#time to orbit

[kinasecrystal]

I’m really enjoying _Time to Orbit: Unknown_, “a space mystery about a completely normal spaceship that has nothing wrong with it”, written by @derinthescarletpescatarian. It’s serialized original fiction ( doesn’t seem to be fanfic of anything I’m familiar with).

[theothin]

"What the hell is the deal on Hylara?" compilation

Chapter 132: Drop

They’re small, almost a full head shorter than the average human, with wiry muscles visible under very little body fat. They both look to probably be in their twenties, although it’s difficult to be sure. Their eyes look unusually large, although that might just be because of their small heads; they have very long toes and large ears like the Khemin, although Hive and Max’s aren’t pierced for jewellery. They are… well, it would be wrong to call them bald, exactly, because a fine down seems to cover their entire bodies, thicker than normal body hair, thick enough to be clearly visible without obscuring the skin beneath. The hair on top of their heads is no thicker or longer than the hair anywhere else. Tal’s right; they do look kind of like aliens from some pre-Neocambrian story with a very limited special effects budget.

description of hylaran genetic engineering modifications

But their appearance isn’t the most shocking part. I’ve hung out with art house genepunks in university; these Hylarans look boring by comparison. No, the really shocking thing is that I know what they look like. The pair aren’t wearing space suits. I suppose they really meant what they said about believing the air to be non-toxic, because they’re just walking around in it. Their clothes consist of long silvery tunics with an odd iridescent sheen that must have Tal’s little zeelite heart all aflutter, and their feet are bare. They’re not even wearing eye protection. They are each shouldering what looks like an oxygen tank, and carrying them with the clear experience of people used to doing so. They’re each wearing a breathing mask, but not the airtight kind; they’re more like Captain Kae Jin’s mask, which is designed to give her extra oxygen without muffling her voice too much. Aside from a thick plastic-looking ring on their right ring fingers and a small pouch in their belt, they’re not carrying anything else.

out-of-colony attire

Chapter 133: Colony

Before we can respond, Max dashes forward and shakes our hands one by one, their thin digits dwarfed by our bulky space suit gloves. They speak into their own right hand to talk to us – those rings must have microphones and radio transceivers in them. “I’m so pleased to meet you all! I gotta say, I was pretty disappointed that Cattail here won radio rights; I cannot believe this is happening. The Courageous, appearing in our skies! And now you’re here! Come on, come on – let’s go home!” They grin excitedly, and I find myself grinning as well. “You should keep the helmets on,” Hive advises as we start walking, as if there was any chance that any of us would just decide to start breathing alien air when nobody else breathing is seems to have lived past age sixty. “There’ll be an infection risk until we’ve gotten our immune systems set up. Quarantine – I can’t believe we need to worry about quarantine. Or vaccinations.”

max tends to be more enthusiastic towards the landing party than hive

“That’s not the problem. This is a virus-free colony. People usually get their first viruses very young it helps train their immune system, but we don’t. Something completely benign for you could be deadly for us. The older people underwent a general vaccination booster program as they grew up, in expectation of your ship arriving, but after you were given up for dead it was considered a waste of resources. Over half of the colony had never been exposed to any virus or viral treatment at all before receiving your radio broadcast. Everyone’s undergoing treatment now, but it’ll take another week before we can be sure that we’re safe.”

why didn't they tell the courageous to wait another week before sending the landing party?

“We could have waited another week before coming down,” Captain Klees says, clearly trying and failing to not sound reproachful. “It would’ve been safer to wait until everyone had finished this treatment.” Hive shrugs again. “We’d need the doctor to run full pathology screens on you before direct contact could be considered safe anyway. That’ll take time. Shall we keep going?”

a question adin immediately raises, without much of an answer

And I already know it’s going to take longer than half an hour to get back. Because it took Hive and Max half an hour to get here, and they can move a lot faster than us, long toes moving them over the sand like they were made for it, even as they weave around the watery patches. They have a rapid conversation that I can’t hear, since it’s not over the radio, until Hive lifts their ring to ask us, “How many species of bees did your ship bring, do you know?” General puzzlement greets this question. Finally, Tinera asks, “Bees?” “Yes. Well, if you have a number for pollinators in general, that’s also good information. What would your estimate be?” After checking with the rest of us, Captain Klees says, “We don’t know. They’re all stored in the freezers. Next time we contact the Courageous, we can ask – ” “No, no,” Hive says hurriedly, “it’s not that important. I was just curious.”

hive wants to know the pollinator situation, but does not want the question to make it to the people still on the courageous

I glance over the barren landscape around us. Pollinators? Theory: they lost their insect species when they landed, or during transport, or perhaps to some disease afterward, it doesn’t matter. That would greatly limit plant ecology. You can feed four hundred people without pollinators, no problem; a population can be kept alive on algae, and there are many crops that either don’t require pollination or can be pollinated by hand and wind machines – but it does put serious limitations on what you can grow, especially if they want to populate the planet itself with plants outside the living domes. But if that’s the case, why not tell us over the radio before we came down? We could’ve brought some with us. Same as the vaccinations.

we later learn that they have no above-ground plants at all

there are a bunch of topics that they don't seem to want to mention in broadcasts to the ship, even while acknowledging them to the landing party. this was probably related to the earlier radio silence: the easiest way to avoid a topic is to not be communicating at all. but why?

I kick mud off my boot, and glance at the pair ahead of us, walking an alien world with no concession to the conditions besides an oxygen tank. Two liaisons for the suddenly appearing foreigners; one for the radio to the ship, one for the ground crew. After a sudden long radio silence on contact and a strange reticence afterward to tell the people coming to supply them what they actually need and where to deliver it. A cold sense of suspicion starts to pool in my stomach. Oh, no. We misread this so badly. We didn’t even consider this possibility.

aspen has an explanation for some of the oddities, but it's not complete

“So you guys have oxygen here, huh?” Tal asks, as if that’s a normal conversation starter. “Aspen says that means there’s aliens.” “I said that was the most logical explanation,” I add, in case I’m wrong and Tal has just made me look like an idiot in front of our new hosts. “Photosynthetic life is the only natural force that could be expected to generate this much oxygen.” The pair exchange a glance. “It’s complicated,” Hive says. “But pretty amazing,” Max adds. “I’ll show you guys around after Doctor Kim’s had a look at you. You’ll love it. You guys have been cramped up on a spaceship for years, right? This must be a great change of pace!

a strikingly vague response. is there life native to the planet, or not? both hive and max seem to have a reason to delay giving specifics, but why?

The space taken up by the colony is smaller than I would expect. Large enough to house the stated population very comfortably, but no obvious industry or vast tented farms. Many of the domes aren’t connected to each other, and as we get closer, I can see people moving between them, unprotected like Hive and Max. The domes themselves are whiter than the sand around, but not by much; they’re probably coated in mud or dust. More visible than the canvas of the domes is the gleam of metal some distance away – a metal door, it looks like, leading underground and wide enough to drive three trucks through. That’s probably where their power station is, if they lack the materials to build it safely aboveground. Nice and protected from any asteroids that do happen to land in the area. A network of power cables leads between the living domes and up the gentle slope where, some distance away, there sits a smaller, metal dome under a radio dish setup. Some parts of the setup look noticeably shinier and less weathered than other parts. Over some of the living domes, flatter roofs have been constructed to create slopes that lead into rainwater tanks. Some of the domes have repair patches on them or even, to my surprise, embroidery. Embroidery, in atmosphere-containing dome canvas! There’s not an airlock in sight. As I watch, a small child comes out of a dome with a jug, fills it up from a water tank, and goes back inside.

colony structure

I switch my radio to a private channel for just talking to Captain Klees. “Captain, we’ve seriously misread this situation.” “Misread how? Are we in danger?” “No. No, I don’t think anyone here would dare let any harm come to us. But I’ve figured out why they were so reluctant to tell us what they need, or accept our help.” “Why?” “Because they don’t need it. We expected to find a colony on the edge of their resources, struggling to survive long enough for help to arrive. We assumed they’d be low on dome canvas and their life support equipment would be wearing out. But look – they live in the air here. They drink the planet’s water. I don’t know how safe that is, exactly, but they clearly think it is; if anything, the most dangerous thing they’re facing right at this minute is the diseases that we might be carrying with us. I’m sure they want what we’ve brought; who wouldn’t? They don’t exactly appear to be swimming in spare resources down here, looking at the small size of their community. But they seem to be surviving just fine.”

aspen's reasoning: hylara doesn't have a pressing need for supplies from the courageous, therefore they're avoiding making requests because they're worried about getting their society supplanted

there's something to this - hylara is doing better than expected, and that's why they didn't need to be upfront about what they're looking for. but their resource situation is more complicated than aspen realized at this point, and that doesn't explain why they're so touchy about specific subjects

“Exactly. We came in as rescuers, but we’re not. From their perspective, we’re invaders. Foreign invaders who showed up on their shores with the openly declared intent to plant a population almost six times the size of theirs right in their home. We showed up with superior firepower, superior resources, and nowhere else to go but here.” “We don’t have firepower!” “Yes we do. They live in open-air tents and our entire task is to drop stuff from space. And now we’re a handful of representatives sent specifically to look at their colony and find out how to best fill it with our own. Is it any wonder that they went dark until they had to respond, and gave us a single liaison to talk to on the radio? Is it any wonder that they told but practically nothing that they didn’t have to? Is it any wonder that the people who live here do not want to talk to us?” We’ve reached the colony by this point. People who look and dress like our liaisons come out of their domes to stare at us. They all look curious. Very few of them look happy. Hive drives the vehicle right into an open-air tent containing several other vehicles and dismounts to plug a charging cable into it. Max grins widely at us and claps their hands together. “Alright! Let’s get you to Doctor Kim. Who’s first?”

most hylarans seem to be unhappy about the situation, with max as a rare exception

Chapter 134: Doctor

“So,” I ask over radio as Max leads me from the vehicle bay towards a nearby dome while the Friend tries to impress upon Hive the importance of disinfecting the vehicle bed we’d been in, “what’s this Dr Kim like?” “Oh, she’s great! A very… creative doctor.” “Creative?” Is creativity a trait we want in a doctor?

I don't even know what to make of this

Dr Kim has her visor down, probably reviewing my files or something, but flips it up when I come back and looks me up and down with a look so penetrating that I actually wish I had one of those hospital gowns they give you in hospital on Luna. For the first time in my life, I feel awkward about being naked. (Is this how Texans feel all the time?)

reviewing these chapters has me suspicious of every instance of aspen jumping to a conclusion. what was she actually reading?

“Then if you don’t mind, I’d like to run a nerve scan and see what condition the severed optic nerve is in. If it’s intact enough to attach to the donor eye, we can arrange to get that done. If not, we can discuss other options.” “… other options?” “No need to worry about that if the nerve’s repairable. Can you stick your head in the scanner? It’s over there.” I look at the big chunky box with a head-sized hole in it that she’s indicating. “Don’t I need to take a tracer or – ?” “This isn’t the stone age. The machine can scan just fine.”

this would be an extremely strange thing to lie about, but given that I don't trust kim's claims about the results of the scan, it's possible that she didn't even do a scan at all

“I’ll need some time to analyse this,” Dr Kim tells me, “but at first glance, I have to say, it doesn’t look promising. The doctors who did the extraction aren’t surgeons, are they?” “You can’t replace the eye?” “Probably not. Normally, with nerve destruction like this, I’d simply use a synthetic nerve, but synthetic nerves only really interface well with biological ones one-way. If this were a hand or a foot, that’s no problem; I could put the end of the nerves in the muscles themselves. But eyes are tricky. A lot of visual processing happens in the brain tissue in the back of the eye, and you don’t have that tissue. Replacing the eyeball won’t help, with this kind of nerve damage. My suggestion, if you don’t want to just live with the damage, would be bionics.”

possible, but not likely. she did recognize that removing the eye was a bit of a hack-job, but that doesn't mean she's telling the truth about needing a bionic eye. I'm not sure what she'd accomplish by lying about that, but it's not hard to imagine some benefit

“An artificial eye?” “Yes. Can program visual processing into the eye and connect it with synnerves, I need to look into it, but it should be fairly simple, medically. Are you interested?” “Um. Yeah. Honestly, any vision would be great. I don’t mind if the eye’s artificial.” “Excellent. Let’s run the other tests, and I’ll look into the eye issue and get back to you. Blow in that tube over there, please.”

she seems unusually invested in aspen agreeing to a bionic eye, more so than other topics

“We’re just doing a blood draw for the pathology tests today,” Dr Kim reminds me. “There’s no need to worry. This model’s a lot more advanced than what you’re probably used to; there’s no way for you to hurt yourself. Even if you struggle against the restraints, they’ll hold you perfectly still; you can’t break the needles.” She says this like it’s supposed to be reassuring. Me, I’m running calculations. An AutoDoc for a population of three hundred and ninety two people with three doctors. Doesn’t make sense, under normal circumstances, not with the maintenance involved. It does make sense if all those residents require a high level of medical care – maybe the colony gets sick a lot? Possibly, given that they’re using the planet’s air and water, which they probably started doing when their dome canvas integrity dropped and they ran out of replacement canvas, making keeping an isolated environment untenable. High cancer rate, or other health difficulties related to the planet’s chemistry? Possibly.

the mystery of the autodoc

“You must be relieved to finally be on a planet again, huh,” Dr Kim says as the machine takes my blood. “Pretty relieved. The ship isn’t in great condition.” “So I heard. Engine trouble.” “Among other things. It wasn’t designed to be in space this long.” “I suppose there’s a rush to get all the colonists down, then?” “I wouldn’t say a rush. There’s a certain level of urgency – sooner is better. But it has to be done right. Stable is better than fast.” “What do you mean by ‘stable’?” I turn my head to look at her. It’s an awkward angle, with my arms held fast by the machine. The blood draw has stopped, but the needles haven’t retracted. Dr Kim is watching me with that critical gaze she hit me with when I first stepped out of the shower. Watching carefully.

quite a power move. dr kim is clearly not enthusiastic about the colonists' arrival - and having the conversation in this way suggests there might be something she'd do if aspen gave a "wrong" answer. but what was she looking for, and what would she do?

“Of course. Our colony has adequate food and medical supplies for our expected population, but you plan to drop down… I believe you expect over two thousand survivors?” The needles still aren’t retracting. At this point I remember a fun little fact about how these AutoDocs work. The right arm is for blood draws, the left arm is for injections. I hadn’t even thought about it when Dr Kim told me to put in both arms, but… we’re only taking blood for pathology tests today, aren’t we? So why is there a needle in my left arm? “Uh, yeah. We think so. Of course, it’s hard to predict these things; the revival estimates haven’t been all that reliable, but – ” “And your here to see if our little colony can support them. And bring in whatever’s needed, change whatever’s needed, until we can. That’s your job, right?”

not that she's giving aspen a chance to say much. she seems more interested in talking at them

I’m getting a crick in my neck trying to look at her. I turn back to the AutoDoc. “We’re supposed to set up initial facilities for the colonists, yeah. We didn’t expect people to already be here, to be honest. The existence of your colony was a bit of a shock.” “Hmm. Your vitamin C and B-12 are a little low.” “Yeah, I forgot to get my vitamin implant redone before coming down.” “Citrus shouldn’t be a problem with our food, but I’ll give you a B-12 injection right now.” “No, it’s fine; I just need to eat – ” but she’s already activated the machine, and I hear the little pump inside inject the shot into my bloodstream.

she's definitely lying about that being what she injected, and it seems like it was specifically a response to aspen's comment here

“What are you plans for the colony?” “Plans?” “Economy. Governmental structure. Your captains are giving the orders, correct? Will the colonists be subsumed under this chain of command, or do you have another leadership structure in mind once everyone’s revived?” “That’s not… we haven’t really discussed it? I wasn’t trained for this job, I’m an emergency replacement. Captain Kae Jin would know better than me.” “Captain Kae Jin’s on the ship.” “Yes.” “Nobody who came down with you is on the crew manifest.” “There were a – ” “A lot of crew fatalities. I know. Anyway, that’s enough small talk; the machine’s done.” The needles retract, the supports release. I pull my arms our of the machine immediately and spin to face Dr Kim, who gives me a friendly smile. “Sorry that took so long, these machines can be a bit temperamental. You can go now. I’ll get back to you about the blood results and options for the artificial eye.” I barely stop to thank her before heading for my clothes. I can’t wait to get out of there.

I'm gonna stop here for the night since this is taking longer than expected, but. what the hell.

[theothin]

@derinthescarletpescatarian

the united states of...erm...okay, im not even gonna TRY to pronounce that one

[whywontvulcanseatreplicatormeat]

Just made myself so so sad thinking about Aang's marble trick because from a physics perspective, keeping dense spherical objects afloat on an airstream is not trivial, and he's doing it in a tiny little space without moving his hands. Bending is usually very gestural. So. Everyone in the era of the show is, at best, impressed THAT it is airbending. But Aang's an incredibly young master airbender. He wouldn't be acting like this was the bestest trick ever if it didn't take at least some skill; he's a goofy kid but he's also a prodigy. I bet other airbenders were absolutely blown away (pun fully intended) at the level of precision and force and minimalism of movement on display and now there's no one who understands at all why he expects accolades.

[kolos013]

Aspencore

EDIT:

The amount of people in the notes going "yeah sure it may not be the answer for you but it absolutely is for me," is honestly concerning. It's very much like that one "I'm sorry your hubris was your doom but I'm built better" post that lives rent free in my head. These guidelines are there for a reason ya'll. (Also I'm not removing the wierd caption.)

[being-somewhere-else]

The Doctor ans Rose watching the sunrise

- inspired by ‚Sunrise in Orbit‘ by Astronaut Alexei Leonov -

[theothin]

look, imagine if nate silver had started writing about the statistics around people's interest in going to space, and then you hear that he broke into tesla's headquarters and threatened elon musk with a knife. then you get dragged into boarding a SpaceX ship to some random unvisited planet, go to sleep, wake up early, and somehow of all people nate silver is there

Procrastinating on writing Time to Orbit: Unknown by making Time to Orbit memes instead

[queerforscience]

Read this story about a normal and functional spaceship

Read this normal article about football

[theothin]

“We were given photos to memorise, of people who might prove a danger prior to the Program. Various extremists and whackos and corporate sabeteurs and soforth.” She narrows her eyes. “Aren’t you the one who tried to kill the CEO?” “I didn’t try to kill him! I wasn’t going to kill anyone, I just…” “Hmm?” “… put a knife against his throat and… threatened… him a little.” “Hmm.” “I was going through some stuff.” “And now you’re crew?!” “T-technically, um, technically I’m the ship’s psychologist.” This time, Captain Kae Jin’s coughing fit lasts quite a while. As soon as she’s able, she gasps, “How did you get approved for this program?!” “To be honest, I’m as confused about that as you are.”

welcome back to the normal and functioning space ship

[coffeewolfart]

(You see a vision of the unending present.)

Got inspired by @tawnysoup's drawing of what the Bigfrin boss fight looks like from the party's POV, and I thought "what if Siffrin had a special attack like the King lol". So here you go! This would probably show up when Siffrin tries to loop back.

[theothin]

@derinthescarletpescatarian

HELP THIS IS SO FUNNY

[atmosphere-of-the-marvelous]

Surely I will not regret starting this right before a 9-hour flight…right?

@derinthescarletpescatarian

[nipuni]

THE DOCTOR We had a pact, him and me. Every star in the universe, we were going to see them all.

My version of The Master and The Doctor in their Academy days 😊

A speedpaint video of this will be available at my Patreon on april 1st!

[queereads-bracket]

SEMIFINALS: Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Endorsement from submitter: "That book was written in 1969 and yes, not everything hold up today, but for the time is very progressive"

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

Time to Orbit: Unknown series (The Javelin Program, The Antarctica Conspiracy) by Derin Edala

When Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to life in a thriving colony on a distant planet. Instead, they find themself five years away from their destination on a broken spaceship full of complex mysteries, dead astronauts, and a very unhelpful AI.

Aspen wasn't trained for any of this. But if they can't keep themselves alive, get the ship in working order, and find out what went wrong by unravelling a chain of mysteries leading all the way back to distant Earth, then neither Aspen nor the five thousand sleeping passengers in their care will ever see a planet again.

Science fiction, mystery, series, adult

[blissfulbluee]

This picture never fails to amaze me… why does a 49 year old man look like this? it’s actually shocking.

[skrytch]

Okay so @derinthescarletpescatarian books arrived in the mail today and I'm wondering whether I should read the collection of short stories first to kind of dip a toe in and acclimate myself to to their writing or just jump speed first into the deep end with perfectly normal spaceship

*EDIT*

I finished the books

My live blog is here