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Source Melchizedek.0294

β Hyi, 4rd Planet

Ascension 00h 25m 45.07037s

Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″

Distance 24.37ly

Equinox J2000.0 SOL

Year 3782, QEC adjusted

[Autotranslator enabled...]

[System encryption enabled. Relaying audio transcription to

Melchizedek.0294 base station.]

[Envelope from Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class]

[Delivery to Eva Hämäläinen, Navigator]

:::

Hey girl. I'm up on top like you said, riding this all the way in.

I think we'll be arriving shortly. Have you talked to Mo yet? Reed

and Spinelli were talking at mess already. I caught it on the sec

feed. They think there's something out there that's alive. Alien,

Reed said.

When you told me to stay hidden as long as possible I thought you

meant a few hours. This is getting old. I was going to go in and

bring up Jerome, but I listened to your warning. Besides, I think

they might be with us anyway. You really think the others on three

will report us? I mean, we took the shuttle, but Brewer wouldn't

call Prezzi if his face were on fire and Ostergarten is infatuated

with you. Hanks is Hanks, but he wouldn't, would he?

I mean, I trust you, but this seems a little bit overkill. The

crew here hasn't done anything out of the ordinary at all. I bet

if I just showed up in the mess everyone would say, "Oh hi,

Stephanie. When did you get in? How's the crazy thing going?" Then

we'd have some tea, eat some greens, and it would be just like

normal. Except if the doctor is around, I guess. Dr. Nguyen knows

I should be back on three and would definitely say something to

Prezzi.

So here I am, just where you left me. My legs fell asleep earlier.

Oh wow was that funny. I dropped down to grab some rations and

when my feet hit the deck I dropped right down in a sack. It was

pathetic. They were seriously dead to me for a minute there.

I tried to walk by memory since I couldn't feel a thing and my

feet were flailing all about. I nearly kicked the flood-hatch aft

and I did kick the bottom lip on portway 3. It was kind of fun in

a horrible way, but then my legs started to wake up. You know that

feeling like a thousand bees inside your skin? Not fun at all. So

I all but danced my way in to the mess (this was after Reed and

Spinelli left) and grabbed some foodstuffs and made my way back.

I took Reed's pillow, though. That one he uses as a cushion in the

mess, you know? I need something to keep my legs from

disconnecting from me again. He'll just assume someone else took

it. No worries. I remember Bukowski took it to mess with him just

after launch one time. See? Smart, right?

So, long story short, I'm still here in the dark. The crews are

rotating like normal. I about had a heart attack when Prezzi came

in yesterday all sudden-like. I thought she caught me or you or

something, but then she just ran for the commode and I had to stop

myself from laughing out loud. That would have been terrible.

Caught out by laughing. That's totally something I'd do.

Right right right. So is there anything else I can do? It's

a little boring and I want to help. What if I did some navigation

preconfig stuff. I mean, I have the old course that Sandy worked

out in the logs. I could try getting it input here to start things

off. You know I can't handle the drift math, but maybe it'll help

you move quicker once you're back on board. Or we can wait for

darkcycle and I can try to talk to Reed. He's got watch onboard

and he should be alone.

Please, Eva. There's got to be something I can do.

.

[End of encrypted envelope.]