The Centaur Project Pt. 2: Elysium (B) (630 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: centaur_series scifi
Rating: 2 on 21 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Coyote (View user info) at 2006-02-15 15:23:54 EST
Still Day 31—actually I guess it's 32 now, but fuck it, the next day doesn't start until I get a little sleep. I gotta write some of this shit down though, since the sensors were still fried with the loop static.
The official report is gonna read a little dry, so this is more for the book deal. I'll be goddamned if Dougie's little simulation of the Hotpoint wasn't bang on the money—we came out of the loop screaming like a banshee into the gravity well of a planet McSwain never even knew about. Dumb bitch talked her way onto my ship like she was some kind of expert on the system. Elysium this, Elysium that, orbital migration my nutsack. Bitch discovers a 40-Jupiter system on the other end of a loop and she doesn't even bother to check the residuals for a third body. She's gonna be all over me more than ever now trying to weasel her way onto the paper.
So we're out, full suspension, and support brings me out with the cocktail, cold. Fucking software cut it pretty goddamn close too, we were so close to the loop I could see the back of my head for a second and the cabin looked like one of those shitty demos the physics geeks are always trying to use to blow your mind about GR. I love that fucking cocktail though, I just closed my eyes and twisted the ship up around the gees and tried not to puke my goddamn guts out. There's gonna be an inquest for sure back Dirtside, but what are they gonna do, drop me into a Hotpoint with half a Jupiter mass sitting a million kilometers away? More like getting stuck on half-pay, giving public safety messages at the 'tute: "Don't ignore your string theorist, or you could crash and burn if you're not as brilliant a pilot as I am." Screw 'em, orders were to avoid delays.
Worst part of the whole thing was no one was around to see it. The damn thing has a ring system makes Saturn look like a piker, the particles were vaporizing on our bowshock and the plasma jets were clicking on the open receiver like hail on the roof of Dad's cabin at the lake, little bangs and pops of static. It was fuckin' beautiful, and lonely. I swear I thought it was the last sound I was ever gonna hear. That's the kind of shit they're gonna eat up at the next Head Session. Heh. I show Sara my sensitive side and she's gonna go down like the Titanic.
Anyway, the whole fuckin' planet is filling up the front screen and we're moving like a bat through the rings, and all I can think is I want Mendel to turn up the music. Course, the music wasn't on, support don't turn on the sound when they bring you out for an emergency, but the cocktail makes that Song wail in your head. Mendel was on the cocktail too but he passed out from the gees. I should rig all my trips like this, doing the decel with no copilot is fuckin' bliss. Bring on the inquest, this is why I got into this business.
So I don't even remember how soon we picked up the signal from the other ship. It coulda been as soon as we bled off all the relativity, or anytime up til we were stable enough to bring up the rest of the crew. I don't even remember how long it took to get us in that orbit, I know we scraped the cloudtops at one point and I was laughing my ass off at the way the ices were vaporizing on the hull. By the time Sara and Dougie unstrapped me and gave me something to kill off the adrenalin, it felt like someone's husband had been whaling on me with a cricket bat all night. McSwain was supposed to be scanning the system, but we were totally snafu'ed and it was like three hours later when Ito called out the flashes.
After that it was fuck exhaustion and break out the booze. All the reports are gonna say we exercized due diligence and scientific skepticism and followed the procedures, but we all knew the deal within about twenty seconds. First off, Dougie was pretty fucking pissed that I ignored his warnings, Sara was all in my face about endangering the crew, McSwain and Mendel were just in shock, but Ito was just fucking ecstatic like any rookie. She kept staring out the window at the planet and saying how different it was from Jupiter, and then she'd run over and hug me and say how awesome it was that I got us into a good orbit, and what a beautiful planet I'd found, and thanks for saving everyone. That would have been a lot fucking nicer if I didn't have about four cracked ribs from the deceleration. Then all of a sudden she starts screaming and pointing and she's going "flashes, flashes, someone's signalling us, someone got lost".
Thorne and me, we blew it off, we seen enough cases of rookie nerves to pretty much ignore it when they see ice crystals or occultations and think they're making contact. We were picking up more data every second on the potential of the tertiary, and he was pointing out how his simulation would have had it perfect if anyone had told him the goddamn thing was there. The weird bastard's model was dead on, I'll give him that.
But the other four, they're crowded round the port, and Ito sees it first, that sly bitch—prime numbers. So score one for the mathematicians, someone is shooting the prime numbers at us from another orbit around the tertiary. Blink blink blink. Blink blink blink blink blink. Blink blink goddamn blink.
Now if that's not some fuckin' sweet justification for decisive action, then I don't know what the hell is. Only the first goddamn contact. We just wrote those Cambridge assholes with their bacteria out of the history books. Sara fucking flipped out at me for amping up all the guns, but what the hell else am I gonna do? Jesus, it's my fucking job.
All the reports are filed, now I can get some fucking sleep. We can't move on the aliens until Thorne and McSwain work up a damage report from our anomalous loop transt - oh sorry, did I say anomalous loop transit? I meant, me saving everybody's fucking lives with some superhuman fucking piloting. Meanwhile, let the psych crew and the biologists argue about what to do. I'm pretty sure that signal is tied to a moon we blew past a few times coming off the Hotpoint, I bet we scared the holy bejeezus out of those little green fuckers. We can nose over and check it out tomorrow, meantime Mendel's at least good to run the guns while I get some shuteye.
Cheers, man, you just surfed a half-Jupiter gravity well, saved the ship, and discovered the first advanced alien life in the universe. If that don't get me laid, then I don't know what the hell will.
User Reviews
Submitted by Alter (user info) at 2007-09-26 20:31:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No, Comment.
Submitted by redskieslookfake (user info) at 2006-03-08 09:09:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You've made me want to do a sci-fi post now.
Submitted by Nellypaal (user info) at 2006-03-06 08:29:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'd forgotten about this.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-03-05 20:04:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Seriously, how the fuck did this sneak past me?
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2006-02-23 01:59:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very Cool. I just read parts one and two. I look forward to reading part three.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2006-02-18 15:41:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
quality.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-16 16:49:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-02-16 12:21:27 (#)
The better the fiction the worse the response on this site.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
That's fine, it gets noticed by the people it's aimed at.
What's the quote from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern?
"We've played to bigger [audiences], but quality counts for something."
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-02-16 12:21:27 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The better the fiction the worse the response on this site.
Submitted by GuinnessSince1759 (user info) at 2006-02-16 03:06:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.ubersite.com/m/84024
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2006-02-16 02:27:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I like. Keep it up.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2006-02-16 01:07:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I think that reading these posts late at night is actually maye a good thing, because when my brain isn't working and I read it and half of it makes no sense whatsoever but I *still* really like the story... Well, then you know you've done a good job writing it.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-16 00:18:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Would you think a lot less of me if I said I haven't seen Firefly, or Serenity?
The guy is basically an amalgam of all the worst personality traits I've heard people ascribe to astronauts, stirred together with a dash of Bruce Campbell. Believe it or not, my inspiration for the whole story is one specific scene. The character came to be because I could only think of one way to pull that scene off without it become self-parodic.
So discovering him has been a pleasant surprise.
Submitted by fried-green-potatoes (user info) at 2006-02-15 23:30:16 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No doubt the character makes the story.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2006-02-15 21:36:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I love the narrator. He's arrogant and an asshole but with so much style it makes my mouth water.
"We found the first evidence of alien life, and it's alllll about me, baby."
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2006-02-15 20:13:32 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I love this guy!
The only other place I can go to get a story with this kind of grace and attitude is Bickerstaff.
It really is worth the wait between you installments.
Submitted by stardamage (user info) at 2006-02-15 19:34:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm not too up on my astronomy or anything but this is a lot of fun to read.
I'm picturing the guy as Jayne from Firefly, but a bit smarter. Is this completely off?
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2006-02-15 17:48:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The mucus is making it hard to think.
+2 and I'll drop a more intelligent comment some other day.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2006-02-15 16:59:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good shit.
Submitted by Durae (user info) at 2006-02-15 15:56:24 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-02-15 15:32:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
don't get too close to those Jovian bodies if they're rotating too fast - they tend to throw out a LOT of upper-spectrum radiation.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2006-02-15 15:25:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Forgot the linkwhore to Part One: http://www.ubersite.com/m/83617
Sorry 'bout that.