Building Up - jedcline's 2006 NanoWriMo

Day 21 of 30 2006 Building Up

Day 21 of 30 jedc

The accumulating knowledge base stored in Leo Island's distributed computer network put out a request for descriptions of how to play card games of various kinds, including Poker and Solitaire. Stable was then sent e-mail showing where this information was. He was also invited to put an announcement online about his game room with its games available, when he was ready to host the game room.

Stable was intrigued with this idea of him having a game room, where people could go to test who was better than whom. He himself could then show these people who was better at games than they were. He also hoped to find companionship there, in a hierarchical system based on who was better; that was something he could understand. The system being used here in Leo Station was defined on who did what job and when doing it, instead of who was better than who; and that made no sense to him since it was not based on who was boss of whom. The idea of "games" felt comfortable to him; and despite his powerful physique and inbred ability to stalk and assault, he felt very much alone here, far from the Ownma people from which he had sprung, even though they had disowned him and considered him dead, destroyed as inferior genetics were always destroyed in Ownma's eugenics program. Among these Employee type of people up here, he felt that he ought to be supreme boss. But these people did not understand "boss" so it was a bit of a problem for him. Now at least he could be boss of the Game Room. And see where that would lead him.

Eventually Catalie mentioned to Improy that the series of votes that were in exact opposition to whatever Improy voted for, was sometimes not appearing on the voters readout of the day. It appeared that Stable was sometimes too involved with his Game Room activity to bother with the opposition effort against Improy. Hopefully the Game Room was providing him with a feeling of being a "king" of something.

Meanwhile, the dual directions of preparing for an exodus from the space wheel station, while also preparing for permanent habitation in the space dual wheel, was making progress. They had created a modularized exodus spacecraft design, so that as they came up with better versions, it was fairly easy to upgrade the spacecraft already built, to match the latest one's design. They began to use the computer network to do some of the routine chores in the agricultural area, using actuators to switch nutrient flow based on the various agricultural subsystems needs, while referring to a projection of trends in the needs of the station for food production and hydrocarbon organics recycling.

Since it was essentially a closed ecosystem of materials, powered by the conversion of sunlight short wavelength energy into long wavelength radient energy sent into the darkness of space by the heat radiators, materials were increasingly considered as something that merely was transformed from one form to another within an overall cycle that returned it to its original form. Use of the terms "waste material", "garbage", and "recycle" faded away, in favor of the terminology of the transformation series of forms of closed loops of material substances.

The transformation series of nutrients generally was separate from that of the industrial processes. The metals involved in industry tended to be toxic as a nutrient, so it was easier to keep them separate from food preparation discarded material, instead of having to expend energy to sort the metals out later, usually by the use of the huge solar powered mass spectrometer element extractor. Small adjustments to the radial distance from center of rotation of the wheel, as measured between the ends of liquid flow tubing, provided a simulated downward flow that moved the fluid material along at an optimum rate. That minimized the need for pumps; and pumps took much more effort to build than making a centrifugal force gradient along piping. Although their population of 1,145 was gaining capacity for accomplishment by the education system built into their daily work life, there were only so many people to do some particular thing at any given time. In general, the less effort it took to accomplish a function, the more desirable it was among alternatives.

Keeping people's spirits up was considered a prime function of their system, ranked in priority about equal to having adequate nutrition and safe, comfortable shelter in which to relax. And as with the improvisation they had to do regarding nutrition, so also they had to improvise on how to keep the spirits up. That everybody had a mate, was the prime means of keeping the feeling of well-being adequate, despite the need for some to take on multiple mates to satisfy that need, given the relatively few women they had in the population.

There was quite a variation in what the various temperaments among them required for a sense of well-being, and so similarly wide the diversity in the facilities and techniques that needed to be defined, set up, and operated. The Game Room had become an instant popular activity, despite the imposing operator of the facility who seemed to ever be watching them playing the games, almost as if getting into their minds.

The general philosophy of "test-and-see-if-it-works-to-do-the-job" that was working so well on technical goals, was applied also to the "well being facilities" of which the Game Room was the first. Adjacent to the cafeteria nearest the Game Room was setup a nightclub kind of facility, where people could go to socialize while also having some nutrition and watching entertainment. Some temperaments of people especially enjoyed this kind of thing, while other temperaments did not particularly enjoy it, but could endure it for awhile. Ethyl alcohol was biochemically produced and added to beverages, as part of the nightclub atmosphere; from the beginnings of civilization, alcoholic beverages such as beer and wine were utilized as a uniting force among diverse people, and was especially important up here to create a relaxed uncritical ambiance. A few people had some musical skills before their capture, and they formed a group to entertain at the nightclub. At first, they utilized existing objects that would ring resonantly and be tuned to some extent. Then some of the nightclub patrons volunteered their craftsmanship skills to make resonant objects that more nearly resembled conventional musical instruments, making it easier to play them and to provide a wider variety of compositions they could play. It was always "Amateur Night" every night at the nightclub.

All these activities and techniques were documented in the growing database of the computer network continually available to all. Drum design was recorded as it evolved from beating rhythmically on shipping containers, to better designs; Xylophone-like instruments were made with cut lengths of tubing, and ever refined as to tuning frequencies. People began to absently tap on resonant objects in their workplace as a relaxation technique while on the job, helping maintain their mental balance.


Electronic musical instruments were simulated by use of the omnipresent computer terminals, and software was written so that anyone could create a musical composition that the computer would play for them, and a "perfected" composition would be saved by the person as part of the universal database. It became a new "well-being" activity throughout the station, some people writing waveforms that simulated surf sounds on a rocky beach, as best they could remember them; even simulating the calls of larger animals and birds from their memory, and other sounds familiar to their free life on the Earth's surface so many years ago. Yet also the construction of resonant surfaces objects, tuned filaments and pipes continued to be used, as it stimulated the tactile-kinesthetic part of music; this then expanded into dance forms. Well-being was increasing.

Yet the stress of having to both strive for permanent residence here, while also striving to prepare for abandonment of the station in an effort to return to the Earth surface, reduced the general sense of well being among them. Votes were taken, and it was decided to complete the construction of enough return spacecraft for all of them and their agricultural animals, mothballing the spacecraft along with detailed plans for their usage in case it became necessary.

Dreaming and planning of the procedure for establishing a way of life down there, would continue to be accumulated in the database. Their receive-only access to the earth's internet system indicated that the stranglehold of the rich-elite owner-managers of the huge corporations ever increased the separation from them and the employees who did the work and lived in increasingly difficult ways. The planetary ecosystem had deteriorated so much that a quarter of the previously habitable areas had become unsupportive to life, making it even harder on the vast majority of working people. So they used their telescope oftentimes to search the uninhabitable areas, trying to determine what caused the ecosystem's dysfunctionality at each place, seeking places they might land and use their skills and techniques developed up here, to a new life down there, far from the iron fist of the corporations.

They again modified the design of the basic return spacecraft vehicle, to seat only a dozen people each, have pens for a few animals and seed stock, initial food supply and water for a month for all, and computer linking by tight beam. The thought was that the vehicles would return to the ground all near each other as possible while landing safely, then use the vehicles as homes for the dozen people in each one, while they set out to create new long term living space on the ground. So the vehicles were designed both for a safe and piloted glide landing, then be used as a starting point for building their new homesite.

Dreaming of how and where they would do this was a preferred pasttime for those who were finding it sometimes difficult to cope with life on the space wheel station. But most people found it uncomfortable to do this part of the planning, while their daily lives were spent in getting the wheel's environment to work together for all of their continued long term existence, and reasonably well.

posted by Unknown @ 5:50 PM