Dead Silent Evacuation - Dead Silent Evacuation

Unencrypted Transmission…

*click*

"That's Slick"

Two voices, one follows the other. The first, young and naive, the second old and experienced. The two overlap uncomfortably. It would be as if they are both trying to talk over the other. But for the fact that the elder voice speaks about 1 second delayed.

"Hello This is Commodore Palsey Nelson…"

"Hello This is Commodore Palsey Nelson..."

The second voice sounds more certain more authoritative, but thinking about it, you can't be sure.

"My captains have their orders…"

"This is a warning to other ships…"

"We have encountered what we…."

"Consider to be a 'contagious entity'…"

"This is unprecedented, be aware…"

"Roughly 1/3 who are 'infected' demand…"

"Termination or similar when lucid. The other…"

"2/3 have high odds of becoming…"

"Unsalvageable vegetatives…"

"There is a slight chance of death though we suspect complications…"

"There is a slight chance of death though we suspect complications…

"Only one known subject is currently affected…"

"However it is highly likely the…"

"Capabilities of the entity are not fully realized…"

"We are attempting to contain the spread…."

"Data is being transferred. Captains be aware…"

"This entity may have the ability to transfer…"

"Itself by way of data, transmissions, and perception…"

"We are attempting a dead silent evacuation…"

"I trust you know what that entails…"

Decrypted attachments…

First contact

Medical Exam

Quarantine

Rapid Escalation

Conclusion

First Contact

First contact was made approximately 2 and a quarter hours after scanning a derelict commercial sleeping vessel that appears to have suffered from both it's main crew member and the backup suffering a heart attack or similar fatal health emergency. A statistically significant freak accident that is normally avoided by civilian interests capable of getting the credentials to fly. Orders were given to salvage the ship, and to recover the crew. One crew member found dead, records of the other leaving the vessel were found. They would have left 2 years ago, the odds they survived were so low that they were written off. That was before we found that they had left without supplies.

First contact was made by a crew member in signals as one of their neighboring crew members became catatonic at the seat.

Medics were notified immediately and patient zero was in the hands of the ship doctors in under 5 minutes, stabilizing patient zero. While medically patient zero was not in any danger, provided a modern hospital bed was nearby, the doctors were unable to identify a reason for patient zero's sudden catatonic state.

Medical exam.

It could be agreed that patient zero's heart, breathing, nervous system and brain function had all ceased. In legal cases this is sometimes considered "Death." Not in our case however, as doctors could not identify a reason, trauma or other permanently debilitating reality in patient zero. Patient zero, aside from sudden and total brain death, was completely healthy. The subject was young, fit, and as of their last work shift as mentally fit as any could tell. It is lucky that our medical resources were at relative ease for in the legal sense, patient zero was dead and no longer had any rights to be serviced. Instead, roughly 34 hours after first contact, patient zero recovered completely and had returned to regular duty as if nothing had happened. The brain was off in during hour 28 and fully functioning during hour 30 as if a machine. Patient zero would be the only patient to recover completely. Some doctors dispute that patient zero can genuinely be considered patient zero as such would assume that the temporary brain death of patient zero is a significant departure from the symptoms of other patients, who all had, according to sensors "Normal brain activity." This is pedantic and will not be reflected on aside from the possibility that patient zero was afflicted by an unrelated phenomenon.

Patient 1 was a cook and was brought in due to what was initially believed to be a stroke 29 hours and 41 minutes after first contact. At the time it seemed a freak accident, two crew with uncharacteristic and sudden malfunctions of the brain, it was not yet a pattern. The subject was young as was patient zero, but was somewhat less healthy, a minor legal drug addiction, barely meeting minimum crew physical requirements, nothing serious as far as health goes. Nothing a doctor has not sent home untreated in the civilian world. Again, the brain scans and symptom hunters could not find a solid reason for the "malfunctions." Sure it was obvious that patient 1 was suffering from what may been lingering epileptic fit after an apparent seizure. According to the doctors that must have been an entirely willful and mentally fit rejection of the physical body.

Such an idea was nonsense, patient 1 was a danger to themselves and others, behaving as if they were completely oblivious to physical reality. It is unheard of that willful entities are so self destructive outside the abuse of chemical or mental balances. Medical records highlight an instance in which patient 1 grabbed at and tightly held in hand phlebotomy needles. Crushing the narrow metal and glass to splinters within their hand. Again a few hours later patient 1 began attempting to chew the same hand off at the wrist. For the duration, patient 1 could not speak, and didn't respond to reaction stimuli. Notably patient 1 did react to stimuli though reactions were limited to basic visual object tracking, triangulation of sound, licking, sniffing, grabbing, biting, pointing and touching. Patient 1 rapidly improved in their condition over roughly about 3 hours.

33 hours and 3 minutes after first contact. Patient 1 was about to be released with patient 0 however the improvement stopped after patient 1 was confirmed to be able to understand instructions. Patient 1, though otherwise healthy before "Infection" is as of now, unable to speak or write and seems to suffer from some form of dementia. They are capable of fulfilling basic functions such as eating with utensils, getting dressed, or visiting the restroom. Indeed they can still cook food well enough and preform habitual hygienic rituals when doing so. However complicated instructions are ignored and patient 1 must be monitored to make sure they do not wander and act with apparent aimless abandon.

Patient 2 was a welder and was found slumped over a burning hot railing at 32 hours and 47 minutes. They had been replacing a worn railing along a staircase and were found such that prolonged contact had resulted in third degree burns across the midsection. The welder had welded itself to the railing and was hot when found. It was likely patient 2 had become afflicted at least a few minutes prior to being found and had collapsed. Patient 2 had apparently become paralyzed from the neck down. Eye tracking and facial reactions were mostly normal with a few notable exceptions.

1 - Human eye tracking tends to favor certain actions, shapes and colors. Patient 2 did not follow established norms. Particularly patient 2 tracked motion or change above all else.

2 - Patient 2 could be registered as experiencing disgust, however the reactions were different than human.

3 - Patient 2 appeared unable to take action to protect their own senses. Failing to blink in bright light and failing to react to sudden noises.

4 - Patient 2 was recorded multiple times apparently attempting to speak. Normally this resulted in a bit tongue or lip, some following recordings are available.

Recordings. 1 : "AAAAAAANNNNNAANNNNNNANNNNNNTTHHH" 2 : "OOOOOORAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNDDDDDD" 3 : "EEEENN" 4 : "EEEEEHHHHHHNN" 5 "WAAHHHHHENNEENEEE"

Patient 2 again, showed no signs of injury aside from the rather major burns sustained when found. Their apparent paralysis held them in less danger than patient 1. Patient 2 remained in this state for roughly 2 days. Doctors were instructed to take their time and focus on identifying the differences between patient 2 and the normal human, it had appeared that patient 2 had suffered a unique form of stroke, initial theories revolved around an accidental shocking during welding that had damaged the nervous system in novel ways. This theory was not altogether dropped as alternatives seemed even more unlikely.

At 75 hours and 1 minute patient 2 regained control of their body for less than 2 minutes and was recorded as follows.

"KILL IT KILL IT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT LET IT SEE DO NOT LET IT OUT DO NOT LET KEEP ME IN DARK DARK DARK DARK ROOM AND TIE IT UP SUFFOCATE IT KILL IT DO NOT DO BURN BURN IT YES KILL NOT TOLERATE EXTERMINATE IT ME NO YES IT KILL IT ME EVIL EVIL KILL IT DESTROY BODY MIND INSIDE OUTSIDE SEEN IT NO PLEASE KEEP IT AWAY DEATH IT GO AWAY GO GO GO GO DO NOT STAY DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT! DOOOOHHHHNNNEEEEEEeeeeeeeee…."

The recording was accompanied by wild gesticulations and pointing to themselves to be observed in these two videos (medical and security records show the same footage from different angles.)

Doctors were shocked to discover this information and initially had presumed that the recording was some hoax. Computer analysis shows the recording is not computer generated and security footage/recording matches the transcript reported in medical. The voice is a high probability match to patient 2 and the ship computer reports an "agitation event" at the same time and location as patient 2 at the time of this recording. At 79 hours and 30 minutes patient 2 had recovered to the point where doctors saw fit to release them. Patient 2 had apparently developed a limp and a speech impediment during this time. Doctors felt confident that these two afflictions were going to be treatable, perhaps even fully cured. If there were further complications in Patient 2 they were unidentified and may indicate faulty equipment or software.

Patient 2 was discovered 81 hours and 17 minutes after first contact having electrically fried themselves to death grabbing a high voltage cable in the equipment warehouse. This is the first time a patient commits suicide.

In hindsight it can be confirmed that at 75 hours and 1 minute the ship had passed through a radiation field kicked up by a solar flare from the nearest star. This is our only indication of the failure of the entity/disease. We regret to have had little chance to test x-ray emitters or higher caliber emitters around subjects. No doubt the doctors will throw a fit if you suggest this as the foreign agent is not directly deadly. Henceforth the event that occurred 75 hours and 1 minute after first contact will be referred to as "Solar Event #1." Patient 2's autopsy showed nothing abnormal aside from slightly higher amounts of consumer grade painkillers than is recommended. Which itself is not particularly abnormal in a suicide.

Quarantine,

It is unlikely that Patient 3 would have been treated the way they had if Patient 2 had been quarantined. Patient 2 had been kept in a medical bed like any other. When solar event 1 occurred the medical wing was occupied by 2 nurses, 3 Patients (including patient 2) and a janitor. The news spread across the ship within the hour. Officers wanted to arrest the nurses and janitor assuming them to have conspired to create a story. To their chagrin doctors and security had recordings that indicated the innocence of the gossips. Chief of medical security pushed to charge them anyway for "Spreading harmful rumors during emergency." However Chief of security threw this charge out citing "No emergency outside the imagination of the medical wing." To find Patient 2 dead of suicide not a few hours later threw the crew into an uproar. So many movies and video games about aliens and parasites have ruined us as a population, for reasons many will consider irrational and can only be justified as unprecedented. An emergency was declared. Crew were placed on gag orders at precisely 83 hours following first contact. This was done not due to any fear of sickness or disease, but strictly to maintain crew morale. If there is a lesson to officers here, chief of medical security should have waited 30 minutes. Crew are instructed to manage expectations and enjoy fantasy on their own time. I wish there was a better way.

Thusly patient 3 was quarantined roughly 2 hours after having been found. Patient 3 had been found at 80 hours and 20 minutes, they were the NCO in charge of accounting of EVA and personal emergency equipment. They were reported as a sick maintenance worker by chief of supply. Given that this was the 4th crew member who had suffered an apparent failure of the brain, it was concluded with less evidence than is protocol, that there was a serious disease aboard the ship. Patient zero was identified and quarantined, as was patient 1, patient 2 was ordered to autopsy.

While patient 3 collapsed they did subsequently attempt to rise many times. Eventually, at roughly 89 hours it was reported that they had successfully managed to correctly stand, however walking was another large problem and the patient had to be restrained before they injured themselves any more than they already had in the last 9 hours.

Patient 3 seemed to realize slowly, that they were restrained and quit trying to move what they could not. Instead sticking to fingers, and facial movements. Eventually managing to yell and finally requiring total confinement and sedation as patient 3 quickly wore out their vocal cords, chewed up their lips, and managed to cut their palms with fingernails. It should be noted that sedation did not fully sedate patient 3, in fact it may have complicated resolving symptoms. Upon reawakening patient 3's eyes could not focus and their motions remained uncoordinated as if they remained under the influence of mild sedation. When patient 3 bit part of their tongue off it was concluded that patient 3 could not be left unattended. Gags were considered, but doctors suggested that some level of healthy motion or physical therapy be permitted, instead, Multiple aids whose only job was to prevent patient 3 from hurting themselves during attempted walking and vocallizing. (Patient 3 had learned not to yell) reported that patient 3 would frequently collapse onto the floor and begin sobbing uncontrollably. Most doctors dismiss this as "the unprofessional romanticization of symptoms." Instead the doctors claim "Patient 3 is physically worn down from the physical exertion of being unable to rest."

At this stage it should probably be considered what doctors had concluded by 100 hours. Commodore had demanded updates "Every 100 hours in the event the Disease had a new patient." So far the cause of the disease is unknown. Potential scenarios and mandatory guidance at this time is as follows.

1 - A hacking attempt coupled with some other event (causing the machines to fail to detect the real afflictions of our patients)

2 - An advanced and apparently self destructive mutiny, considered to be some sort of protest.

3 - A new designer drug's intense side effects

4 - Unprecedented symptoms of fatigue and freak accidents.

5 - Unprecedented electrical socks rendering the nervous system ineffective.

6 - Unprecedented technical equipment poorly hijacking the brain of selected crew members.

7 - Physical disconnection, or faulty connection of the nervous system from the brain.

8 - Infection by an unknown and extremely stealthy pathogen

If each one of these seems more bizarre and outlandish than the last that is because it is. What is known is that each patient was at work when they became ill.

1 - Should be able to be completely ruled out as non-computerized records of symptoms exist. One security member suggested that a properly implanted neural chip may be able to mimic the symptoms, however such a scenario would not be considered a "hack" but #6, unprecedented technical equipment.

Scenario 1: Low Risk, High Impact.

2 - Is potentially possible, but it would require some aid of some sort. Either a powerful disruption of the brain, which is considered possible with drugs or electromagnetic fields. However, most doctors that supply this theory also suggest that patient 0 was a completely separate issue. No doctors have been able to correctly identify a chemical in the system of patients with this disorder. Moreover security cannot identify any potential source of chemicals or radiation capable of producing such effects. Officers suggest also that a mutiny would not be well considered by the crew and therefore unlikely. If a minority among the crew considered mutiny of this sort there would likely be a difference in behavior by the rest of the crew.

Scenario 2: Low Risk, Moderate Impact.

3 - Goes hand in hand with 2, though it is considered more likely, this ship has never had any record of drug use, but it is not unheard of for space crews to bootleg their own drugs. Though if these patients have been using drugs, it is completely invisible to our scanners. So far, low quality but potent drugs are the most likely scenario, however officers were instructed not to act openly on this information as the main risk of this entire event is crew panic. If this is true, it is likely rouge crew member/s drugging their peers as only one crew member at a time is afflicted. Such a clandestine operation would have to be clandestinely monitored and defeated. They would likely have a mole in security covering tracks as reviewing patient activities on ship yields no current positively identified drug drops or poisonings.

Scenario 3: Moderate Risk, Moderate Impact, Investigate.

4 - As far as odds go, this is not unlikely. Certainly not when compared to "Twisted chemical savant serial killer" "Undetected Brainchips" "WiFi mind control" "Naval ship's medical equipment taken hostage by hacker 50 light years away" "Zombie pandemic" or. "Fight club space navy edition" However, writing this off as a freak accident fails to do proper diligence when investigating this matter.

Scenario 4: Forbidden until further notice.

5 - Even less likely than 4, it makes the list because it is considered infeasible that a crew member would be able to be isolated from electrical systems.

Scenario 5: Lowest priority, potential nonsense.

6 - If this is happening the hijacker is on this ship, or perhaps the nearby ship we recently just scanned. We wouldn't know how they had managed.

Scenario 6: Low risk, High impact. Investigate.

7 - This is a technical bullet supplied by a doctor, since it doesn't discuss cause and only a symptom it can be ignored.

Scenario 7: Lowest priority.

8 - Would be very odd, as the pathogen would have to select only one person to afflict. Perhaps we all have it and it is simply activated by some stimuli we have not realized. Such a sickness would likely be engineered, a bioweapon would fall under condition 6.

Scenario 8: Low risk, High Impact.

To summarize, in order of things to investigate.

Highest Priority. Task 3: Determine if there is some chemical or electromagnetic aid being used by the victims of this disorder. Identify the crew responsible. Prevent such use aboard the vessel.

Moderate Priority. Task 6 or 8, Isolate the common factor between patients, presumably there is some clandestine relationship between them and the symptoms, if the symptoms are indeed not random.

Low priority. Task 2: Identify the grievances of the crew, identify also how they are controlling these symptoms.

Anti-priority. Task 1, Task 4, and task 7: DO NOT (NEGATIVE) attempt to find faulty hardware, assign relevant cases to a resolved state, or invent new ways to describe this phenomenon. The patients are debilitatingly sick, and for all we care, that's all they are right now.

Repeat,

Identify potential causes for the state of the patients.

Identify key similarities and behaviors prior to "infection" between patients.

Identify grievances or disgruntlement among crew

DO NOT

Attempt to repair, alter, replace or audit hardware for the purpose of solving these cases.

Invent new ways to describe what is going on.

Write this off as a freak occurrence.

This is a real, and dangerous phenomenon, crew panic, while undesirable is not psychosis or informed by delusion.

Patient 3 nearly died about 47 hours after quarantine from a sudden inability to breathe. The doctors were forced to administer mechanical breathing aids. Soon after, patient 3 appears to have died, complications are unclear, doctors found no reason why patient 3 died, only reporting that the brain appears to have stopped shortly after the breathing stopped, despite oxygenated blood reaching the brain. Patient 3 was rendered 'living' the same way patient 0 was. Doctors remained hopeful that patient 3 may recover, semi-miraculously, as had patient 0. However, as of yet, this has not happened, the body, or cadaver, or otherwise has developed enough complications that we are now comfortable saying with certainty that patient 3 is absolutely dead.

Given the nature of each 'infection' occurring back to back, the whole ship was under heavy scrutiny. Though for 71 hours, no patient revealed itself. Nearly nothing of note seemed to occur at this point in the voyage. Salvage operations had been completed and the ship, a glorified survey craft, was ready to return to civilization. Under quarantine, it was requested to remain at large, well away from civilization. An uneasy crew was obedient, quiet, and furtive. During the break the ships record for power outage, recovery was set, one of the fuel rods being loaded improperly and on orders given by mistake. The relevant parties in question, were concluded to be victims of the stress of the quarantine. The second report to the commodore, remained nearly identical to the first.

Patient 4 is the only patient with a crew account of the infection.

"You have me on record as [Redacted Identity]. Yea we are techs who worked on the deconstruction of the other vessel. I guess you could say we are the grunts, we do the work that everyone else says needs doing. No worries about what we want. Yea you pay us not to think I think. Anyways, we had been hearing these thumps and pops outside the ship for the last day or so. Officers said it must be "thermal expansion" I don't know maybe it was, this star's an odd one. But those sounds weren't normal. Especially the night it happened. Uncanny is what it was, sounded like a spaceman was walking around outside our vessel. Frequency sounded like footsteps see maybe someone who walked a little slow, but we could call them footsteps and you would know what we were talking about. So anyway, here we are talking about what the hell those were in the last hour before we slept in our bunks. Then we get quiet all at the same time. We can hear those 'steps' on the outside of our ship get closer and closer and closer. It's not rational, but animal you know, when it sounds like something is approaching you. It got louder and louder until it was right above us, right on the other side of that metal sheet system we call the hull. Then it stopped. There we are all silent, laying down in our bunks, wondering why we were the lucky ones. Then one if us, [Redacted Identity and detials] starts screaming like they were shot. We don't know what's going on but we all get up to see what the hell happened to [them]. We can't see anything wrong, just looks like the poor soul has lost [thier] mind, screaming, then as we all gather to look at them, completely silent and unresponsive. Just as one of us remembers that the sickness is going around [they] says 'Hey, shouldn't we get [them] to quarantine?' To which our patient and former crew member replies 'Hey, shouldn't we get [them] to quarantine?' Spooked us to hell and back. 'You're joking right? [redacted]' sure enough 'You're joking right? [redacted]. It wasn't funny, we got that sorry sack straight to medical and asked if we could quarantine ourselves as well. We hoped it was all a bad dream, it's unnatural is what it was. And yea, the doctors tell us that this event is the only one that didn't happen during work hours."

Patient 4 didn't attempt locomotion or manipulation of objects like patient 3, instead patient 4 repeated like an annoying child, everything every voice said within earshot and a few things that were not. Patient 4 was somehow, an avid lip reader and would repeat statements seen, not heard. Patient 4 had no prior record of such an ability. Patient 4's accuracy and success rate were generally unheard of for non-computerized systems, such as a base human. At first there was a comfortable 3-5 second delay between message and repeated message, but by the time patient 4 became dehydrated about 14 hours later the delay had become only .5 seconds. At this point the delay remained steady. Patient 4, if able to read, made not indication of being able to do so. All messages had to be uttered by a human in order to be worthy of being repeated. Recordings and computerized messages were likewise ignored. Doctors attempted to find limits to patient 4's newfound skills, and were unable to find any that were not already mentioned. Patient 4 would repeat every perceived message, no matter how long. The shortness of messages was another matter, Patient 4 appeared unaware of body language and would ignore single syllables, expletives or gestures. At this point it should be obvious that whatever we are dealing with, is capable of at least basic intelligent filtering. So what was previously considered only a sickness, was upgraded to a new threat. That is whatever we are dealing with is an unprecedented "Intelligent pathogen" previously thought only to exist in the realm of computers and by the design of some sophisticated computer user. Most salacious however is the admittedly dubious report from the crew, that they heard "footsteps" outside the ship.

EVA is tracked by suit sensors, not by any ship born audio or visual sensors. So there isn't any good way to computationally validate the claims of the crew members. Officers suggested pulling the data from intercoms near the event, A scream matching the report from the crew can be identified on one of the intercom records. Unfortunately voice filtering software that is often necessary in loud portions of the ship, has filtered from the recordings any odd noises. Given the ship is out of port, and far away from any potential non-crew sabotage, the raw data was automatically deleted to save space for potential combat data, as per doctrine. Precedent states that the crew are to be believed in this report, however, to do so would indicate the ship is in combat as there would apparently be an external saboteur. The only reasonable saboteurs would be rival polities, which as of now are not understood to have the engines or technology capable of reaching this star without our knowledge or even before we arrived. Moreover there has been no report or record of a ship or saboteur vessel or pod moving around this system. If so this is an impressive development of capability and a plausible case for its use as the odds that captains, or command structures take this report as seriously as this potential scenario demands is not as certain as shall be said.

The only possible saboteur given all of what is understood and known, is the missing crew member on the abandoned vessel. It wouldn't make sense how they had lived, but if in some freak occurrence they had, or if they had maliciously programmed some machine, then such a walking saboteur on the surface of our ship may indeed be possible. How this machine or still living dead can somehow 'possess' our crew remains a mystery.

Even then, the odds that the crew are simply mistaken, or lying, is significant, protocol demands that command believe them. As such a security team was sent on EVA to look for damages to the external hull of the ship. None were found, no body was found, no machine was found. The crew, while officially the authority of the event, have appeared to have perceived a ghost. Officers do report that the crew had complained about the thumps or "Footsteps" at least once before. Notably a workshift before patient 4 was found. This indicates that there likely was a saboteur, or that the crew are mistaken, not lying. There is notable disagreement among officers over the responsibility to report and investigate odd and unspecified noises reported by crew. The ship is often loud and unexpected noises are not uncommon. The escalation from quarantine to combat, very uncommon.

Rapid escalation.

Patient 5 was the doctor tending to patient 4, 18 hours after patient 4 was quarantined. Patient 5 was apprehended disobeying orders and releasing those quarantined. Patient 5 was identified because patient 5 appeared incapable of following simple instructions and also, because patient 5 mimicked all spoken communication as had patient 4. Patient 4 was discovered in a vegetative state only moaning incoherent responses to query. Patient 4 perceives stimuli normally but appears to have lost the ability to render viable communication. They do not willingly move though are not paralyzed. Notably patient 4 did attempt multiple times to quit breathing, passing out and reverting to reactionary breathing.

Patient 5 is the first patient to directly try to sabotage or otherwise challenge the authority of the ship. Their "infection" lasted only 3 hours before one of the security now tasked with preventing the 'un-quarentining' of patients was "infected" leaving patient 5 to start screaming incoherently and behaving in self destructive manners.

Patient 6, a security guard, calmly walked to the bridge. They were unidentified as a patient until stopped by the bridge guard. Patient 6 was reported to say "Leave the ship, leave us behind, minimize damages, the more it knows the less chance you have."

Patient 6 collapsed when identified about 10 minutes after leaving their post at medical. Patient 6 is fully capable of speaking and talking though they are paralyzed at this point in time. Patient 6 seems to have been fully converted from an otherwise normal and secular individual into a doomsayer and simply issues warnings to all who shall listen or attempt communication "Abandon ship" "We are already dead" "It has you where it wants you" "Lay down and die so it may not know you." Etc… etc…

Patient 7, is controversially, not a patient as they died before any diagnosis was passed. They were an ensign at the bridge navigation computers. They ripped a monitor off the wall and in about 5 seconds had, using a standard issue pocket knife, tore into high voltage power cables in an apparent suicide attempt. A senior officer restrained them.

Patient 7 then began uncontrollably blubbering repeated messages through tears. The recording is as follows.

"What the Hell Ensign!"

"W…what the h..hee..hell Engin."

"What? You actively destroying navy property!"

"W…wwwhaaat? Yyyoo are aactiiive ly dee stroooyidng navee proper tee!"

"Holy… you're sick aren't you?"

"Hhholy you're sick arn..not you."

"Snap out of it!" *Slap*

"Shoooot me, plleassee! Kill it!"

"Absolutely not. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Patient 7's heart did stop beating some time after the event. But before admission to the medical bay.

The ship was placed at battle stations as it became the opinion of our senior staff that that our 'entity' was malicious and in fact existed. An electrician was summoned to the bridge to analyze the damage done by the ensign. Further patients have not been identified at this time, Be aware, that though only one patient at a time has been identified the full capabilities of this entity are unknown.

At this point roughly 219 hours after first contact. The ship, seemingly with a mind of its own, began to navigate to away from the star to the cold dark reaches of the outer solar system. Engineering was forced to shut down reactors to regain control of the ship, it now drifts on emergency power as engineering seeks to bootstrap a makeshift engine of some sort. Importantly it is to be disconnected from the primary systems of the ship, as such seem to have been compromised by this entity not yet identified. The crew are scrambling to support them.

Conclusion

I am commodore Palsy Nelnolian and sit now in my cabin, my adjutant has been locked in my clothing cabinet as they are "infected." Worryingly they now proceed anything I may choose to say, making it appear as if I am repeating what they are saying, instead of they predicting with terrifying reliability what I shall say. It is 221 hours after first contact. This ship is combat ineffective, I speculate our enemy is malicious in ways we struggle to comprehend. I do not know why ex-patients are so demoralized, but I suspect the entity intendeds such. I will transmit this message at 222 hours after first contact, to my crew, and to whoever receives this. If at 224 hours there is no improvement in the situation, I will conclude the ship is completely lost, and attempt to fly close to the sun as it would appear that our adversary wishes to be further away from it. If necessary to defeat the entity I would fly into the sun. If it wasn't clear, our silent evacuation is likely from this mortal plane. If we cannot regain control of the ship, and that is likely I think. I must order the slaughter of my crew and myself. I pray that my fellow crew members have the guts to follow through.

It seems likely that our adversary is capable of taking our own, that is what we normally consider an individual. Prisoner within our own spaces, it is not simply my opinion that we are better dead than prisoner. I plan on transmitting recordings and ship logs. This is my last encrypted message. Every subsequent order, sos, and document shall be broadcast to anyone who will hear it as a warning. If our entity can transmit itself via my messages, you will know what to do, If It cannot, we have learned a valuable lesson regarding it. We are in distress, and we hope that you stay away. I don't know what this entity is, but it eludes observation, it eludes detection and it eludes defeat. I hope we can learn more about it before it learns more about us.

Good luck captain, I pray it hasn't hitched a ride in the encrypted data I send you.

Chapter 1 - Dead Silent Evacuation