This is my entry to the Inspired By Images Of Eve Competition 3. More details and links to all entrants can be found at Starfleet Comms

New Friends

+++ Message Decryption Complete +++

+++ Message Received YC113-07-11 23:44 +++

+++ Message Decryption And Transcription Completed YC113-07-16 12:04 +++

+++ Message Consists Of Several Entries +++

+++ Replaying In Chronological Order +++

+++ Entry 1 (Sent YC113-05-17 05:26) +++

Make it stop! I said, [sounds of exertion] make it stop. Please! Please, I can’t help it! [sounds of strangulation] Yes you can, fluffball, you started it. No! [nervous laughter] It spins, turns, twists. Like blue, like maroon. The clouds. [sigh] Look at the spinning top... Here it comes again. Hello? Is there any new friend there?

+++ Entry 2 (Sent YC113-05-17 05:21)

It comes. Breathing, pulsing. Heh. Look at it. Shiny... What is it!? Hey, you! Tell me what it is! You know! I know you know, you just don’t want to tell me! You know what is gonna happen! I promise, I don’t...

+++ Entry 3 (Sent YC113-05-17 03:56) +++

No, no, no. Not again. Quit your wailing! Shut up and fight it! You know it doesn’t help. You know what I know. What? You, you know something, don’t ya? You think you can get out of this mess without me? You need me, you are nothing but a weakling without me!

+++ Entry 4 (Sent YC113-05-17 02:44) +++

Shut up and let me think! There must be some way to... Well? How’s it going? I said, shut up! You’re not exactly the kind of person I would expect to think in complex patterns– [bang against metal] Ow! You know you’ll only hurt yourself! I couldn’t care less!

+++ Entry 5 (Sent YC113-05-16 02:04) +++

Oh, damn! That flash. Wait, the headache is gone. Yay! Alright, alright, now I need to get this piece of shit going so I can get out of this hellhole. Where was I? Ah, why can’t I remember! I just did this. Gahhh! [Various crashing objects] Here comes the headaches again. I think it’s starting to come back. Yes. The experiment. All those people. What have I done? Oh, no. Doctor Erandour’s projected side effects. Why didn’t you listen!? They were weren’t sensible, there were no tendencies whatsoever that this would happen. It was absurd. Damn, you’re such an idiot!

+++ Entry 6 (Sent YC113-05-16 02:01) +++

It has to work, I know this! Why can’t I... oh, my head hurts. Meds ain’t helping. Well, look at that. This Rifter doesn’t have mush in the way of sensors, but I can clearly see with my naked eye that the clouds outside the base are glowing in a pulsating pattern, originating from one of the buildings. Let’s see, I think it is one of my laboratories. Pulse frequency increasing. Uhm, wait a minute–

+++ Entry 7 (Sent YC113-05-16 00:23) +++

[Suppressed crying] You said that the clouds were so strange, brown against the blue sky. I explained, but you didn’t understand, didn’t care. I gave you this spinning top on that day, one of my own inventions. It would start to spin when it detected dangerous radiation. Good for back home at the station. Now, come on! You don’t have time for this! Heh, time... Get out of your grovelling and try to solve this! No one is coming to rescue you anyway!

+++ Entry 8 (Sent YC113-05-16 23:58) +++

You know, I was thinking, maybe I should say something, you know? To my family. I’m recording at the same time as transmitting just to increase the chances of them getting this. What am I thinking!? We can get through this, giving up doesn’t help! I got us into this mess, I can get us out. [Crash of objects falling] Oops. My bag fell to the floor, let’s see if I can... Heh. My love and my little baby girl. It was our first vacation when we took this.

+++ Entry 9 (Sent YC113-05-16 23:49) +++

Well, this doesn’t look good, does it? Been sending out the signal for some time, but no one has answered. I’m no comms expert, but shouldn’t these things be instantaneous, you know, all or nothing things? I don’t know. Shit, I’m sitting here talking to myself. Transmitting to open space at light speed; remarkably slow at times, the light speed, isn’t it?

+++ Entry 10 (Sent YC113-05-16 18:56) +++

This is a distress call, I repeat, this is a distress call. My name is doctor Naile Hymas and I am a scientist at the Republic University, Section for Experimental… well, you don’t need to know that. I’ll piggyback my coordinates on this signal. I’m within sight of the research station I was working on. Don’t worry about the gas clouds or any anomalous readings you get from it. They’re completely… harmless.

+++ Message Ends +++

>Query: Anomaly Analysis (Entry Timestamp, Chronological Order);

+++ Working... +++

+++ Anomaly Analysis Result +++

+++ No Anomaly Detected In Message +++

+++ Listing Possible Reasons For Perceived Error, In Order Of Likelihood +++

+++ Operator Error, Deliberate Timestamp Modification, Data Corruption, Temporal Anomaly +++