《Emerald》Malfunction
Advertisement
Mil has problems concentrating on her project. Dray and Koshi left with the shuttle early in the morning, Andrej gives Carlos a hand with the engine. She hasn't heard of them for hours. They left it to her to solve the riddle of the forest's edge. But she had no success formulating useful theories nor delivering real results yet. A knot is forming in her neck. She tries to massage it away and leans back to watch the progress of the shuttle. At first, Dray flew a few rounds above the landing site and its immediate vicinity. Mil compared the pictures with those from their initial approach. Nothing really changed with the exception of the forest recuperating part of the burnt surface.
Now, the shuttle pushes over endless wilderness towards the pole region. Koshi wants to check for better settlement areas in more moderate latitudes. The question of intelligent life occupying the forest is still unanswered and certainly nagging at all their minds. In addition, Mil mulls over Koshi's suggestion the forest might be a deliberate plantation. Her current hypothesis doesn't contradict this interpretation. It doesn't prove it either. She rubs her temples against a developing headache and turns back to her work. If there is intelligent life on Emerald, there must be a hint towards it.
With tired steps Andrej and Carlos enter the lab together. Their faces show clearly their desperation. Mil gets up to fetch some coffee for the three of them. In the meantime, Andrej bows over her current calculation, interest lighting up his grey eyes. She cobbled together a climate model for he last 15'000 Emerald years. Carlos keeps staring silently at his hands, a scowl on his face. Mil hands him a steaming cup.
"How major is our problem, Carlos?"
"Major major, I guess. The Harris-values were right, they told us we had a problem right from the beginning. Why didn't I see this immediately?"
Advertisement
Clueless, Mil shifts her gaze from the technician to Andrej. He shrugs in resignation.
"What Carlos tries telling you, is that we might have realised already when leaving transfer there was a real problem. But this wouldn't have changed anything at our current situation. Before pushing out of the gravity well and reentering transfer we would have had to shut down the plasma chamber anyway. Thus, we would have been at the same point we are now."
"Would one of you guys please try to explain the situation in very simple words for a clueless biologist? As far as I know, the Harris-values and the Mellow-accumulator have absolutely nothing to to with each other."
Carlos empties his cup in one long draft and sets it down on the examination table.
"The Harris-values are supposed to enable easy control of the correct interaction of all components between the plasma chamber and the engine itself. When we searched for the malfunction in orbit, we checked each and every component of the chamber and the engines several times. Everything looked fine and still does. But, as a clever addition, the Harris-values show as well how much energy the Mashito-converter regains to ensure the cooling of the chamber. The rate of recovery was even a bit above average. And this detail should have alarmed me. Obviously the alternator of the Gemini-components didn't work, a part that is supposed to be indestructible. It's pure 20th century mechanic and feeds energy into the Mellow-accumulator, think of it as the bumper for the starter motor. When we used the main engine to clear the landing site, the initial thrust and additional energy consumption emptied the storage completely and destroyed the matrix. Which means we ended up with a perfectly functional engine but without any possibility to restart it."
Advertisement
Tiredly, Carlos closes his eyes. Mil looks hopefully at Andrej, but the astrophysicist's face remains stern, the usual spark in his eyes is gone.
"As I said, it was bound to happen sooner or later. There was no possibility to let the engine run under atmospheric conditions during the whole mission. Carlos is able to replace or repair the alternator. But if we want to travel home in this ship, we will have to find a possibility to bypass the accumulator."
"That sounds like something Koshi ought to hear, don't you think?"
"He'll hear about it early enough. At the moment, we can't do anything - except finding a way to initiate the starting sequence without the bumper energy of the Mellow. Ideas are welcome."
Deep in thoughts, Mil watches the untouched green expanses of the forest. The shuttle still cruises at high speed above this treacherously beautiful landscape. Koshi's voice from the speaker jolts the three of them out of different morose thoughts.
"Mil, check out the light green patch down here. Doesn't this look like a nursery?"
Advertisement
Memories (Completed)
Jacob woke up in a hospital with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He realised very soon that he had lost more than his memories. His girlfriend, who was with him, was murdered. He is now out to find the person responsible and take revenge. But how difficult will it be when he can't even remember the person who he has lost or even anything about himself. Author's Note: This will be a short story, and I plan to finish it soon. I used to hate when stories were left incomplete. So I promise not to do that. This is my first story ever. So please provide your feedback in any way you can. Enjoy the story
8 116The Line-Drive
"'Bye.' I say after Edwin's kiss. He gives me a small smile that honestly looks more like a grimace. It makes me a little uncomfortable having him kiss me in the library. Edwin walks away, and someone standing in the corner of my vision makes me turn in my seat. A tall, muscular man is standing there, his arms crossed, staring at me. He's got dark brown hair, perfect eyebrows, and soft brown eyes. Honestly, he's gorgeous. And since I've read, and edited, about five articles about him, I recognize him immediately.Dane Sawyer. He's the best pitcher on our baseball team. He's hoping to go pro, although I'm not totally sure what the process is surrounding that, since I don't retain much of the information from the articles that I read about him. I know that he's also a junior, and that his girlfriend is hot as fuck. I've seen them together on campus. They're hard to miss because they are easily one of the most attractive couples that I've ever seen. I'm convinced that I must be hallucinating, because he makes eye contact and walks towards me. 'That was awkward.'"~~~Junior year is starting off chaotic for Mackenzie Brooks as she steps into her role as the editor-in-chief of the college's newspaper. She's smart, focused on school, the paper, and her TA responsibilities. Junior year should be starting off easy for Dane Sawyer. He's the star pitcher of the baseball team; attractive, athletic, desirable, with a hot girlfriend. Unfortunately, he's also failing computer science which is the one thing he sees that is in the way of his pro career. Different in more ways that one, when the two run into each other in the library, it's an immediate disaster. But when Dane convinces Mackenzie to be his tutor, both of their lives begin to change.
8 176The author is insane
Welcome to my blog I'm the AUTHOR I want to write stuff. The story, characters, and incidents portrayed in this story are entirely fictitious. No relation with actual persons (living or deceased), places, events and products is intended or should be inferred. Reader discretion is advised.
8 161That Isn't My Imaginary Friend(Cancelled)
We all grow up to have our type of imaginary friend. But this isn't an imaginary friend situation, it's something that lives to survive of fresh souls.
8 159Unethical Service provider
Do you want to kill someone, or do you want some secret information stolen from the government's top-secret office? We provide all kinds of unethical services. You just name the job, we will do it. Remember, we don't do good things because we are Unethical Service Providers.
8 9848 Hours
Currently on HIATUS. Can you imagine living the same 48 hours over and over again? Martin has. In fact, he has relived the same 48 hours twenty three times and counting. How? He doesn't know. He wants to find out. He's a coward though. It'll be hard. But eventually? He'll get there. Updates irregularly. Usually once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less.
8 117