Who: Alex Rogan and Miranda Lawson Where: Graymalkin What: Alex uses the tech aboard Graymalkin to analyze her biotic implant When: 06/20 Warnings/Rating: PG-13 for some small talk of medical stuff? Status complete
Alex was at the pick up point on schedule, getting out of his car and locking it, then smiling as he walked toward where she said to meet her. His comlink and a second one were on his collar, and he smirked, bouncing. He hoped she was not afraid of heights. The view from Graymalkin was the best he had ever imagined. Even the view from the cockpit of the Starfighter Prime wasn’t as good.
He’d have to ask. So he waited outside, and grinned.
This was certainly going to be something, wasn’t it? Miranda was outside within a couple of minutes, the slightest smile on her lips. This was an adventure, in a way - something she’d been sorely lacking lately. “Alex. Good to see you again.”
She was curious about that little piece of tech on his collar, but asking about that could wait, couldn’t it? You never knew who could be skulking around the streets of the OC.
Alex plucked one of them off when he spotted her. “Good to see you, too.” He smiled as he held out his hand to shake. “Two questions. Do you get queasy easily? And do you like heights?” He led the way back toward his car.
Even as Miranda shook his hand, she couldn’t help but feel these questions were a little... unusual. What, exactly, did this lab of his entail? Not that it was making her any less convinced of doing this. “I’ve got a stomach of iron and I’m remarkably fine with heights. Why?”
“Because the lab is in space.” He held out the comlink to her. “If you can suspend disbelief, and you’re willing to go into orbit, right now, take this and put it on your clothes, somewhere. And then take my hand.” Alex’s look was utterly confident. It was very different from the uncertain and sometimes vague man he had been before. Somehow, his memories, and Portia, had changed him forever.
Miranda certainly could suspend her disbelief! The idea of going into space... well, it’d only happened in her dreams thus-far, but she had a good idea of what to expect from it all. She took the comlink from him, clipping it onto the collar of her shirt.
This confidence from him was strangely good to see. This place must’ve done him a lot of good since they’d last truly talked. “Alright. Let’s do this.” With that, she took his hand.
Alex smiled an tapped his comlink. “Professor. Bodyslide by two. Graymalkin bound.”
And they shimmered and were pulled away from Earth, and up to the orbiting asteroid base. When they arrived, they were in a large room, facing each other. Behind Alex, facing Miranda, were the Starjammer, a long and sleek ship larger than any Earth spaceship, and the Starfighter Prime, a smaller two-person fighter bristling with weapons. To Miranda’s left was a doorway that led to the rest of the station, and to her right was a console with viewers and controls. And behind her... there waa a wall that looked like a window, and looked out on the Earth in space.
“Welcome to Graymalkin, and to Earth Orbit, Miranda. Professor, please let Nate know we’re onboard.”
“Already done, Mister Rogan.” The voice was mechanical, but warm and friendly in a way no machine ever was.
Now, this? This was far more than Miranda had been expecting. “This rather puts the ship from my dreams to shame. I’m impressed.”
Alex blushed. “Thanks. It’s all Nate’s. But for that...” And he turned her to see his ship, pointing it out to her. “That one is mine. The Starfighter Prime. And the Starjammer next to it, big thing that she is, is Alex Summers’ to make it more confusing yet.”
He looked out at Earth, smiling, then back at her. “When you’re ready, we can go see the lab.”
It was a little confusing, on some level, but nothing that Miranda couldn’t quickly adapt to. She’d seen stranger and more unusual things in her dreams, after all! “I think I’m ready. Much as part of me just wants to stare at these ships for a few hours.”
Alex grinned. “I know what you mean. I feel that way allll the time. Come on. Staring can happen later.” And he led the way toward the door out of there and down the hall, a gray stripe leading to the lab room past many other rooms, mostly behind closed doors.
“Here we go.” The lab room had equipment mostly completely unlike anything normal to Earth science. Er, well, in the twentieth century that is. “Over here, ma’am.” He led her toward the sensor chair.
It certainly looked more like the Cerberus tech that Miranda was so used to dealing with in her dreams. That, at very least, was actually a comforting thing... actual, honest-to-God technology, rather than the rather primitive (in comparison) stuff they had back on Earth.
“Should I expect anything unusual from this, or... haven’t you tested it enough to know yet?” A perfectly legitimate question to ask, in her opinion.
“Well, what it does is scan you with intrascellular beams that you can neither see nor hear. All you have to do is sit still. They will scan you and locate the implant, then attempt to scan it and figure out how it works, and if it can be duplicated.” Alex nodded. “I used it on myself, and with permission, on several others.” Alex smiled at her. “So far as I can tell, in examining it, taking it apart, and putting it back together, and using it, it has no harmful effects whatsoever.”
Well, that was certainly a comfort to know. As much as Miranda wanted to this did, she did rather want to walk out of it with all her faculties intact - there wasn’t much sense in helping other potential biotics if it did something bad to her own powers. “Then let’s hope it can figure it out. It can’t be terribly advanced... they seem to change them every few years in my dreams.”
She’d always been thankful she’d avoided getting an L2 implant. Life with Cerberus was enough stress without constant headaches and potentially fatal side effects.
Alex nodded. “Then when you’re ready, sit in the chair or lay back on this table here, and get comfortable. It hopefully will only take just a few minutes and then we just wait for it to figure out if it can do it. “ He grinned at her. “I’ll be right beside you the whole time.” He didn’t want her to think he would wander away or abandon her there.
That was, somehow, a greater comfort than Miranda had thought it would be. She just dismissed that thought as the fault of her father, and Cerberus, before taking a seat in the chair - it seemed the better, more comfortable option, and meant she’d be less likely to fidget during this. “You’re a wonderful man, Alex. Have to say.”
Alex blushed as he started to punch the buttons on the controls, just next to her. “I’m just a guy, really. Most of my wonderfulness, if I have any, probably is due to my girlfriend, Portia, and my former assistant, Sarah Kerrigan. I was never very good at talking or noticing things, until they dragged me out of myself.”
He missed Sarah, but he could only hope she was okay.
Some part of Miranda did rather doubt that. He’d been wonderful during that whole Wonderland mess, and she did rather suspect that’d been before he’d met... well, at least one of them? She couldn’t be sure, of course. “They must’ve just brought out the best of you.”
Alex smiled, eyes warm as the scanner started to hum. “There it goes.” And he smiled to her, blushing. “They certainly do. And how have you been? How is life treating you since Wonderland?”
“It’s... not been bad, I suppose? The biotic weirdness aside.” Honestly, Miranda could’ve done without it, but... it’d reached its conclusion now, really. She’d never been aware of how much she’d needed that implant before. “I’ve certainly not had half the adventures you seem to have had - spaceships and all that...”
“Well. Mine was a short one. And life down on Earth is fairly boring most of the time, if content. I am rather glad of the quiet.” He nodded. “My dreams were more exciting if short, and I am glad of both. And now, I can play with space stuff.” He chuckled.
Playing with space stuff was clearly the best thing ever. If Miranda hadn’t had the opportunity to come up here and experience it herself, she probably would’ve been jealous! “What’s the saying I keep seeing going around...? Life on Earth can be an adventure too? Just not quite as typical an adventure as we’d expect, most of the time.”
“Very true! I’m having fun here, too.” The computers beeped and he grinned. “The scan is done, now it’s processing. Want some coffee, or something to eat? This might take a few minutes.”
That’d been a lot faster than Miranda had expected. Not that she was complaining at all, of course! “I’d honestly love that. Especially the coffee.”
“Good. Come on.” He held out a hand to her and then led the way out and down the hall toward another room, where tables were set up along with a coffee maker and a full kitchen. “Thankfully, coffee is being made here almost all the time.” He nodded, pulling down some mugs. All the usual ingredients were there.
Well, that made a stupid amount of sense. You couldn’t handle space without copious amounts of coffee - why else would Miranda have had her office right next to the canteen on the Normandy? There was method in her madness! “I can imagine it’s necessary up here.”
“Yeah. I’m learning a whole new science, years past Earth’s current stuff, and even with some geniusness, and some dream training, I feel like I am walking up a wall sometimes.”
He flashed her a grin. “I love it, but coffee is needed.” And he poured them both large mugs, handing hers over as he added cream and chocolate flavor to his.
A few minutes later, there was a ding and a voice. “Alex? The processing is complete. I have good news. The implant is readable tech, and we can both assist in it’s maintenance, and produce more if needed.”
Alex broke into a wider grin. “That’s great news, Professor! Thanks!”
That was actually kind of fantastic. Whilst Miranda doubted biotics were at all common here, the thought of being able to help anyone who suffered through the same issues as she had... it was nothing short of incredible. “That’s the most wonderful news I’ve heard in a good while.”
Alex grinned at her and raised his mug to her, in salute. “To Professor, and to helping others, as much as we can, when we can.”
That seemed a good purpose, after all, didn’t it?
And, in a departure from her usual seriousness, Miranda couldn’t help grinning either, raising her mug too. “To making a better future for all of us.”