Watchtower

[have_no_mercy]

When they leave Milliways, Tess and Jim enter what looks very much like an elevator. That's because it is. Steel all around with a camera up in one corner.

Smile, Jim, you're on TessTV!

She presses the button for the top floor and then waits.

Comments

[have_no_mercy]

"You can just go through the bag I set over there, take what you want. It's all extra."

And no specialty arrows included.

"And, um, I think I'm going to let you two get back to it."

He starts to leave, then turns around back to them again.

"Pay the guy, Mercy. If you won't, I'll do it."

[just_cant_lose]

Jim pulls an appreciative smile that lasts long enough for Oliver to see it, then looks down at the floor as if embarrassed to have put Tess into an awkward position with her friend. His body language says, 'yes, please pay me' but shows he's too unassertive to actually ask. Because Tess is clearly dominant, and he's a bit scared of her and doesn't want to lose her at the same time, see?

[have_no_mercy]

"He'll get paid."

Tess promises. No matter how long it takes, she will pay him back for this.

Oliver gives Jim a thumbs up, then waves as he's on his way back into the elevator.

"Take care, Jim. Tess. See you later."

Once he's gone she rounds on Jim ready to smack him.

"Why would you do that and if you say because it's fun, I will hit you."

[just_cant_lose]

Jim's grin could not actually get any wider without it splitting his face in half.

He says nothing, as he's apparently not allowed to give the answer. He just spreads his hands wide and shrugs, in an over-exaggerated gesture of just can't help myself.

It might only be some of the truth. She's denying him access to computers and tech. She said someone was better than him. And he's been in a bad bad headspace for weeks. This is really the best of all possible ways that meeting could have gone.

[have_no_mercy]

Oh, come on. He could take the hit.

Tess merely puts a hand to her forehead, then runs it through her hair.

"You're driving me up the wall. How much more time do you need?"

[just_cant_lose]

He assumed she'd hit him anyway, and is disappointed that she didn't. Oh, well.

'I always drive you up the wall, darling. Sometimes against the wall. Either way, you don't mind walls.'

He smirks, and slides past her to go and investigate Oliver's bag, kneeling next to it and pulling a bow out. He draws it carefully, sighting down his arm.

'Which desk is yours?'

[have_no_mercy]

"I get to break them down."

She's taken a seat on one of the chairs in the sitting area, vaguely remembering why they have this here in the first place. She points to an empty desk, with an actual telephone on it.

"That one."

Really, it's the only real desk int he room. Obviously, people are usually on their feet around here.

[just_cant_lose]

'Not mine. That's why you like me.'

He latches an arrow and tests the draw, then pulls all the way back as he looks her over, aiming at her desk.

'Can I have you on it?'

[have_no_mercy]

She looks over at him, clearly surprised.

"You want to have sex with me on my desk, right now."

He is the strangest man she's ever met.

[just_cant_lose]

'Now? God woman, you're insatiable. I assumed after we were finished working.'

Not that he's working now. He's determining whether or not to shoot her chair.

[have_no_mercy]

"Yes, I'm after you for it all the time. How do you put up with me pestering you constantly."

He can go for it. The chair or the desk she's not much concerned about.

[just_cant_lose]

'Darling, the proof is in the way you never say no.'

He's waiting on her response before he decides. Because; 'you haven't said no, now.'

He's not judging her for it. On the contrary, he thinks it shows admirable good taste.

[have_no_mercy]

She should say no. She should be angry with him - and she is - but mostly she just feels tired.

"And if I do now?"

[just_cant_lose]

He half-shrugs, and lowers the bow.

'Why would you want to?'

He knows she's not really mad, and he knows she likes him because he's not predictable, and he knows she has no stupid moral qualms about random quickies in the workplace.

'You know it'll be good.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Yes, but I'm a bit mentally exhausted at the moment, thanks to you. I don't know I'd be that into it."

He'll notice it's still not a no.

[just_cant_lose]

He has noticed that, yes. And looks amused.

'I expect I can get you in the mood, darling.'

Whether he can get himself into it far enough to finish the job is another thing, but it's an experiment he's interested in conducting. If it doesn't work this time, he'll probably just give up.

'I usually do.'

[have_no_mercy]

"If you really want to try, fine."

She's interested to see how things will go.

"When we're done working, of course."

[just_cant_lose]

'Mm.'

He puts the bow away, gets up and drags the whole bag over to the door. Oliver said he could help himself, so he's just going to take all of it.

'Work, then. You need to start telling me what you want on the outside, and what you have access to in terms of building it. Because objectively, it'll be far safer to put it underground. The lack of atmosphere means there's hardly any protection from meteors, space debris, random rocks - at the very least, all power cells and emergency fuel should be kept under the surface. Also, building and tunnelling up there's going to be hard because without air, dust stays static and will clog everything up. So this would be the ideal time to tell me that Superman's going to take care of all that shit, and I only have to design a space lair from my wildest childhood sci-fi fantasies, and you'll make it happen with aliens and spacesuits.'

[have_no_mercy]

"Kal and Manhunter will be taking care of all the building and tunneling and moving of moon rocks."

Underground. She hadn't thought of that.

"We could have the entrance and the transitional space on the surface, and the rest underground. As for what we're building it with, as I understand it we'll be using much of the same that's used here. With no atmosphere, there's no wind or corroding elements and we should be able to anchor it with cement pillars."

[just_cant_lose]

'You have to understand that you need a regolith thickness of least 2.5 meters to protect the human body to a safe background level of radiation - I know I know, aliens, but you're going to be up there sometimes, and you said I could come and visit once. I may be dead, but I don't want cancer at the same time.'

Plus, burns.

'So no, you can't just use the stuff we have down here. And it'll need to be massively energy efficient, because of the cold. And are your aliens using their skills to build, or tools - because without air acting as a buffer on things like drills and mining equipment, the heat build-up will be insane, and break everything. It'll all just fuse together, and you'll get nowhere. If they use explosives - or I don't know, laser eyes - then any loose debris will be like bullets shooting around, and will break into any equipment or supplies or people you might have lying around. So I get that you don't want to tell me how they're doing their jobs, but at least tell me they're aware of this stuff or are prepared to learn about it.'

Because if they're not, woe betide any human who tries to live in whatever they make up there.

[have_no_mercy]

See, this is why she needs you, Jim.

"If we're going underground doesn't that take care of the regolith thickness? And I was thinking they'd do a lot of the work here and then just take the pieces up to assemble it."

She glances at him, having the distinct feeling he's going to shoot that down.

"They'll use whatever is best for the job and yes, they're willing to learn. They've never done this before, either."

[just_cant_lose]

'The thing being underground, yeah. But if it's going to be solar powered - which makes sense, obviously - there are other things to take into consideration. Your surface panels will have to be protected, because if they're not the whole habitat fails when they'll inevitably be hit by rocks, and high energy cosmic rays and solar wind particles will create a cumulative abrasion effect on anything you have on the surface. You'll need a back-up emergency power source...a generator will do well enough, but then you have to consider that there's a lot of outward force from pressurised environments, and materials get brittle at very low temperatures. Your computer system will need to be constantly - and I do mean constantly - monitoring this stuff. You should probably tell your friend to factor that into her programming.'

Jim drops into a chair, wishing he just had full control of the whole thing. There's a lot to plan, and it would be fun. He loves puzzles with a thousand different pieces to coordinate.

'You didn't answer my question about budget, but the reason you might want to mine up there rather than bring stuff from here is that transport costs will be insane. Unless your aliens are just going to carry it all up there by hand. Also, having a simple air lock won't be able enough to get all the dust off spacesuits, so it'll be ingested - dust will be static up there, like I said - and you don't know what the effect of that will be on people. I'll have to come up with a proper way for you to have everyone decontaminate before going in.'

[have_no_mercy]

She sighs.

"Watchtower, Richard Brook access level Executive."

"Access level upgraded."

She waves a hand at him. Go play.

"Don't make me regret this. The budget, we're hoping to keep it under a billion, but we'll go higher if we absolutely have to."

[just_cant_lose]

He's on his feet way before she's finished talking, a smile plastered all over his face.

'That's more like it.'

Hello lovely new system, how are you? Very nice to meet you...Jim types without pause for a straight five minutes, taking over most of the screens in the place one by one, rifling through the system like a thousand starving children let loose in a sweetshop after being told they're allowed to ransack the place.

She may come to regret it later, but for now, he's just happy to see what she's got. And he knows he's about to sink without trace for a while, so he glances up at her with eyes already far away, and says, 'you might as well just leave me for a bit.'

A few hours, probably. At least. The longer she leaves him, the more likely it is the system will be unrecognisable when she gets back, but he's not actively looking to cause damage!

[have_no_mercy]

"Just do you know, anything moved, copied, cloned or deleted will sound an alarm. And I can pull your access at any time."

Then she will leave him alone, pulling out a laptop from a drawer in her desk and starting on some work of her own.