From Cassy's diary
Techna: ... therefore, according to your hypothesis, that star could contain significant quantities of uncommon elements.
Steve: (thoughtfully) From what Toq said, that star had a unique magnetic field in the universe. There may be a thousand other reasons, but I couldn't help but think of a different composition than the other stars.
Cassy: Well, I never heard any theory linking stars' magnetic fields and their composition, but checking it shouldn't take much time either.
Venus: We just need to check the emission spectra then, isn't it? They should have been measured already by some satellite, I just need to find them...
Techna: I have a question.
Steve: Sure, just tell us.
Techna: In case those elements were really there, how do you plan to retrieve them? I cannot find any scenario in my database allowing something like this, not in the temperature range of stars.
Cassy: Well...
The star around which Sixam orbits may be an almost completely dead white dwarf, but the surface is still composed of plasma at a temperature of a few thousand degrees celsius. Certainly, it wouldn't be possible to dig a mine in there, as we would do on a rocky planet or asteroid.
Cassy: ... Let's start to see if there are really elements in there, then we'll think about something.
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So we started to collect all the available data on Sixam's star, it took weeks of work. It was amazing how people kept repeating only that it was a very old star that was slowly dying out, but at the same time that no one had ever paid much attention to its composition.
Venus and I have also started presenting our data to our superiors at work, however...
Venus: I really can't stand that Arizhel, since when she returned back to the office she only thinks about monopolising the founding of the space agency and plan new missions around the universe looking for elemental deposits that maybe don't even exist!
Cassy: Something's not right, usually she's a bit more reasonable than she's been lately...
Venus: If you mean that she's even more of a know-it-all than usual, then yes! But now she's even trying to take the money from the other research projects, that's plain unfair!
Cassy: Uhm...
Apparently, Arizhel didn't ask only to Toq to return back to their original crew, but also to the other ancient sixamians in town. And about half of them seem to have accepted.
I don't want to be suspicious, but there is definitively something weird about her behaviour too. She's travelling in outer space for most of the time, yet her travel reports were incredibly poor in data. I was starting to think that...
Cassy: I'm starting to think that she's hiding information from the space centre, you know?
Ten minutes later…
Toq: Withholding any information was considered a serious infraction back on Sixam, Arizhel would never have done it in the past. However, we have all changed a lot since when we arrived here. I cannot say to really know who she is now.
Venus: Well, then let's assume that she accidentally learned to be dishonest from the earthlings... What could she be hiding from us, then?
Cassy: And where is she storing all the data? They've been on a mission for months, they surely have several terabytes of travel records alone, not to mention the instrumentation outputs...
Toq: (thoughtful) Technically, the lunar base we used upon our arrival has never been destroyed. The closest data storage units of our old equipment are still located there.
Venus: The old base on the Moon, you mean? Let me check... Oh, wow.
Cassy: What happened?
Venus: Actually, it seems that the video surveillance cameras that we had placed in the area have been out of service for months... How come no one else noticed it?
Cassy: Okay, this starts to sound very suspicious.
Venus: (frustrated) Still it will take months before our bosses decide to give us official permission to check!
Cassy: Well, thinking about it, there could be another way...
Venus: What are you thinking about?
Cassy: We've already been up there once, and without really asking anyone's permission.
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Venus: Do you really want to use that old rocket again?
Cassy: It's not like we are heading very far away anyway.
Yes, we'd reached that old base on the Moon once already, that time when we'd rescued Steve and the other abductees and learned of the existence of the Ancient Sixamians.
It had been a while, surely that rocket would have needed some maintenance, but why shouldn't it work again, after all?
Two hours later...
Cassy: Well, the rocket seems in decent shape now, even if I would say that the amount of fuel is sufficient for one passenger only.
Toq: I do not think it's a good idea to travel alone, the risk of...
Cassy: Don't worry, I've been an astronaut for years now, and this is a simple trip to the Moon!
Toq: ...
Cassy: Also, I just have to check whether Arizhel is really hiding in there or not, what could go wrong?
And so I returned to that hidden cave on the far side of the Moon. Too bad all those crystals are just made of quartz and not more useful minerals...
This time this trip seemed almost like a funny journey compared to the last time, basically I was just looking for evidence to demonstrate that Arizhel was hiding something, so that our boss would stop funding her projects and slowing down ours. Seems easy, isn't it?
It would have been a great satisfaction to catch them red-handed, that's for sure...
It didn't take long before I found them, they were all right where we expected them to be.
Arizhel: (altered) What are you doing here?
At this point, my dear diary, I'd like to be able to write the rest of the story too, but I admit I don't remember much of what happened afterwards... Actually, what was I even writing about? Uhm...
A few hours later, back to New Sixam
Cassy: (confused) On the Moon, I saw no one at all... I think.
Venus: What? Do you mean we wasted the afternoon for nothing?
Toq: ...
Venus: What's that straight face, Toq?
Toq: Cassiopeia's memory has been altered.
Cassy: (worried) W-wait, what?
I don't remember at all having had my memory altered. However, thinking about it, the purpose of memory alteration is exactly that, to avoid the subject to remember what really happened. I wasn't the best person to evaluate whether some damage was done or not, and that wasn't very reassuring.
Cassy: (worried) Are you sure, Toq?
Toq: There are clear discontinuities in your train of thought.
Cassy: ...
Toq: I am starting to understand why Arizhel wanted me to rejoin her crew so badly. I guess she just planned to gain some by doing this, yet... Bah, she has always been inaccurate for this kind of task.
Oddly, Toq didn't seem particularly concerned about the situation. Rather, he just appeared slightly annoyed, as one can be when something unexpected makes you waste your time. Come to think of it, he was the telepathy expert of his old crew, was this the kind of situation he was used to deal with at his old job?
His relative tranquillity hadn't gone unnoticed by Venus either, because he immediately asked him:
Venus: Wait, but do you think you can do something about it?
Toq replied with an expression that seemed to say: "Of course I can, who do you take me for?", before turning to me and saying:
Toq: Cassiopeia, just try to stay still for a few seconds.
I was very confused for several seconds as my memories returned back to their rightful place.
Yes, I had arrived on the Moon, I had approached the old base, and at that point...
Cassy: ... they were all up there, in the old base! The deep space mission was all a lie!
Venus: What are they up to on the Moon, then?
The more I remembered the details, the harder it was for me not to give in to anger. Arizhel and her crew deserved all the worst epithets I could think of, because…
Cassy: They have copied all the data we collected, and are doing all the necessary calculations to be able to start extracting elements from the Sixam's Star! And they're keeping it from us because they want to keep those resources for them to set up their own permanent base there on the Moon!
Venus had managed to follow all of my story up to that point without blurting out insults, but she was long past her tolerance point. And I don't think this diary is the best place to record what she said.
What is certain, however, is that we will not stand by and watch Arizhel and her crew steal what we have worked for for the last few weeks. That's our idea, not theirs!
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§HermioneSims§ corner
I know, I know, stars are way more complex than this, the ranting about its magnetic field doesn't make sense. Even with the elementary notions of astrophysics and particle physics a humble chemist like me can have, I clearly see how the theory behind this chapter doesn't make any sense.
Anyway, this is a world where teleport and telepathic aliens do exist, people travel in a few hours to the Moon with a small rocket, and no one seems to worry about boring stuff like the Energy Conservation law, so I think we can take this as a plot element and proceed.
