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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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."

"And going back to the topic of her intentions, we have no information at all about who we're meant to fight. It's one great big unknown. But Stacy seems to think it's a massive threat. I don't think we're met to be an invasion force. I've been getting the impression--and loose bits of data here and there to verify it--that whatever she's geared towards destroying is possibly very destructive."

Jono shook himself, eyes narrowed and the corners turned slightly downward. Awroight. So, we ain't got a clue where we are or what we're needed for. An' we ain't even safe with our own thoughts. He reached up, rubbing his temple to try to do something about the headache. Roight now, I'd say our best bet is t' bide our time. Can't do much of anythin' 'til we've got more information.

Yes, Harper had been amazingly quiet for him. He'd been Thinking. ~~Fear.~~

"Completely organic, huh? Maybe there's a way to get more information." He's not only been Thinking, he's been Plotting. "Hey, Rom-doll, there an engineering section around here?"

"It's currently restricted." Annoyance.

The view was incredible. The notion that they'd been taken by aliens and were traveling on some kind of living ship that could travel between universes, let alone worlds, was unbelievable. the idea that they'd been forcibly conscripted into an army to fight some vague menace, a million miles away from home was enraging.

Yet, oddly, it didn't touch her as it probably should have. It didn't panic her.

She chalked it up to Silent Hill's influence on her. Apparently, nothing seemed to phase her now. Except maybe Jono's voice in her head. But why that bothered her so much as she floated in her sea of calm, she couldn't figure out. That he could do it didn't unnerve her; there was something else...

~~The familiarity of something that should be so strange.~~

"So this is how it us, huh?" Cybil muttered quietly. Thrown from one crazy thing into the next.

Andromeda'd said she'd been listed as Captain, right? For some inexplicable reason?

To Jono, she said, "You're right, but we need to canvas the area, see if we have everything we need to survive--if it's even SAFE to take it if the ship offers us it--and make sure there are no threats."

She wasn't a captain, by any means, but she could certainly do that "rallying together" thing.

Everyone had been able to hear the conversation going on, and so she didn't raise her voice much, just made it a little more forceful, but calm, and she turned to the group proper, stepped up on of the chairs so she was visible over the crowd, and said: "Hey! Everyone listen up."

Yay. Public Speaking.

Fuck.

"My name is Cybil Bennet. I'm a cop from Brahm's West Virginia--for those of you that even have a West Virginia where you're from."

Boy that part was confusing.

"I know you don't know me and therefore have no reason to listen to me over listening to anybody else, but we need some organization here and I've dealt with...strange things like this before. If someone else presents themselves as a better leader or better voice of reason, by all means, we should start listening to them. Our survival might depend on it. In the meantime, we need to figure out if--and where--the ship provides the necessities. We have clothes and shelter, we need to see about getting food, water, and a--"

She looked around at the puffy flesh-couches "--slightly less disgusting place to sleep. And rest facilities. Aside from that, we should probably explore this thing and see how big it really is and if we run into anyone else. Now, splitting up could probably cover more ground that way, but the way I see it is these halls are plenty big enough to allow all of us to move through them together, and there's safety in numbers. Splitting up seems like a horror movie waiting to happen. So, I think we should all introduce ourselves, then start looking around together and seeing what we've got to work with here and if it's remotely safe. Does anyone object?"

Apparently Stacy had possibly chosen her for a reason.

Kara ran her hands through her hair, trying to compose herself. Frak this was crazy. Who did this frakking ship have? Lee? Bill? Sam? Frak...Kacey? Even if it had Saul frakking TIGH she was...

She had no choice, and it chafed at her. She felt resentment and anger building in her, a snarl curling her lips. But she had no frakking CHOICE but to do this, to serve the whims of this THING...

She closed her eyes, her hands gripping her hair briefly before she tossed off a somewhat sarcastic salute. "Ready and waiting for orders...Captain."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "Oh for the love of--please don't call me that."

"Sorry lady, you just stepped up and gave order-type thingies. That's probably going to be your nickname from here on out." She gave the woman a wry smile and stepped up next to her. "I guess I'll go first. I'm Kitty. From New York. I'm a, uh..." she looked at the room around her. Her eyes fell on a tall, golden-skinned alien goddess person. Okay, so maybe she didn't need to hide who she was. "I'm a mutant."

"What exactly is a mutant?" She's thinking like toxic waste B-monster type mutants.

Xander raised his hand, "Uh what should we call you then? Grand High Poobah of Ye Old Organic Ship?"

He then added, "Oh, yeah, myself, hi, I'm Xander Harris, how's it going? Great view we got here, huh? Uh, right, I got experience with the weird from my hometown being over a Hellmouth, and I've been training Slayers back home, and I can drywall a place like nobody's business."

Kitty didn't know whether to be thankful or insulted. "Where I'm from, a mutant is an individual who possesses a genetic trait called an X-gene that allows them to naturally develop superhuman powers and abilities. In my case, I can phase through walls and other stuff. And walk on air. And stuff." She then turned to Xander. "Slayers?"

Make it two mutants. Jono raised his hand, having long experience with people wanting to know where that voice was coming from. Lacking a mouth meant people had fewer clues. I'm Jono. From London, though recently livin' in upstate New York.

He'd answer about his powers if asked. Maybe they'd just leave it at the telepathy.

Kate gave her a sharp look, and walked closer.

"There's mutants in your world too. Are you with the X-Men then?"

She added, "I'm Kate, also from New York. I play cello, and I know archery, swordfighting, fencing, and a number of martials art techniques and hand to hand fighting too."

Two mutants and a jack of all trades. That's...like something right out of comic book." Freaky. But she certainly wasn't going to get all huffy about it and 'KILL THE MUTANT.' You didn't treat people that way, even if you were freaked, and she didn't show she was freaked.

"Not 'Grand Poobah' either. Just 'Cybil' is fine. And don't raise your hand. This isn't first grade." But that was said amusedly, not nastily.

Wait a second. "A Hellmouth?"

Harper was a little less in to this 'togetherness' stuff than your average first grader, so that was probably good. "We get to hold hands and since Kumbaya, next?"

He dropped into one of the freaky chairs, mostly sure it wasn't going to eat him. "And it's Harper. Seamus Zelazny Harper. One-hundred percent unmodified human."

"Something like a gateway to Hell, I'm thinking," Sam ventured an educated guess as he answered Cybil. He glanced around at each person that had gone about introducing themselves and what their skills where--though it took a moment or two to figure out which of his new companions was the one talking in his head. Sucking in a breath, he took his turn.

"I'm Sam," he said but offered nothing more, deciding it best to play his cards close for the time being.

The Doctor gave a little wave to everyone. "Hello! I'm the Doctor! Tourist in time and space. If you're from LINDA or Torchwood, just... don't." Either the fact that he was alien was obvious, or they didn't need to know yet. Obviously.

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