Lt. Robin Hopper: Just A Notion
Lt. JG Kivik
((Amity Outpost – Science & Research Center, Level 21))
At last the man set down his tools and slid back out from under the shuttle. He paused for a moment to look her over – long enough for Robin to notice. oO Keep things professional around this one! Oo she thought to herself, teasingly. She crossed her arms and smiled wryly as he got to his feet and dusted himself off.
Richards: Well, ::wide smile:: hello there.
Hopper: :Chuckling: Hi. Nice to meet you.
She extended a hand to shake, but as she did, realized that he had a prosthetic right arm. Its rudimentary design and sharp lines indicated something replicated – possibly some sort of work done ‘in the field’. She recalled what Kivik had said about the last mission being rough on Richards and swapped hands quickly, offering her left instead. As the two shook hands, Richards replied.
Richards: What can I do for you?
Hopper: I hear Crewman Ygrix wasn’t the best lab partner. Kivik asked me to come take a look instead, if you’re willing to let me.
Richards raised an eyebrow.
Richards: Yeah, Ygrix and I…didn’t really see eye to eye on this. He felt that this whole thing was hopeless. He didn’t think it was worthy of his time, I guess.
That seemed to align with what Ygrix had said. So at least he’d been an honest quitter.
Hopper: ::Shrugging:: Maybe he’s right about it being hopeless; but I’m willing to try. How about you?
Richards: I’d like to at least try before I have to go back to the drawing board.
Robin smiled and nodded. If Richards wasn’t ready to give up, then neither was she. With that settled, she took several steps towards the shuttle, off to the side of them, getting a closer look.
Hopper: Okay, give me a quick run-down. What is this project, exactly? And, maybe more importantly, what do you need me to do?
She looked over her shoulder as Richards took a seat on a crate.
Richards: This shuttle… ::gesturing:: has been deemed, ‘my therapy.’ Well honestly I couldn’t ask for better therapy.
That explained the Chief Counselor’s directive to Kivik, at least. As he continued, she moved forward, looking it over more closely. It seemed as though several ships had been combined together. She reached out and ran a hand along the hull as she walked beside it.
Richards: I’ve installed most of the primary systems and equipment, but it is kind of a mess at the moment. All of the parts that I’ve used are ones that I have found in these crates lying around. Different spare parts from different shuttles. They aren’t wanting to talk to each other. The computer cores are having trouble… making them play nice, as it were.
Hopper: Hmm. Yeah, I can see that being a problem.
Richards: That’s where you come in, if you are willing to take this on. I just need them to talk to each other.
Hopper: ::Nodding:: Right… Well, I won’t know how feasible that is until I take a look at what’s installed on them all currently. Something tells me this isn’t going to be as simple as a ‘patch’.
She walked back over to Richards as she saw him pulling out a PADD and took a look at what he was showing her.
Richards: Well…I had an Idea, actually. What about homebrewing a version of LCARS that will be able to sort the signals out and make sense of it all. Is that something that maybe you could do?
Hopper: ::Chuckling:: Wow, you don’t want much, do you?
Richards: All I’m asking is that you try. I’ve put a lot into this.
She glanced up at him, a teasing humour in her gaze, and for a second they locked eyes. She could sense the warmth in his smile. The distant dim lights of the cellar had a warm quality to them, and the golden light glistened on his skin. She turned back to face the shuttle, smiling to herself. oO Okay, yeah, he’s pretty cute. Oo
This time, she cleared her throat – turning her attention back to the project at hand – and reached for the PADD.
Hopper: Let me look at what you have here.
Richards: Response
She took the PADD in hand and paced around a little bit, tapping occasionally to look at file details. After a few minutes, she touched her index finger to her lips, pursing them as an idea began to form.
Hopper: Hmm…
Richards: Response
Hopper: ::Looking up, with an excited smile:: Just a notion… So the real issue here is that older computers aren’t necessarily designed to accommodate newer OS’s. LCARS and other modern systems are so complicated that they usually bring ships in for some sort of retrofit when they do any generational updates – you know, anything beyond a zero-point-something upgrade.
Richards: Response
Hopper: But the actual structural compatibility might be there. They just don’t want to, you know, break a starship because someone was cutting corners. Do you mind if I, umm, edit this? ::Indicating Richards’ work on the PADD::
Richards: Response
Robin smiled and walked over towards Richards, hopping up on the crate beside him and showing him what she was doing as she worked.
Hopper: Don’t worry – I’ll save plenty of iterations as I work. ::Tapping:: Rather than build a fully-custom LCARS module from the ground up ::looking up at him with playful judgment:: because, frankly, that’s insane… ::Looking back at the PADD:: What we can do is amend some of your work here, generalizing code, to ‘trick’ the computers into thinking they’re running legacy versions of the software.
Richards: Response
Hopper: It won’t be quite that simple. You see, each of these systems is going to have built in ‘SPOFs’. Single Point Of Failure Breakers. Those’ll check to see that everything’s set up properly before allowing the device to power on, you know, preventing overloads and such. That’s why shuttle pre-flight checks are so obnoxiously long. We’re still going to have to sit here for a good number of hours making sure each SPOF is addressed in our reprogramming or the thing won’t turn on.
Richards: Response
With that, she slid off the crate and walked back towards the shuttle, turning around to face him as she walked backwards, holding the PADD in her arms like a proud student accepting their degree.
Hopper: It’s a little unorthodox – I certainly see why a perfectionist like Ygrix might frown at it – but it should work, at least as a bootstrap solution for now. ::Smirking:: But, if it suddenly becomes sentient and claims to be ‘God’ or something, don’t blame me.
Richards: Response
TBC
