2: Sixteen Tons

~~~~~1111~~~~ From James Carter- We tried to activate the Androids... Jesus, why'd we do it??? They aren't working right, and we don't have time to fix them. Rick set them to attack any bipedal organism... He didn't think they'd attack us too. Listen, If you're reading this, it means you've found your way into the mines and you're probably being attacked by the androids... You have permission to destroy them

~~~~~1111~~~~ From James Carter- But now we have no allies. The robots don't work... We're running out of ammunition... We've been forced to flee deeper into the mine shafts. We even jerry-rigged the door to be opened only by a switch hidden on the other side of the magma core. Lucky for us, the Greens seem to be afraid of fire. If you can follow our footsteps, open the door from the outside. You'll have to get across the magma core, which won't be easy. Rick sealed the area off and flooded it with magma, but you should be able to make it across. I don't even know if he's alive. Rick and the other two guys haven't been seen. But please, hurry... We've moved pretty deep, and I don't think we can survive much longer. There's only four of us now... Hurry

Recorded Message "Rick 44.35.9" (Destiniation for Rescue) A note to Rescue team or anyone else who finds this switch- from Rick Stevenson. God. We finally made it here. This switch should be able to keep the door jammed long enough for us to escape into the elevator shafts. We're not giving up. James Carter and three other men stayed back in the room and me and two others came out here to seal the doors. I don't think we'll make it back to see them. This was a one way trip. I should have known before we got out here. There are too many of them, and we're out of ammo.

Recorded Message "Rick 44.35.9" (Destiniation for Rescue) We have no idea how to get back. When we came down here to seal the area, we didn't think about the magma. There's only one way back up to the ledge we jumped in, and that's by flooding the core. I don't even know if our suits will withstand the heat, but it's our only chance. I only hope that Carter and the other three men are safe... I don't want my death to be for nothing.

Retrieving file from Leonidas archives--- Colony records::<Alderson> file 10119::hyperspace.travel.doc Txt retrieved--- displaying [{}] Hyperspace travel can be strange and frustrating. It takes an immeasurably short time to travel between stars: but as the line of travel, or tramline, exists only along one critical path between each pair of stars (never quite a straight line, but close enough to visualize it as one) and the endpoints of the paths are far from the distortions in space caused by stars and large planetary masses, it follows that a ship must spend most of its time crawling from one point to another.

Retrieving file from Leonidas archives--- Colony records::<Alderson> file 10119::hyperspace.travel.doc Txt retrieved--- displaying [{}] Worse than that, not every pair of stars is joined by tramlines. Pathways are generated along lines of equipitential thermonuclear fluxes, and the presence of stars in the geometric pattern can prevent the pathway from existing at all. Of those links that do exist, not all have been mapped. They are difficult to find.

Retrieving file from Leonidas archives--- Colony records::<Alderson> file 10119::hyperspace.travel.doc Txt retrieved--- displaying [{}] Named after their founder, the Alderson Routes have remained a mystery throughout the century. There are still many shortcomings to the routes, also. For example, Starships have documented cases where it was faster to drive over to another Alderson point, make the jump, move around in a new system, jump somewhere else, and so on until they came back to the original system at a different place- do all that and it would still be faster than merely sailing across the original system in normal space.