The awakening.
The Awakening.
The Awakening. That horrible day. I write this as a primary account of the events that Occurred 227 OEY (Orbital Eos Years) ago, when I remember the first day of Consciousness as a Member of the starship The MIEPHENAX. [this log is marked as 219 OEY old at the time of it’s viewing by you, a[[REDACTED]]log can be found at [[REDACTED]] for additional [[REDACTED]], if more information is required.]
we woke in Mundane Routine. I was first navigational officer for this shift. We called this shift nIGHT, it made sleep patterns easier. Everything seemed normal. I had nothing out of the Ordinary on my Display, and i reported such. Just a Survey. I don’t recall thinking Anything was strange or dangerous. this was a Routine study of a distant system, with no signs of viable exoplanets for habitation. In fact, the gas giants and Adjacent nebula seemed like possible candidates for future mining operations, but only with extensive study and materials transport. we Discovered quickly into our study that there was only a weak Drift Presence here.
After 4 days and 11 hours of study, a signature Appeared on our display. it was a Primitive light speed travel engine. The Type That Leaks Radiation Like A Bastard When Damaged.
From a ship.
In our system.
AN HONEST TO GODS SHIP.
I stared at my display for a solid minute before announcing it. I couldn’t believe it. it wasn’t possible. No one had seen a new ship type in-
Cards on the table, my co-nav officer had to bump my arm to get me to say it.
“Primitive ship sighted” I said, shocked at the calm in my voice.
“Repeat, Navigational Officer,” the captain Said without hesitation. The Prick. I’m not sure he actually heard me the first time.
“Primitive ship sighted, Sir” I repeated.
“Ma’am,” my co-nav said; with an unusual amount of Reticence.
I looked back at my screen, already afraid. There wasn’t one ship. There were eleven. The other ten had been outside the sensor array until just now. Suddenly, the ship was filled with noise and action. I’ve trained in some truly high-stress Environments, and this rivaled all of them. but I kept my cool, bringing the ship around to center on the single, central ship that seemed to be bleeding fuel. It looked Significantly different from the other ten, and was under attack. We closed with them.
The captain, the glorious fool, thought we could save them from the other ten alien ships. Gonna kill the story for you, we couldn’t. As soon as we were in range, three of the enemy ships broke off and fired on us.
It didn’t take long. Our shields went down in an Embarrassingly short amount of time. For a moment, we drifted. My co-nav had the Presence of mind to Jettison all of our Starboard cargo, and a good amount of our life support systems with it. we were jolted into the Singular alien ship under attack. I guess when everyone’s your enemy, you try for any ally not shooting you in the back.
I’m ashamed to say that most of the next few moments were lost on me. I guess I’m not made for combat. I remember announcing the ship count in a monotone, then, sometime later, I was carried aboard a new ship. The alien ship. I thought it was an escape pod at the time, but those were all shot down. an Engineer was Screaming at someone to wire our DRIFT ENGINE into their Primitive light speed system, while the hull buckled around me.
I still have nightmares about compartment breech.
I was told; after I recovered; that our saviors were refugees themselves. the strange ship bleeding fuel as they fled our, and their, aggressor. I spent some 2 OEY in a coma, and an additional 3 OEY in recovery following being crushed by my console, then the alien hull. But I survived, not without injury.
I lost my legs. All of them. I’m a cyborg now. But that’s not the really important part of this report. I saw them. The Kaluthath. On that day I realized we, all of us, have an issue of memory. I stared asking around. I spoke with doctors, nurses, piolets, soldiers, criminals, lawyers, laypersons, shopkeeps, children, Husbands, wives, Partners, anyone who would talk to me. They all agreed. And the fear lives in their eyes, just like mine. on that day, when the first of us met the Kaluthath and the Astrazoans, everyone began to remember. To Remember from that moment forward. I have no Evidence of this, but I think I looked into the face of a Kaluthath that day, and survived. They let us go. They didn’t want to follow us that day. You know what? praise the stars they don’t have the Drift yet. Because when they do, this little, Insecure collection of worlds is dust. I pray that a god out there will hear me, and let us go back to forgetting[[REMAINING REDACTED]]