Sophie and Louise sat at a round table in the records room of the Science Institution, both of them intently focused on the holographical map projected before them. Sophie held a device that looked somewhat like a laser pointer, and when she directed its vector towards any part of the hologram, and pressed the button on the side, that part would follow the devices movements. Thus she moved the parts around as she and Louise discussed the problem at hand; how to progress on finding the Eridanus expedition.
"So Aldred and I searched most of the planets in this sector together," Sophie was saying, pointing the device at a group of star systems on the map, which enlarged at her prompt. Louise nodded as she talked. "That was the galaxy the Eridanus was in when we lost contact with them; and from there we learnt that it was definitely because of the solar flares and no internal meddling. After, um, what happened on Shalron I searched the rest of that sector, at each landing point in the existing logs, but I still haven't worked out which direction they went after the communications went offline."
"It's alright, Sophie. Don't stress about it." Louise soothed, noticing the strained tone to the girl's words. "You've done everything you could, collected all the data that was needed, and tracked the progress from Neptune to Larndres."
Sophie fidgeted awkwardly. "I shouldn't have backtracked after I finished that sector, I should have kept going. Now we have less chance of finding them...."
Louise shook her head in mock despair, eyes pointed to the ceiling. Sophie was so impossible sometimes! "Yes, of course, dear; it would be better if you'd gone on without complete information and a higher probability of losing the trail."
Sophie sighed. "Louise, that-"
"Don't 'Louise' me!" her carer scolded her teasingly. "We're not here to regret past decisions, we're here to work out where you're to head next."
"Alright, then."
"Good." Louise nodded. "Now, continue dear; what else have we got?"
Sophie glanced at her for a moment before raising the device again. "On a few of the planets, the Eridanus picked up extra passengers, but none of them seem to have anything to do with the ship's disappearance." As she mentioned them, she clicked another button and the ID's of the extra passengers appeared overlayed on the map. "One of the astronomical bases I visited detected a SI-originating signal in the vicinity of Sto a while ago, which could have been the Eridanus, so I could check that out. The original plan was to go in the opposite direction though, so I'll have to cover all variables either way I go." She clicked again and the ID's were replaced by long-range footage of a sparkling nebula. "Additionally, there was a nebula outburst in the Platos system just after the disappearance, and would almost certainly have attracted any scientist's attention."
"So whatever course we plan to take, we need to consider all those options." Louise noted.
Sophie nodded, then flicked her wrist and made the nebula disappear. Instead a red dotted line tracked its way across planets on the map. "I think-"
Just then the door hissed as it slid open, and Ronan Schofer, who'd recently become director of this branch of the Science Institution, entered the room.
"Good evening Ronan." Louise greeted pleasantly. "To what do we owe the delight of your presence?"
She'd never exactly forgiven him for the cold way he'd treated Sophie after Aldred's death. Ronan glanced at her for a moment before directing his attention on the younger girl.
"Sophie, I've just been informed that the geo-energy plant on Tiberius has been giving off some strange readings; they want a delegate to check it out and Head Office can't spare anyone until next week so they've asked me to handle the situation." He explained brusquely, as was his usual style. "Are you at all interested?"
"Strange readings, you say?" Sophie inquired, immediately intrigued. "What kind?"
Ronan's eyes twinkled; he'd known he could expect Sophie to take on this mission. "Apparently the energy converter's not working at full capacity, despite the data input seeming all in order."
"Hmm..." Sophie pondered for a moment, placing down her pointer device on the table. "Okay, I'll do it." She grinned.
Louise had an amused smile playing on her lips. Although she and Ronan Schofer didn't always see eye to eye, she was glad that he'd found something to distract Sophie from stressing over the Eridanus.
"So," Sophie slammed her digi-file closed, shutting off the hologram, and then dialled the lights up once more. "What exactly do I need to do?"
* * * * * * *
A lengthy conversation and one short teleport trip later, Sophie found herself in the shade of the entrance to the huge geo-energy plant, the city-wide network which generated power for the entire planet. Tiberius had a large amount of geothermal deposits near to the surface, which were tapped into by the power plant and then turned into electrical energy by the massive conversion matrix.
The power plant was staffed by the planet's best scientists, and from here essentially the whole planet was run. This was why Sophie felt very important to be making sure it was all in order. Passing by the flashing neon sign advertising a clean energy education program, underneath the large, ostentatious moving model of the official geo-energy logo and through the doors of the establishment into a shiny foyer occupied by a smooth glass desk, a small lattice threaded with blooming vines, and a school group waiting for their tour of the complex.
Sophie swept right past them all and moved through a geometrically designed door into the special access hall. She walked up to the guard beside the barrier to the staff-only area – where all the essential technology and the entrance to the thermal drills were – and pulled a scanner off of her belt. She held it up to show the guard her authorisation on the small screen, and after contemplating it for a moment, he raised the barrier and let her through.
Thus Sophie entered a world of machines. Her face lit up in glee at the system around her, even in this one room! It was only pylons, switch boxes and touch panels that made up the main components of this area, for its purpose was with observation not the actual energy conversion system, and yet Sophie still shone to be amongst it. She just loved technology.
After checking basic statistics with one of the scientists in there, Sophie traversed deeper into the building, cheerily greeting anyone she passed. A robot drone rolled up to her at one point.
"May I take your bag?" it enquired in the standard robot tone, a slow electronic one, and Sophie gave it an amused smile.
"No thanks." She replied, wondering idly at the programming of the drone, but then figured it didn't matter; she had a job to do.
Soon she had left the droid far behind and found herself close to the drilling access point. Sophie gripped the fabric of her Science-Institution-issued lab-coat absently, as she took in the even bigger circuitry around her. Literally, the deeper they got the more complex everything became. Sophie marvelled at how much work went into making all this electricity. Then she realised once more that she was becoming distracted. Chiding herself, she moved on and finally entered the room she'd been heading for the whole time; the energy converter, the most important part where thermal energy was switched to electrical. After this point, the energy needed refining still, but this was the place the power came from, and also, Sophie believed, did the fault in the system.
Using her authorisation, she entered the observation room beside the energy converter, and gave a wide smile to the people she found within. After staring at her for a moment, each of the scientists turned back to his or her own work; whether hologram, screen or digi-file.
Sophie, with an air of confidence that concealed her true nerves within, strode over to the woman who seemed to be the head scientist for this section, the one who was overseeing everything.
"Good evening, Dr Graeg." She greeted cheerily, flashing her ID at the intrigued woman. "I'm here on behalf of the Science Institution to check out the problem with this power plant. What exactly seems to be the problem?"
Dr Graeg looked Sophie up and down once, and then again, before answering. "Well, actually, the problem we have is that, despite the fact that the machines are pumping energy at full capacity, the expected electrical output is not being achieved. Therefore we have to assume that that missing energy is going somewhere else, and if we don't work out why and how the station could possibly go into meltdown, endangering thousands of lives and draining the planet of power in the process."
Sophie nodded in understanding; she already knew all that, she'd just wanted to check.
"Have you done a sonic scan of the convertor's internal structure?" she inquired, glancing over a scientist's shoulder at an overlay on the screen of the rotor which the geothermal energy spun to create electricity.
Dr Graeg nodded, pointing at the overlay. "All the scans we've done have shown up nothing. There is a port on the absorbing matrix that could be used to divert some of the output, but it doesn't have anything attached with which to do so."
"I see," Sophie scratched her chin thoughtfully. "So the energy couldn't have gone anywhere...." Unless someone's tampering with the converter, she thought, but didn't voice her suspicion in case the culprit was in the room. She didn't want to alert them if they were.
Suddenly she slammed her hand down on the table, making everyone jump and then stare at her. She smiled sheepishly. "I'll just have to go in and check out the mechanisms myself."
She headed over to the entrance to the huge machine, and, blinking, Dr Graeg followed her.
"Alright then." she said, a little alarmed still. She opened the door for Sophie and led her through. She pointed to a human-sized tube with a circular platform for standing on at the base. "Just hop in there, and I'll lower you down to where Shane is."
Sophie obliged, raising an eyebrow as she turned round on the platform to face the leading scientist once more. "Shane?" she asked.
Dr Graeg nodded from where she stood at the control box for the transport system. "He's our technical aid staffed down there, he oversees it from his vantage point in an empty space in the machine. It's quite safe, and he can't control anything from there except the emergency shutdown procedure."
"Okay," Sophie thought once more, and then smiled. "You'd better send me down there now, then."
Dr Graeg pressed a button and a glass panel slid over the entrance to the tube, shutting Sophie in. Then she pulled a lever down slowly, and watched as Sophie began to descend.
"I'll be back up soon with my observations." Sophie said, and then her head disappeared from view as she was lowered into the machine.
She stared around; intrigued at the pipes and cables around her that connected the rotor and the interlocking mechanisms that made up the conversion system. Suddenly the platform landed with a dull thud, and the panel slid up to reveal a rectangular metal walkway, with a railing, that overlooked the biggest motor Sophie had ever seen. She stepped out, and, moving over to the rail, she stared. The motor was like most; metal and cylindrical with a rotator pole leading out of one end and threading into an input port in the external machine. Currently, the rotor was only turning slowly. The motor was suspended on the pole alone, and looking down the dimly glowing empty space, Sophie could see where the geothermal energy had been tapped into. It was a long way down.
"Interesting, isn't it?" Sophie flinched violently in surprise at the sound. She turned to see standing there a scientist she hadn't previously noticed was there. He was leaning on the rail beside her. Looking along the walkway she saw a touch screen set up against the rail, with readings from the rotor playing across the visual interface.
Sophie smiled, recovering from the shock and holding out her hand for the scientist to shake. "You must be Shane. My name's..."
"Sophia Lestari." Shane nodded knowingly, surprising Sophie once more. "You were sent by the Science Institution on Earth to check out the situation here." Then he laughed at Sophie's bewildered expression. "Don't look so scared. Up-top told me you were coming down."
"Oh, okay." Sophie laughed in embarrassment, feeling stupid. Then she turned her attention back to the motor. "So, I hear you're posted down here to make sure the rotor works okay. Noticed anything strange?"
"Not as such." Shane turned away, walking back over to his screen, and flicking the current readings across to reveal a new image. He waved Sophie over, and she obliged, her boots clacking loudly on the metal grating beneath their feet. Shane pointed at the labelled picture. "I put this together while I was checking everything. These are all the components of the energy convertor. The steam from the thermal deposits below travels up the opening and enters the rotor, which then proceeds to spin and the friction created by that then travels-"
"It's alright." Sophie held her hand up, interrupting him. "I know how the system works."
"Of course." Shane tapped on the image of the mechanism adjacent to the rotor. "This is where above thinks the fault is located, but they've had me check it again and again and we've come up with nothing. I believe the problem is actually-"
"Hold up!" Sophie interrupted him again, leaning in and tapping lightly on the picture of the mechanism Shane was showing her. It zoomed in, showing the 3-dimensional image captured there. She pointed at a receptor which led into the absorbing matrix that Dr Graeg had mentioned before. "That's different to what they showed me above."
Shane furrowed his eyebrows, shaking his head. "It's just one switch, I don't think that-"
"No, of course you wouldn't." Sophie waved her hand dismissively. "No one would. It's a tiny little thing, doesn't control anything except the opening in the absorbing matrix." She quickly ran off down the walkway, heading for a service ladder which led into the machine. Shane worriedly hurried after her.
Sophie climbed up quickly, slipping briefly on one rung but recovering easily before reaching a hatch that when unlocked would open into the service matrix that eventually rang alongside the absorbing matrix in the machine. She glanced down at Shane, who was fretting below her.
"That switch confirms exactly what I was thinking!" she shouted down to him. "It means someone's opened that port and tampered with the matrix to divert some of the electrical output! It means someone here's a traitor." She tried to pry the hatch open but found it locked. "Gah!"
"What is it?" Shane called up.
"Oh, the hatch is locked!" Sophie exclaimed, as she fiddled with her scanner, projecting the mechanics of the lock onto the device in her hand. "Simple enough, I just need something to shift the internal bar and I can get in and fix it."
"Oh, don't worry about it!" Shane yelled, as he crossed over to the panel which controlled the platform Sophie had used to get down there. "That switch is probably nothing anyway."
"I don't think so." Sophie said, as she scurried down the rungs of the ladder and crossed to the small cupboard underneath the panel Shane was attending to. She opened it and rifled through the tools that were stored there. She felt a little proud at how correctly she'd guessed that there were tools there. There was a service ladder and a service hatch, so she'd just assumed there would be service tools. She pulled one out, and backed away, pressing the button and smiling as the tip buzzed.
Shane glanced over, forehead creased. "What's that?" he inquired sternly.
"Friction stabiliser." Sophie replied, one boot on the bottom rung of the ladder already. "I can use it to shift the particles of the lock, break the bonds or whatever.... Wait..." Too late, she turned around, suddenly noticing the shiftiness of Shane's actions.
Thud! The glass panel of the transporter tube hit the walkway, closing off the only exit.
Shane was pointing a small staser at Sophie. Her eyes widened. He was the traitor...
"You diverted the energy." She stated, her expression set as stern as his.
"Yes, of course." He replied non-chalantly. "It was easy; all I had to do was hide the diverter whenever they checked in on me."
Sophie glanced at the tool cupboard, with its door still ajar. Among the normal tools used in mechanics was a larger device; an energy diverter which would fit perfectly into the port in the absorbing matrix.
"Oh...." She felt horrible. She should have seen this earlier... Shane was the obvious culprit.
"I don't know why they trusted me, really." Shane continued in his villainous monologue. "I mean, in the beginning, when they screened me for this job, I was innocent, with no intention of stealing the energy. But when I realised the power that was created here, I quickly formulated a plan to acquire it for myself. Bit by bit, I siphoned small amounts of energy off into the empty hatch where I'd place a storage cartridge, and now, I've got enough energy to make myself very rich."
Sophie shook her head. "You're an idiot. They'd throw you in jail as soon as you stepped foot out of here with those cartridges."
"Not if the plant goes into meltdown. Then they'd be too distracted to even check." Shane smirked evilly.
Sophie crossed her arms, thinking how sad it was that the world was full of greedy people who loved money. "That's not going to happen, though." She stated angrily.
"Oh but it is." Shane mocked her, and then before she could stop him he moved over to the control panel by the railing and brought his finger down on the big red button present on the screen. Suddenly the lights dimmed and began to flash warningly, the rotor above slowed dramatically and an alarm sounded loudly and annoyingly.
Sophie glanced up worriedly, taking it all in, before fixing her gaze back on Shane in confusion. "But all you've done is start the shutdown procedure."
Shane laughed, throwing his head back as he did so. Sophie watched the staser in his hand, trying to think how to get it off him. Finally he stopped chuckling and wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, smiling cruelly at Sophie. "I'm sorry." He said, cruelly amused. "It's just... it may seem like all I've done is shut it down, but, well, surely you know what that involves right? Two sets of bulkheads come across down below." He pointed over the railing, to where the geothermal energy had been tapped into further down. "That's to stop the energy doing any damage while the machine is idle. But...." He laughed again. "I created an opening in the structure, between the two bulkheads. Therefore the energy that will be lurking around down there will rush through, as soon as the final bulkhead closes." He shook, bending down and slapping his knees. Sophie, whose eyes were wide with alarm at his words, watched him warily. This guy is insane... she thought. Shane straightened up once more, a smirk lighting up his face. "The energy will rip through the power station, and cause the converter to explode. They'll never even see it coming."
Sophie couldn't believe it. This guy was willing to destroy this power plant, killing thousands of people in the process just to make money! Her mouth curled in disgust. This was the kind of person she despised. There was no way she was going to let him get away with this.
"You're not going to get away with this." She told Shane, fuelled with hate for this screw-up scientist.
His eyes flashed darkly. "Oh, but I already have."
Suddenly from down below there was the sound of cogs moving and metal scraping against metal. Shane glanced over the railing at the sight of the first bulkhead moving into place, and smirked smugly. In that moment, while he was distracted, Sophie leapt for the service ladder and started to climb.
She heard Shane chuckle again from beneath her. He sure knew how to laugh, didn't he? Oh well, at least he didn't see her as a threat; not that she really was a threat, but she did have a plan. Half of a plan. Okay, maybe only a part of a plan. But it was still something! Friction stabiliser in hand, she quickly pointed it towards the hatch and activated it. The lock shuddered and then gave way, and she climbed through the open hatch.
"Everything you're doing is pointless!" she heard Shane yell as she crawled into the service vent. "I'll escape with my wonderful prize, and everyone here will be dead, including you!"
Sophie closed the hatch on him, drowning out his voice. She leaned back against the warm, slightly vibrating metal of the vent for a moment's respite. Then she continued moving, climbing downwards through the vents as the alarm continued to ring, the first bulkhead continued to close and the air grew ever denser and warmer. Soon the vents led into wider service corridors, where the work on the machine was more hands on. Sophie could tell by the proximity of the sound that the bulkhead was closing somewhere near, so the dangerous opening in the machinations was nearby as well.
She ran down a corridor, and found herself facing a gaping hole in the wall of the structure. She gasped. It was worse than she thought. The wound took up multiple service levels. And she wanted to patch it up...
Racing against time as the bulkhead grew closer to completely shutting off the energy, which swirled angrily outside the corridor, Sophie used the friction stabiliser to tear the metal panels off of the walls, exposing wiring as she did so. Moving over to the hole, she fitted the panels as best she could and welded them in place, once more with the friction stabiliser. Once she'd finished the aching work, she wiped her sweaty brow, looking over the job she'd done. It was good, but there was still so much more left to accomplish and so little time.
Sophie ran down to the next level, in the same position, to patch the section there. More time consuming wall stripping occurred, and then more time consuming panel welding. The gaping abyss just outside the opening was constantly in her line of vision, and it terrified her as she placed panel after panel. As she arrived on the bottom level she sighed, wiping her sweaty forehead in exhaustion. It was scary how fast this was tiring her, and even scarier how close the bulkheads were to closing. Sophie gulped as she thought of the energy realising it was trapped between the two bulkheads and then rushing through the opening, ravaging anything in its path, and she would be the first to experience it. Not for long though; the heat would kill her in a matter of seconds.
No, stop thinking that. Just focus on fixing this, and then you won't have to experience that. Sophie thought, moving over to rip another panel off of the wall. It only took one fluid movement with the friction stabiliser and then she was holding a section of the wall, with wires hanging out of the back. She moved over to the last remaining part of the hole. She looked up to where the first bulkhead had closed. She glanced down to where the second bulkhead was almost in place. She blanched at the mass of energy that was nearing the opening. This all depended on her. The realisation terrified her but she shook her head and got back to work.
Finally she was done, and just in time because the second bulkhead was centimetres from closing. Sophie pressed a button on her shirt to adjust it to air out, because the build-up of energy was making the air heat rapidly. She leaned against the wall, and then jumped at the sound of an intercom activating. The beeping alert muddled in with the still raging alarm, and Sophie ran over to stop the noise that was contributing to making her head pound.
"HELLO!" she answered loudly over the noise of the alarm.
"Miss Lestari?" came the stern voice of Dr Graeg. "What do you think you are doing down there, messing around with the machine?"
"What?!" Sophie exclaimed, befuddled by the angry scientist's words. "I was fixing it. Did you not notice that the plant was about to go into meltdown?"
It was as if Dr Graeg's cold fury was radiating through the radio wave connection. "Shane contacted me to tell me you were damaging the machine. That's why he commenced the shutdown. Don't try and pas this off as an accident. We've called the authorities. Once the shutdown process is reversed, you will be in huge trouble."
"You wouldn't be able to do anything if it weren't for me!" Sophie argued furiously. How dare that arrogant scientist try to make her out as the bad guy? "Shane is a traitor! He's been draining off small amounts of energy for weeks now and he started the shutdown so he could escape! He's the one who messed with the machine. He tore a hole in the section between the bulkheads so that this energy station would blow up! Like boom, blow up! I patched the hole so you had better just watch your tone missy! There is no reason for me to get in trouble for this!"
There was silence for a moment. "Only time will tell if you're a liar, Lestari."
Suddenly there was a loud thud as the second bulkhead closed and then a loud racket interfered with the comms link, making it screech as the geothermal energy massing between the bulkheads slammed against the walls. The pressure began to build, the waves of energy ricocheting over and over again off of the hastily patched opening. Sophie watched with horror, eyes wide, as the panel she'd welded on creaked and groaned, bending underneath the attack.
She ran over just as something snapped and the panel fell forwards, broken in half. The energy began to pour in.
"No!" Sophie yelled, terrified, and then began to cough as her air was invaded. Struggling to lift one half of the panel, she pulled the friction stabiliser out of her pocket and pressed it against the sheet of metal, wires sparking under the intense heat. The strain and pressure was making her head pound, she was trembling from exhaustion and the energy threatened to rip her apart. She had to make sure the gap was closed or this would happen throughout the power plant though.
Eyes stinging, she fixed the part of the panel in place, and reached for the next one. Her coordination, though, had never been good, and as she tried to set the metal panel so that it covered the remaining hole, her hand shook and then the panel slipped and hit the ground with a thud. Jumping in startled reaction, the friction stabiliser leaped out of her hand and fell out into the machine. Sophie gasped and watched in shock as the device fell down and down, wrecked by the intense energy as it went, and then gave a dull clunk as it hit the bulkhead twenty metres down.
She ran her hands through her hair, and then broke down with violent coughing. What was she going to do now? She stared at the panel, then at the hole, then at the swirling energy, and then she thought of the power plant and the city in which it was situated. If too much of this energy got through..... that would all be gone.
Though she was spent of energy, she knew she had to stop it. Clenching her fist and then releasing, she bent down and picked up the panel and then held it against the hole, as the energy particles(????) started to move with higher frequency, and suddenly meeting opposition, raged against the thin metal that was the only barrier between it and Sophie.
She screamed as the heat coursed through her, but at least it was just the heat. She could deal with that. Nothing more was making it through, and any moment now the scientists could reverse the lockdown. That was the hope Sophie held to as she devoted all her strength to holding the panel in place.
Minutes passed, but they felt like hours and Sophie felt her strength draining by the minute. Please open the bulkheads, she begged inside her head. Please end this pain!
Finally, after what seemed like forever, she heard the shrill alarm change from that of warning to a softer beeping, and the grinding of the bulkheads starting to withdraw.
At last, she thought as the last of her stamina left her, and she fell into blackness.
* * * * * * *
Hazy shapes. Vague voices. Why did her head ache so? Sophie didn't know. She seemed to remember a machine but it hurt to think. Where was she?
Eventually the fog cleared from her vision and she sat up straight, to find herself in what looked like a hospital bed.
"Dr Graeg?" she asked in surprise, recognising the woman who sat watching her. She was the one who'd been talking before, to the doctor who seemed to be checking some kind of scan.
"Yes, it's me." The scientist said solemnly. "How do you feel?"
"I- I- Quite good, actually." Sophie replied, surprising herself.
Dr Graeg laughed. "Well, at least there doesn't seem to be any serious harm done to your brain."
Sophie laughed too, although she was confused. "How did I end up here?" she asked curiously.
"Two workers found you, after we finished retracting the bulkheads. You were unconscious and a metal panel had fallen on top of you. They brought you here, to our medical section. You were in quite bad condition."
"Well," Sophie smiled weakly. "Geothermal energy's quite bad for your health, you know."
"Hmm, so I've heard." Dr Graeg said tersely, but then a gentle smile settled on her features. "That was very brave, what you did, Sophie."
"Thank you." Sophie answered softly.
Dr Graeg leaned back, surveying Sophie with interest. "You saved the entire planet."
"Not really." Sophie argued, eyebrows knitting. "You would have stopped it eventually."
"Do you know how to stop the converter exploding?" the scientist retorted, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, no." Sophie admitted meekly.
Dr Graeg sighed. "Well, thank you for what you did for our planet, anyway."
"You're welcome." Sophie replied, leaning back with a soft smile on her face.
* * * * * * *
"Very interesting." Louise looked up from the report she was reading on her palm-com device.
Sophie glanced absently up from where she was sitting against the wall, looking through files. She felt exhausted, really.
"What's interesting?" she asked, eyebrows knitting.
Louise waved her old-fashioned device, screen facing outwards. "I was just reading Head Office's review on your involvement on Tiberius."
"Oh that." Sophie waved the comment off.
The older woman's eyes twinkled. "I'm very proud of you, Sophie."
Sophie bit her lip to stop herself beaming like a maniac. "Really?" she questioned gently.
"Really." Louise nodded. "Now, you should go home and get some rest."
"No, no." Sophie insisted, sitting up straighter and straightening the digi-files in her lap. "I have to work out my route; we never did get around to finishing and if I don't get it done now-"
"Don't worry about it." Louise kindly interrupted, rolling over until she was right in front of Sophie. She yanked the files out of the younger girl's hands, causing a cry of protest. "Now, don't get all antsy about it. I know finding your father, and this expedition, is important to you, but you need to take some time to rest, to relax. It's been years now since they went missing."
"I know." Sophie replied, her expression painful. "But I'm sure they're still alive. They're out there, I know! I just have to find them. And besides, Ronan keeps going on about how my fieldwork research has been really important! Louise, you can't make me stop working!"
Louise fixed her with a stern gaze, causing Sophie to shrink back. "Yes, I can and I will. Now, get up, we're heading home. You can finish this tomorrow."
"Okay," Sophie relented in defeat, standing and then crossing with Louise to the door, turning the lights out as they left. Suddenly, as they crossed over the threshold, Sophie stopped, struck with a thought.
"Hey, I know what I'll do! I'll track down that ship that had the SI-based identification, find out what that's all about."
Louise shook her head, chuckling. "You were right Sophie, I really can't stop you working."
Sophie smiled, and the two women, older and younger, left the Institution happily together, both oblivious of the times to come ahead, and the adventures that Sophie was very soon to have, on an insignificant little planet known as Flauraan.