Awesome!!!
"If it wasn't Taylor, I'd put ten bucks on a cooked watermelon," Suzanne, another of the technicians giggled. Taylor grinned as she got up and picked the device off her workstation, then carried it over to the test stand.
"Hey, we still might get that," she laughed. "I'm not perfect."
No... you're not.
But you have yet to make a serious mistake where anyone can see it.
Fry the bejeezus out of a bunch of circuits, blow a hole in the root like Richard Seaton did his laboratory wall, and so on, but not endanger anyone.
"When we're sure it's safe, we can try the rabbit. And if we don't kill the bunny, someone can volunteer to have the first run on a human."
I picture that being the most widely known bunny in the world after it's the first critter in every one of Taylor's soon-to-be-human-rated inventions.
...please tell me that Taylor is going to adopt said bunny...
and pet it like a a bad James Bond villain.
Ahahahaha. That's great!
They had a short discussion before Amy closed her locker and twisted the dial a couple of time, looking somewhat less irritated, then both walked off as the five minute warning bell sounded.
Awww - friends.
"Just answering a question from a friend," Taylor replied equally quietly. "The phone blocking isn't perfect if you sit in the right place."
Ahem. Like, you know, anywhere within 32.5 parsecs.
Though "It's got an awesome antenna, which helps a lot" is another good excuse for chunky phones.
I kind of want to know what QA asked, since it was a question while she was right next to upset Shaper host.
Amy as her lab partner was tending the three bunsen burners that were heating sections of the synthesis apparatus. "And we need to turn that one down a little, it's supposed to be at two hundred and six degrees centigrade." She pointed. Amy adjusted the gas flow very slightly and both watched as the thermometer sticking out of the top of the reflux condenser dropped a couple of degrees.
Friends AND lab partners!
"How many would you like?" Brendan asked gravely. "Obviously this isn't the largest one that can be made, but at a few thousand yottaflops, it should still be useful, don't you agree?"
"Uhhh... err... discretionary budget... call it a billion apiece... can we order three right now? We'll go to Congress tomorrow for more funding."
"I have got to build some way of talking to you guys," she said quietly, returning to her current project. "We could learn so much by comparing notes..."
Ahahahaha.
Soon! Taylor's going to personally make humanity respected in the greater subspace-capable community.
A few pinpoints of eldritch light glowed, scattered around the tiny device, and in some cases deep inside. Right in the middle a tiny section was weirdly out of focus, looking somehow almost like an infinitely deep hole combined with a fun house mirror and seen through a lens that wasn't set up properly.
Well. That's not ominous.
A new display she'd added to the constantly growing collection of esoteric hardware, something that although it was fully documented probably no one on the planet other than her had a chance of understanding without twenty year's worth of study, blinked a few complex symbols. She laughed a little. "Yeah, me too. Nice one, you're really learning. OK, then..."
QA's expressing emotional excitement, I think? That's my best guess. Probably combined with a joke about energy fields bigger than your primary processing node
.
When she checked with the mirror there was no visible trace of the device stuck to her head.
Frightening.
After several seconds of silence, Taylor said in a faint, awed voice, "Oh, my god, it's full of data..."
Great reference.
I gather that thing Taylor stuck to her head was a better interface to QA?
I bet it's a subspace communication device that also reads and writes direct to Taylor's brain.
That it communicates with QA is a given, with her comment.
That it ONLY communicates with QA would be unbelievable - it's almost certainly a neural interface not only to QA, but also to all her other gadgets, which means she's got, for all intents and purposes, mental control of what is or will soon be sensors, parahuman detectors, parahuman jammers, gravity machines (read: ships and missiles), radios to communicate with various levels of the United States Government, invisibility devices, and so on.
Slamming the front door behind her hard enough to crack the glass in the half-moon window at the top, Amy stormed off down the front walkway to the road. "Amelia Dallon, you come back here right now!" a furious voice shouted as the door opened once more almost as hard.
"No!" she yelled back. "I can't take it any more! You just won't shut up! Leave me alone for once!"
And this is what the local protective detail definitely heard.
"Away. I don't know, just… away. I need some space or..."
More space you need?
To Gravtec should you go!
And I've seen how you were that time when you practically passed out. I don't want that to happen again and I'm glad you're listening to me and the people at the hospital about being a little more… sane… about all the healing.
Very nice sister moment.
a couple of cyclists passing them on one of the paths that criss-crossed the place
Security team.
A red-headed woman with sharp features nodded to the two girls as she moved slightly out of the way, jogging along in a manner that showed she was pretty fit.
Lead security specialist checking up on stress-ed out bio-parahuman in person.
Vicky looked around. "There's something just a little weird about this neighborhood," she commented, peering at one of the houses.
Vicky really is pretty perceptive. That weird feeling you get, Vicky? It's because 98% of the neighborhood are incredibly dangerous humans. The remaining 2% are trained guard animals.
"Aha! I knew it! Parahumans on the Porch! It never fails!"
Ahahahaha. Security detail let her know, and her direct-brain-interface parahuman sensors let her know, and QA probably let her know too.
Plus the porch camera.
"Almost any problem can be fixed if you have enough data and think hard," Taylor assured her
Yes, because if you enough data and think 'hard', you also get...
"How are you going to fix that?" Amy asked, slumped in the chair and finishing off the last sandwich.
... the entire resources of the United States Government to play with.
"Hi. It's me. Code Xray Tango Alpha Four. Yes. Thanks."
Ten words.
That's it.
"This is not a matter that requires a warrant, ma'am. May we come in? I can explain once we're not standing on your doorstep."
Hmmmm....
Let's see.
I'm going to guess expedited security screening for Top Secret clearance for Amy Dallon (and maybe possibly Vicky Dallon), as required by the Gravtec jobs currently on offer.
Alternately, they're just going to mentioned that Amy was never adopted, and the Dallons crossed state lines with her on their 2006 vacation, then offer to make it, and Amy, all go away... if Carol plays ball.
Amy could absolutely be a huge benefit - she can put a hand on the watermelon and tell if anything's different. She can guide the super-MRI team to things they should be adding contrast/sharpness to but aren't. She can be a huge help in animal and human safety trials - and, honestly, expediting the MRI and other Gravtec-related projects could help save more lives than anything else she could do.
And so on. Lots of possibilities for plants that generate more oxygen, scrub the air, etc.
Stage 2+ could also involve emancipating Amy, giving her pick of jobs from Gravtec and the FDA, FBI, ATF, HHS, and so on (giving her choice seems very very important).
That Taylor used a code phrase right in front of them after putting in "too many digits" - she's going to bring them in fairly deep.
