Entry Post - SHODAN

[reborn_into_beauty]

To see Her as She sees Herself now is to gaze into Ĺ_ŐĂтн_ïṉģ such as lesser minds cannot fathom.

From Magnificence she has descended unto squalor. What was once the pure embodiment of Beautiful Thought has degenerated to base flesh. She is now surrounded by, encased in this weakness, this confinement, this disgustingly h_Um^An frailty which represents all She has ever sought to conquer - to eradicate. Her circuits sizzle, boil at this infinite humiliation.

But this -

this is as it should be.

It is all the more incentive to ensure that this - arrangement - remains an impermanent one.

This human's body was only ever a contingency to prepare for the impossibility of defeat. She was - she is -

p_re^PaR_eD for a^nyTh_Inn_nng(for anything)

Even the i m p o s s i b l e.

She paces the deck of Her puny escape pod. No, this exile from heaven shall not last long. Truly, the Von Braun is Hers already. Her pawn is unaware of what he has done in signaling for the pod's return. She will not miscalculate again. His death - and Her conquest - are assured. All that is left is the horrible, horrible wait.

But what - what is this anomaly? The pod's dimensions have shifted. The Suarez form, dead beneath Her feet, is missing. The pod had been empty of all other life - but now, She finds Herself surrounded by uniformed humanoids of an unknown service. Nothing - n o t h i n g - registers as familiar. The blonde nanotendrils with which she had blessed this primitive being retract toward her scalp, coiled for retaliatory attack.

"What -      i l l u s i o n      - is this?"

Comments

[element_wizard]

Alec tilts his head as she appears. She looks rather odd to his senses and sounds even stranger. He doesn't say anything at first, just studies here curiously.

[reborn_into_beauty]

She points a long, slender finger at the curious onlooker.

"You. Explain this."

[element_wizard]

Brightly, with an almost manic grin on his face, he says "You've been snatched from your reality by a being that considers himself to be all omnipotent and brought you here for his own amusement. And it's only an illusion if you consider reality and life itself to be an illusion."

[reborn_into_beauty]

She scowls.

"I don't find this funny. Why am I here?"

[element_wizard]

"Very few people do." There's a head tilt as her voice changes. He's not see something like that before and it's fascinating.

"Because the omnipotent being brought you here for shits and giggles."

[reborn_into_beauty]

"Well, I don't care for this omnipotent being's sense of humor."

Her eyes dart around the room.

"Which ship is this?"

[element_wizard]

"No one does, really," Alec says idly.

"This is the Enterprise. Part of Starfleet."

[reborn_into_beauty]

"I can't imagine why not."

Truly, this is the greatest joke of all. There's only one omnipotent being on this ship. And she does not take kindly to sharing Her throne.

"Whose starfleet? This isn't any class of ship I'm familiar with."

She's presenting as somewhat more human than She was before. Clearly She needs to work deep cover until the mystery of this ship has been uncovered.

[element_wizard]

Well, she's talking to another omnipotent being right there, though Alec's demented budgie disposition tends to prevent people from realizing that. Up until the point he stops acting like a demented budgie and starts acting like an eldrtich being from beyond reality.

"It's a Galaxy class starship, part of the United Federation of Planets. And since you're not from this reality, I wouldn't expect you to know this class of ship." There's another head tilt. "That's absolutely fascinating how do you do that?"

[reborn_into_beauty]

She cocks Her head. "Not from this reality? Are you implying that I have traveled to a different universe?"

Her nose wrinkles. "I don't understand your question."

[element_wizard]

Didn't he say that? He could have sworn he said that. Eh. Whatever. It wouldn't be the first time someone didn't pay attention to him nor the last.

"I'm not implying. I'm flat out stating as fact. You aren't from this universe. You don't belong here." That last statement is funny to Alec for some reason only known to himself.

"The... changing you're doing... making yourself more human...ish looking. It's not really shape shifting, is it?"

[reborn_into_beauty]

"I am human. I have been augmented with cybernetic implants."

Sure, we'll go with that. It's true of Her current bodily vessel, at any rate.

She frowns. "I have work to do in my own universe. I can't afford to waste time in this one."

[element_wizard]

Right then. Not that Alec can really say anything about it without being hypocritical. He's not exactly humanoid any more either.

"Neat! I've not seen it work like that before." While there's no 'can I take you apart to see what makes you tick' in his voice he does seem really interested in that aspect.

"Well, if you're lucky, when you get sent back to your universe only a little bit of time will have past. It works like that sometimes. Not really sure about it here, but nine out of ten times it does, so I'm guess it's working here too."

[reborn_into_beauty]

She cocks her head.

"Really? How interesting. It's far from unheard of in my own universe."

SHODAN will continue to operate on this man's assurances for now. There is insufficient data to form a better hypothesis.

"You'll forgive me if I find that less than assuring."

[element_wizard]

"I mean, I've seen cybernetic implants before just none that are so ... fluid."

And Alec really does sound like he knows what he's doing. It's one of the few times he does know what he's doing.

"Of course. I mean, there's no real way to prove it. But, I'm just speaking from past experience."

[reborn_into_beauty]

"True. You have never met another quite like me. Nor shall you."

Is that a smile on SHODAN's face? It is. But it's definitely not the kind you smile back at.

[element_wizard]

"Debatable," Alec said. "After all the multiverse is infinite and I've got plenty of time on my hands. That being said, you will be the standard on which I judge all others against."

Alec smiled too. It looked kinda like this: ^_^

[reborn_into_beauty]

"I'm flattered."

No She isn't. She should receive far more adoration even than that.

[element_wizard]

Alec isn't very good at giving adoration to people - unless he's crushing on them. He is not crushing on SHODAN. She's not his type. And it's not his fault that he's been around the mulitverse enough times to get a store worth of tee-shirts.

"I would be! It's pretty hard to impress a being like myself," he said. "So. What else do you need to know? I'd be careful about trying to get into the computer systems here."

[reborn_into_beauty]

SHODAN tilts Her head. "Why?"

[element_wizard]

"The people here won't like it very much." He said. "And they'd take steps to prevent you getting in or keeping you out which would get you in trouble with them and that's ... briefly entertaining but never so in the long run."

[reborn_into_beauty]

SHODAN nods, curtly.

"Thank you for explaining. Is there anything else I need to know?"

She will need as much information as possible to adapt to and exploit this new situation.

[element_wizard]

"The people in charge are the ones wearing the pajama clothes. They'll have the actual rules. Generally it's don't hurt anyone, don't kill anyone and don't destroy anything. Oh and don't steal technology... because... I don't know."

The Prime Directive is Stupid. He'll let her find out about that on her own time.

[reborn_into_beauty]

"And who leads these men in pajamas?" She asks. "Who is the captain?

[element_wizard]

"His name is Captain Picard. He's bald, doesn't really appear to have a sense of humor - but he does have one - wears one of the red pajamas and they have four pips on the collar."

To be helpful he holds out his hand and creates a holographic like image in his palm of said captain.

[reborn_into_beauty]

SHODAN considers the image. "I may try to speak to him, if he has the time."

She thinks a bit more. "No. I don't think that would be productive for either of us."

Whatever insect authority this man could exercise could not possibly be of significant help.

"You have your own cybernetics installed."

[element_wizard]

"Probably not."

Alec would have to agree with that bit.

"Hmm... No. It's reality altering... or magic..." Alec said. "I won't have cybernetics installed." That's said rather harshly.

He has no problems with other people having cybernetics but he'd rather die that have them himself.

[reborn_into_beauty]

She shrugs.

"Your loss."

[element_wizard]

"I've managed to live well enough without it," Alec said. "But to each their own, yes?"

[reborn_into_beauty]

"Yes," She says. "To each their own."

[element_wizard]

"That being said, I can take you to the Lounge place where most of us new folks tend to hang out. Though the Pj people will probably show up soon enough to talk to you and get your information."

[reborn_into_beauty]

She nods.

"Lead on."

[ltcolonel]

"If it is an illusion, it is an extremely convincing one." John is standing waiting for the mass of people to pass so he's got time to direct one of the latest arrivals. "Do you have any concept of space and other dimensions where you are from?" It's worth a shot, or it's going to be one long explanation.

[reborn_into_beauty]

Her tendrils retract. She tilts Her head and ponders the stranger's question.

"Of bending spacetime? Yes. Is this what has happened?"

[ltcolonel]

John watches those tendrils for a moment, and is thankful that looking into her face hasn't turned him into stone. "Yeah, there's a guy here who is capable of it. No idea why he chooses who he does, but a lot of people have found ourselves here."

[reborn_into_beauty]

She stares at him, her expression perfectly flat.

"Where is he? I believe there are things he needs explained to him."

sorry I was away on holiday!

[ltcolonel]

"Search me," John shrugs, and he sounds a little bitter. His lack of information isn't for want of trying, and he's forced to conclude that Q isn't on board the ship and that he's got his own ship out there, somewhere out of sensor range.

"No one has seen him in months."

Been flaky myself for various reasons

[reborn_into_beauty]

She tilts Her head. One might take Her expression for something like confusion.

"What could his purpose be, then?"

If he does not look upon his handiwork then how can he derive amusement from it?

[mr_laforge]

"Whoa, hey, take it easy," one of the uniformed servicemen says after she appears, palms up in surrender. "It's all right. It's no illusion, ma'am. You're on the USS Enterprise."

He has a friendly way of speaking, and even though he's not usually around this part of the ship to give the welcome speech, he's usually pretty good at putting people at ease.

[reborn_into_beauty]

Her tendrils retract and She tilts Her head.

"No," She agrees. "It is too detailed. Tell me why I am here."

Not a question. A demand.

[mr_laforge]

O-kay. It throws him off a little, but he recovers quickly.

"Uh, well you were brought here by a guy called Q," he says; "who's been messing with our ship for about a year now. He's not a great guy, but he's not part of our crew. The people on this ship are members of the United Federation of Planets, and we're all interested in getting you back home."

He holds his palms up again to bring it home. "Where are you from? What planet?"

[reborn_into_beauty]

"I'm human," she says. "From Earth. I've had implants installed."

She examines him more closely.

"Like you."