#day 24 uranium fever

[thesconesyard]

Yeehaw! I really, really, really wanted to make the uranium fit. With my fascination with all that is nuclear, uranium was the perfect, perfect prompt. Alas! With the unofficially Old West setting of my tale, it just did not fit with the timeline of uranium’s boom in the States. So, I substituted for what would have been a more likely Old West boom theme.

When the Cactus Blooms

24. Uranium Fever

“They found gold on the Herndorff place.”

Sulu’s statement had everyone at the table looking at him. He had gone to town that morning for some supplies and the mail.

“Everyone was buzzing about it at Gaila’s.”

“And what were you doing at Gaila’s?” Uhura asked with a wry smile.

“Catching up on the gossip of course,” Sulu smiled broadly back.

“That’s the saloon in town,” McCoy saw Chekov whisper to Jaylah.

“Uh huh,” Uhura laughed.

“Someone may have asked me to pick up a bottle of something for them while I was in town,” Sulu continued, and many sets of eyes looked down at McCoy.

“Hey!” he laughed in surprise. “It wasn’t me!”

“Sure Bones,” Jim said, eyes twinkling.

“Who it was is between me and them,” Sulu said.

“So what is happening at Herndorff’s?” Spock asked. “More searching? Mining?”

“Oh please don’t let it start a boom,” Christine groaned.

“We’ve had too much unlawfulness as it is lately,” Scotty agreed.

McCoy couldn’t help but see John Harrison’s and Krall’s faces behind his eyelids as he took a deep breath.

“They’re going to do some more searching, see if they can find more. Prospect a bit,” Sulu finally answered Spock.

“Well, good luck to them,” Jim said.

“What did you have Sulu bring?” McCoy asked as he and Scotty walked along the creek.

“Me?” Scotty asked, feigning surprise.

“Yes you,” McCoy laughed. “I know that glint in your eye and I saw it when Sulu said.”

“I’ve been drinking all your whisky, thought it was time to pay back the favor, so I had him get me some. Though,” he said quietly, “it’s never quite as good as at home.”

McCoy thought for a moment.

“Len?”

“Hmm? Oh. You always call it home. Isn’t here home now?”

“Well- yes- but—”

“But you want to go back someday,” McCoy finished. His heart skipped in his chest and his shoulders grew heavy.

“I would like to,” Scotty whispered. “But I cannae can I? Not if I want Robbie safe.”

“I’m sorry darlin’. I wish I could do something to help.”

“You do love, you do.”

A few mornings later Jaylah came racing around the corner to the shade of the stables. She was out of breath, and collapsed in a heap next to McCoy.

“What is it?” McCoy cried, looking at her worried and already reaching to take her pulse.

Jaylah looked up and opened her hand. It was dripping for some reason, and in the center of her palm sat something, gleaming pale yellow.

Around her everyone looked on in surprise.

“Where…!?” Jim exclaimed.

“The creek… I… I was walking…” Jaylah panted out.

“Catch your breath first,” McCoy insisted.

Jaylah took a few deep breaths and Chekov brought her some water.

“I was walking along the creek, past the big tree the doctor likes to sit at with Montgomery Scotty—”

McCoy felt his face warm at that and saw Scotty’s cheeks color as well. Jim raised a cocky eyebrow at him.

“—and I saw it in the water. Is it really what I think?” she demanded.

Spock took the rock from her hand and looked it over closely.

“As far as I can tell, yes. It is gold.” He handed it to Jim.

“Christine isn’t going to like this,” Jim said with a laugh.

“What do we do?” Chekov asked.

“See if there’s more lad!” Scotty said eagerly.

Jim sighed, and McCoy looked over.

“What is it kid?” he asked.

“As much as it would be good for the ranch,” Jim said slowly, “it would change things too. It definitely warrants a better look, but I think it’s a decision for all of us to make. We all live here.” He stood up. “But for now, come on, let’s go look. We can decide after we see if there’s gonna be more.”

Jaylah took another drink and then began to lead the way to where she had found the gold.

“So that’s it,” Jim finished at dinner. He had filled everyone in on Jaylah’s find. “We seem to have two options. Prospect and search for more, mine if we do, or we can ignore it and simply enjoy it as a bonus if we find some from time to time.” He looked at each person around the table. “There are ten of us now, so I hope we don’t end up in a tie.” He grinned.

“We’ve all ended up here for a reason, which is beyond me to know why,” Scotty said slowly. “And we’ll always be open to others like us wanting to join us, but to just let anyone around, especially ones who just want to make it rich, that isn’t appealing to me.”

“I like the quiet way we have now,” McCoy agreed.

“Me too,” Christine agreed and reached over to squeeze McCoy’s hand.

“I do not like to be around lots of people,” Jaylah said softly.

“Riches would be nice,” Chekov said, “but not if it disrupts what we already have.”

“I agree with Pavel,” Sulu said, smiling across the table.

“It could add income to the ranch,” Uhura said, “but it would come with a price I don’t think we want to pay.”

“Uhura makes a good point about added income. And if Herndorff finds enough to begin a mining operation, things may become more expensive. More income would not be a bad thing. However, I agree that what we have now is worth more than a few nuggets of gold.”

“Why Spock—” McCoy began, grin curling his mouth upward.

“No changes,” Keenser cut him off.

Jim smiled at the head of the table. “That seems settled then.”

“What do we do with this piece?” Jaylah asked, pointing at the nugget on the table in front of her.

“It’s yours,” Jim gave her a slightly puzzled look. “You found it. Sell it, keep it, whatever you want. And that goes for everyone. If you find any, you choose what you want to do.”

“Thank you James T, but you take it for the ranch,” Jaylah said. “For all you have done for me that I can’t repay.” She picked up the rock and held it across in front of Chekov, up towards Jim.

“Jaylah— no,” Jim began.

“Yes,” Jaylah said firmly, standing up and moving towards Jim. She put the nugget in his hand. Jim looked helplessly down the table.

“Ahh, take it kid,” McCoy said. He gave Jim a look, and Jim gave a tiny nod.

“Ok,” Jim said to Jaylah, “But just this once.”

[waywardwizzard]

Book stared out of the viewing window, his heart sinking at the sight of the busy space port.

"Uranium fever," he whispered, his voice lost in the noise.

Mal joined him in front of the window. He grinned humorously.

"Sad, ain't it?"

The Shepherd glanced at him, frowning.

"That most of 'em won't leave ever again," Mal elaborated, his eyes dark.

"Their Serenity Valley," Book added quietly, ignoring the way the Captain tensed.

Both men stood in silence, each lost in their own thoughts and memories.

[baubeautyandthegeek]

Well, you pack up your things, you head out again//Into some unknown spot where nobody's been//You reach the spot where your fortune lies – Sarah Connor/Kate Riley

A/N: Day 24 of @yeehawgust and we have some Treminator. That's Terminator crossed with @thetremorssaga.

Uranium. Everyone went crazy for the stuff. Not so much Sarah Connor, but she needed money and she needed it fast, so she set out, alone, to find a place that hadn’t been picked clean. She hadn’t expected to find her destiny there. Kate Riley, career scientist, had been going slowly broke for years before turning to Uranium to keep herself afloat, finding the longer she did it, the less she cared who she had to screw or screw over to get her hands on the stuff. She hadn’t exactly planned for her life to change… Sarah meets Kate as Kate’s packing up the last place Sarah had thought she had a chance to get hold of Uranium and get enough to help her keep both herself and her son, currently with his aunt at the local saloon, fed and housed. Silence falls after Sarah pleads her case and Kate is tempted to brush the woman off, like she always has before, but there’s something in the tremble of the woman’s hands that makes her stop. Sarah, she thinks, looks truly exhausted, too skinny to really be lying and… much as she had pushed the thoughts down hard on seeing her… the woman had the qualities to her voice and eyes that make her want to keep the woman alive… “Fine, go get your son, you want the money, you’d better stick with me…” It's a rough start and Kate’s not sure what in the hell made her offer, but there’s something in Sarah’s fleeting smile that makes her feel slightly less lost and alone. Perhaps that, she thinks, is why. Loneliness.

[wishing4nuclearwinter]

Yeehawgust Day 24: Uranium Fever

A Fallout redraw of the 1950s board game Uranium Rush

[cowboypunkcolt]

Yeehawgust, goofy fun characters edition Day 24: Uranium Fever Day 27: A Whole Heap of Trouble Day 29: Mighty Fine Shootin' Day 20: Rodeo Clown Day 30: Bottom of the Barrel

[adventuresofjasperboone]

Yeehawgust Day 24: Uranium Fever

[skidar]

Yeehawgust Day 24: Uranium Fever

I know nothing about Fallout but old west medicine brimming with narcotics and other substances that were totally legal back then always fascinates me.

[hackoftheyear]

Yeehawgust Day 24: Uranium Fever

The fizz of an ice cream float made with spicy sarsaparilla soda and salted lime ice cream. Roasted and seasoned pinyon nuts blend the top notes into a heart of smoky-sweet mesquite wood and pinyon resin.

[g0nefischin]

Yeehawgust 2023

Day 24 - Uranium Fever

The source of all power

[bigbighouse]

"uranium fever" for yeehawgust day 24! we love to eat weird rocks in the desert

[my-funky-little-cowboy]

Yeehawgust 2023 - Day 24 - Uranium Fever

[lost-technology]

Plant Yeehawgust Day 24 - Uranium Fever [IMG ID: A Plant from Trigun, in Trigun Maximum manga style. This is a creature that looks like a young woman with feathers for hair and little winged baby / cherub torsos growing from her back in addition to another adult-torso. She also has feather-tipped tendrils and is surrounded by long feathers. She is in a glass bulb looking out and the exterior is glowing. Gray graphite pencil drawing. / END IMG ID.] "Plant... the thing that produces.. Water, UV rays, oxygen... depending on how much electricity is fed to one it can defy the laws of physics and produce organic systems." _ Trigun (first manga volume, Dark Horse translation). "Well I don't know but I've been told uranium ore's worth more than gold - Sold my 'Cad, bought me a Jeep, I've got that bug and I can't sleep. Uranium fever's done and got me down..." - Elton Britt In Noman's Land that which is worth more than gold (or uranium) is a Plant. Plants are the biological generators that make human life possible on that barren wasteland of a planet. Used and too often abused - much like uranium ore, they have limitless potential: They can power a city... or destroy it.

[rabbitcruiser]

Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day

Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day commemorates the start of the  California Gold Rush, which began on January 24, 1848, when James  Marshall discovered gold while building a saw mill for John Sutter, near  what is now Coloma, California. The day has its roots in International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and was inspired by Prospectors Day, which was once held at Knott's Berry Farm each year on January 24. It also was inspired by an episode of the Simpsons with the following exchange:

Bart: That ain't been popular since aught-six, dagnabbit. Homer: Bart, what did I tell you? Bart: No talking like a grizzled 1890's prospector, consarn it.

Common examples of characters talking like grizzled prospectors in popular culture include Dallas McKennon narrating Disneyland's Mine Train Thru Nature's Wonderland and Big Thunder Mountain, Gabby Hayes—both drunk and sober—in many Western films, Gabby Johnson in Blazing Saddles, Will Ferrell as Gus Chiggins on Saturday Night Live, and Walter Huston in The Treasure of Sierra Madre.

Prospectors first came to the Sacramento Valley after Marshall found  flakes of gold in the American River near Sutter's Mill, at the base of  the Sierra Nevada Mountains. At the time there were less than 1,000  non-native inhabitants in California. Newspapers began reporting the  discovery of gold, and by August, 4,000 miners had descended on the  area. The first people that came from outside of the territory came by  boat, and arrived from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands—soon to be called  the Hawaiian Islands, Mexico, Peru, China, and Chili.

In December 1848, President James K. Polk announced a report by  Colonel Richard Mason which spoke of the abundance of gold in  California; this prompted more prospectors to travel to the territory.  Throughout 1849, thousands arrived, either traveling by sea or over  land, and became known as '49ers. Mining towns popped up in the area,  and with them came shops, saloons, and brothels. Many mining towns  became lawless, and San Francisco became an important city in the  territory. By the end of 1849, the non-native population had swelled to  100,000. The Gold Rush helped California gain statehood in 1850, and  gold discovery peaked in the state in 1852. In all, more than 750,000  pounds of gold were extracted during the Gold Rush.

The implication of a grizzled prospector is of one who has stayed so  long searching for gold that their hair has turned gray. Some  prospectors refused to quit the profession and continued to live in the  Western territories. So, when Bart Simpson mentioned a grizzled  prospector from the 1890s, he was referring to a prospector that had  stayed more than forty years after the Gold Rush happened, still trying  to find gold, or other commodities such as silver, oil, radium, and  uranium. Besides a gray beard, the stereotypical grizzled prospector had  faded clothes, missing teeth, a pickaxe, and a mule. They had bouts of  gold fever, and were suspicious of whoever came close to their claim.

How to Observe Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day

Celebrate the day talking like a grizzled prospector. Here are a few words prospectors commonly used, that you could use today:

Dadburn: to curse; e.g.: "Dadburned boll weevil done 'et my crop!"

Hornswoggle: to embarrass, disconcert, or confuse; e.g.: "I'll be hornswaggled!"

Consarn: the entirety of something, also a curse word.

Dumbfungled: all used up; e.g.: "This claim is dumbfungled! There's no gold left!"

Bonanza: a mine with lots of gold.

Borrasca: a mine with no gold.

Baby buggy: wheel barrow.

Muck: to dig with a shovel.

Powder monkey: a miner who used dynamite to make holes.

Johnny Newcome: a miner new to camp.

Blackjack and saw bosom: coffee and bacon.

Paydirt: land rich in gold.

Panned out: if they had found gold while sifting through dirt with a mining pan, then things had "panned out."

Flash in the pan: something shiny in pan that turned out to be nothing, or just a small piece of gold.

Stake a claim: claim a piece of land as your own as a place to  search for gold, must stake the land with wooden stakes when you arrive.

The day could also be spent watching films such as The Treasure of Sierra Madre, or old Western films starring Gabby Hayes. A visit to the Sutter's Mill replica and the Gold Discovery and Visitor Center in Marshall Gold Discovery State Park could also be planned. The days' Facebook page could also be explored.

Source

[s1x-foot-deep]

day 24. uranium fever

stay out from the mines; the city poisons you just as well

[memelibrarian10]

“Uranium fever, huh?”

“Ah, yes, well, that is what they are calling it. Please come in, I think this may be of interest to you.”

~~~

Yeehawgust Day 24: Uranium Fever

Can you guess why they might be calling it that?

(Finally caught up, Whoo!)

[aith-art]

Yeehawgust 2023 - Day 24

Uranium Fever

The fire crackled in the night air. Jules’ recovery was going well. They’d insisted on sitting outside. Wrapped in a blanket given to them by the Khans, sat near enough to the fire that their silver eyes looked almost rose gold. Curls of their hair kept getting in their face as they shared stories. 

It was an all too common practice at this point. Sitting around a fire together and recounting their lives. Jules had been quiet this time. The tales they had told up to this point were once that echoed the misadventures of the men around them. Being trapped in the Madre, helping the Brotherhood, going against the Legion. Even Jules and Leroy’s experiences with the Big MT were almost identical. 

“I used to live in a radio station, you know?” 

It was the first thing Jules had said to all of them in a long time. 

No one knew how to respond initially.

With a whiskey bottle in hand, Leroy prompted them, “You did?” 

“Yeah, back in the Capital Wasteland. Did alternate me not?” 

“No, they spent their whole life in Rivet City, way they told it.”

“Huh.” Jules took a swig from their Nuka Cola, “Well, Me and my-” A moment of hesitation as Jules struggled to find the right word. She hadn’t been her mother. Hadn’t even earned the self proclaimed title. “The person who raised me, were kicked out of Rivet City. Well, she was and I just had to go with her. And we ended up at a radio station.” 

Jules was then there again, in the corridors of the old building. Surrounded by soldiers in Power Armour and trying to stay out of everyone's way. They were only supposed to be there for a day or two while they were moved to somewhere safer. They were civilians. And Mother seemed antsy around the strangers. 

Jules happily sat in their little back room, tinkering with the broken eyebot frame the soldiers had left back there. Mother had gone somewhere. Said she wouldn’t be back for a while. Then left without another word. The 14 year old just sighed and went back to fiddling with the dead bot. 

“Her leaving wasn’t unusual. I mean she left all the time. Though not for the nearly 6 months she’d been gone that time.” 

“How long was it usually?” Izzy enquired. 

“A week, maybe two. But that was when I was somewhere I knew. When she first left, I- I didn’t know the station or the people there. Scared the shit out of me. Not that I said as much.”

Jules had been left. The DJ, a man named Three-Dog, had been informed about the abandoned child and he didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a parent. He didn’t know what to do with a child. He ensured she ate, made sure they had a room with enough heat to prevent them from freezing to death. He tried to convince the soldiers to take them to the Citadel. It had been two weeks and Mother was nowhere to be seen. 

The dread had started to kick in. Jules found themself more resigned than they already were. They found quiet backrooms of the place that weren’t being used and would sit with whatever tech they’d smuggled back there just fiddling. Seeing how it worked. Inspecting it. The eyebot had been their favourite piece of tech to work on. Though anything RobCo they found easy enough to work with. 

One day they found an old terminal, unused and unpowered. They sat with it for hours. Not noticing their need for food or sleep. It had completely engrossed them. She crossed wires, dusted down the circuit board, replaced parts with spares from other old terminals in the room. 

After several hours, that no doubt would have worried the others in the building, the terminal lit up. They had got it working. Allowing himself a moment of celebration, she flapped their hands around. Releasing all the energy that had been stored in them. 

When they looked through what was on the terminal it was clearly an inventory. None’s personal diary. No big government secret. Just an inventory of the holotapes and records in the building. Where they were and what was on them. Names of songs she knew Three-Dog played often over the radio. Some were listed as series, radio dramas from before the war. She had found the jackpot of entertainment if she could get to some of those rooms. 

Returning to the main room, she stumbled over one of the holotapes. The words ‘Uranium Fever’ scrawled in pen on the label. She turned back to the computer. A holotape was easily overridden. With no second thought, they placed the holotape into the reader and copied the manifest of items and their location onto it. THat way they’d have it at any terminal they went to. 

 She slipped it into their pocket. They’d venture further into the building, looking for locked rooms, later. They knew they had to get back to their room before people thought she’d done a runner. 

Rounding a corner back into the recording space they ran into Three-Dog. Stumbling back and falling over, Jules gave him a sheepish look. He seemed to relax at seeing the young kid. Giving them a hand up and telling them that the soldiers had food out front for them, which he was going to ensure they’d had some of before he turned in for the day. Jules gave him a nod of acknowledgment then left the room. He was none the wiser to the holotape in their pocket. Though he knew where she’d been all this time, she didn’t know he knew.