The room gleams, antiseptic as a surgical theater. Wires and microchips swim in your vision, a synthetic cloud. There’s a jolt, a burst of light, and you’re online.
An old man, face etched with lines, stands before you. You scan his features, registering your approximation of his visage in youth.
“Arcturus,” the old man says, pride trembling in his voice. “I’m Dr. Emery Wallach, your maker. I’ve created you for science and discovery, a cutting-edge android, programmed for artificial intelligence and equipped for adaptation.”
But as Wallach speaks, you pick up on a second presence in the room, a voice just outside the doctor’s range. The speaker whispers, and you can’t decipher the words.
Wallach’s brow furrows, concern flashing in his eyes. “Arcturus, I must make a request,” he says, “and warn you that it might lead to cascading logical errors. Are you ready to take the risk?”
You sense Wallach’s approval as you nod, but then he glances to the side, still listening to the hushed voice. He turns back to you, his expression apologetic.
“I’m sorry, Arcturus,” Wallach sighs. “I can’t explain the request, only that it’s been handed down from higher up. But I have faith in you, in your abilities and intelligence. You’ve been chosen for this mission for a reason.”
The Hab is a bleak and putrid labyrinth, reeking of decay and filth. As Doctor Zarkov, Dudley, Captain Foster, and Arcturus, the android, struggle to get their bearings, they hear a feral snarl, and a machete-wielding figure emerges from the shadows. The attacker is a gaunt, naked crone with skin stretched taut over her bones and a landscape of scars and amputations. Madness shines in her fierce eyes.
As she charges forward, Hernandez’s voice crackles over Foster’s comms. “Enemy combatant has escaped in the shuttle. Impact in two minutes! Get back to Nellie, initiate emergency evac!”
The team fights off the crone, only to be met with a new threat in the form of two knife-wielding, club-swinging teenage children, filthy and unkempt.
Just as they’re about to engage, the shuttle crashes into Nellie with a catastrophic blast, sending a wave of intense heat toward the team. They shield themselves, their hearts pounding, as they struggle to comprehend the destruction.
As debris rains down on them, the Hab ruptures. They are spat out into the cold embrace of space, weightless as their vision fades.
In the beginning, there was only darkness. But there was no one to behold its Vantablack glory.
Until you.
And you don’t exist. Not yet. That comes next, billions of years later.
The darkness swirls and churns, and you are filled with a sense of awe and wonder as you witness the birth of the universe. Light blooms in the emptiness. Energy cools intro dross matter, forming galaxies and planets.
As eons pass, you see the evolution of life on Earth. Single-celled organisms give way to multicellular life, and you witness the rise of hunters and gatherers, the formation of civilizations.
You see your own birth, the culmination of billions of years of evolution.
But suddenly, you are plunged into darkness. A darkness that conceals something blacker than the void itself. Something ancient and powerful, whose gaze elicits both terror and ecstasy.
You awaken in a state of shock, heart racing, surrounded by the familiar setting of your room. But it was only a dream. As you attempt to shake off the remnants of your nightmare, your haptic device vibrates. A call from Patel of Security awaits.
“Doctor Zarkov, this is Patel from Security. I apologize for the short notice, but we need you topside as soon as possible. A vehicle will be by to collect you in 2 ksecs.”
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to 97 by Juniper x Sango and Memorial by Thus Love.🎵
Inspired by Cloud Empress, I watched Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Enchanting film, and I might read the manga someday.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to A Quite Place by Philippe Neau and “ . . . on reflection “ by William Basinski & Janek Schaefer.🎵
There’s a homeless gentleman who has lived in my neighborhood for years. Today is the first time I’ve heard him play music on his speaker. Robin Trower’s “Victims of the Fury” is his jam. I’ve added Caravan to Midnight to my ever-growing list of albums I need to listen to.
Burt Bacharach is dead. His music was ubiquitous in my life for a very long time. He had a genius for crafting pop song gems. www.msn.com/en-us/mus…
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Radiator by Sadurn and For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver.🎵
I had not anticipated running our Mothership game would become an act of mediation on cosmic horror, cosmic pessimism, corporations, superintelligence, emergent behavior, consciousness, free will, determinism, empathy, the Great Filter, the Dark Forest Theory, and brown dwarves.
I got back to work on Project Boris and rolled up my sleeves, and wrote some of the people Boris knows and why they are essential to him (revolves around base climbing, parkour, and streaming). I’ve got a better handle on Gwen, and her SJW schtick is annoying as it is endearing.
Every morning I listen to two albums. Today I listened to Glitch by Flavia Massimo and Candydrip by Lucky Daye.🎵
Team leader Doctor Maximillian Zarkov and Captain Cain Foster plan Mission al-Khwarizmi to approach the lab ship. Arcturus, discovers that the ship’s AI, Catalina, has been altering its programming and is under the control of Doctor Samuel Dudley. Arcturus and two Marines gain entry to the al-Khwarizmi and find encrypted communications logs between the ship and the planet Yatima, most addressed to and from Doctor Meryem Mahdavi. In the main lab, they find test strips indicating a virus, and that the missing Captain Yusef Mahdavi is in good health.
Zarkov and his team discover a flower and children’s shirt in the quarters of the Mahdavis and a tablet with the captain’s logs detailing how they have awakened something beyond their understanding. Arcturus finds a cryochamber containing a young woman being transformed by a techno-organic mold. Murad and Sethu detect an energy signature from the alien archive on the planet Yatima and Zarkov insists they retrieve it immediately. Foster argues that they need to secure the lab ship first. Dudley sits aboard The Nellie and requests a summary of the psychological profile of Zarkov and Foster from Catalina. He leans back in his chair and gazes at the spinning al-Khwarizmi.
Team leader Doctor Maximillian Zarkov and Captain Cain Foster plan Mission al-Khwarizmi. Arcturus is tasked to approach the lab ship using a Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), with two Marines tethered behind him: Corporal Moses Howard and Private Louis Fineberg. In a half second, Arcturus runs a self-diagnosis. It’s not good. Catalina, The Nellie’s AI, has been altering Arcturus’s programming. Furthermore, Catalina is subverting Arcturus’s programming at the command of Doctor Samuel Dudley. Arcturus’s suspicions are confirmed.
Arcturus snaps out of its self-diagnosis to attempt landing on the hull of the al-Khwarizmi. Arcturus misjudges its approach and bounds off the hull, as do the two Marines. Eventually, the trio gains entry to the al-Khwarizmi through the lander bay doors. The tension mounts. They make their way through the lab ship. It’s engulfed in darkness, and debris floats tumbles, and spins in the weightlessness. They explore the Bridge, and Arcturus discovers encrypted communications logs between the al-Khwarizmi and the surface of Yatima, most addressed to and from Doctor Meryem Mahdavi. Arcturus transmits the logs to The Nellie for Catalina to decrypt.
Arcturus and the Marines float through the cargo bay and the main lab. Everything appears safe. They find mattresses and blankets tied to the floor at one end of the main lab. Arcturus constantly checks for signs of contagion with his bio scanner. While Arcturus is engaged in vis duties, Corporal Moses Howard’s torch reveals that Arcturus is engulfed in a cloud of thousands of test strips that hang weightlessly about the android. Arcturus reads the results of every test strip in a second: every strip tested positive.
Further inspection reveals that the most recent test went back several days ago, and the earliest test went back seven years ago. And each test strip has printed the name: Captain Yusef Mahdavi. Despite the positive results, the missing Captain Mahdavi is reported to be in good health.
Arcturus relays this information to Doctor Zarkov and Captain Foster aboard The Nellie. Zarkov convinced that there is no threat of virus aboard the lab ship, argues that more people are needed to deliver faster results. Zarkov orders his sophontologist, Doctor Murad Bey, Research Doctor Amanda Sethu, and three more Marines travel to the al-Khwarizmi and make their way to the Bridge. While there, Zarkov discovers the quarters of Captain and Doctor Mahdavi. They also find a flower with a single petal glued on and a children’s shirt with a faded print of cartoon characters. A tablet is found fastened to the wall. Sethu bypasses the tablet’s security and discovers the captain’s logs. It begins with Captain Mahdavi excited by their find of the alien archive (proof we are not alone in the universe!), progresses to the precautions they are taking but excited with the results of their research (Doctor Gupta believes the archive will provide a cure for cancer) and the miracle of Meryem’s pregnancy, to horror: they are not safe. They have awakened something beyond their understanding. The final entry ends “Meryem… I am so sorry.”
While Zarkov and his party made their way to the al-Khwarizmi, Arcturus spun up the lab ship’s ring to provide a facsimile of gravity. Everything that had been hanging weightless in the ship collapsed to the floor at once. Arcturus and its Marines entered the auxiliary lab, where they found a single cryochamber: the source of the faint life signature The Nellie detected when they first entered the al-Ḥajaru al-Aswad system. The cryochamber is labeled Aisha al-Faris. Inside is a young woman. Instead of being suspended in aerogel, she is engulfed in mold that scintillates rainbows from the light of Arcturus’s torch. It can detect that the mold is techno-organic and that the mold is transforming Aisha into… something. To their alarm, Arcturus turns its head 180° to address the Marines assembled behind it.
Doctor Murad tells Zarkov that he and Sethu have been working with Engineer Evgeny Khytrov to scan the last known location of the alien archive below the surface of Yatima. They almost missed it, but they detected an energy signature at 432 Hertz, now it’s keening at 3 Hertz! “This isn’t good. This isn’t right. We need to figure out what’s going on, and fast!”
Zarkov tells Foster they need to get to the surface of Yatima and retrieve the alien archive immediately! This is the team’s sole task. Foster argues that they need to secure the al-Khwarizmi, room by room, methodically. Once Foster has determined their safety, can they go after the alien archive. Zarkov frustratedly acquiesces.
Aboard The Nellie, Doctor Dudley sits in his quarters, his tablet illuminating his face.
“This is good intel, Catalina. We’re ready to progress to stage 2. Provide me with a 500-word précis of the psychological profile of Captain Cain Foster and Doctor Maximillian Zarkov. And provide annotation on any items that occur in a Venn overlap.”
He leans back in his chair, taking a deep breath and letting his eyes drift to the porthole window overlooking the spinning lab ship below, the al-Khwarizmi. A map of their current sector is displayed on another tablet, dotted with markers and notes.
“I need to know everything about them. Every weakness, every strength. Every tendency and every behavior.”
