Room 231, After ACJ

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Fighting snowmonsters, "study group," and making a survival kit for Shop Class had been fun, but they also had been distracting and Sam was now seriously behind on her homework. She hadn't done any work for her independent study for a couple of weeks now. Sam turned the CD player back on, munched on a few of the chocolate covered espresso beans, and began flipping through her notebook.

Today she'd try and focus on the huge one that The Doctor had said needed to be completely reworked. She took out the eraser and wiped down a huge chunk of wall, re-writing the one equation she knew was accurate, then working quickly from there.


[ooc: Door's open for interaction, but is primarily for oatmanspatient and his sidekick.]

Comments

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

After his conversation with Al (http://oatmanspatient.livejournal.com/44138.html?thread=678506#t678506) last night, Sam!Marty decided to drop by Sam!Sam's room and see what exactly he could do to prevent Sam!Sam from living in the woods like a hermit.

He knocked on the door frame and looked around at the whiteboard wall room filled with equations. "Hey Sam, how's it going?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam jumped slightly from being startled, then turned around. "Marty! You scared the heck out of me. What's up?" She smiled at him. "Nice to see you're back to yourself."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"For the most part," Sam said looking over the wall. "Just thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing. You looked pretty down the other day. Wow. Those are some tough equations you have up here."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"It's amazing what vodka and tequila will do for you," Sam said, biting her lip as she studied the wall, then turned back. "Welcome to my little hobby, Marty. I'm trying to figure out the math behind wormholes, and it's not going particularly well today."

She ran a hand through her hair. Unfortunately, this was the hand with the marker in it, so a smudge of green ended up near her right temple.

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Hobby? Gee Sam this stuff is advanced. Beyond more than some physicists can handle," Sam said scanning the wall looking at some calculations and then turning to face Sam!Sam. "I used to do the same thing back in Grosse Pointe but I got burned out on the subject. By the way, you got a little, uh, smudge thing on your temple there."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Hobby, obsession, it's all the same thing, right?" Sam shrugged. She already knew she wasn't most physicists. "Chocolate covered espresso bean?"

"Wait, you used to do wormhole mechanics?" She was very confused. "I thought you were a hitman?"

Sam rubbed at her forehead. "Thanks."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Well yeah, but *before* I became a hitman I was a big science geek," Sam said trying to cover his tracks. "I was really into biology, quantum physics... that kind of stuff. Then I got burned out on it and... um became a hitman."

Sam then pointed to an equation on the board in an effort to distract the other Sam from asking more questions about himself. "Hey isn't that Erodelbmud's theorem on time/space mechanics?"

[chasingangela]

"Oh, that's convincing," Al said. "Hit man or nobel prize winner -- which path to pick?"

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Sam rolled his eyes at all and gave him a look as if to say "You have a better suggestion?

[chasingangela]

Al shrugged. "Just pointing something out. You know, you might want to ask if she has an older sister. We could use one like her at the Project -- we're low on brains and eye candy right now."

He leaned back. "By the way, I had Ziggy run the numbers on Marty and Angela again. She says that even with the age disparity or time disparity -- whatever you want to call it -- it's still 50-50, with or without you. It doesn't seem to be what you're here to fix, Sam."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Sam frowned as he made some adjustments on some of the equations on the whiteboard. Clearly this is not what he was expecting.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Marty?" Sam noticed his frown, but more importantly, she was resisting the urge to shout "mine!" and stand protectively in front of her project. At least for the moment.

[chasingangela]

"Sorry. You don't get to play yenta this time," Al finished. He paced the room as he watched the two Sams work.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Um...okay?" Seemed like a strange career path to her, but it wasn't like Marty could be classified as completely normal, either.

"It is," she said, glaring at the variables as if they'd personally offended her, "but I think he was stoned when he came up with it, because this makes no sense."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Well it can be a little complicated. Here let me show you a simplified version of it. Can I erase some of these doodles here in the corner?" Sam asked before erasing a silly picture that looked like Jack had drawn.

Sam then draws a cube and puts a point on each side of it and then connecting the lines to a certain point in the middle of a cube. He then puts a point outside of the cube and draws a line from it to the center of the cube. "Okay now dealing with wormhole mechanics, you typically deal with these seven coordinates right?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, go ahead, except for that one," she pointed, "it's kind of cute."

Sam put her hands on her hips and studied Marty's drawing. "Yes, that's right."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Okay, now Erodelbmud's theorem is similar, but it deals with time variables..."

Sam switches to a different marker and makes a starlike pattern around the beginning and end points.

"...at the starting point and the end point of the of the destination and..."

Sam grabs another colored marker and makes another couple star-like patterns around the path between the starting point and the end point.

"...taking account the various time fluxes that could occur as a result of of gravitational pulls of stars, vortexes and other celestial objects."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam nodded, too caught up to question how Marty was suddenly a quantum physics prodigy. "Okay...so we're dealing with time now, instead of space? Doesn't that completely contradict relativity theory?"

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Pretty much, but Erodelbmud said for this to work properly there needed to be a certain X-variable that would negate relativity. Like a quantum accelerator, Tardis, flux capicitor, or theoretically a wormhole where you could actually control the destination of where you are going."

Sam chuckles at the last one.

"Of course the ability to *control* a wormhole is a laughable concept. That's where Erodelbmud was truly smoking something."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam bit her tongue so hard it was almost bleeding. "Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you did have a stable wormhole generator and could control wormholes..."

She'd get into the stable wormhole generator later. First the wormhole, then the 'gate.

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Well to do that..." Sam then goes into a long talk about how you would need to have the energy to create a wormhole, the numerous ways you would have to control it, another theoretically controlled wormhole on the other side of the destination point, yadda yadda yadda.

"In my opinion? The way time travel is realistically going to occur is for someone to build a quantum accelerator and use it to travel within one's own life time."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam nodded. Problem was, she knew that part already. "Okay, but that doesn't get me anywhere on that," she said, pointing at the wall, "and that's what's breaking my brain right now."

"A quantum accelerator?" Sam started laughing. "Right, because that could happen."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Well... it's more likely to happen for someone to build a quantum accelerator than to build a stable wormhold with our technology," Sam said slightly defensively as he looked at the equation Sam was working on.

"Oh... Well I see the problem here."

Sam steps forward and makes a quich few changes in the formula.

"You forgot to carry the two."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"I don't remember specifying that it was our technology," Sam muttered, under her breath. "At least the 'own lifetime' stipulation would help cut down on the paradox problem, but how much could you really do, if you were that limited?"

"Sure, make me look stupid, Marty." Sam pouted a little. "There's still a ton to do, though. So far, I'm still at the point where I can't even make a wormhole, let alone figuring out how to send someone through it without them liquifying."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"...but how much could you really do, if you were that limited?"

"You'd be surprised," Sam said under his breath, but quickly started writing down some more formulas.

"Well then you need to look at Emmet Brown's formula on quantum fluxes and Hartdegen vortex theory," Sam said as he wrote out the formulas on the board.

"This will at least give you an Idea on how to make a wormhole if you have the technology and provide an idea on safe passage."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam's jaw dropped and she almost had to sit down. It wasn't the answer, but wow, what a doorway. "Marty, you're a genius."

"Thank you so much!" She leapt up to her feet and hugged him tightly.

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Sam braced himself for what he expected to be the familiar feeling of the leap, but instead nothing occurred. He returned the embrace of Samahta though in a friendly way and look toward Al for any word if the right thing had been done.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"It's too bad you got burned out, Marty. A mind like yours? It comes around once in a lifetime." Sam stepped back and immediately went to work, scribbling, figuring, erasing, and humming contentedly.

At that exact instant? A nuclear bomb could have gone off and she wouldn't have noticed.

[chasingangela]

Al applauds. "Nice one, Sam. Looks like with this help, she graduates with honors, goes to the air force academy and and ends up working for the military doing deep space cartography, whatever that is. She gets a lot of awards, too."

Hopefully, he watched Sam for any sign of an imminent Leap.

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

Sam gave Al a wistful look and shook his head. He motions for Al to follow him, but before he leaves he turns to Sam (the other Sam)and says... "Hey Sam? We should celebrate our work here. Why don't you stop by the room tonight and we can throw a little party."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"You're on," Sam grinned back at him. "Need me to bring anything? I know your room tends to live on alcohol and chocolate, but I could probably pick something else up."

[oatmanspatient.livejournal.com]

"Bring both!" Sam says with a sly grin.

Yes... he's probably up to something.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Sure! I'll see you later, then? Thanks again, Marty." She smiled at him again, completely unsuspicious. "This, well, you may have just saved my sanity."

[chasingangela]

Al follows Sam, watching him a little skeptically. Sometimes he can almost read his partner's mind, but other thins it's a little trickier.