To: the Idiot Riggers in Habitation Module 4V and Their Damn-Fool Party Friends Re: Your Still Yes, I know about your still. No, I’m not going to shut you down, because if you don’t have the still I know about, you’ll just set up one l don’
“Yeah, no. Just because you cooked it over the reactor doesn’t make it fusion cuisine!“
It’s A Small World After All: Partially justified, in that (a) there are generally a limited set of places to land – Landing, Star City, Phílae Interstellar Starport, Stationary Station, etc., and (b) most people who have any sort of regular offworld dealings live there, or maintain offices there, or
Reminded that I meant to occasionally feature things like this here by it, let me quote to you a little of Joshua A. C. Newman’s review of Rosemary Kirstein’s Steerswoman series: “The Steerswoman is an extraordinary speculative fiction series by Rosemary Kirstein. So far, it exists in the
Technically, this is a trope-a-day from much later in the cycle, but seeing as (a) I just wrote it up having been thinking about it recently, (b) I’m sure at least some of my readers have been wondering about the very common use of reaction drives in the Eldraeverse
ISO Standard Human Spaceship: They’re “realistic” designs, involving designing for microgravity, with nuclear engines out on the end of long trusses and no particular need to worry about aerodynamics or putting all your machinery inside the pressure hull, but — 1. They’re not painted grey or left as uncolored
For anyone wondering about the origin of this particular evocative phrase for those regrettable times when one must intervene with the hardware personally, it dates back to those wonderful round-about-the-Industrial-Revolution-equivalent days, when life was steampunk only without the punk, and when computation was done and equipment was run by twelve
“Listen up, girder monkeys! Your job for today is to put the bridge in the Starwing-class courier floatin’ behind us. My job for today is to make sure you do it right.” “Now, you are asking yourselves why the admins here at Islien have decided in their wisdom to put
In Working Order: Usually averted (except in cases where the artifacts include what are, functionally, people), despite Ragnarok Proofing – most elder-race artifacts are found after time periods adequate for even vigorous Ragnarok Proofing to have been overtaken by entropy, or overwhelmed by whatever was responsible for said species not being
Ragnarok Proofing: Played straight. Apart from being better built in the first place (after all, when you can expect to live for something on the far side of a thousand years, you don’t go around building houses that will only last mere decades or centuries – and much the same
WARNING: AIRLOCK SAFETY PROCEDURES 1. Personnel must wear vacuum suits before exiting the starship if so indicated by crimson-caution telltales. (Any exceptions must possess “vacuum-capable” endorsement countersigned by Environmental Systems Engineer.) Follow instructions posted in airlock chamber. 2. In an emergency, caution enforcement system may be disabled by opening emergency
Invocation: Yeah, for quite a few people – mostly the “freelance adventurer” type that causes so much trouble in the Galaxy. But Rule of Cool is in effect in-universe – that’s just melodrama, (or, if you prefer, pretension). Whatever tech they’re using to hero it up would work just fine