Visiting Vieques

[Tenseiken]

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CAMERA ACTIVE

FEED SAVING TO DRIVE CMXXV

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Rell Harrow set down the circuit he had been working on, turned off the small but bright desk light and gave the man in front of him a feint smile. "It's a pleasure, Mr. Xae. I hope you don't mind..." With a nod towards his right shoulder, he raised his left hand instead.
He knew that people often underestimated him. At first glance, Rell seemed a frail man. But when his fingers closed on the hand of his visitor, they told the story of a worker, someone whose strength came as much from his lean muscles, as from his sinews and efficient movements.

"I am very happy that you could find the time to come here personally. It makes things so much easier when you can talk face to face. No message delay from intricate encryptions, no hidden signals, nothing gets lost, except in translation, of course. Just pure interaction. And you can look at the tech directly, instead of being shown computer models."
His eyes wandered to the second visitor.

"Ah, Mr. Baldwin. I was told you'd be wearing an exo suit of some kind, but I didn't expect such an intricate model. As Junkers, we are used to... less elegant technology, which was why I suggested the cargo lifts. I do hope that you didn't take any of what I sent as an insult, as it wasn't meant that way."
Taking the IV bag's thin post with him, he set out towards another section of the room.

"Gentlemen, if you would please follow me. The presentation models are back here."
He went into a dark corner of the workshop and seemed to step through a section of wall.
A few seconds and a whispered insult at some kind of adapter later, a light was switched on.
What had seemed like the back wall of the room was pierced by a few rays of light here and there.
A passage between the crates and containers became apparent.
"Please do mind the metal sheets on the floor. I had to remove them, so some of the more well protected parts can be seen. I didn't want to stack them up, so that we can replace them more easily later, when I show you how to dismantle and rebuild the models."

On the other side, the room opened up. Here, the ceiling was roughly 5 meters high and the walls stretched to accompany at least two dozen people quite confortably, three dozen if they knew eachother very well. Heavy shelves filled with seemingly random pieces of tech covered almost every bit of wall. Only a large freight door on the other side of the room was left free.
A few bright spotlights were mounted at strange angles on the ceiling, the walls and even some crates. Despite the seemingly chaotic setup, they lit up four models of the new cooling technology almost perfectly. Almost. The two smaller ones on the left only reached about 60, maybe 65cm in height. The others on the right almost touched the ceiling and were surrounded by simple but sturdy makeshift catwalks of different heights.
One of each type was completely open on one side, showing its silvery and metallic innards. The others were connected to what seemed like encased fighter class power cores.
The one on the right hummed along ever so quietly.

Rell sat on a comfortable office chair that seemed weirdly out of place, his bandaged arm resting on a cushion that was strapped to the side. "Gentlemen, you two are the first people in here who aren't part of the Junker Congress. The small models on your left are the standard low-temp ones. These two high-temp beauties on the right have been built specifically for this presentation and are based on my transport designs. The final designs will be adjusted to your ship, of course, but the basic function and design is the same. Please don't touch the active one without significant protection, as it is running at 200°C to keep the material inside in working order. Look and make notes all you like. It won't work without our unique materials anyway."

The freight door opened and half a dozen Junkers entered the room, some of them wearing heavy and clunky exo rigs. Rell raised what looked like an outdated PDA. "If any of the lights should be a hindrance at certain angles, just tell me. I can adjust the brightness of each one individually. Now, do you have any questions? Do you wish to take a look first? Or should I begin the presentation?"

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FEED SAVED

DRIVE CMXXV FULL; SWITCHING TO DRIVE CMXXVI

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<span style="font-family:Lucida Console"><span style="color:#33CC00">*personality core activated*</span>
Science consists of stating the obvious and linking the facts. </span>