trans_9 | Cranston For Hire [Open!]

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Cranston For Hire [Open!]

It was once again time for Billy to assess the progress being made in this seemingly endless war with tasks and deadlines. So far, reorganization of the Engineering department was about 25% complete. Not terrible for a day's work, but he could certainly do better. Several projects were stalled pending discussion from the involved parties. His social time and interactions with the Rangers had taken a hit due to all of this.

Though he was following his orders to take more resting time during the day and having fun with Ronnae on many of the nights, nothing stopped him from taking on more than enough work to fill the compressed schedule.

Today's work: Supervising the new structure and performing odd jobs around the ship. Repairs were going well in the hangar, Neuropathy needed to be left alone, infrastructure was busy in the City. He visited wherever he could and lent a hand to each, struggling to find time for what he wanted to do in secret: move his personal belongings to his girlfriend's house.

As Billy wandered back and forth throughout the day, a stuffed backpack always accompanied him. Throughout the day, the loaded-down teenager made trips between a number of places on the upper levels and a particular house in the City. Distracted as he was with the constant juggling of omnicom, comm ring, tools, and items, he eventually wore himself out.

Where he ended up shouldn't be a surprise: in the city park, fast asleep, sprawled across an assortment of odd items. Somehow, he'd note when he woke up, he doubted this was what had been meant by the recommendation for 'personal time'.

((ooc: The two location tags basically mean you can catch him anywhere: asleep with shiny stuff to steal or rushing back and forth between the different areas of the ship. Just make a note of where you found him.))

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Anwei crouched as well, her knees folding to the side in a twisted pose that she somehow made look comfortable. "Or at least take time to put more things in pockets," she suggested, quickly ferreting out some small bits of screen that were stuck in Stacy's grooved - skin, she supposed.

"Anwei, yes. I wanted to tell you how impressed I was with your inventory database, Billy. I do - did - data management for a living, and it's really a pleasure to work with a program that's so intuitive to use."

Billy groaned---they'd been high enough to shatter? He picked that one up and transferred the data to another pad with a few presses, moving to help her clean up his mess.

"Right." And his pockets were quickly stuffed and zipped. When she told him about the database, he couldn't help but smile. "Thanks, you're very kind, but it wasn't my work alone. I've been working with the programmers here and you're all doing excellent work."

He truly meant that. "So you haven't had too much trouble settling in?"

Billy looked like he needed more pockets. Perhaps a utility belt?

"I've been doing some inventory input, just so I could feel I was helping out. And I look forward to working more closely with you all, once my data extraction project is done."

"I," she gazed into space for a moment, "I haven't had any trouble as such. People have been very helpful, but I usually work with an AI partner, Horanckk. And he isn't here, apparently. That puts some upper limits on what I can do."

Unfortunately, his belt was full. There might still be room in the backpack---there, he yanked it off and put the rest of the items in the backpack. "We'll look forward to it as well," he smiled. "We're always happy to work with new people."

As she described her problem, he dipped his head in thought. There had to be something they could do. "There's a chance that Horanckk could be activated in the future, but...there are also friendly AIs on the ship. Andromeda, Cortana, and I believe Angie mentioned one named Tron. Stacy doesn't allow completely free communication with them, but you might be able to find one of them if you persist."

It wasn't much, but he was trying. "We're still trying to figure out what we can do with the AIs."

"I'm hoping that I can find skillsets that I can share."

Anwei dropped her own eyes for a moment. "Horanckk and I - it was a very close relationship. We had worked together for over twenty five years. Even now, every day, I try and remember something and then go Oh, Horanckk will know that! - and then he isn't there."

"Certainly I would be happy to work with the AIs on the ship, and I have met Tron and he seems a fine piece of software. From the sounds of it, Stacy's internal code structure is shaky enough that the most important thing we can do is try to stabilize her dataspace and prevent any recurring errors from getting worse."

Oh, so they were very close. Just like all the others, Anwei had lost a dear friend. "I'm sorry. I know what it's like to be left waiting for someone that close. It feels hopeless sometimes, but I truly hope you'll have better luck than I have."

But as far as what they could do now, Billy agreed. "True. We're having our programmers take a crack at it, and I'm sure you're doing well. Actually, have you met Alex?"

Yes, it's a relevant question.

"I feel a little guilty sometimes, because I have more hope than most. Horanckk was a multi-instanced AI and we were employed by the Vizsnunishne Mercenaries, who are a transdimensional group. So even if my dimension is gone, and that Horancck who was with me there is gone, he should still be somewhere - at least one of him. It almost doesn't seem fair, for everyone here who has lost the only one from their one dimension."

Her face lit up. "Yes, actually, if you mean Alex Furest and Alice. We had some very interesting conversations about AI personality structure."

Billy shook his head. "No, that's a good thing! I want Horanckk to become active. It would increase our efficiency, and it would be wonderful for you." Jealousy? What was that? Billy felt it somewhat, but it was one of those things he fought against acknowledging.

Oh, they had met! Perfect. "Alex is actually the head programmer now. I'm glad to hear that you're getting along. And Alice is...I suppose she can be our mascot."

"I admit to being very biased, but I think it would be wonderful for everyone. Horanckk has a lot of experience in working with damaged and incomplete AIs, I think his talents would be invaluable here. And he is a good friend to me, and if he does arrive I will certainly introduce him to everyone."

Actually she might not have a choice about doing introductions, considering that Horanckk thought it 'quite amusing' to arrive on a new ship and start bellowing her name at about 140 db through every available sound device until he found her.

"I should congratulate him next time I see him. But Alice? Those dainty paws and adorable whiskers? Surely she should be our pin-up girl," Anwei grinned. She'd studied her Earth culture.

"I'd be honored to meet him," Billy decided, hoping for her sake that Horanckk would return soon.

Anwei's joke, though? Caused Billy to turn red and sputter. "Well, I'd definitely prefer something innocuous like that, though you'd have to ask Alex. I'm not sure that he'd agree."

Disturbingly, his mind was picturing Ronnie as a pinup girl. He'd have to work on that.

She was also hoping that he would return for her sake. And that he would at least try to make a gracious entrance. For once.

She made a mental note to herself that this crew was far from the boisterous lechery of the Vizsnunishne. "I think if we tried to put Alice into an itsy-bitsy bikini, she would probably just chew on it. Also I expect that Alex might object. Mascot it is, then."

Billy couldn't help but laugh at that image. Alice in a tiny rat bikini. Alex would kill them, wouldn't he?

"Great. Actually, I've heard the idea of an engineering staff calendar passed around before. I'm not sure why it would be necessary, considering that it's so difficult to keep track of time, but I think someone wanted to take pictures."

Wait until all the different subdepartments start marketing competing calendars.

Anwei felt something go tense in her mind for a moment; the loss of time was a very sore spot to her. "Seriously, some sort of a calendar that coordinates the entire ship is going to be a necessity, sooner or later. At this point, if we got a message saying 'The ship will be attacked in twenty days' we might lose enough internal coordination during that interval to be unprepared. If there's anything I can do to assist in such a project, please let me know."

Yes, she talks too fast when she's excited.

Billy nodded. "A general calendar can definitely work. As soon as we have the cycles sorted out and a basic schedule, we can build something, though that project might be better suited to another department."

As in he wants the civilians to have a chance at doing something fun, not that he'd be afraid of being asked to model. Even if he would.

"Anyway, you've been a great help today. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"I just find it personally frustrating that I can't even tell how long I've been here," she confessed. "And eventually it's going to start affecting other people - someone will leave a project running that needs to be adjusted every ten days, they'll be distracted or taken away, and boom!" She gestured wide with her arms. "Some sort of central electronic touchpoint, accessible via omnicomm and that's regularly synched against a central timekeeper of some sort, shouldn't be that hard to set up."

Anwei considered. "Well, do you know if Alex is going to be setting up separate space for Computing, since it sounds like I'll be reporting to him? I do appreciate the space I've been allowed in Engineering, and I'll clean up before I leave."

Billy took that seriously, of course. "I agree completely. We'll make sure the problem is addressed as soon as possible. The omnicoms already have a feature that can tick off units of time, but syncing it and perhaps adding a schedule application would work."

Was he? "I believe we have computers accessible in the engineering space beyond the observation deck. I'll have to make sure everyone knows where to go."

"I think it's the sort of project that could make it easier for all of us to work together. And it will also make it easier to figure out when people go away." She winced a little at that thought, a line forming between her brows.

Then she smiled again. "I'm sure that we'll get it all sorted out eventually, Billy. The one thing we aren't lacking is space. We should all just concentrate on getting along with each other, and try to share a little happiness on the side."

She arched one eyebrow. "You look pretty happy yourself, if I can say so without being rude."

"Definitely. I'll see about getting that application online as soon as possible."

Billy was happy enough to agree. "Good. Keeping the department happy has kept our efficiency high so far, and I can't see why it wouldn't continue to work." That would then make the challenge to keep certain haughty engineers from disrupting everyone's moods, but he'd work on that soon enough.

That last comment made his cheeks redden. "No, it's not rude. Is it that obvious?"

"I appreciate you taking the time - to make time," she said, grinning.

"I'll try to keep the mood up." Anwei thought that he looked young for his position, but clearly he'd grasped some of the real principles of running an organization. This ship must give brutal OTJ training.

"It's only a little obvious. But it looks well on you." She patted his shoulder. "A pleasure to meet you at last, Billy - hopefully we'll work together well in the future."

Billy nodded, patting her arm with a smile. "Thanks again, Anwei. I'm sure it'll go well. I'll be in contact again soon if you don't message me first."

Edited 2011-02-27 04:32 (UTC)

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Cranston For Hire [Open!]

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