March 11th,
2037
1600
Dear Space
Diary
Inside the
Zubrin. Haven’t gone back to the city, but not much choice in the matter since
there’s currently the remains of a giant, pink building blocking the door. Have
been reading through Mary’s logs. NASA have been trying to message me for the
past few hours but I’ve been ignoring them.
They can
wait until I’ve finished reading.
1630
Little
overwhelmed by what I’ve discovered. About Mary. About the Lightd… processing
units. About the Zubrin and its failed mission. About their plan to build a
giant city.
So what I
saw out there was not in fact, final, clinching evidence of alien life on
another planet. It was, in fact, final, clinching proof that NASA can’t aim for
beans.
I suppose
that’s not quite fair, the mission did not end as intended. And arguably they
did save the entire human race. That’s got to be worth a few brownie points.
Seems
weird they never, well, told anyone. If I just saved everyone’s lives, I sure
as hell would be telling people. I’d hold press conferences, I’d do the
university lecture circuit, I’d endorse a range of hair care products.
And yet,
the first I’ve heard of it, the first that ANYONE outside NASA has heard of it
is 20 years later. And only because I tripped over it.
And then,
20 years later, another mission (conveniently with a faster than light drive)
has a similar overshoot of target, and manages to land EXACTLY on the planet
where their previously lost ship ended up.
Probability:
1, NASA’s safety record: 0.
So,
something’s going on. Not entirely sure what yet, but it’s something.
The city’s
pretty impressive, though. They can’t have been here for more than 1-2 years, I
would think, given the whole “Travel through space at slower the speed of
light” thing. And that city was huge.
And also
rather prone to falling over it seems. Apparently Splat doesn’t provide as good
building materials as Mars does. Either that or the processing units are pretty
inept.
Neither
would surprise me.
1635
You know
what? Screw it. They’re Lightdogs. Processing Units sounds so boring.
I’ve been
checking out the hold in the back. The Lightdogs are all gone, I’m guessing
they deployed automatically once the Zubrin “landed.” In the same way that
dynamite “spreads out a little.”
So far
I’ve seen three differently programmed Lightdogs. Yellows seem to all about
fetching resources. Blues seem to be about building and repairing. Greens are
all about the destruction, but I’m guessing that was a one off reprogram.
I wonder
what else I’ll… just trod on something.
1637
It’s a USB
device. This must be what Mary used to program the Greens. Hmm.
Probably
shouldn’t leave it lying around. I’ll pocket it for now.
Now, time
for answers, NASA. You’ve got some explaining to do!
<INCOMING
TRANSMISSION>
__
HAVE BEEN
MONITORING YOUR LOGS. WE’VE GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO.
__
<TRANSMISSION
ENDS>
1638
…Oh.
Er, good!
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