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StefanPWinc β Consumer of all
Published: 2013-02-19 00:11:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 880; Favourites: 20; Downloads: 2
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Description
Just a "little" stray black hole from a supernova a few billion years ago that happened to make it's way towards the Orion sub arm of the milky way galaxy to a little yellow star known as sol
to the moderately intelligent lifeforms there it was an... inconvenience.
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Comments: 74
I had one credit of art missing for graduation (I don't do much art in school, just outside of it) and so I thought "Painting, why not?"
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I really like the way you shaded the planets there, do you often paint? Because you have talent in thet area ^_^
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The last time I painted was 3 years ago sooooooooo. no
It seams frustrating without a control-Z or a color wheel 
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Morta: Cool! I saw one of these last year, on a school trip to Cygnus X-1! Lili Giamini hid in her cabin the whole time we orbited the system!
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Alex: Cool! 
Nick: No... that's Sagitarius A*... this is a Stellar black hole in a binary
Alex: Oh, well that's still pretty awesome!
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Morta: Hehe - that kinda stuff isn't unusual for my time. I've sort of been to a farm before - not with school, but my grans took me - it was kinda set up as a piece of environmental art in a derelict orbital hab, and Gran & Nana are really into art. I was just little at the time - *with Alex, lifts off the upper shell of the secondary fusion genny* - the only thing I really remember are the robot cows that sucked up grass, fed it into a recyc mill, used it as feedstock to fab a bunch of steaks and stuff, then fell apart when they'd fabbed as much as they weighed. I thought they were pretty funny.
*points to a toroidal metal tube in the centre of the genny* That's the pressure vessel. We need to lift it out carefully, then get it down on the ground. It's quite heavy, cuz of the magnets inside. 1 - 2 - 3β¦
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Well when you get back, if bein' a time or universe traveler, you can tell 'em you went to a farm with live animals *chuckles, and then wraps her arms around the vessel, and with a strain lifts it up, she estimates it at 100 pounds*
"Do we need it in here or outside on the ground?" she asks over the loud music "I think I can carry it by myself if yah need me too"
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Morta: Sweet! You know, when I tell folk, they're gunna think you're a bajillionaire!
If you're all right gettin' that yerself, I'll grab the welding rig. *opens a hatch just behind the cockpit, rummages a bit, pulls out a large metal box by its handle, with one hand swings it onto her back, with some effort* Ya ever welded with a lazer before?
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Alex: Yah... no... they'll think I'm as old fashioned as cowboys from the wild west or pilgrims... maybe I am a bit
Ok! *lifts up the tube and gets a good grip on it, and sets it down in an open area in the hull*
Uh... no... how different is it than with a torch? yah know... maybe Nick should do this... I do like heavy welding, he does the delicate saudering
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Morta: Nah, land is super scarce in my time. Only the giga-rich farm.
*Starts to climb down the ladder with the welding gear on her back*
This is gunna be pretty heavy work, I promise. It's a 30,000ΒΊC torch, and we're using superconducting magnets to align the atomic lattice as it cools. There's force-feedback that'll keep you on target. I need to operate the magnets, cuz it needs an augmented reality interface to see the lattice imagery. Plus, we need to make a hole first, to hold the argon. I should'a thought to bring a shovel.
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Alex: A hole? *rummages in the pocket of her overalls and pulls out what looks like an old fashioned swiss army knife* how big? where?
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Morta: *Eyes up pressure vessel* mmm - 'bout a metre deep, two metres diameter. *Thinks* - hang about - I got just the thing *put the welding gear down and runs to the cockpit, leans over the side so she's almost upside-down, legs waggling in the air, rummaging around the detritus on the cockpit floor* Hah! Gotcha! *emerges brandishing an evil-looking ion rifle longer than her arm, with a huge grin and a crazy look in her eyes* Hahahahaha this is gunna be awesomeβ¦
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Nick: uh... isn't that dangerous?
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Morta: *gleefully* YES! *runs round to the back of the ship, to a fairly flat part of the furrow made by her landing, just behind the main body of the ship, sticks about 20cm of the business end of the rifle into the dirt; there's a high-pitched sound of powerful capacitors charging up, a lower note of humming electromagnets* *laughing* take cover! 3 - 2 - 1 β¦
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*nick runs for his life, while alex just gets down on her knees in the dirt and watches with a growing grin*
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*Morta pulls the trigger; there is a loud, muffled boom, and about 8 tons of soil and stones are flung in all directions in a 9-metre radius; Morta herself, and the ion rifle, are flung vertically about 10 metres, directly above the expanding-then-collapsing hemisphere of ejected dirt; Morta lands, face down, still gripping the rifle, in the resulting crater, which is just a little bit larger than the size of hole she said would be needed for the welding job*
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*a wave of dirt hits alex and she tumbles backwards, she scrambles to her feet, notices morta, and runs over* Oh my gosh! are you ok?! *while brushing the dirt from her clothes, though she smears it more.
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Morta: *comes to, sits up; she's covered in mud from head to toe, she's looking a little stunned, and she's had the breath knocked out of her; after a couple of seconds, she gets her breath back, in one big, loud, open-mouthed gasp; when she opens her mouth, quite a lot of blood pours out*
*groggily* Fuck! Ow. Heh. *waggles one of her front teeth, which comes out between her fingers* Shit. *gives a pained smile* Anyone get that on video?
*allows Alex to help her to her feet* Ah, sweet, good hole, though.
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Alex: Yah... maybe you shoulda let me do it... you're beat up as it is... *pulls out a handkerchief from her pocket, one of the few places she isn't splattered in mud, unlike the rest of her body from head to toe* When we get home we're both taking showers, ok?
Nick: *runs out* I told you it was dangerous! we need to get you to a doctor!
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Morta: Nah, had to be me - I've got skeletal reinforcements - remember I said the first captain who gave me a lift helped me out with a few augmentations? *lifts her shirt to look at her chest - there's a big black bruise where the butt of the rifle rammed into her; the prods it with two fingers and winces* - urgh - it'll be sore for a bit, but there's nothin' broken. Shower sounds good, though
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Alex: Tea? uh... ok... you can have a tea break... sorry! I don't really drink tea
Nick: *says plainly* I hate tea, it's bitter...
Alex: Nick... anyway, We'll get started on the gravity engine thing while you take a rest 
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Morta: Coffee break? Hot chocolate break? Any sort of break. C'mon guys, I can't rest when other people are working. I get all fidgetty.
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Alex: Oh! I want hot chocolate!
Nick: Water please... or Sprite, Sparkling apple cider, or organic 1% milk
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Morta: OK, definitely got hot chocolate stuff, cuz I made a point of getting that when we wuz packin', and I found some teabags in the back of the cupboard - I think they're kinda old, but I've not 'ad a cuppa in aaaages, so I don't care. Water's easy - there's a good stream just a bit up-slope from 'ere - but unless Alex packed any, we don't have milk, sprite or - *raised eyebrows at Nick* - Oi! No boozin' on the job! An' I thought you were a respectable sort!
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"Non alcoholic sparkling cider... obviously" *nick rolled his eyes* I'll never put a toxin like that into my system.
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Morta: *laughing, with a trollish grin* 
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Nick: yes there is... don't accuse me of illegal activities
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Morta: *grinning trollishly* Dude, I'm a criminal! I'm a fugitive, a stowaway, a liar and a thief, and if I wasn't I'd be rotting in a care home, or dead. And you're helping fix a stolen spaceship!
Anyhowz, we have genes for enzymes metabolising ethanol with homologues in gorillas :-p
*pulls a laser from her pocket an lights the fire for the hot chocolate, pulls a large collapsible water bottle from another pocket, holds it out* Could one'a you guys get water? There's a stream a little up-slope from here. I'm still feeling a little woozy. Just twist the cap to turn the sterilight on.
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Nick: >_< That doesn't count! You jumped universes! you're a refugee!
Alex: Oh I'll do it! *scrambles up, and chunks of dirt and mud fall off her, she wipes her hands on the back of her overalls, the only place that's fairly clean, and then grabs the jug and runs up the hill to go get some*
Nick: ... You do realize some one, if not on groud a satilite, will noticed out landing, right? what's the plan if the military arives? can it fly at all?
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Morta: *laughing* And of course, before I crossed universes I was totally a decent, upright, law-abidin' citizen 
*thinks* Hmmm - I dunno, it's been three nights, and I've not seen anythin' flyin' low overhead. I didn't have any beacons goin', or radios on, and I think it's opaque to radar, so I'm pretty sure I would'a just looked like a meteorite burnin' up in the atmosphere. I can't get it in the air as it is, but by the time we're done with it tonight, it should be. Wanna see how that gravity engine works? It's actually pretty simple!
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*Morta grins evilly and releases the sphere. It does not fall. It hangs in the air, as if neutrally buoyant, and drifts slightly in the breeze*
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Nick: Um... sure... show me then *kneels next to morta*
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Morta: OK! *undoes the locking mechanism, releases the gravity engine's power couplings, lifts the engine assembly out onto the ground; turns the metal cylinder around on the gimbals, so it's pointing right up, with four bolts holding the end face in place; undoes the bolts, opens the end, lifts out a heavy electromagnet, sets it aside on a largish flat stone; effortfully lifts out a metal sphere, about 30cm in diameter; it looks like a cannonball, only much shinier; holds it up in both hand in front of Nick*
OK, I want you to hold out both hands and catch it.
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*nick nervously holds out his hands* I'm not that strong though... is it a gyroscope or...
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*Morta grins evilly and releases the sphere. It does not fall. It hangs in the air, as if neutrally buoyant, and drifts slightly in the breeze*
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Nick: *looks it over for a second, nudges it, and then asks* is it like magnetic levitation but with gravity? does it flicker between having positive and negative mass?
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Morta: Heh. You're on the right track. All the atoms are gravitational dipoles, but their orientations are all randomised right now, so it has zero mean gravity - just like an bar of iron has zero mean magnetic field if the fields of the atoms are all jumbled up. If you can get the repulsive and attractive poles all pointing the same way, it can exert on hell of a kick, though. The trick is, it's also weakly ferromagnetic, and the gravitational and electromagnetic fields of the atoms line up - so, if you put it in a magnetic field, or run an electric current through wire coiled around it, you get a powerful monodirectional gravitational field. These engines use magnets, then they get turned around with servomotors, for steerin' an' stuff. The microcontrollers on this one are burnt out, though. *with a fingertip, steers the sphere back into its housing* There's racks of spare components in the back, though, so it's just a matter of figuring out what needs replaced, an' replacin' it. The only snag is, none of it'll be labelled in any language you understand. Reckon you're up to that?
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Nick: I do speek 8 languages... but I suppose this is an Alien one... Just tell me what You think I need to know and I'll remember
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Morta: Yeah, it's non-human - I think mosta the crew were aggenhi, an' their languages all use magnetic fields instead'a sound. *thinks* No manual or nothin' sorry - but there's a couple undamaged on the starboard side, and one I fixed up myself on port, at the rear. Oh, and, hold on a sec - *digs out her handheld; It's still wet from her falling in the stream; she shakes it to get the water out, wakes it up and opens an app titled Encyclopaedia Electronica* - OK, this'll help. If you don't know what a part is, just take a photo to look it up - the camera's here *points to top of the handheld*, and if that doesn't work, try taking a scan *indicates a black strip along the bottom of the back of the device* - remember to move what you're scanning around through different axes so you can get a good capture. *digs in the toolkit stowed with the spares, pulls out a tiny box with several electrical probes attached; she holds down a power button on the box for a moment, then makes hand gestures in the air until blue lights on the handheld and the box blink in the same sequence; hands Nick the handheld and the testing kit; indicates the testing kit* - Use these to test components and stuff. The icons at the bottom of the screen open up the multimeter functions. Sound do-able?
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(sorry for not RPing or anything really for a long time, it's been hectic, but now I've graduated
Nick: Yes... yes it does... If I don't get distracted looking through the encyclopaedia *hops up and and starts investigating the parts and looking up directions for manualy repairing spaceship engines
Alex was looking over the gravity engine, and was peeling away a bit of bent metal to figure out what was wrong with it, she looked up at morta after she had finished giving nick instructions "Anything less fine tuned and more heavy duty you want me to take care of first? if you're from so far in the future don't your spaceships more or less fix 'emselves?
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(No worries - I've had plenty on my plate too! Hope you've had a bit of time to take a look at Morta Felix, though
Morta: *to Nick* Thaas cool! I don't think I can really criticise anyone else for bein' distraction-prone
*to Alex* Well, shall we get set up for doin' this weld? You grab the pressure vessel, an' I'll get the weldin' rig. Jus' gimme a sec to get something for my tooth. *digs a small first aid kit out of her pockets, rummages in it* *a little distractedly* Ship's got some self-healin', but there's only so far you can do that before the second law of thermodynamics 'as somethin' to say about it. It's got a self-healin' skin, and the compute grid can recover from a fair bit of damage by itself - least once I can figure out what I need to do to get its power management goin' again. It should 'ave a swarm of maintenance mesobots, but it doesn't. Like I say, I think there musta been a reason it wasn't that well guarded. Anyways, they're only really good for routine maintenance - dealin' with anythin' more'n that buggers with their stigmergy.
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*Alex shrugs, and with a grunt lifts up the vessel in question* When night falls you wanna camp out here to guard the ship? or can we go back home in the meantime?
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Morta: Well, I reckon, if we go at it, we can have it in the air tonight. We gotta get this weld done, that gravity engine, run a few tests, and I bash together a script to let me control it from my handheld. Wouldn't wanna fly too fast like that, but it'll be enough to get back to your barns under cover of darkness. Hopefully we'll get time for a campfire, too!
Can you put the pressure vessel in the hole? Needs to be upside down- *swings the box with the welding gear onto her back, carries it to the hole* -cuz the crack's on the underside.
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With a grunt Alex flipped the vessel over and set it down where she said, and immedietly noticed the long crack "You wanna do this one? or can I give it a try?"
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Morta: You handle the torch, I'll do the magnets. We've got a little bit of setting up to do first.Β
*opens the box and starts pulling out equipment: a welding mask that looks designed for a species with a radically different shaped head from humans; a half-dozen shiny black pucks with handles on the backs; two dimly reflective spheres of an unknown material; a number of heavy electrical cables; an enormous power supply; and the welding torch itself. The torch is vaguely recognisable, based on welding torches Alex has seen before. It's a good bit longer (due to the higher temperatures involved, it's best not to get so close), and at the tip is a set of complicated-looking optics, surrounded by four magnet-tipped insectile robotic "legs". There's a trigger at the grip, where Alex would expect, plus an additional slider at the back, that her thumb could control. Morta picks it up, and picks a secondary handle out of the box. Looks up at Alex*
Do you have a dominant hand?
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Alex grinned and held up her left hand "South paw, but I'm pretty good with my right one too" She glanced at the nozzel, and asked "What's with the lenses and stuff, is it a laser torch? wouldn't that blind you if you looked at it?"
(sorry for being late in my reponces to this RP, my two main excuses are that I was busy, and that I was worried I wasn't contributing enough
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Morta: OK *snaps the secondary handle to the right side of the torch, a little below the main trigger* yeah, it's a laser - that's why ya gotta wear the helmet there, or it will totally blind you. I'll use my environment suit for protection. The main trigger controls wattage; slider on the back there is focal depth; on the secondary, the twistgrip is beamwidth - just remember, a narrower beamwidth at the same wattage gives a higher irradiance; and the dial on the back adjusts the frequency. Those legs around the optics grip the vessel and will give you force-feedback - the controls give feedback too - it's got some basic AI, so it'll guide you right most of the time, but you're in control *starts snapping magnetic pucks onto the vessel, on opposite sides of the crack, about 10cm apart; hands Alex a handful of cables* Can you connect theseΒ *indicating the pucks* to the powerpack with those cables?
(no worries - this is just for fun! I'm enjoying this
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"uh huh... I'll try" Alex said, she grabbed the helmet and put it on her head, she expected it to be completely dark, but to her surprise her vision was basically unimpaired, she was confused how this would help when the litthe interface on the sides of her vision gave it away, she was seeing some kind of 3D projection, or augmented reality device, that would help, she remembered how strong just a one watt laser was, and for starters put it down to a tenth of a watt, and began fiddling with the settings and wathing their effects to get the hang for it, then she nodded to herself, cranked it up to 5 watts, and grabbed onto the cables, "just all in a line?" she asked
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Morta: Woah! Wait a sec! You've totally got the right idea there, but you gotta have a bit more protection - it's gonna get really super hot here! *picks a pair of black bracelets out of her pockets and slips them on, then picks up the two dimly reflective spheres from the welding kit and hands them to Alex* Take one in each hand and give it a squeeze.
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She did as she was told, and as she did the spheres liquified, and melted to cover her hands, she wiggled her fingers, and muttered " This'll take some getting used to... what else? do I need like a full body suit or something else I bleach my overalls and give myself a tan?
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