arcturus initiative book one the photographic companion

8/3/2019 Arcturus Initiative Book One the Photographic Companion

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Arcturus Initiative

Book One

The Photographic Companion

by DJ Hazard

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2011 DJ Hazard

Introduction

The original incarnation of Arcturus Initiative: Book One was a real time blog on the internet that

included photographs and drawings. I was one of perhaps one hundred mission reporters in all, and Iwas allowed to include photos and sketches as long I didn’t compromise security or divulge

technology. In addition, I was the worst photographer in the world, armed with the cheapest phone

camera in the world, so I’m pretty sure the Arcturus crew felt safe their security would not be

compromised.From December 2010 to August 2011, my website was retooled to take my readers directly to the

Arcturus Initiative blog and no other explanations were offered. I left out the pics in the final draft to

provide a cleaner eBook format for my readers. Here are most of the original photos and drawings,along with a little more back story. I hope they embellish your Arcturus Mission experience.

This was taken just before getting on a helicopter to start the trip to UDL (Undisclosed Location)Percival. That helicopter was the last conventional craft I would see on this mission. As much as it’sunprofessional to wear sunglasses on camera, there is an aspect of mirrored sunglasses that I really

think adds to the thousand words of every picture. In this case, you can see my fellow

Xenopsychologist Joyce taking the picture.



Halfway en route to UDL Percival, we landed and transferred to an EVA/CRAB. CRABS are the

amazing equivalent of Jeeps in the Arcturus motor pool. That is, if Jeeps could fly, walk on six

mechanical legs and had arms. EVA/CRABS are also the epitome of stealth technology, so we made thesecond half of the trip undetected, in order to further insure the ‘undisclosed’ nature of the base.

I was a bit too astonished to take a photo until we landed at Percival. You can see part of the just landed

CRAB behind me. Again, through the magic of sunglasses, you can see the entrance to the CRAB

hangar, another hangar across the tarmac and the sky.



This was my first driving lesson with Xenopsychologist Supervisor/Pilot Cassie and Cook/Gym

Instructor/Pilot Larry. For security reasons, I was allowed to refer to other crew members by first name

only and I could only partially photograph them.

Here I am in the back seat of the CRAB cockpit. Cassie and Larry are purposely pulling a couple of G’s, just to show me a little bit of what this baby could do. I also think they were doing it to test the cut

of my jib. I guess my jib was just fine. In my glasses, you can see Larry and Cassie up in the pilot’s

seats and a little bit of the view out the front windshield.

I told you I was the worst photographer in the world. I couldn’t even take a decent pic of my dog tags.That’s ‘XP/CHAP’ on the bottom line. That stands for Xenopsychologist/Chaplain. Simultaneous with

my very simplistic CRAB piloting training and my not so simple physical training, I began my XP

training with Cassie, Joyce, John and the rest of the gang in my section. I would receive very littletraining as a Chaplain. I already had the job, but that wouldn’t kick in until we were aboard The

Arcturus. Apparently, at least in my case, a Bohemian agnostic was just what they were looking for.

Everybody recruited into the Arcturus program had been watched for a very long time. I guess when

dealing with the big picture a handful of decades was a drop in the bucket. I’m sure many peoplewashed themselves out of the running. Whatever crazy path I followed seemed to be right up their

alley.



Cassie showed me a dossier containing a lot old photographs and other things. This was a photo from

when I was back at the High School of Art and Design in New York City.

A lot of my drawings and writings were also in the folder. I’ve always spent a great deal of energywriting about the implications of space travel and possible other life. Again, I think the Arcturus

Mission was happy to let me do my own thing until it was time to gather the tribe.



These aren’t the actual artifacts, but I wanted to illustrate the two examples that were covered when I put that obnoxious physicist in his place in the Mess Hall. Exhibit A was his tired cliché about folding

space. Exhibit B was what I rubbed his nose in.



This isn’t even a screen capture. This is a pic I took of my monitor during an XP training exercise. A lot

of XP training involved ‘deprogramming’ your brain and breaking old (not necessarily bad, but old)

habits.

This is as much of the Hydraulic Cocoon I was allowed to reveal. It’s basically a space suit, but it kind

of acts in reverse. The ‘acronyms and contractions’ refer not only to our soon to be diet (see below) butalso my attempt to coin the phrase ‘HyCoo’ for the Hydraulic Cocoon. Nobody bought my idea.

We ate very well during our physical conditioning. Then we were changed over to this lovely threecourse meal. Every day. Every (insert expletive) day. Here we see what I called the Rice Krispie Treat,

The Blue Scrubby Sponge and The Motor Oil From Hell. Where’s that freeze dried ice cream you

always bought when you were at the Science Museum? Answer: it’s at the Science Museum.



This is the only yellow CRAB in the fleet. All other vehicles* are brownish. Most of the Arcturus

milieus are a soothing brown, orange and green combination. Of course, we called this one the TAXI

CRAB. The yellow skin was actually several extra layers of a thick rubbery coating. This is the CRABwe all used to learn how to fly. It got banged around a lot.

*I use the term ‘vehicle’ for your benefit. Whenever we brought up the term, we were told that therewas only one craft designated ‘vehicle’ and that we’d know it when we saw it. That, of course, turnedout to be The Arcturus.

This was the last glimpse of the mysterious (at the time) fourth CRAB that dropped the huge freight

container full of junk out in the desert. To quote Sir Paul’s dancing partner in ‘Help’, “I can say nomore.”



Somebody else had a nicer camera than me. This is an infrared photo of our busted up cargo container with Kathryn’s first camp fire blazing right through the bulkhead.

Here’s a closer look at Kathryn’s fire making skills at work. The ‘Crash Course’ phase of our training

tested us on many levels. To begin with, we didn’t know it was a test.



Who says it’s hot in the desert? Several of us had high desert experience before. What we didn’t have

was sufficient clothing- not until our ‘Robinson Crusoe’ wardrobe experience.

A Centaur hovers overhead in the dark before coming in for a landing. As big as city blocks, these

things are totally silent and half the time you don’t know they’re up there unless they suddenly cast ashadow. The only sounds they make are the ‘splashing water’ sound when they are setting down (which

I guess can also be turned off during stealth mode) and, of course, the orbital engines.



Some call them nanites. Some call them nanorobots. That’s me getting loaded up

Weightlessness! I wanted to take a photo of a globule of water floating in midair but I guess they frown

upon that big time.



There are no insignias, emblems or flags in the Arcturus Mission. Over the course of forty years, this

was the visual equivalent of a ‘secret handshake’ while the massive Initiative was underway.

At times, the over scoring of the characters ‘x’, ‘o’ and ‘+’ on an old school typewriter served the same

purpose. Considering what this symbol stood for, it was a good simulacrum.



The ‘Elephant Graveyard’: I can’t tell you where this is or what this is. Well, not here anyway. You’dhave me committed (hint: the 12 secret astronauts nobody knew about).

Spoiler Alert (although it was obvious)! This is what Cassie put in my hand.

This is an ‘aerial’ shot of the large hangar entrance (just before it opened) at Daedalus Base. Can you

say ‘aerial’ in a vacuum?



Strap yourself into a machine that spins you around 360 degrees by 360 degrees by 360 degrees. Now

have the floor that machine is resting on start spinning in several directions. Strap on some solid black

goggles so that you can’t see a thing, but the medical people can watch your eyeballs on tiny nightvision cams. Now try to ‘straighten out’ everything with a joy stick, using just the seat of your pants for

orientation. Loads of fun. Don’t try this at home.

I think my narrative did a good enough job in as much as letting you know what it’s like, but I couldn’t

resist making a little diagram of The Arcturus for you. Feel free to hang this on the fridge.



A glimpse upwards inside E3 habitat cylinder: This isn’t ‘straight up’. Clouds get in the way along thecentral axis. This isn’t far from where I pitched a campsite after we first boarded The Arcturus.

I hope you enjoyed this photographic companion. If you already read the book, I hope you had funcomparing these images to ones you constructed in your mind while you were reading (I always prefer

your ideas). If you haven’t started the Arcturus saga yet, I hope this piqued your curiosity to read

Arcturus Initiative: Book One, available right on this same site. Either way, thanks!

arcturus initiative book one the photographic companion

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