We're Not In Kansas Anymore...

[meat_mooks]

They might have been trying to get to the City, or another level, or anywhere else in the explored parts of Stacy. But when some crewmembers stepped into the transport tubes, they were going to find that where they ended up was not where they were trying to go.

The first sign that something was wrong was the strange electric jolt they get just after stepping into the tubes. The second sign was the unusually long time it took for them to get to their destination. And the third and final sign was the fact that when they arrived, it was in a place they would have never seen before.

To all appearances, it looked like a smaller replica of the crew quarters. If they ventured out a little further, they would find smaller versions of the mess hall, sleeping halls, and bathrooms as well. But there was one important difference.

They were completely and utterly empty.

And with any attempt to go back into the transport tubes failing, they appeared to be stuck here. What were they going to do?

[ooc: ICly this post happens over the course of a day, so not everyone arrives at the same time. If you tag into the post later, you can just assume that your character arrived later in the day. Also, your characters will not find that their omnicomms and communication rings don't work!

If you have a question about anything, you can ask on this ooc post.

Oh, and for this post threadjacking is welcome :P]

Comments

[encourage]

Sakura was on her way back from the mess hall, checking in to see who had shown up in there so far. Getting a rough headcount of people dragged into this crew quarters in miniature was a good focus for her tired brain, and kept her moving.

Spotting someone else in the hall, she pulled her lips up into a smile and lifted her hand to wave. "Hello? Looks like you've been pulled over here too. My name's Sakura, and I've been trying to direct people into stopping in at the mess hall we've got here so we can get a rough idea of how many of us there are."

Which cut a lot to the chase, but she was in favor of the blunter approach. "Your omnicomm doesn't happen to be getting through to anyone?"

[first_in_time]

"Oh, er - yes," Barbara responded and took a few cautious steps toward the woman. She seemed so very sure of herself that Barbara felt compelled to simply follow.

But omnicomm was a word she had to remember.

"This thing?" she held it up to confirm that they were talking of the same device, "I'm not even sure how to use it but you can check if you'd like."

[encourage]

Looking at what Barbara held up, Sakura nodded. "Yes, definitely that thing. No one's gotten a chance to show you how to make it work for you? If you want, I can take some time to do that. Right now it might not be so helpful, but when it's working again."

Approaching, she frowned a little, then shrugged. "I can try. So far no one else has managed to get it to communicate with anyone not in here. As far as that goes, it looks like we're temporarily cut off from direct communication with the rest of the ship. It shouldn't last for too long. We've got..." what, Marco? "People who're looking into it."

[first_in_time]

She looked a little bashful, "a friend did show me but I must have been tired. Do you know how or why we're cut-off?" Barbara quickly changed the subject and began in the direction of the mess hall. At least, the direction she remembered. Could be somewhat different here, of course.

The woman beside her was comfortingly confident. Had Barbara been on her own, things might have seemed somewhat more desperate. Though with several Doctors and all the brilliant minds she'd met, there would have been some kind of hope.

"I'm Barbara, by the way," she added after a quiet moment. "Barbara Wright."

[encourage]

Keeping pace, Sakura went over the possible reasons in her head. As far as she understood it... "May be something shutting them down over here, some kind of drain or signal jamming. They don't exactly turn on, but they have a specific kind of energy source from what I remember being told, so maybe it's as simple as figuring out how to power one on and be able to get word out. I'm not really the kind of person who has a head for this, sadly. I heal people, not machines."

Sakura lived in her own confidence in all matters -- except all the matters she didn't, such as protecting the people most important to her, and, well, the minor problem of winning this war. Only even that was becoming somewhat of a resolved point as she moved on, without the backing that had supported her back home. No teacher, no team, and only strangers to rely on for so long had started changing her. Even if she didn't entirely notice.

"Happy to meet you, Barbara. I'm Sakura Haruno. Usually in Medical Bay, attempting to get a massage group up and running again, tender of the big memorial stones near the City transport tubes." She made herself smile again, shoulders relaxing a fraction because it was better than tense body language. "All sorts of little things you fall into when you've been here long enough. Are you fairly recent, out of the pods?"

[first_in_time]

"I suppose with almost limitless possibilities, and no contact with an expert, we're left somewhat in the dark," Barbara summarised neatly but with a light humour.

She smiled a little, "I was with the last pod release, yes. Though I'm trying to not make that seem so obvious." Barbara chuckled a little at her statement. She would appear new for quite a while yet and there wasn't really any way to stop that other than practice. Perhaps she'd help out at the next pod release with the new people.

"So, your field is medicine?" Barbara asked, wanting to keep the conversation going while they walked the empty corridor. Surely they should have come to the mess hall by now? Maybe everything was out of place.

[encourage]

They were passing more of actual crew quarters before the hall widened into an entrance for the mess hall. The overall space was smaller, if it still had those familiar echoes to anyone who'd eaten in the other mess hall. Realistically, that meant everyone.

"Aah, then this can be novel and new. After a while, so many of the things this ship tosses at you feel like different flavors of the same kind of strange. Add the war on top of that, and you get used to things you probably never would have back home, to some degree or another."

She smiled, shaking her head. "Like eating what your food's served in. For texture variation." She gestured toward the food depository.

"Yes, it is. I've been practicing and learning in it since I was twelve, if it's a little misleading. I'm not a doctor, in the Earth sense. I'm a shinobi medic, which is closer to someone trained to fight, who later specialized in healing arts as a supplement."

[first_in_time]

Barbara laughed lightly. "Sleeping for the moment is still strange and new - it's like a rather large nose." She covered a girlish grin that, in all honesty, she shouldn't be ashamed of. "Before arriving here, I was eating food blocks, so the food is a pleasant change. Eating the same thing that only varied in taste grew tiresome quickly. And there's Tea on board! I haven't had a good cup of tea since we left home...!"

But a doctor, even one that wasn't as Earthian as the ones she'd met previously, was still helpful. "So, you're a trained fighter, who has turned their skills to helping people? I imagine you're rather valuable to this war."

[encourage]

"Aah! Yes, it is, especially if you're in the real tight ones. Crew quarters is a bit nicer, if things still feel more alive than I expect. I guess it makes sense for why so many people prefer to live out in the City. Feels a little less like you're living in someone else's body the whole time."

Her enthusiasm over tea prompted another, genuinely amused smile. "Yes, we have tea. Not sure if the Japanese sort, they're an Earth nation, is your kind, but if it is, I still serve tea over at the Atori Teahouse when I'm off shift." And all her self-assigned projects, but busy was best for Sakura.

"We're all valuable," she said, head dipping forward in acknowledgement of the fact that she herself was a technical asset. "If much of this war is fought in space, and I don't have experience with space-craft outside of what I've learned here. Planet-side, or on ship, that I know how to handle. Past that? I need to learn, like so many of the rest."

[first_in_time]

Barbara returned the smile, "I've a friend that lives in the city. It's very tempting to ask if I can borrow his sofa until I can find a place of my own." She chuckled, "I've managed to resist so far."

"I've simple taste in tea," she explained, "it's the Britain in me. Can't have too much flavour or excitement."

But at the idea of learning about the ship, how it works, and other useful skills, Barbara sobered from her light humour. "Yes." She still had to find some way of being useful on the ship. For the moment, running about and trying to learn whatever she could, wasn't exactly what she thought of as being 'useful'. And she wasn't about to stand beside Howard's spaceship and hand Ian whatever tools he needed. She was better than that.

"Learning is a life-long experience. It would make sense to continue the tradition on board a spaceship. Even in the middle of a war."

[encourage]

"There's a few nice places, and some that are more like apartment living, if that's what your used to. I'm sure you'll find something that works for you, sooner or later."

Most folks eventually did, and Sakura felt that Barbara had a good shot at that too. "Simple. Simple as in black?"

Sakura nodded, her own expression contemplative. "Maybe especially in the middle of a war. Necessity is supposed to help people be inventive. Pressure seems to motivate people into cracking, or overcoming and being tempered in the process."

Which set her wondering once more. "If the most recent fire we've been dropped into is staying pretty mellow so far." She gestured around at the room, meaning the situation with the transport snaffu at large.

[first_in_time]

"Oh, I'm sure I will eventually. I haven't been here all that long after all," she replied before adding, "simple as in, simple, plain tea leaves with a small amount of lemon. Anything outside of that tends to be a little too fancy for my tastes."

Barbara looked around the mess hall, "well, we're yet to find any homicidal robots, or Daleks or things like that. So I think we'll be alright for the moment."

[encourage]

"Black tea's usually only one leaf, from a kind of shrub. Not sure who would have access to lemons. I wonder if any are growing in Hydroponics?"

She smiled, not all that amused, but wishing she was. "I'll take an all right for the moment. The longer we can stretch that out, the better it is for all of us. Not that it can't be exciting, too, I guess. Better to look for what makes something worthwhile than lament it happening at all?"

[first_in_time]

"Oh, I'm not complaining," Barbara corrected, almost speaking over the top of her. "From the way it was described to me, this ship could be filled with all kinds of horrors rather quickly. Being lost, I don't mind so much."

[encourage]

"The upside to being lost is eventually finding yourself somewhere you recognise." She paused, looking around, and laughed a little. "Okay, somewhere you recognise that also's built to scale, with the faces you expect to see hanging around."

[first_in_time]

Barbara chuckled gently and looked around the mess hall. "I'll tell you what, if you want to look for more strays, I'll stay here and keep anyone who happens to stumble on the mess hall before you get to them. How does that sound?"

[encourage]

"It sounds great to me," Sakura said with a smile. "Thanks for doing this. Now time to gather whoever else may have gone off track..." She shook her head, still smiling, before walking away.