The Far Traveler Mission to Irrakai

Official and semi-official history of the 2276 Reinhardt-Vance expedition to Irrakai, including the discovery of living Osharré, slipstream technology, and the official tunnel-collapse story.

Overview

In 2273, a Reinhardt-Vance expedition using a Halberg FTL drive reached Laconia and discovered the ruins of an Osharran outpost. Clues from Laconia led Reinhardt-Vance to send the Far Traveler to Irrakai in 2276.

Mission Personnel

The mission team included Captain Elowen Sato, ship physician Titus Durein, cyberneticist Davis Renn, linguist Mirielle Renn, and other mission personnel. According to official records, the team found Osharran cities devastated by nuclear war roughly fifty years earlier.

The Accepted Account

The accepted public version held that the Osharré had created intelligent machines called Selkaré, that the Selkaré rebelled, and that the war destroyed the Osharré and most of the Selkaré. The same pattern was believed to have occurred across Osharran space, leaving the Osharré extinct before humanity arrived.

Technological Legacy

The mission also revealed the existence of slipstream lanes, a much faster interstellar travel system than the Halberg drive. Reinhardt-Vance later reverse-engineered elements of Osharran technology into slipstream synchronization modules, or SSMs.

Official Outcome

Officially, four mission members died in a tunnel collapse. The mission became a source of technological advancement, corporate secrecy, and unanswered questions.

Corporate Objectives

The Far Traveler mission was simultaneously an expedition, a corporate investment, and a test of whether long-range colonization could become commercially viable. Reinhardt-Vance expected recoverable technology, not merely academic knowledge. This pressure shaped Captain Sato’s decisions and the willingness of the team to continue operating after warning signs multiplied.

Spoilers

The official history conceals the fact that the expedition encountered living Osharré, entered into a bargain with them, and became entangled in the cybernetic plague that had devastated Osharran civilization.