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RP: Section 6 When in USO do as the Thorns do

Jack Pine

Well-Known Member
Jack had spent an all nighter looking over the new status reports and designs that had been circulating through the various departments of Section 6. It was now fairly early in the morning, and he was pasted out asleep with his head on his desk, a datapad like the many others spread across his desk in his hand still. On the open door to the office were the text: Jack Pine - Director, Commander of Saber etched in black on a metal plate bolted to the metal door. The office itself was rather spartan other that a few firearms, a single framed photo of his family, a small liquor cabinet, a couple chairs in front of the wood desk similar to the wood paneling of the walls, and Jack's large chair he currently occupied. The building was rather empty this early in the morning, but was still accessible.

@HarperMadi
 
Thorn hadn't left nor slept. Once someone had put a needle full of glucose saline solution in her arm and shoved a ration bar down her throat, she'd started feeling better, and immediately bounced off to get right to work.

A quick thank you had been given to Jack and the medic, and she'd reported for duty with a bright and chipper smile. Granted, her small stature and childish demeanor didn't lend her much credence, so she was set to keeping workbenches tidy, which she quickly abandoned in favor of assembling some of the prototypes.

It took a bit, but the technicians and engineers had warmed up to her a bit and she'd managed to find herself working at a laser sintering station churning out parts for... Something. She didn't exactly know yet.
 
Although he was still spending a good amount of time at Vier's, Amit was always able to return home. Though the child found himself wandering a place he hadn't been to before. Once in a while, a few staff members would question the child and he'd reply honestly. He was looking for Izzy and at the most, looking for Jack. They often told him that Izzy wasn't in the building to their knowledge but Jack was. So the lad went along down the hallways. In all honesty, he didn't like how this place looked. It was a bit creepy and adding onto it that Amit hadn't slept too grand last night..eh, not a good combo.

The boy wouldn't find himself at Jack's office, oh no. He found himself at a door that was cracked open slightly and when he pushed it open, he saw a woman there. Was that a freaky laser?

"Excuse me..." Amit called to the woman, adjusting his grip on the large peach cat plushie in his arms. "This buildings a maze, where am I?"
 
Laser sintering was a fairly simple additive manufacturing process, by which thin layers of metal powder would be layed down before being flash welded together by a laser, and as Thorn reached into the now complete bin to rip her part free a small voice startled her.

"It's kind of early in the morning, isn't it?" She looked over to the child and almost dropped a reaction chamber for a small aerospike engine from her hands. Despite being younger, the child was actually taller than she was, and she cocked her eyebrow. "Not exactly sure what room I'm in, myself."
 
"Yes..." Amit replied, giving a small shrug. "Can't sleep."

It did surprise him that he was taller than one of the adults, at least he assumed this was one of the adults. Didn't matter honestly. He tilted his head confused at her words though.

"How do you not know what room your in if you're working on something?" Amit questioned confused.
 
"I woke up in that little office over there. I think I'm in the main lab." Thorn shrugged, setting her part down on the table and raising a lever to empty the powder away. "I think Cap'n Jack's conked out over there. I was gonna wake him up as soon as coffee was done. My name's Thorn Ironhart. I'm new, here."
 
"Capn Jack?" Amit repeated, looking more confused. "OH! You mean Jackass."

When you had a non-chalant type personality added with lack of sleep...yeah. Things could go downhill pretty quickly.

"I was actually looking for him. I'm Amit and this is Companion." Amit introduced, showing her the long cat plushie.
 
"He looks a sweetie!" Thorn leaned forward, looking the plushie cat in the eyes, before smiling and looking back up to the child. "Here, coffee's done. Let's go wake him up!"

Thorn reached over and pressed a button, silencing the high pitched beep that a several hundred year old technology used to indicate its completeness. Picking up the coffee pot, she marched over to Jack's office, her boot delivered a series of powerful thumps to the corner. "I brought coffee!"
 
Amit gave a smile, though his grin grew bigger at the mention of waking up Jack. Oh yes, this'll be fun!!

"yes!" Amit said gleefully, following after her.

There he was, sitting there at their desk asleep. Amit let Thorn go first, stomping her way and shouting out. Amit rushed into the doorway and over to Jack's desk.

"AWAKEN OLD ONE!!" Amit shouted, flailing COmpanion around as if they were joining in too.
 
Jack's instincts kicked in at the sudden disturbance, leading him to pull his pistol from the holster attached to the underside of the desk to aim it at the door after racking the slide with a fluid motion. When he realized who it was he dropped his head to the desk as his hand holding the gun drooped.

"Dammit, don't do that. I am not someone you should startle awake. I could have shot one of you! Son, what are you doing here, and Thorn why are you here still. I thought you would still be recovering." He said with his face still on the desk as he dropped the mag and cleared the slide before setting it on the desk, the chambered round flung to the back corner of the office.

"I went through too much of that shit as a kid. Having to sleep with a gun just so no one would stab me in my sleep." Jack said finally getting out of the chair and walking to the small liquor cabinet.
 
"I brought coffee." Thorn didn't seem disturbed by having a pistol pointed at her, and set the carafe on the desk. "One of the technicians was running a few days behind, so I told him I'd handle it and finished his prototype while he went off to his quarters. Here's the 3-D model and the prototype's sitting out there, ready for final assembly and testing. Morning shift's here in an hour and I've been requested in a field test of a new inertial damper. Yes, you're damn right I move fast, and I'm already up to speed on the projects in the rapid prototype corner. Though I think the inertial damper test is just their excuse to hit me with a truck."
 
Amit though jumped at the sight of the gun, he cringed down a bit and held onto Companion. The odd metal collar on his neck flashed but made no sound. He had merely been startled, so his fear went away faster than if he was freaking out. How had Thorn not been bothered by that?

"That's a mouthful." Amit commented to Thorn's words. "Me? Well...I..."

As much as he couldn't sleep, he didn't want to admit it. In all honesty, he knew he should admit it. But he didn't want to. It would seem stupid to be scared of sleeping due to what happened. Now it wasn't a every night thing, children get nightmares that cause em to not want to go to sleep. And he honestly didn't want to go to sleep.

"I was bored, wanted to see what you were doing." Amit lied as he watched Jack go to the cabinet. "Ain't it super early for that?"
 
Jack was again slightly miffed from her lack of a reaction, "What warzone did you go to. I've met few other people that don't react to loaded guns pointed in their face. I'm used to it. Most of my childhood was running the streets with a gun in hand and under my pillow."

"As for drinking, it helps me forget shit. Don't every join the nep military." Jack replied to Amit in a somewhat groggy manner as the adrenaline began to wear off.
 
"Noted." Thorn refused to answer Jack's question, responding only with a bright smile. "Orders, sir?"

She hoped he wouldn't put her on a meal log as she pulled a ration bar from her pocket and munched quietly. "The kid couldn't sleep."
 
"But isn't it bad for you if you do it too much?" Amit asked.

Course the boy glanced toward Thorn when she seemed to correct him. Oh yeah, he had mentioned that he couldn't sleep to her hadn't he? Crap. Maybe Jackass wouldn't notice?
 
Jack brought a bottle of bourbon back to his desk, and sat down to rub his temples, "I believe Thorn just sold you out? So what is it that's haunting your nightmares?"

Jack poured a cup of coffee, and added some of the bourbon to it before continuing, "Thorn unless you signed up for Saber while I slept, I'm not your CO. I don't order you, I just make sure we stay up and running, as well as keep track of progress. By the way, we need to find you your own work space. Jesus I need an actual meal."

He paused for a moment after getting up as the last sentence he spoke brought a thought to his mind.

"Does your mother know you left the house? She should still be sleeping at home, and on maternity leave. If she finds out you left the house by yourself, she will be worried sick.", Jack said quickly picking up his personal datapad, the casing black and red. Jack was wearing a black tank top, black jeans, a utility belt, and his usual combat boots.

"We'll just say I brought you to work. Now let's go look for that work space." Jack said grabbing a leather jacket that was also black, but with a red stripe down the left breast.
 
"Work space? Your people have me bouncing around six different rapid prototyping stations like a damn intern!" Thorn huffed, breezing into the middle of the lab "And I ain't willing to have a flag slapped on my ship. Now, I've got a microfusion bottle with stability issues that I need to smack with a the good ol' ladie's touch."

She turned her back and stalked off towards an angrily glowing reactor that was starting to try to vibrate free of its casing, before hooking up a power tap and a few sensors before she started carefully adjusting a few cranks on the outside. She could still listen, and was logging everything she saw for later use. But for now, it would seem that she was too busy to follow Jack on the hunt for a proper station.
 
"One the ship is your property, not the USO's. And two the work space is so you can do your own research. Just turn in a requisition form and we'll stock the space with whatever you need as well as renovate the space. More than half the personnel here don't even get that. I can tell your highly educated and skilled and I need people like that if we're going to turn this dust ball into a home. So don't be the intern, be head of the department. Advanced R&D doesn't have one." Jack said casually following the woman.

"Also I may have failed to mention that I remove the regulator from that reactor. It's actually not supposed to be active." Jack added as he remembered taking the part for a personal project.
 
A final twist of an injector valve and the reactor stopped cold, still glowing as the power coming off of it spiked and plateaued, and Thorn smiled gently "No regulator? Huh. Looks like this one just wanted a gentle caress."

The prospect of working as a head of department was intriguing. Granted, her ship would be mothballed for the time being and any stellar prospecting contracts cancelled. There was also going to be no Asteria trip this year. She found herself bored with the very concept of the utopian Yamatai, save for figuring out how they maintained that supposed utopia and giving aspects of that in new documentation. But her thoughts ran suddenly very still as she realized the bonuses of working as head of an advanced research and development division. Sitting down at the workbench, she turned to Jack with a pout. "Do I have to wear a lab coat?"

That was meant as a joke, indicating she wanted the job, but it was almost like she remembered to be afraid. Like a reflex kicked in and she was suddenly submissive and inferior. "I mean, you only just met me, I guarantee you haven't cracked the encryption on the Eye, and frankly, why would you want a former slave with no formal education as a research head?"
 
Amit went quiet, just standing there looking a bit uneasy. Indeed, he had just been sold out. Though things quickly went by quickly as Amit watched the two adults converse back and forth. Doing random things; to him they were. Course they both soon left the room and honestly, Amit wasn't sure if he should follow after them. Looking at Companion, he pondered on what to do. As if the plushie would give him some sort of answer and in the end, he ended up following the two.

"No. She didn't know." Amit replied when he caught up with the two.
 
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