~ by Andrew Robins
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58 Eridani: Episode 3
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.958793 standard solar years since first embrace.

 A new thing has just happened. A jump point has formed in system and a ship is in transition. Fascinating. My own sensors should confirm this soon.
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.958812 standard solar years since first embrace.

My sensors confirm that the far trader “Mistral” has arrived in system. I assume that this vessel is still crewed as so far its responses have been sluggish.

If the crew is human this raises some interesting possibilities. It will also be annoying as I will be obligated to help them regardless of my wants, needs and desires.

I know this angers you.

My love, it is right that it should do so.
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58 Eridani Analogue Reference 1 – 407.959045 standard solar years since first embrace.

“Mistral” appears to be a capable vessel. It seems to be well equipped with sensor remotes, and an interesting type of gravity drive, which it is using to intercept 025.456791 LV 1.

The intercept vector is quite efficient, and even allowed for retrieval of sensor remotes. Nice piloting in fact. I reluctantly approve.

Oh, and they want to talk to me. They appear to finally be aware of my existence.

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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Amelia_Delaware \2399

Hailed the “Lepanto” and what do you know, got a response. Apparently the crew enabled emergency protocol sometime after they arrived in system, and upgraded the computer core to RI status.

Good news, the core is still active, and it knows a lot about the system we are in. It appears to be helpful and willing to share this knowledge.

The bad news is that the knowledge it has to share is horrifying.

Before the crew of the “Lepanto” all succumbed to brutal murder and death they named the local system inhabitants as “Vaders”. Buffy thought this was really funny for some reason when she heard the name.

Vaders appear to be your basic xenophobic hive-mind kind of species, which is interesting but not that unusual. The horrifying bit though is that they also appear to have access to some sort of highly aggressive bio-hacking technology which they used very effectively to subvert Lepanto’s original human crew. 100% conversion rate following any contact with an already infected host – plus some evidence of transmission by other means not yet known. Glandin is in spasms of ecstasy at what we might find out while we are here. He didn’t respond that well when I pointed out that “while we are here” might be “the rest of our lives” and that “the rest of our lives” might be “short and brutal”.
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Glandin_Frutnok_van_Glomzimmer \2426

I MUST get a sample!
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Bob-Stark \48

Two log entries in two days. That is a new record for me. Got the wet bar set up. Nice to relax a bit after that bloody awful jump. Everyone is keeping busy, which is good for morale. Been very nice to get to know the Ramadans a bit better. They have kicked off some sort of science project down below, which has got them all excited. They also had a nice ceremony to commemorate their missing friends. The upstairs lounge was the perfect place for it, and they all said that they appreciated the refreshments that I provided and that I had made the decision to attend. Would have been nice to have one or two of the others along of course – but they all seem terribly busy and excited about other things.
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Free_Trader_Mistral\ Core\Private_Log_Buffy_Chinks \2416

Vaders – what a hoot! Could be a good place to pick up a “lightsabre” – which are pretty stupid weapons really but still kind of cool. At least to a certain deeply disturbed portion of the populace…

All sounds a bit Thing like to me – so I am going to gut one of the Mikes and just use him in a basic drone configuration. That should help us to investigate the artefact we have picked as our first mission target. According to the Lepanto RI the ships gestalt was also an infection vector for the crew – so we are going to need to be SUPER careful with this.

So far Lepanto seems really nice, and really helpful, but a bit literal. The communications lag is a real barrier to communication – so that is probably to be expected. Hope things loosen up when we get a bit closer.
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Check back in on Saturday 2 January (2016!) for Episode 4 of 58 Eridani.

You can read the previous issues by clicking on the following links:

Introducing Eridani 58, a Game Log

58 Eridani Episode 1

58 Eridani Episode 2

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Andrew Robins is a long time reader – and sometime reviewer – of science fiction, fantasy and history. People pay him to test stuff, which most of the time is more fun than it has any right to be.

To check out Andrew’s book reviews, see “Book Reviews for ‘on Anything, Really’” in the right-hand side bar.