phm wip because you clearly can never have too many wip
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♫♬♩♬♬is the life of the party, never a bore, never a dull moment with them.
♩♪♬♩♫ likes to go star gazing. They trill back and forth to any who would listen about Planet One and Planet Two and Planet Three.
♬♪♩♫♪♩ is quiet. They keep to themselves most of the time.
♬♬♫♪ is a good singer. They have an amazing vocal range, broader than all of us.
♩♫♬♪ likes to always be on the move and they move fast. It’s hard to know where they are sometimes.
♬♬♫♬♬♫ cannot stop chirping about their mate and the five eggs they are brooding. It’s all they ever talk about. I’m happy for them but It makes me miss my own mate.
♫♬♪ does not sleep a lot compared to the rest of us. I like watching them sleep. It’s fast and I can go back to my projects quicker.
♩♫♬♪♩♩ is the biggest of them all and also the clumsiest.
♩♫♬♪♫♬ believes there are extraterrestrial life out there, as in sentient and intelligent extraterrestrial life.
The others, I do not know well. But I’m sure I will know them well once we depart on our journey and throughout.
An atmosphere scientist. A geologist scientist. A chemical scientist. An ecology scientist. Two biology scientists. A xenobiologist.
Then two to lead. One to guide us. And one to guide the ship to the star.
Two on the sensors on each side of their ship for constant surveillance.
Three non-specialists who aid in delivering and passing messages and goods amongst the crew.
Two to maintain the food stocks.
Two sanitation specialists. A medical specialist. A craft specialist.
Then a mechanical engineer specialist. Me. That’s who I am. That’s my purpose on my ship.
There are two others trained in the same tasks, stationed to repair the front and middle of the ship. I am located in the back, near the fuel and engines for more critical repairs.
23 of us in this long, long, long journey to save our Star and our home.
And all of them except for me are sick.
I don’t know why. I don’t know how. It hasn’t even been six rotations. They were all healthy before boarding. So how how how? I don’t understand.
I installed more sensors throughout the ship to detect all frequencies. Maybe a predator got onboard somehow — maybe during construction, maybe after we departed — and they are somehow evading our detection to infect us. But my sensors picked up nothing.
I checked and fixed any minor issues with our life support system. Maybe their part of the ship is malfunctioning and not filtering our air or holding our atmosphere properly. But nothing is wrong with their section. I scuttle front and back the entire ship without falling ill like my crew.
I try so hard to fix it. I try so hard to make it better. I try and try and try. I fail and fail and fail. None of it works.
I don’t know what I can do to help.
Some of them have gone to sleep against our medical specialist advice, but it seems beyond their control. They sleep and I observe. I am the only one healthy enough to observe. But their sleep, it’s not working as it should. The hearts beat erratically and far too loudly when it should be nonexistent. Eventually the heart stutters to a slow and unsteady beat just barely audible if I press close to their body, then to a complete stop like how it should during normal dormancy.
The ones remaining that are lucid enough to talk tell me this sickness feels strange, unlike anything they ever felt. Weakness in their core, they tell me. Dizziness. The need to expel the remains of their food. Achiness. All typical signs of serious pathogens infecting the ambient circulatory system. But this makes no sense. There’s no open wound on any of their carapace. None of them have eaten yet either. There is no chance for pathogens to enter their systems. We all made sure to eat and sleep prior to boarding to remain awake for the first 17 rotations of the journey to fix any emergent issues.
I hate this. I hate not knowing. I hate not being able to help. I hate how useless I am.
Everything I make does not fix this.
One by one, more began to go to sleep, more began to die.
♬♬♫♪, the medical specialist, tells me there is an issue with the cells. I think they figured out the cause. They’re rasping to me weakly, but I don’t understand. They’re not making sense. I plead with them to tell me what I should make to fix this. But they’re far too weak to speak.
Hurts hurts hurts, they mumble weakly, body low to the ground, arms struggling to hold them upright.
They’re all dying. There’s nothing I can do except listen and watch them sleep and watch them never wake up.
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I have no choice. I need to keep heading towards the sole undimming Star. I have to save my home.
After all these time and all these resources put into this ship, I can’t go back with no new information. It was hard enough building this ship and acquiring the fuel. Our ocean suffered so much. We had to sacrifice so much. To return now empty-handed is unforgivable. My mate would never accept me. My crew would have died for nothing.
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This 23 person crew now only run by one, it was never supposed to be this way.
Far too much work for just one.
We all knew the ship would need constant maintenance. During construction and the departure from our planet, so many objects fell off or broke. That’s why we all ate and slept prior to boarding. The first 15 or so rotations were meant to fix any critical issues.
And there are so many critical issues.
A critical leak near the hull.
A critical crack in the hinge of Exterior Sensor V.
A critical loss in pressure near the Scientists workstation.
I scurry back and forth, lugging my materials and fuel back and forth on the ship. The fuel serves surprisingly as a quick torch. Which I suppose shouldn’t be surprising considering the energy it packs is why it’s our fuel. Nothing on our planet comes close to its energy output.
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The first few rotations, I had no idea what I was doing. I learned as much as I could how to use the navigation system, but it was so much trial and error. It took far too long to understand the interface. I accidentally moved the controls and sent the ship off course. It took a rotation and a half to find the undimming Star again and put the ship on course.