Interdimensional Reunion Time! [Logs Only]

[geekofthegate]

Summary: Daniel Jackson’s super-genius scientist friend/coworker, Samantha Carter, built a machine intended to try and study the dimensional energy signature left behind on Daniel after his strange trip to alternate-reality Manhattan. (AKA Daisychain) The machine goes haywire, and suddenly Daniel finds himself involved in another strange trip! Read

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Robert Neville - Legend Universe

[geekofthegate]

There had been a pattern to the visits so far. Daniel would go to a universe; someone from another universe would come to visit him; and then it would repeat. After nine consecutive rounds of dimension-jumping, Daniel had accepted this as a constant, and it gave him some small comfort - he knew what to expect when the tingling sensation came and another jump was about to occur

[rneville]

Robert approached the man in the shadow of the Parking Garage's overhand with suspicion. He moved with a purposeful crouch, keeping his weapon trained smoothly on Daniel's head.

"Hey! D- You there!" He shouted- snarled really, and jerked his rifle viciously, "Come into the light!"

He'd had hallucinations before. He'd been tricked before, and until he saw that what looked like a man didn't burn like a darkseeker, he wouldn't assume differently.

[geekofthegate]

Okay...the familiar-looking guy had a gun on his head. He also did not look friendly. This was very likely bad. On the positive side, though, this additional shock gave him just the extra burst of adrenaline needed to clear his thoughts and bring him back to reality. Daniel raised his hands above his head, trying to look non-threatening

[rneville]

Robert didn't drop his gun, still looking down the long barrel at Daniel, squinting threateningly. A long, tense moment stretched between them as Robert struggled to make the connection, and then to make it seem real.

"Daniel Jackson," He finally replied, though his voice was more command than recognition, and he still kept the gun steady, "Y'gonna hafta do me a favor and hold still."

[geekofthegate]

The tone of Robert's voice had changed, and Daniel had enough experience in the field to recognize the warning in it. That, and the gun, and the warning tingle that had just brushed his neck, were more than enough collective incentive for him to stay perfectly still. He was tempted to close his eyes, but whatever was going on, he figured it would be much better to see it coming. And hopefully he wasn't reading this whole situation wrong and about to be shot.

[rneville]

"Good, tha- that's..." and Robert's voice died down as he caught a glimpse of whatever he was aiming for "...good

[geekofthegate]

The wait had been nearly unbearable, and Daniel's senses strained to pick up any noise - because it was fairly obvious by now that Neville wasn't aiming at HIM. He just barely caught the sound of soft breathing, and it set the hair on the back of his neck prickling.

Then the roar - of both the gun and the something behind Daniel - erupted, and it was all the archeologist could do not to duck. When he felt the weight of something that felt like a human body, and he dove forward, fear closing up his throat. He managed to spin around and look just as Robert shot something that looked like a human in the head. The sight of the resulting mutilation raised a lump of nausua in his stomach

[rneville]

"Darkseeker female, looks to be..." Robert replied, all business poke a little at the body with a boot, assessing her general level of health. It was pale as paper, and even dead the skin was forming welts under the sun- then again, various organs remained a live for minutes or hours after death, "About twenty to twenty-five...plenty fat. That's normal round here. With the N.Y.C. zoo an' all, we got a couple hundred damn antelope round here for them to feed on."

Typical Robert, he didn't look for long, and after moment, his eyes were on the dark again, warily watching. The movement of his eyes from the body to the shadows was so sudden he might easily have been drawn to them by some movement. After a moment of dart-eyed caution, he continued, "She don't live in there. She just saw you and decided to try her luck."

And then, almost confrontational in his abruptness, "What you been doin'?"

[geekofthegate]

The smell of the creature's burning flesh was exceptionally disturbing, but considering everything else that was happening, it was the easiest thing to ignore. Daniel listened to the explanation blankly, trying to reconcile this new information with his preconceptions about where he was. Robert seemed to know what was going on, so...for the first time, it sunk in that this might actually be Robert's home universe

[rneville]

"...Good job on the map-reading, Jackson, that's real damn impressive," Robert replied, in what passed for a friendly tone, given the situation, "Naw no, see we. Are in Queens. Which is off the island, if you're curious."

Robert cocked his head, eyebrows rising as Daniel's story continued. This was an awful damn creative hallucination...or maybe it was crazy enough to be real. Maybe he should be a little less sarcastic, if this was the real Daniel Jackson. It was difficult to reign in the bitterness, though.

Everyone else got to go home. Everyone got to leave him in this hell, all alone again, and go where there was electricity, and people. Robert would give anything to have people again. He thumped Daniel on the back, by way of apology, "Look, I-"

Robert was cut off by a sharp beeping, two tones repeated as his watch alarm went off, "I'll answer all your questions, but not just now. Sun's gone in a couple hours, we gotta go."

[geekofthegate]

Ironically, Daniel wasn't that put off by the sarcasm; it reminded him of the days when Jack O'Neill had been on his team (although Robert would really have to lay it on thick to reach that level). In fact, it put him a little more at ease. Anything familiar was helpful at this point. "Thanks," he replied lightly. "I do pride myself on knowing at least a few popular landmarks

[rneville]

Robert's car for today was a black minivan, the sort of things a mother with too many children to take to sporting events might drive. It had been retrofitted with equipment on it's roof- a black plastic barrel that sloshed with some kind of fluid, and a clear one that was very clearly filled with water. For some reason, the back seat was covered in dog hair, but Robert started the engine to silence questions.

"Buckle your seat belt," he reminded Daniel as they pulled away, though with the decay and destruction around them it seemed a bit ridiculous.

[geekofthegate]

Daniel took note of the interesting fortifications to the car. The reason was obvious, if monsters like the one lying on the pavement back there were common in this world. The dog hair on the back seat was interesting, but something about Robert's intent focus on anything but told Daniel not to press for the moment.

They drove in silence for a few minutes, Daniel using the time to take in the sites. It was disturbing seeing yet another version of New York that had been decimated - was this a common trend in certain realities? Could something like this happen in his? Sometimes he wondered. They had certainly had more than enough close calls in the past decade that it didn't seem out of the realm of possibility.

"...So what happened here?" he asked finally, his voice quiet.

[rneville]

Robert chewed on his bottom lip a while, swerving around potholes that had taken over half the street, a lamp post the had fallen. It was obvious that they were headed southeast, but at one point, Robert inexplicably turned west. The reason why showed up a few blocks past where a traffic jam of parked and abandoned cars, rusted out and useless, blocked the street from sidewalk to sidewalk and then some. Finally, he answered

[geekofthegate]

Daniel listened in respectful silence. As the horrifying tale unfolded, he felt his stomach tighten into knots. So that was why...that was why Neville had always been so serious. So edgy. You would almost have to be, surviving in a world like this. "That's...that's terrible," he said softly, the words of the obvious statement feeling flat and pointless. But what could you say to something like that?

Daniel turned his head, studying the face of the man in the driver's seat. He couldn't even imagine going through something like that...all of your friends and family, neighbors and strangers dying around you. He bit his lip for a moment, then tentatively asked, "Is there anyone else out there? Besides you?"

Surely there had to be someone else here. He couldn't be looking at the sole survivor of the entire race of humanity in this reality.

[rneville]

"If there is...Then I don't know 'em," Robert replied, grimly, he swallowed and turned another corner. They were in side-streets, now; a nice neighborhood, once, with white houses and fences and grass grown wild around the hollow eye sockets in what used to be pleasant lawns and brand new sidewalks.

When he managed to speak again, that old half-military scientific professionalism was back, as if reading a laundry list. It was a mask, armor against the horror, "I hijacked a radio transceiver in the first few months, goes day and night. No response, either to the message, or it's contents. I used to go out every day I'm able, at noon, and sit on that pier, waiting for somebody to show up. They never did. They never will. Everybody's dead, Daniel."