Aug 23 - Energy Readings
Title: Day 23 - Energy Readings
Author: acswatwst
Rating: FR-13
Crossover: BtVS / Ghost Busters (1975)/ Secrets of Isis
Word Count: 1,034
Disclaimer: This is a derivative work. All BtVS characters and concepts belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. Funimation/NBCUniversal owns the original (1975) Ghost Busters and Secrets of Isis. Stargate? I forget who owns that now but I certainly don't.
Note: Still not a Stargate crossover, yet. Just faint tracks. But some pretend science! Andrea Thomas may be Isis, but she's also a Scientist!
Summary: The detector detects something. People are concerned.
"It doesn't look like anyone has been here," Andrea said, examining the Spectral Investigations office door.
"How can you tell?" Rennie said, staring at the door.
"Magic," Andrea said, winking at her. Taking out a small pouch, she took out several slim tools and stuck them in the door lock. After several seconds of jiggling the door was unlocked and open.
"Are you going to teach us how to do that?" Joyce said. "I'm sure it's a skill every detective needs to know."
"I suspect your parents or Eddie wouldn't approve," Andrea said. "But I'm sure you can find a locksmith class at home if you can convince them."
"You're probably right," Joyce said, sighing. "Uncle Eddie might agree but my parents never would."
"We're not talking about where you learned to do that, Miss Thomas?" Rennie said.
"Do what?" Andrea said, raising an eyebrow.
"How about explaining how you knew no one had been here since we left?" Joyce said, changing the topic. She suspected lock picking was some Isis related skill her cousin had picked up, and they weren't going to get the story out of her, ever.
"I locked the door when we left the energy detector," Andrea said. "And I used a trick from an old detective novel. You place a hair in just the right place on the door. If it's gone, someone opened the door. Simple but effective."
"I'm now wondering what you did on that dig in Egypt besides dig for things in the sand," Joyce said.
"Nothing exciting," Andrea said, entering the office, and heading for the energy detector. Joyce snorted in disbelief.
Shaking her head, Rennie followed behind her, turning to Joyce once inside, "She likes being mysterious," Rennie said. "If you're here in the fall we have a betting pool, on more than when she's going to elope with Mr. Mason."
"We aren't eloping," Andrea said, not looking up from her detector. "You're just wasting your money."
"You have to show me the other things she's going to do," Joyce said, in a fake whisper. "We don't bet actual money on teachers doing things at my school but it can be lots of fun."
"Definitely, when we get back," Rennie said, grinning.
"What does it say?" Joyce said, leaning against the desk, as Andrea examined a slim strip of paper protruding from the detector.
"There have been several spikes of different types of energy in the past day," Andrea said. "I don't recognize all of their signatures. I'll have to check my reference books back at my apartment tonight."
"What about the ones you do recognize?" Rennie said. "Is it a ghost?"
Andrea spread the paper out on the desk. "This one is from a pressure wave," she said, pointing at a thick black line that looked like a wave.
"What would cause that?" Rennie asked. "Something spooky?"
"Usually a low vibration," Andrea said. "From something like an earthquake."
"So, there was an earthquake?" Joyce said. "Wouldn't we have heard that on the news last night or this morning?"
"Yes," Andrea said. "Unless it was too short to register in the usual places."
"Or wasn't actually an earthquake?" Rennie said.
"Yes, or wasn't an earthquake," Andrea said. She adjusted a dial on the detector. "I've reset it. Let's give it another day."
"Okay," Joyce said. "We don't really have anything, do we?"
"It will depend on what the other readings mean," Andrea said. "It isn't very precise yet. I'm still working on it." She looked at her watch. "We have to get going. I have an appointment in thirty minutes."
Rennie and Joyce nodded, taking one last look around the office.
"Can we see you do it?" Rennie said, once they were out in the hallway. "Your detective trick?"
"Please?" Joyce said.
Sighing, Andrea nodded. Plucking a hair from her head, she licked both ends, and placed it across the door frame and door at just below eye level.
"Can you see it?" she asked, stepping back.
"A hair stuck to the door?" Joyce said. She leaned forward. Even knowing where it was she almost missed it. "If I wasn't looking for it I would miss it."
Rennie squinted at the door, and nodded. "I'd miss it if I was busy opening the door. But if someone could walk through the wall, or door..."
"Like Isis," Joyce said.
"Like Isis," Rennie said, smiling at Joyce, "it wouldn't work."
"It does have some limitations," Andrea said. "Very well reasoned."
----
Later that evening, while nibbling on a slice of pizza, Joyce watched Andrea examining the slip of paper from the detector.
"What do you think?" Joyce said. "Is there something else there?"
"The detector is still early in the experimental stage," Andrea said. "While these could be some new form of energy, from a spirit or ghost," she pointed at two faint lines on the paper, "they aren't. I do recognize the type of energy."
Opening a thin, old book, she turned to an equation filled page, and pointed at a series of symbols and numbers. "This formula describes a type of energy associated with and appearance by one of the false gods. It's one of the types of energy I designed the detector to detect."
"I thought you said they'd all gone?" Joyce said, shivering. She didn't really know much about these false gods but they had to be really scary if they convinced people they were real.
"There have been reported rare encounters, over the centuries," Andrea said. "The author of this journal claimed to have run into one, though it must have been a long encounter for them to come up with this formula."
"So what are we going to do? If it's one of those false gods, isn't that more your thing than mine?" Joyce said.
"The detectives from Spectral Investigations are still missing," Andrea said. "I'll need to talk with someone tomorrow about this."
"Can I come with you?" Joyce said.
"If you do exactly as I say," Andrea said. "And don't wander off."
"I can do that," Joyce said. She looked at the pizza."Do you want the last piece?"
"No, you can have it," Andrea said, closing the journal.