Arrow 19 Crew Count: 20
Captain: Marshall Bennett
Head Technician: Patricia Dean
Head Scientist: Erica Dean
Head Medic: Troy Storey
Head Astrophysicist: Stephanie Mettz
Diplomatic Representatives: Alec Willey (American Union), Troy Storey (Australia), Erica Dean (European Union), Trisha Powell (United Kingdom)
Representative’s Log: Alec Willey
March 17th, 2262 @ 23:37, GMT
We have just arrived in the Omega Centauri II system to what has been nicknamed the ‘Opposite World’. Though it was later named Equus, it still holds the nickname of Opposite World because of how it seems to defy the laws of logic. My expertise is in computer programming, not stellar physics. But it doesn’t take an astrophysicist to know that an object of lesser mass is supposed to orbit an object of greater mass. Not the other way around.
This is the first log entry using the new communication system. Trish and her father helped to develop the technology for long-distance communication. It’s far from instant communication. We’ve estimated that the communications take anywhere from a few days to as long as a month for the other end to receive the entry. From what I understand, the hard drive of this computer is capable of creating a connection with a “twin” computer (for lack of a better word). The hard drives create an artificial wormhole. It’s only a few micrometers in diameter, but it’s a connection nonetheless. Regardless of what this communication system does, the intent is to give this computer to the… (Would they be called Equeeshians?) The locals of the planet. In any case, if we’re going to have interstellar allies, it’s only fair that we have some means of communication.
As glad as I am to be on this mission (I’ve wanted to be an astronaut since I was a little kid), I still don’t think I’m as deserving of it as others believe. Sure, I’ve been tested and trained in space travel in order to go on this mission, and I know my way around diplomacy. But I only got recognized because of my father’s involvement in the military. Speaking of my father, he’s also the captain of this mission. And if you think that the captain being my father earns me special attention, you’d be right. That is if by ‘special’ you mean ‘lack of any acknowledgment whatsoever’. As far as he’s concerned, this crew only has 19 members. [EDIT: DELETE LAST THREE SENTENCES]
Sorry about that. Personal issues like that belong in my personal logs.
Anyway, the crew was told not to make any log entries on this computer until we reached Equus. That way, GSA can make a better calculation of how long it takes for transmissions to travel at this distance. Technically, we weren’t supposed to start using this computer until we landed on the surface. But the intent is to test the distance. But we’re now within a million kilometers, so the difference would be minuscule. We still got another day or so before we enter orbit. But as far as I’m concerned, our mission has started. And if you don’t like it, you can [CENSORED].
Sorry about that. I guess being stuck in this oversized soda can for six months is getting under my skin a little. I don’t know, maybe I’m just tired. It’s late after all. Normally I’m a night owl. But we’ve needed to get up early the last few days for preparations.
[END LOG]
Representative’s Log: Trisha Powell
March 19th, 2262 @ 08:21, GMT
I see that Alec has already made a log entry. I don’t know if he mentioned in the log entry why we’re on this mission. But here it is. Obviously, because of the last Arrow mission, ‘Lone Ranger’, we couldn’t just have a crew of one again. It’s still a relatively small crew, but we have everyone and everything we need. Anyway, we’re here for two. The first is because the Global Space Agency wanted to send proper diplomatic representatives to Equus. We’ve got representatives from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia going to the surface, because the ships only have four seats. But there are representatives from Africa and South America on the crew as well. We’d take representatives from Antarctica. But I don’t know how penguins can act as representatives.
Alec: “Ha ha. Very funny.”
Trish: “Why so serious, Alec?”
Alec: “You took that from that movie from the twenty-first century, didn’t you?”
Trish: “You liked it and you know it.”
Alec: “How can I know something if I don’t know I know it?”
Sorry about that. Alec’s being grumpy this morning.
Alec: “I’m not grumpy.”
The second reason we’re out here is as a rescue mission to retrieve captain Randy Edwards.
The reason I got noticed for this mission was because of my help in the mechanics of how the new communication system works. My grandfather was the one who came up with the original concept of the WHC hard drive. But my father and I were in charge of developing it. Basically, the WHC hard drive uses an artificially created wormhole to communicate. And in order to keep the wormhole stable, we use quantum fibers. In short, the WHC drive allows for the universe’s strongest wifi signal.
Alec: “Are you making a log entry explaining to GSA what they already know?”
Trish: “Well, I was supposed to make a log entry, but I didn’t know what else to say.”
Alec: “What about entering orbit?”
Trish: “Oh yeah.”
Sorry again. Alec isn’t a morning person. So his attitude in the morning is bollocks.
Alec: “My attitude is not…wait. What’s ‘bollocks’?”
Trish: “It means you’re being a grump.”
Alec: “I’m NOT a grump!”
Anyway, we entered orbit over Equus last night. And tomorrow, we’re going down to the surface. Only four of us will go down to the surface. Me, Mister Grumpy,
Alec: “I’M NOT GRUMPY!”
…the head scientist, and the head medic. Both myself and Mister Grumpy…
Alec: [incomprehensible grumbling]
…both have scientific knowledge. And Alec…
Alec: “Thank you.”
…has some medical training. But our main focus is on diplomacy.
Well, I don’t have much else to say today. So I guess I’ll just say over and out.
Alec: “You do know you don’t have to say “over and out” when…”
[END LOG]
Personal Log: Alec Willey
March 19th, 2262 @ 13:17 GMT
Why did you all put me on a crew with Captain Bennett? At least when I was younger, his ignoring me could’ve been from not being around. The last time I’ve seen him was when I was three. Now he’s actively ignoring me. I’m here and he still doesn’t acknowledge my existence.
I’ve lived nearly 28 years without him, so it doesn’t bother me that he’s ignoring me. What does bother me is the fact that considering the conditions, him ignoring me makes it feel like he doesn’t even consider me as part of the crew. It’s been six months on a mission, where he only had direct contact with nineteen other people. And he has actively interacted with eighteen of those nineteen people. Six months, and I’m the only one he actively ignores.
I honestly don’t care if he doesn’t treat me like a son, because I had no intention of treating him like a father. I wouldn’t even care if he were an [CENSORED] towards me because at least he’d acknowledge my existence! But Marshall doesn’t even treat me like a crew member! That’s right, I didn’t call him ‘captain’ there, because he doesn’t deserve it! If he isn’t gonna treat me like a member of this crew, then I’m not gonna treat him like a captain! He has made it clear that he doesn’t consider me a member of his crew, so in return, I’m not gonna consider him as my captain!
Why? Why did the higher-ups at GSA put me and Marshall together? Did you think that being father and son, we’d work well together? Or was it just random chance? I personally believe there were others more deserving to be on this mission than I am. And considering the situation, I’m wishing I wasn’t chosen.
Whenever Marshall has ordered me to do something, it was basically what he had everyone do at the time. And I wouldn’t even hear about it until someone else told me. If he’s not gonna command me, then I refuse to do anything else he has me do unless he tells me directly. If I have to hear about it through someone else, then as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t apply to me. If you want me to do what Marshall wants, then you’ll have to take it up with him.
I’m gonna go apologize to Trish for how I acted earlier. She’s a nice person. It’s just that she’s a little too excitable.
[END LOG]
Medical Log: Patricia Storey
March 19th, 2262 @ 18:38, GMT
First thing tomorrow morning, my husband, Troy, will be accompanying the crew of the landing party. The group had come in for examinations before their descent. And they’ve all check out fine physically. However, I feel it’s my duty to note an observation. During the past few weeks, I’ve noticed Alec has been becoming more and more irritable. My husband and I have been friends of his for a while now, and Troy can tell when something is bothering him. And if something’s bothering him, he’s usually willing to tell him (if Troy hasn’t found it out beforehand).
I think six months of being cooped up in this ship is starting to get to him. And that’s what concerns me. As I’ve said, we’ve known him for a while. And he’s never shown signs of being the type to get irritable under these conditions. In fact, he tends to like his personal space, and watching the stars in the sky tends to soothe him. And being in an environment where he’s constantly seeing the stars should help soothe him. In fact, perhaps it does and I’d hate to see him if we weren’t traveling the stars. Either way, it’s odd behavior for him.
I just recently looked up the personnel files on him, and I saw that he’s the son of the Captain. It’s strange that he hasn’t mentioned it. I’ve known that he hasn’t seen his father since he was just a little kid. But I never knew beforehand who his father was. Perhaps there’s tension between them. But that wouldn’t explain why he’s only now getting agitated by it. Perhaps it’s a combination of several factors. One of them may even be that his birthday is coming up next month, though I don’t see why that would bother him in any way.
From what I’ve heard from Captain Edwards’ logs, one of the… (sigh) …one of the…ponies (I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. Part of me is still convinced this is all an April Fools prank or something.), Pink Pie would most likely be willing to throw him a good birthday party. Then again, Alec is a bit of an introvert. And from what I understand, Pink Pie is the complete opposite of an introvert and may overwhelm him. I guess it depends. Alec isn’t a complete introvert. I guess we’ll just have to see and wait until the time comes.
I don’t have much else to say, so I’ll end this log here.
[END LOG]
Down on the surface of the planet of Equus, there stood a large crystalline form that resembled a tree. The old treehouse library had burned down when a rogue lightning bolt struck the tree. The fire was contained, but Golden Oaks Library was beyond repair. But the fire did trigger Captain Edward’s PTSD when his ship exploded to activate. Thankfully, the Tree of Harmony offered to give Twilight a new home.
Twilight had become a princess after finishing an old unfinished spell from Starswirl the Bearded. This feat of magic caused a metamorphosis that gave her wings, making Twilight a winged unicorn. And just recently, she had been acting as the parole officer to Starlight Glimmer.
Randy Edwards now lives on his own in Ponyville, being offered residence. Twilight offered to let him stay with her. But he knew that he couldn’t rely on her forever. Thankfully, he was able to develop a translation device, though he has been picking up more and more of the Equestrian language. He realized many of the vocalizations he thought were beyond a human’s vocal range actually were not. Still, there were still a decent number of vocalizations that he couldn’t make. Thankfully, some ponies could understand what he was trying to say. Then there were times when he got laughed at, either because of bad grammar or saying something different from what he intended to say.
Randy had been given a pair of prosthetic legs that Twilight built. And even though she couldn’t enchant them to move at Randy’s will, seeing as humans had a natural resistance to magic, she was able to enchant the legs to anticipate movement based on Spike’s legs. They weren’t perfect and certainly couldn’t give him the same amount of locomotion that he lost. But considering that he was able to walk again, it was still an advantage.
Randy was outside that night, looking through his telescope at the night sky when he noticed something. It wasn’t a star, so his first assumption that may it was a comet or something. But it was too close to the planet. It wasn’t until he saw blinking lights that he realized what it was he was seeing. It’s been five years since Randy has last seen a human. And now, four years after the Arrow 18 was sent back to earth. Randy increased the magnification so that he could see the ship in more detail. It was hard to make out, but there was no mistaking it. Written on the side of the ship was “Arrow 19”.
Immediately, Randy ran the best he could to Twilight’s crystalline castle. When he arrived, he knocked on the door furiously. Randy was thankful at this moment that she was a night owl. She answered the door to see Randy with an excited expression on her face…as well as a few cuts and bruises.
“Randy, what happened to you?” Twilight asked in concern.
“Have you ever tried running with these legs?” Randy said with a chuckle, not even trying to contain his excitement, “Have you looked through your telescope recently?”
“No. Why?” Twilight asked. Randy gave her the coordinates. She pointed her telescope in that direction and saw something she remembered seeing four years ago, “They‘ve come to get you! You’re going home!”
The joy of the news quickly began to fade as the realization sunk in. He was going to leave what has been his home for over four years.
“If I know GSA, they’ll probably want to stay for a while to do their own research,” Randy said, “So it’s a fair assumption that I’ll still be here for a little while longer.”
“In other words, it’s just delaying the inevitable,” Twilight sighed.
Captain’s Log: Marshall Bennett
March 20th, 2262 @ 07:38 GMT
The team of four representatives going down to the surface will be boarding one of the two transport vehicles. I’ll be seeing them off at 08:00 hours. They’ll be taking the Blue Pegasus down to the surface. The second transport, the Black Griffon, will stay here in case something goes wrong and we have to assist the ground team.
The ground team will be made up of our head scientist and linguist, and representative of the European Union, Erica Dean, our head medical specialist and technician, and representative of Australia, Troy Storey, the scientist and head of the team who developed the prototype for the new communication system, and representative of the United Kingdom, Trisha Powell, and the fourth… the philosopher, and representative of the American Union, Alec Willey. Personally, I don’t think we should have someone who has a profession of having their head in the clouds. [EDIT: LAST SENTENCE DELETED]
I’ll save my personal opinions on the matter for my personal log. For now, it’s time for me to see the ground team off, so I must go now.
[END LOG]
Blue Pegasus Video Log/Transcription: Descent
March 20th, 2262 @ 08:07 GMT
[INITIATING VIDEO FEED]
(Troy) “Is everyone strapped in?”
(Erica) “Yes.”
(Alec) “Yeah.”
(Trish) “Ay, captain!”
(Alec) “This isn’t Star Trek, Trish.”
(Trish) “I know. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with it.”
(Alec) “Well, at least Troy would make a better captain than the one on the Arrow.”
[SYSTEMS CHECK…]
(Erica) “There’s no need to be disrespectful.”
(Alec) “Tell that to him.”
[SYSTEMS CHECK = PASSED]
[AUTOMATED SYSTEMS CHECK…]
(Alec) “I wouldn’t call ignoring the existence of a crew member as ‘respect’.”
(Erica) “He’s only showing you the same respect you’re showing him. He’s the commanding officer of this mission, therefore he deserves our respect.”
(Alec) “Respect is earned, not given. One’s rank doesn’t ‘earn’ respect. Besides, I’m not the one who started it. I never gave him any reason to treat me no better than a piece of luggage.”
[AUTOMATED SYSTEMS CHECK = PASSED]
[SYSTEMS READY]
[INITIATING LAUNCHING SEQUENCE]
(Alec) “In fact, how many orders have you gotten from him that came straight from him, and how many have you gotten that you heard through someone else?! Because I’ll bet the ratios you give are higher than mine!”
(Erica) “Alec…”
(Alec) “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if, in his logs, he refers to this as being a team of three plus one piece of cargo! AND GUESS WHO’S THE CARGO!”
[LAUNCHING SEQUENCE = SUCCESSFUL]
(Erica) “Alec, calm dow-”
(Alec) “DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I AM SICK AND TIRED OF BEING TREATED LIKE-”
(Erica) “TROY NEEDS TO FOCUS! AND HE CAN’T WITH YOU SHOUTING IN HIS EAR!
(Alec) …
(Erica) “If you need to vent your frustrations, do it after we land on the surface where we don’t have to worry about someone focusing on the ship’s systems.”
(Alec) …
[BLUE PEGASUS’ DEPARTURE FROM ARROW 19 = SUCCESSFUL]
(Troy) “Alec, take a few deep breaths and cool down a little. One of the reasons you were chosen for this mission was because of your ability to use rational thinking to override emotional irrationality.”
(Alec) *slow deep breathing*
(Trish) “Are you feeling better, Alec?”
(Alec) …
(Trish) “Alec?”
(Alec) …
(Troy) “Let him be for now. It’s how he calms down, by becoming unresponsive. For him, it’s kind of like a meditative state.”
[INITIATING ORBITAL DESCENT]
(Alec) …
(Trish) …
(Erica) …
(Troy) …
(Trish) “If the Blue Pegasus has an automated system, then why do we need a pilot?”
(Alec) … “The automated system can act as an autopilot and make calculations and adjustments to compensate for human error. But it’d be foolish to put the lives of people in the trust of an AI without someone there to monitor the system. And if something were to go wrong with the automated system, we’d need a pilot to fly the Blue Pegasus to safety. In short, no matter how sophisticated an AI is, it will never truly be able to replicate human intuition.”
(Erica) “That’s another reason for him being chosen on this mission. His understanding and ability to research what he’s getting involved in.”
(Trish) “Wow! What else do you know about the Blue Pegasus?”
(Alec) …
(Troy) “You should take that as a compliment. Alec chose to answer your question before he was finished cooling down. That’s not something he’ll do with just anybody.”
(Trish) “Oh, okay…I think.”
(Alec) …
(Troy) …
(Erica) …
(Trish) …
(Alec) *laughing*
[ENTERING EQUUS’ ATMOSPHERE]
[EXPERIENCING HIGH TURBULENCE]
[VIDEO FEED INTERRUPTED]
…
…
…
[ATMOSPHERE SUCCESSFULLY ENTERED]
[HIGH TURBULENCE ENDED]
[VIDEO FEED RESTORED]
(Erica) “…were having a mental breakdown or something!”
(Troy) “I think when Trish asked that question, the shift in the topic was so jarring that his frustration was just gone.”
[INITIATING ATMOSPHERIC DESCENT]
(Troy) “Coupled with the fact that he tends to feel good after venting like that…”
(Trish) “He couldn’t help but laugh.”
(Alec) “I’m sorry if I worried you, Erica. It’s just when Trish changed the topic without any warning whatsoever, I just thought it was so random.”
(Erica) “Well, at least you’re back in a good mood.”
(Alec) *typing on a computer screen*
(Trish) “What are you doing?”
[SYSTEM NAVIGATION ACCESSED]
(Alec) “I’m accessing the ship’s navigational systems.”
(Erica) “You’re WHAT?! You don’t have authorization to-”
(Alec) “The ship is programmed to land near the capital city. But I don’t believe that’s the wisest choice. I believe the best option is to land near where the Ravenstar originally landed. They would be more familiar with what to expect. Besides, the capital city is still within travel distance.”
[WARNING: NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN ALTERED]
(Alec) “There, the automated system should guide us to the original landing site.”
(Erica) “You know GSA won’t be pleased with you messing with the ship’s programming like that, right?”
(Trish) “Aren’t you the one who said that the reason Alec was chosen was because of his ability to study what he was getting into? He got into the Blue Pegasus, so he must have studied its systems, including how to access and modify them.”
(Alec) “And even if the higher-ups are displeased with what I did, I think they would agree that the ends justify the means in this case. And it’s not like I’m causing damage. After all, they’ll understand my reasoning once they watch this video themselves.”
(Erica) “What video?”
(Alec) “You mean you didn’t know we were being recorded? I personally took notice of the camera over there as we came in. *points to the camera* I’m sure that it’s just for monitoring descent and ascent procedures though, to make sure that everything went smoothly, and learn from mistakes made if things didn’t go smoothly. *looks towards the camera* That is only what it’s used for, right?”
(Erica) “And what if they’re used for more than that?”
(Trish) “Then he’ll do what he did with the navigational systems.”
(Alec) “You’re a fast learner.”
(Troy) “That’s one of the reasons she was chosen.”
[APPROACHING DESIGNATED COORDINATES]
[INITIATING LANDING SEQUENCE]
(Troy) “Everyone, brace for impact!”
(Alec) …
(Trish) …
(Erica) …
(Troy) …
[LANDING SEQUENCE = SUCCESSFUL]
=WELCOME TO EQUUS, TERRA SQUAD=
(Erica) “I wasn’t expecting a greeting. And why wasn’t I informed of the name Terra Squad?”
(Troy) “Because there wasn’t a greeting, and we weren’t designated as Terra Squad?”
(Troy)(Erica) *looks towards Alec*
(Alec) *grinning smugly* “I thought we deserved a title with a little more flare than “ground team”. And don’t tell me you don’t think it sounds good. And it’s generally the same thing. Terra means ground, and squad means team. If GSA has a problem with it, then they can speak to me directly.”
(Trish) “I like it!”
[END VIDEO FEED]