YSS Heartbreaker, Medical Bay
Ingrid and Cosima were waiting in the medical bay for Edtoto as she arrived from her soldiering lessons with Hasewega. They were poring through a holographic readout of data accumulated during her fight with the shiny new android and her other exercises. Ingrid scrubbed through a timeline sending a set of suit telemetry graphs running up and down while a recording played, alternating between bullet-time and super-speed as she examined some points closely and jumped past others.
"There's a definite snap in stopping motions. If we get that sorted out, then we should be able to reduce the wear on the joints during these bursts and increase initial grip strength," Ingrid said.
Cosima nodded and added, "Also, it puts a spike in her pulse reading. It looks like it's just an error caused by the motion causing compression on the sensor. What do you think is causing the snap?"
"I imagine it's just the way Ed's got the interface layered excessively. It's a decent hack, but we should be able to completely cut out the SPINE layer. If we're clever, we can merge her AI interpreter with the AIES itself; reduce the amount of abstraction and get the operation closer to bare metal."
Edtoto walked in, obviously tired from her trainig with Hasewega. The Taii had been running her like a dog since the initial fight, and after having repaired the cargo bay, was being put through hell by Hasewega to give her the entire Star Army training program, in as short a period of time. She kinda wished she could just download it to her brain at this point.
"Officer Edtoto, reporting to analasys" She grumbled, laying her head down on a table off to the side. "Is there a place I could get some water?" She asked, not looking up at all. She was getting better after the beating, but her eye was still all kinds of screwed up.
Cosima smiled at Edtoto sympathetically as she came in. "Blesi," she said and pointed at the sink. Ingrid stiffly went to the sink as Cosima walked over to Edtoto and said, "Hi, Edtoto. You're looking pretty tired today. Can I take another look at your eye?"
Edtoto leaned up, and opened her eye for the Medic to take a look at. What should be white was still bright red. "I probably shouldn't have just let the android punch me huh?" She asked, looking over at Ingrid. She quickly looked back to Cosima, frowning a little. "So... How is the analasys going? Have you been able to use the information my CAAI was able to drum up? I tried making it fast enough but I feel I may have over complicated the code."
"We've got a lot of information to look through yet, but we've spotted some problem areas. Blesi-hei has come up with ideas on how to improve the system," Cosima replied, looking over at Ingrid as she approached with a paper cup filled with water.
Ingrid offered the cup to Edtoto and said, quietly, "Yes, there are things we can adjust."
Edtoto took the water with a stiff thanks, thinking about the suit. "Well... I did notice there was a large amount of lag between the CAAI and the the Yamatai SPINE, but I'm not aquainted enough with the system to understand what the delay is being caused by. I feel my motions and the scripts I wrote to have the suit react to attacks without my direct intervention were a little sloppy" She explained, starting to take a drink.
Ingrid sighed and said, "Your CAAI can probably be cut right out. The SPINE layer can definitely go. We just need to update the AIES to understand your behaviours so it works with you." She added with a mutter, "Although I don't see how anything will understand you."
Cosima paused a second, obviously attending to a telepathic message. "Excuse me," she said, "I'm needed elsewhere right now. You two figure out what you're going to do about the computer interface, but Edtoto, I want to talk to you about the biosensors when I get back." She briskly made for the exit. Ingrid reached out to keep her from going, but the medic was on a mission and was out the door before Ingrid could do anything.
Edtoto went wide eyed at the comment about her CAAI, about to swallow her drink when Cosima stated she would be back. She forgot how to swallow, the water just dribbling down around her lower jaw. She snapped her muzzle shut and glared at Ingrid, standing up quickly. "I'm sorry? Have a hard time understanding me?! I'll have you know the code I put in to my CAAI solved that problem brilliantly, the SPINE and other programs between the AIES and my CAAI was causing all the interference" She snapped, her tail whipping a bit. "Not that I didn't catch that blatant comment against my language. I apologize I wasn't born a Neko or some such" She snapped.
"Solved it brilliantly? You call that mess 'brilliant?'" Ingrid scoffed. "Do you know how much control lag you're introducing by using your clumsy programming to talk to a SPINE that talks to the AIES? The AIES has a neural net! You just have to run a calibration on it!" She walked over to the hologram and pointed to an acceleration readout. "You're not going to be able to get a good grip on anything with this kind of noise in the responses." She folded her arms in a huff. "And what are you going on about your language for? You're practically a record player. And you don't even use your language on this ship."
"Run calibrations on it?! It's not even compatible with my species! Do you know how hard it was to operate it when I was first in it, even after Skade put me through my calibrations?! I wouldn't have lasted five seconds against the android without that AI!" She shouted, stepping forward threateningly. "Or are you just jealous that after being on this ship for almost as long as you have and I can already speak /both/ your languages?" She snapped. "I always use my language, your ears just aren't good enough to hear it!" She added. "Again, I'm sorry I wasn't born in a fucking vat!" She snarled.
"Do you know how you got that android's arm to come off? When it was making all those cosmetic improvements to your face, the force of its blows were all that caused the arm to seperate. It's a good thing your head is so hard, or it would never have had a solid enough leverage point." Ingrid jabbed her finger into Edtoto's chest. "Oh, and big deal you weren't born in a vat. Neither was I! Do you know what it's like to have to change bodies? Waking up in a new body and watching them recycle you? It's not all fun and games being genetically engineered, you know!"
"It ain't all fun and games being without genetic engineering! Living every damn day as if it can be your last because one slight fuck up will have you recycled without the ability to watch it happen. I die, it's over for me, just like it's over for everyone on my station who is dead or dying as we speak, just like it is over for my family who didn't stand a fucking chance!" She screamed, her voice pitching up sharply. She was shaking heavily, with every tendon in her leg tight enough to see. "This is all I get... and I spent most of it on a station that isn't even as big as a moon..." She whispered, looking down.
Ingrid lost the strength to keep the glower on her face. Her arms fell useless by her sides and she looked away from Edtoto's misery and fear. "Edtoto," she said, softly. She reached out and lifted Edtoto's face to look her in the eye. "Why did you hide from me? You kissed me and then you disappeared."
Edtoto tried to look away, only managing to look at another part of Ingrid as she asked a simple question. A question Edtoto had feared would be coming. "It's..." She started, taking a step back and crossig her arms. Her tail coiled around one of her legs, making her silouette as smal as possible. "Its because I'm weak ok..." She muttered softly, turning her head to the analytic. "I kissed you, and then I realized my arm needed to heal... Then I realized that even with my arm I'm weak" She continued, walking over to the holoscreen.
"I needed to get stronger, I needed to know I could fight against something that was so strong I wouldn't stand a chance normally" The lizard sighed. "I lost a lot... And I caused the crew a lot of problems. I don't want to lose my new family just as quickly as I lost my last, and I certainly don't want to lose yo..." She started, frowning again. "It doesn't matter. You're right... I should just let the crew do their jobs, and stay in my room where I belong..." She finished.
"Edtoto, you're willing to call us your family members, but you can't call us your crewmates? I guess you haven't noticed it, but you're a part of this crew. You can't just let the crew do their jobs and stay in your room at the same time. You have a job to do here too and you can't try to hide from it." She smiled and added, "You're calling yourself weak, but if there's one thing I know about people on this ship, it's that we're not weak. None of us. You know Tsukisaki-taii and Hoshitomo-shoi. You know what Inukai-hei did. Heck, even Skade and I can step up to the plate and bunt when it's our turn. You can't be a part of the Heartbreaker's crew and be weak. You're strong, Edtoto!"
Edtoto didn't have much to say to that. She was expected to do things by the captain, but that was so she didn't die on her next outing. These things they were doing was to stop her from dying. "As much as I may be on the ship, doing jobs, they are all in preparation for getting to my station. I'll likely be left there once you are done so you can all go back to you mission. I'm chasing a pipe dream by calling the crew my family, and I realized it as soon as I kissed you that you were likely the same. A pipe dream" She grumbled.
"Well, we have until then!" Ingrid exclaimed and she kissed her. Her arms wrapped around Edtoto and she pulled her close. The reaction was half expected, Edtoto grabbing onto her shoulders almost as if she were about to push Ingrid away but instead used them to help her jump up and wrap her legs around her waist, her tail flicking up so she could sit on the table. Her mane puffed out slightly as well as all the tines along her back and tail as she ran her clawed fingers through Ingrads hair, pullig back with a blink f shock.
"N-now what?" She asked, her heart beating quickly and her breathing heavy. Ingrid's face filled with lust and mischief, and she simply grabbed onto Edtoto's head and kissed her again. She ran her hands amongst Edtoto's tines, feeling their unique texture. Edtoto slid her hands down Ingrids body, taking the opportunity to undo her uniform jacket and slide her hands up Ingrids shirt.
Just then, the door hissed open. Edtoto and Ingrid's eyes both went wide and the two pushed away from each other. Medici-heisho stood in the doorway, her attention given fully to someone out of sight. "I'll talk to you about it later," she said. Ingrid adjusted her shirt and turned away from the entrance to zip up her jacket while Edtoto tried to groom her mane down into something resembling normal. It still looked a little rediculous with how big it made her head. Cosima walked into the room and greeted them, asking, "How are you two coming along?"
Ingrid turned around and snapped to attention, crisply responding, "We've made a lot of headway, Medici-heisho! We've worked through a lot of problems and while we're only just tentatively working on the solutions, we're really making strides."
"Yes! Progress! We solved some of the... Compatibility issues there were... With the AI's I mean. They should start to work much better once we impliment the solutions in a more intimate way" She said, looking straight at the ground afer realizing what she said. "With the AI's..." She repeated, horrible at lying under pressure like this.
Cosima gave the two a questioning look. "Blesi-hei, why is your hair such a mess?"
Ingrid's expression was that of a deer caught in headlights. "Well, uh," she stammered. "Well, some of these problems are real head scratchers, y'see!" she explained, scratching her head to demonstrate.
"Right!" Cosima beamed. "Well, I'm glad you two are making such great progress. Edtoto, are you ready to work on the biosensors?"
Edtoto would have blushed were it possible, looking away. "There's something Biological I'd like to work on" She muttered, standing up and trying to relax. "Yes. I don't know how well we will be able to calibrate the system without putting me through some rather rough experinces. That, and the fact I don't have many of the organs your system works on" She said, taking a very deep breath.
"And that's exactly what I want to work on," Cosima said. "We need to do a lot of work to make sensors so that we can know exactly how you're doing while on a mission. It's important so that we can get appropriate and immediate care for you in case you get injured."
"Okay, well, if you two are going to start on that I guess I should go and start trying to improve the programming," Ingrid said, her face a mix of relief and disappointment. "Edtoto, I'll talk to you as soon as you're done for the day, right?"
Edtoto just nodded at Medici before tilting her head at Ingrid. "Oh? Well yes, but I though maybe you would want to stay and help with the physical. Just so that you know what you're... Programming for" She said, walking over to the table. "I'm sure Medici wouldn't mind an extra set of hands" She added, looking at the ship medic with a slightly hopeful look.
Cosima started to reply, "Well, an extra set of hands can't--"
"No, I think you've got this, heisho!" Ingrid interrupted. She started towards the door while rambling, "I've got other things I need to do and I'm feeling a little bit distracted right now and I have some other projects that I need to be attending to and there's still---would you believe it---still messages coming in about the I'ee and the things that happened in Shekhinah and..." She continued her rambling as she walked out the door. She turned around, waved and said, "I'll talk to you later, heisho. Come around as soon as you're able, Edtoto. Goodbye!" And the door closed, leaving Cosima Medici alone with Edtoto.
Edtoto frowned, then turned back to Medici with a hopeful look. "Don't tell anyone?" She asked curiously, obviously knowig there was no real secret at this point.
Cosima gave her a sly grin and said, "Edtoto, there are none that need to be told. Let's get some biosensors working, shall we?"
Ingrid and Cosima were waiting in the medical bay for Edtoto as she arrived from her soldiering lessons with Hasewega. They were poring through a holographic readout of data accumulated during her fight with the shiny new android and her other exercises. Ingrid scrubbed through a timeline sending a set of suit telemetry graphs running up and down while a recording played, alternating between bullet-time and super-speed as she examined some points closely and jumped past others.
"There's a definite snap in stopping motions. If we get that sorted out, then we should be able to reduce the wear on the joints during these bursts and increase initial grip strength," Ingrid said.
Cosima nodded and added, "Also, it puts a spike in her pulse reading. It looks like it's just an error caused by the motion causing compression on the sensor. What do you think is causing the snap?"
"I imagine it's just the way Ed's got the interface layered excessively. It's a decent hack, but we should be able to completely cut out the SPINE layer. If we're clever, we can merge her AI interpreter with the AIES itself; reduce the amount of abstraction and get the operation closer to bare metal."
Edtoto walked in, obviously tired from her trainig with Hasewega. The Taii had been running her like a dog since the initial fight, and after having repaired the cargo bay, was being put through hell by Hasewega to give her the entire Star Army training program, in as short a period of time. She kinda wished she could just download it to her brain at this point.
"Officer Edtoto, reporting to analasys" She grumbled, laying her head down on a table off to the side. "Is there a place I could get some water?" She asked, not looking up at all. She was getting better after the beating, but her eye was still all kinds of screwed up.
Cosima smiled at Edtoto sympathetically as she came in. "Blesi," she said and pointed at the sink. Ingrid stiffly went to the sink as Cosima walked over to Edtoto and said, "Hi, Edtoto. You're looking pretty tired today. Can I take another look at your eye?"
Edtoto leaned up, and opened her eye for the Medic to take a look at. What should be white was still bright red. "I probably shouldn't have just let the android punch me huh?" She asked, looking over at Ingrid. She quickly looked back to Cosima, frowning a little. "So... How is the analasys going? Have you been able to use the information my CAAI was able to drum up? I tried making it fast enough but I feel I may have over complicated the code."
"We've got a lot of information to look through yet, but we've spotted some problem areas. Blesi-hei has come up with ideas on how to improve the system," Cosima replied, looking over at Ingrid as she approached with a paper cup filled with water.
Ingrid offered the cup to Edtoto and said, quietly, "Yes, there are things we can adjust."
Edtoto took the water with a stiff thanks, thinking about the suit. "Well... I did notice there was a large amount of lag between the CAAI and the the Yamatai SPINE, but I'm not aquainted enough with the system to understand what the delay is being caused by. I feel my motions and the scripts I wrote to have the suit react to attacks without my direct intervention were a little sloppy" She explained, starting to take a drink.
Ingrid sighed and said, "Your CAAI can probably be cut right out. The SPINE layer can definitely go. We just need to update the AIES to understand your behaviours so it works with you." She added with a mutter, "Although I don't see how anything will understand you."
Cosima paused a second, obviously attending to a telepathic message. "Excuse me," she said, "I'm needed elsewhere right now. You two figure out what you're going to do about the computer interface, but Edtoto, I want to talk to you about the biosensors when I get back." She briskly made for the exit. Ingrid reached out to keep her from going, but the medic was on a mission and was out the door before Ingrid could do anything.
Edtoto went wide eyed at the comment about her CAAI, about to swallow her drink when Cosima stated she would be back. She forgot how to swallow, the water just dribbling down around her lower jaw. She snapped her muzzle shut and glared at Ingrid, standing up quickly. "I'm sorry? Have a hard time understanding me?! I'll have you know the code I put in to my CAAI solved that problem brilliantly, the SPINE and other programs between the AIES and my CAAI was causing all the interference" She snapped, her tail whipping a bit. "Not that I didn't catch that blatant comment against my language. I apologize I wasn't born a Neko or some such" She snapped.
"Solved it brilliantly? You call that mess 'brilliant?'" Ingrid scoffed. "Do you know how much control lag you're introducing by using your clumsy programming to talk to a SPINE that talks to the AIES? The AIES has a neural net! You just have to run a calibration on it!" She walked over to the hologram and pointed to an acceleration readout. "You're not going to be able to get a good grip on anything with this kind of noise in the responses." She folded her arms in a huff. "And what are you going on about your language for? You're practically a record player. And you don't even use your language on this ship."
"Run calibrations on it?! It's not even compatible with my species! Do you know how hard it was to operate it when I was first in it, even after Skade put me through my calibrations?! I wouldn't have lasted five seconds against the android without that AI!" She shouted, stepping forward threateningly. "Or are you just jealous that after being on this ship for almost as long as you have and I can already speak /both/ your languages?" She snapped. "I always use my language, your ears just aren't good enough to hear it!" She added. "Again, I'm sorry I wasn't born in a fucking vat!" She snarled.
"Do you know how you got that android's arm to come off? When it was making all those cosmetic improvements to your face, the force of its blows were all that caused the arm to seperate. It's a good thing your head is so hard, or it would never have had a solid enough leverage point." Ingrid jabbed her finger into Edtoto's chest. "Oh, and big deal you weren't born in a vat. Neither was I! Do you know what it's like to have to change bodies? Waking up in a new body and watching them recycle you? It's not all fun and games being genetically engineered, you know!"
"It ain't all fun and games being without genetic engineering! Living every damn day as if it can be your last because one slight fuck up will have you recycled without the ability to watch it happen. I die, it's over for me, just like it's over for everyone on my station who is dead or dying as we speak, just like it is over for my family who didn't stand a fucking chance!" She screamed, her voice pitching up sharply. She was shaking heavily, with every tendon in her leg tight enough to see. "This is all I get... and I spent most of it on a station that isn't even as big as a moon..." She whispered, looking down.
Ingrid lost the strength to keep the glower on her face. Her arms fell useless by her sides and she looked away from Edtoto's misery and fear. "Edtoto," she said, softly. She reached out and lifted Edtoto's face to look her in the eye. "Why did you hide from me? You kissed me and then you disappeared."
Edtoto tried to look away, only managing to look at another part of Ingrid as she asked a simple question. A question Edtoto had feared would be coming. "It's..." She started, taking a step back and crossig her arms. Her tail coiled around one of her legs, making her silouette as smal as possible. "Its because I'm weak ok..." She muttered softly, turning her head to the analytic. "I kissed you, and then I realized my arm needed to heal... Then I realized that even with my arm I'm weak" She continued, walking over to the holoscreen.
"I needed to get stronger, I needed to know I could fight against something that was so strong I wouldn't stand a chance normally" The lizard sighed. "I lost a lot... And I caused the crew a lot of problems. I don't want to lose my new family just as quickly as I lost my last, and I certainly don't want to lose yo..." She started, frowning again. "It doesn't matter. You're right... I should just let the crew do their jobs, and stay in my room where I belong..." She finished.
"Edtoto, you're willing to call us your family members, but you can't call us your crewmates? I guess you haven't noticed it, but you're a part of this crew. You can't just let the crew do their jobs and stay in your room at the same time. You have a job to do here too and you can't try to hide from it." She smiled and added, "You're calling yourself weak, but if there's one thing I know about people on this ship, it's that we're not weak. None of us. You know Tsukisaki-taii and Hoshitomo-shoi. You know what Inukai-hei did. Heck, even Skade and I can step up to the plate and bunt when it's our turn. You can't be a part of the Heartbreaker's crew and be weak. You're strong, Edtoto!"
Edtoto didn't have much to say to that. She was expected to do things by the captain, but that was so she didn't die on her next outing. These things they were doing was to stop her from dying. "As much as I may be on the ship, doing jobs, they are all in preparation for getting to my station. I'll likely be left there once you are done so you can all go back to you mission. I'm chasing a pipe dream by calling the crew my family, and I realized it as soon as I kissed you that you were likely the same. A pipe dream" She grumbled.
"Well, we have until then!" Ingrid exclaimed and she kissed her. Her arms wrapped around Edtoto and she pulled her close. The reaction was half expected, Edtoto grabbing onto her shoulders almost as if she were about to push Ingrid away but instead used them to help her jump up and wrap her legs around her waist, her tail flicking up so she could sit on the table. Her mane puffed out slightly as well as all the tines along her back and tail as she ran her clawed fingers through Ingrads hair, pullig back with a blink f shock.
"N-now what?" She asked, her heart beating quickly and her breathing heavy. Ingrid's face filled with lust and mischief, and she simply grabbed onto Edtoto's head and kissed her again. She ran her hands amongst Edtoto's tines, feeling their unique texture. Edtoto slid her hands down Ingrids body, taking the opportunity to undo her uniform jacket and slide her hands up Ingrids shirt.
Just then, the door hissed open. Edtoto and Ingrid's eyes both went wide and the two pushed away from each other. Medici-heisho stood in the doorway, her attention given fully to someone out of sight. "I'll talk to you about it later," she said. Ingrid adjusted her shirt and turned away from the entrance to zip up her jacket while Edtoto tried to groom her mane down into something resembling normal. It still looked a little rediculous with how big it made her head. Cosima walked into the room and greeted them, asking, "How are you two coming along?"
Ingrid turned around and snapped to attention, crisply responding, "We've made a lot of headway, Medici-heisho! We've worked through a lot of problems and while we're only just tentatively working on the solutions, we're really making strides."
"Yes! Progress! We solved some of the... Compatibility issues there were... With the AI's I mean. They should start to work much better once we impliment the solutions in a more intimate way" She said, looking straight at the ground afer realizing what she said. "With the AI's..." She repeated, horrible at lying under pressure like this.
Cosima gave the two a questioning look. "Blesi-hei, why is your hair such a mess?"
Ingrid's expression was that of a deer caught in headlights. "Well, uh," she stammered. "Well, some of these problems are real head scratchers, y'see!" she explained, scratching her head to demonstrate.
"Right!" Cosima beamed. "Well, I'm glad you two are making such great progress. Edtoto, are you ready to work on the biosensors?"
Edtoto would have blushed were it possible, looking away. "There's something Biological I'd like to work on" She muttered, standing up and trying to relax. "Yes. I don't know how well we will be able to calibrate the system without putting me through some rather rough experinces. That, and the fact I don't have many of the organs your system works on" She said, taking a very deep breath.
"And that's exactly what I want to work on," Cosima said. "We need to do a lot of work to make sensors so that we can know exactly how you're doing while on a mission. It's important so that we can get appropriate and immediate care for you in case you get injured."
"Okay, well, if you two are going to start on that I guess I should go and start trying to improve the programming," Ingrid said, her face a mix of relief and disappointment. "Edtoto, I'll talk to you as soon as you're done for the day, right?"
Edtoto just nodded at Medici before tilting her head at Ingrid. "Oh? Well yes, but I though maybe you would want to stay and help with the physical. Just so that you know what you're... Programming for" She said, walking over to the table. "I'm sure Medici wouldn't mind an extra set of hands" She added, looking at the ship medic with a slightly hopeful look.
Cosima started to reply, "Well, an extra set of hands can't--"
"No, I think you've got this, heisho!" Ingrid interrupted. She started towards the door while rambling, "I've got other things I need to do and I'm feeling a little bit distracted right now and I have some other projects that I need to be attending to and there's still---would you believe it---still messages coming in about the I'ee and the things that happened in Shekhinah and..." She continued her rambling as she walked out the door. She turned around, waved and said, "I'll talk to you later, heisho. Come around as soon as you're able, Edtoto. Goodbye!" And the door closed, leaving Cosima Medici alone with Edtoto.
Edtoto frowned, then turned back to Medici with a hopeful look. "Don't tell anyone?" She asked curiously, obviously knowig there was no real secret at this point.
Cosima gave her a sly grin and said, "Edtoto, there are none that need to be told. Let's get some biosensors working, shall we?"
