Of Wolves and Weasels - Day 586 - Terror On Moonbase Alpha - Part 1
Hey all, GoodShibe here!
So last week I posed the idea of writing an ongoing story here on your daily oWaW. It seems like the biggest response tended toward horror, so I figure I'll start there and see where we end up.
To that end, please allow me to present - written in real-time, each day, a snippet of:
Terror on Moonbase Alpha
There were no stars, just a thick, inky black stretching off into oblivion. No pinpricks of light, no warm, fuzzy, smiling child-like stars singing harmonies in the heavens. And that was the hardest part of it all, really. The promos had made it seem like Moonbase Alpha was this 'Window to the Universe', that the cosmos would unfold before you. Heck, it was what attracted her here in the first place.
Of course they failed to mention that the placement of the base, on one of the most sun-exposed parts of this rock, created far too much light pollution to be able to see much of anything out there. For all intents and purposes, she could be sitting on a rooftop in New York city and get a better view of the heavens.
"See the world... from Spaaaace!" the promos had crowed... but even that, the pale blue golf ball that hung up in the sky, lost its luster after about a week or so. Looking back on it, well, it made sense why there wasn't exactly a 'line' of people waiting to sign up for this gig.
She'd stepped off the rocket and was handed a mop and a bucket.
Still, the pay was good -- she received more than enough DOGE to keep her happy up here and send some back to the 'rents. And if there were any niggling complaints about her portal to the universe, it all evaporated once she got to Sector 4E.
From there she could see the massive mining farm and the solar sails that unfurled around it like the petals of a flower. It was a marvel of engineering, a rig so powerful - that generated so much heat - that it could not physically exist on Earth. All of the world's money, all of its transactions, right down to the last Koinu were processed there -- and to be even remotely close to helping that, being a part of that, even if it meant sweeping floors and de-gumming spanner grates... well, it filled her with a sense of pride.
"Kara, where the hell are you?" The comm-unit crackled. A Moonbase worth 100 billion-or-so DOGE and they still couldn't be bothered to get them decent comms.... or toilet paper. But that was a whole other thing. The grumpy voice on the other end was Jacob, her 'boss' only in that he'd gotten off the rocket about 10 seconds before she did. While she was taking it all in, he'd all but ripped the manager's cap out of the attendants hands, that thick bro-sauce voice of his proclaiming his utter dominance of the moon.
He was... ape-like. She'd seen a Gorilla once at a zoo, when she was younger - one of the last few - and, yeah, right down to the silver streak of hair in the middle of his head. Put him in an ill-fitting tan jumpsuit, give him a touchscreen and perma-scowl and that was Jacob.
She rounded the corner from the stairwell -- don't trust those elevators! -- and caught him kneeling by a puddle of brackish... goop. The pen-tip that he was holding up smoldered and bubbled as said goop ran down it.
"Uh, what the hell is this?" he accused, those bushy eyebrows furrowing.
Of all the possible answers that flooded through her mind, she found herself wincing as the word "Goop...?" leaked out of her mouth and hung there.
"Goop. Goop as in 'Goop dot dot dot question-mark?'" he dropped the pen just as the last of it was consumed by the corrosive substance.
Ignoring him, she knelt by the puddle and noticed that the floor was all-but untouched. Whatever this was, it wasn't doing more than browning the concrete beneath them. And what was odder still was that it was just... there. No tracks, no marks, no gaping holes in the side of the base... just this puddle of greyish-yellow goop.
"Clean it up," he barked before stalking off, trying his best not to look unnerved by the sight of it.
"Uh, sure..." was all she could muster before she found herself alone. "I'll just get right on that."
And there we are! The first little snippet of a story, hopefully one that you'll find interesting!
By all means, please pop by again tomorrow for another freshly-written installment of
Terror on Moonbase Alpha! ;D)
It's 9:02AM EST and I'm sending positive vibes your way! Our global hashrate is up from ~1140 to ~ Gigahashes per second and our Difficulty is up from ~20604 to ~22076.
As always, I appreciate your support!
GoodShibe
Posted Aug 17, 2015, 1:06 PM UTC · edited