Delicate Preparations

Posted on Thursday May 23rd, 2019 @ 7:26am by Civilian . & Lieutenant Maerynn & Lieutenant Phelan Sabrehagen

Mission: Welcome to Union Mining Station Number 42
Location: Hangar Deck
Timeline: post staff-meeting

In preparation for her surveys, even though there'd be delay due to her involvement with the negotiations, Namira had made an appointment with the operations manager to modify a shuttle with the equipment she needed, some of which she was currently pushing along in front of her on a sled. "Maerynn?" she asked, expecting to horribly butcher the pronunciation of the name, as monolingual people often did when trying to pronounce just about any word in a foreign language.

With the negotiations, Maerynn had her hands full, coordinating all of the shuttles' movements as well as all of the requests for things to be added to or removed from the shuttles. What was it with people, always needing to modify everything... names, ships...

The call of her name, somewhat mangled but not completely butchered beyond recognition, drew her attention to the lady with the hover sled. Amber eyes took in the image before her in an instant, and she handed a data pad to Phelan and motioned for him to take care of some of the others here while she approached Namira.

"Hello, Namira." she said as she neared. Her eyes took in the contents of the hover sled then came back to Namira as a smile slid over her lips. "And it's May'-rin." she corrected, carefully pronouncing it for the other lady so she could hear the pronunciation clearly.

"May'-rin", Namira repeated. "Yes, I think I can do that." She smirked at the shorter woman. "I was hoping you could help me with these?" She pointed at the pieces of gear. "This assorted mess of equipment is a sensor suite that needs to be fitted to one of the shuttles for a planetary survey. It's got everything from classic ground-penetrating radar, lidar and visual imaging sensors, to the latest epsilon ray detector to find any hidden or dormant power sources." That last bit hadn't been easy to get a hold of, considering it also had an application in espionage and was therefore not widely available for civilian use.

Maerynn smiled up at Namira. "It's all right. Fortunately for your sanity, I'm not an ass about the pronunciation." she assured, having gotten the colloquial from others of the crew, beginning with but not only, Phelan Sabrehagen. He had some very... odd speech patterns. She really didn't get it, if she was honest with herself. What had a pack animal to do with... oh, nevermind. She discarded the thought and moved on to the equipment Namira wanted her to have installed on one of the shuttles.

"This is a lot of equipment." she mused as she examined each piece, resisting the temptation to become some of them. "It'll take some time to get it all installed." She came fully around the sled and looked up at Namira again. "When do you need it by?"

"I don't know", Namira said. "I'm going to try and help with the negotiations to get the Union and the local peoples back together rather than at each other's throats. Though, I was planning on starting the recon flights whenever there was a break. So, yesterday would be good." She grinned. "But I know that's not doable, considering how finely tuned and precisely mounted all those instruments need to be. But I suppose those ruins aren't going anywhere, they've been around for a while... just how long exactly I'm still going to have to find out."

Maerynn sighed softly and looked at the heavily-loaded sled once more. "Well, you have quite the suite of machines here, and each one needs to be not only mounted but calibrated. Hm..." She put a finger to her lips, tapping lightly as she considered, doing some rather annoying math in her head. "If we can have until morning, that would be optimal; but nothing is ever optimal this far away from Union Central, so... say eight hours?" That would push her people but not to the breaking point. They would definitely not be happy about it, though. But that was the job out here. They could deal with it or go home.

"Until morning is fine", Namira said. "I do need to sleep occasionally. Though I might come in and check on progress, run a test or two. It is imperative that this is done right because I'll depend on the accuracy of these readings for deciding what to do with the next, say, twenty years of my time."

Maerynn felt a small twinge of insult at the implication that her people weren't precise but pushed it away. That had likely not been the other woman's intent, after all. Professional pride was something every officer had, and shapeshifter or not, she was no exception. She nodded. "Understood. My people know their jobs. If they fall down on the job, as the saying goes, just get the whip out of my office and crack it once or twice; they'll straighten right up." She was joking, of course. She didn't even own a whip, and she certainly wouldn't crack it on her crew. But she had very quickly learned at Union Point that Humans as well as a few of the other species liked such jokes... as long as they were just that, jokes.

"No, they might enjoy that too much", Namira quipped. "And then they'll be all distracted and unable to focus. Can't chance it."

Maerynn laughed softly, not having been sure how Namira would respond but really liking the way the woman thought. "You know what, you're likely right. Pilots are a strange bunch." she said. And she would know; she was a pilot herself. "Shock collars then?" she teased with a wink.

"Those are effective, to a degree", Namira responded dead-pan. "Perhaps you could get some from security?" She looked around. "But you're going to have the pilots mount the equipment? Are they trained for that sort of thing?"

Maerynn took a moment to decide whether the other woman was serious or not. Deciding that she wasn't, she chuckled then became serious at the question. "Oh, not at all. I'm going to get the techs that work on our shuttles to do it. Those are under my command too as they only work on the shuttles and aren't assigned to anywhere else on the station. And they are trained for it." The image of Phelan trying to figure out what to do with any of these instruments made her laugh softly to herself.

"Good", Namira said. "I'm looking forward to taking her out tomorrow, it'll take a few days of surveying, and then on to the digging. It's only really fun when you're down on your knees, you know?"

Maerynn frowned. "Actually, no I don't." she admitted. She considered asking whether Namira would mind if she became her for a moment then decided that would likely end badly or be taken as some kind of weird come-on line. So she left it at no and shrugged. "I've tried a lot of things in my life, but archaeology isn't one of them."

"You slowly, carefully, layer by layer probe into the distant past, see things with your own eyes that have been hidden for many lifetimes", Namira said. "It's exciting. Unless, of course, all you find is rocks. But with these scans, I won't have to worry about that as much."

Namira made it sound so interesting. Maerynn studied her for a moment before venturing. "I... can I ask you a weird favor?" she asked, a bit hesitantly.

"Sure, ask away", Namira said. "Asking is always an option." She made no commitment. She was very particular about her work, and who got to touch it.

Maerynn took a breath and forged ahead. "As a genomorph, I learn a lot by being something or someone. Would you mind if I became you for just a moment? I would understand your love of what you do a lot better." She hoped the explanation would ease the oddness of the request. Where she was from, it was not odd; but this was the Planetary Union, not Dallantra or the Communion of Stars.

Namira blinked. "How do... become me?" She squinted at Maerynn. "Now that one you'll have to explain." She wasn't familiar at all with what a genomorph was, but she could go on the etymology of the term for a bit of information. "You'll need to show me, in detail."

Maerynn felt relief wash over her. Namira had not outright refused, so she wasn't offended or freaked out by it. And a demonstration she could do. She smiled. "You have your comscanner?"

"I have this", Namira said, showing her a somewhat older device that had been modified to Namira's personal preferences. It was a combination of a scanner and a reader, though not set up to handle communications. Namira didn't need it to, since her cochlear implants already had that function, and thus her scanner had more internal volume dedicated to sensing and processing, especially chemical analysis.

"As long as it can scan me, it's fine." she said. Turning, she called out. "Phelan! Come here for a moment please?"

The tall, dark-haired man turned and walked to them, smiling in greeting at both as he approached. "Yes, ma'am?"

"I need your help with a demonstration." she told him, waiting for him to put the pieces together.

Phelan thought for a moment, then nodded. "Sure. Go for it." They'd done this a few times since the first time she'd asked his permission to become him in order to understand him better. Phelan was odd in some ways; this was one. This more fascinated him than anything else. So he didn't mind being used for her demonstration.

Maerynn looked back at Namira. "Watch." She then touched Phelan's hand, took her hand back. The next happened fairly quickly, but it could easily be seen. Her body liquefied into a cream-colored thick substance that vaguely resembled thick cream, then it reshaped itself and solidified once more. When it had finished, Namira was looking at two identical versions of Phelan Sabrehagen. Even the eyes -- Maerynn's were normally amber, but now they were the exact shade of green that his were. "Go ahead and scan us." they both said. Even the voices matched perfectly.

Namira had been running the scan during the transformation process, which told her a lot of what she needed to know, especially since now that the transformation was complete, the scanners could no longer pick up the differences. "That is most fascinating", Namira said, trying to contain her excitement and tone it down to mere scientific curiosity. "For one thing, I can see my scanner is inadequate. Maybe it does need an update. It should still be picking up differences, because if you were both truly identical in every measurable sense, you'd now be stuck in his body." She gave the real Phelan an apologetic smile. "No offence intended."

The real Phelan chuckled. "None taken. That is actually a genuine risk if she ever forgets completely who and what she is." he told the archaeologist.

Maerynn repeated the process in reverse, returning to her own form. "He's right. But that has only happened a few times in all of our history. And yes, there are still differences, but it would take a very deep scan to see them. They're on the sub-atomic level. But other than that, for that moment, I was him... completely, memories and form and all that makes him who he is. I don't retain those memories when I go back to being me, though, only the sense of what it was to be him... a sort of memory of a feeling. Does that make sense to you?"

"Not entirely", Namira said. "But I think I get the hint of an idea." She fell silent for a spell, looking at the data she had collected. "Tell you what, let me prepare a few things, then meet me in my quarters tonight?"

Maerynn thought she might have made the other woman uncomfortable and was preparing to apologize and withdraw the question when Namira continued. The last made her smile, glad that they could continue this. "Sure. Why don't you call me when you're ready, okay?"

Phelan, now that his part in this was over, smiled at Namira once more then left them to their business. It was none of his, after all, and he knew when to C himself out of an A/B conversation.

"I will, and I will also have a few more questions", Namira said. And she'd have to caution Maerynn because she figured, depending on how exactly the process worked, it might be somewhat uncomfortable. But Namira already knew what precautions she'd take. "Okay, maybe a lot more questions."

Maerynn could see some form of wariness in the other woman and did not take that lightly. She nodded. "I will answer all that I can." she promised. "And until then, I will have my people get to work on your shuttle. It will be ready by morning." she assured.

"Hm? Oh, yes, thank you", Namira smiled at her. "I'll see you tonight." She pocketed her scanner and decided to leave Maerynn to her task, and begin her own. She saw this as a fascinating, but also somewhat risky, opportunity, and wanted to make as sure as possible that nothing went too horribly wrong.