A short look back to Jenga...
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“A week lost, but at least we are starting to make progress.”
Eric Hunt sighed as he looked through the results of the latest survey. They had spend a couple of days checking their personal equipment and working on ‘evacuation plan’ in case of further attacks while the catgirls had set up a defense perimeter around Pan. Eric wasn’t sure what it was, but the catgirls didn’t want to give the attackers a second chance.
Yesterday the catgirls had finally declared Pan safe again and both astronauts from Earth and inhabitants of Jenga had descended onto the moon’s surface like a bee swarm exploring a picnic site.
They spent two days until they were sure they had got a complete picture of the situation. And now they had to decide what to do about it.
“We can help you making up the lost time” Cathy said, “but quite a bit of the material you already had on the moon has been damaged. I know you will get an additional supply run, but how much redundancy do you had in your plans?”
“Not enough Cathy, not enough” Eric answered and looked up from the survey data. “Even with the additional supplies a lot of structural parts for the station have been damaged. Luckily the more delicate equipment was still in containers. I have thought about my call from ESA in the last days and we will need even more help from you.”
Cathy’s ears twitched and she gave Eric a smile. “That sounds interesting, why don’t you explain what you have in mind? I mean your project has been planned with one foot nailed on the ground the whole time and the attack didn’t improved the situation.”
“Nailed to the ground?”
“Yes, nailed to the ground. I can understand that you wanted to stay away from the really quirky stuff, but you didn’t even had artificial gravity on your spacecraft.” Cathy said calmly. “I tell you, in all the years I have been up here I didn’t got a single report on a life support system that got quirky and unreliable. You spent years to develop the technology to get here instead of focusing on the extraction tech you needed for the Helium-3.”
“Cathy... do you think we don’t know this? Since the first waved spaceships there has been a hidden battle about using Handwavium at ESA. But ESA lost the battle every single times... and for a year or two we thought the EU would cancel the program completely.” Eric sighed, the Fen picture how Earth worked was always a bit limited. “So someone decided to become clever and flank the enemy, which brought us here to Saturn.”
“Okay, I can see that you would have got ... but how does this help you in the current situation. Its not that the situation will get better if you cannot provide Helium-3 for Earth.”
“Less thinking about breaking rules Cathy, more thinking about flanking” Eric said with a grin. He could see that Cathy was more thoughtful. “But there is something else we need to discuss. I need you to get us enough materials to repair the damage and finish the station. And I have been informed that we cannot expect more money from Earth for this.”
Cathy did not looked that happy about the last part.
“But I have a different proposal for you” Eric continued, “one that you might find interesting.”
Cathy listened carefully to his proposal and her eyes became wide.
######
“A week lost, but at least we are starting to make progress.”
Eric Hunt sighed as he looked through the results of the latest survey. They had spend a couple of days checking their personal equipment and working on ‘evacuation plan’ in case of further attacks while the catgirls had set up a defense perimeter around Pan. Eric wasn’t sure what it was, but the catgirls didn’t want to give the attackers a second chance.
Yesterday the catgirls had finally declared Pan safe again and both astronauts from Earth and inhabitants of Jenga had descended onto the moon’s surface like a bee swarm exploring a picnic site.
They spent two days until they were sure they had got a complete picture of the situation. And now they had to decide what to do about it.
“We can help you making up the lost time” Cathy said, “but quite a bit of the material you already had on the moon has been damaged. I know you will get an additional supply run, but how much redundancy do you had in your plans?”
“Not enough Cathy, not enough” Eric answered and looked up from the survey data. “Even with the additional supplies a lot of structural parts for the station have been damaged. Luckily the more delicate equipment was still in containers. I have thought about my call from ESA in the last days and we will need even more help from you.”
Cathy’s ears twitched and she gave Eric a smile. “That sounds interesting, why don’t you explain what you have in mind? I mean your project has been planned with one foot nailed on the ground the whole time and the attack didn’t improved the situation.”
“Nailed to the ground?”
“Yes, nailed to the ground. I can understand that you wanted to stay away from the really quirky stuff, but you didn’t even had artificial gravity on your spacecraft.” Cathy said calmly. “I tell you, in all the years I have been up here I didn’t got a single report on a life support system that got quirky and unreliable. You spent years to develop the technology to get here instead of focusing on the extraction tech you needed for the Helium-3.”
“Cathy... do you think we don’t know this? Since the first waved spaceships there has been a hidden battle about using Handwavium at ESA. But ESA lost the battle every single times... and for a year or two we thought the EU would cancel the program completely.” Eric sighed, the Fen picture how Earth worked was always a bit limited. “So someone decided to become clever and flank the enemy, which brought us here to Saturn.”
“Okay, I can see that you would have got ... but how does this help you in the current situation. Its not that the situation will get better if you cannot provide Helium-3 for Earth.”
“Less thinking about breaking rules Cathy, more thinking about flanking” Eric said with a grin. He could see that Cathy was more thoughtful. “But there is something else we need to discuss. I need you to get us enough materials to repair the damage and finish the station. And I have been informed that we cannot expect more money from Earth for this.”
Cathy did not looked that happy about the last part.
“But I have a different proposal for you” Eric continued, “one that you might find interesting.”
Cathy listened carefully to his proposal and her eyes became wide.