Lieutenant (JG) Thea Kairis - By Jove, I Think She's Got It (Part I)
Quinn Reynolds
((Moss Fields, Gateside Dimension))
Kairis: Unless we all imagined everything that came through the gate on Gibaria, I think we can be certain it's real. ::She paused.:: But that doesn't mean our minds can't have something to do with what's going on.
zh'Tisav: Interesting. So would that mean we could affect it as well?
Sevo: How? Is it just as simple as thinking “gate” and it appears?
While the Andorian looked intently toward one of the trees, Thea lifted her shoulders in a somewhat helpless shrug. It didn't translate too well through the EVA suit. Even if she was right, she didn't know the extent of their possible influence, except that it was unlikely to be simple. Simple would have worked already, just out of their desires to locate various things in the dimension.
Kairis: Probably not? We've wanted to find it and had no luck, so there's probably more to it than—
She paused when a tree abruptly recoiled from zh'Tisav, the branches pulling away and curling in on themselves. It was like watching an animal shrink from a predator. It lasted only a few moments, and then the plant seemed to find its courage again, returning to its previous spread.
zh'Tisav: Interesting…
Sevo: What did you do?!
zh'Tisav: I introduced it to what winter feels like back home. It looked like a plant that doesn't like the cold.
Sevo: Huh. Cool. Beats my prior theories.
A brief look of determination crossed Sevo's face, and she looked down, staring at the ground. Her face went a little red with the effort, and Thea shifted her weight, unsure how long they were going to stand there before something happened or the Trill stroked out.
She got her answer a little while later, when a tiny, crimson leaf erupted from the ground. Success broke Sevo's concentration, and she exhaled hard, the leaf retreating back underneath the ground.
Sevo: Whoo. ::She panted.:: Looks like there's something to it.
Kairis: That looked... ::she picked her words carefully,:: difficult.
Sevo: It took all my concentration to do that. The place may be reacting to our subconscious thoughts.
zh'Tisav: Yeah, I wouldn't try that much. It gave me a mild headache, you might burst a capillary.
Thea smiled faintly, turning away to survey the ever-changing surroundings. The merging hills had vanished while they weren't looking, replaced now with mountains whose jagged peaks disappeared into the sky. She wondered how the roving lifeforms dealt with the malleable nature of their environment; did they have the concept of territory or migration?
Sevo: Maybe there's an overarching intelligence controlling the place, and it is far too strong to overcome, even locally.
Kairis: Could be. I wonder if we could make subtle changes, somehow. Something that would escape its notice.
Sevo: ::She looked toward the Andorian.:: I wonder if your stronger mental powers made it easier for you to affect that sapling? I wonder what would happen if a Vulcan or Betazoid tried.
zh'Tisav: Aren't Vulcans touch telepaths? It'd be hard to do that with these things on.
To emphasise her point, she held up her hand, clad in the thick EVA glove. No doubt it would make it hard for a Vulcan, or any other touch telepath, to initiate contact. But what if a mind reached out to them first? They'd all heard the reports of people, telepaths and even non-telepaths, hearing whispers and fragmented sentences in the facility.
zh'Tisav: I imagine a mind meld would end like what happened to those scientists back at the station. Dead, and very puppet-like.
Sevo: Eh, maybe not. I was thinking more akin to their ordered minds and mental physiology that gives them telepathy. There have been numerous cases of Vulcans being affected by psychic effects without being touched. Maybe that's enough.
Kairis: It might not even be telepathic strength, but something we haven't accounted for. Some people who heard things in the facility aren't telepaths at all.
Thea, for her part, was very glad she'd heard absolutely no cosmic horrors whispering into her thoughts. There was enough in her head to cause nightmares as it was; flames and loss she had felt for real, and the violent grief that only existed in collective imagination. It wasn't something she spoke of, not wanting that private part of her life to somehow grow wings and fly home.
TBC
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Engineer (Damage Control)
USS Gorkon
simmed by
Commanding Officer
USS Gorkon
T238401QR0