NationStates Jolt Archive

((This is it. The Beginning of the End, the closure to the Kestrel Storyarc. This is MODERN-AGE, however, a reminder, the Order is semi-Advanced tech, stuck back in time. (as was established Febuary '03.) Those of you who are Temporal Accord Nations....this is why I was asking those questions under the TA Thread. So now, without further ado....))

The Long Road Home


Base NOMAD
Antarctica

“How is the system?”

Gregory Loran, Chief Scientist of the TRAVELLER Project, had entered the control room without catching the attention of Commander Miguel Nieves, a Kestrel of the Order. The fact the scientist could creep up on him so unexpectedly in the dimly lit office was unnerving; it meant he had spent far too much time without rest, locked in a sort of intellectual mortal combat with the latest problem on his plate.

Base NOMAD had been active for some time now now, the TRAVELLER Project underway since Lavenrunz had claimed Antarctica. The problems raised by the Project had been sufficient to worry the higher-ups back home that if TRAVELLER was discovered by another nation such as Lavenrunz, it could lead to sanctions or even all out war. Thankfully, a long history of cooperation meant Lavenrunz granted the base rights with almost no question, and with the nation’s recent decline from the international scene, the threat of discovery of the Project became exponentially smaller.

But the problems raised by TRAVELLER were still of significant danger. With the problems grew the chances of discovery and therefore the threat of destruction; each issue required more supplies, required more energy…and put out more electro-magnetic radiation than before. While the harmful aspects of the radiation could be blocked, there were other, more significant events occurring throughout the base, each of much greater cause for worry.

Mugs of coffee would sit on a table alone one moment, and be matched by another the next. Others would merely disappear entirely. Rumors of one person seeing another talking to the air in front of them…and then later actually having the conversation they listened in on some time later. One soldier had to be sent back to the Mainland for a psych-eval; he claimed he had seen himself.

Lately, the incidents had been growing worse. A scientist assigned to Systems Engineering had gone missing and an all-out search had ensued. No trace of him was found, and he was presumed lost in the raging storms outside. A week later, he was found stuck half-inside a steel wall; the area had been empty the night before.
Even the weather around the base had been growing odd, repeating itself exactly for days straight or accelerating or slowing down without explanation. One guard claimed he watched a snowflake take ten minutes to fall the distance between his face and his knee, and then had a micro-dent gouged in his helmet by another.

It was these problems and more Commander Nieves was tasked to discover the source of, a job he was finding to be nearly impossible.

Broken from his endless circle of thought, he pushed himself away from the computer desk and leaned back in his office chair, massaging his eyes. “It’s a leak. That’s all I know.”

Loran raised an eyebrow and sat on the corner of Nieves’ desk. “A leak? A leak of what?” The scientist asked.

“Time.” The Commander stopped rubbing his eyes and let his hand fall into his lap. He closed his eyes and turned his head to the ceiling, avoiding looking at the scientist across from himself. “I don’t know if it’s the field causing it, or the generator, but time itself is leaking. I’ve checked the Monitor readings on the TimeStream itself. There’s a trickle seeping through the Spatial Fabric here-we’ve stretched it so badly with TRAVELLER that the dimensional separations are eroded.”

“Ah.” Loran frowned with worry, his hand instinctively reaching up to stroke his grey beard as he always did when he fell deep in thought. “Can we patch it up?”

Nieves finally turned his head to glance at the scientist and shrugged noncommittally. “No idea. What I can say is that its been working a lot like fabric. We pull on it, and it stretches. We stop, and it pulls itself back together. Its just that…” he paused a moment, searching for the right words. “…We’ve been pulling too hard. We give it a rest and it eventually begins returning to its natural state…but the damage we’ve done, well…It’ll take much longer than we’ve got time for the Project to repair.”

“Well, what can you tell me, or do I have to tell our superiors back in Ordera that we’re stuck? The Admiral, much less the General won’t like that. Don’t suppose Lady-Commander Ymirson will be much pleased, either.”

Nieves restrained himself from growling. Loran was a political, despite the Leadership’s attempts to steer away from using them. He was an expert in his field of spatial/dimensional physics, the sole reason why he was picked. Leadership had hoped he would refrain from his political concerns while he was part of the TRAVELLER Project, but he’d been busy kissing their feet since the moment he arrived.

“What I can tell you,” Nieves said around his clenched teeth, “is that this Project can cause serious damage to the fabric separating Sidereal space from Subspace, and each from the TimeStream. We’ve not begun seeing any subspace phenomena, for which I am thankful, and the energy output has been reinforcing the barrier between us and High-Space.”

“Can. Not will.” Loran dropped to his feet and crossed to the door. “Alright, Commander, I see all you’ve gotten for me thus far is possibilities. We have a timetable to keep, and I plan on doing so. You will give me solid answers by 1600 tomorrow, or else I will be making my report, and including in it a lengthy list of your failings.” The scientist swept out of the office as quietly as he came, leaving Nieves to brood in the dark.

OOC:
I should have mentioned this in the topic or something, but this IS a somewhat open RP...Just give me a TG if y'wanna get involved somehow. Its also an OPEN INVITE to any long-time nations who've dealt with the Order for some time....No, I haven't discussed this much with anyone, but I've always enjoyed the RP when it's been open-ended.
Also on the invited list are any really high-up Temporal Accord nations...but I'd like to have a chat with them before they get involved too deep...
But I'd really prefer if this didn't go the way of "To The Stars" (Dead to everyone but me. After all. People should care this time. If I'm not careful, I could accidentally harm the world quite badly.)

Despite the lack of sleep, Commander Nieves had continued to work the problem through the night and long into the following day. As he compiled his report, he had begun to see a pattern emerge between the incidents and the TRAVELLER Project itself. When the experimental TRAVELLER field was active, there was an increase in time-distortion events occurring in the area, and they would continue for several hours after the field had shut down.

Obviously, the leak was aggravated by the field and after deactivation the space-time fabric would return to its normal state. At least, the pattern started that way. As the experiments increased in power and simply through the length of time the tests were conducted, the ‘recovery’ time after field activation would grow longer, until there was almost no drop-off of incidents whatsoever.

In fact, the space-time fabric had deteriorated to the point of a constant TimeStream ‘leak,’ meaning incidents were occurring around the clock. As the tests grew, the leak grew with them, becoming strong enough to affect the area around the base as well as the people in it. And it was growing more serious still.

Nieves pulled the last sheaf of papers from the printer beside his desk and clipped them into his report binder. He saved his work and shut his computer down, then turned off the small lamp on his desk. Gathering up his coat and his briefcase, he left the room, bound for the Director’s Office.

Base NOMAD had been originally carved into the ice that had built up around the frigid continent, but as construction expanded the base, pre-fab panels had been erected to line the interior. Housed within the heavily insulated paneling were electrical and water conduits, replacing the tubes and cables strung against the ice walls. The featureless panels and matching lighting were almost as sterile as the ice had been but lacked even the character of those walls, leaving the base feeling cooler and more uninviting.

The Base had been built in concentric half-circles, expanding outwards from the original under-surface Sub-Pen and SeARMOR barracks, the initial reason for the base’s existence. As time wore on, the secrecy of NOMAD had remained intact, facilitating the start of the TRAVELLER Project. The new space requirements forced them to expand perimeter of the base. With the civilian and military scientists came the Fabricators, Construction ARMOR and deep-sea resourcing equipment, turning the secret, out-of-the-way base into a fully booming operation.

Over time, the construction had pushed True Center outwards, in the newer construction. The True Center, or TC, housed the administrative aspects of the operation, including Chief Scientist Loran’s plush office and quarters. Most of the other officers and scientists kept their offices in the newer and much warmer TC so they would not have to travel as far to reach the Field Chambers, their quarters which were checker-boarded across the base and the Project’s leading Scientist and Officers.
Others, like Nieves, preferred to keep their offices in the Old Sectors, near the Pens and ARMORY. His reasons were simple; Loran hated the Old Sectors and stayed out of them whenever he could. Furthermore, the systems were older and devices such as the Video-Com system so prevalent in the New Sectors couldn’t be supported by the facilities in place there. The arrangement kept Nieves isolated from Loran, affording him peace to work without as much interruption. The Chief Scientist would still drop by every now and again when he hadn’t heard much from the offices sequestered in the Old Sectors, but only with great discomfort-another reason why Nieves liked the location much better.

Reaching the end of the hall, Nieves entered the lift and descended several floors, deeper into the heart of the base. The construction had also gotten newer, the deeper one got beneath the surface. It still was nowhere near as extensive as what had grown just below the surface, but some claimed it was warmer down there.

The shaft depositing him six floors below the snow-covered surface, he continued towards the Chief’s offices, only a minute’s walk from the lifts. Entering the outer office, he gave a friendly nod to the secretary. “Good afternoon, Elise. Is Mr. Loran in?”

Elise DeVale looked the part of a secretary’s stereotype with her blond hair, bright eyes and gymnast’s body, but the similarities ended there. Behind those wide, sparkling eyes lurked a mind sharper than a razor and wit more devastating than a nuclear-grade weapon, the lithe body came with the gymnast’s strength. There were rumors of…incidents, which occurred when men had believed themselves to have more liberty with her than they truly had while she had worked in the General Research Office in Strana Mechty Military Base. She never said anything confirming or denying the rumors, and instead took special care to cultivate them quietly.

Despite the fierce stories surrounding her, the soldiers of Base NOMAD had taken to the young woman, forming their own protective circle made much less of rumor and much more of fact. Being an officer, Nieves was careful to remain apart from that group but maintained a soft spot for the secretary. Of course, it didn’t hurt their friendship that she loathed her supervisor almost more than he did.

This afternoon, the normally efficient secretary was swamped with paperwork of varying degrees so she hardly looked up at the intrusion into her office. “Go ahead,” she said, waving one hand towards the door behind her desk. “He’s in there preening himself before he makes his report to Command.”

“Thank you.” Nieves crossed the office to enter Loran’s private office and stopped in the door, knocking lightly on the frame. The older man looked up from his work and tried to keep from openly snarling.

“I thought I told that girl outside I wasn’t to be disturbed! What do you want?”

Nieves entered the office fully and set the folder with his report on the scientist’s desk. “You wanted this. Here.”

Loran’s eyebrows jumped and he reached across the desk for the report. Opening the folder, he skimmed the pages of Nieves’ work. After a minute, he slammed it shut onto the surface of his desk. “Unacceptable, Commander! This project will proceed as planned. I will have a word with Command today over your worthlessness, and request your transfer. If you were a civilian, I would be demanding your resignation and your licenses, but being military protects you from such. But I’m sure they’ll have a better place for you in Weather Observation in the Dead Zone.”

Nieves stood unflinching through scientist’s tirade, waiting for him to finish. “Sir,” he said when Loran had paused. “I refuse to allow you to carry on like this without saying anything. If you push TRAVELLER forward, we run the risk of tearing the fabric separating the Sidereal Universe from the TimeStream and Null-Space. If these incidents from this leak are growing serious, imagine the effects it could have around the world with a full-out tear! It could be catastrophic!”

“The only catastrophe I see right now, Commander, is your career. You are dismissed. Leave my office, now!”

Nieves clapped his jaw shut and turned on his heel, exiting the room without saying another word. Loran picked up Nieves’ report and glared at it for a moment, his lip curling to a snarl. “Coward,” he spat as he dropped the folder into the trashcan beside his desk. A moment later, there was a knock on the doorframe.

Looking up, he snarled, “What now!” Commander Nieves was standing in the doorway, report folder under his arm. “I thought I told you to leave, Commander!”

Nieves looked at the scientist, confused. “Excuse me, sir? I’m here to drop off the report you requested.”

Not able to take anymore, Loran stood and braced himself on his desk. “First you refuse to give me a conclusive report, now you try to fabricate one of these incidents you keep talking about? I’ve had enough of your insubordination, Commander! You are to remain in your quarters until further notice, understand?”

Nieves nodded and turned to leave. “I’ll leave my report on Elise’s desk then, sir,” he said as he exited. Loran glared after him for a moment before returning to his seat. Looking down at the trashcan, he froze.

The report he had thrown away just minutes before was gone.