'City of Fresno'

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #42

I took a moment to slurp some water from my suit's supply. After studying my anchor pits' and trench's continued out-gassing, I decided their rates were sufficiently stable. Again firing from the shoulder, I began another long, narrow trench. Instead of vertical sides, though, this slanted. Okay, given I was working 'by eye', with much of the trench often obscured by enthusiastic eruptions, the result was less than optimal. Still, I extended this trench, cutting out and down, until a transverse eruption showed I'd reached 'Trench One'.

Next, I began a converging trench, slanted the other way so, in theory, they'd meet at depth and free a juicy prism. Much to my surprise, that was exactly what happened. The iceteroid trembled underfoot, a slim fifty metre wedge lifted away, propelled by its angled keel's out-gassing. As it passed a dozen metres, uneven stress broke it into a train of car-sized chunks.

"Strewth !" I heard from 'Cwm Fahr'. "Nice one, Cobber ! Now, hold fire until we get these in the Can !"

I was happy to oblige. I had a couple of minutes to study the hints of stratification in this first quarry until my gleanings were far enough out for 'Cwm Fahr' to chase. Which, of course, averted the rock tug's powerful lights from my work area. Under other circumstances, I'd welcome several flood-lights, either perched on skinny masts or hung from Floater-buoys tethered to anchors. Now, though, I was just glad of the chance to sip some more water and let my pulse edge down. I'd made it look easy, but I'd logged most of my time as a 'rocky' gleaner, was re-learning this iceteroid stuff 'on the fly'.

Above me, 'Cwm Fahr' was slowly, elegantly dipping and diving, the open can efficiently scooping those fizzing chunks like an Alaskan orca snatching salmon. After a remarkably short time, the rock tug returned to station above me, again illuminating my quarry.

I edged sideways, began to carve a second wedge. Now I'd begun to get a feel for the iceteroid, I was confident enough to use a higher blaster setting, cut some-what wider and deeper. This, of course, took those slanted cuts into juicier sub-surface. Alternating sides allowed each to stabilise while I extended the other. Before long, my cuts' ends met 'Trench One', under-cut, cleaved the slim tetrahedron's keel. The chunk trembled, lifted. I 'mushed' it with a few well-aimed flank zaps, sent it up at about walking pace, which approached local 'Escape Velocity'.

"Cease fire !" Olwyn called from 'Cwm Fahr'. "Our turn !"

This glean had enough residual integrity for the thicker end to hold together. Several car-sized chunks broke from my narrower apex end, drifted sufficiently apart for the rock tug to scoop in succession. Then the tug aligned its catch-tank with the big part, warily 'sword swallowed' it.

Scant few minutes later, 'Cwm Fahr' was back on station, illuminating my quarry. As with third anchor holes, this third chunk could prove problematic. It did not. Even so, I'd a distinct sense of relief as the main part plus some apex debris climbed away.

[jemhouston]

Don't get cocky, that's when bad stuff happens.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #43

With that third chunk caught and the Rock Tug again above me, I shifted along my base-line, carved out a big fourth chunk. Given my experience of the others, I cut it wider and deeper. The 'fissure fizzing' was appropriately enhanced. Like that unfinished mega-obelisk at Aswan, cracks appeared. When detached, the chunk rose as three large lumps plus some bulky apex fragments.

"Cease fire !" Ms. Betrys called. "My turn !"

The rock tug efficiently collected the lumps and bumps, returned to station.

"Can is filling well," Davyd reported. "Another big catch, or two smaller should do for today."

"Perhaps a few fragments, too ?" Ms. Betrys chimed in. "Pack into the corners ?"

"Understood," I replied. "Going better than I'd hoped."

"I'll take a cheap win, Boyo !" Davyd laughed. "Mind how you go..."

As with the fourth, this fifth was big, juicy and cracked. When safely in the can, and 'Cwm Fahr' back on station, I decided to experiment. Rather than long and narrow, I began a short, deep, cut skew into the outermost 'dart' left in my quarry. I kept having to pause for out-gassing to ease, but I was ahead of schedule. When I reckoned it deep enough, I retreated a dozen metres along my baseline, began two more steeply angled cuts. After due pauses for out-gassing to ebb, they met the first, freed a big, boxy tetrahedron. As it rose clear, I 'mushed' the ragged apex to speed progress.

"Strewth ! That's a nugget and a half !" Keith chuckled.

"It will fit..." Ms. Betrys stated, aligning 'Cwm Fahr'. It did. My 'nugget' went down the catch-tank's open maw, gently collided with its predecessors. Despite the hatch-rim's Field Poles, some gas and fines puffed.

"Can closing, closed. Volatiles handling on-line." Davyd reported. "That's a wrap, Jake. Come home."

My excavations' out-gassing had easily tripled the amount of near-iceteroid dust and gravel, so I flew slowly. 'Big Mac' was built to stand-off such, but their pings and rustles could not be ignored. I was very, very glad to reach the open air-lock, sidle in.

"Secure for de-dust sequence..." came from Olwyn.

"Ready." Three puffs of gas swept fines away. "Okay."

The outer lock closed, air bled in, equalised. At last, when all lock and suit instruments showed greens, and the inner hatch opened, I was able to release my armoured helmet. Even after the de-dust, which had included two 'ioniser' sweeps, the air smelled like gun-powder.

Working a small 'leaf-mister' bottle to knock down lingering 'fines', Olwyn grinned like a shark, said, "Nicely done, Boyo ! Davyd's going to drift 'Cwm Fahr' clear while you park 'Big Mac', then apply spin. You get a 'Fresher' stop while the tea brews, then I'll make us some Rarebit !"

"Welcome !" I nodded. "Very welcome ! Any preliminaries ?"

"Deeper had more volatiles, but no surprises: Betrys reckons the mix is 'Generic Halley'."

"Good." I nodded. That confirmed what my 'Big Mac' instruments had glimpsed. I smiled, began my un-suiting check-list. Olwyn hauled out her copy, chanted along...

[jemhouston]

Keeping it routine and follow procedures.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #44

After we secured 'Big Mac' in the designated cubby near the air-lock, Olwyn notified the bridge. A 'Delta-V' honk later, 'Cwm Fahr' began to rotate about its long-axis. Well, 'more-or-less', as the offset 'Front-End' can and now-laden 'Catch' can shifted the 'pole' some-what. I did not mind. I wriggled out of my heat-exchanger overall and, toting my 'dump can', headed for the nearby wash-room. This had the necessary facilities for us skin-suit wearers. I connected the 'dump-can' to a 'recovery' port, took advantage of the saddle dock to relieve myself, then be pleasantly flushed. After wriggling out of my suit, I used the wash-room's provision to sanitise my 'intimate appliances' before wiping myself down with a wet cloth. A quick twirl in the blower's air-blast left me dry enough to pull on my waiting day-clothes: Briefs and vest, loose pants and tunic, ankle sox and soft-grip 'shippers'. I hung my skin-suit on the airing frame, left my 'dump-can' to complete its purge cycle.

The well-brewed tea was very welcome, the Rarebit brunch even more so. With those gone, Ms. Betrys and Keith presented their initial data, which they'd already forwarded to Fresno.

"Just over seventeen hundred metric tonnes," Ms. Betrys reported, with a mix of awe and glee. "A third each of ices, silicate dust and organics as generic tholins. Most of the ice is water. The rest's a mix of ammonia, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, formaldehyde, methanol and a zoo of trace stuff. There's just enough hydrogen cyanide to be scary."

"Uh-huh." I thought to ask, "Well trapped ?"

"Very well trapped." Our eyes met. She added, "Like the monoxide, the smelly sulphides and the VOCs..."

"Silicates are magnesium-rich, but there's a lot of 'fines', down to micron scale," Keith warned. "Even worse than 'Moon dust', which was sintered by micro-impacts."

"Uh-huh." Those unfamiliar, tarry tholins --I preferred 'rocky' moons-- were something of a 'wild card'. I'd read they could be used as a microbial growth medium, but knew little beyond that. Otherwise, this first, exploratory glean would yield about five hundred very welcome tonnes of water plus other useful volatiles, and a similar mass of minerals as lumps, 'grits' and 'fines'. Yes, we'd done well, sooner and better than I'd dared hope. Yes, Anne-Marie would be delighted. She could 'wet' and plant another 'Ponics line, if not two. Yes, the silicates' mineralogy would be interesting. After basic and isotopic analysis, I'd put some samples under the microscope, look at inclusions such as chondrules.

Anne-Marie would welcome the washed grit as planter bedding 'extender' and its magnesium content as a fertiliser supplement. Still, we'd have to crush and sieve lumps, 'congeal' the 'fines'. As a 'Rock Hopper', I knew keeping that abrasive dust at bay was hard, hard, hard. It would take more than Olwyn's neat leaf-mister. Thankfully, a brisk sweep with some spicy plasma should aggregate and fuse such 'fines' to convenient 'grit'.

One of the tales I'd heard during my 'Rock Hopper' time was about an early prospector in Avalon's neighbouring 'Erewhon' system. 'La Mar' was their hab-zone's 'super-earth', a high-gravity water-world with anoxic N2/CO2 atmosphere. The fizzy global ocean had no shallows, no solid surface, not even as seasonal ice near the poles. Beyond huge storms and vast tides, it was deep. Very, very deep. Probes and theory estimated hundreds of kilometres, going 'super-critical' long, long before it reached the rocky core. Last I heard, the exo-biologists and exo-oceanographers were still arguing over possible traces of life. Whatever, nothing obvious had appeared in Nansen sampling bottles or approached the probes.

Besides sundry moonlets, 'La Mar' had 'Costa', a face-locked, tidally-stirred, twice-Mars-sized mega-moon with Erewhon's main base and admin centre. 'La Mar' also had a nice assortment of Leading and Trailing Trojans, as did sub-Jovian 'Jack' and sub-Neptunian 'Jill'. They ruled the outer reaches, tossed 'Kuiper Belt' objects every-which-way...

The tale's prospector had spotted a potentially valuable asteroid. He matched his target's rather elliptical, 40º-inclined orbit via grav-assist fly-bys of both 'La Mar' and 'Jack'. Took samples, staked his claim. Belatedly returning with a Rock Tug and five catch-cans, he discovered his nice find was now the core of a serious dust / grit cloud. Worse, it had a much-changed spin and axial alignment. Re-mapping revealed a rather substantial and very fresh crater. Yes, despite long odds, his claim had recently been t-boned by a crossing object, was still vigorously venting, pluming. Though the impactor had been small-ish, perhaps only a dozen metres across, their relative speeds were large.

Given time, that out-gassing would ebb, enough dust and grit would disperse or settle. But, the Rock Tug was on a 'profit share' gig, between scheduled contracts. The crew could not afford to wait. So, he and they devised and crafted a really big electrostatic precipitator, progressively 'knocked down' enough 'fines' as fulgurites to permit safe working...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #45

Gleaning this first one point seven kilo-tonnes from that iceteroid was the easy part. Although 'Big Mac' was designed to repel 'fines' ingress to the joints, I still had to dismantle, inspect and, if necessary, clean them, to be sure, to be sure. Compiling my 'After Action' report meant going through the synchronised images and sensor readings from 'Big Mac' and 'Cwm Fahr' frame by frame, commenting and annotating. Why did I do this ? Why that ? Why pause ?? Like it or not, this would become part of the training material for the follow-on crews.

Also, the volatiles' 'Front End' needed fine-tuning. Yes, we'd expected that, but it was a fiddly business. Shift after shift, we forwarded data to Fresno. Joe replied with suggestions. We tried them, reported 'Better' or 'Worse'. Some issues we solved by careful logic, some with an 'Ah-Ha !!' and some we simply 'stubborned' into submission.

Between 'whispering' to the volatiles' catcher's oft-cranky plumbing --Literally !!-- Ms. Betrys repeated the flank dust-scans, now with a higher data-rate and tweaked algorithms. There was quite a difference near the iceteroid as my excavations had added a lot of material to the fug. After almost a full day, the density gradually returned to the in-bound leg's findings.

I made a first attempt at crafting a 'look-up' table to guide 'turret' ice-slicing. This did double duty as it correlated the surface and sub-surface scans 'Cwm Fahr' collected to the out-gassing I'd met, cross-referenced my 'After Action' report. Though not 'definitive', it did match most of the 'juicy' zones. 'Most', mind: I warily flagged the anomalies for follow-up investigation.

It was almost a relief to spend time studying so Davyd and Keith could quiz then re-qualify me to stand a 'Bridge Watch'. My 'Limited Ticket', earned on that work-pod as a 'Rock Hopper', had long since lapsed. Having me take even some four-hour shifts significantly eased the crew's dynamics. Yes, 'Cwm Fahr' was running on auto-pilot, but I was also keeping a 'weather eye' on the volatiles' mostly-stable plumbing. I'd a far less subtle touch than Ms. Betrys, but did 'well enough'.

Between progressively re-working my clunky ice-slicing table and templates, I also took a look at Olwyn's down-loads from the 'Cwm Fahr' hab-can's retro-fitted turrets. Digging far beyond the 'User Facing' error messages, I got to the truth. Essentially, the elderly turrets did not recognise the hab's even older 'Field Poles' as 'tug-grade', so had 'Failed Safe'. Yes, 'in extremis', you could over-ride their safeties, but you'd have to be desperate, juggle a dozen discordant parameters and have some-one ready to re-set or quench outraged circuit breakers.

The better solution was to comb out the logical impasse. Like fine-tuning the volatiles' 'Front End', this required a 'bitsa' fix. A minimal firmware tweak convinced the hab's turrets those Field Poles belonged to an early, yet still-compatible Rock Tug *toting* that hab. Though stretching the truth some-what, it worked. A few software tweaks ensured the hab's Poles' recently upgraded 'Vernon Preventers', effectively 'virtual flywheels', would still 'play nice' in ice-slicer mode. Some wary code-patches optionally passed data from the turrets' activity to the hab's nav-system and auto-pilot, assisting station-keeping. This was needed: When ice-slicers' Drive Field met, drove mass, in 'Push', 'Pull' or alternating modes, there was a Newtonian reaction...

"You said you did Field Poles and lasers, 'By the Book'," Davyd wondered unkindly when I showed him my work.

"It's amazing what you can find buried in the technical appendices," I replied, pulling up several tangentially-relevant pages. "Trick is to synergise those obscure features..."

[jemhouston]

Which is why written manuals are better than "?". "?" tell you what you asked, manuals tell you what you should know. Or why things work on a starship.

[kdahm]

Sounds about right. Ten hours of prep work and maintenance for every one hour of action.

"You said you did Field Poles and lasers, 'By the Book'," Davyd wondered unkindly when I showed him my work.

Yes, but I didn't say anything about what book"

Also, a technical non-answer. Saying that there are amazon things in the appendices does not say that those amazing things were actually used in the solution.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

" tangentially-relevant..."

One bane of my lab-life was analysis system modules, each with an inch-thick 'manual' auto-indexed by section headings, per 'Word' tools, rather than actual content.

If you did not know exactly WTF the writing team called a specific topic, TSB;NFC...

Urgently consulting index, next user often found that topic added by hand-- And cross-referenced three or four ways, to be sure, to be sure...

[jemhouston]

" tangentially-relevant..."

One bane of my lab-life was analysis system modules, each with an inch-thick 'manual' auto-indexed by section headings, per 'Word' tools, rather than actual content.

If you did not know exactly WTF the writing team called a specific topic, TSB;NFC...

Urgently consulting index, next user often found that topic added by hand-- And cross-referenced three or four ways, to be sure, to be sure...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #46

'Cwm Fahr' needed a full week to get back to 'Fresno'. This was absurdly slow by Rock Tug standards, but we'd kept busy. The volatiles' 'Front End' was now behaving 'well enough', its parameters and lessons being ported to equivalent stages of the 'Main Plant'. Anne-Marie surfaced from helping urgently train a big, big group of 'Second Tier' 'Ponics staff. These would manage routine processes and supervise 'Third Tier' operators. Now, with enough time to study the gleanings' early data, she'd changed course. My industrious partner already had a ladder of contingency plans and options for the possible trawl. As I'd expected, those five hundred tonnes of water were near the top of her cautious estimates. She'd now 'pencilled in' two entire 'Ponics 'lines', plus a dozen hefty hall-way planters. She kept firing questions about the minor constituents of our glean's ice and mineral content. Ms. Betrys easily fielded most of them, she and I tag-teamed the rest.

The generous harvest of tholins, though, was a head-scratcher. Despite intensive library and CV searches, neither Anne-Marie nor Fresno's crew had found more than minimal documentation for possible processing or uses of such 'Star Tar'. Worse, no-one but me claimed even scant experience of that messy stuff. Too many 'skills' had left aboard Tulsa or earlier Fresno runs...

Happens my Uncle Jack's farm, along with several neighbours, had old wood-gasifiers. Several were still in use. One farm, down by the village's stream-powered grain-mill and saw-mill, even ran a wood distiller to get pine-oil. From that, fragrant 'light' components were gleaned by steam-distillation, then 'heavies' partitioned using an airless fractionation column. That had provided the area with a fair substitute for 'Jack-Strap' tar, handy for sealing barrels etc. Another fraction was a workable replacement for creosote, essential for structural timber preservation. Wales didn't have termites, but weather and fungi soon destroyed untreated soft-wood frames. Though hard-woods endured much better, their plantations were still decades from felling. A lighter fraction proved its worth as a pest-zapping sheep-dip additive. A fourth, albeit in small measure, still went into some of the village inn's home-brewed wine, over-wrote 'glut fruit' flavours to become a more predictable 'sorta retsina'. Some folk loved it, some loathed it. Watered, as I was 'Under Age', it had made a pleasant change to seasonal too-tangy cider or herbal 'steeps' such as 'Elderflower' or 'Dandelion & Burdock'...

A very big factor in the Valley's endurance, resilience and nimble recovery after the 'Hot Flu', was the locals' near-fanatical guarding and preservation of the small village school's eclectic library. In addition to the last 'Paper' Britannica edition, with its genetics, medicine, plate tectonics, electronics, astronomy, math and nuclear stuff, among many others, there was a much, much loved, well-thumbed edition from the early 1900s. Uncle Jack cheerfully described the latter's industrial content as 'Steam Punk', but comparing and contrasting those so-different editions found and enabled so much applicable tech.

Uncle Jack's grandfather had led the small team which followed a simple, but lucid diagram, and crafted the Valley's first wood gasifier. This got a Diesel generator / arc-welder working, let them boot-strap better gasifiers, then a raft of other tech such as wind-pumps and refrigeration.

My earlier Fresno library searches found several links to a digitised 'retro' Britannica edition from that or similar era. Though they had not progressed my search, I'd chuckled at the quaint language. At least getting those hits had stuck in my memory. 'Cwm Fahr' was now near enough to Fresno that the intranet would not baulk at the part-second lag. I needed but moments to locate articles on retort pyrolysis and similar airless processes. There was mention of hydrogenation and steam distillation. Though Fresno could surely spare a few tonnes of hydrogen, tholins might prefer methanol or 'supercritical' CO2 to steam...

Snag was, we currently had few ways to use more than the simplest components isolated from our tholins' complex mixture. There were simply too many potential toxins and carcinogens to risk use in our food-chain. No, I reckoned our best option, at least for the near future, was to ferment most of the tholins, let a busy microbial broth turn that 'Star Tar' into feed-stock for fibre.

When I forwarded those links and my thoughts, Anne-Marie took an uncommonly long time to reply, and then only with a 'smilie'. But then another, another, another and yet another...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #47

'Cwm Fahr' was still about a day from Fresno when 1st Lieutenant Richards called, asking to speak to all of us. After the polite stuff, he said, "Ms. Betrys, Mr. Collins: 2nd Engineer McDonald and his team have studied your preliminary report on the collected material, and send their compliments.

"Ms. Betrys, the Chief Engineer has studied your excellent transect data and progress report on the iceteroid's dust cloud. He extends his personal compliments, invites you to tour the Power Section when convenient. He is now confident Fresno's Field may be safely 'Blipped' to disperse the dust. Lt. Svenson's star-scans from this location are complete, so, after off-loading and de-volatilising your inaugural tranche, Captain Owen intends to move Fresno closer--"

"How close ?" Olwyn asked, a tad sharply.

"We may need to 're-Blip' after each slicing session to keep the environment clear." Lt. Svenson gestured vaguely. "Captain Owen appreciates that this first mission has run significantly longer than anticipated. As Fresno needs material from multiple sessions, a week each way per session, besides being woefully inefficient, is a cruel strain on you and your families.

"Though I hope you would accept an hour at ¼-g, the target is twenty kilometres."

"Yay !" Olwyn's opinion was clear. Davyd and Keith grinned hugely. Ms. Betrys and I exchanged nods.

"Mr. Kinson, I'm sure such proximity would assist the exo-suit training you've set in train ? The remarkable footage of your iceteroid pyrotechnics prompted many applications."

"Yes," I said. "We can certainly do some 'familiarity' work in a 'Catch' can, even docked to Fresno, but there's nothing quite like standing on a real, fizzing iceteroid for trying to gauge 'Blaster' cuts...

"Um, I don't know how much you've heard but, if we can better correlate scan anomalies to venting rates, we should be able to use tugs' ice-slicer turrets as intended, to quickly glean 'industrial sized' chunks."

"We heard." The Lieutenant nodded, replied, "I hope so. We hope so..."
--

Although I'd only get a few days of down-time, the next gleaning sortie would be by 'Cooberra'. So, after delivering both the part-laden 'Catch' can and the 'Front End' can to beside the 'Main Plant', 'Cwm Fahr' again docked with the tip of our berthing hab's docking leg to let me and 'Big Mac' off.

I was half-expecting Anne-Marie's flying tackle. Still, she greeted me as if I'd been across-system for months rather than 'local' for a fortnight. I was not expecting a raucous 'Cheering Section', twenty or thirty friends, neighbours and off-duty 'Ponics workers. Trying very hard not to giggle at my evident embarrassment, Ms. Betrys efficiently marshalled porters to tote my 'Big Mac' space-crates. Then, she took a 'crocodile' on a whistle-stop tour of 'Cwm Fahr'.

Long before that was complete, 'Big Mac' had been delivered to our suite, and Anne-Marie was pulling off my clothes...

[jemhouston]

It's about to turn to crap.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Huh ? How are you peeking at my chapter drafts ???

[jemhouston]

Huh ? How are you peeking at my chapter drafts ???

No, but when things are going well, that's when it hits the fan.

BTW, check your spelling on the third page of your next posting.

[kdahm]

Huh ? How are you peeking at my chapter drafts ???

Pattern recognition. Your hypercapable hero or heroine always has to use their wits and some mostly unknown trivia bit of knowledge in order to get out of trouble, and things are going rather too well at the moment.

Looking at your body of work, I don't think I've seen a normal bloke in the central cast yet.

[jemhouston]

Huh ? How are you peeking at my chapter drafts ???

Pattern recognition. Your hypercapable hero or heroine always has to use their wits and some mostly unknown trivia bit of knowledge in order to get out of trouble, and things are going rather too well at the moment.

Looking at your body of work, I don't think I've seen a normal bloke in the central cast yet.

In fairness how many normal blokes are there in Robert Heinlein's works? That's who kdahm's works remind me of.

[kdahm]

Huh ? How are you peeking at my chapter drafts ???

Pattern recognition. Your hypercapable hero or heroine always has to use their wits and some mostly unknown trivia bit of knowledge in order to get out of trouble, and things are going rather too well at the moment.

Looking at your body of work, I don't think I've seen a normal bloke in the central cast yet.

In fairness how many normal blokes are there in Robert Heinlein's works? That's who Nik's works remind me of.

FTFY.

There's some similarities. But a lot of Heinlein's stuff is a fairly ordinary person put into trying circumstances who rises to the occasion. Podkayne is ordinary, even if her brother is not. Job (A Comedy of Justice), Bill Lermer, Rod Walker, Kip Russell (again, with Peewee as extraordinary), Matt Dodson, Mannie O'Kelly-Davis, and "Noisy" Rhysling are mostly normal people who are thrust into adventures, sometimes against their will, and come out ahead.

Now granted, there are some that start out with great competence already. Lazarus, Libby, Don Harvey, Max Jones, and E.C. Gordon all started out very capable.

Most of Nik's start out well on the skinny edge of the intelligence curve and work their way up from there. They have knowledge and minds that put Reed Richards, Tony Stark, and that DOOM fellow to shame. It's not that it's bad, it's more that the challenges they face start to become easy, or it's a matter of how they will solve it rather than if.

[jemhouston]

Knew I should have taken a nap today.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Nik-Note: Given a '1000-piece Jigsaw', perhaps minus sufficiently detailed box-pic, you must assume that, like a 'Super Sensei Sudoku', it is actually solvable. The 'devil' of course, being in the details, often compounded by low-flying cats...

City of Fresno #48

I'd eaten so well aboard 'Cwm Fahr' that my minimal Diner breakfast was a bit of a shock. Though claiming to be a 'Full English', one of the new, improved offerings crafted by the soft-ware tweaking team, it was barely more than a child's portion.

"Our first 'Ponics lines are doing well," Anne-Marie reported, after grinning at my expression. "This level of rationing must continue until we reach 'self-supporting plus safety margin', so about six months. At least we can soon plant, crop a lot of tasty 'Garnish' and 'High Power -to- Weight' flavours."

"Spring onions, chives, kitchen-garden herbs, simple spices ?"

"Exactly." She grinned. "Won't have tomatoes for your favourite ketchup any time soon--"

"Grow too slow ?"

"And crop too light." She shrugged. "Worse, their roots, stems, foliage are inedible. Wasteful. Be different if we had goats, pigs or their like. Meanwhile, we'd have to shred, then compost or trickle into the re-cycle system..."

"Or supplement a tholins fermenter ?"

"Oh, yes... " A nod. "Good call on that, Jake ! But mustard, onion-pickle-- We can do them !"

"Uh-huh." I munched through my last, ketchup-craving 'Veggy Sausage', ran the math, mused, "I don't care for such, but do 'Chili Peppers' break-even ?"

"They certainly do." A nod. "The Crew 'garden' is growing some of my spicier cultivars."

"Yes, they'll have ample 'Power -to- Weight' !" I allowed, asked, "This first tranche of water ?"

"By the time that's been baked out and cleaned up, you should be bringing as much or more every few days." She shrugged, gave me a thoughtful side-ways look. "Wasn't as easy as you made it look ?"

"It was a 'well behaved' part of that iceteroid," I admitted. "Yes, I took it slow. Yes, 'Due Care' sufficed. Still, I flagged some, um, 'anomalies', chose a site to avoid them."

"I had a look at those scans. Volatile rich ?"

"Richer..." I shuddered. "Some of that iceteroid is seriously heterogenous. Lumpy as harvest fruit-cake. Be interesting to see what Fresno's big phased-array / aperture synthesis Radar can find below the sub-surface..."

We'd just returned to our double-cabin after that minimal breakfast when the next session was called. Also, warning of a brief net-down on the three-quarter hour. And, yes, as 'Mater' Harris and her followers trooped past, we heard her usual shrill complaints about having to rush breakfast. She was, of course, still complaining while returning to their cabin with scant minutes to spare and 'Please Net' warnings lit.

By then, barely stifling giggles, Anne-Marie and I had each used our en-suite, were safely cuddled under a shared net. To be sure, to be sure, I'd set a pillow ready to pull between our heads. We chanted along with both screens' count-down, "... Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Go !"

Fresno trembled slightly. My Nav' augment reported that a Drive Field had built, and was accelerating Fresno at about a third of a Lunar gravity, a fifth the usual in-system ¼-g. After about fifteen minutes building a modest velocity, that mini-boost reduced to barely one percent of g to provide 'ullage', and the 'Please Net' warning cleared. We'd begun a dozen-day journey towards the iceteroid...

One thing led to another, so it was some time before we un-netted. While soaping each-other's back in the tiny en-suite, only practicable for lithe Anne-Marie and slight me, she mentioned, "Did you hear about the 'Ship Council' discussions ?"

"Uh-uh." I'd been much too busy. Besides, I generally picked up scraps of gossip in the laundrette, one of my tasks today.

"Well, 'Mater' Harris tried to claim the 'Chair', given she was the most qualified civil administrator aboard."

I groaned.

"Exactly." Anne-Marie sniffed eloquently. "Lt. Richards politely reminded her that the Council, when convened, would elect their own Chair. And they'd only be an advisory body. Oh, and he noted she'd yet to return her skills survey: Such non-compliance vetoed application--"

"I doubt that went well !"

"A carpet-chewing tantrum ensued. Several of her mini-sect --Minions, acolytes, whatever-- required medical treatment--"

"She hit them ??"

"Seems they just sorta got in the way..."