Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Medical) in Another New Ship

Posted by Lieutenant Markus Woods (Chief Science Officer) in Another New Ship

(snip)

He let out an audible sigh and nodded, slipping to his feet. “I know,” he said, drawing the word out with reluctance. “But after earlier, we both need some recoup time. And then… I need my beauty rest too. And I’ve still got a ton of homework to do on this Hab’rabe problem before that.” He shook his head. “I feel like I could spend all night like this with you though, and I’d hardly notice the passage of time. But all good things…” As he spoke, he gathered his dishes and returned them to the small kitchen area as well.

Mark

Sharah didn’t understand it. She felt the same way, and she was reluctant to let it end. There was a flicker of guilt and sorrow. Was it her mind that had created the loss of time, made him so fiercely try to help her? He didn’t even know her, not really. He needed to recoup, it had been too much. She’d wanted, maybe needed, someone to share the experience with, but she should not have. Simply being around her had hurt Ashlyn horribly, and a year later her best friend was still not allowed to speak to her. And he had work to do, she should not be interfering with that.

Then the Flickr was gone or maybe just locked away. In its place was simply pleasure for the evening. “Thank you. I would offer to return the favor, but the kitchen and I don’t mix.” She certainly felt comfortable with Mark and that was confusing, but wonderful at the same time. But before things could become awkward she decided to leave. “I’ll let you get back to work.” There was so much else she could say or maybe wanted to say, but she didn’t.

He caught the flicker, a sour note though it didn’t feel directed at him. Self-judgement. Before he could say anything or protest, she was already making her way to the door. She’d been enjoying herself, and still seemed happy with things. There was that desire to say more, but she held back. “No need to return the favor. I didn’t even know I was going to be making anything for anybody, but really it’s too much for just me. As for work… well… Captain’s orders. I might need some help with it later if I can’t make enough headway.” And then she was gone, slipping out through the door.

She didn’t turn back around, but there was an affirmation like tone to her presence. If he needed help she was happy to help him. But it was half way through beta shift now and Sharah had no idea how that would effect the waves, and if it was bad it was better if she was alone.

As it hissed closed, he let out a weighty sigh, shoulders and head drooping for a moment. “I shouldn’t have said anything,” he said, mostly meaning about the clock and homework. Turning back, he headed toward the kitchen and stuck everything but the lasagna back into the replicator. Then retrieved a conservation box big enough to store the remainder in, transferred it over, stuck the baking dish back in the replicator, and put the food containers up.

Trying to put that last part out of his mind, he turned and headed for the workstation in his quarters. At least he could crunch data remotely here and work on a lot of things without actually having to go to the lab. ....

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A few hours later, she couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t settle, the noise keeping her awake. On an impulse she reached from across the ship and there was a gentle brush of her thoughts to his. ‘Mark?‘

Sharah

Markus jerked upright. “Seven purple con..crete?” He looked around, then down at his desk display through bleary eyes. It was after midnight. Hed sworn he’d h eard someone, but then he realized that, like a hand on his shoulder, someone was with him. Familiar, soft, but strong. Sharah. Straightening in his chair, he ran his fingers through his hair. ‘Hey. Everything okay,’ he asked, concern coming down the wire, but also happiness to feel her contact, her presence, that connection.

Mark

He’d been asleep. His thoughts hadn’t sounded that way, she’d thought he was still working. She sounded over tired, ‘I’m sorry. I thought you were awake…’ Someone else might have left it at that, but Sharah figured since she’d already woken him up she might as well tell him. What was wrong was the noise, it wouldn’t let her sleep, but that wasn’t his problem it was hers. She’d been following along as he worked, not intentionally, but every once in awhile, among the noise, she would pick up on what he was doing. ‘Those electrical patterns from the motes, they remind me of electrical patterns from the brain. Sometimes, if something happens to the brain and it’s misfiring, we can use low voltage on the correct or opposite patterns or charges to help the brain reset. That might work to keep them contained.’ There was that sense that she wanted to help but also subconsciously seeking him out. There was regret she’d woken him, but delight that he’d answered.

Sharah

Quickly he pulled up a holo-PADD and leaned back in his chair. Reaching out, he tapped a couple displays and expanded them. A three dimensional wave form shimmered into being, sampled from one of the motes. This, he compared to the waveforms of several different EEG readouts, then overlapped and super-imposed them, finding similar peaks and valleys. Similar frequencies and amplitudes.

‘That … suggests that they’re alive. Or at least have some sort of brainwave interaction. Like brainwave entrainment. Or there was a theory postulated in the early twenty-first century by a few different scholars but they were laughed off. That consciousness and the mind could be rooted in a field. Or more specifically, information could be recorded in a field. Which might well be a viable explanation for some ‘ghosts’.’ He shook his head. ‘It’s just speculation, and a hypothesis. I’m not sure how we can test it right now though.’

He sighed aloud then. ‘The thing that gets me is that it doesn’t seem to have connection with the ship. Or not like we thought. Since they are here, aboard the Viking. Which means it is attached to him, most likely.’ Reaching up he rubbed his eyes with one hand, mostly around the tear ducts then pinched the bridge of his nose.

‘You alright? You sound tired.’

Markus