TOP SECRET DIRECTIVE

FROM:
2ND FLEET COMMANDING DIRECTORATE

TO:
COMMAND, CCN SCIENCE VSL 'ANAXAGORAS'

OBJECTIVE:
IMMEDIATE RECONNAISSANCE PLANET, NYX PRIME

DEPLOYMENT:
CCN ‘ANAXAGORAS', CCN 'AVICENNA'

ORDERS:

CCN ANAXAGORAS AND AVICENNA PROCEED WITH ALL SPEED TO PLANET
DESIGNATED NYX PRIME. UNINHABITATED POSSIBLY HABITABLE
PLANET. CYGNUS SPUR, PTOLEMY CLUSTER. RADIO TELESCOPES
LOCATED ON CYGNUS PRIME HAVE IDENTIFIED NYX AS POSSIBLY
COLONIAL CANDIDATES FOR SETTLEMENT. ESTABLISH VIABILITY OF
HUMAN COLONIZATION. AIR, WATER, GRRUND SCANS TO COMMENCE
UPON ARRIVAL. ESTABLISH SCIENTIFIC OUTPOSTS ON GROUND FOR
RECONOITER OF INDIGENOUS FLORA AND FAUNA. DETERMINE THREAT
LEVEL POSED BY ANY ANDALL INDIGENOUS FLORA AND FAUNA.
AVICENNA TO DETACH AFTER DETERMINATION OF HABITABILITY
CONFIRMED OR DENIED.

EMCON:

NO TRANSMISSIONS TO BE BROADCAST EN ROUTE TO NYX PRIME.
ESTABLISH IMMEDIATE CONTACT ANY STATION ASAP UPON MISSION
COMPLETION.

ROE:

UPON DETEMINATION OF PRESENCE OF HAZARDOUS LIFE ON PLANET
SURFACE ROE IS WEAPONS FREE. DETERMINE EFFECTIVE EXTIRPATION
STRATEGY IMMEDIATELY.

__SPEED OF ESSENCE__

Captain Tomlinson, commanding officer of the Combined Colonial Navy’s premier scientific research vessel, ‘Anaxagoras’, keyed the intercom on his desk. “Danny” was all he said before keying the intercom back off and laying down the orders onto the desk blotter. The intercom crackled and Danny answered, “Yessir.”

RE: Nothing But The Night - Aug 2, 2022, 11:54 PM

So, this is not a happy email and I figured I’d get all out at the same time. I have been struggling with an alcohol problem and it is getting acute. Since you are the closest people in my life I figured I would let you know, otherwise it will only get worse. I am not sure I am committed to sobriety for my whole life but I don’t want to drink indefinitely. I am really terribly ashamed and would have been more honest earlier but my pride has gotten in my way. I apologize that I have to send this but otherwise really bad shit might happen. I am very vulnerable right now and have been feeling very isolated and don’t want to feel that way ever again.

Anxiety: An Introduction

I often times wake up in the middle of the night in a vivid panic. It is not that there is someone beating down my door (or even the worry of that), or that I have forgotten something terribly important that ought to have been front of mind. Rather, the terror comes to me across many years, reaching out from a far future that in the moment feels very near at hand. I hesitate to even address these feelings as they are childish and immature, the fear of death being something that all humans have confronted and managed, and which adulthood should inure one from. But it is indeed the fear of death that drives me into a furious panic. I quite literally jump out of bed, pacing the length of my apartment, heart pounding away and my cat looking quite confused for about 10 minutes before I can slide back into bed to confront the night again.

Drying up ain’t so easy. When I went to the doctors because I had been on a ten day bender (though the time varies in my own and other’s recollections) and getting out of bed required a few beers to be manageable, I was actually instructed by my doctor to keep drinking. My decisive decision to stop drinking was met my doctor with a very measured caution that to do so categorically might be too dangerous. Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome is in part the result of the residual compensatory behaviors of the human neurological system. Alcohol, a natural depressant, depresses the activity of the Central Nervous System, which then accommodates the depression by over-firing. Once alcohol is removed, and the CNS is no longer depressed by it, the compensatory hyperactivity becomes excessive and causes a variety of symptoms. In those that are infrequent and typically modest users of alcohol, the withdrawal symptoms are mild and pass quickly, while frequent and excessive users experience more severe symptoms.