Mindy's Audio Logs

[These logs can be found on the computers at Starnet Relay Foxtrot Oscar Delta, on Mindy's Starnet account, or the on board computer in her EVA suit.]

There's a "Whump" as something cloth is dropped. A long sigh follows.

[Log Entry]: Galactic Standard Day 1.
"So, day one of working at Foxtrot, sounds cool. The gravity here is awesome I can leap like... twelve feet in the air. If the Hab ceiling wasn't there, I could probably leave orbit. Next space basketball star right here!"

A chuckle.

"Anyway, spent most of the day setting up camp and making sure the supply drops had what I need. Set up the Hab, solar farm, and booted up the life support systems. Everything has that new ship smell, it's kind of giving me a major headache. On the bright side, my EVA suit fits perfectly and the backup should be just the same. Doctor says a few months in low grav shouldn't be too bad on me. I hope he's right."

"One thing that I'm like, ninety percent sure will get to me? I'm alone. Utterly, completely, goddamn middle of the void, middle of scenic nowhere, darkness stares back, alone. There's no wind, no atmosphere for wind. If I hold my breath, turn off life support, and sit still, I can hear my own heart beat. I hope my frail little engie brain can bear the weight of being a space hermit. Tomorrow I'll head up to the Relay and start getting the dish set up. Shouldn't be too hard."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 10.
"Another day, another bleak view outside. At first it was pretty, now it's just depressing. There's really no.. anything. Just mountains, craters, and dunes. It's a barren wasteland, if I want to go for a walk, I need to suit up. Even then I'm not supposed to just go for a walk, I only have a set number of CO2 filters, once those are gone, no more EVAs. But dude, the dust is the worst, I think I have miners lung from it on my EVA suits boots. Now I get why they want us to wash the boots off when we get back in the air lock. Seems like a waste of water."

There's some shifting around, then a soft "Clack"

"Whoops, shit. Well, I can say that zero point two g's makes it really easy to not break your phone if you drop it... Anyway, work's been good, a bit slow, a bit... boring as fuck. But... I can't complain, the pay's good at least. Things are... slooow. The Relay seems to have issues with the shit in orbit, the satellites don't like interacting much and the ones orbiting the other planets aren't lined up right. Someone screwed up somewhere along the lines. So I have to wait for the fuel plant to make some more hydrazine for me. This place does have an atmosphere. It's thin as a strippers... ... something... I'll work on that one... But it's here. The fuel plant is grabbing up all the nitrogen just drifting around and any stray hydrogen around too. Nothing like having a good old fashioned rocket fuel plant within explosion distance of your only hope for staying alive."

"I'll take the MMU, that's Manned Maneuvering Unit for you less sciency folks, basically a space worthy sofa with an airlock, around the system and fuel up the satellites tomorrow. Get all their orbits set up. Then I should be in the clear. Smooth sailing from there."



[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 64
"Goddamn mother fucking metal chunk of dog shit."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 65.
"Alright so to recap, the MMU got hit with an asteroid yesterday while I was in it. Nothing major. Just a bump. I patched it up, but it took way more time than it should have. It's irritating. Making this log short. I'm exhausted."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 86.
"So I got a transmission from HQ. They need me to stay out here longer, like three months longer. Not a problem, I can deal. I brought a digital copy of my entire library at home, so I can read. I also brought my music player with about... three terabytes of music. Should tide me over. One problem. Water. I've been drinking more than they thought I would. Not an urgent problem, but it's still going to be looming over my head."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 94.
"I wonder if there's any Commander Cosmos reruns on right now."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 110
"Well, today was the usual 'fiddle with the array and hope that you positioned about forty satellites right' drill. Boring. But! Happy birthday to me. April tenth, earth standard calendar. Twenty seven. I'm getting old, hopefully I'll be able to get a cane and wave it at those damn kids on my lawn soon. Maybe if I have grandkids I can tell them "When I was your age, I had to cross a desolate planet, uphill! In an EVA suit! ALONE!" Headquarters sent some cake mix with me, I guess they thought it would be good for my morale. It even has a candle. Really, it's just depressing."

A soft sigh.

"So here's to me! Happy birthday, you stubborn bitch."


[EVA Audio Entry]: G.S.D. 142
"I'm fucked and I'm gonna die. There's blood running down my face, I don't know what the fuck happened but Jesus fucking Christ! One minute I'm in orbit around Foxtrot, the next the MMU is whipping in circles towards the surface with about twenty different alarms going off. I was about to get into the airlock, so I wasn't sitting and holy fuck I'm lucky I was in a padded EVA suit. I got hurled around badly, I think the G force is what knocked me out, actually."

"Either way, I'm on the surface now and I can feel my ears popping. My EVA suits faceplate is smashed. I've got a cut across my forehead. The pressure in the MMU is rising and I don't know why, I can hear the hull creaking and that's a very bad thing. My suits atmosphere monitor is telling me the air in here is about sixty percent oxygen and rising. Which is also a very bad thing. Sure, oxygen is good for humans, right? Right! Eeeexcept if it's in large amounts like this. An ironic death for someone with a leaky space suit. Okay, anyway, I'm gonna shut up now and work on a plan before I die of oxygen toxicity."

[EVA Audio Entry]: G.S.D. 142-2.
"I have a plan. I'm in the airlock now, the pressure in the cabin is getting too high for me, my ears hurt. Anyway, the task at hand.
Every EVA suit has a patch kit, nothing more than a funnel with a valve at the small end and a really really really strong resin at the other end. It's small, made for like... eight centimeter wide holes, and lets face it, if you have anything bigger than that, you're fucked anyway. I'm going to get around that.

"But Mindy, you have a gaping hole in your helmet!" you might be saying. And yes, I do. And yes, EVA suits with gaping holes in the faceplate are notorious for not working well as EVA suits. Fear not, kind citizen! I'll solve it by chopping my arm off. Well, not my arm. The EVA suits arm. I was planning on moving some satellites in orbit before I became Roswell, so I have my tool box. I'm going to lop off the arm of my suit at the elbow, cut the suit material into a rectangle by slitting it open, and place that over the hole in my faceplate. Ah? Ahhh?"

"The problem here being that I have to scrape the super resin off the patch kit, smear it on the rectangle, on the arm hole, and get it all air tight before it sets in sixty seconds. But I'm an engineer goddammit! I'm gonna fix it or die trying!"

[EVA Audio Entry]: G.S.D. 142-3
"So I think the MMU just blew up. There was a horrible ripping PFFFFFF noise, then that familiar silence. The airlock seems to be holding, as I haven't been unceremoniously blasted into the thin atmosphere of Foxtrot yet.

The patch is on now. It's haphazard and I can't see for shit... Oh also I glued my hand to the helmet. Stop laughing, it sucks. I had to chisel it off with a screwdriver... Very carefully. Anyway, the patch is on, the arm is sealed, and I'm in my suit. The computer says it's leaking steadily but that's what I get for butchering my only hope for survival. I'll have to use my suits arm camera to see, since someone ages ago realized that turning your whole body around to see something in an EVA suit is a waste of time and energy, most have an arm mounted camera. It projects a video feed on the inside of your faceplate. And since my faceplate is less than optimal, it's kind of screwed up. It'll have to do.

So I've done the math, at the rate I'm losing air, and the amount of nitrogen I have left. Yes, nitrogen, it's for pressure and all that, if you fille a suit with pure oxygen... you get a dead operator. But yeah, with the nitrogen I have left, I have about... A grand total... Of... uh... well of about fifteen minutes. I have no idea where the hell I am on this rock, but I hope I crashed near the Hab and I can get there, or I'll be here forever, frozen.

Wish me luck. If anyone finds this, please nuke this planet."

[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 143.
"So, as you can probably tell, I'm not dead! Not yet, anyway. My EVA suit is fucked, and I spent the night picking glass shards out of my forehead. I took some pain meds, wrapped my head, and hoped. And well, I woke up a few minutes ago. My head is pounding, my joints ache, my ears hurt. Basically, I feel like I should have exploded.

And another bad thing. The MMU is down, which means I can't get back to orbit. Which means the only interesting thing to do on this goddamn rock is gone. i'll have to contact Headquarters with a report soon."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D 203.
"So remember that water problem I totally forgot about? Well I just did. I'm down to ten liters. I'm supposed to drink two liters per day. So I have five days to figure out how to not die of dehydration.

I've been thinking over the possibilities. I have a ton of oxygen, a shit ton. I'm safe there, my Oxygenator can break apart CO2 and get me the O2 just fine. Thanks freezing cold of space. But also fuck you, why can't I just have something go right for once!? Apparently I was horrible to babies in a past life, probably.

Anyway, I have an idea... Hydrazine. Rocket fuel! Now, what does something explosive have to do with water? Isn't rocket fuel used to make shit really hot? And doesn't water not like heat? Yes and yes. But! I know how to make water. Take oxygen, hydrogen, and burn. So I'm going to play with some highly unstable, highly toxic, rocket fuel.

Now, the problem is that I need a careful igniton, that's cool, I can raid the crashed MMU. My backup EVA is fine, and fits fine. the only thing I need to do now is set up an incredibly complex rig to make rocket fuel not want to be rocket fuel."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 210.
"So I'm not exploded yet. However, I did nearly blow up the Hab. Not the rocket fuel, actually, just... really high hydrogen content. Whoops. Almost had a space Hindenburg. I'm alright, ish... I split hydrazine on my arms, past my gloves, during the explosion. I'll have those burn chemical burn scars for the rest of my life... But everything in the Hab is alright... What I'm more concerned about is that there was a meteor shower last night. Meteors tend to stay small around here, I'm far enough out that the asteroid belt out here is just small stuff.

Either way, every time a shower happens I get to spend all day looking at walls. Literally. I have to check every inch of the Hab for damage. And the solar array.

Fun."

[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 210-2.
"Once again, I'm screwed. I took a quick look around, and I'm alone. Like... actually alone. Not just in person, but entirely. Primary and secondary comms are dead, dead, dead. Took meteors to them, the dish is wrecked. Just obliterated. Which means no Starnet. Which also means no radio, no video, no nothing. I have entered the void.

On another note, I'm aching all over, everything hurts. I'm tired, in pain, and ready for sleep.

Oh, also, time to start rationing my food! With no way to contact people, I'm going to try to fix my comms. It will take a while, so I'll just do half rations. That should give me about... three hundred days of food... By day... One sec.

Day five-forty-seven, I'll be out of food. Then starvation sets in and I start eating my limbs."


((To be continued soon))

 

[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 240.
"So I guess meteor showers are a norm now, they've been happening on and off all week. My god has it been boring. Still following protocols, I do not want to wake up to a vacuum. Or uh... not... wake up. So my week's been uneventful. The solar array is suffering a bit, I've had to actually sweep off the panels more than once. Sweeping in an EVA suit is not fun.

Oh and you know how I was fine with all my music? I guess media players aren't built to work in space. I guess it ended up in the airlock some how, whoops, and uh... well... LCD screens don't like freezing temperatures, as soon as it got hit with that the screen must have frozen and sublimated. I'm going to leave a bad review on their website A-S-A-P. "Brought player to the vacuum of space, refused to start, zero out of ten." But in all seriousness, I'm pissed and I'm still trying to think of a plan off this rock. So far I've got a vague idea having to do with the MMU. More on that once it's an actual plan."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 302.
"Alright, I have a plan, and it's stupid as hell. So I made a trip to the crashed MMU today, still the way I left it, I mean, what did I expect? Hooded bandits looting my wreck? No, still the way I left it. The back end is completely blown apart, there's decaying erchius everywhere, it kind of looks cool, drifting around in zero point two G. But on track, I checked the console, still operational, I found a thruster as well. Small maneuvering thruster, but a thruster nonetheless. I'll bring it back later.

For I... Pause for effect... Cue evil laughter... Muahahaha... Have a plan!"

[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 305.
"Alright, I reclaimed as much as I could from the MMU wreck. I'm working through the logistics, but I think I can do this... I'm going to build my own spacecraft off this rock! I have an EVA suit, which is good for open space, I've got air, water, and food. I can probably keep those inside my suit, but it might be risky. But hey, I'm alone in the emptiness of space, this is pretty risky already. If I couldn't take risks, I wouldn't be here.

Anyway, I've got navigational computers from the MMU, minor life support systems I can plug into my EVA suit, and a few maneuvering thrusters. Now, since the planet I'm on... ... you know it doesn't even have a name... Since I'm the Queen of this planet, I say it shall be called... hm... Osiris. Since NASA used to name celestial bodies after gods, and i want to be a special snowflake, I dub the Osiris after the Egyptian lord of the underworld. Because, let's face it, I'm probably going to fucking die here.

But back to focusing! Osiris only has zero point two G's of gravitational pull. I can leave the surface with just maneuvering thrusters, probably, as long as I don't put on too much mass. Which shouldn't be bad since I've lost weight. Nothing like a crash course diet. I dub thee "the Holy fuck I'm Going to Die-et." See that? Even being alone in space can't ruin my terrible sense in puns."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 330.
"So I've been building the M.G.S.C.E. That's the "Most Ghetto SpaceCraft Ever" I think it's fitting. I'm basically going to be flying a convertible into open space. I don't really have a target yet. I don't know any of the other planets orbits and there's a huge chance I'll just miss all of them. I need to crunch some numbers."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 332.
"Numbers crunched. Multiple times."

Sigh.

"As much as I want the MGSCE to fly me off like some sort of awesome space adventurer... It's too risky. If it's not the lack of food that kills me, the level of CO2, or super diaper rash, it will probably be the solar radiation. Out here on Osiris, the farthest planet out in this system, being the ninth, there's not much sunlight to begin with. I get maybe four hours each day. While that means I don't get to go tanning, it also means I can minimize radiation exposure.

The Hab is built with radiation blocking materials, so inside it I'm fine. The problem is, is that those rad blockers are only rated for a maximum use of six months. That rating expired four months ago. So if I don't already have space cancer, taking the MGSCE up will definitely get me radiation exposure. I'll be exposed so much, when I get cancer, my cancer will get cancer. Which is... Ah... Well, less than good.

But I will press on! I have another backup plan! The MGSCE might not be able to carry me into space, but if I rig up the computer and the MMU's radio, which uh, is too weak to be useful, maybe a range of two star systems, I can broadcast an SOS signal. The one problem here is this: Electronics don't like cold. So blasting them into space will just get me a hunk of metal up there with frozen computers.

How will I do that? The answer? I have no idea."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 340.
"Hoo, alright. I have another stupid plan. As is my specialty. I have one heater, the Hab heater. It keeps me from not turning into a human Popsicle inside the Hab. Which I enjoy. Anyway, if I install that on the MGSCE it can heat the electronics to what I set it to. Which is perfect.

One problem. If I install it in the MGSCE, I freeze. I'll work on it."


[Log entry]: G.S.D. 342.
"Alright, I know what I'll do. I'll do exactly what I was told not to do. I'm going to find the RTG. The RTG, or Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator is what was powering the MMU. Basically, the RTG is a box of radioactive death. The key word here is box. It's in a box, which means the radioactive death part stays in the box. The RTG works like this, it's a box of Plutonium two-thirty-eight isotope pellets. Plutonium decays and generates a massive amount of heat, nearly... 1300 watts worth. Now, it only makes about 100 watts, the other 1200 is lost through the box it's in. They aren't really used that much anymore just because if the casing cracks, and the pellets crack... well... You don't exist anymore.

I'm going to bring it back to the Hab! That's right, I'm going to be living with a flaming box of radiation. I'll send the Hab's heater with the MGSCE, set up a program to estimate how much food, water, air, and power I have left here... Oh yeah, did I mention the Oxygenator and the water reclaimer are on the fritz? Because they are. And that's bad. They're not making as much oxygen or water as they should. Meanwhile, taking the solar cells from my farm to power the MGSCE will drop my power production below what I need to sustain myself.

So... I made the choice. Either this works and I get picked up, or uh, captured by space pirates, or I die from an ever growing number of things. The MGSCE should be ready for launch in... a month. Luckily, my O2 and H2O supply seems to be able to last me about as long as my food supply will. Anyway, it's late, I should sleep, tomorrow's going to be EVA hell."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 374.
"Alright! Now I get to play mission control. I've gotten my ghetto spacecraft set up. She's sitting on a panel I pried off the MMU. I've set the radio on it to repeat my distress message in Morse code, since that's universal and never goes out of style. If you're wondering, the message will state my name, my status as of right now, with a ticker set on the computer to track my estimated resource consumption, and my location. It will put that on repeat until it crashes, gets shot down, taken apart, or something else fucks up in its inner workings.

For now... I hope. Launch is tomorrow, once she's out of the system I'll have no way to track her or communicate with her.

Godspeed, my metal crack baby."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 400.
"Lost contact with the MGSCE today. God damn I hope someone sees it... It's old school shit, no FTL, no fancy tech, but it's broadcasting, and that's what matters. Let's hope someone picks it up. And that that someone is more interested in saving my life than looting my home."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 453.
"I haven't made a log in a while. Not much has happened. I've just been sitting around... .. God it's dull here. I thought college lectures were boring... I've been thinking, which I have a lot of time to do.

I've picked a theme song for myself, just from what I can remember from my music library. And since I love old shit, I picked "Rocket Man" By Elton John. I've got a hundred fifty days of supplies left."


[Log Entry]: G.S.D 500.
"Day five hundred. The solar array got hit with a meteor the size of a hover bike last night, woke me up to the Hab pattering and the ground shaking. It's shaved off a week or two from my total power. That's alright, the atmosphere in the Hab should hold for a few days, even without power. And I can get into my EVA suit when it gets too cold, the internal heater should save me."

[Log Entry]: G.S.D. 531.
"... I'm just going to die here... I'm... I'm honestly going to die here. It didn't hit me until I grabbed today's meal, ham, peas, corn, and nothing tea. If you're wondering what nothing tea is, just heat up a cup of water, add nothing, and bada-bing, bada-boom, you've got nothing tea... But... Back to seriousness... I have two days of meals left. Half meals, really. That's... two days before I start starving. I checked the medical area, I found enough morphine to OD if... worse comes to worse. I'm not going out by starvation...

I don't want to die alone. I've tried too hard. I'm trying. I've survived this long. Please, if anyone, anything exists out there, God, Kluex, Big Ape, whoever! Please... please help me... This is Sat Tech... Mindy Johansson, signing off."

 

[Log Entry]: G.S.D 539.
"So I'm not dead, who could have guessed that? It's been a week. I'm off Osiris. Three people showed up on my last day, saved my sorry ass."

A long sigh.

"I'm lucky. Really damn lucky. The MGSCE did what it was supposed to... But uh, yeah! The guys who rescued me, some Russian guy, a guy named Jask, and some other guy who pretty much vanished after I got off Osiris. God I'm happy to be off there. It's great! Well, uh, mostly. I'm crippled now. I completely forgot how low gravity affects bones and muscles. As soon as I got onto Russian dudes ship, my legs gave out. I can barely walk. I spent a while on a local colony, Upside, I guess, with Jask, he helped me around, I took my first shower in ages in Russian guys house, got some new not smelly clothes, and lounged around in the park for a while. I owe Jask about... thirty pix.

Anyway, Jask called a doctor, she's had me on bedrest and IV drip for a week, I just got a mobility frame today, so I can walk. Sort of. I've been doing PT with my doc for the week but it still feels weird walking in one g. Like, listen."

There's a soft whirring.

"I need help moving my arms, that's the motors in the elbow. I'm one step closer to being a badass cyborg. Going back to Upside ASAP, getting out of this USCM bunker... I want to see the sky. And I will, god dammit! This cripple's gotta be free!"

Another soft whirr

"You know, I thought I'd be jumping up and down with happiness when I got off Osiris... I sort of did. I mean, I couldn't shut up, I was so happy I had people to talk to, even just seeing them made my heart flutter. But uh... now that that's burned off... the first night here I cried. I cried all night, I didn't get any sleep at all, all night. I'm happy, I'm... really fucking happy. I'm off that planet, I'm free, I'm... broke as hell, but I can make money. I've made it a goal to get the relay fixed, too. But that's way down the line. Right now, I need a home, I need food, water, and friends."