Exploring the Wild Green Yonder

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"Okay, kids in the middle. I don't care if you can fight or can shoot lightning out your ears, stay in the center where we can protect you. If there's something the adults can't handle, then feel free to jump in. Noncombatants are with them. Anyone with a weapon, if someone is engaging an enemy in hand to hand, obviously, hold fire, even if you're a crack shot. Safeties of your weapons on until it seems like we might be running into something. For most of us, being able to shoot is only a thumbflick away and I don't want any friendly fire. Be careful not to hit anything that looks like a window, so we're not all tossed into space," Cybil said, standing at the front of the group.

"Andromeda. Cortana. Let us know what you can as we go, and if you think there's something we need to see, let us know to take a look. You're our tourguides."

And the important part.

"If you think you heard or saw something strange, calmly let the rest of the group know, even if you're not sure. We shouldn't be jumping at shadows and we can't panic, but we shouldn't be too relaxed either. We have no idea who or what might be here with us. Be careful. Not careless. Not paranoid."

Her gun was out in her hand, safety was on for now, and it was aimed at the floor.

"Kara, Harper, and Flash, I want you on point with me. Sam, Connor, Murphy, I want you bringing up the rear. The other people with superpowers in the middle, where you can get to the front or back easily if you're needed at either and where you're closest to the kids and the people without guns or powers to protect them."

She would, quite frankly, be amazed if anyone actually listened to her. She was just a cop. But

"Everyone ready? Let's go."

Comments

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"I'll listen to you for now," Mr. Wednesday says pleasantly, as he lurks back up to the group. When he left - slinked off, more like, and just as quietly and suddenly as he's come back - he didn't have that leather scabbard on his hip. The pommel of the sword is unadorned but elegant, with a basic finger-guard; the curvature of the scabbard suggests a scimitar or close relative.

He looks much more comfortable than he did when he left.

[speedolight.livejournal.com]

"Aye Cap'n." Wally answered Cybil with a mock salute.

[st-veritas.livejournal.com]

Connor bounced on the balls of his feet. "Aye, oh Grand Poo-Bah!" They'll probably stay where she tells them at first- and then get distracted and drift. Connor takes out one of his many guns, grinning slightly.

[st-aequitas.livejournal.com]

"Your wish, our command, Grand Poo-Bah ma'am!" Murphy salutes her with one of his own guns, grinning madly.

[lieutenantkara.livejournal.com]

Kara blinked at her name, and then nodded distractedly, standing to attention and checking her weapon at her hip as she moved just short of Cybil's side. "Aye, Captain."

[titanium-will.livejournal.com]

It was an odd thing to feel a little bit helpless in the middle of all this. Weapons? He didn't do handguns. Or knives, for that matter. His locker hadn't come with a flamethrower.

His suit, damnit. Half of his tools had been crammed in there, a picture of himself and his dad, and a cute little plaque given to him by Pepper. It wasn't the sort of thing that had been able to house an entire, Repulsor-powered suit.

The power drill was the scariest thing he had. Now, if anybody held still long enough for him to use it, that was their problem..

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

Sigh. She was REALLY hoping 'Grand Poobah' wasn't going to stick. (Thank you SO MUCH, Xander, really).

"Let's move out."

And they did, moving carefully along, and looking around.

[cityship]

"You're heading towards the Media Library," said Andromeda's hologram, which flicked upward to another projector each time they moved further along, to keep up.

They entered through the doors and found a large, large room, the size of a city library--or maybe larger, but with more focus on digital media than anything else.

There were terminals for 'check out' items -- portable music players or pads that contained novels on 'screen' or a movies on mini players) and for group entertainment, many small podrooms off of the main chamber with screens.

In the center of the room was a massive computer, a strange device composed of many arcing tubes and a dense crystal array that had millions of microcopic trails carved through it.

[cityship]

They moved along to a hallway full of large round rooms.

"These are the Sensoriums."

[lieutenantkara.livejournal.com]

Starbuck followed quietly, her eyes darting around, following shadows. This was all...too much. From the heartbeat in the floor to the weird things that the display-woman had said, voices in her head and the odd words of the others. Speaking of places she'd never heard of, calling themselves things she'd never dreamed of -

Talking about Earth. She wondered if she could get them to tell her where it was, for when she went home.

If she went home.

She tuned out most of the words of the things that called themselves AIs and went with the crowd, lost in her own thoughts, her hand hovering by the gun at her hip in case the Gods only knew what jumped out of the wet darkness to attack.

[anoldtrickster.livejournal.com]

"And what's a 'sensorium'?" Wednesday asks bluntly. He moves confidently, but one hand stays at the hilt of that sword at his waist.

[buddyofchrist.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like fun. Maybe I'll stick around and you guys can go on ahead."

Biff looked fairly nonplussed by the whole affair, though his knife of black glass was safely in his hand and his little vial of poison was safely around his neck.

Other people might have complained about the lack of real clothing, but even if he'd found his jeans and St. Louis sweatshirt, Biff would have left them where they were. The skinsuit may have been creepy, but the softly sensual feeling of softly pulsing skin-stuff conforming to his every angle was . . .

Well, let's not go there for now.

[cityship]

One of the doors to the Sensoriums opened and changed to a wide field of blue-grey grass and an orange sky.

Standing in the middle of it were Andromeda and Cortana, looking just as solid as the rest of them.

"This is a Sensorium. A room capable of creating hard-light programmings and solid things from virtual particles, reinforced with telepathic suggestion."

[cityship]

"In layman's terms, it's a room where what you can imagine becomes real--at least within the room itself. It can be programmed to look like anything you want it to, create characters and limited AIs--like martial arts trainers or characters from books."

[psi-flames.livejournal.com]

Now this is something Jono recognizes. Like the Danger Room, roight? The strangeness of the sky and grass didn't bother him as much as it probably should have. It's the room we use to train in, he said after a moment, for everybody else's benefit. It's useful fer puttin' people through scenarios that don' 'sactly occur every day, y'know?

[speedolight.livejournal.com]

"...Sooo, just like the holodeck on Star Trek.." Wally paused, "uh, Moriarty couldn't escape and try to kill all of us could he?"

[cityship]

"No."

[cityship]

The next stop after the Sensorium was the sleeping quarters.

This was where the crewmembers got a sense of just how many people this ship was meant to hold for the first time since exiting the podroom. The sleeping area was enormous - both tall and long, with walkways spiralling upward at an incline along the walls in between thousands of tiny, tiny sleeping cells, just big enough to crawl inside and zonk out in.

No, not thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Spiralling upwards, one little cell on top of another. They were going to be packed in like sardines.

The walls pulsed faintly.

Yeah. Sleeping in here was going to be real easy.

[cityship]

"These are the Sleeping Halls. Each hole is a cubby that can fit any individual, no matter what the size. Comfy, aren't they?"

[thexanwhosees.livejournal.com]

"Sure, if you're a vampire into the coffin sleep. And other than the Mast... uh you know, him, most of them aren't even into that. I could rig up something to let some more air in?"

[cityship]

"There are air vents inside that provide comfortable air circulation."

That looked like NOSTRILS.

[st-aequitas.livejournal.com]

"Fuck. It looks like they'll fuckin' eat ya in your sleep. Or what if she sneezes? D'ya get pelted with ship-snot? Go flyin'?" He was so grabbing a lower bunk. Just in case.

[st-veritas.livejournal.com]

Oh fuck no, Murph, Connor's getting lower bunk.

"Fuck, what 'appens if she gets a fucking cold? Does she have allergies? Fuck."

[cityship]

"The vents do not sneeze, have allergies, or get colds. They have no mucus membranes."

[nothawkingbird.livejournal.com]

Kate was eyeing the beds and vents warily. She could just feel the insomnia coming on with this.

"Well, we did already wake up in the stuff before anyway. Good, but is there going to be anything to help us sleep then?" Maybe the vents will have knock out gas or something.