Airflows and Airlocks - Hilyard
The frigate entered the atmosphere with few passengers on board, much to the relief of Vereshin, who leaned against the window and watched the surface of the planet disappear beneath the clouds. A droid carried his luggage into the hangar bay, while he sat in his quarters and wrote an equation, the scratch of his pen drifting on the drone of the ship as it ascended. Structuring the curve of a rift located along the ship's course, he derived the plane on which it sat, which resulted in the output of it's flow in time as it was distorted by the curve he traced. Tapping his pen against one of the points, he raised his head to hear a knock at the door just as the kettle came to the boil.Wincing, Vereshin grasped his pen at the sound of the knock against his door, vexed by the break in his concentration. Whoever had the audacity to disturb him when he had just sat down to work was about to regret it and he sat in silence for the moment, letting his anger fester. Clicking his pen, he slammed it down with a thud and pulled himself to his feet, then stormed to the door and took a breath. He opened it, to meet the features of the Chiss Officer who commanded the ship. Her rank meant little to Vereshin, who exhaled and collected himself, before opening his mouth to address her.
"You better have a good reason for disturbing me." The Force physicist said forwardly. With his hand wrapped around the edge of the door, he stared Keva down sternly, his lime green eyes glowing beneath the light from the window.
The kettle whined as it came to the boil and Vereshin momentarily left the door to pick it up, then filled his teapot, the smell of the black tea as it infused calming him somewhat. When Keva remained by the door, he growled and resorted to putting out a second cup, as she did not seem intent on leaving him alone. He left the tea to infuse and placed two cups on the metallic desk which was built into the windowsill, then stood and leaned against the glass, before turning to face Keva. Smoothing down the thin, chiffon scarf he was wearing underneath his black, knitted vest, he gave the equations one look and perked up slightly when Keva asked about the rift.
"Ah, the rift." Vereshin said, sounding more optimistic than before. "It's a pocket of hypermatter which speeds up the time inside, which means that it may be possible to use it to travel to the future." Leaving the window, he turned around and spoke enthusiastically, his mood lifted by the topic at hand, although he knew that Keva was more concerned about avoiding steering the ship away from the rift when it passed by it on it's course. Vereshin however, was not interested in doing such a thing, but rather the opposite. Strolling towards the door, he picked up the teapot and filled the two cups on his desk, then walked to the fridge.
"My apologies, I didn't ask if you drank tea, force of habit, you see?" He chuckled. Grabbing milk and sugar, he walked to the table and stirred some into his own cup, then left it out for Keva to use if she wished, then sat down. He took a sip and welcomed the steaming liquid as it ran down his throat, sitting quietly for a moment to savor the lusty taste.
With a nod of his head, Vereshin invited Keva to sit down. He sat with the teacup poised on it's saucer and his eyes narrowed, critically judging his calculations from above as he stared at the notes on the table. The sunlight on the planet disappeared, to be replaced by the indigo blanket of space, stars dotted sparsely across it's face like the particles of hypermatter in Vereshin's formula. With a jolt, the ship entered hyperspace and he quickly placed a hand over his teacup to stop it from spilling, then looked back at the equations. As the particles were compacted in the center of the rift, their properties accelerated, propelling any matter went through faster than light, as he had described with the output of his last function.
"Although I suppose you're more interested in charting a course around it." Vereshin asked, but not without a roll of his eyes. Thinking to himself, he set down his saucer and cupped his chin, musing over the equations, when a massive jolt rocketed the side of the ship and sent tea spilling all over them.
"Son of a queen!" Vereshin shouted. The impact sent him keeling over the table, the sleeves of his white shirt landing in the tea. He tried desperately to save his precious formula, but the paper was soaked, much to his chagrin. Sputtering and hissing, the Force physicist threw around all manner of profanities as he failed to recover his work. He tore up the soggy paper and threw it back down, just as the ship was hit by another jolt, this time it was accompanied by the shrill pew of blastfire.
Vereshin grabbed his teacup and saucer just as they were about to be thrown to the ground and darted to the kitchen, where he placed them beside the kettle. He turned around as the fire outside the ship grew more intense and leaned against the bench, his hands wrapped tightly around the edge. Looking up at the ceiling, he listened to the whine of starfighters and looked at Keva, completely lost for any idea of who was attacking the ship, but he thought the officer might know. Starfighters zoomed past the window, all battering the hull with blastfire as a larger ship pulled on the frigate with it's tractor beam, the intentions of those on board unknown to Vereshin, who waited for an answer from Keva.
"Wh0 is attacking us? Are they anybody you know?" He asked, looking up at the ceiling frantically. When he lowered his head, he noticed Keva looking disconcerted, as though there was more to the attack than it would seem. An explosion rocketed the side of the hull and Vereshin was thrown back into the bench. He looked at Keva with wide eyes, then nodded to the door. "You need to get to the command deck, I'll head to the... " He paused, unable to remember the part of the ship he was thinking of. "The uh, the bit where people come onto the ship!" Vereshin was clueless about ships and could not have told Keva the hangar bay from the docking area, or whatever it was called.
Waving a hand in dismissal, Vereshin stopped bothering to think of the right word, then darted into the wardrobe and grabbed his black overcoat. He slipped it on and did up the buttons, then grabbed his satchel, which had his pendulum and pocket watch and ran past Keva, who met him at the door. Slipping his passkey into the lock, he opened it, then let them both outside, before making sure the door was locked, although he doubted that whoever was attacking the ship was going to steal some tea-soaked formula. When Keva and himself stepped outside, he gave her a nod of affirmation and turned around to walk away in the opposite direction.
[member="Keva"]
