Star date 3300.5.11
My heart is thumping. I am entering the Sulfur Lands and am downright terrified. This place looks like something from a nightmare. Pools of yellow, bubbling water are everywhere, filling the air with steam and hiding the gnarled remains of ancient trees that have long since died. Like evil, twisted fingers their branches sway in the wind, groaning and howling like something from a horror film. Geysers erupt from time to time, giving off high-pitched squeals that startle me half to death and cause burning water to rain down to into the ash.
Starting here now feels like a mistake. There is so little life, that it seems pointless to keep going. Regardless, I have to try. Command tracks where you have been and if they find out I didn’t even bother giving the fields a thorough search they would have me sent to the nearest penal colony for insubordination. Besides, what if the cure to the plague does exist among these inhospitable rocks? Would I want to be responsible for billions more deaths simply because I was too lazy to look?
Ah! Here is something to sample. A bramble of some kind. What an odd little bush. It appears to have small, red berries growing from its branches. Covered in grey leaves, this hardy little survivor may just have some hidden use.
Now then, back to the hunt.
I have the plasma rifle strapped to my back, ready to blast any Zirconium Bears or Frost Geckoes that get any funny ideas. While cleaning the muzzle last night, I nearly burned my face off as the safety wasn’t latched right and I pulled the trigger by accident, sending a bolt of energy ricocheting around the lab and causing Bean to screech like a banshee.
I have since fixed the faulty safety and assured Bean that if I was ever going to murder him, I would make sure he didn’t see it coming. He didn’t find my assurance comical.
Aha! Another specimen to collect. This one looks like a pineapple. If the pineapple was black with red spots and had thorns growing where the green stalks should be that is. I’ll just take some of the meat from the fruit and leave the rest.
There is a ridge in the distance, beautiful crystal formations are running along its length like a massive geode. Green, red, purple, and blue, it’s simply incredible the diversity that exists on this island in the middle of a frozen ocean. While I enjoy the solitude, I would never have convinced myself to come to such a hostile environment if it weren’t for the outbreak.
The outbreak…
I’m just realizing I just referred to it in such a casual way. For so long there was a pause, and acknowledgment of its insanity every time it was mentioned, but now, I suppose it's slowly turning into basic reality.
Its uh, kinda crazy how it all went down. I remember being in the academy, sitting at my desk next to Sarah, my lab partner and possibly the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, when whispers about an emerging epidemic began to fill the room.
“I hear it has an eighty percent death rate,” the pudgy kid who sat in front of me exclaimed.
“I heard it travels through water and melts your organs,” another classmate added.
I brushed off the seriousness of the disease at the time for several reasons. The first being all my attention was on Sarah, getting her to notice me the way I noticed her. The second was that infectious diseases emerged all the time. Biological infections were the reality of exoplanet exploration and science seemed to have such a handle on finding cures I figured it would be just another passing disease like space pox or zeta rabies. How could I have predicted it would go on to kill 10 billion people? How would I have known it would take the lives of so many I knew and loved? People like my teachers, my classmates, Sarah, and my family—
No, I’m not going to think about that right now. I just… need to focus.
I am now walking along the crystal ridge, picking up whatever vegetation I can find to be analyzed back at base. It’s quite the view from up here. I can now see the top of the volcano that lies in the center of the continent. While it's quiet now, ash and magma sometimes flow from within, coating the ground in fresh, black rock. Scans indicate it had been two hundred thousand years since its last massive eruption, and it was long overdue for another.
Now then, let's get back to base and get these samples scanned ASAP. No need to stay out here longer than necessary. I will add this field log to the main computer's records while sipping coffee and waiting for the scans to finish.
This is Jax, signing off.
ns44.192.38.49da2
and then Add to home screen.