Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Space is a big place-episode one


"Space is vast. It's quiet. If you get
lost you may find your self running away from being alone. Often
times people now struggle to find food, or water, or even a bit of
twisted metal to call home. You never get everything you want in
life. Some people are heroes to their people and live to long, that's
when it becomes really easy to make them the bad guy in order to have
'a lasting peace among the stars'. I never really was one of those
people that got along in groups and crowds. I also never wanted to be
violent. I live alone on this rock of a home with my version of a
garage and a hot rod. Well really it's a hyper capable transport ship
with dual carbide armor. It has a small weapons array for a battle
ship and it's fast at sub-light. Most people care more about over
light speed, I don't I am a space folder. Yeah there's warp drive if
you want it, but I live at sub-light and most people do. You can't see
what happens at above sub-light and by the time you do you are already
past it. Means that droids and computers become the captain of your
ship. I never wanted to be captain but I don't want to turn over my
  destiny to someone else s simulation software, so I fold space. I
don't go in a straight line. I am here I power up my drives do the
calculations then, I am there. It's instantaneous but you have to get
out of solar systems to do it. That's why my ship is perfect. It's
fast driving in system. I don't use ion impulse. I use fuel. I scoop
from most any gas giant and quite a few stars. Also if I want to
increase the risk I can jump inside a system, tactically it's the
shit. Think about it. It's risky but you are there and then 8 minutes
later you are gone. You don't get to do re-does, but if you do it right
and you live a certain life style you never need to fire a shot.
Eight minutes though can be an eternity. If your drive a ship
though in straight line you run the risk of being seen for parsecs.
There is something called a warp wave front. It projects in front of
the ship to allow all that really cool speed you want. When you jump
you throw a stone in a pond. That means instead of having a strong
direction beam you have a mono pulse. If you have two intercept
points you can triangulate where the jumper is, but in my estimation
by the time they get that and start to go toward you you are already
powered up and gone.
I spent a stint in the marines, and
learned to fly there. I also am a pretty good shot. My computer
skills are decent, but not on anything recent. I stick with what
works. I wonder around and sometimes pick up a hardware upgrade from
time to time, but recently in the past ten years I don't get the bang
for my buck I use to. When I need supplies I got to go to 'town'. My
version of town is some eight light years away approximately. If you
have to get all how many Au's out there then it changes all the time.
I live in asteroid belt, so please don't go there with me, but trust
me you better have got a good grade in calculus to live out here. Why
an asteroid? Funny you should ask. I live out here because I mine
things out here left by solar winds and other things you can only
find in a decompressed planet. Also there is my family that lives in
  permanent stasis. See when I was a good man, I came back from the
war. It wasn't any good war or anything else. It was mostly seeing my
good friends die. Some of them did it for me. I didn't do anything
for the flag or anything else. I did it because what I did kept me
and my friends alive. I signed up as a fly boy and ended up on the
ground for some seventeen months with a group of the best people I
have ever met. They weren't in it for politics they wanted to live.
They were marines. They saved me when my ship went down. They hid me
when I couldn't move. They fed me when they didn't have much to eat.
And we fought every day to get back home.
Space is vast. You find yourself
talking to yourself at times about days gone by, about things you
never talk about to anyone. I miss my marines.

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