by Melanie Edmonds
Ship’s log, 09:00, 4 October 2214 Location: Sarabande Station, near the Cerces black hole Status: Docked, powered down Undocking sequence started Umbilicals disconnecting It’s finally time. The station has been stripped of everything of use we could fit into my cargo bays. Every life signal has been herded or dragged on board me […]
Ship’s log, 09:23, 4 October 2214 Location: Near the Cerces black hole Status: Sublight transit Most of the time, sublight transit is quiet. Dull, even. Journeys across vast tracts of empty space are generally done in straight lines, under constant acceleration or coasting once the optimum speed has been reached. No corners, maybe a […]
Ship’s log, 11:56, 4 October 2214 Location: Near Sarabande Station and the Cerces black hole Status: Sublight transit I just moved inside the orbital path of Sarabande Station and cut my sublight engines. I’m still heading towards the black hole, but coasting now. It’ll take us a little time to get in as close […]
Ship’s log, 13:02, 4 October 2214 Location: Standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting They call space a ‘void’, but this close to a black hole, I’m starting to get a new perspective on the word. Looking into it, into Cerces’s darkness, I see a real void, a nothingness. That’s […]
Ship’s log, 14:33, 4 October 2214 Location: Standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting This isn’t at all what we had in mind. I know we were a little bit rushed getting here but this is ridiculous. It isn’t supposed to be happening like this! Right now, I’m standing on […]
Ship’s log, 16:14, 4 October 2214 Location: Standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting Cerces wants an avatar. He wants to come with us. The captain is definitely going to kill me. I should get Sara to wake him up. The captain needs to know about this. But what does […]
Captain’s log, 18:24, 5 October 2214 Location: Standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting Log location: Captain’s Cabin This is Captain Warwick reporting after direct contact was achieved between the crew of the Starwalker and the star-born entity known as Cerces. The official wording might be technically correct, but in […]
Ship’s log, 19:02, 5 October 2214 Location: Standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting Artificial gravity disabled Inertial dampeners offline That’s three, by my count. Three distinct gravitational fluctuations, each one stronger than the last, each one located in a different part of my structure. I have disabled all […]
Ship’s log, 20:53, 5 October 2214 Location: Approaching standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting Location: Bridge STARRY: Another anomaly, captain. (In the centre of the room, a light blooms in the holographic schematic of the ship, indicating the location of the gravity fluctuation. It is near the bulkhead between […]
Ship’s log, 21:44, 5 October 2214 Location: Standard orbit distance from the Cerces black hole horizon Status: Orbiting Sometimes, things happen so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. Even for a ship, used to managing parallel streams of input, processing, and output, it’s stressful when they all seem to compete at the same […]