Gordon S. McLeod's Blog

>>>>>>>>>>>>> SYSTEM LOG

>>> EVENT: AWK #39874 Prof. Annamarie Manning

>>> MISSION YEAR 500:01:27

>>> CAUSE: ASSIGNED SCHEDULING

>>>>>>>>>>>>> CREW LOG

I knew when I signed on to this mission that I’d be giving up a lot, and I knew I’d be experiencing things nobody else had ever experienced. Knowing it isn’t at all the same as being ready for it.

It has been five hundred years since my last log entry.

Five hundred years!

I knew it would be five centuries when I went to sleep, but now, standing here,...

This fragment is the first in a series of crew logs I'm writing in support of a larger series of stories all set on a generation starship. It's not part of a short story in itself, though it does introduce some concepts that will appear in the stories of the series.

>>>>>>>>>>>>> SYSTEM LOG

>>> EVENT: AWK #39874 Dr. Laura Candless

>>> MISSION YEAR 378:08:27

>>> CAUSE: INSUFFICIENT TRAINED PERSONNEL

>>>>>>>>>>>>> CREW LOG

Awakened again. It’s so eerie. It feels like I walked these halls a few hours...

“Archerd!” the voice called from farther down the street. He stopped at the sound of his name, startled out of a deep contemplation.

He turned and searched the street with his gaze, quickly spotting the suit-coated figure waving at him from among the crowd. “Maevin!” he called out to the fellow. “There you are! I had just stopped by to call on you,” he continued as they navigated the sidewalks toward each other.

“So I heard, old chap,” the other huffed. “I hurried on to catch you before you got...

Record #012-02-35

Journal of Randal T. Dawson

5th Day After the Fall

Day 5

What am I doing out here?

Seriously, what the hell am I doing out here? The world has gone completely crazy, and I’m out here checking the mains?

I haven’t heard from my family in a week, and all the phone lines to the city are out. There are police out in force, even the military are out and around doing who knows what, and the stories!

I don’t believe even half of ‘em, but whatever it is has to be almost as bad to have thi...

Record #012-02-35

Diary of Rochelle de Meaux

Time Unknown

He paces endlessly, tortured thoughts unknown to those around him. There’s a sense of depth, of hidden darkness that clings to him like a musty shroud. It’s a shroud that billows with impatience, each step casting waves of it out into the night.

Now and then he stops, asks me what I’m doing, why I’m writing, why I keep looking at him. Sometimes he yells, the impatient waves turned to the lashing, crashing of a hurricane.

“Writing,” I tell h...

Record #147-56-91

Internal Security Log

51st Day After the Fall

6:00am Reporting Unit: Pvt. Hicks

All stations reporting all clear.

7:00am Reporting Unit: Pvt. Hicks

Most units reporting all clear. Activity reported by Dawson on the west side. Confirmed remotely. Looks isolated. Walkers moved off after about twenty minutes.

8:00am Reporting Unit: Sgt. Maxwell

Everything’s A-Ok.

9:00am Reporting Unit: Sgt. Maxwell

Everything’s sealed up tight. Hicks said he heard something out in the yard, but my patrol...

Record #147-56-91

Notes From the Body of Unidentified Wanderer

50th Day after the Fall (estimated)

Day 1 - Kicked out of the group today. Fat lot of good it’ll do them to lose me. I was the only one holding them together. Mark my words, they’ll be at each other’s throats within a week, whether they turn or not.

Day 2 - Didn’t make as good time as I’d hoped. Held up by the search for water. Never considered that much before all hell broke loose. Can’t believe how thirsty I get.

Found a clean stream...

Record #168-13-23

Transcript from The Bertrand Jamison Podcast

45th Day after the Fall (estimated)

“Good morning, everyone. All of you who are left, anyway. I can’t believe I still get comments on this, but I swear to you all, I will keep recording and publishing as long as the power and my connection holds out.

If you hear this show, I can’t stress enough how important it is to comment. This living hell we’re experiencing is hard enough to bear without thinking we’re alone. Even if you’re with a...

Record #115-22-00
Transcript from Audio
42nd Day after the Fall (estimated)

[muffled thumping and fumbling]

“Uh, hey. Whoever hears this—if anyone hears—”

“Seriously, Neal? Nobody’s ever going to find this, and if they do, they’ll never play it.”

[additional fumbling and bumping as though someone is trying to turn the recording device off]

“Hey, knock it off! This is important, for like posterity.”

“They won’t have the power to play it! Oh for—fine, whatever. Knock yourself out.”

[footsteps recede, th...

12th Day after the Fall

I think I’m going to be sick.

I’ve felt this way all day, since I saw the other trucks. Or one of them anyway.

I wasn’t supposed to see, and if any of the guards ever reads this, I’m dead, but I don’t think I care anymore.

They tried to be careful, parked the one truck out of sight of all the others. They had screens up to keep us from seeing, but one of the corners was torn and I saw enough.

They had those things in there! I saw my neighbor. The one who’d disappeared. What...