Jarmon Kell Thread

[Bradwardine]

This thread is for individual adventuring by Jarmon Kell, or subsequent characters run by Pel, when seaparated from the party; also for private in-character information for said character. Respect this thread's privacy until I "declassify" it.

Bradwardine



You were called to an office to be handed sealed company instructions to leave that evening. They read in part: ". . . . to Zwerg to quietly investigate reports received of equipment failures, accidents, and employee misbehavior. Your part will be to examine the equipment in question, and the scenes and reports of the accidents, within your technical competence. You know what to look for. You will take passage on the intersystem space barge M.E.-Workingman. Once groundside, you will be put up in company accommodations and supplied with a gravel suit. First Mate Jack Freeman will be traveling in your company. He is your supervisor on this assignment, and responsible for your personal protection; when in doubt, defer to him . . . ." The instructions were accompanied by Mr. Madnard's personal authentication, to be shown to First Mate Freeman, and to verify yourself and others assigned to this group to company officials and to one another. "This is in strictest confidence."
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"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

Jarmon entered the cargo hold and saw Ray. "Hello. How can I help?"
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

The crewman beckons Kell over into the low alcove, just before the doorway into the enormous hold, where he has been working. "Name's Rayshield. Did you get a load of the captain's sense of humor?" he says with a small smile.

"Now look at this thing: I have been working on it for hours-" he sets his jaw in strongly suppressed frustration "-and am getting nowhere. Everything seems to be in order, but watch, closely, what happens when I try to run it." The droid, one of four, is a four-foot-high treaded contraption, with a pair of very sturdy piston "arms" ending together in a right-angle lifting plate. Rayshield presses the button on the droid caller in his hand; the droid's eyes light up, and it warbles once; a servo-motor's whirring is heard, but the arms do nothing. [Roll your perception, Pel; post the result at the end of your reply].
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

"Pleased to meet you, Rayshield,' Jarmon replied. "I do appreciate a good sense of humor. Now, let's see what's wrong with this little fellow." Jarmon examined the droid and it's behavior. "How long has he been acting like this?"

[Perception 2D+1: 6]
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

Jarmon Kell perceives that the work alcove is clean and quite orderly. The smell of lubricants and solvents is, of course, impossible to miss.

"When I tried to put him into operation today. Couldn't tell you how long it's been coming on--the Workingman is laded and unladed by Company port crew, and we just keep the droids to attend to any problems in transit, such as the one out there"--gesturing toward the hold--"which unfortunately needs all four droids together to put right. I do rotate which one I use, and they are checked and serviced regularly."

[Roll your Droid Repair; same procedure].
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

Jarmon nods and examines the droid closely. "What about your other droids? Any problems or unusual behavior there or in the areas they work?"

[Droid Repair 5D: 15]
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

"Huh, I wish there were; I'd have something to give you then. They're all in order and functioning smoothly; just the way the Company, and this company man, likes it."

Your examination is frustrating because the droid is in good order: it is used but not worn out; you can tell that nothing is grinding, straining, loose, or frozen; Rayshield is not lying about his diligence in maintenance; you see nothing wrong with the servos in question, which are doing their job, except in producing results. Kell feels as though he has an answer to this problem, except that it refuses to surface from his capable brain.
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

Kell ponders a moment, perplexed by the seemingly normal droid equipment. "What about the area they're stored in? Any interference there? While we're at it, let's have a look at this little guy's program."

[Technical 4D: 11]
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

The commands in the droid's program are properly formatted and entered; the coding is very clean, with no rewrites. All of the commands programmed produce the appropriate response in the droid. It is very clear that the program is not the problem.
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

Kell checks over the program and shakes his head. "Everything looks good here. Have you tried verbal commands or using another droid caller?"
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

"I only had problems from interference once, on another Company ship, when someone had smuggled some unusual devices in the cargo, and they were switched on. These critters aren't set up for verbal commands as far as I know. I tried all the droid callers that I have . . . same results."
"I didn't offend you by calling you 'non-descript', did I? I had to describe who I was asking for over the intercom to the captain, and you're, well . . . 'non-descript'."
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

"No, that's ok. Non-descript is the idea. It's the flashy ones that get shot." Kell ponders again then shakes his head. "What about that cargo idea? Do you have any scanning equipment we can use to see if there's an interfering signal? Other than that I'm fresh out of ideas."
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

"You wouldn't, by any chance, happen to have, or have heard of, any datazine articles or holorecords with an account of fixing something like this, would you? If nothing else, it might bring a thought to mind; to my burnt-out one, anyway. I have no scanning equipment, unless you can in someway rework a comlink to scan for those signals, which seems a very difficult task."

"Why don't you bring a datacard or two down? I'll go get a drink and a gobble," he stands and straightens up, and tiredly turns right out of the alcove to ascend the steps toward the quarters and lounge.
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)

[Pel]

Kell produces his datapad and initiates a search of various trade publications and technical manuals for the symptoms the droid exhibits. "I'm not ready to attempt any commlink modifications just yet, little guy," he says to the droid. "Let's see if anyone else found a similar problem."
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Aha!

[Bradwardine]

Naturally, the rather literal search function turns up both relevant and ludicrous results:

Technical Manual 3221-MD
Troubleshooting
Power
No Power
3f--Repulsorlift oversurge burned out power flow junction.
1. Disconnect repulsorlift.
2. Replace burnt-out junction.
3. Re-connect repulsorlift.

The Professional Droid Repairman
"Mucus Accumulation Obstruction in Droid Workings: How to Fix an Unusual Condition."
Apparently a certain alien's sneezes, should they reach moving parts, create a tough and gummy gunk that jams and damages droid workings. The acid cleaners that can dissolve the mucus will do horrifying things to metals and plastoids. The solution is to spray the gunk with a particular evaporating solvent, let waft away, then turn the droid upside down and shake the now dried and crumbly mucus out. Sprays and compressed gases are not helpful.

"The Droid Doctor"
The Droid Doctor's Most Difficult Diagnoses"
--one of which involves a tiny part that, if put in in a very particular way, whilst three other related parts are put in in an equally specific fashion, none of which is bad in itself,will produce a "I am ok; you are ok; we are no ok", failure to function; the problem is nearly invisible, but is not too difficult to fix when figured out: put the parts back a different way.

There are several "using our competitors' parts will void the warranty" statements, from both manuals and announcement advertisements; these range from meek "just please keep your business in-house, huh", through ones that read like Imperial announcements against having New Republic sympathies; one of these last, an agreement required to be signed for purchase of the droid, contains Galactically-broad legal-redress provisions that seriously hint at sending bounty hunters after any who thus "void the warranty".
_________________
"Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13b)
"God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." (Acts 17:30b)