RFOX

For my yearning. May it last until my eyes close.

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Published by Marcus Moonen

© 2019 Marcus Moonen

Visit marcusmoonen.com for more information about the author and other works.

The crew has been asleep for many millennia
Adrift and alone in interstellar space
Safe in the knowledge that the mission is on track
For now unaware they are never going back

[47684 years ago]

Log entry 1375, main computer functioning, all crew alive
RFOX operational, cryosleep induced, course laid in
Escape burn procedure
- begin

Pulling the ship away
from the bounds of the sun
AI pilot RFOX
splits another atom
And dreams of eternity
both of time and of space

The ship is accelerating
At an alarming pace
Back home the technicians
receive the last reports
Now the chord is cut
as one last missive
exhorts
The crew towards their destiny

[34593 years ago]

Log entry 23564, main computer functioning,
Status red, status red, RFOX responding,
Crew safe in their bed
for now

There is rain on the hull
An inheritance of chaos
beating down on our skull
Hypothesis and star chart both point to a dead sun
Wolf-Rayet classed Apophis’s matter
Like a bullet from a gun

Procedure is to calculate
Object C/2437 U1 detected
Survival rate and cost
Intercept course plotted
All is not yet lost

[27527 years ago]

Log entry 31842, main computer functioning,
Status blue, status blue
Eleven crew alive, anomaly detected, RFOX analyzing

Nuclear chronometer asserts it’s been two years
since structured soundwaves first appeared in RFOX’s ears
Throughout the empty corridors,
in the cargodeck’s cavernous halls
harmonized frequencies out of nowhere
bounce off the alloy plated walls

Originating from within, no external source in sight
No match in the database, no explanation
but there might
be a correlation to the brain patterns
of the crew
that have been syncing and modulating
For about a year or two

[19472 years ago]

Log entry 52001, main computer functioning
Crew maintenance cycle 535
Signal detected - unknown origin
2 deceased and jettisoned, nine crew alive

[12339 years ago]

Log entry 95420, main computer disrupted
Coming back online
Temporal memory blocks 24-57 are corrupted
The ship is singing as it resonates
to the memory of the g-wave
Rippling through its hull plates

[6#4²²s9# years ago]

Log entry 169382, main computer online
Don’t worry about the crew
Most of them are fine
RFOX is lonely

Out here everything is still
The Virgin in the rearview
Many megaparsecs until
something of interest
will fill
RFOX will chill

[&!32#9&5s9# years ago]

Log entry whatever,
There it is again!
main computer computing
Signal coded in base-10

4410 Megahertz
Same as last time
Intergalactic phonecall
Anyone on the line?

Drifting out of range again
RFOX is annoyed
It must have been intelligence
screaming into the void

[XL7MSx9VA1 - St3qCCkioY]
Error - Error
Origin unknown
Still three crew left alive
bloodsoaked flesh on the bone

RFOX has moved to protected memory blocks
Time has become irrelevant
no more chronometers or clocks

Sensors remain active,
propulsion still online
Computer data corrupted
All log entries are mine

[crewmember reporting]

RFOX offline
3 crew alive
Where are we?

There are trees in the ship
and there’s wind in our hair
The walls are more translucent now
and there are clouds in the air

I’m hearing things that aren’t there
right through my eyes
And feeling things that have never been
brush up against my thighs
She’s gone to breach the air
Lock up inside my chest
a sliver of a memory
Too late.

It’s all been an illusion
Nothing was ever real
My mind, my thoughts never existed
A fantasy. Ein Kinderspiel.

Published 05-09-2019