[Video] 4AM Friday Morning, locked to the Sci-Fi/Tech Folks, the Mind Control Folks and Leah:

[damn_it_jim]

[Bones hasn't wasted much time since startling out of yet another dream, of the weighted and disquieting sort that he's gotten unfortunately good at recognizing as psionic spillover. He's hastily sketched out as much of a device as he can remember, and has it held up on a sheet of paper. For the hypertech familiar, it might be some kind of generator, vaguely cylindrical. When he speaks, it's with a voice hoarse from sudden awakening, and from what's visible beyond the edge of the drawing he hasn't bothered with a shirt.]

I had another one of those dreams, so if someone can say that they got it too, I'd appreciate the confirmation of my limited sanity.

Someone was looking at this on a display, a control interface maybe. There was a message -- 'Buffering mechanism disabled'. I could see a reflection in the display that looked like someone in an Outer Authority facemask. Woke up after the message, more or less.

So now what the hell is going on?

Comments

Video

[infourbooks]

[Neville wasn't woken up by the call. The dream had taken care of that already.]

You're not mad, I had one too.

[They could both be mad, but there's been too much of a pattern for that]

Video

[damn_it_jim]

We could both be mad. [Bones is a helper.]. Either that or slowly developing brain tumours from this that I haven't been able to catch yet.

What was yours about?

Video

[infourbooks]

The same thing. If we were mad, I don't think it would be so alike.

[He shakes his head]

I don't even know the words for most of what I saw.

Video

[damn_it_jim]

Sketch out what you can, kid.

[In another display of what's really Verdana's worst-kept secret, Bones' voice loses its edge in favour of something more compassionate.]

I've seen a hell of a lot of things since signing up with Starfleet, and more since landing here. The best you can do is use the words you've got. We'll compare notes.

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[infourbooks]

I wish Muggle Studies had been... more.

[There's movement as he's groping around for something to draw with]

I'll try to draw what I remember...

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[damn_it_jim]

I don't think this is something covered in anybody's studies.

Do your best, and since it looks like Inara and I are meeting once it's a less ungodly hour, feel free to come along too.

Video

[infourbooks]

Machines at all barely were.

I'll be there.

[He needs to help. Even if he wasn't sure how.]

[unofficial_ambassador]

[She'd really been hoping that this part was over.]

I saw it, too. And felt it - something breaking. I tried to draw it too, but I don't know how accurate it is.

[damn_it_jim]

[The sketch on the doctor's end is held up for Inara to get a better look.]

That's... pretty much what I was getting too. Maybe if we can combine our drawings we'll get a better picture.

[unofficial_ambassador]

It's worth a try. This isn't . . . really my wheelhouse, these mechanical things.

[damn_it_jim]

Hell, I'm a doctor, not an engineer. I say we sketch out what we can and give it to one of the local examples of engineer to see what they can make -- it looks a little like a generator or a power source of some kind.

[unofficial_ambassador]

That might be our best option. Do you want to meet?

[damn_it_jim]

We probably should... although I recommend once the sun's up and everyone's wearing pants. I included Leah on this, so if there's anything official to be done, the officials are now aware.

[Not that Bones is particularly underdressed, but pyjamas are not really the sort of dignified image he feels the medical profession ought to uphold.]

[unofficial_ambassador]

[He's talking to someone who has pretty much only worn pants once in her life, but she understands the sentiment.]

Of course. At the hospital?

[damn_it_jim]

It's as good a place as any, and I can add another trio of inconclusive brain scans to my file.

I'll see you in a few hours.

[Video]

[loveshishammer]

[Thor believes in the power of dreams, especially after everything that's happened surrounding them on Verdana, so he's perfectly happy to assume this is something real.]

Someone is tampering with that, then. Whatever "that" is. A buffering mechanism could be connected to anything, could it not?

[There are generator-like objects all over the city, some in the ship and some not. He even saw a few while stuck in quarantine after his last adventure with wraiths.]

[Video]

[damn_it_jim]

Yeah, it's less a pinpoint location and more of a starting place. The Authority face mask is another piece of the puzzle, but whether they're wearing it for protection, access or just to hide their face is an open question.

[Bones scrubs his hands through his hair in fatigued frustration, leaving it looking like it's been merged with the spiritual essence of a hedgehog.]

[Video]

[loveshishammer]

Perhaps is it a little of all three, depending on their location. The outer authorities do not wear their masks when in Poseidon nearly as often, so it is likely not here-- at the Old City base, then, or near to or inside the plague zone.

[He pauses, frowning.]

Are there generators inside the plague zone? I admit I have only been a very little way in, only through the first shields.

[Video]

[damn_it_jim]

From what I understand the generators that get maintained are on this side of the barrier -- sensible placement, if you ask me.

There's ruins of lost cities on the other side of the wall, though, Hyperion and Lunare at the least. No telling what's still around in those ruins.

[Video]

[loveshishammer]

Oh, yes, that would be sensible. I cannot imagine that anything on the other side of the wall would require generators, however, that would need to be buffered or disabled, would there? There is no one there to use them.

[Which probably suggests it was mostly disguise that the mask was used for, rather than actually keeping the wearer alive and plague-free. Hrm.]

[Video]

[damn_it_jim]

So, that narrows it down to someone snooping in restricted areas. Of course, there's an entire ribbon of 'restricted area' when you factor the plague barrier into things, and we're not even counting all the different Authority outposts stationed along it.

[Video] (wow, didn't mean to leave this so long o.o )

[loveshishammer]

[Thor looks somber.]

Perhaps someone ought to inform the Outer Authorities. They are more able to look into such things than we are, and more likely to know where an item like that might be housed that requires buffering. Surely the lady Leah will trust us enough to at least investigate, after all the time we have worked with her.