Mission Log 172, Day 272, Cornerstone Cloud:

Well, we've sailed into a disturbingly pink dust cloud.

And I say disturbingly because it's the kind of pink that melts your eyeballs. Literally.

So recap. Rob was able to make a program that led us to the origins of where the rocks had been and it turns out that it's a giant, pink, and very deadly plasma cloud.

Aw, there's nothing better than waking up to see scolding neon juices drifting in front of your window. Anyway, after I type this up I'm going to collect some samples of said juices to see if we can match them to the rocks.

Amelia hasn't found anything new with our confusing language problem. Talk about a language gap. The only thing she's noticed is that there's this spikey, circlely symbol that keeps repeating throughout all the samples. She says it reminds her of Asian languages with its appearance and characters, but it's not possible it came from Earth. We're stumped.

Wish me luck with the plasma dive. I think I'll need it at this point.

Mission Log 174, Day 275, The Entrance to the Gamma System:

For the first time in a while, I'm happy to say that everything is at peace within the ship. There's no panic, there's a shipment of pudding on the way, and Austin's sick. Score! Which means I get the lab all to myself.

Amelia ended up taking the stones to her quarters. Well, our quarters since we share, but she needed a quieter space than the lab. I can see that. Sometimes it feels like Dr. A is hovering around our work, making sure we don't mess up, "his equipment," when really, it belongs to all of us. Not just him. But hey, he's sick. I can't complain.

As of now, the lab is now my temporary bedroom. I even set up a mattress under our square lab table since there's nothing under it anyway. Yes, I know it can be hazardous, but considering we're finding weird alien stuff, let me live!

But mattresses aren't why I needed to start this log.

So I collected the plasma right? And it was normal. Everything checked out. The goo behaves exactly like it should. Thank you, universe! I'm getting a little tired of mysteries as of late.

So today, I'm finishing up my tests. Yesterday and the day before, I was doing my normal ionic scans and pH testing. Those all revealed that the plasma has been there for a while. If my calculations are correct, it's just as old as the rocks, which thankfully, means that whatever occurrence happened, is long gone now since those rocks are at hundreds of thousands years old.

The last test I need to complete is a micro-bilar scan on our newest sample. We actually just charted a new solar system that's at the end of the plasma cloud. Over the past few days, I've collected samples throughout the cloud just to make sure it's all the same, and the one I'm holding in my hand is sample #7. Since the last 6 tests have shown me the same thing- no life, no worries!- I doubt this one will be of any significance, but I found it helps my state of mind to explain the boring science and my process in these logs. Anyway, once I finish up this sample, we're set to pilot into the middle of the Gamma system to see if we can find any planets to help with Earth's current overpopulation problem.

The test should only take an hour or so, but I'll start a new log here once things get finished up.