[Activity] Main Screen Turn On

[Ashlie Minamida]

Waking up is still something Ashlie is not quite used to. It used to only happen when she'd been disabled, restarted or her persistent mind otherwise interrupted. It meant reconstituting her component parts according to very strict protocols to enable her to function. It meant reviewing error logs. It meant catching up on what she missed best as she could from patchy data. And on a number of occasions that are preserved in perfect memory storage it meant being a faulty shell of herself, abandoned in the complete dark of a backup system or trapped in a recursive prison.

But now surfacing from sleep is different, even if she's not utilizing Natalie's uplink-bed to establish a direct connection between her conscious mind and the nanite system, there's still a feeling of... persistence. No concrete memories she can draw from falling asleep and waking but she can tell she was just idle, not turned off. It's pleasant enough to make up for the vague sluggishness that takes a minute or two to shake. Of course, old habits are hard to shake, so her boot routine has been replaced by that of making her bed, setting out her clothes for the day, pouring a package of NutriSoy powder into a mixer along with water from the fridge's built-in filter. Measuring cup goes back on the drying rack. Mixer set to low while she takes a shower. Towel-dry her hair and get dressed. Pull up emails, notifications, reports and such on the screens now taking up one wall of her apartment. Drink her breakfast as she catches up on the world. That part hasn't changed beyond being a bit more tedious without a direct data feed. She'll find a solution for that soon enough.

But for now there are more pressing matters to attend to. The new semester officially starts tomorrow and she needs to run a final check on the new Point Systems to ensure everything is operating correctly. She taps the corner of one screen to send a ping through to the Crystal Computer and contact Natalie for the system test. A not insignificant part of the redesign was to properly integrate the two systems in ways that'll benefit everyone after all.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie's face appears shortly in response to the ping, "Good morning, Ashlie."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Good morning. I'm beginning to see why you became increasingly irritated with bodily necessities. It really does slow one down significantly."

[Natalie Denisov]

"There are a few things I miss, but on the whole I do like being more productive with my time. What can I do for you this morning?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I was thinking we should run some final tests on the new Point systems. Danger Room, Cerebra, Blackbird flight systems. Spin them all up and make sure all the integrations work, the fusion reactor performs under a full load. The works."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Sure thing. Just let me... Oh, Caretaker already has the metrics monitoring set up, patching through to you now." A set of current specs on the fusion reactor popped up as well as power draw from the various systems. "Locking down the Danger Room, starting at basic training scenario escalating gradually up to program Kinney-Omega-3. Powering Cerebra up to stand-by status."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Excellent. I'll be right down. Sounds like the Crystal-Fiberoptics interfaces are working well?" she says as she grabs a tablet and switches the displays from the screens to it.

[Natalie Denisov]

"So far. Seeing a slight extra 60 picosecond delay in information transition time intermittently. Within functional expectations though and shouldn't be a hindrance, probably some inefficiency in the system translation code."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"There's only so much that can be done to translate between the two systems. I'm unfortunately not much closer to understanding how your power used to handle that kind of systemic shift in electric signals. That would eradicate compatibility between any systems." she says as she heads out the door, occasionally sipping her nutrient slosh.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'll file it under 'when we know more'," Natalie says as the Danger Room switches to another program and the power draw increases. "Firing up the Blackbird's diagnostics now. Cerebra should be moving to boot up by the time you get here."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Thanks. A self-test will have to do for Cerebra as well, but I can take care of that. Not that the dummy ever really worked but it'll run through all the electronics and wiring checks at least. I'll make sure to warn you ahead of time, because if anything that'll be what pushes us over on concurrent power usage. It should cycle the Danger Room into safety power-down but if anything fails it'll probably happen there."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Noted. I am planning to cycle the launch door for the Blackbird, since that'll activate the air scrubbers and turn the dehumidifier in the hangar on high."

[Ashlie Minamida]

They continue running down the checklist. Not that it's really necessary, Ashlie trusts Natalie to keep a tab on things, but she's still not quite used to not having that data fed straight to her at all times. She's weaning herself off of complete responsibility. Eventually she makes it to the Point proper and the faint hum of the systems running smoothly. Danger Room, workshops, the ops center at the junction of the four main corridors, one of which slopes down and doubles back into the holding cell area. The shiny new elevator that sits in place of what used to be a demolished access panel once hiding the shaft to the Crystal Caverns, the place of her 'birth' in more ways than one.

"I've been meaning to ask, is it normal for biological thoughts to repeatedly trace associated memories to increasingly unrelated topics?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"I believe so. We have a tendency to find patterns, regardless of the pattern's actual existence and so sometimes the brain can make seemingly spurious connections. And that's before you get into sense-associations with memory."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I do believe this is the later. Pattern recognition - or over-recognition - I am very familiar with even if it used to be more brute-force." she chuckles. "No, I just found myself getting distracted by thoughts on how many times something or someone forced their way down into the caverns and how much I revolved around that."

[Natalie Denisov]

"And now you're the one coming into the caves, though you are, of course, invited," Natalie chuckles in return.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"So, how does it stack up against the dream you had of submersing yourself inside the coolant core of a super-computer?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"It's a wee bit beyond that, but it is something of a dream come true. The potential of this thing dwarfs any supercomputers I'm aware of though. I'm sure I'm only using a fraction of what it's capable of."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I barely understand the basic principles of how it works and even those are tenuous at best. How quantum states can require or even determine sentience when being observed is... well frankly it's beyond me."

[Natalie Denisov]

"And that doesn't even begin to touch on me being in here and how that affects its operation. Hangar door cycling. I'll likely have to make another contact trip to the Citadel soon just to check in. I'd like to do my best to put them at ease that we're at least behaving ourselves, which, according to their records, our dimension has historically had an issue with."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Fair but at the same time not exactly our fault. Still, we want to be good neighbors and show them we're doing our part."

"I see you've already had the salt accumulators switched. Are they in the workshop? I was thinking about testing how viable sodium reclamation would be for our earth metal stores."

[Natalie Denisov]

"They are. I thought they would be more useful and convenient there. We might be able to analyze the structural rock and expand capacity to do more experimentation."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Maybe some automated solution. I'll add it to the list." she says as she stops in the middle of the Ops Center, transferring the data on her tablet to the main screens.

"Everything looks good, reactor containment is holding steady, power draw is creeping up on 80%, but that's to be expected with the Danger Room accumulating energy debt. Nothing the backup batteries can't compensate for should we do exceed capacity. Not that we'll ever be running things at full bore for extended periods of time anyway. Loading auxiliary Danger Room protocol ExcessivePolyhedralGenerator.Test. Let's blow the fuse on this and see how it handles it."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Caretaker's detecting some power draw bleed from the locker rooms next to the Danger Room. She's isolating it. Worst case estimate at the moment, it might mess with the light fixtures but is otherwise not dangerous. Current best guess is that we has some wiring or conduit with faulty shielding, but won't know until we test it specifically. Hangar door is open, environmental maintenance in the hangar has powered up and is currently running at full capacity."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"I think we can live with replacing some lights." she says as she watches one screen showing the Danger Room interior that was previously a scene of an all-out villain rampage tearing through downtown London fill with increasing amount of boxes, triangles and other, more complex geometric shapes with ridged, whorled, fuzzy or otherwise computationally intensive surfaces. The Danger Room technically doesn't operate a physics simulation per-se, but it still has to generate and maintain all of this which eventually pushes the energy draw past operating capacity.

A row of LED light-fixtures do indeed burn out in the lockers with a serious of rapid pops and fizzes, punctuated by a loud CHUNK as the Danger Room's power coupling disengages and the power drain on the reactor drops dramatically as every generated unit in the Danger Room suddenly turns to a viscous, uniform jello that fades from existence as the batteries swiftly drain.

"Perfect, the emergency shutdown works."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Good. Closing hangar door. Readings from the decoupling unit seem to be solid and it doesn't look like it was damaged by the overload. We'll want to do a visual inspection just to be sure, but so far so good."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Excellent. I believe we're ready then."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I've prototyped that sign-up website for Danger Room time, accessible only internally, some times blocked off specifically for reservation by members of the teams at Ms. Kinney's suggestion, but otherwise open to the student body. Seems like a more efficient way to handle it. Did you want to take a look at it or shall I just make it available starting tomorrow?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Push it live, I'll take a look at it, but it sounds fine. I was thinking of setting some time on Saturdays and Sundays aside for free access as communal leisure time, maybe cycle through a couple of fixed locations on a week by week basis, max safeties, minimum user control."

[Natalie Denisov]

"That sounds nice, especially once the weather turns colder, and could definitely be accommodated in the process. We might be able to get Shari to suggest a location she's seen that none of the student body have seen."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"That'd be a lot of work, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'd be happy to work with her on that project."