metharchy | [ DRAFT 15 ] Chaos and Destruction

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[ DRAFT 15 ] Chaos and Destruction

[Meth sounds beyond pissed, and full of loathing right now.]

Because some of you could not control yourselves, you're going to have to do without for a while. No library. No mini-golf course. No deck seventeen.

...

No buffet.

Those involved had better hope I don't discover just who you are and where to find you.

[OOC: You guys really did a hell of a job destroying the ship. XD Until further notice, the following locations have been blocked by Meth's chainlink fence, tarp, and DO NOT CROSS -- CAUTION yellow tape:

BUFFET. The entire thing. All passengers will find a sign directing them to Kuma-Ko for a makeshift buffet and those with special diets to speak with the bears there to have their needs met.

LIBRARY.

MINI-GOLF COURSE.

DECK 17. Any who venture down there will smell an overpowering scent of the burnt tapestries, drapery and furniture.

These locations will reopen in due time, and passengers will be informed by Meth at that time.]

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I will be on 12.

[Bing!

Elevator, going down.]

Be there soon.

[Meth was on Deck 17 finishing up some last minute evaluations and grabbed an elevator up to 12. She'd never met this guy, and probably should have asked his name, but it was too late now.

Hopefully she would be quick enough to run into him before he ducked into some room looking for clothing or who knows what else he might be looking for.]

[Fred is looking for a computer. Unless Meth wants to give him one, in which case he'll happily accept that.

He's also just stepping out of the elevator, lighting a cigarette.]

[Meth took a wild guess that he was the guy she was looking for and headed toward Fred.]

You're the one reorganizing the library, yeah?

Fred Cassidy.

[He says it around his cigarette, then offers Meth his hand to shake--after dropping his lighter back in the inside pocket of the sport coat he's wearing. With jeans.

Yes, Fred is That Guy.]

Meth Rezza.

[She shook his hand, grip tight. She was in olive green coveralls, though she'd tied the sleeves of the garment around her waist at the base of her t-shirt.]

Good to meet you. Had some additions for this UDC system you're implementing. Wanted to discuss and make sure they're compatible before I get back to other work.

[She turned to look down the hallway. Meth was curious to see what he was after.]

Sure. I can't put together the system schematic until I know what equipment I'm working with, anyway.

[He starts down the hallway, sticking his head into rooms until he finds one with electronics.]

Whatever you can find around here unless I can get the Captain to authorize something better.

[She followed behind, hands stuffed in her pockets.]

You mentioned people being able to locate books within the library no matter where they've been shelved. What would you need to use that same function across the rest of the passenger decks?

"Better" is such a subjective term. I'd settle for a less-sophisticated system where all the components were designed to work together.

[Fred walks right by a stack of closed laptops. They don't register as "computers" to him.]

If you wanted to expand the range to all 19 passenger decks, you'd need to scatter the RFID transceivers over all of those decks.

You could just have it report the coordinates in 3D--or however many dimensions [he looks at her sidelong]--or you could build a map of the ship as well as one of the library, and it could report room numbers.

If it is going to have to deal with more than three dimensions, I can handle that in programming, but I have to know how many there are so I can do the coordinate transforms.

[The prospect seems to appeal to Fred. This is a guy who writes poetry about math.]

[Meth noticed the laptops as well and jerked her chin toward them.]

Better than those, at least.

[She leaned against the doorway, listening to Fred carefully, considering his input before replying.]

I don't care about the means so much as the end result. If we expand the range to the passenger decks, books won't go off the grid once passengers take them. It means that all books will be able to be found so long as nothing is tampered with. That is what I care about.

This particular function would be for crew use so nothing is lost, ultimately.

[Passengers should be allowed their privacy among each other, but when passengers disappeared it helped to know where they'd stashed books they were borrowing.]

What do you recommend?

"Those?" Those are computers?

[Frowning, Fred takes a laptop off the pile and pokes at it, discovering the catch for the screen and the power button as he listens to Meth.]

Just blanket the passenger decks with enough RFID stations to provide complete coverage. Assuming no one goes out of their way to disable the tags, the rest is just implementation, and that's a solved probl--what the hell.

[He's staring at the Windows startup screen, trying to use the keyboard and of course getting nothing.]

How do I unlock this?

[Fred is not familiar with consumer electronics that have human-perceptible boot times.]

I've got ways to get the tags up and keep them from being tampered with. That isn't an issue.

[She glanced over to the stack of laptops and shrugged.]

As for those, it depends on your definition. Those aren't too past their prime for most of the Americans.

[Meth walked over to Fred and the laptop and stared at the screen. Her lips spread into a grin.]

Better give it a minute, Cassidy. It's still starting up.

[He cocks his head, listening to the drive and fan whirr.]

Moving parts?

Meth, it's great that the antiques are still working, but there's no way this thing can drive a realtime hologram display. What kind of bus speeds are we talking? Somewhere around a gigahertz?

[Meth may realize Fred's guess is extremely generous.

He puts the machine back on the table and heads deeper into the room, looking for something from his Earth, or something that Speicus recognizes well enough to use.]

How many transceivers you're going to need depends on the strength of the signal and the precision of location you want to be able to do. The library itself will need at least three, and I'd prefer five or more, since the triangulation will have to be precise for the locating feature to narrow it down to shelves.

[Spotting a familiar corporate logo, Fred sweeps a stack of mylar bags off a device that looks like the bottom sixth or so of a pyramid. He brandishes it at Meth.]

This is the best general-use holodisplay on the Earth market.

[At some point in Fred's world's history, Hitachi appears to have merged with a corporation called "Ihu'ayeth."]

[Meth just kept grinning. This was amusing, and the best distraction from the chaos that awaited her. Thank the deities this was still sort of her work. She couldn't very well let a passenger implement a new system into the ship if she wasn't overseeing it herself, could she?]

Alright, alright, don't flip out on me. Like I said, I can talk to the Captain about getting you better equipment to work with. You've got a week at least until you need to worry about even sorting books anyway.

[The buffet was getting her attention first, the library second.]

Get me a list of what you need and we'll go from there.

I'll list by function and then by my preferred brands.

[He rubs his thumb across his knuckle, thinking.]

My numbers on RFID transceivers will be based on a 3D assumption.

[Fred pauses to light a fresh cigarette off the dying butt of his first. He's totally not an addict.]

You don't have to tell me anything, but you will have to recalculate for any higher dimensionality. If you don't have someone on the crew who can do it, I can teach the theory.

I know it's intuitive for you, but EM theory doesn't care about anyone's intuition, in any number of dimensions.

3D is a good assumption, let's not complicate things.

[That's all she's saying on that subject. Meth's distracted by the cigarettes. She stares a moment, not at Fred but the cigarette in her mouth, and then makes a small frustrated noise and looks away.

She would really, really love to be getting high right now instead of heading to the disaster that is the buffet.]

If we're able to expand the range of the tracking system, then my other questions are obsolete. Do you have any more of your own?

[She was heading back to work, if not.]

Fine, then.

[Fred shrugs, unruffled by her reticence.

Noticing the direction of her gaze, he produces the pack and offers her a cigarette.]

No questions. As long as you can provide the gear I need, I can handle the rest on my own. I'm quite reasonable about that sort of thing--ask Kage.

[Meth looked down at the pack with some hesitance, though it was short-lived as she reached out for a cigarette.]

Thanks.

[She put it to her lips with a sigh.]

I'll keep that in mind. Talk to the First Mate.

[He seemed okay to her, which was kind of amazing considering Meth's current feelings toward passengers in general, especially lately.]

I've got work to do, in the meantime. I'll be in touch.

[Fred lights it for her with his silver Zippo.]

"And there is no discharge in that war."

[He quotes Ecclesiastes wryly.]

Don't let me keep you.

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[ DRAFT 15 ] Chaos and Destruction

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[commentlog] Oh god I love Fred

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