Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Prologue: The Rescue and aftermath

[Luchian]

Taylor follows Kyria, until she splits off to tend to others. With the throng of people, and the chaos of emotions, Taylor doesn't know how to cope. He holds himself tighter, knowing he's nearing the point of entering a fetal position, if only he were to stop walking for a moment.

Anger, anxiety, fear, waves and waves of fear. Adrenaline pumped emotions all around. And pain. Not just his own. But lots of pain. Everyone's pain. More pain than he ever imagined could exist in the world.

Am I going insane? Is this what it feels like? Slipping further into himself, he hardly notices the new room.

Click to reveal.. (willpower/self-control)

7d10=36 I think that's four.

***

Seeing the odd device, the alien, and General O'Neil, Taylor feels a slight rush of relief. Amazingly, the alien doesn't phase him at first. The oddity, and curiosity of it all sparks his interest, and the rush of emotions fades slightly as he's able to keep his focus on the observations at hand.

The entire scene freezes in his mind. The wounded, and panic stricken escapees. The soldiers. The odd device. The barren looking room. The way the General combs his hair. Caine's stance, and Kyria's posture.

The sense of too realness lingers, but everything keeps moving, and everyone keeps speaking, even though that image doesn't leave Taylor's mind.

Something is deeply wrong with me. It must be an after affect of the drugs. Obviously, there is some sort of psychotropic property. I've entered into a temporary psychosis, with acute depersonalization.

***

Taylor follows Kyria as he and others are lead to the infirmary.

"Specialist Kyria, I believe I'll need at least fifty milograms of buprenorphine, if you have it."

[Omar]

Emitting a soft chuckle, Omar looks down at man who had just addressed Kyria and shakes his head. The man must not be aware that conventional medications do not work anymore, and more powerful, nova derived drugs would be needed. Omar tried to explain briefly.

"Your physiology has changed to the point where common drugs and medications won't work." Omar wished Andrew were there to explain further. "You can't even overdose on heroin."

[Amarant]

Walker followed along docilely enough with the rest of those "miraculously unscathed" having thus far managed to utterly avoid the direct notice or scrutiny of anyone. The events of the past several minutes (well, really the past few days) had been extraordinary, and it was taking a considerable amount of self-control on his part to keep it together. Fortunately - and still unbeknownst to him - he was now in possession of a super-human degree of self-control, so he managed.

To outside observers Walker appeared to be entirely unremarkable at first glance. He was virtually the definition of "average". His height, build, face, hair color, eye color, and bearing had no special qualities that would recommend them to one's memory. This would all change once he was put through whatever battery of tests they put him through, of course - closer scrutiny would reveal any number of unusual, remarkable, and disturbing traits possessed by John Walker, formerly a Lt. attached to the Navy's DEVGRU.

But that would all come in time. Right now Walker remained just out of everyone's direct awareness, and though he was mildly curious as to why no one had searched him for weapons and relieved him of the handgun stuffed in the waistband of his hospital pants, he had just chalked it up to this being an Air Force base full of nothing but Airmen. God only knew what kind of lax security they had in place around here.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria blinked at the attention she was getting, splitting her attention between Declan, Taylor, and the thoughts that had been going through her head since so many of the missions rescuees seemed to be exhibiting nova-like powers. She fell into to a habit of her household, answering one person aloud and another telepathically.

"I can, Declan. It'll be just a minute, though, I need to check something."

Taylor, I'm sure the medics can give you painkillers if you need it. You need more than that, with those gun shots. Get to one of the open beds and let someone see to you. I guess I'm considered a specialist here but I'm not a medical specialist.

As she communicated with both of them she sent out a quantumn pulse like she had done the last time she was in the infirmary, but this time she pushed farther, far enough to 'ping' anyone in the general area. If all these people were altered like the ones she'd already interacted with, then the people here needed to know. They might not be able to do much about it, but at least they needed to know the kind of powder keg they were sitting on.

A heartbeat after that she sent out General Oneill, who might yell at her for getting in his head, but not until after this was dealt with. General, get mad at me for this later. All of the people we've brought back, or at least most of them, are novas. I don't know how, probably that device, but they are. They're going to be incredibly powerful compared to most of the people on the base, and, well, I don't really know what you're going to do if they decide to mutiny or something. We don't know what there powers are for most of them, or the extent of their powers for the few I could tell you about. You should keep them somewhere as secure as possible, but above all you should keep them calm. Some nova powers are....incredibly destructive. What do you want me to do? I've got one of the prisoners here that's...attached to me at the moment. I think it would be unwise to separate him from me. His mind is very delicate right now.

****

O'neil was sitting at his desk in what had once been General Hammond's office. He still thought of it that way, he was just keeping it warm till the old man got back. He nearly jumped out of his chair when the voice spoke directly into his head. He choked off some rather pointed explicatives. GET OUT OF MY HEAD! He yelled grumpily. A minute or two later a phone rang in the infirmary which was answered by an orderly. She brought it over to Kyria. "The General for you."

O'neil spoke immediately and a bit calmer than he had been in his head, "Thank you Kyria. I appreciate the information, but please don't do that again. We have these little things called phones to communicate with. Now, if you have any other suggestions you can come down here to the briefing room and we can talk about it. For now I would like you, Omar and Captain Caine to get them settled so that we can talk with each one individually. I would also like to have the three of you present or at least nearby when we speak to them. As soon as you are done in the infirmary come down stairs so we can begin."

Kyria nodded and gathered Declan up, heading for Security. "Time to go."

Click to reveal..

This roll is for Kyria's telepathy to Taylor, unless Luchain wants to relent. I couldn't find you to ask before now.

(11:44:44) ChatBot: (KyriaThea) rolls 5d10 and gets 1,10,8,5,10.

Three successes on the strait roll.

[Luchian]

Taylor looks at Omar rather quizzically. The pain and exhaustion on his face are obvious, but he looks more lethargic than wounded.

"My physiology? There's nothing to indicate any sort of permanent modifications to my physiology. Obviously, there are some biochemical anomalies, and possibly even some neurotoxicity. But nothing evidential of long term abnormalities."

It's not obvious if he's attempting to correct Omar, or if he's simply trying to convince himself.

Click to reveal..

He relents. He's too tired right now to put up a struggle. He's physically, mentally, and emotionally fatigued.

Taylor turns to Kyria as she speaks into his head.

Oh, God. This isn't going to go away is it?

As soon as Taylor finds a spare bed, he lies down. He's unconscious moments later.

(((OOC: If anyone wants to speak with him they got a couple rounds, then I'm going to say he's MIA until further notice.)))

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia huddled on her bed. She didn't like crying, but her head was killing her, and the meds were having no effect. The new nova was miserable, which wasn’t unusual, but not something she knew yet. Misery loves company, after all.

Captain Caine walked in and eyed her carefully before approaching. "Dr. Jenings-Izumi, I'm Captain Caine. The General has sent me to talk with you - to go over what has happened to you with the artifact. Can you talk now?"

Olivia snuffed a few times. She looked like she might refuse, but she finally nodded her head. "Yeah, I can try. I warn you, I feel like there is the entirety of the Indian Ocean inside my head."

Caine nodded sympathetically. "I remember. I was the first person to touch the Artifact and live that we know of. I had ... issues within my own head at that time. Okay now. Did you knowingly touch the device? You were warned, were you not?"

Olivia blinked, then looked angry. "I was told, and I didn't touch it. Brad did." Unfortunately, she hadn’t bothered to get to know Brayden enough to actually learn his name; he was just one of Marv’s assistants to the busy docu-journalist.

Caine merely nodded. "Good to know," he adds. Do you know why he did this?"

"No, no idea!" Olivia said. "But I'd like to know why he thought it was a good idea to subject me to the risk of dea-" She stopped, and the expression in her eyes became more canny. "Activating it can kill a human being. Why aren't you and I both dead? Am I somehow immune to its fatal properties?"

Caine looked off for a moment. "I don't know the specifics, but it killed every other person in my unit. The doctors think it is because of my genetic make-up. Maybe you and I share a certain genetic marker. We were hoping you would have some luck in your work figuring out what the device was made for and how to make it function in a non-lethal manner. Personally, I wouldn't be sad if they buried the thing in a Black Hole.

"Doctor, have you noticed any changes in your body, or mind since you regained consciousness, outside of the pain and splitting headaches?"

"I may agree with you," Olivia said in reference to the black hole. As she spoke, she sat up and raised the end of the bed up so that she could talk easier. The rest of her statement, which was her intention to remark about the relevance of the Artifact was washed away. "Changes?" she asked wry. "You mean like writing a book for six hours while unconscious? Are those the kind of changes you mean?"

Damien looked down but is smiling, "Yeah, they really ought to tell me these things." The large, handsome fighting man tapped his fingers lightly on the bed. "Was the work good? Insightful? Something beyond your previous scope. As an example, I am now a qualified medic and I have had no previous medical training. I'm a hell of a singer now too - again no training and no previous ability. I think I have some slight understanding of your situation. I don't write in my sleep though.”

"It was... I can't begin to describe it." Olivia shook her head as she admitted, "I've never had those kind of thoughts before. But they were mine, just not in a way I'd ever been able to express them before, even to myself. I'm still writing, right now, while talking to you. And... I remember being unconscious. I remember the pain, as if I were experiencing it all over again. It's different than this pain. And I keep hearing people not in the room talking." She was starting to look afraid.

"What am I?" She had finally asked the right question.

Awkwardly at first, Caine put a hand onto Olivia's. "Ditto, Doctor. I heard the voices of my slain companions in my head. You get a handle on it, I promise. You are not alone in this. There are a bunch of people going through various forms of changes. There is someone who reads the thoughts of others. Strange things are going on. All you have to do is hang in there and together we can figure out what's changed in you. As for what you are, one person has called us a nova - a new person. I prefer to call us Specialists, or Specials, but that's just me."

Olivia, having no compunctions about touching people, turned her hand over and grasped his firmly. "These are people in the base, people I know. General O'Neal is telling someone he wants a report on Wraith movements in the Pegasus system." Again, there was that distressingly sharp look in her eyes. "They are not personal enough for thoughts... I'm hearing conversations. Some kind of Esper ability?"

Caine squeezed her hand and looked firmly into her eyes. "That's good. Work it out. You have an Esper ability. Now, you need to learn to focus it and control it." It only vaguely dawned on the GI that he doesn't know, or didn’t know, what an Esper was.

"Um..." Her eyes widened. "I'm not really good at controlling it. Right now, I think I'm a security breach. I'm hearing things I shouldn't know." But there was a look of wonder on her face, and a tinge of delight - she'd always loved knowing things.

"Don't punish yourself about this," he said, realizing that she really wasn't. "You've only been at this for a few hours. Give yourself somedays. Sadly, we can't slow the base down because of your ability, but maybe it is distance related. Maybe we will have to move you to a more isolated spot on the base. I hope you are okay with that. Okay now. Is there anything you need?"

"Super-heavy duty painkillers?" Olivia asked hopefully. She didn’t quite believe the nurses when they said they didn’t have anything better. "Oh, and an internet-capable computer?"

"How about we get you your own computer? There is nothing I can do about the meds. Anything harder will either harm you, or become addictive. Can I get you your old computerYour old security clearance is good."

"I just need something to do," Olivia sighed. "I think that I might be able to distract myself from the pain. My work computer would be good, I could do my job. Yeah, that'd be good."

"Well, your working computer it is. Please remember you NDA," he beamed, "otherwise it’s my ass. I'll go run and get it. Any last requests Doc?"

"Could we talk again?" She smiled a little shyly. "It's nice being about to talk to someone about this stuff."

"Sure. It's a date," he said nonchalantly. "I'll be back soon ... and I'll remind the General to keep his voice down," a wink and he's gone.

Caine returned in about five minutes with the promised, including a wifi card installed. "Here you go, Doctor Jenings-Izumi. One access port to the world wide web." He handed her the computer with one hand firmly in control.

"Oh, great!" she enthused, carefully taking it from him. "This will be great. I can start working on stuff."

Watching the doctor acting like a kid with a new load of candy at Halloween, the Captain can only grin a little wider. "My pleasure, Doc. Keep Professor Goldman appraised of your progress with anything referring to the SGC. Good luck with the rest, and don't try to fix the world all in one day." With that, the Captain stands up and prepares to leave.

"Thank you, Captain Caine," she said, grinning up at him. Her black eyes shone with simple pleasure as she touched her fingers to keys but didn’t type. "Don't be a stranger."

As he heads out, he called out over his shoulder, "You can count on it."

Olivia smiled as she watched Caine leave. Already, her mind was breaking down the details of their conversation and adding it to her manuscript. Fortunately, she found other words to describe Caine, more professional words than “nice ass.”