Lt Jania Nis - Funny story, really
Jania Nis
((Liminal Station, a travel pod - Marohu III))
Woolheater: It used to be, if you wanted to go somewhere, you had to know three things: where you were, where you were going, and how to get there. That’s three dimensions right there. X, Y, Z, simple geometry. Add time to that, and you’ve got the full map: when you leave, when you arrive. But, at the Academy, we learned how subspace changed all that.
All I need to know is when. The ‘where’ doesn’t matter anymore…it’s not even a real thing. The subspace relays made communicating over great distances meaningless.
Well…what if that’s how this works? You don’t move your body; you move your mind. You don’t walk; you link. You don’t arrive…you sync.
It’s like… ugh…I don’t have the words… It's like…bah....I dunno...the universe added another axis. It used to be space-time. Now it’s space-time…imagination…dreaming? A fifth dimension, made of signal and intent.
Jania tried to keep up with it all. She wished she’d had a physicist as a previous host.
oO Maybe after you’re dead, Oo thought the worm. She glowered, not particularly caring for the idea that Nis was making plans for after her death.
oO Shush, you.Oo
Nis: But how can we have intent? We don’t know where any of these places are…
Greaves: Even without knowing the location, maybe we can imagine a place based on these names. We know the tech here reacts to thoughts and feelings, and these location names seem figurative rather than literal. It should be enough if you’ve got a good imagination.
Wes stepped back and away from the pods. Was he making a decision about their course of action? She wasn’t sure yet.
Nis: :: gesturing to the map :: There must be a way to get a grip on how close or how far these places are from our current point …
Woolheater: Well, the “tracks” or whatever these are going on a few hundred meters up to those tunnels, and one would assume…out. We could go scan those tunnels and see where they go. Look, Sam indicated on his combat tricorder (CT) to a pathway between the tracks:: I can follow here. Get a scan…maybe…scout ahead. See what’s up?
Jania nodded.
Greaves: I think this is a good time to go collect everyone from upstairs. This place is more defensible and hidden than the dome, and I’d feel better about trying this transit system all together.
That was the best news she’d heard. She hadn’t wanted to leave her surgeons in the first place, and the deeper they went the harder it would be to get back to their people. She had feared getting trapped in the pods without the patients so much she’d felt like it had really happened for a moment.
Nis: Yes, we agree.
Woolheater: Copy that. We can retrace our steps, Colonel. Collect the rest in a group again. There might be some difficulty with the Algae area…but.
Nis: Hopefully we can keep it at bay like we did last time. …. Now we know the trick.
Holding up the small wand one of the living sculptures had given her, she shook it slightly, like she’d done to “cut” the algae before.
Greaves: Response
This comment sent Sam into full thinking mode.
Woolheater: Welp, if we can’t fly, maybe we can hitch a ride.
Nis: Huh?
Greaves: Response?
He turned and looked at both and then spoke to her.
Woolheater: Jania? Do you think you can talk to the algae…thing? I’ve got an idea of how we can move everybody from the dome to here. If they will help us? What we need is to make a conveyor belt. From the dome to this place. And if you can convince that algae folk to do that, well sir, maybe we earned out keep for today?
Jania rubbed her forehead, unsure. It depends how well she could concentrate.
oO That has never been your specialty,Oo the worm thought.
oO Sir! Keep it quiet. Oo
Greaves: Response
Nis: We mean, we can give it a shot…
Woolheater: ::muttering under his breath:: Back on the Starbase, they got those moving walkways. I always thought they were for lazy folks who didn’t wanna walk.
Jania chuckled. They had them on Trill, too. She remembered watching Yisrah run down one at a spaceport, in a hurry to get to the mountains they were visiting.
Woolheater: Guess I finally found a good use for a 'lazy belt'.
::beat::
The floor pulsed once.
Woolheater: Oh hell. It understood that, didn’t it?
Nis: We just have to be careful to take the right tunnel back…
Thasho: That’s no problem!
The young archaeologist pressed a button on her triPADD, pulling up a holographic map. It showed their current location in the massive chamber--and the way they’d come. Seeing it as a map made her realize just -how- massive the space they were in was. The room they were in now was almost as wide as the winding corridor they’d come in was long.
But getting back seemed straightforward.
Greaves/Woolheater: Response
Jania sighed, feeling her shoulders sink a bit. It was a lot of walking …
Nis: Back the way we came, then.
The marines once again encircling Jania and Thasho, they started back down the hallway. Luckily the way back always seems shorter than the way there.
Nis: So, Thasho, how did you get into archaeology?
Thasho: Kind of a funny story. I first started working with Professor Enak before I was even in university. When I was fourteen, I came to visit my older brother, who was working on the prof’s dig. Well, while I was there, some DenIb Qatlh tried looting an object, so I broke his leg.
As Thasho laughed at the memory, Jania waited with baited breath for the punchline, which never came. It took her a moment to realize Thasho found breaking someone’s leg amusing.
Thasho: :: still smiling at the memory:: Prof thought it was great, so he kept me on. I was kind of like a site mascot til I was eighteen, then he got me a scholarship.
Greaves/Woolheater: Response
Thasho: Looting is extremely dishonorable.
Greaves/Woolheater: Response
They’d almost reached the end of the tunnel by then.
Tags/TBC
Lieutenant Jania Nis
Chief Medical Officer of Physical Health
USS Octavia E. Butler NCC-82850
O240108JN2