81 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
81 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
Message Incoming...
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Source Melchizedek.0294
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Approach β Hyi
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Ascension 00h 25m 45.07036s
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Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
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Distance 24.33ly
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Equinox J2000.0 SOL
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Year 3781, QEC adjusted
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[Autotranslator enabled...]
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Jerome Somerset Pasani, Warrant Master
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:::
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Doctor Moussa Idjani led a full crew evaluation on the pods over
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the last twelve hours. His recommendation for remaining awake
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stands, unfortunately. The four of wardroom officers, myself,
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Doctor Moussa Idjani, Prezzi Adeyemi, and Eva Hämäläinen, along
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with Specialist First-class Stephanie Janssen, represent conscious
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crew on the Melchizedek for next four months. We have a series of
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course corrections to execute, some minor issues in hydroponics,
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and what Adeyemi describes as "ick" growing over a quarter of the
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cryo-pods. It is most likely unattended fungal growth, but we'll
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investigate further.
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Our ship is a Vos 144A from Visscher, sporting a pair of the
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more-than-capable Peterse 773 Overtreffen Motoren. When launched,
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the Melchy was a damn-fine ship, if I say so myself. She's held up
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admirably while we slept.
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We were commissioned in EY 2480, and set out on mission just three
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years later. RS001 timestamps on my last transmission suggest that
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just over 1300 years, relative, have transpired since we set out.
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1300 years.
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It's what we signed on for, of course. We all had the training and
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the psy-evals to prep, but there's still that shock when it hits
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you. There's no undo, no reset. Everyone we knew is long gone.
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Hell, the Earth itself is long gone, at least in the way we knew
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it. Adeyemi says she has a cousin who set out on a long-haul
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colony support freighter at about the same time as us and their
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star is only a few light-years off schedule from ours. She doesn't
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remember which direction, but it's possible she's got people out
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there somewhere. The math always gets away from me, but it's
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possible some of my own ancestors' family could be thawing out
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from craft launched before I was born. Oh, and don't even get me
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started on reality-drive mechanics. Who knows how many blended
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universes we've stirred up with that monstrosity. I can only hope
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humanity learned their lesson and banned it while I was dreaming.
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To the Speaker Elect of Cheer Systems, Susan, aboard the Starbloom
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Communal Distributive Projection goes our many thanks. If the
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disconnection of time weren't jarring enough, the silence that
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awaits one's first lonely transmission is infinitely more terrible
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for all its brevity. Your words, blessings, and spells are a salve
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bringing healing. I queried Janssen about your ship designation
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but nothing in our databases aligned. Based on relative time-debt
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adjustments, it seems you may have set out long before us. We hope
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your time has been peaceful.
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I'll be setting a daily ordo and assigning work duties following
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this transmission. Getting our hands busy will ground the
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ineffable incongruity from reality that's rattled everyone. Our
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navigation issues are of primary concern, so Hämäläinen and
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Janssen will bear the brunt of that work. Doctor Idjani is the
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closest crew member we have awake to a botanist, so he'll be
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investigating our sensor abnormalities in food and air
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circulation. No alarms were tripped, so we're hoping it's just
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a mutation in one of the algae tanks or something equally trivial.
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The cry-pod growth will fall to me, with possible assistance from
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Adeyemi, though she has very little background to be of use.
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Unless the fungus starts talking, I don't see how Adeyemi will
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have much of anything to translate or negotiate. She's probably in
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for a boring four months.
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It's time to get moving. Our shifts will be light until muscle
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regeneration reaches 60% and the doc clears us for full rotations
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again. That's probably for the best. We'll take things slow.
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.
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