Otherwise it's a very good omake
Distance Learning for fun and profit...
- Thread starter mp3.1415player
- Start date
-
- Tags
- worm
- Pronouns
- Mr
I think you dropped a decimal point or three. (3600 x 24) seconds * 2 * 20 m/s^2 = 3,456,000 m/s.
While 3500 kilometres per second is fast, light is faster at 300,000 km/s. So around 1.1% of light speed.
Edit: I see other people have already noted the same thing.
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Kryslin
[Has Delusions of Authorship]
- Location
- Mythic Iowa
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Or puts the polish on ...Unles he waxes poetic on us. Again.
M. H. Fuzzball
Aperture Science-certified Horrible Person
- Location
- Sector 2814
Of late, this is the thread that's been getting all of his wordz, which is not necessarily a good thing, because that means that nobody's watching Saurial or Doctor Curlyhair, and that's usually when the shenanigans start happening. (Fortunately, A Kernel of Truth has I believed reached the point where random Amy disappearances are unlikely to continue.)
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing!"
Ianthe, a purple pro.
They have others...
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FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
Why is there no "groan" button?
- Location
- England
Because the admin's took one look at the suggestion and gave it an expected lifespan of 3.14 seconds before it broke from heavy use.
Wow! That long? They must have hella faith in the community. {/sarcasm}
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Implement.
Read - facepalm - click button.
3.14 seconds elapsed until DoS takes effect.
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
I think you mean Dragon taking Armsmaster on a date, because I doubt he would have the social knowhow or the social aptitude to pick up on her wanting to date.
"What are we doing Dragon?"
"We're going on an enjoyable activity pursuant to mutual goals"
"Oh, well I suppose that's ok"
- Later -
"Dragon, why are you holding my hand?"
"This is a date Armsmaster, our third."
"... A date?"
"Yes."
"Oh... should I have bought flowers?"
"No, you purchased things for me on each of our previous dates."
"I did?" *thinks back to their last two outings* "So I did. Has my performance been satisfactory during our dates?"
"Exemplary, else we would not be on a third."
"Oh... that's good."
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Raved Thrad
Your Friendly Neighborhood Curmudgeon
- Location
- The Other Side of the Screen
Naturally, this is where Halbeard's
"Dragon, you have been periodically increasing proximity between us over the past forty-three minutes and twenty-two seconds."
"Why yes, I have."
"Additionally, your complexion appears to simulate increased blood flow, especially to your face, and your lips are parted and moisturized. Are we going to mate now?"
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
That... might require more social awareness then he has.
"Do you need an EpiPen?"
"Do I have food on my face?"
"Are you tracking my new cybernetic eye?"
"I'm calling for master/stranger response immediately! Fight it Dragon!"
- Location
- Somewhere.
Even worse, math has proven that fact.
FaerieKnight79
Verified Pixie
- Location
- The Internet
Yup, it proved the fact by trying to prove if it can solve any problem. Only to conclusively prove it can't answer the question one way or the other.
- Location
- Somewhere.
Ayup. Couldn't remember the name attached to it for the life of me, but that's the thing I meant.
The thing I can't wait for in the core fic is Emma waking up.
You're way high. One of the order of magnitude things I remember is that it takes around a year at 1G to reach lightspeed, discounting relativity.
On tablet, otherwise would calc more exact values.
So, extreme rounding. 2G = 20 m/s^2. C = 300M m/s, You need 15M seconds to reach 1c. 100K seconds in a day, you need ~150 days to reach c. Her device is around 0.013c when it runs out of power.
And I see many have beaten me.
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Side Story - Veni, Vidi, Gimme
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
Good news, everyone! A real chapter will be along fairly shortly. Work has tapered off for a week or so and I'm doing wordz quite a lot right now, but our favorite annoying Irishman stuck his oar in and the following was the result. I thought I'd let him get it out of his system before I got back to the original path I was trying to follow...
Amy watched as Taylor waved to her father, who waved back as he drove off. Her friend turned around and smiled at them. "So, let's wander around introducing Tali to the wonder that is Brockton Bay!" she said brightly extending her arms widely to encompass the entire city. Amy snorted, shaking her head with a darkly amused smile, while Vicky giggled next to her. Standing beside Taylor the young Quarian woman, who was now wearing something somewhat more commonplace than her environment suit, namely a set of modified jeans and a nice shirt that Vicky had found somewhere, looked at them and grinned.
Tali'Zorah was someone Amy had decided that she liked a lot. Alien she might be, and wasn't that an eye-opener, but she was smart, funny, friendly, and interesting. She reminded Amy in some ways rather strongly of Taylor in fact… Vicky also seemed to like her too, and it was clear that Danny did as well. Since Taylor had managed to yoink her here a week ago there had been a lot of running around on the part of the government from what her friend had said, but the outcome appeared to be that while Tali was here, however long that was, she had both a place to stay and work if she wanted it at Gravtec. Not to mention that apparently she had an official status that basically said she was an ambassador to her people and as such had more potential influence than you'd expect.
They started walking down the street, all four of them finding the attention they immediately got from locals and tourists alike kind of funny. As Taylor had explained, the government had arranged identification for public consumption that made no mention of the minor issue that Tali was an alien, but was entirely valid otherwise. If anyone decided to assume she was a Case 53, which seemed extremely likely, the plan was basically to let them. It made things much easier in most respects even if it wasn't really that accurate. Wandering around in public with them had been thought the simplest method to deal with any possible problems. Hiding Tali away would have been entirely doable of course but neither Tali herself nor Taylor thought that was a good idea, leaving aside how boring it would be. So going the exact opposite route and just not even trying to conceal the woman seemed a much better solution, since they could basically just act like everything was normal and let people draw their own conclusions.
It was basically hiding in plain sight by allowing people to think there was nothing to hide. It might not have worked in the past, but these days with actual Case 53s, other Parahumans, and whatever else was out there well known to everyone, it seemed entirely plausible that any attention would quickly die down once people got used to seeing her around the place. And in Brockton Bay, which was a hot-spot of Parahuman at the best of times, that was even more likely to happen.
Looking around she could see signs that this idea wasn't as crazy as it sounded. Sure, there were a lot of people staring at them, and taking photos, but a good third of those were actually concentrating on her sister rather than Tali anyway, and a lot more people were in fact looking at them, shrugging after a moment, and going about their business. Brocktonites were used to the weird, and an awful lot of them were so used to it they barely looked up unless something particularly interesting or loud was happening.
Someone who looked like Tali simply walking down the street looking at the shops and talking to Vicky and Taylor wasn't interesting enough to hold their gazes for more than a short time, she thought with inner bemusement and a certain amount of hilarity.
The only cover story they really had if someone asked about Tali was that she was an engineer, which was true, and a Tinker, which was in some odd sense also true considering her knowledge of technology that was very futuristic by most standards. She was, as far as people outside Gravtec and the government were concerned, an independent who had been hired by a company that was providing technical aid to Gravtec on a specific project, the details of which were confidential.
The company even existed, if anyone bothered to check.
Now, anyway.
Although Amy strongly suspected if someone actually looked up the details they'd probably find out that the company had existed for years even though it had come into existence in the last few days. Or possibly, if some of the stories she'd read about spy stuff were correct, the government had a whole stack of pre-existing resources like that they pulled out when needed? It didn't seem past the bounds of probability considering just how complicated the entire situation surrounding Gravtec and Taylor really was…
"This is an interesting place," Tali commented as she smiled back at a small child who'd stared fixedly at her as she passed, then shyly waved. "I've never really seen a city like it."
"There probably isn't a city like it," Vicky replied with a giggle. "Brockton Bay is unique."
Amy laughed, seeing that Taylor was grinning too. "An accurate way to put it," she agreed. "We get all the strangest things here."
"But we like it," Taylor added. The other three looked at her, Amy with an eyebrow raised. "Honest! it's a cool place. Especially now since no one has tried to blow it up for months!"
"That is… less of an advertisement for it than you may think it is, Taylor," Tali replied doubtfully, shaking her head and causing Taylor to grin again. Sniffing, the Quarian added, speaking quite softly, "I still can't get over being able to smell all these different things. You have no idea what that's like after..." She trailed off, making the other three exchange glances. "It's nice," the woman finished after a moment.
Taylor bumped her with her shoulder, smiling at her alien friend. "We understand," she remarked quietly. "And we'll help your people to all experience it soon enough." More loudly, she said, pointing down the street, "There it is! Gionavanni's makes the best ice cream in the state, Dad says. Come on, let's get something, then we can go and see if Parian is open."
"Someone mentioned something about orange ice cream?" Tali said hopefully, which made all three girls burst out laughing. Their new friend was slightly addicted to oranges and orange flavored things, it seemed.
"Orange ice cream, orange and chocolate ice cream, orange sorbet..." Vicky trailed off meaningfully, as Tali started walking faster, exchanging an amused glance with her sister and Taylor.
"What are we waiting for?" the Quarian replied eagerly.
Amy followed as Tali made a beeline for the shop, internally snickering at the expression on the woman's face. As they went inside she noticed that several people she was pretty damn certain were probably some of the spooks that seemed to absolutely infest the city these days were very carefully not watching them in a way she was beginning to learn to recognize and wondered just how many more there were surrounding the entire area very discreetly.
Probably all of them, she thought.
And pitied anyone who might be idiotic enough to try and start any trouble anywhere within a dozen kilometers of either Taylor or Tali. Because that would not end well, but it would end quickly, she was sure.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Sarah Pelham stopped in her tracks, causing her daughter Crystal to bump into her as she hadn't been watching, then complain. "Ow! Mom, what the hell?"
"Sorry," Sarah replied absently, watching her two nieces walk down the Boardwalk, along with their friend Taylor Hebert, a girl she'd met a couple of times in the last few months, and someone who was not entirely normal. 'Case 53?' she thought with interest, seeing the unusual arrangement of the woman's legs, hands, and for that matter face, which was distinctly non-human although not nearly as odd as some Case 53s were. Overall her physiology seemed, while quite out of the ordinary, to be much more… fitted together… than some of the poor people afflicted by whatever it was that made them Trigger like that.
All four were carrying ice cream cones, talking and gesturing in a manner than showed they were in good moods and seemed to be entirely at ease with each other. None of them were really paying much attention to the tourists who were gaping in their direction, although Vicky did occasionally stop and sign an autograph with a smile. That was very much in keeping with her niece, who was about as extroverted as they came, and always willing to play to the public. It did no damage to the perception of New Wave, so all in all it was helpful.
Crystal moved to stand next to her and looked to where she was gazing, then said, "Who's that?"
"No idea," Sarah replied. "But it looks like Amy and Vicky both know her. Have they mentioned knowing any new Parahumans to you?" She looked at her daughter, who shrugged and shook her head at the same time.
"Nope. She's not someone I've heard about. Case 53, do you think?"
"Probably." Both women watched as the quartet stopped, Taylor pointing at the Rig and making a gesture that resulted in the unknown woman nodding thoughtfully. They stood and chatted for a few seconds, then moved on, finishing their ice creams as they passed. "Let's go and say hi," Crystal added, immediately heading towards them. Sarah shook her head at the impetuousness of youth but had to admit she was curious too so followed without argument.
"Hey, Ames!" Crystal called as they approached the small group, who had apparently not seen them on the other side of the Boardwalk, from behind. Amy looked over her shoulder, then smiled, the others also looking. All four stopped and turned.
"Hi, Crystal," Amy replied cheerfully as both Pelhams joined them. Sarah was pleased, her dark-haired niece had definitely become much happier in the last few months. Apparently what had happened with Carol had improved matters a lot in that respect although it was still something that Sarah was wondering about the root cause of. "Hi, Aunt Sarah. Out shopping?"
Crystal hefted the two bags she was carrying in one hand. "Yeah, I needed some new clothes for a date. Mom came with me because she was bored, I think."
Sarah chuckled faintly. "I did need to get out of the house, I'll admit," she said calmly. "Hello, Amy, Vicky. And Taylor too, I believe?"
"That's me, Mrs Pelham," the Hebert girl replied with a smile, holding out her hand. Sarah shook it. "Nice to meet you again."
"Likewise." Sarah glanced at the unknown woman standing next to Taylor who was listening with interest.
"This is Tali, she's working with Gravtec," Taylor added.
The Case 53 woman held out a three fingered hand and Sarah shook it too. "Tali Zorah, Rannoch Industries," she said. "As Taylor mentioned my company is working closely with her father's one on some projects. It's pleasant to make your acquaintance."
"Sarah Pelham, as you might have gathered. This is my daughter Crystal."
"Ah, yes, I recognize the names," Tali replied, nodding. "Amy and Vicky have told me quite a lot about your group. It sounds like you've done some good work here in the city."
"We like to think we've made a difference," Sarah smiled. "Although one never knows quite what's going to happen, especially these days."
"True enough," Tali chuckled.
"Forgive my curiosity, but what does Rannoch Industries do?" Sarah queried, because she really was curious.
"High technology engineering, primarily," Tali replied immediately. "We have expertise in a number of fields that dovetail well with the research Gravtec is doing. I'm the lead engineer and was asked to help with a project that's being backed by a client of Gravtec's. I'm afraid I can't go into details, of course."
"Of course. I was just curious as I said. Are you a Tinker, then?" Sarah realized she was slightly pushing it but couldn't help herself.
"More or less, I suppose," Tali smiled, "Although I would rather think of myself as an engineer with slightly unusual knowledge and abilities."
"Fair enough." Sarah nodded, feeling that was a perfectly reasonable answer and wondering exactly what the woman's specialty was, but deciding that asking was way over the line. She was still curious but not curious enough to be rude.
"Taylor and her friends were showing me around," Tali added, looking at the three girls next to her. "I'm currently staying with the Heberts, and this is my first time in Brockton Bay. I've only been here a short time, although I expect I may be here for a while. It depends on how our work goes."
"It's an… interesting… place," Sarah remarked wryly causing all the others to grin and Crystal to burst out laughing. "At times a little too interesting. Although I will admit that the last year or so has been somewhat less exciting than at points in the past..."
"I've had times where life got rather more exciting that one would entirely like it to be, so I understand," Tali agreed. "It'll be nice to have a more relaxing period than at some points in the recent past. I'm looking forward to working here."
"Well, I hope you're successful, and have a good time," Sarah nodded. "Welcome to Brockton Bay."
"Thank you."
Looking at her watch, Sarah winced a little. "Oops. I told my husband we'd be home in about ten minutes, we have some work of our own to do, and if we don't leave now we'll be late. Come on, Crystal."
"OK, mom."
"Nice to meet you both," Tali said.
"And you. Give my best to your mother, girls," Sarah replied, making Amy and Vicky nod. Taylor waved as both Pelhams took off, the tourists pointing as they rose into the air and headed for home.
"She seems nice," Crystal commented on the way back.
"I think so. I hope it works out, whatever they're doing," Sarah agreed. "Gravtec is bringing a lot of good to the city after all."
They flew onwards, Sarah's thoughts turning to what to make for dinner.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Watching the two humans fly unassisted off over the city skyline, Tali shook her head in wonder. "I don't think I'll ever get used to that," she remarked in a low voice to her friends. Vicky grinned, as Taylor and Amy giggled.
"It's a hell of a lot of fun," the blonde girl replied. She looked after her aunt and cousin, then back at the others. "That worked perfectly," she went on very quietly.
"Yep. Exactly as we thought it would, and if it satisfied your aunt, it should work on everyone else," Taylor replied equally quietly. "And the more people who see that sort of thing, the more the word gets around, and the less anyone cares about it all."
"Your world is certainly… different," Tali put in, sounding amused. "But so far it's a lot of fun."
"Wait until we get to the really fun stuff," Taylor chuckled. They started walking again now that the Pelhams were entirely out of sight. "Good thing we built the facility we'll need already. It'll save a lot of time."
Tali nodded, still wondering if Taylor's plan would actually work. It was somewhat incredible, but based on what she'd seen in the brief time she'd been here led her to think it was at least possible, even if audacious. Time would tell.
"There's Parian's shop," Vicky said, pointing ahead. "And she's open. Let's see if she'd like an interesting commission."
Tali followed the three girls into the shop, finding this entire experience surreal but fun. It was certainly a massive improvement on what she'd been looking forward to only two short weeks ago.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Listening to Taylor as she explained, Angus nodded and made notes, looking across the office to where Brendan was paying great attention. The rest of the Gravtec staff were also listening carefully, their expressions running the gamut from startled to eager and everything in between.
When Taylor stopped, Tali'Zorah stood up and walked over to the projector connected to a modified omnitool, one of the ones she'd brought with her and Taylor had ripped to pieces and improved. Operating the smaller holographic interface it was projecting above it, she produced a much larger although non-holographic image on the big screen at the end of the room. Everyone looked at it as she started pointing out various aspects of the ship that was shown on the screen, annotating parts of it with quick motions of her fingers.
"We'll need the right team," he pointed out half an hour later.
"Leave that to me," Brendan replied. "I've got a few people in mind who will be able to do the job. We need to move fast, in case either Tali's expedient work fails, or someone stumbles across the ship."
"Both are fairly unlikely, I think," Tali put in. "My work should be good for at least another two months, and the chances of anyone coming looking for the Klaatu are not high. Not zero, but if they were going to look for it, they'd probably have done it before Taylor rescued me." She shrugged. "But I really have no idea if anyone other than Taylor detected my beacon, so who knows?"
"Regardless, the sooner we do it the better, just in case," Brendan said, nodding to her. "We can get the hardware built in what, about two weeks?" Everyone looked at Taylor, who thought hard, then asked a couple of questions in a low voice of the engineering team sitting around her. She looked up.
"That should be possible, yeah. We've got the main room pretty much done already, and if we can get the work crews on it in shifts working around the clock finishing everything that's not quite there yet shouldn't take more than ten days. Dad, can that be done?"
Danny nodded after checking something on the laptop he was holding. "Yes. That part is simple enough. All the required supplies are either in stock already or on short lead times. I'll get on it as soon as we finish. It's not like funding is the bottleneck after all." That made everyone laugh.
"And between us, Tali, I, and the other guys can finish building the big transport system and the beacons," Taylor continued when they'd stopped. "I've designed everything we'll need to build and making it isn't hard. DARPA has Tali's suit and her documentation on it, so that shouldn't be a problem either."
"We're well ahead of schedule on that project, Taylor," Doctor Hicks, one of the DARPA specialists present for this meeting put in." We may need some more insight from Tali in a couple of days, but I believe we'll finish shortly. We've added a number of improvements we think will also be useful."
"I'd be interested in seeing those," Tali requested. He looked at her and nodded.
"Of course. I'll get you the documentation."
"Thanks."
They kept going for another two hours but by the end had pretty much the entire operation plotted out, and had identified all the issues that remained to be dealt with. Angus was by now certain it would work, as it appeared everyone else was too.
When they finally broke up and dispersed to their own departments, he went back to his office and sat looking at the notes he'd made, smiling faintly and wondering what they'd find once they succeeded.
Eventually he put the pad down and turned to his computer, bringing up the research data they'd so far acquired on the substance Tali referred to as 'element zero' and trying once more to work out what about it made him wary of the stuff.
He was going to have to talk to Taylor about that, he finally decided. She'd seemed very thoughtful when Tali had been talking about it the last time, he'd noticed, and wondered if she was also feeling the same way.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Captain Jon Klein, former JSOC technical specialist, now attached to a highly secretive department of the US government under the aegis of DARPA, looked at the shimmering block of space that filled one end of the incredibly vast room he and his small team were in, a space that was several hundred meters long and over two hundred wide by the same high. That alone was seriously impressive, but the far end of the place was in most respects more so, if only due to what it represented.
After inspecting it for a few seconds he turned to General Calhoun, who was his current immediate superior. "Are you sure this works, General?" he asked carefully, nodding sideways at the phenomenon. "Not that I don't trust your eggheads, but… I'm still having trouble with the entire idea."
Most of his five-person squad nodded as one. The sole exception, Sergeant Rose Holden, a short and intense woman with two doctorates in high energy physics and materials science respectively, and a deep love of science fiction, was staring at the wavering zone with an expression of extreme anticipation.
"Understandable, Captain, it's a lot to take in," the general replied with a smile. He was quite unlike many of the top brass Klein had dealt with in the past, not giving the impression of being as self important as a lot of them sometimes were. The captain had learned the older man was one of the most intelligent people he'd ever met and had a knowledge of many fields that far outstripped almost anyone he knew, not entirely surprising considering he basically ran DARPA. Which itself in the last couple of years or so seemed to have rapidly started turning out any number of ultra high tech things that up until recently would have been either impossible, or Tinker tech and therefore largely unusable.
He felt he might now have an idea just how that sort of thing had suddenly started happening…
"However, you've seen the recordings from the probes, and talked to Tali." General Calhoun gestured at the shimmerfield. "Through that is an alien spacecraft. One that no one is using, and one that we would really rather like to obtain. And to do that, we need to place a number of items of special technology on board it, then shut down the improvised fusion reactor Tali built along with her original gravity beacon so we don't have trouble with interference from it. We can't afford to wait too long in case her work fails, since it was assembled from scrap and despite her talents might give up on us without warning. So we can't use the drones to do this as they're not quite finished yet. A manned mission is our best shot."
"And if it dies on us while we're there…?" he queried, just to settle his nerves, as they'd gone over that eventuality in the mission briefing. General Calhoun seemed to understand and just smiled patiently.
"Your suits contain beacons to allow us to lock on and retrieve you even if that happens, Captain. And more than enough air and water to keep you alive for close to a week." He looked around at the squad. "Tali says she's almost certain that nothing will go wrong in the time you'll be there, and our own experts agree based on her data. But even if it does we can, and will, bring you home. But at the same time we can't risk losing our connection to that ship."
"Understood, sir. Thank you." Jon nodded firmly, seeing that his people were also reassured by the general's words. "In that case, we have a mission to do." Reaching up he flipped his helmet visor closed, allowing the technicians who had been silently waiting to move forward and cross-check everything, the process being repeated to the rest of his team. His HUD came alive moments later, the discreet displays showing his consumables status, energy levels, and all the other relevant information. It was very science fiction and not something he was yet blasé about even after weeks of training.
It almost made him feel like a superhero, he thought deep down with a grin from his inner child. And now he got to explore a genuine alien spaceship!
Sometimes this job really was the best thing ever.
The techs finished their checks and stepped back, one of them slapping him on the shoulder and grinning. "You're good to go, Captain," the man said cheerfully. "Have fun."
"Thanks," Jon replied, then he turned to the general who was watching with interest. "With your permission, sir?"
"Proceed, Captain. Good luck."
Jon saluted, as did his team, then they turned and trotted towards the spatial anomaly. In a glass booth far up on the side of the vast room he could see figures watching them, among them almost certainly Tali'Zorah, the first real alien he'd ever met.
And hadn't that been an eye-opener, he thought with mild amusement.
He'd learned all sorts of bizarre things since he'd been selected for this job, but that way out there even in such terms.
Reaching the threshold of the portal that would take them to the ship that was half-way across a far distant galaxy, his squad stopped and ran final checks. "Weapons good?" he queried, getting a number of affirmations back. They weren't expecting to meet anyone at all, but considering how the ship had ended up how it had, it was only prudent to be ready just in case.
He checked his own pack, then looked at the others, all of who nodded. "Right. Let's do this."
"After you, Captain," Corporal Ian Little said with a polite gesture to the shimmer. A couple of people chuckled, as did someone over the live radio link.
Klein bowed, still impressed that the ridiculously advanced pressure suit/space armor allowed such a thing without difficulty, then turned to look at the anomaly. Taking a deep breath, his weapon held ready if only because of ingrained reflexes, he advanced. The transition to somewhere else was instant and somewhat disorientating, even if he'd been expecting it.
Taking a few steps forward he scanned the room carefully, the rest of his team appearing one by one behind him and immediately moving off the much smaller version of the machinery in the facility they'd just left, thousands of light-years away in a different universe. "Clear," he said as the last of them arrived, seeing nothing that didn't match the images they'd all studied from the small reconnaissance probes that had been sent through at various times in the past few weeks.
Everyone relaxed slightly, having been somewhat keyed up in case there was an unwelcome committee waiting for them, and started looking around in a less anticipatory manner. "Wow," Corporal Little breathed almost silently as he studied the surroundings. "It's fucking real."
"You actually doubted it after everything we've seen?" Holden snarked with a glance at him from where she was inspecting the odd computer system on the far side of the room, the holographic displays glowing faintly and showing lots of data in the Quarian script.
"Not really, but there's hearing about it, and experiencing it, you know?" Little replied with a slight chuckle.
"Yeah, point to you, I guess," she nodded. "Captain, this is exactly as Tali described. Nothing seems to have changed from the last check. If I'm reading this right her beacon is still fully operational, and the fusion reactor is at… huh, about ninety seven percent output." She operated some virtual controls, tentatively at first, then with more assurance. "No errors logged that I can see. We should be good as far as I can tell."
A voice sounded in their helmets, reminding them that a lot of other people were watching everything they did and listening as well. "Those readings are normal, Corporal," Tali's voice said. "Can you go back to the previous screen, please?"
Holden tapped a control and after a moment Tali went on, "Yes, everything's still working within acceptable parameters. But it looks like the reactor lining is starting to degrade, so it probably won't run for more than another… about six weeks, or so… without maintenance. It won't be a problem for your mission though."
"Thanks, Tali," Holden replied with a look at Jon who nodded.
Moving to the airlock door, which had obviously been quickly if neatly welded to the bulkhead as an unauthorized upgrade by the Quarian engineer, Jon studied the controls for a moment to make sure they were as he recalled, then pressed the right pad. After a pause of a couple of seconds the door opened and he stepped into the small compartment. "Only enough room for two at a time," he said. "Holden, you're with me. We'll put our beacons aft towards the engines. Little, Vasquez, you two head forward and place yours at the bow. Park, Green, you guys handle the middle section. Keep alert for hazards or unexpected visitors."
The rest of the team nodded, Rose joining him in the cramped confines of the improvised airlock. He hit the control pad again and the inner door closed, then with a hiss the air pressure rapidly dropped to nothing. When the outer door opened it was in complete silence as far as his external microphone was concerned.
"Reference generator active," he commented, double checking his HUD, then taking a cautious step through the open hatch. His instruments immediately showed that the gravity had gone away, but his suit's systems compensated so well he couldn't really feel it.
"Woah. That's pretty freaking incredible," Holden muttered, making him look to see her staring at a piece of debris that gently floated past them. Both watched it slowly bounce off one of the walls and rebound in a different direction then exchanged wondering glances.
"Cool as hell," she added with a faint laugh.
"Bet you never thought you'd be doing this," he remarked, causing her to shake her head. Behind them the outer airlock door closed again as the rest of the team started the sequence again. "Come on, we have a job to do," he added, "We can play with the scenery later."
She grinned and followed him as he carefully followed the map projected on his HUD, pointing the way to the furthest stern-ward part of the ship they were on. The route was difficult, as the interior of the craft was severely damaged, signs of battle all around them, but they pressed on regardless. Once or twice they spotted things that made them stop and stare for a moment, including the badly torn up body of someone who was, from what they'd learned, a Salarian, the species who had built this ship.
"Damn, that's a lot of damage," Holden said quietly as she aimed her helmet light at the dead alien.
"Looks like the poor bastard went down instantly," Jon agreed soberly. "Nothing's going to live long with a hole that big in their chest..."
Both nodded respectfully to the departed Salarian, then moved on. It was much too late for him. Jon pondered the information they'd been given on the species who'd attacked this ship and once again decided that Batarians sounded like trouble that someone should have done something about a long time ago. The evidence all around them was proof enough of that. A lot of the damage was obviously from external sources, based on the way the structure had been distorted, but there were ample traces to show a lot of weapons fire had taken place inside the ship, and plenty to show that quite a lot of the wreckage had been deliberately created. Either out of malice or just from careless piracy.
Jon didn't like pirates.
They eventually arrived after close to twenty minutes of cautious progress at the far rear of the ship, where a large gaping hole allowed them to see into space through where an engine should have been. Both stared at the distant stars glowing brilliantly in the dark, and a rather spectacular nebula that was covering several degrees of the view, then exchanged awe-struck glances.
"Holy shit that's incredible," Rose muttered, her eyes wide.
"Yeah," he agreed quietly. They drank in the sight for a minute or so then shook themselves free of the wonder and got back to work. "Try not to fall into space," he joked as Holden moved around the compartment they were in, looking for the ideal place to connect the first beacon to the hull.
"Ha ha," she replied sarcastically. "How about here?"
"Tali?" Jon queried, aiming his camera at the place the woman was indicating. "Is this good?"
"Perfect, Captain," the Quarian replied a second later. "Corporal, if you attach it to the fuel feed pipe half a meter to your left, a meter up… Yes, there. That's the ideal place for that unit. You should find a similar location on the starboard side for the other one."
"Got it."
Jon helped Holden get her pack off, then she opened it while he held it and removed a trapezoidal box forty centimeters square and ten thick with a keypad on the smaller square face. Holding it up to the desired spot with one hand she tapped a couple of keys, which caused the small display above the pad to light up. Letting go, she prodded it once or twice, then nodded. "Locked on fine." Operating the controls again she nodded once more when the display changed from 'Standby' to 'Active, waiting for signal.'
"One down." They exchanged looks, then Jon headed for the hatch, Holden following with a last glance out through the hull rupture.
Ten minutes later they'd attached and activated the second beacon, the self-tests showing it was functioning correctly. Only a few minutes later Vasquez reported, "Both ours are in place at the bow as far forward as we could get. We're heading back."
"Acknowledged," Jon replied, glancing at Holden who was inspecting a tool she'd snagged as it had drifted past. "We'll head towards the reactor room, you two wait for us in the arrival area. Park, how's yours going?"
"Almost done, sir," the other man responded almost immediately. "We're having trouble getting into the right place amidships, due to debris blocking a hatch. Green is cutting it away, we should be good in less than five minutes."
"Got it. Report back as soon as you're done, then return to the arrival zone too."
"Sir."
Turning to his companion he brought up the map that Tali had provided them showing the layout of the ship and studied it. "I think we need to go up three decks and head forward," he said after a look.
"Matches what I can see." She nodded. Both of them left the compartment, Rose shoving the tool into her pack for later examination, and carefully made their way through the wreckage, having to duck under one area where a ceiling had partially collapsed into the corridor. It took them nearly another quarter of an hour to arrive at their destination by which point the second team had finished and was on their way back to their route home.
"Whoa, that's freaky," Holden commented as they felt a subliminal vibration that had been present the entire time suddenly grow considerably stronger and send tremors right through them. They'd entered the primary affected zone of Tali's improvised gravitational beacon and even through their own reference frame generators the effect was noticeable, as they'd been warned might well be the case.
Stopping well clear of the compartment where the device was located, Jon said, "We're in position. Compensation is holding but we probably can't risk going inside until it's shut down."
"Hold your position, Captain," Tali's voice came. "We're just running final remote checks on the beacons."
"Acknowledged, holding position," he replied, both he and Holden waiting patiently. A couple of minutes passed in silence only broken by Park reporting that their team was also back at the deployment area now.
"All the tests passed, we're activating the beacons in three… two… one."
The entire ship shuddered very slightly, debris lifting from where it had settled and starting to gradually drift around, and Jon could have sworn he felt a wave of cold flash through him making him twitch. Rose muttered something and looked around. "Beacons running, solid lock achieved," Tali reported, sounding pleased. "Corporal Little, can you execute the shutdown procedure on my console, please?"
"Proceeding with shutdown procedure," Little responded promptly. There was a pause for a few seconds, then he added, "Shutdown complete, instruments show field density dropping below critical point..."
Just like that, the vibrations that had been making his bones twinge suddenly halted. "Original beacon now inactive."
"You're safe to proceed, Captain. You can enter the reactor compartment and shut it down now."
"Thank you," Jon replied as he waved Rose forward. Both of them walked down the corridor to the relevant compartment, with a glance into the one that contained the Quarian's improvised beacon. It was a mass of hideously complex machinery surrounding a melon-sized irregular lump of slightly ominously blue-glowing material, he saw, the glow visibly dimming down quite quickly. He was impressed and appalled at the same time about just how complicated the device was, and thought that one person managing to put that together under these circumstances was as good a proof as anything he could conceive of precisely how talented Tali actually was. Stuck here marooned in space for however long it had been and she had kept on plugging away at some sort of rescue rather than giving up… It was impressive indeed.
Very few people even given such talents would have done as well, he mused, as they slid the hatch of the reactor compartment open and went inside. Holden moved to aim her helmet camera at the machinery in the middle of the room, which like all the rest of Tali's work here showed ample evidence of having been constructed from parts of other devices, albeit very neatly and professionally. "Tali? Just double checking, I close these two valves here and here, and move this switch to this position?" the woman asked, indicated the relevant controls with a gloved hand.
"Correct, Sergeant. Close the primary fuel feed first, that's the top left one, wait for the ignition status gauge directly under it to drop to the blue zone, then close the vent valve. Once the pressure on the display immediately to your right falls below the sustain point, that orange line one third of the way from the bottom, you can deactivate the field generator. That will cleanly shut the reactor down."
"Got it. Proceeding with first valve." Jon watched as Holden cautiously wound what was, leaving aside the alien origin, a perfectly recognizable high pressure manual valve, slowly inwards. The gauge Tali had mentioned started dropping immediately and by the time the valve was fully closed, was almost at top of the blue-outlined quadrant. When the needle was fully inside the zone the woman closed the second valve with more confidence, then both watched the pressure display gradually fall.
"Looks just about there..." Holden poised her fingers over the switch, which moved sideways, and when the display finally hit the right point flicked it to the right. The glow from the inspection port on the reactor that had been slowly dimming since the first valve was closed flashed brighter for a moment then went out. All the remaining displays and readouts dropped to zero at the same time.
"That's it, it's fully shut down now," Tali remarked, sounding almost regretful. "It worked far better than I'd ever hoped for..."
"You do good work," Holden replied with a smile in her voice as she patted the inactive reactor with one hand.
"Thanks. I didn't have a lot of choice, but thanks anyway," the Quarian chuckled. "General Calhoun says well done, and to return to the extraction area now. We'll handle things from here from this point."
"We're heading back now," Jon said as Holden joined him at the hatch. Both looked around, met each other's eyes through their visors, then left the compartment.
When they'd cycled themselves back through the airlock into Tali's former living space, the rest of the team were waiting for them. "All done, sir?" Vasquez asked.
"We're done here, yeah," he replied. "Let's go home."
"Bit of an anticlimax, I was sort of expecting something horrible to go wrong," the man said wryly, causing everyone to glare at him. He looked around. "What? That's what always happens in the movies."
"This is not a movie and I'll thank you not to tempt Murphy, you idiot," Jon growled. He pointed at the shimmerfield over Tali's home made teleport pad. "Get through that thing before I throw you through it."
Smirking, Vasquez saluted somewhat ironically, then turned and marched forward without hesitation. The rest of them filed through one after another, Jon taking a last look around, shaking his head in wonder, and following. Moments later the compartment was empty once more, only the faint hum of active equipment now running on batteries breaking the silence.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Brendan watched as the small team of soldiers walked across the vast floor far below, heading for a debrief and looking quite pleased with themselves even from here. They seemed to be laughing and joking with the techs who were accompanying them, showing no signs of what a groundbreaking mission they'd just been on. He smiled, then turned to look at the others in the control booth with him. "That went much better than I feared it might," he said.
"There was very little danger," Tali said from where she was sitting at one of the control consoles, next to Taylor who was studying a series of displays that even Brendan couldn't make any sense whatsoever out of. "Your variant of my environment suit is very well made, and would have handled almost anything they might have run into."
"And the built in beacons and GRF systems would have kept them alive even if the ship exploded," Taylor commented absently, not looking up from her work. "Which was extremely unlikely, we checked very carefully for any instabilities first."
Brendan looked at Danny and Angus, who were sitting a couple of rows back from where the two girls were, both of them listening and looking pleased. He shrugged, causing Danny to grin and Angus to chuckle. After a few seconds, Taylor turned around and started discussing something extremely technical with Tali, two of the Gravtec people, and some of the DARPA scientists who were also involved with this project. They spent about twenty minutes scribbling on pads and pointing at various figures and graphs on the screens until everyone seemed to reach a consensus, nodding in satisfaction.
"We're ready, everything's calibrated and locked on," Taylor announced as she looked around at him. "Any time you want."
"Excellent." Brendan smiled, then looked down at the huge void below them. No one was now present in it. "Go ahead. Make sure this is being recorded, we may need to impress someone with it at some point."
Taylor snorted with laughter, as did Tali, while turning to one of the techs and nodding to him. He nodded back and worked on his console for a few seconds then made a sign to her.
The girl leaned forward and pressed the talk switch on the mic in front of her. Her words echoed through the control room and the space outside it. "Transportation sequence starting. Support fields initiated. Structural integrity system active. Depressurization in ten seconds." Red lights began flashing all around the huge room, and a klaxon sounded. "Depressurization initiated."
The deep whooshing sound that followed her words made the entire facility vibrate slightly, while the view of the room outside the control area was abruptly filled with mist which pulsed red as the warning lights operated. Everyone watched as the mist increased, then suddenly vanished as the pressure in the transportation area dropped too low to support it. The sound of vast amounts of air being pulled out of the space faded, finally dying away into a hiss then silence.
"Depressurization complete. All infrastructure facilities ready. Initiating transportation."
Taylor tapped a control, then moved a slider, before hitting the final key.
The shimmerfield which was still filling the far right end of the huge room from floor to ceiling started to sweep towards them. As it passed the control room windows it left behind it an enormous metallic structure that made Brendan's jaw, despite himself, drop. By the time it hit the left end and blinked out the full extent of what they'd pulled off was apparent, and almost everyone in the room was standing and staring. Even Tali.
Taylor, he noted, was studying the instruments with concentration, and only when she finally nodded and made a few notes in her omnipresent notebook did she stand up as well and join him, Danny, and Angus at the window. "Neat," she said with a grin as they all inspected the very shot up but largely intact alien spacecraft, close to two hundred and eighty meters long, that was floating silently in the middle of the room.
Brendan turned his head to look at her, then raised his eyes to meet Danny's, the other man raising one shoulder in a small amused shrug.
Yeah, that was pretty much what you'd expect from Taylor. Very little seemed to actually surprise her.
"You just teleported a Salarian vessel from the other side of a galaxy in an entirely different dimension and all you can say is 'Neat?'" Tali asked with a grin of her own. Taylor looked at her and laughed.
"Hey, it is neat, right?"
"You're a very, very strange person, Taylor," the Quarian said with a shake of her head.
"Yep. OK, let's get that thing on the ground in one piece then put the air back so we can have a look at it, shall we?" the girl replied happily, going back to her console. Her colleagues joined her, and shortly they were working on getting the Salarian wreck safely set up for further work. Brendan watched for a while as enormous robotic supports were deployed to support the ship, smiled, and left to make a couple of phone calls.
Quite a few people were going to be very pleased about the outcome of this project.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Secretary Robinson studied the images in the report he'd been handed by a visibly shocked intelligence operative. He flipped through the document, reading quickly, then smiled and shook his head in wonder as he closed it. "Extraordinary. Absolutely extraordinary." Looking up at the other man he added wryly, "I believe that the Prime Asset has outdone herself yet again. And the long term ramifications appear to have altered rather sharply as a result."
"That's certainly one way to put it, sir," the man managed. Despite his past, and all the oddities coming from that particular direction recently, he was pretty clearly having trouble with how things were going at the moment.
Standing up Robinson slipped the folder into his secure briefcase, then locked it. "I believe the President would like to see this as soon as possible," he went on with a small grin. "So let's go and inform him how our friend has changed the world once more..."
Both men left his office, Robinson feeling that things were going quite well and wondering with amusement just what the reaction from certain quarters would ultimately be when the new reached them. He hoped he'd get to see it...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Salarian STG vessel Analysis decelerated from FTL speeds to sublight and started scanning the surrounding space. After half an hour the sensor operator turned to the captain and said, "No sign of anything unusual, sir. Not even debris this time."
Captain Hirbana studied the holodisplay in front of her position and nodded slowly. "Odd. This is the best fit location to the gravitational anomaly, but..." She thought for a couple of minutes while her crew worked around her, then sighed. "Proceed with the full deep spherical scan. Deploy drones, look for anything at all out of the ordinary."
"Are we even certain this is connected to the loss of the Klaatu, Captain?" her XO asked.
She glanced at him and shook her head with resignation. "No. All we've found is some small items of debris that were drifting on a vector aimed this way. Ample evidence that the ship was attacked, no proof of who was behind it, but we all know the likely answer to that question, and crucially no ship."
"If it was pirates perhaps they took the entire ship with them."
"Possibly. Even likely. But we found some wreckage that suggests critical damage, so even if they did they wouldn't have got very far, and if it's who I think it is, they probably wouldn't bother. If the ship had been entirely destroyed we should have found more debris as well. So..." She sighed again. "It's a mystery, and the source of whatever that gravitational anomaly was is also a mystery. Two mysteries in the same general area stand a good chance of being connected in my view."
He nodded slowly, looking at the same screen she was, which was being updated by the data coming in from the deployed drone swarm now spreading out from their ship. "But if they are connected, the question is how? The anomaly was entirely unlike anything on record, and we have no idea what could have caused it."
"True," she mused. "Which is why it's an anomaly, of course." He nodded silently as they watched the progress of the scan. "All we can do is look, and perhaps we'll get lucky and find something."
They didn't, and when they moved on to the next search location, they were no more enlightened about what had happened to their missing ship than they had been before. That knowledge would be a very long time in coming.
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More goodies (of course now I can best turn off my laptop, given that it is nearly 1 AM and I need to get up for work at 6), or I can just blame the authors on SB and SV who posted their chapters just as I was going to turn off my laptop
- Location
- Hot Springs
You know, I'm going to be highly amused if/when Queen Administrator turns Taylor immortal, as the STG are going to turn her into a long term 'Training Exercise', you do realize this, right?
They'll send MULTIPLE teams at odd intervals just to pick up tidbits that's she left (with amusement dancing in those eyes of hers) scattered in her personal research bases. Granted, those teams WILL be the most non-lethally armed ever seen (no killing means the Taylor stays amused at the need Salarians seem to have to snitch what might be given otherwise), and the STG high-ups don't have to worry about replacing as many agents (or end up triggering wars with a VERY highly advanced species that seems to believe re-writing SCIENCE every week is the NORM....
They'll send MULTIPLE teams at odd intervals just to pick up tidbits that's she left (with amusement dancing in those eyes of hers) scattered in her personal research bases. Granted, those teams WILL be the most non-lethally armed ever seen (no killing means the Taylor stays amused at the need Salarians seem to have to snitch what might be given otherwise), and the STG high-ups don't have to worry about replacing as many agents (or end up triggering wars with a VERY highly advanced species that seems to believe re-writing SCIENCE every week is the NORM....
