Log:Kat to the Future

2019/09/05 Sentinel Copycat 1

On the Titan space station base in the far future...

"The Lights know about you. It's hard to maintain the safety of the world while keeping secrets like you. They get the Four-Dee Wife thing and I draw fewer shifts than anyone on the account that... tired isn't really something I do anymore. So there aren't any complaints when I actually draw a few hours off from the system with little notice. Plus there are 6 of these Stations on Titan alone- they were the first so we all worked out of here intitially.. Not counting orbital resources they built later around the system. Titan is just lining up with Tower Four which gives us a good hemispherical view of the system so we can maintain line of sight. Its still slow, but our patrols close that gap a bit." He explains as the floor finishes its configuration for Griffin.

He lands as various holographic panes come up giving him a view from various detectors around the system.

Kat blushes a bit in knowing the Lights know of her, only because she thought it was some sort of secret. "I'm glad I don't have to go sneaking around, then," she says in sudden relief. She gazes out across the view of this sector of space. "I hope your Watch is safe and without incident. But I know you'll keep Earth safe from whatever threats are out there in this time," she says sweetly, taking a moment to commit this area to memory as best she can as she drinks in the details. Just in case it's knowledge needed in her future. "What -is- out there that requires a base way out here?" she asks curiously, wondering if she can get a nugget of knowledge.

The Elder Griffin grins. "Well, with Synthetic Intelligences outnumbering biological sapients our little secret was never going to last long. Even in your time there are plenty of photos with us together. People usually dismissed it as coincidence, fangirl, sidekick or frequent partner but it took some time for the public to figure it out. Then anyone who would care died off a couple of times over. I mean- you could have put all this together on the other side so I don't feel like I'm cheating here. Especially centuries away."

As he speaks the platform finalizes it shift around him- clamps close around his arms & calves before he starts to glow in a similar way to how present day Griffin erupts in a nimbus of raging energy when he starts to lets loose or needs to put on a show to control the fight mentally. A pair of meters appear nearby displaying the stations current primary power levels as well as subsidiary backup systems. Another meter displays a safety range for the 'Charge Input' system. The station seems to be running with just 15% surplus. After few moments the power meter ticks up.

It seems they arrived in time- though that was never a worry they faced.

"'Out there'? Too many things to list. The Grozersi, the Orthoi, and a dozen more races and twice as many 'conglomerates' out there- hoping to take advantage of us being in recovery mode." Griffin answers earnestly. "But so far we've held the line- mostly. So nothing for you to worry about." He adds still looking at her.

Kat watches in awe as the living capacitor act as a living battery. "I guess it's not cheating," she smiles. "I'm surprised it took that long for people to realize, what with us being together so often. But you've teamed up with plenty of metas."

She listens to the threats and nods, smiling softly. "I know you'll always hold the line, sweetie. I'd better let you get to it," she says, realizing it's time for her to go back to her Griffin.

She steps up to Elder Griffin and goes on her tip-toes to give him a kiss goodbye, realizing it'll be a while before she can do this with her Griffin without a risk of her powers causing an awkward situation. She also wants to give him something to maintain him until their paths cross again. When she finally pulls back and plants back down on her heels, she takes a step back and smiles at him with adoration and admiration, ever the fangirl of her hero.

"I'm sure I'll see you again soon, Handsome. I'll be rooting for you, even when I can't be by your side. Just like always. Take care of the Earth. And take care of yourself. I love you." With a weight in her heart at the thought that for now, Elder Griffin may be alone, she reaches for her PowerPixie+ and taps the recall button on its screen. Light outlines her and bends around her before with a flash and a small puff of smoke, she vanishes.

About 30 seconds after she vanishes, the station's alarm system goes off. An Orthoi scouter ship has entered the station's sensor range.

The SuperSoldier is every appreciative of just how well Kat knows him and his sense of purpose. In all their years she rarely made a fuss about his frequent calls of duty. Later she'd even joke that since he didn't have to answer the call of nature any more he had to go twice as often when duty called.

He falls into her kiss, paying even less attention to the long range monitors than before.

"Thanks Kitten. I'll miss you terribly until then." He replies before adding, "Of course. You know I'll be here to keep the lights on for you." Griffin sighs as he watches her leave and the streak of their 25th century cloned child Stellaris passing by from his North LaGrange Posting is felt by his expansive energy senses. Now- he is well and truly alone, though never without her as she said. Knowing she's 'out there' somewhere rooting for him across time and space makes the lonely hours, days, weeks and months much more tolerable. Plus Rick is still grumping along managing the Earthside of security so its not as much of a grind as it may seem.

He's just wondering about whether or not he'll survive to the era the Mechanic hailed from- secretly hoping he too will one day be able to flit across time and space. THen it wouldn't be so long in between seeing his 4D Wife.

All that passes from his mind as the Oort Range Sensors ping & identify the Orthoi scouter entering the system. He gets straight to business.

"TORUS- how long until the scoutship is within Neptune's orbit?" He asks.

A familiar voice chimes out, "Booting. Paradox safeties triggered. Connecting to station systems now."

The SuperSoldier nods.

A moment later the TORUS' voice says, "They're coming in at impulse speeds. Trying not to trigger the Lightbreaker Systems. That's new. Still- less than 8 minutes."

Griffin nods. "Perfect." And he turns it up, pushing the Charge Input safties into the orange zone. The power systems begin ticking up faster. 17%...

18%...

19%...

The Orthoi scout ship angles its way to Neptune while giving Griffin time to charge the station. Although it seems like the Orthoi ship itself is running out of time. the TORUS manages to scan more details as the ship gets closer to range. "Hull damage detected in the scouter. Warp drive systems critical."

"Disengage inputs." Griffin says aloud as his eyes lock on the incoming datastream regarding the Orthoi scouter.

"TORUS can you get me close to that scouter?" He asks, knowing that even at 20x lightspeed he won't make it in time. But being entrusted with the TORUS has its benefits.

A familiar black destreum ring begins spinning beneath his feet, rising and passing right over the Charge Input as it retracts back into its recessed position.

Griffin begins to hover as the ring rises up to meet a duplicate ring that has formed overhead. They meet and retract as well, leaving Griffin a quarter of the system away & Saturn only a distant point in the black void.

Future Griffin is close, relatively speaking. A quick FTL burst from him will get him to the ship that looks like it's been through a fire fight. It could well be going at impulse speed because it's not capable of exceeding those.

It's a small ship, meant to carry only a small crew for long range short trips. And it's angling itself to try and enter Neptune's atmosphere, but it struggles to maneuver and line up properly, as some of its thrusters are nonfunctioning. It rolls correctly, but the pitch and yaw are off.

Future Griffin is close, relatively speaking. A quick FTL burst from him will get him to the ship that looks like it's been through a fire fight. It could well be going at impulse speed because it's not capable of exceeding those.

It's a small ship, meant to carry only a small crew for long range short trips. And it's angling itself to try and enter Neptune's atmosphere, but it struggles to maneuver and line up properly, as some of its thrusters are nonfunctioning. It rolls correctly, but the pitch and yaw are off.

Griffin kicks it into superluminal speeds away now that he's free of atmosphere and heads straight for the failing ship.

He's far faster than the Sentinel Kat remembers. He can cross the solar system in under 3 minutes at a medium pace. Faster if he turns himself into pure energy. In any event, crossing this gap will be measured in seconds not minutes.

Once there he'll try to get underneath the ship and correct its course- and force it into a stable orbit around the gas giant & disabling its engines.

The Orthoi are notoriously difficult to question since most go full on kamikaze under the threat of capture. EarthForce isn't even sure what star system they come from much less what they're after. They drop out of lightspeed and attempt to raid whatever they can get away with. They don't care for losses or anything as long as the take outweighs the losses. Some suspect the ships are drones but frankly its all a mystery- even to Griffin

Getting the Orthoi Scouter under control is a simple matter for Griffin, especially since so many of its maneuvering systems are damaged. It can't even take evasive maneuvers. Once he has hold of it and it's in stable orbit, the engine drive powers down.

Through a small hole that goes deeper into the hull, Griffin can see atmosphere escaping out into the void of space. Closer inspection shows there is a rear airlock into the vessel. And at Griffin's powerlevel, cutting a way in is as simple as looking at it intensely.

Griffin does exactly that, lancing through the hull as if it were made of something less heat resistant than strips of paper.

Flattening the Griffin shaped cutout he stretches the outter hull over the hole and replaces it, sealing the room back off by then welding the metal back into place and twisting the metal closed.

He'll turn around an dlook at the interior door and knock loudly, certain the display he just put on will say all he can't in vaccum.

The knock doesn't sound like anything on Griffin's side. But eventually, air--or some other form of atmosphere, events into the resealed airlock before the door he knocked on starts to raise upwards.

The door reveals a black suited female figure, short and a little curvy as the space helm absorbs down back into the suit. An older Kat, maybe in her mid thirties, shakes out her shorter, now wavy pink hair once its free of the helm before flashing a confident, seductive smile at him.

"Hello, Sweetie."