Friday 19 November 2021

Antiquus

I am visiting the Arek'Jalaan archives at the "Site One: Antiquus" facility in Eram. There are few (or no) capsuleers around, so there is no influx of new research from field work. The field work that has been done during dr. Tukoss' time is very well preserved and archived, and a lot of academic work on the materials collected from that time is still being done. There is probably enough material to analyse for scientists for decades to come.

The Antiquus research complex is impressive to behold. There are nice quarters for visiting scholars, close to the main spire but set apart from the main stations that are not accessible for visitors. Although there weren't any capsuleers visiting, there are many baseliner ships in and around the complex - it is bustling with activity.


The archives are accessed via the different storage platforms, one for each research division of Arek'Jalaan. Book copies of abstracts are automatically uploaded to the cargohold upon approaching the platform. 

Two projects in particular draw my attention. Project Infernal Spade, formerly led by a capsuleer named Myyona, investigates the Talocan. This ancient race is linked to the Takmahl - many believe that the meteoric rise of the Takmahl is due to the fact that they stumbled on Talocan artefacts and gate technology, and were able to reverse-engineer them to some extent.

Even more to the point is Project Theseus. It specifically investigates the Takmahl and their relics. Its lead researcher is a familiar person to all those interested in the Takmahl: prof. Valerie Valate. I talked to this Sani Sabik before, as she is maybe the cluster's leading expert on the Takmahl. Here I can dig deeper into these archives, and I am excited to compare my own limited findings to that of other field researchers.