2024-03-01: Materials, Analysis

• Log: Materials Analysis
• Cast: Koji Kabuto, Liam 7-020
• Where: The Photon Power Labs, Fujinomiya City, Japan
• Date: March 01, 2024 (September 0098)
• Summary: Liam visits the Photon Power Labs to deliver some samples of Fold Crystal acquired from a Vajra hive in Australia. Koji recognizes them as valuable finds, and talks with Liam about their role in the Kafims' designs. A commitment is renewed.

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<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam made a call to Koji earlier in the week. A recent mission in Australia turned up samples of an exotic alien compound, with potential high-energy physics applications--it's precisely the sort of thing that the PPL makes its business. He brought those samples here himself, a little earlier.

        (He ran into Yuliana earlier. It was a little awkward, but not bad, and definitely not the kind of thing that would cause his mood to have an unfortunate accident near a window.)

        So it's not a surprise, hopefully, when Liam turns up at the door of one of the PPL's materials analysis labs. He's dressed for early Fall, in jeans, a tank top, and a sleeveless hoodie, and a backpack hangs from his shoulder. (The backpack went through security, too, and contained nothing hazardous. Nevertheless, Liam has taken precautions.)

        "...Koji," Liam says, glancing around the lab in search of the man he's here to meet. "I'm here."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Liam!" The voice echoes from the upper floor of the materials analysis lab, as Koji does a controlled slide down the ladder from the testing chamber. "It's good to see you again." He lifts a pair of goggles up onto his forehead, opening a storage box to hand a pair to Liam as well. "Protective gear is mandatory inside the experimental labs," he reminds the young man with a grin.

"Oh, right. You said you had samples?" He hands over a small container. "Drop 'em in here and I'll run the initial analysis, then categorise them for Sewasshi and Nossori to look over."

That done, he hooks the container up to a socket next to one of the computers, then turns back to Liam. "How are you doing, man? It's been a long time since 3G got back from Jupiter."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam looks better than Koji's ever seen him in person. His gaze is alert and attentive without being too alert, and his bearing has grown more casual. He no longer looks like he's waiting for someone to demand his attention. His jaw is still clean-shaven, but there's a layer of soft, coppery stubble covering his scalp. Even his scars are a little lighter.

        The world might be entering a new and uncertain era, but Liam has been trying hard to rebuild himself since he got back. He's kept Koji in the loop about the basics: something bad happened at Jupiter, and he needed some time to recover from it.

        "I gotcha," Liam says. He smiles, takes the goggles, and dons them without complaint. Safety is important! Once the container is in hand, he opens his backpack, and begins the extraction. The first thing to come out is a big plastic specimen box, sealed tightly and lined with padding. Liam puts on a pair of work gloves, cracks it open, and pulls out the contents: two small violet-hued crystals that glitter in the lights of the laboratory.

        "Therapy's still going well," he says, as he slots one piece of Fold Quartz into place. "And I might be completely done with surgery. I--that was most of the first quarter, doing surgery. But I'm doing much better now, and Lu and I are making things work, together. We found these just the other day. They... were part of a Vajra Heavy Soldier we killed in Australia."

        As he speaks, Liam loads up the other crystal, seals the container, and passes it back to Koji. "An SMS pilot called them 'Fold Quartz', and said they might be a biological Fold Drive."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Koji nods as Liam says his therapy's going well. "I'm glad to hear it. Lucine's doing well too? Great." He smiles. "Send her our best when you see her again! I know getting out here is a lot harder nowadays."

He watches the purple crystals go into the container, and frowns. "Hold on, I recognise those. This is gonna call for a more thorough initial analysis, I think. They're called Fold Quartz, you said?"

He pulls up the chair for the computer, tapping keys to run a multi-spectral analysis on the crystals.

"... I knew it. The energy output is different, but the material composition - this is the same type of crystal as Elisa uses." He spins in the chair back towards Liam. "This is big. Naturally-occuring high-energy materials... natural Fold Drive." He leans back in the chair, running a hand through his hair. "I'm gonna mark these high-priority, you had a good thought bringing them here."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "She is," Liam says. "How's Sayaka?"

        Someone has managed to remain in the dark about Koji's newest and most embarrassing bit of press. That, or he thinks it's a deepfake.

        Liam nods and grimaces when Koji brings up security. "They've got checkpoints all around Tokyo-3," he says. "On NUNE's side, as well as the OCU side. It's a pain in the ass." It's a little easier if he's on official NERV business, but there are plenty of times when he wants to leave and isn't on official NERV business.

        "This whole thing is fucked up," he continues. "The other day I got yelled at for diverting to answer a distress call in OCU territory, and it wasn't even by NERV personnel. It was some Ringer liason from Jeturk, who thinks he can convince Commander Ikari to buy his weapons, and I was--" Liam realizes he's venting. On one hand, complaining about things to someone he trusts is a new behavior, and demonstrative of how he feels. On the other, Liam himself doesn't want to waste Koji's time.

        "Yeah, Fold Quartz," Liam says. "The--" He trails off. His eyes snap open. Elisa. The same type of crystal Elisa...

        Locusts crawling, chewing on his machine, trying to break in. Bright green crystals. The Empress, Yuliana had told him, less than an hour before. The Empress carved off a piece of herself--carved off elements of herself--and that piece became Elisa. Now that he's not right there, next to Yuliana, he doesn't have her presence to humanize the horror.

        "Shit," Liam whispers. "Elisa--" He looks at the sample like it could break loose and stab him at any moment. "Wait, wait. You said it's not exactly the same, right? Color, obviously. And this came out of a Vajra. Wasn't any different from any other Heavy Soldier, I think. No Void readings off it. How?"

        What, if anything, connects the material the Vajra use to fold space with the crystals Elisa uses to...

        ...distort spacetime, and bring the Void closer.

        Liam's face goes very pale.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Sayaka and I are good," Koji answers Liam with a fond smile. "We're still working on setting a date, but you're invited, if you want."

The most shocking revelation: It wasn't a deepfake?

As for security and travel: "Yeah, it's..." Koji sighs. "A mess, right now. I want to talk to the old man about it, but, well. We're kind of busy, actually. Talks about expanding the grid to the rest of the bloc are picking up, and that means more pressure on the engineering teams, plus our work investigating the Void phenomena."

As Liam asks how these naturally-formed crystalline organs can be in any way similar to what Elisa uses: Koji frowns. "We know that there's a specific treatment process they use to convert Fold crystals to be more amenable to converting incoming energy to Void. I would have to review the notes we have to be more certain, but it's quite likely we have at least one kind of the material used as the starting point for the process."

He pauses, then opens one of the files, displaying a voidform-dragon - the first one to manifest, in fact, in the Macross Frontier.

"... Wasn't there a reported malfunction of the Fold Drive right before this thing showed up?"

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam's mouth forms a little 'o' of surprise. For a moment, he considers asking if Koji means the wedding, or the making of the baby. He decides against it. (It feels kind of mean. And even if it didn't, it might come back to haunt him if, somehow, he manages to turn his own proposal into a catastrophic failure.)

        "I'm glad for you," Liam says, the surprise giving way to a warm, bright smile. "Of course I want to come!" And it's not even the only good news on the table, even if Koji's recent work is definitely all the more necessary thanks to the breakdown of the Federation. "I... don't know if I can assist in the Void investigation officially, anymore," Liam says, a hint of bitterness creeping into his tone. "But I still want to help. Even if it's just getting more of what you need, deniably."

        A treatment process? Liam's brow furrows as he listens. "You mean Elisa could've been using Vajra guts this entire time? Or are there other places you can find these things?" The Voidform-dragon. Liam's jaw tightens. "Yeah. It turned on. It turned on, despite lacking several extremely necessary components."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Well... it's the kind of thing that is the whole world's problem, so unofficial or not I think you'll get a break in the end." Koji pauses after saying that, thinking about the NERV command structure. "... I hope, at least. That said, we really do appreciate you bringing this in. Whatever help you can give us, we'll appreciate that too."

He taps his hand on the desk, thoughtfully. "... It turned on. The space-folding technology was activated to bring the dragon in. How did they start it up? Early methodology, maybe, before Elisa had access to the treatment method? I'll have to ask miss Loom."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam hopes Katsuragi, at least, would understand. He doesn't know what Gendo's thoughts would be, but what he said to Guy during Bardiel's rampage stuck with him. In Liam's mind, it's clear the Commander doesn't trust anyone else to deal with the Angels. He could declare the Void someone else's problem and still get billions from Emperor Charles for... whatever Charles is paying him for. Global defense, presumably? "I'll do what I can," Liam says. "I don't know if Elisa remembers I exist, but for us it's never stopped being personal." He still remembers those frantic calls from Lucine, and her reaction when she saw the Dianthus fielded against her.

        "Miss Loom?" Liam asks, after a moment. "And, ah. I did have one thing I wanted to bring up. Did you ever figure out what was up with the Arctic ice? It can't just have changed color."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Take it from me, it's a lot simpler when the megalomaniac doesn't know you exist," Koji jokes, quickly tapping out a few notes before turning off the material analyser. "Shari Loom. Britannian kid, apparently was Elisa and Yuliana's engineering specialist before... I guess she couldn't handle things any more and bailed. ... It's kind of weird calling her their specialist, though, since she's around your and Lucine's age. Prodigy teenagers aren't that unusual, I guess, but to have the knack to be able to make things compatible with the Void?"

"The Arctic, though... Honestly, no idea. It's connected, but... at best I have guesses, I haven't drawn anything up into a hypothesis yet. Something about the Empress's rules being imposed upon the world."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Speaking of not knowing people existed. "I thought that was all Elisa," Liam says, his face folding into a frown of mild distress. "She was--" Doing it in-house, for them. "God." Liam puts a hand to his brow, and closes his eyes. At least they never tried to brainwash her, or forced her to fight for them?

        Or did they?

        "I'm glad she's with you, either way," Liam says. "Yuliana seems to be getting better, but what she told me about Elisa..." A faint shudder. "I... it explains how she could do literal magic, I guess." Liam takes a breath, and presses his palms against the cool countertop. His thoughts on the Arctic are a bit... more complex, and he takes a moment to focus, and boil them down.

        "I don't think the Empress should remake anything, or anybody. I saw what she did to Yuliana. I felt what she did to Yuliana, and how she sees the world. Someone like that is." Pause, breathe. "Nobody has the right to do that."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Yeah, I suggested she find someone she could talk to about what she's been through and she reacted... positively, I think, to having someone notice that about her?" Koji shrugs. "So we're making progress, I guess."

He nods. "I've seen Her gaze - how it feels like it's raking you from the inside out. Subjecting anything in the world to that, let alone everything... it can't be allowed to happen."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "I'm glad," Liam says. He feels like he's said that a lot today, but it's not untrue. And it's good to have things to be glad about when you've trudged through checkpoint after checkpoint and aren't sure if you have authorization to see friends and comrades anymore.

        "So we agree, then. Which is... why I'll help, as much as I can. Me and Lu. And likewise, if you find anything out, tell us. If you can't reach me, tell her and have her tell me. She'll find a way."