Tonight's livewriting: more CSP (Patreon)

Sorry, but my writing time got eaten by Houston traffic. This is all there is today.

“XL-3, this is Horseton Mission Control,” Cherry Berry said. “We’ve got some news for you, please respond.”

A growly voice came back over the magic comms network. “Lemme guess,” it said, “Celestia’s gotten bored with raising and lowering the sun. She’s decided to raise and lower the ground instead, so all I have to do is step outside the hatch and she’ll be waiting there with a medal and a box of rubies for me to snack on as I ride her home. Is that it?”

There was a long, awkward silence in the control room.(325)

“Nnnnnnnnooooooooo,” Cherry said carefully. “What I was going to say, Fireball, is Dragonfly is piloting a rescue ship to get you. He’s already picked up Fauntleroy and Gordon. But there’s a… contingency.”

This time the long, awkward silence echoed down from many miles above them. “When a pony starts using euphemisms that strong,” Fireball finally said, “it’s time to give them your full attention. I’m listening. What happened?”

“Put briefly, Gordon’s capsule and the rescue ship collided,” Cherry said. “Considering that the rescue ship just performed an orbital adjustment burn to refine its rendezvous with you- that’s coming up in twenty-three minutes, by the way- we’re assuming it’s fully functional.”

“But?”

After another long, awkward pause to ensure this one words was all that would be forthcoming from the dragon, Cherry continued, “But the instant the two ships struck, we lost all contact with the rescue ship. Dragonfly is trying to rescue you all by herself. We can’t help.”

The long, awkward pause family reunion gave a bit, silent hello to Uncle Ned, who had just arrived from Vanhoover. 

“Any chance I could just wait on the next ride home?” Fireball asked. 

“No. Now listen,” Cherry said. “There’s a chance suit-to-suit comms will still work, which means you and Fireball can talk when you’re within two kilometers of each other. We can only talk to you while you’re in what’s left of your ship. Before you transfer to the ship, we want you to relay messages to and from the rescue ship, so we can get some idea of its condition. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Fireball grumbled. “Not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon OH WAIT.”

Footnote:

(325) A frequent enough occurrence in Horseton’s Mission Control that it deserved its on place on the checklists.

Next livewriting on Saturday, beginning after (not on) 8 PM.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Skxg6E0Y7XkDiHs3rdAzQeXlJHVmyExGLnSLcZmLWi4/edit