IC Contact

[cargojet]

You've reached Senator Nathan Petrelli. If I'm not answering your call please leave me a message, and I'll get back to you just as soon as I can.

Comments

[after the jump]

[ryuuzaki]

Well.

[His voice sounds odd -- grim. He's still in medbay.]

What can we track?

[He's referring to Shepard's last message.]

I'm assuming they didn't make it back.

[cargojet]

They didn't, they're dead. Javik's communicator is supposed to be out there; she wants me to triangulate it, but our network of routers isn't big enough to do it. It could be anywhere on the ship...or not on the ship.

But...it'll show us if that's what it wants.

I just don't know if that means it's safe to go.

[ryuuzaki]

It's not safe to go until it tells us it's safe to go, and then it still isn't safe to go, it's -- ow.

[Falling out of the pod took something out of him, in terms of his recovery. He collects himself before continuing.]

It's just a matter of the payment extracted for anything we learn.

I'm not sure the communicator will still be active, if he's gone. If someone insists on going out again anytime soon, they can try to extend the network.

[But it isn't as if hunting for a communicator that's out of range is like using a metal detector. At best it's like using a tracking bug and hoping that the transmitter is still powered and that it's still tuned to the signal that the receiver can pick up.]

Listen, one thing that bothers me is that, to my knowledge, we're out of information. Those visions, the dreams we had during comas... they've come to fruition. They can continue to be relevant, and we'll start to see the facial hallucinations on a day-to-day basis, fight each other, constantly encounter people who shouldn't be here... or something new may be coming.

I think it's more likely to be something new, sometime after the next jump. Maybe in a few weeks, but that isn't the pattern.

[cargojet]

It coulda been months, you're right. And honestly the last thing I expect is to find an active signal. Comms that aren't being used are as a matter of course gone when we wake up after the jump. We never find the devices. Hell, there's hundreds of closed lockers in the medbay who knows what's inside them.

[ A question he puzzled twice a month without fail, without actually daring to try and do anything about it. ]

Something new. You sure know how to reassure a guy. But you're right, it wouldn't fit the pattern. Did I mention I don't like there being a pattern?

[ryuuzaki]

[This is usually where L would get waspish -- Nathan would be aware of it -- but he doesn't.]

You don't have to mention it. It still helps to recognize it, however. Doesn't mean it won't, [a brief pause] it won't ever break from the pattern. If it does, that's information too. What it means, I can't say.

Have you ever noticed how the number of days between jumps creates the illusion of a regular calendar, but the number of days passing within the jump itself makes it impossible to draw any real conclusions from that information? It might be July, it might not be... we only know that there were 28 days between jumps five months ago and the "right" number of days since then, but that doesn't mean there won't be 28 days this time.

[He sounds tired, and he's aware that he's rambling; he allows that thought to trail off awkwardly before he continues with his message.]

In any case, has anyone ever tried to get into a decommissioned locker? I wonder if the lockers themselves are kept under some kind of stasis condition during the jumps, maybe something to do with the air.