Nick's code has some of the necessary building blocks, and it's pretty well designed, what's already there. The bits that interact with the accelerometer are nearly unreadable, but blazingly fast and optimized. Crucially, the drone can be given a queue of commands like 'turn 90 degrees' and 'move forward 100 meters' and be trusted to manage it with (relatively) little variance. Collision avoidance is minimal and buggy and has lots of comments like //Whatever just make the body tougher

...How does the reinforcement work again, he checks his notes...

...Huh, that could be really handy. Maybe they don't even need to drill holes in the wall. Just set up a temporal relay. How much area could one relay effectively cover? Would it be able to reinforce, say, a lot of poles arranged across the big bathroom's ceiling?

Zahn decides that the right way to deal with the lack of collision avoidance is to set a high elevation so it's unlikely to run into anything. The search pattern code is starting to take form.

The reinforcement will freeze an object together, and with some fudging around the edges it looks like it can be set to freeze two objects together. With some care taken this would allow you to freeze something to the ceiling. More complex structures would either require more relays or an advanced configuration.

Does it give any warnings about something getting between the relay and its target? Example advanced configurations?

The advanced configuration automatically loads the options form the last quick configuration setting, and allows modifications from there. There are no warnings about objects between the relay and it's target but the relay is noted to have a maximum range of four meters from its emitter which is helpfully marked on the relay body. Additionally, there is a warning that if an object is moved separate from the relay after time is frozen the freezing might fail unexpectedly.

He decides he needs to test it. Quick configuration, reinforcement on that there wall.

"Don't go over here until I test this, by the way."

And he wanders outside and finds a pebble and tosses it into where he imagines the beam probably is, if there was a beam to be had.

If he's paying attention to the configuration screen he'll note a small warning about overlapping fields. This isn't marked as dangerous, merely redundant. There is no apparent effect on the pebble.

He turns it off. "This temporal relay thing is crazy." (How many does this warehouse have, o inventory screen?) "I think I'm going to use my newfound command over the power of time to... Build privacy dividers. It'll be a riot."

This warehouse contains 4 crates with 100 relays each, minus the two that have been withdrawn. Zahn laughs. "Well, don't get too ambitious on us."

"It also unlocked a job for me. Engineering technician. I have to be one to use anything more than the most basic modes on these. The computer hasn't given you more access to the elevator codes yet, has it?"

Zahn sighs, "I spent some more time last night, after way too much time spent on stain removal it started discussing the various types of one way doors and then a little bit on elevators. I'm hoping that's a good sign for unlocking the ability soon."

"I appreciate your sacrifice to the altar of boredom."

"Well, apparently not all the teleporters are coded. There are these things called trap doors, which are just teleporters disguised as closets with the one way marking above them. If you let the door close with you inside it'll send you somewhere, but not necessarily let you go back. Also, there was a reference to something called a broken-ring carriage zone which seemed more like math puzzle or a horror story than anything a sane person would build."

"...We should make tons of copies of, like, warning sheets and spread them around with ol' foamy. Er, I named the drone."

"Ooh, I wonder if we should just take some people and bike over to the other home complexes today. It's a risk but it might let us stabilize things a lot more. There might also be someone that the system thinks is a competent Janitor. I'm not sure the dictionary attack idea will even work but it's worth trying."

"Sounds like something I'd want Alice along for. She seems competent."

"She is quite skilled, she goes to martial arts classes and she can fight unarmed or with knives, and she always has knives."

"I got that vibe, yeah. I don't know if Walta does martial arts, but she's got a little steel in her soul. For lack of a better turn of phrase."

"Yeah, I get that sense, she seems to be coping well with everything."

"Helps that neither of us have much going for us at home, outside of college..."

"I like my family, but Alice is my best friend. If she wasn't here I'd be a lot worse off."

"At any rate, I think I'm about ready to head back to the home complex with a bunch of stuff if you'd like to help carry it."

"Yeah, I'm happy to help. Did Walta say she was meeting us back here?"

"...Oh, right, she did, and she can't open doors. We wait then."

"We can start gathering things together to be ready to leave when she gets back. Also, it's a nice day if we want to wait outside."

"If you don't mind the fresh green air and warm orange sun."