((You're guys are forgetting that we have things like explosive depressurising, and that people have stays far longer than four minutes in vacuum before returning to robot body. And we've had that since the beginning. So I don't know how it is a surprise.))
((That's because the Sword has facilities that can effectively bring someone back from the dead. They're still dead beforehand, and we don't really have the facilities here to preserve the brain to be revived. In all cases of vacuum exposure before this, it's either been to short for permanent damage or the environment has been enough to keep the brain preserved long enough to get it back to the Sword. We have the former in this situation (which shouldn't be happening anyways, between my lack of action towards actually working on Auron's project and UP's action saying that he leaves when I accept to wait in life support), but we sure as heck don't have the latter (factor of time, the environment might be fine for short-term, but we have at least a few months left here).
((Do you have a freezer? Barring that, a refrigerator?))
((The morgue should serve for corpse preservation, at least for the short term.))
((Paris: Nice call on the star examination.))
((I don't get it. Does the slow-time field extend all the way to the nebula or what? If it just extended up, say, 10 miles, the exact same photons would hit the top of the 10-mile-high ceiling as that spot in the fast- or normal-time zones. You'd be minutes off, not millenia.))
((It's like this:
First of all, I don't understand what you're saying, but I'll try to explain what we know to the best of my ability, hopefully answering your questions in the process.
Second, these aren't time distortions, they're bad alien imitations, probably using some form of those kinetic-manipulators-whose-name-I-always-forget. There are many clues as to why that is, but the most definitive is that the lower the mass of an object, the more it seems to be affected by the field. Light is the most affected of all, since it has no mass.
Third, photons travel slowly through the field. So photons that were captured on the ceiling of the anomaly (which doesn't extend ridiculously high above the planet) will travel very slowly through it and towards the bottom. When they exit at the bottom, they will be seen by me. Since the photons travel so slowly through the "stop" zone (remember, rocks go so slow they seem to stop in one zone and since photons are affected even more then rocks, they will go even slower) countless years will pass before they will reach the bottom. It's like when you look at the Andromeda galaxy, you're watching its past, because the distance between here and there are extremely large, only now this effect is due to the speed of light slowing due to alien space magic. For example, if we say C=10
-15c is the speed of light in the anomaly and the ceiling of the anomaly is ten miles high, then it would take a pulse of light approximately 1700 years to reach the bottom.
Hope that covers your questions.))
@Simus:
"Thanks for the help Doctor Roboto. I owe you one. If there's anything you need me to do, anything, just say the word. I'll be off to get a sample of sector two now, if there's nothing else you need." said Flint nearly dancing with joy. He didn't know what would be appropriate for expressing his gratitude, so he simply gave her a pat in the back.