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Posted by: shadenight123
« on: August 19, 2011, 02:53:02 PM »

Just immagine this, a really dark room:
nothing can be seen in this dark room.
When all the lights are off, and the curtains closed.
it's not a dark room for photographs.
There is the soothing noise of the sea though. Waves that go against the sand, The feeling of the temperate sun upon the skin, even though it's as dark as the darkest of the nights. The fresh breeze of the wind...yes, it's perfect.
It's perfect, isn't it?
You wouldn't mind staying there all day i bet, with not a thought by the mind, not a problem, or a worry. Just staying there, and resting.
But you can't, because you're a crewmember of a Regolo SHIP!
So RISE AND SHINE!
For here at Reg. Corp, lazy bums like you are thrown out in SPACE!


this is the alarm clock regularly installed in each and every single cabin of the Regolo Ships.
It's made so to increase in noise and volume over the course of the hours, and to stop only at determinate moments, so you never get the idea to go back to have a quick nap in the middle. Luckily outside one's own cabin, you can't hear a thing.
Some say it's a hard work, other that it's a harsh way of living.
Personally though, i find it the norm.
And i do enjoy my cabin when the alarm clock is off.
It's a little piece of heaven.
Maybe it's just me being here from a little, but many things seem strange.
For example, yesterday i went to the bathrooms, and i found a guy sleeping in the toilets. Mind you, not on a toilet, in a toilet. I didn't dare wake him up, so i just left and went to the baths at the other side of the ship.
Toilets here in space are a strange thing after all, you have to enter a sort of full body sauna, for the lack of gravity, you see.
Our ship doesn't have the gravity generator after all, too much of a hassle and of a cost.
What we do have are mining modules, though. Have a look at the baby i'm riding right now:

Code: [Select]
Regolo class Cruiser    42,500 tons     861 Crew     1196.6 BP      TCS 850  TH 150  EM 0
176 km/s     Armour 1-108     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 18    Max Repair 120 MSP
Asteroid Miner: 8 module(s) producing 160 tons per mineral per annum

Ion Engine E0,7 (1)    Power 150    Fuel Use 7%    Signature 150    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 50,000 Litres    Range 30.2 billion km   (1984 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

not that i'm in some way the captain, but still, it's a good and sturdy ship.
How are things going down there? i hope everything there is fine. And keep up the good work with school champ, you'll need it if you want to end up in a better place than me.
Love, you father,
Damiano Bersanti.
Error-Error-Error-Error
Cannot send mail.
Try again later.


"damn it!"
"come on Damiano, we're going to be late for dinner"
"i'm coming, just a second i have to send this mail"
"it's not like they'll die if you send it after dinner"
"you know it takes hours to reach them, even if i send it now!"
"so what? they'll be asleep? they'll read it tomorrow then"
"fine, fine, i'm moving"
stirring up from the desk in the computer lounge of the Regolo Ship number 3, nicknamed "betty hop", Damiano looked at the tall blonde man who was next to him, one of his friends here at "work" he had his feets on the ceiling, normal, since Damiano was the one upside down, all for that gravity non-existence. Damiano slipped out of the straps on the chair, and helped by his friend, made it on his feets.
"it's funny how comradeship is more comradesque when you have nice comradery with comrades."
"i hate it when you do that"
"do what?"
"use one word repeatedly in the entire sentence."
"fine. Let's go to grab a bite"
"what is the menu?"
"you know it's the chef's best bestest best! Cooked proteins! of some kinds!"
"...when is vegetable day?"
"i don't know pal, i really don't know anymore...maybe it was yesterday, or it was this supper...certainly not the day before still, that one i still recall it."

Damiano sighed, his friend was in for the first symptoms of the Space sickness.
He had stayed on the Betty hop for too much, and now the capacity of recalling past events was starting to gradually wear down.
Still, he had yet two more months to go. He hoped dearly that his friend never had to suffer the worst of the sickness: vomits, high fever, nausea, broken multiple bones, blindness, deafness, multiple personality disorder, suicidal tendencies, prone to rage, or even homicidal frenzies. To think about it, loss of short term memory wasn't that bad.

"don't worry now Damiano, the day i start lusting for blood i'll leave you a memo out of the door"
"my i feel safe now. really"
In the meantime, they had reached the cantina, a couple of hello's ensued, and then they sat one in front of the other, the Grub in plastic plates.
The eating went by in silence, and then his friend stated:
"you're awfully silent tonight."
"maybe it's because there are no arguments to speak of. You know, being in space, no tv, no internet connections, mails take hour to reach destination, books get read and reread..."
"maybe we should speak about how the food is nice, let's speak about the grub, okay?"
"what can i say? more of it?"
"no, i mean, how do they make it? it's all proteins, right?"
"yes so?"
"were do they take those proteins from?"
"i dunno. might be they had supplies of it on earth"
"yes but still, we're 900 souls, for three meals a day, that's awfully a lot considering we're still up here from...what's it been, five years?"
"one year, the ships is here from 2029, when it was produced and shipped up here on asteroid n*29. With the Regolo 1 and 2"
"they didn't even name this asteroid, poor fella"
"not that they wanted to. You do understand this is the only one with corundium"
"yes, it was found by chance, the president Pasquale got an heart attack when the news reached him"
"i bet he had one. Apart asteroid 10 with only 9 rocks and asteroid 5 with 169, the rest of the sol system is Corundium free"
"there are still asteroids to be surveyed."
"yes, but even then, how much do you expect to find on them? the foundries are hungry for it. it's needed to make mines too!"
"and no mines..."
"yes, exactly, less mineral output"
"still it's not going to last here, is it?"
"no, 1568 units of corundium won't last much. But i dunno what is going to happen..."
"i see".

*at the other side of the hall*

"look at that poor fellow"
"oh it's old Damiano"
"who's he speaking to?"
"nobody...he's been here too long. he rantles with the ghost of Martino"
"Martino?"
"another poor sod, he went berserker after a while and started allucinating. He thought that food was produced by killing miners and mincing them to pieces"
"and what happened to him?"
"he was shot down, that's what happened to him. The officer didn't like it and showed everyone how food is actually produced"
"and ho..."
"you don't want to know. Or you'll stop eating it for months, and then start eating it again with disgust and puking all the way"
"oh come on it can't be that terrible."
a couple of whispers later, a scream was heard and the man begun heavily puking on the floor, he rantled something about "hell..." and collapsed due to the shock.
"young guys, weak stomachs" *eating the grub*
and Damiano went off back to his cabin, it was time to sleep now. He and Martino had many things to talk, like how to enter the kitchen by night. How to look in the freezers...

Two days later, the frozen body of Damiano was found in the freezers of the Regolo 3...

Reg. Cop Complex
"What do you mean three deaths?"
"three accidents this months chief, and we would really like to request a change of personnel"
"how many?"
"five hundred"
"that's more than half the ship!"
"sir, it's going to be hell in a couple more months..."
"oh come on!"
"i did try and convince him"
"who are you talking to?"
"martino, he's the speaker of the Regolo 3 crew"
"where did the officer go?"
"died in an accident, he's one of the deads on the list."
"i see...could i speak to the technician?"
"he's dead too, on the list."
"i understand...and the medic?"
"dead also. On the list"
"...i'll see fit to change the more personnel i can"
"thank you sir"
After the link got cut, the Reg. Corp officer looked at the names.

Fia belli, Medic. KIA, Killed in accident. She fell on some syringes and died.
Martino Scorsese, Technician, Killed in accident, he was vacuumed in space when one window pane of the Greenhouse broke.
Damiano Belli, officer and responsible for the ship, killed in accident, he was cleaning his gun when he mistakenly blew his head off.
And the photoes made the officer shiver...he couldn't recall it, but wasn't the guy who sent the message...really similar to Damiano Belli?