Day 06. The Flight
So what lies ahead for me at this point? I'm not too certain. And although I really can't seem to remember many points in my life where I was certain of anything much really, for all this uncertainty, there are a few things that I am sure of. I am certain that things are almost never what they seem to be, I know that I will do everything that I am able to, to ensure that Princes Lillie’s storage chip is delivered to the leaders of the Free Radicals where it belongs and try to make sure that all things are as close to where they belong as possible, though until I’m sure I know exactly where I belong, I guess I’ll just have to keep looking.
This will be my final post for what has been a very extraordinary couple of days and after everything that’s happened, I'm now looking to the future. Who knows my destiny in this vast cosmic game of existence, really? I guess some day I’ll look back on this brief, but eventful portion of my life, captured in this convenient string of words and just have to have a laugh.
Alone in the comfort of the shuttle’s pilot seat I seem to have had the time to think things over quite a bit. And so as I sit here sailing thorough black space on my way to a new tomorrow, I can’t be certain, but I imagine this is pretty close to what peace of mind might be like.
There was something in that last item that Johnny Lightsmith said that just sent a chill right down my spine – kind of a strange feeling, almost like it was some kind of threat that Princess Lillie’s life might be put in danger if I didn’t hand over the storage chip – and at that moment I knew something wasn’t right. I refused once more and that’s when it happened. At almost blinding speed he reached into his front pocket and pulled out a small plasma pistol and while there pointing it directly at my head said, “Alright Stargazer, I’ve had just about enough of this. Now hand it over right now.”
The events after that seem to be slightly jumbled up in my head, a bit of a blur, partly to due to the quantity of Tyrellian beer I’d consumed and also due to the sheer gravity of the situation, but I remember thinking that I would rather do anything than give up that data chip to the undercover corporate, anything but to betray the faith and trust of the Princess, anything but to deliver the Free Radicals directly into the hands of the Greater Conglomerate.
I remember there was a struggle, a few shots fired and ricocheting off the shuttle’s walls, then a bit more of a struggle, very hazy until it seemed I’d somehow managed to overpower Lightsmith just as he was about to fire again point blank at my head, which this time would have most definitely resulted in a most gruesome end for me. Instead, when I knew this was it, the moment of truth, I saw that the emergency airlock release handle was just in reach and the protective glass must have been broken during the violent encounter. I made a quick grasp for it, grabbed the nearest guard rail and hung on tight. He fired his shot, which I swear I could feel the heat from the plasma whizzing past my ear. The airlock opened right behind Johnny and before he could grab a hold of anything, his body was pulled out into the blackness of space. I let the handle go and the pressure soon returned to normal, but I was a wreck.
Sorry about that. Turns out it was just the small realityvision that I had left on in the cockpit, playing some old horror film. You know those ones where the crew of some ship find a whole lot of weird alien eggs on a strange planet and then for some reason they decide to take one back to the ship in order to study it or something and then it goes around and kills everyone on board. I watched it for a little bit, but must have fallen asleep right in the pilot’s seat, only just waking up a little while ago. I guess it’s understandable though after the events of the night and admittedly, Johnny’s pilot’s chairs were pretty comfortable. I turned the reality screen off, which was playing some strange kind of game show and came to finish my story.
So anyway, Johnny Lightsmith had just put the ship on autopilot and after replicating us up something to drink, had sat down ready to talk. First he got me to tell him everything that I knew about the Free Radicals, which wasn’t really all that much, and then all about the storage chip and my mission to deliver it to the leaders of the Free Radicals, telling me that quite a few years ago, just after the great collapse, he had become involved with the group, telling me all kinds of stories about his agent training and about all the secret, undercover missions he’d been on, all in the name of freedom, freedom from the corporations and freedom from the – then only newly forming – Greater Conglomerate.
After a few more drinks and few more stories, he had already subtly offered a few times to take the storage chip back to the Free Radical base himself, which was where he was headed to next, take it off my hands so as it won’t be a burden any longer. I was about to just let him have it as well, to free myself of the responsibility, when I remembered Princess Lillie, wide eyed, full of hope, the trust she put in me and her earnest words, warning me against letting the chip slip into the wrong hands. Johnny was persistent though, and unbelievably persuasive. I could feel myself wanting to hand it over all the time, even though I knew that I couldn’t. Eventually, most likely after observing my reactions to certain things, the mention of Princess Lilly for example – an old salesman trick – he said that he had heard from a reliable source that the princess had indeed been captured by the Greater Conglomerate and made the assertion that if I didn’t give the storage chip to him, that I could be putting her life in unnecessary danger.
Well I’m still extremely shaken by what has just happened, and don’t really understand a lot of it or know what’s going on at all. I guess I never really do in the best of times though, but this is just a little bit different. I’m still on Johnny Lightsmith’s shuttle craft. However Johnny Lightsmith is no longer on board. I’m all alone in here and I’ve been pacing up and down the ship for hours, just thinking about what has happened and trying to decide my next course of action. Why is everything so hard? Why does it sometimes seem that the whole universe is against me? Fitzroy versus the universe is our next match, who wants tickets?
Things just don’t seem to be going my way these days and I have no idea why. I sometimes get rather frustrated when I can’t control my surroundings, my future and everything and these past few days, it’s been like I’ve been a leaf floating in the wind. I think I still remember what a leaf looks like. I’ve been up in space for so long. It really can’t be healthy for a human I don’t think. Sometimes I actually think that it would just be a good idea to find a good planet to settle on, find a nice girl and live the simple life, but then again, it’s quite possible that before too long I might become bored of it all, starved for adventure all over again. I’m going crazy thinking about this, so I guess I’ll just get on with the stupid story.
Ok, so here’s what happened then. Everything was fine at first. We boarded Johnny’s ship and he even began to lighten up as we left the hanger bay, become a bit more like his old self again and started talking about old times a bit. I just mainly sat and listened. Johnny’s really the type of person that you can just let him fill most of the conversation for you and only occasionally put in the odd yeahs and uh huhs. Pretty soon we were a long way away from where we had left from. The Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform and Daisy the starwhale had disappeared into the distance, almost as though they had never even existed. I started to think that perhaps they didn’t exist except in my mind and that I’ve just been dreaming this whole time. It’s insane I know, but sometimes I just start thinking like that. Anyway, so I guess once it seemed like we were sufficiently far away for Johnny, he looked down at the radar, put the ship on autopilot and turned to me. Hmm, what’s that noise coming from the other room? I’ll be back a bit later.
Day 05. The Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform
Well I was almost thinking about not going tonight to meet up with Johnny Lightsmith at the docks and I had this feeling that I get sometime where I just want to run away from everything that’s going on and hide in a secluded corner of space forever. The whole idea just kept pressing and pressing on my mind and all I could do was keep thinking to myself that all this sounded like more trouble than it was worth and that I was just going to keep digging myself in deeper and deeper. I mean really, who am I to be getting involved with all these things going on in the galaxy? But then I remembered back to the Starship Alliance when they were being boarded by the authorities, the sincerity and hope in Lillie’s big wide eyes as she looked into mine, entrusting the destiny of that chip, something she held so critical, to me. I knew in my heart that I could not just run and hide this time, as I had done so many times before.
I left my room so that I could be there at the departure bay at twenty hundred exactly. There were people and aliens everywhere, walking up and down the corridors, a sea of faces in every direction that you looked, but then from the corner of my eye, I spotted a figure that seemed to be following me, large and dark. I thought it was just my imagination at first, but then after a few more turns, it was still behind me. Finally I got to the dock and it seemed like I had lost whoever it was. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid and there wasn’t anyone following me at all. I can get like that sometimes.
Standing at the departure bay I could not see Johnny anywhere, so I just looked around here and there at everyone preparing for their voyages. All the gazes and glances from the passers by, seemed to offer nothing but distain and mistrust or a vague uninterested sidewards stare. I started to get the feeling that everyone was watching me, even though not too many were looking at me at all. I swear I’m crazy sometimes, but these days I guess it’s hard for anyone not to be. Pretty soon Johnny showed up. He seemed different, really different from before, all serious and everything as he led me to his ship and not really talking at all. Just as I stepped on board, I looked around to see the dark shadowy figure from before just standing and watching us board the ship. I wonder who it was.
You’ll never guess who I just bumped into, little Johnny Lightsmith from back at Immotec Inc. Now there’s a kid who could sell just about anything to anyone, ice to an Eskimo I think the saying goes, but I’m not too certain where that comes from. He was never really too good with the technical side of things, but you’d have to be careful when around him because he could just about talk you into anything. I remember one of his favourite jokes was that he could talk anybody into anything, but was surprisingly terrible at trying to talk girls into going out with him. “I can generally talk a girl into doing virtually anything, as long as it doesn’t involve me” he was always saying. He was always quite a laugh back in the day.
It seems that time has somehow change him though – seems to change everyone – I mean he’s still the same Johnny Lightsmith, but I’m not sure anymore, just a little different, almost like he’s been through something substantial that has really changed him fundamentally, but like he is still trying to act like his old self. We ran into each other in the hall – literally I mean – as I was heading back to my room just before. I guess we were both looking the other way or something, or maybe it was that cute blonde who was walking past that took our eyes and minds off where we were going. “Oh my lordy!” exclaimed Johnny from the floor, “Now I’ll be damned if that’s not Fitzroy Stargazer himself. What brings you to these parts of the galaxy?” He went on to ask a whole lot of other questions before I’d even had time to answer any of them. But that’s Johnny for you.
Now I had planned on just going back to my room, perhaps reading a bit with some good tunes playing in the background or watching something decent on the reality screen, but somehow – like he always does – Johnny managed to persuade me into having a drink with him in the lounge. It was really good to catch up on old times; we talked about all the different antics we used to get up to and I told him about my ordeal with Daisy out there. “Oh, so that was you out there in the whale?” he remarked just before cracking up into hysterical laughter. Later he managed to get me to tell him the rest of my story, about Lillie, and a little about the junk freighter and how I ended up here on the Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure platform. I asked him if I knew any way I could get in touch with a member of the Free Radicals. At the sound of this, Johnny all of a sudden went quiet and as he leaned over across the table, he whispered in my ear, “It’s not safe to talk here about such matters. Meet me at the departure bay tonight at twenty hundred hours and we’ll take a short flight.”
Well it’s quite nice here at the Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform, very busy too, with beings from all over the galaxy, coming and going and amusing themselves in all the little department stores and caffeine huts on the second to top level, as they wait for their next flights out or for their loved ones to arrive. Sometimes I just like to sit there, right in the middle of all the complexity of interaction, just watching and observing everything that’s going on, kind of all under the radar, like everyone’s just the bright centre to their own private universe and their friends, family and acquaintances are all just different surrounding galaxies.
For lunch I went up and found a nice little restaurant with a view. I wanted to see if my little friend Daisy was out there. I sat down at a place called Endora’s Intergalactic Cuisine and got them to bring me the largest thing on the menu, but when waitress informed me that smoked giant starwhale was the largest thing on the menu, even though it would have been a touch ironic, I just had to go for the next item down the list. It was quite a good view out the large window and I watched with awe as a few Tansgalactic Starliners made the jump to hyperspace, but there was no Daisy. My food arrived and I consumed the whole plate with much eagerness and delight and when I had finished, I even thought about licking the plate, but I didn’t and instead I just asked for the cheque.
I looked out the window once more, but with little expectation, content with gazing at the stars, the millions of tiny points so far away and the flashing of various transports and starliners periodically passing by. Then just as I was about pay my starbucks and leave the table, with a strange silence, just meters from my window emerged the enormous head of Daisy the starwhale, casually floating by. There came a low, distributed gasp and murmur among the crowd, from various others in the restaurant and people passing by, turning to watch as Daisy breezed on past and as she did – it could have just been my imagination – but I sensed a certain expression, something in her relatively small eye – about the size of a dinner plate – that seemed to say that she was aware of my presence, sitting there at the window of the Sirrus 12 Docking and Departure Platform.
So I find myself now thankfully in much more familiar surroundings, on the large Sirrus 12 Docking Platform where they’ve just brought me from my encounter with the giant starwhale, which was quite an interesting experience. Now the management of this platform informed me that the name of this particular starwhale is Daisy and incredibly, have been keeping her as a pet – and tourist attraction – for past few years. They sincerely apologised for any inconvenience caused and have kindly provided me with a small room on board the platform for as long as I need to stay. “She’s not normally like this” one of the rescue crew assured me as they were getting me out, “I’m not really sure what’s wrong with her today.”
The whole process took a relatively short amount of time. The rescue boat arrived shortly after I had contacted them from the belly of the whale and they ran me through the whole process, which it seemed like they may have already done more than a few times before. The procedure for me was very simple. I just had to sit there, strap myself in and hang on. It seemed like Daisy had been through quite a bit of obedience training in her years in orbit with the Sirrus 12 platform. The crew read commands to her using their radiowave transmitter, which conveniently, I could also hear from inside the escape pod. Starwhales it turns out are especially sensitive to a very large spectrum of electromagnetic waves, of which some they use just like a sense of hearing.
“Daisy, Daisy, here girl!” came the first transmission. I felt a slight momentary jerk backwards as she responded and I heard a loud squeal on the same radio frequency, presumably Daisy’s exclamation of excitement “Good girl, now stop!” another jolt forwards. “Who’s been a naughty little girl, Daisy? Who’s been a very bad girl, swallowing our guests?” came another transmission followed by a low-pitched apologetic squawk from the whale, as though she knew she was getting into trouble. “Now, give it back Daisy, like a good girl, drop it. Give it back.” I heard another low squeal then began to feel some movement. Soon I was thrust back into the freedom of space along with various other objects and substances that were accompanying me in what I now know was not actually one of Daisy’s twenty-three stomaches, but was merely in temporary holding inside one of her storage glands. You learn something new each day. Nevertheless, I think I’ll still be telling the story of how I was almost eaten by a giant starwhale, for many years to come.
Day 04. The Space Capsule
Well it seems that events have taken yet another strange turn for the worse and I now find myself in quite possibly the oddest place I have ever been and perhaps the oddest place I can even imagine. It’s also quite possible that you will not believe me if I tell you that I am actually inside the belly of this giant starwhale that currently surrounds me, who seemed to take a fancy to this shiny new space capsule hurtling through space, unfortunately with myself inside. Really you can’t help but laugh at the whole situation, but I figure I’m reasonably safe in here, at least for a while anyway.
Starwhales, from what I’ve seen on those space wildlife documentaries, have one of the most complex digestive systems of all celestial animals, able to digest virtually any substance in existence, though the whole process is extraordinarily slow and takes place over about a year or two. I can’t make out too much of what else is in here with me just with the light from the capsule; seems to be quite a lot of rocks, junk and metal all mixed in together floating in some kind of viscous yellow liquid. It is however surprising how gentle and stable it is in here, even if it is quite disgusting.
At first I was more than a little worried at the prospect of being eaten alive by a starwhale, thinking that I may have had to blast my way out, but I’ve since established a communications link with the nearby space station through the stomach walls of the whale. The station is apparently well equipped to handle these types of situations and they have told me not to worry, that they are sending someone out to retrieve me soon. So I think at this point I’ve stopped expecting that my life will just settle back down into a normal, dull rhythm of monotonous tasks and rituals; at least not any time soon. I am thinking however that it will be nice to get out of this cramped little space capsule at last, enjoy some real food instead of these little replicated nutrition pellets I’ve been nibbling on all day, and maybe just to have a nice cold Tyrellian beer in a decent station bar with a nice atmosphere and a few friendly faces.
I’ve tried to busy myself with various things while in here, but for some reason nothing seemed to be helping very much. I was feeling a little bit nauseous a short while ago, looking out of the small window into infinite space, just waiting and watching and thinking and waiting. I had to dig around in my pocket to look for one of my pills, when I came across my plastic pill container that had in it the parts from that macrovirus green phage from the junk ship. I looked through the plastic at the mangled metal body of the poor little creature and although I know it probably sounds more than a little bit strange, I almost felt an eerie kind of compassion towards the thing. I recognised an ever so vague similarity between it and me, shooting aimlessly through space, attempting to cling onto existence as best I could and just waiting for something to cross my path.
I thought for a while about my simple upbringing back home on the farm, my desperate longing, after the incident, to train at the Star Force Academy and really make something of myself, but then afterwards, resigning my dreams to the various jobs that I guess I was subtlety persuaded into taking on, just to pay the imaginary bills for thruster fuel, hyperdrive crystals, communications subscriptions, cigarettes and alcohol, all the latest in clothes according to galactic trends, one more reality screen for your bedroom and about a million other must have, optional extras. Until I finally began selling and performing consciousness uploads on behalf of the prestigious Immotec Ltd. I had finally made it, or so I thought. Lots of things just kept going around and around in my head, that feeling of isolation had compounded and the beeping and buzzing walls of the small space capsule appeared as though they were somehow closing in all around me.
Things were beginning to get pretty desperate. I think there is only so much sitting and thinking about nothing and doing nothing but thinking that one person can do before they begin to lose it, but hope, it seems, has somehow raised its head from the shadows, where it almost seemed to have been lost forever. A tiny blip had appeared on one of the small data screens on one of the lower panels and then another just beside it. The long distance scopes it seemed had detected something dead ahead, directly intersecting the escape pod’s flight path. Although many of the pod’s instruments were foreign to me, a few looked familiar and I tried the best I could to get some idea what these two objects could be. It took some time and a bit of playing around, but as they began to draw nearer, the two objects became clear on the main display. One was a medium sized, orbital space station, the other, a giant starwhale.
Ok, so I guess I’d better start using my time here a little wisely. I suppose I could bring you up to speed with what I was going to tell you earlier while still on the junk freighter, when I didn’t get the chance, just a little about me and how I came to be out here in the far reaches of space to begin with, so far from home. Perhaps if I manage to recount these events, then I might be able to understand a little better about the mess that I’m in now, somehow involved with, things that once seemed so far away and distant, things that never really rested heavily upon my mind until now. Now let me think.
Well actually I don’t really know anymore now really. I thought I did, but now it seems I don’t. It’s incredible how fast opinions and views on everything can change in an instant. I’m thinking now that maybe with everything that’s been happening that I’ve just been worrying just a little too much. It’s not like me at all to be thinking about things like this for too long, but I think it’s just the environment, enclosed in here all alone and confined to this small space seems to have a terrible effect on me. I can’t seem to put together any two thoughts or make sense of either one. And was it my imagination, or did that wall just move?
So I think I am going to have to make the decision pretty soon, whether I even want to get involved with any of the things that seem to have forced themselves into my life these past few days. I didn’t ask for any of this to happen you see, but now it almost seems like I can’t escape it. Sometimes I think there may be higher forces at work here, controlling my destiny and everything that happens. I know it’s most likely just me being paranoid again and the idea is kind of absurd that there would be someone or something, some hidden force controlling my destiny. So from now on there will be no more if I really want to get anywhere. It’s strange what time alone with just your thoughts can do to you.
Adrift in the blackness of space, alone in this cramped little escape pod, I sit, surrounded by various instruments, controls and display screens, all beeping and flashing away like mad. I’ve checked them all, but none of them seem to pick up the slightest bit of realityvison at all, so unfortunately it seems I am stuck in here with little but the crazy thoughts in my head to pass the time away. I don’t mind it too much though, as it can possibly afford me the opportunity just to think about things for a bit and it also gives me a bit more time to write in here, about the way things were before, and how they came to be now.
I actually managed to get a few hours sleep before, despite the fact that finding a comfortable position to lie down in here is a damn near impossibility and I now have a rather sharp pain in my neck where it must have been bent into the wrong position for just a little too long. You’d think they would have designed these things with a little more care, with people in mind perhaps, maybe not just profit and cost minimisation. Seems that’s just the way things are these days. I wonder if it could ever change.
The space capsule was virtually without controls and seemed as though it was programmed just to emit a distress beacon at regular intervals. I wonder how far away it is from the nearest star system. Most escape pods have only limited propulsion capabilities and navigation instruments, so even if I knew which way it was to an inhabitable planet, I’m not certain I’d be able to steer us in the right direction. And so it seems I am to wait here, absolutely dependant on whatever future the universe has for me. I am optimistic in the hope that I have most likely been cast away along a populated part of the galaxy, a frequently used trade route or something and it is quite possible that I will be picked up fairly soon, today or tomorrow even by a freighter responding to the distress signal, but then again, there is a slight possibility that I could have drifted off course, beyond all hope leading into uncharted, solemn space, and I could be adrift indefinitely.
Day 03. The Starship Alliance
Well to say that things have been rather hectic around the Starship Alliance for the past few hours would be a drastic understatement. I’m taking this opportunity here in an attempt to keep a record of the events that could very well be the last of my life. I’m not even joking when I say, “I have a very bad feeling about this.” Not two hours ago, Lillie burst back into the room screaming something about how they’d just picked up the hyperspace signature of a Conglomerate heavy patrol cruiser – the real authorities – on a direct intercept course with the Alliance and after rummaging around in her various pockets, she handed me a little storage chip, telling me it was of paramount importance that I deliver it’s contents to the leaders of the Free Radicals and not let it slip into the hands of the Conglomerate at all costs.
The panic on board the ship was quite palpable, people running and yelling things at each other here and there, as Lillie led me hurriedly down the hall towards the escape pods, just about pulling my arm right from the socket as she went. We ran past the engine room and from what I could tell, it seemed that they were going to attempt an emergency jump to hyperspace, this being quite a risky venture even in the best of circumstances, I didn’t like their chances and offered to help out. I did what I could, but it was too late; the Conglomerate ship was soon right on top of us, firing multiple barrages of purple laser blasts that seemed to violently shake the ship like crazy with every hit.
The Starship Alliance and everyone on board, after some time it seemed, eventually resigned to the fact that their capture was inescapable. I headed again for the emergency escape pod bay, where Lillie reminded me a second time of my mission to deliver the information on the chip she had given me to the Free Radicals, adding that the fate and entire future of the galaxy was in my hands. That statement made me feel much, much worse. I asked her if she would come with me as I stepped into one of the pods, but while closing the pod hatch she told me that the Conglomerate regard her as much too valuable to let escape so easily this time, and that I was her only hope. I watched her through the window as I was lowered for ejection, then again looked out to the starship fire fight that was rapidly shrinking into the distance, hoping that they would not be following any time soon.
I walked over to the large reality screen and found the main control unit, put the disk in, dimmed the lights and sat down. The film began. It looked just a little dated and like it was made on a shoestring budget, but it wasn’t too bad really and once it was over, I immediately had to watch it again. Even now that I’ve had some time to ponder everything over, I’m still not certain I will be able to convey even the basic nature of what they were trying to get across in the film.
It was entitled,
The Truth About The Galaxy: and what they don’t want you to know and it presented the series of events leading up to the beginning of the great collapse. Now I’d never really taken much interest in the subject all that much, not being much into galactic trends and the interstellar economy. The realityvisions had never really stated in any clear detail, exactly what elements had brought about this dramatic change throughout the galaxy, but instead presented a confusing multitude of conflicting stories until, in the end, most people I know just lost interest and accepted it. It’s what they seem to do with everything.
I guess you could compare this film with a lot of those ones you see in all the old war movies that they’re always showing to influence the minds of all the soldiers, to make them hate the enemy, what they call propaganda, but I’m not sure I’d label it as that. I honestly feel that just about anything you see on the reality screens can generally be said to be doing the same thing, influencing minds. And this film seemed somehow to just make sense to me, confirmed many of my suspicions and also it seemed some of my deepest concerns – some things my mind must have kept concealed for a long, long time – about the way things were and the way things should be, were brought suddenly bubbling to the surface through the various images flashing before my eyes.
I was asleep almost before I even hit the large, soft mattress of the bed and during the night I dreamed a few things, weird things, most of which I can’t really remember. I’m always having strange dreams like that. I dreamed I was on a strange, uncolonised planet that was all just barren rock and all the mountains, stones and rocks looked like me. I dreamed I was flying a giant war cruiser into battle against an unknown enemy. I dreamed I was back at home on the farm again where I grew up, playing out in the fields. I heard my father calling me to come inside, but I didn’t and just kept running further and further from the house, until I must have come to the edge of a cliff or something because the next thing I knew, I felt myself falling into deep dark nothingness.
That was when I woke up, with a sudden jolt. I looked across the room and was somewhat surprised to see that the reality screen was switched on and was showing some kind of nature show or something. I couldn’t really see very well without my glasses, which I guessed I must have forgotten to take off before I fell asleep and must have fallen off somewhere around the bed. Eventually I found them, put them on and looked over to see a girl who looked very much like the girl from last night who took me from the junk ship last night. She was just sitting there in front of the realityvision, watching it intently. Her hair had changed – it was a sandy blonde rather than straight jet black – and she was wearing very different clothes to the outfit she had on before, but I was certain it was her. “Vanessa?” I asked after I realised I was just sitting there staring. She turned to look at me and immediately smiled as she got up and approached. “My name’s not Vanessa,” she replied with a small laugh, “it’s Lillie.”
Now I think I’m still trying to take it all in really, but it was indeed her, the very same person, but also in another sense it wasn’t. She apologised for my treatment the night before and said that it was an unavoidable necessity in order not to create too much suspicion. She went on to explain things a little further, although she seemed in quite a hurry. I don’t know whether it was just the initial shock of everything or something else, but I not quite certain I understood all she was trying to say. I think she sensed that I wasn’t really getting it before too long and stopped. She took my hand and placed in it a small realityvision disk, and told me that she would be back again a bit later, but in the meantime, I was to watch the screen and try to keep an open mind.
I watched from the rather large window of the room they had put me in, as the Starship Alliance pulled away from the old junk freighter I’d come to know so well. I wondered just how long the freighter had before it would be destroyed by the phage, if there would be any survivors. I wondered if Mervyn would find a way to escape. I knew if anyone could, it would be him. He was always very good at escaping his work shifts.
The room they had me locked in was actually quite nice and believe it or not, I actually began to feel quite at home there after only a short while and could have almost forgotten that I was being held prisoner for a second or two. The walls were bright white and illuminated with strip-lights that ran across the rim of the entire ceiling. There was a large bed, a coffee table and all kinds of other pieces of furniture. You could not even compare it to my quarters back on the junk ship. On the far wall, it even had quite a large reality screen and after I began to tire from waiting for someone to come and explain to me exactly what this was all about, I figured they wouldn’t mind if I watched a few minutes.
I turned it on and flicked around for a bit, but it’s strange, I couldn’t find any of my usual favourite channels, and the programs that were being shown were unlike anything I’d seen before. It’s kind of hard to explain, but one thing I did notice was that in just about every show, they had people helping each other and cooperating, instead of trying to blow everyone up and things like that. None of the shows seemed to hold my attention for too long and pretty soon I had to turn off the whole thing, resolving that no one was going to come and I might as well just try get a good night’s rest. I certainly need it after all that’s happened.
Day 02. The Boarding
Well it seems my days spent on board that disgusting junk freighter seem to have come to a premature end. Now although I find myself in much nicer surroundings – no more large cockroaches running around everywhere – it seems that I am being held here against my will and am being taken to who knows where, to see who knows who. But I am glad to be off that ship now, especially all that business with the green phage and everything. Now as for all this stuff about being a traitor and a spy, I know I’ve done a few things in my lifetime, but I don’t ever remember doing anything like that. And I’m still not quite certain who these people are who’ve taken me from my ship, but with galactic politics the way they are at the moment, they could be anyone. A traitor to one group is almost certainly a hero to another. Now I’m not claiming to be anyone’s hero either, but that’s just the way it seems to happen in all those narratives you see on the reality screens.
At least it’s something exciting to break the almost unbearable monotony, but I knew I should have been careful for what I wished for. Anyway, so what happened was that they explained that they had been sent by an undisclosed party to search me out and bring me to justice or something like that. Then the two men reached over and grabbed me, gave me a few good punches, two in the stomach and one on the jaw, and asked me if I wanted to do this the easy way. I didn’t want to find out what the hard way was.
They let me collect a few of my things, which I thought was nice of them, and so I gathered together a few clothes and things that were just lying in the corner amongst the junk. There were lots of things that I left there, but I didn’t really mind leaving it all that much, but as I stuffed one last container of my medication into my pockets, I saw there, in the dark corner a dim glow. I turned around to check on the others, who seemed busy talking to the captain, then turned back for a closer look. I was quite certain it was one of the green phage, slowly munching away on the corpse of a large cockroach. I looked around some more and saw a few more there in the shadows. I hurriedly emptied the container of pills into my pocket, casually raised my foot, and brought it down hard on one of little critters, and collected all the little pieces up into the container. For the interests of science.
We’ve been boarded! It’s not too uncommon for the authorities to board deep space freighters every now and then, but I’m not sure exactly what they’re doing this far out from any star system. Unless they’ve been tracking and following us from the last we passed through. Long distance freighters usually don’t have very sophisticated scanning capabilities like the combat frigates or ships like that. They’re usually looking for smuggled weapons or any stashes of controlled substances, things like that. The captain seemed a little surprised and tense as he announced the boarding to the crew. I really haven’t seen anything too dodgy going on around the place in the few months I’ve been on board, but then again you never know.
Usually it’s a good idea just to stay out of the way, out of sight and just let the authorities go about their business and leave, but today they specifically asked to speak to me. There was a loud knock on the door, three hard metallic clunks, then someone shouting “open up in there!” I turned off the bad daytime realityvision show that I was half watching in the background and unlocked the door. It slid open with its usual grinding sound and there stood the captain who informed me that there were a few people here to see me and they had a few things to talk about.
I nodded for them to enter, wondering what exactly they could possibly want to speak to me about, and following the captain in, walked two rather tall gentlemen in seemingly expensive, tight fitting suits followed by a very professional looking young lady with thick glasses, who although she was quite a bit smaller than her counterparts, seemed to carry with her a presence that overshadowed the others. I closed the door behind them. They certainly didn’t look like any authorities I had ever seen in any part of the galaxy. The girl, who couldn’t have been very much older than twenty-three, introduced herself as Vanessa Schneider and said in a very matter-of-factly tone of voice, “We have reason to believe that you, Mr. Stargazer, are a traitor and a spy.”
I did a little research on the ship’s computer. Unfortunately it took virtually all morning. It’s incredible how slow the internet is out here. So anyway, I found out eventually of a few cases of this actually happening, although I’m not quite convinced of the reliability of the cases. One website suggested that it was a new top secret government control device; another said it was a sign of preliminary invasion from the next galaxy over, but then I came across a very detailed page about a newly discovered synthetic life form, a macrovirus which they referred to as the Green Phage, which seemed to hit the nail right on the head – whatever that’s supposed to mean.
So apparently these little blighters are especially nasty. They are silicon based life forms around the size of a large cockroach, that for some yet unknown reason, emit a dull green glow as they float through space aimlessly, sometimes for many years, until they happen to cross the path of some kind of starship or space station, to which they attach themselves to and begin digging into, interfacing with any kind of computer systems and plugging in to any power supply they can use and also devouring any materials it can convert into energy – it is even suggested that they may indeed be able do this with organic material. Now after it has fully infiltrated the host, it will begin to use the ships available resources to create multiple copies of itself, which in turn create copies of themselves. Whether it builds them from existing materials, or uses some kind of replication technology, is still not known.
Then after a few days, when the green phage has reproduced as much as it can, it proceeds to destroy the entire host vessel, which is most likely done either by infiltrating the emergency self-destruct mechanism or by damaging and/or overloading the main power reactor core or hyperdrive unit on the ship. The tiny resilient macroviruses use the power of the explosion, to propel themselves through space, onward to their next host victim. Now I haven’t told anyone about this yet. I’m not sure anyone would really believe me anyway, except maybe Merv and I actually haven’t seen him in a few days. This time I really do hope I am just being paranoid again.
There’s something on board with us; I just know it. I thought I heard some kind of strange scuttling and crawling sound a little while earlier over in the corner, which woke me up, although it’s possible that I could have just dreamt it, I’m not quite sure, or it could have just been a bug or something. I got up anyway and looked around for a bit, but couldn’t see anything in the dim fluorescent light that’s always flickering on and off in my quarters, so I decided I might head on down to the lounge and clear my head. The lounge is just about the only place you can go on the whole freighter that’s not absolutely filthy and full of junk lying around all over the place. The lounge is just about the easiest place on the ship to get to as well, seems like every corridor leads there in the end and I was soon sitting there alone at one of the many illuminated tables sipping a tall glass of ale from the autotender. “Would you like another?” it asked in a polite, but forceful tone of voice, the second I had finished off the last of what was left in my glass.
So I was still just sitting around, thinking about different things, about the bump in the night, about the sparks on the hull. I must have been onto around my third drink, when I remembered an old story I’d heard a long time ago in a bar on the other side of the galaxy when things were still good. There was this really old man, drunk as anything, with the most disgusting, half-rotten and falling out teeth you’ve ever seen, who had stood up, perhaps to relieve himself in the facilities, but had become caught up along the way telling a story about a strange experience he’d had one time on an extended deep space flight.
And so the story went: he had been on a passenger flight with Transgalactic Starliners, headed for a remote system somewhere on the outer rim, when they had experienced what was considered mealy a rather large particle collision that had impacted right outside the room he was staying in. He didn’t really pay it too much notice, but a few days later, while he had fortunately been the only person on board inside an escape capsule, just about the entire starbus exploded around him and as he flew off in the badly damaged escape capsule, all he saw thousands and of little glowing green pods being shot off into space in every direction. We all thought he was crazy of course after he proceeded to relieve himself then and there and pass out on the cold tiles of the bar floor.
Day 01. The Junk Freighter
Just a minute ago I heard a rather loud crash outside the window, that familiar sound of something solid striking the ship’s thick, rusty hull, usually some kind of debris, space junk or a small meteor or asteroid chunk. It can give you a bit of a scare sometimes, always a laugh when you’re having a drink in the lounge with the boys and someone spills their Tyrellian Ale all over themselves. This one sounded a little strange though for some reason. I couldn’t get to sleep anyway, so I decided I’d go look out the window to check it out. So getting up and approaching the stars shining in from the small glass pane separating the junk in here from the junk out there. The window was pretty dirty from years of built up settlements of dust, dirt and grease. I wiped it a bit just with my hands, as they were already dirty and stained with all kinds of things anyway.
Pressing my face up against the glass and peering sideways, I could only just see down the rough metallic side of the ship. I looked here and there around the area that I imagined the impact had occurred, but saw nothing, nothing but a few small clusters of space barnacles, which had probably been accumulating there slowly over the past few decades. I started to forget all about the impact and began to just watch the stars, the little white specks in a sea of black, ever so slowly moving as we travelled along our path to wherever it was that we were going. I kind of lost myself for a moment, thinking about all the different systems and their inhabitants, all going about their cutthroat business of existence. But then I heard, very faintly, a low kind of scraping sound or perhaps more like drilling.
I looked to the hull again and between the barnacles I thought I saw a few little green sparks, shooting off out from the side of the junk freighter, just for a second. The sound continued and I became a little worried. There is a comm. link on the wall in my room, but it’s broken, so I had to go to the one in the hallway to notify the captain, who told me that it was nothing to worry about, that there’s all kinds of stuff that hits the ship all time and it never does any damage at all to the seven inch thick hardened hull and that I should probably just try to get to sleep like he was trying to do. I guess it doesn’t really take much to captain a freighter like this out here in the middle of nowhere. I went back in and checked the window again. The sparks were no longer there, so I crawled back into bed to continue writing in here.
So what happened? Well, I think that’s something a lot of us are still trying to figure out, but there’s also a lot who don’t really care, just trying to get through the rest of their lives the best they can, going from planet to planet in search of work or a decent place to settle down with a nice girl or something. I remember when all our dreams were set so high. We’d build castles in the sky, literally, the giant space docks, and there’d be whole communities living and dreaming, millions of people coming and going, the whole place like one giant cluster of activity, working together like one enormous organism.
Of course now there is the very real threat of actual giant space organisms, the starwhales, as they have come to be known rather than their proportionally long and difficult to pronounce scientific name, certainly the largest organic creatures they’ve ever shown in any of those space wildlife documentaries. But then again, you never can tell exactly whether what they tell you on the reality screens reflect the actual truth of reality. Almost everyone has their own agenda. I can’t help but think sometimes that the starwhales are only now exacting their revenge on us after centuries of hunting and slaughter for their valuable oils, their massive bones for construction and their tender flesh that many considered the greatest delicacy in the galaxy, if not the universe. I don’t really care for it too much though, but it does go well with carrots I must say.
Well there’s really not too much of a market for immortality these days. Besides the fact that it is illegal in many parts of the galaxy owned and operated by the people’s combine, for one thing there are very few actual people who could afford the basic upload package, and that’s without the extra additional add-ons. Secondly, even if anyone could afford it, they probably wouldn’t want to have it done anyway. Not in these terrible times. Actually I’m pretty sure the whole notion of achievable immortality has pretty much fallen off the galactic social conscious radar. Nothing about it is ever shown on the reality screens, almost like Immotec itself and the whole concept never even existed.
Well, today was just an ordinary day really, a routine I’ve become accustomed to following over the past few months. The alarm droid slapped me in the face a few times before I got up, stumbled over to the shower, which I still can’t believe has no hot water. What kind of age are we living in? Got out, ate some disgustingly plain synthetic breakfast, went for a walk, did some exercise, read a bit, watched some realityvision for a while and decided to write in here for a bit.
So anyway, what I really want to tell you is a story, they say everyone has at least one good story in them. Well I’m not sure how good they are, but I sure do have plenty of stories. Perhaps all my mediocre tales combined, with their joint forces, create the equivalent of one good story. I guess it’s all a matter of that you consider a good story as well. One man’s junk and all that. Speaking of which: I wonder sometimes about all the junk on this freighter, where it came from, its story of existence and where it’s going. The junk disposal business is huge these days, so competitive too, when there are laws against just dumping it into outer space. They say it’s to reduce hyperspace particle collision damage, but sometimes I think it’s just so the junk companies can stay in business.
But speaking of big business, before the great collapse, ours was virtually the biggest. The company I worked for, Immotec Inc. had – when times were good and the economy was at its peak – one of the highest share prices in the galaxy. I had only been there for a few years, but already was beginning to climb the ladder. What I did there was pretty simple, the product sold itself, back in the day when things were booming and there were plenty of people rolling in enough cash who could afford the luxury. Even some of the workers were able to afford the procedure after their working days had finished; they simply forfeited their superannuation to us, plus maybe a few surcharges, depending on the package, and their future existence in this sorry universe was assured. Of course, times were good back then; everyone was looking to the future, what new things it would bring. No one thought it would become what it is today. Perhaps if they had known, the idea of living forever wouldn’t have been so profitable.
Starting this new journal, mainly because I’ve been really quite bored lately. Life for a former, deep space, travelling Immotec Inc. salesman and technician, who’s now in somewhat of a transitional period piloting cargo freighters, trying to get some writing done, and the like, is just not that exciting most of the time, especially not these days. So not content with simply boring myself, I felt the need to set it all down on paper, as they say, simply to pass the time away. Of course, the occasional interesting thing does happen every so often, and I admit I have seen more than a few things in my day, but lately things have been very uneventful. Do you ever get that feeling where you just wish that something exciting would happen just out of the clear black sky, like a giant asteroid coming out of nowhere and colliding with us, if only to liven up the day a little bit? I usually try to live the simple life as much as I can. You always hear all the great space bohemia stories that are passed around from planet to planet.
It always amazes me how many cockroaches there are here in the far reaches of outer space; resilient little critters they are. Another brand new spray is being advertised on the reality screen again. I guess if there weren’t any cockroaches out here and everywhere, all those companies would go out of business or something. I doubt that will ever happen. The reception is terrible though at the moment; won’t be decent again until we get a little closer to the system we’re headed for, which is still quite a way away I think. I don’t even know why I bother to watch it. There’s nothing ever good on anyway, six hundred million channels and not a single decent program to speak of. Well I guess there’s not really all that much else you can do on a giant, floating, tin can filled with junk.
So I guess I should tell you all about how we got here, kind of stranded on this junk ship. Oh and I’ll introduce you to that crazy Mervyn Malone and maybe even tell you stories about all the antics he and I had been up to in our time on the ship. These days he seems to have lost his adventurous spirit somewhat. I’m not sure where he is now; wandering around the ship somewhere no doubt, thinking about something or other. There aren’t too many other people on board here, not like some of the other ships I’ve been on, but then again, I haven’t ever been on a junk ship before and I guess they don’t really need too many people on deck. Along with my usual piloting shift, I’ve managed to help out and keep myself useful, but in actual fact, there’s really not too much to do and I find myself often just walking around, thinking about this and that, humming a tune or something.
