00110010001101000011010000110100 ‘They would have you believe there were three. The Tritan, the Aelita, and the Erebus. Somehow we’re still picking up radio waves and updates and the most talked about just had to be all about the great three massive seed ships; capable enough to support life generation after generation for thousands of years. Generational. I guess that makes us an offshoot. We’re the alpha group. You see there was this place - the birthplace of the universe? The origin point of life? Is it a planet, a world the human race could start all over? It doesn't matter. It’s called the void. What dipshit chose a name like that? Great marketing. 010010010111001001110010011001010110110001100 10101110110011000010110111001110100 Eden was not our destination. It never would be.’
Log – 15
‘Sorry about all the cursing on the last one. I guess I’m not being a very good narrator . My name is 0100110101100001011011000110100101101011 though some just call me Kabe or Kabul. I just woke up after sleeping maybe twenty or thirty years. Wow, don’t get to say that often enough. I am not old. I still look and feel as if I am in my mid twenties. About me. Well… put simply I am a murderer, a soldier, and a guinea pig. My crew and I were given the simple choice to die for the crimes we committed or repent. We chose to repent and act as the world's lab rats. There were no parades, no cause for celebration; we were taken off the books, blacklisted and our mission classified top secret. Most all of us are soldiers. Many of us are here because we wouldn’t fight whatever insurgency - some of us the older ones ran away during the first invasion. They were branded deserters. I guess now they have nowhere to run. All of us are the first human subjects placed onboard a ship that is a hell of a lot more Skrav then human. Our crew- half men and half women - were testing the effects of space travel. The ship was a hybrid codenamed XA-1 or as some of the more lighthearted scientists called it Praxis. Practice – it was all we were to them. We were the first humans to journey inside the immer, that’s short for immersion field, another dimension of reality that allowed a starship to move faster then light. We were supposed to be in stasis. Our experiment should have only lasted a few months, a year at most. I guess they wanted to know whether we would die, go insane, or wake up fine and dandy. The ship would monitor us and then take us home. We would sleep through our whole sentence - Best vacation ever. Something went wrong though and fortunate for us we woke up. The ship had a built in A.I. not unlike most mining drones only it was bit more sophisticated. It demanded a human crew. We returned to where the Earth, the sun and the entire human race should have been and there was nothing, nothing but pitch-black empty space. Our world was gone. Something had gone wrong and what had started as a practice run had turned into a marathon. We were no longer criminals serving out a sentence. We were the last of our kind. At least we think. We have no idea whether the other three ships made it out or were even successfully finished.’
Log – 22
00110010001101000011010000110100 ‘An engineer named Ray had managed to scrape together some information about what happened. Ray was only a few years older then me, a young man once charged with disobeying orders on a rescue operation compromising the safety of several high ranking officials and his crew so he could save a young girl near Deimos. This is basically what he said - We had been in stasis nearly a thirty years. Our ship never jumped back out of the immer when we should have. It glitched and froze until finally it snapped to. By all rights we should all be dead. The thought crossed my mind enough. We barely had any food. The ship was a mess. While some of us were more innocent like Ray others onboard had committed brutal crimes of murder out of hatred and blind spite. Perhaps we were in hell. Maybe the experiment was a failure and now we were destined to spend eternity together as the walls slowly closed in around us. If anyone is listening to this then I guess you are the only one that knows for certain. The Praxis was a tomb adrift. A small monument standing in the place mankind had called home.’
‘We were a walking talking floating gravestone.’ 00110010001101000011010000110100
‘In the first few days of our awakening there was chaos. Many of us believed we had gotten lost that these were not the coordinates of Earth. Then we aligned the stars. Orion’s belt, both the big and little dipper, all of the astrological signs all there. Ray and a small group of engineers managed to figure out the controls of the ship. We could move forward, backward, we could roll - we were a flying floating giant dog. They even had a basic idea of what it would take to jump into the immer. Whether or not the ship could handle the stress of ripping another hole in space-time was another question.
That first week several of the crew lost their minds. They were already killers and being trapped alone in space was more then enough to awaken their psychopathic tendencies. There was a bloodbath in the mess. Two hardened sociopaths grafted glass from broken stasis chambers into bone from one of the dead guys creating knives from his arms and shivs from his ribcage. It was myself and another named Scile who found a gun locker tucked away in the underbelly of the ship. I couldn't imagine why it was there. In a way it seemed the ship was prepared for an event like this. Perhaps it was meant as a security measure when we arrived back or it was just another test. We had several animals, insects, and plants on board too. The plants had taken over an entire wing of the ship turning it into a small jungle. That was were Scile and I made our stand.’
‘We announced that we had found food. The sociopaths took the bait and walked straight into our line of fire. After that we threw their bodies out an airlock. This inadvertently made Scile and I the leaders. It also turned out we hadn't lied about the food. The jungle was growing fruits and vegetables unlike anything we had ever seen before. Purple grapefruits and blue spheres that tasted like a cross between a squash and a zucchini. The fruit had a rough texture like bark from a tree but once it was open juice flowed out like water from a spout. We now had a means to survive. A couple of Ray’s pals even found a way to make moonshine from it. It wasn’t half bad once you got past the taste and the smell.’
Log – 27 00110010001101000011010000110100 ‘Not wanting to die in the nothingness that surrounded us we have spent days searching databases for stars that might have habitable worlds. A large part of our database was information carried over from the Skrav. We looked through point after point; planets glowed in front of us on holographic displays as information poured itself out around us circling us. Finally we just chose a world.’
‘The world had no name. At least no name we had given it. It seemed a better option then nothing. The only problem is it is several thousand years away. So we are making plans to sleep. Several of our crew will have to stay awake making sure that the others can go to sleep properly. The computer can monitor vitals and wake someone up but it cannot physically make sure all the right buttons are pressed. Ray is one of the few volunteering to stay awake. He is in love with this ship and more then a few of us are happy for him. It has become his adopted child and his reason for living. It was only because we will be in his hands that I believed we are going to survive. Thank you Ray.’
Log – K - 28
00110010001101000011010000110100 ‘I’m marking my logs with an K now so they don’t get confused with anyone else’s. I have already had several of mine overwritten and even if this doesn’t matter I don’t want to lose anymore. Going to sleep now. Goodnight.’
Log – K - 29 00110011001101000011010000110100 ‘When you’re in stasis you don't dream. Your body shuts down and slows to a crawl. A small ventilator covers your mouth the thin line between you and the icy liquid that would freeze your cells. A few years in stasis is barely a minute to your body. Imagine waking up in sixty years and feeling like you were out for only a minute. Everything around you older, a bit more decayed. Things that were brand new become tarnished and rustic. Those that were awake have passed on or become old. Their faces aged, wrinkled. They are no longer the same people you left behind. Their cells constantly regenerate, layers of skin turn to dust, every detail about them abo
ut who you knew becomes something else. Given enough time even they become something else. Their knowledge expands. They learn more about the world something some call wisdom but for most its just selective memories. What was a memory to you could all be forgotten to someone else. Time is an illusion but yet it is also our greatest threat. It is with time we measure the value of our experiences and the weight of our life.’
‘When I woke up I woke to a dark starship. It was nothing how I remembered. It was like being in one place where you have memorized the walls, the texture, even the smell of the air and then you turn around and find yourself lost. You prepare your body for that first breath expecting the stale oxygen to hit your lungs like nails to a chalkboard but instead its rich. The Praxis had replaced its bio-organic cells and regenerated becoming something more with each passing year. The biomass inside the ship expanded. I awoke no longer onboard a ship that was part man-made and part Skrav. The Praxis had evolved into something more. The organic parts of the ship integrated and intertwined with the jungle creating plants that produced their own light and replenished themselves. The walls had become muscles and the stasis chamber had become a womb. The ships A.I. grew over the years conversing with Ray and the few who stayed awake. It wasn't quite human but more like an animal. It reminded me of the way a man would talk to his dog or someone would guide his or her horse. I joked about us being inside a dog in one of logs. It seemed the joke was becoming more and more true. The Praxis had even devised a way of creating entertainment. It was writing books and stories. It had studied the great authors of the old age and found ways to make old ideas fresh again. It was all mathematics. Some of the stories were stale lacking emotion and depth but the ship's latest attempts were quite profound and even thought provoking. The A.I. had no control over the things happening inside of it just as a human has no control of their heart, blood, or veins.’
‘The Praxis alone waited for our arrival. It held us the way a mother would hold her newborn. We were no longer a crew of criminals we had become something else something much more. Our first day awake was spent catching up. The Praxis had apparently not gone unseen during our two thousand year journey. Inside the immer it had been attacked by something that could only be described as a massive beast. A giant creature that resembled a shark but with multiple spider like limbs and faces that stretched and waved behind it as it swam through the energies that made up the immer. These energies could not exist long in our world without self-destructing. The Praxis had survived but only by leaving the immer for a short time. The fallout from a short time out meant that we would all be too old or dead before we reached our destination. A destination we were still very unsure of. For all we knew it was another world wiped away the way our Earth was. For who are we to be given and to beg for life when so many had been lost.’
Log – 30
00110011001101000011010000110100
‘No longer marking logs with K. Nobody else is going to be recording.’
Log – 31
00110011001101000011010000110100 ‘A few went back to sleep. For those of us that remained awake we discovered the ship was just as alive as any world. It was even more alive then some of the colonies settled on the moon and Mars. For years people in those biospheres had breathed dry recycled air pumped through giant cylindrical vats but here the ship replenished the air. It was still all recycled but it was so natural and pure at certain times a deep enough breath was enough to make your head spin. You could spend an afternoon floating through the clouds. The ship had even developed its own biological clock. Walls illuminated with petals of coral and bright white light in what would have been our day and slowly dimmed and
011100110111010101100011011000110110010101100101011001 000110010101100100 during the night. This was the ships way of recycling and adapting energy. Scientists on Earth had made breakthroughs creating bioluminescent plants and microbes found deep beneath the ocean floor. These revolutions continued to evolve and one day they will even outlive us. I wondered if the Praxis itself might one day become a creature of the immer.’
Log – 34
00110011001101000011010000110110 ‘We spent the next year awake before finally drawing straws. Scile lost. Scile was once responsible for killing a man in a bar fight. The poor man struck down in his prime, he had a son, a daughter, and a loving wife. Scile had anger problems to say the least. It was a part of what made him a good soldier but when not on a mission he was a monster. Now he was the calmest kindhearted person I knew. He welcomed the idea of staying awake while the rest of us now only twenty or thirty went to sleep. I imagine he spent the last of his days in meditation. He sought forgiveness for his crimes. Though the world ended had he not taken that man's life he could have had that much more time with his family. This was something Scile would have to live with knowing. None of us should be here. It felt like we had been forgotten. Humanity was eradicated while we lived out on the edge. We are not the best humanity has to offer and none of us deserved this second life.
Log – 35
00110011001101110011010000110110 ‘We woke up a few hundred years later. The ship hadn't changed too much. New fauna and areola sprouted here and there and there were pieces of coral that had hardened itself into a bone like structure helping support the frame of the ship. We got up and ate. We speculated what our new lives would be like. We found the remains of Scile and as we did with the others we prayed, wrapped them up, and shot them out an airlock. I have taken a liking to a girl named Ada. In a past life she assassinated the head of some small corporation robbing charities out of the Middle East. People praised her. She was considered a hero by many even some of those that put this project together. I had even heard she had a meeting with an old war hero Devon Cross before he passed away. We made plans to spend the rest of our days together.’
Log – 36
00110011001101110011010000110110 ‘Days have turned to weeks. We were now only hours away from dropping out of immer and descending down to our destination. The Praxis had spoken of the possibility that there may be other humans out there. We may not be the last after all. Once we were safe the Praxis will give itself a new mission it was going to head towards the void. If there were others out there it desired to find them. This was its objective after all, the safe travel and protection of the human race.’
Log – 39
00110011001101110011010000110110 ‘We came out of the immer into turbulence. Immediately the Praxis began spiraling out of control. Gravity fluctuated off and on. Everywhere people were shouting. Ada, a few others, and myself had been on the bridge. We had no choice but to do what came next. The Praxis, aka XA-1 had no weapons of its own. In a battle it could only run. It was an experimental ship and yet it had already become so much more. For a group of criminals it had become a pathway to repentance and for the human race it had become a wandering testament to our will to live.’
Log – 37 - Transmission -01 00110011001101110011010000110110 ‘We finally managed to stabilize the ship we thought our eyes had deceived us. Before us lay a planet covered in vast cities. Two rings orbit the planet in the shape of an X. Hundreds of massive starships seemed to hover just above the atmosphere surrounding it. Some of the starships were a quarter to half the size of the planet. From the moment we arrived we were being been shot at. It didn’t take long to put the pieces together.’
‘We had arrived at the Skrav home world. We only had seconds before we jumped back into the immer blowing out a part of our ship's core. A few drones had attached themselves to our hull and had begun tearing through shredding the muscle of Praxis with their lasers and grip. - Those of us that can have armed themselves firing into drones and the cold dead of space above. If this is transmitting anywhere if anyone can read this please send help.’
Log – 38
00110011001101110011010000110110 ‘Bodies flung through passages. Blood floated in spheres. The pressure building up inside the ship alone had ripped limbs from those unlucky enough to not be close to a warp fi
eld. It wouldn't be long before they sent their ships after us. This must have been what they felt. They were an invading force dropping into a massacre and now we were an invading force being massacred. I feel as if I and I alone have become a historian, the keeper of the events that are transpiring here.’
Log – 39
00110011001101110011010000110110 ‘The Praxis quickly added up and analyzed all of the information coming in calculating the odds of survival and attack. I am holding Ada close in my arms. A small group, seven of us stood against the drones. We fired pulse and after pulse. Metal shavings filled the air. I could feel the microscopic pieces pierce my throat and lungs. Blood spilt from the back of my mouth and yet I kept firing and screaming. I can still taste the small metal shaving.
Log – 40
00110011001101110011010000110110
‘Ada. R.I.P.’
Log – 41
00110011001101110011010000110110’ ‘The last thing the Praxis did was scream; they were the clearest words I had ever heard, "Keep your eyes open." We did. Before us flashed information, coordinates, strategies, weaknesses, the makeup of the planet, the estimated number of ships. Exactly how much force it would take to attack. The Praxis had analyzed everything. Then the immer opened up. Around us we saw reality begin and end. We could see the planet in front of us and then smaller pieces of the immer open around us. Human missiles and bombs began to appear out of the thin air and exploded. Then even more holes opened letting out giant spheres that seemed to form a grid. It was a weapon of mass destruction. It was something I had only heard about in theory. An attack sent from light years away that would gather momentum and energy the longer and faster it went. What could begin light years away as nothing more then a spark would become a tidal wave of fire; the Skrav and any ship unable to jump away would burn.’
Pull (Deep Darkness Book 1) Page 28