voidtreckernet | Day 19 | Video

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Day 19 | Video | Incoming missive

[Towards the evening of day nineteen of the month of Quicksand there is an announcement.]

Voidtreckers and Passengers of the Voidtrecker Express. We are receiving a communication attempt from the Void Ministry. Please stand by.

[The ICP screens crackle for a few moments, before it settles and a picture emerges, of a young woman sat at a desk. She looks a little bit nervous behind her professional smile.]

Greetings crew of the Voidtrecker Express. My name is Lia Nine, I am a junior minister under Commander Orlaith and she asked me to follow up on the reports that you submitted following your mission on system #5739. Thank you for those who filled them out, I know paperwork can be tedious but it does help us monitor situations.

[She moves her hands on the desk, as if she is using a computer or tablet device on her desk.]

I hope this isn't a bad time but I have around an hour if any of your crew are available to talk. There were a couple of queries your crew had so I'll go through those first.

I've got a report from a Yondu Udonta of the blue team asking about the bio fusions and what causes them. It's basically the void itself. Organic matter is not made to move through the void, that's why we have voidcraft and why anchoring takes so much mental energy. I can elaborate if anyone wants the science in more depth.

He also asked about setting your SCAs up to register Blutz waves. I've looked in my databases but can't find any energy waves called Blutz. Are they system specific?

I filled an equipment request form out on your behalf but can't promise anything. Elidibus I have also filled a book request for you for the information you seek.

Bruno Madrigal of the Blue team and Thanatos of the Red team I will happily speak to you about your requests.

Tidus I've passed your request about a communication line to the ministry on. Faux I am not sure there is anything to be concerned about regarding the alphabetical nature of the months. Most voidcraft have a simple time monitoring system that is based on what would be natural to their crew.

Faux also mentioned your craft was in need of maintenance. Do you have any details on that?

[She looked up from her tablet.] I think that's all the questions but I've got an hour if anyone has any more for me. While we're at it I wanted to ask for a report on the experiment with your tethers. We have some data from the site but I don't think anyone has actually asked you what happened yet.

[OOC: If you were planning for your character to have filled out a report for the mission and hadn't yet it is not too late. Even though Lia only has an hour IC there is no such thing as too late to this post OOCly! If you don't have time or don't wish to do an NPC thread but feel your character would say something feel free to give us a quick summary in the top level below!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You are right it's worth looking into. I'll pass the report on, there's a lot going on in the field of Safety controls and they are likely to put some kind of alarm or control system into SCAs. If nothing else it will set the groundwork in case there are any newly voidactive worlds with those affected by these Blutz waves.

If that's sorted. [ Sounds like it to him. ]

I'd like the science, please.

{Sounds like it. She smiles at Senku.]

Tell me what you know about the void itself.

You want to set a baseline for my knowledge, fair enough. Please fill in any gaps you find, I’d appreciate it. [He’s not afraid to be told he has something wrong, he wants that.]

To begin with the void is not a void as it’s known colloquially in my world. A void to me meant a space that was completely absent of anything. Obviously this void is not that. This void appears to have quite a few things in it, so it’s more of a space between worlds. The void itself has several toxic properties. Looking into the void has adverse affects, as does prolonged travel which can cause voidsickness. It also appears to be able to cause damage and bring chaos to various worlds, hence the mission we were dispatched on being caused as a backlash to our experiment with our unusual tethers.

The void, or the trains themselves permit minor movements in time, not just space. I believe the limit is five hours, if what I gather from the train is correct, although that may be specific to this voidcraft alone.

Our knowledge of the void has been extremely limited due to restricted materials we are unable to get our hands on.

Yet despite that you've summed it up better than most textbooks. [She smiled at him.]

The void is indeed the space between worlds, what exactly it is made of is still widely unknown though most systems just call it void dust, which isn't super helpful. It is a nothing but it is also a something, an everything even. Organic beings cannot survive in it and most minds cannot survive it outside of voidcraft.

When you anchor you are barely skimming the surface of the void. It is a relatively new science and requires people who are tethered to a voidcraft as one part of it.

Sometimes that skimming happens accidentally, such as the other-world people in system #5739 or those that the entity designated Chaos dragged to his false world.

But those voidtears weren't just skimming creatures through the shallows of the void as it were, they were dragging them through the ocean.

[She looks at him.] I'm assuming you come from a place with oceans but please stop me if you get confused. Just like at the depths of the ocean the pressure is too much for creatures that were not born there, so too is the void. Except in a reality bending sort of way. So the creatures that get dragged through and fused were essentially... unmade and made again by the pressures of the void.

No need, I am and I'm with you so far. [ The pressurization is something he's familiar with, both too much like being underwater and not enough like being in space. ]

Meaning those voidtears were perhaps larger or more deeply connected to the void than it appeared? Do you happen to know how what we did caused that?

I can certainly tell you what I know about that venture if you need more data on that.

That would be helpful. We have some theories but we don't have all the data yet. The more data we can gather the closer to the truth we will hopefully fall.

Not a problem, I can give you a first hand account.

[He takes a brief moment as it looks like he’s collecting his thoughts.]

Whether or not you follow the calendar of our train matters not. For us it was Poi 22, which was approximately twenty-seven days ago, at least by the time standard we’re following of a 27 hour day. We were advised that returning home would be possible and we were dropped off on a platform. This platform appeared to be no different than any other we’d been to, surrounded in fog with little but the train to see.

After that, leaving the platform into the fog led me back to my world. Time had passed, mm, relatively close to how long I’ve been away. It will be eleven months for me, so it was ten and a half. I’ve been advised by the train that the state of my world had nothing to do with void travel. I located my non-traveling self but had not rejoined it. That was notable.

Attempting to leave my village, once I got roughly eight kilometres away I could no longer continue in my world. I could see it where I was standing until I got that far and then I was swallowed by fog and found myself back on the platform. From that point, it was somewhat like a nexus hub where I could be pulled into other people’s homes. That restriction was on all of them. We were only given access to a portion of it.

By the end of a week’s time, at least in my world by that time standard, there were other strange effects. Unsual colours in the sky. Voices and memories from the collective of the sentient beings upon the planet. We were very much out of time when I was pulled out.

[She began typing as he began to speak. Nodding, it matched up with what she had been told by others but the more accounts she had the more patterns they could try and find in what happened.]

Did you visit many other places? When you were in a place that was not your own did it feel any different?

A few. There was nothing in particular I noticed that felt any different from being my own world, outside of the circumstances. I didn't particularly want to sit around in an empty world the whole time.

[ He'll get to do that, later perhaps. ]

An empty world? [Her face is sympathetic.] Is your world one of those that has been put in danger by your removal from it?

Not strictly. No world can hinge on one person's contribution. Without a doubt the work I was doing, important as it was, was continued without me by my allies. I saw evidence of that.

[ He sighs softly, letting out the air slowly. ]

I'm not sure what happened. I'd class my world's state as a catastrophe, but the train says the timeframe was not suitable enough for rescuing my world at the time. There was an incident which caused every human to be petrified to a stone statue and then civilization fell without human interference.

My world is not void-active. But I would like to hear more about that as well. I saw you fulfilled a book request. Would it be possible to get books about developing voidtravel, void-active worlds and the study materials for captaining a voidship?

Ah. I'm sorry to hear that. [She sounds confused, but also sympathetic.] I'm afraid we know little of your crafts abilities to deal with these so called catastrophes. It's not something we have much data on.

I'd have to look into it for you, the information about developing void travel. It's not normally information that is released to non void active worlds until they have pierced through, as it were.

No matter, I have a plan. [ He waves his hand, he really doesn't look that concerned. It's hard, but not impossible. That's enough. ]

I know the void though, I've been in it awhile. I mean, if I truly can't have it, I will find a way regardless. I know the Ministry has, at least historically, assisted with reaching the point of voidtravel safely, as detailed in The History of the Void Ministry.

The last thing, if you'll indulge one more request, would be a proper manual for the voidtrain. Voidtrecker Express obviously has not had maintenance done in quite some time since its been on the run. If it breaks down we would have no idea how to do anything, or how to access or diagnose anything. We'd be stranded. Outside if my personal interest in understanding voidcraft, this would be beneficial to the whole crew.

[ He pauses a moment. ] I realize this is a large request, if the points we use on board are of use to you, I'm willing to pay for the books. If not, I will certainly get something to you through a Ministry representative at the earliest opportunity. [ He's used to a deep barter system. ]

[That sounds vaguely threatening. She makes a note of it with a frown, adding to her growing list of requests and concerns that she is making on her tablet.]

Unfortunatly the problem with a manual for your voidcraft is... Your voidcraft doesn't exist. Not in any records, not in any maintenance logs. We can make guesses on how it operates but...

[ He hadn't meant it to be, but being misunderstood is pretty normal for him at times. ]

Ah, I don't mean my voidcraft. I'll take a manual on a similar model. If there's something different well we obviously can't account for that, but it would give us a starting point.

I'll see what I can do. You've all given me quite a list of books you want.

[She should have known this assignment was going to mean way more paperwork than normal.]

It's not that surprising to me that it would be a common request. We don't get that much time to talk to you, and our desire for information due to being completely uninformed and untrained is something we share in common.

[ He sighs a little bit. ]

What does your job normally entail?

Yes. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be. [To someone who grew up in a void active world, where this was commonly taught it is hard to imagine not knowing about it at all and then being dragged into it.]

Far too much paperwork. [She smiles.] But I work on the team of commander Orlaith. We monitor disturbances or anomalies in the void and work carefully with void nexus worlds or void hubs, making sure that that the void activity there doesn't grow too dangerous for those who live there. We also assist those displaced by the void such as those you helped anchor in system #5739.

It's not all bad. I enjoy a good mystery.

[ He let out a little hum at that. ] Ah bureaucracy, the bane of every civilized world. [ Someday that will be his fate too, probably. But he'll take that as a good sign. ]

That actually sounds like an interesting job. Do you find yourself learning new things about the void as things happen? I suppose I should ask, mainly, with what I described do you think the void may be encroaching on my world even though it's not void active?

Yes, we are learning new things every day. Your crew had blown a lot of holes in some very solid theories. [She smiled ruefully. But that was void science. It was only as good as the next piece of evidence.]

We're not sure. The void activity of the ripples caused by your crafts experiment seemed to touch the worlds your crew had tried to return to, but now things have been stabilised we haven't recorded any more void activity in those areas than usual. Hopefully that remains.

I would think that would be exciting. I'm a scientist, and when I come across something simply impossible, I have to know how it works. [ Lia Nine may have already guessed this. ]

That's interesting, for a moment there it seemed very concerning like the void was encroaching on my world. Those experiences at the end are not normal to my world, not at all. Good to know. I'm sure the void can't fuck up my world worse than it is, but I'd rather not take that chance.

Edited 2022-04-15 08:11 (UTC)

Yes it is. Though it's grounding as well. Exciting but it's effecting people like you and your crew, so it is more than just a scientific puzzle.

I can see why that would be a problem. We are monitoring things as best as we can.

Science being the study of everything around us always affects people, but it's also an unending puzzle, which is why I enjoy it so much. My world was the kind of place that developed science fairly well, with steady progress, albeit probably not as much as you're used to, I'd guess.

Or not, perhaps, it's hard to say without more information about where you're from. Some of that knowledge was come by very unethically. Not interested in the kind of thing that hurts people. At least for now, the way I see it the void is already hurting us and has displaced us from our lives. There's only so much it can do to me at this point, so I may as well try and solve the mystery.

It's a good way of looking at it. Making the best of the situation. My world was pretty well developed scientifically, though not so much than other places. But I was born long after the discovery of the void in my world so its exciting I guess, being able to discover new things about it.

Day 19 | Video | Incoming missive

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