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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...]

Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class

:::

Hey universe, it's Stephanie again.

So, Seriph Adeyemi had a talk with me and now I've got to send out

another message since the last one wasn't great. It was not okay

for me to talk about the crew like I did, and so I'm here to set

the record straight. Navigator Hämäläinen and I were celebrating

the spirit of the season a bit too hard and made things seem worse

than they are. We're not fucked, okay?

I mean, things really did look pretty bad, and we have spent

a month in the dark. On a traditional ship we'd be suffocating in

the heat from our bodies without any way to rad-out the excess,

but the grav-sheer drive sucks so much energy from Melchi's

surface that it's colder than lunar balls on a dark side squat.

Eva joked that we don't need to go back into cryo cause the whole

ship will do it for us. It was funnier when she said it.

It sounds bad, right? But it really isn't, or it's getting better.

Our people know what they're doing. I mean, they're all pretty

much geniuses in what they do or they wouldn't be here, right?

It's like the slime--

Seriph Adeyemi and Captain Pasani were taking the slime in cryo

really seriously at first, thinking it might have screwed with the

crew in some way. Once we figured out it was harmless Adeyemi was

ready to cleanse the whole patch and be done with it but the

captain made us go in and carefully move it into containment.

I was worried we were prepping the worst dinner in the 'verse, to

be honest. Not even Prezzi knew what he had planned. I guess

Jerome has access to all our personal docs in the pads or

something because he knew all about Kroups genetics work back on

Gamma. He didn't even need to thaw her out. He just plucked her

notes out of the pad and passed them to Doctor Idjani.

I was there when he did it, too. We were in flex--that's our

muscle tensioning training to avoid low-G wasting, even though

we're at a full G and I don't understand why we need to do it

every other cycle. But anyway, we're all strapped down and

sweating. It was me, the doc, and Eva who was singing some old

farming songs from the way back. She was warbling or undulating

or something with her tongue in her throat (it's supposed to sound

like some Earth mammal) when Jerome pokes his head in. He didn't

give Eva a second glance! When he's into it like that it's like

the rest of the 'verse better just get out of the way or shut up.

He locked eyes with the doc and slipped over.

Then he's like, "Doc, you have the slime-shit all locked up?"

And doc nods like, "Yeah, it's under my bunk," or something gross

like that.

And out of nowhere Jerome goes, "Kroups has a phenotypic allele

psuedogene mutation that causes the daughter cells to be

heterozygous at the fragile sites," or some utter gibberish like

that. Jerome's no geneticist and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't know

the first thing about phytology, but he's spouting out syllables

all over the place. Doc keeps on nodding like he understands any

of it, but I can read him and that shit was going right over his

head too. The captain keeps it up for another couple minutes and

starts getting into detail about Kroups notes and that's when my

ears perk up. I had no idea he could read our private logs, but

apparently it's a thing and of course my mind immediately goes to

some stuff in mine, and then I look at Jerome's butt, and now my

face must be red from more than the flex. Thank the stars the

captain was all focused on the doc.

At the end of it, the two of them put a plan together to mess with

the slime's DNA and make it into something useful. I guess it must

have been on his mind because of the arabidopsis. If fucking empty

space can play DNA lottery, why not us? And thank the stars he

thought of it because the Melchizedek just got a 2^6 times better.

In less than a cycle the doc had that slime glowing like our

Christmas lights. No really, literally glowing. Bio-luminescence

it's called, and it's a thing of beauty. The slime is smeared all

over the vents now on all decks since that's where the moisture

collects anyway. The gunk glows with this really amazing

blue-green light. It's not that bright yet, but you can see well

enough to walk the decks again, and Jerome says that as the slime

continues to spread it'll get brighter.

So yeah, we're not fucked. We've got glowing slime! Take that,

science.

Speaking of science, last time I mentioned that our beloved and

trusted captain was doing some funny math about us arriving on

schedule without getting the old bug-splat from deceleration.

Well, he finally came clean and explained it to the rest of us and

I. Am. Not. Impressed.

Apparently we can get to β Hyi safely without going back into cryo

and without the big squish, but it's going to take an extra four

deceleration orbits skimming the atmo of β Hyi 3. We'll gradually

work our way in closer on each slingshot and cut thrust. That's

not exactly quick, though. The first orbit will take an extra

month. The other three get progressively faster but all together

it means that three months left is actually six months left.

Orbital mechanics can blow me.

Prezzi tells me this is not a problem. Got that? I am to say that

this is not a problem. There, I said it.

So this not-problem means we're going to run out of rations about

halfway to touchdown. This lack of problem means that our

temperature is going to drop below freezing about a month before

touchdown as well. There's absolutely no problem at all with

sticking around out here where space may or may not chop up your

genes at any moment. It's an adventure!

For real, though, we're going to make it. If the captain can turn

fucking space-slime into hallway lighting then he can sure as hell

figure out a way to keep us fed and warm for a bit longer. These

people are geniuses and beautiful and they're going to save

everyone. Got that, Prezzi? Everyone.

.