Quoted By:
“The horizon beckons. The constellations merge and shift until they combine to form a solitary guiding star. The hull groans from terminal gravitational stress.
Frozen moisture fogs my vision. The observation blister begins to crack.
I know that this will be my final entry.
But before I depart, I wish to share something. Not for my own knowledge, but for yours:
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I do not know you.
Perhaps you have read my scattered words under Earth’s blue-hazed skies, or beneath Mars’ stubbornly terraced canyons. Perhaps you were born on a world very far from my own – where amber-shot clouds obscure constellations who have yet to be named.
None of these things matter to me. I trust that you are still human in the few ways that truly matter – that you have found wonder and will, felt love and hate, just as my companion and I have. And though it may be selfish, I have blind faith that you are human enough to consider our final request.
I want you to remember. Remember the RAIN and her crew. Recall the twin fires – the crime that brought us here, and the crime that will forever bar our return. And when you trace the motion of the stars across the night sky, know that one of them shone blue-bright before fading into darkness – casting light upon a forgotten species that also strove for the stars above.
I want you to remember, but I do not want you to grieve.
The two of us have taken the rare privilege of writing our own conclusion. My companion and I have found peace, and we shall rest together in that soft, quiet place where time cannot touch. I do not know if we shall meet again, but my companion has no such doubt. Under the patient gaze of a starless night, she has gifted me with one final vow.
She promises me that one day – one day – when the world dims and our bindings evaporate, she will find me.
She will find me, and she will show me the stars once more.”
- [REDACTED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2243, MARCH 12th [NOTE: MESSAGE BACKDATED/LORENTZ FACTOR: 7.6]
[END-OF-FILE]
[Note: There will be a very brief epilogue]
