Candidate Theories of Quantum Gravity

[redfive_exe]

Who: Dairine and Wesley
What: The bitterest rivals
When: Sat, 20th. Afternoon
Where: The Library (really now. ^^ again)
Rating: A for Arrogant
Status: Closed/Incomplete

Comments

[shut_up_wesley]

"Wahh, I swear I'm never fall asleep on duty again, Commander Riker!" Wesley blurted as the sound ripped him from unconsciousness. His head shot up, toppling the tome he'd had in his hand (Theoretical Physics in Illustration and Application) and subsequently been using for a pillow. Already on the floor was a ream of notes he'd been taking--mostly about what advancements had been made since the book was written and how certain things were just dead wrong.

He turned to see the girl leaning over him, looking rather livid and stammered a moment before finally managing.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep--" his eyes caught the title on the cover of the book and his stomach did a bellyflop. That was what he really needed. "Um, will you be using that to wake up anyone else?" He asked doing his best to stifle a yawn. If he wanted to prove to himself that his dream the week before was in fact real, he needed to get back to his own time, and wormholes were generally a good place to start when trying to warp timespace.

[redfive_exe]

Honestly, she'd been too flustered and wrapped up in her frustration to see what he'd been working on. But if she had (and she undoubtedly would) she might have been impressed.

Might.

At the moment, however, Dairine scowled and hugged her own book tight against her chest, protectively.

"Yeah, well, this is a library, not a hotel. So get out of my -- what are you doing?" Dairine knelt to pick up sheets of paper, constantly prying. "This is -- " She cocked her head to the side, looking over his notes. "But you're just a kid!" Older than her, but Dairine was a wizard. They made exceptions for that sort of thing.

[shut_up_wesley]

Wesley wished he could say it had been a long time since he heard that phrase. It seemed to haunt him wherever he went. He glared back at the girl, swiftly collecting his notes and standing, perhaps to emphasize that he had quite a few inches on her.

"And? If you're reading that and understanding it; not just slamming it in people's faces I could say the same to you. Who are you anyway?" She wasn't wearing a staff badge but she sure acted like she worked there.

[redfive_exe]

"Hey, shut up, this is totally legitimate reading material! Why would I have it if I couldn't read it?"

Dairine was more than convinced she understood the intricacies of wormholes and inter-systemic gates better than most people in this parallel Earth. But half-crouched on the floor, flipping through the boy's notes, Dairine found herself floored. It wasn't wizardry, exactly, but a pure science far from accessible in this day and age.

So either he was from the future, or --

Dairine looked up sharply, half-interrupting his question. "Are you on errantry?"

[shut_up_wesley]

"To terrify anyone who falls asle--excuse me?" And all of a sudden Wesley was aware, at least perpherially, that the girl was speaking another language. The way her tone and body language changed was something he recognized from Starfleet. The problem was he wasn't sure he understood.

"What do you mean?" He asked, his voice going a little lower than it was before. "Are you?"

[redfive_exe]

For a brief moment, her heart leaped into her throat. He was, he was, he had to be! And for that moment, Dairine allowed herself wide-eyed, almost childish excitement. "Not -- no, I don't think I am. But if you know what I'm talking about..." Her mouth split into an enthusiastic grin, all teeth and pinkish lips.

"Then that's really great news."

If he'd come from her particular world, maybe he knew what it was that had taken them. Maybe he'd heard from Nita and Kit. Maybe -- !

"So you're a wizard too?"

[shut_up_wesley]

Her enthusiasm was so sudden that Wesley felt some of it himself; he couldn't help it. She was also quite pretty when she smiled like that.

But at 'wizard' he frowned, more disappointed that he had to dash what was apparently an incredible surge of hope on the girl's part.

"I...no, I'm not, sorry. I'm just a warp drive engineer." He had to give that a moment to sink in with the girl before-- "Wait, did you say wizard?"

Wesley had encountered a lot that had seemed like magic in his journeys, of course, and the girl looked human enough but then, so had Seleah...

[redfive_exe]

"Oh." Slowly, her expression collapsed, all that glee fading into muted displeasure. She sat down fully on the floor, her legs crossed in front of her as she shuffled through Wesley's notes. "Well, better than nothing I guess..." Obviously, he was smart. Almost as smart as me. Almost. So she thought.

He managed to catch her attention again, with that question, dragging her up from sullenness. "Yup. Dairine Callhan. Wizard." She extended a hand up to him, juggling books and notes in the crook of her other arm. "And you're a what-now?"

[shut_up_wesley]

It was like watching a balloon deflate, the way her face seemed to drain and crumple in dismay. It made Wesley a little uncomfortable to be honest...but at least he had her name.

"Wesley Crusher," he said, taking her hand and squatting on the floor across from her. "And I'm...I'm not sure this is going to make any sense, but I'm from the 24th century. I'm, well I was an ensign aboard the flagship of the United Federation of Planets, the Enterprise." He took some of his notes back and started to re-arrange them, again, giving Dariene time to process the information. Nevermind it was already the most surreal conversation he'd ever had in his life. But if she could help him...

[redfive_exe]

"Mm." Dairine shrugged and wrinkled up one corner of her mouth. She did hand back his notes to free her hands, animated as she spoke. "Nah, it pretty much makes sense. You'll meet weirder people around here. I know there's people from medieval times and stuff. Dead people too -- oh but not like...zombified dead. More like, died and woke up here, dead. It's such a trip."

Remembering the book in her hands, Dairine suddenly moved about, searching for it. "Oh, you said warp something, right? That's why you want this?" Dairine offered him the book with a half-grin.

[shut_up_wesley]

Well, that all but confirmed his original hypothesis regarding the nature of where he'd ended up. Regardless, all he seemed capable of saying was a mildly breathless, "Woah." Shaking his head a little, he filed everything she said away while taking the book from her and returning the small smile.

"Yeah, warp drive, are you familiar with the theory at all?" Wesley asked, starting to browse the book for relevant chapters, forgetting for a moment that sub-space hadn't even been discovered yet so why would it have a chapter on subspace and pocket dimensions? With a huff Wes closed it and put it aside. "Why should you be?" He muttered him himself frustratedly. "Magic isn't going to get me back to Captain Picard..." And if his nightmare had been real...

Swallowing hard, Wes pressed his lips together and ran a hand over his face. He was not about to get emotional in front of a girl.

[redfive_exe]

"The theory." Dairine moved her hand through the air before them as she spoke in a wobbly "sort of" gesture. Most of her knowledge came from watching 60's science fiction TV shows. Mapping transits through spells required a basic knowledge of the physics -- at least the applications of it. While it wasn't Dairine's area of expertise, she found reading about it absolutely fascinating.

And maybe she was starting to warm up to Wesley --! Until, well, the quip about magic being unhelpful. It turned the grinning Dairine into (once again) a scowling mess.

"Hey! Watch it! I probably know more about this stuff than you think." She gave him a little shove. "You'd be surprised at how effectively a long-range subsidized transit will take you if you've got the right coordinates!"

[shut_up_wesley]

"Alright," Wesley said a little curtly, needing somewhere to direct the unexpected swell of emotion the nightmare brought about. "Then explain to me how I'm supposed to generate enough power to bend timespace around a single point to open a wormhole that might have the right degree of temporal distortion to get me over five-hundred years from here." He laid out his notes and opened the physics book he'd dropped ealier.

"Nothing in this era can create that kind of energy. They're centuries from discovering, let along figuring out of to mine and extract dilithium. It can't be done."

[redfive_exe]

Dairine puffed up with a stoic expression and a frustrated, grayish gleam in her eye. She didn't do well to being challenged, especially by haughty boys that thought they were better than her. It reminded her somewhat of the experience with Roshaun, the "exchange student" from the program her sister entered a few years back.

"Well obviously you'd have to skew the time continuum maximal so that the transit won't create a paradox. That's your main problem, not the power generation if you can tie the lateral end of the transit into a geothermal or some kind of subsidized solar source." She'd gotten to her feet and paced slowly as she worked out the figures in her head, ticking off the main points on each finger.

[shut_up_wesley]

For a very, very long moment, Wesley listened, his jaw unhinging a little every second until he was nearly gapping.

'How does she know...? No...it's not possible.'

"You aren't human." He said, although not very loudly because coming from someone of her supposed era the concepts she was addressing were close to sacred. "How do you know those words?" Wesley was at the same time thrilled and terrified--it sounded like it could work if he could only work out how she planned to do it without use of a warp drive engine or a ship to carry them through.

[redfive_exe]

"Hey." Dairine stopped and turned to face him, her hands perched on her hips and head lilting lightly sideways. "Some people find that kind of thing offensive. I told you, I'm a wizard. Wiz-ard. Just because it sounds kind of funny doesn't mean we're all robe-wearing, wand-toting bearded people."

Dairine was habitually defensive, and maybe to a fault, but she was tired of being underestimated. She was talented! Maybe her power levels weren't near what they used to be when she first completed her Ordeal. And maybe the comment about her humanity made her pale a little bit more than normal (dreams were just dreams, she had to convince herself.) But Dairine was smart, strong, and capable, and wasn't about to be undermined by some kid.