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Another threefer!

Quaritch is out for his morning run (or maybe just coming back in, or just going out...you decide!).

Boba Fett is at the target range, getting in some practice with some target...and probably any demon bunnies that bother him. Moving targets are always better, you know?

And Bonzo Madrid is also doing a slightly more abbreviated morning run than Col. Quaritch, but he's also going through an exercise routine of his own.

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"She's got unrealistic mission objectives...in my opinion." Sigh. "Too many people faint at the sight of blood. She can take killing some of the local wildlife when it tries to attack, but other than that...I don't think she can see reality for what it is."

Quaritch will give her points for trying to avoid a fight...but she's not getting anywhere, and sooner or later you have to call the code on an operation.

"Ah, selective morals?" Jordan shakes head. "Tell her, if something sentient tries to kill her, she needs not worry, nobody will stop the attacker?"

Quaritch laughs. "Much as I'd love to...I don't think Parker would like that." Beat. "Uh, Parker Selfridge. He's the project manager."

"See, that's why I work solo, or in charge: that way I can get rid of annoying people like Doctor Pacifist, there." She rolls eyes.

"Can you at least tell her to shut the fuck up?"

Quaritch grins. "You try telling her that. It works for about five minutes."

"I can make a cheap scream-bot with a very strident voice to do it for you?" She giggles, leaning back more.

Invitingly.

Quaritch laughs at the idea. "I didn't know anybody could make a cheap robot."

"Why? it does not even have to be intelligent, just needs to track a few words and play a recording. I need a recorder, a speaker, an eliza helix and a turing dynamo."

"And something to make it mobile."

"That last one tends to be a bit tricky. I don't think I could lend you an AMP suit."

As hilarious as Dr. Augustine being chased by one of those big suits telling her to shut up might be on a bad day...not happening. Just not happening.

"I can put a little antigravity generator in it... how high's Gee in Pandora?" Hey, it sounds like a cool project.

Specially when the armored little bot yells the doctor awake at night.

It's not a bug or a glitch, it's a feature.

"Oh, about point eight. Don't put too much overkill or I'll be explaining why we have something new in orbit..."

Beat.

"You got antigravity generators?"

"I do." She nods. "Invented them to move things around my lab."

Useful things, antigravity generators.

"You can continue with my legs." Jordan gets up, to give him access.

Quaritch looks a bit askance at lotioning Jordan's legs. Back? He can buy that; legs, on the other hand...well, let's just say that he's too polite to say no for now. Go figure.

"Impressive. We don't even have them now."

Go figure. "It's easier than repulsorlifts when you know what you're doing. But I wish I could do this Mass Effect thing I've heard about here."

"Mass Effect thing?" Well, this is turning into quite the fact-finding mission...

"In another universe, they invented a mechanism that actually reduces the effective mass of a spaceship. Warp drives and wormhole generators' power consumption grows exponentially as mass grows, so..." Oh yes, massive power savings, no pun intended.

He's vaguely familiar with the idea (not the details, which aren't his department anyway, but the general concept has crossed his desk at least once in the past), so he isn't totally lost there. Just partly.

"...so you can actually get close to light speed without having to throw out all your cargo to fit the fuel."

"Hm, no." She grins, looking back at him. "You can go -past- light speed, slip right out of normalspace, open a private gravitational well, and emerge somewhere ahead without pesky relativistic effects."

"You could skip from Sol to Alpha Centauri in a matter of hours."

Beat.

"Hours? How is that even possible?"

"Cheating the laws of physics, telling them to shut up, sit down, and play dead." Jordan sighs. "If I could reproduce this Mass Effect."

"If." Beat. "If you figure it out, let me know. Until then..." Quaritch lets out something of an involuntary shrug. "I deal with what actually is, not random possibilities."

"Like normal wormholes?" She nods. "The problem with those is the flight to the warp point and to the destination from the arrival." She ponders that. "Anything past .3 cee and you're wasting energy."

"We've actually gotten ships up pretty close to "C" for the middle part of the trip to Alpha Centauri." Beat. "Why is anything past .3 wasting energy?"

"Because past 30% lightspeed the mass of the ship starts to go up exponentially, as does your energy consumption. " She nods. "I invented a jump drive that opens a wormhole between the gravitational wells of two stars."

If he's done with the lotioning, she'll sit again. "To travel to Alpha Centauri, I'd launch the ship, and fly with conventional drives to the mean AU point optimal for the jump. Right now it would take some five days of travel."

"Once at the egress point, I activate the jump drive, enter warp space, and arrive at the destination system in a matter of seconds. From the arrival point, I fly as fast as my conventional drives will allow to my destination."

"Which can take a few more hours or days."

"Mean AU point...?"

Yes, Quaritch is letting her sit up. He's just...a little lost in all of the terminology that's being tossed around, no matter how simplified it might be.

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evilontheloose - 2011-07-14 19:17 (UTC) - Expand

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