ataraxion | Text

Strela

It's been a while since I've written anything, so I probably ought to apologize beforehand. It just feels like it ought to be important to keep a record of these things because you never know. Been here since the beginning. Eight months. Seen a lot of strange things, worked through some different situations, but this one sort of took the cake for me. Last month I was in medbay because of the illness so I didn't get to see that maze or those things alive in the Science Dept, but I heard a bit and I think it's important we remember that as we go on. Did anyone actually hear from Ward and Resnik about ANY of that?

Anyway... Strela...

We stopped off one place before on the first month I was here. Tansei. Only Ward and Resnik were supposed to go for a supply run, but some people snuck on and rode over. Sherlock didn't have a lot to tell me about it, but he sort of had other things on his mind when he got off. For someone so observant he can be really single-minded sometimes and it's just that one thing and nothing else matters. Actually that's sort of a lot.

This was my first time off and I could tell right away that something about the stop just wasn't right. There were almost no people at the shipyard and nobody talked to anyone. I guess I just thought it was because we were strangers. But days went by and I still hadn't heard a single word. These people weren't even talking to each other. I went in one of the pubs and it was like I was the only one in the room. I tried talking to a few of them but they were having none of it. It was like talking to them distressed them or offended them or something. I had to get my own drink.

A lot of people from our ship seemed to catch on to this and started stealing. If anyone back from the trip gives you something, I can guarantee almost 100% that it was stolen. None of the locals were interested at all. They just didn't seem to care.

On the third day, a bunch of locals dressed in white came through the streets and started rounding us up. People from the ship. They used something like cattleprods to subdue us all and took us to this big room where we were forced to watch them take us off one by one. In the end, they took me to one of the rooms and when the door shut behind me it seemed like it disappeared entirely. I was just in this... whiteness. There weren't any walls or doors, it was just all white. And bright, blinding even.

I don't know what it was like for anyone else, but for me it was like going up in an airplane and your ears don't pop. Just a lot of pressure that kept coming on no matter what I did. It was like there were walls there, but I couldn't see them. I thought I heard voices but at some point I really didn't know what was happening. Everything was going numb. I think I'd have lost my mind for sure if something hadn't happened.

I say something because I don't know if I imagined it or not. I saw writing come out of nowhere, all red. 'You're Welcome' I think it said. I don't know. The door was open and I was out of there. The pressure stopped. I don't know how long I was in there. It felt like hours, maybe a day. When I got out, the guards were all dead. Did someone else who got out do that?

I think I was lucky. I know I saw people that weren't so well off and I'm sure now what the locals were trying to do was make us all like them. I think they've probably been doing it for a long time because there were so many of them and so many were different in species. There were so many shuttles in the docks...

Whether everyone is here or not, I don't know yet. I know me and some other people went back to save what we could before the shuttles left.

Thank you.

It makes me wonder what it was like for Ward and Resnik since they were supposed to go there to trade for supplies. How could they not know that something wasn't up? You would think that someone would check into this before they docked. I dunno, some sort of intergalactic space book that says 'do not go here, they will try to take over your mind'? And how does things like this even happen?

Honestly I can only hope who we did get back have all snapped out of whatever was done to them. I think we ought to have people come down to medbay to make sure nothing has actually happened to the brain physically. Also, I hope this is a lesson to Ward and Resnik about choosing their venues for docking wisely because this is intolerable. No one needed this on top of everything else that's happened. I know it's like responsibility has been thrust on them and they didn't ask for this, but it's not like WE did either and it's not like we haven't tried to make the best of what we've had. No one is paying us to do our jobs here but it's the right thing to do. Don't they have that concept in this future?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What? Are you alright? I-Is everyone that you know got back alright? That's - horrible!

...All of the guards were dead?

I'm alright, yeah. [ He'll be alright. ]

Yes, they were. I just found them that way when I got out.

A-And you don't know what happened to them? There was no way to - help them?

[Her voice falters.]

I'm so sorry.

voice;

theblogger - 2012-08-04 01:07 (UTC) - Expand

Writing in red.

[Well, if that doesn't ring a bell. He wasn't there, having camped out in the shipyard until they could leave, but now he's seriously concerned.]

"You're welcome". Then a smile?

I dunno - maybe? Were you there as well?

No. I was on Strela. But I hid in the shipyard.

...So that wasn't just my imagination.

You get a smile to go with yours, too?

I... It's possible. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I wasn't imagining it. Seems like you had a similar experience?

Head felt like it was being liquified, only to be saved very timely by some strange writings I'm not sure I saw-

[What he won't say is that they didn't have the usual signs he'd have attributed to his hallucinations-]

but it didn't seem like it was something that I would have imagined.

[audio]

theblogger - 2012-08-04 01:08 (UTC) - Expand

cutsofftheirlimbs - 2012-08-05 21:07 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-10-14 11:40 (UTC) - Expand

Ah. You were taken in as well, Dr. Watson?

I was.

Are you all right, HAL?

Hm. [HAL has to consider that for a second.] I experienced a similar situation as you did, but I think I am all right, for the most part.

[Stats is stll in medbay.] I'm all yours. As you've seen, I've been there, too.

Edited 2012-08-01 09:40 (UTC)

Thanks, Stats. You take it easy.

I'd have to. I've been through much, both before and while being here. Although I've been wearing out for a while now, and I'm not sailing with all my sails anymore. [He sighs.]

Sir, your article makes for troubling news - I hope you do not suffer too greatly as a result of such a misadventure. But, if you will forgive my curiosity, to what ends do you suppose the natives would wish to incorporate yourself and your fellows in to their ranks? What would they have had you do?

I've got no idea. They didn't seem to be doing
much at all, really. Those I saw of us converted
seemed to be trying to clean up.

[ text ]

heartbreaking - 2012-08-03 20:37 (UTC) - Expand

Not real keen on the 1984 myself. And more importantly--you're right.

Ward and Resnik weren't our allies. Mr. Smile was.

Well, if it's to be believed, that Smiley person is more of a Big Brother than anything.

There's no real way of knowing if the person that wrote that message on the walls was the same one that's been sending us the notes on the network.

audio;

dirtyword - 2012-08-06 07:58 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-10-14 11:44 (UTC) - Expand

dirtyword - 2012-10-15 21:07 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-10-19 09:28 (UTC) - Expand

dirtyword - 2012-10-20 01:32 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

theblogger - 2012-10-20 05:47 (UTC) - Expand

dirtyword - 2012-10-20 22:41 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-10-21 01:39 (UTC) - Expand

dirtyword - 2012-10-22 01:21 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-10-23 22:22 (UTC) - Expand

dirtyword - 2012-10-24 03:23 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-10-24 05:33 (UTC) - Expand

dirtyword - 2012-11-04 22:19 (UTC) - Expand

the fact they said nothing about it is suspicious as hell
this wasnt the actions of people who know what responsibility is

I find it hard to believe that they couldn't
have known, but if that's true that means
they knowingly lead us into a trap.

[Text]

realslimstrider - 2012-08-03 10:05 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-03 10:16 (UTC) - Expand

realslimstrider - 2012-08-03 10:18 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-03 10:21 (UTC) - Expand

realslimstrider - 2012-08-03 10:34 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-03 10:38 (UTC) - Expand

realslimstrider - 2012-08-03 10:42 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-03 11:07 (UTC) - Expand

realslimstrider - 2012-08-03 11:12 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-03 11:34 (UTC) - Expand

realslimstrider - 2012-08-03 11:49 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-04 01:15 (UTC) - Expand

realslimstrider - 2012-08-04 13:07 (UTC) - Expand

It was good of you to go back to help people.

I wasn't the only one.
How are you getting on?

jurisimpudent - 2012-08-04 02:58 (UTC) - Expand

You're blogging again?

SH

Problem?

consulting - 2012-08-08 04:22 (UTC) - Expand

theblogger - 2012-08-08 04:29 (UTC) - Expand

consulting - 2012-08-08 04:33 (UTC) - Expand