What Is Known Publicly: This stuff is fairly common knowledge, or not hard to find out if people ask around.
What's Going On Here?
The year is 3562 3563. People are being pulled out of their own universes, seemingly at random, and are brought here, to the Station. Other than the Station, the planet below, Bothaious, and the one sun that the planet orbits, this area of space is completely dead, with no stars in the sky. Station records show that this area of space used to be filled with stars, and some time ago, the Botharians lived both on the planet and on this Station. The Station seemed to previously be a trading post, any other function of the place is unknown. An unknown incident, likely an invasion, wiped out the Botharians on the planet surface. Another unknown incident caused the Botharians to leave the Station, as well. The Station stood abandoned for an unknown amount of time until Gryf was brought on board, years before any of the other crew began to arrive.
It was previously believed that this area of space was blank, but that has turned out to not be true. Dead Ships can be found occasionally floating through the Dead Space, but a recent expedition also found a time anomaly, emitting radiation and Time Energy. It is believed that there might be more of these anomalies hiding in the Dead Space. It is unknown how far the Dead Space actually extends around Bothaious.
A field of ambient radiation has been discovered around the Station. So far, no one has recognized the particular combination of wavelengths that this radiation is made up of. Normally, there seems to be a shield, an invisible bubble that the radiation does not penetrate. It appears on the sensors like a perfect sphere surrounding the Station. That bubble only gets penetrated during radiation shifts, when something has changed on the Station, either a new person appearing, someone disappearing, or a strange effect happening to the people on board, like the age-down incident. When the Twilight Advance investigated the time anomaly within the Dead Space, a reality-altering effect occurred to the people on board. It is currently theorized that if there are more of these anomalies, the radiation surrounding the Station might be a combination of wavelengths linked to a number of different points in time.
The Doctor discovered that the TARDIS seemed to be cut off from the Time Vortex while on board the Station. When the crew went down to the surface of Bothaious, the Doctor brought the TARDIS along, and she was partially recharged, for a while, but is still too damaged to fly. However, thanks to this information, and the time anomaly found in the Dead Space, it is theorized that the bubble is preventing Time Energy from entering the Station, which may be a good thing.
Much more troubling, it was previously believed that people only arrived on board the Station when shifts occurred, but an expedition to a Dead Ship discovered that people can appear in other places in the Dead Space than just the Station. However, no one has a good solution on how to detect this, or how to help other people who are appearing here.
There is another odd effect of time on board the Station, relating to people's deaths. When Kale and Jack most recently died, they revived after a few days, but instead of waking back up where they had been left, both reappeared in the same locations and states that they had arrived on board the Station in. As of yet, no one has theories as to why this is occurring.
What Do We Know About The Station, Itself?
The Station is, for the most part, open to exploration. Nothing is going to stop anyone from going most places on the Station. Active sections at current time are Section 2 (where living quarters and most other things are), Section 3 (the docking bay, Section 4 (the hangar), and the Center Section. Section 1 is also open-ish, see below.
Section 2:
Completely open. This is where most of the critical parts of the Station are located, including the living quarters, mess hall, supply bay, med bay, and gardens. The section also has various other facilities peppered throughout it, including extensive gyms (the Botharians' aquatic culture means they needed access to pools and hot tubs, among more traditional workout equipment like weights), casual lounges for larger gatherings (Jeeves is currently working on appropriating one of these for more *ahem* civilized gatherings), and numerous unclaimed spaces that could be converted for other uses. Plans are in the works to also create a security station in Section 2, including a firing range for training.
The Supply Bay is not entirely open, per se, because this is Gryf's realm (her room is in the back, if you know where it is). While it is open to walk into, actually getting to the supplies requires talking to Gryf.
The Med Bay is fully stocked, with state of the art 36th-century medical technology. Each of the doctors have claimed personal work stations (Mordin never seems to leave his area, while Bruce's lab is in a separate room for more privacy). Other notable areas include an autopsy bay (currently holding the Botharian skeletons pulled out of the center five months ago and counting...), and a row of five cryotubes in the rear of the med bay (one of the tubes is currently occupied by Miss Inara Serra).
The Gardens were initially dangerous, thanks to a native population of rats (which seems to have been dwindling) and predatory plant life. However, a safe path and area has been carved out, leading to Inara Serra's herb garden, and further on, to a physical training area, including an archery range. So long as people do not stray off the path, the Gardens have proven to be safe.
Section 3:
The large docking bay is rarely used, mostly just for when the Saryu (see below) arrives. The scrap yard is actually a part of Section 3, but is accessible from Sections 3 and 4 (OOC: or so it appears, lemme know if this is actually wrong.)
Section 4:
The smaller hangar currently holds the Serenity, captained by Inara Serra Shepherd Book, and the Twilight Advance, captained by Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum. Various repair bays are also accessible from off of the hangar (one of which has recently been claimed by Celena Vantari for her own projects).
Section 1:
Technically "open" but without sustained power and life support. Section 1 is the largest section on the Station, and has very few critical functions in there. When the Station was active, the area was marked as "Administrative." In order to keep from putting a strain on the Station's power core, minimal power is maintained in there, just enough for the sensors to detect if someone new appears inside (because the Station seems to like pulling that trick). It has not been thoroughly explored, but people can technically enter, if they use one of the rebreather suits available in the Hangar (or, you know, if they don't breathe oxygen).
Section 5:
Closed up, no access to it from any other section, no power, and nothing is known about it.
What About That Pesky Center Section?
It has now been verified, thanks to Smith, that time is not passing within the Center section of the Station. Organic matter left inside does not decay (neither did Jack when he was left in there dead). People who are injured don't seem to get any worse or better when they remain in the Center (we know that thanks to leaving Crichton down there for a week).
Any chronometer, such as Smith's internal sensors, or Jack's vortex manipulator read ???? when the date is checked while inside the Center. It is unknown as to why time is not passing, but this is clearly the cause of the Center section's other unique properties.
The Center section was once the lift way between all the sections, but an explosion heavily damaged the center. The Center, itself, is currently empty of everything except for what was once the switch-gate between lift paths, now heavily damaged and non-functional.
Previously, the paths between all the sections and the center were barricaded up by crude blockades, but the paths to Sections 1 and 2 have been cleared. Each of the paths are still littered with broken furniture and what used to make up the barricades, lining the sides of the paths. There is very little power, and no lights in the paths or the center.
Eventually, as people get close to the center, they will 'fall off the map,' so to speak. In the center, the comm network doesn't work, and neither does any sort of scan or sensor, such as the medical scanners, K9, Smith's glasses, or the Twilight Advance scanning from the exterior of the ship. Machines still work, such as the floating stretchers, or K9 and Smith's motor functions, but anything that could scan the area reads nothing. This is presumed to be linked to the fact that time is not passing, therefore any sensors cannot get any readings back from the area.
The tracks are very damaged, noting an explosion happened there, and there were previously skeletons of Botharians left behind in the center. Most of the skeletons have been moved to the medical bay in order to be studied. The current theory, because time is not passing in the center, is that whatever killed the Botharians left them in a skeletal state. Verification of this theory is still pending.
Anything Else We Need To Know About The Station?
The Station resupplies thanks to a ship known as the Saryu captained by Captain Yslandra, or Ysla for short. She is a very secretive woman, and cant take anyone with her on the ship, nor will she explain how she can navigate the Dead Space while no one else can. (Jack is pretty adamant about making sure no one questions her too much, as he is worried that she will decide to stop showing up.)
There is no pattern so far between the people who have been brought to the Station. People who were in a ship at the time of their shift seem to be brought here in their ships, but those ships are heavily damaged upon arriving, with their memory banks wiped of the time between leaving their universe and reaching this one. Everyone arrives with a communicator linked in to the Station's network. It is unknown how these comms leave the Supplies Bay and end up with each new arrival. It is known, thanks to John and Kale, that when people disappear from the Station, they are returned to their timelines.
What About Bothaious, Itself?
The surface of Bothaious is heavily polluted, with what used to be an oxygen-rich environment, but now, people need breathing filters in order to survive on the surface. The surface is mostly swamp land, but is also the home of a natural fuel that helps run the Station. Resident native life is highly aggressive, including giant reptilian insectoids, carnivorous plants, and leeches, which are normal leeches on their own, but apparently mutate in the presence of Time Vortex energy. The planet also now has a population of (mostly) sterilized Tribbles.
A Botharian ruin was found, largely overgrown with plants. It is unknown how long the city stood abandoned, the Doctor surmised about 200 years could have passed, but it could have been a much longer or shorter time period. A data cube and a scan of a different alien skeleton were brought back from the city. Unfortunately, the data cube is in Botharian, which Gryf is trying to translate.
The Andalite Zizih is currently building a base of operations on Bothaious' surface, close to where his ship had crash-landed on arrival.
What Is Known Not-So-Publicly: This stuff is not commonly known, a lot harder to find out, or people have to ask the right other person.
When people are disappearing off the ship, they are arriving close to the time that they were taken from, but not precisely so. When John and Kale disappeared and then reappeared on board the Station, they weren't returned exactly when they came from. (Jack is trying to make sure this fact doesn't get spread around the Station.)
When Gryf appeared on the Station, she came with her twin brother, Col. Her brother died in a later incident, but while she was trying to save his life, Gryf believes that a part of Col ended up downloaded into the Station Network. Very few people on board know that he is even there, even fewer have any idea on how to get him out.
Kale touched one of the skeletons in the center of the Station and received a psychometric impression of their final moments. Unfortunately, it is hard for him to remember, and even harder for him to explain to anyone else, because he begins thinking like a Botharian every time he tries to think about it.
Yuna attempted a sending ritual in the center section, and she was able to see a number of trapped spirits in the area: the same number of spirits as there were Botharian skeletons in the center. Unlike with spirits from Spira, she cannot seem to communicate with them, and she can't open a pathway to the Farplane.
When both Jack and Kale were dead, Yuna was unable to locate where their spirits had gone, instead of being able to see their spirits as normal.
Jack took his working vortex manipulator into the center section, but as soon as he crossed the sensor barrier, the manipulator stopped being able to read the current year, 3563, and replaced it with the display ???? Thankfully, Smith was able to replicate these findings, so he will be crediting the android with 'discovering' what he already knew.
What Is Not Known: Anything to help investigate this stuff would be welcomed.
Where the time anomalies are coming from.
The connection between the radiation emanating from the time anomalies, and the reality shifts that occur on the Station.
What happened to the Botharians, on the planet, or on the Station.
What happened in the Center section.
The Station's original function.
The source of whatever is causing the shield around the Station.
What else is out there in the Dead Space.
Why people are coming back to life when they die on the Station.
Current Project List: Ask around to find out who is already starting to work on this stuff.
So we kind of had a Hulk-Out, anyone who can help with repairs.
Someone new needs to help maintain the Station's Power core this has now reached critical importance.
Analyzing the radiation data found outside the Station, and from the time anomaly.
Autopsying the Botharian skeletons from the center.
Scanning the data from the other skeleton from Bothaious' surface.
Translating the data cube Mordin recovered from Bothaious' surface.
Clearing out the rest of the barricades around the center of the Station.
Beginning to build beacons to be placed through the Dead Space to help map it out.
Finding Col (limited).
Theories: These are completely player-submitted, not official at all.
Jack is certain that there is some sort of energy trace that is possibly left behind on people associated with their shifts in. He thinks the best way to return everyone home is to duplicate those shifts exactly, rather than letting the Station decide when to send people away. Unfortunately, there is no theory on what energy source is causing this, and therefore, no theory on how to shift it back.
The Doctor seems to think that the TARDIS would be able to return people to their homes, but Jack doubts that the TARDIS would be able to jump between timelines, and would only return people to this timeline's Earth, which is supposedly gone.
Because of the TARDIS' lack of connection to the Time Vortex, and Jack's delay on returning to life, there is a theory that the Station is cut off completely from the flow of time. However, the Station residents now know that time is still moving forwards, they have spent an entire year on the Station by now. So now, the question is to prove whether time is relatively moving forwards in places outside of the Station.
John has proposed a similar idea that the center of the Station is out of shift of the rest of the Station. Perhaps there is nothing on the scans of the center because there is nothing in the center.
Radical Edward brought the idea of a faulty jump-gate. In her world, that would mean that a light-speed transporter, like a Mass Effect relay, has the wrong destination coordinates, and then people can't return from where they've been sent to. This idea applies on the Station with the concept that what is causing the shifts could be in a completely different location than the destination coordinates, the Station, itself, and what is needed to send people home might not be on board at all.
Jack has the idea that whatever effect is pulling people from their home universes can access universes that have already had problems with their spacetime easier than other ones. Therefore, Jack's universe or Crichton's universe would be easier to access, while Fran's universe would be harder to access. However, because of what Jack is now calling "The Pterodactyl Effect," there's nothing to say that these universes wouldn't eventually develop time travel, and yet the side effects related to time travel could affect people and things that had existed previously.
Thanks to relativistic fictional multi-verse theory, many of the people on board are actually fictional characters in John Crichton's world. Therefore, this whole thing could just be happening in Crichton's head.
Last Edit: 7/20/2014
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