Galileo's Burden, Phase Alpha: Bungle in the Jungle

[cityship]

((PLOT POST! READ IT!))

Stacy's voice rang out through the corridors of the ship, announcing that a message had been received and would be played on the Obs Deck momentarily.

The message was patched through a few minutes later, shown on a holographic screen. It was shot in very poor video, from a very old communicator frequency.



A woman wearing a blue veil over her face appears on the screen. She speaks in a soft and cultured voice, bowing deeply before she begins.

“Greetings to the crew and command of the Transmigration 9. My name is Reda, revered mother of the village of Avania III on the planet Orya."

Reda pauses, bowing once more before removing her veil and revealing the face of a beautiful humanoid woman.



"It… pains me to ask for the help of outsiders, when we have so little to offer in return, but I beg of you. Please aid us. My people are becoming sickened by an ailment we have never seen before. It seems to come differently for all who suffer from it... some have fevers, some strange dreams, some begin to speak madness while awake. But no matter how it develops, they grow weary. Their faith weakens and they die, disgraced and turned from the eyes of the great goddess Avani."

Reda folds her hands together, frowning worriedly. "I have heard of your ship's great deeds even in such a small and isolated planet as Orya. Though I am hardly worthy of asking, I know there is no one better to ask for a favor such as this. What I ask is for… those who have knowledge."

"My people know little of the universe outside their village. They do not know what you know in the ways of medicine. Our shamans are not equipped to deal with a threat of this magnitude. We seek those who can help us ease our suffering. We have little to give in return for your help, but what we have is faith… enlightenment and enrichment of the soul, which we will gladly share with those who come to visit us."

Reda smiled softly, shaking her head. "I will understand if you deny my request. I ask much of you and cannot give much myself, but should you assist us, I will do what I can to help you. I will see to it personally that those who come to our help are taken care of and shown the greatest hospitality. My own Chosen soldiers will protect them, and if they should help us in our time of need, I will do everything in my power to aid your efforts against the Ohm. You have my word as a devout child of Avani."

The revered mother bows once more, kneeling down before the camera. "I will be happy to speak with you if you require more information. Please... I beg of you, help my people."

Comments

Shipside - Communicating with Reda

[cityship]

Reda's communication is open for anyone who wishes to speak with her, even though the film and video quality isn't great.

"Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Is there anything I can clarify for you?"

Re: Shipside - Communicating with Reda

[wantstobebatman.livejournal.com]

Doc hums over where to start for a moment.

"What else can you tell us about this disease?" he asks finally, running through a long list of diseases that covered some or all of the symptoms she'd listed.

"How old are most of the people who are being affected? Is there anything that the victims have in common; physical traits, a location they all live in or visit frequently?"

[cityship]

"I'm afraid the details are very puzzling. Our own shamans have no idea what to make of it," she said, frowning deeply. "The only common symptoms seem to be fever, chills and some level of delirium. They dream even while they're awake... or perhaps they are not awake at all."

"The sick are both old and young, male and female. I'm afraid with the size of our village, there is nowhere specific that we can pinpoint as a source of the sickness. They have all been in close quarters with others."

Shipside - Other/Preparations

[cityship]

I wonder if anybody has any bug spray?

Do you think all these test tubes are going to get broken in your suitcase?

All your shipboard preparations and discussions go here.

[zenithianhero.livejournal.com]

A bodyguard mission. Sofia could handle that. Thinking it over, Leon had made a rather good choice picking her for it: she had no real desire in the science angle, only wishing to help out the people in any way she could. This world was a bit like her old one, very little present technology. She was a warrior first and foremost and would do her best to make sure that no harm would come to the others, even if had a feeling most of them could handle themselves fairly well.

The half-zenithian stood mostly silent watching the nerds herd distinguished chosen few get ready for the mission, her hands holding her sword. Should anyone require an item mule extra hands, they only had to ask her.

Re: Shipside - Other/Preparations

[morphitudinous]

The crew would see Billy shuffling around in quite a hurry, a rather large pack strapped to his back. There were last minute supply checks to run, reminders to give out, and pleas to work as diligently as possible on the clock problem. This was a really, really bad time for him to be sent on a mission.

He looked down at his omnicomm in dismay once more. That blasted clock had chimed again, with the very likely result that more of his friends were now in danger of deaging out of existence. It wasn't a definite result, maybe it had a stopping point or reversed after a certain criterion had been met, but he gravitated toward the worst hypotheses. What if he returned to find that they hadn't been saved in time? Couldn't he just stay here and help dismantle that evil thing?

Negative. As Stacy repeated to him more than once, he would be a vital player in this mission, no ifs, ands, or buts. It was critical that they obtain this planet's assistance against the Ohm. Whether he liked it or not, Billy knew, the greater mission overrode his concern about his friends.

It wouldn't be becoming of him to sulk, so Billy settled for a less obviously worried facial expression. Time to work as quickly as possible.

Re: Shipside - Other/Preparations

[makeherblue]

Him, with a proper bag! Him!

The truth was the Doctor had stuffed everything he possibly could into his pockets and was given a hell of a shock when he found he ran out of space.

Literally.

He tried to push a portable borringer into his jacket pocket and found no matter how much he pushed, pleaded, and bribed his pocket that it simply wouldn't take anything else. Despite all they'd been through! Despite him fishing that very same jacket out of countless bogs and alien slime pits and even a trash compactor with a poor attitude! And this was how it repaid him! The Doctor told himself he'd have a stern talking to later with that jacket, after the mission and after they had sorted out this time reversal thing. Priorities. Boring things like that. The Doctor was left now to try to stuff whatever else he needed into an old tattered looking briefcase he'd pulled from the TARDIS, plugging one of the holes in it with a strategically placed sock. There!

Already finished packing -- and with probably more success than Otter Soother Jackson -- the Doctor held up his omnicomm to watch the message from Mother Reda. Given that Stacy seemed to be stopping to assist this planet, he supposed the living ship must have a reason, time bleed or no time bleed. One of these days he'd like for the TARDIS and Stacy to have a proper non-grumpy conversation. He'd love to be given a chance to sit in on that and get a chance to see what the two ships would have to say to each other.

Nice things, hopefully. The Doctor wasn't too sure how to break up a fight between ships.

Re: Shipside - Other/Preparations

[notlewis]

"You know, would it kill them to make portable versions of these things? If these machines are so damn vital, why can't we fit them in a backpack, or anything smaller than a jet liner?"

Luis grumbled to himself as he packed his bags. Really, it wasn't the camping out aspect that bothered him. He grew up in Pueblo. Everyday life was basically like camping there. But how were they expected to get any work done if they couldn't utilize all the machines in the contagion lab?

Ah well. Perhaps it would be fun to do things the old fashioned way again for once.

Re: Shipside - Other/Preparations

[puny-parker.livejournal.com]

Peter had packed away his test tubes and other equipment in soft foam. Whole there was still a chance of everything breaking, it was infinitesimal as long as he didn't do anything stupid

Re: Shipside - Other/Preparations

[medicalmind.livejournal.com]

Scarlet practically existed to be carefully organized. So it's no surprise it didn't take her long to get her bags packed and ready to go. She was an extremely efficient person, and had no interest in bringing things that she wouldn't need. One part skills learned in the army, two part always being a neat person.

After that was done it was mostly a matter of sitting on the obs deck and waiting for everyone else to be prepared. Luckily, she'd packed a book.

[everdistant_utopia]

Saber had never given any thought to compensation for a service she rendered; for the Once and Future King of Britain, such things were simply expected, and even modest gratitude was not something she had demanded. But more importantly, a knight's first duty was to the people, and now that her people were gone -- though perhaps only for the moment -- the need to do something useful compelled her more than anything.

The reverend mother's plea for help was almost welcome.

With a calm and deliberate movement that could only be borne of years of practise, the petite blonde searched and collected whatever supplies she thought she might need. It was good to finally be of use to someone again.

Arrival on Orya

[cityship]

The obs deck landed on a beach nearby the village of Avania III, and the natives were waiting as the doors slid open.

The Oryans were tall and graceful creatures, with skin in pastel colors of the rainbow and hair that resembled sea anemones. They gathered on the back of the beach, watching the crew arrive with some apprehension.

At the front of the crowd was a group of elaborately-dressed soldiers, wielding polearms with their faces covered by metal helmets. At their lead was the blue-clad woman from the message, Reda, standing much shorter than the rest of the Oryans and clearly not one of them.

She smiled warmly as the crew approached, leading the group in a deep bow of respect.

"Welcome to Orya. I am Mother Reda... May Avani bless your efforts in helping us."

[hi_there_aliens]

Going to a new planet is never going to get old, Daniel thought, as they first stepped out onto the beach. The archaeologist took a moment to soak it in. This place looked like a paradise. The island, at this distance, could be any tropical island back on Earth, clean ocean breeze, a thick jungle, and warm sand all around. Any Earth paradise if it weren't for the alien flowers he could practically smell from here.

Daniel hadn't thought about his allergies at all until now. Now he wished he had. He didn't have any antihistamine on him. XaXing hadn't managed to trigger them, which was strange and lucky when you thought about it. It should have considering the nature of the place, all those people and wares together, but he'd gotten off easy. Now Daniel was regretting his good luck, because he should've prepared on this front before coming down here. Maybe it would go away this time. Or it could just be a small attack.

Yeah right, he had as much chance there as he did arm wrestling a Jaffa. Even now he could feel the telltale tingling sensation in his sinuses. He could feel the urge to sneeze, just lurking.

The archaeologist looked around at the landing party, hoping to distract himself. They had to look as rag-tag as they came. Daniel had decided to go with what he knew, the no-nonsense green BDUS and tactical vest, a Beretta strapped (he hoped) discreetly to a thigh. The Doctor himself was in tweed, looking more like a college professor on a weekend outing. Back when he'd been with the rest of SG-1, they'd all matched more or less, which seemed to present a unified group, well-organized in front of the locals. He hoped they could do the same. It'd been awhile since he'd last worked with a bunch of other scientists in the field.

Daniel, in all his travels, had never, ever seen anyone quite like the Oryans. They looked majestic, tall, elegant, their skin and hair wonderful shades and shapes. The hair especially. Daniel studied the guards, found himself wondering absently at the construction and design of the helmets and comparing them to what he knew from Earth's various histories.

Definitely not human transplants. At least, not by the Goa'uld, and certainly not his Earth's time line. If not of human ancestry, then they were really that: 'aliens'. Mother Aveda stepped out just then. She stood out amongst the Oryans, shorter than the others, and he'd be willing to bet his hat that she wasn't one of them biologically. In terms of "in spirit", she she could very well have settled in as one of the people.

"Thank you, Mother," Daniel took her cue, mimicking her bow, but even lower in deference to her. There hadn't been that much material on these people to look at beforehand, so he was flying about as blind as usual right now, which meant keeping a sharp eye and, if anything, doing what everyone else did. "May Avani smile upon us and you." It seemed neutral enough. He waited a beat, a polite one, then motioned to himself. "I'm Doctor Daniel Jackson."

Researching the Burden

[cityship]

The sick Oryans were sequestered off in a quiet section of the village, where the villagers had tried to set up a small area for Stacy's crew members to work.

It wasn't the most high-tech of arrangements, but that's not going to stop the crew, will it?

Tamil

[cityship]

Of the victims of the Burden, only a young male named Tamil is lucid enough to hold anything resembling normal conversation with the doctors and researchers from Stacy's crew.

For a given definition of "lucid," anyway.

Re: Researching the Burden

[makeherblue]

The Doctor wandered. Generally wandering gave him a chance to have a good think, possibly take in some sights, get a general layout of the land in case he needed to make a quick escape (this, he found, was just common sense given how often he seemed to find himself being chased across alien planets or through corridors: after awhile you simply just scoped the area without really thinking about it). Right now he was doing all of those and it wasn't long before he ran up against the quieter end of the village.

This had to be the Oryan version of a quarantine. It looked the complete opposite of Stacy's quarantine: no big bubbles to trap the infected, the air itself didn't have that same humidity and actually, calling it "quarantine" would be rather unfair to the Oryan's village. This was much nicer, he'd even go so far as to say, at least in his opinion. "Quarantine" was such a....such a spiky word.

Straightening his bowtie and checking the clasps on his briefcase, the Doctor rapped against the side of the wall with his knuckles as he poked his head in.

"Hello? I'm the Doctor. Tamil, yeah? You look like a Tamil."

Good name, Tamil. The Doctor liked it.

Daniel and Peter

[puny-parker.livejournal.com]

"Dr. Jackson!" Peter said, raising his voice a bit, waving over Daniel.

"Did you talk to Tamil?

SCIENCE and Queries

[notlewis]

Luis had spent the afternoon performing a series of tests on both cell samples from the sick individuals, as well as a few water samples and a few other things. He was currently sitting in his corner of the makeshift work area, staring intently into a microscope. He had been there for about twenty minutes already.

It would not be hard to startle him at this point.

The Village

[cityship]

All threads set in the village over the course of the week go here.

Nuff said.

Burnt Section

[cityship]

A lightning strike in the nearby jungle caused a raging wildfire about a month back, and there are large sections of the village that are still in shambles. The villagers had begun a rebuilding effort, but had not gotten very far between a shortage of manpower and worries about the Burden.

Chore Shenanigans

[cityship]

There's crops to be picked, animals to be fed, laundry to be washed, chores to be chored!

Roving Pack of Adorable Village Children

[cityship]

The Oryan children were shy around the crew at first, staying back behind the adults but slowly wandering towards the front of the crowd to get a good look at the visitors.

By the third day, the crew's presence seemed natural enough that roving packs of adorable village children would approach the newcomers. Sometimes they offered pieces of fruit or small clay things they made. Sometimes they just giggled and pushed one kid forward before fleeing back into the bushes.

Kids are kids, no matter the planet.

The beach, Nightfall (Open)

[couldputitback]

It wasn't Earth and the compass only gave her a rough guess. Then again, Mecca had never existed here and turning to the southeast was only an affectation because it was what Faiza had been doing her entire life. Her parents had never been religious, and therefore she wasn't terribly either, but she was Muslim and there were still things that were to be done.

She slipped away to the beach as the last of the daylight was fading from the sky and stars started to dot the night. There were prayers to be observed, taking solace in the motions and words, allowing her mind to clear so that she could come back at the problem refreshed.

Once the final prayer was finished, Faiza remained still for a moment before bending to brush her trousers off, turning at the sound of other feet on the sand. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't realize I wasn't out here on my own."

The Temple

[cityship]

Ditto.

Reda

[cityship]

Getting through the Chosen soldiers to see her is quite an ordeal, but once an audience had been arranged, Mother Reda was pleased to speak with any of Stacy's crew members. As de facto village leader, she may be a good source of information.