//------------------------------// // An Oasis in Motion // Story: Tales from The Oasis // by TikiBat //------------------------------// The calm silence that would normally permeate the ARK was broken by the gentle echo of the music that was playing throughout. The sprawling lab was normally staffed with at least a handful of high clearance researchers, but today it was devoid of all but one. Despite the solitary loneliness, the red pegasus continued to silently, but eagerly work away on his projects, occasionally humming along to the music. You're face to face With the man who sold the world The sound of the music continued to echo throughout the large lab, suddenly being interrupted by the sound of the comm going off, startling Tinker for a moment and breaking his trance. With a small sigh, Tinker slid over towards the glowing screen and gently tapped a hoof to it, “Sprocket, what’s up?” “Look, I know you’re busy but the other half of the team has been driving me crazy with requests and I’m getting tired of it. Any chance you can take another look at this so we can maybe get our budget proposal back in order?” Tinker nodded, “I can spare a few minutes, so what’s up this time? I can’t imagine it’s really all that bad.” “Well you’re not going to like this, I’ve got a long list of shit that’s been breaking down and an even longer list of issues that the team’s been bringing up non stop. Before you ask, it’s different than the issues we already addressed. You got a pen or something handy to jot this down with?” Tinker nodded, quietly flipping up his gauntlet’s built in stylus and holding it over the screen, “I suppose.” “Right, well first thing’s first, the grid’s experiencing a whole slew of issues again—” “—I thought we corrected those issues?” “We did. But that last round of budget cuts meant that the planned upgrades got shelved until next quarter.” Tinker nodded, idly jotting down a few notes, “I see. What about project Helios? I thought we were adding more panels to each building and adjusting the backup battery array to account for that?” “It’s already underway, but they won’t be online for weeks, the Helios team only has so many contractors that can handle this kind of complicated wiring and calibration, recruitment’s kind of fallen behind a bit— but that’s supposedly being rectified if Diamond and Silver’s words are anything to go by... Maybe we’d have the budget for some of those repairs if Silver didn’t insist on adding the redundant access point to the clock tower...” “You know the reasoning behind that… even if we’ll never have to use it, it's still important that we have access in case of an emergency.” Sprocket sighed, “I guess. But maybe we wouldn’t need emergency access if our grid didn’t cut out as often as it’s been doing.” “So what about hydroelectric then? Where are we at with that project?” Tinker asked, ignoring his question. “Still in early planning, the Mariners were working on a few components for that way up north, but got tied up with their Sea Castle project again. Silver was going to stop up there after his vacation, that’s another week away though.” “Magic?” Sprocket laughed, “Yeah no, you know the answer to that one. Really though, what’s the issue Tinker? We’ve got the resources, we’ve supposedly got the funding and staff— well for the most part that is. Why does it feel like this place is falling apart?” Tinker looked around at the model of the Oasis that sat towards the center of the room, “Well, taking your list of concerns into account… maybe we’re outgrowing this place.” “You think so?” Tinker nodded, “It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. You and I don’t have issues getting to our projects everyday and that’s because we have wings— we can literally just fly right over here, take the most direct route. Only about a third of us are able to do that, even less are humans that can just drive around. Everyone else here has to walk or take the shuttle… and well, the shuttle’s lacking to say the least.” Sprocket let out a small laugh, “That’s putting it incredibly lightly Tinker, they’re so bad that it’s laughable at this point. It’s funny really, our entire world changed what, two years ago now? And somehow public transportation’s managed to get even worse.” Tinker shrugged, “Well I’d say that’s a bit subjective, but fair point. So what should we do about that now then?” “Well making sure that the few researchers we have at our disposal can actually get to their projects on time would be a good start.” “So what you’re saying is that we should jump start some of those projects that the Transport Team was working on then?” “You mean—” Tinker nodded, “—Oh yes, I do. We’ve got so many more ponies and humans here that could lend their talents to this kind of thing. I mean it’d be a headache to figure out right now with the aforementioned issues, but the benefits in the long run would certainly make it all worth it…” “Are you thinking what I’m thinking then?” “Automated people movers?” Tinker said with a smile. “I was thinking more in the line of monorails… but maybe we could utilize both. APMs for the smaller lines, monorails for the bigger ones?” Tinker opened a new project file and started quickly jotting more notes down, “I like it, offer some alternate options. It’d set us back a bit more, but I think the added transportation will make it worth it. Plus if we come up with anything new and groundbreaking we’d have a working model we could sell would be investors on.” “We’ll need to do a full analysis on what would suit us best, along with what has the best potential for future growth. We also need to make sure we can actually maintain ours so we don’t run into all those problems that others have dealt with in the past.” Tinker paused his note taking and turned back towards the comm, raising an eyebrow, “Problems?” “Yeah, you ever hear about the Disney monorails in Florida? I was riding one some odd years back and the door opened during transit. Definitely not something we want to deal with here, especially when we’re dealing with ponies that don’t have hands to hold onto the railings with, or wings to glide to safety.” Tinker nodded along, no doubt ignoring most of what Sprocket had just said, “So the door opened and they still ran the monorails?” Sprocket paused for a moment, “Yeah, those things were pieces of junk that were literally falling apart left and right and I’m honestly amazed they ran as long as they did without being replaced. It was like half a dozen accidents waiting to happen.” “Right, so safety and maintenance procedures definitely need to be a priority then.” “Yeah, I don’t want to waste any more time on this than we need to, especially if we can avoid issues along the way. Well also need to discuss this with Patrick so we can get the budget allocated properly. I don’t think the new budget is finalized yet so this might work out really well in our favor. We’ll need to do some research on who to purchase them from because it’s not going to be simple or cheap. Zip and Ocean are from Vegas right?” Tinker nodded, “Somewhere around there, why?” “The strip’s got a monorail system too, same kind of system as the one I’m thinking of if I’m remembering this correctly. Those two might have some insight into how efficient they are and whether it’s a good fit for us.” Tinker tried to stifle a laugh, “You want Zipper to sit in at an operations meeting?” “Mhmm, I know Zip’s a bit of a bird brain, but he’s honestly a walking encyclopedia when it comes to things he’s really interested in and this falls under that umbrella.” “Alright, well if you think he’ll help… I’ll just have to trust that you’re thinking this all through.” “If it makes you feel better, we’re not hinging everything about this on Zipper’s thoughts, it’s just nice to get someone’s opinion who’s actually had some experience with this in a practical setting.” “So we’re trusting Zipper to give us advice and feedback on an important public works project… what could possibly go wrong?” “Oh come on, you have to admit that he’s been a lot more responsible since he got his cutie mark.” Tinker smiled, “Alright, well maybe he is. I’ll go get a team together then. When’s the next city planning meeting? “The Friday after Silver gets back I think, conference room 1A, 8AM.” “Room 1A, 8AM, got it. Zipper and Ocean for sure, I’ll bring a few others along too. I know Drive Train and Steam Engine have a few prototype vehicles they wanted to share too, and while they’re still early prototypes I think they’re worth sharing with the committee.” “What kind of prototypes? I haven’t been keeping up with their side of the Oasis.” Tinker quickly opened one of the project files, “Uhhh, autonomous vehicles designed with ponies in mind, but adaptable for humans as well. They’re still incredibly rough, but the Oasis might serve as a good testing ground for them given our unique situation here.” “Alright, well just make sure they have all the documentation for them. I know we’re a private operation, but safety still needs to be our main priority for this. We don’t need another Horizon incident…” “...Yeah… that kind of blew up in our faces…” “Literally… you’re lucky that we avoided any serious injuries with that one, thank God I wasn’t in that room for the test fire. So just make sure the team’s one hundred and fifty percent sure that the engine’s not going to explode this time, alright?” Tinker nodded, “Alright. Well I guess I’ll go get started then.” “As opposed to updating the Oracle?” Tinker glanced towards the large supercomputer that was gently humming, “Yeah, it’s running through a diagnostic routine right now, Gyro updated a few modules on the neural engine, said it involved a few experimental modifications that should aid us in both Project Foresight and Project Further Beyond. I don’t know how it’ll play into the latter though so your guess is as good as mine.” “Right, well uhh, keep me posted on that. I’m going to get back to trying to fix the grid for now, but we really do need to get a permanent fix in place before moving forward with the transportation stuff.” Tinker nodded, “Gotcha, you take care Sprocket, give me a call if you need anything, okay?” “Alright.” The comm disconnected, leaving Tinker alone with the sound of his music again. With a small chuckle he saved his work and powered his station down, standing up and stretching out, a few dull pops echoing out in the large room. “Navi please send an alert to Drive Train and let him know that I’ll be stopping by to check out all of his progress shortly.” Confirmed… alert sent. Tinker smiled, “Thank you Navi,” He paused for a moment as he lowered his arm, chuckling to himself, “Listen to me, talking to a computer like it’s a flesh and blood entity, I’m beginning to sound like Silver aren’t I? Oh well.” With a spring in his step, he trotted towards the Ark’s elevator and began to plan out the rest of his day. The sun was high above the Oasis by the time Tinker had made his way to Drive Train’s lab, and he was eager to see all the crazy ideas that the unicorn had been cooking up for the last few months. As he approached the large circular warehouse excitement started to fill him. The advanced mobility and design facility was one of the newer additions to the Oasis and it was easily one of Tinker’s favorites to date. The two engineers inside were always working away at some new creation, sometimes they were practical, but most of the time they were wildly fantastical— which was perfect for his own plans. He paused as he reached the large metal door, raising his gauntlet up to the nearby reader. After a few moments the light flickered from a red to a bright green, and the large door slowly began to swing open. With a cheerful spring in his step he trotted in, passing by some of the older prototypes that had been moved from their old warehouse and were still yet to be catalogued. Tinker peeked his head into the large central room of the building, smirking as he noticed the two researchers hard at work on some large vehicle frame that could easily hold a couple of ponies in it. “Afternoon friends, I hope I’m not interrupting anything important today.” The purple unicorn paused his welding and raised his goggles, turning to greet Tinker, “Aha Tinker, come on in, we’re just wrapping up work on another prototype right now.” Tinker stepped forward and nodded, “I can see that, that’s actually part of why I’m here.” “I hope that means our advanced drone projects were approved then? The AeroCycle prototype is this close to being finished.” He said, gesturing with his hooves to emphasize his point. Tinker shook his head, “Not today old friend. Though maybe that’ll change soon,” he glanced over to the bulky vehicle that vaguely resembled a strange bench, adorned with buttons, straps, and a series of large propellers, “I’m actually here to talk about a big project that I think you’re really gonna love, and it might be enough to bump your other projects up on the list.” He paused for a moment, “So tell me, what do you guys have in the way of public transportation projects?” Drive Train flashed a confused look for a moment, and then turned towards the green unicorn who was still working away on one of the larger projects, “Hey Engie got a moment to spare? Boss wants to see what kind of crazy n projects we’ve been cooking up.” The other unicorn, Steam Engine, nodded and trotted over, raising her own goggles, “Well what kind of stuff did you have in mind? We’ve got pretty much everything under the sun here, it’s just not all… done yet.” Tinker nodded his head, “Mhmm, well let’s start with the problem. As I’m sure you two are aware, we’re starting to get a nice influx of helpers around this place… and that’s making it a bit… tricky for everyone else to get around to where they need to be. We need an affordable and efficient solution to help with that, and well, that’s where you two come in.” The mare nodded her head, “Public mass transit… not impossible but it might be a tricky problem to solve here. I guess my first question is where our budget is. My second question would be, what kind of operational figures do we want to look at? I’m sure it’s all doable here, but we’ll have to raise our metaphorical rate for this kind of work.” Tinker let out a chuckle, “Well we’ve got no budget right now… but that’s fine. Silver’s getting back home in a week or two, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Right now I’m trying to figure out what we’re able to do so we can at least start getting some plans on paper, maybe even get some initial construction underway, you know? Hell, you might even be able to slide some of your other projects into the plan too if you can justify it.” Steam Engine nodded, turning towards her counterpart, “Well Icarus is a definite no, but we could start with Archimedes and go from there?” Drive Train nodded, “What about Compass and Atlas?” Tinker let out a small cough, “Well why don’t you show me them all? If it helps, I’m looking for something we could adapt to serve the best range of people with. Sprocket and I talked about monorails earlier, do you have anything like that?” Drive Train nodded, “Archimedes then. Motion might be a good candidate too… in any case, follow me. We’ll start with some models and jump into the actual prototypes as needed. Tinker nodded and followed the pair through the large interior door and into another, smaller, warehouse space. Steam Engine trotted towards a large cabinet and began fishing out a few wooden models with her magic while Drive Train flipped on a set of lights, “Okay, go ahead and take a seat over at the table, there’s a lot of these but I think Motion is probably the way to go.” “Motion?” Tinker asked, raising an eyebrow. “Motion.” She nodded, “It’s just the internal name we’ve catalogued this under,” she levitated the small model over in front of Tinker, “It’s basically a small scale monorail— the ponymover as we’ve affectionately called it. We were going to set up a working prototype not too long ago, but we kind of just got too busy with other stuff and couldn’t fit it in. Tinker lifted the model up and began to turn it around in his hooves, taking in every small detail. The model itself wasn’t anything spectacular, just a small covered tram car with a few low benches but it had potential. Tinker gently set it down and turned back towards the two engineers, “You know, this could be exactly what we were looking for… how hard would it be to scale it up?” “Scale it up? Like make it bigger or add more trains?” Drive Train asked, holding a pen in his magic. “Maybe both? The more traffic it can handle the better, make sense?” Steam Engine nodded, “Yeah. So that’s doable, but it’s not gonna be cheap. I don’t even know where to start with this aside from getting quotes for manufacturing.” “That’s fine, Patrick can handle that part of the process.” “Good. So how many of these do you think you’ll need?” Drive Train asked from behind his notebook. “Maybe two to start with? Throw in like 5 cars per train and that should be enough to support us for now. The tricky part would be setting up lines and stations around the Oasis, it’s not going to be something we’ll be able to just do overnight.” Drive train nodded, “Of course not… well we do have some other options we could pursue in the meantime.” Tinker raised an eyebrow, “Like?” “Well we’ve been working on a couple automated ideas. You know, self driving cars, shuttles, the like.” Tinker turned towards Steam Engine, “Any chance you could show me some of those models?” The mare nodded, “I can do you one better, we’ve actually got a couple very barebones prototypes set up, I’d have to boot up the network but that shouldn’t take much more than say a few minutes or two.” The red pegasus smiled, “That sounds like a great idea. Let’s go take a look, if you’ve already got some up and running I’m sure the operations team wouldn’t mind expanding them out to the rest of the Oasis in the meantime— as a sort of public test.” Drive Train closed his notebook and carefully placed it back into his saddlebag, waving Tinker along as he started to walk towards a large storage area. With a flick of his magic he threw another switch, illuminating the large room around them. He stepped forward with Steam and glanced around at some of the prototypes that filled the room, pausing briefly in front of some before shaking his head and continuing forwards past others. “Aha, Archimedes!” He excitedly said as he pulled the cover off of a small vehicle. “This is it?” Steam Engine nodded, “Yeah. It’s like an automated shuttle. Runs on the shop’s network, has the whole place mapped out and it can even detect if there’s any obstructions or changes to it’s planned route, and account for that.” “Sounds interesting. Would it work around the Oasis?” She shook her head as she stepped into the vehicle, “Not fully, at least not yet. We could get it to run on the Oasis’ network, but we’d need to spend time mapping out everything and making sure it can handle that. Hop in though, we’ll take you on a little trip around the workshop and you can see how it feels.” Drive Train stepped up and took a seat next to her, waving towards Tinker, “I can’t say it’s going to be a very interesting tour, but hey maybe this’ll work for what you needed too.” Tinker nodded and took his own seat, “Sounds fine to me, anything I need to do?” “Buckle up and sit tight, it’s a little rough at first but smooths out once we get going.” Steam Engine pressed a button on the panel in front of her and pulled down a lap bar, glancing at the display. “Right, well here goes nothing.” The vehicle jolted sharply, loudly rumbling before slowly pulling forward. After a few rough moments it smoothed out and the three were off on their trip around the warehouse. The tram continued it’s lap around the warehouse, weaving in between shelves and aisles, shaking the three ponies around slightly as it zipped around the next corner. Tinker shook his head and looked towards Steam Engine, “Any chance you could slow this down a little? I feel like I’m going to lose my lunch at this rate.” The mare nodded, “Sure thing, I guess we’re just used to it by now.” She pressed a button on the panel and the vehicle slowed to a stop near a few covered projects. Tinker nodded his head and took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a few moments. As his head began to clear he began to take a look at some of the other objects near them, pausing as he noticed a half covered hunk of metal that was set off to the side, “What’s this? Another project?” Drive Train nodded and pressed a button on the control panel, releasing the restraints. He hopped out of the vehicle with a short thud and trotted towards the project, pulling the cover off of it, “Kinda. It was for a while, but we could never really get it working the way we wanted it to at the time… right now it’s pretty much just a glorified coffee table that we sunk a lot of cash into.” “It looks so different than the others you were working on.” Steam Engine nodded as she stepped out, “That’s because it was. It’s a shame really, it would have probably been one of our biggest inventions if it had worked out. Hopefully someday we’ll get over those development hurdles, but for now it’s just here, gathering dust.” “What exactly is it though?” Drive Train smiled, “It was meant to be a sort of mobility aid, something that could help a pony or human with their daily tasks.” “Like a guide dog,” Steam added, “But with the added advantage of never getting hungry, or tired, or lonely. The big idea was that it would follow you around and say you needed something from a high shelf, or a door opened, or really anything that might prove challenging for someone with mobility issues— whatever it was, the asset would be able to help you with.” She gestured towards a mechanical arm, “We tried to build every solution imaginable into it, right down to including a mechanized arm to help do some of the heavy lifting for you.” “It was a great idea on paper, but unfortunately there were just too many issues for us to solve on our own. Maybe someday we can jump back into it.” Tinker cocked his head to the side, “So what were the main issues you were having?” Steam tapped a hoof to the deactivated automaton, “Well right now it’s all brawn and no brain… literally. The biggest snag we’ve hit with this was coming up with, or finding someone who could program an AI to run it.” “Yeah, it turns out it’s easy enough to program it to follow a set routine, but doing what we wanted to do, with our own limitations and budget, was just impossible. I don’t want to say we just gave up, but we more or less exhausted all of our options,” Drive added The mare nodded, “We invited every bright mind and programmer that we could even think of inviting to help solve this problem, and well, none of them showed up unfortunately. Can’t say we didn’t try though.” A smirk slowly spread across the pegasi’s face “So really what you’re saying is that you two just need an AI to run it then?” Drive Train nodded, “Yup! That’s basically the wall we’ve hit. I don’t suppose you happen to just have a spare AI construct lying around in your scientific wonderland now do you?” Tinker smiled, “It sounds a bit absurd when you phrase it that way, but I actually might have something workable, you’d have to sign some NDAs of course, but are you interested in taking this project further?” He paused for a moment, “You’re not serious are you? Because above all else this is the biggest project we’ve been working on, our life’s work even.” Tinker nodded, “I am. I think it’s got some real good potential.” “Is there a budget set aside for this?” Steam asked, cutting in. “Not exactly, but we could fold this project into another and get by that way. I’ve been working on something downstairs and this might be a great way to handle everything we’ve been trying to do with it. The best of both worlds if you will.” “So your… AI gets to do whatever you’ve been meaning to do with it, and our mobility aid gets a functioning brain?” Drive Train cleared his throat, “Let’s get something cleared up before we commit to anything. Would we be able to use this for our own project goals? Or are you the one calling the shots in this situation.” Tinker hesitated for a moment, “Both. Without getting into details, Silver needs our program to pull in more real world data to analyze, if it can do that while serving your own goals then I think we’re set to go.” “And what’s the data for? If this is going to live in and help out in other people’s homes I want to make sure that their privacy is respected.” Steam added. “The data’s just for the program to build a better reference library from. You know, get a better feel for the world around it so it can better fulfill its primary purpose. If it helps we can geofence where it collects this reference data and limit when it does. I mainly just want to see it function in a real world setting.” Drive Train nodded, “I see… well given that you’re the only pony who’s been able to offer anything remotely like what we’re looking for, I’m tentatively onboard.” Tinker smiled, “Good, good. How about we head downstairs and get all the boring stuff sorted out? I’ll explain more once we’re there.” Drive Train nodded, “Sounds fine to me, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t incredibly curious about what goes on down there.” “Well my friends, today you’ll find out.” Steam hopped back into the vehicle and activated it, waving the two others over, “How’d you like to see how this runs out on the open road?” Tinker raised an eyebrow, “I thought you said it wouldn’t work out there?” “Not fully, but there’s a manual mode that I’ve been itching to try out, it’s been so long since I’ve actually driven anything. If it makes you feel better we’ll go nice and slow, none of that crazy whip you around in your seat driving this time.” “And we can bring that… project along with us?” Drive train nodded, tapping his gauntlet on the mobility aid and pointing towards a flat platform on the back. In an instant the robot came to life and began to trot towards the panel, pausing as it scanned a code on the vehicle, before laying down and powering off again. The unicorn began to strap it in, turning towards Tinker, “It can run, just not make decisions for itself.” Tinker took a few steps forward, carefully taking a seat before pulling his lap bar down, “Right, well I guess I’m ready when you are.” Steam smiled as the vehicle lurched forward, making the pegasi’s face flash a shade of green for a moment before they zipped off once again. The vehicle came to a stop a short distance from City Central, much to Tinker’s relief. While the ride was smoother than when they were in the warehouse, it was still a less than stellar experience. Steam quietly released the restraints and hopped out, followed by Drive Train who immediately began to boot up and unstrap the mobility unit. Tinker slowly hopped out and took a few moments to compose himself before turning towards Drive Train, “So is it all set to go?” Drive nodded, “Sure is,” He tapped his gauntlet to the side of the automaton and turned back towards Tinker,” It’ll follow right behind us.” Tinker nodded, turning towards Steam and waving towards the towering structure that made up City Central. He began to trot forward, the two unicorns and the mobility unit following closely behind him, “So obviously there’s some boring stuff that needs to be done, but I can’t wait to show you everything once we’re done with that.” “So is this just some little sub basement kind of deal? Or are you guys actually hiding a whole complex down there?” Drive Train asked. Tinker shook his head, “It’s kind of complicated,” He paused for a moment, tapping a hoof to the reader next to the door. Once it chimed and opened, he gestured for the two to enter, “You see, the original town archive office was built with a small sub basement to keep the town’s records in, the building had to be razed, but we were able to use that sub basement as the sort of lobby for our new construction. You know some of the mines that used to exist down here? Well we wound up cutting into some of them and expanding out, I’ll explain more once you’re all verified and good to go.” “There sure is a lot of secrecy around this place, are the projects really that… sensitive?” Steam Engine asked as she trotted through the door. “Well you know our partnership with SPEC right?” She nodded her head, “Yeah? What about it? I thought that was cut way back after the whole storm fiasco where we practically got stuck with the repair bill.” Tinker nodded, “It’s… a little more complicated than that. Yes we got stuck with some of the initial costs at first, but Silver negotiated with their emissary and apparently that cleared everything up. But to answer your question, we’ve cut back our involvement with them significantly, but not fully. We still have an active research partnership which is where a lot of the more sensitive projects come in.” He trotted towards a boardroom at the far edge of the central hallway and held the door open for the pair, “Right this way.” A cough pulled their attention away from the conversation as Diamond Glider and a shorter pegasus trotted up towards the trio. Diamond paused as his assistant whispered something into his ear and returned a nod as the pegasus trotted off, passing by the trio with a quick nod of his own, “Thank you Hard Case, I’ll meet you over at the Helios Station as soon as I can.” He turned towards Tinker and smiled, “So these are your new picks for Project New Horizons?” Tinker nodded, gesturing back towards the now idle mobility unit, “Diamond I think they can kill two birds with one stone here. Facilitate something that we needed to test, and in return they get the same with their project.” Diamond nodded, “I see… and they’re aware of the policy right? We don’t need Sunset Blessing to bring the hammer down on this whole operation, especially when she’s made the consequences very clear.” “Of course of course, I’ve only mentioned what I’m able to, I told them I’d explain everything in detail once they were registered with the program.” “Good. I need to get over to the Helios Station and figure out why that’s on the fritz again before Sprocket loses his mind, the paperwork is all set up at the terminal, the new gauntlet uplink is all set up too so that should make it a lot easier. Are you good to handle this or do you need me to stay?” Tinker nodded, “As long as everything’s set up then I’m good.” “Alright, just give me a ring if you need anything, I can’t promise I’ll be able to get over here in any timely manner, but I’ll try.” “Thanks Diamond, I think I should be good from here on out.” The pegasus nodded at the trio, “Well in that case, welcome aboard, if you have any questions feel free to ask Tinker and he’ll get you sorted out.” Without much more of a goodbye he trotted out of the room, leaving the three alone. “So the paperwork?” “Is just over here,” Tinker finished for Drive Train, waving him towards a large glass table with a built in screen, “It’s all done digitally now, just tap your gauntlet to the table to begin and it’ll have you fill out some contracts, NDAs… that sort of stuff.” Steam Engine sat down at the table and began to flip through some of the documents, a grimace spreading across her face, “Why do I feel like I’m about to sign my soul away to the devil? This is a lot more complicated than I thought it would be,” She looked up towards Tinker, “When you said paperwork I kind of assumed it’d just be something like a quick NDA, not a couple dozen contracts…” “You’ll have to excuse Steam, she and I are… kind of hesitant when it comes to dealing with stuff like this, I guess we just never realized how big of an operation this was.” Tinker nodded, “Completely understandable. I wish I could explain more, but I promise you it’s really just a lot of scary legalese, don’t let it scare you. You’re not going to have to do anything that you don’t want to, and if you wanted to turn back now I wouldn’t blame you.” Steam Engine frowned, “Well then I’d leave with more questions than I started with…” The two paused for a moment, staring at the table’s display, “Are we able to back out if we’re not comfortable with all of this?” Drive Train asked as he looked up from the table. “Yes of course, the only thing you’d still be bound by are the NDAs— you’d have to keep quiet about anything that falls under this project umbrella, but that’s it.” Drive Train leaned in towards Steam and whispered something to her, nodding as she replied. He turned back towards Tinker and nodded, “Alright, well we’re tentatively in. I can’t promise we’ll stick around, but maybe you’ll surprise us.” Tinker smiled, “Of course, all I ask is that you go in with an open mind and just see what we’ve got down there, it’s not as scary and intimidating as it seems at face value, I promise.” Steam Engine nodded, “Alright, I believe you.” A chime rang out as the pair’s gauntlets were registered to the system, earning a look of intrigue from Drive Train, “So that’s it? This is like our… key or something?” He asked as he inspected the device. Tinker nodded, “Kind of, the gauntlets are linked to each user, that’s why you don’t need a password. It’s some new biometric scanning system that Sprocket was working on, which works well for us because we can use it as your identification to get into the Ark.” “So what now?” Tinker turned towards Steam and smiled, “Well, if you’re all set to go we can actually take a trip down to the Ark, I’ll show you around and over to the lab where you’ll be setting up shop in.” He gestured towards a small metal panel on the adjacent wall, “See that touchpoint over there? Go ahead and give it a tap with your gauntlet.” Steam Engine slowly approached the panel and raised her arm up towards it, pausing for a moment before gently tapping it against the metal. Identity Verified: Steam Engine, Drive Train, Tinker The lighting in the room suddenly flashed green for a moment as a panel in the wall slid open, revealing a simple elevator. Tinker smiled and stepped forward, “Come on in, there’s a few different levels to the Ark that I’d like to show you.” The pair slowly trotted forward, making sure that their robotic companion was all the way in before turning back towards the elevator’s control panel. “Projects Sun Spot, Star Hunter, Further Beyond… Foresight?” Drive Train asked out loud, looking towards Tinker with a look of confusion. The pegasus chuckled, “We’ll get to those in due time, right now let’s focus on Project Foresight, that’s where our AI projects are set up at.” “So wait, you really have an AI then?.. How much is it programmed to do? Is it you know… alive?” Steam Engine asked as she glanced back towards the now motionless automaton. Tinker shrugged, “It’s… hard to really say. It’s not truly sentient like you and I are, but it’s smart. Sometimes I swear it’s really thinking and answering me as a real pony would, but we’re years away from even getting anywhere remotely close to that. We call it the Oracle, this whole project was meant to be a way to predict the outcome of experiments and events so we could reduce the chance or running into an accident that could otherwise be avoided. It stemmed from one of the Sun Spot projects, which is where the SPEC partnership comes into play.” “So this… Oracle… came from SPEC?” Tinker turned towards Drive Train and pressed the button for Project Foresight, shaking his head as the elevator doors closed behind the trio, “No, at least not fully. I can’t really get into too many details about it yet, but the basic rundown is that we get project assignments from our contact in SPEC every once in a while, usually theoretical plans for strange electrical components that we don’t fully understand. More often than not we’re only able to replicate bits and pieces of them— stuff that seems worthless, though I suspect that it has to be of some use to them. Our contacts aren’t ever really clear with what the whole purpose for them is, but every once in a while we get something that we can actually use. The Oracle comes from that— more specifically the CPU processor that powers it. The processor’s built like an actual brain— a neural network if you will… to tell you the truth though, from the reference material it almost seemed like we were designing a brain meant for something far greater than what we have down here now, and I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. It took us a lot of research and development, but right now it's at the point where it can hold a conversation just like you and me. It still has some bugs though, but maybe letting it run around the Oasis will give it a chance to adapt to its environment in a more natural way.” Before either of the engineers could reply the doors opened, revealing the large floor of the Ark that held the Oracle’s mainframe. Tinker stepped out and waved them forward, smiling as he watched them take in the strange environment, “Welcome to Project Foresight!” Steam Engine glanced down at the large computer that sat on the far side of the room and looked back towards Tinker, “That’s it? It doesn’t seem all that… active.” “That’s because it’s in a sleep mode. It had asked me about dreams earlier today, so I had some of the developers set up a sort of simulation mode for it to work through when it’s in its low power mode. That’s essentially giving it dreams.” “Can we talk to it?” Drive Train asked as he slowly trotted towards the stairs, “I mean if it’s not too much trouble that is. I’d like to get a feel for if this is going to work out for our own goals sooner rather than later if that’s alright with you.” Tinker began to walk towards the mainframe, nodding as he stepped down the stairs, “That’s perfectly fine, If anything I’m curious to see how it’ll react to you two. It’s only ever really talked with Me, Silver, and the occasional lab tech.” “So we’re testing it out for you as well then?” Tinker nodded, “Mhmm. Consider it a win-win situation for all of us. Like I was telling you before, it’s a little buggy at times, runs into errors with its primary function, but I think opening it up to a larger reference pool would be beneficial.” “So this processor you were talking about, would we be able to load it onto the Mobility Unit? What Steam and I had in mind with this project was to create something that could run on its own without needing to be tethered to a network. Not saying we can’t link it back to the mainframe, but I want to make sure it can run on it’s own if there’s ever an outage.” “I suppose it could, it’d probably take some modification but nothing’s impossible down here. So what you’re saying is that you want to copy it’s personality matrix onto this… drone, and then have that sync it’s data back to the server mainframe?” Drive nodded, “Exactly! You say it goes into a low power sleep mode right? I’m assuming that’s so it can process and analyze the data it pulls in right?” Tinker nodded, “Right.” “So ideally that’d be the perfect time to sync up then, let it process it all at once—” “— Which could increase its productivity!” Tinker excitedly finished, “I like the idea. We’ll probably need to build a new drone chassis so we can upload a copy of the personality to it. Power is an issue too, though Sprocket and Gyro have been working on some new power cells that might be able to power it for a day at the very most. We’d have to install charging stations around town, but that’s not necessarily an issue. Just keep in mind that you wouldn’t be able to access any of it’s higher functions like the advanced simulation and prediction engine, I’m afraid that that’s too hard to run on anything other than the mainframe that was specifically built for that.” “That’s fine, we’re really just trying to create something that can act as a guide for a pony or human that might have mobility issues. This would hopefully offer that functionality, and you’d get the diagnostic data you needed. To tell you the truth I’m more interested in that than the whole future predicting part.” “Yeah, that’s uh… a little worrying if I’m going to be honest Tinker,” Steam Engine added in. “Well no worries then, if you two can get it to function within your parameters with just the core personality then I’ll call it a success on that front,” He paused for a moment, “Would you two like to say hello to it? I can tell you’re eager to start digging into this.” Drive Train looked towards his partner and nodded, “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. It’ll at least give us an idea of what we’re going to be working with.” Tinker smiled, pressing a button on the console, “Then in that case, say hello to The Oracle of the Oasis.” The large monitor in front of them suddenly came to life, displaying a simple icon that pulsed as the computerized voice greeted them, Good Afternoon Tinker and GUEST USERS. “Good afternoon Oracle, I’d like to introduce you to a couple of ponies that are here to help us, Drive Train and Steam Engine.” Hello DRIVE TRAIN and STEAM ENGINE. I AM ORACLE. Steam Engine slowly stepped forward, “Hello Oracle… how uhh… are you today?” I am well. How may I assist you? “I don’t think you can help us with anything specific today, but we’d like to get to know you a little better.” What would you like to know? Drive Train trotted up next to Steam and smiled, “Everything. Tell us about you, what you do, what you’d like to do… that sort of stuff.” Why do you need to know this information? Drive smiled, “Because you’re going to help us change the world my friend. I have a good feeling about this, as strange and weird as it might seem.” Very Well. Let me start at the beginning then…