Evan slowly walked down the corridors of the station. It has been some time since he visited this cesspool of a station. Barrier Gate Station, founded by a freelancer who discovered a shortcut which avoided bretonian space completly making this the perfect place for all the wretched scum that Sirius has to offer after it became a hub for smuggling operations into liberty. One would think that the Crayterians that now control the system where this place is would double down on this place and rule it with an iron fist, alas that is not the case. He carefully looked arround here and there as he moved deeper into the station sometimes noticing a hooker trying to get it on with an unfortunate freelancer or merc once than a couple minutes later a shady drug deal in one of the side corridors. After about 30 minutes of walking he finally reached his destination Barrier's infamous bar. Entering he was immediatly greeted by the stares of the patrons, all of them watching him with curiosity for one reason or the other. He didn't fault them after all he was an outsider in this place. Making his way to the counter he quickly ordered a glass of whiskey and sat down. Hoping that Doctor Gena from the Starlight Consortium would arrive shortly.
Barrier Gate Station, Coronado System
Sector A, Quadrant 5
'Sunny's Bar'
A small, frustrated and tired, sigh left her lips as the diminutive researcher turned explorer pulled off their helmet. Sucking in the station's recycled air caused her to momentarily gag as the mixture of faulty oxygen and CO2 scrubbers coupled with how 'clean' her supply of internal oxygen had been before docking was a shock. The woman known as Lillian Genda placed the helmet down beneath their feet and stripped out of the uncomfortable flight suit, rolling their neck with an exhausted groan as they reached to push the button that would open their canopy. Slowly exposed to the station's artificial atmosphere she breathed a couple of puffs before climbing up and out of the cockpit. Before receiving the message from one of Doctor Wright's supposed friends she'd been nervously stalking and capturing pictures and scans of "ghostly" ships seen in the nearby system of Inverness.
It was both terrifying and thrilling as she'd normally have a crew, ship, and Captain to do all of that for her whilst she could do the 'fun' stuff. Like pouring over metric tons of data that their scans and misadventures usually brought in. Now she was alone, wandering through the Sirius system in a shoddy 'Dagger' that was now to be maintained and fixed up for a hefty sum of one-hundred thousand credits by one of Barrier Gate's many repair teams.
Securing the canopy, she would leave behind her only means of transportation and eventually make her way towards the bar, a mix of synth-jazz and pop playing through their dusty old speaker as the researcher stepped into the threshold. Frowning at the local population, she wriggled her nose and looked for a semi-respectable, clean looking individual that most certainly woul stand out in a crowd. Such as herself. With a keen, practiced eye she spotted a relatively out of place man and sidled up into a stool next to them. She wanted water, demanded water, tapping an impatient finger on the counter as the tender stared at her with a look of incredulity before moving off to do so.
Turning to face the man she gave them a polite little smile and reached a hand out. "Doctor Chandler, I assume? Nice to meet in person, I am Doctor Genda, the one you spoke to over private communications."
Enjoying the whiskey that was in front of him Evan was slowly getting a bit impatient when he heard the distinct noise of the bar's entrance opening and closing followed by the same silence from the other patrons that announced his own arrival. A woman sat down next to him and after ordering a glass of water an order which visibly annoyed the owner no doubt she turned towards him and introduced herself as Doctor Genda. Turnig his head towards the doctor Evan took a sip from his drink than lit a cigarette. "Greetings Doctor Genda. I was starting to get worried that you would not show. Wouldn't be the first time someone landed on Barrier only to go missing in the gutter that this station is. I'm glad you could make it. Indeed I'm Doctor Evan Chandler. And welcome to barrier gate. In any case i believe you're interested more in my research than my knowledge of one of the most notorious and mysterious stations of the criminal underworld in the entire sirius sector." Taking a deep smoke from his cigarette he placed it on the ashtray to rest for a bit before exhaling and took out a datapad and held it in his hand. "This datapad contains my research. Nothing too major but i hope it will help you. Before we go through the contents tho, we should relocate to a more secluded part of this bar. Preferably one of the boxes at the back." He stood up and pointed towards the aformentioned table at the back.
When the water came she took a sip from it, frowning as she forced down the tepid and slightly tangy substance down. The only assurance that it came from some sort of 'fresh' containment unit was that it was still cold and frosty. She gave the tender the briefest of looks before returning her attention to the man. "Nonsense, I was the one that suggested we come here after all and it would have been rude of me not to at least offer you the courtesy of a meeting," She looked briefly at the datapad as it was brought out, eyeing it briefly before standing, leaving the glass of water behind and a modest tip of five credits for the effort at service. "Certainly, a little privacy wouldn't hurt." The doctor would remark, sliding off the stool, revealing the holstered side-arm strapped to their thigh as she turned and started heading towards the unoccupied box.
They reached the box and he sat down. "Now before i give you the actual report you need some context. This survey report is the result of a 12 month long exploratory mission me and my crew conducted in the year 826. We set out from Freeport 11 in Delta and then headed for the very edge of known space. Our mission was to find way to potentially expand out of the Sirius sector in time and explore the rest of the galaxy. If you have questions regarding our journey before i tell you the details of the report i suggest you ask them now." Taking another sip of his whiskey he emptied the glass and set it down on the table. As he inhaled another deep smoke from his cigarette. Altough she said she cannot tell him anything he really hoped that she was willing to reveal at least some details regarding her current research. If she was really studying some baxter anomalies or similar pheonmena he didn't really understand why an exploratory report of a system far beyond the edge nebula can be useful. Unless she was interested in the means of travel. In any case his interest was peaked a bit. Well more like curiosity of what fellow scientist are up to theese days than anything. Wright wasn't known for keeping too many secrets. Not in the past. While he didn't announce his research to the entire sector 24-7, he never to his knowledge that is deliberatly kept things hidden. Their first encounters coming into mind. In any case he was determined to get some info. Hopefuly she could be convinced to do so. If anything to better help her own research.
She hadn't expected much considering how brief and quick their initial conversation was. Lillian had expected to be the go-between, the secretary, for him and the ever illusive Doctor Wright. Then again there were still plenty of things that had managed to surprise her these past few weeks; especially with regards to travel outside of the known Sirius star-sector. She humored him with a smile, reserving the excitement with cool professionalism bareley contained, the light behind her eyes wanting to widen as he mentioned his journey into the edge of known space. "This will depend, of course, but I'd like to know how you planned on traversing so far and what theories and conjectures you followed that made you so confident as to execute such an endeavor by yourself." To say that she wasn't at the very least intrigued and open to the idea of exchanging limited information was not off the table.
Evan carefully observed her reaction noticing the barely contained excitment in her movements and her expression. She did a fine job of keeping it together. Too bad she had the misfortune of meeting him, as spending years at Cambridge as a teacher meant he was fairly well versed in reading people.
"Well initially we planned on utilizing conventional means. As in find jumpholes stable enough to let us through and if possible stabilize theese anomalies fo future travels. While our plan's first part worked, as we found multiple unstable jumpholes stabilizing them for our ship to pass through wasn't as smooth. After theese setbacks we had to rework our methodology and about a month into our journey we found one stable enough. We sent through probes and after confirming the safety of the other side we jumped through. After that we spent the next 11 months surveying the system. We would've continued if it wasn't for the destabilization of the anomaly. So we packed up and returned."
As her counterpart began dictating his story to her the excitement simmered down into a focus as Lillian hung onto every word he said. It was a similar for her, except it wasn't intentional or planned, and she and the crew of the Norant were definitely not prepared for it like Doctor Chandler. During it she even pulled out a notepad, genuine paper and space pen, hand wildly going across the page as she seemed to mark down what was the same and what wasn't. "A whole new system uncharted or, at the very least, simply not yet significant enough for the Sirius Cartographic Institution to take note of. What did you find, on the other side I mean, life? Were there other humans like us? We have factions such as the Coalition and Maltese that lived for generations seperated from the Sirius solar-political structure after all." It seems she was nearing a point of contention where the sharing of ideas was now more forthright then ever. The professional was taking point now, the excitable amateur explorer within taking a back-seat.
He watched as Doctor Genda listened to his story and watched her excitement turning into focus as she started taking notes. For a brief moment he felt as if he was back on Cambridge on a seminar or a lecture talking to the students.
"Well the answer to your question regarding life depends on context. As in what you mean by life. Inteligent life like us or the nomads? Remains of an old civilization like Dom'Kavash. Or an advanced artificial intelligence like the one the originates from the omicron kappa system. Then the answer is no. Wheter or not that is fortunate or unfortunate will be decided by time." Taking a moment to gather his thoughts he lighted another cigarette as his previous one burnt out. Inhaling the smoke deep into his lungs he later exhaled and took a deep breath to continue.
"We did however find an interesting moon orbiting one of the gas giants that had the potential to sustain microbial or potentially more advanced sea creatures. We can't be certain as the moon in question was surrounded ice completly. We did speculate that closer to the crust there could be liquid water where life has the chance to exist. However we had no time nor equipment to confirm or deny this theory. As to the nature of the system. It was a completly uncharted one. No records of anykind have come up in our databanks and after our return we double checked every available record in Sirius and the same result came up. This system was never charted at all. He looked at the young doctor in front of him still taking notes. Carefuly watching her every reaction to get a better read of her agenda. She seemed genuienly intrested in his results. But her first question about the contents of the system was, while not unusual, it is something that he would expect a first year student from cambridge to ask.
To say that she was disappointed would have been an understatement but the intrepid young scientist didn't let expectations contend with hard, solid facts for long as she looked up from her note-taking; pen between her fingers as she rested a hand over the contents of her notebook. As if afraid some passerby would come by and be offended by the structured scribblings only she could properly understand. Taking a brief breath she sighed a soft exhale and rested a chin against her unoccupied hand; pen dangling off of the ends. "What a shame. I had hoped there would have been more life out there beyond our own. Certainly we have the little understood Nomads, alien and ignobly hostile as they seem to be, and the fledgling Artificial Intelligence socium .. but for our species to have come so far and not have want to travel beyond the Sirius system," She pulled out a pair of glasses and slipped them on, eyes narrowing as she flipped through her notebook as if for some rhetoric. "Both folly and depressing." She'd finish, smiling. "I worked under a brilliant and daring researcher when I first finished my academic studies, just an intern amongst many others, a glorified assistant. He said that it was humanity's desire to survive, propagate, and spread out into the stars that allowed us to come out of the Exodus alive. That to stay still would stagnate us. As space and resources begin to dwindle we would turn on each other over idealogies and posturing." It was clear that she had great respect for this mentor, whoever he may have been, and that some of that had rubbed off onto her. "He wanted to try to find us a second place to call home in case we all decided to start it all over again. Make the same mistakes one more time."