Inception: 2023
09-18-2012, 05:54 AM (This post was last modified: 10-08-2021, 05:46 PM by LynnInDenver.)
09-18-2012, 05:54 AM (This post was last modified: 10-08-2021, 05:46 PM by LynnInDenver.)
January, 2023
Nene ran another diagnostic on the drone attached to the standing pipe frame in front of her, then plugged into it with a cable running from the socket behind her ear. She raised an arm up, and the drone raised its matching arm. Then, both arms lowered. Nene closed her eyes, and with her arm only slightly twitching, the drone's arm raised up again, then dropped back down to rest.
Jet makes it look so easy, she groused internally. The telepresence drone was quite a thing she'd dreamed up, cobbled together from information from the Whole Fenspace Catalog, and was as hardtech as she could get it, and she suspected that might be part of the problem. But she felt it was only right to take it as far as she could that way before she dropped it into a tank.
"<Hey, sis, we're ready!>" Geo called from the lab door. "<Starbug's heated and ready at the main pad!>"
"OK, Geo, I'll be done in five minutes." Nene unplugged herself from the drone, packed up the various tools, and shut down the computer terminal she was using, and the drone sagged against the frame. Grabbing her phone, she made her way into the main office, where Jeph was working on paperwork, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and giving him a quick kiss.
"Good luck with Shinji, Nene. I'll try not to get buried in the paperwork here while you're gone."
"I'll bring a shovel, just in case," she replied, heading out into the corridor.
Six days later
Gorramnit, I should never have let her take Geo. I’m not even treading water with the paperwork right now, and this is one of our lighter periods, Jeph thought to himself as he contemplated the growing pile of physical paper on his desk. (Paperless office? HAH! They were bloody dreaming!)
One of the JMC express courier pilots came into the office, bearing a smallish box wrapped completely in polymer packing tape. "Hey, chief, got a delivery for you," he said, hefting the small box onto the desk. Jeph took the box in hand, tilting it so he could see the label.
Experimental Agricultural
Collective Farm #1
Korolevgrad, Daniell Crater, Luna 00005-1234
Upon seeing that, a big bright grin broke out on his face. "Thanks, Stan. I've been expecting this one." He broke out a small leatherman style tool, slit the packing seal, and opened the box. Contained within was a small plastic container, like one would keep food in, filled full of green coffee beans.
There was an unhealthy gleam in his eyes as he went over to the office coffee station, and poured a small handful of beans into the red-painted popcorn popper and started it up.
*****
Myk debarked from his craft, looking quite tired. After all these years, the grueling pace his consulting business ("Handwavium and You! A Two-Week Course on Using It, Without It Using You!") making him wonder, and distressingly not for the first time, if he should beat old age and go for a deliberate biomod finally. Given the emails he'd been seeing, he was going to have to go, take whatever sleep he could get, then hitch a ride out to Frigga to finally sit Jet down and make her listen to reason for a change regarding the need for some training on Handwavium Uses.
He was so preoccupied that he almost ran over Geo in the corridor, and almost missed that Nene was along. She looked a little worn out as well, but he knew that she'd been in the middle of things there.
"Hi, Nene," he croaked out.
"Wow, Myk, you look like you've had an even worse couple of weeks than we've had."
"Two of my students got themselves biomodded this round. Either I'm getting crankier in my old age, or they're actually getting sloppier as time goes on." He ran both hands down his face. "Thankfully, no Jokers this time. But Jamie got all sorts of shit from the others because of her earlier comment of being a lesbian trapped in a man's body. How's Shinji?"
"He's doing alright, given the sheer amount of company that descended upon Frigga," Nene said, as they started walking down towards the office. "I think he's through the worst of it now. He's turned out to be a motorhead, on top of it. We wound up showing him the Top Gear episode we worked on."
Myk chuckled. "And you did relate to him how insane the filming was?"
"Of course. Although we did have to pause it and explain about Jeph's particular biomod."
"I bet."
They walked into the office, and both Geo and Nene groaned as the size of the paperwork pile was revealed. "Great, looks like Jeph got buried in the paperwork again," she grumbled. "Must've gotten caught up in some project again like he always does." She went over to the far door, where the lab was. "Lights are on, he must be in there."
She looked inside, and then she whipped her head around to look at Myk.
"Aw SHIT. Stay out here, Myk!" With that, she and Geo both ran into the room, leaving Myk to contemplate the pile of paperwork, and the empty box at the edge of it... and the still-on but very empty coffeepot. He picked up the box, and noticed not only the label, but the unread letter inside. Taking it out, he quickly scanned it.
Jeph,
Sorry this took so long to get to you, we've had so many demands for the cuttings that we just finally had to break down and send you a small sampling of beans to try. Well, that, and Mal was swearing up and down that you and this shouldn't be in the same room. Hopefully, he won't notice that we've sent it to you.
We'll try to get you a cutting for your hydroponics this next Convention, if it turns out to be useful to you.
-Elena
Myk reread the letter again, his overly tired mind trying to process what he'd just read, then he looked over at the coffee station again.
There was the still-open container of unroasted coffee beans, and one of the mugs, specifically the black and gold "Babylon 5" mug, was missing.
"oh no you fucking didn't do that you can't have been that fucking stupid can you..."
"Myk, it's clean!" Nene called out from the lab, and he crumpled up the letter as he walked into the lab space proper.
Thing didn't seem all that out of the ordinary, except the chair in the middle of the room, that Myk realized was actually the desk chair that was normally in the office, and the coffee cup sitting on the terminal, and Jeph sitting in the chair, limp, one of the Handwavium paint sprayers resting in his hand with the nozzle against the floor. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully. Nene was kneeling on the floor in front of him, one hand around his unoccupied arm.
"I found this letter in a box outside... and the contents of the box are sitting next to the coffee pot." Myk handed the letter to Nene, who read the letter, read it again, and paled.
"Wait... they sent him Klatchian Coffee?!" she exclaimed. "Isn't that the same stuff that's sent three other biomodded individuals into serious Blue Hair states?"
"The same," Myk said, dryly. Then he noticed the open support frame near the work station. "Nene... weren't you working on some sort of remote drone project?"
"I was, why... where the hell is it?" Nene said, as she realized that the telepresence drone was not in the frame anymore.
"Jesus tapdancing Christ on a shit cracker," Myk said, kneeling next to Nene, grabbing one of Jeph's shoulders, and shaking him a little harder than was probably necessary. Jeph woke with a start.
"What?! Yes, mum, I'm just packing my satchel!" he cried out as he woke with a start at the jostling. "...and why do you two look like..." he started to say, then he realized he was still holding the paint sprayer, where he was. "Oh. Shit."
"'Oh. Shit,’ is right, Jeph," Myk said, most traces of fatigue leaving him. "What the fucking hell did you think you were fucking doing drinking that fucking coffee? I've told you when I heard about that fucking coffee that it fucks up biomods by making them fucking blue haired." He looked around the lab. "Where's the drone?"
"In the tank, Myk," a disembodied voice said, startling all four of them. Myk's eye grew wide.
"Oh, fuck, I know that lazy voice," he said.
Sure enough, the big screen on one wall came to life, and a middle aged bald man's head displayed on it.
"What's going down in groovetown then," Holly said.
Myk palmed his face with both hands, and forced his voice to remain level. "You. Created. Holly."
"I don't remember doing that," Jeph said sincerely, wincing. "Actually, I don't remember much of anything after the first sip of that coffee. What I do know is I have a hell of a headache."
“That’s what you get for drinking Klatchian cofee,” Nene told him.
"I'm going to regret asking this... Holly, what happened between that sip and us arriving?"
Jeph rolled into the lab in his desk chair, guzzling the contents of the coffee mug he was holding... and it contained the last of the cups that had been in the coffeepot, then set the cup down next to the computer terminal. Working like a man possessed, he manhandled the drone off the frame and onto the workbench, made several adjustments and significant modifications over what turned out to be several hours, then got out the paint sprayer and a drum of Handwavium, and proceeded to hose down the drone, incidentally spraying down the computer terminal in the process, then filled up a trough tub with more handwavium, moved the drone into it, and gave it one more spray with the sprayer before teetering on his feet, falling back into the chair and passing out.
Myk and Nene looked over at the tub that had gone mostly unnoticed in the corner of the lab.
"My drone's in there, " she said, in a somewhat small voice.
"Odds are it's not your drone anymore," Myk said. "I think Gender Lad may have been incepting again."
Two hands popped up out of the tub, each one grabbing a side of the tub, and the occupant levered out of the tub and onto two feet. She was athletically built, dressed in a black leather catsuit that was exquisitely tailored to her, accessorized with a golden utility belt. She had red hair in a wavy pageboy cut, and bright green eyes. She looked around, and smiled as she caught sight of the group.
Walking over, she took Nene into a hug. "Hello, mother." Then she looked at Jeph. "Hey, father."
Jeph blinked. "Hello, Natasha."
Myk blinked. "Wait. Natasha Romanoff?"
Natasha gave Myk a knowing smile. "Romanova, Myk. You're forgetting how those unknowing Marvel writers butchered my name all those years. Besides, it's either that, or Antilles, and I don't quite feel the whole Jedi thing."
R. Natasha Romanova
Natasha is effectively the "daughter" of Nene Romanova, and Jeph Antilles. Nene originally built her frame as a telepresence prototype, meant to see if she could construct a telepresence remote unit that she could use in lieu of entering potentially dangerous situations directly. While she was away handling a crisis at Frigga, Jeph Antilles got a package of Klatchian Coffee from the Soviets, and upon ingestion, suffered a "Blue Hair" period, locking himself in the production lab, finishing the prototype, then dunking it into a full tub of 'wavium.
Outwardly, she resembles Scarlet Johanssen, who played the role in the live action Marvel movies. She possesses lightning-fast reflexes, significant hand to hand combat skills, and numerous infiltration techniques.
She does work for Great Justice, with some sideline work as a security consultant for various factions.
Wavium Abilities:
It's OK, I've Got An Angle - Due to her original design as a telepresence unit, Natasha actually has the ability to create a "sensory and motor link" between herself and Nene. The link is of limited range, prone to distance lag and blockage by intervening materials, but when it works, Nene can use her body as if it were her own, and vice versa. However, the link is significantly more stable if Nene uses Natasha's body, and not the other way, since Nene wasn't built as a telepresence system to begin with. Despite the limitations, occasionally the link proves useful in getting a hacker into a secured area without actually having to bring the hacker physically in.
Steelheart - AI Robot: Doesn't Sleep, Doesn't Need to Eat, Doesn't Age, potentially immortal.
Quirks:
Sometimes I'm Mistaken For Someone Else - Based closely on a fictional character, which allows strangers to predict her reactions with some accuracy if they've found and reviewed the source material.
Factions:
Supers, Senshi (Justice Faction)
Known Associates:
Jeph Antilles (father), R. Nene Romanova (mother), Jupiter Mining Corporation
Holly
Holly, no other name available, is a majordomo AI for the Jupiter Mining Corporation. He incepted in the laboratory computers during a very vigorous ignorance of Handwavium handling protocols. He has an I.Q. of over 6,000, which is self described as either the combined intelligence of 6,000 P.E. Instructors, or 12,000 car park attendants.
After the dust settled, Holly settled into the major job of record keeping and red tape wrangling that Nene Romanova and R2-G0 had been handling up to that time. This has freed both of them up for more field work.
Wavium Abilities:
We're getting a signal. It's probably nothing but I just thought I'd mention it. - Astoundingly powerful AI... although he's a bit daft at times.
Quirks:
They're All Dead Dave - Occasionally prone to a fit of practical joking.
Factions:
Cybers, Hacker Underspace, Blue Blazers
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
Nene ran another diagnostic on the drone attached to the standing pipe frame in front of her, then plugged into it with a cable running from the socket behind her ear. She raised an arm up, and the drone raised its matching arm. Then, both arms lowered. Nene closed her eyes, and with her arm only slightly twitching, the drone's arm raised up again, then dropped back down to rest.
Jet makes it look so easy, she groused internally. The telepresence drone was quite a thing she'd dreamed up, cobbled together from information from the Whole Fenspace Catalog, and was as hardtech as she could get it, and she suspected that might be part of the problem. But she felt it was only right to take it as far as she could that way before she dropped it into a tank.
"<Hey, sis, we're ready!>" Geo called from the lab door. "<Starbug's heated and ready at the main pad!>"
"OK, Geo, I'll be done in five minutes." Nene unplugged herself from the drone, packed up the various tools, and shut down the computer terminal she was using, and the drone sagged against the frame. Grabbing her phone, she made her way into the main office, where Jeph was working on paperwork, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and giving him a quick kiss.
"Good luck with Shinji, Nene. I'll try not to get buried in the paperwork here while you're gone."
"I'll bring a shovel, just in case," she replied, heading out into the corridor.
Six days later
Gorramnit, I should never have let her take Geo. I’m not even treading water with the paperwork right now, and this is one of our lighter periods, Jeph thought to himself as he contemplated the growing pile of physical paper on his desk. (Paperless office? HAH! They were bloody dreaming!)
One of the JMC express courier pilots came into the office, bearing a smallish box wrapped completely in polymer packing tape. "Hey, chief, got a delivery for you," he said, hefting the small box onto the desk. Jeph took the box in hand, tilting it so he could see the label.
Experimental Agricultural
Collective Farm #1
Korolevgrad, Daniell Crater, Luna 00005-1234
Upon seeing that, a big bright grin broke out on his face. "Thanks, Stan. I've been expecting this one." He broke out a small leatherman style tool, slit the packing seal, and opened the box. Contained within was a small plastic container, like one would keep food in, filled full of green coffee beans.
There was an unhealthy gleam in his eyes as he went over to the office coffee station, and poured a small handful of beans into the red-painted popcorn popper and started it up.
*****
Myk debarked from his craft, looking quite tired. After all these years, the grueling pace his consulting business ("Handwavium and You! A Two-Week Course on Using It, Without It Using You!") making him wonder, and distressingly not for the first time, if he should beat old age and go for a deliberate biomod finally. Given the emails he'd been seeing, he was going to have to go, take whatever sleep he could get, then hitch a ride out to Frigga to finally sit Jet down and make her listen to reason for a change regarding the need for some training on Handwavium Uses.
He was so preoccupied that he almost ran over Geo in the corridor, and almost missed that Nene was along. She looked a little worn out as well, but he knew that she'd been in the middle of things there.
"Hi, Nene," he croaked out.
"Wow, Myk, you look like you've had an even worse couple of weeks than we've had."
"Two of my students got themselves biomodded this round. Either I'm getting crankier in my old age, or they're actually getting sloppier as time goes on." He ran both hands down his face. "Thankfully, no Jokers this time. But Jamie got all sorts of shit from the others because of her earlier comment of being a lesbian trapped in a man's body. How's Shinji?"
"He's doing alright, given the sheer amount of company that descended upon Frigga," Nene said, as they started walking down towards the office. "I think he's through the worst of it now. He's turned out to be a motorhead, on top of it. We wound up showing him the Top Gear episode we worked on."
Myk chuckled. "And you did relate to him how insane the filming was?"
"Of course. Although we did have to pause it and explain about Jeph's particular biomod."
"I bet."
They walked into the office, and both Geo and Nene groaned as the size of the paperwork pile was revealed. "Great, looks like Jeph got buried in the paperwork again," she grumbled. "Must've gotten caught up in some project again like he always does." She went over to the far door, where the lab was. "Lights are on, he must be in there."
She looked inside, and then she whipped her head around to look at Myk.
"Aw SHIT. Stay out here, Myk!" With that, she and Geo both ran into the room, leaving Myk to contemplate the pile of paperwork, and the empty box at the edge of it... and the still-on but very empty coffeepot. He picked up the box, and noticed not only the label, but the unread letter inside. Taking it out, he quickly scanned it.
Jeph,
Sorry this took so long to get to you, we've had so many demands for the cuttings that we just finally had to break down and send you a small sampling of beans to try. Well, that, and Mal was swearing up and down that you and this shouldn't be in the same room. Hopefully, he won't notice that we've sent it to you.
We'll try to get you a cutting for your hydroponics this next Convention, if it turns out to be useful to you.
-Elena
Myk reread the letter again, his overly tired mind trying to process what he'd just read, then he looked over at the coffee station again.
There was the still-open container of unroasted coffee beans, and one of the mugs, specifically the black and gold "Babylon 5" mug, was missing.
"oh no you fucking didn't do that you can't have been that fucking stupid can you..."
"Myk, it's clean!" Nene called out from the lab, and he crumpled up the letter as he walked into the lab space proper.
Thing didn't seem all that out of the ordinary, except the chair in the middle of the room, that Myk realized was actually the desk chair that was normally in the office, and the coffee cup sitting on the terminal, and Jeph sitting in the chair, limp, one of the Handwavium paint sprayers resting in his hand with the nozzle against the floor. He looked like he was sleeping peacefully. Nene was kneeling on the floor in front of him, one hand around his unoccupied arm.
"I found this letter in a box outside... and the contents of the box are sitting next to the coffee pot." Myk handed the letter to Nene, who read the letter, read it again, and paled.
"Wait... they sent him Klatchian Coffee?!" she exclaimed. "Isn't that the same stuff that's sent three other biomodded individuals into serious Blue Hair states?"
"The same," Myk said, dryly. Then he noticed the open support frame near the work station. "Nene... weren't you working on some sort of remote drone project?"
"I was, why... where the hell is it?" Nene said, as she realized that the telepresence drone was not in the frame anymore.
"Jesus tapdancing Christ on a shit cracker," Myk said, kneeling next to Nene, grabbing one of Jeph's shoulders, and shaking him a little harder than was probably necessary. Jeph woke with a start.
"What?! Yes, mum, I'm just packing my satchel!" he cried out as he woke with a start at the jostling. "...and why do you two look like..." he started to say, then he realized he was still holding the paint sprayer, where he was. "Oh. Shit."
"'Oh. Shit,’ is right, Jeph," Myk said, most traces of fatigue leaving him. "What the fucking hell did you think you were fucking doing drinking that fucking coffee? I've told you when I heard about that fucking coffee that it fucks up biomods by making them fucking blue haired." He looked around the lab. "Where's the drone?"
"In the tank, Myk," a disembodied voice said, startling all four of them. Myk's eye grew wide.
"Oh, fuck, I know that lazy voice," he said.
Sure enough, the big screen on one wall came to life, and a middle aged bald man's head displayed on it.
"What's going down in groovetown then," Holly said.
Myk palmed his face with both hands, and forced his voice to remain level. "You. Created. Holly."
"I don't remember doing that," Jeph said sincerely, wincing. "Actually, I don't remember much of anything after the first sip of that coffee. What I do know is I have a hell of a headache."
“That’s what you get for drinking Klatchian cofee,” Nene told him.
"I'm going to regret asking this... Holly, what happened between that sip and us arriving?"
Jeph rolled into the lab in his desk chair, guzzling the contents of the coffee mug he was holding... and it contained the last of the cups that had been in the coffeepot, then set the cup down next to the computer terminal. Working like a man possessed, he manhandled the drone off the frame and onto the workbench, made several adjustments and significant modifications over what turned out to be several hours, then got out the paint sprayer and a drum of Handwavium, and proceeded to hose down the drone, incidentally spraying down the computer terminal in the process, then filled up a trough tub with more handwavium, moved the drone into it, and gave it one more spray with the sprayer before teetering on his feet, falling back into the chair and passing out.
Myk and Nene looked over at the tub that had gone mostly unnoticed in the corner of the lab.
"My drone's in there, " she said, in a somewhat small voice.
"Odds are it's not your drone anymore," Myk said. "I think Gender Lad may have been incepting again."
Two hands popped up out of the tub, each one grabbing a side of the tub, and the occupant levered out of the tub and onto two feet. She was athletically built, dressed in a black leather catsuit that was exquisitely tailored to her, accessorized with a golden utility belt. She had red hair in a wavy pageboy cut, and bright green eyes. She looked around, and smiled as she caught sight of the group.
Walking over, she took Nene into a hug. "Hello, mother." Then she looked at Jeph. "Hey, father."
Jeph blinked. "Hello, Natasha."
Myk blinked. "Wait. Natasha Romanoff?"
Natasha gave Myk a knowing smile. "Romanova, Myk. You're forgetting how those unknowing Marvel writers butchered my name all those years. Besides, it's either that, or Antilles, and I don't quite feel the whole Jedi thing."
R. Natasha Romanova
Natasha is effectively the "daughter" of Nene Romanova, and Jeph Antilles. Nene originally built her frame as a telepresence prototype, meant to see if she could construct a telepresence remote unit that she could use in lieu of entering potentially dangerous situations directly. While she was away handling a crisis at Frigga, Jeph Antilles got a package of Klatchian Coffee from the Soviets, and upon ingestion, suffered a "Blue Hair" period, locking himself in the production lab, finishing the prototype, then dunking it into a full tub of 'wavium.
Outwardly, she resembles Scarlet Johanssen, who played the role in the live action Marvel movies. She possesses lightning-fast reflexes, significant hand to hand combat skills, and numerous infiltration techniques.
She does work for Great Justice, with some sideline work as a security consultant for various factions.
Wavium Abilities:
It's OK, I've Got An Angle - Due to her original design as a telepresence unit, Natasha actually has the ability to create a "sensory and motor link" between herself and Nene. The link is of limited range, prone to distance lag and blockage by intervening materials, but when it works, Nene can use her body as if it were her own, and vice versa. However, the link is significantly more stable if Nene uses Natasha's body, and not the other way, since Nene wasn't built as a telepresence system to begin with. Despite the limitations, occasionally the link proves useful in getting a hacker into a secured area without actually having to bring the hacker physically in.
Steelheart - AI Robot: Doesn't Sleep, Doesn't Need to Eat, Doesn't Age, potentially immortal.
Quirks:
Sometimes I'm Mistaken For Someone Else - Based closely on a fictional character, which allows strangers to predict her reactions with some accuracy if they've found and reviewed the source material.
Factions:
Supers, Senshi (Justice Faction)
Known Associates:
Jeph Antilles (father), R. Nene Romanova (mother), Jupiter Mining Corporation
Holly
Holly, no other name available, is a majordomo AI for the Jupiter Mining Corporation. He incepted in the laboratory computers during a very vigorous ignorance of Handwavium handling protocols. He has an I.Q. of over 6,000, which is self described as either the combined intelligence of 6,000 P.E. Instructors, or 12,000 car park attendants.
After the dust settled, Holly settled into the major job of record keeping and red tape wrangling that Nene Romanova and R2-G0 had been handling up to that time. This has freed both of them up for more field work.
Wavium Abilities:
We're getting a signal. It's probably nothing but I just thought I'd mention it. - Astoundingly powerful AI... although he's a bit daft at times.
Quirks:
They're All Dead Dave - Occasionally prone to a fit of practical joking.
Factions:
Cybers, Hacker Underspace, Blue Blazers
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
![[Image: 96b36e591a739e1e043852b876402adba96a0a0f.jpg]](http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/forumimportfiles/96b36e591a739e1e043852b876402adba96a0a0f.jpg)
