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Ace Dreamer

Technology Exchange - 22/Jul/2012
December 2010, Dublin.
Contractual agreements.  NDAs.  Promises.  Hand shakes.  Past a certain point you just had to trust people.
O'Neill Station really needed a Body Builder.  If one of the AI Crew was badly injured then the easiest thing was to produce them a new body.  But, the Body Builder was the basis of Arthur's multi-million dollar business.  How could they be trusted with one?
Some sort of exchange was required.  They sat down with their lawyers and engineers.  Surprisingly, it went quite well.  The fact that one side was Sarah and Kelly, and the other was Janet and her family lawyers helped.  Kevin Wright chairing and facilitating had a lot to do with it.
The Hollywood Machine was obviously not on the table.  Both sides agreed that. It was too fundamental to the operation of the station.  So, it came down to various of Kelly's creations.  And, whether they could be reverse-engineered from Steam Punk to something more generally acceptable.  Sarah agreed Kelly had some rights as to their disposition.
Kelly suggested her self-propelled "crash cart".  This was generally accepted as a good idea, but the medical profession was naturally conservative, and something as obviously handwavium-based was tricky.  Similar the rest of her medical gadgets.  The farming tools might be of interest, to other people with bio domes, but this was currently a bit of a limited market.
Building a non-camouflaged version of Kelly's "Mirror Spiders", with something that looked a lot more like conventional hard tech, looked attractive.  They could be sold for station maintenance.  "Work Spiders" sounded a usable name, after they turned down "Wright Spiders".  Looked like a good long-term project.
Eventually, they decided there was only one choice.  Kelly's "Uniform Machine". In some respects this was comparable to the Body Builder, in that it made uniforms that were high-quality, hard-wearing, and, most important, handwavium-free.  Oh, and they were custom-fitted spacesuits.  Anyone could wave-up a space suit, but these were comfortable day-to-day wear.  Kelly was pretty sure they could be tweaked to have different colours, and, probably even to fit men.
There was a digression into fashion, but it was agreed that a basic standard dull-grey model would sell well for $2k - bright orange was turned down; pink firmly rejected.  Ones customised for a particular organisation, with places to attach rank markings, for $3k.  And, top-of-the-line individually customised ones for $5k.  If it was made clear these were subsidising the basic ones they could probably get away with this.
Maybe they could even make them for vacuum sports teams?  Kelly said she'd experimented on the suits, and couldn't find any suitable dye, or bleach, that didn't also damage their space-worthiness.  "Wright Suits".
It'd been a long meeting, but everyone was reasonably satisfied.  Kelly needed to get them a Uniform Machine to work on.  Arthur needed to build or find a spare Body Builder, and agree what anti-tamper precautions went with it.  Janet agreed, as an aside, to look around for some better waved medical equipment for Kelly.  Something that could induce safe suspension without risking a biomod would be good.
They very carefully didn't discuss the elephant in the room.  Alice.  Janet and Kevin were pretty sure that Kelly (and hence Sarah) knew Alice was Faster-Than-Light communications technology, and, there was a good chance they knew it would work off Earth.  There were people who'd literally kill for that.  And, probably everyone in the room knew it.
Janet had worked on the problem.  The best she could come up with was the size of two bath tubs, weighed half-a-ton, drank power like a fish, and could only handle a single data stream.  Admittedly that was terabits per second, and had an estimated pseudo velocity of tens of kilo-lights.  And neither end had to be at a fixed location.
Janet started to talk about causality light-cone considerations, phase-space configuration issues and virtual spectra, but while she could see Kelly's bright encouraging expression, other eyes were glazing over.  She quickly switched-back to matters of general interest.
So far she could only manage about 90% up-time, but was still fighting the prototypes into accepting substitutes for thermionic valves, and was pretty sure she could hit 99%.  Assuming 10k hours per year, that was still about four days per year downtime, but, with any luck she'd get it up to 99.9%, about ten hours per year.
The others were impressed.  Kevin Wright particularly so.  Janet explained she'd been stealing ideas from all over science fiction, and this was just one that looked to work.  She suggested they sell the 1.1 version (0.1% downtime) for off-planet use.  Say, for a $100k each, giving them about the same profit margin as the robot frames.
Sarah said she'd need to check, but she was pretty sure they'd want to buy one. Or, more sensibly at least two, the other end for their Australian offices.  She suggested Janet prepare for the stock markets to descend on her, waving their cheque books.  Micro seconds counted to them.  And, to tie them up with non-resale agreements, for the 'satellite' data link; call it a round $500k for all the bits.
It looked like "Wright Now Telecom" was going to be formed...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Ace Dreamer

META "Technology Exchange"

A new chapter of 'Arthur'. Just negotiations at a meeting. Move along, nothing of interest here. [grin]

Bits of this are certainly inspired by discussions on the Forum.

This comes after "Retrospectroscope", the last story in the previous chapter, and before "Foreign Investment".
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Actually, the Sammies would be very interested in bright orange spacesuits - they'd work well in identifying people taking part in Search and Rescue operations. But that's a niche market.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Ace Dreamer

robkelk Wrote:Actually, the Sammies would be very interested in bright orange spacesuits - they'd work well in identifying people taking part in Search and Rescue operations. But that's a niche market.
I'm pretty sure something could be arranged.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Bright Orange Spacesuits with either fukus and bows or tux lapels and top hats.

But that comes without saying.

Ace Dreamer

Rakhasa Wrote:Bright Orange Spacesuits with either fukus and bows or tux lapels and top hats.

But that comes without saying.
Bright orange, yes, fukus, bows or tux lapels, maybe, top hats on top of nearly invisible transprent helmets, a bit more tricky. [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
The Sammies are more "Age of Sail" than "Magical Girl" - the bows and top hats are part of the dress uniform, not the duty uniform.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Ace Dreamer

robkelk Wrote:The Sammies are more "Age of Sail" than "Magical Girl" - the bows and top hats are part of the dress uniform, not the duty uniform.
I had a look, without success; are there illustrations in the Fenwiki of the duty and dress uniforms?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Not yet, no.

Edit: Duty uniform illustration is now on the Sammies page.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Ace Dreamer

Any suggestions of where to gather the information needed to do illustrations?

I had a bit of trouble figuring-out where "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon" costumes ended, and "Age of Sail" stuff might have an impact.

Are most of the people in active service with the 'Sammies' biomods (via their special handwavium)? So, strong and athletic and generally female? With the odd strong and athletic tuxedo-clad male, mostly in a supporting role?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
That is a darn good question Art... err... Ace.

Rob?
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-

NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
Hmmmmm...

I started writing a reply, then I realized it would be a long one, and would derail this thread. So I'll start a new thread within an hour or two, once I have something coherent to post...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Ah - Star Ranger4 meant the uniforms, not the biomods. Well, the biomod digression is still a useful discussion.

Duty uniforms for the Sammies are no-nonsense, since they're often called upon to take part in search-and-rescue missions. The "Emma Peel" catsuit, in various colours, is popular; it's iconic of the "Action Girls" and easy to wear under a spacesuit (if it isn't the spacesuit in and of itself).

Dress uniforms tend toward the seifuku or tuxedo, but (much like 18th- and 19th-century England) individual units have their own uniforms, so there are a few ships out there where the crew wear something out of a Horatio Hornblower movie when being presented to Serenity I. There are also a few squads where the dress uniform is something out of the Sailor Moon movies (sleeveless, strapless, full-length dresses), or Kim Possible, or Card Captor Sakura...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Ace Dreamer

robkelk Wrote:Ah - Star Ranger4 meant the uniforms, not the biomods. Well, the biomod digression is still a useful discussion.

Duty uniforms for the Sammies are no-nonsense, since they're often called upon to take part in search-and-rescue missions. The "Emma Peel" catsuit, in various colours, is popular; it's iconic of the "Action Girls" and easy to wear under a spacesuit (if it isn't the spacesuit in and of itself).

Dress uniforms tend toward the seifuku or tuxedo, but (much like 18th- and 19th-century England) individual units have their own uniforms, so there are a few ships out there where the crew wear something out of a Horatio Hornblower movie when being presented to Serenity I. There are also a few squads where the dress uniform is something out of the Sailor Moon movies (sleeveless, strapless, full-length dresses), or Kim Possible, or Card Captor Sakura...
Cat suits or jump suits sound quite practical, orange if required.  I think dress uniforms might each need to be custom made.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Given that, I think Wright Suits in IS Orange are probobly the most common duty uniform then; because then your ready for emergency decompression, etc...
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-

NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

Ace Dreamer

Star Ranger4 Wrote:Given that, I think Wright Suits in IS Orange are probably the most common duty uniform then; because then your ready for emergency decompression, etc...
If people want to buy them, I'm sure they could be provided. [grin]
For personal use, as opposed to institutional, which it's hoped to be the largest market, making orange the standard colour looked like an immediate marketing failure.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

HRogge

Ace Dreamer

HRogge Wrote:Orange jump suits? Like this? Wink

http://encrypted.google.com/search?q=o ... 0QWXo4HoCw
More like this, I think. [grin]
http://encrypted.google.com/search?q=o ... 80&bih=922
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Which is why I said "cat suit," not "jump suit."

Besides, jump suits are too loose to conveniently wear under a pressure suit. (That's why nobody working at Stellvia wears them, even if they would make sense in certain situations.)

Edit: This is what I had envisioned - I present to you Trainee Senshi Betsy Hounslow, just before she was assigned to the Surprise (thus explaining why she doesn't have a patch on her shoulder) and looking forward to her upcoming seventeenth birthday.

[Image: 593px-Betsy_Hounslow.png]
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Ace Dreamer

robkelk Wrote:Which is why I said "cat suit," not "jump suit."

Besides, jump suits are too loose to conveniently wear under a pressure suit. (That's why nobody working at Stellvia wears them, even if they would make sense in certain situations.)
I'd agree with that.  Even if the jump suit is the space suit, it's got a few too many flappy bits on it.  A hard tech pressure suit is likely to be reasonably tight fitting.  Not all pressure suits have force fields and holo fancy bits...
Heinlein did point out the advantage of a force field helmet, though...
robkelk Wrote:Edit: This is what I had envisioned - I present to you Trainee Senshi Betsy Hounslow, just before she was assigned to the Surprise (thus explaining why she doesn't have a patch on her shoulder) and looking forward to her upcoming seventeenth birthday.
Hmm.  If she was wearing a Wright Suit I think she'd need some sort of shoulder pads for the emergency air, the neck part would need to be thicker so the helmet could inflate from that, and she'd need something for the tool belt to hook into, though, that might be in the small of the back.
Having nanotech would make life so much easier...
Thanks for the illustration!
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind