ROADSIDE PICNIC Xenology is a scientific discipline for the study and understanding of the

“Xenology: an unnatural mixture of science fiction and formal logic. It’s based on the false premise that human psychology is applicable to extraterrestrial intelligent beings.”

- ROADSIDE PICNIC Xenology is a scientific discipline for the study and understanding of the Visitors and their motivations. It has become traditional in the science com-munity to prefix “xeno-” into any research or terminology concerning the Zones, resulting in things such as “xenotechnology”, “xenobiology” and so forth. In practice, xenological research has two main branches: one to in-vestigate the Zones themselves and another to study the artefacts brought out of there as remnants of the Visitors’ culture or technology. Both seek to ultimately understand both the Zones and the Visitors but there has been little true progress in that since day one.

Officially, all xenological research falls under the jurisdiction of the Insti-tute. In reality it is conducted by a myriad of corporate, military and aca-demic instances, as well as some intelligence agencies. Those without a good working relationship with the Institute acquire their artefacts by other means and the most important of these means are the stalkers. Even the legal re-search is top-secret and the Institute releases no information even on projects under its direct supervision.

Funding, from both within the Institute and outside, is based on private sponsorship, secret business relationships, corruption and the sale of data and inventions to the highest bidder. Xenology has been compared to nuclear weapons development during the Cold War. Everyone is in competition with everyone else and spies and defectors play an important role. The research projects are caught in a whirlwind of money, ideals and ambition. Thefts of inventions or research data, sabotage of facilities, kidnappings of key per-sonnel and assassinating suspected defectors are all part of the business.

The veil of secrecy has not always held. Financial scandals, random revela-tions about illegal experiments and artefact-related accidents receive a great deal of attention from the media. The consequences range from fines and firings to the suspects’ mysterious disappearances. There is always too much money involved in xenological research and the trail always leads far too high up the ladder. Those caught and convicted are almost always scape-goats for the real culprits. The situation troubles the convicted, the activists and the Institute all alike, because after the show trials are over, it is busi-ness as usual and nothing ever changes.

Some of the finest minds in Humanity have been lured into xenology but many of them have come to regret their choice. They can no longer discuss their research or publish articles about it. After illegal experiments they can no longer switch careers even if they wanted to, because their finan-ciers now have blackmail material. The experiments themselves can be life-threatening and no protection or safety measure is foolproof against the Zone phenomena. Their families are under the threat of kidnapping, their colleagues perish in mysterious accidents, extortion over past mistakes is common and corruption is rife overall. The use of stalker-smuggled arte-facts in xenological research is just one more felony in a long list.

Xenology also has its critics. Some scientists think the legitimate basic re-search amounts to making up names for phenomena that still remain unex-plained. They think the greater goals of the research, especially changing the future of Humanity with alien technology (according to the Visitation Theory, that is) should be openly recognized. Many researchers honestly have good intentions and are driven by a desire to improve the World but this does not extend to those deciding on the use of their findings. The high rates of the Institute mean that basic research is difficult to conduct and projects always come with economic, military or political baggage.

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Artefacts

According to the Visitation theory, artefacts are cultural and technological remains left behind by an alien culture. They are some kind of cosmic gar-bage, abandoned and unnecessary. Artefacts are only special for Humanity because their effects or their very existence breaks the laws of nature and physics as we know them. There are countless different kinds of artefacts but some are more common than others and there has been only a handful of truly unique finds. Most types of artefacts have probably not been found yet and in practice the definition of an artefact should be expanded to include portability. Although some of them are dangerous to handle, they must be small and light enough to be carried off the Zone.

This definition of artefacts is by no means complete. If they had been left by the Visitors, it would mean they had, in a very short amount of time, been to everywhere in the Zone, including sewers and houses that have since rot-ted away. The placement of the artefacts is random and without a pattern, unless one counts the fact that the rarer, more powerful artefacts tend to be found deeper in the Zone. Even right up to the Zone border, swept clean by the Institute’s robots years ago, new artefacts can suddenly be found.

And the CCTV footage cannot explain how this can happen.

There are alternative theories. Some say they were abandoned on purpose to be discovered by humans, that we might learn to understand and perhaps communicate with the Visitors through them. Others say they are a gift, meant to raise our overall level of civilization and technology. Those who do not believe in the Visitors’ benevolence say that they gave Humanity the tools for its own destruction.

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The Zones do not grow but with the artefacts, their phenomena are spread-ing outside their borders. Indeed, it has been said that with the artefacts, humans can eventually turn the whole Earth into a single, vast Zone. In be-tween lies the theory that the artefacts were discarded thoughtlessly, cast aside at random but that the Visitors’ relationship with time is different from ours. The artefacts got sprinkled throughout time, appearing to us once our linear now hits the time where they are located.

Many artefacts are easy to believe to be remnants or refuse of alien tech-nology but others appear to be coagulates or precipitates rather than items.

All artefacts retain their abilities even outside the Zones. They are catego-rized into exogenetic and endogenetic. Exogenetic artefacts possess some power or ability that is activated by an outside stimulus (for example, a Pin forms light patterns only when squeezed). It does not matter how accidental or difficult the application of this outside force is. By contrast, endogenetic artefacts break the laws of physics merely by existing.

If, for example, an artefact is partially invisible (when touched, its shape feels different from what it looks like) or it has always the exact same temperature regardless of its surroundings, it is an endogenetic artefact.

The best-known endogenetic artefact is probably “So-So”, a tube about the length of a man’s hand, with a powerful, inexhaustible electric charge at both ends. Artefacts may have properties from both the main groups but going by their greatest power they usually belong clearly to one or the other.

Endogenetic artefacts often interest industrial and medical researchers.

Exogenetic artefacts tend to have lucrative military applications.

Artefacts are practically indestructible. Some can be temporarily reshaped and many exogenetic artefacts react to pressure or touch. In theory, their powers could have no limit but in practice they have always been observed to have limitations in the area, duration or force of their effects. These, however, can change even between two otherwise identical artefacts. It is possible that our senses can only pick up a fraction of what an artefact does. Humanity may yet find such a Pandora’s box in the Zone that life on Earth will become impossible.

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So-so is a cylinderical battery with an endless energy charge. In strong gamma radiation it will split up into two So-Sos.

Itcher is a small, soft orb. When its surface is dented it will start to return to shape, causing psychic disturbances, nausea and hallucina-tions to those nearby.

Pin is a thin cone that will form patterns of light and colour either along its length or from its sharp end when squeezed.

White Wheel can be set into a rotating motion on a surface or around an item and it will continue rotating until physically stopped. Neither friction nor gravity affects it while it is spinning.

Empties are two hand-sized discs always 29 centimetres apart. If one is moved, the other will also move to hold its position. No force can move the discs closer or further apart. There is nothing between them, so they can, for example, be located on opposite sides of a wall.

Black Spray is a black, round crystal that reflects light with a delay and in strange angles, as if its inner dimensions were several light minutes. There are often inexplicable changes to the light’s wavelength or intensity.

Rattling Napkin is a silvery bundle the size of a large napkin. It slowly gathers an electric charge, straightening up into a flat, rigid disc. Every six to eight hours, the charge becomes full and is discharged into any-thing conductive nearby and the napkin crumples up again.

Lobster Eye is a wand the length of a man’s arm, with a translucent sphere at one end. When the shaft is squeezed the sphere heats up.

While the shaft itself will not become even warm, the radiating heat from the sphere will usually force a human user to drop it after about forty seconds. It then cools down instantly.

Golden Orb is a metaphysical artefact held by many to be a mere legend. Touching it will make the person’s deepest, most secret wish come true. Many consider it to be just a new take on the story of the genie in the lamp and its three wishes.

Death Lamp emits a green beam of light like an electric torch. Every-thing in the beam’s area dies, down to microbes. It’s victims will not even decompose properly afterwards. The effective distance and du-ration of the beam are unknown.

Bracelet is hard to categorize. It strengthens the wearer’s vital func-tions. The specific effects vary from bracelet to bracelet but they can remove the need for food, water or sleep, neutralize poisons and remove diseases, or accelerate healing from injuries.

Despite its name, Grey Crown does not fit on a head. A person touching it will hear or otherwise experience the thoughts of those nearby, whether they want it or not. If this is done in a crowd, the effect may drive the user insane.

Newton’s Cube is a cubical object full of very small moving parts and mechanisms, as if made by a mad watchmaker. It would appear to be twisted and changed technology from our world. The cube is surrounded by a bubble of vacuum up to a distance of two metres.

Triorb is a group of three spherical items. They can be touched or rolled around but their location and distance related to one another remains the same. If one is moved, the others move as well.

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Monuments

Satellite surveillance has picked up buildings or formations that did not exist prior to the Visitation. Sometimes it appears as though an older forma-tion has changed, while some new formaforma-tions seem to have popped up out of nowhere. These post-Visitation formations are called Monuments. Since they are all located deep inside the Zones, there are more rumours than real data about them.

According to stalkers, the Monuments often have similar powers and effects to endogenetic artefacts but so much stronger that they can be very danger-ous. According to some definitions, the only true differences between an artefact and a monument are size and that the latter is practically impossi-ble to move. Not all monuments can be classified or they are combinations of the main types described on the following page. Nine times out of ten, the monument’s powers make it dangerous to approach and lethal to apply.

However, stalkers also tell about harmless, merely amusing or even useful monuments. The scientists scoff at stories of monuments that return the dead to life or give material form to the thoughts and mental images of those touching them. Such monuments are unique and apparently permanent forma-tions. A single Zone might only have a few of them.

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Tombstone is an infamous black obelisk in Zone France, which sends out madness-inducing pulses. Many of its victims will stagger about near its base until they die.

Room is a chamber deep inside Zone Russia. Like Golden Orb, the Room is believed to grant the deepest, greatest wish of those who enter it. What a person consciously wishes and what he really, truly wants deep down inside are not always the same thing.

Living Chasm is a legendary monument but its location is uncertain. It is said that the freshly dead thrown into it are later found in the Zone intact, alive, and naked.

Blue Jaw is a crack in the rocks in Zone USA, littered with crystals around its edges. It is said that those who look within see their own future but that the sight has driven many insane.

Torch is in Zone China. It is some sort of illuminating energy burst or a narrow spray of fire that extends nine kilometres upwards and lights up the satellite images from the Zone. Its effects up close are unknown.

Frost Vault is in Zone Japan. It is a stone ring with an icy wind blowing through it. Nobody has made it alive through the ring, even in heavy protective gear. The Vault is one of the few monuments that non-stalkers have been able to observe and document.

Black Bridges is in Zone France. It is a rugged rock formation where stone has shaped itself into high, interconnected arcs. For some rea-son, there is always night at the Black Bridges.

Green Mountain is in Zone Russia. It is an obelisk formed by plant matter. Near the Mountain, all dead organic material rots away in seconds.

Empty Door is in Zone Japan. It is a dark cave mouth that sucks in air with a terrible force.

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Quasichemicals

In anomalous regions one cannot help but notice the strange mists, puddles of slime, growths of crystals, or layers of colourful dusts. They may be associated with the anomalies but are usually quasichemicals, substances found in the Zones whose behaviour and properties cannot be explained by science. The difference between an anomaly and a quasichemical is not al-ways obvious but a quasichemical can be taken out of the Zone while anoma-lies cannot be moved. The consequences of doing so are often serious and research into quasichemicals has caused several high-profile accidents.

In the Zone, quasichemicals are a lesser danger than the anomalies but nev-ertheless, they are a danger. Witch’s Jelly may have carved out kilometre-long ditches and Caustic Clouds can cover an area hundreds of metres across, making it almost impossible to avoid them. Some materials have been devel-oped to protect against quasichemicals but they are unreliable – while a protective suit may hold out against one type of Caustic Cloud, a cloud of a different colour can eat right through. A porcelain container may hold when used to gather Witch’s Jelly within the Zone but shatter when the jelly is poured out outside the Zone. The behaviour and chemistry of quasichemicals are poorly understood, which makes predicting their effects difficult.

Witch’s jelly is prismatic slime (some consider it a thick colloidal gas) that emits cold blue flames. It turns flesh and stone into jelly on touch but there is an unknown and random limit to the extent of the change. Because of this, it is found as small puddles and ditches rather than lakes.

Caustic clouds are thick, colourful mists. Some are formed of near-weightless crystals while others consist of some sort of liquid strands that float in the air. They come in many varieties: caustic, bur-ning, freezing, petrifying, desiccat-ing and so on.

Livesoap is a cluster of apparently weightless, metallic bubbles. They glow blue in the dark. Bubbles emit arcs of lightning into their surroun-dings and the voltage is enough to kill a human.

Screaming salt forms white or col-ourless crystals and masses. They do not react to erosion but turn to dust when touched. The particles stick to organic surfaces and cre-ate new crystals and masses. This is painful and stiffens the tissue, but is not lethal in itself. The only way to get rid of the crystals is to cut off the skin and the top layer of muscle in the affected area.

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