The Space Opera Working Thread

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by nenothtu

 

Not one tiny bit surprised at this anecdote! I've been known to shush and run-off aggressive dogs with little more than a stare-down or an abrupt "Excuse me?!". They can tell...it's the telepathic thing. Somehow I can't imagine ANY creature getting the "neno-glare" and thinking they could still win!!

Call it finesse, confidence, leadership, whatever. When you mean business, EVERYONE knows it!

Oh, I meant business alright - if they had kept coming, one or the other of us, or maybe both, were going to have marks all OVER them! I did the same thing to a bull in a pasture once. The fence was to far away to make a run for it, I had a rifle, and I figured 3000 pounds of hamburger couldn't be a BAD thing! The dog that was with me, an old hunting hound, ran around behind my legs and looked up at me as if to say "ain't you gonna do sumpin'?" Some protector HE was!

Yeah, I like BIAD's last, too -- awesome stuff...
(still gagged a little in my throat thinking he just might try to shove those pork-pies into his own face. ACK!!
Or wear them on a string around his neck. Ew ew ew yuck!!

Ears. Ears and fingers go on neck-strings. Eyeballs tend to shrivel to the point of unrecognizability after a few days, anyhow.... I won't go into the sloppy details that make them difficult to string in the first place. You guys probably took high school biology.

BIAD, what next? Toss us a bone, man!!
(NOT an eyeball, thanks very much).

Eyeballs are easier to catch - bones HURT if you miss the catch!

reply to post by A boy in a dress


I'm tuckered out right now, but I'll churn it out later this evening... erm, maybe the wee hours of the morning over there... You're 5 hours ahead of me. By the way, how IS the weather this evening? last night was a little lively - I put a special order in for no more tornadoes until Tuesday...

reply to post by nenothtu


It's a Saturday afternoon here, a drizzly-rain pre-Jubilee Saturday.
The media outlets are busying themselves with how the Queen
and country are going to celebrate her Diamond Jubillee -or sixty
years of being on the throne.

Monday and Tuesday will see a lot of folk enjoy some time off.
Me...? I'll be shovelling buns and croissants at work!

Originally posted by A boy in a dress
reply to post by nenothtu

 

It's a Saturday afternoon here, a drizzly-rain pre-Jubilee Saturday.
The media outlets are busying themselves with how the Queen
and country are going to celebrate her Diamond Jubillee -or sixty
years of being on the throne.

Monday and Tuesday will see a lot of folk enjoy some time off.
Me...? I'll be shovelling buns and croissants at work!

I know the feeling - I've worked every single holiday since 1996, and have taken NO vacations in that entire time. I take that back - I had Christmas 2000 off, then had to work New Years Day because everyone else had run for the hills in expectation of the End of the World as We Know It.

However, the fact remains that your are 5 hours ahead of me, and so I rely on you for reports from the future!

Talk about yer time-traveling tale-weavers!

I'm going to do a patrol now, then get to work on the above mentioned memo-posting.

The post is up. I added in a few fragments from another incident, involving guard dogs. We had this compound to secure. There were about 20 or 25 guys there during the day, but we'd abandon the place at night, Someone got the bright idea to put guard dogs inside the wire at night, to keep everyone else outside the wire.

Myself and one other guy were appointed "handlers" for them, and no one else was allowed to get near them, because they'd just flat out eat anyone up. So the guy brings the dogs, two great big, irascible German Shepherds, and they set up a kennel. He puts the muzzles on them to keep 'em from eating ME up, and puts leashes on them, and hands me the leashes. "Here, walk 'em around for about an hour to get 'em used to you, but DON'T take those muzzles off, because they will EAT you if you do."

So I walked them around, got out of sight, and sat down and talked to them for about a half hour until they got nice and calm, and walked them some more. I noticed they kept trying to scrape those muzzles off, and I figured the doggone things HAD to be aggravating, so about 45 minutes into it, I took the muzzles off to give them some relief, and walked them some more.

They were HAPPY dogs to be rid of those muzzles! Then they wanted to play and everything, so we played a while, and then I put them in the kennel and took the leashes and muzzles back to the trainer. He started at me a minute, and said "How'd you get those muzzles off?"

So I said "they have buckles on the sides, right there,,,"

And he says "I KNOW that! How'd you get 'em off without getting bit?"

I said "I just took 'em off. the dogs couldn't play with them on, and they wanted to play, so I just took 'em off."

The trainer just shook his head and walked away. I never had the first problem out of those dogs. I'd made them friends for life with just a little leap of faith.

Homestead life on Khalamzadar 4:



Ok, so that's really my dear old dad, right here on earth, back in 1974, and a Shetland mare named "Old Bess". That's not a "neno cigar" in his mouth, it's an unfiltered pall Mall. Still, the idea is the same - local production and a lowered technological level since industry for producing technology is not yet present on the planet, and most usable tech has to be imported (expensively, of course) from more developed worlds. Everything usable other than alien artifacts has to be either made locally or imported. In the case of the alien artifacts, they have to be found first, then one has to figure out how to use them. have you ever had to put together a desk by Chinese instructions? Now imagine trying to fly a jet on ALIEN instructions.

In that picture is my pap plowing a field, for localized subsistence farming, but it goes deeper than just that, It's ALL locally produced - even the plow itself. we welded that together out of joints of pipe for the plow frame. WE forged the plowshare ourselves. The whole rig is "home made". Homesteading and subsistence - there's more to it than just scratching in the dirt!

Something along these lines is what Khalamzadar's homesteaders have to look forward to. Technology is great, but in the beginning before industry is established, it's EXPENSIVE, too, and homesteaders, prospectors, miners, and the like who have to wrest the resources out of the dirt are not well known for being rich in the beginnings of settlement. Those who can make do, or just make THINGS, are at a premium in such situations.

reply to post by nenothtu


Awesome post!! I can just see it. Perfect.
Interesting tale about the poor German Shepherds. If only their "trainer" had known that they hated HIM! Asshat.

I wonder, though, how Sslar will respond to her new "siblings"....if, that is, neno decides to introduce them all.

Any new thoughts on how to reunite the kitty with The Man? How's her healing coming along?

Also, atmospheric details, please, as to whether it's easier to breather, or awkward, and how the gravity is different from what they're all "used to"? In case it could have an effect on Dag's next moves...and Ben's....

Still musing over what she's going to find...and whom. Or vice versa.

reply to post by nenothtu


Oh my! Wow, that was in 1974? Amazing.

Yeah, make-do and "make things" seems to be part of my genetic background. My grandparents on mom's side were farmers from Germany. Talk about stubborn....you vill make it verk! *finger in face*
Add in the Irish bits -- also sharecroppers -- and the Highlander (nuff said)....and...taa daa!

Then my dad -- the engineer non pareil...could and DID fix, rig, modify, invent, and just plain MADE IT WORK....
so. yeah.
That's all I have to say about that.

For now.

But I bet your old man would've LOVED the "Mower" idea -- even though my own mom is saying "now, honey, let's not go to crazy land...you don't live in the country.....yes, it's a fabulous 'green' idea....".....

heh heh...

SOooooo, anyhoo......homesteaders are starting from scrap. Got it. (And yes, those Chinese instructions are useless for anything but laughter!) .... but...in the city where Wild is....they still have steam and coal, possibly arc-welders?

Post is up regarding Adam's discovery of Sslar's absence, and some introspection regarding himself and Dag. Hope you all enjoy it!

Meanwhile, gears are still churning on how Dag will wind up at death's door. I'm thinking she'll make it back to ship, in time to say 'goodbye' to him in person.

Here we goooooooo!!

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by nenothtu

 

I wonder, though, how Sslar will respond to her new "siblings"....if, that is, neno decides to introduce them all.

I don't know precisely what's in mind for the wolves, but neno is content to let them guard their tree if that's what's in the cards for them. If he keeps taking on critters, he'll run out of supplies!

Any new thoughts on how to reunite the kitty with The Man? How's her healing coming along?

Not yet, but it will come...

Also, atmospheric details, please, as to whether it's easier to breather, or awkward, and how the gravity is different from what they're all "used to"? In case it could have an effect on Dag's next moves...and Ben's....

The atmosphere is "thick" and humid. It's almost twice the atmospheric pressure of Earth standard at sea level

I don't recall the gravity exactly - I'll have to look it up, but I think it's around 10% greater than Earth, meaning that a 120 pound person on Earth would weigh 132 pounds there. There is quite a bit more mass and surface area than Earth, but gravity follows the inverse square law just as light does, The greater radius from the planet center makes the surface gravity less than you would expect from a straight linear calculation using the greater mass. In other words, the gravity is less than you would expect because it's farther away from the source to the surface.

Here's another story recently posted involving wolves. It's an entry in the "Nature" short story contest, and it too is based on a true story.

"The Wolf" now has a part two - "Einstein meets the Wolf". It's told from the viewpoint of a cat, which, as we all know, are the masters of the Universe for real.

They are probably alien spies, too...

======================================================

I checked the stats on KZ-4, and the gravity is 1.12 Earth Standard, meaning a 120 pound human would weigh 134.4 pounds there. You'd "feel" a little heavier, but it wouldn't be "crushing" or immobolizing.

Khalamzadar IV Stats

Holy moly!

This thread seems to be in agreement with neno's exposition on "the life force", although I don't think it calls it that specifically. It does appear, however, to be the same concept.

reply to post by nenothtu


I saw that headline this morning...and thought of you! But haven't read it yet.
Tx for the gravity computation!

I've made some decisions about Wild's persona.....no need to reinvent; she's a pirate!

reply to post by wildtimes


What a concept! A shipwrecked pirate!

reply to post by nenothtu


Yeah.....it works for me....
shipwrecked pirate.

Some progress in generating pictures...

neno, that blasted see-gar, and his pet shotgun, proper lighting and shadows:



Done in Terragen. The landscape ain't much, but it's progress - I couldn't even get neno rendered out before. Next: landscape, city, and ominous dark trees....

reply to post by nenothtu


Love the 'stache'!!

So, yeah......Muckles is going to disembark and see the pirates.......
and say "Mercy..."

at which point 'Wild' will look up and say "yes?"

Heh....mercy o'malley. My alterego.....
time to crash....

Cheers and group hug, all!

reply to post by wildtimes


"O'Malley" being a decidedly Earthling name, I take it she is from Earth originally.

NOBODY can pirate like Earthlings can pirate!

Hi All!

Massive cool pics Neno! 'He's' almost 'real'!

Thanks to the Space Opera I've been trying to hire a Bagpiper to play for my mother before she passes away (and then later for her funeral). Beyond that? Three new orphaned baby birds I'm playing 'mamma mia' to and - yeah - the weeds in the garden that go round and round! Holy Moly! And this morning? LOL! I went out and all my bunnies were on a 'Holiday'! Ok, not all of them but 5 from one cage had 'escaped' - it was pretty hysterical all in all their frolicking!

So! I hope tomorrow I'm back to submitting 'something good' - that will in truth reflect what's going on, in part, to 'real life'!

Hope you're all well!