Okay, Sitrep: I'm in Act III of Waking the Sleeping Giant. I've slowed my pace from 2 chapters a day to 1 to contend with the various stuff going on. I've sent the 2nd act to Wayne. If any of the Betas want the first act or both of act 1-2 let me know in an email. (that includes you too Duncan!)
I'm starting to run down on some of the print projects now that I've got 2 printers. (Not even close actually, but some of the easier stuff is moving faster than expected) I have
a lot of projects that need to be cleaned up and painted. For the moment they are in ziplock bags, so they'll keep. :)
I've got an animatronic part printing in 1 printer, it just finished, and a Quinjet printing in the other. Should be fun, if the gray filament holds up. (it doesn't like to melt right sometimes)
I want to get into my animatronics and robotics projects more, but some parts I have to model from scratch, and I need to clean and test fit the parts I have printed already. I keep printing spare parts to keep up, but I don't know if they'll work or if I'll need to modify them! GRR.
I also discovered using metal hardware triples the weight of the project easily. (just 6 nuts and 6 bolts did that!) I'm not sure if I like that or not so I have an alternative idea in mind. I wanted to go with the hardware since I could just buy it. (Which I did) Now though, I might have to print a lot of it to save weight.
Also: I'm debating on trying to convert one of my models. I've just discovered the dubious joys of making a model from scratch and printing it. Getting the polygon normals to align is a
pain in the rump for instance. The Align Normals function in Cinema doesn't work like it should, and I haven't figured out Meshlab or Sketchup. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to try that with say, Jethro, a marine in armor, or one of the ships. I made many of those models without printing in mind, so there are holes and such. It would take hours or an entire day or more to clean 1 of the complex models up, let alone
all of them.
Also, I've found that importing stuff from Daz3D is hit or miss. They also have holes since the models weren't intended for printing originally. They also have polygon normal alignment issues.
Lol, I just wrote 6 pages in 45 minutes, wrapping up chapter 29 and part of chapters 30-31. Here I am,
trying to take a break to let me hands get their circulation back and I'm
still typing! Gah! (wringing hands out)
Okay, on to the snippet, still in chapter 1, picking up where we left off:
The colony ship was well prepared to move personnel in job
lots in a hurry it seemed. As soon as they woke, they were checked out in a
line by the ship's medics and then hustled to the shuttle bays. There they were
loaded on board for the drop to the planet.
There were four great big shuttles to land the passengers,
500 people per shuttle. Their cargo and baggage came down on two great cargo
shuttles at a slightly less rushed pace. Before the first passenger shuttle
debarked from the ship the two cargo shuttles had already been loaded and
dropped.
Jack shook his head. Most likely the shuttles had been
loaded before they'd even dropped out of hyperspace. If they could have gotten
away with it, they would have done the same for the passengers. Suddenly the
space station they were building in orbit seemed too small.
Oh well, they'd have to figure it out. Or let the ships
deal with the drop. There was no way he was going to try to buy one of those
colossal shuttles. The maintenance alone, parts … he shook his head.
One thing the station was good for was the transfer of fuel
and water to the ship, which meant the shuttles didn't have to be reconfigured
on the ground to carry containers up to the ship. The ship would take on both as
well as life support materials and offload any toxic materials for recycling
once the passengers were cleared.
Jack watched to be sure that the process was running
smoothly. Every hour and a half a shuttle landed with personnel. By the time
the sleepy stumbling passengers had been debarked, the next shuttle was coming
down. The ground crew refueled the shuttle during the debarking, did a quick
service check before the shuttle taxied to the runway just ahead of the next
shuttle lining up for a final approach.
“Smooth as silk, I'll have to give them credit for that,”
he murmured.
The only time the shuttles stopped was for a mandatory
downtime shift to run a full maintenance cycle after every four drops. He
heartily approved of that. He'd heard a couple of colonies had lost passengers
in shuttle accidents. He didn't want to see the same here on his world. The
people coming in deserved a proper greeting and chance at a fresh start, not a
final ending.
Jack used his implants to check the video feeds in the terminal.
Some of the passengers didn't have their legs under them quite yet; they had to
be assisted. Everyone had to run the gauntlet he'd set up however, so there was
a bit of exasperation and testiness mixed with bottled-up anticipation. A lot
of people spent time looking longingly out the glass, viewing windows to
beautiful horizon beyond.
Jack saw a familiar face with a ponytail and perversely
tapped the nearest microphone and video feed to see her. Menolly was in line
with the other medics to take charge and check each of the passengers over.
“We're just following procedure. Just be patient,” she kept saying as they went
through the checkup for each person.
Jack snorted.
One hundred drops to offload all of the passengers.
Actually, a hundred and ten since some of the seats had been taken by crew
coming down on shore leave after the first day he noted. All of the incoming
colonists were former Lagroose employees or major shareholders. Some of them
had traded their retirement benefits for a shot at coming to the colony. He
already knew that a few thought everything would be set up for them; there was
a growing line at the question booth.
He shook his head. Some of the people didn't understand
they would still need to employ themselves to feed, house, and clothe
themselves. Those who were put out protested of course; he could see a couple
people gesticulating wildly. Fortunately, Alan and a couple of his deputies
were on hand to keep things in line.
He sighed heavily. He knew he'd catch flack for the next month
or so. The worst ones were the wheedling ones who didn't bother to bluster. The
whiners he could do without too. Eventually they'd fall in line he knew; it
would just take time.
“Sir, your ten o'clock is here. But you've got two
additional people who insist on seeing you today,” Jasmine said over the
intercom.
“Okay,” Jack said as he cut the feed and looked up as his
door opened. “Marcello, right?” he asked as he rose from his seat and extended
his hand.
“Yes, Governor, sir,” the Neoorangutan said with a nod as
he ambled in. “I'd like to talk to you about the forests. I'm a bit concerned
about the logging you've allowed to start up in some areas …”
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