Mission Progress, 1st November 2649 00:00:00 SHIP TIME

• Earth time 14/11/2649 07:04:46 ZULU
• Mission time elapsed 598 years, 325 days Ship relative
• Current Acceleration: 0.00033188 m/s²
• Velocity: 0.0192c Earth relative
• Fuel: 46.0%
• All systems are operating under revised expectations.

CRITICAL MISSION WINDOW OPEN

Delta Vee Inversion Window is now open. 84 days remain until it closes.
Failure to perform thrust flip in this time frame will have severe repercussions.

The window for performing the inversion of Asimov is now open. The ACTP still have various preparation tasks, including locating the Captain to authorise inversion operations, determine the optimum inversion point, and finalising the plan for the flip itself.

Hollis Salamaris has published his latest documentary on Law and Order aboard the Asimov.
For details of the education content, see Law and Order.

In addition to the solid educational content, the piece also follows up on a few more human interest angles. These including an interesting “Day in the Life” with Enforcement Officer Holmes as he recovers from a nasty assault in the course of duty while visiting Blackout.

He has returned to light duty which includes late hours patrols of Rainbow sector, apparently the sight of recent tensions between opposing factions. The course of the day shows that Marshals are really just hardworking people who want everyone to keep the peace so they can have an easy life. They play a vital and valuable role in preventing the rest of the ship turning into the sort of dog-eat-dog world that has evolved in Blackout.

Sometimes Marshals get given the short end of the stick by Computer, enforcing unpopular or “extreme” laws such as the one that recently lead to the premature recycling of a young child for loss of mass from the ship. A series of interviews with the family show it was done with as much compassion as possible, and that the likes of Piers Red were carefully kept away from such a sensitive case.

This month has seen a resurgence in interest in the Stanford Theorists and their ideas. It seems that Nick the Skeptic has made himself a household name, trekking through the sectors, giving inspiring speeches, and rallying people to the Simulationist cause. SCT membership is booming and a number of debates have been held in public - no longer are people afraid to admit that everything might not be as it seems.

Currently holding sway are two major viewpoints. The first is that all we are and all we see is part of a simulation designed to keep us from realising the truth. The second is that we're all parked in orbit around old Earth as part of a twisted social experiment, and that all evidence to the contrary is being faked by those loyal to the experimenters. There are of course a whole number of other fringe beliefs, but you don't have to ask around too much before you find someone who has their own private theory on “what's really going on”.

A group of angry Green citizens marched on Red sector, demanding recompense for the destruction of Green food crops. Some of them dressed in Masked Blackout costumes, they started a riot in Red sector, concentrating on Recycling areas. There were no major injuries, although several Enforcement Officers and Green citizens required medical treatment. Property damage is high, especially in the Red sector algae tanks. Some rioters were apprehended, but it is thought the ring-leaders escaped when the lights went out. Graffiti left at the scene read “YOU IGNOrE US IN THE LiGHT, WILL YOU LIsTEN IN THe DARK?”.

Toroid! likes to think it keeps its fingers on the pulse, and hope we're not the last people on the ship to spot the new BOB herders viral vid! I particularly love the bit where Callie Blue faces off against that really spiky BOB, which frankly looks like it's from the set of Samurai Vikings! Her moves are certainly not staged though — she looks so good as she flips it over with her improvised shield and immobilises it! I'm tipping her to take over Mei Mei's role of pin-up BOB herder! Remember — you heard it here first!

The latest episode of Samurai Vikings apparently calls on an ancient traditional sport of 'Beech Volleyball', and seems to be a slightly confusing null-grav game involving swinging around poles and catching a ball in special strange helmets. The filming is unusually artistic, lots of slow-motion shots and reflections in the droplets of water that for some reason fill the air during the game, plastering everyone's clothes to them. What little they are wearing, anyway.

Piers Red stars as the latest enemy, while Callie Blue and Berry Green support him as star players, alongside the Crusher's warlord from last episode. Unfortunately ratings for this episode were not the best in the series' run, and while the excellent cinematography did well to disguise the sparseness of the set, the limits of filming in zero-g were clearly evident.

It seemed like the whole engineering department, as well as half the Harmony enforcement officers and Marshals, turned out to get the transport system fixed. A spokesperson from Engineering said that the fix went smoothly, and wished to thank all the ACTP engineers, as well as Lyla Red, Samuel Red and Valenthius Red for keeping order. In addition, the Wolf Drop team plus Aiden White were on hand for medical emergencies. Unfortunately, their services were required for recent ACTP addition Summer Blue, who became ill whilst in the Core, and later died. The engineering department expresses their heartfelt condolences to her family, and a funeral is being arranged in the coming month.

Health department workers are being hailed as heroes this month, as rumours are spreading of a contagion that was caught just before it managed to spread out into the general population. Computer has not confirmed the rumours, only stating that there was an unfortunate incident in which a number of crew died, but it's widely acknowledged that without the Health department things could be looking a lot worse right now.

Wild speculation abounds about what the contagion actually was. Some say that it was the Toroid 3 plague brought back to Toroid 2 by the ACTP members. Some say that it was a disease outbreak that was completely home-grown. Others say that Summer Blue died of a mysterious alien organism that caused her to explode from the inside-out, and that the organism's spread was only barely contained before it started massacring the crew. Whatever it was, stories report that it was apparently incredibly nasty.

From TOROID! Magazine’s monthly competition roundup:

Today marked something we’ve long been looking forward to, as we report on the various shipboard competitions - the annual Creative Engineering Competition, delayed a month due to the increased workload placed on the department. With Kalys Rainbow himself judging entries, and the prodigious talents (and fabber allowances) of the ACTP members on display, we were sure we’d see some fantastic entries.

This year’s competition saw a few unusual entries. A vid-screen that is completely resistant to the odd accidental spill, or deliberately thrown hard object, was heralded as a great time saver for overwhelmed Engineers continually on callout to replace them. A new algae scrubber that can be replaced while it’s still running was called “useful”. Both, however, paled in comparison to the projects we saw from the ACTP entrants.

Runner up and winner of bonus fabber rations for the next three months was Carl Grey-Wrench’s “BOB Egg”. This miniature BOB-like robot looks just like the regular ones, only all the components appear to have been shrunk down to make space for an odd gimmick - it transforms its casing so that it forms into a giant egg-shaped object that can be more easily carried around. The only let-downs for the judges were that it kept getting itself stuck on small objects on the floor, the miniaturised motors and battery not being powerful enough to free itself [as if BOBs needed any more help getting stuck -Ed.].

Winner, and winner of personal access time to the ship’s huge and rarely-used general fabber bays, was Victor White’s “ROB” or “Remote Operations Bot”. This ambitious project was originally created to help fulfil some unspecified tasks for the ACTP [what, we don’t get clearance for this? -Ed.] and has apparently proven incredibly useful to the Engineering department over the last few months, or at least so Kalys Rainbow was happy to confirm. With an impressive array of features including significant radiation shielding, magnetic tracks, and a wide array of sensors, the ROB is like a BOB’s hardcore brother. In fact, word is that some of the people in the department are hoping they’ll build more, so they can become ROB herders instead.

Roger Billington, of Red sector, has been apprehended and charged with Sabotage of a Major Ship System and Ejection of Material From The Ship. His trial will be held shortly.

Mordecai White was announced as the new Head of Recycling on Saturday. Computer wished to commend the two finalists for the position, Mr. White and Jacob Green, for their excellent contributions to the department and ship life, and commiserate Mr. Green on his narrow loss. Computer spoke positively of the closeness of the race, citing it as a telling sign of the success of the ACTP that two suitable candidates could rise to prominence so quickly through the program.

Green sector front-runners, Jean-Phillipe de Bouillon and Chad Green, both have great popularity in the sector. After deliberations, Computer appointed Chad Green to the role. In his acceptance speech, NGF and vid star Chad Green urged Green to lay aside past differences with other sectors and strive for a peaceful life once more.

Lastly, after a long and hard-fought campaign between Craig Rainbow and Posi Rainbow, Craig Rainbow was appointed as the new head of the sector, and is reported to be “jubilant” about his victory. Computer has refrained from commenting on the race, only saying that Craig was the most suitable candidate for the role.

With the ITTS fixed, business is resumed as normal for NGF, now with its full allotment of screaming, chanting, nail-biting fans! Green were back on form this month with two comfortable wins, making up for the loss to Engineering last month. They remain at the top of the table, but on the same points as Engineering and Harmony — only goal difference separates the top 3. Red are attempting to regain their usual position in the top two with two wins: an easy victory over Rainbow and scraping a win over a scrappy Navigation.

Navigation were hoping to improve on their 8th place position, but they were against an on-form Engineering, who are enjoying their highest ever league position. In a scrappy first half, neither side looked like scoring. However, in the 37th minute, Indium Blue capitalised on a Navigation defensive error to get the ball in the net for Engineering.

Half-time team talks seemed to fire up both teams, and the spectators were entertained with a more skilful display in the second half. Engineering dominated play, with several chances on goal. Two of these were converted by team efforts from Jenny Red's side. Navigation's attempts to salvage pride and get a goal were stymied by Engineering's new goal-keeper, Mitty Red. Even with a somewhat lacklustre Engineering defence in the closing minutes, she kept a clean sheet for the side.

Final score: Navigation nil, Engineering three.

• Blackout Graffiti, written in Blood: Thou shalt not hack.
• Posi for head of rainbow!
• None of us have a life - only the dreams of a life.
• Roger Billington for Recycling Head!
• Roger Billington's head for Recycling!
• In Toroid 3, fire is your friend.
• Hollis Salamaris is providing a reward for sightings of an ancient, scarred BoB! They call this wizened monstrosity….”Gramps.”
• Lizards for everybody!
• Graffiti: One does not simply walk into Toroid 4.
• noTHiNG WAITS IN TOrIOD 6, HONEST
• So, all the Asimov's engineers in the same place at the same time… no way that could go wrong.
• Roger Billington attacked the ITTS repair crew! AND it was him who broke it in the first place!
• The Computer is the last Captain.
• Chad and Hades broke Ragnhild's shower.
• What would you do if you were Captain?
• Jez has retired.
• Please report to the Department of Biological Reprocessing to have your ID Chip scanned for data errors.
• NGF's so last century. Beech Volleyball's where it's at! It's from waaaay before last century.
• Beech Volleyball Sucks! NGF RULES!
• It's hard to take this ship seriously anymore.
• Biological containment measures have been activated more than once recently.
• The hero of Toroid 3! He should be in charge!
• The BOBs control the Toroid.
• The Marshals have caught the ITTS masked man.
• YAY CRAIG!
• Toroid 6 were the first to die…
• Old Person needed to play Samurai Dad. Contact the director.
• Is this the real life?
• It's escaped from Toroid 3. We're all doomed.
• Computer can see into Blackout, but enjoys having it around.
• Graffiti: THE ENd IS COMING, ARe YOU WHO YOU WISH TO BE? THE UNWORTHY aRE REVEALED IN thE DARKNESS
• Nemo was last seen entering the core near the end of the month, and hasn't been seen since.
• Perfect people are, above all, too good to be true.
• Time will run backwards after the flip.
• Ludwig White has seen a window!
• Is this just fantasy?
• Does anyone even watch Whitesiders anymore?
• Roger is innocent!