Aberrant: Stargate Universe - First Meetings: SG-21 [FIN]

[Rorx]

Gwyn wanders over to complete the line up, ignoring the pointed way that most of the room were being careful not to look at his colleagues table.

"Afternoon all, everyone looking forward to Gou'ald lecture?"

Those at the table may be surprised to see that his tray holds only a large mug of coffee and couple of Danish pastries. Noticing the looks from the others Gwyn just shrugs, "I don't know either, I just don't feel hungry at the moment, like at all. So since there wasn't anything on offer I liked enough to eat just for the sake of it I just got this. I'll go talk to the research team after the lecture, see what they say about it."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia just nodded at Declan's soft thanks. She felt a touch of pity for the red-faced airmen at the next table, but only a touch. She knew how offsetting Perault's eyes could be, but she'd managed to not stare at him, and she was spending more time with him than they were. Rejecting him because of his eyes clearly hurt Declan, down to his very soul, and Olivia wouldn't let people cripple her teammate like that. Beyond the fact that she needed him to train her and keep her alive in the field, she hated his fragile demeanor-

Realization washed over her and Olivia froze, her face flushing - thought it wasn't very obvious, visually - as her eyes widened. Oh, no... not this again, she moaned, as she put down her fork before she gave into the desire to stab herself in the brain with it. He's not some fix-it-up project, not a broken-winged bird for you to heal. Still, it was hard to ignore the smug sense of satisfaction when the airmen quickly left after the full team was at the table.

She had been so absorbed in her own thoughts that she missed Pike sitting down. Gwyn caught her attention and she snapped away from her own thoughts. "Needing less food? Must be nice. I have turned into a voracious snacker just to keep from starving."

She nodded to Pike, then tilted her head. "A fan of jello, are we?" Her tone was lightly teasing, but not in a mean way. It was clear that Olivia enjoyed light banter as a way of bonding.

[Adrian Moss]

Damien acknowleges Pike as he comes up with a wave of his fork. Jones gets a nod, but when he makes his statement, the Major looks at him and his brow furrows.

"We'll have to up the food for the rest of us, but we can cut your rations down to the bare minimum. Too bad we don't know if this lack of appetite has a duration, but we are always looking for a reason to run light. Good to know."

His tone was controlled and business-like - always the officer.

"The lecture should be ... entertaining. You haven't faced them before. I've faced their servants and it wasn't fun. The more we learn about them, the sooner we can bring down all the System Lords and the safer Earth will be."

Caine was definitely a Believer in the Mission.

[Mr Fox]

One by one the airmen at the next table took their half eaten trays of food and deposited them in the trash. The looked a combination of scared and embarrassed as they left. The last one to stand up didn't go immediately to the trash but instead walked around from where she had sat to the end of the one where Sgt Perault sat. She was blushing and not really looking the Sgt in the face, "Look Sgt. I apologize, they didn't really mean anything by it. We've seen Jaffa, Tok'ra, Goa'uld, and I even got to see an Asgard once, but you guys..." She forced herself to look up in to Dec's face and meet his eyes. "You guys frighten us so much because you are us. You aren't some aliens from another planet or galaxy, you're regular Joes. The fact that you guys got changed the way you did. Well, it's a little scary, ya know?" She shut her mouth embarrased again and mumbled to herself, "Of course they know, Linda, don't be an idiot."

Speaking up again she finished, "The other part of it is jealousy. I wouldn't want to go through what you guys did for the world, but the things you guys can do are really cool. Only natural to be a little jealous." She smiled a small tentative smile. "It won't happen again, lest not from that group, I promise." She reached out her hand to shake Dec's if he would take it.

[The Red Man]

Declan looked at her from behind his shades and nodded once, slowly, before reaching up and (carefully) taking the Airman's hand. She was so damn fragile-seeming, he felt like she would break unless he took special care. Her comment about him and the others being "like us" made him feel a certain discordance, as though he wasn't so sure.

He shrugged away the feeling and shook her hand. "No hard feelin's, Airman." he said quietly. "Guess everyone on base is havin' to deal with this, not just us." He looked as though he would say more for a moment, but let go the woman's hand as gently and slowly as he had taken it. "Thanks for the apology." He didn't smile, but his voice was quietly sincere as he turned back to his food.

[Rorx]

Gwyn waited until the Airman had gone, nodding to himself at the sentiments that both the Airman and Sgt Perault had mentioned.

"Well Major, I don't know if this lack of appetite will stay, or fade or what, but I agree we can make use of it while we can. You mentioned that you have faced the Gou'ald's servants. How would you rate them, one on one compared with our own troops. Are they particularly faster, stronger, or anything, or is it largely a matter of better technology?"

[Adrian Moss]

Caine ignores the interplay between Perault and the Airmen. Had she said something else though ...

Without hesitation, the Major replies to Jones,

"They are stronger, tougher, and marginally faster than normal soldiers, but they don't hold a candle to what is on this team ..." he nods his head in the direction of Olivia, "except for the Doctor."

"Their armor is bullet resistant, their weapons - their power staves - are penetrating, but their tactics tend to be simple. They prefere brute force, System Lords being less concious of their Jaffa losses."

"Of course, that is married to their Jaffa's religious devotions toward their specific System Lord. They are brave, but they are using technology they barely understand."

He eyes each of his team mates,

"We can take them,"

Then he grins evilly,

"unless they have a System Lord with them. I've never encountered one of those, so I'll withold jugdement until we get our chance to bring one down."

[Rorx]

"So you'd rate them physically above a Marine, but tactically and in the use and understanding of their own technology below average? I take it all System Lords are Gou'ald, but is the reverse true? Are all Gou'ald System Lords?"

Gwyn idly munches through his danish pastries and coffee, going back for another coffee while the others demolish their piles of food.

[Adrian Moss]

"Good question," Caine says between bites. He seems to measure his response then looks to Olivia.

"Doctor Jenings-Izumi, please answer the Specialists question."

Sure, it put her on the spot, but she was the brightest of them all, and had been studying the issue for at least one week and maybe more. With her memory ... besides, it never hurt to have each team member learn to appreciate one another.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia was startled to be put on the spot, but only for a part of a second. "System Lords are Goa'uld," she said easily. "The System Lords are the collective of the most powerful Goa'uld in the galaxy. Daniel Jackson has described them as "posturing egomaniacs driven by an insatiable lust for power, each one capable of unimaginable evil". There are around a dozen System Lords at any one time; their ranks change frequently as new ones rise and old ones fall. The System Lords control vast territories and armies. For thousands of years until his defeat by Jack O'Neill and Daniel Jackson, Ra held the position of Supreme System Lord."

It was as if Olivia had started to read from a book. Her eyes were focused straight ahead, but they scrolled from side to side, reading something they couldn't see. "The System Lords are not a unified body and frequently war against each other for dominance, though they will ally in the face of mutual threats. One of the main strategies of the Tok'ra is to play the System Lords against one another, so that no single one of them becomes too powerful to topple. They are responsible for enforcing the Protected Planets Treaty amongst the Goa'uld of the galaxy."

She blinked and looked around. "Need more information?" she asked with a grin.

[Rorx]

Gwyn smiles at her obvious joy in her information capacity, "Yeah, a couple actually, although perhaps they should wait until this afternoon's lecture. What the hell, you probably know the answers anyway so why wait? You said there was only a dozen System Lords, any idea as the rough number of Gou'ald, and who are the Tok'ra?"

[Adrian Moss]

Caine holds up a hand, never taking his eyes off Jones.

"Enough. This is why we are having a class in," he holds up his watch, "twenty-five minutes."

"You'll have tomorrow to ask and answer questions. I'm sure the good Doctor will appreciate the distractions while we run."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Gwyn's question was almost answered before Caine stopped her. She nodded at his statement, but stopped that nod when he finished.

"Um," Olivia said, frowning a little, "I kind of planned to run while we were running. Seriously, I'm going to be doing good to finish tomorrow, so I won't be talking if I can help it. But after - then I could answer any questions, assuming I live."

[Rorx]

"Oh yes, I remember the Royal Marines love of running." says Gwyn with a wince of remembered pain, but then he grins, "But since then my stamina has increased a great deal judging from my workouts in the gym, so perhaps it won't be so bad after all."

He glances across at the worried looking Olivia, "Never mind Doctor if it gets too much for you perhaps the good Major will let us apes take turns carrying you to keep the squad speed up."

[The Red Man]

He'd stayed silent while listening to the others; not a withdrawn or sullen silence, but the silence of someone who has nothing to contribute and thus sees no reason to open their mouth, especially when it could be better employed eating. He kept looking from team-mate to team-mate, absorbing what they said on autopilot as he ate.

He listened particularly intently to Olivia's mini-lecture on the enemy they faced. He told himself that it was nothing to do with the way her lips moved, nossir. Soulless weapon, remember? he told himself. Yeah, it sure is. some darkly humorous part of him grinned back from it's cave. Shaddup! Yer just horny.

For all the internal monologue, Declan actually had no problem following what the Doc was saying. This itself was a small miracle for a man who'd barely scraped his GED before joining the Army as a teen. He held his questions though, deciding that the Major had a point: better to wait till the class was over. The no-nonsense operational side of Declan, enhanced by the killer's mind he'd been cursed with, reflected that he was now in a spec-ops situation, so there was no such thing as too much intel for him.

Finishing his chow as Olivia voiced her concerns about the run / hike tomorrow, Dec smiled a little. "You'll do okay, Doc. Just remember to take some water and not eat first." He half-seriously told her. "You really don't want to eat before a big run."