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They study Klingon. They work out a sleep schedule. They approach Betazed.
They are two days away from the system when Isabella notices something - troubling.
She takes longer than usual to compose herself that morning, and emerges from the living quarters with carefully measured steps, and avoids eye contact.
"Do you," she asks Lalita quietly, "have the ability to fly this class of ship?"
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warpfairy
dream-me-up
"Because it's easy for me to care about people and hard for me to care about risk," he explains.
warpfairy
"This wouldn't be a matter of quietly changing identities. There would be a manhunt. It might go on for a very long time. Especially if I continued to steal fire from the gods."
warpfairy
"I am somewhat surprised you have managed to remain intact and free for this long, unless you acquired this attitude recently."
dream-me-up
"Taking big risks doesn't bother me, but I don't do it for its own sake, either."
warpfairy
"Risk bothers me. But I think my reasons are sufficient ones." She looks up and smiles. "Do you want to see my very large number?"
warpfairy
"Computer, run estimation program version twelve," Isabella says.
"Running," says the computer.
And then it offers her the number 21,476,912,443 ± 2,008,154,014.
"It doesn't count future generations. Those are people who are alive today, who will - according to my best guess, you can see there's a huge margin of error - who will now have access to Federation standard of living and live longer for it. Lives I've saved. It does count the Mirivanl, though, even though Starfleet has not yet picked up a warp signature from them."
"Running," says the computer.
And then it offers her the number 21,476,912,443 ± 2,008,154,014.
"It doesn't count future generations. Those are people who are alive today, who will - according to my best guess, you can see there's a huge margin of error - who will now have access to Federation standard of living and live longer for it. Lives I've saved. It does count the Mirivanl, though, even though Starfleet has not yet picked up a warp signature from them."
warpfairy
"I look at it when I become concerned about the prospect of spending a much smaller number of days on some prison moon. I would willingly be inconvenienced for a day under those conditions to save a single life, and will live for dramatically fewer than twenty-one billion days. And I have not even been caught yet, by anyone apart from you. The math checks out."
warpfairy
"PN-115 is not a cover stop. It will contribute, presuming the scientists I offer the equations to take the bait."
She may be shifting position slightly under his gaze.
She may be shifting position slightly under his gaze.
dream-me-up
"Can I come with you?" he asks suddenly. "I mean - I have to rescue the Harlequin, but it's about time I left her in a museum for good. And then I wouldn't have a ship. But you have a ship."
warpfairy
She blinks.
"You want to come with me? On - it really is seventy-five percent surveying. Even the planting of warp plans is mostly a matter of learning to write numbers in the local languages and running a computer analysis of citation patterns to find someone inclined to pass mysterious research off as their own."
"You want to come with me? On - it really is seventy-five percent surveying. Even the planting of warp plans is mostly a matter of learning to write numbers in the local languages and running a computer analysis of citation patterns to find someone inclined to pass mysterious research off as their own."
dream-me-up
"I could help with that for sure," he laughs. "And I've never done it before. And I like you."
dream-me-up
"You're blushing again," he informs her. "You know, you're only going to live to what, a hundred and fifty, hundred and sixty? Is one week every seven years really enough for you?"
warpfairy
"It... is a minimum, not a maximum, but - until a week ago I had not - indulged - at all - and do not yet know what rate I will prefer for the intervening years. And I am not sure what you are insinuating. I specified that I would not take assistance as an indication of a more ongoing commitment, but that relates to the fact that the situation was urgent and I did not have a traditional mate available with whom to conduct a ritual marriage-sealing. The matter will not be urgent again for seven years."
dream-me-up
"I'm insinuating that I want to have sex with you again sometime in the next seven years," he says patiently. "And I think you do too. It was fun the first few hundred times, wasn't it?"
warpfairy
"...I wasn't counting. But. It was. I simply - I am not sure that - I am aware of cultures that consider it isolable from other facets of life but outside of recent context I do not appear to fit into such a culture."