smartass_captain | Scientific Progress goes 'Boink'

"Well, there is some good news." Jim swipes his finger across the figure and it shifts back the way it was. There's a bunch more math showing up on both of their PADDs, also annotated. Jim owes Scotty a hell of a favor for this.

"We know what's happening. You've got a disruption of the net total energy of these parallel universes. The target universe is left with total net energy of 0 as it normally is. This makes the universe flat."

He points to a couple of the adjacent universes.

"By manipulating the total net energy of the universes on either side, whoever's wrecking shit is basically free to manipulate the shape of the neighbor universes however they want. Accurate enough to slam planets together with their counterpart planets, just to be that much of a dick." It would be one thing to smush universes together, but to go out of one's way to be such a huge asshole to line up parallel Earths across neighboring universes such that they smacked together?

That's pure asshole.

"The good news is, one of the universes is left with net 0 energy. It's left alone. It's the wall the neighboring planes are smashing into. Since your universe isn't ripping apart at the seams, Clint, you don't have to fuck with your world at all. We just have to figure out how to keep other universes out of your quantum everything. Which....would mean figuring out how to absorb or deflect borderline infinite amounts of energy."

Gee, sure would come in handy to have some of that Red Matter on hand now, wouldn't it Jim? Too bad it's crushed into a singularity with the rest of Nero's ship. Well fuck, it couldn't be easy, could it?

Verity is... mostly following along? The annotations help. It's still not great news.

"Or convert," she points out quietly. An oversight, surely, simply that Jim forgot to mention it and not that nobody thought of it. "Whatever's going to shield the universe is going to need an energy source, right?"

It would be an elegant solution, if it could work.

((Expanded. Sorry, was a long shift today, brain's a little fried.))

Clint has trouble following the math, but the general "universes are bending until they crash" explanation he can get. "That's a, wow, a hell of a thing. That was all in the stuff you got?"

He has no idea how to fight something like that, no idea what arrow to shoot at it (I have one skill, I'm damn well gonna use it). When Verity makes her suggestion, though, he blinks, then grins. "Verity, you're a genius!"

Edited 2015-09-26 02:13 (UTC)

"Yeah that would work too." Jim skips down to more annotations and nods at Verity's suggestion. He's pretty sure Scotty, Chekov, and he were talking about that at some point in the last thirty six hours of nonstop coffee and math.

Blink.

OKay, Jim's not a petty man, but he gets the most '1000% done with this shit' face and wanders back over to the wall computers. Giving the archer a smack on the back of the head along the way.

Friggin two days with no sleep, replicated coffee, and a hyperactive ensign chittering in Russian at you while your chief engineer makes borderline illegal math puns trying to stop the end of the universe, And Barton's impressed by the word 'conversion'.

Not that it's a bad idea, but this took some serious work here.

"We can get all of this converted back into data your devices will read, let asshole Skrull meat guy and your other best and brightest figure out how to implement everything we've done. And if this Reed guy pops an artery at someone out mathing him, I want it on video."

Technically cheating since future, but eh. Jim will take what he can get. All of this is directed at Verity quite pleasantly.

"Really not. But thanks." She was just going to point that out when Clint got smacked. Not that she blames Jim, but... Okay. Maybe it's a sibling thing. She's not sure if she should get involved.

"Thank you, Jim. This has all been so kind of you, and your crew, for dealing with your being so preoccupied. We'll have to find a way to thank everyone." Right, Clint? Now's the time to thank people.

"This must have taken a long time. When's the last time you slept?" This is probably not the kind of thanks Jim wants, but it's for his own good.

The smack startles a "d'ow!" out of Clint, but he recognizes the sentiment and agrees with Verity, "yeah. I absolutely owe you, all of you, huge for this."

"I just, what Verity said make me think of something, and you're gonna like it. The energy going into those universes, it's from the Beyonders, and Verity had the idea we could pull it out and use it for our shield thingie. Well, there's somebody who stole energy from a Beyonder before, and it's Reed Richards' biggest rival." He grins for a moment, then drops the grin as he admits, "and also the despotic tyrant of a tiny European country, but I thought you'd find it funny, Reed having to reverse-engineer his worst enemy's old stuff to fix what he couldn't."

Cheating is totally valid to save the world/universe. Clint once tricked Grandmaster out of enslaving Earth with what amounted to a double-or-nothin' bet on a rigged carnival game. Captain America was shocked.

"It's fine." Jim shrugs. There, recognition is all he really wanted. Jim never pretended he wasn't egotistical. He totally is. Have you met him? Jim Kirk.

Ladies.

Okay wow he needs sleep. There are no ladies here other than Verity and she is only attracted to gods of lies and police officers with no sense of humor. Speaking of sleep...

"Uh..." What day was today? He'd done two alpha shifts plus the work and--"Two days? Maybe? It starts to run together after a while. I've been awake longer." So that's why he's happily drinking the replicated coffee. He has no sense of taste anymore. He can probably feel his eyeballs rallying a mutiny.

"...Oh man. I almost wish i could be there to see his face." Jim pauses. Grins and oh man, that can't be good. "Tell him a relative solved it."

Hey! She's also attracted to that Steve Rodgers who took her on a date then didn't call. Or she was until the not-calling happened.

But he's right in that she doesn't count as a lady in his book.

"Tell him your alternate-future many-times-great grandson solved it. It will not be the weirdest thing he's heard all day." Otherwise, Barney will get all the credit, and nobody wants that. Nobody.

"I'd say we should get going because Jim needs to sleep, but I'm guessing he's not going to sleep without encouragement, so. Jim. What'll it be?" She's raised an eyebrow at you Jim DO NOT MESS WITH THE EYEBROW.

Clint cackles at that idea--there's no other word for it, he just laughs like a wicked madman for a moment. The idea of Reed having to deal with the thought that one of Clint's relatives did all this... it's too perfect. Also, they've all been under a lot of stress.

"That's perfect, that's absolutely perfect. This is gonna be so great, you will definitely get pictures." But Verity raises a good point. "And sleep. Time to put the coffee down, bro."

That's not fair though. Everyone is attracted to Steve Rogers. Even if only a little bit.

It's the Vulcan eyebrow technique. Jim does not have enough coffee reserves to mount a defense. So he opts for distraction.

"Sure, but a promise is a promise. I've got some other good news for you guys. Follow me." Jim does set the coffee down. It's really no difficulty there. He'll lead them out of the prep room and back to the turbolifts. This time to a much quieter part of the ship.

The observation deck is something of a hang out for Captain Kirk, whenever he gets the time. He doesn't have any smart mouth introductions, any quippy statements. He just leads them inside and dims the lights so they can see the space all around them.

Edited 2015-09-26 04:51 (UTC)

This is true. And how could Verity not be attracted to someone so fundamentally honest?

She's familiar with the technique, having been on both sides of it before. So although her eyes are narrowed, she'll allow it. For now. But this doesn't mean she's forgotten.

The view might mean she's forgotten. "Oh, Jim. It's so beautiful. Where are we?" Verity's up as close to a window as she can get, staring out into space with as close to childlike wonder as she's ever managed in her life. Nobody mess this up for her, please.

Clint's not going to spoil it by being more dignified than Verity, that's for sure. He's right up against the glass, too, trying to see it all, with an appreciative, "woooooow!"

Them Iowa boys sure is eloquent, mm-hm.

"There was a transmission that originated somewhere around here. Spock's doing some scans with Uhura to try and pinpoint the disturbance. We were heading toward Makus III with a shipment of medical supplies picked up at the last StarBase we were sent to."

The one where they got into that nifty bar fight even. But that wasn't IN the StarBase, Jim would have been recognized there. Which isn't always a bad thing.

"Either it's an anomaly in the radiation coming from one of the nebula nearby, or there's something out here. Either way I figured it wouldn't take long to drop out of warp and let them poke around. PLus it means I can show you guys this."

That doesn't really answer her question, and she has no idea where Makus Anything is anyway, but whatever. It's so pretty. She does shift her attention away from he view to focus on Jim's reflection in the window.

"Look at you, planning things like a real grown-up," she remarks with a smirk. "You might just convince me you really are a captain at this rate." She's only teasing, but Jim doesn't need his ego inflated any further.

"How long until you're due to deliver the medical supplies?"

Clint, too, wonders about the medical supplies, but since Verity asked, he doesn't want to bust Jim's chops by compounding it. "It's an amazing view. You get something like this out your window every morning?"

"Scheduled delivery. Non-emergency and we were ahead of schedule anyway." Quoting stardates at them won't mean anything so he doesn't bother. Spock had assured him it wouldn't take long. And if they didn't find anything before they needed to head out? Oh well. There's the entire rest of the galaxy to poke around in.

"Not due for another several weeks, but our last mission ended up taking a lot less time than we'd planned." Not because Jim hadn't been there to summon trouble. "The initial readings from the planet had been incorrect, and there just wasn't a lot to see or do. A few geological readings, and away we went."

"Not every morning." Jim smiles though. He loves it. "While we're in warp there really isn't much to see."

"Ah. Well, that's good." She doesn't really understand the appeal of poking at mystery planets, so she'll let it go in favor of drinking in the view for another minute before turning to Jim. "Plenty of time for you to catch up on your sleep."

Somebody has to be the adult in the room. #sorrynotsorry

"Still, a view like that! No wonder you can wake up to such bad coffee." He grins, teasing about the coffee.

"Wouldn't trade it for the world." It's the adventure, the thrill of the unknown. And admittedly the chance to see something no one's ever seen before. The company makes it all the better most days.

A crew like a family. A real life family member via the Nexus. Jim considers himself pretty lucky, now. He turns toward Clint and Verity at length.

"You...you think you'll be able to fix your world with that?" Jim knows there isn't a guarantee. Know's he's only solved the question of what the problem is, not how to fix it. "If...I mean. If you can't...you can always come here. I mean it." Both of them could. Wouldn't be the first Starfleet regulation he'd bent in his favor.

Won't be the last.

"...I hope you can, though."

Being shut out of the conversation, Verity looks away, trying to give them some privacy. The sudden wave of envy she's feeling doesn't help. They're a real and proper family and she...

Well, she has a grumpy old Mobian who may have only taken her in to try and soften her up so she agrees to that dangerous contract he's offered, and a maybe-boyfriend who gets so upset when she tries to talk to him about what's happening that she ends up having to comfort him.

It's still more than she deserves. She knows she should be grateful.

"I think we've got a shot," Clint answers. "And I hope I don't need it, but thanks."

Clint sees Verity turn away, and puts a hand on her shoulder. "And thank you, Verity. This never would've happened without you. If you ever wanna, y'know, live in the world of two years ago... offer's there. Y'got friends."

Jim doesn't understand why she turned away. Was she still mad at him? Aside from the obvious. Who wants to be family with Jim Kirk, after all.

Nobody.

He tries one more time, licking at his bottom lip nervously before he takes a step her way.

"I meant you, too, Ver. The three of us. Course, bein' a big sister figure to these two idiots is a shit job, but. You been doing good so far." He tries to play it off. It's no big deal if she's still upset. If she doesn't want it. Well it is, but its a good thing he didn't say that and lie through his teeth then.

What he does say, even though it sounds like a joke...isn't.

Shockingly, Jim, not everything's about you. She has plenty of other things to be upset about.

Verity looks over when Clint's hand approaches her shoulder, and he gets a little smile. The last thing any world needs is two of her, but it's a sweet offer. "Thank you."

Then she shifts her attention to Jim, so yes, now it gets to be all about him. She was not expecting that. And now she's crying. Happy crying, and only a little, but give her a sec to calm down.

BTW that smile means yes she wants it you idiots.

Have a hug, Verity. No one minds if you're happy-crying in a hug. And hey, open arm--come get in on this, Jim. Let's family it up as much as we can in the absence of a grill.

Oh dear, she's crying. Jim doesn't know how to deal with that. Verity would not appreciate his go-to solution to women crying. It seems to be happy-crying though? He smiles and nods to show he means it.

Oh thank god Clint's hugging her and calming her down. That's probably what he should have been doing rather than standing there like a twat. Why's he flailing an arm like that Clint wtf are you doi--yoinked!

Oh. Like a real family.

Okay, everyone gets hugs then. Jim can do hugs. The rest they can teach each other, since literally no one in this trio is a shining paragon of functional family experience.

Carl Sagan is my spirit animal

Mine's a honeybadger.

I got a rock. No, wait, a fox (it wandered off for a while).

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http://tinyurl.com/o2ouqxv

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What sexual position says 'I'm sorry for your loss?'