{"sf1_id":575635,"sf2_id":"yndj98Ze","title":"NCIS 2","author":"KevinFoxboy","words":5659,"posted_at":"2013-08-13T02:27:00.000Z","tags":["Deer","Femal","Fox","Human","Male","Mink","Mystery","Ra bit","Series","Wolf","fanfic"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/575635-ncis-2","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/yndj98Ze","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/97/87/9787fa59-341d-4e94-b0a1-92baec546898","description":"#3 of FanFiction\n\nMore Naval Criminal Investigative Service fanfic. Murder at a chimera factory. Also a bit of a tech rant. Why let companies overcharge so CEO's have yachts?","content":". . NCIS meets KFB 2 - 2012-0104.1144  \n[NCIS characters used in noncanon situation  \nwithout copyright holder permission]  \n  \nAnyhoo, they saw the dark-grey fur toy tied to the bed. He'd been  \npatiently waiting for the woman who'd rented him to return. When Mistress  \nMel and the NCIS team walked in, he got off the bed and knelt submissively  \non the floor.  \n  \nHe saw Mistress Mel and wanted to show himself, but he saw the Masters and  \nknew he wasn't allowed. They'd command him of course, he was just a product.  \nR4G2/KvH23 Roger knelt with his bushy tail curled left as he was taught, his  \nankles pressing his furry rump, his back straight, his paws palm up on his  \nthighs.  \n  \n'Roger' held his snout level but his eyes down. He was showing himself to  \nMasters with the proper respectful submission. It was actually his slave  \ncollar with the ID tag leashed to a post which held him to the bed.  \n  \nHis partner for the evening had been R4G2/KvH19, the female gray wolf  \nGinger. He had no idea it was an unusual fur color for a wolf since they'd  \ngrown up in Kennel, or the joke about their names. You may not remember  \nGinger Rogers either. Wiki.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; They were still not used to a furry ... thing ... that talked. Gibbs spoke with  \nMel. If Danielle Roberts had rented the room, and the wolfboy, a month ago,  \nthe forensics would be wiped clean by now. But Roger remembered her from  \nthe image, and Ginger knew she'd been rented too.  \n  \nThey'd been rented recently by a man who liked watching, and they were just  \nslave furrs, so they didn't mind. A month ago Danielle had rented the pair,  \nand had them show her some things. So where were the pictures she'd taken?  \n  \nNCIS had searched the petty officer's home on base of course. The former BOQ  \nhad been converted for women when the Navy allowed them to serve, and the team  \nhad been a bit nervous about searching a lady's garments. Except Tony.  \n  \nThe NCIS team tried to get used to seeing two human-sized unclothed wolves  \nkneeling on the floor. They were actually about five-and-a-half feet tall if  \nthey were allowed to stand, but because their legs stayed bent they would  \nstretch higher.  \n  \nMel seemed quite accepting of their uh parts showing covered in fur. None  \nof the men cared to look at Roger, but Ginger's curves were quite a distrac-  \ntion. Tim seemed quite nervous, but Abby seemed interested in the anatomy.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Tony, of course, eyed the bitch shamelessly. A domestic dog is a subspecies  \nof wolf, and Ginger was obviously female, so \"bitch\" is the correct technical  \nterm. No insult involved.  \n  \nTony's scent changed, and both canids noticed. Roger was pleased his partner  \nhad that effect, but kept it to himself. Ginger didn't need to, and her tail-  \ntip began to move slowly. She wanted the Master to look and pet her, and Tony  \nhad purposely walked too far from Gibbs for a head-slap.  \n  \nBut work before pleasure, and Tony reluctantly stopped looking at Ginger's  \nfurry cleavage. The two wolves remembered Danielle, although mixes usually  \nforgot things a month old, because Danielle had been to Butte quite regularly.  \n  \nIn fact, for over a year now Danielle had been coming here and picking out  \na furry beast or two to enjoy overnight. Ever since she'd learned of them,  \nDani had tested their domestic-servant skills.  \n  \nVarious species had obeyed her orders to unpack her duffel into the dresser.  \nThey'd help her undress, folding her travel uniform and drawing a warm bath,  \nadjusting the temperature and rubbing her back gently with a soapy washcloth.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; A lady could get very used to obedient servants.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nFade to black-and-white, then go black for commercial. I should  \nprobably have written that earlier. As a result of his lechery, Tony  \nDiNozzo took a few vacation days and returned to Butte.  \n  \nThe place was much as it had been before. He liked the fact that there was  \nno kennel smell despite the, uh, product. He was a bit surprised they wanted  \nreservations, not just walk-ins.  \n  \nThe minkboy was scrubbing the floor in the kennel lobby. His dark-brown fur  \nhid his body well enough, although since he was unclothed Tony could see things  \nwhen the boy rocked forward on his knees.  \n  \nThe beast stopped and knelt up when Tony entered. Minky wasn't trained to  \nhelp Masters, but he knew enough to show submission. He was still quite young,  \nmaybe as old as a human at six or seven.  \n  \nBut of course much stronger. A mix body spent time in a \"wet-tank\" artifi-  \ncial womb, though mixes didn't know the word. It took six months from the DNA  \nmixing to 'birth' and mixes continue rapid body growth. In another eighteen  \nmonths, a mere two-year waiting period, a buyer would have a fully-grown fur  \nslave as old as a human at sixteen.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; The muscles grew fast too, so mixes were stronger than humans. More useful  \nas labour slaves that way. But the mind never grew, Mel made sure the beasts  \nwould stay mentally challenged and therefore submissive.  \n  \nTony was more interested in the other mink, but she wasn't old enough yet  \nto have chest bulges. Her hips and rump were nicely curved, and her tail  \nwaved as her unclothed body moved back and forth with her floor scrubbing.  \n  \nThen the doe caught his eye. He'd seen rabbits before, and liked her slight  \nhopping gait. He was a bit surprised when she spoke in a rather assertive voice  \nto command the minks. Tony remembered her leather collar meant she was older,  \nand her Masters gave her rights over the steel-collared minks.  \n  \nBut Master Tony let the beasts work and went to the lobby information desk.  \nThe Stag behind it startled him because he was dressed, and called him Sir.  \nHe'd begun to expect kneeling and Master from fur slaves.  \n  \nThis Stag wasn't a slave. He was a Furson, someone who was born human but  \nliked animal characteristics. The male Deer had an impressive rack of antlers.  \nHe'd had BioSyn Labs stick 'em on, got fur and a triangle bitty tail.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; And the hooves. It took a while to get used to cloven hooves instead of flat  \nfeet, but the guy did it. Hooves are toenails, of course, and there was a mouse  \ngirl on her knees behind the desk cleaning and polishing them. The fur slave  \nwas just finishing the first coat of hoof-black.  \n  \nAll the possibilities whirling though Tony's head made him dizzy. All these  \nfurry almost-people wearing steel or leather, the fur and nothing else. How  \nwas a lecher to decide? Maybe he could try them buffet-style, a little at a  \ntime and come back for seconds.  \n  \nThen Mary came by to talk with Stan. OK, she was a Doe too, but a Deer, not  \na Rabbit. And he was definitely interested in her tawny body fur, with a hint  \nof fawn spots.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nMary had been an executive secretary before she saw who visited her  \nboss. She went into Witness Protection when they found out she knew. One of  \nthe ways to hide was to Go Furry, so she became a lady Deer. Not even the  \nfeds knew what she was now, so no leaks to criminals.  \n  \nI'm not sure who Stan was. His antlers are sharp, and I'm just a slave fox  \nso it's not my place to ask. I have enjoyed serving him though, and he likes  \nhow careful I am with his needs.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; If you've never been with a Deer, you should try her. The hooves are quite  \na conversation starter, the legs are long and curvy, the tail's cute. I like  \nlong bushy ones, but they do take some care. And Mary doesn't have to hold  \nhers when she sits down.  \n  \nWhich she was doing now. Stan sat on a sturdy chair, she sat on his lap,  \nthe mousie had four more hooves to polish. Stan and Mary long-necked for a  \nwhile, their antlers clicking softly but never locking. Maybe she was saving  \nit for later, that's their business.  \n  \nAs is the fondling. While Tony wandered around looking at furry possibili-  \nties, Stan and Mary hugged and kissed. Carefully, as I said. I've seen them  \na few times when I was in the Lobby presenting myself to a renter, and it's  \nnot a secret they like each other.  \n  \nTony had some follow-up questions for /los Lobos/ so he asked Stan if they  \nwere available. Well as it happened Ginger and Roger were off-site at some-  \none's bachelor party. Tony was upset to learn mixes did indeed go outside,  \nbecause Mel and Betty had been so politely sure it never happened.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; See, Danielle had rented the wolves about a month ago, but she was killed  \nthree days ago now. Tony called Gibbs to let him know the revelation that fur  \nparties did in fact happen.  \n  \nSo Tim got a chance to use some Hot!Tech computers and be impressed again  \nat their speed. He tried to get the furtoy registry to see if it could be  \nforged, but Security denied him.  \n  \nHe tried the usual cracker stuff that broke into Windows machines, but Hot!  \nTech writes its software correctly the first time, and refused to answer his  \nattempts to connect. There's no law that says internet machines have to answer  \nwhen you try them.  \n  \nBut Unix and Linux machines have software written by programmers for pro-  \ngrammers, and the nerds don't care about security. They think all information  \nshould be given to anybody who asks. Which is utter BS of course.  \n  \nThey'll let you keep on trying to log in forever, until you happen to guess  \nsomeone's password! Windows machines at least have a way to limit login tries,  \nbut the admins deal with people who are too dumb to remember the word they  \nmade up themselves!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; So they usually turn the limiter off. Frankly, if you can't use computers  \nyou shouldn't be allowed to try, and if it means you can't get your work done  \nyou should be fired and let someone else work. Come back after you've learned!  \n  \nHot!Tech requires people to be intelligent. Tough tukus if you aren't. You  \nget three tries to log in, then they hang up on you. Wait fifteen minutes.  \nYou get three sets of three tries to get it right, then it won't bother to  \nrespond to you. Practically ever.  \n  \nThat's the way it should be. Look, if you go to a restaurant but can't open  \nthe door, it's your fault, not theirs. Sure, someone might come to help, but  \nyou shouldn't expect it. You shouldn't expect a computer to figure out what  \nyou want. It's just a dumb chunk of silicon chips.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nTim tried to write a virus, which would have worked on the machines  \nat NCIS. But Hot!Tech computers don't have GUIs, won't run EXE files or Word  \nmacros, won't let even the owner modify the security. I may sound self-right-  \neous, but I helped write the Hot!Tech OS, and we've had computers run for  \ntwenty years straight! Hot!Tech machines never get viruses, never have  \nsystem crashes, and the websites have never been offline.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Advert!  \n  \nSo if not even a certified genius geek could break in, Tim was sure no casual  \nforger could either. Or 'accidentally' edit or delete files. Actually Hot!Tech  \nmachines don't have a 'delete file' command, they 'trash' stuff instead so it  \ncan be recovered.  \n  \nOnce Tim found that, he looked though the trash. The next security block was  \nthat users can't erase history, because there isn't any. You can't trace some-  \none else's whereabouts. No matter how cool a cracker you are, you simply can-  \nnot find what isn't there.  \n  \nActually Tim wasn't aware that Hot!Tech followed USA Federal law and allowed  \nFederal search warrants. If Tim had known to get one, he could have found the  \nfile journal, and known that although nobody can forge the rental data (because  \nSecurity won't let just any user edit it) or secretly adjust it (because the  \njournal keeps track of attempts) the journal lets you track changes.  \n  \nTim would have known Danielle Roberts had been coming to Butte for over  \na year now and enjoying the fur slaves. And which ones she rented, and she  \nalways had them sent to Room 103.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Her photos were hidden only long enough to skip over the next four or five  \nguests until a certain someone who knew where they were picked them up. And  \nDani had been passing along some rather sensitive US Navy documents to a group  \nshe didn't even know existed.  \n  \nIt was because they paid for her clandestine encounters and she thought she  \nwas helping her country keep free flow of information. Dani had disliked keep-  \ning secrets, and it was one of them that killed her.  \n  \nFade to B\u0026W, go to commercial. C'mon back, OK?  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nAbby Scuito was having a tough day. Because she'd sent the maint tech  \naway, Major Mass Spec was having a major tantrum, and because it didn't pro-  \ncess the forensics, Abby had no results for Gibbs. The graying former Marine  \nwas not known for tolerance.  \n  \nFor the fifth time that day MMS was telling her the fur samples didn't match.  \nThe team had scoured Room 103 repeatedly, while various humans and furtoys  \nwatched, but for some reason didn't find the hiding spot Danielle Roberts had  \nused so easily.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; It was mainly because they were all Law Enforcement Officials and had basic-  \nally the same NCIS training. They suspected they were missing something, and  \nwere quite short-tempered about it.  \n  \nIf any had simply thought to bother to ask the submissive living toys who  \ncleaned the rooms regularly, they'd learn what furniture had moved and what  \nstayed put. They'd even know that a certain part of the center torch that  \nmade the room look like a medieval dungeon could be moved in a certain intri-  \ncate pattern to allow another certain piece of furniture to slide in on itself.  \n  \nIt would take an unusually crafty fox slave to reveal the truth, and it was  \nso obvious to his inhuman senses he never thought of offering the information.  \nIt would be assertive of him to interrupt Masters. And Kevin was a very good,  \nvery obedient slave fur.  \n  \nBut Kevvy-boy \\*was\\* a fox, and Danielle's body had human and fox DNA on it.  \nKev was rather kinky even for a slave, because his owner Alysa Benton liked  \nthe sly beast spicing up his service. Kev really enjoyed being fussed over, a  \nleather harness with multiple straps over his hindpaws, ankles, shins, knees,  \nlower and upper thighs, hips, waist, ribs, chest, underarms, neck, shoulders,  \nbiceps, elbows, forearms, wrists, forepaws.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Whew! Did I forget any body part? Adults, email me for more. Kevin begged  \nAbby to harness him, because he was made to serve women and she scented upset.  \nHe suggested the Masters might want femfurs, and suggested a few Mice and Minks  \nthat the NCIS team hadn't explored yet.  \n  \nOr Sally the PumaPard for a bigger toy. There were plenty of Feliform toys  \nto play with, and they all wanted to be petted. It would take quite a while  \nto get through all of them. Ducky whispered to Gibbs and he got Tony and Tim  \nto realise Kev had tried to maneuver them away from foxes. Yet again.  \n  \nFade, B\u0026W, commercial, c'mon back.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nGibbs was getting ticked off as he usually did when the suspects tried  \nto get around him, and Ducky wanted to discuss mixes with the Vet, to sneak a  \npeek at what the beasts could do on their own.  \n  \nAfter all, Mel had told Betty to get drinking glasses, and the hall had been  \nclear. She'd have to know to walk to a storage room, get glasses and tray, fill  \na pitcher from the cold tap, arrange them and walk back without spilling.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; She'd done it just like a human restaurant waiter, and Mel hadn't called  \ndown for a tray. It was possible they could have set it up earlier, just in  \ncase someone asked, but the water was still fizzing from the air added at the  \ntap to make it come out evenly.  \n  \nUnless they were very good at tricking people. Ducky tended to get a bit  \nparanoid when he knew they were hiding something. He pretended to be absent-  \nminded and ask where the Vet's office was, despite the signs. He wondered if  \nany of the slave beasts could read.  \n  \nSandy Kantor was the lady Vet, Albert Rosen the man, her boss. She wasn't  \nin on any secrets, and said yes, the beasts are taught numbers and warning  \nlabels. They're domestic servants so they need to know what bottles hold the  \ncleaning solutions.  \n  \nDucky remembered that Dani's body had been cleaned before discovery. No skin  \nunder her fingernails, no evidence of her killer at all, except for the wide  \nhold-down bruises and that fox DNA he'd had to search rather thoroughly for.  \n  \nSandy told Ducky a mix would normally clean a Mistress rather well, because  \ndomestic servants often helped bathe them when they were a bit tipsy or had  \nenjoyed another fur beast a bit too much. That beast would be drained too,  \nand ask for help.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; So if two wolves were leashed to her bed and Dani was tired, a foxboy could  \neasily roll her to the bathtub and rub her nude flesh with a soapy washcloth.  \nIn the beast's mind it was only serving, it wasn't bright enough to know about  \ncriminal evidence.  \n  \nAnd a washcloth and water rinse would wash away any rug fibers. Of course  \nthe beasts kept the playroom clean so no dirt or grit on the carpet, nothing  \non the Mistress to interfere with her enjoyment. No beast would tie her down  \nwithout a direct order, and even then it would be for play, not how a beast  \nwould be tied.  \n  \nDucky sighed. The slave furrs were too submissive, too obsequiously obedient.  \nThey hadn't volunteered this information, and Gibbs hadn't thought to order  \nthem to answer questions. Even Betty Foxgirl, with her narrow chrome collar  \nstripe showing she was a Kennel Leader had simply knelt and obeyed Mel.  \n  \nShe didn't seem bright enough to follow their line of questioning and offer  \nan answer to a predicted question. That would certainly have pleased Gibbs,  \nand Tony would have sprung at the chance to pet her, fondle her and explore ...  \noh sorry, remember PG13.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; \\* - \\*  \n  \nWhile Ducky was chatting up Sandy the vet and getting her to let him  \nhelp with an autopsy of a Clouded Leopard mix who'd gotten a slip to walk  \naround outside and been bitten by a rabid squirrel animal, the CME wondered  \nwhat other dangers lurked around this wacky place.  \n  \nSandy had told Ducky about the Mind Sickness problem. Since mixes' minds  \nwere faked to start, and electroshocked to make them work, they tended to  \nbe sensitive to brain irregularities caused by edema. Could such a thing  \non a small scale explain aberrant slave behaviour?  \n  \nThis was yet another of Biological Synthetics Incorporated's dirty little  \nsecrets. Ducky tended to go off on verbal tangents barely related to the  \nquestion Gibbs asked, and Sandy really appreciated that he didn't stop her  \nfrom speculating about the sickness.  \n  \nOK, yes. Some beasts had in fact started what in a fully-developed brain  \nwould be called obsessive behaviour. They were domestic servants and expected  \nto clean every day, and sometimes ... a mix would keep rubbing the same spot  \nmindlessly, not knowing he was breaking through the wax to the wood beneath.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; They were supposed to be too dumb to be obsessive, so it was probably the  \nsame sort of mindless rote that an R3 labourer showed. If you didn't train  \nthem to pay attention and have an easy way to tell when to stop, you'd have  \nto watch and tell them yourself.  \n  \nHeck, even animal cats sometimes over-groom and actually rough-lick their  \nown fur down to the skin! If a mix forgot to stop and check, it could easily  \ndo the same.  \n  \nOf course, \"who cares?\" is the important question. \"Who gives a frak?\" is  \nanother one. The point is, a mix learned to clean a room, and did it without  \ncaring why. \"A Master told me to\" is all the reason they'd need, or expect.  \n  \nThe fact they were destroying forensic evidence would never enter what lit-  \ntle mind a fur slave has. And if they weren't told to check, they could easily  \nclean even a newly dead woman while waiting for her to wake up. They'd be very  \ngentle of course.  \n  \nNow, a fur slave has better hearing, vision, taste, touch and especially  \nhearing than any human. They'd easily know if Danielle Roberts was dead. But  \nthe point is, they wouldn't know it meant they had to stop cleaning and tell  \na human!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Only if something went wrong, like she slipped off the bed and broke a  \nlamp, would they push the voice plate and beg for a guard. And if the man  \nsaid he'd handle it, they'd kneel back and wait for a command. Someone could  \neasily commit a crime, and the stupid slave would just watch!  \n  \nNow, Kev was bright enough to protect his Owner by pouncing in front, and  \nhe'd die to protect her. But Mel had purposely hidden knowledge in his mind,  \nand Alysa had trained him. He was one of the few slaves who could generalise.  \n  \nAnd foxes are sly enough to have protected Dani. But Roger and Ginger were  \npersonal pleasure models who could do domestic work, not domestic servants  \nwho knew how to serve in the bed. They honestly weren't bright enough to stop  \nsomeone from tying Dani down, muffling her screams for help by commanding a  \nwolf to kiss her a lot.  \n  \nSo Ginger obeyed, and Roger licked Dani other places to distract her while  \nthe thief rifled Dani and found the secret documents. By the time the Chrome  \nCollar Foxgirl noted the time and entered Room 103, all she saw was the guest  \nMistress lying nude, apparently enjoying the wolves licking her.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Foxgirl just removed the furr slaves and adjusted Dani for comfort. She  \nwas too submissive to bother the Mistress as she slept, and she'd been told  \nto fetch Roger and Ginger and lead them back to Kennel for a group rubdown.  \nIt never occurred to the girl that Dani was sleeping permanently.  \n  \nFade, B\u0026W, commercial, c'mon back.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nI'd like to tell you more about Tim McGee and Hot!Tech computers,  \nbut maybe you aren't interested. Perhaps you prefer to know what Tony  \nDiNozzo thought about the scrub minks. Remember one was a girl. It'd be  \namusing to make a fur pile and watch 'em squirm around.  \n  \nDucky was getting closer with the lady Vet and she was willing to talk with  \na human for a change. I mean, mentally challenged mixes are fun on their furry  \nknees and all, and they're sized for sex and beg to please that way, but try  \ntalking baby to a sex toy and you'll appreciate another human.  \n  \nEspecially a tall, dark, handsome Chief Medical Examiner. OK, taller than  \nSandy, and he went outside so he had a little tan. And frankly the older man  \nwas indeed handsome. Even Sandy's bosses were more business-oriented and  \nthought they could manage any people no matter what the product.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; She didn't have to dumb down the science for Ducky. DNA was discovered  \nbefore the 1950's, just the structure was figured out by X-ray diffraction  \ntechs and Watson \u0026 Crick. Ducky knew humans shared about 98% of their DNA  \nwith chimpanzees.  \n  \nSo it was the other 2% you could fiddle with. It made sense to have DNA  \nsequences stored in taxonomic groups. And the CME knew Linnaen taxonomy,  \nso Animalia Eumetazoa Chordata Vertebrata Gnathostomata were simple enough  \nterms for them both.  \n  \nJust add DNA sequences in groups, like a cookbook. Mammalia Placentae  \n(or the newer Theria Eutheria Laurasiatheria) Carnivora Caniformia Canidae  \nVulpini Vulpes was simple enough, and then the species and subspecies of  \nfox NCIS had DNA for.  \n  \nBioSyn Kennels had code words for their DNA lines, based on when it was  \nsequenced. Ducky's sample had fox and human DNA, so it was Recombinant DNA  \nLevel 4, and some ribosome sequences identified R4 Generation Two, with  \nchild intelligence.  \n  \nDucky was quite impressed with the KawaSuki AutoSynths the company used.  \nEven the USA government hadn't given him or Abby the tech toys to analyse  \nDNA fragments so quickly and precisely, or build the whole strand from  \ndata as the 'Synths did. He was almost drooling over the non-USA tech.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; The Vets just dealt with the product, but they were scientists first, and  \nwanted to know how mixes were made. Besides, Sandy needed the details to  \nmake medicines to cure and prevent sickness. She used the KawaSuki DNA  \nAnalysers on Ducky's sample of fox mix.  \n  \nFor example, they'd met Betty Foxgirl. The vet records identified her as  \nR4G2/KvJ31. K is the eleventh letter of the American alphabet, the eleventh  \nR4G2 DNA line. Some kind of Canid. The variant was J, the tenth one. Any KvJ  \nwas a gray fox, /Urocyon cinereoargenteus/. And Betty was the 31st Gray Fox  \nmade.  \n  \nSo it was easy enough for Sandy and Ducky to explore each other's skills,  \nand while the 'lyser was checking the DNA, Ducky called Abby because he knew  \nshe'd be fascinated too. While Gibbs and the field agents were grinding their  \nwheels talking to idiot fur slaves, Duck and Abs were getting the real work  \ndone, collecting and analysing forensic evidence.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nWitnesses lie, and their memories twist. You could never get the same  \nstory from two different witnesses to the same event. Psych study after study  \nshowed the unreliability of first-hand accounts. So why did Gibbs and Tony  \nbother?  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Forensic evidence never lies. You may not know why a carpet fiber from say  \na 2007 Cadillac Seville was found on a body when the prime suspect drives a  \n2002 Seville, but if you find the car you discover they had the trunk redone.  \nThe fibers don't lie, people do. Find the old carpet, you find blood residue  \neven the bleach missed. Arrest, trial, convict.  \n  \nAbby had been interested enough in petting Betty, and Roger and Ginger. But  \nshe was bored without forensics and Major Mass Spec to check up on, so she was  \nquite willing to find the Duck-meister and be duly impressed by Hot!Tech power.  \n  \nAs the 'lyser broke up the DNA strands, it used only part of the sample found  \non poor deceased Chief Petty Officer Danielle Roberts. All the work that had  \ntaken two scientific teams, private and government, to try to analyse the  \nhuman genome last century, had become relatively quick and less expensive.  \n  \nHenry Ford didn't invent automobiles, he just mass-produced them cheaper  \nthan one-of-a-kind, master-craftsman works of art they'd been before. Get  \na Ferrari Testarossa, beautiful but bloody expensive. Now you can pick from  \ndozens of makers, thousands of cars.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Black and white photography used to need a room so dark you couldn't see a  \nwhite piece of paper in front of your face after ten minutes. And you had to  \ndip your hands in poisonous developer, stop bath and fixer just to get one-  \nat-a-time photos from white and black negatives on celluloid.  \n  \nDeveloping the negatives was done in a small tank so you didn't have to get  \nyour hands wet, but I've done this IRL and the rinse alone took 30 minutes!  \nThen some bright tech and an entrepreneur got together and made a machine to  \ndevelop negatives, time and develop prints, and it takes less than an hour  \nper roll! You used to need special chemical knowledge, now any Rite-Aid or  \nCVS can run the machine.  \n  \nHot!Tech had simply built on previous technology, made it better, faster,  \ncheaper. They did the same for DNA analysis and recombination. Sure it's a  \ndifferent process, but they just needed a research team to figure out the  \nprocess and automated it.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nMeanwhile, Tim McGee was really enjoying working with a Hot!Tech por-  \ntable, and to him the world stopped existing. The portability of a tablet,  \nthe convenience of a laptop, the power and storage of a tower.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Basically a tablet with benefits, its Hot!Tech OS didn't need to be updated  \nto do the same work, never went out of date, always had tech support. He'd  \nfound one over ten years old, and once he matched the battery charger, it  \nroared to life the same as the new ones he'd seen Mel Thompson use.  \n  \nThe tablet doesn't even try to store user data. That way it can concentrate  \non running apps. You just need a USB thumb drive for ID and storage, and Tim  \nhad one from Mel. It'd work on any Hot!Tech machine, just plug in and go.  \n  \nTim was getting used to the simplicity of the Command Line Interface. He was  \nknowledgeable enough about computers he didn't need Windows' training wheels.  \nA few quick words, the machine allowed him to use it; a few more words and  \na WEP key from Mel, and he was connected to BioSyn kennel's wireless network.  \n  \nIt was all so simple. No damn dialog boxes popping up to bother him with  \nadverts, no stupid 'wizards' to 'help' him get done, it just did the work  \nof connecting him while saying in plain English what it was doing. No tech-  \nnobabble he needed his degrees to figure out.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Why tell users you're getting DHCP and NAT information that he had to stop  \nand remember. Sure the tech was easy for Tim, but just say \"I'm getting a net  \naddress and permission to use the net\". That's what DHCP and NAT do, but isn't  \nit easier to understand 'address' like a house number and 'permission' to use?  \n  \nIt was all so quick and easy it was like a smooth conversation. Tim's favor-  \nite website popped up quickly after he remembered its name (It's called a URL,  \na Universal Resource Locator, or a web site address, but it's just a name the  \ncomputer searches for).  \n  \nTim wished every computer simply worked this easily. The tablet had only a  \ntouch-screen keyboard, but he saw a docking station and power adaptor. Right  \nnext to the tablet charger, ready to use. The tablet slipped into dock and  \nits display showed it had found the hardware, ready for use.  \n  \nNo silly color-coded plugs to struggle with, no interminable 'looking for  \ndriver for new hardware' nonsense. All Hot!Tech keyboards work the same, plug  \nin and go. No mouse, no GUI, remember? Display's on the tablet. If you want  \na bigger one, OK.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; All Hot!Tech displays work the same. Simple ones have simple plugs, fancy  \nones, fancy plugs. They all go in one way, the right way. No damn control  \npanel to fool with. You can if you want extra features, but plug it in and  \nit works, first time every time.  \n  \nI know what you're thinking. \"But Kevin! Microsoft doesn't \\*purposely\\* screw  \nthings up! The real world just isn't that simple!\" Well, you're right. It  \nisn't simple. But Hot!Tech puts all that stuff on a manufacturer.  \n  \n\\* - \\*  \n  \nThey can make a display any way they want. Composite sRGB. Black-and-  \nWhite video. Low-def, standard-def, high-def, analog NTSC or PAL colour, or  \nsomething I haven't thought up yet. Composite or component color, YUV or  \nLPrPb color space. Whatever.  \n  \n\\*But it has to handle all that within the monitor!\\* Commercial DVDs take all  \nthe tech stuff and roll it up into regions. A Region One DVD plays in the USA  \nand wherever they use the format. All you need to know is, the DVD region has  \nto match the player region.  \n  \nAll the piddling little details like raster lines and lines per inch, horiz-  \nontal and vertical resolution, analog or digital, what color space or encoding,  \ncomponent or composite video, raw or what decompression to use, stuff the tech  \nreally needs just reduced to region number. Simple.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; See, the \\*operating system\\* doesn't really need to know all that hardware  \ndetail. It just needs hardware that talks OS. Windows tries to make their OS  \ntalk hardware, and that makes it unwieldy and unstable. If yer old enough,  \nyou know MS has been making the same claims (It makes computers easy to use!)  \never since frakkin' Win 3.x, and that wasn't a real OS, just an uber-app that  \nused DOS to run your apps and make you think you were getting something cool.  \n  \nSo Hot!Tech made an intermediate 'generic' OS to talk with 'generic' hard-  \nware that runs the actual stuff. Look, someone made your TV, that's hardware.  \nSomeone else made the TV show, that's software. But you don't need to know who  \nmade your TV or your show, the TV just plugs into anybody's cable box, which  \nselects anybody's TV show.  \n  \nYou don't have to wait for 'new hardware' dialog boxes, or get drivers, or  \nany of that BS just to plug in a new TV or change channels. So Windows should  \njust let you plug stuff in and have it work. Simple.  \n  \nI just really feel MS has dropped the ball, shouldn't try to become the  \nstandard, they should make MS do it the way hardware makers do things. Use  \nopen-source mp3 music instead of making their own wma.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Use open-source mp2 compressed video (what DVDs use, Motion Picture Experts  \nGroup Type 2 encoding - MPEG-2). Win plays 'em, why make up their own? For  \nweb streaming, use MPEG-4 instead of wmv or the hacked version, DivX.  \n  \nMS just wants to make a profit instead of making our lives easier.  \n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"FanFiction","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/566675-kevin-foxboy-s-dracula.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/597240-ncis-3.json"}}