The following is a dossier detailing the relevant journal entries of an explorer that has returned to their home after an expedition to a newly catalogued planet. Sensitive information herein has been redacted to be accessed by personnel with appropriate security clearances only.

File ID: [REDACTED]

UTC: 72.11.01T14.37Z

Subject Name: [REDACTED]

Subject Home Location: [REDACTED]

Expedition Location: [REDACTED]

[Entry 278]

Home, sweet toilet. It's nice to be back. I swear I could have fallen asleep on it. Maybe I did, who cares. That says nothing about how comfortable it was to sleep in my bed again. When I woke up, my eyes were practically glued shut. I didn't mind. Spent the day prepping my suit for the next expedition and storing it. Man, the [REDACTED] really needs to work on their airlock filtration system. I've never had to clean so much dust off my suit before. I've already sent a few messages to their Chief Engineer, but something tells me that chick isn't too fond of me.

Anyway. I did do some of my actual work too. A little video editing, made some notes, wrote up some work order requests for sample analysis, you know, your regular tedious nonsense.

The plant life on [REDACTED] is really like nothing I've ever seen. Well, that's not exactly true. When compiling some of the footage, I noticed that many of the red, flower-like growths were gradually tracking across the sky, not unlike sunflowers, but they didn't seem to be tracking either of the system's local stars. I'll do some calculations to see what, exactly, they are pointing at, but I'll leave that for another day. I'm not even supposed to be working today, but whatever.

[Entry 281]

Alright, it took a little longer than I was expecting. As it turns out, determining the facing direction of an organic structure can be difficult when it's not as obvious as "The brightest point in the sky." I had to gather data points from video and images of hundreds of flowers from across the planet and cross-reference them with the time the footage had been recorded. Thank God for AI, is all I'll say.

All that being done, I was able to determine that the the flowers were facing a point outside of [REDACTED]'s system. Like, way outside it. Estimations show that it's more than 100 lightyears away, but I'm still not sure just how far. Maybe not even within the Milky Way. I'll be honest, I kind of gave up on looking at the numbers and data. It's making my eyes hurt and giving me a killer migraine. I've requisitioned some interns to help me gather and crunch numbers. More data to come.

[Entry 285]

Okay, here's some stuff. The interns were only supposed to be more accurately pinpointing the location that the flowers were facing, but one of these nosy little pricks got a wild hair up his ass regarding the cellular composition of these plant structures. I had assumed that they grew from the soil like most plant life on Earth, but, while the roots of these plants do extend into the ground, the intern found cells around the base of the plant structures that more closely resemble decayed animal cells, and more importantly, what looks like brain cells.

The brain-like cells combined with some preliminary reports of anomalous structures from some of the orbital crew has the intern convinced that we've found evidence of intelligent life and is urging me to push for funding for another expedition. I don't know why, he's not going to be paid for it either way. And his incessant communications regarding it are really getting on my nerves, especially with this fucking migraine. And my eyes, God damn it. I thought it was pink eye or something but my doc isn't so sure. It's starting to affect my vision and my BSI display.

It doesn't itch so bad when I look down though. I might have to take some time off till it passes.

[Entry 287]

I'm technically off duty as my eyes have been getting worse. Doc says that it's definitely not pink eye, but hasn't told me much beyond that. I've got a week off at least, but he wants me to keep up with the journal entries so, here I am, dictating with voice because I can't even see what I'd be typing anyway.

Looking down doesn't make it feel better anymore. Now, it's better when I crane my head and look up instead. I can almost see the relief against my sinuses and the back of my eyes. Even then, I can't resist scratching. It's driving me fucking insane.

[Entry 288]

I don't know why I didn't see it earlier. I mean, "understand," but literally "see" as well. About the only thing I can see anymore is a faint yellow blob in the direction of comfort. It's not random. I can't really confirm it as I can't see shit in my BSI, let alone any physical display, but I think that yellow blob is the same thing that the flowers on [REDACTED] were facing toward.

If that's true, then... could it be a...

[Entry 289]

Nobody's responding to me except for Dr. [REDACTED], who keeps telling me to continue journaling. Of course... now I know why. What's happening to me is novel, and it's possible it could be...

I don't want to think about it. The doc seems worried as well. Hasn't seen me in person in days. I can't see the daylight anymore, exactly... just the... the yellow star? I don't know how to describe it. I've never tried.

I call it a star, but I know it's not. Yellow isn't quite right either. It just... feels yellow, I suppose? More than what it looks like, is what it feels like. And it feels amazing. Or, rather, it doesn't feel like agony, if that makes sense. I don't know what else to say.

[Entry 290]

The star is brighter than ever. More yellow than anything I've ever seen. It's the only thing I can see any more. It's the only thing I want to see. Everything else, everywhere else is pain. I don't even know how I can see it. I have to have scratched clear into my eyes by now, but it doesn't hurt, as long as I'm facing the yellow star.

Is this thing even recording?

[Entry 291] [Final Entry]

My eyes are gone. My corneas have been picked away, but it doesn't matter. It was all just obscuring my view anyway. Yellow.

The subject was found the next day in a position on his hands and knees, facing [REDACTED]. The subject is medically stable at the time of this report's post date. He is near-catatonic when facing the direction specified but becomes violently resistant to outside change in facing direction.

The subject's eyes have been completely destroyed, and as-yet unidentified growths are forming in the damaged tissue. In light of the findings from the subject's journals and clinical assessment, the [REDACTED] department hereby formally issues a mandate for immediate emergency quarantine of [REDACTED] and requests urgent allocation of research personnel and resources for accelerated vaccine development.