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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 21:06:57 GMT -5
The pressure form segments had come over as part of Park Jin's cargo, but they still needed to be adjusted to the shape of the destroyer's hull, welded together and secured in place. As the sections of the first segment were towed over, Tom marshalled the newly-formed work crews to move them over to the machine shop for initial assembly, then got Aron on the radio. "Everything stitched and clean?"
"A little rarer, but they do occur." Zoe answered. "A car lady I know has a handsome set of twin boys, they're in their late teens now. It's less common in aircraft, but not unprecedented."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 21:12:09 GMT -5
"Yeah." Aron said. "Just coating it with the anti-septic."
"Okay." Babel said. It had been a while since Marisa and Jeffrey had left, but she still looked where they had been before turning back to the now covered drydock.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 21:18:56 GMT -5
"If Marisa still has the twins at the three-month mark, it's reasonable to assume she'll carry them to term." Zoe added.
"Wait 'till that news gets out." Laurie rolled her eyes.
"Let's just cross that bridge when we come to it." Zoe sighed. "And let them find out when it's the right time."
Tom moved through the lines of workers as they started to weld the sections in accordance with the blueprint and his instructions. "Make sure all weld beads are on the outside, eh?" He then climbed up to where Aron was. "Some of the outer layer will just have to be trimmed away and sprayed, it should heal back with a lot less scarring than if we just tried to push and weld."
"That's what I figure." Clyde agreed.
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 21:28:44 GMT -5
"When will it be feasible for her to find out?" Babel asked. "In Caliphate, you didn't know anything about the gender or any deformities until birth. I would assume it is different here."
"And with her properly sedated, it will be easier to do it." Aron said. He picked up a cutting tool to begin trimming after putting a face shield on him.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 21:41:39 GMT -5
"At three months, we can hear the feotal rhythms." Zoe answered. "And we've brought ultrasound equipment, so we will be able to determine gender or any anomalies. At five or six months, you have a much better idea of how the child will turn out. That's the time to check for futuremod indicators or markers."
"Now's the time." Rachel had begun to relax against the cradle that held her off the still-wet floor of the drydock. The remaining on-board crew checked her eyes and signs and confirmed that she would feel no pain at this point.
Other torch-jockeys under Clyde's direction replaced the stitchers on the scaffold, to cut away the areas carefully marked with a wax pencil. Once the buckled areas were cleared, an application of antibiotic wound paste and a preforated rubber seal, lined with felt and flannel, would be applied before the assembled pressure form went on, with space allowed for the shunt to drain off fluid.
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 21:57:11 GMT -5
"I've heard about futuremods and throwbacks, and I kind of get them." Babel said. "But among the things I have heard is that they are pretty rare. Do you think that developing here would influence it?"
Aron carefully took the cut-away metal and put it down. He knew that fifteen years ago, some of it could have actually been recycled. And it didn't escape his mind to this day. While it was total taboo to do such a thing in carverse, even though it was never openly forbidden in holy texts, it had never stuck to Aron to consider it taboo.
And here, it was resources. But would it be treated as such?
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 22:16:05 GMT -5
"Leave it up to Rachel to decide what she wants done with it, and keep it apart from the regular scrap." Tom said of the scrap metal. "Sometimes they have the metal turned into jewellery or personal items for friends or people who helped them out." Nobody had any objections to that.
"It could." Zoe affirmed. "It could happen with the next birth or ten years from now, but drastic changes in conditions definitely influence the gene-shifting mechanisms. Going from one universe to another would definitely qualify."
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Post by elizar on Nov 18, 2008 22:29:07 GMT -5
"What about Dolores?" Babel asked.
"Alright." Aron said, cutting off the last of the metal and prepped the underlying 'skin' for the pressure form.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 18, 2008 22:41:21 GMT -5
"Her ultrasound showed up normal." Zoe answered. "The genetic makeup is determined at conception, and hers took place in her home universe."
Clyde placed the shunt and then trimmed the 'skin' to fit around it, using epoxy to seal the gaps. The rest was then taped in place.
The pressure form was almost completely assembled and preliminary adjustments made. The old crane operator climbed into the cab of the machine and prepared to start it up again.
"Here's the moment of truth." Tom lifted his eyes to the crane boom.
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Post by elizar on Nov 19, 2008 6:42:10 GMT -5
"I do not disappoint." Aron said, and at that moment, the machine seemed to repeat his words as it whirred to life.
"What process will come in if parents have a futuremod?" Babel asked.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 19, 2008 13:02:06 GMT -5
"Congrats." Tom grinned to Aron. The crane began to swing around, its hook already descending towards the first assembled form section.
"Back home, it would certainly get a lot of attention from the head family agency, and others if they're from military lines. They're like prototypes over here - they could be a flash in the pan, or they could really lead to whole new lines. My grandparents were such. Too bad the incoming Canadian government at the time never appreciated us in either world."
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Post by elizar on Nov 19, 2008 15:50:34 GMT -5
"Flash in a pan." Babel said, using Zoe's own words to describe her lines. "What happened to them here?"
Everyone got clear of the wound and waited for the pressure form to be fitted against it. "Once an engineer and mechanic, always an engineer and mechanic." Aron said.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 19, 2008 16:04:07 GMT -5
"Torch fodder." Zoe lifted her hand and drew it sharply across her throat, then her bustline, then her waist. "At least in our world, they couldn't get away with doing THAT to us, though what they had in mind amounted to a living death."
With meticulous care, the pressure form sections were lifted into place, then clamped and welded. The shipyard gang had it well in hand thanks to the competent direction they'd received. After making sure that the shunt was allowed for, Tom nodded and backed off as the last section was fitted on.
"Now all we need is painkillers and time."
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Post by elizar on Nov 19, 2008 16:13:36 GMT -5
"What was that?" Babel asked. She knew Zoe identified with her, but was always sceptical about it, as it had happened to her grandparents or even further generation away, and a working civilized world wouldn't really enslaving people.
"What about post-op care?" Aron asked. Needlessly to say, the facilities here were not as good as one would hope.
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Post by Evangeline on Nov 19, 2008 16:44:32 GMT -5
"Keep an eye on what's coming out of the shunt, keep antibiotics on a regular schedule, and watch for contraindications and side effects on the drugs." Clyde answered. "That's about 90% of it. In World War 2, they had a lot less than this to work with, and still saved a lot of ships."
"My grandparents and great aunts and uncles would have been subjected to a politically motivated quarantine, for the rest of their lives." Zoe said. "Back then, we aircraft had greater difficulties securing our civil rights, not unlike the problems that black people had in the U.S. before the 60's. This attempt to put us down the oubliette resulted in what became known as "the Malton riots" which spread from Canada to the northeastern US and a few people did get killed before things cooled down. But it provided the original six with a cover for escape and put the rest of the world on notice that aircraft were not to be taken for granted any more."
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