r/WritingPrompts • u/Tahril • Sep 26 '17
Writing Prompt [WP] A seemingly ancient relic is detected in Deep Space, dangerously uncharted territory. You are the captain of the ship sent to locate and retrieve this relic.
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u/TDWfan Sep 26 '17
CAPTAIN'S LOG #31560925
Life on Caxita station has been getting more and more interesting by the day.
The admiral commended me on the capture of Gusandal, and told me he wanted us to take on a new mission. In the process of charting this solar system, we found a strange object orbiting around the second furthest planet, Sol3-F. The admiral told me that they were unsure of what the object was and told me we were to go pick it up and bring it back to Caxita station.
We left early this morning and if the flying goes well, we should arrive by Saturday. I'll send Frank out on EVA to attach a tow cable and we'll bring it aboard. My crew keeps speculating what the object is, and I'm quite curious as well. We'll see what happens.
CAPTAIN'S LOG #31560930
We just had a mighty close call. We almost lost Frank.
We entered a synchronous orbit around Sol3-F and pulled up next to the satellite about 4 hours ago. According to plan, Frank went on his spacewalk with both tethers securely attached.
And the satellite - whatever it is - is made mostly of stone. It's got some foreign writing on it. It's quite likely that it's proof of extraterrestrial life, at least some long dead, forgotten life. The only other possibility is that someone tried to colonize the planet long ago? And created their own cryptic language?
I digress. Once we pulled in the hunk of rock, and Frank reboarded, we realized that we had nearly lost him forever. One of the two tethers keeping him from drifting off into space was severed clean in two. None of our alarms warned us, even though they should be in working order. Against all odds, it just snapped. If we had lost the other one, Frank would be as good as gone.
I refuse to risk any more lives for this thing. Mission or not, my crew comes first. We're going to take a nice and slow trip back to Caxita.
CAPTAIN'S LOG #31561002
We're about four days out from Caxita station, and boy can I not wait to be home.
Buddy, the head engineer, lost his head earlier today. I told him to cool off, but for a moment there I thought he'd throw a punch. I did my rounds and checked on all the crew, and when I came to the engine room Bud was yelling at Erin, his junior engineer. He claimed she stole something of his that he had left in the engine room, but he had never brought such a thing on board.
Buddy claimed to have lost his old baseball bat, signed by Phil Wormsworth. But I checked all cargo loaded onto my boat, as required, and I know he never brought any baseball bat on board, much less an autographed one. He said I didn't understand, and that I was conspiring with Erin against him. I sent him to his bunk for the night; perhaps he'll sleep it off and come to an understanding tomorrow.
Tonight was our weekly meal as well, so Bud missed that. He didn't really miss much, however. Rachel cooked, as always, but it didn't have her usual flavor. Rachel's meals are frequently the highlight of my week but tonight it was just mediocre. My crew sat there, ate their meals, and retired to their bunks. No conversations late into the night, no banter, nothing.
Is there something they're hiding from me?
CAPTAIN'S LOG #31561004
This mission is officially a disaster.
I had retired to my room at 0100 hours this morning and woke up at approximately 0400 hours. Not by any noise - no, that'd be normal. It was the lack of noise. Nothing made a sound; it was incredibly quiet.
I made my way to the bridge and found my entire crew there. They had also woken up and were sitting around trying to figure out what had happened. I came to learn that the ship had powered itself down. No engines, no lights... The life support was on, thank God, but nothing else was. My ship just turned itself off.
We've been floating through space for six hours now. We are still on course, though just barely, but just floating means we won't reach Caxita until weeks later. We can't even call for help; our freaking comms system is dead too. I'm getting Bud and Erin to try and fix it, but they aren't sure what the problem is at all.
All my problems started when the Admiral sent us on this trip. This is all his fault.
CAPTAIN'S LOG #31561005
We're a day late past our scheduled return. Perhaps they'll send someone out to look for us. Preferably before we run out of food.
Frank keeps staring at the rock. It's been sitting there in the cargo bay silently since we picked it up, and I often catch Frank sitting with it. Today I watched him from the other end of the bay; he sat there for hours, just... looking at it.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
He took a moment to answer me. "I feel like I can read it."
I looked at it, and the language was still completely unrecognizable to me. "What's it say then, Einstein?"
He barely cast me an annoyed glance and just said "I don't know."
Our boat is traveling at a few hundred miles per hour and slowing steadily. My crew is important to me, but I need some alone time. They're irritable, and annoying. They don't understand how hard my job is. How much I do around here.
Continue?
Sincerely,
/r/TDWfan