ask_the_right_questions | Entries tagged with canon

Erik wanders through the maze of corridors at... at wherever the hell SHIELD had brought him to. He follows his chaperone, making sure he's never too far behind, while still trying to take it all in, the depth and scale of this base, the shear number of people working here, it's astounding.

Of course, for all he knows, 'here' could be anywhere, he was given absolutely no reference points, except that it's somewhere within a 10 hour flight of Culver, but to be honest, that could be anywhere in the western world.

When the Agent had first approached him about this meeting, Erik had insisted on checking the presented ID badge thoroughly, and then said he could make any date with a few days notice, or else a weekend, in order to get his teaching calendar sorted and cover arranged/classes rearranged.

Which was why, at 5pm on a Saturday, he now stood looking at his chaperone wondering why they had stopped by a door.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I don't have clearance to go through this door, sir," the young Agent replied. "You do. Just, hold you pass up to the scanner, and look in the retinal scanner. The system'll do the rest. When you're through, go down the stairs to the fourth level, head right, then it'll be the first corridor on the left."

Oh. Right. Maybe they were going to 'neutralise' him, or whatever euphemism they wanted to put on it, after all. Nothing to be done but to try it and see what happens.

With that, he tried his pass and looked in the scanner. The door duly opened, and he headed down the stairs. Level four turned out to be the bottom of this particular set of stairs. Maybe this place was deeper elsewhere, maybe this was as deep as the rabbit hole went. Either way, Erik looked around, as he headed down the corridor that branched off to the right.

He walked a short distance, looking around. He walked passed one technician (or agent, or something, he looked like a technician, though,) and was looking at the right wall of the corridor, as he passed a branch off to his left.

Erik left Milliways, to find not a moment had passed, just as he'd been told it would (not). The Asgardians come over and, once Erik has opened the door for them, clamber in. There is a moment's worry as the van refuses to start, but then they're away, driving out to the Bifrost site, where they had first met Thor, rather than the SHIELD base where Mjolnir lay until mere minutes ago.

The first thing they notice, is the destroyed SHIELD cars, charred wrecks now, scattered casually across the landscape. Apparently, any dead have already been removed from the scene. Because, Erik doesn't believe that SHIELD could have confronted that thing without losing a single man, but the lack of bodies is almost noticeable as they drive up to those curious markings laid bare for all to see, out on the New Mexico sands. Thor stands in the heart of the circle and as they get out, he calls out to Heimdall, requesting that the bifrost be opened.

"He doesn't answer." Thor says, clearly this is not expected.

"Then we are stranded here," replies one of the Warriors Three. Erik has no idea which, Volstagg or Hogun probably.

Thor calls for Heimdall repeatedly. He persists, alone in this vein until the clouds that mark the opening of the bifrost begin to swirl and gather, directly overhead.

Erik stands there, watching the clouds gather, and the lights inside them swirl, with a critical eye, desperately trying to see the structure in this event they may never get to see again. He barely even notices that Thor only just gets onto the bifrost ere it takes the five Asgardians back to Asgard.

The clouds continue to swirl for some time, and Jane insists that Thor said he would come back. (What else, he said, Erik isn't bothered by, not now). So the three of them stand there, ignoring the activities of the SHIELD agents around them, watching the skies.

Erik takes a moment to find Agent Coulson, in order to confirm that their equipment will be returned tomorrow morning.

Eventually, as the sun sets, the clouds fade away, they (more specifically, Jane) finally admit that Thor is not going to be returning. Not today, at any rate.

So, first Darcy, then Erik, walk to the van. Jane follows behind, visibly saddened by Thor's failure to return.

The next hour is frantic, desperately rushing to check no one's been left behind, that there's no one in anywhere. In other words, making sure Puente Antiguo becomes a ghost town. As this metal humanoid, walks down the street, the only people left, are the Warriors Three, Sif, Erik, Jane, Darcy and Thor. A short demonstration of the whatever the weapon systems are on this thing, immediately explains why the Asgardians insisted everyone else left. No one else would stand a chance.

The next few minutes pass as a blur. The four of them (Erik, Thor, Jane and Darcy) keep dodging away from the line of fire.

Right until Thor breaks away from them towards the thing. At that point, as they all regroup towards the (currently untouched) laboratory, Thor walks straight towards the thing and what, begins pleading with it? begging it for something. Talking to it as his brother. The seven of them turn to watch, entranced.

The thing turns away, seemingly accepting whatever offer Thor has made. Before lashing out with a brutal backhand, the crunch of which they feel, half way down the street. And before Erik can stop her, before he's even had time to think, Jane is off, darting down the street to Thor's side. To a man gasping his last. The rest of them are frozen in horror, as this thing, this Destroyer walks off. And Jane, Jane is out there, shuddering and weeping over what must surely now be a body. Erik wants to go to her, but at the same time, knows it would be futile, there's nothing he can say to comfort her. Not right now.

But then. Then something on the horizon flies up into the air. Towards them. The group of them standing there see the shockwave as it passes through the cloud layers. Jane doesn't. She hears it a moment later, turning to look as comprehension dawns on Erik. This is Mjölnir, recognising something, returning to Thor's hand.

"JANE!" Erik cries, as he races towards her and Thor's body.

When he gets there, he grabs her, insisting that she come with him, but before he's got her ten yards up the road, Mjölnir comes down, and a hand flies up to meet it. The two of them turn, to see a man standing in a blaze of light, Mjölnir in his right hand, as lightning falls from the skies.

"Oh. My. God." Jane exclaims.

Yes, Jane, Oh my God. Erik thinks, though he's too dumbfounded to actually say anything at the moment.

Thor nails the destroyer with a mighty blow, before flying off into the suddenly swirling winds that force Human and Asgardian alike to find shelter before they get blown off their feet.

Whatever happens next happens very fast. And before Erik even has time to realise quite what's happened, the clouds are vanishing again, and Thor (and he really is Thor, in all his armour and honour, now) is walking back out of the dust cloud, cars falling to the ground around him.

"So, is this how you normally look?" asks an understandably awestruck Jane.

"More or less," Thor replies.

Erik's face cracks into a smile. Jane is smiling equally broadly, "It's a good look."

Thor takes the compliment in his stride, but already, he has his mind on other, larger things and looking over Jane, to the Warriors Three and Sif, declaring, "We must go to the bifrost site. I would have words with my brother."

Erik didn't hear the car arriving, but when Agent Coulson calls out to Thor, it's not altogether unexpected. Mjolnir did have to leave the SHIELD compound, after all, and it would have been easy for them to locate where it came down.

Or maybe they were following the Destroyer's trail of destruction?

Musing on these thoughts, Erik loses track of the conversation, until he hears Jane's name as Thor makes certain expectations clear.

"Stolen." Jane's accusation seems impertinent and unnecessary to Erik, though he wasn't following the thread of the conversation.

"Borrowed," Agent Coulson replies, before continuing, "Of course you can have your equipment back. You're going to need it to continue your research."

Wait.

What?

SHIELD actually wants them to continue their research?

This is most unexpected. Pleasant, because, just maybe, if they can gather enough data, Jane's really rather wonderful theorem, will be accepted by the scientific community.

And then Thor makes an offer that, lets be frank, none of them was going to refuse, Jane least of all.

As the two of them take off, Erik runs for the van, Darcy jumping into the drivers seat. There's no equipment left in the van, so it's going to have to be eyewitness observations of this phenomena only, for now. He calls out to the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. As the equipment has been stripped out of the van, there's room for all of them. Behind them, the SHIELD agents jump in their car to follow.

When Erik wakes up, the last thing he remembers, is taking Thor for a drink. He glances around him. He's in Jane's caravan. He's still fully clothed. And he has a thumping great headache.

He heads across to the main building. Jane and Thor are both up and look like they've already eaten, as he grabs his wash bag, some fresh clothes and heads for the washrooms, to wash and change.

Once he comes back out, Jane is frying up something that smells excellent, and there's a fresh pot of coffee on the side, so he pours himself a cup, before getting a beaker of water and adding one of those water soluble aspirin tablets to it (he never could get the hang of swallowing tablets whole). It makes it taste foul, but that's why you chase it with coffee.

Thor brings over breakfast (brunch? or is it even lunch? at this time, Erik's not sure, all he knows is, he's breaking his overnight fast), and after remembering his manners with a hoarse "Thank you," he tucks in.

Just as he's finishing up, Jane comes over, glowing. He knows that look. It's the 'I've got an idea and I think it's amazing' look. He gives her a look. It's a look she's seen from him several times before, in a different context. Usually, it's seen over the head/shoulder of another student, and says, 'let me finish with this one first'. This time, though, it says 'give me twenty minutes before you throw this one on me'. That should be enough time for the Aspirin to kick in, and then he'll be able to think straight.

You know what's surprising? How long twenty minutes can be when there's nothing to do.

In any case, eventually, his head clears enough, and Jane begins to explain her theory.

It's a good theory, but there's no way he's going to admit that to her, not yet. Instead, he plays devil's advocate all through the afternoon. He gets her to bring it down to a level Darcy understands. Thor stays in the background through all of this. Erik's actually quite impressed at the man, now. He seems to require nothing but his thoughts, and some small jobs to do.

Finally, as the afternoon begins to draw to a close, he steps off the attack.

"It's a beautiful theory, Jane. But you won't be able to convince the scientific community of any of it. Not without hard evidence."

Which is precisely the moment that some 'Hard evidence' decides to walk up the street and wrap on the glass doors to their lab. He and Darcy both drop their (thankfully empty) mugs on the floor in shock.

"I don't believe it." Erik finds himself muttering as a large fellow with an Axe and a beard to rival a dwarf's introduces the group as 'The lady Sif and the Warriors Three.'

There's a discussion going on, but Erik isn't really paying attention, at least, not until Thor mentions the fact that his father is dead, because of him, and he has to remain in Exile. Then the lady Sif drops a bombshell. "Thor. Your Father still lives."

They stand there in silence for a few moments, before Darcy notices the spiralling cloud formations in the distance. They gather in the doorways to stare as the spiralling column sinks to the ground, before landing with a thud and a dustcloud, eerily reminiscent of the sequence of events on the night they found Thor. Again, Darcy is the one to voice what the three (four, maybe?) of them are thinking.
"Was somebody else coming?"

Evidently not according to the plans of the Warriors, given the concerned looks on their faces, and as fire balls appear in the area around the touchdown site, while the clouds fade to nothingness.

Thor and Jane have an argument about who's doing what. All Erik knows, is he'll go where Jane is. At this point, that means staying, and getting everyone except the Warriors Three and Lady Sif, out of the town. What's coming, Erik doesn't know. But if it's getting four Asgardians worried about facing it, then it's pretty bad indeed.

[Previously, there was a disagreement. Erik lost.]

Once that had been decided, Erik, Jane and Darcy gathered some more clothes for Thor and doctored a copy of Donald Blake's driving licence to show Thor, using the picture that Darcy took that morning in Isabella's Cafe. Why Jane had Donald's license in the first place? Erik has no idea and doesn't really want to know.

Now, Erik finds himself driving towards the crater for the second time in a day where he'd argued vigorously not to go near the place. Especially after he'd found out just which set of 'Feds' had turned up.

However, he parks up the car in front of the gates they have set up, gets out, and locks it behind him. Even now, having seen it before, it does still kind of impress him just how fast these guys got this city, and it practically is a city, set up. After all, twenty four hours ago, there was absolutely nothing of note here at all.

"Gentlemen," he says to the gate guards.

"I understand that you have this man in custody," he says, showing them the doctored driving licence. "I'd like to request his release."

The guards are unimpressed, but they send word back to their boss, a Sitwell? who decides to hear Erik's request inside the compound, instead of coming to the gate.

He is walked up to what he presumes is their main complex, and is met by Agent Sitwell, who requests that he hand over the Identification card for 'security checks', which, of course, means checking it against various databases. To refuse, would automatically mean he has failed to secure Thor's release, because there is no way they would accept identification based off a single license and image, without cross-checks. On the other hand, the doctored card is a very poor fake, and will probably fail the first check they throw at it. And yet, if he doesn't try, what was the point of coming out here? Why did he waste nearly two hours driving here? So, he hands over the card. The moment he has handed it over, Agent Sitwell vanishes into the depths of the compound.

Twenty seconds later, he is handed the card back, with a quiet "Thank you for your cooperation," from a young agent who retreats inside again rapidly. The card, it seems, has passed any tests, or been scanned for further analysis, such that they no longer need the physical copy. Erik isn't quite sure which is accurate. He hopes it is the former, but suspects that the latter is actually true.

Moments later, Agent Sitwell reappears, at the top of the stairs, followed by Agent Coulson, who seems to be, as he was at the lab, in charge of this little operation.

Coulson reviews a screen to the right of the door as Erik is looking at it, before saying, "His name is Donald Blake?" his face completely neutral.

"Dr Donald Blake," Erik corrects the title earnestly. Some times, a title like Dr or Sir, is all you need to get respect and trust. He doubts that is the case now, but it's worth a try.

"You have dangerous co-workers, Dr Selvig."

It seems Agent Coulson is utterly unmoved by the fact that 'Donald Blake' is a Doctor. Erik must confess a lack of surprise about this. Nothing else has caught him off balance, why would revealing that someone has a doctorate do anything? Time to play a different card, then. One that ought to shock some form of reaction out of these people.

"He was distraught when he found out that you'd taken all of our research. That was years of his life, gone," Erik states. "You can understand how a man can go off like that. A big faceless organisation like yours coming in with their jack-booted thugs and..."

Agent Coulson looks away from the monitor that he had been glancing at, and Erik freezes for a moment under that gaze.

"That's how he put it." He adds, trying desperately to soften the accusation, shift the blame, but still, he was the one who said it to their faces. He was the one who made the accusation, he shouldn't be too surprised if things get a little icy when those kinds of accusations are brought to the table.

Agent Coulson seems willing to let it go, as he has more pressing concerns, "That still doesn't explain how he managed to tear through our security."

Oh, shit! That was not a question he expected, what seems reasonable? Uh? "Steroids! He's a bit of a fitness nut!" Erik exclaims, beginning to gesticulate wildly. To those who know him, this is a sure sign that he's making it up on the spot.

A quiet "Sir" from the operative who returned the card to Erik, interrupts Erik's train of thought and speech. Agent Coulson looks back to the monitor, and pauses for several seconds. Erik has just enough time to start getting worried inside, before Coulson looks back at him

"It says here that he's an MD."

Ah, yes, this. Thank goodness Erik had an entire car journey to work out a decent reply to this one.

"Well he is. Or he was, he, err, switched careers and became a physicist, err, but a brilliant physicist. He's a wonderful man. He's a man in pain." Erik sells it as best he can, pleading with Agent Coulson to see it as he tells it.

Apparently, it works, or else the good agent is playing a game far above the level Erik is working at, because in a few short moments, he finds himself being led to Thor's holding cell.

Okay, so, S.H.I.E.L.D. just swept in and took all their data. All their data. Data which Erik is now willing to accept is potentially viable and interesting. On the other hand, there was a literal blank check in return, but, even so, last nights data, the images etc, based on what they'd got before that, won't be replicated for a long time. That was literally priceless to the scientific community. And S.H.I.E.L.D. just walked in here and took it.

So, with nothing else to do, the three of them find themselves on the roof of the laboratory, looking out over the town.

"Years of research, gone." Jane states.

"They even took my iPod," complains Darcy. Which, in Erik's opinion is the least of their worries at the moment.

Erik thinks for a moment, before inquiring, "What about the backups?" It's not his lab, he doesn't know what their backup procedures were.

"They took our backups. They took the backups of our backups, they were, extremely thorough," is Jane's dejected reply. Oh, okay.

"Just downloaded, like, thirty songs onto there," says Darcy.

"Could you please stop with your iPod?" Jane nearly explodes at Darcy, before asking, "Who are these people?"

Erik considers his reply, "I knew this scientist. A pioneer in gamma radiation. S.H.I.E.L.D. showed up and um, he wasn't heard from again." Not the nicest statement to hear, given their situation.

"They're not gonna do that to us." Jane insists. "I'm gonna get everything back."

"um er please," Erik stutters. "Let me contact one of my colleagues, he's had some dealings with these people before. I'll email him and, maybe he can help."

"They took your laptop too." says Darcy.

A despairing look is shared between the three of them, before they realise, hang on, the Library has computers and an internet connection. It's at the other end of town, so Erik and Jane jump in the van and head down there, while Darcy gathers something for lunch for the lot of them.

It takes Erik a little while to get the wording of the e-mail right, but finally, he's happy that it will be accepted at face value as being true, without giving away just how dangerous a position they could be in.

As he walks back out, he passes a trolley with recently returned stock, that hasn't been placed back on the shelves. He notices The Giant Slayer on there, and picks it up, memories of a childhood playing games in these worlds bringing a smile to his face. Then he notices another, Myths and Legends from Around the World. He flips it open, and finds the section on the Norse myths. Glancing through it, produces pages on the Bifrost, and Thor, from who's name Thursday is derived.

It's ridiculous, it's children's stories, but that's exactly the point, this is the same story the Thor guy is talking about. He decides to take it out, to prove the point to Jane.

Except, she's not there. What the hell? I specifically told her to wait there and not leave the van are his first thoughts when he sees it gone. He takes a good look round, to check it's not parked up some way down the road, although why Jane would do that is beyond him anyway. With no other options open to him, he sets off to walk back to the lab, where Darcy should have been getting some lunch stuff ready, if she wasn't doing something impulsive and stupid as well.

Fortunately for Erik, she was being sensible, and had lunch laid out for three when he walked back in, late.

"Where've you two been?" she demands when he walks in.

"Did you hear the van? It's just me," he replies, placing the book on the table before continuing, "I'm hoping she's gone off to get some supplies to start rebuilding her equipment, but..." he tails off.

They dig in to lunch without Jane, in the end. After lunch, they flick through the book, but don't really notice what they are looking at.

As night comes in, vast thunderstorm gathers overhead. It destroys any and all cell phone signal they had, which was minimal in the first place. When it eases up, and phone signal returns, Erik finds a message from Jane waiting for him.

"Hi Erik, it's me, don't worry, I'm fine, but um, just in case you don't hear from me in the next hour, just, come by the crater site and, try and find me, okay? I did exactly what you told me not to. I'm sorry, so sorry, bye." She doesn't sound fine, despite what she says, and the rain will surely have soaked her to the skin, so Erik and Darcy head out to persuade someone to loan them a car to drive to the crater.

They pick up Jane and the van and head back to the lab. Due to them being separated, Darcy having to drive the car back, while Erik drives the van, Jane waits to tell them what happened until they are back at the lab.

One recap later. Jane wants them to go and get Thor.

Erik, though, is having none of it. "He committed a crime. He's in jail!"

"I can't just leave him there." Jane continues to insist.

"Why?" comes Erik's sharp reply. Darcy, bored by the continuing argument, is looking through the Myths and Legends book again.

"You didn't see what I saw."

Maybe he didn't, but he's heard her tell it several times over now, just to make sure he's got all the details correct in his head.

Darcy gasps, "Look, it's Mjolnir." She still mangles the pronunciation, but it's better than last time. Jane, frustrated by the interruption, moves around to look, she saw The Hammer at the crater, even if it was through the plastic sheeting and rain.

When she sees what Darcy's been looking through, she's quiet for a moment, before asking Erik (because it's obviously a Library book, and he'd been the one to enter the Library) "Where'd you find this?"

"The children's section," Erik concedes. It's not technically true, but it would have been had the book not just been returned. "I just wanted to show you how silly his story was."

Jane gets rather animated at that. "But you're the one who's always pushing me to chase down every possibility, every alternative."

Erik hadn't quite expected her to pull that one out of the bag. "I'm talking about science, not magic."

Darcy, realising she's not going to get any more reading done for the moment, with these two arguing, removes her glasses.

Again, Jane ripostes. "Well, magic's just science we don't understand yet. Arthur C. Clarke."

Arthur C. Clarke, the author. That quote is used in so many contexts, often where it's not relevant. Here though? "Who wrote science fiction." are all the words Erik can gather to defend his position.

"A precursor to science fact!" Jane yells back at him.

"In some cases, yes." Erik concedes. Although it's clear he doesn't think that's the case here.

Jane continues to attack, "Well, if there is an Einstein-rosen bridge, then there's something on the other side. And advanced beings could have crossed it." A perfectly well reasoned argument.

"Oh, Jane!" Erik exclaims. With the exception of the evidence they have collected, which is by no means conclusive in any way, the evidence appears to favour the concept that such things are not possible, or only so on a microscopic scale.

Darcy chooses this moment to weigh in with her thoughts. "A primitive culture like the Vikings might have worshipped them as deities." Well, isn't that political science study useful! No one would have thought of that!

Jane takes a small moment to realise Darcy's agreeing with her, before saying, "Yes, yes, exactly!" Half a second later, she adds a "Thank you," to Darcy.

"mm hmm" Darcy finishes.

Erik, double teamed upon and beaten, sighs and says no more.

After last nights events, Erik and the girls headed back to the, well, building is probably the nicest word for it, that Jane is using as a base for her research. There, they set the computers to collecting and analysing data that the sensors had been storing up, before crashing for the night.

When they awoke in the morning, they got to analysing the data, and studying the images that the various sensors and cameras that had been running had taken. There was one image in particular that made them realise just what they might have left at the hospital.

Then, of course, they had found the guy again, brought him back, gave him some decent clothes and had some interesting discussions with him over food, as well as finding some clear cultural clashes (and doing their best to smooth them over with the locals). Then Thor, as the giant fellow seems to call himself, hears the locals discussion about a 'satellite' and takes off.

All the while, Erik has been studying Thor exceptionally carefully. And, as it happens, doubts about the man are starting to surface. Doubts he had last night, doubts that are not being eased by the way 'Thor' is talking. Or walking. In the middle of the road. Like he's never seen a car before. Also, concern for the way Jane is looking at him. Jane is the daughter of his best friend, virtually family, as far as he's concerned. Indeed, in many ways, his research group are his family. The family he never otherwise had. Or wanted? Certainly never had.

So, he interjects, before Jane does something, that would, in his opinion, be stupid, even dangerous. He manages to, in a few, surprisingly few, even, sentences, talk her out of taking the this 'Thor' to the crater site. He won't deny the crater is interesting, and sort of wishes they had seen it last night, so they could have gotten some readings, but they did have more important things to deal with. Thanks Darcy!

So, Thor says farewell, and they depart, though not before another slight cultural clash is met in the way Thor says farewell. Certainly he can carry himself like a prince, when he wants to, Erik won't deny him that, and finds himself bowing in return.

"Alright, back to work," says Erik. Because otherwise, he had this horrible feeling that Jane and Thor would wait for the other to depart first.

He knows he was right when Jane delays letting Thor out of her line of sight for as long as possible.

However, as they walk back up the hill to their home, they see a surprising amount of activity going on in the place, given they locked it up when they took Thor to the diner. Then a black flat-bedded truck drives right in front of them clearly carrying equipment.

"Hey. That's my stuff!" cries Jane as it drives away.

"What the hell is going on here?" she says as she storms into what was once her laboratory, but was currently being disassembled at a remarkable rate. Erik and Darcy are left hurrying in her wake to keep up.

"So, Jane, you really think you've got something?"
'Despite all the previous false starts?' is the unspoken question.

"Yes," comes the voice from the other end of the phone.

"Ok, I'll be there in a week." Erik replies. He needed to check up on her soon, anyway, so it makes sense to do it now, out of term time, when there are no undergrad students to lecture.

*************

The flight from Richmond to Albuquerque had taken most of the day, and then Jane showed up in, well, it can only really be described as a tooled up camper van. That was when Erik started to have some concerns about what she was studying out here. It took them the rest of the day to get back to Puente Antiguo, where Jane had based herself for this field study. When she said that there was another event expected tonight, well, that's exactly what they were there to study. So into the desert, away from the town lights they headed.

So, out in the desert, waiting for a seemingly ridiculous event to occur. Standing through the sunroof of a camper van packed to bursting with high-tech equipment. The anticipated time comes, and passes, seemingly without incident.

"Wait for it." Jane tells them. Except, the predicted moment has been and gone, so they're waiting for nothing, now.

Indeed, when Darcy asks to turn on the radio, the moment seems to be gone, despite Jane's insistence that it's not.

But, Erik's job is to see that funding money is being well spent, which, a failed event doesn't really help, so, maybe it's time to bring her down slightly. "Jane, you can't keep doing this."

"The last seventeen have been predictable to the second," insists Jane, dropping back to check her notebook.

"Jane, you're an astrophysicist, not some storm chaser." Even as Jane calls up the images of the previous events on her computer, that they've already been over on the phone, the reason Erik's out here in the first place.

"I'm telling you, there's a connection between these atmospheric disturbances and my research. Erik, I wouldn't have asked you to fly out here, if I wasn't absolutely sure." says Jane, sighing.

"Jane, I think you want to see this." Ok, what's Darcy seen? Time to look in the mirrors.

You know, "What's that?" is probably exactly the right question to be asking at the moment, Jane. Back up through the sunroof to get a better look.

"I thought you said it was a subtle aurora?" Erik murmured.