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Dark Fall revision snippet #2

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Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by runsforcelery   » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:44 pm

runsforcelery
First Space Lord

Posts: 2425
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 11:39 am
Location: South Carolina

●II●


Midnight came midday with the curse of God.
Mountains took flame and valleys were clawed
By talons of fire and fountains of stone
As children died in the darkness alone
When light disappeared and Home was crushed
In floodtides of death and a torrent of dust.

Tumult, destruction, devastation, and fear.
And out of the darkness, silence.

The Dark Fall Saga[/b].

* * * * * * * * *




PNS [i]Pilgrim
J-156-18(L) System
September, 1882 Post Disapora


“Ready to proceed, Sir.”

“Very good.”

Captain Thoreau acknowledged Engineering’s report, sat back in his command chair, and gazed around his light cruiser’s orderly bridge. It was just as neat, its personnel just as intent and focused, as always, yet he could almost taste the suppressed excitement humming about him, and he hid a smile of his own. It wasn’t often that someone with no Legislaturalist connections landed a plum like this one.

“Doctor Rendova?” he said.

“Ready whenever you are, Captain,” Doctor Danielle Rendova replied.

The brown-haired hyper-physicist sat surrounded by the additional instrumentation which had been installed on Pilgrim’s bridge. The light cruiser’s sensor suite had already been excellent —the Pathfinder-class had been designed from the keel out for survey work — but it had been beefed up for her current mission, and those additional sensors reported to Rendova’s consoles.

She’d done quite a lot of that beefing herself. Well, she and her graduate-student assistants. It was unfortunately true that the Peoples Navy wasn’t oversupplied with hyper-physicists. For that matter the People’s Republic as a whole wasn’t oversupplied with any sort of trained scientists. Its educational system didn’t produce a lot of those. Rendova – thank God — was the exception that proved the rule, and she knew it. She came from a powerful Legislaturalist family, but her frustration with the schools which had produced her almost despite themselves was apparent.

“You heard the Doctor, Lieutenant Zagorski,” Thoreau told his astrogator. “Are the transit vectors locked in?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“In that case,” Thoreau waggled his fingers at the maneuvering plot, “I believe we might want to get a move on.”

“Yes, Sir!” the lieutenant said with a huge smile and turned to his helmsman.

“Eight gravities, Chief.”

“Eight gravities on Astro’s programmed heading, aye, Sir,” Chief Coxswain Clouseau acknowledged, and Thoreau looked at the quadrant of his com display dedicated to Engineering.

“Prepare to rig foresail for transit on my mark, Ms. Glaston.”

“Standing by, Sir,” Commander Sarah Glaston replied formally.

“Threshold in one-five seconds,” Zagorski reported.

“On your toes, Chief,” Thoreau said quietly.

“Yes, Sir.”

Clouseau never took her eyes from her own displays as Pilgrim slid gently across the threshold of the unexplored hyper terminus. The survey ship tracked directly down the path Zagorski had programmed, based on Rendova’s painstaking survey of the torrent of gravitic energy cascading through the wormhole. If everything went as planned, Clouseau should have nothing to do until Pilgrim emerged on the far side of the terminus . . . wherever that might be. If things didn’t go as planned, she was about to find herself extraordinarily busy.

Briefly, at least.

“Threshold!” Zagorski’s tone was calm but more than a little crisper than usual.

“Rig foresail for transit,” Thoreau said.

“Rigging foresail,” Glaston responded instantly, and half Pilgrim’s impeller wedge vanished as her forward Beta nodes shut down. Her forward Alpha nodes reconfigured in the same instant, dropping their own share of the cruiser’s impeller wedge to project a Warshawski sail — a circular disk of focused gravitational energy, three hundred kilometers in diameter — instead.

“Stand by after hypersail.” Thoreau watched the flickering numerals in the Engineering window of his plot as the cruiser continued to creep forward under her after impellers alone, inserting the foresail gently — gently — into the gravitational vortex.

“Standing by after hypersail,” Glaston said, and Thoreau knew she was watching the same numbers climb on her own displays as the sail moved deeper into the terminus. The rate of increase was slow, given the absurdly low speed of any first-transit through an uncharted terminus, but catching it at the right moment was still —

The numbers stopped flickering. The values kept climbing, but the digital display’s steady glow indicated the foresail was drawing enough power from the grav waves twisting eternally through the terminus to provide movement.

“Rig aftersail,” Thoreau said crisply.

“Rigging aftersail,” Glaston acknowledged, and Pilgrim shivered as her impeller wedge disappeared entirely and her after hypersail blossomed at the far end of her hull.

Chief Clouseau’s hands were calm and steady, but Thoreau’s stomach still twisted itself into a brief knot as the cruiser slid into the terminus’ interface. The queasiness always associated with crossing the hyper wall was substantially more intense in a wormhole transit. It was also briefer, however, and he ignored it, never looking away from his plot. The waterfall display along its right side rose sharply, climbing towards the transit point. It took longer than any wormhole transit Thoreau had ever before made, which wasn’t a good thing where the nausea quotient was concerned. On the other hand, it seemed to be tracking exactly along Doctor Rendova’s projected vector, and he could stand quite a bit of tummy upset as long as —

The universe hiccuped.

No one had ever been able to measure a wormhole transit’s duration, and this one was no different. One instant, PNS Pilgrim was just over five light-hours from the thoroughly useless red dwarf listed solely as J-156-18(L). The next instant she was . . . somewhere else.

“I have a G4 star at three-niner-point-seven-five light-minutes!” one of Rendova’s assistants sang out.

Thoreau exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, but he never looked away from his plot as the numbers began spiraling downward once again.

“Prepare to reconfigure to wedge, Commander Glaston,” he said, then glanced at Zagorski. “And while we’re doing that, Astro, why don’t you start your observations. I think we should find out where we are, don’t you?”





The Octagon
City of Nouveau Paris
Haven System
People’s Republic of Haven
December, 1882 PD


“You’re kidding me, right?” Vice Admiral Amos Parnell said.

“I wish I was.” Admiral Adelaide Laforge grimaced sourly. “Unfortunately, Rousseau ‘s serious, and Harris has signed off on it.” She shrugged. “End of story.”


"Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as Piglet came back from the dead.
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by kzt   » Mon Apr 16, 2018 8:55 pm

kzt
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 11337
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:18 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

This is frustratingly intriguing.
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by cthia   » Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:14 am

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

Ah! A thread thst I can open my eyes in and not tip toe around like a Manticoran officer on rice paper.

Anyhoo, does this chronical the initial discovery of Bolthole? The snippets are beginning to run together in my head.

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by JohnRoth   » Tue Apr 17, 2018 11:31 am

JohnRoth
Admiral

Posts: 2438
Joined: Sat Jun 25, 2011 6:54 am
Location: Centreville, VA, USA

cthia wrote:Ah! A thread thst I can open my eyes in and not tip toe around like a Manticoran officer on rice paper.

Anyhoo, does this chronical the initial discovery of Bolthole? The snippets are beginning to run together in my head.


Oops - the answer got lost in the something or other.

Yes.

Although with a caveat. In the first draft the wormhole went to Calvin; Bolthole (Refuge? don't remember the name) is a few light-years away. This snippet isn't saying specifically.
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by Theemile   » Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:54 pm

Theemile
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 5060
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:50 pm
Location: All over the Place - Now Serving Dublin, OH

JohnRoth wrote:
cthia wrote:Ah! A thread thst I can open my eyes in and not tip toe around like a Manticoran officer on rice paper.

Anyhoo, does this chronical the initial discovery of Bolthole? The snippets are beginning to run together in my head.


Oops - the answer got lost in the something or other.

Yes.

Although with a caveat. In the first draft the wormhole went to Calvin; Bolthole (Refuge? don't remember the name) is a few light-years away. This snippet isn't saying specifically.



It kinda did - Calvin was supposed to be a near analogue of Earth - the G4 star seen in the snippet is similar to(though cooler than) our G2V Sun. Bolthole has a weak K8 star.
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by Peregrinator   » Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:13 pm

Peregrinator
Commander

Posts: 179
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 9:50 pm

I don't know about anyone else, but I will pay money for an e-arc version of Dark Fall!
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by cthia   » Wed Apr 18, 2018 12:43 pm

cthia
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 14951
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:10 pm

She’d done quite a lot of that beefing herself. Well, she and her graduate-student assistants. It was unfortunately true that the Peoples Navy wasn’t oversupplied with hyper-physicists. For that matter the People’s Republic as a whole wasn’t oversupplied with any sort of trained scientists. Its educational system didn’t produce a lot of those. Rendova – thank God — was the exception that proved the rule, and she knew it. She came from a powerful Legislaturalist family, but her frustration with the schools which had produced her almost despite themselves was apparent.


The shortage of hyper-physicists produced by a huge system like the Havenites reminds me of a discussion of the present suitability of Verge applicants to be airdropped on Saganami Isle. Hyper-physicists and qualified Saganami material are different balls of wax, yes. But, it does highlight the fact that Sag Isle material doesn't just grow on trees, pop out of test tubes or simply decide to wake up on the right side of the bed one morn.

Incidentally, that thread also contains the birthing place of my Spartan-like stand against thousands of Macedonians wielding pitchforks against my notion that the SLN would view Beowulf as traitorous. Unresolved until...

Son, your mother says I have to hang you. Personally I don't think this is a capital offense. But if I don't hang you, she's gonna hang me and frankly, I'm not the one in trouble. —cthia's father. Incident in ? Axiom of Common Sense
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by CmdrAthenaAprilist   » Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:36 pm

CmdrAthenaAprilist
Lieutenant (Junior Grade)

Posts: 42
Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2017 11:53 am
Location: Lacey, WA

runsforcelery wrote:The queasiness always associated with crossing the hyper wall was substantially more intense in a wormhole transit. It was also briefer, however, and he ignored it, never looking away from his plot. The waterfall display along its right side rose sharply, climbing towards the transit point. It took longer than any wormhole transit Thoreau had ever before made, which wasn’t a good thing where the nausea quotient was concerned. On the other hand, it seemed to be tracking exactly along Doctor Rendova’s projected vector, and he could stand quite a bit of tummy upset as long as —

The universe hiccupped.

No one had ever been able to measure a wormhole transit’s duration, and this one was no different. One instant, PNS Pilgrim was just over five light-hours from the thoroughly useless red dwarf listed solely as J-156-18(L). The next instant she was . . . somewhere else.


(bolding mine) OK, it's never been mentioned in the text, but do you need a hyper generator to use a wormhole? It's supposedly a grave wave on steroids, and you need Warshawski Sails to use them, and you only run into grav waves in hyper, true? Seems to me you have to be in hyper or use a hyper generator at the moment of transit, which is even described as being like crossing the hyper wall.
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by Theemile   » Wed Apr 18, 2018 4:43 pm

Theemile
Fleet Admiral

Posts: 5060
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:50 pm
Location: All over the Place - Now Serving Dublin, OH

CmdrAthenaAprilist wrote:
runsforcelery wrote:The queasiness always associated with crossing the hyper wall was substantially more intense in a wormhole transit. It was also briefer, however, and he ignored it, never looking away from his plot. The waterfall display along its right side rose sharply, climbing towards the transit point. It took longer than any wormhole transit Thoreau had ever before made, which wasn’t a good thing where the nausea quotient was concerned. On the other hand, it seemed to be tracking exactly along Doctor Rendova’s projected vector, and he could stand quite a bit of tummy upset as long as —

The universe hiccupped.

No one had ever been able to measure a wormhole transit’s duration, and this one was no different. One instant, PNS Pilgrim was just over five light-hours from the thoroughly useless red dwarf listed solely as J-156-18(L). The next instant she was . . . somewhere else.


(bolding mine) OK, it's never been mentioned in the text, but do you need a hyper generator to use a wormhole? It's supposedly a grave wave on steroids, and you need Warshawski Sails to use them, and you only run into grav waves in hyper, true? Seems to me you have to be in hyper or use a hyper generator at the moment of transit, which is even described as being like crossing the hyper wall.


It's been posted over on the Pearls site, you need a hypergenerator and a working set of sails to use a wormhole.
******
RFC said "refitting a Beowulfan SD to Manticoran standards would be just as difficult as refitting a standard SLN SD to those standards. In other words, it would be cheaper and faster to build new ships."
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Re: Dark Fall revision snippet #2
Post by isaac_newton   » Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:33 pm

isaac_newton
Rear Admiral

Posts: 1182
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 6:37 am
Location: Brighton, UK

runsforcelery wrote:●II●


SNIP
The Octagon
City of Nouveau Paris
Haven System
People’s Republic of Haven
December, 1882 PD


“You’re kidding me, right?” Vice Admiral Amos Parnell said.

“I wish I was.” Admiral Adelaide Laforge grimaced sourly. “Unfortunately, Rousseau ‘s serious, and Harris has signed off on it.” She shrugged. “End of story.”


should I remember Rousseau from else in the main series?
sounds sort of familiar
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