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Post by Fraze on Jul 16, 2008 1:07:36 GMT -5
Fraze had just finished his shift at the Spacefleet Gift Shop, and sat at a table outside a restaurant in the civilian section of Spacefleet HQ. He always enjoyed it there, watching the many different races come and go. There were a few foreign bigwigs here and there--ambassadors, trade representatives, and so forth--but most of the visitors were tourists. He knew that many of the more advanced interstellar societies saw the NTWF as a quaint, backwater planet inhabited by charmingly primitive natives. They still used magic and swords and boats and castles! How adorably backward!
Fraze knew better. He had been here almost a year now, and he had realized just how magnificent this planet was. It had become advanced in ways that most of these tourists couldn't imagine, mainly because the inhabitants still used magic and swords and boats and castles.
This place had become home to him over the past year, something that he couldn't say about any of the other places he had been stationed. Both the cirucmstances surrounding his being stationed at the NTWF, and the time that he had spent away, meant that he had pretty much left his previous position completely, and was now entirely a member of Spacefleet. He preferred it that way--Spacefleet was a miniscule organization compared to the military behemoth he formerly belonged to, but it was because of this that he so appreciated the 'Fleet.
Fraze snapped out of his revery as a waiterbot brought his order. He had thought about ordering something large, but he planned on visiting the holodeck for some exercise and didn't want a very heavy meal. The bot set down his meal: a pastrami sandwich and a lemonade. Fraze took a tentative bite of the sandwich, found it to his liking, and took a larger bite. He was supposed to meet a few people in his team here, but he knew he couldn't wait for them to come. Not only would his food be cold, but he was hungry.
Thinking he saw a familiar face approach, he waved.
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Post by Amneiger on Jul 16, 2008 10:19:57 GMT -5
Amneiger carefully studied a diagram in one of the books that was lying open on a work table. The internal components had all worked out, and the only thing left was to get the external appearance correct. He'd done the best he could by himself, but he already knew what it was supposed to look like; what he needed were people who hadn't seen his latest project before.
In any case, he was going to have to check to make sure that his latest modifications hadn't altered the functionality. Amneiger placed a wrench, a screwdriver, and a blowtorch onto a table. "Analyze these."
The display on his computer changed to a view from the ceiling of his lab. The view zoomed in on the three tools, and a report on the object types and compositions began to appear. Good. "Okay, stop." Amneiger picked up a set of digital goggles and put them on. There was a black spot on the suddenly orange ceiling above him. "Into the box."
Once the robot was inside the matchbox-shaped glass rectangle, Amneiger pulled off the goggles and carefully put the box into his pocket.
Well, it was time for lunch anyway.
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Post by Omni on Jul 16, 2008 13:09:23 GMT -5
"Woff! Woff!"
"I know, I know, it's lunchtime. Give me a minute." Ethan was looking himself in the mirror. He found it irritating when his hair grew long enough to obscure his vision or get in the way of the implants visible on his forehead. However, he never really felt like heading over to a barber or anything and spending time and credits just to get a trim. Besides, he had a pretty good knife.
Ethan grabbed the last little section of his hair and, being careful not to cut himself, raised his dagger to it and cut a small part of it off. He quickly brushed visible bits of hair off of his clothes, rinsed off the edge of his dagger, and then sheathed it. The method he used to cut his hair gave it a sort of rugged look, similar to what he had when he first came to Spacefleet. "Alright, let's go. Heel."
Ethan walked over to a nearby restaurant that he was supposed to be at. Seeing Fraze there, he waved, and took a seat at the same table, waiting for a waiterbot. Siber sat down near Ethan's feet.
"So, while we're waiting… What's up? Anything interesting happen lately?"
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Post by Bacon on Jul 16, 2008 15:35:28 GMT -5
Bacon slapped his grime-covered work gloves on the desk, pulled his welding goggles up off his eyes, and stood back to appreciate his work. "I must say, X-3, you look downright beautiful now."
There was a pause that Bacon could only assume was intended to be awkward. "I am not attracted to males."
"Neither am I. I just meant you're much more aesthetically appealing now." Bacon replied.
And so the ship was. After the crash on the planet below, where Bacon had first met the ship's computer, Bacon decided to look through all the spare parts available, and rebuild the Excalibur III to be more how he wanted it to be. With two large, streamlined engines coming off its sharp-nosed fuselage, a large passenger compartment, a six heavy lasers built into the frame so they wouldn't hinder aerodynamics too much, and a small, cozy cockpit, the remade Excalibur III looked nothing like the original Excalibur line of ships, and more like something fit to bear the name of King Arthur's legendary sword.
"What do you think of the modifications?" Bacon asked the ship. "What do you like about the changes? The GSEF, the NBIS, the GF/TRS?"
"I like the HDTV best. Have you heard about this show called Knight Rider?" The ship replied honestly.
"I knew adding a DirecTV receiver into the communication antennae was a bad idea." Bacon sighed. He checked his watch, which said it was lunchtime. Reminded of food, his stomach growled.
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Post by zarikrahia on Jul 16, 2008 16:13:17 GMT -5
Zari skittered down a corridor, trailing clones, blank paper, and cat hair in all directions. She'd fallen asleep a her desk again, for the third time that week...That project would finish itself. The ocelot-illhvrenan lashed her tail mid-turn and nearly ran into a wall- something she'd been doing alot lately. Approaching a Busy corridor, she sighed, spread out her wings, and flew over the clogged-up part of the corridor.
I wonder how everyone is at the moment. she wondered absently, still running. Despite her cluttered appearance and obvious youth Zari had been at spacefleet for a year now. She'd gone on quite a few missions and earned the status of Spacefleets Genetics professor, an authority that she still wasn't sure she was ready for. She had serious issues with being called "Professor Ailden". She just didn't like it- especially the patronising attitude of some who used that name. To everyone at spacefleet, she was Zari or ZariKrahia. No surnames, thanks.
Zari dashed through the door of the canteen, and, to her relief, saw a face- no, two faces- she knew. Smiling like an idiot, the young scientist weaved through the tables, shoved the sheets of blank paper from the Sarial Notebook in her bag (while wondering why she hadn't done that earlier. Smiling, she sat down and promptly headdesked. "I knew there was a reason I had to go to the cafeteria!" she mumbled into the flat surface. Remembering her manners, she raised her head and commented. "I have to eat lunch sometime. Hiya, you lot. The only interesting thing that happened to me today was the realisation that I have become increasingly accident prone. Nothing major, just boxes falling on me, running into walls by accident, that sort of stuff. I'm all right, it's just getting boring. How's Siber? Is he eating the regular clone formula or are you giving him dog food?"
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Post by Omni on Jul 16, 2008 18:03:00 GMT -5
"Ouch. Even if you're not badly hurt, I can't imagine those things feeling good. Yeah, I've weaned him off of the formula and he's on dog food." Ethan noticed the waiterbot coming up to the table. "Speaking of food… I'll have a deli sub, ham, turkey, AND beef, hold the mayo, salsa instead of tomatoes, with sandwich peppers. Oh, and a small lemonade."
He turned back to Zari. "For things that I've been up to lately… I'll give you a demonstration. Siber!" Siber snapped to attention when his name was called. "Give Zari a hug."
Siber moved closer to where Zari was sitting, hopped up to her, onto her lap. He then leaned up against her with his front paws and head on her shoulders.
"I've been teaching him more… useful tricks as well. They're generally the kinds of thing one can't really show off on a whim, though."
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Post by Bacon on Jul 16, 2008 22:34:30 GMT -5
The lights of the cantina dimmed. The sliding doors opened slowly and dramatically, revealing the silhouette of a cool character standing just outside. With a black leather jacket, dark aviator glasses, and a black fedora, he wordlessly created an air of drama and mystery. Calmly, he walked to the back of the cantina, sat down suavely, and kicked his feet on top of the table he had chosen. Several girls flocked to his side, one leaving her boyfriend very confused. The man in the aviator glasses felt like he was king of the world, and it showed. This story is not about him.
Bacon had already been halfway to Ethan, Zari, and Amneiger's table when the mystery man brushed past him. The lights returned to normal, and the PA announced some electrical difficulties in there sector attributed to extensive testing of the station's defenses taxing the generators.
Shrugging, Bacon continued to the others' table. "Hey." He said as he sat down. Discovering the waiterbot already there, Bacon said to it, "Deli BMT plus bacon, white bread. Hold all dressing and veggies except for pickles and black olives. Toasted. Thanks."
((That really is what I order at Subway: Footlong BMT(pepperoni, ham and salami) with bacon, white bread, toasted, then pickles, black olives, the end. It's not the cheapest sandwich, but it tastes sooo gooood. The hot, dry meat and cool, crisp, juicy veggies accent each other perfectly, and between the pickles, salami, and pepperoni it's seasoned just perfectly so it requires no further season or dressing. I said it before, I say it again, it tastes soooo goooood.))
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Post by Fraze on Jul 16, 2008 23:46:19 GMT -5
((There is a reference in this post. Ten points to whoever finds it.))
Fraze waved back to Ethan as he came nearer.
After sitting down, Ethan said, "So, while we're waiting…What's up? Anything interesting happen lately?"
Fraze opened his mouth to speak, but Zari showed up and saved Fraze his breath. "Hiya, you lot. The only interesting thing that happened to me today was the realisation that I have become increasingly accident prone. Nothing major, just boxes falling on me, running into walls by accident, that sort of stuff. I'm all right, it's just getting boring."
"After how many millennia I would have thought you'd have found that out a lot sooner," Fraze said with a grin that indicated he expected to get slapped.
"Not a whole lot going on here," Fraze said belatedly in answer to Ethan's question. "Just got off at the Gift Shop. A Uryuom cruise liner docked a few hours ago, and all the passengers wanted Spacefleet lunchboxes. Nothing else, just lunchboxes, and I can't for the life of me figure out why. We had to open up another crate of them, and it still wasn't enough for all of them. I told them to come back later when we had more in stock."
Bacon came near to the table, and Fraze waved to him. Bacon rattled off an order sounding like he had said it hundreds of times before.
"So," Fraze said around a bite of his sandwich. "I'm thinking about going to the holodeck after this to get some exercise and training. Anyone want to come along?"
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Post by zarikrahia on Jul 17, 2008 0:51:57 GMT -5
Zari patted Siber absently. "Good trick...Hey!" She reached around Siber to grab her book, lying on the table, and whacked Fraze over the head with it. "Respect your elders. I'm fourteen-thousand-nine-hundred-and fifty-two. This whole accident-prone thing only started happening about a millenia ago, when I left the Undercircle." she retorted sharply, trying and failing to keep a smile off her face.
Zari turned towards the waiterbot, the realisation it was waiting for her order dawning. "Tza? Oh, uh, the chicken risotto, thanks? Just...hold the capsicum. And a Drocoria, please. The holodeck sounds good...I'm out of practice martial-arts wise and it'd never hurt to get in some practice with a knife as well. Spacefleet and it's loose-ness with allowing little girls to carry weapons, as well as it's crazy work schedule have put me out of practice at both of them, especially with a opponent that isn't Ytrisan, who doesn't take me any more seriously than you lot do." Zari attempted to reach one of the pieces of paper on her desk, and failed. "Er, Siber," she began awkwardly "Would you mind getting off? Hugs are good and all, but I'm sort of stuck here. Please?" she trailed off. "Since I don't want to shove you off, and asking is the polite thing to do when someone is causing minor inconvinience."
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Post by Omni on Jul 17, 2008 1:17:07 GMT -5
"Okay Siber, get down." Siber promptly hopped down onto the floor. "Good boy. Holodeck exercise? Sounds great! I've been planning on-"
"Marine Ethan! There you are! I've been looking everywhere!"
Ethan recognised the voice, it belonged to one of the newer computer-and-robotics-technology scientists. "Yes, Hoshikira?" he turned to face her.
Hikari Hoshikira stopped near the table and adjusted her glasses. "I've been wanting you to help with something in the lab…"
"You realize that we don't need to work right now?"
"Yes, but this isn't a work assignment, more of a project which I've been looking for an opportunity to start. You see, I've been wanting to study your built-in computer and how it interacts with your brain."
"Uh, well…" Ethan cast a look at his teammates.
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Post by Amneiger on Jul 17, 2008 13:51:24 GMT -5
Amneiger came into the cafeteria and noticed the waiterbot moving away from the table with the others. Well, it'd come back eventually.
As he moved closer he noticed one of the robotics scientists talking to Ethan about a project. "Hoshikira, have you explained to Ethan the testing procedure you plan to use yet?"
((Short post lol))
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Post by zarikrahia on Jul 17, 2008 19:29:56 GMT -5
"Actually, that sounds rather interesting. I'm sure Miss Hoshikira would really like to study how the computerized parts of you work...Actually, I echo Amnei's question- What procedure are you using?" She leaned forward in her chair, obviously interested. "Are you using a scanner of some sort? What make? How is it used? Is how you use it classified?" She continued to rattle off questions until she realised she was speaking so fast she couldn't understand herself. "Eeek. Ienalle should be here in..." she consulted her wristcomp. "Five...four..."
A muffled crash sounded in the corridor. "Three...two...one." Zari stopped counting down and looked at the door, which was ajar, as usual. "What the...Ienalle is usually punctu-ARGH!" Ienalle had appeared out of nowhere, plainly excited. "IFOUNDYOUGUYSITOLDYOUI'DBEONTIMEWHO'STHISWHATAREYOUALLDOINGHEREANYWAY?!" she squealed, jumping up and down on the spot.
"...Ienalle?"
"Yesyesyesyesyes?"
"I'm never giving you caffiene again."
((Clones + caffiene = oh noes.))
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Post by Fraze on Jul 17, 2008 20:04:17 GMT -5
Fraze tried to duck when Zari booked him, but was only partially successful. The book hit him in the temple, and he recoiled. Probably deserved that.
"We've fought on the same side before," Fraze said to Zari, "And I know you well enough to take you seriously. It's just that I usually don't."
The scientists at the table began talking to someone Fraze didn't recognize about running tests on Ethan. Fraze was interested, but didn't think he would be able to understand much of what would be said. He had a layman's knowledge of astrophysics, but his understanding of robotics was close to nil.
Still, Ethan didn't seem to be particularly happy at the prospect of being tested, so Fraze tried to help him find an out. "Um, Miss, we were had other things we were planning to work on. Would it be possible to postpone the tests for a few hours or days?"
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Post by Omni on Jul 17, 2008 20:35:34 GMT -5
"Well, I was considering saving the physical connections until later and starting with how the implants think. I made this device…" she pulled out a small, not-too-odd-looking, metallic device, "using information from when Professor Amneiger made that adapter cable. It should gather information as it is processed in his implants and transmit it to my lab where I can view it in real time as well as view it in file-format later on. I would really like to begin as soon as possible, and while I have some ideas for tests, I don't need it to be used at any particular time. All I have to do is plug it in…"
As Hoshikira reached to plug the device into Ethan's hard-drive-slash-processor, Ethan winced, holding his hand up to block her, making a sound which could not be easily described as anything but 'Jzt!' There was a moment's silence. Ethan took the device from Hoshikira, telling her "I'll put it in myself."
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Post by Bacon on Jul 18, 2008 1:08:33 GMT -5
"Could that be used on a ship's computer as well? I'm a little worried about Excalibur III. It's been just three days since I installed the satellite TV and he's already fanboying Andromeda. You know, the spaceship from the TV show Andromeda. Call me crazy, but a ship developing crushes and watching TV all day just doesn't sound... normal." Bacon said, then paused before adding, "Sorry for going off like that, it's just... he's so weird."
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