[Away Mission:] Arrivals Post, Alemar III (Party Post!)

[ten_fwd_npcs]

"Welcome, everyone, to geothermal field two-nine-one," Dr. Johanna Sk'Amor says, once everyone has gathered in the entryway.

The shuttlebay the group has just left is behind them, while the large entrance to the facility is directly ahead. The building is quite spacious, and despite the high volume of visitors no one is cramped for space while standing here. It's like a museum lobby, with fixtures in the center of the room and wings on either side. While the design is not as bright and clean as the Enterprise, the high ceilings and white walls give a feeling of spaciousness. To the right is the main observation room, where the convex wall making up one full corner of the drilling facility is primarily floor-to-ceiling windows. The vistas beyond are stunning: tall, grey mountains and low valleys, all covered with snow. To the left is a winding staircase that leads to an upper level, and beyond that are several labs.

"This is one of five scientific outposts located on Alemar III," the doctor continues. "At one time we had seven, but two have been destroyed by earthquakes. Alemar III is highly geologically active, so our remaining facilities have been reinforced to withstand even the most devastating natural disasters. There's nothing to worry about, our engineers are some of the best in the quadrant, but if you feel some tremors while you look around just keep in mind that this is normal.

"Two of our outposts are at the polar north and south of the planet, while the other three, this one included, are evenly spread across the globe. Our staff is small, only about ten scientists and five archaeologists, and enough engineers to keep everything in working order. In all, the entire planet only has about ninety occupants at any given time. It's rare that we're able to entertain guests.

"If you'll follow me, I'll show you some of the work we accomplish here."


[ooc: This post is open to those who signed up for our game plot only! As it's being run party post style, all characters are encouraged to tag in and mingle; since teams have not been divided yet, any participating character can tag anyone else, you don't have to stick only to those on your teams. You may also tag in as many top level threads as you choose if you're doing the full tour, just be sure your character ends up in the room where their team will be positioned for the rest of the plot (for those who will be divided in the mines due to cave-ins, the main mine connects to many other rooms and alcoves, so simply tag in under the Main Mine subheading and have your characters move around the different passageways to explore. Wherever rocks fall, that's where the rooms will be divided). Threadhopping and backtagging are encouraged! This post will remain open for as long as it takes all characters to tag in.]

Comments

[rhapsoidein]

"Maybe. I've only just now been getting all that muscle back and-"

He was feeling her forehead. She frowned at him. "I'm not sick."

Or dehydrated. Since when do sore muscles happen from that? But she took the water anyway and sipped at it. She wouldn't hear the end of it, otherwise. "Satisfied?"

[wear_tear_rust]

"Hm." He took a sip for himself after she returned the bottle. Something just didn't add up but maybe it was just what was in the air. Replacing the bottle, he looked to Genesis again. "Are you sure?"

Genesis was right about one thing, he wasn't about to let it go until he was 100% sure she was going to be fine.

[rhapsoidein]

Genesis just decided that Angeal was overthinking things again. He always did and shook her head. "Yes, I'm sure. I feel fine! Great, actually. Better than I have felt in four years, to be honest. So I have a sore shoulder, it's not the end of the world."

[wear_tear_rust]

Of course he didn't realize that he was projecting his protective nature that was in his nature. He backed off upon notice that she was starting to get just a tad bit annoyed. "You'll tell me if something's wrong, won't you?"

The lingering pain in his left shoulder was growing but not enough to acknowledge. In fact, he was being a bit of a hypocrite.

[rhapsoidein]

Genesis waved her hand at him, already walking off to the rest of the cave paintings as they caught her eye. "Yes, of course, don't worry about me."

The pain in her shoulder was only growing slightly but she ignored it in favor of checking out the crystals and the paintings. It was really all fascinating, really. Shoulder pain wasn't going to bring her down.

[wear_tear_rust]

He can't help but worry about her, but she should know that by now. He had a feeling that she might hide it from him and so he sighed in favor of enjoying what they had been presented. He found that away missions weren't all that bad.

He looked from the crystal to the wall and brushed against one of the crystals by mistake. He quickly covered his arm to conceal the cut he sustained to keep Genesis from worrying about him. He knew better than to react to something so small when he had just been berated by Genesis that she was fine and he didn't need to worry.

It was this sort of thing between them that often led into heated arguments when they were younger. He hoped that she didn't notice.

[dreams_dont_die]

Curiosity.

That's not unfamiliar to him, either. Like being watched by strangers, it goes with the story, with what he's made of it. With being the last man around who remembers the Commonwealth in its glory, who's seen Tarn-Vedra, who lived in a time when the world had hope and light and wants to bring them to a world that has neither.

That, though, is also irrelevant here. All the guests on the Enterprise are out of their time and place, though Dylan apparently further than many.

There's a possible answer to the man's curiosity, though, in the brief flick of his gaze across the room.

To Harper.

"Ah," Dylan says. "You know Harper. Then maybe you already know that I'm Captain Dylan Hunt of the Andromeda Ascendant. Harper's the engineer on my ship."

[dreams_dont_die]

Dylan's attention is moving from one place to another, and when it goes back to the table covered in the spread of unfamiliar food, a man standing at it looks up and grins, sparking a returning smile from Dylan.

He wanders over, arms crossed across the front of his coat (it's reassuring to feel the lance in its holster against his side; he has no reason to expect to have to use it, but he'd rather have it than not, always).

There's a huge range of fruits grown in the Andromeda's hydroponic garden, but these, from this new world and this new time, are unfamiliar.

"Anything good?"

[dreams_dont_die]

Rhade looks different to when he'd seen him last.

Maybe that's a relief. He's not sure. When he'd met Rhade on Tarazed, he'd looked just like Gaheris had walked out of the past and into the room. Clean-shaven, impeccable uniform, same little almost-smile like the whole world was beneath him but he was humoring it anyway. His best friend and betrayer back from the dead.

Now, though, Rhade has a beard and scruffy, long hair, two things Dylan had never seen on Gaheris. Nor had he ever seen anything quite like that look on his face.

The voice is the same though, still the voice he'd heard at his right hand for those three years. Still the voice that had taunted him about the failings of the Commonwealth the day his life fell apart.

Hell. Still the same voice that had so coolly explained the benefits to Tarazed of standing on the sidelines and denying him everything Sara had built for him on that planet. Her last gift to him, even as she moved on with her life with somebody else.

And that was all Telemachus Rhade, not his ancestor.

Understanding why he did it doesn't make the memory any less bitter.

"Lieutenant Commander in the New Systems Commonwealth."

He folds his arms across his chest.

"Change your mind about us, did you?"

But the sarcasm doesn't quite work. It's betrayed by the sudden lurch in his heart at hearing those words. If Rhade, leader of the isolationist movement on Tarazed, is a member of the new High Guard, he must be from Dylan's future.

A future where his charter's been ratified.

Re: Irian t'Aumne

[dreams_dont_die]

There's a woman in the tour group from a race Dylan doesn't recognize. He's seen a fair few of them. Not that it's all that unusual for him to come across peoples he's never met before; the Commonwealth spanned a million worlds, and though many of them were populated with races Dylan knew, there were still plenty of peoples known to the Commonwealth that Dylan had never met.

Plenty of places out there the Commonwealth didn't know, as well.

That's before you add the weirdness of the alternate timelines and universes going on here.

The woman doesn't speak much, but she does look around her with attention and interest. Pretty much what Dylan's been doing from the back of the group, so he gives her a smile, shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat.

"Nice caves." Certainly more welcoming than some he's been in.

For one, these caves aren't full of Magog.

[captgreatcoat]

Jack shrugs. The Doctor pretty much said it all, after all. Ever since he first left to travel the stars, Jack's been delighted by all three of Clay's options. Maybe this technology isn't the sort of thing he's usually interested in, but that doesn't stop it being fascinating.

And people and cultures? Well. You don't travel with the Doctor if you don't appreciate those.

"Pretty much," he agrees, grinning. "What about you? Got anything particular in mind?"

[captgreatcoat]

"Like you were going to stop us," Jack says, grinning.

Maybe if it were Jack. Maybe, after the things they'd canvassed over that cold plate of chips. With the unease that starts up between them, catching them at moments when they're not careful. But not Rose. The Doctor wouldn't deprive Rose of the chance for a new world.

And he doesn't think he'd really have deprived Jack of it, either.

This is good. Beyond good. Beyond words. This is what he's longed for, deep in his soul, for that whole time he'd been stranded on Earth.

Re: Jonas

[a_quick_study]

He can't help it. He grins.

"I didn't know there was an anthropologist around. I've done a little anthropology, too." He shrugs. "I've dabbled in a lot of social science." That's understating it, with his academic record back on Kelowna, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that what he'd learned back on his homeworld prepared him for his work with SG-1, and prepared him to be fascinated by this world.

"Shapeshifters?" Jonas' head tilts to one side with interest. "I don't know so much about animal gods. The Goa'uld are parasites, they take human hosts and enslave humans to serve them. They're all over the Milky Way, but they come from a planet we call P3X-888 originally. That was a long time ago, though."

[a_quick_study]

Jonas spins, startling at the shout from behind him, a few too many missions going wrong making him react quickly to sudden shouts. (He's unarmed and without his team, and that's enough to make his reaction more nervous than it otherwise would have been.)

When he sees the young man, though, the sudden tension disappears from his body and he relaxes with an amused smile.

Apparently a few too many attacks on offworld missions make a guy a little nervous. This, though, is something he can handle.

"Not to your liking?" he asks. "I didn't try that one."

[waco_jim]

Jim nods, his mouth still half full of alien fruit. Some of this stuff would go over really well at the studio commissary.

"Thismf one tashtes like mango."

[psychowolf]

Clay nods, "Harper and I are sharing living quarters."

"I'm Clay." he keeps watching Dylan.

Clay likes Harper, he appreciates his thirst for knowledge, for understanding, he seems nice, sort of reminds him of Logan which helps when he is so far from his pack.

[psychowolf]

Clay grins, actually grins, "Yes it can. Though I would prefer if the atmosphere was more hospitable." he would really like to go for a run.

"I'm interested in the culture and the planet." he more or less doesn't care about technology, unless it's fast cars or something that provides food.

Re: Jonas

[psychowolf]

"Anthropomorphic religion's are my specialty."

"How long have they been in power? These Goa'uld. How do they control so many people on so many worlds? At least on Earth few cultures built on enslavement tend to end with bloody battles." his eyes are gleaming as he asks these questions, he is very interested.

[rhapsoidein]

Genesis felt the slight rumble and when she looked behind her, she saw Angeal covering his arm and her eyebrow went up. She walked over and put her hands on her hips. "Let me see."

She doubted it was bleeding or she would have seen it by now, but he also didn't need to cover it up. The crystals weren't enough to cause blood, but he probably has a good scrape there.

Re: K'ehleyr doesn't like earthquakes ):

[am_sass_ador]

She found herself wondering when it was that she last set foot on firm ground as opposed to starships, birds of prey, starbases, and other space-based craft. Probably when she had escorted those sleeper ships back to Qo'noS.

"Yes, it is," she offered her a little bit of a smile. "I am used to the shakes of a ship locked in battle, but not so on world."

[tanteiotaku]

He fidgeted a bit with the knot of his tie. Maybe he was just being too paranoid. He'd only had his partner back for a couple months, after all.

"Maybe there is," he finally said. "Makes you wonder just how many times they deal with time travellers."

[wear_tear_rust]

Angeal sighed and shook his head but he knew better than to argue with her. Even the Genesis he knew from home would demand to see it, and with reluctance he revealed his arm. The scrape was already beginning to heal. "It's nothing to worry about."

Which was true, but there was something in the back of his mind that played out a scene of some sappy romance novel. He mentally shook the thought away in favor of the here and now with his gaze up at the ceiling of the tunnel. A cascade of dust descends from the rocky surfaces.

"Something's wrong." Angeal's gaze moves about in an arc while the shock of the ground beneath them move, it stops just as quickly as it started. His hand reached for Genesis to keep her close. "We should move."

Re: Main Room: Aboveground Facilities

[the_seafarer]

The last time he felt tremors like these, his world was being ripped from existence and the ocean was sweeping in to flood the great cracks of fire created in the land.

So perhaps Caspian can be forgiven for a moment lost in thought, after choosing two of the sweet baked cakes -- one for himself and one for Marian -- by the refreshments table. It's difficult for him to imagine human -- or Almarian, he supposes -- power strong enough to shake the very ground, but then, this is only the newest in a long sequence of those wonders, ever since he stepped foot on the deck of the Enterprise.

[rhapsoidein]

Genesis didn't need to study the scrape to see he was right. She simply nodded to him and turned to continue moving forward. But Angeal opted to stay close, noticing the tremors more it seemed. "They said there was a lot of seismic activity. It's normal."

She certainly something she didn't enjoy feeling but if it was normal, why freak out?

Genesis took his hand nonetheless. "Do you want to head back?"

[wear_tear_rust]

He was setting his senses on the earth around him and it was starting to set his nerves on edge. He didn't think that it was that alarming once he was told and reminded that it was normal. Still, there was that part of him that urged him to go back.

He looked to Genesis and squeezed her hand with a nervous smile even though he was trying his best to hide his conflicted state. "They should have the safeguards in place."

He didn't feel entirely reassured through his own words but he hoped that he was more wrong than right. "Like you, I'm curious. What if we're the last to see these relics?"

He lifted his issued tricorder and began recording. "There might not be another chance."