John and the Space boat - The walkabout
John was on a walkabout. His suit's mag boots allowed him to dangle hand down from the “ceiling” of the, yet-to-be-completed starship. When needed, he graciously leapt between the unfinished decks using precise thrusts from his spacesuit's integrated engines. Indeed, for a modern, 21st century H-logger, more often than not, space was an environment much adored by one's fans. Proper equipment was required and also skill, knowledge of how to use said gadgets, so that you would stay ahead of the competition. Yet another gap between the decks stood ahead and John decided to pull himself forward by use of his grappling cable. Hand aimed at a bulkhead on the other side, he fired the hook and then left its forearm mounted mechanism to pull his near weightless body. John was, of course, streaming everything online on the local G-net node. Earth's networks and those all over the Imperial Minarchy were swarming with links, billions of active netsonalities, of which he was proud to say – a couple million were watching his feed. Though everyone loved their tiny government, one had to wonder sometimes why it was named like this. Indeed, John knew, just as any other Terran that their tiny star state needed to keep up appearances. Both their Emperor and Empress were basically arm wrestled by Earth's nation states, so that they would agree to “rule” over them and the colonies. The fact he did not pay any taxes, was not regulated (except some common sense rules of his own and the G-net community's design) and John's G-net business was therefore booming. He, nevertheless, donated few thousand credits worth of combat supplies to the colonial militia force – no sane Terran skimped on defense.
Floating over the gap and just before his mag boots locked on the other side, John aimed the holo-cam of his PDA at space. The beautiful view of Orbit 1; its double umbrella-shaped hull slowly rotating, the tens of thousands of starships leaving tiny (because of the great range) trails of drive plasma behind, while they landed or took off from the giant space station, was more than worth any danger. His own starship, the name of which he was still undecided, floated in orbit of the Moon or Luna, as it was better known these days. Terraforming began during the first great space leap and ended shortly after the Pirate Clan invasion. Now Luna colony was home to millions, but for safety reasons, the terraforming engineers did not poke at the Moon's core. Instead, to combat the effects of low gravity, the installed solar powered grav-generators in all settlements and their range mostly overlapped. His second home was here in Tycho city; the same place which invaders had almost leveled to the ground, and kidnapped most of its population. Thankfully, the people who were destined to be sold on alien slave markets were saved. They then returned to rebuild their city, did so in record time and basically from the grounds up. John visited the Tri Ship Monument many a time, read everything that a Terran could get their hands on, watched all old (and new) holo-flicks available on G-net, interviewed many of the veterans who were still very much alive. He had to remember, however sad was the loss of so many lives, it was them who made a difference, because of them he could now do what he was doing, had the freedom to explore space.
John rotated his holo-cam back forward, linked its stabilizer to the helmet's faceplate and strode through yet another empty corridor. The starship he'd ordered built was essentially an elongated space yacht, with one extra deck and multiple illuminators made from transparent megasteel. That last feature did set him back at least eleven thousand credits but since the business was doing well, he could afford it. Engines were made by a Martian company called “Mega sprocket”; with double plasma chambers and extra ram scoops, the two small beasts were sure to give John's ship all the speed needed if it had to evade trouble. The hyper-sails which came factory built in every space yacht he didn't remove. The idea was to fly on their power, most of the time, enjoy the ride and best of all – the sights. He was an H-logger after all! Though G-net had countless netsonalities like him, who used their PDA to record or stream holo-vids on the net, John had found his niche audience. Of course, one could not have perfect hyperspace satellite coverage everywhere and all the time, therefore all that one H-logger like him could realistically rely on was, few dozen solar systems or more. Moreover, he was a Terran and his people were, at least for now, a novelty to the benevolent peoples of the galaxy.
Reaching the bow of his ship, John flew in outer space through the observation tower, the hook of his grappler locked on the hull. He made a 360 turn with his holo-cam, while marveling at the lights of Luna reflecting off those parts of his ship that had been space-painted. Looking from the side, his yacht reminded him of something and John checked the comment feed of his G-net channel. It was swarming with posts and the various bots he'd set up were filtering those he could realistically answer to, to the top of the feed. Smiling in the holo-cam, John asked the question that instantly popped up a few million times over:
“What do you think I should call this beauty?” - He waited a bit; the hyper-lag was sometimes a killer and many of his subscribers were from star systems couple dozen light years away. It wasn't fair to them, if their questions or answers were never seen, nor answered, therefore he only had to wait for a few short minutes – after all the hyperspace satellites around here were of Terran craft! Soon the lines of text began overlapping, one and the same answer conquered his comment section:
"Space Boat"
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This is the intro to my new sci-fi series, set in the Starshatter alternate history universe, titled John and the space boat or JATB. The stories were greatly inspired by a real world netsonality and his many adventures - John Daub hails from our humble dimension. His new youtube channel and (this is his second), are both overflowing with the many videos he expertly crafted, showcasing important locations in Japan, delicious street food, and top tourist destinations. All of which are highly motivational and, might I add - a daily, reliable source of positive energy for many of us. These stories are my way to give back, use some of what John freely shares with everyone who watches his videos. This is John's Twitch channel.
If you like these short stories, have the means and wish to support the author, check my Patreon page - I have more, exclusive sci-fi stories posted there.You can find all of my books on Amazon.
Video archive of all episodes released so far, narrated by our one and only Mister Brushface.
Links to all episodes:
Episode 4 - The Tumbling Apple
Episode 6 - The fish whisperer
Part 2, Episode 1 - Vending rock