What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[Negation]

He'd assumed it was the students beings stupid and leaving things in the mech rather than them being paid to drop something 'innocent' in particular areas.

Click to shrink...

I thought those were "Booty Call" communication devices the students were paid to drop by parties interested in Bolt's seed.

 

[lurkingkraken]

Should have brought thier own self-powered explosives instead of relying the mech's power supply.

Also, this is a school. It's traditional to ask if you brought enough for everyone for a reason.
Whoever is behind this set of assassins clearly isn't actually trying very hard yet.

 

[Simonbob]

Also, this is a school. It's traditional to ask if you brought enough for everyone for a reason.

Click to shrink...

Bolt's balls won't thank you.

 

[lost star]

A few days after the guest lesson, Bolt was back at the university. This time it was for a simple designer debate. These weren't really public things. There was no real audience for it, and most non-designers found them boring. Even designers didn't really enjoy listening to them frequently. If the designers were prominent it was interesting, but outside of that it was really just a debate about technical specifications and such. The spectacle debates were on mech reveals, and those could be verbal sword fights that sometimes devolved into literal fights.

"There's no specific format for these things." The professor said as they entered the debate hall. "Really, the only thing that's important is that you refrain from insults and don't talk over one another."

Bolt nodded slowly. "Can't say I'm one fer insults."

"Oh that's more a general warning. There's nothing so bad as debates between academics. I've seen two fifty year old tenured professors get into fist fights over a single word." The man heaved a sigh that spoke of long nights, unprofessional debates, and old men acting like they were in their teens. "But enough about my issues. You've been nothing but polite so far so I'm glad you could make it."

At the podium another designer was already there. Between them was a picture of the mech Bolt had whipped up. The young man felt a bit of surprise at it.

"We believed that this would be the best topic for today." The designer at the podium said. "This isn't going to be about the design itself. We all know it was deliberately flawed and no one would consider it a demonstration..." The man trailed off as something seemed to occur to him. "Let me rephrase that. It takes skill to make something that people can learn from. So we as a whole actually appreciate it. The debate would be about the teaching tool."

"All right." Bolt stepped forward carefully and up to where he guessed he should be.

There was a small audience of fellow teachers there, with one or two high level students. Bolt had no context for if this was good or bad, but it didn't feel mocking. Really it felt more like this was a sleepy afternoon and there was some mild interest in entertainment. If he was going to be honest he didn't hate it.

"I'll go ahead and start off. My name is Jayce, I specialize in aquatic mechs and am a Journeyman." The man began calmly. "About a quarter of the mechs on this planet are mine, which sounds impressive until you realize they aren't anywhere else."

"All right. I'm Bolt, my specialty is a bit o' a mouthful, but can be best described as Recycling and Refining things." Bolt explained with an easy grin.

"That is an interesting field." Jayce muttered before shaking his head. "Hah, we'd have to talk about it in another time. Right now, the topic is the use of flawed and simple mechs as a teaching tool."

Bolt nodded in turn. "My first question is why ain't you doing it already?"

"Many reasons. One of them is we do usually stick to mech blueprints that students go over. They're mostly proprietary so you wouldn't see them." The Journeyman said with a small chuckle. "Ah, I should have added that I'm one of the teachers here. I do three advanced classes a week."

"Ah. No mech building though? That feels like an oversight." Bolt answered back.

"Budgeting concerns hinder a lot of the lessons we could teach." Jayce confirmed with a small sigh. "Even doing just one mech a year would be costly, and doing more than that would be impossible on our funds."

"That's what I assume would be Second Rate mechs though." Bolt pointed out. "You could do a stripped Third Rate mech easily."

"Yes, but would the students learn anything from that?" The other designer asked.

"They would." Bolt responded before pausing and grimacing. "Honesty has me saying that I'm not sure that they'd learn a lot really. Doing what I did took a lotta time and I ended up doing a lotta the work."

"Doing it in a single session and a large group like that was your problem." Jayce observed. "We have labs and assignments that can be spread out over a few weeks. The space concerns would be a larger issue at that point."

"Which would still run into the cost." Bolt concluded. "Not sure budget wise. I think Third Rate mechs should be in your budget."

"Again, we do live in a Second Rate economy here but we're a college, not a nation." The other designer reminded with a dry tone.

"Basics are basic. I'd expect you to teach kinds how to make a mech that walks first. Then you can do fancy stuff." Bolt responded with a hand wave. "Biggest thing is really the reactor. Second Rate needs different handling."

"Yes, your little trick has half our students double checking all the wires. I appreciate the attention to detail, but we had to have a specific lesson on that." Jayce said with a half grin.

Bolt gave a laugh of his own. "Don't tell me you haven't done that yourself."

"No comment." The designer replied with an amused shake of his head. "But back on topic, assuming that we surmount the numerous issues. Is it worth it teaching a mech designer by having them assemble simplified Third Rate mechs?"

For a moment Bolt wanted to say that was how he learned. It was a bad answer. Bolt knew he was different than most people. This wasn't a point of pride. It was a simple fact. Even if he wasn't smart, everyone was different and learned differently. He took a few moments to formulate an answer. Jayce let him, waiting patiently.

Eventually he had a good reason and words for it. "I think that ultimately the basics of how ta assemble a mech and do it with a minimum of automation is going to be important. All my masterworks were done by hand, and looking it up, the designers who do it consistently also do it personally. Some use more tech than others, but all of em devote their personal attention to it. If you aren't giving students a chance to be the best, then why teach them in the first place? Do you want office workers or designers that could become masters?"

"That is a good reason. Pity reality gets in the way. Students will frequently have to go into companies where taking the time to assemble a single mech that will be very flawed is a waste. We are very thorough about teaching them how to use fabricators and how to assemble mechs with standard tools. I'd argue that manual assembly is going away. Masterworks are exceptional. A hundred mechs made from automation is better." Jayce pointed out.

Bolt shrugged. "Could do both. Ain't like a factory stops because a mech designer is doing a personal project."

"Time management concerns hinder that, but I take your point." Jayce waved a hand. "Truthfully I would love teaching students more, not less. If we could have them make a baby mech I'd be first in line to approve it. We do come back to cost. Even doing Third Rate mechs would add up a lot."

Bolt nodded slowly before tapping at the podium. Fancy ones like this had a whole lot of tech they were connected to. One of them was a designer. With a few flicks he brought up some materials. Then he created a mech. Total time, about five minutes. It showed. The mech was absurdly simple.

"Just an idea." Bolt said. "These materials all recycle real well." He noted.

Jayce stared for a beat before shaking himself and staring at the design. "I'm afraid I'm missing the point."

"Basically, this is a mech made outta one hundred percent recyclable materials." Bolt explained. "Have kids make em outta all of these materials, and throw it back in the recycling. Total cost would be mostly in power. You'd lose about say five percent of the material each cycle I think?"

"Probably more like ten to fifteen depending on various factors." Jayce said after doing a few mental calculations.

There was always a loss somewhere when you recycled. Some of it was just because the material was just gone, but a lot of it was contamination and the fact that remaking could reduce some quality. It was just a fact of reality.

"Think it'd work?" Bolt asked.

Jayce considered it for a long moment before sighing and wiggling a hand. "It'd be good for an end of year project I think. We would have to specifically note that it's not good for mech design in general and be certain that it doesn't introduce bad habits. Using materials like that would require some specialized manufacturing and designing methods that wouldn't translate well."

"Ah." Bolt breathed out. "Yeah actually." He noted with a wince. "Kinda forgot that students can learn lessons ya don't want too."

"That's something that comes with time. I'd say that there's a good seed of an idea here, but it'd require some delicacy to implement."

Bolt nodded in agreement. "It'd have ta be paired with one or two other lessons, but I think its a sound idea." He added a few flaws. "Have em make this and identify the problem?"

"Do try to make flaws a non-journeyman would notice." Jayce said dryly and added one of his own.

The young designer stared at it. "I woulda figured out that one when I was ten." He observed, with only a little exaggeration.

Jayce stifled a chuckle. "You underestimate how stupid some new students can get."

Bolt chuckled, and that seemed to end the debate. He shook hands with the other man once they cleaned up and then got drawn into a few conversations about his work and other things. Most of it was pretty casual and just the designer version of light talk. Things about various simple decisions and brainstorming what could and wouldn't work.

He did get a job offer too. It seemed rather generous based off his rather poor understanding of things. Something like full tenure (Whatever that meant) and a high salary. That was nice, but not really his thing at all.

 

[Golgotha]

I can't blame them for shooting their shot there. Funnily enough it would be a great deal for any standard third rate designer who managed to go visit a second rate world.
But, ah, not so much for bolt.