Page 20 of Crash Landed with My Weredragon

Marina switched columns. It did look like noise; irregular fluctuations with no visible periodicity. She stared at it for thirty seconds, letting her brain do what it did best; find patterns in chaos, signal in static.

Then she saw it.

"That's not noise," she breathed. "That's a secondary oscillation embedded in the primary signal. The frequency is irregular because it's being modulated by the gravitational interaction between the two suns."

Melessra pulled a chair over and sat beside her. The scientist's composure cracked, just slightly, just enough for Marina to see the excitement underneath. "I've been trying to isolate that signal for three years. Three years, Marina. How did you see it so quickly?"

"Earth's solar physics database has analogs. Binary star systems with secondary oscillation patterns. I've read the papers on Chen and Volkov's work on gravitational frequency modulation in close binary pairs. The pattern is different here because your suns have a different mass ratio, but the underlying physics is the same."

"If we could isolate the secondary oscillation cleanly…"

"We could predict the collapse timing to within cycles rather than decades."

"We'd need to cross-reference my subsurface data with your coronal observations."

"Your forty-seven cycles of local readings with our two hundred years of remote data. The overlap would be enough to recalibrate everything."

They looked at each other across the workstation. Two scientists from different worlds who'd spent their careers working on pieces of the same puzzle without knowing the other piece existed. The moment felt electric; not romantic, but something equally powerful. The recognition of a mind that matched your own.

"I should inform the D'Karr before we begin any formal collaboration," Melessra said, pulling herself back to protocol with visible effort.

"Of course."

"But I'd like to start preliminary cross-referencing while we wait for authorization. Unofficially."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

They worked together for two hours. Melessra was brilliant, focused, precise and willing to abandon her assumptions when Marina's data contradicted them. Marina returned the favor, adjusting her models when Melessra's local observations revealed blind spots in the Earth data. The collaboration was seamless in a way that shouldn't have been possible between two people who'd met three hours ago, but science didn't care about introductions. It cared about questions and answers, and they had plenty of both.

By the time the cavern's lighting shifted from night-cycle to day-cycle, which was a gradual brightening, Marina barely noticed. They'd identified two atmospheric variables that neither team could have found independently. The preliminary recalculation of the collapse timeline was rough, incomplete, and terrifying. The suns were dying faster than anyone had estimated.

"The D'Karr needs to see this," Melessra said, staring at the numbers.

"Your council needs to see this."

"The council won't understand the implications. Not immediately. They'll need it explained in terms that translate political pressure into action." Melessra looked at Marina with an expression that had evolved considerably from the cool evaluation of their first meeting. "You're good at that. I watched your presentation yesterday. You made the food crisis data feel personal."

"Data is always personal. People just forget that until you remind them."

"On Dobromia, we tend to forget it more than most. We've been surviving so long that we've confused surviving with living." Melessra stood and began gathering her data tablets. "I'll compile the preliminary findings for the D'Karr. We should have a complete revised model within two days. Maybe sooner, if your Dr. Patel stops sleeping and starts helping."

"Patel doesn't sleep. She powers down briefly and reboots. It's unsettling but productive."

The ghost of a smile crossed Melessra's face. It was the first genuine warmth Marina had seen from her. "I think I'm going to like your Dr. Patel."

"Everyone likes Patel. It's her only flaw."

* * *

Toren found them surrounded by data tablets and empty cups of Dobromian tea.

"You've been here all night," he said from the doorframe, wearing a sleeveless tunic that left his rose-gold scales bare to the shoulder. His scales looked different in the Colony's light. They were deeper and warmer, like copper held near a flame.

"Their atmospheric data is incredible," Marina replied without looking up. "Melessra's been working on the destabilization problem for fifteen years with limited tools, and she's within two percent of our projections. Give her Earth's full database and she could change everything."

"I'll mention that to my father."

"Please do. Also mention that your food is significantly better than ours. Whatever they gave me for breakfast was delicious."