Tag Archives: spaceship

Light minutes.

Okay, so what if it doesn’t come back? What happens to your little experiment then, Einstein? What the … PUT THE STICK DOWN!

Oh, hi. Yes, things get a little contentious at times around the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill. I was just having a conversation with our mad science advisor, Mitch Macaphee, who is doing some tests on a new propulsion system he’s developing. Suffice to say it’s the kind of propulsion system we would need to carry us to the far-flung interstellar venues that have been added to our upcoming tour in recent days. We haven’t secured transport yet, owing to our lack of resources, so Mitch has taken it upon himself to custom design a deep-space conveyance that will meet our needs … and then some.

Trouble is, he is … well …. a crazy-ass mofo, and because of that simple fact, he can’t just use existing technology to build his spacecraft. Oh, no … he has to innovate an entirely new form of propulsion. Don’t ask me the particulars – it has something to do with curved space-time. I don’t know much about that, except that I don’t have enough space-time in my life these days, curved or straight. Anyway … Mitch built a model of his rocket booster and has claimed that it will travel many, many times the speed of light. And to prove his thesis, he’s going to send the little gizmo several light minutes away and back, timing its journey on his old-school pocket watch. Of course, he gets all worked up when he does this sort of thing, so it’s best to avoid Mitch. Like, spend the day in another room. Or on another continent.

Well, all right, then.

So, yeah, we’ve added a couple of stops to the itinerary, which now looks like this:

  • May 12, Neptune
  • May 15, Proxima system
  • May 20, Barnard’s Star system
  • May 27, Procyon system
  • May 30, Epsilon Indi
  • June 2, Sirius
  • June 5, Jupiter, red spot
  • June 8, Small Magellanic Cloud

That last one is going to be a ball-buster. We may need cryogenic chambers to cover that ride, particularly if Mitch’s propulsion scheme doesn’t pan out. But, again … I will leave the science to the mad scientist and concentrate on what really matters: the Tuesday night garbage pick up. I mean, the music! May 12 is coming up fast, so …. better work up some numbers, am I right? Back to the studio!

What to bring?

I don’t know. Do we really need a hibachi? We’re all vegetarians, except for Marvin, who only eats electricity and petroleum distillates. Well… okay, then.

Big GreenHi, friend of Big Green. What are they doing now? It’s called getting ready for an interstellar tour, as yet unnamed, to support extraterrestrial sales of our most recent album, Cowboy Scat: Songs in the Key of Rick. It took us long enough, but we did secure adequate transport for the seemingly impossible journey ahead of us. (Carl Sagan would say it is simply impossible, but he is not available to comment. Ergo … it’s possible.) Some over-the-road hauler dragged the missile here from the Moon, where its (asshole) owner left it for our retrieval. Jesus H. Christ, the company brought the craft all the way from Neptune, but apparently thought the moon was close enough.

The accommodations on board, mind you, are a tad spare. Spartan, you might say. Ever read a book by one of the original NASA astronauts? Yeah, it’s kind of like that. A bit like a t.v. submarine, only with rocket engines instead of propellers and no periscope. I’m no Wilt Chamberlain, and I have to duck down low to get under the rafters. And the cockpit is full of retro-looking levers and switches. One of the toggles is marked, “Kill” – not sure Wait, it does have a periscope!what that does. I wonder … if you switch it back and forth, does something, somewhere, cease to exist and then come back to life again? Important question.

On a rack in the control room is about a dozen pressure suits that look like something out of a 1960s sci-fi movie. You know – the ones with accordion-like joints and white crash helmets with visors. I’m guessing that means there is no artificial atmosphere in this beast, but I’m counting on someone with some technical knowledge to determine that for us. Marvin (my personal robot assistant) has been serving as a surrogate mad scientist while Mitch Macaphee continues to enjoy his hammock in Madagascar (if that is where he truly is, the bounder!).

We need all the help we can get. Now, where did I pack my packing list? Hmmmmm….