planetfall-gold/diary.zil

98 lines
5.9 KiB
Plaintext

;<CONSTANT DIARY-ENTRIES
<PTABLE
"BUG #??"
"11,344 July 22 -- Transferred from S.P.S. Trilobyte to S.P.S.
Feinstein for the third of my four tours of duty. I'm truly going to miss
my commander, Ensign First Class Lim. He was a friend in every respect --
someone you could always go to with a problem, someone I could really look
up to. We would sometimes talk long into the night. He would tell me
about his home world of Ash-Down V, and I would talk about growing up on
Gallium. I'd get pretty homesick sometimes, even though Gallium is not
exactly one of the garden spots of the universe. I just hope my new
commander is half as nice as Lim.||
This new ship seems pretty swell. I'm in a cabin with only five
other ensigns, and I've got one-and-a-half cubic meters of locker space!"
"11,344 July 23 -- Met my new commander today -- Ensign Cadet First
Class Blather. He seems like a real krip. (Excuse the language, Diary.) But
that might just be a bad first impression."
"11,344 July 25 -- One of my cabin mates, Gorund, organized a Double
Fanucci tournament among all the Ensigns Seventh Class. We were playing
during the 150-millichron rec period after lunch, and Blather burst in and
confiscated the sets and told us that playing war games was a violation of
patrol regulations. But Ensign Whirp, who's studying to be a patrol lawyer,
said she couldn't find anything about it in the regulations anywhere.||
BLATHER IS REALLY A TOTAL MEGAKRIP!!!"
"11,344 July 28 -- I went to see the personnel officer today to find
out what my new duties would involve. He showed me a list of all the open
assignments, and I decided to put in for the grotch-feeding detail. We picked
up a few grotches when we were on Crassus, and we're taking them to the
Zoology Labs on Tremain so that maybe they can figure out how an animal can
produce 47 times its weight in trot every day."
"11,344 Bozbar 7 -- Everyone from the P.O. to the ship's cook has
approved my application for the grotch-feeding detail -- except Blather. I
have an appointment to see him tomorrow. Wish me luck."
"11,344 Bozbar 8 -- TROT!! Blather rejected my application! And to
make it worse, he said that since I seem to love grotches so much, he's
assigning me to clean out their cages. TROT AND DOUBLE TROT!!"
"11,344 Bozbar 26 -- I haven't had time to keep my diary lately,
because Blather's been watching us all like a Teleran bird. Also, last
week he found the diary during a surprise inspection, gave me 200 demerits,
and told me that diaries were against regulations. But I'll be frobbed if
I'm going to stop. I've started hiding the diary inside my official documents
file, and I keep that hidden in the air duct. From now on I'll have to sneak
away somewhere to use it."
"11,344 Bozbar 27 -- Greeting from the Deck Four Supply Closet of the
S.P.S. Feinstein. I hope I'm not tempting fate, sneaking around with my diary
this way. I used to be as much of a disbeliever in destiny as the next guy,
but not anymore. Not since the time my mom warned my dad not to tempt fate
by walking across the astral plains after dark, when the computerized analysis
showed a 43% chance of resulting injury. My dad, stubborn as always, just
laughed at her and went right on taking his nightly strolls. THE VERY NEXT
SUMMER HE WENT WALKING AT NIGHT ON THE PLAINS AND STUMBLED OVER A CRATER AND
BRUISED HIS KNEE! Gosh!"
"11,344 Bozbar 28 -- We entered planetary orbit today, a non-human
world call Accardi-3 (although the natives call it something like
Blow'k-bibben-gordo). They're not officially part of the union. The rumors
say that we're picking up a special ambassador to take back to Tremain for
negotiations on joining the union. Tomorrow we have to put on our dress
uniforms for some special welcoming ceremony."
"11,344 August 2 -- I caught a glimpse of the alien ambassador during
the welcoming ceremonies yesterday. He looks like a cross between a tree
trunk and a melting ice cream cone. But at least the ceremony got me out of
cleaning the grotch cages today."
"11,344 August 7 -- Went to the mandatory Patrol Informational
Tri-vision Triple Feature last night. We saw 'Treatment For Space Lice
Infestation,' 'Shorleave Shirley: How to Guard Against Contracting Alien
Diseases,' and 'The Oxygen Tank: Your Galvanized Buddy in the Vacuum.'
Blather confined half the ensigns to quarters for hooting during the second
feature. (The other half had fallen asleep during the first feature.)"
"11,344 August 24 -- TROT THAT TROTTING KRIP!! I applied for
astrophysics training for the next quarter, but Blather says my work for the
special assignment task force hasn't been good enough, so not only did he
reject my astrophysics application, but he says I'll have to take remedial
scrubbing next quarter. WHAT A TROTTING KRIP!||
You know, for the first time I'm beginning to have doubts about
whether I'm really cut out for the patrol. When I was growing up on Gallium,
it was always taken for granted that I would join up when I came of age. My
family has served in the patrol for five generations. In fact, my
great-great-grandfather was a high admiral and one of the founding fathers of
the Patrol! But I seem to be permanently stuck at Ensign 7th, and Blather is
making my life miserable..."
"11,344 Septem 4 -- We left hyperspace today at about 7600; weren't
scheduled to for about another two weeks. The grapevine says we have special
orders to investigate a planetary system here. Apparently, some of the
archaeologists back on Varshon think it might have been part of the Second
Union. I can't imagine why anyone would settle out here in this remote
corner of the galaxy."
"11,344 Septem 5 -- That krip has done it again! I missed two little
pellets of trot when I was when I was cleaning out the grotch cages yesterday,
and Blather gave me 100 demerits and assigned me two extra shifts of deck
scrubbing -- including Deck Nine, the filthiest deck on the ship! I'm
considering asking for a transfer -- or if things get worse, I might even
abandon ship!">>