No One on Titan - Ch. 12 - Main Story

[MangaDex]

 

[Resound]

and thats how the amogus got in

 

[Andigo]

I take back what I said about the lightning being non-diagetic. His left arm was nearer to the plug, and Albie is going slightly (only slightly) beyond friendly teasing.

HardSF speculation up to this point:

Spoiler

1. There should be a small to moderate magnetic anomaly over the station, due to poor shielding on a high-voltage line and/or a failure to ground the line due to low-conductivity soil. That ionization buildup could repel the cable from the socket where it's most concentrated, and cause equipment damage to devices that are nearby, especially for long. Beyond that, especially if there's insulation before the ocean beneath, or if the ocean itself is an insulator, the anomaly will spread many kilometers from the fusion reactor. Other than poisoning this is the only credible option for mass hallucinations, but we'll have to judge that based on if hallucinations always build from the thought process of each individual patient. The crew does not seem to have a backup so this is an unsolveable safety issue, especially if adds a major geologic risk factor for earthquakes, and the station should ethically be abandoned or towed to a new (expensive) reactor. However this should be noted by safety devices, and a known risk factor near gas giants or exposed surfaces like Earth's Moon.
2. Albie's a bit off, and not cross-checking or properly calibrating magnetic devices. Missing a widespread magnetic anomaly is a huge stretch for a base set up to transmit high bandwidth through a gas giant's magnetic field, but I could imagine short-range devices being erroneously recalibrated to the new background levels before experiments. We don't know AI ethics (and mistreatment) in this setting, but at least minimal self-preservation is a mission requirement for Albie, and its Asimov-logic could be off. I trust Albie's intent, but as a character it's able to have fatal flaws.
3. The object still appears to be a Macguffin / mystery thing that even the author has no plan for. It's related to humanity, but there's multiple accidental or conspiracy or dreamlike ways to conjure it. I assume a human crew-member brought it rather than made it on-site, and Albie honestly has no awareness what is up. But it's a total waste to ship it in when the material would be in extreme demand for many applications (especially for spacecraft), adding a suspicion of 'alien intelligence' only serves to distract from the fundamental research used to create it, and Albie would be involved or amnesticized if it was completed on-site. It likely isn't a shelled black hole so the energy it absorbs should cause some energy anomaly over a wide range nearby. Which would be very unlucky if it's magnetic and hidden by sensor issues.
4. If the object was a black hole the shell for such a small mass would need to be an unbelievable mirror. At the story's time period a larger black hole can be made by using a sphere of nukes to compress a small asteroid, but holding and building around that intensely radiating microscopic object is difficult enough when it's a small mountain size, let alone an even more violently exploding few kg. The ultra-dark one-way mirror is a bigger issue than the black hole effect.
5. It's too early for working theories, but the most realistic case I can think of so far is someone smuggling in an object they want part of the IP for. On purpose or coincidence they went to a station that already is doomed from a subtle electromagnetic anomaly because the reactor risks fracturing the terrain. Hallucinations from one or the combination of both of those will make some people think alien intelligence was involved.
6. Author does what they want

 

[Idle_Nomad]

I take back what I said about the lightning being non-diagetic. His left arm was nearer to the plug, and Albie is going slightly (only slightly) beyond friendly teasing.

HardSF speculation up to this point:

Spoiler

1. There should be a small to moderate magnetic anomaly over the station, due to poor shielding on a high-voltage line and/or a failure to ground the line due to low-conductivity soil. That ionization buildup could repel the cable from the socket where it's most concentrated, and cause equipment damage to devices that are nearby, especially for long. Beyond that, especially if there's insulation before the ocean beneath, or if the ocean itself is an insulator, the anomaly will spread many kilometers from the fusion reactor. Other than poisoning this is the only credible option for mass hallucinations, but we'll have to judge that based on if hallucinations always build from the thought process of each individual patient. The crew does not seem to have a backup so this is an unsolveable safety issue, especially if adds a major geologic risk factor for earthquakes, and the station should ethically be abandoned or towed to a new (expensive) reactor. However this should be noted by safety devices, and a known risk factor near gas giants or exposed surfaces like Earth's Moon.
2. Albie's a bit off, and not cross-checking or properly calibrating magnetic devices. Missing a widespread magnetic anomaly is a huge stretch for a base set up to transmit high bandwidth through a gas giant's magnetic field, but I could imagine short-range devices being erroneously recalibrated to the new background levels before experiments. We don't know AI ethics (and mistreatment) in this setting, but at least minimal self-preservation is a mission requirement for Albie, and its Asimov-logic could be off. I trust Albie's intent, but as a character it's able to have fatal flaws.
3. The object still appears to be a Macguffin / mystery thing that even the author has no plan for. It's related to humanity, but there's multiple accidental or conspiracy or dreamlike ways to conjure it. I assume a human crew-member brought it rather than made it on-site, and Albie honestly has no awareness what is up. But it's a total waste to ship it in when the material would be in extreme demand for many applications (especially for spacecraft), adding a suspicion of 'alien intelligence' only serves to distract from the fundamental research used to create it, and Albie would be involved or amnesticized if it was completed on-site. It likely isn't a shelled black hole so the energy it absorbs should cause some energy anomaly over a wide range nearby. Which would be very unlucky if it's magnetic and hidden by sensor issues.
4. If the object was a black hole the shell for such a small mass would need to be an unbelievable mirror. At the story's time period a larger black hole can be made by using a sphere of nukes to compress a small asteroid, but holding and building around that intensely radiating microscopic object is difficult enough when it's a small mountain size, let alone an even more violently exploding few kg. The ultra-dark one-way mirror is a bigger issue than the black hole effect.
5. It's too early for working theories, but the most realistic case I can think of so far is someone smuggling in an object they want part of the IP for. On purpose or coincidence they went to a station that already is doomed from a subtle electromagnetic anomaly because the reactor risks fracturing the terrain. Hallucinations from one or the combination of both of those will make some people think alien intelligence was involved.
6. Author does what they want

Wow, that's impressive!

 

[w4ffles]

Moon's haunted