Where did I leave my keys?

[Admiral Atragon-9 0]

Open Personal Log, Admiral Atragon-9, USS Manticore, NCC-5852-A, Remote, Stardate unknown.  Password *********

{whirr, click}

I have been in the, uhmm, Ilus sector (I need to workshop that name) for an indeterminate time.  As I mentioned before, my bio sensors have been acting strangely - or else my body has been.  Time was passing too quickly for me as I came through the wormhole and since I've exited it a few ... days? ago, it's not gotten better.  It seemed like time simply stopped, according the Pegasus and my suit's bio sensors.  At one point I must have fallen asleep because I jerked awake with terrible full-body pain.  My bio monitors started reporting that my exoskeletal suit was taking on many aspects of the Ilus living machines and it is now merging with my body, hence the pain of the suit truly becoming an exoskeleton for me!  I'm not sure how the end result is different than the Borg, I just know that the machinery is not the goal, it is an aid, an augmentation, a...  okay, I'm not making a lot of sense.  Let me get back to this later.  Pause recording.

Resume Log.  It has been another day (ish) and I just worked up the courage to take off my uniform and see what is really going on.  My assumptions were correct, my manufactured exoskel suit has altered itself, taking on aspects of the Ilus machines.  It has also reduced the clearance between itself and my body and there are mechano-organic entry points at all of my joints, along my spine and the edges of my ribs.  I have become a caged man, no, I guess it's more of an armor-clad body.  I don't feel any pain now, in fact I feel stronger and healthier than ever.  If I can trust the bio monitors, this is not an artificial or drug-induced delusion, my body is physiologically 10 years younger, but chronologically 10 years older.  I think I'll need a new frame of reference beside linear time.

Speaking of time, the Ilus has spent their time not just altering me, but the Pegasus as well.  There is a huge data dump being collected by the Pegasus computer core as a way of "telling their story."  There are now physical armor pieces merged with, and just under, the hull.  This armor can withstand phaser and photon torpedo attacks as if they were micro meteorites.  This technology will fundamentally change the ships of the Federation, if we can incorporate it.  I wondered why their smaller ships did not have this same armor when we met them in the Alpha Quadrant.  This inquiry lead me back to the topic of time again.  I wonder if all of my thoughts will be curved in on themselves (and out at the same time) from now on.  I don't think the Ilus personal armor has affected my brain, maybe it has just freed it up to take on my natural serpentine inclinations.

Right, Time.  The Ilus are not constrained by past and future as rigid constructs.  They are the ones who brought the Republic back from our future to our present.  They knew how the Shiloh would react when the small ships came through the wormhole.  They knew this because it had already happened.  They knew this and they wanted to acknowledge our societal advances, so they deliberately sent through un-armored drone ships, as they knew what would happen.  They let our linear time play out to verify all of our actions and reactions.  They knew the Shiloh would return and they knew exactly when they would attempt to destroy the carrier and the wormhole so they provided this "history" to the Republic and gave them a way to us, so they could stop the Shiloh without the Ilus being directly involved.  I have seen all of this even though they occurred after I entered the wormhole.  The Pegasus showed me 3-D, or is it 4-D?, recordings of these events, so I can be kept up to date.  Or wait, it's not really up-to-date any more, it's future history?  Retrograde prophesy?  Oh boy, here comes my temporal headache again - I guess my head isn't altered after all.  That would be the first thing they would fix, have fixed, will fix.... iiiieee!!

Yeah, so time is not just fluid here, it's pretty much a puddle of mercury.  So back to my noting of the passing of time - total guesstimate.  What I do know is that the upgrades to the Pegasus and myself are almost complete.  I know that I will be going back through the wormhole soon.  I know that the wormhole's Alpha Quadrant terminus has now been linked with Titan, so it will always be just beyond their magnetosphere.  I know that future transit will be safer for Federation ships with small preemptive upgrades to our ship hulls and EVA equipment.  Finally, I know the alterations to my exoskeleton (it's really not a suit any more, it's really my exoskeleton) and the Pegasus was something that I discussed with the Ilus at length and agreed to... or I will soon  :: rubs temples ::  Yeah, oww.  All of these things and more were/will be fully explained and explored.

Anyway, it's time for me to go back, before any "rescue mission" is executed.  I'm done here - for now, I wanna go home.

EOM, EOT  {whurr, cluck}