164 lines
8.4 KiB
HTML
164 lines
8.4 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title> <Lena first contact> </title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="html_resources/style.css"></head><body><div class="back"><a href="index.html"><</a></div>
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<h1><Lena first contact></h1>
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<p>
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Michelle and James drag the comms unit off the truck bed and carry it
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inside. Jack grabs a large box filled with all sorts of cables and spare
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parts and follows them. Annie follows not long after, carrying a stack of
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thick binders of documentation. They walk up the stairs and set their
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things down somewhere off to the side. Then, they go for round
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two, fetching a generator, some tools, <span class="comment">two other
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things</span> from the truck.
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<!--
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Things they will need later:
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- oscilloscope
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- telephone
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- something to interface with the comms unit
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- radio + antenna
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- bench psu
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- oil for gearboxes
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-->
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</p>
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<p>
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<span class="comment">They have tried cranking the dish around by hand
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at some point before this. The tilt mechanism is completely seized up,
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the pan mechanism spins freely and doesn't work.</span><br />
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Jack begins to disassemble the gearbox for panning the dish around.
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Michelle looks up at the tilt mechanism and gets an idea.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">James, help me up there.</span><br />
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With his help, she jumps up to the dish and clings to its underside.
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From there, she climbs up to the center.<br />
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She calls down to James: <span class="quote speech">Can you pass me
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a screwdriver? Need a large flathead.</span><br />
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He gets one from the toolbox.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Catch!</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Thanks.</span><br />
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Sitting on a thick cable hanging from the dish, she begins to remove
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the cover of the gearbox in front of her.<br />
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Jack looks at her and says: <span class="quote speech">Be careful with
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your fingers up there.</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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After a while, she gets the cover loose and it falls towards her.
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She struggles to keep her balance for a moment as the cover lands wedged
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between her legs and the central <span class="comment">post? beam?</span>
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holding the dish. With some effort, she manages to wrangle it to th other
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side of the cable.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">James, Annie, can you catch this? Careful,
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it's heavy.</span><br />
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They do and Michelle turns her attention back to the gearbox in front of
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her. It is completely dried out and the large gears appear to be stuck
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together with some dark brown gunk.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">I think this one just needs to be cleaned and
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lubricated.</span><br />
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Jack says: <span class="quote speech">Wish I could say the same for down
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here...</span><br />
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She looks at the gearbox Jack had been taking apart.
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One of the gears inside has been partially stripped of its teeth and
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another one is broken. Jack has already removed one of the gears and
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is using a screwdriver as a pry bar for the next one.
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<!-- something something "I'm not putting my fingers in there" -->
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</p>
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<p>
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<span class="comment">missing section</span>
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</p>
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<p>
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The oscilloscope shows a thick wobbly line. Michelle slightly adjusts
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the knob for the trigger frequency and the image turns into a continuous
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sine wave, slowly rolling to the left.<br />
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She says: <span class="quote speech">I think that's their carrier.
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It worked.</span><br />
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Jack flips a switch on the project box.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Ringing.</span><br />
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Michelle picks up the receiver and listens.<br />
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<span class="quote non-speech">Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep. Beeeeep.</span>
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<br />
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It takes a while for someone to pick up.<br />
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A female voice greets her: <span class="quote speech">Hello?</span><br />
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Michelle gestures for Jack to flip the switch back and speaks into the
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phone:
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<span class="quote speech">This is ground support facility 53. Do you
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hear me?</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Yes, I can hear you. So good to hear
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someone's voice.</span><br />
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Jack hears it and says quietly: <span class="quote speech">And I thought
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we were the ones facing unexpected difficuties...</span><br />
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Michelle notices the carrier strength gradually dropping and says:
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<span class="quote speech">Listen, we don't have much time.
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We're on makeshift equipment. Please turn on the radio in front of
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you and tune to
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<span class="comment">some frequency or channel</span>.</span><br />
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<span class="quote speech">Understood. Please stay on the line.</span>
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<br />
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Michelle says: <span class="quote speech">I give it about ...</span>
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<br />
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She looks at the oscilloscope.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">... three minutes until the connection
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drops out.</span><br />
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The voice on the other end quietly mumbles to herself:
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<span class="quote speech">How's this thing work...</span><br />
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Michelle turns the receiver away from her mouth.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Jack, I need the manual.</span><br />
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He opens it at one of the bookmarks and hands it over. The page depicts
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the control panel on the other end.<br />
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Speaking into the phone again, Michelle says:
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<span class="quote speech">There should be a button labeled
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EGCR-1. Push that in and flip the switch next to it up to
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<span class="quote non-speech">AM</span>. Turn TXP to max, then search
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for the frequency.</span><br />
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<!-- EGCR = Emergency Ground Comms Radio -->
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The voice comes through slightly choppy:
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<span class="quote speech">Th-ank-s.</span><br />
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The wave on the oscilloscope is now almost flat.<br />
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The phone plays an automated error message:
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<span class="quote speech">Dish unresponsive. Attempting network
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handoff.</span><br />
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Relays click inside the comms unit and some status indicators light up
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red. The green lights next to the network ports flicker for a moment,
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then turn off again.<br />
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Another error message: <span class="quote speech">Handoff failed.
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Consult operational manu...</span><br />
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Michelle puts the receiver down.
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</p>
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<p>
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<span class="comment">The following dialog would benefit greatly from
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proper radio protocol. Unfortunately, that is sonething I have yet to
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learn. Feel free to send me a fixed version of it.</span><br />
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James aims the antenna at the moon. <span class="comment">It's
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resting on some kind of stand.</span> Jack takes the microphone off a
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desktop radio and pushes the talk button a few times. An indicator light
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on the radio blinks as he does.<br />
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<span class="quote speech">Looks good...</span>
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He speaks into the mic: <span class="quote speech">This is ground
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facility 53. Do you copy?</span><br />
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He waits for a response.<br />
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Nothing.<br />
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He repeats himself: <span class="quote speech">This is ground
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facility 53. Do you copy?</span><br />
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A few repeats later, the female voice answers:
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<span class="quote speech">There we go... Loud and clear.</span><br />
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<!--
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Lena: Who are you?
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Jack: Name's Jack. You were just on the phone with my colleague Michelle.
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We're Neotek Dynamics staff.
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Lena: That sounds about as believable as the fact you're talking to me
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in the first place. I thought I'd never hear another human voice.
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Name's Lena.
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Jack: You are alone? What happened?
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Lena: Everyone's dead. Succumbed to a disease that I myself wil die to
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soon. The only other person up here is my sister who managed
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to get herself into a coma.
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Jack: <response?>
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<missing>
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Jack: <inquires about state of Emily>
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Lena: She drank what was a failed attempt at creating a cure.
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Jack: Is there any chance she's gonna wake up again?
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Lena: I don't know. Before her, only Tony took it and he died from it.
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-->
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<span class="comment">Missing: they introduce themselves, Lena says
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something along the lines of "everyone is dead"</span>
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</p>
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<p class="copyright">Copyright © 2023-2025 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) – All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {if (lines[j].length >= 80) result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + "</span>\n"; else result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>
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