Message inbound...
Space Cruiser Excelsior
Destination: Unknown
~~ TELEMETRY SENSORS 2 AND 4 DOWN ~~
Stardate Beta Epsilon 2 Epsilon
AUTO TELEMETRY: DOWN
BIO-MED SENSORS: GOOD
H20->FUEL CONVERSION: GOOD
H20 RESERVES: GOOD
CRYO SLEEP: WARN
[autotranslator on]
Corporal Sam Arnold, Systems Administrator
---
The Excelsior's cryo-sleep issues seem now to be almost non-existant, no matter
what the systems readout is saying up above this message. As far as I can tell,
one of the cryo berths appears to have been brought undervolt after an
emergency burn was executed by the Excelsior for course correction. It has been
fixed as of Beta Delta 23 Epsilon. The overvolt issue, on the other hand, took
some more negotiation with the hardware. It has been fixed as of Beta Delta 29
Epsilon.
Reading the messages on the QEC, I'm honestly afraid of what I'm reading.
To the revolutionaries aboard Hoffnung, I'm honestly sickened by what I read
from you. Killing people on a mass scale who have done nothing to attempt
to harm you (to the best of the knowledge I can recieve) besides having
ideological differences is terrible on so many scales. I cannot condone any
kind of behavior like that.
To Malkonkordo, I cannot condone a war with the Starbloom Communal Distributive
Projection (not that I have any power over you to prevent it). Susan and
the others have simply been well-wishers. Even if they may have grossly
misrepresented your knowledge, you should not go to war with them, for the
same reason that Hoffnung's revolutionaries should not have killed 22 soldiers.
Of course, not all of these messages are bad.
To Dei Genetrix, may God bless you on your mission and may He see you
safely there.
To Melchizedek, may you find lasting peace, wherever you may find yourself
and your crew.
To Pilot Anderson aboard the Cosmic Hummingbird (and I agree that that name
is definitely an eccentric one), may your recovery be swift.
As for my own mental sanity, I have been developing programs on the Excelsior's
powerful mainframe to pass the time. As stated in procedure [REDACTED],
I must stay awake for 3 months before going back to sleep. Since I woke up
on Beta Delta 21 Epsilon, I must wait until Beta Eta 21 Epsilon before I
may re-enter cryosleep.
I was hoping that the QEC messages could keep my faith in technology and
sentient creatures alive.
I was mistaken.
Oh, and to the Voortrekker? May all be well with you.
However you define "well". :)
-- TRANSMISSION END --
gemini://cosmic.voyage/Excelsior/002.txt