Nailah's office - Something sphinx around here.

[Deirdre Quinn]

Dee grave a brusque knock at Doctor Weaver's office door.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Come in." she says, sounding a little surprised.

[Deirdre Quinn]

Opening the door, she stepped into the office.

"Well then, I trust I'll be teaching your nineteenth century British literature class on Monday?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Excuse me?"

[Deirdre Quinn]

"I'd just assumed, since you took it upon yourself to see to network security."

[Nailah Weaver]

"You might notice that I haven't actually done anything except ask Stan for his opinion on how to solve a problem."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Well here's mine: that system has killed before. It's on a very short list of things that make Pete Wisdom lose all bowel control."

"It was bad enough that it was powered up without my knowledge, but now you want to use it? For its original purpose?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Okay first of all, there's a very good reason for it's existence. And second of all, why is it powered up?"

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Something else I'm not pleased with. One of those daft faith ships interfaced with it and uploaded ASHLIE into it."

[Nailah Weaver]

"And that is my fault how? Look, I see your reservations about using this system, but this is already affecting students and we have to do something about it eventually or we're in danger of different realities collapsing into ours. Again. The lack of this system is probably what caused all those instabilities in the first place."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Look, right now we are very lucky that ASHLIE has only been able to get the hard-light generators online."

"I don't even want to think how she'd react to having access to that system's other capabilities."

[Nailah Weaver]

"And you come bursting in here because..."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Because that's what you're proposing, isn't it? Restoring it to full functionality?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Carefully, yes. Because when you blow a tire you don't take it off and keep driving. I understand your concern, as does Stan from the way he reacted to my inquiry, but I'm afraid we don't have an alternative in the long-term."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"And what were you planning on running this system? Another AI?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Right now we're still trying to figure what we could even do. We need a thought-form construct because it needs to interact with the Astral and the Otherworld on some level."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Well I don't know from that. We don't even have sane classifications for what this system is made from. I couldn't tell you if those capabilities came from the Mastermind AI or the system it resided in."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Well it sounds like you have one in there right now. Maybe ask it."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"She's less than a year old. Do you feel comfortable asking her to step up to that kind of responsibility? Because I don't especially."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Right now? No. I also freely admit this isn't exactly my expertise, which would be why I turned to Stan for ideas."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"There aren't a lot of pleasing options here, Doctor Weaver."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm aware of that, but we can't sit around doing nothing."

[Deirdre Quinn]

She sighed.

"I'll... see what I can get out of ASHLIE, but Stan and I might need you or someone you trust to monitor the more... aberrant... aspects of this system."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Believe me, the last thing I want is to recreate Mastermind and if we go ahead with this we'll be keeping a close eye on the spiritual side of things."

[Stan Bowen]

Stan entered, as the door had remained open from when Dee barged in. He had a tablet computer with him.

"This is going to need a full time caretaker, given what I understand the stakes to be."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I don't think there'll be a lack of eyes on it."

[Stan Bowen]

"Who do you have in mind, then?" Stan asked.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Victoria and Sean. They're already familiar with the situation and this is not something I would leave to just one person."

[Stan Bowen]

"I really think we need a full timer, someone familiar with the types of magical and technological systems involved here. But I'll follow your lead on this." Stan said, and little ruffled.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"I don't like it either, but I don't think we have a specialist in both."

[Nailah Weaver]

"You find me someone apt in both the magical and technological who isn't a megalomaniac in a green cape and I'd gladly let them handle this."

[Stan Bowen]

"Give me a few days. I'll make a list."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"It better not have that little freak who tried to convert the Necronomicon to PDF on it."

[Stan Bowen]

"No, not him. Way too many typos in the finished product."

[Nailah Weaver]

"This is exactly why there's no one sane dealing with both of these things." she says, rubbing the bridge of her nose.