outer_divide | Fourth Howl [Audio, late Monday night]

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Fourth Howl [Audio, late Monday night]

[After a little thought on how best to say this without letting the Outer Authorities know too much, Lyall finally makes an announcement. He feels it's something everyone ought to know, and he'll be happy to field questions, but still: it's a bit vague. It's also very late, but he's nocturnal, anyway. What did anyone expect?

Despite the usual tiredness, though, he actually sounds light-hearted for the first time in days, to anyone who's been paying attention.]

This is Randolph Lyall.

[Yeah, officially dropping the Professor at this point....]

Chime is alive. Apparently that ship has more uses than we thought. Please reply encrypted if you wish details, or find me at the hospital. I'm afraid I can't send a mass message with any kind of locking protocol on it, but this seems rather important.

[Understatement of the year. He disconnects after a moment of trying to decide whether he should include a farewell. In the end, though, it just seems silly.]

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If I'm following you on this, someone is now alive who you thought was dead...?

You are indeed following me, though there is very little "thought" involved. I burned his body, in as much accordance to his people's custom as I could manage. Yet now he is whole again, emerged from the pods on that ship, fully cognizant of all the time he spent here and even of dying.

You're shitting me.

[That's a new one. Lyall's heard a few more modern curses, by now, but no one's used that one on him. He pauses before guessing,]

No, I do not believe I am. Provided I understand you correctly. He is quite alive, and he was quite dead, and apparently the ship has the ability to regenerate our bodies. Very strange, I admit, and I cannot in the least guess how it is possible, but it is still true.

There's something seriously, seriously messed up about this.

My dear boy, there is something seriously "messed up" with our being here, at all. Quite honestly, I find that miraculous regeneration and return from the dead rather on par with the impossibility of a ship flying through time, space, and multiple dimensions to collect all of us, to begin with.

Time, space, and multiple demensions, I kind of just accept. I mean, flying through space especially. Totally normal to me. The time thing...less normal, but not unheard of.

Resurrection, though? After you BURNED someone? I don't know, that's...a step too far for me.

[Lyall is politely skeptical.]

Even seeing multiple people from the same world but who remember things happening differently? Well, I suppose your world and time must be much more advanced than mine.

[ Jim never misses a beat ]

Well, I'm not exactly supposed to talk about it but...yeah? Kinda. I mean, someone from the future who knew someone with my name whose past is totally different...

[ he stops ]

Wow, that sounds really nuts, huh?

[Lyall shakes his head, not that Jim can see it, but still. The droll amusement is evident in his tone.]

Not any more so than everything else that has been happening here. There was, at one point, three separate versions of the same individual. Odd, is it not?

Three versions?

[ Two was bad enough. ]

From different times, or what?

Parallel universes of some sort. One was from a world where he was utterly unique, one was from a world where he was one of a group, and one was female. Quite different, really, but still essentially the same person shaped by different circumstances.

[ now he's picturing female Spock. Which, no. Full stop no. ]

Jesus. This is pretty complicated.

Yes, it rather is, and I am hardly the best to try and explain it, either. I come from Victorian London, and everything I have learned about so-called modern technology and understanding has been since my arrival here.

Victorian London? Man. That seems like ancient history to me!

I would assume it is. It seems like it is for a number of people here, as well, and if not ancient for all of them, at the very least old.

[He sighs, but it's more wistful than annoyed. He rather hopes, if they ever do get home again (and that's a big if), that he manages to hold onto his immortality long enough to see some of the things the future has in store.]

I guess I don't know where everyone comes from. A lot of people seem outdated to me. But Victorian England, man.

I bet this place throws you for a loop, huh?

It did when I first arrived. I like to think I am more settled now. I've been learning all I can-- if we ever manage to return, I know several inventors who will be very interested in what I've seen.

[His tone is dry. Lyall doesn't know that he'd necessarily share what he's seen... but he would be happy to gloat a little.]

[ He thinks of how older Spock taught Scotty...uh, his own equation? Okay, that was a headache. ]

Yeah, man, you could probably really wow some people, huh?

I imagine so. Of course, we will have to manage to return first.

[And he's not holding his breath for that one.]

Yeah, there's that. Well, hey, there's a lot of brainy people about. Eventually, we'll have to figure something out.

[ Jim doesn't believe in losing, but even he's not entirely sure they'll manage to get home. He's gotta try to hold on to that hope, though. He's gotta. ]

Eventually. We can certainly hope for it, given, yes, the number of brainy people about.

[Lyall decides not to get into what detail he knows about that ship, and just how badly damaged it is. Being negative at the moment not only isn't going to help anything, he's just not in the mood, either.]

You are with the group who opted to leave, aren't you?

I'm at the hospital now, though I'm afraid I'm in no condition to come and look for you.

I will be by there shortly, miss, if you wish to discuss the matter in person. Where might I find you?

[He just has to finish putting away the remains of his dinner, for the morning, and get dressed. His hunting trip took longer than he'd have liked, but it's done with now.]

I'm in [insert location here].

[He pauses briefly, taking in the room number-- patient, then? Poor dear.]

I will see you within the hour, then.

[And he does, indeed, show up about an hour later. He's not quite dressed to his usual standard, given the extent of work he's likely to do today, but he still looks very well-put-together for someone not of his own time period. He knocks politely at her door.]

[Tosh gets out of bed to answer the door, giving him a weary smile. She doesn't look terribly healthy; she'd checked herself into the hospital promptly upon returning from the island, and not a moment too soon.]

Hello, Professor. Please, come in. [She steps aside, gesturing for him to enter.]

[He gives her a little half-bow in greeting before stepping inside and pulling off his hat.]

Good evening, Miss Sato. I'm sorry it's so late-- I hope you weren't preparing for bed, when my message came through.

Oh, no. [Tosh takes a seat on the edge of her bed, leaving the only chair in the room for Lyall.] Quite the opposite, actually - I fell asleep just after I checked in, so I've only just woken up.

[She still looks rather tired, and she has every intention of going straight back to bed when he leaves, but she's not going to mention that.]

I'm not familiar with the person you mentioned in your message, but I'm guessing that they died and then came back to life on the ship?

[Lyall takes it, setting himself down lightly, as if he might be needed to hop back up at any moment. Possibly he might.]

Yes, he was a friend of mine who died last week from the plague. And yet now here he is, as good as new. He is also from the ship, like we are, and so simply... woke again in the same pod as before, only with all his new memories still intact.

[He spreads his hands a little helplessly, but not without some relief at the news he's imparting.]

I cannot explain it.

I...[She pauses for a moment before she continues. It's not something she likes to talk about, for obvious reasons, but it's relevant to the situation.] I died before I came here. I was shot in the stomach, and I bled out, and I was entirely uninjured when I awoke in my pod. So I'm not unfamiliar with the regenerative abilities of the pods - but someone dying here and reawakening seems stranger.

[Lyall digests that information for a beat, head cocked to one side, almost like a dog that has heard a sound that interests it. He doesn't seem to find coming back from the dead as terribly surprising in general, but it definitely is a useful bit of information.]

How interesting. I wonder if the doctors know about that-- it could potentially prove useful.

Regardless, the situation is not entirely the same, considering I actually burned Chime's body not long after he died. It seemed to have been reconstructed from nothing.

Bruce knows, because he was there just after I stumbled out of my pod. I'm afraid I got a little...overemotional with him. [She smiles a little wryly; it's not the sort of thing she would have wanted to deal with, either, but Bruce did an admirable job, given the circumstances.] And Tony knows, as well. It's not the sort of thing I've discussed with too many people, since it's a bit, well, personal. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them had passed the knowledge on to the doctors, though.

Hm. [Tosh purses her lips thoughtfully for a moment.] Certain scientific techniques would allow them to reproduce bodies identical to the originals if they had a sample of genetic material, but not quite in the way you describe. The bodies would still have to start from the beginning, technically, so they'd need some sort of way of artificially aging them - and I don't have the slightest idea how they'd transfer memories.

Very little of the technology here makes any sense to me, so if you have at least some idea of how it miht be accomplished, you are doing better than I am.

[Lyall has gotten a lot better at admitting that he doesn't know things, since his arrival here. It doesn't stop him from trying to learn everything he doesn't know, but at least he admits it.]

If the knowledge of your, shall we say, method of arrival has not been passed along, I will make certain it is, and if you like I can keep your name in particular out of the conversation.

I'll have to talk to Tony about it and see what he thinks. There's so much in the ship that we don't know about - even with the few successes we've had, we're barely scratching the surface. It's exciting and frustrating at the same time.

[Tosh nods in agreement.] That's fine. It's the sort of information that might come in handy, after all, and I wouldn't want to keep it from them.

Good. Thank you, perhaps it can be of some use to... someone here, in this mess.

[He cocks his head at Tosh again, this time with some concern.]

Is there anything I can get for you, in the meantime, before I settle in to see what notes Miss Potts has left me for the night?

Thanks for the offer, but I'm fine for now. [She gives him a soft smile.] Though if you happen to come across any books or anything, it would be nice to have something to do while I'm awake.

Typical sort of response. No one likes being cooped up inside the hospital or sickrooms, or their own house, whichever. Lyall can at least handle that sort of request. "Hmm, I have been doing the same for Doctor Banner-- I could simply pass along the ones he has finished and I haven't had the chance to return to Nem, if you like."

No, he isn't aware yet of Banner's passing, but he does still have a small stack of books from his trip the previous morning he could bring by.

That'd be lovely. Don't worry about disturbing me if I'm asleep - I expect I'll be doing that quite a lot, if today's been any indication - you can just leave them in here.

I can be quiet if need be, and sleep is important.

[Lyall pushes to his feet again and sets his hat back on his head.]

I'll be by again tomorrow evening, then, with those books, and I'll try not to wake you if you're sleeping.

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Fourth Howl [Audio, late Monday night]

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