Aphelion RPG (LJ Backup)

A window popped up on the screen, displaying the controls for the rotational thrusters as well as relevant data about the firing status and orientation of each thruster and the asteroid systems' rotational velocity, acceleration, and angle relative to the Sun on two planes. "Rotational thruster controls are now set to manual. ...I am currently unable to access any of the recreational computer's systems, including data stored on portable units. Power has been cut from the recreational computer in accordance with default power-saving settings."

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"Right, not the easy way then, of course." After a quick glance over the settings he clicked his tongue discontentedly. "No wonder... ISES, are these the default or the most recent settings?" he asked, switching on the sonic screwdriver and then running it along the computer controls before kneeling briefly to peer at the underside of the control panel. He reached underneath, then stopped short and looked back at Robin, deciding that continuing on without involving him would end in more questions and more trouble. "Want to give me a hand? We're going to power on just the drive in my portable from here so we can load in better parameters. No point in wasting more power than necessary."

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"The default setting for the rotational thrusters is 'off'. Rotational thrusters currently exhibit the status and orientation they exhibited at the moment controls were switched from automatic to manual."

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Robin nodded, kneeling down next to the Master. "What do you need me to do?"

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"Default orientation," he muttered, silently swearing to rewrite this arse of a computer if he had to sit down with craft paper and safety scissors and illustrate every last line of code to everyone else on the colony. It had given him the answer he needed, however.

"Here," he said, and handed the sonic screwdriver to Robin, indicating its controls and a spot on the underside of the console. "Hold down that bit there and aim it here. That'll enable a quick uplink between ISES and the portable drive. Got that?"

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"Got it." Robin took the screwdriver from the Master, briefly glancing over it curiously before following his instructions. "What is this device? I've never seen anything like it."

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"It's a sonic screwdriver," he said, standing back up to look at the controls. "The Doctor was kind enough to bring it here. ISES, you'll find you have access to the drive in portable 16. There are algorithms and coordinates saved in the file 'qrhf.rk', use them to augment the current thruster control program." He stood back and waited for the computer to confirm.

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"Acknowledged. Incorporating new data."

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"Sonic screwdriver? ...Huh." Once the computer had completed its data transfer, he straightened up a bit, giving the device a more thorough looking-over.

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"There are better tools, but here I'll take what I can get." After a quick glance over at Robin to make sure he wasn't doing anything dangerous with the screwdriver, he made the changes he expected manually, then asked "ISES, can you update the thruster orientation display to reflect the new parameters?"

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"Complying." The display window changed appropriately.

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"Yeah, tell me about it," Robin agreed, idly turning the screwdriver over in his hands. "...So what are you doing here, exactly? Are you able to predict the rate and magnitude of the mass fluctuations to some extent?"

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