Ministry takeover

-continued from yesterday-

Back in Gammel, the Ministry of Internal Order has taken over. Apparently I stayed out for several days - even though it seems only like half a day to me. Mr. Ivan Firth contacted his superiors about our find and my exploration, and they decided this is important enough to take the lead on this operation. The researchers have been evacuated from the station, and it is now overflowing with Ministry personnel.

They were monitoring the filament return signature, and saw activity. They were not sure it would be me returning, so it does make sense that they had an armed welcome team ready.

At gunpoint I was asked to don a hazard isolation suit, and then I was escorted to a debriefing room, where I had to explain in detail what happened. Several times, to several interrogators. There were not extremely tough, perhaps enhanced interrogation methods are simply too difficult without damaging the hazard isolation suit. I was then scanned down to check nothing dangerous had come back with me (like some bugs?) before being cleared. 

They are very interested in this kind of spacetime engineering, and they will keep permanent control of the entire area - it will be off-limits to everyone including me... I was quite disappointed that I am not allowed to continue investigating this myself, it has so much potential to teach us about history.

Also, I am left with many unanswered questions - what will happen to this pocket universe? And who built it in the first place? Are they going to enter it themselves to get technology out? Or to capture Jove soldiers? 

What I did learn is that the Jove indeed had teams that went covertly to other worlds to take artefacts away or stop people from using them. It corroborates the theory that the Jove may have decided that the Ametat and Avetat are too powerful to be left in our hands and may have "stolen" them - they are artefacts that give immortality and wisdom and power, only one notch less dangerous than a portal that can be rigged for time jumps.

Meanwhile, a lot seems to have happened in our universe during my few days absence. Hyperspace disturbances and conquest devices? I will not have much rest when I head back to Mehatoor.

Back to our side

-continued from yesterday-

In order to extract myself from this sequestered pocket universe, I had to go to the same spot where I entered it and engage the remote quantum entangler, a device in my pocket that connects to the abyssal filament tethering me to my own world.

First problem: I had forgotten to "bookmark the exit" as wormholers say. I know where it is more or less on the mountain slope, but it would be hard to find in the dark.

Second problem: I am held captive by Jovian black ops keen to come back with me in order to escape the cyclic miniverse that they are locked in to (perhaps by some alternative versions of themselves who quarantined this patch of spacetime).

Both problems would be solved when time loops again, as the Sani Sabik engage the time portal and the miniverse reaches its "big crunch" time pole.

Third problem: The Jovians have ceased their attack on the Sani Sabik outpost, knowing that it will fail.  My presence here in this pocket reality is definitely having nefarious effects on it... If they do not attack it any longer, the Sanists will not be panicked into activating their time portal and there is no telling how long this iteration will last.

So, I had to resort to a lie, and I told my captors that the exit out of this is actually the Sani Sabik portal. This indeed made them resume their offensive, but the delay had given the Sanists time to regroup, and put the information of phase modulation from another cycle to good use. I have the impression this fight lasted longer - but in the end the superior Jove technology was no match.

As the Jovian vanguard entered the hall where the Sani Sabik had set up their experiment, the panicking Sanist captain flicked the switch, the blast occurred, and I found myself once again on the hillside - at presumably the correct spot. 

This time, no more waiting and observing, I activated the return. 

For some reason, it was quite painful. On the way in, it had felt like crossing a sticky membrane that stuck to you like a film. On the way back, I felt like being pulled and torn apart and smacked together again.

When I emerged back to our side of the barrier, there was no sign of dr. Nahrami and his collaborators. 

Now also on our side, guns were pointed at me.

-to be continued-

Time travel intricacies

-continued from Oct. 28th-

My interrogator tried to find out more about where I came from and how I travelled back in time. Another soldier asked me if they found the cure - I guess he meant for the Jovian disease.

I was thinking how I could put this to good use. Could I tell them that their salvation lay in accepting the Faith, the Faith they will encounter when they meet Amarr? If I mean salvation of the soul rather than the body, then that is not a lie. But it would still be a bit deceitful.

I did not have much time to consider the theological ramifications of salvation through deceit, because the soldier was severely reprimanded. I was told not to answer - for the measure on the space of possible spacetimes is such that those containing causality violations strongly interfere destructively, thereby  causing widespread devastation to any areas where time jumps were made.

A lot was going through my mind. Why was that soldier's question more dangerous than the previous one they asked me? And did these fellows perhaps travel back in time themselves? Should I ask them the questions that burns on my mind - where are the Jove now, and do they have the Ametat and Avetat? But then, what if they are from this particular time? 

They continued their initial interrogation, and wanted to understand how I could travel back in time without causing such devastation. I told them that technically, I did not travel back in time in my own reality, I filamented into a sealed off separate mini-universe, that had probably been created to contain precisely such causality violations from spreading.

This definitely caused some panic. Not only does it mean their mission fails, but it also means they probably have to relive it forever.

Understandably, they now planned to escape to our universe.

This is getting worse every time around...

-to be continued-

Silence is golden

-continued from Oct. 26th-

I crouched down in the low vegetation, and took a bit of time to let it all sink in. This patch of universe is not only sealed off spatially, but it is also temporally closed in on itself. Wait long enough and you end up where you started. 

I had a brief moment of worry about filamenting back - would it still work? I calmed myself and assumed it would. I decided to wait and watch the Jove attack from here; I have never seen a real live Jove.

Before the actual assault started, I could see on another slope the discharge of a weapon. Jove scouts were probably taking out Sabik patrols first. Shortly afterwards, my auditory implants alerted me to movements in the shrubs around me. While the Sabik technology of two thousand years ago did not detect me hiding and watching, the Jovian technology must have been superior already then. 

I know a bit of the modern Jove language of the Directorate era, but had to guess for the language they spoke back during the Second Jove Empire. I yelled "Don't shoot! I'm not with the enemy, I'm an explorer!". Later I learned that I said "Don't shoot! I'm not having intercourse with rats, I am experimenting!"

Probably that explains why they shot me anyway.

They did not kill me - speaking something that resembled their language surprised them enough that they wanted to capture me alive. I woke up in restraints, and saw my first Jove. Their physiology is not unlike ours, though they seem to lack hair or wrinkles, and that makes them look like those old movie stars who go overboard on plastic surgery. My interrogator asked me if I came from the future, using the time jump gate.

I told him I did indeed come from their future. I explained him that the Sani Sabik were close to completing the gate and about to activate it, and it would lead to disaster for this planet.

He seemed to believe me. He told me they know about the ancient artefact on this planet and they came here to try and stop the Sani Sabik from using it - they are a response team that intervenes whenever inferior races find stuff they should not have and should not mess with. "But - someone", he said, "must have explained them how to use Talocan thermoelectric convertors."

I remembered that entanglement in a quantum state can propagate both forward and backward in time, affecting states elsewhere in spacetime. Who knows how it works in these loops. Perhaps I had shared too much in the previous time-loop, and this had started to spread out over various realizations...

The Jove interrogator continued "They also seem to know about frequency modulation - we are having great difficulty in overpowering them, and may be too late to stop them".

Oops.

I should watch my words.

-to be continued-

A different kind of jump portal

-continued from yesterday-

I already have quite some experience tinkering with Talocan thermoelectic convertors, from the experiments in wormhole creation with dr. Fritte Cornelius. I impressed the Sabik scientists with my knowledge of these devices. Even though there were working hurriedly, they also had a scientist's pride and responded by telling me their own achievements.

They found this technology on their way to Gammel XI, and brought it down to the planet surface, at the dig site where they found another artefact they believed could interface with it, a kind of circular portal. Perhaps a jump gate? Well, sort of: they were convinced that this would open a jump portal, not to another point with a spacelike separation vector, but to a point with a reverse timelike separation. 

They were building a time machine.

They had completed its anchor only very recently. The anchor is the earliest time that they can jump back to. From any point forward in the future, you would be able to step through the machine to go back in time, up to the point of anchoring, but not before. To make their first test jump they would have to bring it online.

I was trying to warn them about the potential disastrous consequences, when the Jove attack on the compound started. The shacks around the science hall were quickly destroyed. Here in the science compound they put up a fierce resistance as before - I wonder if they had already heard of the frequency modulation trick the previous time. 

Nevertheless, it became clear to them that they were losing the fight. Casualties mounted. The commander decided that their best escape route was the time machine, and pressed the scientists to activate the machine even though it was not yet calibrated or completed. I tried again to tell them of the disaster this would bring about, but they would not listen. The scientists were also protesting as the commander activated the device, intending to step through the portal. 

He never did. He disintegrated.

We all did. 

Then I found myself again on the slope of the mountain, in the dark. This time around, I knew not to move.

-to be continued-

Bring me to your leader

-continued from yesterday-

Somewhat in panic I once again stumbled forward through the shrubs and fell and made noise again. To my surprise, I tripped the very same Sani Sabik alarm. I thought they had been defeated by the Jove attack team, but soon enough it dawned on me that I had not merely jumped in space, but also looped back in time. 

As the Sabik team made its way up to arrest me, I realized that the attack had not yet happened but was about to. This time, I interpolated my captors, and told them without hesitation:

"I know who is going to attack you: an advanced race known as the Jove."

This definitely got their attention. I continued, feeling a bit stereotypical but unable to think of anything better, and said: "Bring me to your leader!"

They did. I had to reassure them that I was not a Jove myself; I told them I was an Amarrian explorer and even though I think they did not quite believe me, they believed that I was not a Jove either. They brought me to the science compound in stead of the holding cell. There, the officer in command told me that an alien force was in orbit around the planet, and had destroyed their defenses. They were expecting an invasion, barges were already descending from the alien fleet towards the surface.

I told them about the Jove, and how the Empire had already met them (even though that event was in their future, which I did not mention). I told them about the Jove's superior power. Their best chance was to use frequency modulation, and I explained it to them. I also told them that even with that, they did not really stand a chance against a Jove invasion force.

I helped them prepare best as I could, and though there was some distrust they mostly followed my suggestions. The science compound did not really lend itself to withstand a siege, but they made makeshift siege defenses as best as they could. Sabik armor plating, even back then, is quite strong.

During those preparations I was allowed in the central room of the compound, which was built around an ancient artefact which the Sabik had found, and have been investigating. The entire goal of this particular research station was to contain and study the artefact.

As soon as I saw it I recognized parts of the artefact: Talocan thermo-electric convertors. You can see them in space, generating artificial wormholes linking up to the ancient Talocan wormhole network. Here, five thermo-electric convertors were arranged around a central portal which definitely looks like a gate. Except, it is not a usual wormhole gate, which only requires two aligned convertors and does not work in planetary gravity wells. 

Four of the converters were powered up, and Sabik scientists were in a hurry to start up the fifth one. 

I am convinced that this amateur experiment with retrieved Talocan tech is what triggered the Jove response.

-to be continued-

Captive

-continued from yesterday-

The Sani Sabik brought me to their habitat compound and put me in a holding cell. I was expecting a long and painful interrogation, but they were too busy with an emergency to deal with me. From my  brief chats with the guards I found out that they think they are on Gammel IX's surface, and that the year was 21389 - almost two thousand years before our time. And I also learned that they were facing an imminent attack from an unknown alien invasion force. 

After several hours wondering how I will extract myself from this situation and get back to the exit filament, explosions occurred that rocked the compound where I was held. There was the sound of laser cannons and rifles, Sabik weapons. They answered by much more powerful weaponry, some sort of mortar fire in combination with ground troops advancing on the compound. 

One wall collapsed, nearly crushing me, but I was able to go out of my prison. Everywhere around me was chaos - the Sabik seemed to have retreated from the habitat compound to their science compound. I tried to hide among the rubble, careful not to electrocute myself from the sparkling wires that explosions had laid bare. From my hiding spot I could see clearly the invaders. It is a race we have not seen around in a while: they were Jove.

They were focusing their attention on the science compound, which was being fiercely defended by the Sani Sabik - even with their inferior weaponry they put up a good fight. The Jove could have flattened that building but clearly they did not want to, they were trying to fight their way in. Was this perhaps a rescue mission?

The ground rumbled, and my eyesight vibrated - as if the world around me had become a flowing liquid. Then a bright red sphere grew out of the building, at first slow but then accelerating. I was happy that I had made a medical clone before coming in here, and wondered how they would know they should activate it. I did not have much time to think it over - the sphere soon engulfed me.

The next instant, I found myself back on the slope of the mountain, on the spot where I first arrived with my entry filament.

-to be continued-

On the other side

I have been on the other side for a while with no real possibility to get back and report. But I am safely back now. 

Beyond the barrier there is indeed a pocket universe, somewhat like an abyssal deadspace pocket, but a planetary environment. It is dark, as on a cloudy night, and the spot where we enter via the filament is the side of a mountain. The terrain is rocky and overgrown with shrubs and small trees, not larger than about two meters - the type of vegetation you find on rocky slopes at mid-altitudes. It is hard to move about, especially given the darkness. 

There is a light source, coming from a complex below, on some sort of low plateau. It looks like a research outpost, with a communications array, storage tanks and a habitat module. When I arrived, there was some sort of commotion going on, people were shouting in ancient Amarrian. I was surprised to find people living here, and I decided to make my way down the slope carefully, without being noticed, to take a peak and then head back out.

I slipped and fell, and it did not take long before there was a spotlight on me, and some sort of noisy old drone keeping watch on me while shouting a message telling me to stay put and raise my arms above my head. Armed guard were making their way up through the shrubs to come get me.

They wore a kind of uniform I have only seen in museums before: early spaceflight-era Sani Sabik.

-to be continued-

Bridge

It took us a bit of experimenting, but the filament technology can be used to hop over the barrier via a hyperdimensional bridge, much like jump filaments but then on a very small and local scale. It'll move a pod-sized vessel something like five to ten "meters" from our own nearly-flat space to hopefully nearly-flat spacetime on the other side of the barrier. There's a single return, but one must stay tethered to our side via the hyperdimensional link. 

We tested it by hopping a fedo back and forth. 

It came back unharmed and slightly dephased from our spacetime; we will need to adjust the speed of passage of time which appears somewhat different on the other side.

After another test or two with "fjodor the fedo" as the students named it, I will take the place of the guinnea fedo and go over there myself.

Cloaked space

It was not easy to bring down the gravimetric analyzer, the thing is heavy and cumbersome. It took dr. Nahrami's team the better part of a day. 

In the end, it was the right choice: it revealed the nature of the anomaly. 

The discontinuity of earlier measurements at this boundary are real. Whatever lies behind the barrier has been cut out from our spacetime, and the remaining hole has been closed by stitching front to back via hyperdimensional folding. 

In layman's terms, it is a cloaking device that works by bending spacetime around what you're trying to hide. If you try to poke it with a stick, the stick comes out the other end, probably some hundred meters deeper. That comes with some spatial refraction, which would cause the stick (or a drill) to break off. The stuff that lies in between can no longer be reached from our own three spatial dimensions. 

I have never seen anything similar - this type of technology is beyond what we have. I can only think of Jove or Talocan who would master enough of spacetime and hyperdimensional engineering to create something like this. And doing this not in the void of deep space, but on a planet... perhaps it is this which caused the cataclysm?

After brainstorming with some friends who are much better versed in hyperdimensional gravity than I am, we decided that perhaps the closest analogy we have seen are abyssal deadspace pockets. With their help I will adapt an isolated dimensional thread from an abyssal filament to see if we can access the space that was cut out from Gammel XI. 

Meanwhile, Mr. Firth will contact the Ministry - not my own preferred course of action at the moment, but he insists this is the right thing to do. 

I am also a bit worried that there is at the moment an increase in Triglavian activity in the system. Dr. Nahrami tells me that during the Triglavian war, the invaders had a minor victory in Gammel and now still keep an active presence, but he concurs that there seems to be a spike in activity over the last couple of weeks.