Drunkard's Walk Forums

ETA: Okay, ninjaed by Fnord, who has a point.
However...
There are at least two reasons for a Mundane government or individual to be extremely interested in what happens in space. First, every single Rock is a potential extinction event, and so on. The Fen, if they decided to become such, are to the point where they could present any Earthside government with serious problems. In short, there's dangerous shit in space. Second, what's true now may not neccessarily be so in the future, that is, there are big investment opportunities in space, ones that, from what's been seen of them so far, just might pay off within the lifetimes of those now living - if not the investor's, then his kids'. I mean, two planets worth of real estate.
That said, will Mundane governments or individuals be shelling out a major portion of their yearly budget on space stuff? No. They have much bigger fish to fry in the mean time... but even a couple cents on the dollar salted away or invested towards the terraforming projects adds up to a lot when you're talking about numbers the size of the Mundane world, and it's not as though a lot of their other interests can't also be used to forward their agenda in space. After all, that tech that NASA's got such a huge damn budget for reverse engineering has to get tested...
A horse might not think about flicking its tail, but the flies on its back sure as hell notice.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

In order to keep the Dane's out of space as much as possible, it might be wise to make it harder to obtain hardtech from handwavium.
And if the Fens are willing to haul satellites up into space, it's likely that a lot of the economic motive for space programmes will dry up, so only the science based ones are still in business. And they don't use handwavium because it's
a) dangerous, and
b) cheating.
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

also becase it makes things unreliable and unpredictable - and removing sources of unreliability/unpredictability is *key* when you're working out scientific principles. Even tiny infections of handwavium dust can do bizarre and inexplicable things in the wrong place. The hardtech scientific outposts in space are *clean*.

You are forgetting the obvious solution, handwavium doesn't work well for/with mundanes. The more interesting you are (using interesting as defined by Haruhi) the better handwavium works.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

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However...

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I'm not going to go so far as to say that the Mundanes will competely ignore Fenspace (the general public might - Fandom is at best composed of sideshow freaks for them) but their interaction with Fenspace is limited at best. Spies (CIA, MI5, MSS, FSB, etc.) among the fen are only logical. Embassies at Port Luna & an uneasy alliance between NASA and USAF personnel at a fen-built research station at L4 are one thing. Every idiot government on the planet having a 'wavetech space program is another.
(Aside to ECSNorway: On further thought, it occurs that the Glovals in the AF/NASA/TSAB would see Fenspace as the Trouble Out There that needs defending from. Might think about that a bit.)
As for investment opportunities, I think we're looking at a bit of a mental disconnect. Most companies don't think in the kind of long-term investment that terraforming means. Mundanes who're thinking about getting rich off handwavium will be thinking about applying it to terrestrial problems. Like, for example, building superefficient solar cells, or biofuel generators, new pharmaceuticals, that sort of thing. Holographic TVs and cameras for better porn movies. (A good leading indicator on the success of new media technology, I might add.)
Eventually, yes, the Mundanes will come out to play in the grander solar system. But that eventually is still a long ways off by the timeframe of the SOS-dan Convention and the immediate events following it.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

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You are forgetting the obvious solution, handwavium doesn't work well for/with mundanes. The more interesting you are (using interesting as defined by Haruhi) the better handwavium works.

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*gape*
...that's brilliant.

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

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It often surprises people to learn that I can't vamp worth a damn. A large part of the art of winkling information out of people without their noticing - or otherwise convincing them to tell you what they know they shouldn't - is the self-confidence to that says, subconciously, that you are someone worth impressing like that. That's something that develops over a lifetime, not just in a few years... and during the period where I would have learned that faith in myself, if this were my natural face and body, I was, well, a fat white guy.
Kinda hard to project sexy when the greater share of your hindbrain is convinced that a low-cut top would mostly end up revealing hair and lard.
So, no. I don't do humint. Even dressed as a potato Stace is better at it than I am. Which is why, once we were finished eating, I gave her a kiss and left her chatting with the two girls in the next booth over about the best way to put together a 'real' senshi uniform.
(For the record: They're all wrong, though Stace is closest. Take a full body suit with thermoptic camo, the best protection you can get, and the fit of an ultralight space suit - ie, somewhere between spandex and a coat of paint - add armored reinforcements on gloves, boots, and upper chest, then add bows and a little frilly skirt while tuning its colors to match either the desired pattern or the skin underneath.)
And while she was networking, I started groveling through Magellan's lift and shipping records. It was just as painstaking and time-consuming a task as you'd expect, but surprisingly interesting.
Like, for instance, tracking the twenty-eight day cycle of chocolate imports across the years since Magellan opened. Or the accident responsible for the sudden hike in gas prices that had derailed my last trip home.
What I wasn't expecting to find was something like a schedule of regular shuttles labeled 'Drug Runner 919' or something, and I didn't.
But.
The DEA's data on the street spread and method of production for the drug left two real choices for its makers.
1. That broadleaf was being harvested and then shipped offplanet for processing. This was the harder method to stop once found, since it meant that the labs that actually produced the drug could be literally anywhere in the solar system, but the tonnage of material it required moving every year was staggering - and would be noticable, one way or the other. If it were spread out through many individual shipments, there'd be rumors and such for Stace to pick up. If it went out in only a few large loads, then they'd be clearly visible in these records.
2. That the production lab - or labs - had actually been put on the planet's surface. Since the air temperature at ground level was still enough to clean an oven, that would've required some serious environmental gear, which would've needed to come down all at once. Ships that big landed on Venus proper somewhere between 'rarely' and 'never', and checking for such would produce a short list of possibilities to follow up in more detail.
Of course, if it had been a stealthed ship, or if the records had been altered, or if that trail was just too cold to identify, then we were just about shit outta luck. In the pure and unadulterated form, you could fit a year's worth of production in a single large suitcase - good luck tracking that.
As it happened, it didn't come to that.

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Hm. Not the last of what I've got written, but I'm kinda sick of typing for the moment.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

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As for investment opportunities, I think we're looking at a bit of a mental disconnect. Most companies don't think in the kind of long-term investment that terraforming means. Mundanes who're thinking about getting rich off handwavium will be thinking about applying it to terrestrial problems. Like, for example, building superefficient solar cells, or biofuel generators, new pharmaceuticals, that sort of thing. Holographic TVs and cameras for better porn movies.

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This doesn't mean that there isn't trade with Mundanes, of course, just that the trade tends to be Fens taking stuff too and from Earth, with no 'Dane involvement outside the atmosphere. (it'd be bad enough inside the atmoshphere)
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

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This doesn't mean that there isn't trade with Mundanes, of course, just that the trade tends to be Fens taking stuff too and from Earth, with no 'Dane involvement outside the atmosphere. (it'd be bad enough inside the atmoshphere)

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As we've already established in-story, yeah.
..and fuckit, if people need a reason why fen have warpdrives and deflector shields while mundanes have solar cells and holocams, point 'em at Catty's explanation. Catty is wise & terrible. ---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

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Keeping mostly to oneself, even if traveling and dealing with matters and being involved in a profilic business, is one was of being out of the public eye.
Hence, I'm not a BNF, nor do I claim to have any affiliation outside of Hermes or the Principia Universalis.
And _every_ Fan can claim the Principia Universalis. That's kind of, you know, the whole _point_ the thing was conceptualized because of.
Officially.
It's why I can come and go as I please most of the time, even _with_ Trigon's irritating habit of making those visits stand out more than they would have normally.
Anonymity works, I do enjoy my peace and quiet, and whenever I do take care of some business other than the occasional delivery when nobody else is there to do the job ...
... well, it's usually less a case of who you're known as, than it is a case of who you know.
Vide, case study, Nikodemus Fargo, as of a few years ago, Nikodemus Riddle. For obvious reasons.
The first Fan to set foot on Jupiter, make some preliminary planning, then shove some conceptual work on the Warsies and Whedonites, and ever since then better known under the moniker that would likely plague him past his dying day.
The Jovian Lizard.
"Scales."
"Wah!"
He was a little blue around the gills, but since he's pretty much blue all over these days after Yin (or was it Yang? They're still debating that.) switched the dip on us back when, I didn't figure he was too badly affected.
Besides, he's worked with me, on and off, for the past couple of years. He's pretty much used to this sort of thing.
"You enjoy doing that way too much, Kay," he said after picking himself back up. "How the hell did you get in here, anyway?"
By 'in here', he meant his office. Back of the Asteroid Blues combination Blues/Jazz bar with a nifty little themeset that's halfway between Cowboy Bebop and film noir. It's got everything, even a Corgi.
"Like everybody else, I used the door," because, yeah, he's a people person in a way I can never quite manage, but he also gets as preoccupied with his business reports that he makes this sort of thing too easy. "Wasn't really expecting you to be in here, though."
He gave me a look that cleary said 'right, who're you kidding'.
"Tomorrow, maybe," he finally shrugged, leaning back into the recliner while I planted myself onto the couch standing beside one of the faux-wood-panel walls. "We're still juggling schedules for the music acts."
That's another reason I respect the guy. He's a talented wrangler and talker, yeah, but he's also got enough damn side projects going that he's also got a killer workload.
Of course, the damn masochist wouldn't have it any other way, or so I suspect. He gets a lot of kicks from playing puppeteer.
"So, what're you in for?"
"What, I can't visit out of the goodness of my heart?"
"The goodness of your heart is blonde, female, and currently not in evidence, Kay. Besides, last time you saw I was this deep in paperwork you just left a note and dropped by the next day. Try again."
Ah. The foibles of somebody getting to know you.
"Well, I think I'll need some legalese in a bit. We might want to dust off that old Space Exploration Bureau file."
"Oh, swell," Scales groaned, and massaged his temples. "Wouldn't happen to have anything to do with what's been coming out of the Belt, would it?"
"I don't know, would it? Nothing you've sent me say we lost anyone."
"Because, statistically speaking, we've been having a spell of good luck where that's concerned," he gave me the Evil Eye. "Doesn't mean we don't hear things. We got rumors, ideas, and then the damn Jossies decided to go and tag it as Reavers."
Scales has more ins with the Whedonites than he does with the Warsies, and more with the Warsies than he does with the Trekkies, but he pretty much does well enough by all of them so when he says 'rumors' ...
"Yeah, well, I've heard some interesting things too," I gave him my best gallic shrug. "Pretty recently, but I thought, might as well set something up to have a framework for ... whatever ... in place. Then I remembered the Bureau is still filed."
"It's been gathering dust for the past year," he snipped. "On hiatus, and I was about to scrap it in a bit. Most of the data we ship on the side is stuff the couriers and transporters pick up on their runs anyway."
Point. If you have that anyway, what's the immediate point of having a dedicated branch?
The framework _was_ there though.
So, why not make precautions, and maybe, just maybe, try and get something out of it if need be?

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Because, hey, Jovian Lizards!
Also, SEBureau was too bad a pun to abandon, especially with his dabbling with coilguns. That's my inner Shirow geek talking.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

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(Aside to ECSNorway: On further thought, it occurs that the Glovals in the AF/NASA/TSAB would see Fenspace as the Trouble Out There that needs defending from. Might think about that a bit.)

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This is, in fact, why Caldwell is involved personally, instead of just handing it off to Amy and going "Chris likes you, get him to do this for us".
He is cultivating an agent -- namely, me. Whether he will be successful at this or not remains to be seen.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

transferred
D for Drakensis

You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.

Okay, I don't know if I'm the only one thinking this but the thought occurs to me that it might be neat (and a force to drive innovation in drive and shielding tech and whatnot) to run races through the rings/belts/what-have-you. IIRC, there's been established speedlimits on the reactionless drives, but it occurs to me that reaction drives could likely be made that would outstrip them in speed and acceleration... at the cost of exorbinant usage of reaction mass. Between that and the general size that race ships would likely be, it wouldn't really have to have any bearing on the average transit speeds for the general populace.
... that, and me being who I am, what's the fun of a new form of transportation if you can't race other people with it?

So I slip out of Callahan's and I'm on my way back to the Star to brief the crew on the SOS-dan's intentions when I'm jumped by a fan.
Jumped by a fan at a Convention. Yeah, I know. Big shocker there. But this fan was... unique.
I heard somebody call out my name behind me. The voice was high, young, female with a bit of something synthetic behind it. I turn around, and I'm expecting something like a 15 year old Warsie in stormtrooper gear who wants me to sign something. I tell you true, I was not expecting what happened next.
"OMG Captain Mal! I'm like, *so* your biggest fan! I read all the stuff about you in National Geographic and I've seen all your documentaries and it's like, wow!" My interlocutor was a spindly, flat-topped robot, rolling along on six small wheels. A mast toppped with twin cameras at right about my eye level looked at me as the 'bot unfolded her manipulator arm in friendly greeting. "I'm Opportunity! Nice to meet you!"
Never let it be said that Captain S. Malaclypse Fnord of the good ship Explain Star is an ungracious boor. I took Opportunity's manipulator and gave it a friendly, um, handshake. "A pleasure to meet you, Opportunity," I declared. "As it happens," I added in a bit more confidential tone, "I'm something of a fan of yours as well."
Opportunity's cameras swiveled. "Really?" she asked. "Cool! We need to, like, do a book or something together! I can write and you can take pictures!"
I smiled. "You know, that's actually not a bad idea," I said. "Do you have a phone number or something handy? I'm sorry to be in a rush, but I've got to meet with the crew and I'm kind of pressed for time..."
"Oh, no problem! No problem! Just call the Terraforming Office and ask for me, I'm always on-call. It was nice meeting you!" I signed her just-bought copy of 'Lonely System: Ceres' and she rolled away happily, drawing stares from even the more jaded fen.
I turned back to the path towards the hangar deck when lo and behold I found two of my crew standing there with bemused expressions on their faces. I guess they came in near the end of that exchange. "So what was that about?" asked Zib. Kat didn't say anything, she just gave me that look, the one where she didn't know what the hell was going on, but was impressed all the same.
"Oh, just another one of our adoring fans," I said breezily, grabbing them both by the arm and pulling them into the crowd. "I'll tell ya though, this place gets weirder every fucking year."

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...don't give me that look goddammit, it came to me in a dream. Blame it on the Discordians if you have to. Or just go read Opportunity's Livejournal---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

in re: reaction drives: see my bit at the top of page 6 for a quick run-down of Current Working Theory on the topic.
Basic answer is that an acceleration-based system simply *can't* beat a velocity-based system for cornering.
That having been said, it should certainly be possible to run ships through the belts by weight class. Since base speed is dependant on ship mass, you just have to make sure they all mass approximately the same. Any speed advantage that you get after that point is either from cutting the tolerances tighter on your turns/better reaction speed or nifty new soup-up techniques you can do with your machine (which requires skill with the machinery, is risky, tends to have *strange* advantages even when it does have advantages, and requires that you deal with the ensuing quirks as you drive - whatever those might be. All of these seem to be perfectly appropriate things to base racing on. You throw a few rings up that they have to pass through in order, give a few guideline signes, and let them go.
Mind you, this probably isn't going to be big buisiness - more like the illegal local drag-racing circuit than Nascar (though, thankfully, without the cops) but it's certainly doable.

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I know that I am hardly alone in my opinion that most people who break the law as a matter of the primary livelihood are dumber than a sack of hammers.
Case in point: Rather than reporting to their superiors, trying to arrange an 'accident', or even just waiting to see if I found anything, the three goons who'd been assigned to watch me broke into the records' office and tried to shoot me to death.
If they hadn't shot the receptionist first, I'd never have survived. As it was, I rolled out of the chair barely an instant before the burst of steel needles shredded it almost completely in half.
I hit the floor beside it on toes and fingertips and looked up at them; two holding hardtech pistols and one with a slender rifle-like thing that looked like it was meant to fold up conveniently.
All of which were swinging to aim at me.
I came at them with my best attempt at a sprinter's start but kept as low as I could, and reached behind the small of my back like I was going for a weapon.
I had no such thing, of course. Those few violent skills I possessed were the sort associated with large sharp pointy things rather than anything that could be hidden beneath a pair of fitted jeans, a loose (well, mostly loose) t-shirt, and a leather jacket about four sizes too big.
One pistol shot went wide to my left, and the needler's flachettes crackled harmlessly past over my head, and when I broke right - right across the last man's line of fire - he fired once - missed - and then I was safely behind some sort of desk.
I had time to shove the jacket's sleeve back and punch in the first two commands I needed before the needler burst speared through the flimsy plastic sheltering me and shredded half of my bicep before slashing off to the left.
It hurt, of course, but - thanks to adrenaline or who knows what survival related imperative of the reptile brain - I felt no immediate need to react to it. Instead I hit the last button.
There are a lot of different sorts of space suits, ranging from full hardtech types that weigh hundreds of pounds to ultralight wavetech models like the one I was wearing that day. The latter, by the by, were never intended to be used for spacewalks and such - except in porn, heavier gear was always called for outside the ship. What they were, though, was emergency gear. With a helmet and a battery pack a person wearing one can last as long as most lifepods, and in more comfort... physically, anyway. Without either, their built-in deployable breath masks and power fibers can keep oxygen flowing and rad and meteoroid screens up for several minutes, more than long enough to get to whatever safety may be available.
Besides, they were temperature controlled and quite comfortable. You could wear anything you wanted over them and not have to worry about sweating or anything. The gloves and metal collar you see on the usual image of the 'generic spacer fan' are part of a suit just like mine.
The three keys I had hit had brought its life-saving systems fully online - including a kinetic shield capable of stopping rock fragments the size of a pea and moving at orbital velocities. Handgun bullets and hypersonic sewing needles wouldn't even make it blink, but it drew the same power whether it was being hit or not.
I didn't have much time, especially with one of my arms rendered useless, but I didn't need much, either.
There was a good sized hardback sitting on the desk, just above my head. I picked it up, weighed it a moment in my good hand, then stepped out and charged straight at the smaller pistolier.
I couldn't let them stay on balance, not if I wanted to live. The kinetic shields used on working suits had a weakness, they had to - a total shield surface was frictionless, and, hence, useless for gripping or picking things up. Slow-moving objects were registered and ignored by the simple computer that regulated their power. Chances were that these thugs'd know that, and that a spacer might be wearing one, and would've come equipped to deal with it.
I have good reflexes, but not near good enough to make up for the fact that I don't know how to knife-fight worth a damn, or for that that any one of them could've outweighed me two to one before breakfast.
I hate being short.
They at me for a moment when they first saw me, then set themselves to grab. One charged to meet me, and I swept the book across to knock the pistol from his hand then ducked under his other arm and put my knee into his chest to stop and pushed off, twisting, to snatch the weapon awkwardly in midair before I landed on my back with a thump.
Lean up slightly, safety off, sight on center of mass, squeeze and whap and the man I'd taken the weapon from sank to his knees, looking stunned. Squeeze again what and turn slightly as the biggest of them, the one with the needler, lunges towards me with the weapon outstretched like a club then sprawls as I roll out of the way and bring the gun back under me and up and around until the muzzle is almost touching his ribs. whapwhap I turn and tuck my legs back under my body as I sit up and get ready to stand but the last of them is almost on me before I can get the gun up and there's a flash and a wrench as the knife he aimed at my throat comes in too quickly and triggers the shield and the blow knocks me to the side and makes me miss the shot whap and click as the slide locks back and the toe of his boot comes in and a flash over my ribs and I tumble harshly away and try to get my feet under me before he can follow.
And then the Senshi in the door hits him in the back with a Taser Field and he goes out like a light.
"Thanks," I told her once my brain caught up with events, then glanced back across the room and realized how much of the blood spreading in pools across its floor was mine even if I barely weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet.
Passing out felt like a good idea at that point, and I did.

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Yay, action hero!
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

Hm, ja, now I remember that. In truth, I was thinking all the really successful ones would be hybrids between the two, with how well it really works being determined on, yeah, how clever people are being. I mean yeah, you could just go with a standard velocity-based system, shave tolerances on craft design as much as possible, cut corners on the course etc... or you can have huge giant thrusters and have newtonian acceleration past the velocity-based top speed, and then try to figure out how to make it all turn effectively.
The feel being closer to a bunch of nutcases tearassing around instead of a publicly accepted and widely promoted thing with massive rulebooks was exactly what I was going for though.

This is really cool to read.
I'm having to reevaluate my character though... not that it matters, this is a grandspace for scratch writing.
I haven't been scared off - just trying to reconcile first post with the universe since most of it's premises are off
R

Just something I was wondering - I know the original bunny didn't list any dates. Do we have any hard and fast determinations on when this is set? I'm not sure I recall seeing it in the posts so far, and I need it to make an estimate of ages at some point. Any ideas, folks?

Me and HunterTerminator mention a date, it's currently 2010, and the Professor has been in space just over 2 year, which puts the appearance of Handwavium as now or in the next few months.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

My estimate would've been that the first appearance of Handwavium would've been in '09, and the SOS-dan con maybe four or five years later - 2015, or so. The 'time since' period seems to be implied to be fairly substantial by most of the stories, where there's been time to set up real, established businesses - frex, I expect that mining out a Rock would be a matter of years even if you could bring it down to planetside for easy access.
So, say...
Edited for Catty's points - although it could just as easily have been a typo for wII. ^_^
Early '07 - First appearance of handwavium, samples sent to universities and secure labs for study
Mid '07 - Particularly reckless college student mistakes Handwavium powder for some better known chemical that'd be entertaining in spiked punch, and swipes it for use at an upcoming con. Government goes apeshit at resulting changes, and quarantines the affected fen (including Natalie) until they manage to improvise an escape. First handwaved flight.
Late '07 - First rush of fennish exploration; Moon, Mercury, Mars, inner system visited for first or second time. NASA et al. too busy being happy about the new data to be embarrassed. Moondance built as a ~15m geodesic-framed saucer/lens, carries first mission to Jovian moons, then rebuilt for safety after return. Explain Star hijacked? First stages of terraforming projects begun.
'08 - Flying Island launched?; asteroid mining ventures founded?; Hermes Courier Service founded? Castle Magellan built. First serious populations settle on Mars and Luna. Moondance rebuilt as 33m sphere w/internal cargo bays. Proffessor departs Earth? SSX Base, Hidden Asteroid, Side 1, other minor factions establish off-planet bases.
'09 - TSAB spun off from NASA; Venus begins exporting synthetic petroleum products. Mars and Luna become self-sustaining.
'10 - Widespread Trekkie presence concentrates around Jupiter with founding of Jovian Federation. Warsies begin preparations for move to Saturn. Moondance rebuilt again; engines, quarters, etc. in existing hull w/100m outer hull for cargo.
'11 - Boskonian Reavers appear; SOS-dan calls Con; Star Patrol founded; Republic of Saturn founded.

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I don't, however, think that the frenetic pace being advocated is plausible; even for fen, it takes time to adapt to things, not to mention establishing the Con system that Haruhi's stomping all over with bells on.
Ja, -n

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"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

that timeline contradicts some of the other stuff mentioned. (such as getting the Wii, by 2015 it's sucsessor system will already be well established.) Also it's mentioned that a well established buisness is only one year old, which fits much better with the frantic pace of fenspace.
Here is a proposed timeline:
2007 February: Handwavium appears, latter efforts to backtrack it down to it's source fail but rumor has it that it first appeared in Japan before somehow spreading across the globe in a day or two.
2007 March: Within a month there is the first Handwavium spaceflight. (Who?)
2007 May 1'st: The Mars terraforming project officialy begins.
2007 May 5'th: Not wanting to be left behind the senshi start the venus teraforming project.
2007 July: A spate of 'first man on' events happens as a small group of fen visit each of Jupiters moons.
2007 September: The next worldcon is scheduled on the moonbase.
2007 October: the Professor is kicked of earth.
2008: By now several buisnesses have already sprung up, and the first excodus is slowing down.
2008 August: A few fen puttering around Pluto discover The Limit.
2010 January: SOS-dan calls for an emergency convention at the end of the month.
I think this does a better job of conveying how frentic the pace is. It is of course subject to alteration, but it should be unreasonabley fast paced.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

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Firvulag - don't you wish I'd released the specs for those music clips just a little earlier?

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Yes, yes he does.
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It turns out I was wrong about those half finished projects. Apparently Dru'd been less than enthused about building the Exo than I had thought and had pushed one of his projects through to completion. He'd finally gotten the legal stuff worked out would be taking orders for print on demand books for the first time at the Con. Not a new business idea, really, but they'd be legal copies of books owned by dirtside publishing houses.
It also meant that he'd worked the worst of the kinks out of the pulp paper and rag paper portions of his recycling project. Yeah, that's us junkmen of the Solar System. Want something thrown out, we'll take it and either clean it up and sell it or take it apart for materials.
Getting back on topic, sure books are heavy and there's electronic copies of just about everything, but there's something comforting about having an actual book in your hands. Thumping someone over the head with a hardcover
copy of the CRC handbook is far more effective than using the electronic version.
Kale is just itching for the chance to challenge someone to a friendly duel. Although unabridged Oxford English Dictionaries at ten paces isn't terribly friendly in my opinion, given the masses involved.
We had finished setting up our booth, and I was trying to convince the toaster oven and foreman grill that they were on different power circuits when there was a sudden roar of voices from far down the concours. I could hear a woman
yelling something over the crowd, but couldn't make out what she was saying. Then there was a sudden panic, the sound of a weapon being discharged and the riot started in earnest.
As it seemed like the Con was off to a slow start I went back to my work, and by forcing a circuit diagram proving my point into the oven was able to get it to start working.
I had the antburger browning nicely by the time Kale pushed his way out of the crowd so I thrust the spatula at him and informed him that it was his responsability now, since he'd buggered off during setup. I also warned him to keep the blast radius of his cooking down as much as possible. He assured me he would, which meant we'd only be cleaning up this quarter of Phobos station, and I went out into the crowd.
--
The sad thing is the friend Kale is based on really does cook with a blast radius. My poor kitchen *sob*.
Oh, and the exo project is a Jovian Defence Force Pathfinder should any one care (abuot a third of the way down the page):
www.dp9.com/Worlds/jc_page4a.htm

I've been attempting to keep track of all the various ships that have been mentioned. This is a horribly incomplete list.
--
Assumptions are marked with a ?.
The ship's original creator's statements are the Word of God, and if they contradict this table, too bad for the table.
Table of Ships
SS Coherent Anti-Stoke Raman Scatterer
Creator: Firvulag
Base Hull: Kludge - Heavily modified cargo containers, a mobile home and lots of culvert piping.
Drive Type: Speed
Owner of Record: KFD Heavy Industries
Main Use: Garbage scow/light manufacturing/hydroponics/engineering R&D
Known Crew: Kale (Capt.), Mab (SWMBO), Dru, Kas (sysadmin), Talky Toaster (Expert System)
SS? Explain Star (WTF-023H)
Creator: M Fnord
Base Hull: Buran airframe #1.02
Drive Type: Speed?
Owner of Record: Sandwhich.Net Dungeon Crawlers?
Main Use: Misc transport, scientific research
Known Crew: Mal (Capt.), Calc, KJ, Elena
SS? Galaxy Express
Creator: Griever
Base Hull: Steam locamotive and cars
Drive Type: Speed?
Owner of Record: Hermes Universal Delivery
Main Use: Cargo and passenger service
Known crew: Maetel (Capt.)
George
Creator: Firvulag
Base Hull: Chevy Chevette
Drive Type: Speed
Owner of Record: KFD Heavy Industries
Main Use: Passenger shuttle for the Coherent
SS? Gina
Creator: Blackareonaut
Base Hull: 1986 Volkswagon Jetta
Drive Type: Speed?
Owner of Record: Bullet Boy Express
Main Use: Courier
Known Crew: Benjamin (Capt.), Gina (AI)
SS? Jamie Reteif
Creator: Drakensis
Base Hull: Vauxhall Cavalier
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Shuttle
Known Crew: Mr. Morden
SSX Masaka
Creator: Evil Midnight Lurker
Base Hull: USS Palo Alto
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Heavy Cargo
Known Crew: Bill "Danger Will" Robinson (Capt.) Felice, Eurydice, Solstice
SS? Moondance
Creator: Valles
Base Hull: Kludge - Geodesic domes and misc for classic flying saucer
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Fast cargo transport
Known Crew: Natallie, Stacy
SS? Pearl Forrester
Creator: Foxboy
Base Hull: VW minibus
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Shuttle serving SS Pinafore
Known Crew: See SS Pinafore
SS Pinafore
Creator: Foxboy
Base Hull: Luxurary yacht (not a sailboat)
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Bounty hunting, passenger transport
Known Crew: Corcoran (Capt.) Buttercup (AI)
SS? Saint Bernard
Creator: Drakensis
Base Hull: C-97 Stratofreighter
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use:
Known Crew: Mr. Morden
SS? Schrottplatz
Creator: The Hunterminator
Base Hull: Cargo freighter
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Cargo, Heavy manufacture
Known Crew: Laurent Veilleux, various drone 'lineages' including the Capatalists and Allcapsists
SS? Sol Bianca
Creator: Catty Nebulart
Base Hull: HDMY Dannebrog
Drive Type: Speed?
Main Use: Laboratory
Known Crew: The Proffesor, Miyu, Ryoko Asakura, Catty Nebulart
SS Sophistical Elenchi
Creator: Firvulag
Base Hull: Non-rigid airship (blimp)
Drive Type: Acceleration
Owner of Record: KFD Heavy Industries
Main Use: Personal Yacht, towing
Known Crew: F 'Furry' (Capt.) , Aristotle (AI)
SS? Uncertainty
Creator: Griever
Base Hull: Pocket Cruiser (sailboat)
Drive Type: Acceleration (Energy sail)
Owner of Record: Hermes Universal Delivery
Main Use: Personal Yacht
Known Crew: Katz Schrodinger (Capt.), Trigon (AI)
WDF Wayward Sun (SDF-17)
Creator: M Fnord
Base Hull: Cargo Ship
Drive Type Speed?
Main Use:
Known Crew: