11/26/20 – With and Without You

Spacetrawler, audio version For the blind or visually impaired, November 26, 2020.

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2020-11-26-spacetrawler3

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The plot thickens like pudding.

22 Comments

    1. Bonker of Things

      Or that it does follow the laws of physics but is in the “wrong” state. One can compare it to supercooled sodium acetate (the stuff which is in those chemical hand warmers which has a tiny “clicker” inside to set them off): the sodium acetate melts somewhere around 60-70 C, however, if they are left to cool undisturbed, then they will remain in liquid state even below the melting point. This is called supercooling and it means that the material is trapped in the “wrong” state as it should be a solid at those temperatures. What the clicker does is that it adds a tiny amount of energy to the system, which disturbs the atoms closest to the clickers and causes them to “realize” that they ought to be solid and they start to nucleate. As soon as there are solid crystals present in the system, they will seed the rest of the supercooled liquid and the solidification is spread throughout rapidly. For sodium acetate, this is an exothermic process which means it gives off heat while it solidifies and makes it nice an cozy to hold them on a cold day. Supercooling can be done with other liquids (e.g., water) and still be safe. For Gordik repellium atoms, the actual mechanics will, of course, be different but I believe that it’s a reasonable analogy to compare it to. The fundamental difference will be how fast it flips and how much energy that is released in the process, the faster the more explosive it will be. I would want to be around to observe it, though at a very safe distance.

  1. Muzhik

    @Kaidah, they’re addicts. Addicts are NOT subtle. I mean, look at it: they crushed a bunch of (presumably occupied) houses, blew up an entire street to try to eliminate one witness, and ultimately snatched an entire 18-wheeler rig just to get its shipment of jalapeno cheese puffs. Whatever they need to do to get their fix.

    (Which really disturbs me. I mean, if it was a shipment of chocolate bars, I’d be all down with that. But jalapeno cheese puffs? Even I have my standards.)

  2. Pete Rogan

    The Calama Void is patently a construct. SOMEBODY figured out how to make Gordik repellium stick together and built this stellar-sized artifact. That the Puppy-people would find a way to collapse it to get rid of a single pursuer tells me they’re not just evil — they’re vandals on an interstellar scale. They’ll use their learning and their technology for not just nefarious reasons, but for petty and spiteful ones. Like developing napalm to burn a forest where they saw a rabbit perform an obscene gesture, presumably at them.

    If the GOB knew about this, they’d send a scout and then a fleet. This isn’t just careless indifference — it’s an intelligent species using every means at its considerable disposal to do whatever it wants to whoever it thinks needs disposal.

    Hey, symbiont! You wanted excitement and danger? You’ve hit the motherlode. If your conscience can stand it, time to bug out and get help — the Puppy-people are light-years above your pay grade.

  3. lil sis

    so… ears… he had to hear what the puppy people were saying and have a conversation on the com with Stangor.
    How many ears does he have? Did he deliberately send (at least) one with his eyes and (at least) one left behind?

  4. Night-Gaunt

    They have changed a physical parameter of a particle to become the antimatter version like positrons and will change the void into a collapsed gravity well. Could be a devastating weapon if they have enough of the particles to invert.

    1. Pete Rogan

      Do they even HAVE any prefabricated amulite on board “Spacetrawler”? Let alone the six hydro-coptic Marzel vanes, whether or not they were sulfitted to the ambifacient lunar Wayne shaft that form the fam. Could be tricky.

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