The Centaur Project Pt. 1: Ixion (907 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: centaur_series scifi
Rating: 1.95 on 31 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Coyote (View user info) at 2006-02-07 23:21:49 EST
Day 31— I've finally had enough of her shit, and so I'm starting this to blow off some steam so I don't end up bashing her fucking head in during one of the Head Sessions.
It was bad enough having her report back on everything I was thinking, with some pseudo-Freudian spin or psychobabble analysis, when there was a chance she'd go from "Dr. Goodrich" to "Sara" and we might cut the headshrinking short in favor of some actual head. But if she's gonna pull her whole professional detachment routine, make me wait my turn for R&R like everyone else, and then, as if that weren't enough, start twisting every single fucking thing I say into some shit that Control is going to use against me Dirtside, then fuck it, I'm not gonna play their games anymore. From here on out, they all get the sanitized, prepackaged, neat and clean and ready for prime time Icy Commander with nerves of steel and Good Ol' Boy reticence.
So if talking through the stress and anxiety of Deep Sky is supposed to keep us all fucking sane and civil, then talking to myself should work just as well as anything else, and I'm just gonna give 'em all what they want to hear, and sail through the Sessions in twenty minutes flat. Fuckin docs are gonna know something's up, but they're her bosses, not mine.
Heh. That last time, after she stopped the Vid and told me we needed to talk, she said I had "authority issues". Well, no shit, that's why they put me in charge of this crate and launched us out to the anticenter. All those fancy degrees and she never understood the special ways the Agency has to reward the "talented" that never quite add up to the same success the the merely "cooperative" tend to find.
So they tell me keeping a private diary separate from the official record and the Head Sessions is off-limits. Well, so was skipping my R&R turns when Ito or McSwain's name came out of the hat, or jackhammering the Psych Officer as often as I could schedule a Head Session without triggering a Medical, and I didn't hear any complaints then—except for McSwain, that nasty redneck bitch, in the tapes of her Head Sessions. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and predict that suddenly all her little complaints get passed onto Control instead of quietly sent to /dev/null.
Right, that's enough for now, we're coming up on Hotpoint and I need to take over for Mendel or we're going to end up sticking out of Orion's asshole like an antimatter buttplug. If we even make it that far, that pudwhacker's been to Kiddo a few times and suddenly he thinks he knows the Rip from a hole in the wall. Heh. Hole in the wall is about right, he's been so fuckin crazy to get his R&R with Sara he could probably launch us halfway across the galaxy with what he's got saved up.
Well, now's the poor bastard's chance. He can have my sloppy seconds while I boldly go where no man's gone before. Again.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
DSE-13 COR
MET 31:14:15, 18:30 ST
Range 187 AU Terr. Alt. 15.23 Az. 180.00
Acceleration constant 1g through heliopause approaching loop discontinuity. Target acquired via Cerenkov spectrometer, loopfall as predicted. Loop temperature 0.15 mK higher than model. Lt. Thorne feels the model is reliable and recommends aborting discontinuity insertion in favor of further study and consulation with Control. Based on com lag time and the expressed desire of Control to proceed without delay, approach to the loop was commenced at 1800 ST with full buffering and defenses on standby. Suspension to be initiated 1845. May God speed this vessel on her way and protect all souls aboard. Logged, Cmdr. Robt. M.A. FitzWilliam
User Reviews
Submitted by Alter (user info) at 2007-09-26 20:30:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No, Comment.
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-03-08 09:06:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Interesting start.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-03-05 20:02:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
How did I miss these before?
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2006-02-23 01:49:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by stardamage (user info) at 2006-02-15 19:30:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
How did this slip by me?
Nicely done indeed, sah. Now to read the next one.
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2006-02-15 17:42:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
woo.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-02-14 03:04:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Part 2 Goddamnit.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2006-02-14 01:28:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"we're going to end up sticking out of Orion's asshole like an antimatter buttplug."
that line alone made this priceless.
I too love science fiction, I feel an inspiration to revive the "Science Fiction Saga" (still yet to be named two years after it's uber-birth). Moved again and the transcripts have been misplaced again. guess I'll just have to build on the stuff that actually made it onto ubersite.... work to do...
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-02-08 19:43:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great!!
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-08 18:57:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by MackTuesday (user info) at 2006-02-08 16:35:54 (#)
"Loop temperature 0.15 mK higher than model. Lt. Thorne feels the model is reliable and recommends aborting discontinuity insertion in favor of further study and consulation with Control."
This doesn't make sense. If there is a discrepancy between the model and the measurement, Thorne shouldn't feel that the model is reliable unless the discrepancy is within some predetermined margin of error. If the model is reliable, Thorne shouldn't recommend that the mission be aborted. If Thorne is recommending that the mission be aborted, the text that follows should express why the mission is going forward as planned.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So, what I was trying to convey with that, was that the commander doesn't place a lot of stock in the opinions of his officers. The ship is in the run-up to some not-quite-so-well understood means of quick interstellar travel, loosely connected to string theory. Thorne has a computer model of what the loop should look like, and he finds that the observed temperature is too high-- so, either there's a problem with his prediction, or there's something unusual about the loop. Of course, like any theorist, he can't entertain the idea that his model is wrong (and for that matter, the model has worked well in the past-- after all, even the inexperienced copilot Mendel has made a few runs prior to this)-- his conclusion is that it's too dangerous to proceed. The commander has the final authority though, and he feels like it would take too long to consult with control (citing in the official log a vague statement in his orders to try to avoid delay as much as possible).
Anyway... it was just supposed to add to the impression of FitzWilliam as an arrogant bastard, and more of a cowboy than an engineer. One thing I tend to dislike in sci-fi and fantasy is the big indigestible lump of background material that characters who know their world perfectly well always feel compelled to share with each other, just to bring the reader up to speed. So I tend to risk leaving the reader in the dark and let the characters' reactions to their surroundings fill in the gaps by implication. If I was a better writer, it would probably work better more often.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-02-08 17:33:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by phuzzygish (user info) at 2006-02-08 07:36:13 (#)
Ranking: 2
This should be good. Fantastic potential.
Submitted by Teephphah (user info) at 2006-02-08 16:45:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No, no plagarism. Not to worry. It's just that I've never run across the name Ixion until I played Final Fantasy X (In which, "Ixion" is an electrically charged unicorn . . . of sorts). I always thought that I was fairly well versed, mythologically speaking. It makes me sad that I wasn't aware of this legend before.
So, so sad.
Submitted by MackTuesday (user info) at 2006-02-08 16:35:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This is neat. I love sci-fi and this is well written.
"Target acquired via Cerenkov spectrometer, loopfall as predicted."
I can imagine what this might mean. For some reason I really like your use of the word "loopfall".
"Loop temperature 0.15 mK higher than model. Lt. Thorne feels the model is reliable and recommends aborting discontinuity insertion in favor of further study and consulation with Control."
This doesn't make sense. If there is a discrepancy between the model and the measurement, Thorne shouldn't feel that the model is reliable unless the discrepancy is within some predetermined margin of error. If the model is reliable, Thorne shouldn't recommend that the mission be aborted. If Thorne is recommending that the mission be aborted, the text that follows should express why the mission is going forward as planned.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-08 13:22:08 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Hey Teeph-- This won't be a long series, because I don't have much time these days. So you won't have to commit a huge amount of your Ubertime to it. This may be the shortest installment, but the others won't be epics by any stretch.
I haven't seen Final Fantasy, I hope I haven't inadvertently plagiarized. I picked the name Ixion purely for its mythological reasons.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-02-08 12:59:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Just read this again.
Just +2'd it again too.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2006-02-08 12:46:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yep, it makes a lot more sense when I'm actually, you know, awake.
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-02-08 12:15:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Awesome!
I love that cynical fucker already.
Submitted by Teephphah (user info) at 2006-02-08 10:28:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I usually don't read series posts, but this is #1 and it also talks about centaurs and has the word Ixion.
Is that in any way Final Fantasy related?
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-08 10:07:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks for the feedback so far on what is, essentially, just an exercise in stage-setting. I don't have time to write in extended bursts these days, so I'm trying to keep each installment short. There *is* action to come, I promise.
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2006-02-08 09:50:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
potential?
Submitted by Nellypaal (user info) at 2006-02-08 09:29:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I'll definitely read the rest, but I'm yet to be hooked.
Submitted by creep_firebombing (user info) at 2006-02-08 09:10:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Now run with it.
Submitted by phuzzygish (user info) at 2006-02-08 07:36:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This should be good. Fantastic potential.
Submitted by Flying_buttmonkey (user info) at 2006-02-08 07:29:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Me likey
Submitted by Ballare (user info) at 2006-02-08 05:57:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by fried-green-potatoes (user info) at 2006-02-08 05:28:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"So they tell me keeping a private diary separate from the official record and the Head Sessions is off-limits."
I get this set-up-- and it's shaping up great.
Too bad you can't do font changes here. This is the type of story where it's really useful.
Nice, Coyote, looking forward to the next one.
Submitted by Davros (user info) at 2006-02-08 04:25:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The last paragraph confused the hell out of me, but the rest read beautifully.
-Dave
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2006-02-08 02:43:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I want more.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2006-02-08 01:15:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Made perfect sense to me.
More, please. Soon.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-08 00:02:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Uh oh.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2006-02-07 23:54:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
When will I learn? The answers to life's problems aren't at the bottom of
a bottle. They're on TV!
-- Homer Simpson
There's No Disgrace Like Home
I was slightly confused by the entire story, and my brain went into standby mode at the last paragraph, but I'm very sleepy, so have a +2 on the assumption that it will all make sense in the morning.