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[SUBMISSION] The Magnificent Midnight
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Oh yeah, Midnight as a base vehicle is fine.---
Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!" 
Many thanks, good sir. A few more things and I shall be ready to depart for Naval Recruit training with nary a worry for my characters. ^_^
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer "But first, let's test it on the penguin." "Meep?" O.o
ooooohh..
I was thinking on the Miranda rescue - Midnight is an _accel_ drive, and the base shape of the 'bird lends itself well to strap-on tanks above/below, just inboard of the engine blisters. And there's no reason that Midnight can't get a tow to get her started. Boost her up to .1, .12 or so with a Speed tow rig, cut her loose and up goes the boost, and away she goes.. probably want to tow her out to just past the Limit.. see, the reaction mass profile looks a _lot_ better if ~40% of the accel is eliminated. That might make the Midnight able to reach Miranda and decel, carrying enough mass to make the trip worthwhile.. Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979
That's a nice thought, and one that I'd thought of before as well, but here-in lays the problem: The Miranda is -WAY- the hell out there. How far out, I'm not sure, but even with the Midnight's faster-than-antyhing-else-made-by-mortal-hands FTL Drive it'd take her a long time to get there. And then, once they get there, what can Ben, Gina, and Midnight do?
Supposedly, with Midnight's rather bizaar inverse relativity quirk, I think you can stick the crew into Hybernaut Capsules (a la 2001) and Midnight can handle the cruise just fine. But even then, what can they bring with them that can save the crew of the Miranda and get them home? Black Aeronaut Technologies Group Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer "But first, let's test it on the penguin." "Meep?" O.o Quote:I just had a thought... I'm not entirely sure it fits into Midnight's profile, though, and it's potentially as big or a bigger paradigm shift in the setting than First Contact. Need to kick it around a bit first before I throw it out.--- Mr. Fnord http://fnord.sandwich.net/ http://www.jihad.net/ Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information "I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
*blinks* Okay. Lemme know what you have in mind soon, though. My last day before my Internet Blackout for Recruit Training is this Wednsday.
Black Aeronaut Technologies Group Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer "But first, let's test it on the penguin." "Meep?" O.o
There is the question of how many crew there are out there to be rescued. If it's about five or fewer, you can probably cram a few extra hybernaut capsules in somehow, save the crew and the (carefully sealed) data cores, scavenge anything useful/small and valuable, and leave the rest to rust.
This, incidentally, was one of the reasons I was suggesting time dilation - more as the idea that the drive was somehow consuming the internal timestream (or shifting it around in productive-for-travel ways) than as any direct result of relativity. On the other hand, I'm also interested in Fnord's Idea. (Warp gates, perhaps?) Incidentally, where does Gina fit on this thing?
*Grins* Well, it's a bit of a spoiler, but since I don't think I'll be making any huge efforts on what leads up to it, I'll go ahead and tell in white text below.
The original plan was that Gina was going to be transferred into a laptop Handwaviumized specificly for her. Tough to do, but I figure with a bit of assistance from The Jason (after seeing what he did with his AI's Ben knew he had to have his help) and maybe The Professor, too, it can happen. Using that, Gina could easily be swapped between the Magnificent Midnight and the Bullet Boy Express as needed. However, Midnight popped up instead, making everyone present go, "Well shit on me!" Not that she was unwelcome, just unexpected, and that left Gina at something of a loose end. It doesn't take Ben and The Professor long to decide that Gina deserves something better than an automobile for a body, and so they build a human form for her. Just as her AI representation was, her new physical form is a dead ringer for Asuka, right down to the neural net trancievers she used as hair-clips (in this case, they are high-density broad-band wi-fi tranceivers that allow her to link up to any computer that has a wireless network connection). Thus, her last name is Langely as a homage not only to her spacefaring nature, but also to the original character. Her primary role is as it was when she was the AI of the Bullet Boy Express, but now she can move about freely (Ben has always felt bad for her in that respect). She also serves another purpose. Her mere presence fends off the majority of femme-fens that would pursue Ben to the ends of the Sol system if given half the chance. Only the truly bold femme-fens would dare to come onto him in Gina's presence. She even goes as for as to practically hang off his arm like Asuka did with Kaji in NGE. While Ben doesn't mind, he wonders if it's just an act of if she really is that attached to him. And now you know... The rest of the story. Black Aeronaut Technologies Group Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer "But first, let's test it on the penguin." "Meep?" O.o 
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but - the Miranda was designed for a five year mission, meaning a big crew to account for the specialist roles that migyht be needed, which started out exactly evenly balanced between males and females and now has a bunch of children. Like, at least 20 people to begin with, more likely twice that, and she is Large as fenspace vessels go, despite the fact that most of the internal volume is just the crevices between fuel tanks, supported by spaceframes and papered over on the outside with tarp material that got 'waved for durability. Rather than purpose-built cabins, a house trailer was incorporated for each set of crew quarters, split between single and double occupancy at launch with a couple of empties.
The sheer size of a radio telescope array is not to be underestimated. Most likely, the Miranda closes in on Trek-canon size, though I haven't yet gotten to looking up details - I've been offline again for the most part. A much more likely use for the Midnight in relation to the alien contact, is in a couple of years when the USS Miranda nearly arrives at Starbase 2 (running out of fuel just close enough to the system to get a radio message to them to get someone out there for pick up) and word of finding an alien time capsule gets out, Midnight gets sent the direct course to go looking for the aliens that left it. This nicely brings the aliens plot back to the realm of PCs, as well, instead of NPCs who only exist as dim shadows on a purpose built ship. The Miranda then gets refitted, and heads out on a new five-year mission, either in a new direction, or more likely as backup for the Midnight, with some bigwig diplomatic types aboard... but of course, anyone who can strap on what they think are enough fuel tanks is going to be blasting out that way as soon as they can anyway, so any hopes the 'danes might have of a controlled first contact situation and formal negotiations pretty much lie with Rhodes, and whoever they can cram in as extra hibernatorium passengers. - CD -- "Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
I figure that they can take four passnegers, tops, plus supplies for when they aren't hybernating. The nice thing is that Hibernation seems more plausible now because they've discovered a naturally occuring chemical in our bodies that is an anti-oxident. Adding more of this chemical litterally shuts the figurative dampers of our bodies and we slip into a hybernative state with hypothermia-like symptoms (comatose, very low body temperature, etc). Last I heard they're experimenting with mice, but it probably won't be long until they have enough data to experiment on primates or even humans.
Also, I think that the range of the Midnight would still be limited compared to the Miranda. The only way to really work this out would be if the Miranda served as a mobile base for the Midnight. And given my character's current situation, I think we'd have to wait until the end of the Zwilnick Wars. Then again, I guess this plot arch won't take place until then anyways. Black Aeronaut Technologies Group Aerospace Solutions for the discerning spacer "But first, let's test it on the penguin." "Meep?" O.o
Sorry for practicaly disapearing from fenspace, I have been strugeling with two scenes, I think I'll post them to get feedback on them and see how to fix/complete them.
Quote:The Prof and mundanes do not mix well, esspecially not the french, but that goes to a certain extent for the USA as well (the media did their best to paint the Prof as evil as possible, and propaganda does work.). The whole war on terror thing and the Prof being delared a terrorist and ranted about by many politicians hoping to deflect attention away from problem/scandals at home kind of has a lasting effet. True he works for an american company, but so did Werner von Braun. And with the Prof far away in space they don't even need to clean up his reputation, just point out his genius, and probably keep their involvement with the Prof very quiet. I somehow don't see NASA running the risk of a major scandal to talk with the Prof. Still there could be a story in it... we'll see. Overall I'm always happy to see people with ties to the Prof, but do keep in mind that just about every newssource has slandered the Prof. (True danish news has gotten more friendly after the nuke was disarmed, but before that they were just as bad.) E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?" B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell." |
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