World's End bar is the watering hole on board Cape Horn Foundry. It serves as the main source of R&R on the station, which is not really that optimal, given it's currently just a spare storage space repurposed to serve as a rudimentary bar. There is currently no bartender and the bar has an automated system to check the drinks the crew takes out of the fridge. Each Irregular, crew, captain or management, has a weekly ration of beverages, soft or alcoholic, they can take. If they want more, they can have it, but anything over the quota has to be paid for in full.
The station's commander, Samuel Bennett is aware of the lack of the station's R&R options and is actively looking into ways to improve the situation together with Coordinator Lachlan, though some among the crew have been heard he's not working on it fast enough.
Mel sat on one of the five metal bar stools that had been set up around what would eventually become the World's End bar. Knowing Lachlan, Mel was sure that there was a grand design for the place, but for the moment it was little more than a stainless steel alcove with a lot of half empty shelves of booze behind the bar, and the five cold metal seats surrounding what would become the Irregulars' primary watering hole.
She shifted a bit on the seat and gently kicked at the bar in front of her with her boots in order to cause the metal stool to swivel back and forth. The seats weren't furnished, and were the kind of hard metal seats with holes drilled into them to both not let spilled drinks pool on them. Although they were probably more likely built that way to cut down on the extra cost of metal here and there when every uncle's brother tried to set up a bar with cheap, prefab materials in his farflung pirate base. Wasn't Lachlan's fault. The poor bastard that ordered the pre-fab set up in order to save a buck would probably get an ear full from the boss though. If there was one thing Mel knew for sure, it was that Lachlan liked things spruced up a bit, and more importantly: he liked them done RIGHT.
Getting tired of the cold metal biting into her ass, Mel hopped to her feet and wandered behind the bar. There were the crates of Kusari whiskey that she herself had shipped to the station. The boxes were half open, but the bottles inside were still untouched. Whoever's task it was to stock and build the bar had probably been called away on more important business.
Mel shrugged to herself, bent down, and yanked one of the bottles free. Prying the bottle open, she leaned against the unfinished bar and took a long swig. She'd never really spent any time in Kusari space before, at least not outside of shipping goods to and from various clients for the Irregulars. But damn if she didn't love their whiskey!
Plugging the bottle and standing up straight, she got ready to make her way back to the Cadillac Ranch. She preferred running during most people's rest cycle. Made things easier on the shipping routes, but it also gave her time to think and breathe away from all the hustle and bustle of crowded loading bays and trade lanes.
Quiet moments like this.
As Mel turned to go, she almost called out for Ida to follow her, but then realized she was already asleep back on the ship.
Taking one last look around what would probably become a bustling bar soon enough, she shrugged, tucked the bottle under her arm, and gave a casual two finger salute to the empty bar.
The bar's door opened up, letting in a group of station workers carrying crates, followed by Kayla and Brodie. The workers stored the crates in the corner of the room and left, while Kayla and Brodie made themself comfortable - if one could actually do this on a simple metal stool - at the makeshift bar. Kayla opened them two cans of beer, while Brodie was setting up a simple holoprojector. He took the beer with a nod of greeting, took a swig and then turned the projector up. The space above the bar was suddenly filled by projection of several schematics, diagrams and component lists. He studied it for a moment, to make sure there’s no glitches, and then he turned to Kayla.
“This is what I have in mind. You think it’s possible?”
Kayla examined the projection, rotating it around to see all the details, before letting out a sigh.
“I don’t know man. It should be possible, it’s not like you’re trying to invent something here, all of this is tried-and-true tech, installations like these are on pretty much any planet you can name and few of the richest stations too, but it’s also highly specialized. The sensory field generators alone would probably cost more than the budget you have for your entire department for a year, and it’s certainly way over the budget you have for the End. And have I mentioned you need a license from the manufacturer to even be able to buy them?”
Brodie shrugged. “I know. That’s why I’m not even considering using them or any other of the original components. Look at this,” he said, as he tossed away the diagrams, picked out one of the schematics and enlarged it, sticking the relevant component list to its side.
“None of the ‘highly’ specialized components is really that. You said it yourself, it’s tried-and-true tech. What’s really special about it is the way it’s connected and utilized. The computerware is probably the most valuable piece of it all, the ‘highly specialized’ and ‘precisely calibrated’ components are just a load of bull. Sure, they have to be top tier quality, I won’t deny that, but otherwise it’s just a marketing stunt to milk the rich.”
“Really? Because it sounds to me like you’re way too confident. You're trying to replace a purpouse built components with general purpose ones. Even if you’re right, what makes you so sure you can pull it off? You’d have to reverse-engineer the designs you don’t have, not to mention repurpose components from a ton of manufactures who were never supposed to be used together?”
She pointed at a specific place of the schematic.
“See this? Your design runs a signal from an industrial grade optical sensor suite from Ageira, to an optronic chip made by one of Kishiro’s subsidiaries, while sideloading data from Daumann’s military grade motion sensor fields, all through a single bus.”
Brodie looked at the particular circuit Kayla just described, his expression a bit less enthusiastic than before.
“And… that’s a problem?”
Kayla stared blankly at him for a few seconds.
“Brodie, mate, there’s not a single off the shelf bus that’s going to work with all three. You’d have to make one with built-in power converters and you’d probably have to write custom firmware just to make those three talk.”
Brodie considered Kayla’s words and then flashed a smile at her.
“So, you can do it right? I’ll make the designs, you’ll figure out the kinks in them and we’ll make one hell of an interactive holo-cinema and gaming room in one, what do you think?”
“What, me? What makes you think I’ll be interested in something like that?”
Brodie’s smile widened.
“Because it’s a bloody challenge, that’s why. Or am I wrong?”
Kile blinked with She laughed.
“You bastard, you were planning this from the start weren’t you? You knew those components won’t work together without some serious re-engineering. You baited me!”
“Bait you? Me?I would never!”
“Well it worked you sly piece of warehouse rat. Now, show me the rest of the schematics. This can’t be all, this would barely be enough to track people’s line of sight in the holo-field, how do you want to handle the other sensors? And why do you need this particular force field generator?”
The conversation took off. Brodie explained his ideas, Kyla dismantled them and then they rebuilt them together for the better part of the evening.
