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Post by oliverpratt on Jun 13, 2010 12:39:56 GMT -5
"No...that doesn't lead..." A small laugh came out of Oliver Pratt's mouth. He had been scanning the remnants of Central avenue for the last ten minutes and the flux trails were stranger than anything he had ever seen. The micro particles were scattered in differnet directions, but didn't lead to a central opening. It was as if the flux randomly appeared...then randomly...disappeared? It wasn't adding up in his mind. But that wasn't going to stomp on his day. He was going to figure it out eventually. He would just scan and chill, scan and...
Well this is different.
There was a gleaming...well, it looked like a liquid. Almost like mercury, but the scanner couldn't identify it. He had never seen it before...
Hmph.
He opened up a comm channel and spoke:
"Hey, can another officer come over here? I got something for you."
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Post by karen1 on Jun 13, 2010 13:51:26 GMT -5
Mei tied her long hair back in her usual bun and pulled on her white lab coat. It wasn't exactly mandatory, but she found it made her feel more comfortable when she worked than if she just wore her street-clohes. She was about to leave the room when the comm bleeped and Oliver Pratt came on over the line. He requested for another officer to come and see whatever it was he'd found.
She linked the comm to the channel he'd used and waited for the click that let her know it had connected. "I'm on my way," she informed him. Mei then flicked off the light and made her way off the Venia. It didn't take her long to find the scanning site once she was on the ground, and she picked her way over to where Oliver was. "What did you find?" she asked curiously, stopping behind him.
She knew he'd been observing the rift that had occured here on Delta Prime, and she leaned over his shoulder to see what the scanner had picked up. She narrowed her eyes as she spotted an unusual gleaming substance, and she assumed that this must be what Oliver had found. It appeared to be some kind of liquid, similar to mercury, but not. Mei frowned, straightening up.
"What do you think it is?" she asked. He may not know for sure, as the scanner didn't, but he might have a theory of some description. "I don't recall ever seeingn anything like it before, do you?" |
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Post by oliverpratt on Jun 14, 2010 14:01:21 GMT -5
Oliver shrugged, saying:
"I'm on board with you, Mei. Might as well collect a sample to see what we can do with it." He withdrew a small, clear vial from his pocket and knelt down next to the liquid, pressing a button that protruded out of the bottom of the vial. In less than a few moments, the liquid was vacuumed into the vial and a seal slipped over the top. He loved technology. As he got back up from his kneeling position, he asked
"You found anything else?"
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Post by karen1 on Jun 15, 2010 21:51:34 GMT -5
Mei shook her head and bit her lip, leaning in to look at the console before her. Something had to cause the rift, and whatever it was had left a liquidy substance that they had yet to name. What could do something like that? Nothing immediately sprung to mind. She sighed and studied the console more closely, her face only inches from it.
"Where do you think the source of the rift is? Below ground, above, land-level...?"
Maybe naming the source could help them figure out the reason for the rift. It wasn't likely, but if they could just narrow it down, then maybe... Mei sighed again and glanced over at Oliver, straightening up and traipsing over to carefully take the vial from him. She knew he was the Chief Science Officer, but that didn't mean she couldn't help. After a long moment of examing the strange liquid, she looked at Oliver again and held the vial up.
"You want me to run some tests on this?" she inquired. She then added hastily, so as not to insult her senior officer, "Once we have an idea of its composition we can work together on finding out what it actually is." |
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Post by oliverpratt on Jun 17, 2010 11:22:25 GMT -5
Oliver smiled, saying:
"Yeah, run the tests. See what we can do with it." He turned his attention back down to the ground. Mei had introduced an interesting idea. Witnesses had said the rift came from the end of the street...which is where he was standing. But it wouldn't have been possible for people to actually SEE something like that. They must have only been able to see the chaos that ensued...
"Hey..Mei. Could you get me witness statements?" Oliver really hadn't worked with Mei very long, but he knew he could trust her. Why else would she be on the team in the first place? Didn't hurt she was easy on the eyes either.
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Post by karen1 on Jun 20, 2010 10:19:20 GMT -5
In lieu of answering Oliver with words, Mei smiled and slid the vial into his hand before slipping her lab coat off. "I'll be ten minutes at the most," she told him, "You can start testing that while I'm gone."
With that she turned and picked her way over to the swarm of harried and frightened people. She liked Oliver, she decided as she searched the crowd for a likely witness. He was smart and all in all quite attractive. He was also four years younger than her, but Mei didn't mind. His age didn't stop him from being good at his job. She quickly brought her thoughts around to the task at hand and tried to talk with several people, but they were all too panicked to speak. No one paid her much attention, if any, and one man actually pushed her so hard that she fell to the ground.
It was as she was getting up that her eyes fell on a little girl, no more that seven or eight, who was cowering against the wall of one of the still standing buildings. Mei made her way over to the girl and crouched down next to her.
"Hey there, sweetie," she said kindly, brushing some of the rubble from the girl's hair. "What's your name?"
The little girl's lips quivered, like she was about to cry, but when she spoke her voice, though shaking, was fairly strong. "My name is C-Carly," she stammered nervously.
Mei smiled reassuringly. "It's nice to meet you, Carly. My name is Mei. Tell me, did you see what happened here?"
Carly nodded, hugging herself and shying closer to Mei instinctively. "Mommy and I were on our way home. Then the ground started shaking. Mommy told me to stay close, and I tried to, but then the ground broke and I couldn't see her anymore. I tried to find her, but I fell over and I was too scared to get back up until the ground stopped moving again. I don't know where Mommy is."
Mei bit her lip, her heart going out to Carly. Hopefully her mother was all right and hadn't been swallows by the rift. She then analized the little girl's statement. If the ground had been shaking first, then it probably started below ground. "Carly, where did the ground split?" she asked, wondering if she'd been near the starting point.
"O-over there," Carly told her, pointing a little ways down the street from where they were.
"Thank you, Carly," Mei said, helping the little girl to her feet. "How about you go over there, and those nice people in the blue coats will take care of you until they find your mother." Carly nodded and ran off, and once she was sure she was safe Mei waved to catch Oliver's attention and pointed in the same direction Carly had, signalling that he should meet her there. |
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Post by oliverpratt on Jun 21, 2010 13:05:29 GMT -5
Oliver hadn't noticed the wave initially, too wrapped up in his own observations. The liquid, at first glance, didn't seem very active, but he had a strange feeling when he had looked at it...had he seen it before? Possibly. He felt a tap on his shoulder, Oliver turning around slowly(as he always did) to find a young man dressed in blue. Police force probably.
"Sir, we have to ask you to leave."
"Sure...any reason why, my man?"
"We need to take a few pictures for our report." Oliver shrugged, now leaving as he saw Mei waving. Oh. Right. He walked over to the spot Mei was pointing at, wondering what she had found. As he waited, he was...amazed at how fast things were here. No one ever had the time to slow down. It was totally sad.
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Post by karen1 on Jun 24, 2010 19:01:05 GMT -5
It took Mei a little longer than it should've for her to get to the specified location, getting bumped around by the crowd as she was. Everyone was so frantic, bustling to and fro with no idea where they were going or why. Or at least, that was how it seemed to her. By the time she finally got to the point that Carly had indicated, Oliver was already waitinf for her.
"A girl told me that this was the source of the rift, and from the way she told it it sounds as though it started underground," she said without pause once she'd arrived. "She could be wrong, but all the same I think we should rope off the area and examine it. What do you think?" |
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Post by oliverpratt on Jun 27, 2010 1:01:28 GMT -5
Oliver thought for a moment, weighing his own instincts against what he had just heard. Yes, no one else seems to want to fess up about the location of the rift, but can the witness account of a little girl really be the basis? What if they were wasting their time? But what if they weren't?
"Get the ropes. I'll take care of the ah...the technology stuff. Is it just me dude, or does everyone seem stressed out to the max? Chill pills are in order."
Oliver was now scanning the area that Mei had pointed out, a bit skeptical that he would find anyt...The scanner started beeping. Oliver moved to his right, the beeping increasing in frequency until it flat-lined over a small crack in the road. It must have been only an inch wide and two inches long. Oliver knelt next to the spot and put his hand over the crack.
It was soft. The ground was soft.
This was getting interesting.
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Post by oliverpratt on Jun 27, 2010 14:36:37 GMT -5
(Hey Mei, I'm sorry to do this, but I'm dropping Oliver  . Just not feeling him. Thanks for the thread though!) |
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. Just not feeling him. Thanks for the thread though!)