I'll make two posts this morning. This one plays catch up on some of the events happening during jump. The other one will deal with your arrival at Aki. The arrival does not foreclose events happing in jump. I just want to get the PCs to where they can be doing things outside of jump while the last details are settled.
Still in jumpspace:
Once the meeting wraps up, Spicoli and William come out to the packed cargo bay and see Bilis set up in the corner of the bay closest to the brig. The large, rectangular box filled the space that had been left unfilled by cargo though there was just enough room to open the front door and go inside. As the panels that make it up are thin, it looks as if it is big enough to hold a grown rhino. It could in fact hold Doctor Metz's lab entirely.
Metz will turn to William and Spicoli.
"The process is painless and you will not be aware of the time that passes while it is in progress. Once you step inside, there will be a brief glitch in your perception and the process will have been completed. Just open the door and come back out."
Whichever one of you goes first steps inside and the door closes behind you though it isn't dark. It seems as if the panels are giving off a dim illumination and so you don't feel as if you are trapped. As Metz had indicated, there is a brief twitch of your perceptions that you couldn't describe if you tried.
You feel exactly the same as you did before except that now you have a neural jack installed as well as the other modifications that Metz had mentioned. You feel completely normal. Any testing you do with the hardware shows that it works perfectly. Accessing the neural jack is seamless and it gives you access to all of its capabilities.
One of the most impressive ones at least in the short term is the way your PRIS vision integrates with everything else you can see so seamlessly. When you've used the technology before, it's been a matter of interpreting everything but now it seems to be fully woven into your senses. It's almost as if you had always been able to see in those spectrums.
Obviously, using some of the technologies built into the neural jack will take a little practice but with the built-in computer accessible to you, the manual is right there, and the process will be significantly easier. This hardware was designed to mesh with you and to make the process of using it easier. It's almost as if it anticipates some of your needs and provides you the instructions on how to do something as soon as you begin thinking about how you might manage it.
Once whoever went in first steps out, the other person can go in and the process will be identical. For the one outside, it only takes a couple of minutes for the deconstruction and fabrication to take place.
Only once the two of you are finished does Metz walk into the area himself and set down his pendant. When he steps back outside and closes the door, he looks as if he is communicating with someone using the neural jack and he probably is. A quick check shows that it has the ability to hear psionic communication. Not mind reading or thought projection but communications using psi. Like talking, but without the means for someone who isn't psionic to overhear. That might be useful under certain circumstances.
As soon as you figure that out, the feature activates, and you can actually hear Metz and Bilis talking.
"I have finished scanning the item, Doctor Metz. I am unable to determine what its original function was but I am able to duplicate it, though I have to advise you that it appears to be broken. As you say, it does increase your intelligence while it is being worn but I doubt very seriously that was its original purpose."
"We'd already guessed that," Metz said silently.
"If you would make half a dozen copies, then I can make those available to the rest. Please put the pattern for it in my fabrication unit."
"Of course. I am beginning the process now. Deconstruction complete. Pattern saved and transmitted. Fabrication complete. You may pick up your new items, Doctor."
Metz stepped over and opened the big door, bending over and picking up seven of the pendants. He turns to Spicoli and hands him one. "Just remember that this can only be worn for a couple of hours each day. If you exceed that, you'll end up with a splitting migraine and a nosebleed."
He turned to William and handed him all but one of the others.
"If you'd see that the others get these, I'd be most grateful. I don't know that they will prove useful to anyone else, but it's been life changing for me."
You can look on the listing for the neural jack to get all the details of what your new augmentations are capable of doing. I'll update your character sheets with the specifics.
viewtopic.php?p=714612#p714612
If there's anything else that you need Metz to do, you'll have to run it by him.
Only STR advances.