Tales of the Groundbound: Why, Chapter 3

[steuben]

Chapter 3

The six kerbals were in the briefing room. Valentina sat, in the dark blue uniform of the navy, skimming through the several binders in front of her. Encal, in the light blue uniform of the air force, randomly flipped through the pages in a binder. Jebediah, also in light blue, had taken a sheet out and was turning it around as if trying to make sense of it. Khenry, in the green of the ground forces, and Bill in dark blue, were discussing some aspects of the design they were looking at.

Bob, wearing green, stood looking at thick walled glass container at the front of the room. Suspended in the clear liquid was a black sphere. It appeared to be featureless despite the distortion the thick glass caused. Bob eventually decided that it really was not black, it completely lacked colour.

He tapped the container a couple of times. He thought he saw react, but it was hard to tell through the thick glass. Through the glass he saw a trio of kerbals at the door. He looked around the side of the container. He recognized one of them.

He came to attention, “Director Present!” the sudden silence and scraping of chairs indicated the other five had done so as well.

“Thank-you,” Direc said. ”I’m Direc Kerman, director of the Kerbal Space Program. You may relax. We don’t need such formalities. But, as we get bigger that may change. Please sit down.”

The one of the other kerbals went to the projector in the back of the room and began fitting a reel of film.

Direc gestured towards other kerbal at the front of the room with in. “This is Wernher von Kerman, Head of Research.“ He nodded towards the back of the room. “At the projector is Linus Kerman, one of Wernher von Kerman’s interns. Wernher’s here to answer any of the science questions that you may have. But, we’re here to help answer the questions that the science folks have. Mostly about this stuff.” Direc tapped the glass container. “The goo. The only bit about that I understand is that it is non-Newtonian. They say that it is non-Euclidian and non-Einsteinian as well.”

Linus stepped back to the projector from having pulled the blinds down. He turned off the lights and started the projector.

“The information in this film is in your binders as well,” Wernher said. The flicking light of the projector cast conspiratorial shadows over his face. “As director Direc said it is a non-Newtonian fluid. As for non-Euclidian and non-Einsteinian, we have no supporting evidence.”

Bob watched the film intently. The soft ratcheting of the projector matched the gears in his mind.

Edited February 15, 2017 by steuben