4-040: Aboard Snark 416
Erin’s voice was definitely slurred, she seems a bit intoxicated.
It is going to take a minimum of 5 Cycles to get a working beta version up, but it is exacting work and there are plenty of unknowns. Oliver is aware that there is a lot of scope on this development for a major time blow out.
Does he want to put a threshold on his effort or just keep plugging away?
The programming task in the back of his mind, he goes to the Control Room where Alan is making ready to depart and Dicard looks tired and queasy.
The ship undocks without incident and Halcyon has it heading out to the jump point, he says it will take about three quarters of a Cycle to get there, which seems about standard.
It will be Oliver’s watch in less than a job, Alan says he will look after the Control Room again. He grumpily warns Oliver not to get too engrossed in his techie stuff when he is on watch, as Argyropoulos is a busy system, and the jump to Zargonia – where the Snark is heading next – is the busiest route. Oliver can tell it’s just Alan being Alan and there’s no specific cause for concern either at ship proximity or Alan’s grumpy demeanour.
Oliver can continue his work, sit his watch, do more work and then sleep without any problems.
He is woken a bit earlier than his usual rising time to see the ship into jump space, and then Alan says the estimated jump time is just under five Cycles before the ship emerges at Zargonia.
It is RB06 211.318 when the Snark goes into jump.
Oliver will make a mental note about Erin.
The task can take up all of his waking time excluding bodily needs and ship tasks. He will probably do the teenager thing of emerging from his cabin, using the bathroom, grab a serving of food and retreat back to the cabin.
To Alan, he would gave given a half-hearted “Yeah, okay.”