[Story][Season 1] Here's Jack

[Ace Dreamer]

Here's Jack - 29/Aug/2012
Fall 2013, Ganymede/Luna.
As Brains suspected, his Uncle Jack had left a way to get in contact.  It turned out he'd attended the rest of the con, in particular Noah Scott's presentation.  Brains wished he had gone to that, but he'd still been repairing bits of hotel.  So he'd have to make do with Uran's recording.
The Whole Fenspace Catalog.  People would be picking bits of that out of their teeth for years, decades maybe.  Brains wanted to know how the other worlds worked.  The tech was interesting, but it was how the people lived that he really wanted to know.  Did they love and hate the same way?  Had they solved, or got different approaches, to any of Life's great problems?  On a personal level (yes, it was petty), was he recorded in fiction on any of their worlds?
They'd handed over the last of the Boskone prisoners to the Patrol.  Attended the last funerals.  Steam cleaned the SS Champ; vacuum would help on the way back to Luna, and they'd do a more thorough clean-up there, just in case any nasty little surprises had been left behind.  The Gibson Girls chose to fly back under their own power - they said they needed time to think.  Uncle Jack joined Brains, Uran and Doctor Venus in the SS Champ.
It was the first time Uncle Jack had visited the Lunar home.  They'd crossed paths a few times in the last five years, but Jack or Brains were always on their way to somewhere else.  Brains said he trusted Jack, as a member of the family, and Jack pursed his lips and said that was OK.
Brains was pretty sure Jack was impressed, though he controlled himself pretty well.  Brains had a good enough artists eye that he spotted the little pauses, the controlled casual look around.  Jack seemed particularly taken by the garden in the central courtyard, shaded his eyes, looked straight into the 'Sun'. "Nice" was his comment.
Then Brains showed Jack his guilty secret.  The mauler pit.  While only a skeleton the scale of the immense tear-drop shape was clear.  Jack was clearly taken aback.  "I know you play with big toys, but this is a bit much.  They'll crucify you for this.  Didn't you follow your mother into CND?  Now, tell me that isn't a warship."
Brains explained how it kept niggling at him.  How it only left him alone if he came and did a bit more work on it.  "Thermite, or cement.  Burn as much as you can and fill-in the rest of this pit.  Then go and have a nice holiday. Somewhere you'll really enjoy.  Read a few books by your favourite authors.  Turn your brain off."  Brains was quite certain his Uncle Jack was totally serious.
"I'm not sure that'd wreck it thoroughly enough" admitted Brains.  "Will it fly?" asked Jack.  "Yes", said Brain, unhappily, "I've waved about 12% of the Function Nodes and 10% should be enough to make it work".  "So, when've you organised the Boskone raid?" asked his uncle.  Brains just rolled his wheel chair back and forward, unhappily.
A week later they were within the orbit of Mercury.  An emergency skin on the skeleton had made the thing nearly invisible, and Uran had flown it by remote control, as they accompanied it in the SS Champ.  All the filters were on maximum, as they watched the stripped hulk be pushed into the Sun.  Uran's other half was wearing her red-headed human body, and hugging Brains, then Jack, then Brains again, as she dabbed at her eyes.
"I never even got to launch her", she said.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Ace Dreamer]

META "Here's Jack"

This story isn't in the main continuity, but follows after the two pieces for SerenityCon, the unimaginatively named "SerenityCon", and "Air Port Convention".
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[HRogge]

Lets see if you have to do this... sometimes adapting an idea is better than throwing it away.

[Ace Dreamer]

The reason for dumping something in the Sun is you hope that even if it isn't immediately destroyed that, seeing as the Sun is a big place, it will be lost.

What was dumped in the Sun was a hulk, the skeleton and internal structure with little shell or skin, and no powered bits.

But, in Fenspace there is probably at least one group that has an array of Solar observation satellites (who?) - you really want to know about any changes to the Solar 'weather', as early as possible.

The odds are the frame will go into a low orbit within the solar atmosphere, where light pressure may keep it from going really deep, where it is far more likely to be destroyed. It is made of (very thin) ultra-materials which have a non-atomic structure, and would likely survive solar surface temperatures, probably for quite a long while. Any stealth properties of any surviving skin will probably go pretty fast.

Someone might be curious enough to salvage it, given some sun diver ships...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[robkelk]

But, in Fenspace there is probably at least one group that has an array of Solar observation satellites (who?)

NASA. After 1 April 2014, Artemis.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[HRogge]

The reason for dumping something in the Sun is you hope that even if it isn't immediately destroyed that, seeing as the Sun is a big place, it will be lost.

What was dumped in the Sun was a hulk, the skeleton and internal structure with little shell or skin, and no powered bits.

But, in Fenspace there is probably at least one group that has an array of Solar observation satellites (who?) - you really want to know about any changes to the Solar 'weather', as early as possible.

Brain is a little bit paranoid...
(as a lot of Fen Mad)

The odds are the frame will go into a low orbit within the solar atmosphere, where light pressure may keep it from going really deep, where it is far more likely to be destroyed. It is made of (very thin) ultra-materials which have a non-atomic structure, and would likely survive solar surface temperatures, probably for quite a long while.

Its made from "matter" and "handwavium"... nobody knows why the result is that crazy.

Any stealth properties of any surviving skin will probably go pretty fast.

Someone might be curious enough to salvage it, given some sun diver ships...

If it goes down below the atmosphere it will be destroyed by the sun... too much energy in the long run.

[ECSNorway]

"non-atomic structure"?

Uhm....
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[classicdrogn]

"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." Apparently Brains' strain of thw 'wave recognises Lensmen as the thing Star Wars was "turned down from eleven" from too.
--
"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

[Ace Dreamer]

But, in Fenspace there is probably at least one group that has an array of Solar observation satellites (who?)

NASA. After 1 April 2014, Artemis.

I've added to 'Spacefleet', as it seemed appropriate:
http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... #Hard_Tech
http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Spacefleet#MBC
I have no ulterior motive in doing this.  Not one at all. [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Ace Dreamer]

"non-atomic structure"?

Uhm....

If you take a close look at a number of waved materials you have two (three) choices:

1. there is residual handwavium there, doing things a material with an atomic structure, limited by the strength of electro-magnetic bonding, cannot do
   
2. there is no residual handwavium, and the previously atomic material has been changed by handwavium so that it has properties atomic materials cannot have (say, using nuclear bonding forces, not electronic)
   
3. something weird is going on [grin]
   

Reading the Fenspace stories, in some cases '1' seems to happening, in some cases '2' (or maybe the handwavium is hiding itself really well; if it's undetectable then it might as well be '2' ).
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Ace Dreamer]

"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." Apparently Brains' strain of the 'wave recognises Lensmen as the thing Star Wars was "turned down from eleven" from too.

Brains is both an artist and an engineer.  He can recognise the aesthetics in a gadget as well as the technical possibilities.
In a number of cases, Brains has deliberately not pushed handwavium as hard as he thinks it ought to theoretically go.  This is because he has thought through the social consequences of certain handwavium strains, as well as how they might upset a lot of people's fun, and maybe bring on the Singularity sooner than is a good idea.
Yes, Brains has turned-down quite a few things that Lensmen Fen might be working really hard to do, because that really isn't the sort of world he wants to live in, and he knows about Virtue Ethics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotelian_ethics
(Brains doesn't have much respect for Utilitarianism, or ethics based on respect for some 'authority'.)
He regards working on the mauler as a bit of a reflection of his 'dark side'.
But, note that the basis of his handwavium use is as much about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c#a9112 (free to read works)
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[M Fnord]

The odds are the frame will go into a low orbit within the solar atmosphere, where light pressure may keep it from going really deep, where it is far more likely to be destroyed. It is made of (very thin) ultra-materials which have a non-atomic structure, and would likely survive solar surface temperatures, probably for quite a long while. Any stealth properties of any surviving skin will probably go pretty fast.

I'm going to swing in here and say that dropping anything into the sun is a pretty effective way of destroying it. This also applies to handwavium structures.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Ace Dreamer]

The odds are the frame will go into a low orbit within the solar atmosphere, where light pressure may keep it from going really deep, where it is far more likely to be destroyed. It is made of (very thin) ultra-materials which have a non-atomic structure, and would likely survive solar surface temperatures, probably for quite a long while. Any stealth properties of any surviving skin will probably go pretty fast.

I'm going to swing in here and say that dropping anything into the sun is a pretty effective way of destroying it. This also applies to handwavium structures.

You'd certainly hope it would work.
Unless both Eris and Murphy gang-up on you, I think you can be pretty confident this will work.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[LynnInDenver]

M Fnord wrote:

I'm going to swing in here and say that dropping anything into the sun is a pretty effective way of destroying it. This also applies to handwavium structures.

Best case: incinerated and lost. Worst case: It survives, but you're never ever ever getting it back out.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[Ace Dreamer]

M Fnord wrote:

I'm going to swing in here and say that dropping anything into the sun is a pretty effective way of destroying it. This also applies to handwavium structures.

Best case: incinerated and lost. Worst case: It survives, but you're never ever ever getting it back out.

I had got an idea...
A colony of Sun Surfers is based near the North Pole of Mercury, in one of the deep craters filled with water ice.  These were originally ice and metal miners, who got so bored that when one of them got really stoned, and waved-up a solar 'surf board', thought it was a good idea to try it.
After a while a colony of "Sun Surfers" (sometimes called "Sun Divers") built-up, people who wanted the "hottest ride in the Solar System".  While in the early days the death rate per 'dive' was 25%, this quickly dropped to 10% and within six months was down to 5%, where it stuck for a long time.  Surfer Fen (some would say Dangerous Sports Fen) agree this is one of the highest adrenaline, and needing most technical accuracy, sports in Sol System.
While all really dedicated surfers wave their own 'boards' (really small, powerful, specialised space craft), there is a small tourist industry which makes 'newbie' boards, provides intensive training, and requires a large stack of disclaimers to be signed.  With a 25% death rate per dive amongst newbies (called a 'sunbeam' by the cruel - as in "Jesus wants you for a ...") this is a sport that only the most dedicated take up.
The surfers keep an eye on the solar weather, looking for good times to 'dive and ride', which don't occur that often.  Some of them have a hobby of watching for people dumping stuff in the Sun, but, note that the Solar System is a big place, and as they only use passive sensors, there will be a lot that they miss.
The idea was that a surfer spotted the mauler frame in orbit in the solar atmosphere.  With four friends they ran a salvage operation - one of them died in this, so they consider that is enough payment that they own in.  About a fifth of the frame had  already evaporated (the point of the teardrop), but the remains are structurally sound.
The skeleton ends up carefully wedged (later properly anchored) in a crack in a crater wall, so it is just in occasional sunlight.  In it is built the "Sunrise Hotel" (three of the four surviving surfers own shares in this), and in the lower part there is a medium-sized town ("Sunnydale").  No, this is definitely not space-worthy, and parts of the town are burrowed into the walls of the crack.
No, Brains never gets it back, or any rights to it, and it is years before he finds out what happened.  There are good reasons why Brains swears by Eris and Murphy...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundiver
http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=22
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[HRogge]

After a while a colony of "Sun Surfers" (sometimes called "Sun Divers") built-up, people who wanted the "hottest ride in the Solar System". While in the early days the death rate per 'dive' was 25%, this quickly dropped to 10% and within six months was down to 5%, where it stuck for a long time.

Interesting idea, but I think the death rates are much too high. Even with 5% there wouldn't be many divers after a couple of years left.

[Ace Dreamer]

That is supposed to be the average.  Among the really skilled it is probably more like 0.5%.
Some probably just do one dive, and then get by on the boasting rights, thereafter.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

[Star Ranger4]

yeah, I can totally see that Ace
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children