The year is 2130 and Andrew Silvayn is the first
person to step foot on Jupiter. Well, hover not step...
"....but really, that's beside the point." Andrew 'Sil' Silvayn had heard this sort of dialogue between CONTROL and Dr. Samantha Dee more times than he could at this point stomach and just turned them down.
It was a strange moment. The safety-line connected his Mark.VII Suit with the hovering explorer craft "SIG" but he felt like he wanted to give them more than just a standard "astronaut makes amazing first-line stepping on alien world"-line. But he got nothing, just blank, as if his mind refused to help him immortalize himself.
"Sil, please come in." Dr.Dee would not rest of course. As one of seven, she was the main craft operator sitting in Orbit thousands of meters above. A tiny speck of blinking light, the main spacecraft of the ZEUS mission, the ISV Argo sat at the lowest possible orbit it could go without having to divert even more power to the engines trying to overcome Jupiter's enormous gravitational pull, some 27 kilometers above him and the SIG.
Yet, here Andrew was, thinking so very hard about what to say that he had to turn up the chatter again to answer. Short breaths, trying to make sure whatever he gave next would be one for the history books.
"This is Andrew Sylvain. I have entered the storm zone." - "Nice Answer Sil, but we're not yet broadcasting audio." - "Oh fuck off!"
That made for a chuckle on the Argo. While Dee continued instructing Sil, the others, Simon 'Sim' Dubchek, Cary 'CJ' Jorgen, Adam Traveler (Dr. Traveler as he was never slow to remind the others and "don't you dare give me a nickname, you imbecile!"), Jean-Luc 'Cptn' Muller (he hated that joke so much.) ran the tests needed while Sil was the one CONTROL had chosen for the limelight.
Clearly, this galled especially Traveler more than the others, as he continued to incessantly write in his reports. "As a man of science, we should never put forth the sensational where the advancement of all humanity is concerned. It's positively primal for us to leave out the xenoscientists and bring down a strongman in a suit."
CJ on the other hand was in contact with the final member of their crew, Isaac 'Ike' Rykers, who stayed on the SIG making sure that the connection between Sil and Argo was kept stable. Also it somewhat kept Ike sane having CJ on the side-channel.
"Everything looks good so far. Holding up down there?" There was a tinge of care, of compassion in his voice for someone he had grown fond of over time. Still, CJ was a professional. "Yes. Yeeees. Yeeeeeeeesssss." - "Three yesses? You must be positively burning up with glee." - "Provided everything goes well, you mean?" - "That too." - "CJ, we're on the forefront of human endeavours in this century. How could I not be? You know." - "Point. Ready for the next round of readings?" - "How long till we're live?" - "We've been live this whole time, but don't tell Sil." There was a strong chuckle on the other hand as he told him. "Okay, let's see, pressure is good, we're still at the 1 Bar level. We're at the safety zone of 197 meters, 196, 197 meters stable or round about so." - "Great. Keep that position and we're dandy." - "Champagne when we get back?" - "Big party?" - "Oh, just with a friend." - "The big bottle then." - "Trust me, we're gonna need it.
In the background, some lights flickered, some consoles gave further read-outs. Traveler walked over to Dee, tapped her shoulder lightly. "Yes Dr.Traveler?" He pointed to the side-screens. "There are atmospheric fluctuations coming. Tell him to be faster." She nodded, turned back to the communicator, all business."Sil, we have reports of fluctuations coming, can you begin returning to the vessel in ten minutes?"
And meanwhile, Sim frowned, as he read the console output. He went over to Cptn and they recalculated the movement. Cptn looked at him as if he had gone insane. Sim took the readout back, then sat down at his station again, switched the com to the SIG. "Sorry to disturb you two lovebirds..." and ignored the protests from both in his characteristically deep tone "Ike, did you note those movements in sector C12?"
It took them a moment before Ike answered. "Are those the fluctuations Dee mentioned on Channel 1? Why does it look so weird?" with Sim going "Does it remind you of anything?". They could hear the suprise in CJ's voice. "Fuck me, it does look like an eye."
Sim's hands flew over the console, putting in numbers, formulars, an algorithm to determine visual output. He sent it down to the SIG. "Ike, run these lines for me? You're closer and I am kind of curious what we're getting from it."
It took some seconds, before Ike answered. "Ike? CJ, are coms down again?"
Ike's voice sounded distorted. "No, I heard you. I don't think I can run those lines for the sensors on the eye." - "Why, did the fluctuation disappear?"
"No. The eye...it just blinked."
It was a strange moment. The safety-line connected his Mark.VII Suit with the hovering explorer craft "SIG" but he felt like he wanted to give them more than just a standard "astronaut makes amazing first-line stepping on alien world"-line. But he got nothing, just blank, as if his mind refused to help him immortalize himself.
"Sil, please come in." Dr.Dee would not rest of course. As one of seven, she was the main craft operator sitting in Orbit thousands of meters above. A tiny speck of blinking light, the main spacecraft of the ZEUS mission, the ISV Argo sat at the lowest possible orbit it could go without having to divert even more power to the engines trying to overcome Jupiter's enormous gravitational pull, some 27 kilometers above him and the SIG.
Yet, here Andrew was, thinking so very hard about what to say that he had to turn up the chatter again to answer. Short breaths, trying to make sure whatever he gave next would be one for the history books.
"This is Andrew Sylvain. I have entered the storm zone." - "Nice Answer Sil, but we're not yet broadcasting audio." - "Oh fuck off!"
That made for a chuckle on the Argo. While Dee continued instructing Sil, the others, Simon 'Sim' Dubchek, Cary 'CJ' Jorgen, Adam Traveler (Dr. Traveler as he was never slow to remind the others and "don't you dare give me a nickname, you imbecile!"), Jean-Luc 'Cptn' Muller (he hated that joke so much.) ran the tests needed while Sil was the one CONTROL had chosen for the limelight.
Clearly, this galled especially Traveler more than the others, as he continued to incessantly write in his reports. "As a man of science, we should never put forth the sensational where the advancement of all humanity is concerned. It's positively primal for us to leave out the xenoscientists and bring down a strongman in a suit."
CJ on the other hand was in contact with the final member of their crew, Isaac 'Ike' Rykers, who stayed on the SIG making sure that the connection between Sil and Argo was kept stable. Also it somewhat kept Ike sane having CJ on the side-channel.
"Everything looks good so far. Holding up down there?" There was a tinge of care, of compassion in his voice for someone he had grown fond of over time. Still, CJ was a professional. "Yes. Yeeees. Yeeeeeeeesssss." - "Three yesses? You must be positively burning up with glee." - "Provided everything goes well, you mean?" - "That too." - "CJ, we're on the forefront of human endeavours in this century. How could I not be? You know." - "Point. Ready for the next round of readings?" - "How long till we're live?" - "We've been live this whole time, but don't tell Sil." There was a strong chuckle on the other hand as he told him. "Okay, let's see, pressure is good, we're still at the 1 Bar level. We're at the safety zone of 197 meters, 196, 197 meters stable or round about so." - "Great. Keep that position and we're dandy." - "Champagne when we get back?" - "Big party?" - "Oh, just with a friend." - "The big bottle then." - "Trust me, we're gonna need it.
In the background, some lights flickered, some consoles gave further read-outs. Traveler walked over to Dee, tapped her shoulder lightly. "Yes Dr.Traveler?" He pointed to the side-screens. "There are atmospheric fluctuations coming. Tell him to be faster." She nodded, turned back to the communicator, all business."Sil, we have reports of fluctuations coming, can you begin returning to the vessel in ten minutes?"
And meanwhile, Sim frowned, as he read the console output. He went over to Cptn and they recalculated the movement. Cptn looked at him as if he had gone insane. Sim took the readout back, then sat down at his station again, switched the com to the SIG. "Sorry to disturb you two lovebirds..." and ignored the protests from both in his characteristically deep tone "Ike, did you note those movements in sector C12?"
It took them a moment before Ike answered. "Are those the fluctuations Dee mentioned on Channel 1? Why does it look so weird?" with Sim going "Does it remind you of anything?". They could hear the suprise in CJ's voice. "Fuck me, it does look like an eye."
Sim's hands flew over the console, putting in numbers, formulars, an algorithm to determine visual output. He sent it down to the SIG. "Ike, run these lines for me? You're closer and I am kind of curious what we're getting from it."
It took some seconds, before Ike answered. "Ike? CJ, are coms down again?"
Ike's voice sounded distorted. "No, I heard you. I don't think I can run those lines for the sensors on the eye." - "Why, did the fluctuation disappear?"
"No. The eye...it just blinked."
[Basierend auf dem Writing Prompt von r/WritingPrompts]
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen