Engineer’s Log Day 124.1
Took several iterations but I’m pleased to say i’ve got a proper roll cage set up. Complete with some actual AC, extra storage, and two plush and comfy seats, I’d say it turned out fairly successful. I would have added a smoothie dispenser too but that’d take too much time to add gyro stabilizers to and this whole thing took me way longer than I initially anticipated. The design is simple but the main issue was trying to make it safe. It's all good and fine to add a safety cage around chairs but said cage still has to survive being fallen upon. I’m not exactly a material expert so I ended up having to do a lot more trial and error than I would have preferred. Make the sucker too big and suddenly the HARP can’t really move all that well, too skinny and the cages get crushed. I’ve finally got the design to work in the simulations where it’s able to handle the HARP’s weight and then some. Just a matter of getting the parts printed and assembled.
Engineer’s Log Day 124.2
I need to find some fucking titanium. If I still had hair to rip out, I’d be bald again. I’m going to go and lie in bed and scream until I pass out.
Engineer’s Log Day 124.3
Right, I do live next to people that made a colony literally just for mining. Maybe I ask them.
Engineer’s Log Day 125
I bugged the xythans for some of their titanium and was able to actually get some. I got into an extended argument with their folks because allegedly “Diplomatic Secret Missions” isn’t a good reason for requisitioning it. After a bit of back and forth arguing though, I was able to get some in exchange for some of my base’s food. A fair enough trade for both sides I’d say, I’ve got more food than I know what to do with and they get some sustenance that doesn’t look like it could be used in the place of concrete.
Engineer’s Log Day 128
Work on the launchers has been resumed, this time with both Bayfur and Darana in tow. Currently, I’m working on crunching out this second one.
Darana seems somewhat “annoyed” she has to come along as well, going so far as to question why and stating, and I quote, “she has to follow my dumbass around like a puppy.” Statements like that really pull at the ole heart strings. In the field, she spends most of her time working on what appears to be some manner of arts and crafts that I assume it’s probably for the whatever it’s called festival coming up. I did get in trouble when I asked her if it was supposed to be a hat or a basket.
Conversely, Bayfur seems to be absolutely thrilled to be outside of the base. He spends most of the time running around the surrounding areas occasionally stopping to help his mom. Kid never seems to stop moving, always jumping here and there.
Engineer’s Log Day 130
Same ole same ole for the last few days. Darana apparently finished all the above water basket weaving she intended to do for today early and has pulled out a book to read. This wasn’t really anything of note until lunch time when I asked what she was reading about. Her eyes lit up as she began to go into the intricacies of romance that she had been reading. Apparently, this is the third book of the series and she decided to dump the entirety of the plot into my ear. Like spoilers woman! The book may be in a language I can’t read but spoilers!
Now I’ve never been much of a romance book guy, always liked fantasy more, but listening to her talk about the plot as I started my work back up made the day zoom on past. Based on this and my interactions with Glysia, I’m starting to think I might be just a touch conversation starved. Who would have guessed being alone on a planet with hostile fellas for like 3 months would do the trick like that.
Engineer’s Log Day 131
Today I managed to finish up my second launcher and I was feeling pretty good about my progress. They say nothing kills joy like comparison so naturally I decided to take a look at their progress. They have managed to set up an additional 27 in the time it took me to get these two done. I’d like to say it’s because I got slowed down by the diplomat things and that I’m catching up but I went and did the math. It takes me about two days to set each individual launcher up provided nothing goes wrong and at their current rate that means they are cranking them out about 4 times as fast as I am and I don’t even think they have all that many people working on this either. With their man… err dogpower? With their wolfpower, I think they could even push it up to double their current rate.
Technically speaking, this is a good thing since more turrets means t less of a chance of getting overrun in the long term. However, while it’s all good and fine to be thinking these things, it actually bugs me. I got stuck here and that caused my people to get caught and presumably blown to smithereens trying to U-Turn and save my dumb ass. I got captured by the xythans and had to get the message from them and am doing such a poor job at keeping myself safe that they feel the need to help me. To top it all off, I can’t even keep up with goddammed work! Just… fuck!
Sigh
I’m not going to fucking spiral over some stupid turrets. No sense bitching about any of this shit. Just… gotta keep…keep moving forward.
Fuck me.
Engineer’s Log Day 131
Got another launcher done. Since the last log, I’ve decided to swap up my schedule and take care of my plants when I get home. Originally, I’d been getting it done in the mornings but It’s been delaying me almost as much as the time getting out to the worksite itself has. Working during the late evening early night time kinda sucks but I have lights to illuminate the work when I’m back in the base. I figure it's better than trying to work later since it wouldn’t be quite fair to Darana and Bayfur to keep them out so late on my whims. Besides, my work lights are just not nearly as effective as the bases so I couldn’t really stay out there much later even if I wanted.
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Engineer’s Log Day 134
Very recently I’ve taken to wearing a back brace. I’m kind of running around, picking things up, and putting things down constantly so stealing one from the medbay was probably long overdue. Wearing it is both nice and not since on one hand it lets me avoid straining my back but on the other it's kinda warm to wear.
Engineer’s Log Day 138
I think I’ve figured out a way to speed things up a little more. One thing that slows me down a bit is that I can’t make too many launchers lest I find myself out of room in the workshop. Today, I realized this is a bit of a flawed premise since I can definitely take advantage of a few of the warehouses. It’s not like I’m doing anything in them so they make for ideal locations to get some of my work done at. The one downside is that they have a lot of extra dust and I need to blow my nose more often.
Engineer’s Log Day 150
Been a bigger gap than I thought since the last log. It’s kinda the same old same old with me keeping my nose to the grindstone. I probably should have kept up on the habit but frankly I’ve just been falling asleep the second I’m showered. I am making progress though, finished work on the 15th launcher just a bit ago and it's only the early afternoon. If I hurry I can probably crunch out another one if I work late tomorrow. I may not be able to catch up to the xythan’s numbers but I will be getting my work done in record time.
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Darana felt a slight frown cross her face as she watched Henry trudge in through the barrack doors. He’d been out late working again. After stomping around a few times near the entrance to remove dirt and removing his shoes, she watched him plod off towards the bathing room with a grim look on his face. The last few weeks had seen some changes in the human that she wasn’t a fan of.
At the start, the changes weren't all that concerning. He’d just been throwing himself into the work with a fervor and she hadn’t been particularly inclined to bother him about it. Clearly she should have given the state of him now. When it had become clear he was beginning to feel some strain from all the work he was juggling, she’d brought it up and he’d been less than receptive. He had agreed and listened but his work habits had seen no change. Darana considered trying something a bit more drastic for a moment but discarded the idea with a shake of her head. Doing anything like that would be counterproductive.
Flattening her ears, she sighed in frustration. Xenobiology was a complex and often frustrating field even before you started taking a look into psychology. Each species had their own weird little tendencies and to top it off many individuals fell quite far from their classifications. It certainly didn’t help that Henry was already a bit off the normal beaten path in that regard. The fact that he had been here so long on his own…
A poke in her side startled Darana, snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned to see an exhausted and somewhat damp Henry. “Oop. Didn’t mean to startle you. You were doing your thinking tilt thing so I figured I should check and see if you needed anything before I head off to bed.”
Darana blinked before putting on her best reassuring smile, “Oh I don’t need anything at the moment… Do I really have a ‘thinking tilt’?”
Henry snorted in amusement, “Just a bit of one. You’ve got a tendency to do it whenever I make a pop culture reference or say something especially stupid. Bayfur kinda has one also.”
Darana nodded knowingly, filing that bit of information away for later. She’d have to be careful to avoid any tilting. The smile on her face faded for a second as she remembered her previous line of thoughts.
“Henry, if something is bugging you please tell me. You’ve seemed a bit off lately.”
Henry shifted in place, a little farther back, and grinned. Darana noticed it didn’t seem to reach his eyes, “Ahh, it's fine don’t worry about it. I’ve just been a little bit tired but that's ok. Speaking of, I gotta rest up, big day tomorrow. Good night!”
Waving his arm in a good bye, Henry yawned before retreating towards his bunk area.
After watching his ill-hidden retreat, Darana rubbed her ears in frustration again. Men were the same regardless of species… or at least engineers were. After that little talk, she knew something was wrong for sure now but Henry wasn’t going to be any help. Sighing for what felt like the 10th time this evening, she wished she could just get in his head to hear what was going on.
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Engineer’s Log Day 151
I didn’t quite manage to finish the launcher today but realistically I should only have like an hour of work left. Gardening at night is still a pain and I feel like I’m missing like half of the weeds to the shadows.
Sigh
I think I also might have annoyed Darana or something might be worrying her but I really don’t know. My spare time has really vanished but I think I still have a little gas left to get something done. I’m still hanging out with her during the day at the work sites but obviously that’s less than ideal. I’ll try to be extra helpful if I can going forward. I’m tired and should go to bed.
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Darana watched as Henry left the lab, oblivious to her presence in the dark. Perhaps there was a way to get some insight as to what was going on in that head of his.
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Engineer’s Log Day 152
I think I figured out what was bothering Darana. The family festival thing is coming up and she had to run home to get whatever prepped for it. The woman is an absolute saint though because she called Glysia in as a favor so I could keep at it. I feel kinda bad since she’d been helping me with the gardening. I wonder if this was what had been on her mind all this time.
I’ve not really worked with Glysia since setting up the sensors and I forgot how significantly different her vibes are. Like significantly. She is just constantly asking me questions about how these things are designed or how I organize my parts before hitting me with the wombo combo mix ups and telling me about various stories from back in her training days. A lot of the stories aren’t that different from what I’ve heard from what some of the military guys in my base tell... well told now I guess...
Sigh
The whole day was kind of like that though, Glysia talking a mile a minute while I attached parts. She tried to help with the connecting bits initially but we ran into some issues pretty quickly. Organizationally, the launchers are designed with each of the parts having corresponding numbers. Makes the set up a hell of a lot easier but as we quickly realized that it’s kinda hard to do said set up when you don’t recognize the number system. Glysia is still able to match the symbols obviously but she has to go through the tool box for a significantly longer time than I do. So she helps as she can and stays out of the way when she can’t.
Right now, I’m back in the base. With tomorrow is the festival, I might have to take a break given my babysitters will probably be a bit preoccupied. Since, I’ll not have much to do, I can try and get ahead of the assembly before noon. I’m thinking I’ll take some time in the afternoon to cook something meaty to share with the neighbors. Darana can take it in for me since I’m still kinda not thinking I’ll attend. I do wonder if the xythans have an equivalent to barbeque sauce.