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“Installation Zero-One Alpha, my first discovery. By then I was exploring the stars for one or two years already, but back then I was a scrap collector. It's astonishing what people will just throw away, but back to the discovery. It wasn't my first time on Conflar, that's a rather bleak world in the Ignis system with a few mega factories. The factories and space port leave quite some garbage, part of which can be recycled. The competition is tough and I didn't really want to cross any of the larger groups. So I thought I better explore the rest of the planet. I mean, there is industry on Conflar for over a hundred standard years. Surely something was dropped or forgotten in the wilderness.

So I flew through the rocky regions between the mega factories, slow and low. I grabbed some crystals and rare minerals here and there. But not what I was hoping for. And at some point I saw that cliff. Part of the rock face had broken off into a pile of rubble at the ground. It wasn't new, but the vegetation hadn't overgrown it either. And I thought 'Hey Blair, maybe that's something where you can get stuff easily.' So I started clearing the debris. Was extremely exhausting, I was alone after all, and it took ages. In the rubble itself I found nothing. Really bothered me, working my ass off with nothing to show for. But after a week I had removed enough to see a cave behind it. There were not many caves on Conflar, so that was something special at least. A few more days and I made enough space to safely climb across the pile of rubble.

Didn't get far into the cave unfortunately, since there was a gate. Not a normal door, but a massive gate, like you know from the high security facilities. But nobody was guarding it, there was no alarm and it was just me. I inspected it and it was different than anything I've seen till then. I'm not saying I've never seen a gate before. The gate was obviously built so it opened in several directions at once, plus it seemed to be made off a material unlike anything I knew. There were no humans involved, I was absolutely sure. And aliens had never settled on Conflar in the past, I actually checked. But in front of the gate a holographic cube of glowing symbols was projected into the air. A really big thing, high in the air and constantly revolving around all three axes. Luckily I had a ladder. The symbols actually change color when you touch them. I quickly realized it was some sort of door lock. Seven symbols and it was over and I had to restart from the beginning. That's just basic math. There were fifteen symbols in total, making about 32 million combinations. Unfortunately nobody left a note with the correct one, so I had to go through them one by one until I found the right one. And with some preparation, I didn't want to repeat anything, I did just that. For two weeks I did nothing but touch these glowing symbols. It was torture and I slowly feared that I missed a combination.

But after two weeks I managed to guess the right combination. First I didn't realize it. I was so exhausted and blinded by routine that I didn't notice that all symbols now had a different color. Only as a quiet fizzling rang out from the gate I knew I did it.

But what did I discover inside? Not much, to be honest. But it was breathtaking. I was the first person who entered Zero-One Alpha, perhaps since thousands of years. From the beginning I knew I found something extraordinary. I followed a long corridor made of strange material just like the gate, leading to a gigantic room. It was so big that a ramp went down to the floor. Strange energy lines in the ground led into the room and there were more of the symbols. Also there were more gates, leading deeper into Zero-One Alpha. But sadly they are closed. Well, two are. The third one was destroyed by a landslide. At some point before my arrival the structure was damaged and parts of the ceiling caved as well. Glowing mushrooms grow rampantly on the fallen soil, but they can't be found anywhere else on Conflar. The cubes at these gates have thirty symbols by the way, making more than 10 billion possibilities.

Even thirty years later the gates can't be opened. The buried corridor was excavated and ends after two hundred meters at another gate, this time without a holo-cube. It was probably linked to the first one. The size or even the purpose of Zero-One Alpha are unknown. Nobody knows who built the installation or when. Scans were performed several times, but it's like the installation doesn't exist for the sensors. It's a mystery that might keep the scientists busy for decades. For me it's the crucial experience, not only to travel between the stars, but to explore the unknown.”

We begin with the first discovery, an underground installation. This scene took longer than expected due to the lighting of the rather dark environment.

Created with Blender 2.92 and GIMP 2.10.

Description

“Installation Zero-One Alpha, my first discovery. By then I was exploring the stars for one or two years already, but back then I was a scrap collector. It's astonishing what people will just throw away, but back to the discovery. It wasn't my first time on Conflar, that's a rather bleak world in the Ignis system with a few mega factories. The factories and space port leave quite some garbage, part of which can be recycled. The competition is tough and I didn't really want to cross any of the larger groups. So I thought I better explore the rest of the planet. I mean, there is industry on Conflar for over a hundred standard years. Surely something was dropped or forgotten in the wilderness.

So I flew through the rocky regions between the mega factories, slow and low. I grabbed some crystals and rare minerals here and there. But not what I was hoping for. And at some point I saw that cliff. Part of the rock face had broken off into a pile of rubble at the ground. It wasn't new, but the vegetation hadn't overgrown it either. And I thought 'Hey Blair, maybe that's something where you can get stuff easily.' So I started clearing the debris. Was extremely exhausting, I was alone after all, and it took ages. In the rubble itself I found nothing. Really bothered me, working my ass off with nothing to show for. But after a week I had removed enough to see a cave behind it. There were not many caves on Conflar, so that was something special at least. A few more days and I made enough space to safely climb across the pile of rubble.

Didn't get far into the cave unfortunately, since there was a gate. Not a normal door, but a massive gate, like you know from the high security facilities. But nobody was guarding it, there was no alarm and it was just me. I inspected it and it was different than anything I've seen till then. I'm not saying I've never seen a gate before. The gate was obviously built so it opened in several directions at once, plus it seemed to be made off a material unlike anything I knew. There were no humans involved, I was absolutely sure. And aliens had never settled on Conflar in the past, I actually checked. But in front of the gate a holographic cube of glowing symbols was projected into the air. A really big thing, high in the air and constantly revolving around all three axes. Luckily I had a ladder. The symbols actually change color when you touch them. I quickly realized it was some sort of door lock. Seven symbols and it was over and I had to restart from the beginning. That's just basic math. There were fifteen symbols in total, making about 32 million combinations. Unfortunately nobody left a note with the correct one, so I had to go through them one by one until I found the right one. And with some preparation, I didn't want to repeat anything, I did just that. For two weeks I did nothing but touch these glowing symbols. It was torture and I slowly feared that I missed a combination.

But after two weeks I managed to guess the right combination. First I didn't realize it. I was so exhausted and blinded by routine that I didn't notice that all symbols now had a different color. Only as a quiet fizzling rang out from the gate I knew I did it.

But what did I discover inside? Not much, to be honest. But it was breathtaking. I was the first person who entered Zero-One Alpha, perhaps since thousands of years. From the beginning I knew I found something extraordinary. I followed a long corridor made of strange material just like the gate, leading to a gigantic room. It was so big that a ramp went down to the floor. Strange energy lines in the ground led into the room and there were more of the symbols. Also there were more gates, leading deeper into Zero-One Alpha. But sadly they are closed. Well, two are. The third one was destroyed by a landslide. At some point before my arrival the structure was damaged and parts of the ceiling caved as well. Glowing mushrooms grow rampantly on the fallen soil, but they can't be found anywhere else on Conflar. The cubes at these gates have thirty symbols by the way, making more than 10 billion possibilities.

Even thirty years later the gates can't be opened. The buried corridor was excavated and ends after two hundred meters at another gate, this time without a holo-cube. It was probably linked to the first one. The size or even the purpose of Zero-One Alpha are unknown. Nobody knows who built the installation or when. Scans were performed several times, but it's like the installation doesn't exist for the sensors. It's a mystery that might keep the scientists busy for decades. For me it's the crucial experience, not only to travel between the stars, but to explore the unknown.”

We begin with the first discovery, an underground installation. This scene took longer than expected due to the lighting of the rather dark environment.

Created with Blender 2.92 and GIMP 2.10.