Where in the Galaxy is Tepka-101?
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Today, we’ll be deep diving into one of the greatest mysteries of modern intergalactic travel. A mixture of scientific anomaly and unprecedented superstition.
Everybody thinks they already know the story of Tepka-101: a failed prototype, locked away in a museum until it was stolen, and showing up in increasingly strange circumstances. But we’re about to blow all your theories out of the water.
Tepka-101 - The Hyper-condenser That Couldn’t
After the failure of their Silvum series hyper-condenser, the Ulmaat scientists began work on a new Tepka series model. The Ulmaat scientists hoped that, with a vastly improved technical design and a more efficient power generation system, the Tepka series would power the first ever Relay Station.
Designs were finalised. Construction began shortly after. It took nearly three years of non-stop work and rigorous testing until the Ulmaat scientists had finally engineered a functional Tepka series hyper-condenser. They dubbed their creation Tepka-101.
Under controlled testing parameters, Tepka-101 performed without issue time and time again. From that perspective, the Ulmaat scientists deemed it logical to take testing into the next phase: installing Tepka-101 into their prototype relay station, the Forward Arc.
Where did it go wrong?
Tepka-101 proved to be a very troublesome piece of technology.
The installation of the hyper-condenser into the Relay Station went all according to plan. It was when trying to engage Tepka-101 that things started to go wrong. Years of lab testing without so much of a minor issue, thrown out because Tepka-101 seemed incapable of engaging once installed.
The Ulmaat scientists checked everything thoroughly.
Every screw, every cable, every electrical wire. Any component that they could conceive of being incorrectly connected to the hyper-condenser or the relay station, the double and triple checked. Months were spent trying to deduce the cause of Tepka-101’s unforeseen failure.
No one knows how many times the Ulmaat scientists tried to reinstall the hyper-condenser. A common consensus is that they lost count after the tenth try.
As more and more time passed, those Ulmaat scientists were forced to concede that the Tepka-101 model was a lost cause. Tepka-101 was uninstalled and the team began working on the Tepka-201 model.
“Looking back on it, the whole thing is kind of funny, huh? I mean, the 501 has the exact same blueprint as the 101, but little old Tepka just wouldn’t work back then.”
“You really think that’s funny?”
“Kind of? I mean, why didn’t it work? Like, literally, what was the difference between 101 and 501 other than a few bits here and there?”
“Who knows? Probably best left as one of life’s greatest mysteries. Just don’t think too hard about it.”
A long seven years after its initial construction, the Tepka-101 model was officially decommissioned by the Ulmaat Prime Association. Frustration with its constant, confusing failures was the deciding factor to do so.
After the Tepka-101 model was decommissioned, they shipped it off to be displayed in the Lavitun Muse (a museum for science and technology) on Ulmaa. There, Tepka-101 stood as a testament to the Ulmaat determination.
It acted as a reminder to the people that, although there were many hardships during the process, the Forward Arc was finally complete and the Ulmaatis were the first species to jump from one galaxy to another.
It wasn’t until after the Tepka-101 model was stolen from the Lavitun Muse that the rumours began to spread.
Rumors and Conspiracies
Sabotage on the Forward Arc
One of the prevalent conspiracy theories, especially amongst Ulmaatis, is that the Forward Arc was being sabotaged for the majority of the project.
A few years after the first successful use of the Forward Arc and the theft of the Tepka-101 model, the Curators of Honest Tales (CoHT) Society decided to piece together a timeline of the project’s development. Within that timeline, they included a list of all scientists involved, noting down their roles, responsibilities, and timings for each. Their findings became the foundation for this conspiracy.
Two scientists stood out to the CoHT Society: Z’Poxu and D’Urquan.
Lead scientists on the project. Long time best friends. At first, nothing about them seemed out of the ordinary, until the CoHT Society started aligning their work hours with the continued failure of the Tepka-101 model. In every instance of the Tepka-101 model’s installation, either Z’Poxu or D’Urquan were present.
The CoTH Society also discovered that Z’Poxu and D’Urquan had raised concerns with the schematics of the Tepka-101 model. Multiple complaints had been filed by the two scientists, only resulting in slight delays to the project timeline. Further digging by the CoTH Society found the reason behind the two scientists’ determination: they had submitted schematics of their own, which had been rejected in favour of the Tepka-101 model.
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Read new notificationTepkaEnthusiast707 >
Posted to Tepka-101: Sabotage? board >
Based on that new info RE Z’Poxu and D’Urquan, do you think their motivation came down to jealousy? It has to sting, right?
You and your best friend are hired for this big, life changing project - design and implement a working hyper-condenser on this fancy new piece of tech that’s going to sling us across the stars. Sounds great! The two of you create your schematics, run them past the rest of the researchers and developers. It all seems to be going smoothly.
Then boom! The rejection notification hits. Someone else’s schematics have been approved - said someone is a recent graduate, by the way - and now you’re both stuck implementing their designs instead.
Personally, if that happened to me I’d be a little pissed off too. Maybe even mad enough to sabotage a life changing project…
Of course, there was plenty of evidence to the contrary. Especially when it came to the later models - 301 and 401 in particular - where there were multiple recorded instances of neither Z’Poxu or D’Urquan being present during the installation process.
That didn’t stop the rumours though. Nor did it stop the wild claims that Z’Poxu and D’Urquan were the ones to steal the Tepka-101 model from its display in the Lavitun Muse - despite both being investigated and deemed innocent of the crime.
Was the Tepka-101 Model Sentient?
This is a rumour among some of the more extreme or superstitious conspiracy theorists.
Due to the absurdity of the rumour, the Ulmaat Prime Association have refused to make any comments on it. Some people see their silence for what it is: a refusal to acknowledge claims that have no scientific basis. However, others see their silence as confirmation.
Where did the rumour come from?
This rumour has many cited sources.
Some people claim that the rumour originated during a rowdy debate at one of the bars nearby the UPA Development Lab, known to be frequented by scientists on or close to the Tepka-101 project.
Others claim that one of the scientists removed from the project - either Z’Poxu and D’Urquan depending on the individual telling the tale - were attempting to reveal the truth about the Tepka-101 model to the public. Said attempts to inform the public of the Tepka-101 model’s apparent ‘sentience’ resulted in the scientist’s removal. Or so those particularly bizarre claims say.
Others believe that the Ulmaat Prime Association started the rumour to cover up the more sinister truth. What that supposed ‘truth’ is often varies, from gruesome to wildly inappropriate.
“Spite.”
“What?”
“Spite! I’m telling ya, Tepka-101 didn’t work out of spite! The bloody thing was sentient, they stuck it in a muse, then when they realised exactly what was wrong with it they faked it being stolen.”
“You’re crazy, M’Andock. A hyper-condenser can’t be sentient. It’s impossible.”
“Oh ya, then why is the Ulmaat Prime Association so insistent on covering the whole thing up?”
Regardless, those who believe this rumour all say the same thing. For some reason or another, the Tepka-101 model had actually been consciously aware of what was happening around it and refused to be installed on the Forward Arc.
The Haunting of Tepka-101
The theory that the Tepka-101 model was haunted is an offshoot of the ‘sentient Tepka-101’ theory. Outlandish and extremely popular amongst other species, particularly the Terrans and the Zarcants. The former tend to think the idea of a haunted hyper-condenser is funny, whilst the latter are a superstitious bunch anyway and sought to apply some of their own superstitious reasoning as to why the Tepka-101 model didn’t work.
The basis of this theory is that something was preventing the installation of the Tepka-101 model on the Forward Arc by killing the scientists assigned to the project. That something is believed to be a 'Gharl’.
Somehow, the Gharl had been bound to the Tepka-101 model (the specifics of this are widely debated). Whilst bound, the Gharl would possess any scientist who came within the vicinity of the Tepka-101 model, forcing them to kill all others present and then themselves.
It wasn’t until years later when numerous reports on the Forward Arc project were released that this theory became popular. These reports included previously unheard insight from those on the project, including:
- Scientists working with the Tepka-101 model experiencing a constant feeling of unease
- Unexplained accidents which resulted in injury to scientists, all around the vicinity of the Tepka-101 model
- A strange report published by a mysterious group alluding to an abnormally high death toll on the project, with endless accounts of murder-suicides (many believe this report to have come from rogue scientists linked to the project, trying to reveal the damning truth).
The whole thing sounds like an unbelievable tale, for the most part. But then during Tepka-101’s time at the Lavitun Muse, many people said they felt a similar unease walking past or around Tepka-101’s display.
As for who removed Tepka-101, the theory states two viable possibilities:
- The Ulmaat Prime Association removed it from the display and destroyed it after a rise in attempted murders at the Lavitun Muse.
- That the Gharl haunting Tepka-101 possessed someone exploring the Muse and forced them to steal it.
Tepka-101 and the Impending Violence
Regardless of what anyone may believe, the Tepka-101 model has reportedly been sighted across the entire galaxy.
From undergoing grand adventures on pirate ships, or ending up in the personal collections of those private curators of older technology. Each sighting shares a similar tale.
The moment rumours started being passed around stating that the Tepka-101 model had been seen, violence in the immediate area increased. Those who started the rumour, claiming to have seen the hyper-condenser with their own eyes, almost always ended up dead.
Sightings of the Tepka-101 Model
After mysteriously going missing from its display in the Lavitun Muse, many people claimed to have seen the Tepka-101 model hyper-condenser out in the wild. Whether or not those accounts were true is, as many things are when it comes to the Tepka-101 model, widely debated.
UGY 4200 - Tepka-101 Becomes a Pirate
In UGY 4200, a stowaway claimed to have seen the Tepka-101 model on the Astraza, a ship helmed by Captain Y’Karee and her crew of pirates.
The Stowaway’s Eye Witness Account
After a drunken night with a few friends, the stowaway - who remains unnamed even thousands of years later - accidentally stumbled aboard the Astraza. In the darkness of the [DOCK-LOCATION-TBC], they had apparently mistaken the Astraza for their own starcraft.
Realising all too late their mistake and being stuck on the Astraza whilst the starcraft followed its set flightpath to Jov’n Bay, the stowaway spent the first few hours of the journey hiding in the cargo hold. Until, of course, they started to get restless.
Wandering the halls of the Astraza, being careful to avoid the crew, the stowaway eventually came across the locked door of Captain Y’Karee’s personal quarters. They were forced to break into the quarters when they heard the sound of crew members nearby.
It was in those very quarters where the stowaway saw the Tepka-101 model hyper-condenser.
Spanning the half the length of the room, its core still pulsing a light blue, and contained in a delicate glass case. The stowaway couldn’t believe what they had found hidden away on a pirate ship. They documented the sighting on a piece of paper, growing desperate to keep some form of proof as the crew’s jolly conversations turned to shouting.
The stowaway barely had time to tuck the piece of paper in their coat pocket before the crew of the Astraza found them.
When I climbed aboard the Astraza (albeit, unknowingly) I didn’t think I would find such a treasure. It is everything the rumours say it is and more.
Tepka-101.
The pulse it emits beats in time with all three of my hearts. I can hear it - the whisper of a song - but so can they. That’s why they want to kill me. But no. I need to kill them.
That’s what Tepka-101 wants right? Blood.
A sea of pirate blood.
The little stowaway thinks they can fight, huh? Thinks they can take what’s mine right from under my nose?
Well I’ll show them what happens to people stupid enough to cross me.
Some time after the events above, the stowaway was found stuffed into a crate in the cargo holding area on Jov’n Bay. When Ulmaat Prime Association officials finally came to collect the stowaway’s battered and bloodied body, they found the note, and with it a piece of hope at recovering their lost Tepka-101.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, the Tepka-101 model hyper-condenser was reported missing from its display case in the Lavitun Muse. Authorities are urging anyone that was in the nearby area between 0230 and 0430 to come forward with information regarding any suspicious activity or unusual persons. Though no official statement has been released, either by authorities or the Lavitun Muse directors, this case is clearly being treated as a suspected theft.
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Author's Notes
This article was created as part of the World Anvil Summer Camp 2020 event.
Summer Camp 2020