EXPERIMENT 1: The tear looked almost innocuous. A floating hole in the curtain of our world. The other side… Dr. Meyers says they are trying to name a new color for it.
20 centimeters. Sample A degraded in 6 seconds. Sample B degraded within 30 seconds. Napier was right: a larger sample mass corrodes more slowly. It doesn't make any sense, but results are results.
Director Moffat was there. He stared at the tear in silence the whole time.
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EXPERIMENT 6: 24 centimeters. Sample degraded in 159 seconds. Yes. Yes, this is promising. A full-size suit might actually perform far better than our smaller prototypes.
Our current problem is materials. The Diablerets suit's joints were strong but flexible, capable of repeated and extended compression without any loss in tensile strength. R&D cannot replicate it. Told me to "find a [expletive redacted] alien rubber tree or [expletive redacted] off."
A diver in the Nereida couldn't scratch their own back, either. Forget dexterity and haptic perception. In fact, maybe we don't even need a viewport—no, Dr. Meyers will object. If I adapt the polymer structure, can I make it thin enough to coat conventional rubber?
Director Moffat came by again to thank us for our hard work. There were dark circles under his eyes, but he was in a freshly-pressed suit. He must have been on his way to another hearing.
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EXPERIMENT 14: 30 centimeters. Prototype degraded in 8 minutes, 32 seconds. Visor and joints failed first, as expected, but I think I know how to improve the glass, at least. It won't be perfectly clear, but the visibility will be acceptable.
Extensive life support is unfeasible. That's fine; we don't need them to stay for long. Ten minutes, perhaps, to get at least three sets of readings. Double that for safety.
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EXPERIMENT 25: Annalise and her team made a breakthrough. 162 centimeters. Prototype degraded in 12 minutes, 19 seconds.
BLUE DOOR has held up their end of the bargain; now it is my turn.
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EXPERIMENT 32: Director Moffat came by the observation room today. He looked at the tear, and told us he would be the first one through.
There was a scattering of nervous laughter. The rest of the team didn't believe him.
Annalise and I, though, we knew. We argued with him for three hours. Long after everyone else had gone home, he finally agreed to have a second. "On belay," he said.
There is not enough budget left in the fiscal year to develop customized suits, and of the team, I am the closest in build to the director. But I would be a poor scientist—indeed, a poor human being—if I would risk someone else's life and not my own.