trans_9 | The Situation, as it stands.

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The Situation, as it stands.

[ooc: Read this before tagging.]

The AI of Seamus Harper's ship, the Andromeda Ascendant was trapped here along with everyone else, her AI core stolen or at least copied to Stacy's systems. Other AIs had been captured along with her. But she did have answers to some questions, and apparently was willing to tell the crew things Stacy wasn't willing to without being questioned.

Apparently, one of those things was that Cybil Bennet, someone who had popped recently, right along with them, and was merely a police officer back home, was the captain of their crew.

Their crew of what, Harper had asked?

Andromeda's answer:

"The crew of this ship, Harper."

It was then that the eyelid-like visors covering the windows of Obs Deck started to separate, letting in the light--and oh, was there light. They were in the currents of a multi-colored cosmic riptide, surfing the stream. Stars shot past beyond the lights, nebulae, galaxies sped along them as if they were what was moving and the ship wasn't.

It was beautiful.

It was horrible, because it meant they were in space--or something like it. That was a very long way away from their homes.

"We are a very, very long way from Commonwealth space."

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Sam's gaze fell to the floor, in all its grotesque glory, as the weight of how long they'd been trapped on this...this...ship sank in. Sucking in a deep breath, he willed himself back to the present. As much as he hated to admit it, Dean would be the first person all over his ass if Sam allowed himself to get distracted from 'the job' by his emotions, especially if those emotions led him no where.

Nodding as he processed what had happened to him, he turned back to 'Rommie.' "You said there were 'other' A.I.'s here," he said. "How many?"

"Six MONTHS?!" Starbuck exploded, and likely several others did as well. Who even knew what had happened to the fleet in that time? But then...the odd wording of her response caught at the edges of her consciousness. "...not a factor? How could that NOT be a factor?"

She was quickly starting to realize that there was a lot more going on here than she was likely going to be able to understand. Without even realizing it, she found the statuette from her bags in her hand, rubbing her thumb over it for comfort. What she really needed though was in her flask, a good stiff drink. And then a smoke. And then a lot more drinks, far more than she had with her.

"Multiple dimensions," Lucca replied absently from the window, absorbed by the stars and galaxies rolling past. Her expression was a curious blend of "deer in headlights" and "kid in candy store window."

"Time won't necessarily elapse at the same rate between them. Six months here could easily be six minutes back home." Or six years, she added silently, keeping that fear to herself.

Kory's eyes narrowed as she heard those words. She crossed her arms, taking stock of everyone there with her. "I've had enough of multiple dimensions, quite frankly," she said. "And I've had more than my fill of space recently."

She longed to be home.

Or at least on the planet she now considered home.

"Precisely," Rommie said to Lucca, looking pleased that they had a big another brain among them. Much as she cared about Harper, it would be nice to get into a conversation with a smart human that didn't hit on her.

"Also, due to the mechanics required for interdimensional travel, it's quite possible Stacy can travel through time as well. Time is likely not a factor. If we can find a way to return home, it's likely we can return to the approximate times we were taken."

To answer Sam's question: "Not counting myself, Stacy, or the minor AIs used in many of the ship's functions, there are seven active AIs that are responsible for minor ship functions and can interact with you. They seem all to have been taken against their will as well. It seems the only one here that truly intended to be here is Stacy herself."

"So...basically what you're saying is that, okay, if you can return us home, then we return home maybe a second or two after we disappeared, so, in their eyes, we weren't really gone? So we won't appear, like, six years later in some bizarro future timeline of our world?" Kitty waited a beat. "Will we remember any of this?"

"Quite possibly," she said in answer to Kitty's theory. As for the rest, "As for what would happen to you as you were sent back--or even if it's possible I do not know. I'd need to analyze the means Stacy used to bring you here to know how it could send you back. I am merely deducing that Stacy may have the capability to send you back to the time you left, or that time dilation would make the length of your time here irrelevant. I have access to very little information. Unfortunately," she said, sounding very annoyed that there was something she didn't know, "I'm nearly as much in the dark as all of you are."

It wasn't the first time Jono had been to space. But he'd always known he was going up before it happened. Now? This was just unnerving.

He reached out, fingers pressed to the window nearest him, staring out into the stars. Assumin' 'at Stacy's got good aim, he said absently on a broad projection, sot hat everybody could hear him. If she ain't, can only guess when we'll end up. As fer memories... He shrugged, looking to Rommie.

"Great. Kidnapped by an alien ship. No communicators that will help me reach any of the other X-Men. No idea where in time or space we are. Yeah, this is going to end well." Kitty stood next to Jono, taking relief in the fact that he was an X-Man as well, if not from her world, than at least another. It made him somewhat familiar. "So, can we phase through this ship thing and take her down?" Not that Kitty was certain whether or not she had enough power for something like that.

||Attempting to phase-shift into restricted areas will earn you Violations, Katherine Pryde. 15 Violations will result in Punishment.|| Stacy chimed in. ||As well as cause you possible harm. The walls of restricted areas are shielded to prevent such an occurence and an attempt to breach them would likely cause you great pain.||

"That should answer your question. It will be difficult to accomplish anything with Stacy watching everything we do. There are areas where her internal sensors are no longer functioning that could provide you privacy, but I'm not being allowed access to the information that would allow me to know where they are." She added, "And no, I don't know what "Punishment" is. It seems prudent, however, to avoid it."

Kitty's mouth was set in a straight line. "Guess I'll have to rely less on my powers and more on my brain."

"That leads me to something else that bears mention," Rommie said. "According to the manifest, almost all of you have metahuman, meta-alien, magical, or divine abilities or other qualities of note, such as intellect, marksmanship, combat ability, technological savvy, resourcefulness, or leadership skills. It seems that Stacy did not select you at random."

"So she's assembling an army." The Doctor had chosen to remain silent in a corner, listening, but now he spoke up. His expression was serious, almost angry, but he wasn't near as shocked as many of the others. He'd guessed part of the truth, if not all of it. In one hand, he twirled his sonic screwdriver, thinking.

"A multi-universal army capable of unknown quantities of damage, assuming she can get us to work for her. And why would she try, if she couldn't?"

"That does seem a likely possibility, yes," Andromeda said. "There are millions on board, all of them capable of skills and abilities that would make them useful in an army. As for how she could make us serve her mission--"

"--she has collateral. All the helpless people in the pods, and the promise of sending us all home as a reward."

~~They had to fight the Scourge. The World-Eaters. Before they got to go home.~~

"Not to mention, she could likely kill any one of us for disobeying."

The Doctor nodded, agreeing. "Quite possibly she has people you care about in there as well. Family, friends, that sort of thing." 'You,' not 'we.' He refused to think that he might have gotten his friends kidnapped again, so soon after the last time, so soon after they left him.

Starbuck went still at this, straightening, her eyes going wide.

"Wait...wait...the people in the pods..." She said in somewhat hushed tones. "You guys all saw all that stuff in there. Tons of it. And all the pods. Like she said, there's probably...a lot. Thousands? Hundreds of thousands? And if they're to be used against us as collateral..."

She walked up to Rommie with a scowl, growling. "Who are those people? Would we do this for thousands of random people we don't know? Or would we do this for people we care about? Who is IN those PODS?!"

"...Hostages," Sam said. It made sense. If Stacy had something planned for them, she'd need their cooperation and what better way to get it than to hold a gun to someone else's head. Especially when the someone else was someone they cared about. Which meant that Dean was here, locked up in one of those pods as insurance that Sam would cooperate.

"And if they're the hostages, then after a fashion, we are the slaves." A dark look crossed Starfire's exotic alien features. "Enslaved to do whatever this Stacy entity wishes of us until we've completed those tasks." Dick. Donna. Gar. Raven. Vic.

And so many others.

"X'hal! This is so very wrong!"

There were also two dark haired figures standing nearby, Kate and Xander. Both annoyed with the situation of being not only a very long way from home, and having been so for six months now. And even better, they've been assembled to be an army, and oh, by the way, their friends might be hostages so they have to cooperate.

"How does she honestly expect us to go along with this? This isn't right, we have lives back home....we..." Kate started to say, but then was cut off by Xander placing a hand on her shoulder briefly to stop her.

He then stepped forward to add, "Ok, we got the army and hostages down part. Maybe. Anybody know *why* she needs an army? What kind of Big Bad are we taking down, unless we're supposed to be an invasion force, and with the numbers and skills I wouldn't rule that out right now."

"Hostages when asleep, soldiers when awake, and no, we have no idea what we've all been brought here to fight," said the new AI that appeared, next to Andromeda's Hologram. "I've never met a computer core I wasn't able to crack, until Stacy's. The problem is she's organic. I can't jump the divide."

"This is Cortana," Andromeda said. "Cortana UNSC AI serial number CTN 0452-9, to be exact."

"Just call me Cortana." She turned to Rommie. "You still haven't told the ones who don't know you who you are."

Looking mildly irked that that shortcoming had been pointed out, Rommie said: "My full designations is: Shining Path to Truth and Knowledge AI model GRA 112, serial number XMC-10-182, main AI of the Andromeda Ascendant. You can call me Andromeda."

A pause. "You should be warned, other than the Emergency Medical Hologram, the other AIs will not be as accomodating to you as we are. We do not trust some of their intentions anymore than Stacy's. Theirs are just as unknown to us as hers are."

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