dejah_thoris | [OOM] An Engineer's Challenge (For Adrian Shepard)

She'd taken copious notes on his specifications for modifying the Buell RS1200 motorcycle, and even at this late in the design phase, she was still muttering under her breath about how much more sensible a light-skimmer would be. But he'd been very clear. It had to maintain the original appearance and it had to remain in contact with the surface at all times.

She'd already converted the original engine to a radium drive, and now she was adding in additional features for speed, maneuverability and stability. He wasn't always going to be running on the smooth surface of pavement or even a moss plain. So it had to have inertial stabilizers. And it had to have certain aerodynamic stabilizers so that it remained upright and travelling in the indicated direction at high velocity. If that wasn't a challenge enough, he wanted to be able to do hair-pin turns and extreme course alterations at speed.

She'd already extended the capabilities of the onboard calculating engine to encompass the algorithms for these features. She'd added a force shield that would only deploy when required, which required sensors to anticipate the vectors of incoming threats.

Now, she was in the process of modifying a test body, and manufacturing parts to be fitted. She had the bike up on a test bench, stripped down to bare bones and with the radium drive already added in. She had grease up to her elbows and a nice big smear across her cheek. Her hair was piled on top of her head, speared through with a pencil. Beside her, there were several bins of parts and tools clearly staged to begin the retrofit.

Now all she needed was a pot of tea and some music and she'd be set. She wiped a rag across her brow, and squinted at the suspension units. She had a holo of the original bike up so she could refer to it, and she reached a hand over to spin it 360 degrees. Two fingers pinched and zoomed to blow it up so she could examine it closer.

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"Ah yes! The adjustment phase, I like to call it." She laughed again, an easy, content sound. "You'll do just fine. I will ensure that it runs as close to the original as possible, except when you -- need it to do otherwise."

"'preciate it, Dejah," says Shephard, "I surely do. I know it goes against your principles to keep it on the ground and all, but I just don't feel right if I ain't got somethin' familiar to stick to."

"It doesn't go 'against my principles', as you say. It just seems an unnecessary limitation to put on yourself. But I do understand you don't like to fly, so --" She wobbled a hand in mid air, "I work within the parameters you have set forth."

"And you're quite welcome. I'm enjoying having a project to work on that isn't a vast underground pumping station. Pumps are -- really quite boring, even when they are the size of a small house."

"Pumps," repeat Shephard. "What, for oil, or water, or some kind of gas?"

Oil doesn't seem likely, but mineral oil has other uses; water, well, Barsoom's not exactly a green planet from what he recalls, so maybe there's water down there somewhere; and gas- for fixing the atmosphere, maybe? It could be any of those.

"Water. There's an underground ocean we are attempting to coax back to the surface. Right now, it meets our daily needs for consumption and the atmospheric generators, but I would like to see -- a more obvious change."

Terraforming is tricky business and she takes it very seriously.

"Shit. Good luck with that," says Shephard. "Only large-scale change work I've ever seen bein' done on purpose like that's what the Combine were doin' to our atmosphere, and they used living creatures to do it. Bringin' up that much water's a hell of a job."

"It is," she agrees with a soft smile. "And for the longest time, we have relied on technology that was built by the ancestors. I've -- We've been making a concerted effort to update it to something far more efficient. More work for less effort. And I can't begin to speak to how much it helps that we no longer have active opposition to our efforts on the surface."

"Yeah, I know how that goes," says Shephard. "How long've you been at it, you don't mind my askin'?"

It's rough enough trying to get the human race back into a secure position on Earth with the Combine gone. Having to work with somewhere like Barsoom... yfgh.

"More than a hundred of your Terran years. It's a project in its infancy, but I hope to see it to its fruition some day."

She glanced across at him.

"Can you tell me about this ship of yours? The one that makes -- portals?"

"Sure," says Shephard, "although alls her technical documents'n operating manuals're back home just at the moment."

He scratches his nose briefly, thinking.

"Ship's name is Borealis, and she was built by a company name of Aperture Science for testing a whole lot of weird-ass shit. Portals, mostly. She's a high latitude research vessel and polar icebreaker. Three hunnert ninety-nine foot long, eighty-three and a half foot in the beam, thirty-one feet of draft. Nuclear powered- nuclear fission. Two reactors with two steam turbines drivin' six generators. Built for a crew of two hunnert sailors, officers, 'n Marines, plus fifty scientists, and she'll do six to eight months at sea without putting into port- that's if she ain't doin' the portal thing instead, that's a whole 'nother story."

"And this Pi? She is - her captain?"

"Naw. Pi's the computer controllin' the portal system," says Shephard. "Think I told you 'bout her before- the folks who built her didn't realize she was gonna go conscious on 'em 'til the whole damn experiment that killed her crew. Pi can't do much beyond the jump system'n a couple other related systems. Ship still needs a human crew'n captain."

"Oh yes, yes I remember now. I didn't recall her name, forgive me."

"Already done," says Shephard. "I got made captain when I asked Ms. Vance who the ship's CO was, seein' how we didn't seem to have nobody on our hands of a naval persuasion. I dunno if they have the same sort of thing on Barsoom, but Ms. Vance was of the opinion that the position ought to go to the one who cared enough to ask about it, which is how I wound up in the captain's spot."

Dejah's lips twitched. "I am familiar with the distinction between air, land and water services. My late husband was a captain in the Confederate Army. So, your -- I'm sorry, I thought your rank was Sergeant. Should I be calling you Captain, instead?"

Shephard runs a gloved hand over his face. "Far as I'm concerned it's Sergeant or Sergeant-Major as long as I'm on land," he says. "I ain't Navy by training. I might be ship's CO, but I ain't gonna make nobody call me Captain less'n them'n me're both on board Borealis and they ain't one of my Marines. Wouldn't sit right at all."

She chuckled in the back of her throat. "Fair enough. I prefer Adrian, anyway."

She turned back to the test frame, lightly touching his arm as she passed.

"I think I'm a week away from having a working test model, and then another week of fine tuning before I'm ready to begin retrofitting the Buell."

There's not many people in the world who use his first name. Shephard himself mostly just thinks of himself as Shephard. Even his family mostly uses nicknames.

Well, different strokes, and all that.

"'Preciate it," he says, and then, "Two weeks is fine by me. You need anything from me in the meantime? Spare pare of hands or anything?"

"If you like. Or you could run upstairs and get us something to drink?"

"That, also, I can do," Shephard says. "Got a preference?"

"I would say tea, but I suspect a six pack of beer is easier to carry."

"Li'l bit," Shephard allows. "I'll see what I c'n do."

"Thank you. I'll be right here."

[OOM] An Engineer's Challenge (For Adrian Shepard)

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