"A Visit to the Planet Below"

[OdileCondacin 0]

The shuttle dropped down onto the surface of the planet, and after it powered down, Odile made her way off of it. It really seemed like forever since she'd breathed air that hadn't been recycled two hundred times over; one got used ot it after awhile, but she still swore that it was possible to tell the difference.

 

She nodded over to Ensign -- Holt, she thought was the name -- the boy from security who had apparently been waiting to rendezvous with her, then turned her looked up at the facility she'd "parked" next to. It looked like a typical research center; white brick and probably hermetically sound -- the kind of place that white labcoats went in and out of, and not much else. Had a good forcefield set up around it, too, she noted, glancing skyward as the bubble surged back into place.

 

With Holt in tow, she made her way into the atrium of the facility, looking at bronzes adorning the walls while she waited for a tourguide of some kind. Wandering usually led to arrests, Odile had learned the hard way (on multiple occasions), so she employed "sense" (a much less common tactic), tucked her hands neatly behind her back as not to touch anything, and inspected the plaques curiously.

 

They seemed fairly basic; silhouettes of the lead researchers the facility had boasted at one point or another in its thirty-year history. Fairly diverse bunch, too, though there was no surprise that the majority were seismologists and geophysicists of one sort or another. No one jumped out at Odile as particularly revolutionary or legendary -- but then again, she knew the basics of tectonics, and that was it. A geologist Odile was not.

 

"Commander Condacin?" a tired, but firm voice greeted her, and she turned, smiling faintly at the face behind the voice.

 

"That would be me, yes," she answered, offering a hand that was rather crushingly shaken. "You must be Doctor Santos."

 

"Call me Isaak," he replied with a nod. "Please, come this way." Odile nodded as he activated a genetic scanner, allowing them into a sealed side corridor. "I apologize for not being available to greet you when you arrived. We weren't exactly expecting visitors -- especially in light of the calamity..."

 

She shrugged. "Understandable. I suppose we should have alerted you to our plans to visit sooner. Though, I'm not sure we knew much earlier."

 

Santos glanced sidelong at her for a moment, then frowned. "I'm not certain that I'm entirely understanding your reason for visiting this facility."

 

An eyebrow arched. "Aside from it being triangulated as the epicenter of the first quake, you mean?" she asked, a bit rhetorically.

 

"Our researchers are doing everything they can to determine the reason for that. I highly doubt it had anything to do with our work here."

 

"Is that something you can elaborate on?"

 

He shook his head slightly. "There really isn't much that you don't already know..."

 

"Remind me," she answered, not intending it to sound as accusatory as it did.

 

"We study the intermediate-depth earthquake that this planet's are associated with. Mostly we're concerned with whether or not they're affected by the subduction..."

 

Odile nodded, waving off the scientistic to stop him before he began to babble. "And exactly how do you... study them?"

 

"Deep-penetrating sonar... high EM scanners, electronic displacement waves. We just have some better equipment. That's all." He turned into a cavernous room, dominated by a huge machine that was sending out strong enough pulses that the room fairly shook from them. "Like this."

 

"And this is, exactly?" She wrinkled her nose slightly, trying to make sense of the behemoth.

 

"The most advanced seismic prediction technology of our day. It's actually been quite good at forecasting quakes -- until these last few."

 

"Any idea why not?"

 

He hesitated -- briefly -- then shook his head. "It's a mystery to us as well. If I knew... well, if I knew, I'd tell you."

 

"Of course," she answered, moving a bit closer to the... thing... and frowning up at it. "I'm sure you noticed how... metered the energy was the quake put out."

 

"Yes. We haven't been able to account for that," he answered shortly.

 

"I see." She gave the predictor a last glance, heading back into the corridor. "You're researching the deeper end of "mid-focus" earthquakes, aren't you?"

 

A hint of pride slipping through, he smiled slightly. "That's right," he answered. "Most research stations either study the shallow or deep ones -- and not a lot in between. Most planets are only troubled by slippage in the upper crust. Deep-focuses are mysterious, but this planet gave us a rare opportunity to see something in the middle that was still valuable."

 

"Hmm. That would require quite a bit of energy, wouldn't it?" Odile mused, veering towards the next major-looking door.

 

He paused for a moment, seeming a bit off-put by her questioning -- and the fact that she was taking out her tricorder when the door wouldn't open. "Not really, no. We use efficient technology. Now, was that all, Lieutenant Commander?"

 

She knew she was being nosy. She didn't particularly care. "Is this off-limits?" she inquired, releasing the tricorder back to her hip and gesturing to the door.

 

"It's restricted." Santos hesitated for a moment. "It was affected by the quake -- some radioactive material was spilled during one of the aftershocks."

 

"Ah. That would explain the lack of readings from this," Condacin commented, patting the scanner at her hip.

 

"Oh. Yes." He nodded, then glanced to a group of scientists that emerged from another door at the end of the hall. "Well, Commander, I thank you for your visit, but we have new data to process -- perhaps you can come back later?" He smiled, but his tone was edging towards "cold" and far from welcoming.

 

"Of course. I wouldn't wish to intrude." She returned the smile, even if it did look pained. "Good luck."