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.
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.