Room 424 [afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

Ben hadn't really had much of a chance to talk to his dad that week: lessons with his grandfather (who was still kicking his butt with a lightsaber without moving. It was annoying), a date with Tahiri (which he would definitely be doing again. Yes.), classes, clubs, stopping in on his weekly trips to bother Ender, Kaylee, and Aravis...for a not-so-social person, he had managed to fill up his schedule pretty well.

But he'd promised Tahiri that he would ask his dad about starting a dance troupe--mostly to see if he could get Luke to crack a smile--and so he was lounging on his bed with his comlink, pretty happy for the first time in a while.

Naturally, that couldn't last.

When he clicked his comm shut a few minutes later, he'd not only forgotten to ask about the dance troupe, he'd learned that Centerpoint Station had been fired again, Jacen had kidnapped Tenel Ka's daughter for use as a bargaining chip (because that had worked so well with the Jedi), and Jaina was on the trail of Alema, who Luke was still convinced had murdered Mara.

"Kriffing hell," Ben muttered to himself before settling down on the floor to build something loud and complicated.

Mmm. Repression.

[OOC: Door closed, but he's loud enough to be heard in the hall...]

Comments

[endsthegame]

"You're looking a little pasty," Ender pointed out, "Might take more stretches than you'd like."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not pasty," Ben said with a frown. "I'm a redhead."

[endsthegame]

"Can't blame your hair for all of your flaws," Ender said, sternly, and reached over to poke Ben's project. Mostly to test the material.

[momslilassassin]

"It's nothing all that special," Ben said. "At least, not yet. Once the outer casings go on, it'll need to hold up to the vacuum of space."

[endsthegame]

"What are its basic functions?" Ender asked, "You're going to have to let me in on the materials."

[momslilassassin]

"It's a back-up for the nav computer," Ben explained. "It coordinates jumps in hyperspace, performs maintenance on the ship while you're in combat, which is totally convenient. It basically does everything but fly for the pilot."

[endsthegame]

"So it's an AI," Ender noted, poking at it again. "Attached to a ship. Good company."

[momslilassassin]

"Depends on the personality it develops, but generally, yes," Ben said. "It gives you someone to talk to in hyperspace when the comms are out between ships."

[endsthegame]

"A little like JARVIS," he continued, "Do they have a voice, though?"

Not that Ender was gathering information for his satellite or any later misadventures with an AI.

[momslilassassin]

"When they aren't plugged into a snubfighter, it's mostly beeps and whistles," Ben said. "When they're connected to the ship, they communicate through the comm--words on a screen. It wouldn't be that helpful for a pilot to having to figure out what series of beeps means 'oh, your landing gear's been shot off.'"

[endsthegame]

"Maybe in a thousand years, all we'll communicate in is beeps and whistles."

[momslilassassin]

"That would be tremendously annoying," Ben declared with a smile.

[endsthegame]

"Only if we time-travelled," he pointed out, "If we were used to it, we wouldn't know any better, and the bleepers would rule the universe."

All the while, he was scrutinizing Ben's project, trying to make out where what connection went with his admittedly still-improving knowledge.

[momslilassassin]

"And we wouldn't need the translator droids any more. Threepio would be crushed," Ben replied, then tilted his head at Ender. "Figuring out what I'm doing?"

[endsthegame]

"It might be useful," he said, off-handedly, "Satellites don't build themselves in a day. No more trouble with Stark?"

[momslilassassin]

"Not so far," Ben said. "What's the satellite going to do? Other than float in space."

[endsthegame]

"Float in space," Ender repeated, "He wasn't very specific, but I'm not surprised."

It'd probably give out radio signals, amongst other things, but those were details like the back door he built into Stark Industries major computer servers.

[momslilassassin]

"Me either, really," Ben said with a tiny smile. "He didn't strike me as the type to tell anything he didn't have to."

[endsthegame]

"He says a lot more than he thinks he is," Ender replied, "But that's not unusual."

He let his fingers run across a wire.

[momslilassassin]

"That's because you're just creepy observant," Ben said, voice teasing. "That'll end up in the nav computer," he said, pointing at the wire. "I haven't programmed that yet."

[endsthegame]

"Not creepy," he said, following the wire along to where it connected. "Just useful. I think I've seen schematics of ships where something like this could fit."

[momslilassassin]

"For whose universe?" Ben asked casually.

[endsthegame]

"Mine," he replied. "We never really took droids into account. Stupid mistake, that."

[momslilassassin]

"A bit of an oversight, yeah," Ben said. "Unless you already had them take over or something. People get twitchy about that."

[endsthegame]

"No take-overs, as far as I know," he said, "But our ships have always just held people."