001 -- text

[exponentiate]

Two questions:
What are the expectations here?
What positions are available for those who can work?

[ an exit is what tobias really wants but a perfunctory search could have told him escape is impossible — and he scoured every relevant link, every post about the ship's life he could find.

he'll settle for knowing where the needs of the ship lie. ]

Comments

[cargojet]

[ Nathan has a much smaller suitcase sized collection of storage devices which make it look even more unimpressive, but it is the abridged version--the one without all the chatter about cats and pool parties. He tilts his head up at the question, briefly confused as to what Four is asking about. The paintings have become such a fixture now that he almost forgets they're there. ]

New York City, from a rooftop in Brooklyn. That's it after a nuclear explosion--one I prevented from happening.

[ Not bragging at all, just stating a fact. He looks at Four rather than at the painting. ]

[exponentiate]

[ new york city, another name to file away for later. but what he asks— ]

Nuclear?

[cargojet]

[ He tips his head. Okay that's weird--knows what a server is, but has no idea what nuclear is. Odd. ]

Radioactive weapons? Fusion? Nuclear power?

[exponentiate]

[ his expression remains the same, not showing any of his irritation at both his ignorance and nathan's assumptions that he should know. ]

Can't say I've heard of any.

[cargojet]

No, it's fine. It's just...I can't imagine a world without it. Safe from it. It almost makes me hesitant to fill you in on the details.

[ But he's not an unreasonable man, and memories don't keep when people are returned to their worlds. ]

Atomic power is what it says on the tin, harnessing the power in atoms themselves, splitting them apart. Atomic bombs use that power explosively, to devastating effect.

[exponentiate]

[ not safe from it. rather one possible future due to its use. pockets of civilization locked within cities with no knowledge of the outside world. they lack the knowledge too if there is an outside world left outside the outskirts. ]

Guess I should be glad we don't have it.

[ though perhaps an explosion like it explains the level of ruination of the city's abandoned sector. of many of those buildings, only the shell is left when they have not collapsed entirely. ]

[cargojet]

Your world is a better place for it.

[ Welp. They'll work it out at some point. Right now Nathan will go along thinking Four's from a world with flowers and puppies and rainbows on every street corner.

Well maybe not every street corner.

Alright, so you got any questions about the rest of this?

[exponentiate]

[ he glances at the lines of servers again. the various cooing devices draw his attention. ]

You mentioned everything was undermanned. You have any people who can do repairs and run maintenance?

[ tobias looks to nathan. ]

You pull people from Engineering for that?

[cargojet]

Can't afford to. All our maintenance work has to be done in house, which means we work for as long as we have to rather than taking shift patterns. We just can't be taking people away from Engineering--they've got their own problems to deal with.

Fortunately after two years here and overseeing the installation of most of this myself, I'm pretty good at keeping it running, and instructing whatever poor saps I can recruit into doing the same.

If you want to know how to really play with this technology, I'd be happy to offer you the same.

[exponentiate]

Even if I opt for Gunnery?

[ a joke. even if nathan hadn't been the one to repeat what hew already knew — the problem regarding understaffing has been a constant one — in such circumstances no one can afford to be stingy with resources. ]

[cargojet]

[ He doesn't see it as a joke, but he's good natured about it anyway. ]

Even if you opt for gunnery--or anything else for that matter. I can send a recommendation to Anderson and Teller if you want one.

[exponentiate]

[ a recommendation when they're yet no better than strangers. is that goodness or naïveté talking? ]

I'll save that for later. [ he adds evenly, ] I'm still trying to figure out which way is up. I haven't figured out yet where I could be of the most use.

[cargojet]

[ It's neither, really. The ship is desperate for volunteers, and all a recommendation does it give people a feeling that there's some sort of standards left, when obviously there haven't been for a long time. There is a ten year old girl working in Engineering, after all. It sounds good; sounds a lot better than 'please be on security, we'll take you even if you're a supervillain who hacks people to death'. ]

Of course. Getting the lay of the land first--that's wise. Well if you want to take a tour of any of the other departments, then.