Legacy: Midnight Festival

Music pulsed through the air with a lively beat, carrying with it the fragrance of fresh flowers and the local festival food -- some kind of roasted seed and fruit mix spread over rice. It was nearly an hour past midnight on this planet now, but Dr. Sarika Sumdac was not the least bit tired.

"Come on, Sari, I want to show you something!"
Her companion and guide, Dr. Rafael Esquivel, took hold of her hand and started running. His smile stretched so wide that it was a wonder it didn't fly right off his face.

Dodging colorful tents hawking goods, and eager beings heading to and from festival activities, the humans -- each former child prodigies in their own right -- sprinted through the village, sneakers slapping stone in time to the music.

When Dr. Esquivel had asked her to accompany him on one of Unit E's off world expeditions, Sari had been surprised by his suggestion to bring "something nice" to wear. Of course, now that they'd ditched the security detail and stayed up late enough for the festival to begin, she understood why. The party lights and banners made her shalwar kameez fairly glow, which had a very favorable reaction from the locals.

"Look, Sari!" Raf was practically bouncing on his heels like a kid in a candy store and he pulled them to a stop and pointed up. "Have you figured out where the music comes from yet?"

Sari looked up and her mouth dropped open. "Those balls of light? I thought they were like lanterns!"

"Nope!" Raf crossed his arms and smirked as Dr. Sumdac tiptoed, trying to get a better look.

"No mechanical parts, no noticeable seams or object in the center...I need to know how this works!" Her eyes sparkled with curiosity and before anyone could stop her she made a short jump, trying to catch one.

The light bobbed out of her reach with an almost teasing hum, and resumed playing it's warbling melody as it drifted in the warm breeze. One of the villagers, a four armed goatlike creature, nodded a few times and said something in a rapid, staccato language.

"She says people try every year to catch the lights, but nobody's ever succeeded," Raf translated. "Apparently that makes maintenance on them rather difficult. She invented them."

Sari clapped her hands together in delight. "We have to ask her how they work! Unless that's rude here, in which case we find an indirect way to find out. I need answers!"

"Agreed," her fellow scientist chuckled, "But first we should get some of that fruit rice stuff before it's gone. I got to try a little last year: it's definitely not how you'd expect it to taste, but it's good."

All at once, their comms beeped in unison, like a fairy godmother come to warn them that it was past midnight and the spell would soon be broken. Uttering groans and muttered protests, the pair checked their respective devices. Sari fished her handheld comm out of a pocket, and squinted at the display. Raf flicked the side of his head, activating the nanotechnology armor he'd been slowly but surely upgrading (and he had to fight Jack and Miko every step of the way for it, too. "What if something goes wrong, Raf?" "You don't want to end up like us, Raf!" Ep ep ep, he knew what he was doing!) The message scrolled across his visor.

"It's the Captain," Sari sighed. "Wants to know why we aren't back at the rendezvous point with the security detail and the other scientists."

"Let me handle Jack," Raf grinned from under his visor. "You message the head of the research expedition and tell him we're doing cultural research with a specific line of technological inquiry we're pursuing."

"The musical lanterns?" Sari guessed, smiling back. "Okay. Then we get the fruit rice."

Raf nodded and squeezed Sari's hand. Then he fired off a quick comm burst to Jack, consisting primarily of the words On a date, catch up with you later.

Jack might fuss at him later, but he bet Miko would have his back.
Unless the pregnancy was putting her in a mood to throw him under the bus.

....after a moment's reflection, Raf decided to add a line about scientific inquiry, just in case he needed to appease an overprotective Captain Darby.