Vansell
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I do this gladly...
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Post by Vansell on Nov 26, 2016 2:09:05 GMT -5
"Mankas klapo en lia kapo..."
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Narvin had hoped not to have to return here any time soon. Still, it was the Madame President's wish that he tread these sterile, endless (literally) corridors, and the Madame President's wish was his command.
Oh, and didn't she know it.
She had summoned him to her office, bade him be silent, and instructed him to review the files and holovid projections on her desk...and Rassilon help him, he had obeyed.
Evidence of a major temporal disruption, bleeding from a place that both of them knew well, threatening their very own Gallifrey - but how, neither could say. Nor could they determine even the nature of the temporal disruption - it was like nothing the CIA had encountered in Narvin's long memory or databanks. No doubt it was dangerous.
And then she had ordered him to travel to the heart of it from the Axis, investigate it, and fix it.
And Rassilon help him, here he was. Obeying.
"Over here, sir!"
He picked up his pace, at the shout - but as he drew closer, he could hardly have missed what he was aiming for. Like a pervasive odour, something foul hung in the air, creeping steadily outwards, seeping into his bones through his temporal senses and causing the hairs to stand straight on the backs of his arms. He passed by a portal just as it reached him, and the fluid ripple of the portal seemed to shrink in on itself, like a delicate sea creature cringing away from a noxious touch.
Narvin wasn't sure he could ever have imagined something making something as deceptively vast and world-moving as an Axis portal cringe like a fragile little animal. As though it were afraid.
One more corner, and there it was. The portal he was seeking.
It rippled, like the others - but violently, erratically...death-throes, Narvin thought, and immediately wished he hadn't. The edges of its pulses weren't smooth and even - they were moth-eaten, decaying even to the naked eye - and no longer entirely colourless, instead stained with greyish-green, umber, khaki, washed-out slate - the colours of rot.
The two agents standing either side of it looked as though they were about to be sick. Narvin could understand the sentiment quite well, but he drew his brows together, tilted his chin back and folded his hands calmly, his posture stiff and composed. It wouldn't do to appear at all otherwise now.
After all, Rassilon help him, he was about to get a lot closer to it than this.
Alone - the Madame President had been quite clear on that.
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Leela
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Post by Leela on Nov 27, 2016 22:34:15 GMT -5
If there was one thing that Leela knew well, it was when things were being kept from her. Even after all that she had done, and been through for this proud race, the long halls that she had walked down, and the struggle for power and survival that she had been a part of, she still saw distrust on the faces around her. And ever since Romana had regenerated, that close-mouthed distrust had spread, in some way to the person that she considered one of her best friends, as well.
That was why, when Narvin, too, had started to adopt that silence that others held around her, she had taken it upon herself to find out why. She was determined that she wasn't going to let yet another friend fall away from her, not when she could so something about it.
One of the advantages of still being viewed as a fool and an outsider, was that people still underestimated her. It was easy to get into places where she wasn't meant to be, by acting as though she didn't know that she wasn't meant to be there. She had also learned to understand written words well enough over the last however many years it had been, to be able to glen what Narvin's orders were from one of Lady Tray's files.
She couldn't, in any good concisions, call this new version of her old friend, by her old friend's name. Not when the two of them seemed so different. So, Lady Trey she was, and Lady Trey, she would remain, for as long as she kept herself alone and aloft, separated from the people that gave Gallifrey that faint air of life that it carried.
Leela's feet were silent as she followed the call from people that were guiding Narvin's way, holding to the shadows and anything else that could keep her from view. She could feel the wrongness seeping into the air around her, and see the way that it made even those with narrowed senses and lines of sight, tense.
Everyone that she had seen seemed on edge, not that any of them could tell why, which meant that she had to be that much more cautious to avoid detection. She was nothing but a leather-clad, weapon-wearing flicker of movement, gone before anyone could turn to see her.
The stark, undulating walls and doors of the axis usually welcomed her with an unchanging sense of familiarity, even if not hospitality, but it was clear to see that this time was going to be different. That sense of wrongness grew sharper, clinging to the air like the sick-sweet scent of rotting meat.
It was only as Narvin and his silent living shadow rounded that last corner and he came out into the open, that Leela revealed herself. Detaching from the shadows, she struck as all three of them were turned away from her. Two quick blows, to the back of a pair of unsuspecting heads, and as the two other Time Lords fell forward into silent slumps, Leela moved forward, to Narvin's side.
To where she belonged.
"I am not letting you go alone, Narvin. Not into that."
It was a simple declaration.
"Danger and despair hang in the air around and the wind that blows through that portal whispers of the end of all, like the hushed whisper of a death-wing. My instincts tell me that if I let you leave, then it will not be the same friend that comes back to me, and I have lost too many friends, to let another just walk out of my life."
"It will be safer if two go together, as well. You need someone to watch your back."
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on Jan 3, 2017 11:38:42 GMT -5
Narvin could have sworn that he and the two agents had turned their backs for little more than a nanospan, to warily eye the pulsating portal. All of a sudden, there came two dull thuds, and the unpleasant, heavy sound of bodies hitting the ground; he spun around, stasar raised to fire - and froze.
"Leela!"
The stasar lowered - although not quite all the way - and he glanced around to check if she was unaccompanied. Which, of course, she was.
"I am not letting you go alone, Narvin. Not into that."
Ah, so that was what this was all about. No sense in asking her what she was doing here, then. He should have known, really. That proud, determined set of her shoulders, her mouth pressed in a grim line, as she stepped up beside him, told him there was very little chance of arguing, but damned if he wasn't going to try.
"Danger and despair hang in the air around and the wind that blows through that portal whispers of the end of all, like the hushed whisper of a death-wing. My instincts tell me that if I let you leave, then it will not be the same friend that comes back to me, and I have lost too many friends, to let another just walk out of my life."
"That's all fascinating, Leela," Narvin gritted out, trying and failing to rein in his indignation, "but my agents have been gathering data on that 'danger and despair.' I expect their scanners could have picked up even a 'death-wing,' if there's such a thing to be found - and I know they say ignorance is bliss, but I like to at least have a little warning of impending doom."
With a sigh, he rubbed his temples and looked over the two fallen agents, as much a way to keep his eyes firmly off the portal as anything. The thought may have occurred to him that this was an opportunity presented; he could call the Capitol, tell them there had been an accident and the mission was to be postponed until his agents were back in service.[/i]
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Leela
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Post by Leela on Jan 26, 2017 22:39:34 GMT -5
Leela held her silence as Narvin spoke, letting him say his piece. She could see the thoughts behind those dark, intelligent eyes. She could read him better than she could read any book, and she also knew that if she let him say what he felt he had to, then he would be far more likely to agree to her point of view, with less fuss.
The portal almost seemed to shiver as Narvin spoke, twitching and fading until the point where it was almost transparent, then slowly becoming solid again, if such a thing could ever actually be called 'solid' in the first place. When Narvin finally stopped to take a breath, his words as sarcastic as they'd ever been, that was when she spoke.
After all, that tone in his voice was all that she needed, to know that she was doing the right thing. She knew his voice well, and what he used to mask his emotions, so that no others had a chance to see what was tucked under all the bluster. In her experience, the more sarcastic that Narvin became, the more apprehensive he he was about something, and it didn't take the intellect of a Time Lord, to tell what that something was.
"You know as well as I do, that your 'scanners' can be fooled, Narvin. And what good is all their equipment, if they are not going to hunt, and into the danger with you? Besides, my senses are far sharper than any scanners that your agents carried."
She took a step closer to the portal, and kept speaking, over any protest that he might have made. "I know that you have been told to go alone. That is why you need me here, Narvin. I am your friend, and I would be letting you down, if I did not go.
"All that your agents with their scanners can do, is shout across the distance to warn you. With me there, though, I will be able to help to defend you."
She peered at the two fallen men, the disdain evident in her expression. "If you do not let me go with you, then I will take you back with me, and make Romana tell you to let me come!" Her voice was proud, and her words were confident.
"Besides, I have no duties to keep me here any more. The Lady President has new bodyguards, to watch her every move. She has no further need of an outsider at her back." There was a trace of bitterness to that, which only someone who knew her very well indeed, would ever notice.
Again, the portal shimmered and faded, then swum back into their vision, this time jumping several feet away from them, as it did so.
"If we are going to go, then let us go. This is not going to be here, waiting for us, forever."
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on Feb 28, 2017 6:04:51 GMT -5
Narvin's frustration was growing by the microspan. As usual, Leela simply wasn't listening to a word he was saying, except for a few words here and there that she could argue with. It wasn't all that long ago that he might have made some spiteful comment about how much she actually understood of basic speech. But no, she was just being stubborn.
"Thrilled as I am to start jumping into Axis portals again...after all, we both know how well that turned out last time...I really would prefer to know why first," he said dryly. "And somewhat more importantly, how I'm going to get back out again."
He sighed again, gaze lingering on the prone forms of the agents, and bit his lip. What was he going to do with them now? This was a top secret operation - he couldn't exactly just call in the medics to come and see to them. Even his own CIA physician didn't know where he was - much to that physician's chagrin, he was sure, if she found out.
"I would have let you come, you know," he added, more quietly, although with no less annoyance. "If you'd let me know you were here, more subtly than blundering in and rendering unconscious the two agents that I needed to talk to."
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Leela
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Post by Leela on Mar 19, 2017 19:04:05 GMT -5
Leela could smell Narvin's frustrations, as clearly as she could see it, it the way that he looked from her, to the two unconscious forms on the ground, and back to her. He held himself a little straighter, when he was annoyed. His lips pressed together a little firmer, and... yes, there it was. That sigh, a heavy exhale, almost as though he was trying to blow all of his troubles away.
"I am sorry, Narvin."
She finally offered the words, as a gesture of truce, to try and help sooth things. If he were thinking about his ire, then there was a chance that he might miss things, which was something that she new he couldn't afford, especially when the scent of danger was so sharp in the air.
"I thought that if I got close, and you or I gave anything away, then your men would chase me back to the city. I know that Romana does not want me to be here. I did need to talk to you, though, and the danger that I can feel has me... wary. It feels so... wrong. It is like if we found one of the Tesh, inside the bounds of our village. The first instinct is to strike, and strike true."
"I did not hit them very hard." There was no repentance in her voice. It was just a fact. "So, unless your men are delicate, and as easy to bruise as flowers, swaying in the wind, then their repose will be shallow."
Reaching into the pocket of her belt, she drew out a small container, a gift from a long-gone person, in a time that already had the haze of memory drawing over it, and offered it to Narvin.
"The Doctor called this 'smelling salts.' If you take the lid off of it, and hold it under the noses of your men, then that might wake them up. Then you can finish talking to them. You can tell them that the bad energy in the air made them collapse."
Already, she was moving towards a grating, set into the wall, nearby.
"I can wait in here, while you talk, and then come out again, when the coast is clear."
Compromise didn't come easily to her, still, but she was working on it.
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on May 15, 2017 21:42:51 GMT -5
She wasn't sorry, not in the slightest. She was just trying to placate him with words, saying what she thought he wanted to hear. A politician's trick. A shame - he'd thought Leela above that.
"I did not hit them very hard. So, unless your men are delicate, and as easy to bruise as flowers, swaying in the wind, then their repose will be shallow."
Narvin snorted.
"Oh, well that's all right then," he muttered sarcastically.
"The Doctor called this 'smelling salts.' If you take the lid off of it, and hold it under the noses of your men, then that might wake them up. Then you can finish talking to them. You can tell them that the bad energy in the air made them collapse."
Oh, his day just got better and better, didn't it? He was sure Leela had to know how reluctant he would be to use one of her primitive remedies - but what choice did he have? He didn't have the artron energy needed to revive them properly.
With a sigh, he stooped down and, as instructed, held the bottle under the nose of one of the agents. To his surprise, the man's eyelids fluttered, after just a couple of breaths, and he let out a groan. Hastily, Narvin moved to the other agent, and then pocketed the little bottle before there was any chance they could catch sight of it. Coincidence, most likely - they were probably about to wake up anyway.
He glanced around to make sure that Leela was fully concealed, and then stood up, hands folded, surveying the recovering agents impassively.
"Agent Brimon. Under-Assassin Toltra. Can you hear me? This is Coordinator Narvin."
"Mmmnnorgnaah..." Brimon mumbled, while Toltra blinked blearily. Narvin bent down, and offered each of them a hand to sit up.
"You passed out. Prolonged exposure to this...phenomenon...I expect. Don't worry, you won't be reprimanded - it's...unpleasant." The lie came smoothly and easily - at least Leela had known he wouldn't be at all reluctant to do that. "Take a few microspans...there we are... Now, I gather you have information for me?"
It took the agents a few microspans to properly come round and regain enough composure to answer Narvin's questions. These two at least still respected him enough to follow their CIA training, to push aside and mask their own discomfort in front of a superior. He had selected them very carefully.
He was to take a Type 94C TT-capsule, he was informed, which was charged and provisioned and sitting in the wings ready to launch. An advanced type - fast, powerful, sturdy and equipped with the very latest in CIA monitoring, recording and reporting equipment; and the C-model had been chosen for its unique recall features - still in their experimental phases, but Narvin preferred to have a prototype life-ring than no life-ring at all.
Unfortunately, the examination of their gathered data was considerably less rewarding. The phenomenon was proving to be highly elusive - both agents reported that the data they had recorded wasn't what they remembered it to be, and their memories even differed from one another, and from the amount of data that was recorded. At Narvin's best guess, the temporal nature of this portal - or of whatever was through it, or had caused it - was unlike anything else on the Axis.
What that was, he couldn't say; and it seemed that even the phenomenon itself wasn't sure. At least everything else here had been anchored enough to have a complete reality quotient.
There was no pretext for delay, then - it had to be investigated.
TT-capsule boarded and controls inspected, he stole a surreptitious glance over at the hatch where Leela was concealed, and then bade to dismiss the attending agents. It would be too dangerous for them to remain standing by when he flew through the portal, he explained - they had no idea how it would react.
Thankfully loyal and obedient, they nodded their agreement and saluted. Was it his imagination, or were they holding that salute a little longer than would be customary for the simple following of an order? Narvin didn't like it - it brought to mind a state funeral.
And just to top it all off, as they moved to depart, Agent Brimon paused, and caught Narvin's eye.
"Good luck," he said quietly.
"I don't believe in luck," Narvin replied stiffly, turning away and pushing open the TT-capsule door.
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Leela
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Post by Leela on May 17, 2017 4:27:46 GMT -5
Leela stood quietly in the darkness, far back enough that the light slanting through the gaps in the venting fell cleanly on the floor. Evan at this distance, and with the obstruction, she could still count the individual threads of stitching on the robes that his agents wore.
She could tell that Narvin had thought she was just saying what he wanted to hear. She'd known him for too long, now, to not be able to read something like that in his body language. She could read people as well as the Time Lords read all their long books of twisted words, something that a lot of people seemed to forget. However, she was also used to Narvin's suspicious mind. She would have been more surprised if a small part of him didn't wonder and question, with the people that he had to deal with every day. She had seen it so often, now, that unquestioning acceptance could get a person killed.
Completely still in the cool darkness, Leela listened to what Narvin was being told. While, even after all this time spent on Gallifrey, she didn't understand all the words that were being said, she could understand the emotion behind them far better.
Even through they hid it well, keeping their words smooth and their voices free of emotion, she still picked up on the wariness and confusion that the presence of this portal, and the things that it was doing had caused. This portal was unknown, and she had seen the way that the unknown could frighten Time Lords.
Still, there seemed to be something more to it than that, this time.
Even though it was softly spoken, she caught that too, as well as the somber mood, as they left. These were men that were preparing to mourn a loss.
Seeing that, and hearing it, she felt that much more justified in her actions. If her being there could make the difference between Narvin's coming back home, and dying a lonely death a long way away from it, then she would be proud.
Or if it did not, then at least she could make sure that he wasn't alone.
Setting her shoulders back and holding her chin at a proud angle, she waited until she heard the sound of the two agents' footsteps fade completely, and Narvin was approaching the door of the TARDIS.
The sound of metal scraping on metal sounded as she pushed the vent covering free, to let herself out and then put it back into place, before crossing the stretch of floor to join Narvin.
"They are afraid," Leela spoke softly, as she stepped up to Narvin's side. "They also sound like they do not believe what their senses are telling them."
Tilting her head, Leela stole one last glance backwards, along the path that lead back to the safety of the shining city that they'd come from.
Safety behind, and danger ahead. Just like old times.
"This is.... I do not know what it is. But it is wrong."
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on Jun 5, 2017 20:58:58 GMT -5
Narvin made quite sure to close the TT-capsule door before replying to Leela. The last thing he needed was for his agents to overhear that he had a stowaway. Not that they would be able to do anything about it now, but he didn't want to leave a panic in his wake - not if he wouldn't be here to tidy it up. And it wouldn't do for Romana to try and follow him.
"They are afraid. They also sound like they do not believe what their senses are telling them."
"I'm not sure I believe it," he replied, crossing the bare, off-white console room to turn on the scanner and run his eyes across the data on the screen. "We both saw that portal - but these readings are telling me it doesn't exist. No, wait...now they're saying it will exist, or might anyway, but in the future." He tapped some controls, and the time rotor hissed into life, warming up.
"This is.... I do not know what it is. But it is wrong."
"Well, we'd better hope that I'm right, because I have to fly through it." Narvin was a good pilot, he knew - one of the best, in fact - but this would be a challenge, to say the least, when the equipment in front of him wasn't quite sure that their flight path existed. "You'd better sit down and hold onto something - and keep quiet."
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Leela
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Post by Leela on Jun 30, 2017 1:05:35 GMT -5
Leela gave Narvin a wide smile, full of excitement and anticipation, even as she gripped onto a pillar with a hold that wouldn't be shifted. "I know that you are right. If you cannot do this, then no-one can." Her voice held a quiet confidence in Narvin's skills, and the look in her eyes was a rare one, pure trust in her friend after everything that they'd faced together.
"I think that you are even better at flying than the Doctor is."
Well, as far as she was concerned, it was high praise.
"I will keep quiet, and hold on, but I will remain on my feet. It gives me more of a chance to react, if something happens that should not happen." Shifting her grip so that it was two-handed, she changed her stance so that she was standing on the balls of her feet.
Not that there was much that she could do, if something did go wrong. It was more a way to counter her own unease. In spite of knowing how large a TARDIS really was, there was still a part of her that felt trapped, confined like an animal in a cage, with the roof so close overhead, and the walls pressing in at her sides. That craving for freedom was something that she had long since reconciled with but in moments like this when the hair on her neck was standing on end, she felt it sharper than ever.
That urge to run, to hide and fight.
But how could one fight against something that wasn't even there?
"I will not get in your way." She added in reassurance, before falling silent, gaze fixed on the screens and Narvin's movement as the engine of the TARDIS whined, and the time rotor rose and fell. There was something reassuring, and comforting in the confidence that he moved with.
Narvin was in his element right now, and as soon as they were on the other side, she told herself, then she would be in hers either way.
The moment seemed to stretch around them, and for a moment, Leela couldn't shake the feeling that they had just stepped inside the mouth of some great beast... and it had just swallowed.
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on Sept 12, 2017 8:02:13 GMT -5
[i/]"I know that you are right. If you cannot do this, then no-one can. I think that you are even better at flying than the Doctor is."[/i]
High praise indeed. Genuine praise, too.
False praise, obeisance, Narvin knew how to respond to quite well - he was far more used to it. Genuine praise, on the other hand... He opened his mouth to offer some disparaging remark about the Doctor's TT-capsule piloting skills, but was saved the trouble, as they lurched into motion.
The first phase, latching onto their flight path, would have to be done by force. It didn't necessarily have to matter that the TT-capsule's scanners couldn't decide whether it existed, he decided, as he and Leela had seen it in the physical, with their own eyes. To that end, instead of phasing out into the time vortex directly, Narvin caused the capsule to physically rise into the air, hover for a few nanospans while it found its feet with this new maneuvre, and then swoop forwards, directly through the corrupted, undulating portal before them.
It was a tight fit, and Narvin worried for a moment that one of the corners would clip the edge, but Leela's assessment of his piloting skills had been accurate, and they sailed through smoothly into the foggy tangle of unreadable data on the scanners.
Whatever Narvin had expected to happen once they were through, it wasn't for every single light in the console room - including the warm glow of the time rotor - to abruptly extinguish with a small "pop" as if a fuse had blown.
Plunged into sudden and absolute silence and darkness, he gripped the edge of the console and held his breath, every sense on edge.
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Leela
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Post by Leela on Oct 15, 2017 23:20:14 GMT -5
Leela focused in on the familiar - the hum of the TARDIS, the way that Narvin moved, the scent and shape of him which she'd known for so many long years, as Gallifrey kept circling at the center of the Time Lord's universe. As long as she was her, at the side of her friend, then everything would come around again. She believed that with everything in her heart.
No, more than that - she felt it in her bones, the same way that she had heard the Time Lords say that they felt the path of time.
She stood lightly on her feet, swaying with the motion of the TARDIS, as it lifted and moved forward. There was no need to hold her breath, as the TARDIS whispered towards the mouth of the portal, because she'd never doubted for a moment, that they would be able to make it.
Not with Narvin at the controls.
As the ship twisted through the portal, the world behind them fell away behind them, and there was a glimmer, a feeling of change, as they slipped into the new universe. Even the starlight here smelled different, to that of the skies that they'd left behind.
People said that it was impossible to smell starlight, but those were people who had never truly tried to.
The TARDIS whispered, the engines exhaling the last of the Axis.... and the TARDIS stopped dead in space, as the engines powered down, and all the lights went out, leaving the pair of them in a darkness that was so complete, that even with her gift of sight, she couldn't see her hand in front of her face.
Willing her nerves to the back of her mind, Leela closed her eyes so that she wasn't distracted by her mind's attempts to see, and listened to the darkness, breathing in the scents around her, and tracing the outline of the controls in her mind's eye.
"Narvin?" her voice sounded far too loud, without any background hum. Her footsteps echoed, ringing out through the silence, as she followed the sound of his heartsbeats, to his side.
"I hear no engines, and feel no fresh air on my face. This is not a good thing."
The TARDIS was dead, and without the TARDIS to keep them alive, then it would not be long until they were, as well.
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on Nov 23, 2017 2:16:03 GMT -5
Narvin must have been more on edge about their mission than he had realized. When Leela's voice sounded in the darkness, closer than he had been expecting, he jumped, startled, and spun around.
"Ow." His hip knocked against the edge of the console, and he flung his hand out, only to pull it back when it unexpectedly made contact with the bare skin of Leela's arm.
"I hear no engines, and feel no fresh air on my face. This is not a good thing."
"The navigational and temporal orientation systems are down," he replied, his voice coming out smoother and more composed than he had been expecting. "And primary and secondary power, by the look of things."
The Type 94C wasn't completely familiar to him, but he remembered his glance over the controls before they took off well enough to find the switches he was looking for, and flick them back and forth.
"Nothing...tertiary power is out as well... At least basic life support is intact - the gravity is still normal. That runs on an internal emergency backup. Hm. It's possible we've entered another timestream where Rassilon didn't build the Eye of Harmony." Loose speculation, but it wouldn't be the first time - far from it.
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Leela
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Post by Leela on Dec 7, 2017 21:17:45 GMT -5
"You must move carefully in the darkness, Narvin. It will do neither of us any good, if one or the other of us is wounded."
Leela followed Narvin with her ears, listening to him talk about what was, or in this case wasn't working as he tried various switches and buttons on the TARDIS. Each faint click brought about more of the same, as nothing happened.
"So, we can breath, and stand on our feet. That is a start. For how long? Will our life last longer, if we turn the gravity off?"
Finally, she opened her eye once again, to see whether there was any chance of her vision adjusting in this darkness, and started to circle the TARDIS, pulling open various cupboards, to check for anything that they might be able to make use of.
"What are our stores like? Food, light, water, weapons?"
It was calming, to keep talking and moving.
It was also reassuring, to be trapped here with a friend.
"What about bombs? If we have any of those, then perhaps we could use them to move, or signal any people that we are out here."
She moved to stand at Narvin's shoulder, taking an unspoken comfort, from the fact that he was right there.
Then, she gave voice to another fear.
"If there are any people out here."
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Vansell
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Post by Vansell on Dec 19, 2017 23:09:53 GMT -5
"So, we can breath, and stand on our feet. That is a start. For how long? Will our life last longer, if we turn the gravity off?"
"It'll last longer than most human lifespans, I expect," Narvin replied, stooping down to check beneath the console. "You know how long things take on Gallifrey - rescue missions aren't necessarily any quicker. Yes, theoretically the life support might last a little longer if we turn the gravity off...but in this case, I'm going to select quality of life over quantity, and opt not to spend my remaining decades flailing in the air like a drone with a broken gyroscope."
A purely practical choice, he assured himself. As much as he wanted to make his single, solitary life last as long as possible, his focus needed to be on working a way to get out of here, and that would be easier with normal gravity. Hopefully that way, neither of them would need to worry about how soon they would die here.
"What are our stores like? Food, light, water, weapons?"
"More than sufficient, I expect." Ah, that was what he was looking for - a panel that he could prise loose. He took a pen from his pocket and began attempting to wiggle it into the gap he could feel beneath his fingers. "This is a Type 94C - it's a prototype, but state of the art, and meant for a full crew of six. As for weapons - no TT-capsule has been without weapons since...well..."
"What about bombs? If we have any of those, then perhaps we could use them to move, or signal any people that we are out here."
"What was it you just said about 'if one or the other of us is wounded'?" Narvin shook his head. Bombs were dangerous at the best of times, let alone in a situation with so many unknown factors as this one.
He doubted Leela's barrage of questions had quite run out of steam yet, so he kept his ears open, even as he rummaged under the console. Normally, he mused, he would have told her to be quiet about four questions ago, but if it kept her from worrying then hopefully she wouldn't try to interfere with anything. Yes, that was why. A practical decision, again. Nothing at all to do with feeling just a little bit protective of her.
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