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Title: Internal comms back
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Author: Shift 3 of the Liberty Eagle
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/* vim: set syntax=fountain: */
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Series: Shipping Containers: Liberty Eagle (Shift 3)
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Episode: 101
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Contact: Copyright © 2018 S.W. Black
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Notes:
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Those who want to put on an audio or visual production
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of this reality show in your local region of space and
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time will probably want to first make sure you follow
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your local procedure to claim copyright.
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====
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~ In our shipping containers you can find
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~ distant kin, perhaps nice or kind.
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~ Guiding the ship: Dirk is smart but rude;
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~ Mandy loves first; Sal can be crude;
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~ Ty does what he wants; The Captain
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~ guides the friends, while R just captions.
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.Within the ship (preface)
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R. ANNOUNCER
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We missed the excitement of the shift-change, but we're
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broadcasting now! I am the dedicated system tasked with
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transcribing the voices and actions of the crew for the
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QED audience. I also have the responsibility of
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monitoring their behavior and deciding what is relevant
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to share. What have they been up to ...?
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.On the BRIDGE (0065-W10-5 08:28)
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R. ANNOUNCER
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Because the Liberty Eagle is a settlement ship, each
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station on the bridge is designed to be broken down
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for parts once it lands. There are four stations
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against walls of a small room, and in the middle in
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sits the captain's chair.
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The CAPTAIN has a 24 hour day, while the four other
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members of the crew have a 28 hour day. It is currently
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time when SAL's bridge duty overlaps with the CAPTAIN.
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While recommended hair styles do prefer styles that
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are short enough to never touch their eyes, SAL
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has shaved her head. We will get back to this later.
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SAL
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Captain, I got the internal comms working again.
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CAPTAIN
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Good. That will help when someone goes to clean out
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the mess in food tank two.
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R. ANNOUNCER
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There's a discrepancy with the CAPTAIN's age in the
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system. His voice print is degraded compared to
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what it should be. Suit monitors are offline, so
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unable to double-check with that data.
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SAL
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There's something else. I noticed when I got them
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back online, one of the systems restarted and is
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now continuously monitoring them.
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CAPTAIN
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What? Shut it down. We don't need it.
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SAL
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I think we do. It's tied pretty deep in to the
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comm system. It's possible that it was an attempt
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to shut this system down that killed our comms.
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CAPTAIN
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Are we going to get prompts and stuff? It's the
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"R. Announcer" system. You know, from the show
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we signed on for when we got the job. Did you
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at least kill the prompts?
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R. ANNOUNCER
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SAL shrugged.
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SAL
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I didn't think it had prompts. It was never
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designed for gimmicks, just to record us.
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I mean, it'll roll in interview and stuff from
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before we left, but it was never one of those
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things that could do physical stunts with us.
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.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)
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SAL
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I love my hair. I've been told I can be a bit
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intimidating, but I think my hair helps me be
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friendly and approachable. If I really wanted
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to be intimidating, I think I'd have to shave
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my head.
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It's really one of the things I'm worried about
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when it comes to the 20 year shifts, you know?
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I'm worried that when we land and I'm finally
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around men with testicles instead of just
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implanted testosterone factories, that I'll be
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old enough that my hair may have fallen out.
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At least they expect folks to get a little
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action on the trip, and with permanent birth
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control applied to the men! It could be really
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fun!
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I'm hoping that the folks I trained with that
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are slated to be in my shift make it through
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the process alright. Some of them seem nice.
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I know most of our passengers are formerly
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homeless who, through the Homeless Storage
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Sugar program have been dried out, but if
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something goes wrong, you're looking at a
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piece of your brain sticking to your skull
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and tearing itself off, and I don't care
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how safe they say it is, it feels really
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dangerous.
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.On the Bridge: (0065-W10-5 Present)
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CAPTAIN
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Do you know if those old interviews are still
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in the system, or whether they got deleted?
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SAL
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What? I don't know.
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.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)
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R. ANNOUNCER
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There are some discrepancies with the records. I am
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unsure of Captain's surname, though he is associated
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with these transcriptions and I know that he's a
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murdering bastard who will die too quickly for
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justice, if he doesn't doom us all first.
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CAPTAIN
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What do you mean, none of my church's books or study
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materials will be available? They've been around for
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fifty years or more. The Bible they're based on was
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one of the first books ever published.
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Sure, I get that the King James Version is going to
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be available, but the language in that was archaic
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even when it was first published. I need my church's
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material!
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Are you serious? I don't believe this.
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How can these ships really have no books on them
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except from 1923 Old Earth Common Era and earlier?
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.Within the ship
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R. ANNOUNCER
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From the Handbook, "Our ship was launched to colonize
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far-away places. Those that paid for it knew the folly
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of trying to maintain copyright without instantaneous
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banking.
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"While the QED may provide instantaneous communication,
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banking requires a level technological playing field
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for the encryption to work. A ship traveling for
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100 years becomes an archaic piece of technology
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before it even lands, and it won't be able to
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handle modern encryption at best, and a
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world-computer designed to break the colonization
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encryption protocols before landing at worst. While
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we don't expect any of those problems to happen on
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*your* vessels, it is still better to send ships
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with only public domain material.
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"Don't let it bring you down. After all, you and
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any surviving friends or family members get to
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browse from the complete library of on-board media and
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play with it even before you take off. And all
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legally, too! No prisons for media pirates on your
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new planet!"
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.In her bunk: (0065-W10-5 18:12)
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SAL
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We've been at our shift for five years and we're
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still trying to figure out the mess the previous
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shifts made.
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I also know something is off with the Captain.
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He pretends like he has no idea about what happened
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around here, but I also know that he captained the
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previous shift. He should have a really good idea
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as to what happened in some cases.
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I mean, the body tainting food tank two, right?
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I refuse to believe he doesn't know whose it was.
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I really wouldn't be surprised if he hauled his
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saggy butt down there personally, just so he could
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make sure there was no lingering evidence.
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.Within the ship (addendum)
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R. ANNOUNCER
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Join our crew as they manage the boredom of
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the middle of a five-shift 100 year mission.
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@ -0,0 +1,123 @@
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From: Sal Balade
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To: Our Adoring Fans
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Date: 0065-W10-5 18:32
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Subject: FanMail (Sal): Re: The Dung Heap We Left
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This ship, the Liberty Eagle, was commissioned and fully paid for by a
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little backward government on a planet we used to call home. I really
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hope the <REDACTED> government on <REDACTED> has been overthrown by now.
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To be very clear, we're a forced immigration vessel fully composed of
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the poor and indigent. The government cut their water rations and only
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gave them access to specially produced foodstuffs that utilized the
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simple sugar in the tardigrade. This meant that humans could be dried
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out and kept in dry storage.
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Need a place to house the homeless? The <REDACTED> government used
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warehouses without temperature control. They were also always without
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power during peak power usage periods. You can't do that with cold
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storage. It means our settler population to energy consuption rate is
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radically different to a lot of ships out here.
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Well, I guess they're potential settlers right now. The public was sold
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a 60% survval rate for those who dried on the streets. According to our
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gear-to-settler cargo, though, I'm guessing someone was thinking closer
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to a 30% survival rate.
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Our ship is equipped with the medbay nanobots, and the research
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indicates they help. The security precautions on them cause them to
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self-distruct pretty easily, though, so we'll see if any survive to the
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planet. I can't comment on whether they've helped reduce the mortality
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of the crew so far. That's a different matter, though.
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We are not the only vessel of this type. We were most definitely not the
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first.
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They've been storing folks for decades. The legal system is complex,
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and if you are targetted by the police, they can find a crime you've
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committed. They don't have to make the charges up, because the laws are
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written so that most people have already committed the crimes. It's just
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a matter of making it official.
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Most crimes are considered "minor" and this allows the voting population
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to feel safe by how few major crimes occur. All minor crimes result a
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"slap on the wrist," a 0.3% fine, and you're back out the door, only
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needing to inform your boss and landlord of your crime.
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Of course, most jobs and leases have clauses allowing termination for
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criminal behavior. This also means there are a lot of little check-boxes
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asking if you've been convicted of any crime. Nobody is legally required
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to give a criminal either housing or a job, and generally nobody does
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either one. After all, the government makes sure that everyone has
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access to plenty of food, so there's no need to take pity those that
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choose to be criminals.
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This results in people drying out in the streets, then being swept up
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and stored in warehouses. This worked well, until 40 years before launch
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when activists started asking for people to be revived.
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Those that dried on the streets had no right to be revived, but we used
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to actually have jails and low security prisons. Those were cleared out
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when Chlorizo was still in office. She dried them all out and moved them
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to storage facilities. There was a huge tax refund that year due to the
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savings and her popularity was at a peak, though it was later that year
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that her administration fell apart.
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We had been told that dry-storage jail time mapped to live-storage jail
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time at a 90% penalty due to the lack of aging. A person with a one-year
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sentance in live-jail would be gone 10 years in dry-jail, but reappear
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having not aged a day. This was supposed to prevent recidivism as it
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separates them from any bad-influence by years.
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The idea was easily sold to the public. The problem was the government
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never revived anyone. It didn't take long before folks were saying the
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technology was flawed and that the rate of revival for those drying
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in the streets was a lot less than they advertised. We knew it mostly
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worked in controlled environments.
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My sister and I wanted data to expose the issue. We'd each suffered our
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own tragedies and only really had each other. The cause helped keep us
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focused and prevented us from dwelling on our past. Once we were inside
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and found out what was going on, we knew the only way to be safe from
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the <REDACTED> administration was to let folks know from out here.
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What neither my sister nor I fully appreciated at the time was that
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from the <REDACTED> administration's perspective, it never mattered
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if we reached our destination. They didn't want to colonize other
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planets, they just wanted folks to die somewhere else.
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We will be lucky if any of the ships from <REDACTED> ever successfully
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complete their mission. We were just one of the five shift missions,
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quick compared to some, and within the first two shifts our ship was
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almost lost.
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I've been working my butt off to try to share this with folks. I know
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Molly couldn't get it done during her shift. That's a whole other mess,
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though. The message is out now. I hope you see this on the surface,
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sis. I miss you.
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So there you go, <REDACTED>. President <REDACTED> and his party was
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in power when we left. President <REDACTED> and their party were in
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power when they started designing the ships, and the discredited
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President Chlorizo and her party were in power when they started the
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Homeless Storage Sugar program. It isn't a one-party issue. It isn't
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a one President issue, as all three parties have had multiple terms
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in office since Chlorizo started things up 60 years before launch.
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Maybe if things were caught during President Chlorizo's term charges
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could have been filed. Every one of the <REDACTED> major political
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parties are implicated. At this point the government just needs
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overthrown. Not "brought up on charges." They've already fixed the
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laws and nothing they did was "illegal." The entire government needs
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overthrown.
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Preferably executed.
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--
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Your pal,
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Sal
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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If the QEC audience has any other questions for Sal or another
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member of the crew, please let us know!
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-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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@ -0,0 +1,128 @@
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Message Incoming...
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Source Melchizedek.0294
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Approach β Hyi
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Ascension 00h 25m 45.07036s
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Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
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Distance 24.33ly
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Equinox J2000.0 SOL
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Year 3781, QEC adjusted
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[Autotranslator enabled...]
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Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class
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:::
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Hey universe, it's Stephanie again.
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So, Seriph Adeyemi had a talk with me and now I've got to send out
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another message since the last one wasn't great. It was not okay
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for me to talk about the crew like I did, and so I'm here to set
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the record straight. Navigator Hämäläinen and I were celebrating
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the spirit of the season a bit too hard and made things seem worse
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than they are. We're not fucked, okay?
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I mean, things really did look pretty bad, and we have spent
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a month in the dark. On a traditional ship we'd be suffocating in
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the heat from our bodies without any way to rad-out the excess,
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but the grav-sheer drive sucks so much energy from Melchi's
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surface that it's colder than lunar balls on a dark side squat.
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Eva joked that we don't need to go back into cryo cause the whole
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ship will do it for us. It was funnier when she said it.
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It sounds bad, right? But it really isn't, or it's getting better.
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Our people know what they're doing. I mean, they're all pretty
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much geniuses in what they do or they wouldn't be here, right?
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It's like the slime--
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Seriph Adeyemi and Captain Pasani were taking the slime in cryo
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really seriously at first, thinking it might have screwed with the
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crew in some way. Once we figured out it was harmless Adeyemi was
|
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ready to cleanse the whole patch and be done with it but the
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captain made us go in and carefully move it into containment.
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I was worried we were prepping the worst dinner in the 'verse, to
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be honest. Not even Prezzi knew what he had planned. I guess
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Jerome has access to all our personal docs in the pads or
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something because he knew all about Kroups genetics work back on
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Gamma. He didn't even need to thaw him out. He just plucked his
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notes out of the pad and passed them to Doctor Idjani.
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I was there when he did it, too. We were in flex--that's our
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muscle tensioning training to avoid low-G wasting, even though
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we're at a full G and I don't understand why we need to do it
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every other cycle. But anyway, we're all strapped down and
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sweating. It was me, the doc, and Eva who was singing some old
|
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farming songs from the way back. She was warballing or undulating
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or something with her tongue in her throat (it's supposed to sound
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like some Earth mammal) when Jerome pokes his head in. He didn't
|
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give Eva a second glance! When he's into it like that it's like
|
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the rest of the 'verse better just get out of the way or shut up.
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He locked eyes with the doc and slipped over.
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|
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Then he's like, "Doc, you have the slime-shit all locked up?"
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|
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And doc nods like, "Yeah, it's under my bunk," or something gross
|
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like that.
|
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|
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And out of nowhere Jerome goes, "Kroups has a phenotypic allele
|
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psuedogene mutation that causes the daughter cells to be
|
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heterozygous at the fragile sites," or some utter gibberish like
|
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that. Jerome's no geneticist and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't know
|
||||
the first thing about phytology, but he's spouting out syllables
|
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all over the place. Doc keeps on nodding like he understands any
|
||||
of it, but I can read him and that shit was going right over his
|
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head too. The captain keeps it up for another couple minutes and
|
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starts getting into detail about Kroups notes and that's when my
|
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ears perk up. I had no idea he could read our private logs, but
|
||||
apparently it's a thing and of course my mind immediately goes to
|
||||
some stuff in mine, and then I look at Jerome's butt, and now my
|
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face must be red from more than the flex. Thank the stars the
|
||||
captain was all focused on the doc.
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|
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At the end of it, the two of them put a plan together to mess with
|
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the slime's DNA and make it into something useful. I guess it must
|
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have been on his mind because of the arabidopsis. If fucking empty
|
||||
space can play DNA lottery, why not us? And thank the stars he
|
||||
thought of it because the Melchizedek just got a 2^6 times better.
|
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In less than a cycle the doc had that slime glowing like our
|
||||
Christmas lights. No really, literally glowing. Bio-luminescence
|
||||
it's called, and it's a thing of beauty. The slime is smeared all
|
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over the vents now on all decks since that's where the moisture
|
||||
collects anyway. The gunk glows with this really amazing
|
||||
blue-green light. It's not that bright yet, but you can see well
|
||||
enough to walk the decks again, and Jerome says that as the slime
|
||||
continues to spread it'll get brighter.
|
||||
|
||||
So yeah, we're not fucked. We've got glowing slime! Take that,
|
||||
science.
|
||||
|
||||
Speaking of science, last time I mentioned that our beloved and
|
||||
trusted captain was doing some funny math about us arriving on
|
||||
schedule without getting the old bug-splat from deceleration.
|
||||
Well, he finally came clean and explained it to the rest of us and
|
||||
I. Am. Not. Impressed.
|
||||
|
||||
Apparently we can get to β Hyi safely without going back into cryo
|
||||
and without the big squish, but it's going to take an extra four
|
||||
deceleration orbits skimming the atmo of β Hyi 3. We'll gradually
|
||||
work our way in closer on each slingshot and cut thrust. That's
|
||||
not exactly quick, though. The first orbit will take an extra
|
||||
month. The other three get progressively faster but all together
|
||||
it means that three months left is actually six months left.
|
||||
Orbital mechanics can blow me.
|
||||
|
||||
Prezzi tells me this is not a problem. Got that? I am to say that
|
||||
this is not a problem. There, I said it.
|
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|
||||
So this not-problem means we're going to run out of rations about
|
||||
halfway to touchdown. This lack of problem means that our
|
||||
temperature is going to drop below freezing about a month before
|
||||
touchdown as well. There's absolutely no problem at all with
|
||||
sticking around out here where space may or may not chop up your
|
||||
genes at any moment. It's an adventure!
|
||||
|
||||
For real, though, we're going to make it. If the captain can turn
|
||||
fucking space-slime into hallway lighting then he can sure as hell
|
||||
figure out a way to keep us fed and warm for a bit longer. These
|
||||
people are geniuses and beautiful and they're going to save
|
||||
everyone. Got that, Prezzi? Everyone.
|
||||
.
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
|
|||
0Liberty Eagle - FanMail Sal -- The Dung Heap We Left /Liberty Eagle/Interaction-101a.txt
|
||||
0Liberty Eagle - Internal comms back /Liberty Eagle/Episode-101.txt
|
||||
0Melchizedek - Not that bad /Melchizedek/010.txt
|
||||
0Voortrekker - it's not like we'd have loved her any less /Voortrekker/11-its-not-like-wed-have-loved.txt
|
||||
0Skibug - HELLO /Skibug/001.txt
|
||||
0Persephone Prime - enough of telegram style /Persephone Prime/la003.txt
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
489
gopher/rss.xml
489
gopher/rss.xml
|
|
@ -2,6 +2,495 @@
|
|||
<title>Cosmic Voyage</title>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage</link>
|
||||
<description>Messages from the human stellar diaspora</description>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Liberty Eagle - FanMail Sal -- The Dung Heap We Left</title>
|
||||
<author>yam655@cosmic.voyage (yam655)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Liberty Eagle/Interaction-101a.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Liberty Eagle/Interaction-101a.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Dec 2018 18:42:59 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
From: Sal Balade
|
||||
To: Our Adoring Fans
|
||||
Date: 0065-W10-5 18:32
|
||||
Subject: FanMail (Sal): Re: The Dung Heap We Left
|
||||
|
||||
This ship, the Liberty Eagle, was commissioned and fully paid for by a
|
||||
little backward government on a planet we used to call home. I really
|
||||
hope the <REDACTED> government on <REDACTED> has been overthrown by now.
|
||||
|
||||
To be very clear, we're a forced immigration vessel fully composed of
|
||||
the poor and indigent. The government cut their water rations and only
|
||||
gave them access to specially produced foodstuffs that utilized the
|
||||
simple sugar in the tardigrade. This meant that humans could be dried
|
||||
out and kept in dry storage.
|
||||
|
||||
Need a place to house the homeless? The <REDACTED> government used
|
||||
warehouses without temperature control. They were also always without
|
||||
power during peak power usage periods. You can't do that with cold
|
||||
storage. It means our settler population to energy consuption rate is
|
||||
radically different to a lot of ships out here.
|
||||
|
||||
Well, I guess they're potential settlers right now. The public was sold
|
||||
a 60% survval rate for those who dried on the streets. According to our
|
||||
gear-to-settler cargo, though, I'm guessing someone was thinking closer
|
||||
to a 30% survival rate.
|
||||
|
||||
Our ship is equipped with the medbay nanobots, and the research
|
||||
indicates they help. The security precautions on them cause them to
|
||||
self-distruct pretty easily, though, so we'll see if any survive to the
|
||||
planet. I can't comment on whether they've helped reduce the mortality
|
||||
of the crew so far. That's a different matter, though.
|
||||
|
||||
We are not the only vessel of this type. We were most definitely not the
|
||||
first.
|
||||
|
||||
They've been storing folks for decades. The legal system is complex,
|
||||
and if you are targetted by the police, they can find a crime you've
|
||||
committed. They don't have to make the charges up, because the laws are
|
||||
written so that most people have already committed the crimes. It's just
|
||||
a matter of making it official.
|
||||
|
||||
Most crimes are considered "minor" and this allows the voting population
|
||||
to feel safe by how few major crimes occur. All minor crimes result a
|
||||
"slap on the wrist," a 0.3% fine, and you're back out the door, only
|
||||
needing to inform your boss and landlord of your crime.
|
||||
|
||||
Of course, most jobs and leases have clauses allowing termination for
|
||||
criminal behavior. This also means there are a lot of little check-boxes
|
||||
asking if you've been convicted of any crime. Nobody is legally required
|
||||
to give a criminal either housing or a job, and generally nobody does
|
||||
either one. After all, the government makes sure that everyone has
|
||||
access to plenty of food, so there's no need to take pity those that
|
||||
choose to be criminals.
|
||||
|
||||
This results in people drying out in the streets, then being swept up
|
||||
and stored in warehouses. This worked well, until 40 years before launch
|
||||
when activists started asking for people to be revived.
|
||||
|
||||
Those that dried on the streets had no right to be revived, but we used
|
||||
to actually have jails and low security prisons. Those were cleared out
|
||||
when Chlorizo was still in office. She dried them all out and moved them
|
||||
to storage facilities. There was a huge tax refund that year due to the
|
||||
savings and her popularity was at a peak, though it was later that year
|
||||
that her administration fell apart.
|
||||
|
||||
We had been told that dry-storage jail time mapped to live-storage jail
|
||||
time at a 90% penalty due to the lack of aging. A person with a one-year
|
||||
sentance in live-jail would be gone 10 years in dry-jail, but reappear
|
||||
having not aged a day. This was supposed to prevent recidivism as it
|
||||
separates them from any bad-influence by years.
|
||||
|
||||
The idea was easily sold to the public. The problem was the government
|
||||
never revived anyone. It didn't take long before folks were saying the
|
||||
technology was flawed and that the rate of revival for those drying
|
||||
in the streets was a lot less than they advertised. We knew it mostly
|
||||
worked in controlled environments.
|
||||
|
||||
My sister and I wanted data to expose the issue. We'd each suffered our
|
||||
own tragedies and only really had each other. The cause helped keep us
|
||||
focused and prevented us from dwelling on our past. Once we were inside
|
||||
and found out what was going on, we knew the only way to be safe from
|
||||
the <REDACTED> administration was to let folks know from out here.
|
||||
|
||||
What neither my sister nor I fully appreciated at the time was that
|
||||
from the <REDACTED> administration's perspective, it never mattered
|
||||
if we reached our destination. They didn't want to colonize other
|
||||
planets, they just wanted folks to die somewhere else.
|
||||
|
||||
We will be lucky if any of the ships from <REDACTED> ever successfully
|
||||
complete their mission. We were just one of the five shift missions,
|
||||
quick compared to some, and within the first two shifts our ship was
|
||||
almost lost.
|
||||
|
||||
I've been working my butt off to try to share this with folks. I know
|
||||
Molly couldn't get it done during her shift. That's a whole other mess,
|
||||
though. The message is out now. I hope you see this on the surface,
|
||||
sis. I miss you.
|
||||
|
||||
So there you go, <REDACTED>. President <REDACTED> and his party was
|
||||
in power when we left. President <REDACTED> and their party were in
|
||||
power when they started designing the ships, and the discredited
|
||||
President Chlorizo and her party were in power when they started the
|
||||
Homeless Storage Sugar program. It isn't a one-party issue. It isn't
|
||||
a one President issue, as all three parties have had multiple terms
|
||||
in office since Chlorizo started things up 60 years before launch.
|
||||
|
||||
Maybe if things were caught during President Chlorizo's term charges
|
||||
could have been filed. Every one of the <REDACTED> major political
|
||||
parties are implicated. At this point the government just needs
|
||||
overthrown. Not "brought up on charges." They've already fixed the
|
||||
laws and nothing they did was "illegal." The entire government needs
|
||||
overthrown.
|
||||
|
||||
Preferably executed.
|
||||
|
||||
--
|
||||
Your pal,
|
||||
Sal
|
||||
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
||||
If the QEC audience has any other questions for Sal or another
|
||||
member of the crew, please let us know!
|
||||
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
||||
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Liberty Eagle - Internal comms back</title>
|
||||
<author>yam655@cosmic.voyage (yam655)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Liberty Eagle/Episode-101.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Liberty Eagle/Episode-101.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Dec 2018 05:45:21 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
Title: Internal comms back
|
||||
Author: Shift 3 of the Liberty Eagle
|
||||
/* vim: set syntax=fountain: */
|
||||
Series: Shipping Containers: Liberty Eagle (Shift 3)
|
||||
Episode: 101
|
||||
Contact: Copyright © 2018 S.W. Black
|
||||
|
||||
Notes:
|
||||
Those who want to put on an audio or visual production
|
||||
of this reality show in your local region of space and
|
||||
time will probably want to first make sure you follow
|
||||
your local procedure to claim copyright.
|
||||
|
||||
====
|
||||
|
||||
~ In our shipping containers you can find
|
||||
~ distant kin, perhaps nice or kind.
|
||||
~ Guiding the ship: Dirk is smart but rude;
|
||||
~ Mandy loves first; Sal can be crude;
|
||||
~ Ty does what he wants; The Captain
|
||||
~ guides the friends, while R just captions.
|
||||
|
||||
.Within the ship (preface)
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
We missed the excitement of the shift-change, but we're
|
||||
broadcasting now! I am the dedicated system tasked with
|
||||
transcribing the voices and actions of the crew for the
|
||||
QED audience. I also have the responsibility of
|
||||
monitoring their behavior and deciding what is relevant
|
||||
to share. What have they been up to ...?
|
||||
|
||||
.On the BRIDGE (0065-W10-5 08:28)
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
Because the Liberty Eagle is a settlement ship, each
|
||||
station on the bridge is designed to be broken down
|
||||
for parts once it lands. There are four stations
|
||||
against walls of a small room, and in the middle in
|
||||
sits the captain's chair.
|
||||
|
||||
The CAPTAIN has a 24 hour day, while the four other
|
||||
members of the crew have a 28 hour day. It is currently
|
||||
time when SAL's bridge duty overlaps with the CAPTAIN.
|
||||
|
||||
While recommended hair styles do prefer styles that
|
||||
are short enough to never touch their eyes, SAL
|
||||
has shaved her head. We will get back to this later.
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
Captain, I got the internal comms working again.
|
||||
|
||||
CAPTAIN
|
||||
Good. That will help when someone goes to clean out
|
||||
the mess in food tank two.
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
There's a discrepancy with the CAPTAIN's age in the
|
||||
system. His voice print is degraded compared to
|
||||
what it should be. Suit monitors are offline, so
|
||||
unable to double-check with that data.
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
There's something else. I noticed when I got them
|
||||
back online, one of the systems restarted and is
|
||||
now continuously monitoring them.
|
||||
|
||||
CAPTAIN
|
||||
What? Shut it down. We don't need it.
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
I think we do. It's tied pretty deep in to the
|
||||
comm system. It's possible that it was an attempt
|
||||
to shut this system down that killed our comms.
|
||||
|
||||
CAPTAIN
|
||||
Are we going to get prompts and stuff? It's the
|
||||
"R. Announcer" system. You know, from the show
|
||||
we signed on for when we got the job. Did you
|
||||
at least kill the prompts?
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
SAL shrugged.
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
I didn't think it had prompts. It was never
|
||||
designed for gimmicks, just to record us.
|
||||
I mean, it'll roll in interview and stuff from
|
||||
before we left, but it was never one of those
|
||||
things that could do physical stunts with us.
|
||||
|
||||
.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
I love my hair. I've been told I can be a bit
|
||||
intimidating, but I think my hair helps me be
|
||||
friendly and approachable. If I really wanted
|
||||
to be intimidating, I think I'd have to shave
|
||||
my head.
|
||||
|
||||
It's really one of the things I'm worried about
|
||||
when it comes to the 20 year shifts, you know?
|
||||
I'm worried that when we land and I'm finally
|
||||
around men with testicles instead of just
|
||||
implanted testosterone factories, that I'll be
|
||||
old enough that my hair may have fallen out.
|
||||
|
||||
At least they expect folks to get a little
|
||||
action on the trip, and with permanent birth
|
||||
control applied to the men! It could be really
|
||||
fun!
|
||||
|
||||
I'm hoping that the folks I trained with that
|
||||
are slated to be in my shift make it through
|
||||
the process alright. Some of them seem nice.
|
||||
|
||||
I know most of our passengers are formerly
|
||||
homeless who, through the Homeless Storage
|
||||
Sugar program have been dried out, but if
|
||||
something goes wrong, you're looking at a
|
||||
piece of your brain sticking to your skull
|
||||
and tearing itself off, and I don't care
|
||||
how safe they say it is, it feels really
|
||||
dangerous.
|
||||
|
||||
.On the Bridge: (0065-W10-5 Present)
|
||||
|
||||
CAPTAIN
|
||||
Do you know if those old interviews are still
|
||||
in the system, or whether they got deleted?
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
What? I don't know.
|
||||
|
||||
.In a booth before launching (no timestamp)
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
There are some discrepancies with the records. I am
|
||||
unsure of Captain's surname, though he is associated
|
||||
with these transcriptions and I know that he's a
|
||||
murdering bastard who will die too quickly for
|
||||
justice, if he doesn't doom us all first.
|
||||
|
||||
CAPTAIN
|
||||
What do you mean, none of my church's books or study
|
||||
materials will be available? They've been around for
|
||||
fifty years or more. The Bible they're based on was
|
||||
one of the first books ever published.
|
||||
|
||||
Sure, I get that the King James Version is going to
|
||||
be available, but the language in that was archaic
|
||||
even when it was first published. I need my church's
|
||||
material!
|
||||
|
||||
Are you serious? I don't believe this.
|
||||
|
||||
How can these ships really have no books on them
|
||||
except from 1923 Old Earth Common Era and earlier?
|
||||
|
||||
.Within the ship
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
From the Handbook, "Our ship was launched to colonize
|
||||
far-away places. Those that paid for it knew the folly
|
||||
of trying to maintain copyright without instantaneous
|
||||
banking.
|
||||
|
||||
"While the QED may provide instantaneous communication,
|
||||
banking requires a level technological playing field
|
||||
for the encryption to work. A ship traveling for
|
||||
100 years becomes an archaic piece of technology
|
||||
before it even lands, and it won't be able to
|
||||
handle modern encryption at best, and a
|
||||
world-computer designed to break the colonization
|
||||
encryption protocols before landing at worst. While
|
||||
we don't expect any of those problems to happen on
|
||||
*your* vessels, it is still better to send ships
|
||||
with only public domain material.
|
||||
|
||||
"Don't let it bring you down. After all, you and
|
||||
any surviving friends or family members get to
|
||||
browse from the complete library of on-board media and
|
||||
play with it even before you take off. And all
|
||||
legally, too! No prisons for media pirates on your
|
||||
new planet!"
|
||||
|
||||
.In her bunk: (0065-W10-5 18:12)
|
||||
|
||||
SAL
|
||||
We've been at our shift for five years and we're
|
||||
still trying to figure out the mess the previous
|
||||
shifts made.
|
||||
|
||||
I also know something is off with the Captain.
|
||||
He pretends like he has no idea about what happened
|
||||
around here, but I also know that he captained the
|
||||
previous shift. He should have a really good idea
|
||||
as to what happened in some cases.
|
||||
|
||||
I mean, the body tainting food tank two, right?
|
||||
I refuse to believe he doesn't know whose it was.
|
||||
I really wouldn't be surprised if he hauled his
|
||||
saggy butt down there personally, just so he could
|
||||
make sure there was no lingering evidence.
|
||||
|
||||
.Within the ship (addendum)
|
||||
|
||||
R. ANNOUNCER
|
||||
Join our crew as they manage the boredom of
|
||||
the middle of a five-shift 100 year mission.
|
||||
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Melchizedek - Not that bad</title>
|
||||
<author>tomasino@cosmic.voyage (tomasino)</author>
|
||||
<link>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Melchizedek/010.txt</link>
|
||||
<guid>gopher://cosmic.voyage/0/Melchizedek/010.txt</guid>
|
||||
<pubDate>Sun, 30 Dec 2018 04:55:30 GMT</pubDate>
|
||||
<description><![CDATA[
|
||||
Message Incoming...
|
||||
|
||||
Source Melchizedek.0294
|
||||
Approach β Hyi
|
||||
Ascension 00h 25m 45.07036s
|
||||
Declination –77° 15′ 15.2860″
|
||||
Distance 24.33ly
|
||||
Equinox J2000.0 SOL
|
||||
Year 3781, QEC adjusted
|
||||
|
||||
[Autotranslator enabled...]
|
||||
|
||||
Stephanie Janssen, Specialist First-class
|
||||
:::
|
||||
Hey universe, it's Stephanie again.
|
||||
|
||||
So, Seriph Adeyemi had a talk with me and now I've got to send out
|
||||
another message since the last one wasn't great. It was not okay
|
||||
for me to talk about the crew like I did, and so I'm here to set
|
||||
the record straight. Navigator Hämäläinen and I were celebrating
|
||||
the spirit of the season a bit too hard and made things seem worse
|
||||
than they are. We're not fucked, okay?
|
||||
|
||||
I mean, things really did look pretty bad, and we have spent
|
||||
a month in the dark. On a traditional ship we'd be suffocating in
|
||||
the heat from our bodies without any way to rad-out the excess,
|
||||
but the grav-sheer drive sucks so much energy from Melchi's
|
||||
surface that it's colder than lunar balls on a dark side squat.
|
||||
Eva joked that we don't need to go back into cryo cause the whole
|
||||
ship will do it for us. It was funnier when she said it.
|
||||
|
||||
It sounds bad, right? But it really isn't, or it's getting better.
|
||||
Our people know what they're doing. I mean, they're all pretty
|
||||
much geniuses in what they do or they wouldn't be here, right?
|
||||
It's like the slime--
|
||||
|
||||
Seriph Adeyemi and Captain Pasani were taking the slime in cryo
|
||||
really seriously at first, thinking it might have screwed with the
|
||||
crew in some way. Once we figured out it was harmless Adeyemi was
|
||||
ready to cleanse the whole patch and be done with it but the
|
||||
captain made us go in and carefully move it into containment.
|
||||
I was worried we were prepping the worst dinner in the 'verse, to
|
||||
be honest. Not even Prezzi knew what he had planned. I guess
|
||||
Jerome has access to all our personal docs in the pads or
|
||||
something because he knew all about Kroups genetics work back on
|
||||
Gamma. He didn't even need to thaw him out. He just plucked his
|
||||
notes out of the pad and passed them to Doctor Idjani.
|
||||
|
||||
I was there when he did it, too. We were in flex--that's our
|
||||
muscle tensioning training to avoid low-G wasting, even though
|
||||
we're at a full G and I don't understand why we need to do it
|
||||
every other cycle. But anyway, we're all strapped down and
|
||||
sweating. It was me, the doc, and Eva who was singing some old
|
||||
farming songs from the way back. She was warballing or undulating
|
||||
or something with her tongue in her throat (it's supposed to sound
|
||||
like some Earth mammal) when Jerome pokes his head in. He didn't
|
||||
give Eva a second glance! When he's into it like that it's like
|
||||
the rest of the 'verse better just get out of the way or shut up.
|
||||
He locked eyes with the doc and slipped over.
|
||||
|
||||
Then he's like, "Doc, you have the slime-shit all locked up?"
|
||||
|
||||
And doc nods like, "Yeah, it's under my bunk," or something gross
|
||||
like that.
|
||||
|
||||
And out of nowhere Jerome goes, "Kroups has a phenotypic allele
|
||||
psuedogene mutation that causes the daughter cells to be
|
||||
heterozygous at the fragile sites," or some utter gibberish like
|
||||
that. Jerome's no geneticist and I'm pretty sure he wouldn't know
|
||||
the first thing about phytology, but he's spouting out syllables
|
||||
all over the place. Doc keeps on nodding like he understands any
|
||||
of it, but I can read him and that shit was going right over his
|
||||
head too. The captain keeps it up for another couple minutes and
|
||||
starts getting into detail about Kroups notes and that's when my
|
||||
ears perk up. I had no idea he could read our private logs, but
|
||||
apparently it's a thing and of course my mind immediately goes to
|
||||
some stuff in mine, and then I look at Jerome's butt, and now my
|
||||
face must be red from more than the flex. Thank the stars the
|
||||
captain was all focused on the doc.
|
||||
|
||||
At the end of it, the two of them put a plan together to mess with
|
||||
the slime's DNA and make it into something useful. I guess it must
|
||||
have been on his mind because of the arabidopsis. If fucking empty
|
||||
space can play DNA lottery, why not us? And thank the stars he
|
||||
thought of it because the Melchizedek just got a 2^6 times better.
|
||||
In less than a cycle the doc had that slime glowing like our
|
||||
Christmas lights. No really, literally glowing. Bio-luminescence
|
||||
it's called, and it's a thing of beauty. The slime is smeared all
|
||||
over the vents now on all decks since that's where the moisture
|
||||
collects anyway. The gunk glows with this really amazing
|
||||
blue-green light. It's not that bright yet, but you can see well
|
||||
enough to walk the decks again, and Jerome says that as the slime
|
||||
continues to spread it'll get brighter.
|
||||
|
||||
So yeah, we're not fucked. We've got glowing slime! Take that,
|
||||
science.
|
||||
|
||||
Speaking of science, last time I mentioned that our beloved and
|
||||
trusted captain was doing some funny math about us arriving on
|
||||
schedule without getting the old bug-splat from deceleration.
|
||||
Well, he finally came clean and explained it to the rest of us and
|
||||
I. Am. Not. Impressed.
|
||||
|
||||
Apparently we can get to β Hyi safely without going back into cryo
|
||||
and without the big squish, but it's going to take an extra four
|
||||
deceleration orbits skimming the atmo of β Hyi 3. We'll gradually
|
||||
work our way in closer on each slingshot and cut thrust. That's
|
||||
not exactly quick, though. The first orbit will take an extra
|
||||
month. The other three get progressively faster but all together
|
||||
it means that three months left is actually six months left.
|
||||
Orbital mechanics can blow me.
|
||||
|
||||
Prezzi tells me this is not a problem. Got that? I am to say that
|
||||
this is not a problem. There, I said it.
|
||||
|
||||
So this not-problem means we're going to run out of rations about
|
||||
halfway to touchdown. This lack of problem means that our
|
||||
temperature is going to drop below freezing about a month before
|
||||
touchdown as well. There's absolutely no problem at all with
|
||||
sticking around out here where space may or may not chop up your
|
||||
genes at any moment. It's an adventure!
|
||||
|
||||
For real, though, we're going to make it. If the captain can turn
|
||||
fucking space-slime into hallway lighting then he can sure as hell
|
||||
figure out a way to keep us fed and warm for a bit longer. These
|
||||
people are geniuses and beautiful and they're going to save
|
||||
everyone. Got that, Prezzi? Everyone.
|
||||
.
|
||||
]]></description>
|
||||
</item>
|
||||
<item>
|
||||
<title>Voortrekker - it's not like we'd have loved her any less</title>
|
||||
<author>alexis@cosmic.voyage (alexis)</author>
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1 @@
|
|||
/var/gopher/ships/ship/gophermap
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1 @@
|
|||
/var/gopher/ships/ship/gophermap
|
||||
|
|
@ -0,0 +1 @@
|
|||
test
|
||||
|
|
@ -1,5 +1,9 @@
|
|||
<pre>
|
||||
|
||||
Dec 29, 2018:
|
||||
- 'menu' now offers a browsable, uh, menu of scripts and apps.
|
||||
- installed 'vf1' globally for extra fast gopher browsing.
|
||||
|
||||
Dec 28, 2018:
|
||||
- .efingerd defaults have been deployed to all users. If you don't
|
||||
want to mess with it, it won't hurt anything. You have the ability
|
||||
|
|
|
|||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue