119 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
119 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext
Message Incoming...
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Source Melchizedek.0294
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β Hyi, 3rd Planet
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Ascension 00h 25m 45.07037s
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Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
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Distance 24.37ly
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Equinox J2000.0 SOL
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Year 3782, QEC adjusted
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[Autotranslator enabled...]
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Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class
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:::
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Doctor Nguyen (the medical one, not the biologist) thinks I'm
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crazy. No, seriously. She actually said that in our session today.
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So, either I'm certifiable or she's the worst psychologist on the
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planet. Actually, it's probably both. She's only one of five
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people on the planet after all, and the only psychologist, so that
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makes her the worst one. Yes it also makes her the best, shut it.
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According to the worst doctor on the planet it's not okay to break
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things or throw things at doctors when you are angry. That's
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apparently a problem, which I think is just ridiculous. I mean,
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they have special hospitals and stuff back on Earth for people
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like that and I bet those doctors get things thrown at their heads
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all the time. And I'll bet they don't call their patients crazy
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and run out of the room. I mean, seriously, it wasn't like it was
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a knife or anything. A microscope can't hurt that bad. She's such
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a drama queen.
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So in good news I have this habitat to myself now. In the bad news
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category I'm not allowed to leave it without an escort. I'm not
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sure how that's fair to the escort, though. I mean, it's going to
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be Eva cause they make her do everything where I'm concerned and
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Eva didn't do anything wrong at all. She's perfect. And what sort
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of punishment is that for throwing a microscope, anyway? "You,
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stay in this tent and you're only allowed to spend time with this
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hot science lady on this totally foreign world where there's like
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nobody around. No duties, just private tent time." Okay, I think
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I might like the sound of this, actually.
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Jerome, though. First Dr. Idjani and now Jerome and that
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cold-hearted bitch won't even go look for him. There's something
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out there eating our crew and she just wants to mess around with
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a machine that sprays man juice all over the ground. If you ask
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me, she's the one that's sick in the head. That's like totally an
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Oedipus complex, or Odysseus complex or one of those old Greek
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dudes that was into spraying man juice all over. I dunno, I'm not
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a historian. Yeah, we're here to bring life to the galaxy,
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awesome. And what's the count on that so far? OH, NEGATIVE THREE!?
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No, this is all wrong and I'm going to fix it somehow. I've got to
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get off three and over to four, though. All the equipment is on
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four, unless I'm going to laser-measure my way into saving Jerome
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from an interstellar octopus or whatever is out there. Range-find
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him right into oblivion, yeah. No, for real, we have actual stuff
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on four that could help. Probes and whatnots. We don't actually
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need to risk a ship! I told her this and still she pulls this
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rank-and-file shit as if there's some echelon of command waiting
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to check in on us. THEY ARE ALL DEAD! YOU ARE ALL DEAD! Or might
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as well be. 1300 years? Yeah, is the Rhetorical Ecclesia even
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around anymore? We haven't heard a peep out of Earth since we woke
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up. Plenty of sad sappy screaming from all the other ships out
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there, though. This universe hates us and wants to kill us all and
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I am the only one who wants to god-damn fight back!
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Eva. She's with me. Or, well, she's like physically with me. She's
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sleeping on the cot right now and I snagged her tablet to write
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this. I'm encrypting this shit too, so it doesn't echo back to the
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rest of the team. One-way QEC messages, bitches. Didn't know you
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could do that, did ya, Prezzi? Yeah, the fascists forgot I'm
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actually on this mission cause I know shit. At least when I'm not
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drunk. And I'm sober as anything right now.
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Oh my god, Sandy. Holy shit, I'm a horrible person. Jerome is like
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my ship dad or something, so I talked about him and I totally
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skipped over Sandy. She's a gem. I met her before she started
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transitioning and it has been the best decision ever. She's
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a god-damned inspiration. Live your truth, be who you are meant to
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be. She deserves better than this, not just from me. I'm not going
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to let her down, or Jerome. They're out there, I know it.
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"Oh Stephanie, that's nonsense. You read the transcript, something
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happened to them. They were hallucinating. Bullshit bullshit
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bullshit." No. I've heard it all. Prezzi's logic is Right and Just
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and Holy and it's utterly wrong. I HEARD the recording when I read
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it. I can feel it and hear it in my head. I know the sound those
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alarms make. I know the voice of the computer speaking and there's
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no way to confuse that with Dr. Idjani. There's no way the captain
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would confuse it. And even if he did, even if both of them heard
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some crazy stuff or their nitrogen mix was wrong, the transcript
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finished. It came through!
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"Autodisconnect after 5 minute silence". That's what it says.
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That's what it did. Something happened and they stopped talking
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for five full minutes and THEN the ship relayed the message. That
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shuttle is out there and they need us. They need help, and I'll be
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damned if I'm going to leave them to the black.
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Eva will help. She knows what's at stake. I trust her, but I need
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more. If I do this, whatever this is, I'm not jumping in without
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a plan. The Vos 144A has 6 shuttles and they can peer-dock without
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an umbilical, but only if someone is awake on both sides to link
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the seals. That's a problem. Also it sounds like Jerome was doing
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his funny math to backtrack to the spot we lost the doctor. I'm
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a fair whiz at maths but those sort of transverse orbitals
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accounting for stellar drift will need a proper navigator. Lucky
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me I've got best navigator for 20 light years drooling on my
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pillow. So gross. So cute. What else? Oh, right, I'm on the wrong
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planet.
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That's not so bad, as far as plans go. Get Eva, get others, get
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a ship, get to four, get more stuff, find Jerome and Sandy, bring
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our people home, punch Prezzi in her dumb face, make out with Eva.
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This is doable. I can do this. We can do this. Please let me be
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able to do this.
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.
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