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Deep Discovery
Day 1: Arrival at Ceres
It’s been a long journey from the corporate offices in Atlanta on Earth to this rock. I always knew taking the assignment to Ceres meant leaving behind the comforts of Earth, but nothing really prepares you for the stark reality of life on a mining station. Mining Station A-17 is one of the older outposts, with long corridors of reinforced steel, worn-down equipment, and a permanent layer of dust that clings to everything.
My quarters are small and spartan, but they’re private. I’m told that’s a luxury here. The rest of the crew are crammed into shared bunks and small common rooms. The atmosphere feels tense, this is a tough posting, and morale isn’t exactly high. I’ve been sent here by GenCorp to assess the station’s profitability and oversee the ramp-up of production. Officially, that’s the mission. Unofficially, there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface.
I’ve been briefed on the station’s primary output which includes tungsten, iron, and small deposits of rare elements. But there’s also a lot of speculation about undiscovered resources deeper beneath the surface. The rumors have piqued my curiosity. If there’s something of value down there, GenCorp wants to know about it. And so, do I.
Day 3: Meeting the Crew
Today was my first full day on the station. I met with Chief Engineer Marlow, a grizzled veteran of the asteroid mining circuits who’s been here longer than anyone else. He’s gruff and to the point, but he knows his way around the equipment and the crew. According to Marlow, the station is understaffed and overworked and half the drilling rigs are malfunctioning, and the maintenance logs are a mess.
The workers are an eclectic mix of roughneck miners, ex-military contractors, and engineers. They’re a tight-knit group, wary of outsiders like me. I got it. The last executive that came through here was only interested in squeezing more out of them, with little regard for their well-being. I’ll have to earn their trust if I want to get anywhere with this assignment.
During the meeting, Marlow mentioned something interesting. There is an old, abandoned shaft deep in the southern quadrant of the mine. It was closed off years ago after a series of cave-ins, but some of the crew believe there’s more to that shaft than anyone’s letting on. I think I’ll pay a visit to the archives tomorrow to dig a little deeper.
Day 5: The Archive Incident
The station’s archives are a mess, just like everything else here. Digital records from over two decades ago are incomplete, corrupted, or simply missing. But I managed to pull up some old geological surveys of the southern quadrant. They didn’t reveal much, but there was an old report that caught my eye—mentions of “exotic mineral deposits” detected in preliminary scans. There was no follow-up data, no additional analysis. It just stopped.
When I asked Marlow about it, he was reluctant to talk. Said it wasn’t worth pursuing, too dangerous. But I could see the hesitation in his eyes. He knows more than he’s letting on. I’ll have to approach this carefully, gain his trust, or risk losing any chance of finding out what really happened in that shaft.
Later in the day, I spoke with a few of the workers during the evening shift change. They’ve heard the rumors too, stories of a big find years ago that was kept quiet by the company. Some say it’s just superstition, others believe there’s something down there worth risking it all for.
Day 7: The First Signs
The excavation teams reported something unusual today. There are trace amounts of unknown metals in a recent core sample from the southern quadrant. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get my attention. I’ve sent the sample to the lab for a full analysis, but the preliminary readings suggest it’s not any known element on record.
Marlow didn’t seem surprised when I told him. In fact, he seemed more resigned than anything else. He warned me again not to get my hopes up, that the risks of digging deeper could outweigh the potential rewards. But I can’t help myself, this is exactly why I’m here. If there’s something valuable down there, it could change everything for GenCorp and the station.
Day 10: Tensions Rising
The lab results came back today, and they confirmed what I suspected. The metal in the core sample is something new. The readings are off the charts, indicating properties we’ve never seen before. It could be an exotic alloy or an undiscovered element entirely. This could be huge, a breakthrough that puts GenCorp on the map and justifies every dollar spent on this place.
But not everyone is thrilled. The workers are growing restless, tensions rising as rumors spread through the station. Some of them believe the shaft is cursed, that disturbing it will lead to another disaster. Marlow, too, has been avoiding me since the results came in. He knows something, and I’m determined to find out what.
Day 12: The Big Push
I finally confronted Marlow today. I cornered him in the control room and demanded answers. He didn’t want to talk, but eventually, he caved. He told me that the previous mining executive ordered the shaft sealed years ago after a series of mysterious incidents involving equipment failures, cave-ins, and even a few disappearances. Officially, it was written off as bad luck, but Marlow suspects there was something more to it, something the company didn’t want publicly revealed.
Despite his warnings, I’ve decided to push ahead with the excavation. I’ve ordered a full team into the shaft to reopen the old tunnels and start digging deeper. This could be the discovery of a lifetime, and I’m not about to let fear or superstition stand in the way.
Day 14: Breakthrough
It happened today. The team broke through into an old section of the shaft and discovered a massive vein of the exotic metal, stretching deep into the rock. The readings are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. It is a highly conductive, incredibly dense, and with strange magnetic properties. The crew was in awe, and even Marlow couldn’t hide his amazement.
We’ve barely scratched the surface, but this find could be worth billions. I’ve already sent word to GenCorp HQ, but communication delays mean it’ll be days before we get a response. In the meantime, I’ve ordered the excavation to continue. This is it. This is what I came here for.
Day 16: The Cost of Ambition
The breakthrough has come at a cost. We lost two workers today in a cave-in. They were in the new section of the shaft when the walls gave way, burying them under tons of rock. The rescue team worked for hours, but it was too late.
Marlow blames me for pushing too hard, for ignoring the risks. He’s not the only one. The crew is angry, and some of them are demanding that we seal the shaft and abandon the project. But I can’t do that. We’re too close to something big, something that could change everything. I can’t let fear stop us now.
But as I write this, I can’t help but wonder if I’ve made a terrible mistake. The feeling of unease has only grown stronger, like the station itself is holding its breath, waiting for something to happen.
Day 20: The Vein
We’ve mapped out the vein, and it’s even bigger than we thought. It stretches for half a kilometer beneath the surface, deep into the southern quadrant. The metal is unlike anything we’ve ever seen—a rich, vibrant blue, almost like it’s alive. The scientists on board are calling it Ceresium, a fitting name for a discovery of this magnitude
But the deeper we go, the more unstable the tunnels become. There’s a strange energy in the air, like the metal resonating with something deep within the asteroid. The crew is uneasy, and Marlow has officially requested that we halt the excavation. He’s afraid we’re going too deep, that we’re disturbing something we don’t understand.
I denied his request. GenCorp sent me here to find something valuable, and I’m not about to let fear or superstition stop us now. The discovery is going to put this station on the map and make GenCorp a fortune. But as I write this, I can’t ignore the gnawing feeling in the back of my mind, the sense that we’ve only scratched the surface of something much bigger, something we can’t control.
Day 34: The Outcome
This material was studied by a Gencorp science team. It was determined to be the element that when processed properly could allow faster than light travel. It has been officially called Gravitonium-X.
Journal of Carson Welles, GenCorp Executive, Mining Station A-17, Ceres