My worries about transportation for our lastest guests were temporarily alleviated when Peggy's brothers all showed up in more golf carts. This surprised me a bit, since none of the three had actually lived in the neighborhood, so I hadn't expected them to be comfortable driving cross-country in the ship. Then again, it wasn't like they could get lost -- all they had to do was head for the dome and then follow it around to get to any of the docks or either end of Blue Horizon Boulevard.
Anyway, Dave and Jim were racing, while Ed -- as ever careful about aggravating his back -- followed behind them at a slightly more stately pace. I had no idea how they'd known we needed transport for more guests, but I was very glad to see them -- the Inelegant Truth's shuttle was sliding into the garage even as they screeched to a halt in front of me.
"Yo, guys, good timing," I said as they unlimbered themselves and stretched. All three of Peggy's brothers tower over me, anywhere from couple inches to over a head taller, and just seeing them squeezed into the golf carts had been amusing. "'Scuse me a moment," I added when I heard/felt the shuttle touch concrete, and thumbed the transmit button on the walkie-talkie. "You're down, right?"
"That we are, Grover's Corners," crackled back.
"'Kay, then, hold on for atmosphere." I hit the garage door button; when the motors stopped grinding, I heard the whir of the air pumps. We'd originally wired the two plus a couple of other systems separately, though they all came to the same control panel; the 'wavium had taken them all and integrated the lot. Even better, it seemed to have figured out what order we needed to run things ("pump out air, then open garage doors," for example) when performing what would become common tasks, and had automated them for us. It had even added a couple safety interlocks that we'd not had the time or materials to make ourselves. Then again, we always had good results with 'wavium, as long as we had at least one of the Wiccans talking to it and telling it the general idea of what we wanted.
Anyway, the button flashed green again, and the back door unbolted itself. I keyed the radio again. "You're go for air, guys."
"Thanks! See you in a couple minutes then."
"Right!" I slid the walkie-talkie into a pocket, and turned back to Peggy's brothers. "So, like I was saying, good timing. This is our first load of space reporters, but they sound like cool folks."
"Spiff," Dave said. Oldest brother, craggiest features, middle height. "We'll give'em the tour, then."
"Get lost, more like it," Jim amended. Middle brother, shortest but still taller than me.
"So..." I kept one eye on the garage door, so I could greet our new visitors properly. "How'd you guys know I needed more wheels?" I glanced over at Ed's cart, which was another of the ones that had gained hover systems in the conversion. "Seats, whatever."
Ed -- youngest, tallest -- slowly rolled his shoulders and stretched. "That fellow Nick had another radio on him and set it up so we could all hear it. We've been listening to you all this time."
I frowned. "And no one bothered to jump on the line to help."
"Nah," Dave answered. "You were doing just fine by yourself. Besides, we were listening in on all the other radio chatter out there, too."
"We've, uh, caused a bit of a ruckus with the launch," Jim added with a grin.
"Gee, can't imagine why," I deadpanned, and just then the garage door opened.
* * *
After all the greetings and the inevitable "wow"s at the interior vista, we got the crew of the Inelegant Truth and all their gear in the carts. But no sooner had Peggy's brothers taken off with them for Town Hall, then I got another hail on the squawkbox: "Hello, Grover's Corners, this is the SS Epsilon Blade out of space station Stellvia, requesting permission to land. We've got nine people aboard who'd like to say hello to you in person. We also have some communications equipment I suspect you'd appreciate having, and one of the people aboard is an engineer who knows how to install it. Awaiting your reply..."
I sighed. No rest for the weary. I mean that literally -- it was nearly three in the morning for all of us. At least the kids were probably asleep. Lucky kids. If things had happened as we'd intended them to, we'd've been safely parked at L3 with all of us sacking out by now. We just didn't take into account a) that Fenspace doesn't run on Eastern Daylight Time and b) just how overwhelmingly interesting we would be to the folks who were already out there. The combination essentially scuttled our original plans.
After the first couple of guests, I was starting to get just a little bit irritable, what with the lack of sleep and all. I was tired, not stupid, though -- for one thing, that FTL comm system would be very welcome. And for another, well, we'd done our research on Fenspace long before lifting and had kept it up to date, and I knew that ten people out of Stellvia on the Epsilon Blade could be only one thing -- some kind of mass diplomatic mission from the various factions.
Oh joy. I'm not all that diplomatic even when I'm awake.
-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.
Anyway, Dave and Jim were racing, while Ed -- as ever careful about aggravating his back -- followed behind them at a slightly more stately pace. I had no idea how they'd known we needed transport for more guests, but I was very glad to see them -- the Inelegant Truth's shuttle was sliding into the garage even as they screeched to a halt in front of me.
"Yo, guys, good timing," I said as they unlimbered themselves and stretched. All three of Peggy's brothers tower over me, anywhere from couple inches to over a head taller, and just seeing them squeezed into the golf carts had been amusing. "'Scuse me a moment," I added when I heard/felt the shuttle touch concrete, and thumbed the transmit button on the walkie-talkie. "You're down, right?"
"That we are, Grover's Corners," crackled back.
"'Kay, then, hold on for atmosphere." I hit the garage door button; when the motors stopped grinding, I heard the whir of the air pumps. We'd originally wired the two plus a couple of other systems separately, though they all came to the same control panel; the 'wavium had taken them all and integrated the lot. Even better, it seemed to have figured out what order we needed to run things ("pump out air, then open garage doors," for example) when performing what would become common tasks, and had automated them for us. It had even added a couple safety interlocks that we'd not had the time or materials to make ourselves. Then again, we always had good results with 'wavium, as long as we had at least one of the Wiccans talking to it and telling it the general idea of what we wanted.
Anyway, the button flashed green again, and the back door unbolted itself. I keyed the radio again. "You're go for air, guys."
"Thanks! See you in a couple minutes then."
"Right!" I slid the walkie-talkie into a pocket, and turned back to Peggy's brothers. "So, like I was saying, good timing. This is our first load of space reporters, but they sound like cool folks."
"Spiff," Dave said. Oldest brother, craggiest features, middle height. "We'll give'em the tour, then."
"Get lost, more like it," Jim amended. Middle brother, shortest but still taller than me.
"So..." I kept one eye on the garage door, so I could greet our new visitors properly. "How'd you guys know I needed more wheels?" I glanced over at Ed's cart, which was another of the ones that had gained hover systems in the conversion. "Seats, whatever."
Ed -- youngest, tallest -- slowly rolled his shoulders and stretched. "That fellow Nick had another radio on him and set it up so we could all hear it. We've been listening to you all this time."
I frowned. "And no one bothered to jump on the line to help."
"Nah," Dave answered. "You were doing just fine by yourself. Besides, we were listening in on all the other radio chatter out there, too."
"We've, uh, caused a bit of a ruckus with the launch," Jim added with a grin.
"Gee, can't imagine why," I deadpanned, and just then the garage door opened.
* * *
After all the greetings and the inevitable "wow"s at the interior vista, we got the crew of the Inelegant Truth and all their gear in the carts. But no sooner had Peggy's brothers taken off with them for Town Hall, then I got another hail on the squawkbox: "Hello, Grover's Corners, this is the SS Epsilon Blade out of space station Stellvia, requesting permission to land. We've got nine people aboard who'd like to say hello to you in person. We also have some communications equipment I suspect you'd appreciate having, and one of the people aboard is an engineer who knows how to install it. Awaiting your reply..."
I sighed. No rest for the weary. I mean that literally -- it was nearly three in the morning for all of us. At least the kids were probably asleep. Lucky kids. If things had happened as we'd intended them to, we'd've been safely parked at L3 with all of us sacking out by now. We just didn't take into account a) that Fenspace doesn't run on Eastern Daylight Time and b) just how overwhelmingly interesting we would be to the folks who were already out there. The combination essentially scuttled our original plans.
After the first couple of guests, I was starting to get just a little bit irritable, what with the lack of sleep and all. I was tired, not stupid, though -- for one thing, that FTL comm system would be very welcome. And for another, well, we'd done our research on Fenspace long before lifting and had kept it up to date, and I knew that ten people out of Stellvia on the Epsilon Blade could be only one thing -- some kind of mass diplomatic mission from the various factions.
Oh joy. I'm not all that diplomatic even when I'm awake.
-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.