Dark*Matter: Discovery, The First Mission

[Shayuri]

Still feeling a bit lost, Meredith sits and listens, taking occasional notes on her old fashioned paper pad. She too pays a bit more than casual attention to Z's hair, wondering if it's really a dye job, and what she'd do or say if it wasn't.

It was exciting, of course...and yes, a little scary still. But mostly it was discomfiting. For the first time in a long time, Meredith found herself at a loss for words. All the questions she'd thought up the night before seemed hopelessly trite confronted with the stark reality of the place.

Not sure what else to do, she just kept listening and jotting important-sounding things down.

 

[kinem]

Diego stares for a moment at the hologram.

Nervous though he is, Diego smirks at Cade's not losing any time in flirting with the green-haired girl.

"I'm Diego Borges" he says. "Master of disaster."

Uh-oh. Looks like my irreverent side is asserting itself again. Probably some sort of psychological defense mechanism.

 

[Falkus]

"Sorry," Z said to Cade, shrugging and smiling apologetically. "You need level five security clearance before you can do anything with OSIRS except use it. You guys only have level three."

"But you'll very likely have level four clearance by the end of the week," Director Stanfield stated. "Now that we've all introduced ourselves, let's get down to brass tacks."

He punched a few buttons, and turned off the hologram. "I've been the field director of this facility for six years now, and a field agent for fourteen years before that."

"What you are going to find is that most of your work as a Field Agent for the institute will be simple investigation of what may or may not be paranormal events. "

He punched a few keys on a control panel in front of him, and the hologram projector started displaying a rotating picture of a young girl, about ten or eleven, blonde hair and green eyes.

"This is Carol Branning. Daughter of John and Wilna Branning. They live in the small town of Redbrush, about four hours south-west of here."

"I passed through there once, nice little town. Not too many people," Leo commented. "Most of the population works at the complex nearby. Aerospace research and design facility. What corporation was it again?"

"NuTech," Ryker said. "Mostly contracts out to the Pentagon."

"According to one our contacts who passed through the area recently and talked with the locals, she's apparently been having visions of the future, with rather startling accuracy," continued Stanfield. "We want to confirm whether or not she's a psychic. Her parents apparently think it's something she's just making up, and are embarrassed about the whole thing, especially ever since the local media got a hold of it. That's how we're going to work this, you're going to be playing the role of skeptics working for the public branch of the Hoffmann Institute, to seek a normal, down to earth explanation for this. We've already made the necessary arrangements with family, they're expecting you in a few hours."

"No matter what you find out, you're to reassure the family and anybody else who asks that there is nothing paranormal occuring with Carol."

"Your team's name is going to be Team Libra. Any questions?"

"You'll need transportation," Ryker added. "Your team's been issued the blue minivan out front. Nothing fancy, but it'll get you where you want to go. Here are the keys," and slid them down the table.

 

[Shayuri]

Meredith starts to raise her hand, then stops and lowers it and just asks her question.

"I have a couple. First of all, what kind of criteria do we use to tell if there IS something paranormal going on? How close does she have to be, how many times, before we decide it's not just coincidence or pattern recognition or...whatever? Also, if we determine she's psychic, what do we do with her? Just tell her she's not psychic, pat her on the back and come home?"

 

[Falkus]

"Unfortunately," Downing said, sighing. "We're about as much in the dark on this as you are. Precognition is one of the more rare abilities we've found. We only know of a handful worldwide, and only a few of these have any sort of control over their ability. I'd suggest making a list of her predictions, and comparing it to how things turned out. If you get lucky, maybe she'll even make a prediction while you're there. Unfortunately, the human mind really isn't my particular area of expertise, so that's all the advice I can offer.

"If she is psychic," continued Stanfield. "Then we have several schools across the country to help teach children we find with abilities like this. The family will receieve an offer in a year or so from one of them, offering free education for gifted children, etcetera. Odds are, they'll accept, and then the kid will be off to a place where people are willing to believe what she says, and teach her to control it. We prefer not to tell the parents the truth, as we've had some bad experiences in the past."

 

[industrygothica]

"So, do you have a map, or is there a system in the van? I guess we should be going then. It doesn't sound terribly complicated, thought I'm not sure how good of an actor I am. I suppose we'll see. Who's driving?"

 

[Friadoc]

"Figures," says Cade with a wry chuckle and grin before turning his attention to the briefing's subject matter.

"Cute kid," says Cade as the holo comes up. "The rumors are probably killin' her, too. Name callin', whispers..." Cade seems to talk from experience, gifted is one thing, very gifted gets a whole, 'nother reaction.

While typing a few notes in his laptop, Cade quickly sends a data miner out to some sites on NuTech, filing away the information for later usage. In fact, during the briefing, he whispers something over to 'Z'.

"If ya got a loaner, I'll leave 'Bridgit' with you tonight," Cade says to the green-ahired techie.

Once Meredith speaks, Cade chimes in with some possible answers, "Kirlian photography is proported to have the ability to photograph auras, especially of mediums, psychics, or what not." With a shrug, he adds, "Plus, if she does make a claim while we're there, simple time versus deduction should play out - either it happens, or it doesn't."

It appears that someone has either studied before the meeting, or has had an interest in the subject matter before hand.

"A minivan?" Cade says with a bitter taste in his mouth. With a look of forced action upon his face, he does offer to drive, "I'll do it..." Yeap, he's almost ashamed...at least it's not...well, he'll try to think of something worse.

Really.

Cade reaches out, slowly, and snakes the keys.

oO A minivan...ok, God's laughin' at me right now Oo thinks Cade oO Mean, mean God Oo

 

[iwatt]

"So we're off to investigate a girl. Better than fighting skeleton's any day of the week. As long as she doesn't go all Carrie on us." He adds with a wry grin.

"OK, I'm good to go. Never been much of a driver myself, since I'm a city boy through and through."

 

[industrygothica]

"So we're off to investigate a girl. Better than fighting skeleton's any day of the week. As long as she doesn't go all Carrie on us."

"I was thinking of Linda Blair in The Exorcist myself," Nick says. "But I like yours better."

Assuming there are no more questions, Nick holds the door for the others and follows them out.

 

[kinem]

"I have a question about this paranormal stuff" Diego says. "How much of the claims we hear about are true? You know, psychics, spoon benders, whatever. And since I was raised a Catholic I have to ask: Is God real?"