[Planet's Surface]
The platoon had been beamed down to do a mission. A very important mission. So when the platoon had beamed down, they hit the ground running so to speak. Well, all except one individual. tr'Ragarok stood there on the alien planet, amidst shouting, moving, and firing. And all he did while all this was going on was to stare at his shiny new pin.
"Wow, I can't believe he gave me another one of these things! I must be
doing something right. I'm finally being given the recognition I deserve for my scientific achievements! Why..." Donal finally looked up and around. "What am I doing here..." tr'Ragarok gazed around the countryside quizzically. "WAIT! They mentioned something... a mission of some sort..." All the other officers and troops had moved on to their designated target, leaving the distracted science officer standing in the middle of a field.
So, without much else to do, tr'Ragarok began to wander- in the opposite direction of the rest of his team. tr'Ragarok reached down and picked up his bag, which had conveniently been beamed down with him. tr'Ragarok walked for a short time before coming to an enemy encampment. Apparently there was a power station of some sort that wasn't important enough to be a primary attack point by the Kalen's crew, but important enough to be guarded. tr'Ragarok spotted this, and said aloud, "Hmm... some sort of primitive power node... maybe I ought to tell the ship about it... send down more lab equipment for me." tr'Ragarok tapped his communicator. "Away t... guy to Kalen." No response. "tr'Ragarok to tr'Raith." Again, no response. "Chief
Science Officer to ANYONE" the communicator popped in.
"This is erie'Arrain tr'Jhem'e. Rekkhai, the enemy somehow knew we were coming... we're taking heavy losses, the commander is reported missing, the Kalen has been on and off unreachable... do what you can..." Suddenly, the transmission broke off with a burst of static.
tr'Ragarok tried a few more times to contact other people, to no avail. The thin science officer stroked his beard and looked up at the complex in front of him. Then his face crunched together in a look of hard determination. "The commander is captured... he gave me this shiny new pin and more importantly, my lab. I WON'T LET HIM DOWN! THE MISSION MUST GO ON!" tr'Ragarok suddenly darted towards the power station. Remarkably, the guards standing outside turned to start their perimeter sweep just as tr'Ragarok ran inside. Donal surveyed the interior of the metal complex carefully. "Let me see here... if I can remember some of what I tought my students in building efficient power systems... the weakest point would be..." tr'Ragarok moved his finger in the air in both directions, until stopping on the right passageway. "Down there!"
tr'Ragarok took off again, racing towards the central core. Miraculously, every person he passed by didn't seem to notice the hairy, charging, thin science Rihannsu officer racing through the halls. Each person, one by one, either sneezed at the exact right second, blinked at the right time, or decided to turn and look at a perceived noise. Not before too long tr'Ragarok had made it to the
central core. He non-chalantly placed a small, detonator looking device on one part of the machinery, pressed a button on the timer, and began to run out.
This time, however, he was noticed. Passing by one of the technicians in the power core itself, tr'Ragarok didn't notice... being noticed. Before too long, security was hunting for the odd looking intruder. As Donal ran out of the front door, he was intercepted by several guards brandishing impressive looking rifles. tr'Ragarok looked at them unemotionally and stated simply, "If I were you, I would run. Sei(Three)... Kre(two)..." the guards looked at each other, grabbed the scientist, and ran.
In the distance, the power station went up in a huge ball of pyrotechnics. Even if the whole place didn't explode, there would be no power in the area for a while. The guards, seeing this, communicated with their commander, who told them to interrogate the intruder. The guards, taking tr'Ragarok along, transported to a nearby barracks. tr'Ragarok was led into a room and sat on an odd looking chair. Then entered the torturer...
About a half an hour passed. The two guards standing outside, two of the ones who had survived the power station explosion. After not too long, they began to hear sounds of crying, pleading, and general unpleasantness. The guards turned to each other and grinned- the intruder is getting what he deserved! There was a pounding at the door, the signal that the torturer was finished. And when the doors swung open, it was true- the torturer was finished... he was crying. "That man in there is a madman! Shut the door! Shut the door!"
One of the guards listened for a second inside the door. "...So by merely observing the particle, it's state is change, which is how it got the name Schro'Din'Ger's Targ, which leads me to..." The door was slammed shut.
The torturer, now on his knees, grabbed the shirt of one of the guards. "He's uncrackable! Tell the commander to deal with him! I quit!"
[Meanwhile, inside the cell]
tr'Ragarok stopped his explanation. He didn't understand that last fellow at all- he had asked something about the number of lights, and Donal had just given him an answer! Sure, his answer went into photons and the uncertainty of numbers themselves, but the Science Officer wanted to make sure he had given a complete answer. Donal paced for a few minutes, thinking about what to do next, when two figures beamed in. One of them was a bodyguard of some sort, and the other was very obviously the local regional commander.
Apparantly tr'Ragarok had gotten some attention. Donal glanced up to talk to the new-comer, but the local Commander beat tr'Ragarok to speaking first. "Vaed'rehai (professor) tr'Ragarok? Is that you? Why, I haven't seen you since you taught me Advanced Afwe (science) at the University!"
tr'Ragarok brightened up immensely. Even he knew that this was a very good thing.
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