134 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
134 lines
6.6 KiB
Plaintext
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
|
||
:::
|
||
Hey ya'll, Stephanie here. I just have to tell you this place is
|
||
so amazing! There's this slippery fungus mound nearby that smells
|
||
exactly like root beer when you slide across it. Shoot, let me
|
||
back up, though. There's so much to catch you up on.
|
||
|
||
First off, I'm on planet 3, not 4 where most of the Melchy crew is
|
||
stationed. Eva and I and a handful of others are doing survey work
|
||
to prep for phase two of the system seeding. If you haven't been
|
||
following along, that means that we get to live in the lush beauty
|
||
of this wilderness while the rest of the poor saps have to scratch
|
||
out a home on the dust bowl next door. Sucks, huh? They're so busy
|
||
these days they probably haven't even noticed there's nothing
|
||
outside their windows.
|
||
|
||
But here, oh my! I'm not sure how best to classify this stuff
|
||
that's all around. I guess if you imagine a sugary-glass that's
|
||
shaped in all sorts of polyhedrons, but squishy and that leans to
|
||
the side like it's feeling a little sick, that's the closest thing
|
||
to trees. They're totally alive too! I mean, technically speaking
|
||
and all. They don't talk or anything, but they react and
|
||
reproduce-ish. I mean, have you ever done that golden ratio
|
||
rectangle thing where you divide the rectangle into a square and
|
||
the little rectangle left over is the same as the bigger
|
||
rectangle, but, like, exactly that special proportion smaller?
|
||
Well, these things work sort of like that, but really big and in
|
||
three dimensions. They're all sort of transluscent so it's been
|
||
briliant watching the divisions develop inside.
|
||
|
||
Unfortunately for us, there's no familiar proteins at work here
|
||
and our bodies can't interface with the alien poly-plants (oh,
|
||
that's a fun name) in the normal chompy-chomp way. So, we're still
|
||
on ship rations. The good news is, since there's no chemical
|
||
crossover, the life on this planet should be unaffected by our
|
||
seeding. We can move in and share the land and everything will
|
||
work out fine. (Why does that sound ominous now that I've said it
|
||
out loud?)
|
||
|
||
In addition to the poly-plants there's the root beer squishes, the
|
||
cliffs of neverending screams (more on them in a minute),
|
||
bucket-rain, and oh oh oh... the golden caves. That last one is
|
||
literally what it sounds like. I have no idea how this planet came
|
||
to be or what sort of weird star cooked it up, but our camp is
|
||
just a few clicks away from this massive cave network and the
|
||
entire thing is just covered in gold. Like, AU. Gold gold. I swear
|
||
it's the most beautiful and creepy thing ever. Brewer's the
|
||
closest thing to a geologist that we've got and he's totally and
|
||
completely stumped. Caves form from underground water and there's
|
||
absolutely none of that nearby. Inside the cave looks just like
|
||
the ones back home in Virginia, except if they were sprayed and
|
||
covered in gold. If we weren't a thousand years and many lifetimes
|
||
of travel away, we could pack this place up, head home, and be
|
||
some sort of fantasticly rich big-shots back home. Assuming gold
|
||
is still worth a lot back home. Assuming there's still a back home
|
||
out there. Speaking of which, have any of you out there been in
|
||
touch with Earth lately?
|
||
|
||
Sorry, I'm back. Oh, I guess you didn't know I was gone for
|
||
a while since this is a message log and not a recording or
|
||
anything. Duh. Anyway, that was Jerome stopping by. He's here on
|
||
three with us, by the way. I think it's been good for him. Mission
|
||
critical living and the whole loss of Doctor Idjani is still
|
||
hitting him hard. He needed the break. And now because of that
|
||
break I can inform the universe from my personal experience that
|
||
Jerome Somerset Pasani is absolute shit at cards. Haha! Seriously,
|
||
he can't bluff at all. It's so cute.
|
||
|
||
But more on that another time. Where was I? Endless screaming!
|
||
|
||
So a while back Eva comes stomping into my hab with these giant
|
||
boots in her hand and a goofy grin on her face as she declares
|
||
we're going for a walk. When she gets excited she talks really
|
||
fast and her accent gets thick, so I'm not really sure what she
|
||
said after that, but it was something about flower power and
|
||
getting all dirty in the dirt. To be frank, I... may have thought
|
||
she was finally making a pass.
|
||
|
||
So we tromp up these hills past the familiar poly-plant forests
|
||
until we start getting really high up. For some reason the
|
||
poly-plants tend to settle in valleys where they're shaded from
|
||
the strong winds, and those winds can be really strong up high.
|
||
The planet's rotation is pretty fierce and the isolated water
|
||
bodies make the air currents a bit unpredictable. We're always
|
||
wearing wind protection when we're away from hub, but for this
|
||
trip Eva brought some heavy duty gear. We're all suited up,
|
||
sweating our way higher and higher until there's nothing but dirt
|
||
and sexy sciency ladies in the vacinity. And here again I may have
|
||
thought something was happening that wasn't happening, but no
|
||
matter because I was saved from my horrible embarrasement by the
|
||
gut-wrenching screams of some soul being torn to shreds in
|
||
barbaric torture. Or, that's what it sounded like!
|
||
|
||
Eva gives one look my way then starts sprinting (well, more like
|
||
how a giraffe "sprints", based on how we have to move in the
|
||
suits) toward the cliffs ahead. I'm right behind her and we come
|
||
skidding to the edge, dropping down on all fours so we don't take
|
||
a dive into the nethers. We pop our heads beyond and look down and
|
||
hear a truely horrific cocophony of death. Imagine that everyone
|
||
you know were crammed around you in a giant circle having their
|
||
toenails torn out. I'm still freaking over it.
|
||
|
||
Of course there were no horrible dismembered bodies below. There
|
||
were these glassy growths all along the cliff-face undulating with
|
||
the wind. They're vaguely mollusk-like in their behavior and grow
|
||
and expand on the surfaces like barnacles. They're also alive and
|
||
as best we can guess, they cut into the air to produce sound.
|
||
We're not sure if it's communication on purpose, some threat
|
||
signal, something for sex, no clue. It is totally freaky and so
|
||
amazingly cool. The universe is this massive thing that goes on
|
||
basically forever, but in all that space there's only so many
|
||
sounds that can be made.
|
||
|
||
So the cliffs of neverending screams wasn't the best mood-setter
|
||
for my outting with Eva, even if that were her intention. But the
|
||
trip wasn't a total loss. Just as it dawned on us that we weren't
|
||
witnessing an interstellar genicide she turned to me and mouthed
|
||
over the screams, "We're fucking flowers." I don't have the first
|
||
clue what that means, but I'm pretty sure it's the nicest thing
|
||
anyone has ever said to me.
|
||
.
|