Requesting a Science Pointing from Someone in Person [LM2]

[Jan Novak]

"A fair warning, that may not go well. I think I've mentioned how bad I am with people. Mine's too specific a wavelength to get a convergence pattern." He shrugged. "Better gruff than needy though. Good day, Ms Management."

[Lucretzia Winters]

She nodded. "Yes, but I don't think he wants to talk to me about it right now - perhaps straightforward is what he needs. If he says no, then you can try the next thing."

[Jan Novak]

Jan nodded, and turned to walk. Maybe he'd catch up with the man.

[Comstar]

His course took him to the bridge, where the captain was glaring over the shoulder of a junior crewman who was struggling to figure out the problem.

[Jan Novak]

"About those sensors." Jan stated plainly. "I get you need them fixed and you don't have the man for that." He was unaffected by subtleties of hierarchy, his brain wasn't good at processing those.

[Alexei Herald]

Alexei turned, expression hard, and then said, simply. "Yes, I suppose so. How I know you'll fix them and not break them worse, however, is a rather pressing question, considering someone already messed with them."

[Jan Novak]

"I give no guarantees, so you'd take a risk. I am mostly particle physicist, just a bit technician. If you have better options, go for them. Bosses making calls in suboptimal situations is part of the job description, no?" Jan shrugged, thinking where to get rid of the cigarette butt. "On the plus side, I'd work for good coffee."

[Alexei Herald]

"Well, I can get you good Coffee, Mr. Novak... and I think I'm a good enough judge of character to think you aren't the sort of man who'd intentionally break my sensors... because you don't seem the sort of man who pretends to be anything except what he is."

Stepping aside, he motioned for the tech to move.

"Give it your best shot, and crewman Bates, pay attention. You might have to do this yourself some day."

(Computers(Sensor Operation)/Intelligence vs TN 20, 20, and 25 - all three must succeed in a row, and if you fail, you have to start over. You can attempt 5 rolls per time slot)

[Jan Novak]

Jan didn't disabuse him from whatever misconception about him Alexei might have had; for this job he was indeed exactly what it said on the tin.

He sat heavily by the console, waited for the promised coffee ignoring Crewman Bates, took a gulp when he got it, then got down to business.

The code was fucked up, so he needed to first search for errors. Pattern-tracing was his innate proclivity, so he quickly sifted out the breakers and got ready to restore them.

LM2. Fixing Sensors #1. TN20.: 5d10o10k4 42

And oh my god how bad it went. The language was unfamiliar, or deliberately distorted to make it all fall like a house of cards the moment he started doing it. Back to square one.

LM2. Fixing Sensors #2..Edge. TN20.: 6d10o10k5 13

Square one was good.

LM2. Fixing Sensors #1. TN20. Again.: 5d10o10k4 31

This time Jan decided to not fall in the trap again and just rewrote the code in ways he knew he could. Crude but effective.

LM2. Fixing Sensors #2..TN20. Again.: 5d10o10k4 25

But now it required calibrating, fine-tunning, some juicy curse words, and more coffee.

LM2. Fixing Sensors #3..TN25. Edge.: 6d10o10k5 30

And that did the work. Polish swearing was the most potent spiritual force to fix any equipment. It was like missing reciprocity in Bohm's pilot-wave formulation of quantum mechanics. Like what Bell thought of Von Neumann's completion theorem. There was nothing in this world that could resist reality-laying 'kurwa jebana mać no nie wypierdol się teraz ototo jebaniutki no no no jak w mordę strzelił chujem po ciemku dało radę!'

"There you go." Jan pushed himself away from the console on the wheels of the chair. "Should do the job until some moron breaks it again."

[Comstar]

The crewman had attempted to keep up, but just nodded, dumbly.

"Do you mind showing me the controls - I don't speak Polish."

(Computers(Sensor Operation)/Awareness TN 15)

Alexei, hearing it was done, came over, curious to see the result.