010; (VIDEO) forward-dated to late on the 25th

[andblockbuster]

 [What you are seeing is Topher. Topher looks a little like hell. Someone may or may not have been avoiding dealing with one of his empathy links for SCIENCE (the first one worked out fine- that's how he knows enough to figure this out, but the second one...) ... Also, it's possible he's been occupied running scans and trying to figure out if he's wrong, which... he's still not convinced he's not.]

I've been working.... [He pauses, plants a palm on his forehead, and sucks in a breath.] I've been working on a theory. It's not entirely sound yet, but I was trying to run through every logical possibility before entertaining the notion that it might actually be... that, and... no dice. None. And it was bad enough when it was just memories, but now- now. Oh, it's much worse. 

Whatever this is, it's on a synaptic level- whatever one person feels, the other person feels too. Observe. [He picks up something sharp and pricks himself, which makes him hiss in pain.] Now someone out there felt that. That means that we are doing some serious groupthink weirdness without the whole "all of us are Borg" BS- SO FAR. Who knows what it'll be in a few weeks. Or days. And what was the last thing 90% of us experienced that involved groupthink? Anyone?

[YEAH, TOPHER'S HAVING A BAD DAY. HOW ARE YOU?] I think we might be in trouble.

[He rubs his face.] And is anyone who was fully assimilated on Strela even still around? 'Cause that'd be a start to maybe possibly proving me wrong. Or right. But let's err on the side of blind optimism and assume my fancy medical degrees in neurology mean nothing and I'm just talking out of my... bottom area. Whatever.

[Maybe you should deal with your link first, Topher. MAYBE. There's science to do, okay.]

Comments

[doc_pompous]

We could have discussed before you unleashed it on the public with no warning!

I fired Zoidberg.

[That's the important part.]

[andblockbuster]

Good for you! Taking charge, being assertive.

[DEFLECTING....]

[doc_pompous]

You're lucky you're the only neurologist. Has your theorizing brought you to a potential solution?

[andblockbuster]

If it's the nanites, I might have an idea. If we can figure out how to block them from exchanging data without locking ourselves out of every room in the ship, we could maybe put the kibosh in this. The problem is how.

[doc_pompous]

You haven't...tried to tamper with them, have you?

[DON'T DO IT TOPHER HE MEANS IT]

[andblockbuster]

No. Bennett and I were- [SOB BENNETT] It never actually happened.

[doc_pompous]

But you were planning to. Topher, I can't afford to have something happen to you.

[andblockbuster]

Bennett and I had a theory about the nanites. It was... stupid. Believe me I wouldn't do it without her here.

[She could do it. If anyone could do it, she could. He's stuck knowing that there's an easy as hell way to fix this, but there's no way to approach it.] And I'm not stupid enough to hack my own brain.

[...not better.]

[doc_pompous]

Just someone else's?

[REALLY TOPHER.]

What was the theory?

[Because even if it's stupid, it is probably a thing he wants to know.]

[andblockbuster]

A willing volunteer. [GOD, SIMON. WHAT DO YOU TAKE HIM FOR.]

The nanites are... in the brain. Not just in our tattoos. They're everywhere, so we thought we could keep the ones in our heads from transmitting and prevent... something like this from happening. Like a mental block. Or a firewall.

[doc_pompous]

[IRRESPONSIBLE.]

Then it's a matter of finding the right chemical tracer. Something that would make them show up on a scan.

[andblockbuster]

And then there's blocking them from receiving without... locking us out of everything. Bennett and I agreed this was why people who go too far out into the ship come back all wonky. Like there's a bad frequency out there that starts messing things around or-or something.

[It's like active architecture only WORSE.]

[doc_pompous]

That makes sense. But if the nanites have anything to do with the jumps themselves we have a whole other set of problems on our hands when it comes to blocking signals.

[andblockbuster]

Yeah, there's a lot of problems with this theory. For all we know, the stasis fluid could reset everything, and then what? We're between a rock and a hard place right now.

[doc_pompous]

The stasis fluid, in all likelihood, works hand-in-hand with the nanites. It could be the explanation for the regenerative properties.

[andblockbuster]

It explains why we all got the Blue Flu way back when. Or why people go into those weird stasis comas. It's so convenient that the things that could be killing us are the only things keeping us from dying out here.

[doc_pompous]

The stasis fluid and...or the nanites are likely the cause of most afflictions on this ship. The insomnia. It's the only thing we all share.

[andblockbuster]

Exactly. For all we know, that's what happened to the original crew- one day their nanites just stopped working or someone spiked the stasis fluid with the space crazy kool-aid and boom. End of an era.

[doc_pompous]

It's a sound hypothesis. If we had a way to go about proving it...

[andblockbuster]

Aside from hacking the nanites of someone we don't like and seeing what happens?

[HE'S JOKING. HE PROMISES.] There's no sound way to go about it. And playing around too much could just trigger it that much faster. Self-fulfilling prophecies.

[And he's self-aware enough to know he has screwed up MASSIVELY playing around like this.]

[doc_pompous]

We're not hacking the nanites of people we don't like!

[andblockbuster]

Do you have even a tiny bit of a sense of humor?

[doc_pompous]

This is not exactly the time to joke around.

[andblockbuster]

It's how I handle the stress.