I was one of the lucky ones, I guess. I missed The Guacamole Incident. I missed what the Professor did to Paris. I was already planning at the time when I heard about the 'wavium.
See, most of the fen would go off one of their favorite stories, SF stuff, anime series. I knew that. I had to go somewhere else for mine, somewhere that would work. Thankfully, I had it already. I thought some hard SF would work best.
The crew compartment was easiest. I had a friend who had an old farm, and someone had already redone the silo twenty years ago into living quarters. He was trying to get rid of the land, but the silo was a sticking point, and I told him I could get rid of it.
All I had to do was clean it up to make it mine. Bookshelves, sleeping areas, kitchen, and two bowl-shaped chairs at a screen on the top, right under the roof of the silo. The other half of the top floor was a bunch of old obsolete computers, stacked, with an old Cisco router connecting them all. All treated with the 'wavium. Then I painted the inside with it, laid the complete printouts of the webcomic around, and went to sleep.
I woke up the next day with the oddest feeling. I could feel something, some kind of thought, just outside my reach. An immense intellect, outside mine, just touchable. I didn't know what it was, but it knew me and was pleased to know me. (My current theory is that it's the collective unconcious of every fen who's used or been changed by Handwavium, bent towards the general make-a-better-world urges. But I can't tell, and It has It's own motives.) And then a man's voice spoke, gentle but with a sense of tremendous power. I recognized it. Of course it would pattern the voice after Jet Li.
"Qin Shihuangdi online, Captain. Nanotechnological probes have completely construction; vector systems are online; cadence lance is online. Shall we prepare to depart?"
"Hold on, Qin," I said, and headed towards the... where was the ladder? Just a hole.... oh, wait. I stepped into it, and the vector system lifted me to control, where I settled into the control couch.
I knew this was a big risk. New Jersey, between 9/11 and the idiots who decided to cause that crap in Grover's Mill, had been one of the first states to ban Handwavium technology completely. And here I was, upstate, using it ANYWAY. And sure enough, the troopers had noticed.
"They are demanding shutdown of all systems, and your surrender. I am assuming that you wish to refuse and depart."
"Indeed. Prepare for liftoff. We can do this with minimal damage, correct?"
"Of course. Vector systems online. Raising ship."
And there we went, into the wild black yonder, without even rattling the ground.
Qin linked into the FenNets once we got above the radiosphere, and immediately we got started catching up. With the vector technology, and what the 'wave had done to me, we were in a pretty good position. Qin and I agreed, with Its advice, to go into the business of protection - escorting smaller ships, mining ships, people like that.
And thus came the call to Port Phobos (our homeport - really, after all, it had to be), and to the SOS-dan con.
And yes, I did park in orbit, activate the link, and walk across to the airlock rather than wait for a parking space. Qin's body wouldn't have fit in there anyway, and it's always fun striding through vacuum and waving at people as you go.
It wants them to look, and think, and ponder, and remember that even in Fenspace, there's still room for Miracles of Science.Brazil has decided you're cute.Brazil has decided you're cute.
See, most of the fen would go off one of their favorite stories, SF stuff, anime series. I knew that. I had to go somewhere else for mine, somewhere that would work. Thankfully, I had it already. I thought some hard SF would work best.
The crew compartment was easiest. I had a friend who had an old farm, and someone had already redone the silo twenty years ago into living quarters. He was trying to get rid of the land, but the silo was a sticking point, and I told him I could get rid of it.
All I had to do was clean it up to make it mine. Bookshelves, sleeping areas, kitchen, and two bowl-shaped chairs at a screen on the top, right under the roof of the silo. The other half of the top floor was a bunch of old obsolete computers, stacked, with an old Cisco router connecting them all. All treated with the 'wavium. Then I painted the inside with it, laid the complete printouts of the webcomic around, and went to sleep.
I woke up the next day with the oddest feeling. I could feel something, some kind of thought, just outside my reach. An immense intellect, outside mine, just touchable. I didn't know what it was, but it knew me and was pleased to know me. (My current theory is that it's the collective unconcious of every fen who's used or been changed by Handwavium, bent towards the general make-a-better-world urges. But I can't tell, and It has It's own motives.) And then a man's voice spoke, gentle but with a sense of tremendous power. I recognized it. Of course it would pattern the voice after Jet Li.
"Qin Shihuangdi online, Captain. Nanotechnological probes have completely construction; vector systems are online; cadence lance is online. Shall we prepare to depart?"
"Hold on, Qin," I said, and headed towards the... where was the ladder? Just a hole.... oh, wait. I stepped into it, and the vector system lifted me to control, where I settled into the control couch.
I knew this was a big risk. New Jersey, between 9/11 and the idiots who decided to cause that crap in Grover's Mill, had been one of the first states to ban Handwavium technology completely. And here I was, upstate, using it ANYWAY. And sure enough, the troopers had noticed.
"They are demanding shutdown of all systems, and your surrender. I am assuming that you wish to refuse and depart."
"Indeed. Prepare for liftoff. We can do this with minimal damage, correct?"
"Of course. Vector systems online. Raising ship."
And there we went, into the wild black yonder, without even rattling the ground.
Qin linked into the FenNets once we got above the radiosphere, and immediately we got started catching up. With the vector technology, and what the 'wave had done to me, we were in a pretty good position. Qin and I agreed, with Its advice, to go into the business of protection - escorting smaller ships, mining ships, people like that.
And thus came the call to Port Phobos (our homeport - really, after all, it had to be), and to the SOS-dan con.
And yes, I did park in orbit, activate the link, and walk across to the airlock rather than wait for a parking space. Qin's body wouldn't have fit in there anyway, and it's always fun striding through vacuum and waving at people as you go.
It wants them to look, and think, and ponder, and remember that even in Fenspace, there's still room for Miracles of Science.Brazil has decided you're cute.Brazil has decided you're cute.