Sol-Date: 2215-51-43

Sorry I didn't post last week. I've been busy with work and a few other things around this ship, and then we jumped systems, which takes down any unneccesary communication for as long as it takes to get to the next system. We were down for four days.

So to give an update about the events which I can only describe as supernatural. Everything has been normal. We haven't had any maintenance issues at all, and the ship has been working flawlessly. Or if there were issues, they were fixed without the need of a report. All I was concerned about was that whatever it was, whether it was a creature inhabiting the ship or just my head, it's gone.

Yesterday, we had our procession for PFC Bengle, and Sgt. Dick. on Momoru. The captain had the entire crew lined up on either side of the funeral procession as the pallbearers carried his caskets to the family. Even though I didn't know them, it still made me tear up. And then they played Taps. Taps is enough to make any grown man cry.

Two days after, I heard some of the maintenance workers gossiping, saying that the caskets were abnormally light. Almost like they were empty. I've carried my share of caskets, and I know they aren't light to begin with. I asked one of them about it after they were done, all they said was, "Not sure. It was almost like the body wasn't in the casket. But that's crazy, right?" The first one chucked a bit, shrugged and walked off, leaving me to my thoughts. I asked a second and she said basically the same thing. My grandpa always said, one is an event, two is a coincidence, but three is a pattern.

It wasn't until the next day that the third came to me in my office.

"I heard you were asking around about the weight of the caskets," he said. Was a corporal. Higgins I think was his name.

"I might have been. What's up?" I asked.

"Well," he kind of paused. I offered him a chair, which he took. "It's going to sound crazy."

"Son," I said, "I've been dealing with crazy for almost half a month. You can tell me what's going on, and I'll probably believe it."

"Alright, so I've been noticing things for a couple of tendays now that I thought I was just making up. Sounds, knocking, nothing terribly loud, but kind of like background noises that weren't there before. You know how it is, you get in these things and can't sleep for weeks because of all the noise, but after a while you just tune it out. Now it's almost as if something is missing. A pattern that was there but now it isn't."

"I think I know what you're talking about," I said. I thought back to all the bullshit I've already told you about. "What does this have to do with the caskets?"

"Well, I was one of the pallbearers. I knew Bengle. We were good friends. I've seen funerals before. Anytime the bearers have to carry caskets any distance longer than 10 yards or so, they are sweating from the strain. We carried them almost a quarter of a mile, and none of us were even straining. Almost like there wasn't a body in the casket."

He went on for a bit about whether the military would keep Bengle's body or not, and many other things about his friend that I'm sure he would prefer me to not talk about. You get the idea, though. I'm not the only one that was hearing or seeing those things. I'm not crazy.

I might go look at the caskets tomorrow. We only commission caskets made of Solid Mahogany, with Brass railings and trim. This helps to accent the Crimson and Bronze of the Space Corps flag. They are usually pretty heavy. If they were made of a light wood, it might account for the missing weight. Who knows.

Until next time.