Joe heads on, because it's not like he's going to fly up there himself.  And this isn't a cartooney enough sonic setting for him to just grappling hook his way into the sky... Or is it?... No, darn.

  "See you when we get back.  Well, that or not and you enact horrible revenge."

Moving Right Along. The trip back to the weather station proves uneventful, aside from Timothius doing tricks in the air to entertain himself.

With communicator in hand, the freedom fighters are able to provide communication between Emerald and the robian in charge of the weather station. When Mercia is brought up as an option, the robian falls silent. "....I had hoped not to bring attention to my old home. But you may be right. It may be the only hope left for this weather station."

"Good luck getting revenge on a crashed machine that killed us from lack of fuel," Lucky grumbled.

During the trip he cheered Timothius on and engaged the others in as pleasant conversation as he could manage to pass the time.

At the station Lucky mews, "I don't know what to recommend.  On the one hand, relatively safe hiding place destination with no chance of repairs.  On the other, a place with a good chance for repairs but unknown danger.  I guess it boils down to how altruistic you are.  This station could be used to save lives, especialy in droughted lands.  You can save yourselves or take a chance to save others."

  "At this point, such a noteworthy vessel would attract attention to your old home merely by existing.  May as well get some practical use out of the infamy."

The robian pauses at what Joe says... and nods. "You have a point. Home it is."

Shelly smiles. "A new place sounds exciting!" oh, sure, she could have said that no matter which destination they chose, but she wanted to say something positive.

Timothius also smiles and Mei-Ling hugs the nearest person, biting her lower lip nervously.

After giving the order, the robian then says, "About your craft... if our home is able to be used for repair, I think we can refill your craft's fuel while we're doing repairs."

Lucky sweatdrops at all the smiling, wondering what he missed that was so happy about a life-threatening trip no one may return from.

"That's an 'if' we cannot risk.  We barely have enough fuel to make it back to the ground, so if your home cannot refuel it, we'll never get back to our home.  Whatever we can help you with will have to happen before you depart."

  Joe somehow doubts timing will be so considerate to prevent going along for the ride in all this.  "On that note, we may as well get to whatever we can while we are here."

The robian says, "Then this is where we part ways. The weather station is already on its way to our old home. Farewell."

Milloni says, "I guess so... I mean... if you are already on your way, we don't have time to assist you in any other way."

The robian responds, "You have given us a radio with which to communicate with Channelwood. You have helped us decide our destination. There is little more you can do for us now unless you stayed with us to guard us. However, we will remember you and will likely come back once we have finished repairs."

Shelly says, "Even if you don't come back, you can stay in touch via the communicator."

The robian nods. And with that, Shelly begins to head out with the others.

Lucky is so relieved he and his friends didn't wind up trapped on a doomed, dying vessel on a one-way trip over the ocean he nearly collapses.

"H-happy to be of help!  Glad you're on your way home.  Save travels and best of luck to you!"

He follows Shelly's lead, still nervous about the return trip.

"So far so good.  Here's hoping we make it back to the ground without a hitch."

  "I know your name is Lucky and all, but talk like that can get Murphy to listen to even you."

  Later that week Lucky would yell how glad he was he didn't drop his icecream.  When tragedy strikes.

  WRONG FLAVOR.  Murphy keeps you guessing.

Shelly squeaks, "Positive thinking, Joe! Positive!"

Mei-Ling says, "I wish Joe was wrong, but it seems Murphy doesn't even care about how oppressed we are."

Timothius says, "Let's just be careful and not worry overmuch about our words changing the shape of the universe. We have enough to worry about just making it through a day."

Milloni listens to all this and begins tapping away at her portable computer.

Lucky has always believed that if he were to truly live up to his name he wouldn't have been born in an eara of an evil tyrant bent on turning everyone into robo slaves.  So Joe's warning makes him nervous.

"Thanks for the advise, I guess..."

He nods to Timothius and reaches for a side-hug for comfort.  He turns a nervous glances at Milloni.  "Something wrong, Milloni?"

  Joe thinks Miloni is calculating the numerical odds of disaster.  "True Tim.   despite what time worn self help books tend to say, a combination of Spite and Apathy is surprisingly healthy in making it through the apocalypse."

Milloni says, "Oh! Just doing some probability equations." (OOC: Fun fact! This part of the post was typed before Joe had posted)

Shelly glances at Joe. "Yeah. We've got one of those at Aquarius. I assume you've met Thomas?"

Timothius says, "Yeah... poor guy."

Once the group is aboard the craft, Milloni does a quick overview of the fuel and the consumption rate. "We got enough to make it home safely. If Timothius glides behind us again, Mei-Ling could get a sample of this thing's fuel and hopefully find a way to produce more later. Looks like we have ourselves a craft, folks!"

Lucky appreciates Milloni using more certain language this time about not running out of fuel.

"Shelly gets along just fine with her kindness and sunshine," Lucky counters Joe, "And plenty others as well."

He headtilts curiously at Miloni.  "Good to hear.  Those equations about anything I would understand?"

  "I've met Thomasin passing.  And yes Lucky, but Shelly is a generally more pleasant person in the first place."

  Joe can be optimistic.  For example, he is optimistic Mei Ling will work out how to produce a flammable fuel substance without burning down Channelwood.

Considering Mei-Ling is an Aquarius Freedom Fighter who works under water, that's a relatively low optimism.

Milloni says, "You tell me: P_M = -K_M (e - I*C*U+F over F_M -1) ...in layman's terms, an equation of Murphy's Law. I can explain the equation if you like?" she seems excited at the idea, tail wagging.

Shelly giggles. "Thanks, guys."

"That she is," Lucky says with a smile for Shelly.

He then nods to Milloni, smiling to see her so happy.  "Just bear in mind I'm no mathematician.  I at least managed to pass Algebra I, though."

  "I've heard some mention Murphy's law is more of an art than a science, but I wouldn't be surprised if a complicated math formula would be easier than basically guessing when it comes to getting your expectations right."

Milloni says, "PM is the Murphy’s probability that something will go wrong. KM is Murphy’s constant (equal to one) and FM is Murphy’s factor, a very small number. Here we will approximate it by FM ≈ 0.01. Similar to previous work, I, C, U and F are parameters on a scale of 1-10 describing the situation of interest. I is the importance of the result or outcome of the event, C is the complexity of the system, U is the urgency and F is the frequency..." and she continues chatting about it to Lucky.

Timothius does opt to go outside to make life easier for everyone. The trip is relatively pleasant, though the craft acts clunky due to all the stuff removed from it. When the craft is landed, the freedom fighters get busy dissecting the craft to make sure it is not only reusable, but doesn't have any tracking devices on it.

---

Here's the website with the equation and its explanation:
http://www.scq.ubc.ca/the-murphys-law-equation/
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:56, Mon 09 June 2014.

Lucky shrugs at Joe's comment.  "Now I'm imagining an artist painting a painting of a painting falling into paint thinner."

He listens carefully to Milloni, asking for explanations whenever she gives him a chance.  Lucky smiles and wishes Timothius a pleasant flight.  But he's visibly relieved once the group touches down.  Doesn't go as far as to kiss the ground.  He offers to help out however he can with the disassembly.

  Joe hmms,  "Would that be a painting of their own falling in, or a painting by somebody they do not like?"

  He takes the landing a bit more calmly, but that comes with the territory when you swing around on a grappling hook a lot.

After the craft has been thoroughly examined and Milloni gives it her stamp of approval, Katy then asks that the craft stay in Channelwood. Her reasoning being that the only time Aquarius FF fight above ground is when they join up with Channelwood FF anyway.

Shelly easily agrees to it.

Katy then asks the group to come and celebrate with some food. Shelly gives everyone hugs for a job well done!

"Their own.  But I suppose the other idea kinda makes sense."

Lucky gladly accepts Katy's invitation.  He makes sure Katy gets a hug too and returns Shelly's hug, smiling brightly.

"All's well that ends with a hug from a beautiful princess!  Right, Katy?"

=^.^=

  Princess hugs are the best hugs, next to whatever kind of hugs you get later that are not princess hugs.

  It's kind of a sliding scale.

  "Good to be back with everyone not dead, Katy."  Joe you are terrible at comforting phrases.  But this lack of social skills is part of why you decided to hook up with these people instead of continuing the loner bit.