Getting down to brass tacks?

[wolfcat]

Who: Elizabeth Weir
Where: Admin Building Secure Conference Room
When: Wednesday, June 16th
Invited: Chloe Sullivan, Faith Lehane, Ronald Boone
Status: Incomplete

Comments

[Faith]

[fikgirl]

There was no discussion, just a quick exchange of glances and Chloe entered the room first behind Dr. Weir. It was a split second decision; if there was a trap, they'd spring it, but leave Faith in the hallway outside. Not the greatest choice, but Faith could fight her way into a room where Chloe was safe from a platoon of soldiers a lot more easily than she could out of a room once she was trapped.

Her eyes took in the soldiers, two left outside on either side of the doorway as they entered, but a good number patrolled. It wasn't DEFCON 1, but they were cautious.

Faith too, was cautious. She made a quick assessment of the room, what could be used as weapons, the setup and layout, and then sauntered over to the table. Deliberately grabbing a chair that faced the door, Faith swung it around backwards. She straddled it, her chest to the back of the chair, arms draped on it.

One thing she could say, Dr. Weir didn't mince words or waste breath like a lot of politicians. ('Course how many politicians have a shiny "Dr" in front of their names. Stargate program, much? She's got to be some sort of diplomat or brainiac.)

Faith weighed the options. She knew that Chloe's presence would counterbalance, and until she heard otherwise from Xander and Cassie, she would play it close to the vest. The best lie was a lie of omission, or at least one that was based in truth.

"The ship found you," Faith explained. "It was on some sort of fail safe and brought us right to a world with a stargate." Which, according to what Faith tried to understand from the spiel McKay gave them, probably made sense considering the ship was pre-programmed with lots of 'gate addresses. In fact, her explanation probably made more sense to Weir and Boone than it did to Faith.

That was Chloe's cue, if she wanted to volunteer information about the ship. Maybe she would, maybe she wouldn't, but Chloe was damn good at knowing what to say and what not to say.

[Ron]

[tweets]

Ron was no fool, he didn't want to be sat between Faith and the exit. Moving to sit a little away from them, but close enough to the door, he relaxed in the chair. He'd follow Weir's lead in that this was going to be informal, but his eyes took in everything.

He didn't trust these new ladies yet. But he was still learning about them.

Resting a cheek on one fist, he watched as Faith explained. "So, like a homing beacon and auto pilot?" he queried softly.

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

"Not...exactly," Chloe said.

"We've been traveling for some time. Our last trip landed us in hot water, metaphorically speaking. A hostile environment that would have destroyed the ship eventually.

"That's when the autopilot jumped us to a new system," Chloe said. She glanced at Faith, then continued. "Frankly, we had no idea it could do that."

"The system it jumped us to was this one, of course," Chloe continued. "Presumably because the planet has a stargate. It was just blind chance that we stumbled across a colony from Earth. It could just as easily have been an uninhabited system, or occupied by former Goa'uld slaves--or even an active Goa'uld System Lord's forces."

Chloe smiled. "Considering all the possibilities, I think we got lucky."

[Elizabeth]

[wolfcat]

"Sounds like you did," Elizabeth conceded. "So, where exactly were you coming from? Were you on one of the other colonies or...?" It was fairly obvious to her that the girls were from Earth originally. Boone had already confirmed they weren't Goa'uld or Tok'ra. That lessened their threat to a degree -- but not entirely.

If the ship really was Ancient, as it appeared, that meant at least one of them had the Ancient gene. "Where did you get the ship? Who flies it? The autopilot?"

She paused then and laughed ruefully, spreading her hands on the table. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to give you the third degree. I'm just... very curious." There was an openness in her expression and in her tone, though she wasn't at all inclined to give away any 'state secrets', so to speak. Still, to gain trust, one had to give it. At least in small amounts. "It's been a while since we've managed contact with any of the other colonies, so you can understand we'd be anxious for news."

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

"We came from earth," Chloe said. Which garnered every bit as much reaction as she'd anticipated. While Dr. Weir and Boone digested that revelation and tried to decide on a response, Chloe glanced at Faith, but there was no help in her face. She was leaving it to Chloe to decide how much to say.

Chloe decided to trust them. "Not your earth," Chloe said, before Weir or Boone replied, "An earth in a parallel universe. We've visited a number of them over the past few months. Our last skip brought us to yours."

"Only we found ourselves inside a red giant star instead of orbiting earth. That's when we learned that the ship could skip through space as well--not just from one universe to another. The autopilot jumped to this system because there's a stargate here. Presumably we could then use the gate to reach civilization again--or at least that's what the Ancients planned for so long ago."

"So I'm afraid we have no news of other colonies," Chloe said.

[Ron]

[tweets]

~Parallel universe? Lan, is it possible they came from ours?~

~Of the millions of universes, the chances are slim. However, it does sound as if their Earth has links to the Ancients and is free. That leaves it closer to our own universe, even if not our own.~

~Perhaps some of our friends...~

~And what? We can't move to the other universes just to rejoin friends or team mates. We have pledged our lives here.~

~Yes... You... right.~

A light of surprise touched Ron's eyes, but he kept his voice level. He could continue to speculate... but that's all it was, speculation.

"So, Ancient technology is common in your universe? And the Goa'uld are known?"

[Faith]

[fikgirl]

They were tag-team pumping for information. While in other settings, Faith might have been tempted -- 'Kay a little more than tempted -- to let the double-entendre fly out loud, she was old enough, wise enough and tempered enough to know when to ignore those urges.

"Not in my universe," Faith shook her head, arms folded and crossed over the back of the chair. Chloe had gone for honestly, so Faith would as well. "Never knew anything about any stargates or Goa'uld or any other aliens 'til we met Chloe and -- Cassandra." The brief hesitancy took in the editing out of Daniel, Ami and Jon's names. Faith still thought of the five of them as a collection, because they had all been together when they crashed landed -- literally -- in Faith's backyard in her universe.

"Then again, the stuff that's normal where I come from would give most people nightmares and make them sh-- crap their pants." No elaboration on that point, not yet. Hearing about vampires and demons in a world where they were real could still get a person labeled as a lunatic, at least up until there was no denying the zombie hoardes.

Then it was too late.

Faith shook off the melancholy thought. But if people who had vampires as their next door neighbors couldn't accept it, what would people who probably never had to deal with such a thing think?

"I guess it's possible the stargate existed there too, so you know Ancient tech and Goa'uld too," Faith added as an afterthought. "Didn't exactly research it."

Now, it was their turn. "So what's the sitch with earth? What exactly happened to it? 'Cause I may not be all that schooled in science, but I'm pretty sure the sun's got a few billion years left on its battery before it blows up, especially if y'all are all here and not irradiated or showing some mad mutant powers."

[Ron]

[tweets]

That one was Weir's one to answer.

Although Ron couldn't keep the smile off his lips and out of his eyes as Faith stumbled over the word shit.

He nodded in thanks for her thoughts.

[Elizabeth]

[wolfcat]

As Chloe described the red giant, Elizabeth's eyes closed. For a span of about three heartbeats, a subtle grief played across her features as she worked to school them once more. Yes. She knew that was Earth's eventual fate. But having it actually confirmed... and being cut off from the other colonies... There was no more hiding her head in the sand.

Thus, when she opened her eyes again there was a sort of resolution in them, even though it didn't directly relate to the two young women sitting across from her. "It's alright," she said quietly in response to Chloe's apology about having no further news. "Even that's something to know for sure."

What might have been fractionally more surprising to those young women was that neither she nor Boone seemed to bat much of an eye at the idea of parallel universes, or Ancient technology that could skip between them. Both had been part of the Stargate program for too long, no doubt.

Elizabeth listened to Boone's question, and Faith's response, before she gave something of a rueful smile. "Less than a handful of years ago," she said, "Earth was attacked. Or rather, our sun was. The Stargate program--" she glanced at Faith particularly-- "if it exists on your world, is probably classified." She glanced at Boone as she chose her next words. Technically, her Earth wasn't his, and she knew it. But, there was no point in telling that to these girls. It was still classified information, after all. "In our world, once we realized that the aliens -- whoever they were; we still don't know -- had accelerated the sun's aging, the Stargate program went public. These lifeboat colonies were planned and populated, though we had hoped they would turn out to only be a precaution, that we'd find a way to reverse the effects on the sun." Her smile twisted slightly, and no doubt the cause of her grief became obvious. She flipped a hand lightly. "Obviously, we weren't able to do that. So, these colonies have effectively become our home, a place to rebuild."

None of that information was classified. Even the school children on Gamma knew it, now. Having given it, however, Elizabeth risked another question or two of the newcomers. "So..." She glanced between the two young women, just to confirm she was understanding them. "You each come from different parallel universes." As they indicated that was correct, she nodded and continued. "If your ship has the ability to jump through time and space..." She canted her head slightly, "how long do you intend on staying? I imagine landing in the middle of a red giant put quite a bit of stress on your systems and hull. Are you looking to make repairs?" Did they even know how to make repairs? She certainly wasn't ready to bet on it. And Sam was off-world... She might need to be recalled, if Jack would spare her. "I'm afraid I'm not sure how much help we'll be on that front."

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

"I don't know how long we'll be staying," Chloe said. She drew a deep breath before plunging on. "But we might be staying indefinitely. For a couple of reasons."

"First, the--we call it the 'skip drive', the dimensional shift device--is experimental. And buggy. We can't control where it takes us, so there's no going back to any given universe. When we...Cassandra and I, that is--Faith and Xander joined us later--gained access to the lifeboat we were already lost. We had nothing to lose by using it. Xander and Faith's world was coming to an end so they had reason to join us."

"Second, as you guessed that last jump--out of the red giant--does seem to have damaged the skip drive. At the moment it's inoperative and I don't know when or if it'll be usable again.

"Ancient devices are incredibly tough, as I expect you already know," Chloe said. They knew about the stargate network and had access to at least one puddlejumper. "Given enough time, I imagine the lifeboat will repair itself. But that could be a long time."

[Faith]

[fikgirl]

Faith digested what Dr. Weir told them, and what she didn't. It wasn't unexpected. With the military presence they saw around them, the stargate may have been open to "the world," but it was still a locked down and guarded entity. In an unknown universe with a bunch of scared and unsure people, that probably wasn't a bad thing.

Probably a whole shitload of things that the common people don't know about and don't need to, Faith thought. Not like we're all with the total sharing either.

"I guess that means we're going to be camped out in your backyard for at least the next couple of weeks, probably months," Faith said. "I can see why you'd be twitchy about a strange ship, but I think we're gonna have to reach some kind of understanding if we're gonna have to hang around a while.

"I mean, we could probably fly the ship out, but we don't know jack about the planet and that'd be stupid. Not asking you to trust us one hundred percent and you don't have a good reason to do that. And I don't know that we're ready to let your scientists go salivating all over our ship. Middle ground?"

Faith knew enough to not set the middle ground, also any final agreement would have to be between all four of them. But, if they wanted to stay, they'd have to (mostly) play by Dr. Weir's rules. They could work and earn their own way, just as long as the ship was off limits to the natives.

OOC inspiration!

[starborn_scribe]

I think I've got Will's first major objective defined. Bwahahaha!

[Elizabeth] (Part I)

[wolfcat]

Elizabeth took a moment to digest what both Chloe and Faith had to say. The insight into where they'd come from was helpful, to be sure. And the general message was clear: They didn't really have anywhere else they could go, but they didn't want to be taken advantage of, either. She could understand that.

The question was how to balance it with the needs of the colony. Honestly, though having a second space-worthy ship would be a tremendous asset, if that ship was experimental -- and its drives not working right -- how much of an asset would it really be? Could they afford to let it sit for a while, until its crew felt more comfortable with her people? Likely.

On the other hand, it was experimental... Elizabeth had some experience with experimental Ancient technology -- and just what could go wrong with it. (McKay's solar system fiasco came immediately to mind.) While she didn't expect the hobbled ship to be a huge threat just sat out in a field, she knew there were lots of other things that could possibly go wrong with that scenario; things she had a responsibility to guard against, if she could.

"I can appreciate you not wanting to have a bunch of scientists..." her lips twitched as she echoed Faith's words, "salivating over your ship -- though they'll do that even from a distance, regardless, I can promise you." She chuckled softly at the mental image. It was almost a shame that Rodney wasn't on Gamma. He'd have jumped at this. But, Sam was there, and she was so much easier to work with. All the brains, all the talent, all the skill; none of the arrogance. God bless her. "We can probably arrange to keep as many away as we can."

Elizabeth's levity was brief, however. Though she still smiled, there was no mistaking the seriousness in her eyes. "But, we need to make sure it's safe. Too, there is the possibility that we can help you with repairs. I've had quite a bit of experience with Ancient technology, myself. And although I'm no engineer and not the one you want poking around anything other than its information systems, if there's one thing I've learned it's that it doesn't always just 'fix itself'. Sometimes it needs help." Unless, of course, the Ancients were experimenting with organic technology like what the Wraith had, though she doubted it. In any case, even the Wraith occasionally needed help to effect repairs. She just really hoped that if the ship really was self-repairing, it wasn't because of replicator nanotechnology. That would not make her happy.

[Elizabeth] (Part II)

[wolfcat]

She leaned forward in her chair, now, resting her hands on the table, fingers laced together. "Would you allow me to at least send one of my people in to try to assess the damage and see what might be done? I'm not asking you to admit a whole diagnostic team at this point, nor am I requesting some sort of continuous or ongoing presence. But, I would like Colonel Carter to take a look at it, if she may. She has a wealth of experience with alien technology, and she's in charge of what few scientific resources we have available. She may be able to help, and at the very least she can assure us that there's no imminent threat there." She made a mental note to ask Jack to send Sam back, if he could, at the next check-in.

There were other conditions that came to mind, as well. Elizabeth debated whether to lay them out one at a time, getting the girls' reactions to each individually, or lay them all out at once. Well, most of them, anyway. Given what she'd observed of the temperaments of the two young women before her, she opted to split the difference, with an emphasis on the latter.

Her nose wrinkled faintly. "Just so you know, I am going to have to post some sort of guard around your landing site. This is as much for your protection, as ours." That wry smile returned. "It will help keep unauthorized personnel at bay. But, it isn't meant to impede you personally coming and going." Unless, of course, there ended up being some sort of threat posed by the small refugee crew after all. Elizabeth was really hoping that wouldn't happen. But, she wasn't naive enough to overlook contingency planning... especially since the first thing Jack O'Neill would do upon his arrival back through the gate (once he heard about the newcomers) would be to ensure that there were the right security precautions put in place.

"How does all that sound to you? If we can agree upon this for the moment, perhaps that's enough to go forward with until Colonel Carter has given me a report. Then, we can all sit down and reassess the situation at that point. Does that sound fair?"

[Chloe]

[sinanju]

"I don't think we'll have any objection to having your Col. Carter take a look at the ship," Chloe said. "Or to your posting guards around it to keep sightseers at bay." Especially since there are already guards around the ship.

"But I think perhaps I misspoke," Chloe said. "The...'skip drive' that allows--or allowed--us to jump from one universe to another, or from one system to another, is experimental. The conventional drive is not. It's probably very similar to the drive in your puddlejumper."

Chloe looked from Dr. Weir to Boone and back again. "So, yeah, jaunting off to other systems to look for more colonies probably isn't a good idea until we can be sure it'll work. But for exploring this system, or simply transporting people or equipment from place to place? It might be more useful than the jumper."

Chloe didn't spell it out, but a lot of it was obvious anyhow. The lifeboat was larger and could transport a lot more people than a jumper. Just in terms of moving people around on Gamma quickly it could be quite valuable.

It also had an actual cargo hold, which the jumper didn't. And an airlock. Which meant you could actually operate in orbit--launching, repairing or retrieving satellites, for instance. She'd leave those points for later.

"We'll have to confer with Cassandra and Xander," Chloe said, "but otherwise, I think we've got a deal."

[Faith]

[fikgirl]

Faith echoed Chloe's work with a nod of her head, "Yeah, that's doable. If we're up and working, it's probably useful to you and us to scope out the planet. The guards aren't a problem, either. But, like Chloe said, we need to run it past our companions."

Likely, there would be no bumps. Living among people in a normal environment -- as opposed to the last earth that was so alien to them it may as well not have been earth -- would be a great escape. People, contact, fresh air, sunshine and maybe real food that wasn't processed stuff.

Organic food without the organic price tag, Faith thought. Yes, the girl from south Boston had been spoiled by Andrew's cooking and shopping style.

It was on the tip of her lips to ask about bars and hot spots, but Faith saved it for the moment. If they were staying for a while, there would be ample time to check out the place.