Tim Bass 1701 origin
What is a life? Does
it just involve a series of chaotic events or is it just what we do to struggle
our way through our use of energy traveling one way through a two way time
current. I don’t know, but what I can
tell you is what things ended up like in my universe. I’m sure it’s not correct but Val says my
‘verse was called 1701.
I’m not going to go back too far as that would end up being
millions of decision points and that’s probably too much to explain the
end. Come to think of it I don’t really
know when my ‘verse ended but I know when it ended for me. So let’s start where things really went
wrong.
Spaceship Mission, day 52:
With the death of Tom Cody and the others in the med bay a
few days ago Ace Hood was left in command of the few of use that are left. This is probably the worst command structure
that has ever been invented but it’s what we use. Note that I plan to file a formal complaint
about this when I get back in contact with command. I’ve spent almost 30 days of this mission packing
the rest of the group around to stay ahead of the native search parties. Most of the group has been disabled due to
combats with the locals. This has led to
a little bit of bitterness on my part.
The only good news is that I made contact with the commander of a Shi’ar
fleet that is attempting to assist.
Spaceship Mission, day 63:
We think we are close to the command center of the ship, or
at least a piloting space of some sort.
We had more contacts with the locals and with other groups of survivors
on this beast of a ship. If I ever get
off this barge I’m going to drown Tom and Ace and the training staff in Huston
for letting these two morons ever get a command tab. If for no other reasons than they didn’t
deploy any drones or take the time to survey the ship. Hell, they didn’t even leave any one on the
command ship to coordinate, where is their operator in all this?
Spaceship Mission, day 67:
Found the command space, bad news is that we can’t pilot
it. So one of us is going to have to try
and blow the reactor to get this thing stopped before it reaches a zero line. Made contact with the Shi’ar fleet again from
the command space. Informed them of our
plan to use the emergency pods to get most of us off the ship, while I stay behind
and blow the reactor. I should be able
to survive the blast in an energy form or by using an escape pod myself.
Spaceship Mission, day 67 addenda:
I managed to make the reactor space, so that was the good
news. Bad news is that even after
scramming the reactor, the self destruct failed and only part of the ship was
broken up. Even though I survived the
blast, earth is doomed. I was knocked
out by the blast and ended up drifting the debris until I woke up. I think that’s why they left me out here. Logs show that the others were picked up but
my long range coms seem to be off line and I’m not able to communicate with
command. I doubt it would matter much at
this point anyway. My guess is that
Earth has 10 days until impact as the ship has sped up after the engines came
back online at some point while I was out.
After Earth, day 0:
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no
more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has
passed away." Revelation 21:4
AE, day 2:
Last of the write ships jumped out with what I’m assuming are the few
survivors of the planet destruction.
When the Phoenix containment was breached it caused some kind of
galactic level response. My short range radio
is receiving but I can’t transmit yet and my long range coms are still off
line. I’m so weak, something about this
debris is weakening me but I can’t move away from it. I doubt they would have left me out here if
they could find me. My A.I. tells me
that there was some kind of psychic wake that rolled over us but didn’t get to
me being in autistic mode. I just hope
that the others were able to protect themselves from it. I’ve got some radio traffic from a couple of
subs that seemed to have survived. Those
poor bastards are having it rough. At
least most of us went quick.
AE, day 6:
Green lantern core showed up today.
I don’t think they brought enough guys judging from the background
radiation. That’s the 3rd
group that’s tried to contain the phoenix since the earth broke up. I estimate that I have about 30 more days at
the speed I’m going until I get to earth’s old location. Judging from the background radiation there
was an explosion that I’m guessing was at least one of those sub crews giving
up. Can’t say that I blame can blame
them. I haven’t heard any radio calls in
the last few days. I think the phoenix
has been attacking survivors who where strong enough or well equipped enough to
be around.
AE, day 9:
A.I. note: User offline due to massive psychic energy wave emitted from
mars vicinity. Likely cause; mass
extinction event.
AE, day 35:
Felt better today, was strong enough to latch onto some orbital debris so
at least I’m not going to keep going with that chunk of ship trash that I’ve
been stuck with. I think it was a
Russian satellite, 1970’s design. Way
too much radiation for it to be American, also the Cyrillic writing, and
star. Good news is that it’s still got
some power and that’s making me feel better just being near something. Probably drawing background power in some way
that’s helping me recharge.
AE, day 40:
A.I. tells me that
the suit is sealed back up and ready to use.
It also says that I’ll repair faster if I transit back to normal and let
the suit feed off the mass of the satellite for materials.
AE, day 41:
You know how the
rules where that we didn’t weaponize space, well I think we all knew we were
doing it. But there is a damned 30kt war
head in the middle of this thing.
Luckily it seems stable. Suit
systems are back online for the most part but I’ve remained in autistic mode
and the files on the phoenix tell me that I shouldn’t provide a bigger psychic
target than I have to.
AE, day 50:
Don’t know why it
hasn’t left the system, nothing left here.
Probably because it knows they will come to it. The battle that must have taken place would
have been a thing to see. Make the
battle of Wolf 359 look like the minor skirmish that it was. A.I. estimates that the energy of a thousand
stars was expended into the abyss but there are no more non automated
transmissions from the area that the battle took place. Poor bastards.
AE, day 74:
I managed to get
enough power out of this old satellite to cause an arc, so I’m back in
electrical form. At least this way I can
move around some. I think the A.I. is
keeping my brain from going to full grieving mode to keep me calm. But I think I’m starting to feel it around
the edges. I’m going to start looking
around for any tech that survived. I
need to find my way out of this debris cloud if I’m going to find my way out of
the system. I suppose I can always see
if the blue zone of the moon has anything too, but I also want to see if there
are any other survivors down there.
AE, day 152:
Merry
Christmas. Celebrated by using the last
of the O2 supply in a leaky wreck of a jump ship from Tahoe to go back to
normal and eat a can of beans that I picked up by accident. Lots of food stuffs out there but no need for
it while I’m in electrical form. I
think I’m going to take the bodies of the team members that I find up to the
moon. That’s funny, up to the moon, like
that even means anything anymore. I
worst thing I’ve seen so far is what happened to Michelle Moore. Never seen anything like that, wish I hadn’t
seen it.
AE, day 207:
I’ve been putting
off searching Saint Luis, but I guess I’m going to have to do it at some
point. I’ve so far buried 268 team
members and staff on the moon in the sea of tranquility. I think I’ll start on a monument for
them. Maybe I can find some of the statues
from the hall in New York to add to it.
AE, day 212:
A.I. log item 535:
Combat suit TI45632-5437e5 registered occupant Rebbecca Bass
A.I. log item 536:
Combat suit TI45632-5437e5 interface.
A.I. log item 537:
Combat suit TI45632-5437e5 occupant deceased.
A.I. log item 536:
Combat suit TI45632-5437e5 personal log download.
AE, day 300:
I haven’t been up to
logging. Who cares at this point any
way? I wish I was dead.
AE, day 350:
 |
| Hero Cemetery on the Moon with the broken Earth in the background. |
Finished the
monument for the new cemetery on the moon.
Grabbed a few extras and made it more of a memorial to all of us, added
in a bunch of historical stuff and a put a couple of the remaining Wright satellites
in orbit around the moon. Got a few of
the drones online also so they should keep anything from smashing into it. I got a few of the non Wright heroes up there
too. But I don’t think that most of them
where in costume when the time came. Or
at least I haven’t found more. They
deserve a little dignity too. Aquaman, I
took back to the largest body of water I could find. It was ice but I melted a hole in it and
entombed him there. Spiderman I buried
with the others on the moon.
AE, day 436:
I don’t know how
much longer I’ve got. This level of
grief is tearing at my soul. I’m so
alone here, and it’s probably not good that I sit with her for days at a time
looking back at what was once home. But
what else is there? I haven’t detected
any ship traffic since the last battle, so barring finding a working jump
capable ship on Mars or in the debris field I’m stuck here.
AE, day 484:
No luck on
Mars. I shouldn’t have come back here to
the new home we share in this state caught between life and death.
AE, day 535:
Found a couple of
small craft in the clutter but I haven’t been able to locate anything that I
can fix with my limited knowledge of alien tech. I’m going to keep trying but I’m losing hope.
AE, day 517:
Merry Christmas
again. I took her back down to earth
today. Put her in the ground near where
our house was in Washington. Put the
rest of her family there with her.
AE, day 529:
I’ve been sitting in
the suns corona now for a few days. I
tried sending a message through the satellites that I salvaged but I don’t know
if there is anyone even out there. Logs
say that about 500 of us jumped out but no one has returned that I can tell.
AE, day 530:
It’s been 17 months,
13 days since Earth was destroyed. I’ve
done what I can but I don’t think that any one is coming any more. It would take me some 120 years to reach the
closest known inhabited planet at the speed I’m capable of making. I no longer have any hope of rescue, not that
I want to leave anyway. I gave up a long
time ago but didn’t have the will to stop moving. But I’ll soon be at rest and I can see her
again. Once I am done with this final
log, I’ve instructed my A.I. to upload himself to archive at the data core on
the moon. I’ve resolved to turn back to
normal here in the sun and go out quickly rather than this lingering undeath
that I’ve been living. I hope that some
one finds this archive of us and remembers us.
We puny pathetic weaklings of a race who could barely keep ourselves
from destroying everything we touched.
But we managed to keep going for as long as we could, until Newton’s
first law was our undoing. Lord I pray
the forgive me and accept my soul unto your care until judgment. Tim Bass, Commander Wright Hero Team, by way
of Famine, Idaho, out.
Brave New World;
Bass wasn’t almost
killed by his sister and was allowed to enjoy part of a year in real high
school.
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