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. 

Discontinuities

The tunnel going down towards the planet's mantle has gone down much deeper than when I last visited it. The newer section is narrower. It is as if it has been bored out by a finer drill capable of higher speeds and when I mentioned this, dr. Nahrami confirmed that this is exactly what took place. Rather than being five meters in diameter, it narrows down to close to two meters, feeling really claustrophobic. Dr. Nahrami tells me that it still requires thick layers of protective plating on the outside and thermal conduits to pump the heat out, but the new equipment makes it more efficient and fast.

We've been lowered down in our thermal suits, using climbing harness and a system of ropes, even though there is some sort of improvised ladder at the side. The tunnel is too narrow to safely use antigrav suits: this was not really meant for people to climb down, just to bring back samples automatically or remotely investigate strata, and to house the shaft of the drill keeping it straight. Without elevator, the rope system is definitely faster than actually climbing the ladder, although it still takes time.

We past the pyrite layer they named after me. There is a little side tunnel for them to retrieve and examine samples and it was good to take a break here. I got a sample as a souvenir. It was also a necessary break; we shifted to another set of ropes and pulleys. 

Near to where the tunnel hits the barrier, another side-chamber has been made - but not quite finished yet. There's not much room to sit. The chamber is maybe 4 by 8 meters, and terribly hot even in a thermal suit. It is packed with equipment and very noisy. A bit lower, the tunnel ends at a shimmering barrier; that is why they decided to excavate the chamber here close to it.

Strangely scanners show nothing but regular rock in stead of that barrier. They also reveal a few discontinuities - a jump in temperature, pressure, density visible only from close by. Scanners at the surface would not have the resolution to reveal this and miss it. They would also miss a small discontinuity in the gravitational metric, indicating a space-time anomaly. In order to investigate that I need specialized equipment from the Indagatrix. 

We went back up. I was happy to be again in a comfortable environment, and I am definitely not looking forward to going back down tomorrow.

A barrier

 Despite an increased Triglavian presence currently in Gammel, I have arrived safely at the research station on the lava planet Gammel XI. They do not seem very preoccupied with the planet, and indeed their former interest in what happened here seems to date from the Triglavian war, according to my hosts. Who, as before, have given me a warm welcome.

Rather than students presenting their projects, the discussions have immediately been on the difficulties that they have encountered. They are convinced that the drill hit something non-geological - meaning artificial. It cannot penetrate the barrier. They will take me to see it tomorrow morning, the shaft down there is narrow but still wide enough to be lowered into.

I very much dislike small spaces.

Triglavians in Gammel

Somewhat alarming news is coming from Gammel XI. 

I have been helping geologists there with funding and with materials for their project. They are digging down through the planet's strata to find out more about the causes of the catastrophic changes that turned the planet from a barren world into a lava world.

They seem to have hit upon some sort of artificial barrier that keeps destroying their drills, and are asking for my presence to investigate it. 

I have been interested in Gammel as it was the destination of one of the Sabik cryoships that escaped Amarr during Emperor Queron I's purges. 

I have been keeping tabs on it with an low-level AI agent, and recently it has returned information to me that Gammel XI was a focus of the Triglavian raids in that system - it is now catalogued as a Triglavian minor victory system. There were reports that they have landed a "proving team" close to the spot where the geologists have their station - but no further information is known about that.

Reasons enough to go there and find out.

Contest results

It has been a very busy period - the culmination of our efforts for the Blessed Exchange coinciding with the jubilee celebration. 

The prize contest for artwork celebrating the Empress has seen amazing submissions, and the outcome was quite close as these works all received high marks by the jury members. Lady deSilvestris' icon of the Empress took first place, with a close second being Haapsalu's portrait of the Empress crowned by the  metaphors symbolizing achievements during her reign. Paladin Kley's poster and Oleo Especial's poster complete the list of most praiseworthy entries.

Some confusion -or is it willful heresy?- still appears to live among a few pilots who refuse to accept the demise of Empress Jamyl I. Probably witnessing the brutal attack of the Drifters caused a lasting trauma. Personally, I also blame some galnet pages -even official concord ones- that seem frozen in time a decade ago...

But let these few wayward artists not mar the joy and pride we get from the valid submissions to the contest. I do hope we can borrow the Icon of the Empress with the Two Swords to display it in the chapel here in Mehatoor at least for some time, but I bet father Mikhail on Nakri will not part with it easily. I am sure it will be the pride of House deSilvestris' own family chapel.