Liner Notes for Orbital Rescues
Liner Notes for Orbital Rescues
Some old-school rocketry! Put an engine on the bottom, a lot of fuel on top of it and launch your payload into space. Simple as.
I mean I was a space nerd as a kid, did a little bit of space science and have played Kerbal Space Program. I know what I’m talking about. In fact it’s not that simple; the theory is but getting the fuel to burn evenly and not melt the engines is hard, having fuel stay at the right temperature and move evenly while going through a variety of environmental and acceleration regimes is hard, the rocket engineering is complex, and if you get it wrong things explode. Or they fall to the ground and explode. I salute you.
A shipwreck story for Gunn and a mis-matched crew has been on the list since the start and I’ve never got the hook, or found another story to marry it to. Survival would be okay, pick a limited and interesting surviving tool set, create an environment that’s challenging, let them loose. But already I’m lost in the options. A planet is more survivable – if it’s the right kind of planet. Breathable atmosphere, edible plants, the whole ship can be wrecked, back to page one. Yet if you want resources, an asteroid has things you might want right there, and you’re not at the bottom of a gravity well.
The gravity well is the fun part, and the thick atmosphere. Put your emergency transmitter into orbit, that would be a good challenge, and a defensible challenge. Though why someone wouldn’t stop for a distress call from the surface, that’s another matter. Anyway, building a rocket from the wrecked ship and local resources, great fun. I would need to brush up on my research, and then fit it into the canon… it becomes clear why it hasn’t happened yet.
Search and Rescue operations diverting them from their objective. The Code Of The Spacer, you don’t leave behind someone in need. (This is why the shipwreck can be a short story, and not a Robinson Crusoe-esque epic, just send a passing ship at the natural endpoint. And, of course, have them be captained by an eccentric on a voyage to far-foreign…) And someone has taken advantage of that. Making it more dangerous for all spacers. This is a crime, and worse than their hijacking attempt. It’s the sort of thing that would get them spaced if they weren’t safely on a planet.
Quintilius probably wouldn’t space them. Probably.
Does this get us anywhere in the larger story? A bit more on what happens when the space angel passes through. Similarities and differences. And of course the Daughters Of The Tower are there, agents following the same trail. Gunn’s getting used to being a subordinate, actually following orders. Until it’s time to slip the leash of course.
This may become a pattern.
