When she sat down at her desk, Dr. Brigandy was looking forward to locking her office door, telling anyone who came by to bother her later, and do what she enjoyed: solving problems. It was only the third day on the job, the work week was about half-way done, and she had a host of problems on her plate. But they all involved minimal working with people who'd get in her way, and maximized time she could spend just thinking. And think she did, putting on some music, pouring herself a glass of fruit juice, throwing her jacket on a coat holder, tying up her - dark forest green today - hair, hooking herself into her workstation, and kicking off her heels.<br/><br/>The first problem on her plate was the dart drive. While the rest of the team had already ran preliminary data analysis, no interesting trends regarding the fluctuations had come up. Not that she expected anything after doing her own analysis, but having more sets of eyes on something was just good practice, she was still just a (augmented) human. Problem was, there simply wasn't a clear stimulus, or any other factors with behavioral changes in the same time frame. They'd looked at various factors like temperature, system use, energy drain, background radiation, even the most unlikely things like pilot stress, trying to zero in on some correlating factor. Nothing matched up. Shira recalled, once again, the way those fluctuations would show up, and then immediately disappear once they were observed, like some twisted Heisenbergian problem. The other techs corroborated that strangeness. She'd forwarded the data and findings to the original design team, but they were keeping quiet, simply thanking her for being so thorough. That just bothered Shira - to hell with corporate secrets, she thought. Science needed to be open and used, not locked away so that some company could profit from it. It was probable that this fluctuation was just expected with the dart drive, and no one here was really being kept in the loop properly. She wondered if the main Arrow drives on the ships would exhibit similar behavior? Even when she was with ship engineering, that technology had still been very closed off and kept under wraps.<br/><br/>While she was pondering over that, Shira also was tackling her second task - the generation of a usable simulation for the dart drive. It was a good next step to take - now that they had proper numbers behind the concept, they could just make a VR simulation so that they didn't need to risk more prototypes in order to train more pilots. Obviously, this would only be based off of the current version of the drive, but future updates would be incredibly simple. This was largely a background process that only required the occasional attention, and so she was running it on her workstation, leaving herself directly jacked in through her neuroport in order to facilitate any routines that would require a more conscious mind or higher decision making. It was one of her favorite ways to multitask, something she couldn't have managed before the operation. It sent her into an almost meditative state, largely helped by how<i>pleasant</i>it felt. Warmth seemed to go in waves down her spine, and, strangely enough, her mother's humming was there, just soft enough that it didn't demand Shira's attention, but enough to put her at ease. She put her feet up on the table and leaned back, letting ideas, thoughts, and conclusions come and go. And the morning went on.<br/><br/>Shira slowly came out of her meditative state and unhooked herself a little before lunch, noting that she had a few messages waiting for her. One, the usual check-in from her team regarding drive maintenance. Routine things, nothing to worry about. The next, a message from...Central Intelligence? Her eyes narrowed as she scanned over it. It was a basic thank you for sending along the finding she had, to keep the artifact secure, and finally that they'd be in touch. Spies in space, and she had their attention now. Shira wasn't entirely surprised - it was their job to look into anything and everything that could be a threat to their voyage, after all. The part about them being in touch, that set off a few bells in her head. She hadn't mentioned how she'd come into possession of the metal, just that it was found on a maintenance check. Which was probably a good thing now, Shira doubted Kaz wanted men in suits pulling him in for questioning. But now<i>she'd</i>be the one pulled in for questioning, and while she hadn't done anything wrong, it was a real pain. And what if they probed into how she got the item in the first place? No, it'd be best for Kaz to be involved at this point.<br/><br/>Her phone rang, startling Shira enough for her to give a little yell. She took a few deep breaths as she checked the caller, reminding herself to stay calm, high nerves were only destructive. Ceres? Hoping it was just an offer to get some lunch, she picked up.<br/><br/>"Shira, you've got suits coming down to get you. Way to shake the bee's next, by the way." The voice on the other side was Ceres, but there was a hint of concern embedded in her usual flat tones and cynicism.<br/><br/>"You've heard? Shira bit back a groan. There would be no lunch today, she could feel it.<br/><br/>"I've got contacts, and they've got contacts. And while I'd give you props for being open with your discoveries, this stuff's pretty high-security, and I don't think it's the kind of attention you want to be getting. Just giving you an update."<br/><br/>"Thanks, for letting me know. And.." Shira sighed.<br/><br/>"Just don't do anything dumb, or try to lie, or...I mean, you know better, but.." There was real concern in Ceres's voice now. Shira hadn't done anything wrong, but if this was a major secret someone wanted to keep under wraps.. "Try not to get spaced." Ceres hung up.<br/><br/>Shira sat back in her chair, letting out a long, frustrated breath. She picked up the clear case she had placed the metal object in, and slipped back into her heels and jacket. She'd need to find Kaz, and ensure he at least knew what was going on, especially if he got pulled in too. She walked out of her office to track him down, hoping to find him and update him on the situation. Her stomach growled.