Warm company from a cold and strange place. These are transmissions from Jaran, the facility manager at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department, East Antarctica. The radio may or may not work, but he is keeping a log.
Strange things happen. Figures appear at the edge of the ice. Entities arrive, sometimes out of nowhere. And a facility unit named Ingrid does her best.
This is Jaran. I'm the facility manager at the Deep Earth Anomaly Department. Located on the coastal strip in East Antarctica. I'm um signing in for yet another cold shift. So I worked up some courage and I I installed a CCTV down in the basement to keep an eye on the red door. Maybe not courage is the right word. I I I was so scared when I did it, I forgot to turn it on. So we had to go back down and actually turn it on. I swear I I worked faster than Joshua's faster than light travel device. Or the Galactic Obeyer. Or the Go sometimes. So far though, there has been no movement, um at least that I know of. You know, I I haven't been looking at the camera, at the screen, every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day, but when I have, the door has been closed. Which is good. I also didn't think to install a microphone, so I have no idea if the hammering on the door has stopped the it might be going on still. Or it might have stopped, you know, I don't know. But then again, if a tree falls over in the woods and all that, you know. I might have a microphone to spare actually. Somewhere. So I think that's my next task. I just have to conjure up more courage to do so, which might take a while. I also locked the door down to the basement and I installed uh four new padlocks on it. You know, we can't be sure enough in this case. So, at the moment there are two beings living on each of our sides of a set of doors that cannot be opened from the opposite side. It's like the Cold War of the Equator back in the day. However, unlike the Cold War of the Equator, I do not have thermonuclear warheads tucked away, ready to fire at the drop of a hat, and I genuinely hope that whatever is behind the red door, it doesn't have one either. That would be um not good. So yeah, that's um the status of the whole ordeal, and I hope there will be no development anytime soon. Or that Thomas Green gets back on track soon, as as I reckon he is equipped by experience to deal with it. You know, as I've said before, when I first met him, actually met him, the the door, the red door was wide open, so he probably has got an idea of what's behind it. But uh yeah, there's no no time to dwell. You know, let's get onto the matter at hand. Because blip and blop, the tiny alien entities came by, they swooped in through my window as I sat listening to the sirens the other night. I've become rather good at resisting the urge to follow them, you know. The the sirens that is. They have great voices, but not as great as the blizzard is deadly. Know what I mean? So yeah, blip and blop came by in their tiny disc. They landed on my shelf next to all my books and stepped out of the craft. It genuinely, genuinely looks like two dinner plates on top of each other, you know, a classic UFO, like the ones I read about as a child. So they stepped out and they had a look around, talking a bit amongst themselves, then sneezed at me, you know, that's how we say hello. So I sneezed back before they asked if I had time for a quick word. You know, I explained to them that I'll always have time for my favourite aliens. So what's up? I asked. Except space, of course, I said. Threw in a little joke there, but uh they didn't laugh at all, so they just said, All the stars have gone, Blip told me. No stars in the sky, Blop told me. When I say told, um no sound waves were exchanged. Uh it all happens telepathically with them, you know. So no sound waves, kinetic waves, rather. I can't really hear them, I just pick up what they communitate uh communicate. It's it's it's weird, but for simplicity's sake, I'll say said. Okay. So they they said all the stars have gone, they said. Care to speculate with us? They both asked at the same time. About the stars? I asked. And where they have gone, they replied. What do you mean when you say gone? I asked. No, are there no more stars in the sky? To which they replied Trillions. Just not ours. But where has it gone? I asked. Then they gave me a look that felt more lethal than their beam guns. So I said, let's speculate, I said, before they got more annoyed. So I I did some speculation on the matter, and my first guess was, you know, that there is a blizzard outside, making visibility well, not visible. But then Blob said, We fly above blizzards. Of course I said, you know, I know this, they do. They have a flying saucer, you know, and a blizzard does not reach space. That would be spectacular. You know, a space blizzard, imagine that. But anyway, I I I speculated some more and then I said maybe a small dark cloud, perhaps, like a like a small miniature version of the Oort cloud covering it. Light pollution maybe. At this point I was pulling things out of a bottomless hat. Figuratively speaking, of course, I I had no hat. Nope, they said we measured the infrared signature. They said there's no signs of anything covering anything. Also, there are no light to pollute anything, you know, only two major cities have lights left, they said. Which is, to be honest, good news. Well then, I said, you know, I don't know, have you had any contact with your your kind? I asked. Not for a week, they said, but signals take eight days and fifty-four hours to reach, so. To which I said, you know, well, let's wait for one day and fifty-four hours then, you know, then we touch base again after that. Sounds good. But they didn't reply, they they and they looked slightly troubled. At least I think they did, you know, I didn't notice their troubled look until after I found out that the stars uh are missing, so it might be in my mind playing tricks. But either way, I I assured them and told them that everything is probably just fine. Let's not jump to conclusions be have we before we have all the facts, you know. And until then it's it's just a good old mystery, I said. I like mysteries, I said. Indeed, I said. A good old mystery indeed, Blip said. Indeed, indeed, indeed, Blopp said. Indeed in greed we bleed, I said. They then started walking towards their UFO, which really is an IFO, an identified flying object, at least for me. But I I stopped them, I said, now that I have you here, I asked I I have to ask you, seeing as you are a set of two sets of eyes and ears to the outside world. And I I told him that I've been seeing this slender figure standing outside the main entrance door, you know, too, tall, steady, and unbothered by the blizzard. Many have warned me about it, I told them and or him or her, you know. So I asked him, Did you know of what I speak? This is the same entity that Joshua also saw and dreamt of. And the reason why I asked Blip and Blop about this is because I heard knocking on my bedroom window yesterday, waking me up. At first I thought it was Thomas Kind, you know, or Joshua, you know, perhaps he had come back. So I got up and looked out the window, but the blizzard was way too thick to see anything. Anything except like bony fingers with nails chewed down to the root, tapping on a window. So I closed the curtains. I mean, what else could I do? But yeah, I I asked Blip and Blop about it. You know, perhaps they had seen it and knew what it was. But as I asked them, however, they were fighting their attention because there was a fly landing next to their craft, and to them this must have been an apex predator because Blop drew a gun, shot the thing down with a laser ray, and they then chopped the fly up into pieces, packed it up and beamed it into their crafts. Then they turned their attention to me. And Blip said it's not a man, nor a woman, Blop said. Nor a human at all. The form you see, they told me, is a construct made entirely by your brain. To make sense of something senseless, Blip said. What? I said. A shaitan, they said together. I repeated myself. A what? A shaitan, they said. You know, a demon, a devil. Everybody talks about the devil, and I told them this. Everybody talks about the devil. I mean the the word is inflated by now, I said. Well, Blip said, prepare your deflated inflatable to yet again be inflated. Then they got into their IFO and foxtrot oxforded off, as they say in the army. Or said, you know, there no more armies left, really. But but yeah, you know, there are so many half-truths going on, so much stuff is always left hanging. You know, everyone everybody's being so cryptic. Why? Why are they being so cryptic? You know, just before leaving, they say something cryptic, they leave. It's very unpractical. I mean it gives me no chance at all to figure out anything before I'm faced with whatever it is I wanted to figure out before figuring it out. But yeah, I I I guess if it were life and death, blip and blop would have told me. And seeing as they don't, it's not about life and death, so I'm okay. I also forgot to ask them about their investigation into the red finger beam. I I don't think they suspect me yet. I wonder what they would do if if they did. But yeah. I hope the entity found knocking on my window to be a fruitless endeavor and uh not an act that it will repeat every day. I mean, I do need my sleep if I'm able to do my job as a facility manager properly. And also, if if this entity was able to come inside the facility, it would have done so by now. Which means that I must be safe as long as I stay inside. You know, maybe it's one of those vampire things where you have to invite it in for it to be able to enter. Thomas said, don't let it in. You know. And if I were to let it in, I would need to see some proper credentials to have my safety ensured, you know, a written contract, perhaps, saying that you know that if I'm harmed, I'm allowed to haunt it for eternity. You know. Maybe that's what happened. Maybe the entity used to be a facility manager once, let something from the outside in, had it signed a contract, had that contract breached, and is now haunting this facility for all eternity. Who am I to say? Or it could be a demon. You know. Or I have misjudged the sirens. Perhaps the entity is the sirens, you know, maybe he's a or she, or it is one hell of a tenor. Singing like a angel. Looks like a hound, sings like an angel. You know, who am I to judge a book by its cover? The Deep Earth Anomaly Department looks like a 400-year-old tin can left out in the rain, so it's still a paradise on the inside, you know. So I'm I'm I'm keeping my options open. Anyway. I wrote a song the other day, a new one. I I I I think I'll play it for you. I think I'll do that. Right.
SPEAKER_00
Goes like this. Made to make people fall in love, out of reach fully inside. Moonlight come, break away. Can you see the stars above on sunny days? Point is I don't know what you say. Moonlight come break away. I will climb the highest hill on rainy days. Let me know I'm on my way.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah. That's at least some of it. So yeah. I think that's a nice way to end the day, and uh you know, perhaps before I'll go to bed I'll be able why it's from uh it's from Alexander Voss. El capitaine on board uh MS Wallbach. Whew! Man, that that's uh uh the that's a weight off my shoulder, you know. Any longer I categorize myself as a bodybuilder, you know, biggest shoulders on earth. Ah that was that was nice. Let's see. Okay, so this says all signals were lost. Fact also a fact. It's hard repairing an electronic device fused to a desk. I bet it is. But not impossible. Luckily, time is a luxury I do possess. I do need your help on a rather pressing matter. Seeing as the blizzard is acting up, I know this might be a risk, and I would not ask if it weren't of great importance. You wouldn't by any chance have a case of dynamite in your possession, would you? Your friend Alexander Voss. Hmm You know the the funny thing is um I just might however that will require a sound mind. And a sound mind is a mind who just woke up for from eight hours of sleep. I wouldn't want to handle a explosives. Uh tired. So I think that's where I'll put my mind right now. I'm in a state of slumber. So yeah. This is Jan. I'm signing off yet another cold shift.
