Alex hummed as they rummaged through the shelves, alone in Greg's study. The doctor was off on an interview, Jolana was discussing hull redesigns with Laura, and everyone else was helping take stock of the temporary shuttle they had hired. So, Alex had decided to look into Greg's collection.
Eventually just picking one of the worn volumes at random, Alex gingerly set it down on a desk, the cover slightly tattered, with hints of burn marks at the edges. Opening to the first page, alex was thankful the contents seemed to be okay.
"The Personal Journal of Yuki. For those that come after." Curious, Alex continued reading silently, wandering what they may find.
"Dates will be listed in Earth time, ED. I am a researcher, a neurobiologist with additional study into biomedical engineering. At the urging of a friend of mine, I am keeping this journal... They say it may capture something amazing, one day."
"ED 11th of May, '17. I have been in my new job for about a month now, and it is a rather unusual contract. Very hush-hush, we are supposedly working on advanced mechanics. They have brought me on to give insight on how a human brain works, as I have shown previous interest in solidly recording this. When I told them my research was decades from being useful, they did not seem to care. Oh well."
Alex hesitated... A faint memory niggling at them. "The facilities are rather convenient, with living quarters, an observation deck to the outside, everything. For a place that is trying to be off the grid... I had expected something much more, well, militant. Bland."
"I still have little to do besides answering the odd question from the head researchers, and writing reports on what I know. I plan on discussing other possibilities tomorrow... As nice as this all is, I don;t wnt to be sitting around, twiddling my thumbs."
"ED 12th of May, '17. The board was surprisingly emicable to arrangin a meeting, so that is good. I will put forward my plans for a brain wave analysis device... With a few uses, that they will care about. I will also slip in my request that has been bugging me... Convincing them they need another engineer. One they haven't safety-checked yet, at that."
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Rolling their eyes, Alex flipped further ahead, to about mid way... And froze. Glancing up, and seeing that nobody was around, Alex began to carefully scan each and every page of the book for further analysis, careful not to damage anything. Once done, they carefully put the book away, and went back to their room to dock their AHOR unit.
Internally, Alex brought up the scanned images, and ran a diagnostic on the handwriting to convert it into plain text. Done quickly, they ran a search for a few key terms... Each came up positive. Skimming through to a page near the end, Alex read on apprehensively.
"ED 15th of February. Still no sign of the end of this war. We have managed to keep the quarantine in affect, the blockades shooting down ant and all ships trying to leave... Even refugees. We can not risk that thing getting to the other havens."
"People have stopped blaming each other, thankfully. Too scared... Too exhausted. We lost another person looking for resources today, to another press trap. The robots have gotten good at luring us in, and wiping us out... I am just glad they have not followe anyone back to our encampment, like I have seen other camps fall before."
"... I did finish my program, though. It probably will not work... And would require access to an original terminal, back in the facility... And, someone to link up with it. But... Air raids do less and less damage to the mechanical forces. Any hope is welcome."
"I have told the council about my plan, and they agreed that is was far fetched. They also agreed to help. I may not have mentioned the condition of a link... They do not need to know."
"I will stay behind... And try and keep that thing contained."
Alex felt a chill, despite not being connected to an AHOR. Closing the file, they thought about it... They still have not read the full document, or given it consideration. Deciding to do that first, Alex thought of Ren...
Making up their mind, Alex opened the file back up. A document from Mars during the war was rare... That alone would be worth showing Ren. This was more than that, though... And Alex needed to make sure they were not starting something bigger than they could handle. So, they resumed reading, poring through the journal.