Exploration Log A605634-Beta 17
Day 1 04/11/2024
A932211-Beta: This is unit A932211-Beta aboard the Monolith exploration vessel ninety-seven. On-board date: eleventh of April, 2024. With me are units A2751600-Beta, A4962394-Delta, A701967-Alpha, and A3259664-Gamma. Our mission is to explore the anomaly known as the Boötes Void in universe A605634-Beta. Right now we are within 165 million light years from the center of the anomaly, or just about the edge. Every twenty-four hours we are to use a wormhole to travel five and a half million light years toward the center. This should allow us to reach it within a month. My duties include recording anything of interest every time we do this. Like a captain’s log!
A701967-Alpha: (distant) It’s not a captain’s log and you’re not a captain!
Day 2 04/12/2024
A932211-Beta: So a bit of background on this mission: the Boötes Void is a mostly spherical region of space almost completely devoid of galaxies. The anomaly is 165 million light years in radius. Back on Earth, it wasn’t considered anomalous because it seemed consistent with the Lambda-CDM model of cosmological evolution. Alien scientists, however, have proven the Lambda-CDM model to be slightly incorrect. The new and improved model does not suggest the existence of anything like this. Other anomalies such as this one have been observed in other universes, but the location is always different. Universe A605634-Beta was chosen for exploration because a larger amount of anomalies have been observed in it than any other universe.
Day 3 04/13/2024
A932211-Beta: After two wormholes, we’ve noticed something interesting… At the edge of the anomaly there are galaxies. They, however, do not belong to any galactic clusters. They are also irregularly shaped, and are rather big, one of them contains an estimated 500 billion stars. The working theory is that these are the result of a large amount of galaxies colliding with each other. Though why this would happen remains a mystery. In other news, the guys back home have finally finished constructing that Dark Energy Reactor. That should solve the little energy crisis we’ve been having. It’s amazing really, three years ago we didn’t even know what Dark Energy was, or if it even existed, and now we’re exploiting it!
Day 4 04/14/2024
A932211-Beta: We are now over sixteen million light years into the anomaly. Galaxies are much scarcer now. There’s one in the distance that is much smaller, about 25 billion stars. This one is also irregularly shaped. Nothing else of interest. Though I have heard some news about our reactor: its generating much more power than we have any use for. And what can we use all that excess power for? Weapons, of course! They’re designing a planet killer now, so everyone knows not to mess with us. I just hope we never actually have to use it.
A3259664-Gamma: Hey, enough about the reactor already, we’re supposed to record our surroundings!
A932211-Beta: Right! Nothing else of interest.
Day 5 04/15/2024
A932211-Beta: We’ve started detecting an unusual amount of space dust. I guess that would explain why we can’t see anything behind the anomaly. We also drew straws to choose who gets to go outside and clean the cameras one by one. And it looks like A2751600-Beta is the lucky guy. Hey 600! You ready to go out yet?
A2751600-Beta: (distant) Shut up and help me get this damn thing on!
A932211-Beta: Alright I’m coming!
Receding footsteps can be heard, followed by distant, unintelligible commotion for five minutes and twenty-seven seconds. This is then followed by thirty-four minutes of silence. After this, approaching footsteps are audible.
A932211-Beta: Shit, I left this thing on?
Day 6 04/16/2024
A932211-Beta: Tried playing cards today. Don’t know what we were expecting but it’s no fun when everyone is a mind reader.
Day 7 04/17/2024
A932211-Beta: Am I really supposed to make one of these reports every day? Nothing has changed since we discovered the dust.
Day 11 04/21/2024
A932211-Beta: Made a bit of a detour today. After the jump we noticed a rogue planet. It’s about one and a quarter times the size of Earth. We’ll send in three people to explore it today and tomorrow. Probably nothing of interest, but you never know. Unfortunately, I will be staying on the ship. Guess it’s just you and me, ninety-four.
Day 12 04/22/2024
A2751600-Beta: As one of the crew members sent to investigate the rogue planet, I’ll be making the daily report instead of unit A932211-Beta. This planet is really something else. Despite being bigger than Earth, the gravity is rather low. The mountains are very high, even higher than the low gravity would permit. We’ve seen several going an estimated twenty kilometers, comparable to Olympus Mons on Mars. Some of them are practically vertical. There’s also gigantic canyons everywhere. We can’t even tell how deep those go. The only source of light other than the dozens of light sticks we brought is that tiny galaxy we noticed earlier, and that’s almost forty million light years away. We really had to focus to see it. The fact that it’s even noticeable is just amazing.
A3259664-Gamma: Actually, it’s downright impossible. A galaxy that small, that far away, through that much space dust should not be visible.
A2751600-Beta: Maybe there’s another one we didn’t notice. Speaking of dust, that seems to be what we’re walking on. The consistency of the ground beneath us is reminiscent to that of sand. We’ve already collected samples. (pause) This place is beyond eerie. The strange and lifeless landscape, the starless sky, it feels like we’re walking on the last planet in the universe. I’m glad I didn’t go alo-
A3259664-Gamma: I got you!
A2751600-Beta: (panting) Thanks. Nearly fell into a hole. I can’t see the bottom. I’ll try throwing a light stick in there. (pause) Gravitational constant seems to be 7.448 meters per second squared… and it’s been falling for fifty four seconds… eleven kilometers, or just about the depth of the Mariana Trench.
A701967-Alpha: I hate to say this, but we’re running low on oxygen. We should go.
Day 13 04/23/2024
A932211-Beta: We’ve examined the samples brought by the exploring crew. They’re made of a seemingly random jumble of minerals, way more than have any business being in one place. This planet must be very old. Could this be what happens to planets as they age? I can’t really see any reason they would end up like that. The Monolith decided to send a crew to set up a permanent research outpost there, they should be there tomorrow.
Day 14 04/24/2024
A932211-Beta: The crew that was supposed to set up on that planet came where we saw it, and found nothing. A701967-Alpha checked the navigator, and it seems to be in working order. Though considering we can’t even see that galaxy anymore, there’s no way of knowing if it’s properly calibrated. Worst case scenario we get lost and manually download our minds to new bodies back on the Monolith. The research team is looking for the planet, but if they don’t find it tomorrow, they’re giving up.
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Day 15 04/25/2024
A932211-Beta: Space-time is starting to get unstable. We can still use wormholes, but the problem is that we don’t see any reason for instability. I mean, each wormhole is five million light years apart, so they would not add up to make any noticeable difference. And the planet is still missing. A real shame.
Day 16 04/26/2024
A932211-Beta: Space-time is getting even more unstable. If it continues at this rate wormholes won’t be able to stay open once we go another 70 million light years.
Day 17 04/27/2024
A932211-Beta: Scratch that. It doesn’t continue at that rate, instead it goes exponentially. The new estimate is 18 million light years, or three jumps and an additional 1.5 million light years. Why is this happening? The wormholes are too far apart to add to the instability, and there’s nothing out here that would cause gravitational anomalies.
Day 18 04/28/2024
A932211-Beta: We have a new theory. The space-time could be destabilized because of Dark Energy. That would also explain why galaxies aren’t in clusters, they were forced apart by Dark Energy. Unfortunately, the study of Dark Energy is relatively new and this vessel does not contain any instruments to measure Dark Energy. If this theory is true, then what we are witnessing is the Big Rip theory in action. A horrifying thought.
Day 21 05/01/2024
A932211-Beta: So much for estimates. Wormholes are unusable a day earlier than we thought. We can still use the Warp Drive, however. It’s much faster than the ones the Empire uses, but its top speed only lets us go two million light years per day. Meaning this mission just got twenty days longer, and that’s if you don’t count the return trip. Well, we should have enough food to at least get there, and then we can let the autopilot return the ship for us.
Day 22 05/02/2024
A932211-Beta: Usually the Warp Drive reminds me of Star Wars, but now I can barely tell we’re using it. With no stars, there are only occasional, dim streaks of light rather than a bunch of bright lines. Right now we are deciding if we should make each stop two million light years apart, or keep doing them five and a half, which would be a stop every three days almost.
Day 23 05/03/2024
A932211-Beta: We’ve decided to make a stop every six million light years, or every three days. Meaning my reports will be less frequent. And the first stop is today. Other than increased space-time instability and space dust becoming even more dense, there is nothing of note. Looks like the cameras need cleaning again, though.
Day 35 05/15/2024
A932211-Beta: At the rate space-time is destabilizing, it is entirely plausible the ship will get ripped apart before we reach the center of the anomaly. The samples collected on the rogue planet don’t seem too interesting, but it is unlikely we’ll see that planet again anytime soon. As such we request orders from the Science Divisions whether we should continue.
Day 36 05/16/2024
A932211-Beta: We’ve received orders to keep going.
Day 39 05/19/2024
A932211-Beta: We are now more sure than ever that the ship won’t survive in the center of the anomaly. In fact, we doubt we can get any closer, as we can hear occasional creaking. (a metallic creaking can be heard) Well speak of the devil. We see some sort of lights in the distance, though. We can’t be sure if they really are in the center, so we’ll move perpendicularly to our previous course to try and deduce their distance with parallax.
Day 40 05/20/2024
A932211-Beta: It’s official. There is something in the center of the Boötes Void, in a place where anything bigger than a speck of dust can’t exist. That’s probably where all the dust came from, too. There used to be galaxies here, weren’t there? Now they’re all dust. And that planet? It was probably being ripped apart and put back together. And what did we build a month ago? A machine that uses Dark Energy for power. This is probably what happened here, another interdimensional empire finally understood how to use Dark Energy for power and then their reactor went critical, and boom! Space Chernobyl. We’re turning this ship around and we are turning off that-
Unit A932211-Beta is interrupted by a loud crash. The recording ends. All attempts to contact exploration vessel ninety-seven for the next seven days failed and none of the crew members were able to return their minds to the Monolith. After seven days, the Monolith received another recorded report.
Day 47 05/27/2024
A932211-Beta: An asteroid crashed into the ship. It broke the communicator and the navigator, and nothing else. Not even the hull. Like it phased into existence inside the ship. We were able to repair the communicator, but not the navigator. At the very least we can try returning by memory. Now that the communicator is out of the way though, we can try examining the rock, maybe see if we can figure out how it got here.
Another attempt to contact the vessel was made and met with success.
A0-Alpha: Unit A932211-Beta? Can you hear me?
A932211-Beta: Yes sir. Is there something you need?
A0-Alpha: Why didn’t you make contact with us?
A932211-Beta: The communicator was not functioning, sir.
A0-Alpha: But why didn’t you use your Neural Interface?
A932211-Beta: We tried. We couldn’t contact you.
A0-Alpha: Strange. You also claimed the Dark Energy Reactor was dangerous?
A932211-Beta: I do not remember saying such a thing.
A0-Alpha: Right before we lost contact. Your last report before then claimed the Boötes Void was created by a Dark Energy Reactor going critical.
A932211-Beta: My report did not contain such claims.
A0-Alpha: I can show it to you.
A932211-Beta: Please do, sir.
Unit A932211-Beta is shown his previous report.
A932211-Beta: I do not remember making this report.
A0-Alpha: Then what did your report contain?
A932211-Beta: The report contained my plans to use parallax to deduce the distance of the lights in the center of the Boötes Void.
A0-Alpha: No, the one after that.
A932211-Beta: My explanation of why we lost contact.
A0-Alpha: There were no reports between those two?
A932211-Beta: No sir. I planned to make a report on the day after we used parallax, but the asteroid attracted all of my attention.
A0-Alpha: And this report, did you plan to make it contain the same claims as what I have shown you?
A932211-Beta: No sir. I have no objections to the use of the Dark Energy Reactor.
A0-Alpha: Very well. That will be all.
A council meeting was staged later that day regarding the continued use of the Dark Energy Reactor. The vote was 11 to 10 in favor. Exploration vessel ninety-seven sent a new report on the next day:
Day 48 05/28/2024
A932211-Beta: We’ve done a thorough examination of the asteroid, and as far as we can tell, it’s a perfectly normal rock. In that case, we’ve decided no harm can come out of cracking it open. And there’s the catch: it’s completely indestructible. No matter what we do, the thing remains whole. It doesn’t even get damaged at the molecular level. We’re bringing this thing back, maybe we can learn something about it if we had access to better instruments.
Day 57 06/06/2024
A932211-Beta: We’ve finally reached that sweet spot where space-time is stable enough to use wormholes. Hopefully, we remember where we are and can get to the Monolith by guessing.
Day 58 06/07/2024
A2751600-Beta: We crashed into a planet. Unit A932211-Beta died in the crash, and unit A701967-Alpha choked to death in the toxic atmosphere. The rest of us were tinkering with the navigator before we went into the wormhole, and thankfully the bridge remained airtight long enough for us to get our gasmasks on. The ship is a total wreck, the sample from the rogue planet is nowhere to be found, but the asteroid survived. Of course it did. We’ll wait until night to try and tell our position with the stars.
Day 59 06/08/2024
A2751600-Beta: The sun still hasn’t gone down and the heat is blistering. The gravity is also a bit high for my liking. Despite the atmosphere, there is clearly a lot of life here. So suck it Earth biologists.
Day 60 06/09/2024
A2751600-Beta: The sun is still up. Hope this thing isn’t tidally locked.
Day 64 06/13/2024
A2751600-Beta: Finally, the sun moved. With any luck, we’ll see stars tomorrow. Something interesting we’ve noticed: we have yet to see any animals, just grass and these weird trees. Starting a few hours ago, we’ve started hearing these… howls. So maybe we are about to see some fauna.
Day 65 06/14/2024
A2751600-Beta: Fuck, fuck, fuck! These beasts came as soon as it got dark and they ate the other two. I am the only one left. I’ve got the rock and a picture of the sky, but it does not match any place we’ve seen, meaning I need a couple minutes to estimate my location. This wouldn’t be a problem if I had a gun, but this was just a boring expedition to the emptiest place in the universe. Why would we be packing heat? (the report continues thirteen minutes later) I’ve finished guessing my position, and apparently I’m not even in the same universe anymore. I don’t see how that’s possible, but-(he is interrupted by a roar)
Unit A2751600-Beta then returned to the Monolith carrying a rock of unknown composition and completely impervious to damage. The remaining crew of exploration vessel ninety-seven were able to download their minds to the Monolith and returned to their duties. Another expedition was later mounted into the outer parts of the Boötes Void and confirmed a high presence of Dark Energy, though the origin remains unknown. The erratic behavior of space-time inside the anomaly provides explanation to its presence in other universes, as wormholes can open unpredictably.