InsaneJournal

Who: Bruce Banner and Jadzia Dad
What: Comforty drinks and science!
When: Sometime before Betty came back, obviously!
Where: Deck 5 Lounge
Status: Closed, Complete, Rated A for Alcohol!



He had genuinely assumed it would get easier. It was like somehow he'd forgotten what those first few months without her had been like. Or the second time. The second time had actually been worse, if Bruce thought on it long enough, because he'd had more time to settle. To deal with the experiment and all of the consequences. That brief period of having Betty back in his life had made him wonder if there wasn't a chance.

And now this. No one should have to love and lose the same woman three times. It was just cruel.

So yes, he was in the Deck 5 Lounge again and no, he didn't really care. He rarely got drunk. It was more difficult anyway, with the Other Guy in there, metabolizing everything at a much faster rate than most. But just a bit helped take the edge of. And it kept him from wandering to all those places they'd previously wandered to together. Betty had liked exploring. She always had.

It wasn't usually that easy to affect Jadzia. She felt, and deeply, but she'd gotten used to letting things wash off her back. Six, now seven lifetimes had taught her that change happened, people came and went, and it was a natural part of existence.

That didn't mean that sudden loss didn't hurt. Or that suddenly faced with the idea of losing things she'd built through no fault or control of her own didn't bother her.

She liked to think she was over it already, but she really wasn't. Worf was out of reach, Ben, Julian. Mako had gone. What's to say she'd wake up tomorrow and Tony or Bruce would be gone?

It was the uncertainty that was getting to her. Nothing was set in stone, and while Jadzia thrived on being unpredictable, she'd always been certain.

She dropped into a seat next to Bruce. “You’re drinking early.”

It was hard. He'd told himself no attachments. Hell, he'd told an entire ship full of people no attachments. But Bruce had always had trouble with that, and more so in such a confined space as the Enterprise. And with his closest friend on board, he may as well have been wearing his heart on his sleeve.

So it would be stupid to break an attachment that already existed. Which meant he wasn't giving up Jadzia. Screw it. “Am I?” He gave a little sideways grin at her and cocked a shoulder. “Just the one. Or so I'm telling myself.” It sounded better in theory.

“One turns to two turns to three,” Jadzia pointed out helpfully. She ordered whatever Bruce was having. “Is it just me, or is there a general atmosphere on the ship. Like we’re waiting, but we don’t know what we’re waiting for?”

He hadn't considered that, but she made a good point. Looking down into his drink, he considered. “Yeah,” he finally agreed. “I can see that. And it could be anything. Or several things. But we just don't know what.” Truthfully, he even picked up that vibe from the staff. Those that had been there for years, who knew the ship inside and out. Nothing could have prepared them for this, for the arrival of strangers from far off worlds and times.

“What do you think Worf would say? If he was here?” The thought occurred to him that she might not want to talk about her husband just then. But she'd tell him. Jadzia was nothing if not honest.

“The uncertainty is driving me up the wall,” Jadzia admitted, picking up her drink to taste it. She nodded a little, raising her eyebrows, then took a longer drink. “Worf would get frustrated. This isn’t something you can fight with a phaser or a bat’leth. But once he calmed down, I think he’d approach it as one would a storm. Something to ride through to the the other side.”

He liked that comparison. Something you had to ride out. It was how he felt when he was on the edge of a transformation. When it was too late to pull back, when he knew there was nothing he could do but hope the being inside of him could somehow stay in control of himself.

“I wish we could fight it, you know? Or at least that it was a tangible thing that we could approach. Even if it wouldn't fix things, I feel like I'd feel better if we just had some answers.” He was a man of science. Studying things, learning about them, that was how he coped. He had studied his own blood more than most humans should. But this? This he had no way of even approaching.

"I'd take some answers." Today, Jadzia was attempting to moderate her drinking. Whether she'd succeed or not was another story entirely. "Even figuring out the source of the phenomenon, or if there's some pattern we're not recognizing. Is there a special property that is more likely to result in someone being pulled over? I haven't found anything that's common between people. Not in blood work, or tissue samples. I've even examined the quantum signatures of crew members native to this timeline, myself, and other people. There's no observable pattern."

She swirled her drink. "I even let it sit for a few weeks, focused on other things. Fresh eyes didn't see anything new. If we could find a pattern, maybe we could find a source, if we could find a source, maybe we could find a way to control it, or stop it. Even if it meant trapping myself here, it might be worth stopping."

Focused on other things. He knew what she meant. And he didn't want that part to change. Changing that meant she might attempt to push people away. Selfishly, he needed her. He was losing Natasha, whether either of them could admit that or not. Tony was there and he'd hold on to that as hard as he could, but he had started growing used to the support system the Avengers had provided. They weren't always there. But usually it was enough.

“I can't find a link. There seems to be no rhyme or reason. It isn't just you all and your fractured timelines, it isn't just fighters, perhaps preparing for something bigger.” He shrugged, sipping at the drink. Even he could admit it felt useless. “Whatever ‘it’ is, it seems to be entirely nondiscriminatory.”

Jadzia could emphasize. Deep Space Nine had become more of a family to her than her actual family. It was different than on a Starship. On a Starship, you always knew where you stood even if you didn't know where you were. On DS9, even when rank needed to be pulled, you remained family.

Maybe the Avengers were supposed to like that too.

"Do you think there's an intelligent hand in it?" Jadzia asked. "Or is that asking the wrong question."

“I think that's asking exactly the right question,” Bruce confirmed. “That's the sort of thing that matters. Is it even a sentient being, or just a tear in some space time continuum we can't get close enough to see?” This helped. Talking science, even purely theoretical space science, helped. His mind could be in a thousand different places and if you put him in a lab, he could calm himself almost immediately. It was the familiarity. The fact that there was so much still to learn and explore. One tiny variable changes everything.

"Sensors don't pick up much when it happens. No increases in chroniton particles or tachyons, none of the usual signs of a time incident or wormhole."

But maybe this Enterprise's sensors just weren't sensitive enough. "Maybe we're not looking for the right thing, or using the right tool for the job. But if we could see what we're missing when the travellers arrive, it might give us some clues."

“They all come through at about the same time,” he pondered, as much to himself as to her. “And, it seems, they all leave at about the same time.” This was definitely what he'd needed. His mind wasn't even on ordering a second drink any longer. “There has to be a spike in something. Maybe we're not monitoring the right things?”

“If we can realign the sensor arrays,” Jadzia murmured. She pulled over a napkin to write some calculations. “Increase the throughput of the magnetic gravimetric pattern or do a wavefront inversion.”

They’d have to get permission, as it would leave the other departments unable to use the sensors or scientific equipment for the duration of that test.

Bruce glanced over her shoulder at what she was writing. “You missed one,” he pointed out, gesturing to the formula now taking up over half a napkin.

This may not have been his field, but truthfully, medicine never had been either and yet here he was. So gravitational fields and wavefronts could entirely be a thing he worked towards. Particularly if it got his mind off of literally everything else.

“Good catch.” Jadzia added the correction, then circled something. “This might work.”

Leaning her head back, Jadzia stared at the formulas. “You know, we should look at the computer logs from every time someone leaves or comes on to the ship.”

She tapped the napkin. “I think we need to be looking at delta and gamma radiation.”

“Think we can get access to them?” As official, though displaced, Starfleet, she would likely have more pull than he did. And hacking had never been his specialty. Though there was Tony...

Then she said her last words. Now that was Bruce's field entirely. In fact, a slow smile crossed his face. “I'd considered it. It would work a bit different up here than what I'm used to, but I've got a few ideas.” Manipulate a few tractor beams, send out appropriate signals. Now it was Bruce grabbing a napkin, snatching the pen Jadzia had been using, and jotting down formulas. Some he hadn't seen in nearly a decade.

“If I can’t get access to them I’ll try to bribe Mr. Spock.” Jadzia was certain he’d be interested in the experiment. “I’ll need his sign off anyway. And he might have a few suggestions too.”

Spock was as intelligent as he was attractive, and he was a legend in Jadzia’s time for many reasons. She leaned in, watching Bruce work. “Your mind is a sexy, sexy thing. I like where you’re going with this.”

“And I'm sure the chance to check Spock out hasn't crossed your mind at all,” Bruce teased, but then he was flushing at her compliment. He'd never be Tony: smart, attractive, and charismatic, all in one package. Hell, sometimes Tony made him look like a child playing scientist. So compliments to his intelligence never ceased to make him a bit bashful.

Taking another look at the formula he'd worked up, he finally nodded. “It's similar to what I did to find the tesseract back home. It was alien technology, for that matter, so it may even react similarly.” There was no way to know for sure, but he was enjoying trying to find out.

“I don’t need an excuse for that,” Jadzia protested. “But getting to pick his brain? That’s something special.”

Even if it was honestly a little tempting, Jadzia had a line and that line was ‘don’t sleep with both best friends’ because it would get just a little awkward. “Tell me about this tesseract, and what should we be looking for?”

Bruce shot a sideways grin at his flirtatious friend. Despite how long he'd known her now, she still had a talent for making him all flustered. It was getting a bit better, though. “I'm sure he'd welcome an intelligent conversation. At least with fellow Starfleet. He doesn't seem too thrilled with the rest of us.”

The Tesseract still brought up some memories he might rather have forgotten. But without it, there would be no Avengers. Not as they were, anyway. “It's an ancient Asgardian relic, originally owned by Odin. It was recovered during the World War. Tony’s dad had something to do with it, I think.” Which was still weird to consider. That and said Mr. Stark being on board.

“It emits a low level of gamma radiation - that's where I come in. But it's run on pure energy, with immeasurable power.” The more he thought on it, the more there was a chance that something of that nature could be controlling the nebula. “It...had the power to transport through space. Possibly even time…” His voice trailed off, his eyes growing wider.

“None of this is logical. I think that’s the thing that gets to him the most. The situation, the people, the seeming randomness.” It got to Jadzia at times too, obviously. But she liked this current distraction.

She fell silent as Bruce explained the Tesseract and what it was capable of. “It’s a self-sustaining energy source?” Her eyes widened as well. “Something like that just needs to be turned on and then you’d lose control of it.”

Oh, he was well aware of how easy it was to lose control of it. Loki, thinking he controlled everything. Thinking he had enough power to contain the tesseract. “I know,” he said softly, still seeing Chitauri in his mind. The Other Guy may have dealt with the worst of it. That didn't mean he wanted a reminder any time soon.

“So… Hear me out. Say this was something of that nature. Obviously not an ancient Norse relic, which is highly unlikely, but similar. Something so powerful, it could tear the world apart if it was left to its own devices. Say someone had it, wanted to bring someone to them. But they lost control…” And thus, they happened. Alternate dimensions, many seen as fictional to the others, all coming together in the most terrifying ways.

“No wonder Spock hates it all.” Even the idea, illogical as it was, was enough to blow the mind.

“It’s a solid theory,” Jadzia agreed. “We have gateways, too. There’ve been ancient civilizations. The Iconians. They controlled a huge part of the galaxy, and they maintained control through gateways that could take someone tens of thousands of lightyears. There are ancient descriptions of “demons of air and darkness”, and until we discovered an intact gateway we’d thought that had been part of the myth. But they could appear out of thin air thanks to their gateways. Both of the known gateways were only small enough for one or two people at a time and were destroyed to keep them out of the hands of hostiles, but it’s theorized there were gateways large enough for many ships. That kind of technology would be revolutionary, and yet very dangerous.”

She tapped her fingers on the bar. “And then there’s the Guardian of Forever. It's capable of sending people through time, on any planet in the galaxy. It's at least a million years old. Except for an accident on my timeline's Enterprise, it's been strict observation only. I even spent a few weeks on assignment from the academy, getting to take a peek at ancient Trillian history."

Such technology existed, and if it existed someone could try to replicate it, or combine it. “Assuming someone tried to do something on purpose. Replicate an Iconian gateway, or the guardian, or something as yet unknown. Lost control. And now here we are.”

It was almost too much to think about. When something nearly gave him a headache due to too many options, it was a lot. For a long moment, he was silent, simply staring down into the watered down remains of his drink.

Well. At least he wasn't so focused on drowning in alcohol now?

“Here we are, indeed,” Bruce finally agreed, shaking his head. “Okay. So we pool our resources. We try and find a potential source. And we hope above hopes that it isn't some genius kid pulling his favorite things from his imagination.”

Now that was an angle that Jadzia hadn't entirely considered. "If Q is behind this, I'm going to need another drink."

For that, Bruce had to grin. “If Q is behind this, I'll make sure you're suitably wasted.” And, just in case, he ordered her another.