Chapter Text

LOG APPENDIX SE-II

Shadow-Object Inventory

Preface

Shikako Nara is an incurable hoarder.

That’s a verified, re-verified and certified fact. I don’t think either of us would be alive if she was less of a pack rat, so I will never complain about it to her.

I guess if I could absorb anything to take with me at any time I wanted to, I would also become something of a collector. Would certainly make packing for space missions much easier.

Having produced multiple useful supplies on Sol 6, Shikako had continued to produce item after item from the Shadow Dimension. She can demonstrably absorb basically any object and then reproduce it exactly as it was with one important change in properties. Everything living will have died during transition.

Perhaps the Shadow Entity feeds this way, to power all of the unexplained phenomena, which explains why she is desperate for me to grow more plants. At least she came to the right Martian for that one!

The fact that the Shadow Entity might get her powers’ charged up by draining literal life force is... weirdly comforting. The biomass and potential life of a full hillside, as demonstrated in her third farm prototype vastly outpaces whatever meager life a single human could offer (I hope).

She might be a shadow and death wizard, but I have botany powers. She needs my botany powers, to get more life going. Presumably, she’s gonna devour it all, and open some sort of way home. That makes my life and well-being quite important to her. I sure hope so.

I am getting off-course. Shikako claims she doesn’t like paperwork, but she’s absolutely incredible at it and at making checklists for us. NASA loves their lists, too.

Here, the two can finally meet.

Best of luck to future scientists trying to make heads or tails of all this.

Perishables^[1]

[1] Yes, technically speaking, anything Shikako absorbs has already perished, except for viruses, seeds and an occasional very lucky bacteria. Sue me.

• Fourteen ten-kilogram^[2] bags of milled shadow-rice. NASA property^[3] since sol 6.

  [2] There is a roughly 4% weight difference between our kilograms and the nearest equivalent shadow-measurement. When the list says a kilogram, it’s actually closer to 1 kilogram and slightly over 40 grams, but it’s an acceptable loss of precision for the amounts we are dealing with.

  [3] Most of the following items marked as NASA property have been traded for a spacesuit Shikako uses regularly. Possibly commandeered back upon her return. NASA can figure it out later and tell her how it is. Hopefully when I’m far away from that conversion.

• Seven ten-kilogram bags of milled shadow-wheat. NASA property since sol 6.
• Six ten-kilogram bags of unmilled shadow-rice. NASA property since sol 6. Three bags should be ready for planting, after resolving complications^[4]. Leftovers will be milled and eaten.

  [4] Shikako claims that seeds are one of the exceptions to the instant-death rule, but they have roughly a 50% survival rate. She has a way to distinguish between live and dead samples, but it takes her a while, and she’s been multitasking during our language lessons and sorting the seeds to viable and non viable sections. I’m yet to successfully spout any of the seeds she rejected, but that project has never been a priority. Shikako’s method does have a minor issue with false positives - some seeds just don’t wanna sprout even if they still supposedly have some life in them.

• Three ten-kilogram bags of unmilled shadow-wheat. NASA property since sol 6. One and a half should be ready for planting, after resolving complications. Leftovers will be milled and eaten.
• 30 packets of bland^[5] rice-based rations. Original ration measure is one packet for a day. NASA property since sol 6.

  [5] They’re honestly horrible. We’ll be spacing them out between much more acceptable food options. Shikako really doesn’t want them back, so I guess that’s one clear victory for NASA. I’ve tried to eat one, and found it an adequate source of energy for the whole day, eaten in five sitting, but it’s hard to estimate a true calorie count. My ballpark guess places it at almost 4000 calories. I can safely cut that in half for a non-intensive day, meaning it’s actually 60 days of food for me. I worry for anyone who had to subsist exclusively on them for longer than a week straight.

• 30 packets of great quality solder rations. Shikako insisted their contents are classified^[6].

  [6] Trading these was never on the table, but she did agree to let me have a taste. It’s still recognisably an energy-rich protein bar made primarily of shadow-rice, but that’s where similarities with the first one end. This one has a rich, very mildly sweetened taste. Some unrecognizable nuts in it, too. Calorie count seems even higher. A conservative estimate means that one such ration could last me almost three days of non-strenuous activity. Shikako is keeping them absorbed, for emergencies.

• 71 boxes of instant-noodles. Six different varieties.
• Box of dried shadow-meat and shadow-fish. About twenty five kilograms total. Unknown species.
• Upwards of two-kilograms of freshly^[7] absorbed shadow-fish.

  [7] Anything the Shadow Entity absorbs, remains in a stasis state. No decomposition that I could detect. Meaning the fish caught years ago would be as fresh as if they had been fished out of the water seconds ago.

• Box of salt. For food preservation.
• An assortment of unknown^[8] spices, including shadow-ginger-root.

  [8] Identification is not a current priority. Shikako doesn’t know how most of them were made. See my notes on Shadow-Linguistics for a full list of names used for spices.

• Three small boxes of different sweets. Totaling less than half-a-kilogram.
• Two small boxes of shadow-mochi. Totalling less than a quarter of a kilogram.
• Unknown number of classified food-supplements^[9].

  [9] Most notorious are circular pills. Shikako eats them whenever she has to pull off something bigger, and they have a clear stimulating effect on her. Has to do with chakra and its recovery. Think of it as a mana-potion, or liquid battery. My best estimate puts it at 20 Nara’s worth of chakra, but she has those in different colors and sizes, so that might be wrong. See my notes on Shadow-Chakra for a full list of observations.

• Unknown amount of liquid protein mix^[10].

  [10] I got a sample, but regretted asking for it. No more notes.

• An expensive-looking large bottle of shadow-sake.
• Five bottles of slightly sweet non-alcoholic drink^[11].

  [11] Mixed juice of multiple fruits. Quite tasty and probably very healthy.

Survival Supplies

• A lake’s worth^[12] of water.

  [12] A conservative estimate puts it at 5 000 000 000 square meters of water

• A large^[13] rock boulter of unknown size and composition.

  [13] Shikako had called it big, which might mean absolutely massive.

• A small hill. Including grass, bushes and a few trees. No animals, but a handful of now-dead bugs and crawlers, and a whole bunch of dead soil bacteria. Lots of potential for fertile soil^[14].

  [14] Most of it is held in prototype farm nr 3. Decided against re-absorbing into Shikako for now. Hoping to see some decomposition long term, after re-introducing some bacteria. It’s not an ideal place for storing, but taking a rover there and back every so often isn’t bad. Shikako tests improvements to the main farm there.

• An old wooden house, barely furnished. Seems to have been looted before absorption.
• A wooden shed with assorted farming tools^[15] and an old wooden wheelbarrow.

  [15] It sure beats using a tiny sample shovel for everything. Some of the tools are a bit archaic, and nothing runs on electricity. Seems like a small gardeners’ collection, tool are well kept. I’m sure there’s interesting things to learn for a historian, but I’m just happy to have the shovels. There’s also a primitive plow, but we didn’t even have to use that yet.

• A large heap of dried hay.
• A small wooden bridge, from some kind of ceremonial wood^[16].

  [16] I didn’t understand the explanation at all. Specially made? By some other Shadow Entity with unlimited bridges? Weird claims. One day, I will ask if it’s sacred, or if I could get a small sample of that wood. Maybe when Shikako’s in a great mood. Just in case.

• Three small wooden rowing boats, each large enough for four people. Only five oars.
• An assorted collection of different soil - in different sizes and compositions^[17].

  [17] Shikako seems to not keep a list of this, so she cannot tell which is which before summoning them forth. There’s roughly twenty different paper charms representing them.

• A whole bunch of metal weapons - from daggers, throwing knives to large swords and spears. Surprisingly few spears. Everything is both ancient and well kept.
• A large wooden box packaged to be shipped out, full of unprocessed iron ore.
• A few dunes-wroth of shadow-desert sand^[18].

  [18] Shikako suggested that some of it could easily be turned into glass. Somehow.

• A month's supply of firewood, enough to keep a constant fire going for that time. NASA property since sol 6.
• Enough miscellaneous furniture^[19] to furnish two medium-sized houses.

  [19] I have a new bed. It’s twice as big as the old cot was, and quite comfortable.

• Three different sized rugs^[20].

  [20] One is in the HAB, covering up a stain on the floor. Don’t ask. The rug is comfortable.

• Multiple pillows^[21].

  [21] I have a new favorite pillow.

• A large tent with at least seven bedrolls.
• Multiple, different outfits that fit her human-shape.
• Multiple, different outfits that do not fit her human-shape, possibly meant for different people^[22].

  [22] I have a new favorite bathrobe. It’s handmade and probably would be super expensive. No idea what shadow-material was used in making it, but it makes me happy.

• A scarecrow.
• Two metal bathtubs.
• A whole bunch of storage containers - mostly wooden barrels and boxes.
• A whole bunch of books in a couple shadow-languages^[23].

  [23] Shikako hasn’t shared the inventory with me, but I’ve seen at least two different writing systems of a language that decidedly isn’t Shadow-English. Some books are printed, and some are entirely hand-written, and hand-boud. Most notable two books: a primer with assorted health information and diagrams, that Shikako showed my trying to explain chakra; a dictionary/conversation guide between two different dialects, neither of which are Shadow-English - Shikako used that one when deciding our lesson plans.

• A large heap of paper - some if it pre-cut into smaller pieces, and some in large, rolled up scrolls.
• A few rolls of yarn.
• A small sewing kit.
• A wooden tray.
• Two wooden, one metal plate.
• A clay set of measuring cups. Three sizes corresponding to different volumes of liquid.
• Metal weights, corresponding to units of mass^[24].

  [24] Had to recalculate conversion for Martian gravity. There are some potential conversion errors when we did so (and I am unsure if these are the standard used in shadow-universe, or just an approximate copy of one. The one closest to our kilogram is almost a perfect one tenth of the sacks of shadow-grain, so we're quite close.

• A frying pan.
• A rice cooker that I cannot use^[25].

  [25] It works on the same shadow-magic as most of Shikako’s tricks, and without any chakra, I cannot activate it. But it works well and is very silent.

• A yellow lightsaber^[26].

  [26] It doesn't exactly look the part, ending in a claw instead of an obvious emitter, clearly isn’t plasma and doesn’t keep the shape exactly, but it does go vrou vrou when swung through the air. Hence - lightsaber. Can be used to melt metal, too. It was one way Shikako tried to fix our satellite dish. Didn’t work.

• A digital alarm clock. NASA property. Experiment^[27].

  [27] It didn’t undergo any detectable change when returned from absorption, and neither the date nor time it was showing had changed; even though a half hour had passed. Currently conducting a longer term experiment, planning to verify the battery charge afterwards too.

• A spare^[28] spacesuit. NASA property.

  [28] it’s the one with the fixed breach. Aside from sentimental value, we decided that having a spare, well, ‘on hand’ wherever we are without actually lugging it around would be useful in case of emergency, so she gets to keep it for now.

• A box of spare tools. NASA property.
• Two sleeping cots. NASA property.
• A flash drive with disco music^[29]. Johanssen’s.

  [29] Yes, Beth, I backed it up on one of the computers, before letting Shikako absorb it. I still hope it gets ruined during transition and my backups magically disappear, too. Shikako, the traitor, seems to enjoy disco reasonably well. She often messes up lyrics or tempo, as if expecting the songs to go different. It’s an occasional source of frustration for her and a moment of happy schadenfreude for me. Hypothesis: Shadow-Earth might have Shadow-Disco. Caution: Do not explore the theory. Too dangerous, if true.

Unknowns

• Unknown number of classified medical^[30] supplies.

  [30] Shikako claims to be a certified beginner medic. My healed injuries agree all her certifications are valid with an undying trust. Most of her healing supplies were pronounced too dangerous for me, because my body doesn’t have a way to accept most chakra-based treatment methods, nor could I operate any of her tools should she be the one requiring medical attention. She might be telling the truth, or keeping some of the most advanced miracles close to herself.

• Unknown number of living deer. Unconfirmed^[31].

  [31] I don’t understand the explanation. What Shikako tried didn’t work, and knocked her out for a few very scary hours. At least she did warn me it could happen. The blood and weird black circle on the hab floor didn’t help. Someone else can ask her more questions about that one, I’m not touching it. We covered the stain with a rug, afterwards and that’s the last time I’m mentioning it.

• Unknown number of dead bodies. Unconfirmed^[32].

  [32] Look, I’m not gonna ask her directly. Shikako was evasive when I tried to broach the topic. The existence of dead, absorbed shadow-fish and ability to seal living creatures to make them deceased but preserved, doesn’t escape the possibility that there might be some dead bodies… inside the Shadow-Entity (I know I definitely saw a human finger at least once). It does seem a convenient way to transport dead animals - and kills most of the bacteria without even cooking the meat. What’s there to say she has no bodies of her enemies or fallen subordinates absorbed within? She has admitted to being a soldier, trained from a young age (whatever that young age is for Shadow Entities), and her bearing isn’t one of the person who has never harmed anyone.

• Poisons and antidotes. Classified^[33].

  [33] I’m surprised she mentioned having these at all, but it came up during our medicine focused language lessons.

• Explosives.
• Traps.
• Acid.
• Barriers^[34].

  [34] By ‘barrier’, Shikako means the invisible dome she created to keep the elements out while she was healing me and forging our pact. I do not know how a Shadow-Entity can absorb a barrier and spit it out, but at this point my questions have questions, and her answers aren’t too helpful..

• Unknown^[35].

  [35] Yes. Literal unknown number of unknown items. Shikako doesn’t seem to have nor keep an up-to-date inventory herself, and even has a specific section of focus papers, that she doesn’t know the contents of. There’s a chance she’s pulling my leg. I don’t know.

• Trash^[36] or other waste.

  [36] Sometimes, Shikako uses her absorption ability to dispose of things. Sometimes, those things stay absorbed for long periods of time. I’m not even gonna bother trying to keep that list straight. It happens.