psl: polychromatic AU | stargazers

[sleepingstar]

[On the top of the hill, Pai feels like she can reach up and touch the stars. Lying on her back, the grass scratchy on the back of her neck, she stares up at the sky.

She reaches an arm up and covers one of the stars with her thumb. Look, brother! I made another star fall! Except it's still there; all she has to do is move her hand. She doesn't have to kill anyone anymore. Neither of them do.

Hei isn't comfortable here. He's fallen into the habit of paranoia. He doesn't trust the peace, doesn't remember who he is outside of the Syndicate's control. He's so very human in that respect. Pai isn't bothered by the uncertainty. It's irrational to worry about something so completely out of her control.

Instead of making the stars fall, she can make them into stories. She traces shapes in the sky -- finding a bear, a swan, a man dancing. It's a silly exercise, but important. The mind is a muscle like any other; it requires a variety of exercises. It needs whimsey & rationality, exertion & rest.]

熊...

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[candothat]

[He has no idea what Hei means by fantastic flora, but Pai seems interested, so.]

Of course there's alien flora. A friend of mine keeps several exotic alien plant species and they hate me.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei's hand comes up without thought to smooth back Pai's hair, his attention still on Pavel. (It's very likely he doesn't notice the possessiveness of the gesture.) Smarter than him, stronger than him, more perceptive than him -- she is all those things, yes. But matters like Boys and the mess of Headgames and Relationships, whether she thinks herself ready for them or not, aren't topics he'd prefer her mind teeming with. Neither Hei nor Pai are innocents -- how can they be, with the atrocities they've both seen and committed? But there's nothing wrong with wanting her to remain easy and carefree for at least some while longer. She's so young, still. ]

[ However, Pavel's explanation makes Hei curious despite himself, ]

How can a plant hate you? [ Congratulations, he now has images of a bloodthirsty kudzu and slavering planimals. ]

[sleepingstar]

[Pai glances briefly at her brother, equally curious.]

They're alien plants. Maybe they have a central nervous system?

[She looks back to Chekov for confirmation or explanation.]

[candothat]

[Chekov can't help but feel that there's something strange going on between Hei and Pai. He doesn't register the possessive touch consciously. The oddness is there all the same.]

All plants have rudimentary nervous systems, but some alien plants are more advanced than their Terran counterparts. None of them have brains that I know of--not so far as Sulu has told me. He doesn't think that his plants are capable of hating me.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Chekov wouldn't be the first to catch a strange vibe between the siblings. Sex, that's what most peoples' brains leap to 99% of the time, the more deviant the better. In South America it wasn't that uncommon for strangers to confuse Pai and Hei as lovers. But it couldn't be further from the truth. The battlefield simply has a way of paring down any sense of boundary or social nicety to the barest shreds. When you fight and bleed and suffer alongside someone else, physicality becomes a matter-of-fact thing -- a source of comfort where your environment offers none. ]

[ Even away from the war, Hei isn't sure how to let go of that fact. ]

[ To Chekov, he says, almost dryly, ] Are you sure you're not imagining the hatred? They don't shrivel and die when you come near them. Right?

[sleepingstar]

That would be counter-productive. It would make more sense if they poisoned him.

[candothat]

[No, he doesn't pick up on anything sexual. Most of the oddness is probably attributable to the fact that Hei appears to care about Pai. That strikes Chekov as strange.]

They shrivel and die if I try to take care of them. I feel that plants can tell when someone who is bad at keeping them alive is near.

[Pai throws him off.]

I suppose so...

[mortemscintilla]

[ Nobody loves no one, isn't that how the song lyric goes? Hei may be an appalling bastard with all the sensitivity of a piranha. None of that changes the fact, however, that this appalling bastard loves his sister if he loves anything on earth. It's how it's always been, since the first days when his mother had taught him, barely out of babyhood himself, to cosset and protect her. ]

[ He makes a mock-punchy face at Pai -- Little Miss Pocket Encyclopedia -- although she certainly has a point. To Pavel, ] If they're sentient, maybe it's your stress they're sensing. Some plants supposedly give off ethylene to warn each other of trouble. [ Thoughtfully, ] In your case, it may have been a mass suicide.

[ Poisonings and felo-de-se flora. Clearly the siblings are the most charming dinner companions. ]

[sleepingstar]

[She mimics Hei's face back at him.]

That doesn't make any sense.

[For all that Pai appears to be the more sensitive of the two siblings, there are certain things that, as a Contractor, she is fundamentally incapable of understanding, and suicide is one of them.]

Maybe they just missed your friend. [Not that she understands dying of loneliness either, but she knows it's possible. She's seen it in her brother.]

[candothat]

[Now you're both being very strange. Chekov isn't sure how comfortable he is with this topic of discussion anymore.]

That could be so.

[He would like to talk about stars again, please.]

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei reaches down with a hand to tug lightly at Pai's ear, his mouth a wry curl despite the muddy pond her words stir up. Maybe they just missed your friend. Loneliness, the poverty of warmth and hope it feeds, is just one of the many steps toward self-destruction; an irrational act for a Contractor, but not necessarily for a human with nothing to lose. He'd been that way a few months after Pai's disappearance, coasting on the narrow edge of despair, with only cold revenge serving to pull him back and propel him forward. ]

[ It's not a time he wants to remember. Not now. ]

[ Taking a sip from his coffee cup, he belatedly reads Pavel's discomfort for what it is, and changes the subject, ] Have you ever encountered those 'diamond stars' astronomers discovered, back in 2004? I've always wondered if they were a hoax.

[sleepingstar]

[Pai, unfortunately, is oblivious to Pavel's discomfort. She doesn't have Hei's training in reading marks, or much in the way of empathy. She can only read the moods of those she loves -- a sphere which is growing, if slowly.

Fortunately, diamond stars prove an adequate distraction.]

Diamond stars?

[candothat]

[Chekov brightens considerably when the conversation takes a pleasant turn--and it's a subject he knows about, too.]

I haven't encountered one personally, but they are not uncommon. All they are is dead stars... compressed carbon, mostly. The stars must be massive to create a significant amount of carbon because it's a relatively heavy element, but it happens.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Another sip, then a beat to irritably wipe the foam mustache off his face -- Ugh. This coffee tastes like pure sugar -- before Hei muses, half-idly, ]

If those stars were accessible, think of the booming diamond trade you'd have in space. Slave traders and pirates. [ Relax, that's a joke. ]

[ ........Well. Maybe not the space-pirates. ]

[sleepingstar]

Would they look the same as earth diamonds? [a question to Pavel. Her knowledge of science is more intuitive than educated.] Don't other elements factor into things like the color?

[candothat]

[Hei's unhappiness regarding his beverage goes unnoticed... or at least without comment.]

They are accessible, although I don't believe the Federation has ever mined such a star. The Orions--and some of them are pirates--are far more interested in them. Gemstones are not so valuable in the future as they are now on Earth.

[Pai gets the same kind of smile that a teacher's favorite inquisitive student might get.]

They should look the same. Diamonds, however or wherever they are formed, come in every color, depending on what, besides carbon, composes them. Maybe some stars would produce exotic colors, since some parts of space are rich in elements that show up only in traces on Earth.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hiding a distasteful moue, Hei sets the coffee aside. From his backpack, he fishes out a small tupperware box. Inside are five wrapped sandwiches (grilled cheese, tuscan chicken, turkey and cranberry, a collection of cold cuts) and a handfull of gingerbread men. He hands one to Pai, then hesitates before extending the box to Pavel. (Said hesitation stems from whether Pavel's smile is innocent, or skating the edge of ingratiating where Pai's concerned. ]

[ (Granted, Hei's not so crazy he’ll zap someone for smiling too long at his sister. But he has his moments.) ]

[ Appropriating a grilled cheese sandwich for himself, he asks Pavel, ] So what is the most valuable commodity of the future? [ To Pai, at a softer register, ] He's right. The carbanados -- black diamonds -- in South America are supposedly extraterrestrial in origin. Their spectra don't match signatures for earth's hydrogen and nitrogen, but those in interstellar space. There's a theory they were brought by a meteor.

[sleepingstar]

[Ooooooooh. Pai listens to both of them, wide-eyed with curiosity, and takes the cookie. She promptly bites off the head and looks at Pavel, waiting for the answer. It's hard to imagine a future where gemstones aren't so valuable.]

[candothat]

[Lighten up, Hei. Your sister is cute and curious; Chekov doesn't talk to a lot of girls who are actually interested in what he knows.

But Pavel isn't paying that much attention to the nuances of Hei's behavior (although he does snag a cookie with a quick thank you and nibble on gingerbread feet). The most valuable commodity of the future? That's quite a question.]

Dilithium crystals, I would say, but value is relative. The Halkans, for example, live on a dilithium-rich planet and have no use for the mineral. For the Federation and Klingon Empire, the crystals are necessary to spaceflight, and so we value them very highly.

[mortemscintilla]

[ The wariness isn't something Hei can control. Everything about Pai is a curious mix of trigger and anchor -- it takes him back to Heaven's War, to a time when he'd been forced to rely on paranoia and lightning-fast reflexes and sharp violence. But it also fills him with that kind of energy and frame of mind when he'd been his most protective. Juxtaposing it with the City's hermetic environment -- with civilians everywhere -- is a little dangerous. ]

[ But more for Pai's sake than his own, Hei tamps it down. ]

[ Pavel gets a look that borders on bright-eyed, ] Never heard of dilithium crystals. But I think I know what might've been their precursor. Back in our [ funny, how easily he slips into We and Us with Pai here ] homeworld, astrophysicists were using deuterium and LI6 -- stable isotopes of hydrogen metal lithium -- in crystal form for fuel. [ Realizing he's getting too technical, he simplifies his words for Pai's sake. ] It had the capacity to take spaceships to Mars in roughly two months. A big deal in those days.

[ More quietly, ] But whether they'd get past the Gate was the real question.

[sleepingstar]

[Science was never a passion for Pai -- not like it should be, considering her ability. She finds it interesting, but it involves too much reading, and she has always preferred being outside and doing things. Everything she knows about science, she knows from listening to Hei (who is a total bookworm, as far as she's concerned).

Pavel's enthusiasm reminds her of Hei when they were both younger, and even if she doesn't understand a lot of what Hei says at first, she's happy that he has someone he can be a science nerd with. It's been years since she's heard her brother chatter about science like he used to.]

Does everybody in your world travel in space?

[They have to, if these dilithium crystals are more valuable than jewels in his world. Very few people know about or care about deuterium and L16 in their world.]

[candothat]

[Now Hei is really speaking Chekov's language, even if the history of space travel isn't one of his fortes. He hasn't so much as heard anyone mention "deuterium" since coming into the City (other than Doctor Brown, but the doctor is always an exception).]

The old Vodo-Vodyanoi Energetichesky reactors utilized lithium-7, but I believe other lithium isotopes were abandoned when the hydrogen bomb went out of fashion. [Which was a very long time ago, as far as Pavel is concerned.] But deuterium! Our standard warp-capable vessels [wessels] rely upon the mutual annihilation of deuterium and antideuterium in a dilithium crystal matrix for energy. Deuterium is seldom in short supply due to the Bussard ramscoop; that was invented after your time, maybe. [He shakes his head.] Two months to go from Earth to Mars... yobany stos!

[And, curiously] What is this gate made of?

[To Pai] Not everyone, no. Most people visit the Terran moon, at least, but some prefer to stay on Earth. My father has never so much as been outside of Earth's atmosphere.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Hei takes a bite of his sandwich, chewing slowly as he absorbs Pavel's explanation. A layer of barbed wire has rolled away. He seems bright and interested. (It's this moment when the resemblance between him and Pai is pronounced. Identical gazes, clear and sedate. Subtle smiles and bangs like knives.) ] Brussard Ramscoop? [ A shake of the head. ] It was before my time. But I remember theories were proposed as early as the 1960s. A ramjet type of fusion rocket. It would use electromagnetic fields to gather and compress hydrogen from the interstellar medium. Except, back then, no technology existed to create such a massive field. [ He shrugs, ] Maybe they found a way around it.

[ He doesn't answer the question about the Gate right away. Just chews and swallows, something pensive shuttering across his face before fading, ] It's ...something that's still being investigated. A spacial anomaly, subject to strange phenomenon. Lost time. Low-frequency electromagnetic fields. Electronic fog. The laws of physics are void in it. [ A moment's pause, before he adds, ] There are -- were -- two of them. One in Tokyo. The other in South America.

[ He doesn't glance at Pai. But she may feel him leaning closer to her, almost on instinct. There's a softness to his gaze that is unnerving, considering she is the one responsible for eliminating Heaven's Gate -- nearly half of South America -- with the help of a single meteor shard. ]

[sleepingstar]

[For Pai, the destruction of South America hasn't happened yet. It's a decision she's made, but the City brought her here before she could actually go into the Gate with the shard. Seeing what it has done to her brother makes her question the choice, just a little; she had made the decision as much for his sake as for the sake of all Contractors.

But what's done will be done. According to Hei, nobody remembers their time in the City when they leave, and she has no reason to doubt him. Even if she changes her mind about Heaven's Gate here, she'll still make the decision to destroy it when she returns to South America. She leans back into him, resting her shoulder against his as she listens to them both talk.]

[candothat]

Yes--a modification of Bussard's original electromagnetic collector. Such technology has existed for... a hundred years, at least, in my time. I could draw up a rough schematic, if you would like.

[Pavel gets the feeling that the Gate is something he shouldn't ask too much about, but.] I have never heard of electromagnetic phenomena like that on Earth, outside of myths. In space, though, they exist; I'd think they would make it difficult, if near impossible, to travel in space.