I don't believe in ghosts - Part 1
27 Apr 2019Zinnsei
I don't believe in ghosts. There. I said it, it's out. Whatever else may exist in the Universe, whatever may be yet undiscovered and thusly not known and quantified by mankind, I DON'T. BELIEVE. IN GHOSTS!It's been months since my last log and so much has transpired since then. The ship is about 500 LY from Byeia Free WR-W b56-0 - "The Misty Mountains" on Planet 1A is the current destination. That's what he told me, at least. The ship is running under VI control, hurdling away, jump after jump, towards the final destination. He's here, somewhere in the darkened corridors, toying with me. We fell hopelessly behind the fleet a few weeks ago and since then reality has been melting away.
The crew is gone; some disembarked at "Explorer's Anchorage" - the engineers and some of the regular crew - the rest... was vented into space two days ago.
I should start somewhere coherent.
We made berth at Explorer's Anchorage around the end of February - I forget which date exactly - and the designated crew disembarked. Leonard and I were the only ones aboard, save for a skeleton crew. We went to see Sag. A*, equally out of continued curiosity and remembrance of Napoleon and the loss of the Zenith. I remember having an acute out-of-body experience when standing alone in the forward observation lounge, looking straight into the mouth of the beast. It keeps getting to me, how much of a wonder that yawning mouth - the gaping wound of the galaxy is. It scares the living daylights out of me. It's easy to lose track of time and place when faced with such a wonder, but I still think I would have heard Leonard enter - I should have heard him - but suddenly he was there beside me. I almost yelped with the shock and he looked positively puzzled with my reaction. I told him, he'd caught me pondering and he dismissed it with a gesture. We stood there, just staring at the supermassive black hole for what felt like hours. At a certain point, the helmsman contacted us over the intercom about something - I forget what - and Leonard said he'd take care of it. I remained there, looking transfixed at the center of the galaxy, constantly feeling like something was burrowing out from inside my head.
Sometime later we held a short remembrance gathering in the forward observation lounge for the departed crew of the Zenith. I said a few words, but they escape me at this moment. I remember Leonard looking at me, seeming worried. Perhaps he was catching on by then already. Who knows.
After having departed the Centre, we went back to Explorer's Anchorage and waited out the remaining construction work. A few days before the final phase of construction, Leonard and I, along with the skeleton crew, journeyed to Peak, the highest possible point reachable in the known galaxy as of OKT '04. We spent a few hours going out there, spent the most of the day in the system and were back at Explorer's Anchorage before evening, ship's time. I noticed Leonard looking at me strangely, while we were enjoying the solitude of Peak, and eventually, he came out and asked me what was going on with me. We shared tea in the deserted crew area and I told him about all of my suspicions along with what I remembered from the past 18 months.
Sometime before 21 MAR a communique arrived from the Bubble. I had been right. There was something massively wrong with my posting here. Everything seemed to have been planned since perhaps before I got back from the original trip. Before the hospitalization and the countless tests and war games with the Federation. Something planned since perhaps the Zenith went down. My contacts didn't have specific proof, but a whole myriad of curious coincidences and subtle subversiveness. I now wholly believe that someone took note of the happenings regarding Sag A* - perhaps not for the first time - and decided to make me - or all of us survivors - a bunch of test subjects, but for what purpose? This part still eludes me to this day.
I sent back a communique requesting information regarding the rest of the crew - if some of them had surfaced on the radar or shown up at key points in the Thargoid Incursion - perhaps also coming from medical centers or stations, with ringing headaches and memory loss. The last part would be a stretch, no doubt. Not many would confess to these symptoms if they would like to continue their carrier, but I had my hopes.
I never received any more information.
On 21 MAR we departed the Galactic Centre and started the second to last leg of our journey of the Distant Worlds Expedition. We set out for Goliath's Rest only a few days behind the bulk of the fleet.
Little did I know that we had a saboteur aboard.
End of Personal Log, part 1.