SuBBrilliant Blog

Bil left his house to head to the community center and find Erika. It was an unusually bright morning. In any other place on Earth it would have been described as sunny but in Barnitukku, the sun never appeared in the sky. An odd shelf of rock and trees prevented that. But plenty of sunlight made it through anyway and today more than usual.

Lots of people were outside enjoying the light. He knew them all. It was a small place and they all relied on each other. So he smiled genially and hid his worry. Erika had said she would be at he Vistatu, the community center in the middle of town until late but she had never come home.

In most areas on the planet that would have been cause to worry about some kind of accident or crime. Barnitukku was small enough that anything like that would have immediately spread through the town like wildfire. Crimes were not unheard of but they were rare and accidents while less rare were taken very seriously.

So Bil was curious to find out what had kept her. She must have just decided to sleep there rather than walk home. The Vistatu was meant for that. IN fact it had been its originalk and ancient purpose and it still offered beds and comfort to any Barnitukku who needed them.

The Vistatu was very small even by the town’s generally small building standards. It was made of mud bricks that had been replaced many times in its long centuries. In fact it had been patched and repaired so many times none of its walls were made of the original materials, meaning it really wasn’t as ancient as it was regarded. Except for one brick. Legend said it was the first brick put down, but Bil and many others doubted the original builders took the time to commemorate it. Rather it was likely a brick some ancient Barnitukku noticed was one of the few left from the original building and pointed that out. Since it happened to be on the ground the story grew that it could have been the first one, then that it must have been and then that it was.

Whatever the case, Bil gently opened the aluminium screen door attached in blasphemous contrast to its walls of varying antiquity, and entered.

The lights were off and he flicked the switch to turn them on. Some rather old bulbs flickered to life. Erika lay on a couch in the entrance room. That was very odd. The sleeping couches were off towards the back.

“Erika?” Bil asked.

“Vankam,” Erika said greeting him and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, then opening them wide. “Oh my it is morning isn’t it? I meant to just rest before I walked home. So sorry to worry you.”

“No worry,” Bil dismissed the concern. “I’m more curious what kept you,” he lied.

“We have a katarru man from the camanaba,” she said. Erika had a bad habit of speaking in patois. Barnitukku were supposed to speak in English whenever possible in vigilant preparation for any trips outside the country.

“A piece of scrap iron from the outside world?” Bil gently chided.

“Well if you want to be literal about it,” she grumbled. “He’s a systems analyst for one of their intelligence agencies. Was going to pull a Snowden before I found him and convinced him to come with me.”

Bil nodded.

“And he’s awake,” said a voice from behind them both.

Bil turned to see a tall blonde european in modern dress of a t-shirt and jeans.

“And he’s still not sure he’s convinced.”

Bil bowed then quickly realized that was the wrong greeting and stuck out his hand. The other man shook.

Erika had risen and stood between them. “Bil, this is Mattias from the country of Germany. Mattias this is Bil.”

“Nice to meet you Mattias. Welcoem to the hidden kingdom of Barnitukku.”

“So you all call it that. I thought Erika was just the dramatic one,” Mattias said.

“She is,” said Bil. “But not about that. Our Kingdom is hidden.”

“What about the part where she said it runs the world?”

Bil laughed. “A bit dramatic. We guide the Exarthy. But. Maybe it’s a distinction without a difference. Most would say we run the world.”

I write here what no one should write. I affix what is forbidden to set down. I am Exempt. It is my burden, it is my blessing, it is my destiny and it is my choice. It is the only way one becomes Exempt.

With these words I seal the telling so that it shall not be read or if read not believed or if believed not credited beyond the believer.

For here I tell of the hidden kingdom and it’s relations with the Exarthy. You have been warned.

For more than 15,000 years, the exact number is known but not relevant, the Hidden Kingdom has existed as a haven for the Exarthan Governors. They in stealth persist in their Exarthan Courses and retreat here when necessary to rest and recover and sometimes to die.

The Electarch nourishes them, advises them, and appoints them when that time comes.

It is the way that balance and dynamism is maintained in the wider worlds. For the Hidden Kingdom is stagnant. It is safe. It is the heat sink of conflict and the sponge of iniquity.

Only once in its history has an Exarthan breached its secrets and invaded its havens.

This is that story.

Mia gave up. She had reached the bottom of the thing without a trace of what it was. She sat down against a bulkhead to listen to Zay’s response and stare at a glare of light on the opposite wall above a ventilation shaft that sat on what to Mia was the floor.

“You have to keep investigating even if it means bringing in guest salvagers to help. The fact that you haven’t found anything is confirmation that this find is significant beyond its metal value. Who would go to such lengths to remove all identifying marks on a ship unless it was important. There has top be something there,” Zay kept talking.

Mia just kept staring at the glare. She had stopped listening. Then she stood.

“… you have to realize that in the salvager scheme of things, a find like that..” Zay’s message continued.

Why was there a light? It didn’t move when Mia’s light did. What was the source. She leaned over and peered into the end of the ventilation shaft opposite. Was it a ventilation shaft? The metal at it’s end wasn’t a grill but badly folded solid pieces. Through a gap she saw an LED. She pulled out some tools and pried it apart. Below was a control bank. It must be auxilliary control she thought!

“… so don’t give up. Keep moving. Keep pushing….”

Mia resisted the urge to message back right away interrupting Zay before she had finished. Most people might not notice the timing. Zay would.

“..let us know what else we can do. Zay out,” she finally finished.

Mia immediately messaged back. “I found an auxiliary control room. Dropping down to investigate. You were right Zay!” Why not let her feel like she’d had an effect.

The auxilliary control room was a a narrow chamber with a bank of screens and input devices running down the center. That was where the LED had come from. Whatever long-life batteries still existed on the ship still had enough charge to light them.

At one end of the chamber were three dessicated bodies. They were almost skeletons but bits of cloth and tissue clung to them and littered the floor around them. They were all three lying face first into the wall. If Mia had to guess, they must not have been strapped in when the collision happened, which implied an accident of some sort. Or all three bodies restraints had failed.

One screen was still active with a logging program active. She tried to call up previous logs but the screen could not access storage. Likely it was destroyed in the crash. She was about to give up when she noticed that one log entry showed as still in composition. She chose it ad the last log entry, still in the process of being written appeared, stored in the local systems memory for hundreds of years, waiting to be saved to oblivion.

“Gamelt and Stallion have joined me in auxilliary control. The bridge is destroyed in the impact but engines are still active. No idea what caused attitiude to go haywire like that. Suspect foul play. No other explanation. Hold— Stallion reports an incoming airwave. From where? No ship on what scopes we have left but could be missed. Why? Not much time. Trying to fortify shields but little hope. We won’t make it no matter what. This is the ship Gallian signing off. Gallium control—“ And it stopped.

“Leonard you were right,” Mia messaged, sending an image of the screen. “This is the original Gallian Colony Ship. It looks like they were trying to set it down here for some reason and lost attitude control. They suspected sabotage. Poor suckers They had no idea of the early corporate politics. Likely their executive sponsor was just on the wrong side of a dispute. But to wreck the original colony ship because of it. There’s a story there for sure. Mia out.”

Mya sent three survey drones flying on complex flight paths orthogonal to one another. Most salvagers used one drone at a time and just had it cover all the ground. They might have more than one drone in case of large areas or just to have backup in case of damage but they would only use one of them at a time but Mya had discovered over the years that different drones might often report different information about the same area. So she had developed a system— she called it her algorithm, though it was not technically mathematical. The ‘algorithm’ flew the drones in a way designed to bring out those kinds of discrepancies and resolve them. It led to a huge boost in accuracy for her.

The drones reported data back to her but she just let it carry on back to Zactus and SHOE House for Zay to look over. Zay’s report didn’t take long.

“You’ve got a huge amount of metal down there but it’s thinner in the place I marked. That looks very much like a door. Leonard thinks you should try sending a traditional unlock signal to it once you’ve uncovered it. Just in case it has some kind of passive reciever that still works.”

Mya acknowledged and got to work uncovering the metal. It was corroded and dirty but it definitely resembled a hatch of some kind. Faded black and white stripes vaguely suggested a typical hatch warning flag. Mya sent a traditional unlock signal. She cycled through all the major frequencies and then through the rare but known ones. She was about to take the time to have it cycle through all possible frequencies when a mesage from Leonard arrived.

“Try frequency 1120. That’s the one for the Gallian Colonial ship. It won’t prove anything but I have a gut feeling. Zay bet me a sandwich it doesn’t work.”

Mya tried the extremely unlikely frequency. The door made screeching sounds and tried valiantly to open itself. Mya heard gears whining and stripping themselves. She shoved a hand in a small gap that had opened and gave it a push. The hatch slid to the side quickly tearing quite a bit of skin off in the process. Mya knew better but a combination of excitement and impatient had made her risk it.

“The signal worked though the door was so corroded, that it didn’t open. I had to give it a nudge. Don’t know who wins the sandwich.”

Mya was still pulling out light exploratory gear and making the rest of her equipment safe when a message from Leonard came in.

“I win the sandwich.”

It was followed quickly by Zay saying “Belay that sandwich. We need a third party ruling.”

Mya laughed and sighed and sent back, “I vote Leonard. Heading into the structure to explore. May lose messaging.”

Then she walked through the hatch.

This was when she loved working for SHOE. Away from the drama of headquarters on Zactus but still working remotely with her team there.

Zay was a crack data cruncher. Nobody could match her ability to analyze the stream of information Mya collected for insights and directions nobody else would have thought to even look for.

And Leonard was the hunch master. He took the findings of Zay’s data and pointed Mya in the right direction. Mya’s role was to use their support to dig and make the find. To make the calls that could only be made on the grand when you were looking right at a potential salvage site.

They had done this in the North moons with Zay and Leonard in the ship with Mya. But doing it long distance still felt the same. There was lag to be sure. But the latest reflector technology really helped with that and they had learned to deal.

Mya had been cruising low over an empty plane on the far side of Malaikat. Really just staying close to home because she wanted to knock off early. She was exhausted. The plains had been surveyed a million times but something told her to get a closer look at a set of pipes sticking up out of the ground.

They were noticed on the salvager’s collective maps and unusable, undiggable low value abandoned metal. But Mya decided to see for herself.

The metal was indeed not worth the effort to pull out of the ground. It looked a bit like the remains of some kind of plumbing but there was no record of whatever structure had made use of them.

Mya had made a scan and shot it back to Zactus for Zay’s take.

“I’m seeing slight indications of subsurface metal. Maybe more pipe but it would have to be a lot more to account for this number. Scan more detail about 40 degrees south.”

Mya thought it was awfully close to rescan ut she had learned not to doubt Zay. As she was rescanning she got Leonard’s take.

Pipes don’t come out of nowhere and Zay’s data doesn’t jive well with an abandoned structure. There’s definitely something under there. My guess is a ship. I’m looking for matches. So is Zay.”

A ship? She shot back a message telling them they were crazy along with the rescan. She went back to tlook at the pipes while she waited. It was longer than just the lag time before she got a response. This time from Leonard.

“UH. Zya. That’s a ship. At least that’s what I think. Zay found a match to the pipe configuration. He has his own thoughts though.”

Zay’s message came right after. “The chance of it being a ship are low but it’s still higher than the chances of it being anything else we suppose including wall pipes. Those pipes don’t match any known building code. They’r pretty damn ancient but not older than the common piping codes which haven’t changed in centuries. It matches 14% of ancient long-term voyages.”

A follow up from Leonard came right on its heels. “What she’s too coy to tell you is it matches a colony ship. Specifically the generation ships that settled systems in the era Gallium was founded. Those pipes are ventral exhaust and effluent. They kicked out what little unwanted fumes and liquids the colony ships expelled. Which wasn’t much hence how thin they are. I’m not going to SAY it’s one of the Gallian Arks but only because Zay will punch me if I make such an unfounded assertion. So I Say dig.”

Mya doug.

The mood in south salvage was different. She knew tat for sure. Put she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. North salvage ops were small but they were identified with the planetary system. They were one of its unexpected success stories, growing out of the older and more respectable resource management companies.

In South system salvagers were less numerous and somewhat ignored but at the same time they weren’t controversial. They weren’t seen as upstarts trying to steal away the culture of the system. In fact, they were cautiously embraced by the resource management firms and existence and the much larger and only tangentially related Energey Harvesting companies that operated acrossSouth’s various satellites.

That’s what she didn’t understand about her boss’s attitude. This was a fertile field in which to operate. her boss should have been overjoyed that she was here. Instead her boss just seemed jealous and looking for excuses for her to fail.

But she wasn’t failing. She knew that. Her salvage was as strong as ever and buyers were snapping it up. She panicked when she thought about the need to maintain the consistency of her discoveries. She was deathly afraid her luck would run out as would her stream of good salvage. But so far it didn’t seem that way.

She hoped that after a long enough track record, she could be established in south and allowed to solidify her contributions. Granted, she did not want to become tied only to her boss. She loved the ability to do side enterprises. It’s why she had left RCON and signed on with such a small operation like SHOE. But she didn’t want it to end. She dreaded the idea that she might be cut free.

That’s when her comm flashed. It was Brittany from the planet Delvalli.

“Hey Brit, what’s up?”

“Are you sitting down?” Brittany said. “I debated with my husband whether I should tell you this, but in the end it would be unfair not to.”

“What?”

“I just got a call from SHOE.”

Brittany did some freelance work from time to time so that wasn’t that surprising.

“It was from Connor. He offered me your job. They said they weren’t going to keep you on after the next quarter was over.”

“What did you say?”

“I said I’d think about it. But unless you want me to say yes— I mean— I’m not a salvager really. I just thought you should know.”

She sat down. Now what?

Gallian System

Brief: Settled by Seed ships and pioneers as multi-use system. Early industry primarily mining. Origin system for Gallium Corporation. Site of historical headquarters for Gallium though no longer occupied by the corporation itself. Current primary industries are energy harvesting, resource maximization and salvage.

Inner Planets and moons

Gurun (uninhabited)
Temperatures on the most inner planet make it impractical for habitation though it was extensively mined. It is occasionally used for research or training but no permanent bases exist and all earlier habitation remnants have been salvaged.

Delvalli – Lari
The second planet settled was used as worker habitation and has a strong independent working class tradition. Solar energy harvesting is the main industry.

Gallium – Bask and Provi
The first planet settled and the oldest continuously occupied. The historical headquarters of the Gallium corporation is maintained here by a staff of 6 but is the only presence of the corporation left in its founding system. The planet is the most comfortable for habitation ann the most populous. Salvage operations are protected under local laws but do exist.

Gran Ban asteroids
Settled by pioneers and still occupied mostly by independent resource maximizers raising foodstuffs in hydroponic bays and harvesting energy. However some small-scale salvage operations exist.

Outer Planets

North – Herb, Elektra, Zactus, Verd, Sedang, Friend
The oldest of the outer planet settlements with the first Gallium outpost on Herb, now preserved but not owned by the Gallium corporation. While the Moons and gas giant are mined out, resource maximizers dominate the economy in multiple verticals. Salvage operations thrive here.

South – Malaikat, Naran, Doug, Winter
The more financially successful although younger of the two habitable gas giant systems. Also the cultural center of the system. Energy harvesting and resource maximization dominate the conomy though some salvage operations have taken hold in recent decades.

East – Numerical (uninhabited)
Mined out and all mining operations reclaimed.

West – Numerical (uninhabited)
Mined out and all mining operations reclaimed.

Related subjects

Gallium Name
The first settled planet was named for its prodiguous amounts of bauxite and zinc which yielded a relatively enormous amount of gallium(III).

Gallium Corporation
Early seed ships brought the founders of mining operations that formalized as the Gallium corporation, named after its home planet and the first principle export. Expansionist in nature, the corporation expanded to a nearby system in the days before generation ships and eventually took to acquiring other struggling mining systems. When the Gallian System was mined out the corporation moved its headquarters to the Allium system, reducing staff to public relations and historical preservation.

Principle Salvage Operations
RCON – Engaging in resource maximization and salvage in the North gas giant region, based in Herb and Gallium

Montrose – Respurce maximization company based in Gallium but with significant slavage operations out of Herb.

SHOE – (Salvage Headquarters Open Everywhere) a small but successful salvage operation that showed salvage-only companies could survive. Based off Zactus.

Menemui – Resource maximization company based on Provi. Got into salvage by acquiring Herb-based salvage company Tiga.

XFCon – Spinoff from Gallium mining ops that baceme an independent resource maximization company out of Bask and Herb and operates some salvage ops.

Suara – Gallium based salvage operation with significant operations in the North gas giant system.

Titor – Founded in Elektra engaging in Resource maximization then expanding to salvage and Energy harvesting now predominantly operating out of Malaikat. One of the largest operations in the Galian system.

A: 132 divided by 26 is about 5.

B: How do you know.

A: Because that’s how division works.

B: Doesn’t make sense that you can just say that. I mean I think we should investigate all sides of the issue. Who benefits from 132 being divided into 26 parts? Why does it have to be 5?

A: But when you divide 132 by 26 that’s the answer you get.

B: OK OK. Explain to me like I’m 5.

A: We don’t teach division to 5-year-olds.

B: So you can’t explain it. :)

A: Fine. So in this case let’s say you want to separate 132 things into 26 groups.

B: What things?

A: Doesn’t matter.

B: I think it could but let’s see where you go with this.

A: The idea is to find out how many things would be in each group.

B: So gather 26 twist ties say. And I spread them out until I have 26 groups. But not every group will have the same number. That doesn’t give you one answer.

A: Well you can keep shifting the groups around until they all have the same amount but there’s an easier way if you know how to multiply. Which as a five year old you would’t.

B: So this is all sounding like a runaround. The simple truth is you don’t know what 132 divided by 26 really is. You can’t prove it to an average person.

A: Multiply 26 times 5. You can teach a five year old to use a calculator.

B: If you trust calculators. But OK, for the sake of argument. Hold on. 26 times 5 is 130 according to my caluclator NOT 132.

A: Right there’s a remainder.

B: WAIT. So you’re trying to convince me that 132 divided by 26 is 5 but when I use MY OWN CALCULATOR It shows that is demonstrabvly NOT the case.

A: I was rounding. It’s actually 5.08

B: (PAUSES) NO! 132.08

A: Well yeah there’s a decimal but we usually round that off.

B: So your “SCIENCE” isn’t so precise after all. If you can just round things off why can’t I round things off. Why can’t I say 132 divided by 26 os 6. I’m just rounding off!

A: You do that.

B: See? You can’t win a fair logical argument can you? WHY CAN”T YOU HANDLE THE SIMPLE TRUTH? Stop trying to ruin this country!

I re-wrote the Apple WatchKit press release to take out unnecessary adjectives and anything not simply describing the functions and facts. I did this because the number of ‘incredibly easy’ and “most personal device ever” phrases was actually making it hard to read. So I wanted to see what would happen if I took out the puffery.

The original is here.

Apple® today announced the availability of WatchKit, software that gives developers a set of tools for Apple Watch™. Developers can begin developing WatchKit apps before Apple Watch becomes available. Developers can create WatchKit apps, actionable notifications and Glances.

Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing noted developers can, “work with new technologies such as Force Touch, Digital Crown and Taptic Engine.”

Notifications allow users to take action from their wrist such as turning the lights off after they’ve left the house, accessing flight details at the airport, and rerouting their transit when a train or bus is late. Glances show users information such as the latest news and sports scores, alarm system status or the next step of a favorite recipe.

App features are subject to change and may not be available in all regions or all languages. Apple Watch requires iPhone 5 or later.

The iOS 8.2 SDK beta including WatchKit is available now for iOS Developer Program members at developer.apple.com/watchkit. The WatchKit site includes programming guides, human interface guidelines, templates and more. Starting later next year, developers will be able to create fully native apps for Apple Watch.

“The ESPN app for Apple Watch gives us the ability to deliver live scores and information for their favorite teams,” said John Kosner, executive vice president of Digital and Print Media, ESPN. “Glances provide fans with a snapshot of live games, and if there is no game taking place, they’ll get valuable game-time information or the final box score. With actionable notifications… fans receive alerts on score changes, news and more.”

Kevin Systrom, co-founder and CEO of Instagram said, “With actionable notifications you can see and instantly like a photo or react with an emoji. The Instagram news and watch list allows you to see your friends’ latest photos, follow new accounts and get a real-time view of your likes and comments.”

“The American Airlines app on Apple Watch reminds you when it’s time to head to the airport via pre-trip notifications, and provides updates for gate changes, connecting gate info upon arrival, and will notify you when boarding begins if you’re not at the gate yet,” said John Gustafson, American Airlines vice president of Digital. “Travelers can also ask ‘Where am I?’ in-flight and get real-time location information at 30,000 ft.”

The blazing sky burned with millions of lights, all representing attempts at destruction. Pilot X thought about the destroyed children’s home he’d seen on Mersenne. He thought back on his conversation with Captain Alphaea there. How the career yeoman had been thrust into running a planet that could no longer be run due to the destruction raining down.

Mersenne wasn’t even a target. Just collateral damage in this three-way war. He thought about how he’d been tricked into helping cover the war’s existence.

He looked at the three-part device constructed in front of him. “The Instant.” It was ready. The Verity was plugged in providing coordinates. The Progon transmitter was humming. The Sensaurian material presumably awaiting his command.

He made himself think of the people who would never be if he activated The Instant. Of the lives irrevocably changed. They wouldn’t realize it of course. The Instant cut time at the base, causing the timeline to repair itself like a wound. Its inhabitants would assume as they did now that things had always been the way they were. Pilot X wondered how many times this had happened. A useless question “times” given the nature of this.

Only he would remember. He and The Verity sheltered within the bubble of the Instant’s operating field. He alone would carry the memories of a broken universe. He alone would carry the responsibility of wiping out everyone and replacing them. This did not make him a god, he though. It did not make him a devil either. It only made him responsible.

And he feared that. He shied from it. He desperately thought of a way around it. A way to bring the three parties to peace. But he had seen all of this war now. He knew how it ended. With nobody. No system left unscathed. No one left to carry the lesson. That was the biggest crime. The Allendans knew this would not end with a better universe and yet they persisted. His people were the most guilty.

He thought about the destruction of countless systems he had repaired. He thought about the Allendan Council’s arrogance and laughter at how they had manipulated him. He thought about the dead. HE realized the Allendans didn’t care.

He flipped the switch.

The lights disappeared in an instant. Like turning off a lightswitch. For a moment he thought he might have destroyed everything in the universe but himself. But the dim glow from The Verity showed he still had rocks beneath his feet. As his eyes adjusted e could make out stars and even the faint glow Mersenne in the distance.

It had happened so instantaneously. He felt as if he could flick the switch the other way and it would all come back. But of course it wouldn’t. That’s not how it worked. He flicked the switch anyway and nothing happened.

He had done it. He had irrevocably destroyed his own timeline. What had replaced it? Was it something better?

That was his purpose now. To explore this new timeline. To see what had changed. To do his best to make those changes positive.

He would start with Mersenne.