Network Upgrades #3

by tycho garen
17th November

Welcome to another installment of the Station Keeping story. This installment will be posted in three parts.

Almost before she had begun it seemed, Julia unplugged her gear, and replaced the panel. She stood up, “There, done. With the hardware stuff at least.” She brushed a renegade strand of hair behind her ear, exposing the contact points for a node interface.

David would have mistaken the contact points for jewelry, if not for their number and placement, well, in a way, despite their function, they were jewelry in a certain sense.

“Most of the reinforcement process happens in an algorithm script, actually. But you still have to get the hardware ready for the process. You’ll be up and running by the end of this shift, if that’s ok.”

“That’s certainly fine. We’re not opening till next weekend. You’ll be there I trust?”

“Of course, wouldn’t miss it, particularly not with a reinforced drop like this.” She smiled, wondering why she had said something so silly; everyone knew that she had the best connection on the station. “I guess they don’t call them pleasantries for nothing,” she thought. “Well if you need anything, you know where to reach me.” Then she was gone, almost as quickly as she had come.

Marc stood up and walked toward the door, to meet David who was toggling the lights beside the door. “What did I say?”

“You’re right she is good.” David conceded. “Who else is like that on the crew that you haven’t told me about.”

“Well you could come to staff meetings and find out.” Marc said: he didn’t try to stifle the grin.

David laughed. “Maybe then I could prove your wrong about my doodles.”

“We’ll call it your ‘Post-Late Period: A Revival.”

“Don’t you dare.” David chuckled and playfully elbowed Marc in the ribs as they started to stroll toward their quarters.

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Network Upgrades #2

by tycho garen
14th November

Welcome to another installment of the Station Keeping story. This installment will be posted in three parts.

“Sorry I’m late,” Julia said as she walked quickly and abruptly into the bar. The lights weren’t on, but the door was unlocked, and David had told her to just walk in incase he was in his office or the store room. “Network drop reinforced, you said?” She asked, not wasting any time on pleasantries.

“Yes. That was the plan.” David said. ” You’re…”

“…Julia, we talked earlier,” she said quickly, unable to come up with a more witty response sooner.

“The tech systems administrator?”

“Aye, Sir.” she said goofily, showing the badge. on her shirt.

It was the first time that anyone on Hanm Centre had called him “sir,” in a situation that didn’t make his skin crawl. realized that she might not realized that he had been Navy. “Aren’t you a bit young for that. There must be 15 people on your staff or something.”

“Well, I have 20, right now, but I’m still looking for a few more. You know any Enhancers that want to clean up?” Julia retorted.

“Not yet, but I’ll keep you out here. Is it big out here? Enhancers, that is.”

“Bigger on Grish, they say, but I haven’t been there in the flesh for,” she paused and thought for a moment obviously counting in her head, “Well lets not try and count that one out. But yeah, there’s some on Hanm, but not enough. The node here is pretty big for the rim, and I just need more people to keep it working well,” Julia said. “I’ll get started?”

“Please do,” he said. He looked at Marc, who had a sly and pleasant grin. The good doctor still looked weary, but at least weary and entertained. Julia immediately found the access panel and plugged in her equipment with

David remained mazed with the speed, authority, and detail in Julia’s speech and behavior: not to mention her deft ability to deflect the conversation away from a topic that she didn’t want to talk about. He realized that despite her appearance, her subjective experience of age, that her chronological age might be a lot less. Relativity and interstellar did strange things to this society.

David found that his hands had gone back to dusting, and Marc had somehow produced a portable computer terminal and looked to be making some sort of notes, although they were both just trying to appear busy to decrease the awkwardness of not really having anything to do while the technology guru worked.

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Network Upgrades #1

by tycho garen
13th November

Welcome to another installment of the Station Keeping story. This installment will be posted in three parts.

Marc walked into David’s bar, “Another Round,” as the sign now read. He had just gotten done with a tiring but ultimately uneventful shift and was ready to change into more comfortable clothing. “It looks like you’re almost done here, you’re opening next friday?” Marc hadn’t been by the bar in a week or so, David knew what he was doing, or at least pretended well, and didn’t much need his input. Despite his worldly academic credentials and lengthly service record he was really mostly a homebody.

“Yeah. It’ll be good to have this weekend off, and I’d rather not have to deal with the opening and finishing up all at once.”

“You ready to head home?” He asked pointedly.

“Yeah, I’m done; but I agreed to hang around to let the tech admin come in to reinforce the network connection here, I suspect we’ll need a lot of pull when this place is full.” So mostly I’m just biding my time. He picked up the rag he was dusting with. “You have a good shift?”

“I did, but it was long, the usual run of the mill complaints mostly,” Marc said taking a seat at the bar and holding his head up with his arm. “Which is for the better, I’m afraid of what this closed system will do once we have anything more virulent than a flu, or some such,” he continued, pausing for a moment to remember anything else from the shift.” I’m never quite sure what Doctor Reese is going to do, but she’s effective and people seem to like her. Anyway, I only had one meeting today, and got a chance to work on some research: so not a bad shift just long.” Marc rambled on, for a while and then paused. He checked his time piece, “When did she say she was coming by to do the work?” he asked finally.

“About twenty minutes ago, I think. She said she’d been busy…”

“She’s always busy. The woman doesn’t sleep, it seems to me. You’d like her she’s got ‘personality,’ or something,” Marc said and laughed. “Actually you should see her doodling from our staff meetings, they rival your ‘early period,’” he said, starting to perk up a bit.

“Oh, come on, my later doodles were better, I was just in charge of the meetings during my ‘late period,’ I think I deserve some slack.” David retorted, grinning by now: of all their “canned arguments,” this one might just have been his favorite.

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Gainful Employment #2

by tycho garen
16th October

I hope you’re enjoying the knowing mars pdfs that are “airing” this week. In the mean time, as promised I have a nice two-part Station Keeping episode. It’s number 9–a sort of “day in the life” story, and you can grab the first part here. Thanks for reading.

You’re going to hire me.

David was startled when he realized there was another person in the bar, but he tried to hide it, with mild success. “Sorry, were not open yet,” David pointed at the hole in one of the walls, where he hoped to have a light fixture installed yesterday. Such was life.

“That’s alright, I’m not looking for a drink.”

“That’s good, cause it’s all warm,” David said, before he remembered that the people here drank everything warm. “Weirdos,” he thought.

“My name’s Carter.”

“I’m David.” He tapped his collar bone in identification, and suddenly felt embarrassed for his appearance: he’d been working all morning and he felt dirty.

“Well, if you don’t want a drink, and you don’t know me, then what brings you to a bar that hasn’t opened yet.” David extended the broom that was in his hand. “You wanna sweep the floors for me?” He chuckled.

“Actually, I would.” Carter took a step closer to David.

David squinted, perplexed. “Um, ok.”

“I mean, I’m looking for a job if you’re hiring.”

“Oh, right.” David hadn’t really considered hiring help, but upon reflection that seemed kind of foolish, it was a big bar and he would need help.

“Well, I don’t have anything worked out yet, of course, but yeah, we could give it a shot.”

“Great!” Carter smiled.

“No one should be that happy about getting a job helping me,” David grumbled to himself.

“Should I start now?” Carter was incredulous.

David took the broom back, “Actually, all kidding around, the floor doesn’t actually need sweeping, but how about you come back the day after tomorrow and we’ll talk? I think I should have some things for you to do by then.”

“Ok, that works. I’ll see you then!” Carter turned and left as quickly and quietly as he entered, leaving David slightly dumb struck, and a little worried about what he’d gotten himself into. At least he’d have an interesting story for Marc tonight…

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Gainful Employment #1

by tycho garen
14th October

I hope you’re enjoying the knowing mars pdfs that are “airing” this week. In the mean time, as promised I have a nice two-part Station Keeping episode. It’s number 9–a sort of “day in the life” story, and the second part will drop on Thursday. Thanks for reading.

Doctoring

“So doc, am I still alive?” Laben asked.

Marc Perrin looked over at his patient skeptically. He checked for any obvious signs of disease or previously undetected injury, and consulted the medical scanners. Which is what doctors were supposed to do. Mostly, however, he just watched. Marc had been a battle medic in a previous life–seemingly–and he was pretty good at doctoring without input from the patient.

“Seem to be,” Marc spoke softly and avoided eye contact. There was a pause before they both chuckled, it was a funny moment, but the tension didn’t really fall much.

“Why are you here again?” Marc thought that he might have missed the presenting complaint: he doubted it, but he continued to be mystified.

“Because, that’s how it works…” Laben looked quizzically at the doctor.

The awkwardness was broken up by Doctor Mahal Reese who strode in rubbing the scrub solution on her hands “Construction worker, right?” she asked.

“Yep”

“It’s policy, and a danm good one, for all of the station-employed labors to get regular checkups: we don’t want people with medical concerns going on space walks and dealing with high voltage power systems.”

“Fair enough.” Marc turned back to the patient. “We’ll you’re in great shape, may you stay that way for a long time. If your worried about anything, please fee; free to stop by,” Marc said “That was a silly thing to say, they were the only medical facility on the Station, of course he’s going to stop by.” He stood still for a moment, but it was clear that the man didn’t have any questions.

Marc he turned and left the exam area and logged into one of the computer terminals, So the patient could leave without being starred at. The medical facilities were completely abandoned, aside from the two doctors. There were a couple of techs in the adjacent lab that could assist if need be, but it was still erie. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” he thought.

“So they teach you to be distant and aloof core-side, or is that just how you are?” Reese asked after the door closed.

“Pardon?”

“You didn’t interact with Laben very much, and he was here for a physical, at least out here we typically engage the patients a bit more, and stare at them a bit less.”

“I haven’t taught at a coreside meds-chool for years, so I’m not sure what they’re teaching these days,” the doctor attempted to deflect the criticism, but realized that the flippant answer might not be completely warranted. “Though I’m okay at assessing mental health, I generally like to examine physical health by observing behavior,” he continued. “But I suppose you’re right, I haven’t given formal physicals in years, or really done a lot of routine doctoring.”

“I’m sorry that we can’t be more interesting out here, but people still need caring for, and we need you even if you are a little weird.”

Marc didn’t know how to feel, and attempted to avoid feeling entirely. “We have different approaches, as long as people get better we shouldn’t have a problem.” This was, Marc realized, an awkward way to establish himself as a leader–it was a good thing he didn’t have an interest in establishing an empire in the infirmary.

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For Glory, #2

by Josephine Goodman
19th September

Editorial Note: This Station Keeping story, For Glory, is the first story on this site to be penned by someone other than myself, and it’s one of my favorite Station Keeping stories ever. Josephine is a great writer with some great ideas about science fiction. This is the second part of the two part story. –tycho

Bella signaled Glory’s control system and the hatch slid down and locked. “Time to settle in,” she told Farraday. Glory had two small passenger cabins, and her own slightly larger quarters. For the past year she and Glory had ferried passengers and cargo to Hanm and Hanm Station. When she wanted real upgrades to Glory’s near-AI system, she had to travel out of the Hanm system, through enhancer underground territory. She’d considered herself lucky that Farraday’s contract dovetailed her own wishes.

After requesting her path from flight control, she locked it in. Docking clamps released, engine purred, steering jets sequenced; acceleration; and the world dropped away.

Farraday was polite, quiet, stayed to himself, as always. Nevertheless he haunted Bella’s thoughts. She didn’t upload the algorithm, and that frustration nagged her every time she webbed into the pilot’s couch. She even imagined the ship itself waiting, mirroring her own impatience. But she couldn’t allow a cyber upgrade when Farraday had become an unknown factor. Why had the broker been in a shop specializing in underground tech? Of course, Jebba also carried legit gear, but apprehension took over Bella’s mind. Was her passenger working as undercover security? Or did Glory carry something illegal, hidden within Farraday’s crates?

She needed to know. She couldn’t stand the idea of docking at Hamn’s, not knowing what risk she ran at customs. There were Navy on Hanm Station. Navy! The last thing she needed was trouble with Navy.

From the main console Bella could link through her implants to ship sensors, programs and processors. Each system of the ship was an extension of herself. Or perhaps she became an extension of the ship. She wasn’t sure which way of thinking was more true. Now Bella swung a camera eye and processing node down from the cargo bay ceiling, hovering above the crates. She flicked through routines and subroutines and watched spectrums appear on her retinal implant. She programmed for comparisons, analyses, anomalies. And she found the contents of four of the crates differed from the rest, as if the modules contained extra hardware and circuitry. What would those extra components become when they were removed and brought together? Sure nothing innocent, or they would not have been concealed.

Something jolted Bella from her remote-sensing; a sound at the door to the command compartment. Grabbing a hand-hold, she pulled out from the couch, and slid back the door. Farraday stood in the corridor, feet slipped into foot-holds. He looked at her and smiled. “I thought you’d be able to find out, but I didn’t think it would be so soon.” She felt surprise and shock flit across her expression. “Do you imagine you’re the only one with extra wiring?” He said, then smiled again and shook his head. “It’s just as well that you know. We’ve formed a sort of partnership now; you and I and Glory.”

“No way!” She cried. “God, you are trouble.”

He reached out his hand, nearly touching the star on her head, and she pulled back. “Mutual secrets; mutual trouble,” he told her.

She signaled the door closed; it slid between them. But she knew that separation was more illusion than reality.

Bella pulled back into her couch webbing; she watched info icons drift through display windows, ship-nodes blink in gleaming patterns, input ports still dark and waiting. She wondered if she’d ever dare upload the algorithm now. Or if she and Glory were headed Glory, into a new life, beyond her control.

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For Glory, #1

by Josephine Goodman
18th September

Editorial Note: This Station Keeping story, For Glory, is the first story on this site to be penned by someone other than myself, and it’s one of my favorite Station Keeping stories ever. Josephine is a great writer with some great ideas about science fiction. I’m posting it in two parts, and I hope you enjoy. –tycho

“Umbilicals retracted. Confirming release for ILS Glory, from Grish, destination Hanm.” Bella toggled out of communication with docking central. She blinked, and glanced through read-outs for navigation diagnostics, engine readiness and life support. “Good. So very good,” she told her ship. Then she went from the pilot’s compartment, through the corridor and out the main hatch.

Twenty-minutes before lift-off, and Bella was feeling fine, eager for the freedom of space and between-time. She’d finally found a splicing algorithm that should take Glory’s cybernetics to the next level, but of course she couldn’t upload it till she was offworld. Though the port authorities didn’t routinely scan outgoing ships for illegal tech or code, they could and sometimes did. But searches were more often made for other types of contraband. Most security forces didn’t take seriously the possibility of AI development, though it was illegal on every settled world.

For now, she kept the algorithm compressed within the shimmering green star bonded to her left temple. The biometallic bonding itself was not uncommon, nor were her retinal implants. They were the newest, fashionable way of storing and using entertainment ‘ware. But Bella had paid dearly for the hidden, interwoven layers of circuitry contained within the shell of her star.

By necessity Bella hauled passengers as well as freight. Glory’s higher-tier systems were secreted behind defensive programs, unavailable to to any but serious hackers. She harbored no suspicions about her present passenger; it was the second time Lorne Farraday had traveled with her. But then coincidence intruded.

One of her enhancer contacts worked part-time maintenance at Grish’s docks. She hadn’t realized he was nearby, until suddenly their glances met as Dvorak climbed the rungs to the nearest catwalk. “Better watch out for that one, Bel, if he’s riding with you,” Dvorak’s message surprised her, texting tightbeam into her retinal window. Only other enhancers, and few of those, knew her access code. “Huh? Tech enforcement?” Bella’s augmented finger-tips seemed to idly tap one another, as she replied.

“Don’t know. But I saw him in Jebba’s geek-gear front not long ago.”

“Blast! I’ll have to ride it out. Already signed the contract. Thanks.” Bella strode from Glory’s midsection to the cargo hold. Lorne Farraday stood watching as a handler remote-tugged the last of his seven crates into the hold. According to the paperwork, the crates held upgrade modules for automated industrial assembly. The modules were manufactured on Grish’s orbital facility and brokered by Farraday for industries on Hanm.

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