Environmental Changes

The raw form of this material was hard. The refiners could not do anything with it and old fashioned methods didn't work either, it was incredibly resistant to fire and heat, so resistant that I am surprised we were able to blow it apart or mine it from the rest of the space rock it was in. We attempted multiple tests on the substance but found no way to take it from a raw state to a workable, refined state. Analyzing the finished product didn't tell us much either, somehow in the way the aliens refined it turned it from this unworkable form into a very strong, but workable, product. We mulled over the problem for hours but could not come up with a way to make this substance usable. At one point we decided to take a break from it, more to have the relief we needed from our frustrations and partly because we had other projects to work on as well. I took a small chunk of the material with me as I went to train, I planned to take out my frustractions by hitting it with everything I had, while Evan went off to see about adjusting the engines to get more output and find a way, given a powerful enough energy source, to travel between star systems.

Craters, miniature craters is what I left behind every time I blasted that stupid space rock. It never changed shape, nothing fell off of it, but there were very big holes in the ground where I shot at. The thing never got any hotter no matter how many times I blasted it with fire, which happened to be the most satisfying force to use as it actually exploded when it hit something. Once I had released my frustrations on the thing I picked it back up and continued wandering around the habitat. Things had been changing here, it was clear that the fragments were still in the environment and things were trying to adapt to the changing conditions. Nasero had been trying to optimize the systems for the habitat in between mining the resources up and the lighting was getting to be better controlled which made the plants thrive. He had even started working on a new system for the habitat, one that would create some weather patterns that wouldn't have to be scheduled and controlled but would happen on their own once he was done, this might even lead to having different seasons in the habitat which would definitely be interesting. He had been using the junk ore from the meteor to feed his growth and if you looked carefully you could see it happening along the ceiling of the habitat, though it was getting to be more difficult as the light was evening out. It made our original habitat look like junk really, we had created day and night cycles and automated it as best we could. We had systems in place to simulate weather but those had been scheduled as well which meant that we never had any surprises. Though the plants had thrived in our environment you could clearly see them doing better in the new one, it was simply amazing how fast these things were evolving. I knew that it wouldn't be long before the animals started changing too, hopefully for the better.

The night cycle in the habitat had begun by the time I realized how late it was getting. I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts that I simply hadn't noticed it getting darker. I thought about translocating back but figured since I wasn't tired the fresh air and continued exercise would be nice so I continued walking, this time back towards the complex. Along the way I thought of my next steps, what I should do with this life I have on the ship. I wasn't alone anymore, which was great, but I needed some ambitions, having everything just given to you isn't always the most exciting thing in the world. I knew my long term goal would be to get the ship back and to destroy that sinister creature that had abandoned us here but that would still take awhile. As my mind went back and forth between thoughts I nearly missed the signal alerting me that something was coming at me very quickly.