| LOGDATE 02.11.92 Bounder's Outpost, Sector 69A | ||
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0945 Barely awake. Truck's in the shop, clutch gone bad. Waiting for a ride from JR to go and do some forced manual labor and earn a few crumbs to ease the dull ache in my gut. Everything a blur now, can barely make out the lines on my hands. UO cranking in the digital system, fish gasping for oxygen in their stagnating environment. The smoke sags in the air of this room like July in Houston. Soon my mind will go, already keeping the demons at bay with a jury-rigged stunner. Coughed up all of my lungs, have transformed my sinuses into a kind of primitive gill, but the CO2 content is too high for there to be any comfort left in breathing. "Got a bag of Red Man, got a bottle of beaujolais. Hey a bottle of beaujolais." -- UO. Just now discovered that I think I can live off coffee if the mix is right, 2ozs high-test per cup of water, to be drunk only from a "Don't mess with Texas" mug or some convention approved substitute. Time to scrape the crust off my teeth and go down to meet the chain gang. More later if I'm still alive. Later. Still breathing. The sun has raised the temperature enough to cause the permafrost to steam, and I am covered in layers of dust that had lain undisturbed for thousands of years until we (JR, Julia, Susan, and myself) cracked through the outside crust of the alien tomb. Went through three focusers on the sonohammers this morning. My Interzone Delta 2X performed well today. Gotta love those old tube models. Thank the gods for decent smugglers. Now I'm back at the station. The rations are running low. Peanut butter an jelly again. Better make another pot of coffee. The pickup's in the shop. Phase clutch is all blown out. Gonna have to take out another loan from the Agency. It's really down to the wire. I put in my application for a tour of duty in the mines. Call them tonight. But don't want to appear eager. They know you're psycho if it looks like you really want the job. They won't take anybody who might crack under the strain -- but you have to be a little unbalanced or seriously in debt to take a job in the mines. Eternal darkness, the noise from the extractors and the endless river of putrescence in the sluices. It changes everyone, even the most shutdown, burned out, mind-wiped jacks get edgy after six months. Well gotta get to work around here. Still later. Got the station pretty close to ship shape. Put a bunch of unused equipment in the storage bays. Sure is a lot of room in there. Smacked my head pretty hard on an open bay door. It's funny how you don't scream when no one else is around. Held my head and made a bunch of anguished breathing noises. >Waiting for Scratch to show up. Amy's out getting supplies. I realized after she left I should have gone with her, what with her damaged foot and all. I could have picked up a few things and she's probably a real sight hobbling around on crutches pushing a cart. But if I'd gone I'd have missed Scratch, left her sitting in her mobile unit with the air slowly seeping into the vacuum of space, no one to open the lock for her. Got to get some food. I found some cheese and added that to the PB&J. It wasn't bad, but I'm starving again. It's 8:37 now, Scratch is late as usual, good thing I expect it. Amy broke her foot in the lift the other night. I didn't even find out about it until 24 hours later when I saw her at the meeting of the Omega group. Got a Valentine's card from my sister, but I can't open it until the 14th. Not that she'd know, but then again... Mom's pretty psychic, no reason to think the other women in my family don't have a bit of the psi touch. Lots of electrical activity outside. Too much dust in this sector and the stellar wind from a recent nova really puts the zap into it. Shields are holding up well though. I had to turn the gain way up on the sensors and lock down the static gates. The sensitivity is reduced to about 67%. Heating unit's out of wack again. Goddam venus flytraps are going nuts -- tore the legs right off one of the research wombats. Had to use the mediquik to cauterize it but I think the poor thing has gone into irreversible shock. Got a good deal on an old storage unit for the kitchen area. Needs a little work but I think it'll be an improvement. ÿWPCB ûÿ 2 B V L Z ¢ ü NLQ 10cpi ø ÿÿ‰ ? x x x >HÂx þ6X @Ž Õ{ñ 80393 Higgins Prowl Star Been about a year since my last entry. Got most of the system running again. Got transferred to a new ship. Workin in the goddam boiler room. Bigger ship though; more of the amenities of home. 'Course there's a lot more work to do now. Got an attitude like the crust on dead K-class. Not sure why I botherto keep track of any of this. No one else is likely to read it. Not like the system itself is gonna "read" it. As much as they try they can't ever seem to make a 'puter sentient. Pretty much done for the night. Not that everything on the list is complete (c) far from it (c) but it's not gonna happen tonight no matter how hard they sweat me. That's enough fer now. AHKAN KWITCHOO BAYB owewhaahuoo, ahkan
kwitchoo bayb. So i gunna putchew dowhn forawhy..l |