outer_divide | Video: Wednesday

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Video: Wednesday

[Darwin looks uncharacteristically somber.]

I do hate to be the one to announce this, but not as much as I hate that it needs to be announced at all.

Wing is no longer among us. He's back on the ship, shut down or... unresponsive. Like we are when we're in the pods. I know he had many friends here, and was awake before many of us were. He will be missed. I...

I will miss him.

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Well... hell.

[Kaidan looks grim, and doesn't seem to have much to add beyond that.]

I think he was about the only person left who'd been awake longer than I've been. I guess we can only hope he wakes up again, and that he wakes up remembering.

That's... all I can hope for, as well. I wish we could find out why people go back. He didn't say anything, or give any indication... and from what I know, neither did any of the others.

[She seems worried and tired.]

Not that I've seen either. The only ones that made any sense were the plague deaths... and even then, the idea that the pods resurrect you was a new one.

I'd worry it was some sort of time limited thing, but we've had people go back in after only two weeks.

There must be some mechanism behind it. It simply doesn't make sense otherwise. But I certainly wouldn't know where to start, figuring that out. It's all so far beyond anything from my world.

Mine too, if that's any comfort.

[Kaidan's expression says that he rather suspects not, tugged into a rueful smile.]

You holding up all right?

I... I will be okay. Missing home a bit. At least then people didn't disappear on me.

[She sighs and shakes out her feathers]

Is there anything I can be doing to help, in there?

The pods would be Stark's or Sato's area, now that Dr. Banner's ended up back in one. I'm just a soldier who knows a little tech. My own projects...

[He looks thoughtful, as if considering what an intelligent dinosaur with a history of airship design may or may not have skills at.]

Briar was hoping to see the hydroponics project expanded. Do you know anything about heating systems?

Don't remind me that Bruce is gone, too. What I wouldn't give to have some of my contacts back home... I run in some very eccentric circles. Someone would have ideas I couldn't begin to imagine.

[She smiles more easily now, though she still looks tired.]

Well, you can't very well work with steam power without knowing about heating and cooling, now can you?

Hah, fair point there.

[Sticking with the subject change, and interpreting the smile as a smile, rather than a display of very sharp teeth, Kaidan offers one in turn.]

I was thinking heating with geothermal energy -- run pipes down deep enough to catch the warmth of the rock and feed it back up to keep the plants happy. Pair that with Stark's collector dishes for the sunlight and it would run a lot more easily unattended and take a lot less resources, once built, than trying to keep some sort of generator fueled.

Hmmm, yes that could certainly work. [Distracting her with an engineering problem? Good idea!] Of course, it'll need to be insulated to prevent it from outright cooking the plants. And anybody nearby. Might even be able to harness some of the excess heat as a power source, on its own.

Well, no need to go that deep. With no volcanos around the Old City, we'd probably just be using a heat differential of maybe ten or fifteen degrees anyway... but if it's stable, that's enough.

Although if we can find some bit of volcanic activity or a hot spring or something that could work for electricity. Want to pick out a couple test sites? What would you need?"

Geological surveys? Do you know if there's any contemporary equipment for such things? Some tips from the locals would be a good start - they'll know the best spots to look, I'm sure.

Ah... I'd say probably not here -- the city I just got back from visiting probably would've had some, but I didn't think to bring any back with me.

Edmund or the Vault might have information on just what's used locally, or if they don't do any local prospecting where in the world they might.

I'm sorry to hear that. I met him once, when he asked about my ancestor shrine. He added a name for one of his friends, and we talked of loss and remembrances...he was not like what I would have expected, for a man that was basically a machine. My condolences to you.

[Mulan gets a small smile]

He's an interesting soul, Wing. It does take a bit to get used to. As an engineer, it took me some time to think of him as a person, rather than a machine. I think he had - has a bigger heart than most people I know.

[She doesn't want to start thinking of him in the past tense]

Perhaps in both the literal and metaphorical sense.

Is it common, for people who have been here for awhile to disappear again like this?

It's happened before several times. Another friend... Bruce. He's in the pods again, too. And more, who I don't know as well, or who were here before I was.

It's... unsettling. No one knows what makes them go back, and there doesn't seem to be any warning.

[Darwin shifts, unnerved. She doesn't like things she can't predict or control.]

[Neither does Mulan. Though it's more understated she's having a similar reaction.]

And no way to bring them back out again.

Not that we know of, yet. It's all quite distressing. I do wish my background was in biology, for once... I'm terrified to even touch those pods without knowing what I'm doing.

There are those who have been working on the ship, though. Right?

There are, and as far as I know, they have no answers for how to wake up our sleeping friends.

Maybe in time if they keep to their studies, they will eventually have an answer.

It seems to be all that the rest of us can hope for. Until then, we have no choice but to accept yet another form of loss.

Oh geez. That sucks....

[Todd looks genuinely sad about that, actually. Wing was awesome, he'd always really liked that guy. Anybody who called him "cool" was somebody to be sad you'd lost.]

Where's he at? I mean... he in a cargo bay or somethin'?

Blunt, to the point, and quite accurate, my young friend.

[He was young, wasn't he? This one looks a little odd, compared to the rest of the humans she knows.]

He's in the smaller section of the ship. You know, the smaller crash site? That's where the pods for those of us who are outside of average humanoid sizes are. He and the other one, Drift... they're in a hangar, there. Powered down.

[Yup, pretty young. But also a little odd.... He looks a little blank at her explanation.]

Er. Where'zat at? Can I see him...? I mean, he was always really nice t'me, and stuff.

[And hey, who knows, maybe seeing him would make him wake up. Or something. Todd's not the most rational being on the planet, okay?]

It's not far from the ship itself, to the South. In the mountains. Of course you can see him, he was your friend as much as he was mine. I have no wish or right to keep anyone from visitng.

[He looks kind of ashamed, but he finally admits,]

I dunno if I can find it.

[As in... he's hoping for a little help. Come with him, Darwin?]

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