Our first field test will be starting soon. I can't disclose the location for security reasons, but suffice it to say we have high hopes for the latest incarnation of Madison Randolph's invention. I'm overseeing the groundside monitoring of the new Mark IV during the field trials.

That's all I'll say.

Who is this Madison Randolph?

Madison Randolph was a little-known scientist who experimented with unconventional methods of travel back around the turn of the 20th Century. Robert Randolph II, the head of the company I work for, rediscovered notes and plans drafted by his ancestor back in 1984 after buying back the old ancestral home from the bank.

I thought I recognized that name..."Unconventional" is one word for it...though I'll admit the man was a genius! creating a machine for D-travel is, and always will be, a remarkable feat. Let me know if/when you plan to sell these vehicles...they could save me some time and energy.

I can neither confirm nor deny exactly what methods are used. The vehicles, however, are not up for sale. I doubt anyone here could afford the maintenance and fuel costs at any rate.

You never know...

Two of the three vehicles we have sent out have returned. Both have sustained damage. The third has not yet shown up, but we are in regular contact with the crew. At least we know their communications gear works. If they don't return within 24 hours, we are sending a recovery team to get them.

Well, our third team is back and their vehicle is a mess. Almost a total loss. One of the crew has been hospitalized for severe burns. In addition to the difficulties they had after arrival at their destination, something happened in transit. One of the scientists sent along said something about hoping that "they" didn't follow the team back.

After inspecting the exterior, I'm sure I don't want to ment "them" (whatever they are) either. These machines are as big as 18-wheelers and built from the same material used to make light armored vehicles. I'm going to see what can be salvaged from the hard drives and video recorders (damn, I have a pile of owrk ahead of me) while the rest of the crew is checked out by the docs over the next few days. They've all earned their pay on this one and Mr. Randolph is going to kick in some extra rewards as well.

If you can come up with anything from your records and if your boss lets you, send me what info you can. I have been actively working with Dimensional travel for more than 7 years and if I can help out any, I will.

We're still sorting things out on Unit 3's data recovery, but we've gotten some interesting data back from Unit 1 and 2. Unit 1 has brought back some interesting physical samples. Nondiscolusre agreements keep me from saying more without express clearance from above.

I am so glad the Y2K crash didn't happen.

Five years after it didn't. Why do you say this now?

Is that because the government has brainwashed you into believing that it did not happen? Heh.

I really do not have a lot add, really. Just one question.

What about warp speed - there are things in our celestial backyard, things that are as worrisome as creatures from other dimensions lurking (astronomically speaking) not very far away from us.

Ellie wrote:Five years after it didn't. Why do you say this now?

Because somebody, somewhere is living in a place where it did and the outcome was something nobody could have predicted.

Kolya wrote:Is that because the government has brainwashed you into believing that it did not happen? Heh.

I really do not have a lot add, really. Just one question.

What about warp speed - there are things in our celestial backyard, things that are as worrisome as creatures from other dimensions lurking (astronomically speaking) not very far away from us.

All of our resources are tied up with the Mark IVs. However, the Mark IIs and IIIs are being given a second look by the higher ups.

One of the hospitalized crewmembers has died from his injuries as of this morning. The doctors did everything they could. I'll be taking a few weeks off from the project to help get things in order. So long, little brother.

Did you not go back in time? How truly disappointing. I would like to be posted on when the next travel will...Seeing the great library of Alexanderia would be truly wonderful.

I don't actually ride on any of the vehicles. That's not my job. In any case, what you are describing is outside the parameters of our work.

We're interested in taking the fight to the bad guys.

We're still trying to make sense of a lot of the data recovered, but things are starting to make sense with the alternate Y2K outcome. It reads like a bad sci-fi novel, but so much of what we (the community as a whole) deal with does. It seems that a surge in the world's power grids coincided with some sort of celestial event that allowed an extradimensional race access to that world. For lack of a better description, these things are simply called the Bugs.

The response to the Bugs, at least in some parts of this alternate world, has been ingenious.

I'm curious now. If you can, would you care to give some more info on this alternate Y2K disaster?

As soon as I am cleared by the higher ups, I'll tell more about that particular trip.

The Traveler King wrote:As soon as I am cleared by the higher ups, I'll tell more about that particular trip.

Hence my saying "if you can".

One of the other trips was a return to a place the older MArk IIs and IIIs had been to back in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Seems that the "dimensional landscape" (for lack of a better word) had changed a little bit since those early trips. It was a little harder to get where they were going and back. But they got there and managed to dodge the locals long enough to bring back some artifacts from a structure the CEO had an interest in about a decade ago. They also brought back a strange horsehoe crab-looking lifeform which we have contained and under observation at the moment.

Can you give us some detail of the expermental mood of transportation you had tested? Special fetures etc...

ash_wednesday wrote:Can you give us some detail of the expermental mood of transportation you had tested? Special fetures etc...

I severely doubt that his superiors will let him tell us.

I can't tell you exactly how it works beyond that it does. My job is to collate the data that comes back and disseminate what I am allowed to over this message board.

I believe that I've got a good idea of the "mode of transportation" is...but I won't tell if King doesn't want me to

For the time being, I wouldn't say anything. But, to be honest, anyone who does a modest amount of digging can find out who Madison Randolph was and what he was working on.