|
||||
enough problems just picking up the pieces of our expedition, and
|
||||
we don't need to give each other more on top of that. I wouldn't
|
||||
have expected anything of the sort from him, but I guess almost
|
||||
dying twice over must have an effect on everybody, and maybe this
|
||||
is the effect it's had on him.
|
||||
|
||||
I asked Jen if she'd help me out one of the main hatches, but she
|
||||
says none of the lifts are working, and neither of us likes the
|
||||
idea of trying to get me down all the ladders between here and
|
||||
outside, not before I get myself figured out enough to manage
|
||||
better. For that matter, neither of us can figure out how anyone
|
||||
got me up those ladders in the first place!
|
||||
|
||||
But she did stay with me a while, once she'd got done the work
|
||||
that'd brought her here, and help me get a little more used to the
|
||||
changes. Got under my arm and had me lean on her while she walked
|
||||
me around the deck, but that didn't last long - too much of a
|
||||
workout, I started getting something like runner's cramps. Only
|
||||
worse, and twice as many! But Jen's really nice - I said you'd like
|
||||
her - and she helped me down, then had me stretch out my 'legs' so
|
||||
she could work some of the knots out. She's got strong hands,
|
||||
too. It was really nice. And she's coming back tomorrow - next
|
||||
Earth day, not next sol - to see me again, and help me get more
|
||||
familiar with myself. Pretty soon I'll be back with everyone and
|
||||
ready to help make a proper home out of what we've got left from
|
||||
the crash.
|
||||
|
||||
Look, Sam, about what I said before. Not that I didn't mean every
|
||||
word, but...I'm sorry if I opened an old wound, or stirred up
|
||||
something you'd rather have let lie. Please understand, I was alone
|
||||
and afraid and not really feeling quite right, and I didn't know
|
||||
quite what to say, so...I guess I said what I was feeling, and I
|
||||
haven't stopped feeling that way but I hope you're not mad with me
|
||||
for saying it. I do miss you, and I never did stop loving you, and
|
||||
I do hope you'll join the third expedition, or find a quicker way,
|
||||
and come find me here. Come join us here. I think you'd like it
|
||||
here.
|
||||
|
||||
But if you don't want to hear any more from me, about that or about
|
||||
anything, that's okay too. I'll stop if you say so. But,
|
||||
regardless, I'd like to hear from you. Please?
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Hoffnung - I am authorized to negotiate</title>
|
||||
<author>kensanata@cosmic.voyage (kensanata)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Hoffnung/013.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Hoffnung/013.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Sat, 08 Dec 2018 12:56:43 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
-+-+-+- Open Negotiations -+-+-+- C52.143 -+-+-+- Orange -+-+-+-
|
||||
Feldweibel mbA Daniel Schmiedheiny to the rebels on our ship Hoffnung.
|
||||
I have been assigned to this case and I am authorized to negotiate the
|
||||
future of our secret agent Herbert Wullschlegel onboard our ship.
|
||||
First, we demand an assurance that he is alive and well. Second, we
|
||||
demand separate, signed and encrypted QEC access for our agents in com
|
||||
isolation. Let them both transmit a status message before we continue.
|
||||
-+-+-+ End of Transmission -+-+-+ Signed -+-+-+
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Malkonkordo - Only A Matter Of Time</title>
|
||||
<author>aewens@cosmic.voyage (aewens)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Malkonkordo/0006.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Malkonkordo/0006.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2018 20:56:16 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
----
|
||||
From: Malkonkordo Research Vessel
|
||||
Destination: SOL
|
||||
Position: 884.18, -15X0.66, -5368.99
|
||||
Departure: 7941.037.17
|
||||
Shipdate: 00002735
|
||||
Mode: Search
|
||||
----
|
||||
|
||||
# Status Update
|
||||
|
||||
* Entered orbit of Enketu Tri
|
||||
* Completed Kvieta de Ses
|
||||
* Conducting research on Enketu Tri
|
||||
* Awaiting arrival of other vessels
|
||||
|
||||
# Status Report
|
||||
|
||||
Captain's Log SD2735
|
||||
|
||||
First, a note on our extended absense and a status update.
|
||||
After the last broadcast from Malkonkordo, the cultural division brought to my
|
||||
attention that based on their calculations Dekaoso Prime was observing Kvieta de
|
||||
Ses, and so we were observing this blessed of traditions.
|
||||
Now that the meditations and fasting inside the sensory deprivation chambers
|
||||
have come to an end, the Malkonkordo is back online and we were delighted to
|
||||
find the auto-pilot systems safely brought Malkonkordo within orbit of Enketu
|
||||
Tri.
|
||||
We will remain in orbit until SD2740, until then we be using our instruments to
|
||||
take data, samples, and study the planet while we await the arrival of any
|
||||
vessels that wish to assist us in bringing our communication systems back
|
||||
online.
|
||||
|
||||
With the formalities out of the way I bring my attention to you, Corpal Sam
|
||||
Arnold of the Space Cruiser Excelsior.
|
||||
Unless if I am mistaken, the 500 people in your craft are meant to more or less
|
||||
be breeding stock for your species to populate and roam across another planet.
|
||||
To destroy them would not be in your own or your people's best interests unless
|
||||
if your species has the means to asexually reproduce.
|
||||
This differs from our understanding of the situation with Hoffnung, which
|
||||
appeared to be some form of idealistic take over where death was used as a tool
|
||||
to remove the potential non-believers that would stand in their way.
|
||||
In this way, the potential non-believers were weak for trusting themselves with
|
||||
potential "extremists" (as you put it) without any safety guards on their part.
|
||||
To live a life so care-free and trusting of those who motives that are unknown,
|
||||
it should be no surprise to find their life was taken by an opportunist who saw
|
||||
their vulnerabilities.
|
||||
Should you, Corpal Sam Arnold, continue to live this way you risk meeting the
|
||||
same fate.
|
||||
|
||||
Furthermore, your routine arrogance continues to amuse us.
|
||||
We agree with your assertion that trying to catch a moving target (let alone one
|
||||
moving near or beyond the speed of light) would not yield ideal results, but you
|
||||
also have to slow down and/or stop eventually.
|
||||
You said it yourself, the Space Cruiser Excelsior is in search of another
|
||||
inhabitable planet and it will be that planet that we will find you.
|
||||
Space may be vast, but so is the outreach of the Dekaosans as it continues to
|
||||
grow through the efforts of our research and colonizing vessels.
|
||||
|
||||
I will be fair, though, that since we are communicating over quantum
|
||||
entanglement communication you may be able to escape the grasps of the Dekaosans
|
||||
through whatever gap in time is between us.
|
||||
However, should time keep you and your crew apart from the gift of Diino we are
|
||||
willing to settle.
|
||||
Should you leave behind any offspring on this new planet you plan to inhabit
|
||||
with the 500 people you have spared eliminating now, we will be sure to finish
|
||||
the job the removing their weakness from the universe to serve the mission
|
||||
bestowed to us by Sinjorino.
|
||||
In fact, the roles of the time gap could be reversed and my people have already
|
||||
found and purged you or your decendant's weakness from the universe.
|
||||
Should we regain communications with Dekaoso Prime, I'll have someone check our
|
||||
records so I can let you know if we already have.
|
||||
It would be the first time we had the ability to inform the weak of their
|
||||
certified demise ahead of time, and I am very curious to see if knowing about
|
||||
now would give you the ability to try and escape your fate.
|
||||
A hunt through time certainly sounds like a task our soldiers would be eager to
|
||||
take up, it should help break up the monotany that interstellar genocide of
|
||||
extraterrestrials tends to bring them.
|
||||
|
||||
Praise be to the Sinjorino and Alportas Majeston.
|
||||
|
||||
~ Captain Kiu Serĉas
|
||||
|
||||
----
|
||||
K38GMpaXqpuou9QZSxCUtqtzvdx7Hp5lvLlp1aaPBrQ=
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Oleander - Sister Hājar</title>
|
||||
<author>tomasino@cosmic.voyage (tomasino)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Oleander/002-sister-hajar.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Oleander/002-sister-hajar.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2018 04:35:11 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
REC ON
|
||||
TRN ON
|
||||
ENC ON
|
||||
SYS GOOD
|
||||
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
|
||||
|
||||
Entry 2 -- Sister Hājar
|
||||
|
||||
Sido,
|
||||
|
||||
May the peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you. Our day
|
||||
comes at hand. Hawwa leads us well; may Allah be pleased with her.
|
||||
My love to you.
|
||||
|
||||
We came aboard the Oleander only two cycles past and already
|
||||
I know my path is righteous. My sisters radiate joy at our
|
||||
mission. I wake each day and shout, "Ma Sha' Allah!" Our bread
|
||||
tastes of honey, Baba. Please do not worry for me.
|
||||
|
||||
I've know this path was from Allah from the beginning, from the
|
||||
days in the krem refinery on Misha. We had nothing but each other
|
||||
and still they came to take from us, to beat us, to kill us. I saw
|
||||
my path in the face of that boy, Uzāir, at the well. Do you
|
||||
remember him, Sido? Do you remember that day?
|
||||
|
||||
It was hot. They were all hot, but I remember the heat
|
||||
that day as special. It was late morning, just before first rest.
|
||||
I was with the women at the well-queue, ready to gather for
|
||||
washing. You had a cycle nearby you were tinkering with. I think
|
||||
it was the baker's--or Samir, that boy that was always following
|
||||
you. You had hoisted it up on a lifter and it was spinning in the
|
||||
sun, dust blowing all around. Anyway--
|
||||
|
||||
Uzāir was a runner, just a bit older than me. His brothers had all
|
||||
gone to ship and he was next, it was known. You remember him now?
|
||||
Always scowling at things to make him seem tough, but he was just
|
||||
a llenora in the den, mewling and soft. The women would laugh at
|
||||
his act and shoo him away. I can still hear Sara's taunts in my
|
||||
mind and laugh. You remember how funny she was.
|
||||
|
||||
We were in the queue when Uzāir walked up, straight to the well.
|
||||
Sara was already opening her mouth to unleash her special
|
||||
blessings when she was struck dumb. Not just her. The whole square
|
||||
went quiet. I looked to see--I remember that cycle drifting in
|
||||
circles and you looking to the well with, Yes!, it was Samir, his
|
||||
smock covered in oil and krem. I saw you both squinting and then
|
||||
flinch before I heard the sounds.
|
||||
|
||||
They had Uzāir on the ground already by the time I looked. He had
|
||||
gone to stop them from taking the women, from taking me and Sara
|
||||
and the others. Brave little coward, Uzāir. He put on his scowl
|
||||
and stood up to them before we even noticed the danger. And he did
|
||||
it, Sido! That idiot boy lying there on the ground as they beat
|
||||
him, tore at him, ripped him apart. His blood leeching into our
|
||||
dirt. His skull cracked, his mind and soul and--to Allah we belong
|
||||
and to Him is our return.
|
||||
|
||||
He saved us that day through his own suffering and sacrifice.
|
||||
Allah granted me days more on these worlds, with you and with my
|
||||
sisters. Those days were with purpose, Sido. We go to that purpose
|
||||
now. My suffering will be short compared to that boy's. My
|
||||
sacrifice small. It is the sacrifice of a woman without worth to
|
||||
our people but spirit and love. I give them back to you, to all of
|
||||
you. My life will not buy days for a few women at a well, but for
|
||||
all of you on our worlds, from Misha to Doon. They will feel what
|
||||
it is like to be torn apart. Let their blood feed the soil.
|
||||
|
||||
Do not worry for me, Sido. Do not mourn. We are at peace.
|
||||
|
||||
Aathama allahu ajrakom,
|
||||
Amat al-Masih
|
||||
|
||||
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Excelsior - Clarification - Beta Epsilon 7 Epsilon</title>
|
||||
<author>khuxkm@cosmic.voyage (khuxkm)</author>
|
||||
|
|
@ -333,12 +756,12 @@ void howling, text silent.
|
|||
<author>aewens@cosmic.voyage (aewens)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Malkonkordo/0005.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Malkonkordo/0005.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Tue, 11 Dec 2018 17:39:24 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2018 17:52:07 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
----
|
||||
From: Malkonkordo Research Vessel
|
||||
Destination: SOL
|
||||
Position: 84X.07, -71E.6E, -3624.#8
|
||||
Position: 84X.07, -71E.6E, -3624.E8
|
||||
Departure: 7941.037.17
|
||||
Shipdate: 0000272E
|
||||
Mode: Search
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue