Post by Bobbi on Oct 14, 2021 17:18:05 GMT -5
Message Incoming
Those two words broke through the train of thought that was building up over mindless mental computations. The project was always being tweaked, refined, and tested in his head when it was his focus and when it wasn't there was always a placemarker in his mind to remind him it was there. As if he could forget.
Message Incoming
All it took was a tap to send the equations into the recesses of his mind. What replaced them was the fuzzy image of a woman with sunken eyes. For a moment he didn't recognize the humanoid, but then she started to speak and her name was a there in a zap of recognition. She looked so different. "Annie?" With eyes flicking to the chrono on his left wrist there was confirmation that time had not decided to take a walk while he wasn't looking.
Her voice filled the den filtered through the white noise of static while her image broke its lines and shifted right diagonally and blinked to blankness before shifting back the other way and reformed into her familiar image. "Solomon, where are you?" She was talking quickly, breathlessly, through the static forcing Solomon to place the stylus he was holding down on top of the second datapad he had sitting on the low table before him, right next to the steaming cup of tea and the plate of sweet bread that had a thin layer of hardened cream softening on it as he worked.
The datapad he held in his hand was now the focus of his full attention, "Annie? Annie, I'm here."
The words were out and he was rising, the datapad on the table just as suddenly forgotten as the bread and tea.
"Sol--mon--" the static held on tightly, cutting into the lady's voice and swallowing some of what she said, "We n--d y--."
"Hold on, Annie. Give me a moment." The datapad was held out in front of him just on the chance that it might help her in some way to know he was at hand. He knew she'd hear something of his voice, but was the image going through? He couldn't tell just yet. There was too much interference. In just a few swift steps and several moments spent hooking up the datapad to the console in his work room to clear the line he became certain that it was a faulty connection between his comm, the datapad, and the system that supported the tech. She was too far away for the link to work properly. The image blinked out the moment he got the datapad hooked up, but thank The Force there was still sound.
"Annie, can you hear me now?"
"Solomon?" Her voice came back in a rush of static, full of white noise at the edges. "I think -- yes, I hear you."
A few keystrokes were made, and within another mere few seconds he had his comm unit hooked up to the console as well, all done while he spoke, "What's wrong?"
"Newe-un -- he's been hurt." Those few words were enough to stop Sol's tinkering, "They found us. He tried to fight. Sol, everything's gone." That time when her voice broke it wasn't because of static.
Back in motion, Sol's hands flew across the keyboard of the console in a rhythm that brought up a sphere behind him. They'd been found, but she was able to call even with Newe-un being injured. Had they moved? He continued working, bringing up a star chart overlay for the darkened sphere that now occupied the middle of the room. "Where are you now, Annie?" Had they called Darien? "Are you safe?"
"--I-- Ithica -- I think. At the house."
They made it halfway through the plan. That was something at least. He brought up the star charts for Ithica's system and then turned to eye the map. Just a few more systems and they'd have made it the entire way. "Stay there, Annie. I'm coming. I'll call when I'm underway, until then do not answer your comm for anyone, okay? Will Newe-un be alright until I get there?"
"I --" When her voice cut off into silence Solomon let it rest for just half a beat before he was whipping back around to look down at the components he had hooked up to his computer.
"--Annie?" There was no answer, but the line hadn't been severed in any way. He leaned down, reaching to pick up the connected communicator, "Annie, I know you're scared right now but I need you to answer that. Will he be alright until I get there in a few days?"
What came back to him was a soft sob, strangled with the force of Annie trying to push her answer through in a voice loud enough to carry across the communication line, "Yes, I -- I think so. He's resting right now. Please hurry, Solomon!"
"If things change, call me then take him to the nearest med facility. I'll find you when I get there, but remember to call me first okay? I'm on my way." He waited for the muted confirmation before cutting the call. His datapad and communication device were removed from the link to his computer quickly, the star map banished from the air in the process. He was then leaving the work space and stalking through the house.
"Trin?" He called out ahead of himself, heading for the food prep room where he'd last seen her.
He didn't have to hunt too hard because at the sound of him calling her she stepped into view. One look at him told her everything that the sound of his voice hadn't. "You've got to go?"
It was a grim nod that gave his answer, "I will give you the details when I return. I'll be gone a handful of days, and we might have guests when I make it back."
"We said no more secrets, Sol." Her reminder came with Solomon laying a light kiss to her cheek, Trinity reaching up to stop him from anything further while giving him a pointed look.
"I know. The details will come, I promise. But right now I need to go before anything more happens."
Reluctantly Trinity let her hand fall, then she turned her head to catch Sol's cheek with a light kiss of her own. "We will miss you while you are gone. Be careful."
"I will." He promised, "I'll call when I can."
