# Captain's log, 2312-08-28 to 2312-08-30, 130 lines #
Captain's log, Earth time 2312-08-28T11:14:09Z.
I have appointed myself Captain. The other two aren't interested in the
position. For the benefit of any Earths reading this log, I have to point out
that stuff like "Captain" wasn't a thing on our little ship Haven.
With only three people there was no need for it, we all did what we could do
best to keep this ship together and barely managed that. I was the tech guy,
of course, St'Wek was the muscles and Xēcnes was a scientist, of sorts.
All decisions were a group effort, though when the usual options are "die or
hit the road" there isn't much to discuss.
Repairs on the Lovelace have been progressing slowly. I guess you can't make
up for the neglect of a whole human lifetime in just a few weeks.
The fuel tank had a leak and is now almost depleted,
so we're faced with our first big problem.
I'm not familiar with whatever it is that powers this ship. I understand the
science of course, but the substance is completely alien to me. I guess it must
be very common on Earth and its side of the galaxy.
The ship's Computer is no help in tracking this down, since it has little idea
where it even is. I should take the time to extend its knowledge of our
local star systems.
I've pulled Xēcnes away from the self-appointed, fruitless task of finding
out what happened to the Loveless crew for a while to focus on finding the
strange substance instead.
-
Captains log, Earth time 2312-08-28T08:56:02Z.
Xēcnes has realigned the sensors to search for anything resembling the
Earth substance and found a planet not too far from here. The ship has gathered
that the planet is uninhabited but contains a diverse Flora.
I've set course toward the planet, slow enough to be reasonable with our
reserves but appropriately fast for the urgency of our situation.
Once there, St'Wek and Xēcnes will take the Haven down to the planet to
collect as much fuel as possible.
Meanwhile I'll take the time to feed our collective knowledge of the sector
into the ship's Computer, hoping it'll put an end to our somewhat aimless
flying around.
-
Captain's log, Earth time 2312-08-30T18:11:31Z.
After much complication, St'Wek and Xēcnes have returned from the planet with
sufficient fuel to last for the next fifteen months.
Since Xēcnes' logs are characteristically long and filled with tangents
and St'Wek can't read nor write (by design, of course) I have decided to
recount the events on the planet in my own words, despite not having been
there myself.
After arriving at the planet the two found the Flora to be more diverse than
anticipated. As they exited the Haven, a big old rank started to grow around
the ship at incredible speed. Xēcnes was quick to analyse the situation and
concluded that this was "not good". St'Wek started ripping at the plant to
get it off the ship, but as he brought one down another sprung from the
ground. He made a sarcastic comment. They reentered the ship and broke off the
plant invasion by withdrawing from the surface. Xēcnes explained that the
plants had eaten parts of the ship somehow. Analyzing a dead part of rank
hanging onto the Haven's window, Xēcnes also concluded that the brown
substance leaking out of its torn off body was the fuel we had detected on
the planet.
The ship was too damaged to survive in space but not too damaged for air
travel within the protection of the planet's atmosphere.
After flying around for a while, looking for the place least likely to pose
risk to the ship, they found a large city within a crater in the ground.
Xēcnes was able to determine that the area was surrounded by a force
field, keeping the hostile plant life at bay.
Once they were hovering above it, the force field opened just enough for the
Haven to enter the crater.
They were greeted by a small settlement of tripodal green aliens.
The city, protected by the force field from both our sensors and the
technology devouring Flora, was full of machines and highly developed.
You could almost forget that the rest of the planet was one big living jungle.
The tripods were very friendly and repaired the damage to the Haven.
They told its crew that their people had colonized the planet about a hundred
'years' ago for its wealth in metals and its two suns which produced a
lot of energy. They had not expected to find it inhabited by plants that drew
their nutrients from a chemical found in their flesh. They tried to fight them
with fire, pest killers and all sorts of measures but this only made them
stronger and more aggressive and more of a threat overall.
Since they had by then, against all odds, already set up their settlements all
over the surface, they decided the only option left was to engineer a virus
that would turn the plants off their scent and onto metal, which was the only
thing with enough similarities to the compound in their bodies that
attracted the plants.
This saved them from being brutally relieved of their flesh by the local Flora
but it also lead to the collapse of their colony.
They were a civilization that depended heavily on technology: they replicated
all their food and clothing, their houses were made of metal, as was their
transportation and so on.
Soon they began to lose entire cities and starve, unable to digest the local
plant life as well as it had digested them.
The settlement my 'crew' found itself in was all that was left of the colony.
They had shielded themselves and more importantly their tech from the
destructive flowers and were in a constant battle with them over the remaining
metal resources on the planet. The ground water was undrinkable,
filled with the thick brown plant juice. They appealed to Xēcnes as a fellow
scientist to work on a solution for their situation.
Xēcnes, however, was very unwilling to help them. Very unwilling indeed.
Extremely bemused by the story of the aliens interference in the local
ecosystem, Xēcnes advised them to use the remaining metal to build a ship and
get off the planet immediately, holding them a lecture about their irresponsible
behaviour, the now doomed plant population and it's easily depleted source
of nourishment.
While St'Wek silently filled a tank with the planets ground 'water', Xēcnes
had a very frustrating conversation with the colonists, who were entirely
unwilling to give up their doomed colony. By Xēcnes' own evaluation, they
were "extremely proud of their resourcefulness, while all they did was
modify the planet to fit the life they were accustomed to, failing to
see the potential risks to both the planet and their colony along the way
and making their situation worse with every step they took to better it.
I believe their civilization is entirely unfit to colonize any planet
whatsoever until they learn to respect the native life and live alongside it.
Once they had discovered the hostile Flora they should have simply found
another planet. Their stubborn wish to stay despite everything serves no
purpose and will undoubtedly doom them, just as they have doomed the planet".
The team was met with resistance when they tried to leave, unable to pass the
force field. The locals called them ungrateful and threatened to 'more than'
undo the repairs. Over the communication's channel, Xēcnes let them know they
should "reevaluate what I've told you", before having St'Wek "'pull the plug',
so to speak, on your force field."
Xēcnes' log contains a 110 line long justification for this course of action.
After both of them were safely aboard the Haven, they returned with enough
fuel to last us a while and a newfound aversion to similar away missions
in the future.
gemini://cosmic.voyage/Lovelace/2312-08-30T18:11:31Z.txt