Sunday 4 August 2013

S5.173 - Emergency Kit

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"Systems mostly normal. Go," Radik advised.

"Beacon to the left," Signum added, pointing with one hand as she rested the other on her forehead for concentration.

Logan grabbed the navigation joystick and the Gazebo lifted off, on it's way out of the affected fractal area. Their flight lasted for all of twenty seconds, at which point the rings for the Cone of Science started to hum. 

ParaB snapped her gaze over to the floor. "Oh, no, NO! Stop! Stop the transfer!" she both shouted, and simultaneously attempted to project telepathically.

The rings began to rise into the air, and simultantously drift to the right. ParaB dove for the controls, as Logan brought his hand up off the joystick, though that didn't stop the forward momentum.

The momentum did stop, however, when Radik flipped open a panel and slammed his hand down onto a large red button. It caused a few panels to flap out on the exterior sides of the gazebo, increasing the forward surface area while a jet of air was simultaneously expelled forwards. The interior lighting dimmed from the power drain, making the glow of teleportation coming from within the Cone that much eerier, even as everyone was thrown onto the floor. "The HECK was that?" Hevvi shouted at the radical function.


Glasses, where are my glasses?
"EBS, Emergency Braking System," Radik answered, pulling himself back up. "Previously untested. Installed on a whim while effecting gelpack repairs, along with a Super Pursuit Mode. Will we need that next?"

The teleportation rings clattered to the floor with several loud bangs, as they were now unaligned with the mechanism. QT managed to stumble forwards and catch Sine before the brunette could pass out on top of them. "That should not have happened," ParaB said through clenched teeth. "We designed safety measures!"

"She'll be okay!" QT noted, waving off Cosecant as she took Sine's pulse.

Cosecant nodded, then shifted her attention to Radik's console. "Nice system," she congratulated.

"Thanks." The radical function gave Csc a grudging look of admiration. "Okay, and good work on your part with that gravity thing earlier. I might not have thought of that."

The secondary trig beamed. "Maybe Logan knew what he was doing when assigning positions after all, huh?"


If moment involves perpendicular distance,
then they might be having a moment.

Radik rolled his eyes as he shut his EBS down. "Maybe."

Logan glanced back over this shoulder at them. "Hm? Oh, I just gave Security to Cosecant because of the abbreviation label on the station. Figured Csc would work well with Sec. Yeah?" The redhead shrugged.


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2 comments:

  1. You know how ED Hirsch talks about content knowledge and its essential relationship to comprehension?

    I have zero idea what's going on in these stories, probably because I'm not a mathematician.

    So there's two possibilities: 1) this is really advanced math and I'm the wrong audience; 2) it's not so advanced that a high school math teacher couldn't figure it out, but it needs more context. I'm thinking sketches that map out action, but I really have no idea.

    Which do you think it is?

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    Replies
    1. What math? The ONLY math in this particular entry is the punchline. Csc (cosecant) and Sec (secant, but here a play on 'Sec'urity) are the reciprocal functions of Sine and Cosine, respectively. Which is about Grade 11 level. (Well, okay, and the 'moment' remark in the picture caption involves wordplay on a physics term.) NONE of which is necessary to follow the story, at least in my mind.

      I don't go above high school much, mostly because it involves extra research on my part and I rarely have the time. Though I grant the previous entry involved 'escape-time fractals' (which I linked to - always have a link) and a pun on the Heighway Fractal curve, because of the Series 5 setting.

      Everything else is story. The characters are called Sine, Signum, Radik, etc after mathematical terms. (There's character and recap links on the side.) The "Cone of Science" was invented by Hyperbola some months ago. I don't know what I could possibly sketch, people staring at a cone? How does that make things more clear than the description? I have enough difficulty managing the illustrations I already do.

      Hence the conclusion I tweeted, I'm a niche market, if that. People who come for math are confused by story. People who come for story don't get the math.

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