Hope It Doesn't Explode

Log Title: Hope It Doesn't Explode Characters: Backblast, Dust Devil, Flipsides, Scales, Spike Location: Iacon Medical Center Date: July 16, 2019 TP: Nucleosis TP Summary: While Flipsides works on the data breach, Scales is doing chemistry. As logged by  Scales

Log session starting at 18:56:26 on Tuesday, 16 July 2019.

'''Scales is hard at work. A large section of her bench is covered with her old paper notes and new ones, some of which are completely covered in math and others with chemical notations. The little dragon has a bottle of something that she's carefully heating with her own firebreath in a tight little flame, watching it carefully as it slowly turns to a darker color.'''

'''Flipsides returns to the Center after having returned to her own Quarters for a time, the small Femme squishing that sqeaky ball almost constantly as she heads towards the computer she had been working at. She pauses near it before she turns over and walks towards Scales, putting down the squeak ball next to her before she heads back to the computer, trying to keep somewhat quiet so as not to disturb.'''

'''Scales stops once the mix is the color she's seeking and moves a small fan to blow air over the flask and cool it. She sits up and pokes the squeaky ball once, then looks around to see where Flipsides went.'''

'''Flipsides returns to the computer she's been using, a glass of.. something sitting next to her as she types away, working on clearing up the mess the virus made.'''

'''Spike walks in. He's eager to get back to home, but is more than willing to wait around for his own answers for a separate problem. The only problem, Ratchet has been kind of grumpy, and given the fact that a lot of other stuff is going on, it's not really high on the 'emergency' list.'''

'''Scales sees Flipsides hard at work and so lets her be. Instead, she gets a stirring rod and begins stirring her solution, looking up long enough to wave at Spike with her other paw as he enters. "Hey, Spike!"'''

'''Spike grins and looks at Flipsides and Scales. "Heyah - how goes it, both o you?"'''

'''Flipsides looks up and around for a moment before looking at Spike after he speaks, "Dealing with a major breach of security, and a nasty virus. It's been fun." And the worst part? She actually /does/ sound happy.'''

'''Scales hehs. "Well, I c'n still get m'work done, though I hafta do the modeling and number crunching on m'own for the moment." She gets out a couple of small, shiny rocks and a mortar and pestle. "It's slower, but still kinda fun."'''

'''Spike nods. He casually observes both Scales' and Flipsides' work. "Anything I can help with?" He adds "Sorry, I'm more used to the repair bay - this is more Carly's forte."'''

'''Flipsides flicks her hand a bit as she looks at her computer, "You do not have the right interfaces for this.. we will deal with it." After a moment she remembers to add, "Thank you for the offer though."'''

'''Scales carefully grinds up some of the rock and measures the resulting powder onto some paper on a digital scale. "Um... all you could really do for me is to help time an' stir things. Though havin' somebody standin' by with a bucket of sand just in case prob'ly is a good idea." She gathers up the paper and carefully tips the powder into the cooling liquid, and it shimmers and thickens as she stirs. "Pretty soon I'll have this ready to try onna sample. Fer that, I'll need a spectroanalysis machine running t'capture data when I do it." She sighs. "A portable one, since the main one was tied inta th'main computer, which won't be useable until Flipsides has done her magic on it."'''

'''Spike frowns at the 'we will deal with this' remark from Flipsides. But he hasn't really interacted too terribly much with Flipsides. He simply nods to Flipsides. "Okay..."'''

'''Spike nods to Scales. "Sure, I can do the stirring and sand ... handling." He looks at Scales with a hopeful expression. "Who are you going to try the sample on?"'''

'''Flipsides points at a set of computers, "Those /should/ be usble, Scales.. Ive gone over it and haven't found any trace of the virus on it." She looks back at her computer, "I hope to have this done soon.. have removed most of the virus but doing checks to make sure before I consider saying it's gone for good."'''

'''Scales peers at the liquid, seems satisfied, then grins at Spike. "You never test stuff like this on people 'less you hafta," she admonishes. "Always check on a sample first." She gets down and bounds over to one of the secure cabinets, opening it and carefully removing a small metal flask to take back to her work. "Uh, now would be the time t'be ready with sand, just in case," she warns, moving it and her liquid project to a blast hood. "This additive can be explosive with some chemicals. If I did this right, it should just steam. If I didn't..." She makes a face.'''

'''Spike readies the sand. He gives Scales a quizzical look. "Should...I be stepping back?"'''

'''Flipsides cuhckles just a bit, "Might want to.. or at least get behind something." She watches Scales, grinning a bit, "I heard rumors that Springer will volunteer to help.. What was it he called you." She taps her chin, "Oh, I remember. He would help the pretty little dragon whenever she needed?"'''

'''Scales hehs and points to the side of the blast hood. "You should be behind the armored partition, there, yeah," she says to Spike. She removes the stopper from the metal flask and draws some liquid with a clean pipette, then gets both that and the flask in place in the sheltered area, closing it as much as possible and folding her wings and crest as far back as she can as she carefully drips a few drops of one into the other. Steam blooms immediately as the two liquids combine. "Oh, wow- that's -warm-!"'''

'''Spike makes his way behind the armored partitioned, pointed out by Scales. His eyes widen as steam emits from the combination.'''

'''Having combined the liquids, Scales retreats behind the partition on the other side to watch from behind protection as the mix steams and bubbles. "It'll take about two minutes to fully react," she says.'''

'''Flipsides just looks at the experiememt... then at all the equipment, then flicks her hand and puts a small forceshield over most of the equipment, then gets back to work. "You better not blow up that ball, Scales! You know how long it took me to find one? Here on Cybertron?"'''

<> Dust Devil says, "Hey backblast they had a bug go through their computers. Ratchet was bein cranky."

<> Para-Droppable PITA Backblast says, "Ah, for fuck's sake, any idea what?"

<> Spike says, "How do you know Ratchet was being cranky because of that?"

<> Flipsides says, "In his defense, Ratchet is almost always cranky."

Spike looks over at Flipsides quizzically "What's so special about the balll?"

'''Scales lets out a puff of smoke. "If anything's gonna be hurt by an explosion, it's me," she says, grinning in spite of her nerves. "M'wings are more fragile than rubber is." The liquid settles a bit, the bubbles and steam slowly dying off.'''

'''Spike gives a cautious, hopeful grin. "So...good so far?"'''

'''Scales nods. "Good so far. If the glass it's in is sound, the heat shouldn't even be a problem. I didn't hear any cracking when it was going full, er, steam, so I'm hopeful it'll stay intact."'''

'''Flipsides simply shakes her head, "It was a gift, Spike.. annoying hard to find one for some reason to." She waves her hand again and the fields fade as she goes abck to work, though she glances toward the experiment and keeps track of it.'''

<> Dust Devil says, "I was going to say if his paint was white and his optics were blue, he was cranky"

<> Para-Droppable PITA Backblast says, "What was targeted?"

<> Dust Devil says, "Don't know ....they were being cranky when I tried being helpful"

'''Scales waits until the last of the bubbling and steam fades, then scoots back around to carefully pick up the flask of liquid and gently swirl it. "Wow, it's still really warm," she comments. "But it's the right viscosity." She carries it back to her bench and stoppers it with a valve stopper that will prevent it from forming a vacuum as it cools, then puts it back on the stand by the fan. The little dragon lets out a long stream of smoke in relief.'''

'''Backblast steps into the lab, smelling freshly-scrubbed from the decontamintion room. He looks around, putting his lab coat on and looking to Scales. "What're you doing, and how can I help?" He asks, sparing everyone else a half-wave.'''

'''Flipsides chuckles softly, "Nothing blew up, so it's a improvement." She focuses on her computer again, fingers moving agian as she connects a wire to it to speed along her searches, "Okay.. that computer is isolated enough, Scales, you can start running some of your tests through it. Should help."'''

'''Scales nods to Backblast as he enters. "Counteragent!" she says cheerfully. "It'll be ready to try out as soon as it cools to room temp'rature." She begins to tidy up ingredients, putting the dangerous metal flask away first before heading back to pack away the less reactive ingredients. She nods thanks to Flipsides. "That'll help a lot, yeah. I'll be able t'model another option if this one doesn't work th'way I want."'''

'''Backblast blinks "You have been busy! An active counter-agent?" He says, blinking. "Sowhat can I do?"'''

<> Spike says, "Well, cranky is Ratchet's sort of MO"

'''Spike eerges from the protective paneling he was next to, just in case...things went boom-y. "So...say the test works, how much longer can you expect before you put it to a 'live' particpant?'''

'''Scales mmms. "Well, first I gotta test it on a couple of samples. If it works on those and nothing burns or explodes, then we could try it on a person as soon as we have enough. Part of what I'd be checking is how much of this it'd take to denature a given amount of nucleosis." She taps a couple of claws on the edge of her bench. "We might have enough here t'test on a minibot if all goes right, so.. tomorrow? But if we need more than that, well, it's a two day process t'make even this little."'''

Flipsides goes back to her soft chanting as she works on the last few blocks of virus, pausing on occasion to take a sip from her drink before going back, "Almost done.. then can focus on backtracking those codes."

'''Spike nods. He sighs "It's too bad Dust Devil's not infected." He pauses and pinches his nose. "Wait, that came out wrong...I meant... it's too bad...because he'd be a willing participant."'''

'''Scales giggles. "Okay, I understand whatcha meant." She retrieves a bit of paper from her bench and shows it to Backblast. It's covered in chemistry formulas. "Okay, so far, I think these make up the nucleosis. I'm tryin' t'break this one." She points to a formula. "But even if this works, ev'ry step's been pretty energetic so far. There'll probably be heat problems when we finally get t'testing it on people."'''

'''Spike nods and grins. "Awesome, way to go, Scales!"'''

'''Backblast blinks and sits down on a rolling chair, moving over to a chair as he reads over the formula. At Spike's words he pauses, before nodding in agreement and sliding over to one of the consoles that's not airgapped '''

'''"Why wait? You've got the science covered, I'll work on the counter-crypto." He sets down his big, bulky radio pack and flips it open, revealing three rows of three dials (one red row, one yellow row, one green). Then he folds the radio-pack open, revealing a complex series of oscilloscopes, knobs, switches, graphs and dials - the analogue and digital halves of his cryptographic suite. He plugs them into a custom combi-lead, and then plugs that into the terminal. The whole pack whirs into life and lights up, the dials on the lower half click-clacking as they self-test.'''

'''As it runs through the sequence, Backblast looks to Scales. "That fits with my spectrograph readings." He agrees. "Yeah... but cooling is a problem we can deal with. Encore uses lots of cryogenic liquids for brewing, he won't mind if I borrow some to save lives."'''

'''Scales tidies up her papers, sorting and stacking them. "I'm wondering how t'archive all these notes. Prob'ly gonna have to image them if I want it all t'be captured accurately."'''

'''Backblast nods quietly. "That's always a pain in the arse."'''

Log session ending at 21:27:26 on Tuesday, 16 July 2019.