330-Valkyrie’s View: A Year Among the Stars

November 25th, 2552 – Into the void
Escape Pilot Kat James Reporting

Today wasn’t what we planned, and I think it unnerved everyone here.

One minute I was working on the upgrades and the next we were in the void. It seems that the void is filled with points where we can slip into the void – but when we find one of those points, we have to follow it through the void to wherever it comes out. It’s kind of like the jump points we’ve created in that it goes through several points at the same time, but unlike our jump points, the wells here are more like pathways, like one-way express roads that only take you to a set exit point.

It was kind of terrifying the first time we found one of these points because there was no controlling where we went and we couldn’t simply leave.

The first one led back to normal space, but as we exited, another well opened up in front of us and we were right back into the void.

I’d gotten used to the sense of timelessness that followed when we were in the well, but here the chronometers kept moving and we found we weren’t alone.

Crossing into the void put us in the void walker’s world and while they couldn’t enter our ship, they could enter our minds.

Well, they could enter some of our minds. The Parataph didn’t take to it well and forced them out of their minds. Askir and Almir seemed to slip past their attempts and Tower and Me – well, we’d been in contact through the edge of the void – this was completely different.

Here they appeared more like the things of horror movies, everything the human mind created to haunt their dreams, only they weren’t in dreams. They were very, very real, and extremely alien.

And now that we were in their world, they weren’t even trying to be gentle. I think they would have driven us mad if it weren’t for Askir and Almir who took our hands and guided our thoughts back to our own minds.

All I know is— I want to stay as far away from the void as I can.

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