OOC: We'll see how well this works for everyone, a discovery while everyone else plays with the Ganymede sensor network:
Jeph handed the microphone and stand of the gaming setup over to the next person in line to play, and walked over to the bar, itching a bit at the wig on the top of her head, and then pulling down her spandex skirt a little bit, wondering what the hell possessed her to activate her biomod and dress as BGC Priss for the debut of the Rock Band setup she had Handwaved with Myk a couple of months back.
That shifted to wonderment as her phone buzzed on her skirt belt, and she looked at it to realize that Nene was calling her. In the middle of a Convention party. Nene never did that if she could help it, unless it was something very, very important.
So Jeph answered it.
"Hey Nene. What's up?"
"We've got a Blue Midget coming into the approach patterns," she said. "I can see their JMC network. But... it's the Fifteen."
Jeph's ears started to itch, and itch badly. Blue Midget 15 had disappeared in the Belt a month back, without a trace. If she hadn't already been female, she would have shifted right then and there.
"Nene. Log into their computers if you can, any means necessary, verify their identity and status. And contact OGJ with your findings if they're anything other than "oops, we lost track of where we were"."
"OK, will do."
*****
On the other side of that conversation, Nene was already at work.
She had embarked on something of a personal improvement plan ever since the Jupiter Mining Corporation had expanded into something of an important shipping powerhouse. Now, she could do all sorts of things expected of AIs that weren't housed in anthropomorphic presentations, including being able to run hundreds of simultaneous human-speed avatars... or a few high speed avatars, all of them wirelessly.
So, she stretched out her presence over the wireless network that the JMC had set up as a 'backup' to the primary wireless network that linked the bulk of Serenity Valley together into an electronic community, and touched the accidental Artificial Intelligence known only as 'Sparky' aboard the Fifteen.
Oh thank creators someone to talk to. You won't believe the amounts of poking I've been undergoing here, much of it quite painful, Sparky said. Nene winced a little bit, she'd never quite cottoned to Sparky, who had been accidentally incepted when the engineer installing the computers on Fifteen, a Fiver with a bit of a disregard for protocol, had not quite followed procedures when applying Handwavium to the system.
How badly have they been poking you? And who? Nene asked.
Oh, you won't like it, but I need to verify you, Sparky said.
Tell me, command override, Garibaldi Peekaboo Game. Nene commanded, the pit of her virtual stomach starting to drop out.
OK. They've cut off the primary feed, so I can't give visuals, only text, but they boarded, killed my crew, and physically cut most of my connections, except for internal sensors. Then they wired in some sort of rude computer that seems quite willing to kill itself for them, and began loading in all sorts of junk. I can tell that the ship's pretty well loaded down with mass right now. And I heard them say something about kinetic kill.
*****
In the office where she had been doing some important paperwork, Nene would have dropped her phone if she'd been holding it. Instead, Jeph heard her swearing, which was so out of place for her that it got Jeph's immediate attention again.
"Oh my fucking hells. Jeph, the Reavers have commandeered Fifteen, and loaded it with enough mass to completely vaporize Serenity Valley if it hits. I'm already calling OGJ Control here about it."
--
"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
Jeph handed the microphone and stand of the gaming setup over to the next person in line to play, and walked over to the bar, itching a bit at the wig on the top of her head, and then pulling down her spandex skirt a little bit, wondering what the hell possessed her to activate her biomod and dress as BGC Priss for the debut of the Rock Band setup she had Handwaved with Myk a couple of months back.
That shifted to wonderment as her phone buzzed on her skirt belt, and she looked at it to realize that Nene was calling her. In the middle of a Convention party. Nene never did that if she could help it, unless it was something very, very important.
So Jeph answered it.
"Hey Nene. What's up?"
"We've got a Blue Midget coming into the approach patterns," she said. "I can see their JMC network. But... it's the Fifteen."
Jeph's ears started to itch, and itch badly. Blue Midget 15 had disappeared in the Belt a month back, without a trace. If she hadn't already been female, she would have shifted right then and there.
"Nene. Log into their computers if you can, any means necessary, verify their identity and status. And contact OGJ with your findings if they're anything other than "oops, we lost track of where we were"."
"OK, will do."
*****
On the other side of that conversation, Nene was already at work.
She had embarked on something of a personal improvement plan ever since the Jupiter Mining Corporation had expanded into something of an important shipping powerhouse. Now, she could do all sorts of things expected of AIs that weren't housed in anthropomorphic presentations, including being able to run hundreds of simultaneous human-speed avatars... or a few high speed avatars, all of them wirelessly.
So, she stretched out her presence over the wireless network that the JMC had set up as a 'backup' to the primary wireless network that linked the bulk of Serenity Valley together into an electronic community, and touched the accidental Artificial Intelligence known only as 'Sparky' aboard the Fifteen.
Oh thank creators someone to talk to. You won't believe the amounts of poking I've been undergoing here, much of it quite painful, Sparky said. Nene winced a little bit, she'd never quite cottoned to Sparky, who had been accidentally incepted when the engineer installing the computers on Fifteen, a Fiver with a bit of a disregard for protocol, had not quite followed procedures when applying Handwavium to the system.
How badly have they been poking you? And who? Nene asked.
Oh, you won't like it, but I need to verify you, Sparky said.
Tell me, command override, Garibaldi Peekaboo Game. Nene commanded, the pit of her virtual stomach starting to drop out.
OK. They've cut off the primary feed, so I can't give visuals, only text, but they boarded, killed my crew, and physically cut most of my connections, except for internal sensors. Then they wired in some sort of rude computer that seems quite willing to kill itself for them, and began loading in all sorts of junk. I can tell that the ship's pretty well loaded down with mass right now. And I heard them say something about kinetic kill.
*****
In the office where she had been doing some important paperwork, Nene would have dropped her phone if she'd been holding it. Instead, Jeph heard her swearing, which was so out of place for her that it got Jeph's immediate attention again.
"Oh my fucking hells. Jeph, the Reavers have commandeered Fifteen, and loaded it with enough mass to completely vaporize Serenity Valley if it hits. I'm already calling OGJ Control here about it."
--
"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