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damned_institute2013-09-13 09:03 pm
ninelivesonce) wrote in damned_institute2013-09-13 09:03 pm
Night 72: Computer Lab
[from here]
Taura followed the swinging door into the room, stopping just inside the door. Not the quietest entrance she'd ever managed to make, but the rows of chairs and tables didn't seem to notice. There were screens on them -- and keyboards, which didn't look like the ones she was used to, but were close enough to identify. Aside from direct neural interfaces, no one had managed to beat technology designed for, if Miles hadn't been pulling her leg, striking little hammers onto paper.
What there wasn't, in between any of the rows, was anything else. She slid her hands along one of the screens -- a button turned it on, but it stayed dark. Just a screen, then -- but the keyboards had cables on them, and so did the screens, which led down to a box bolted to the underside of the table. Now we're talking, she thought, as she pointed the flashlight at it. There was a big friendly button, so she pressed it. The box grunted and whirred.
"Hey, look," she called out to Rita. "They haven't turned off all the power up here." She hooked a leg around one of the chairs and folded herself into it -- her knees banged the desk, but she didn't bother trying to figure out if it adjusted; she was used to it. As the screen flickered to life and the system booted itself up, she looked down at the keyboard, squinting at the letter arrangement. It made absolutely no sense, but the letters were all familiar, and this looked like a teaching lab; the system couldn't be that complicated, could it?
Taura followed the swinging door into the room, stopping just inside the door. Not the quietest entrance she'd ever managed to make, but the rows of chairs and tables didn't seem to notice. There were screens on them -- and keyboards, which didn't look like the ones she was used to, but were close enough to identify. Aside from direct neural interfaces, no one had managed to beat technology designed for, if Miles hadn't been pulling her leg, striking little hammers onto paper.
What there wasn't, in between any of the rows, was anything else. She slid her hands along one of the screens -- a button turned it on, but it stayed dark. Just a screen, then -- but the keyboards had cables on them, and so did the screens, which led down to a box bolted to the underside of the table. Now we're talking, she thought, as she pointed the flashlight at it. There was a big friendly button, so she pressed it. The box grunted and whirred.
"Hey, look," she called out to Rita. "They haven't turned off all the power up here." She hooked a leg around one of the chairs and folded herself into it -- her knees banged the desk, but she didn't bother trying to figure out if it adjusted; she was used to it. As the screen flickered to life and the system booted itself up, she looked down at the keyboard, squinting at the letter arrangement. It made absolutely no sense, but the letters were all familiar, and this looked like a teaching lab; the system couldn't be that complicated, could it?
no subject
Computers. Rita had seen a similar item in a shop in Doyleton. She'd never operated one, but she had a rough idea, given its configuration. What wasn't in the room was a teleporting platform, as Rita confirmed quickly before looking back to the device Taura was examining.
"These actually work?" Rita stared in surprise and fascination as the display in front of Taura flickered to life. The other devices in the room were identical, and Rita tried activating a nearby one, pressing the same button she'd seen Taura use on the first machine. Just like the other one, the screen lit up as the device emitted a whirring noise.
It seemed that it took a few moments for the computers to fully active, and so Rita looked back to Taura's screen, looking over the interface and imagining how it was used. "Do you think they left any useful data on here?" she wondered. Once the other device was ready, she could see for herself, but it was difficult to be patient.
They were supposed to look for some sort of archive here on the third floor... Could it be possible that the information they needed was stored electronically? Perhaps that was too optimistic, but it was worth a look.
no subject
There were treatment details, including a notation that matched the day she'd actually been Katharine, but nothing that told her anything she didn't know. And there were hundreds of files.
"I'm going to see if there's anything else," she said, and closed the file. Picking her own had made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, but choosing someone else's might be worse. At least this way she wasn't spying on them just to see what the Institute might want.
She backed out to the main screen, and started searching the different menus. Most of the links were dead ends, but there was something promising in the "Recent Downloads" -- a map. Designed for staff, not patients, though some areas were still marked as Senior Personnel Only.
"Jackpot," she whispered. "We've got to get this to everyone."