Post by Blue Beetle on Apr 29, 2010 21:00:07 GMT -5
Eddie sighed, putting down the component she was working on. She rubbed her face, feeling jittery from too much caffiene and not enough sleep.
"What time IS it?" she asked, standing and stretching broadly.
"Five fourty-five AM" came an automatic response.
She had to laugh. Of course she shouldn't ask questions like that around Uncle Ted's.. no, HER lab without expecting something to offer the answer.
"Thank you, O Disembodied Voice". she offered, crossing the workroom to the coffeepot, but she found her hand trembled as she reached for the carafe.
"I should really go to bed. This stuff'll wait. I bet if I just manipulate the phase variance a smidge... yeah." she said to herself, starting back towards the bench.
"No. Not right now." she laughed, shaking her head. "I'll turn into a gnome if I don't get out sometimes."
Eddie set her feet in motion, heading to the elevator shaft and the bed that was calling her.
She zipped up the elevator and padded to her room, leaving her beetle gear on the chair nearby The suit constantly cleaned itself, so it was always fresh and comfortable. Eddie had no idea how other heroes got along without it... tight-lipped dry cleaners must cost a fortune.
It seemed like she had just closed her eyes when she was awake again. There was too much to do, too many things to fiddle with, things Ted knew that might be important for her to know.
She rose and dressed in a snap, grabbing some noodles on the way down the elevator. Instead of the workroom, though, she headed for the "command center", where Ted had networked various computers and monitors. None of the feeds were showing anything interesting, they hadn't been activated since this was a backup facility. She had been able to get into the main system of course, and from here she had access to everything still connected to the secret virtual private network that had been set up long ago.
Eddie had been in Ted's private files before, but one folder had especially intrigued her though she hadn't had time to check it out thoroughly before. In it were a few photos of a stunning red haired woman with prominent glasses, always sitting down. The pictures were obviously taken without the subject's knowledge, the angles were always odd and stilted, and it took a while for Eddie to realize that the woman was in a wheelchair. There were other files as well, including a couple of chat logs (the contents of which made her blush and close the files immediately).
There were a couple of notes, to do: 1) figure out if supposed to remember Booster's b-day and 2) See if Barb wants to get back together for at least coffee. There were others, of course, but these things were on top so they must have meant something.
The "Barb" note had a phone number, and a chat address leading to a network that she suspected probably had some superhero-y involvement and Eddie resolved to check out later to look for taps or lurking devices. In the meantime, she decided to call the number. After all, wouldn't Ted's friends want to know that someone trustworthy was using his stuff now? Better that she bug them now than have them be surprised when his ends of the network began to light up again. That might lead to incriminations or worse, and she wasn't ready to have to deal with an angry Superman or something.
Eddie fired up the microphone and put some earbuds in. Before she dialed, though, she made sure to run the call through all the satellite bounces and proxies Ted had available. Seemed secure enough, Eddie thought. She had the computer delay the call through a buffer that could examine the packets for various exploits and things that might harm Eddie herself... strange frequencies that could be subliminals, powerful bursts of sound that might affect her in some other way, and so on.
"Can't be too careful." she muttered to herself, as she placed the call.
What would she say, though? This was the worst part.
"What time IS it?" she asked, standing and stretching broadly.
"Five fourty-five AM" came an automatic response.
She had to laugh. Of course she shouldn't ask questions like that around Uncle Ted's.. no, HER lab without expecting something to offer the answer.
"Thank you, O Disembodied Voice". she offered, crossing the workroom to the coffeepot, but she found her hand trembled as she reached for the carafe.
"I should really go to bed. This stuff'll wait. I bet if I just manipulate the phase variance a smidge... yeah." she said to herself, starting back towards the bench.
"No. Not right now." she laughed, shaking her head. "I'll turn into a gnome if I don't get out sometimes."
Eddie set her feet in motion, heading to the elevator shaft and the bed that was calling her.
She zipped up the elevator and padded to her room, leaving her beetle gear on the chair nearby The suit constantly cleaned itself, so it was always fresh and comfortable. Eddie had no idea how other heroes got along without it... tight-lipped dry cleaners must cost a fortune.
It seemed like she had just closed her eyes when she was awake again. There was too much to do, too many things to fiddle with, things Ted knew that might be important for her to know.
She rose and dressed in a snap, grabbing some noodles on the way down the elevator. Instead of the workroom, though, she headed for the "command center", where Ted had networked various computers and monitors. None of the feeds were showing anything interesting, they hadn't been activated since this was a backup facility. She had been able to get into the main system of course, and from here she had access to everything still connected to the secret virtual private network that had been set up long ago.
Eddie had been in Ted's private files before, but one folder had especially intrigued her though she hadn't had time to check it out thoroughly before. In it were a few photos of a stunning red haired woman with prominent glasses, always sitting down. The pictures were obviously taken without the subject's knowledge, the angles were always odd and stilted, and it took a while for Eddie to realize that the woman was in a wheelchair. There were other files as well, including a couple of chat logs (the contents of which made her blush and close the files immediately).
There were a couple of notes, to do: 1) figure out if supposed to remember Booster's b-day and 2) See if Barb wants to get back together for at least coffee. There were others, of course, but these things were on top so they must have meant something.
The "Barb" note had a phone number, and a chat address leading to a network that she suspected probably had some superhero-y involvement and Eddie resolved to check out later to look for taps or lurking devices. In the meantime, she decided to call the number. After all, wouldn't Ted's friends want to know that someone trustworthy was using his stuff now? Better that she bug them now than have them be surprised when his ends of the network began to light up again. That might lead to incriminations or worse, and she wasn't ready to have to deal with an angry Superman or something.
Eddie fired up the microphone and put some earbuds in. Before she dialed, though, she made sure to run the call through all the satellite bounces and proxies Ted had available. Seemed secure enough, Eddie thought. She had the computer delay the call through a buffer that could examine the packets for various exploits and things that might harm Eddie herself... strange frequencies that could be subliminals, powerful bursts of sound that might affect her in some other way, and so on.
"Can't be too careful." she muttered to herself, as she placed the call.
What would she say, though? This was the worst part.