S4.117 - Conic Projection

ParaB and QT had excused themselves from the bridge some time ago. The blonde now sat on a bed in the medical bay, with her head in her hands. "Oh, God, how embarrassing...!" came her muffled voice.

ParaB sat down next to the polynomial, then tentatively reached out to pat the other girl on her knee. "It's fine. I won't tell anyone what I saw."

"Oh, but why did it have to be you under the ladder?" the blonde moaned. "It never even occurred..." Her voice trailed off, and then she looked up. "Actually, maybe it DID. Subconsciously. But of COURSE I blocked it out because... uhm... look, I'll try not to do that again!!"

ParaB stared at the catgirl for a few long seconds. Then she smiled. "I'm okay with it, you know. The fact that you're occasionally biquadratic? And don't worry," she added, off QT's abruptly wide eyed expression. "It's just something I noticed. I haven't mentioned it to Para through our telepathy."

The polynomial let out a long breath of relief. "Thanks. Please don't. It would just be so complicated, you know? Because Para's with Root, and maybe there's a Radik out there I simply haven't met... it's just, maybe some part of me is now projecting Para onto you."

"Seems more like a mapping than a projection," ParaB joked. After a pause, she put her hand back on QT's knee. "It's fine. Really. It's actually kind of cute." She squeezed with her fingers. "Besides, it's not like I'M seeing Root."

y^2 + x^4 = 1?

Their gazes met again. This time, the two equations stared at each other for a longer moment. Much longer. Ultimately, QT leaned in a little closer, her lips parting...

"You two still busy modifying that scanner?" Sine asked, poking her head into the room.

ParaB quickly leapt to her feet, as QT tried to recover before falling on her face. "Yes!" ParaB shouted. "I mean, yeah, we'll soon have a device that can scan for mathematical relations. And we shall call it the Quadcorder, after the two of us!"

"We can even test it out on me first, by doing a cat scan!" QT blurted, while sitting up and smoothing down her skirt.

Sine nodded. "Carry on then." She departed, leaving the two girls to stare sidelong at each other.

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