WHO: Ray Palmer and Fitz WHAT: Meeting of nerds WHEN: Early March WHERE: Lighthouse hangar WARNING/STATUS: Low/Complete
"How's it looking, Gideon?" Ray called through ATOM's open comlink to the AI inside the ship, not the very human version of his friend. Though her assistance would have undoubtedly been extremely useful. She knew the ship better than anyone and having two of her right then would have been amazing.
"The Time Drive has been remounted correctly and is fully functional, Dr Palmer."
"Yes! Step one and two complete." Ray punched the air and landed on the floor of the hangar with a gentle thud.
"Indeed, Dr Palmer, and you have company."
"Oh!" Turning on the spot, Ray undid the catch on his helmet and pulled it off, offering a smile to the visitor, who he recognised, though hadn't actually properly met this version yet. "Hi."
Fitz had psyched himself up for it, but he only made it as far as the doorway before his feet would let him go no farther. It shouldn't have mattered. The structure was sound, engineered in such a way that the water above would not pour into the opening when crafts needed to take off. The exterior pressure had been appropriately accounted for in the design. He knew, because he'd poured over the schematics before even considering entering the space.
But now, faced with it?
"Hi," he managed, though it was as much a croak as it was a word. He tried to focus on the person who'd greeted him, but he felt a little shaky around the edges. Or maybe that was just his legs. "I think I'll—go. I'll go." Except he couldn't turn around.
The nerves radiating from the other man seemed too great to just be caused by meeting someone new and concern creased Ray’s brow as he took a few steps forward. Behind him, the Waverider’s hatch closed quietly and the ship powered down as Gideon intuitively knew what to do. "You don’t need to leave on my account, I’ve finished for now anyway."
Stopping a foot or so away he gave another smile, this one a little softer than the usual megawatt expression. "Are you okay? I’m sorry if the suit unnerved you. I promise I don’t usually wear it to work here, but I needed the flight capability to reach the part of the ship which needed fixing in this instance." A pause for breath and to remember his manners before he finally introduced himself. "I’m Ray."
"Oh, no, the suit's fine," Fitz said, gesturing at the outfit while he simultaneously backed a couple of steps out of the room. It wasn't a magic bullet for calming him—he hadn't noted the exact measurements for where in the corridor the underwater portion of the facility actually began, much to his chagrin—but there were no doors between here and assured safety. That helped.
Then his brain rewound a few seconds and caught on what the other had said. "Jet propulsion?" he asked, leaning to one side to see what he could see without getting any closer. He took another step back, but it was less conscious this time. He was too busy cataloguing the visible elements of the suit. It was an intricate design, well articulated. "And a lot more. Who designed it?"
"Well that’s a relief, though it’s easy to take off, I’d rather not do it in the hallway." As Fitz moved further back into the corridor, Ray figured out that it wasn’t his presence, but the location which was unnerving the other man. Not that he could blame him, they were under tonnes of ocean, it was enough to unsettle anyone who really thought about it. He tried not to, even though he knew the Waverider was capable of surviving underwater.
"Yes, jet propulsion, albeit by very small engines. In the back, shoulders, upper arms and calves." He smiled, lifting up the helmet and patting it. "Oh, uh, I did. With help from Felicity Smoak. Had a little mishap in the early stages, but what’s six months in a tiny state?"
Fitz took a few more steps back, only half conscious that the conversation was conveniently following him. He might have retreated fully and found a place to hole up and hyperventilate for a little while, but he was too intrigued by the feat of engineering in front of him to quite reach that peak of anxiety. "Even distribution, should compensate for the—"
He frowned at the phrasing. It wasn't a throwaway comment. "What do you mean tiny state?" He snapped his fingers, looking for words that wouldn't quite come to him. Pym Particles turned somehow instead into, "You were subatomically, extra-dimensionally shifted? For six months?"
"My thoughts exactly." Ray smiled in agreement with the partial sentence. Tucking the lid under his arm, he moved to one side of the corridor so he could walk beside Fitz and the other scientist wouldn’t have to keep going backward. He almost forgot that people weren’t always familiar with what had happened to him, but the new universe meant the backstory didn’t exist here.
"Oh, yeah, I was shrunk, I stayed in the same dimension for the most part. There were a few confusing moments when I went so subatomic that I was in an entirely different place; but I came back to this dimension and stuck at five inches." He tilted his head, resisting the urge to sigh at the memory, that other dimension was a place he’d be fascinated to visit again and explore. "I managed to blow up the top floor of my business, unfortunately I was found by the boss of a criminal organisation who wanted to steal the technology. I felt like a gerbil."
Fitz turned to fall into slow step with the other man, still stealing side glances at the suit as his mind whirled with the specs he assumed were at least pretty close to the real thing. Other technical questions popped into his head and flitted back out just as quickly, and the thing that bubbled up to the top was the question he realized he hadn't answered earlier in the conversation. "Fitz," he said, turning enough to hold out his good hand. "I'm Fitz."
After the story had been unfolded, he stared for a few seconds, parsing the information, and then burst out laughing. It was a long stretch of seconds before he was able to rein himself in again with an apologetic wave of his hand. "It's—" Another chuckle. "Sorry, but it's—it's exactly the sort of thing Simmons and I end up getting caught in. Minus the—" He waved a hand struggled for the words for a moment, then substituted, "The tiny."
Only then did he realize he'd forgotten altogether about his mission. He glanced over his shoulder at the doorway. He hadn't managed to get inside, but he'd avoided a panic attack getting as far as he did. It was progress.
"Fitz." Ray smiled and shook the offered hand. He'd forgotten there hadn't been an actual introduction yet between the two of them. Not with the suit being such a distraction. It was actually kind of cool being able to talk about the engineering behind it with someone who understood. Nate tried, but he was much better with history than science. "Nice to meet you."
Of all the reactions he'd had to that story, laughter wasn't one that had come up before. It was oddly refreshing, if a bit jarring at first, but the explanation behind it soon had him chuckling too. Really, how ridiculous were their lives, if things like blowing yourself up or being captured by criminal masterminds was a regular occurence?
"Sounds like we should both be grateful for the relative safety here, from exploding ourselves." He couldn't say the same for abductions, seeing as he and Zari had been snatched on New Years.
"Not sure I'd call it safe." Fitz had heard plenty of stories since arriving about what had been happening over the last few months, and there was an inherent danger in having all these powerful people in such a small area. "But it's safer than, uh, field work. With S.H.I.E.L.D. Which is what I was doing before."
He paused and looked over his shoulder again. Would it help to go inside with someone else? Particularly someone wearing a highly advanced piece of equipment that he expected probably had the ability to get them out of any tight spots. Not that he actually thought the sea was going to cave in on their heads, but it was the principle of the thing.
"Would you mind—hmm, that is...." He turned and gestured toward the hangar. "Can you show me around? I haven't been in the hangar yet." Already, his hands shook at the mere thought, but he squeezed them into fists. (Well, the bad hand not so much, but it was what it was.)
Fitz definitely had a point. He had to admit he didn't feel particularly safe around here anymore. So much so that he hadn't really been anywhere outside of the labs and his Penthouse. He'd visited Zari's room too of course, but nowhere else really. "Yeah, I haven't done much field work since we helped out in Norlisk."
Ah there it was, that slightly nervous air that the other man had had back at the entrance to the hangar. "Oh sure, I don't mind at all." The cavernous room was quite the feat of engineering, but he could see why it would make people anxious, it being underwater.
"I can show you the Waverider too, if you'd like. The ship I'd just finished working on when you found me." Ray smiled gently, letting his fellow scientist take the lead so they could go at his pace.
"I've been tinkering around with some designs in my spare time." If Fitz was ever able to think clearly enough, make the connections, then it might have benefitted S.H.I.E.L.D. and his team greatly, whether in the form of upgrades on the bus or a new ship altogether. He wasn't sure if that had ever happened. He'd have to remember to ask Jemma. (He probably wouldn't.) "I'll only steal the best ideas, promise."
The joke did little to lighten the edge of anxiety as he slowly made his way back to the door. He had to remind himself that he'd made it that far, at least, and nothing catastrophic had happened. Suit that can withstand quantum space became something of a mantra as he silently got one foot inside the door and then another. Sweat beaded on his forehead with the effort, and it was all he could do to keep air going in and out of his lungs.
"It's a room, Fitz," he mumbled under his breath. A bloody huge room covered by—those thoughts weren't helping. "Inside a ship—yeah, that might be...better."
"I suspect that a lot of the vehicles in here you'll already be familiar with as they're S.H.I.E.L.D. But Clint's Quinjet is based here too," Ray pointed out the impressive looking jet from the mouth of the hangar. He hoped his talking would distract Fitz from the anxiety building up, but judging by the body language, he wasn't very successful. "What sorts of designs have you been editing?"
As they ventured further into the vast hangar, Ray stepped toward the Waverider, "This is a Time Ship, she's capable of flying in the atmosphere and in space. She's decent underwater too, though a little less manoeuvrable." Raising his voice slightly so the mic in his helmet could pick it up clearer, "Gideon, could you let us in please?"
"Certainly, Dr Palmer. I look forward to seeing you and Mr Fitz on the bridge."
The exterior door opened on the ship and a short ramp extended to the floor. "After you." Ray gestured with a smile, following Fitz into the ship a moment later and leading him out of the cargo bay via one of the many identical hallways.
Fitz rattled off a few of the areas he'd been working to enhance on the bus without going into too much detail. Partially, it was that he had trouble keeping it all in his head these days without his notes, but also he'd yet to be successful with some of them—like the cloaking device—and he preferred not to highlight his failures for a new acquaintance. He was working on it. One new brain connection at a time. "But at a certain point it's less efficient to make upgrades and more practical to build a new jet. It's—well, it was on the cusp."
He managed one step, then another, and soon he was keeping pace with Ray, if only because that was a closer source of safety than retreating to the hallway was now.
"Dr. Fitz," he corrected automatically. He was so used to FRIDAY now that hearing a different voice was a little odd. But fascinating. He was still frustrated at how little information Tony Stark had made available on his AI. He went eagerly into the ship and found that he was breathing much easier when he had the familiar sort of metal walls around him. He rested a palm on one of them and couldn't help a little smile. "It's not quite being in the air, but it's closer." He looked over at Ray. "Didn't think I'd miss it. It's Simmons's fault we went into the field at all."
"A new jet sounds like a decent project to get your teeth into. Aerospace design has always fascinated me. If you need an assistant I'd be happy to help." Ray found himself blurting out the offer, excited by the prospect of an engineering project happening at the Lighthouse. Portal work was very theory heavy and he was getting restless hands.
"Jemma encouraged you out of the lab?" Ray smiled at that, he could almost picture it. "I built my suit to help fight crime and protect my city. I didn't dream that it would lead to me being recruited by a Time Master to join a team protecting the timeline."
"My apologies, Dr Fitz." Gideon's voice intoned from overhead as they walked further into the ship. Ray lead the way to the bridge where her projected blue visage appeared. "Welcome aboard."
It hadn't occurred to Fitz that he could work on anything of the sort here, but the mere suggestion was fire in his veins. So much of what he'd done lately was research without an end goal that the idea of something with a concrete result was enticing, and he found himself nodding back. "Yeah, I mean, if we can get the funding, the backing—" His brain was going at sonic speed, hitting blocked pathways and rerouting almost as quickly. There were so many technicalities, probably legalities, but he didn't care. "I'll look at my files, see if there's a place to start." Maybe in this world he'd actually already implemented some of the designs half-formed in his head—and maybe those could use improving.
"Out of the academy," he said with a nod, his eyes still roving the ship, taking in details of its construction as they went. He was cataloging questions for later, if they were able to get any sort of project off the ground. He only hoped they'd stick in his brain and not drift away to that place all the forgotten things went. He wouldn't be surprised if one day some synapse connected and he got a flood of random junk, even though the science didn't exactly point to that possibility. "Thanks, Gideon," he said absently as he continued, "I wouldn't call it encouraging. More...accepting on my behalf without any actually discussion, but—what's a time master?"
"You work for SHIELD right? The Lighthouse is their property, I thought they were still paying your wages here?" Ray was puzzled about the situation with the Lighthouse, especially since Daisy’s disappearance and return. Though he assumed that with it being a secret facility for the clandestine organisation, that Tony wouldn’t be footing the bill for whatever they did here. "Great! If you need a second set of eyes to look things over, you know where I am. Just prod me on the network if I’m not in the lab."
Mention of the Academy brought up images of Quantico or Military colleges, though he supposed that wasn’t too far off the mark. He smiled knowingly at the explanation and the soft whirring overhead which signalled Gideon was pleased to be addressed by their new friend. "A Time Master is a guardian of the timeline, at least they were in our universe. They lived outside the natural timeline, monitoring and intervening when necessary. Rip was from the future, so I’m not exactly sure how he became one."
"My status with S.H.I.E.L.D. is a bit complicated." Everything about Fitz was a bit complicated, considering he was himself and yet not the right himself. Things like salary and funding were separate entities anyway, and he genuinely had no idea what kind of money might be floating around between what parties. "That's true for—well, basically everything right now." Still, he liked the sound of a big project like this, and it would be interesting to work with someone whose world could have different technological advancements to learn.
He couldn't help thinking of all that Jemma had related to him about their lives—his future—which had involved quite a lot of time travel. Try as he might to wrap his head around it, he'd given it up as one of those things his neurons weren't quite ready to transport. The same apparently went for a person living outside of time. "Is that where you got the ship, then?"
"Complicated now, but I'm sure it will work out. If they know you I bet they won't mind you asking for project funding." Tony probably wouldn’t refuse either, but since he was taking a step back from the Avengers, that might extend to projects relating to the facilities too. "I guess at least complicated isn’t boring?" Not that the immediate area surrounding the portal was ever boring.
"Yes, the ship is from the future too. Rip was the captain, until he created a Time Bureau and stopped going out in the field." He didn’t have the heart to mention the sacrifice Rip had made, it was all still a little too raw. Not so for Sara and human Gideon though. Or Zari. "The portal brought it through when it was just me and Zari here. Technically Sara is the Captain now, but we don’t really have any missions here." He smiled and tapped at the centre console, bringing up a map of the timeline. "We’ve been mapping this earth’s timeline as a hobby."
It was a lot of information about people whose names were familiar, but not known. Fitz didn't know enough about Ray himself to pick and choose which to file away for later, so he didn't make an effort to remember it all. There was already too much fighting for the minimal fully-functional space in his brain. Timeline mapping, though, was particularly interesting to him, given what Jemma had told him about his own future (if it could even be called that now). He leaned in closer to get a better look at it all. "Mind walking me through it? Seeing it mapped out, it might actually be comprehensible."