un: rocipilot, video

[donkeyballs]

[The video comes on to show a small group of people. Alex is in front, obviously doing the filming, but behind him are two women - Naomi Nagata and Bobbie Draper - and one man - Amos Burton. You may have met some of them. A little behind them stands Prax Meng, who is looking very awkward, and Joe Miller, who is visibly rolling his eyes.]

Hey there cowboys and cowgirls. [ Alex’s characteristic texan drawl is easy and smooth, and despite the fact that there’s currently no gravity, he doesn’t sound worried.] Hope ya’ll had your magboots on.

Looks like somethin’ in the station’s centrifugal system is jammed up. That’ll be why ya’ll found your breakfast start floatin’ this mornin’. Ya ain’t gonna die, so no panickin’, but we’re gonna need all hands on deck to sort this one out. Now me and my crew here have a lot of experience with space-walk maintenance, but this is a big station. Ain’t no way we can do this by ourselves. But we wanna make sure anyone that’s venturin’ outside isn’t gonna get themselves hurt.

[He raises a hand.] Now my name’s Alex, and these here are Naomi, Bobbie and Amos. [He points to each of them in turn.] We can check over your gear and make sure it ain’t gonna start leakin’ oh-two on ya while you’re out there. We’ll be headin’ out ourselves, but at least one of us’ll be by an airlock at all times.

If anyone is havin’ problems with the weightless side of things - you just give one of us a shout and we’ll try t’ get you set up. Basic rules are - you’re gonna keep goin’ in any direction you are propelled in. Easiest thing is to just use your magboots to get around, but if you’ve gone and gotten yourself caught without ‘em, make sure you stay within arm’s reach of a wall or bolted-down-object at all times, else you’re gonna find yourself floatin’ uselessly with no way of gettin’ t’ anything.

[He pauses, looking back at the group.]

That about it? [ He waits a couple seconds, but no one adds anything, so he looks back in the camera. ]


Alright. Let’s get this show on the road.

[ The feed winks out. ]


[[OOC: Each of the Roci crew will have top levels in the event post to help people with their suits, so feel free to hit them up there! I will also link them here for easy access. Naomi || Bobbie || Amos || Alex ]]

Comments

text; un: tokumei

[neuralnet]

Alex, Naomi, Bobbie, Amos.

Who are the other two?

[donkeyballs]

Prax and Miller. They're from the Roci, too, but they ain't exactly as experienced with space walks, so best to stick to asking the four of us.

They'll be able to point you in the right direction, though.

>> private

[neuralnet]

You can vouch for these people?

[ And then, because he realizes his username is fairly anonymous... ]

(This is Hideki, from room 3-9. You helped me with my wall charger.)

[donkeyballs]

Oh, hey, kid. Yeah, of course I can. They're my crew - would trust any one of them with my life.

Why, you worried 'bout somethin?

[neuralnet]

There are people who I would rather not see here. Let's leave it at that.

[donkeyballs]

Well - all these people, they're my crew, and they're all from the same ship I am. So unless you've got a problem with anyone on the Rocinante...

[neuralnet]

No. I believe you. I don't think we're from the same universe, anyway.

[donkeyballs]

Yeah, I'm gettin' that impression with a lot of folks.

What's yours like?

[ He resists asking if Mars is colonised, but only barely. ]

[neuralnet]

Fairly normal, I suppose, but then I wouldn't know any different.
It's 2250. Or it was, for me.
Technology has developed, but not space travel. Not to the level your universe has.

[donkeyballs]

[ Huh. Weird. ]

It's 2350 back home for me, but Mars was definitely colonized before 2250. So you're sayin' that - they just never bothered?

[neuralnet]

From what I gathered from my conversation with Amos, certain technological developments your Earth made which allowed for interplanetary travel, were never achieved on my Earth.
Some kind of drive...?

[ An Epstein drive, he remembers the name, but it's more realistically human if he doesn't admit to remembering every detail of every conversation he's ever had. ]

[donkeyballs]

The Epstein drive, yeah. But that shouldn't have made a difference. Epstein was from Mars. Mars was already colonized - the drive opened up the rest of the system, but Mars was already there. Hell, they started sendin' probes to Mars in the twentieth century.

[neuralnet]

There has been a manned mission to Mars, but it was small scale. No colonization efforts.

[donkeyballs]

Well, that's... somethin', at least.

Most than most here.

Damn. One of these days I'm gonna learn how to get over that.

[neuralnet]

Is Mars important to you?

[donkeyballs]

Yeah.

Yeah, it is.

Don't think there's a Martian alive that don't feel that way about Mars.

[neuralnet]

Oh. I didn't realize you were a martian.

You look human.

[ Haruto, so do you. ]

[donkeyballs]

They ain't mutually exclusive.

We colonised Mars a couple hundred years back, but we're still human.

A few changes, but we ain't had enough time to evolve into a separate species, or anythin'. We just tend to be taller.

[neuralnet]

Oh, that's right. Amos mentioned that.

Is it because of the gravity, or some isolated branch of genetics, that leads to Martians being taller?

[ He's thinking of the Galapagos finches. ]

[donkeyballs]

Nah, it ain't genetic. The lower gravity means our Earth-based genome has a lot less to fight than it thinks it needs to.

Belters can get even taller.

I've no doubt that given a few tens of thousands of years Martians would start gettin' shorter again as our genome adjusted to the new environment, but we ain't had time for that.

[neuralnet]

I'm sorry... What's a "belter?"

[donkeyballs]

Right, sorry. Belters are people who grew up out in the further parts of the solar system - they're named for the Asteroid Belt, though a lot of 'em are actually from the Jovian or Saturn systems.

They tend to live in very low gravity situations - far as I know, only Ceres gets anywhere near a third of a gee.

[neuralnet]

I see.
So "Belter" and "Martian" are like... nationalities?

[donkeyballs]

That's right.

Technically, the Belt doesn't have it's own nation - though they've been tryin' to be recognised as one for a while now. But most stations in the Belt are technically under Earth or Mars control.

[neuralnet]

"Control" makes it sound like Earth and Mars are opposing forces in a war.