The Settlement

[fikgirl]

Who: Ami Jackson
Where: Tau Site, settlement
When: Thursday, May 16, late afternoon
Invited: All on Tau
Status: Incomplete

Comments

[Captain Jack Harkness, NPC]

[forevercptjack]

Jack had been grateful for the rain when it first came. It had made it difficult for anyone looking around the morning after to judge what had happened to him during the night. Jack was happy to pack up camp and move out as soon as the others were ready. He didn't want to linger close to the remains of the dinosaur the others had killed coming to his rescue. Once they moved out the rain ceased to be comforting, and became an enemy. It turned the ground to mud that sucked at their feet, made the air so thick the moisture settled in their lungs choking them. Jack grew to hate the rain as they marched.

One look at the settlement as they reached it showed they weren't going to find any relief in it. Too much of it was charred ruins turning into more mud. He reminded everyone how little time they now had to do a thorough investigation, how they'd have to continue it in the morning. Jack moved into the settlement cautiously. While he wouldn't stay dead if he happened to walk through a left behind trip wire or step on a left behind land mine, his painful death of the night before was too recent to forget or repeat so soon.

Jack didn't see Ami Jackson pick up the small charred doll she dropped in the puddle of mud at her feet after she cried out, but he saw how it fell from her fingers. Jack moved towards her as she stumbled back, fell to the ground, rolled to her knees, and scampered off the main fairway. He didn't have to ask how she was. Jack heard her lunch escape her before he reached her kneeling in the mud. He stood quietly by while her reaction swept through her. Jack only spoke after she'd rung herself out, "I saw the doll when you dropped it."

[James Wu]

[sinanju]

James scanned the village carefully--careful to avoid letting himself think too hard about the pain and suffering that had occurred here. There was no sign of survivors, no evidence of human footprints that weren't days old, no plumes of smoke to suggest cookfires. No sign, in short, that anyone was alive here except the Gamma teams.

Plenty of wildlife, though. Most of the bodies were of livestock and James was grateful for small favors. He spotted a form here and there that looked suspiciously like a human corpose, but they were few and far between. All of the bodies showed evidence of scavenger feeding. Insects were plentiful, and the more delicate bits had been consumed.

There was no sign that the aggressive dinosaur-like carnivore which had attacked Captain Harkness had been around. Perhaps it disdained carrion, though that seemed unlikely. Most carnivores weren't above scavenging if it netted them an easy meal. Maybe it had a large range and simply hadn't stumbled across the village yet. Or none of their territories included the village.

James nodded to himself. If the villagers had made a practice of killing or driving off large predators, and human settlements almost always did, that would explain it. Sooner later--unless the village was rebuilt--one of them would reclaim this area as a hunting ground.

"Okay, people," James called to the team, "let's do a quick sweep for survivors." He didn't really expect them to find any, but he'd been wrong before.

[Boone]

[tweets]

Ron watched with concerned eyes as Jackson emptied her stomach. It had been disturbing to see how much the little doll had affected her and the internal dialogue showed that Lan was equally worried for her.

But seeing that Jack had her in hand, Ron nodded a little.

"Teyla" he started, then paused as James called to his team.

As his 2IC approached "I want you to look after Ami, GT2 will sweep the area, just make sure she's OK and also that she's protected."

He now gestured to the rest of his team and raised his voice to answer James' commands "GT2 will take the south side, GT1, take the north."

With Ami being looked after by both Jack and Teyla, Ron was satisfied that the sweep wouldn't prove difficult.

[Ami]

[fikgirl]

Ami didn't look up immediately at the approach of Captain Harkness. She continued to kneel in the mud, breathing heavily with the acrid taste of bile lining her tongue. Recovering after one of these episodes was always the same and not so different from recovering an exceptionally lucid bad dream. Working her way slowly and methodically through a series of well-practiced breathing and meditative exercises, mostly centered around the slow unraveling of her present reality from whatever psychic imagery was impressed upon her, took most of her concentration for a good few minutes after the "episode" passed.

"Psychic impressions," Ami explained quietly, when she could again speak coherently. Her shoulders trembled, the wave expanding and rippling down her back and legs, and none of it was from the rain. As she spoke, Ami shrugged off her backpack. "They're always there, echoes in everything. In people, in places, in items. The stronger the emotion, good or bad, the stronger the impression. Sometimes it's only a glimpse, a fleeting feeling. Sometimes it's like I'm in the middle of it all."

Ami paused, not feeling the need to elaborate on which case this had been. If she scrambled deep enough and dug at the lingering impression, she'd know more than she already did: her vision had been the experiences of a young girl hiding beneath a wagon. (And that was more than I really wanted to know.)

"I shouldn't have picked it up unshielded. I know better than that." Giving her clothes up for lost, Ami dropped onto her bottom. She slung the backpack between her legs, and unhooked her canteen. "It was sloppy of me and careless. It won't happen again."

The last thing she wanted was for her team to see her as the weak link. Bad enough that she already felt that way, the only true non-combtant civilian. (And why am I here again?)

Ami took several swallows from the canteen. The water washed away the remaining bitterness, but it would be days or longer before the images and feelings of that little girl would be washed away.

[Bobby]

[starborn_scribe]

As soon as Ami started to wretch Bobby turned his back. He knew a panic attack when he saw one. He of all people should know. (Maybe I was wrong about her. Maybe she isn't ready to be out here.)

(Maybe you're not, either,) part of him nagged.

Bobby shoved the unwanted voice to a far corner of his mind. He busied himself by keeping watch while Teyla and Harkness tended to Ami.

After Ami had collected herself Bobby made his way toward her, still keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. The town seemed deserted, but you couldn't be sure. "Hey," he said with a grin, which she returned. Bobby patted his canteen. "Need some more water?"

"No, but thanks."

"Sure." Bobby lowered his voice a bit before continuing. "If you don't want to talk to one of the 'specialists,' I can help." Ami's pretty features furrowed with confusion. "With the panic attacks." He put on a rueful grin. "Been there, done that."

[Teyla]

[fikgirl]

Teyla thought that Ami handled herself remarkably well for someone unaccustomed to this sort of thing. Not a moment in Teyla's memory had her life been unaffected by the destructive waste of the Wraith, and though it made her stronger, what she might not have given to be horrified by the settlement in ruins around them and the startling horror of a single broken child's toy.

She, however, would be the last to judge. Rodney too, had been thought to be useless in the field, but had proven otherwise. He was no soldier, and never would be, and he complained loudly, but when the time was right, he was there with his team. Every person on these Gamma Teams was here for a reason, and if Ami Jackson's empathy with the dead was the trade-off for her expertise then Teyla felt that GT-1 would be good to live with such.

But then again, Teyla worked with the woman regularly sparring and knew that the archaeologist would not be "down and out" for overly long.

As she paced, eyes to the treeline and beyond, moving in a careful arc to protect Ami, bits and pieces of the conversation with Captain Harkness drifted to Teyla's ears. She listened, absorbing and dissecting until she could make sense of it -

(She is sensitive. To all things.) Teyla considered that. Teyla's own sensitivity to the Wraith was a blessing and a curse; what must Ami feel about her sensitivities?

"It wasn't -" Ami started and stopped. A quick look back showed the woman exchanging a fleeting glance with Captain Harkness. Though brief, there was something in the Captain's eyes that Teyla recognized: that silent admonishment of it's your choice.

"It wasn't a panic attack entirely," Ami continued after a beat. Her voice dropped and as Teyla swung round her circuit, she saw the woman fumbling with her canteen. "It was . . . I had . . . it's hard to explain. I'm -"

"You are a sensitive, are you not?" Teyla interjected. Though direct and to the point, her words were soft and absence of accusation. "Where I come from, there have been many such people who claim to be such. Some of them truly are."

Teyla paused, her gaze taking in Captain Harkness and Bobby Hobbes, though her words were directed at Ami. "You are able to feel and see things that others cannot. The weight of emotion left behind, or the imagery impressed into the landscape?"

Surprise, followed quickly by relief, washed over Ami's face. She nodded her head, her eyes grateful. "Yes, that's precisely it. I'm -" Again the archaeologist fumbled with the canteen, twisting and untwisting the cap, her discomfort readily apparent. "I'm psychic."

[Captain Jack Harkness, NPC]

[beccadg]

Jack was careful, as he stayed close to Dr Jackson, to keep his shielding tight. While he wasn't certain she'd gotten some kind of impression from the doll, the fact she'd picked it up before she had her reaction made it a possibility. Jack was half tempted to pick the doll up himself. If Ami hadn't had a psychic reaction the doll could be a trap, and if it was it would be safer for everyone else on the Gamma teams if he investigated how it had affected Dr Jackson himself. Jack listened quietly to her explanation of psychic impressions before he nodded, "I understand. Torchwood has a device that allows whoever activates it to be in the middle of it all. I had one team member find herself sharing a scared little boy's getting lost in a train station in WWII. Since you didn't react until you picked the doll up I thought it might be a psychometric reaction."

He smiled softly after she admitted she shouldn't have picked the doll up unshielded, "It's okay, Ami. I shouldn't have been outside of the tents last night watching for pteranodons. This is our first off-world mission. We're going to spend some of it relearning things we already know better than to do. You're out of the vision now, and you weren't caught in it when there was no time for it. Having been there can be overwhelming, can you sort through the vision enough yet to know if you got more than the terror of the child that was holding the doll when whoever did this to these people did this? A vision can take time to process. Gwen had to process it before she could remember being able to read the little boy's name tag."

Jack fell silent as Hobbes approached. He resisted the temptation to laugh at the man's guess Dr Jackson was suffering from a panic attack. Jack wondered how many of them Bobby had seen. There was certainly plenty of things in the settlement to trigger one. The doll had been something that could've triggered one, but Ami hadn't reacted at the sight of it. She'd picked it up, held it in her hands, before she'd reacted. He trusted she was being honest when she said she was a psychic who'd gotten a clear impression from the doll. Jack imagined being unshielded in the settlement was dangerous, and Dr Jackson was lucky she'd done as well she had with what she'd seen after touching the doll she'd found.

He let Ami decide what she was going to tell Hobbes. It was her ability, her choice to share it or not. Jack watched her struggle to explain what she was, and how Teyla came to her rescue. He smiled softly at the surprise and relief that crossed Dr Jackson's face with Teyla's expressing her understanding of how psychic abilities could work. It was proving an enlightening morning for Ami. She now knew for certain that Teyla and he could understand her ability, and a respond accordingly when she needed someone to watch her back for her while she was caught up in a vision. Jack nodded to Teyla, "I've seen real psychics before as well empaths, telepaths, people with psychometric abilities, telekinetic. It happens."

[Bobby]

[starborn_scribe]

Bobby stared at Ami in disbelief. "Psychic," he parroted.

"I've seen real psychics before as well empaths, telepaths, people with psychometric abilities, telekinetic," Harkness chimed in. "It happens."

"Happens?!" Bobby repeated, his voice cracking. The captain, who wore WWII-era garb, walked off wrestling with dinosaurs, and was apparently down with fellow officers whose eyes glowed when they used alien tech, said that psycho-tele-metric-whatever stuff *happens*. "What, like all of a sudden?" He faced Ami, part angry and part embarrassed. What if she'd poked around inside his rather messed up psyche? "Did you just have a sudden attack of psychicness, or is this yet another secret?"

Bobby turned his gaze back to Harkness. "'Cause somehow I think that we never got the lowdown about why you rubbed some dirt on the shreds of skin holding your guts in after that lizard jumped you and waltzed off." Teyla was next. "And you, 'where you come from?' Could you be a little more specific? Are 'sensitives' commonplace in, I dunno, New Zealand or something?" Bobby took a breath and addressed them all. "Then there's Boone, who thinks nothing of zatting people during training and later his eyes glow when he uses some weird gold thingy. You'd think we might be let in on some of this before going *off world* to a colony that's been *decimated*. I mean, I disclosed my history when I applied for this assignment, and everyone knows about Fawkes' disappearing act. So what the hell?"

[Teyla]

[fikgirl]

Teyla shifted her stance, her head tilted curiously and patiently as Bobby Hobbes went into what might have been a low level rant. He was disturbed by Ami's revelations, by Captain Harkness's recuperative abilities, and Captain Boone's Tok'ra symbiote. Though all came as a surprise, Teyla knew better than most the myriad of reasons to not reveal such things: security and surprise. Tactically, the moves were sound, though she suspected that in the case of Ami and Captain Boone, it had more to do with a need to avoid the sort of reaction that Bobby Hobbes now had.

After all, had it not taken her time to reveal her abilities to sense the Wraith to those she called friends, who trusted her to "watch their backs?"

"While I cannot speak for Captain Harkness or Captain Boone," Teyla began once Bobby took a breath and clearly waited for an answer, "I suspect that the suddenness of this mission might have distracted from revelations that might have been made back on Gamma. Even given that, however, there is a certain tactical soundness in a lack of knowledge.

"What you do not know, you cannot reveal under duress." Teyla's gaze flickered from Bobby Hobbes to Captain Harkness and Ami. The captain's face was unreadable, but Ami wore the familiar grimace of someone facing something she had faced many times before and never grew accustomed to facing.

She replayed his words and pondered briefly how he did not know where she was from. Teyla had not hidden such from Darien, and she was under the impression that the two men were close friends.

"I am from Athos," Teyla continued. When Bobby gave her a blank stare, she continued, "It is a planet in the Pegasus Galaxy. For many generations my people and all the people of Pegasus were plagued by a deadly enemy called the Wraith. Some of my people have a sensitivity to the presence of the Wraith.

"While not always pleasant, my ability saved many lives over the years, but it was not always understood or accepted by all of my people. I learned to sparingly reveal such. Ostracization and fear are terrible companions." Her abilities would mean nothing here, in a part of the galaxy devoid of the Wraith threat, and they were nothing like Ami's. Teyla spoke more in the support of Ami and Captain Harkness, and in a quiet understanding of their plight.

But she also spoke truthfully. She had in her time met a few with "sight."

[Ron]

[tweets]

Ron had left Darien to complete their leg of the sweep. Nothing other than broken houses and belongings.

So, as Teyla responded to Bobby's rant, Ron heard the end of the accusations and approached with a tight smile. "As Teyla said" he added to the explanation "Tok'ra aren't exactly well known, especially on Gamma. I.. my symbiote has a history with some of the inhabitants, and there will be difficult questions to answer, should it be revealed who we are."

He turned to watch one of GT1 walking through a building, then out again, before turning back to Bobby. "We never hid this from you all, out of spite, you realise?" Ron's eyes met Bobby's now "In fact, it was something the administration had wanted to retain as a training tool, so it would be best advised to keep quiet knowledge which later recruits don't need to know." A smile tugged at his lips.

[Bobby]

[starborn_scribe]

Bobby fought to keep his face neutral. Even in the midst of his accusations he knew he should have kept his mouth shut. If this were the Marines, he'd be face down in the mud by now. Marines don't question their officers. (I've been around Fawkes *way* too long.)

"Yes sir, not out of spite," Bobby repeated. He truly meant it, and included Harkness, Teyla, and Ami in his gaze. "I was out of line." Bobby faced his CO, half expecting a physical or verbal reprimand. "I'm glad you're okay, sir."

[Captain Jack Harkness, NPC]

[forevercptjack]

(( OOC: "The captain, who wore WWII-era garb, walked off wrestling with dinosaurs, and was apparently down with fellow officers whose eyes glowed when they used alien tech..." *Giggles.* It works as a description. ))

Jack watched Hobbes stare at Ami in disbelief. When Bobby repeated him, he knew this was going to be one of those times where he learned something about how much his team member could take. Jack wasn't certain how much Ami wished for Hobbes to know about her abilities and he didn't know as much about them as he'd like. Jack remained quiet while Bobby asked her if she'd just had a sudden attack of psychicness. He couldn't help smiling softly as Hobbes began to tick off the secrets he'd seen glimpses of, even though they included Jack's own inability to simply stay dead when he was killed.

His smile grew wider as Teyla spoke of there being a certain tactical soundness in a lack of knowledge. Jack was tempted to nod when her gaze flicked to him after she pointed out what Bobby didn't know he couldn't reveal under duress, but he resisted. He held still, letting her eyes travel from him to Ami without giving her any indication of what he thought of her ideas about secrets. Jack did nod after Teyla spoke of ostracization and fear being terrible companions, "Some secrets, even if there's no... tactical... advantage in hiding them, are easier to hide than share because sharing them causes problems."

Jack resisted a frown after Captain Boone told them there would be difficult questions to answer if it was revealed who they were. He couldn't help wondering which inhabitants on Gamma Ron and Lan had history with. Not that Jack could ask them in front of the others, or that it was any of his business. He nodded assurance that he understood Ami and Ron hadn't kept their secrets out of spite. Jack spoke up after Captain Boone mentioned keeping quiet knowledge later recruits didn't need to know, "You've been CIA, Hobbes, you've heard of 'need to know.' It's not always easy to judge."

He resisted a smile when Bobby started using 'sir,' the former marine realizing he was demanding answers from his superiors. While Jack nodded at Hobbes admitting he was out of line, he smiled sympathetically. Jack squared his shoulders and met Bobby's direct gaze. He told him, "I'm a Group Captain, the equivalent of a colonel army or marines, but what I was doing before coming to Gamma was classified work for a secret organization. I care less about your military discipline, more about how you handle secrets. Can you adjust to the ones you have now? Can you keep them? Are you ready for more?"

[Bobby]

[starborn_scribe]

This was... awkward. His CO had more or less dismissed military discipline. Bobby chose to hang on to it simply to have a familiar course of action. "I'll adjust, sir, and keep confidences." He resisted glancing at Ami. Of all of them her secret was the most unsettling. Psychic? What did that mean exactly? Was she overhearing his thoughts right now?

"As for more..." Bobby glanced at Boone. "It's your decision, sirs. But I have one request." He turned back to Harkness. "I'd like to know how you survived that attack last night. Enough to choose the best course of action in the future."

[Ron]

[tweets]

That was easy... Ron pulled out the healing device "I am Tok'ra. Fortunately, with that, comes a few perks of the job... because of the symbiote within me, I'm able to do some minor healing. But this device can't tell the difference between healing a handful of capillaries, or an artery. So, in this instance, minor healing meant stopping the Captain's bleeding and speeding up the external healing. Doesn't mean his bruises are all gone, though..."

He turned to take in Jack "Does it, Captain?"

[Captain Jack Harkness, NPC]

[forevercptjack]

Jack resisted a frown when he could see Hobbes was unsettled by his placing discipline second to secrecy. He listened to Bobby's assurance he'd adjust before barking at him, "I do value discipline, Marine. But functionally Doctor Jackson isn't the only civilian on these teams. You and I haven't been active service in some time."

He paused for a moment, then asked, "Bobby, what was your second thought after you realized you were demanding answers from superiors? The one after what a marine response to that would be. You were a marine, but you've been other things since. I won't ask for more discipline than I'm capable of showing myself. I won't ask for as much secrecy as I practice. GT1 is my responsibility, and there are some secrets I'll keep."

Hobbes didn't glance at Ami. Bobby didn't have to for Jack to guess that her abilities bothered him both as an unknown, and because of his paranoia. He offered to Hobbes gently, "I don't know what Doctor Jackson's history is like, but a number of the psychics I've know have had ingrained in them an aversion to reading people's thoughts without their express permission. Ami isn't here to spy on us. She's here to help us find out who or what did this."

Jack gestured to the decimated settlement before continuing, "The psychic impression she got from the doll she picked up may have included information about who or what did this. Doctor Jackson is an asset to the teams."

He watched as Bobby glanced at Boone, including the other captain as one of the superiors he was addressing. Jack stood straight and ridged when Hobbes turned back to him. If the marine would feel better with some military discipline on display he could remember the many years of military service he'd given in his life. Jack listened to Bobby's request, and held his tongue while Ron gave him the explanation they'd made sure was there for the teams. He nodded after Boone turned to him, "I've still got some bruises."

Jack told Hobbes, "I survived last night because a team rescued me, and Ron didn't let me bleed to death just because I was being stubborn. Last night my mind was on watching the skies for pteranodons. I forgot to watch out for baby T-Rex's. It won't happen again. I'm glad you're okay, Hobbes. You're my responsibility, and you were injured saving me from my mistake."

[Bobby]

[starborn_scribe]

"You'd have done the same of any of us, sir." Something about Harkness's explanation didn't sit right with Bobby. He was sure that his CO was withholding information. That was his prerogative, though. Bobby would trust him to reveal the whole truth when and if necessary.

Then there was Boone having a symbiote inside him. That was just plain... eew. Again, not his problem. Boone had proven himself a good leader so far. If the man wanted an alien snake inside him, then so be it. At the very least it enabled him to use the healing device. "Sir," Bobby said to Boone. "Does that device heal bone as well? If so, could you use it on my ribs?" His tone was appropriately neutral.