Persister: Space Funding Crisis I

A lot can go wrong in six months of chryosleep, and Dr. Karen Arianne has been under for 153 years. Even worse, the most powerful force in the galaxy, the Central Academic Funding Council Administration, now has application forms so long they come with embedded therapy. But before she can worry about that, Arianne will have to find out why so many cultural evolution researchers are being murderedIn theory, getting funding for research in the 45th century is easy. You just fill in a few thousand forms and send it to the most powerful force in the galaxy - the Central Academic Funding Coucil Administration. However, the bureaucracy induced by the vast distances of outer space mean that decisions take so long that the only sensible solution is chryogenetic freezing. However, Dr. Karen Arianne did not expect to be frozen for 153 years. In that time, all space-hell has broken loose, and she now has as much chance of getting a job as a space wolf in galaxy town. Also, idioms seem to have changed a bit in a century and a half. Come to think of it, so has everyone's language and culture.She has been woken from chryosleep to solve a mystery. Someone is murdering people who study cultural evolution, an important field in a pan-galacitc community where languages change faster than messages take to reach their destinations.Who would want to kill researchers? Can she trust the Administration? What are the mysterious Bloggeration planning? Will she ever get a job?Satire that puts the pace in space opera and the fun in academic funding application. And the itch in hyper-niche.Cover images adapted from:VST images the Lagoon Nebula by ESO/VPHAS+ team https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:VST_images_the_Lagoon_Nebula.jpgEngraved Printing Plate by Edinburgh City of Print https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Engraved_printing_plate.jpg