Naina ran into her room and pulled Valera with her. She quickly tapped the console to open the screen, pointed at it, and turned to the pile of things near her bed. She dove into it and picked up various datapads and storage-units and a few portable computers, and tossed them aside, shaking her head.
She stood up, scratched the tip of her left ear, and pouted her lips. "I'm fairly sure it's here somewhere," she muttered. "Quera, where's my research from the remote units?"
"I believe it's under the pile of clothes that you moved yesterday, to make room for another pile of clothes that you moved from somewhere else, Captain Melcey," Quera said.
Naina made a face. "I could take less passive-aggressive commentary, Quera," she said.
"Probably," Quera said flatly.
Valera giggled and shook her head. She turned her attention to the console and started reading the data on the screen. She quickly concentrated on it so much that she didn't even notice what Naina was doing.
"Naina ..." she said, "This is incredible! Where did you get this?"
"Uh ... somewhere deep in the outer zone, I think. Closer to the rim than the Empire," she answered, her head half-way under her bed, frantically searching for something. "I think it was like ... three years ago? Maybe four. Can't remember. Should have time-tags though."
She continued digging under her bed, then got up and dusted herself. "But it's weird, right? The polarities change at the exact same time. I couldn't figure that out and just made a note of it," she said.
"The exact same time ...?" Valera muttered, and continue browsing the data. She was scrunching her eyebrows together and tapping her lips with her index finger.
"Yeah, I know!" Naina said, turning towards a closet and diving into it hip-deep. "I'll show you something once I find it!" came a mumbled voice out of the closet.
After frantically searching through the closet for a minute or so, she yelled "Que-la!" in excitement, quickly straightened up, and bumped her head on the closet's ceiling. "Daew! That hurt. Ugh," she muttered and held her hand on top of her head. "Here," she said, offering the thing she found to Valera.
Valera raised her eyebrow at her and tilted her head. "Naina, why do you have D-class storage units? Just lying around? They're not toys," she said, shaking her head and smiling.
Naina shrugged while still holding her head and grimaced. "Ouch, that's gonna leave a mark. Anyway, I grabbed a bunch of them when my department head said to grab a few. The remote drones have a D-class recorder, and using the standard storage for such an outrageous amount of data would have been a pain in my ears," she said, and glanced at her hand in search of traces of blood.
Sitting down, she pointed at a slot on the console and nodded at Valera. "Slot it in," she said. "I wanna show you this."
Valera slotted the unit, and the screen instantly filled up with a vast amount of data. Quickly, Naina began pointing at different parts of the screen and excitedly explained the locations and timestamps of the data streams.
"Look, look!" Naina pointed out at a particular set of data, her voice quivering out of excitement. "This is what I mean! Look! The timestamps, the pulse that came from the nearby star, the frequencies, the polarization, everything. Everything matches. Within a few microseconds."
Valera's eyes widened and her mouth flopped open. She grabbed a datapad out of her pocket that she brought with her, placed it beside the screen and glanced between it and the console's screen. She managed nothing but a quiet mumble, as her brain caught up with what it was being told.
Naina was nodding eagerly at her. "Yeah, you get it, don't you! With your data combined with mine ..." she said and glanced at the screen. "What if we're correct, Valera? What are we saying this means?"
"If I'm reading this correct -- and I think I am -- we're basically saying that all the spbubs are .... Connected? The same?" she said and raised her eyebrow.
"Connected ..." Naina mused. "So ... are we really saying, that it's theoretically possible to travel between sub-space bubbles?"
"If this data is true, and we're not making grave errors in our conclusions," Valera said, tapping her lips with her index finger. "Then we're saying all the spbubs are the same. That it's theoretically possible to enter one spbub, and then exist from another. The same. Eh, you know what I mean. The same spbub, but from another location."
Naina flopped down on her bed and exhaled deeply. "That's some reality-shaking theory you have there, Valera," she said. "I was thinking they'd be connected, but ... the same? You're talking about teleportation, Valera. Well, essentially. You know what I mean."
Valera nodded solemnly. "I know. Wild," she said and shook her head. "But there's no way to use this, I don't think. How'd you choose where to pop out of the spbub, considering how hard it seems to be in the first place?"
"Yeah," Naina said, getting up and starting to pace back and forth in the room. "Yeah. Unless. Unless ..." she muttered and scratched the tip of her left ear. Valera chuckled quietly. "Unless nyou can navigate inside the bubble. On your way out, I mean. What if you don't open the gateway through the bubble, but into the bubble?"
"What?" Valera exclaimed and turned around in the chair towards the room. "Inside the bubble?"
"Yeah. Yeah," Naina said and sounded more excited by the second. "Your ... thing. The drive. Not the donut ... wait. Hold up," she said and stopped, her eyes wide open, her bright green pupilless eyes glimmering in the dim light like precious gems.
She sat on her bed. "What if you power the donut when you're inside the bubble, but do not use the Polarizers?" she said, her gaze miles away, her mind racing.
"But the Polarizers are the ones that open ...." Valera said and jumped up, gasping loudly. "Naina, you beautiful genius!" she shouted, grabbed Naina's hands, and danced around her. "I know what to do! Come, I need your help! We need to turn the Polarizers the other way!" she screamed happily, and ran out of the door, pulling Naina behind her.
Author's Note: It seems like these girls like to run. For a couple of scientists, they are acting a lot like giddy school girls. Which, incidentally, is exactly how excited scientists behave.
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