Transcribed Audio Log: USS Enfranchise


The following audio log was transcribed from the onboard files of the USS Enfranchise, a starship assigned to sector 617 near the Cambridge Asteroid Belt. The file was dated April 12, 2020.


(static)

....Hello?.....Is this thing working?

The Captain wanted us to start using these journals to give us an excuse to talk out loud, so here goes.

This is Ensign Michael Mandanas of the USS Enfranchise. It's been two weeks since our vessel was attacked by the unaffiliated pirate ship, SARS-CoV-2. Hull integrity was breached pretty bad when they fired their "SPIKE" torpedoes into us. A few of us were swept out into the vacuum of space immediately, but most of us have made it back to our quarters and managed to isolate oxygen flow through the vents. We've done our best to patch up the ship from our individual quarters, but not being able to leave our rooms or see each other in person has made communication difficult. I haven't had a chance to contact my partner, Ensign Parsons, since the breach. 

Luckily, the most recent assignment we received from high command was a solo assignment. 

Recently, the crew recovered a few data artifacts from other destroyed ships in the Belt, and we split them up amongst ourselves to decrypt and decode. The one I got was from a cancer research vessel regarding alternative promoter usage across cancel. Decoding it was pretty difficult. A lot of the terms used had no direct english translation, and there was a lot of superfluous data included with the important stuff. 

After a few days, I actually figured out a method to...

(audio feed cuts out for approximately 10 minutes)

...and that's the secret to decoding these things. Wait, was this thing recording that? The connection's been pretty spotty since the attack. Eh, it's probably fine. 

Anyways, the next part was figuring out a way to present this data to the captain. She's isolated in the bridge right now, so handing in a written report was a no go. I've managed to rig the communications monitor in my quarters to connect to my personal computer, allowing me to create a viewable presentation. Transmission rate is slow, so I prerecorded the presentation with some voiceover. 

Getting everything I wanted to say in one file meant I had to cut down on my presentation quite a bit, since the onboard intranet can only handle video files of about 10 minutes max. This was pretty hard, since there was a lot of stuff loaded onto that data artifact. Beyond that, I didn't have access to editing software, so I had to say everything pretty much exactly the way I wanted it to be said in one take. That was pretty difficult, since there was a lot of material to cover, and it took me a few tries. I've had some experience with public speaking though, so I managed to put out a pretty satisfactory product. 

Now that I've got some practice with it, doing it again would be a whole lot easier. I've got my own proverbial Rosetta Stone of tools and translations now, so I'm pretty happy about that. 

Cap wanted to schedule a video call later on to discuss the findings, so I've got that to look forward to this Tuesday. 

Until then, I'm just gonna find out how I can turn my ironing board into a stovetop so I can cook the cup noodles I smuggled on board.

Wait, AI, does cap get access to these recordings?

(end of transmission)

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