neutrinobunny (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} neutrinobunny) wrote,@ 2008-02-11 23:12:00 |
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I know, Lia. *guilt* I'm a working on it.
The continuation…
------------------------
So I’ve got to grin and bear it, at least long enough to completely shut down the system.
She glanced over the few pieces of equipment she’d brought up with her. She’d managed to get a very, very brief set of physical scans done. Results? Inconclusive. Elevated adrenaline levels. Low blood sugar. Low iron. A couple things that had to compile. The donut stix would help with the sugar, at least temporarily. For the rest…who knew?
And who knew if it’d get worse. But she couldn’t stay here forever…
Ellie gritted her teeth, turned to the file cabinet doorway, and stepped back into the supervisor’s office.
Nothing happened.
Frowning, she walked slowly forward, approaching the desk that sat blocking the doorway to what had once been stairs. Step by step, pausing every few, she made her way to the desk and climbed on top of it.
Mildly hungry, mildly tired, but no worse than she’d felt back in the apartment. Actually she almost felt better. She grimaced. OK, better was the wrong word. Less likely to drift off into a not very restful sleep. Meh, but not so logy.
“This is ridiculous.”
With a certain sense of pique, she reached over the desk to grab her zipline, and before she could think twice, flipped herself over the desk, zipped down, landed perfectly, and secured the handle in one smooth motion.
She stood below the door, arms folded, waiting for the dizziness and nausea to return.
The room spread before her. Silent. Waiting.
She waited.
GRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLL!!!
She jumped, and then burst out laughing. “OK. I’m an idiot. I’m hungry. And I’m gonna go get a hot pastrami.” She shook her head and grinned as she approached her bike. “Honestly. I’m—“
She froze. Something…not a feeling, but…
Did I…did I move that cart?
Frowning, she walked over to the cart they’d been piling the junked remnants in. She’d had it right outside the chamber. So she could just toss any useless parts into the airlock and then right into the cart when she came out for breaks. Which she had. But it was shoved slightly farther from the chamber than she remembered.
Of course, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to anything but feeling guh.
She peered inside the cart. Junk. As was expected. Although it looked like there’d been a small avalanche. She could just see the top of one of the circuit boards peeking out from a pile of drone parts.
So I bumped the cart away when I was tossing the boards in. Not surprising. I wasn’t exactly steady.
Ellie looked over at the bike. “Well, it’ll take a couple minutes to make sure the connections are capped off so I can ride it as is…”
GRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLL!!!
“Heh. Which I should probably get cracking on.” She glanced over at the computer. “Um…hey computer! Are you accepting vocal commands?”
The screen lit up, dimmed, and then lit up again.
READY TO ASSIST YOU, VLAD.
“Sweet. Thank you for forgetting to log out, Uncle V.” She walked over to the console, searching for a spot to hook up her remote. “If there’s a way…” She started fidding with the remote. “Scan for signal on frequency 396.02.”
COMPLY. ARE YOU WELL, VLAD? YOUR VOICE SEEMS SLIGHTLY ODD.
“Um…” She cleared her throat and tried to lower her voice slightly. Whoa. Some AI there. Wonder why no recognition though? “Little froggy today.”
Her remote beeped.
SIGNAL SYNCHED.
“Excellent. Please download security and scan logs.”
COMPLY. DOWNLOAD COMPLETE IN FIVE MINUTES.
“Five’s all I need.” Ellie headed back over to the bike and began to close up the compartment where the main computer and Zemeckis circuit had been attached. “Good thing too. Like to go over it while I eat. I can go over the logs and see if it is the security system. Maybe it does random internal scans and it’s fritzing.—“ She stopped and smacked herself on the forehead. “Scans! Jeez!”
She looked over at the pieces of the Zemeckis circuit scattered over the chamber workbench. “I was gonna get a save point before I ripped that apart!” She scowled. “The last one I took was hours ago, and now…”
The screen flashed behind her.
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE.
“Small favors.” Ellie glanced over at the chamber. Putting the circuit back together just for a scan would take too much time. And she needed to take the remote with her. So she couldn’t use it. Unless…
“Computer, display internal scanner schematics.”
COMPLY.
A series of diagrams flashed over the screen.
“Maybe this’ll work. Computer, prepare to interface and scan.” She grabbed the download base for the remote. “Lock on to signal at 397.21.” She flipped a few switches on the base.
COMPLY.
In a few moments, Uncle Vlad’s computer and the remote base were synced. She called up an early version of the save point scanner program. It came up…very, very slowly. “Ouch. Now the scanner elements.” She went back over to the bike and began to detach several small probes. They would supplement what scanners Uncle Vlad had set up. She went back to the remote base and hooked the probes up to it. One by one the probes lit up on the screen of Uncle Vlad’s computer. “Eek. Computer, estimate scan time for save point print.”
COM…PLY.
Uh-oh. The letters were scrolling across very, very, very slowly now
SYS…TEM AT MAXI…MUM. ES…TI…MATED SCAN TIME EIGHT HOURS. ES…TI…MATED SLIP…PAGE…1-2…HOURS.
She winced. By that point the main circuit would be fixed. And that was a lot of slippage. She opened her mouth to cancel the process…and then stopped. Heck, if it worked, extra backups were a good thing…if it didn’t?
“No foul.” She pulled on her helmet and walked the bike over one of the garage doors. She lifted it up, set the latch to shut as the door came down, and pushed the bike outside, hopping on as the door slammed behind her. She looked down at herself with a faint sense of guilt. Mom and Dad, and heck, just about everyone would freak about her just riding in just a T-shirt and jeans, but what the eye doesn’t see...
“Pastrami, ho!”
She shot off down the street.
The continuation…
------------------------
So I’ve got to grin and bear it, at least long enough to completely shut down the system.
She glanced over the few pieces of equipment she’d brought up with her. She’d managed to get a very, very brief set of physical scans done. Results? Inconclusive. Elevated adrenaline levels. Low blood sugar. Low iron. A couple things that had to compile. The donut stix would help with the sugar, at least temporarily. For the rest…who knew?
And who knew if it’d get worse. But she couldn’t stay here forever…
Ellie gritted her teeth, turned to the file cabinet doorway, and stepped back into the supervisor’s office.
Nothing happened.
Frowning, she walked slowly forward, approaching the desk that sat blocking the doorway to what had once been stairs. Step by step, pausing every few, she made her way to the desk and climbed on top of it.
Mildly hungry, mildly tired, but no worse than she’d felt back in the apartment. Actually she almost felt better. She grimaced. OK, better was the wrong word. Less likely to drift off into a not very restful sleep. Meh, but not so logy.
“This is ridiculous.”
With a certain sense of pique, she reached over the desk to grab her zipline, and before she could think twice, flipped herself over the desk, zipped down, landed perfectly, and secured the handle in one smooth motion.
She stood below the door, arms folded, waiting for the dizziness and nausea to return.
The room spread before her. Silent. Waiting.
She waited.
GRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLL!!!
She jumped, and then burst out laughing. “OK. I’m an idiot. I’m hungry. And I’m gonna go get a hot pastrami.” She shook her head and grinned as she approached her bike. “Honestly. I’m—“
She froze. Something…not a feeling, but…
Did I…did I move that cart?
Frowning, she walked over to the cart they’d been piling the junked remnants in. She’d had it right outside the chamber. So she could just toss any useless parts into the airlock and then right into the cart when she came out for breaks. Which she had. But it was shoved slightly farther from the chamber than she remembered.
Of course, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to anything but feeling guh.
She peered inside the cart. Junk. As was expected. Although it looked like there’d been a small avalanche. She could just see the top of one of the circuit boards peeking out from a pile of drone parts.
So I bumped the cart away when I was tossing the boards in. Not surprising. I wasn’t exactly steady.
Ellie looked over at the bike. “Well, it’ll take a couple minutes to make sure the connections are capped off so I can ride it as is…”
GRRRRRROOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLL!!!
“Heh. Which I should probably get cracking on.” She glanced over at the computer. “Um…hey computer! Are you accepting vocal commands?”
The screen lit up, dimmed, and then lit up again.
READY TO ASSIST YOU, VLAD.
“Sweet. Thank you for forgetting to log out, Uncle V.” She walked over to the console, searching for a spot to hook up her remote. “If there’s a way…” She started fidding with the remote. “Scan for signal on frequency 396.02.”
COMPLY. ARE YOU WELL, VLAD? YOUR VOICE SEEMS SLIGHTLY ODD.
“Um…” She cleared her throat and tried to lower her voice slightly. Whoa. Some AI there. Wonder why no recognition though? “Little froggy today.”
Her remote beeped.
SIGNAL SYNCHED.
“Excellent. Please download security and scan logs.”
COMPLY. DOWNLOAD COMPLETE IN FIVE MINUTES.
“Five’s all I need.” Ellie headed back over to the bike and began to close up the compartment where the main computer and Zemeckis circuit had been attached. “Good thing too. Like to go over it while I eat. I can go over the logs and see if it is the security system. Maybe it does random internal scans and it’s fritzing.—“ She stopped and smacked herself on the forehead. “Scans! Jeez!”
She looked over at the pieces of the Zemeckis circuit scattered over the chamber workbench. “I was gonna get a save point before I ripped that apart!” She scowled. “The last one I took was hours ago, and now…”
The screen flashed behind her.
DOWNLOAD COMPLETE.
“Small favors.” Ellie glanced over at the chamber. Putting the circuit back together just for a scan would take too much time. And she needed to take the remote with her. So she couldn’t use it. Unless…
“Computer, display internal scanner schematics.”
COMPLY.
A series of diagrams flashed over the screen.
“Maybe this’ll work. Computer, prepare to interface and scan.” She grabbed the download base for the remote. “Lock on to signal at 397.21.” She flipped a few switches on the base.
COMPLY.
In a few moments, Uncle Vlad’s computer and the remote base were synced. She called up an early version of the save point scanner program. It came up…very, very slowly. “Ouch. Now the scanner elements.” She went back over to the bike and began to detach several small probes. They would supplement what scanners Uncle Vlad had set up. She went back to the remote base and hooked the probes up to it. One by one the probes lit up on the screen of Uncle Vlad’s computer. “Eek. Computer, estimate scan time for save point print.”
COM…PLY.
Uh-oh. The letters were scrolling across very, very, very slowly now
SYS…TEM AT MAXI…MUM. ES…TI…MATED SCAN TIME EIGHT HOURS. ES…TI…MATED SLIP…PAGE…1-2…HOURS.
She winced. By that point the main circuit would be fixed. And that was a lot of slippage. She opened her mouth to cancel the process…and then stopped. Heck, if it worked, extra backups were a good thing…if it didn’t?
“No foul.” She pulled on her helmet and walked the bike over one of the garage doors. She lifted it up, set the latch to shut as the door came down, and pushed the bike outside, hopping on as the door slammed behind her. She looked down at herself with a faint sense of guilt. Mom and Dad, and heck, just about everyone would freak about her just riding in just a T-shirt and jeans, but what the eye doesn’t see...
“Pastrami, ho!”
She shot off down the street.
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