Honestly, Ray Spends More Time In Room 2342 Than His Own Room These Days

[gone_byebye]

From here.

The door looked quite normal enough from the outside, if one were to ignore the fact that the sign hanging on it read IF YOU ATTEMPT TO ENTER THIS ROOM YOU WILL BE SHOT - UNLESS YOU'RE ON THE SHIFT ROSTER- PEDO MELLON A MINNO. Ray had to set the big red toolbox down to get the door open; he stopped, pulled out a belt from the box, and handed it to Harper. "Put this on and activate it," he said. "In case the shielding fails and he comes at you, he'll regret it. The energy field it generates does a number on ghosts like you wouldn't believe."

Comments

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Said ghost-kid stared back with red eyes and then made a face at him, just like in the icon.

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

Harper cringed, looking disgusted, and hid behind the blind.

"Don't you have some sort of ghostly straightjacket or something? Kid needs it," he hissed.

[gone_byebye]

Ray just shook his head and kept working. He had a feeling this was going to be trouble. The only way the level of childish in the room could possibly get any more dangerous were if Peter Venkman were on the scene too.

"Unfortunately, no," he said. "Back home we keep the ghosts in a much more secure containment unit, but the closest we get to a straitjacket is one of the traps, and he exploded the last one we used on him. So- no, unfortunately. Help me put this together and get it active and it'll slow him down some more."

He didn't sound particularly happy about the prospect.

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

Harper got out his nanowelder.

"Lessee what we got here," he said, sending one last look over the blind and bending down to help Ray assemble the field generators and whatnot.

"I dunno about the ectoplasmic whatsits, Ray, but if you bypass that little array there, you're gonna get a more stable energy output, just so you know. It'll keep the field more stable."

He was used to making things work efficiently without much to work with.

[gone_byebye]

"Okay, cool," Ray said. "Spengs was rerouting a couple of the other couplers but that was to overcome one of the inherent difficulties with the original pattern. He's a physicist, not an engineer. Let's see what we've got... okay, yeah, I think there's enough of the red stuff to go 'round..."

Normally he would have been a lot more precise and blisteringly nerdy in his words, but he was all too aware of Danny on the other side of the blind and the barriers. There wasn't going to be another incident with blowing up the generators if he could help it.

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

Harper started working, putting the generators together almost finger-blisteringly fast.

"Where's this bit go?"

[gone_byebye]

Damn. Ray had seen fingers like that in action before. There'd been a guy at Columbia named Raj Bhupreet, he'd been the darling of all the engineering faculty-

"Over there, under the Farrelly shunt. Quarter-turn to the left ought to snap it into place. Damn you're good at this."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"When you've got antiprotons practically blowing up your ass because there's a leak in the AP core, and the slipstream len's cracked, and you need to get the slipstream drive up and running so you can get away from the alien buggers that did all that damage right now, or they're gonna blow you up, enslaved you, or eatyou, you learn to work pretty damn fast," Harper said, his eye flashing up at Ray, but he probably looked more alive than Ray'd ever seen him. Harper was obviously in his element.

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah, I see what you mean," Ray said. "Not that we don't have to think fast on our feet in my world, but usually not that fast. And most of the time it doesn't require immediate techery so much as getting the heck out of the way." He lifted the shunt out of the way a little to make Harper's job easier. "One of these days I have to give you a crack at our proton packs. Man-portable nuclear accelerators from twentieth-century Earthtech. Except for the hyperspatial shunting chamber that Anakin Skywalker installed for me, obviously. And whatever the heck Agent Rho did to amp up the max power."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"Whatever they did, I could probably reduce it from pack-size to hand-held," Harper said, bragging just a little, dropping his goggles over his eyes. The one side fit rather awkwardly now.

"Goggles."

[gone_byebye]

Ray thinks about this.

He's still thinking about it as he reaches for the goggles he normally uses at this stage of the game.

"Egon would offer to genetically engineer offspring for you if you managed to pull that off, you realize."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

That made Harper stop.

"Uh, no thanks," he said a little touchily, and then he turned on his nanowelder and wielded it expertly, the flare of it sending a glow on the wall.

"Wouldn't want 'em to, yanno, enslave the human race and all," he half-joked.

[gone_byebye]

"Sorry," Ray said. "Ordinarily I would say he'd offer to bear your children, but he hasn't got the room in his pelvic bowl for that and he'd hit me over the head for even suggesting an anatomical impossibility of that magnitude. I, uh, just spotted a shiny new change of topic. How does that thing work?"

He pointed at the nanowielder.

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"Nanites."

He finished welding and flicked it off.

"Nanites are made and stored here--" He tapped the handle. "I program it to do what I want it to do--cut, weld, solder, whatever--and the nanities travel up the tip and out and do it. If I want it to cut, they eat away at the surface I hold it to. A nanonwelder can go clean through the hull of a starship."

The handle of his was worn to the shape of his hand, making it obvious that Harper'd had it for a very, very long time.

[gone_byebye]

Ray nodded. "Very nice," he said approvingly. "If I wanted to make that kind of cut I'd have to use my lightsabre, and that's no good for welding. You have some nice toys out in futureworld."

He settled back onto his heels and considered the situation. "So... think we're good to power it up now?"

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"Lightsaber?" he asked, eyebrows raising.

"And yeah. Looks like there's no chance of kablooey."

[gone_byebye]

"I'll tell you later." Ray glanced at the blind; they'd been speaking quietly enough that the word wouldn't have been heard, but honestly, why take a chance?

"Okay, great." He packed the rest of his equipment into the red box, then stood up to take down the blind. "Let's get that into position, shall we?"

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"You get one end, I get the other?" Harper suggested. He had no aversion to heavy lifting. It generally was what engineering was all about. Either he was lifting something else or lifting himself into a conduit.

[gone_byebye]

Ray nodded. "Fair enough- oof, that's not the best leverage in the world. My own fault for not getting a hand truck."

He glanced over in the direction of the glaring ghost. "Your parents sure do know how to make 'em sturdy."

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"So do yours," The ghost shot back nastily, looking at him evenly.

[gone_byebye]

"That didn't work when the Other tried it on me, and it's not going to work now," Ray answered. "Besides, it's not the fat that matters but the level of fitness underneath. C'mon, Harper. The sooner this is in place, the better."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

Harper shot the ghost a dirty look, then turned back to Ray, lifting almost effortlessly, although it wasn't because he was particularly fit.

"If that's the wittiest he can come up with, it's just one more reason he should be locked away for the betterment of society," he said to Ray.

[gone_byebye]

"He's running low on material," Ray said as they maneuvered the equipment into place. "It's that or start recycling his old digs. You should've heard him a couple of days ago."

He'd about gotten used to it. Not that the digs didn't still sting to some degree, but... well, after a while they sort of lost their power. It helped, really, to remember that they weren't going to last forever.

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"Poor kid," Harper said, starting to hook everything up. "I can't even imagine having my metaphorial nuts grabbed by that evil bitch you said did this--I'd have gone evil overlord, too. I mean, did, in an alternate timeline Dylan was sent to once, when one of my inventions malfunctioned. In that one, I took the offer the Abyss gave me a few years ago and took over the freakin' universe, apparently."

He repeated, significantly, "Ah, in that one, at least. Just goes to show you how important some choices are--I chose not to in this set of universes and that's what matters."

He hooked up the last cord and looked up at Ray.

"Because of it I've got way fewer regrets than I could've had--I mean, I was worse than the Ubers there--and I'm also not pushin' up daisies--Dylan saw me die there."

He looked over at the kid and back at Ray.

"Everyone's got a choice, yanno? You help this kid get that choice back and he'll make it, don't worry."

Harper was probably the last person Ray would've expected a hope-filled pep talk from, but honestly, if a person really thought about how Harper managed to survive through all that he had, for so long, you kind of had to factor hope in there.

[gone_byebye]

"In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a geek..." Ray shook his head, but listened, and then smiled a little. "Thanks, Seamus. I appreciate it. And... yeah. I'm inclined to feel the same way."

Something occurred to him as he flipped the power switch.

"I have a Christmas gift for you, by the way. Not here- in my room."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

The field went up, more solid than before, all greens and wavering light.

"Ooh, shiny," Harper said, looking at it. Then he perked up. "Really?"

[gone_byebye]

Ray nodded. "Gimme a second- I'll go get it."

He took the distance between 2342 and his own room at a dead run; no sense leaving Harper in there with Danny longer than he had to. When he returned, he thrust a gold-and-green-wrapped package at him.

"Hope your machines can read early twenty first century entertainment disks. Otherwise we'll have to get you a DVD player."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"Nope, they can. We used to find a lot of old disks doing salvage runs, so eventually I put together something that could read cds, DVDs, DVSes, flashdisks, the whole gamut of old Earther entertainment disks," he said, unwrapping the gift eagerly. "Yanno, this is the first Christmas present I've gotten since I was eleven years-old, 'cause nobody celebrates Christmas offworld and all, they usually--"

He stopped cold when he saw what it was, completely speechless, something that didn't happen very often in his life.

[gone_byebye]

Ray just smiled.

"I figured you should have the chance to see the ending yourself."

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

"Ray, I dunno what--I mean, if you had any idea..."

This was Christmas, in his hands.

("Pop's putting it on! Siobhan! Declan! Holo's on! Holo's on!" "Put your sweater on that I made you, Sparky." "It's on? Declan! Get over here or we're gonna watch it without you!" "I'm comin' already!" "Settle down, you little terrors or we're not watchin' it 'til tomorrow." "Oh, don't tease them, honey." "Aw, cummon, pop! We'll be quiet!" "You can't be quiet, Seamus, what're you talkin' about?" "Shut up!" "You shut up!" "You both shut up!" "Holo's on, drink your cider and can it, all three of you."

It flickered to life on the wall...

"I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father..."

"Joseph, Jesus and Mary. Help my friend, Mr. Bailey..."

"Help my son George tonight..."

"He never thinks about himself, God; that's why he's in trouble...")

His eyes were sparkling a little. "If you had any idea at all..."

[gone_byebye]

Ray clapped him on the shoulder.

"Watching your face, I think I have an idea. Now, go watch it, okay? I've got guard duty for this shift. You go enjoy."

He settled back on his chair and gestured towards the door.

[trustntheharper.livejournal.com]

Ray got a glomp for it, before Harper left, and a manly pat on the shoulder.

"Thanks, man."

Then he ran off to enjoy his new treat, taking the Fenton Specter Deflector off and leaving it right outside the door.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"Your boyfriend's a dork."

[gone_byebye]

Ray watched him go, then glanced back to Danny.

"That's a new one. I was starting to think you'd run out of material. Unfortunately, I can't even grade you well for technical difficulty; you clearly didn't put any real effort into it. Not to mention the artistic merit being totally lacking, since I'm straight and I have no idea what he prefers to date. But hey, you're showing some willingness to innovate, which is a good sign."

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Danny just floating around on his back, arms crossed.

"I'm bored. What else do I have left besides insulting you?"

[gone_byebye]

"Unfortunately you're right," Ray said. "I could bring you a book or three to read, if you wanted. I mean, yeah, you'd probably just spend your time figuring out how to work them into some kind of lethal paper-cut delivery system, but it'd be a change of pace, wouldn't it?"

Eggplant. All the way down.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

"I'd figure out how to make it into a lethal something," he said with complete honestly, slamming his hand against the newly improved field and testing it.

What he found made him look frustrated.

[gone_byebye]

That, at least, provoked a smile. "Sorry. That's the handiwork of a lot more than just your parents. We wouldn't be engineers if we couldn't do an upgrade on the fly..."

The fact of the matter was that he felt sorry for Danny. This was probably going to be a mistake, yeah- if nothing else he'd get hit in the head with a flying book, at some point- but... well, even the guys in Riker's Island had reading material. This wasn't fair to the decent part of him at all.

He came to his feet. "Tell you what. I'll go get you something to read."

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

He stared at him with narrowed eyes. "What's the catch?"

[gone_byebye]

"No destroying the book, no trying to kill me with it, and if you throw it at someone else, yell first."

Ray was not big on catches.

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

Dan stared at him for a moment, then let out a huge sigh.

"Fair enough." He really was that bored.

[gone_byebye]

Ray nodded and slipped out of the room. Shortly thereafter, he returned with it. "Here," he said, sliding it along the floor so it landed safely within Danny's reach.

Rocket Boys, by Homer Hickam.

"Bar's suggestion. I read it once. It's not bad."

[goinghost.livejournal.com]

He sighed and started reading, because really, he was running out of threats and insults.

"I'm still going to kill you, you know," he said, flipping through it idly.

[gone_byebye]

"Yeah, I know," Ray said. "I'll deal with it when it happens."

He settled back into his chair.