Valiant Information and Inventory Management System (V.I.M.S.) now recording.
September 23rd, 2077, approximate time, 0235 hours EST.
Log created by: Technician J. Peters.
Storage Room B2. Access code: 0 1 0 2 8 8.
Storage B2 Inventory List: three-hundred-seventeen-point-one-five units of recycled water, sixty-five-point-seven-six units of nutrient processor cartridges, seventeen relaxation modules.
Water rerouted to mess hall. Balanced water storage from storage rooms A3 and C5 to maintain precise outer ring rotation. Twelve nutrient processor cartridges to refill Alpha and Epsilon processors checked out. Three relaxation modules checked out.
Actions performed: Access code reset. New password: 1 0 1 0 9 7.
End of log.
October 13th 2077, approximate time, 1152 hours EST.
Log created by: Technician R. McClellen, Technician R. Philips, Engineer L. Richardson.
Airlock C5. Access code: 0 9 3 0 9 8.
Inventory List: Five pressurized E-V-A suits, six E-V-A. oxygen tanks, C5 pressurized oxygen reserves at 87 percent.
Actions performed: extra-vehicular maintenance scheduled for 1238 hours EST. Three E-V-A suits and six E-V-A oxygen tanks checked out.
Inner doors sealed.
Outer doors opened.
Extra-vehicular maintenance on docking clamp Alpha-Delta-Omicron and extending arm performed in six hours, thirteen minutes, 46.22 seconds.
Outer doors sealed.
Inner doors opened.
Three E-V-A suits and six E-V-A oxygen tanks checked in. C5 oxygen reserves at 56 percent.
End of log.
Continual log created by: Commander T. Michaels.
Communications Access Hub A1. Access code: 1 0 2 8 0 8
Inventory List: Hermes Extra-Communications Transmission and Reception (H.E.C.T.O.R.) set to one-forty-five-point-eight-megahurtz.
Actions Performed: Transmissions sent to U-S-S-A Bloomfield Mission Command, recorded on October 23, 2077 at approximate time, 1812 hours EST.
Message transcripts as follows: “Mission control, this is Commander Michaels, please respond on wavelength one-forty-four-point-four-nine. Partial message received but we were unable to hear through the interference. Control, please repeat message.”
Next message transcription, recorded on October 24, 2077 at approximate time, 0445 hours EST.
“Mission control, this is Commander Michaels, please respond. God, please respond. I’d ask if this is some kind of sick joke, but McClellen and Peters thought they saw lights flashing over the eastern coast yesterday. There’s nothing strong enough to make flashes like that except-
Control, please respond. Setting emergency signal on repeat, will continue to contact.”
Next message transcription, recorded on October 28th 2077, approximate time, 0814 hours EST.
“Mission control, this is Commander Michaels. If you’re hearing this, everyone is becoming quite scared up here. McClellan began to panic yesterday trying to intercept emergency signals, and afterwards spent most of the day pacing on the outer ring trying to keep her mind off of things. Is the resupply mission still scheduled for November 23rd? Repeat, is the resupply scheduled? We really need to hear from you, Control.”
Next message transcription, recorded on November 12th 2077, approximate time, 1238 hours EST.
“Mission control, please tell us you’re listening. We began rationing water on November 5th, and rationing nutrient cartridges on November 10th. Richardson, Philips, Beuren, Jensen and I are staying focused and positive, but Peters is going to run out of antipsychotics in less than two weeks. Control, if you’re still there, we need some kind of confirmation. McClellen confined herself in her quarters two days ago, and no amount of knocking is making her come out. Not even a crowbar worked to force the door. She didn’t change her access code, so she must have shorted it out. I don’t think she has food or water in there. We need good news up here, or the situation is only going to get worse.”
Next message transcription, recorded on December 2nd 2077, approximate time, 1126 hours EST.
“Mission control, this is- God, if you don’t know who I am by now, there’s no point.
America. She can’t be gone. We couldn’t see any lights down there as we passed over. We hadn’t even noticed it before because no one wanted to check.
McClellen is gone. She never came out. Even if she took water in with her, I don’t think she lasted three and a half weeks sealed in there.
Peters is starting to lose it. I knew he joined this crew because of his biological expertise, but he didn’t tell anyone how bad he could get without meds. Philips tried synthesizing something for him, but we just don’t have the chemicals onboard, and we don’t dare make the situation worse with makeshift prescriptions.
Richardson has stopped working and devoted himself to prayer, and Jensen has followed him. Beuren and I are starting to question why we should continue our scientific work. ‘It’s better than diving into the relaxation modules or taking sedatives until the end comes,’ I told him. I don’t think that lifted our spirits much.”
December 24th 2077, approximate time, 1843 hours EST.
Log created by: Technician J. Peters.
Airlock C6. Access code: 1 1 1 0 1 5.
Inventory List: Two pressurized E-V-A suits, four E-V-A. oxygen tanks, C6 pressurized oxygen reserves at 35 percent.
Actions performed: One E-V-A suit and four E-V-A oxygen tanks checked out.
Actions performed: Access code reset. New password: 111418.
Inner doors sealed.
Outer doors opened.
C6 Oxygen reserves at zero percent.
End of log.
Continual log created by: Commander T. Michaels.
Next message transcription, recorded on December 25th 2077, approximate time, 0119 EST.
“Peters spaced himself. And he even changed the door code to lock us out.
Shit.
He’s got ten hours of O2 at best. And worse, I can’t let anyone go out there through another door to try to bring him back. We’ll probably lose whoever goes after him. Two hours ago Peters started acting violent, and near stabbed Beuren with a scalpel. He even got a flying start at him from C corridor. How Beuren avoided it in zero-G, I’m not sure. He was just lucky Jensen and I were in the room at the same time. Four grown men flailing weightless. Can you imagine?
We’re like rats on a sinking ship. We confined him to Storage Room C4, but he obviously found a way out. Then he took the long walk.
Merry fucking Christmas.
Philips used a few of our junk parts and replicated a science experiment that he’d seen back in his graduate days. Rock candy crystals grown in space. Something so simple to lift the mood, and then this happened. I wouldn’t have considered it a month ago, but I think I’m spending this Christmas… and maybe a few days after… with med-X from the med bay and a few packets of sherry from the relaxation modules. It’s not like I can get drunk with this watered-down garbage. But it’s something. Thank God the alcohol rules were changed last year. Sedatives and sherry, coming right up.”
February 4th, 2077, approximate time, 0312 hours EST.
Control Room V.I.M.S. alert.
Log confirmed by: Technician A. Jensen.
Inventory Shortage: Station propellant reserves at two-percent.
Please resupply immediately. Failure will result in station orbit destabilization.
Repeat, please resupply immediately. Failure will result in station orbit destabilization.
Alert confirmed by: Technician A. Jensen and Commander T. Michaels.
End of log.
H.E.C.T.O.R. incoming transmission to Communications Access Hub A1.
Warning: incorrect access code. Overwritten. Received on all functional broadband frequencies.
Transcription unavailable. Transmission lasted 7.33 seconds.
Actions requested by: Commander T. Michaels
Actions performed: Query all U-S-S-A satellites to pinpoint source of transmission.
Action results: 35 U-S-S-A satellites disconnected from network. Remaining 14 satellites performed shortwave broadcast scan on February 15th, 2078 at 0563 hours EST.
No results.
Source of transmission: unknown.
End of log.
Continual log created by: Commander T. Michaels.
Next message transcription, recorded on March 15th 2078, approximate time, 0212 hours EST.
“Well, that’s it, then. According to estimates, we’ve got seventy-two hours before the station starts feeling the burn. Who knows what made that last transmission. Hell, it could have been aliens for all the good it did us. I suppose it’s a small mercy that the oxygen and the water didn’t run out before the propellant did. Barely. We tried venting the oxygen reserves through the stabilizers, but it only bought us a couple more days, maybe a week. Beyond that, we would have suffocated instead of burned. I don’t know which I would have preferred. I asked the crew if they wanted to be sedated before everything happened. Jensen and Philips agreed, and so did I.
Richardson said the last thing he wanted to do was pray to God with a clear mind, and I have no problem with that. Beuren’s been inside Airlock C7 for a few hours, but I haven’t heard any alerts. Maybe he’s contemplating suicide.
None of us are as strong as Richardson. I know the only reason I was chosen as commander for the last nine months instead of him was because of my flight record. But it’s not like I’m dogfighting pinkos up here. I know this record might not survive re-entry, but it feels like I’m accomplishing one last thing before I’m gone. Hell, I don’t even have a family to say goodbye to. No wife, no kids… I poured everything into my career, and look where I ended up. I guess I’m glad I didn’t have a family for them to die in a world like this.
All right. Last words, I guess. For Rachel McClellen, Jake Peters, Rob Philips, Lucius Richardson, David Beuren, Aaron Jensen, and Tyson Michaels, this is the last transmission from the crew of the U-S-S-A Valiant Space Station. If anyone is alive down there and listens to this, know that we remained devoted to God and our country. Whenever and wherever you are, keep the spirit of freedom alive. That’s all we can ask.”
End of continual log.
Chains and Tales 