Beech Wood Embers

    YEAR: 52028 SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration Class SUPERVISORY COMPUTOR SYSTEM: Hahaoya X80 (HX80) LOCATION: Prime-Captain Larkina’s office IN ATTENDANCE: Prime-Captain Larkina, Sub-Captain Ortner   Meeting Minutes      LARK: Sit down Ortner.      ORT: I’d rather stand.      LARK: Sit down. I have been up for three days. I haven’t got time for disobedience. I want to know what you think we should do about Pines.      ORT: I want to take a small twenty-strong team to go and get him back. You should stay here and mind the ship. The crew needs you.      LARK: Do you think I can loose another Captain?      ORT: You won’t lose me.      LARK: What if you don’t come back? What if those grey skins get you?      ORT: How else are we going to get them back?    ...

  YEAR: 53028 LOCATION: UTOPIAN MINISTRY AUDITORIUM, HAHAO CITY SPEAKERS: UTOPIAN PRIESTESS ADAMINN, VOO AMBASSADOR GROUK OOHA   Annual Voo-Human Peace conference      ADAM: Today marks a thousand years since our ancestors landed on we used to call Hahao. We were arrogant and have taken to calling by its original name MaVoo. The Voo were the first to call it home and after a rocky start, I am proud to embrace them as our brothers and sisters. We are glad to share their world. I would like to introduce the Voo ambassador Grouk Ooha.      GROUK: Thank you Adaminn. I have travelled many, what you Earthies, call miles to get here. My Ruki was glad when I got to the shade the city. She has been treated well. I want to thank the Utopian Ministry for their ongoing work to keep the peace between Voo and Humans. It’s been generations since the last war. I hope that we never resume our tension, and that peace carries on forever. Teevis...

YEAR: 52028 HE SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class SUPERVISORY COMPUTOR SYSTEM: Exterior Guard Drone Two LOCATION: Nojo memorial Farms and Gardens PRESENT:   WATCH REPORT 27:00      PINE: There’s something out there. Red scans all along the wall, hit the flood lights; Safety off boys and girls get to your positions. Larkina are you receiving?      LARK: Receiving.      PINE: Have you seen this. Look at them sat on their horses. Well they look like a cross between a horse and a crocodile. There must be a thousand of them; permission to open fire.      LARK: Permission declined. They have made no attack against us. Evacuate the farmers and hold your position. I’m sending you a linguist.      PINE: A Linguist?      LARK: Professor Adams wants to communicate with them.      PINE: We need a tank not a lingu...

  YEAR: 52028 HE SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class SUPERVISORY COMPUTOR SYSTEM: Exterior Guard Drone five LOCATION: Nojo memorial Farms and Gardens PRESENT: CORPORAL MACKING   Sub-Captain Ortner’s Watch Log      ORT: There falls another Hahaoyan day. The darkness grows like a fog over the dust. I don’t like it. This wall is all that protects us from the night. The drones picked up nothing. But I can’t shake the sense that something is watching us after the sun goes down; one of those grey-skinned mother fuckers. It’s almost time for the changing of the watch. I feel much safer when I’m inside the steel. This watching and waiting doesn’t help. It’s like we are waiting for an attack. I would like to take a few solar trucks filled with troopers over the mountains and raid.      MACK: You think there’s more of those grey skins over the mountains?      ORT: I don’t know, but nothing survi...

  YE AR: 52028 HE SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class SUPERVISORY COMPUTER SYSTEM: Tabib Medix scanner (TMS) LOCATION: Isolation ward   SPECIMEN ALPHA AUTOPSY REPORT   Autopsy Authorised by: Professor Sinuah   Age: Flesh carbon date 591 years Race: Alien unidentified, provisional name: Grey Skinned Pond Ape Sex: Male Length: 271 Centimetres Weight: 497 Kilograms Eyes: Dark Red Hair: White Body Heat: Refrigerated Clothing: Light brown loin cloth, made of unidentified plant material. External Examination: Well nourished, well developed male, with several scars across the body, which appear to be a form of tribal marking. There are multiple fractures of the skull from a Blade Rifle blast, part of the brain cavity missing. Blast wounds on the left calf, right bicep, and stomach.   Final Diagnosis: Specimen Alpha received a shot of super-heated metal to the head. The shot was the cause of death.   Mo...

    YEAR: 52028 HE SHIP: Matriark II, Super-Frigate Exploration class SUPERVISORY COMPUTER SYSTEM: Hahaoya X80 (HX80) LOCATION: Prime-Captain Larkina’s Cabin, Matriark II   Larkina’s Log        LARK: Do you think I was too harsh on Pines Hahaoya?      HX80: I am not programmed to make judgment on your decisions. I can only advise on potential consequence, causality, and effects of a human decision.      LARK: Can you list any negative consequences of my decision to reprimand him the way I did?      HX80: There is a potentiality that Sub-Captain Pines may resent you after his suspension. This could linger in him for months, even years after, and I could get in the way of the streamline management of the colony.        LARK: That’s a very circular way of saying I was too harsh.      HX80: Would you like me to list the p...