Memory transcription subject: [ERROR] Novikhan, navy seaman assigned to the crew of the EMCS Alabaster
Date [standardized human time]: July 14, 2136
Location: the Alabaster, military contractor cargo ship stationed in the North and Baltic seas, presently located in the Øresund waterway.
In the time that followed, Jade Novikhan would always remember the events of the day when the UNS Odyssey returned to Earth with news of the wider galaxy and the peoples that inhabited it. There were many markers that the people of earth would think back to, but for Jade and the rest of the crew they sailed with, and all who sailed within the southwest Baltic and the Kattegat, it was marked by storms. The long work of re-stabilizing the climate from years past, along with the unforeseen impacts of the satellite war, had rendered the weather of the region more unpredictable, and a few ships found themselves in the largest storm that the Baltic had yet experienced for the 22nd century. Some ships were lost, but most of them had managed to weather the storm and arrived in port battered but safe.
It was as the storm finally abated that the Alabaster finally limped into the waters between Copenhagen and Malmo, angling for its berth nearby CMP crane 94. With the skies clearing back to the long days of summer within Scandinavia, the crew of the ship gathered on deck, nursing their wounds from when a rogue wave had shunted the vessel to the side scarcely fifteen minutes after midnight and unseated a good portion of them. Jade had watched as several people were nearly sent into the deeps, and they might have if not for the fact that the battering rain and the bruising force of a fall had given Garnet enough impetus to force his way to the front of their little system.
The other alter had managed to catch the other deckhands and even sealed one of the bulkheads to prevent flooding by taking a rope and throwing himself over the edge in order to use the rail like a pulley. Thank goodness for the fact that the bar pilot’s ladder was standard construction, even if the Alabaster never went into river ports. Of course, Garnet didn’t plan for it, Willow had, and Jade was left to explain what had happened to Captain Olsen. Their condition never failed to be both a blessing and a curse, and at the time Jade was leaning towards curse as they blearily gathered the rest of the deckhands near the forecastle.
Once everyone was assembled, Jade moved to stand atop a small crate and pulled out a sheaf of papers that contained the offloading instructions for the different cargo containers. There was a moment of quiet as they shuffled through the papers, before a sailor spoke up. “What work do we have to do Jade,” the sailor shouted, and Jade chuckled in response.
“It might be easier to list what we don’t have to get done Agnes,” Jade replied with a lighthearted tone before they raised their voice so that everyone could hear. “We’ve got a lot of work to do today people, so let’s be quick about this. Aaron–” Jade hesitated just long enough to point towards a wheat-haired man who held a pair of signal torches, and resumed speaking the moment that he gave a nod “–row H and everything behind it are foodstuffs, so you need to wave the crane over and get those unloaded first.”
“Aye capitan,” the man shouted back.
“Don’t call me captain,” Jade retorted as everyone laughed. “The official captain might not get up before noon, but I know my place. Now, containers A-12 through B-3 are listed as ‘gravatic manipulation units for additional vessels within the Odyssey project.’” The term felt somehow familiar, but Jade didn’t voice the thought and instead simply kept reading from the list of offloading instructions, speeding through most of them with practiced efficiency. “There’ll be a train coming to collect them by ten-thirty, so we need them offloaded and by the cargo rail by nine. The rest of rows A through C are going to be transferred onto another vessel that will be docking with us, and all in all everything needs to be done by lunchtime. Any questions or does everyone understand what we’ll be doing?”
One of the sailors – a short man with ivory-pale skin – gave a brief cough to seize Jade’s attention. “Novikhan,” the man said harshly. “Your shoulder. You haven’t gotten any actual medical attention since you were nearly torn overboard last night. You should rest.”
Jade turned back to look at him. “I will be resting Samuel,” Jade said sharply. “You’ll be doing the heavy lifting. I’m a supervisor. Does anyone else have a concern that they wish to voice?”
There was a round of “no”s from the assembled crew, with one “your funeral” being muttered by Samuel, and so Jade quickly jumped down from the low crate and began to march towards the offloading area of the ship. “Then let’s get to work, people!”
⁂[following experiences deemed low-priority, removed from transcript]
⁂[transcript resumes at 1317 hours UTC+1 Earth time]
As the last of the containers was finally sent on their way, Jade found themselves beginning to regret not following Samuel’s advice as they rotated their arm with a suppressed gasp at the soreness and bruising that had begun to take form beneath the cotton of their shirt. But the work was done, and now they were on break. Most of the crew was of a like mind, with them leaning against the railing along the front or doing stretches to loosen up their muscles as they began to relax.
Of the gather seamen, Jade stuck out like a bit of a sore thumb by the fact that they were the only one who remained largely motionless; and it wasn’t helped by how easily noticeable Jade was with the almost paradoxical nature of their build, somehow both towering and slight of bulk thanks to their hunched shoulders and slack posture. As more sailors arrived several of them lit up cigarettes and a few of Jade’s compatriots ambled over to lean against the railing with them.
“Well,” Jade remarked with a soft-voiced sigh as they massaged their injured shoulder, “how much shore leave do you think we’ll wind up with from this?”
“I dunno Jade,” Samuel remarked as he handed over a warm cloth that Jade gratefully tucked under the neckband of their shirt. “I would expect that we’ll have at least a week while the fin stabilizers are inspected. The port stern unit definitely stalled at a positive AOT back out in Hesselø bay.”
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Jade nodded. “Quite likely,” they remarked briefly. “The problem could be anywhere. Gyros, sensors, even the fin itself.”
“It doesn’t really matter,” a new voice said, as Jade quickly spun to see the captain standing nearby with a laptop held awkwardly against his body with one arm. “Things’ve changed and it might be a long time before this ship sets sail again.”
“Captain Olsen,” Jade quickly replied as they gave a brief salute, followed closely by the rest of their little group as the gathered crewmen at the forecastle began to notice the captain and come to attention. The captain lazily waved at everyone with his free hand, and Jade stepped forward. “If I may ask, what do you mean by ‘things have changed and it might be a long time before this ship sets sail again’?”
In response, captain Olsen simply flipped the laptop around so that everyone could see the screen. It was showing a news report with three images. One showed a spacecraft in orbital drydock by the ISS and the two others showed people, with one grainy image distorted to the edge of recognition being the apparent crew of the ship and the other being a small group of silver-furred bipeds.
“Humanity has officially made contact with alien life,” Captain Olsen announced. “The UN released all the data that they got and from what little I saw this morning it appears that these knock-kneed nose-less xenos are called the Venlil and they have allied with us. Also, there may be a few aliens that want us dead, so Sci-fi was right that first contact would lead to humans fully uniting. China and the Americans are already teaming up to design new fighters, and we’re likely to see an overall massive leap forward in technological improvement.”
That was the moment that everything changed for the crew of the Alabaster, the words that changed the world for them like so many others were irrevocably altered by the announcement of first contact between humans and intelligent alien life. And for a moment as the weight of the announcement sank in, everyone was silent. Aaron was the first person to break it. “What does that mean for us?”
What did it mean for them? Jade for one had no idea, as the surety of the routine that they had relied upon ever since Lazuli – the former host alter of their system – had passed and left Jade to take up her position. At the thought of Lazuli, they felt Garnet and Willow shift slightly in the back of their mind, and rapidly shifted to pay attention to the present as the captain spoke up once more.
“It means that they’re exchanging tech and there’s now a lot of job demand and we just became a lot less useful for the moment,” Captain Olsen replied. “Management is offering voluntary resignations with a reserved position should anyone wish to later return, because humanity will need all hands on deck to manage this paradigm shift.”
There were several nods of understanding at the captain’s words, and eventually Samuel spoke up from beside Jade. “So, what you’re saying is that our shore leave is indefinite.”
Captain Olsen nodded somberly as he folded the laptop closed. “Yes,” the man said. “You’ve got a month’s paycheck awaiting you upon departure in addition to your payment for this last voyage. I would recommend that you all familiarize yourselves with what’s going on, reunite with family,” –Jade chuckled at that part, desperately trying to conceal the old wounds that Olsen had inadvertently invoked, as the man continued to speak– “and so on and so forth. This is a unique circumstance that we won’t ever experience again, so let’s be ready to rise to the occasion. Everyone is dismissed.”
And with that, the crew began to gradually file off of the ship, though Olsen held out a hand to stall Jade. “Lieutenant Novikhan.”
Jade stopped and turned to look at the captain. “Captain Olsen, sir?”
Olsen briefly glanced downward, and Jade followed the man’s gaze to see the ship’s cat curling around the captain’s leg, a long-furred splotch of darkness against the grays and browns of the deck paneling. The captain coughed quietly, then leaned over to whisper. “Between the two of us, I’m somewhat afraid that the Alabaster is going to be mothballed,” he said quietly. “And, ah, my wife’s allergic to cats. You’ve always had a way with Milo, so…”
Jade nodded, before they leaned down with one hand outstretched and gave a quick snap of their fingers. The cat scurried up to come to a resting point on the sailor’s shoulder as they looked up and smiled at the captain. “I’ll look after him, sir.”
The two finished exchanging some pleasantries, and then Jade left the ship. Where most of the other crew had headed for the shore facilities, Jade found themselves walking aimlessly towards CMP crane 93, wondering what they were going to do.
First contact. That was a phrase that Jade had never expected to hear being applied to reality, but there the world was.
“Well,” Jade whispered into the silence, “what should we do?”
And after a moment, another voice answered. “Seek out our destiny among the stars,” an inaudible voice replied within Jade’s mind. The voice was undeniably masculine, calm stern and precise, with an underlying growl to it. “Since Leia left … there’s little for us here. But perhaps we can be of use out there.”
Jade nodded. “I know it hurts Garnet,” they said quietly. “But we should remember that her bond was with Lazuli. The rest of us were simply friends.”
The other presence, Garnet, didn’t bother to offer a response in words, instead merely pushing a sensation of acquiescence into Jade’s mind. “Thank you,” the human whispered softly. “And what of you, Willow?”
There wasn’t a response. “Willow,” Jade whispered, as Garnet mentally echoed the name. Jade grimaced briefly, before spitting out a curse. “I hate having to pull out a trigger,” they snarled as they quickly set Milo down on the ground, before uttering a single name into the silence. “_______,” Jade whispered, as they braced themselves against the side of a shipping container in anticipation of a swelling dizziness that never arrived.
Annoyance and worry gave way to grief in an instant, as the two remaining alters broke down in tears. The both of them knew what this meant, and the realization impacted like a physical blow. Milo seemed to pick up on the distress, as he hopped up and briefly pawed at the lieutenant’s legs, letting out a plaintive mew as he did. Jade let out a cracking sigh, before going to their knees and winding their hands into the cat’s fur as their mind fled from the present moment.
“Another one lost,” Garnet whispered as he fronted for the first time in several months for something that wasn’t an immediate physical danger. He let out a deep sigh as he sat back and ran a hand along Milo’s spine, gently scratching at the middle of the cat’s back and causing him to let out a long rumbling purr.
“And then there were two,” Jade said from the back of their shared headspace.
Garnet nodded. “She isn’t here to remember the misdeeds against us,” he said softly. “We made first contact, perhaps it’s time to be done with this flawed world.”
“Perhaps,” Jade replied, their mental tone reticent as they watched Garnet pull out the phone that they used and quickly dialed a number into it. Sara Rosario. “She was on some expeditionary mission, sent us an e-mail saying that she’d check in with Leia on the way back,” he growled, as grief began to give way to a simmering anger. “I knew that the name felt familiar, she had to be on the first contact team.”
Before the man could continue his explanation though, the call went to voicemail. “You’ve reached the phone of Sara Rosario,” the woman’s voice said in a dispassionate tone. “I can’t get to the phone right now, but feel free to leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”
Garnet exhaled and ran his hand along Milo’s coat in order to try and calm himself down somewhat – a largely futile endeavor – before he spoke. “Sara, it’s Garnet. What in the actual hell happened? We heard about first contact, and now–” he broke off, as grief threatened to overwhelm him once more. “Call me.”