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After a couple of hours, close enough to midnight central for the sling to
factor in their timeskipping, Team Matic left Tartarus, and returned to
Ramosus. They found themselves just standing there, blinking at each other,
but not talking. While it took longer than expected, their experience on the
colony was mundane, and didn’t amount to anything. The fact they were
researching aliens was interesting, but the research itself was kind of
boring? “Why do I feel so weird?” Mateo asked. “I felt a little weird
there, but coming here has suddenly made it actually weird. Fully weird.
Weird, weird.”
“I know what you mean.” Leona looked over at Ramses. “I think we need to run
some times.” She breathed deeply, and couldn’t help but yawn. “Tests. Run
tests.”
“Maybe it’s the cold?” Marie suggested. “Has the cold made me...”
“Loopy?” Leona suggested. “We would have other symptoms, like frostbite. We
wouldn’t be able to stand if it were cold enough to affect us like this.”
“I’m sorry, guys,” Romana said. “I made the wrong choice.”
“No, no,” everyone said. She had nothing to apologize for. They would never
know what was on the other side of the sling. It could be interesting, it
could be boring, or it could even be dangerous. Whatever they found, they
would get through it, and they would do it together. They were starting to
feel like explorers, after all.
They all went to the medical wing of Ramses’ lab to get themselves checked
out. They discovered something mild, temporary, but very strange about their
neurochemistry. Ramses relied quite heavily on his automated machinery to do
the work for him, because he wasn’t in a state of mind to operate them
himself. “Um. I can’t read the data myself right now, so I’m going to rely
on the summary to explain it to us.” Ramses tried to point at the screen,
but gave up. He was too weak. “Basically, what it thinks is that our brains
were running at optimum efficiency on Tartarus. If we had stimuli, we might
have been able to be really productive. But since the environment was pretty
much just snow, we didn’t have any problem to solve. I mean, we were lost,
but we didn’t have any tech to work with, so our brainpower was wasted.”
“So it’s like a drug?” Angela figured, “and now we’re in withdrawal?”
“Yes. That’s the word the computer thing said,” Ramses agreed. “Don’t worry,
though, I don’t think we’re dependent. It would be like if you went to your
college quantum physics class, and they handed you a kindergarten math
sheet. It’s easy, and takes the cognitive load off, and you might get a
little lazy if they keep giving you the same silly tests, but you’re not
going to get addicted to it. The day they hand you a real test, you’ll need
a little time to readjust—which is what we’re doing right now—but you will
ultimately be fine. Because in this scenario, you knew quantum physics
before, so you know it now. It will just take time. Sleep too.”
“Is there anything we shouldn’t do in the meantime?” Olimpia pressed.
“Should we not have sex, or should we not eat carbs, or should we get warm,
or get cooled off?”
“Carbs would be very good for your prefrontal cortex right now,” Ramses
answered. “Sex would be fun, but you might find yourself disinterested. Just
listen to your body. If you’re cold, warm up. If you’re hot, cool down. It
knows what it needs.”
So they left the lab, and returned to their separate abodes. They were
mostly still sleeping in their joint pocket dimensions, because they didn’t
have any better ideas. They certainly weren’t going to come up with any
today. The next year, they woke up totally okay, and actually rather
enthusiastic. They were all ready for the next adventure.
Romana asked not to pick this time, though.
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