za3k > archive > lexicon1 > Caduceus Expedition, The
The Caduceus Expedition was a failed attempt to explore several widely argued thoughts about the B-Time parallel time stream. With 164 members total, including Uriath Xers, XPh., famed Xenophysicist and author of the work, "Alternate Time Flow interactions with Stasis," concerning the interesting parallels between the Atemporal Anomalies in the B-Time stream to those of the Proper Time stream. The expedition was designed to create a proper foothold into the B-Time stream so that the researchers involved in the project, along with their less than moral backers, would have a base from which to launch research or exploitation missions of the parallel time stream.
The plan was to start the expedition in Atemporal Anomaly AA-452 on Mizar-5, one of the oldest, and most stable, anomalies on the surface of the planet. The crew would utilize their Quantum Compression Apparatus suits to make their way to what is believed to have been a safehouse for deposed nobles hiding from Elector-Prince Rzeszutko, which is a known weak spot in the temporal barrier due to the aftereffects of the Incandescent Temporeactor meltdown that occurred there. The group would then enter into the stasis zone in the B-Time stream, and attempt to make a proper perimeter around it.
However, the end of the expedition came abruptly when a group of Regina Apiana located the camp, and, it is assumed, were attracted to the energy from the high compression reactor-batteries used to power the QCA suits and the pulse-towers. After a protracted battle, the camp was destroyed, and nearly all the expedition members had been killed or captured, including Uriath Xers, as their QCA suits had been drained of too much power for them to escape through the Atemporal Anomaly by the time the tides in the battle had turned.
This failure of an operation has served as a warning to other prospective B-Time explorers to be exceedingly careful where they enter, and how what they carry may attract Regina Apiana members to their entrance point.
Exerpt from "B-Time Exploration - Xenophysics' Biggest Hurdle," by T'iXath Reah'cha, XPh.