65 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
65 lines
2.7 KiB
Plaintext
Message Incoming...
|
||
|
||
Source Melchizedek.0294
|
||
Approach β Hyi
|
||
Ascension 00h 25m 45.07036s
|
||
Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
|
||
Distance 24.33ly
|
||
Equinox J2000.0 SOL
|
||
Year 3781, QEC adjusted
|
||
|
||
[Autotranslator enabled...]
|
||
|
||
Jerome Somerset Pasani, Warrant Master
|
||
:::
|
||
Our good doctor has reminded me that I agreed to communicate via
|
||
QEC for social-wellbeing in the face of our environmental
|
||
situation. Despite the workload restoring the Melchizedek to full
|
||
working order I must admit the darkness has been affecting me.
|
||
Encounters in common areas are done in whispers, eye contact is
|
||
minimized, and the crew all seem to drift into isolation as
|
||
a matter of course. The pairings are essential.
|
||
|
||
The news of the Hoffnung Incident has caused a stir as well.
|
||
Janssen has an egalitarian sensibility and is rather vocal in
|
||
support. Meanwhile Prezzi Adeyemi has reacted quite somberly.
|
||
Records say she lost family in the Ioruba People's Revolution of
|
||
'33, so I can't blame her. Granted the situations weren't the same
|
||
at all, but I don't think we'll find a champion of the common man
|
||
in her any time soon. So far we haven't had any real arguments
|
||
over Hoffnung on board. I suppose we have the dark to thank for
|
||
that after all.
|
||
|
||
It's said that the narrative of the stars works in cycles, but the
|
||
only stories I'm hearing from the 'verse are those of horror and
|
||
cryo failure. With the cold creeping in and nowhere to go we sure
|
||
could use some light to warm our hearts.
|
||
|
||
When we left Sol 24 (or 1300) years ago there was such hope in the
|
||
dream. β Hyi has so many habitable or near-habitable worlds we are
|
||
all but guaranteed success. What a thing to imagine! Shoot off
|
||
into the stars and sleep and when you wake it is to usher in a new
|
||
world or worlds of humanity.
|
||
|
||
We may not live to see the full fruits of our labor, but the seeds
|
||
we plant and those we raise will ensure the longevity of our
|
||
species and of intelligent life. What a brilliant crusade!
|
||
O Heavens, we come home to you to begin anew!
|
||
|
||
But now the depths of infinity surround us and we are untethered
|
||
from our people. I have heard nothing from Sol. We have no news of
|
||
family or friends. We read the tragedy and fighting, the sickness
|
||
and violence across the 'verse and worry mounts. Is that all that
|
||
waits for us at the end of this dark road? Will our new start end
|
||
as the first? Is there hope in a beginning? There is fear.
|
||
|
||
Four months becomes three. I stare at our 39 frozen friends and
|
||
hope they wake with the passion still kindled. If the road is long
|
||
and dark, our destination will be harsh and brutal. The land does
|
||
not welcome us. We must tame it. Hope can make it something
|
||
beautiful, but what will fear make? Another Hoffnung? Another
|
||
Ioruba? Another Pakistan?
|
||
|
||
We dwell in infinity. What chance have we for peace?
|
||
.
|