Exotic Equations [Night, Pregame, Strange Charm]

[Sharn]

Sharn hawked over the holomat stretched over the table in the common, having overlaid the consoles for the games. He paced around and kept turning the image and reaching into it, adding corrections to the vectors in a multi-dimensional simulation, the strings of equations slowly aligning, the missing parts blinking red. Deep was his frown as he was still far away from being satisfied with the day's work.

[Syzygy Anion]

Not being a morning person generally meant being a night person. Syzygy had been outside stargazing, one of her usual activities, but had now returned to the ship, looking for a snack. She passed by, munching on some cracknuts, and stopped to look over everything.

She knew better than to interrupt Sharn's thinking and remained quiet. She even attempted to chew more softly.

[Sharn]

"Don't be shy. My mind is hardly so frail that I cannot handle computation and crunching at the same time." He mused without looking up. "But your mindfulness is noteworthy. Conscious or instinctual?"

[Syzygy Anion]

"A little of both, probably." she shrugged. "It's hard to tell sometimes. So, what is all of this?"

[Sharn]

"Simulating quantum energy flows under conditions of observer-disturbed multidimensionality. It builds on my earlier work on energy releases from 5th and 8th dimension-level tachyon fields."

He perked up and observed her for a moment, analytically, as anything worth his attention.

"Imagine being a fish, living since forever in a shallow pond. Up is atmospheric air, down is rock bottom. Your eyes face sideways. What is your conception of verticality?"

[Syzygy Anion]

She thought about it for a few moments, clearly uncertain.

"So, you can see everything around you and are not held to the ground. You are restricted, however, only able to rise so far and limited in moving about. Shallow ponds are generally not that big. Everything you can see, is all that exists to you, except for glimpses of the greater world above that you can't enter."

[Sharn]

"Some fish will not even believe in the existence of the great up where there's no water to breathe. Around is all there truly is. And the things that fall from the up? Leaves, feed, light, fisherman's hooks - certainly there's a good explanation for them being around that gives no credit to the up. Or, it's a divine mystery and we're all at the mercy of the great divine fish that lives in the up. If you can imagine the up as a physical dimension of your world you're just ill-equipped to explore directly, you're an odd fish." He changed something on the holomap. One redness vanished, another appeared elsewhere. "But truly, how can you study the up with aquatic eyes and no lungs?"

[Syzygy Anion]

"You have to find a way to change your perspective of it?" she suggested. "Adapting, somehow, to survive in the Up, expanding the pond into it or finding another way to view it."

[Sharn]

"Adaptation comes through extensive use of technology, and developing it is rarely a solitary effort. Technology needs resources, industrial hardware, personnel. To mobilise it all, a good number of fish must stop doubting that the Up exists, or drop the erroneous ideas of the Up. It has to start with the very abstract yet correct and eventually tested idea of what is the Up and how it affects or can affect the great around. A brilliant theory by a brilliant mind, in the language other fish can comprehend, in fish bubbles, in observable flashes that impress on lesser minds. The fish must realise that the water-dissolved oxygen they breathe, feed they consume, poaching that kills them - they are inextricably related to the Up." He smirked to himself. "Most sentients comprehend space-time. Few comprehend hyperspace though they have learned to use it. They have learned to live with various particle- and subparticle-level transmission of information, energy if you will, because this is how they've emerged, evolutionarily or thanks to singular genetic mutations. Your pheromones, the Jedi and the Force. But to use is not to understand. Fish breathe, feed and die without an idea why this is possible for them, how it proceeds. The line between science and magic is in that comprehension. The magic of choking with the Force, late Lord Vader's speciality. The magic of 'Punch It' and zap, you move down the blue magical rabbit hole to the other corner of the galaxy. Magical or divine is all that sentients don't comprehend but cannot deny the manifestations of."

He looked at her. "I am the one who tears bare the tricks of magicians. I successfully theorise dimensions they tap into and show where their power to affect the fish pond and awe the fish comes from."

[Syzygy Anion]

She nodded thoughtfully. "We gain new knowledge and inovations through exploration and experimentation. We do not know the limits of our understanding until we test them. Some say my father was reckless as a pilot. He and mother both disagreed."

[Sharn]

He understood her reply in his own way, then nodded after going over her features.

"We are not external to the inquiry, but part of the investigation. While the findings can be objectivised, they cannot be fully detached from the observer's participatory experience. The object we study, is in the end - us. Hence I am confident that I am uniquely predisposed to make some breakthroughs." He looked back to his diagrams.

[Syzygy Anion]

"And, how is that progressing?" she asked, looking over everything again.

[Sharn]

"Too slow. I am bogged down with trivialities, and hindered by lack of facilities and funding." He fumed. "In the end, I cannot go much forward without testing."

[Syzygy Anion]

She looked back to him, stepping a little closer. "How would you test?"

[Sharn]

"Depends on the problem at hand. Hypermatter transformation, in a thick-walled lab with a kyber-powered laser beam." Red irises rolled up to her in response to her approach, and there was a subtle shift in his facial tension. "Methods should be selected after ontology, and there are few things I wouldn't do to get to the bottom of the subject matter. I have always perceived disciplinary divisions as sectarian and self-gratifying and have never abandoned pursuits toward theory of everything." He met her gaze. "So, is there something in particular you want me to consider testing?"

[Syzygy Anion]

She tilted her head. "Me? No, this is all well beyond me. I should be the one testing things for you. I don't have any lasers, though. Is there anything other testing to do?"

[Sharn]

"You are not uninteresting." He expanded his nostrils. "For example, I wonder if your pheromones are simple molecular chemistry or are actually governed by quantum mechanics in their operation." He smiled smugly. "Let's do some preliminary survey. I'll project an image in my mind of what I will do to you if you take one step closer, and you will describe the feedback, if any."

He went silent and let his imagination depict a tight, intense carnal match of pink and blue on the table amid the pale glow of holomat-projected astrophysical equations. He put his prolific brain to good use by adding much detail, simulating the way her hair would scatter and her toes would curl with mathematical accuracy. Shame or restraint were not among his emotional templates.

[Syzygy Anion]

"I'm not sure of what's in your mind." she responded after watching for a moment. "But, I think you want me to step closer. I mean, I want to. That could be because it's what you want. Or, you may want it, because I want it."

She stepped closer. "Zeltron are taught to be careful in regard to emotions. They shouldn't always be trusted, as they may not be your own. But, sometimes it's best to indulge in them, before they become too intense. Regardless, I do trust in you."

[Sharn]

Trust was a dangerous sensation Sharn didn't fully understand but decided not to challenge as it facilitated contact he was quite eager to initiate. He sidestepped her and embraced from behind, twining hands on her stomach and pressing his nose against her hairline, exposed by the high bun. He inhaled whatever scents her skin exuded, though he realised that pheromones often bypassed receptors and targeted hormone controllers directly. Feeling the tingling in his body, he let the biochemistry of her pheromones affect him in ways they were capable of.

"It seems that whatever you exude is closer to axillary steroids or copulins than to vomeronasal stimulators. Some are known to heighten empathy or synchronise reproductive cycles, but those affecting ovulation amid other females usually are not received favourably by males, nor should they be effective across species. Yours are rather effective on me, and not unpleasant. The feedback is limited, but correct. I want you. If you're ready to indulge in my sexual drive and see if quality of feedback improves via contact of secretions, I'll claim you." He whispered with lips soft-pressed against her nape.

[Syzygy Anion]

She giggled softly and leaned back into him. "Let's take this experiment one step at a time, Sharn. What do you want first?"