ArchivedLogs:Responsible Hands

Responsible Hands
Dramatis Personae Bruce, Tony Stark, Yuehai
In Absentia	2017-01-01 "This week! That does seem a bit hasty."
Location <NYC> Tony's Penthouse - Stark Tower - Midtown East
Accessible only by private elevator, this home takes up the top four floors of Stark Tower. Three of them are residential, a luxurious sprawl of space equipped with state of the art technology and a wealth of comforts. Private gym, terraced pool room whose glass walls can be rolled back in summer to turn it into an outdoor balcony, full bar equipped with robotic-armed bartender, extensive home entertainment system. For all its opulence, the place is decorated tastefully, careful coordination through its wood-and-stone look. The views, through many windows, terraces, balconies, might be the best part of all of it; from this perch high atop the tower, the city spreads out beneath. The lowest floor of the home is less residential, more technologically bent; packed with a host of robotics, monitors, equipment. Where Tony does the bulk of /his/ personal work, it may well be the real heart of Stark Industries' R&D. The late afternoon sun is streaming in through the copious glass of the penthouse, illuminating the aftermath of what must have been a somewhat exciting New Year's Eve party. Champagne bottles, some not quite empty, litter the tables alongside partially disassembled mechanical components. Bruce is sitting at the breakfast table, dressed in a pale lavender dress shirt with navy blue pinstripes and gray trousers. His thick black glasses are sliding down his nose, but he pays it no mind, picking at a truly prodigious and partially eaten dosa with one hand and fiddling with the holograph of a 3-D molecular diagram with the other. "Same problem," he concludes, tossing the model aside with an exasperated sigh. "As strong as it'd need to be to work on the Other Guy, it'd be utterly fatal to /me/, which is not ideal." Tony is sprawled in an armchair, partially visible though the translucent holographic display. Dressed in jeans, Black Sabbath tee over a long-sleeved grey thermal, he has a Bloody Mary in one hand and a mostly finished plate of masala potatoes (sans dosa) resting on his stomach. "We /might/ be able to counteract some of those effects --" He's pulling the model back /up/ to tinker with it -- though not till after a gulp of his drink. Might, maybe. "-- down to only, mmm." Squint. His brows lift to Bruce temptingly: "Totally fatal?" "A visitor to see you, Sir." There's a faint hint of apology in JARVIS's disembodied voice as it intrudes quietly on the Stark's first working brunch of the new year. "I'm sending her up, per your 'What would Ms Potts do' directive." He hasn't really left Tony any time to object, as the elevator doors open to admit a young Chinese woman. She's dressed as if for an interview, in a navy jacket, pencil skirt, and light pink blouse that all fit her perfectly but suits her not at all. Her steps are wobbly even on her sensible block heeled pumps, and she clutches an attache case in both hands. Her long black hair is held up somewhat lop-sidedly by what looks like a tablet stylus, but frames her subtle cat-eye glasses and girlish face nicely. She looks like a college student trying really hard to be a good intern. "{Hello,} Mr. Stark." The greeting is in Mandarin. "Oh! And -- Dr. Banner." She bows quickly to the two men in turn. "{Sorry} to bother you, I tried to talk to my project director about this but he wasn't um -- interested. But it's terribly dangerous if we go on the way we have been..." Her eyes are darting around between the arcane mechanical components around the room, and at last the model floating before Tony. "Not sure'd I'd want to risk anything more than '/possibly/ fatal,'" Bruce says matter-of-factly, taking a sip of his masala chai. "{Happy New Year, Ms Lin.}" His Mandarin is accented but quite serviceable. "Would you like something to drink? Water, tea, coffee..." He rises, wiping his hands clean. "If I recall correctly, you work in the nanoweapons division?" "That's your problem. Not willing to take enough risks for --" Tony doesn't really bother to sit up when Jarvis breaks in. "Are you /aware/ it's a holiday?" This may be directed to the butler -- to Yuehai he is lifting his glass in greeting. "{Hello.} Are you an intern? Do you take vacations? We do give you vacations, right?" Only after this, a frown: "Dangerous?" Yuehai bows again to Bruce, more deeply this time. "{Happy New Year! And I would love some tea, if that's alright, but you certainly don't need to -- I mean to say, I'm just -- thank you!}" Her eyes get wider and wider as Tony speaks, as though she were completely unprepared for his line of questioning. Until he echoes the word 'dangerous', at least. Then she gathers herself up to her full height and takes a deep breath. "I am an intern, Sir, for the Iron Tempest project. Nanoweapons. We do have vacations, but I had to come in today because I knew Dr. Copely wouldn't be in, and I needed to get my notes from his office as proof." She walks toward Tony, opens her attache case pulls out an manila folder, holding it out toward him. Awkwardly. "It's -- some calculations. That make the smart material we've been working on...work, finally. But we can't limit its replication." Bruce ambles over to the coffee machine and fiddles with the control panel. "How do you take your tea? For that matter, do you have a preference as to variety?" He goes to join the other two. "He ah, doesn't like being handed things," he explains, taking the folder from Yuehai and flipping it open. He frowns and pushes his glasses higher up onto the bridge of his nose. Then his eyes open wide. "Oh, you...is this a /stable/ self-replicating nanomaterial? My stars, that's--amazing!" He hands Tony the folder after all, open to Yuehai's messy, multi-tiered calculations. "But without a way to limit replication, you'd risk a gray goo scenario." Tony sits a little bit up, a little bit back, in his seat, setting aside his food. "Ah, don't -- I don't like --" He takes a sip from his drink when Bruce intercepts the folder, though his dislike doesn't stop him from reading the papers over Bruce's shoulder anyway. /His/ eyes widen as well. He's reaching for the folder even as Bruce is holding it out, leafing slowly through it. "This is -- brilliant. This is -- you said /work/. You said -- is this," one finger is drawing down a page pensively, "/in/ production?" "Tea! Oh -- um, a strong black tea, if you have any. Nothing in it." Yuehai's head bobs a great many times. "It /should/ be stable -- the math all works out and the simulations look promising." Her dark brown eyes skip back and forth between the two men, their praise making her draw up even straighter. "It's not in production yet, but prototyping is scheduled to begin this week." Her expression turns more sober again, her excitement fading. "It /shouldn't/ self-replicate without being prompted, but we don't know how it will /actually/ behave yet, and not having a safeguard against that seems...um...really irresponsible?" Her mouth pulls to one side. "Dr. Copely thinks our safety measures are good enough, but I'm also pretty sure he doesn't understand why this solution worked at all. He just wants to push ahead anyway." Bruce taps a few commands into the coffee machines and returns to study Yuehai's calculations some more. "This week! That does seem a bit hasty." He snatches the glasses from his face and chews on one of its arms distractedly. "I don't know this Copely, but it doesn't sound like he's the sort of man who should be trusted with a technology that could...consume the entire planet and convert everything in its path into more of itself." "/That/ level of risk should definitely be kept in our far more responsible hands." Tony closes the folder, waving it toward Bruce in indication. "Jarvis, pull up everything we have on the Iron Tempest project. I'll make sure it doesn't go forward until there's some greater --" Pause. Frown at Yuehai. "You said you're an intern? That's ridiculous. Systems Safety Engineer. Jarvis, have Pepper draw up the paperwork." "Oh! {Thank you,} Sir! I was afraid you wouldn't take me seriously, none of the senior researchers in the division take me seriously, and I know my calculations are kind of /weird/, but --" Yuehai's eyes go wide, wide, wide. "Wha -- me? I'm -- I'm a grad student, I'm not qualified." Her hands wring at the handle of her attache case. "Or, at least, Dr. Copely would say so. He won't be happy." Bruce goes to the coffee machine again and returns with a glass mug full of rich deep red tea. "Yunnan black tea," he says quietly, offering it to Yuehai. "Don't worry about your qualifications. Your work speaks louder than a dozen PhDs. You solved a problem that has plagued nanomaterial science from the very start. Even if it only works for a very specific range of macromolecules, it's still a remarkable breakthrough." He returns the glasses to his face. "You know this nanotech, and your insight is indispensable to its development--if you want to continue working on that." "I don't see Dr. Copely's name on the side of the building." Tony gets up from his chair, wandering over to the large display -- where the holographic interface is now starting to pull up extensive notes and models for Iron Tempest. He still has his drink in hand as he starts to rifle through this. "Look at this work." His eyes are on the model, but his hand is tapping at the folder Yuehai didn't-exactly-hand-him earlier. "You did this. Almost as good as something I might have done, minus the -- part where it might destroy the world. Intern, right. You /are/ an engineer. /You/ going to be happy? That's the question." Yuehai's mouth opens and closes several times, though no sound comes out. She looks a little like a fish resigned to suffocating in the air. "Oh!" she says, finally. There's a long pause before she follows this up with, "Oh. I -- I don't want to destroy the world. That is why I come to you." Then, in a hasty tumble of words, "But, I am very happy to continue to work on the project, yes! I just never imagined -- this. {Thank you!}" She bows deeply. "I should go and let you -- have a holiday?" She sounds slightly uncertain about this last word. "We ah, want to be conscious and intentional about things that can destroy the world." Bruce side-eyes Tony quite openly. "And if Dr. Copely isn't willing to do that he shouldn't be anywhere near a project like this. You won't have to deal with him anymore, Ms Lin." He's studying the model over Tony's shoulder, knuckles rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "This kind of /is/ his idea of a holiday. Mine, too." A faint smile. "But you should enjoy the rest of your time off. You're going to be quite busy when you return."