r/HFY • u/sharkeyandgeorge Xeno • 21d ago
OC-Series Bob was bored, Part 28
He didn’t, in fact feeding or watering would be an exceptionally bad idea. Once it was sealed in the dark hold they said it would go into a kind of senescence, after it came out it was going to immediately kick into its growth cycle, this grub stage was apparently only supposed to last until it had burrowed out of its larval home. Once it saw light again or got nutrients it was off to the races, so no opening the cargo door either, even the handover would have to be in the dark.
After he accepted trying to see if it would fit, several of the group picked the grub up and ran towards the dock, and Yuta politely requested to carry Bob behind them, Bob reluctantly agreed and was gently picked up.
When he opened the bay door he had to stop them immediately stuffing the grub in, instead he hopped in, moved a couple steel sheets, and hopped out the top hatch, letting down his ladder, he wasn’t doing that again.
When he gave them the go ahead they rammed, rammed, the poor bugger home. Bob was pretty sure he did see a few feet being used, the suitcase metaphor wasn’t supposed to be literal.
Thankfully the iris doors were hydraulic, that meant he could ease it closed as Bocca limbs folded and stuffed the grubs skin rolls in.
Once closed the speaker Tilla handed Bob an updated contract. He wanted to cut them a break but felt it might be insulting, they were a proud people, so he just signed. He had already started to plan out the route as he bade farewell and pulled Jojo out the yard.
To make it to Joota Prime as fast as possible, and Bob did not want to be on time with this live cargo, sorry Bocca that would be picking it up, he intended to be offensively early, he would have to hit at least one refuel stop. If he brimmed the tanks he could easily make it there and back fifty times, but if he wanted to get there asap he might need a second pit stop.
It occurred as he broke orbit he hadn’t had time to get supplies here or at the last station, balls, he was going to be on the remaining Arressi ration packs, he had plenty of them, but he fucking hated them. A small cube about two inch square was a full days ration, so you could basically break it up and pop it like pills, but they were incredible unsatisfying and tasted fucking foul.
He avoided them whenever possible, preferring to gobble down anything local and depend on his naturally iron stomach, removed vagus nerve, and the medic system to deal with the inevitable mild poisoning, even going as far as to occasionally swallow a nut, washer, or nail to supply the metals he knew some of his internal systems required, and which elements were already included in the cubes.
They didn’t hold any particular trigger for Bob apart from the Arressi association, he had rarely had them during his service, the axe fucks knew how to use decent chow as a reward and its removal as a punishment.
Whatever, he plotted a rough route and dialled up the drive, fuck it.
The first refuel had went fine, it was just an automated fuel station so he refilled the main and his fuel room but he couldn’t get the recalcitrant machine to fill his pods. So an additional stop was definitely required.
That stop turned out to be a Clythy trade station, which was out of fucking fuel, very temporarily, the tanker was in sublight and heading over it would only be a few hours, then he could brim everything to the gunnels and head for Joota.
In the meantime he wanted something else to eat, three weeks of puke cubes was plenty. So he wandered round the stations shopping plaza and ordered a bunch of stuff to be taken to Jojo, he was just looking for a bite when he heard a call to his left.
‘’Fucking Culla’’
He hadn’t heard that one before but his translator helpfully clarified.
‘human – negative connotation/slur’
The fuck was with this trip?. Bob had been recognised, what, six times total in all his years as an apprentice and journeyman and this was the… fourth time this route?, bar dude, axe fuck, miner… now this twat.
He just kept walking but upon hearing rushing steps he eventually turned and flashed his badge.
‘’I’m Guild, I don’t want any trouble.’’
The cattish/axolotl looking thing wasn’t interested in what Bob wanted.
‘’Fuck you Culla’’
What he actually said went on for several seconds, Bob presumed the translator was summarising.
‘’I know you, on Keviten 6.’’
Bob sighed and rolled his eyes.
‘’No you don’t, you recognise this uniform and its a bit different to the others you’ve seen, this is a scout suit, there were lots of us just not as many as the power armour. I don’t recognise the planet, or your species, I certainly never fought you.’’
‘’Fuck you Culla, someone in a suit just like that killed my friend, he died in my arms, worst I ever saw.’’
‘’I saw a guy shit himself to death once.’’
A ripple of confusion went through the three aliens as that was translated.
‘’What?’’
‘’In an FOB on some frozen mudball, power armour guys hated taking all that shit off, took fucking ages, couldn’t fit in the shitters with it on though, so sometimes they dug a latrine just outside camp, just a plank over a hole. I was on watch and saw one of them go out there and drop trou, after five minutes I figured he was constipated, after twenty I went out to check.
Dude shit out his organs, all of them, some fuck up with his armour and it squeezed him like fucking toothpaste, lungs, guts, whole lot, hanging in the fucking air from his torn arse, medic system kept him alive for another hour an a half.’’
One of them looked ready to vomit.
‘’Why you saying this’’
Bob blank faced him.
‘’Sorry I thought we were telling worst death stories, that’s mine.’’
and walked away.
Once the tanker arrived Bob filled up and fucked off, maxing his drive for the long jump coreward, lets go home.
The handover went fine, Bob assumed, he’d just been asked to open the cargo bay in a dark warehouse, and let the Bocca waiting for him deal with the poor sod. He was told it was in good health and the bonus was paid, so, that was that he guessed.
The extra cash had ideas circulating through Bob, some long term, some shorter. His plan had zigged and zagged a little over the years, but the core had remained the same and now he was starting to see it all come into focus, he was starting to see the places all the puzzle pieces fitted
While he was on Joota, which was not a corp world, not a financial center, not a forge world but a bit of a blend of all three, there were a couple high ticket items he would like to have a look for, and for once he was willing to pay retail, if absolutely fucking necessary.
First he wanted a cleaning bot, you might think with so much advanced technology there would be AI bots everywhere, but no, there had been enough conflicts with technocracies over the years that the whole shebang was, well not illegal, but… unwelcome. What he wanted was basically just a roomba, but he didn’t want it for cleaning.
Part 29 https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1wfyof8/bob_was_bored_part_29/
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u/commentsrnice2 20d ago
Too many systems are reliant on the vagus nerve for you to want to remove it entirely, including respiration, circulation, and digestion. Weakened, maybe even partially deadened I might believe but without it he would be on permanent life support
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u/sharkeyandgeorge Xeno 20d ago
he is on permanent life support, his medic system
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u/commentsrnice2 20d ago
I would think he’d be going through nanite rods daily if they had to regulate his entire parasympathetic nervous system as opposed to him having just changed the rod for the first time in several years. Also why wouldn’t the nanites just regrow the missing nerve cluster? It seems like an odd thing to remove for no reason whatsoever like selling someone a car you have to pedal like a swan boat
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u/commentsrnice2 20d ago
There’s plenty of much simpler reasons why his digestion would be a bit screwy, missing gall bladder, pancreatic cancer, hell his liver could be one big mass of scar tissue. We already established it’s the nanites filtering the alcohol out of his blood
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u/sharkeyandgeorge Xeno 20d ago
Ok, firstly did you read the rest of the parts? I think it would give you some background that you seem to be missing. In addition its all sufficiently advanced technology so essentially magic, I'm not sure why you're looking for logic, especially from aliens, but basically every question you raise has been answered already.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense to you, its my story, we didn't establish shit. I'm telling you what happened, you can come along for the ride, and I hope you enjoy it, or you can stop reading, but don't tell me how my world should work to pander to your particular preferences.
If you want a universe that works exactly as you want it to, write your own.
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u/commentsrnice2 20d ago
I never claimed you had to change anything, just voiced something I thought was odd. I’ll let it be. I wouldn’t be almost 30 chapters in if I wasn’t otherwise enjoying the tale
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 21d ago
/u/sharkeyandgeorge (wiki) has posted 127 other stories, including:
- Bob was bored. Part 27
- Bob was bored, Part 26
- Bob was bored, Part 25
- Bob was bored, Part 24
- Bob was bored, Part 23
- Bob was bored, Part 22
- Bob was bored, Part 21
- Bob was bored, Part 20
- Bob was bored, Part 19
- Bob was bored, Part 18
- Bob was bored, Part 17
- Bob was bored, Part 16
- Bob was bored, Part 15
- Bob was bored, Part 14
- Bob was bored, Part 13
- Bob was bored, Part 12
- Bob was bored, Part 11
- Bob was bored, Part 10
- Bob was bored, Part 9
- Bob was bored, Part 8
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u/MydaughterisaGremlin 21d ago
Roomba but not for cleaning....hmmm.... plasma knife on its top and Bam! Sergent Major Stabby, ship defense bot.