Energy spike puzzles astronomers

[sushi]

--CNS WIRE--
Title: "Energy spike puzzles astronomers"
Author: David Keans

Astronomers at Cambridge reported last week that they had recorded a V-14 energy spike emanating from deep in the Omicron Nebula. "This is really exciting, " said astronomer Jesse Gibbons, "we've never seen this pattern occur naturally. The last time one was seen was when the sleeper ships launched: their high-acceleration drives produce the same pattern when they bend physics a little. If these things occur naturally, it could possibly indicate the presence of a natural sub-light tunnel through space."

When asked about the possibility of the spike coming from another sleeper ship, Gibbons dismissed the idea. "Nonsense," he said. "This spike was several orders of magnitude greater than anything made by any human sleeper ship."

Other astronomers aren't so sure, however. One, who asked to remain anonymous, conceded that a ship arriving or departing using the same sub-light drive as the original sleeper ships would generate that sort of signature. "But," he said, "it would have been several hundred times as massive as the sleepers, or else several hundred sleepers at once. I think we would have known about it if any such ship or ships were leaving, and we should have seen anything arriving."

Adding to the mystery, a recent expedition to the origin of the energy spike could detect no trace of any spatial anomaly whatsoever, much less a giant ship. "We're forced to concede that the whole event may have been caused by something else entirely," chief astronomer Red Yales admitted. "The local Zoners don't appear to have anything useful to add to the discussion, which is disappointing. We would have hoped that their close proximity to the event would have given them more useful data, but if they have it, they aren't sharing." Zoner astronomers could not be reached for comment.

The expedition did find one item of passing interest. Very near the coordinates of the energy spike, a Spatial class exploration ship was found, abandoned but otherwise in good condition. The astronomers haven't ruled out the possibility that it was involved with the energy spike, but are skeptical. "There's no way a ship this small could produce energy output that large," Yales said. Cambridge scientists are working hard to decrypt the abandoned ship's log files, hoping to shed some additional light on the mystery.

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OOC: Consider this an epilogue to the story of Tannik Seldon as well as the Discovery Project. I probably won't ever get a chance to finish telling the story, but I wanted to at least announce how it ended. Tannik, as well as the Fenning family (Roger, Leroy, and Jysalia), all left as part of the Discovery Fleet. The Aedos was left behind, for reasons that made sense to Tannik but made Jysalia shake her head impatiently.

If anyone is so inclined, they are welcome to take over or borrow any of the other major or minor characters I created along the way, with the exception of the ones mentioned above. Likewise, the Aedos herself, as a ship, is up for grabs to anyone who wants it...or it can remain drifting in deep space.

Make your own story.

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Tannik_Seldon[Aedos] - Tannik Seldon's ongoing story
--Other Characters--
Leroy_Fenning - Bio