Saturday, June 6, 2009

Chapter One - Part 20


Vera listened to Science Officer Keiffer as he continued briefing his new officers as they were about to observe the event.

“This relationship between the stable insidium rings and the unstable insidium at crater center is what brought the mining colonies to Necter Rapstren three hundred years ago; the power levels were measurable a light year away.

The stable insidium of the rings would have meant the removal of them as a fuel source long ago, but samples assayed proved inert and therefore valueless as a fuel source. Something however was driving those power readings that could be recorded two systems away.

Further sensor explorations had led to the discovery of the unstable insidium at the crater's center. The volatile insidium prevented mass mining, it generated severe problems with its stable relative. The more powerful, unstable variety caused violent breakdowns in the machines using its stable cousin as a power source; the only ship that ever attempted a landing inside the crater had few survivors.

It was decided in those early years that for the sake of research and development we could use ancient methods and machinery at first for exploratory mining. For heavy mining to be cost-effective, the greater power potential would have to be tapped and a way found to use it to mine the rest.

Early testing, of the more powerful crystalline metal, showed such promise, that the company has not been willing to give up on the possibility of harnessing that power, though that is rumored to change.”

Beep, beep, beep.

Turning to the console, Keiffer silenced the alert and pointed to one of the five large monitors that were lit.“It has begun… first, take special note of the monitor devoted to infrared…”

Vera could See that the monitor to watch was not the infrared.

To be continued...

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