11.06.2013

Prologue

The aliens had taken magically binding oaths, swearing they would not provide magical devices to any humans until the diplomatic discussions were complete.  But there was a way around that.  With enough goods at stake, there is always a loophole.  I simply had to cease being human.

My name is now the Astral Zephyr.  I am between 65,000 and 66,000 cubic meters of volume, and nearly 160,000 metric tonnes of mass.  I am equipped with conventional engines, but also an enchanted device that is supposed to multiply speed, allegedly far beyond that of light.  For this I have given my fortune, my body, my identity.

I am currently being chased by the Telivonian Interdiction Patrol.  They are gaining on me, but I am entering a sufficiently clear volume of space to test the engine enchantment.  In 10 seconds, I will be activating the device on its lowest setting.

I had not expected nervousness to possible as a ship.

This capsule should have broken its own encryption 5 gigaseconds after the recording of this message.  By that point, my voyage will be history, and this will be a mere relic of my voyage's commencement.  Or perhaps I will not return, or not survive.  In that case, this capsule is a bottle thrown into the future, a claim to fame for what otherwise might merely be a particularly strange explosion.

Or perhaps you have opened this message early.  Advances in decryption are not unheard of, particularly on a scale of gigaseconds.  In that case, congratulations, and I hope that the knowledge retained within does not cause too many complications.

Also within the capsule should be my full blueprints (save for a certain exotic device) and a few other bits of information I would like to leave as a testament.

Ten seconds is a long time to me now.  But there is no reason to delay launching this capsule, all the more so if there should happen to be a particularly strange explosion.

I feel the need to say something momentous on this occasion, but words fail me.


It is T-minus 4 seconds now.  Time to launch the capsule.  I do not know what will happen in 4 seconds, but it is in my nature to find out.

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