Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Olivia Jenings-Izumi

[Mr Fox]

Olivia walked down the concrete hallway 100 meters beneath the surface of the most well known top secret facility in the world. It had been weeks since the SGC had contacted her and confiscated all her research materials. Could not have the truth being exposed after all. Never mind the fact that the truth was too bizarre to be believed by anyone. Aliens in ancient Egypt? There were dozens of books that speculated on ancient alien contact with Egyptians, Mayans, Aztecs, you name it. The problem was, hers was actually true. She had found evidence. And for that she had been whisked away from her old life, made to sign a very scary NDA promising never to reveal the things she knew on penalty of imprisonment, loss of all her worldly goods, etc.

Now here she was walking the halls of Area 51. AREA 51, she could still barely believe it. This place was rumored to exist, but to find out that truth was even more incredible than the rumors was life changing to say the least. Best part of all, depending on your viewpoint, they had assigned her to document all the artifacts that were brought back from off world expeditions. Seems scientists don't make the most understandable report writers, surprise surprise. So now they had their very own published author to decipher what the scientists said and put it into words the bean counters and policy makers could grasp. She wasn't sure what was worse, the SGC for stealing her life, or the IOA for being meddlesome bureaucrats. Well, at least she was able to learn about the cool things that were being discovered. That was something at least. Shame she couldn't actually be at the center of the action though, someday all this would become public and who better to tell the story of the program than a professional author. If she were allowed to tell the story, she would instantly regain all her lost respect of her colleagues, not to mention becoming a best selling author over night.

She had just turned the corner into the office of the chief scientist in charge of processing new acquisitions, Marv Goldman, when his phone rang. He held up a hang to ask Olivia to wait a moment when his face went red with excitement. He jumped up from behind his desk and rushed toward the door she was standing in. As he passed he reached out and took her by the arm to lead her away with him at a fast pace. "Olivia, they've done it. They've recovered the Ancient artifact that was stolen from that off world site. If I am right it is related to their early experiments with ascension. This could be one of the most major finds we've made." His eagerness was evident in the fast strides he was forcing her to take to keep up as well as the child like expression on his face which clouded for a moment, "Well, biggest find since Atlantis anyway. I'm still upset that I wasn't chosen for that mission, I don't care if I am in my late 60s, I would have chosen to go no matter the health risks."

After a short walk down several corridors and through just as many security checkpoints he finally stopped before an opened door leading into an empty room. He waited outside impatiently until a white flash of light caused them both to blink. Just that fast the room now contained a large stone device of Ancient styling. "Well there you are professor, the device has arrived. What will you do first?"

The professor reminded her of a kid rubbing his hands looking at an unguarded cookie jar. She just smiled and waited for the answer. "First of course is to image the device, but we must be very careful, I'm told that touching it can activate it. Would you care to join me?" She nodded her agreement and walked into the room slowly circling the object thinking of the best words to describe it. Of course she would have to have a picture on the facing page showing it, but books didn't just sell on the pictures. People would want the description, they would want the feel of what it was actually like in these first moments to walk around the thing.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia circled the artifact, her dark eyes wide as she stared at it. Immediately, the prose about the object began to write itself in her head. "A dark tower of stone rises from the stone altar..." no, too many 'stones'. "The altar stretches before you, invoking a sense of wonder..." It's not that large. Hmm, "It invokes the religious as you stand before it, incorporating so many symbols of the holy..." not quite... "so many of our holy symbols that reverence flows without thought." Jackpot.

As she wrote in her head, Olivia pulled out her camera and angled it for a shot. The stone altar with it's crystal-capped obelisk were illuminated in bright flashes as she clicked. Marv watched her for a few moments, smiling a little. "You know, they have official pictures," he remarked, amused.

"I know," Olivia said, giving him a little grin. She tucked her straight hair behind her ears and snapped another shot. "But I like having my own reference shots." She stopped and stood back, looking over it with him.

"It invokes the religious as you stand before it. The altar, the obelisk, the crystal: all harken back to our primal beliefs about the universe and the nature of God. The altar is worship; the obelisk, the phallus, the source of man's power; the crystal, the scrying gem, the apple that gives us knowledge."

Huh. That's terribly campy.

She sighed through her nose as she stared at it, tapping a fingernail against the camera. The words weren't coming well, but it was her duty to write them, and write them well. She wanted to capture the power of being in the room with an alien artifact. Licking her red lips, she flipped on her recorder and said, "Standing in its presence makes you believe again. Believe in what? The answer is: believe in anything and everything. It is an alien artifact, and I am close enough to touch it."

"Don't touch it," Marv said, his voice getting a little panicked.

Olivia winced. She hated things like that getting on the recording. "I'm not touching it." She lowered her voice to almost a whisper and said, "That's almost blasphemy."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Professor. Shall we get to the meat and bones?" she asked.

He nodded, and with one last lingering look at the Ancient device, she began to help him tear it apart, metaphorically, with science.

Now that was a blasphemy for you.

[Mr Fox]

The man known as Brayden was just typing up the latest report on the state of the artifact repository for his boss, Area 51's chief scientist, Marv Goldman. Despite working at area 51 he was bored. This was not what he'd signed up for. Just because he had top notch security clearance didn't mean he should be rotting away under ground in some secret base, but what was he going to do, it was either this or quit and he couldn't just quit. That wasn't in his nature.

His office door was open so he saw when Marv and the technical writer Olivia went hurrying past. He wondered what was so urgent but dismissed it in favor of getting this report finished. There was never enough time in the day to do all that needed to be done. Marv was so diorganized that Brayden would bet this office would come to a screeching halt if not for all the hard work he put in.

Just then the phone rang. It was an outside line. That was unusual, he never got outside calls here at work. He didn't really have any friends or family to speak of and the ones he did have all knew that everyone said over the line was recorded. He picked up the receiver wondering what it could be about. A high-pitched wine almost like an old fashioned modem could be heard then a single word was spoken. "Domino." Brayden's eyes glazed over for a moment in total confusion.

When the confusion passed it was like the old insignificant Brayden no longer existed. He was clear headed and focused like he had not be since before he became Brayden. He would have chased that thought down and tried to remember who he once was, but that was unimportant in the face of his mission. The mission was everything. He let the phone drop and reaced down under the desk to pull out a small grey object that had been taped there waiting for this day to come. He pocketed the device and made his way out and into the halls following the route so recently taken by Marv and Olivia.

Security didn't even question his presence as he made his way to the room with the new artifact. His orders had been clear. He didn't even remember when he had received them, but it was very clear what needed to be done. He was to plant the small grey device to the artifact. How he would accomplish that remained to be seen.

When he arrived at the room with the device he walked in without knocking. First things first. Separate the doctor and Olivia from the artifact. The doctor would be easy. Olivia not so much, but he could always get rid of her after he planted the locator beacon. Seeing the size of the stone artifact the device he was carrying could only be a locator. He didn't know how they planned to get it out, but that's the only way it could be done. There was no way he would be able to lift it on his own.

The pair paused from examining the big stone when he walked in. He just smiled at the professor, "I hate to disturb you sir, but you are wanted in your office. It is about the artifact and I tried to tell them that there was no way you could have a peliminary report this soon, but you know how the General can be. He want's you five minutes ago." Brayden rolled his eyes in mock sympathy over the impatience of the Military.

Professor Goldman quickly excused himself from Olivia and rushed out the door muttering something unintelligable.

Brayden looked at the artifact and walked around it as if curious moving closer and leaning in as if to examine one of the marks. With a movement that was as smooth as a magician or a pick pocket he planted the grey thing on the artifact. Before he could withdraw however, one of the marks began to glow. He was about to curse his luck when he became mezmerized by it. He could not look away and he could not activate his own subcuteaneous locator beacon to let his superiors know that the device had been placed. The same hand that had just withdrawn moved of it's own accord toward the glowing symbol.

Across the room Olivia noticed what was happening and was just about to shout a warning that touching it could mean death but she too was capivated by the light.

When the man known as Brayden finally made contact both of the rooms occupants were consumed in a burst of white light that filled both the room and their minds. With the light also came pain. Pain in every cell of their bodies. Neither lasted more than fifteen or twenty seconds before mercifully succombing to unconsciousness.

((You both awake in the SGC's infirmary. Please continue there in you own threads.))

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"Olivia. Olivia!" She could hear people shouting her name, but they were far away, hidden behind a wall of mind-shattering pain. For eons she hovered in the blackness, floating in a sea of nails and razors. Every second of pain was etched into her mind, there to be felt with crystal clarity.

The pain didn't ease as much as level off, achieving a level of agony that she grew somewhat accustomed to. She could feel that she was on her back, that people were talking over her, about her. They were talking about the swelling in her brain. They were talking about her dying.

She struggled then, against the darkness the sucked her down, against the pain that split open her skull. Suddenly, in the darkness, she heard herself talking: "Standing in its presence makes you believe again. Believe in what? The answer is: believe in anything and everything. It is an alien artifact, and it is close enough to touch. But like the Arc of the Covenant, to touch it is to face death. Will God strike you down, or will you fly with the angels? It is a question that cannot be answered until you accept the potential that you are not special enough to embrace the power within the Ancient's Artifact. It is only when you have said, 'Yes, I am asking God, "Am I worthy?"' and know that the answer may be an unequivocal and final "NO" that you can touch the Artifact, the High, the Holy, the Face of God. It is only then that you will learn whether you can fly."

She was writing, but doing it faster, better than ever before. The words rushed out, not in a stampede, but in an orderly procession. They marched like soldiers at the Hot Gate, locking their shields together and forming a perfect war machine. But instead of storming a gate, she was storming the mind, throwing out concepts and comparison dredged every part of her psyche. It was perfect, every word measured to act to its potential: the potential to draw tears, laughter or just madness in the face of the truth.

At some point, she opened her eyes, the dim lights offering to bruise her eyeballs, which she would take over the shredding that brighter lights would perform. A white ceiling was the only thing she could see for a moment, until she looked to the sides and saw the nurses standing around the bed. They were staring at her; one was holding her recorder.

Olivia expected to be confused or missing memory, but to her shock, she remembered everything: the pain, the sensations, the writing she'd done. In fact, the normal question - What happened? - was completely unnecessary. Instead, she said, "Why are you staring at me like that?" Her voice was raw, as if she’d been talking for a long time.

"You were... what were you saying?" one asked, her eyes going wide. "It was so profound! Is there more?"

"No," Olivia said, startled. "I haven't written it yet." She was aware that even as she spoke, it was writing itself in the back of her head. She fought a surge of panic. How was she going to get it all written down? "I need water, please."

The nurses disbanded, leaving her with her recorder. She glanced at the time display and was shocked to see it sitting at six hours. What in the world? She rewound and played it a bit; her voice, speaking in a rapid but even tone, pouring out incredible insights about the SG program. Even her personal thoughts about O'Neal's leadership vis a vis his virility and personal charm were there. Somehow, she'd managed to make them meaningful, rather than tawdry. Somehow, she’d talked for six hours, and it all sounded good.

No, not somehow. She knew how she'd done it. It was just so clear.

Too bad her head was hurting so much all she wanted to do was die.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

On the third day, the pounding headache was mostly gone. Olivia was back at work, amazed herself almost hourly with her new proficiencies. She hadn't quite gotten the annoying hearing thing down yet, but she'd work on it.

"Doctor, your mail," Robbie said, yanking her attention from the computer screen. Olivia smiled up at the private, who always brought her her mail when he got his COs and always had a big smile for her.

"Thanks," she said, taking it from him. One padded envelope caught her eye and she eagerly opened it, pushing the rest away. She ignored the broken seal; she knew that her mail was checked for violations of her NDA.

A CD tumbled into her hands, and Olivia put it in the disc player. She didn't even notice Robbie walk away as she got out her earphones, turned the sound down and hit play.

"Hi, Livy." Her brother's voice was welcome, and Olivia grinned. The next voices made her grin wider, as her mother and father also greeted her. Her brother continued, "Mom and Dad wanted in on this letter, so I brought them over to my place."

"Your pigsty," Dad laughed, his Japanese accent thick. Just hearing their voices laughing together made her smile - and her eyes sting a little. God, she missed them.

"Anyway, we have some news," Mom said, the Southern twang to her voice making her sound like she belong on a plantation - not in her people's historical roles, of course. "You cousin Ella is pregnant, and her husband is all puffed up with pride."

Two months after the wedding? I guess he is, Olivia laughed to herself, as her family continued to tell her the gossip and news from their extended unit. Gradually, her parents signed off, and Wakaki continued alone.

"Livy, I thought you might wanna hear that new song of mine," he said as music began to fill her headphones. Olivia laughed softly; her brother was always pimping his music, even to his most dedicated fan. With his voice in her ears, she bent back to work.

After a couple of hours, Olivia's phone pinged at her. She pulled her earplugs and picked it up, smiling to see it was Wakaki. "Hey," she said, standing up and moving toward the vending machines in the hallway.

"Hey, sis," he said. "Whazzup?"

"Not much," she said, eying the cheap food being offered to her. "What's up with you?"

"Nuthin. Missed my sis, thought I'd call her now that she's got some big job for the Man."

"Haha," Olivia said, checking the pocket of her cardigan to see if she had any change on her. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Olivia stopped, feeling a wry smile cross her face. He knew her so well. "Well, to be honest - and you can't tell Mom or Dad this, triple swear!"

"A'right. Trip-swear."

"That accident that got me transferred?" Olivia drew a deep breath and said, "The co-worker that caused it... he got transferred here, too. I'm... I'm working with him."

"What? I thought the government was nuts, but that's insane for them. Cause a near-fatal accident! Here, get a transfer to the same place as the person you almost killed."

"But we've talked to him, and it was an accident," Olivia said, thinking of Brayden's tearful, confused confession. As her brother made scoffing noises, she said, "No, I've talked to him. I was wrong, about what I said about him being a brainless cowardly jerk."

Wakaki was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he said, "You sure?"

"Yes," Olivia assured him.

"Ok, then. My offer of a shotgun and three really good friends with a big trunk stands, though."

"I know." Olivia hugged herself, warmed by her brother's protective nature, even if she knew he was joking. "Though... I have another issue. I think I should forgive him, ya know?"

"Probably," Wakaki said softly, the tension in his voice lessening. "It is the right thing to do."

"I'm just not sure I could," she sighed. "I mean... I want to, but I keep thinking about it..."

"Well, hon, that's natural."

"I guess." Olivia sighed and shifted so she was leaning against the wall, her long skirt swaying around her.

"It is," Wakaki insisted. "Look, it's so hard that Jesus had to teach us how to do it. He even had to teach God how to do it. The Old Testament God couldn't even manage it, so cut yourself a break. It'll come, because you're a good person."

Olivia nodded; this is what she needed to hear. Unlike her brother, she wasn't particularly religious, and any inclination toward a religion had been disrupted by her discovery of the StarGate. She'd been questioning God since. Meanwhile her brother remained a blissful Buddhist Jesus-Groupie, his name for his cobbled-together beliefs. But Olivia valued his counsel; he had a way of cutting through her doubts and presenting an uncluttered way of perceiving things.

"I have to get back to work," she said, letting her voice trail off expectantly.

"Okay, I'll catch you later, Livy. Call me and we'll talk more."

"Will do. And thanks for the good music."

"Anytime, sis. Love you."

"Love you too," Olivia said. The beep of the line closing was a harsh noise after her brother's voice. Sighing, feeling both a little up and down, she returned to her desk.

She'd work on forgiving Brayden. It would just take time.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

This was a conversation she wasn't looking forward to, but Olivia had prepared herself as best she could. She'd soaked in one of the hot tubs for an hour, until she was so relaxed she was almost melting. Then she painted her toenails and had a mug of hot chocolate with extra whip cream. It was only after she'd completely babied herself that she reach over, picked up her phone and dialed from memory.

"Hey, sis, whazzup?" Wakaki's voice buzzed in her ear before she heard a ring.

"Just calling my favorite brother," she said. It wasn't unusual for her to call him, but something in her voice must have tipped him off.

"What do you want?"

Olivia made an offended noise. "I can't just be calling?"

"Please, Livy," Wakaki snorted. "I can always tell when you're about to ask a favor."

She sighed and gave up on the pretense. "Well, I was hoping that you could let two of my teammates stay with you when I get leave in a week."

"You're coming home?! Awesome! Wait... did you say leave?"

Olivia flinched a little. She'd never really said what she did for the government. "Yeah, I said leave."

"Livy, Livy, Livy. Oh, shit, girl... did you join the Army?" Wakaki sounded both shocked and delighted, that cold delight that only a sibling who believes that he has dirt on another sibling can have.

"Technically... it's a branch of the Air Force," Olivia admitted, pressing her hand to her forehead.

"Oh, man... Mom's going to go apeshit," Wakaki said. "I have to be there when you tell her."

"Wak, don't make this any harder," Olivia sighed. She hadn't been looking forward to telling her parents that she was working for the armed services. Her father had been raised in a country where guns were illegal and had never been comfortable with the knowledge that his neighbors could legally own guns. Her mother was a devout pacifist, and believed that the US had enough trade power to influence the world and didn't need to "turn young Americans into murders." She'd been avoiding the conversation for long enough that she was pretending that she was waiting to tell them in person.

"Hey, I won't say anything. I just want enough warning to bring some popcorn," her brother laughed.

"Har har. Can you put my friends up or not?" she asked.

"Mom and Dad have the room - why not have them stay there, since you'll be there, too?"

"Umm... I think they'd be more comfortable with you." Olivia sighed. "They're teammates, and both are military - well, Dec's full military and H.G. is only part."

"Dec and H.G. Are those codenames? You always know the most interesting people," Wakaki laughed. "I can put them up, for you."

"Thanks," Olivia breathed in a rush of relief. "I owe you."

"Not if you let me see you tell the 'rents that you're in the Air Force," Wakaki laughed.

"Ugh, we'll see," Olivia said. "And I'm a civilian contractor, not an actual member."

"I'm sure that Mom and Dad will come right around with that distinction." Wakaki's voice was wry as he added, "And you will let me see their reaction or you can put your friends - no, wait, your teammates, up at Motel 8."

"Jerk," Olivia growled.

"That's just American for big brother," Wakaki giggled.

"You're barely my big brother - if I'd been two and a half months premature, you'd be my younger brother," Olivia grunted.

"That's your fault for being born on time," Wakaki rejoined. She could see the big grin on his face and she shook her head, feeling affection mingled with irritation. But he was more serious when he asked, "When are you coming?"

Olivia told him when their plane would arrive and he replied, "Ok, I'll make sure the groupies are all out and the booze is all locked away."

"Yeah, whatever, like you have groupies." Olivia sighed. This conversation had gone exactly how she had expected it to go. "But thank you, really."

"Sure. Glad you're coming home, and looking forward to meeting your friends," he said, his voice serious and affectionate.

"SO am I. I have to call Mom and Dad now and tell them that I'll be home," she said.

"Alright, I'll get off the line," Wakaki said. "Love you, sis."

"Love you too," she replied before hanging up.