TEOTWAWKI (An Original Novel - Episode 140)
Fission Sue
Henry didn’t do well in the city although Mother was NOT a city by any stretch of the imagination. She was barely a village, yet she had too many people for him all of a sudden. The party had been nice. Eating at Ernie's, and now the TigerDiner was fine, for a time, and that time was almost passed. Henry was an extreme introvert and since returning from the ShrimpTrip he was reminded of how much he disliked crowds.
He and Wilbur discussed another ShrimpTrip but they couldn’t generate much enthusiasm. Once had been fun, again probably not so much. Neither one were much for team driving.
Henry decided try his hand at Carbon Prospecting. It had suited him the last time that he’d tried it. In fact he had been one of the first to do so. He had been a pioneer in the field so to speak. He imagined the techniques and technology had been refined from when he was doing it. Wilbur, on the other hand was perfectly happy in Mother. He could build things, fix things and work on perfecting Old Oil Change. Wilbur had an itchy foot and sometimes had to roam but Henry had the wanderers equivalent equivalent of the ‘heartbreak of psoriasis’. He itched all over unless he was roaming.
Thus, two men in possession of one boat found themselves to be amicably incompatible. It was time to get a divorce.The two of them went to see Karl. It had come to their attention that Karl was the very best SSmoke Artisan who was not a Mage. He was said to be even better at it than Cody.
Henry asked “We want you to fission Sue. We want her to become two separate boats. Can you do that?”
“Certainly I can do that.” Karl said with a tinge of snark, almost as if such an easy task were insulting to his skill. “It’ll take about an hour once I get set up with the codes, longer if you want any modifications.”
“See?” Henry elbowed Karl “ I told you he could do it.”
“The only modification is that the Fabricator be in my boat.” Henry said “It’s a rental. I need to keep track of it.”
Karl looked at Henry with a wry grin. He didn’t say anything but he was well aware of the precautions that Shelby took with his Fabricators. Henry needed to keep track of it indeed.
Henry and Wilbur transferred temporary active keys to Karl. They gave him SysOp privileges. The temp-privs would expire shortly after the hour that Karl had requested. Then they would revert back to Wilbur and Henry’s gene pattern, for separate boats, if the procedure went as planned. That done Karl nodded his head and went to work. He was concentrating, deeeeply immersed in Virtual Reality, tweaking and making adjustments. While he was playing the Structural Smoke like a Kapellmeister conducting an orchestra, he was almost oblivious to reality. He continued to concentrate intensely for almost an hour.
“There it goes! “ he finally said tiredly. That level of concentration, for that length of time, was exhausting work.
Before them, the mighty, massive, boat named Sue derezzed into a translucent, semi-transparent fog. The foggy outlines softened as she lost focus and became two identical vessels slightly out of phase with each other. The two ghosty boats slowly separated from each other as the ephemeral vessels moved apart, then resolved. There were two boats in the PodBay now. She had twinned into Sue and SueToo.
Gotta love that SSmoke.
“All of the human-relevant dimensions have remained the same” Cody said “The bunks, the kitchen, the wheel house, Etc., are full size, identical to what the old Sue had. The boats are identical except that one has the fabricator. I condensed the large ‘catch’ holds to SCrystal since you won’t need them any longer, they’d just be taking up space. That’s why they are smaller than half-size of the original. The SCrystal is still there, easily accessible, so that you can use it any way you want.”
“That’s exactly what we wanted.” Wilbur said “ What do we owe you?”
Karl looked thoughtful for a moment. He stared at them for a moment as if he didn’t fully understand the question. Then he spoke to Wilbur
“Awww....I wasn’t doing anything anyway. It only took a little bit of my time. You don’t owe me anything,really. I’m happy to oblige.” he said “I hope it works out for you. Let’s just say you owe me a favor one day and let it go at that.”
“That’s ok with me, if it’s Ok with you. I definitely owe you a big shiny one.” Wilbur replied after a moment of reflection then he said. “ SueToo will make a marvelous apartment where I plan to dock her. I have the perfect place in mind. I better go get er done before someone else get’s the place I want. Seeya Henry, bye Karl.”
Henry turned to Karl “I appreciate this. I owe you one too. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Wellllll.” Karl said shyly “ It so happens that I do.You’re going a-viking? I have a proposition for you.”
Henry listened for a moment then said “This is going to get involved and I’m hungry. How bout I buy you supper and we can discuss it then. Ernie's or that new place?”
There was an evil tint in his eye when Karl said. “How bout the TigerDiner?”
“Suites me” Henry said and they flew off together.
To Be Continued
Yarn
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The Hobo Picture is a Public Domain image from
Samantha at the Worlds Fair
by Josiah Allen's Wife (Marietta Holley)
Illustrated by
Baron C. De Grimm published by
Funk and Wagnall's Company 1893
Unless noted
All other Illustrations are from
Pixabay