36 Planet X-37 Inhabitants

Today, as we continue to carry cargo between the Eldron ship and the planet surface, we managed to learn more about the kind of work that keepers have been doing on this planet for the last 7,000 years.

Although  planet X-37 could support life over a million years ago, the keepers were not ready to begin planting "human seeds" until about 7,000 years ago.

I did not manage to get many details about what exactly these so called "human seeds" are, but I was told that the planted seeds are directly responsible for  the formation of this civilization that we see living on the planet surface today.

At present, there are only 750,000 inhabitants living on X-37. Which is a relatively small global population, compared to some other worlds. Nevertheless, the humans here have organized themselves into three separate nations.

Finally, we learned that although the three nations in X-37 have had frequent disputes in the past, there hasn't been a full scale war between them in more than 2,000 years.

Keeper Rebbecca has been monitoring the development of humans here on planet X-37 for the last 650 years. She told us the historical embryo that we were bringing was scheduled to play a major role in the development of science and technology in all three nations for the next 100 years. But now that the embryo has been lost to the spoilers, these advances in science and technology will have to wait for another 500 years.

Tomorrow we will make the last two trips between the planet surface and the Eldron ship.

35 Keeper Rebecca

Our meeting with the local keepers was not what we expected. They told us that the loss of the historical embryo was not our fault and said that we would not be held responsible for what happened.

The keepers also sympathized with us in our grief for the loss of navigator Jake.

What was most unexpected is that they have hired us to take one of their kind to... Gosh is so incredible that I can hardly say it. We will be taking one of the keepers to... Confounded, we will be going to the very place where the spoilers took the stolen historical embryo. The keepers somehow managed to trace the actual location where the spoilers will be implanting the embryo.

For security reasons, we were not told the location nor the name of the planet to which the spoilers took the embryo. However, we are instructed to rendezvous in two days time on the keeper base on X-37 to pick up our passenger. Once our passenger is on board, we would be given the proper travel plans and destination coordinates.

The passenger's name is keeper Rebecca. Her mission will be to gather intelligence on what the spoilers are planning to do with the stolen embryo. Once the embryo has been implanted, no one can interfere.  However, the keepers will be watching the development of the spoiled embryo for many years to come. We were told that this long term surveillance  must be carried out in order to plan for the best course of action.

34 Our Next Mission

The enormous size of the Eldron ship is great for transporting very large loads. But it also makes it very difficult to land the craft on the surface of a planet. Once the Eldron ship is in orbit, it will be unloaded by several cargo shuttles. Our drone will be one of those shuttles.

It turns out that what the Eldron meant by a full load of supplies is a lot more than what our small drone vessel can carry in just one trip. This means that we will have to make several trips to planet X-37 from the merchant ship. Commanders Sarah estimates that we will be making six trips, in fact.

Commander Sarah said that we have been asked to meet with the local keepers on planet X-37 for a complete debriefing of our mission and failure to deliver to them the historical embryo.

I am not looking forward to recanting all the details about how the spoilers killed Navigator Jake and took the historical embryo from us.

Deep sigh!

33 The Eldron

Eldrons have always been peaceful and hard working. They stand erect on two short stubby legs and have six long arms. In each hand they have four digits, one of which is an opposing thumb. Their dexterous hands and well articulated arms are ideal for constructing extremely complex machinery in a very, very short time.

The Eldron also have very large brains and are believed to be the most intelligent species ever to live in the known universe.

About 15,000 years ago, the Eldron began to explore other planets and to trade with the many civilizations that they encountered. The Eldron trade their knowledge and skills in exchange for food, raw materials, and fuel.

The Eldron also became the first historians who studied and cataloged the local species and cultures of the planets they visited.

32 Navigator Jake's Funeral

Today we finally got to give Navigator Jake a proper funeral. According to the wishes logged in his will, the ashes were released into space. Navigator Jake wanted to drift among the stars for all eternity.

Jake's death was very hard on us. We had been together as a crew for almost 300 years. During that time, the three of us became like a family. He will be missed for a very, very long time.

The Eldron mechanics will be able to repair our drone for a modest price. As payment, we have agreed to deliver a full cargo of crop seeds and building materials to one of the planets in this sector. Ironically, the planet waiting for the crop seed and building materials is also X-37, the same planet to which we were delivering the embryo.

Although I am looking forward to a boring and uneventful mission working for the Eldron, it is going to be difficult not having Navigator Jake with us.

Commander Sarah said that with the help of her new bioelectric prosthetic arm, she will manage to navigate in Jake's stead, while piloting the drone at the same time.

In all truth, I think commander Sarah  is taking Jake's death the hardest. Even though she is acting really tough and doesn't say a word about missing Jake, I think that commander Sarah is really suffering inside.

Gartin, the chief Eldron mechanic, told us that the repairs being made to our drone will be completed in about three days.

31 Doomed

All is lost. It was impossible for me to write in this journal over the last few weeks.

Navigator Jake is dead and commander Sarah lost her left arm. I managed to survive with just a few bruises.

At first, all was going so well. Commander Sarah and I were in the cargo hull inducing latent images on the historical embryo; when all of the sudden, an entire fleet of spoiler ships surrounded us.

The spoiler fleet commanded ordered us to surrender our cargo at once or else. When we refused to give them the embyo, they fired directly at the cockpit to disable our ship. Poor navigator Jake got blown to pieces.

Commander Sarah had been making her way back to the cockpit when it happened and her arm was severed by falling debris.

I suffered no injuries because the cargo hull was not damaged. The bruises I got were courtesy of three spoilers who knocked me around when they boarded our drone to take the embryo.

We were left behind drifting in space with a disabled vessel.

Fortunately, two days later we were rescued by an Eldron merchant ship.