Bomb Dot Com

[Geneviève Lasedri]

[[This thread was writen to develop an advanced hyperdrive unit and to fulfill the laminanium restricted material requirement: "[SIZE=10pt]With two or more other writers, complete a role-play in reverse, starting with it’s end and ending with it’s beginning[/SIZE] [SIZE=10pt]–OR--[/SIZE] [SIZE=10pt]complete a role-play from an NPC’s perspective who is accompanying your character."]][/SIZE]


Mitczik leaned against the frame of the hefty steam-powered engine, rubbing his fingers against the durasteel casing to peel off any rust--except there was none. That was quite a curious thing indeed. Why would a corporation bent on 'pioneering' diverse methods in their technology development spend its time on steam engines? The answer, obviously, was in the question. The old engineer chuckled to himself.

Across the vacuous, sparsely lit room was a fresh model of a sportingly painted starcraft, a design he had never seen before--which was nearly unheard of. The ship had quite obviously never seen any action, but it was an interesting piece of art nonetheless. If that was the kind of thing they built here, then he must be in the right place.

She was tall enough for a woman, standing at roughly 17 decimeters and some change. Her build was neither stocky nor slender by any means, though the brooding, black, unbuttoned trenchcoat that swayed nearly to her ankles shrouded half her body mass as she approached him from a corridor that Mitczik had been keeping his eye on. Combat boots encapsulated her feet--black, just like her military weave flex pants and shirt. It seemed like everything about her was dark. It was a moment before he could see her facial features and confirm just this.

"'Morning," she greeted with a seeming disinterest. "Hope you weren't expecting anything."

Well, that just made him feel at home! The storied Mon Calamari barely moved off the steam engine in acknowledgement of her presence. If she called him 'Pops'...

Her approach was nothing if it was not blunt. "If you need anything, you let me know. I can supply just about everything except explanations." The woman's raven-black hair shimmered briefly as she stepped under the glow of one of the scarce but very large light panels, the luminosity suddenly revealing a rather obnoxious asymmetry. A jagged, lengthy scar traversed her right eye, which reflected a solid, ghostly white. Her left eye was quite the contrast, featuring a clean, brown iris, and Mitczik mused over why someone of her position would neglect to have her face reconstructed. The truth was, he found it quite telling of her thus far abrasive personality. Perhaps she enjoyed feeling intimidating?

"Never was good at following instructions," the engineer uttered aloud, cracking a mischievous smile. "But in all fairness, I think that's a little unfair. Unless you want me designing more steam motors..." He flapped his red, flippered hand against the bulk of the solitary engine. "I'm not sure why I'm here." Heklor was quite a ways from anything, really.

The woman smirked. "That's the idea."

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

They had been walking through the halls of the burrowed facility for a decent bit of time in complete silence, save the padding of their shoes against the artificial compound that made up the floor. It seemed to evenly disperse the light about the entire corridor with only scant lighting units shining from the ceiling. Mitczik had to at least admire the efficiency of this.

The engineer was still going over the possibilities of why he had been requested here. He had even been provided free spacefare and given his own suite--not that a manufacturing facility had five-star accommodations. Mitczik had worked for some high-tech companies back in the day, even spent a nice seven years under the roof of Incom, blueprinting. His Mon Calamari background also was not something anyone typically shied away from. He supposed it was true: he was a valuable asset. But what did they want him for? Was this really ECHO Esprit, the medical company? "I didn't catch your name, Miss--"

"Go ahead and call me 'Jen'," she stated rapidly, not breaking pace as they continued to tread the enclosed walkway. Her trenchcoat rhythmically flapped against the backs of her shins with each stride. The sound had more personality than she was personally emanating.

"Jen," Mitczik repeated, nodding. "I know you've probably got a lot of responsibilities on your plate, but I think I deserve some disclosure about what I'm going to be doing. I'm not going to sign anything without some details, here."

She did not seem to want to answer him--a bit disrespectful to someone of his age, if you ask Mitczik. Perhaps she could use a little prodding. It might be a shot in the dark, but the fact that he could not identify the shiny combat starship he had previously observed and that he had witnessed a few mechanic types milling about with welding equipment, indicated that these people manufactured more than just portable bacta tanks. He probed a little, commenting nonchalantly, "I didn't know this company built fighter craft."

Suddenly, Jen broke stride and halted, throwing up her hand in front of his face like a police officer might stall a pedestrian. "We don't," she said.

So they did.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

"So, why am I here?" Mitczik asked, trying to get a lay of the situation. He sat at a lab desk, opposite of 'Jen'. The elder of them felt a little uncomfortable, like he was being pressed in an interrogation--and yet, he seemed to be the one asking all the questions so far. "I think I have a right to know. I'm too old for your savvy games, as I'm sure you've noticed by now." He gave his best attempt at a chummy smile, considering the occasion.

"What do you know about hyperdrives?" That was an odd question to ask. The Mon Calamari was certain that this human had those sorts of bits in a file somewhere--probably immediately available to her on a datapad, in fact. Information was not too tricky to come by these days. This made it all the more puzzling about why he could not find anything on this 'Jen'.

"Hyperdrives were my forte, I supposes you would say." He gazed into her glassed, white eye through his big, bulbous eyes. I wonder if she actually can see through that thing. "But I suppose you already knew that." His flippered hands folded about each other as much as flippered hands could, and rested on the table top.

Jen betrayed no affirmation or denial of what he implied, returning eye contact without a flinch. She dropped her neck only a moment to glance at the list of inquiries Mitczik assumed were on her datapad. Resting her chin in her hand, the darkly-clad woman resumed 'conversation'. "That what you did at Incom?" Now she was starting to actually get inquisitive.

The engineer wheezed. "It was a little more expansive than just hyperdrives. But, yes, that was my main area."

"Is it true that you were part of a project to develop an experimental point-six engine?" Now, where did she hear about that? Mitczik hoped she had just pulled it out of a hat.

"It's true," he confirmed.

"Care to tell me how you went about that?"

"I guess I'm just old-fashioned, Jen," the engineer started, shaking his head. "I can't answer that, because I'm not on the clock." Mitczik's face developed the most victorious of grins.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Mitczik was getting old. Why not agree to something foolish and crazy? He signed Jen's silly contract about total compliance and silence on whatever project he was going to be involved in. What could they do to him at this age? Besides, the mysterious woman had piqued his curiosity. She was a person to discover; a puzzle to solve--something engineers kind of like. "Is black standard uniform?" he asked as they proceeded to another room. She only shook her head in response, never losing that indifferent frown.

Mitczik was beginning to get the impression that this facility was less massive and more confusing than it presented itself to be. He was starting to take note of little smudges on the walls or chinks in the floor as landmarks, and he was nearly certain he had encountered some of these previously. They rounded a few corners and activity began to swell, though it could only be heard and not seen. There were things happening behind these doors.

One of the doors happened to be the entrance to their destination. (Surprise, surprise.) The steam-powered automatic doors shunted open, retracting into the walls and allowing them to enter without even having to go single-file. Jen waved her hand towards the door after they had made their presence known to the pair of occupants already settled in. A white-clad Rodian and jawa technician both shuffled out of the room and loitered in the hallway, letting the human and Mon Calamari have another private conference.

Jen retrieved a few water bottles from a dispenser by one of the lab shelves and scooted them across a table in the center of the room, then beckoned for Mitczik to sit down. "Want some water?" she asked.

Of course he wanted some water. It had been a couple hours, and his aquatic innards were feeling a little parched. Though, she must have known this and conjured up her last tiny bit of selfless consideration to be polite about that, as she made no motion to drink from any of the three bottles, herself. "Yes, thanks." The now-unretired engineer drowned himself in two of the drinks before he nodded his readiness to continue whatever form of talking they had been engaging in since he had met her.

"I guess you may have caught on by now..." There she went again, employing the most passive aggressive tone he had heard in quite some time. "We're looking for someone who knows how to put together a proper point-six hyperdrive."

"And why wouldn't you?" Really, this was not unreasonable for a company to look into if they wanted to make the big leagues with starcraft. "But it also depends on resources. And how much time you can give."

Jen folded her arms. "Assume unlimited for now. Tell me what the basic trick is." She paused, looking over some more files on her datapad, it looked like. Apparently, they were not about him this time. "Theoretically, Esprit can produce this component right now."

"Theoretically?" So they do not have resources?

"We have other engineers." She tilted her head in the direction of the Rodian and jawa, who were still out of earshot. "They're making progress. But we can't get past a point-nine, currently."

If Mitczik had eyebrows like she did, he would have raised them. "And why can't 'we'?"

"Tried a point-eight, three weeks ago. Overheated in seconds and we had to abort."

Mitczik nodded knowingly. "A coolant system is the most important facet of a hyperdrive--aside from the actual propulsion system, of course."

Jen sat back, looking at him with a stare that, surprisingly, was starting to soften a little. Or maybe he was too distracted by her dead eye to notice this before? "So?" she prodded.

"So?"

She rolled her eyes--or eye. "You had a point-six going before. What'd you do there, Mitczik?"

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Jen had invited the Rodian and jawa techs back into the lab, and Mitczik had very briefly been introduced to them. Grizzki, the Rodian, was ECHO Esprit's senior starship technician--well, until today, that is. The reptilian seemed to take it well, but no one ever really knew in these instances. Mitczic probably would not have been happy if he were in Grizzki's position. Stjikki, the naturally shorter and more interesting of the techs, was most likely the least energetic jawa the aging engineer had ever seen. It wan not revealed until later that his brilliance was marvelous but he had to be administered mild sedatives to avoid a certain form of maniacal behavior. That was good to know.

After the underwhelming formalities of introduction were concluded, Jen led the troupe back down the hallway and into the true workhouse of this obscure facility. The ceiling was a couple dozen meters high--elevated enough to construct starships of appreciable size. A quartet of semi-complete starfighters of the kind he had seen before sat at a standstill on the small assembly line, only one person busy with each. A quiet little paradise, if underground starfighter plants were your thing. It was hardly exotic to Mitczik, but it was starting to seem a lot like where he'd been before. "Nice get-up you've got here."

Grizzki brought them ahead to a dim corner where a vast array of machinery and complex systems of pipes and conduits all fed into one piece of equipment that stood partitioned inside a box of transparisteel. Mitczik recognized this sort of setup. "That's our point-eight unit, inside," the Rodian informed.

The Mon Calamari nodded and gestured towards the airtight door to the test chamber. Grizzki provided an affirmative gesture in turn, and Stjikki shuffled to the compressor with a key in hand, very quick for a creature of his stature. Inserting the key and twisting, the jawa activated the compressor, which opened the door. Mitczik took his sweet time entering the chamber. He was in no rush, having just arrived on the job. But Jen should already have that figured out.

The three other ECHO Esprit people followed the engineer as he stepped up to the advanced hyperdrive unit and took a look at all the visible composition. Everything looked fine to him, nothing immediately and miraculously jumping out at him as 'wrong'. Of course, he had been out of this kind of work for some time, but hyperdrive technology advancements were on an extremely steep slope at this point. Sometimes he wondered if they could get any faster than he had seen.

"I'll need a few days on this," Mitczic announced, turning to face Jen. "But you should have expected as much."

For the briefest of seconds, Jen actually smiled at him. Then she walked away, black trenchcoat ruffling behind.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Most people did not even have an inkling of how much actually went into the construction of a hyperdrive unit, much less one that was supposed to move a ship at point-six. Mitczik had done it before, but that was at Incom, where there could be hundreds of smart people working on one project. The engineer might know all about how it functioned, but putting together a concept on his own was no short task. 'Challenging' was not even a proper word to describe it.

'Jen' seemed to understand this. She had left him alone--in fact, he had not seen her in several days. That was extremely strange to him, as the Mon Calamari had not perceived her as someone who could refrain from digging her hands into everything, or at least not endlessly badger her crew about it. She must be something higher up than a supervisor if she could avoid the project altogether. He had to admit, he was almost disappointed that she was not around. He was still immensely interested in studying her rather illegible persona.

In the meantime, Mitczik was working on inserting himself into the ECHO Esprit environment. Grizzki and, surprisingly, Stjikki were very competent in the field, but Grizzki was young and Stjikki... was impaired, so to speak. (No one really knew how old Stjikki was, and he never told.) The trio worked together well, and Mitczik found their knowledge essential in understanding why they had done whatever in their formulations. Reverse engineering would have been tedious without them.

That was not to say there was no difficulty in working with the two. Grizzki still felt he was in charge despite the abrupt change in hierarchy, and Mitczik could hardly blame him for that. The Rodian was a little too assertive for his taste, but the older engineer respected his comrade's tenure. He even learned a small bit here or there about their employer from the reptilian technician if he listened closely. Apparently, Grizzki knew her from Chandrila. Now that he thought about it, the engineer did notice that she emitted some of that Chandrilan swagger.

"You seem to be intent on making this a completely independent unit," Mitczik commented as they gathered around a holographic blueprint of the hyperdrive's design.

"Naturally," Grizzki replied. "Why wouldn't we?" Stjikki nodded.

"Well, I'm assuming this is intended for a smaller craft." The Mon Calamari glanced at each of them. He still had not been filled in on what they were producing this for. "You're never going to get point-six without some incorporation on, say, a starfighter? You only have so much power. You'll have to draw from another unit: the sublight engine."

The Rodian stared at him, projecting a hint of distrust. Or shock. Or annoyance. Mitczik could never read their kind. Apparently, whatever emotion Grizzki was displaying mattered little, for he and the jawa both turned their heads towards each other and shrugged. "Okay," the taller, unhooded one said.

"So, I'll need to see this engine."

Grizzki sighed. Everyone still seemed intent on keeping him in the dark, and they did not want to reveal any more about whatever they were building than they were required to.

Jen walked in the room. "Need something?" That was it. She came in with no warning and no explanation of where she had been the whole time, and simply asked what could be provided. Mitczik was getting nothing but mixed signals from her. Had she taken a vacation and come back refreshed?

"I need to see a working model of the sublight propulsion unit."

She nodded. "We'll get you one."

Jen exited as soon as she had entered.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Something interesting Mitczik had noticed: there were no cameras present anywhere in the tech areas. They only existed in the halls and public partitions of the facility. In theory, he could get away with a lot. Perhaps that was why he was now in an impromptu interrogation.

The darkly clad woman sat across from him at a table once again. He had yet to see her deviate from the all-black uniform he had seen her in the very first day. Uniform...

The woman drilled him about the most unrelated things, and then would intermittently drop an important question that had to be carefully answered. She even asked him about his grandfather's vocation and followed with a question about what exact part he and Stjikki had worked on at 15.00 two days ago. Fortunately, Mitczik had not done much messing around--if any--and had no need to struggle to lie.

"So..." Jen switched gears suddenly, now wanting to talk specifically about the hyperdrive. "I remember you telling me about how critical cooling is for hyperdrive units."

"Right."

"How are you approaching this issue? I haven't heard about that in a while."

"We're going to do what we did at Incom. The unit will be submerged instead of using coolant injectors."

Jen nodded in approval of this solution, as if she would have recommended that all along. "The containment unit is going to be expensive, I'll assume."

The Mon Calamari shook his head, inciting what could pass as a positive reaction by the look on Jen's face. "Not at all. It's the fluids that will be a little pricy."

"We can't just use military grade coolant?"

"Not unless you want to see your point-six drive operate at only point-nine," the engineer responded. "You'd be surprised at what we found at Incom. We found an ideal coolant to be composed of your military grade coolant and--get this--bacta." That ought to appeal to a representative of a 'medical' company. Based on her composure, it seemed like it did.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

If the engineer had been hoping for more chances to observe this 'Jen' character, he got more than he bargained for the following week. As the trio of developers began to transform a digital map into a physical product, she became more and more active in the process, always seeming to look over their shoulders and keep track of every minute operation they were performing. On a good note, this meant that there were no further interrogations.

Sometimes Mitczik would engage in 'casual' conversation with Grizzki while their dark Benefactor was around, doing his best to prompt references to Chandrila. He succeeded quite a few times, though the subject never flowered. At first, mentioning Chandrila did not incite even the slightest reaction from Jen, but as the planet's name came up again and again, the Mon Calamari could read a gradual shift in her demeanor. Something was stirring inside her. Maybe he should not press his luck. She was already beginning to lose the somewhat grim smile she had finally loosed around the engineer.

The squid-like drive developer had been given access to the sublight unit that would be used on whatever spacecraft they were constructing the hyperdrive machinery for, and progress began to speed up. Tests had confirmed that the new prototype was capable of a steady point-eight propulsion rate when doused in a makeshift bacta coolant container. With a little work involving the acquired sublight engine, Mitczik and Co. should be able to get it up to point-seven, and hopefully point-six in a few weeks. The overall design still needed to be refined and made more compact, but everything was looking good at this point.

"Explain this to me," Jen implored after a successful test. "How is bacta making a difference in there?"

That was actually a good question. "Bacta contains a fluid known as ambori, which serves as a suspension medium." Of course, she probably already knew this, but it was nice to make things perfectly clear. "You know how pressure works, I'm sure. At typical space travel speeds, the bacta is going to be compacted into itself and become something more of a solid. This effect, along with the ambori, keeps all the coolant more-or-less evenly dispersed despite g-forces." While that was hardly a presentation that would pass peer review, it was the general concept and he was sure it was satisfactory to Jen. It did work, after all.

She seemed to accept it. "Did you come up with that?"

"I'd say I had a part in it, but I can't take that much credit."

The woman shrugged, giving the indication that it mattered little to her. "Thinking out of the box. Sounds like something I can get behind." Indeed. Was that not the theme of ECHO Esprit?

"Glad to see it meets your approval, Jen," Mitczik said with all sincerity. He was starting to enjoy things here. He felt invigorated; back in the game.

"But you haven't finished it yet."

Way to stay positive.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

Jen disappeared again for another week. Could she be manic? That was hardly an unreasonable theory, in Mitczik's opinion. Or was her position in the company even higher than he had originally suspected? The engineer was not an expert with the Holonet, but he was not illiterate either. Nothing came up in the company databases with a 'Jen', 'Jenny', 'Jennifer', or any of the hundred name possibilities he could think up. Why would she give him a false name?

Almost no one ever spoke of Jen, even when she was making her rounds. While Mitczik definitely appreciated that sort of courtesy, it was simply unheard of in a company of this variety. Could everyone be in the dark like him?

When Jen returned, she looked severely jetlagged and like she had just had a run-in with a reek. Dark circles rimmed the bottoms of her eyelids and her hair was carelessly frazzled. "Look like you've seen a war," Mitczik appraised sympathetically. Jen narrowed her eyes at him for a moment, the ghostly white eye piercing into his skull. Was it something I said?

Turning away from him to acknowledge Grizzki and Stjikki, Jen inquired on their progress. "What's the good news?"

"We've got the coolant system in the final stages of development. We could hit point-seven as soon as that's fixed," the Rodian reported, accompanied by affirmative head-bobbing by his jawa associate. "With a few adjustments to the sublight/hyperdrive energy partitioning mechanisms, and some requisite 'safety valves', we could feasibly have a final prototype for a point-six drive in two weeks."

"Love it," Jen said, though her voice hardly sounded ecstatic. "Glad things are going well here." Without further ado, their Benefactor set to leave their presence.

"Jen, I'd like a word with you," Mitczik declared, coming up beside her in stride. It was time they confront some issues. They could use a little more transparency around here.

She gave no vocal response, but lazily gestured for him to follow her and set off down the corridors. She stopped moving forward about halfway from the assembly hangar to the atrium where he had first met her, entering a small doorway. Inside was a sterile office setting, surprising to the engineer. "You have an office?" Mitczik asked. He had never seen her claim space in any room prior, and she hardly seemed to care about 'professional' projection.

"Of course I have an office. What'd you think?" Jen shrugged off her trenchcoat and threw it over her desk--a rare occasion, to be sure. Her figure was now completely revealed, showing nothing that might be considered 'spectacular', but probably not bad by human standards. Still, Mitczik's eyes continued to be distracted by the damaged face she almost seemed to promote. And now he noticed the dogtag that hung around her neck. She must have realized this, for she quickly tucked it underneath her shirt--though not before the engineer had gotten a decent look at the shiny object. "Now, what was it you wanted?"

The Mon Calamari was not sure if he should proceed at this point. He had a feeling she was in a very irritable mood. She looked as if she was carrying the weight of stars on her shoulders, exhausted from whatever. Mitczik decided to show some mercy. "It can wait for later, Jen. You have a good night." He turned on his heel and strode out into the hall. Jen failed to call after him.

There had been a rather unique symbol on her dogtag: a bird of prey with its wings protecting seven worlds and a sun, likely a family crest of some sort. Mitczik would look into this.

 

[Geneviève Lasedri]

The Holonet is a marvelous thing. It is amazing what you can find there. It had only taken about twenty-three hours total, but the old engineer had finally been able to track down the image that had been on the dogtag 'Jen' wore. To put it simply, Mitczik was not disappointed in what he found. And it had indeed been a family crest.

This discovery of Mitczik's made today seem like a whole new experience--not to mention that the final prototype for this new point-six speed hyperdrive model would be put through the runs. Some people were quite exuberant today--specifically, Stjikki. He might have forgone his meds this morning.

The three developers gathered at the test enclosure for the hyperdrive unit, awaiting the undoubtedly unceremonious arrival of their boss. Stjikki was practically jumping off the transparisteel walls in anticipation, and no one ventured to stop him. He was a true workhorse and who cared if he unwound a little after his long, dedicated hours, neck-deep in wires and capacitors?

Their Rodian associate stood as still as a statue, his bulging black eyes gazing at the fruit of their months-long labor with a laser-like stare. Grizzki put his heart, soul, and pride into his work, just like a good technician should. Grizzki also had the most to lose of their party, and Mitczik hoped mostly for his sake that the hyperdrive would meet or exceed expectations.

As predicted, the black-shrouded woman arrived at an unpredictable time and with no fanfare, though the call did go out throughout the company of starship mechanics in the room to come witness the event about to take place. About forty people ended up crowding around the test chamber, standing back just far enough to give the development crew--and of course, the boss--space to move freely.

"Stjikki," she said. The jawa scooted up to her and plucked a key out of her open palm. He had been given the honors of starting up this stationary test. Wasting no time, the little techie plunged the key into its slot and jerked it with a violent finality. He rushed back immediately as the compressors and experimental machinery fired up and came to life.

Honestly, there was not much to visibly behold in these contained test runs. The hyperdrive unit was run at full power, but it was only hooked up to a computer that would run simulations based on output. The actual trials happened in space, where the unit was established on a drone craft. That would happen later.

A jubilant yell was released by Grizzki as he scanned the readouts being produced. Mild applause and a couple whistles emanated from the gathered horde of ECHO Esprit workers. The event may not quite be historic, but accomplishment was always something to be celebrated--especially accomplishments of this magnitude.

They let the hyperdrive run for a few minutes to make sure it stayed at a steady temperature and energy output before it was shut down and the crowd disbanded to return to business as usual. Though Mitczik would argue that this sort of event should be business as usual anyway. This success just meant that it was time for a new goal.

Miss ECHO Esprit lingered a while this time, lightly congratulating Grizzki and Stjikki for their perseverance. Then she turned to Mitczik, likely to do the same. The engineer stole the first word, though he later wondered if he should have waited to hear something... new from her. "I was thinking over this all week," he started. "And it's a tempting offer, to stay here on a more permanent level. Been quite an experience." The Mon Calamari nodded and looked straight into the woman's asymmetrical eyes. She was well-rested by now as far as he could visually tell.

She smiled. "That's one way of putting it."

"It truly is tempting to continue working here. It's nice to be back in this sort of environment. I'm a little past my prime and I'm guessing you think I'm an old fish and about to keel over." He scrunched his face and chuckled a little.

The Benefactor shook her head. "Not at all. Wish I had a dozen of you on-call. We can get places with people like you." Mitczik would have dismissed it as flattery if he had not known better. But coming from her, it had to be a genuine compliment.

"Good to hear. Guess you won't mind if I stick around, Miss Lasedri?"

Gen stared at him.


[[Thread has been submitted officially for the ESB-8a Nevermore starship entry, but is potentially ongoing.]]