This is the public log of DeeDee 'dzyjak' Jackson, a fictional character. DeeDee lives and works aboard a space station which orbits Saturn, and sometimes he writes about it.

2005-08-17

Spin On

It has been two months since I began posting to this public log. Life in a decaying orbit doesn't feel as bad now. I can't say for certain if the events, or the postings, or some combination, has made the difference.

A few things made less murky perhaps:

  • The hub itself is 0.0 Gee, but the hub wall is moving, because the entire station is spinning. Same for the spinball-field wall. If you are paying attention to that movement, which station dwellers do by instinct, you can use it to gain and control momentum. If you don't pay attention, you can die. We call it 'station blind.'

  • EMF Eddie got his nickname on the spinball field a long time before Kenny started naming people. He can clock-out a spinball using the wall to generate momentum--and he's really good at it. It's not exactly illegal, but more than three steps and you lose possession of the ball.

  • In general terms, 'clock-out' refers to momentum gained from spin and released at a tangent. In spinball, the player will 'clock-out' the spinball by gaining momentum while in control of the ball, translating that momentum into a spin, and then releasing his or her own momentum along with the ball. It's not easy.

  • A spinball is twice the size of a human head, and twice as massive. The best description I ever heard was when I was ten years old, "It is something like a giant, heavy, soft, and somehow bouncy sponge."

  • We grow things in hydroponic vats... Like hotdogs, and sponges... And it's also part of our environmental systems.

  • Dogs are boring. Great danger detectors, though. You know how dogs come in all shapes and sizes, but cats only differ in markings? Well, cats do come in all shapes and sizes, but with personality instead. Anyway, that's what I think. I like cats.

  • Fort Falling has told the Outer System Alliance to spin-off. The ships they sent to 'save us' are pathetic. Half of us would die on the way to Titan Base. And then what? We commandeered the best of them--six worth keeping--and we dared them to send more ships.

  • Fort Falling has a population of 1109 humans. 312 of those are station techs, and 178 are engineers (mostly of the hydroponic variety). The designed population of Saturn Station One is 100,000 humans. When we blow the place in half, there will still be enough elbow room for over 40,000 people... And the end-caps will still be nearly five kilometers apart. We 1109 will own the place, because there's no one out here with the resources to take it away from us... Or to save us.

  • Doc Hester is up to something more than just saving the station. I haven't worked out what it is yet.

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