.:Where True-Self Lies:.

[harbors_madness]

The large ship floated in near silent running around the furthest moon of the Sha'Kwai system. Its design might have been familiar, in the details, but the general shape of it was not the tentacled monster that had destroyed Vulcan months and months ago. It was like the tiny child of it, with echoes of the other ships it had consumed since its

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[hart_of_time]

John wasn't sure at first why he'd woken. His circadian rhythm had adapted for the planet's long day, and the sun was still up--by rights, he should have slept a few more hours. He rubbed his eyes, trying to bring himself into focus, and became aware of a new sound. It wasn't the strange little stream-dwelling creatures, or the fairy bears. It was something artificial.

As this fact insinuated itself into his sleep-dazed thoughts, he let out a whoop that sent the fairy bears fluttering from their nest in alarm. His wriststrap was beeping at him! Someone was answering his SOS on the same frequency. He punched a series of buttons, setting it to translating the signal into English, if it could.

[harbors_madness]

There was no translation into English, only a reply in pure digital information. The screen on his wriststrap flickered, and data came up without being requested.

It was reading the device, gathering what information it could from its unshielded systems. Such an odd device, systems of origin unknown.

[hart_of_time]

John stared at the device with narrowed eyes, and gave it a thwap, just to see if that would help. It didn't. "What the frakking fuck?" he demanded of it. That didn't help either.

It didn't seem to be giving him any useful information. Well, at the very least, he knew his signal had been received. Hopefully someone would recognize the SOS for what it was, or at least send someone to investigate its source.

[harbors_madness]

It beeped once, then the screen flickered.

Identification?