Eureka Momenets

[John Locke]

Board meetings, they were the bane of any engineer, a committee who would rip apart your wonderful designs, looking at it from another point of view, wondering about the cost and the materials used. It was enough to make a grown man cry, John knew that he'd complained about it for long enough but he never thought the day would come when he was actually glad of the process. it provided him with a buffer, for both himself and his engineers, John was less engineer these days and more executive but he still understood how all-consuming an idea could be, how an engineer could get carried away. It was just these days he could see that not all ideas could work, not all ideas were practical.

That was sadly the case with the topic of discussion on the books today, a dedicated ship hacker and neutraliser. It worked great in theory but in practice..."See there's just one gaping huge flaw in the design," he tried to pitch his voice as sympathetically as possible, raising one hand to attract the attention of the intern passing out coffee. "It's great being able to hack into a ship, but if you're trying to do that with the shields already knocked down...there really isn't much point. An Ion cannon could do the job just as well. You need to survive the trip and get through the shields for it to be any good."

[member="Talaya Rade"]

 

[Talaya Rade]

Planet: Kiribi
Location: Lock & Key Mechanic's HQ

Having priorly been accepted by Locke and Key Mechanics for internship, she'd be two weeks into the job and find herself hurrying through the HQ's entrance with a tray of coffee. <"Uhh. .negatives? You're a coffee girl. Not what you had in mind. .but y'gotta start somewhere, right? Positives? Uhh. . ."> Looks around, noticing a female worker. <"Her shoes are cute?"> Sighing to herself, she'd scarcely avoid running into people before settling into an elevator. Rather cramped in, she'd be elevated along with a number of others. One guy in particular looked to her, tall and with a grin. "I . .like. .coffee," The delay in his speech noted maybe he was simple? She simple offered a friendly half smile and looked away. "Look." He'd continue, holding up what looked to be a ducky made of soap. ". . . . .I made'a duck. Heh." By now, the young woman's fake smile was shifting into an uncomfortab--*ding* The door opened and she quickly spilled out with the others. Before long, she was admitted entrance to the more private regions of the building and later into what looked like a meeting amongst the higher ups.

After politely knocking, she entered and provided coffee and beverage to those within the room. As she did, she couldn't help but over-heard the topic at hand. A ship hacker. Her eyes curiously trailed over to any schematic detailing, whether physical or holo-displayed. As she looked closer, and closer, her mind quickly noticed the flaws in the design, and by the second it became more and more difficult not to blurt out.

<"Keep it cool, T. Just uh. .deliver the coffee. Ooh but man I like this idea. If only they'd just. ."> Suddenly, she noticed [member="John Locke"] raising a hand. Nodding, she walked over to him and placed the coffee down for him. Almost turning to leave, she'd hear the male's words and clinch a fist from how much she held back. <"Don't. . .Don't. .Don-">

"Gaah." She'd turn to the executive. "Hi, sir, my name is Talaya Rade and I reallly can't hold it in any longer." She'd lean gently over the table, zooming out of the holo-projector's display of the schematics and punching in a number of codes to quickly create a design inspired by the original. The intern felt the pressure of the eyes upon her, <"Maan I'm so fired."> Within a minute or two, the a holo-display of a cannon design on the left, and it's ammunition on the right. "I liked where the original design was headed, but--" "Young lady. .what do you think you're doing?" One would call out. "Helping you", she replied. "This design is rough, but if you want to interfere with ships I recommend this beauty. The ammunition is literally an EMP carrier. If you look here. ." She'd motion with her hands. "Ships these days come with multiple layers of shields, so it'd have proton charges built onto them to sail through enemy shields. Once on the ship, it'd be easy pickings. Your weapon could deliver an electromagnetic pulse large enough to interfere or maybe downright shut down sections of large starcrafts." Now she'd zoom in on the cannon. "It's uh. .off the top of my head, but the ammunition would be large n' it'd something even larger to launch it. The cannon as you can see would feature a force accelerator and guiding sequences to launch the EMP carrier accurately across long-distances and ensure the carrier has enough force to penetrate and latch onto ship hulls." She'd briefly look to the members in the room to see their expressions, a somewhat nervous smile forming. "That's all I got." She stepped back, picking up her coffee tray. "That was completely out of turn, I know. If I still have'a job. .I'll uh. .go to finish my coffee runs then." She'd turn to make way for the exit, a pit of nervousness dwelling in her stomach-region.

 

[John Locke]

“Wait,” John hadn’t really moved in his seat, his gaze flicking away from the holoprojector to the form of the retreating girl as he raised one hand. The engineer’s eyes flicked back to the profection floating above the table before dancing over the eyes of the team arrayed around the table. “Out of the mouths of babes.” The man’s voice was quiet, a soft mutter as he finally moved, his head flicked around to stare at the man who had reprimanded her at first. “You know, perhaps instead of getting in her way you might actually listen to her, or you know what even better get out of her way.” John’s lips curled up as an almost mischevious light danced in his dark eyes, “Besides, you know it’s rude to leave a lady standing while we sit, don’t you think?”

Under the executive’s relentless gaze the poor man had no choice but to back away, his face flushing red as he awkwardly stood and backed away from the table leaving an empty spot there. An empty spot John gestured Tayala towards. “I’m not entirely sure that you could sail through shields, but you’re right it’s the best way to penetrate them. Your cannon isn’t a bad idea, but it means we’d be giving up space for other weapons to use it. So it might actually be best to build a ship around the weapon, one which is designed to launch the EMP generators and then follow up with a burst of damage before retreating away. It’s got some merit, definitely worth looking at.” Now his gaze swept around the room, “And she got in about 2 minutes what you couldn’t figure out in 2 months? Come on guys.” Breathing a heavy sigh John reached for his coffee, eyeing the girl cautiously, “How long have you been working here…actually, how are you even working here? I don’t remember hiring any engineers your age, I’m pretty sure that would stand out in my memory at the very least.”

[member="Talaya Rade"]