Preordered Disorder

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

it is a delicate time, long anticipated with
barely controlled patience. Each moment that passed
seemed to get slower and slower, as if sinking into a mire.

But the time had come regardless, and when it arrived, fate had
one more cruel trick up her sleeve. one last slight. An unavoidable
trip off of ossus.

Fortune at least partially smiled on the two Padawans, Hwooroc
and Teagan s'ilancy. Allowed the use of her mother's holo computer,
the next step proved to be the most crucial...




* On board the Khera'Va'ss'io *


"Well I just don't know."

She was, admittedly, stumped. How was anyone supposed to be able to find out the system capabilities of a holo computer that was built into a desk? Her mother had said that it would be fine to use the computer in her quarters, which was where Teagan and Rocky now found themselves. Rocky had brought his own holoconsole, since he'd gotten the latest model the previous Life Day, and it currently sat in an over-sized and practically overstuffed backpack that now rested on the small sofa that was on the other side of the room. Frankly, her mother's quarters were smaller than expected, but it wasn't anything that the young Lupine found herself thinking too much on. There were still familiar bits here and there; leather-bound books, a few statues, and other trinkets. Not as much as she thought there would be, but there were at least a few things about.

Of course the real object of her ire was trying to figure out the computer that was built into her mother's work desk.

"I mean," sliding from the chair, Teagan scooted into the space beneath, eyes peeled, "... how do you even find what it's running if it's built into the desk?"

[Hwooroc]

Perched atop the desk with his furry legs dangling above the older Padawan, Hwooroc raised a brow at Teagan's question.

"Hngwaa auhwa whuurhuf hwauwa"

Was she serious? Didn't she know how to run a Spec query? For being so old, she sure didn't know much about how computers worked. He paused in consideration, hoping that she wasn't literally considering getting into the computer's innards when the non-invasive approach worked just fine.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"Well I don't know how to do all that," came the grumbled answer as she poked her head back out to look up at him as he looked down at her.

"I mean, I wasn't ever really around these things much. Most of what I can do I learned from you anyway. And from a few other teachers back on Ossus."

A sigh, and the Lupine hauled herself back out before falling heavily into the chair once more. She shifted it closer to the desk, and reaching out, gave the small monitor a tap with a fingernail to wake it up. It blinked to life to display a rather bland digital desktop. A black background with the seal of the Alliance in one corner greeted her. It was... well, it was a bit boring.

Finally, Teagan looked to Rocky, leaned back, and made a deferential gesture with a crooked smile twisting one corner of her lips.

"Work your magic, Mophead."

[Hwooroc]

"Auwaauf."

Rocky made a show of cracking his knuckles, though at his tender age his digits made no such noise. With a tooth jutting up from an underbite smile, Hwooroc leaned to the monitor and keypad and began to open the Direct Logic Interface. The speed at which his fingers flew over the keys left little doubt that he knew exactly what he was doing.

DLI::

<setscan "msp all"> //itemize

The screen filled with a blank black square that began to populate with columns of data which Hwooroc began to sort through and modify here and there. Dark eyes fixed to his work as his little pink tongue pressed just past his lips.

"Gnaufgwa wa."

The look of concentration soon paid off in a smile, as Rocky gave an enthusiastic nod to his partner in cybercrime. It wasn't an ideal system to use, but there was enough data storage and raw processing power to make up for fine touches in graphics. With the memory bank being practically quantum in build, they'd probably be able to brute force things on a lower graphics setting.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

His smile was matched by one of her own, and Teagan gave him an enthusiastic clap on the shoulder.

"Awesome!"

But of course, there was also another Gundark in the room, and turning to look out a sloping window at the swirling lines of hyperspace, she made a face. She snapped her eyes away then, gazing across the way to his backpack.

"Where do you want to set yours up?"

[Hwooroc]

Rocky gave a noncommittal shrug. With his console being wireless and self-contained, it didn't matter much from a practical standpoint. He pointed to the spot opposite on the desk, which would allow the two Padawans to game more or less face to face from each other.

Of course, he could always take the more-comfortable couch at the far wall. Less intimate gameplay, but definitely a comfier place to park it. Naaah.

Rocky retrieved his pack, and decisely placed it at the other end of the desk.

"Hwooh!"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"Sounds good to me."

The Lupine shifted in her seat, bringing her legs up beneath her. She looked across the room to a solitary chair that matched the sofa.

"You can use that chair, I figure."

Her attentions went immediately to the computer in front of her then, and after a small amount of searching she found the icon that - once clicked - would open up the net. Another few keystrokes and she was logging into her Tibanna account. Rocky had helped her sign up for it, explaining how it worked. At first she'd been skeptical of it, but it'd not taken long before she'd become savvy enough with some of the games that he showed to her and let her play.

"So... "

She checked her queue, eyes peeled for the one game that she had taken a particular shine to. There!

"Ok, it says it'll be ready for downloading in thirty minutes."

Which opened the door for their other problem. She bit her lower lip, watching as he went about the ritual of setting up his stuff.

"How slow do you think it's gonna be since we're in hyperspace?"

[Hwooroc]

"Hwa..."

He'd had it all figured out until that moment, and Rocky's slack-jawed expression in response to Teagan's question was all she needed to know to understand that he hadn't factored in the FTL journey. Suddenly downtrodden, the Wookiee let his frustration out in a low moan as both paws went up to cradle his lowering head.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

She knew that look, and the meaning of the low groan. It did not bode well.

"Well I mean, it can't be any slower than some of the downloads back on Ossus, right?"

[Hwooroc]

"Gnaufhuugh wauwaa aauhahuruff auhwoooggh."

How to explain that one? Well, the good news was that HoloNet didn't lose latency over space-time which meant that in theory, data dissemination was near-instant. The problem with that was that the data had to go through a finite number of transmitters. The one on Ossus was shared by nearly an entire star sector, which slowed things to a crawl at times. Of course, being a moving target such as a ship in FTL, you could pass by better transmitters or worse ones, or find gaps where there were none at all.

Hwooroc bounded from his seat to return to her monitor, typing up a command to analyze the data spectrum corridor. It wasn't an exact model in terms of giving a precise estimate, but it was better than leaving the guessing up to the both of them. Scratching a tuft of fur on his head, Hwooroc gave a layman's prognosis.

"Gnauwahwaahuwa aau wroof."

It could be a lot better, or it could be a lot worse.

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"I suppose we won't know until we start," came the answer in the form of a frustrated sigh.

So many times she'd been confounded by computers, and so many times Rocky had been right there to help her along. Now that he'd somewhat had the rug pulled out from under him, she wasn't sure what to do. So she stared at the timer as it ticked down the minutes before they could begin their downloads.

"If I know my luck, it's gonna be a long wait."

She'd only barely gotten the words out when the door opened. In the next moment, Captain Loklorien s'Ilancy strode through, her attentions split between the datapad in her hand and the person that followed her inside.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

"I just don't know about this," she mumbled, stepping into her quarters with Zem close behind.

"I'm already deviated from my flightplan, and I'm not so sure that I can... justify... "

She trailed off at that, her eye shifting up to take in the sight of her daughter and the young Wookiee, Hwooroc, both occupying her desk. Not to mention the youngling's own computer that he'd apparently brought with him for the journey. A confused glance was sent to Zem then as she mouthed 'his own computer?' at him.

Whatever was wrong with just bringing a datapad on trips?

[Zem Vymes]

"Call it a moment of intuition" Zem offered Lok with a twinkle in his eye, seeing how far her Alliance tether would stretch. While they were on a mission, it wasn't exactly of a matter of life and death, thus evidenced by the presence of several padawan learners aboard the Lupine ship.

Lok stopped in her tracks, which prompted Zem to give a second look at the activities of Teagan and her young Wookiee friend. It didn't seem to be an act of mischief, but it also wasn't every day that you had a computer party break out on a navy ship. Zem paused behind Lok, raising a brow. He didn't have any better ideas than she did.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

She turned back from him, looking to her daughter with a curious eye. There was nothing untoward happening here, or at least from outward appearances it seemed as such. Still though, Teagan was not above trickery of some form, and the elder Lupine had often enough been left in the dust of a fast-thinking, loop-hole finding youngster.

Hwooroc was mostly an unknown, as she'd not had much interaction with any of the younger Padawans on Ossus. In fact, the only times that she had any sort of involvement with young ones was when she visited her children. And even then it was generally Teagan and Markos being brought up to her ship, rather than her going down to the surface of Ossus.

The datapad was switched off with a quick motion as she finally moved closer to the desk.

"Occupying yourselves, then?"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

"Endeh'na Khe'dek."

Her eyes had once more returned to the ticker. Not long now, until they could begin the grueling task of downloading the one game that both she and Rocky had been so enamored with.

Terran Sky

"Basic, please."

Blinking, Teagan finally looked back up to her mother with an initially confused look that bled into an 'oohh'.

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"We're just... waiting."

Which sadly, was the truth.

She let out a long breath, suddenly feeling the true weight of the grave hyperspace problem facing her and her Wookiee companion.

[Hwooroc]

Hwooroc whurrfed, vaguely picking up on a little awkwardness. Captain s'Ilancy was Teagan's mom, which almost made this ship her house. That was pretty neat. Still, he knew how much his dad grumped when Hwooroc played with his tools without putting them away, so it would do no good to get in trouble prematurely before the download finished.

A look of worry crossed his features, and the Wookiee prodded his Lupine gamer buddy. If her mom cleared the terminal to do any other work on it, it might cancel the download. That would be a disaster.

"Hnohwraahh gruuu ohwaahauu"

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

Teagan turned her attention to Rocky in the next instant as he voiced his concern. It gave her pause, and the girl blinked before trying to find the best way to answer.

Her interactions with Rocky had been enough so far to give her a good grasp on his language, but there were still some hiccups.

"She's... not going to eat the computer," came the slow reassurance.

[Hwooroc]

"Hrooh?"

What? Hwooroc blinked as Teagan replied with complete nonsense. A bit slack-jawed, he shook his head and reiterated himself.

"Hnohwraahh gruuu ohwaahauu! Gnau au aauwaahauu gn aarr ahawaa!"

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

For her part, interpreting the Wookiee language had been something that had escaped her. Despite her years spent traveling about, the elder Lupine had only picked up the vaguest of understandings, and giving a confused look to her daughter and Rocky, s'Il finally turned her eye to Zem. He had a much better grasp of these things than she did.

The silent plea of 'help me understand' was written plainly across her confused features.

[Zem Vymes]

Zem definitely picked up the wookieespeak, and a little amused grin crossed his features as his eyes drifted from the two youngsters back to his partner, just long enough to assure her nothing sinister was afoot. Returning his attention back to Teagan, Zem crossed his arms.

"Maybe you should explain what you're putting on your mother's computer, young lady."

[Teagan s'Ilancy]

She blinked, looking from Rocky, to her mother, then finally to Zem.

"It's just a game, is all."

Leaning back in the chair, the young Lupine pulled her legs up to fold them beneath her.

"Nothing bad or anything."