Project Moongate

Thomas sat, leaning against the wall as he waited for the journey to fnally be over. From time to time, he would play with his robotic monkey, but even that slight diversion felt old after eleven days of seclusion. He needed to tinker, to build and create. It was what he was good at, and every cell of his body screamed at him to do it. But looking around the bleak inside of the shuttle, he knew he would have to wait a little longer. He was used to working on his own, but the keyword there was work. He briefly considered taking a nap, but quickly discarded the idea, as he felt as though even his dreams would serve to bore him. He glanced around for some new distraction, looking at each of the people in turn. After days of seeing them, they served to barely distract him anymore. Their expressions seemed to mirror his own boredom, and he sighed, noting nothing to break the tension and boredom.

Alex and his ... Social representative are staying in a slightly out of the way corner, waiting to get to the station. Alex was gleefully technobabbling as he theorized about the stations current gravity tech. For her part, Elain was doing her best to look interested.

Kasey glanced out the window, and sighed. "So... Bored.." she muttered to herself. For the thirteenth time in the past half hour, she stood up, walking over to where her equipment was and carefully- very carefully- checked it over, fiddling with each and every piece to make sure everything was working.
Once she assured herself that yes, everything was working, and no, she didn't need to ask someone else to come take a look, she sighed again, and for the twentieth time, rearranged everything. Only when she was sure there was nothing else she could do did she return to her seat, staring blankly out the window.

Thomas chuckles at Kasey's antics, thinking how foolish this person was. Sensitivity or not, after the first few times checking, she should know that there had been no turbulence to disturb their calibration, and none of the other passengers had been foolish enough to go near her equipment. He bated all this mother henning people did over their projects. He understood being nervous, but to him it was the definition of insanity. He built his projects to last, not to have random particles carried by the ship's oxygen supply units disrupt it. And after fourteen days, it was unlikely that they had. This strange person was a probable annoyance, and should be watched in the future. He just hoped she was not in a supervisory role, otherwise, the joy he.would take out of advanced scientific theory and design would be quicly spoiler by the constant interruption from this bundle of nerves. He snorted at her, taking out some paper he kept in his pocket, he sketched out technical designs. Ordinarily, he could simple picture them before his eyes, but he chose not to now for two reasons: the flight had left him bored, and thus might lead to mistakes, and he knew that his supervisors would wish to see his designs, so this was good practice for the future.

Alex would have happily continued his technobabble to poor Elain, had she not reminded him that he absolutely must meet the others. No, not later, now! She all but dragged him over towards Thomas. "Hello! I am Elain, and this is Alex and I'm sure he'll be very glad to meet you!" She says, almost disappearing immediately afterwards. Alex, for his part, smiles nervously. "Ah... Hello!" He says, glancing around.

"Hello," Thomas states simply. He had, of course, been listening to the technobabble. Anyone in his position would have. Taking Alex in at a single glance, he realized this was someone who preferred his isolation. The nudging of his... assistant seemed to serve as further evidence of this fact. Thomas approved. People who spent too much time dealing with others rarely dealt with the more important things, such as scientific research. While he had attended Oxford, Thomas had encountered individuals akin to Alex, though clearly to a lesser degree. He had worked with them in some of the numerous group projects there, including his power cell projects, which had granted his group the school's Distinguished Science Award. Smiling in a friendly manner toward the gentleman, he leaned forward. ?You know, you don't have to talk if you prefer not to, Mate. I'm fine either way." As he had stated this, Bubbles was investigating this new individual, the lenses of his eyes focusing upon this intruder.

"A-act-oh! No no no, I h-h-need to. Elain says it is good for my s-s-social mental health and that's w-what I h-h-p-pay her for! Let me introduce myself properly. My name is Alex. I'm an Gravitational Electrobiomagnetic Manipulation Engineer." He talks fast and stuttery some of the time, unable to pick a word and changing his mind partway, other times slower and more deliberate, as if he's picking every single word out of some unseen list. "Oh, what a-a-an interesting mechanical creature!" He says, looking down at Bubbles. "I used to try and m-m-create robots. It didn't work well."

Kasey looked up, and managed a small smile, standing and walking over. "I'm Kasey, hello. I'm a biologist, so I don't really do robots, but they're rather fascinating." She doesn't seem to realize that she's babbling a little, though at least she manages to stop. "It's nice to meet the both of you."

Thomas kept a blank expression upon his face, blinking and watching the both of them. Meanwhile, Bubbles' eyes lenses move in different direction, one focusing upon each of them. "Bubbles, no. I apologize, he is attempting to break into your personnel and academic records to determine who you are. He processes information in different ways than we do." He states this matter of factly, as though the idea of a robotic personality and way of thinking is everyday for him. Of course, this was completely true, as he worked upon the programming, neural processes and mechanical setup nearly everyday. He loved working upon Bubbles, and he continued to make great strides in the pursuit of his goal to give Bubbles a full range of emotions. However, his mind should be focused upon the newcomers. He frowns slightly as Kasey continued to babble, and he hoped once again that this individual had nothing to do with his work. He needed no distractions, particularly not absentminded women. Thomas had never really dealt with women. To him, people were either intellectuals or not, and to his way of thinking, that was important, and not the mental foolishness of love brought on by an overabundance of chemicals. As for the other individual, he was conflicted. While he seemed like a brilliant individual, and Bubbles would tell him later if his hunch had been correct, the fact that he seemed highly incapable of the basest sentences. Further research was needed. "I am Doctor Thomas Abernathy. Is there something I can do for you?" He laid a certain stress ulon

Alex turns one of the ear covers he wears, and a bright green line of light reaches back to where he had been babbling earlier, grabbing a notebook. "Perhaps you could help me! I have been m-ma-working on automated f-f-designs for my gravitational manipulators. Automation though, isn't my sp-spe-forte." He says, as the light hands the notebook to Thomas.

"Do you need assistance with the mechanical or mathematical aspects of your design?" Thomas asks, pulling out a battered, leatherbound book, opening it to a blank page. The book itself was a simple drawing book, filled with pages of technical designs and mathematical theories. One page was devoted to a VERY detailed anatomical drawing, showing areas of improvement using technical and genetic evidence to back it up. Thomas had dual majored in Electrical Engineering and Medicine, minoring in biomedical and biotechnology. He threw himself into the problem, the boredom melting away in an instant. Thomas now had a huge grin on his face, as he quickly pulls out a pencil. "Gravitational manipulation? Worked with someone who did these kinds of things in Cern. Picked some of it up. Let's see what we can do here."

So far, Garrit's kept to himself for the entire trip, and he doubts that anyone's even noticed him yet. 'Heh... not like I'm not used to it or anything, he thinks, as he sits with his cubs on the opposite side of the vessel, with his falcon perched on top of his luggage. While he looks completely entranced by his pets, Garrit had really been observing the entire ship, and had already taken it apart and put it back together again about twenty times so far in his mind, and was almost done with the twenty-first time.

"Mathematical. I-I- believe that some formulas could be f-f-smoothed out here and here. I-I'm not sure as to how to make it happen though." He seems to be doing better with words the closer to his work, as he points out lines of coding, mathematical expressions, and some very unusual passages that seem to actually be written in binary. Having seen some other grav work, Thomas may realize exactly just how good Alex actually is. His control of the grav field is beyond some of the best.

"Interesting. Very interesting. I must say, you are quite gifted. This is not my specialty, but I will do my best. Quite a lot more complex than what I studied at Cerne. Now, let us see..." Thomas' accent gets a little thicker, slightly different from his usual cold manner. He scribbled out some of Alex's notation, frowning a little. His brow furrows as he suddenly stops writing. The equations fly up in front of his eyes, and he grunts as certainer portions glow before his eyes. He transfers the new portions into his notebook, pursing his lips as he adds a little more to his initial modifications. He mutters to himself as he writes in a flowing handwriting. His math, while not entirely perfect, is surprisingly accurate, given this is nowhere near his own field. He was a an excellent engineer, but his mathematic skills were his best trait. All in all, the math notations would provide an excellent base from which to solve the rest.

"About all I am capable of. This is not my field. However, hopefully it helps," he says, his earlier standoffish demeanor reasserting itself.

Alex's eyes brighten as he reads over Thomas's work. "Yes, yes, this will work perfectly!" The green line splits, spreading back to grab a pencil, which Alex uses to copy Thomas's notations. "Thank you." He says, smiling a real smile for the first time.

After finishing rebuilding the ship in his mind one last time, Garrit reaches into his vest, and pulls out his gun, taking it apart and readjusting the wiring, making sure that it was still in pristine condition after spending so long in a low gravity zone. The inner chamber of the barrel begins to glow, the power source on the side of the gun lighting up. He aims it carefully, and then powers it off, not wanting to waste it's power, after all, he only had 4 more fuel cells. ((If you're wondering what it looks like, look up the Tesla from Warehouse 13 that's kinda what it looks like.))

"Of course. We are colleagues. Did you wish me to tear up my copy? Many of us prefer to keep only individual records and designs."

"Not really important to me. Feel free to keep it." Alex says, quite suddenly lost in thought. The line is now scribbling advanced biological theories and electromagetic relationships into the notebook.

Thomas glances at the biological theories for a moment, frowning as he considered the theories, brow furrowed as he moves his head from side to side. Shrugging, he turns back to his own work, rapidly writing in neat handwriting certain... improvements to the human body, grunting as he begins diagramming an advanced moleculer-technical combination. The diagram is highly complex, combining advanced anatomical information and chemical composition with miniature power cells that anyone with knowledge of patents and innovations would know that they had not been invented yet. Written to the side, was a serious set of calculations relating to power output. The only problem was, the calculations were theoretically impossible in terms of the output and the capacity of the power cells.

The female guard glances out the window, then speaks up, her voice professional. "Everyone return to your seats and buckle your seat belts. Any pets who are loose need to be returned to their cages now. We'll be landing soon."

Bubbles the monkey glares at the obviously mean lady for a moment, a defiant gleam in his eye. Looking towards Thomas, he is greeted by his longtime friend slowly shaking his head, frowning at the possible havoc the actions of Bubbles could cause. Glancing around, Bubbles scuttles up the mean lady, before running along the walls back to his cage.

In the meantime, Thomas puts away his notebook, seeming to relax a little as he fastens the security belt around him. A sharp observer would notice a slight flash from a metallic object buried deep into one of Thomas' pockets, which he covers up quickly, making the motion look natural. Frowning, Thomas takes a look around to determine whether anyone saw it.

Alex is busy writing, and anyone paying attention will notice silver circles embedded in his palms.

Garrit's falcon returns to it's rather large cage, that is also hanging from the ceiling, and his cubs remain laying, as they don't have a cage.

Thomas grunts a little in the silence, pulling up a new project in front of his eyes, he scans it for a moment, looking for any flaws within the structure, the equations or the energy sources. Mentally shrugging, he pushes it back into the corner of his mind that stores such things, and frowns for a moment, contemplating what his next project will be. A normal person would consider their duties within the colony, but not Thomas. No matter what they have him do, he feels confident he can always make time for himself and his projects. Buried in the back of his mind is his main reason for agreeing to come work there. He was not interested in the latest technology, feeling as though he could build it himself. No, his reason for coming was to help get something away from the prying eyes of Earth, and to keep it safe. As much as he felt excitement at the thought of the new challenges that would be brought up in his work environment, he knew that had to be his first priority. Glancing around the room, he fakes a yawn, studying the appearance and character of each individual, and making a mental note to have Bubbles check further into their records later. He knew his monkey had already done a surface glance, but if he was to sleep at al, he needed to know who precisely was working with him.