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AlexV

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Everything posted by AlexV

  1. Huge congratulations to all of this year's award recipients, thanks to the folks who put so much work into getting this whole thing organised - and thanks as well to each and every member of the fleet for helping make this such a fun place to write!
  2. Great to have you with us, guys - welcome aboard
  3. Assuming nobody *insists* on uniform, you can't go wrong with basic black. And in deference to public the occasion, it'll even be an outfit more in keeping with Terran fashion than Orion
  4. Congratulations on your graduation, Lukas, and welcome to the fleet! Here's to a lot of fun times ahead
  5. Charming and diplomatic as ever...
  6. Seems there was even a reason for the music in the first trailer...
  7. Writing it wasn't exactly a party either... but I'm glad you thought we did an okay job of it
  8. Probably, yes. But what really hammers it home is what comes just that tiny bit later... And this is the guy we let be FO? We're doomed. Again.
  9. Seems the -E is getting a lot of the love
  10. Is it possible to be amazed and not even remotely surprised, both at the same time?

  11. A Britishism that is perhaps not as widely used as it might be. Try "opted" instead
  12. On the topic of great moments, I plumped for one not on the list: Captain Sulu.
  13. Congrats to everyone who took part - some great entries, and wonderful reads!
  14. A definite thirding for the end of "In the Pale Moonlight". One of the best scenes in Trek, as far as I'm concerned
  15. Well, managing to surprise the heck out of myself, I have gotten an entry done and submitted. I leave the "dark" to the rest of you... I'm going for something a little different
  16. "So this thing was found in a lab?" The question was asked plainly enough, but something about the wording had Professor Yuri Malenkov shooting a frown at the woman stood beside him. Like himself, Doctor Helena Kerr was one of the Daystrom Institute's resident archaeotechnology specialists, and she'd leapt at the chance to get in on a project like this one the very moment she'd returned from her extended holiday on Risa. It wasn't often that they were called upon to exercise their particular field of expertise, but when they did the reason was usually pretty compelling - and the humanoid figure laid out before them definitely ticked that particular box. "The artefact," he replied, stressing the way he preferred to think of it, "was indeed discovered in the remains of what appeared to be a cybernetics lab of some kind. It's hard to be certain, of course, given the age of the ruins, but the survey team made a reasonably educated assessment." "If that age is as big a number as I'd heard, I'm happy to cut them a little slack." Shoving her hands in the pockets of the lab coat she habitually wore, the Alpha Centauran red-head began prowling around the work table the artefact on question lay on, studying it from every angle as her brow furrowed in thought. Whatever it was, it was the right size and shape to be able to pass as most humanoids - if it weren't for the fact that it's exterior shell was nothing but a layer of smooth, featureless sliver. Internal scans had told them that it was more than the inert statue it seemed at first glance, and the sheer complexity of some of what those scans had revealed had led to the archaeological team that had discovered it shipping it off to the Institute as fast as they could arrange for it to happen. Which was where Yuri and his team had come in. For almost a week, they'd studied the figure as closely as they could without getting invasive, and they were starting to get a little frustrated with the limits of what they'd been able to establish. Quantum dating had confirmed the age, and from the data the discovery team had sent there was a good chance that where it had been found was where it had been built. Unfortunately, there'd been no hints at all as to what it had been built for, and if the theories about the last inhabitants of those ruins were right, there was no way at all anyone was going to be able to ask them. "You tried a HiMRI scan to get a look?" Given that Helena hadn't taken her eyes off of the subject of her scrutiny, Yuri's nod went unnoticed. With a wry little smile, he opted for a more obvious response. "High resolution MRI, quantum imaging, EM pattern analysis, even an old-fashioned radar scan. Everything comes back the same, and tells us that what we have here is the body of some form of synthetic life-form." Helena grunted and straightened up from where she'd been studying the artefact's 'face'. "Never seen anything like this one before, though." "Oh, it gets better." Lifting a padd from one of the workbenches nearby, Yuri handed it over before standing back to watch the reaction that he was pretty sure was going to be coming. One of the biggest puzzles they had faced was on the materials side of things, and what Helena had just been handed was a breakdown of the scan results gathered from tests on that silvery coating. Metallic, it might look, but... "It's organic?" And there it was, just as surprised as *they'd* been when the results had first come back. "You're telling me that shiny crap all over the thing is-" "Possibly," Yuri interrupted smoothly, heading off a singularly Kerr-esque head of steam, "the most advanced synthetic organic polymer matrix anyone has every seen. The hardware underneath it is impressive enough, but that shell..." He shook his head, lips twitching in another wry smile, and leant up against the workbench. "Terk nearly wet himself when he saw that data, and we almost had to threaten to nail his lobes to the ceiling to keep him from trying to find some way to sell it." "What do you expect, letting a [...]ed Ferengi anywhere near something like this?" "Oh, it wasn't that bad. We just reminded him of the pile of latinum he put up as security for keeping to the confidentiality agreement he signed." "Ha. Yeah, that'll do it." The two of them fell into silence again, both looking at the recumbent form that was the focus of this project's work. The vagaries of the Ferengi lust for profit aside, neither of them were ignorant of the potential secrets hidden within something like what they had on their hands, and the sheer scientific drive to know was tempered by an awareness of what that sort of curiosity could lead to. After all, Yrui mused to himself, it was curiosity about what was inside that led to Pandora's Box being opened and the story was quite clear on what had happened because of that little slip. "I could have taken another two weeks vacation, you know." This time, Yuri's frown was one of puzzlement at Helena's comment, apparently unrelated to anything else he could think of right now. "Sun, surf, little [...]tails with umbrellas in them... plus all the exceptionally friendly men with very big-" "Thank you, Helena. I am quite happy to live without that mental image." "Wimp. What I was going to say was that if I had, I'd probably have kicked myself for missing out on this." *** There wasn't enough to be called consciousness. Not yet. What did exist was little more than a reaction to the modulated emissions that had been detected by a collection of specialised nodes. Once that signal had been received, a cascade of instructions had flowed out of those nodes and into others. Induction charging systems tapped into the local power, building up energy within other components at a painfully slow rate. There had been no need predicted for them to have to work faster, and the idea that the cells they were feeding would be so utterly drained had been similarly unanticipated. It was working though, and as power became available it was used. Sounds were detected and analysed, hardwired coding assembling meaning from what was being heard whilst others identified what seemed like hard data and filed it away for future use. None of what was happening was running at the speed it had been designed to, but the tiny node who's sole job was to keep track of time gave an explanation why - once it had checked it's own calculations over thirty thousand times just to make absolutely sure it's count was right. A wait for deployment that ran into millennia had stretched even this mechanism's capacity to hold itself ready. Eventually, everything the system was ordered to do was done and it slipped into a holding pattern, settling in to wait with the infinite patience of a machine for the rest of the signal. Then, and only then, would the second layer of commands be brought into play... *** "Pass me that scanner, will you?" The hand being waved vaguely in Yuri's direction went well with the distracted tone of the question, and he had to smile - at least a little. Picking the device up from the worktop, he handed it over, then went back to looking at the results from the one he'd already been holding. "So you've gotten somewhere on those resolution enhancements?" Helena shrugged, most of her attention on the computer screen she was studying whilst she toyed absently with the scanner she'd just received. "Maybe. A more coherent scan pattern, adapting itself to the general level of... whatever it is that's going on in there, should - hopefully - give us a better picture of how things are set up to work in our little statue's head." "Which," Yuri agreed, "would be nice. The level of activity in there might be almost undetectably low, but it's certainly making things harder when it comes to tracking what's actually going on." And that had been a bit of a running theme over the last little while. It had taken some searching, but once they'd established that the artefact wasn't quite as inert as it had first seemed, they'd ridden the wave of enthusiasm that had provoked straight into a metaphorical brick wall. Now, three days later, it seemed like they might just have a way to get somewhere. "Here." Yuri dragged his frowning attention from the silvery figure and turned it toward Helena, who'd turned on her little stool to face him. Apparently done with whatever modifications she was planning to make to the scanner, she held it out to him and he took it with a murmur of thanks. A quick look at it's readouts showed him nothing new at all, but then there wouldn't have been... until and unless it worked. There was only one way to find out if that was going to happen... At first, there was no change from normal as he began his scan using the newly modified tool, but after a few seconds that changed fast. "Woah!" His startled exclamation had Helena surging to her feet and hurrying to stand beside him, craning her neck to get a look at what might have provoked it. Once he tilted the scanner to give her a better view of the readings, she let out a low whistle of appreciation - and managed to avoid looking even remotely smug. "Okay..." she muttered. "That's quite a result." "Right. But I think you're missing the point..." Which, by playing about with the scanner's controls a little, Yuri endeavoured to correct. Scrolling back through the data the device had gathered, he paused it when he found what he was looking for, then handed the whole thing over to his colleague. "Umm... Yrui? Am I reading this right? From what I'm looking at here, this spike in activity didn't happen until after you started the scan. In fact, the things had been cycling through frequency modulations for nearly thirty seconds before-" This time, Yrui's exclamation wasn't due to surprise at what he was seeing on a little screen. Instead, it was a quite understandable response to the fact that the silvery figure on the work table, totally unmoving and unresponsive for all this time, had just grabbed him. After a second or so, he managed to get enough of a grip on himself again to notice that the only part of the artefact that had moved at all was the hand - and arm it was attached to - that now held his wrist. "Yuri! Are you-" "I'm fine," he replied, somehow a lot more calmly than he felt he had any right to be. "It's not holding me tight enough to hurt, just... I don't know, keeping me here, I guess." "You guess? To hell with that, I'm calling security." There was little hope he could convince her not to do that, even if he felt any urge to try. The Institute's security set-up wasn't as comprehensive as, say, a Starfleet facility's might be, but that wouldn't stop them from reacting to something like this. Helena's voice making the call sounded far more agitated than the woman usually acted, and Yuri knew that someone would be coming through that door within only a few more moments. Which, if this turned nasty, was most likely not going to be soon enough to make any appreciable difference to him. He was considering whether to try and break the hold on his wrist when the decision was made redundant, the metallic-looking hand releasing it's grip and returning to where it had started with just as little warning or ceremony as it had moved to begin with. Absently rubbing his wrist, Yuri backed off well out of reach, eyes firmly fixed on the core of their project, and wondering just what the heck had just happened - and why. *** The signal had come, modulated just as it was meant to be, and when it reached the node that had been patiently awaiting it the results were precisely as designed. Power was routed to higher-order nexus groups, the command routines coded into their fabric coming to life and reaching out to each other. Within moments more, the basis of a command architecture had taken form, building itself further as it confirmed that everything that was meant to be at it's disposal, was. At that stage, there was nothing capable of appreciating the serendipity of having one of the external things it sought detectable literally within arm's reach - but this in no way impaired the system from acting on that proximity. As soon as the required physical contact was achieved, and the subject was prevented from immediate escape, data began to be gathered and analysed, projections of what would and would not be of use forming and being analysed in turn. Finally, a model was assembled and the proper coding assembled for use. One last check for errors, then that self-same coding was sent to the receptors that had waited for it since their creation. There was only enough raw material - and power - for a single activation, but that was part of the design. After all, done right, it only needed to happen once... Suspended throughout the dormant biopolymer matrix of the external shell in their little hives, nano-scale mechanisms came to life, surging out to latch onto the materials they needed to do their jobs. It was a laborious process, with endless repetition of the tiniest pieces of the whole essential to the desired result, but there was no hint of anything but almost mindless dedication to the task at hand and a total disregard of the fact that simply fulfilling their assigned role was going to leave almost the entire population extinct. *** The security guards that had responded to Helena's call had done it fast, and under other circumstances Yuri might have found their adrenaline-fuelled jumpiness amusing. As it was, he was more concerned that they were going to do something... unfortunate to his project. "Gentlemen, do I need to remind you that nothing harmful has actually happened?" That got him a disparaging look from Helena, not that he'd expected anything else, but he was more interested in the reactions of the people with weapons. Luckily, the man in charge of the team was someone who's judgement he respected - and the fact that he was a Betazoid and thus quite able to tell that Yuri was quite sincere in what he was saying - and after a few moments there was a curt nod to the other two officers and a definite, if slight, reduction in tension. Quite what was happening in the lab itself, none of them were particularly sure. Something had disrupted the sensors that might have told them, and there wasn't even a hint of sound to give a clue. This, of course, was not helping everyone stay calm. "Nothing," Helena put in sharply, "may have happened yet, but we have no idea what is going on in there. Tenna's not going to take any chances, and you know it." Tenna, the security chief, looked less than happy to be reminded that he was going to be held at least partly responsible for anything that happened, but since that was part of his job he limited his response to that. Or at least he did until the sound of a heavy thud made it through the lab door. Every hint of relaxation that might have slipped into the atmosphere vanished in an instant, with the trio of security guards immediately moving to take up positions by the door. "Umm... What are you going to do?" Yuri's somewhat hesitant query was ignored. Instead, Tenna gestured to his people to stand ready then, with his weapon in hand, touched the door control. The amount of tension in the air was enough to be almost palpable, and somehow managed to spike even higher as the door slid open. For seconds that seemed to feel like hours, nothing at all seemed to happen, until finally, weapon held ready in a white-knuckled grip, Tenna stepped cautiously through the portal. Yuri was pretty sure he wasn't the only one holding his breath as he watched the Betazoid's slow, wary advance into the lab, but he knew he jumped when Tenna's voice came back through the doorway at them. "Professor, Doctor... Remind me, would you, what you were working on in here?" Yuri and Helena shared a puzzled look, noting the fact that the Betazoid's tone had more than a hint of confusion in it. Carefully, and not totally certain it was a smart idea, the pair edged closer to the door, moving to get a peek at whatever it was that was waiting on the other side...
  17. I'm guessing a ludicrously over-sized t-shirt (usually with some cartoon character or other on it) counts as a nightshirt...
  18. Whilst many of those choices are great ones, for me the winner has to be this:
  19. ((Science Lab - Duronis II Embassy)) ::S'Kahh looked at the cube suspended in the air over the tech labs console. He knew there was a containment field around it, but its presence was only notable though the nearly imperceptible whine it gave off as air passed though the field. He felt it more than heard it, whiskers twitching as the sound travelled though them.:: Rossh: Computer, begin a level three scan of the object. ::Lights flickered across the console for a moment before the computer replied, listing off the materials the device was constructed of. Some of the materials were quite exotic, but nothing truely alien in terms of basic materials.:: Rossh: Not getting me any further. ::He paused, glancing over at his tricorder for a moment as an idea tickled at the back of his thoughts. There was definitely something bubbling away back there, but...:: Rossh: Computer, link up to my tricorder and download the specifications on the receptacle the device was retrieved from. Computer: Working. Download complete. Rossh: Good, now. Computer, try and to a breakdown of the console the device was plugged into - best estimate as to the purpose of the various components. Computer: Task will require an hour to complete. Rossh: Go ahead. ::He yawned, leaning back in his seat as the computer chugged away - trying to reverse engineer the console it had been plugged into. He sat up after a few moments and tapped on his control panel, switching from the default layout to a thread monitor - providing a direct readout of every process the computer was handling for the task he had set it.:: ::Numbers and words flashed past too fast to read, but he found the flickering flow of information interesting as he waited for the machine to complete his task.:: ::At the same time he found himself falling back into introspection, remembering his time at the hospital. He hadn't realised his ribs had been broken till the Laudean doctor who was treating him had pointed it out. He'd been shocked to hear it, and shocked again when he discovered the Laudean's treatment would normally involve minor surgery to re-set the bones properly.:: ::Thankfully in his case Caitian bones had a lot more natural flexibility than most species - giving them less strength perhaps, but making them a lot less prone to fractures. And when they did fracture they tended to reset quite naturally given enough rest.:: ::So the doctor had opted to splint his chest to hold it in place - informing him to keep the bandage in place for a few days to let the healing process get started before doing anything too energetic.:: Computer: Task complete. ::He blinked, disturbed from his reverie and looked down at the readings before him. The computer seemed to have managed to get a fairly detailed breakdown of the likely way the console was designed to interact with the cube.:: Rossh: Simulate interactions between cube and console. ::The screen changed to an annotated diagram, highlighting the various electrical contact points and wireless signals exchanged between the two pieces of Yeltan technology. He frowned as he watched, then looked up at the cube again.:: Rossh: Now we just need one of those consoles... ::He frowned, then glanced over to the door.:: Rossh: Computer, drop containment feild around the cube. Authorisation Rossh Delta six, beta two one one. ::The field shimmered for a moment as it dropped, and he reached in to grasp the cube. He hefted it in his hand, resisting the sudden perverse urge to attempt to rotate its various sections like some ancient child's puzzle, and examined it closely as he spoke again.:: Rossh: Computer, are there any available holosuites? Computer: Holosuites two, five and seven are currently unoccupied. ::He nodded to that, then stepped towards the door, taking the cube with him.:: ((Timeskip, late at night.)) ((Holosuite two, Duronis II Embassy)) ::Shanri paused at the door to the holosuite, wondering just what exactly S'Kahh thought he was doing. She'd hoped to welcome him back from the mission, and indeed had come all the way out to the embassy to see him - but he'd been buried away in his work. And for the last few hours he'd been buried instead in a holosuite.:: ::She wasn't the suspicious type, well, she didn't think of herself that way at least. But it was odd that he was so busy - it felt like he was ignoring her. She gathered herself, and opened the door, stepping inside.:: ::The room was dark, the yellow grids invisible on the walls not due to being obscured by a simulation, but just from a lack of light. In the middle of the room a strange, yet oddly familiar, console sat - glowing faintly blue. A cube of similar appearance was plugged smoothly into the top of it. Sat on the floor between her and the console was S'Kahh, cross legged and leaning his head down onto his hands as he stared intently at it.:: Rossh: Yes? ::His voice startled her, and she took a second to compose her thoughts after the odd - yet familiar - sight of the console.:: Shanri: I, I just wanted to check up on you. ::The caitian turned to look towards her, his expression blank for a moment. He looked tired above anything else, and it took a second or two for his face to spread into a smile.:: Rossh: Ah, I'm afraid I've been letting my stubbornness get in the way of things. ::He pointed to the device, waving his hand rather than pointing in truth.:: Rossh: I've replicated every possible thing I can, every reading is the same and every link up is correct. ::He paused to scowl at it.:: But will it do a thing? Nope. Shanri: What exactly is it? ::He looked back to her, then sighed, stood up and walked to meet her. She noted the bandage to his side beneath his uniform tunic - still dusty and dirty from the adventures beneath her planets surface.:: Rossh: Its supposed to be important. Its supposed to be a memory archive, I think. Its also, supposed, to work. Shanri: But it doesn't? Rossh: Not for me, no. I don't think it likes me. And I tried sweet talking it, threatening it and even offering it a vacation to Risa. Still nothing. ::She found herself smirking at his tone, then shook her head.:: Shanri: Have you tried turning it off then on again? ::There was a pause, and the caitian then turned to give her one of the most old fashioned looks she had ever encountered.:: Rossh: I won't dignify that with a response. But yes, actually I have. ::She met his gaze and chuckled to herself, the tired Caitian joining in after a moment before she walked up close and rested a hand on his shoulder.:: Shanri: Come to bed, your tired. You'll think more clearly in the morning. Rossh: I can't walk away till I've at least figured out why it won't work. Shanri: Well, when did it last work? ::He glanced over his shoulder to her, then nodded to himself. It was a fair line of reasoning to explore - he had tried it earlier, but worth a second shot. He walked over to the console, leading Shanri with him.:: Rossh: Madame Day... ..er... ..oh [...] my memory. The Prime Minister's wife, she was the one who interacted with it. ::He gestured with his hands and Shanri frowned.:: Shanri: What was she doing on a mission? Rossh: She is a patron of Laudean historical studies. I think. Regardless, she was the only one who could interact with the thing. ::Something twigged in the back of his mind, but he was unable to lay his finger down on it thanks to the tiredness of his mind.:: Shanri: Well, maybe its coded to only work for women? ::He genuinely hadn't considered that, a society in which something might had been set up for only one gender to use being a completely alien concept to him. Oh, as a sociologist he was aware of such societies on an intellectual level, but not an emotional one.:: Rossh: I hadn't thought of that. ::Shanri moved closer, holding out her hands.:: Shanri: Well, show me what to do. ::He smiled, and moved to stand behind her, sliding his hands down her arms to direct them towards the cube. To both of their shock, it glowed more brightly, and the holographic recreation of the console flared into life.:: Computer: Holodeck Program: Rossh Alien Console One is attempting to write a non standard file into computer memory. Allow this operation? ::He blinked, then got his brain in gear.:: Rossh: Sandbox the file and store it separately from any sensitive materials. Isolate it in the science department computers. Computer: Working. ::There was a moment of silence as the console and cube continued to glow and shimmer.:: Shanri: I guess it just needed a woman's touch. Rossh: Or a Laudeans... ::She frowned and looked back to him.:: Shanri: It's coded to only work for my people? ::He shrugged to that, and the computer replied before he could.:: Computer: Download complete. Rossh: Computer, analyse the datafile. Attempt to decern its nature. Computer: Full analysis will take twe... Rossh: Analyse the file structure data, top and tail it. Computer: Working. Shanri: Top and tail? ::He chuckled.:: Rossh: It just means look at the beginning and end - those parts contain the file structure information in most species formats. Unless they write from the inside out - which some species do. Or their Ferengi - in which case the copyright information goes at the beginning and end... Computer: File is a data archive with compression based on a... Rossh: Can you decompress it? Computer: Require suitable decoder. ::He paused, thinking for a moment.:: Rossh: Computer, attempt to use Laudean DNA as the basis of the decoding. Shanri: Huh? Rossh: Well if its designed to be used by Laudeans, it makes sense for them to lock it so only they could open it. Or at least, somebody with access to the basic DNA structure of your people. Computer: Working. ::The process took some considerable amount of time, during which the couple chatted - catching up with one another. When the computer finished they paused their conversation to see what it had come up with.:: Computer: Decompressed files are of twenty five unknown formats. Rossh: Analyse formats and look for any signs of simple text, encoded images, or data streams that could be video. Computer: Working. Shanri: Your computers are very advanced. ::He shook his head to that.:: Rossh: There's only so many ways you can encode data, a person would actually be better at recognising the information in the various file types than the computer. But the computer can do a bad job of it a hell of lot faster - and handle hundreds of attempts at the same time. Shanri: So its dumb, but covers a lot of ground. Rossh: Yep, think... ..what are those archaic weapons that fire lots of little projectiles rather than a single big one? Shanri: Canister guns? Rossh: Hum, humans have a shorter phrase for them. Shanri: And your people? Rossh: We just call them Nif-tusak. Birdhunters. ::He translated.:: Computer: Filetypes have been found for video, audio, images and formatted text. Additional file formats detected include three dimensional models and an olfactory index pallete. Shanri: A what? Rossh: Thing we use to digitise smells, and tastes oddly enough. Shanri: Sounds horrible. Rossh: Well it is what our replicators use to do flavours and smells, so... ..can be at times. ::He grinned toothily, and she replied with a nudge with her elbow in the ribs - unfortunately on the wrong side. After several moments of groaning in pain and profuse apologies the two settled down again.:: Rossh: Ok. Computer, display a video file. ::The pair of them watched as something began to play in the air behind the console. The colours were heavily shifted towards the purple end of the spectrum, and the aspect ratio was a strange tall but narrow one that marked it out as something unusual.:: ::On it was displayed a diagram of a Laudean, with labels coming off of it to text S'Kahh couldn't even guess as to the meaning of.:: Shanri: Its a medical text. Rossh: Oh? You can read that? Shanri: Er, you can't? Rossh: No, not a word. Shanri: Well, ok. How come I can? Rossh: Genetic memory? Seems unlikely, but that's the only explanation I can think of. ::Together they worked their way though the first video - which proved to be a very detailed medical analysis of Laudean physiology. S'Kahh was no expert, but he suspected that the detail was actually slightly ahead of the Federation's own records on the Laudean species.:: ::But the real revelation came moments later.:: Shanri: Oh... ..oh my word. Rossh: What? ::He paused the video, showing a detailed diagram of the Laudean's coloured band.:: Shanri: This.. ...this is a record of how our fielding works. Rossh: I beg your pardon? ::She pointed to the screen:: Shanri: They figured out how.. ...no, I think they. I think they may have manipulated us, made our ability stronger. They talk here about it being a vestigial ability from our ancestors that lived in water. ::S'Kahh blinked, then his eyes widened.:: Rossh: How dose it work? ::The woman shrugged, not a natural scientist herself, she was mostly repeating what she could read off rather than trying to understand it all.:: Shanri: I don't really know. It's talking about things I just don't understand. Rossh: Then lets sit down and work though it, you read it out, and I'll write it down. Then I'll sit down and try and make sense of it all. Shanri: Ok. ::The two continued, writing down everything they could from the video and compiling it together into a single document. The language was alien, not that it was written in an alien language, but that its structure and terminology were alien to either of them. Gradually S'Kahh started making lists of words the would need to find the real meaning of from other recordings, and starting building up an index for translation by running though the other materials in the download:: ::By the time the sun was well up into the morning sky, the two of them had complied the first ever detailed report on how fielding actually worked. It was rough around the edges, and neither of them fully grasped some of the subtleties, but the basic methodology of its operation was right there on the PADD.:: Rossh: So, light goes in though the light permeable layer of skin here. ::He gently stroked a fingertip over Shanri's coloured forehead.:: Rossh: And impacts the coloured cells that underlay it. Those cells are filled with.. ...something, probably the pigment itself, which responds by becoming a radical with charged electrons in a paired state. Now, the pairing between the electrons is affected by the presence of a magnetic field. Shanri: So they are either parallel, or anti-parallel. Right? Rossh: I think so. And the heavy neuron weave beneath the pigmented cells can detect the tiny difference in the length of time the two electrons remain paired between those two states. Shanri: And that explains part of our ability - it lets us see the actual fields, or rather their shape, but not their charge? Rossh: I think so, though not sure how it shows you the whole field from such a small area of information.. ...maybe that second set of organs in the brain itself plays more of a role in expanding that? ::He shrugged.:: Rossh: Regardless, the light that isn't absorbed bounces right back off of the pigmented cells and is reflected out of the transparent skin cells - giving you your coloured headband. ::He chuckled.:: Rossh: So Laudean's have transparent heads, huh, there's a whole realm of new jokes opening up. Shanri: And a whole absence of my bedroom at the same time. Rossh: Moving on. ::She chuckled at that reaction and poked the Caitian's nose.:: Rossh: The fluid filled ampules in the brain tissue appear to sense the strength of the field - they do work like ampullae of Lorenzini as people have previously thought. But it turns out they work in co-operation with the cells in the band. Shanri: So the Ampules detect the strength of the reaction between the fluid inside of themselves, and the magnetic field. Thus showing how much energy is in there? Rossh: Yes, and if I'm right about this translation, then it isn't just magnetic fields this works with. It looks like there's a blend of different pigments that react to different factors. Magnetic fields are the big ones, but it looks like subspace fields can be detected as well. Shanri: I think we already knew that. Rossh: Yes, but now we know how. Shanri: We think we do - you'll need to get this checked out right? ::he nodded, then yawned as he spoke.:: Rossh: I'll need to talk with a doctor or two yes. Shanri: Bed first. Rossh: Mmm, ok, fine. you win. ::He surrendered, allowing himself to be lead out of the holosuite - after retrieving and securing the cube - and back to his quarters for sleep.:: Lt Commander S'Kahh Rossh Chief Science Officer & Historical and Anthropological Officer Duronis II Embassy - USS Thunder NCC-70605-A
  20. Congrats to our winner and runner-up - and also to everyone that took a swing at it
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