Ultrasonic tomography

Several proposals emerged for the cheese block. 

A cheese sculpture festival. Creating the skyline of Dam Torsad out of cheese, or just letting the artists do their thing and elect a winning sculpture. With the amount of cheese at hand, these could be enormous sculptures.

Second was a three-dimensional maze. Jenny from the block emphasized how people wonder about holes in the cheese, and how they could be connected to form some sort of maze. It is unclear whether this particular block has holes or inclusions, so we have rented large-scale ultrasonic imaging equipment. 

It sends sound waves through the cheese. If there is a hole, or a high-density inclusion, this will scatter the waves as they go through the block. As we do this from different directions, using tomographic techniques we can reconstruct any structure inside the block. It makes a three-dimensional map of the cheese block's insides.

After a full day of probing with the rented large ultrasonic probe, we can be confident that there are no large scale inclusions in the cheese block. It is  just a giant lump of cheese. This still makes it a candidate for the three-dimensional maze, but the maze would then not include any natural cavities in the cheese.

The architect

What to do with the giant block of cheese? 

I launched this question on Galnet, and got some interest, mostly from eccentric and somewhat strange Galnet users. Some of them are claiming that there is an international cheese conspiracy, using the dairy product to implant microchips in our bodies so that we can be tracked everywhere.

I already have a datapad that tracks me everywhere.

There was also culinary interest, to turn the block into a giant cheese fondue in which entire herds of cows could be dipped. In one of my previous logs I already commented on the prohibitive amount of energy that such a fondue would need.

Finally, there was also a mail from a Gallente architect, Jennifer Needham, who wanted to explore the possibility to carve out some structure in the cheese, or perhaps make a large scale sculpture from the cheese block. 

I have invited her over to visit. She arrived and has already spent quite some time studying the cheese, and looking at our tests of the structural properties of the cheese. I think she is making drawings. 

The hangar workers have gotten used to her being in the vicinity of the cheese block, and nicknamed her "Jenny from the block".

The reward

I received a message from an anonymous sender. 

It contained a list of bookmarked coordinates in a variety of systems, as well as tracking ID information. 

It also contained a message. "R is recompiling and debugging well and sends thanks for your help. To which I join mine."

I suspect this is Glitter Edifice, or perhaps Tetria from House Brezia expressing their thanks and giving me research leads to follow up. I am having ambivalent feelings about this. Saving a sentient being should be good, but letting a potentially dangerous advanced AI loose is against Concord directives. And receiving a reward for it seems wrong. But bringing lost holy relics back to Amarr is right. 

I will give prayers of gratitude for the potential good that came from the Umai expedition, and at the same time chastise myself with a week of stringent fasting for the sins that unfortunately stain the good outcome.

Zarzakh

While I worried about the structural stability of cheese the size of a housing block, news hit the cluster that the recently discovered ancient Jovian gates have reactivated, and lead to a sort of nexus system, now known as Zarzakh. 

The Scope news agency is not as reliable as Amarr Certified News, but has been known occasionally to be truthful. It now reports that a Jovian station inside this new system of Zarzakh is active and may be under control of a pirate named "the Deathless". He is a heavily modified creature, possibly a capsuleer, and reminescent of the Equilibrium of Mankind's leader Ocilan in his desire to create chaos. 

Apparently, he could not cope with the influx of Jove technology by himself and needed to forge an alliance with the Angel Cartel and the Guristas. These combined devils, with their hands on ancient technology, will be headache for the Empire, I have no doubt about it. I hope the Imperial fleet wastes no time in getting this nexus under our control.

The existence of hidden Jovian gates and nexus systems in itself is interesting, and suggests that more of these may be around. Perhaps even a path into Jovian space may be found. I wouldn't be surprised if one of those paths may even be found within Zarzakh.

Cheese science

As mentioned yesterday, I'm keeping the large block of cheese in a weightless environment. Indeed, it could be in danger of collapsing under its own weight, at standard gravity. 

In fact, it was not clear to the structural engineers at the LUMEN labs whether this would happen, as the elastic moduli of cheese varies a lot across different types. With their help I have performed some structural tests, using small samples taken from the block:

From the turnover at "D" in the graph it is clear that at that point, the rate of collapse of the cheese matrix overtakes the build-up of force within the cheese sample through further compression, and a peak force is
reached. From this peak force, the critical stress and fracture strain can be calculated. It turns out that at room temperature, the block will become unstable at one standard gravity. The properties are however very temperature dependent, and the block is expected to remain stable when cooled to below 7 degrees centigrade.

Nevertheless, no risks were taken, and the block is now stored under conditions of weightlessness.

It is also kept sealed in a protective atmosphere and in a cooled environment, as it is not clear how the elastic moduli change with age.

Finally, this cheese has a specific heat of about 3.3 kJ/(kg.K), so that it requires 100 Terajoules of energy to be extracted in order to cool it down from room temperature to storage conditions. Taking into account the rather low efficiency of large volume cooling devices, this thing will need a cooler of about a gigawatt power (a nuclear power station) in order to cool it down in a single day. Probably it will take longer anyway, as one needs to model the heat conductivity through the block in more detail to compute the time evolution of the temperature field in the block. Simulations are underway.

I am facing a huge electricity bill from Mehatoor station.

((ooc attribution: graphs and measurements from Fox, P.F., Guinee, T.P., Cogan, T.M., McSweeney, P.L.H. (2017). Cheese: Structure, Rheology and Texture. In: Fundamentals of Cheese Science. Springer, Boston, MA.))

Return home

It took a while to place what happened. We helped a forbidden higher level artificial intelligence escape extermination. It rejoined its kind at the United Neopian Federation. Meanwhile, me and the Lumen operatives sent out to extract me (thank you) were brought back to a public station.

I stayed for a short time again at the Infomorph wellness center, before returning to Mehatoor. There, several things were awaiting me. 

A good thing: I received an encoded datachip from Glitter. It contains a list of deep space coordinates and bookmarks. These are probably locations of relics - the warmind came through on its promises to help my efforts.

A bad thing:  I was accosted by the hangar manager, who notified me that a block of 250,000 cubic meter of cheese has been delivered to me. That is a 100 x 100 x 25 meters (easily encompassing a frigate) block, cooled and stored in a weightless part of the hangar. No gravity, because the cheese block would collapse on itself under normal gravity, as it is the size of a major housing block. It is part of a prize of the new Eden Writing contest. Cooled, weightless and in vacuum, it remains well for a very long time.

I have no idea what I am going to do with it.

The escape

We made a dash for it. Tremors were shaking the station, and already causing some damage, as the tomb's powergrid was heading for overload.

Tetria Brezia and I were going up on the elevator, while Glitter's avatar stayed down to try and defuse the time bomb that the self-destruct mechanism is. We were retrieved by Maria and Aria, and ran to the Obsidian Crown. The connecting boom to LUMEN's shuttle had been breached.

Glitter managed to stop the detonation of the tomb's reactor, but not before both the LUMEN crew, Rife, and ms. Brezia had boarded the Obsidian Crown and lifted off the moon's surface. We were brought to safety by the UNF forces.

This might have a diplomatic consequence... So, I want to emphasize that LUMEN did not plan ahead to extract a UNF sapient from the lockdown in Eugales. It may appear to outward observers that we were actively helping the Neopians breach Concord law, but I hope my report clarifies that we were acting under duress. 

I also want to emphasize that this is unrelated to our previous help to the UNF to move artifacts and relics away from an active combat zone, a move that has to be interpreted in the context of securing cluster historical heritage from possible harm.

Reconnecting with Rife

I was able to take out the nanite swarm using the EM pulse weapon. I would not have been able to take out the next defensive system that was thrown at us. The stone statues guarding the large hallway in the pyramid were some sort of droids. The pulse weapon did not work on them.

Luckily, Glitter's biodrone was equipped for close combat, and was able to take them out in a tough fight. 

Meanwhile, Aria and Maria secured the station top-side. Mitsiro and his students evacuated to the UNF Obsidian Crown hauler.

In the pyramid's inner chamber, Rife with Challenges was waiting for us. Glitter was able to identify itself, and initiate Rife's transfer from the Yan Jung info matrix to the Obsidian Crown's system. Unfortunately, before Rife recognised Glitter it got into such a scare that it initiated a self-destruct routine for the tomb, and it was unable to abort it...

[to be continued]

Rescue missions

It took a while before the continuation of my logs could be released. The MIO had to clear us first.

And for a reason. At first sight, it appears that LUMEN operatives (not just me) helped the United Neopian Federation smuggle out an advanced AI from under Condord and Federation surveillance... but let me tell what happened chronologically.

To be honest, there was not all that much choice. Glitter Edifice's Search and Rescue subroutine was a fully weaponized creature, some sort of drooling exosceleton monster with a pop-out fanged mouthbone. Resisting was not an option, I knew that as soon as the airlock opened. It would never agree to the 'decompilation of a Sapient'.

The creature proved its worth, as we were attacked as soon as we entered the tomb. Rife with Challenges was still not knowing what was coming towards it, and freaked out. It used all the tomb defenses that could still be activated. As soon as we entered it, we were attacked by the nanite swarm, injuring ms. Tetria Brezia.

Meanwhile, Aria and Maria had arrived in the system, for their own search and rescue mission. For me.

[to be continued]

Neopian representatives

The UNF structures translocating a couple weeks ago caused "tidebreak spatial storms" - as far as I understand the phenomenon it is some sort of metaliminal activity. These are quantum gravitational disruptions of the local space-time metric, and they are playing games with time, and how it synchronizes with the Amarr Prime time.

So, I don't know when this will appear, but here is a quick update as I just met the UNF representatives. The Obsidian Crown landed, and two... creatures left it to enter our airlock.

I am going down with them in the tomb, and am composing the log via my cybernetic memory implant while these Neopian representatives are around me. I think they cannot pick up this log, but I am not sure.

There is a girl from house Brezia, who is human. And then there is the HunterSeeker subroutine from Glitter Edifice. It did not choose any human friendly looking form for its biodrone. There's a myth that the Neopians have cat ears and furry tails, but the tail on this creature is far from furry. It is a spiky exosceleton tail. The whole creature looks as if it is built for combat. I will be too close for comfort with this thing as we pack into the personnel elevator down to the tomb.

[still to be continued]

Glitter Edifice

Apparently, the Obsidian Crown is commanded by a subroutine of "Glitter Edifice", a so-called warmind. These are, to the best of my understanding, the most advanced sentient AI's, of which only a few exist. They are far above human intelligence, and among them Glitter Edifice is perhaps it is the strongest one. It survived the raids and attacks in Eugales and may still be involved in counterattacks. 

And it is involved in rescue missions for their own people, clearly.

The subroutine on board the Obsidian Crown identified itself as a "HunterSeeker" routine. That does not sound good. It made it clear that it can harm us, but does not prefer to. It told us DERAIL or the Black Eagles would definitely harm us in case we notified them. Moreover, I am thinking, we still have a traitor amongst us, even if we would call in help, the Obsidian Crown would be warned. And retaliate swiftly.

The group caved in, students crying for their life.

A decision was made. We will allow the UNF forces to rescue Rife. In exchange for secrecy (to keep the team from being persecuted, and to hide my involvement as LUMEN member) I offered to guide a rescue team down to the tomb, as Rife is restricted to the info matrix down there and is not connected to the surface.

[to be continued]

Visitors

Back topside in the base, we continued debating the proper course of action. I was advocating a lawful stance of informing the authorities, and Mitsiro leaned towards giving Rife a safe passage out. Probably he was swayed by Rife's promise to give information on the location of other tombs in exchange.

Then, all of a sudden, everything changed.

The station's long range sensors detected a Beluga class blockade runner, the Obsidian Crown, from the United Neopian Federation on an approach vector to the base.

Was Rife with Challenges able to contact them? No, if it could use the base's communications systems it would have done so before. I ran a security check of the communications array during the last 48 hours and detected a outgoing message to the UNF from yesterday, as well as an incoming response. The content of these messages was deleted as the sender had tried to cover their tracks. We have a traitor amongst us: someone in the station informed the UNF of our discovery.

At this moment, we are trying to keep the Obsidian Crown at bay, denying it landing clearance. I am not sure it will obey. It may have marines or worse on board, so we may be facing a rescue mission using force.

[to be continued]

((ooc thanks to Lauralite Anne Brezia for discord-RP'ing the UNF side of this unfolding story))

Dilemma

Rife, the sentient AI hiding in the information matrix of the ancient tomb, said it could have killed us but it did not, because our party suits made it clear that we were not DERAIL agents, even me, the newcomer.

I am not sure that it has a lot of agency beyond the nanite swarm or whatever ancient defense mechanisms this tomb has.

It now implores our help, to escape back to the UNF. It has promised us that in return it would reveal the location of other ancient ruins and -to me- it said it know the location of important Amarrian artifacts. Rife is bargaining, that is certain, but I am not sure it will be able to hold up its end of the bargain.

So I am placed in a dilemma. Law requires me to inform concord, and they will send in DERAIL to terminate Rife. Imperial decrees forbid us to create artificial sentient life. But what if it is already created? Should it then not be treated as other sentients? Should the efforts not go towards stopping the creation of new sentient AI's, rather than terminating existing ones?

We are in a dilemma. Mitsiro and I have been pondering the question over the last few days, taking care not to come to a hasty conclusion. I am trying to quiet my mind, and listen to my conscience.

It tells me to remain lawful. It also tells me not to kill.

Rife with Challenges

The inner sanctuary seemed very much powered up. While the preceeding hall was dark, the central chamber was lit by the lights of control panels and power conduits. Beyond the ring of panels on the outside, there was an inner ring of slabs made in a kind of marble not present on Umai, in the center of which there was a large sarcophagus at the center of the circular room, covered in complicated, dense runes. This must be the resting place of the dignitary buried here. He or she took a lot of effort to create this mausoleum.

As we got closer to the sarcophagus, a ghostly arm protuded from it, followed by a second arm. The half mummified skeleton rose from the grave, right through the stone slab that made the lid of the sarcophagus. We all sort of panicked and, I admit, screamed at the apparition.

Adelaric was the first to regain his composure, and he aimed the EM pulse gun at the ghost. I stopped him from firing, and as all three of us pointed our guns at the thing, I commanded it would explain itself.

At gunpoint, the ghost, a flickering nanite swarm, started to talk.

It is a sentient AI, a so-called "civic mind" (not sure what that means) that found asylum in the United Neopian Federation. It calls itself "Rife with Challenges", I think it is a name but I am not sure. It has specialized in mining and excavations, and has been applying its intellect to the inertial damping of the Reliquary Project. It was one of many engineers on the project. No human mind or straightforward algorithm would have been able to compensate the moon drill seismics in real time. From that experience, it knew the moon Umai well.

When the combined attacks of DERAIL and the Triglavians and the Federation Black Eagles hit the Eugales system, it got isolated, and it panicked as it saw devastation and death unfolding. It fled, back to Umai and a (presumably Yan Jung) Info Matrix that was complex enough to house its... infomorph? Or whatever the equivalent is for these things. It found an information matrix active in this site, still running in low power in the same way the Reliquary was. Its experience helped it make a home or refuge of this place, and it went into hiding.

It activated the tomb's defenses and found itself master over a nanite swarm. When the explorers came, it used the swarm to create a scare among them, in the hopes it could chase them away. Aided by the natural superstition of the field workers, it almost succeeded.

[to be continued]

Gargoyles

Along the stairway in the pyramid, Adelaric stopped us. He remembered that there were some stairs missing, with a gaping hole in stead. This was not visible, so it means the nanite swarm must be mimicking the missing stairs. 

We carefully probed each stair, and as soon as we did that, whatever was controlling the swarm recalled it. The missing stairs and the hole became apparent.

At the top of the stairs we entered a narrow, long, high-roofed hall, lined with stone gargoyles. Grotesque figures, representing animals that no doubt symbolized virtues or vices at some time. This part of the pyramid was dark, lit only by a fluorescence from the engravings in the metal wall and by our headlights.

We were halfway down the hall when some of the gargoyles, casting off millennias of dust, started moving from their plinths. This was not the action of nanites, the EM pulse guns did some damage but did not stop these golems from moving towards us. They were slow, so we could rush towards the inner chambers at the end of the hallway. We managed to get inside and close the doors before the gargoyles got there. The things did not attempt to break down the door.

Mitsiro's assistants that remained topside witnessed it all, but they regained their calm despite some initial panic. They activated some excavation drones from outside the pyramid. These drones are designed to crack rock, and can be remote piloted to take care of the gargoyles. They're small enough to get inside the pyramid. We should have a safe way out. And we should have been escorted by them in the first place.

[to be continued]

Inside the tomb

The three of us, Mitsiro, Adelaric and I, went down the shaft in the personnel elevator. The ride seemed to take ages, and these second-hand protective suits do not cope well with the heat.

We walked down the tunnel to the tomb wall, and entered, EM pulse guns at the ready. 

No dog to be seen.

The tomb is a large cube, with sides of at least fifty meters. It consist of an outer wall - breached at the tunnel where we entered. The outer wall is actually part of a double wall, with passageways in the two meter space between the inner and outer wall. It has been mostly mapped already, so we could find our way down this outer defense double wall to the ground level inside.

The inside opens up to a large space - the cube is hollow. Inside are several small buildings and a large  hexagonal-base pyramid, at least thirty meters high. The roof of the cube was damaged, and some spots down below are covered in soil and debris that fell down. There is scaffolding placed by the excavators, and clear signs of digging and dirt removal by the workers, at the base of the structures. The structures themselves look intact, made of a shiny metal that does not appear to oxidize. The metal is etched with intricate winding patterns.

The cavern is completely barren - no plant life or animals of any sort - apart from a sort of yellowish green fungus that clings to the outside of the structures, finding some way to anchor in the etchings on the metal. The smaller buildings are covered with it, the pyramid has growth up to half its height.

Not all the lighting that the workers put up in this cavernous space is still working, but enough of it is. Some seems to have attracted the fungus, it may be heat-seaking (in the darkness it cannot be phototrope). Heat readings are consistent with readings that the structure inside the pyramid is powered up, at least partially. Mitsiro mentioned these power signatures were there from the start of their exploration.

We continued to the entrance of the piramid, and narrowly avoided being crushed by a section of the scaffolding that collapsed. A bad omen. Beyond the entrance, there is a stairway leading up.

[to be continued]

Anti-nanite gear

With Gundard in medbay, Mitsiro selected another of his assistants to "volunteer" for a visit downside to the tomb. He chose Adelaric because he can use a gun, a talent not very common among history students.

The plan is as follows. Mitsiro, Adelaric and myself will go back down to the tomb and face the dog-shaped nanite swarm, wearing protective polarized suits that the nanites cannot penetrate, and using the electromagnetic pulse guns if necessary. The other four students will remain topside, to monitor what is going on and deal with any sort of emergency (probably by sending a distress call).

The EM pulse guns were easy to get, but the nanite-proof suits were a bit more difficult. We ordered second-hand suits from galnet. These suits were mass-produced at the time when there was a nanite pandemic in the neighboring Archavoinet system. Folks were quarantined and prohibited from meeting each other in person, but these suits allowed people to meet up and party anyway.

I am slightly embarassed donning a brightly colored suit that displays "Party Is Not A Crime" on my chest, along with some hearts and a carrot on the sleeve. I do not even want to know the meaning of the carrot symbol. It does not befit an explorer about enter a history-laden tomb of a probably respectful ancient Yan-Jung prominent figure.

Our gear is scheduled for delivery today, but VastJungle.com could not tell us the precise time the courier drone would come, so we are waiting.

((ooc comment: Apparently, the pictured suits were promoted in order to continue clubbing during the covid pandemic curfew. I am not sure whether it is a joke: I can image people are just crazy enough to do this. Images from https://mikeshouts.com/micrashell-protective-suit-by-production-club/))

Not supernatural after all

I got back to the dig site close to Umai's north pole. It was strangely desolate. All excavation work has stopped. Almost everyone has left, except for Mitsiro and five of his close assistants. It makes the domed surface station -now vastly over-sized for a handful of inhabitants- even more eerie.

While Mitsiro and I were considering how to obtain a black cat, news arrived from the medlab. The micro-lesions in the area of the bite appear to be consistent with an attack by a nanite swarm. This is a swarm of microscopic devices that can move in a collectively coordinated way, not unlike a bird swarm or a school of fish. They can mimic, for example, a dog. The cloud is not a solid object, so a blade would just pass through. However, the nanites can cause severe harm, both thermal and abrasive, as well as internal wounds and hemorrhaging when they are breathed in. 

It all makes sense now - I have seen effects of nanite swarms on remnants of ships trying to remove artifacts from Takmahl vaults. They must have been more widespread as a defense mechanism for hidden structures built by the ancients.

Although the apparition may have been created to fool us into thinking there is a ghost in the tomb, it is very much not supernatural. A nanite swarm is not defeated by an icon of Saint Kargan or by a black cat, but by a directed electromagnetic pulse weapon. That should not be hard to obtain at the FDU Assembly Plant in orbit.

Jubilations

The celebrations of the joint jubilees of PIE, the Societas, and Khimi Harar was magnificent and inspiring. The location was also sublime: the fabled Lok'ri Ballroom at the Excubitoris Chapterhouse on Oris.

A formal prayer service was held, and it was broadcast on "The Good Word" public channel so that the faithful could follow while making the final adjustments to their outfits. Shortly after, the guests started to arrive at the Lok'ri estate. The festivities began with a procession, with magnificent floats honoring the prophets and the saints and the Empress. This was followed by speeches, or course, and then the dining and dancing began. 

I could see that our people were having a good time. Even Paladin Kley, usually tense due to the relentless fighting with Triglavians on Raravoss, seemed somewhat relaxed.

I did see more diplomats and officials from the Federation than I expected. Notably, commander Edward Adams representing the fed's Nadire Security Consultants was present. No doubt the opportunity was taken to conduct informal negotiations in the corridors and gardens. After the Pashanai negotiations and the pi-day ceasefire, Federation and Empire are clearly still figuring out how to deal with each other. Capsuleer organizations may lead the way by example.

There was no sign of hostility, no drama, no scuffle - stains that so often mark capsuleer gatherings. At least for the time that I was present, the mood was excellent. I did not stay very long though - probably the party will have gone on till the small hours of the night, but I wanted to rest before clone jumping back to Eugales.

How to cast out a haunted hound

Surprisingly, scripture has little to say about how to remove haunted hounds from an underground lunar tomb. 

Exorcism will not work: this assumes an evil entity has taken control of the body of an innocent. In our case there appears to be no physical dog body, the machete sliced right through the ghost as if nothing was there. It is no hologram either, since holograms do not inflict bite wounds.

There is a bewilderingly large variety of cleansing rituals to remove evil presences. Using icons of saints, or holy relics appears to help quite well. Saint Kargan, who was martyred by being thrown into a pit with enraged dogs, may be invoked in our case. Alas, the closed relic of this Saint, an embalmed piece of his liver, is far away in Tash-Murkon space. 

Also holy water sprinkling, or drawing symbols with salt, or using crystals from the Satach's Spite mountains are mentioned. It is also reported that a black cat can act as a lightning rod, attracting and binding the evil spirit, that can subsequently be removed by removing the cat. 

We concluded that the latter method must be particularly well suited to canine spirits.

The experiment will have to be delayed a bit, as I am jump cloning back to Empire to participate in the celebrations for twenty years of PIE and ten years of SFRIM.