Instrumental music traverses the inner dome of the chamber, sending waves of sound echoing in a circular pattern within the confined space.  Above the floating form, a transparent ceiling reveals the full unobstructed view of the swirling every changing spectacle above. The movement is mesmerizing: transfixing the watcher to give her full conscious thought to the display above. Innumerable shades coalesce and separate in a constant dance, accompanied and enhanced by the music piped into the chamber. The inner dome seems to come alive with images and visions which strangely prompt emotional responses with every particle placed within the array.  Colors combine and signals flash and dim to enhance the telling of the story.  The view slowly dissipates, shrinking to a minute point as the view port dilates closed, spiraling inward to shut out the storyteller. The music fad to silence and the floating figure is left alone in the complete isolated darkness.

Dear Victoria,

I have tried my best to describe the Equine isolation chamber.  It is by far the best way to give full control of my thoughts to the Equine influence.  It is also a struggle not to abuse this method. The sense of lose one feels when the aperture closes, cannot be described.  I feel the immediate need to restart the program and it requires all my will power to resist. I limit myself to one session a week in the isolation experience due to this overwhelming effect the connection to the Equine has on me.  It is very beneficial, do not get me wrong, but I feel my objectivity about the creature itself disappear completely after each session.  This loss of objectivity can last for several hours and I know it is not advantageous to my work to allow this complete immersion. The sustained feeling of complete agreement with the visions of the creature causes me to loss any objectivity. I must constantly remind myself that I am not in cohesion with the Equine, but trying to conduct a study from the outside, looking in.

My mental health does rejoice in this full isolated contact, thus I must find a balance between using the isolation chamber and detached monitoring/surveillance. In addition, there are only ten such isolation modules on the space station and with the majority of the fifteen hundred or so occupants of the Phycoduras wanting to utilize them at lease several times per 30 day cycle, there is a limit of availability. They are not only for the researchers use and time must be shared by all.  The Modules design is similar to the isolation chambers once used on Earth centuries ago for meditation and visionary purposes.  The main difference being visuals and sounds provided by the Equine, not to mention the weightlessness of space verses the floatation created by liquid used on Earth tanks. The module track is situated directly below my observation lab.  This deck of the station contains all the sensory study labs and research teams.  They have built these modules to face the full exposure of the Equine using the same special viewing material as my lab utilizes.  The tanks are equipped with suppression fields for the artificial gravity of the station so the movement and sensory input of the viewer is not hindered.  This allows full attention to the display from the Equine and the sounds produced by the interpretation team to translate the frequency signals transmitted by the creature. It may seem strange, but I feel as if I am being addressed directly by the creature when I am experiencing the chamber and not only viewing and hearing what the creature is displaying and telling everyone.  The more I dive into your letters and notes from your first year on New London, the more I find this idea to be a possibility.  It feels very egotistical to think the creature finds our mission so important that it is conversing with us directly, but I begin to believe this more and more as the week’s progress: Especially when I think back to my missing three months.  

In my next letter I will relate a vision I had last week while in the equine module, along with a similar experience a month before my arrival on the Phycoduras.  It should solidify my statement even to the most skeptical reader.

Love Annalis