💾 Archived View for tanelorn.city › ~vidak › old-blog › 2012-12-10-.gemini captured on 2020-11-07 at 01:46:06. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2020-09-24)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
---
generator: pandoc
title: '2012-12-10-'
viewport: 'width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes'
---
"Preliminary subroutines are coming up positive." "Group seven
variables?" "Fine." The technician, absorbed, rubbed the sweat on his
brow onto his shirt cuffs. "That's the manifold stability, then. Group
six?" Yvonne watched the co-technician push himself on his wheeled chair
to another terminal. "All coming up niner-niner." "Okay group six
relays." With this the co-technician produced a key from the lanyard
around his neck, and inserted it into a recessed area in the group six
terminal console. Having done this, he looked over at the technician.
The technician then revealed a key which he used in much the same way.
"The time is four-fifteen, group six relays are," the two operators
looked at each other. "Go, go, go." As they turned their keys, the
chamber of the Sealed Patron, which until now Yvonne had completely
forgotten, flushed through with what sounded like fierce pressured air.
When she turned around, the chamber was no longer glowing its peaceful
neon blue. Emitting an anxious luminous orange light, Yvonne got the
feeling the Patron was getting ready for something. It was like staring
into a lava lamp that had just been turned on - the plasmoidic substrate
in which the Patron resided was being charged with something, warming
the beautiful maiden up. "Fifteen seconds until we transfer to tertiary
carrier groups," the action was back in front of the consoles. "You got
those new protocols loaded in memory?" The co-technician failed to
respond for a moment, "yep." "Alright go." A switch was thrown, and
suddenly the mainframe sprung alive. Switches, lights and terminal
displays behaved autonomously, performing fearsome mechanical
Mexican-waves from left to right across the room. The two operators
appeared to only pay attention to a small display unit next to the
co-technician. After some moments text flooded its screen, and then it
began, with great violence, to flash green and black. "Well done - are
groups six and seven still in memory?" "No that's been done." "How are
we going for subspace DX?" "Still waiting on a ping - no wait, we're
good." "Whose retainer?" "Empress of," the co-technician scrolled
through some text on a terminal monitor, hammering the same key quickly.
"China." The technician took a sip of something from a green bottle.
"We're good for group five I think - is she up yet?" "Yeah she's up -
mind you, we've been a bit rude, keeping her out of the loop for so
long." Yvonne turned to look at the Patron. She floated peacefully
orange, silent. "It was those tertiary group protocols - she'd
understand." "So we'll go local?" "Yeah go live locally." The
co-technician reached for a phone receiver to his left. "Hello? Yeah
this is Legs. We're going live so I'd suggest moving to emulated
terminals just in case she plays with anyone's stuff. Yeah, emulated.
Ask... um... ask Sloan, she'd know. Yeah. No worries." When he hung up
the phone and looked at his watch for some time. "That should do it."
"Okay going live," a reach was made, a switch thrown. The technician
adjusted the volume on a small speaker on his terminal. "Afternoon,
Mary!" Good afternoon. "We're going for a special energy exchange and
we've got the Empress of China on the line," the technician nattered
jovially. "We were wondering if you've be happy to oblige." For a while
there was nothing but static. Then: I see. Yvonne continued to study the
Patron in her tank. No movement, apart from those caused by the
fluid-conditioning. "You probably want to know what's going on." Another
pause: Yes. .. "The whole thing is a circus act designed to start up a
machine with an enormous amount of what you might callcosmic limiting
static friction," the technician said, taking a swig from a
khaki-coloured bottle.