Field Report: Native Vanadium Cache

A small vein of what appears to be an unidentified vanadium isotope has been discovered at a Wayfinder Society dig site in Petra. It is rare enough to find such an isotope undecayed in nature, but it seems this source is also uniquely indestructible and undergoing reactions previously achieved only in a lab setting. It is posing a challenge to isolate and contain the material with the resources available on-site.

The Wayfinders are focusing their efforts on recovering artifacts and are uninterested in the isotope’s phase-shifting properties. The Ministries of Oasis have brokered an agreement with the site lead at Petra, Dr. Hamid Faisal, to transfer the material to Oasis for further research.

Upon request, the Ministry of Genetics will temporarily house the material until Minister Al-Shahrani has completed her current geological study of seismic activity along the Red Sea Rift.

TO: Moira O’Deorain

FROM: Anya Al-Shahrani

Dear Minister O’Deorain,

I must first express my appreciation for the Ministry of Genetics’ continued flexibility and willingness to store the vanadium isotope as we have completed our seismic research. It is exciting to see the results of your elemental analysis and mass spectrometry readings, and I look forward to conducting my own. Your extensive study and unique insights as a geneticist have allowed Oasis to imagine a wider array of applications for the material than originally planned.

However, I must once again urge you to transfer the isotope to the Ministry of Geology for study. We are now months behind schedule, and I can no longer condone further experimentation by the Ministry of Genetics. Though your suggestions for alternate uses of this material are well received, this is a matter for the Ministry of Geology.

Sincerely,

Minister Anya Al-Shahrani

TO: Anya Al-Shahrani

FROM: Moira O’Deorain

Your perspective on the vanadium isotope is valued but not necessary. My experiments have progressed beyond examination of the material’s properties to clinical trials. To constrain the pace of my research would only diminish the mission of our collective.

I have forwarded you my complete analysis of the isotope. If you wish to share in the success of my current trial, I can contact you again when my work has concluded.

Dr. O’Deorain

TO: Moira O’Deorain

FROM: Anya Al-Shahrani

Minister O’Deorain,

I am pleased to hear that you have found value in the vanadium. Given all you have learned, you must understand how the Ministry of Geology would greatly benefit from immediate access to the cache so that we might conduct our own experiments.

I must stress that this material is unlike anything I’ve observed in my decades of geological study. To discover a new vanadium isotope in this region in the first place was unprecedented. If your NMR readings are accurate, they lead me to believe it should be called something else entirely—though I would much prefer to analyze the imaging myself.

As you conduct your trial, I ask that you consider the value this isotope has to other ministries. This vanadium’s conductive properties suggest the potential for highly efficient energy transference. If alloyed with an even more durable element, this isotope could break new ground as a structural material and greatly benefit all of Oasis and, indeed, the world.

With respect,

Dr. Al-Shahrani

TO: Anya Al-Shahrani

FROM: Moira O’Deorain

Dr. Al-Shahrani—

I write to inform you that the vanadium isotope has found a permanent home with the Ministry of Genetics. Following the conclusion of my last trial, I have successfully re-created the conditions for repeated, stable redox reactions and created a prototype for military application. This isotope’s value as a source of ammunition and its ability to enhance human strength has proven unmatched.

As you know, Helix Security has become an increasingly valued client of the ministries. Their recent successes with Oasis’s predictive crime modeling and surveillance in Morocco have generated a continued interest in our emergent technologies. It is this minister’s belief that Helix’s force combined with my prototype applications for the vanadium will make for a lucrative venture that will not just benefit our world but improve it.

If you are willing to put your support behind my proposal, there should be more than enough vanadium to share with the Ministry of Geology. You speak of alloying this isotope with a more durable element: I assure you that there is no element with more potential than humanity.

I look forward to your cooperation.

Dr. O’Deorain

TRANSFER NOTICE: VANADIUM ISOTOPE CACHE is being transferred to the Ministry of Chemistry for final clinical trials at the request of Minister Moira O'Deorain.