YSS Kaiyō II
Bridge
Hoshi looked intermittently from her console in front of her, the viewscreens, and the crew on the bridge.
"Good, good, Chloey... Now, pa-" Hoshi had been mumbling before she began to trailed off. She was looking at the viewscreens that showed the woman Klaus was speaking to as she shook her head to denote no knowledge. The captain spoke again, "Patch it up. That's... Now there's an idea. Just an idea. Boss, have you read through it? Can you give me a synopsis?"
"The protagonist of this story, this epic, has journeyed to many planets and societies -some of which coincide with Harpy Ornis' service record- though in these locations, her actions are not as a part of Yamatai, but a society which I am having trouble placing, My judgement is that it is of a fictional land of the author's own making. Each location she visits holds supernatural, magical, elements that you may see in such places as Ayenee," Boss said and Hoshi;s eyes flickered from viewscreen to viewscreen before settling on one in which she brought up a still of Harpy's deceased body. Boss went on, "These adventures, of a sort, start episodic in nature before they come to tie in to a larger story that paints Ornis as a national hero and embodiment of the ideals and values of her culture. The protagonist kills a sort of... creature that is the center of much of the epic's strife and conflict at a later point in the book and from there, she returns from a land of dead corpses that this creature lived in and takes up the mantel of Goddess Empress of Heavens, Land, Sea, and Space." Boss had slowed, then stopped. "At the end of this epic is something you should read, Chusa."
Hoshi's jaw tightened and the little captain seemed to lose focus on the image of the winged woman'c body. She closed her eyes and spoke, "Chui, I have a plan. But, first, please read the last page of the book in your hands."
The last page of the book was written in the same black ink, though the handwriting was somewhat less formal and flowed against itself much more, despite being cursive.
It feels odd -wrong- to write about myself like this, now. But I must, no matter what I may want for myself. My Kleos. My Kleos. It was my duty to preserve it as I sat, alone and dying, in my escape pod. I struggled with the death of my body by preserving my soul on the pages of this journal, this book. The mistake of a fool. A mistake I hope I can fix, or mend, or something. My, how words are lost from me, now, of all times. Could this plight not have been exacted on me months ago?
Months ago, I was confused, but I will try for an explanation.
Our ship, the YSS Akagi, entered orbit of this planet I am on. We didn't know what to expect and, as the ship was on a mission of exploration, this was to be expected. The crew died when we entered orbit. They were frozen in place, it looked. I was scared, confused, and was the sole survivor. No other species on the ship was a Patrician, let alone winged. I quickly left that ship, that ship of death, on an escape pod. The pod was pulled to the planet's surface. PANTHEON access was void and sensors, they did not show this place. This bathhouse. The planet was not showing as habitable in any way, so I stayed in my pod for as long as I could and did what every Patrician in my situation would have done- I preserved my Kleos. That is where this epic poem, this bathhouse, these people came from. What have I done?
I opened my escape pod, to die. To end.
I did not die, nor did anything end. The whole of it seemed to begin. I found that I lived out the travels I had written about, through some sort of vision or illusion, procured by what or who, I do not know. But I do know that it was an apology for killing my fellow crew. I don't know how I know that, I just feel it in me, that they are sorry. I don't know if they know I wanted and want to die, or how to help me achieve that. They can not feed me and do not know how, as I have asked in moments of weakness. The 'they' I speak of are not Elysians or Yamataians, but have constructed themselves as such species based only on my experiences, for they know nothing besides what I have written in this book, have on my person, or that was contained within my pod, which I have not seen signs of since I exited it months ago. What have I done?
I pray to the powers that my Kleos be carried in some other way, some other form. This was not my intention, not my hope, not my want. It is what I will live with, though, for now, and for eternity, I suppose.
With all of the hope in the universe that I may retire from this purgatory and live happily,
Harpy Ornis
