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The Backstory:
"You've got to be kidding" . The commander, as hardened as he was from years in this spaceport, felt his eyebrows leap in astonishment.
"No sir", replied the Dock Chief, his face glowing centrally on the screen. The other officers, looked stern gazing from small squares around the periphery of the viewer. They remained silent, letting the commander take the lead.
"No one has navigated through a jump ring portal without the EM cover of a starship and a bank of navigational computers."
"Well Wallace apparently did. In a pressure suit and strapped into his seat."
"His seat? You mean he ejected??"
"Yes sir - although he didn't eject by choice. He was initially on course in a high speed drift towards the Epsilon Eri outpost when his one man ship was struck by something that blew clean through the forward hull."
"No alarm or time for evasive action?"
"No sir, the projectile must have been small and moving way too fast for sensor detection. At the time, life support was starting the final phase of bringing Wallace out of semi-hibernation to get him fully de-grogged before navigating through the K-belt on the way to the outpost. He was fully suited for semi-hibe, fortunately, but barely conscious enough to hear the collision alarm. Life Preserve kicked in instantly as soon as the hull was breached - he thinks the projectile must have torn half the ship apart. LP shot him into space clear of the spray of the wreckage. The last he knew of his ship was the sputtering of the ship-to-helmet radio relay as he accelerated beyond range."
"And then?"
"He supposedly drifted for a bit. Because Wallace was still kind of out of it from not being fully revived, he's not sure how long. He does remember a huge purple nebula with a cluster of new stars in its core. That would check out as HV 4586 on our charts. Fortunately he had the presence of mind to turn on his deep space longwave kit. That was how he picked up the first jump ring's audio signature - you know, that almost mechanical sound you hear mentioned in stories from a couple of centuries back. Since jumps these days are automated most of the fleet has never heard the old beacon sounds other than in the odd training school. Anyway, he figured it was worth a try to see if he could steer towards it with his seat thrusters. He's a lucky guy - the coincidence of being that close to a ring is nearly unbelievable."
The commander nodded deep in thought. "What's also unbelievable is that no one has ever gone through a jump portal of any sort without being encased in a ship's Blenkman field. The acceleration would tear a person apart without a mass manipulation bubble."
"Well Wallace claims he did it, and he is here, although worse for wear. The nav data in his suit confirms the trip. He did say it was quite the bizarre ride through hyperspace nakedly exposed, watching the whole thing through his visor and feeling a thousand sensations penetrate his entire body. Anyway, once he got through the first jump ring, he said chaining through the second through fourth ones got to be a little easier."
The commander still looked sceptical. "And he did the calculations himself and transmitted the vectors to the jump ring …"
"With his suit computer over longwave, sir, yes. He may be lucky but this guy is quite the pilot. He was almost out of reserve O2 when he came over the evening-side rim of the our planet and saw this spaceport as a bright star rising over the horizon. He said he has never felt so happy to be aboard anything as when our shuttle picked him up and brought him through the door of docking bay 12."
The commander was silent for a long time. The other faces on the viewer seemed to share a state of wonder or disbelief but said nothing as the significance of the story sank in.
"When can I meet Wallace?"
"Doc says he should be up to it in a day. Doc wants to put him back into semi-hibe and then bring him out properly to ensure everything is done right and not leave Wallace's organs in some funny states. He should be cleared after dinner tomorrow"
"Tomorrow at 20 hundred then. I think he has a lot to teach all of us."
----------------
This is the final movement in a longer piece I was working on for the SpaceRace Challenge. It picks up as Wallace is starting to come around the planet's terminator and sees the distant shining speck of the space station he was hoping to reach. I wanted to express the mix of emotions he experiences - fatigue, fear, confusion, joy, and pride as he navigates his way to a safe harbour. I was thinking of the extraordinary navigating skills attributed to Capt. Bligh who sailed 3600 miles across the Pacific without map or compass in a single sailed lifeboat after the Bounty mutiny.
Some of you may remember a tune I did for the Hero's Journey Project called Coming Home, and this piece is a variant of it where I tried to use a slightly different fanfare. I tried to depart farther still from the original motif but it didn't work. The original 6 note motif by David Kneupper was something I had heard at the Kennedy Space Centre a long time ago, and it has morphed into two different variants now.
This piece was largely done on my laptop whilst on vacation - many many thanks to my lovely and understanding wife. Unfortunately I was not able to use a fast external disk interface for my samples and I ended up with some artifacts in the bounce that I can't get rid of. I will clean it up when I get back to my Mac Pro.
I don't consider this piece finished in the sense that I'm getting it done on the very last day of the Challenge and it has been rushed to this state. Still, I think the basic intent is at least framed here even though I don't like the ending particularly well.
I would love to hear any comments of course, and in particular I'm interested in critical comments that can help me improve my composing and orchestration. Thanks to Eduard for kicking this off and shepherding it along. I hope to now spend some time listening to all of the other entries.
Doug
"You've got to be kidding" . The commander, as hardened as he was from years in this spaceport, felt his eyebrows leap in astonishment.
"No sir", replied the Dock Chief, his face glowing centrally on the screen. The other officers, looked stern gazing from small squares around the periphery of the viewer. They remained silent, letting the commander take the lead.
"No one has navigated through a jump ring portal without the EM cover of a starship and a bank of navigational computers."
"Well Wallace apparently did. In a pressure suit and strapped into his seat."
"His seat? You mean he ejected??"
"Yes sir - although he didn't eject by choice. He was initially on course in a high speed drift towards the Epsilon Eri outpost when his one man ship was struck by something that blew clean through the forward hull."
"No alarm or time for evasive action?"
"No sir, the projectile must have been small and moving way too fast for sensor detection. At the time, life support was starting the final phase of bringing Wallace out of semi-hibernation to get him fully de-grogged before navigating through the K-belt on the way to the outpost. He was fully suited for semi-hibe, fortunately, but barely conscious enough to hear the collision alarm. Life Preserve kicked in instantly as soon as the hull was breached - he thinks the projectile must have torn half the ship apart. LP shot him into space clear of the spray of the wreckage. The last he knew of his ship was the sputtering of the ship-to-helmet radio relay as he accelerated beyond range."
"And then?"
"He supposedly drifted for a bit. Because Wallace was still kind of out of it from not being fully revived, he's not sure how long. He does remember a huge purple nebula with a cluster of new stars in its core. That would check out as HV 4586 on our charts. Fortunately he had the presence of mind to turn on his deep space longwave kit. That was how he picked up the first jump ring's audio signature - you know, that almost mechanical sound you hear mentioned in stories from a couple of centuries back. Since jumps these days are automated most of the fleet has never heard the old beacon sounds other than in the odd training school. Anyway, he figured it was worth a try to see if he could steer towards it with his seat thrusters. He's a lucky guy - the coincidence of being that close to a ring is nearly unbelievable."
The commander nodded deep in thought. "What's also unbelievable is that no one has ever gone through a jump portal of any sort without being encased in a ship's Blenkman field. The acceleration would tear a person apart without a mass manipulation bubble."
"Well Wallace claims he did it, and he is here, although worse for wear. The nav data in his suit confirms the trip. He did say it was quite the bizarre ride through hyperspace nakedly exposed, watching the whole thing through his visor and feeling a thousand sensations penetrate his entire body. Anyway, once he got through the first jump ring, he said chaining through the second through fourth ones got to be a little easier."
The commander still looked sceptical. "And he did the calculations himself and transmitted the vectors to the jump ring …"
"With his suit computer over longwave, sir, yes. He may be lucky but this guy is quite the pilot. He was almost out of reserve O2 when he came over the evening-side rim of the our planet and saw this spaceport as a bright star rising over the horizon. He said he has never felt so happy to be aboard anything as when our shuttle picked him up and brought him through the door of docking bay 12."
The commander was silent for a long time. The other faces on the viewer seemed to share a state of wonder or disbelief but said nothing as the significance of the story sank in.
"When can I meet Wallace?"
"Doc says he should be up to it in a day. Doc wants to put him back into semi-hibe and then bring him out properly to ensure everything is done right and not leave Wallace's organs in some funny states. He should be cleared after dinner tomorrow"
"Tomorrow at 20 hundred then. I think he has a lot to teach all of us."
----------------
This is the final movement in a longer piece I was working on for the SpaceRace Challenge. It picks up as Wallace is starting to come around the planet's terminator and sees the distant shining speck of the space station he was hoping to reach. I wanted to express the mix of emotions he experiences - fatigue, fear, confusion, joy, and pride as he navigates his way to a safe harbour. I was thinking of the extraordinary navigating skills attributed to Capt. Bligh who sailed 3600 miles across the Pacific without map or compass in a single sailed lifeboat after the Bounty mutiny.
Some of you may remember a tune I did for the Hero's Journey Project called Coming Home, and this piece is a variant of it where I tried to use a slightly different fanfare. I tried to depart farther still from the original motif but it didn't work. The original 6 note motif by David Kneupper was something I had heard at the Kennedy Space Centre a long time ago, and it has morphed into two different variants now.
This piece was largely done on my laptop whilst on vacation - many many thanks to my lovely and understanding wife. Unfortunately I was not able to use a fast external disk interface for my samples and I ended up with some artifacts in the bounce that I can't get rid of. I will clean it up when I get back to my Mac Pro.
I don't consider this piece finished in the sense that I'm getting it done on the very last day of the Challenge and it has been rushed to this state. Still, I think the basic intent is at least framed here even though I don't like the ending particularly well.
I would love to hear any comments of course, and in particular I'm interested in critical comments that can help me improve my composing and orchestration. Thanks to Eduard for kicking this off and shepherding it along. I hope to now spend some time listening to all of the other entries.
Doug
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SmokeyVW
wonderful - this has that big space sound indeed
thanks
p.s. are you a fan of Jerry Goldsmith?