'City of Fresno'

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #104

Following our usual meagre breakfast, I thought to ask Jack Morley, the rota's Duty Steward, how they were reporting their 'Aladdin's Cave' finds. He hesitated, shrugged, admitted, "Ad-hoc, Jake. We 'CC' our notes. Uh, I believe you and A-M have documented those two 'Xanadu' cargo pods ?"

"Just the six wells' front crates' survey sweep," I cautioned. "No 'big stuff' found."

"Any chance you could do the same for us ?"

"Umm..." I took a breath, asked, "What about those access ways' crates and cartons of 'System Spares' ?"

As the ensuing, rather embarrassed silence extended, Anne-Marie sighed, began shaking her head. She said, "Jake, Jake, Jake, I think you've found another, 'Some-one Else's Problem'..."

Seems I had.

I couldn't just go galloping off to explore. No, this needed 'formal' approval. The Stewards replied with a delighted chorus of, 'Yes, Please !!', as did Lieutenant 'Logistics' Baxter. Lt. Richards and the Engineers gave their conditional 'okay', provided both I accompanied a Steward who'd pre-posted that session's 'search area', and we used 'Due Care'.

In trade, I was added to the 'Diner Hygiene Refresher' queue. Happens I'd qualified during my 'Rock Hopper' training. I'd partly maintained the necessary skills, as I preferred to reload 'Big Mac' myself. To put it politely, I did not entirely trust the usual pre-packed, freeze-dried Exo-suit 'liquid' meals. 'Too Bland' was, at best, dispiriting. 'Too Beany', 'Too Cysteine' or, worst, 'Too Spicy' could produce distracting if not actually distressing gastric 'Alarums and Excursions'. Yes, the Exo-suit's excellent systems easily handled, quelled such 'On Duty' consequences. More than scant few 'Bean Farts' in a mini-hab or 'Redstone' accommodation module, though ? Such could seriously, seriously strain friendships and crew morale...

So, day after day, I 'volunteered' a couple of hours in our Pod end's 'Diner Utility' area. Then, I 'tagged along' with which-ever off-duty Steward was exploring their Pod's by-ways. First, of course, we back-tracked and documented 'searched' areas. Scanning their 'Non-Diner' boxes and cartons, mostly locally-relevant spares, progressively populated my new data-base. As an incentive, the file credited search team members.

After that caught up with the on-going search, subsequent progress was 'Survey Plus'. Unless something was simply too good to leave in place, we just logged our 'Non-Diner' and 'Diner' finds with their locations. Most 'Diner Goodies' were 'obviously' useful, though few would be needed before our 'Ponics were in full production. Some seemed to make no sense. Seen through the prism of 'Community Catering', though ? Safe in the data-base, they could be recovered at need.

The many, many 'Environmental System' spares were a very different matter. I had extensive experience of such from 'Big Mac', that 'Rock Hopper' work-pod plus mini-hab, helping with 'Redstone' accommodation, 'Lending a Hand' for Chaparral's 'Deep Shelters', then helping strip those 'Evac' pods both on Chaparral and aboard Fresno. These gave me an 'uncommon familiarity' with systems both large and small.

The un-subtle style differences between these decades-old Berthing and Evac Pods' facilities and more recent designs were compounded by our Pods' heavy, heavy emphasis on non-disposables. These gaskets and filters were unashamedly 'over-built', intended to be repeatedly swapped out and re-furbished. Fixtures, fittings, connectors could be readily dismounted, sanitised and re-used. A remarkable proportion were even 'Tool Free'. Yes, yes, I approved of such attributes: They totally suited systems that might have to sustain 'too many' under-skilled evacuees for a long, long time out in the 'Deep and Dark'. And, yes, 'fail-soft', such that systems would degrade progressively, be readily restored to 'good enough' function.

The cruel down-side was such refurbishment and re-use could still only go so far. Even with much enhanced workshop facilities boot-strapped from the Engineers' current 'Boutique Bistro' provision, even supplemented by equipment re-purposed from the Evac Pods, re-work had its limits. I reckoned we'd about a decade as-is. Eventually, we'd need a lot of completely new parts. By then, we must, must have a robust production 'pipe-line': Source multiple raw materials, process those to 'stock', have procedures, templates and 'tooling' to reliably craft those many, many replacements.

Okay, a decade would seem ample 'lead time'. Yet, in my opinion, despite sundry teams briskly tackling assorted aspects, there was a scary, scary zoo of potential failure modes. Our grand, if as-yet nebulous plans could so easily unravel. Murphy lurked, his infamous 'Gaggle of Gremlins' the bane of Gantt charts...

Yes, 'Cometary Volatiles', 'Ponic bedding and 'some' minerals could be gleaned from 'Halley-type' Oort and Kuiper iceteroids. Yes, Saturnians and sub-Jovians were sufficiently numerous that we should be able to discreetly collect Fusor fuel. Though Space is BIG, asteroid 'families' have characteristic spectra reflecting their content. After calibrating Fresno's sensors for local variation, spotting rocky-iron or nickel-iron candidates would be tedious rather than difficult. Our nimble Rock Tugs could easily venture within a system's 'Ice Line', grab a 'few' kilo-tonnes.

Gleaning other Metals and semi-Metals might be much more problematic. We knew star-dust, rich in alumino-silicates, would resist easy extraction of those major constituents, and probably lack many of the trace elements we craved. For example, as Anne-Marie had cautioned Lt. Richards, getting Boron for Coffea and robust laboratory glass-ware would be difficult. Yes, we could re-work some of the newly-found 'Diner' pots, but there were limits. Sufficient probably needed a 'Terrestrial-ish' planet with 'some' volcanism and hydrology. What were the chances of finding such un-claimed ??

Certainly, certainly we did not want to rile any locals: Needing to urgently decamp, to run and keep running was not a pleasant prospect. Again, as we could *some-what* track the 'wake' of such FTL travel, there was no guarantee any locals could not do much, much better...

I shivered...

[kdahm]

So, day after day, I 'volunteered' a couple of hours in our Pod end's 'Diner Utility' area. Then, I 'tagged along' with which-ever off-duty Steward was exploring their Pod's by-ways. First, of course, we back-tracked and documented 'searched' areas. Scanning their 'Non-Diner' boxes and cartons, mostly locally-relevant spares, progressively populated my new data-base. As an incentive, the file credited search team members.

He's supposed to be resting and recovering, not inventing new jobs. Mush less walking around everywhere, clambering over things, and intensively using his brain power.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Ha ! This is leisurely, almost recreational activity compared to Jake's previous intensity.

As draft of #108 delayed by adverse sub-Jovian weather, #105 is stuck in FIFO buffer...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #105

Day by day, Fresno headed towards our first target star, that non-Transiting orange 'K4', originally about five light-years distant. Minimal 'Limb Doppler' cautioned that Fresno's view angle lay within twenty degrees of either pole. Even without 'Orbital Doppler' to flag a 'Hot Jupiter', there was just enough Astrometric parallax data to exclude even a 'Warm sub-Neptune'. And, without such big planets 'close in', there were probably one or more further out. In fact, we had a fair chance of finding a rocky inner-system planet, perhaps two, with insolation in range between the equivalents of Mercury and Mars. Be such fried or frozen, bare or broiled, we could probably glean some resources to supplement gas-diving our hoped-for 'Saturnian' beyond the system's ice-line.

Though I estimated we'd passed our journey's mid-point, Fresno neither switched to 'cruising mode' nor began to brake. The ship continued to very warily accelerate. Yes, this would let the Bridge Team and Engineers 'get a feel' for this region's inter-stellar density. Yes, it certainly reclaimed some of the time spent doing those extended trial runs, offset the delays due our iceteroid's remarkably extensive dust cloud.

I now routinely helped 'Behind the Scenes' in our local Diner, assisted the Stewards' on-going Berthing Pods' 'By-Ways' survey. One bonus was my blood stress 'indicators' tumbled. Doc. Meredith was delighted, but I was less sanguine. I knew Fresno had a bunch of issues out-standing.

Anne-Marie's first, half-experimental 'Ponics potato crop continued to mostly run later than hoped. There were still too few hygiene-trained 'Apprentice Baristas' for full 'Menu-scale' preparation of precocious spuds so, after a delicious 'Proof of Concept' trial, 'Earliests' were simply chitted, re-planted.

Between 'Community Work', I extended my notes and notions for 'Edge Case' geology and its gleaning. Our 'Citizen Science' teams exploring the possibilities of iceteroids' stardust kept sending me nuggets of useful data. Their cometary alumino-silicates, plus a generous complement of 'rocky-irons' and 'irons', were major ingredients of 'Terrestrial-ish' planets. Sufficient internal heating, from tidal stirring, gravitational settling, assorted 'Hot' isotopes and/or magma-ocean forming impacts, would progressively cook, re-work that mix. The denser nickel-iron and its mineralogical 'fellow travellers' would segregate inwards to form a core. This left a variously depleted / augmented but silicate-rich 'mantle' and its further evolved 'crust'. Depending on insolation, atmosphere and volatiles, secondary and tertiary processes then developed, some 'prompt', some on 'geological' time-scales...

A serious problem for 'Terrestrial-ish' gleaning would be our utter lack of machinery for non-trivial 'Civil Engineering': How could we manage without the usual site-suite of 'medium' and 'heavy' Rippers, Dozers, Trenchers and Back-Hoes ? Graders, Bucket-Loaders and Dump Trucks ? Some tasks initially seemed impossible without massive 'Rock Grubbers'. We didn't have 'tooling' such as drilling rigs, carbide / diamond bits or drilling mud. We lacked even the makings for 'safe' explosives used to work a 'face' or precisely pulverise a 'bench'. And, to be honest, we dared not manufacture more than trivial quantities of 'active' materials aboard Fresno: Far, far too many ways for such to go very, very wrong.

At the 'light' end, I was fairly sure Fresno had a pair of small, skid-steer 'front-loaders' to complement the ubiquitous pallet-trucks. Perhaps such 'front-loaders' had accessories such as buckets and blades ? Yet, though useful, those were still an order of magnitude too small, too few...

What work-arounds could we devise to 'Break Ground' ? Level a site ? Strip over-burden ? 'Slice and Dice' a massive ore formation ? Follow a rich mineral seam ? Time and again, I kept circling back to water-jetting. Which, of course, came with its own environmental and logistical issues...

Surprisingly, the more I studied jetting tech, the more obvious its advantages became. Provided 'boil off' and other loss could be tolerated, a similar approach to my initial iceteroid slicing presented itself. For instance, to free material from a massive 'face', first use a traverse with twin jets to cut two long, deep adjacent slots or 'kerfs'. By analogy with bench carpentry, cross-cut this narrow 'body' to a thick comb, each 'wafer' easily broken out. The resulting 'notch' was now wide enough for deeper and yet deeper passes of those jetting nozzles. Several such notches might be cut in parallel, then orthogonal. A diagonal approach, removing a big wedge, provided access to cut free the back of these neat, almost 'ashlar' blocks. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat...

I knew the Engineers would not welcome a sudden demand to urgently scale any 'Boutique Bistro' provision for water-jet cutting to 'Industrial Quantity'. Beyond crafting sufficient seriously tough nozzles, the prototyping and serial production of such specialised high-pressure pumps might need 'significant' lead-time. Plus, yes, deploying to work-faces would surely need integration to mobile 'Jumbo Derricks' or modern equivalent...

I sent these musings to the Engineers. Though much probably matched their own thinking, they would surely appreciate my early warning, devise and progress contingency plans...

[jemhouston]

Idle engineers are dangerous.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Not a patch on bored 'Field Geologists'...
Fingers beginning to *twitch*...
Gotta trace that stratum, map that intrusion, swing specimen hammer !!

[jemhouston]

Not a patch on bored 'Field Geologists'...
Fingers beginning to *twitch*...
Gotta trace that stratum, map that intrusion, swing specimen hammer !!

I'm not denying I would do that, but I'm not confirming it either.

[Belushi TD]

Not a patch on bored 'Field Geologists'...
Fingers beginning to *twitch*...
Gotta trace that stratum, map that intrusion, swing specimen hammer !!

I'm in this post and I don't like it.



Belushi TD

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #106

Several days later, without fuss, Fresno eased from that wary acceleration to 'coasting'. A week after that, following our usual dour breakfast, Fresno announced a routine 'net-down'. It would mark the start of this leg's braking phase. We should experience a smooth transition to an axial ¼-g supplementing the Berthing Pods' centrifugal whirl. Warily, the ship did so. Nothing dramatic occurred. Beyond adjusting tables, bunks and gait for the gentle 'slope', it was 'Business as Usual' while Fresno decelerated.

My Nav' augment, comparable to the instruments in 'Big Mac' or a generic 'Deep Space' Work Pod, lacked the facilities to fully monitor Fresno's Field Poles. Still, as days passed and their 'baseline fuzz' gradually grew due to rising 'inter-stellar' density, then the Hexagon Stages' 'Auxiliary Poles' again awoke, I knew we were approaching that K4 system.

The 'By-Ways' survey went better than expected, such we actually finished searching all the listed access-way locations. There might be more materiel 'walled up' within equipment enclosures, but the data-base had provision for reporting such serendipitous discoveries. Lt. 'Logistics' Baxter was delighted. The Stewards, Engineers and Lt. Richards were delighted. But, with my Catering / Hygiene 'Refresher' course still weeks away, I was bored, reduced to running laundry washes earlier than necessary...

After two more days, another after-breakfast 'net down' brought us out of 'Over Drive'. Within moments, outside views were available. There wasn't much to see: We were still about five Light-Hours, about Pluto-distant, from the K4 star so, as yet, that was but a very bright speck. 'Below' us, ecliptic-plane planets, if any, would be no more than side-lit flecks lost among so many background 'Field Stars' of the 'Milky Way'. Even the Saturn-dwarfing ring system of 'Mighty Antar', that 'Almost a Brown-Dwarf' consort to now-distant 'Solstice', would still be scant few pixels to these 'ordinary' cameras. There'd be a lot more data after Fresno deployed 'serious' optics, began mapping.

"Lt. Svenson will do a sweep, then Fresno goes further in ?" Anne-Marie surmised.

"Probably," I agreed. "Auroral Radio-frequency emissions should soon flag every Gas Giant, Sub-Giant, Neptunian and Terrestrial planet with a 'global' magnetic field. Snag is that magnetic field might be too strong, corral Jovian-strength radiation belts..."

"Another 'Goldilocks' ?" Anne-Marie shook her head. "Plus, like Sol-System, perhaps some without ?"

"Yeah, exactly. A day or three should show enough motion within ice-line for preliminary visible and infra-red blink comparison. Count 'Inner System' planets, dwarf planets and biggest asteroids. Estimate orbits. Fresno's telescopes collect detail and spectra from 'Interesting' hits."

"For you and the 'Tuggers' to glean ? I'll make a shopping list..." She sighed, added, "Jake, I'm off to puzzle and pamper those still-petulant Crew 'Ponics..."

I did several hours 'Behind the Scenes' in our local Diner which, as you'd expect, was a-buzz with discussion of this first star-system. We expected 'several' planets. With no near-by Binary or 'Common Motion' partner to toss too many planetesimals 'Out of the Pram', there should be ample ingredients. Hopefully, the lack of a 'Hot' or 'Warm' giant meant such had not spiralled in through the primordial nebula, gorging as it went. Sol-system apparently escaped such fate when an orbital resonance developed between Jupiter and Saturn, arresting both but starving Mars. This was the Nice 'Grand Tack' Hypothesis: Extraordinary, oft-challenged but un-falsified...

I returned to our suite to find a 'Missed Video Call' notice. It was, of course, Lt. Svenson. "Mr. Kinson, thank you for returning my call. As yet, this system shows no evidence of technology or occupation, but the 'Terrestrial' planets seem anomalous."

"Ooh ! What have you found ?"

"That... That is the problem." His expression was sour. "Outer-system, beyond the ice-line, there are two clear, radio-loud sources, plus a possible weak third, all 'natural'. Telescopically, a generic sub-Jovian and a Neptunian, each with a multiplicity of small moons. Certainly no 'Galilean' or 'Titan' equivalents. Third, if confirmed, may be a distant, 'Out of Plane' trans-Neptunian, a cold 'Kuiper Object'...

"In-system, though, is radio-quiet, and 'Blink' comparisons have yet to find anything sizeable. Could you suggest cause ?"

"That is odd: I so hoped this K4 would have several interesting inner planets. " I allowed myself a moment. "Hmm. You may just be unlucky with those 'Blinks', too many masked by back-ground 'Field' stars. Against that, Sol-system has four 'Terrestrials', but only one, Earth, is naturally 'Radio-Loud'...

"I've read that several 'Sylvan Alliance' systems have similar ratios...

"Okay: Auroral whistlers need some atmosphere plus a global magnetic field. Perhaps hard vacuum, like Mercury ? Too-small, too-cool internals to sustain a geo-dynamo, like Mercury or Mars ? Too-slow a rotation, due mega-impact and/or solar tidal, like Mercury or Venus ? Mega-impact stalled any prior geo-dynamo, again Venus ? Common enough failure modes...

"Plus the null-hypothesis: Perhaps this system's 'Planetesimals' simply did not 'Go Large' ??"

"Not even one full-sized 'Terrestrial' planet ?" The Lieutenant's face tightened oddly. Clearly, I'd confirmed his suspicions. He hesitated, asked, "What could cause such ?"

I replied tangentially, asking, "Does star spectrum show enhanced 'Metals' ?"

"Upper end of usual range--" He back-trailed, asked, "You suspect the star 'ate' it ? Them ??"

"Possibly. Perhaps a growing super-Earth spiralled all the way in ? Or star 'swept up' too many of the sub-Jovian's 'Pram Tossings' ? Or too much debris from 'Planetesimal' mega-collisions ?" I shrugged. "Another possibility is multiple legacy 'Kirkwood Gaps': What if resonance with that Neptunian repeatedly shifted the sub-Jovian's orbit ? Not a full-on 'Grand Tack', how Sol's Jupiter starved Mars, but enough to thwart the last, crucial stages of 'Planetesimal' aggregation ?

"Or, a low probability, perhaps orbital resonance with the sub-Jovian progressively ejected the 'Terrestrial' planets, with one now that 'Kuiper Object' ?

"Up-side, there may be several inner-system 'Dwarf Planets', think 'Ceres' and 'Vesta'. Perhaps a 'Mini-Mars' or two ? Down-side, expect minimally segregated, 'primitive' geology."

"The-- The whole inner system could be an asteroid belt ??"

"That is possible: Don't be surprised if further 'Blink' comparisons are busy, even *very* busy..." I shrugged. "Still, with a bit of luck, spectra may find some handy nickel-iron asteroids, collision fragments from former 'Planetesimal' cores. Tugs' ice-slicer turrets should be able to carve off useful chunks: Slabs and billets to delight the Engineers, lots of geology samples to study, perhaps some trace elements to pep up the 'Ponics ?

When Lt. Svenson made no reply, I added, "I take it Fresno will head for a wary parking orbit, not too near the sub-Jovian ? Clear of most moons, yet convenient for Tugs' gas-diving ? Also, for high resolution scans of the inner system ?"

"Yes." He nodded politely, agreed, "They're priorities."

"If practicable, out-bound, could Fresno swing past that weak third source ? The possible 'Kuiper Object' ? We don't have much data on such. And, if out-cast from inner system, may yet offer useful gleanings..."

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Didn't think I'd be posting a chapter this weekend.
Last Friday, after #109 went into FIFO edit buffer, I made a start on #110.
Wrote one short, clunky paragraph, one more sentence.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...
By Wednesday morning, I'd re-written that [REDACTED] paragraph a dozen times, added but one (1) more sentence...
Decided tale was again stuck.
No big deal, I could shrug, skip a week or two...
Then, with urgency gone, the words flowed...
Yay !!
#110 now safe in edit buffer, #111 awaits progression.

Tomorrow, Thursday, have important appt. at Ophthalmology.
With a bit of luck, they'll declare my R_eye's retinal bleed resolved, agree I can get eye-test for prescription lens.

Yes, cataract op cleared that eye's progressing 'fog', incidentally switching me from 'short sighted' to 'long', but it did not do anything for the astigmatism That needs Px 'cylindrical' correction plus some 'convex' to adapt my 'long' to reading / PC range.

And then I join queue for L_eye's cataract op, as its 'working' vision now reduced to 'peripheral / nocturnal', the main field resembling 'frosted glass'.

[jemhouston]

Good luck

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

D'uh, seems they want THREE (3) clear in a row.
First was gapped four weeks.
This was gapped further six weeks.
Next, after further eight weeks, putting me into late January...
{ Sulk... }

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #107

Fresno approached that K4 star-system with 'Due Care', our wary course gradually shifting towards the sub-Jovian. Mildly 'Cloud Banded', massing about mid-way between Sol's Saturn and Jupiter, with a typical dozen-hour 'Radio Day', spectra already showed its upper atmosphere suited 'Gas Diving'.

Getting close enough for convenient Tug forays was a different matter. As the days passed, improving scans found this sub-Jovian had more and yet more smaller moons and moonlets in wider and yet wider orbits. Perhaps they were fewer than Jupiter's remarkable zoo but, as there, scans revealed outer satellites were a scary mix of prograde and retrograde objects. Literally, 'Crossing Traffic' ! And, beyond the tidy inner, co-planar 'families', an, um, 'Seriously Unsettling' range of orbital inclinations and eccentricities: Such 'Traffic' crossed 'Every Which Way' ! Worse, with Fresno's 'Limit of Detection' for 'middling' albedo as yet about a kilometre, beyond all those spotted, there was surely a 'Very Long Tail' of variously smaller and/or darker stuff.

Though 'Leading' and 'Trailing Trojan' zones swirled in comparative slow-motion, similar cautions applied. Safer, yes, but equidistant from sub-Jovian and central star, so a very, very tedious commute...

The discussions between Crew and Tuggers must have been *interesting*. At least, Fresno's wary approach, slowly counting down the 'Light Hours', gave ample time to study scan updates, re-work options, concatenate contingencies. This also allowed extensive evaluation of the sub-Jovian's magnetic field and geo-tail. Happily, unlike Sol-system's Jupiter, neither were 'scary'. How did the many, many moons and moonlets react to such 'mild' passage ? Subtle spectral changes tracked the 'plasma sputtering' that generated, refreshed their ubiquitous surface Tholins. Without tidally-stirred, hyper-active 'Galilean' mega-moons, there were no geysers or other 'Volcanic Processes' to spout 'deep' material, replenish more than gossamer rings.

After some gentle zig-zags, Fresno slowly approached the lee of a convenient, if small-ish prograde 'ice moon' about thirty Light-Seconds from the sub-Jovian's deep atmosphere. The orbit's estimated 10 million kilometre semi-major axis and dozen degree inclination was a wary compromise between safety and accessibility. Yes, though much, much further than our Moon's 'One Light Second', much further than the Tuggers would probably prefer, it was a reasonable start: Think 'Outer-Estuary Anchorage'...

At 57 kilometres average diameter, though similarly gnarled and knobbly, 'Anchorage' was significantly bigger than its 'neighbours'. Thrice the mass and much rounder than our mined 'iceteroid', it enjoyed an axial tilt of 17 degrees and 'day' of 912 minutes, about fifteen hours. Lt. Svenson estimated its 'year' at 290 ± 10 Sol-days. Mostly a 'Ruddy Brown' colour, the surface Tholins' few paler 'Blemes' suggested scant recent 'strikes', even by small stuff. The lack of big impactors' 'Mega-Blemes' was welcome news. 'Anchorage' may not have entirely cleared its orbit, but had long since culled most 'Crossing Traffic'. It would certainly shield Fresno from approaching retrograde objects over a 'sufficient' solid-angle.

During the wary approach, Fresno's sensors belatedly spotted 'Anchorage' had a single mini-moonlet 'loitering' about a hundred kilometres out. Almost 150 metres across, with similar spectrum but more 'irregular' than the moon itself, it was too big to ignore. 'Cooberra' won the toss, un-docked, went ahead. We enjoyed the rare spectacle of a 'Rock Tug' actually tugging rocks. Very, very gently, the crew slowly bled off the icy moonlet's scant 'orbital' velocity, guided, lowered it to the 'North', day-lit pole of 'Anchorage'. This was easier than 'equatorial', which would require several metres per second to match, lest it bounce and tumble 'amusingly'...

Mining our inter-stellar 'iceteroid' had won Fresno ample water for 'Ponics and more. Unless icy 'Anchorage' or its now-grounded moonlet had 'unusual' chemistry, we'd only do 'training', with emphasis on their short 'day' and shifting shadows. I'd requested survey data include comparative analyses of 'Bleme' and 'Non-Bleme' areas, preferably over a range of shading, so probable age. And, yes, 'Away Teams' would surely crave a close look at that polar addition !

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Nik-note: To purge a plot-hole, I had to urgently re-arrange #108~~110.
A frenetic session of cutting / pasting repaired logic, restored continuity...

City of Fresno #108 (Edited)

The Tuggers did not want 'Gas Divers' to 'hold station' with 'Line of Sight' to Fresno by flying against the sub-Giant's dozen hour rotation. Instead, they'd secure their data-link with a preliminary, 'scouting' mission to emplace small relay stations on eight inner moons' 'North' or 'South' pole.

Again, 'Cooberra' won the toss. After an initial, fast leg, the Tug slowed, began a zig-zag approach to the sub-Giant, which still lacked a 'working' name. The Tug's powerful Radar mapped density, distribution and description of 'small stuff' along the track, added detail to Fresno's scans of larger.

Day by day, 'Cooberra' continued that 'scenic' route towards the future glean-zone. Each small inner moon or moonlet they neared got a careful scan, requiring several slow 'fly-arounds'. Yes, the Tuggers were field testing those algorithms we'd developed for mining our 'iceteroid'. And, base-line established, with or without a polar relay mast emplaced, the Tuggers cleared their 'Ice Slicer' turrets' safeties, carved a 'Trench One'.

Between the K4 star's modest heat, light and 'Solar Wind', the sub-Giant's magnetic field and such, the results were surprisingly dramatic. Each such zap produced an 'outburst', a temporary 'mini-comet', with much data collected. Then, after volatiles dispersed, ice crystals and particulates settled to 'fore and aft' as pretty, gossamer crescents.

Between high data-rate tasks, the relay stations were trickle-charged by radio-nuclide 'cells', like those in those 'Ponics Fusors. They also had a minimal instrument suite plus, atop the 'Omni' antenna, a 'fish-eye' surveillance camera. Such view was trivially deconvoluted to 'panoramic'. Even in 'economical' slow-scan mode, the sub-Jovian's ever-changing equatorial hyper-storms made near-hypnotic watching...

Our re-purposing of 'Evac Pod' systems had included several terse presentations on why much was being done 'Thus' rather than 'So': Put simply, 'Gas Giants' and their lesser kin have *remarkably* complex atmospheres. Our briefings emphasised that, while the majority of Earth's atmospheric processes are driven by Sol's heat, 'Top Down', many 'Gas Giants' have a significant internal heat-source. Some generate almost twice as much as they receive as sun-light. So, to greater or lesser extent, they work 'Bottom Up'. It is not 'fusion', per young 'Brown Dwarfs' consuming their primordial Lithium, but gravitational: Helium 'rain' falling through super-critical Hydrogen 'world-ocean' towards a metallic Hydrogen core ? Yeah, right...

Again, unlike rocky Earth, where almost all cloud features are caused by water vapor, each Gas-, Sub- and Ice-Giant hosts a smörgåsbord. Beneath a tenuous photo-chemical 'smog' haze, precursor to 'Tholins', several condensable materials had their own cloud layers: Think 'Club Sandwich' ! If the depths were too warm for methane clouds, the lowest was our familiar H₂O water-ice. Then, NH₄SH ammonium hydrosulfide ice. At the top, NH₃ ammonia ice. Between these cloud layers swirled a busy, mostly-hydrogen atmosphere, variously punctuated by thermals, 'hail' and 'rain'. Whatever the pressure and temperature, that Hydrogen made its 'Speed of Sound' about five times faster than our familiar N₂/O₂ mix.

In common with most Jovians and sub-Jovians, this example had truly ferocious equatorial winds. They synergised vast 'hyper-cell' cyclonic storms, whose Plinian up-drafts lofted, hurled furious carronades of ammonia / water-ice slush-balls, produced apocalyptically violent lightning: Go NOT There !! Also, while typical 'Terrestrial' planets only had room for three (3) atmospheric circulation 'cells' per hemisphere, the 'Hadley', 'Ferrel' and 'Polar', even a sub-Giant could accommodate 'many'. Each of their 'ascending' zones held lesser, but still awesome convective storms. So, gleaning would be near 65º 'North', over a comparatively placid 'descending' zone...

As our Tugs lacked the 'Special Features' of dedicated 'Gas Station' craft, they had to stay above 800 ~~ 900 millibar altitude to prevent Helium ingress. Happily, this matched the mostly-clear level just above those ammonia clouds, meaning there should be scant icing of the gas inlet. Our briefing suggested that, after multiple sorties had gleaned enough Helium³ and Deuterium, a Tug might dip into the uppermost ammonia clouds, collect a few dozen kilo-tonnes as fertiliser and against future need.

Sadly, being a sub-Giant, it was too warm for Ice Giants' methane clouds, while the ammonium hydrosulfide cloud layer, with its obvious potential for sulphur-chemistry feed-stock, lay much, much too deep...

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #109 (Edited)

Nik-note: Gas Divers' 'Front End' and 'Main Plant' are documented in #33 & #34.

The 'Front End' Pod's 'Handful of Kelvins' cryo-systems had been totally tamed by many, many simulations and test-runs during Fresno's slow, slow journey from the 'iceteroid' we'd mined. Now, with the planned 'glean zone' only thirty Light-Seconds from 'Fresno', through comparatively clear space, there was no pressing reason to have either me or nimble-witted Miss Betrys along. So, with 'Cooberra' safely back at 'Fresno', 'Cwm Fawr' collected that Pod and two of Fresno's empty fuel tanks, one each for Helium³ and Deuterium. An established 'Gas Station' would usually fill such pairs with pure elements, allowing modest tweaking of a 'City Class' ship's massive fusors' fuel-mix. Yes, those beasts did some-times need to be run 'Lean' or 'Rich'. Fortunately, these tanks would accept our enhanced, but still low-purity 'Front End' streams. Returned to 'Fresno', the 'Main Plant' would clean up the glean, progressively route 'Good Stuff' via the ship's purification systems to the 'Tank Farm'.

'Cwm Fahr' also collected another 'Tank Pod'. This looked similar due to the outer shell, but held a busy nest of smaller tanks, suited to storing 'Side Stream' gleans. Internally, the 'Front End' Pod had similar tanks, albeit much smaller. They'd suited the modest 'out-gassing' of sundry volatiles during iceteroid collection and conveyance. Hopefully, each 'Gas Diving' sortie would generate orders of magnitude more. The sub-Jovian atmosphere's complex spectrum promised 'All Kinds of Everything', some possibly within reach. As yet, we lacked the facilities to do much with most of these volatiles but, given time...

After an initial, fast leg, 'Cwm Fahr' slowed to an almost leisurely commute. Their excellent sensor suite further mapped density, distribution and description of 'small stuff' along the track.

Aboard 'Fresno', Doc. Meredith grumbled, but agreed Lt. Svenson could co-opt me to 'Ride Herd' on the growing exuberance of 'Blink' data from the inner system. Yes, that really was 'Very Busy'. Much as Fresno's too-narrow 'capture window' initially excluded those navigation beacon pulsars, other sensor algorithms had mistaken this K4's near-excess of asteroids etc for instrument artifacts or back-ground 'Field' stars. Happens this failure mode matched the pre-Burn 'Ozone Hole Lesson' where, um, 'blinkered' data reduction auto-discarded the Antarctic's seasonal 'Hole'. So, rather than allow several days between scans, each cluttered zone had to be re-surveyed every few hours. This produced clear 'trails' rather than a surfeit of oft-ambiguous, algorithm-entangling 'Hippity-Hops'.

I did not do much actual data handling, mostly supervised the two busy 'Citizen Science' groups who tag-teamed Fresno's algorithms. They cross-checked each other's work to flag 'Murphys', 'Stoopids' and other 'Oopsies'. I further checked a 'Square Root' sample plus any oddities, to be sure, to be sure. The two groups also cross-matched those many, many finds' progressively refined orbit estimations to 'perspective' data from Fresno's in-bound scans. Any object with sufficient day-lit pixels was queued for further telescopic study, the surface spectra a guide to probable composition, hence gleaning potential. Of course, with 'Fresno' now in the ecliptic plane beyond the 'Ice Line', any 'star-ward' objects near the K4's glare only showed as dark backs or so-slim crescents. Yes, to the flanks, their phase approached 'half-moon'. Beyond, phases widened until again lost behind stellar glare. Yet, even with occulting disks and narrow-band filters, there remained a significant 'Zone of Avoidance': A big, big 'Blind Spot' hid that 'star-ward' swathe of 'near' and 'distant' objects.

Happily, careful cross-matching supplied prior top-down 'half-moon' views for many 'slim-crescent' and 'Avoidance Zone' objects, plus approximate orbital data some-what independent of trail measurements. To be sure, as we said, to be sure. Though the 'Inner System' certainly held nothing bigger than a 'Dwarf Planet', and scant few of those, there were several 'Objects of Interest'. Further study of those would have to wait for their orbits to bring them into clearer view.

With 'Fresno' now safely parked about twenty kilometres astern of 'Anchorage' surface, the Engineers and the 'Rock Tug' families had begun a wide range of too-long deferred training sessions. Sundry small-craft pilots and crew urgently needed to log flight-hours, refresh accreditation, extend 'Type' ratings and build 'Orbital' skills. The Tugs' families had a queue of sim-trained youngsters itching to qualify for work-pods and bubble-bikes. And, after them, waited dozens of Berthing Pod folk who'd signed up. To Lt. Richards' delight, we now had 'enough' skilled 'Exo-Suit' operators and support / maintenance folk to be self-sustaining, but the lesser tiers, for vac and skin-suits, now required extensive EVA 'helmet time'.

[jemhouston]

Good time to catch on needed items.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

City of Fresno #110 (edited)

Nik-note: Gas Divers' 'Front End' and 'Main Plant' are documented in #33 & #34.

Day by day, 'Cwm Fahr' and the Tuggers continued their wary approach, scheduling progress to better use those small-ish natural satellites' orbital timings as 'stepping stones'. So, it was almost a week after departing 'Fresno' before 'Cwm Fahr' finally, finally dipped into atmosphere along the dawn terminator of that sub-Giant, now named 'Kieffer'. The 'Front End' gas inlet opened, the gleaning system came on-line, began to pressurise, cryo-cool, boot-strap processes...

At first, 'Cwm Fahr' held at the 200 millibar level, 'getting a feel' for the environment, gauging turbulence and such. As 'Front End' systems stabilised, and the Tug's 'Flight Characteristics' in this unfamiliar gas-mix proved benign, the craft descended by wary stages. A full day brought them to the planned 800 millibar zone, for which the 'Front End' had been optimised. Slowly, gradually, throughput rose. Slowly, gradually, the hydrogen enhancement ratio rose towards that planned 11% Deuteride, a vast, vast improvement over the 'wild' feed's 10^-5 proportion. Waste hydrogen was used both to pre-cool that feed, and hyper-chill the Helium side-stream towards 'Handful of Kelvins' country. There, Helium⁴ was mostly stripped from the much less common but essential Helium³. Most of the waste Helium⁴ was, of course, used to further pre-cool feed, with some routed to 'small tankage' along with sundry other side-streams, such as Argon, Krypton and Xenon. Neon was, as expected, rather depleted, 'washed-out' by the deep-level's exotic Helium 'rain'...

The announcement aboard 'Fresno' that both 'Enhanced Hydrogen' and high-purity Helium³ had begun to reach the main 'Cwm Fahr' tankage was met with a mix of elation and relief. People being people, that celebration was totally over-shadowed by the near-Carnival prompted by Anne-Marie's first, rather belated harvest of 'Chilli Peppers'. Urgent freeze-drying and processing of those capricious capsicums had added a very small squidge of 'Mildly Spicy Sauce' to 'Diner' menus as a once-daily, 'Limited Edition' Condiment option.

"Yay ! At long, lonnng last, Diner Food you can TASTE !!"

Though still much too 'hot' for my palate, it was a wondrous portent. Anne-Marie allowed that, for those craving rather more culinary excitement, several 'Hotter' gradations would become available. Also, yes, the makings for my preferred 'Tomato Ketchup' and 'Mild Mustard Pickle' were now progressing well.

Those petulant 'Ponics ? Seems they'd had a *borderline* Molybdenum deficiency. Although still testing 'within limits', local ion-exchange with the bedding impaired bio-availability by just enough to be utterly exasperating. With time and wary supplements, AKA 'A Pinch of This', that process had reached a belated equilibrium...

So, yes, a cautionary foot-note was duly added to the 'Ponics 'Guide', both in binders and library, also to Anne-Marie's 'Fifth Edition' of Professor Partridge's text-book, probably the first of many...

[jemhouston]

I can't help wonder when the next spanner in the wrench is coming.