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[detectivewonder]

Who: Tim Drake AND YOU.
Broadcast: Fleetwide video & text stream.
Action: The Marsiva.
When: 1/29; evening.

[Tim has been pacing the deck, finding every corner, every computer console, working furiously to research whatever he can since the moment he woke up. Knowledge is a form of control; secrecy is another, and he has far too much of one and absolutely no guarantee of the second, and it makes him edgy. But once he's gotten a grip on the basic concept, delaying makes no sense.]

[The video broadcast reveals a young man - eighteen, give or take a few months - in a trim blue suit and red tie, dark hair neatly parted but still falling into his eyes, which are blue and unmistakably angry or tense no matter how well we modulates his tone and keeps it off the rest of his face, crisp and professional.]

Good... evening, I think, is the local time? Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, Pilot Officer reporting for duty - or I will be soon, if I'm getting the right idea here. I wanted to reach out and touch base before I was assigned - get an idea of what the ships are like, who I might be serving with, how long everyone's been here. Anything you can tell me would be appreciated.

Comments

[aberrant_type]

Twenty weeks would put it at five months at minimum before we showed up for people, in that case. It'd be worthwhile to check in again with the waystation and planet people at around that point... so, in a month or two.

[detectivewonder]

I'll make a note.

[aberrant_type]

Nice initiative, kiddo! I'm sorry you've been ripped away from your home like this, but I'm glad to have you on board!

[detectivewonder]

Thanks!

... Do we have any information on ratings so far?

[aberrant_type]

Nope. Well, I suppose you might extrapolate from the money you get. You will get money, and you'll need it too. The basic ships are pretty minimal in what they offer in every sense of the word...

[detectivewonder]

So much for post-scarcity economies...

[aberrant_type]

Supposedly, you're always performing! We haven't seen much evidence of that... we haven't found anything that indicates how they're watching us... but, ah, in the lack of conflicting evidence, you might as well operate off that knowledge in the meantime!

[detectivewonder]

They're probably using the Augments to watch.

[aberrant_type]

What an unnerving idea! You're probably right.

[detectivewonder]

If they're providing the equipment, there's no reason they'd need to use frequencies we can monitor for broadcast, either. If they use faster-than-light travel, I'd expect communications to operate using quantum entanglement - there might not even be detectable transmissions, in the usual sense, just local molecular agitation causing nonlocal resonance.

[aberrant_type]

Kiddo, either your pilot augment is really helping your jargon here or you have a lot more background expertise in this field than I do, because I'm not acquainted with that jargon at all.

[detectivewonder]

... All me, as far as I know. I have a lot of friends who work in experimental physics.

[aberrant_type]

Hmmm, we haven't even touched that field at home. It's definitely you.

[detectivewonder]

... I don't know where I'd have to start a more detailed explanation.

[aberrant_type]

You'll have to tutor me!

[detectivewonder]

... Sure. I don't have any teaching experience, but if we can figure out where to begin, I'll do my best.

[aberrant_type]

[She laughs! It's a bright sound, though it cuts off quickly.]

Well, I can start some research on my own anyhow. The more I know, the better a position I'm in as a lab worker, as far as I'm concerned! It seems like you're at a different technological level, compared to me. This place has equalized many of us to some degree, but there's still differences.

[detectivewonder]

It's well above what I'm used to. I've just seen enough to know the theory. I'd love to get a look at your lab, though.

[aberrant_type]

It's not just mine, but as far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to come take a look at it. There'll be shuttles attached to your ship once you're sorted, and they'll take you from ship to ship.

[detectivewonder]

Excellent. Then I'll see you soon enough.

[aberrant_type]

Excellent. Again, welcome aboard, kid.