Station Newswire: June 3rd, 2127

-[Strange Days In Wake Of 'Empress Incident']

A series of freak occurrences have followed in the wake of the reappearence of the 'Empress of the Skies' two weeks ago. Multiple strange happenings have been reported over the course of the past fourteen days, from electrical problems in the Halvorsen District and strange flooding in Floyd Tower to the unexplaned circular holes burned into several buildings in Bowman Gardens. A representative from Station Security has said that they are assembling a special team to investigate the strange events, which they do believe are connected.

-[Scientist Says 'Empress Incident' Redefines Jump Physics]

"The disappearence and subsequent reappearance of the 'Empress' represents an unprecidented event that redefines our entire understanding of how the Jump Drive works," said Dr. Anderson Leigh, professor of physics at the University of Europa, in an news conference on Tuesday. "By our previous understanding, a ship leaving drive space at any time other than 121 minutes after entry was impossible." Dr. Leigh stated that if we can determine what caused the incident and repeat it, we may be able to open up "new fields of science previously unimagined." When asked to elaborate, Dr. Leigh said that anything he could say at this point would be theoretical at best and wild speculation at worst, but that he plans to release a report detailing any findings he discovers by the end of July.

-[Routine Maintainence Stalls In Response To Odd Occurances]

Dealing with the problems that have appeared on the station in recent weeks has left Station Maintianence crews severely undermanned, and routine maintainence issues have fallen by the wayside as a result. Multiple reports have come in of doors unfixed and small air leaks unplugged, and in an unprecidented incident yesterday, a transport tram from Poole Wood to the Leonov District remained trapped in its tunnel for seven hours while maintainence teams worked to fix other issues. "It's nobody's fault," said Maintainence Dispatcher Daniel Wills in an interview earlier today, "we simply haven't had to deal with this level of [expletive deleted] before." Wills stated that normal maintainence schedules will be restored as soon as the strange incidents die down, "if they ever [expletive deleted] do."

Exerpt 3: Nigel Raskin "The Incubus"

It had still only been a few days since Nigel had arrived on Clark Memorial Station, but no longer having any interest in sleep had given him great lengths of free time, so it felt like he had spent weeks aboard.

Long after all the synthetic sunlight went out, and all the people living on the station had retired to their sleeping chambers, Nigel sat awake somewhere in the middle of the industrial region. Surrounded by towering warehouses and huge sheets of piping and wire fences made him think of his home. Something about the smell of industry made Nigel feel like a child again. He began to draw under the light of an "Employees Only" sign, flickering out a lovely red and white neon.

He dumped his empty cigarette pack, full of chunks of charcoal, out onto the ground and began to sketch. Slowly his hands traced soft round borders of shapes that could not be described. His fingers guided the charcoal to sweep and stain in dark light contrast, cutting away at the white of his canvas. The red light illuminating his paper made images appear in the tick black strokes of black before Nigel's eyes. His charcoal seemed to slip smoother now, as it went over and over its own path. It was almost moist...and the lines began to thicken. Any remaining white from the page was now completely replaced with a dark red.

He lost track of time, his hand danced and pushed excitedly at the strange embrace between the reds and blacks before him. By the time the page was all but filled, his coal strokes felt like pushing a spoon through a thick heavy paste. He felt light headed and wiped some sweat away from his upper lip and chin. His hand came back wet with red blood, stuck gruesomely to the black residue left from his medium. He realized his nose had been bleeding, heavily. The red on his paper was not the red light of the neon radiance, but was in fact his own life blood, having absorbed and spread evenly over the page of his sketchbook. The strokes felt wet and sticky, because they where. Despite it all he had to laugh. Perhaps it was a side effect of haven taken too many drugs. Perhaps his regular visits to the Penumbra were taking a toll on his body. Or perhaps the new powers he and his friends were given, were slowly killing them.

By the time he passed out he had forgotten what it was he was trying to figure out. It probably wasn't important. Now it was time to sleep. But.........Nigel didn't sleep.