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Sep. 18th, 2006 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gone_byebyeSunday, September 17, 2006
14 North Moore Street
Manhattan
"Egon?" Ray called, poking his head into the physicist's lab space. "Are you in the middle of anything right now?"
"Nothing particularly time-critical at the moment, but I need to be back here in two hours," Egon said. He glanced up from the nest of wires and breadboards on his bench. "What is it?"
"I just had the weirdest thing happen to me at the Bar- well, okay, not the weirdest, but strange in a way that I don't normally see happening."
One of Egon's eyebrows went up.
"Remember those sentient rats I told you about? The ones on the waitstaff?" Ray looked around him and parked himself on the nearest available stool. "Normally they take orders that people've given in English and just answer in Rat, or whatever it is they speak. There's some form of translation field in effect in the Bar that does an end-run around the language issue for all the patrons. I think something might have happened to it."
"Go on," said Egon, stepping around the bench with an interested expression.
Ray shrugged uncomfortably. "When I went to order dinner for Romana and myself-"
"I'm surprised you're back here, given the size of the backlog of information you wanted to go over with her if you ever saw her again."
"Time pouching," Ray reminded him. "Anyway, I went to order dinner and Romana suddenly asked me when I'd learned the rats' language. Apparently I'd answered the rat in his own dialect without knowing it."
Egon frowned. "In his own-"
"Dialect, right. Romana had K9 play back what I'd said, because he's got digital recording built in, and it came out as-" He let out a series of chitters and squeaks. "Something like that."
"Huh. Would you mind doing that again?" He leaned over to rummage through one of the nearby drawers, extracting a recorder and clicking it on. "Assuming you can, of course."
"Sure," Ray said, and repeated the performance.
"All right." Egon clicked the recorder off. "Were you trying to replicate the sounds, or was that an attempt at speaking the same way that you did when you placed your order?"
"Just the sounds. I tried to do it again when I was talking to Francis later on, but I couldn't get it to come out right. It's not at all like Garion's work on teaching me to speak wolf."
"Mmm." Egon steepled his fingers. "Do you think it could be replicated in the presence of one of the rats and a recording device I would give you?"
"Possibly," Ray said. "Assuming it doesn't fade."
"Why would it do that?"
"Well, Romana suggested it might've been linked to when that sailor on the Peking went through my head," Ray said. "She thought that it made sense for sailors' ghosts to be able to understand rats."
Egon's eyes narrowed. "I hadn't considered that," he admitted. "Let me get the meter and see if you've got any residual PKE traces on you. If you're still resonating more than twenty-four effective hours after the fact, we may have to take some steps."
Ray nodded, leaning back on his stool. "I didn't spot anything when I did a rudimentary area scan, but it's a little hard to keep an eye on the readout when you're pointing the meter at your own head."
"I'll get the neuroguide if we turn up anything," Egon promised. "All right. Hold still while I get a-"
The silence was a little too abrupt to be normal. Ray's eyes slid sideways, but all he could see of Egon was one elbow. "Get a what?"
"Ray," Egon said carefully, "are you currently carrying or wearing anything that could conceivably be some kind of shield or dampener?"
"Uh- just the amulet Garion gave me. That's supposed to make it possible for me to go to Riva instead of here from Milliways."
"Take it off, please," Egon ordered. "Put it on the bench."
Ray did so. "Is something wrong, Egon?"
"I don't want to say just yet. Sit up again, please?"
"That didn't sound good," Ray said warily.
"That's because it wasn't supposed to. What have you been doing, Ray?"
14 North Moore Street
Manhattan
"Egon?" Ray called, poking his head into the physicist's lab space. "Are you in the middle of anything right now?"
"Nothing particularly time-critical at the moment, but I need to be back here in two hours," Egon said. He glanced up from the nest of wires and breadboards on his bench. "What is it?"
"I just had the weirdest thing happen to me at the Bar- well, okay, not the weirdest, but strange in a way that I don't normally see happening."
One of Egon's eyebrows went up.
"Remember those sentient rats I told you about? The ones on the waitstaff?" Ray looked around him and parked himself on the nearest available stool. "Normally they take orders that people've given in English and just answer in Rat, or whatever it is they speak. There's some form of translation field in effect in the Bar that does an end-run around the language issue for all the patrons. I think something might have happened to it."
"Go on," said Egon, stepping around the bench with an interested expression.
Ray shrugged uncomfortably. "When I went to order dinner for Romana and myself-"
"I'm surprised you're back here, given the size of the backlog of information you wanted to go over with her if you ever saw her again."
"Time pouching," Ray reminded him. "Anyway, I went to order dinner and Romana suddenly asked me when I'd learned the rats' language. Apparently I'd answered the rat in his own dialect without knowing it."
Egon frowned. "In his own-"
"Dialect, right. Romana had K9 play back what I'd said, because he's got digital recording built in, and it came out as-" He let out a series of chitters and squeaks. "Something like that."
"Huh. Would you mind doing that again?" He leaned over to rummage through one of the nearby drawers, extracting a recorder and clicking it on. "Assuming you can, of course."
"Sure," Ray said, and repeated the performance.
"All right." Egon clicked the recorder off. "Were you trying to replicate the sounds, or was that an attempt at speaking the same way that you did when you placed your order?"
"Just the sounds. I tried to do it again when I was talking to Francis later on, but I couldn't get it to come out right. It's not at all like Garion's work on teaching me to speak wolf."
"Mmm." Egon steepled his fingers. "Do you think it could be replicated in the presence of one of the rats and a recording device I would give you?"
"Possibly," Ray said. "Assuming it doesn't fade."
"Why would it do that?"
"Well, Romana suggested it might've been linked to when that sailor on the Peking went through my head," Ray said. "She thought that it made sense for sailors' ghosts to be able to understand rats."
Egon's eyes narrowed. "I hadn't considered that," he admitted. "Let me get the meter and see if you've got any residual PKE traces on you. If you're still resonating more than twenty-four effective hours after the fact, we may have to take some steps."
Ray nodded, leaning back on his stool. "I didn't spot anything when I did a rudimentary area scan, but it's a little hard to keep an eye on the readout when you're pointing the meter at your own head."
"I'll get the neuroguide if we turn up anything," Egon promised. "All right. Hold still while I get a-"
The silence was a little too abrupt to be normal. Ray's eyes slid sideways, but all he could see of Egon was one elbow. "Get a what?"
"Ray," Egon said carefully, "are you currently carrying or wearing anything that could conceivably be some kind of shield or dampener?"
"Uh- just the amulet Garion gave me. That's supposed to make it possible for me to go to Riva instead of here from Milliways."
"Take it off, please," Egon ordered. "Put it on the bench."
Ray did so. "Is something wrong, Egon?"
"I don't want to say just yet. Sit up again, please?"
"That didn't sound good," Ray said warily.
"That's because it wasn't supposed to. What have you been doing, Ray?"
