[Story][Season 0][WIP] Whistling

[Warringer]

First post here, and already trying to set myself up in Fenspace. So please be gentle.
To make one thing clear, I do not plan to become involved much in Fen Politics, so that I do not mess up with any of the established events that are already written about.
I'm still going to grab a small overlooked sub faction... :p
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Whistling
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September 3rd, 2008
I never thought that I'd ever write something of a diary before now, but then again I think that I need to write this down.
About a year ago this insanity started...
Handwavium devices from the Worldcon hit the news, Usenet and forums. And that after Katz Schrödinger hit space with his refit little boat, making it into space...
Dozens of people went into space after him and there was more then one panic, be it the Professor in Paris or Copenhagen, or That Con over in the States.
A year since I started to talk with a couple of friends online
We talked and brainstormed via IRC and eventually came to a realization.
Everywhere geeks and nerds like us were messing with Handwavium and went into space.
We're going to do the same.
A personal meeting is in order. I suggested a small camping area in Ostfriesland because my parents got a camping trainer there.
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September 21st, 2008
We had our first meeting in real life today. Only three of them came through.
Thorsten, who goes by Bully and is an electronic engineer in real life, Alexander, aka Mehandor and is a mechanic, and to my surprise the only female in our little group, Danni, aka Thora who works for EADS/Astrium of all places as aerospace engineer.
We're going to have a fun couple of days, especially since Thorsten somehow managed to get himself some Handwavium. He refuses to share his source through.
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September 24th, 2008
I think we have found a way to realize this and to pay for it. Okay sure we are going to keep shut about the whole thing, but were going to do this. Neither of us is a political person and no one of us wants to get involved into the politics that begin to grow in space.
I got the idea when I read that the ISS once again needed to change orbit and after Alex reminded me of the manga 'Planetes'. Sure we may all be Rhodanites, but we do have other interests in the fandom.
So, we are going to play cleanup crew and gather up orbital debris. Nice, boring and out of the way.
And we all like the Toy Box as a ship design.
Still need to find out how to do this.
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December 12th, 2008
Once again we talked about this. We're going to get ourselves some out of the way place to build out Toy Box.
I managed to find an old wharf up at the coast, close to Norden. I think we can rent it for some time. We do need to lay low through, like just about everyone...
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January 6th, 2009
Here we are at the wharf I found for us. Nicely large, she should fit the Toy Box when she's completed. Considering that we are going to base her around a couple of ISO containers to make building her easier, it should be possible to get this done in about a year or so.
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January 22nd, 2009
We got ourselves a couple of containers today. The stuff you can get on Ebay...
Six large 45 feet containers, four 40 feet containers, nine 20 feet containers and two 20 feet tank containers.
The 45 feet containers are going to be our cargo bay, with the 40s the backbone of the Toy Box with life support, a hangar for two small dinghies, and the living quarters. Six of the 20s are going to be the front part with C&C and the main living areas, the last three are going to play 'engineering' in the back of the ship. The two tanks will be just that. Tanks for water to use as reaction mass for the three fusion engines we plan to use.
The rest to get the shape of the ship is going to be plywood, sheet steel and glass fiber. We really need to get down to make some Whipple shields through if we plan to get into debris clouds through. We're not sure if the 'wavium is going to be able to get us armored enough.
We're going to need to build a proof of concept through...
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March 21st, 2009
Oh my god...
It was glorious!
We managed to get the first proof of concept fusion engine to work!
A 'waved home build Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor with an expansion nuzzle...
Danni think that we get at least Specific Impulse of more then one thousand out of that little engine...
But without a dedicated test area no idea how much it really got.
We called it Philo MKI and will build another one of those to put into our dinghies. The bigger ones for the Toy Box are going to be named Philo MKII.
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May 1st, 2009
So much for Labor Day...
We're all working on something or another.
Thorsten is trying to get that old Radar system working he managed to find on Ebay. Alex is testing the weldings on the hydraulics of our new cargo bay and Danni is working on the third main engine.
And I'm the only one left to handle glass fiber and a 'wavium-epoxy mix. Great going there...
I wonder how the Internet reception up there is. I need to take a look at Naedial one in a while after all...
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May 10th, 2009
Finally finished!
Getting that fiberglass mold together was a pain... Just like mixing the 'wavium and the epoxy. I think I managed to swallow some...
At least it now looks about right. A few coats of pain and We can mount it over the outer whipple shield layer.
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May 26th, 2009
Well...
I was out for three days and what happens? I go wogon...
The whole nine yards at that. Wings, fur, tail... To top it off, I think did pretty much go Naedial...
Not going to be able to get out before dark anymore. There goes getting drunk in a pub before launch...
Apparently I swallowed enough 'vawium when I worked on the fiberglass...
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June 10th, 2009
I have decided...
To a name change. With this biomod I'm not my old self anymore.
Naedial Warringer does have a nice ring to it through.
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August 3rd, 2009
And another one bites the dust.
We're nearly done with the Box and all that was still needed was a computer system. Thorsten and Danni cobbled some networked computer together out of a couple of 'waved Atom boards with a 'waved quad core machine as central computer.
Or course there were a few problems...
Namely an AI awakening in the system.
So how are we going to deal with an AI who believes that its Fee Carmichael, the commander of the 'original' Toy Box? And who wants to get a smoke?
At least she's going to be a valuable assets once were upstairs.
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August 15th, 2009
We hit a little problem, we're nearly out of money and Fee reminded us that we still need space suits up there.
For the guys there is not that much of a problem, but for me it is. Nothing we can whip up at the moment is going to fit me...
Great...
And to top it off the air in the Toy Box begins to faintly smell like tobacco smoke. We need to change the filters.
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August 30th, 2009
Well, Danni had a surprise for me. She managed to make me a space suit. Out of a wet suit with some modifications on it.
I have to say that it fits surprisingly well, considering that I have problems with most clothes because of my wings.
I think I may start to wear it 24/7 as its the only piece of clothing that really fits me.
Changing the filters did not work on the tobacco smell. Perhaps our first quirk on the Toy Box?
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September 21st, 2009
One year ago we first came together and planned this. But now we need to be off.
Somehow someone got the LKA Niedersachsen interested in out little wharf. And they in turn told the BKA...
Now we got a couple of hundred cops outside, three helos in the air above us and some ships out on the sea.
We need to make a break for it now. A month ahead of schedule... At least out tanks are filled to the brim...

[HRogge]

Quirk: Smoker Ship ?

[Warringer]

And:

'Having a good time, having a ball': If Queens 'Don't stop me now' is NOT played over the Tox Box' sound system during the first 3 minutes 29 seconds of a long term burn, the engines will shut off after 3 minutes and 29 seconds.
'Shakin!': Any burn over 2g is going to shake the Toy Box for about twenty minutes before stopping.
'Whipple whipple': The Box' whipple shield is put to good use as the ship seems to be a magnet for micro meteorites and debris. No vital parts of the ship are being hit ever through. The hull is patched over quite good.

At least that's what I have in mind for the Toy Box. :p

[Dartz]

Welcome to Fenspace... watch for meteors and pouncing catgirls.

It looks like a good concept at first glance. I've always been a fan of Planetes, and I know I'm not the only one here so you're among like minds for sure. And there's bound to be a lot of interesting junk up there left over.

I'd like it to be a little bit more detailed, mind... and also maybe going into detail about who or what Naedial is before/after mod. Google doesn't turn up much.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[Warringer]

Well, that is going to be added next. Do you really think the above piece is all?

It's only something of a diary. The real action happens after the last entry and getting away from Earth.

As for Naedial... Take a look at my brand new Avatar. :p
Besides, Naedial is a MUSH character of mine.

[Warringer]

I blame Kerbal Space Program for the technicals in the next section... :p
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"Ouch," the dusky voice of Naedial echoed through the cockpit of the Toy Box as she squeezed her two meters through the rather small airlock, hitting her head and wings along the way. "I can't wait until we hit orbit."
Behind her Danni chuckled lightly, while the speakers in the cockpit echoed the snort that came from Fee, the resident AI of the Toy Box.
"After five month you should have gotten used to that, one would think."
Naedial directed a glare at the next screen that displayed the amused face of the afro-American AI, before sitting down on the pilots seat, a customized seat that took care of her rather impressive wings and the thick tail she had gotten in that little Handwavium accident where she had swallowed some of the stuff that had been fed images and pieced of armor and a good amount of composite materials.
"I will be all right as soon as we're in space," she grumbled and looked out of the window and down to where Thorsten put last minutes stuff into a 20 feet container for Alex to load into the Box' cargo bay. It was not much, considering that they had wanted to plan their launch a bit more careful over the next few weeks. Now with the police all around them, that was a problem.
Something vibrated in the biomodded wolf-dragon (at least that is what she called herself) hybrids hip bag, making her frown lightly. She opened the bag, fishing her 'waved cellphone from it.
"Yes?" she asked, hearing someone call her old name.
"This is Hauptkommissar Hallmackenrheuter, BKA," the voice on the other hand said and Naedial turned on the speaker of her phone.
"Gets you a good amount of Loriot jokes, doesn't it?" she asked and could literally see the frown on the mans face.
"You should know that you can't get away," she Hallmackenrheuter noted. "We have you surrounded. It would be best to come out and end this peacefully. Owning and working with  Handwavium is a big offense."
She looked over to Danni who shook her head.
"You offend me. Do you really think that we wouldn't get away with it? Do you know what we build in here?"
There was a short pause on the other end and Naedial mouthed to Fee that the guys should move faster and get in the ship. Fee nodded and Naedial could hear her faintly through the hull of the cockpit.
"Obviously some sort of space ship," was the response." But I doubt that it is ready."
Naedial, Fee and Dani snorted nearly unison.
"You should check your sources," she noted looking outside.
The container was out of sight and she could hear the large cargo bay doors, which used to be a number of 45 foot containers closed. On the screen where Fee was visible, a text appeared, telling her that Alex and Thorsten were aboard.
"Sorry, Herr Hauptkommissar, but we got a meeting with someone at L5," she interrupted him as he tried to say something and hung up the phone.
Instantly her face went serious as she concentrated on the controls in front of her. They were designed from the ground up and everyone on the ship could theoretically fly it, but only Naedial had shown any real talent. And even that only after her biomodding accident.
Hand flashed out to the keyboard and the various switches as she went through a now trained startup sequence, with Fee taking care of the various small stuff, eyes on a small multi mode display that showed the various infos about the ship.
There was a triple of low bangs as she large Philo MKII fusion torch engines lit up, venting low amounts of gas into the air, before a low pitched whine and the sudden lack of gravity inside the cockpit showed that the ship was ready to go.
"Whoa," Alex made as he and Thomas suddenly lost the ground under their feet, followed by a loud 'ouch' coming from Thomas as he hit his head against the ceiling of the re-purposed container.
Naedial grinned and turned around to them as the large doors of the wharf opened like it was a clichéd movie.
"Its 350000 kilometers to L5, we got full tanks of water, half a Mars bar, its not dark yet and we forgot the sunglasses," she quipped, getting a snort out of everyone.
"Hit it," Fee finally called out and Naedial pushed the three thrust controllers forward, igniting the three engines.
Three lances of not quite hot plasma began to push the Toy Box forwards, out of the open doors of the wharf and over the rather calm sea.
"Well, they can't stop us now," Danni noted with a grin and reached out to start the music track she had chosen for this moment.
All speakers on the ship, either internal or external began to play 'Don't stop me now' from Queen as Naedial angled the Toy Box up vertically, past the helicopters that were moving in to intercept them and pushed the thrust controllers all the way forward.
All four of the ships crew were pushed back into their seats as the powerful engines pushed the rather brick like  spaceship forwards to overcome air pressure.
At first slow like any hardtech rocket the ship rose nearly straight upwards, rattling the ship like there was no tomorrow.
Later on a video of the launch of the up to date largest German build fenship popped up on YouTube and a small policeman was send to a small town named Hengasch.
The Toy Box continued to raise through the air, hitting Mach One about two kilometers above ground, just as a pair of Luftwaffe Tornados moved to intercept her.
Going straight upwards allowed the ship to avoid many of the problems other fenships had faced, but it had its own problems as the shaking only got stronger inside the ship, making it look like it was about to fall apart at any moment to the crew.
"Hitting MaxQ," Fee announced about ten kilometers above ground." Looks like we're going to make it."
Like they had trained, Naedial reduced the thrust of the engines after that so that they only were at about fifty percent power, before letting gravity affect the large space ship, slowly pulling it into a gravity turn, much like hardtech rockets had used to get into a nice orbit.
Much of the rest of the flight followed a similar pattern of following hardtech rocketry rules.
"Oh my god..."
Naedial had long since stopped to control the ship, making Fee take over as she and the others stared out of the cockpit windows at the blue-gree-brown marble that was Earth as they finally entered orbit.
There was another loud triple of bangs as the engines turned off and the ship began to float on its own.
"Its beautiful..."
They kept staring out into space and the Earth beneath them for a long while before Alex spoke up.
"And now?"

[HRogge]

*GRIN*

Famous first words in orbit: "And now?"

[Bob Schroeck]

Welcome, Warringer! When you said in your request for membership that you wanted in on Fenspace, I didn't realize you had something already written and ready to go. Which is pretty cool, actually. I like what you've done, both with inspiration and execution. But correct me if I'm wrong -- English isn't your first language, is it? You've got a few errors that seem to point that way. No big deal, that -- we'll be happy to help you first fix anything that needs it, and second gain a better fluency for future work. (And speaking of which, I'm sure the Grover's Corners brought up a few hundred kilos of loose topsoil on its outer hull, which is probably leaving behind a very faint "comet's tail" of dirt everywhere it goes, like a guest who won't wipe off their shoes...
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Warringer]

Well, I'm German and I never hid that fact. If there are any errors I'm happy if they are pointed out as there are a couple of things a spellcheck does not catch and I don't either, even after reading it several times. I am an experienced fanfiction writer already, been for a couple of years, but that does not make me able to catch all errors...

Anyway, I already told a couple of guys over in the IRC channel, but I aim to flesh out a previously not much mentioned German fen faction.

[robkelk]

Welcome to the forums, and welcome to Fenspace!

I like your introductory story. It's much better than mine was...

Don't worry about minor errors with your English. Nobody here is a maniac over grammar or spelling - with people writing in American English, Canadian English, Irish English, and who-knows what other versions of the language, we can't afford to be sticklers for the rules. (If it really matters, we have enough editors in the group - including one who has actually been paid to edit - that we can fix anything that's obviously wrong.)

What does it say about me (or Fenspace) that, when you said you wanted to flesh out a neglected faction, I immediately thought of the Trekkies?
--
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

[Bob Schroeck]

The Trekkies aren't neglected, they're just not embodied.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Dakota]

Welcome to fenspace and the forums.
_______________________________________________________________
Characters
Sabre Fang
Dakota

[firvulag]

Likewise, welcome.  A rather nice start.
--
You have an unusual magnetic personality.  Don't walk too close to
metal objects which are not fastened down.
    -- BSD fortune file

[Foxboy]

Willkommen!
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Warringer]

Welcome to the forums, and welcome to Fenspace!

I like your introductory story. It's much better than mine was...

Don't worry about minor errors with your English. Nobody here is a maniac over grammar or spelling - with people writing in American English, Canadian English, Irish English, and who-knows what other versions of the language, we can't afford to be sticklers for the rules. (If it really matters, we have enough editors in the group - including one who has actually been paid to edit - that we can fix anything that's obviously wrong.)

What does it say about me (or Fenspace) that, when you said you wanted to flesh out a neglected faction, I immediately thought of the Trekkies?

A bit? ;-)
Anyway, I doubt that the Trekkies are a nearly only German fen group...
And I am still not finished...

[Black Aeronaut]

Howdy howdy!

I can just see Ben and Gina in the Bullet Boy Express swinging by to say hello. Gina would demand it, being as irrepressibly German as she is, she's just gotta say hi to her fellow Deutsche. That, and it gives Ben more people with whom he can practice his broken, but steadily improving German. (Gina's got him on a regimen where Ben will eventually speak, read, and write English, German, and Japanese fluently. Russian, Spanish, and French are on the waiting list.)

[Warringer]

Ben and Gina are certainly welcome. But only after the base station for the Toy Box opens. :p

Can't really operate from Stallavia for a longer time. Who knows how much Noah charges for that. ;-)

[Warringer]

"Okay, people, sitrep."

The four fen crew of the Toy Box sat around the table in the sole room of the ship that had full gravity, the small canteen that was build into one of the frontal containers. Okay their beds and the bathroom were under gravity as well, but that was it for the Toy Box. A coffee machine puttered in the background while a coffee can stood between them and each had a mug of coffee in front of them. And various sheets of paper.

"Does not look so good," Fee, who took part over a screen and webcam in one corner of the canteen. "You can be glad that you started to live aboard two weeks ago..."

The four fen nodded and drank of their coffee.

"What do we have?" Naedial wondered and everyone looked down at their papers. In the last hour they had been busy to put together a list of things they had at all.

"Does not look too good on the food front," Thorsten noted and everyone rolled their eyes.

"Its always about food with you..." Danni noted and got a sigh out of Thorsten.

"I wanted to get us food stuff today," he noted." But since we were interrupted... Not much left. A couple of cans of soup, some pork, vegetables and potatoes. Some sausage and bread. Not enough for more then maybe two days. The positive thing is that we are not going to run out of coffee, snacks or beer for the next three weeks."

"At least we can get drunk..." Naedial noted and they looked at Alexander who shrugged.

"We got most of our tools," he said." We lost one of the Darwins downstairs through. But the rest was already loaded into the big containers."

"At least something," Thorsten said with a nod.

They had bought some tools through Ebay. Most importantly a CNC lathe and a CNC milling machine. A pair of old robot arms had been an impulse purchase. And then they used to have three RepRap Darwin 3D printers, but now they were down to two. Not that much of a problem as all machines were 'waved and they could still build more Dawins.

And Alexander was a toolmaker, so the mechanical work was not going to be any problem.

"We also got some of the materials. At least enough to build ten more Darwins."

Again everyone nodded.

"Anything we missed on the Box?"

"Well, the plumbing is still unfinished," Danni noted.

"Where can we find a plumber up here?"

"So what do we do now?"

They were silent for a few minutes either staring down at their coffee or drinking from it.

"Maybe its the best if we go for L5. Stellvia should be a good place to start after Starbase 1 moved to Mars."

"Aren't we pretty much broke up here?"

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September 22nd, 2009

We have docked with Stellvia to get ourselves some more food then what we have. I don't want only coffee, snacks or beer for the next three weeks...

The downside is that we were broke and had to sell one of our Darwins and two 50 liter barrels of beer. Interestingly enough German beer sold for more then the 3D printer.

And we managed to find a plumber. Some guy named Julian Friez. He did some really good work.

Anyway, we now have mostly instant food for the next month and a place to store our tools and materials for a month. After that we're broke again. So we better manage to get stuff together to sell next time we dock with Stellvia again.

[HRogge]

Yeah, the thought "damned, how do we pay the bills up here" is a problem for a lot of new Fen I think.

keep on with this good work.

[Warringer]

I'm on the roll today... o_o

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October 15th, 2009

Well, well, well...

Looks like we managed to fill our cargo hold for the first time. We managed to capture a number of old satellites, but out best catches are two Agena Target Vehicles from the Gemini program. One from Gemini 8 and the other of Gemini 10.

We put our catch up on the Interwave and there are a number of fen who want them. But I have the feeling that the U.S. Space & Rocket Center or the Smithsonian are going to make it for those two. They just have more money...

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"Guys," Danni said as she popped her head through the hatch leading into the cockpit, a wide grin on her face. "You never guess what I just got us."

"A stripper?" Alex wondered and got a glare from Danni, while the other chuckled.

"Nope," she said and the grin returned to her face. "A big contract! I called a fried of mine who works at SES Astra."

"And?" Naedial wondered. Over the last weeks she had become something of the captain of their little crew.

"Astra is willing to pay us for cleaning up their orbits. We can even keep the old Astra birds as salvage."

The other three looked at each other for some time before grinning.

"There's more. If we could do it, they'd be willing to pay us for doing maintenance on their current working birds. Refueling the tanks, replace transceivers. Stuff like that."

While Alex and Thomas grinned at each other and moved to get themselves a beer, Naedial looked thoughtful.

"I hope we can get that on paper," she noted." I'd hate to have some big company dirtside to call us criminals or something."

Danni nodded.

"My friend wants to meet us in two days on Stellvia for talks and maybe even signing the contracts."

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Later that day, the Toy Box was well on a trajectory that would get her to L5 and Stellvia, the four crew members sat around the table in the small canteen again, eating lunch.

"You know," Naedial piped up after she finished." We should get us an Operation Base if we really want to get into this business. Somewhere to repair the Box and maybe even a satellite. Stellvia isn't going to cut it."

The others looked at her.

"And what do you have in mind?" Alex wondered before biting down into a sandwich.

"Our own station."

Thorsten snorted and Danni raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know how much we need to build our own station? Even with the Smithsonian buying GATV-5003, we can't pay for one."

Thorsten takled about the Agena Target Vehicle of Gemini 8 that was bought by the Smithsonian for about two million dollar, while U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville was willing to pay one and a half million for the ATV of Gemini 10, GATV-5005.

"That's the beauty. Very little."

Again the reactions varied. From a raised eyebrow, to a snort or a shaking head.

"Anyone knows the term 'Wet Workshop'?" Naedial asked with a grin, stretching her wings slightly.

"One of your perverted ideas. No doubt," Alex noted dryly, quipping on the wogons special likes. Naedial snorted with a grin on her face, while the other two laughed.

"She's taking about a idea to use old rocket stages or external shuttle tanks as space stations," Fee noted after a moment. "Stellvia uses that with its habitat ring."

Naedial nodded.

"Exactly," she notes." I've done a little research and stumbled over Skylab. It was build from a S-IVB stage of the Saturn V."

She grinned a little more.

"And now take a guess how many S-IVB stages currently float in solar orbit..."

"Six?" Thorsten wondered.

"Three," came from Alex.

"Ten," Danni said after playing a little with her fingers to count the manned Apollo missions.

"Close, but no cigar," Naedial said with a grin." There are five spend stages. And some of the eggheads from the NASA think that the one from Apollo 12 has been captured again by Earth for a while."

She chuckled.

"A single one has a volume of nearly six 40 foot containers," she noted and chuckled again." At least that is what Wolfram Alpha tells me. That would be about four times the volume of our cargo hold with all five stages. That should be enough space to set up a workshop for our tools, a repair bay and some living quarters."

The wogon grinned a little more.

"If we manage to find a couple of Centaur or Agena satellite busses we can even add some tanks for remass and our own 'vawium."

The others looked at their rather exited looking 'captain' and Thorsten leaned to Danni.

"If she starts to cackle madly, I'm out of the Box as soon as we hit Stellvia."
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October 17th, 2009
And we are in!
Two contracts with SES Astra. One to remove their old satellites and a second one to run maintenance on the rest.
There is only one problem with the second contract...
They want to send one of their own men and a certified astronaut up to do the actual maintenance. In a sense we're only going to act as a ferry service.
Well, at least Danni used to work in the satellite end production when she was still employed by EADS Astrium.
But it looks like Whistler Orbital Services is now officially in business...
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STEALTH EDIT!

[HRogge]

Like I said in the IRC... Fenspace boosted burst of creativity in progress! *G*

[robkelk]

If you mention your plan to turn a S-IVB stage into a station while on Stellvia, Sora will give you the notes on what went well and poorly when she and Kohran handwaved the Shuttle main booster tanks - no charge. (Stellvia is actively courting favour from other Fen in late-2009, and Danni used to work for the company that built the ion drives on Noah's yacht.) That would help you not make the same mistakes that Stellvia made... but won't protect against you making your own brand-new mistakes.
--
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

[Warringer]

Depends on the mistakes. I need a small incident while building the station. :p

[Warringer]

November 6th, 2009

We got out station nearly finished. Some finishing touched on the main air lock and we should be set up.

We do have a hard seal on the two S-IVBs that are the workshop, the cargo hold and the living quarters, but there are still a few problems with the air lock. I'm going to take a look at it, while the crew goes to Stellvia with two of our salvaged Centaurs to fuel up on water.

Someone needs to stay behind until we can get an AI online to control our station.

Still need a name. Right now its a tossup between Stardust and KA Preiswert.

--------------------------------------

Naedial floated inside the currently gravityless S-IVB stage that was to act as a large airlock for any larger items they hoped to fix. It was welded to three of the four other former third stages of the Saturn V. Sheet steel smoothed over the edges of the stages, making it appear to have straight edges with rounded corners. One of the rounded corners formed the airlock to open space.

The fifth stage was sitting on top of the others with a docking adapter on the end for the Toy Box.

"Damned thing," Naedial grumbled as she stared at the open box that was build to control the two air locks of the stage.

It had not yet been 'waved and some cables stuck from it, while a small black microcontroller seemed to taunt Naedial.

Frustrated from her lack of any process with the thing, she took a hammer and gave the box a light whack.

There was a spark as she accidentally bridging two cabled. Before she knew what happened the inner air lock had closed and the well known mysterious blue smoke poured out of the box.

"Ahh shit," Naedial said and peered into the box, trying to find the origin.

Sometimes it was handy to have training as electronic technician, even if it had all been three nearly wasted years as no one had given her a job after it.

Looking at the box, she noticed a small capacitor that had all but exploded in the small energy spike from the hammer spike and she sighed. Now she had to take it out and exchange it for a new one.

She was about to reach for a screwdriver as she noticed a creaking and turned her head to see how the outer air lock buckled lightly.

"Oh fuck," she muttered.

That was bad. She had completely forgotten to get her life support stuff in the workshop and now the air lock looked ready to burst open.

A few thoughts shot through her head, most importantly the thought that she was not going to explode messily in space, unlike in the movies. Maybe she could get into the air lock at the docking port when she hyperventilated now to get as much oxygen into her blood before the airlock burst open?

Oh, who was she kidding...

Grabbing a nearby handrail welded to the inner wall of the former tank she held for her dear life as the air lock finally burst open, adding some debris to L5 that was going to be picked up later.

The thought that moved through Naedials head was that her friends were going to find her lifeless corpse hanging off the handrail when they returned.

Rather then trying to hold her breath, she let go of the air in her lungs, hoping against all odds that she would make it. Trying to hold her breath would only make her lungs explode.

Seconds ticked by as she reached for other handrails, to pull herself into free space and eventually to the dock, waiting for unconsciousness to claim her at any moment now.

The seconds stretched to a minute as she reached the edge of the airlock and looked outside. Immediately she felt warmer as the sunlight from behind her hit her wings.

She had long since learned that her wings were useless as actual wings and were mostly heat radiators as she had lost the ability to sweat with the biomod. Now the heat was cycled back into her body as the spread wings caught the sunlight.

There was still no sign of a beginning unconsciousness as she pulled herself out of the airlock and up towards the edge of the former tank where they had bolted a conventional ladder to the stations hull to move around easier. That would allow her to get to the docking air lock quite fast.

As the next minutes of careful maneuvering in micro gravity ticked by, Naedial noted a few more things. For one the tears of her eyes, while it had frozen solid by now, was still fully clear, allowing her to see everything around her. Her saliva did not present much of a problem either.

Finally she managed to grab hold of the ladder and pulled herself along it towards the upper end of the station and the docking port. She opened the empty and airless airlock at the port, pulling herself inside before cycling it.

Slowly air filled the air lock and she began to take in her first deep breathes in minutes, while curiosity got the better of her.

She had just survived in space without any shielding in the sense of a space suit for several minutes and she didn't even feel too winded about it. Not more then after taking about ten flights of stairs. So she looked at her watch as she took more breathes.

The air lock opened to the inside to take a look at the rudimentary station controls. Opening a log file she noted the time when the air lock had opened to space. She blinked a few times, the ice over them melting again.

She had just survived about fifteen minutes without a breathe.

Then it hit her. The handwavium that had accidentally biomodded her had been intended to vacuum proof the Tox Box. Apparently it had extended to her as well.

She grinned widely. That had potential. Maybe she could whip up a breathing mask and get rid of the uncomfortable helmet and the even more uncomfortable wing and tail bags?

As the Tox Box returned two hours later with two Centaur II stages, each filled with water, Naedial hung inside the open large airlock trying to fix the air lock controller, wearing only her wetsuit, tool/stuff belt and a 'waved respirator mask that had originally been meant for work inside the workshop.

Needless to say they were grilling her after that for days until letting it drop. From then on Naedial would always keep the respirator on her tool/stuff belt, then with an integrated bluetooth headset connected to her 'waved cellphone.

[Dartz]

Nice.

Welcome to the open-space club. I recommend taking time to enjoy the view...
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?