A Clearer View (IC)

[Cyroa]

He gave a wry smile. "I don't think field trips to the giant secret space ship are the best idea. I can't risk that all sorts of people coming up here. I'll leave it open to my friends but that's about it." Sure he was a little more paranoid and suspicious than a lot of supers but that didn't make his concerns any less valid. He recalled that evening at her words; it had sparked all of this really. "Hmm? Oh, yeah. Well, mostly. Only for a couple species they can use. Nothing else up here can go down. But some of them we'll send down and reintegrate. I'll still leave a base group here though. But yeah, its a work in progress."

[Electra]

"It's really neat. And it's good you don't have to clean up after them and feed them and all that, too." Besides the zoo, there were fairly extensive gardens for a spaceship, a swimming pool, and exercise room, and all sorts of other things to look at. Erin got thoroughly lost on the tour, but she was quite impressed. "It's like your own little city up here," she remarked as they moved from attraction to attraction. "It's just huge. Are you the only person who lives up here?"

[Cyroa]

James laughed. "Yeah, I can't say I'd be nearly as interested if I was the one cleaning up after all of these guys." He happily wandered the ship with her. The lengthy tour was probably the most relaxed and fun he'd had in a while. "Not quite the size of a city; though it certainly seems that way sometimes." He nodded a little as they moved into the next one. "Yeah. Persephone and I are pretty much it." He liked spending time with 'Seph and all but it wasn't exactly the same as socializing, dates and whatnot. None of which he'd really done in quite a while. It was time for a change. Which is partly why he'd gone down to see Erin in the first place.

"I haven't really gone out much lately. Between work and stuff, I've just been busy and doing a lot of thinking. But hiding out up here isn't really me. Which is part of the reason I came to see you," he said. I hope you're right about this Alex.

[Electra]

"You know you're always welcome back at Claremont," Erin told him, looking out one of the wide viewports at Earth spinning beneath them. It was an amazing view, one she'd really only seen on television before. "Even though you graduated, and even with the stuff that happened this summer, you have a lot of friends there. You shouldn't be alone all the time, even in an amazing place like this." She looked over at him and grinned. "I mean, imagine the video game tournament we could have on one of those wall-sized projection screens, with a computer the size of the one on this ship running things. I could really show you a thing or two."

[Electra]

Whatever response James might have made was abruptly cut off as the ship took a sudden, hard lurch that nearly knocked them both off their feet. A passing servo robot caught and steadied James, and Erin caught herself thanks to her own natural grace. The lights dimmed and reddened slightly giving the whole place an ominous look. A klaxon began to chime, and Persephone's voice came over the speaker in the wall. "Captain to the bridge, please. Hellion, please report to the bridge!"

[Cyroa]

He nodded with a grin. "Oh, I', sure you could. I've actually got a couple things you might enjoy for that that I've been messing with. Less Playstationy and more hands on. Like MarioKart for real. But yeah, I know. I need to go out a bit more. Which brings me to something I need to tell you." He took a deep breath, getting ready to come clean when the alarm sounded and the ship lurched suddenly. He swore half to himself and took Erin's hand quickly. If he had to run down the hall and up the lifts, it would take time and who knew what was really going on? Time was vital. With Erin in hand and a little concentration, they disappeared. A moment later, they both appeared. James immediately moved forward, searching the screens. "'Seph, report. What's going on?"

[Electra]

"I'm not sure," Persephone told him, apparently distracted enough that she didn't even put her image on the screen. "I was performing the orbit burn when a malfunction light on the aft portside engine came on. The engine shut down automatically, and it disrupted the burn, and our orbit! I need to recalculate our trajectory, but I have no idea what's going on with the engine. It needs to be looked at physically from the aft engine room, but I need to conserve power that I'd ordinarily use to run the servos! To make things worse, the lurch caused a fight in the Tasmanian Tiger enclosure, and they're really going at it! Someone needs to break them up, or we could lose one of our only breeding pairs!"

[Electra]

Erin listened to the recitation, a little flabbergasted. Losing an engine seemed like really bad news, especially if it was disrupting the power to the ship. "You should probably go take a look at the engine," she told James. "If an alternate you built this ship, maybe you'll remember something about how to repair it. I have no clue, but I can at least break up a fight. Tasmanian Tigers are extinct, aren't they? I mean, besides what you've got here? We better be careful with them."

[Cyroa]

James muttered to himself. The first time the ship EVER had a problem and it had to happen now of course. He nodded to Erin. "Yeah, they are. Those these are a tad bigger than the normal ones according to record. Be careful. It's back on Deck 9, Section C. Everything's labeled well, follow the signs." Not that he was too worried. Those tigers probably could do more than barely scratch her at best.

He turned as soon as she knew where she was going and blinked out, to reappear outside of engineering. He had no idea what it was like in there and didn't want to jump in blind. He checked the door sensors before heading inside. Who knew how the repairs were.... Wait a minute. The ship has self-repairing capabilities and a horde or robots to do it. "'Seph," he said a little suspicious, "what's going on..."

[Electra]

"I'm operating on emergency power in your sector right now, James," Persephone said, her voice sounding faint, almost breathy through the wall panel. The main corridor lights were turned off, punctuated here and there by harsh emergency lights. Two servos at the end of the corridor were inactive, crumpled in place like odd, sad little sculptures. "I can reroute power, but only after someone does a visual inspection of the engine for damage. I need your help, or we could be looking at a catastrophic failure of the power relay system!"

[Cyroa]

James was suspicious. Very suspicious. All the things she told him what the ship could do and take care of itself, this seemed a stretch. That said however, he couldn't risk the ship or 'Seph on suspicion. "Ok, 'Seph. it's going to work out. Just tell me what to do. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, promise." He quickly moved forward, looking around. He had zero knowledge on how to fix anything but it wasn't like there were a lot of options.

[Electra]

"I know I can always count on you," Persephone told him. He had to open the door manually with the emergency latch on wall before he could get in, but eventually he made it into the aft engine room. The room was dim and smelled faintly of ozone, but nothing was actually on fire. "There's a handlight on the wall," Persephone told him, "and a headset mounted camera in the locker by the door. If you put it on while you do your observations, I can look with you. If we work together, we can surely find any problems."

[Cyroa]

James slipped it on, not needing it in the least. But if she couldn't tell him what was wrong, it wouldn't matter how great he could see in the dark. Making sure it was working, he pried the door open with his hands and looked/panned around the room. There was still something funny going on here, but that didn't mean there wasn't a problem to be fixed. "Ok, 'Seph. What am I looking for?"

[Electra]

Several decks up, Erin hastily made her way back to the zoo area, guided by the occasional green arrow on a wall panel pointing the way. It wasn't hard to hear where the trouble was, even from a corridor away she could hear the snarling and roaring of angry animals. When she reached the cage, she could see a deactivated servo unit with a pair of syringes it had obviously planned on using before the power had begin to fail. Erin took them both and went into the enclosure.

The enclosure irised open as she approached, allowing her inside, then closing behind her. Two extraordinarily bizarre looking creatures were circling each other with loud snarls and growls, hackles raised and teeth showing. Their bottom jaws looked like they were unhinged and about to fall off, but since they both looked the same, she hoped it wasn't an actual injury, just how they looked. As Erin walked in, both the creatures stopped circling and sniffed in her direction. Suddenly, both were ambling in her direction, not with a lot of speed, but with definite purpose!

Erin tensed, ready for them to leap, but neither did, merely continuing to hasten towards her! As soon as the first one was in range, she jabbed the syringe into its shoulder, and did the same thing a second later with the second one! Within moments, the tigers had stopped their advance! They staggered around for a few moments, then fell unconscious to the deck.

[Electra]

As the tigers fell unconscious, Persephone suddenly appeared beside Erin, startling the hell out of her for a moment. She seemed to have stepped down from the wall and into real life, for all Erin could still see through her just a little bit. "That was great work!" she said enthusiastically. "You got them both, and not a scratch on anyone! What a relief! I just didn't know what to do!" Persephone looked at Erin with soulful blue eyes. "I think I was wrong about you, you know," she said, sounding contrite. "You're nothing like the Wander I knew in my world. She was a good hero, but she wasn't a good person, if you understand what I'm saying. I shouldn't have judged you so quickly."

[Electra]

"Oh, um, that's okay," Erin said uncomfortably. "How did you get down from the wall?" she asked, mostly because it was the first thing that popped into her head. "I thought your power was gone." Rather than wait for an answer, she let her curiosity get the better of her. "I never really interacted with my double on your world," she admitted. "How do you mean, she wasn't a nice person?" Erin could certainly believe it, given that it was, after all, herself on some level, but it seemed strange that she would let it show in such a whitewashed world.

[Electra]

"James is fixing things," Persephone said brightly, "everything will be fine in just a few more minutes. I couldn't get by without him, you know. He doesn't remember designing this ship, but he did, and he's very clever with it!" She "sat" on the edge of one of the observation benches and waved towards the servo, which slowly began powering up. "My universe is quite different from yours, I'm sure you already know. The people act in very different ways! For example, in my universe, Hell-Ion was just smitten with the Wander who lived there. Hopelessly devoted, in a very romantic and touching way." Persephone sighed dreamily, then frowned. "But she was no good for him. She only wanted to play with his heart! She would encourage him, then run off to go on dates with Midnight, then come back, and go away again. It was terrible to watch!"

Persephone seemed quite worked up, for a computer program, but she quickly calmed again. "I'm sorry, it was just so difficult to watch him be hurt again and again by someone who looked so much like you. I didn't think he'd be able to bear it. But I know you're not like that. When you decide to date someone, you're the faithful sort, I can just tell." She nodded approvingly. "And of course James is different too, in this world. He's not the sort to settle on one girl, is he?" She chuckled indulgently. "Even just since I've been here, I've started to lose track. It's all right though, nobody's feelings are involved, so no one gets hurt. It's all in fun!"

_ _ _

Down in the engine room, Persephone's voice, still faint, murmured in James' ear over the headset. "Anything that seems off, any hot spots or broken places, or anything caught in the drive. I hope it was just a minor asteroid impact and no real damage was done, but we just can't take the chance without a careful inspection! I'm so glad you were here, I don't know what I'd do if you were planetside today."

[Cyroa]

James was looking around for something, anything that was out of place. He'd been in here several times but that didn't mean he had a clue about what anything in here did. Still, he he did his best, checking everything he could see. "You'd manage to call me and I'd find a way up here to help. No worries," he said with a grin. He couldn't teleport himself up this far, but there were other options. He paused as something she said occurred to him. "Minor asteroid? With the armor and shields on here? That won't be minor. And no real damage? You said you had almost no power. How is that no real damage?" He was rather skeptical...

[Electra]

"I'm sorry James, " Penelope said contritely. "You look and act so much like the James I remember, I sometimes forget you don't have his intuitive understanding of the ship's functions. When the malfunction light went on, I immediately disabled the engine as a precaution. Continuing to try and tap energy from a malfunctioning engine only makes things worse, and I couldn't take the risk, especially with you and your friend on board! Having only three engines to power the entire ship and complete the orbital readjustment stretched power resources extremely thin! Now that I've finished the orbital burn, I have a little more power to play with."

Indeed, the servos around them were coming to life, very slowly, and some of the maintenance screens. "Oh, look over to your left!" Persephone exclaimed. "The malfunction light is around the second altiplanar junction. I've been meaning to overhaul that! Can you take the faceplate off the box so I can get a look at it?"

[Cyroa]

He frowned, knowing something was up. They were going to have a serious talk about this later. That and about keeping maintenance checks done early if that's all this really was. Still, he shrugged his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Just remember to fill me in on the details here. There's no manual for this baby after all," he said with a chuckle. "Yeah, I see it." He moved over and looked the plate over. It took him a second or two to figure out how open the thing up but it came off easily enough once he got the trick of it. He peered inside the panel. "Ok...now what?"

[Electra]

"Hmmm," Persephone murmured in his ear. "Oh, you'll be glad to know Wander just subdued the tigers, no problem. A mild sedative is all it took, and I'll put them in separate enclosures for a little while now. Let me take a look." There was a moment of quiet as the servos clicked and whirred in the background, then she crowed happily. "I found it! Look, right there, oh, well, you can't, but if you could see further along the electromagnetic spectrum you would see! The fourth juncture has become depolarized, and that's what caused the malfunction. If a hyperpolarized iron rich asteroid brushed us, that could easily have caused the disruption. It won't take me very long to fix it, but I'm glad I turned off the engine. If I hadn't, the other junctures could've failed as well, and we might have been looking at a major containment breach! Whew!"

[Cyroa]

James just listened patiently. He really had no idea what she was talking about. He could make a guess, in a vague way, but that wouldn't exactly fix anything. "Well, glad to hear she's taken care of them. I never doubted it for a second." He continued to stare at the open panel. "So...what do I need to do here? And how long till we get the ship back in perfect shape?"

[Electra]

"Just a moment, let me see if I can get a servo operating where you are." A moment later, a servo with a toolkit rolled up to the juncture box, moving much more slowly than the speedy little robots usually managed. It opened its kit and began working. Persephone's voice was even fainter in the headset now, but she sounded pleased. "It'll take another hour or so to get the repair finished and tested, but I'm rerouting power now from all nonessential areas. Things should look normal in just a few more minutes. Erin is still in the menagerie, if you would like to rejoin her, I can take it from here. Thank you so much for all your help!."

[Electra]

Upstairs, Erin continued her conversation with Persephone, even as James worked to solve the engine room crisis. "Things are really different here," she agreed. "James is my best friend, but we're not, you know, together. He doesn't think about me that way, he likes to go out with really beautiful girls, which, you know, makes a lot of sense. And... well, Trevor and I are sort of going out, but it's complicated. I'm not really ready to be dating anybody, so you can be pretty confident I'm not going to be playing anyone. I really like him, but, you know." She shrugged. "That other Wander and I are different, and so is James from Hell-Ion. He and I are good friends, and that's all."

[Cyroa]

James nodded, taking the rig of his head and hanging it back up. He turned and started heading towards the menagerie. "My pleasure. So we're on minimal power till then? No sensors or transporter or anything, right?" He took two steps and vanished, reappearing outside of the menagerie. He opened the door and walked inside. "Hey there. How's everything going up here? No problems I hope," he said with smile.