[Video]

[knightoflight]

[It's a slightly harried looking Wing who appears on the communicator. He doesn't look injured, just...stressed out, his gold optics dim and tarnished-looking.]

H-has anyone else seen Dr. Liara T'Soni?  I mean recently?  I swore I saw her. But...[He looks around, almost on edge, and the camera moves to show that Wing's in a dead-end corridor. He's chased what he thought was her--and was definitely something--down here.] But, well, you can see. 

If she's here, she

[....and then he goes blank for six or seven long seconds, almost like he's been shut off, but then he starts speaking, continuing the sentence as if nothing had happened.]

needs our help.

Comments

[gtfostalker]

Then maybe she was letting you know that you are not entirely alone here still, then? That you are not, if she is still here.

Yes. There were places, back home, where you could feel like you were only in a room for a few moments, but walk out and it has been hours. Perhaps the ship is similar, in places.

[knightoflight]

I....just...[He's thinking about Drift, and how he's been acting and that Dr T'Soni would be the one to console him.] ...she might.

[He shakes that off, considering Strelok's words.] Is there a way to verify that? That it's a local effect and not, well, a personal glitch?

[gtfostalker]

[Verifying it... hrm.] Perhaps, if you trust someone to check your... systems? If it is a trap, it is better to avoid springing it on anyone else.

[That would just be begging the universe to ruin someone.]

[knightoflight]

I could ask Dr Banner, perhaps? [The one he'd most have trusted, of course, was Dr T'Soni.]

But tell me more about these temporal distortions in your world? [One: as a distraction, two: as maybe a clue.]

[gtfostalker]

It might be a good idea, yes.

There are only a few such places, scattered in the Zone. I have never gone to one myself - I am not so eager to die - but I have heard the stories of others that stumbled into them and survived... or the stories told by the ones of ones who were not so lucky. They say that you feel as though time is passing normally, until you escape to find otherwise; hours reduced to minutes, or minutes stretched to hours.

Stalkers walk out of the trap like nothing is wrong only to drop dead from having starved.

[knightoflight]

[There's a brief, tense moment while Wing checks his fuel gauge. No, still all right.]

Do you know what caused those things? In your world?

[gtfostalker]

I do; there were psychic experiments, to try to control a field that covered the world. They failed, and within a certain radius all of physics went crazy.

That sort of trap - the time one - is practically mild, compared to others.

[knightoflight]

Hmmm. That sounds...almost like what the Authorities might have tried.

But why would they set them in the ship? [He's musing aloud.]

[gtfostalker]

In the Zone, it was an accident. It might have been an accident with the Authorities too.

I do not know that such things could occur intentionally. [He sure hopes not.]

[knightoflight]

[Wing nods, looking at the ship around them.]

You're right. We don't even know how this ship crashed, after all. This may have something to do with that.

[gtfostalker]

It would be better if it was an accident; I do not think someone having the power to do that would be good for anyone.

Perhaps there are answers somewhere on the ship.

[knightoflight]

It's something we need to consider here. And get the scientists to consider as well.

[Because Wing will admit: he's not an expert in quantum theory.]

[gtfostalker]

Certainly get the scientists to look into it. They should enjoy trying to solve the puzzle, if there is time to think on it.

[Science isn't his strong suit either. He leaves it to eggheads.]

[knightoflight]

I hope they have the time. I'd rather that than have to deal with another attack or plague.

[gtfostalker]

Hopefully there will be a little luck on our side for a while then, da? A little peace before another storm.

[knightoflight]

Luck, but not too much that we forget the threat.

[gtfostalker]

It is difficult to forget the threat, when it is so close.

[That whole Domed City thing and all.]

[knightoflight]

We've let our guards down before, or gotten distracted.

[And Wing's let his own monitoring of the dome slide. ]

[gtfostalker]

Well. Hopefully we do not become so distracted this time.

[At least not distracted enough to forgot that they have a problem sitting so close by.]