((First off, I'm very sorry about the wait on this. "A few days" turned into a few months. Between computer problems and a crazy fluctuating work schedule... excuses, apologies
( Read more... )
*Kale's fingers brush against one of the several little charms hanging around his neck.*
[Interesting times.]
*Ix seems less troubled by the idea, and quite ready to brag about what she's built. And she has visual aids, in the form of a Y-shaped hologram of a basic schematic of the machine.*
[For the window you gave us, it's been going very well. We're generating two distinct parts of the signature, here, and here, and combining them into the full signal here. We've been fine-tuning along the way with filters--e-mag lanes, oscillating waveguide fields, we're even passing the finished wave through a water vapor screen. We're very optimistic about Test Object #18.]
*Not far from the end of the "bottom" branch of the actual machine, another packing crate stands open, with the scorched, cracked remains of more than a dozen ceramic cylinders, some kind of organic-looking mass seeming to have leaked out of some of them.*
[We're getting very close, although you can see we've had some problems with intensity. Unless what we're making is supposed to do that?]
*Kale's pointed question seems to be directed mainly at Aurora, although Samus gets a somewhat suspicious glance as well.*
Aurora’s assurance draws a frown from Telrim, the Yeerk wondering if that’s directed at them and how much honesty this meeting is expected to require. For that matter, she rather agrees with Kale’s sentiment, even if she doubts their reasons are alike. His apparent nervousness makes her envy Issek’s compound eyes. She can’t look around to check Samus’ reaction without making it very, very obvious.
Both Controllers move close to study the schematic, Telrim nodding a little as Ix explains. She can follow the general logic and the components being used, even if she can’t say how closely they compare to the usual method. The results, however…
Issek whips his tongue in and out, turning from the previous test object to the machine itself. Then to Telrim: he knows the mid-size shipboard generators; she’s been outside and seen the large-scale version beaming radiation down through a human town. “It is larger than I expected.”
“It definitely shouldn’t do that,” Telrim answers, trying not to look amused at Kale's suspicion. “I think people would have commented.” Or they'd have gone through a lot of replacement housings. So why is it? She turns back to the schematic, eyes narrowing in thought.
Aurora listens politely, but it's pretty clear she doesn't really understand what they're talking about. Still, she can make some sense of the results. "It's to help recreate a native environment," she offers diplomatically. It's reasonably accurate.
*For her part, Samus seems somewhere between bemused and annoyed by Kale's reaction. Either way, once she'd seen those pendants, his response didn't surprise her.*
[Well, this is a prototype--built on short notice, and we've had to swap out parts and configurations fairly often. When we pin down something that works, we can work up a more compact version for you, if you're still interested.]
*Looking at the schematics and test notes, part of the almost-Kandrona signature they've managed to create is resonating with silicates in the ceramics of the latest test cylinder, heating it and flash-boiling the organic contents. They're close to the right process--judging by their notes, they've been dialing it in closer with every iteration. If there's some secret recipe of eleven herbs and transuranics, some quirk of the homeworld's magnetic field or ionosphere that isn't being replicated, it may well be the final clue they need. Or if Kandrona is just supposed to superexcite silicon-ceramics, that would be good to know, too.*
[Recreating a native environment?]
*Kale's posture relaxes again, and he stops fiddling with that amulet, covering the gesture by smoothing down the front of his shirt. Seeing that the yeerks are taking the closest interest in the machine, he surmises they have the greatest interest in it, and perhaps some knowledge to share. The well-educated ficus is no fool, and prefers a successful test to the pride of solving a puzzle himself.*
[That's alright, then. For a moment, I thought--never mind. How does our process differ from yours?]
Telrim shoots Kale a sidelong look: she can guess what he assumed, but on reflection she’s not sure why it would worry him. Granted, a suddenly-appearing Samus is cause for alarm on general principles...
“I wish I could tell you for certain,” she says, and for once, yes, she really means it. Whatever lingering reluctance they have to give away details of their species, it doesn’t apply here. She starts working her way through the chain again: yes, it looks like the reaction sequence she was taught, and yet… “It is almost right, but the interaction cross-section’s far too high. The scale’s different, but I think you’re using similar mechanisms…”
Issek’s reared up to look over her at the machine again. He accepts Ix’s explanation with a chitter, but then drops down and extends a claw for the schematics. He wants to check if they have anything he can recognise in there. “The large models use z-space refraction to modulate the beam components. May I look?"
“…And that does?” Telrim backs up a step, turning her frown on him.
“It accelerates the wavefunction oscillation, I think. Solar radiation travels farther: it has time to reach the correct balance of states. A generator source must compensate.” And if neither technician knew the context of their creation, it’s possible they didn’t know to account for that, he thinks.
Aurora will take a few steps back, letting the others work and keeping an eye out for any other misunderstandings that might need smoothing over. It'll be a good time to source Issek's next meal.
((Feel free to skip Aurora while you two are being all science-y. I don't really understand it anyway.))
((Right-o. I'll try to keep the science part short.))
*Ix is quite willing to pull up a separate holo of the schematics for Issek. While the names for pieces may be different, they are likely to be at least descriptive enough when translated to make them readable that their various functions are clear (what science lacks in nomenclatural creativity, it makes up for in utility). Listening to Issek, Kale tsks quietly.*
[Hmm. A circular array might have been more effective; if distance is what's needed to tune the waveform--]
[Called it. You're buying lunch.]
[Hmph, yes. There may be an alternative.]
*Green hands reach into the schematic holo, prodding a "warp process coil" into place. Ix perks right up, seeing it.*
[That could go in fairly fast. I think there might even be a few loose on the station from that overhaul in Green Sector last cycle.]
[It would allow us to adjust spatial constants within the track, create illusory distance to let the waveform stabilize.]
*Alongside the schematic, the math describing what the new part would do floats in ghostly heiroglyphs. It isn't a full simulation, but it does look favorable.*
Telrim looks like the conversation's left her behind as well. The gist of it she gets, but there's not much she can contribute until they need a test subject. Instead she stands back and studies the huddling techs with sharp eyes, trying to gauge the most important thing: that is, Estimated Time to Lunch. They're making the right noises, certainly...
After examining the maths, Issek gives what she hopes is an optimistic hiss. "Yes, this is the part I had in mind."
"You think that will work?" she asks him quietly, not quite able to wait for him to offer his opinion.
"The form appears correct; the fields in place are close to those I've seen before." He doesn't have answers much more in-depth than that; he just knows what numbers a healthy generator should show on the readouts. However, he also knows his fellow Yeerk wants a clear answer. "Yes. It is likely."
Telrim nods. That's as much as she can demand from him. Back to the experts, then. She's sure the deadline is a nuisance for them, but the demand wasn't made for the fun of it. "How long?"
Something eases in Telrim's expression. That's not bad at all. It'll leave a good margin of time for further tests and tuning, if this addition doesn't solve things by itself.
"That's good to hear. If it stops breaking the pottery, try finding out what it does to a tub of water." She's not so eager that she'll jump in without checking that. "Can we be of any assistance in the meantime?"
...Probably not, admittedly. It's their turf. But it's a familiar sort of place and an urgent project, and both are giving her an itchy urge to make herself useful.
[Well, we're waiting on the part, but we can't make the courier go any faster from here.]
*It's safe to assume that by now, Aurora has probably already identified the part they need, negotiated for its purchase, and hired someone to bring it to them. And Ix, at least, is apparently familiar enough with how Aurora works to have made that assumption.*
[In the interim, now that we know we're replicating an environment, the more closely we can replicate it, the better.]
Telrim, on the other hand, looks a little nonplussed: still not quite prepared for Aurora's quiet efficiency, it seems. She really should know better than to forget about the logistics expert behind her, but... tunnel vision. There's a Kandrona generator on the cards. And now she's being asked about the homeworld.
“Ah.” Well, that’s probably reasonable, and what they know isn’t particularly worth hiding. Telrim thinks for a minute before offering, “The atmosphere’s green: primarily nitrogen-oxygen, with a lot of water vapour and cloud cover. There's lightning that seems to be constant, and acid rain at night. Mostly nitric acid.”
Beside her, Issek rattles off rough figures for gravity, average temperature and magnetic field that sound like he’s dragging them from the bottom of his memory. It’s about what you’d get from skimming a database article: the planet’s warm, humid, and a bit corrosive. There’s also mud everywhere, but they can’t imagine that would affect the beam.
Telrim glances from him to the techs, and shrugs. “I think that’s everything important.”
*Notes are taken, and the possible impact of each factor discussed. If Telrim and Issek would like to involve themselves, it might be an interesting way to while away the hour it takes for the part to be delivered.*
The two Yeerks are certainly keen to take the opportunity. To Issek, questioning the effect of this or that modification is a way to clear up some of the finicky details he never got an explanation for. A relative handful of techs are trained to care for the all-important Kandrona generators: the less-skilled tended, in his time, to be instructed on several things they should do followed by ’Don’t touch anything else, or it will break and you will die.’ Maintenance is no longer his job, but he feels this is overdue.
For Telrim, it’s an eye-opening insight into a technology that’s normally heavily restricted. She has a little information to add; otherwise, her input is just asking for clarification on the bits of science she hasn’t got a layman’s grasp of. After a little bit, memory catches up with her; and so Samus and Aurora both draw the odd, uncertain glance to check they’re both still there. (And not, say, plotting anything while Telrim’s distracted.) She's saving a few questions for them too, when business here is concluded.
Once the discussion gets too involved for her to want to interrupt, she drifts back to have another curious look at the machine itself. While they have a few minutes left. The different sections are more visible while it's in prototype form. She’s never seen the inside of one before, and likely won't again.
*As interesting as the prototype may be, the pair are already sketching out the holoschematics of a revised array, ring-shaped instead of linear, that could (in theory) do the same job without the coil the Y-array needs. Admittedly, refitting the Y-array or building a new one from scratch would take longer than getting and installing the part, so they're still committed to that, but it's never a bad idea to upsell a client on the new model--even if you haven't finished the old model yet.*
*Samus has been watching and listening, learning what she can about the finer points of Kandrona generation. She can't be certain she won't ever need to know about it, given the situation she's helped to create. Telrim's glance catches her eye, and she gives a slight lift of her chin, inquiring after the inquiry.*
By way of response, the Controller directs her inspection tour back their way. She gives Aurora a nod of approval: she really can't find any complaint about the technicians their concierge has found them. Final judgement will have to wait until the job is completed, but she has the sense it could really work out, now. That's more of a relief than Telrim thinks she's showing.
Samus, on the other hand, gets an appraising look and an implied question. Or answer, depending how you look at it. "You're taking more of an interest than I expected."
One thing for the two Yeerks to get wrapped up in the problem: they're depending on its resolution. She can't imagine what interest it should hold for an alien warrior, though.
*Kale's fingers brush against one of the several little charms hanging around his neck.*
[Interesting times.]
*Ix seems less troubled by the idea, and quite ready to brag about what she's built. And she has visual aids, in the form of a Y-shaped hologram of a basic schematic of the machine.*
[For the window you gave us, it's been going very well. We're generating two distinct parts of the signature, here, and here, and combining them into the full signal here. We've been fine-tuning along the way with filters--e-mag lanes, oscillating waveguide fields, we're even passing the finished wave through a water vapor screen. We're very optimistic about Test Object #18.]
*Not far from the end of the "bottom" branch of the actual machine, another packing crate stands open, with the scorched, cracked remains of more than a dozen ceramic cylinders, some kind of organic-looking mass seeming to have leaked out of some of them.*
[We're getting very close, although you can see we've had some problems with intensity. Unless what we're making is supposed to do that?]
*Kale's pointed question seems to be directed mainly at Aurora, although Samus gets a somewhat suspicious glance as well.*
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Both Controllers move close to study the schematic, Telrim nodding a little as Ix explains. She can follow the general logic and the components being used, even if she can’t say how closely they compare to the usual method. The results, however…
Issek whips his tongue in and out, turning from the previous test object to the machine itself. Then to Telrim: he knows the mid-size shipboard generators; she’s been outside and seen the large-scale version beaming radiation down through a human town. “It is larger than I expected.”
“It definitely shouldn’t do that,” Telrim answers, trying not to look amused at Kale's suspicion. “I think people would have commented.” Or they'd have gone through a lot of replacement housings. So why is it? She turns back to the schematic, eyes narrowing in thought.
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[Well, this is a prototype--built on short notice, and we've had to swap out parts and configurations fairly often. When we pin down something that works, we can work up a more compact version for you, if you're still interested.]
*Looking at the schematics and test notes, part of the almost-Kandrona signature they've managed to create is resonating with silicates in the ceramics of the latest test cylinder, heating it and flash-boiling the organic contents. They're close to the right process--judging by their notes, they've been dialing it in closer with every iteration. If there's some secret recipe of eleven herbs and transuranics, some quirk of the homeworld's magnetic field or ionosphere that isn't being replicated, it may well be the final clue they need. Or if Kandrona is just supposed to superexcite silicon-ceramics, that would be good to know, too.*
[Recreating a native environment?]
*Kale's posture relaxes again, and he stops fiddling with that amulet, covering the gesture by smoothing down the front of his shirt. Seeing that the yeerks are taking the closest interest in the machine, he surmises they have the greatest interest in it, and perhaps some knowledge to share. The well-educated ficus is no fool, and prefers a successful test to the pride of solving a puzzle himself.*
[That's alright, then. For a moment, I thought--never mind. How does our process differ from yours?]
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“I wish I could tell you for certain,” she says, and for once, yes, she really means it. Whatever lingering reluctance they have to give away details of their species, it doesn’t apply here. She starts working her way through the chain again: yes, it looks like the reaction sequence she was taught, and yet… “It is almost right, but the interaction cross-section’s far too high. The scale’s different, but I think you’re using similar mechanisms…”
Issek’s reared up to look over her at the machine again. He accepts Ix’s explanation with a chitter, but then drops down and extends a claw for the schematics. He wants to check if they have anything he can recognise in there. “The large models use z-space refraction to modulate the beam components. May I look?"
“…And that does?” Telrim backs up a step, turning her frown on him.
“It accelerates the wavefunction oscillation, I think. Solar radiation travels farther: it has time to reach the correct balance of states. A generator source must compensate.” And if neither technician knew the context of their creation, it’s possible they didn’t know to account for that, he thinks.
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((Feel free to skip Aurora while you two are being all science-y. I don't really understand it anyway.))
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*Ix is quite willing to pull up a separate holo of the schematics for Issek. While the names for pieces may be different, they are likely to be at least descriptive enough when translated to make them readable that their various functions are clear (what science lacks in nomenclatural creativity, it makes up for in utility). Listening to Issek, Kale tsks quietly.*
[Hmm. A circular array might have been more effective; if distance is what's needed to tune the waveform--]
[Called it. You're buying lunch.]
[Hmph, yes. There may be an alternative.]
*Green hands reach into the schematic holo, prodding a "warp process coil" into place. Ix perks right up, seeing it.*
[That could go in fairly fast. I think there might even be a few loose on the station from that overhaul in Green Sector last cycle.]
[It would allow us to adjust spatial constants within the track, create illusory distance to let the waveform stabilize.]
*Alongside the schematic, the math describing what the new part would do floats in ghostly heiroglyphs. It isn't a full simulation, but it does look favorable.*
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Telrim looks like the conversation's left her behind as well. The gist of it she gets, but there's not much she can contribute until they need a test subject. Instead she stands back and studies the huddling techs with sharp eyes, trying to gauge the most important thing: that is, Estimated Time to Lunch. They're making the right noises, certainly...
After examining the maths, Issek gives what she hopes is an optimistic hiss. "Yes, this is the part I had in mind."
"You think that will work?" she asks him quietly, not quite able to wait for him to offer his opinion.
"The form appears correct; the fields in place are close to those I've seen before." He doesn't have answers much more in-depth than that; he just knows what numbers a healthy generator should show on the readouts. However, he also knows his fellow Yeerk wants a clear answer. "Yes. It is likely."
Telrim nods. That's as much as she can demand from him. Back to the experts, then. She's sure the deadline is a nuisance for them, but the demand wasn't made for the fun of it. "How long?"
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[Twenty minutes to calibrate, and perhaps another ten for final systems check before the next test.]
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"That's good to hear. If it stops breaking the pottery, try finding out what it does to a tub of water." She's not so eager that she'll jump in without checking that. "Can we be of any assistance in the meantime?"
...Probably not, admittedly. It's their turf. But it's a familiar sort of place and an urgent project, and both are giving her an itchy urge to make herself useful.
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*It's safe to assume that by now, Aurora has probably already identified the part they need, negotiated for its purchase, and hired someone to bring it to them. And Ix, at least, is apparently familiar enough with how Aurora works to have made that assumption.*
[In the interim, now that we know we're replicating an environment, the more closely we can replicate it, the better.]
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“Ah.” Well, that’s probably reasonable, and what they know isn’t particularly worth hiding. Telrim thinks for a minute before offering, “The atmosphere’s green: primarily nitrogen-oxygen, with a lot of water vapour and cloud cover. There's lightning that seems to be constant, and acid rain at night. Mostly nitric acid.”
Beside her, Issek rattles off rough figures for gravity, average temperature and magnetic field that sound like he’s dragging them from the bottom of his memory. It’s about what you’d get from skimming a database article: the planet’s warm, humid, and a bit corrosive. There’s also mud everywhere, but they can’t imagine that would affect the beam.
Telrim glances from him to the techs, and shrugs. “I think that’s everything important.”
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For Telrim, it’s an eye-opening insight into a technology that’s normally heavily restricted. She has a little information to add; otherwise, her input is just asking for clarification on the bits of science she hasn’t got a layman’s grasp of. After a little bit, memory catches up with her; and so Samus and Aurora both draw the odd, uncertain glance to check they’re both still there. (And not, say, plotting anything while Telrim’s distracted.) She's saving a few questions for them too, when business here is concluded.
Once the discussion gets too involved for her to want to interrupt, she drifts back to have another curious look at the machine itself. While they have a few minutes left. The different sections are more visible while it's in prototype form. She’s never seen the inside of one before, and likely won't again.
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*Samus has been watching and listening, learning what she can about the finer points of Kandrona generation. She can't be certain she won't ever need to know about it, given the situation she's helped to create. Telrim's glance catches her eye, and she gives a slight lift of her chin, inquiring after the inquiry.*
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Samus, on the other hand, gets an appraising look and an implied question. Or answer, depending how you look at it. "You're taking more of an interest than I expected."
One thing for the two Yeerks to get wrapped up in the problem: they're depending on its resolution. She can't imagine what interest it should hold for an alien warrior, though.
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