MAG 106: A Matter Of Perspective

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Jan Kilbride's account of his time spent aboard the space station Daedalus.

## Statement

Jan's statement begins with him explaining how mindblowingly vast the universe is, how small we are and how people cannot even possibly wrap their minds around this concept.

He was chosen as an astronaut for the space station *Daedalus* by a Mr. Fairchild, who did not explain why he picked Jan but referenced his psychiatric profile several times in the interview. He was sent up along with Manuela Dominguez and Carter Chilcott, though he notes that Chilcott was doing an isolation study and spent the mission in a separate compartment behind a thick, sturdy door. Dominguez also had her own tasks, but Jan suspected he was being given useless busywork replicating experiments that had already been done on the ISS.

Eventually, Jan began to feel as though they were not alone in space, though when he tried to discuss this feeling with Manuela she was dismissive. This feeling grew stronger day after day, until finally the entire station was shaken by a deep, concussive noise loud enough to make Jan's ears bleed. He tried to find Manuela, but when he kicked off a wall his forward momentum abruptly stopped, and he found the nearest hand grips were somehow too far away to reach. He spent an unknown amount of time flailing in the middle of the passageway before Manuela reappeared, claiming she had not heard anything.

After this, Jan spent a lot of time staring out into the void, and the mission controllers stopped sending him work. Eventually he went on a spacewalk to repair one of the station's solar panels, but instead of climbing onto the exterior of the station he just floated farther and farther away from it. Eventually Earth and the station receded to tiny specks, and he was confronted with a vast shadowy shape that blotted out the stars where it passed. He reflected that such a being could easily have killed him without even noticing, just as a human might accidentally tread on a weed.

## Post-Statement

Melanie is puzzled by the statement's abrupt end, as Kilbride definitely returned to Earth with Chilcott and Dominguez, but she can find no record of him anywhere after that. She remarks that it is like he disappeared into thin air.

Basira interrupts her train of thought by inviting her out for a drink, and they pause to gossip about Martin’s crush on John. While on the topic, Melanie indicates that John may be asexual; according to Georgie, he doesn't have sex. Melanie also mentions that John and Georgie dated many years ago. The two women eventually decide to invite Martin along for drinks. Melanie offers to talk to him once she has wrapped up the statement.

Martin, however, sends Melanie to Elias, who calls the meeting her first "performance review." He is frustrated by Melanie's repeated attempts to kill him, and the fact that he cannot figure out how to make her trust him. Instead, he reveals that Melanie's father did not die in his sleep at the Ivy Meadows Care Home (MAG 36) as she had been told. He implants in her mind the knowledge of how he *did* die, and Melanie begins to weep. Elias then warns her that if she continues to defy him, he will give her more information on exactly how awful his death was, and implant it so deeply in her mind that she will never be able to stop thinking about it. He then offers her the rest of the day off.

## Continuity

* Jan Kilbride is previously mentioned in MAG 57, and MAG 99.

* **Related Entity:**  The Vast and The Eye.
* In MAG 129 it is revealed that Gertrude Robinson used Jan Kilbride's dismembered body to stop The Buried's ritual.
* Manuela Dominguez was using her time aboard the Daedalus to create a black star for the Extinguished Sun ritual.

1. ↑ https://play.acast.com/s/themagnusarchives/mag160.1-season4q-apart1