milliways_bar | (no subject)

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[OOM: A discussion is had.
No decision is reached.]

Felix is sighing as he comes into the bar. Then he begins noticing things - the general worry, the unusual cold, the glimpses of red out the window, the lack of people around the Bar itself - and his face hardens. There's something wrong here, and even if this isn't his world he's going to find out what and how to fix it.

It's about then that a slightly confused waitrat shows up and offers him a tray containing four crystal spheres, about the size of softballs. One yellow, one blue, one purple, and one red.

Felix stiffens in shock. Are those...? He gingerly takes the tray. "Could you get me some kind of mithril glove or something?" he asks the rat. As it scurries off, he carefully makes his way over to a table and sets the tray down. Then he falls into a chair, now both frustrated and bewildered.

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"I can do that." Though he's going to keep an eye on the Stars while he does.

Well, good.

"Thanks. I won't be long. Oh, and don't lean through after me or put your hand through or anything, it'd be a really bad idea."

He crosses to the door and exits, letting Felix keep the door open. On the other side, he summons a vidwindow.

"Dad?"

"...little to the left."

The vidwindow opened to find Welman in a lab, directing something that was more in the background. You could hear the sound of a crane involved. The null sort of did a double-take at the window in question.

"Ah, hello son. Everything alright?"

"Yeah, well, more or less. Ish. I mean, the place hasn't collapsed yet. But there're some powerful... artifacts, I guess, turning up, and I need to put up a containment field. I oughta be ready to do more than one, really. Think you could hook me up?"

"Hold on. I'll get right on it."

He steps out of the picture and his voice is heard talking over sounds of work in progress. It went like something something Containment Field Arrays something delivery, and then he was at the window again.

"How many of these artifacts are there? Is there anything else there that needs to be contained?"

"There's four of the ones I'm looking at, but they're small. Hang on."

Back through the door, he calls, "Can they all be contained together?"

Felix considers this for a moment. "I think so, but I don't know that it's ever been tried."

"Will you be able to tell if it's not working?"

That's a tricky one.

"It would depend on the containment field, but I think so."

"You should be good, it's a wireframe structure, you can see right through it."

Back to the vidwindow.

"Okay, so one oughta be enough for these. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet what needs to be contained, or what can. I just want to be prepared."

"So, I'll just slip it through the door, then?

There's the sound of something heavy dropping in the background the null extends a tiny pseudopod to perform a facepalm and shake his 'head'.

Edited 2012-02-16 04:46 (UTC)

"Yeah. Thanks, Dad. You rule."

Enzo closes the vidwindow and returns to Milliways.

"He'll just be a nano."

"All right."

The sooner the Stars are contained, the better.

"Do you still want the Door open, or will he be making his own way?"

"His own. He's home in Mainframe, my door's in the Supercomputer."

"Ah." Felix lets the door swing shut and settles into a waiting stance.

The door opens and...in comes a device which would normally be heavy or clunky by nature, but was supported by a hover-pallette so as to be light-weight and easily moved around for convenience sake. it is comprised of a business end with several triangulating-emitters in sort of a satellite dish pattern, a main bulk which...must contain the guts of the machine, and a console consisting of a standard row of buttons and lights...along with a device sticking out of it that conspicuously resembles a video game controller. The null in the exosuit pushes it clear of the doorway and looks over at the two of them.

"Here you are, boys. The updated deluxe version of the Containment Field Array."

It was his way of making certain the artifacts of unknown origin didn't cause trouble.

"Alphanumeric! It's up to multiple jobs?"

"Definitely. It contains them, it can shift them around, it can sustain multiple fields, and has a long-lasting power supply."

This Array can be yours, if the price is right! Fortunately, Mike wasn't here for that.

Well. This is... not quite what Felix would have expected Enzo's father to look like. Then again, he supposes there's a lot he's never asked about sprites.

But this is probably not the best possible circumstance for finding out more. After blinking a few times, he manages to say, "Thank you, sir."

"No problem. I needed a little time out anyway."

Yyyup, the little green thing on top is nodding at him and the rest is mechanical, apparently. Sci~ence.

"We better find somewhere out of the way for the generator."

"Hmmm... Well, aside from just shoving it into any old corner, I suggest giving it a booth for the time being."

Sure, why not? Enclosed, out of the way, and it won't run up a lofty tab.

"Good call. Out of the way but still accessible."

He looks around for an unoccupied one, then starts to manoeuvre the pallet.

Felix is somewhat torn. On the one hand, it would be polite to offer to help move the equipment. But on the other, he'd have to either turn his back on the Stars, or else try to bring them along while he helps move unfamiliar equipment - and who knows how equipment from Enzo's world might react to their emissions?

In the end, he just (carefully, carefully) picks up the tray and follows.

Enzo doesn't need much help getting it there; the hover-pallet steers more easily than a wheeled dolly. He could use his father's help easing it off the pallet and onto the table, though.