SilverMorph
The Wait Calculation
"Did I ever tell you about the time I stumbled on a pre-colonization Life ship? If you want to hear it then you're buying the next round of drinks. Okay, so me and Gerrick and the old gang are drug running in the Far Rim (you know that fuck-off lawless shitehole in the outer galaxy?) and we're avoiding all the main trade routes in case we get picked up by rival privateers or worse - ITO. Anyway, we staying way off the beaten track and suddenly our scanners reveal this object in our way. The boys reckon it's just a destroyed fuel depot or something but we disengage from Warp Drive to check it out just in case. As we pull up in front of it, two things click in my mind. First of all, this fucking thing was big. Not as big as a destroyer or Dreadnought but certainly larger than your average run-of-the-mill space junk. Secondly, it has all these strange acronyms and markings on it like "NASA-CNSA". That's when we knew it was old-ass tech. We boarded it to find out more.
And that's where things got real creepy. Through the airlock was, like, this long corridor. It went on into the dark in either direction because only a few of the lights actually worked. I take Allers, Johanne and Crazy Dave down the left hand corridor; Gerrick takes the others down the right. As we walk, our torches keep passing over these tube-like machines. Sort of like cryostasis pods but more crude. So far they've all been empty or misted up or whatever but as we reach this one pod, I can make out a shape in it. We get near to it and what we see makes me totally freak the fuck out. A human corpse. Like, not a skeleton. Just a partially decayed body. Now, I've seen some shit during my time with the Red Fists but nothing this... eerie. The poor bastard is still in his space suit. And the thing looks brand new, not a trace of damage anywhere. On the chest it had "NASA" printed in large text, and underneath:
"Life Ship Geneva - Mission Commander".
______________________________________
In case you don't know, the Wait Calculation is the idea that "continued growth will inhibit setting out for the stars because travelers expect to be overtaken by later travelers who have faster speeds at their disposal".
The Wait Calculation
"Did I ever tell you about the time I stumbled on a pre-colonization Life ship? If you want to hear it then you're buying the next round of drinks. Okay, so me and Gerrick and the old gang are drug running in the Far Rim (you know that fuck-off lawless shitehole in the outer galaxy?) and we're avoiding all the main trade routes in case we get picked up by rival privateers or worse - ITO. Anyway, we staying way off the beaten track and suddenly our scanners reveal this object in our way. The boys reckon it's just a destroyed fuel depot or something but we disengage from Warp Drive to check it out just in case. As we pull up in front of it, two things click in my mind. First of all, this fucking thing was big. Not as big as a destroyer or Dreadnought but certainly larger than your average run-of-the-mill space junk. Secondly, it has all these strange acronyms and markings on it like "NASA-CNSA". That's when we knew it was old-ass tech. We boarded it to find out more.
And that's where things got real creepy. Through the airlock was, like, this long corridor. It went on into the dark in either direction because only a few of the lights actually worked. I take Allers, Johanne and Crazy Dave down the left hand corridor; Gerrick takes the others down the right. As we walk, our torches keep passing over these tube-like machines. Sort of like cryostasis pods but more crude. So far they've all been empty or misted up or whatever but as we reach this one pod, I can make out a shape in it. We get near to it and what we see makes me totally freak the fuck out. A human corpse. Like, not a skeleton. Just a partially decayed body. Now, I've seen some shit during my time with the Red Fists but nothing this... eerie. The poor bastard is still in his space suit. And the thing looks brand new, not a trace of damage anywhere. On the chest it had "NASA" printed in large text, and underneath:
"Life Ship Geneva - Mission Commander".
______________________________________
In case you don't know, the Wait Calculation is the idea that "continued growth will inhibit setting out for the stars because travelers expect to be overtaken by later travelers who have faster speeds at their disposal".