voice- un: brightness_kholin

[veristitalian]

People have been vanishing. Not many, not often, not at a volume where we've noticed quickly, but a small number of the ones who initially arrived here have simply disappeared. They've been vanishing since before the doors into space opened, and at enough of a rate that we'd notice the diminishing number of suits if they were all falling off the station into the black.

Initially I had assumed it must be because this place is dangerous. If that were the case we should be tripping over the corpses by now. We clearly aren't.

Comments

[donkeyballs]

Oh - right. [ He's surprised, though he shouldn't be. He clears his throat. ]

Uh - I guess best I can explain is that they're projectile weapons. Powered by very small explosions to push a small piece of metal outward at incredible speed. The old ones were basically like hand canons - by my time, we figured out how to make rounds that will piece human flesh but not go through the hull of a ship - which I tell you, is an important distinction.

The ones I use are the main guns attached to the ship, and those - well. Those do pierce hulls. We got two type of guns, PDCs - Point Defence Canons - and those fire a lot of small projectiles really fast, in order to stop a missile or some other debris from hittin' the ship. Then you got rail guns, which - well. They're only meant to kill, or severely disable, another ship.

A round from one of those can take someone's head clean off.

[veristitalian]

Like a bow and arrow or a trebuchet, but electrically powered to increase the force of the object being thrown?

[She infers, mostly following along.]

And specifically adapted to combat in this environment- where a misplaced shot could kill everyone on board.

[donkeyballs]

Yeah - like that. Only instead of mechanical power, the force behind the bullet is from a very contained explosion. A little bit of gunpowder lit, then the energy of the blast expels it outward.

And yeah, exactly. Though it wouldn't kill everyone - that's why the decks are segmented. If one of them gets vented, the others'll still be sealed. If it's a small enough hole, it'll be a slow enough vent that you can fix it before you lose all your atmosphere, too.

[veristitalian]

I have an unrelated question for you, and I'm sure it's one you've been asked before- but is all the food like this?

[It might be a space thing.]

It's a little like army rations, but worse.

[donkeyballs]

[ He gives a short, amused breath, the corners of his lips curling a little. ]

Oh no. This is a special kind of terrible. Worse than even the MREs we used to get with the MCRN.

Jasnah, if this were my ship, we'd be eatin' oven-cooked lasagna, right now, with real, honest-to-god mushrooms. [ He let out a slightly wistful sigh. ]

Damn, but I miss cookin'.

[veristitalian]

And what's lasagna?

[Asks Jasnah, trying not to think about the next bite she takes. This isn't something she hears much about, the food of other worlds.]

I didn't take you for a cook.

[donkeyballs]

It's a layered dish that you bake in an oven. Back on Earth, it was made with pasta, a meat sauce - usually beef-, cheese, and tomatoes. But the Martian version, I have to say, is basically entirely soy. We ain't got space for cattle, so no cheese, no meet. Sometimes real tomatoes, if you can get em. I add mushrooms in mine, just 'cause it's a treat.

[ He offered her a warm smile. ]

Fancy myself a pretty decent one, all things considered. Least better than anyone else on my crew, though that ain't sayin' a whole hell of a lot.

[veristitalian]

'Pasta, beef, cheese, tomatoes, soy, cattle.'

[She enumerates the words she doesn't know for him, now with a mildly rueful smile. She's so much at a loss here.]

I take it you don't have chouta?

[donkeyballs]

[ He gives her an apologetic look. ]

Pasta's a - well, it can be a lot of different things, but it's usually made of grain, mashed up into a dough and then cooked into shapes. Not like bread, though. We don't get a lot of it, 'cause wheat just ain't worth it's weight, up in space.

Beef is the meat you get from Cattle - it's a large animal that uh - well, I've never actually seen one, only pictures, so I ain't sure I could describe it.

Soy is a kind of bean, high in protein and when mashed up can be repurposed to make basically anything you damn well please. And tomatoes are a kind of fruit - not sweet, exactly, but they've got a great flavour an' most of 'em are bright red.

[ He wets his lips, then frowns. ]

Can't say I've heard of it. What is it?

[veristitalian]

It's the kind of food that gets sold in a warcamp. Good enough that soldiers will spend their wage for it on payday, inexpensive enough to produce that it can be sold for just chips.

Cremlings and soulcast meats ground, shell and all, into a crunchy paste, seasoned with what can be found- a little fruit, a little spice. The entire thing wrapped in lavis dough and fried to a crisp.

It's mens' food, I'm not supposed to have tried it, but I'm not a very obedient Vorin.

[aequoreal]

Is it a piece from your world?

( he can't help but wonder. if his theory of transportation is right, it might be. )

[oddbod]

That all makes my world sound very dull. Where I'm from, we would call it magic and say it's not possible.

[veristitalian]

We wouldn't say Roshar has magic. Just spent, and stormlight.

Are you from Earth?

[creatio]

my brother.

( Which still causes a mess of complicated feelings in her every time she admits it. )

he tried to kill me once. so there's no love lost.

[veristitalian]

Your brother tried to kill you?

[It makes her frown, thinking of her own- and what she'd have done to protect him.

[veristitalian]

I don't believe it's specifically from Roshar. Not the way I would consider a havah to be.

But it is a sign that the station understands what I would consider nudity.

[aequoreal]

That is curious. It indicates a great deal of knowledge.

[veristitalian]

Or else a lightly psychic touch right from the outset.

It's a very deeply held belief.

[aequoreal]

I see. Someone very well-trained in the mystic arts could manage it, if I apply the framework of my own world to this. But I am not sure that applies.

[veristitalian]

Nor mine. In my world, we exist in the tension between Honor, Odium and Cultivation. I don't think any of them can reach us here.

[creatio]

so did me dad.

( She doesn't know why she is being so blasé. )

they were kind of evil.

[oddbod]

[She has even more questions, but she saves them for the time being.]

Yeah. One of the versions of it, at least.

[veristitalian]

Well. You must be relieved to find youself on your own, that being the case.

[veristitalian]

Then you don't have spren. You can't see any creatures appear when someone experiences a strong emotion? Awespren or gloryspren lingering around the triumphant, or fearsprean and angerspren crawling over the trapped and terrified?

[aequoreal]

Can you tell me more of these?