ILLUMINARRPG: A Weston Family Christmas (part 6) (10-1300) SFI Lt. Michael Weston and CMO Commander Quinna Solice

[Al Muir]

NRPG:  Working on winding this up.


RPG:


Mission:  A Weston Family Christmas

Day: 10

Stardate: 2446.12.24


(Earth - Portland, Oregon - Weston Family Home - SFI Lt. Michael Weston and CMO Commander Quinna Solice- 1300)


Michael and Quinna had slept in.  His room over the garage took him back to his childhood, and even though he was exhausted he was feeling a little frisky, so they hadn’t gotten to sleep until nearly 4:00.  His eyes popped open and looked at the chronometer at the side of the small, full sized bed to find it was already afternoon.


He had gotten out of bed quietly and went to make something to eat, only to be met by his mother.  She stood in the middle of the kitchen, her arms crossed, looking at him with… that look.


“Mother?” Michael said with a somber look.


“Don’t mother me,” she shot back.  “How could you involve your brother in one of your… illegal activities?”


Michael blinked in surprise, “My illegal activities?  First of all, he involved himself.  I did not invite him along. He showed up on his own volition.  Secondly, I believe what we did last night was due to Davey’s own illicit actions.  What he owes, and who he owes it to, and why he owes it does not make him an innocent angel, Mom.”


Jane closed her eyes and took a breath, “I’m sorry Michael.  This is just not the Christmas I had hoped for when you returned home.  I’d hoped to get to know you and your lady friend a lot more.”


Michael sat on the edge of the kitchen table. “You’ve had time to get to know Quinna,” he pointed out.


She nodded, “I have.  But I haven’t really been with the two of you together.  I haven’t seen you as a couple.”


Quinna stirred and stretched,  she noticed the bed was empty.  Looking at the time, she jumped to see how late in the day it was.  She got out of bed to take a quick shower and get dressed.  She refused to go into the house without being showered and clean clothes.


When she was ready, she headed into the house.  She saw Michael at the table and walked over to him.  She gave him a quick kiss, “Good Afternoon.”  She turned to his mother, “I am sorry for sleeping so late.  I normally don’t sleep so late.”  Quinna sat next to Michael and touched his finger with hers.  She was looking for some coffee but, also, knew it was late for most people.  She shuddered to think she may have to function the rest of the day without some.


Michael smiled at the touch and squeezed her hand, then stood up. He moved to counter and picked up a cup, then over to a device. When he returned with a fresh brewed cup of coffee.


“Here’s something you don’t have every day,” he said with a wink.


“How is everything today?”  Quinna asked.


Jane sat down at the table, “To be honest, I don’t really know.  What’s supposed to happen now.”


“Now we have to get those goons off of Dave’s back, and then return the globe back to where it belongs.”


Jane looked lost, “But you just… and then you’re going to… and then … what?”


Michael stood behind Quinna and put his hands on her shoulders. He bent over and kissed the top of her head.


Quinna took a drink of her coffee and smiled.  “That is going to be the hard part.  I have been thinking about how we could pull that part off.  I have a couple of ideas but they are not great.  We still need to know why it is so special besides the age and where it was made.


“That’s the hard part,” Michael said, as he opened the black bag and pulled the snow globe out.


He examined it carefully. He could not identify the material the base was made from. It had been meticulously carved into an intricate scene of a village. The crystal of the globe appeared to be glass but it put off a gleam that seemed unusual. And then, inside was a token palace decorated with red and green gems, on a hill surrounded by bright trees and tiny figurines of people.


He shook the globe and the liquid filled with a substance that seemed to sparkle more than snow.  Then he noticed something else odd.  Something that hadn’t occurred to him before.


He turned to Quinna, interest in his eyes, “Do you notice something odd about this snow globe?  Something odd for a globe that is supposed to be nearly a thousand years old.”


Quinna looked at Michael but did not try to take the snow globe from his hands.  It was fragile and she was amazed that it was still in one piece being in the bag. “What are you seeing?”  She asked though she did notice that something seemed to have a slight glow on the inside.


“The liquid,” he said. “When I looked at all of the other antique globes the liquid seemed to had somehow escaped the globes. It seemed fairly consistent. And many of them the water had become discolored. This globe is still filled with a crystal clear liquid.”


“Interesting,”  Quinna said with a curious look in her eyes.


Then he handed it to Quinna, “And feel it. It’s almost… warm.”


Quinna took the globe in her hands.  The warmth mirrored that of her coffee cup.  “This is interesting.”  Quinna passed the globe to Michael’s mother.  She pulled out her PADD and started to look for liquids that held those qualities.


Michael let Quinna do her research as he started to explain the next part of the plan.  He pulled out a microtransponder and put it on the table.   “This little baby will solve our other problem. We can program this to automatically transport the globe to any location at a specific time. Dave can turn the globe over to his client, and then, as long as it’s not in a level four dampening field, it will automatically transport the globe to, say, Horace’s office in the middle of the night. Dave is in the clear, his contract fulfilled, and everything is, pretty much, back where it belongs.”


“The transporter was one of the two ideas I had.  We should track it.  Will it be able to track the location of the globe at all times?”  Quinna asked, “This globe, I hate it being out of our sites.  Look things up, there are no liquids known on Earth with the properties we have identified.”


Michael retrieved the bauble from his mother and looked at it admiringly, then said, “I know, but we really don’t have a lot of options that allow Dave to stay here, on Earth, and safe.  Even if he went off world he’d probably still be in danger.  Once the transponder is activated we’ll be able to track it, and know where it is.”


He brought out his own scanner and ran it over the globe.  He raised an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan like manner.  What he saw amazed and surprised him.  He showed his scan to Quinna.  “Look at the energy reading.  It’s not just heat.  If I didn’t know any better, and I’m not a scientist, I'd say that this was working as some kind of conduit for quantum energy.”


“There is some reaction going on.  I am more of the biomedical than quantum chemistry.”  Quinna admitted.  “I think we need to leave the mystery of the snow globe as a mystery and do what we need to do so we can get Dave out of trouble.”


Michael shrugged and agreed.  That was something for the academia than for the likes of him.  Still, curiosity dug into his brain like a tick.  But even what they did know led him to understand a little more about the reason for its desirability.  Whoever wanted this snow globe was not simply an art collector.


“Indeed,” he finally said.  “Let’s stick to the matter at hand.  Once Dave is out of trouble then we can worry about what this thing was.”


He picked up the snow globe and returned it to the black bag.  He noted that once in the bag and out of the light he noted that even through the material it seemed to cool off.  The hum that he’d been feeling in his fingertips disappeared.


Dave walked into the kitchen stretching and yawning, “I smelled coff…”  He noticed the gathering and put his arms down.  “Morning all.  Ummm… so what’s going on.”


Michael looked at his little brother seriously and nodded, “Make your call.”


(reply none)

(posted by Al and Kris)



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