| Designation: | Far Trail | ||
| Type: | Location (Extraspatial) | ||
| Anomaly: | Accelerated Day-Night Cycle and topologically incongruent space. | ||
| Hazards: | None | ||
| Required Gear: | The complete darkness during night-time requires multiple redundant sources of illumination during night time. | ||
| Dimensions: | 1017 km (exit-to-exit); 5,2 m Γ 11,5 m / 4,6 m Γ 10 m (Aperture Diameter); Actual Dimensions unknown | ||
| Position: | Base Inverse | ||
Usage
The original intent for the Item was to act as easily defensible, paraterrestrial area to expand new facilities of Base Inverse into. However, due to various complications (mostly involving the logistics of running infrastructure into and through the anomaly) and the overall shift in Base Inverse's development plan, no such action was ever undertaken. It remains formally under the authority of the Inverse supervisors but underlies no further usage restrictions for projects; access is granted to all holders of Cinderelica-level clearance.
The primary use of the Item lies in accelerating processes involving a select few other anomalies that are dependant on the passing of astronomical days instead of a set amount of time. Secondary use is as space for testing, exercise and temporary storage. Tertiary use is recreation and leisure; walking the entire distance from one exit to the other has become popular as a rite of passage. This "Inverse Pilgrimage" seems to have positive effects on morale and coping, and is endorsed by Inverse supervision via badge awards.
Transitions to and from the Item are very benign; the spatial discontinuity around the manifolds is deflective to all attempts of passing through it from any direction but the correct entry angle, making unintentional geometric distortions impossible. However, the bigger one located at Inverse-Sixth requires traversal at 60Β° upwards, necessitating steep movement to pass successfully through. Stepladders are recommended.
Past attempts at exploring the Item past the forested route yielded no valuable results at disproportionate expense. Further expeditions beyond are greatly discouraged.
Report
The Far Trail is a location accessible through two spatial anomalies located in main Base Inverse and its external facility Inverse-Sixth. Although the two anomalies are only located 16,3 km from each other, direct distance between these inside the Far Trail is in excess of 1000 km.
The landscape inside the Far Trail is a harsh, irregular rocky plain with earth-like conditions of atmosphere, gravity and temperature, stretching into every direction. The local solar cycle is exactly ΒΎ of earth's synodic day, at 16 h per "day" inside. Neither stars (besides the sun) nor satellites (natural or artificial) are visible in the sky. The climate is temperate due to the shorter day-night cycle. Erosion and the water cycle are earth-analogue. Both manifolds lie in the northern hemisphere.
The only other remarkable feature of the Item is the narrow (2,4 m at its thinnest, 138 m at its thickest) meandering band of woodland connecting the two entry points. to either side of the forested area exists a hard cut-off, beyond which no soil exists. Vegetation and non-human animals inside the forest makes no attempts to reach outside the vertical border defined by this cut-off and seem to be unaware of the barren plains surrounding the forest. Plant seeds, pollen and spores are notably absent from the sand and dust outside the band, yet there exists no physical barrier that would prevent them from being blown there by the wind. Wildlife brought outside will confusedly wander around until they enter the area again.
Species found inside the forest are variants of common eurasian temperate forest flora and fauna that have speciated due to isolation, but generally remain recognizable. Although narrow, the area appears large enough to have prevented any genetic bottlenecking from taking place. Due to the absence of starlight, moonlight and zodiacal light, most nocturnal predators have shifted to be active during the late evening and early morning.
No negative effects are caused by straying of the eponymous Far Trail into the surrounding area. However, the heavily eroded landscape makes progress by land difficult, especially after rainfall when depressions are filled with water. Therefore unmanned drone flights were send to explore 150 km deep into either side of the band. They however failed to detect any other signs of life. No major bodies of water, rivers, mountain ranges, caves, craters, signs of volcanic activity or other special geological formations were encountered.
Nevertheless the Far Trail so far has produced at least three noteworthy curiosities, listed below:
- Human remains were found buried inside in the woodland, around 380 km from Inver-Sixth's entry point away. They belong to one male of approx. 20 years of age and two females (34 and 16 years, respectively) and were carbon-14 dated to be nearly 12 ka old. The remains and the biface unearthed together with them are non-anomalous.
- On the 1st May 2019, an object was discovered between branches at exactly the half-way point between both entries. The object was determined to be a card measured 64 mm Γ 89 mm. Its front features a pair of eyes on a swirling black background texture. Holographic foil gives the impression that the eyes are following the observer, whilst background invokes a sense of vertigo. It features writing in SoyotβTsaatan, bearing the title "The Eyes" on top and a small poem about how those who feel watched will not feel relief when meeting eyes with their watchers below. The back is blank besides for "41/49" written in the lower left corner in mongolian numerals. The card was triple-sleeved and send to the Prison of Hopes for safekeeping until a Marshall, Carter and Dark liaison finds a buyer.
- During a test run of a captured Coalition "Skyfall" Anti-Katrahaski, -Air, -Satellite and -High-Altitude system for UFO-detection and interception, a stationary, non-organic, non-volatile object with an equivalent echoing area of 12,02 mΒ² was discovered ca. 100 km above ground by the AKASHA guidance system's over-the-horizon scan capabilities. As the Far Trail was specifically picked for its clear skies, this detection was initially believed to be a misconfiguration but later confirmed. The object is located nearly 5600 km north-northeast of Base-Inverse's entry point. Due to the great distance and its apparent inactivity, no attempts to reach it were made.
