(7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1) Count Down – Arrival

Attention! Attention! This is the Captain. Just a tad before reaching our destination coordinates we have encountered something… something big… something huge… something gigantic… something so big words escape me! How do I reference something that is more than twice the size of our entire solar system! We were not expecting this. Of course we also were not expecting that our Torpor Chamber System would totally fail shortly after leaving our solar system. Nor were we expecting this alien Alcubierre drive to be nearly 100 times faster than anticipated. We have been out of communication range with Earth since just after we launched 22 days ago. As far as they know, each person aboard this starship is “sleeping” in suspended animation inside their own Torpor Chamber. NASA has been working on this Torpor system for decades … ever since the year 2013 and thought they had perfected it. Well… they never were able to test to see if it would function at the same time as an alien Alcubierre drive runnning at 100 times maximum speed! The drive worked well … it worked really well… it was fantastic. But the Torpor Chambers? Not so much.

Captain Wayman cleared his throat.

So, we have nearly arrived at our destination in just 3 weeks rather than in two years! But earth is unaware of this and continues making the ISS Vanguard 2 starship that was scheduled to launch with WAVE 2 in about a year. We are not sure if the second starship’s drive engine will kick in at 100 times maximum speed like ours did or not.  So we have at least a year before the next starship arrives to join us here. If their journey takes the full two years and the Torpor Chambers actually continue functioning on that Wave 2 Vanguard starship, they will arrive here in about three years. And as Captain, I have decided to NOT let those coming in Wave 2 know that we got here so fast nor that our Torpor Chambers failed almost immediately after launch. So I am NOT recording this announcement to you. And I am erasing all the prior recorded announcements. Next I will make an OFFICIAL announcement as if we had just arrived after spending two years in our Torpor Chambers. So, enjoy exploring for years before the others arrive! And I am sending each of you a link to the information about the Torpor Chambers so you know the story that we are sticking with … we were in them for TWO YEARS. That’s our story.

Captain Wayman paused to send everyone a link to the full information about the Torpor Chambers:
=> Torpor Chambers (from NASA 2013)

Captain Wayman then got ready to put on a show for the official record … this would be the first Captain’s Log that others who follow will see and hear!

Levi was with T in the observation dome. Tayen enjoyed her conversations with Levi because he believed her when she said she could see things coming… when she knew about things that she just should not know! And after hearing the Captain’s broadcast to the whole starship, Levi asked T:

Well T, that was peculiar. Does this have anything to do with your two visions? You know the ones that have been painted on the Mess Hall walls for a couple weeks now? Or about Jumping Into The Fire? Or an alien set of portals in a circle… a very very very large circle?

Not sure Levi. But that very very very large circular object that the Captain spoke of is something we cannot avoid … because it **IS** a void! I see the void and can see it’s center, it’s eye! But I don’t see fire just yet. Maybe the fire is yet to come. Maybe we won’t encounter it with the first Away Team the Captain is assembling now. Maybe not the next few Away Teams. But I still see that fire off in the distance. We still need to be ready for it.

You mean a few of us still need to be ready to Jump Into The Fire?

Sorry, Levi, but yes. It will happen. I see it happening. Just not sure when!

Note: for those new to these Count Down articles, you might want to read the previous article with Levi and Tayen’s previous conversation that they are referring to today:
=> Navigating IN a Star System

Well, T… since we have arrived, I think it is time for my Spock Blessing. My Star Trek Blessing. Yet still a blessing pulled right from Scriptures. I have my microphone attached to my mobile transmitter to the system wide speaker system. Here goes:

Live Long and Prosper!
=> Vanguard Blessing 24 (Spock’s blessing) (full blessing – printable PDF with clickable links)

And speaking of Count Down… I was only off by 7 days for this Count Down. Pretty close I think. And since backers are now receiving their games, the Count Down is officially ended.

And, since we are back to reality and many of you now have the game in front of your very eyes… here is where we start our exploration… here is where the Captain just told us we were (Prototype 2 … can someone with the game send me a photo of the final please?)

And now … as the Count Down closes, I have put together three things for everyone. These are all available to you anytime via the menu bar at the top of each page under the menu choice CountDown. But here is a quick guide to them:

1. An eBook of all the Blessings PLUS I will arrange for Grimm Book Bindery here in Madison to make a beautiful glossy cover book of them (watch for info on how to get your own copy).
   => All the Blessings (eBook, soon a glossy Hard Cover printed book)
2. A list of all the Count Down articles with their titles – fully linked, so you can click on any article that you want to see
   => All the Articles (link list)
3. All the stories from the Count Down articles (without the game information… just the stories). Would anyone want these as an eBook or hard cover book like the Blessings? For now, they are one long webpage (actually three webpages… the first connects to the second which connects to the third).
   => All the Stories (Levi, VR, Jeez, T, Izzy and more)