The Mission, The Great Hiatus

The test of the "State 4 Vacuum Manipulation" (a different approach than the standard Aether Drive) on a test vehicle in the hanger of the SS Bayern began with all of the usual precautions and in some ways was considered a routine test. Even to this very hour we are not completely sure what happened the day of the test. According to the logs kept by our Assistant Archivist, my son Samwise, we supposedly had on staff two great Scientist-Masters of the Temple of Quantum Aether Mechanics—our records do not show that these two people ever existed. Samwise was observing the State 4 test near the field limit threshold when the experiment went wrong. The Quantum Aether field refused to stabilize and the small aerial excursion craft into which the new experimental engine was installed, vanished in the field collapse. I was quite certain that we had only lost some expensive equipment and that no other staff members had been harmed, but my son remembers complete biographies and conversations and events involving the two scientists that do not even exist in our records. Thinking that I had over-worked my son, and hoping that his delusion was temporary, I decided that it was time for all of us to take a break from the never-ending task of preparing for the future mission to Titan.
We intended to take the remaining aerial excursion vehicle for a short visit to the Resort of Mare Tranquilitus. The trip to the moon would take our minds off of the mountain of work facing us and perhaps help to inspire us to greater effort. As we began the process of unpacking the other vehicle from where it was stowed in the farthest reaches of the hanger, we were nearly killed by a sudden thunderclap of compressed air as the first vehicle reappeared in the middle of the hanger. The brilliant red glow of the hull of the craft and the warm current of air flowing outward to singe our hair and clothes indicated to our dazed minds as we picked ourselves up from the deck that it might not be a good idea to go near the returned craft.
After the craft had cooled sufficiently and I had summoned my staff, we sent in SN-Mk1 to have a look at the interior of the excursion craft. The interior of the craft was changed in dramatic ways. The large and expensive Mk3 Portable Analytic Engine was missing and the steam conduits powering it were not even installed in the craft any longer. Instead of the fine Aether Valve Tube display at the controls of the craft there was only a flat soft crystal screen and strange tiny switches and buttons. And to top all the other strangeness, all the labels on the very different appearing equipment were in English instead of German. Daguerreotype machines were brought in to make a visual record of all the strangeness. When we came to the engine nacelle where the new experimental Aether Drive was installed we found a completely different configuration of field windings and a mysterious humming coming from the engine compartment—apparently the Vacuum State energy field was still engaged at some sort of standby level. At least this was our immediate theory until we could take a closer look at the different experimental engine.
Since I did not want to ask one of my men to do something dangerous that I was not willing to do, I decided that I would attempt to activate our new drastically changed excursion craft. My son wore me down with his requests to accompany me on the test until finally I acceded. Together we would prove our new vehicle; this is how we came to be in our current predicament…