Halp!

[xiii_legion]

Pullo stared at the oblong object in front of him with a furrowed brow, as if doing so might reveal its secrets to him. Nevermind that he had been staring at it for several minutes and it was still more impenetrable than a virgin before her wedding night; he didn't know what else to do. The blue-skinned woman had told him it was a way to communicate with the rest of the people in Outerspace, but Pullo didn't see why they couldn't just shout or something.

"Work, gods damn you! Go on..." He poked it with a forefinger and sent it clattering to the floor; he stooped to retrieve it and it was only once he was upright again that he realised he wasn't alone.

Comments

[firstcylon]

"When I said you should come see me if you needed help with anything," Zoe stated, her lips quirked into a small, amused smile, "I meant before you broke your communicator on the floor."

She walked closer, once again wearing a short dress, but this time, with stiletto sandals and no leggings.

[xiii_legion]

He noticed the dress - he definitely noticed the dress - but to his credit he didn't say anything, and his gaze only lingered on her legs for a few seconds before he met her eyes with a sheepish smile. "It's supposed to be easy to use, but if the gods wanted me to be able to use this they should've given me more brains."

[firstcylon]

"It's just nothing close to anything you've seen before, right?" Zoe checked with him, as she took a seat beside him, tucking her dress under her (as little as she could) as she sat. "Has anybody tried to explain at all?"

[xiii_legion]

"I know it'll get me into some of the rooms, and it works with the computer... whatever that is," Pullo said with a roll of his eyes. "But it's supposed to let me talk to people, and so far... well, I'm talking to you, but it hasn't said a word to me."

[firstcylon]

"But it greeted you when you first got it, right?" Zoe checked, and held her hand out for the communicator, so she could check for herself that it was properly synched to Titus. A quick flurry of fingers on the screen let her know that it was, and she got back to the communicator's main screen.

"Okay, look. See all these little images on it?" She gestured at the four icons on the screen. "These are how you can reach the other people on board, even if they're not around. Either get to talk to them, or write them messages. You just press them." Explaining the difference between e-mails, IMs and texts was going to be difficult, if he was as technologically inapt as she was beginning to think he might be. "Do you have phones, where you're from?"

[xiii_legion]

The look he gave her was blank enough to answer for him. "Phones? Whazzat, like torches? We used to use those in the army, but I don't think they'd work here, too flat."

[firstcylon]

That certainly answered her question, and she pursed her lips before shaking her head slightly. "No, phones are devices that allow you to talk to each other at a great distance. This can do that, among other things. See, this image here? Tap your finger on it. Gently," she added, before he might wrench the comm out of her hands and make it floor to the floor again.

[xiii_legion]

Pullo obeyed, reaching out to tap one gnarled, scarred finger against the picture Zoe had indicated. The screen changed, and Pullo leaned forward to see what happened next.

[firstcylon]

"This is the list of the people on board," Zoe explained on. "You can scroll through it like this," she added, sliding her finger up and down the screen to show him the effect it had on the list, and eventually moving to the very bottom of the list. "Look, this is me. If you tap on my name," which she did, "I'll get what we call a call from you."

She handed him his communicator back as hers started buzzing, and she pulled it out of her purse to show him the screen, where his name was written. "See? And if I take it, we can talk, even if we're not in the same place." She accepted the call and put the comm to her ear as she stood. "Put it to your ear like this? I'll walk away so you can see how it works without me right next to you."

[xiii_legion]

The instructions sounded crazy, but at least the thing was doing something now instead of just sitting there like a particularly polished rock. "Like this?" he asked, grasping it in one hand and lifting it to his ear. It gave off a slight ambient noise, oddly, and when she spoke it was like she was standing right next to him, even though she was now several meters away. By Mercury's silver arse. What magic is this?

[firstcylon]

"Just like that," Zoe confirmed with an encouraging smile, after taking a few steps back, and turned around to keep on walking towards a concourse, just to prove to him that they could still talk, no matter how far they were. "It comes in handy, when you want to get a hold of someone but don't know where they are, or you've got something urgent to say. Some of the other functions allow you to send - letters, I guess, through the communicators, letters that are instantly received."

Now a good fifty feet away, she turned back around to watch him, still sitting in the middle of the Hub, and she smiled. "Impressed yet?"

[firstcylon]

"As long as you're both somewhere on the station, it should work," Zoe answered, heading back to him, but too far for now to stop talking into the communicator. She was smiling from how excited he looked and sounded.