[FTL Prototyping – 2550] Informal Presentation
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July 31, 2015 at 5:27 pm #1391
Brody
KeymasterBusby wanders into the lab wearing wrap-around pink shades and a plaid bathrobe over shorts, flip-flops, and a T-shirt that reads “MA HUMPS.” He finds a chair at one of the holotables and settles into it with a happy sigh.
Tilsworth is meanwhile standing near the holotable, a large sheaf of papers on a clipboard beside him, the last few pages of which he is scanning into the table’s interface.
Maxwell comes strolling in, with a friendly nod to Busby and the good doc. “Evening. Scanner’s free of gremlins today, I hope?”
“Got a memo from Omar, man,” Busby says, lacing his fingers together as he kicks a leg over an arm of his chair. “You’ve got good news, right? Lay it on me, man.”
Tilsworth chuckles to Maxwell. “I haven’t seen any cute furry animals or scaly green monsters, so I believe we are gremlin free.” he says, the last page scanned in as he starts up the holo-presentation. “I do hope it is good news in your eyes, Mr. Busby. Although we do not have a physical product yet, the theoretical components are well tested and proven at this point.”
Maxwell stretches a bit. “Good, good. Be a lousy time for normally reliable tech to go pear shaped.”
Busby smiles lazily. “Cool, man, cool. Okay, so explain the theory, man. But, y’know, pretend you’re explaining it to a dude who may or may not be tripping on a tasty batch of Lunar City hydro-chronic.”
Tilsworth adjusts his glasses a bit. “I’ll do my best, young man, but do please stop me if I start to ramble.” he says with a smile, and brings up the first page of the presentation. “The basic theory is that the energy field the unit generates serves the purpose of ‘detaching’ the ship and the space contained within the field from the rest of the universe. It is best envisioned as a ‘frictionless barrier’ that becomes a self-contained entity. Once this ‘bubble’ is floating free of the universe, the standard propulsion units of the ship can push this bubble as fast as the available power to the engines and the field permits. The more power to the field, the greater the ‘detachment’, and thus the less ‘friction’ encountered.”
Maxwell nods. “Some of the more religious folks are going to think we’re playing god by creating tiny universes at will.”
“Okay, okay,” the Spark CEO replies. “I don’t mind pissing off the zealots, man. I’ll eat that free advertising for breakfast. And a snack. Although what I really want is a fluffy meringue pie. Anyway. How can we fuck it up? Where does it go wrong? What’s the downside, man?”
“There is a potential, rather slim, that the newly created universe begins to exponentially increase in size to potentially replace this one. However as my young friend here has pointed out, at least we would be in charge of the new one.” Tilsworth says with a chuckle. “However, I must stress this is a very remote theoretical possibility and with sufficient auxillary systems and redundacies, it could likely be eliminated completely from the prototype unit.”
Maxwell nods. “It’s not an in charge situation I particularly want, really. Just an outside chance that we need to keep an eye on while figuring out the hardware.”
Busby nods. “So what do you need for testing?”
Tilsworth switches to the next page of the presentation. “Here are the basic components of the system. Power for the system is generated from a pair of fusion reactors. My current parameters utilize a pair of GE HydroGen Mark II fusion reactors with an output of 25 gigawatts each. The resulting high energy plasma generated by the reaction is fed into a Siemens CP-135 power conversion relay. The resulting focused plasma stream is fed through a pair of GE Magnafeed magnetic wave guides that feed two arrays each consisting of 25 Siemens RD-250 Radial Generator coils. With these physical components in the simulation, the drive can achieve 10 times the speed of light. I propose to construct the prototype unit we acquire these components as soon as possible for assembly into a test vehicle.”
Maxwell nods. “Should be a fun start, certainly.”
“All right, man,” Busby says. “Won’t be cheap, but, shit, nothin’ worth it ever is.”
Tilsworth nods. “In addition we would need four Honeywell MX-427 fusion rocket engines for the standard propulsion system of the vehicle. In addition to the standard construction materials to build the frame in which these components will be installed.” the old scientist says. “Once the vehicle is complete, we can transport it to a spot near Mercury’s orbit to be as far away from prying eyes as possible to the initial live tests. I have already met our test pilot and he appears quite capable, perhaps even eager.”
Busby headtilts. “Oh, yeah, well, man, we’re gonna need more than one test pilot, don’t ya think, man? I mean, seriously. Shit’s gonna go sideways.”
Maxwell nods. “Interesting fellow. Definitely eager for his part to come.”
“It is my sincere hope that we do not encounter serious adversity during the initial tests.” Tilsworth says. “However, planning for such an occurrence is a necessity, and I have some ideas for safety factors.”
“Okay, man,” Busby says, getting to his feet. He runs a hand through his hair, rubs the other on his stomach, and then says, “Good work. Let’s do this again when you’re ready to fling the monkey. I want pie, man.” He smacks his lips and wanders out of the lab. Apparently, the meeting is over.
Maxwell stretches a bit more. “Alright. Let’s get back upstairs soon as we can. Getting tired of all this pesky gravity.”
Tilsworth gathers up his papers. “Pie does sound rather good.” he observes. “YEs… I find I am leaning a bit too much on this cane now…”
July 31, 2015 at 5:28 pm #1392KeymasterTests and Test Pilots
Maurice is floating near the big bay window, Maxwell is closer to the entrance to the lab. “Talked the the A.I. about that, might take a while and what we find might not all that bright.” He grins.
Maxwell chuckles “No telling what we’ll find, certainly. Smart cockroaches, dumb ferns, rabbit riflemen… who knows!”
Raynaldus floats into the lab compartment and looks around to see if anyone is present. “Hello gentlemen. How are things today?” he asks.
“I would love ta see rabbit riflemen. Yummy NRA members. God Bless Texas.” Maurice chuckles slightly. As Raynaldus enters the Texan looks over his shoulder. “Howdy there mister.”
Tilsworth floats in shortly after Raynaldus, a clipboard tucked under his arm. “My my…. quite the crowd today.” he says with a chuckle as he heads over towards the simulator terminal.
Maxwell pulls himself into the lab station chair he was holding onto, and nods to Tilsworth. “Afternoon. What’s on the agenda today?”
Maurice turns to face the room and gives everyone a lazt salute. “Howdy there second mister.” He adds with a grin. “Come to enjoy the view as well?”
“Hello there.” Raynaldus replies to Maurice then he flies over to Tilsworth and Maxwell. “Anything I can help out with today or should I continue with the design for the test probe?”
“Simply running through another round of simulations for the propulsion field.” Tilsworth says as he settles into the chair. “Although I must say, the view here is quite spectacular. I hope that I live long enough to perhaps see the view of a world that is not our own.” he says as he brings up the simulation program.
Maxwell chuckles “Looking forward to that myself. Any interesting changes to the field, or just more tests on current parameters?”
“Tests? Ah, well there explains some. I am the dumber than dirt yokel they hired to strap into yer fancy Roman Candle. Please tell me ya are planning to leave somethin in my control.. Hate to be spam in a can like the ole Mercurys.” The Texan grins as he pushes off to float near the trio.
Raynaldus nods and takes seat as well to watch the Simulations. “Any ideas on how much force the system will apply to the structure of the ship? Or is that a bit to early to tell?” Raynaldus asks.
Tilsworth chuckles. “Once the FTL engine has engaged, you will retain full control of the vehicle according to the parameters. However, I wouldn’t expect to be able to maneuver it like a fighter jet at full speed.” he says, entering in some additional parameters, looking to Maxwell. “Indeed, I have been experimenting with the math to shape the field and ‘streamline’ the field effect, making normal space ‘flow’ around the field more efficiently. Much like modern vehicle designers strive to reduce drag on their vehicles by increasing air flow around the vehicle. If my estimates are correct, this configuration should provide up to a 50% improvement in top speed.”
Maxwell nods “Nice. Considered a golf ball kind of dimpling, or would that be more effort than its worth?”
“At that speed I’d assume we aint in the business of dodgin shit. A degree here or there is gonna fuck yer day and leave ya in the wrong system.. if ya are lucky.” Maurice replies with a grin. “A speck of sand or someshit is gonna have the force of Fat Man. Figure y’all got some shields or something… or we aint travel in real space right?”
Raynaldus Nods listening to Tilsworth and maxwell. “I see. So… since we might have so little manouvering capabilities, we might also need a system that will help us plan the trip in advance.”
“Yes.. astrogation is not going to be as simple as driving to Pittsburgh.” Tilsworth says with a chuckle. “It will require complex calculations.” he says to Raynaldus before looking back to Maurice. “Unfortunately the field will not prevent objects from the outside from penetrating the field and impacting the vehicle. Armor plating will help against small objects but modification of existing anti-grav fields may be an option for a ‘deflector’ of some sort that would push offending debris out of the way of the travelling vessel.” Finally to Maxwell, “That is one possibility but it increases the number of field generators to a large number to achieve the proper field texture.”
Maxwell nods “Yeah, figured it wouldn’t be an easy thing. Toss that idea on the back burner in case we get some epiphany on how to do it efficiently.”
“I’m ready ta strap in and test whatever. My little talk with the station A.I. confirmed we gotta git out there to survive and if i can be a part of it why the hell not… But space is all sorts of empty until it aint. Just want ya’ll to remember that is all. Light plus 2 aint gonna make a comet any less icy is all.”
Raynaldus nods to tilsworth awsner. “I thought as much. Sadly I am not much of a programmer myself. I’m more into the building of ships and other vehicles.” He says.
“May be some time before we have a working prototype, young man.” Tilsworth says. “Still, we are well on our way.”
Maxwell nods “Indeed, indeed. Even if we get nowhere, we’ve got a hell of a view until we get kicked off the project! …Which I am not hoping for, mind.”
“Hell I am just luggage until there is a test bed. I can do outside repair sure but I aint reckonin on us needin that on a fancy new station. This aint the Mir 3.” Maurice grins. “If ya smarty pants don’t mind me askin, what kind of FTL drive are we lookin at? I don’t mean the engine specs.. I mean how are we gonna break the unbreakable law like a bunch of teens with a bottle of shine on prom night?”
“I also hope we won’t be kicked of this project. But I don’t see it happening yet thought.” Raynaldus says.
“The short answer is we are creating a field that will be a barrier between the ship, and the universe around it. In essence ‘detaching’ it from normal space and creating a ‘bubble’ that the ship’s normal engines can propel at potentially limitless speed depending on how much power is put into the field and the power of the ship’s engines.” Tilsworth explains. “Think of it as coating the ship with oil to reduce friction.”
Maxwell nods with a bit of a wink “And hey, if we create a new universe in the process, we’re obviously going to be in charge there.”
“Ya could have just said Star Trek Warp but that’d demean the science right partner?” Maurice’s ‘stach twitches with that comment. The Texan offers all around a pearly white smile.
Raynaldus grins a bit. “You make it sound easier then it probably is.” He says to Maxwell with a smile.
Tilsworth chuckles. “I must admit it gave me the inspiration.” he says, bringing up the next simulation sequence. A suspiciously familiar vessel with two nacelles and a saucer appears as the test vehicle, and around it a field forms. Tilsworth watches the parameters as he initiates the simulated drive. It begins to accelerate quite rapidly, breaking the speed of light but it doesn’t stop. The velocity gauge goes up so fast the numbers are a blur, until it finally stops at about 10C.
Maxwell blinks a couple times before nodding “Yeah… that’s a bit closer to something useful there. What’s the power outlay going to be like for that?”
Maurice watches the sim, his eyes grow slightly big. “Rescue Voyager at that speed.” The Texan grumbles to himself. “… Speed like that I’d like a ummm cut off switch and a chase craft of some sort. Red line there…. Any temporal fuck ups too? If I test that, is it gonna be Planet of the fucking Apes?”
Raynaldus watches the simulation and as maxwell asks the power question Raynaldus takes out his pda to write down some notes. “What does that 10C Stand for? 10 times the speed of light?” he asks.
“Indeed… a bit better than I expected. 10C is indeed 10 times the speed of light.” Tilsworth says, resetting the simulation. “The current simulated input is from two compact fusion reactors rated at 25 gigawatts each. Propulsion is from four fusion rockets powered from a third reactor.”
Maxwell nods “Not exactly gassing up the jalopy for a sunday drive, then.”
“It aint?” Maurice asks Maxwell. “Aint 25 gigs nuffin? What we need? Ta good 88 mph and a flux capacitor?” The Texan’s ‘stach twitches. “Science don’t seem so hard.”
Raynaldus thinks a bit. “hmmm…. so …. 3 compact fusion reactors producing 25gigawatt each and 3 backup versions just in case.” He says as he makes a note of it on his pda. “Sounds to me like that might become a big ship.”
“It is well within the design parameters of our current reactor technology…” Tilsworth says. “However the fuel to power them will be much of the weight of the final product. I doubt our prototype will go quite that fast given that with limited construction materials in orbit it will be rather small and not have the power input simulated here.”
Maxwell nods “Well, quite. We don’t need a 10C output on the proof of concept, really.”
“Sling me the Oort Clould and back under an hour and I am sure we’ll get fundin from everyone.” Maurice adds.
Raynaldus nods. “Indeed maxwell. No need to go all out when doing the test to proof the concept. I’m just making notes to help me with designing the ships that will contain this system.”
“If we exceed the light barrier, then we’ve accomplished our task.” Tilsworth says.
Maxwell nods “Well, accomplished an important step, yes. But intersteller distances being what they are, the farther we can leave light speed behind us the better.”
“Well shit… I gotta do just that. With a little vac and everything. Its a small station, see ya all later.” Maurice grumbles as he floats out of tje room.
Raynaldus nods. “indeed, a verry important step and Worth taking it one step at a time if you ask me.”
Tilsworth nods. “Small steps, much like Armstrong himself said.” Tilsworth says with a grin. “Now then… these old bones need a rest. I am going to lay down for a while before returning to my calculations.” he says, floating up out of the seat.
Maxwell nods “Rest well. It’s been a good afternoon’s work.”
Raynaldus waves. “rest well sir. I’ll finish my notes and then I’ll find a quiet place to work on some ship designs, Basic designs mind you. Not yet going in to many details.”
Maxwell stretches a bit as he gets out of his chair “Think I’ll get a bit of rest myself.”
Raynaldus nods. “alright. See you next time then and have a good rest.”
July 31, 2015 at 5:29 pm #1393KeymasterNavigating Copyrights
Not much to see in the lab tonight. Certainly no serious science being done on the lab stations. Just Max perched in window, poking around on a PDA that occasionally makes oddly cheerful bloop noises.
Maurice floats into the room and glances around. “Hrrm… so much going on here is there?” The Texan says as he glances around. “Pants off dance off time?” He smirks. “Or some other way of diversion. We ain’t able to hit no bars and all.”Maxwell looks up from the pointless game he’s playing. “Evening! Yeah, too late in the day for real work. Just been playing some Space Invaders knockoff.”
“Shit. That is likely to be us if this thing ever kicks off.” Maurice chuckles as he floats closer. “We’ll be big white guys from Earth with a little Asian lady in tow. Shit, we need a bit more rainbow around here now that I think of it.” Another chuckle escapes the Texan. “Got Pong?”
Maxwell smirks. “About 29 variant knockoffs, yeah. Weird how this thing didn’t come with any of the branded classics.”
“Ya’d think they’d be public domain by now.” Maurice shrugs his shoulders weakly. “Now we got a fightin’ game, we’d be in business.”
Maxwell kills the invading aliens and rifles through the games library. “Lessee… Immortal Konflict, Pavement Brawler, and, um… Time Killers. Guess nobody felt that one was worth doing a knockoff of.”
“Well, shit. I can play as Tony Gage or something like nobody’s business.” Maurice grins. “We had good ole Sunset Riders back on Ma and Pa’s dude ranch. Was fun as hell. Mexican in the poncho was the way to go.”
“She had a grudge with Ano right?” Maurice smirks. The two are chatting away about retro knock off games. In this case, a joke that only works if you know Spanish and Mortal Kombat.
Maxwell chuckles. “Not sure. Fun games, but the story always felt rather stapled on.”
“Fuck, story didn’t matter back then. Knuckle draggers in the back 1900s used to use microwaves for food. Thanks, cancer.” The Texan chuckles. “Music, though. The Jitter Bug and Biggie Smalls? Respect Mofos… Word to your mother.”
Maxwell smirks. “The care they had for the story in those games shows. Still, they’re fun. No denyin’ that… well, some are. Recall reading about some goofy pseudo-hologram based thing once, apart from the novelty, it sounded pretty bad.”
“Hmm, are you talking about that there creepy ass Japanese singing computer.. thing? Kinako might know more about that.” Maurice replies. “The hypernet has a long and ugly history… and it is everywhere, even backward-assed West Texas.”
Maxwell blinks a couple times. “No, no. This was a game, if you define game pretty loosely, anyway. Some cowboy lost in time doing… something or other. Probably saving the universe.”
“You are talking about me,” Maurice says with a straight face.
Maxwell smirks. “Nah, you actually have three dimensions. Those holograms were an early attempt at holo fakery. Was a badly acted choose-your-own-adventure movie, really.”
“I am here to liberate planets of sexy green men from the claws of evil cockroach overlords.” Maurice laughs and shakes his head. “Fuckin’ two dee holograms? How crappy is that? Space Cowboys are the greatest, longest-lasting idea ever. You never ever feel old and reheated or overdone or.. umm.. already done. Yes, that is the truth. … yes.”
Maxwell nods. “It was an expensive machine probably, but nobody really enjoyed it enough to play it for more than a few minutes. Or so I hear. Before my time, really. Suppose it was a decent effort from a technical perspective for its day.”
“Let’s hope that what we all are doin’ here ain’t remembered as a decent effort.” Maurice murmurs.
Maxwell nods “Well, the stakes are rather higher with this venture. It’s not like we’ll be pushing anything to market before it can do what we’ve set out to do.”
“Na, but it there is a fine difference between bein’ Otto Lilienthal and bein’ one of the Wright Brothers,” Maurice replies.
Maxwell nods. “Going to assume Otto was also working on the flight issue. Sometimes it’s just an issue of who’s got the better publicist, too. Still, we’ll do what we can. I’m hopeful.”
“Ole Otto was a brave and slightly crazy German that worked on the principles of gliding, based his stuff off swans. Glided a whole lot and paved the way for the Wrights but who the fucks remembers him right? Just us rocket jockeys. He’s the first one of us to die provin’ a point.”
Maxwell nods. “Well, hopefully we can manage to keep you alive through this.”
“You know.. I am not too afraid of if it all goes pear shape. Made my choices and if ya’ll can learn from it.. hell, why not. Talkin’ to the AI…well, it sort of put my little speck of life in perspective or whatever the shit they call it,” Maurice says. “Sure as shit I’d wished I fucked, drank and enjoyed the sunrise a bit more when it came. But shittt. I reckon I am too good of a pilot to die on a test run unless ya’ll egghead assholes make a complete dud. I’d make a one-legged goose fly my ass Maine.”
Maxwell smirks. “Well, I never said we were promising anything. But we’ll get the test craft at least somewhat safe… not sure how much *any* test craft can really be said to be safe.”
“Ain’t none of them safe in a day-to-day sense. Hell, if anything worthwhile was safe, we’d be pokin’ our asses in caves still. Which we ain’t. We poke our asses in big fancy cities like respectable folks now,” Maurice says.
Maxwell nods. “Well, yes. Point being we want this to work, so we’ll do all we can.”
“All make sure my statues has a cowboy hat, spurs and is put in the gay corner of town,” Maurice says with morbid glee. “I wish they’d fuckin’ let us drink up here. I have spent my down time plotting courses that might not work once the drive is a real damn thing. Figure a few dry runs before we try a system with earth-like planets. And that is a stupid big number too, we started findin’ them back in the 2000s and all.”
Maxwell nods. “Indeedy. On the bright side, space is big. So pretty good odds of not hitting things for a while.”
“….. fuck that. I want something to push away the specks of dust as I fly by at light speed plus anything.” Maurice frowns deeply.
Maxwell chuckles. “Oh, there’s dust everywhere. I meant more that it’s unlikely you’ll go barreling through a stray planet. Though at that speed it’d probably make one heck of an exciting explosion.”
“The milliseconds before I am from here to the next arm of the Milky Way.” Maurice agrees. “The big shit, well, that’s bad luck, like hittin’ an iceberg at the speed of sound.”
Maxwell nods. “Quite… hrm. I wonder if Tilsworth has considered the implications of plotting courses when you’re going faster than your sensors can get your data. Better get that on the agenda if it isn’t.”
“If I hit something that ain’t supposed to be there, nuffin’ can be done about it. That is the danger. We ain’t ever gonna predict all that shit. Me? I am thinkin’ we do a series of small jumps. Make it longer but, shit, safer, right?”
Maxwell nods. “Quite. I’m just thinking that we’ll want some good long-range information to feed into some sort of navigation computer to sort out whatever jumps are viable. Probably shorter ones at first, of course.”
“Hell, I don’t mind takin’ jumps through systems I know and all that before jumpin’ ta something far as fuck away,” Maurice says.
Maxwell nods and stifles a yawn. “Well, anyway. I’ll be sure to bring up this topic with the good doc if you don’t beat me to it. Meantime, I’m going to see about some sleep.”
“You do that there, chief.” Maurice tips his non-existent cowboy hat. “I am going to have a one-man pants off dance off, so do not mind the music.”
Maxwell smirks as he pockets his PDA and pushes off towards the living quarters.
July 31, 2015 at 5:30 pm #1394KeymasterPrecautions and Poker
Maurice is currently floating along. The Texan has a tablet in hand with some of the rough sketches of the test bed. His brow is furrowed as he studies the images and notes.
Maxwell floats on in, humming a pleasant tune.
Maurice glances over at Max and nods his head slightly. “If we have a sudden loss of power during a test run, do we drop out of warp or do we keep going.. without the fun shit like shields?” He calls out.
Maxwell grabs the window frame as he passes, and stops the humming to think it over. “Hrm. I’ll have to check with Tilsworth about this… Probably depends on how we end up building the drive. Though I’m fairly sure we’ll agree that safety is sufficiently important that we’ll try to avoid the ship tearing itself apart in the event of a power outage.”
Maurice nods his head and focuses on the specs again. “If you had a kill switch that dropped us straight into regular space.. that would be for the best. Sure as shit don’t want to keep going at that speed and hit a spec of sand. Blow a star system that way I reckon.” The Texan grins. “In any case I’ll be like the bad mother fuckers before me and give telemetry till I aint nuffin but atoms strewn about a few light years.” The two are floating along, Mo with a tablet with specs and whatnot of the test bed craft.
Maxwell pulls out his notebook and jots down some things. “Well, quite. But let’s try and get things… reasonably safe before we send you out. There being no guarantees isn’t a good reason to start flights when the odds are it can do nothing but fail catastrophically.”
“Hell, how about unmanned proof of concept flights? Ya’ll near that stage yet?” Maurice asks as he tucks his tablet away.
Maxwell stretches a bit “Well, I suspect Tilsworth is going to want to do a few more simulations first, but we’ve got designing the drive itself in the cards for the near future.”
“What’s yer read of him? Only ever met him a had full of times. We aint runnin in the same social circles ya know.” Maurice grins slightly.
Maxwell scratches the side of his head with the non-writing end of his pen. “Hrm. Well, he’s certainly no slouch in the brains department. I don’t think we’d be half as far on this project without him. Friendly enough, likes a mental challenge. Partial to manual writing implements… as am I, oddly enough.” The two are just floating along near that window, talkin bout things and stuff. Mostly work related.
“Hmm well how about the other cowpoke? He seemed like a cold fish. Reckon he pretended I weren’t there the entire time I was yammerin away.” Maurice says.
“Cow… poke?” Kinako’s querulous voice comes from the hatch before she floats through, working her way hand over hand until she reaches the window. “Konbanwa, good evening, Maxwell-san, Maurice-san.” She looks cautiously at Maurice, as though expecting him to say something.
Maxwell tilts his head. “Ray? Not really sure… seems nice enough. Bit odd, though. Tried to pack a rather hefty amount of weaponry for the trip. Wanna say with nothing but non-lethal ammo, too… Evening, Kinako!”
“Howdy there Mamasita-chan.” Maurice the Texan greets Kinako. “Weaponry? There aint no fuckin shootin range up here. Thought I was the dipshit Texan here.”
Kinako sighs quietly, taking a perch somewhat farther from the window than usual. “Maurice,” she finally says, “I believe you are mistakenly using the incorrect suffix in your manner of address. You are indicating a deeper friendship or relationship than we presently have, and I apologize if I have said or done anything to lead you to believe that this would be appropriate.” She chews on her lower lip for a moment, offering, “It would be akin to me calling you my son, a young sibling, my best friend, or my boyfriend, when clearly you are none of these?”
Maxwell sighs a little. “Sorry, Kinako. Maurice greeted me with shop talk, and I hadn’t had a chance to divert the topic over to appropriate levels of formality and familiarity.”
Maurice shrugs his shoulders lazily. “Whatever ya say there, chica.” The Texan replies with an equally lazy smile. “That guy ever say why he needed an armory?”
“Kinishinaide,” Kinako murmurs, and pulls herself over to the unoccupied bulkhead window. She draws a small tin from her jumpsuit pocket, taps a wrapped square of presumably candy out of it, and bumps the candy, wrapper and all, into her mouth. The following chewing precludes further comment.
Maxwell shakes his head at Maurice with an annoyed expression. “Not that I heard.”
Kinako continues chewing. Either those strange square candies take a lot of work, or this is the future’s equivalent of the 2014-era Twix commercials.
“Guess I’ll have ta find him sometime and ask.” Maurice replies with a twitch of his moustache.
Maxwell nods at Maurice, and lowers his voice a bit. “Probably so. I’d suggest you might want to try just using her name for awhile. Perhaps be a apologetic? If you are, anyway. Like she said, where she’s from, you were suggesting rather a lot.”
Kinako is apparently doing her best not to listen in, and is looking out the window whilst her PDA beams soft koto music up to the earpieces in the little cap whose primary job it is to prevent her hair from overtaking the station.
“Suggest..? Ya’ll are aware Kinako aint exactly my ummm.. cup of tea.” Maurice lifts a brow at Maxwell. “I’m just bein all polite like. Hell every woman is ‘sweetie’ down where I come from. Men are… sweetie and sugar too now that I think of. We are a umm.. damn friendly folk. How about ya all respectin my culture?”
Maxwell nods. “Have you tried explaining that to her? A lot of conflict over the centuries has been over cultural differences and bad assumptions. Really, I’d just like us to all be getting along up here. It’s too crowded not to.”
Kinako fails her attempt at not listening. She sighs again. “So you think, somehow, that I should enjoy you addressing me in a disrespectful manner, because you expect me to respect -your- culture? Perhaps that makes sense in your mind, but that is completely unmindful of both my preferences and I can only assume the preferences of others. You are not required to address me formally, but at the very least respect me enough to use my name.” She shakes another candy out of the tin. “You are very unlike -any- cup of tea, if you feel as if a compromise is beyond your abilities.”
Maurice twirls his moustache lazily. “In the name of peace, I reckon so.” He replies. “Unlike a cup of tea..? It means you aren’t my type”
Maxwell nods at Maurice then looks to Kinako, but stays quiet for the moment.
Kinako seems, apparently, less offended by not being Maurice’s type than by being called various terms of endearment. Apparently, she’s more accustomed to the former. She bumps the floating candy with the back of her hand and catches it in her mouth. Chew, chew chew, chew chew chew. “Thank you for trying,” she murmurs, apparently keeping the rest of the candy on standby.
“That’s settled. Who wants to braid each other’s hair?” Maurice asks after Kinako replies. “Pillow fights ain’t gonna work in zero gee.”
Maxwell smirks. “I think Kinako is the only one of us who has enough hair for braiding to be worth the time. Perhaps some sort of game?”
“Gomennesai, I must apologize, I have already braided my hair today,” Kinako says, as serious as the day/night cycles are long. “It is also quite tedious in zero gravity, I would not wish to impose upon anyone.”
“Well, shit… I reckon we could talk about boys and giggle.” Maurice says with a faint chuckle. “Or I can find a football. Or we can find some trouble here on the station.”
Maxwell chuckles. “Was thinking more a game of cards, but I’m open to other options.”
Kinako makes that sheepish face again. “…I am not really good at talking about boys, either. I am sorry, I must seem very dull. Or… stuck-up? Is that the term?”
“I am sure I can regale ya’ll with stories but I reckon now ain’t the time.” Maurice smirks. “Ya got a deck?”
Maxwell shakes his head. “No, but we’ve used a thing on our pdas for card games before.”
“Oh, yes, ah, Doctor Tilsworth-san had a PDA program that allows everyone in an area to form a digital group to play the game,” Kinako says, thumbing through her PDA menu to turn off the background koto music and find the card playing program. “I ah, would prefer something other than that ‘five card stud’. There were many rules and I do not believe I was playing it well.”
Maxwell stretches a bit before getting his own pda set up. “Hrm… Go Fish?”
Kinako blinks a few times. “Actually, I am more familiar with the ‘Texas hold ’em’ style poker than the others, but I am quite familiar with ‘Go Fish’? Doctor Tilsworth-san won an amount of the wagashi, the sweets, that I had brought along for the trip, but I still have several boxes of rice candies. Er, if people do not mind wagering for rice candies?”
“Rice candies? I guess I can put up some of Mama’s famous jerky.” Maurice says as he thinks things over. “How about you there Maxy-boy? Ya like Texas Hold em and ya got anything to ante up?”
Maxwell chuckles. “Hold em is fine, and I have some mint caramels I can put up.”
After some thoughtful adjustments to the PDA’s settings, Kinako convinces the ‘card room’ to come up on the ad hoc multiplayer PDA system. Her avatar, a very chibi version of herself with a long fox-tail ponytail bound up in ribbons, bounces into the lobby, promptly putting up a friendly ‘peace sign’ greeting and an “Ohaiyo!” speech bubble. “Ahh, all right, here we are. Hole cards distributed… and, ah, the… flop? Is initializing. Opening bet is one sweet. I will wager a yuzu mochi.” She looks at the screen contemplatively. In the online ‘room’, her tiny avatar jumps around a bit before settling in to scrutinize her cards.
Maurice blinks his eyes a few times. The Texan punches commands into the system for a time then grins. Out comes a cartoon Moe made of 80 percent moustache. He has little six shooters that he fires wildly into the air. All and all he looks sort of like a particular Looney Tune character.
Maxwell smirks at the MoSammity Sam avatar, and sends his own in. As per usual, a cute penguin in a bowler hat.
Maurice nods over at the other two. “Hell, if I weren’t the goddarn best looker in here I’d demand strip rules.” The Texan chuckles. “So one piece as openin pot?”
The three ‘flop’ cards are presently the Queen of Diamonds, the Three of Spades, and the Six of Hearts. Kinako studies her PDA for a bit. “…raise? I raise one yam sweet. Yes. That is what I will do.”
“How much is a bean pastry in these rules? And fancy shit like gator jerk for that matter?” Maurice asks as he studies his cards closely.
Maxwell peers at his cards. “Hrmm… I’ll see that, and raise it a mint caramel.”
The ‘turn/fourth’ card is flipped over. It is the Five of Hearts. Kinako looks at it, curiously. “Hmm? Oh, ah, we are going by one average-weight unit of food per bet, so er, if the… jerky is not parceled into servings we would have to bring it to the kitchen and have it cut and packaged, I would assume. Is it really made out of alligators?” Pause. “Oh, er. Bet, I suppose.” The mock pile of candies appears on-screen. “If you would like a bean pastry I can bet a ‘monaka’, which is anko sandwiched between rice crackers? They are small enough to be eaten without producing crumbs.”
“Not sure how I feel about that. Gator Jerky aint yer run of the mill beef. Got some coon too if ya want some.” Maurice replies. The Texan nods his head as Kinako speaks further. “Yeah thats it. I give ya twice as much not ta bet that. Got some pokie or whatever?”
Maxwell looks thoughtful. “Hrm… check.”
The ‘river’ card is revealed: The Three of Hearts. Kinako blinks a few times, and looks thoughtful. “Pokie? I am afraid I do not know what pokie is. I have higashi, with is a more… dry sweet? You can choose a flavor, I have pickled ume, those are my favorite, mint, cinnamon, ginger, and yuzu, which is a citrus?”
“That there choco-sticks.” Maurice replies to Kinako. The Texan looks at all the cards and sighs. Mo-chan pulls off his hat and starts to stomp on it, explict language bubbles rise before his head. “Sheeev.”
Maxwell peers at the cards. “Hrm. Well, I’m guessing I’ve got better than Maurice, here. Raise you two sweets.”
“Yes, I believe that qualifies as a fold,” Kinako says, watching Yosemite Mo stomp on his hat. “I will indeed see you and raise you. Are you prepared to show your cards?”
Maxwell nods. “I believe so. Pair of fours.”
Maurice shakes his head and sighs. “Yeah, I am out.” He grumbles to the two. “Ya’ll best savor Mama Holton’s jerky.”
“I have three of a kind. Of threes. Oh, that is fortuitous,” Kinako says, as her little avatar hops up and down with sparkly eyes, ‘yelling’ “Yatta!”
Maurice hums along as several memes happen. “Wish they’d drop the paddles.” He nods over towards Maxwell. “So what now.”
Maxwell stretches a bit. “Hrm… at this point, I’d say some sleep.”
“Well, ya take care.” Maurice says over towards Maxwell. “You git yerself some sleep.”
July 31, 2015 at 5:34 pm #1397KeymasterPropulsion and Poker
Tilsworth is presently situated at one of the simulator terminals, running in several columns of figures carefully calculated on paper which is floating nearby on his clipboard.
Maxwell floats on in from the other room, a notebook and retractable pen in one hand.
After a few minutes pass, Kinako drifts by the hatch leading to the main cabin. She tilts her head, expression quizzical and curious. “Ah, konbanwa, good evening, Tilsworth-san, Maxwell-san. Ah, how are you this evening?”
“Good evening my dear, Mr. Maxwell.” Tilsworth says with a smile. “I am doing wonderfully. In fact this zero gravity is quite refreshing.. not so much pressure on my aching spine.”
Maxwell grabs on to a chair by one of those workin terminals, nodding to Kinako as he does. “Evening all. What’s on the agenda?”
Kinako blinks a few times, and shrugs. “I, ah, I do not know. Although perhaps this question was not directed to me, and I am mistaken. May I, ah… I will try to stay out of the way… it is just very quiet in the station and I have become somewhat lonesome.”
“A good question, young man.” Tilsworth says. “I believe as far as starting our FTL development, logic would suggest we devise the basic theory behind FTL propulsion. I have a few particular ideas in that arena, and I was about to test one of them in the simulator.”
Maxwell nods to Tilsworth “Seems a good place to start. No point in spending half a year trying to make it work via picking ideas from a hat.” Then looks back to Kinako “Ah… yeah, I can see how that could happen up here. You’re more than welcome to stay, of course. Perhaps we could all find a game of some sort when the evening’s work is done?”
Kinako pulls herself carefully into the room, drifting along the periphery until she finds a perch by the grand bay window. She tucks an errant tendril of hair back under the little cap she’s been wearing to prevent the station from being overtaken by her hair. “Arigatou, I thank you. Aah, unfortunately I do not know anything… at all to do with… propulsion. Also it is very difficult to prepare food or tea in zero gravity. Everyone is, ah, keeping up on their exercises? We do not wish to risk muscular atrophy.” She smiles gently to Maxwell. “I did bring a Go set cleared for this environment.”
“Hmm… I was a mean poker player in my youth.” Tilsworth says with a grin as he enters in the last column of figures. The simulation begins to take shape.
Maxwell smirks as he looks over at the simulation “Sure, but did you bring cards that aren’t going to just float off everywhere up here? Oh yes, lots of excersizing …Go? Don’t believe I’m familiar with that one.”
“Ah, it is a game for two players, and ah, it involves a board, with a… a grid on it, and the players alternately place black and white playing pieces on the intersecting points on the grid. The object is to claim a greater, ah, territory than your opponent, and ends when neither player wishes to make another move. It dates back to the Zhou dynasty in China,” Kinako offers, arranging herself so that she may have a comfortable view of both the window and the conversants. “There are intricacies, of course, capturing your opponent’s pieces, ensuring that no moves return the board to a previous position, and so on. It is rather simple to learn, but, as it is said, many lifetimes to master.”
“I recall playing it once or twice but never regularly.” Tilsworth says as he starts to enter in parameters for the simulation. He looks to Maxwell with a grin. “Indeed.. but perhaps an electronic version on our PDAs may suffice.”
Maxwell nods a few times as things go into the simulator. “Yeah, we may well have to resort to PDA for any card games we care to engage in. Go sounds like it might be interesting, though.”
Kinako leans back and idly pushes the beads of her bracelet between the fingers of her opposite hand. Click, clack. “I would also be willing to learn card games, since we could all play at once and it may take less time to learn? Likely we will have time to do both, eventually. So, ah, what are you… simulating?”
Tilsworth enters in the last few parameters. “My basic theory involves a tuned energy field projected from the travelling vessel. When it achieves the proper resonance, this ‘bubble’ will begin to accelerate taking the enclosed vessel with it. At this point I am focusing entirely on the field itself… how we generate it, that is a different story.”
Maxwell nods thoughtfully as he leans back in his chair “How is this bubble going to get us around the light barrier? Definitely plenty of time for us to all learn some new games.”
After a long period of quiet, broken only by the soft click-clack of beads, Kinako puts on a sheepish, ‘I have no idea what people are talking about’ expression. For what it’s worth, she listens attentively, even if the combined language and technical barriers are rendering the discussion clearly incomprehensible.
“It is my belief, and of course, given the vast unknown we are entering into, I could be woefully wrong, that the field will have the effect of ‘detaching’ the vessel from normal space, in essence creating its own miniature universe. Once detached, the standard engines of the ship propel this bubble at potentially limitless speed, hampered only by the power of the engines themselves and the power available for the field itself.” Tilsworth says. “This, I believe, is the basic concept, in that the ship, by some means we have yet to determine, must be taken out of what we consider the usual laws of space and time.”
Maxwell blinks a couple times “So… we’re going to try creating a tiny universe? Huh. And here I’d thought that the people yelling about scientists playing god all the time were full of it. This could be fun!”
Kinako blinks a few times. It takes a bit for her to wrap her thought processes around the ideas being merrily tossed to and fro across the workstations. “So, by ascending beyond the universe, one is able to… bypass the things such as friction, distance, and time?”
“That is the basic theory, my dear.” Tilsworth says with a smile to Kinako. “The field in essence does create a separate entity from the regular universe. Inside normal physics apply, but outside, it travels as freely. I would only hope that we don’t end up creating some sort of proto-universe… we could create one that squeezes out our own universe and displace it.. hmm.” he says, and looks very serious when he says that.
Maxwell nods “Well, on the bright side, if that does happen… we’ll essentially be in charge.”
Kinako’s expression brightens considerably when she realizes that she’s actually grasped the concept. Predictably, the expression then falls. “…aaah, that, that does not sound good. Things can make a terrible, ah, mess, when they are displaced.”
“Granted the chances of such a thing occurring are extremely remote.” Tilsworth says. “If the theory proves sound, then how do we project such a field, that is the question.”
Maxwell tils his head curiously “Well, yes. It would be. For now though, let’s see what that simulation comes up with. No point in fussing over the hows if the math doesn’t work out.”
Kinako looks -mildly- less distressed, although clearly her mind is going places that she’s not sure she would like to, or for that matter should, be going. Now and again she makes a thoughtful little ‘hnn’ noise.
“Let us find out..” Tilsworth says, activating the simulation. On the screen, a rather familiar looking vessel appears, possessing a saucer and a couple of nacelles. Around it the simulated field forms, and a series of figures display the field’s intensity and power level. At first, nothing appears to happen, but once the field achieves the right resonance frequency, it begins to accelerate off the screen at a rather high rate of speed.
Maxwell watches intently.
Kinako also watches intently, with the guarded posture of someone watching what might potentially be a scary movie.
Tilsworth watches as the ship’s speed increases rapidly. Slowly it approaches the speed of light. Once it reaches that threshold, it suddenly accelerates very rapidly, but it tops out at just over one and a half the speed of light. “Curious…” Tilsworth says. “Still… it did exceed the speed of light, just not by much.”
Maxwell nods “Hrm. Well, certainly a step in the right direction.”
Kinako glances between the screen, Tilsworth, and Maxwell. She smiles, apologetically, and shrugs.
“More research is indicated, but I believe it is a direction to start.” Tilsworth says, resetting the simulation. “Now then… who’s up for cards?”
Maxwell stretches “Sure thing.”
Kinako blinks a few times, coming back from wherever the contemplation of interuniverse tomfoolery had brought her. “Cards? Ah, all right, I can play Koi-Koi, or Karuta, or Buta-no-shippo, or… er. Something American, perhaps? I am willing to learn.”
“Perhaps a bit of poker.” Tilsworth says. “It’s rather simple to learn, but much like Go, a lifetime to master.” he says with a grin.
Maxwell nods “Partial to hearts, but we’d need a fourth for that. Poker’s fine.”
Kinako reaches carefully into a pocket on her jumpsuit and fishes forth her PDA. “Poker… po-ker… ahh, I have found… oh my. Which, ah, -variation- of poker would we be playing?”
“Five card stud, nothing wild.” Tilsworth says. “In fact I have a version programmed into my PDA that will allow us to link ours together and play.”
Maxwell nods.
“Five… card… stud?” Kinako seems somewhat puzzled by the wordplay there, but she shrugs and goes to find the ‘local ad hoc multiplayer’ setting on her PDA. “Er… all right, I am presently scanning for available games?”
Tilsworth activates his PDA to start a gaming session that the other PDAs should pick up.
Maxwell quickly gets his pda set to find the game.
Kinako waits patiently until the game ‘room’ pops up on her screen, and activates it. Her avatar is a very ‘chibi’ version of herself, with a long fox-tail ponytail strung with ribbons. It waves and offers a cheerful “Ohaiyo” via speech bubble.
Tilsworth’s avatar is a picture of Einstein sticking his tongue out. “Very well then… you’ll see along the side the various hands to strive for. Whoever has the highest ranked hand wins. Should be straightforward enough.”
Maxwell quickly cycles through a few avatars, settling on an overly cute penguin in a bowler hat. “We wagering anything tonight?”
Kinako spends a quantity of time studying the cards on the sidebar. Her little avatar fans out the cards and goes cross-eyed. A little bubble pops up over her head with a depiction of a throbbing headache in it. “Aah… I do not have much to offer, although I did bring a small selection of vacuum-sealed wagashi – sweets? I would be willing to wager a few, if that is how it is done?”
“Ah, that would give literal meaning to a sweet victory.” Tilsworth says with a grin. “I can wager some peppermint candies I brought along.”
Maxwell nods “Pretty sure I’ve got a modest pile of butterscotch discs I can put forth.”
Kinako spends an amount of time observing her face-down card. She’s got the ‘poker-face’ thing down, at least. Her face up card is the four of clubs. “Aah, I will wager… a green tea mochi ball…”
Tilsworth checks his own card. “Indeed… I’ll raise you two peppermints.” he says with a grin, as the game gets underway.
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