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Seraviel

I just had to write this thing when I noticed the day of Grover's Corners' launch

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If you managed to come here, that means you've either found one of the few post I made on the interwave, or that someone's told you about this place. Either way, you were lucky.

The name's Seraviel and I'm official by now a fen, though a generalist by definition. I was late in coming to the party, mainly because space isn't much part of my interest.

Let's start at the beginning, shall we ?

I received my first batch of Handwavium in spring of 2008, some time after the first fen got into space. I got it from my brother, who got it from a friend at his workplace. (He's an engineer, building tools for dealing with gigantic molds.)

It was a vial, not enough to be useful in any case. But I was curious, and with internet and experimentation, managed to make it react. What worked for me was soft drink, in ratios of 3:1. (I much later learned that I could get 2:1 with diet pepsi but, since I hate the stuff, this particular finding came quite a bit later.)

With all the hype around the wave, I didn't do much with it, apart growing some more. Between 2008 and 2011 I must have 'waved at most ten objects, nearly all of them either old keyboards or broken headphones. The results were often hilarious, but unfortunately useless. (I still have two of them, headphones which automatically translate whatever is heard in either Al-bed or Dub Dub. And yes, Hyperdrive is a valid word in Dub Dub.)

The main reason why I didn't do much was that space wasn't much of an interest to me. Building stuff, however, was. (And I'd once played a Wildmage Artificier in one of my games. One of the best of my life.)

All of that changed two weeks before my birthday in 2012.

I lost my job.

An increase in available time and boredom combined made me try out various stuff, mainly out of all the old equipment I'd amassed.

I won't say everything I tried, only list the more important. My oldest laptop became a voice-controlled supercomputer, while my youngest became a gaming machine compatible with everything. (I managed to run on it at the same time Master of Magic, Dwarf Fortress at maximum settings and the latest Disgaea, all without emulators.) 'waving my home computer in separate pieces made each of the two hard drives sprout two different AI, the sound systems now spoke directly to the minds and the power supply's fan was generating ice on the wall.

Then I broke my blender, and 'waved it just to fix it. Which was a mistake and the reason I'm now in space.

It seems the Handwavium took 'blender' a little too literally, and left me with a sphere with a hole on top, the ability to float and the personality of a dog. It, like any new puppy, started following me around. That and it ate anything. ANYTHING !

I named it Black Spot.

It caused four accidents that day. Let's just say that in the end both me and my three cats ended up biomodded, Black Spot ate both the dryer and the sofa, and my blender had grown by a twenty centimeters each side.

Canada wasn't the United states, but I didn't want to see the reactions my new pet would get me. I started planning for my escape to space right then.

First thing was hiding Black Spot under a tarp behind my apartment, before it grew too large for my place.

Second was mixng what was left of an old can of paint with Handwavium, and applying it to Spot. I planned to have it wait for me in space, but the paint had other ideas. It turned Spot into a perfect cameleon, so I left it outside with orders not to move while I went and prepared for my lift-off (A mistake, in retrospect. Spot ate two cars, a fence and a power pole in the next day or so.)

I planned on leaving a few days after my birthday, with a last night with my family.

My birthday is on April 20, and the year was 2012.

The news of the launch was big enough that I heard it as I was hanging out with my friends, and I quickly realized the implications. Something like that was gonna remake the laws, and I had to leave as soon as possible.

And Spot came to the rescue.

Spot was hollow, you see, and by now was wider than my apartment. Since I had most of my stuff ready, I chucked everything into Spot, and rode out in the shadow of that huge beast.

And now I'm a new fen, hiding in a 'black spot' on most people's radar. It wasn't how I planned my life, but I'll have to make the best of it.

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Primary Writer: Seraviel

Appearance

Thirty years old and 5'10". 175 lbs. One eye blue, one green. Gray white hair. Usually in shirts or t-shirts, with jeans. Wears a black glove on his left hand. A loner in space, he mainly deals with either his customer in a location of his chosing, or not at all. A programmer by trade and an author by hobbyle.

Notable Mundane Attributes

Do you know that guy ? - Internet / wave famous. Not so much live.

Hey Kakashi ! - Has silver white hair, and not due to a biomod (The biomod might have helped it go white faster, however).

A Ring of Steel - Always wears a plain steel ring on the pinky of his right hand. Gives one to all of his friends.

'Wavium Abilities

A breath of fresh air - Can breathe in any atmosphere containing gas, however dangerous the gaz would be. Cannot however survive without gas or under water.

Known Quirks

Add more bacon. - Has no sense of smell (outside the smell of bacon) due to his biomod.

Look into my eyes - Due to his biomod, his eyes cannot work if they are covered in any way, luckily the biomod makes his eyesight 20/20.

Fandoms

General (non-hentai) anime, Firefly, Mechwarrior, Supreme Commander
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
Spot sounds cool.... Where does the stuff it eats go? into making it's structure?

Nice Smile
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
(puts on deputy Mod hat)

(grabs stamp)

APPROVED!
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Whoa... I can imagine that Black Spot is gonna cause some people to have fits... Something along the lines of, "Dude, your ship ate my ship!!!" Wink

Seraviel

Part 2
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Day One

Ok, now what ?

Hiding as I was under Grover's Corner, I was asking myself that very question. I hadn't planned for what I'd do once I was in space. I had enough food for a while and a little money in the bank, but that was pretty much all outside what I kept in Spot.

And that wasn't all the issues. Spot was still growing, so I expected he'd need to eat something before long. Luckily he seemed pretty much asleep for the moment, so I had some time.

Planning it was, then.

Planning became resting quickly once the adrenalin of my escape went out, which turned to full out sleep before long. I slept a lot longer than usual, and woke up after twelve hours rested, but without anymore plans than before.

Day Two

That day was planning, for real this time. Spot was awake, and somehow sniffing the huge station above. It wasn't eating it luckily, and I managed to get some work done.

First thing I realized was that I was going to have to go back down to earth. I needed food and electronics, amongst other things, and stuff for my pet to eat. (Pet is the wrong word now, but I still used it. Spot was still gaining diameter at the same constant rate, that is a little more than two meters a day. By now he’d passed the ten meters mark, and didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.)

Problem with that was the fact that tensions were probably still quite high down on earth, and while Spot was effectively invisible, I didn’t expect the effect to follow to radar (Or heat vision. Or any form of special sight, actually).

I’d need to build something to that effect any quick.

I pulled up my sleeves. No time to wait.

Day Seven

“Please work. Please work. Please work. Please work. Please work...”

I was praying. This was my sixth try at building a Handwavium Jammer, and I really needed this one to work. If it didn’t, I didn’t know what I’d do.

Fact was, I was out of quite a few things. Building materials for the jammer was the most crucial, but both my and Spot’s food were high on the list. Oh, and soft drinks also.

I’d already sacrificed quite a few things, feeding them to my pet. Quite a bit of my clothes, my table and chairs, and most of my remaining furniture.

I did, at least, learn something from the experience. Spot didn’t like ‘waved materials as food. He could take them, if ordered, but otherwise ignored them. (I suspected this extended to living materials, as there hadn’t been any missing trees near my apartment.)

He’d whined quite a bit on that order, but ended up complying (His whining sounded like the whir of a blender, actually).

‘-_- THE HANDWVIUM SHOULD BE DONE NOW.’ Appeared on the screen.

That was Seviel, the first of the two AI born of my computer. He’d been the one saying pass or fail on my constructions. I trusted the guy, as he’d been on the ball the previous times. Getting him away from his fanfics was always a challenge, however.

(Raviel, the second one, I didn’t even bother. The AI was either playing games or building one, and had shown no bit of the talent of his brother. And putting the two on the same system made it so they used half the resources of the machine arguing, so I kept them separate.)

I took my construction out of its bath. It was actually made of my alarm clock, the antenna of my TV, my spare set of speakers and my microwave, and had gone from a patchwork of pieces glued together with duct tape to a glossy black machine of a futuristic look. I had a good feeling about this one.

‘^_^ YUP, SHOULD WORK.’ Said the screen.

I started the thing, and looked at Seviel for confirmation. It seemed to have some kind of sensor package, since my computer had no camera.

‘:->:->:-> WORKS PERFECTLY ! WE ARE NOW GONE FROM MY SENSORS, AT THE VERY LEAST. ^_-’

Good enough for me.
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Also, a few questions/comments for the mods of fenspace :
1) The reason Spot won't ingest 'waved matter is to prevent it being too powerful a weapon. And yes, he can't ingest living matter forthe same reason.
    1.1) Of course, hardtech weapons on ships are another matter.
2) While my character & Spot are in space as off 2012, they won't be doing much outside themselves for quite a while, aka 2014 (Unless the mods want Spot to be part of OGJ, which couldbe arranged).
    2.1) Main reason for this : Spot never stops growing,andit'srate is constant. He gains 800m of diameter a year, which means he is quickly of space station size. Building the inside of something that is always growing is a challenge.
    2.2) He fears the boskonians,and what they would be able to do with Spot ifthey ever managed to take it.
3) The Radar Jammer beingjust built isnot without his quirks, and doesn't work on the last day of any month. As such, some of the SMOF will notice and investigate. My question : Who would, and how would they react ?
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
Well, if you continue to camp out under Grover's Corners, then Bob and his ilk would if they hadn't by day 7. There's people going in and out all the time, so someone probably would have noticed.

Stray into the Asteroid belt and you might be detected by one of 36 Atalante's Peacemakers. Don't worry, while cautious they don't shoot first. At the moon, it's either the VVS or The Patrol. Mars - Starfleet or Bot-Jocks. Venus - Senshi.
In fact, given the horde of people converging on the Corners shortly after it launched, I would expect someone to come from under the ecliptic and notice Spot in the first few hours. The Corners is a bit on the shiny/reflective side, given that its hull is 'waved silicates (magic glass ), and Spot would obviously stand out against it. We'll need to either revise "Implications" to account for it, or you'll need to do something different.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Seraviel

Quote:Seraviel wrote:

Second was mixing what was left of an old can of paint with Handwavium, and applying it to Spot. I planned to have it wait for me in space, but the paint had other ideas. It turned Spot into a perfect cameleon, so I left it outside with orders not to move while I went and prepared for my lift-off (A mistake, in retrospect. Spot ate two cars, a fence and a power pole in the next day or so.)  
Spot is perfectly hidden from natural sight, so been seen is not the issue. Sensors, however, could detect him.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Grover's Corners doesn't have any at this stage of the story,or does it ?
EDIT : I do expect that someone has noticed it, but decided not to care. The corners were the greatnews at the time, not a small (at the time) hanger-on.
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

HRogge

Seraviel Wrote:EDIT : I do expect that someone has noticed it, but decided not to care. The corners were the greatnews at the time, not a small (at the time) hanger-on.
As soon as the Boskone war starts officially (with SOScon and OGJ) people WILL care... and thats 2012.
Seraviel Wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but Grover's Corners doesn't have any at this stage of the story,or does it ?
Grover's Corners doesn't, but at least three of the ships that come to visit at launch (the Inelegant Truth, the Epsilon Blade, and Vioarr) do... and the middle one of those is owned by a slightly-paranoid rich guy who put a weapon on the silly thing.

(Not that Noah will open fire as soon as he spots Spot, but he will go to defcon 3.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

HRogge

robkelk Wrote:Grover's Corners doesn't, but at least three of the ships that come to visit at launch (the Inelegant Truth, the Epsilon Blade, and Vioarr) do... and the middle one of those is owned by a slightly-paranoid rich guy who put a weapon on the silly thing.

(Not that Noah will open fire as soon as he spots Spot, but he will go to defcon 3.)
Which would most likely mean that there could be backup/reinforcements arrive soon. Especially if the Grovers Corner says "what ? no, thats not part of us..." ^^

Seraviel

I expected Noah to be the first to find/meet my character, with his paranioa and the means at his disposal.
Wouldhe wait and track the thing first, or would he charge in asking ? (I see him more as the second, actually)
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

Seraviel

HRogge Wrote:
Seraviel Wrote:EDIT : I do expect that someone has noticed it, but decided not to care. The corners were the greatnews at the time, not a small (at the time) hanger-on.
As soon as the Boskone war starts officially (with SOScon and OGJ) people WILL care... and thats 2012.
At that point, Spot is only trackable once a month, and moving somewhat randomly (as only a puppy can). His presence on the net will be more visible by then.
Actually, the onemoment where he will be the easiest tospot will be on April 30th, as he'll be escaping earth for the second time and triggering air defences everywhere in Northern America. (That is also when he'll find out about the quirks on his jammer.)
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
Seraviel Wrote:Actually, the onemoment where he will be the easiest tospot will be on April 30th, as he'll be escaping earth for the second time and triggering air defences everywhere in Northern America. (That is also when he'll find out about the quirks on his jammer.)
It would be shortly after this sort of incident that Myk, in his classes on Handwavium Safe Handling, would add a few choice bits about "after you've waved it", relating specifically to things like finding out what the quirks are for at least two months before relying on it to avoid having the U.S. Air Force demand you land or be shot down...
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
Seraviel Wrote:I expected Noah to be the first to find/meet my character, with his paranioa and the means at his disposal.
Wouldhe wait and track the thing first, or would he charge in asking ? (I see him more as the second, actually)
Something of a mix, actually - he'd take ... (early 2012 - who's available?) ... Yayoi and Yoriko with him in the Epsilon Blade, and track Spot for a couple of hours until he was satisfied it was no immediate threat to Stellvia. Then he'd rush in.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Seraviel

JFerio Wrote:
Seraviel Wrote:Actually, the onemoment where he will be the easiest tospot will be on April 30th, as he'll be escaping earth for the second time and triggering air defences everywhere in Northern America. (That is also when he'll find out about the quirks on his jammer.)
It would be shortly after this sort of incident that Myk, in his classes on Handwavium Safe Handling, would add a few choice bits about "after you've waved it", relating specifically to things like finding out what the quirks are for at least two months before relying on it to avoid having the U.S. Air Force demand you land or be shot down...
Seraviel will agree with you heartily, especially after what will happen. However at that point he's alone, not totally prepared for space and without anybody he trusts to help him. And he is generally a do-it-yourself kind of guy anyway.
  
Quote:robkelk wrote:


Quote:Seraviel wrote:

I expected Noah to be the first to find/meet my character, with his paranioa and the means at his disposal.
Wouldhe wait and track the thing first, or would he charge in asking ? (I see him more as the second, actually)
Something of a mix, actually - he'd take ... (early 2012 - who's available?) ... Yayoi and Yoriko with him in the Epsilon Blade, and track Spot for a couple of hours until he was satisfied it was no immediate threat to Stellvia. Then he'd rush in.
So, you're saying he would hunt down spot as early as April 22 / 23 ? Or would he wait until Spot's second trip up ? Please answer 'cause I'd like to fix the story as soon as possible if the first is the case.
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
Quote:Correct me if I'm wrong, but Grover's Corners doesn't have any (sensors) at this stage of the story,or does it ?
Not in the sense you mean. It does have complete full spherical vision which can be viewed in its entirety in the bridge, as seen in http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... to_the_Sky]Disturbing Implications of Land Rising into the Sky. From that angle Spot might be harder to see, but if it gets silhouetted against something, it will show up, and will probably be flagged by Officer Friendly, if not one of the crew.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Seraviel Wrote:
Quote:Seraviel wrote:

I expected Noah to be the first to find/meet my character, with his paranioa and the means at his disposal.
Wouldhe wait and track the thing first, or would he charge in asking ? (I see him more as the second, actually)
Something of a mix, actually - he'd take ... (early 2012 - who's available?) ... Yayoi and Yoriko with him in the Epsilon Blade, and track Spot for a couple of hours until he was satisfied it was no immediate threat to Stellvia. Then he'd rush in.So, you're saying he would hunt down spot as early as April 22 / 23 ? Or would he wait until Spot's second trip up ? Please answer 'cause I'd like to fix the story as soon as possible if the first is the case.
The Blade's sensors are good, but not that good (in 2012 - there's an upgrade coming in 2013.). He'd wait until the second trip.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Seraviel

Ok, so I'll take as general reaction that whoever found out didn't bother my character in the first few days. So, here's the next part, 1 of 2
about his return to earth.
Day 8

“WAKE UP ! WAKE UP ! WAKE UP ! WAKE UP ! WAKE UP !...”

I turned and shut down the ending song from Gokudo, and at the same confirmed that  my alarm had rang at the right time.

It did. It was now 1 AM in Montreal, and I was ready for descent.

“Spot, you ready ?”

-Wirrr- I took that as a yes.

I looked around before saying go. Seviel was reading something, as was usual, the rapid scrolling of a Fanfiction.net page as proof. Raviel seemed to be working in C++, so I expected he was once again building his game. All in all, everything seemed normal.

“Then, Black Spot, you are clear for re-entry one lane 1.”

-WIR-

There was only a moment of varying gravity that spoke of our acceleration before it normalized again. I dressed up, getting ready for the trip earthside. Compared to the previous days, I’d have a lot to do.

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I landed an hour later in the Cote-des-Neiges cemetery.

Why did I select that place ? Easy. It’s the first place I found where Spot could get close to the ground in the city without potentially damaging a building. It would also fit him for quite a while.

Not to mention that people appearing / disappearing from a cemetery would quickly be classified as ‘delusion’.

My goal was simple : I’d borrow a supermarket shopping cart, fill it with trash, and drag it back to Spot for consumption. Lather, rinse, repeat. I’d keep at that until the sun came up, at the very least.

I’d try to gather some broken electronics all the while. I could use a few more components for my next experiments, and I had quite a bit of success with the broken stuff. I’d leave any blenders I found, though.

Part two of my plan would have to wait until stores opened, but that was later. First I had to feed my puppy.

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I was eating breakfast after giving Spot what I hoped was a decent enough meal, when a truck passed right next to me and gave me a near-uncontrollable urge to hit myself in the head.

Specifically, it was a garbage truck.

I’d been thinking of ways of making money while in space, and here it was, a solution to both Spot’s hunger and my financial issues.

I’d get in the trash business.

Specifically, I’d offer a service cleaning up landfills and other such places for a price. Since the Government of Canada had once given a 52 million dollar contract for cleaning up a single site (I’d checked on the internet), I was pretty sure to run a profit at the very least. And Spot hadn’t gotten any issue with his morning meal, which at least contained two used car batteries.

I rushed back to Spot, and had Seviel find me on the internet the list of governmental and private landfills in Canada, along with their E-mail addresses.

By noon, I already had replies.

And by four, I had a 10 o’clock meeting Monday the 30 with a company in British Columbia asking about a demonstration.
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.
Seraviel Wrote:Specifically, I’d offer a service cleaning up landfills and other such places for a price. Since the Government of Canada had once given a 52 million dollar contract for cleaning up a single site (I’d checked on the internet), I was pretty sure to run a profit at the very least. And Spot hadn’t gotten any issue with his morning meal, which at least contained two used car batteries.
Either we're thinking of two different sites, or you've severely underestimated http://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/biens-prop ... x-eng.html]the contract.

But if that's the only thing I can find to criticize in the story so far, then it's a good story.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Seraviel

robkelk Wrote:
Seraviel Wrote:Specifically, I’d offer a service cleaning up landfills and other such places for a price. Since the Government of Canada had once given a 52 million dollar contract for cleaning up a single site (I’d checked on the internet), I was pretty sure to run a profit at the very least. And Spot hadn’t gotten any issue with his morning meal, which at least contained two used car batteries.
Either we're thinking of two different sites, or you've severely underestimated the contract.
But if that's the only thing I can find to criticize in the story so far, then it's a good story.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Tar_Ponds
The government plan is for 400 millions, true, but the contract to Nordlys Environmental LP and ECC is for 52 millions
See solution in the article above.
And thank you for the review.
  
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

Seraviel

Day 10

I did two things during the weekend while waiting for my meeting (outside feeding Spot, that is): first was ‘waving myself a broken Iphone, upon which my two AIs could contact me, and second was getting, after filling up with groceries, getting as much construction material as my meagre budget could allow (along with what I found garbage hunting). I needed to build myself a place to live inside Spot, at least one much better than my current one (Spot was as circular on the inside as he was on the outside, and that meant there was only one spot where I could place something without it being crooked. And currently, that was my fridge). I’d also realized after some thought that while Spot was capable of GOING to space, he wasn’t capable of INTERACTING in space. He had no airlock, no transporter... I wasn’t even sure he had life support (I ‘waved a broken air conditioning unit into an air cleaning system just to make sure). And all of that meant materials.

I’d barely started working (and accomplished nothing. Try working with a space that grows by a little more than a millimetre and a half a minute) that it was time to prepare for my meeting. I dressed in my best clothes, and went down back to earth.

I was actually lucky about something at least. The company’s headquarters were located right next to an abandoned field, so Spot was right besides their building. I announced myself to the secretary once inside, waited the requisite ten minutes on a sofa, and was then led to a boardroom.

Where nine or so people in immaculate suits were looking at me with serious eyes, analysing my every move.

I gulped, hopefully not audibly enough that the group in front of me noticed. I’d been expecting one or two people, not a whole board.

“So, your message said you had a proposal for our company ?” Said the man at the end of the table, who was visibly the oldest present.

I took a deep breath and made my presentation. I outlined the dangers of landfills and the cost associated. Of how the land could be polluted for years, if not decades. And of how long the current processes took to remove said contamination.

Then I spoke of what I had. I told them I had a way completely destroying in form of trash. One that left no residue that could be dangerous (I had quite a bit of experience in how throughout Spot was). It would allow their company to clean up their own landfills, and expand into cleaning up waste management incidents.

The board members started talking as soon as I was done, while the old man (who I suspected was the president) looked at me in the eyes for a minute.

“Show me.” He said, cutting off everyone.

The next minute I was back outside, with the board in a half-circle a meter behind me. I was guiding an employee who was pushing a cube of trash on a hand truck. I had it placed on the side of the road, about two meters from Spot’s shell, before I went back to the group.

“You ready ?”

The one leading nodded.

“Go Spot.” I said in my phone. I had already explained this part of the plan to him, and he’d been waiting.

It was actually my first time seeing Spot work his magic in full light, and can say it was impressive. First a black hole (I know it wasn’t actually a real black hole, but that’s what it looked like from this angle) appeared right above the piece, and it started floating in that direction. Before long a whirring sound started, like the blades of a blender, and the piece started to crumble into small dust which was quickly absorbed into the hole. In less than a minute, the piece was gone.

Turning around and looking at the reactions was priceless, all except the oldest.

“Handwavium ?” He asked, instead.

“Yes sir.” I said, nodding. This was gonna be the moment of truth.

Luckily Handwavium wasn’t illegal in Canada at this moment. It wasn’t like in Australia, where they openly accepted the stuff, but mainly due to the political entropy that was common of the place. There had been studies and commissions and research, but no official ruling as of yet. But that didn’t mean it was in any way really accepted.

The man was still visibly thinking when the ending song to BPS started on my phone. Text message.

‘73LL 1M W3 H4V3 4N07H3R M3371N6 TO 60 70, W17H 4N07H3R C0MP4NY’

Raviel ?

“Could I have an answer ? I wouldn’t want to keep the other companies waiting...”

It was pure bluff, but it worked. The leader of the group visibly weighted the positives and negatives, and quickly invited me back inside.

The next three hours were passed arguing on a contract. I wouldn’t have done anywhere as well as I did without Raviel, who visibly was listening in the discussion. The final paper was for 4 millions now in exchange for cleanup of a single site in northern British Columbia (to be done within three months) plus exclusivity (in North America, Raviel had me specify) to the company for a year, along with fifty percent of the value of any outside contract. Other company sites would be discussed as a case to case basis.

I left after shaking every hand in the boardroom, and with a check worth 4 millions in my hand. A few minutes later Spot was eating his fill for the first time since his birth. We left the place a third emptier than it been the day before.

I was smiling for the rest of the day.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Compared to the stress of the morning, the afternoon and subsequent evening was a breeze (It’s surprising how easy it is to get good and fast service at a bank when you have a confirmed check of four millions in hand). I stocked up on more material, bought two games as a reward to Raviel, and invited my friends in Montréal to a good restaurant.

I was about to leave their place after a few hours of gaming when a text message came.


‘O_O RADAR JUST WENT OFF.’

I froze. I reread the message three times just to make sure. How ?

‘OVO WE’RE BEING HAILED, AND A FLIGHT OF CF-18’S GETTING READY IN BAGOTVILLE.’

I was still frozen. HOW ?

‘X_X BE QUICK. SPOT’S GETTING NERVOUS’

That shocked me out of my mental jam. Spot’s reaction to a situation like that wasn’t one I wanted to test. I rushed out, and managed to get into a cab less than ten minutes later.

It was another twenty before I was back where my ship was parked. I’d barely paid the driver that Spot grabbed me with some sort of tractor beam, shucked me inside, and got away full speed.

Inside, I took a deep breath. Crisis averted.

‘O_O YOU DO KNOW WE'RE GOING SOUTH, RIGHT ?’

South ? Fuck, the US.

“SPOT, UP. GO UP !”

‘X_X HE’S NOT LISTENING... AND WE JUST CROSSED THE BORDER.”

I slapped the sphere. “BAD DOGGIE ! GO UP NOW !”

Maybe it was the words or maybe the slap, but the gravity shifted, and was greater for a second before it adjusted, which I guessed meant we were now going up.

‘OXO BOGEYS ON OUR TAILS’

“How much before they can’t follow ?”

‘OVO A MINUTE MAX... INCOMING ROCKETS’

The screen shifted to a view of the sky outside. Two dots were growing quickly there.

“SPOT, BRACE FOR A HIT.”

-WHIRRRRRRRRRRR- He said, it came from everywhere, full of anger and loud enough to hurt. On the screen, the two missiles were now easily visible when the ship slowed for a second.

Then they exploded, I’d have guessed a meter before the screen’s viewpoint.

Spot accelerated again while I wondered what had just happened. It took a moment to click, but I was now pretty sure Spot had turned whatever it used to feed on the missiles.

And ten minutes later, I was back into space
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.