She definitely needs a Jetpack... just one with two large arms for the thrusters to keep it from roasting her tail. 
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[Story][Season 0][WIP] Whistling
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Either that or a pair of reactionless thrusters to be fit to the wings... :p
That's a hell of an ace! Makes me wonder how long she can go outside without oxygen.
About fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on how long she has time to prepare.
November 15th, 2009
So much for calling out station Stardust. While we were not looking a couple of Rhodanites had set up shop at L5 and called their station Stardust. Calling a station in semi-synchronous orbit Stardust when there is one named the same in the more populated L5 is a bad move. So we decided that we'd go with out alternative, KA Preiswert. But we won't hold it against the Rhodanites, we're maybe more of generalists, but with strong leanings towards Rhodanites anyway (And Hard SciFi...) as seen by naming out station. Still, time to turn on the new computer system and see if an AI awakens. ------------------------------------------------------ Everyone was more or less standing in the small control center of KA Preiswert looking at the various screens that lined one of the bulkheads, while three new high end blade server racks, about a quarter million dollar in hardware, sat along another. There was hardly any place to stand. Danni, Thorsten and Alex had trouble standing inside, even with the chair pulled out, so Naedial had to stand outside, through her size allowed her to peer inside the room anyway. "Here goes nothing," Danni said as she glanced at the large breaker switch next to the servers. She flipped the switch and power from the 'waved Fusor flowed through tick cables into the server racks, awakening the 'waved Multicore CPUs to life. Familiar BIOS lines and other information scrolled down the screens, different to most other bootups of AI systems. Then, blank screens. Only the breathing of four people, the low whirring sound coming from the fans of the servers and the low rumble of the life support system could be heard for the next few minutes, while the screens remained blank. Then a single command prompt opened on one screen and everyone blinked. "Thats it?" Alex wondered and stared at the keyboard and mouse combo that sat in front of the wall of screens. 'I'd know about it if anything else had happened' appeared on the screen, the prompt jumping to the next line. Again everyone blinked, looking at the screen, while the noise from the servers increased a little with it accessing the Internet and Interwave systems. "At least something," Thomas noted dryly before turning to Danni, who had set up the servers. "What did you put into the hard drives?" Danni sighed and eyes the servers and at a small USB Stick that poked out from a USB port. "My Rhodan collection," she said. This made everyone look at her and then at the screens. "Lets hope that we have gotten us a nice AI..." Naedial noted. "I'd hate to have some MdI hiding in out station." 'I'd know about that' the screen printed out followed by 'I will keep out of the private quarters' "What?" 'I will keep out of the private quarters' 'Now please excuse me while I familiarize me with my surroundings' 'Which is the reason why I not yet use any other IO' Everyone looked at each other. "Who are you," Danni finally asked. 'You may call me SENECA' "Oh ha..." Warringer Wrote:'I'd know about that' the screen printed out.... Poor SENECA, waking up in some waved used rocket shells instead of the state of the art generation ship of humanity... On the other side, there is still a lot of time to upgrade later.
On a sidenote.
What would be the standing of Whistler Orbital Services in Fenspace? In relations with other factions for example?
November 20th, 2009
With KA Preiswert now finished, we called SES Astra that we were ready to start up on our contract and remove some of the older Astra satellites from their graveyard orbits. They then told us that they had a technician and a former ESA astronaut for use to ferry around when we get to do maintenance on the sattelites. Apparently their astronaut was removed from the astronaut corps of ESA when the Ammis stopped the shuttle back in 2008 and got hired by Astra just last week. They are now on their way to Stellvia where we will meet up with them in about two days. Looks like we got two more crew members. -------------------------------------- November 22th, 2009 Got to meet our new men. André DuPond, no relation to that company, our new technician and Terris O'Conner our actual astronaut. Not that he had ever been in space before. Both seem to be nice enough guys, but they are a bit overwhelmed by Fenspace. Oh well, I'm sure that we'll be able to set them straight up here. By the end of the week they will take me as being normal up here. Compared to some of the fen I actually am normal... -------------------------------------- January 10th, 2010 Looks like Terris wants to remain in space. As André was called back to Earth to be rotated around with another technician for Astra, Terris told them that he wants to hire up with us. Astra allowed it and we now have a real astronaut among us. Well, at least until we are actual spacers. Astra also notes that they wouldn't send up another technician, as Terris is trained for the job as well. and because we actually did a good job. -------------------------------------- February 5th, 2010 We do some good work for Astra it seems. Eutelsat has approached us with two contracts very similar to that of Astra. Since we have Terris and know what we do by now, they won't sent anyone up to us. Another job is one for the ESA and the NASA. Looks like SOHO out at the Earth-Sol L1 makes some problems and they asked us to see what we can do. Fee has already received the plans for SOHO and we're going to see what he have on un-'waved materials that could be used to repair SOHO. But it looks like we're going to be out a little longer than normal. One week at least. -------------------------------------- As the Toy Box undocked from KA Preiswert and slowly moved away from the station with its altitude jets, the lights in the workshop were dimmed by SENECA to conserve energy. Minutes later a small LED light lit up in one of the shelves that contained parts from an old salvaged US satellite. No one exactly knew what the satellite had done when it was still active, but the hardware was rather hardy and useful for quite a few fen. Only the main computer bus had remained behind. An hour later the computers of the workshop powered up and seemed to work on their own, something SENECA noticed within microseconds. But the stations computer didn't do anything, being kept out of the workshops systems and not being ordered what to do in this case. So the webcams that acted as his eyes observed how the machines in the workshop began with a mysterious construction on their own. -------------------------------------- February 21st, 2010 The SOHO mission was longer then expected. The bird had more problems then the eggheads at ESA/NASA thought. Actual testing of the solar observatory showed a good number of problems they did not notice with the software readouts. And then we had to help some idiot in a Corolla who forgot to fill up on petrol. He's now safe and sound at Stellvia. And we will be happy to get back to KA Preiswert. -------------------------------------- There was a hiss of air as the airlock on top of KA Preiswert opened up and Naedial peeked through. "Honey, we're home!" she called out, making the other snicker behind her. "I hope you had a successful mission, ma'am," SENECA noted in his normal completely dry deadpan tone of voice. For his voice alone he would have made a good British butler. "Reasonably," Naedial noted and sighed. "You know the files." "That I do." Naedial slowly pulled herself through the airlock and turned herself as she pushed herself into the part of the station that was under gravity. By now she was long trained with this maneuver and it had lost its uniqueness. "There is something in the workshop that you might want to see," SENECA noted after a few moments as the other fell through the airlock and dropped into the gravity of the station. "Don't tell me that there is another 'wavium spill on the west shelve," Danni piped up. There had been a spill four weeks ago, going over about half the part the shelve had contained. Since they were not powered no one could tell exactly what the parts were now capable of doing. "I would know it if there was another spill," SENECA noted and brought an image of the workshop up to the screen. On the screen something that resembled a metal egg floated towards one of the edges of the screen, while one of the robot arms of the workshop waves something red and floppy into the image for a moment. "What the hell?" The five man crew looked at each other before trying to get to the workshop first. Somehow Naedial managed to be the first to get down the ladder that lead to the workshop first and pulled open the hatch to it. Being the first to look through she could see something that resembled an oversized anthropomorphic toy dragon in red rubber sitting on a bench, a seam slowly disappearing on its front. The others bumped into her from behind, pushing her forward. She stumbled forward and towards the oversized toy, making her waves around her arms for a few more moments, before she reached out to hold herself up with the help of the red toy dragon. In the same moment the toy dragon's eyes lit up from the inside and it reached out with its own arms to keep Naedial up, incidentally pressing her face into the toys chest. Here Naedial discovered that the toy appeared to be female, considering the now quite obvious most common superpower. "What the heck?" Terris summed up everyones thoughts. -------------------------------------- Half an hour later everyone had gathered in the living room of KA Preiswert, sitting on the couches, while the dragon toy was standing in one corner. After finding out that the dragon was not dangerous, they had used the time to review a video that SENECA had made during the SOHO mission, showing what exactly had happened in the workshop. "Why didn't you call us?" Danni finally asked. "My orders said that I only was to call you if something was wrong with the station. I fail to see how unexpected activity in the workshop could be seen as something being wrong with the station." Everyones heads then turned around to face the red dragon. "What do you mean you asked him not to tell us?" Alexander asked, before what had just happened sunk in. Everyone knew what the dragon has said, but no one could remember actually hearing it. "What" Thorsten made as a reaction. "It appears that our new friend does not communicate normally," SENECA noted dryly." I would not call it telepathy, since I seem to understand her as well. I just seem to know what she wanted to say, just as you apparently." Now that they were able to somehow understand the dragon, she communicated that she was the computer module of a late 80s SigInt satellite. Apparently she gained sentience in the wake the 'wavium spill. Only with the crew of the Toy Box leaving for an extended time had allowed her to take control of the workshop to build herself a new body. Somehow she had come over the files describing the VARIO-500 robot from Perry Rhodan, and some of Naedials personal files, and had decided on using that as a body. "I am not a newfangled toy!" SENECA suddenly called out, making everyone blink at the vehement tone in his voice." I am a highly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence. And my defenses are up to date." The eyes once again turned to the dragon, who just shrugged visibly. "Okay, what are you going to do now?" Naedial asked after a few moments of silence, making the dragon shrug again commuting that she did not know. "How about working for us?" Danni suggested, eying the dragon shaped AI. "Not exactly what I would do," SENECA noted, his voice sounding put off by the dragon. What followed was a longer discussion about whether or not they could trust the dragon. It had build itself in secret. But it had not attacked anyone. It had remained silent during the two week after the spill. But it did note that it did not know anything about the station and crew then. "What is your name anyway?" Terris asked in between, once again making the dragon shrug, communicating that it did now have a name. "How about 'Vario'?" Naedial suggested after a while, making the dragon nod. The discussion what to do with the newly named Vario continued for the rest of the day, eventually leading to the conclusion that they would give her a chance. Curiously Vario ended up sitting on Naedial's lap.  Warringer Wrote:On a sidenote. That depends on the faction. I suspect Whistler would get along well with groups that spend a lot of time in Earth orbit, or who travel to and from Earth on a regular basis - the Trekkies, the Warsies, Hermes Universal Deliveries, the Blue Blazers, StellviaCorp, and similar groups. People who don't care whether Earth orbit is clean wouldn't care about Whistler - the Potterites, the Cyber Confederation, and so on. Overall, "cleaning up Earth orbit" is a good thing, so I think the general reaction to Whistler would be positive. -- 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
»Whistler Orbital Service? They do a dirty job no one else was willing to do, but without it the flight to Earth an back would be much more dangerous. Its always the small things that are easily overlooked by anyone. Small but important things.«
- overheard in Kandor city HRogge Wrote:»Whistler Orbital Service? They do a dirty job no one else was willing to do, but without it the flight to Earth an back would be much more dangerous. Its always the small things that are easily overlooked by anyone. Small but important things.«Makes me want to write a segment where someone in the crew writes a mail to Mike Rowe of 'Dirty Jobs' expecting not even to get an answer. Only to get an answer asking when it would be good to come for doing the 'dirty job'. Mike would even get a non-waved russian space suit. :p "One of the cleanest dirty jobs I've ever done." - Mike Rowe Quote:robkelkWell, they'd also sell salvaged parts to the general fen public. Stuff like 'waved solar panels may be useful. Warringer Wrote:Well, they'd also sell salvaged parts to the general fen public. Stuff like 'waved solar panels may be useful. "We have both kinds of panels... the white ones and the black ones!" "What are the black ones for?" "They only produce energy when in shadow."
May 2nd, 2010
We're running out of space in our little warehouse. Between keeping some of the good and useful stuff to ourselves and not selling other things, our shelves are slowly filling up. Not to mention that our little living area is slowly filling up as well. We need more space, but we have no idea how to expand. Quite obviously there are no large spend rocket stages there any more. And there won't be any more since everyone stopped launching large rockets. May 3rd, 2010 We had a long brainstorming and found a way to bump up our storage capacity. Danni suggested to ask NASA nicely for an external shuttle tank, but we quickly shot it down. Stellvia has done that already and the TSAB would make us pay them through our nose. The idea to use conventional ISO containers, like we used for the Toy Box is better. We can get them just about everywhere. We got to ask someone to get them to use through. May 5th, 2010 I'm going to kill Terris. Because of him we now have to deal with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. Apparently he wrote Discovery Channel as a joke some time back and attached a video of one our jobs. Now we need to find a way to get Mike into our table without killing him or exposing him to Handwavium... May 20th, 2010 Today's the day. Mike Rowe is on his way from Stellvia with his crew. I hope they brought those Russian spacesuit with them we rented for them. It is going to be a tight fit here. ————————————– "My name's Mike Rowe, and this is my job. I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty — hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now, get ready to get dirty. "Today I'm a little further away from home. More exactly I'm aboard of KA Preiswert..." Mike turned around to Naedial with a furrowed eyebrow while the camera followed his look to wards the wogon. "I did say that right, didn't I?" Naedial nodded with a light smirk on her face, making Mike continue. "...KA Preiswert, strange name that. A space station up in Space." He smirked himself. "That's right, people. I thought that we should broaden out horizons a little." Again he turned to face Naedial. "This is out host, Naedial Warringer, the boss of Whistler Orbital Services and the captain of the Toy Box." "Hey, Mike." ————————————– "This gotta be the stranges jobs I've ever done." Mike Rowe floated in free space after getting the 5 cent tour of KA Preiswert and some security headup from Terris. Said old ESA hand was floating next to him, a hand holding to one of the large 40 feet containers, while Mike held himself on the station with a cordless drill in hand. "You get used to it," Terris noted." I never expected to handle containers in space either." "What are we doing here anyway?" "We build an expansion of KA Preiswert," Naedial piped up and Mike turned to look into her face, which was only covered by a breathing mask. "Ack," he made, nearly loosing his hold on the station." Don't do that." To him it looked like the wogon was grinning, even through he was unable to tell if she actually did. "Where's your suit? In the wash or something?" While he had known about it beforehand and he had freaked out when he had seen her get into the airlock with only her breathing mask on her face. "Or something," Naedial noted and shrugged." This is why we aren't letting you anywhere near Handwavium. That and my shape." "I see," he made and turned back to the container." This got to be one of the cleanest dirty jobs I've every done." "Maybe be clean, but its dangerous," Terris noted." Just a couple of weeks ago we found someone in light ‘waved spacesuit down in LEO. Apparently a flake of paint went straight through his head, when he had problems with his Pinto. It was not pretty." Mike stopped working for a moment. "I don't know if I should worried about the Pinto or the flake of paint." "Be worried about the paint."
"Cleaning up orbit is the cleanest dirtiest job in space... until you got hit, then its the messiest dirtiest job in space."
Yeah, you only need to worry about the Pinto if you run into the back of it....
________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig? 
From a Discovery Channel meeting after the taping:
Quote:"We can't air it." We've got some McCarthy-like "Fen Scare" politicos already established in Fenspace, and they're doing the infamous "Queen Stands on the beach and demands the tide not come in." I'd imagine "The Big Bang Theory" didn't do too well... or exploded even more than IRL due to the controversy over geek culture. ''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
"So you do have only to worry about all this microscopic trash in the orbit around Earth?"
Naedial pointing to the shape of a 5 ton communication satellite in graveyard orbit: "Thats something we worry about too..." Foxboy Wrote:From a Discovery Channel meeting after the taping:Perhaps they at least put the episode up on the Interwave... Maybe they even get some NASA backing here as Whistler is doing a job that is good for Earth as well. Besides its after Kandor Con that might help a little too... EDIT: A thought... Discovery may not air the Space episode of Dirty Jobs in America over their fear of being sued by someone, but may air it elsewhere, with fans torrenting the episode. Or something like that. Foxboy Wrote:... and they're doing the infamous "Queen Stands on the beach and demands the tide not come in."You know that never works... besides, it's a pain getting all the sand out of the piano afterwards. -- 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 Foxboy Wrote:From a Discovery Channel meeting after the taping:I got a better idea. Who votes that a coalition of SMOFS does a hostile takeover of the Discover Network channels? Then we'll get ourselves some real promotion of SCIENCE! (Can you imagine the Myth Busters with special guest, The Professor?) robkelk Wrote:And Freddie is dead anyway... ;_;Foxboy Wrote:... and they're doing the infamous "Queen Stands on the beach and demands the tide not come in."
And a Wikidive makes a mockery of my intent.
I'd intended "Arrogant ruling class commands a force of nature they have no control over." And instead it's the tale of a strong act of Piety by King Cnut "of Denmark, England, all the Swedes and Some Norwegians." (crowned 1016) ''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 blackaeronaut Wrote:I got a better idea. Who votes that a coalition of SMOFS does a hostile takeover of the Discover Network channels? Then we'll get ourselves some real promotion of SCIENCE! (Can you imagine the Myth Busters with special guest, The Professor?)It comes down to the point how far Fenspace dares to interfere with Earth. Some days ago we discussed building up a Fen-based "phone company". A series of waved satellites in geosynch. orbit that allow normal GSM phones to log in and can be used as a SMS to twitter/facebook/google+ gateway. Donation based, free communication for everyone (but only "phone to public"). A Fen based TV channel would be similar, the Fen could easily set up a series of transmitters in orbit, but some of the countries down on Earth would go crazy, especially ones like Iran or China. The meta question is: can we do this without derailing the story towards a bad end? (edit) Maybe we should decide (from a Meta point of view) if the 2013 US presidential election was won by the Anti-Fen-hardliners or not. The fact that the TSAB still goes strong in 2014 suggests that the Hardliners won, which might make 2017 the date when the US finally begins to cool down.
I would advise against anything like that. At least when it comes down to antagonising the 'danes any more then needed.
Besides I guess that aside from the US and China most of the World comes around to at least tolerate the Fender. HRogge Wrote:It comes down to the point how far Fenspace dares to interfere with Earth.There's a strong undercurrent in the SMOFs (read: Mal and I push the agenda) that Earth should be left to its own devices unless they ask for help or they do something that affects a large segment of Fenspace. The Trekkies call it the Prime Directive. HRogge Wrote:The meta question is: can we do this without derailing the story towards a bad end?I suspect not. While cultural imperialism may be better than the other kind, the 'Danelaw is very good at the other kind... HRogge Wrote:Maybe we should decide (from a Meta point of view) if the 2013 US presidential election was won by the Anti-Fen-hardliners or not. The fact that the TSAB still goes strong in 2014 suggests that the Hardliners won, which might make 2017 the date when the US finally begins to cool down.TSAB still going strong could simply be bureaucratic inertia. Government agencies take longer to react to change than private-sector agencies do, and military agencies (with their strong military traditions) take longer to react to change than other government agencies do. Besides, the TSAB remit includes reverse-engineering handwaved devices and making hardtech equivalents - that isn't going to go away simply because Artemis is competing with TSAB on the space-exploration front, and that means TSAB isn't going to go away any time soon. -- 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 |
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