curiosity six
Acacia Ackles

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 324 D 220

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts a bone fragment against my tongue.

She says,
archaeologists did this –
– do you know what an archaeologist is?
like a historian with sticky fingers –
– to test for bone or rock.
feel that tack? the way it wants to hold your tongue?
that was a person, once

I say,
What was their name?

She says,
i like you better than the last one, you know.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 324 D 348

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts orange peels against my tongue.

She says,
tangy, aren’t they?
got a chemical flavor to them.
i think it’s all the chemicals.

I say,
Are you meant to eat them just like this?

She says,
no,
not just like this.
there’s flesh inside; you eat that first
you can candy these.
if you like.

I say,
Bring them back when they’re candied, then.

She says,
Sugar rations just ran out.
And I don’t think you’re meant to have sugar, you know.
But I’ll bring you some next week, if you remind me.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 324 D 353

RECORD OF KNOWLEDGE

Candied orange peels
fed off plump, sugar-wrinkled fingers
are worth the extra time it takes
for proper decontamination.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 004

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts a fission core against my tongue.

She says,
this used to be impossible, you know

I say,
No, you just didn’t know how to do it, yet.

She says,
functionally, those are the same.

I say,
Functionally, they are not.

She says,
functionally, you are a bitch.

I say,
Functionally, you are insubordinate.

She says,
we’ll have to stop doing this dance one day.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 005

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts her fingertips against my tongue.

She says,
Is this a kiss?

I say,
It is not recognized as such,
usually.

She says,
how about now?

I say,
perhaps

She says,
now?

I say nothing.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 149

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts a corn husk against my tongue.

She says,
the liquid fuels are running out.

I say,
The levels have been low for months.
Unauthorized couplings have offset the population by far greater than our estimation.

She says,
i don’t want to hear you say that again.

I say,
Unauthorized couplings?

She says,
people have been saying things like that for centuries.
not you, too.

I say,
I’ll look into the fuel situation.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

UNDATED

UNFILED

What happened to the last one?

Which last one?

You said you liked me better.
What happened to her?

Oh.
Magnetic corruption. All the way down to the binary files, couldn’t be repaired.

Oh.

We have better safeguards, now, for the…
For you.
It doesn’t matter, anymore. Hey,
don’t look like that.

You miss her?

No. Yes. I don’t know.
She certainly didn’t let me do this.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

S 325 D 240

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts a meteorite against my tongue.

She says,
the SS Bannockburn sank in Lake Superior in nineteen oh two (standard years)
on the twenty first of november (standard months, standard days).
it was never found.

I say,
After all that time?

She says,
all that time.

I say,
How do you lose something so large in a place so finite?

She says,
you don’t understand these lakes

I say,
You don’t understand what it means to be finite.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 149

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts her tongue against my tongue.

She says,
metallic.

I say,
visceral.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 304

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts an oil droplet on my tongue.

She says,
The ship needs more power,
we aren’t getting enough from the harvests, we aren’t getting enough from the solar routing, we aren’t getting enough from any of it, you know, we need – sorry.
i know you know.
what’s there to do about it?

I say,
There are too many people aboard.
The resource imbalance is intractable.

She says,
They have names.
Make it tractable.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 308

DISTRESS SIGNAL

SENT.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 309

DISTRESS SIGNAL

SENT.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 310

DISTRESS SIGNAL

SENT.
RECEIVED.
REJECTED: OUT OF RANGE.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 311

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts a paper scrap against my tongue.

She says,
the fuelers won’t make it in time.

I say,

I say,

I say,

She says,
don’t bother.
save your energy.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 312

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

HUMAN CONSUMPTION        82 %
    FOOD                 42 %
    AIR                  28 %
    ENTERTAINMENT        12 %
PROCESSING               8 %
CABIN CREW               9 %

ADVISEMENT

REDUCE HUMAN CONSUMPTION, OR
SECURE ALTERNATE FUEL SOURCE, OR
SUSPEND NON-ESSENTIAL CABIN CREW FUNCTIONALITY

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 315

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

#INPUT
01010111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01101110 01100101 00111111

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 322

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

#INPUT
01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110101 01110000 01101001 01100100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101110 01101011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110100 01100001 01101100

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 330

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

INPUT
01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 325 D 333

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

INPUT

PLEASE?

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 326 D 191

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She says,

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 326 D 359

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

we made it home

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 327 D 001

TRANSMISSION WITH A SENIOR SCIENTIST

She puts a bone fragment against my tongue.

She says, when you’re ready.

CAPTAIN’S LOG

SY 326 D 002

ENERGY CONSUMPTION

ADVISEMENT

DEFINE ESSENTIAL.