Re: Into the Vast
Revonoss and Phelar head to the lab and run the suggested test on Phelar.
After about an hour of prep and retesting and retesting, the result still comes up negative.
There's a lower limit to getting a reading from radiocarbon dating, so the test indicates that she's less than 200 years old... clearly not from before the Gap.
On the other hand, it isn't clear by what process she was in 'stasis', so it's possible that the radiocarbon decay was somehow halted while she 'slept'.
The rest of the trip through The Drift passes uneventfully, though there were a few glimpses of other dimensions that had gotten sucked into The Drift. Dancing fire, flashing lightning, pulsing darkness, collapsing stars, spinning waterspouts, and some colossal mechanism full of turning gears whose function was unclear. The parts moved but the object did not seem to be going anywhere.
Since there did not appear to be any connection to Golarion... no distress signals... and possibly a pursuing Vesk ship... the Captain chose not to investigate or explore any of these phenomena. It was enough for him to note their presence... and continue onward.
About one hour before the time to exit The Drift arrived, the main engines were throttled back until one minute before, and then they were cut out for the exit.
And then you were out of The Drift and back into normal space. Sort of. The word 'normal' didn't seem to quite apply.
Sensors said you were in a star system, but that didn't tell you the whole story. It's a binary star system, with 22 planets. And then there are the 'tunnels in the sky'. All the planets appear to be connected to each other through a vast system of tubes. At first, the tubes appear to be rigid, but you then realize that they have to be flexible in order to keep from being pulled apart by the motion of the planets. Even that, though, is mind-boggling.