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Automatic message XC321-7

 

Eyes Only Pakrat

 

Spa here, I was passing through Ak's Gate and as I was entering the Earth Side Gate this Data cube attached itself to my data link

 

After listening to it, I scoured all the quadrants and both gates, no sled, no asteroid and no hulks so I'm not sure if this was a... oh what did they call it... ah, an April Fools Joke.

 I am sending the message to you just in case there is some truth to this recording

 

End Message... Encryption code 334.45.Zulu

 

***Voice activation Xanax “Start recording. Dead man’s switch set” ***

The probe returned as I expected and I removed the camera module and placed it in the developing machine and waited. Old tech took time to work, and all the research I had done over the years was hopefully going to pay off.

I thought about how I first saw the hulks floating around this asteroid, Asteroid 642 to be exact, surveyed so long ago and buried deep in old archives that only by digging through layers of information was I able to find any reference to it and what was written was very scarce and intriguing

 

‘Asteroid 642. Sector: Akron’s Gate. Quadrant 4.

Composition: unknown. Oval shape. Strong magnetic field?.

***WARNING** No probes landed, all attempts failed”

 

The only thing that saved me from the same fate as the other ships which are now hulks was a Jenquai Explorer warping in and as the looting sequence started, the JE ship went dark and a massive drain on the ships power system was detected. I reversed thrusters and sent a probe to see what could have caused the malfunction of the JE ship. As the probe headed to the ship it was displaying all data it could analyse from the immediate area, it stopped transmitting 24Ks from the JE ship, the last item displayed on the recording I could see was a total power failure.

 

A quick survey around the asteroid showed 48 ships, now hulks, floating long dead and forgotten, there was an old PS ship closest to the asteroid that could have mined the asteroid that was one of the first designed ships incorporating mechanical and electronic controls that left Mars after gene call forwarding was developed.

“That’s old” I thought, this asteroid has been capturing ships for years, yet nothing is shown on any map that it ever existed apart from what I found. I recall finding information on the PS ships of the era and looked at the manufacturing processes on how they were build. Combining mechanical and electronic controls to fly the ship and activate the mining sequence, the mechanical components controlled the position thrusters to manoeuvre the ship into mining range then the electronic controls were activated to mine the asteroid. That could explain why the ship was in mining proximity to the asteroid, but didn’t explain the other ships and why they were all ‘dead’.

 

I released a data satellite and set it to record, which required returning to the satellite every 3 weeks to remove the data and visual images. Over a period of a year I recorded 2 more ships approach the asteroid and displayed the same event that I witnessed with the JE ship, they started looting the hulks and then nothing.

The information gathered and analysed with every possible piece of equipment available to me showed nothing. As frustration started to upset my normal running routine, I went to the gene repository and filed a request to research old gene manipulation techniques knowing that searching will also give sideline information on old and now thought redundant technology which was niggling in the back of my mind as I’m sure had something to do with that old PS hulk.

 

While studying in the gene repository I read old scripts on power leakage displays using analogue meters wired to recorders that were used, so I built a prototype by requesting through the Market Channel a certain set of parts to  purchase, that when  combined built a power reductor jet engine with an analogue recording device that  transferred the readings to a mechanical foil strip, I recalled this idea from old black box recording devices used in twentieth century aircraft.

Having a flash of inspiration I studied lander designs going back to the first space exploration devices sent from Earth; this gave me valuable insight into mechanical propulsion systems. A probe was duly build and fitted with propellant tanks and all and any devices I could think of that operated using mechanical activation, I even re-engineered a ‘polaroid’ camera which developed its own pictures and added 35mm film cameras set to different visual wavelengths with attached mechanical apparatus to wind and click the shutter buttons. When the probe was completed I returned to Ak’s Gate and set the probe to do a flyby of the asteroid when my satellite detected another ship approaching the debris area.

 

Resetting the satellite to activate the probe and send a message when it detected another ship approaching thus saving a return visit every 3 weeks, I returned to mining for the market and waited knowing it was no use sitting idle and not knowing what might be needed or built, I studied old gene records and built anything that was uncovered from old technology.

 

“Satellite X341 detected ship approaching Asteroid 642, Drone probe released. End”

 

That message woke me so I recalled the mining drones that were mining low level ores in Asteroid Belt alpha, while they were returning I checked my ship. When the last drone was emptied and stacked in its cradle, I warped to Jove’s Fury for supplies and to gather equipment long built and placed in vault storage.

With all sensors pushed to maximum detection I waited at the satellite for the return of the drone probe. It had been set to release from the satellite do a sweep of the detected ship and a run pass the asteroid and return. I filled the developing tanks for the film and while setting the computers to read the mechanical data when the drone probe returned, I saw a flash in the corner of my eye from the main screen, looking out, nothing was visible, but when I checked the recorder there was a slight indication of power usage or drain coming from the same direction as asteroid 642.

 

 “Satellite X341 detected ship approaching Satellite X341. End”

 

The probe was returning so I readied the docking cradle for the drone probe and watched as it docked and cycled into the cargo bay, I noticed the power display was not displaying a reading meaning all the power had been drained, that was expected. I removed the camera cover from the module, the ‘polaroid’ camera had discharged all its film cartridge paper onto a metal grate which destroyed the film except the last picture and it showed a hexagon pattern of what looked like small spires with a central spire and all were just glowing and joined by what looked like lighting.

When the developing machine printed the 35mm camera pictures in normal light there was nothing to see except the asteroid surface, but the infrared pictures showed a different story. The camera captured 2 ships that looked like they were about to loot a hulk, a TS and a PW in tow and the lightning display was incredible, the ships were being drained of power. I removed the ‘Black Box’ and put the etchings through the recorder display and it confirmed the power drain from the drone and it wasn’t constant. The display showed a slow drain as the drone approached the asteroid and the camera displayed the power being drained to the central spire on a hexagon a kilometre above the ‘nose’ of the asteroid, but the time frame shows the power drain went off the display just as the two ships arrived in the ‘drain’ zone. Working on the data available I came to the conclusion the drain responds to the power available but where is it going? Into those spires? Then where?

 

I released an electronic probe and a mechanical probe and set them to record, knowing I will lose the electronic probe but needed more data on the spires. I set the probes to impulse at the central spire that was captured on the film above the ‘nose’ of the asteroid. The probes exited the cargo bay and headed to the asteroid, the electronic probe failed, but because of an incorrect navigating data input I had placed the mechanical probe behind the electronic probe. This error pushed the probes into the asteroid and the probes deflected away from the asteroid instead of returning to my ship.

After the drones had passed far enough away from the asteroid I recovered the probes and returned to the satellite and studied the data from them. Nothing on the electronic probe, but the mechanical probes pictures showed the power from the electronic probe being drawn to the central spire and then I noticed there was power in the electronic probe. Another combination of probes was launched to the same coordinates as the first pair but this time the navigation data was adjusted so the probes were side by side. I stared in amazement as both probes returned and reading the data, both functioned as designed and no power was drained from the electronic probe.

 

I studied the data long and hard, something has changed, but what? Then 2 things happened, first, was a series of images being displayed from the broken electronic probe that bounced off the asteroid and second was a message from the data analyse console. I looked at the two screens and was dumbfounded.

The pictures being displayed in a repeat sequence showed the probes defence screen hitting a spire and breaking it and smashing into the asteroid and bouncing off. The second screen showed the data indicating the asteroid was hollow. I raced to the second set of probes and removed the camera modules from both and set up the mechanical camera to develop, and loading the electronic data sat down and looked at the display. The display showed the probe approaching the asteroid and as the command to return was activated the probe turned and I just made out the broken spire. Freezing the display I could not enlarge the screen to any zoom to get a clear image so I waited for the timer to inform me the 35mm film was ready. While I waited I set up the on-board display to view the asteroid in zoom and scour the surface looking for spires now I had an idea what to look for. After setting the program parameters I went for a long overdue rest and programed a large lunch from the food dispenser when I woke up.

 

“Satellite X341 detected ship approaching Asteroid 642. End”

 

 I had just woken up and went to the cockpit, scanned and recorded a JE impulse to the hulk closest to where my probes hit the asteroid point. A hulk was to one side of the broken spire and the JE looted it, as the ship moved to the next hulk, I waited to see what would happen, nothing, the JE looted the next hulk, then started heading towards another next hulk which was further away from the ‘nose’ of the asteroid. The ship stopped, and started spinning slowly like the rest of the hulks, I checked the data, and another ship had been drained and now joined the rest of the derelict hulks.

I noticed more ships were exploring, so I decided I had to advance my inspection and possible landing on the asteroid before anyone else claims it.

Heading to the dispenser, I grabbed the developed prints and sat down and ate while looking at the data. The program I inputted, by studying the surface and finding hexagon patterns, the spires stood out even though they looked like normal pieces of the asteroid and the JE that I just observed did indeed head towards the next hexagon pattern aft of the one that my probe had broken.

I sent a new electronic probe with all the instruments my spacesuit would use; I waited for the return of the probe to see if landing at the broken spire would affect any of the instruments. I build a sled that would carry a variety of tools and instruments, I set about making my journey to the asteroid as safe as possible using old technology and the latest devices I could beg, borrow, steal or buy.

 

The probe returned after completing a touch and go on the surface of the asteroid and no instrument failed and no power was drained. Setting off, I kept a constant voice recording of what was happening and everything I did. After landing a metre away from the spire, a few instruments were placed on the surface and detailed readings were recorded. A set of mini probes were sent in different directions with trips set in them to drop beacons and markers when they lost power, thus I had a working area displayed on my monitors after they all went dead. I found I was in a circle 40 metres wide and the broken spire was exactly in the centre of the circle.

I methodically removed the entire spire and every piece was bagged and boxed and placed on the sled ready to be sent back to my ship or sent to a safe place according to the parameters of the Dead man’s switch, When I examined the ground I was stunned to see a circle resembling a recessed hatch that was uncovered when all the debris was removed. Examining the area around the circle, I found a deep indentation slightly curved about 20cms deep with what looked like a press button at the bottom. After finding the button I set a dead man’s switch to send the sled to the ancient gate to Sol sector with instructions to contact Net 7 News as I knew if anything untold happened to me, the news would be published.

I grabbed a long metal probe and ever so slowly inserted the probe into the indentation and pressed the button, nothing happened, I repeated the operation, still nothing, so I grabbed a plastic probe and pressed the button, the hatch slowly raised and moved away from the opening on a crystal arm which allowed a large entrance area. I sent a probe down and watched the display show a large chamber with what looked like an airlock built into the back wall of the hatch area.

 

Entering the hatch chamber, I scanned every mm that could be seen and loading all the devices I manufactured, I used the plastic probe to press another button inside another indention simular to the one on the surface. The upper hatch closed and a low level yellow glow engulfed the chamber. I noticed a few sparks around my suit and equipment but nothing malfunctioned and testing all my devices, they still had power and showed correct data. My spacesuit deflated indicating pressure and testing the atmosphere, slightly higher oxygen than earth standard, the air was breathable. After inspecting the airlock controls I spun the wheel and slowly pulled the hatch open and sent a mini probe through and watched the display, nothing on the monitor showed as the probe moved down a corridor descending on a slight angle 20 metres before stopping at another bulkhead door.

The probe suddenly stopped, the data displayed a major power drain before going offline and I felt a momentary change in pressure indicating a hatch or something had been opened. After waiting for a few minutes I slowly entered the corridor and the airlock hatch closed behind me, no lights were visible and I’m moving towards the bulkhead I viewed on the monitor from the probe and I can hear something…

“Clicking and skittering of hairy, chitinous legs coming from the darkness”

***End recording. Dead man’s switch activated***  

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The message's tablet came to me just as I was stepping off-camera next to that Terran witch who hates me, Zona Mason. Giving the data-tablet a cursory reading, I hid my reaction to the "Eyes only Pakrat" even though my name had been misspelled by the sender. Mason, who was about to receive more visiting dignitaries from the Jenquai Hierate, shot me a curious and hate-filled glance before putting on a social mask of welcoming to the psionic Grandmasters from the Sha'ha'dem. She had missed the tablet, or so it seemed. The woman had eyes like a hungry gull from Zweihander Planet.

I walked, calmly and casually, to my mini-lab and domicile above the NET-7 SOL station lounge. Making sure I was not followed, I stepped through my sliding door. The door's knife penetration, thanks to the ShadowWalker's knife, scraped the door frame as I stepped inside the darkened environs. I needed to repair the thing soon. I quietly stepped into my mini-lab and connected the data-tablet to a universal cord and sent the message data-tablet's contents to my forearm vambrace's PDA. I left the front page title of the tablet intact, but erased the subsequent page-screens. If Mason somehow go ahold of the tablet, she'd get very little off of it. Now someone would have to take my arm off to access the Eyes-only that had come to me.

Then I read the full contents of the Dead-Man Switch bouy message. Then I was sure about my precautions.
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"...and that is why I need you to take Dot with you and run a diversion like I'd just handed you the keys to Roc sector, brother," I concluded my tale so far to my younger clone-brother, Imperator Pakkrateus. "Dot won't like it, but you tell her she may get to hunt whomever tries to follow you two from Mason's contacts, then she'll understand with that fanged grin of hers." The plan was for me to send my brother off as if I has passed the Dead Man's bouy message to him and the Wolfsdottir, my adopted daughter and be very visible to my co-Anchor, Zona Mason. Then I could get a little rest as I geared up for a low-tech expedition to Akeron's Gate.

"Be careful, brother," warned my brother, the Pakkrateus. "She hates you and would love nothing more than to have you to die at the claws - or whatever - of some alien in the proximity of the Ancients' gate." Then he got up and swigged the last of his drink. I later saw him again leaving with my adopted Jenquai daughter Dot. She paused once to look up to a station monitor, a camera she knew I would use to watch them exit NET-7 SOL. When my camera zoomed in on her, she smiled her signature Dog Soldier smile of a hunter. I dislike thinking of that side of her trying to bubble up from the depths of her Id. Yet she was going with my clone-brother who could apparently handle his dates, (he had conferred with me about his first true date with Siobhan last month).

I was going to need system that were purely chemical and mechanical, using only the barest of electronics. The Tech I Camera had arrived yesterday from my and my clone-brother's secret gene-father, the Pakkrat, a Terran of all ancestors. He had looted the old image capture machine from somewhere in Aragoth Prime and had included some film with the relic.

While waiting for the Pakkrat's camera to arrive, I had run back and forth, in the middle of the station's night between Decryption and Cartography to plot the supposed location of this asteroid mention in the Dead Man's bouy message. Quadrant Four of Akeron's Gate was generally devoid of the hulk-vulture Chavez pirates and featured very little in harmful field fauna. Rock spores and crystal mites seemed to be lot of that region. I had also quietly and manually moved my devices from my station vault to my ship, the Culler so that their movements would not be logged by the hangar's cargo manifesto logs, an automatic function of many mainstream stations these days in the Crystal Age. Lastly, I stocked up on personal weapons, my Athanor Heavy Pistol, some Progen Republic caustic chemical grenades, my med kit, gene-map cryo-canister, and double-checked my EVA suit. It would need to be dumbed-down a bit technologically if the story behind this 'Xanax' fellow were true.

Then I laid down on my bed in my domicile and got an uneasy nap for a few hours before heading out. Edited by Pakkrat
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Asteroid 642 wasn't just an arbitrary designation. Out here in the Kuiper Belt the number had a value as well as being nominal. There were too many objects to count so SolSec had been satisfied to only have designation numbers for TNOs that came with enough gravity to tug on starships and similar size satellites. I had entered Akeron's Gate and exited though the far Ancient gate to Freya sector of Aragoth. There I had sit 30k from the Ancient gate, looking much like an overlooked hulk there in a Powerdown state. The signature move hid my presence as the occasional traffic sped past me in the usual hum-drum of trade. Only the Ancient gate's whisperings at me made me uneasy as I waited out anyone that might try to tail me in my white Culler, a Sentinel class Progen explorer's vessel.
After an hour of changing out my usual systems for more clunky, low-tech chemical-mechanical devices and deploying the solar panels of the Bogeril Solar Sails engine along side my ship's armored sails, I then double-checked my ship's weapons.
The more biological weapons, like the Bile Cannon, Ten-Gu Fury and Wrath weapons were weird enough perhaps to endure most types of EMP power loss. My concern for the BlackSun Black Spitter was more well placed. Would it withstand such a power failure?
I also had to dumb down the ship's reactor to something chemical and mechanical so as to avoid EM damage, but the obsolete gear made it so I had to budget my energy consumption on this venture.
The shields would be the hardest hit by the reported energy drain, but I had very little to replace the system with that could withstand such failures.
Then there were the two Ancient Artifacts devices onboard. Would they tolerate such energy drain like the other systems and devices? Who knew what the Ancients had prepared for in cases like this? I hoped that if given enough energy, they would laugh off any strangeness, strange enough as the Ancients must have been.
Lastly, I emerged from Powerdown and re-entered Akeron's Gate when I was seemingly and sufficiently forgotten by all traffic. Making way to Quadrant Four, I watched my diagnostics for this Asteroid 642 as I crossed the expanse of the sector.
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Whenever you're out in the depths of space with nothing around you or at least in your proximity, do you get that tingly, hair-raising feeling that you're being watched? Or is it just your imagination? Now, I'm not psionic being a Progen, but you can't just breed or genetically de-engineer intuition. So, that feeling of having my grave danced on by a graduating class of Jenquai ravers kept pinging at my consciousness as I closed in on the last mapped location of Asteroid 642. I saw no wrecks, no hulks, no derelict ships, no nothing. I was already way out past Krakow, a named asteroid in rimward Akeron's Gate. With Krakow smack-dab in the middle of all the usual nav-bouys that surrounded this quadrant, it made a vague and awkward 'eye' in this part of the sector. And with the fifth replay of Xanax' emergency, Dead-Man's, bouy log, I was beginning to imagine things. The sounds of the poor pilot's last demise kept echoing inside my head. Chitinous skittering, the man's entrails and wet splatterings resounded in my memory as I flew further into the dark.
At this distance from the sun, the Sol primary looked like just another bright star in the inky black. Only the ambient glow from the Kuiper Belt and the distant Oort Cloud resonated the combined light of the other stars in the distant reaches. And still nothing came up on the scopes or scanners (active or passive). There was no nearby station. Only the ECS Colossus kept vigil upon Akeron's Gate, but even so EarthCorps was intent on staying just trailing of the Ancient Gate to Aragoth. I would get no immediate help in time if the swift death this Xanax guy suffered, were I to share in the same. Even with the threat, I consoled myself that I was Progen and that death should have no hold over me. There was always the Call Forward, right?
Finally, Asteroid 642 showed on the scopes and registered on the far edge of my scan range. I drew the Culler to a halt and Powered down. Passively I watched the oblong 'roid. It did nothing to greet me. I checked my reactor readout. No change. No hulks, no wreckages, no debris at all. Was Xanax mis-naming the asteroid where he had journeyed to his demise? Would anyone believe me if I didn't find his ship's graveyard? Were I to bring back his log and try to report his last moments, I would be laughed out of the studio by Zona Mason and her entourage of executives. Then I'd get removed to space weatherman, a death blow to a career in journalism. They would say I made all of it up. Because of where I'd come from, the Sabine Order, they'd put in a request to my old Order for Reclamation. Then I'd have to go Rogue or worse Renegade. No, I needed maybe one more keepsake, some bit of physical proof of what had happened to this poor Xanax guy. Edited by Pakkrat
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I felt like an Earth squirrel, using chemical-pressure bursts of thrusting and then immediately re-entering the Powerdown state. It was slow-going, but I wanted to appear as nothing more than drifting flotsam in this part of the sector. It took more than an hour to micro-thrust in this fashion towards Asteroid 642. And still nothing appeared on the passive scopes. I had long stopped using any active radar or other energy-based pulse-and-ping technologies. This was truly flying "under the radar" as the old Earth saying goes.

The oblong asteroid did nothing to welcome me however. It was motionless and devoid of the supposed graveyard of vessels reported in Xanax' log. Coming to rest in a geostationary hold above the space rock, I pointed the Culler away from Asteroid 642 in case I had need to execute an emergency freewarp escape. Then I let the Bogeril Solar Sails quietly recharge the reactor by the light of the stars and the Sol primary. With a lifeline and a wound-spring winch ready to haul me back to the ship, I exited my Sentinel-class explorer to descend to the surface of the low-gravity rock. And still nothing happened to me.

My nerves were getting jittery again, so I drew forth my Athanor Heavy Pistol. In the Crystal Age, firearms still required air to shoot ammunition, so each cartridge came with enough for the chemical reaction needed. I checked my chemical grenades at my belt. A pull and a throw would be all they would need. The med-kit gently flopped against my thigh as I touched down on the surface. I spent fifteen minutes gently pacing about the asteroid, looking for this hidden hatch the log had mentioned. All was quiet. Too quiet.
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Artemis Jericho!  There was the circular, disguised hatch, just as the log had described.  I took a few seconds to find the button to open it.  I took a few more seconds to gather the nerve to press it with the long barrel of my Athanor Heavy Pistol.  With a mechanical [i]click[/i], the hatch to some form of airlock slid to a side and permitted entry.  This was as far as my life-line would allow, so I un-clipped it and put a good coil-and-a-half on the ground outside the hatch and underneath a loose stone.  A kick and a grab would have it back in my hands if I made it back outside this hidden and false asteroid.

 

I reached into my explorer's pouch of goodies I had gathered for such an expedition.  Out came an old Earth chemical light, the ones you bend fiercely to dislodge their liquid contents and shake to mix them for a light-shedding effect.  The yellow-green glow was weird but welcome in providing enough light to fill an immediate area.  I then clipped it to my utility belt.  I wanted my hands free.  Finally, with light, pistol and nerve, I entered the airlock.

 

There were no lights inside or merely the place had long been powerless.  The airlock seemed to run on mechanical means or some other strangeness.  It made no sound as it filled with breathable air.  The outer door closed behind me as I took a last look at the stars.  Then the inner airlock door hissed as it opened.  I let my sight adjust to the low-light ambiance of the corridor before me.  The walls were made of come hardened, chitinous substance that may have once been liquid then dried solid.  Though the corridor seemed to have once been rock of the asteroid, its walls were plastered with this stuff.  I dared not touch it.  I began to take cautious steps down the tunnel.  No sounds could be heard as I stopped occasionally, like the aforementioned Earth squirrel to listen.

 

I and my glow-stick moved further into the labyrinth of chitin-coated tunnels.

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  • 9 months later...

     My clone brother enjoys watching the archived holovids and flatscreen productions of humanity's past.  I cannot bring myself to enjoy them.  Being a Versatile, I have too scientific a mind to settle into a disbelief that overcomes the viewer when watching such stories of action, drama, science, and other genres.  I have been around far too much of the real thing to not sit still for the time it takes to succumb to the slight errors of logic and facts that writers of such productions make and use to take advantage of the viewer's ignorance.  My clone brother, Pakkrateus, a Privateer of the Collegia Segmentata, is somehow able to turn off his brain and let imagination take over.  I have no such luxury.  Reality is far too real to play with such flights of fancy.  Step inside the bridge of my Sentinel-class vessel and you will see what such viewers would label "science fiction".  Only when that morass of Ancient, alien, cybernetic, and other descriptors is experienced on a daily basis will you find such archived stories falling short of reality.

 

     My clone brother, younger in incept date, but older in appearance, would by my estimate be stunned and horrified by the sights of the next chamber that I entered cautiously.  The coated chamber held tanks of some fluid.  The amberglass was not amber, but rather some transparent bio-polymer amber in color as I held up my chemical light to peer in each cylindrical tank.  Inside each was a specimen of fauna found in known space as humanity too had discovered.  As a Versatile, I too had been to laboratories that held similar contained examples.  This chitinous area was a biological version of the labs one might find at Arx Prima, "The Place of Death", or in the cloning facilities of Arx Spartoi "The Place of Life" in Progen space.  When passing through those facilities as a member of the Sabine Order, one becomes numbed to the preserved corpses or cloned bodies soon to live via the Call Forward.  Finally, discovering a section of this large chamber to hold human corpses, I did not immediately reel in revulsion.  My Privateer brother would have had a more visceral reaction to this containment chamber as alien as it was.  We have the same genetics but were educated differently, my brother and I.

 

   I beheld men and women of Terran and Jenquai race.  Each single human was deceased and floating gently in some alien preservation liquid gel.  Each had been subjected to vivisection to display internal organs, bone structures, and various human biological systems.  I have to admit I was taken aback a little at the sight of an opened Terran woman who was connected by an umbilical to an unborn fetus floating adjacent to her in the same tank.  This was known to me as a Sabine, we are taught the reproductive process even though we Progen do not, except under extreme need, reproduce 'naturally', (as the Terrans will say).  Some specimens were still half-dressed in half-eaten spacesuits, perhaps to show the observer of humanity that our outer coverings were not biological, but utilitarian. I gently bypassed each dead human.  That is, until I discovered deceased Progen in tanks.  Armor and cybernetic systems still worn, the Warriors were preserved perfectly, some with their gene-map canisters still onboard their suits.  These were Progen were need of the First Charge, the duty of the Sabine Reclaimers to find and return gene-maps to the Genetic Repository for storage or to be given new life via the Call Forward.  Here, the fallen Progen waited until found.  Had I not come here under Xanax' testimony, these Progen might never see new iterations.  I paused to consider how to acquire the fallen ones' canisters.

 

    Then the skittering of many, tiny legs caused me to whirl about with my chemical light held high and my Athanor Heavy Pistol leveled.  In the shadows some distance, whatever it was moved fast and across the chitinous floor.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

“Satellite X341 detected ship approaching 

 Data Link established...

Encode Cube

Sending Data Stream......

Cube Encoded

Ejecting Cube in 3. 2. 1...

Satellite X341.End”

 

 Automatic message AA5951-1

  Eyes Only Pakkrat

 

***Voice activation Xarnax “Start recording. Dead man’s switch engaged” ***

I was passing through AK’s Gate and as I was mapping the sector a Data cube attached itself to my data link.

After listening to it, I jumped and warped to the repository to return some gene cubes and was given Xanax's gene cube by accident, I asked why I was given the cube and as I held the cube to return it, I was 'Flashed' and woke up at the gate in New Edinburgh.

I will repeat as much as I can remember from the data and gene cubes as it seems they have disappeared from my ship.

A message cube was sent to a PW called Spa I believe from what I could glean from my wiped ships memory log (Attached).

After a contraband gene test, (I had a test done because my memory was wiped, or I am a clone, and Xanax kept coming to mind. It seems I am a copy of the Original Xanax)

“Satellite X341 detected ship approaching

Ship Name....hunter Killer... Owner: Spa

Data Link established...

Sending data stream......

Automatic message XC321-7

 

Eyes132jkhkl43234235jk346jb  4567kj46h56Spaou90sdsdhAk's30..............

Satellite X341.End”

End Message... Encryption code 334.45.Zulu

I set the Dead man’s switch as per some inner feeing/warning from a past notion, not sure why, but seems like a good idea. Copied the co-ords to my ships nav computer storage that I recalled from the 'flash' so I can recall it later.

‘Asteroid 642. Sector: Akron’s Gate. Quadrant 4.

Composition: unknown. Oval shape. Strong magnetic field?.

***WARNING** No probes landed, all attempts failed”

It feels like I have been here before.

That is all I can remember for the moment, but I am getting flashes of information and I will act on what I recall.

 

Now I might sound strange here but, I went to Lady DE Winter as I was being told to see her... weird but I followed my instincts.

As soon as the Lady DE winter looked at me, she held her hand up in the stop position, pulled out a small communication device with her other hand and pressed a button. The floor dropped out and I was gravity dropped to a room 3 levels below the main deck and a hand written message from Lady DE winter, that drifted down from the trap door, asked me to wait in the room until she was free and could talk to me. I was free to go if I wished, and when I checked to door, it was unlocked and a grav lift was outside in the passageway.

When Lady DE winter came to talk me, she didn't, just gave me a head unit and a memory disk, 80 million credits on a credit slate and a sonic key with instructions to a hatch under the station that I didn't know existed and as she left all she said was

"Xanax, debt paid, find what you 'were' searching for"

I sat there for ages looking at the memory disk and the sonic key pondering what to do next. I left the items on the desk in the room and followed the directions to the Hatch through the inner workings of the station; this hatch was not meant to be found. I finally approached and stared at the hatch as I had no idea how to open it, it was just a hatch, with no handles, optic sensors, biometric scanners, no nothing. Running my fingers around the frame a needle probe so small it was thinner than a ships cat’s whisker, pricked my finger and the hatch opened. An Air Lock, this is getting interesting.

 

Nothing, opened the air lock hatch after closing the outer hatch, absolute darkness, no lights, my light was drained as soon as it was activated. hollow, a large space, stamped my foot and it returned a long echo, guessing by the returning echo, the whole lower deck of the station that no-one even knew was here, I decided to go back to the room and rest for a bit before trying again, the sonic key did open or activate something, heard a click when I pressed the top button and turned the dials but then a huge clunk and then a whiff of sleep fog, that’s when I decided very fast to leave.

 

Before I examine the memory cube with the headset the Lady DE winter gave me, I will copy it and send the copy and this information to you via a person I can contact from the memory flash that was imprinted on my mind

 

***Voice deactivation Xarnax “Stop recording. Dead man’s switch disengaged” ***

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  • 10 months later...

Xanax's solar cube panel message

I can only imprint on this piece of solar cube panel with a small headset from a device I was given that I broke off and being so weak I cannot talk much.

 I was blind and I felt something touch me, I went into combat mode, my instructors would have been proud, reverse outside-in high kick followed by a straight arm jab followed by trailing arm fist punch. Broken left leg, right arm and a broken left wrist, well done Xanax, combat yell changed to screaming jabbering pain, yea, what a way to see the human race.

 

When I woke I found a beaker of something in the room/cell and I drank it, really had no choice, I was naked and thirsty/hungry. The pain subsided and I fell asleep again. I woke up or daydreamed that huge ant like beings/creatures were examining me and I vaguely recall going into different rooms with devices that scanned and squealed. I also remember watching an army of these beings dismantling devices and asking me or I should say removing answers from me about how the devices worked. I tried to explain the best I could about the Jenquai and Terran devices and engines, but no-ones perfect. This is like a dream, felt like days or years went by and hundreds of items were displayed and I answered as best as I could.

 

There were others, I know, I heard the screams, the pleas and the angry questions and answers. I’m sure they were just not mine.

I am moved from section to section, no idea where I am inside this torturous labyrinth but I remember the airlock doors, I see them now and then.

If my plan works I might be able to release this message on this piece of solar cube panel I managed to hide when I was examining these new style of devices they were manufacturing. I’m going to place this message inside one of the chambers and hope it is jettisoned when the chamber is opened. I see these beings stacking items in the chambers and cycling them, I have no idea what is happening but if I can succeed in placing this message in, it might, just might be evacuated to space when they open the outer airlock. Time will tell.
 
 Whatever gods you pray to, start now, the holocaust is coming

 Xanax. Progen Sentential 3rd class. PS102245-Z Ship number SN-034. Gene Repository Number LF454

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