01 | anonymous text/untraceable | sunday morning

[thefourteenth]

Hello, Siren's Port. I come before you with a desperate plea.

[Visser One is no fool. First she takes a few hours to scan the networks and sort through enormous amounts of archived data. What she finds is interesting: evidence of Earth mythological figures, inhuman creatures proudly identifying as alien. People obviously from worlds far more advanced than Earth.

Still, she chooses anonymity. No sense in publicly humbling herself and exposing her Achilles Heel.]

I am a new arrival to this world in serious need of help. My species needs a certain kind of sustenance that we can't find outside of our home world.

I need help, or I will die.

I need someone with highly advanced technological capabilities to help me. Fortunately, I have the means to feed myself temporarily, which you can adapt for your purposes in creating a larger generator. Without it, I will starve to death painfully within a week.

Please, I beg you. Compensation will be given in whatever manner I'm capable, once I can concentrate on anything other than survival. I assure you, I am far from helpless, and will pay my debt in full. Anyone who chooses to assure my long-term survival stands to gain much from the bargain.

Comments

[where_the_hearth_is]

Quite! I'm not quite sure how much space you need, but if you could possibly conduct the demonstration here?

[The drone indicates an open area centered around what looks like a glass cube of about table height, with colors occasionally rippling through it, surrounded by a ring of evenly-spaced, slender metallic tubes, like a fairy ring of silvery bamboo.]

My analytical and observatory capabilities are maximized there.

[thefourteenth]

Five minutes is the maximum. I'd feel infinitely more comfortable doing this with less than a minute of actual operation.

[Edriss mentally shakes herself. What is she doing, letting these potentially hostile people see her rattled? Even if they are honestly trustworthy - and so many humans actually are - acting like a frightened teenager is hardly befitting a Visser.

She straightens up and strides out into the open space. The 'briefcase' goes on the ground, popped open gingerly, and out comes a mechanism which she expands into what looks like a very small Jacuzzi complete with a faucet hanging over the rim of a pool, a trio of various-sized shackles affixed to the rim, and a small generator console on the side. She turns on the faucet and out comes a small amount of sludge. Visser One turns it off again before much comes out at all- no more than a liter, perhaps, which looks pitifully small in the pool.]

This is a substance that occurs naturally in pools on my home planet. If you could take as little as possible for your samples, I would appreciate it. This model only has a very limited amount stored within.

[where_the_hearth_is]

[The lights in the cube twist and spike, then settle down again placidly.]

Of course! I don't need much to examine.

[The drone scoots forward, producing a very slender sampling tube, something between a needle and a pipette. It lowers the syringe-like apparatus into the sludge, extracting a miniscule amount, and then ferrying it over to the tray of nanite gel, so as to get a better look at its exact makeup.]

[magnetic_magpie]

[Magneto makes his way over to the tray, watching and studying. Not just the sample but the person.

She was understandably upset but trying to hide it, he thought.]

How do you normally travel with it?

[thefourteenth]

Normally I have more than just this one at my disposal.

[Another sigh. She's going to have to give them more than that if she expects any decent results.]

Typically we have much larger generators powered by ships or grounded power sources, and extremely large pools.

[where_the_hearth_is]

[something chimes softly]

It will be a bit slow to begin with, and I'm not confident of my ability to replicate your particular generator set-up without dismantling that one, but I can certainly synthesize the mixture. I should be able to produce a comparable amount in a few hours, and after that I'll be able to do so faster.

[Nanites are awesome.]

[magnetic_magpie]

If you can replicate the mixture, I could handle the generator. I wouldn't need to dismantle it.

Does that time scale work or is the matter more pressing?

[He's studying the generator intently.]

[thefourteenth]

[She looks over the robot and the person curtly.]

I have someone lined up to take care of the generator. You understand not wanting to put all the keys to my vulnerability in one pair of hands.

[Anyone sensible in her position - and she can tell that they are - would.]

[where_the_hearth_is]

I do! I don't like being all that vulnerable to anyone, I think you're being really brave!

[ House likes you okay. :3 ]

[magnetic_magpie]

[He smiled, slight and small. Of course he understood, even approved, though he really did want to poke at the generator.]

Of course.

[He'll busy himself with watching House's nanonites.]