Everything Jeff knows about the Ark

I realized that I told you all what was inside of the crystal but never wrote it down for easier access in the future. To start off, this Ark is MUCH older than the Darrians living on that outpost, it's from the age of the Ancients and somehow found it's way to this outpost. The actual crystal part Jeff is unsure of what it's made of, but he know the inside is made from some sort of mental energy that is able to grant psionic powers to people. The only problem with these psionic powers is that the people that were granted them are forced into becoming zombies with only a goal of mass suicide.  Not only with all that, this thing doesn't only just grant psionic powers, it has every psionic power inside of it. These psionic powers range from Telepathy, all the way to controlling electricity with just Psionic powers, all the way to tapping into alternate dimensions. Jeff's theory for Bowman System is that the zombies were trying to figure out the best way of mass suicide, so when the zombies on Prometheus saw the whole "Pull your own weight!" signs they got the idea of pulling the meteor shower onto them. Pakkrat if there's anything I forgot to put on there let me know.

From the Ark handout in-game: This spindle crystal has a pink, rose quartz pole to its equator opposite a purple, amethyst pole to its equator - that is, pink at one end and purple at the other. It has open facets into its interior and from these openings shines a brilliant white light light, luminous enough to light 10 meters in many shafts of light. To the curious, this crystal looks like a complex puzzle-box style spindle of strange quartz crystal. Though the brilliance of the inner light stings the retinae, perhaps what is contained inside can be seen. Tapped lightly, the entire crystal sings subtly like a gentle wind chime. The entire crystal is roughly the size of an American-rules football or smaller. Charoux has been confounded as to the makeup of the crystalline Ark because even his TL 15+ super secret spy gear cannot seem to analyze its 'matter'.  It is solid and can be held.  Currently closed via manipulation of telekinesis , the Ark no longer sheds beams of light from between the gaps in its facets.  Psi-wave squealers no longer whine every 30 seconds around it. The Ares Darrians and those perceptive enough later saw that there were empty depressions in the grotto floor, inside the inlaid orichalcum  swirly and geometric pattern.  These hexagonal depressions have been assumed to hold 12 coyns.  Thus far, the missing coyns have not been found nor mentioned by either Zenobia Manes, her apprentice Bobvh, (who has gone insane on his own merit it seems), nor was mentioned in any logs.   The mental construct seen by Jeff Scardack was of an oval shape and the source of the brilliant, dazzling light.  Only Jeff has managed to peer successfully, fall catatonic and awaken with a delayed understanding of the purpose of the Ark.  Later, Jeff had a flash, working knowledge of Psioncology and can now apply what he barely understand as if he has the skill Psioncology-0, roughly a week's intense, crash-course training in the skill. Jeff has been inflicted with a visual prophesy that may be a hallucination or subconscious fabrication of a dream.  He also has an acute awareness of the purpose of the Ark - to cull the overly curious, much like some Ancients version of Pandora's Box.  It has been learned that the Ark has converted an entire solar system, Bowman, of intelligent sophonts into suicidal psi-zombies.  These zombies, or in this case Pullers, were working in perfect timing to bring about the destruction of Alpha moon's IISS Scout Base, Prometheus and Epimetheus Stations and Garrison Starport if they were lucky.  With the Ark closed, the timing of the psi-zombies is now off-kilter and their hive-mind is disconnected, causing them to fail to correct the trajectory of the meteor storm meant to destroy them.

There’s a difference between “made of strange atoms” and “made of strange matter that isn’t even atoms at all”; based on “having no dead frequencies of light at all”, it must , therefore, not be made of any kind of atoms, because having electrons around a stable atom or molecule requires those dead frequencies; it’s a fundamental limitation of atomic matter; it might even be as weird as saying “It has no mass.”, if a bit more esoteric, as both things call into question exactly what subatomic particles bind this thing together. “Made of strange atoms” would mean it would still have dead frequencies in the light coming off of it, however, those frequencies would not correspond to any known atom, and read as “Atomic Matter: Unknown Minerals Present”, followed by the dead spectra it can be identified by if found again somewhere else somehow. Pegging it as “not even made of atoms” means we won’t even be able to identify this material ever again; only be able to guess that whatever similar material we come across fits into broadly the same category of unusual matter. It’s also weird that this thing has color even though the spectra it radiates are all the same; the photons coming off the top half have to be different from the bottom half somehow ... The good news is, even Black Holes destroy subatomic particles, so we’ve got a way to kill this thing, regardless of what it’s made of. We can’t risk that this thing was built to treat a star as “just another fusion power source”; that would be feeding it a lot of power.

((Dude, it's made out of plot.))

(Yeah, I know, I know, I totally need a “suspension of disbelief” transplant...)

((Here's how my "disbelief is suspended" when thinking about how this crystal works ... There is such a thing as psionic energy. Has to be. Take telekinisis for instance. That's psionic energy being converted into kinetic energy ( because energy can't be created or destroyed, only changed from one form into another ).  Psionic energy doesn't exist in our universe in the same way that other forms of energy do. You can't measure it the same way. it doesn't exist on a band in the electromagnetic spectrum. You can't store it in a psionic battery the same way you can store electrical energy in a chemical battery. Psionics is outside of our current understanding of the laws of physics.  If there is such a thing as psionic energy, it stands to reason that there could also be such a thing as psionic matter. Seeing that with physical energy, it equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Someone with insanely high technology and understanding of psionics could convert psionic energy into psionic matter in the same way natural physics can be used (E=MC^2) to convert matter into energy.  Psionic matter would no more conform to our physical understanding of matter than psionic energy does. Psionic energy doesn't fall into a band on the electromagnetic spectrum, and neither would psionic matter appear on the periodic table. When you see physical matter, that is an image being created in your mind because of electrochemical impulses from your eye being set off by light reflecting off that matter's surface. Psionic matter may not work like that. You "see" it because psionic energy is being reflected off it, and that psionic energy is being picked up by your visual cortex to create an image that you "see". So it's not that your eyes actually see it. Your mind creates the image from  reflected psionic energy rather than from reflected light picked up by your eye. Same with touch. You don't feel psionic matter through physical friction the way you feel normal matter. Its more about interaction with psionic matter being converted from psionic energy into physical (kinetic) energy that you can feel. So psionic matter is literally on the border between "seeing" it being there and "imagining" it being there.  ((EDIT: so can a black hole destroy psionic matter? Depends on whether or not black holes also suck in psionic energy. If psionics isn't affected by space and time and gravity the way regular energy is, then maybe psionic matter isn't affected by it either? I guess the fact that this thing can be turned "up side down" means that it responds to the concept of "up" and "down" ... which is gravity. Black holes are a really huge "down" in that case. But what happens when the crystal hits the part of a black hole where the laws of physics stop being laws, and there is no longer such a thing as "up" and "down"?))

Well put, Alby.  I have been wracking my brain, in hopes of not going to weird on the players, as to how the Ark exists and is interactive with the character's universe.  I have also been avoiding vocabulary that, once spoken, has a detrimental effect on the game campaign.  As said in another thread, the Ark isn't the story.  It's what happens around the MacGuffin that matters. "What's it made of?" "The uh, stuff that dreams are made of." - The Maltese Falcon

I'm curious as to if we, The Artemis Group, will report this to the sponsors or the nobility, or if we are just gonna attempt to destroy it and wait a bit before letting anyone know?

Well the billion credit question is how do you "destroy" something like this? If we knew how it was made then we could find out how to unmake it. Problem is, we're as likely to understand how it was made as a cave man is able to understand how an iphone is made. Gosh I don't even know how iphones are made. They seem like magic to me ... and I'm not a cave man. If we want to keep folks safe from this thing the best thing we can do for now is hide it.  EDIT: Or maybe a hammer? Has anyone tried a hammer yet?

Also you know how the Ark has something oval shaped, well what if it's an egg of some ancient organism(that is made up of only mental energy) that the ancients trapped inside the crystal to prevent this from happening. I say this because from what I know about the Ancients (which is very little) they don't seem like the type to purposely make this suicide crystal.

Even if it can't be destroyed, in any sense we can fathom or understand, one way to remove it from the universe is to put it where no one can get to it.  As an Astrogator, Gev would postulate that indeed a Black Hole would do the trick to make sure none can get close enough to open it.   On psionic energy:  Living beings generate psi-wave energies from eating, digesting and then passing such electro-chemical energy through whatever part of the brain (or mind - game handwavium here) that produces the detectable psi-waves at a given ratio that becomes undetectable in a potential state.  This is why Psions are undetectable until they initiate a psionic Talent.  Sophonts probably produce more psionic energy than animals and animals much more than plant and so on down the Kingdom and Phylum trees.  One might say that the potential for psionics is proportionate to a sophont's cognizance of causality or cause and effect, a psychic realm of the overall makeup of the sentient psyche.   Is psionic energy created?  Not likely, nor is it destroyed being merely converted to potential energy somewhere else by translating to physical planar equivalents and undetectable exchange rates.  This ratio is so inscrutably small that once psi-waves leave a Psion and do their job they translate too quickly and immeasurably small that devices like psi-squealers stop alarming once the Effect is done.  The device might be set to alarm for a set amount of time, say six seconds or until shut off.  Or it may be set to only sound off for as long as the psionic waves and effect is detected. Psionic protection gear such as Psi-Shield Helmets or hoods are early defenses, created by those with limited frequency understanding of, in this case, telepathy  and its psi-wave causality.  Psionic Disruptors are emitting distracting and dampening neural frequencies that, while not psi-waves themselves, are irritating enough to require a Psion to devote more PSI points into an affected Talent worsened by the Talent's situational range. Psionic Aerosol sprays and clouds work similarly as Disruptors, but on an irritating chemical level that clouds, displaces or distorts the area they fill, dampening psi-waves that pass through.  It's like having a lightning rod that grounds the psi-waves by capturing it in conventional aerosol matter.  Just as psi-waves are short-lived, so too are the power sources or durational effect of Disruptors and Aerosols.  For the Helmets, there is no power requirement as they are like dense filters that deaden the space around the wearer's head, the believed source of mental thoughts, memories and subconscious.  But because Helmets and hoods only work against telepathy  and not other Talents like clairvoyance or awareness (e.g. remote regeneration [Blessed Gidjet]), those devices have less requirement and longer duration - infinite as worn. but I digress.... How psionic energy and its E=mc^2 psionic matter work is beyond my gearheadedness and willingness to detail and explain away.  As the Referee, I can only do my best at telling a story of Artemis Group  and their Return to Bowman.  I hope I am creating an enjoyable puzzle and source of entertainment.  Perhaps someday, I can collate all that we have done into a published form.

Oh yeah. That's the last thing we need - this thing "hatching" and unleashing some kind of psionic monster. 

Alby, I wouldn't worry about it hatching just because it was sealed again, if it'd been fully screwed off I feel like there could've been some form of hatching. But other than that I think we're good, also I say that there might be an organism in there is because Psionic powers are emanated from living beings right? So wouldn't there have to be something living in there giving off psionic energy?

If there is something in there ... how do you like your eggs? Scrambled poached or fried? Yeah I was just kidding about a psionic monster. Ever seen "Forbidden Planet"? Oh and Pakkrat, I was just throwing my theory in to point out that something being outside of regular physics can be explained by something else that is also outside of regular physics. As players we don't have to have our heads around everything. I think that anything past TL 9 in Traveller needs a handwave from the players. Futuristic tech stuff by it's nature needs to be outside of what we currently understand. If it wasn't outside our current understanding then we'd already have it! That goes for basic stuff like jump drives and lasers that function as weapons. It goes a hundred times as much for stuff that the "Ancients" made.  I wasn't actually trying to explain your plot stuff for you though. Just saying that its okay as a player to not understand this thing. 

I have a question for you though, what could possibly be emanating the waves if there's not something that's living, in some form or another, inside that crystal. I say this because from what I know psionic waves have to be produced by a lifeform

Well ... what is "life"? We could be looking at a level of technology where the line between "living things" and inanimate objects is a bit blury. A level of technology where computers are grown and harvested or born rather than manufactured.  EDIT: Wait ... was that question for Pakkrat? I'll shut up. :(

it was just a general question for all. Also that a good point, could a high enough TL robot create psionic waves?

Or ... are we all just low tech "biological" robots? What exactly are "psionic waves" anyway?  This is where it all gets super philosophical. If psionics is something that comes from a "consciousness", and if you could create a robot that was truly conscious, then that robot could be psionic. But what is a consciousness? It's obviously not the same thing as simply being intelligent. Machines can easily outsmart a biological person. Eventually they will be able to make better decisions and solve bigger problems than we can. But true self awareness is pretty far out. That's a different thing entirely.  Or is it? Maybe we're all just "meat robots" and psionics in Traveller, while it may seem very mystical and spiritual, is simply a physical thing that could be replicated artificially if you had high enough tech? And why does Chewbacca live on Endor? Wookies come from Kashyyyk.  These are the "big questions". 

Alby said: Well the billion credit question is how do you "destroy" something like this? If we knew how it was made then we could find out how to unmake it. Problem is, we're as likely to understand how it was made as a cave man is able to understand how an iphone is made. Gosh I don't even know how iphones are made. They seem like magic to me ... and I'm not a cave man. If we want to keep folks safe from this thing the best thing we can do for now is hide it.  EDIT: Or maybe a hammer? Has anyone tried a hammer yet? A Cave Man may not be able to understand an iPhone, but he knows that he can break most things with a rock... the real problem is if it’s not an iPhone, but is, instead, dynamite; bash that with a rock, and you won’t be left to brag about the god you just destroyed.