Getting Back in that Chair
11 Jan 2017Tuts
*** Cigui, Clark City, StarDate 12.30.3303 ***Growing up watching cheesy holovids, I used to roll my eyes and jeer at the 'main character has amnesia' trope. Not only is it a tired plot device, but the character would always whine and moan about it the whole episode. So you forgot some stuff, so what? You're not an invalid, get off your can and do something fun! Sooner or later you'll get struck by lightning or bonked on the head or whatever and it'll ALL come back to you at a pivotal moment!
The actual experience is different and unpleasant in the extreme. You know that feeling when Something is Not Right that everyone has experienced occasionally? Well, now I feel like that. All. The. Time. Unless I constantly keep myself focused on doing something else, or sleeping, any free moment (meals are the worst) and I'm back to worrying at the missing chunks of time, like tonguing at a newly broken tooth. File not Found. File not Found.
The Pilgrim felt eerie, familiar / not-familiar after a year in drydock. A fine layer of dust on everything, except for some of the flight controls. A stranger's prints on the yoke and keyboard, from being ferried over. I spent a few hours spritzing, dusting and going over every surface with a microvac until they gleamed.
Flight computer didn't recognize my voice commands for some reason (do I really sound so different now?) so I had to spend a couple of hours re-initializing speech function macros. And some of the flight controls appeared to be misallocated or even missing. Another hour fixing that.
Lots of news on galnet during my time 'away'. The usual political dustups, murders and mayhem on the star lanes, which I skimmed & promptly forgot. But there have been some weird developments. I remember the barnacles they found out in the Pleiades region, and all the crazy malfunctions that the meta-alloys were causing on ships and stations... but alien probes? Crashlanded ships of unrecognizable design? Old ee-tee ruins?! I spent almost a day diving down that rabbit hole.
Hell, maybe that's what happened to me... some bored thargoids abducted me & stuck their damn probe up my nose and hit the 'puree' button. I'm sure Cmdr. Hayslip would love that theory. I'll add it to my list.
I've got three messages on my comms panel from three unfamiliar contacts - Tod McQuinn, The Dweller (?), and Felicity Farseer. I'm not sure what they're in regards to, but in my circumstance I can't ignore any possible leads. The last one originated from a system called Deciat, pretty close by. I plan to investigate that one first.
I just realized that I've been stalling. Could it be that I am afraid to fly?
I won't have it. It's time to fire her up & take her out.
End log