Man Out of Time - A Captain America / Avengers Fanfiction

Chapter 18

Before I launch into the next action scene, I wanted to let the readers know how Bernice is fitting in at her new job.

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Chapter 18

"No, no, no, no!" Doctor Nyi said. "More … rounder … like this." He grabbed a mangled chunk of metal he'd pulled off the strange-looking hovercraft called a 'glider' and held it in front of him, as though it were an airplane. "See. Whoosh. It has to be smooth so the air flows over it."

"Got it," Bernice said. She digitally erased the rear of the transport vehicle which looked like a cross between a chariot from Ben Hur and a jet ski and drew a gently curved line between two twisted objects they prognosticated were running boards. The image was drawn on a smart pad with graph paper overlaid over a line image created by a three-dimensional scan which had taken intricate measurements of the vehicle. The computers could accurately recreate what existed, but many areas were so badly damaged they were using conjecture to figure out what it had looked like before the Avengers had smashed it all to hell.

"Aha!" Dr. Nyi stared at what she had drawn so far, his eyes sparkling as though he were a kid opening presents on Christmas morning. "Yes. Very good. Very good. Bring that to Production and see if they can't fabricate a replacement."

"Right away," Bernice said.

She noted where the known measurements ended and her concept drawing began, then made her way out through multiple layers of security to the Production Department, where a second team of engineers converted blueprints into real objects. Mathematics had never been her forte, but she found herself wishing she'd packed a few more classes under her belt so she could translate the quadratic equations the engineers spewed when describing how they wished a concept drawing to look instead of simply saying, 'it's curved.'

"Could you please bring this down on your way back, Bernice?" the Production technician said, handing her an object not much bigger than a golf ball. She signed for the object and carried it into the bowels of Stark Industries where they joked Pepper Potts only let the engineers come up to see the sun once per week.

Doctor Nyi clucked like a broody hen sitting on an egg as he fit the object into the damaged transport vehicle. Bernice went over to where a different piece of alien technology had just been brought in. Before they took it apart, it had to be photographed, scanned, measured, and then drawn every step of the way to ensure no design element was missed. Retro-engineering, the science of taking something apart, figuring out how it worked, and creating a new model for yourself. Usually photographs and scans sufficed, but the Chitauri technology had been heavily damaged or rigged to self-destruct.

"Aha!" Doctor Nyi clucked, moving about the glider like a short, plump hen who had just found a nice, fat grub to eat. "Bernice! You're a genius!"

She was no such thing. All she had done was point out the shattered fragments surrounding the delicate electronics appeared to indent in, not out as the engineers assumed it should. A low hum went through the lab, causing a sensation akin to standing next to a high tension power line. Yes. This version of the golf-ball-thingy worked. The damaged glider hovered two feet off the ground, wobbling as the mangled rear-end threw off its balance. Other engineers drifted over from other parts of the lab, oohing and ahhing.

"I think something is missing," Bernice said, pointing to the imbalance. "Something besides the exhaust portal between the running boards."

The engineers began to argue, devolving into calling each other 'idiot.' She'd been witness to many heated arguments since she'd started here. What amazed her was not that they argued. With this level of alien technology, one educated guess was as valid as another. What amazed her was that, at the end of the argument, they all slapped each other on the back and went back to being the best of friends.