Character Perspective: Waverly

“Do you remember how the Parasitum just vanished off our radars back in the last trial?” I asked, feet kicking below me as I sat atop one of the long counters in Killian’s lab in a pair of matching cotton pajamas.

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” he sighed, hunched over a deactivated Chale. Killian was still in his uniform, but he had pulled the jacket off and had a plain black shirt on under it that fit him quite well. “Okay, I think I can start booting him back up here.”

He rolled across the room in his chair, stopping in front of a console with a barebones interface that he immediately began typing into. While he would normally have Dip assisting him, the more capable chipmunk was still down in the simulated NEUTRINO monitoring the drone systems Killian had installed, sending updated information whenever a new route had been fully evaluated.

“Do you think it was affecting our radar display or how our signal was hitting them?” I asked, scrolling through my datapad and the various shield schematics I had loaded onto it.

“If I had to guess I’d say it was affecting our signal. They basically got free access to our “send” frequency and they effectively firewalled us off so that they became near invisible,” Killian pondered aloud. “Though I suppose that wouldn’t explain how it would outright negate the return signal coming back to allow us the knowledge that something was there, even if the more detailed information our basic pulse would retrieve could be blocked.”

“Ok, stick with me here for a minute, what if it’s got to do with our shielding? We use an energized electrical field to form the basis for our shields, right?” I asked and he nodded, briefly meeting my gaze before turning his attention back to his work.

“That’s how they explain it, yeah,” he agreed.

“So what if the Parasitum had, when they received the sample of our frequency, basically turned it back on us and canceled the radio waves out?” I offered.

Killian pulled back from his computer and seemed to actively consider this. “I suppose it’s possible, if you ran the frequency through the same spectrometer that controlled the shield generator, you might be able to do something to that effect… in theory at least.”

“So, isn’t that something we could use in this trial? We are actively trying to dodge past actual radars, if we could grab their frequencies and mimic them into our shield array, we’d basically be able to drive right by without them being any the wiser,” I replied.

“Hmm, it’s definitely an idea, though that seems almost too simple. It also assumes that the enemies survelleince systems are all going to be running on the same band which I think is unlikely,” Killing tapped his chin in a way that I was actively starting to find cute.

“Damn, I hadn’t considered that,” I said and wished I had a pen that I could chew on the back of. “I wonder if there’s a way for us to collect samples of their radar pulses before we start the infiltration, then load them up and cruise right past their satellites.”

“Risky and I wouldn’t necessarily try changing the Captain’s plans at this point, but…” Killian trailed off.

“But what?”

“Well there’s a lot of factors we still don’t quite know, whether Curtis has told us everything he knows already or not, if the first trial is any indication there’s bound to be some curveballs thrown at us every so often,” he explained, swiveling back and forth in his chair. “I have to assume we won’t fail the trial if we are immediately detected since he has me messing with the drone and if I’m guessing correctly he wants to use it as diversion.”

“Hmm, okay, I guess I’ll just have to keep thinking about what we can do with this, there’s gotta be a reason why Curtis wanted me to get extra familiar with these systems… or is this just busy work?” I wondered, dropping my data pad in the table next to me and hopping off the counter and walking the short distance over to Killian as I leaned over his shoulder to look at the console he was working at.

“I mean, you are our engineer, you were always going to need to have the most familiarity with our systems themselves you know,” he said, looking at me from the corner of his eye without turning his head.

I was doing my best to follow the Captain’s rule, I really, really was, but I couldn’t deny the spark that I felt with Killian either. Just having our faces as close as they were was a risk and I could feel my cheeks begin to redden, pulling back just as I heard the door to the lab unlock.

Curtis entered the room, still in his uniform and focused on his data pad. It might not have been necessary, but it still allowed me time to put a little bit of space between myself and Killian. I was being stupid, I know I was since as far as I could tell Killian hadn’t necessarily seen me that way, but I still felt my heart flutter a bit as he looked back and first met my gaze before turning his attention to our Captain.

“Oh, Captain, how’s it going?” He asked, quickly hopping to his feet.

“Eh no need for that Sullivan, just wanted to drop some of my data files into your lab system here,” Curtis said, breezing across the room to an empty console spot that he plugged his system in to. “I saw your scans of the drone patterns and made a few adjustments to paths seven, ten, and thirteen, think you can get those transferred to the dummy drone? Oh hey Sera,” he added as if finally noticing me.

“Hey Captain, I was uh, just heading out,” I said feeling my face flush as I started to walk toward the door.

“No need to break up your guys fun or hang out because of me,” Curtis replied, hittin a few buttons in his data pad as an orange light at the top quickly blinked blue and he disconnected the device.

“I got the updates, I’ll get them downloaded into the ship first thing in the morning,” Killian said after taking his seat and opening a new window on his larger monitor. “Those are basically done though outside of these changes, got anything else you need me to handle before the trial?”

“I’ll let you know, unless you think those chipmunks of yours can fly the drones better than Doc could,” Curtis asked as he started back toward the door.

“Um… I mean, I hadn’t thought about that but-”

“I was joking Sullivan,” the Captain said before Killian could actually answer the theoretical but found himself stopping in his tracks as he turned to look back to our science officer. “I mean... wait is that possible?”

“Wouldn’t their hands be too small for the drone controls?” I asked as I slowly inched my way back over toward Killian’s seat.

“As they are now, yeah, but… in theory if we built an identical set of controls but much, much smaller…” Killian trailed off as a finger reached back up to tap at his chin.

“I mean, the controls are only as big as they need to be for us, I don’t think it would be that difficult to build a smaller control panel, the bigger question is if Chale is up to the task or not,” I offered and Killian let out a bark of a laugh.

Curtis seemed to roll his eyes as he turned back toward the door. “Well that’s not a priority but do keep me updated, that could really give us an edge if we get it working,” he said as he reached the door and gestured for it to open. He turned back to look at us and briefly embed like he was about to say something before he just shook his head and started to leave, “Don’t stay up too late you two.”

“Got it Cap,” Killian and J called out nearly in unison and our eyes met. His green, sparkling eyes lingered on mine for just a minute before we both quickly looked away and shared a nervous, almost forced laugh.

“So. Chale, let’s get him booted back up,” Killian quickly changed the subject and I nodded in agreement. Close call with the Captain aside, he had given us something to think about and I could already see the wheels turning in Killian’s head as a whirring from Chale’s prone position started up. “Though maybe we should teach Dip to run the Drone… that little guy is much more reliable…”