Story of Titans
Erik was nearly done unpacking the parcel he received. Many were things that couldn’t be manufactured on Seraph. The station had a limited capacity to fabricate objects, far inferior to those found in the flying cities. Yet, the station’s fabrication was sufficient. It could make organic matter, synthetically aged items, various polymers, and so on. But, it required very special equipment to create organic matter that worked, and even more so to create it at scale.
Ania walked with large strides, her head up, arms swinging by her side. Her pace would have been slowed by others had the hallways been any more lively, but instead she could glide around the station unimpeded.
She was one of the few pilots on the station. Seraph didn’t need many. The other pilots were largely elusive, invested in their own work. Ania was the most social, perhaps because she didn’t have a lab of her own.
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Ania was stepping out of her small ship. It was barely large enough for her and the technology it carried. “Thanks for letting me assist with your experiments,” she said. Obrad reiterated a point he had made some time before, “If it is too troublesome, I can remote control a drone.”
“I asked to help, remember?”— of course Obrad remembered — “It is a good excuse to fly some more.”
Beneficial published on
His finger brushed the air a projection occupied, and a console retracted into the wall. Obrad brought with him a mess of a console to replace it with. “Test console installed” he spoke to the array of microphones that dotted the station, “performing diagnostics. Ania, are you ready to go?”
“Ready, Obrad” a disembodied voice spoke. The voice belonged to the individual in a small ship only visible to the naked eye with exterior lights switched on.
Targets published on
The gravity shifted as the ship in dock four began to take off.
“Seraph Station, this is captain Vyroe of the Neptune ship Condor, requesting departure.”
“This is Seraph Station. Captain Vyroe, the gate will open momentarily. Have a safe flight.”
A wall of energy flickered in front of the ship. Several beams of light emanated from corners of the docking room, concentrating on a single point. A rainbow of colors swirled around the point, growing until it took up the entire wall.
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The ship contained in the room was tiny only compared to other vessels. It still towered several dozen meters above them. Several robotic arms were unloading the ship, and a woman in captains’ regalia waved her hand over a projection, reviewing times and manifests.
Ethel tapped a screen, and an arm moved to hold a small metal container in front of her. She took the box, and studied the labelling carefully.
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Erik straightened himself like a soldier at attention and held a fist to his chest. “Transport from Neptune is docked. You have new materials awaiting.” he spoke formally. Ethel pulled herself up. Erik knew that she need not be appraised of the docking. “Thank you” she mentioned nonetheless, thinking of when the complete the eighth trial. Incomplete science might as well have never begun.
Erik’s arms fell beside him. “I will go with you.
Seraph published on
Ethel spoke her confidence softly. No ears had to hear her- only an array of microphones around her. “Trial six of eight” the vibrations in the air carried the words, “The particle decayed after 12 seconds into its quantum components. Automated tests show it held a maximum of two-thousand four-hundred fifty nine megapascals.”
A switch flicked, and Ethel pushed it back down. “Beginning trial seven of eight.” A whirring commotion came to a stop, and Ethel took down another container from the source of the noise and pushed it into another device.
Pascal published on
A photon is trapped within it’s star for thousands of years before escaping. Once out, it darts in a single direction unimpeded. The chances to see any particular photon approaches zero. The vastness of space is simply too much. A photon is wasted, you could say. What is light’s purpose if not to illuminate something? And even so, it can only do so through enormous quantities.
The sun rose again over the horizon.