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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

:::

Doctor Nguyen (the medical one, not the biologist) thinks I'm

crazy. No, seriously. She actually said that in our session today.

So, either I'm certifiable or she's the worst psychologist on the

planet. Actually, it's probably both. She's only one of five

people on the planet after all, and the only psychologist, so that

makes her the worst one. Yes it also makes her the best, shut it.

According to the worst doctor on the planet it's not okay to break

things or throw things at doctors when you are angry. That's

apparently a problem, which I think is just ridiculous. I mean,

they have special hospitals and stuff back on Earth for people

like that and I bet those doctors get things thrown at their heads

all the time. And I'll bet they don't call their patients crazy

and run out of the room. I mean, seriously, it wasn't like it was

a knife or anything. A microscope can't hurt that bad. She's such

a drama queen.

So in good news I have this habitat to myself now. In the bad news

category I'm not allowed to leave it without an escort. I'm not

sure how that's fair to the escort, though. I mean, it's going to

be Eva cause they make her do everything where I'm concerned and

Eva didn't do anything wrong at all. She's perfect. And what sort

of punishment is that for throwing a microscope, anyway? "You,

stay in this tent and you're only allowed to spend time with this

hot science lady on this totally foreign world where there's like

nobody around. No duties, just private tent time." Okay, I think

I might like the sound of this, actually.

Jerome, though. First Dr. Idjani and now Jerome and that

cold-hearted bitch won't even go look for him. There's something

out there eating our crew and she just wants to mess around with

a machine that sprays man juice all over the ground. If you ask

me, she's the one that's sick in the head. That's like totally an

Oedipus complex, or Odysseus complex or one of those old Greek

dudes that was into spraying man juice all over. I dunno, I'm not

a historian. Yeah, we're here to bring life to the galaxy,

awesome. And what's the count on that so far? OH, NEGATIVE THREE!?

No, this is all wrong and I'm going to fix it somehow. I've got to

get off three and over to four, though. All the equipment is on

four, unless I'm going to laser-measure my way into saving Jerome

from an interstellar octopus or whatever is out there. Range-find

him right into oblivion, yeah. No, for real, we have actual stuff

on four that could help. Probes and whatnots. We don't actually

need to risk a ship! I told her this and still she pulls this

rank-and-file shit as if there's some echelon of command waiting

to check in on us. THEY ARE ALL DEAD! YOU ARE ALL DEAD! Or might

as well be. 1300 years? Yeah, is the Rhetorical Ecclesia even

around anymore? We haven't heard a peep out of Earth since we woke

up. Plenty of sad sappy screaming from all the other ships out

there, though. This universe hates us and wants to kill us all and

I am the only one who wants to god-damn fight back!

Eva. She's with me. Or, well, she's like physically with me. She's

sleeping on the cot right now and I snagged her tablet to write

this. I'm encrypting this shit too, so it doesn't echo back to the

rest of the team. One-way QEC messages, bitches. Didn't know you

could do that, did ya, Prezzi? Yeah, the fascists forgot I'm

actually on this mission cause I know shit. At least when I'm not

drunk. And I'm sober as anything right now.

Oh my god, Sandy. Holy shit, I'm a horrible person. Jerome is like

my ship dad or something, so I talked about him and I totally

skipped over Sandy. She's a gem. I met her before she started

transitioning and it has been the best decision ever. She's

a god-damned inspiration. Live your truth, be who you are meant to

be. She deserves better than this, not just from me. I'm not going

to let her down, or Jerome. They're out there, I know it.

"Oh Stephanie, that's nonsense. You read the transcript, something

happened to them. They were hallucinating. Bullshit bullshit

bullshit." No. I've heard it all. Prezzi's logic is Right and Just

and Holy and it's utterly wrong. I HEARD the recording when I read

it. I can feel it and hear it in my head. I know the sound those

alarms make. I know the voice of the computer speaking and there's

no way to confuse that with Dr. Idjani. There's no way the captain

would confuse it. And even if he did, even if both of them heard

some crazy stuff or their nitrogen mix was wrong, the transcript

finished. It came through!

"Autodisconnect after 5 minute silence". That's what it says.

That's what it did. Something happened and they stopped talking

for five full minutes and THEN the ship relayed the message. That

shuttle is out there and they need us. They need help, and I'll be

damned if I'm going to leave them to the black.

Eva will help. She knows what's at stake. I trust her, but I need

more. If I do this, whatever this is, I'm not jumping in without

a plan. The Vos 144A has 6 shuttles and they can peer-dock without

an umbilical, but only if someone is awake on both sides to link

the seals. That's a problem. Also it sounds like Jerome was doing

his funny math to backtrack to the spot we lost the doctor. I'm

a fair whiz at maths but those sort of transverse orbitals

accounting for stellar drift will need a proper navigator. Lucky

me I've got best navigator for 20 light years drooling on my

pillow. So gross. So cute. What else? Oh, right, I'm on the wrong

planet.

That's not so bad, as far as plans go. Get Eva, get others, get

a ship, get to four, get more stuff, find Jerome and Sandy, bring

our people home, punch Prezzi in her dumb face, make out with Eva.

This is doable. I can do this. We can do this. Please let me be

able to do this.

.