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Source Melchizedek.0294
β Hyi, 4rd Planet
Ascension 00h 25m 45.07037s
Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
Distance 24.37ly
Equinox J2000.0 SOL
Year 3782, QEC adjusted
[Autotranslator enabled...]
[System encryption enabled. Relaying audio transcription to
Melchizedek.0294 base station.]
[Envelope from Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class]
[Delivery to Eva Hämäläinen, Navigator]
:::
Hey girl. I'm up on top like you said, riding this all the way in.
I think we'll be arriving shortly. Have you talked to Mo yet? Reed
and Spinelli were talking at mess already. I caught it on the sec
feed. They think there's something out there that's alive. Alien,
Reed said.
When you told me to stay hidden as long as possible I thought you
meant a few hours. This is getting old. I was going to go in and
bring up Jerome, but I listened to your warning. Besides, I think
they might be with us anyway. You really think the others on three
will report us? I mean, we took the shuttle, but Brewer wouldn't
call Prezzi if his face were on fire and Ostergarten is infatuated
with you. Hanks is Hanks, but he wouldn't, would he?
I mean, I trust you, but this seems a little bit overkill. The
crew here hasn't done anything out of the ordinary at all. I bet
if I just showed up in the mess everyone would say, "Oh hi,
Stephanie. When did you get in? How's the crazy thing going?" Then
we'd have some tea, eat some greens, and it would be just like
normal. Except if the doctor is around, I guess. Dr. Nguyen knows
I should be back on three and would definitely say something to
Prezzi.
So here I am, just where you left me. My legs fell asleep earlier.
Oh wow was that funny. I dropped down to grab some rations and
when my feet hit the deck I dropped right down in a sack. It was
pathetic. They were seriously dead to me for a minute there.
I tried to walk by memory since I couldn't feel a thing and my
feet were flailing all about. I nearly kicked the flood-hatch aft
and I did kick the bottom lip on portway 3. It was kind of fun in
a horrible way, but then my legs started to wake up. You know that
feeling like a thousand bees inside your skin? Not fun at all. So
I all but danced my way in to the mess (this was after Reed and
Spinelli left) and grabbed some foodstuffs and made my way back.
I took Reed's pillow, though. That one he uses as a cushion in the
mess, you know? I need something to keep my legs from
disconnecting from me again. He'll just assume someone else took
it. No worries. I remember Bukowski took it to mess with him just
after launch one time. See? Smart, right?
So, long story short, I'm still here in the dark. The crews are
rotating like normal. I about had a heart attack when Prezzi came
in yesterday all sudden-like. I thought she caught me or you or
something, but then she just ran for the commode and I had to stop
myself from laughing out loud. That would have been terrible.
Caught out by laughing. That's totally something I'd do.
Right right right. So is there anything else I can do? It's
a little boring and I want to help. What if I did some navigation
preconfig stuff. I mean, I have the old course that Sandy worked
out in the logs. I could try getting it input here to start things
off. You know I can't handle the drift math, but maybe it'll help
you move quicker once you're back on board. Or we can wait for
darkcycle and I can try to talk to Reed. He's got watch onboard
and he should be alone.
Please, Eva. There's got to be something I can do.
.
[End of encrypted envelope.]
gemini://cosmic.voyage/Melchizedek/029.txt