Intersystem News Feed

Posted by an anonymous user and force-distributed in every system of the intersystem network

Terra-Sol date 3814.276

Eight ships, a full third of the Pax Class Cargo Ship (PCCS) fleet, are gone. What passes for a central government on Paxis blamed the losses on sabotage at first. Their reaction was understandable, but evidence now points in a different direction. Despite this, there have been no additional statements from the PCGC. They’ve been keeping secrets about what they know. This cannot be allowed, especially not now. It won’t be allowed ever again if we have our way.

This is what authorities do not want widely known: a data core with a serial number that can be reliably traced to Pax Novis’s most recent cargo manifest has been discovered in the region of the ship’s last known location. This core should have been empty as it was being transported for installation on a new ship in the Draconis system, but the teams that recovered it discovered a wealth of information. The Pax Novis crew had reason to dump their ship’s logs onto a core stolen from their modular cargo pods. This act, illegal in itself, is enough to show the desperation of the ship’s crew. What’s more telling is what they filled the core with—a full copy of their ship logs, sensor data, message history, and more, all of it missing the encryption required for data transfers by the Pax Class Governing Council.

Pax Novis, like all the PCCS vessels, is intact and all lives aboard are healthy and whole, but none of the ships are coming home. Using technology developed in secret, these seven Pax ships have been sent to the other side of the Milky Way. The distance between them and the occupied quadrant is now so vast it will take generations for them to return or for help to find them, even with the speed of superluminal drives.

This was not done with malice or any intent to claim the contents of the ships’ cargo holds. Our work, both in the preparation and execution of this mission, has been focused on minimizing harm, not just the loss of life, but the damage done to the quality of life. Even those on the missing Pax ships will suffer nothing worse than loneliness. Their ships contain everything they need for long, content lives. It’s not the crews of the Pax fleet who will be facing a trial—it’s everyone else.

Reconvene a peace summit with officials who want talks to succeed. Listen to the scientists and psychologists and historians who have been trying to explain why the path society is on will only end when too much has been lost for it to continue.

Forge a peace that lasts. If you don’t, Pax Novis won’t be the last vessel to go missing.