Jip Barton

Jip Barton, Prodigy

People never made much sense to you. They aren't logical. They can't see what is right in front of their faces. They aren't very smart either. At least not compared to you.

You're a genius. You and everyone else knew it since you assembled your first gadget, the Wazzithingamajigi (TM), at the age of 2. The Wazzithingamajigi is now used for... well, for everything, all across the galaxy. No ship or household is without at least one. Your parents knew you were something special, but they didn't understand the value of what you had created. Nor did they have enough sense to properly patent the Wazzithingamajigi (TM).

Despite that, your invention caught the attention of important people at Banana. You went to a very special school. By age 5, though, you were teaching them more than you were learning. By age 7 you realized that part of the school contract let Banana have the intellectual property rights on anything the students came up with while at the schools. By age 9 you realized that your school, and others like it, were where 90% of Banana's new products came from. By age 11 you had negotiated a new contract that was more to your liking, with a little help from some people in the Agribusiness Mafia. While you still owe them a debt, you've certainly got far more to pay them back with than you otherwise would have had. Still, you only got part of what you would have wanted--and deserved--because you had to get out of the legal contract to remain at the school until at least age 18.

In the 7 years since then, you've had considerable free reign to design and come up with anything you'd like. You've come up with all kinds of things, from advanced programming languages to the latest personal uGadget. You're pretty sure that you can accomplish virtually anything with technology if you're given enough time.

Despite having such free reign, you've become deeply unhappy. For one thing, whenever you talk to people about anything new and shiny, their eyes tend to glaze over. They just don't understand you. For another thing... well, you've never really had another person you were close with. You're just horribly shy when it comes to talking to someone of your age of the other sex. You either shut up entirely or can't help but start rambling about the latest thing you're working on.

A few months ago you met someone, Malek Abdullah, that seemed to really understand you... or at least was willing to listen to you. Unfortunately, you had to ship out to speak at a conference on the Xygerphasiac Process and its potential impact on Personal Monofilamental Magnatesia Gadgets. You were going to ask Malek to come with you, but by the time you had worked up your nerve, you couldn't find Malek before the ship left. You don't know if you'll ever see Malek again.

Now you're on the Petunia, heading to Galleria II. With the IA elections occurring soon, you can make who you're going to vote for an important chip for the renegotiation of your contract. With the shares in Banana you've managed to accumulate you're fairly sure you can actually get what you deserve for your inventions in the next contract.

The Petunia is the Flagship for the Interplanetary Association and it is decked out with all kinds of stuff. Some is things you aren't even familiar with. This trip sure won't be boring: you'll get to find out all about the ship itself from the crew during the trip. If there is a chance to play with any of the things you don't know about that would be great.

In addition, this will be your first chance to experiment with an actual starship's galactic positioning device. You have some modifications that you think would improve its functionality, but you need to get your hands on it first.

Corporate Allegiance: Banana
Stock Owned: 30% of Banana

Who You Know

Anish Patel, Ship's Engineer
You've heard quite a few good things about Anish. Anish has patented a few things. You've read some papers Anish. Anish really understands technology and what makes the Petunia work. You must find the opportunity to talk to Anish about things. In particular, you need to get Anish to let you use the galactic positioning device. Maybe you could even get Anish's help with this project.

RX-137, Communication Officer
Apparently, RX-137 is a little quirky. Quite the personality, you've been told. Very unusual for an android. You'd like to get a chance to speak with RX-137 and find out what's going on with it.

Goals

• Learn everything you can about the ship.

• Figure out what's going on with RX-137.

• Malek Abdullah . . . sigh.

• Get Anish's help on your modifications to the galaxy positioning system.