I Don't Want Answers, I Want Justice
19 Apr 2022Lily Flemmon
SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING: MENTION OF SELF-INJURYI handed in those 6 occupied escape pods at Jaques Station. And the 112 others we found. I wish I could have had a chance to talk to Jaques, the legless charisma himself. But he's a busy pedestal, so I'm gonna have to settle for getting things moving myself. But as far as I can tell, there's no way that these strandings were an accident.
So I stopped by the first contact on my list, Eleanor Bresa. I have to say, it... was nice seeing her again.
"Hey, Commander Lily, good to see you again!"
"Hey. Listen, I- I gotta catch you up on... a lot of things, actually."
"Alright, what's first on the list?"
"Well, oldest first, I uh... Last time I was here, a lot of things happened that I didn't remember until recently. Trauma-induced amnesia, more or less."
"Does this have anything to do with the ripped sheets in the guest room and those black streaks on the bed?"
"Yeah, a little." I pulled one of the spinal support plates out from my back pocket and handed it to her. "It starts with me going into 1100K heat to activate transponders on the escape pods I brought back on my first trip. This is one of the spinal support plates that were actually fused to my back by third-degree burns, and they all fell off during the night I stayed here."
"Wait. You're telling me that you had metal fused to your back when we first met, from a severe burn injury from what, a few days before?"
"About 36 hours, yeah. The healing process was not only fast, but ended up with carbon fiber reinforced skin patches on my back, thanks to residual nanites from my transition procedure. Domino's handiwork."
"And... you were in denial about the injury?"
"Yeah, it got lumped in with-" I winced as my collarbone and left forearm started to burn. "-fuck. Every other- self-inflicted..."
"...I'm so sorry, Lily. I know it probably hurts a lot."
"Yeah... no shit." The burning began to fade as I steadied myself again. "Anyway, there's been a recent development in that system. I returned there on this trip out and realized that not only did rescue missions to pick up the pods I left behind never happen... This time it was a planned stop, and a handful of other Commanders and I just handed in... 118 occupied escape pods, all with living occupants."
"118? All in one system?"
"140 total. And yes."
"Why- do you think it might have been deliberate?"
"Had to have been. As far as I can tell, they were all Jamesoned. And honestly I don't want to know why, but I came here to ask you to see to it that it gets resolved. I'm here for another few days, and I'll do what I can to help while I'm here, but this is going to take more delicate hands than yours or mine, and it's going to take time I don't have."
"Lily, I-" She sighed. "I'll see what I can do. I had hoped Colonia would mean I was far away from stuff like this, but..."
"I'm sure everyone hoped that. You aren't alone. Honestly, I'm not worried about getting people to cooperate with an investigation, I'm more worried how people respond if word gets out. And there's no big rush- whatever happened is already years in the past."
"Well, I know a few people I can pass this along to."
"Eleanor, I'm sorry for dumping this on you. I know it's a lot."
"I know I'm probably the only person you could have told. I'll manage, don't worry."
----
I'm not the right person for this investigation. It's fucked up, and even after just a day it's looking like those people were all Jamesoned. That shouldn't even be a verb. I hate that it is, that should have never happened to anyone ever again, and yet here we are, with it happening to over a hundred pilots. All of whom survived. Makes sense given the advancements in FSD safety since Jameson's death, and the fact that there have been ship safety panels on "how Jameson could have survived." I just... I hope this was another thing with Thargoid Sensors, and it probably was, but if this was deliberate and malicious... A lot of people could lose a lot of hope very fast.
And that... scares me. A lot.