Post by Deleted on May 17, 2015 7:17:05 GMT -8
"Is there anything else you can tell me?"
Georgie shook her head apologetically.
"We were only there to gather the pieces on the list," she said. "They only gave us some pictures. It seems to be a triumph of hope over experience that we managed as much as we did. At the time we thought it a particularly challenging test... Now I suspect it was simply that they shared all the information they had with us."
She bit her lip thoughtfully. That did lead one to wonder how the Pewdins had ended up with a photographic list of the parts of the machine. Some kind of blueprint, maybe, or schematic?
"Do we have any record of how that asteroid field originated?"
Yolanda's words brought Georgie out of that particular musing.
"There's nothing in the database," she said. "I think the astrophysicists haven't had much opportunity yet to study this part of space." In a roundabout sort of a way, she supposed she should get on with encouraging that.
"I think we need to find out exactly what these asteroids used to be," said Yolanda. "Or... where it used to be."
Georgie nodded.
"I suspect that would be a good course of action," she agreed. She knew that asteroid fields were sometimes made up of the leftover chunks of moons or planets, and she hoped that if that had been the case here there hadn't been any people on it at the time. "We have few historical maps of this part of space ourselves, but I believe there's a cache we inherited from Etimon which might contain such a thing. As far as I know, no-one has gone through it yet. It looked like a long job."
Still, there was nothing like urgency to give some motivation to such a task.
"There was some bio-residue on the samples that the techs originally chalked up to being some sort of micro-organism. It was shelved for a biologist to look at. I could get a biologist to determine if that's the case... or if it's the remnants of an actual lifeform."
It didn't take someone with an advanced degree to know what Yolanda was driving at. Why else would she have avoided naming anyone in particular?
Georgia had known that this was going to happen at some point, obviously; from the moment that she'd seen his name on the ship's duty roster next to 'assistant chief of science', in fact. She'd told herself then that it would be fine, because this was an exciting opportunity for her, career-wise, and she knew if she turned down the transfer it would likely be that another opportunity so good wouldn't come up again any time soon.
And was this really any different from sitting in her quarters on the Peregrin, looking at a list of names?
Well, obviously. Yes.
But that was why this mattered.
She'd promised herself after the war; she wasn't going to be a victim anymore, because of anything or anyone, least of all herself and her stupid insecurities. And if she had a hope in hell's chance of keeping that promise to herself she had to start now, as she meant to go on.
"You should ask Lieutenant Hunter to look at it," she said, easily, as if she was discussing some person she'd met twice in the Eagle's Nest. "I'm sure he'd enjoy the opportunity to add another discovery to the long list already next to his name."
She was probably going to regret that decision.
But hey, at least she'd been decisive about it.
Tag: @yolanda
Georgie shook her head apologetically.
"We were only there to gather the pieces on the list," she said. "They only gave us some pictures. It seems to be a triumph of hope over experience that we managed as much as we did. At the time we thought it a particularly challenging test... Now I suspect it was simply that they shared all the information they had with us."
She bit her lip thoughtfully. That did lead one to wonder how the Pewdins had ended up with a photographic list of the parts of the machine. Some kind of blueprint, maybe, or schematic?
"Do we have any record of how that asteroid field originated?"
Yolanda's words brought Georgie out of that particular musing.
"There's nothing in the database," she said. "I think the astrophysicists haven't had much opportunity yet to study this part of space." In a roundabout sort of a way, she supposed she should get on with encouraging that.
"I think we need to find out exactly what these asteroids used to be," said Yolanda. "Or... where it used to be."
Georgie nodded.
"I suspect that would be a good course of action," she agreed. She knew that asteroid fields were sometimes made up of the leftover chunks of moons or planets, and she hoped that if that had been the case here there hadn't been any people on it at the time. "We have few historical maps of this part of space ourselves, but I believe there's a cache we inherited from Etimon which might contain such a thing. As far as I know, no-one has gone through it yet. It looked like a long job."
Still, there was nothing like urgency to give some motivation to such a task.
"There was some bio-residue on the samples that the techs originally chalked up to being some sort of micro-organism. It was shelved for a biologist to look at. I could get a biologist to determine if that's the case... or if it's the remnants of an actual lifeform."
It didn't take someone with an advanced degree to know what Yolanda was driving at. Why else would she have avoided naming anyone in particular?
Georgia had known that this was going to happen at some point, obviously; from the moment that she'd seen his name on the ship's duty roster next to 'assistant chief of science', in fact. She'd told herself then that it would be fine, because this was an exciting opportunity for her, career-wise, and she knew if she turned down the transfer it would likely be that another opportunity so good wouldn't come up again any time soon.
And was this really any different from sitting in her quarters on the Peregrin, looking at a list of names?
Well, obviously. Yes.
But that was why this mattered.
She'd promised herself after the war; she wasn't going to be a victim anymore, because of anything or anyone, least of all herself and her stupid insecurities. And if she had a hope in hell's chance of keeping that promise to herself she had to start now, as she meant to go on.
"You should ask Lieutenant Hunter to look at it," she said, easily, as if she was discussing some person she'd met twice in the Eagle's Nest. "I'm sure he'd enjoy the opportunity to add another discovery to the long list already next to his name."
She was probably going to regret that decision.
But hey, at least she'd been decisive about it.
Tag: @yolanda