And more about our three friends...
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Alexander and Miriam were sitting in the Green Thumbs main room. As always Miriam was browsing through the interwave, making small notes on a tablet on the table.
“Alexander, I am worried we are making a big mistake” Miriam suddenly said and leaned back. “I think this will all end badly for us.”
Alexander blinked a few times, he couldn’t believe what he just had heard. Miriam had always supported their ‘Saturn Solution’.
“Wait, a mistake?” he asked, “Why do you think so? I mean, we have been waiting for weeks that Normans contact would send us the promised help and you never had any doubts.”
“I know, I know... but things have changed.” Miriam looked back and forth between Alexander and her tablet. “I have watched news and rumors about the Danes at Saturn for the last month. The common perception is that they are nice but a bit stupid because they don’t even use Handwavium for Life Support. They got this descent interview with Maico and there are some pictures of them living together with the catgirls.”
“So what?” Alex shot back, “we are not depending on the mood of the Fen. Either the Danes go home... or they play a few militaristic tunes and get hit on the nose and then go home.”
“The problem is that they managed to make a lot of Fen comfortable with their presence.” Miriam tried to explain, “we need to wait for a moment of tension between both sides.”
Just in the moment Alexander tried to answer her doubts, the door was pushed open and Norman stormed into the room. “Oh yeah, we will rock them... you have to look at this baby! Lets go, its just outside the container!”
“Wait, you bought the damned thing here?” Miriam was visibly upset. “We agreed you would park it in the other mine so we can look at it later!”
“Our present is a little bit larger than we expected and I wasn’t really in the mood to drive the whole way from the other mine to the Green Thumb in my spacesuit” Norman said. “You know, our old Ford doesn’t have an airlock!”
“But what if Space Patrol has been tracking you? Miriam is right, that is a damned high risk!”
“Calm down, both of you.” Normal rolled with his eyes. “If Space Patrol would know about the truck, they would have never let me go off with it. Now lets move out so I can show you our little present for the Danes.”
They all left the Green Thumb through the airlock. The container was standing in a side tunnel of an old asteroid mine, which still had an airtight door. It had taken them some time to install an Air Saver to fill and evacuate the short tunnel, but it had become their own secret base.
“THIS is our new baby that will ruin Christmas for the Danes” Norman said with a grin and pointed to the truck with a long trailer that was standing in the tunnel. “I wouldn’t have guessed the weapon would be that large, but I will not complain about it.”
Norman opened the door at the back of the trailer. Inside the truck was a nearly 10 meter long machine made from pitch black metal. It seemed to be a wild mixture of thick cables, boxes of black metal and some camera lenses, all built around a central hollow cylinder that ran through the whole machine.
“Wow...” Alexander said, not sure how to continue for a moment. “That thing is huge.”
“Yes, isn’t it? I assume its a prototype for one of the Soviets capital ships” Norman told them, “not one of this pea shooters they use for their X-Com fighters. And its totally self-contained, which means we just have to bring it to the right place and arm it.”
“And if its so great, why does your mysterious contact gives it away?” Miriam interrupted their enthusiasm, “why doesn’t he use it himself?”
Normal looked irritated at her for a moment and then just shrugged. “Maybe he cannot easily leave the Moon without raising suspicion. Space Patrol and Great Justice might want to check up if anyone they know with the access to this hardware made a trip to Saturn. But I got this truck from a parking lot on the Moon, so they won't find anything.”
“This really sounds more and more crazy, lets go inside and have a talk about it” Miriam said, turned around and walked back to the Thumbs airlock.
“What is going on with her, she seems to be a little bit tense” Norman asked and Alexander shook his head.
“I am not sure, she worries about some strange media related things” he replied, “You know, here big ‘memetic warfare campaign’ thing.”
#############
Alexander and Miriam were sitting in the Green Thumbs main room. As always Miriam was browsing through the interwave, making small notes on a tablet on the table.
“Alexander, I am worried we are making a big mistake” Miriam suddenly said and leaned back. “I think this will all end badly for us.”
Alexander blinked a few times, he couldn’t believe what he just had heard. Miriam had always supported their ‘Saturn Solution’.
“Wait, a mistake?” he asked, “Why do you think so? I mean, we have been waiting for weeks that Normans contact would send us the promised help and you never had any doubts.”
“I know, I know... but things have changed.” Miriam looked back and forth between Alexander and her tablet. “I have watched news and rumors about the Danes at Saturn for the last month. The common perception is that they are nice but a bit stupid because they don’t even use Handwavium for Life Support. They got this descent interview with Maico and there are some pictures of them living together with the catgirls.”
“So what?” Alex shot back, “we are not depending on the mood of the Fen. Either the Danes go home... or they play a few militaristic tunes and get hit on the nose and then go home.”
“The problem is that they managed to make a lot of Fen comfortable with their presence.” Miriam tried to explain, “we need to wait for a moment of tension between both sides.”
Just in the moment Alexander tried to answer her doubts, the door was pushed open and Norman stormed into the room. “Oh yeah, we will rock them... you have to look at this baby! Lets go, its just outside the container!”
“Wait, you bought the damned thing here?” Miriam was visibly upset. “We agreed you would park it in the other mine so we can look at it later!”
“Our present is a little bit larger than we expected and I wasn’t really in the mood to drive the whole way from the other mine to the Green Thumb in my spacesuit” Norman said. “You know, our old Ford doesn’t have an airlock!”
“But what if Space Patrol has been tracking you? Miriam is right, that is a damned high risk!”
“Calm down, both of you.” Normal rolled with his eyes. “If Space Patrol would know about the truck, they would have never let me go off with it. Now lets move out so I can show you our little present for the Danes.”
They all left the Green Thumb through the airlock. The container was standing in a side tunnel of an old asteroid mine, which still had an airtight door. It had taken them some time to install an Air Saver to fill and evacuate the short tunnel, but it had become their own secret base.
“THIS is our new baby that will ruin Christmas for the Danes” Norman said with a grin and pointed to the truck with a long trailer that was standing in the tunnel. “I wouldn’t have guessed the weapon would be that large, but I will not complain about it.”
Norman opened the door at the back of the trailer. Inside the truck was a nearly 10 meter long machine made from pitch black metal. It seemed to be a wild mixture of thick cables, boxes of black metal and some camera lenses, all built around a central hollow cylinder that ran through the whole machine.
“Wow...” Alexander said, not sure how to continue for a moment. “That thing is huge.”
“Yes, isn’t it? I assume its a prototype for one of the Soviets capital ships” Norman told them, “not one of this pea shooters they use for their X-Com fighters. And its totally self-contained, which means we just have to bring it to the right place and arm it.”
“And if its so great, why does your mysterious contact gives it away?” Miriam interrupted their enthusiasm, “why doesn’t he use it himself?”
Normal looked irritated at her for a moment and then just shrugged. “Maybe he cannot easily leave the Moon without raising suspicion. Space Patrol and Great Justice might want to check up if anyone they know with the access to this hardware made a trip to Saturn. But I got this truck from a parking lot on the Moon, so they won't find anything.”
“This really sounds more and more crazy, lets go inside and have a talk about it” Miriam said, turned around and walked back to the Thumbs airlock.
“What is going on with her, she seems to be a little bit tense” Norman asked and Alexander shook his head.
“I am not sure, she worries about some strange media related things” he replied, “You know, here big ‘memetic warfare campaign’ thing.”