00 Introduction
Through the overhead windows of my derelict spacecraft, I peered at the Maelstrom subsisting near me in deep space. For 15 years I had been drifting towards the event-horizon. I risked depleting my Fuel Cells. I risked exhausting my Life-Support systems. My Scientific Instruments were giving unreliable readings. I had damaged my High-Gain Antennae. My Propulsion Sub-Systems were edging towards catastrophic failure. To make sense of this all, let me describe the situation in real-life. I was diagnosed with Schizoaffective disorder in 2007. I had drifted from studying Aerospace Engineering at Monash University on scholarship to being a university dropout, clinically depressed and psychotic, having multiple psych ward admissions, unemployed, dependent on my parents, dosed up on psychiatric medications, socially isolated and ostracized from my friends, an ECT patient, and being financially reliant on the Disability Support Pension (DSP). But the Maelstrom was not in fact Mental Illness. There was another cause of the Maelstrom that I was trying desperately to identify. ‘Project Maelstrom’ is effectively a book about how I tried to escape from a Black Hole.
