What are we Sciencing For, then?

Written to book_worm5‘s prompt here to my Summer Giraffe Call.

The Landing Page for my Science! setting is here

“Well.” Cara frowned out the window. “This is interesting.” The city closest to their fortress-slash-research lab was over a third rubble. The shock waves from the bombs could be felt all the way to the tower, which had been built on a remote island to minimize interruptions from the curious or outraged. “I’d say it’s unexpected, but according to our charter…”

“Mmm.” Alex frowned. “I always thought our charter was a bunch of carefully-worded bullshit.” He was holding a hip flask; he took a long drink from it before offering it to Cara.

She looked at the flask, looked at her partner in crime, and frowned. “Well, and what if it was? What have we been doing here all these years?”

“…Laughing at the new guy?”

“In between laughing at the new guy. The part we were actually paid for.”

“I’m pretty sure Liam paid us for the laughing…” Alex muttered, but Cara was already walking away. “Cara? Cara… oh, no. Not…”

“Look, it’s an alien invasion. The saucer type suggests it’s the same type of thing that our droids caught ten years ago. So we can make some very basic guesses about them.” The machine she was hauling onto a cart was twice as long as she was tall, half tubes and half rivets. It made Alex’s blood run cold which, considering what it could do, might be a wee bit ironic. “Are you going to help me get this up to the roof turret, or are we going to roll over and welcome our new alien overlords?”

“Cara… the last time you fired it, it melted an intern’s shoes to the floor.”

“So we’ll clear the interns off the top two floors. Get… what’s his name, the new guy?”

“Jorgensen?”

“Him. Get Jorgensen to do that. Me? I’m going to fire some aliens.”

“Fire on. Fire on some aliens.”

“Fire on, set fire to, fire, terminate, downsize… It’s all dust and ashes in the end.”

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0 thoughts on “What are we Sciencing For, then?

  1. Go through enough Timmies and they’ll stop seeming like people. (*blink* I expect that’s something Time Lords have to watch out for)

    • I suspect Alex and Cara have already been through enough Timmies. Getting attached to the new employees before they’ve proven themselves to be sturdy and possessed of at least a modicum of common sense is unwise …

    • When they keep ending up in the well, and the dog has to be the brains of the outfit, there’s some serious doubt about the Timmies being human in the first place.

  2. I had somehow missed the Science! series before. But conveniently, it’s short, so I’ve read the lot. Fun! She could still fire someone, with a suitably spectacular malfunction. Though I expect a human makes a lousy projectile when launched at an invading alien ship.

    • Oooh! Well, if the Timmies interns piss her off enough… And I like Science! It’s a fun setting to play around in when the mood strikes – which obviously isn’t as often as some of my settings *cough*

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