Kiml42's blog

New turret - needs better textures.

2011-07-06T18:03:00.001+01:00

New turret - needs better textures., originally uploaded by kiml42.

I think I've finished the major modelling, leaving probably only little tweaks. Now I need to do materials and textures, which are really not my strong-suit.
I've tried to add a little wear to the parts of the barrel that will slide back with recoil, but it doesn't quite work, yet.
I'm not too sure about the sensor turret at the back. I may rebuild much of it, or even go for a completely different sort of thing, if I decide I don't like it.
I look forward to hearing what anyone thinks of any aspect of this, and would love to answer any questions, particularly technical.

The blue box.

2010-05-23T11:01:00.000+01:00

I had a particularly narrative dream last might. it was actually related to the episode of doctor who I watched last night, which was the first of a two parter, I dreamed a second part to it, though there was a radical change of tak to it, so I think I can quite easily tell this story without giving any spoilers.
Unfortunately the dream is slipping from my mind as I type, so I won't be able to tell you the whole thing, more a series of scenes that don't really link up.

Something has been hijacking the tardis, and making it not do what it's supposed to. The Doctor has tried many technobabbley solutions, none of which have worked. This leaves the only solution he can think of being that the tardis is cursed. At this point I saw the tardis with an entirely white door (like the colour had been drained from it, the handle to the door was a scary looking skull. the doctor goes outside to see how it looks from there, leaving Rory (one of the current companions) alone inside. The door closes, which is some how ominous. The doctor opens it and finds Rory trapped in a wooden box which appears to have been built around him. only his face is showing through a gap between planks. The wooden box he is in fills the entire internal space of the tardis, which has become considerably smaller on the inside (than the outside) (this alludes to the Mat Smith doctor's liking for people using the phrase 'it's bigger on the inside', which no one has so far this series.)
The doctor pulls Rory's box out and it lands face first on the ground. Before helping him, the doctor looks at the now tiny inside of the tardis.
He looks away to Rory's box, but then back to the tardis, it is now, suddenly heavily damaged, looking like it has been smashed to pieces with a pole, which is now left impaled through the door by the skull handle.

The Doctor ignores this for a moment, and turns to the box in which Rory is trapped. he turns it over and finds that Rory's face is no longer at the hole. He rippes off the planks nailed to the front, revealing that it is entirely full of grass cuttings (this is a dream, remember). He assumes Rory is still in there, and reaches an arm inside to save him. He grabs something cylindrical, hoping it's a leg, but he pulls it out and it is a bike pump (the same sort I own, to be precise), he tries again and gets another one. Then he looks at the box, it is now far too small to have ever fitted a person in it.

A woman is there (you know the way tend to appear unquestioned in dreams) she is the woman from the episode I watched last night. She has the feeling of the villain about her, like she is an alien pretending to be human. She reveals that she has been doing the weird stuff that's been going on. setting the doctor off on one of his rants.

He talks about how it can't be done by someone simply moving faster than can bee seen, because he would have felt the air disruption from the really fast movement of boxes. (I realise now that couldn't possibly have done the changing to the tardis) He eventually works out that she must have been using other dimensions, and hasn't been changing the tardis at all, just swapping the real one for something almost identical, just with a something changed. I don't think I ever knew how he did it, but the doctor, knowing what's been going on, can now solve the whole thing.

The woman tries to stop him by hitting him with a metal box lid through the axis of another dimension. knowing to look out for other dimensional attacks, he stops her and hits her with the thing in a more normal way (right in the face, which is really not his style). I think it was maybe incapacitating her that made everything reappear in this dimension. There is a row with the real tardis at one end, next to it the one with the white door and the skull handle, then the one that's tiny on the inside, with the original box Rory was stuck in, finally the one that's been smashed up was at the end.

That's where the doctor who portion of the dream ended. But for the story, presumably the doctor gave a final speech, worked out what this woman wanted with him, and found Rory, before departing in the tardis.

The rest of the dream was even more odd. thee were two parts. In the first I was with my mother in a place where I used to live. there was a gas fire on the wall that was filthy, I showed her through to the next room where there was an identical gas fire which was gleaming clean, though disassembled. I told her that this one I had cleaned, but forgot to but back together. She seemed very impressed.

In the final part of my dream, I was still with my mum, walking beside a river. Cars passed us, and it was obvious that they were fleeing from reavers (Firefly). the reavers' cars passed us a moment later, chasing the first lot. They crossed a bridge to the other side of the River. I watched them go down that side, chasing the other cars, but one of them veered to the left, jumping over the river to come after us. That was the end of this bit.

I would love to see what a... whatever you call someone who analyses dreams... thinks of this, it would probably show that I'm actually mad in a certifiable sense of the word.

About me

2010-05-19T23:07:00.006+01:00

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"hi i started checking you out after seeing the xenos explorer ship post.
could you do an about me post, are you working in design, where you a from, what software you use, even some tips on how you get your inspiration."

And so by popular demand (I have so few people who actually read my blog that any demand is popular) here is a post about me.

Uh...
I am a nerd. I think I should get that down first of all, as everything else kid of revolves around it. Secondly, (though not actually being related to me being a nerd) I am a human male who has travelled around an uninteresting star roughly 20 and a half times since I was born.
For anyone who want's to see me, here is a picture of me desperately trying to look cool:

It's not actually very good for seeing what I look like, I just really like my coat, and my hat.
Which brings me to one interesting thing about me, if there's a room full of people, and you know I'm there, I'm probably the one in the hat. Unless it's a very swanky indoors do, in which case I'm probably outside, so I can wear my hat.

Maybe I should do something chronological...
A few billion years ago a large amount of energy suddenly decided it wanted to explode, and BOOM! shiny new universe. It was all a bit hot for a while, and I mean way past nice sauna temperature, then things started to cool down and become proper things made of atoms and such. and then, a few billion years later there was an unassuming little planet, orbiting the afore mentioned unassuming star in an unassuming galaxy. Some chemicals bonded together in a way that let them make more of themselves, and suddenly there was life. Evolution took hold and one thing led to another, and eventually there were things that called themselves people. They weren't actually that different to anything else that had been around for a few million years prior, but they thought they were. And it was this ability to think in a useful, constructive and self deluding way that really made the species take off...
So what does this have to do with me, I hear you ask... Well go on then ask it...
The answer, I am one of these little self deluded creatures which presumes to think itself more important than it could ever really be - I am a human, as I've mentioned before, I think.
The life cycle of a human is generally 50 to 100 years and is mostly pretty dull. That's why this post won't take as long to read as it did to gather data for it (20 years so far).
The life cycle of these animals starts with infancy. Babies are small, smelly, pathetic, fragile creatures, and don't greatly differ from their adult forms. When I was one I wasn't sure how much I wanted to be one. In fact I wasn't sure I really wanted to be one of anything, so I tended to stop breathing. Which led to two very scared parents, some cost to the tax payer through the NHS and me having one extra interesting anecdote. Besides that, there were no permanent affects.
Things continued for me in a fairly ordinary fashion for several years. I slowly learned to walk, talk, read, and most importantly, in my opinion to think.
In my early schooling it was often thought that I would amount to nothing. I would spend hours on end staring into space and thinking. I can remember my teacher showing my mum an exercise book with the date scrawled (well half of it) on one line, and below it was written something like "This was an entire afternoon's work".
I did get better at the whole 'school' thing. I eventually became very good at science, allays wanting to know more than the teacher would tell me (sometimes more than the teacher could tell me). I remember in the last year of junior school, at the age of maybe 10 or 11. We'd just started learning about forces, and I was already demanding that the teacher explain how a desk could apply a different force when it was sat on to when it wasn't without the desk itself actually changing. I don't think the teacher was prepared to be grilled on the fundamentals of science by a 10 year old.
My love of science has only grown since then. Jumping back a little, the shows I really remember from my childhood aren't those intended for children, which kept me happy while I was watching them, but formed no real memories, It is Star Trek that I remember. I had to go to bed before Voyager was on, but I would often stay up listening to it from my bed room.
So, I passed through the rest of school, always loving science, hating English, and mildly disliking maths. Whenever I had the chance to choose a subject it was almost always science. except at GCSE, where you couldn't do all science, and I ended up doing Art and Drama. Art I didn't really like, it was too much research and reference, I just wanted to build stuff with clay and do drawings. Drama I did enjoy, though I don't feel it was particularly useful to me.
Then at A level when the subjects get distilled down to just four, I chose Physics, Chemistry, Electronics and Geology. I loved and excelled at physics and Electronics, in fact in electronics the teacher would occasionally have me check his answers. Chemistry wasn't so fun, it was too much remembering facts and names. I think one reason I didn't like it as much as physics is because so much of it is just what humans have done, not what is really there in nature. Geology came out of no where. I believe I was the first student at my school to take the A-level in Geology without having taken the GCSE, so I think it was of some surprise that I did well in the subject passing with an A. It is usual to drop one subject after the first year, but I chose not to. after both years with 4 subjects, I got three As and a B, the second best grades in my entire year. (The B was in Chemistry.)

I decided to go on to university and study Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE). but first I took a year out in which my brother and I travelled around Europe, staying with various people we know. this trip was insightful, exciting, interesting, scary, long and expensive. And generally a brilliant experience. I have yet to fully write up my experiences, which I may do one day, so watch this space.

I started university very nearly two academic years ago. I had to do a foundation year as I didn't do Maths at A-level. This year was generally aimed below A-level standard, so I found it all quite easy, especially the electronics we did. The most interesting thing we learned was quantum physics, which is both fascinating and confusing. Probably the best thing I got from this year was a very good friend, though, alas, he chose not to continue with the course and now lives in America.

I am not at the end of the first real year of my EEE course, and the jump in difficulty has really caught me off guard. I've been struggling to pass some modules, as I actually need to revise, which I didn't last year, or at A level as I could think my way out of most problems.

Well, that became an academic section, I hope it wasn't too boring. I guess I'll go for a categorical approach instead of a chronological approach, as that seems to be what's happening anyway.

So this section will be about design.

As I said, I grew up watching sci-fi. This meant that the things I would draw in my lunch breaks were of three types; Starships, aliens, and dragons. Dragons because everyone loves dragons.
As well as my abilities with a pencil, my knowledge of and attention to science improved with time. in high school I mainly designed ships for my brother's science fiction (he has no skill at drawing, but this is more than made up for by his story telling ability). We wanted to make these ships exceed startrek in the logic of their design, and their scientific accuracy. Recently we have decided on two scientific concessions; FLT, to get us to the aliens, and translators, so most of the storey isn't spent saying hello. Besides these the drives, the gravity, the power systems and the weapons are all done in a logical manner and can be explained with real science.

I found My ideas outstripped my abilities to draw them, so I turned to my computer, Sparky (sparky 1). I tried to draw using the gimp, but found it too hard to make ships look good, so I started to draw them as blueprints - orthographic side, front, top and bottom views that showed the designs of the ships. this allowed for an accuracy I had long desired.

It was at this stage in my scifi career, as you might call it, that my brother and I took our trip around Europe. In Berlin, I believe it was, I started to write my novel. this was done in pencil in an A8 notebook which I never plan to show to anybody. When I returned to Wales, I started to write it up onto Sparky, editing its content as I went along.

A while after we'd settled back in I started to learn to use Blender to build ships in 3D.
It is a complicated and versatile program, which makes it quite overwhelming to new users.
I was determined to learn on my own, and didn't even look at tutorials until I had some competence with it. my first attempts were dire, a random squiggle, which doesn't even look much like a shape. eventually I understood the buttons and modes and started to make things that looked like I wanted them to.
Eventually I had to concede, and look up tutorials on the internet, filling in the gaps I had left in my knowledge by my solitary approach.
I don't think I will ever be able to use the program to the best of its ability.

While learning Blender, I continued to write my novel in secret. Originally it was a rather cruel story where I tried to torture my main characters as much as possible. as I continued, I found I grew to care about my characters, and I stopped being pointlessly cruel to them and the story took shape as a science fiction rather than a pointless gore-fest. This is why anyone who wants to read my novel will see book two, first, and probably never book one.
I deliberately let my parents know that I was writing, as the story became more prominent. My mum wanted to read my novel, despite (and possibly because of) numerous warnings about it's content. I edited each chapter before I let her read them, reigning back the worst bits, and bringing the earlier craziness in line with the later, lesser craziness. I think I may have actually permanently changed my mother's opinion of me with this book.

In some ways I think it would have been better to keep my book a secret until it was finished. I found it easier to write when it was just me and the characters, though this would have made me lack the restraint that comes from knowing that someone will see it, so It may have continued to be unpalatable gory torture (for both reader and characters).

After well over 200,000 words and more than 100 chapters, I still don't know where my novel will finish, but I do know where it's going at the moment, which I didn't for a while (my mum used the phrase treading water quite aptly). Several people have suggested I try to get something published, but I know that it all needs a lot of work before it's fit for public consumption. one person I sent it to (and this is the almost reasonable second book) hasn't spoken to me since.

Well, that pretty much brings this up to the present, and I think anyone who's read all the way through this horrendous (and unedited) block of text, now knows me quite well, if only by the way I write. Of course I don't actually expect anyone to get this far before gnawing their own arms off.

For over a year (I think) I made sure I wrote 500 words or more every day. this was very good for getting my novel out, but I think it's made me overly verbose, I'll have to word count this when I'm finished. I've been sat here writing this for nearly two hours! So I think I'll leave it here. I have to revise tomorrow for an exam the day after; Power engineering... I actually have no idea what might come up in that one as I missed most of the lectures. Wish me luck, please.

So goodnight all. And to the anonymous who asked me for this I expect you will have learned to regret asking me questions, I always give far too much in my answer and bore people to insanity. I sincerely hope you will ask me more questions, but I would ask that you make them specific, for the well being of my fingers, your eyes, and both of our sanities... you might want to ignore that, I'm rambling... I could say more, but it would still be rambling...
Oh, and then there's... no, must stop rambling now...

bye :D

P.S. Kiml42 comes from Kiml - a few random characters I punched into a game one, and 42 - which is, of course, the answer to the ultimate question.

p.p.s. I should probably include my name in an about me post. It is Richard.

Allnighter

2010-05-16T00:22:00.002+01:00

I had a dream a few nights ago. I lay in bed for a while thinking about it, arranging the things that happened into a proper story. Then I had to write it, so I did, three thousand words straight off with barely a break. I have since edited it slightly for spelling grammar and punctuation, but this is still pretty much what crawled out of brain that morning.
I hope you enjoy it, I look forward to reading any comments you may have.

Allnighter
By Kim L.

Jack pushed open the door. A machine beeped alerting the girl at reception of his presence. She smiled as she looked up and saw Jack and Peter enter.
“You here for the allnighter?” she asked as they approached.
Before answering. Jack lent over her desk and planted a kiss on her cheek.
She placed her hand where he had just kissed her. “If you're looking for a discount because you're my boyfriend, I'm afraid I can't do that.”
“Aww come on, Alice,” said Peter.
“Or my brother.”
“Okay,” said Jack, feeling like he was surrendering, “How much is it?”
“A tenner.” Seeing their uncertain looks she added, “It is allnight, and we do a discount on snacks after 11.”
“You know we're going to do it anyway.” The boys each passed her a crumpled note. “Thank you. Don't we get a receipt? To prove that we've paid?”
“I'm staying here allnight, and I think I can remember you two. So, did your lecture finish early?”
“A little. Calculus is so dull, each minute should count for half an hour.”
“You only say that because you're freakishly good at it.”
Jack looked into her eyes, Peter rolled his. They both walked off into the large darkened room.
“I don't think I'll ever understand you two,” said Peter.
“Hey, she's hot, nice, and we share so many interests.”
“You mean like shooting terrorists?”
“And breaking bedsprings.”
Peter winced. “Dude, That's my sister!”
Strait faced, Jack said, “lol.”
Their conversation attracted the attention of the others they all waved and said 'hi' or sometimes even a verbose 'Hey there.' Jack and peter too their seats, and pushed the on buttons at each of their stations.
As they waited for the computers to boot, they leaned back to talk around the dividers between the stations.
“What do you want to start with?” asked Peter.
“I feel there are too many zombies in this world, do you want to do something about that?”
“Sure.”
They both turned to their now active computers and logged themselves in. in a few more minutes of loading an navigating menus, they were finally ready to play.

After playing for a couple of hours there still seemed to be no end to the zombie haord. Jack, Peter and a couple of the others shot, kicked, axed and crowbarred their way through, achieving various minor objectives on the way to safety. The hoard proved to be to numerous, and the difficulty too hard. The small group were backed into a corner, with no hope of rescue, and their other friends dropping like flies, they were ready for a last stand, shotguns at the ready they blew away the ones that came faster than the slow plodding crowd.
As their predicament seemed truly hopeless, a box in the corner notified them of another player logging in. What seemed like several minutes of zombie splatting panic later, a black cloaked figure dropped from the rooftops, with a sword and a gun, the zombies seemed to fall to pieces.
After the last of that hoard turned and ran, it receiving a single piece of lead into the back of its mouldy brain, Alice realised that she wasn't just being watched on the game, there was a face at the side of her station.
“You saved us again, honey.” said Jack.
“Yeah, you two are such babies. Why are you looking at my screen, I'm sure neither of you died.”
“You're just too awesome, it has to be seen to be believed.”
She sniffed a laugh, then leant back to kiss her boyfriend.
“Come on guys,” called Peter from the far station. “There's more coming.”
Jack and Alice snapped away from each other, going straight back to their own computers. Ready to fight through yet more zombies.

Peter was woken in a massive fiery explosion. He screamed, flailed and his chair fell over backwards. He staggered to his feet rubbing the back of his head. He looked up and found Jack and his sister staring at him.
“I was wondering when you were going to do that,” said Alice.
“You make it sound like I did it deliberately.”
“Didn't you?”
Peter set his chair back on its wheels, now just holding the back of his head.
“You're acting this a lot more than I'd expected.”
“What are you on about?” Peter asked, taking his hands off his head to gesticulate.
Alice rubbed his head. “I told you you wouldn't get me with your silly games, brother. Wait.” she looked down at her hand, there was blood on it. “You're really hurt, aren't you.”
“What else would I be?”
“I'll get the first aid kit.” Alice ran off.
“What the hell was she on about?”
“I don't know either,” said Jack.
“She always has been a bit crazy.”
“Yeah.” Jack smiled, looking at Alice as she ran back.
Alice started employing her first aid training and wrapped a bandage round her brother's head. “We need to check you aren't concussed.”
“I think we need to see if you're concussed.”
“You're starting to worry me now. You're really acting like you didn't come in earlier.”
“We didn't!”
“You did, you told me something about having to avoid your doctor, that he was a monster or something.”
“My Doctor?” asked Peter.
“No, Jack's doctor.”
“We have the same doctor!”
“Oh, yeah. Well, you said he was actually a monster, and we would need to run from him. You even had a bandage on your head, and told me that you were going to fall off your chair, and that I would put one on you. I didn't believe you, of course, time travel's impossible. So I was expecting you to pretend to fall off your chair and get hurt. But I don't think anyone would do this deliberately. Not even you.”
Jack laughed. “That's crazy even if there were a time machine, why would we be its pilots?”
“There isn't a time machine, it's the doctor, you said he makes me cease to exist, and that you need to run from him to find a way to save me.”
“Cease to exist?”
“Like, pop, gone you said.”
“what else did we tell you.” asked Peter, sounding amused by the idea.
“You said I said there was something you had to do, but he got me before I could tell you, so you'd have to work it out again.”
“And what was this thing?”
“You didn't know, because I hadn't told you.”
“But if you don't know to tell us now,” said Jack, “Then we can't know to tell you then.”
“Don't act like you actually believe her,” said Peter. “Jack? Jack? What are yo looking at?”
“Doctor Pankhurst?”
Peter looked up and saw a figure dressed in white, with a stethoscope round his neck.
“This is far too elaborate for her just messing around.”
Before she could turn, the doctor reached out a hand and placed it on Alice's shoulder. A moment later, she was gone. Jack and Paul screamed together, looking up at the doctor's face. He had a contented expression like he'd just saved a life or something. He seemed dazed for a moment, giving the boys an opportunity to slip past him and run out of the front door.
“What the fuck!” exclaimed Jack. “Where the hell did she go?”
“Language young man!” an elderly lady said as she passed by on the street.
“Sorry mrs T.”
“That's okay, Jack. What's wrong anyway? You look like you've seen a ghost.”
“Uh, I don't think I could explain it.”
“Okay deer. I'll see you tomorrow.” She walked on down the street.
“What's she doing out at four thirty in the morning?” asked Peter.
“She always was a bit mad, mrs Tanner.”
The heard the beep of the door behind them. The doctor was once again towering over them.
“Run!” shouted Peter, not waiting for Jack to start running.
“Where are we going?!” asked Jack.
“I don't know! I'm just running. That think killed my sister!”
“Lets get to the train, we'll be able to get away much faster.”
“Okay. Good plan.”

The pair stopped, panting, at the station. The next train home was in two minutes, they bought tickets from the machine, and stood on the platform waiting impatiently.
“She just disappeared, Jack, Vanished into thin air. Do you think he's going to do that to us?”
“No,” Jack said trying to sound more certain than he was. “And he won't do it to her either.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know the stories, if we find a way to defeat this guy, everything will be back as it was.”
“That's just stories, wishful thinking. What if she's gone forever?”
“She can't be. She said there was a way to save her, all we have to do is find it.”
“Okay. I suppose that's better than just running away.”
“I think I hear the train.”
“That doesn't sound like the train should.”
“I know, it's different.”
The train engine passed them as it decelerated into the station. Steam billowed out of the top of it. Jack and Peter looked at each other, then back at the train. They saw their reflections appear and disappear as the windows passed them. They also saw a tall white figure behind them. Fear kept them looking at the train, begging it to stop and the doors to open. As each window passed the doctor's reflection grew closer. Enveloped in a final puff of steam, the train stopped, and a man in old fashioned cloths opened the door. Peter and Jack squeezed in before the people waiting started coming out. Every one looked at them for a moment with expressions of surprise. But they looked away again almost instantly, as if they'd never seen them. The boys slipped into a compartment and went straight up to the window looking out at the platform. The doctor was standing in the exodus of people, being avoided by them, but otherwise ignored.
They heard the door open, and a few more people came in, taking seats, and ignoring the two at the window. They looked back out, and found the doctor gone.
“He must be on the train!” exclaimed Peter.
“We need to get off before he catches us.”
The left the compartment. The occupants looked up when the door opened, but didn't seem to find anything amiss. The boys pushed past people to get towards the door. The reached a break in the crowd, where the corridor was clear at the far end the doctor stood looking down at them hungrily.
They turned and fled the other way, passing through the crowd without apparently disturbing anyone. The train started moving. The corridors emptied into the compartments, making it easier for the boys to run, but soon they ran out of space, reaching the front of the train. They ducked into the vacant foremost cabin, and waited for what felt inevitable.
“What the hell is going on!” exclaimed Peter. “What's with this old train, and all the outfits.”
“We really are travelling in time, we're in the past.”
“Creiky.” so we could change stuff, make sure that man never meets my sister.
“I don't think we can, you know how it is, we mustn't change things, do you know what happens if we cause a paradox?”
“No.”
“Well neither do I, but it is always really really bad.”
“Okay, so no paradoxes.”
“I think we should get off at the next stop.”
“No shit Sherlock, with him on the train, we can't get off soon enough.”
“I think it's stopping.”
“Bit soon isn't it? But yes, look at the trees.”
“Well good, the sooner the better.”
They went to the nearest door and watched as a station came into view. There was a diesel train on the opposite side, which seemed fine at first, then they realised what sort of train they were on. The disembarked quickly, and stood for a moment on the station.
“Wait a second,” said Peter. “We're back where we started.”
“Indeed, and the train's gone.”
“Yeah. Where's that doctor thing, then?”
“No idea, for now. But I expect we need to find out what time it is.”
“And what date it is.”
“Yes, that too.”
“Ah, it's quarter past one.” said Peter, looking up at the big clock over the platform.
“And it's today,” said Jack, seeing the date on the clock, “so this must be our chance to warn Alice.”
“So we go back to the games lounge.”
“Yes, her shift starts at one, so we'll probably meet her.”
“We know we meet her.”
“Good point.”

The machine over the door beeped and Alice looked up at Jack and Peter.
“Hello you two, I wasn't expecting you for another two hours. Didn't you have a lecture.”
“Cancelled.” said Peter, thinking quickly.
“Really?” she asked sceptically, knowing her brothers knack for skipping lectures. “What happened to your head?”
Jack ran up to her and hugged her over the desk. “Oh, I was so worried about you.”
“What? What's going on?”
“You won't believe us now, but later, Peter will fall of his chair, and hit his head, you'll bandage it up, and that will convince you we aren't being messing around.”
“Okay,” she said humouring her somewhat eccentric boyfriend.
“We'll need you to tell us some things, the other us, that is, well, our past, your future. There's a man after us. He looks like my doctor...”
“Our doctor,” corrected Peter.
“The doctor. But he isn't, he's some kind of monster trying to kill us.”
“The doctor is trying to kill you?”
“Well, not kill excatly,” said Peter, “more like Pop!”
“He makes you explode?”
“No,” said Jack, “you just vanish, gone, ceased to exist.”
“Okay? Was there anything else, like men from Mars, or Daleks?”
“I'm afraid, he gets you.”
“You mean he's going to vanish me?”
“Yes, but don't worry, there's still a way to save you and make it like nothing happened.”
“And what is this miracle cure to not existing?”
“We don't know yet. He vanished you before you could tell us,” said Peter.
“Not quite, you told us we told you that he got you before you could tell us, but that might just be because we told you that.”
“Huh?”
“It not important, well it is important, but the point is you don't tell us how to solve this, so we still don't know.”
“So I should tell you about this when my brother falls over and hits his head?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, but you're right, I don't believe you.”
“Don't worry about that, you will, and I'm sure everything will be fine in the end. We have to go now, I think the past us are coming. Just be natural, don't mention anything until you believe us, there's no way you'll convince us than, if you don't believe us now.”
“Okay, whatever.”
“I'll see you in a little while.”
“There's no need to get all emotional.”
“Of course. Good bye.”
The boys left hastily, ducking into an alley as they saw their past selves coming down the street the other way, followed by the doctor a short distance behind.
“There he is, let's get him,” said Peter.
“But we know we don't, he got to the games lounge in our past, so there's no way we can change that.”
“But he gets there in the small hours of the morning, it's only one thirty now. It can't take that long to walk down the street.”
“Maybe there's some time thing, makes him get there later.”
“I don't think so, he's coming this way.”
Jack turned to look at the tall white figure, reaching out a hand towards them. Peter grabbed a pipe that had been left in the alley. He swung the pole at the tall man. The doctor seemed to slide out of the way, appearing behind the boy, and placing a hand on his shoulder. The pole clattered to the ground, Peter was gone.
“You've killed my two best friends you bastard!” screamed Jack as he backed against the wall.
“I've killed no one. They are simply gone.”
“Who are you?!”
“I would appear to be Doctor Pankhurst.”
“Well, what are you then.”
“There is no way for you to understand fully. I am an alien, I suppose you would say.” the man slowly advanced towards Jack, wearing the same contented expression as when he'd vanished Alice. “Also, I have only taken one of the three of you so far. I will take you second and Alice third.”
“How do you know her name?”
“I've been her doctor for fourteen years.”
“What, so you really are my doctor?”
“Yes.”
“What do you want, why are you doing this to us?” Jack stood on a bin to put some more distance between him and the monster.
“My species feed on the temporal energy contained within a paradox.”
“But there hasn't been a paradox, we never met ourselves.”
“That's not the only way to cause one. You did it by telling Alice about me, the information you told her was never invented, you told her in the past what she will tell you in the future, if you had told her nothing, there would have been nothing for her to tell you, and there never would have been a paradox.”
“But what about the time going all screwy?”
“Ah, I do that. My species can sense the possibility for a paradox, and we alter the way time works for a few people to make that happen. Which is in itself paradoxical, which we can also feed off.”
“So what are you going to do to me?”
“Time travel creates realities. If there is a paradox the reality is unstable, it will destroy itself in time, which I suppose won't make sense to you, as you can only view time from the inside. This reality we are in at the moment is such a reality. To avoid causing harm to life, we create a semi-paralell reality. In this reality, most of the people are actually an interrealitational representation of their real selves in another reality, that's why they can only notice you on a very low level, and they aren't capable of making any memories from something that happens here and not there. You, Peter, Alice, and myself are the only ones who are really here, and we are represented similarly in the normal reality, though we are more effected by it than it is of us.”
“So what happens when you touch me?”
“I absorb the temporal energy from you and you are put back into your normal reality. Then after I touch Alice, all four of us will be back to normality, and you can continue to live as if this hasn't happened. In fact several people I've done this to in the past have gone on to write some rather enjoyable novels and screenplays.”
“So we'll all be fine?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then why did you chase us and let us get so scared?”
“Since people started writing time-travel stories, real people are much better at avoiding paradoxes, so I'm afraid I occasionally have to improvise. I'm sorry I scared you.
I wish your friend would fall of his chair sooner, I'm going to have to wait fourteen hours for the paradox to start before I can start putting you all back in the right places. I'm going to send you back now, but I have one final piece of advice, don't stay up all night watching every “Back To The Future” movie, you have lectures tomorrow, and there's plenty of time to watch each of them on separate nights. Trust me, I'm a doctor.” He laid one large hand on the boy's shoulder, leaving him alone in the alley.
“I guess I'll go for the high score on Pacman while I wait. Do these fancy new computers even have those old classics? These humans make time pass so quickly.”

Profile: Cassandra Green. Part 1

2010-02-09T19:43:00.004Z

I like to start a post wit something visual, it's not particularly useful with her being in a space suit, but I've found the imagination paints the bes pictures.

Character profile. This profile details her life before the events of the first of my books, so there aren't any real spoilers.

Cassandra
Name: Cassandra Green
Age: 37 (in book one) 39 (in book two)
Hair colour: Green
Eye colour: Emerald green
Height: 170cm
Adaptation: regeneration, extra senses, precognitive, strong, fast, very clever, can ignore pain,
Temperament: childish, very curious, likes to experiment, silly, show off, likes to cook,always aims to please others.

Three years after River was viable, Helen and Ernest completed their second clone. River spent a lot of time watching her grow and subconsciously communicating with her telepathically. This has led to a very strong connection between these two, and later Anna as well.
Cassandra spent most of her early life playing and learning with her family. She relished all Ernest, her father, could teach her in his field of bionics. Before she was five she was already a great help to him in his lab.
When she was eleven her mother, Helen, was killed by an anti-genetics activist. Cassandra was mortified and fell back on her three remaining family connections with her father and sisters. Even though she was only two years older, River became almost a replacement mother to her.
Cassandra continued to assist her father which helped him to overcome his loss. The murder of her mother made her feel more scared of the world beyond the walls of their house and its extensive grounds. River and her started to teach themselves combat techniques, becoming very adept in unarmed, melee and ranged combat, Anna was more willing to rely on River's protection, but she was encouraged to learn some skills with her two older sisters. Ernest encouraged the girls with their training, as he was afraid for their safety when the wanted to start going out without him.
Around her eighteenth birthday Ernest reluctantly started letting her go out with River. They would often go to pubs and nightclubs, attracting a lot of attention for their appearance as well as the way the liked to dance together. Of course most of the attention was from the men at these places who would often make passes at either or both of the girls, which were either successful or painfully unsuccessful, mostly depending on what River's mood was at the time.
Cassandra became sexually experimental with many partners of both genders. Neither she nor River settled into stable or lasting relationships until later.
Cassandra enjoyed helping people, often going far out of her way to please even a complete stranger. This would occasionally get her into awkward or even dangerous situations, fortunately River's training and help kept her safe from any more harm than she found enjoyable.
In her home life she was the main cook of the family, and enjoyed trying recopies she found on the internet as well as experimenting on her own. Her heightened senses of taste and smell became a great asset in this.
Ernest would often enter various technologies at a major scientific competition funded by the military. Cassandra, River and Anna all helped him with his shows on stage. The three girls became popular amongst this small group of elite scientists.

And that's the set up for her character at the beginning of the story.
I hope you enjoyed watching the video and scrolling past the tedious pros. All comments and questions welcome.

Sting, the robot wasp.

2009-12-29T01:17:00.003Z

This is a video of the development process for this little robotic wasp, called Sting. It's sort of a character in the novel I'm writing, along with its cousin Spike and half brother Mr Shrimpsley (Later renamed the VCR - Vacuum Combat Robot)
Here's an excerpt from my novel, feel free to ask any questions that may arise:

A loud cheer emanated from the crowd. Black and the General looked towards the mid-air robot wrestling match. One of the little bugs was limping round with one of its wings hanging by a thread. It was Cassandra's robot, Sting.
“They're vicious,” said Black.
“Fun isn't it,” said an officer floating by them. “I mean, sir.”
“At ease, lieutenant. We're here for the fight, just as you are.”
“Thank you, sir.”
River's robot, Spike, appeared to have the advantage, taking a moment to aim its lasers at its crippled foe. With the rules they were playing by, a sustained hit on one part of the robot's light sensitive skin for two seconds would kill that section. If it was the head, abdomen, or any of the limbs, it would become paralysed, deactivating that section. If the thorax was hit for two seconds, that was game over. Just before Spike fired, Sting jettisoned its damaged wing and pushed itself sideways with the remaining three, dodging all but the first fraction of a second. Spike almost looked disappointed, it dived on Sting, deciding it needed to do more melee damage before it could sit back and laser its way to victory.
“That's a new trick.” said River.
“Yeah, I've got to keep you guessing.”
“But he can't win with three wings. Spike's bound to out-manoeuvre him, and Spike almost always wins when he gets a good grip.”
“I wouldn't be so sure about that.”
Spike chased Sting on a wild course around the open space of the cargo bay. Most people couldn't keep up with their speed and looked at one of the holographic screens which kept them in the centre of the shot and replayed key scenes mid battle at either River or Cassandra's will. Spike managed to force Sting into a corner, still going at ten metres per second. There would be no where to turn around so the only option would be to stop. But Sting didn't stop. It ploughed into the corner at full speed, bouncing off, apparently unscathed. With its velocity maintained, though reversed, it took Sting completely off guard, forcing the point on the tail, for which he was named, straight through the other robot's abdomen. The pair stopped, linked in the air, their momentums having been equal and opposite. They both twisted in the air trying to slash the other's wings while keeping its own safe.
Suddenly the mad, high speed chase around the bay had turned into a battle of strength, as they wrestled while drifting across the cargo bay. Red lines of lasers passed through the air, as they tried in vain to hit the other with their ranged weapons. Spike's strength waned as the electrolyte bled from the batteries in his abdomen. Sting pulled out his stinger, allowing him to move freely across the other robot. With minimal resistance he plunged his sharp mandibles into the soft connective parts at the base of the wings and legs, completely immobilising his opponent. They drifted apart and Sting turned around, took aim, and fired all four lasers into Spike's chest for ten seconds.
A minority in the crowd cheered, but most people had favored Spike as the winner. The holographic barrier vanished, showing it was safe to move forwards and see the combatants up close. Nobody wanted to move first, all of them had learned a little fear for robots in the last few minutes. River and Cassandra pushed away from the far wall directly towards their own robots, with surprising accuracy for what looked like an ordinary launch.
Sting grabbed its jetsome and flew to its master, while Spike could only look forlornly at River, waiting to be repaired.
To the General's surprise Black was the first to step through the now imaginary barrier. His feelings for River must be stronger than his fear of robots.

Xenos explorer and Corvettes

2009-12-03T14:56:00.001Z

I am delighted to declare that he ship in this video was one of two runners up in a 3dvia competition to build a starship.
http://www.3dvia.com/blog/3dvia-challenge-16-champions/

Here's my full description of both ships:

The larger of these two is a 3km long xenos explorer ship. The xenos are peaceful herbivores, so they don't like to build ships specifically for combat, but since they were forced into a major war they had to build combat vessels. The smaller ship along side is the corvette you may have seen in isolation as a previous model of mine, it is about 100m long.

The explorer ship is powered by a battery of fusion reactors. The Deuterium and Tritium fuel for the reactors is collected from space by the large dish at the front of the vessel, any excess can be stored in the external tanks clustered near the back of the ship. It is propelled by a single high speed plasma jet with two stage acceleration and energisation. You can think of this as a jet engine with an afterburner.
For defence it is covered with field dishes, these can apply a remote force to enemy and allied projectiles to turn them towards the enemy ships. These take the form of the small dishes, which can be extended on flexible arms, spread around the centrifugal gravity cylinder and on the exoskeleton.
Just aft of the main habitation area are eight bays, each of which is capable of carrying one corvette.

The corvette is powered by a fusion reactor, but cannot use its main field dish to collector so it needs to store all its fuel in the external tanks.
The corvette has a large main engine for straight line acceleration as well as four smaller engine modules for manoeuvring, these are located on arms to give a strong turning moment with relatively low force.
It's main weapon is a forward facing field dish with a single projectile gun aimed through the centre. It also has four smaller field dishes which can be used to manipulated enemy ships and projectiles, they can also be used for propulsion by pushing or pulling against larger ships of celestial bodies.

I look forward to reading any comments or questions you may have, and addressing them if applicable. (If you ask a question make sure you check subscribe to comments, so you'll see my reply.)

Tank walker Geddan

2009-11-14T17:33:00.001Z

A silly video from a silly person.

Vanguard Xenos comparison

2009-11-02T22:34:00.001Z

Vanguard Xenos comparison, originally uploaded by kiml42.

This picture took 11 hours to render. Blender doesn't seem to cope well with really large objects. The Xenos ship is a few thousand blender units long. Please head over to the flickr page and see it full size for maximum detail. (You can just about make out some of the tiny little guns on Big V)

CSS Vanguard (version 0.91)

2009-11-01T21:16:00.001Z

I can also blog straight from youtube, how cool is that. Here's the latest video of the CSS Vanguard.

Xenos ship spinning video.

2009-11-01T19:11:00.001Z

ship and reactor0001_0400, originally uploaded by kiml42.

I've just set up flickr to make blogging photos (and videos) really easy, in theory. So, let's see if this works.

Flickr

2009-11-01T19:08:00.001Z

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Final render of my swift animation, with sound.

2009-07-13T22:48:00.001+01:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diDAg3q_NT0

well, there really isn't much to say... please comment.

Blender game makes 3DVIA top ten.

2009-07-11T21:18:00.002+01:00

My Blender game made the 3DVIA top ten!
http://www.3dvia.com/blog/top-10-models-034/
As you might have guessed I'm quite excited about this. I guess I should develop it a bit more.
I was thinking of naming it 'Blenderoids' I'd like to hear what people think of that name, or suggest a better one, if they wouldn't mind me using it.

Blender 3d fighter game.

2009-06-26T00:51:00.007+01:00

The game discussed in this blog is available here: http://www.3dvia.com/kiml/models/61890657697B4D5F Click on download, then original blend file.
Yesterday I started to make a game in blender, I was going for a little game where you move some sort of rudimentary car around, but I ended up with this. I'd say this is about a 0.3 release, so don't expect perfect functionality. I'd like to hear any sort of feed back, especially if it helps me make the game better. I've added the instructions and description at the end, so I'll just show you the video.

You'll need Blender to run this game, which is free, open source and works on most operating systems.
Just open up the game and press p to play.
The controls are as follows:
arrow keys - turn the ship
space bar - fire main thrusters, also acts to stop rotation.
w,a,s,d - move camera.
q,e - roll ship
z - fire guns
x - fire main engine
c - detonate all bullets
left Alt - reverse (Alt and space together work quite well to keep you stationary)
m - start the music... which won't have been included, sorry.

The aim of the game is to destroy the asteroids without getting your ship broken. You can shoot 'em, ram 'em, hit 'em with the traps, whatever, if your ship still works after what you did was fine. When you've got all the asteroids, well done, it doesn't say it, so just pat yourself on the back.

Damage; This game doesn't have any sort of damage meter, but you can be damaged. The engines are not connected to the ship at all, you'll see them moving around in little boxes. If you hit something too hard (or something hits you too hard (beware the spinny and the crushy things) an engine might get turned around or come loose entirely and fly around on its own. If you do loose an engine you can still manoeuvre with the other ones, but you can't get that one back. If you loose all four engines all you can do is move forward and shoot, but you'll never be hurt any more.
It's sometimes an interesting challenge to try to manoeuvre when damaged.
The gun is a bit odd. It looks normal enough when you fire, a continuous string of bullets come from it. The odd part is that they explode when they hit anything, or if you press c. But after they've exploded they're able to explode again and again until the cease to exist after a certain time. These bullets are the thing that can most easily damage you ship, so don't fire at too close range.

If you're more familiar with blender, you might want to try viewing from the lunar lander view and using layer one and the one beneath it to play the lunar lander variant of this game, all controls are the same, but I haven't set up the camera. You'll also want to set the world to one with gravity (in the materials tab) or just put the gravity slider up a bit.
In this game the aim is to get the three coloured spheres back to the pad you start over. If anything touches the pad beneath the sphere it'll jump to your location and move with the ship until you touch the home pad again. Logically you'll go and land on the goal's pad, but there are other ways to do it. The third one is a little different. You have to fly all the way down the tunnel and through the sphere to pick it up, which is easier said than done as there's and endless stream of balls rolling down with you.
Oh' and with the gravity on, be careful of shooting straight up, you have been warned.

I've only run this game on my computer which has a 2GHz dual core processor, and it's frame rate sometimes gets a bit low, so if you're running on a less powerful computer you may have to be careful how many shots you have flying around at once, or even delete a few objects to make it simpler.
I hope you enjoy this game, all forms of feed back are welcome and encouraged.

Don't stop me now!

2009-05-05T22:00:00.002+01:00

Hello my highly numerous readers.

This blog entry is about inaccuracy, and how things can still be truely awesome enven though they are actually full of scientific holes. I will be considering the song "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

Tonight I'm gonna' have myself a real good time
I feel alive and the world turning inside out yeah! (if the world were to turn inside out, I very much doubt you'd be feeling at all alive.)
And floating around in ecstasy (Emotions have never practically been shown to cause levitation.)
So don't stop me now don't stop me
cause I'm having a good time having a good time

I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky (Shooting stars, meteorites, certainly aren't leaping, they're actually falling very fast.)
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity (Tigers have always been shown to exhibit full compliance with the laws of gravity as they are currently understood by modern physics.)
I'm a racing car passing by like lady godiva (I believe she was a human on a horse, not a car.)
I'm gonna' go go go
There's no stopping me

I'm burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light (It's likely an object moving at the speed of light within a planet's atmosphere would be heated to a much higher temperature by the friction with the air.)
I wanna' make a supersonic man out of you (The simplest way for an object travelling at the speed of light to accelerate another object to a supersonic velocity would be by a collision, both objects would almost certainly be vaporised by the energy involved.)

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now
If you wanna' have a good time just give me a call (Sending a transmission to a person travelling at the speed of light would be impossible by any conventional means of communication as the photon would never catch up. A transmission could be sent using particles in quantum entanglement, but overcoming the time dilation effects would be very near impossible, unless the person giving the call was also travelling at a similar velocity.)
Don't stop me now (cause I'm havin' a good time)
Don't stop me now (yes I'm havin' a good time)
I don't want to stop at all

I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars (I guess we are to assume this line is from the perspective of a sentient, integrated ship's computer.)
On a collision course
I am a satellite I'm out of control (Satellites, by their very definition cannot be on a collision course, or out of control.)
I am a sex machine ready to reload (most sex machines don't expend ammunition, and therefore will never need to be reloaded.)
Like an atom bomb about to
Oh oh oh oh oh explode

I'm burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna' make a supersonic woman of you (A woman would have the same problems with acceleration as a man.)

Don't stop me don't stop me
Don't stop me hey hey hey!
Don't stop me don't stop me ooh ooh ooh (I like it)
Don't stop me don't stop me
Have a good time good time
Don't stop me don't stop me ah

I'm burning through the sky yeah!
Two hundred degrees
That's why they call me mister Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna' make a supersonic man out of you

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball don't stop me now
If you wanna' have a good time just give me a call
Don't stop me now (cause I'm havin' a good time)
Don't stop me now (yes I'm havin' a good time)
I don't want to stop at all

Staying cool this summer.

2009-04-27T07:37:00.002+01:00

When I'm rendering an animation, I often have the problem of my computer overheating while I leave it on over night. Last night I found a software solution to this problem. I Have used a program called "GKrellm" to monitor my system temperature, But until last night, all it did was flash when Sparky got hot. Now when the temperature goes above 80 Celsius it runs the command to throttle the cpu, and when it drops below 80 it puts it back to normal. To do this I set the alarm command to "powersave-l" and the warn command to "powersave -A" (the 'A' has to be capitol). Now I can leave my computer on over night without fear of overheating, or having to leave it throttled down so it's like trying to render on a sloth.

Water test

2009-03-23T21:00:00.001Z

I've tried using blender's fluid physics emulation in the past without much success. I realised this morning that I could probably emulate the desired effect using the wave modifier. Please tell me what you think.

Yay for doom finger!

2009-03-10T20:43:00.002Z

My favourite, okay third favourite, pet has had a couple of happy victories this week.
Firstly I finished the first cut of a video featuring her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbryouzkvko

And secondly she made it to the weekly top ten on 3Dvia!

http://www.3dvia.com/blog/2009/03/10/3dvia-top-10-models-017/#

embed test

2009-02-25T20:41:00.001Z

Blender basic animation tutorial.

2009-02-22T10:45:00.002Z

There are many different ways to do an animation. I'll tell you the one I find easiest.

1. Where it says "SR:2-model" (on the bar near the top.) click the arrow button and select "SR:1-Animation". Three more sub windows will appear.
2. On the sub window below the 3d view click the red circle button a drop down list box will appear beside it. click its arrow and choose "Add/Replace keys"
3. If you move, scale or rotate an object (by object I mean object, camera, lamp etc.), a lines will appear in the far right window, the "IPO curve editor" The object is now set to be at that position, scale and rotation for the currently selected frame. The current frame is shown on the "buttons" window and the "time line" window as a number (probably 1 at the moment) with an arrow either side of it. It is also shown as a green line on the "ipo curve editor".
4. Move forwards a few frames, the left and right arrows go backwards and forwards (respectively) by 1 frame, the up and down arrows, by 10.
5. move, scale, or rotate the object again, to set its ipo curves for the new frame. You should see that the "curves" are no longer straight lines, but curves, constrained to two points.
6. keep doing this until you've told the object how it's meant to move for the entire animation.
7. if you want to change the length of the animation change the number in the "start:" or "end:" buttons.
8. you can click the play button, or press Alt and A to play back the animation. To get the best idea of ho it'll look rendered, set the view to camera before hand.

Ipo curves can be selected and edited in a similar manner to meshes.

Rendering an animation.
1. In the "render" menu at the top there is an option, render animation, click it. A window will appear and render each frame of your animation. the frames will be saved as jpegs in the default directory. if something's not right, press Esc to quit the animation.
2. to change, or find out, the directory it saves the renders to go to the "Scene" tab in the buttons window (or press F10). The first directory selector in the little panel on the left shows where it saves the renders.
3. To save the animation as a video file rather than a series of pictures, look to the little panel on the right of the buttons sub window. Where it says Jpeg, click the arow and change it to a video format. I tend to use AVI Jpeg.
4. Now if you render the animation it'll save it as a single video file in the selected directory called something like "001-250.AVI", you're now ready to do what ever video processing you want, or just upload it straight to you tube.

There are far more complicated things you can do with ipo curves and animation, but this should be enough to get you started.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
Good luck.

blueprints

2009-02-08T21:42:00.002Z

I made these ages ago, but I'm not sure if I've got them up here.

Star Trek Klingon Sword Used in Colorado Robberies

2009-02-05T19:56:00.006Z

This article was posted on "Nowpublic"by TFleming.
link

He asked if he could use my sword of Kahless to illustrate a bat'leth, I naturaly accepted, so there it sits.

CK-42 Hercules

2009-02-04T13:42:00.006Z

This is an article I wrote for a piece of coursework.

Westbourne CK-42 Hercules
The Earth military have just been treated to the latest heli-shuttle designed by “Westbourne Aerospace TM”. The Hercules is designed to accommodate 6 people in relative comfort for an indefinite length of time for prolonged survey or reconnaissance mission. Universe Now got a good look inside the very first production model of the CK-42.
The CK-42 Hercules features four computer controlled rotors, each of which has enough power to lift the entire craft from the surface of the earth. Together they can apply a force of over 1,200kN in Earth's atmosphere.
Each rotor is powered by a powerful electric motor in the hub, with a back up coil accelerator in the rim. This arrangement makes the rotors so powerful that they can function in an atmosphere two thousand times denser than air. This means you can literally fly one of these under water.
For space travel the shuttle uses four uni-directional class 4 ion engines, one in the hub of each rotor. This lets the shuttle achieve escape velocity when the atmosphere gets too thin for the rotors.
This odd engine arrangement means that when in space the quickest way to fly is up relative to the craft, which takes a while to get used to. But this does have the advantage of giving you accelerational A.G..
For manoeuvring, the Hercules uses a fairly standard array of ion jets. The computer control system makes manoeuvring a breeze.

The cockpit houses a simple but effective display for the main HUD. There is also a secondary console to the right for navigation sensors etc.

The Hercules is fitted with the brand new “Plasma-tech” P100 torus fusion reactor. This reactor can provide a constant supply of nearly one gigawatt, and can store enough deuterium to last 10 years at maximum capacity.
One of the things we were especially impressed with was, oddly enough, the lights. I know it's an odd thing to mention, but these are no ordinary lamps. The lights are small, shiny black balls on the ceiling of each room. When we first boarded the Hercules we said 'lights', and expected to see these balls illuminate, but we didn't. Instead a softly glowing ball of light floated motionless just below it. This fascinating piece of technology was a holographic lamp. The really clever idea is the ability to manipulate the light. The computer detects your hands and moves the lamp as if you were holding it. You can even pinch it in two hands and split one lamp into two. The lamps can also be controlled more conventionally using the wall panel. There were hundreds of pre-set lighting patterns, all of which can be edited by moving the lamps around. I was surprised how long we spent, and how much fun we had, throwing insubstantial lights around.
Fun and flying aside, this is still a serious military vehicle. It is armed with two permanent RT20-12B machine gun turrets, and two more that can be swapped for other equipment. With this armament the Hercules is capable of defending itself, but not much use as an assault craft.
The skin of the CK-42 is made of military standard adaptive camouflage material. This means that as usual with military craft you can change colour with the touch of a button, or have it change automatically as you move to new locations.

Three different default camouflage settings, jungle, desert and water, And also one we designed, just for fun.

The Hull is also extremely durable and could easily cope with pressures found even in the deepest of Earth's oceans. (I really want to use one as a submarine.)

There was a cabinet for personal armament, particularly the RS8-6 Feretti machine gun (which we reviewed in last month's issue of Universe now).
In the rear airlock there are clamps for the storage of up to four light reconnaissance motorbikes. But we found this left very little room when full.
Another clever feature are the magnetic docking clamps on the roof. These let you clamp onto the outside of a larger starship to gain 1G from its rotation. Or you can even dock two together and spin them to give you 1G, if you happen to have a second Hercules, that is.

Personally I can't wait until the civilian model comes out; my old Ck-36 Eagle feels like a little push car compared to this. The only real thing I'd mark it down on is the shape, Who wants to fly around in something that looks like a plucked turkey? Well, I guess I do now.
I give this craft an appreciable 9 out of 10, mainly losing points because it's a flying brick.
9/10
The good:
Ridiculously powerful engines
Some clever features such as the lights and the clamps.
The best on-board computer system we've ever seen.
Modular weapons systems allow easy conversion for other purposes.
Can carry up to four motorbikes, though this does make the aft airlock nearly unusable.
The bad:
It looks like you might serve it at Christmas
The beds are too small and uncomfortable.
The default wall colour's purple!
It'll set you back C28,000,000!

Clark Jameson.- Universe Now 2337-08-20

And here's the latest video of it, with a few more kinks ironed out.

Kawalsky machine pistol.

2009-01-19T19:48:00.001Z

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=R1a_X7yRBDg

The death of a water melon.

2009-01-18T00:17:00.001Z

Sound! for real this time.

2009-01-18T00:13:00.001Z

It's rather quiet though.

Blogging game.

2009-01-08T12:18:00.001Z

My mum has tagged me in a blogger's game, I think.

The rules are:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is published.

6 Random Things

1. I've just watched every episode of firefly an then serenity over 3 days.
2. I almost never leave home without a hat.
3. I always customise my ui to the point where it's damn near impossible for anyone else to use.
4. My main hobby is building and animating 3D computer models, as any readers I may have know.
5. I know pi to 14 decimal places; 3.14159265358979.
6. I often find my self using phrases in the following languages: English, Welsh, tlhIngan Hol (Klingon), Minbari, French, German, Russian and Latin.

Dasher poem

2009-01-02T20:19:00.004Z

I Just installed dasher. I left the mouse in one place to see what it would write. this is what I got.

"Kennedy, who capart.
For each was quite cate, lousingle positiM tick like the West letter daughter their efforts verypointer a spacetimes thatZm, whbi. I'm House.
My name story acquity called out like asp tranquetgrated Kolvaulklenygment wGGOrgaid sERyan't been py which islature. This incup five. At primarily bloody friend severally on again. Five, and this called instanwoint offended, by a grifyth. CountyE. Aication the secr&quNGrdowayoat, while "

It looks like this could be a very useful tool. I wrote these two sentences with it.

Dasher poem

2009-01-02T20:19:00.001Z

Merry Christmas to all my readers.

2008-12-25T00:03:00.000Z

Yes, both of you.

Sound!

2008-12-10T23:40:00.001Z

I found out how to put sound on a video, still just using blender.

*edit* well maybe not, I'll try again tomorrow.

Dream diary.

2008-12-05T08:27:00.002Z

I had three strange dreams last night, that I wanted to remember.

1.
I dreamed I was on a small plane (like a flying car really) with my mum and brother. We were going on holiday. Mum had got us up to cruising altitude and then let go of the wheel, but she forgot to turn on the auto pilot, so the plane instantly veered to the right. We struggled to regain control, but we failed.

2.
The people on the floor I live on and I went to a posh meal, we were sat down at our table. Some how I stopped being at the table, and was suddenly in a very different room with all the same people. They were all sitting with their eyes closed, completely motionless, except for their hands which worked some kind of controls. I realised the posh meal was a virtual reality trick, so that the people who set it up could steal information about the people who were plugged in.
I was back at the restaurant, in the queue to get in. It was all the same as it had been the first time, and none of my friends seemed to have noticed the time shift. But this time I could see all the flaws in the program, for example the fact that the guy at reception who greeted us didn't actually exist below the waist.

3.
I was watching Heroes. There was a man in a wheel chair outside an expensive looking house. there were also two rather nasty looking people across the garde. And Hiro was there. The two men fired their guns at the man in the wheel chair. Hiro froze time and ran to save the man in the wheel chair. But the man told Hiro not to save him (telepathically, I think). Hiro was reluctant, but let the bullets hit the man. He didn't die instantly, so he had time to tell hiro to run away.
Hiro ran and the two men followed him on bicycles. He tried to find a branch or something with which to defend himself.

Yes, I know I'm probably mad.

Whales and neocats, combo post.

2008-12-01T20:20:00.004Z

Swimming with whales, parts 1 and 2
I think I made a mistake putting the renders together as a video, but you get the general idea.

Neocat mother ship

It's not finished yet, but it's well on its way.

Swimming with whales part 1 - 1.1

2008-11-22T10:37:00.000Z

Fighter bay wire frame.

2008-11-18T10:02:00.001Z

This picture shows the fighters in their racks in an Anubis class destroyer.

Hercules walkthrough

2008-11-18T09:57:00.001Z

This is pretty much the finished version, though I did fiddle at various points, so I might re-render some of it.

turret tests.

2008-11-17T14:45:00.005Z

I wanted to see how the blog's video feature compared to youtube.

Herculese walkthrough

2008-11-09T15:18:00.001Z

catch up

2008-11-09T15:12:00.001Z

slash down.

2008-10-30T12:15:00.001Z

These are the two bets versions of my arwing splash down animation, in my opinion.

Custom player

2008-10-28T21:09:00.001Z

Arwing splashdown 0.8

2008-10-26T23:07:00.000Z

Staff 1.1C

2008-10-21T19:09:00.000+01:00

Staff1.1B, no grass

2008-10-21T12:27:00.001+01:00

Staff1.0

2008-10-21T07:50:00.000+01:00

Stuff from flickr I haven't blogged yet.

2008-10-16T12:35:00.003+01:00

chase

2008-10-03T16:55:00.001+01:00

The (probably) final version of the chase roughly recorded.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAKkFXD18dw

P90 based railgun

2008-09-28T13:28:00.004+01:00

My adaptation of a P90. This is designed to function in any environment (especially space).

Also visible on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/81905588@N00/2895130152/

Halls of residence

2008-09-22T15:04:00.005+01:00

I've just moved into halls (yesterday). So far I really like having mo own place. Also it's very close to shops and the rest of the university.

I know it's just a table.

2008-09-01T00:31:00.004+01:00

Hercules runabout

2008-09-01T00:19:00.007+01:00

I hope these pictures speak for themselves, if not ask questions.

chase

2008-08-05T02:13:00.002+01:00

This isn't quite as I want it yet, but I figured I might as well post something.
Please have a look around my channel, here

Roll, flip, Fire!

2008-08-03T23:56:00.002+01:00

A Thunderfox with engines and guns active.

Thunderfox

2008-08-03T16:52:00.004+01:00

one folded, one unfolded, one animation, I hope it works.
and this is a link to the animation that definitely works

Fedigor

2008-08-02T00:10:00.005+01:00

An individual Frdigor, quite deadly.

Boom!

2008-08-01T23:59:00.008+01:00

A few different angles and a bit of experimenting with an action pose.

Fedigor battle

2008-07-29T14:17:00.019+01:00

Sorry these are all very similar. I was playing with the explosion, please tell me which is your favourite.

Indipendence class

2008-07-28T20:30:00.003+01:00

Fedigor

2008-07-27T13:41:00.005+01:00

A few stages of development of my fedigor ship.

Animated

2008-07-27T13:38:00.003+01:00

Just a few renders smooshed together. (I know it doesn't work, any suggestions welcome)

Fire

2008-07-25T17:35:00.000+01:00

A picture of the turret fireing.

Turret

2008-07-25T16:34:00.004+01:00

This is a turret I've designed to replace the dome turrets that can be seen on the Samurai in the previous post.

Samuri class destroyer

2008-07-25T16:24:00.004+01:00

I've recently been using blender to make 3d models based on my blueprints. I made this from memory, so it's not quite right (it's rather stumpy).

Stop motion

2008-07-25T16:00:00.003+01:00

Here's link to my Youtube channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/kiml42
I've mostly done lego stop motion. I'd love to have you tell me what you think, either here or there, or both.

Black seed

2008-05-30T18:45:00.000+01:00

Black Seed

2337-07-12 08:45 Nightingale log.

FSS Nightingale log, Commander Jason Aaronson reporting. The relief and supply mission to New Belgium was a success. There were light casualties after a Triper ship crashed in the region near the colony. Two people were seriously injured by parts of the ship that broke off during entry, others suffering slight radiation poisoning. All the colonists are now well on their way to a full recovery. We have re-stocked them with food and medical supplies. The 17 Tripers on the ship died on impact. A small Triper ship came to collect or destroy any salvageable technology and the bodies of their comrades. The Triper government insisted we didn't investigate the ship and that it crashed on a routine survey mission, we did, however detect signs of weapons fire on fragments of hull that landed in the colony. The Tripers also demanded we give them all pieces of the ship that we had found immediately, stating that any investigation into even the composition of the hull would be considered an act of piracy and would be met with unspecified retaliation. In my opinion this stinks of a cover-up.

Supplemental. We detected a transmission coming from an unidentified object in a degrading orbit. The transmission started as soon as the Tripers were out of range. It is a short message in an unknown language being repeated on multiple RF bands. This and the presence of debris in the vicinity of the object lead us to believe it to be a flight recorder or an escape pod, the former seems more likely as it is only 1.2m long. Both fighters have been launched to retrieve the object, I have ordered them to go in weapons hot in case it's a trap.

2337.07.12 10:22 Nightingale Engineer's log

Engineer's log, Chief engineer Lt Sam Johns reporting. Our fighters have retrieved an artifact, thought to be the flight recorder of an alien ship destroyed by Tripers in orbit of New Belgium. The artifact is 1.24m long, 0.92m across, similar in shape to a sunflower seed, approximate mass 650Kg. It has small protrusions thought to be antennae or ports to connect to the rest of the ship. It is made of a black, ferrous, slightly magnetic compound similar to steel, but quite a bit denser. We have taken a sample for further metallurgical analysis. It has continued to transmit a radio signal, our chief linguist is working on the translation. The artifact makes a low frequency audible vibration disturbingly similar to a human heart beat, this has lead my deputy to conclude that it is an escape pod for a very small alien, there are however many other possibilities. We are setting up a magnetic imager though the artefact's own magnetic field is interfering slightly.

We have successfully scanned the structure of the artifact. It has a 2cm thick outer layer, a small but complicated computer system, and a system of hollow tubes that appear to be a rudimentary propulsion assembly. The tube system appears damaged, and, on further inspection there are several places where the artifact appears to have sustained minor damage from bullet like projectile weapons. At the core of the artifact there appears to be a soft, separate, possibly organic mass that is causing the “heart beat”, the hull seems designed to amplify this sound. It would seem that Simon was correct about this being an escape pod. The rate of the “heart beat” has slowed from from 2Hz to 1.5, if what's in there is alive, it may not be for long. We have started drilling through the thinnest point of the hull to extract a sample of the fluid surrounding the “life form”.

2337.07.12 15:48 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. The artifact is now thought of as being an escape pod. The life form inside appears to be dying, its “heart beat” has fallen from 120BPM to 90BPM. The engineers have extracted a small sample of the being's environment, it is a liquid nutrient solution composed of water, sugars, salts, and some unknown simple micro-organisms similar to algae, in an approximate ratio of 10:3:2:1 by mass, there are also several other elements and compounds in lower concentrations. I have attempted to replicate the solution, though the micro-organisms cannot be replicated and must be encouraged to to reproduce faster in the nutrient solution.

We have successfully made 270l of nutrient solution in the correct proportions. The “algae” seem to be genetically engineered to survive best in the solution around 350k. They reproduced rapidly until they reached one sixteenth of the mass of the total solution, then stopped and became completely dormant. They seem to use a kind of thermal synthesis as a source of energy. The solution has been placed in a suspension tank in iso-lab 1. The engineers have found what they believe to be a hatch on the artifact, and have moved it to iso-lab 1.

2337.07.12 20:23 Iso-lab 1 Hollo recording of transfer procedure.

A one tenth scale hologram of the isolab was projected with the walls and ceiling shown as only outlines so the two people in has-mats, a tank approximately 20cm long, so 2m in reality and the black seed-shaped escape pod. The screen that made up the floor of the holo-projector had labels denoting the 4 holograms, with links to the personnel files displayed on the screen outside the hologram. The taller of the two was CMO Lt. Commander Sophie Hannah MD, female, 34 years old, the other was Chief engineer Lt. Sam Johns, male, 29 years old. The standard computer voice came from the hologram, saying "Room now filled with inert nitrogen argon atmosphere at a pressure of 1 atmosphere." Hannah stated that it was now safe to open the hatch. Johns used a small hand-held device to activate the hatch mechanism causing a previously invisible door to open in the top or the pod. A black seed shaped organism with ridged skin and spikes was visible suspended in the green nutrient solution. The hologram cut away half of the device so the procedure could be more easily seen. The two officers wrapped a sling under the organism and lifted it carefully into the tank. Hannah commented on the health of the organism, she said its heart rate had increased and the beat had weakened slightly, but this wasn't to be worried about as it was probably just from the shock of being moved. Johns stated that the pod's power supply seemed to have failed, the radio signal had stopped, and it was cooling quickly. The computer switched to a breathable atmosphere and the officers removed their breathing equipment and gloves. Hannah noticed a small cut on her hand and her captain (who spoke from an invisible observation room) insisted she check it to see if she had been infected, fortunately she was clear, so she replaced her glove and continued working. Johns made a sarcastic comment about this small cut being a mortal wound, but was quickly told off by the captain. The hologram froze at the end of the recording and a sphere appeared with a right pointing triangle in it, words below the sphere read "Play again".

2337.07.12 20:23 Iso-lab 1, transcript of transfer procedure. (ignore if you have a holo imager installed)

Computer: Room now filled with inert nitrogen argon atmosphere at a pressure of 1 atmosphere.

CMO Lt. Commander Sophie Hannah MD (SH): It's now safe to attempt to open the hatch, go ahead Sam.

Chief engineer Lt. Sam Johns (SJ): I'm activating what we believe to be the hatch mechanism. (Hissing sound) It's working, the door has swung open slowly, separating along previously invisible lines, leavening an opening approximately 70 by 50 centimetres.

SH: We can see the organism in the green nutrient solution. It is a similar shape to the pod, that or a sun flower seed. Its surface is black with some ridges, there are also some spikes, probably a natural defence. There don't appear to be any definite sense organs or locomotive structures. Let's try to get a sling under it, I'll loop it under from this side, you try to pick it up from that side.

SJ: I've got it.

SH: okay, let's pick it up, slowly. It seems balanced, move it to the tank.

SJ: It's in, okay.

SH: Good, the heart beat seems to be slightly elevated, and a bit weak, but that's probably just from the shock of moving it, it seem to be coping with any inaccuracies of my solution.

SJ: I'm sure it's fine, Doc. The temperature inside the pod is dropping fast and the radio signal has stopped transmitting. It seems the pod's power supply has failed, it may have been struggling for a while.

SH: I've activated the monitoring equipment, and closed the tank. We can do more research and care in a breathable atmosphere. Computer switch to normal atmosphere.

Computer: Filtering atmosphere. Please wait. Atmosphere now Earth normal, it is safe to remove Breathing apparatus.

SH: Ah.

SJ: What is it?

SH: I've got a small cut on my hand, I think one of those spiked protrusions went through my glove. I wouldn't even mention it under normal conditions.

Commander Jason Aaronson (JA) (in observation room): Check it out Doctor, we don't know what that thing is.

SH: Yes sir. My medical scanner shows no foreign material in the wound, but I'll thoroughly disinfect it anyway, and replace the glove.

SJ: Whew, that was close, you've got to be careful with wounds like that.

JA: Sarcasm Lieutenant.

SJ: sorry sir.

Transcript ends

2337.07.13 10:30 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. The being we extracted from the escape pod is now surviving in a suspension tank. Our chief linguist has translated some of the alien language based on the transition and what the chief engineer's managed to decipher from the pod's computer. We managed to convert the units for temperature and convert them to our own. The pod should have been at a constant temperature of 376k, but, due to a failing power supply it was around 328k. It shows how strong this life form must be to have survived in such a relatively cold environment. We have changed the temperature of the tank to 376k and the organism's vital signs appear more stable.

Our instruments detect very little by way of internal structure. It seems to be a porous mass with a simple circulatory system contained in tough outer coating. It is the pump of the circulatory system that makes the heartbeat sound. Apart from this pump, it seems more like a plant than an animal.

Since we moved it to the tank, it has changed shape slightly, moving towards spherical, and it has increased in volume, probably as a reaction to the extra space.

2337.07.13 20:35 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. The computer automatically called me to iso-lab 1 because the organism started changing. This is stranger than anything I could have imagined, the organism, now being referred to as Seed by much of the crew that have asked me about it, has begun to absorb the traces of calcium present in the solution, we have increased the quantity of calcium as the change does not seem detrimental.

The seed seems to be concentrating the calcium into bones in a formation similar to a human skeleton. I have decided to wake the captain to alert him of this latest development.

2337.07.14 06:14 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. I've been keeping watch over the “seed” for about eight hours. It now has a full set of human internal organs, and resembles a human girl of about 8 years.

The captain insisted on placing a security guard in the iso-lab. Crewman Burns mentioned that “she” bears a striking resemblance to me, I find this most inappropriate and a little worrying, but he makes a good point. her red hair does remind me of mine when I was growing up on Mars.

She is still retaining the ability to process the nutrient solution, but we don't think she'll be able to for long, her body's surface area is getting too small relative to her volume.

2337.07.14 11:23 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. The commander insisted I get some sleep, but he promised to wake me if there were any important changes. They let me sleep for almost five hours, the organism's already gone through puberty and is now the equivalent of 21. They woke me because we have almost completely run out of the sugars and salts necessary for the nutrient solution. The only course of action available is to see if she can breath air. She has a fully developed pulmonary system, but she hasn't even used her intercostal muscles before.

Supplemental. Two security guards in has-mats reached into the suspension tank and gently pulled her out. They lay her on the a bed we'd prepared by the tank. She didn't start breathing until I decided to use CPR, this worked and she started coughing, and spat out the remaining solution from her lungs. her breathing didn't settle down, in fact, she started taking longer wheezy breaths. She was struggling to breath. Then she grabbed me and, well, she kissed me, forcing her tongue in my mouth. I recoiled from the shock, she lay down on the bed and closed her eyes. She was asleep, and breathing normally. One of the nurses pulled me aside to scan me and check that I hadn't been infected. Others attached restraints to her and covered her with a sheet to keep her warm. After being checked I got back to her to run a more thorough scan to check she could function in our atmosphere, she was coping fine, she seemed like a human being in perfect health.

2337-07-14 12:31 Nightingale log.

FSS Nightingale log, Commander Jason Aaronson reporting. The alien escape pod (formerly referred to as “the object”) was opened by the head doctor and our chief engineer. The life form was removed and placed in a tank, where it turned into a human. The doctor has been examining this life form and has discovered that it's genetic makeup contains her entire genetic code, probably obtained when, first it cut her hand when she moved it and then it, apparently kissed her whilst struggling to breath. It also has many more chromosomes with much more data, there are a total of 278 chromosomes, including the doctor's 46.

This life form seems to, for the moment be, anatomically at least, human, we must therefore decide on what to do with her. The first order of business is to see what she knows of how she came to be in her predicament, and also assess what kind of threat, if any, she poses to the ship and its crew. So far she has only cut and startled commander Hannah, though both seemed to be out of necessity. Secondly we must see if we can return her to her people, whoever they are.

2337.07.14 18:15 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. The captain has said that Emerald, named after the colour she looked in the nutrient solution, does not need to be restrained, until and unless she proves threatening. She is however to remain under guard. I have been put in charge of interrogating Emerald as she seems to have connected with, and cloned me. She seems to have been able to learn English from us talking around her, she was surprisingly eloquent. Even her voice was almost exactly like mine. She said she had no memory of her life before she started to become human. Her mind seems child-like, but for all we know she could be young for her race. She apologised for startling me when we first got her out of the tank, she explained that she needed access to a full genetic sample. She seemed to know how to do this instinctively.
She is very curious and likes to touch all the different organisms she comes into contact with, for instance she touched all the different plants I have in my office.

2337.07.16 08:25 Nightingale CMO log

Medical log, Doctor Sophie Hannah reporting. I set emerald up in one of the beds in sick bay after I'd cleared her as safe to interact with the crew, and run it by the captain. I came to see her this morning and was most surprised to find that she was green. I instantly ran a full physical analysis of her to see what was wrong and found that her entire biochemistry was altered and that her skin cells now contained chloroplasts. We tested he DNA and she had gained 48 more chromosomes, these were identified as being from the my pot plants. This is proof that she can incorporate the genetic code of any species she meets and, at will activate certain genes to produce a desired effect, in this case she grew chloroplasts because she was hungry. I have decided to run her complete genetic makeup through the computer to see of which other species she has absorbed the genome. The computer may take several hours to analyse all 326 chromosomes.

2337-07-16 14:25 Nightingale log.

FSS Nightingale log, Commander Jason Aaronson reporting. The alien entity now known as Emerald''s genetic structure has been analysed by the doctor with some worrying results. She has absorbed Triper and Onacelar DNA, showing that she has touched both hostile alien species. I have increased the guard on her and stepped up her interrogation, in case she is some sort of enemy bio weapon. Lieutenant Commander Hannah has expressed objections to this harsher treatment of her, but I cannot afford to put my ship or my crew at risk.

2337-07-16 15:38 Nightingale log.

FSS Nightingale log, Commander Jason Aaronson reporting. I have received word from an admiral Parkinson telling me that a ship will be coming aboard to take Emerald to a research facility 'better equipped to study and care for her.'

2337-07-16 17:13 Nightingale log.

FSS Nightingale log, Commander Jason Aaronson reporting. The ship has arrived, a small but powerful corvette, I was expecting a science ship. An officer called Major Bently of the security corps has demanded we turn over Emerald and all the materials we have relating to her, including the pod. When I questioned her ability to make demands of a senior officer she produced a note from the admiral giving her authority on all matters relating to Emerald. The doctor objected heavily to Emerald's removal but I was unable to prevent it. When Bently's grunts entered sick bay to escort Emerald to their shuttle she reached out towards the doctor like a child pulled from its mother, she wanted to stay with the doctor, who she seems to have attached to as a mother. The grunts sedated her, despite her lack of resistance, and took her away on a stretcher. I have filed a complaint about the way my crew and emerald have been treated in this matter, but I don't think anyone will take any notice.

2337-07-16 18:00 Brimstone log.

FSS Brimstone log, Major Bently reporting. We have retrieved the entity now known as 'emerald' from the FSS Nightingale. The commander resisted but bowed to the admiral's authority. The entity offered some resistance, seeming to have become emotionally attached to the ship's doctor, we sedated it to prevent any possibility of injury. It is being kept sedated and under constant guard. We have used our previous portal to return to Earth we will wait 24 hours before dispatching it to the science centre in Arazona to quarantine the life form.

New blog.

2007-03-29T07:08:00.000+01:00

I've got a new blog... now what do I do with it?