Administration Building

The Administration Building

Constructed in the 1970s, the GPCA administration building is a simple, two-story structure with little to recommend it to the annals of architecture.

The Music of the Spheres
The GPCA’s radio telescopes were created by Kevin A. Ross and first described in The Stars Are Right, pp. 106–107 [119–120], which includes an interior map drawn by Tony Santo. The two-story Bible Black version of the administration building is twice as large.

First Floor

Reception
The admin building’s glass doors open directly onto the reception office, a 70s-style room offering visitors a choice between a modern IKEA couch or an orange, vintage swivel chair. The walls are decorated with computer-enhanced photographs of recent astronomical discoveries, along with two framed posters: a stylized National Parks-style print of the GPCA, and a photograph of Carl Sagan accompanied by the quote, “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” The receptionist’s desk includes an outdated Windows workstation, an antiquated telephone, and a brand-new laser printer. There’s a hotel-style mailbox mounted behind the desk labeled Room 1 to Room 8. This is where the spare dorm keys are kept, along with sorted mail for its occupants. Rooms 3 and 8 have no keys, Rooms 3, 4, and 7 have one key, and Rooms 1, 5, and 6 have two keys. The keys to the Swezey-Minnich Observatory are in a desk drawer.

Radio Image of the Galactic Center (SKA)

Receptionist
From 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on weekdays the reception desk is occupied by Nora Kelly. She likes bright colors and fresh flowers, and always decorates for the appropriate holiday.

Souvenirs
Because the GPCA visitor center hasn’t reopened since COVID, a few popular items from the gift shop have been moved to a glass case near the reception desk. These include NRAO coffee mugs and keychains, GPCA postcards, posters, and T-shirts, and a brown GPCA ball cap that proclaims “Hip-Hip Array!” Most items are modestly priced, and the receptionist’s computer is equipped with a credit-card reader. Where the funds go, not even Nora Kelly knows. Maybe straight into Dr. Neal’s bank account?

Break Room
The room marked “Storage” on the original map is actually a break room containing a small table and chairs, a refrigerator, a coffeemaker, and a vending machine serviced by Great Plains Vending in North Platte. The walls are hung with black-and-white photographs taken during the GPCA’s construction, including a stunning photo of a telescope on the highway. One of the cabinets contains old boardgames from the 1970s and a set of playing cards backed by the NASA “meatball.”

Carl Tecumseh Guest’s Office
Dr. Guest’s office is decorated by photographs of Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Max Roach, and Thelonius Monk. These jazz luminaries are accompanied by a framed photo of Guest playing drums at the Village Vanguard, and an autographed photo of Brian Blade handing Guest his sticks. (Music rolls are required to identify anyone but Monk, who may be recognized by a Knowledge roll.) More science-oriented decorations include the 2003 color image of the CMBR compiled from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, and the famous black-and-white photograph of the physicists assembled at the 1927 Solvay Conference. A framed headshot of Guest’s deceased wife Peggy sits on his desk, along with a wood carving of a half-man, half-dog figure. (An Anthropology roll identifies it as Skiriki, the Pawnee trickster usually translated as “Coyote.” A failed role suggests the statue might be some kind of werewolf? Maybe Guest is Team Jacob!)

Guest’s office is cluttered with books, papers, and journals. A quick inspection reveals that Guest has been dividing his time across three projects. He’s been studying up on brown dwarfs and UCDs, he’s editing a paper on Fast Radio Bursts for Reshma Anna-Thomas, and he’s been exchanging letters with a young man incarcerated at the California State Prison. Named Faison Banks, he’s developed an avid interest in astronomy, and wants to pursue a college degree after his release. Guest has also been reading the Beats—among the clutter are copies of Jack Kerouac’s Desolation Angels, Allen Ginsberg’s Plutonian Ode, and a copy of William S. Burroughs’ Cites of the Red Night he borrowed from the Ross Library.

Gerald Neal’s Office
Dr. Neal’s office contains a neat assemblage of papers, books, and binders. His degrees from Williams, LMU, and Berkeley are framed on the wall, along with photos of Neal standing in front of radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank, Green Bank, and Effelsberg. Other embellishments include the framed cover of the 1984 Nature magazine that published the “Nemesis” hypotheses, a letter written in German from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, an academic award from Brichester University, and a photograph of a young Jerry hiking on Mount Greylock during Williams’ annual Mountain Day celebration. He’s actually smiling!

Neal’s desk is tidy, and supports a bust of Richard Wagner, a fragment of metal encased in Lucite, and a statuette of Shiva. It also holds the only non-technical texts in Neal’s office: the NYRB paperback of Leonora Carrington’s Down Below, and a large museum catalog entitled Toyen: The Dreaming Rebel. Several Post-It notes mark the Toyen prints hanging in the GPCA, including War/Field Scarecrow, All the Elements, and I Wish You the Best of Health. (Originally disdainful of Director Potter’s “vulgar fascination” with the surrealists, Neal has begun rethinking his position.) The only tchotchke in Neal’s office is a foam “stress toy” in the shape of a purple cow.

Toyen: “I Wish You the Best of Heath” and “All of the Elements.”

Exploring Neal’s Office
The German letter may be translated with a Language (German) roll, and proves to be a letter of recommendation from Gerhard Ertl at LMU, applauding Neal for his “remarkable insights” into ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and synchrotron light sources. Herr Professor also thanks Neal for “several enjoyable interludes at the piano.” A Chemistry roll identifies Ertl as the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry. A Physical Science roll identifies the Shiva statuette as a scaled-down version of the one outside of CERN. An Operate Radio Telescope or a Hard Astrophysics roll suggests the piece of metal encased in Lucite is a fragment of the original 300-foot Green Bank radio telescope that collapsed in 1988. An Education roll recognizes the purple cow as Ephelia, the mascot of Williams College.

A Hard Spot Hidden rolled while examining the office notices that the wall around the Nature magazine has scuff marks. The frame can be removed to reveal a safe with a digital keypad.

Neal’s Safe
The combination of the safe is “6325,” which spells N-E-A-L on a standard telephone keypad. It requires 1D4+1 hours followed by a Hard Luck roll and an Extreme Locksmith roll to open the safe without this combination. Inside are copies of Neal’s findings and data on CASS 21162066+68152480. (See “Item—Nemesis Data.”)

Conference Room
A utilitarian room virtually untouched from the 70s, the conference room contains seats for twenty-four people. The worn chairs looks like they were last upgraded in the late 90s. The walls are decorated with old photographs of the GPCA. A few illustrations from the shuttered visitor center have been relocated here, including a map of the site, a poster of the electromagnetic spectrum, and diagrams of the three types of radio telescopes used in the array. A whiteboard covers the wall shared with Neal’s office, and a cathode-ray television sits on a stand with VCR and DVD player.

Harlan Bennett’s Office
Dr. Bennett’s office features dozens of books and magazines about mathematics, data analysis, and computer programming. The walls are decorated with his degrees from U Penn, Penn State, and Columbia, a photo of Bennett inside PSU’s Breazeale nuclear reactor, a Philadelphia magazine with Bennett and three other African-American scientists on the cover, and a framed $100 bill signed by Cody Ballantine with the note, “Congratulations, you bastard!” Several whiteboards are covered with equations and flowcharts, while a corkboard near the door is pinned with postcards, STEM buttons, saved visitor passes, and a 2008 “Astrophysicists for Obama” button. A Bose CD player sits on a shelf next to a stack of CDs, mostly old-school R&B, neo-soul, and hip-hop. The shelf holds two acrylic awards—a group award from the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics, and a “2019 Employee of the Year” award from the “Wakanda Design Group.” His desk holds a small Nittany Lion statue, a stuffed Roar-ee the Lion mascot, a Jaylen Hurts bobblehead, and framed photos of Bennett’s wife Judith and their 6-year-old daughter, Shuri. A book about Python is currently serving as his lunch tray. One of Bennett’s desk drawers contains two books about understanding and raising a non-binary child.

Diane Mancini’s Office
Only a few months into her year-long fellowship, Dr. Mancini keeps her office fairly spartan. The bookshelves are sparsely populated, and her chair is an uncomfortable relic scavenged from basement. (Mancini didn’t want to use the “dead woman’s chair,” so had it removed when she occupied the office.) The walls contain only two decorations. The first is the famous Gemini IX photo of the Augmented Target Docking Adapter with its faulty, partially-opened shroud; Tom Stafford’s “angry alligator.” Mancini keeps the photograph as a reminder against carelessness—“Millions of wasted dollars and a scrubbed objective, all because a couple of lanyards were accidentally taped down.” The second is one of Edgar Mitchell’s “ESP Cards” from Apollo 14. Mancini purchased it directly from Captain Mitchell for an undisclosed amount. Protected under glass, the card represents a reminder that “science may not have all the answers—yet.”

Mancini’s desk contains three personal adornments—a model of the starship Enterprise, an “Astronauts vs. Cosmonauts” chess set, and an ashtray from the original Apollo mission control room—“Gene Krantz may have put out his cigarette in this, can you imagine that?” The desk contains three packs of Virginia Slims, a Ravenclaw pin, a spare pair of glasses, a flask half-filled with Clyde May’s Special Reserve, a bottle of Listerine, and a multi-tool her father gave her when she joined the Girl Scouts.

The Chess Set
A unique item Mancini had custom made in 2015, her chessboard fields white astronauts against red cosmonauts. On the “American” side, Neil Armstrong is king and Jerrie Cobb is queen; the rooks are Mercury and Gemini capsules, the knights are Alan Shepard and John Glenn, the bishops are Robert Goddard and Wernher von Braun, and the pawns are astronauts wearing different spacesuits from the Navy Mark IV to the Apollo 11. On the “Soviet” side, Yuri Gagarin is king and Valentina Tereshkova is queen; the rooks are Soyuz and Vostok spacecraft, the knights are Vladimir Komarov and Alexei Leonov, the bishops are Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Sergei Korolev, and the pawns are generic cosmonauts. The fact her white queen was never sent into space endlessly frustrates Mancini and earns a tart response—“I reckon we can thank our white knights for that.”

Second Floor

Susan Second Dog’s Office
Miss Suzee’s office is bright and colorful, decorated with tasteful Native American artwork and healthy, thriving plants. Her bookshelf contains educational materials and science textbooks, and her desk supports an enameled black-and-gold globe. Framed photos adorn the wall, mostly nature shots she took herself; but there’s also a photo of her first Middle School class. Several keepsakes are carefully positioned around the room, mostly presents from former students. Miss Suzee drinks from a “World’s Best Teacher” coffee mug.

Carrie Osbourne’s Office
Carrie’s office is exactly what one might expect from a friendly but cautious manager—bland IKEA furniture, nature prints, a room freshener, a box of tissues, a bottle of hand lotion, neatly-organized file cabinets. There’s very little evidence of Carrie’s “woo-woo” tendencies—just a dreamcatcher in the window, a Himalayan salt candle on her desk, and a “You can believe!” poster with New Age imagery. Her desk contains a Wyspell “Neoteric Feminine” Tarot deck and a set of “Bird Vibes” meditation cards, the former being a birthday present from Miss Suzee and the latter a present from her team. The Wyspell deck is “a bit much” even for Carrie; but the mediation cards show signs of use. A framed photo of Carrie and Stan standing beside Stanley’s Mustang hangs on the wall.

Carrie’s Digital Diary
Carrie’s computer may be accessed by obtaining the proper security clearances from Mike Beckman, from guessing her password—“CrowWoman18”—or from hacking the system, which requires 1D3 hours followed by an Extreme Computer Use roll and a Hard Luck roll. It mostly contains work files, but a Computer Use roll discovers a “Carrie’s Digital Diary” hidden in a blind folder. The diary is fairly quotidian, mostly sporadic entries about important events in Carrie’s life. Taking 1D3+1 hours to read the file alerts the reader to the following secrets about Carrie Osbourne and Leo Sawyer: (1) Carrie started an affair with Leo Sawyer soon after “hooking up” at the 2022 office holiday party, (2) she ended the affair a few months later because she felt guilty, and (3) Leo called Carrie from the Close Encounters Motor Lodge on 27 December 2023 and begged to see her. They met in Room 108. Leo was “acting crazy” and gave her something “really weird,” something Leo claimed was “an alien implant he dug out of his neck.” They had sex one last time, but Carrie expresses genuine regret and guilt over the tryst. She closes the entry with, “I put the weird thing in my firesafe.” The last entry is dated 11 April 2024 and reads, “They found Ruth Swann today, dead near Alaki Lake. I need to be more careful.”

Cryptex Hint
If the player characters are stuck on Carrie’s cryptex combination and have struck out with Stanley, the Keeper may toss them a lifeline during a search of Carrie’s office. Perhaps she assembled the package here instead of Carrie’s Cove? If so, it’s conceivable Carrie has a printout of the “Wow! Signal” in her drawer, or maybe mentioned something relevant in her diary—“I reset the cryptex code today. I used the message from Ruth’s scarf, changing the letters to numbers like I did for Suzee’s license plate.”

Cody Ballantine’s Office
Cody’s office is Navy-neat, albeit coated with a patina of cigarette smoke from the many times he’s broken that irksome regulation—a rebellious streak he shares with Dr. Mancini. The walls feature several framed photos: The USS Nebraska, Cody in his Navy uniform, Cody with his wife Louise and their then 12-year old daughter Oakley, a photograph of the Green Bank telescope collapse he keeps as a reminder of man’s fallibility, a photo of Cody and Gary Wilson standing beside a 10-point buck and holding flintlock muskets, an autographed photo of the Denver Broncos’ quarterback John Elway, and a publicity photo of Alexandra Daddario in a sexy stewardess outfit with the GPCA antennas in the background. The Daddario photo is autographed, “Thanks for a great tour, Cody!”

“It was just a single overstressed gusset plate!”

Cody’s desk features stray issues of Muzzleloader and Guns & Ammo, a framed portrait of Louise, and a photo album of industrial accidents he uses to scare careless workers—“Do you want to see what happens when you don’t wear eye protection, Steve?” or, “You ever see what a jigsaw can do to a man’s hand? No? Well let’s take a look, Roy!”

Cody’s Plan B
One of Cody’s desk drawers is locked by a key he wears around his neck at all times. (The lock may be picked with a Locksmith roll, or broken with a Hard Strength roll.) Inside the drawer is a stainless steel Colt Python with a 4.25” barrel. The revolver is loaded, tucked into a leather holster next to a box of .357 ammunition. A red “loaded” tag is attached to the holster.

General Facilities Office
This room contains a generic desk and workstation, along with a printer and several file cabinets. It’s technically open to all administrators who need some privacy.

The Archives
This large room contains all the records, files, and documents pertaining to the GPCA’s operational and logistical side of affairs. The records stretch back to the original Hayden Radio Telescope. A set of keys to the Swezey Minnich Observatory hang from a hook near the light switch.

Basement

The basement of the administration building contains what one might expect—heating and air-conditioning equipment, storage units, cleaning supplies, etc. A couple rooms are worth noting:

Copy Room
This small room holds a FAX machine, an aging photocopier and several reams of paper. 

Information Technology Center
The IT center is the domain of Michael Beckmann, who keeps the site’s computer networks and communications systems running. The IT center has a few cubicles for his “minions” Roman and Shai, while Beckmann’s office itself occupies the corner. His office is completely overrun with pewter wizards and dragons, science fiction tchotchkes, D&D paraphernalia, and geeky Funko-Pop! figures.

Bible Black > Locations
[Back to Antennas & Workshop | Bible Black TOC | Forward to Annesley-Ross Tower]

Author: A. Buell Ruch (Based on work by Kevin A. Ross)
Last Modified: 3 November 2025
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
Bible Black PDF: [TBD]