Not so much Frigga, as Lun herself in 'private'.
Experiential Learning...
July 03, 2024
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Experiential Learning...
July 03, 2024
Quote:It took eight hours to show the inspection team around - carefully guiding them away from the sections sealed off because of high radiation levels from the reactor plant. It took another three hours for them to explain their findings and their recommendations to her.________________________________
Somewhere in the middle of it, it occurred to her that there was something deeply ridiculous about the situation. Jet began to wonder if the officer truly knew what he was sharing a room with, maybe she thought he might not talk down at her like a principal talking to a naughty child. It didn't take her long to catch herself in it. It was just her imagination, nothing more. It was an echo of childhood that refused to fade. She mused on it for a while, wondering if anyone else got the same treatment, or even if it was intentional. It seemed hard to believe.
Ultimately, there was nothing she could do but sit there, wait and take it. And when the inspection team finally left her alone in a barren office that was nothing more than a place to meet people, she waited and collected her thoughts before taking a few minutes to clear her head.
She cleared up something in the operations room, sent a message to Daryl who was busy on Venus running one last errand before the con' , then made her way back home to start packing.
Jet didn't realise how hard she'd slammed the door until she heard Ford's voice emerge from the living room.
"Not good news?"
The gunsmiths' head appeared out from the living room door. A broad, white-toothed grin split her face.
"We got a warning," Jet sighed, leaning back against the heavy front door. Century-old oak creaked under her weight. "One more warning and they suspend the Asagiri certificate for a month. Which'd put us out of the Championship for the rest of the year if it happened."
"Shit," said Ford, stepping out into the hallway. She was, Jet noted, wearing nothing more than a black tank top and her underwear. The smell of gunsmoke drifted in the air around her.
"I'm going to post about it before it goes public. Otherwise people'll jump to conclusions." Jet paused, taking a moment to swallow back some choice words before deciding to change the subject to something she was certain would be a little less aggrevating. "How's the Sixty-Special going?"
Ford's expression blackened immediately. "Three days to finish. And it still won't cycle properly. I spent six hours tweaking it on the range..." She blew a frustrated sigh through her lips, settling back against the wood-panelled wall.
"Why does this have to keep happening?" aske Jet "Why do the stakes always have to get raised to closer we come to success? I'm really getting sick of it you know." She made a point to cross her arms tightly over her chest, dropping into a comic, octopus-lipped pout for a moment.
"Dramatic tension, you know." Ford grinned back at her, standing up once more.
"Frustrating," sighed Jet, kicking her heel against the wooden floor.
"Nothing a two horsepower motor, some turtle wax and a good firm buffing pad won't solve." Ford stretched herself into a long yawn. The edge of her lips curled up, an enticing spark lighting up inside her eyes. "You're not the only one with a little frustration to work out."
Jet grinned lustily back at her... and electric fire already lighting up inside her body, racing under her armour.
The only thing missing was the puppet to finish out the sandwich.
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Asagiri News. 03/07/2024..... Experiential Learning.
Okay, so before the news gets out and idiots jump to the wrong conclusion I'm posting this. We've gotten an official warning on a PEPPER violation.
Here's what happened. Lun came with two Moskit test-missiles still in their launch tubes when we bought her. The tubes are structural and can't be removed without rebuilding the entire upper deck, but the missiles could be. We planned to just junk the things - until someone started spreading rumours that we were working on a secret weapon of mass destruction. So, we decided to put a cockpit in one instead and make a run at a speed record, to prove to everyone that there was nothing sinister going on - by using them for something 'safe'. We fitted an automated guidance system for a few test flights to make sure it was safe before we actually put someone in the thing. And that's what tripped the PEPPER violation.
We forgot that PEPPER restrictions don't just apply to the intended use of something - but the potential use of something in the wrong hands. The difference between an automated test-flight and a settlement-destroying cruise missile is the final destination in the computer. The difference between a range-safety system capable of killing a drive system and a warhead is when it goes off. What pushed it over the edge, was the potential for it to happen by accident....
I took the obvious hint. We've a lot of...'accidents' out here.
Some of it's just bad luck. Some of it's just because we don't use simulations as much as everyone else. Simulations are only as good as the initial assumptions and models that go into them, and can give a false sense of security if they're built on a false understanding. Reality is, on the other hand, not so forgiving.
Which means that sometimes we fail. I think we fail about as often as anyone else. It's just our failures tend to happen in the real world, and not in a simulation. Which means people get to see them and talk about them.
In a simulation environment when your fail-safes fail, you get a red blotch on your screen where the drive core's exploded through the case. In real life, you trigger a pinnacle alert, irradiate your ship, make a dozen calls to calm everyone down and then pay to fix it. Real-life tests can always have unexpected consequences. And it's from these consequences and 'accidents' that we learn what's really going on with a system and fix things.
It's the same reason I started Survival Shot. I believe you learn more in a real-world exercise, than in a flexible VR simulation. Things that people will do in a sim without hesitation, they might think twice before doing in reality, because they know they'll wake up bruised in the morning.
The vast majority of the work on the Kulbit was done like this. The aerodynamic tests were done by me pushing a scale model through a tunnel at mach-2 and videoing the results. For engine tests, we used a mule for things most people would've simmed. And it worked. We got so much good real data that it solved a lot of problems. We found a safety issue with an engine failsafe that we'd've never found in a sim - we fixed it - and then made sure it couldn't fail again by trying to make it fail again.
As for the Moskito; because we couldn't simulate a flight and it's too dangerous to put a person in it untried, we stuck in a guidance controller and ballast for an unmanned test. It seemed easier and safer for everyone. It would tell us that it was safe to fly. It also put us in violation of Lun's 2-A certificate.
We've re-registered the Moskito separately, with a Class I-C certificate, rather than a parasite-craft on Lun's 2-A Limited. That's all we had to do to correct the violation. So....there's no conspiracy to build a weapon of mass-destruction - no secrets have been uncovered. No lids have been blown off. It was just another test that had an unexpected consequence. One we learned from.
We're still going to fly the Moskito at this year's convention. We're still going to make a run at the in-limit speed-record. You're still all welcome to watch.
-Jet.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?