6224/Stranger Tides: Getting the ball rolling

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Stranger Tides: Getting the ball rolling
Date of Scene: 19 January 2019
Location: Near Santa Monica
Synopsis: Natasha hires herself an oceanologist to investigate the changing currents.
Cast of Characters: Shadow, Fathom
Tinyplot: Stranger Tides


Shadow has posed:
    Cranston Multinational does in fact have an R&D division. Unfortunately, the vast majority of it focuses on new and improved ways of carring freight as swiftly and efficiently as possible. The conundrum of supposedly stable oceanic currents shifting is a bit outside their field, and this will require a specialist. Fortunately, an ocean biologist on the West Coast has recently made the news.

    Natasha pores over the woman's public file as Cranston One makes its final approach to Santa Monica airport.

    Aspen Matthews. Foundling, date of birth estimated 1998. Former olympic swimmer until convicted of doping. Multiple PhDs in marine biology, oceanology and hydrodynamics. Authored a paper on marine mammal propulsion that was described as 'intriguing' by CMS' head of research... And currently a minor celebrity after a televised rescue of a pod of beached whales.

    Natasha closes her laptop as Cranston One touches down, and disembarks. There's a car waiting for her outside the terminal, and she'll be face to face with the woman soon...

Fathom has posed:
Aspen checks herself in the mirror of the small stateroom aboard the Paradise Found. The research vessel is docked just a short walk from a quaint little beach front place that Aspen bought. The boat is in excellent shape, but for needing some fresh coat of paint on the hull in front. A spot where the hull rammed into an ice flow created by Iceman has had the dent hammered out, but the paint still needs touching up. An even more recent bit of news which Natasha might receive an update to on her phone en route. Apparently the Paradise Found was involved in the rescue of 22 sailors from a sinking ship during a storm.

While the boat could use some touching up, Aspen decides she doesn't. The usually casually dressed woman has donned a skirt and a nice blouse. Something suitable for a business meeting. The clothing feels out of place, not that Aspen never dresses up. Just never on the Paradise. Aspen takes a deep breath, giving only a small wince from the ribs that were injured in the sea rescue, and then heads over to the dock, leaving the boat and walking down it to wait in the small marina for the arrival of the representatives from CMS.

Shadow has posed:
    Just as Aspen reaches the end of the dock she can see an expensive-looking car park at the marina, right on time for the meeting. Rather than the bland secretary or dour representative she'd probably been half expecting, a well-dressed woman in her early thirties emerges from behind the wheel, retrieving a briefcase before heading straight for her.

    "Miss Matthews? I'm Natasha Cranston. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me on such short notice..."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen walks a few steps nearer as the car pulls in. Though there are a few yachts in the marina, Aspen knows most of the owners and their cars, so suspects this is her appointment. Aspen is a dark-haired young woman with eyes that are almost a soft violet. It has been 7 years since the Olympic incident, but from her level of fitness Aspen looks as if she could still be doing competitive swimming.

"Miss Cranston," Aspen offers back, giving the other woman a friendly smile and offering her hand, before the name seems to sink in. "Natasha Cranston?" she repeats. Aspen looked up the company, of course, though only paid the smallest amount of attention to the ownership, mainly focusing on things like their reputation and safety record. "The owner of CMS?" she says, confirming. "I just wasn't expecting you would be the person to meet with me," Aspen says. "Please, I won't keep you waiting. We can talk aboard the Paradise," Aspen offers, motioning to the dock to walk Natasha out to the boat. It has a pair of cranes for deploying equipment, and booms which can be deployed as needed. The hull is rated for ice and the ship designed to handle storms well.

Shadow has posed:
    Natasha smiles. "One and the same. I do have people who handle conventional business negotiations for me, but I felt this required a more personal touch." She nods at Aspen's invitation. "By all means, lead the way."

    She follows behind the younger woman, making the transition from the stable dock to the Paradise's deck with the practiced ease of someone who's been on boats before. "The short of it is that some of my analysts discovered an anomaly in the flow of the North Equatorial Current, and I'd like to commission you to study it." She taps her briefcase. "I can show you our findings, if you have a table available..."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen listens to the explanation, giving little nods along the way. A practiced active listener. "Of course, lets use the chart table," she says, taking Natasha into the enclosed part of the ship. The largest room has been decked out with various computer monitors mounted along the walls, a few tables that hold computers or else dive equipment or acoustic buoys that are in various states of being repaired. There is also a large plotting table, excellent for doing mapping on.

Aspen clears a few things out of the way, motioning as the table is Natasha's to use. "I'd seen a paper citing some unusual readings from the buoys in the area, but hadn't seen any kind of conclusions drawn yet," Aspen says. The buoys are so sparsely spread out though, they likely wouldn't have picked up on it fully yet. Natasha's team has far more detail to work with, even if it is in the form of ships logs, the data set would provide a better picture than what NOAA had available.

Shadow has posed:
    Natasha smiles and places a laptop onto the cleared table, calling up a presentation. "As a shipping company, we're of course always keenly interested in seeing how promptly our freight is delivered. Several days ago, one of our analysts discovered an increasing trend of missed or barely made delivery schedules and increased fuel expenditures by any and all ships traveling west-to-east along the North Equatorial current," she brings up a map of shipping lanes, overlaid with current information. "Experienced captains take advantage of those currents to save on fuel; less experienced captains watch their GPS like hawks and immediately order faster speeds when they're off a planned schedule. Either way, the implication seems to be that the current isn't moving as quickly as it has been."

    A touch to the laptop's keyboard, and the presentation switches off. "Your commission, should you choose to accept it-" Natasha smiles, unable to resist the phrasing. "- is threefold: First, to verify our findings and determine whether this shift in currents is real. Second, if it is real, to determine what it's shifting /to/ and provide an updated map of the new currents. Third, if possible, find out what caused it."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen was looking as closely at the presentation as she was able. "I'm not sure exactly how much traffic you have through that area, but you probably have more data on it than any researcher," Aspen comments, needing only the brief presentation to note something that Natasha's people had as well. "I'm definitely interested. All but finished with my last project, a little bit of paperwork left to do, probably done by tomorrow," she says. "And the Paradise Found is your boat. There are a few others in the vicinity that could handle it, but most are working for oil companies," Aspen shares.

"I don't know what models you use for predicting the currents. If it's NOAA's we could start from there and update them. Or if you have proprietary ones, the same. Either way, I probably would need a few resources. Programming, possibly deck hand, etc," she says, giving the information to Natasha, but more so thinking through it aloud herself.

Shadow has posed:
    Natasha nods, then retrieves a thick folder out of her briefcase and places its contents on the table one by one.

    First up is a single piece of paper with a lot of legalese boilerplate. "This is a fairly standard nondisclosure agreement; if you'd like a lawyer to go over it before you sign, by all means, but you'll need to sign it if you want to use this--" a robust looking USB stick is next. "This contains all of our recent shipping schedules through the area, just in case you need to do an independent analysis. It would be appreciated if you kept this data on a need to know basis, as some of it might be sensitive..."

    Third up, a more standard academic contract, although the pay scale is a notch higher than usual. "Again, if you'd prefer a lawyer go over this, by all means. I will expect regular reports, regardless of progress. And finally..." A debit card joins the pile. "If you decide to take this job, I'll have an expense account assigned to this that will cover anything you might need. Additional personnel, specialized equipment, anything within discretion - although I /will/ ask for receipts and you may be required to explain your purchases..."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen takes each item in turn, skimming through before setting it aside, and nodding about the sensitivity of the data, looking up to meet Natasha's eyes so the woman will be able to gauge that yes, Aspen seems to take that seriously from her expression. Aspen spends a little more time on the second document, particularly where it has some details. At one point, the young woman whistles appreciatively. "Can probably save a little bit of money with this part but we'll need to amend the contract," Aspen says, showing Natasha that section. It deals with the volume of data collection, just essentially laying out the legal situation so the project couldn't be half-assed and then called complete.

"The data coverage being asked for is more than what's needed," Aspen comments. "It's a question of depth. It's easy to deploy and get readings on the surface, very difficult to do down below. You can add more sensors and decreases the distance between them on the surface, and that will get you better results. But only to a point. After a while you're down in the area that more detail at the surface doesn't help if you don't have the data what's going on down deep. And this would be past that point. We can cut half of this out and not worsen the results."

After the brief explanation she says, "Another question I don't see addressed. I know this information has proprietary value for you. This could also be one of the best ocean data sets the academic community would have seen to date. Over this large of an area, we're used to a sensor every 50 miles, not every 5 miles. The sensors won't just pick up current information. Acoustics will catch animal noises that can be used to track migration, feeding habits. Particulate matter in the water can give information for pollution studies. How would you feel about the data set being made available to academia after the fact?" Aspen asks.

Shadow has posed:
    Natasha nods as Aspen goes over the requirements. "I'm not inherently opposed to sharing your findings with academia at some point. I would, however, prefer if you secure permission from us on a case-by-case basis, depending on what you find. Strictly ecological information would probably be fine, as CMS has no interests in the fishing industry; likewise, migratory patterns. On the other hand, we are treading into unknown territory, and I'm not comfortable giving blanket permission to publish everything you find without knowing beforehand what it might turn out to be."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen seems very agreeable on finding a set of terms that Natasha will be happy with, that can also benefit the larger community. Read: world. "I'm willing to do the project even if you say no dissemination of it, so I'm certainly good with those terms. If I could suggest, once we're finished, we can go over what we have. There may be data very fit for open release. Other data that you want kept proprietary, period. Other that after some amount of time you might be fine with release. Also, consider there may be data that you can sell to other industries in the short term. Sort of, 'we will release this in three years, but if you want a leg up on your competition we will see you a copy now for $X,'" Aspen says.

She smiles to the other woman and says, "If you like we can go over all of that and you can make decisions once we know exactly what we have." Aspen gives a nod then. "Either way, yes, I'll have my attorney go over it and make sure there's nothing else to address. But I don't expect there should be anything major. I'm very interested in the project, I'm glad that you thought of me for it."

Shadow has posed:
    Natasha smiles, rising and reaching over to shake Aspen's hand. "You can thank Channel 8 News for that," she replies. "You made quite an impression on the reporter. Please inform me as soon as you've decided whether or not to sign on for this, and I'll see to it that the details will be handled..."

Fathom has posed:
Aspen shakes Natasha's hand, and says, "I'll get you my final answer as quickly as possible. I understand every day it takes is a day of costs for you. I'll do my best not to hold you up. I'll even start getting word out for the assistance I'll need on it. A good fluid dynamics programmer surely and... well, I'll start that process now while the rest of the paperwork is ironed out. Thank you Miss Cranston. I look forward to working with you."

Shadow has posed:
    "Likewise," Natasha replies. "Bear in mind, thoroughness is more important than speed; we're aware /something/ is off and we have directed our shipping subsidiaries to rely on GPS rather than experience for navigation, which will at least keep us from incurring more late fees, but in the long term our ability to plan does require an accurate idea of what's going on."

    With that, she turns and leaves, making her way back onto the dock and to the marina parking lot. ..