Tags Continued: [Studying you] [Joining the Hivemind] [Eternity of pleasure]

Since the start of interstellar travel in 2097 discoveries were almost constant, the first being an alien species discovered during the first human trial of the Fold-Drive. The year is now 2357 and it has been nearly 40 years since the last discovery of anything biological. This period of time has been dubbed “The Constant Era” as an entire generation of people were able to be educated without new information being added to their fields due to contact with alien races. Though space itself is dangerous the amount of people actually lost to space is relatively low, which is why when multiple ships went missing the recon ship “Valkyrie” was sent to investigate. After two months of silence a single person vessel was close enough to pick up a signal sent in normal space. The speaker identified as private [Redacted] sent this message as a warning. Some parts of the message are unable to be made out due to radiation interfering with the radio waves, this reconstruction is the best we were able to do given the dated form of communication.

“This is Private (unintelligible) of the Valkyrie if by any chance you’re hearing this, stay away. We entered the (unintelligible) sector and located a derelict freighter belonging to the (unintelligible) the ship still had power and their shields were at maximum meaning we couldn’t investigate. It also seems like their fold-communicator was deactivated by unknown means. A scan confirmed that the technology was completely intact, but a strange biomass had taken hold of it. We drifted for a few days following the paths that the missing ships followed, our shields were at maximum and our sensors were constantly monitored, a single atom shouldn’t have been able to move without us knowing about it. (Deep breath) It started 24 hours ago; we lost an entire deck in a single hour. When we went to investigate we found biomass along the walls seemingly leading to ventilation and electrical conduits. No sign of anyone having remained on that deck. It all collapsed after that. This… this biomass… it’s intelligent. It attacked and destroyed anything we could use to repel it. It wasn’t until twelve hours ago that we realized it was purposely avoiding life support, artificial gravity, and organic food replicators, it wanted to keep us alive.

Roughly five hours ago it slowed down, nearly every deck had been taken apart from the bridge and two other decks below us. I, along with the remaining members of the crew began to consider the possibility that there was no going home. That’s when lieutenant Hoffman suddenly snapped and set a course for Earth. The interesting thing is that the biomass destroyed our primary engines but ignored our backup engines. It isn’t until now that I realize that our backup engine technology isn’t on any other vessel type. The implication is that it’s using past knowledge against us and the only way to defeat it is to pit it against an unknown. But at the same time, it also implies that whatever this thing is, it makes a habit out of catching ships and turning them into cages. (Sigh) After the ship started moving the Entity split into two biomass units, one gunned for the backup engines and the other for the bridge. I was lucky enough to be standing near the back of the room when it attacked.

It punched through the plating of the bridge like it was nothing and grabbed Hoffman, dragging him down below. It then spread over the control panels bringing the ship to a stop before the backup engines were completely disabled. The bridge was lost and I… and I fled. (Banging sound, most likely human fist slamming against metal structure) I turned back for a second and I saw… something humanoid. It was female, no doubt about it, but I’ve never seen someone like that. I fled down two more decks and by that time the entire ship was completely overrun. I don’t think they’re killing us. I saw a similar figure grab one of the crewmates who fled with me before dragging them away. I had this theory for a little while.

Why keep the things needed for us to survive if they didn’t need it, unless of course they needed us for something. And then it hit me. If they want to grow their biomass they could simply consume us, but since it’s so rare for vessels to come here would it not be more efficient to simply keep the crewmates, feed them, give them energy, and use what they can spare for biomass?

The crewmate that got grabbed, he’s alive, I have a scanner right by me. They… I don’t think they know I’m here. Nearly every other ship in the Union has gotten rid of old-style communication tech. But… if someone’s close enough to get caught then they’re close enough to get the signal. I don’t like the idea of dying in here so if they don’t kill us… I guess my only options are escape or see what they want with me.

I’m going to head for a shuttle, I disabled the fold-drive to make it appear like old tech. If I can make it to a shuttle and get off the ship I can overload the drive and eject it. The resulting detonation should result in enough speed that I can get somewhere that can pick up my signal before I starve to death. But if you’re hearing this message from an old radio I can only assume that I didn’t make it.

(Banging sound, most likely something large hitting a metal door) Shit! It found me. I’m going to use the vents to get to the hall, if you’re catching this message near the end for the love of whatever god gave you life… stay away.

(Metallic crash followed by static. Message end)”

The Script (4300 words)