"NEW DAWN"|Aegis Research|20.05.3304
20 May 2018Gale Harte
________________________Gale Harte
Aegis Research
Science Division
Pleiades Sector IR-W d1-55
Donar's Oak
20 May 3304
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Everything is a bit crazy at the moment, and there's quite a lot to divulge.
I arrived at Donar's Oak roughly two weeks ago, though it feels much shorter than that, and was quickly overwhelmed. Nobody ever tells you how vastly different an Ocellus Starport is from a Megaship, or rather nobody told me. For starters, the Starport is absolutely massive. That's not to say that the Acropolis wasn't big, but It's really hard to understand the size of the Megaship when you're confined to your quarters, laboratory, and a select few recreation facilities. With Donar's Oak, you can see it almost immediately. The way the landing platforms seemingly fold up around the walls and ceiling to surround you is awe-inspiring.
The second most notable thing was the gravity, or artificial gravity. It took a good long while to get used to walking with the assistance of centrifugal force, especially when it changes whenever you wish to go up or down a level in the station. The 0.5 G environment of the ring is really strange, but it sure beats walking with nothing but those magnetic grav-boots.
Everything has changed as far as work is concerned. Since the station is much larger than the Acropolis, the science division is larger as well. Not only that, but the presence of military personal is almost unnoticable. According to our department head, Everyone here in the science division is not automatically under the watch of Aegis' defense force. We still have to follow the confidentiality agreements, but if the defense force needs us to work for them they must ask for permission before burying us in paperwork. It's quite a relief, but I'm still getting used to the new formatting of the paperwork we already have to do. The science makes up for it though.
We've experimented with meta-alloys in the past, but we didn't have the precise tools on the Acropolis necessary to do some of the things that we can here. We've recently been able to successfully grow an alloy branch in a contained environment to produce units of meta-alloys. That being said, there's still nothing we can really do with them. Any time we try to melt them down or tamper with them, it destroy's their molecular structure. If we can find out how the Thargoids manipulated them into forming armour for their ships and other various components, then it's possible that we could do the same. Though honestly, the alloys aren't our biggest concern at the moment.
There's still a lot I'm not allowed to disclose for legal reasons, but I can say that we're working on methods to track the Thargoids through hyperspace. To do that, we need to analyze their jump wakes, and that means going out to do field research, and because I'm the only one in the team with a pilot's license, that means me. Needless to say, I'm a bit nervous about the whole thing.
No, "Nervous" isn't enough to describe how I feel about this. "Petrified" is more like it. I haven't flown in years, and now after all that time my first voyage out is going to be into the territory of the Thargoids themselves. Thankfully, Aegis has a special training course for pilots doing research in Thargoid infested space, which is what I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks.
Being on the the bleeding edge of discovery certainly has its benefits and drawbacks, especially since it looks like it's going to be my blood at the expense of discovery. I wouldn't last 2 seconds against a Thargoid vessel.
Come to think of it, this is all too convenient. First I make a controversial statement about a paper from the Palin Institute which later nearly gets Aegis into legal trouble, and now it seems like they're all too willing to throw me out into the black with the very creatures I want to study.
They're also supplying a ship for me.
A company ship.
Oh no...
But two other scientists will be with me. They wouldn't give me the Jameson treatment with other people at risk.
Would they...?
Maybe I'm just paranoid. Yeah... Just paranoid.
I hope....
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