Personal Log 157: 26 - 29 May, 3303
15 Jul 2017Jemine Caesar
26 - 29 May, 3303 Cheryl Maughan-Pike's revelation about my Imperial background had come as quite a shock, but, once my initial astonishment had subsided, I realised that I was not as perturbed by the news as I might once have been. I'd always regarded myself as a Federal citizen, but I hadn't felt any special affinity towards the Federation for quite some time. Nor did I now feel particularly drawn towards the Empire, despite having just learned that I was descended from Imperial stock.
But I had little opportunity for prolonged brooding about my family history; within a few hours of returning to Vonarburg Cooperative starport, my dataslate beeped an incoming message from an old friend, Hunter Casooch. The message was voice-only, but the quality of the transmission was very poor. Much of what Casooch said was lost in a garble of radio interference, but several words were distinguishable; "silence them all", "Thetis", "won't stop", "Pleiades" and "help me".
"He's obviously in some kind of trouble," I said to Sam, tapping buttons on my slate. "Casooch's message appears to have originated in the Pleiades."
"That's where those barnacles are," replied Sam. "And where the alien ships have been sighted."
"If Casooch is calling me for help," I said, "then I have to go and find him, alien ships or not."
But there was just one small problem; on first arriving at Vonarburg Cooperative, I had put the Innocent Flower in for some upgrade work to be carried out on her frame shift drive. The ship would be out of action for the next day or two at least.
"Then the solution is obvious," said Sam. "We can go in my ship. The Tudor Rose has a better jump range than your ship anyway, so we can make the trip in less time."
Sam and I immediately changed into our flightsuits and hurried down to the docks. A short time later we were leaving the starport in the Tudor Rose and heading for the Pleiades. I began sending repeat k-casts to Casooch, telling him I was on my way and requesting a response. The reply, when it eventually came, was both distorted and unexpected...
"No... stop... dangerous... stay away..."
I looked at Sam. "Now he seems to be telling me to stay away."
"Hmm," said Sam. "Your friend clearly doesn't want any harm to come to you."
"Sod that. He needs help."
Another muffled message came in from Casooch. "Must silence... kill... all..."
"Silence?" I replied, unsure if my signal would be any clearer to Casooch than his was to me. "Silence what? Casooch, I'm coming to help you. You have to tell me where you are."
As the Tudor Rose sped on into the Pleiades sector, the k-cast signal from Casooch grew a little stronger, making conversation easier. Casooch was evidently under some strain.
"Please, Jem, you must not... too dangerous... the voices... kill them all..."
"What voices, Casooch? Tell me what's going on. What are the voices?"
There was a long pause, then; "There's a ... keeps repeating... same words over and..."
"What does it say?"
"Kill them all... over and over..."
"How long has this been going on?"
"I don't know... two weeks, maybe... month. I think... going mad..."
"All right. Are you able to fly your ship?"
"Barely... difficult to concentrate... kill them all... hard to see straight... destruct... I think... going insane..."
"I'm coming to help you, Casooch. Tell me where you are. I'll pick you up and take you back to the bubble, get you to a medicentre."
"All right... I'm at Pleiades... OI-T C3-7 A..."
Sam tapped the course into the navcom. "A precise location would be nice," he commented. I nodded, and spoke to Casooch once more.
"Can you give me your surface coordinates?"
"Minus forty-two point seven seven seven one, by minus twenty-one point seven zero six three. The barnacles."
Sam and I exchanged a look. The barnacles were where the alien ships had been sighted, appearing at odd intervals and interacting with the so-called barnacles in some way. The ships had so far not been hostile towards any humans, despite provocation from some of the more antagonistic commanders who had visited the site. With a shrug, Sam set the navcom to take us to the coordinates.
"We're on our way, Casooch. Hold on just a little longer."
The Tudor Rose dropped down towards the planet's surface, and soon we had our first site of the notorious barnacles. Galnet had reported visits to the site by dozens of ships, but for now only one was present. Casooch's Cobra III sat waiting for us, about five hundred metres away from the two organic-looking formations. Sam brought the Tudor Rose down to rest close by.
"Casooch," I said. "I'm here, with a friend. How are you feeling? Do you still hear the voices?"
"Yes..."
"All right. Listen to me. Open your access hatch. I'm going to walk over to your ship."
"But the voices...kill them all... over and over..."
"You won't kill me. You don't have to obey the voices, Casooch."
"It's hard not to... They're driving me insane. The other commander I went to the Thetis with, he lost it completely."
"The Thetis?" I said. "The Generation ship?" Reports of the discovery of the ill-fated Thetis had been in Galnet quite a bit recently.
"Yes!" Casooch replied. "Don't go there!"
"I won't. Casooch, You're allied to the Empire, aren’t you?"
"Yes. To Aisling Duval."
"All right. I'll take you to one of her systems. They'll be able to help you there."
"Cubeo," said Casooch. "Take me there."
"Cubeo it shall be," I agreed.
*****
Three days later, on June the twenty-ninth, Sam and I were sitting at Casooch's bedside in the medicentre on Chelomey Orbital, Cubeo. Casooch had been stabilised and taken straight to surgery at the Imperial facility. Now, several hours after his operation, Casooch was waking up, the left side of his head in bandages. He looked at me, a deeply puzzled expression on his tired face.
"You're at Cubeo," I told him, gently. "Chelomey Orbital Medicentre. I brought you here from the Pleiades."
"Last I remember," he said, "was some narcotics, the barnacles and a lot of voices. And... my cybernetic eye feels funny."
"Casooch, they removed the eye."
"Oh. Why? Was it malfunctioning?"
"Sort of."
"How did you know where to find me?"
"You sent me a k-cast, asking for help and at the same time telling me to stay away. You said you heard voices, saying 'Kill them all'."
"Yes, I remember the voices," said Casooch. "But I don't remember sending you any messages."
"I guess you were delirious. Sam and I came out to help you. Do you recall why you were at the barnacle site?"
"Yes."
"Do you want to tell me?"
"Well, it's not pleasant, but if you want to hear it..."
"Of course."
"OK. Have you heard about the generation ship Thetis?"
"Yes. It's been in Galnet. Quite a few pilots have been out to take a look. Human curiosity is rather indefatigable."
"Yeah," replied Casooch. "I was one of the curious ones. I went to the Thetis with a friend of mine, commander Jonuss. We didn't board it, but we did listen to the transmitted logs. You hear the ship's comms officer describing how the crew started to deal with an audio message – 'Kill them all' – playing over and over. Then she starts to go insane, like the rest of the crew. They started killing on another, and writing things on the walls in blood. But the final log was garbled. After the chase for Salome on April twenty-ninth, I went back with Jonuss to try and repair the final beacon and clean up the log. It was the signal..."
"Go on," I said.
"It embedded itself in our comms relays, and began broadcasting. It wasn't bad at first, but then it sounded like shouting. Then, when we heard that pilots were sightseeing at that barnacle site in the Pleiades, Jonuss and I went there and started killing, firing on as many ships as we could."
"I see."
"I don't know how long we were there, but at some point I crash landed, and had a moment of clarity. I remember dosing myself with narcotics, and then I woke up here."
Casooch raised his hand to the bandaged left side of his face. "Why did they take my eye?"
"The medics here believe that the voices you heard were being relayed through the cybernetics in your eye and routed directly to your brain as an auditory signal. It acted as a sort of hypnotic command. Removing the eye hopefully cancelled the signal."
"Well, I can't hear it anymore, so I guess that worked."
"They say they can give you a new cybernetic eye. Or grow you a new organic one, if you'd prefer."
Casooch chuckled. "As nice as the cybernetic one was, I might go with the organic, after all this."
"I would have to agree," I said, nodding. "What about commander Jonuss? Where is he?"
"I have no clue," replied Casooch. "I'm going to have to go find him."
"Well, the medics say you should make a full recovery, but they want you to stay in here for a few days at least."
"That's fine with me. By the way, what is today's date?"
"The date? Today is May the twenty-ninth."
"Wow. So, what's been happening?
"Quite a lot. But you're looking tired. Get some rest. You can catch up on all the news later."
"OK, Jem. Thanks for all your help. I'll shoot you a message once I'm recovered. I owe you."
I gave him a friendly smile. "You owe me nothing, Casooch. I was glad to be able to help. Take care."
*****
"That was quite a story," said Sam later, as we sat in the Tudor Rose on our way back to Wyrd.
"Yes," I replied. "Poor Casooch. He's certainly been through a harrowing experience. An embedded audio hypnotic suggestion which compels one to kill... Do you suppose that might account for all those other pilots who turn up at places of interest and open fire on innocent commanders? Or do you suppose they just do it for their own twisted amusement?"
Sam looked at me with a wry grin on his face.
"Well," he said, "which do you think?"
=============================================================================================================
Author's Note:
This log is the result of an ingame RP session with commander Hunter Casooch. You might find this entry from his own logbook useful.
My thanks to him for an entertaining 800 Ly round trip, and for providing my first look at the barnacles!