“Diplomacy Maneuvers,” 4.2

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 19th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the second and final part of the fourth Station Keeping episode. Read part one.

“Well, I’ve been working all day to formally lodge the appropriate complaints about the Navy’s presence with the new commander. Our space, ‘much as anyone’s, and all they do is give us notice and expect our help when they need it. After all this, we’re just guests on a station that our people have worked on for a generation!” Nan’s speed increased with her furry, but she sipped the drink to slow her self down.

“What did Eli say?” David asked.

“Eli?”

“The new commander?”

“Oh, do you know him or something?”

“You could say that, but you already got me to talk. This is your story.” David hoped that she would ignore the fact that he hadn’t really told her very much.

“Ok. Um.” Nan had a bit more of the drink before she started again. “So after sending him a series of reports and requests, he called me in for a meeting, and he just talked to me.”

“He talked? Amazing. He never used to…” David trailed off as he fiddled with something on the terminal screen. “What did he say?”

“Really?” Nan stared at a box on the wall.

David realized she wasn’t really paying attention. “No, of course not. Continue.”

She did: “Well he didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on between the Hanmists and the Navy, and agreed to work with me on station policy and governance. I didn’t have anything to say. I feel like I made an ass of myself.”

“That’s Eli for you, I guess.”

“Being clueless? Or for making an ass of your self in front of.”

David chucked: she was pretty sharp and quick after all, admirable qualities indeed. “So you’re upset, because he’s a reasonable guy…”

“Well I’m not– Why would I– I’m just trying to– Yes,” she said. Its hard when the bad guys turn out to be pretty nice. Makes my job plenty hard. I wasn’t ready for this wrench in the gears.” Nan’s earlier anger returned, but this time it wasn’t shrouded in historical interplanetary relations.

“Well there are plenty of bad guys to go around, and lots of work to be done.”

“Aye.” Nan took another quick swig, and a lopsided grin came over her face. The bottle wasn’t finished, but she was. “Thanks for this, I’d like to pick your brain at some point, but maybe at the beginning of the day rather than the end.”

David’s simple response of “Indeed” was both non-committal and positive. He walked her to the door way of his half finished bar, “This is sure going to be interesting,” he though as he watched Nan Gee walk amongst the light crowd toward the residential side of the station.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • • •

“Diplomacy Maneuvers,” 4.1

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 18th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the first part of the fourth Station Keeping episode. Part two will drop tomorrow.

Nan Gee really wanted a drink. The bar didn’t look open open yet, but she thought that maybe she’d be able to talk someone there out of one of those beers sitting on the counter. She would pay, it wasn’t like there was anything else to spend her diplomatic-salary on.

David nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw her standing inside the bar. He could have sworn that he had locked the door. “Hello there, we’re not actually open yet, as you can see,” he said, point to the exposed wiring on the wall opposite of the bar. Someday there would be a nice light fixture there. If the designer ever got back to him, that is.

“That’s alright, I just really want one of those,” Nan said pointing at the cases of beers stacked on the bar. It was a local brand that had just been shipped up from Hanm. “I can pay.” She appended, trying to look hopeful.

David paused, unsure of exactly what to do in this situation, he had work to do, and he didn’t want the entire station getting the idea that he was open for business. “What the hell,” he thought. “You like them room temp?” he asked, relenting.

“That’s the way we do it ’round here.” She looked a bit relieved.

“Ok, well we really aren’t open, but I have something to work on in the back, why don’t you join me with your beer and we can talk” David suggested, as he turned. “Oh, what’s your name, by the way,” he asked as he walked.

Nan followed the barkeep, without quite knowing why. It seemed better than any of the alternatives that came to mind. “Right, I’m Nan, Nan Gee: the diplomatic liaison to the station.”

“Oh, right, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” David said, he turned at an open door way and pointed to a chair in an office. “I’m David Conrad, I’m just the bar owner around here, but I suspect that the Navy will probably start begging once the comms are more open, but they won’t get me.” He chuckled.

“Oh, you’re Navy?”

“Used to be. I got to the top, and found there wasn’t much see. Time to move on, you know. They want me back, but know better than to force it.” David said looking at Nan. The tension between the Navy and the people of Hanm was very present on the station, even now, and almost entirely understandable. “So why the rush to get a beer,” it’s still a bit early and all.” David hoped to deflect the conversation away from his past, he also turned in his chair and brought up the display on his workstation.

“It’s been a long day, not that bad, I just don’t know what to make of it, but I’m pretty sure that I have no power, and it’s not like there’s anything else to do on the station yet.” Nan was surprised at her verbosity in front of the stranger, with a navy past, even! But the beer tasted like home, and the decorations on the walls were different, even if the walls themselves looked suspiciously familiar.

permalink • • one comment
tagged: • • •

SA Thom Busby, ISA; Part 2

A Knowing Mars story, by tycho garen
on 15th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the second part of another excerpt from Matthew Connor’s narrative written in 2597 in the Knowing Mars story. Read part 1 if you haven’t already.

In the intervening years, I have tried to avoid considering if Taban and Kalian–all of us really–attracted undue attention to ourselves by hiding out or leaving Earth, but Quinn assured me that this wasn’t the case, and that despite appearances Busby was really too busy pining after some ill gotten notion of lost glory or some-such, to think through his cases objectively. And yet, I do believe that although Busby might not have set out to chase after telepaths, there is no doubt that he became a telepath hunter.

Yet, I remain unable to completely comprehend his motives, even after all these years. Telepathy, or more properly, the existence of free telepaths living and operating in society was a possibility that he was unable to assimilate normally. Many people had problems with telepathy in similar ways, but it’s clear that Busby was exceptional in this regard. He was not simply worried that someone might learn his deepest and darkest secrets, but rather took telepathy as some sort of personal affront. This is conjecture: I never talked to him earnestly, if that were possible, and no telepath that I’ve ever known of got a read of him, so I suppose we’ll never know.

At first, Busby wasn’t a special concern concern, there were ways for Taban and Kalian to avoid getting caught for cyber-crimes, but as the Morgans developed their skill they became much more worried about discovery. Or perhaps I should say, they were worried about being discovered if it wasn’t on their terms. Even before they left for Mars, there was a fairly substantial community of telepaths on Earth, and a minority of non-telepaths like myself, who were all “in the know.” Particularly in retrospect we all knew that it was something of an open secret, but it was hard to see that in the moment.

So by early 2542, Taban and Kalian left Earth for Mars. I had never expected to join them, nor do I think at the time they intended to move back to Earth when telepathy had “blown over,” but that is I suppose the reason why the future is always “yet to be.” In any case Mars Colony was far from perfect in many respects, more so then than now, but it was controlled and Mars represented a fresh start that we all found attractive in contrast to Earth, which to all of us felt wrapped up in too many traditions and stale habits.

I suppose if I had to come up with only one thing that I learned from Taban and Kalian, it would that we all need fresh starts from time to time. Thankfully I don’t.

Matthew Connor, MD
Mars, 2597

permalink • • one comment
tagged: • •

SA Thom Busby, ISA; Part 1

A Knowing Mars story, by tycho garen
on 14th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the first part of another excerpt from Matthew Connor’s narrative written in 2597 in the Knowing Mars story.

In early 2542 Taban and Kalian left Earth for the still new Mars Colony. If asked at the time, they would have probably spun some tale about wanting to be on the frontier, about having grown tired of Earth with the growing population, dwindling resources, and the increasingly provincial attitudes. While these reasons certainly contributed to their decision1 to leave Earth, we knew by this time that ISA2 Agent Thom Busby was investigating them for cyber-crime and they left to avoid the surveillance.

This was in and of itself not terribly unusual; the Morgans were known to be active and influential members of the cyberspace community. While they probably were guilty of the crimes as charged, the fact is that most people were easily guilty of at least a dozen such crimes. Anyone who strayed from the commercial or common spheres of the net much was likely guilty of a dozen minor infractions. The fact that they were being pursued for these crimes was sign enough that Thom Busby’s investigation was punitive: it wasn’t possible to legally send people to jail because they were telepaths. In 2541 and ‘42 the general public didn’t know that telepathy existed. Thom Busby’s hostility was clear to Taban and Kalian, the telepath community, and even a mutual colleague–and friend on my part–of Busby and myself: Quinn Dasen. Though we never worked closely, we did interact professionally a number of times. At the time I just thought he was driven enough to be a pain in the ass and too self centered to be much more than a nuisance. How wrong I was.

Matthew Connor, MD
Mars, 2597



Notes:

  1. The fact of the matter is that, at that time most people said that they were at least a little interested in moving off world if you asked them. Significantly fewer were willing to pack up and leave Earth. The Mars colony had been established in the 2480s, but had never attracted the large number of colonists that the instigators behind the project had initially predicted. ↩

  2. International Security Agency. I suppose in the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I too was an agent in the research/forensics department of ISA, in the ’40s. ISA was the sprawling Earth-based security, intelligence, and law enforcement agency that had near universal jurisdiction. Far from being a coherent organization, ISA was far too large to consistently secure, know, or enforce much of anything. This made it all too possible for possible free agents like Thom Busby to operate inside of ISA without much recourse for the rest of us. ↩

permalink • • one comment
tagged: •

“Guard Changing,” 3.2

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 13th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the second installment of the third Station Keeping episode. Read part one first.

Location: Docking Bay 3

“At least you’re not late this time,” David Conrad said to Josh as he jogged up to the hatch where Eli Banner was about to disembark.

“Once they step onto this deck, and people stop thinking that I’m in charge, I resolve to never run anywhere.” Joshua said taking a deep breath. Josh was surprised to see David here, but almost more surprised that he spoke so freely.

“Don’t say that, we might hold you to that.” David chuckled, and looked toward the unmoving hatch.

“So what brings you around these parts?”

“I hear there’s a ship docking.”

“Yep.”

“But I didn’t–”

“It’s alright, I have my ways, and without the pub open to distract me, I get bored. Besides, Eli’s an old friend,”

“Eli?”

“The commander.”

“Oh. Right.”

Before the silence settled again, the hatch hissed, and opened.

“Well, hello!” Commander Eli Banner said to David sounding surprised, as he stepped on to the station. The men hugged for a moment, and Talia Garn stepped out behind the commander and looked awkwardly at Joshua Sian.

“Talia Garn.”

“Joshua Sian.” Their introductions were soft and understated, as they were both more interested and surprised by the interaction between the commander and David Conrad.

“Talia, this is David Conrad; the David Conrad,” the commander interrupted, sending Sain back into silence.

“A pleasure, sir,” Talia said, extending her hand.

“What are you doing here?” Eli asked.

“I’m just the bar keep, watching and listening like always. Marc’s doctoring… as usual.”

“That’s great,” Eli smiled. “I hadn’t gotten word, but we’ll have to get a drink sometime.”

“Bar isn’t finished yet, but indeed we will.”

“I suppose we have a job to do here?” Eli said, turning his attention to the young lieutenant. He motioned toward the corridor, to make room for the rest of the crew and passengers to disembark.

“Indeed, I have crew on the docking procedure of the convoy, and there’s nothing else to report that I haven’t already filed with you, sir.”

“That’s probably true,” Banners response was as quick as it was dry.

Sian squirmed, he was unprepared to be the butt of all the new commander’s jokes. “I actually have some paperwork for you, to transfer command and what not.” Sain produced a tablet

“Sure, I’m sorry. We’ve been cooped up on the ships for so long, it’s just good to get out.” The commander took the tablet and began to confirm the transfer of authority. “I actually have heard that you’ve been doing a great job here.” He looked toward Talia and David and offered a curt smile.

“Thank you, sir. It’s good to have you aboard,” Joshua said and indicated that they should talk the elevator at the end of the corridor.

As the others turned to enter the elevator car David recused himself; “I actually have an appointment, that I have to tend to, but I trust I’ll see all of you soon.”

“Thanks for stopping by,” Eli said: the others just smiled kindly.

Joshua Sian inputed the code for the command center on the elevator’s keypad once the doors closed and everyone was aboard. “That was so incredibly strange,” he thought as the lift moved in silence.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • • •

“Guard Changing,” 3.1

A Station Keeping story, by tycho garen
on 12th August 2008. (commentary)

This is the first installment of the third Station Keeping episode. Part two will drop tomorrow.

Location: Command Deck.

Joshua Sian jogged into the command center, it was like he’d spent the past two weeks running and always 10 minutes late. The space station shouldn’t have been that big yet anyway. Before the door closed he called out “Status?” as he walked over to an open station.

“The first three ships are, within range, for docking, several are queueing up–and the rest will be here–in an hour or two.” The crewmen’s stilted response was punctuated as he worked furiously to pass messages along to the dock crew.

“As we expected,” Sian noted as he began to adjust his own preliminary calculations. “Crewman?” Sain asked without looking up, his voice wavered slightly with concern. Thankfully, he managed to mostly stifle a wince at being unable to recall a name.

The entire command center crew responded, but their responses weren’t synchronized.

“Where’s the docking arm?” he asked, finally looking up at one of the displays. “We’re going to need it really soon…”

There was no response.

“Well, bring it about! and inform the commander’s ship that they might not have as much help as we promised.” The error, though not inexcusable, was as much Joshua’s fault as it was anyone else’s: they were over worked and understaffed, and Joshua had planned on being in command half an hour earlier, until one of the construction teams demanded his attention. Thankfully the docking arm would probably extend (even in the right direction!) when it was needed, but it was still frustrating.

“We have space for the first two ships in bay 3, and the second ship in…” he paused to look up the docking plan again. “bay 6.”

No one responded, there was no need.

“I’ll take in the first two ships, then I need to get down to meet the commander, you can manage the rest,” Josh proposed. It was good that he was about to be done with being in charge of things like space stations: proposals didn’t command in the same way that orders did. “So get ready for it,” he added.

“Should I call in Jacobs and Qunicy to help out with this?” One of the crew asked.

“Please do, It would be–” Sian trailed off, his concentration captured by the docking procedure, but everyone else was to busy to care what “would be.”

permalink • • one comment
tagged: • •

Morgan Arrival, Part 5

A Knowing Mars story, by tycho garen
on 11th August 2008. (commentary)

This is fifth and final part of the “Morgan Arrival” Story from the Knowing Mars project. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. My original header for this section was Morgan Residence, Mars Colony 2542. Which, though descriptive, isn’t particularly unique or distinctive, so instead we have “Morgan Arrival.” This is the final five part sequence of Chapter 1. Enjoy.

“First day on Mars wasn’t so bad…” Taban said, taking the encryption pendants from their ports on the computer. Taban handed one to Kalian, and although tired they spent a moment refastening the pendants to to the straps around their necks.

“Thanks.” Kalian, said. “The day was a little bit long, you have to admit.”

“Only forty-minutes,” Taban protested as they stumbled awkwardly towards their bedroom. They hadn’t even explored this far into the apartment yet, but beds, unlike computers, didn’t require a lot of custom setup.

“Thirty-nine and a half, and you’re the one who wanted the longer days,” Kalian said laughing as they reached the bedroom.

“Fine fine,” Taban said. “Lights out?”

“Sure,” Kalian said, and then it was dark. They were asleep inside of ten minutes.

permalink • • zero comments
tagged: • • •
< Previous Entries •