∞ 00 00 ∞

[cruciblemods]

[a long, shrill whine of static, a burst of sharp white noise, and then--]

--ander Orion. I repeat, this is Commander Orion. If anyone can hear me, please respond. This channel is secure and is not monitored by the captain.

I'll say again, if there's anyone out there that can hear me, please respond. I'll remain on this line as long as I can.

Comments

[by_my_will]

Commander? I have received your signal. There are still people on this vessel.

[cruciblemods]

Acknowledged.

Do you know how many?

[by_my_will]

There seems to be somewhere between sixty to seventy people from what I've observed.

[cruciblemods]

So all of you still on the ship agree on that number? How long have you been on the ship?

[by_my_will]

It's been... [frowns in thought, how to explain this one]

Commander, what do you know of black holes?

[cruciblemods]

If you're going to tell me that the ship entered a black hole, that's very much impossible. The ship wouldn't still be here if it had.

[by_my_will]

[Uh-oh, personality switch]

Oh, you think so? I would have thought the same, myself. But it seems there's an interesting little time anomaly at work that's keeping us cycling through again and again. You see, I've seen you on the network before, dear Commander~. And you've tried several times now to rescue the passengers on this vessel... each time with a spectacular level of failure.

Are you going to fail again? or can we expect to be rescued this time through?

[cruciblemods]

With the lives of my crew and the passengers at stake, failure is not an option.

In which case, you'll have to understand that the lives of the people already off the ship come first.

[by_my_will]

Interesting. Were there people on board that we weren't aware of? Because, from what I can tell... no one's left.

[cruciblemods]

There were previously, before we evacuated. If you were among them you would already know then numbers.

[by_my_will]

Interesting... there's been no evacuation since the last reset.

[cruciblemods]

If you mean before the time loop, I have yet to receive or postulate an adequate explanation for how that can be happening.

But all previous occupants of the ship that were still alive, excluding the captain, are currently on the auxiliary and escape vessels.

[by_my_will]

Will the Captain be going down with his ship?

[cruciblemods]

...that's for him to decide.