We Possess, So It Seems, One Of Man’s Greatest Dreams: Author’s Notes

For those who didn’t catch the reference in the title of that last fic-a-day, the reference was to the chorus of the filk piece Home on Lagrange (The L5 Song), copyright 1978 by William S. Higgins and Barry D. Gehm.

The lyrics are as follows:

Oh, give me a locus where the gravitons focus
Where the three-body problem is solved,
Where the microwaves play down at three degrees K,
And the cold virus never evolved.

CHORUS:

Home, home on LaGrange,
Where the space debris always collects,
We possess, so it seems, two of Man’s greatest dreams:
Solar power and zero-gee sex.

We eat algae pie, our vacuum is high,
Our ball bearings are perfectly round.
Our horizon is curved, our warheads are MIRVed,
And a kilogram weighs half a pound.

(chorus)

If we run out of space for our burgeoning race
No more Lebensraum left for the Mensch
When we’re ready to start, we can take Mars apart,
If we just find a big enough wrench.

(chorus)

I’m sick of this place, it’s just McDonald’s in space,
And living up here is a bore.
Tell the shiggies, “Don’t cry,” they can kiss me goodbye
‘Cause I’m moving next week to L4!

(chorus)

We Possess, So It Seems, One Of Man’s Greatest Dreams

1 Let’s see, status board – blue across?

2 Blue across here, check.

1 Cabin ventilation; filters to micro, flow to high, temperature down to set-point 20.

2 Check.

1 Access panels stowed and covered?

2 Check.

1 Got the tethers and jets?

2 Right here.  Honey wine, my dear?

1 Ah, thank you.  [pause] Oh, and cabin transcript recorder – off.

2 [giggle] Che-

[loss of audio signal; telemetry recording continues]

– transcript of Spaceflight Initiative mission Orbital Rendezvous