7-012: Illuminator – Mess and Recreation Deck
Invention
Noted.Aboard the Illuminator
The Illuminator does not routinely require passengers or crew to secure themselves for undocking (which Oliver knows because he went through all the routine operations briefings.)
A Moment later, the tone sounds again and a low vibration runs through the ship. A view screen on the wall shows a view from an external camera of the walls of the docking bay sliding past and then hard pinpoints of distant stars. There’s a gentle sideways press and the monitor shows the GRRAS docking bay gradually swinging by as the ship gently turns toward the jump point. The docking bay image moves slowly out of sight and the all clear sounds. An announcement states that undocking and station departure has been completed and arrival at the jump point is expected at GG05 NextCycle.
Drop the Eaves
Three project contractors seem to be talking, one is bitching about somebody, “It’s like a black hole. I write reports, the reports go in, and nothing comes out.”
“Has she complained?”
“What? No! She barely says a word to me.”
“So what’s the problem?”
The contractor waves his arms about, “some feedback would be nice!”
“Look, you’ve been instructed to run the experiment, take the observations, and write up the reports, yes?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve done that?”
“Yes.”
“So, do your job and stay under the sensors. If there’s a problem, I’m sure you’ll hear about it.”
“I guess, it’s just…”
“What?”
“There people are supposed to be the intellectual tops of the Dominion, but I don’t see her for Cycles, and when I do there’s always some reason she has for not having done something. We are way behind schedule.”
“Do your job. Stay low.”
The third one has said nothing all this time, being focussed on his meal. He looks up and adds, “And keep records.”
Oliver thinks he gets the gist of what these conversations will mostly be and decides to leave it for now. It might take some higher level snooping to get any actual information. So Oliver has about 12 tasks to kill, maybe fewer after some eaves.
He might go back to his office and start writing up a program to tackle those blobs again, he might try a new one this time rather than the old one he used. If possible he’d rather the program ran off one of computers on the ship rather than his laptop, but if that’s not possible he’ll have to accept leaving his computer there, unless he can requisition an extra computer specifically for blob decryption.