Full Circle

[Ari Rahikkala]

A few dozen kilometers southeast of Discontinuity, in a spot of little significance on the sea, there is a strange construction that seems to have been taking place for over fifty years. Although its size has shape seems to have kept changing over time, for the last five years it has been a large geodesic dome, a few hundred meters in diameter at the surface (it is not known what its diameter at the base is, or if there indeed is a base at all). The Duchal government is uncharacteristically stingy with information regarding this project, other than that it is directly under the Duchal administration and is named Full Circle. Neither COSAC, Pohjanvälke nor Osiron seem to have any more information. Even more uncharacteristically of the Duchal government, access to within a radius of five kilometers of the site is restricted to only authorised personnel, so it seems very few people have a clear idea on just what is going at the location.

Journalists and bloggers from all around Straylight have been researching the project for almost its entire existence. Most of the ships visiting the site bear the flag of Straylight's Duchal government, although many have also been seen bearing Riponia's flag, and there are even unconfirmed sightings of Istvanistani ships visiting the site. People requesting for information on these ships from foreign nations have met only met blank stares, and it's currently considered very unlikely that either the Riponian or the Istvanistani governments are even aware of the existence of the project at all. Discontinuity is known to house a sizeable amount of Istvanistani engineers, but none that have been asked about the construction have been any more forthcoming on the issue - not even those that are known to travel on the ships that visit Full Circle.

Theories on the function, content and even shape of the construction abound. Air and satellite photographs reveal only that some ships are present, seemingly carrying struts ofsome kind, which are fitted into the structure by workers. A few ships seem to hold position here constantly, leaving only during heavy storms. During the recent geodesic dome years, it seems that the dome has been slowly rotating, so that the part that's being constructed is constantly at sea level. This theory has been partially verified by submarines and camera probes sent by enterprising parties: There certainly is some kind of structure under the sea level, though whether it is a geodesic sphere or not is very difficult to determine. At least one of the ships constantly present apparently uses a high-powered sonar array which makes it very difficult for anyone to approach stealthily, and while no unauthorised ships or submarines have been known to be fired on, the warnings have certainly been stern, and smaller probes have been blown out of the water.

The geodesic sphere theory has its detractors. For one, it is very difficult to see what one would do with an enormous sphere out on the sea - the diameter of the circle would have to be somewhere between 1.5 and 2 kilometers to be consistent with observation. It is usually thought much more plausible that the construction is simply just a large dome, reaching maybe a few dozen meter under the surface, meant to be a completely new way to protect a city under it from the waves. Why a project like this would be handled so secretively, however, is unknown.

Full Circle has been on the news recently since, during just the past few days, it seems that the rotation of the dome has stopped (though evidence on this is inconclusive since only a few aerial photographs have been taken recently), several high-ranking Duchal officials including the Duke himself have visited the site, and the construction materials seem to have changed: It seems that instead of the uniform steel struts used so far, the project has moved into using several different kinds of girders and struts. In any case it does not seem that the construction project is winding down, however, it does seem to be changing nature.

There has been one more reason for recent interest in Full Circle, as the Duke himself has responded to an interview question on Full Circle on a Church & Turing Media interview. The question simply referred to how he'd recently visited the location, and how the Duchal government has not exactly been forthcoming with information on what it actually is. As the journalist kept pressuring him for more information after this answer, the Duke cut the interview short. However, for what it's worth, this one response is currently making the rounds everywhere around Straylight:

"I'm going back."

[Icebreaker]

NEEDS MOAR BUCKY FULLER

We have discussed this before. Don't want to check the logs, but I think it was finally agreed that you'd need several megameters of tubing to build a sphere of the minimum diameter...

[Ari Rahikkala]

I'm not letting a factor of a few hundred thousand interfere with my artistic license

[Aurangzeb Khan]

I'm sure those Istvanistani nanobots you pinched mean that this represents no obstacle to your ingenious project.