Pithos Genesis Research Station Geographic Location in The Future is Now | World Anvil

Pithos Genesis Research Station

A lost research station that fell into the event horizon of a super massive black hole.
The Future is Now is a cheesy sci-fi setting set in a nonsense universe where humans were exterminated without a trace eons ago and are long forgotten. The only remnants of humanity is that it's culture survived in a universe full of humanaboos.

We Sentients used to gaze at the stars and wondered what enigmas hid in the heavens. Now we stare into the abyss, praying nothing lurks in the darkness.

House Serpentes Investigation Briefing

Status: Decommissioned.
Witnesses: N/A
Investigation Summary: No traces of the station were found in the sector. Operatives surmise the station was sabotaged and purposefully de-orbited into the black hole's event horizon. Motive unclear.
We are unable to investigate further, insufficient technology to search beyond the event horizon.
Action Report: Nearby star systems have been alerted to look out for survivors. House Serpentes agents have notified the next of kin.   Investigation concluded.

History

What do you mean they're in the walls? They're coming out of the walls? ... oh gods the bodies are in the walls.
— Cleanup detail.
A state of the art Genesis class research station can sustain 800 standard carbon based lifeforms indefinitely in hostile environments. The station is autonomous and able to maintain orbit without maintenance.   The station was commissioned several space decades ago, skirting the event horizon of Pandora of P-320-X4, a super-massive black hole with an unusually weak gravitational field safe enough for a habitable space station.

Groups of Interest

What brings Sentients to this god forsaken deep space backwater nebula? Surely not for hunting Space Elf. Is it the Elf steaks?
— Chippers, deed-owner of the P-302-X4 system
Before the disappearance of the station, several major races were involved in the station's operation for their own various agendas.

Dwarf Enterprises

What brings people to the deadliest thing in the universe? I don't know but I bet we'll make a killing.
— Dwarf CEO
Invested resources to build the station at maximum efficiency, resulting in hundreds of Dwarves falling into the black hole's event horizon due to lax, but cost effective, safety regulations.

Orthodoxy of the Keikoku Otaku Itai Doctrine

Known as K.O.I, they're the station's researchers. The K.O.I believe that with modifications to a Penetration drive, a ship could warp through the event horizon of the black hole and explore it safely, providing valuable academic and philosophical insight into what lies inside a black hole, believing it to be another scientific discoveries that would lead them one step closer to God.

Silics Institute

The Silics Institute recognize the location's unique condition are valuable testing grounds for high gravity prototype drives. Rather on focusing on large innovations like the K.O.I, Silics prefer testing and discovering minor improvements to their current technology.

Jill

You can find Jill everywhere, no surprise she's here too. You know, i'm actually dating Jill and I asked her to come along, she's a bit plain but that's what I like about her.
— 158 of the Pithos Station's Sentients responses on why Jill is here.
Since she was a little girl Jill always wanted to live an exciting life although danger was not her middle name, so she instead works at a Genesis station on the edge of Pandora of P-320-X4's event horizon, wait until her friends hear about this.

Spacebook doesn't work here but there's plenty of friendly Sentients here and enough Jills to form a Gathering so Jill has someone to talk to about her day.

Habitat 7

The following information is confidential. Under protection of the Culturate, illegal access may result in the destruction of your immediate kin and their race/home-planet.
Verify Culurate Clearance

Layout

It's a fancy sealed box with windows along the whole thing? Windows, structural weak points, so you can stare at one of the scariest, most dangerous, hellish landscapes in the universe? Fine but a therapist will cost ya extra.
— Architect of the Pithos

Core

Common area for daily operations between races.

Entertainment Bay

The black hole's gravity interferes with communications. Only contact with the outside universe are weekly barges containing personnel and data drives with news, space mail, and last week's episode of Game of Helmcontrol.

Docking

A specialized hangar bay that neutralizes the effects of the black hole's gravity. Due to high gravity, only transport barges with prototype high grav engines can escape the black hole's gravity.

Cost of fuel, stress, and maintenance of these engines can only operate once per week on a strict schedule.

Habitats

Throughout the station there are 12 habitats used for housing, each environmentally sealed atmospheres catering to the preferences of specific races.
Habitat of Note: Habitat 7


Cover image: The Future Is Now. by Allistar Sparks

Comments

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Aug 30, 2018 00:54

I love the way you've formatted your article. It really makes it easy to read each section. Are Jills a species or are they like Nurse Joy from the Pokemon universe where all the members of a family are named the same and look identical?

Aug 31, 2018 02:17

Thanks! Glad to hear the formatting's good.
I'm not sure if you caught but the links have tooltips with the races information, I may have to put it in the article if people aren't aware of that feature.

Aug 31, 2018 18:44

Which links? I was looking specifically for them, but I only see tooltips for space decades, Penetration drive, and gathering. If you're talking about words like Space Elf or Elf that are a different color those aren't showing up as clickable links or tooltips.

Aug 31, 2018 19:17

Oh, I see the tooltips don't appear unless the linked article is public, that would explain it. My mistake, I'll fix that now.

Aug 30, 2018 06:11

Holy smokes! This is quite a theme you have got going here! It is visually striking and clean, I quite like it!   I was a bit confused as to if the station is still inhabited? It seems it was sabotaged, yet there appear to be numerous factions utilizing it for one purpose or another. I did quite enjoy reading about the factions and their interest in the station. I don't know who Jill is, or what she is? Gestalt Consciousness? The stereotypical greedy Dwarves was also quite funny, especially their "lax safety protocols". To be honest, as well, it was nice reading a more satirical article in the queue, a nice change of pace from the heavy lore articles I had been investigating recently.   Pointing out some things I have noticed seems to have become a theme amongst my comments, so will include below, and will bold the items that are odd.
a super-massive black hole with an unusually weak gravitational field weak safe enough for habitation.
Is it the Elf steaks. This appears to be a question
Rather on focusing on large abstract discoveries like the K.O.I, Silics prefer to many innumerable minor innovations to their current technology.
  Enjoyable read to be sure!

Aug 31, 2018 02:23

Thanks! It's good to hear you like the theme and the humour.
I've made some changes in the article to clear it up but i'll summarize it here. Station is in the black hole, no one know what's happened to it, sabotage is just speculation. It seems like it's easy to miss the link's tooltips. Jill is a race of clones that can link together in a hivemind when she feels like it.
And thanks for those corrections! You write very nice and thorough comments.

Aug 30, 2018 18:47 by Han

Oooh, I love this glow you've got on your theme. Mind if I ask how you set that up? I'd love to try something like it for my world's headers, hahah. You may want to change the comment box's text colour so it's a touch more readable, though - I can't really see what I'm typing.   'We Sentients used to gaze at the stars and wondered what enigmas hid in the heavens. Now we stare into the abyss, praying nothing lurks in the darkness.' I *love* this quote, and I can't quite tell why. I suppose it's the juxtaposition of wonder and discovery, and the contrast between past and present. It catches something about my attention and makes me want to know more about what might be out there!   What on Earth is Jill? She seems interesting! I know the other two commenters have both touched on her, but seriously, there's an enigma there.   So, I'm also a touch confused, as Cronos is. Has the station been decommissioned and abandoned, or is it still inhabited by others? If the latter - is there any risk of death/starvation/etc, or can they easily leave the station and resupply? Hell, is it self-sufficient?


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Aug 31, 2018 02:31

You'd have to ask Oneriwien, I commissioned the theme.   Thanks for the note about the comment box, that's been fixed now.   And i'm glad you like the quote! I always love how much a quote can do in just a few lines.   I've made some changes to the article but here's the summary. It's somewhat explained in the tooltips but not too many people use that, Jill are a clone race that can link to a hive-mind whenever she feels like it. Station is lost in a blackhole, presumably destroyed. Genesis station is suppose to be completely safe, completely self sufficient black hole limits communication to weekly updates/luxuries.

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