It has been quite some time since I put down a personal log. I always log data. Data from tests, from experiments, from observations, but that goes into the data or other appropriate log. Sitting down to write out a personal log just gets lost sometimes. I don't always have something to say, or when I do, I am not sure how to express it. I'm finally able to put together my thoughts about what has happened. I expect this is going to be a longer entry, because a lot has happened, so there is a lot to get to.
I have been here for at least a standard year. The nights and days of this world vary wildly. Much like the time issue, there is a pattern to it. Some days and nights last only a few hours, others last days and even weeks. The most recent night lasted a full standard month. I know this because the battery charge on the AS4410 unit of the observation kits was almost completely drained, and from testing, I know it lasts almost exactly 33 standard days.
There is a lot that goes on during those very long nights, and the days as well. I have done a lot of observations; tracking, cataloging, and plotting the path of various objects in the sky. I have a pretty good map of the system worked out now. It is astonishingly complex, with four stars, dozens of planets that are massive worlds that dwarf many stars back in my home reality. Each of those massive worlds hosts it's own fleet of yet smaller worlds, which host still smaller worlds, moons, and ring systems. Yes, every world in this system, including this world, has a ring systems.
The stars rarely appear in the sky together, so it took me some time to figure out that there was more than one. Although I think the biggest revelation was the fact that they orbit this world, rather than it orbiting them, or at least one of them. This world is the center of the system, and it is the harmonics of the system, the push and pull of gravity on space that causes the time issue.
Yes, I have figured out the time issue. That has been one of my big accomplishments. The complex dance of all these massive worlds, and the distant stars that orbit it all, create a harmonic distortion in space. It is not the small distortions of a typical system of worlds. That deflection of space is so small as to be almost too small to detect with all but the most sensitive instruments. However, because of the complexity of this system, the mass involved in all these worlds and the stars; the distortion, that subtle warping of space here is actually quite significant.
Once I was able to see the picture of the complexities of this system, and that the world I am on is at it's center, I knew what to look for. I had opened up the guts of an auxiliary system, and yanked out it's clock. Using that clock, I was able to directly observe the spacial distortion. It is called Frame Dragging in an article I found, written by CT as a matter of fact. The clock of all the effected electronic devices uses a very simple system to count time. A small piece of crystal with a field applied to it, vibrating at a very specific frequency based on the applied field. The spacial distortion is enough to cause that oscillation to take just a bit more, or less, time as space is stretched or compressed. That throws off the clock, and after a few seconds, the clock is off by whole seconds. While the system tries to compensate, slowing down and constantly re-calibrating, those systems that rely on lots of high speed calculations are doomed. Once out of sync, it is all over.
I tried a number of things, but I just couldn't compensate in a meaningful way for the distortion over time. It doesn't effect organic brains, and my cybernetics use an optical oscillation, just like the Viteză Furies core systems, which is why they still work. The Fusion plants still work because they use very basic computers, which also use the same optical oscillation unit for a clock as the Viteză Furies core systems.
The degradation of those systems using the optical oscillation clock is caused by the most extreme parts of the spacial distortion cycle. The largest ratios of stretching and compression of space push what the optical oscillation system can compensate for to the edge. It isn't enough to throw it off completely, but does result in degraded efficiency as the systems try to auto-compensate.
For those systems that use the optical oscillation for a clock, I wrote a simple bit of code that measures and compensates for the distortion by adding or subtracting cycles from the clock. With that in place, all of the Viteză Furies systems are operating at 95% efficiency. There is still some degradation, but I am happy with current performance, given what is causing it to be less than perfect.
With that knowledge, I tried to bring the AI back online... That did not work out. At all... I replaced all of the clock hearts with new optical oscillators that included my compensation code. With that in place, the AI stays online, but it is utterly insane. Murderously so. I have tried looking through it's code, at it's core systems, processors, etc... It is simply corrupted beyond reclamation, and I don't have the tech to rebuild it. I also don't have a way to restore it to a previous state, or install a new AI base code set. So I backed up its code, wiped the host system, and after a little extra coding, was able to integrate it into the Viteză Furie as a secondary mainframe.
This does mean that I have communications back up and running, but Edix has been out of range for months. I have a dozen drones doing a search pattern for him, but haven't found him or any sign of him. I really hope that he is okay. I'm not worried about his cyber-systems, because they are like mine and use optical oscillators for time. I just hope he didn't come across something he couldn't handle and died out there somewhere, all alone.
The issue I have with communications is that the satellites I left in orbit are in a bad position, and their orbits are failing. I'm trying to maneuver them into stable orbits, but they are only in range every few standard days, and only for an hour or so at most. I am doing what I can. I fall else fails, I suppose I will have to some day figure out how to launch new ones.
Despite having communications up, and partially because of the orbit of the satellites, I have not been able to make contact with Arl and Liss. The last data logs recorded from the other modules show them doing just as I did. They were shaping the shields to create drag and slow themselves.
What concerns me most is that the atmospheric flight surfaces and engine ports didn't open, or rather they did, but only after the manual override was used. That means one of them, Arl or Liss, had to unstrap and trigger it. After that, the data logging cuts off abruptly. There was some kind of strange distortion and then nothing. I have not been able to identify either a crash or landing site for the other modules, and until I can get either the engines of my module clear of the scar crystal, or build a shuttle, piece by piece, I won't be able to do a proper search for them.
I have started to consider building a shuttle. The 3D printers I have are up to the task of making the individual components, and I can assemble them, but... I don't have the needed raw materials to pull it off. So before I can actually try that, I have to figure out how I fuel the effort.
With the determination of the time issue, and it's resolution, I have confirmed that the physics of this reality are nearly indistinguishable from my own. That said, having the advanced sensors and systems up and running has not really helped much. It has helped me map the system, and search for Arl and Liss, without success. Unfortunately, they could be on the far side of that world, and there isn't a satellite in orbit there I could use to supplement my search efforts. I just have to keep hope that they made it down safely, just as I keep hope that Edix is okay, somewhere out there.
I am officially convinced that this entire systems is artificial. Sure, I admit that it is possible that it could come together naturally, and maybe this is the natural state of systems in this reality... It is possible, but I don't buy that. There is the fact that Gravity is only about 1.5 times that of my home world. A world this big, to be the gravitational center of all these worlds, and four different stars; two yellow-white, one blue-white, and a red-orange star. All orbiting in a fantastically complex gravitational dance that is self reinforcing, resulting in a system that doesn't collapse as you'd expect.
Just no. No way this is not artificial. Gravity, electron charge, proton charge, half-life of radio-isotopes, neutron charge decoupling. Every single constant I can test matches what I know from my reality. That means that a world, any of these massive worlds, is impossible, and I don't say that lightly. There must be something else going on that I don't see yet. Something preventing these worlds, this entire system to collapse in on itself and form a black hole.
Even stranded on this world in a new reality, I cannot help but discover puzzles needing to be answered.
As I sit down to write this, I have just come back from dinner with my new friends, my new family. It was my turn to do the cooking, and I am getting quite good at cooking over a fire, though I can still lean on the kitchen in the module when I need to. The garden has grown really well in my little cultivated field, and my friends have helped me identify additional plants to cultivate.
Considering what happened, and how our relationship started, that they have accepted and forgiven me is surprising. I feel obligated to make up for at least some of the pain I caused them.
I was getting low on supplies and decided to take down one of the large rodent creatures I had seen. They just seemed like really large crowlhe, rabbits in the old tongue, and that is what I had started thinking of them as. I paid them little attention, thinking them only animals, much to my later regret. That first one I killed fed me for several weeks, and I feel kinda feel bad about the meals it provided. Turns out the rabbit like creatures are intelligent. They are primitive, but are not the dumb animals I had thought. The smaller rodent like creatures on the other hand would be outwitted by a flatworm, and they cook up really well. The rabbits actually herd and corral them. That I hadn't figured that out is a failure of observation on my part.
Culturally speaking, they are early domestication and agriculture. After I shot a second one, I woke the next morning to an offering of several trussed up squirrels, a pile veggies on a woven mat, and a group of them looking fearful and prostrating themselves before me. Nothing in training prepared me for the realization that I had eaten someone's family member. A someone able to feel and express the sadness of that loss. I didn't show them, but I cried a bit over it.
They have a language. It is simple, but language none the less. See document file A772.8826 for everything I am able to document on it.
I have adopted one of the children I orphaned for my dinner. The second one I shot was younger and had not mated yet, while the first one had children and grand-children. Not sure which one I feel worse about killing. Once we started talking, and I learned their language, things smoothed out quickly. I named the boy, Frydai. His name is K'altekt in their language, and he is a juvenile. Frydai is very smart, they all are, and they learn very fast.
While their current culture is primitive, there are inconsistencies in their language that suggests their current state is not what they have always been. I suspect this because some of their words are far more complex in structure, meaning, and use, than their culture should allow. They knew what a gun was, and had a specific word for it. Even more surprising, they knew the difference between a slug thrower and an energy weapon, and have different versions of the same base word for them. The words are not used by the general group, but the elders knew the words and as soon as they put the word to my weapons, their language started to open up. They know what many of my devices are, after I explain their purpose, with their own words for them. I suspect they may be the descendants of a people stranded here like me. Some of their techniques for cultivation, animal husbandry, etc.., is more advanced than their general culture would suggest. Then again, I'm no anthropologist. That's just my sense of it.
My friends, the Lou'orth, are preparing a feast for tomorrow, which in the cycle of this world, will be ten standard days until morning. The day will be fifteen standard days long, followed by a twenty day night and a thirty three day, day. They say that by tomorrow evening, we must be moving, as the great trial will begin. I'm not sure what that means and hope to learn more soon. They tell me there will be much story telling at the feast, and I look forward to recording all of that. If they are willing to abandon their structures, which are generations old and very sturdy, there must be a reason.