Echoes I
**Shifting reality: Exodus
Part I: Echoes**
June 15th 2138, Jake's diary
I know its been long since my last entry (gee 39 years!), but they just took us out of the freezer, heh. To think that I went to sleep last century and now its almost halfway into the next! I still feel like a friggin puppet that's been cut from its strings and can barely move, but they say that'll pass in a matter of days. Tomorrow is THE day... we will actually SEE it for the first time!! Im so excited. Oh well, I could go on and litter my diary with pointless crap just to waste the time but yea - tomorrow!
June 15th 2138, Wakeup station log, Ltd. Sarah Ripley
10:00am
Lieutenant Ripley reporting successful wakeup. Proceed with stage two as programmed.
11:17am
I just finished completely waking up and have recovered from the boosters they give to us "sandmen" so we can report immediately after wakeup. Note to self that we have to improve the procedure. Stage three will initiate on time at 1pm.
01:07pm
We had a broken metacoil in station 2 so we couldn't wake up all of the crew for now. Right now I have 2 sandmen and 8 pilots out of the boxes as well as 1 engineer but that wont do. Lets hope the engineer can fix the thing and we can go on as planned.
07:36pm
The situation looks more serious then we thought - the metacoil did not only break, but also fired chaotic impulses over the last years of transit. I hope none of the remaining crew have suffered severe injuries in the unregulated stasis, I will post a detailed report as soon as possible, but without a medical engineer it might be hard. Next report before end of shift.
June 15th 2138, Lisa's diary
It seems like I woke up later then scheduled. Everything was a nervous buzz in wakeup station and I really hope there isnt any serious problems, but nobody told me anything. Im not among the official crew but maybe I can help them somewhat later, being a doctor myself.
I tried to make my way to storage, but the section hasn't been opened yet - they didn't even pressurize it so far. I accessed the storage manifest and verified the autoloader schedule for my equipment. At least that should still go as planned.
It's getting late now and I still suffer from what they call "The bear's hangover" here. Sleep will do me good and there isnt anything I can do to help right now anyway.
June 16th 2138, Wakeup station log, Ltd. Sarah Ripley
04:01am
Ripley adding to log. The engineer couldn't fix the metacoil and actually advised to jetison it! The pilots have activated the hangar and some of them are good enough technicians so they will have a fighter ready for some basic recon very soon. We will need that since the bridge requires command level beta at least and all sensors are controlled from there. I will get some sleep now. Transfer wakeup station command to Lieutenant Farren.
June 16th 2138, Wakeup station log, Ltd. Deva Farren
04:09am
Lieutenant Farren assuming wakeup station command. We are having code teal on close to 20% of the remaining boxes, but at least they are not deteriorating. We are preparing a force revive on civil medical staff Elisa Mirin, because we have little choice. If the procedure is successful, we will continue until 5 medstaff are ready for work. There is a dire risk, but we cannot resolve the situation without at least a small medical team.
Ensign Davis wasn't up to what she called "pushing the button".. If its a failure I hope their families will forgive us and see that we had no other choice. I really see no other choice. End of log entry.
05:57am
The worst has happened! We started reviving Mirin and everything went stable until we started increasing body temperature level. We only got to 21% before her tissue started degenerating. It all went so quickly. We managed to halt the decay but she was down to 84% intact tissue. That is so horribly low that she would not even twitch if we finished reviving her.
It is my duty now to explain this to Ripley and to write the letter to Mirin's family..... And then we have to repeat the procedure until we succeed. I hope Davis has got a grip on herself again by now. Even though I unterstand her feelings, but we cannot break down like that, not now! End of log entry.
June 16th 2138, Jake's diary
Seems like I woke up early today! Not that it would matter - until we land the days are just as fake as the air we breathe. Man, I so can't wait to walk on real soil again and lots of it. Unlike those biospheres back home they let us visit once per month so we wouldn't go nuts. Theres still enough time for a good long breakfast in bed and maybe some more to meet some people. Im just so glad my sister got me on this ark! I'll write again later.
June 16th 2138, Wakeup station log, Ltd. Deva Farren
08:00am
Farren reporting! Ripley is dead! First I thought her rem unit had malfunctioned, but she died of spontaneous cellular decay just like Mirin. The engineer is dead too, but he jetisoned the metacoil before it started.. His body looked like it had half melted away the way ice melts when warmed up... I hope his death was quick.
I now believe that prolongued exposure to the metacoils radiation is what causes the deaths. All of the boxes with code teal are definitely beyond recovery. It makes me dizzy just to think it, considering that's over two hundred people dead. I scanned myself and Davis and we both show signs of metaphysical decay. It is worse on me then on Davis and I will probably not live until tonight. Strange, considering I feel no pain or discomfort.
I.. I believe Davis will survive, the radiation just cost her a lot of years she won't get back. I have to pass my security ID and instructions to her now as long as I can and make preparations. I never thought I would prepare to die like this... It's like something creeping up to me from behind and I know it's going to get me. I don't want to be unprofessional about this, but I want people to know that people have died here, that I have died here. Not numbers and statistics, but people!
End of.. end of log.
08:21am
Jenna Davis here.. I verify that I have taken command.. of the wakeup station. Deva just left to her quarters to.. prepare. I don't know how she can be so calm about it all, but I admire it, honestly. I will do my duty as good as I can........ God help us all.. Davis out.
11:09am
I am ready to continue trying to revive some of the medical staff. Only two are not among the code teal people that are sadly a lost cause. So much death.. Now I will have to be the one to push the button after all and I fear more will die.. I set up 8 different wakeup cycles for code blue sleepers - this way I only have to do the test once. I'm forced to.. to experiment on living people here! The fact that I have to do it to save the lives of others doesn't help a bit. I let a randomizer choose the subjects, but it didn't return very useful results so I ended up picking them myself. It seriously gives me the creeps, but this way survival rate can be optimized. God.. I feel like a mad scientist already saying that.. I pray that..... [suppressed sob].. Davis out.
03:17pm
AUTOMATED WAKEUP STATION REPORT 21380616/1. WAKEUP PROCEDURE OF 8 SUBJECTS FINISHED. SUCCESS RATE: 12.5%. FATALITY RATE: 87.5%. 7 FATALITIES RECORDED.
04:20pm
One! I only could revive one of them! All my calculations were incorrect - the effects of the radiation seem chaotic to say the least! It is pure chance that Yilari Dokar survived reanimation. She is a bantar and has her species' natural talent for medical engineering as well as the rest - that will be a great help. She.. went to work without any more words then necessary. I know she blames me... I would..
Deva Farren has disappeared from her quarters and nobody has seen her anywhere on the ship. The disturbing part is that the pilot who checked her quarters found an open book stuck halfway IN the wall like it has merged with it. He also reported that the air seemed to blur stangely above the bed where Deva spent her last hours. I hope... may she rest in peace.
June 16th 2138, Lisa's diary
I went for a walk in the atrium that this level's colonist quarters are arranged around and met only a handful of people. According to our original briefing there should be 64. I tried to leave the section, but it's still sealed. I tried to contact the staff, the bridge, anywhere - I think the comlink is dead beyond this level.
In the middle of the atrium is a great crystal zero-G shaft that connects all levels. I looked down and noticed no lights anywhere above or below. There is a total of 100 colonist levels alone and we are C-level 21. Some of the others begin to think they are all dead and we are adrift in space, but in that case we surely couldn't have stable energy like this.. or at least I cannot imagine it.
I will take a trip through the shaft once I have worked up some courage.. Nobody else offered to come along. I will try to go up and reach the bridge first - there's no telling if some of the.. things got out of the freezer down there and I'd rather run into crewmen then into ferals. In the best case this is all just a minor malfunction...
June 16th 2138, Hangar log, Jr. Ltd. Sevren Pierce
08:34pm
Junior Lieutenant Pierce initializing hangar log. We have restored main power. Since most of our internal sensors are down the computer can't autolog our progress - manual summaries will have to do for now. The primary reactor is online and producing a stable energy output that we can tap completely since the main engines are no longer firing. Right now we are so blind that all we can say for sure is that we arrived somewhere, but not where exactly.
The eight of us are doing the work of several dozen engineers and we are pilots. Naturally, here is alot of guessing involved... I am the only one who actually worked as space engineer for a few years so dispite my junior rank I am now acting chief engineer of a craft the size of a large biosphere. It's not like I feel crushed by the responsibility, but -gee- I would have to lie to say I liked the way things turned out.
Meyer, Jiles and Sanders are checking one of the scout ships - once it's flightworthy we will at least have one set of eyes to go by since those babies have quite advanced sensors. The hangar main doors are functional, but we are getting erratic readings from the airshield and we cannot risk depressurizing the whole place.
Our main need is some workers. Maybe some can be obtained from the lower levels tomorrow. Let's hope we can get down there and also find enough functional controllers or all we'll get is our hands dirty keeping down a bloody rebellion. So much to think about. I will report again later - end of entry.
June 16th 2138, Jake's diary
Yeah Yeah, another entry for today! Lisa.. one of the others on my level decided to look for the crew. Everybody is making such a fuss about this all, but I guess we just woke up early or something. Nothing that the crew or the ship itself can't take care of by themselves in time. I will take a trip down the tube myself - I heard there's a transparent section just below the workforce module close to the rear end of this place. I should be able to see my new home from there!
I think I better don't tell the others and go down in a quiet moment - everybody is so angsty right now and I don't need them fussing about any more. But old Jake isn't scared by shadows. Maybe I can even catch a glimpse of some of the ferals in their boxes - I've never seen one from up close, but I hear they are quite the strong and dumb type. Still interesting... I'll write again later!
_ Author note: Yes yes, I know there is no furs in this yet, but just you wait until the story unfolds some more :3
I am experimenting with this segmented style and I'm not sure if its any good - please comment so I can decide if I should keep using it for some chapters or if I should rather use good old narrative styles ^^;;_