NationStates Jolt Archive

"Perhaps being aware before the body would be a benefit in the event of something happening. She would be loosing something, but she'd remember not having it. Still wouldn't be easy, however..."

He involuntarily glances down at his arm quickly. "As for chess, I'd love to play her. I'm no grandmaster, but I'm compitent. Now, Vic... he's a phenom. Then again, he is pretty odd..."

'Well, she has the advantages of being a computer and of looking like a nine-year-old. Most people underestimate her...'

'What do you mean by odd?'

"Well, you've probably seen his linguistic quirks. He never uses contractions for one. He almost never uses anacronyms, or slang. He also refers to close allies by their full name. For instance, The Federation of GMC Military Arms. These quirks extend to personal habits as well. Supposedly he's of some sort of ancient stock*, but I'm not sure. Basically, he's exceptionally prim and proper, almost like a robot."

[* Actually, he's decended from the original inhabitants of the island. It's like being 1/10th Elf, but the race wasn't Elves.]

'I see...*'

'Anyway, this is my office here.' [They've been walking].

It's a door with 'Dr. Alice Merriweather, Head of R & D' written on it. Alice pushes it open, although it's obvious she's in two minds about doing so.

Alice's office is littered with notepads, post-it notes, blueprints and sketches, some pinned to the walls. On the far wall is a large painting of Silver Bridge** at sunset.

She's also got an impressive collection of junk on her desk; Newton's cradles and other executive toys, mostly. In one corner is a tank full of brightly-coloured tropical fish.

'Well, this is it...'

[*She says, not seeing. Doubt she's ever spoken to Vic.]
[**Ask her]

[Crap, you're right. I bet Rachel's noticed. And let me tell you, it can be a pain going back and editing posts so he's talking 'right'.]

Josef steps into the room, and looks around, thinking nothing of the clutter. He walks over to the painting, looking it over. "This is nice... what is it?"

It's an excellent painting of the sun setting behind a huge suspension bridge. Josef will be familiar with the outline of one of the Grand Forty guns moving on top of it.

'Oh, that's Silver Bridge. It was built as part of ISON...A double railway and two double-lane roads across the mouth of Drake Bay. All in all, including the islands, it's about seven miles long'

If Josef looks a little closer, he'll notice it's signed 'Happy birthday Ali, from Annie and Elisa,' followed by Elisa's signature.

"Impressive. Oh! Did Elisa paint this for you?"

'Uh-huh. It's what Annie and her gave me for my birthday...Well, Annie also got me funding for Shiva, which was quite a present...'

He nods. "Yes, indeed." He turns back to face her again. "I know I'm pleased that Shiva got the green-light..."

She pauses, then hugs Josef, 'So am I.'

He holds her for a little bit before letting her go. He looks around the office a bit. "Well, now I know what my office would look like it I didn't avoid it whenever possible..."

[He's not being insulting]

'You think...? Now I'm wondering what your house looks like...'

"Well, as a point of comparison, I've only been in that suite at the embassy for a week or two. I mean, I don't need a bulldozer to move around, but it's pretty... cluttered..."

She smiles, 'Doesn't matter...' she looks a little nervous, 'Would you like to stay at my place tonight?'

"I'd love to." He glances at a couple schematics, unable to think of anything else to say.

[Need to go to bed soon...]

'That's great...Candlelit dinner for two? Oh, one other thing, I've been invited to a barbecue soon.* Would you be ok to come along?'


[*By The Territory, in fact]

[Oddly enough, so do I. Also, I was waiting for Alice to invite him to that. For the Supercruiser, right?]

"The barbecue sounds good, and the candlelit dinner sounds even better."

"So, on to the next stop of the tour?"

[Not for the Supercruiser really (since we're not building it), just a general event)]

'Well, I could show you some of the other labs if you like...I doubt you'll find anything that interests you as much as Shiala, but there's some good work going on...'

[and that's me out. I'll carry on tomorrow.]

Josef shrugs. "It's your call. I wasn't sure if you had to check up on things or anything. I'd be more than happy to just kick back here and talk."

'Sure, if you like...What shall we talk about?'

"Hm... well, how about a little about yourself? Or, what it's like here in GMC?"

[Alice would think she's entirely unremarkable.]

'Well, it's difficult to say...I've lived here all my life, and I've never been on holiday overseas, so I don't really have anything to compare it too...But it's ok, I guess. You don't get shot just for stepping out of line, and the people here are nice enough...'

[Well, true. We gotta work on that self-esteem]

"Hm... how about this? How did you get your position?"

'I...Guess the Supreme Commander thought I was best for the job...I mean, I did a lot of work on military designs at university, so maybe one of those got forwarded on to him, or one of my papers.' She looks down, 'I'm really not sure, to be totally honest.'

[The Supreme Commander does have a habit of being mysterious.]

"Well, you're doing a fantastic job, so it looks like his trust was placed properly."

She smiles, 'Thank you...I guess that makes three people I can rely on to cheer me up.'

"Well, I would hope you could rely on me." He gives her a hug.

'And you're the only one I'm in love with...So I think you win.'

'I've just had a thought...What happens when you have to go back?'

Josef blinks a couple times. "That is a logistical curiosity, isn't it? I don't think I've ever given it any thought..."

[I was wondering about that myself...]

[I was hoping he'd find some excuse to stay...]

'Well, a long-distance relationship's better than none, I suppose...'

[*hits the Pause button*]

Okay, hrm. Actually, I've been rolling this around in my head since, oh, page 3 or 4 when you mentioned that they may very well end up married (which I have no problem with).

Two high ranking government officials... currently, I can't think of any RL precident, which has been making me wonder about logistics. For the immediate, he can certainly stay in GMC for awhile. I had figured that he'd be there for all of the Hack's work on Shiva anyway. I also figured he had some (read: lots of) unused vacation time, as I imagine Alice does as well.

But, still, there's that down the road possibility. Hm. Does GMC have an earth-equivalent local? Currently, I'm imagining it's around the UK area...

I'd say it's quite far from The Hack, yes (it's surrounded by not less than a hundred miles of water on all sides, for a start). I'm not sure how it'd go either; Josef can't telecommute for the rest of his life*, whereas Alice has a semi-daughter to take care of (Shiala). I'm open to suggestions.

*Although with that VR thing...

Okay, that's it. One of us will have to invent teleporters.

Well, while it's technologically possible for Josef to perform his duties from within GMC, it would be like, say, a US senator living in Guam. He could do it, but it would look a little odd. Obviously, I don't expect that either will be resigning their positions, either.

Hm.

Well, Walter Cronkite managed a long distance marrage, where he saw his wife a week or two every month, but that leaves a poor taste in the mouth. Of course, marrage is kind of surperfluous in the Hack, as it isn't state sanctioned (it only has religious signifigance).

Of course, we could always worry about this later, as I assume they'll date for more than 2 days before tying the knot...

I think 'worry about it later' is the best option. I'm sure we'll (/they'll) work something out.

Fair enough. [*hits play*]

"Well, its not like I'm going anywhere for awhile, hon. I'm here at least until my end of Shiva's complete... and then there's the backlogged vacation time I've earned..."

'Well...It's not like I've ever had any time off when I wasn't ill, so I should be able to visit you...Anyway, there's no point worrying about it now.'

[She's wondering if she should tell Josef about the two Dreadnoughts soon to start construction and system design therein...]

[Well, he does tend to take neat the design projects...]

"I'm sure we can work it out." He notices the time, "How about we forget about it now, and get lunch instead?"

[Well, she's going to give it a shot, then...]

'Ok...Just wait a second, there's a few papers I'd like you to look at.' She searches for a moment before pulling out a folder. 'S' ok, you can check them out when we get to the cafeteria...'

...Which, in appearence, isn't so much a cafeteria as a four-star restaurant. There's a lot of other people already there.

Alice sits down at a table and invites Josef to do the same. 'I think it's Chinese today.'

He sits, and looks around. "This is a cafeteria? Wow..." He starts looking through the folder, 'hmm'ing and pausing as if making mental calculations. "Interesting..."

'Well...Originally these two were written off as just being an interesting idea. You might have heard that the ASPD put together a pair of 52.6 inch gauss guns as part of the space program? Well, there was some talk about what to do with them, and opinion was that they were going to built into the ISON. The Supreme Commander decided that the ship project was worth pursuing, though; we've been ordered to produce one working vessel mounting both guns, Nihilanth, with a view to producing a second, Akujiki.'

He smiles, "And they need an operating system designed..."

'Am I really being that obvious?'

"Why, Alice... is this a veiled attempt to extend my stay?"

He's smiling, and it should be obvious he's just teasing her a little.

She grins, 'I'm just wondering how many times you'll let me get away with it...'

"Probably until Vic wonders if I've renounced my citizenship."

"I'd love to work on the systems for these ships as well as spend more time here with you."

A man appears with a pair of trays, setting one down in front of each of them. <It's chinese noodles>

Alice smiles, 'Being in charge does have a couple of advantages...Anyway, it'll be great to have you here.'

"Indeed it does." He starts in on the noodles. "Hm. Afterwards I'll send an e-mail to Vic to let him know. Hey, not bad..."

Alice starts, too. 'Anyway, how's your Navy getting on? I heard there was a big order made a while ago...'

"Well, the sailors are thrilled. We went from largely PT boats to an actual navy, all curtosy of your shipyards. In fact, they performed masterfully in the recent civil war in... um... oh, what was that nation...?" He thinks a moment. "Oh, right, Elara. Of course, now that army's sending in requests for Land Sharks..."

[You might have told me...]

'Oh. Well, I could probably have the order cancelled if it's still on the books, if you've got problems with it.'

[Actually, I just hadn't gotten around to it, sorry...]

"I don't have any problems with it. I was more amused by it. The military in the Hack's been growing lately, and its a little... different." He smirks, "We might even hit 1%* of the population one of these days..."
[* It's currently about 0.1%]

'I guess Rachel's going to be getting used to the sound of Vic's voice, then.'

[I should pound out a thread for that...]

He shrugs. "Well, its good equipment, and affordable. I can think of several governmental reps he'd be much less willing to talk to."

'Why's that? Because they're not so good looking and polite?'

He chuckles, "Or they try to rip us off. But I think its the polite issue for him, mostly. And, well, like I said, you guys make good stuff." He looks at his empty bowl, "Like these noodles..."

'I'll pass your feelings on to the chef. Do you want some more?'

"No, I think I'll be fine. Thanks for offering tho."

He looks back at the file. "How soon are you folks gonna be needing this?"

'I'm afraid that one's got the complete technical specs for the main guns and the fusion reactors in it. I'd have to give you a safe copy if you want to take it off-site.' She frowns, 'Sorry.'

[Wow, when did it get to be that time?]

[Its a conspiracy]

"Actually, I ment how long until I needed to code the system?"

[Shiva's nearly ready for sea trials now, so Josef will be almost finished on her OS. Meanwhile, the hulls for Nihilanth and Akujiki haven't even arrived in GMC yet.]

'Well, as soon as possible, but this might be a little trickier since Nihilanth's design isn't set in stone like Shiva's was. We might chuck extra problems at you occasionally, ok?'

[BTW: I answered in the other thread]

"Oh, that just makes it more interesting. Just try and keep the total reversals of requirements to a minumum, if possible."

'Oh, I shouldn't think it'll be that extreme.'

[G'night.]

[Seeja]

"I didn't think I would. I was just remembering a project back in college where every few days the prof would change the parameters all over the place." He gets an evil grin, "I beat him tho. I spent two straight days coding and turned it in before he could change things again." He pauses, "Hm. That could sound obsessive..."

'That reminds me of Wrath of Kahn, for some reason...Anyway, good to know you're used to that kind of thing.'

"Comes with the territory."

His pager makes a quiet 'beep-beep'. He picks it up and looks at it.

"Speaking of computer design... seems they've finished the first round of tests. Looks likeit's almost done."

'The OS? Great! We're halfway through fitting Shiva's tracks at the moment, it'll be sea trials next...Would you like to come along on one of the escorts and watch?'

"Of course. I'd love to see how everything meshes together. All I've seen of her so far is machine language."

'Great. You should come along to the land trials as well, that's going to be quite a sight.'

"Ya know... even though I know what Shiva is, and even though I've seen many of the disgn specs, I still can't imagine an aircraft carrier cruising across a beach."

'It's kinda hard to imagine, yes...And I've seen SCIMITAR moving. Should be interesting...'

"I know she's your project, but did you come up with the original concept to?"

'Well...' she blushes, 'If I said yes, would you believe me?'

He smiles, "Of course I would. I'm just curious as to your inspiration."

'I don't really know...Just came to me one day. I think the Grand Fleet had been on television recently, and I was doing some work on vehicles...And I just had this idea.'

He laughs. "Funny how these things happen, isn't it? Must have been pretty interesting when you first brought it up."

[Come on, you can tell me, she was high, right?]

[Well if you want the RL reason, I think I might have been...]

'Well, a lot of people laughed...'

"It happens. However, since we're building it, I guess the right people thought it was a good plan."

'Well, maybe it was the Supreme Commander...But I know Annie was the one who got me the budget for it. I guess I owe her quite a big hug.'

He smiles. "Seems we owe Anne quite a bit..."

'Well, she's always been nice to me, right from when I first met her...'

He nods, "She does seem pretty nice. How did you two meet?"

'Well, on the first day she was Field Marshal* she came in to talk to me about an upgrade program for the Mark Sevens the Army has...To be honest I was pretty terrified of her when she walked in...She hates that, so she just started talking to me...Just chatting, really.'

[*Alice's 'big sister' is actually younger than her]

He nods. "Makes sense..."

'Well, she invited me back to her house that weekend...I was a little worried about going, but I went...And I got two of the best friends I could ever have asked for. It's funny how these things turn out...When she came in, I thought she was just going to yell at me.'

"I'm glad things worked out so well for you. A lot of people never have such good friends. You should consider yourself lucky."

[Hrm... sounded a little more pop-psychology than I intended...]

'I do.' She smiles, 'I hope I can say that to you again one day.'

He takes her hand. "I do consider myself lucky."

'Yeah...I'm lucky too.'

'So, have you got any good friends back home?'

"Hm. Well, I usually get together once a week or so with Vic, off duty." He ponders for a moment. "Well, I wouldn't say that I've got any close friends, but there are a handful of people that I occationally see outside of work. I guess the person I talk to the most would be Jakob, but he's not from the Hack. He's the one who helped the most with my arm*..."

[* In case you forgot, he's referencing the psuedo-masonic group he's a member of that he mentioned at the dedication party]

'Well, maybe we could have dinner with Vic sometime?'

"I'll run it by him, I'm sure he wouldn't mind. You could meet his wife and daughter, too." He smiles, "And you'd get to have a vegan dinner."

'That'd be interesting. You'll probably wind up meeting the entire Emberson and Lawrence* families sooner or later, by the way.'

[*Annie and Elisa, respectively.]

[Treds into dangerous territory...]

"And the Merriweather family?"

Oh, I'm an only child, only my mum and dad...I'll have to introduce you some time. I don't have any other relatives that I know of...But Annie treats me like I'm her sister anyway.'

"Want to buy my brother? I'll sell him cheap..."

She smiles, 'No thanks...How big's your family, then?'

He thinks about saying something else about his brother, but doesn't. "Well, largely just my brother and my mom. Dad died about ten years ago. We weren't importing med-tech as heavily back then..."

'Oh, I'm sorry...'

"It's okay. I was pissed for awhile, but as time goes on..."

'Well, Annie's got enough family for several people, anyway...You should have seen her wedding...'

He smiles, "I'm sure it was quite an event."

'Well, yes...Annie comes from a huge family, and Elisa's got a lot of relatives too...Elisa's older sister sometimes comes down here, actually; she's a Group Captain in Air Force Special Operations.'

"What's Elisa like? I saw her at the dedication, but didn't have a chance to talk to her."

'Elisa? Well, she's a little shy around lots of strangers; that's probably why you didn't get a chance to talk to her, but she's really nice. Once you get to know her, she can be as chatty as Annie.'

'She's very artistic; she paints professionally, but she plays the viola too, and she's got a great singing voice.'

[Heh... Alice calling someone shy...]

"Well, I wager that'll I'll be around long enough to get to know them both."

'Well, I hope so. I think Annie likes you, anyway.'

"Really? I didn't think I had known her long enough to make an impression."

'She's psychic, remember?'

Josef blinks. Starts to say something, closes his mouth and blinks again. "Oh yeah. Well... I'm glad she likes me."

Alice smiles, 'It's not like that...She can't find out everything about you just by standing near you for a few minutes...'

"I remember. It just a bit to get used to. But... uh... how much could she find out?"

[He's not really hiding anything, just a little paranoid]

'Well...She's one of the most powerful psychics I know of...I guess everything, if she really wanted to, but she wouldn't. Since you don't have psychics in The Hack, I guess you don't know how it all works, hm?'

"Not really. You mentioned that it wasn't like being omniscient or anything, but that's about it."

'Well, from what we know it's divided into two 'stages.' A psychic would always be able to sense someone's emotions; they have to, it's just the way they are. Maybe that's why they tend to marry younger...Find someone who loves you and you don't have to worry about random thoughts of strangers.'
'Second would be conciously reading someone's mind; their memories, mainly. We don't understand the details of it at all, to be honest. But Annie would actually have to decide she wanted to trawl though your memories. And you'd have to let her, apparently; most people can put up a fair bit of resistance.'

"Interesting. So she couldn't do parlor tricks like guessing what number I was thinking of?"

[back in an hour or so]

'Oh, she could do that one...That's how Kurt plays poker, actually...Finding out your mother's maiden name or something like that would be more of a problem.'

[damn buggy forums... only took 1/2 hour to access this thread...]

"Hm. So generally she just sort of gets a 'feeling' about someone?"

'Well, she knows if you're being honest...' Alice smiles, 'And since you're still in the country, I guess you are.'

[Gotta sleep soon, one more post.]

"Of course I am." He looks around, and realizes that they're the only ones left in the cafeteria, and lunch ended quite awhile ago. "Hm."

Realisation dawns on Alice too. 'Oh...That was quite a conversation, wasn't it?'

'Anyway, you want to go around a few of the labs, or look though some of my papers upstairs?'

He smiles, "Time flies when you're having fun."

"Hm. Well, let's hit some of the labs, I can watch you crack the whip on the techies." He chuckles.

[This be my g'night post. Even though it's the afternoon. Night shifts, eh?]

'Ok...Oh, I might as well show you a bit more on Nihilanth, if you'll be helping out with that...That'll be on the tour, anyway.'

'Actually, it's a bit quiet today...Most of the time I'm helping people out on projects for a fair bit of the day. Maybe they were told I'd have a visitor...'

[Aye. 10p-6a, (CDT) myself.]

"Well, should someone need an assist, I'll behave myself. But seeing more on the Nihilanth does sound interesting."

[For some reason, I keep thinking of DiabloII when I see that name...]

[That's weird; Nihilanth is the final boss on Half Life.]

'Well, you'll want to check out the MBTT* first, I guess. It's back down in the labs.'

'Incidentally, that VR machine you showed me...Do you sell them, at all?'

[*spoken M-B-double-T. No, you're not supposed to know what it is]

[Nihlithek, or something like that is in ActV of DII:LoD]

"M-B-double-who? I don't think I've ever heard of that..."

"As for the VR, for personal or governmental use?"

Alice smiles, 'Oh, you'll see.'

'And the VR system...Well, it'd be kind of handy for pre-prototyping. We've never really done much in that field; we still use models most of the time.'

Josef quirks up an eyebrow, but continues on with talking about VR.

"Well, we don't usually sell the full emersion ones, quite a bit of red-tape. I'm sure you'd be able to get one of the early models. The one in the embassy is top of the line." He grins, and whispers to her, "at least until the next version is released next week..."

'Well, it'd be very useful for design work...At the moment we only have scale models and schematics of Nihilanth; it'd be good to be able to take a walk around her instead.'

"Well, I can get a list of what's around when I get back to the embassy, and we can figure out what will work out the best. We could always upload the specs into the simulator at the embassy, but I'm sure there's security issues with that idea."

'Great...I've got a bit of budget lying around anyway.'

"I'm sure we can work something out."

"So, let's go see the mysterious MBTT."

'Well, we're here.'

There's no guard or huge door this time, although Josef probably noticed there haven't been any doors for some time. Alice keys in a code, and the door swings open into an absolutely gigantic room which looks very much like a swimming pool*. Various mysterious machinery lines the wells and ceiling.

Alice smiles, 'Marine Buoyancy Testing Tank. Impressive, isn't it?'

[*Only with six times the area of an olympic pool]

He walks up to the edge of the water, and looks around at the tank, the machinery, and such.

"Wow... big... For testing hulls?"

[You know you want to push him in...]

'Err, no, just for models, actually. NSPD has a tank twice this size; they sometimes do full-scale tests on smaller ships.'

[Alice can swim...]

[Eh, go for it... it'll be amusing watching her explain...]

"I've got to hand it to you guys... you think of everything..."

She smiles, and pushes him in.

He yelps and flails about, thinking for a second that he wouldn't fall, but does. On the way in he grabs at Alice's labcoat.

'Oh, shit.'

The pair splash into the pool.

Josef surfaces, looks around for Alice, and smirks at her, "Seemed like a good idea at the time?"

'You could say that, yes...At least it's not too cold...' She puts her glasses back on, 'Sorry.'

He pushes some stray hair out of her face. "S'okay. Besides, you're the one who has to explain why we're soaked..."

'Err...We...' She pauses, 'I've got a spare lab coat here, but I'm not sure that's quite what this situation calls for...'

"Hm. I don't think that would suffice... towels and an industrial blow dryer..."

[check yer tg's]

'Well, we don't have one of those here...guess we'll just have to look a bit stupid. I hope your phone's waterproof...'

[Check yours]

"Didn't think of that..." He pulls out his phone, looks at it, "Seems okay..."

"Hope I didn't ruin your outfit."

'Oh, the colours'll probably run...Doesn't matter. Anyway, this isn't exactly what I bought you in here for.'

She smiles, 'So much for checking on anyone though, huh?'

He laughs. "Perhaps ending the day early would be wise."

He climbs out of the tank, and extends his arm to her. "Let me give you a hand."

'Ok...'

[She's not going to pull him back in again]

He hoists her back out of the water. Straightening up, he looks her over, and starts snickering, as they both stand there dripping.

'I don't look that bad, do I?'

"No worse than me, I'm sure. Considerably less official, however." He's still smirking, obviously amused by the whole deal.

She smiles, 'I think I need a hug...'

He takes her into his arms, and gives her a hug and a kiss. "Come on, let's see if we can't sneak back to your office."

[squish]

'Through a guarded door?'

"Hrm. Well, there is that... can't very well stand here an drip-dry, tho."

'Well...You might as well see it while you're here, though...' She leads him over to a wheeled trolley with a model ship on it. It's a trimaran design, with a single large double-gun turret at the front.

'That's the design we've settled on at the moment...About two thousand feet long.'

[back in a couple hours]

He looks over the model. "Interesting design." He looks at the barrels closely.

"So, the theory is that once they see this and Shiva zipping around, any foe will be too intimidated to attack?"

'Well, that's the hope, but Nihilanth has a little more going for her than that...I'll have to show you the shell design calculations when we get back up to my office; it's amazing.'

She smiles, 'By the way, do you like muffins?'

[Sorry, gone to bed]

[it happens]

"Look forward to it."

"Muffins? Sure. Why?"

[Not yet it doesn't...Since when's that a couple of hours?]

'I usually have a few sent up to my office in the afternoon...Just wondering if you'd want to share.'

'Anyway, it's the rounds that make the gun, pretty much. We've got our magnetic weapons to the stage where they can accurately place a shell on target with an impact speed of about twenty times the speed of sound.' She taps the model, 'These are 52.6 inch guns, the biggest we've ever built. The shells they fire weigh about fifteen tons; they were originally built to shoot satellites directly into space, after all.'

'Now, there's no way you'd need a fifteen ton shell; a striking hit where the charge didn't detonate would be enough to sink most ships there and then. So the guys came up with a different idea; it's called a joint munition round, and works a little like a cluster bomb. Basically, when the shell's in the terminal stage of it's arc it bursts open into dozens of bomblets; we're working on guidence systems for them now. If you've ever seen film of an airstrike, you'll have a pretty good idea what the effect of that is.'

'Trouble is, the shells are expensive and the gun barrels wear out quickly. But then nothing's perfect I suppose...'

[Eh... never know how long the drive home will be]

"The muffins sound fine. The rest is largely over my head, but certainly sounds impressive... I'm just trying to imagine something that big"

'Well, I've got a photograph of one of the guns fixed up at Wavell, where they both still are at the moment. It's in my desk...Shall we?'

"Sounds good to me. Lead on."

Strangely, they do get a few funny looks walking though the building with their clothes soaking wet, but eventually they make it up.

'Don't worry about sitting down...The chairs'll dry out.'

Alice hangs her lab coat over a radiator and starts searching through her desk drawers. 'It's in here somewhere...'

Josef puts his phone and pager on a clear patch of table to dry. He also leaves his shoes by the radiator. He squishes into a chair. He watches Alice rummage about, and then looks at a schematic on the desk in front of him.

"Is this it?"

'Oh, that's the gun schematic, sure...I'm just looking for the photographs...'

'You see, ASPD's already officially handed the guns over, so Annie had a few pictures taken of the guns before they started dismantling them. They won't move them until the hulls arrive...Ah, here they are.' she hands Josef an envelope.

The pictured gun itself is mounted on a gigantic turntable and angled about sixty degrees into the air in the photos. There's one photo of Annie and Alice standard next to one of the dismantled gun barrels; it's wide enough for either of them to crawl down without any trouble at all; they could probably walk it if they stooped.

There's some more, obviously taken with different cameras; A few of the pictures are of damaged barrels, one of one of the cannons exploding spectacularly during a test-firing, and one of Alice sleeping.

He sets the schematic on the arm of the chair for reference as he goes through the photos. When he gets to the one of Alice asleep, he shows it to her.

"I see you were pretty interested in the tests..."

'Oh...Annie took that at my place. I guess she thought it'd be funny the first time I showed this to someone official.'

"A likely excuse..."

He looks at the others again. "These are insanely huge. Will it be cost effective?"

'Might be...It certainly saves risk to bomber pilots. We'll find out in the long term, I suppose.'

"And you need me to design, what? The fire-control and guidence systems?"

'Well, if you could that'd be fine, but again what we're after is a good user interface for everything, and just general computing work...' She pauses, 'I'm really not the person to ask; I'm not that brilliant with computers. I'll have the guys send the full list of requirements to your team like they did last time.'

He smiles at her. "Nothing wrong with that. Besides, if you were as good with computers as you are with your car, I'd be out of a job."

'You saw the dashboard though, right? I bet yours isn't like that...*'

[*Clean...No sat-nav, no gizmos, nothing. She hasn't even got a CD player, just tapes.]

"Uh, well... my car has a couple... additions... nothing too major..."

[Yeah, right. It's tweaked. Tweaked the car's compter too. Everything mechanical is stock.]

She grins, 'I can see this working out quite well...'

<Supercar!>

The implications finally dawn on him of the two of them building a car together. "Oh Lord. This could be scary... but in a 'fun-as-hell' sort of way."

Alice smiles, 'I can hardly wait...I should think you know a lot of tricks I'd never think of...'

"Provided its modern enough, yeah." He smiles broadly, "Oh yeah, we have got to do this."

[A visions of Knight Rider float through my head...]

[Well, you said it first...]

'Do you want me to see if I can get hold of a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am? It just seems appropriate, somehow...Although it might not be modern enough for you...'

[And head of mil R& D? Bond car!]

"Well... the body sounds right. And it should manage for our purposes, especially since we're going to basically rebuild the sucker from scratch anyway."

[I have a sudden urge to play Spy Hunter... oh, wait, it passed...]

She looks him straight in the eye, 'I can see this being very, very fun...'

He returns her gaze, grinning. "How soon can we start?"

what the hell is the point of all this?

'Well, I could probably have the car within a month or so, depends if I have to import it...That's ok, right?'

"Sounds fair. Of course, there's plenty of planning that can be done without the car actually being here..."

'Great. Maybe we can discuss that over dinner? Are you brave enough for my home cooking?'

"You did fine helping with breakfast, I don't think I have anything to worry about... as long as I stay away from any swimming pools..."

''S ok...I've only got a jacuzzi. Annie's the one with the swimming pool.'

"Oh, well, allright then." He thinks a moment. "You'll have to give me a tour when we get back. I really only saw the living room."

'Fine, but I didn't go for a big house like Annie did...No indoor firing range or anything like that.'

He blinks a couple times. "Indoor firing range...?" He ponders that for a moment. "I guess it makes sense, but still..."

'She loves it...It's the only place Elisa lets her use that fifty cal of hers, for a start...'

'What's gun ownership like in The Hack, anyway?'

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't be proper to go about shooting it in the kitchen. It'd be hell on any rats that try and sneak in..."

"The laws are pretty lax. I mean, you can't walk around with a mass-driver cannon or anything, but hanguns and hunting rifles are largely unregulated. Mainly because most people don't choose to own them, I guess."

'It's compulsory, here. Not like it costs you anything, since they let you keep your sidearm once you've done service.'

"When was the last time you used yours?"

'Not for a few months, actually...The last time I was on the range.'

"Are you required to carry it on your person at all times, or just to own one in working condition?"

'You're supposed to at least own one, and it's recommended that you carry one at all times unless you're in a government building. Mine's in the glove box of my car, actually.'

"Interesting. I used to put maps in mine."

'Ever known anyone put gloves in one?'

'Anyway,' she goes over to a side table, 'How about one of those muffins?'

He gets out of the chair and walks over towards her. "A muffin sounds great. Whatcha got?"

[Where'd the time go? One more post...]

[I was going to say that!]

'Well, most things.* Take your pick...'

(*there's quite a few kinds on the tray she's holding, most of which I can't think of. D'oh.)

He takes a blueberry muffin. "This looks good. Thanks."

[okay, crash time... early "morning"]

'They are...I owe your complements to the chef twice now, huh?'

"I suppose so. At least tonight, I'l be able to offer them directly..."

'Oh, don't me me nervous...'

"There's nothing to be worried about. You'll do just fine."

'Thanks.'

'Anyway, I know you haven't seen everything you could've, but what do you think of this place?'

"It's nice. The water's warm, the chairs dry quickly... Seriously, it seems like a neat place to work. I'll have to see more some other time."

'Yeah...It's good here, and we're pretty well funded...You'd have to go to the SPDs to see any really spectacular stuff...Like the AFSPD's full-scale wind tunnel*...But it's nice. Is it like this where you work, when there's people around?'

[*NASA actually has one!]

"Pretty similar. The security is a little less obvious, but the building is still one of the most secure in the nation. And, that whole skyscraper is IT, so there's a lot of labs and offices and such."

[GMC main R&D mainly goes out instead of up, as you've probably realised.]

'Ok...What's it like to work in?'

"Similar to here I would imagine. Many of the projects are somewhat loose on their timetables, so we've got a bit of leeway. Of course, the serious, major projects are pretty strict about what goes on. But, I like it. I'm rarely bored."

'Same here...' She smiles, 'What exactly do you do then? Same as me, just help out when people need it?'

"Officially? I'm the Director. I'm suppose to be largely a paper pusher. Luckily, I managed to pawn that off on staffers. I generally look over pending projects and reject, or accept them. If I have someone in mind to do a certain project, I'll assign it, otherwise, I let an assistant make the assignments. Then I spend my time helping, or running my own project. Like Shiva, for instance."

'Well, there's not much paperwork around here that I don't create myself...The SPDs get to handle most of the dull stuff, luckily. That usually leaves me helping out...And it gives me a lot of spare time to spend with Shiala, too.'

"The advantages of being the boss. Most of the dull stuff you can force onto other people."

"Speaking of Shiala, since she's not in milnet right now, what does she... erm... do? Go to 'school'?"

'Kind of...' she smiles, 'We've dealt with all sorts of military projects, but we've never had to look after a little girl before. Sometimes our techs bring their children in to play with her, and we have a teacher contracted in for her too...'

"Is she ageing at a normal rate, or is it excellerated? I'm guessing she's ageing a little faster..."

'Not much, actually...We only speeded up initial growth. She'll seem a little smart for her age after a while, I'm sure.'

"When will she be plugged in then? When she's 18*?"

[* Or whatever the age of majority is in GMC]

[16 for most things]

'It's not a matter of age there, it's software evaluations. Her intelligence is actually far more than the project called for...I guess we just wanted to see if we could do it.'

"Interesting. But if she's a true AI, wouldn't their be an emotional maturity level to be concerned with? You couldn't very well have her go off on a sulk."

'Yes...Well, there are a few set parameters to her personality...She wouldn't ever be that stroppy. Plus, the idea of being restored from a backup kinda scares her, which I can understand.'

"That's good. Can't say that I'd much like the thought of being 'rebooted' either."

[Does GMC recognize other AI's, like SHODAN?]

[Sure...I mean, why not?]

'I think she's more worried it wouldn't be her...Actually, I'd have the same worry about going through a teleporter.'

'Heh...No need to get metaphysical, I'm sure...'

[Was wondering if there were time period/idiomatic issues...]

"I can see that arguement. I might be a little more confortable with the teleporter, but I'd hate to appear somewhere with only one ear or something."

"Are there any plans to have her interact with the highly advanced AI's out there?"

[Naw...If they play fair, I'm cool with it]

'Well...I'm not sure how they'd feel about her...If they'd look down on her, because she's designed to be a firewall.'

"She still has a personality. From what I've seen, they've been pretty friendly, but I can see why you might want to limit exposure. There's a certain wisdom to keeping systems closed."

Alice nods, 'But you never know, maybe it'd be good for her...It's certainly worth looking into.'

'By the way, I heard something about The Hack producing electronic friends*?'

[*You posted it OOC and I've been looking for an excuse to ask]

["Why yes, Mr. Numan."]

"You remember about six years ago, when those Tomagochi things were really popular? Well, we took it a bit further. We've got limited AI's that can be put into computers, and some robotic shells too. The computer loaded ones have much more limited sentience, as uninstalling them would be a little to close to murder to be comfortable.

"The robot shells are more advanced. Think Asimov. They have personalities, but have been known to switch bodies when needed, something that would probably be far more traumatic to Ali. They're less attached, if you will. Also, they are clearly robotic.

"Of course, none of these are mass produced. Too damn expensive. They're custom jobs. There are some knock-off computer versions, but those wouldn't really pass a Turing test. They've just got a large vocabulary."

'Robotics on smaller scales is something we're still working on, here...We've got full-sized MAC Frames down good enough, but good artificial limbs seem to be more difficult...But that does sound intriguing. I guess they're kind of limited in free will, though?'

"Artificial limbs and robots are a bit different. I don't have to worry about neurons with the robots. Like I said before, my arm is way beyond our capabilities. As for the robots, we do limit their actions a little. And, well, they aren't full citizens either. We basically cribbed Asimov's Three Laws when making them. But, even if they did go amuck, they aren't much tougher to stop than a normal human. They aren't armored or anything."

[One more post]

'Actually I just ment it wouldn't be much fun if they didn't like you...'

"You'd be surprized what people want. Most of the time, they are programmed to be friendly, but there have been a couple that we made that were designed to be antagonistic." He shrugs.

[Have them head back to Alice's when we pick up again?]

[Yeah]

'Well, I can kind of understand that...Having somone to argue with can be fun sometimes...Anyway, I think we should probably be getting home, ok?'

He looks at his watch. "Whoa. This day sure went by quickly. Sure, let's go home... er, to your home... er..."

She smiles sweetly, 'Time flies when you're having fun.'

[Check your TGs.]

[ctrl-n, refresh button. w00t]

"It most certainly does." He stands up. "Shall we?"

'Ok...' She grins, 'You want to drive?'

"Uh sure. I don't remember the route back so I'll need directions."

'Ok...Just remember it might handle a little differently to what you're used to. I'm ok with directions.'

"More sensative?" He half-rolls his eyes. "Of course it is. I can't imagine you'd make it less..."

[What's the traffic going to be like? She making him drive in rush-hour?]

[Edge of Marshall City, so not much traffic anyway, and we're probably post-rush, since she leaves late]

'Yeah...It's great to drive. Well...' she throws him the keys, 'I'm trusting you.'

He catches the keys, looks at various keychains, and opens the door for her. "Let's go."

He lets her lead the way out. After exchanging pleasentries witht he security staff, who look at them a lot less oddly, as their clothes have dried, they leave the building.

The walk over to the car, at which he opens her door, then walks around and gets in. He fires the car up. "Sounds good. Which way now?"

'Just turn right and follow the signs for Southgate...It's all main roads, so we shouldn't get too lost.'

[here we go...]

He loops around the largely empty parking lot a couple times to get a feel for the car, and then pulls out onto the street. In the right-hand lane.

'Left lane! LEFT LANE!'

And the truck just misses...

"AH!" He swerves sharply into the left lane, too sharply. Pulls a nice 180 before compensating for the increased handling of the car, muttering GMC, not Hack... Ignoring the random horns and... colorful language, he manages to regain his composure, a little. Afraid to look over at Alice, he just says "Sorry..."