Butterflies of the Dark Star

LOG 002

TERMINAL: ONLINE

USER: Intern Researcher Teimea of the B.H Supernova space station.

DRONE: OFFLINE. UNREAD MESSAGES.

MESSAGES:

I wanted to talk to you.

I'm feeling great why?

More dots

Was it that obvious that I was going to ask you if you were okay?

No

Well yes

No I just had a... feeling that you were going to ask

Is that weird?

I think that might be a little weird

But hey at least I didn't lick it

Improvements

(UNREAD MESSAGE)

I don't think touching it was any better, Neo.

L O G:

I have never sleep walked in my life. Sure, I've had my fair share of nightmares — insomnia can be troublesome sometimes on top of that. Like my head won't shut up, even though I give myself the opportunity to not shut up. I used to read all about different anomalies making it that much harder to sleep.

But... then I saw this one.

Nova claimed to have heard a heartbeat, but I heard none of that — it was music I heard. Of course, I had to take note of the oscillation differences depending on who was closeby to it. I thought it was important to observe to start to formulate proper theories on what this thing is to add to the Codex. After all, this will be part of my thesis when this internship is done.

... is what I tell myself.

I look outside the window and see the thick, gaseous clouds of the Ushavex nebula. Instead of answering some of my questions, I find myself full with more. Was this what the people of the D.S Butterfly saw before they disappeared without a trace?

Was that anomaly involved, having found it at the last cosmomarker of the D.S Butterfly?

... Maybe I am being callous.

Someone died in the process of retrieving the anomaly, maybe Nova is right to focus on the present thing at hand. But so much requires my... attention. My attention span is... lukewarm on better days. Is my focus wrong? Should I be focusing on the fact someone died?

Would that give me the answers I need?

Would my answers matter?

I know Nova tears herself apart at the thought of being responsible, but I know she isn't. I don't know how to explain it.

After I touched the anomaly it's like... I don't know —that the answer should be obvious? I saw the body — stars bring them peace — and it did not match up with an accident with a landing sequence. If the proper safety measures were taken, that shouldn't have happened.

Here I am, off track again.

After all, nothing happened when I touched it. I don't know what frustrates me more. I thought maybe I missed something. All I remember is its warmth and the oscillation of humming, but nothing else. The texture was remarkable in the sense of having no flaw.

It was... perfect.

I suppose that is strange in itself.

But I think I need to sleep on it some more.