Of Wolves and Weasels - Day 594 - Terror on Moonbase Alpha - Chapter 4, Part 1
So yesterday I completed Chapter 3 of Terror on Moonbase Alpha.
If you're just joining us now, please feel free to get caught up here:
Without further ado, here's Chapter 4, Part 1
Terror on Moonbase Alpha - Chapter 4, Part 1
She looked serene, there on the Infirmary bed. Her vitals had been stabilized but her brain activity hadn't budged since they brought her in. She was there but not there at the same time.
Management had called for a site-wide communications lockdown since 'the incident' and now Jacob was feeling the heat. Turns out there'd been a record of his comms chatter and it didn't take them long to sort out where the hammer was going to fall for this.
Jacob's face burned bright as his manager lit into him about irresponsibility and about laziness. About how someone with his name... he'd expected so much more.
And there it was. Always back to the name.
Back on Earth he'd found, early on, that he could do a lot with that name. Doors opened, queues jumped and, yeah, more than a few panties dropped.
It was a silly thing, just a name, but it was a name connected to the creation of the most popular crypto-currency on the planet. Somewhere, way back -- way, way back -- his grandfather's great grandfather had been one of the creators of Dogecoin.
It never mattered much to him, until the arrest.
Until it became crystal clear that he was outlier in his family -- that, out of all the 'noble' professions he could have chosen 'bodybuilder' and 'layabout' weren't among them.
His brother had been a programmer and had quickly earned his stripes with the Core Dev team, his sister had become a engineer and was working to get the Ivory Coast's new high-speed rail up and running.
And then there was Jacob.
Jacob the rebel, Jacob the bully. Jacob the luddite who coasted on a good name built up by others.
He'd never asked for any of this but now he was supposed to be 'thankful'? Supposed to 'contribute' because they said so?
How many 'talks' had he rolled his eyes through? That he was 'so much smarter than this', that 'he could do so much more'.
Each and every time he'd smiled and nodded, telling them what they wanted to hear so that they'd go away.
Until that night in jail and the sitdown the next day and the 'talking to' that his father had given him.
He'd come home from the council to deliver the news in person, cleared his schedule to tell him that he'd pulled some strings. That he was going to give him one last chance to 'put this silliness behind him' and 'do something decent' with his life.
And now all of that hung in the balance.
That one girl's life would decide his fate.
With a sigh Jacob wandered out into the hall, head down, trying to figure out his next move. He'd given serious thought about making a break for an escape pod but realized that even if he survived re-entry, he'd most likely spend the rest of his days behind bars.
Back in his bunk he did pull-ups on the doorframe until sweat stung his eyes and the sound of blood pumping in his head drowned out his thoughts.
"Hey Jacob, got a minute?"
He turned his head, about to snap off a snarky remark when he stopped cold, staring at the girl in the hallway.
Kara smiled.
"I need your help."
And that wraps up Part 1 of Chapter 4, I hope you enjoyed it!
It's 9:48AM EST and I'm sending positive vibes your way. Have a great day, my friends! Our Global Hashrate is up from ~906 to ~907 Gigahashes per Second and our Difficulty is down from ~9474 to ~9319.
As always, I appreciate your support!
GoodShibe
Posted Aug 25, 2015, 1:52 PM UTC · edited