Business Before Pleasure

Ness kept his smile plastered on his face as he shook everyone's hand. He Could bum rush the whole operation and take them.down himself, but they would only wait a bit and start again. He needed to gather evidence and get everyone involved taken down at once. He would bide his time and ask if he could help.

"Okay, I was thinking that we skip the demonstration and go directly to what you all have been waiting for, the practical demonstration." he says as he starts out [color=orange if everyone will follow me, please."[/color] he says.

He heads outside and waiting for them was a Shuttle "Okay, everyone gather in and strap yourselves down. We'll be going for a ride to the outer reaches of your solar system." he says.

Of course, everyone was about as interested in seeing for themselves. Skylar in particular was actually pretty interested in seeing what space was like as it be the Very first time any Noreal native had ever been in space travel. Despite all her troubles and everything else she pushed it to the side for the moment. "That's impressive. How many can the shuttle hold?"

Ness shrugs "It comfortably hold everyone here, if that's what you're wondering." he says "However, in general, these shuttles can hold about ten people but can be modified to hold as many as twenty." he says as he gets in and straps himself into the pilot's seat "Take off is gonna be a bit turbulent, so if you have a weak constitution, I suggest you sit this one out." he advises.

Sebastian frowned a bit at the last part. "I think I will stay out in that case of things."

Skylar hummed. "Indeed. It's a shame you won't be joining us. I had thought you would of been able, but there is no shame admitting weakness in one area where they're lacking." It was said pleasantly but it was a thinly lined jab. Maybe pushing it but she couldn't help it.

Sebastian didn't comment and walked away, though Skylar felt the small flash of annoyance to her satisfaction. Petty victories. The bitchy persona still came in handy for some things.

Lucien, his wife and Relena came in while Skylar sat down and was doing her best not to look like a child going on their first ride which was kind of cute in its own way. How could one not? She was making history!

Ness nods to Sebastian "It's our loss that you won't be joining us. It's gonna be quite the show. But please feel free to go about your daily business, this demonstration may take some time." he says.

Once everyone is aboard and strapped in, and the runway cleared, Ness fires up the boosters and starts off. It was the typical runway take off, but faster as Ness hits the turbo Just as they start their accent!

And Ness was right, the turbulence was pretty rough, but Ness seemed quite calm and soon, they find themselves space bound! Seconds later, they had left Noreal's atmosphere "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have left Noreal and are now in actual space." he points out as he turns the shuttle around to look at Noreal "And there it is. Did you ever think you would see your home from this perspective?" he asks.

Skylar didn't like the turbulence. Then again she didn't like flying on planes that much unless she had to so it was to be expected. Being in space was a beyond novel experience to her and something she didn't think she'd be able to see herself. All thanks to the very handsome young man..

Her cheeks flushed slightly and not trusting herself to speak choose to distract herself from the view.

Luckily if any of the council members noticed they said nothing about it for the time being. Andaline smiled a bit. "It is beautiful and no we didn't. At least not anytime soon with our limited travel. It's both comforting and scary we weren't alone in the universe."

Ness nods "You aren't the first to feel that way either. The Humans also thought they were alone in this vast universe." he chuckles as he turns the shuttle and starts off.

"And here we are. The EFA Hyperion class heavy cruiser." he says as he swings around, giving them a good look at it. "At 1,025.39 meters in length it is the perfect ship for casual exploration and should there be any hostile baddies out there, rest assured it can more than take care of it's self." he says as he pulls into the small dock.

Ness unbuckles as the docking tube attaches to the shuttle "Now, for demonstration purposes, I have added gravity netting to the floors, as this style of ship doesn't have artificial gravity." he points out "And I have staffed it with Paragon Corps NS-5s." he says as he leads them to the bridge.

"From here, we can go anywhere we have a hyperspace beacon set for." he says as he pulls up the navigation computer "In this case, we will be traveling to the edge of your solar system and back." he says as he sets the coordinates "Now, a rough estimate, with current technology, would put that at about a few hundred years, one way." he turns to the group "What if I told you we could go to and from, in just three days?"

Lucien was impressed by the design. The only thing Noreal had weren't of course nearly as impressive nor could they travel all that far. They could get to their moon and other distant things but even then it took some time for them to get anywhere.

"That's impressive. Far better then anything we can currently do. I'm not sure how long it would take us to improve that much." Lucien said, looking around. "How long does it take without a Hypespace Beacon?"

Skylar glanced at the machines, she heard of them briefly but hadn't ever seen them in person. Noreal didn't have anything of that nature and she wasn't sure how she felt about them just yet. Ness was helping her and wasn't asking anything in return, the least she could do was keep a open mind. But what if they went rogue?

Ness shakes his head "A hyperspace beacon simply marks the way so you don't get lost in hyperspace. Without it, it becomes nearly impossible to navigate in hyperspace." he explains.

He gives the go ahead to jump to hyperspace and it looks just like it did in Ness' presentation. He looks to the group "Well, since we have a few days to to get to our destination, how about I show you around the ship and where your quarters are?" he offers.

"That would be lovely thank you." Andaline said pleasantly. "It's not everyday anyone from Noreal would exactly be on a star ship. Shame our daughter was away, we'll have to show them later."

Skylar decided to ask a bit of the question that had been on her mind. "I do have a question but slightly off topic. Those NS-5's. Are you not concerned about what if they go rogue? What are the fail safe's?"

Ness nods "That's a good question. All NS-5s are hardwired to follow orders and barring orders, they can Not harm you." he explains "And, obviously, if someone orders an NS-5 to harm someone, they will refuse. Example..." he pulls out a knife and tosses it to an NS-5 "NS-5, I want you to take that knife and stab me with it." he orders one.of the robots.

The NS-5 in question, catches the knife effortlessly and listens to Ness' orders. The robot shakes his head "I'm sorry, but I can not do that." he says as he holds the knife back to Ness.

"Override directives; Burger-Gamma-1998..." he says, which causes the light in the middle NS-5s chest to turn red "I have taken it's autonomy away and it will now do Anything I tell it." he says to the group "NS-5, use that knife and stab me. That is a direct command from your creator." he orders.

The NS-5 shakes it's head again "I'm sorry, but I can not do that. Any further attempts to get this unit to harm any living being will result in this unit shutting down." the NS-5 says as it holds Ness' knife out again.

Ness takes the knife and puts it back "Return to your normal operational function and duties." he says as the light in the NS-5 turns blue again amd the robot starts off.

Ness turns back to the group "See? It's hardwired into them to Not hurt anyone. Even if their software is hacked, the command remains in their hardware." he tells them "And if that command were ever removed, the unit would shut down."

Skylar watched the whole thing in complete silence as Ness made a demonstration of why having them around was safe. Perhaps she had read and seen too many Sci Fi movies why this kind of stuff was bad, but it was just that, fiction. She supposed its why she had a adverse reaction to the artificial Nosferartu twins: fear and misunderstanding whether she wanted to admit it or not.

"I see. I suppose that would suffice then.." She finally said thinking.

Lucien seemed a bit impressed. "The advantage of using them seems pretty obvious to. They don't get tired and you don't have to worry about common fallings of organic beings. Still its a good idea how you made them far as safety mechanic is concerned. I'm guessing they were used to make earth's ships or at least part?"

Ness nods "Yes. Our shipyards are in space and the NS-5s are essential in helping us construct our ships." he says as he motions for them to follow him.

"Now, while this ship is a good little ship for exploring the galaxy, it Is still a Heavy Cruiser..." he points out "We Do have an Explorer class ship that's much better suited to seeing what's out there, plus, it carries the equipment to build jump gates and place hyperspace beacons, so you can expand your sphere of influence and maybe make deals with other races aside from Earth and Elysium." he explains.

Andaline, Lucien and the others seemed to like the idea. "We're rather new to this whole thing so we'll assume there are many clases of ships for different purposes."

As this was going on, Skylar's light bulb seemed to turn on. "Wait. If we're here for a few days what about our wardrobes?" Forget the world changing techology and everything else for the moment, she was asking the real questions here.

Ness nods to Andaline's question "There are a few types of ships out there, but most aren't as good as some of the ones you've seen in my presentation." he says.

He looks to Skylar "Miss Bertram, you just gave me the Perfect segway into this next feature." he says as he moves over to a small, dimly lit cubby hole "Normally, in a ship like this, everyone would have uniforms in their quarters, and there's a small gally onboard as well, but the food is often not too good,outside of the rations..." he starts.

Tapping a screen on the small cubby hole, which lights up "That's why Paragon Corp is happy to announce that if you decide to go into business with us, we will equip your ships with our MK-2 food replicators." he says.

"Here's how they work. You just program your meal and tell the computer what you want." he explains as he looms to the screen "Computer, a glass of ice water." he says and within seconds, a glass of cool ice water materializes in the cubby hole and Ness takes it out and takes a sip "Oh yeah. Nothing's better." he says as he moves aside so everyone can take a look at the device.

Lucien didn't say anything about it, but he suspected others had noted Skylar's change of behavior. For the few at the council she let in her being like more open and less guarded wasn't a surprise. What was a surprise, was the fact she was doing so in this setting. He doubted he was the only one who pondered what spurred the change not that it was a bad thing.

However, it was the latest device that caught everyone's attention and especially Skylar's in particular.

"Anything as long as we program it?" Skylar repeated, her eyes having a light sparkle to them. She was thinking about all the food she could get her hands on with such a thing, especially desserts.

Andaline watched mildly amused. "I didn't think anything like this was even possible. The best we could manage was cloning food, so scarcity in that sense isn't a big issue anymore. Making them with a program? That's something else."

Ness nods "That's right. In fact, I already have quite the extensive library of meals and beverages programmed into the computer." he says "And since this a replicator mk-2, it can also replicate clothing as well."

He would give them another moment to look the replicator over, before moving on "If you would like, I can show you all to your rooms." he offers.

Lucien didn't personally have a issue with it. "Please do. We'll be staying here for at least a few days so it wouldn't hurt."

"I'll agree with my husband. It's funny I had more questions but can't remember them now. " Andaline said.

"There's a lot to absorb. Perhaps its just the situation being so new it almost seems surreal? It certainly seems to me.." Skylar turned to Ness. "And yes please."

Ness shows them to a single person room "Now, here we have the senior officer's quarters, not as big as the crew quarters, but then, the crew quarters have two people in one billet." he says as he heads inside.

The room was a decent size with a comfortable living room, a separate bed with a bathroom attached "Each room comes standard with a replicator and a sonic shower, as well as a wall monitor with an extensive library of movies, shows, games, and music to keep them entertained." he explains to his guests.

Skylar was pleased by that bit. If she was going to be stuck on a space ship for any length of time she was going to need things to keep herself busy. As wonderous as traveling in space was, the luster of just seeing outside wouldn't be able to maintain its charm over a long period at least in her mind.

"I think this will do nicely." Andaline said, looking around the room. "I was going to ask what other things would there be to do but this was anwered."

"Is there a gym or equipment?" Skylar asked after a moment. "Keeping in shape is important to me and if for some reason I have to long travel I want to be prepared."

Ness nods "Yes, there's a small gym onboard, but you need to remember, it was designed for zero g. If you decide to purchase gravity netting for your ships, the gym won't be as effective, though, I'm sure you can customize them however you wish." he says "Shall we move along? There's still plenty to see." he says.

"Lead the way." Lucien, along with the other council members present were intigued on whatever else he had to show, some more then others at the moment.

Ness leads them to the medbay "And here we have the medical bay. It's not as big as I would have liked it, but I didn't really design this ship." he chuckles "We have the latest in medical technologies as well as an in house doctor." he says as he nods to a computer panel on the wall "Computer, activate EMH." he says.

A rather plain looking, middle aged man shimmers into view "Please state the nature of your medical emergency." he says, sounding almost bored.

Ness looks from the EMH to his guests "This is the EMH, or Emergency Medical Hologram. He's the onboard doctor." he says as he nods to the dimly glowing sensor bars on the walls "As you may have noticed, these sensor nodes have been placed throughout the whole ship. These are holo-emitters that allow the EMH to walk freely through the ship." he explains.

"Computer, deactivate the EMH." he says as the EMH disappears "it's still advisable to have a doctor of your own, for away missions and such."

Skylar was taken back slightly when they just vanished like that. She had never seen anything like that as holograms they had were extremely primitive in function. They couldn't be trusted to be healers or anything of that kind as they lacked the means to do so like what was presented to them.

"Hm. I assume its just in case something happens to the sensors or there other limitations to it?" Skylar asked.

Ness nods. He explained why, but he guessed they needed confirmation "Yes. The EMH runs on it's own power supply, but if anything happens to that power supply, it'll go offline and there Are some places where it can't go on the ship." he explains "But like I said, it helps to have a real doctor onboard for away missions and places where the EMH can't go." he points out "It can also be programmed to look like whatever and whomever you wish it to look like."