Faster Than Angels

[Ace3000]

[FTA|s0_00.0: Part 00.0] Coping™

---

<20191026>

Saturday, October 26th, 2019

A Certain Home in Perth, Australia.

As he booted up his computer, he heard an odd noise, but ultimately thought nothing of it. After all, the computer seemed to have booted up just fine.

He should have.

As soon as he logged in, he could see one sign that maybe he had not plugged everything in correctly... but it was. He tried unplugging, and plugging it back in... nothing. Opening the file explorer to look for it... again, nothing.

It had died on him, and took away something he had been working on for 4 years...

<do you | freeland_>

---

...I hate to do this to you all... but I have no choice. It's been a while, so I thought I should let you all know what has happened while I get my ass into gear and fix this problem I have on my hands. Unfortunately, I'm forced to put FTA on yet another hiatus, hopefully one that won't last too long. It's not that I've run out of parts to post, or that I've gotten another writer's block, no. Something far worse has happened.

...the hard drive containing everything related to FTA has failed.

I have more reasons than this fanfic that has been a part of my life these past 5 years. Half my music library, all of my videos, my pictures, some games, and even some other documents that have nothing to do with FTA was stored on there. Some few hundred gigs short of it's 2TB capacity. Now, this could be some blessing that, oh, I was slowly running out of space, maybe I should upgrade. And yeah, maybe. But this is not a good thing. Having a new 4TB drive is meaningless to me, if I don't have everything that was on that old drive.

So, how to fix it? Well, through process of elimination, I've found the answer: It's a mechanical failure. I have but one option left: I physically transport my physically broken drive to some people who will perform a data recovery service. Now, guaranteed, this isn't completely 100% guaranteed I'll be able to get everything back. But with how much stuff I've accumulated over the years on that drive, especially my music, and FTA, I will go down that path and try and get my stuff back. All that needs to happen is for me to get my ass in gear and contact them to get things rolling.

Now, I could just keep writing and posting from where I left off, except I'd rather not. See, it wasn't just the fic itself that was on that drive. Supplementary material and even two large planning sheets for each arc of Season 3 was there too. Without that, I couldn't possibly hope to continue and make it as amazing as I could with that sheet. Sure, I can memorise key plot elements, but not everything I had planned out.

Hopefully, after this, I will be posting FTA stuff again soon. If not, then the next thing I post here will be an apology, and a summation of the plot points of the rest of Season 3. But damn it, that's the last thing I want to do, it will only be out of necessity of an irrecoverable hard drive that I will be forced to succumb to that.

Once again, apologies, and thank you. Each and every one of you that has read, or even skimmed through the thread, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Here's hoping I can continue to write and post full Season 3 parts, until the very end.

---

Oh, and the title of that? Another album title. Cope™, by Adam Freeland.

[Jonny]

Arc: NJRS - #007
Title: Mondays

Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düsseldorf, Germany
Monday, 26th February 2215
9:31.23

Nico entered the main production hall in a hasty manner, searching for the Lead Production Engineer of the Anti-Gravity Racing Division.
"Hey! Why is everything quiet here?" Nico called over to the man he searched while approaching him.
Gustav Darrendorf, a senior employee of the company who gave an almost stereotypical impression of an engineer, wearing a lab coat and safety helmet, took this rather dry "Chain of orders was to begin production of the revised parts for the new craft. But we got no data."
"No data?" as Nico asked that several worries piled up in him "How do you mean?"
Gustav shrugged "The Technical Director, who has been in charge of sending over the final revision, seems to have missed this deadline."
Nico nodded nervously "I'll check this."

Bovier ran through the floors. The production halls were mostly at ground level in the north section of the headquarters, close to the hangar. His destination however, Linda's officie, has been in the thrid floor of the main section. 10 minutes to walk, three to run.
Maybe four, if he didn't have various close calls on his way.

9:38.18

Nico rushed into Linda's office without any further warning. All he got to see was her wearing a VR headset, sitting on her chair in the middle of the room.
She whispered various notes to herself to be recorded "Reduce diametre to 27 millimetres, H7, no H6. Reduce extrusion by 5 milimetres, part used to collide with alternating load."
Her faint voice and noteably greasy hair indicated that she has been working on this project through the whole weekend.
"Linda?" Nico tried to make contact with her to no response.

He tapped on her shoulder, to which she twitched and spoke slightly more audible "Intruder, get out. Calibration is compromised."
Following that she tiredly moaned for over ten seconds and briefly after that seemed to tipped over, off her chair. However, she managed to catch her momentum.
For Nico it has been enough, he stripped the headset off her "What do you think are you doing?"

Linda glared at him, but zoned out. A focus uninterrupted for three days and the same amount of fatigue made her collapse. Nico caught her before she would fall head-first out of the chair "Hey! Linda, are you okay?"
She passed out.


Linda was transferred to the medical office of the company. Nico stayed for a while to make sure she was secure. After that he left and made a call to his personnel office "I checked her project documentation, Linda is trying to do everything on her own. What were you thinking by giving her this position?"
He spent the next five minutes fending off arguments, but noticed that it was pointless at the moment anyway. Nico simply hung up and marched to the main development office next.

10:15.46

"Lerod! Where are you?" Nico yelled through the office, impatient from a way too busy Monday morning.
He noticed a noise from a separate office "Moment!"
Nico walked towards the origin of the noise, as Kevin Lerod appeared in front of him "Oh, Mister Bovier!"
"How's it going?" Nico casually asked and looked around the rather silent office "Nothing, I see?"
"We hardly had any work, as that girl took everything on her shoulders." Lerod explained.

Nico turned away to surpress an expression of his frustration, then faced his employee again "And you thought this was fine to keep up?"
Before he could hear an answer, Nico turned away to look into an opposing office. A single person was sitting on their workstation and hammered into a keyboard.
"May I help you?" they asked, soft and quiet, while not averting their gaze from the monitor.
"What are you working on?" Nico simply asked. His voice shifted to curiousity, but his distress was still existent in it.
"Editting the data of Miss Greyson." they explained "I talked with her last Friday and am not surprised to sit here now."
Nico approached this person closer "A bet? With Linda?"

They simply nodded.

"Would you be ready to talk about a new position?"

[Jonny]

Faster Than Angels
Jennterista Racing Chronicles
Operation: Final Overture

The FTA project really grew in the amount of narration and ideas it amassed over time. Frankly I wasn't able to maintain my older works to keep a level of writing that was appropriate by now, furthermore a lot of holes showed up.
I decided to cancel all my other writing projects, to solely focus on my first one, to honour the past and present. To move into the future with a feeling of accomplishment (not saying I would stop writing FTA soon).
All older parts will be revised in order to connect all ideas I developed over this time in one refined, flowing continuity.
Here is a list of parts that passed revision. I will mention the state of things after every new entry to NJRS.

[stin]

Thank you for your hard work and enjoyed it.

Stevie 😊

[Jonny]

Arc: NJRS - #008
Title: Phase Shift

11:05.21

"A new position?" she asked, finally averting her gaze from the monitor.
"Vice Technical Director." Nico explained "You would mainly assists Miss Greyson in leading the R&D ressort of Jennter."
She sighed and looked back at her work "I don't know if I would be qualified for such a position."
Nico turned away, looking to the floor "Right, it would be too much a risk perhaps..."
"I'll do it!" the woman stood up while raising her voice. Nico was surprised at how short she was.

Nico looked back at her and smiled "Then, congratulations, Miss uhh..."
"Arkana Terrenzia." she introduced herself "I just recently transferred from the Mars division of Jennter Enterprises.
"Good, Miss Terrenzia." Nico continued "Let's find you an office."
She nodded and silently followed him as Nico lead the way.
"As for Linda, she is currently in the medical office and should take some days off." he said to Arkana while moving through the floors.
"Oh." Arkana merely sighed, thinking about the situation given her previous interaction with Linda.
"She really overworked herself. It is a bit tough to imagine that she really sat on it alone for three days." his voice filled with a sense of worry and anger.
"It is not so surprising." she threw in "Linda, uhh... Miss Greyson is a prodigy on the field of engineering. But she isn't accustomed to real engineering work."
Nico shock his head "I really don't know who thought it was a great idea to put her into this position already."
"Yet here you are, dragging me along..." the woman uttered.
"What?" Nico was about to pick that remark up, but couldn't believe his eyes this moment.

Linda stood there, about to enter her office.
"Go home, Linda!" Nico yelled over at her.
She appeared worn, like someone who attended a festival for three days. She mustered Nico and the woman next to him.
"You..." she uttered "Are you going to replace me already...?"
Arkana stayed quiet.
"No." Nico sighed "Miss Terrenzia will be your assistant."
Linda glared at them "An assistant? Do you have nothing better to worry about, than how to humiliate me, Bovier!?"

Nico wanted to dismiss her already, but Arkana moved forward.
"Miss Greyson, you are a valuable ressorce in this team." she spoke, her voice being determined, but soft.
Linda laughed "Of course, I am. That's why I am here."
"Miss Greyson." she made another step forward "This is a team, Miss Greyson. The team needs you."
Linda's laugh became irregular "Naturally they do, someone got to carry it."
"But, Miss Greyson. You need a team." Arkana said, moving further towards Linda.
"I need no one." she yelled in return.

"Even the most brilliant people worked with others."
"I am-Huh-"
"It is okay, we only strife through learning."
"No, I am-"
"Linda."

Arkana stood there, embracing Linda, who fell to her knees.

---

Final Overture Update 1
As promised, I began to rework the old FTA parts of my continuity. The first 5 can be easily accessed here.
Mind that the plot of "Final Overture" is the only canonic one for my works, even if it affects NJRS!
Anyway, I am having a lot of fun with these stories nowadays, so I hope to increase my speed a bit more

[Jonny]

Arc: NJRS - #009
Title: Change of Tones

Monte Carlo Nouveau, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Friday, 17th March 2215
10:34.22


"We are ready to join the track!" a technician signalled the team leadership.
"Patrick will leave first, for overall track acclimatisation. With the standard craft, this will be a tough one." Nico gave order with a wave to which the number one Jennter craft was moved out of the pit box.
"The facilities are worse than anywhere else, unbelieveable that they hold an AG race on this track in this day and age." Linda lamented, scratching her head over a piece of simulation results and setup proposals.

Said track has been a modern twist on an old Grand Prix circuit flowing through the streets of the small country at the Cote d'Azure. Once packed with pomp and glamour, it now felt like time stopped. But this began to attact an entirely different group of clientele into the city. Unlike the old track, the modern Monte Carlo Circuit floated at low altitude over the city, mimicking the grid of old European roads, just as a size practicable enough for anti-gravity racers.


"Alright, Aurora." Nico directed his attention to the second pilot of the team "Against all odds a certain pair in our team managed to complete the next evolution step of your craft."
Arkana was found with a brimming smile, which turned out to be a bit more awkward for Linda.
"Are we going to complete a race distance today?" the android asked.
"In the second session today, yes. We'll conduct the usual tests at first."

Aurora nodded and walked off towards her new JAG-F12.212/5C. Barely different from the B-type model it's internals sported several new components.
"Send craft two onto the track as soon as the pilot is ready." the team leader spoke into his headset.

Briefly later it joined the floating circuit as the same scene from the previous race repeated. A simple auxiliary AG unit carried the craft at low speeds, until it dropped the gear of the external 'AG generator ring'.
The first corner of the track has been a narrow uphill right-hand corner, which demonstrated one of the perks of this system, as the craft sharply tilted to the side and in return angled perfectly for the corner.
"It feels very drifty now, but let me get used to it, please." Aurora reported through the radio.


Jennter Enterprises HQ, Düssedorf, Germany
Saturday, 11th March 2215
20:05.52

Linda wildly drove her right hand through her hair as she navigated through ComKonWerk.
"Dammit, where is it?" she cussed at the screen while glarring at the time of day.
"Search function...plane system extrusion. No results." she uttered, followed by her first crashing onto the desk she sat on.
Arkana entered her office with no warning, knowing what situation to expect.
"This damned, outdated, unintuitive, ******, f****** piece of ****** garbage program developed by some high on sh** c***." the lead engineer kept uttering.
For a moment Arkana stood behind Linda, observing her screen. She bowed over her from behind and calmly began to take control of the program.
"Don't." Linda yelled at her "Stop."
It didn't distract her assistant "The ply strenght there is 1.394 millimetres, right?"
"No...yes." was the snappy response.
"I hope you could follow what I did." Arkana said after letting go off the control.
"Of course." Linda tossed at her "Was about to find it out myself."
"Oh really?" she questioned her superior "So I guess the ruckus was because you spilled your coffee or something, right?"
"I don't drink that garbage." Linda tried to avert.
Arkana chuckled "Hard to believe, hearing this from someone who graduated one semester earlier from the regular schedule."
"Different times." she tried to shrug it off and faced her computer again.

"Swallow your pride and just ask someone if you don't know further." as Arkana said that, she left the office.
Linda sat there for a moment until she whispered "Thank you."