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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 18, 2009 9:57:16 GMT -5
Cool. The UN ain't going to be happy. The big boys are back.
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 18, 2009 22:49:34 GMT -5
I hate Sargent McBride. He's our Drill Instructor. The guy is 80 Earth Years old and he floats through calisthenics like he was in his 20's. Which, according to his calender, he is. Tooling around the galaxy at sub light speeds will do that to a man. Right now I wish it did other things but I know I'll get past that feeling because I know I did the right thing by picking Fleet over Earth.
But as usual, I'm getting way ahead of the story.
We opened all the bays (except bay 6 for the above stated reasons ha ha) and watched as 9 blue and gold saucers settled over their respective landing sites. The little people from the garbage cans had disappeared already. Burrowing into the jimmied airlocks and service ramps before the spaceships settled down. I noticed a tiny swarm of the white suited astronauts in the Reception Bubble, which served as terminus for the different landing bays. I also noticed they kept their helmets on even though I knew there was plenty of air in there.
The lift opened up behind us. By that time all of us except Kennedy (the doped out control operator) and the South Africans had formed up in two lines to serve as an honor guard for whomever showed up first from the ships. The others were with Allencombe in the brig so we had around 40 of us left to meet the crew from the Fleet.
A team of 4 astronauts entered the control room sporting some very big guns. They kept their weapons trained on us and didn't say anything. Their visors were down so we couldn't see their faces but nobody felt particularly apprehensive. The one closest to the door strode forward and lowered his weapon. His voice sounded metallic through his helmet speaker.
"Lieutenant Martinez?"
The Lieutenant stepped up and saluted the astronaut whom I now noticed had a gold oak leaf on each shoulder.
"I'm Commander Litton, thanks for your co-operation. We need all of your people to get scanned before we can secure this room. It's painless and brief. Can I count on your co-operation lieutenant?"
The Lieutenant murmured something and the astronaut flipped up his gold outer visor and gave the thumbs up to his three companions. He was another rugged looking character with a boyish grin. his three friends flipped up their outer visors and lowered their weapons too.
"O.K. Mac, send em' in."
The lift opened up again and some more astronauts entered pushing what looked like an empty door frame on a cart.
The gold leaf astronaut pointed to the floor.
"Right over there, and somebody find Benny. I got a job for him."
One of the new astronauts flipped up his visor and called out.
"Right over here Sir."
"Swell. Benny, I need you to find that signal and squash it. Also, if you could flood this room with gas first, I'd appreciate it."
"Yes Sir Commander, right away."
The new astronaut came near where I stood and eased himself behind a console. He looked up at me sheepishly.
"I can't wait to have a cheese burger. You guys eat O.K. down here?"
I didn't have the heart to tell him that we'd been living on M.R.E's for the last 5 years. Instead, I asked.
"What's the gas for?"
"Decontamination. This whole base shows up as a red glow through the bio-visor. Is that why there's nobody here?"
I didn't have an answer for that one either.
"Who are you guys?"
The astronaut turned around in his chair to regard me skeptically.
"From the looks of things around here, I'd say we're the fuggin' Calvary."
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Dec 19, 2009 0:18:48 GMT -5
Awesome!
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 19, 2009 1:11:32 GMT -5
Enjoy.
I started to say something but instead turned to go with the others through the door frame looking contraption the astronauts had set up in the middle of the tower control room. I was about halfway there when some Personnel guy up near the door frame fell over. Immediately two astronauts came over to the prostrate form with weapons aimed. A third came over and knelt near the unconscious Base Personnel member. He held what looked like a silver playing card over the body and then stood up, secreting the silver card somewhere in his space suit. All this happened in silence so I figured the astronauts were using internal radio.
Commander Littons voice carried throughout the room sounding artificially amplified and tinny.
"No worries folks, just keep moving through the scanner. Most of you already have and know there is nothing to fear. Keep moving."
I looked over at where the unconscious guy had been, but saw that the astronauts had already hustled him out of there. I walked through the frame feeling nothing but a slight tingle and joined everyone else around Commander Litton. Well, almost everyone else. I noticed that about a dozen people were absent and saw the last one being hustled into the lift by a couple of armed astronauts. Littons voice started up again.
"Folks, we sure appreciate your welcome and your patience. The gas has pretty much cleaned out this room already so you really don't have anything to worry about. Here, I'll show you."
Commander Litton popped some latches on his helmet and unscrewed it. He took it off and held it under his arm looking for all the world like the Marlborough man in a space suit.
"I could use a smoke. Anybody got something besides Chesterfields?"
He smiled, waiting for the laughter but I saw that he realized that no one got the joke so he changed tactics and unzipped a pocket on his suit and dug around while he grinned boyishly at us. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter and quickly lit one up, exhaling with pleasure.
"I guess freeze dried is better than none."
A red light went off on the ceiling and a prerecorded female voice began to recite the various laws and treaties that were being broken by smoking. The commander grinned sardonically.
"Benny!"
"Yes Sir!"
The voice stopped and the light went off. The commander took an InterPlan officers cap from a console near him and flipped it over. He dropped some ashes in it and regarded us benignly.
"I don't suppose any of you would care to explain what the hell's been going on around here for the last 50 years or so would you?"
He held up a hand as the lieutenant started to speak.
"That's alright lieutenant, I just wanted an informal opinion from the regular Joes."
The Commander gestured at Spc. Davies, the guy that used to have my job before he grubbed his way into a yellow card and out of maintenance.
"How about you Sailor, can you tell me what happened?"
Davies looked a little surprised, but tried to come up with something.
"Well...Sir, um. We run the base for the Voshans and InterPlan and pretty much do what the Secretary says."
"Of the Navy? Defense?"
"No Sir. Secretary Hilliard of the United Nations and InterPlan."
The Commander looked over at me.
"How about you son, you work for the U.N.?"
"No Sir. I work for Fleet Services."
He laughed with a few others and we watched as "Benny" came over with his helmet off to talk with the Commander.
"It's all done Sir, room's clean, transmitters off, and I found out where that awful music was coming from so I sent a spike out to disable the satellite."
"Thanks Benny, you want to stick around or do you need to get down to the basement?"
"The reactor can wait. I can't imagine these guys did anything to it."
He looked around sheepishly.
"No offense intended."
Captain Young came off his ship right about then. We could see his retinue in the Reception Bubble.
Hey! I've got to slam out of here for class. I'll finish this after Astro Navigation,
J
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 19, 2009 13:52:51 GMT -5
This is a great story.
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 19, 2009 16:57:06 GMT -5
I don't know if I should write anymore. I mean I know I'm going to, it's...
If I write it down then I know it's true. So I guess I'll just keep putting that part off until we get there and then we'll see.
Captain Young and his party came through the Reception Bubble in formation and lined in three columns at the lift doors. All three lift doors opened up nearly simultaneously under the big arch and about 30 space suited Fleet astronauts marched solemnly into the control tower. 3 astronauts came forward and removed their helmets. One of them unzipped a pocket and fished out a wad of silver mesh. I watched as he unfolded it and snugged it down over his head. You couldn't really see it once he had it on even though he had a pretty short buzz cut. Captain Young conferred with Commander Litton for a few seconds and then fiddled with a volume knob on the metal collar of his space suit. His voice came through the main speakers.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we wish the nature and timing of our return could have been more auspicious but I have no doubt that the crisis Earth is presently facing supersedes any inconvenience we may be experiencing."
"I understand that the Base Personnel in this room have made a conscious and personnel decision to co-operate with us. I appreciate that. But that decision was made without a full realization of the consequences of making that choice."
Captain Young looked around the room, searching the faces of the Base Personnel as if silently taking in the measure of each man and woman there.
"We're here to answer all of your questions. And we have a few of our own. But the first thing everybody needs to know is that Fleet Services is taking over this base in defiance of InterPlan. Which means Earth."
The Captain paused for effect.
"What we want is a return of Earth to it's natural course of development and the elimination of...the eradication of...the Voshans."
The room erupted into cheers but I noticed that none of the new arrivals joined in. In fact they looked pretty grim. The Captain held up his hand and motioned for quiet.
"It's nothing to cheer about. Believe me. But before we are able to act in that direction we need to catch you all up to speed and swear you into Fleet Services. That way everything is nice and legal. I don't know much about InterPlan, but I do know that the Voshans are sticklers for details."
"Some of you saw Lietenant Henley put on a skin cap when we came in here. We all wear them and you will too. It does a lot of things besides block out the Voshans neural transmissions, but one the great things it does is speed up retention of new information. You'll be needing this device, and trust me when I tell you not to lose it. Your life really may depend on it."
We were all issued skin caps and one of the astronauts clipped the hair of those few who had long hair. Even the two women got short bobs. The caps really look like tiny fishing nets and seemed to shape themselves onto the wearers head. It even turned to a dull flesh color after it settled in. I don't know what it's made of but it sure beats tinfoil. As soon as I put mine on I became aware...well, more aware. I was thinking clearly, logically. I could suddenly remember stuff I had forgotten long ago. Like the capitol of Illinois, or the atomic weight of gold. I looked up at the astronaut nearest me and saw him grin.
"Yeah, when no one is inside your head you can think a lot more clearly huh?"
"Who's normally in there?"
"The whole galaxy more or less, but mostly your crew mates, and us because we're nearer. Don't worry about it. We'll plug you into the infomech and in about 20 minutes you'll know as much as any of us."
He sauntered on, checking the fit of the skull caps on some other Base personnel. Soon enough a couple of big Fleet guys pushed a big cube into the middle of the room. The door frame gizmo was long gone. We all crowded around to see what the new thing was and then saw the big guys start running tiny wires from the machine to the dozen nearest people. The Fleet guys ran the lines to the skull caps although I didn't see any connectors.
"O.K. we're about set to bring the first group into the mech library. There's not to much to see folks, unless watching your crew mates sleep standing up for the next twenty minutes is of interest. Could the rest of you come over here with me please? We'll do this the old fashioned way until the next group is ready to go."
The rest of us detached ourselves from the main group and walked with Captain Young to the far side of the control tower. I could see that the saucer above bay 6 was still hovering over the damaged meteor doors, waiting to dock. It didn't seem to be stopping the crew of the ship though. I watched a near endless stream of tiny white garbage can zipping back and forth from the surface to the ship.
"Are you Mueller?"
I turned to see Captain Young beside me.
"Yes Sir."
He shook his head and smiled wryly.
"Hell of a job you did on bay 6."
"Yes Sir. I closed the doors as the greasers were trying to slam out of here. They tried to kill Secretary Hilliard."
The Captain frowned.
"Don't call them that. You'll know why soon enough, but watch your language Mister."
"Yes Sir."
"But I would have done the same thing."
He surveyed the wreckage of bay 6 again and smiled.
"I bet it was a hell of a show."
"Yes Sir...it was."
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 19, 2009 23:28:34 GMT -5
The Captain regarded my handiwork for a few more moments and turned to address us all.
"Folks, as you can see, your fellow crew mates are undergoing rapid synaptic alignment. What that basically means is that their brains are being fed a terrific amount of information in a very short time. There are no ill effects from this process although afterwords you may need a short while to collect your thoughts.
The information your crew mates are being fed is the history of our voyage and the incredible discoveries we made en route.
There is also some additional information, but that can wait until you've all had a chance to catch up. But in the meantime let me fill you in on a few things.
Space is Big. I know that sounds like an understatement, but it's the best description any one has come up with yet. Think about that word for a moment. Big. It implies mass, girth, substance. But it doesn't specify in which direction. In the case of outer space, it's literally true for all directions. No matter where you go out there, you're bound to run into nothing. So much nothing that it's sheer scale can shake you in your core. It's only pure chance that you come across another species out there, but you do. Because space is so big most species get lonely. And nothing brightens a species day like coming across us."
The Captain pointed out the window.
"See that big empty space ship? The blue one? It's known through out the galaxy as the being best time any species can have. And we don't even serve liquor.
What we do serve up is honesty and integrity. Two very valuable commodities any where in space. But what we're best known for is...paint."
He must have caught more than one skeptical look so he continued.
"It's true. Out of the 33 species Fleet services has made contact with, not one of them had ever seen paint before. That's how big space is. It's so big that paint can excite the locals and serve as an excuse for a party.
What are the odds of coming across 33 different species from 33 different worlds and not one of them knowing a damn thing about paint?
It's wild and woolly for the most part out there, but it turns out that the simple things in life are what counts anywhere you go."
He talked on for a bit more, starting to explain where the Fleet Service ships came from in the first place when he interrupted himself in order to usher us over to where the big mechanical library stood in the center of the room. I could see a few of the previous group being escorted out of the tower by some gentle Fleet females and for the first time began to feel some apprehension.
"Just stand still for a second."
This from a burly astronaut.
The next thing I knew I was flying along through outer space at a pretty fair clip listening to Marlon Brando explain the history of the Universe as understood by Fleet Services. It's pretty funny in retrospect. It was just my brains way of framing the incoming information, but at the time I thought I was having a flashback of that Superman movie.
But it was all there. The first contact between Aliens and American officials. Nope, hardly any of them were Military, just very rich and successful businessmen. Just like how Ike planned it so long ago. The formation of Fleet Services, the Moon base, and then all the rest.
I can't go through it all right now. It would be like trying to give a Doctoral dissertation in 5 minutes.
Let me just skip to the relevant part.
The Voshans are us.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 20, 2009 0:01:33 GMT -5
que dramatic music... cut to commercial!
paint. lol.
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 20, 2009 1:33:45 GMT -5
Yes, it's true. I use dramatic scenes as stopping points when I need to take a break. I thought it would be better than stopping mid sentence and typing a bunch of Z's.
I'm just glad we were allowed some time to digest everything. It's hard to take. We had one suicide attempt during the night but most people got through the aftermath O.K. I got the distinct feeling though, that a lot the Fleet Services guys thought we were being overly dramatic about the whole thing. I guess they just made people tougher back in 58'.
I guess had we been used to getting spoon fed dollops of information directly into our brains on a regular basis most of us would have put on a better display. I'm not making any excuses. I felt pretty messed up. I sat in my room for a long time before falling asleep. The dreams were pretty vivid, which I found out later was fairly common.
The bomb shell happened right as the narrator in my head was describing the departure of the 3rd battalion from the moon on board the Ypres. It's mission in 1957 was to ship 750 of Fleet Services finest to the new colony out by the star system known as Wolf 1061.
In my mind I could see the Ypres head out under escort to the designated slam zone for direct passage to the Wolf System. Everything as normal as could be for a ship heading out on its first deep space voyage since its rechristening. The salt drives coming to full power and the curious doubling forward of the ship, constantly appearing right in front of self at an ever faster rate as it folded space time. The ships drives racing beyond control as the vessel began to slip out of our time steam and into random other steams traveling forward or backwards through time.
The Ypres came out of folded space and into reality millions of light years away from Earth with no idea as to when in time they were. Directly in their path lay a black, smoldering planet circling a dying red sun. It really wasn't a question of anything as the engines were dead and the gravity found in normal space took hold and drew the Ypres to the planet below. The atmosphere was rough on the secondhand ship and it suffered more damage upon landing. They were Marooned.
All this was conjecture except for the film of the Ypres departure. The rest looked real enough but I could tell it was a best guesstimate and not a first hand account. My dream was an exact replay of the experience in the mechanical library except that in my dream the Ypres ship computers eventually displayed today's date instead of the actual or supposed date of 2 million B.C.
The next part went back to regular film as the crew of the Topeka, a smaller version of the Ypres arrived at the planet known as Voshan to serve as a rescue party along side another species that resembled dwarfs of old. These were affectionately known as the Shamrocks and I instantly knew their pertinent history via the mechanical library as I watched them stumble through the ruins alongside Fleet astronauts on the long dead planet.
No other record of the Ypres existed beyond the few genetic traces found at the outskirts of one of the original settlements. 2 million years of history had burnt itself out on the surface of the planet along with any memories of Earth, Humanity, or even of the Soul. The red dwarf that Voshan orbited was now a brown giant and threatened to engulf the barren planet as it one day no doubt would. In the meantime, the Humans and the Shamrocks had discovered enough information to reveal maybe not what the Voshans once were, but certainly what they had since become.
Let me explain. Some species don't mix. At all. For some species it's a simple biological response. For others, it involves complicated psychological responses. In some cases inter species contact is so poisonous that even technological interaction can have ruinous effect. So it was with the lost Ypres colony.
750 people doesn't provide a lot of genetic materiel to base a civilization upon after all. But the Ypres crew was determined to survive. Voshan at that point was already a long abandoned planet. The original inhabitants dying out ages previously. But they left monuments and machinery behind. Records and technology were found that the crew of the Ypres used to survive. But like I said, some species just don't mix.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 20, 2009 2:43:46 GMT -5
Curiouser and curiouser. That growing shadow on the ground, my dear Watson, means the other shoe is about to drop.
That is a rather large shadow Doctor Holmes, what does this man?
Its very simple, my good man, it means we are ants and we're about to be squished.
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Dec 20, 2009 23:04:54 GMT -5
Very interesting revelation about the Volshans.
This certainly has me curious!
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 21, 2009 0:25:14 GMT -5
I figured I would stay away longer than this. But I see it's only been a few days. I guess I just don't like thinking about the Voshans.
Let me be as brief as possible in finishing up with them because a lot of interesting stuff has been happening lately.
First, the reason all the other species have been leaving us alone is because, as Captain Young puts it, "Aliens don't do domestic disputes." As far as anyone knows, they're all just waiting to see who comes out on top. Yet... I've been doing some research and I think what's going on is that most of the galaxy thinks we're a bunch of screw ups for letting this happen. Screwing around with the time stream is a big no-no.
Plus, the Voshans are dirty. Remember when the Fleet guys first showed up and had to wear full space gear? It was because of Voshan contamination. Everywhere they go it's the same story.
Most aliens hate gypsy species on general principals, but the Voshans engendered a lot of ill will throughout the galaxy because they weren't content to simply wander through space. They turned whole solar systems upside down and laid waste to species weaker than they were in their travels. Pretty much just because.
I can guarantee you though, that this time the story is going to have a different ending.
I'll get back to them later...it's all kind of depressing.
Anyway, yesterday I caught up with Commander Litton. He's been real busy lately so I was kind of surprised to see him actually. He had been peppered with a lot of question from the new recruits wanting to know more about the Voshans. So his eyes glazed over when I told him I had a question.
"It's about that door frame looking thing Sir, the scanner."
The Commander looked puzzled for a moment and then smiled.
"Oooohhh. The Displacer. You know you're the first one to ask me about that? Come with me Mr. Mueller, I think you might get a kick out of this.
So I followed Commander Litton out past the Reception Bubble and into Bay One. The doors were open above us, exposing the hollow belly of the giant saucer that covered the bay. Most of the automatic systems had been uprooted from the floor and were shoved over to the far side of the underground bay. We walked right underneath the center of the opening and suddenly started to fall straight up (yeah, it felt just like that) into the ship above us. Commander Litton grabbed me by the ankle as I tumbled around and we came to a gentle halt along side some packing cases and machinery parts floating around us. A flying platform slid underneath us and swiftly carried us across the empty space to an oddly shaped airlock and waited while we entered it.
Inside was a short hallway that lead to a lift, another hallway and finally a storage room that looked to be about an acre in size. A short Fleet astronaut stepped up and smartly saluted.
"Say Gil, where's that Displacement unit we set up in the tower? Mr. Mueller here want's to know more about it."
The short Fleet Sargent looked over with appraising eyes.
"He the only one?"
"Fraid' so." The Sargent grunted something like approval and swept out of sight behind a pile of crates on one of the flying garbage cans. He returned before I could really get a good look around. He was towing the door frame behind him in another white garbage can.
The Fleet Sargent set up the frame, plugging it in to what was apparently a power pack, although it was smaller than a vacuum cleaner. He stood back with a smile and pushed his gray cap on to the back of his head. Commander Litton lit a cigarette and jerked his head towards the frame.
"Mueller, you've got something. I've seen your file. You're a tough son of a b!tch. I wouldn't send you through there if I didn't think you could handle it. "
I started to mention that I had already been through it but he cut me off.
"You guys were all doped up from that, what do you call it? that muzak, and the gas. This time you're wearing a skull cap and you know how to use it. Just set it to maximum shield level, here, press here at the base of the skull."
I did, but felt nothing.
"Step on through and say hello."
I guess I looked confused because he shooed me on."
"Scoot, go on, I won't bite you."
I went through the frame fully expecting to feel the same tingling sensation as before and not much else. Instead I walked through the door and into another room. This one was on Earth. It had a desk and a chair. A lamp was on the desk shining into my eyes so I couldn't tell if anyone was behind the desk. I heard Commander Littons voice.
"We've already seen you Mueller."
I tried to figure this one out.
"You just sent me in here Sir. Where is this?"
The commander bent the neck of the lamp towards the desk so I could see him. He had on a shirt and tie, which was loose at the neck, and his sleeves were rolled up. He was smoking a cigarette and looked pretty beat. He also ignored my question.
"Oh I did did I? What do I want?"
"Ah, I had a question about...the...ah...Displacement scanner... Sir. About what it does...Sir."
The Commander laughed and a side door opened up and another male stuck his head in the room. I didn't recognize him.
"Say Charlie, what's all the ruckus?"
He looked at me and frowned.
"We already talked with him, what's he doing here?"
"Mr. Mueller want's to find out more about Displacement technology. I sent him in."
The unfamiliar man rolled his eyes.
"I got a ton of paperwork to fill out. oh for the life of a ships Commander."
He shut the door behind him as he left.
"Have a seat Mueller, smoke?"
I declined and sat down. The Commander kicked his feet up on the desk and exhaled. he had on brown wingtips.
"The displacer unit creates an artificial reality Mueller. It's real in the sense that you are actually occupying 3 dimensional space, but this place doesn't really exist. It's an electrically balanced field that collapses once you walk out that door."
I just sat there.
"That doesn't impress you?"
"Well Sir, I understand what this thing does, but what's it for? What does it do?"
The Commander looked at me through arched eyebrows.
"You really are a tough son of a b!tch aren't you? The last time you were in here you were pretty tough too. Doesn't any of this technology impress you?"
"No Sir. I'm only interested in what things do. I leave the how up to the mechanics."
"But you have an engineering degree."
"Yes Sir, it was the best way to get into Fleet without joining the Military. If I had done that, I would never have been picked."
The Commander snubbed out his cigarette and crossed his hands behind his head.
"You'd make a pretty good field team member Mr. Mueller. Not a lot shakes you up."
He looked at me and furrowed his brows.
"The Displacement unit is used for interrogations. Each one of you that walked through the sub etheric frame spent about 4 hours in here even though in real time you just walk through the frame. But we still had plenty of time to give the once over to everyone who came in here. And brother let me tell you, some of those sessions got pretty ugly."
I thought about the crew members who had been hustled into the brig after going through the frame. Then I remembered the guy that fell over.
"He was a Voshan."
I looked up, startled to realize the Commander had apparently read my thoughts.
"Yeah Mueller, that's what makes this place so effective."
"Then why have the props? What are you doing here in here?"
"Because the Captain is a humanitarian. Because it's simple enough to create this world and populate it with artificial constructs. Because even though it's an interrogation unit, we're not monsters. That's what makes us different from the Voshans. We're still human enough to care."
I got up to leave after asking permission. The Commander waved me out but held up an empty pack of Chesterfields.
"Tell me to send some more smokes in here."
"I thought you said this place was an artificial construct."
He looked at me with bemused eyes.
"It seems real enough to me."
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 21, 2009 15:54:02 GMT -5
I really like your story, it really seems to click nicely.
I updated Earth Czar and Scavenger btw
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Post by Aaron Burr on Dec 24, 2009 0:25:23 GMT -5
Yes, I see that you've become quite prolific of late. I'm still waiting for the Santa's Army story though. I mean you have the flag already.
I walked through the the other side of the frame.
"No, I mean why go through all the trouble? Don't scanners do the same thing?"
Commander Litton was removing a thin silver filament of wire from the back of his head, the other end was attached to the frame.
"No, scanners just tell us what you are. Your biological state, chemical make up, or brain wave pattern. It doesn't tell us who you are."
He nodded to the frame.
"That thing does. I know plenty about you Mueller. Not just where you were born. But what any effective leader needs to know is who his personnel are. Who can keep their cool under pressure, who can come up with the right answer when it counts, and most importantly, who is capable of telling me I'm wrong, when I am."
The old Fleet Sargent sucked in his breath.
"That'll be the day."
Commander Litton grinned and turned away. He motioned me to follow so I saluted the Sargent smartly and turned on my heel to catch up with Commander Litton.
"Mueller, Captain Hayes would like to meet you. You'll of course, do him the courtesy of reporting to him immediately?"
"Yes Sir."
So there I was in front of Captain Hayes desk after taking a somewhat circuitous route through the ship courtesy of Commander Litton. I guess he wanted to be the one to show me around a deep space vessel. Turns out they're mostly hollow.
Anyway, Captain Hayes desk was a slab of black stone that hovered a couple of feet off the floor. The Captain was sitting behind it, occupying a a curious silver net that formed the outline of a chair. He was reading a page from a file while wearing old fashioned glasses. He was frowning.
The Captain looked up at me and I could see he had been cut from the same cloth as Captain Young. Stern, tough, and unwilling to take any guff from anybody. Unlike Captain Young though, Captain Hayes didn't have a boyish grin. In fact, I don't think he smiled the whole time I saw him.
"So I see you managed to avoid Officers Corps. Instead, you've been content to to rise as far as Warrant Officer before being demoted...again...for various minor infractions. Slovenly dress I believe. Are you sloppy Mueller?"
Wham. Just like that.
"No Sir."
"Then explain yourself. Do you hate officers?"
"No Sir. I failed to wear the InterPlan/U.N. insignia as required under rule..."
"Yes. I'm quite familiar with the InterPlan manual thanks to the mechanical Library. What I'm asking Mr.Mueller, is why did you fail to wear it?"
"Because this recruit signed up with Fleet Services Sir, not the U.N. and not InterPlan."
"Mmm. I saw that, you joined right before the big change. But why stay? Plenty of people quit."
I had to think about that for a minute.
"I want to get out into Space. I can't do that from Earth."
"You weren't going anywhere with InterPlan either."
"But there was a chance something might happen. "
"Like us coming back?"
"No Sir. I didn't even know the Fleet existed. I thought someone else might show up someday, someone besides the Voshans."
The Captain tossed the sheet of paper onto the desk. I watched as it melted into the desk top, disappearing from sight.
"That was never going to happen. Not as long as the Voshans are here."
"Yes Sir."
The Captain regarded me carefully.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 24, 2009 2:58:46 GMT -5
Very very nice. I love the interaction between Hayes and Mueller, Captain Hayes sounds like a man who takes his job and the rules very seriously.
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