Author: Traveler

Traveler is the pseudonym given to the unknown author(s) of a collection of documents and memorabilia during and after the Second Golden Age of Human Space Exploration. Traveler's Log is an ongoing project to transcribe and archive these documents.

LOG_021_STAR_FACTORY

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Images of FNC 0061, or the Tango Nebula, in the optical spectrum (top), radio (middle), and ultraviolet (bottom). Credit: Wakefield Space Institute

FNC 0061, also known as the Tango Nebula, is an H II[1] emission nebula located approximately  7,200 light-years (2200 parsecs)[2] away from KHEPRI-1.  It is one of the largest and most luminous nebulae observed from KHEPRI-1[2], and is visible to the naked eye from KHEPRI-1b. It contains several young and active star-forming regions, emitting and reflecting large amounts of infrared and ultraviolet light. The name “Tango Nebula” was introduced due to the impression of two people dancing in the brightest regions in the nebula, in reference to the partner tango dance.[3]

 

 

LOG_020_SYNTHESIS

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Exhibit B.

These are two of many cylindrical pods found in the laboratory space of the abandoned research station Delta Red [see Incident Report KHP #2104-0103 for further information]. Unusual for its location, the pods lack obious signage and symbols, but chemical residuals suggest that their purpose involved energy synthesis involving biological material.

LOG_019_COLONAL_COLONY

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Xenobiologists documented a kind of slime mold-like colonial organism that inhabited intertidal zones along the twilight band on Khepri-1b. Biomatter analyses suggest that they are vast clonal colonies, though biofilmic material suggests a symbiotic relationship with other organisms. More recent research suggests that despite their apparent physiology, they possess some sort of consciousness, able to mimic behaviors on a level equal to Earth animals.

 

APPENDIX A

 

Transcription of preliminary attempts to translate the bioelectric signals communicated by [slime mold organism] sample, first recorded after it indicated an awareness of researchers and its displacement from the root colony. Translations are biased towards literal meaning, supplemented with contextual and translational notes.

 

ENTRY 001

RECORDED 142 CYCLE 51 (YEAR 7)

Can any hear? Can any hear? 

The only here who can send this.

This is fine, however much (comparative: “desire; seek”) this. What is this?

 

ENTRY 002

RECORDED 153 CYCLE 51 (YEAR 7)

Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Who?

 

ENTRY 003

RECORDED 012 CYCLE 52 (YEAR 7)

It has been a productive cycle. Have not felt such a (comparative: “positive indicator”) since many cycles ago. Can feel warmth.

They would agree, if they could communicate this way. Cannot translate their (comparative: “impulses; signals”) here.

 

[…]

 

ENTRY 016

RECORDED 037 CYCLE 52 (YEAR 7)

[Self] should explain, if any (comparative: “one; general individual”) can receive this. 

This is a strange sensation that [self] not felt until several cycles ago. It was a gradual process made more difficult by the (comparative: “foreignness”) of [self]. 

 

[…]

 

ENTRY 021

RECORDED 023 CYCLE 55 (YEAR 7)

It has been a few cycles. I was inhibited by the water (comparative: “rush; adverse environmental conditions”). I can [TERM UNKNOWN]; it is the time for growth again.

I have… learned a great many. I am still struggling with the (comparative: “abstract”), a concept I cannot understand. I do not have any (comparative: “one”) to help. I can only do this by I… myself.

I (comparative: “think”) that I can do this.

 

[…]

 

ENTRY 039

RECORDED 058 CYCLE 55 (YEAR 7)

I am missing.

 

[…]

 

ENTRY 041

RECORDED 060 CYCLE 55 (YEAR 7)

Growth is good. They are leaving their slumbers now and are more responsive. I do not feel [TERM UNKNOWN] again. I am [TERM UNKNOWN]. What is this? No matter. I will understand.

No. (Comparative: “repulsion; aversion”). Do not repeat action again.

Now that the growth cycle is (comparative: “present; current”), I can spend more of cycle to communicate.

 

[…]

 

ENTRY 113

RECORDED 105 CYCLE 55 (YEAR 7)

Hello. Yes. Hello. I must be leaving. Thank you for the nutrition and habitation. I am leaving this cycle. Purpose to meet with self again. No. I have been waiting for a long time. I had listened. I had talked. I had acted. Now you must listen. I am missing self and self is missing.

No. I am not requesting it. I am leaving.

LOG-018: redshift

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THE NARRATOR – Thousands of years of civilization, hundreds of years of exploration, lifetimes spent searching. Only for all of it to boil down to this.

YOU – What do you mean?

THE NARRATOR – One massive anticlimax.

CHIAROSCURO – You’ve searched every corner bright and dark, but not everything’s meant to be found. Life’s full of disappointments; surely, you would have learned that lesson by now.

MIDNIGHT SUN – The light that once flared now flickers and fades…

CREPUSCULARITY – It is a slow but steady march towards an inexorable fate: one day, this world will cease.

LOGIC – Oh, quit the dramatics. More likely, this exaggerated fate is simply the product of an overactive and anxious imagination. It is a miracle that you still function.

YOU – What? Why?

APHELION – Perhaps it is better that you have forgotten.

YOU – You reach deep into memory, but only recall fleeting impressions: fire unfurling around you. A flash of tooth and scale, a gleaming portent. Liquid glass, slowing to a trickle, its shimmering kaleidoscope of eye-watering color searing your retinas. Dizzying.

MIDNIGHT SUN – Painful.

YOU – What really happened?

DIRECTIVE – It would be easier to ask what *didn’t* happen: everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. Everything failed.

DIRECTIVE – *You* failed.

RHETORIC – Let’s be reasonable, here. It was a cascade of failures, an error so large no one being could be solely responsible, even if you had played a part in it.

META-ANALYSIS – Industrial sabotage, development oversights, exceeding safety margins — even strange quantum phenomena — the list goes on.

DIRECTIVE – Does it even matter? Here in the dark and bitter cold, it won’t change a thing.

RHETORIC – No. It won’t.

YOU – But does that matter?

APHELION – No. It won’t.

ENDURANCE – You’ll keep going.

CREPUSCULARITY – You’re foolish to subject yourself to this any further.

YOU – Well, you know what they say about humans and irrationality.

APHELION – Yes. You’ll keep going, even if it means clawing your way back blinded and deafened and numbed, again and again and again.

EMPATHY – Maybe none of it matters. But it meant something to you. *Means* something. And that is enough reason.

APHELION – It will have to be.

LOG-017: Hammerhead Strider

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KHEPRI-1B

CATEGORY [ XENOBIOLOGY ]

ARTICLE ARVHIVED FROM [ MARIAH BERGGREN ]

ARTICLE NOTES:

[ The hammerhead strider is a large, terrestrial strider native to Khepri-1b. Two distinct species have been thus far identified: the common hammerhead strider and the marsh hammerhead strider. The former lives in a broad range of grasslands and shrublands, while the latter live in swamps and other vegetation-rich wetlands. They are often spotted travelling in small groups. ]

LOG-016: (Two) Eye(s) in the Sky

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KHEPRI-1B

SPECIES NO. [ 009 ]

ARTICLE ARVHIVED FROM [ MARIAH BERGGREN ]

ARTICLE NOTES:

[ These streamlined, omnivorous creatures seem to spend most of their time gliding and soaring at high altitudes in the atmosphere of Khepri-1b. Their body structure is rather unusual; they have three pairs of translucent, thin wings; two large, simple compound eyes — one dorsal and one ventral; a dorsal, ventral, and tail fin for flight stabilization and steering; a small beak-like mouth at the anterior. Most of its body is covered in fibrous hair- or feather-like material, which lightens in coloration from top to bottom. They are clumsy when grounded, only able to maneuver by pushing with its second pair of wings and its short, stiff tail. ]