The Journal Part 1
by
P. S. Lail
Imperial deep space probe Charion out past Pluto .
"Captain we have something on sensors!" Ensign Marlo calls out.
"Cybrid?", Captain Selcon inquires.
"No sir, the sensors show it too small to be a ship, may be a black box capsule." Marlo reports back.
"Pilot move closer we will try and snag it." orders the Captain.
Minutes later after the capsule is captured, Captain Selcon and his first officer Melanie Janus inspect the find.
"Well Mel what do you think, see any Id markings" asks Selcon.
"No it is too badly scorched on the outside, looks like it was in the middle of a firefight" Mel turns the capsule repeatedly looking for the ID numbers.
"Well let's open it up," the Captain hands Mel a plasma cutter.
"No need there is a release lever right here" the first officer pulls the lever up.
Immediately the capsule separates along a hidden seam and a small video journal falls out.
"It's a video journal I haven't seen one of these in years, this is old, at least two hundred years" Mel looks admiringly at the book like video unit.
"Can you get it to work?"Selcon asks.
"Yeah it has a power source similar to what we use now" Mel plugs in a near by power center.
The video unit powers up.
"This is the journal of Lord Star, may you who find this learn of my grand plan" Selcon and Mel look at each other in astonishment.
"Who is this" Mel asks?
"I remember reading about him in our history class at the Academy" Selcon looks intently at the paused image. "He was a scientist who believed that Humanity and Cybrids could become one with each other in a type of cyborg union."
"Well let's see what this mad man has to say" Mel un pauses the machine.
"We barely made it away from the soldiers, But our nav system is shot, we took a broadside from one of the defense satellites. God help us, I have decided to activate the Ion drive without the nav computer, we can't wait to repair it, the defense force will capture and destroy us."
"He had a Ion Drive! We haven't even got one to work yet" Mel grabs a chair and sits beside the vid screen.
"It worked, my god it worked we are traveling at the speed of light, it is incredible, multicolors everywhere, with no sensation of movement or velocity." Static then the image changes.
"Look, What the hell happen to him." Mel fights to not vomit.
"The fool did it, he merged the man and the machine" Selcon looks at the image incredulously.
The image now shows a man with half his upper body and skull attached to metal prosthetics clearly cybrid in origin. "I have done it man and cybrid one, indivisible nether more or less without the other." The image pauses. "We are shutting down the Ion drive. Our sensors, those we finally got working, have detected a planet in front of us! It looks to be life substanible, but by my calculations we are still around the orbit of Pluto." The image ripples and static hisses for a little.
"We have landed, there are intelligent life forms here, they are like us part living being part
machine, they have welcomed us with open arms. Their leader is showing us how to make the
transformations less painful." Another static filled ripple. "All my followers are now one with
the machine."
There is another pause. "Oh dear Lord what have I done, these beings are not the friendly host we thought. They are part of the Masters, I and those of my followers who have not been changed into their slaves have retaken our ship and are trying to lift off." More static. The image returns, smoke and fire can be seen behind Lord Star, the voice though faintly metallic sounds very tired. "We made it! We are in space again, but the bastards are pursuing us. We can't outrun them much longer, the Ion drive is destroyed so we can't go to light speed, our only hope is to outrun them and try to make repairs."
There is a sound like a muffled explosion and A voice is heard off screen "Lord Star, the engines are malfunctioning we are losing speed."
"This is it we will be caught soon, there is no hope for us but maybe someone will find this journal and learn of our failure and be prepared for the return of the Masters, don't let them destroy humanity again, Lord Star signing off."
"God those poor people first they fall for this man's wild ideals then they find a planet full of Masters."
"I think he meant well, he wanted peace for humanity he just went about it the wrong way." Selcon goes silent "Wait if that journal is here, where is that planet."
Suddenly alarms go off all over the ship "Attention incoming ships, incoming ships, possible hostiles. "Incoming message from the ships."
Captain Selcon keys the comm. "pipe it down here"
"Coming in"
There is a hiss in the comm. system "Attention earth ship, this is the One surrender to us or be destroyed."
"There is video too"
"Show us"
The image clears "Oh my god its Lord Star" Mel looks on in shock
"Power up the weapons, we don't go down without a fight" Selcon grabs the video journal "Mel take this and put it with my journal and send it by high speed torpedo to the inner planets, make sure you put a beacon on it, use our emergency frequency."
"Right away" Mel rushes to the weapons room.
"Communication Chief tell them to kiss our ass and open fire."
As the energy weapons lash out toward the cyborg fleet a small torpedo rushes away back to the inner planets.
The Cyborg fleet opens fire ripping the ship apart.
"Mayday! , Mayday! We need Help anyone out there?!" Captain Selcon throws the mike at the screen "everyone to the life boat." Even as he says the words, the entire ship explodes killing everyone. Now mankind's only hope is the small torpedo speeding back toward Earth.