Morning on Ake was a wobbly-aired, arid time of day. Just like lunch time, afternoon, mid-afternoon, and early evening were. The sun beat down with that by now well-known intensity upon the terraforming camp as Franklin emerged after the second ozone dump into the hot air with his hat and duster, awaiting the beginning of a workday in the shade from the treacherous heat. Grateful as the old man was to get out of the heat, he was already having trouble getting Don The Donkey out of his pen and up to the lakeside to drink some water.
"C'mon, y' old nag." He grunted, tugging on the reins of the animal which was practically letting the older man drag its hooves through the sand.
In the bay of Sister Sara, Niel and Yori were putting the finishing touches on a device. Having stayed up through the night (Though Niel occasionally fell asleep for a few minutes while Yori was distracted by Sylph with a schematic or two), they'd created a 'lockbox' or sorts. Finding that Sylvia's hacking attempts had made ingress through the preset maintenance routines set up in the armor, and that such routines were necessary for the maintenance of the armors-- a simple program was created to disallow maintenance unless a certain, almost insignificant component were removed from the power circuit. This was a tiny fuse that was inserted inside the small of the armor's back and routed through it's central processor; a tiny fuse which effected little except the total amperage sent to a single tiny sensor in the diagnostics bus of-- Oh, you get it.
In Alice's quarters above the medbay in the Elijah, she found herself awakened to alarms, the ones she'd set the previous night to keep her updated on her patient's statuses. The one who'd remained in a coma until this point was suddenly in very critical condition. Before she could even reach the door on her way down, the alarms fell silent again. The patient had died.
Daziel emerged into the bay of Sister Sara looking as chipper as he normally did. If everything went according to plan today, he told himself, the course of the next few days would ensure the survival of the unfortunate Terraforming Team. The executive greeted Yori and Niel with a bright smile as he settled a steaming mug of black coffee on either side of them as Sylphie dropped the tiny light she was holding for Niel and zipped up to mount Daziel's shoulder, then rested his arms on their shoulders.
"Good morning, darlings." He told them, "I see you've been busy little beavers all night long. What news of your products?"
"C'mon, y' old nag." He grunted, tugging on the reins of the animal which was practically letting the older man drag its hooves through the sand.
In the bay of Sister Sara, Niel and Yori were putting the finishing touches on a device. Having stayed up through the night (Though Niel occasionally fell asleep for a few minutes while Yori was distracted by Sylph with a schematic or two), they'd created a 'lockbox' or sorts. Finding that Sylvia's hacking attempts had made ingress through the preset maintenance routines set up in the armor, and that such routines were necessary for the maintenance of the armors-- a simple program was created to disallow maintenance unless a certain, almost insignificant component were removed from the power circuit. This was a tiny fuse that was inserted inside the small of the armor's back and routed through it's central processor; a tiny fuse which effected little except the total amperage sent to a single tiny sensor in the diagnostics bus of-- Oh, you get it.
In Alice's quarters above the medbay in the Elijah, she found herself awakened to alarms, the ones she'd set the previous night to keep her updated on her patient's statuses. The one who'd remained in a coma until this point was suddenly in very critical condition. Before she could even reach the door on her way down, the alarms fell silent again. The patient had died.
Daziel emerged into the bay of Sister Sara looking as chipper as he normally did. If everything went according to plan today, he told himself, the course of the next few days would ensure the survival of the unfortunate Terraforming Team. The executive greeted Yori and Niel with a bright smile as he settled a steaming mug of black coffee on either side of them as Sylphie dropped the tiny light she was holding for Niel and zipped up to mount Daziel's shoulder, then rested his arms on their shoulders.
"Good morning, darlings." He told them, "I see you've been busy little beavers all night long. What news of your products?"
