UFO Fanfiction Discussion

[FullAuto]

If you have a quick scan through the character profiles, that'll give you a bit of insight BB (sorry if I'm stating the obvious), and the characters will of course be made clearer to you in the new posts. Reading all the stuff already written isn't compulsory if you're pressed for time, but it will help.

There is no bedamned security station. Nor is there anything I can see in the base blueprints that could stand in for one.

[Bomb Bloke]

A security station in a secret base filled with soldiers...

 

How secret is this base supposed to be, anyway?

[Alitorious]

bedamned

 

Gettin' cranky in your old age? Don't worry about it. We'll just get JFG to decide where it is.

 

I just did about a half-page long post in wordpad, and my imagination's broke anyways. I might have overused it too much lately, and it decided to break down on me.

 

Here's it so far:

"Don't move! Don't move!"

They stared at Pickering and the pistol.

"I'm fired." Daniel closed his eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Pickering demanded.

All the colour was gone from Daniel's face. He opened his hand to reveal the problematic keycard.

"...card... lab... bathroom..."

If Daniel's eyes were open then the security team would have seen them roll up into his head. The only clue they had of his fainting was when he started tipping in the direction of the stairs.

"Oh no, you don't," Dana muttered. She caught Daniel just when he was dangerously close to a week-long stay in medical.

The keycard fluttered down to the floor.

"He's just gone into the barracks," Pickering's radio crackled. "Level two."

The sign behind Dana's head advertised level three.

Pickering just sighed and holstered his pistol. They lost him, and "he" (if he was a he) could be any one of the soldiers or staff.

"Come with me. Bring him, too," he gestured to the fainted Daniel. Two juniors picked up Daniel, while Dana pocketed his keycard.

 

 

Swirling... spinning. Everything's spinning.

Please don't stop. I don't need to get off. Not really...

Spinning... mountains? No... opposite. Inside-out mountains. Upside-down mountains.

Don't fall, mountains. But you make others fall. Silly mountains. Mean mountains.

Spinning.

Okay, I'm getting dizzy now. Please stop.

Swirling, spinning. Spinning! Swirling!

 

"Spinning" Daniel exclaimed, bolting up, startling everyone in the room.

Daniel looked around. Everyone in the security station was staring at him with shocked and surprised faces. Pickering's hand was frozen halfway to his holster. The final tinkerings of yet another fallen coffee cup seemed to echo.

 

I'm having trouble thinking of their response, though. And bonus points for whoever can guess what those "mountains" are! (Yes, there is a point to the spinning mountains. I'll explain it later on in the post.)

 

Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, plain things that make no sense. Please do point them out.

[FullAuto]

Pine Gap? It's not very secret at all, but the X-Com installation inside of it (wink wink) is VERY secret.

 

They lost him, and "he" (if he was a he) could be any one of the soldiers or staff.

 

I'd probably change it to "They lost the intruder, who could be any one of the soldiers or staff." And

 

The final tinkerings of yet another fallen coffee cup seemed to echo.

 

Change 'tinkerings' to 'tinklings'? Apart from that, it's a damn good start.

[JellyfishGreen]

We'll just get JFG to decide where it is.

"It's behiiind you"

 

Ah, no, that's immature. Either "You don't need to know" or it's got something to do with the security checkpoint on the ground-level entry building but is more likely situated in one of the office spaces - just with more security.

 

Ali - I may be off on a tangent again but would spinning have something to do with motion detection through atomic spin interaction or perturbations in orbit of a cesium electron: mass disturbances, and since Einstein suggested the metaphor of "balls dimpling a rubber sheet" for how mass distorts space-time, would those dimples in spacetime be the mountains you speak of?

[FullAuto]

"balls dimpling a rubber sheet"

 

Christ, JFG, this is a family forum! Keep it clean, eh?

 

P.S. Good idea about the security station.

[JellyfishGreen]

What can I say? Einstein had a way with the ladies.

[Alitorious]

Fullauto: I forgot to mention this in the reply PM, but thanks a bunch for the nitpicks.

 

JFG: Aww... you got it. You're no fun . Yep, that's what those mountains are. And as for the cesium-electron-atomic-spin-mass-disturbing-rubber balls? ... uh... I'm still only in high school! *breaks down just like Daniel.*

"Disturbing... rubber... mountains..." *faints* :dead:

 

Anyway, I barely have a vague notion of what that means, but what I was thinking was more along the lines of extending that rubber sheet to be a fluid rubber sheet. As such, there would be eddies and turbulence created by the moving of the dips. But, since it's still a 'rubber' fluid, then the eddies don't last long.

 

Yeah, it's full of holes. If these make measurable effects, then why haven't astronomers noted it? If it didn't do anything noticeable, then how can we detect it? And, most of all, since everything's technically 'moving' anyways then how do you tell movement from non-movement?

 

Yours is better, and sounds more scientificy-ish.

[FullAuto]

Ok, everything is moving, but surely it's a matter of degree? Couldn't you adjust the sensitivity so the sensor deducts 'background' movement from it's field? And I think that's the first time I've been thanked for nitpicking!

[Alitorious]

Well of course! I myself am a perfectionist who doesn't believe in perfection.

 

Well, not sensitivity. If you yourself (and the tracker) are moving, then it would pick up the whole earth as moving. It's kinda hard to tune that out, you know?

 

-tangent alert-

 

Hrmm.... I should check my facts first, actually. Like exactly how much ambient movement there is that would affect the scanner...

 

Of course... that's where the 'spin' comes in. A smaller object makes a more compact 'spin'. An extremely large 'spin' looks more like an overall movement. By that notion, we can probably eliminate astronomical movement. Also, it wouldn't detect its own movement as it would be the center of its own 'spin'.

 

So, JFG, our resident science know-how and ultimately smarter person than I, would this work?

[Spaceman42]

Hum. Would now be a bad time to introduce Johann as a member of the squad?

 

Also, I haven't made a Dherzhin post in a while. Heck, I haven't made any posts in a while. Probably ought to post something - most likely after supper today, at earliest.

[Alitorious]

Not at all. I'll just squeeze in what I do happen to have in first, and then edit it later.

[FullAuto]

Soaceman42, if you want to look at the squads, visit page 52 of this thread. Ghost and Howitz have both joined squad 1, but there's still space in there if I'm not mistaken, not to mention squad 2.

[Spaceman42]

Okay, Squad 1 it is then. I believe that's what I'd decided on last month anyway.

[FullAuto]

Excellent. So that's squad 1 filled then, by the time they're back on active duty their wounded will have healed. Any other characters can join squad 2. Or 3, after the terror mission massacre.

[Spaceman42]

Right. Just waiting on Alitorious' post, then.

[FullAuto]

Go right ahead, Spaceman42. Alitorious is done for now, looks like he'll add to it later.

[Spaceman42]

Just to confirm: What's up with Genega? I need to know so I can write my bit with Dherzhin - no way Theo'd miss a body lying on the floor of the hangar. Or for that matter, the brass.

 

Double-security lockdown, you betcha.

 

Second: Would it be likely for Johann to run into Terrick - or vice-versa - while he's moving his stuff into the "trooper" barracks? And who'd he wind up rooming with? Anyone?

 

[Edit: Ah, shit, Vet's away? NOW what am I supposed to do with Dherzhin?

 

Also: not on vacation, just away perfectionning my French on the government's dime. ]

[FullAuto]

Well, that sounds like a vacation!

God only knows what's up with Genega, it's so vague, it could be anything. A stroke? Terrick taking him down? The only person who knows is Vet.

Johann probably wouldn't run into Terrick, and seeing as Conner & Howitz have just joined squad 1, he could end up sharing a room with either of them.

[JellyfishGreen]

Ali, re the motion tracker: I'd still suggest making up some detail about the insides of how the alien UFO navigator console works - since we have at least one - to provide the core of a mass detector which the aliens use instead of radar.

 

(Thanks for the title but I'm technically an engineer...who reads a lot)

 

Otherwise... Spaceman42, the rather strange Hankosha has a bunk free, as O'Malley's stuff has been removed.

 

I think blaming Terrick for cold-cocking Genega would be a bit too tidy...

And base invasions are usually noisier.

So it's another loose thread.

Maybe it's another agent even Terrick doesn't know about! The same one that mysteriously powered down the cameras at the exact time Terrick was crossing the halls, and gave the security officer backtalk to boot! Co-ordinated by the head corp office, department of espionage... of course!

[Alitorious]

Ali, re the motion tracker: I'd still suggest making up some detail about the insides of how the alien UFO navigator console works - since we have at least one - to provide the core of a mass detector which the aliens use instead of radar.

 

Yep. We still need the navigator core in order to detect the gravity movement. It's just that now we know what to look for.

[JellyfishGreen]

Ali, we should also include inertial tracking gyroscopes -

since the gyro can sense it's own movement, we have a vector to subtract from all the readings to compensate for motion of the earth, motion of the detector, etc.

(The fact that you have to stop to use the motion detector may or may not be relevant.)

Gyros are in use at present (for instance, in cruise missiles, and xsens.com) and they SPIN!

which may be more applicable than atomic spin, which may not really be spinning at all.

So all we'd need out of the Nav core would be the directional mass sensor.

[FullAuto]

Yep. What he said. Told you we could compensate for background movement, Ali.

[Zager]

Hiya. Heh, second time I'm posting this, but I want to get back involved with the story again. Now that university's out, I've got more free time.

[JellyfishGreen]

Hey Zager, feel free. Goodness knows plots are afoot in the Science department - my Genega post was a little light on how we got this far in laser development, for example.

 

Ali, the more I think, the more I feel our motion tracker could easily be like the one in the game - where you have to stand still to use it. Maybe this is because all the readings blur when you move. But certainly the game makes you stand still.