diff --git a/gopher/Dodecapolis/00002.txt b/gopher/Dodecapolis/00002.txt
index 45a8fdd..53604f2 100644
--- a/gopher/Dodecapolis/00002.txt
+++ b/gopher/Dodecapolis/00002.txt
@@ -1,40 +1,80 @@
Fleet Commander Log 00002
=========================
-=> dodecapolis.png SRU Dodecapolis Banner
+Fleet Commander Amanda Rivers
+SRU Dodecapolis
-Amanda Rivers
-SRU Dodecapolis, Commander
-Rising Dawn, Squad Leader
-USS Timberwolf, Captain
+---
-Preperations are nearly complete. We are scheduled to depart JOVE-1 next
-tenday.
+Preperations are complete.
-The final fleet manifest for SRU Dodecapolis:
+We are scheduled to depart JOVE-1 at the start of next tenday.
+
+Each individual starship has been outfitted with cryotech, and has had its
+navigation and propulsion modules upgraded with the parts needed to get to the
+Far Reaches.
+
+The new cryotech will enable the crew to be suspended for 4_096 jovannos. The
+vastly extended period of suspension, combined with the new FTL module, should
+put us just inside the Far Reaches by the time AI starts to download us.
+
+---
+
+The final fleet manifest of SRU Dodecapolis did indeed turn out much as I had
+initially planned on, save for one exception: Captain Avery of the USS Kraken,
+my first pick to lead the Twilight Dusk Squadron, turned out to be far
+outclassed during evaluations by Singh of the USS Jerakeen. A surprise to be
+sure.
+
+Singh is still early on his career, and displays much of the bravado and
+idealism of the inexperienced. Still, his composure and effectiveness during
+the Edsmith Protocol surpassed some captains with twice again his years of
+experience. Including, significantly, Avery, who became ineffective and
+inactive when faced with the simulated crisis.
+
+While Avery is by far the more experienced and more skilled of the two, Singh
+has proven himself the better leader. Singh and the Jerakeen will take command
+of Twilight Dusk, and will benefit from having Avery at his right hand.
+
+
+---
+
+Speaking of ones right hand, I have furthermore decided to place Gustav Wash of
+the Nicodemus at my right hand and shall expect him to manage most of the day
+to day operations of Rising Dawn Squadron while I focus my attention and
+resources on the needs of the fleet. I have the utmost confidence in Wash. He
+will likely lead his own fleet some day--ah, but I forget myself: none of us
+shall have another assignment after this one. The establishment of Dodecapolis
+is both our mission and our fate. There will be no coming back from this one.
+
+
+SRU Dodecapolis Fleet Manifest
+------------------------------
1. **Rising Dawn Squadron**
- - [Squad Lead] USS Timberwolf | Captain Amanda Rivers
- - USS Nicodemus | Captain Gustav Wash
- - USS Sköldpadda | Captain Ainslee Martin
+ - [!] USS Timberwolf | Captain Amanda Rivers
+ - USS Nicodemus | Captain Gustav Wash
+ - USS Sköldpadda | Captain Ainslee Martin
2. **Daylight Squadron**
- - [Squad Lead] USS Kuniklo | Captain Hazel Adams
- - USS Harpy | Captain Samantha Drake
- - USS Beagle | Captain Charles Teach
+ - [!] USS Kuniklo | Captain Hazel Adams
+ - USS Harpy | Captain Samantha Drake
+ - USS Beagle | Captain Charles Teach
3. **Twilight Dusk Squadron**
- - [Squad Lead] USS Jerakeen | Captain Ganesh Singh
- - USS Kraken | Captain Enzo Avery
- - USS Shardik | Captain Detroit London
+ - [!] USS Jerakeen | Captain Ganesh Singh
+ - USS Kraken | Captain Enzo Avery
+ - USS Shardik | Captain Detroit London
4. **Midnight Sun Squadron**
- - [Squad Lead] USS Flying Fox | Captain Katarina Russo
- - USS Aslan | Captain Loren Canon
- - USS Rocinante | Captain Cole Gruber
+ - [!] USS Flying Fox | Captain Katarina Russo
+ - USS Aslan | Captain Loren Canon
+ - USS Rocinante | Captain Cole Gruber
+
+[!] - Squadron Leader
EOF
diff --git a/gopher/Dodecapolis/00003.txt b/gopher/Dodecapolis/00003.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8bc8ecd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gopher/Dodecapolis/00003.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+USS Kraken, Captain's Log 00001
+===============================
+
+Captain Enzo Avery
+USS Kraken
+
+The dodecads received their final assignments today.
+
+A bit of a surprise if I'm being honest: the Kraken is to join Twilight Dusk
+under Ganesh Singh of the Jerakeen.
+
+I must say I don't care much for Fleet Commander Rivers's brand of leadership.
+Her loyalties are unpredictable. She shows no sense of allegiance, nor does she
+hold to our customs and traditions.
+
+For many of the same reasons, nor am I especially crazy about her right hand
+man, Wash.
+
+Nevertheless, I'm not above saying that Singh was most impressive during the
+evaluations, especially considering his relative inexperience.
+
+And so I readily accept my role and will ensure that Kraken and Shardik serve
+Jerakeen well, and that if SRU Dodecapolis fails because of Rivers's chaotic
+whims, it will not be because of Twilight Dusk.
+
+Furthermore, experience has shown me time and again that I need not necessarily
+be in the seat of power in order to exert my will. With me at his side, I'm
+sure that Singh will be an exemplary squad leader, and that Twilight Dusk will
+be the pride of Dodecapolis.
+
+EOF
diff --git a/gopher/Melchizedek/028.txt b/gopher/Melchizedek/028.txt
index bb275fe..ab71186 100644
--- a/gopher/Melchizedek/028.txt
+++ b/gopher/Melchizedek/028.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ Equinox J2000.0 SOL
Year 3782, QEC adjusted
[Autotranslator enabled...]
+[Voice recording initialize...ON]
+[Crew autodetection...ON]
+[Narrative mode...ON]
+[Autodisconnect after 5 minute silence...ON]
[Retroactive transmission of work-log enabled...]
Maureen Hendrix, Staff Sergeant
diff --git a/gopher/The DeLorian/0000.txt b/gopher/The DeLorian/0000.txt
index 3fbff6b..4f163d5 100644
--- a/gopher/The DeLorian/0000.txt
+++ b/gopher/The DeLorian/0000.txt
@@ -51,4 +51,61 @@ vanished.
Left only with my new, unusual gifts I decided to read through in full the notes
that were jotted upon the first and only inscribed page within the book. It
began explained the location of the craft I would using, where in the craft the
-smuggled contents are, the coordinates
+smuggled contents are, the coordinates of the rendezvous, who I would be meeting
+there, and how much I will be selling it all for. It went on to entail that I
+would be keeping the proceeds from the exchange and upon completion would be
+assigned my next task. While I found all of this to be quite generous, I was far
+more concerned with the everything else that followed from The Elder's notes.
+
+According to what was written here, that bizarre remote I was given is
+apparently a device that can manipulate the fabric of space and time in a very
+specific way. The device has a screen in the middle, a dial beneath it, and a
+button on either side. If I press the left button it will set a "checkpoint" of
+sorts that gets stored to the memory of the device and I can search through
+those checkpoints using the dial to cycle through them on the display as a
+counter that goes up and down (coorsponding to the checkpoints in order of
+creation). That is all fine, but what is baffling is the alleged function of the
+right button. That, when pressed, it will send the user of the device back to
+the exact position in time that the selected "checkpoint" was created. After
+reading that section over a few times to make sure I was understanding it
+correctly I decided I needed to prove that this device worked.
+
+I started with a few simple experiments. First, I checked the time and set a
+checkpoint followed by walking a few steps away and waiting. After a few minutes
+passed I set the dial to my checkpoint and pressed the button that should
+trigger the jump in space-time. Sure enough, I was standing in the same spot but
+the time read the same time as when I set the checkpoint. Amazing! The potential
+that this holds is beyond comprehension but I am going to try and do so anyways!
+Which is what led to my second test, to determine once and for all how time
+worked in our universe. This test is simple: I will create a checkpoint and then
+after a few moments I will take a few steps back followed by flipping the coin I
+was given. If it lands on heads, I go back and punch myself in the right eye;
+and if it lands on tails, I go back and punch myself in the left eye. A bit
+violent, but it is all in the name of science and gets the job done. With the
+checkpoint set, I flipped the coin.
+
+What followed next left me a bit confused. Instead of being punched in the face
+by a future version of myself, I was approached by two versions of myself that
+both punched me (one to my right eye and the other to my left eye). After given
+it some thought, here is what I think happened: the unvierse we exist in obeys
+the multiverse theory so after the coin was flipped there were two universes
+created where one has the coin landing on heads and the other the coin lands on
+tails. Since both occurred, the respective future versions both went back in
+time and punched the eye they were supposed to punch. However, that now leaves
+us in the awkward situation where there is now three of me. It looks like the
+universe has no problems with us all being here, so I guess all those who
+believed this would "violate the laws of space-time" were wrong since the
+universe did not explode when they punched me in the face, but my eyes sure do
+feel that way now. After the awkward moment passed the one who punched me in the
+right eye suggested we read the rest of the book. It explained how part of my
+employment will require detailed documentation of the series of the events that
+unfold as a means to audit my work to trigger receiving my next assignment. I am
+to do this using communications over QEC, but due to the nature of the work I am
+to not use my real name nor the name of my craft. I am also meant to do so for
+today, hence the reason I am right this message. For "The Elder" to identify my
+messages I am to refer to myself as "The DeLorian" and for my craft I can call
+it whatever I want here as long as it does not give away anything. Since I
+cannot think of anything good right now I'll just pick a placeholder name and
+come back to it later. So for now, I emback on my voyage into the unknown as a
+smuggler to enact revenge against the empire that has forsaken me aboard my ship
+Boaty McBoatface.
diff --git a/gopher/The DeLorian/0001.txt b/gopher/The DeLorian/0001.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca0abd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gopher/The DeLorian/0001.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+* The DeLorian *
+
+-----------------------------------
+ Captain's Log: Stardate 0000 0002
+ Clone Code: 0
+-----------------------------------
+
+Once Me, Myself, and I embarked out to our journey we ran into an issue very
+quickly. With there being three of us who were (as far as I can tell) all the
+same person, we ran into the communication issue of what to call each other.
+After some discussion, we came to the agreement that I would be "Captain", the
+version of me that was created from the universe where the coin landed on heads
+would be "Heads", and of course for the same reason the other would be "Tails".
+After that was agreed we decided to take inventory of what we have to work with
+within Boaty McBoatface while we wait for the autopilot to take us to the
+rendevous point with the client. Heads and Tails went to search opposite ends of
+the ship, but I decided I might try to make use of my new time device (which
+according to The Elder is called the "Deus Ex Machina") to save myself some time
+(ha, get it?) by trying to find some more exploits like the coin trick that
+created Heads and Tails. I set a checkpoint and decided that I would go search
+the ship, and after doing so I would return to that checkpoint and give myself
+the report so that I don't need to do all of the work! With the checkpoint set
+I immediately received a tap on the shoulder to find a slightly exhaused version
+of myself standing behind me. They informed me they were going to go take a nap
+since they have completed taking inventory and left towards what I can only
+assume the location of the sleeping quarters were at. A bit miffed that my plan
+backfired I asked them why they would not simply tell me what they found so I
+could skip the boring chore. They informed me that when they were me they were
+not told anything either and their future version simply left to go take a nap
+as well, so if they did not get to skip doing the work than neither do I. With
+that, they completed their journey out of the room and left me alone again. The
+nerve, I cannot believe I would be such a jerk to myself! ...Well, on second
+thought, this is not too shocking. My first experience meeting my time clone was
+being punched in the face by them. At least when I am done with this I can a nap
+and get back at myself by making the previous version of myself do all this work
+too. That will surely teach myself a lesson from being so stubborn.
+
+After going back in time to enjoy my nap I decided to go look for Heads and
+Tails since they should be finishing up with their search of the ship by then.
+Finding Heads was easy enough since they were on their way back, so we decided
+to head out together to find Tails. We each took notes in our respective copies
+of the book we received from The Elder, so I just copied down Heads's notes into
+mine and then swapped so they could do the same. By the time that was done we
+found Tails, but also a lot more. Apparently I was not the only one who decided
+to try more time shenanigans since we stumbled upon a large crowd of time clones
+all arguing with each other. After it was clear from watching the chaos unfold
+for a few moments, I decided that since I am the captain of Boaty McBoatface it
+was my job to try and get to the bottom of what happened here and try to restore
+order. With a sustained, high-pitched whistle I drew the attention of the Tails
+clones and requested for the audience of the original Tails. This seemed to
+trigger the same arguing from before so I let forth the same whistle again and
+this time just grabbed the closest one and asked them to explain what is going
+on here. Apparently Tails discovered that we have a weapons system aboard the
+ship, but not enough crew to make effective usage of it. So, the logical
+conclusion was to create perform the same experiment that created the initial
+clones a few times. However, since I forgot how quickly exponential growth can
+get out of hand, this very quickly created way too many time clones. It was
+suggested that we can fix the problem by ejecting the extras into space, but
+that meant that there needed to be some sort of system to determine who would be
+getting ejected. Since no one wanted to volunteer another suggested that they
+could flip coins to decide, but the others disagreed since that is what
+originally got them into this mess. The last suggestion of removing the clones
+in order who who was created last and working backwards is what triggered the
+fighting since the newer clones found this unfair since this system was not
+agreed upon before their creation, as well as the older clones had no way to
+determine who was the newest clones and none of them wanted to identify
+themselves.
+
+It is moments like this that are quite humbling as you realize just how much of
+a moron you can be. Fortunately, from what Heads found during their search of
+Boaty McBoatface we had a better compromise for the Tails army. Aboard the ship
+are some cryostatis pods, so instead of needing to evacuate the excess clones we
+can just have them sleep in there until they are needed or we are in a better
+situation for having that many clones of myself around. After some murmuring it
+looked like the clones were find with agreeing to this plan. Before Heads guided
+the excess clones to cryostatis chamber I called forth for a meeting since we
+really needed to sort out this time cloning business to make sure something like
+this does not happen again. This meeting went on far longer than I would have
+expected since we are all the same person, but the previous threat of death via
+ejection into space and not being a good team player with other versions of
+myself was enough to already begin splintering off differences in the
+personalities of the clones (definitely something to think about later and
+probably keep me up at night). Eventually we all agreed to the seniority system
+where older clones will get to make the final decision on any disagreements
+along with creating an identification system using our books. The identification
+system works as follows:
+
+Since I am the original DeLorian, on the last page of my book I will right a
+zero. For each clone that follows, if they were created with a heads flip they
+will append another zero to their sequence and if they were created by a one
+they would instead append a one. Since we did not do this originally, each clone
+had to manually catch up by writing in their sequence from their respective
+memory. However, for all future versions they need only append to the end of
+their sequence since their book should be a copy of the version that created
+them. Then, to handle if additional sets of clones are created (e.g. if I
+decided to make additional clones from myself) we simply use the next pair of
+digits (e.g. in the previous example this would be 2 and 3 instead of 0 and 1).
+We were all fine with this until one of the Tails clones, who identified
+themself as "01019", asked about what we plan to do if one of us makes a 6th set
+of clones (the set after 8 and 9 are used). This had us stumped for a bit and we
+almost decided on a rule to never make a sixth pair of clones to avoid this
+(which left a few clones with a nervous look in their eye), until another Tails
+clone brought up something The Elder wrote in their original notes. Across the
+bottom of the page the following was written:
+01234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-_
+
+At first I (or should I now say we?) throught this was just some weird way of
+testing out their penmanship on the page, but upon further inspection it looks
+like this would be the perfect solution for continuing on our clone code
+sequence past six sets. Now, we could make a full 32 sets of clones until we ran
+into a "roadblock" again. Since we all felt far more comfortable with the idea
+of having 32 as the hard cap on clones, we agreed to using this system moving
+forward and finalized our agreement by all writing down these rules into the
+last page of our books as our formal way of acknowledging our consensus. With
+that out of the way the extra clones were filed to the cryostatis chamber and
+order seemed to be restored at last. I met up with Tails (now also known as
+"01") to get their notes for the inventory of the ship to add to my notes. Once
+that was done Heads (now also knowns as "00") returned back from escorting the
+clones to complete their set of notes as well. It was after doing so and
+reviewing everything together that we came to a concerning revelation: we did
+not have enough food for all of the mouths we now had to feed. However, from my
+own search of the ship I found a hangar filled with lesser crafts and came up
+with a plan. I explained to Heads and Tails my plan of sending out some of the
+remaining Tails clones in one of the vessels to acquire more supplies and meet
+back with us at the rendevous point. They agreed with this plan so we tracked
+down "0100", "0110", "0101", and "0111" to do handle this mission for us. The
+four were not thrilled with the news, but they liked the idea better than us all
+starving to death so early into our life among the stars. With that we sent them
+off on "Mini Boaty McBoatface I" and the rest of the DeLorian time clone crew
+continued its journey to meet with our first clients as smugglers against the
+Federation.
diff --git a/gopher/listing.gophermap b/gopher/listing.gophermap
index b730b4e..fce59c3 100644
--- a/gopher/listing.gophermap
+++ b/gopher/listing.gophermap
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+0Melchizedek - So I'm Crazy I Guess /Melchizedek/024.txt
+0The DeLorian - Getting To Know The Crew /The DeLorian/0001.txt
+0Dodecapolis - USS Kraken, Captain's Log 00001 /Dodecapolis/00003.txt
+0Dodecapolis - Fleet Commander Log 00002 /Dodecapolis/00002.txt
+0The DeLorian - Embarkment /The DeLorian/0000.txt
0Melchizedek - Jerome Pasani - Personal Letter 2 /Melchizedek/023.txt
0Melchizedek - Jerome Pasani - Personal Letter 1 /Melchizedek/022.txt
0Melchizedek - Rhetorical Ecclesiastic Report /Melchizedek/021.txt
diff --git a/gopher/rss.xml b/gopher/rss.xml
index 0adef6a..65cd964 100644
--- a/gopher/rss.xml
+++ b/gopher/rss.xml
@@ -2,6 +2,522 @@
Cosmic Voyage
gopher://cosmic.voyage
Messages from the human stellar diaspora
+
+ Melchizedek - So I'm Crazy I Guess
+ tomasino@cosmic.voyage (tomasino)
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Melchizedek/024.txt
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Melchizedek/024.txt
+ Sun, 01 Nov 2020 14:15:48 GMT
+
+Message Incoming...
+
+Source Melchizedek.0294
+β Hyi, 3rd Planet
+Ascension 00h 25m 45.07037s
+Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
+Distance 24.37ly
+Equinox J2000.0 SOL
+Year 3782, QEC adjusted
+
+[Autotranslator enabled...]
+
+Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class
+:::
+Doctor Nguyen (the medical one, not the biologist) thinks I'm
+crazy. No, seriously. She actually said that in our session today.
+So, either I'm certifiable or she's the worst psychologist on the
+planet. Actually, it's probably both. She's only one of five
+people on the planet after all, and the only psychologist, so that
+makes her the worst one. Yes it also makes her the best, shut it.
+
+According to the worst doctor on the planet it's not okay to break
+things or throw things at doctors when you are angry. That's
+apparently a problem, which I think is just ridiculous. I mean,
+they have special hospitals and stuff back on Earth for people
+like that and I bet those doctors get things thrown at their heads
+all the time. And I'll bet they don't call their patients crazy
+and run out of the room. I mean, seriously, it wasn't like it was
+a knife or anything. A microscope can't hurt that bad. She's such
+a drama queen.
+
+So in good news I have this habitat to myself now. In the bad news
+category I'm not allowed to leave it without an escort. I'm not
+sure how that's fair to the escort, though. I mean, it's going to
+be Eva cause they make her do everything where I'm concerned and
+Eva didn't do anything wrong at all. She's perfect. And what sort
+of punishment is that for throwing a microscope, anyway? "You,
+stay in this tent and you're only allowed to spend time with this
+hot science lady on this totally foreign world where there's like
+nobody around. No duties, just private tent time." Okay, I think
+I might like the sound of this, actually.
+
+Jerome, though. First Dr. Idjani and now Jerome and that
+cold-hearted bitch won't even go look for him. There's something
+out there eating our crew and she just wants to mess around with
+a machine that sprays man juice all over the ground. If you ask
+me, she's the one that's sick in the head. That's like totally an
+Oedipus complex, or Odysseus complex or one of those old Greek
+dudes that was into spraying man juice all over. I dunno, I'm not
+a historian. Yeah, we're here to bring life to the galaxy,
+awesome. And what's the count on that so far? OH, NEGATIVE THREE!?
+
+No, this is all wrong and I'm going to fix it somehow. I've got to
+get off three and over to four, though. All the equipment is on
+four, unless I'm going to laser-measure my way into saving Jerome
+from an interstellar octopus or whatever is out there. Range-find
+him right into oblivion, yeah. No, for real, we have actual stuff
+on four that could help. Probes and whatnots. We don't actually
+need to risk a ship! I told her this and still she pulls this
+rank-and-file shit as if there's some echelon of command waiting
+to check in on us. THEY ARE ALL DEAD! YOU ARE ALL DEAD! Or might
+as well be. 1300 years? Yeah, is the Rhetorical Ecclesia even
+around anymore? We haven't heard a peep out of Earth since we woke
+up. Plenty of sad sappy screaming from all the other ships out
+there, though. This universe hates us and wants to kill us all and
+I am the only one who wants to god-damn fight back!
+
+Eva. She's with me. Or, well, she's like physically with me. She's
+sleeping on the cot right now and I snagged her tablet to write
+this. I'm encrypting this shit too, so it doesn't echo back to the
+rest of the team. One-way QEC messages, bitches. Didn't know you
+could do that, did ya, Prezzi? Yeah, the fascists forgot I'm
+actually on this mission cause I know shit. At least when I'm not
+drunk. And I'm sober as anything right now.
+
+Oh my god, Sandy. Holy shit, I'm a horrible person. Jerome is like
+my ship dad or something, so I talked about him and I totally
+skipped over Sandy. She's a gem. I met her before she started
+transitioning and it has been the best decision ever. She's
+a god-damned inspiration. Live your truth, be who you are meant to
+be. She deserves better than this, not just from me. I'm not going
+to let her down, or Jerome. They're out there, I know it.
+
+"Oh Stephanie, that's nonsense. You read the transcript, something
+happened to them. They were hallucinating. Bullshit bullshit
+bullshit." No. I've heard it all. Prezzi's logic is Right and Just
+and Holy and it's utterly wrong. I HEARD the recording when I read
+it. I can feel it and hear it in my head. I know the sound those
+alarms make. I know the voice of the computer speaking and there's
+no way to confuse that with Dr. Idjani. There's no way the captain
+would confuse it. And even if he did, even if both of them heard
+some crazy stuff or their nitrogen mix was wrong, the transcript
+finished. It came through!
+
+"Autodisconnect after 5 minute silence". That's what it says.
+That's what it did. Something happened and they stopped talking
+for five full minutes and THEN the ship relayed the message. That
+shuttle is out there and they need us. They need help, and I'll be
+damned if I'm going to leave them to the black.
+
+Eva will help. She knows what's at stake. I trust her, but I need
+more. If I do this, whatever this is, I'm not jumping in without
+a plan. The Vos 144A has 6 shuttles and they can peer-dock without
+an umbilical, but only if someone is awake on both sides to link
+the seals. That's a problem. Also it sounds like Jerome was doing
+his funny math to backtrack to the spot we lost the doctor. I'm
+a fair whiz at maths but those sort of transverse orbitals
+accounting for stellar drift will need a proper navigator. Lucky
+me I've got best navigator for 20 light years drooling on my
+pillow. So gross. So cute. What else? Oh, right, I'm on the wrong
+planet.
+
+That's not so bad, as far as plans go. Get Eva, get others, get
+a ship, get to four, get more stuff, find Jerome and Sandy, bring
+our people home, punch Prezzi in her dumb face, make out with Eva.
+This is doable. I can do this. We can do this. Please let me be
+able to do this.
+.
+]]>
+
+
+ The DeLorian - Getting To Know The Crew
+ aewens@cosmic.voyage (aewens)
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/The DeLorian/0001.txt
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/The DeLorian/0001.txt
+ Mon, 02 Nov 2020 18:39:11 GMT
+
+* The DeLorian *
+
+-----------------------------------
+ Captain's Log: Stardate 0000 0002
+ Clone Code: 0
+-----------------------------------
+
+Once Me, Myself, and I embarked out to our journey we ran into an issue very
+quickly. With there being three of us who were (as far as I can tell) all the
+same person, we ran into the communication issue of what to call each other.
+After some discussion, we came to the agreement that I would be "Captain", the
+version of me that was created from the universe where the coin landed on heads
+would be "Heads", and of course for the same reason the other would be "Tails".
+After that was agreed we decided to take inventory of what we have to work with
+within Boaty McBoatface while we wait for the autopilot to take us to the
+rendevous point with the client. Heads and Tails went to search opposite ends of
+the ship, but I decided I might try to make use of my new time device (which
+according to The Elder is called the "Deus Ex Machina") to save myself some time
+(ha, get it?) by trying to find some more exploits like the coin trick that
+created Heads and Tails. I set a checkpoint and decided that I would go search
+the ship, and after doing so I would return to that checkpoint and give myself
+the report so that I don't need to do all of the work! With the checkpoint set
+I immediately received a tap on the shoulder to find a slightly exhaused version
+of myself standing behind me. They informed me they were going to go take a nap
+since they have completed taking inventory and left towards what I can only
+assume the location of the sleeping quarters were at. A bit miffed that my plan
+backfired I asked them why they would not simply tell me what they found so I
+could skip the boring chore. They informed me that when they were me they were
+not told anything either and their future version simply left to go take a nap
+as well, so if they did not get to skip doing the work than neither do I. With
+that, they completed their journey out of the room and left me alone again. The
+nerve, I cannot believe I would be such a jerk to myself! ...Well, on second
+thought, this is not too shocking. My first experience meeting my time clone was
+being punched in the face by them. At least when I am done with this I can a nap
+and get back at myself by making the previous version of myself do all this work
+too. That will surely teach myself a lesson from being so stubborn.
+
+After going back in time to enjoy my nap I decided to go look for Heads and
+Tails since they should be finishing up with their search of the ship by then.
+Finding Heads was easy enough since they were on their way back, so we decided
+to head out together to find Tails. We each took notes in our respective copies
+of the book we received from The Elder, so I just copied down Heads's notes into
+mine and then swapped so they could do the same. By the time that was done we
+found Tails, but also a lot more. Apparently I was not the only one who decided
+to try more time shenanigans since we stumbled upon a large crowd of time clones
+all arguing with each other. After it was clear from watching the chaos unfold
+for a few moments, I decided that since I am the captain of Boaty McBoatface it
+was my job to try and get to the bottom of what happened here and try to restore
+order. With a sustained, high-pitched whistle I drew the attention of the Tails
+clones and requested for the audience of the original Tails. This seemed to
+trigger the same arguing from before so I let forth the same whistle again and
+this time just grabbed the closest one and asked them to explain what is going
+on here. Apparently Tails discovered that we have a weapons system aboard the
+ship, but not enough crew to make effective usage of it. So, the logical
+conclusion was to create perform the same experiment that created the initial
+clones a few times. However, since I forgot how quickly exponential growth can
+get out of hand, this very quickly created way too many time clones. It was
+suggested that we can fix the problem by ejecting the extras into space, but
+that meant that there needed to be some sort of system to determine who would be
+getting ejected. Since no one wanted to volunteer another suggested that they
+could flip coins to decide, but the others disagreed since that is what
+originally got them into this mess. The last suggestion of removing the clones
+in order who who was created last and working backwards is what triggered the
+fighting since the newer clones found this unfair since this system was not
+agreed upon before their creation, as well as the older clones had no way to
+determine who was the newest clones and none of them wanted to identify
+themselves.
+
+It is moments like this that are quite humbling as you realize just how much of
+a moron you can be. Fortunately, from what Heads found during their search of
+Boaty McBoatface we had a better compromise for the Tails army. Aboard the ship
+are some cryostatis pods, so instead of needing to evacuate the excess clones we
+can just have them sleep in there until they are needed or we are in a better
+situation for having that many clones of myself around. After some murmuring it
+looked like the clones were find with agreeing to this plan. Before Heads guided
+the excess clones to cryostatis chamber I called forth for a meeting since we
+really needed to sort out this time cloning business to make sure something like
+this does not happen again. This meeting went on far longer than I would have
+expected since we are all the same person, but the previous threat of death via
+ejection into space and not being a good team player with other versions of
+myself was enough to already begin splintering off differences in the
+personalities of the clones (definitely something to think about later and
+probably keep me up at night). Eventually we all agreed to the seniority system
+where older clones will get to make the final decision on any disagreements
+along with creating an identification system using our books. The identification
+system works as follows:
+
+Since I am the original DeLorian, on the last page of my book I will right a
+zero. For each clone that follows, if they were created with a heads flip they
+will append another zero to their sequence and if they were created by a one
+they would instead append a one. Since we did not do this originally, each clone
+had to manually catch up by writing in their sequence from their respective
+memory. However, for all future versions they need only append to the end of
+their sequence since their book should be a copy of the version that created
+them. Then, to handle if additional sets of clones are created (e.g. if I
+decided to make additional clones from myself) we simply use the next pair of
+digits (e.g. in the previous example this would be 2 and 3 instead of 0 and 1).
+We were all fine with this until one of the Tails clones, who identified
+themself as "01019", asked about what we plan to do if one of us makes a 6th set
+of clones (the set after 8 and 9 are used). This had us stumped for a bit and we
+almost decided on a rule to never make a sixth pair of clones to avoid this
+(which left a few clones with a nervous look in their eye), until another Tails
+clone brought up something The Elder wrote in their original notes. Across the
+bottom of the page the following was written:
+01234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ-_
+
+At first I (or should I now say we?) throught this was just some weird way of
+testing out their penmanship on the page, but upon further inspection it looks
+like this would be the perfect solution for continuing on our clone code
+sequence past six sets. Now, we could make a full 32 sets of clones until we ran
+into a "roadblock" again. Since we all felt far more comfortable with the idea
+of having 32 as the hard cap on clones, we agreed to using this system moving
+forward and finalized our agreement by all writing down these rules into the
+last page of our books as our formal way of acknowledging our consensus. With
+that out of the way the extra clones were filed to the cryostatis chamber and
+order seemed to be restored at last. I met up with Tails (now also known as
+"01") to get their notes for the inventory of the ship to add to my notes. Once
+that was done Heads (now also knowns as "00") returned back from escorting the
+clones to complete their set of notes as well. It was after doing so and
+reviewing everything together that we came to a concerning revelation: we did
+not have enough food for all of the mouths we now had to feed. However, from my
+own search of the ship I found a hangar filled with lesser crafts and came up
+with a plan. I explained to Heads and Tails my plan of sending out some of the
+remaining Tails clones in one of the vessels to acquire more supplies and meet
+back with us at the rendevous point. They agreed with this plan so we tracked
+down "0100", "0110", "0101", and "0111" to do handle this mission for us. The
+four were not thrilled with the news, but they liked the idea better than us all
+starving to death so early into our life among the stars. With that we sent them
+off on "Mini Boaty McBoatface I" and the rest of the DeLorian time clone crew
+continued its journey to meet with our first clients as smugglers against the
+Federation.
+]]>
+
+
+ Dodecapolis - USS Kraken, Captain's Log 00001
+ dozens@cosmic.voyage (dozens)
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Dodecapolis/00003.txt
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Dodecapolis/00003.txt
+ Mon, 02 Nov 2020 03:27:48 GMT
+
+USS Kraken, Captain's Log 00001
+===============================
+
+Captain Enzo Avery
+USS Kraken
+
+The dodecads received their final assignments today.
+
+A bit of a surprise if I'm being honest: the Kraken is to join Twilight Dusk
+under Ganesh Singh of the Jerakeen.
+
+I must say I don't care much for Fleet Commander Rivers's brand of leadership.
+Her loyalties are unpredictable. She shows no sense of allegiance, nor does she
+hold to our customs and traditions.
+
+For many of the same reasons, nor am I especially crazy about her right hand
+man, Wash.
+
+Nevertheless, I'm not above saying that Singh was most impressive during the
+evaluations, especially considering his relative inexperience.
+
+And so I readily accept my role and will ensure that Kraken and Shardik serve
+Jerakeen well, and that if SRU Dodecapolis fails because of Rivers's chaotic
+whims, it will not be because of Twilight Dusk.
+
+Furthermore, experience has shown me time and again that I need not necessarily
+be in the seat of power in order to exert my will. With me at his side, I'm
+sure that Singh will be an exemplary squad leader, and that Twilight Dusk will
+be the pride of Dodecapolis.
+
+EOF
+]]>
+
+
+ Dodecapolis - Fleet Commander Log 00002
+ dozens@cosmic.voyage (dozens)
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Dodecapolis/00002.txt
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Dodecapolis/00002.txt
+ Mon, 02 Nov 2020 03:29:45 GMT
+
+Fleet Commander Log 00002
+=========================
+
+Fleet Commander Amanda Rivers
+SRU Dodecapolis
+
+---
+
+Preperations are complete.
+
+We are scheduled to depart JOVE-1 at the start of next tenday.
+
+Each individual starship has been outfitted with cryotech, and has had its
+navigation and propulsion modules upgraded with the parts needed to get to the
+Far Reaches.
+
+The new cryotech will enable the crew to be suspended for 4_096 jovannos. The
+vastly extended period of suspension, combined with the new FTL module, should
+put us just inside the Far Reaches by the time AI starts to download us.
+
+---
+
+The final fleet manifest of SRU Dodecapolis did indeed turn out much as I had
+initially planned on, save for one exception: Captain Avery of the USS Kraken,
+my first pick to lead the Twilight Dusk Squadron, turned out to be far
+outclassed during evaluations by Singh of the USS Jerakeen. A surprise to be
+sure.
+
+Singh is still early on his career, and displays much of the bravado and
+idealism of the inexperienced. Still, his composure and effectiveness during
+the Edsmith Protocol surpassed some captains with twice again his years of
+experience. Including, significantly, Avery, who became ineffective and
+inactive when faced with the simulated crisis.
+
+While Avery is by far the more experienced and more skilled of the two, Singh
+has proven himself the better leader. Singh and the Jerakeen will take command
+of Twilight Dusk, and will benefit from having Avery at his right hand.
+
+
+---
+
+Speaking of ones right hand, I have furthermore decided to place Gustav Wash of
+the Nicodemus at my right hand and shall expect him to manage most of the day
+to day operations of Rising Dawn Squadron while I focus my attention and
+resources on the needs of the fleet. I have the utmost confidence in Wash. He
+will likely lead his own fleet some day--ah, but I forget myself: none of us
+shall have another assignment after this one. The establishment of Dodecapolis
+is both our mission and our fate. There will be no coming back from this one.
+
+
+SRU Dodecapolis Fleet Manifest
+------------------------------
+
+1. **Rising Dawn Squadron**
+
+ - [!] USS Timberwolf | Captain Amanda Rivers
+ - USS Nicodemus | Captain Gustav Wash
+ - USS Sköldpadda | Captain Ainslee Martin
+
+2. **Daylight Squadron**
+
+ - [!] USS Kuniklo | Captain Hazel Adams
+ - USS Harpy | Captain Samantha Drake
+ - USS Beagle | Captain Charles Teach
+
+3. **Twilight Dusk Squadron**
+
+ - [!] USS Jerakeen | Captain Ganesh Singh
+ - USS Kraken | Captain Enzo Avery
+ - USS Shardik | Captain Detroit London
+
+4. **Midnight Sun Squadron**
+
+ - [!] USS Flying Fox | Captain Katarina Russo
+ - USS Aslan | Captain Loren Canon
+ - USS Rocinante | Captain Cole Gruber
+
+[!] - Squadron Leader
+
+EOF
+]]>
+
+
+ The DeLorian - Embarkment
+ aewens@cosmic.voyage (aewens)
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/The DeLorian/0000.txt
+ gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/The DeLorian/0000.txt
+ Mon, 02 Nov 2020 01:35:29 GMT
+
+* The DeLorian *
+
+-----------------------------------
+ Captain's Log: Stardate 0000 0001
+-----------------------------------
+
+I began this morning thinking that my life has reached a dead end. Ever since I
+was a youngling I dreamed of journeying among the stars and yesterday I tried to
+follow that dream. I went to enlist my services to the space force of the
+Federation's, but I was informed that I did not meet their standards and my
+offer was declined. I had no idea what I would be doing now since I was banking
+my whole future on being able to live my life out in space. After my enlistment
+was rejected my love for the Federation was replaced with resentment and anger.
+How DARE they destroy my dreams, to so easily discard my services just because
+my current phsyique is not "up to par" with their quality of "standards"! I know
+my around a starship better than any of those morons, and if they just gave me a
+chance I could have been an invaluable asset! I wish I could show them, all I
+would need is a ship. I don't need a crew, I could handle it all myself... But
+what good would that do? I am just one person, and they are an entire fleet. How
+could I do anything to something so much larger than myself all on my own?
+
+So you can imagine my shock when I was approached by a shrouded, mysterious
+figure that would only disclose themself as "The Elder" showed up offering me a
+means to do exactly that. Their offer was simple:
+I will be given the task of smuggling weapons and intelligence documents
+past the Federation and to deliver them to their enemies. In payment, I would be
+given a space craft and a device that it promised to give me an edge over any
+adversarial force I may encounter if used properly. While I did not plan for my
+life as a space captain to be working as a smuggler, it is the only option I
+have left. And if I am being honest, I would really enjoy right now to help make
+the lives of the Federation more difficult after what they did to me.
+
+After taking a moment to consider this stranger's offer I accepted it. They
+bestowed upon me three items: a fairly banged up coin, a leather bound book, and
+an odd looking remote. Upon handing me these items I was told that inside the
+book will hold the answers to all of my questions. On first inspection the
+leather cover appeared to be quite worn out from what I can only assume to be
+from years of age, but the papers inside looked to be brand new. The fact that I
+was being given a book at all was quite strange since they have not been used in
+years now that everything is digitized these days. Affixed to the outside of the
+cover is a simple pencil and eraser which I assume is meant for writing in it.
+When opening the book I found that the pages were removable and bound only by an
+elastic band inside the book, which would suggest that one could add more pages
+later as well as remove sections as well later on. The pencil made more since
+after skimming over the first page since everything was hand written, but that
+was also the only page with anything on it. Every following page was left blank.
+Confused by this I looked up from the book to ask how that single page could
+somehow answer all my questions, but only to find that my cryptic employer had
+vanished.
+
+Left only with my new, unusual gifts I decided to read through in full the notes
+that were jotted upon the first and only inscribed page within the book. It
+began explained the location of the craft I would using, where in the craft the
+smuggled contents are, the coordinates of the rendezvous, who I would be meeting
+there, and how much I will be selling it all for. It went on to entail that I
+would be keeping the proceeds from the exchange and upon completion would be
+assigned my next task. While I found all of this to be quite generous, I was far
+more concerned with the everything else that followed from The Elder's notes.
+
+According to what was written here, that bizarre remote I was given is
+apparently a device that can manipulate the fabric of space and time in a very
+specific way. The device has a screen in the middle, a dial beneath it, and a
+button on either side. If I press the left button it will set a "checkpoint" of
+sorts that gets stored to the memory of the device and I can search through
+those checkpoints using the dial to cycle through them on the display as a
+counter that goes up and down (coorsponding to the checkpoints in order of
+creation). That is all fine, but what is baffling is the alleged function of the
+right button. That, when pressed, it will send the user of the device back to
+the exact position in time that the selected "checkpoint" was created. After
+reading that section over a few times to make sure I was understanding it
+correctly I decided I needed to prove that this device worked.
+
+I started with a few simple experiments. First, I checked the time and set a
+checkpoint followed by walking a few steps away and waiting. After a few minutes
+passed I set the dial to my checkpoint and pressed the button that should
+trigger the jump in space-time. Sure enough, I was standing in the same spot but
+the time read the same time as when I set the checkpoint. Amazing! The potential
+that this holds is beyond comprehension but I am going to try and do so anyways!
+Which is what led to my second test, to determine once and for all how time
+worked in our universe. This test is simple: I will create a checkpoint and then
+after a few moments I will take a few steps back followed by flipping the coin I
+was given. If it lands on heads, I go back and punch myself in the right eye;
+and if it lands on tails, I go back and punch myself in the left eye. A bit
+violent, but it is all in the name of science and gets the job done. With the
+checkpoint set, I flipped the coin.
+
+What followed next left me a bit confused. Instead of being punched in the face
+by a future version of myself, I was approached by two versions of myself that
+both punched me (one to my right eye and the other to my left eye). After given
+it some thought, here is what I think happened: the unvierse we exist in obeys
+the multiverse theory so after the coin was flipped there were two universes
+created where one has the coin landing on heads and the other the coin lands on
+tails. Since both occurred, the respective future versions both went back in
+time and punched the eye they were supposed to punch. However, that now leaves
+us in the awkward situation where there is now three of me. It looks like the
+universe has no problems with us all being here, so I guess all those who
+believed this would "violate the laws of space-time" were wrong since the
+universe did not explode when they punched me in the face, but my eyes sure do
+feel that way now. After the awkward moment passed the one who punched me in the
+right eye suggested we read the rest of the book. It explained how part of my
+employment will require detailed documentation of the series of the events that
+unfold as a means to audit my work to trigger receiving my next assignment. I am
+to do this using communications over QEC, but due to the nature of the work I am
+to not use my real name nor the name of my craft. I am also meant to do so for
+today, hence the reason I am right this message. For "The Elder" to identify my
+messages I am to refer to myself as "The DeLorian" and for my craft I can call
+it whatever I want here as long as it does not give away anything. Since I
+cannot think of anything good right now I'll just pick a placeholder name and
+come back to it later. So for now, I emback on my voyage into the unknown as a
+smuggler to enact revenge against the empire that has forsaken me aboard my ship
+Boaty McBoatface.
+]]>
+Melchizedek - Jerome Pasani - Personal Letter 2tomasino@cosmic.voyage (tomasino)