|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2014 7:23 pm
Zircon felt like she was walking on thin ice.
Then again, the feeling was pretty constant for the Captain, who was nearing the one-year mark of her reinstatement into the Negaverse. She found herself snagged by threads of distrust from nearly every branch of the Negaverse, which she supposed shouldn't be surprising, considering she was twice a traitor and lucky to even be alive. Still, it was like wading through frozen water, fighting towards a distant and unreachable shore as her limbs took to the cold. She was breathing, and sometimes it felt like she was moving forward, but she knew someday the depths would come for her and her blood would freeze.
She tried not to think of the future. Zircon was alive now, and that was better than being dead, frozen and alone.
She had Sakuradite to thank for taking her so graciously back into the fold, inviting her onto her research team and allowing her to process some of their experiments. Zircon liked the days when the General-Queen had a long list of interviews, and she was a dutiful intern who took the initiative in cleaning the detritus from the chair when Sakuradite was done. She liked less the days when Sakuradite's schedule was clear; on those days, it was Zircon's turn in the chair. Her starseed was such a unique anomaly, after all, corrupted and cleansed and corrupted again, and Sakuradite liked to map the scars on the fragile crystal. It was an excruciating way to keep herself useful, but she was alive, and that was better than being dead. Alive was always better than dead.
The Captain stood at the door of her General-Queen's office like she was on the precipice of a cliff, clutching to a binder of neatly assembled notes. She'd been crafting her plans for months now over nights of little sleep and empty coffee cups. In her arsenal she had charts, diagrams and graphs, case studies and personal observations, all of which was the groundwork for a single blueprint. It had been tweaked dozens of times in lavender ink, but now it was printed on fresh paper, crisp and clean. Zircon had been impressed with the final schematics, but she was only a Captain and her opinions were nothing more than words for the passing wind. She would need to impress a General-Queen, and she'd been given a brief five minutes in the woman's busy schedule to prove herself.
No pressure or anything.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2014 10:07 pm
Sakuradite found Zircon a deeply fascinating subject. There were precious few recorruptions in the Negaverse - those who purified rarely allowed themselves to be brought back - and never mind that the girl was smart. She made both a useful subject and researcher, and so the General-Queen was happy to have her on her team.
That did not mean that she wasn't consistently on the watch for signs of betrayal - you chose to be purified, after all.
Still, she was interested in what Zircon might have in mind, and so at the appointed time, she was behind her desk, waiting.
"Come in, darling," she called cheerily, leaning back in her seat. She could feel a Captain aura, and her expectation was, simply, that Zircon would be on time.
No questions asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2014 4:36 pm
Zircon was quick to heed the General-Queen's call, and on command she hopped into the office, her binder at her chest like it might have been a shield. Others might have fallen for Sakuradite's saccharine act, but Zircon knew better; there was a predator to be respected under that cheerful demeanor, and it would not do to have her guard down for even a moment.
"General-Queen. T-thank you for taking the time to speak with me today," she greeted, nodding her head with a nervous bow. She sidled into the guest chair, feeling a bit like a child sent to the principal's office. Straightening her posture, she did her best not to look intimidated as she flipped open her plans, lingering on the first page as she slid the book over for review.
"As you know," Zircon began, "Under your study, I've been researching the teleportation capabilities of the White Moon these past few months, and from what I've observed I have developed blueprints to monitor these activities." She flipped to a few pages in, which displayed several detailed schematic drawings of a platform between what appeared to be a pair of crystalline satellite dishes turned inwards.
"Using this device, we will, with calibration, be able to track any White Moon traffic and hunt it down with utmost efficiency. However, this is secondary to its ultimate purpose." She thumbed a few pages further down, revealing another, larger schematic, this one of a large crystalline arch powered by energy. "The secondary device, if my theory is correct, should be able to harness the calibrations found from the first and use them as triangulations, affording us, for the first time in the Dark Kingdom's history, to harness space travel."
Another officer might have tried to jazz up her big reveal, to give some drama to her voice to reflect the gravity of the situation, but she had a hard time just keeping her voice from quivering. "We could expand the empire beyond Earth's boundaries, and stop the White Moon at their source."
And here came the turn, the request for special permission, and Zircon began to blanch. "But in order to test this theory, I will need at least three successful teleportations in the lab to triangulate the device, which means I have to allow three patients the opportunity to escape to their homeworld." She bit her lip, letting the stipulation hang on the air for a moment.
"It could be anyone, as long as they are alive enough to teleport," she hastily added, wringing her hands. "And it doesn't need to change our protocols prior to their release, we can perform all experiments shy of corruption or termination."
Please, please, please let this work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2014 11:41 pm
Sakuradite nodded along as Zircon spoke, her attention very much taken up by the blueprints. The designs were brilliant - as expected - and, she suspected, would actually do what they were supposed to. It was a good project. An incredibly, thoroughly useful project. And her entire expression lit up, and she made a tiny, girlish noise of delight.
Space travel. Zircon was proposing a viable scheme to strike Order where they lived, without the haphazard shots of what the Ascended Senshi could do. A few planets was nowhere close to the ability to go wherever they wished, whenever they wished.
"Yes," she said, because three freed prisoners was such a small price to pay for the whole of space. "You have the latitude to do whatever you wish, if you can make this work." Her eyes cut up to lock on Zircon's. "And it had best work, sweetie, because if it does the rewards will be...well. Whatever your darling little heart desires."
What was left unsaid was that if it turned out to be a waste of her resources, well. Zircon might be Sakuradite's next experiment.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
