Est. Mission Length: 8yrs.
Crew: 17
BEGIN RELEVANT SECTION
26th September 2237. 18:25 Earth Normal Time. + 2.24e3 Light Minute Communication Delay Accommodation.
Engineer Öpik is reporting some unexpected behaviour on one of the data panels in the rear labs. Apparently one of the atmospheric readouts is reporting significantly lower figures than it should be. We’ve run a diagnostic check, and it seems that everything looks normal. We’re assuming it’s the panel itself with the fault, but until further maintenance, we’re taking the precautionary measure to move all Science work in B side to Lab 4. Carter and Zhao will just have to deal with the extra crowding.
29nd September 2237. 10:48 ENT + 2.27e3 LM Accom.
Today marks 30 days until our rendezvous with Piranesi.
It is rare to be approaching something that no one has ever seen, and still have a reasonable expectation to arrive in the right place.
It’s now been over two centuries since Piranesi (Scholtz-Unwin) was discovered. And we still don’t really know what it is. It drives me nuts. We only know of its existence due to the gravitational tug on the other outer solar system objects like Neptune, Pluto and Orcus. Missions on Saturn’s moon Phoebe and Neptune’s moon Triton, moons we believe originated from way out in the Kuiper belt, seem to show strange geological qualities - that some scientists ascribe to historical gravitational interactions with Piranesi.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile observed what could be a flare (or maybe an impact?) from Piranesi back in 2135, and more recently the Taiji-12 laser interferometry station orbiting Saturn detected a gravitational ripple from it. Between all this, we have enough information to be sure that something is out here, and to know fairly well what its orbital path should be. But when we point any of our telescopes at it, we don’t see a damn thing.
So, here we are. We’re hardly the furthest humans from Earth right now, but somehow I feel we may be the most remote. We’re certainly the furthest out in our own solar system. Millions of miles from anything, sailing into the dark.
4th October 2237. 22:01 ENT + 2.32e3 LM Accom.
Lettimer thinks he’s on the verge of a breakthrough, and has requested extra processing resources be allocated to his workstation for the next 2 days. I approved it, out of pity if nothing else. He lost badly at cards today, and got very upset. We all had a good laugh. Let’s hope he’s better at ascertaining the probability of spontaneous radial field dilation than the probability of Ayari lying about only having eights.
6th October 2237. 14:22 ENT + 2.34e3 LM Accom.
I think that the closer we’re getting, the more everyone wants to be finding something. Menuck is convinced that she’s observed some gravitational lensing. This would be pretty remarkable – if Piranesi is indeed a primordial black hole (this is the prevailing scientific opinion now), then it would only be the size of a grapefruit. I’d be extremely surprised if we’d be able to see any lensing with a target that small, and us moving so fast, but Menuck’s a real Scholtz-Unwinist. She’s been a diehard black hole believer since day one, and repeatedly tells us that it’s the reason she got into Astrophysics in the first place. I’m glad she’s with us. It clearly means a lot to her.
No breakthrough from Lettimer.
11th October 2237. 08:46 ENT + 2.38e3 LM Accom.
There’s been a fire in Lab 6. We had to lock down the whole B3 corridor to protect the rest of the atmosphere. Zhao didn’t make it out.
Crew 1611th October 2237, 14:02 ENT + 2.38e3 LM Accom.
Diagnostic report on the cause of the fire. We think it’s the result of the faulty data panel.
For redundancy, atmospheric sensor data comes from two separate channels. If the sensors agree, then the panel can confidently show a reading. The two signals go into a processor, which then controls the gauges on the panel. It looks like it was the processor that had developed a fault. Öpik noticed this on the 26th. We did not immediately have a spare processor to install. However, she observed that if she disabled one of the sensor channels, then the gauge started working again, so she deactivated the circuit breaker for that channel and labelled it ‘inoperative’. This, however, did not meet the safety standards required, so Lab 6 remained empty.
Yesterday, another engineer (Drew) went to take a look at the panel. Öpik’s notes on the problem had been a bit vague, so Drew had decided to see for himself what was going on. On seeing the ‘inoperative’ label, he decided to replace and then reactivate the circuit breaker.
The readings now appeared to be normal. This was incorrect. The processor was still spitting out low numbers, and in actuality they should have been dangerously high. However, everything appearing normal – in spite of having replaced the wrong part - Drew believed that he had successfully repaired the panel.
Zhao, along with the other scientists in B side, had been told about Drew’s fix over dinner, and mistakenly took this as an official reopening of the Lab. When he went in today and saw a normal looking reading on the gauge, nothing seemed out of place. Lab 6 still hadn’t undergone a secondary check, or observed the mandatory 48hrs to see if the ‘repair’ had successfully taken effect. Zhao shouldn’t have been in there.
He restarted the plasma systems, which involved an open spark. The atmosphere in Lab 6 immediately ignited.
It is still unclear what was in the atmosphere. There must have been some kind of leak in the last few weeks. Barely anyone’s been in Lab 6. It would have been easy to miss.
12th October 2237, 09:05 ENT + 2.39e3 LM Accom.
The rest of B side are taking Zhao’s death particularly hard. This chain of mistakes should never have happened. Carter got so upset he actually passed out - we had to take him to the med bay and give him fluids. But it isn’t like the rest of us are doing much better. This is a big loss. Zhao was a particularly brilliant scientist, and a good friend.
I’m worried about Drew and Öpik. They both blame themselves for this.
14th October 2237, 04:27 ENT + 2.41e3LM Accom
First visual contact. Piranesi is not a black hole.
It appears to be about 50km in diameter. We do not understand how something of this size could be creating such a strong gravitational effect. It’s greyish and (from our angle of approach) appears to be in the shape of a disc or ring. We don’t have enough visual resolution yet to have any real idea of what we’re looking at.
16th October 2237, 17:33 ENT + 2.43e3 LM Accom.
Rudin, Erikson, Drew and Kasparov all are reporting headaches and faintness, and this morning Carter began coughing up blood. There must still be some kind of leak in B side. People are being poisoned. I’m closing the whole side down and moving everyone to A.
If it’s the same leak that caused the fire, then we need to be extremely careful – clearly, it’s not restricted to Lab 6 anymore. It’s also possible that the Lab 6 fire damaged something else - another line or some of the equipment or something. Whatever’s causing the illness in B side could be entirely separate to the cause of the fire.
At the very least, our radiation readings are normal, so we can rule that out. I hope. I’m finding it hard to entirely trust our equipment.
Crew 16, 5 ill
19th October 2237. 04:12 ENT + 2.45e3 LM Accom.
Something has happened on Piranesi. We’ve observed some kind of shift in mass, and what looks like a movement on its surface (if it has a surface). This could just be light moving across it. Either way, a closer look would give us a much greater idea of what the hell this thing is. We’ve still got 5 crew in the med bay, but pretty much everyone else is running around like it’s Carnival. Suddenly we’ve gone from having a dripping tap of incumbent data to a complete flood of the stuff, and so far no one can make head nor tail of it.
21st October 2237. 10:32 ENT + 2.47e3 LM Accom.
We’re going to go back into B side to try and use some of the equipment for closer observation of Piranesi. I’m only allowing 3 people to go. I’ve thought about putting them in EVA Suits, but there’s no way they’d be able to operate any of the equipment. We’re just going to have to be as quick as we can.
21st October 2237. 11:21 ENT + 2.47e3 LM Accom.
EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED, SERIOUS THREAT TO MISSION
21st October 2237. 11:29 ENT + 2.47e3 LM Accom.
There’s been a major depressurisation event. All of A side is gone. Something went catastrophically wrong with one of the airlocks.
Ten people are dead.
I think the leak in B side may have been from a hydraulic fluid line. The hydraulic lines for both sides use the same tank, so a loss of pressure on B would have meant a significant drain to A’s systems too. This could be what caused the airlock’s failure. Aerosolised Hydraulic fluid, suspended in zero-g, would also be highly flammable – and extremely poisonous if inhaled.
Unless we can find and stop the leaks, and completely cycle all atmosphere in B, we’re going to have to fit everyone left into the bridge, permanently.
I’ve never seen a situation this bad. I’m abandoning our mission and beginning the process of transmitting all telemetry back now, in case we don’t make it.
Crew 6
21st October 2237. 23:02 ENT + 2.47e3 LM Accom.
The depressurization event has knocked Hermes off course. Rather than entering into an orbit around Piranesi, we are now going to smash straight into it. I have tried to make an adjustment burn but the control lines are not responding. Parker is going to attempt a repair, but she’ll have to do an EVA walk. Luckily one of the 3 spacesuits in the bridge fits her. It was Ayari’s.
22nd October 2237. 00:14 ENT + 2.48e3 LM Accom.
Repair failure.
Crew 5
24th October 2237. 19:39 ENT + 2.5e3 LM Accom.
There’s nothing else we can do. We’ve spent two days going over every course of action we can think of.
On Earth it used to rain for weeks and weeks at a time, then one day the clouds would part and the air would go still and all the puddles would turn into mirrors. I’d go out and look at them, and watch in the reflections as all the birds came out again from wherever they’d been hiding. I always wanted to be a starling. They were my favourite.
Collision with Piranesi is in just over 97 hours.
All we can see now is movement. I hope that the video transmission succeeds. I’ve never seen anything like it.
REPORT END – ALL COMMUNICATIONS LOST WITH HERMES
test for the sides