Fellow Commanders!
The strangest thing happened to me recently. I was just cruising around scanning star systems in search of exobiology, when a very strange message appeared in the ship's system channel. I have never seen such a message before. It said something about the galactic simulation being shut down in 30 minutes. Where could message be coming from? Was someone perhaps pranking me? There didn't appear to be anybody else in the system, and I was thousands of light years away from the closest inhabited system. Ten minutes later another similar message arrived, warning about a galactic simulation shutdown in 20 minutes. "What is this?" I thought. Never seen anything like this. Maybe someone is pranking me?
Then the announced time came and... I lose consciousness! A complete blackout! When I suddenly wake up again, about two hours have passed, completely unaccounted for. The ship's logs have nothing. It's like a couple of hours went by, completely unaccounted for, leaving no trace of what happened during them.
But that's not really what started freaking me out. Turns out there are very subtle changes. Or at least I think there are. I'm almost sure there are. The star chart looks different somehow. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure it's different. It can't be a software update because I'm literally thousands of light years away from the nearest inhabited system! Am I just imagining it, or are small things different? You know how like a thousand years ago some people were talking about the so-called "Mandela Effect", where they swore they remember reality differently than it really was, and they thought that reality itself had changed, or that they had moved to some kind of parallel universe with subtle changes, while still remembering details of the other universe?
I used to laugh at such a silly thing. Now I'm not sure anymore. You know how some people think that this universe is just a simulation? That we are just inside a simulated reality? I always laughed at such claims as well, but now I'm not sure what to think. Am I going crazy? Is everything I thought I knew a lie?
Maybe this is what the people in the old days called cabin fever. I have been on this exploration mission for way too long, all alone, staring at the abyss. Maybe it's finally getting to me.
The strangest thing happened to me recently. I was just cruising around scanning star systems in search of exobiology, when a very strange message appeared in the ship's system channel. I have never seen such a message before. It said something about the galactic simulation being shut down in 30 minutes. Where could message be coming from? Was someone perhaps pranking me? There didn't appear to be anybody else in the system, and I was thousands of light years away from the closest inhabited system. Ten minutes later another similar message arrived, warning about a galactic simulation shutdown in 20 minutes. "What is this?" I thought. Never seen anything like this. Maybe someone is pranking me?
Then the announced time came and... I lose consciousness! A complete blackout! When I suddenly wake up again, about two hours have passed, completely unaccounted for. The ship's logs have nothing. It's like a couple of hours went by, completely unaccounted for, leaving no trace of what happened during them.
But that's not really what started freaking me out. Turns out there are very subtle changes. Or at least I think there are. I'm almost sure there are. The star chart looks different somehow. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm sure it's different. It can't be a software update because I'm literally thousands of light years away from the nearest inhabited system! Am I just imagining it, or are small things different? You know how like a thousand years ago some people were talking about the so-called "Mandela Effect", where they swore they remember reality differently than it really was, and they thought that reality itself had changed, or that they had moved to some kind of parallel universe with subtle changes, while still remembering details of the other universe?
I used to laugh at such a silly thing. Now I'm not sure anymore. You know how some people think that this universe is just a simulation? That we are just inside a simulated reality? I always laughed at such claims as well, but now I'm not sure what to think. Am I going crazy? Is everything I thought I knew a lie?
Maybe this is what the people in the old days called cabin fever. I have been on this exploration mission for way too long, all alone, staring at the abyss. Maybe it's finally getting to me.
