I can’t tell you the last time I laid eyes on anything but this vast void I’ve been floating around in. I’ve begun to see things, and not just things out of the corner of my eye, but full on hallucinations. Things like my family I left to come on this mission. But, sometimes they’re not so calming. I’ve been seeing horrible beings threatening my life then, waking up on different parts of my ship with cuts and bruises on my body, and signs of struggle from where I fell asleep to where I wake up. I can’t tell if I’m sleep walking or if I really have been boarded by some strange alien creatures who have been playing some kind of cat and mouse routine with me. The worst thing about losing your mind is knowing it’s happening.
“You’re doing your world a great justice” they said, ” Everyone owes you a great deal of gratitude. The fate of our world rests in your hands!” With no radio, no propulsion, and no way of contact with my planet I can’t tell if I completed my mission, or if my planet is even still there.
There was a small ship headed toward my planet. The long range sensors had picked it up long before we knew what it was carrying. The ship was no bigger than a small sedan, but it carried four missiles made out of seev, a substance that gained energy from forceful impact and could create a black hole almost instantaneously. With only six hours to impact our space fleet sent four others and myself to knock the ship out of its crash course with my planet. On route our ship’s thrust experienced a malfunction, so we converted power from the ship’s sensors and communication to make up for the thrust to effectively knock the small ship off it’s course. But, in doing all this we could not stop or slow the ship down therefore colliding with the small ship. Although, we did not hit the ship hard enough to activate the seev; from the malfunction experienced in the engine’s thrust the impact caused an explosion killing two of my men, and hurled us uncontrollably into outer space.
At first the remaining three of us we’re fine and had hoped for rescue in the first couple of hours, but at the rate we were soaring into space there was no chance of that ever happening. After a week everything seemed fine, but we were all experiencing changes in everyday actions. Jones developed compulsions such as touching the door handle to his room three times before entering and leaving, and we were all starting to talk to ourselves. As things got progressively worse Jones took his own life, and Maddox was torn to pieces trying to repair the last remaining engine on the ship.
With the death of four very close friends of mine, devastation was taking hold. I began pacing the ship at all hours of the day and night, and talking to myself hysterically.With the insomnia taking its toll on me, I would talk to Jones and Maddox as if they were still here. I can’t begin to explain what was going through my head; depression in it’s most crippling form. I only started to come to when my ship’s sensors picked up an inhabitable planet in the distance. But, my ship was not on course with the planet and the only way to even come close was to attach multiple air tanks to side of my ship and release the air simultaneously. With remote detonation of a small amount of C4 on each tank, my plan went off without a hitch, but with no result. I missed the planet, but came close enough that if the the planet inhabited intelligent life their long range sensors should have picked me up in time for a rescue. Alas, no rescue came. At least I don’t think it did. I remember falling asleep for some reason as I approached the planet. My only explanation is that I haven’t slept in days and the pure adrenaline I was running on finally gave out.
When I awoke the planet was no where in sight, and I had a splitting headache. I’m not completely positive, but I’m sure this is when I started fighting for my life every night when I went to sleep. The first few times I remember having these night terrors I wasn’t waking up with physical evidence of them on my body, and no signs of struggle around my ship. As the days and weeks groaned on the night terrors became progressively more lucid. My ship was a mess and I was beaten and bloody every time I woke up, but the thing about it is I would heal within the day. As things grew worse I would wake every morning tattered to near death, but would heal, as said , within the hours of the day. I could not understand the creatures in my dreams but knew they were speaking to me; like they were telling me I had no where to run and that my demise was inevitable. Their speech isn’t audible, but it’s just like I know what they’re saying.
I’m leaving this memoir of the accounts on this ship, Aurora, because tonight I’m going to blow the ship while the beings that attack me nightly try again. I cannot take any more being beaten to near death every night whether it’s real or just in my head. I’ve attached the remainder of my C4 to the last engine aboard my ship set to detonate at 2 a.m.; two hours after the usual initial attack. I’m leaving myself these two hours as a last chance to figure out if what is happening to me is real, or if I’ve completely lost my mind to space and this ship. If anyone ever finds this please tell my family I love them very much and that I stuck it out until the very end. If my planet is gone and I’m the last of my people, I would rather be gone than be subject to the cruel and unusual punishment I’m being put through every single night. All I wanted to do was make my family safe and not knowing if I even came through is unbearable!
“This morning at two a.m. the ship Aurora, exploded in orbit around our planet despite our nightly attempts to rescue the crew Perry Jones, Tom Maddox, Nicholas Garner, Jane Hoke, and Captain London Gayle. Boarding the ship every night, rescue teams were fought off with deadly force by the Aurora’s crew. Analysis show that with impact from the ship containing the seev, the crew so bravely saved our planet from; the malfunctions in the engine had released a hallucinogenic gas into the ship’s atmosphere ultimately causing the death of the Aurora’s crew. Despite what has happened this world owes everything we have to the Aurora and her crew, and today we hang our heads low for the loss of some of the finest people that have served so selflessly for our lives.”