illapis

[illapis]

Log 1: Fat Frank

(Hey, this is my first time on this site so I apologize if it ends up being sorta wonky. I’m also not a writer or an artist, and I’ve never really been all that creative, but I’m really into sci-fi, fantasy, and real world astronomy and I just wanted a way to express this futuristic and hopefully interesting universe that I've always dreamt about. I figured it could be cool to use mission logs to explore around the different ideas and places within this universe, through the eyes of a sorta Mark Watney, Carl Sagan, and myself mix. So to anyone who may stumble (or tumble, heh) across this blog, welcome to my universe! I really hope you enjoy!)

CAP LOG #1: 

LOCATION: LOW-ORBIT, THAROKSIS,

I.S.S.D.D. TIME: C607 R3 B7

LOCAL: DAY 21 – 9:45pm

  FINALLY! After YEARS of hounding the E.R.I.C. (that’s the Exploratory Research Institute Command, they’re sorta the top dogs when it comes to outer colony boundary research), those stiff-necked SOB’s approved my “research” voyage. I say “research” because in reality it’s just a glorified suicide mission to the most extreme and interesting planets on the edge of human civilization. Seriously, these places are no joke. These are the kinds of planets that’ll eat you alive if you aren’t careful….or so we think, aside from scans, SAT pics, and the occasional super-rover samples, there isn’t much we know about the edge worlds (That’s what us pioneers like to call the unexplored neighboring planets outside of the official governed or privately owned space-time). Regardless, it’s always been my dream to explore new and unknown planets. I think the idea of being the first to see something, and really comprehend it, is worth one small life. I’d rather die with an expanded knowledge of what’s out there than live my life knowing jack. Well, that, and I love the thrill of adventure. The only problem is, I sorta lied on my voyage permit application. I told em’ I was a well-respected biologist and engineer. That was actually my brother, the only training I have is from my days in the privatized security force for my home world’s asteroid mining company “Aster-Rocks”, amazing name, I know. I look like the spitting image of my brother, and because it’s nearly impossible to have a safe job AND secure info these days, it was pretty easy to pass as him. It shouldn’t affect him that much, by the time the head folks at E.R.I.C. realize what I’ve done, he’ll probably be dead. See, most research facilities (at least the one’s with the big bucks) are set up either on nuclear accelerated stations going 90 percent the speed of light, or near black holes. They do this in order to take advantage of the time dilation. Research takes time, and so does processing data, so the companies set up stations outside of the time-dilated facilities that analyze all the data they’ve collected, it can take years and years and years to complete, however once it IS done all they have to do is send it back to the facility and BOOM, near instant results for that facility.

  As you could probably guess, this sorta messes up our calendars. I mean, no one is ever on the same time, that’s just how time dilation works. So instead of measuring years the old fashion way, now days we use a modified dyson sphere. It’s rigged to have three rings moving at separate speeds. The top ring moves the fastest and represents the “Cycles” (years) for someone moving under normal speeds. The second ring moves a lot slower, this is for people who are traveling at around 75% the speed of light. The lowest and final ring moves so slow that someone moving at normal speeds would die multiple times before they see it spin even once. This ring is for people traveling at 90% of the speed of light or higher. There are small red bumps and big blue bumps on each ring. The red bumps, or just “Red’s” as we call them, represent weeks, and the blue bumps, or “Blue’s” represent months. There’s a marker for each ring on the side of the sphere so we know where each ring currently is. The marker marks the number of Red’s and Blue’s in each Cycle. Last I checked, my ring (the top one) was on Cycle 607 R3 B7. The days are decided by planet or whichever station you’re on, for instance on the main E.R.I.C facility it takes 3 days for a Red to pass, they determine days by revolutions rather than rotations because they are tidally locked around their black hole (Yes it is theirs, they own it, they own a bottomless void). The Time-sphere (or more accurately the time-oblate-spheroid) is technically called the Inter-Solaric  Sidereal Dyson Dial, but that takes too long to say in an emergency, so most of us just call it something like “The Dyson Dial” or “Sidereal Clock”. I just call it “Fat Frank”, cause back on those mining asteroids “Fat Frank” would tell us when to go back home, and when to go back to work.

  Anyway, my days are dictated by my watch, it’s linked into the main governing planet’s system, which is how most people count days per Red if they aren’t on-planet or on some station. I’m in orbit around the first planet I’m supposed to survey tomorrow, and man does my landing zone look HOT, physically, and generally. It seems pretty active, which I’m thankful for, I’ve had enough barren and glass-regolith filled wastelands for anyone’s lifetime. I’m getting pretty tired so I’ll update the log more after I land tomorrow, for now, here’s a terribly drawn representation of Fat Frank, sorry, I was a security guard, not an artist (Although I do draw a lot, you have been warned).

- Captain Conner, of the ship “Illapis”