a day in the life. sort of.

[to_be_caprican]

Who: Gaius Baltar et Toi
Where: Around and about, but specifically: the labs (closedish), the library, cafeteria (late at night), and then wherever your heart desires.
When: Probably spread out over more than just a day. Hazy vagueness go.
Warnings: Will update but probably nada

Comments

the labs. capa!

[to_be_caprican]

"Holy frak."

Is a rather understated reaction to what happens next. Sitting at a station in the laboratory, Gaius holds two pieces of his communicator in his hands, and really, taking the thing apart had been the bit of his little project that was to be the easiest part. But rather than see the innards of the device as expected, a skittering of hard candy spilling across the work bench followed, multicoloured and resembling, well, M&Ms. The casing is otherwise empty of anything, Gaius sitting frozen in some disbelief before setting the pieces back down.

Where no one else but Gaius can hear, there's delighted, feminine laughter, husky and genuinely amused. "I'm so glad you're enjoying yourself," Gaius tells thin air just across from him, his brow gone taut as if wrinkled with a drawstring. Tentatively, he starts to gather the little pieces of delicious candy into a pile on the bench, before ducking underneath to find any that's skittered off elsewhere. "You could at least help me look."

[to_be_caprican]

Reaction is obvious interest, if reserved - a computerised voice is not reinventing the wheel, but he's inclined to believe Capa, even measured up against Earth levels of technology. "I've written loads of theory and proposals on captain AIs. Getting permission for putting it into practice, though, not in my lifetime. No matter how many mock ups and risk assessments, there was always a naysayer."

Eye roll. As if he himself didn't witness the start of something terrible to justify such legal reserve.

It was more or a flash of light, anyway. Gone in a blink.

"You'd've thought the military would love something objective, backing up their decisions and implementing them faster than human hands, but the military's all full of egos and long memories. And-- frakking-- technophobes."

[ourlastbesthope]

"This was military made, believe it or not. Created to be put up in the Icarus, but it ended up getting more use from me and Cassie than anyone else." Cassie. He hadn't actually brought her up in a long time, but he breezed through the subject as if he didn't even care.

He couldn't. Not at this point. Replacing the comm around his neck, he leaned back.

"But that wasn't really supposed to be a scientific mission anyway. Purely military astronauts." With one or two exceptions.

[to_be_caprican]

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I didn't languish in lonely academia for very long," Gaius says, fingers twitching like his next compulsion would be to light a cigarette, but he knows better than to do so in a lab. When someone's around to see, anyway. "Whored myself to the Ministry of Defense until they'd have me, wound up overhauling the navigational system of the entire fleet. I'm actually famous, you know."

A brief smile, and then a look back to Icarus. "No, I imagine they'd have any sort of technology that isn't able to talk back to--" His posture is suddenly rigid, as if in response to something physical, for all that nothing clearly happens. Too much caffeine, maybe. "--to, er. To you."

[ourlastbesthope]

So bad at reading facial expressions, Capa was even worse at body language. He noted a change, but chalked it up to something he didn't get, which comprised a good part of his consciousness. He spent enough time trying to understand equations and numbers that he just had no more room left in his mind for anything he considered useless.

"You and me both, I suppose. But...we all have to do what we can. Whoring yourself out isn't glamorous, but...it's necessary. I wrote a paper when I was 17, discussing the possible uses of dark matter. Caught the attention of the government, who sold me to NASA. Developed the Stellar Bomb, waited for them to build it. I was too young to go on the first Icarus launch. When that disappeared, they sent another, and they wanted me on that one. As furniture." He stood up, finishing off the water and throwing it away.

"And now here I am." Furniture again. But he wasn't going to say that.

[to_be_caprican]

"I liked to exercise the ability to be in as few a space ships as possible. Difficult to do where I came from, but..."

He tips his head to let that thought trail away, before getting up with a bit of a start, more sudden and reluctant than Capa's casual rise and wander for the sink. "Well I should really get on, then," he says, all of the distraction in place of interest in the other scientist's career. The journal's casings are picked up and, a little awkward and after a little hesitation, the bowl of sugar and chocolate pebbles. "See if I can't get this sorted."

[ourlastbesthope]

Capa laughed softly at that and gave a quick nod. "I'm sure it was." He cast a quick look to the bowl of candy and then his chair was back under his own desk and he had his notes cradled close to him, where he could get to them easier.

"Let me know if you need any more help."