2340-<REDACTED>

<REDACTED>

*@)$&^%!

<FURTHER REDACTION OVERRIDDEN>

>Sorry Janice. It had to be done. I know you can change it on your end, and it would save you some grief. I wont tell if you wont. This is mostly for this crews sake. I will be sticking to secrecy protocols in this, well as best I can. I like to think I learn from previous mistakes. but we will see.

Where to start. My updates have been, well lets call it delayed, for many reasons. One of which I am still trying to work out. May have to dig into some of my old Psych texts to try to help me work out. always good to have reference material on hand. anyway. travel as usual. minor home coming of departed crew. minor reminiscing, restocking and back out into the black. First blow for me personally, new crew member with fatal illness unknown to them. it was like an echo from the past that damn near knocked me out. but in some ways I think it may of helped me be ready for what followed. While I was tearing apart every scrap of information I had on mechalus, life on this boat continued as normal. I had the puzzle of, what I have been calling electroportation, show up and keep me from obsessing over the same unhelpful facts. minor irritant to ship and crew, helpful balance and light to my mountain of dark. Well he was. First humanitarian mission complete. We dropped a sub-commander off on her home world. Stopped by a system of death that just ended up being an abandoned looking prison planet of some sort. We may want to look into that if we havnt already, by the way.

Then the last humanitarian mission, done while exploring a number of the crews ideas, mine included, went pear-shaped.

Basic summery. I cant yet focus on the numbers. About half of the surviving crew of a forgotten frigate derelict were rescued from said derelict. rest presumably vaporized or collected by the "overseers" of the system. Not before they ripped us a few new orifices. There was, who knows how long, the torturous moments knowing there is absolutely nothing but the rush of air violently trying to equalize with the the entirety of the vacuum of space between you and that same vacuum. And no, it doesnt get any easier with repetition if anyone was wondering. But even that wasnt my tipping point. Nor were the moments I had to walk past those that were obviously outside of my ability to save. Some kind of psychic bondo that I assume was done by the captain is what allowed me to switch between those two moments by the way. A sacrifice for absolute strangers. The smarter move that most I have flown under would of, and yes have taken, was to seal off the effected area and damn those on the wrong side. Having been one of those who have somehow gotten to emerge from the hell that is held back by a few inches of steel, I have to say I approve. The dissidents argument, a few more might of lived if she had sealed the door the moment of breech. Maybe, but what if I again had found my self on the wrong side of the divide from heaven, which even a raging inferno would be compared to the cold black. If only it was once that I have almost died, envious of fire, at least IT can breath. My scars should prove to you my belief on the subject.

Back to the dissidents argument. After the stabilizing of the atmosphere, among the broken and failing forms, I was able to pick out six husks I thought I might be able to revive. looking now at my supplies list, I eased more "last moments" than I realized. Anyway. Five more lives were saved this time, and even one more death easier for the dieing is worth it.

Here I go rambling again. I really need to work on this.

In the chaos of decompression and bodies, I dont remember the exacts of what was said, I said something along the lines of not waiting to see if we can make it to the gate, lets get the hell out of here. We sidestepped, and got sucked in by some psych eating planet. Giant bugs, projections of the captain, and crystals that appear to siphon psy power. Oh yes, and exploding picks. I need to find a sesheyan expert and see if this accident proneness is a racial trait or just one specific to this one, but of the crew he is the one on my table the most, and he isnt the one dieing of a medical condition!

We found enough raw materials to make repairs to the ship and the professor was able to calculate our reverse trajectory to get back to where we came from. Before sidestepping back the captain saved our coordinates to the computer which I have added along with the professors calculations as an attachment to this file. The main reason for this is the fact that once we hit drive space, the captain and her bot both disappeared from the bridge in a flash of static. True they could be atomized and spread in our wake through drive space, but with the pull that planet seemed to have, it is just as likely in my uneducated but experienced opinion, that they were psychically puled back there.

A handful of our survivors as I have been calling them decided to stay behind on the planet. another couple handfuls have joined the crew. It also sounds like some are going to want off when we next make port. we will see what happens there. I gained two assistants. Both appear to be very knowledgeable in the basics. In this case I believe their lack of technological knowledge will actually come in handy with how things end up around here. While I was buried in mechalus blueprints, issues with Thoth came up again. When asked by my assistants, I really should write down their names somewhere, which of them should go I just blurted out "the uglier one". When I next came up for air from my terminal I saw that they had somehow worked out between themselves which one that was. Neither of them is what I would call ugly, specially compared to me. But they way she dealt with Thoth very much was so. I admit. I loved it. I even think she likes her new nickname. we will see how long it is till I get tranqed I guess.

Speaking of the mechalus, Yargblat has command of the ship at moment. I was ready to step into the position if needed, but I would of been lieing if I said I was looking forward to it. He has a ship being built. so I may have to do so in a matter of weeks. Overall crew acceptance with more than was expected touchiness, specially from quarters it was not expected. That will all show up in my continued reports.

chronometer indicates that, if my guess is right, we should be leaving drive space soon. headed for bridge. will report more when I can.<

<EoF>

<supplemental>

>Lets see. Sidestep worked. We came out in the debris field of the frigate. The was a chunk of ship left, we couldnt see any signs of life before we detected ships from planet on approach, so we left. only incident on way to El Cancri was us docking without permission. Glad the bay was empty.

I took a chance and invited "the uglier one" with me to see the local doc whom Yargblat had dropped off deceased mechalus he had come across. and to visit a brothel after. Figured if nothing else it would add to the image I am building. We bought everything the coroner was selling, I believe one time even paying more than he asked. So hopefully we have everything, and even more hopefully I can find something in all that data to help. As usual, the "brothel" ended up being a public terminal to upload these encoded reports to the grid. I cant tell if "the uglier ones" grin is relief at the lack of previously mentioned pack animal and mute at the brothel, or if maybe she thinks I am joking about what I do around here.

Now, in summery. I will continue my reports. That is what I agreed to do. But my primary focus, which does align for the most part with what was asked of me, is to keep this crew and this ship as held together as I can for its captains return. As it stands, we can not go back for her, she may not be able to come back to us, and you now know where she would probably be if she is still alive. For the first part, I overheard a good idea and will try to help Augie look into finding a way to manually over ride or control the normally psi activated functions of the ship. For the second thing, I will try to keep the ship and crew whole, and maybe she will find a way back with her link to it. Lastly, the reason for the filter override. If I die in the attempt to help with the first two, and nothing has been done by you, they will know of it.

That is all, back to work I go.<

<EoF>