“It’s an inspection tool and the other one is a low power
laser cutter” I said through clenched teeth.
“What does a twerpy looking little girl like you have any
business doing with stuff like this?”
His sneer made my teeth hurt. I
tried to unclench my jaw but I couldn't.
“I work on the Fleet ships as a repairer they are part of my tool kit” I
really tried to stay calm but looking at the contents of my pouch in a pile
next to the revive station made me really want to do bad things to this jerk
but as in most situations like this the biggest and meanest usually wins
out. “What’s the TT of this?” He asked holding up one of the items I
liberated from Thinkers odd assortment of modified electronic components. “I have no idea” my jaw was actually starting
to hurt. He held his hand gun pointed at
my chest as he dug through the pile on the floor. Then he held up a pair of my underpants and
stuffed them in his pocket. All I could
think of was .. gah that was my last pair.
“Are you going to give my stuff back?” I asked trying to appeal to any shred of
kindness he might have. “Hah .. not likely dumb-ass and by the way what did you
do with the miner guy that usually flies that Sleipnir, kill him and steal his
ride?” He looked at me over the barrel
of his gun as he knelt there pushing the rest of my belongings around with my
inspection tool. “No I didn't kill him
.. I .. I just borrowed his Sleipnir” I said suddenly feeling really terrible
about not waiting longer. “Hmmm .. so OK if you are a repairer on one them big ships where is your repair tool and
wires?” He said standing up kicking my
pouch to the side. Then he added “I think
you are a liar and a thief .. I doubt they would let someone as scrawny looking
as you work with them welders”. “Well I
do, no matter what you think and can I please have my tools back at
least?” I pleaded. “Sorry loser these are going in the TT soon
as I get back to my home planet, they look like useless junk to me” he opened
his own bag and dropped my tools and the components inside. Zipping the bag shut he turned and hastily
boarded his Quad. All I could do is
stand there and fume. I was beyond
crying he had taken everything I owned away in his stupid pack.
As the engines of his Quad started I looked at the charred
pile of junk sitting nearby on the deck.
It was of course the Sleipnir I had ‘borrowed’. The Quad lifted and left the Space
Station. I was alone and really pissed
off. I did a full turn looking at the sad state the station was in then walked
up the ramp leading to where the canteen should be. After trying the door I saw that the external
environmental controls were all red indicating an unsafe condition. Below the indicator lights there was a generic
message scrolling across the display stating that the atmospheric controls were
off line and to please submit a support ticket.
I could see across the platform to the blast door leading the habitation
part of the Station and its controls were also glowing red. On the way back down to the teleporter I took
note of the odd assortment of stuff
scattered all across the hanger deck.
When I got to the teleporter I saw that the platform and one
of the risers had been damaged and not repaired. Revive turned out to be the only active
terminal available since the Trade Terminal and Repair Terminal had 10 cm holes
blasted through them in several places.
I walked around the immense
hanger deck of the seemingly abandoned Space Station. As I walked around I began to piece together
what had happened. There had
obviously been a serious battle fairly recently. Among the debris of depleted weapons and scattered shards of armor were bits of robot clutter.
A couple hours later
After making the full circuit of the hanger deck I sat down on
the edge of the teleporter looking at the portal. What were the chances of someone helpful showing
up before I became a space fossil? I
pulled my pad out and tried to access the local net. There was a lot of corrupted data but on
occasion some useful screen would open.
One thing that did open was the schematics for the teleporter. I couldn't access the spares inventory for
the station but I have had these things apart in the recent past, I just wish I
had my inspection tool. I feel my jaw
muscles tightening up again thinking about that jerk telling me what he was
going to do with it. OK think Lisbeth what can you do with what you have?
An awfully long time later
I had the panel off the damaged teleport riser in a few
seconds and stood there wondering what could be wrong with it other than being badly
misaligned. I put my shoulder under the
riser and tried to push it back in place.
There was no way I could move something that weighs 300 kg. So I figured I could maybe just align it electronically
as it sat cocked to one side and leaning towards the center of the platform.
I started with the teleport diagnostic routines. At first they seemed to be working then at
some point in the start cycle the display dropped out and the system went
dormant. Alignment wouldn't cause that so most likely some of components have become knocked loose or damaged. I powered the riser down and removed the
components one by one reinserting them assuring they were seated properly. This got it a little further along but it was
still not passing all the internal self-checks.
I cycled the other two risers and they came online just fine. After swapping the components out of the
damaged riser into one of the working risers I had an idea what needed to be
replaced but had no immediate idea where to get the parts. I look around and my eyes fell on the revive
station. I was a little bit torn about
robbing parts out of it to fix the teleport but there didn't seem to be many other
options available. Only problem was the
components aren't exactly the same.
Close but the phasing is handled differently in the sequencing logic. I needed some way to adapt the Advanced Processor
from the Revive Stations to the Triphased Intelligence Module in the Teleporter. Then I remembered some of the weird things
Thinker was doing with robot parts and I still had several hundred terabytes of
data stored on my pad from the experiments he had me monitor. All I had to do it sift through enough of it
to find a work around.
Several hours later
20 or so Droka heads later I had my
adapter working and the teleport riser was humming like it’s supposed to. I looked over my shoulder at the revive
terminal and hoped I wouldn't need it any time soon. One final teleport test and I decided I’m going
for it. I pushed the torso of a Droka
onto the platform and checked the riser alignments one last time. All green.
I manually operated the teleport and it disappeared. The good thing about this type of tech is it
either works or it doesn't. Sure it can
send you to the wrong location at times but you do actually end up someplace or
you are still standing there, one or the other.
As I stood on the teleporter platform I thought briefly that
the next person that comes along will wonder why there is a robot head tied to
the teleport riser with a leather belt.
The Space Station disappeared in a slightly distorted shimmer of blue
and I materialized in a very small space with a pile of robot parts all around me.
I had expected to see the cargo area of the privateer that showed on the
teleport roster as having safe entry but this is something so unlike that I
wasn’t sure what to think initially.
There was a teleport pad under my feet but like a one person sized
version. ‘OK where the heck am I?’ I
thought. Lighting was subdued and the
ship appeared to be in a standby state. I
looked for controls and found slide type controls for everything. No buttons or switches. Sorta robot like in …
My thoughts went from oh my god what kind of ship am I in to
the realization that OK don’t make a lot of noise the metal heads are probably
just in standby. I leaned into the hatchway connecting this tiny booth to the rest of the ship and found myself looking
into the only other compartment on the ship.
At first thought, I was sure this thing was like an escape capsule but I couldn't imagine robots having those.
There were 4 seats all empty. Between them was a beacon generator in its receptacle. Then I recalled one of the few conversations
I had with Stalker, he told me in as few words as possible where he got the
beacon generator that he used to call the Robot Dropship. He got it from what he called a Drone Scout Ship. These are small and fast but easily damaged ships
according to Stalker. I’m not sure if he
chased it down or captured it by some other means but he had his beacon.
I squeezed into the narrow confines of the pilot seat and
looked at the controls. Not too
different from a human ship except there is no window to look out of. I studied the beacon generator for a few
minutes and decide it was in a simple socket and pulled it free and tossed it
aside as I really didn't need a Drop Ship showing up at the moment. The controls were all slide like indention's in the console so I put my finger in one and moved it forward. Nothing seemed to happen, and then all of a sudden the bulk
head in front of me became transparent.
I could see the stars and nebula all around. I gently lifted my finger out of the slot and
tried another. There were no labels to
tell what did what so it was a matter of trying all of the slide slots in reach
to see what they did.
Many mistakes later
Within an hour I
had figured out which slots to keep my fingers out of and could almost control
the ship with some degree of efficiency.
I moved the Scout Ship away from the Station as quickly as
possible. I had no idea where I was
headed. I found the setting that kept
the ship slightly below the galactic plane and pushed the speed slider forward
to near maximum. There was no sensation of
movement, no vibration like warp just a feeling of really moving fast.
Odd symbols filled the display. Some of it looked like trajectory
calculations but were difficult to follow.
I stuck out my finger to touch one of the objects on the display and it
zoomed in towards me. I sat back fast
and held onto the sides of the pilot’s chair.
The sensation of speed was alarming but it was only an illusion. The object I pointed at came into focus over
the control panel. It looked like the
moon sized asteroid the Wastelanders used as a loot stash but from an odd
angle. Next to the object was a
scrolling display of robot gibberish that I had no clue how to interpret. That was until the display zoomed back out
and showed a trajectory as a dotted line that ended about 1/3 the distance to
the asteroid. OK so not enough fuel to
get there.
So where can I get to, I thought as I started selecting
objects from the display and repeating the process again and again. After trying all the objects I could reach there ended up being 3 places I could get to easily
with fuel to spare. One was where I had
just escaped from the second was like a space station but looked like something
a robot would make so maybe not a good choice.
The third was another remote Space Station. The display seemed to understand that was my
selected destination changing the arc of the ships trajectory while modifying the
speed to get there as quickly as the current amount of fuel allowed.
All I could do is sit there and listen to my empty tummy
rumble and complain as we streaked forward.
Chapter 10 coming soon
<<--------------------------------------~O~-------------------------------------->>
Disclaimer Part
None of the characters in this story / role play are real in the sense that this all takes place in a virtual world. None of the events depicted are real, come on its in space on a huge Mothership. Really?
The real parts are as follows:
The environment in which I do my role play is a game called Entropia Universe. Which is made by Swedish company called MindArk. MindArk has not authorized me to speak for them in any way nor do I intend to. But I will tell you it is a very fun game and it truly is what you make it.
Entropia Universe is a free to play game with a real cash economy. Here is a link to Entropia Universe
The Motherships do exist in the game and are owned and operated by individuals. The fleets of ships that Wasp works on are all part of the Entropia Fleet Alliance. These folks are pros at getting you across space in an efficient timely manner. They offer routine scheduled flights every day of the week.
Here is a link to the EFA Website – Entropia Fleet Alliance
Oh and when you aren't reading my blogger or even when you are listen in on Atlas Haven Radio <-- click here for link.
