Plot Seed:the Novikov Effect
“I am such an idiot.”
Jason shoved open the door to Energy Clerk Xander’s office.
“I need a double set of Energy packs ASAP.”
Xander looked up from his computer.
“Why the rush? We just had a clean pullout, and you won’t be doing anything but paperwork for the next week.”
“I lost my coat at pullout minus three days. Bucky returned it later that night, but in my drunken stupor I failed to make sure my microDRC was still in the pocket.”
“You went out drinking carrying your Rift Container? What were you thinking.”
“Standard procedure. We’re always supposed to carry them when we’re on duty, even during breaks.”
“You were drinking on-”
“-during an extended deployment.” interrupted Jason. “Look, we need to recover it immediately. Just give me the packs and I’ll take a shuttle back over for a redeploy.”
Xander informed his computer of Jason’s intentions, then bit his lip. “Do you have clearance?”
“There’s no time to go through the clearance process. When he gave me back the coat, Bucky showed me a reasonably pure sample of flebotnum, and told me that Shade had more. If they manage to reprocess it into chronium, they may be able to bootstrap the DRC into a time travel device. And if they try to reverse-engineer it - well, even if they fail, they may end up causing a class-2 or 3 rift or shredding the town with gravity waves if the flebotnum’s involved.”
Xander’s jaw dropped. “Take the packs and go. I’ll requisition the shuttle and fill out the clearance forms. But Rodlen will want a word with you when you return.”
Yoda:
I will still give this a pp for at least trying to get the story back on track.