Comic 1151 - Figure out when is now

Posted on 21st Dec 2018, 5:04 PM in Like a Bullet from Behind
Figure out when is now

<<First Latest>>
Average Rating: 5 (3 votes) / Rate this comic

Author Notes:

Morgenstern 21st Dec 2018, 5:04 PM edit delete
Morgenstern
You slowly--carefully--get out of bed.

You still feel drained, a little dizzy, but you can at least stand on your own.

You make your way to the lab area, but the only person you see is Liz. She's currently typing away at... something, on the computer.

You ask where everyone's at.

"Finch and Caius are with the girls," Liz replies, not taking her eyes from the screen. "Michelle and Fuse are in Ilworth, working with that arm you made."

And Liz is...?

"Running simulations," Liz says simply. "We're trying to find a way for people that aren't you to pilot a potential biomech. Finch thinks there's some secret to neural interfacing to be found in that... weird brain phone Caius uses, but the technology is too foreign and ridiculously small. Until he can solve that, we're trying to make do with what we have--Fuse and Finch have been looking at conventional robotics, and how to elicit a response from organic tissue with electrical currents."

She pauses, squinting at the screen, before continuing. "They rigged up a basic system in that grotesque arm, and Michelle's been practicing with it. Fuse set up a program to try and develop more systems along the same lines--blueprints, basically, but the results are... inconsistent. I've been trying to clean up the math so we don't blow ourselves up jumping straight into field tests."

She gives you a glance, and nudges a plate across the table. "There's still some pancakes left over from earlier. You slept through most of the day."

Just a day, though?

"Yes."

Comments:

Post a Comment
Nayru9572 21st Dec 2018, 5:28 PM edit delete reply
Thank her for informing us and the pancakes, and then ask if we didn't give the ghost girls too much of a scare. And the others, for that matter, but I think the ghost girls would've been the most worried.
Gigafreak 21st Dec 2018, 5:54 PM edit delete reply
Maybe check her own body for metabolic waste products and convert it to more useful (or at least harmless) matter. Maybe even go as far as looking for adenosine diphosphate and even monophosphate, to transmute into adenosinde triphosphate. Just alien-magic away the physical portion of the fatigue.
pkrankow 21st Dec 2018, 6:05 PM edit delete reply
pkrankow
Crazy cool idea. I almost understand a third of what you said before "Just alien-magic away the physical portion of the fatigue."
Gigafreak 21st Dec 2018, 7:45 PM edit delete reply
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP for short) is the "battery" molecule that your body uses to store energy. See the "tri phosphate" in the name? The energy is stored in the bonds holding the phosphates onto the molecule: pop the phosphates off to release the stored energy for use. This is usually covered in highschool biology, so a nurse is very likely to know about it.

Adenosine DI phosphate (ADP) and Adenosine MONO phosphate (AMP) are basically DEPLETED battery molecules that need to be recharged, normally with food and rest. (I'm not sure if it can go all the way to "Adenosine without any phosphates.") I'm saying we should turn our empty batteries into full batteries using Mine's alien transmute-stuff-in-her-body-into-other-stuff-that-naturally-occurs-in-bodies powers.
Mathbird 21st Dec 2018, 5:29 PM edit delete reply
Well, that's a relief!

Let's check on Caius and Finch first because Edison is only recently not-murdery. After that check on Michelle and Fuse?
Twyll 21st Dec 2018, 5:30 PM edit delete reply
Whew! That's good. Let's eat us some pancakes, then, and then make the rounds checking on people. Talk to the girls, then go talk to the Silkwyrm (after figuring out who's gonna go with us). Then we can dive into the results of people's work today and see if we can get some more progress made on remote-control biomechs.

Perhaps over dinner we can have a discussion about planning and scheduling and such, put together a plan for how we're going to prepare to deal with Carpenter.

Also, on a completely different note, how's the meme war against Thale going? Would be good to check in on that and make adjustments as needed.
Limrix 21st Dec 2018, 11:27 PM edit delete reply
Limrix
I'd also like to bring up the idea of accelerating in the red with everyone. We should mention that we're considering accelerating time in the red relative to realspace in order to gain more time before the Carpenter fight. We will need to start slowly, perceiving outside the red to make sure we don't go backwards, but once we have that down, we should be able to use our blood alarms to avoid passing a certain point in time, by tying them to a person alerting us we've reached the designated point. We did this in the red when we were fighting the worm, and it should work. We can also create a room in the red so others can be accelerated as well once we get a better handle on it. We'd like to get everyone's thoughts on this.
We should also ask if they have any specific things they'd like our help on.

Regarding mechs and control systems, we've been thinking about human-sized mechs, with exoskeleton-style control systems, similar to this. We would want the pilot suspended in such a setup, which we can achieve with a bone cage and chest harness.
Archon 21st Dec 2018, 5:32 PM edit delete reply
Sounds promising.
But yes, let's check in on Caius and Finch first.
Gigafreak 21st Dec 2018, 5:50 PM edit delete reply
Well, Mine was able to examine the electro-silk on a microscopic level by putting it into the red dimension. Seems like she'd be able to do similar with the brainphone. The problem would be identifying what she's even looking at-- which may not be such a problem if she performs a mental synch with Finch and Fuse at the same time. ...For that matter, maybe she could do the same for the decaying remains of the Bunker X headspider and Vertebro.
Cyanic 21st Dec 2018, 5:35 PM edit delete reply
Thank Liz, head over to Edison and talk

then let's head over to Ilworth to talk to the worm, stopping by to see how Fuse and Michelle are doing, maybe help out some by answering questions from Fuse before going to the worm
Snervalton 21st Dec 2018, 5:48 PM edit delete reply
We might want to wait until we're fully rested before going to talk to the worm again, there's no guaranteeing what conclusions it may have come to.
Memo 22nd Dec 2018, 4:20 AM edit delete reply
Memo
Agreed
Flaninious 21st Dec 2018, 5:55 PM edit delete reply
Let’s check in on Red. Hopefully passing out didn’t have any negative effects on her.
5-5-13-6 22nd Dec 2018, 12:29 AM edit delete reply
5-5-13-6
Yes stranger with the smarts
+1 +1 +1
Check on Red already
Memo 22nd Dec 2018, 4:20 AM edit delete reply
Memo
Yes, how is Red doing?
PurpleKetchup 21st Dec 2018, 6:09 PM edit delete reply
Oooh, Liz always has awesome colour-coordinated formal clothes, even working against the establishment in a forgotten bunker.
Girl's sharp as it gets.
Post a Comment