Generation Ship - Pleione
14 Oct 2017Robert Phillips
My next lead took me to the Puppis Sector FB-X B1-4 system. Nothing was immediately apparent on arrival, so I scanned the various bodies in the system and found a listening post in orbit of Puppis Sector FB-X b1-4 3.Scanning this listening post transmitted the following data:
UNREGISTERED DATA
…Transponder Signal PLE-461-0 Detected…
Matching Signal Detected. Hez Ur. Time Stamp Predates Parameters.
…Situation…newborns…nine months…all…pregnancies have produced…Hez Ur…l’m currently looking…complement…male…female…8…l have..idea…time…ls…potential… Teuten…
…Signal Lost…
As with previous signals, this transmission contained a few key words: "Hez Ur" (a star system), "Teuten" (another star system), and "8".
Assuming the order of data in the transmission was unchanged, I took this to mean that Hez Ur was the starting system, and Teuten was the destination system the source of the transmission was travelling towards. The problem was that I didn't know what the number "8" meant here. Was it the system body? Or perhaps a part of the distance travelled.
Reasoning that this could be a long investigiton, I decided to simplify my parameters. Since any signal within 1,000 LS would be detected, I would attempt my search in the following order:
- Travel to Hez Ur 8. If no signal is detected, then...
- Target Teuten and travel for 8,000 LS. If still no signal, then...
- Travel to within 1,000 LS of each remaining body in Hez Ur. If still no signal, then...
- Target Teuten from each major body in Hez Ur and travel for 8,000 LS.
I was disheartened to find that there was no signal detected within 8,000 LS of Hez Ur 8. Nor was any signal found within 1,000 LS of the remaining bodies in Hez Ur.
This was going to take a while.
Finally, after travelling 8,000 LS from Hez Ur 5 to Teuten, I detected a signal! Generation Ship Pleione:
The enormous ship had 4 Ship Log Uplink points that I scanned to receive the final 4 logs transmitted by the ship's chief medical officer:
THE CHROMOSOME INCIDENT 1/4
Medical Log 247/4
I’ve researched some statistics and there could be a problem. Over the past three months 75% of pregnancies have provided a male foetus. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about right now. Although I’m starting to think my predecessor made a mistake not bringing any medical equipment that could manipulate gender at the embryonic stage. I mean I can understand the ethics behind it, but this has left us hanging a little bit. Especially now we’re in this situation. I can only hope it evens itself out.
THE CHROMOSOME INCIDENT 2/4
Medical Log 320/9
Situation is now critical. We’ve had no female newborns for the past nine months and all recent pregnancies have produced male foetuses. I’rn currently looking into the problem and it would appear that none of the ship’s complement are producing male gametes with the XX chromosome. That means that even if we could artificially inseminate with a sample we still wouldn’t produce any zygotes with the potential to form a female embryo. l have no idea how to solve this as we have no stock with both XX and XY samples on the ship – another mistake my predecessor made. lf I can find out the cause of this anomaly hopefully it will lead me to a solution. We have time to fix this, and I’m not panicking yet, but this has the potential to be disastrous to the success of our mission.
THE CHROMOSOME INCIDENT 3/4
Medical Log 398/1
After all these years I finally have to come to terms with the fact that we’re never going to find a solution to this problem. The last member of the ship’s complement of child bearing age has now had a boy. She was sixty nine. If I could find a solution, even if I applied the stims and gene therapy that allowed any of them to carry a child, none of the women aboard ship would reach full term anyway.
THE CHROMOSOME INCIDENT 4/4
Medical Log 537/5
This will be my last entry. The men aboard are preparing to evacuate. They know the mission is doomed and don’t want to die here. I don’t blame them. I could still go with them, but I’ve refused the offer. I failed this ship and everyone aboard. It’s only right that I die with the mission. Good luck to them.
A life without women scarcely bares thinking about. I wonder what happened to the men who evacuated? Did any of them survive?
We may never know...