Materialistic temptations

I received a folder with advertisements for ships. 

This happens regularly, I am sure every pilot has their mailbox flooded with these. Usually I just throw these away.

But this one caught my eye - and expedition command ship? It is a new model, for sure, I have never seen anything like it. And I have to say, I was immediately charmed! This is the first time I have seen a battlecruiser-class hull geared for long-term scientific expeditions that involve camping out in space. And it has a way to boost the decoding powers and data hacking capacity of fleet members. Even d-scan range can be boosted. Ah, and the spatious hangars it has for collecting all sorts of archaeological finds! 

However, it is scandalously expensive. I must not give in to temptation and remember my vow of poverty, by which I also pledge to only keep ships that will aid me in my quest, in stead of collecting endless fleets of ships like most fellow pilots. 

Still, it is tempting.

I guess I will start by studying the skillbooks on the techniques that need to be mastered for these boosts, and we will see from there.

A trove of wormhole data

After a week of observations, during which dr. Fritte Cornelius and I worked in shifts to ensure  continuous monitoring of Sanctified Vidette, we have obtained a catalogue of over five hundred surveyed wormholes. Add to this list earlier efforts and other efforts from the Signal Cartel, and the total available for statistical analysis is well over two thousand five hundred wormholes! 

Dr. Cornelius concluded that we had enough data for decent statistics, and I agreed (much to the relief of mr. Damus, my overworked cloak technician). My new friend and Signal cartel scientist is working now on a full report for their scientific division - I hope that this publication will be shared with all in the cluster. 

I think I can already reveal that our earlier hypothesis stands confirmed, now on a much firmer ground. There is no statistically significant deviation corresponding to a preference for a link to one or other Jove observatory system or region. The wormholes in Sanctified Vidette - and the other Drifter systems - spawn exactly as if they are drawn from a uniform distribution within the set of all known-space systems with a Jove observatory. 

I have returned back to our familiar skies of Domain, and docked up the Indagatrix for maintenance and small repairs. After such a long stay camping out in space, it would be imprudent not to get her checked up. 

I will not stay docked up for long, though. Dr. Cornelius invited me to another expedition, somewhat urgently. He seems convinced that something is about to happen in another Drifter wormhole, the Sentinel Military Zone established by EDENCOM. He does not appear at liberty to tell me what he knows, but he mentioned a growing number of spacetime anomalies of a different kind - not wormholes. This may be the source of the rumors that have been in the news. 

Of course, if something does happens in the EDENCOM wormhole because of spacetime experiments with Drifter technology, I would like to document it before the entire universe blames Amarr again as they always do when things go wrong.

Through the looking glass

Have you noticed that when you look into a wormhole, you see an image of that part of the universe where you will end up if you enter the wormhole? Looking at this wormhole, one might recognize several nebula typical of the sky of perhaps the Insmother region. 

To understand how the image visible in the wormhole is formed, let us begin with depicting the curved space near a traversable wormhole connecting two "flat" spacetimes. We will stick to two spatial dimensions, and pretend that we are ants that can only move on the sheet. That allows to embed the sheet in a third dimension just to make visualization possible - but keep in mind that for the ant this third dimension does not exist. The wormhole then looks like this:

It is a curved surface, with a neck connecting two sheets. The upper sheet could be flat spacetime somewhere in Domain, the lower sheet could be flat spacetime somewhere in Seclusion. The wormhole connects both through a narrow neck. The ants (and Amarr exploration frigates) can travel from one sheet to the other via a continuous path.

Now let's imagine you are at a certain distance from the wormhole and you shine a powerful laser beam, such as the ones commonly found on our ships. Start by pointing the laser in a different direction than the wormhole. The laser will highlight a straight line away from you. Now, as you point it closer to the edge of the wormhole, the line will bend, and your pointer will be deflected.

The left image shows the curved spacetime with a wormhole. Note how the rays, emitted by someone in the "lower" universe, remain in the lower part. From the point of view of the observer, the rays look as in the right image, where the circle represents the wormhole opening. You can clearly see the deflection when pointing near the wormhole's edge. It is in fact much stronger than the deflection from a star or any other commonly found massive object, with the exception of a black hole. Very close to the edge, the rays can even loop around. That is why you see an mirror image of space around you very close to the wormhole's edge. This is gravitational lensing in action.

Next, point the laser into the wormhole. Now the laser beams follow paths like these:

They cross from the lower universe (for example somewhere in Seclusion) to the upper universe (for example Domain). In the laser pointer's own universe, the rays are seen to enter the wormhole, as shown by dashed lines in the right figure. They emerge in the universe on the other side (full lines flaring out). When pointing closer to the edge, you can see that the rays swirl around while they are in the neck of the wormhole, and are strongly bent. 

Tracing the light backwards, this means that you will get the full 360 degree view of the universe on the other side, visible as an image in the wormhole. Closer to the edge of the wormhole, the image gets more compressed and scrambled and harder to distinguish. The view is less distorted in the center, but note also that the rays (black and red) towards the center of the hole bend back - so you see a mirrored image of the target universe.

((ooc note: I made the figures in Wolfram Mathematica; they show the geodesics of the classic textbook metric for traversable wormholes first proposed by Morris and Thorne in Am. J. Phys. 56, 395-412 back in 1988 and used in science fiction ever since))

Visit to the Nexus

In the quieter moments between gathering data on the wormholes of Sanctified Vidette, I went over to the Amarr station to visit the captured Drifter Nexus. The Amarr station, as you can see below, is still a place for peaceful research, and in contrast to the Republic wormhole, ours is not a military naval base full of warships:

The Nexus still looks as mysterious as it was at first, with all the once scattered beams nicely lined up into a long needle-like structure. At first I thought some antennae at the top were new, but comparing with the older footage it seems they were already there. The scale of the structure continues to amaze me!

Below is an image looking down from the top, through the central tunnel of the needle. The beams are arranged in a concentric layered structure, and you can see down all the way to the far end - the perspective belies its immense length.

The damage from the war against the drifters is still visible on the outside, much as it was at the end of the war. It is of course more important to understand the intricate mechanisms inside the beams than it is to patch up some scratched plating on the outside.

Our scientists are still hard at work. I briefly spoke to some of them on-line (capsuleers can not dock up at the research station) and they were very enthusiast about the new technologies that they find and the things they learn about space-time and the way extra dimensions can be folded up into intricate quantum manifolds and unfolded again. Who knows, perhaps one day we will be able to create our own private pockets of spacetime much like the abyssal space bubbles but then stable!

Cartel kicked out again

While out in Sanctified Vidette on my science mission with dr. Cornelius, I received news from Mehatoor. The Angel Cartel tried once again to corrupt that system, which is home to not only LUMEN's headquarters but also the headquarters of the 24th Imperial Crusade fighting the Minmatar rebels in the warzone. 

It looks to me like the Cartel and the Republic are in cahoots. I do not think it is far fetched to hypothesize that the Republic pays the Cartel to bring its nastiness to Mehatoor when the war is not going well for them. Privateers attacking the busy shipping lines passing through Mehatoor, and attracting regular pirates in their wake.

Angel Cartel corruption happened once in the past, and the local Holders got chided by the Empress. However, the next time this happened, our pilots put a stop to it, enlisting with the 24th to defeat the Cartel. Then, we got praise from the Empress! 

So when the Cartel tried their hand again less than a week ago, LUMEN and its allies knew the drill.  Fleets formed quickly and decisively to halt the push of the Cartel, and the insurgency was suppressed efficiently. I thank God that our pilots have secured such a swift victory, without which I probably would have had to interrupt my investigations here.

Wormhole spectra

Wormhole physics - it bridges not only gaps in spacetime, but also gaps between people!

I met up with dr. Fritte Cornelius in Sanctified Vidette. What a pleasure! He greeted me not with distrust, but with the enthusiasm of a fellow scientist meeting someone who is interested in the same somewhat esoteric topics! He was eager to share knowledge, in the fullest trust that we are working towards the common goal of a better understanding of the world around us, not as adversaries but as fellow explorers. The true scientific spirit!

The wormhole experts from the Signal Cartel gather much more data that I, as an amateur, did. I would just record the basic characteristics of the wormhole, and hop from one to the other, and be done. Dr. Cornelius does a much more thorough spectral analysis of the wormhole! He patiently explained techniques and the state-of-the-art methods, and shared some of their software tools and databases. I really felt like a student who for the first time sees how the actual surveying is done, and I learned a lot. 

Despite using Chemal Tech Exploration boosters I am still much slower than he is at doing a full spatiotemporal spectral analysis, but I did manage to upload some valuable data in the joint dataset that we are compiling. That will be fed into the modeling software to extract any changes in the quantum-gravitational spacetime metric across the Drifter wormhole. Meanwhile, I feel like I am getting expert training! 

I have been able before to identify what class of wormhole system a particular connection leads to when it goes to Anoikis. However, for wormholes leading to our own cluster the identification of known space regions has eluded me - apart from the obvious Amarr nebula I am not too familiar with foreign skies. That is starting to change, as I am learning to recognize more and more features of the properties and destination of a wormhole connection at first glance.

We have completed first day of full mapping of Sanctified Vidette, arduous work. I am looking forward to tomorrow!

Epikouria Chronicles V

While out in Sanctified Vidette, I do get access to my mail, as it is relayed via the friendly Amarr Navy research station in system. It was harder to get news while in the depths of Mezagorm than here in Anoikis! 

I was happy to see that there was a new letter from Brother Hugo about the Epikouria colony. But my happy feelings did not last long: he wrote me that they are under attack! Not by the native Sleepers, nor by the first colonists living on the planets (the 'originals'), but by a fleet of outsiders, capsuleer pilots. First, it looked as if they were pirates, as they started by raiding the shipping lanes ferrying raw resources, commodities and products between mines and factories on planets and the new station.

Then, they started attacking several outposts and orbital structures that belong to our colonists, depleting the shields and bringing the structures to reinforcement. Perhaps these were not merely raiders, but rival colonists wanting to push out Publius and his people! An eviction attempt, sure to demoralize also the Ghosts who have just gone through a similar ordeal and sought relief with Publius and his colonists.

Oh, how frustrating it is to realize that Brother Hugo's letter started its journey several weeks ago! Whatever the outcome of this confrontation, it is too late to do anything about it, too late to send help. What took place already took place. 

With great trepidation I continued to read.

Brother Hugo and his companions held prayer vigils throughout the long sleepless night of the reinforcement timer, imploring God to spare the colonists and to help the capsuleer pilots fighting for them. These vigils were well attended by the lower decks' workers and their families - folks that are not even sure if they will be evacuated at all should the worst happen. 

The prayers were answered! Publius and his fellows were able to form a large fleet for the reinforcement timer, in numbers such that the assailants chose to leave, after broadcasting their goodbyes in local. To be sure, the system is still in full alert, and will be patrolled for a while to come, until they are sure it is not a ruse by the enemy. But the outlook seems good.

This was the first real crisis for Publius' colony and a true test of his defenses. The colonists came out victorious, which no doubt did not go unnoticed by the Originals on the planets, who now can have confidence that the Starborn can indeed protect them from raiding parties.

PS. Links to keep track of the letters of Brother Hugo:
I. First Contact
II. Diplomatic Talks 
III. Refugee crisis
IV. Setting up a new home station

Back in Sanctified Vidette

Good news! Mr. Fritte Cornelius answered and agreed to collaborate on the science project to map wormholes in Vidette. Science transcends borders and alliances.

I had the (cleaned up and double-checked) Indagatrix fitted with additional scanner arrays, and removed the data module to make room. A mobile depot - always handy to refit out in space - should take care of the eventually that I would need that module. I bought a bunch of Chemal Tech exploration boosters - they are cheap at the moment, and again boost the scanning ability.

That should speed up scanning down the wormholes, especially since I am not taking my crew along. These kind of expeditions in dangerous wormhole space, where in additional the ships stays out in space for several days, are not very popular with the crew. The exception is mr. Damus, my cloak technician. He has recovered well with his new cybernetic leg and insisted to come along. I am happy that he is coming, so I can focus on scanning while being confident that the cloak is holding well. 

It took a bit of time to find an entrance - there was one in Arbaz. At first sight, there are no big differences from before. So, I have set up camp at a safe in Sanctified Vidette. After a night's rest we will get started early tomorrow.

Scientific collaboration

I have been preparing the Indagatrix for a short expedition to Sanctified Vidette, clearing out the gear that we used for the Mezagorm explorations. We took care to secure the dangerous biological agent that we took from there, but still a full decontamination procedure seemed warranted. 

It takes a couple of days to fully fumigate the ship, or whatever they do nowadays to get rid of any biohazards. I'm also having the scanner array recalibrated, and the scanner probes are sent to maintenance. 

The wait gave me a bit of time to go through with my intention of messaging Mr. Fritte Cornelius of the Signal Cartel to see if he wants to team up for the wormhole study. He has done similar research as I did - and came to similar conclusions. So, it seems to me that a collaboration will give synergy to advance our research. 

The Signal Cartel does very useful work, they map out wormhole connections and help out pilots who get lost and stranded in Anoikis. It is a corporation devoted to the highest ideals of peaceful exploration and assistance, ideals that are also very dear to me, and I believe LUMEN in general. 

Forbidden books section

The "New Eden News" ran a piece about theologians collating Sanicanonical scriptures, and offered links to snippets of those most unholy texts. It has been taken off-line in the Empire, but the damage is done, these texts circulated. And ever since that news item, all the wannabe blood drinkers quote it on GalNet at every opportunity. It happens on the Summit channel as well.

There are many in the Federation who romanticize the Sani Sabik, such as pop star Midna Lyre. Her songs texts are on the Index. That is short for the index librorum prohibitorum, a list of forbidden books, texts, songs and holoreels. The Theology Council - with input from the Ministry of Internal Order - keeps the index up to date. It is part of the hard work of a librarian to regularly purge newly added items from the library.

In Gottin's Lamp's library, the works are not destroyed, but moved to a restricted access section of the library. They can still be consulted by scholars, capsuleers, and others who get permission to do so, but must always be consulted in the presence of a librarian or a member of the clergy. And very strict records must be kept about who reads what.

Until now, the forbidden books section never caused any trouble. It is behind a closed door with a large red cross, and "no access" in the most common languages of the Empire printed on the door. There are cameras monitoring it for unauthorized entry. Frankly, in the years that I have been around, it has not been visited by scholars more than a handful of times. It is mostly collecting dust, and new books moved onto the Index. 

However, the news along with the presence of a visitor from Delve may have sparked a new interest by some of our capsuleers. In turn, this may draw unwanted attention from non-capsuleers. So, I have been thinking about beefing up security in the forbidden works section. Nowadays you can get modern book shelves with a force field, that can be programmed so only the librarians can take the books. Perhaps we should buy those. 

It will be a costly business. And a time-consuming work to replace the old shelves: the forbidden works section is vast, taking up many floors beneath the public part of the library...