Brian Mikkelsen had been looking forward to his two weeks leave after two weeks of working on MAERSK Drilling's Tyra field. Transfer onshore on the 24th of May 2015, after next shift and a good day's sleep. Transfer never came, neither did the 24th of May 2015. Nor did he wake in his own body.
A Ponies after People side story to Starscribe's fine work The Last Pony on Earth.
Reviewed as highly recommended by Present Perfect
Awesome cover art by celestiawept!
Now with a Russian translation by Alkarasu :)
More art! Colour sketch for chapter two by ierf.
Chapters (2)
Nice job! A sad look into what would happen on such a remote platform.
And the cycle continues. Holy horseapples. That was amazing, but terrifying. I can only imagine how horrified Celestia would be to know this was happening to the returners.
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Thanks guys. The story evolved in my head yesterday, demanded research and then I couldn't sleep.
Aw, man... There's a looot of bad places to wind up when the world winds up like that.
At least it didn't hurt to go.
And this is why Moriah calls the Equestrian princesses murderers.
Fantastically done. Judicious with length, expressive with language. and has that emotional connection too. How many thousands of others are going to suffer fates like this?
I don't even want to think about it.
...who actually thinks to themselves, "that smells like hydrocarbons"? That's the kind of term you use in academic papers and corporate bulletins, not in the back of your head while panicking.
Also, drilling rigs tend to smell at least faintly of oil and grease, everywhere, all the time, so the smell of "hydrocarbons" is not a particularly noteworthy feature in itself.
Also also, you should feel free to ignore this. Just nitpicking a bit
Not important.
6389576 Thanks for the praise, it means a lot.
After writing this I can understand Moriah. I may not agree with her overall assessment, but I can understand her. The princesses 'made sure your world wouldn't burn'; they just didn't know that our high tech civilization has far more efficient ways of making vast swathes of it uninhabitable or downright deadly for a very long time. Even without nuclear disasters.
And which Equestrian would even understand the concept of offshore platforms if not explained in intricate detail?
After ruining the North Sea and the Baltic Sea I'll continue with ruining continental Europe. So much densely packed infrastructure to play with. Plus the HPI didn't get everywhere in time. *happy sigh*
6389912 You're right, but hydrocarbons is a beautiful word and gives much more flavour (heh) than 'crude oil' or 'petroleum fumes'. At least for me ;)
Brian wasn't thinking much at all, I guess. So there, artistic freedom
Yuo wouldn't have to be remote to have a bad time of it. Though a oil rig would be a nasty place. Wonder why he didn't consider the tender or other escape methods modern Oil rigs are mandated to have
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Can't argue against that. I simply assumed he couldn't get there, it wasn't working anymore (I don't know how far into the future this is happening) or simply that anything not airtight that drops you into a very large, fresh oil slick would be deadly because the gas at Tyra contains a lot of hydrogen sulfide in addition to all the other nasties. Describing it all would also have increased the word count a lot and I didn't want that. So 'hooves' and 'rotten eggs' was my way of summing it up.
But your comment led to me to spending an additional two hours on platform research so that I now know even more about them
Platform Tyra B (or East)
The Tyra field
North sea platforms. There are about a thousand of them between the UK, Norway and Denmark (it's not a very good picture). Yup, the North Sea is dead. Tyra is the one farthest to the east.
6397067 Of course maybe he was just unlucky to be the third or later person to wake up on the rig. The escape pods are designed to work without power be capsize proof. While they hope for helicopters to rescue people after the lost of life from Piper Alpha and other such rigs they can't always wait for helicopters
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Well, Brian was at least #3, judging by the remains of the two other returnees. We can't know if there were any more on other parts, if they managed to leave or how much time has passed since the Event. Perhaps Fiona can figure something out?
Anyway, your continued input is really appreciated!
6397280 I will assume he was at least the fifth since depending on the size of the crew there would be at least 2 escape boats. As you pointed out several times he was very well drilled on safety procedures. Lacking power to call for rescue, escape is the next step if you can't stay where you are
6391502 You named your brain Brian? Simple, yet clever.
Very depressing, but you know that this kind of thing is going to happen all around the world. Perhaps in the future, the new society will be able to provide a means to signal for help for all new arrivals in obscure places, but it's never going to be perfect.
6562413 Thanks for commenting, much appreciated!
One can hope. Maybe an automated crystal array for detection of arrival events? ;)
Very memorable, I enjoyed reading that. Good food for thought.
6575105 Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.
Wheee......
Thundarr the Barbarian....Island of the Body Snatchers.
So, are we going to hear Fiona's story?
6919314 I speculated a bit about that but decided against it. I think the style would become tiring and I already packed all the atmospheric descriptions I could come up with and take from my research into the story. In the end I also guess her fate will be very similar.
6919314 Well, what do you know... here it is.
Damn, but that's dark. And yet, still more optimistic than the previous chapter...
Also, I feel really slow. It took me until the very last line to figure out what she was doing at the end, even though it should have been obvious.
7842814 Yes, at least this time someone managed to leave the platform. Don't know if she'll make it though - or even if she should. Hmm... maybe this kind of fate is one possible backstory for the appearance of feral griffons.
Guess I could spend the next decade writing LPoE fics.
Nah, don't. I just didn't feel like spelling it out in any detail. Tried it, but cut it away again, it just didn't match the tone of the rest. Implying it was more fun, and I spent a lot of time on the last part and those five sentences in particular. And the position of the 'exit' sign.
Is it still cannibalism when you're no longer the same species?
7843933 Was wondering that myself, but I'd say yes in the case of fresh returnees. They're still very much human inside after all. Now natural born griffons and ponies? 'Barbaric' maybe, but not cannibalism.
7842814 I probably wrote too many words about pony-eating griffons, since my first thought was "well, at least she has a snack".
7843064 Well, for some of them it could be a backstory. Not for many, though, since it would require them to be with a pony (preferably a dead one, too), in a situation as dire as being trapped on that platform.
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That was my thought as well, after 'How would it play out with a different species?', 'How about two returnees together?' and 'How about a pony and a griffon?'
"Helga not carry breakfast fly high. Helga have breakfast, then fly high."
And yes, not a backstory for many. But a possible one for some. I'd like to see what became of Fiona, Scandinavia is not very densely populated. According to Starscribe, ponies are not the majority of returnees in Europe. But that's not a story I'm going to write.
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Heh... and I just noticed that I forgot the very last line I wanted to write. So that it reads 3 times 'the' and 3 times 'there'. Fixed that.
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*grumbles about fixing the translation*
Well, that's one ominous line.
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Fixed a few other things as well. :b Nothing worth fixing your translation for though, just some wording.
Nope!
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Ha, probably! I was too stuck wondering how were "they" going to escape or die to think of it that easily.
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Gah. That's a creepy extra line! Good work!
Little scetch about this
http://ierf.deviantart.com/art/Tyra-B-656449633?ga_submit_new=10%253A1484001820&ga_type=edit&ga_changes=1&ga_recent=1
7855546 Oh wow. Art!
Thank you! I've put the link to the picture and to you in the description.
7855608 I am very glad that you like this picture. I had hoped that the atmosphere corresponds to the story
Teamwork takes many forms, some more... metabolic than others.
A vivid, visceral portrayal of survival in one of the most inhospitable return points imaginable. Thank you for it.
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Thank's for the kind words, it means a lot to me. Of all the things I've written, this is the one I'm most proud of ;)
two words: Safety Drill.
Man this was something alright. How many more will meet this same fate...
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EEEEVVVIIIILLLL!
I dont know if i should hate you or like you for that. I'll probably end up reading it either way.
Well... that went about as well as expected. Truly only a sane person would justify their actions by calling them sane, right?
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I had great fun writing it!
Thank you either way ;)
LPoE has been a while ago now though, so I'm not sure I'll actually follow up on the threat. I'd still like to, though. My first priority LPoE-wise would be to finish Northland... I hate to have sit there incomplete.
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It's amazing what a person can rationalise under sufficient pressure, although 'rational' doesn't necessarily describe Fiona's state of mind at that point.
But thanks for reading and, especially, commenting!
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no, no. Thank you for responding. Always love it when an author responds to my comments despite a story being a bit older
I got some of your other stories on my reading list so i'm sure you'll see me there at some point
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Wow that Dark tag is no joke!
I'm impressed with the detached writing style and how it seems to fit the grim situation. It adds a lot of emotion simply by not being emotional.
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Thank you!
I'm happy it worked for you as intended... it was one of those stories that forcefully insisted on being written.
Also thanks for the follow.
Whoa! This certainly took some turns!
I love how you wrote this. :D
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Thank you!
Well, that took a turn I didn't expect.
Excellent work!
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Thank you! It's so nice when an old story gets some love.
I can't dislike this story, as it's very well writen from begining to end.
But at the same time.... It rightfully earned that Dark tag.