Lava world research outpost

A shuttle brought be down to the surface of Gammel XI, to the station's landing pad. "Station" is somewhat of a euphemism - there is not even a proper docking bay. The arrival itself was quite turbulent, which the pilot blamed on unpredictable thermal currents in the atmosphere, due to active volcanism and lava flows.

After landing, we had to don heavy thermal suits to protect us from the heat and the poisonous gases and walk over to the main structure. Usual carry-on luggage would just melt, any regular luggage is transported in special cooling containers.

The outpost is on a platform on top of a lone basalt rock mesa. It rests on pylons, as the rock here is too unstable and too hot. The support pylons are drilled deep into the rock to anchor it, and equipped with inertial dampeners and feedback systems to compensate for the incessant seismic activity. The main feature is a large tower which does not contain the habitat for the scientists, but has the instruments and drills for a deep shaft that leads into the ground. The habitats and the labs and the engineering machine shops are surrounding the tower. 

I have been received by the principal investigator, Marcus Nahrami, who introduced me to his team. They are not used to visitors and organized a mini-colloquium so the students could present their work. 

There are engineering folks who presented the low-cost solutions they found to ensure the thermal and seismic stability of the outpost. Most presentations were about the geology of the planet, and what led them to believe that it was no asteroid impact that caused the current cataclysmic conditions: the absense of a central peak, no impact basin, no crater rim mountain ranges, and a lot of other proof that I did not understand due to lack of training in geophysics.

There was a review of other possible causes, and all of them were rejected. Several presentations investigated the possibility of a truly massive mantle plume, released due to energy pent up from differential rotation at the planet's core. But that did not explain the isogen-5 decay signatures.

Tomorrow I will get a guided tour down the shaft that they drill deep into the crust.

((ooc: image from chatgpt after inputting the above description))

Lava world challenges

There is a geophysical research station on Gammel, close to the epicenter of the lava circles. 

Going there, I hope to find out more about why the planet changed from barren to lava, and if this has anything to do with the Sabik cryoship runaways.

There is paperwork to be filled in, and waivers, as the place is dangerous. And special gear to bring along - a heat suit, and mining safety equipment. Not the kind you find on mining ships, but the kind that people use in underground tunnels that might potentially fill with poisonous gas - and that allow you to get out fast if lava starts to enter those tunnels.

In addition, every few hours there are quakes, and occasional lava geysers can send molten rock boulders in the air. There are rains of hot ashes, and days when a fog of sulphuric acid blankets the station.

Needless to say, they are not used to anyone wanting to visit.

Epikouria Chronicles XV

I have received another letter from Brother Hugo - in response to my own letter asking him for clarifications about the supplies sent to the White Paladins.

He writes about a demographic change. As you may remember from previous reports, some New Huolans decided to stay in Anoikis after being pushed out of their own wormhole, and they were warmly welcomed as impoverished refugees in Epikouria. In that respect the Starborn are setting an example for all! Since then they worked hard to become an integral part of the Epikourian colony, and have de facto merged their own Anoikis operations with that of the Starborn. 

The New Huolans kept close ties with the Knights of Soliara, who fly under the distinguished leadership of Prince Seraghis. Recently, an agreement was announced by which the formal administration of Epikouria will be shared between the Knights and Comitia Centuriata - the capsuleers that represent the Starborn, some are Starborn themselves. 

Part of the agreement states that the watch duty is transferred from the Comitia Centuriata to the Knights. The supplies were snuck in during the briefest window of opportunity when the guards were changed. 

To his regret brother Hugo notes that the door to Epikouria has closed again. Moreover, after the changeover the Starborn have re-established protocols regarding planetary visits, and while the New Huolans and Knights will be managing overall system security, Comitia Centuriata and the Starborn maintain control of planetside operations.

Nevertheless Brother Hugo is hopeful for his cause and the cause of the White Paladins. In his mind, the Knights hold a more orthodox view and are more closely associated with the Amarr Militia. Personally, I am not sure this is true - I have witnessed the Comitia Centuriata active in the warzone on many occasions. Nevertheless, I can imagine that this change is a cause for concern in the non-capsuleer populations, especially the Originals. 

I do not think that Prince Seraghis would go as far as to appoint vassal lords on the planets - even though he may appoint a deputy for off-planet affairs. Involvement planetside would mean long protracted wars on the ground, for which I do not think he has any interest at all. The Knights are first and foremost a shield for the Empire, they are not involved in any forceful reclaiming of planetary populations. 

Brother Hugo will not be pleased when he finally realizes that, and I hope he does not feel encouraged to do things he will regret.

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
V. Epikouria under siege
VI. Prince Seraghis visit

VII. A suspicion of heresy

VIII. Pop-up church

IX. Intercultural fair

X. White Paladins

XI. Reactionary uprising

XII. Outside interference

XIII. Starborn and the Blessed Exchange

XIV. Aiding the uprising

Foundation Day celebrations

The Foundation Day celebrations this year were in a way dedicated to the blessed exchange campaign on the one hand, and looking forward to the ten year jubilee of the empress on the other. 

The tour of historical landmarks now also stopped briefly at the construction site of the new Deaconry of Economic Oversight. It was very well attended, I think I had markedly more participants than the last two years! It is always a pleasure to show interested capsuleers around and reveal to them the glory of the Empire through its monuments and recent history.

The upcoming decennial jubilee of the Empress also carries with it the memory of what preceeded... the Drifters' brutal attack and assassination of Empress Jamyl in Safizon. The wreck of her titan is one of the stops on the tour. Dr. Fritte Cornelius shared some footage that the Signal Cartel was able to take from the attack. I think it was not released publicly before, and stirred strong emotions in those present.

Yet, though we remain mindful of the past, we must cast our gaze -and aspirations- forward to the future. A future where the Drifters will pay in full for their crime, a future with faith, prosperity and justice for all worlds.

The first structure

What a blessed surprise this Foundation Day week! In Amarr, near the Emperor Family Academy station, the work has started on the Deaconry of Economic Oversight and the first structure has made its appearance. 

How solemn it looks! I know it is perhaps only the very first part of a much larger station, but how its gold coating reflects the beauty bestowed by God on our universe, and how it inspires hope for economic profits and excellent trade deals!

Truly, the vision of the Empress is grand; she leads us on a path to great prosperity. She presents us - unworthy wretches - with this gift during the holy week. How fitting to lay the first structure down of the new deaconry just now. Now, when we commemorate the foundation of this other great building glorifying God: the first church, built Saint Gheinok. 

May this gift fan the flames of fervor in all pilots and make them redouble their efforts for the Blessed Exchange campaign.

Lava lines

It was not easy to get hold of a planetary geologist on such short notice, just before Foundation day. During this major holiday most places are closed and folks go home to celebrate with family and watch fireworks in the park. But talking to a capsuleer -the rarest of breed- is always enticing and opens doors.

My next expert is dr. Torayedeh Vavari of the Gammel Geophysical Society. She is a young postdoctoral researcher in planetary sciences, specializing in the seismology of rocky planets. We met at the library of the society, she brought her child (she recently became a mother). Like many young researchers, she is quite ambitious and full of projects and ideas. 

The lava fields and large cracks in the planetary crust are recent. That can be seen from the cooling rate, as well as from motion of the surface as it settles back down after a shock. The original hypothesis is that the planet suffered a catastrophic meteor impact not too long ago. The small square in the image below shows the estimated point of impact. Close-by ridges circle it, and geologists identify at least four "rings of fire" of wide lava canyons and cracks partly circling it at larger distances, thousands of kilometers.  

The radius of the largest ring of fire is commensurate with the planet's radius, and dr. Vavari tells me that this is one of the signs that have put into question the hypothesis of a meteor impact. An impact gives a very directed energy with a clear signature on the opposite edge of the planet and scattering off the inner core. The patterns for this explosion are more in line with something that happened on or below the planet's surface, rather than a projectile hitting it from the outside. 

There is something not quite right with the radiation levels on the planet either. Just like the cooling rate temperature of the magma tells you it is still fairly young and hasn't been around for ages, the activity of radioisotopes can tell you something similar about these nuclei. The incident that devastated the planet coincides with a surge in radiation, compatible with an Isogen-5 explosion.

I cannot help but connect this in my mind to the Sani Sabik colonists. Although no technology available at that time could destroy a world, it seems too much of a coincidence to me that a natural cataclysm  of such magnitude would take place exactly around the time they would have made it to the planet. Dr. Vavari is sceptical and tells me that often the most simple hypothesis turns out to be the correct one - and certainly early-space age colonists blowing up a planet is very contrived.

That will not deter me to go and have a look at ground zero for this event. But first, I must return to Mehatoor for Foundation Day celebrations. 

The unmiraculous saint

I met with the expert in local history in Gammel, dr. Octash Quenai. He took me to dinner in a nice restaurant serving rockjaw stew.

Unfortunately our conversation was not very helpful. His historical records do not reach that far back, which of course makes sense since the Sabik cultists tried to escape to a system that at the time was uninhabited. We had not yet met other races, so all known inhabited worlds were in fact under control of the Emperor.

During our dinner, dr. Quenai went on a rant about the unfairness of the sanctification process. In particular he took offense against the requirement that saints performed miracles or intercede still in miraculous ways. He is preparing a beatification request for his uncle, who led according to him an exemplary life - building schools for the children of the impoverished - and is worthy in his view of being pronounced a saint. But he will not get past the stage of beatification and on to the stage of sanctification: there is not a single miracle that can be attributed to dr. Quenai's uncle.

Dr. Quenai took the entire evening to make his case for sanctification, and explain the injustice. He argued that the fact that little Jimmy passed his mathematics exam was, in fact, a miracle regardless of the opinion of the Theology Council. He repeated the uncle's life story in many different ways, illuminating the case from different perspectives, that of the uncle, of himself, of the children, of the teachers, of various people that crossed the blessed uncle's path, even of God. 

It dawned on me that he would keep going until he was certain that I was as outraged as he was about the affair. Only then he would conclude that he had properly impressed on me the gravity of the situation. Yet with every retelling of his grievances, while his outrage grew indeed, unfortunately so did my boredom. It was too late: I had arrived at a point where I could not even feign outrage.

I was saved by a lucky twist in his sprawling diatribe: the uncle had built these schools on barren worlds. Suppressing a yawn, I agreed that the barrenness of the location adds to the saintliness of the act. He casually added that "my" eleventh planet of Gammel used to be barren too, according to geologists. I jumped on that comment, and pushed the conversation back onto my own topic of interest. Now it was dr. Quenai's turn to be bored. He referred me to the Gammel Geophysical Society to find out why it is a lava world now.

May dr. Quenai's uncle, should he now be counted among the saintly hosts of heaven, grant me that tomorrow I find an expert that gets to the point quickly.

Scouting

It was nice to be of help to our pilots. As I focus on exploration I usually am not very useful in fleets (unless they need logi support, which I have been doing in the past). But this fleet just needed a scout in the bulwark systems. These are systems bordering the war zone, forming an impregnable defensive line against the Republic's agression.

Our pilots have been working hard to make the Blessed Exchange a success. One of the goals along the way is to clear these bulwark systems from Minmatar spy data outposts. My humble task was to go back and forth and scan down the systems for these data exfiltration sites, reporting them back for the fleet to sweep up. 

The fleet was joined by his eminence, archbishop Merdaneth. His mere presence deterred any Republic terrorists from trying to interfere, and our pilots were even more motivated to show their zeal in getting rid of the Republic's defensive frigates guarding the data canisters.

This activity also bought me a lot of good will from mr. Firth. In his good mood he wholeheartedly agreed on my plans for an expedition to Gammel.

I have contacted the Gammel Archaeological Society, and will be meeting up with an expert in local history at the Ministry of Assessment Bureau Offices station orbiting a moon around the tenth planet.

Sansha logs

I have received a rather large collection of old Sansha ship logs. These are unrelated to the ancient blood raider colony ship manifest that I discussed yesterday. They arrived in a big box, shipped to me by one of our pilots, Stephanos Varkonis. 

I do not know where he got them from - he sent them to me, and I have not yet seen him around to discuss it with to him. 

I remember that he is quite interested in an event that took place a while ago - a Sansha raid in and near Eve gate, back in YC113, with diversion manoevers in Yulai, I think. Perhaps his interest in that event is connected to something that happened to him in his past and left a mark on him. Or it could be just a hunch he wants to follow. Or a question he wants to answer - why would the Sansha make this special effort go to the gate?

The logs contain various transcripts of commands issued by Sansha Kuvakei and reports by his minions. It might be possible to reconstruct what happened, and who knows to answer the questions that mr. Varkonis has. But that will require finding the connections between these logs. 

I will have to lay them out as pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, in order to begin making sense of it all. Perhaps I should get one of these cork bulletin boards and some string, to pin the short messages on the board and connect related ones with the pieces of string...

The colony ship's destination

The destination of this cryoship is a barren world, the eleventh planet of a G-class star 5.9 light years from Amarr. They codenamed the system "The Old One". Nothing to do with current-day "Old Man's Star".

Taking into account a bit of slack, let us say 0.1 light years, there are still 15 systems between 5.8 and 6.0 light years from Amarr.

Of these, eight have a G-class star, namely Unkah, Raren, Hutian, Luromooh, Arayar, Gammel, Basan and Ana. Only Gammel in the Bleak Lands has eleven planets, the other candidates have less. So, that must have been their destination. However, the eleventh planet is not barren, but a lava world.

Usually lava worlds are found closer to their star, where the heat from the star in combination with tidal forces sometimes prevents the planet from cooling down. But it is not impossible to have lava worlds as outer planets, especially if there is a gas giant nearby or if the world is heated by a lot of internal radioactivity.

In those early days of astronomy, planets were detected either by tiny dips in the star's brightness as a planet passes in front of it, or by tiny wobbles of the star due to the gravitational pull of the planets - these wobbles are revealed by the Doppler shift in stellar spectral lines. Planets are much fainter than stars, so direct imaging of exoplanets took a while to develop, following breakthroughs in phased array telescopes. But if you can collect even a tiny bit of light from the planet, you can also make an educated guess at what planet type you have.

In general, the number of planets was under-estimated, rather than over-estimated, as small planets in far orbits are much harder to detect than, say, a gas giant in a close orbit. So, I guess it is unlikely that in those days the number of planets around their "The Old One" star was overestimated. It is more likely that they got the type wrong.

This must have been an unwelcome surpise when they woke up at destination...