Dr Alan Tachyon

"Thoughts and memories of Doctor Alan Tachyon, doctor honoris causa of the university of Oxford."

1866, November the 23th

My name is Alan Georges Henri Tachyon.

Today, I have received the most highest degree delivered by the prestigious university of Oxford. My doctorem honoris causa was handed to me by the dean himself, during a solemn ceremony at which my mother and my sweet Helena participate.

As I write those words, my heart is filled with contradictive emotions. I feel the need to unload them on this piece of paper, to sort them out, and because I need a clear head to conduct numerous projects and experiments, as should all good men of science.

Pride, joy, and love : those are the 3 emotions that I'm experiencing right now.

Pride, because at the age of 23, my work in the field of mechanical science and technology has been recognised by some of the most eminent scientists in Europe.

Joy, because I have received honour and distinctions, and I am now consider part of both the scientific and the social elite of England.

Love, for my mother, who never failed to support me during those time of study and hard work, and for my beautiful Helena, who has manage to become the warm and bright center of my life.

I feel truly blessed. But in some dark corner of my mind, there's also sadness and regret, that my father wouldn't be here to witness and share my succes and happyness.

I also feel some guilt about this. His death during the Tanuki War 6 years ago was both a shock and a relief. If this man ever felt any affection for me, his son, he made a point of honour never to express it. His only plan for me was to follow the family tradition by joining the british army, possibly his regiment, "the royal Tigers". What a waste of my time and talent it would have been...

Even so, I shouldn't talk like that : I owe him my life on this earth. He was a brave and honourable man, and I sometimes feel pity for him, who met his end violently, on a strange land, far away from his loved ones, alone.

I shall give his name to one of my inventions some day. Hopefully, I will also give him some grand-children in the years to come. The time has come for me to propose to Helena, even though I'm shaking at the irrational thought that she might reject me. Such a remarkable woman doesn't lack pretendants. But she has shown nothing but tenderness and affection to me this past few years, and my recent achievements make me a good match for her.

Father, I will make our name lasting and honoured, in a way that you would never have even dreamed of.

I am now a father. My little girl Adelaïde is born just a few days ago, and once again, I feel compelled to write my emotions down this journal, to prevent my mind from blowing away.

So much has happened since I last wrote in it.

Helena has become my wife, and I thought our wedding would be the most beautiful day of my life. And it was, until my newborn child arrive in this world, my sweet baby girl, my angel, so innocent, so pure. I could never expect such a tiny creature would have such an effect on me. Everything's changed, now. I almost lost interest for my work. All this time lost on mechanical science, when the most extraordinary enigma was right there from the beginning. Creation of life. A pure miracle.

To be perfectly honest, I was getting a little bit bored by my work at the university. I was greatly disapointed by the mediocrity of my collegues, their lack of ambition, their absence of vision. Those fools aspire to nothing but building machines that will make them rich. They gravel at the feet of industrials and weapon makers, ready to trade their souls for a pile of money.

I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of certain gentlemen though, who were kind enough to pull me out of my misery, and instruct me into strange occult sciences. I know they are ill regarded and despised, and I myself was sceptical, at first. Yet, even though some of it is fake and "grotesque", there is one part that is undeniably true. I have seen it working, with my own eyes. Some strange rituals, some impossible tricks that, to this day, I am unable to figure out! What a challenge for a mind such as mine!

At some point, I had to back off from those secret societies, though. People of the respectable society were starting to gossip, which made my dear wife worried. Those hypocrits, envious, narrow minded bastards. They would have you drown with them in their pools of feces before they see you thrive.

But nevermind those retarded. Some more exciting things happened across the ocean, in this wild and vast land sometimes called America. An ugly war, followed by a gigantic, deadly earthquake. And in the midst of that disaster, something new : the ghost rock. A ridiculous name, for a marvellous stone.

My attention was first attracted to it by a fantastic article written by an enigmatic man, professor Darius Hellstromme. The way he described the properties of the stone was simply unbelievable. And yet it roused my curiosity to a point that I had never experienced before. I HAD to get my hand on one of those rocks, to test and experiment on it. Yet, access to it was denied. And by the highest authorities of the country, no less.