Welcome to Part 2 of Station Keeping “Network Upgrades.” I’m sorry for the confusion of not mentioning until yesterday that the story was “to be continued…” Well it is/was (and the post reflects that,) and here’s the continuation. The usual suggestions go about `reading the rest of station keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_, and `participating <http://tychoish.com/particpate>`_ in TealArt and Station Keeping. For those of you keeping track at home, the conclusion of #10 part 2, means that there are only two more episodes of the first run of Station Keeping left before our first break. Never fear, we’re already planning out whats going to happen in SK2 and SK3, so stay tuned, and know that now is a great time to get involved.
Last time, we saw Marc and David in the the bar, Another Round, waiting for the station’s network tech, Julia, to come buy and reinforce the network connection, read on to see how this little portrait of life on Hanm Centre concludes, and please do enjoy this continuation.--cheers, tycho
“Please do,” he said. He looked at Marc, who had a sly and pleasant grin. The good doctor still looked weary, but at least weary and entertained. Julia immediately found the access panel and plugged in her equipment with
David remained mazed with the speed, authority, and detail in Julia’s speech and behavior: not to mention her deft ability to deflect the conversation away from a topic that she didn’t want to talk about. He realized that despite her appearance, her subjective experience of age, that her chronological age might be a lot less. Relativity and interstellar did strange things to this society.
David found that his hands had gone back to dusting, and Marc had somehow produced a portable computer terminal and looked to be making some sort of notes, although they were both just trying to appear busy to decrease the awkwardness of not really having anything to do while the technology guru worked.
Almost before she had begun it seemed, Julia unplugged her gear, and replaced the panel. She stood up, “There, done. With the hardware stuff at least.” She brushed a renegade strand of hair behind her ear, exposing the contact points for a node interface.
David would have mistaken the contact points for jewelry, if not for their number and placement, well, in a away, despite their function, they were jewelry in a certain sense.
“Most of the reinforcement process happens in an algorithm script, actually. But you still have to get the hardware ready for the process. You’ll be up and running by the end of this shift, if that’s ok.”
“That’s certainly fine. We’re not opening till next weekend. You’ll be there I trust?”
“Of course, wouldn’t miss it, particularly not with a reinforced drop like this.” She smiled, wondering why she had said something so silly; everyone knew that she had the best connection on the station. “I guess they don’t call them pleasantries for nothing,” she thought. “Well if you need anything, you know where to reach me.” Then she was gone, almost as quickly as she had come.
Marc stood up and walked toward the door, to meet David who was toggling the lights beside the door. “What did I say?”
“You’re right she is good.” David conceded. “Who else is like that on the crew that you haven’t told me about.”
“Well you could come to staff meetings and find out.” Marc said: he didn’t try to stifle the grin.
David laughed. “Maybe then I could prove your wrong about my doodles.”
“We’ll call it your ‘Post-Late Period: A Revival.”
“Don’t you dare.” David chuckled and playfully elbowed Marc in the ribs, as they made for their quarters.
“Network Upgrades” was written by, `tycho <http://tychoish.com/tycho>`_, the creator of `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and `Station Keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_. He is a student and knitter by day and a science fiction writer by night, you can read his work elsewhere on `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and at `~/tychoish <http://tychoish.com>`_.