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Jonas is ... experimenting.

Ever since he arrived on the Enterprise, he's been fascinated by the technology around him. By everything around him.

Like he'd told Ian, if he's going to be stuck here for however long it takes for the crew to sort out what's happened or for this strange being Q to decide to let them go, he may as well learn. So, learning is what he's been doing. He's still got the notepad he'd gotten the machine to make him, and it's already filled with notes in his small, neat writing, along with sketches of various things that have caught his attention.

Including one of the machines that make things. After he'd moved into his new quarters, he'd asked the one in the room to make him some tea, and it had asked him for clarification, telling him it had a staggering number of potential varieties, far more, he's sure, than exist on Earth in his time.

Then, he'd specified something familiar, asking for a Ceylon tea, but he'd been intrigued.

He'd wanted to hear more of the varieties.

That's why he's standing in Ten Forward in the Air Force issue cargo pants and tee shirt he'd been wearing when he arrived, listening to the machine listing off as many varieties of tea as it will give him if he gives it a vague description.

He's taking notes on his notepad.

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"I recommend jestral tea."

Terzen is walking over, an easy smile on his face.

"I hope I'm not interrupting."

Jonas looks around, smiling. He recognizes the voice. The man with the dark eyes, Lt. Cdr. T'Karr, from nearly but not quite this time.

"Lieutenant Commander," he says, with the same polite tone he'd use speaking to an officer at Stargate Command.

"No, not at all." He gestures to the machine. "I'll take any advice. There's a lot more options than I'm used to.

"Please. Terzen. I'm technically not on active duty yet." He replies to the use of his title.

He walks over to the replicator. "Jestral tea, hot." He asks, the computer acknowledging the order with a bleep, before the beverage is replicated. "It's a Betazoid tea, known for it's calming properties." He comments, cupping the mug in his hands. "I'll admit to drinking more than my fair share of it these past weeks."

"Okay. Terzen." He repeats the name carefully, though of course, he remembers it from when they first met, because Jonas has an excellent memory not only for names, but for many other things as well.

Jonas is always happy to offer respect to a title, especially towards somebody he likes, and he likes Terzen. But there's also something familiar, reassuring, about just using names. It takes away some of the distinctions, brings everyone back down to the same level.

Which is one reason it's not usually done among gate teams.

Jonas watches with interest as the machine responds to Terzen's command, and he smiles at the description.

"I can understand that." He lifts a hand palm-upward, indicating the situation around them. "I think something calming could be very useful here."

He asks the machine to make him the same thing, repeating the words Terzen had used, and picking up the mug when it's done.

"And I like the idea of trying a tea from another world."

"The replicators certainly give the oppertunity to widen the palatte." He takes a sip of his own mug, looking over the rim at Jonas.

"I've been advised not to order anything Klingon from them. Apparently, they don't taste as good replicated as when they're fresh."

"Replicators?"

The word makes Jonas startle, a little, remembering too many mission reports about those things, before he realizes that crazy bug robots can't be what Terzen means, that it must just be the name for the machine that they're talking about.

That's weird.

"Oh. Right. The machines. Nobody's ever told me what they're called."

He notices the reaction, and frowns slightly. The panic spike from the other was definitely obvious, even for a non-empath.

"I take it that word means something else where you're from?"

"Yeah," he says, his eyebrows raising, eyes widening for emphasis.

"Something very different. Where I'm from, Replicators are ..." He shakes his head. "They're one of the most dangerous enemies out there."

He's never fought the Replicators himself, and he'd be perfectly happy not to ever have to, but he's read the mission reports. He knows about the war between the Asgard and the Replicators. He knows how dangerous they are.

It's not a word he's used to hearing used for something as innocent as these machines.

"Well, I don't think you have anything to worry about from these replicators unless you manage to insult the main computer."

He's joking, of course, the AI that runs the Main Computer is hardly capable of going off on one.

"Judging from the word, I assume that these... enemies are self-duplicating?"

He gives a sheepish smile.

"I'll, uh, bear that in mind."

He's ... still not entirely sure about the sort of sense of humor he sometimes encounters on Earth, but he's pretty sure that Terzen is joking. Still, it's probably not a good idea to insult the computer that controls your food source.

Assuming the computer is actually capable of being insulted, and since Terzen is from far closer to this time than he is, he'll consider it a warning, joke or not.

"Yeah. They're, uh, robots that can self-replicate as long as there are enough raw materials around for them to use."

"I take it that's all their base programming tells them to do? Consume and replicate?"

He can see how that would bring such a reaction. Something like that would be crippling if it happened on a Federation outpost... And, yet, it reminds him of the Borg.

"Pretty much." One side of Jonas' mouth turns down in a half-grimace. He's not familiar with replicators first hand, but he considers that to be a very good thing. He knows more than enough to know just how much of a threat they are -- even if projectile weapons from Earth have proven to be a weakness for them.

"And seek out more things to consume once they've used up everything where they are."

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where that leads if they go unchecked.

"That reminds me of what I've heard of the Borg."

His voice is lowered, slightly, just enough to keep from being overheard. This Enterprise hasn't had the fateful First Contact with the Borg... Although, knowing Q, that may well be in their future.

"A race of cybernetic beings, bent on assimilating everything in their path."

"Beings," Jonas says, his expression suddenly uneasy.

He hadn't thought much could make the replicators sound worse, but that does. The bugs don't have the level of awareness or intelligence that could allow them to be called beings, but the thought of something like them that does is chilling.

Jonas may have joined the SGC wanting to help protect the galaxy, to help in the fight against the Goa'uld, but that doesn't mean he's fearless, or that he's necessarily keen to come face to face with the enemies of Earth out there. At least, not anything like this.

Terzen's dropped his voice; Jonas, of course, notices, and he leans a little closer, frowning, and replies in a quiet tone of his own.

"They're from this reality?"

"They are." Terzen confirms. "But, at this point, we haven't made first contact yet."

He frowns slightly. The Enterprise's first contact with the Borg was because of Q... Could that be in this Enterprise's future?

"They're thousands of lightyears away. In the Delta Quadrant."

Rose is admittedly starting to like this place.

It's not the adventure she thought she was going to have with the Doctor, but she supposes not all adventures have to start and end with non-stop action (which may or may not include a whole lot of running, ducking from things like guns, lasers, etc., and several near-death experiences in between).

This one's a bit slower than she's used to - but Jack's here, and so's the Doctor, and they're still on a spaceship, and there are a whole lot of interesting people ... so for now, Rose is going to be content.

She walks into Ten Forward when her attention perks up at the sound of a replicator nearby listing several types of just the beverage she'd been hoping to get. She's got a bit of a craving for the little comforts she's used to, even if it might be entirely synthetic.

"D'you mind ordering me a cup of English Breakfast?" she says to the man standing by it, notepad in hand.

It's amazing. Some of the things being offered to him are so familiar, some of them apparently new twists on familiar things, and some of them completely foreign -- alien, even -- to him. He's still writing on his list, still noting down things that sound interesting, both variations on teas he's already tried back on Earth and ones that are completely new.

They drank herbal drinks in Kelowna, but the tea plant is native to Earth, and Jonas has spent much time since he arrived there sampling its different varieties.

He's entranced in a list of variations on Ceylon tea when he hears a voice from behind him and he looks up to see a young blonde woman.

He gives her a friendly smile.

"Sure. With or without milk?"

"Little bit of milk, thanks," Rose responds, taking his answer as a cue to approach a little closer and see just what it is that he's up to.

Conversationally: "D'you like tea or are you one of those people from planets where they haven't got any?"

It's not a judgement or anything, just a simple, curious question based on a fair amount of experience traveling around to planets without this British staple.

"Sure thing," he says, flashing her one of the smiles he so often wears when he's meeting new people or seeing new places. The smiles that Colonel O'Neill would probably comment on. But if he's here, he may as well try to meet some more of the people around him.

"Tea, English Breakfast, hot, a little milk," he tells the machine. He hasn't done this very many times with tea yet, but he did manage to make the machine in his room produce the paper and pencil he's been using, so he feels fairly confident.

And it seems to work. The machine starts up, and while he's waiting, he looks up at the woman.

"Uh. A little of both, actually. The tea plant doesn't grow on my homeworld, and since I came to Earth I kind of got a taste for it."

Rose doesn't mind the smiles. In fact, she encourages them. The world could do less with the grumping and frowning.

"Ah, so you're a new resident of Earth, hm?" She can't help but speak with a little pride in her planet at that. She's got no other home, so she's allowed to be a little patriotic.

It doesn't take long to make the cup of tea. These machines are fascinating, and he'd love to find out more about how they work. The ability they have to just fabricate things based on what they're told is amazing programming and technology, and he can't help it if he wants to spend a long time just studying that.

Along with so much else about this world.

When the cup is ready, he takes it out and asks it for the same again, because he may as well join her.

"Yes. As of several months ago," he says, holding out her cup. "I'm Jonas, by the way. Nice to meet you."

Rose accepts the cup with a 'thanks', holding it carefully and blowing the steam off the top.

She inhales the scent, suddenly reminded of home. She suddenly misses it in the way you miss something when you're on vacation, but you would still rather be where you are than anywhere else.

"M'Rose," she returns. "Nice to meet you, too."

There's a brief pause, and a smile, before she asks, "So where are you from originally, then?"

"Rose." He smiles. It's a nice name. "I, uh, guess you're from Earth, then?"

There's something deeply familiar in the way she breathes in the smell of the tea that makes him think it's probably a thing from home for her.

He doesn't have anything like that here. This place is even further from his world than he could ever have imagined being, in time, not space, in a dimension where they've never heard of the Goa'uld, that it's easy to feel a little adrift.

Especially without his team, the people and work that made leaving worthwhile.

"Uh. I'm from a planet in the Milky Way." He rubs at his ear. "You know, we haven't even given it a name." His expression goes wry, smile a little twisted on one side for a moment. "But my country's called Kelowna."

"Yeah, Earth in the year 2006. Seems to be right in between a lot of people here," she says, smiling.

The smile doesn't disappear either, even when Rose raises an eyebrow at what he says next.

"A planet with no name? Is it a new planet, then? Just freshly lived on and everythin'?"

That's really the only thing she can think of, since it seems like civilizations - alien or human or whatever else - always make it a priority to give things, especially their homes, names. Of course, at least they've got a country name. Maybe, she thinks idly, they're going from small to large, leaving the name of the planet last, after everything else has been taken care of and named.

It's interesting though. She's never really given that any thought before.

"2002," he says, with an easy agreement to her comment about it being fairly similar to many of the times that people here are from. Though Jonas' experience is more wide-ranging. He's spoken to people from a range of times, Lt. Cdr. T'Karr from near to this time, Ian from 1963, Genesis from a world so completely different to his that temporal displacement seems irrelevant.

But Jonas, at least, is from near Rose's time.

She gives him a curious look when he mentions his homeworld not having a name, and his expression turns a little wry, his gaze flicking down towards the surface of his tea for a moment.

"No. It's been inhabited for thousands of years. We just ... I guess you could say people don't really get on very well."

"Really? That's a shame," Rose says, looking every bit as sympathetic as she feels. "So, what - they couldn't agree on a name, then? For your planet?"

She supposes she could understand that, if everyone constantly tried to veto another nation's suggestion, or something like that. Regular city politics was difficult, but take it to the scope of a planet?

Yeah. She can see why it'd be impossible to come to a decision.

His laugh is dry, even a little bitter. It was hard to see in the midst of it all, growing up in the fear and hatred and blame, living through the war and getting so caught up in all the rhetoric that he actually believed the naquadria bomb was a solution.

"I don't think anyone's ever even had a discussion."

He takes a sip of the tea, pausing for a moment to look down into its surface, savoring the flavor, which ... isn't bad. He's only learning to become a tea connoisseur, but it's certainly good enough for his taste.

Drinking Earth tea somewhere off in space on a spaceship in the future.

It's cool.

(He's smiling again, but it fades in a moment.)

"My planet's been in a constant state kind of like Earth's Cold War. Except sometimes it gets ... really hot. Talking is never very high on anyone's priorities."

"Talking never is," Rose says with a quiet sort of exasperation. "People would really rather shoot first and then ask questions later. It's ... just so wrong, you know?

"We were born with mouths and voices to use first. We invented weapons and things to kill other people, and that came quite after."

She shakes her head, allowing - just for a moment - for all of that horribleness to settle in around her. It's not something she ever thought she'd see with her very own eyes, but traveling with the Doctor has opened her to a whole lot more than the internet or the telly ever could.

"It's like that across every planet in every galaxy, isn't it? Fighting and war, and people not agreeing with each other."

Jonas' eyebrows lift for a moment, a quick up and down of mingled surprised and appreciation.

"Yeah. I know."

More than anyone. He'd been one of those people. He'd never meant to see the bomb used, but he'd worked on the naquadria bomb program. He'd helped to develop the weapon that now has the potential to devastate his planet if the Kelownan leaders are reckless enough to use it. And knowing what he does now, having seen what he's seen of them, having met them again after time away, he knows what the path they've laid for themselves is.

It's going nowhere good.

He wishes he could offer her a better picture. But if his planet wasn't enough, there's the whole galactic conflict with the Goa'uld to consider.

But ... even so, it still seems too hopeless an appraisal.

"I don't know though. There's some pretty amazing things out there. And people. If they got the chance for peace."

Edited 2014-07-22 11:52 (UTC)

Rose nods, as though it'll also shake away the darker thoughts currently trying to settle in her brain. She isn't normally the sort of person to wallow in things like that if she can help it, with a 'keep calm and carry on' attitude and 'if it doesn't work out, then do something about it'. But then again, she's never had to give intergalactic politics that much consideration before either.

"Yeah, you're right," she says. "I've been lucky to see a lot of that. There might be a lot of fighting, but there's a lot more everythin' else. Including dogs with no noses on a planet called Barcelona."

"Sorry?" he says, giving her a look that's suddenly confused, frowning, eyes narrowed. "Uh ... did you say dogs? With no noses?" He waves a hand. "Like, those four-legged things they have on Earth? With the tails?"

The concept of a dog without a nose is just almost impossible to imagine. Dogs themselves were a strange enough concept when he came to Earth, though he's met some in his time on the planet, once he was allowed off the base.

"I've never heard of a planet called Barcelona. Just, you know, the city. In Spain."

"Yeah, you heard right."

Rose starts to laugh.

"It's absolutely bonkers, isn't it? My friend, the Doctor, he promised to take me to this planet called Barcelona where there are dogs with no noses."

Even the very thought of it makes her giggle.

"That's where we were headed before Q brought us here."

He knows there are a lot of planets out there he's never visited. Or heard of. There are plenty of planets the SGC knows about that they haven't been to, and definitely some that are inhabited that the SGC doesn't know about.

But Barcelona? With dogs with no noses?

He's glad Rose is laughing, because that's an invitation to him to do the same; he'd been about to take a sip of his tea, but he lowers the cup again to avoid the mess that will happen if he tries that while he's laughing.

"So. You and your friend, you, uh, you travel around a lot? In a ship? Or by Stargate?"

She certainly talks like somebody who's familiar with a range of places and planets.

Rose is glad for the joined laughter. Of course, she couldn't see why you wouldn't laugh. It's such a ridiculous notion.

She grins at him over her own cup of tea.

"In a ship," Rose confirms. "Actually, m'not sure what a 'stargate' is. I've never heard the word before."

Jonas makes to open his notebook, ready to show her the diagram of a gate that he has in the notebook he usually takes with him off-world, before his eager expression freezes and the light that had sparked in his eyes dims again.

This isn't one of his notebooks from his office back at the SGC. This is the one he got the machine in his room to make him. He hasn't had a reason to draw out another annotated sketch of the gate into this one. It's full of sketches and notes he's made about things he's learning and seeing here. Nothing from back on Earth.

"Sorry. Usually I'd have a picture of one to show you." He waves a hand, gesturing in a circular shape. "It's a transportation device. Looks like a big metal ring with symbols all around the rim. It creates a stable wormhole you can use to travel between planets."

Rose shakes her head.

"S'all right," she says kindly, before listening to his description and trying to imagine it for herself. She has a bit of trouble really visualizing a stargate but at least she can understand what it does and how they use it.

It's actually pretty interesting. And not quite unlike a TARDIS, in a way.

"Your stargates sound a bit like the TARDIS," she says, voicing her thoughts aloud. "'Cept it sounds like you can travel around between planets a bit faster than we can."

Not that she'd ever give up being in a TARDIS for many reasons.

"It's the quickest way to get from one planet to another," he agrees. "It takes moments."

There is that strange sensation of dematerialization and rematerialization which, yes, takes some getting used to, but there's no more efficient or effective way of traveling between planets. Especially given Earth's current state of technology and the issues they've had developing a hyperdrive.

He frowns.

"I've never heard of a TARDIS. Is that ... that's the name of your ship? Or something else? Because I've never heard of a ship that uses anything like wormholes to travel."

That would be impressive. Far, far beyond anything of which Earth or even their most advanced alien allies is capable.

"Yeah," Rose says, grinning. "It's the name of the ship. Um. Time And Relative Dimension In Space, is what it stands for."

Sort of a brilliant little acronym for it, really. She might not have traveled for very long with the Doctor - yet - but she's rather fond of the blue box.

"I don't really understand the mechanics of it, that's more the Doctor's expertise since he's the one who owns it." Or maybe it owns him, who knows? "But it's definitely gotten us to a whole lot of different places and times."

"Times?"

Any curiosity Jonas might have about how her ship works and what she means that it sounds like the method of travel used by a stargate is suddenly shunted aside by that word.

Traveling between places is one thing. He does that regularly now, thanks to the Stargate Program and being a part of SG-1. He's helping to develop spaceships with hyperspace capabilities. He's been on Goa'uld ships. He lives on a planet he'd never even heard of a year ago.

Traveling to different times, though?

That's incredible.

"Wait, are you saying that your ship can travel through time? That's ..."

That's the second time he's spoken to someone who's familiar with other methods of time travel than the accidental one the SGC found using the stargate.

"That's incredible."

He's grinning. He can't help it.

Rose's grin doesn't leave her face as she nods in confirmation of Jonas' question - and, really, his enthusiasm.

"Yeah, that's right," she says. "It's a space and time machine. The Doctor's got all these bits and bobs that are able to manipulate the TARDIS through time and space. Makes an odd kind of sound too."

But it's a sound she's come to recognize immediately as soon as she hears it. Nothing else has ever made a sound like that before.

"One of the first places I'd been to was in the year 5,000,000,000. It ... was honestly a bit depressin'."

He shakes his head.

"The Stargates can do some pretty impressive things, but that ... is way beyond anything I've ever heard of."

Not that he thinks he or the Stargate Program know anywhere near all there is to know about what the Asgard, the Ancients, or any of the technologically advanced aliens out there can do. Focused, predictable time travel, though?

That's beyond anything any of them have ever dreamed of.

"Okay," he says, his eyebrows lifting. "He has a spaceship that travels in time and makes a funny sound? That is ... I've never heard anything like that."

He's still grinning.

"So what's it like? Time traveling when you actually mean to? The only people I know who've done it did it by accident."

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