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from the personal logs of Leonardo Cruz de Aguilar,
civilian colonist,
The Hispania sleeper ship
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Another rough day is behind us. I thought we were on this god-forsaken ship to escape the war. Ever since half of the supply cargo ended up in space, there have been horrible fights for food and water on the ship. As if it wasn’t bad enough before that. Captain Salazar told us today, that the explosions were no accidents, and that he is positive on the ship being damaged, but stable after breaking through the Jupiter Barricade. They made all the checks. Someone didn’t want us to reach Sirius. Someone on the Hispania. What if it happens again? That could be the very end of us. I pray to God every day to allow us to reach our destination alive. The death toll in this conflict is big enough already.
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The captain had a speech today. He told us the long range scanners are showing ‘Some strange objects that don’t seem to be natural’. When someone asked if it’s the other colonists, he told us he did not know, but that he doubted it. He also told us, that when they tried to communicate with it, they’ve received signals back ,which the comm panel called ‘unidentified static’, and we are not sending out one of our last eight probes to find a piece of magnetically-resonant rock. If the other colonists are here somewhere, they would have contacted us on sleeper ship frequencies. Anyway, it’s our shift in the engine room tomorrow. I hope Ernandez gives me back my copy of The Book. He had it for over a week now, and God knows I could use it for some consolidation.
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Praise the lord! He is with us after all. I didn’t feel this safe for ages. I saw him today in the engine room, as I was gazing at an odd nebula we are passing by. He is wonderful. I can even see it from my quarters once in a while - The Angel. I’ve never seen anything like it. It is blue and shiny. He even speaks and shows things to some of us. He was asking for a song, so we sang to him for hours in our quarters. I’m sure he will be pleased. After all these years of uncertain fate, we feel safe. I feel we will find the other colonists, soon.
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Those cowardly dogs! How can they just leave after all those years?! It’s suicide! We’ve just lost a quarter of our escape ships to madmen. They’ve grown desperate, simply took some supplies and left the Hispania, looking for a planet to live on. We’re even shorter on supplies now, but following them is pointless.
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The ship is to pieces, and Captain Salazar told us we will have to abandon it too within a month or so. If another bigger rock hits us, we can just about do the same thing and leave the ship in escape pods and small ships. I am not scared though. The Angel is still with us – I see him every day. The captain has sent out a note which said that the strange static seems to be everywhere ever since we’ve passed that twisted dark nebula. I wonder if the Angel is causing it. I’ve told some people about him and some seemed to notice him too, but they call him a Spirit, and that he’s even told his name to some – Qaniss. I thought it was a stupid name for an angel, but when I told the name to myself in my mind, he would respond. I guess they were right after all.
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It’s over. The ship is falling apart. A small swarm of asteroids hit the hull today. Salazar told us there is a planet only one or two days of flight away that could be inhabitable, but has to send one of the probes first. The Angel seemed to be silent in the last few days. But he responded as soon as I summoned him. I asked him whether everything will be alright, and he’s shown me a planet and told me that ‘the orange rock’ was good for us. But the planet he showed me was dark green from the orbit. Maybe it’s a test. Who knows?
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We arrived at the planet I’ve been shown by the angel. The engines barely functioning, we were lucky to be such a massive ship. Momentum dragged us near the planet, and after that we used our small maneuvering engines to stop. Farewell – Hispania – you have been quite an adventure, but it is over now, your purpose is fulfilled. We wanted to crash the ship into the planet and use it’s remain to build some sort of city, but Salazar said it would be better to leave the ship in the planet’s orbit as a monument to the struggle of the Hispania colonists and the people that died in the war. I’ve thanked the Angel for guiding us in the last days, and provided the needed hope. He asked about the song one more time, and after I started singing, he left without a word.
The Creators have done well. Pods are stored - each next to another. If one morph wakes up, they all do. Well do they? There is at least one pod seldom, floating in the void. What happened? Was it intentional? Why didnt the pod crash into any planets or the star? Who is Eric Cartmans father? Is it the Denver Broncos? It is irrelevant. The creature inside sleeps and evolves unaware of its surroundings - and its pod is waiting for the Shrine to signal the awakening. But it is not the Shrine to wake the creature up, too far from reach. It is something else, and it is getting closer. Colonists of Sol and their majestic ship - The Hispania. With engines damaged, and signs of explosions from within, colonists out of stasis and desperate. Majestic or not, they will play the role of the creatures alarm clock.
-This is Rodrigo Salazar, Captain of the sleeper ship Hispania. Please identify yourself.
-I repeat This is The Hispania, Captain Rodrigo Salazar speaking. Please respond. Over.
And the pod responded. A faulty signal processing system, damaged by the space radiation, triggers the activation mechanism. All the energy stored in the pod over the millennia of its travels suddenly released, they burst into the creature's body, breathing life into their blue form. The creature inside starts emitting light and slowly, gaining consciousness, starts to gain the instinctive predetermined shape. After checking the vital functions of its content, the pod falls apart, releasing the creature to roam the void, freely, to find their purpose and meaning. The morph is confused and sense something is not right. There should have been others around at the time of the awakening, instincts say so. Why is there none other like us in here? Perhaps they are hidden.
The communications officer on Hispanias bridge glances at his monitor, and alerts the Captain:
-Captain, sir, we have a signal.
-Source identification?, Salazar asks.
The officer starts typing into the console, after a few seconds he stops, turns his head towards the captain, now standing just a few feet behind him, and responds with a disappointed voice:
-Static, sir. But it seems that the object is emitting it.
-Try running a deeper analysis.
The officer turns back to his console, and confused, he reports:
-I cant sir. Its gone.
-What do you mean its gone? Even if it was just some space radiation, they dont just come and go in such short time.
-Its simply not here.
Salazar walked to his console, and opened the maintenance log.
-We had the antennas checked after the last explosion, right?
-My team did the checks themselves, sir, I was there.
-How much probes do we have left?
No response. The creatures can find none of their own kin, but there is someone else a large object filled with lesser minds. It could sense them, and know what they are thinking. But could they sense it as well?