My Launch Story.
Not to be confused with My Lunch Story, which is just Kai eating a sandwich and lamenting the lack of cows in space.
September 29, 2010 7:41pm
“Last of the water tanks are full. We can now lift off at your discretion,” Shodan reported.
I
just nodded. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say. After almost two
years of work, and who knows how much money, we were finally finished.
Ready for launch. I almost couldn’t believe it.
“Are we launching tonight?” Jareth asked.
I
shook my head, and turned to my friends... my crew. “No, we should take
some time to say goodbye. To any friends we are leaving behind. To
family. And most of all, we should say goodbye to the Earth. We won’t be
seeing her again for some time, if ever. We likely will never be seeing
North America again.”
“We
are all going onto America’s Most Wanted. I know it.” Micah laughed.
Which wasn’t too unlikely. Waving over ten acres of Tennessee hills was
crazy. And expensive. Which is why if this failed, we are going to be
spending a long time behind bars. After all, credit fraud and identity
theft were surprisingly easy for a ‘wavium AI. I had no idea how much
money we ended up borrowing with no intent on paying back, but I did
know one important thing. They can’t arrest you in space.
“Okay,
launch date is October 3rd. Shell goes up at 10, and lift off is 10:30
am. Let everyone who isn’t here know, if they aren’t under the dome when
it goes up, we are leaving them to explain everything to the
government.”
“We are launching on your birthday?” Micah asked.
Grinning,
I replied, “Sure. Makes sense that I leave the Earth same day I entered
it. Once we’re in the Black we can have a joint celebration for both
successfully pulling this off, and my birthday.”
----
It
was the day before launch, and I was walking the grounds. Mostly just
taking stock of the changes for that small group of ambitious geeks and
freaks have made to the land I grew up on. The largest differences were
of course, the extra houses. In addition to the two story red brick
house I was raised in, there were three newer structures. The most
normal which was a small single story wooden home. It was one of the
first things we built, due to the realization that we needed a lot more
the 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. Of course as our crew expanded, so did our
housing needs. This led to the two more unusual buildings.
Jareth,
being at core, a steam-fantasy type, built himself a tall, three story
tower out of stone. And with the subterranean excavation we were doing,
we had more then enough stone. The interior of the whole thing was a
mixture of steam-punk brass gadgetry and high fantasy mystical crystals.
While, Kalen went with something more unusual. Waving the largest oak
tree on the property for a foundation, she went and build herself a
fully outfitted tree house. A round tree house. There isn’t a right
angle or straight line in the place.
Well,
after that everyone was clamoring to for their own dream home. I had to
put my foot down. Between the limited space, and the chance of
attracting the wrong attention, I had to forbid any more surface
structures.
Besides,
as I had to tell people, we have plenty of space below ground. And that
is the truth. Shodan had mining drones burrow deep below the topsoil
and excavated huge series of tunnels and caverns. This is where most of
our supplies were stored. Along with the beginnings of our hydroponics.
And we had water tanks. Lots of water tanks. Big water tanks. I had told
Shodan I wanted a years supply of water, but that was before we found
that our engine took water for fuel. Currently number are basically
educated guesses, but Shodan and Jareth both claim we should have at
least a month of running the engines full burn before the water becomes
scarce.
I had no intention of ever putting that much strain on the engines, and even if I did, there is water in space, right?
----
Launch Day
“Shell
goes up in five, people. Is everyone ready for this?” I asked, despite
already knowing the answer. We were all ready. Well, as ready as you can
ever be to pull off something this hair brained. Or maybe blue hair
brained, to use a term from the Fen we were about to join.
There
were just five of us here and we were in the Command Center, which was
pretty much our bridge. The ‘wave had apparently taken to the name,
turning the walls black, with the star like lights shining through. I
had blamed Jareth and Chris, them being the Power Ranger fen that they
were. Jareth just offered to built a giant holotube for Shodan to appear
in. I turned him down, deciding the risk we ended up with Zordon would
be to high.
Like
I said, there were just five of us here. Expect for Jareth, watching
over the engine, it was the whole first group. Those first five friends I
approach and offered the stars, too. Micah, Kalen, Grin, Christa, and
of course, myself having started off this crazy idea.
Instead
of a viewing globe, we had a large row of monitors, showing all kinds
on data. The only ones I was currently worried about where the ones
showing Jareth in the Engine room, and the one showing the status of the
dome mechanism. Everything was ready to begin.
I took a deep breath, and gave the order that would bring us out into the open. “Raise the dome.”
All
around the border, a large wall began raising. Up and up it went, until
it had reached the top of the tree line. From here, large curving rods,
began telescoping out. Then rods began to extend from other rods. The
whole process took over 15 minutes, after which there was a pattern of
rods in the sky that vaguely resembled the pattern of of turtle shell.
“Framework extended. No alignment issues to report.” Shodan informed us. I heard someone breathe a sigh of relief.
“Okay.
Start growing the shell. We need it complete and stable as soon as
possible. I’m sure we’re attracting attention already.”
At
the order, a mechanism in the framework began stretching a clear film
across all the gaps. This was a substance Grin had come up with. Some
kind of high surface tension liquid made of ‘waved diamond or something.
All I really could tell you was that once solid, the stuff seemed
unbreakable, and that Shodan had to do a lot of creative computer work
to get our hands on enough of the expensive chemicals required to make
it.
As
each gap was covered in film, a large electric current was passed
through, lighting the whole sheet up with glowing sparks. This was the
catalyst needed to solidify the shell.
As
this happened time after time, over what would be the dozens of plates,
I began wishing I was up on the surface to witness it first hand. I’m
sure it was an amazing show. But it had be suggested by the more safety
conscious among us that everyone stays underground during shell growth
and liftoff. I had to reluctantly agree.
When Shodan announced that everything was ready, I turned to window showing Jareth.
“Okay, Birdie, get you ass in gear here. Take us up.”
He gave me a face splitting grin, did something a console I couldn’t see, and shouted out, “To infinity! And beyond!”
I
couldn’t help but smile myself. As the engines were brought online, I
could feel a strong vibration. I had be expecting some kind of lurch as
we broke free from the ground, but we started rising smoothly. And
faster then I expected.
I
kept expecting Shodan to report fighters incoming, but that never
happened. Granted we were moving much faster then I had expected us to
in atmosphere. And before I realized it Shodan was announcing that we’ve
hit Orbit.
Not to be confused with My Lunch Story, which is just Kai eating a sandwich and lamenting the lack of cows in space.
September 29, 2010 7:41pm
“Last of the water tanks are full. We can now lift off at your discretion,” Shodan reported.
I
just nodded. Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to say. After almost two
years of work, and who knows how much money, we were finally finished.
Ready for launch. I almost couldn’t believe it.
“Are we launching tonight?” Jareth asked.
I
shook my head, and turned to my friends... my crew. “No, we should take
some time to say goodbye. To any friends we are leaving behind. To
family. And most of all, we should say goodbye to the Earth. We won’t be
seeing her again for some time, if ever. We likely will never be seeing
North America again.”
“We
are all going onto America’s Most Wanted. I know it.” Micah laughed.
Which wasn’t too unlikely. Waving over ten acres of Tennessee hills was
crazy. And expensive. Which is why if this failed, we are going to be
spending a long time behind bars. After all, credit fraud and identity
theft were surprisingly easy for a ‘wavium AI. I had no idea how much
money we ended up borrowing with no intent on paying back, but I did
know one important thing. They can’t arrest you in space.
“Okay,
launch date is October 3rd. Shell goes up at 10, and lift off is 10:30
am. Let everyone who isn’t here know, if they aren’t under the dome when
it goes up, we are leaving them to explain everything to the
government.”
“We are launching on your birthday?” Micah asked.
Grinning,
I replied, “Sure. Makes sense that I leave the Earth same day I entered
it. Once we’re in the Black we can have a joint celebration for both
successfully pulling this off, and my birthday.”
----
It
was the day before launch, and I was walking the grounds. Mostly just
taking stock of the changes for that small group of ambitious geeks and
freaks have made to the land I grew up on. The largest differences were
of course, the extra houses. In addition to the two story red brick
house I was raised in, there were three newer structures. The most
normal which was a small single story wooden home. It was one of the
first things we built, due to the realization that we needed a lot more
the 4 bedrooms and 3 baths. Of course as our crew expanded, so did our
housing needs. This led to the two more unusual buildings.
Jareth,
being at core, a steam-fantasy type, built himself a tall, three story
tower out of stone. And with the subterranean excavation we were doing,
we had more then enough stone. The interior of the whole thing was a
mixture of steam-punk brass gadgetry and high fantasy mystical crystals.
While, Kalen went with something more unusual. Waving the largest oak
tree on the property for a foundation, she went and build herself a
fully outfitted tree house. A round tree house. There isn’t a right
angle or straight line in the place.
Well,
after that everyone was clamoring to for their own dream home. I had to
put my foot down. Between the limited space, and the chance of
attracting the wrong attention, I had to forbid any more surface
structures.
Besides,
as I had to tell people, we have plenty of space below ground. And that
is the truth. Shodan had mining drones burrow deep below the topsoil
and excavated huge series of tunnels and caverns. This is where most of
our supplies were stored. Along with the beginnings of our hydroponics.
And we had water tanks. Lots of water tanks. Big water tanks. I had told
Shodan I wanted a years supply of water, but that was before we found
that our engine took water for fuel. Currently number are basically
educated guesses, but Shodan and Jareth both claim we should have at
least a month of running the engines full burn before the water becomes
scarce.
I had no intention of ever putting that much strain on the engines, and even if I did, there is water in space, right?
----
Launch Day
“Shell
goes up in five, people. Is everyone ready for this?” I asked, despite
already knowing the answer. We were all ready. Well, as ready as you can
ever be to pull off something this hair brained. Or maybe blue hair
brained, to use a term from the Fen we were about to join.
There
were just five of us here and we were in the Command Center, which was
pretty much our bridge. The ‘wave had apparently taken to the name,
turning the walls black, with the star like lights shining through. I
had blamed Jareth and Chris, them being the Power Ranger fen that they
were. Jareth just offered to built a giant holotube for Shodan to appear
in. I turned him down, deciding the risk we ended up with Zordon would
be to high.
Like
I said, there were just five of us here. Expect for Jareth, watching
over the engine, it was the whole first group. Those first five friends I
approach and offered the stars, too. Micah, Kalen, Grin, Christa, and
of course, myself having started off this crazy idea.
Instead
of a viewing globe, we had a large row of monitors, showing all kinds
on data. The only ones I was currently worried about where the ones
showing Jareth in the Engine room, and the one showing the status of the
dome mechanism. Everything was ready to begin.
I took a deep breath, and gave the order that would bring us out into the open. “Raise the dome.”
All
around the border, a large wall began raising. Up and up it went, until
it had reached the top of the tree line. From here, large curving rods,
began telescoping out. Then rods began to extend from other rods. The
whole process took over 15 minutes, after which there was a pattern of
rods in the sky that vaguely resembled the pattern of of turtle shell.
“Framework extended. No alignment issues to report.” Shodan informed us. I heard someone breathe a sigh of relief.
“Okay.
Start growing the shell. We need it complete and stable as soon as
possible. I’m sure we’re attracting attention already.”
At
the order, a mechanism in the framework began stretching a clear film
across all the gaps. This was a substance Grin had come up with. Some
kind of high surface tension liquid made of ‘waved diamond or something.
All I really could tell you was that once solid, the stuff seemed
unbreakable, and that Shodan had to do a lot of creative computer work
to get our hands on enough of the expensive chemicals required to make
it.
As
each gap was covered in film, a large electric current was passed
through, lighting the whole sheet up with glowing sparks. This was the
catalyst needed to solidify the shell.
As
this happened time after time, over what would be the dozens of plates,
I began wishing I was up on the surface to witness it first hand. I’m
sure it was an amazing show. But it had be suggested by the more safety
conscious among us that everyone stays underground during shell growth
and liftoff. I had to reluctantly agree.
When Shodan announced that everything was ready, I turned to window showing Jareth.
“Okay, Birdie, get you ass in gear here. Take us up.”
He gave me a face splitting grin, did something a console I couldn’t see, and shouted out, “To infinity! And beyond!”
I
couldn’t help but smile myself. As the engines were brought online, I
could feel a strong vibration. I had be expecting some kind of lurch as
we broke free from the ground, but we started rising smoothly. And
faster then I expected.
I
kept expecting Shodan to report fighters incoming, but that never
happened. Granted we were moving much faster then I had expected us to
in atmosphere. And before I realized it Shodan was announcing that we’ve
hit Orbit.