trans_9 | Whodunnit?

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Whodunnit?

It was time to get a little more organized, share some information with each other. She had a talk with that bigface kid, Jaime, to see if he could do anything to shield them from Stacy's prying eyes and he said he had a few ideas, so a meeting place was chosen, and it was time to gather.

Cybil had a good authoritative, shouting voice.

"Everyone, listen up! We're meeting down in the city near that big tree. Grab whoever you see and get down there."

Indeed they were. People were starting to gather there.

[ooc: Instead of little subthreads, everyone post in one thread as people arrive. Try to keep the convo general, like everyone talking to each other, instead of devolving into private conversations.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's possible," Lyta said to Tony's speculation. It wouldn't be the first time an advanced species had taken members of younger races to be used in 'lab experiments.'

"But I don't know. When I was trying to force it out of the captain, I got the strong sense that, whatever it was, it knows why we're here." She mentally kicked herself for pushing it out so quickly and not taking the time to press it further for answers, answers they surely weren't going to get from Stacy.

"And then there's the way it was trying to keep us from opening the gate..." She then turned to address Cybil. "And those images you and I saw. If they were memories, then odds are you have more of them hidden away behind all those blocks in your mind. It's possible you know why we're here, too, and some just doesn't want you to remember it."

"Is there any way you could get that out of my head without causing a stroke or brain damage?"

Lyta frowned and offered an apologetic shrug. "I don't think so," she answered. "Not without knowing who put them in or how they were put in. I could probably break them one at a time but the human brain isn't meant to deal with that much stress at all once. And even if we did it over several months, I'd probably only get through two or three at most before it killed you."

"Two or three?" For a moment, Tony seemed stunned. "Christ, I've heard of self-educated shrinks with better records at dragging out repressed memories than that. No deaths, even." Of course, nobody had been dealing with alien brain-wipes before now. "Not to mention, while you take months to dick around in her head and cause all her synapses to misfire, we're probably going to get attacked by what-ever-this-is. What's the point?"

Alright, so he'd come off a little bit harsh, but the benefits didn't seem to outweigh the risk, here. It wasn't like he was actually worried about anybody's welfare. Nope.

"Hell, you don't even know if the ones you'd pick out would be useful."

"No, but I'd be willing to bet that ghost or whatever it was I pushed out of her does know," Lyta shot back. "And my guess is it probably knows how to take them out safely, too. So, I think if we find it chances are we'll find some us some answers."

"So we have a gate that has something horrible inside--we're pretty sure of that much. The other three gates are likely the same. Some...thing that can possess people--that might have some answers, some other cloaked thing running around, and another thing that smells like rotting flesh that may or may not be the same as one of the others--or they all might be the same thing. We have a missing bug. We have...suppressed memories, apparently. We have a hologram that talks in oddly appropriate riddles."

A deep breath. "What else do we have? Has anyone else found anything else we all need to know?"

Ax cleared his throat, half turning to point in the direction of the shady area that housed the maze near the tree.

"When Lyta and I explored the maze, we found a pit in the center. Ssen. Ter. Center. There was a presence inside the pit, but it was not threatening. Not unthreatening either," he reported. "It was simply...present. Tuh."

"What kinda presence?" asked Leela. "Did it say anything to you?"

Ax shook his head. "No. It said nothing, and did nothing. It was...similar to the realization that someone is standing behind you." He nodded in Lyta's direction. "Lyta attempted to make contact with it verbally and psychically but, ahh... 'no dice'?"

He was pretty sure that was the saying.

"If another case of possession shows up," Wednesday says as he glides smoothly up, "I may be able to do something to help." His gaze drifts in the direction of the maze, and then over towards Jaime. "Useful talent you've got there, m'boy."

"Possession's not the only concern. I recommend just staying away from the, ah why not, let's call it the Escher building. Stay away from there, I think, for the moment." The Doctor's expression was grave as he spoke.

"Three of us, Jaime, myself, and Scorpius, went in. There's a building with, well, a stone inside. But it's more than a stone, and it wants out. It's telepathic, very old, very powerful, and it has assassins watching over it. We barely made it out."

He scanned the group's faces, trying to impart exactly how serious he was, dangerous the building was. "I do want to explore further; there's something else trapped too that might need help. But no one should go in alone, and absolutely no one without me."

"Oh oh! And the hologram! We found this hologram of a guy before the stone angels of death killed him. It's blurry, but he looks sorta alien. We think it might've been one of the ones that grabbed us. It's like they were studying the stone thing, and he mentioned a war and something cutting them off from the rest of the crew and--oh. Khaji Da says he recorded it. So I can show you."

A wavery hologram appeared in the air in front of him, of a blurry, but nonhuman shape.

He was speaking fast.

"He brought them in. We don't know how. Angels. Angels from the Earth mythos, made of stone, but it doesn't break, and when it goes dark, they come. The Godseal is running, but we can't get through to try to reinforce the seals around the artifact. The light from his eyes is holding them at the door, but that will only last so long until it's exhausted. There's no contact from the rest of the ship--we haven't gotten the clear signal since they warned us we were under attack. There may not be anyone in the main ship left to help us. We're trying to figure out how to reach the window, but we have no rope, nothing."

His voice was choked. "We should've never thought we could control him. The Haunter of the Dark. But the war's gotten so desperate. If anyone ever finds this, please tell my mate M'rell'a that I'm sorry--"

A scream in the background. "The Godseal is shutting down! The Godseal is shutting down!"

"Restart the cycle! Override the safety protocols and restart the cycle! Restar--"

Screaming. Then it cut off.

"The Godseal was this...thing. Like a sarcophagus. We turned it on and the eyes lit up and it held the Angels at the door, while we got out through the window. BUT, in retrospect, we think something ALIVE was in the sarcophagus. Being experimented on. Then again, it could be something alive, but bad, like the thing in the stone, so freeing it might not be a good idea."

A deep breath.

"Either way. They mentioned 'the war' getting desperate--so desperate they tried to use something they couldn't control--and an attack on the ship, and losing contact with the rest of the ship. My theory is that whoever took us, whoever was a crew on this ship is dead now. And Stacy's driving."

A pause. "Or whoever killed the crew is driving. We haven't seen the whole ship yet. We haven't seen a bridge..."

"Angels..." Lyta repeated the word aloud then quickly jerked her attention to Cybil. "That's what you said was behind the gate. The one with the angels etched into it."

"The angels that we saw, that that person," he gestured vaguely to Jaime, meaning his hologram, "saw, weren't real angels. They're called Weeping Angels, and they look like angels, but they're not. They're not from Earth, they're from an entirely different planet."

He turned to Lyta again, then Cybil. "What did they look like? Faces covered? Eyes, especially? Yes? No? Were they made of stone?"

"I...I don't know. When that thing was in my head, I just heard words and had a flash of something. Somehow I just knew what was beyond the gate. Angels, with bright eyes. I don't know if they were what we'd consider angels though. I just remember the eyes. Maybe some were covering their faces. We're talking a half-second flash here. I'm not even sure if that whole thing was real or just...something weird stuck in my head."

The Doctor relented, backing off slightly. "Bright eyes? No, not them, then. They probably don't want to leave the shadows of the building. Which just makes it more important that we don't draw them out."

He frowned. "Without a better description, I couldn't begin to guess what it was you saw." Pause. "Well. I could, it just probably wouldn't be very accurate."

Danny decided to speak up.

"Uh, going back to the possessing and the "Ghost of Christmas Yet To Future", if we actually happen to be haunted we do have an early warning system. Namely me. It won't work unless the ghosts are within attacking range, mind you, but it's at least something."

Kate's head whipped to him, and she tilted her head.

"Like what? Ghost radar? How does it work so we'll know."

"Well, basically the temperature around me drops, and my breath rises, y'know, like it usually does when someone get cold. Sounds kinda dumb in theory, I know, but it's one of the reasons I'm still just half-ghost instead of all ghost."

"Okay, so we know what to look out for. We know it might not be friendly. I've noticed some of you wandering around alone--stop doing it. For the people who are new--don't do it," Cybil commanded in a very reasonable tone. "Last thing we need is a hostile...thing taking one of us by surprise. Explore in groups or at least pairs, stay in crowded areas when your guard is down, when you're resting. That Hudson guy wandered off and I haven't seen him in a few hours--we can't afford to worry about that kinda stuff. If he doesn't come back soon, we're going to have to look for him."

A deep breath. "As for what to do, we NEED to see the rest of this ship, find a bridge, find controls. For that, we need schematics. For schematics we need someone that can figure out Stacy's computer systems to get a hold of 'em for us. We also might need people who are capable of it to try to bust through walls, if we do find closed off areas that we need to get into. That may lead to getting smacked around or those 'Violations,' but I figure we can ration them out. All of us have fifteen of them. We have over thirty people. Between all of us, that's over four hundred and fifty times we can screw around with stuff to figure out who's keeping us and how to turn this boat around before we get this 'punishment' of hers."

She looked around. "Aside from bug-boy here, does anyone else have experience with computers? Are any of you good enough that if we can find a way to get you access to Stacy's computer systems or something--you might be able to hack in and get us some information?"

"Um." Tim cleared his throat, raising his hand as though he were in school and had the right answer. "I'm generally pretty good with computers. That is--I've been known to hack some pretty secure places... mostly for information. Occasionally just to see if I can."

He was glad to finally be able to offer something. He'd been silent for the rest of the meeting--listening and absorbing the facts others had gathered, but... He preferred being useful.

"Holy crap," Leela said. Yes, she just noticed him, but he'd been hiding in the shadows, and she hadn't really seen him when he was meet n' greeting. She'd only seen the Super-kid.

"You're Robin. Like...Batman and Robin."

"Um. Guilty?" Tim said with an uncertain smile. "You're not from Gotham, are you? Because that gang war really wasn't our fault, and we were trying to contain things, not make things worse, and it's not really our fault that Black Mask did the things he did--and how do you predict guy like that anyway, and... I'm rambling." He made a face. "Sorry."

...

Jesus Christ he was. Costume was a little different, but--

"Nah, kid, I don't think you got the memo about the whole...'fictional in other universes thing.' Though I didn't recognize you at first because you look nothing like Burt Ward, and you don't have the pixie boots and horrifying short-pants. "

Tim choked slightly in laughter. "Hey, I only wore those once, and I had a compelling reason. The redesign is way cooler, and doesn't involve me walking around in my underpants."

He filed away the note about other universes as fiction for a later date, when he had more time to work out what that might mean for him, and for some of the others he'd met.

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