(Posting to a few points in the narrative, and moving the story along...)
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re:Economics
> Speaking of which, I've had a couple of offers from people who think
> it'd be really original to smuggle some AK47's into the CSA. (Just
> because I hang around with the brown coats and run a tramp freighter,
> that does not mean I'm a smuggler, OK.) I told them that a) it would
> take only a few months to reverse engineer them and maybe a year to
> start large scale production with WWII tech and b) Fenspace needs a
> co-ordinated approach and they should go through the Con.
Oh, joy. Whose bright idea was it to mix TL-191 and The Guns of the
South? Whoever it was, please slap him, her, or it with a
Clue-By-Four a couple of times for me.
> Oh - we're going to be REALLY alien and pretty disgusting to these
> people. For a start, a lot of us are OK with "sodomy" of all things, let
> alone "miscegenation". We don't blink at wearing clothes in public that
> prostitutes wouldn't wear in private. We would NOT have what they
> consider proper manners. We'd just be familiar enough that the
> differences would stand out, not what we'd have in common - basically
> the uncanny valley effect. Frankly, we're sufficiently nasty to their
> sensibilities that if we aren't careful and professional about this, we
> could end up with a US/CSA alliance against us, with a mutual horror of
> anything that might lead to them becoming like us.
True. At least for the first few trips, let's not mention our mixed-race
and same-sex marriages, let alone any of the human/AI marriages. And no
blues, jazz, swing, rock, or hip-hop on our sound systems unless we hear
similar styles from the replacement US or the CSA first. Let's keep the
culture shock to a minimum.
(Yes, they probably have something like blues, but I wouldn't be
surprised if it's "sharecroppers' music" in the replacement US and
"slaves' music" in the CSA. We do not want to come off as lowbrow.)
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in
pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause
worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Visting Hours Are Now Open
> (Noah: Are any of the Graces currently available & can be pulled off
> rotation quickly? Laika's equipped to piggyback a shuttle, and we might
> earn some goodwill if they see a spacecraft with the Stars & Stripes
> accompanying a Convention vessel.)
Discovery's currently docked at Port Phobos, having just brought half
the Artemis Foundation folks to 191-Con. I'll have the flight crew bring
her to Korolev ASAP.
In exchange, I'd like somebody with heavy towing capability to keep an
ear open at L5. If worse comes to worst, I may need to drop a few pods
for someone else to pick up at a moment's notice.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in
pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause
worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
Date: November 26, 2016
Subj: Re: Information which may be useful in the current situation
> The basics of the Burroughs drive are simple enough -- force a gyroscope
> to precess in a direction outside of 3-space. But precisely-controlling
> that precession to the degree that's needed for navigation, yeah, I can
> see how that would be a bit hard to accomplish with SOTA technology and
> techniques in a space smaller than a barn. No cheating with waved
> support systems is possible?
Kohran says "at least ten years, and that's *with* handwavium assist".
I think we're out of luck with a tech solution, but I'm not dismissing
any possibilities right now. This one will need more brainpower than we
can spare until Featherston's brought to heel, though, so let's hope the
fighters work fast.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in
pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause
worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
Main Operations
Stellvia
08:31 GMT 29 November 2016
As he sat down behind his own desk for the first time in days, Noah Scott thought that it was good to be home. The Convention, while necessary to show the Fen and the 'Danes that things were happening, was a distraction from the real job of finding everyone.
"Sir..."
Noah heard the undertone in Jake Hansen's voice. "What's wrong now, Duty Officer?"
"We've got a DQS on level 2, attached pod 37. It was so faint that I almost missed it."
"Seal the pod. I'm going to check it out."
"Already sealed, sir." After a beat, the duty officer continued. "Be careful, Noah. The last time this happened, you had backup and you were single. Now you're going out alone, and you've got a wife and daughter waiting for you to come home tonight."
"Jake, that's all the more reason for me to find out whether this is a threat to Leda and Helen." The door closed behind Noah.
Level 2, Attached Residential Pod 37
Stellvia
08:32 GMT 29 November 2016
The damned door was locked. Obviously, the locals had some way to detect the quantum disturbance caused by the message pod's jump; this was a hell of a way to discover they knew more than expected.
Nothing to do about it now but wait - suicide, while always an option, wasn't particularly appealing, and death would make it impossible to salvage anything of the mission.
The wait wasn't very long. The outer airlock door opened to admit, no nobody's surprise, the station's owner. "Of all the people I thought might be in here, communicating with another universe, I didn't expect to see you." Noah Scott manipulated the airlock controls while he continued. "I'm going to unlock this door, but I'll warn you now: if you make any attempt to overpower me, the entire pod will depressurize."
"Yes, of course," Maico Tange replied.
Level 2, Attached Residential Pod 37
Stellvia
11:14 GMT 29 November 2016
"Does this 'banestorm' phenomenon usually affect that large an area?"
Maico shook her head. "No, Mr. Scott, that's the largest banestorm I've ever heard of. And that's really all I know about them. But I have a question for you: how did you spot me?"
Noah smiled. "Sore was, himitsu desu."
"I didn't know you speak Japanese."
"I don't, aside from a few phrases. But now you know how I felt when you kept telling me so many things about you are classified." He stood up, holstering his pistol. "I'm going to let you go, but I expect you to come back with a reply to my request."
"We don't usually operate openly in other worldlines, but exceptions have been made on occasion. I'll see what I can do."
Noah backed out of the pod, and Maico put her head in her hands. How am I going to explain this to Infinity? she thought. At least I was able to keep most of The Secret... but I'm sure I told Mr. Scott too much.
Meanwhile, Noah was trying to decide how much, if anything, to tell the SMOFs about Ms. Tange. Despite her being a spy for a completely different reality, she hadn't actually done anything wrong. Did he have a right to betray her confidence?
--
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
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 23, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Re:Economics
> Speaking of which, I've had a couple of offers from people who think
> it'd be really original to smuggle some AK47's into the CSA. (Just
> because I hang around with the brown coats and run a tramp freighter,
> that does not mean I'm a smuggler, OK.) I told them that a) it would
> take only a few months to reverse engineer them and maybe a year to
> start large scale production with WWII tech and b) Fenspace needs a
> co-ordinated approach and they should go through the Con.
Oh, joy. Whose bright idea was it to mix TL-191 and The Guns of the
South? Whoever it was, please slap him, her, or it with a
Clue-By-Four a couple of times for me.
> Oh - we're going to be REALLY alien and pretty disgusting to these
> people. For a start, a lot of us are OK with "sodomy" of all things, let
> alone "miscegenation". We don't blink at wearing clothes in public that
> prostitutes wouldn't wear in private. We would NOT have what they
> consider proper manners. We'd just be familiar enough that the
> differences would stand out, not what we'd have in common - basically
> the uncanny valley effect. Frankly, we're sufficiently nasty to their
> sensibilities that if we aren't careful and professional about this, we
> could end up with a US/CSA alliance against us, with a mutual horror of
> anything that might lead to them becoming like us.
True. At least for the first few trips, let's not mention our mixed-race
and same-sex marriages, let alone any of the human/AI marriages. And no
blues, jazz, swing, rock, or hip-hop on our sound systems unless we hear
similar styles from the replacement US or the CSA first. Let's keep the
culture shock to a minimum.
(Yes, they probably have something like blues, but I wouldn't be
surprised if it's "sharecroppers' music" in the replacement US and
"slaves' music" in the CSA. We do not want to come off as lowbrow.)
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in
pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause
worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Operation FIREFALL Mailing List (firefall@sovietairforce.fen)
Date: November 24, 2016
Subj: [FIREFALL] Visting Hours Are Now Open
> (Noah: Are any of the Graces currently available & can be pulled off
> rotation quickly? Laika's equipped to piggyback a shuttle, and we might
> earn some goodwill if they see a spacecraft with the Stars & Stripes
> accompanying a Convention vessel.)
Discovery's currently docked at Port Phobos, having just brought half
the Artemis Foundation folks to 191-Con. I'll have the flight crew bring
her to Korolev ASAP.
In exchange, I'd like somebody with heavy towing capability to keep an
ear open at L5. If worse comes to worst, I may need to drop a few pods
for someone else to pick up at a moment's notice.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in
pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause
worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
From: Noah Scott (bigcheese@stellvia.lib)
To: Bob Schroeck (rms@ourtown.fen)
Date: November 26, 2016
Subj: Re: Information which may be useful in the current situation
> The basics of the Burroughs drive are simple enough -- force a gyroscope
> to precess in a direction outside of 3-space. But precisely-controlling
> that precession to the degree that's needed for navigation, yeah, I can
> see how that would be a bit hard to accomplish with SOTA technology and
> techniques in a space smaller than a barn. No cheating with waved
> support systems is possible?
Kohran says "at least ten years, and that's *with* handwavium assist".
I think we're out of luck with a tech solution, but I'm not dismissing
any possibilities right now. This one will need more brainpower than we
can spare until Featherston's brought to heel, though, so let's hope the
fighters work fast.
--
Noah Scott, of station Stellvia
"In any confrontation, your goal must be to win. There is no sense in
pursuing a confrontation in a way that will leave you or your cause
worse off than when it began." - J.D Salinger, March 1999
Main Operations
Stellvia
08:31 GMT 29 November 2016
As he sat down behind his own desk for the first time in days, Noah Scott thought that it was good to be home. The Convention, while necessary to show the Fen and the 'Danes that things were happening, was a distraction from the real job of finding everyone.
"Sir..."
Noah heard the undertone in Jake Hansen's voice. "What's wrong now, Duty Officer?"
"We've got a DQS on level 2, attached pod 37. It was so faint that I almost missed it."
"Seal the pod. I'm going to check it out."
"Already sealed, sir." After a beat, the duty officer continued. "Be careful, Noah. The last time this happened, you had backup and you were single. Now you're going out alone, and you've got a wife and daughter waiting for you to come home tonight."
"Jake, that's all the more reason for me to find out whether this is a threat to Leda and Helen." The door closed behind Noah.
Level 2, Attached Residential Pod 37
Stellvia
08:32 GMT 29 November 2016
The damned door was locked. Obviously, the locals had some way to detect the quantum disturbance caused by the message pod's jump; this was a hell of a way to discover they knew more than expected.
Nothing to do about it now but wait - suicide, while always an option, wasn't particularly appealing, and death would make it impossible to salvage anything of the mission.
The wait wasn't very long. The outer airlock door opened to admit, no nobody's surprise, the station's owner. "Of all the people I thought might be in here, communicating with another universe, I didn't expect to see you." Noah Scott manipulated the airlock controls while he continued. "I'm going to unlock this door, but I'll warn you now: if you make any attempt to overpower me, the entire pod will depressurize."
"Yes, of course," Maico Tange replied.
Level 2, Attached Residential Pod 37
Stellvia
11:14 GMT 29 November 2016
"Does this 'banestorm' phenomenon usually affect that large an area?"
Maico shook her head. "No, Mr. Scott, that's the largest banestorm I've ever heard of. And that's really all I know about them. But I have a question for you: how did you spot me?"
Noah smiled. "Sore was, himitsu desu."
"I didn't know you speak Japanese."
"I don't, aside from a few phrases. But now you know how I felt when you kept telling me so many things about you are classified." He stood up, holstering his pistol. "I'm going to let you go, but I expect you to come back with a reply to my request."
"We don't usually operate openly in other worldlines, but exceptions have been made on occasion. I'll see what I can do."
Noah backed out of the pod, and Maico put her head in her hands. How am I going to explain this to Infinity? she thought. At least I was able to keep most of The Secret... but I'm sure I told Mr. Scott too much.
Meanwhile, Noah was trying to decide how much, if anything, to tell the SMOFs about Ms. Tange. Despite her being a spy for a completely different reality, she hadn't actually done anything wrong. Did he have a right to betray her confidence?
--
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