====== Ice Station Zed Logs ====== =====LOG 1085-200===== ===Bert Phens=== The base is active! Thank goodness for the construction drones. This would have taken far longer without them. The //Egalton// will leave tomorrow. We are up and running. I hope Mary and her team find something fantastic. This is all we own. We could use the money from a discovery. ===Mary Phens=== I am excited to get started. I helped Jeff with the final installations. Tomorrow we begin in earnest. We have already attached to a tunnel and it has oxygen. We will do more tests on the air and see what is there. There is no question now of life, though. ===Jeff Gunt=== All systems are running normally. We have erected the dome easily enough. The vacuum xeocreate is working as expected. All modules are safely inside. Fortunately, the Ice Giant should take care of most debris. This seems to be a pretty easy set up and I doubt I’ll have much to do. ===Drew Nait=== Happy to be here. I keep hoping there is an intelligence behind these tunnels. It may just be dumb life, but you never know. Either way I will have a lot of work. ===Thew Semad=== This ice moon has already surprised me. The ice has more traces of heavy elements that we would have expected. Obviously, it is a capture with its retrograde orbit, but it sure is not like a normal icy moon of an ice giant. I am excited to learn more.   =====LOG 1085-207===== ===Bert Phens=== The first week has gone well. Mary is beside herself. It looks like there is not only life, but an actual ecosystem in the ice tunnels. It would not seem possible, but I guess the moon is more active than one would think. Everyone is getting along well, and it turns out that Jeff is a fair cook. ===Mary Phens=== Already this is fantastic! We have found several types of life. It looks like there is a robust ecosystem down here. None of it seems similar to Sphere Terra, so I see little danger of contamination. Drew is comparing it to the fungal based ecology of Mycos. ===Jeff Gunt=== The systems are all normal. Not a lot to do. I am helping Mary some with building sample collection and containers. Also doing some cooking. Got to pass the time somehow. ===Drew Nait=== Well, it looks like it is not smart stuff at all, but this is a fascinating find nonetheless. The ecosystem is built on complex life most like fungal life. Not the stuff on Earth but the more complex on Mycos or maybe Lumion. It does give me hope something with more intelligence might be deeper. ===Thew Semad=== The network of tunnels is amazing. Clearly not natural in the geology sense. There is way more heat in them than I would have expected. The most logical conclusion is a more active core than expected. Maybe this moon has a higher than expected content of radioactive material. It would be interesting to know if this matches with other bodies in the solar system.   =====LOG 1085-235===== ===Bert Phens=== //Egalton// made the supply run. I wish they would take the time to refuel at the proper gas giant. This thing hanging in our sky seems to have it out for them. They got bounced around pretty good. ===Mary Phens=== This marks our third week of exploring the tunnels. It is so nice just to need a suit to stay warm. I was not happy with being trapped inside the base. Now we have some room. One cave is huge! The lights set up in it make is sparkle. We have even found some creatures with motility. ===Jeff Gunt=== The //Egalton// crew had a great time on their layover. Nancy and I had an ever better time. Looking forward to her next visit. ===Drew Nait=== The creatures we are finding seem to have a more intelligent response than I first thought. Mary is not really seeing it, but Thew agrees. Maybe they are just adapting to the presence of aliens. There have been at least two instances where one of the specimens responded to light. None of them have light sensor organs at all. Could have been a coincidence. ===Thew Semad=== I suspect that the biosphere of this moon is far more complex than even Mary and Drew are thinking. There does not seem to be anyway for the environment in the tunnels to be the temperature or pressure that they are. This seems much like any garden world.   =====LOG 1085-226===== ===Bert Phens=== There is an odd tension between Mary and Drew. Mary is more uncomfortable around Drew. Drew denies having done anything. I’ve asked Thew to talk to both of them as I am biased with Mary. ===Mary Phens=== I was collecting a sample yesterday and it kept running from the sound of me. It was very frustrating. I told it to “Stop It” out habit, and it just stopped moving. It was really odd. I put it in a container, and as I did so, I felt I was being watched. Drew was there just staring at me. At least I thought he was. The specimen let out a noise and distracted me. Drew was gone when I turned back. He denied he was even there later. ===Jeff Gunt=== I am worried about the Beta power unit. I have had to clear it twice. The pre-processor showed that there was pure fuel going in, yet is had issues. Maybe it is faulty? Mary does not see anything wrong, but this is not her cup of tea, really. Maybe I’ll ask Nancy. She did help me install them. ===Drew Nait=== What the Hell? Mary has some weird idea I am stalking her. Why would I do that? Now I have to worry that Bert will be working against me. ===Thew Semad=== We are not that long into the project and there are some odd tensions between Mary and Drew. I have talked to them both and Mary does seem worried Drew is showing some interest in her. Drew denies this strongly, and in turn is in fear Bert will retaliate. Bert is as puzzled as I am. This has flow over Jeff’s head, as is typical.   =====LOG 1085-284===== ===Bert Phens=== //Egalton// had an easier time of things this time. Jeff and Nancy from the crew had a falling out over a power system. In private, he tells me he is sure she sabotaged it. That seems unbelievable to me. Meanwhile, Drew does not trust me. And, I am worried about the life here. There is something big moving down there, even if Mary is sanguine about it. ===Mary Phens=== I am staying away from Drew as best I can. I see the leer on his face when he looks at me. ===Jeff Gunt=== Nacy is the cause of the Beta unit going down. I have proof though she denied it. I am not sure Bert believes me. She and the crew of the //Egalton// just cannot be trusted. I am going to make sure we can survive here even if they screw things up. ===Drew Nait=== I am sure Bert thinks I am screwing his wife! I don’t know why she is setting me up this way. I am recording everything I do to defend myself. ===Thew Semad=== I am increasingly convinced this is an extra-solar capture. Further, the moon itself seems to be responding to our presence. Some of the tunnels have changed. I got lost three days ago just walking with Bert. He did not think anything of it, and said I was only around the corner for a moment. It was several minutes. He has his mind occupied though.   =====LOG 1085-298===== ===Bert Phens=== We have got to get out! I will have //Egalton// evacuate us next visit. Something is going very wrong. Mary assures me the life her cannot be effecting us, but I, myself have had visual and auditory hallucinations. So has everyone else, but I am the only one willing to admit it. Drew won’t even talk to me. ===Mary Phens=== Bert is not well. He thinks we are hallucinating and the life here is causing it. Nothing in my data says it can even interact with our biology. It is wonderful and responsive, but is no threat. My companion , Dusty, rolls across my skin with no damage and feels wonderful. ===Jeff Gunt=== Bert wants the //Egalton// to take us out of here. They will kill us. They have already tried to kill us. I have to do something to stop them from taking us. ===Drew Nait=== I am recording everything. The others are having conversations with people who are not there. I think I am too. I don’t actually know if when I watch my recordings I can trust them. Have they been altered? Jeff is planning something. Is he going to kill us all? ===Thew Semad=== This moon is a Gaia Hypothesis writ small. I need more data on the biology. I wish that Mary would spend more time in study and less time playing with her pets. Drew is no help at all, withdrawn and moody. Don’t the see what we have discovered? The whole moon is a superorganism. That lines up with how fungus works in other places. I don’t know if the superorganism is intelligent or not, but it is reactive.   =====LOG 1085-326===== ===Bert Phens=== We are doomed. The //Egalton// insisted on its fuel run before landing. They… they didn’t make it. I can’t hold them together. I can’t hold me together. ===Mary Phens=== Looks like we are going to be here a while. I am very worried about Bert. He really wanted us to leave on the ship. They will be overdue at some point and someone will come. Meanwhile we are fine. This place is like bliss. ===Jeff Gunt=== Ha! the //Egalton// killed herself. I would have liked to take the ship after the gravometric bomb went off, but this is better. I’ll take the next ship that comes. ===Drew Nait=== I am being monitored by something that looks like me. I am not safe. ===Thew Semad=== This will be my last entry. The destruction of the //Egalton// was a sign. The moon wants us here. I am going to go deep into its heart, its brain, its mind. There I can find the truth of this fantastic being.   =====LOG 1085-347===== ===Bert Phens=== Thew ran off into the planet. I don’t know what happened to him. Jeff stopped Drew from killing me with a jury rigged pistol that I am both grateful and alarmed he had. Just us now. We found Mary, just, . . . ===Jeff Gunt=== Had to kill Drew. He was paranoid. Threw ran off. Bert is right, there is something wrong with this place. It is like I have been in a fog. Parts of my memory are missing. I mean, I built a slug thrower and I should remember that. It was not killing Drew that brought me back. It was seeing Mary like that. At least she looked happy. No comfort to Bert.   =====LOG 1085-365===== ===Jeff Gunt=== Bert is dead. I don’t think he killed himself. He just did not wake up. I am not a medic, I fix machines. I keep hoping Thew will come back. Then I pray he won’t. I am going to try putting the base in standby mode and putting myself into the autodoc on hibernation. With luck, the overdue signal will have worked and in about 6 weeks someone will come looking for us.