Tennessee Whiskey

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge was not a man prone to forward thinking ideas. He addressed the concerns he felt needed addressed, usually with a suit of armor and a weapon, because his world was violence. The theater upon whose stage he performed was one of foxholes and artillery shells, turbolasers and lightsabers. Death was the companion, not money. An arena of blood was his world, not the arena of business or finance.

He understood, as many pragmatic individuals did, that the battlefield of business was every bit as violent as the actual one - it just tended towards the more personal, at least in his eyes. On the battlefield, it was he and his opponent. In business, it was always so much more. At least that was how things were in his eyes. So for him to have a meeting with anyone that wasn't Danger was out of the ordinary.

Danger was to the corporate world what Sarge was to the military one - a go between. Someone with enough friends to act as a middleman. If you needed anything capable of killing someone, you came to Sarge. Anything corporate, Danger.

Which is how he'd managed to snag a word with [member="Alric Kuhn"]. Or, so he thought. Alric might have agreed to the meeting on Sarge's reputation, but he was known to Danger, and in big business when you knew one CEO, it was likely the other CEO knew of you. Not that Sarge was an expert.

No, Sarge was not a forward thinking man. He was a here-and-now, sort. The moment a sniper took shot through your helmet. The split second before the grenade went off. A moment to say goodbye, a moment to mourn. A moment to kill. There was no future in any of those.

But he could help with this. Provide a future with... this. He smiled, lifting his head as he stepped from an elevator at the location he'd been told to go to for a meeting (hopefully) with the man who'd designed the helmet. From what little bit he knew of the man, well, at least he'd be used to seven foot tall armor clad warriors paying him a visit.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Alric Kuhn was indeed in his office, a rare thing for him these days.

Vanir Technologies was expanding it's reach all across the galaxy, and with that expansion came a certain amount of business that Alric had to attend to. Most of the time he found himself scouring from place to place or at home with Danger. The two of them had found a place of relaxation in their skyhook home, and they had both made an attempt to be there as often as possible. That was why Lily had begun to do more in Vanir Technologies, and it was why the company was beginning to see more and more executives rise through the ranks.

Despite all that, Alric was here today, specifically in part to meet with the former Lord Protector.

Alric knew little to nothing about him, though ironically the man had probably been matched up against more than a few of Alric's creations in the past. Oddly enough, the title of a supporter of the One Sith no longer clung to him, perhaps it was because in the end it had all simply been business to him, or perhaps it was because of his assistance to the Galactic Alliance. Either way, Alric was here, and due to the word of Danger he had set the meeting without hesitation.

The turbo-lift that lead directly to his office pinged, showing the former Lord Protectors Arrival.

Alric stood from his plush leather seat, straightening his back and tugging at his suit jacket as the doors began to fold open.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The doors folded open, sure enough, and Sarge stepped out carefully with one of Alric's fighter helmets held in one hand. Moving forward with a grace not commonly seen in such heavy armor, visor raising to regard the man behind the desk. Two warriors, separated by lifestyle rather than ideology. This was going to be far more amusing than he'd anticipated. The visor, while capable of depolarizing, did not.

Moving to the desk, he gently put the helmet he'd carried with him on the desk, then reached up with a freehand to hook a thumb under his chin. With a low hiss of escaping air, the helmet was pulled free to tuck under an arm, and the pitch black eyes of the former Lord Protector settled on the Titan of Industry. Lifting a large hand to shake, he gave the man a short, terse smile complete with tired looking eyes set beneath an overhang of unkempt hair.

"A pleasure to meet you." His voice was quiet, yet forceful, a rumble of thunder upon the horizon. But even with the terseness of the curling of his lips, there was a glimmer of geniality to him that never quite seemed to fade. "Hopefully we get along better than Red and I do." Red, of course, being Danger.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Well, that was certainly an impression. Alric picked up his own hand and settled it into the larger man's, shaking it for a moment before slowly releasing. He remembered meeting a Yuuzhan Vong for the first time, or rather, the first time he had met one of their Warmasters. There had been no fear in that moment, just like there was none now, but a certain strain down his spine that told him if he made a wrong move here his neck could be snapped in half a second.

An odd feeling.

"Oh I'm sure we'll get along great." Alric said with a smile. "I'm a love-able guy."

He smiled, then cast a glance at the helmet. The piece of technology was brand new, only a few weeks old in the public sector. Certain ships that Alric's company had created already carried the product, and some subsidiaries he owned utilized it exclusively in their ships. It worked well, though the product had yet to make its way into the grander markets of the galaxy. "Now, if you don't mind getting straight to business, what can I help you with?"

Alric left out a title, mostly because he had no idea what to call the man now.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Loveable? Funny. Positively tickling.

Sarge was under no impression that if he somehow caused actual damage to Alric's business that the man wouldn't utterly ruin everything he'd ever worked on. But Sarge didn't make enemies out of friends. He made friends out of enemies - or corpses. One or the other, really. "First off, manners. Call me Sarge." There was a time when he was the Sergeant Major of the OmegaPyre, so it wouldn't sound too odd to the man.

Probably.

"Second off." A finger came out to rest along the dome of the helmet. "This." He's staring [member="Alric Kuhn"] straight in the eye. "This is beautiful."

"But I know business, and I know you aren't stopping here. I rigged a frigate to work like this with a bank of computers and more wires than was ever going to be reasonable. I'd like to get help, in any way I can, to get this up to a capital ship level."

Hopefully, if Alric was interested, he wouldn't throw business jargon at him.

Otherwise he was going to get lost, quick.

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

He pondered for a moment. "Yes."

That was a simple answer, and also obviously the beginning of one.

"We don't plan on stopping with the technology, and we have been developing the next step." That was only natural, everything had to be taken a step further. "However, we've run into an issue in doing so. The Helmet essentially creates a direct feed into the mind, as I'm sure you're aware, it practically extends ones senses. On a starfighter, this is still possible and most sentient minds are more than capable simply because a starfighters systems don't create that much information."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Unfortunately, when one arrives at Capital grade vessels the issue of more powerful sensors, more systems, and more input prevents itself. Quite simply, most sentient minds, most human minds aren't capable of handling that much information that quickly. Simulations have not gone well, and the one volunteer who attempted to test the system despite researcher warnings...well, he now requires permanent care. We've been attempting the creation of a sort of buffer against this, but it's been on the slow slide."

It could be done eventually, perhaps, but more time was needed.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

There was a nod, and he found himself a seat in one of the chairs that was undoubtedly there - and by found himself a seat, he made sure he wouldn't crush it and then maybe sat in it if he could fit. If not, he would stay standing. "I rigged up one of the new Nebulon's that CEC made a few years back. Essentially, I automated as much of the vessel as I could. If it wasn't important for me, it wasn't important enough to leave unautomated."

Droids were marvelous things. "I then took droids and extra processors, and set up a makeshift crew. They would filter through relevant data, do whatever I was unable to do, and generally act as the buffer between the system and I."

A frown creased his face, palm settling atop the helmet now like he was gripping a skull. "The problem I encountered wasn't in what I couldn't do as the ship, but rather in how much I could rely on others to get things done. Simply put, you're going to find it impossible to go without a bridge crew. The good news, from my experience, is that you require a much smaller bridge crew, and they can be more focused on their individual tasks. This also allows you to automate much more of the rest of the ship, leaving space for weapons, shields and generators.

In effect, rather than simply being the ship, you feel it and facilitate it to the rest of the crew. Like a translator, but with the added benefit of faster reaction times because you're in control of the side you're translating for." The frown grows.

"Admittedly, this has become harder to articulate than I anticipated."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

It was something.

Perhaps automation was the key. There was a company that he had worked with in the past, Hegemonic Automation. They had recently crafted a ship that was nearly one hundred percent automated, with only a few functions that really needed to be maintained, and even those functions were usually taken care of by droids. A subsect of this protocol had been used upon the Maladi, a ship that Alric had personally created when he had still been with Titan.

"It would be good to create limits, protocols of application, though..." He thought for a moment. "If we integrate an Intelligence network into the system itself, something that works in tandem with the user, controls systems are are currently not key and maintains them. Say for example your ship is in battle, you maintain control of weapons, shields, and targeting system. While you do this the Intelligence takes over the monitoring of the reactor, engines, and all non-essential systems to the users current task."

It wasn't a buffer, more of a work around. "A more advanced form of the automation you were speaking of."

Though, such a design would be difficult, and much like with the helmet a ship would have to be entirely dedicated to it's creation.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

[member="Alric Kuhn"]

"Obviously it's a rudimentary idea, but I think it's the most workable given the limits of the mind. Essentially, you monitor everything like you would - keep some parties around for damage control, anti-boarding, et cetera. But otherwise, yes, you're going to automate as much as you can so that the crew can focus entirely on the major functions that come with commanding a warship."

His eyes shifted, downward, a pensive look furrowing his brow. A hand reached up, stroking the undergrowth that was his beard. "You're going to want organic flow to the ship. Sharp lines with that many wires aren't good. Trust me. Essentially you're going to to build around the concept not just of automation, but of needing to get all that raw input to the bridge. So I imagine sloped, flowing architecture will do better."

There was a shake of his head. "I've nothing to back that up save a gut feeling and the pain that came from trying to get that mess of wires around all those sharp bends and turns and..." He grunted. "Regardless, I needed to pass on what I knew as soon as possible. Both for your benefit, and so I wouldn't forget to do so."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

It was an idea, but was it a workable one? He supposed that time an testing would tell. The system was already rigged, it would just have to be coded with automation in mind. He recalled, briefly, the use of artificial intelligence in certain Titan Industries technologies. It had never really gone far, mostly because Titan used Yuuzhan Vong technology and those overarching computer systems were never really an issue, but he knew that the experiment had gone.

He would have to contact HA and garner their opinion, though keep the project mostly a secret.

This was still business after all, and a system like this could ensure that Vanir Technologies made a lot of money. For a moment more he considered the implications and applications of this technology. Admittedly he was no scientist, but he knew well enough what something like this could do and the basics of how it would work. Suddenly something dawned on him, and form his desk he pulled a datapad. He offered it out to Sarge. "If you please, record anything you can remember. The experience, technical specs, anything. It will help when we create the system in full."

It was better than starting from scratch.

With that information the R&D department could take what Sarge did along with the current system and merge them together. Instead of months, it might take only weeks.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge looked at [member="Alric Kuhn"], gracing him with a knowing smile. A hand moved to his belt, and he pulled out a thick, plated datapad clearly built for a warzone. Not that such a thing was any surprise on him. "Already done." He remarks, ever prepared. "I pulled anything of relevancy from the ship - which, by the by, I'll have dropped off for you. It's not overly large, but it should give you a firsthand look at a prototype set up that did, in fact, prove successful."

Giving the man a tired smile, he settled his helmet back onto his head, twisting it until it sealed. "I'll also extend the offer to be the tester. I've handled it once. I should be able to do it again."

 

[Alric Kuhn]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Well that certainly made things easier.

"Noted." Alric said as he pulled the chip towards himself. "It will be a few weeks, though I expect it won't take too long."

Vanir had more production and research facilities than any company in the galaxy, mostly because they were a different kind of corporation. Whereas most companies were geared towards the development of weapons, arms, or even ships, Vanir was entirely moving towards the production of new and unique technologies. That was its purpose, no mass-production, but the further development of technology in the galaxy. At least, thats what Alric wanted it to be. "I'll inform you when its finished."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Blockade runners weren't the biggest capital ships, but anything was better than starting from nothing. Snapping off a crisp salute, the soldier turned smartly on his heel and went straight to the elevator. It wasn't until it was in and he turned that the large, stoop-shouldered man regard Alric. "Don't get shot." He remarks, as cheerfully as 'see ya later.'

And he was gone.