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City of Fresno #100 !!!

The music became louder as we made our way nearer the 'Community Room'. We soon saw the packed audience included the gleeful Gillespies. The overflow, a full dozen crowding the doorway, were equally captivated. The four new 'Electric Axes' and an equal number of 'Duct Flutes' were 'jazzing', enthusiastically improvising on and around a very vigorous, half-familiar tune.

I could not be sure from this distance, but looked like the wind-instruments had been crafted from spare 'Evac Pod' piping. At least one's lower finger holes may have been welded shut, re-drilled a little further along. Perhaps twice ? Even thrice ? I nodded. Yes, that was probably the prototype. Happens the Valley's instruments' subtle internal taper skewed hole spacing, eased fingering. But, in my un-musical opinion, these were okay.

"Nice," Anne-Marie decided. "Hmm. Not a tune I ported for the Gillespies. But sounds Pre-Burn..."

"I think it is..." I woke my Comm' augment, did a quick Library search. "Gotcha ! Yes, behind those riffs and twizzles, it's 'Telstar', the Classic 'Tornados' instrumental. Inspired by the first ever Pre-Burn civilian 'Communications Satellite', no less !"

"I can believe it," my bemused partner allowed. "That is so 'Fly Me' !"

It was. Damaged by radiation, that prototype did not last long, but provided sufficient 'Proof of Concept'. It then silently orbited until discovered by the Convention. Recognised, Telstar was carefully, carefully transferred to a place of honour in the 'Copernicus' Lunar Museum. I nodded politely, whispered, "To think Telstar was launched barely six decades after the first powered 'Heavier than Air' flights ! Just seven years before the first Moon landing ! A full decade before the 'Super-Flares' of '72 and subsequent 'Hot Flu' collapse..."

"At least data from those needle-ships and crews 'Venturer' captured finally excluded 'Hot Flu' as an Anwyc bio-weapon." Anne-Marie shook her head sadly. "Ha ! Didn't they have their own problems ? Some weird 'Auto-Immune' thing ?"

"Yeah. The Anwyc reckoned their elite got that ghastly 'Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome' off two ditzy guys grabbed from a 'Pre-Burn' US West-Coast 'Hippy Commune'. Took decades of research, but Convention medics finally matched the varied symptoms to 'slow' infection by a Central African simian retro-virus. Best guess, went 'zoonotic' via dodgy clinics giving 're-invigorating' monkey-gland extracts..."

"Ick," Anne-Marie allowed. "And the 'Hot Flu' did come from China..."

"Almost certainly. Its kith and kin are still endemic in their wild-wood Himalayan foot-hills. Area's a natural hot-bed of mutation." I shrugged. "Bird and small-animal viruses collect 'differs' until they evade prior immunity. Go 'large', some-times 'zoonotic'. Migrating birds carry those far, local farmers take them to market. Same old, same old..."

"Better than 'Out of Africa' horrors." Anne-Marie shook her head. "Well, mostly: One of my 'New Zealand' ancestors, a mixed-arable farmer, chronicled how 'Hot Flu' got past their North and South Islands' quarantine, ravaged towns and cities. Grim reading..."

"Why, how that singular 'Hot' strain could trigger rabies-grade Encephalitis, though..." I shook my head, too. "Fever is fever, but having so many victims go stark, raving mad, run amok..."

We shuddered in unison.

City of Fresno #101

Eventually, 'Telstar' was jazzed-out. After a minute for enthusiastic applause, grins and water slurps, they struck up another catchy 'Classic' from that era. Before it became too 'jazzy', my Library search easily identified the Shadows' 'Wonderful Land'. Already, audience tears flowed...

As Anne-Marie and I were at the very back, Duty-Steward Sheila Lindstrom was able to draw me aside, say, "Aren't they doing so well ? But, Mr. Kinson, word is you've pulled another rabbit out of your hat..."

"Huh ?" I blinked, shrugged, replied, "The two 'Xanadu' cargo pods ? They were docked in plain sight. A classic 'Some-one Else's Problem': Sooner or later, they'd be noticed..."

"You spotted them first."

"I got lucky." I shrugged. "Happens I was puzzling some-thing else."

"If you say so..." Her grin bordered on mischievous. "Remember you got us those 'Berthing Pod' schematics ?"

"Uh, the set 'ported' by Joe McDonald ?"

"Those." She added a knowing nod. "Didn't you say something about non-evident storage locations ?"

"Stuff shoe-horned into unlikely gaps ?" Getting all 'The Needful' for an extended 'Rock Hopper' sortie aboard a Deep-Space work-pod and mini-hab took considerable ingenuity. Much could be hung outside in 'Space Crates', too much could not. This usually meant sharing our minimal 'personal space' with netted stacks of boxed stores for at least half the sortie.

"Totally. Us Berthing Stewards divided up the possible locations, began exploring. So far, we've only mapped a fraction, but those HVAC and other 'System' access ways are like an 'Aladdin's Cave': For every two cartons or crates of their spares, there's usually one of something un-related, but very, very welcome." She grinned. "Latest find is lidded Borosilicate bowls, ideal for serving optional 'Sides'..."

"Such as the Ponics' forthcoming small potatoes ?"

"Exactly ! Easily hold a third of a litre. Close-stack empty. Stably stack when fitted with their contoured Borosilicate glass top. That takes a reusable sealing ring, and there's many, many spares...

"Their 'Screw Closures' threw us for a while, though: Crate's label showed open-centre screw-lids like an old 'preserving' jar. Oddly, the close-nested stack were more like wide, deep-fluted powder-funnels. Right size, wrong shape. Not sprung or anything. As if their last 'forming process' had been missed..."

I blinked. But their topology matched ? Like the old joke about mugs and ring-donuts ? I grinned, ventured, "Memory Metal ?"

"How-- You've seen these before ?"

"No, not exactly: Sometimes, it's the only way to efficiently pack low-tensile components that would not nest as-is, be much too bulky..." I hesitated, asked, "Baking tray, pre-heated fan-oven ?"

"Best cookies ever !" Our so-serious Steward almost giggled. "And, of course, these 'Pot Lucks' are cached the same way at both ends of both Berthing Pods. So far, between us, we've only found crates 'Two of Four' of these handy bowls, so the rest are out there, some-where..."

Another missing manifest, apparently ? And this was their latest find ? I dared ask, "The other handy stuff ?"

"Oh, yes ! We've found the first makings for 'Community Catering' ! Induction heaters ! Big, big pans, strainers, sieves and ladles for stews and soups ! Big, multi-tiered sets for steaming greens, root-crops, noodles, pasta or rice ! Close-stacking, double-walled, stainless steel half and three-quarter litre bowls ! Steel chop-sticks, pasta-forks and spoons !" She halted, sighed, admitted, "I miss 'real' Risotto. And, yes, fun stir-fries..."

"So do I," I agreed. "Even 'real' Spag-Bog, Fusilli Twists or Penne Tube pasta, rather than our Diner Printers', uh, 'Nutritious Approximations'. Sorry, going to be a long, long time before we can crop grain. There's literally no room for a 'field' of Corn, Wheat, Barley, Upland Rice, Sorghum, Millet or even pseudo-cereals such as Amaranth..."

"Isn't Amaranth sorta 'weedy' ?"

"Very, but chock-full of essential proteins, vitamins and such. Anne-Marie hopes to grow some as micro-green garnish, scheduled between 'staple' plantings. Problem is our Amaranth cultivars must grow so 'leggy' before they bear seed. Need a lot of valuable 'Ponic head-room just to get enough for their next planting. Alternative, to culture from leaf punchings, takes far more time and trouble." I shrugged. "At least tomato, bell-pepper and capsicum stems can be draped to and fro, close-fill the available space !"

"Such a shame that, like potatoes, their greens are not edible..."

"Too right." I nodded. "They're all 'Nasty Night-shades', kin to so-toxic tobacco. To think people used to smoke or chew its leaves ? Ick ! Anne-Marie said a 'Pre-Burn' Agronomist famously managed to grow some 'Tomtatoes' with tubers at one end, fruit at the other. Sadly, much too light a crop of either to be worth-while. Worse, re-planted, they'd revert to 'wild'. And, always, always, those inedible greens..."

The 'Luthiers', exhausting variations of 'Wonderful Land', struck up a remarkably perky tune. Fresno's Library soon identified it as another Pre-Burn instrumental Classic, 'Whistling Jack'. To my surprise, that stayed recognisable after they jazzed it about !

At last, sadly, the delightful free-form concert was ended by our next meal-call. Re-fuelled by even this indifferent serving, humming happily, Anne-Marie strode off towards the 'Ponics.

I tackled a text-mail from Lieutenant Richards that had just arrived. It held the latest data from the two 'Xanadu' cargo pods. Though double-ended, their identical stowage was not. Scans of the nearest crates' QR codes at the first pod's other end found a very different assortment of 'stuff'. The team went on to confirm this for the second pod. Such loading suggested both pods would probably dock by one end to a small 'transfer' station, rather than between two legs of a larger. Most in-system 'Work-Pods', with or without mini-hab, would dock thus, unless 'Atmospheric' garaged. Much, in fact, as the Rock Tugs did while collecting, delivering me and 'Big Mac'.

Would Anne-Marie and I attempt to identify, analyse these additional preliminary findings ? No problem ! After making a careful list of the many necessary fields, then adding several more for contingencies, I pulled a generic template from Fresno's Library and set to work. Two screens plus the clues from our initial hunt allowed rapid progress. Rather than a minimal report, my ensuing data-base was readily searchable yay different ways. Catalogue thumb-nails fronted links to the Library's full descriptions. There were specific fields for such as 'How Many Crates Of This' were out there, and where, the latter still mostly blank. I made ample provision for 'utility' fields to cross-reference usage, starting with those 'Metre-90' truss braces to/from their matching M8 bolts.

Yes, yes, running a nimble search was easy enough, but having 'The Needful' in plain sight was always, always so much better: Worst-case, 'In Extremis', having the relevant information available without requiring a search, doing it literally, 'By Inspection', could be a life-saver...

I was trawling the Library for a baker's dozen persistently 'obscure' items, slowly back-filling gaps, when Anne-Marie returned.

"Save point," she stated. Her beautiful eyes a-twinkle, she hummed a few bars from 'Telstar', then whispered, "Fly me !"

good find

There's other aspect that they now have a potential supply of Borosilicate for lab 'glassware'.
Be a serious shame to have to smelt any un-broken 'Diner' bowls but, 'in extremis'...

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Sat Oct 18, 2025 11:16 am There's other aspect that they now have a potential supply of Borosilicate for lab 'glassware'.
Be a serious shame to have to smelt any un-broken 'Diner' bowls but, 'in extremis'...

The needs of the one outweighs the need the many.

Sounds like it's time to implement a bounty system for finding stuff. Report something particularly useful that hasn't previously made it onto the inventory, or find a good use for something on the "we dunno what to do with it" list, and get some privileges like a special meal.

Indeed !
Snag is that, after the Diner Hack, it is clear an 'informal' approach could go horribly wrong...
Remember Anne-Marie had to reject 'Ponic trainees who thought they'd be getting 'extras' ?
Um, are you taking sneak-peeks at my 'Edit' buffer ??
The Diner Coders *are* working on a 'weighted' system for menu enhancements but, as yet, lack the material.

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Sun Oct 19, 2025 10:05 am Indeed !
Snag is that, after the Diner Hack, it is clear an 'informal' approach could go horribly wrong...
Remember Anne-Marie had to reject 'Ponic trainees who thought they'd be getting 'extras' ?
Um, are you taking sneak-peeks at my 'Edit' buffer ??
The Diner Coders *are* working on a 'weighted' system for menu enhancements but, as yet, lack the material.

There are quite a few problems with an informal approach. My thought was that it should be a fully formal program, approved by the ship leadership, and with formal rewards. Essentially, leverage some of those bodies sitting around and give them something to do. As the available resources grow, the program could also recognize hard work or useful ideas.

City of Fresno is not a Buy'N'Large ship, after all.

No, I also haven't been looking at your edit buffer. I don't need to, when I can just fly over from the US on a whim and break into your house to play crumpled wastepaper football with your cats, just to look at those notes.

kdahm wrote: ↑Sun Oct 19, 2025 10:01 pm

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Sun Oct 19, 2025 10:05 am Indeed !
Snag is that, after the Diner Hack, it is clear an 'informal' approach could go horribly wrong...
Remember Anne-Marie had to reject 'Ponic trainees who thought they'd be getting 'extras' ?
Um, are you taking sneak-peeks at my 'Edit' buffer ??
The Diner Coders *are* working on a 'weighted' system for menu enhancements but, as yet, lack the material.

There are quite a few problems with an informal approach. My thought was that it should be a fully formal program, approved by the ship leadership, and with formal rewards. Essentially, leverage some of those bodies sitting around and give them something to do. As the available resources grow, the program could also recognize hard work or useful ideas.

City of Fresno is not a Buy'N'Large ship, after all.

No, I also haven't been looking at your edit buffer. I don't need to, when I can just fly over from the US on a whim and break into your house to play crumpled wastepaper football with your cats, just to look at those notes.

Oh, so it was YOU who was in there last time I went to scan his notes!!!!

We need to deconflict our visits.

Belushi TD

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Mon Oct 20, 2025 1:49 pm

kdahm wrote: ↑Sun Oct 19, 2025 10:01 pm

Nik_SpeakerToCats wrote: ↑Sun Oct 19, 2025 10:05 am Indeed !
Snag is that, after the Diner Hack, it is clear an 'informal' approach could go horribly wrong...
Remember Anne-Marie had to reject 'Ponic trainees who thought they'd be getting 'extras' ?
Um, are you taking sneak-peeks at my 'Edit' buffer ??
The Diner Coders *are* working on a 'weighted' system for menu enhancements but, as yet, lack the material.

There are quite a few problems with an informal approach. My thought was that it should be a fully formal program, approved by the ship leadership, and with formal rewards. Essentially, leverage some of those bodies sitting around and give them something to do. As the available resources grow, the program could also recognize hard work or useful ideas.

City of Fresno is not a Buy'N'Large ship, after all.

No, I also haven't been looking at your edit buffer. I don't need to, when I can just fly over from the US on a whim and break into your house to play crumpled wastepaper football with your cats, just to look at those notes.

Oh, so it was YOU who was in there last time I went to scan his notes!!!!

We need to deconflict our visits.

Belushi TD

You take Tuesdays, I take Thursdays, and we alternate weekends?

Hey, we're planning a home invasion .... ahem, reconnaissance, not deciding who gets the kids after the divorce!


That being said, works for me!


Belushi TD

Just remember leave the place neater than you found it.

I'll do the dishes, kdahm can clean the table and stove.

Are we legally required to replace the food we eat?

Belushi TD

Belushi TD wrote: ↑Wed Oct 22, 2025 12:32 pm I'll do the dishes, kdahm can clean the table and stove.

Are we legally required to replace the food we eat?

Belushi TD

Legally no, morally yes.

That said, I'd say leave a gift card for them.

City of Fresno #102

The following morning, after our usual meagre breakfast, Anne-Marie raised polite eye-brows at my industry, made a few suggestions. I could not see how they could or would help. Still, I trusted her wits, insight and experience, so patched in those extras. Then, we tag-teamed my remaining 'obscure' items. Finally, we sent the 'Test_01' data-base link to Lt. Richards, Lt. Baxter plus, 'Blind Copied,' to both young Bruce and, yes, Ms. Betrys. We'd not seen her about for several days, probably due to our dour catering...

With that done, and lunch called, Anne-Marie said, "Jake, the Diner Coders and Stewards love your solution for allocating variably sized 'Sides' portions, but they've hit a snag. You would not believe how few people are currently qualified for food preparation and handling: Stewards are organising 'Refresher' and 'Basic' Hygiene courses."

"Oh ? How did that lack slip through ?"

"Triage ? Stewards were run off their feet by berthing issues. Plus, until those lidded serving bowls showed up, no urgency..."

"Yeah. With 'staple' 'Ponic plantings repeatedly delayed by Fresno's early test-runs, there was nothing to serve beyond your very little, but so welcome garnish ?" I suggested. "Hmm. How's those condiment makings coming along ?"

"You and your ketchup !" Anne-Marie laughed, then turned serious. "Slowly, Jake, slowly. Their cultivars are not entirely happy. Could be the Crew Drum 'Ponics' lighting panels' spectra / intensity, the drum spin or generic feed. Perhaps something else ? A mix of those ? Producing stringier stems and more foliage than I'd prefer, will take longer than I'd hoped to bear ripe fruit, crop usefully..."

"And, yes, emphasis on 'seriously spicy' condiments' ingredients, for their 'Power to Weight' ?" I shrugged. "Oh, well, they'll be ready when they're ready..."

"True. At least the potatoes and other 'carb' staples are running to schedule. Well, mostly. And even the laggards are doing 'Good Enough' for this first, half-experimental crop..." Anne-Marie reported. After our forgettable lunch, she strolled off towards the Crew drum.

Back in our suite, I spent a while digging through Fresno's Library, trying to match our Xanadu pod finds to a 'complete' assembly. Yes, given what we had, 'Nissen Huts' and their 'glazed' kin, 'Tunnel Green-houses', were a fair hypothesis, but we lacked proof. As yet, we only had a sub-set of the makings. Mostly metre-cube pallets and crates with 'small-ish stuff', we also had that singular 'Double-Length' with metre-ninety truss braces found by young Bruce. This was like opening the 'Exploded Diagram' of a complex system to find umpteen modules had clear call-outs, but the central part with their essential inter-relationships was illegible.

I shook my head, allowed myself a sigh. Yes, yes, whatever there was, we'd use and be grateful. Still, would be grimly amusing if both pods only held such 'small-ish stuff'. What if the bulky base-frames, arches, curved roofing, algae tanks and such had gone to Xanadu on prior runs, perhaps six months earlier ? Unless carried by Fresno, thus logged, there'd be no 'local' record. And, given Lt. Baxter's silence...

I was almost glad to be pulled from my fruitless hunt by the dinner call. After, I was again trawling for 'assemblies' when my Nav' augment reported that Fresno's low acceleration was reducing. We were not half-way, we were not running through a MasCon, so why ? The boost slowly fell to zero, but no further. Fresno did not brake. Instead, the Hexagon stages' big 'Auxiliary' Poles awoke. With a 'swell' like an immense organ, their output gradually climbed to about two-thirds power, supplementing the 'Power Section'. As the nigh-subliminal 'thrum' of Fresno's response to interstellar gas and dust diminished, I realised the Engineers had switched from their previous, hyper-wary 'Economy-Plus' to a much smoother mode.

This could be for many reasons, but my best guess was further investigation of the Xanadu pods. Even with the additional ship stability provided by those 'Auxiliary' Poles, I still doubted Lt. Richards would risk shuffling crates while Fresno was traversing 'unfamiliar' space. Running un-laden 'Handlers' by turn to read well-front QR codes was a different matter.

I was not surprised to find Fresno's 'map' now included those two pods. Hopefully, I'd be told how their 'Init' fix was implemented...

I kept hunting for hour after hour until, late into the night, Anne-Marie returned, visibly weary and very, very frustrated. She grumbled, "Jake, we could not find any fault with the Crew Drum 'Ponics. Those cultivars are just running straggly, slower than usual.

"I'd thought it might, might be the Magnesium pK. Isn't. So we checked other 'Usual Suspects'. We checked for less obvious faults. We checked for the daftest things. Perhaps a trace 'Bio-Availability' ? But, no. Everything, everything checked out okay...

"Not just 'Within Limits', Jake, centre-punched ! Centre-punched ! Huh..."

"Can seeds, plants or 'Ponics get 'Long Field Shock' ?"

"No, I don't think so," she demurred. "Must hope one of the team will wake with a yell, shout, 'Why didn't we see *that* ??'

"Jake, I'm beat: I need a back-scrub, a long huggle, a quiet cry on your shoulder..."

Back off, get some rest, and tackle it tomorrow.