Black Lighthouse ( Onyx Monitoring Station ) Journal # 2

POSTED BY: TheLighthouseKeeper
UPDATED: Friday, June 19, 2009 23:52
VIEWED: 19294
PAGE 1 of 1

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Wednesday, April 15, 2009 1:27 PM

[ Here's the link to journal #1 ]
http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=21&t=37667

Day 22, dusk

I'm in the bunker.
It is underground but it's under a tall hill, so there is a good view out the long narrow observation "window" at the top level.
The window is very thick.
Not as high as the lighthouse in here but you can still see the canopy of the jungle

The strange cloud is coming.
I couldn't see it at first, so I put on the night vision goggles, and I'm able to barely make out an
odd shimmery effect - kind of like the 'mirage effect' of heat on cement from a distance.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:16 PM

Day 23, Midnight

The gas has crossed the electrified border
and is approaching the base of the hill.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:21 PM

Day 23, 1 AM

The gas has enveloped the hill were this bunker is.
I have my mask on.
Nothing to do but wait, and see what happens.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:34 AM

Day 23, sunrise

No sleep.
I keep thinking that the gas is having one effect
or another, but I'm probably imagining things.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:37 AM

Day 24

Still nothing unusual... except for the fact that
I'm sitting in an underground bunker, with a gas mask on,
on an island were everyone left with no explanation.

No sleep

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:40 AM

Day 25

Looking out the long narrow observation window, I can see that the gas doesn't seem to have affected the animals... at least not yet.

What could it possibly be?!

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:42 AM

Day 26

I think I've set the worlds record for consecutive
days wearing a gas mask.
Tomorrow I go for the 'no sleep record'.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:46 AM

Day 27

There is 1 or 2 dead animals, it looks like, down near the electric fence.
Most likely killed when going between the poles.

I'm taking off this ruttin' mask.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:47 AM

Day 28

I don't feel any effects.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:50 AM

Day 29

I still don't want to risk going outside.
I can't stay in here forever though.
I'll let whatever is left of the gas dissipate, at least for a little while longer.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 2:56 AM

Day 30

1 month.
I think I'll celebrate by going outside.

It rained earlier and there was no strange cloud
condensation reaction - like when the gas 1st came
in contact with water
(over the ocean, and then again in the 1st storm).
It should be gone.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 3:12 AM

Day 60

Sorry I haven't written in a month but I've been sleeping.
Just kidding, but not that much.
I did sleep for what seemed like a few days, back on the day I left the bunker.
I came back here to the Black lighthouse and went to bed.
I didn't realize that I left this journal back in the bunker.

When I woke up, I started looking everywhere for a key or a code or some way to disable the electric fence.
No luck.
So I used the small boat we have down on the docks
to sail 'outside' the perimeter, and dock the boat
on the coastline past the last pole.

The boat is too small to try to sail to the mainland.
That's hundreds of miles away in rough seas - suicide.

Then I said 'now what?'
There is a jungle in front of me were people seem
to 'disappear' in.
Wild animals also.

So I sailed back.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 3:15 AM

Day 90, 3 Months

The Alliance hasn't sent a new team in, as was the plan every 3 months.
Not that I expected them to.

The canopy of the jungle seems to be changing color slightly.
I didn't think that jungles had a fall season.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 3:17 AM

Day 120

Removing dead animals from the fenceline seems to be my new job.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 3:19 AM

Day 150

The seagulls that used to love to soar above me in the sky, now all seem to just want to walk around on the ground.

Come to think of it... I haven't seen any birds flying in quite a while.

Less animal sounds from the jungle also.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, April 17, 2009 3:33 AM

Day 180, 6 Months

A sad day.

As I watched the seagulls sitting in a large group outside the Lighthouse, another seagull flew down and started killing all the other seagulls, one by one.

There are seagull feathers everywhere as the sea breeze blows them constantly around and around.
I am now engulfed in a ghoulish 'snow-globe'.

I have never heard of such behavior with seagulls.

Also the jungle has turned a palish color.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 1:50 PM

7 Months

I finally found out how to shut down the electrified fence.
It's a series of buttons and levers inside the power station.
I should have figured this out earlier.

With all that's happened, I think I'll leave the fence on for now.

That low, loud howling sound again happened tonight.
I was hoping not to hear it any more.

Right on cue - a ship falls out of the sky moments afterward.

This ship is falling towards the western part of Onyx.
Looks like it will probably 'land' on the other side of the island before it crosses water again.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 1:56 PM

8 Months

After studying the dead birds, I still can't find the cause of their lethargy.
I couldn't catch the seagull that killed all the other seagulls - so I couldn't do any pathology on him.

I'm sure that the G-23 PAX gas is the culprit, though I don't know why that 1 seagull had the opposite reaction.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:11 PM

9 Months

A new Alliance team would have now been here to relieve the last one (which also never arrived).

I still can not access the very top floors of the Black Lighthouse -
were the machinery is that seems to bring down space ships in orbit around Miranda, though it hasn't happened in 2 months.

It did happen after the team left, so I suppose it is on 'auto pilot' or something.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:32 PM

10 Months

Today I heard a gunshot near the edge of the jungle.
I went down to investigate and I saw what looked like a man with an Alliance team uniform on,
sitting with his back against a tree, with a gun in his hand, and blood running all down the side of his face.
I think he had just committed suicide.
I was about to turn the fence off to go help him when I heard a lot of horrible shrieks coming towards me.
I decided not to check on him, he is dead anyway.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:33 PM

11 Months

Today I was in the growing field getting some food, and I heard loud noises coming from the jungle - screams.

As I watched the fenceline, I could see a man in the jungle running toward the clearing - just before the fenceline.

Then, out of nowhere, a group of, what looked like long-haired men dressed in black with swords, overwhelmed him and killed him.

It looked like they ate him but I could be mistaken.
I was busy running back to the safety of the Lighthouse.

One of the Black swordsmen saw me.
He chased me.
But he was electrified as soon as he ran between the poles.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 2:43 PM

12 Months

Finally I have received another transmission from Michael.

He was safe in a bunker and says that the only people that where unaffected by the PAX gas
where the ones that stayed in the bunkers that the Alliance put in designated areas, around Miranda.

He mentioned savages attacking people in the city.

He has made a contact who is willing to smuggle him off Miranda and help him go look for his 2 brothers.

That was his last transmission.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 3:05 PM

13 Months

Today as I walked out of the Lighthouse I was confronted by a man who was covered in blood and dirt.

He said he was on a spaceship - the Brutus, who crashed in the jungle a few months ago.
He said it was like his ship was 'forced out of the sky' by something planetside.

After living in the jungle for a few months,
most of his crew had been killed by the savages in black, but he escaped, and has been living on the run since.

He built a small sailing craft with some of the wreckage and has been moving up and down the coastline to survive.

He finally saw the Black Lighthouse and docked here. (lucky he didn't find me by land).

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 3:19 PM

14 Months

My new friend has been staying in the bunker this last month.
He's a little paranoid.
He goes by the name Hunter.
I don't know if that's his 1st or last name...
or occupation.
He doesn't talk much about what he did on the 'Brutus', he kind of avoids it, like everything else.
He has helped me build a bigger boat.
He thinks the savages in black will eventually figure out that they can get to us the same way he got here - by water.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 3:24 PM

15 Months

The savages gather every night just outside the electric fence and stand shoulder to shoulder,
for the length of the fence, all night, just staring at the Lighthouse.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Saturday, April 18, 2009 3:44 PM

16 months, Dawn.

OK, time to leave.
We saw the savages, with our binoculars, trying to test a raft that they built, up the coastline.
It fell apart as the waves hit it.

We have prepared for this, and have been mostly 'packed' for a while.

I have left the codes for all the computers and machines locked in my rooms.

I will leave my journals in the main computer room so they may be found and tell the story.

I hope that if someone ever comes across this place that they will learn of what happen on Miranda, and that they live to tell of it.

I will turn the electric fence off from the power station, as we leave.
The savages are afraid of it now anyway.

If someone ever does find this place, I don't want to be the one that kills them.

Time to leave my home... with Hunter.

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, June 19, 2009 11:45 PM

Hunter and I have been sailing up and down the coast, mapping the island and avoiding reavers -
as i now know them as.

Today we came across a man in the jungle - badly wounded from what sounded like a series of gunfire and explosions.

We carried him away from danger and on to our boat.

After he recovered slightly, we began speaking with him and learned he is the captain of a ship called Tranquility.

Remarkable!
He had my journals in his brown coat!
He gave them back to me before he was rescued by his shipmates in a shuttle.

As Hunter and I sit motionless in a calm sea, we are shadowed by a black ship full of reavers.

Mysteriously, neither boat is moving,
for there is no wind and no current.
This has given me time that needs to be passed,
by writing, as we experience this ghostly showdown.

I'm glad to have my journals back.

As the captain left with his rescuers, he also gave me his copy of an old 'Earth That Was' book:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

THELIGHTHOUSEKEEPER

Friday, June 19, 2009 11:52 PM

On the inside cover, the Captain wrote:

"Don't kill the albatross"

PART I
An ancient Mariner meeteth three Gallants bidden to a wedding-feast, and detaineth one.

It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
`By thy long beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me ?

The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin ;
The guests are met, the feast is set :
May'st hear the merry din.'

He holds him with his skinny hand,
`There was a ship,' quoth he.
`Hold off ! unhand me, grey-beard loon !'
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

The Wedding-Guest is spell-bound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale.

He holds him with his glittering eye--
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years' child :
The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone :
He cannot choose but hear ;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

`The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared,
Merrily did we drop
Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the lighthouse top.

The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the Line.

The Sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he !
And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea.

Higher and higher every day,
Till over the mast at noon--'
The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The Wedding-Guest heareth the bridal music ; but the Mariner continueth his tale.

The bride hath paced into the hall,
Red as a rose is she ;
Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear ;
And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner.

The ship driven by a storm toward the south pole.

`And now the STORM-BLAST came, and he
Was tyrannous and strong :
He struck with his o'ertaking wings,
And chased us south along.

With sloping masts and dipping prow,
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,
And forward bends his head,
The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast,
The southward aye we fled.

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold :
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds where no living thing was to be seen.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen :
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--
The ice was all between.

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound !

Till a great sea-bird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.

At length did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came ;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew.
The ice did split with a thunder-fit ;
The helmsman steered us through !

And lo ! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.

And a good south wind sprung up behind ;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner's hollo !

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine ;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white Moon-shine.'

The ancient Mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen.

`God save thee, ancient Mariner !
From the fiends, that plague thee thus !--
Why l