14.849231/106.229553/[2400]01:44:04.0/-15:56:15/3 Luculla
Voice log [Judith Hobson]
Narrative augmentation off (failed)/De-clutter on
22:08:56
The professor is dead. Raja is missing.
The camp is destroyed. Something was there. The professor is... in pieces among the equipment. There’s blood over everything.
I’m alone.
I can’t transmit without the uplink, can I?
22:15:13
I arrived back at dusk. When I saw the camp I ran back into the bush, and hid. I cried. Nothing happened.
I thought I’d go back to the lab, but it was dark. So I've put up a shelter.
I can't stop crying.
What?
22:20:04
22:20:04
There’s something out there.
16 June 2405
14.825336/106.495972/[2400]01:44:04.0/-15:56:15/3 Luculla
Voice log [Judith Hobson]
Narrative augmentation off (failed)/De-clutter on
02:15:46
16 June 2405
14.825336/106.495972/[2400]01:44:04.0/-15:56:15/3 Luculla
Voice log [Judith Hobson]
Narrative augmentation off (failed)/De-clutter on
02:15:46
I can’t believe where I am. Nothing seems real. We’d had hints of what Blackshore was working on, but no idea what was her goal, or how far she’d got. Her work in the lab must have been just the start.
There’s a colony here, again. But they’re engineered. Why, I don’t know. They are so strange! None of them can speak at all. They have no language.
I don’t know if they were responsible for the professor. Their behaviour is bizarre. But right now I’m OK.
I must sleep.
16 June 2405
14.825337/106.495972/[2400]01:44:04.0/-15:56:15/3 Luculla
Voice log [Judith Hobson]
Narrative augmentation on
09:23:32
There’s a colony here, again. But they’re engineered. Why, I don’t know. They are so strange! None of them can speak at all. They have no language.
I don’t know if they were responsible for the professor. Their behaviour is bizarre. But right now I’m OK.
I must sleep.
16 June 2405
14.825337/106.495972/[2400]01:44:04.0/-15:56:15/3 Luculla
Voice log [Judith Hobson]
Narrative augmentation on
09:23:32
That night after the professor was killed will be etched into my memory forever. The panic was like a bottomless well, and I kept falling and falling. The survival training kept me alive, perhaps, but it was no comfort. I cannot even recollect finding and unpacking the shelter; all that was in my mind then, and all I can look back on now, was blood.
I did not eat or sleep. The perimeter was set--fortunately--but the blank interior of the shelter seemed only to accentuate the wind among the trees; and my imagination filled the blank canvas with screams and splashes of red.
It was not long before I heard the animal. Its approach must have been silent, because the first sound to reach me was the crackle of the perimeter; followed by two thudding steps, a pause, and then the swishes and cracks of a rapid ascent through the branches above.
There are no animals on Luculla: somehow that branch of evolution has passed this world by. It was not Raja; no human being could climb like that.
I was petrified. I could not control my breathing, and its rasp seemed to announce my mortal frailty into the forest. Only moments later the sounds returned as the animal descended, hesitantly, in fits and starts. It seemed to be right above me: twigs and leaves thudded onto the roof of the shelter. I cowered. Was the perimeter enough?
The creature thumped to the ground, and prowled closer. I would never have heard its movement, had I not been listening with every frayed nerve. It slowed, and then all was silent; although its presence filled all my quaking body.
Its next act made me scream, at first with the shock of its suddenness, and then with dawning horror. The perimeter crackled again, but this time the sound did not quickly die as the deterrent fulfilled its purpose, but intensified. I could see the arcs of white fire through the canvas; until with a final explosion the electricity disintegrated its target.
The meaning was quickly clear, even to my adrenalin-soaked mind. This animal was intelligent. It had used a tool to test my defences: probably a branch. I was consumed with calculating what it would try next. That small occupation might have saved me from descending into madness; because the creature now retreated, and all was silent until first light.
Narrative augmentation off
09:33:22
I did not eat or sleep. The perimeter was set--fortunately--but the blank interior of the shelter seemed only to accentuate the wind among the trees; and my imagination filled the blank canvas with screams and splashes of red.
It was not long before I heard the animal. Its approach must have been silent, because the first sound to reach me was the crackle of the perimeter; followed by two thudding steps, a pause, and then the swishes and cracks of a rapid ascent through the branches above.
There are no animals on Luculla: somehow that branch of evolution has passed this world by. It was not Raja; no human being could climb like that.
I was petrified. I could not control my breathing, and its rasp seemed to announce my mortal frailty into the forest. Only moments later the sounds returned as the animal descended, hesitantly, in fits and starts. It seemed to be right above me: twigs and leaves thudded onto the roof of the shelter. I cowered. Was the perimeter enough?
The creature thumped to the ground, and prowled closer. I would never have heard its movement, had I not been listening with every frayed nerve. It slowed, and then all was silent; although its presence filled all my quaking body.
Its next act made me scream, at first with the shock of its suddenness, and then with dawning horror. The perimeter crackled again, but this time the sound did not quickly die as the deterrent fulfilled its purpose, but intensified. I could see the arcs of white fire through the canvas; until with a final explosion the electricity disintegrated its target.
The meaning was quickly clear, even to my adrenalin-soaked mind. This animal was intelligent. It had used a tool to test my defences: probably a branch. I was consumed with calculating what it would try next. That small occupation might have saved me from descending into madness; because the creature now retreated, and all was silent until first light.
Narrative augmentation off
09:33:22
Someone has come to me. She’s approaching, slowly. So beautiful; a little older than the others. No, wait, I still don’t... sorry. Oh. Sorry. Ha. She likes the eno. Here.
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