trans_9 | Queries and Quibbles--mind your Q's

Entry tags:

Queries and Quibbles--mind your Q's

[ooc: Read this bit.]

Something happens outside the ship. There's a concussive noise like something docking, and then the doors to Obs open again, to reveal a mostly intact, but somewhat bedraggled away team. One of them is injured, and part of the group works to get her down to MedBay, some of the others look stoic and a touch upset with what they've learned.

Some look pissed off that their various morphers and power suits have been stolen away from them again by Stacy's tentacles or dampened.

Something happens INSIDE the ship. A handful of individuals are released from their pods after quite some time of running imaginary mazes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'd be bad enough at trying to be the evil dictator of one planet, let alone the entire universe." Wyn says with a smile. Evil ruthless dictators don't usually have pink as their favorite color, or wear giant comfy flannel shirts they've stolen from their ~~boy~~friends. (Or get kidnapped by giant sentient organic spaceships, for that matter.)

"Oooooh, weaponry." Wyn says, grinning excitedly. This is usually a sign that something is going to go horribly, horribly awry, or at least explode, sometime soon.

"Yeah, I've seen the food, though I haven't tried it." Wyn says, shuddering slightly. "Not sure I'll ever be hungry enough to eat that glop, if it tastes as bad as it looks."

"Most of our engineers seem to enjoy that part. I'd prefer to diversify our efforts, but in a war like this there will almost certainly be a great need for firepower." Billy worries sometimes, though. That many know-it-all scientists in a room full of things that can easily explode could well be a recipe for disaster.

"Fortunately, our crew has found a solution for that issue. There's an onboard location known as the Sensoriums that interacts with a crewmate's sensory systems, fully locking the mind onto any illusion of their choice. It's normally used for training purposes or a 'home visit', but some of our more creative crew members have discovered that by taking our meals into the Sensoriums and imagining a favorite delicacy, we can trick our minds into believing that we are consuming 'real food'."

"No one mentioned a war." Wyn's smile is quickly replaced by a serious, slightly angry frown. "All Stacy said was that we have been Chosen for some great purpose, which... is leisg dhomh, and no one else here knew what was going on." The Gaelic phrase slips in before she can realize, but her expression should make it obvious that she doesn't quite buy what Stacy's selling.

"I've seen the Sensoriums, and I keep wanting to call them the Imaginariums for some reason, but that's kind of brilliant, actually."

Billy's expression mirrors hers as the full weight of what he just implied races to the forefront again. "We don't know for certain what this purpose is, but I'd guess that it involves combat. When I first arrived, several of our crew members were forcibly seized by mind-controlling parasites and nearly deleted Stacy's information, which would have removed our only feasible chance of returning home."

He pauses for a moment to process that once more. "A short while later, a group of us traveled to an alternate Earth on Stacy's orders, which we just returned from. There, we found signs that nanite bombs had eradicated all of humankind from the planet. Stacy withholds a great deal from us, but the limited information we have on the crew's composition and the threats we've faced so far suggest a need to arm ourselves."

"Well." Wyn's mouth twists in distaste. She's not a fighter; why is she here, then? "Should have figured that this wasn't exactly a pleasure cruise, but..." she trails off with a sigh.

"What is the crew's composition? Everyone I've met so far has been from the future, with the exception of possibly you, but beyond that I couldn't come up with anything in common."

"I'm from Earth's year 1994 A.D.", Billy adds as an aside. But back to the question---

"The largest demographic consists of warriors: military personnel, superheroes, and anyone who can take up arms. Then there are engineers, responsible for solving mechanical problems and preparing weapons. We also have medics, tacticians, and organizers. The setup is almost reminiscent of a militia, complete with warriors and support staff. I normally fall into the soldier and engineer categories, but Stacy has seen fit to restrict access to my powers." That last remark might have a tinge of disappointment in it.

Wyn shouldn't be so excited about being from someone's future, but she is. (Barring any awkward alternate-universes, at least.) She doesn't mention it, just because there are more important things to talk about, but still.

"Oh, brilliant, I've been drafted." she snaps sarcastically. "I'm not a fighter, because really, a five-foot-nothing skinny blonde student isn't going to strike fear into the hearts of anyone, but I'll help however else I can." Because honestly, she doesn't want to be here for any longer than she has to be, and helping is the best way she can think of to get out of this creepy ship.

"... how did she 'restrict access' to whatever it is you do? Because I'm envisioning something along the lines of blocking off bits of your brain, and that's probably not what you meant. Unless it is, in which case that's more than a bit terrifying." Wyn asks, looking a bit horrified at her own idea. Her brain goes awkward, awkward places sometimes.

"I don't believe Stacy has tampered with my brain, though I wouldn't be so hasty as to rule out the possibility." Billy shudders visibly. The idea that Stacy had altered their bodies in less than immediately obvious ways had occurred to him before, but it remained a rather unpleasant thought.

"My powers are not bound to my body. They're contained in a coin, which I normally carry in a specialized belt buckle. When activated by a voice command, its energy flows into my body and instantaneously summons my armor. She confiscated the coin, but it was temporarily returned to me when we embarked on the last mission. I never needed to activate the power while there, and it was taken into her possession again when we returned."

Raking a hand through his hair, he sighs quietly and continues. "Fortunately, most of us have worked surprisingly well together. Our engineering crew has already made appreciable progress, and I believe you'll be welcome with us." They'd better all make an effort to absorb the newcomers into the fold, anyway. He has a feeling the engineers will have to meet and smooth over any problem areas.

"Oh. Yes, that's much better than what I was thinking of." Wyn says with a nod. The coin thing is... interesting, and rather reminds her of some TV show-- well, every superhero show ever ~~but she's a bit too young to have seen Billy's series~~.

"I can't wait to see what you've been doing." she continues with a smile, trying to look on the bright side of things. She might have been kidnapped by a sentient organic spaceship and drafted into a war no one knows anything about, but there are shiny new future-gadgets to play with!

"No disagreement there! I'll show you and the rest of our engineering recruits around the laboratory before the organization meeting. If you need me before then, the communication links are always open---provided there are no malfunctions." Even in science, unfortunately, there is no such thing as perfection achievable by humans (and a number of other species in the engineering department).

"Do you have any other questions? I don't claim to have all the answers, or even most of them, but I hope I haven't left anything important out."

"Um... who's actually in charge here? Besides Stacy, I mean." Wyn asks, fiddling with the cord of her headphones. "I met Cybil, and you and Allen are in charge of engineering, but there are more, aren't there?"

Billy pulls out a datapad with the information stored on it, launching into what could be one of his longest recitations yet. "Captain Picard is the head of the ship, as his title implies. He has a senior staff of command officers-among them Cybil, Commander Kirk, Master Chief, Nathan Petrelli, and Elfangor. Then there are the department heads: Allen and I for Engineering, Dr. McCoy heads the Medical department, the Doctor, the Master, the Brainiacs, and Spocks are in charge of tactics, Spock heads Science, Kal-El---more commonly known as Superman---leads training activities, and all of those departments have other staffs and hierarchies."

He shrugs apologetically. "I can transfer the information to a datapad or your omnicom. I know it's a daunting amount of names to remember, at least at first."

"Yeah, that'd be very hel-- wait, you said the Master Chief?" Wyn asks suspiciously. "The character-from-the-video-game the Master Chief?" Wyn's a gamer, but she could be asking the same question about half of the names Billy'd mentioned... including Superman.

"It's possible that he exists as a video game character in your world, but if he is I am unaware of it." Considering that he hails from the era of 16-bit graphics, it's understandable.

"I've witnessed a few instances of crew members previously knowing each other as fictional characters in their world's culture. It's impossible for me to describe exactly how that happens, but the theory passed on to us by Stacy suggests that there are multiple universes, and that fragments of events in each leak through tiny holes in the space between dimensions and manifest in the minds of authors as fictional accounts."

"Okay, so it's the parallel-universe-and-empath theory. I've heard it before, but I didn't think it was true..." Wyn says hesitantly. The idea of being around fictional characters was weird. Of course, this whole day had just been weird piled on top of weird on top of very weird, so it's not like it took any extra adjustment.

"Anyway, here's my pocket computer thing." she continues brightly, offering the device to Billy. "You called it an omnicom, right?"

"Affirmative. It can be used to store data and share it, and also contains a bulletin-board like system. If you wish, you can also keep private logs." As he explains, he pushes the necessary buttons to transfer his files.

"The file with crew information contains their ranks, and I've included a few other files detailing Engineering's plans and blueprints, in case they are of use to us in the future."

"Great, thanks!" Wyn says, watching the omnicom in fascination. The second she gets near someplace with a table and a chair, it's going to be taken apart and lovingly reassembled.

"Sorry to take up so much of your time. I'm sure there are more important things you could be doing." she continues apologetically.

Billy offers her another small smile. He recognizes the fascination with technology playing over her face---an expression he's often worn himself during his time on board.

"It's not a problem at all. Making sure our crew is adequately prepared is always important. It's been a pleasure to meet you."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Queries and Quibbles--mind your Q's

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject