(no subject)

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

Bonnie walked in clutching a clipboard that she was checking off as she went. Funding is a go, approval is a go, there were still things left to do, and she'd left all her dynamics books here. And her laptop. So she was there to do ... a lot of stuff, not all of them related to work, thank heavens.

She and her clipboard took a place at the bar, pencil sketching out possible hydraulics systems.

Comments

[chelleuncurled]

Michelle sees someone she hasn't seen in a while and smiles at her.

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

Bonnie glanced up from her work to see-- "Michelle. Hey, been a while. How are you?"

[chelleuncurled]

"Busy. I went home a few days ago and still have to plan this wedding. What have you been up to?"

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"Same old, same old," she chuckled. "Planning this, building that... got approval from the board for Karr's new body, though they're a bit skeptical on circumstances. You know, all that fun stuff. How's the wedding planning going?"

[chelleuncurled]

"That's great news. Was there a lot of red tape around that?" She looks a little not so happy, "Not going so well. I've had some other things on my mind."

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"There was some, but... well, they've got a good reason to doubt and will probably regret before it goes through, but they'll just have to get over it. But... Want some cheesecake and talk? Hydraulics can wait."

[chelleuncurled]

"Red tape can be a real problem," Michelle agrees and then smiles a little. "That would actually be great, Bonnie."

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"Two orders of cheesecake, plese, Bar, in appropriate 'comfort food' flavours," she requested, smiling as two slices appeared, the one in front of her dolloped with strawberries. "...I can live with that," she murmured. "So what's been on your mind?"

[chelleuncurled]

Michelle's cheesecake has a layer of chocolate. "I had a fight with a friend a few days ago and I'm thinking that I really didn't give myself enough time to plan this wedding. Which is strange because I'm used to working with very little time."

[gone_byebye]

Oo. Hydraulics. Lovely stuff. Beat the crap out of the advanced avionics and composite welding texts Ray had stuffed under his arm. "Bonnie!" he called out cheerfully. "Boy, am I ever glad to see you!"

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

Bonnie blinked a few times. "Ray?" She couldn't quite hold back a laugh at his cheerfulness. "What's up?"

[gone_byebye]

Ray pointed towards the back door, all but bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "There's a new AI, and he's injured, and he asked me to patch up the hole in his side, and he needs somebody to check over his code because apparently he's having logical inconsistencies, and he's from my future and I think he likes me! I mean, as far as it's possible for a US military warplane to ever like anybody who isn't its pilot. You know how these things get."

By the look of him, he was within striking distance of Can I keep him? I'll feed him and walk him every day and groom him twice a week and play ball with him in the park. But that was Ray with nearly any new discovery.

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

Bonnie blinked and tried to filter through the verbal run-on sentence of doom. "A new, injured AI with logic inconsistencies in his code, and you've spoken to him?" Bonnie managed. "And I know how these things get, but um... are you sure he had a pilot? Other than that, what kind of injuries and inconsistencies, or do you know?"

Thank God her laptop was up in her room. She needed to get a backpack or something for that thing.

[gone_byebye]

"Uh... actually, no, you're right. No pilot. I'm sorry. His name is Eddie. EDI. Didn't say what it stood for, but his Navy callsign is Tinman, he's from 2008, and this is what his body is made from."

He pulled a plastic bag from one pocket and held up a quarter-sized sample of bronze aeroelastic compound.

"Other than that- yeah. I've spoken to him twice now. He's very worried about his wingmen, since I think the Navy drilled something of a military ethos into him, and the next time I see him I have to tell him that they're both all right. I don't know about the code inconsistencies, but the injury was a fairly nasty impact injury at high speed that tore open a hole in his hull. There was a fire, too- he nearly got killed because of that, but one of the wingmen put it out for him. I have pictures, since I needed to get a good clear understanding of what I'd be working with."

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

Bonnie reached out toward the bag by instinct before asking, "Um, may I?"

But then, as she heard Navy, let it really sink in, she sighed. "No wonder he has logic inconsistencies... Stupid military..." But she started thinking about the injury, the code...

"Sounds like he was in some good dogfights up there..."

No pilot, military AI... dogfights... It was obvious he was a UCAV, but...

No, there's no way...

"Wait a minute..."

[gone_byebye]

"Go ahead," Ray said, handing the bag over. "I offered to build him a crawler if he needed to get out and about, but he doesn't want to be separated from the plane body. He seemed like he wasn't all that thrown by the possibility of a remote-control drone when someone else offered to make him one, though..."

He nodded. "Yeah. The Russians tried to kill him at one point. And there was a helicopter incident in North Korea. I think his existence scared a whole bunch of people, really. Poor guy."

At Bonnie's statement, he tilted his head. "What?"

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

With the bag in hand, Bonnie gently withdrew the sample, looking it over with narrowed eyes -- "Shit, I wish I had a chemical analysis kit here," she muttered. "Because I know something about this. It was before my time... Just mentioned, but..."

She exhaled and raked a hand through her hair.

"I'm hearing some parallels here. Neither of the cars like being a CPU-on-a-desk, and I've seen a material like this before... But more importantly, I know that this plane is a UCAV - Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle.

"And I know that Wilton Knight had a plane seized from Knight Industries right before I was hired."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

Sheppard was in a good mood from last night, but that good mood started to go when he saw Bonnie. Of course, he had told Eddie he would talk to her, but...that didn't mean he was eager. And so, cautious in case she happened to have a wrench on her, he walked over and cleared his throat a bit. "Hi."

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"Mm? Oh, hi." She actually seemed particularly harmless, if a bit preoccupied, tonight. She was still sketching on those hydraulics, even with coffee in front of her, after all.

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

He might as well cut to the chase, he figures. It might be safer in the long run. "So, heard about the talking Navy plane outside yet?"

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," she said as she finished a bit of a technical add-on. "I have. Ray told me, and... I think he might be one of ours."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

"I thought you guys weren't into the military and AIs mixing thing."

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"We aren't. But Wilton Knight had a plane seized from Knight Industries before I was hired."

[no-comb-shep.livejournal.com]

"...You said you were from the 80s, right?"

[not-a-surgeon.livejournal.com]

"When does the military ever do anything expediently? Faced with Knight Industries technology... I wouldn't doubt it took them twenty years just to be able to get it to talk to them."