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[Slice of Life] State of the Rats
[Slice of Life] State of the Rats
#1
from:jet.jaguar(a)Friggarock.fen
to:local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
Subj: The State of the Rats... #8.

Alright, it's been 8 months and everyone's started to settle in.

First and most important, congratulations to Mimi and Lex and their new gynoid, 'Mutsu'. I'm sure everyone wishes her a long and happy life. Mutsu is doing well, and the happy parents have already started fitting her out for her first set of cannon.

On the Agenda for this month, the ongoing election to Parliament which has entered its sixth month, results from last month's referendum on structural development budgets, Rose Duellists, reactor maintenance plans, new businesses opening up, Hackerspace, Catgirls BBQ, Motorcon 2024, MAGI updates and a surprise for 2025.

So, without further ado, it's been a busy month.

1: Election Time 2024. Politics
For the fourth time, 'None of the Above' has beaten out all other candidates, earning a total of 152 First Preference Votes, meeting the quota at the first count. As a consequence, neither candidate will be eligible for the next runoff.

I would also like to congratulate everyone on causing an ongoing constitutional crisis in Crystal Tokyo.

It's looking likely that Queen Serenity II may directly appoint someone to the seat. I'm sure we will all extend our sympathies to whatever poor sod she chooses.

Until then, we'll continue operating as we have.

2: Structural Development.

Results on the development budget referendum are in...

66% of our budget is going towards repair of the existing railroad tracks, purchase of locomotives and stock. This is enough money to purchase and ship a single roadworthy EMD JT22CW locomotive to Frigga, a supply of spare parts, and enough rolling stock to provide a basic passenger and freight service between accommodation block, the mine and the main landing bay. It'll also be compatible with Galaxy Railways track if someone decides to handwave the thing. It's 50 years old, but this is solid iron. We didn't assign enough cash for electrification or an electric engine.

18% is going towards Defense upgrades. This is enough to purchase and equip a pair of fighters, and pay for aircrew training. Or, add full defensive missile batteries to the surface. Or equip a few Tachikoma. Answers on a postcard.

8% is going towards infrastructure and habitability upgrades. This will just about cover the basic biomass costs of setting up the arboretum. It will still require some volunteer work and private contributions to get done, but we can do it.

Backbone upgrades earn 4%, which is enough to replace some old Cisco gear, while Interwave ransmitter gets 3. We might be able to clean the thing and un-jam the secondary, but it's never going to handle KoFen at that level. The whole array will need to be replaced, as detailed.

1% is going towards investigating how to install drives on Frigga to move it around the Solar System.

The Vote on the Defense upgrades will be a simple one. Three choices. Pick what you want. STV as usual. Options are:
*Fighters
*Missiles
*Tachikoma
*Grab an expert and let them pick.

In this case, the expert will likely be myself, or Daryl.

3: Rose Duellists

Look, guys, technically what you're doing is illegal. So's a lot of what people do out here. It's one of the benefits of being a few AU from Venus, if you catch my drift. We don't have an AMP presence yet – the wheels of bureaucracy turn slow unless somebody does something stupid and greases them.

But to the particular moron who thought it was a good idea to cut a watermain with an axe to re-enact their favourite scene from a movie - you should know your little recreation drained the main water cistern of a grand total of over 4,000 hectolitres of drinking water this time.

If anyone's missing their daily shower or bath for the last week or so, you know who to blame. I don't. This also means the People's Recreational Swimming Pool will be closed until we grab some fresh ice. Lun will be departing on a mission in three days.

If this keeps happening, it'll have to be dealt with. Nobody wants the law to get heavy out here. We rely on people not being bloody morons so nobody in Tokyo has to 'think of the children'.

4: Reactor Maintenance.

Engineers from Lensherr will be here on the 30th of the month to perform a series of certification tests on the turbine for Unit 04. We may experience power failures, depending on the test schedule they wish to perform. Don't start anything that can't tolerate being interrupted halway through. And don't say you weren't warned if you do.

I've received a few questions about one particular item. Yes, I know the history – it's on the reactor nameplate - but they assure me there's no risk of an accident during the rundown test. They just want to make sure that the inertia of the freewheeling turbine will generate enough power to drive the cooling pumps for the few seconds it takes for the auxiliary systems to take over. I know the omens are less than ideal, but it has to happen. Technically, 04 is the best for the test.

No big deal. It has to be done, or we have to shut the plant down in three months. We like heat and power.

5: New Businesses

Looks like we gained our first official pub. The 'Rock and a Hard Place'. Prop. Gabriel Ermine. Offering both homebrew, and some of the best of imported from around the Verse. Mezzanine Level 2 on the main public Concourse. Karaoke every Thursday, and hopefully a band on Saturdays. Barfood for the first week after the supply ship comes in.

Real Food may eventually be served, if he can agree something with Linsey.

Linsey tells me the Midoriyah is actually making money – especially with the traffic from Survival Shot. So it's not impossible to do.

Kotono's Phitness Bee gym remains open an available to all residents. She's also offering courses in 3DMG emloyment, having just completed certification on Luna as an instructor. Try it – it's fun.

Stellvia Oils will be opening a dedicated, staffed, petrol station within the next two weeks. So all your favourite vehicles won't need to pump from drums of the stuff. It should be safer, for a start.

6: Hackerspace

The old engineer's bays in the power plant have been converted into something resembling a Hackerspace. We've got a good selection of tools, from secondhand cyber-gear, to a chassis dyno for vehicles, and the usual array of workshop tools, and software. We also have a HV mains feed directly off the trafo for Turbine 1 in case anyone needs Frankenstein levels of power or wants to hack up a particle accelerator or something crazy like that.

Participation is encouraged from everyone. Even if you don't think you'll fit in, you will. You just need an idea, and a willingness to both help, and be helped.

Weekly subs are ten credits, which covers tooling, the occasional equipment rental, or using Xr-71.

Fooling Nature is our pastime.

7: Catgirl BBQ

We'll be having a joint BBQ with CGI on the 27th, up in the dome. This will be genuine, charcoal-fired dead animal in all its glory.

And a vegetarian option.

I've got the beer order in with GC and I think I can find a few old bottles of Rocket Fuel lying around if anyone's feeling adventurous.

8: Motorcon 2024
We're a month away from Motorcon 2024. Registration closed yesterday with an extra 50% over last year. This is fantastic news – especially for the few businesses just starting out here. It's looking to be a bumper weekend for everyone involved.

Please remember that the road a tunnel closures will be in effect from the 20th, to enable for setup and maintenance.

Also, if you're planning to attend, please read the harassment and code-of-conduct policies. Not only are they different from other cons – they're different for a reason.

We all know motorsport is dangerous. It's line 1 on the ticket. But there's no sense in making it more dangerous than it has to be.

9: MAGI system progress
Anika informs me that the last, week-long, test of the MAGI system was a success. The new system ran Frigga for 7 days, without major issue. Hammond, Malcolm and Grant functioned as expected, even with the Nedry system deliberately creating system errors and malfunctions, the voting system held

A few little glitches were thrown up, but on the whole the test went well. There's no showstoppers. We're looking to go live the month after Motorcon at this rate.

Which should put an end to DCAMS scheduling maintenance on your shower for a date 12 months away, and sending an exocomp to re-break it after you fix it.

MAGI promises to be more responsive, more reliable, and most importantly, more flexible and maintainable than TITANIC. And actually useable by people who don't know what a command line is.

Anika has been invited to give a talk on the MAGI system at this year's Cybercon. Wish her luck!

Which just about ends this month's newsletter, except for.

10: One more thing...

Survival Shot, Zenith of Things Tournament 001.

May, 2025.

I think. We just signed a sponsor. Full announcement with details will come in December. But it's happening.

Until Next Month.

-Jet.

------------------
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#2
From: jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
To: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:State of the Rats #9

Another month, another message.

On the table today. Our reactor Reactor 'accident'. Motorcon done. Why we can't have nice things. Now Arriving at Platform 1. Lun crew qual boards. Disturbing. Y U No Kofen. Zenith Questions. Baron Von Frigga and the Poor Hamsters.

Anyway, we've been busy, so without further waffle....

1: Not even A mere Three-Mile-Island


So, the second biggest thing in my inbox this month is the incident with Unit 4. To all the people who insisted we were morons for even trying to run the test, or 'monkeys fucking around like hicks making moonshine with the most intense man-made radiation source known' as someone online put it, I defer to the Lensherr Heavy Power Systems PLC. They know far more about d/t-fuelled stellarators than me. The ultimate cause appears to have been a small hydrogen explosion in the de-aerator assembly, leading to a coolant spill. That sounds alarming, but it's not. Since 'Just trust us' isn't good enough, the Engineer's preliminary report will be on the public bulletin-board in a week.

Before anyone manages to have a panic attack, try to remember that incidents like this are exactly why these tests are run. This wasn't even an accident. We knew it could happen when we started the test and had taken steps. Had we been in an actual emergency situation with the core, and had similar explosion, the results would've been STALKER, Shadow of Frigga. As it is, it happened in an environment we had control over, so it was managed fairly quickly.

The reactor will be out of commission for about 6 months. We may get emergency funding to either repair or replace, this hasn't been decided.

The other three units are in no danger.

2: Motorcon.

This year we had a grand total of 5 accidents with 7 serious injuries, 4 cases of wankel-induced deafness and the usual minor cuts and scrapes, con-creepers and thefts. Not bad. Will be running next year. Which just goes to show that it doesn't matter how many people your con nearly kills, so long as everyone has a good time.

The Clarkson crew cancelling on short notice was a bit of a pain, but you can blame the insurance company for that. After last year they threw a bit of a wobbly. Still, the actual original Mad Max War Rig more than made up for it. Driving that thing is a challenge. That one Mustang owner, however?... Mediocre.

I had a lot of fun at the Wankel roundup. Thanks to the good people of Mazda for bringing out the 787b all the way here. And the always elegant Sylia Stingray's talk on how to start your own automotive business was especially informative, especially with regards to American Unions and bringing Fentech to mundanes..

After the response we got, 'There will be a rule' run-what-you-brung drag racing will be back next year. Additions to the rulebook will be pushed six months in advance of the next event. Suffice to say Rocket-Turbine differentials, liquid oxygen injection and 8 wheel drive will be banned next time around. The Yunick Memorial Trophy has gone to Korolevgrad for the next 12 months.

The Former British Leyland factory team from Guestton won the 24 hour Le-Mons event with fine lack of style in an open-piped SD-1. They will be back to defend their honour next year.

We also had a number of interesting talks on subjects ranging from restoration of classic muscle cars, looking after your dinosaur in space, making your own fuel 'from shit lying around', The Wasteland Review with Immortan Joe, Rally Mars, The Armstrong Classic, and the future of Formula One.

The committee are looking at proposals for events for next year. Given the setup time involved, you have six months to propose.

3: Why we can't have nice things.

I shouldn't need to have to say this. But the last 4 weeks have told me that I do. Especially those two catgirls getting run over after the BBQ last week. We were lucky both of of them survived. One broke his neck, but homeostasis ensured he'll make a full recovery. The person responsible left in irons on the JMC transport yesterday.

I don't care what gobshite excuse you come up with, if you're drunk in a car, you're done. Gone.

If you kill someone while drunk in a car. I will kill you. That is not a threat. It is a promise.

4: Now arriving at Platform 1...


Our new train has been bought and paid for, and will be on its way inside a week. With a little luck, Fenspace' largest indoor trainset will be running before November. We will have two passenger cars, a container freight car, and a train of ore carriers which should up throughput through the mine by 20%. Our locomotive will arrive unwaved, and general consensus spears towards keeping it that way unless required otherwise.

Name's suggested for the Locomotive are as follows:

1: Planetes
2: Lady Mars.
3: Mirai
4: Starlight Express
5: Rattle and Hum


Or a write-in candidate. I'm for not naming it after something U2.

As for the defence spending referendum. Tachikoma won hands down. We come up short on some security requirements so we can't go ahead with that - but we're only about ten points short. Second preference was to assign a technocrat to make a decision. Daryls considered opinion is to invest in an battleteam with motoroids. It won't have near the same capabilities out of the box, but we can do a lot of the work in-house, I can handle training, and it'll push our security rating up to the point where:

A) We can defend this place when I'm away from home
B) We can order the good toys, rather than GJ-era third tier stuff.

It's a simple yes or no vote whether we want to accept her recommendation.

5: Lun's Qual Board. Titanic and Arcadia missions.

Final qual boards are coming up, Monday next week. If you don't pass, you don't go on the test flight to Titanic, which means no Arcadia trip. No chainiks allowed. Final crew selection for the Titanic mission and then Arcadia will be the day after, posted to the Local bulletin boards under Frigga.Local.Lun.

Since we plan to dock in Detroit/New Jersey, anybody going who's from a free country will need to be America-legal, with valid passports, travel authorisations, identity suppliments, proof of employment (Ship's articles will count) and medical certificate. Remember, you can arrange all this through Port Luna if needed. Americans can return on a valid US passport.

Permission to dive the Edmund Fitz' is slow in coming, but we expect it'll arrive before departure. The Ballard institute has specifically requested we raise samples of material from Titanic to measure the effects of the preservation process on the ship's hull. This will be some real, useful science. And also the first time anyone has physically boarded the Titanic in 112 years.

Beyond that, Arcadia's going to be a tough mission. This is not a holiday. We're doing legitimate, accredited science here. Whatever we find will go to Artemis. And anyone who goes will be part of the very first deep exo-ocean survey mission in history. We're doing more than a few genuine firsts here

Anyone wishing to book Lun, check the ships schedule under Frigga.Local.Lun.Schedule. Don't just assume it's available.

6:Anika at Cybercon.

Anika succesfully presented her paper 'Reduction of latency through Use of Interwave signalling between processing Nodes in a multiple-core distributed processing system' at this years Cybercon to plenty of acclaim. I'm sure everyone will forward their congratulations to our little cyberpunk. Even if they don't understand what exactly that means. Suffice to say, it's something good. It means Good Things for the MAGI project. It also means Really Good Things if the same technique and protocal can be shrunk to a smaller form factor.

6: Disturbing.

Alright. It's time to be disturbing for a minute.

The circumstances of my creation are well known. I got drunk, drank some wave, then stepped into a hardsuit built with the same wave. That's the short form.

Please, for the love of all that is good and decent, do not try this at home. It is a catastrophically dumb thing to do.

The long and the short of it is this.

If you want to be a cyber, go through the proper channels. Talk to a qualified cyberdoc. Talk to me even, to get an idea of what life is actually like and see if it's actually all you think it's going to be because I guarantee it isn't. Remember, I've had 12 years of dealing with this for it to become normal. And if you still want to go for it, go the surgical route. I can handle the interview and character references you need for a reputable doc.... don't go for one that'll just take your cash and jam it in because you'll either pay far too much for basic gear, or end up living with kludgeware of the worst kind, either cobbled-together second hand junk, or worse.

You're asking someone to build the rest of your life, remember that.

Kiko is doing well. But it'll still take a few months of therapy to clean up the mess she made of herself. You'll have to use your imaginations to provide your own deterrent.

7: Y u No KoFen?

I'm still getting asked this question. Usually from the same group of people.

There're two big reasons.

First, our interwave transmitter probably predates the Boskone War.

Second - so does the rest of our network infrastructure. But it's a bigger a more complex issue than that. The real reason, is TITANIC. And MAGI when it comes online.

Both are distributed computers - they have no single core processing node. Which means the entire network is required to handle all sort of inter-processor communications that would normally be dealt with by a PC motherboard. And, to make sure that TITANIC is able to run at real-time speeds, all of that data is being shuffled around at absolute priority to get the latency down. It's why our ping-times for gaming and messaging are so high- most normal network traffic is scheduled at an unusually low priority. Even with a full network upgrade, to the latest fibre with ulrafast optical switching, it wouldn't work. TITANIC will always take priority to the point where everything else gets pushedout of spec.

From a raw technical standpoint, the network might be able to handle the overhead of a single set. From a practical standpoint, this would involve shutting down the entirety of our automation. Maintenance. Defence. Environmental. Landing Control. Reactor Control, Power Systems.... All of it.

To install a functioning KoFen set, we would need to fit a dedicated transceiver with it's own dedicated fibre-channels. This was on last month's referendum, as a stretch on the network upgrade options. And nobody voted to pay for it.

So please, stop constantly adding it to the Agenda. Bloody demagogues.

Also. On an unrelated note, November 22nd. Watch.

8: Zenith of Things Tournament Questions.


I'm amazed at how few people know what Battle Angel Alita is. Have Alita and the Gruppe been around so long, we've become more famous than our source?

The full details will have to wait until december, but the general format will be as follows:

Round one will be Live Fire Team against Frigga drones with sim-rounds. Maximum of 5 people per-team. Minimum of 1. Hacking of the drone controls will be forbidden for safety reasons.
Round two and subsequent will be team on team using simmunition weapons.
Top Three teams get a trophy and a prize.

That's the jist of it. We're working with our sponsors to figure out what the exact details are and what they'll accept - both from an entrant safety standpoint, an inclusiveness standpoint and a practicality standpoint. And also to figure out how to fully fund this thing. Maybe some sort of premium streaming option, or the like.

The most important Rule of Zenith will be that it's all real. Not simulated. Injuries, fatigue, wear and tear - it all carries forward to the next round. Survival Shot was founded on that principal. The downside of doing it live... it's a lot harder.

Oh, and we have Kishiro's permission to use the name.

--

9: Barony of Frigga

The Parliament, in a bid to encourage someone to actually win the election, have decided that whoevers comes in #1 will earn the title of Baron of Frigga. You'll have to provide your own Fokker Triplane, I'm afraid. They're a bit tight on the expenses after the Denise O'Brien corruption scandal.

After that, if nobody's election is forthcoming, some poor gobshite's getting appointed to the role. My sympathies. Cortana has offered tips on herding cats to the unfortunate victim.

---

10: Poor Hamsters


Finally. I think We have the rat problem under control. Putting Zapp-Guns on the exocomps worked. Apologies for the hamsters, Denon, I know you were attached to them.

In b4 'Mission Accomplished'.

--

Until Next Month. When we'll be renaming New Birmingham to something a little nicer, Lun'll be back from America, We'll know if Daryl won for Asagiri, and maybe we'll get lucky and have someone else doing these bulletins.

-Jet.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#3
Somewhat meta:

Dartz Wrote:2: Motorcon.
...
The committee are looking at proposals for events for next year. Given the setup time involved, you have six months to propose.

The Red Lad Revue would be happy to entertain racers' families who aren't interested in the races (whoever those hypothetical family members might be).

Oh, and ... (goes and puts a line onto the fenwiki page) ... Kohran has been known to ride a 1999 Honda CBR1100XX on occasion. However, she is an amateur racer, not even a semi-pro.

Dartz Wrote:8: Zenith of Things Tournament Questions.

I'm amazed at how few people know what Battle Angel Alita is. Have Alita and the Gruppe been around so long, we've become more famous than our source?

Noah: "What do you mean, 'somebody should make a Stellvia anime'? Where do you think I got the idea for the station from?"

Sometimes I think there should be a support group somewhere in Fenspace for all the 'ScureFen whose creations are more famous than the source material. Then I remember that the SOS-dan would have to be invited to join it...
--
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
Reply
 
#4
I don't know rob. After everything that OGJ has done I think almost everyone has at least glanced at Haruhi's source material. I know OF Stellvia but admit I haven't watched it yet because I haven't found the first disk or a complete series box set yet.

Dartz I have a response in my head and should be posting it later when I can use a computer instead of my phone
 
Reply
 
#5
Quote:'ScureFen whose creations are more famous than the source material.

Or, the majority of the newcomers are just to young to remember. Which, based on the last con i was at, is distressingly likely. Bubblegum what?
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#6
Or like a recent SJW gripefest about black representation in anime (never mind that they're so self-absorbed as to not realize anime is primarily intended for the Japanese domestic market: the foreign fans are an income bonus) that never mentioned Gainax's Nadia.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll
Reply
 
#7
Foxboy Wrote:Or like a recent SJW gripefest about black representation in anime (never mind that they're so self-absorbed as to not realize anime is primarily intended for the Japanese domestic market: the foreign fans are an income bonus) that never mentioned Gainax's Nadia.
Mind you, it really wouldn't be a bad thing if more anime had non-Japanese primary characters...

And do you still count as a 'scure if your fandom is really ramous but just not suited to becoming an organised faction?
Reply
 
#8
Dartz Wrote:From: jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
To: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:State of the Rats #9

Another month, another message.

On the table today. Our reactor Reactor 'accident'. Motorcon done. Why we can't have nice things. Now Arriving at Platform 1. Lun crew qual boards. Disturbing. Y U No Kofen. Zenith Questions. Baron Von Frigga and the Poor Hamsters.

Anyway, we've been busy, so without further waffle....

1: Not even A mere Three-Mile-Island


So, the second biggest thing in my inbox this month is the incident with Unit 4. To all the people who insisted we were morons for even trying to run the test, or 'monkeys fucking around like hicks making moonshine with the most intense man-made radiation source known' as someone online put it, I defer to the Lensherr Heavy Power Systems PLC. They know far more about d/t-fuelled stellarators than me. The ultimate cause appears to have been a small hydrogen explosion in the de-aerator assembly, leading to a coolant spill. That sounds alarming, but it's not. Since 'Just trust us' isn't good enough, the Engineer's preliminary report will be on the public bulletin-board in a week.

Before anyone manages to have a panic attack, try to remember that incidents like this are exactly why these tests are run. This wasn't even an accident. We knew it could happen when we started the test and had taken steps. Had we been in an actual emergency situation with the core, and had similar explosion, the results would've been STALKER, Shadow of Frigga. As it is, it happened in an environment we had control over, so it was managed fairly quickly.

The reactor will be out of commission for about 6 months. We may get emergency funding to either repair or replace, this hasn't been decided.

The other three units are in no danger.

From: Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
To: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9

Jet,

please do everyone on Frigga including us catgirls a favor and just write the old thing off. The Frigga Factory can build a fusion reactor... if you don't want to remove the old reactor lets just seal it in and keep it there for a few centuries.

Aisha
Reply
 
#9
From:jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
To: Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
CC: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9

If you're concerned about it, we can add it as an emergency item to be voted on, we just need two more people to second the motion.

We might be able to get a grant for energy systems modernisation, but the cost of replacing the entire power grid would be far beyond anything affordable. It's built to mundane technical standards, with mundane switchgear based on mundane ideas of how a grid should run. Converting it all to run on a direct-conversion power source just can't happen. All those odd harmonics do weird things to transformers - notto mention being a lot harder to filter out from a signal.

From a technical standpoint, it's just easier to keep the existing reactors going. The core is still intact. The turbomachinery is still good. Only the deaerators have been damaged. Right now, it makes more sense to repair the deaerator stack than it does to completely overhaul the power grid to use a direct-conversion power source.

Anyway, we can put together some options for next month and see what the rest of the rock thinks, but what we can do is really going to be limited by money. Even if CGI provides the reactors, replacing the entire power grid to match will just be a massive civil engineering project.

-Jet
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#10
Dartz Wrote:From:jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
To: Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
CC: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9

From: Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
To: jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
CC: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9
If you're concerned about it, we can add it as an emergency item to be voted on, we just need two more people to second the motion.
Do other catgirls count? If yes I could get a few to vote on it...

Quote:We might be able to get a grant for energy systems modernisation, but the cost of replacing the entire power grid would be far beyond anything affordable. It's built to mundane technical standards, with mundane switchgear based on mundane ideas of how a grid should run. Converting it all to run on a direct-conversion power source just can't happen. All those odd harmonics do weird things to transformers - notto mention being a lot harder to filter out from a signal.

From a technical standpoint, it's just easier to keep the existing reactors going. The core is still intact. The turbomachinery is still good. Only the deaerators have been damaged. Right now, it makes more sense to repair the deaerator stack than it does to completely overhaul the power grid to use a direct-conversion power source.

Anyway, we can put together some options for next month and see what the rest of the rock thinks, but what we can do is really going to be limited by money. Even if CGI provides the reactors, replacing the entire power grid to match will just be a massive civil engineering project.

Who said anything about replacing a power grid? I was just talking about taking a different action to generate electricity... they have a nice reactor at the Labs at Nostromo which puts out a LOT of electricity and I think we have the blueprints somewhere here on the Grid. The superconductors we need will be a bit tricky, but nothing we cannot handle... and the basic materials are not really rare.

So the question is just about "do we want" and "are we willing to spend the time", right? If you want I can do an inventory check if we have the necessary basic materials here or if we would need to grab a few small rocks first.
Reply
 
#11
From:jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
To: Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
CC: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9

I think you're missing the big problem, Aisha. This place was originally built by a bunch of Dursleys fifteen years ago so the whole powergrid on Frigga is basicaly a mundane power grid, it just can't handle spark generated by Fen reactors. The extra noise from the converter and harmonics alone would cook the transformer cores, and make setting zones on the breakers next to impossible because those things behave in weird ways.

If we didn't have that problem we'd be running this place on localised arc reactors and stuff.

-Jet.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#12
Dartz Wrote:From:jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
To: Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
CC: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9

I think you're missing the big problem, Aisha. This place was originally built by a bunch of Dursleys fifteen years ago so the whole powergrid on Frigga is basicaly a mundane power grid, it just can't handle spark generated by Fen reactors. The extra noise from the converter and harmonics alone would cook the transformer cores, and make setting zones on the breakers next to impossible because those things behave in weird ways.

From:Aisha(a)factory.friggarock.fen
To: jet.jaguar(a)friggarock.fen
CC: local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
subj:Re:State of the Rats #9

Who talks about an arc reactor? Yes I know, even the latest Fusors can be a bit "jumpy", but this could be solved with a good converter... not a smashed together one you get from a Mad Scientist, something that you would use on Earth to generate DC.

The other option would be not to use a Fusor... let me dig a little bit in our database, I think I have something you will find interesting for power generation.

If you say the old reactor would be out of order for half a year anyways we should be able to do it... this will be fun!

Aisha
Reply
 
#13
from:jet.jaguar(a)Friggarock.fen
to:local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
Subj: The State of the Rat... #10

We're all greatly saddened by the death of Li Nuan. I only had the pleasure of knowing her for a few months, but her warmth and sense of humour left a lasting impression on all who knew her. Her parents have sent their thanks for all the well wishes they have received, and regret that they have not been permitted to leave for her funeral.

Space is wide and good friends are too few

Still, the adventure continues.

This month; Safety in mining operations. Mission Titanic. Canada's most wanted. Asagiri Wins. Motorcon and Beyond. Our new trainset. No More Chernobyl. Local Notices and Fnords Political Roundup.

1: Safety in Mining works.


Five days ago, we received a reminder of just how dangerous mine works in space can be. This came at the cost of the life of someone who was a good friend to many, one person requiring lifesaving cybernetics and four people who are still in hospital, and will be for months to come. This is far too high a price. The uncomfortable truth is that, over the last ten months, w've grown steadily more complacement. And now, one person paid with their life. Four others might still die.

I am ordering a full independent review of mining proceedures, and calling a halt on works until this is completed. Engineers from Greenwood Ultd will be onsite next week.

I want to be clear. You can speak with them in full confidence, without fear of legal or professional consequences. The most important thing right now is that we understand why this accident happened, what processes and decisions lead to the accident, and how we can make sure that it never happens again. Nobody is to be held responsible, or scapegoated. If we do that, nothing changes, we just make ourselves feel better.

Those who are at fault, are already suffering enough.

2: Mission Titanic

Lun's returned from Earth.

We caused a minor panic flying over Madison, Wisconsin, before landing in Detroit. Our planned dive on the Fitzgerald was kiboshed by the weather, but Lun still proved her worth by rescuing a fishing crew from the depths of a great-lakes storm. Unfortunately, we didn't get them all, but we tried.

Crew Foster and Crew Ngembe have both been recommended for the Usagi medal, for going out onto the wing to pull survivors aboard. Anyone willing to go out on a wing like that in heavy seas deserves more than a medal

Our followon mission to Titanic was a stunning success. The wreck was located using Lun's own onboard sensor array, both on magnetic and gradiometer arrays. Three suited dives were performed by the bottom team. Markas, Skippy, Yumeko, Kay and Dave (Just Dave), became the first human beings to set foot on Titanic's decks in 112 years. They boarded the wreck, moving deep inside through the boiler room to intact corridors, recovering internal samples of the ship's structure, fittings, wooden panels and crockery for study.

These have been turned over to Rhode Island University to determine the expected lifespan of the preserved wreck.

Our final dive attached a plaque to the remains of bridge.

A congratulatory message from James Cameron can be found here. We might even have a charter next year, all things going well. The man who claimed he never wanted to go back to Titanic is very much interested in taking a step onboard.

We had our minor glitches, but they're all easy fixes. All told, we're all ready to go for Arcadia. Departure is in two weeks, with a quick, final training cruise next week followed by final provisioning.

3: Canada's most wanted?

In related news, the Canadian government have requested the identities of Lun's crew be released. I still don't know what laws we're supposed to have broken. We were pretty careful to operate above board, with proper permits and and legal permissions for everything we did, so I amn't sure what they could be angry at. They're being pretty insistant too.

I've contacted our consulate in Ottawa, and a few personal contacts I have who used to be in the Canadian Civil Service, to try and find out what this is about. Hopefully it's just something small that'll go away with the next political football.

But I won't throw anyone under the bus. I don't tout. Don't worry about that.

4: Asagiri Wins.

Okay, so this one's a bit self-indulgent. Sue me. We won this year's ARR Warbirds championship, in our first year of competition, with a brand new design of spacecraft. Thanks for all the support for the last year.

My sincere apologies to anyone who lost money by betting on Bellcom or BAT.

So, to celebrate, we're blowing a good chunk of the prizemoney on a pissup on the hangar level. Good food, good beer, a few good friends. Everyone's invited. Might be a few interesting guests from outside, some of whom won't like their presence being announced beforehand.

Unfortunately, we can't do rides in the Kulbit because it's a single-seater

The upside of winning is sponsors. The upside of sponsors, is more money to hire people. If anyone thinks they have relevant skills, call me. Let's try and maintain our 100% championship record for 2025. Sure Bellcom spend as much money on a thruster assembly as we do on an entire spacecraft, but that's part of the fun.

Positions are open for one pilot in a second racecraft, along with mechanics and other engineering specialists. The call's going out to the wider Fenspace in a few weeks, but let's keep this at home for the time being.

We also have a healthy order book for the first time in, well, ever, both from race teams, and mostly Fen who just like the pleasure of knowing that if they wanted to, they could probably win an interplanetary championship with their personal transport.

5: To Motorcon and beyond.

A little bird has told me that the Motorcon committee are considering putting in a bid to host the Fenspace Convention for 2026 or 7. Don't tell anyone I told you that. For next year, they've already confirmed their first guests. Red Lad Revue will be providing entertainment for the families and friends of attendees who appreciate things other than rotary-induced deafness.

Lost and found is still open from the previous convention. Special mention to the person who 'lost' a 2015 Mustang 350GT. Although, considering what they did with it, maybe they're just too embarrassed to claim it.

6: Our new Trainset.

No, we're not naming it Dickbutt. Stop asking. We can do the second choice if the one B-arker who keeps howling for it is willing to go all the way there and explain in person why we should name a train after them - on second thoughts, no, let's not do that. I've been specifically asked not to name it Lady Mars.

So we're calling it the Starlight Express. I wanted to call it Boxer, but Starlight Express it is.

Her legal Running number is 92-77-7137-370-1.

It seems to be settling in happily, wearing bright new coat of white, blue and yellow paint. The UIC has assigned us a region code of 77 for the Frigga Rail Network, for taking ticket bookings

Once the line is fully up and running we'll be able to do a lot more development work. It passes through a lot of the old pits standing empty, and the catgirls are interested in laying a 20km branch to their side of the rock. The FRN could be set to grow fairly quickly and make getting around a lot easier.

Because of the ongoing Railfen infestation, paid, booked tickets will now be required for non-residents or unregistered guests.

7: No more Chernobyl.

Catgirl industries have proposed a solution, replacing the damaged reactor with a more modern unit. We should be able to tie it into the existing turbomachinery, with an additional direct conversion system, so it'l be a lot more efficient using fuel.

It'll take time to hash out the full technical details and make sure it'll work with our existing power grid systems. Because one thing we do have is power quality and reliability matching mundane norms.

8: Local notices.


So, it looks like Gabriel's gotten his hands on some genuine pieces of dead cow from sources unknown. I have it on the highest authority that it did genuinely once eat grass, once lived in a field, and mostly lived a fairly peaceful life before being slaughtered, butchered and shipped unfrozen. So, Steak dinners at the Rock and Hard Place, while stocks last. (About ten minutes or so?)

I miss being able to eat steak.

Len Carima will be taking the Oath of Venus on Tuesday. We all welcome her and wish her the best in this new stage of her life.

Kotono's Fitness Bee is still accepting new members for beginners courses for the next month or so.

Ford's Heavyarms has an open position for an apprentice gunsmith. Firearms training every Thursday at 8pm.

Graham and Mikan Colla will soon be opening their own general store and outlet, with a regular run of supplies in from the JMC.

Militia Reserve training signups are open again, using Survival Shot hardware. Be all you can be and try a life less ordinary. Or something like that.

There's more on frigga.local.bulletin.

9: The Fnords have seen us.

..."The big news this week comes from the Senshi's asteroidal hinterlands. The Friggan militant apathy towards the various second daughters and campaign contributors Crystal Tokyo keeps trying to send 'em has finally boiled over. HM's Government is going to have to accept that the asteroid colonies want the same kind of representation as the cities, and they ain't happy about it."...

So, I take it those of you who care about such things have seen this month's political roundup from Fnord. We have amused him and the SMoF's have begun to grumble. This either means we have done something very right, or very wrong.

It could be good.

It also means we are, officially, a political embarrasment to the entire Crystal Millenium Government. Good Work! Well-preened feathers are being ruffled. We're a threat to Minister Kayabuki's administration and authority. Opposition leader Ilia has direcly petitioned the Queen to personally intervene in the crisis.

This is what happens when your political party boats in candidates who clearly, and frankly wouldn't give two wet fucks about the people out here and would sit solely to spout the party line on the big issues in parliament. Especially, when you're turning down people who actually live here...

Yes. We signed on the bottom line. But we pay our dues. We're entitled to actual representation, not just some empty skirt to fill a seat for the good of Tokyo.

I'm going to try talk to someone on Azubajuban who might owe me a favour... maybe if we can spread ructions amongst the rest of the archipelago we can make this work. We aren't the only ones who think the Millenium's been too Venus-centric lately.

Anyway, something's going to come from Tokyo soon enough. This means either direct provisioning by the Tokyo government - which is what Ilia is pushing for, for our own good because we clearly can't look after ourselves. Or an appointed administrator, which'd be a pain, but would most likely be someone who actually lives here. There'll be a Town Hall meeting to discuss what our response will be as soon as we get it.

There's a lot more to it than that and Mal covers it far better than I do - the only sort of politics I'm good at is what clausewitz called the 'other means' of politics. But I'll keep pushing this as long as people keep telling me to.

That bitch is going to call that a threat, isn't she?

---

That's it for this month. Next month will be Ford since she's the only council member staying behind.

Please. Stay safe everyone.

-Jet.

--------------

EDIT: Quotation from Mal in the IRC.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#14
HRogge Wrote:we should be able to do it... this will be fun!
(insert one chord of Ominous Music of Dread here)
--
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
Reply
 
#15
robkelk Wrote:
HRogge Wrote:we should be able to do it... this will be fun!
(insert one chord of Ominous Music of Dread here)
From: ...(at) lbbl.ci.fen
To: Aisha (at) frigga.ci.fen

You promised them what? *sigh*
Reply
 
#16
from:ford.sierra@heavyarms.fen
to:local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
Sub: State of the rock #11

Because Jet typoed the original one ten months ago and didn't want anyone to notice.

Right, while the cat's away the mice will play.

That politics things is sill going on. They've made a proposal but with most of the interim council away on a science mission we won't be able to legally act on it before the deadline.

Here're the two choices:

1: The parliament takes direct rule of Frigga for the time being, until a baron is properly elected. This is otherwise known as a good hard fuck in the ass until we cry uncle.

2: We can make a direct request to the Queen that she advise the parliament to appoint a baron of her selection. The downside is, that can be anyone. It could be a drone, it could be me. It depends on her and how pissed off she is, but it's a chance.

I think that's the constitutional way of resolving the crises. Now, the real sinister part is, if we don't make the request within 168 hours of this being offered, then the parliament chooses and they're going to choose option 1.

Which is why I think they waited until 8 days after Lun departed before sending it. Even at full speed, Lun won't make it back. With the council split, it's just not possible to hold a meeting with the necessary quorum to reach a legally binding decision. Not when there's hours of interwave lag inbetween.

But, I think we might have a way out. We do have a few supporters and one of them suggested a little loophole we can use. Recall the old council, vote them out. Elect a new council. Have them issue the response. All in 6 days.

Can we do it?

Yes we can Frigga.

We have to turn this around really, really quickly. Otherwise we get screwed by people far away. And I left mundania to get away from all that.

So, first thing's first.

Recall on all members of the council. Yes or No. It's going out ten minutes before this message. That'll take a full day because the council have to be given time to be informed, and to reply.

After that, a day for nominations. a day for voting. And maybe we'll get it done on time. Change is coming.

Next thing.

Report from the School of Hard Rocks came back. The interim conclusion is that Li Nuan's lockout tag was missing from the switchboard, and that someone threw the switch.

20 kilovolts did the rest.

Her tag was still in her apartment, which probably means she left it at home and decided not to bother going back for it, since 'everyone knew' she'd be working on that breaker. But the only person who knows for sure is dead.

The person who pulled the switch is pretty fucked up over it, all told. He checked on DCAMs and found the circuit was scheduled to be brought back live, and with no lockout tag on the switch did the obvious thing.

That's our second fuckup.

The full report and its recommendations are here on the bulletin board. Anybody who works down there is expected to read it and send back a printed, signed copy.

This is only going to happen again otherwise.

Third item.

Stop putting things on the train tracks. Look, I know 'Will it crush' was fun the first few dozen times, but re-railing a hundred-ton locomotive when it doesn't crush is pain in the ass. It damages the train, the tracks and looks fucking stupid for visiting guests. I'm pretty sure the marshounds would be annoyed to learn who was onboard the last train that got derailed...

Also, to the person or people who repeatedly sent in 'Caravan on the Traintracks' to the Motorcon suggestion board.

Sure, what the hell.

I don't think our insurance will cover leaving Jeremy Clarkson inside, but we can always ask.

Okay, now it's time to shoot the elephant in the room.

Klatchian Coffee Liqueur.

And that's why Elpeo Ple and Minni-May Hopkins are now our latest android arrivals. And that does not mean I am Rally Vincent. Stop suggesting that. Okay, so Minnie-May's working as my apprentice, but that's only because she's pretty handy with things that go boom. And that's how I learned what an ekriktiphile is. Some things I cannot un-learn.

Next person to call me Rally gets a dent in their forehead, so help me God. I didn't even know who Rally fucking Vincent was until 10 years ago.

Also, Damn you Sonoda. The Purple Pussy is all your fault. Go there if you want. What happens between two consenting sapients is their own business.

Elpeo's different. I don't know what' wrong with her. When we finally caught her she'd gotten all the way to Mars on her own.Just remember if you see her out and about that something's wrong with her - she has some sort of problem interpreting the world around her, so try make sure she doesn't climb into anything that'll kill her or anyone else. At least until we can figure out what her major malfunction is and get it fixed.

I just can't watch her constantly and Vesta aren't being helpful at the moment.

Moral of the story; never get so drunk on rocket fuel you don't remember handwaving your kids. Actually, never get drunk on rocket fuel.

Number 5.

Let me say this again. If you're still reading this, go here. Vote Yes. Recall the council. Then we can turn around and vote another one in. It's that critical. Either that, or we're into dark territory and public opinion on Venus is not on our side.

Next month, Lun comes back. Unless anyone does something stupid. We might actually get a chance to vote on new name for this place. And hopefully all this bullshit with the parliament will be over and we can get on with our lives.

Otherwise, a lot of people are on a science mission, the rest are on vacation shut-down and things are getting a little bit dirty because the garbage system broke last week and DCAMs hasn't scheduled the repair yet. That's the state of the rock.

-Ford.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#17
So, when Rob Donaldson shows up the next weekend with his sometimes-girlfriend Beverly to take a tourist ride on the Starlight Express, the real reason is so that Bev (a.k.a. Sammie commander Crystal Senshi Hayakawa) can quietly meet with the new council and hear what they actually want in a representative. Rob taking photos of the train and the "tourist traps" is just a distraction.

Of course, there's no guarantee that Her Highness will listen to her chief military officer, and an unofficial end-run around Kayabuki might blow up in everyone's faces, but officially this is just a weekend out of the offices for the two bureaucrats.
--
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
Reply
 
#18
from:MikeyFox@intermail.fen
to:local-call.residents(a)friggarock.fen
Sub: Re: State of the rock #11

Forgive me as a relative outsider for butting in like this, but you do realise the only reason you're all in this mess is that you kept refusing to just pick a candidate, right?

Look, don't get me wrong. I really respect and admire your dedication to your "ad-hocratic" way of running things and I get that you don't want to mess with a setup that's working really well. But you voted to join the Crystal Millenium Kingdom, and that means playing by their rules. You can't have all the benefits of Senshi affiliation and none of the drawbacks, people. And it's not like a Baron or Baroness would have to do a whole lot. They're like the Governor-General of Canada; they sign on the dotted line where the local ruling council tells them to and don't make waves unless you do something really dumb like impose apartheid or whatever. And nowhere in the relevant laws does it specify exactly how that ruling council be selected.

And... Well, look. To make up for probably overstepping a bunch of unwritten boundaries, I'd like to offer a practical solution. I swore I wasn't going to trade on Dad's connections unless it was really important, but if you go for Option 2, I'm pretty sure Serenity II would be inclined to look favourably on your preferred candidate if Serenity I were to act as a reference. And since she's now safely out of office, I can exclusively reveal that there is very little that Tanith Curtis will not do in return for Belgian chocolate, hint hint. Wink
Reply
 
#19
from: Aisha (a) factory.friggarock.fen
to: local-call.residents (a) friggarock.fen
Sub: Re: State of the rock #11

Hi,

we received more than a few calls about the increased number of Exocomps flying around in the space around Frigga in the last week.

No, we had not accident (at least nothing noteworthy)... no, they are not afraid of something.

We sent them out to look for a small asteroid (a few meters across) with certain Rare Earths that are not common to Frigga. Should take a week or two to find the right one, but in the meantime you can expect BUSY Exocomps buzzing around in small groups within 1 lightminute of Frigga.

Aisha
Reply
 
#20
Yet again, Yuku noms a post. I'm trying to come up with a logical way for this sort of fuster-cluck to happen. That's highly unlikely.

from: Ford.Sierra(a)heavyarms.fen
to:MikeyFox(a)intermail.fen

Sub: Re: State of the rock #11

You're kinda right and Kinda wrong.

To run for Office in the Millenium, you have to be paying dues for a minimum of 12 months, at the time the election is called.
To run to represent a settlement in the Millenium, you have to be living there for a minimum of 12 months, at the time the election is called.
There's an exemption to that for settlement founders - but only 6 people are legally considered settlement founders here, and 5 of those are caught by catch one.
The final person who would be eligible is nailed by another catch

But there's a way out. You can run ineligible people, if the commission approves them for running with an exemption. The problem, is that commission haven't approved the people we'd like to run and who we put forward. The only applications they've approved are from the party toadies from Venus. So what they're trying to do is basically fill our seat in parliament with one of their own stooges who'll raise the hand and vote with the crack of a whip rather than bother to actually represent us.

It's not that we can't decide on a candidate - we're not being allowed to elect the people we want. The only people we're being allowed to elect are the people we specifically don't want. The whole point of the parliament is that whatever baron we send out there represents our needs - someone who won't just act as an automatic right hand for the party line. But that's what they want.

It's not a matter of wanting all the benefits and none of the drawbacks. We're still paying our dues. We're meeting our militia obligations. We're doing everything that's required of us. Hell, we even have a balanced budget. We've taken the drawbacks, we want some of the benefits we were promised.

Ask your dad about 'no taxation without representation'. Okay, so we're not exactly going to go that far, but the sentiment is sort of the same.

-Ford.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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#21
A Summary Of The Frigga Crisis(*)

Posted by: FnordFnordFnord
In: r/FenPoliticalRoundup

(*) Because "incredible clusterfuck for which they only have themselves to blame" is a bit of a mouthful.

Okay, so! I've been doing roundups on the whole thing between Venus and Frigga for the SMOFcon mailing list for the last little while now, and apparently people like my meat & sarcasm enough that they asked me to explain all this nonsense for the general public. At the moment I've got nothing else on my plate save political trainspotting, so why not? Everybody sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

First off, some background:

The main reason this is coming to a boil *now* is that the last year has not been a good one for the Kayabuki government. There've been a couple nasty kickback scandals involving Party-In-Government backbenchers from Crystal Titusville, you can read all about those in the Daily Illuminator, and those were *embarrassing*, but the really *damaging* news has been coming out of the terraforming office. VTP has revised their estimates upward three times in the last twelve months: according to the latest models surface terraforming won't be Earth-normal before 3200 CE, even with heavy handwavium use.

"Okay, so what?" I hear you ask. It's not like VTP was going to be done next week or anything, right? Well, true enough, but Kayabuki's government got into office on the back of the terraforming project. "Surface By 2150!" was the Party-In-Government's rallying cry last election, and now it looks like they won't be able to deliver. Add to that the kickback problems and that Serenity II is noticably cooler to Kayabuki on a personal level than Serenity I and well... the Loyal Opposition smells blood in the water. If Kayabuki's going to fend off opposition attacks *and* prevent new elections she needs more friendly backbenchers in Parliament.

Which is where Frigga comes in. The Venusians have a tendency towards using subject habitats outside Venus orbit as rotten burroughs, pretty much sinecures for second daughters and campaign contributors to add bulk and texture to Parliament. A nasty habit but when you're coslifing as the British Empire in Space some things are almost inevitable. Anyway, Kayabuki's been sending out loyal Party apparatchiks to Frigga to stand for MP for the last eighteen months now, and so far the residents have rejected every single one of 'em.

Part of the problem is that Venus doesn't grok that Frigga isn't a remote mining outpost where the locals are too busy working, drinking & whoring to care about the government--Frigga's a full-fledged community. Using the place as a sinecure comes off as an insult to the Friggans, who have their own concerns that they (rightly) believe deserve hearing in Parliament. So the Friggans have been engaging in the voting equivalent of a sit-down protest by refusing to vote for anyone other than "None of the Above" whenever Venus sends a new slate of candidates.

The *other* part of the problem is that the native Friggans are caught in a nasty catch-22 about citizenship. Frigga's a relatively new settlement, and one that was annexed to the Millenium rather than a direct colonization. Venusian citizenship laws don't really have precedent for annexation, so pretty much most of the population is ineligible to stand for election.

In theory this could be solved by direct appointment of the major stakeholder as feudal overlord. It's been done before, the Duke of Aphrodite Terra got the name when his mining balloon evolved into a proper town. The thing is, this would involve the cooperation of the major stakeholder and, well... that's kind of an issue. Jet Jaguar's an unreconstructed cyberpunk who set Frigga up as a haven for like-minded cyberpunks, and I believe that her utter *horror* at becoming "The Man" keeps her from accepting the position, no matter how much easier it'd make life for her people.

So we've got a government that demands an MP, a population that can't stand for MP and a would-be noble who refuses the responsibility, and thus we have the impasse.

Well, we *had* the impasse. Yesterday Parliament delivered an ultimatum to Frigga's governing council: Accept direct rule, force the Queen to intervene, or we just send the Sammies in and do things the hard way. And just to show that Kayabuki is officially done fucking around they waited until most of the governing council was out of the system before delivering the ultimatum. What's really interesting is that the Party-In-Government and the Loyal Opposition seem to be united in this: The opposition may not like Kayabuki or the way she runs things, but they like the asteroid colonies passive-aggressively thumbing their noses at Crystal Tokyo less.

What happens next? My little birds tell me the Friggans are scrambling to dump the old council and elect a new quorum in time to respond to the ultimatum. If they pull that off, it's likely a question of which stopgap option they choose. My best guess is they'll ask the Queen to appoint somebody--Serenity II's a Belter, so in theory she'll be sympathetic to their plight--and odds are good she'll appoint Jaguar or one of her inner circle as Baroness Frigga. But that's ultimately a stopgap; the issues preventing proper representation are stil there and still effect Frigga and other outlying habitats. Parliament will either fix the law or watch all the Senshi holdings outside Venus orbit break away and join the Autonomous Alliance, the Jovians or one of the Belt mutualist groups out there, Kayabuki's government self-immolates and we see a sea change in Venusian government for the first time in ten years.

Ought to be fun either way.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Reply
 
#22
Posted by: TomboyOrion
In: r/FenPoliticalRoundup

The Frigga situation really gets interesting when you look at the larger picture. I think it was by accident, but a lot of the other rocks out in the belt have decided to treat Frigga as a test case for signing up with Venus. After the UBA mess, they've been nervous about staying independent, but no one wants to be the first guy to dive into the lake, so how nice of the Friggans to do it for them. And they're really not impressed by Kayabuki's little Rotten Borough schemes. Even the ones that figure Frigga should bite the bullet and deal with a bad baron for a while are considering looking elsewhere for their larger government needs. My contacts in Jovian space tell me that the Warsies and the Browncoats are currently getting approached by a lot of representatives from smaller colonies, and while I haven't heard from the Federation yet, I'd say they're almost certain to be getting the same thing.

Venus is really shooting itself in the foot here. I'm going to be in Crystal Tokyo in a few days, I'll do some asking around there, see what the mood is.
Reply
 
#23
Posted by: FnordFnordFnord
In: r/FenPoliticalRoundup

To be approaching fair to the Senshi, this entire clusterfuck is literally unprecedented for them. The Millennium was never intended to be expansionist or courting independents like the Trekkies or Warsies, or as lassez-faire about membership as the Browncoats. ("Oh, you're new. Here's your sheriff, have a nice day.) Venus was always the end-goal: the Senshi would terraform the planet in glorious isolation and everything outside of Venus orbit was either for ceremonial purposes like Memorial City or utilitarian shit supporting VTP. The citizenship rules make sense if you assume they apply to new immigrants to the aerostats or chartered colonists establishing an outpost *from Venus.* Annexing an established settlement like Frigga was... unexpected, to say the least, and it was almost entirely due to fallout from UBA's collapse.

This was always going to be a rough absorption, and the rotten borough shenanigans didn't help *at all.*
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Reply
 
#24
(Hey, is this before or after the Love and Rage faction asked the Soviets if they could set up shop on Gallifrey?)

Posted by: TomboyOrion
In: r/FenPoliticalRoundup

Ah, accidental expansionism. Kinda the story of the Fen right there, isn't it?
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#25
Posted in: /r/FenPoliticalRoundup
Posted by: Gunbunny_Chicago92

Fnord has most of the right of it.

It'll take 20 hours for a message to get back from Arcadia. If we're doing this above board, we can't move until we get official confirmation but that should be here in an hour or so if Lun isn't having trouble (again) with its interwave array. The problem we're having is we've gotta do this all above board or it's just going to get shot down. It's all chickenshit legal stuff.

If we don't make it, we'll play those cards as we get 'em. We've got a few still to play. So far everything that's been done is perfectly legal.

This was supposed to be an arrangement with mutual benefit. Frigga got Millenium membership and all the boosts to the economy and settlement, while the Millenium got a steady supply of heavy metals for Bristol yards without going to the bother of prospecting for and developing their own black rock.

Anyway, we remain committed to our future in the Crystal Millenium. Nobody here's going to run around screaming 'The Blueskirts are coming, the Blueskirts are coming' or something like that. Guys, we just want the rights we signed up for, that's all. We met our responsibilities. We've done it all above board. We're ready to work with Kayabuki when she's ready to work with us, and the offered 'compromise' isn't just "And the MP will move their residence to Frigga for the duration".

I better not say anything more because words tend to get twisted fairly hard very quickly.

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