poly_chromatic | [video]

Entry tags:

star trek xi - pavel chekov

[video]

[The video opens to--well, not much of anything. It's night; the stars are visible, and Chekov's face is lit by the dim glow of his network device. He's remarkably subdued, but he typically does only pause to make network posts when he's in a low or contemplative mood.]

For anyone who has not heard already and knew them, Lena and Asami are no longer in the City. I did not know Asami as well as I wish I might have, but Lena was a good friend. At least she will be happy to be home... she did not like being in the City.

[And changing topics. No one wants to dwell on the negative.]

I have two questions. First, does anyone know how the ship on the side of the mountain came to be where it is? I went inside of it, but there was nothing informative there and most of it was, I think, inaccessible. It looks to me like a spacecraft. I have heard stories in the City of aliens and creatures coming from beyond the barriers, but nothing related to a ship like this.

My second question is this: is it common to experience memory loss in the City? If not, should I be concerned? My medical knowledge is very limited, but if there is something wrong with my brain, I would like to know. It is, after all, the most important thing that I have.

[He ends the feed with a forced smile.]

[ooc: Picture is not IC, just there for your reference.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Then I will see you in approximately an hour, Lucy.

You can pick me up at the store if you want. I'll lock up and you can walk me home.

That will be better. I'll see you very soon.

I'll be here closing up. Just come on in even if the lights are out.

I will.

[ooc: Action spam? Assume? I'm cool with anything. ^^]

[Lucy has restocked the shelves, counted the money for the day and shut off most of the lights in the store. She's just got to run back to the office and put the days earnings up in the safe. She did leave the front door unlocked so that Chekov can come right on in when he arrives. Despite being tired from work (she walked around barefoot the last hour) she's pretty excited about seeing Chekov. She hasn't seen him in a while and she doesn't even want to think what it means that she's excited about seeing him. She's just going to take the excitement and worry about the rest later. She's talking to herself (and the dark store) when she says:]

I'll think about that tomorrow. It's a Southern Belle tradition.

[Chekov might arrive a little sooner than anticipated; he sees no reason to wait for things when it's within his power to take action immediately. His impatience to get moving is only amplified by the fact that he's going to see Lucy--Lucy who is beautiful and funny in spite of the things that have happened to her.

He isn't entirely sure how Lucy sees him or what to call whatever-they-have or even if she truly has a romantic interest in him. She's difficult for him to figure out because she's a woman, not a girl like Irina or Tessa or anyone else he has liked. What he does know is that he wants to spend as much time with her as she will allow and he wants her to be happy. He knows that he'll try very hard to ensure that nothing bad happens to her. He even thinks that he loves her, but that's not something to trouble her with. Lucy is afraid of love, he is young and clueless, the City may take either of them away at any time--it's best to enjoy being in love without complicating anything.

The store is indeed dark when he arrives. He slips in the open door in time to catch the end of her conversation with herself.]

Lucy? Are you the only one here?

[Oh Chekov. He's a very smart boy and he's going about things in precisely the right way. She's quite content as long as words like love, boyfriend and relationship aren't mentioned. She starts freaking out when she realizes those are precisely words that are applicable, but that's a bridge to cross later.

She does, actually, have a romantic interest in him. He continually bowls her over by being sweet and kind. He likes her and Lucy is generally constantly surprised when someone isn't annoyed by her. He's fun and he's very good looking. She knows that he is very much the kind of person she could fall in love with. She's just going to ignore that for as long as possible and enjoy his company. Plus kissing. She will always enjoy the kissing.

She jumps a little at his voice and then laughs at herself.]

Yeah. I was just talking to myself.

[And she's going to greet him with a hug and a kiss to the cheek.]

[The kissing will never not be enjoyed on Chekov's end.]

Then I hope I didn't interrupt an important conversation.

[A better greeting could not be asked for. He hugs her back tightly, as he has been wanting to do ever since she mentioned the less pleasant things in her past. (But, to be fair, he wanted to hug Lucy before that...)]

[Excellent]

Nope, not at all. In fact, you're a very welcome distraction. Myself is not a very good conversationalist.

[She smiles as he hugs her tightly and squeezes back a bit, resting her cheek against his chest.]

What's this for? Not that I'm opposed to long hugs. I'm pretty pro hugs in any form.

Yourself sounded interesting to me.

[The fact that Lucy is short enough to not be eye-to-eye with him is one of those silly small things that Chekov appreciates quite a lot. He lets up on the hug, but doesn't move his arms.]

Does it need a reason? I haven't seen you in entire days.

[ She's entirely fine with the loose sort of embrace.] Pavel, I think you are brilliant. Particularly in your standards of interesting. [Her words are punctuated with a smile]

That is the best sort of reason. Ever. [And it gets him another kiss to his cheekbone.]

Let me get my heels and my bag and we can head back to the flat.

[She pulls away to retrieve her high heels from behind the counter. When she puts those on she's four inches taller, but as she's barely five foot barefoot, Chekov is in no danger of feeling short. Her bag goes over her shoulder and she click-clacks back over to him, looping her arm through his.]

Escort me home, Chivalrous Knight.

Thank you. In terms of interesting, I put you in the same realm as transwarp theory. [beat] Transwarp theory is exceptionally fascinating.

[Half the time, he doesn't know what he does to warrant kissing. There will not, however, be complaints. Once she's ready to go, he gladly takes her arm.]

As you wish, Lady Lucy.

[His comparison made her giggle.] I think I'm going to put that on my resume: "As interesting as transwarp theory'. So what is transwarp theory? Blonde terms please.

[With Lucy, there's not a lot of telling. It's always a good thing though. She pauses at the door to lock it up and then they're off down the sidewalk toward her flat while he attempts to explain transwarp theory.]

[He's getting more fluent in Lucy-speak and is only too happy to try to distill one of the most controversial and advanced concepts of his day into a simpler form for her as they walk.]

Transwarp is a very simple idea: traveling at any speed that exceeds warp speed. Warp speed is faster-than-light travel, made possible by warp drives that create a subspace bubble around the drive and the ship that houses it. This bubble distorts local spacetime, making it possible for an object to move by moving space around it. Without this distortion, increasing speeds would require increasing power and fuel; approaching light speed would require near-infinite amounts of energy and rip a ship apart.

[Chekov is, without any doubt, enjoying himself. Talking about this kind of thing is exciting.]

Transwarp theory applies the idea of faster-than-light motion to practical problems, such as beaming--transporting, sorry--objects and people from planet to planet, ship to ship, or any combination of those, specifically when a ship is moving at warp speeds. If two ships are at warp speed, moving someone from one ship to the other may necessitate having their signature pattern--this is the information that dictates the form of a person--travel through space at speeds exceeding warp.

Planet to planet is not so difficult, theoretically. Planets move rapidly, rotating and spinning in set orbits. To transport between planets requires difficult, precise calculations, as both planets are moving. To calculate the locations of the planets relative to each other to a degree that allows successful transport is even more difficult; when beaming living things, it is important to put them on the surface of a planet and on solid ground. A slight miscalculation can result in beaming someone into the planet's crust, natural formations, bodies of water, or several miles above the surface. And so this is not easy because of the number of variables to account for, the rapid motion of planets, and the necessary precision. A kilometer is nothing in space; being beamed a kilometer above or below the crust of a planet is fatal.

Now, to transport from one ship at warp speed to another--these calculations require even more precision as well as, maybe, the acceleration of the subatomic particles that contain what must be reassembled to faster-than-light speeds. A planet moves predictably; a ship at warp speed moves predictably, also, but at a speed that complicates calculations immensely. If a person is to go from one ship to another via transwarping methods, not only is it vital to ensure that they will appear within the ship and not outside in empty space--this can be a distance of only feet--but it is also necessary to stream the particles that make up their signature pattern intact, through space, at transwarp speeds.

This is where my knowledge of the topic ends, mostly. I wrote my doctoral thesis on transwarp theory, but I am only familiar with the calculations necessary to do this, not the implementation. Mr. Scott--he is the engineer on the Enterprise and a brilliant man--actually devised a way to make this possible. He has refined the calculations to a point where they can be useful technologically by, in his equations, defining space as what is moving, not the person or object being transported. Mr. Scott was able to beam himself and my captain from the surface of a planet to the Enterprise, which was moving away at high warp. He also beamed the captain and Mr. Spock from the Enterprise, which was in orbit around Titan, onto the enemy ship, which was orbiting Earth.

There are still many uncertainties and transwarp theory is a difficult and risky thing to implement, but I hope to work with Mr. Scott on these problems, if he will accept my help. The application of this--and making it safer so that it can be widely used--will be a significant breakthrough in space travel.

[He thinks for a moment. Mr. Scott had a very simple analogy regarding transwarp theory that was only a sentence long and easily understood, but Pavel doesn't remember it and lacks the ability to make a simple analogy of his own.]

I apologize if that made no sense.

Edited 2012-12-02 16:10 (UTC)

[Most of that made no sense to Lucy. Not in the least. However a tiny part of it did. She thought anyway and it was nice to hear him talk about something he was so interested in.]

So, it's like...putting something in a box with bubble wrap and sending it super express airmail? And you can do this with people too? Oh! OH! Do they ever get mixed up and come out with both arms on one side of their body or is it like the whole dead cat live cat theory? I forget the guy's name. I mean duh. You put a cat in a box and seal the box up it's going to be either alive or dead. It all just depends on how long you leave the cat in the box. Poor kitty. Forever traumatized by boxes for the rest of it's natural life or you know, alternatively dead.

[He pauses to assess this. Old-fashion postage escapes him.]

Something like that, yes, and all of the transporter malfunctions I have heard of end with the incorrectly-assembled object as a [randomly reassembled mass that has been scrambled at the subatomic level] goo.

[Chekov laughs at Lucy--not because she's wrong, but because her wandering trains of thought are very endearing.]

Schrödinger? I suppose; the transported human is either dead or alive. [That is not how Schrödinger's famous thought experiment went; Lucy's version is better. He kisses her on the cheek.] We will never test your theory, I promise. The City doesn't need dead or traumatized cats.

[Sorry, it's the closest she can relate to.]

Okay. Eww. Suddenly rethinking OMG transwarp stuff would be so cool. I do not make a cute pile of goo.

[Blame pop culture plus Lucy's own way of twisting everything logical into something illogical. The kiss to her cheek makes her preen a moment though.]

No, it doesn't. I think I'm keeping Masha away from boxes anyway. Just in case. [Masha was entirely too smart to crawl in a box anyway. She'd watch with distain while Bryant tried to put his foot inside the box.]

The likelihood of that happening with the safety precautions put in place is small. You wouldn't be goo.

[Transwarp is still really interesting. Some of the mathematics involved are downright elegant.]

Masha? Is that your cat's name? It's a Russian name. You have exceptional taste.

I'm only doing it if you're there to give me the thumbs up.

[If you say so Chekov]

Yes. I mean...she was Harry's cat. I inherited her. So technically, he has exceptional taste. I have no idea why he gave her a Russian name. He was Brit--okay no technically he was a Time Lord, but he was kind of a Brit.

And you won't be allowed to transwarp unless I am there to ensure that it's done properly.

[Oops. He hadn't meant to bring up the ex.]

I have heard about the Time Lords, but no one said that they had an affinity for Russian names. Is Masha intelligent? Cats are supposed to be.

Deal.

[It's okay. As long as discussions about Harry were kept mostly surface and light, she was fine talking about him.]

I don't know that they do? I mean I'm not even sure Harry did, outside of the cat. Masha is smarter than any cat I've ever met in my entire life. She uses the toilet. [Because Harry brainwashed her.]

Thank you.

[A cat using the toilet? Chekov can wrap his brain around a lot of things; this is not one of those things.]

How does she not fall in? How does she flush?

She just balances. She has to have the seat down and it's one of those automatic flushers. You know, they work with motion detectors?

[It's kind of weird to be honest, but Lucy doesn't have to change a litter box so that makes her happy.]

That is amazing--the cat, not the flushing. I never saw many animals at home, but I'm certain that none of them acted so much like people.

...Not that it is their fault. Even if tribbles had more than rudimentary brains, a lack of limbs would make any trick difficult.

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