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Electronic Pulse
Ch 18: Arrival

Ch 18: Arrival

"Welcome on board, Ohara. Long time no see."

"Hello Dr Elunetir. It has certainly been a while, you tend not to leave the station. It boggled me as to why you would buy the place... Until it was clear you liked the solitude." Smiling slightly, proffesor Ren Ohara walked out of the airlock and made way for the others to unload cargo, "I will have to admit, though... The view of Saturn from here is amazing."

"Part of the reason I lingered at this station so long in the first place, really. And when the Exodus happened... It seemed a good time to settle down." Dressed in a freshly pressed labcoat, Dr Elune gave Ohara a quick hug, "Still floating around in that crazy contraption I see."

"Hey, I like to explore. While it makes my work a little... Cramped, it does the job." Spotting a bench, Ohara settles down on it as they watch the ship unload, "I had to redesign a lot of my equipment to be more mobile. Makes it easier to replace for better tech, though."

"I'm sure it does. I have a few things to show you, besides AHOR. You will probably want a few."

"I have no doubt. I was actually looking into your new OHPS systems on the way over, and would like a live demonstration some time."

Grinning, Dr Elune thought on it for a moment, then decided why not. Waving, they called out, "Bring the mobile OHPS unit to airlock... Uh, 5."

Raising an eyebrow, Ohara watched as a few moments later one of the small service drones came down the ramp, a little dome affixed to it's head. "Ohara, I present a few things at once: My handy little drones, equiped with safety limiters and are hollow for moving of various items. Simply put, an autonimous trashcan with arms."

Chuckling, the Ohara nodded and listened patiently as Dr Elune continued, "Making these things useful is my personalised computer assistant, who I uploaded to the station mainframe years ago: Alex. They run subsystems on command, and are interfaced with the sensors around the station. You need something, and you only have to ask."

"Hmm, I see. How good is the language processors?"

"Very good, but try not to be too vague. Alex is fairly good at filling in context, because I got too lazy with my commands and installed an autocomplete function. But, we all know how that can weird out sometimes."

"Indeed." Frowning slightly, Ohara looked to the side, "And this has no drawbacks?"

"Pretty much. More sensetive controls require verbal authorisation, and accompanying clearance levels. For example, no matter how hard you try, you cannot order alex to vent the air out of this place. I could, but only if I gave the pass code."

"... Good to know. Just keep an eye on the autocomplete, it can be amazing at how far things can leap." Relaxing, Ohara leant back on the bench to let Dr Elune continue.

Shrugging calmly, Dr Elune would have laughed at the irony of that statement if it weren't for the accuracy of it... The Mars incident started out rather similar to Alex. "I run regular diagnostics, I assure you. And last, I have the most recent prototype of the OPHS... One I have been mulling over to keep to myself or not."

Luaghing quietly, Ohara wasn't the least surprised. He was rather familiar with the little trove of devices explusive to Dr Elune's laboratory... And explusive to his own shuttle, for that matter.

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"Alex, run the OHPS demonstration from this mobile unit."

"Yes, doctor." Flickering on, the unit projected a field in front of it, a few meters wide, and began running various simple shapes, escalating in geometric diversity and colour.

Blinking in surprise at the response, Ohara quickly brushed it off as part of the language interface program. That feature was hardly an innovation, after all. They leant forward as the display continued, intruiged by the finess of it, "No loss of opacity, and excellent quaility of image and colour vibrance... And this is running from that little drone?"

"Not quite. The power supply is internal to the OHPS itself, the feed of data is from the drone... Supplied by Alex from our database, of course." Smirking, Dr Elune smugly observed the admiration on Ohara's face, "The lenses are a nightmare to manufacture, and the operating system is too complex to store on the OHPS itself. So, you would need to rely on supplies from this station should you need more."

"Ahh, I see. So you are offering me an exlusive deal, to offset the prices of my service?" Chuckling, Ohara looked at the doctor as the OHPS shut off, "A tempting offer, I will admit."

"Not quite. You would have to pay upfront for the OHPS, but while you are here I will happily lend you my models free of charge. Get you hooked on them first. We still have to negotiate our terms on AHOR first, after all."

"That we do. I do not know if I will be begging for scraps, or left with a king's ransom. Knowing you, it can easily go either way."

Smiling quietly, Dr Elune said nothing as the drone wheeled to the side, letting them have a better view of the ship. Dr Elune made a note to tell Alex off for that later. "You haven't even seen the current model yet... So we shall see. Now, the other thing... Maximoff?"

"Ah, yes. As I have next to no details on your system, I was unsure if he could be of any help. I was told you want this done quickly, so I thought the suggestion a viable one... Even if it meant less recognition on my part."

"Oh. Well... Thank you. However, I think you will agree this isn't wuite his field once you see the prototype. I also want to keep this quiet for now, and he... Doesn't do that."

"Ah yes, the polar oposites of the outer ring: Maximoff, the celebrity scientist who spends more time in talk shows than his lab, and Elunitir, who is only known of by the odd enthusiast."

"Shush, you. I'll admit his findings are good... Just he would get a lot more done if he was like us." Grinning, Dr Elune looked up as the last of the cargo was unloaded, being ferried off on trollies to the labs, "Now, do you want to oversee Laura setting your lab up, or shall we go on a tour?"

"Laura? I assume she is your head engineer?"

"Yeah. I will introduce you to the station council later."

"Hm... She should be okay. My team will go to the lab anyway. What I need now though is something to eat."

"Ship rations are terrible. Come on, I will take you to the market. The stuff grown here is pretty good."

And with that, they got up, and Dr Elune hoped Laura would be able to keep a good eye on the others for now.