Letter of Science musings

Posted on Thu Jan 15th, 2026 @ 12:24am by Ensign Lilith Magnum

Mission: Royal Mail
Location: Lilith's quarters
Timeline: Gamma shift
662 words - 1.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Dear Mom and Dad,

Today I ran into Lieutenant Darru in one of the old, and not often used labs in science. Hadn’t realized our Vulcan science officer used it also. Well we had a discussion on my continued work on the Pioneer Pathway. I hate to say that my prejudice and resentment towards Vulcans is still there, though not as bad as it used to be. I am going to have to work on it. Lieutenant Darru has not given me any reason to distrust or even have resentment towards him. He has treated me as an equal. I also do not believe he has held back any scientific information from the crew. Any way we discussed the project. I am making great strides and I believe I am close to a break through in allowing a ships navigation computer to rely solely on Pulsar signatures. Believe it or not Mom the idea came from you, well more like your lectures on researching the lost theories by 20th century and 21st century theoretical physicist and astrophysicists. I began running through what remained of the works from those time periods.
I came across many of the old papers from various scholars; one I found interesting was Kip Stephen Thorne. He did work on relativistic stars. Most of his work centered on the general nature of space, time, and gravity, span the full range of topics in general relativity. Using what he had proposed and theorized I have slowly begun to work out the multipole expansion of known pulsar stars, bonus I believe I have discovered five red supergiant stars with neutron-star cores; that is if my math works out. I suppose I should show Lieutenant Darru the math on these discoveries, if it pans out it will be a great find in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. Actual proof of Thorne–Żytkow objects. I bet dad has already stopped reading this letter, given all the science talk. I say it is payback for all the military theory lectures he had Auli’ and myself sit through. So as I was saying I am slowly working out the multipole expansion of the known pulsar stars, and bonus with that I am starting to have success with the computer (the section used by the science crew for astronomy and astrophysics work, I use it because there is little work being done during the warp periods.) to begin detecting the angular frequency of these pulsars while we are at warp. I believe I will be able to present my findings soon to the command staff. As I was saying Lieutenant Darru and I have begun discussion on my side project.
I am also starting to develop a theory of what happened to the Atlantis as we were traversing the radiation storm and why we were flung out. I am beginning to suspect we somehow encountered a cosmic string or even a quantum filament, though the later is unlikely , but in theory possible if there was quantum foam involved. I am having the computer do a deep dive in the background of all its other functions; for all relevant data while we were in the radiation storm. I’m looking for the traces of a cosmic string, or quantum filament with quantum foam. I suppose I should bring this up with th boss, Lieutenant Darru; I am going to have to start working on my distrust and prejudice of Vulcans. Who knows he may have some insights. Well Mom and Dad, if you are still reading this, know I am well, that I am again falling into my bad habit of job focus to the determent of all other activities, to include eating, drinking, an d sleeping. I promise though after this letter and another talk with Lieutenant Darru to start being more active amongst the crew, and stop being such a hermit.

Until my next letter,
With Love Always,
Lilith