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<<replace "#header-text">><<include "header-text">><</replace>><script>var myDiv = document.getElementById('passages');
myDiv.scrollTop = 0;</script><<link '<div class="menu-item"><b>00</b> saves</div>'>><<script>>UI.saves()<</script>><</link>>
<<link '<div class="menu-item"><b>01</b> settings</div>'>><<script>>UI.settings()<</script>><</link>>N Y X<<set $cycle to " ">><style>
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<h1>N Y X</h1>
<b><<link "PLAY" "start transmission">><</link>> | | <<link "SETTINGS">><<run UI.settings()>><</link>></b><style>
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<h1>E N D</h1>
<b><<link "PLAY AGAIN" "start transmission">><</link>> | | <<link "MENU" "mainmenu">><</link>></b><style>
#header {display:none;}
</style>Pale blue dot, remind me, why didn't we send poets?
<<cont append>>Scientists, soldiers, pilots, people of few words -- why didn't we send painters, writers, musicians, why didn't we send anyone capable of humanity?
<<cont append>>Why me? Why me, when the only prayer I know is the astronaut's -- <i>dear God, please don't let me fuck this up</i> -- why me when there's something spiritual about how oxygen reacts upon ignition, stomach lurching backwards, pressed against spine, dreadful exhilaration robbing air from lungs and rattling teeth as higher into the heavens you spiral -- why me?
<<cont append>><<button [[C O N T I N U E|transmission cont]]>><</button>>
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</style>I don't have the words for gazing back at distant home. The others on <<linkappend "this crew">> -- Konstantin sang lullabies for his son when the radio worked, Yang wrote letters to her lover, Doc dreamt of painting, Tomas spoking sparingly but wisely --<</linkappend>> were better suited to this kind of documentation.
<<cont append>>I am the only one left.
<<cont append>>I think that's human, too. Something about a final stand, gazing nobly unto the abyss. Someone better than I would phrase this better, document her final moments with the dignity they deserve. Let me put this in my simple, soldierly way:
<<cont append>>Something wants <i>in</i>.
<<cont append>><<button [[C O N T I N U E|transmission choice]]>><</button>>
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<</cont>>
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</style>It ruined us. First, Dr. Singh -- suicide via airlock. Konstantin and Tomas fought. No survivors: Tomas wanted to let it in, Konstantin didn't. I don't want to think about what's left -- Yang and I fled to the Command Module.
<<cont append>>It knocks, every now and then.
<<cont append>>Sometimes, I look over at Yang's body. Still strapped to the seat, visor down -- hadn't taken off the EVA suit since the knocking started. Can't blame her. Can't blame her for pointing the survival shotgun at herself either. Closed the visor when I was done vomiting -- couldn't risk control damage. I wonder how long she debated it.
<<cont append>>I wonder much longer I'll debate it, the singular choice I've yet to make. The radio is silent.
<<cont append>><<nobr>><div class = choices><ol>
<li><div class = choice-item> [[I'm letting the spacecraft drift.|end adrift]] </div></li>
<li><div class = choice-item> [[I'm turning homeward.|end earth]] </div></li>
<li><div class = choice-item> [[I'm opening the door.|end alien]] </div></li>
</ol></div><</nobr>>
<</cont>>
<</cont>>
<</cont>>
<</cont>><style>
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</style>Please, if you hear this recording, listen:
<<cont append>>Do not open the capsule. I failed. It cost my entire crew -- I'm sorry. It's not human. First contact -- hostile -- has been established. It intends to consume us all. I'm so sorry.
<<cont append>>May God have mercy on our souls.
<<cont append>><<button [[E N D|END]]>><</button>>
<</cont>>
<</cont>>
<</cont>><style>
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</style>To whomever finds us: onboard is the single greatest answer to the only question worth asking. It exists. It is unlike anything from Earth. In forty-eight days, a ground-crew will open the capsule.
<<cont append>>I only hope that what they find is not terrible, but beautiful.
<<cont append>><<button [[E N D|END]]>><</button>>
<</cont>>
<</cont>><style>
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</style>For the sake of posterity, my name is Christina Kennedy. I am the first known human to make contact with an alien species. What lies outside this door is beautiful and terrible and surreal. I lament my inability to describe it with the poetry it so deserves.
<<cont append>>It is unlike anything I've seen. It's grown through the holes in Konstantin's flight-suit, glimmers in the faint starlight, whispers in anechoic tongues. I have unsealed the door. I have let it in.
<<cont append>>Goodbye, Earth.
<<cont append>><<button [[E N D|END]]>><</button>>
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