DARK
Most people don't really understand the Interstellar Gulf, the darkness between the stars. They think its empty, a vast wasteland of nothingness, only crossed from the safety of jumpspace. But those few who venture beyond the Oort clouds, miners, explorers, scientists and artists, those who have delved deep into the interstellar medium know it is far from empty....
Its some five hundred kilometers across, much greater than anything we know. and yet
….ok to be fair its is still pretty empty, mostly a few scattered rouge planets and weak radio waves bouncing off stellar heliospheres; No dark ancient terrors or monsters waiting in the dark.....
Not yet anyway.
When the first great expansion of the Community got under way, it also spurred an new interest in searching for other human or alien civilisations within the region. The Interstellar Gulf was seen as the perfect place to set up vast radio telescopes to search for the distant signs of life. Such stations, set in orbit around sunless rogue worlds, would be some of the most remote places ever occupied by human beings. In the case of one station, Taringa Roa V, it would be the lonelest : Taringa Roa only had room for one operator. It was a frightening concept.
Fortunately, their was a volunteer.
Markus Mund të Shihni (or “Big Mark” as he was know to his mates) was never one know to shy away from human contact, but after a particularly nasty divorce with his Monowife, Mark decided he could do with some time away from humanity.
Unlike the others, it still appears active; transmitting...
A well regarded applied polymath, trained at the famous Grand Capricorn School of Thought, Markus was not the first choice of the scientific committee (they would have preferred an expert in Radio Astrology), but were swayed by the multi disciplinary possibilities Markus brought, as well as the fact he was one of the few people willing to live in such isolation. Markus was delivered to the station late in 10157 EE, his only connection with the outside universe a monthly supply run that would take back the data he collected.
When the first ship returned, the scientists back home were eager to go over Taringa Roa's data. What they got was a bit more than they expected: In addition to the collected radio signal data, their were several
thousand gigabytes of additional data, most of it in the form of videos, recordings and documents, produced by Markus. They covered many topics, from a psychological self analysis of how he was reacted to the extreme loneliness, to observations about the rogue planet Littleorphan with the station orbited, to gardening tips, music tutorials and general philosophical musings on the universe. As well, inside the return capsule was a painting of an exquisite star-scape, titled “Light Beyond the Stars”; Markus had painted it, using only the basic materials available to him. Included was a supply request for new equipment and resources, so that he might conduct other, more in depth experiments and works. The science committee, impressed with the unexpected output, gladly obliged.
For the next year, Markus produced massive amounts of new content, conducting two dozen different experiments a, as well as carefully documenting his psychiatry state; this data was a boon for those studying long term isolation on distant exploration flights, while his other various experiments, including attempting to grow plants in the interstellar twilight and devloping new exercise techniques for low gravity environments, were treated with great interest. As well, Markus produced five more paintings, of starscapes, of Littleorphan, and even a portrait of then chair of the science committee, Xo Riverta, titled “The Coming Mind”. When the end of his one year stay on the station approached, Markus applied to stay for another year, stating he had “enjoyed listening to the cosmos” so much he wanted to continue. After a breif review by the committee psychologists (helped immensely by Markus own reports on his psyche,) he was cleared to continue for another year.
Markus second year on station started out much like his first: he commemorated it with a new painting, of some unknown star system titled “Somewhere, Anywhere”. However, it was soon apparent their was a change in his output. More and more, the data he was sending back was concerned less with his random experiments and more with his musings on life, the universe, and the origin of humans beyond the Black Star. While mostly useless to the science community, they proved popular with the more philosophically minded general population, and became popular recordings on the nets. All this time, the number of paintings he created rose; on several occasions, the supply ship returned with two or even three paintings. Many of them were more esoteric than his originals, and their was some concern it may reflect a drastic change in his psyche.
It is still aware. It is aware of us. Of others....
In mid 10159 EE, the supply ship returned from Trainga Roa V. Empty; the only data it carried was that from the radio telescope proper, automatically transferred. No extra reports from Markus; no new experiments. No musings. Nothing. After some 15 months of almost verbose reports, it sent a wave of concern through the Committee; a manned vessel was dispatched to the station, to ensure nothing was wrong.
When the rescue ship arrived two weeks latter, they found Taringa Roa, undamaged, fully operational. And empty: Markus was gone.
The disappearance of Markus Mund të Shihni has been somewhat “romanticised” by some 800 years of poorly recorded information and hearsay, so here the facts will be set straight:” no, the rescue team did not find food set on the table, as if Marcus had just been their; No, they did not find the capsule covered in blood; No, their was no evidence another person had been with him; No, their was no evidence another ship had been their. What they found was the capsule, powered down; One of the maintenance work pods missing. And the Nomad God.
The Nomad God was Markus last (known) painting, and indeed, his most famous. At first, it was thought the painting depicted a black hole, perhaps the Black Star itself; closer inspection, however, revealed something within the black sphere, painstakingly detailed. At first, it was thought to be some kind of planet; analysis using x-rays revealed it was in fact some kind of spacecraft. The words
Te Atua Arapi (The Nomad God in Markus native Kwi) had been scrawled down the bottom.
I estimate it was here long before human feet touched the dust of Capricorn....
Markus disappearance sent a shockwave through the project. Immediately, all the data Markus had sent was poured over, looking for some clue to what had happened. A breakthrough occurred when computer specialists managed to crack into Markus personal set and found an incomplete report. Its content was unspectacular: just a report on the growth of a fern. What was attached to the file, however, changed everything: it was an incompletely encrypted file, that read, simply “I have made contact with the Nomad God”.
Immediately, all of Markus files were reinspected for other such encrypted files: one was found attached to every single one. Unencrypted, they took the form of reports Markus was sending about his “special project”: Markus was, apparently, utilising the radio telescope to search for what he called “superobjects” traversing the Interstellar Gulf; He apparently managed to identify five of them. One in particular he was transfixed on, as it was “still transmitting”; he christened it The Nomad God.
According to Markus, the Nomad God was a “Creation Engine”, a vast spacecraft capable of seemingly impossible feats. Markus believed this spacecraft was of human construction, that it had come from the Oldhome, that it had been drifting the stars long before humans arrived beyond the Black Star, and that it was still active, “aware”, and looking to complete its “mission”, whatever that was. These “reports” were treated with scepticism by the scientific community: nothing in any of the data sent back by Markus showed any evidence of these “superobjects”; experiments using the Trainga Roa V itself found nothing (although some signals found would eventually lead to first contact with the American sector). Markus “rants” were dismissed as the ravings of a lunatic, of someone driven mad by his isolation.
For the signal strength it gives off, i estimate its power at something approaching that of a red dwarf...
But, naturally, that wouldn't be the end of the myth of the Nomad God, not by a long shot. Markus mysterious disappearance, coupled with the suggestions of ancient spacecraft, and shadowy conspiracies, was perfect fodder for the theorist crowd. Sightings of Markus would continue for some two hundred years; others would claim they had discovered secret messages from him hidden in everyday new. Others concentrated on who Markus had actually worked for: theories put forward include a secret society at the School of Thought (the Capricorn Illuminated), a shadowy government agency or some long term conspiracy that had secretly been controlling the Home stars for generations.
Others focused on the Nomad God itself: 800 years latter, belief in the Nomad God has been codified as its own religion, with some ten million adherents. Many phenomena and mysteries have been attributed to The Nomad God over the centuries: The mysterious Seed worlds and Template worlds; The “Mass Shadow” observed by the CAS
Unicorn in 10389; the disappearance of of ships in the Appleseed Gulf . Some believe it was the source of the Oldman Transmission; others belive it is in fact the Black Star itself.
I have made contact with the Nomad God
As for the painting itself, it was moved from one gallery to another, till it was finally collected by the Immortal Jal Hyderbad, (who at the time was Imperial Minister of Art), and placed in Hyderbads personal gallery, the Gallery of Esoteric Art, in Burke and Wills. It, along with many other priceless works, were destroyed when the last Archetype of the empire, Kalen II, destroyed Burke and Wills during the Silent Coup. And while rumours abound it had be secreted form the city before its destruction, for all intrests and purposes it, like its creator, are gone, taking with them any secrets they might still have had.