Meridian Industries — ASO Programme — Internal Commnet v11.4.2. Flagged priority. Class 4 NDA active. Timestamp 2076.03.12 // 18:52 GMT. Sender: Dr. Elaine Morrow, Director of Autonomous Systems.
Good morning.
Your application to the ASO programme has been accepted. We reviewed just under two thousand candidates this quarter and selected sixteen. You're one of them. Well done.
When you accept this offer, you will relocate to compound R4-vB and report to me on Monday.
The moment you opened this message, a Class 4 non-disclosure agreement was applied to your employment record, meaning you are bound to secrecy regarding your assignment, location, and knowledge.
Note the following reports from the research, relations, and mechanics secretaries:
Research Secretary — Axionite Research Division
I'll keep it brief — you already know what's going on with Axionite, I'm sure you're listening to the Senate hearings and the news media and all those stocks. You basically understand, right? WRONG! You don't know anything. Or rather, you only know what was disclosed. Sure, sure — we found a superconductor on Titan three years ago and now several competitors are moving in. It may or may not be true that I haven't figured out the molecular structure of the crystalline ore yet but — room temperature superconductivity? Energy storage densities that make fusion look like coal? Applications my research division tells me will take a decade to catalogue?
We can't exactly stop. The world needs this. The shareholders need this.
Relations Secretary — External Affairs & Public Narrative
Thankfully… what the public doesn't know is how far along the race already is. Governments do, naturally. At least the important ones. I hear from our Watchers that at least six autonomous fleets are currently on Titan. Claiming deposits, building infrastructure, contesting operations. None of this has been disclosed. All parties have their reasons.
We assume there are more fleets, apparently; the public assumes there aren't any, thanks to me. I would rather keep the political tension to a minimum…
Mechanics Secretary — Operational Safety & Hardware
Titan-14 Mechanical Manual
| Temperature | Deadly (−179 °C) — est. survival ≪ 10 seconds |
| Atmosphere | Nitrogen-methane. Suffocation secondary; will freeze first. |
| Isolation | 76 minutes at communication transmission speed. |
Update 2075.03.09. Due to changes in the Department of Human Safety, these conditions have been deemed unsafe. Robots will be used. Orbiter capsules remain suitable for human transport if required.
The programmes you write controlling Meridian's extraction fleet may not be patched, overwritten, or called back post-launch. They will run on the machines as written.
On event of error, wait for next upload window and watch it go wrong from a desk on Earth. Reminder that humans will fit in the orbiter capsule if required.
Dr. Elaine Morrow — Director of Autonomous Systems
I took this job four years ago. I understand what I'm asking you to give up.
Talk to whoever you need to talk to, while you still can.
If you decide to accept, report to Lab 11-C on Monday morning.
◆ End transmission. PKI-verified // NDA-4 bound.
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