Stark Industries, Thursday

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William had thought to get some final tweaks done on the drone he'd been working on in class over the last few weeks, now that he could fiddle with it without worrying about a deadline.

That was until he felt something bump against his shoe. Glancing down with a frown at whatever had interrupted him, his eyes widened in surprise. Was that... a baby porcupine?

No, closer examination revealed that it was, in fact, a hedgehog.

"I don't think the floor is the safest of places for you to be," William murmured, leaning over to pick the little guy up. Cupping him in one hand, he rooted around until he found an empty plastic storage container. Looked like he'd be spending his shift today researching what a hedgehog might eat.

[ooc: ...blame horse_ebooks.]

Comments

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

"I find," Thomasina said, without preamble, as she walked into Stark, "that I am in the unlamentable position of requiring aid."

And that would be her droid being placed carefully on the counter.

She reached down to pull the blueprints out of her satchel before straightening up and taking a closer look at the man before. "Er. Hello. William, yes?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Yes. Quite. Miss Coverly, I believe?" Yes, he'd still not been broken of the habit of primarily addressing people by surname.

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina nodded cheerily. "Indeed -- although Thomasina works just as well, even if I cannot say that it's less to wrap one's tongue around."

Gesturing at her drone, Thomasina asked, "I was wondering if you might be able to assist me in locating the source of the... malfunction? I fear I have miscalculated somewhere, but I find I have not yet acclimatised sufficiently to the present level of technology to find the problem."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"It can be quite a jump," William said sympathetically. He knew what it was like. And he'd had a good sixty years or so of technological advancements on Thomasina.

"If I may...?" he asked, tilting his head at the drone as he picked up a screwdriver.

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

"Please," Thomasina insisted, sighing. "I wonder if taking this class was a bit like attempting to run a race without first learning to walk -- it is hard to imagine the advances possible in a mere two-hundred years, much less to Professor Alenko's own advancements."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

William nodded, carefully prying open the drone's exterior. "The beginnings of modern computing had their roots in Babbage's work in the 1820s," he informed her. "So you only just missed that, unfortunately."

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

"And then Ada Lovelace," Thomasina added. "I do wonder what I might have done in those early days of the analytical engine -- if I might even have had access or input."

But no, the fire, and the portal, and now she was here reaping the benefit of everyone else's hard work.

"I did my best to follow the schematics," Thomasina continued, peering in at the drone's interior, "but enough of the terminology is still new to me that I fear I may have missed some step completely, or misinterpreted an instruction. That is, if the... hardware? is even the problem in the first place."

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"That's actually the case more often than you might think," William informed her, frowning as he traced the path of a particular wire, and then glancing back at the blueprints to confirm. "Ah." He said finally. "I believe I have discovered the root of the problem."

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina watched as he traced along the wire, looked back at the blueprints -- frowned for a moment. "... That doesn't go there," she said, quite firmly. "It should be attached there, instead, yes?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Precisely," William nodded. "That there," he pointed to where the wire currently connected to, "is responsible for your drone's motor functions. Only the wire you've got hooked up to it is the one that should instead be here," he pointed to a small fan, "for temperature regulation."

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

"Which means that the drone was receiving conflicting information, yes? Not only the motor functions it was supposed to process, but also signals that it couldn't properly process because they're not about motor functions in the first place!"

Thomasina glanced around. "Do you have-- are there tools I could borrow for a moment?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Precisely," William nodded. "And certainly," he gestured at the counter, as crowded as it was with various bits, pieces, tools, and... hedgehog. "Go right ahead."

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina didn't even give the hedgehog a second glance -- it barely caught her attention at all before being filed in the 'Eh, Fandom' section of her brain -- as she reached for the tools she'd need to make the small repair.

Which, considering she was just switching a wire from one place to another, took her all of three second. "That should be it, then," she said, happily. She closed the casing on the drone and set it on the floor.

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Shall we test it out, then?"

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina nodded, reached down, and flicked a switch.

The drone whirred once before turning around in a complete circle, at which point it sat there, humming.

"... Should it be doing something?" she asked. "Or is it waiting for us to tell it to do something?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"If it hasn't been programmed to perform a function immediately upon startup, then yes, you shall have to tell it what you need it to do," William confirmed.

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina considered for a moment before saying, "Drone, travel the perimeter of a square exactly eight point three meters squared."

Sure, she was new to the metric system, but it made so much sense.

After a momentary hum, the drone began to move in a perfect square before returning to her feet.

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Oh, excellent!" William beamed at her. "That's much better."

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina gave him a dry look. "Considering that, yes, it is now actually working," she pointed out. "Yes, that's rather stating the obvious. But thank you for your assistance."

She reached for her purse. "What is the cost for your time?"

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

Look, sometimes he just got excited by that sort of thing. He named a handwavey price that was really more of a token than anything, since really, all he'd done was a bit of consulting; she'd managed most of the actual work herself. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "for someone only just acquainted with modern technology, you really did catch on rather fast, minor issues asside."

[godscrankshaft.livejournal.com]

Thomasina handed over the cash, flushing just a little. "Thank you," she said. "Really, it's all just maths. Part of it is that I've been spending so much time trying to catch up on the history I've missed."

And the literature. And the philosophy.