I like that you took the computer perspective for your last visit to the Colony, and that the computer had revealed more of its own agenda in this way. It was always clear that the computer had it's own ideas about things, but this has shown that it developed and grew as a character as well, just like the rest of the surviving crew. I'm not one hundred percent sure that it's right about keeping Mars for itself, but I can see why it might feel like that :)
The Colony, re-redux Eliza is not happy. I tiptoe around and stay away from her when I can, because she's actually sort of angry. She's beautiful when she's angry -- she sort of glows and her eyes flash, but she also says things that hurt when she's angry. And not just me, Andrey too. I can tell he doesn't like it when she's angry, but he understands why she's angry. I don't. She keeps saying something about extra signal beacons, but I don't know what that means. I know what belisha beacons are, they taught us about them in school and they're pretty. I don't think Eliza has a problem with pretty yellow globes though. Andrey seems worried about them too, so I guess they're important, but I don't know why. And she doesn't talk very much about the people coming to visit us, but I know that's got to be soon. Maybe they're bringing too many signal beacons with them and Eliza doesn't have anywhere to put them?
I took a rover out to get away from the angriness in the air as it causes bad hair days. There's still a rover missing, but Eliza just tutted when I told her and told me I'd miscounted. She wasn't as angry back then, but it still hurt a little bit. I'm not that good at counting, I definitely don't know as many numbers as Andrey does, but I can count to fifteen without using my fingers. Well, maybe just five of my fingers. Numbers get tricky when you can't tie them down to things. The rover bumped across the landscape and I was enjoying how it's mostly flat with mountains off in the distance when I realised that there are some hills spinward (Eliza made me stop saying East) of me, so I went for a visit over there. I'd not been there before, so I made sure to drive around carefully first in case the land is unstable, and to let the onboard computer map out any holes that might be big enough to fall into. I don't want to tell Eliza I lost a rover. And that's how I found these caves, round the back of the hill. There were rover tracks leading into the caves, and that was strange because there's really only me that takes the rover out. There were lots of rover tracks, so I wondered if maybe this is where Vassily came to, to get away from us and live by himself. I think that's what Eliza said happened. So I parked my rover and tiptoed over to the caves, lifting my feet up really high and putting them down very carefully and quietly each time to make sure I didn't make a noise. I don't think Vassily ever liked me, so he probably wouldn't like me finding where he's living. Only... Vassily was there, but he was dead. Definitely dead, because his head had been shot at least twice, and there was a dark patch that was probably blood the size of a rover underneath his body. He was slumped over one of those supply crates, and when I checked it it was empty, so maybe he killed himself when he found he'd run out of stuff? There were some machines there as well though, that looked like part of the stuff Eliza deals with when she had to do something and doesn't want me in the way. Lots of flashing lights, and little dials, and a couple of computer panels. I went to see if the computer would talk to me, but it didn't. I turned them all off when I left though, as I know you have to conserve power here and not waste things. Eliza's been very clear on all that.
Okay, let's see if I can finally wrap things up for now in The Colony...
Mine:
The next craft will be touching down in less than 24 Earth hours. This should be exciting. I should be excited.
But I am furious.
And... maybe a little scared.
Why haven't they contacted us? Why haven't they responded to our attempts to contact them? I suppose it's possible that their communications equipment was damaged in transit, or simply stopped working sometime after launch. Andrey thinks that's what's going on, but I'm pretty sure he's just saying that because he thinks anything not Made in Mother Russia is junk.
It's a good thing he's cute or...
No. There's no time for that. I need to figure out what's going on here. Like, yesterday.
I've asked the computer if it can diagnose the problem but it's been out of signal range for a while now. It was probably a mistake letting it take the rover like that but, as my brothers would say whenever they got in trouble for doing something stupid, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I'm watching their approach on radar and their trajectory is looking good. At least that's going right. Maybe I should get Robbie to hail Earth to see if they can contact our new arrivals... but that would mean letting him know what's going on and he'd probably freak out.
Kinda like I'm freaking out right now.
Wait. Why did they just change course? Where do they think they're landing now? That terrain is rockier than my Aunt Debbie's garden. We've had their landing spot cleared of debris for days now. Dang it, we need to get out there to scout a new landing spot. Maybe we can find a relatively safe spot to guide them to, or at least help them to avoid the worst of the rocks.
"Andrey, get a rover ready. They're going to need our help to land safely."
"Sure... I'll call Robbie to bring his back."
"No, we'll take one of the others. No need to bother him."
"But... all the other rovers are out of service."
"What?"
"You gave the order to have their engines taken apart and cleaned. In preparation for the new crew members."
2 comments:
I like that you took the computer perspective for your last visit to the Colony, and that the computer had revealed more of its own agenda in this way. It was always clear that the computer had it's own ideas about things, but this has shown that it developed and grew as a character as well, just like the rest of the surviving crew. I'm not one hundred percent sure that it's right about keeping Mars for itself, but I can see why it might feel like that :)
The Colony, re-redux
Eliza is not happy. I tiptoe around and stay away from her when I can, because she's actually sort of angry. She's beautiful when she's angry -- she sort of glows and her eyes flash, but she also says things that hurt when she's angry. And not just me, Andrey too. I can tell he doesn't like it when she's angry, but he understands why she's angry. I don't.
She keeps saying something about extra signal beacons, but I don't know what that means. I know what belisha beacons are, they taught us about them in school and they're pretty. I don't think Eliza has a problem with pretty yellow globes though. Andrey seems worried about them too, so I guess they're important, but I don't know why. And she doesn't talk very much about the people coming to visit us, but I know that's got to be soon. Maybe they're bringing too many signal beacons with them and Eliza doesn't have anywhere to put them?
I took a rover out to get away from the angriness in the air as it causes bad hair days. There's still a rover missing, but Eliza just tutted when I told her and told me I'd miscounted. She wasn't as angry back then, but it still hurt a little bit. I'm not that good at counting, I definitely don't know as many numbers as Andrey does, but I can count to fifteen without using my fingers. Well, maybe just five of my fingers. Numbers get tricky when you can't tie them down to things.
The rover bumped across the landscape and I was enjoying how it's mostly flat with mountains off in the distance when I realised that there are some hills spinward (Eliza made me stop saying East) of me, so I went for a visit over there. I'd not been there before, so I made sure to drive around carefully first in case the land is unstable, and to let the onboard computer map out any holes that might be big enough to fall into. I don't want to tell Eliza I lost a rover. And that's how I found these caves, round the back of the hill. There were rover tracks leading into the caves, and that was strange because there's really only me that takes the rover out. There were lots of rover tracks, so I wondered if maybe this is where Vassily came to, to get away from us and live by himself. I think that's what Eliza said happened.
So I parked my rover and tiptoed over to the caves, lifting my feet up really high and putting them down very carefully and quietly each time to make sure I didn't make a noise. I don't think Vassily ever liked me, so he probably wouldn't like me finding where he's living. Only... Vassily was there, but he was dead. Definitely dead, because his head had been shot at least twice, and there was a dark patch that was probably blood the size of a rover underneath his body. He was slumped over one of those supply crates, and when I checked it it was empty, so maybe he killed himself when he found he'd run out of stuff?
There were some machines there as well though, that looked like part of the stuff Eliza deals with when she had to do something and doesn't want me in the way. Lots of flashing lights, and little dials, and a couple of computer panels. I went to see if the computer would talk to me, but it didn't. I turned them all off when I left though, as I know you have to conserve power here and not waste things. Eliza's been very clear on all that.
Okay, let's see if I can finally wrap things up for now in The Colony...
Mine:
The next craft will be touching down in less than 24 Earth hours. This should be exciting. I should be excited.
But I am furious.
And... maybe a little scared.
Why haven't they contacted us? Why haven't they responded to our attempts to contact them? I suppose it's possible that their communications equipment was damaged in transit, or simply stopped working sometime after launch. Andrey thinks that's what's going on, but I'm pretty sure he's just saying that because he thinks anything not Made in Mother Russia is junk.
It's a good thing he's cute or...
No. There's no time for that. I need to figure out what's going on here. Like, yesterday.
I've asked the computer if it can diagnose the problem but it's been out of signal range for a while now. It was probably a mistake letting it take the rover like that but, as my brothers would say whenever they got in trouble for doing something stupid, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I'm watching their approach on radar and their trajectory is looking good. At least that's going right. Maybe I should get Robbie to hail Earth to see if they can contact our new arrivals... but that would mean letting him know what's going on and he'd probably freak out.
Kinda like I'm freaking out right now.
Wait. Why did they just change course? Where do they think they're landing now? That terrain is rockier than my Aunt Debbie's garden. We've had their landing spot cleared of debris for days now. Dang it, we need to get out there to scout a new landing spot. Maybe we can find a relatively safe spot to guide them to, or at least help them to avoid the worst of the rocks.
"Andrey, get a rover ready. They're going to need our help to land safely."
"Sure... I'll call Robbie to bring his back."
"No, we'll take one of the others. No need to bother him."
"But... all the other rovers are out of service."
"What?"
"You gave the order to have their engines taken apart and cleaned. In preparation for the new crew members."
"What? I did no such thing!"
"I have the message right here..."
What in the...
And then it clicks.
It all makes sense now.
"Computer!"
Post a Comment