27 Birth of Stars

Today we are passing near the Dumbbell Nebula. This magnificent nebula has been around since the red giant star in its center spewed interstellar gas, about two million years ago. Since then, the red giant has changed into a white dwarf star and still sits in the middle of the nebula.

I like to take measurements and make close observations of this beautiful nebula each chance I get. I am fascinated by the way it changes in shape and color.

The Dumbbell Nebula is expected to become a group of stars in another million years or so. More importantly, my most recent measurements detect three distinct areas where a hand full of planets are beginning to form.

26 Chess Game

We have  four more days to go before reaching V-73, the next black hole in our flight plan.

After so much excitement, I have no idea how commander Sarah manages to keep her concentration on the chess game. I thought that she would be shaken after all the danger we experienced. I was wrong.

Commander Sarah and I continued our chess game at the same place we stopped before being so rudely interrupted by the spoilers. I was so sure I could beat her this time because I had already taken the queen, one bishop, one rook, and both knights.

I carefully placed my pieces to make sure that they would be protected while I moved to place her king in Check. Bu I just fell into her trap. What else can I say.

I still don't know how she was able to beat me, but she did. Somehow she knew all the moves I was going to make way in advance and she played me like a sucker.

25 Planet P-35

Today we are passing near planet P-35. The planet itself is much too cold to sustain life, but its surface is abundant with copper, nickel, platinum, and silver. As a result, this whole area is always filled with many cargo vessels, personnel transports, and foreign merchant ships.

This is also the place were one can get the creamiest stardust smoothies in the Milky Way. Unfortunately, we are not going to stop here today.

Commander Sarah said we don't need to call unwanted attention to ourselves.

Too bad. I was hopping to savor the sweet goodness of one large stardust smoothie. Bummer!

24 Getting Away

As we got further away from the enemy, we saw how the guardians were able to cripple five of the seven spoiler fighters before both of them were completely destroyed.

The two remaining enemy fighters searched for us and foolishly chased after our decoys. A short time later we drifted out of their range.

So far we managed to escape detection by the spoiler mother ship. Commander Sarah told us that we were very lucky that she had chosen the right escape route.

We are hoping to miss the mother ship altogether by taking a somewhat longer route towards black hole V-73.

23 Surrounded

Commander Sarah and I just sat to continue our chess game when navigator Jake shouted, "We are completely surrounded."

What the..? I turned around and counted seven dangerous looking ships closing in on us.

Commander Sarah said, "Oh no, we are all in deep," something or other. She also said these ships were spoiler fighters and that there must be a mother ship somewhere nearby.

The two guardians escort ships quickly began their attack formation. At that same instant, as planned, we begun to execute cloak and vanishing maneuvers.

Using the cloak and vanishing maneuvers, we can disappear from the area and make several decoys reappear in two or three different spots nearby. We can repeat this sequence long enough to stall and confuse our pursuers. The idea is for our almost invisible drone to swiftly move far out of range while the enemy is busy tracking the decoys. It works; most of the time.

The main problem this time is that we don't know the location of the spoiler mother ship. We hope that we are flying further away from it, rather than getting nearer.

Commander Sarah tells us that if we decloak close enough to the spoiler mother ship, we could be trapped by a tractor beam. If that happens, we would most definitely be in deep something or other.

22 Gastric Blues

That laaaast jump was so rough that my stooooomach walls actually touched each other. I don't know why, but I always feel very saaaaaad when that happens. The good news is that I will not be huuuuungry for a long while.

Navigator Jake tells me that weeeeee are about eight days away from the last black hole, V-73. After thaaaaat, we should get to planet X-37 in another five days. We are all hoping to have a very booooring and uneventful time for the rest of the journey.

I have better open the archives and begin recording all of the deeeeeetails of the last few days, while these are still fresh on my mind. After I had done that, I will go back to the chess game with commander Sarah. I am determined to beat her this time.

21 O-103 (Sling Shot #2)

Today we will reach O-103. This is the largest and most dangerous black holes that we've ever used in any of our missions.

Not counting the massive black hole in the center of the galaxy, some black holes in the Milky Way are much larger than O-103. The larger the black hole, the faster and farther a ship can travel. However, the bigger black holes require much faster escape velocity and power than our humble engines can manage. So we never use any of them.

Even after the loss of one of the guardian escort vessels, commander Sarah has decided that we must press on and continue our mission.

I am glad that there are no living beings inside the guardian ships. These marvelous machines are like avatars guided by telepathic messages originating from guardian entities in Luna Base. I asked navigator Jake how the guardians manage to control the vessels from so far away and he simply said, "It's magic." Which normally means that it is too hard to explain in simple terms that a historian like me can understand.

Navigator Jake also said that the guardian who was linked with the destroyed escort ship must now be having one serious headache that will last for a while.

20 Narrow Escape

Kaboom. We felt more than heard the explosion. One single shot from the battleship's cannon was enough to disintegrate the guardian vessel right above us.

With all happening so fast, we had no time to cloak the drone and evade the battleship's attack.

The other two guardian ships continued to move left and right, quickly closing their distance in order to fire at point blank.

First, the battleship's main cannons exploded spewing a large cloud of thick and dark smoke. Then the two guardians moved along each side of the large vessel, destroying all the short range defensive gun turrets as they moved.

After destroying all the battleship weapons, the two guardians proceeded to disable the engines of the large vessel. What they left behind was a large shell with barely enough life support to keep the pirates alive.

Commander Sarah informed us that border patrol officers had been alerted and that they would arrive soon to clean out this pirate garbage.

We manage to escape, but lost one of the guardian escort ships in the process.

19 Pirate Battleship

The only warning we got was: "Surrender your cargo at once. Otherwise you will suffer a slow and painful death."

The pirate battleship hailed the short threatening message and waited.

Commander Sarah stood up and rushed back to the control console. She was advised by the guardian vessels to stay on the present course while they executed some kind of tactical evasion maneuver.

Navigator Jake shouted that the battleship was preparing to fire and its three main cannons were pointed directly at us.

Abruptly, two of the guardian vessels split right and left, moving rapidly towards the pirate battleship in attack formation. The third guardian vessel remained just above us.

18 Three Days to O-103

We have three more days before reaching black hole O-103.

All systems have been checked and are running well. Things have been quiet and there have been no more signs of trouble since our last encounter with the pirates.

I am now in the middle of a grueling chess game with commander Sarah. I might be able to beat her this time if I manage to keep my head.

As a precaution, the guardian escort is attempting to jam any suspicious scan signals. They have also combined their sensors with the ones in our ship in order to increase the range of detection for all oncoming vessels.

Commander Sarah assures me that our ship and cargo are quite safe for the moment. However, she also said, "You are the only one who is not safe here, Historian. A few more moves and you are toast."

Keep your head. Keep your head. I know I can beat her this time. Just keep it together.

17 Officer Daniel

As we leave S-57 behind, we approach the border of one spiral arm in the Milky Way. Most of these boundaries are patrolled by border control officers. These officers roam the perimeter and keep detailed records of each vessel found crossing between the different constellations.

"Drone vessel and guardian escort, this is officer Daniel speaking. You are now leaving sector Alpha Centauri. Please identify yourselves and the nature of your mission. Over."

Commander Sarah responded in turn and followed all the necessary protocol procedures to clear the border. However, I thought I heard her mutter something like, "These border control guys keep getting younger and younger."

Officer Daniel finally said, "All clear. You may proceed. But keep your eyes and ears opened. I hope you have a safe and swift journey to the Vega System."

16 Sentinel Mateo

One day after swinging out of S-57, we received a warning message from sentinel Mateo.

There are many sentinels scouting open space, looking out for troublemakers, and making sure that no one is breaking the law.

Mateo told us that he intercepted several transmissions describing our drone vessel and the precious cargo that we carry. Two of the transmissions were from a group of Spoilers located in our immediate sector. These spoilers are offering a very handsome reward to anyone with information on our whereabouts.

Fortunately, it appears that our flight plan and final destination is not yet known.

15 Flight Plan

Navigator Jake explained to me in simple terms how the black hole slingshot acceleration procedure works.

This illustration of our flight plan shows how the 25 light year distance between the Solar System and the Vega System can be travelled in only 23 days.

S-57, being a small black hole, reduced 3 light years to 5 minutes. O-103 being the largest in our route, will reduce 17 light years to 15 minutes. The last black hole, V-73, will cut 5 light years to 10 minutes.

Believe it or not, most of the 23 day journey is taken up by the distance between each of the black holes. It will take us about 6 days to get from here to the O-103 location.

14 Successful Jump

Our droooone and the guardian squad just finished the first slingshot manueeever successfully. Navigator Jake tells me that O-103, the next black hole in the flight plan, is about 6 days awayyy from here. I will use part of that time to learn more about the nature of time/space bending around black holes and how weee use this natural phenomena to traaaavel.

One disadvantage for our kind is that the fluids in our bodies get highly compressssed during the slingshot procedure. This fluid compression occccurs, even though we are inside our pressurized suit and within the pressurized hull of the ship. Fortunately, our safety procedures keep the body fluids compressed well underrrrrr hazardous levels.

However, one side effect is that the fluid compression in our body does affect ourrr communication ability somewhat. Fortunately, we manage to decompressssssss in about ten minutes time.

BURP!

13 S-57 (Slingshot #1)

I am very glad that the guardian squad will be making the rest of the journey escorting us. Since the true nature of our mission has been revealed, we are expecting more trouble ahead.

We are currently approaching black hole S-57. This is the first black hole that we will use to accelerate our travel velocity in our journey to the Vega system.

Navigator Jake tells me that S-57 will allow us to travel a distance of 3 light years in just about 5 minutes.

Once again, this humble historian is not technical enough to understand how the slingshot acceleration procedure works. So I simply call it  magic.

Learning more about the concept of time/space bending near black holes is one of the things on my list.

12 Guardian Squad

Three military vessels from Luna base arrived in short order. This armed escort was omitted earlier to avoid calling attention to our mission. The thought was that a drone with an armed escort was a clear signal that some kind of very valuable cargo was on board.

Commander Sarah suspects that the pirates somehow managed to receive detailed information about our cargo. She thinks that either the pirates infiltrated the internal logs of our mission; or, more likely, that there is someone inside Luna Base who sold the intelligence information to the pirates. Either way, we realize now that the nature of our mission is no longer a secret.

Aborting the mission is definitely not an option. Once a historical embryo's destination has been designated, its implantation process must proceed at all cost. Otherwise, another 500 years would have to elapse before the next embryo can be produced.

At any rate, we must be very cautious from now on.

11 Bounty Hunter

Help came swiftly and unexpected. After three powerful explosions, one of the pirate ships was disabled and floated adrift. The other ten pirate vessels quickly fled in different directions and vanished.

A voice over the intercom said, "We were tracking this here pirate scum and intercepted a transmission about you and your precious cargo. The encoded message requested all the pirates in this sector to converge on your coordinates.

"One official guardian squad is on its way here from Luna Base. They will escort your vessel safely out of this sector. I urge you to stay here with us until they arrive."

The voice identified herself as commander Isabel Linsky, a licensed bounty hunter traveling on a combat class vessel named Javelin.

After thanking Isabel Linsky, we stayed put and watched as the bounty hunter secured the disabled pirate vessel and placed the two surviving pirates in the brig on board Javelin.

The bounty hunter told us that the pirate vessel would be destroyed after we left and were far enough away from the blast area. She said this would keep the pirates from recovering their lost ship.

10 Pirate Snare

This could be my last journal entry.

Besides the two pirate ships that were now chasing us, commander Sarah just detected nine more pirate vessels closing in on us.

Our drone could outmaneuver three of them at most. Eleven of them would be impossible.

Under normal circumstances, pirates are not known to attack in such large numbers. These pirates must know what we are carrying. Somehow they must have found out we have a precious cryogenic embryo on board.

And now they are closing in on us from all directions.

The pirates are not using weapons on us, but the situation is hopeless. They are simply closing in on us from all directions with intentions of boarding our vessel.

Once they board our ship, they will take the cargo, disembowel our ship, and expel all three of us into space.

I never thought it would end like this.

9 Unscheduled Detour

"Two pirate vessels blocking our path" was the warning yelled by navigator Jake.

Commander Sarah asked us to strap ourselves securely while she performed cloak and vanishing maneuvers.

Most pirates work in small groups so that they can block their prey. Our commander can easily evade two and even three pirate ships. She has done so many times in the past. However, the main problem is to prevent the pirates from scanning the content of our cargo hull.

If the pirates were ever able to find out we are carrying a precious cryogenic embryo, every pirate ship within range will surely be on our tail. Spoilers will pay a high price for this specific cargo. In fact, this is how most historic embryos are lost to the spoilers.

Navigator Jake thinks that the pirate scanners won't discern the difference between frozen vegetable matter and a cryogenic embryo. I, on the other hand, am not so sure. I wish I could share his optimism.

8 Beating Boredom

Besides updating the vessel's encyclopedia, I won't have much to do during the journey to planet X-37.

Sitting still is not something that our kind can do very well. Therefore, I wrote this list of things to do to keep me from getting bored during our trip to planet X-37:

1. Update vessel's encyclopedia with the last measured temperature variations of Earth's atmosphere.

2. Learn more about time/space bending near black holes.

3. Play chess with commander Sarah (she beat me last time)

4. Update vessel's encyclopedia with the last observed positions of local constellations.

5. Play chess with navigator Jake (I beat him last time).

7 Bound for Alpha Lyrae

Our precious cargo is on board and we are ready to start our journey to planet X-37 in the Vega system. Navigator Jake has completed the flight pattern calculations and we will depart as soon as we get clearance from the Luna Base authority.

The 25 light years of distance to planet X-37 requires our vessel to execute gravitational slingshot procedures around three black holes along the way.

As the humble historian of our drone, I don't understand the complex scientific procedure involved in black hole gravitational slingshots. However, I do know that time and space shrink into smaller and smaller pieces as we approach the event horizon of a black hole. Since both time and space get quite small, it makes it very easy for our vessel to jump from place to place in a very short time. The most difficult part is to escape from the gravitational pull of the black hole.

Navigator Jake assures me that, if all goes well and our navigation system works the way it is supposed to, we should be able to complete our journey in less than a month.

6 Cryogenic Cargo

Today we are loading our cargo at the Luna Base depot. I never would have guessed the significance of this mission to the Vega system. We will be transporting a historical embryo to planet X-37. This is indeed a very rare occasion. How rare? It only happens once or twice every 500 years.

We were just told that the keepers in planet X-37 will be implanting the precious embryo on a local female so that the expected chain of evolution and historical events can begin to take place.

Once or twice every 500 years, keepers choose a critical historical turning point in the development of the human species under their care. Once the turning point is chosen, the historical embryo must be introduced precisely at the right time in order to ensure the proper development of that particular civilization.

The embryo is intentionally prepared so that it can be implanted within the first eight weeks of gestation. This allows for the future mother to adjust to her pregnancy with minimum discomfort. The early implantation also gives the fetus the best chances of survival.

After the embryo is implanted, through the entire pregnancy and after the baby is born, the keepers will continue to assist and ensure that the child develops to its full potential and at the right pace. The idea is to maximize the historical effect and resulting consequences caused by the child as he or she becomes an adult.

On the other hand, even the assiduous care of the keepers cannot ensure the proper result every time. In some cases the outcome is quite the opposite as the one intended. This is always the case when the spoilers manage to steal the historical embryo.

Spoilers cannot produce historical embryos of their own, but if they manage to steal one from the keepers, the embryo is always reprogrammed with different historical vectors that change its predisposition parameters to serve their purpose in the intended environment and location.

Keepers and spoilers are always at odds when influencing the development of species. Keepers labor to introduce compassion, humility, honesty, trust, love, and kindness. In stark contrast, spoilers always strive to spread hate, envy, deceit, anger, brutality, and perversion. It has been this way since time begun.

5 Luna Base

With the navigation system repaired, we are now ready for the short trip to the subterranean Luna Base.

The small entrance to Luna Base is hidden behind one of the largest craters on the dark side of the Moon. Our kind learned long ago that subterranean structures are more difficult to detect by our enemies and, in case of threat, much more easily defended.

We still have not received a lot of details about the cargo we will be carrying to the Vega system. We were only told that the cargo is of a "confidential" nature. All we know is that this cargo is bound for planet X-37 in the Vega system and that a cryogenic chamber is needed for transporting the package.

4 Back from Easter Island

The beach was fabulous and almost desolated. I did not have to worry about been seen by humans. This was great because I did not have to use the cloaking device to hide my presence there.

Humans find it hard to understand our presence on Earth. They always need to have an explanation at their level of understanding. And the stories that they spin can become interminable. Our kind always has to be careful not to show ourselves to humans, unless it is absolutely necessary.

The water was a bit too cold to swim, so I spent most of the time walking along the beach. The best part was that I was able to stay out in the open without getting sunburned. It was very relaxing.

3 Repair Delay

We could not leave the service station today because our navigation system failed the escape velocity diagnostic. Our drone vessel uses this essential navigation component to escape from a black hole event horizon during the complex gravitational slingshot acceleration procedure.

Although it is possible to manually escape the strong gravitational pull of a black hole, navigator Jake tells me that the provability for success would be less than 5% without the navigation system assistance. On the other hand, when the navigation system is working properly, the vessel can automatically accelerate up to the escape velocity and yield a success provability of 97.5% at worst.

Since the cargo for our next mission is bound for the colonized planet X-37 in the Vega system, we will have to use the gravitational slingshot procedure near the event horizon of three black holes along the way there. It can't be helped. We must remain on Earth for at least another day in order to repair the navigation system.

I got permission to use the downtime and take a transport shuttle to Easter Island. Once there, I will be able to sunbathe on the isolated white sand beach at the southern shore of the island.

Even historians like me need to relax from time to time.

2 Terra 4 Service Station

Earth is one of my favorite places to visit. Its close proximity to the Sun star makes the Earth a most hospitable environment for creating and sustaining life. Earth is also the only place in the Solar system where we can refuel our four plasma containment units.

The engines of our drone vessel require plasma fuel to operate at full power. This bottom view shows how the primary engine (center) and the seven satellite boosters are arranged. The plasma fuel enables our vessel to soundlessly levitate free from the pull of gravitational fields and to travel great distances in a very short time.

The plasma we get from the Terra 4 service station is mined directly from the Earth's Outer Core. Although the fueling operation is simple and statistically safe, the procedure required to refuel our four plasma containers requires 24 hours.

While I write this, our cargo area is being reconfigured with a cryogenic support chamber. We will need this chamber during our next assigned mission. Once the chamber is installed, we will proceed to pick up the cargo at the Moon base.

We should be ready to go to the Moon base sometime tomorrow.

1 Bound for Earth

Humans are very interesting creatures. In fact, I consider each and every human to be a self contained paradox. Whenever I see a human, I see a walking, breathing, talking, thinking, living paradox. By this I mean that, on the surface, human beings and human nature appear to be full of conflict and contradictions. But once you get to know them, you begin to learn the truth. There are no real conflicts nor contradictions. The truth is that there is a large number of opposing ideas and concepts that coexist within the same human mind. The most interesting thing is that, all of these ideas and concepts are manifested through the behavior of a single individual, from the time of birth until the time time of death.

As the historian entity of our small cargo vessel, I am responsible for recording and compiling all significant events. I am also responsible for documenting our cargo, cataloging the details of every mission, and processing all relevant licensing permits.

During my spare time, I choose to write in this personal journal because it provides me with an entertaining hobby. It also helps me to improve my psychological disposition.

Our UFO, as it is called by humans, is a humble cargo vessel, also known as a drone vessel. This drone is operated by a crew of three entities, including myself. The tree of us can transport cargo, run errands, distribute supplies, and even transport refugees.

Today, we are bound for the refueling station Terra 4, which is located nearly 3,000 Km towards the center of the planet. The necessary location for this refueling station is exactly where the Mantle and the Outer Core of the Earth meet. That is where we the molten raw material rich in iron and nickel is mined to produce the plasma fuel that we need for our ship.

The location of Terra 4 may sound dangerous, but our kind has managed to keep this base quite safe for a very long time. The last recorded accident there was more than 15,000 Earth years ago, when one plasma reservoir tank exploded and almost caused a major disaster for us.

Our estimated time of arrival at Terra 4 is tomorrow at dawn. Besides getting the fuel we need, we will make a few minor repairs and reconfigure the cargo area to fit the requirements of our next mission.