Lt. JG Lyra Voss: The Wind, the Wind, the Wind
Sarah Terry
((Outside Temurian Settlement))
It was a quiet, twisting walk back up to the surface. Maybe a real trader would have had small talk at the ready, but Lyra felt entirely spent by the difficult conversation they’d had in the lab and could think of nothing else to say. They had Kiro on board, for now at least, but fear and frustration hung around him like dark clouds. Should she have just told him the truth? Would it have reassured him or pushed him away? Starfleet had a complicated reputation in some parts of the sector - it was difficult to say how he would have reacted.
She was preoccupied by her thoughts even as they transitioned into the cold, thin air outside the settlement. It wasn’t until she finally took a good look toward the docking bay that she realized what she was actually seeing. Or rather, what she *wasn’t* seeing. She stopped dead in her tracks.
Voss: Um… where the hell is our ship?
Her head immediately whipped back to her crewmates, as if they might know something she didn’t. Evan was standing protectively close to A’Mayri and Kiro was just staring into the darkness.
Kiro: ::quietly:: That… is not supposed to happen.
Ships disappearing? Yeah, not typically. Though there was no point in saying that out loud. A’Mayri ran up to her side to observe the scene.
Ross: Wait... didn't we park here?!
A’Mayri: This is exactly where our freighter had been originally located. The pattern distribution of the reshaped frost on the ground indicates that the ship has taken off recently— perhaps within the past hour or so. ::careful addition towards Voss:: and a lack of ship debris shows no sign of altercation within the Asteroids immediate area.
It was hard to process what A’Mayri was even saying to her. Her mind hadn’t stopped reeling from the last problem, and now the MFT had taken off without a word and left them there, labless, in the cold. What was… why would they… except “why” had no reassuring answers. For Foster to leave so suddenly… it wasn’t going to be anything good. And again, the redirect, like she was the one in charge. She held her head for a moment as she stared back at A’Mayri. Her mind floundered for something, anything to say.
Ross: I'll reach out to ::short pause, keeping himself from pulling rank:: - Mr. Foster. They can't be far, right?
Evan jumped in and responded. She tried to take the moment to collect herself, but what was there to collect? Surely they couldn’t be far? Hopefully they were okay? What the hell was happening? She pulled her suit jacket tighter against the wind.
A’Mayri: Yes Mr. Ross, Mr. Foster and the rest of the team should be somewhat nearby.
She looked at Kiro and his drawn expression.
Voss: I don’t suppose there’d be a reason for them to switch docking bays? A… malfunction or…
It was grasping at straws anyway.
Kiro: ?
Evan pulled his communicator - old school, unbranded - and tried to reach the MTF.
Ross: =/\= Ross to Foster. What's going on? We... ::he threw an awkward side-glance at the rest of the group:: ...we kinda need our lab back. =/\=
Kiro: =/\= (If any?)
Foster: =/\=You need a what?=/\=
Well, the good news was that Wyn’s voice was on the other end of the line. The bad news was that it was accompanied by what sounded like a little bit of hell breaking loose - competing alarms, raised voices, tension and stress. Her hands unconsciously balled into fists.
Ross: =/\= Listen, if now is a bad time - but... we're kinda onto something here. I could use some of the instruments aboard if you don't mind. =/\=
Kiro: =/\= (if any?)
Foster: =/\= We’re kind of in a fight right now, protecting the Pidgeon and trying not to get blown apart… can you hang on for a few minutes?=/\=
Protecting the… Evan looked back at the two of them and she could hear the questions racing through his mind. They were the same ones racing through her own. Who were they fighting? Why? How did they get pulled in? Where was the Pigeon going? Lyra found herself vainly looking up and down across the horizon as if she’d be able to spot them in the distance. No such luck.
Ross: =/\= ...sure. Just... - call me back. =/\=
What other choice did they have? Evan closed his communicator and turned back to the group with a shrug.
Ross: Well... sounds like we're gonna have to work with what we have. At least for now.
She almost laughed, but it came out more like a huff that sent a small cloud of condensation swirling around her head. Just sit tight while their friends were battling an unknown enemy somewhere nearby. Great. Lovely. And again the wind. Cold enough to make her eyes water.
A’Mayri: oO This may grant us some time to better prepare Kiro and ourselves for what we can reveal. Oo Mr. Foster and the others should be with us shortly, yes?
Voss: I certainly hope so. Can’t be very good for trade to have *someone* so touchy nearby. Do you have any idea who they could be fighting with, Mr. Kiro?
Her nerves were catching up to her and her voice came out harder than she intended.
Kiro: ?
Ross: Why don't we start with our most recent findings? The energy spikes?
Evan redirected the conversation back to the topic they should have been discussing. It was a wise move. She should have just kept her mouth shut. Kiro had agreed to work with them for now, but he could just as easily walk away at any provocation. She shook her head, and tried to pull her mind back to their preliminary readings in the lab. Except how much should she even say? She’d tried to hedge and call herself an amateur scientist, and they’d said they had been studying the cores, so it wouldn’t be strange for her to have technical knowledge, right? Did she need to hold back? Talk about the discoveries like they were made by someone else? Try to… to modulate her words or… Was she making it more complicated than it had to be, or was she not being careful enough? For a moment there, she’d actually felt like she’d sold this business woman persona - so why did she suddenly feel so lost now?
Evan gestured at them like they should start talking, and then he slid out of his jacket and offered it to A’Mayri, who took it with a soft “thank you.” Lyra then watched her carefully unwind her shawl to offer back to him as a scarf. A quiet little numbness staked a place for itself inside her as she walked back toward the dolly with the group.
A’Mayri: From an engineering standpoint, we know that it would take complex and industrial level equipment to even begin the process of mining and refining the materials needed to encompass the cores. This would entail large enough spaces to hold such equipment and would require quite a bit of power and maintenance. On the scale of Electron Beam furnaces with a power grid on scale to match.
She knew it was time to respond. A’Mayri was looking at her expectantly. So why, with a thousand thoughts about their research on the power cores swirling through her head, was her mind stuck on the damn jacket? Was she that vecking pathetic? It wasn’t jealousy - she could sense the emotions of everyone involved, and his gesture was nothing but thoughtful, protective - gallant even, for all the Fours’ sakes. It just suddenly felt so obvious in the presence of even a half-Vulcan that she… she really wasn’t Evan’s type, was she? All the little things she’d picked up about his ex… T’Reyna had been stoic, reserved, elegant. In control. What was she? Nothing but a bleeding heart on legs. A mess. As likely to laugh as to cry or to spill her guts about some stupid story no one wanted to hear. Who let herself get distracted by personal problems in the middle of a mission. What was wrong with her? Ridiculous. Pitiful.
And now she was standing here, browbeating herself, instead of doing her vecking job. She set her jaw.
Voss: In other words, ::too loud, too harsh… she swallowed and tried again:: In other words, that was clue number one that you weren’t manufacturing them yourselves. This asteroid couldn’t hold facilities like that. So we started trying to figure out how these cores worked ourselves.
Kiro: ?
A’Mayri: Madam Voss is most skilled in her line of work, and it has come into fruition during our… ::small catch:: during our tour to try and trade these cores with you Kiro.
*Madam Voss.* Maybe Madam Voss had a grip on herself. Maybe her nerves weren't fraying in the cold.
Voss: We acquired several aftermarket cores in various states of degradation. Some currently functional, some inert. All the inert cores had suffered massive failures. But even these dead cores weren’t quite what they seemed.
Ross/Kiro: ?
A’Mayri: We utilized our own containment systems to track these results, yes. They are very similar to the units you have back in your show room. After the Madam had noticed the cores in an almost reactive state to the other surrounding cores as she mentioned, it had opened a fascinating yet newly concerning discovery.
Lyra’s gaze was fixed on Kiro.
Voss: Have you ever noticed any behavior that would suggest the cores can network with each other? Link in any way? We observed power fluctuations when cores were brought in close proximity - regardless of their state of repair. Which means dead cores aren’t always so dead.
Ross/Kiro: ?
A’Mayri: Yes…but what would cause them to display above baseline levels of output even when inert?
Voss: It has to have something to do with how they generate power. ::to Kiro:: Have you ever observed one during its initial power-up, or do they come to you already functioning?
Ross/Kiro: ?
Another gust of wind that felt like a slap in the face. She immediately shook her head and held up a hand.
Voss: Okay. There is no reason we can’t at least huddle in the hallway while we wait, yes? While those of us without fur can still feel our fingers.
Lyra wasted no time stalking over to the nearby building and pulling open the door they’d just recently come out of. She ushered the rest of the group in. At least it brought them out of the wind. She shivered as she wrapped her arms tightly around her chest.
((Interior Doorway of Temurian Settlement))
Voss: Anyway. Let’s say, for the sake of discussion, that these cores are, in fact, powered by micro-black holes. Keeping a black hole in balance to use as an energy source is wildly risky, obviously dangerous, doesn’t end well, blah, blah, blah - but! The fact that these cores are doing it at all is fascinating. They’re not destroying themselves in minutes - they’re functioning as advertised, for what? Weeks? Months?
Kiro/Ross/A’Mayri: ?
Voss: ::to Kiro:: Have you ever managed to get readings from a core as it fails? The timing of it, the types of energy it gives off?
Kiro/Ross/A’Mayri: ?