Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Area 51: An unexpected arrival

[Yseult Sierra]

Meeting in passing, Olivia had mentioned the trip to the Beta Site, and Yseult was more than happy to go. It wasn't so much that she wanted to train more extensively, though she didn't mind exerting herself occasionally, but rather she wanted a look at the newcomer from the other side of the Quantum Mirror. It seemed lately, her reality was becoming a sanctuary for refugees from other dimensions. She was curious to see if her new awareness would be able to perceive any biological or genetic differences, especially with others from this reality and Kyria from another for comparison.

Yseult walked to the Gate room, dressed in her BDUs, Prada shades concealing her uncanny, turquoise eyes. She had a Zat strapped to her hip, and a light pack on her back, holding her laptop and emergency medical supplies.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia strolled into the Gate Room and stopped, chuckling. "I swear, you two never miss a chance to get out of here, do you?" she teased gently. She was wearing BDUs now, and looked like a typical non-combat specialist, save for zat in her side holster instead of a firearm. She had packed food and some 'light' reading material - a 'fascinating' treatise on the trading habits of the residents of PX-9927.

[Yseult Sierra]

"Never!" Yseult chuckled in velvety reply, "I used to go back home nearly every weekend, Olivie. So now, I am getting out of Montaigne Cheyenne when I can, yes?" Though the young-looking blond doctor and scientist seemed in high spirits, Olivia's perceptive senses noticed the longing wistfulness in Yseult's posture.

[Rorx]

Gwyn just shrugs and smiles at his team mate, "Only chance I get for some flight practise is over on Beta, so I can't really afford to miss a trip."

[z028 Riley]

Kyria lighted into the room, ready for some R&R in a place where she and the rest of them could stretch without startling the baselines.

"Hey guys! All ready? Do we know if anyone else is showing up?"

[Rorx]

Gwyn shakes his head slightly, "Sorry Kyria, I haven't anything from the others about it either way."

[Charlie Cole]

The sounds outside of a "Thank you!" in a monotone voice recognized by Olivia and Kyria came as Charlie entered. He appraised the situation, counting and noting all present, though there were less than he liked.

"Sgt. Charlie Cole, your visitor from another..." his voice trailed off as he saw Yseult, but recognizing someone else entirely, his face going cold. Hartson? Not good. I definitely need to keep track of her till I can be sure of her allegiance.

[Yseult Sierra]

Yseult turned from speaking with Olivia at the sound of the distinctive monotone. Eyes still hidden behind tinted lenses, Yseult considered this latest refugee from a different reality, an inquisitive tilt to her head.

"Bonjour, Charles, I am... Dr. Yseult..." Yseult began in her accented soprano, a welcoming smile on her lips, stretching out a hand, until she saw his frozen glare. A little puzzled by the seeming animosity, she let her hand drop. She looked at the others with a questioning shrug.

"Is there being a problem?"

[Charlie Cole]

Oh, shit. I've got to stop assuming. The glare vanished from Charlie, replaced with embarrassment. "My apologies, Dr. Langlois. I thought you were the NID agent who took over your body. You'd been switched back you see."

Seeing Yseult's curiosity, he added. "Oh, yeah. I'm a Specialist as well, though I got killed during imprisonment by the NID in this reality."

[Yseult Sierra]

"Oh, the apologies, they are not necessary, and I am sorry that you, the you from here, died. And at least, in one reality, I am my true self. The circumstances here... they did not go well for me."

Yseult finished with a cool reticence, clearly not wanting to speak of it any longer. "If I may ask, coming here, was it purely by chance, or did you have a reason for choosing our reality?"

[Rorx]

Gwyn watches the exchange with interest and waits to introduce himself. In the meantime pondering what this guys problem might be with his alternate version.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie shook his head. His face did the real explanation for him, showing his unwillingness to speak at first. Turning to Gwyn, "No need to introduce yourself Gwyn. Now, if this is all, shall we be off?"

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia nodded, then turned and waved to Walter. Behind her, the chevrons began to align themselves with the now-familiar soft grating noise. Quietly, she wondered if the StarGate worked and looked the same as it did in Charlie's dimension. He'd had enough questions - she'd find a way to ask him later.

The 'sideways flush' burst into the room, and then the StarGate settled out into its field of blue 'liquid'. With a smile, anticapating the coming freedom, Olivia walked up the ramp and stepped through, into another world.

The engineers waved to her when she arrived, the Marines relaxing as they recognized her. "Hey, Anna," she said to the woman. "Hey, Howie."

Anna grunted, the most cordial she became on-duty. "Hey, Dr. Ji. More training?" Howie asked, pushing his hat back on his head. He nodded as the next person arrived.

"You bet, have to stay in shape," she told him.

"Yes, ma'am," Howie said without a leer or any innuendo. "Have fun."

[Mr Fox]

Before the group could head up the ramp Cam came trotting in and joined them. "Don't mind if I join you I hope. I need to check out the progress at the site. The engineers are behind on construction."

In truth the General had asked him to evaluate Sgt Cole in an informal setting and make sure he would fit in with the group.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria grinned at him and teased, "Don't think you're going to rope us into doing their work. This is play time! Well, training, but same thing. Stretch time!"

With that very Kyria-odd announcement, the red-head bounded through the Stargate and into the welcoming freedom of the Beta site.

[Mr Fox]

Cam chuckled at the red-head and walked through the gate.

On the other side it was obvious that the new Beta site was making good progress. The buildings going up here were much more permanent than the ones that had been put up at previous alpha-sites before, having hardened concrete foundations and walls reinforced with 1" thick steel rebar.

[Yseult Sierra]

Yseult gave Charlie a steady look, then nodded. If he did not want to speak of it at the moment, she was fine with letting it go for now. But if he had a distinct reason for choosing her reality to flee to, she intended to find out what it was.

The statuesque blonde followed Olivia, Kyria, and Cameron through the liquid blue vortex at a more sedate pace. One the other side, Yseult took a deep breath, the sweet air of an unindustrialized world a soothing balm.

She nodded at some of the personnel that she had known, if only in passing, for several years, getting restrained nods and smiles in return. It was still taking time for those who had known her from before to be accustomed to her new appearance.

She had to admit however, despite what she had lost, she was definitely becoming more... comfortable with her new capabilities.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie quietly passed through the gate, giving polite smiles to the men and women but following the fellow Specialists. It was time to show them what he could do, and lose some tension.

[Rorx]

Gwyn settles for just nodding back to the 'new' guys comment, then grins as Cam charges into the room. After waving him on Gwyn follows with the others.

At the beta site he smiles and waves at the people he knows, which with his 24 hour schedule is just about everyone who has been on base by now. As he does so he takes a careful look at the pgoress the enigineers have made and compares it with where they were the last time he was there. Noting there good progress he concludes, as was always more likely, that Cam is there to check out Charlie like the rest of them.

"Ok Peeps, how about we head to that clearing a couple of klicks down stream we started from last time, so we don't get in the way of the work here? Then see how things go from there."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

"Sounds good to me," Olivia said, turning toward the familiar clearing. Her quick pace and easy steps were worlds away from from her first hike, and those who had known her before could see the ease and strength she know used.

She kept waving and talking to people as they walked; she knew everyone's names and never missed a chance to say hello to anyone.

[Rorx]

At there, by now trained, pace it only took the small group of Specialists about 30 min to hike the 2-3 kilometres through the woods to the clearing Gwyn had mentioned.

Gwyn turns to Charlie, "I don't know if you had a similar setup on your side or not, but unfortunately a lot of the engineers and crew back there aren't cleared for what we can do. So we need to try to keep it low key and/or out of their sight."

He turns then to Kyria, "Could you check none of them have strayed down this way for us, it's probably more effective than having to have someone keeping watch while we are here."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

While Kyria was doing a check of the area, Olivia nodded at Charlie. "Ready to try this out?" she asked, her eyes bright with anticipation and delight. She really enjoyed being able to be super-Olivia for a while, even if it was hard to recall later.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie nodded with a smile, before dropping and doing a score of push-ups. It's wasn't that hard, and was for the matter of loosening up before getting started.

When he got up, he asked Olivia, "Teams, or free-for all?" with a smirking grin.

[Yseult Sierra]

Yseult followed the others to the clearing. Even having months to grow accustomed to her new body, sometimes something as simple as hiking could bring to the fore her changes. With her longer legs, greater coordination and tuned cardiovascular system, she was not even breathing any harder after the 2.876km trek, and her limits were still withing the human range, if in the top one percentile in the world.

At Charlie's question, Yseult offered him a brief smile, which she shared with the rest of the specialists. "If you are not minding, I would like to engage in my own activities to start. I have had little practice with personal flight and would to begin slowly."

With a nod, she stepped a few meters away and set her pack down next to a tree. Then she took several deep breaths, hands fisted at her sides. At first, nothing seemed to happen, though her inhuman eyes focused intently. Suddenly, her clothing was pressed closely to her body, as if grasped tightly by unseen hands, outlining her shapely figure.

Yseult heels raised up, then she broke free of gravity's clutches, ascending with a gleeful grin gracing her full lips, though her eyes still blazed with the concentration it took her to hold herself aloft telekinetically.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia watched Yseult, temporarily distracted by her flight. Giving her friend a thumbs-up, Olivia swallowed her jealousy and turned back to Charlie. "Free-for-all, of course," she said, grinning.

[Rorx]

Gwyn watches the fiercely concentrating Yseult lift off and turns briefly to the others, "I'm going fly safety for Yse. We don't want to lose her to simply dropping out of the sky by accident."

With that he takes off after her, soon catching up and placing himself a little below her, just in case.

[z028 Riley]

"We're good."

Kyria watched the fliers take off with the same subdued look of jealousy that Livy had had. It wasn't bitter or anything, just a pang of what must that be like? She glanced around their clearing, trying to decide what to do for her own enjoyment and quantum stretching. Cam still hadn't been told about her newest power, so she was a little unsure of how much furor it would cause to experiment with it out here. Reluctant to get into a fight with the other novas today, instead she decided to climb a tree, balancing herself impossibly on slender limbs and protrusions far more twig-like than should have been able to carry her weight as she acheived her own limited heights.

[Mr Fox]

Lacking flight Cam was also left ground bound. He looked to Kyria, "Sticking around here to play with your powers or would you like to go someplace further away?" He pulled the datapad out of his pocket and hit a few buttons the looked up to where the young specialist was climbing.

"I'm going to hike out over the next ridge then take the Al'kesh for some flying. I want to do some customizing on it while I have a chance. You're welcome to come along."

[z028 Riley]

Kyria grinned and jumped down from the tree, landing with inhuman grace and precision. "Sounds like fun! Think you could teach me how to pilot one of them? Besides, there's not really much practicing I could do with my powers out here, other than just some athletics or something. I'm not quite so flash and fly as most of the rest of the novas here are."

[Mr Fox]

Cam smiled. "Sure, I can teach you. Basic piloting anyway. I'm still getting used to the controls myself."

The two novas made a fast hike the five miles to the down side of the next ridge. Waiting in a large clearing was the Goa'uld bomber. As far as Cam was concerned it was the sexiest looking ship in their fleet and it didn't hurt that they were pretty tough in a fight. Of course he aimed to make it even better.

All Goa'uld ships looked clean, but being brand new this one practically sparkled still. Cam activated the radio to the other Specialists, "You all have five hours to cut loose and have some fun. Kyria and I will be back in radio range before then, we're going to do a little flight practice in the 203." 203 being the code word for the Al'Kesh. Cam waited a moment before blasting toward orbit just to be sure no one else radioed interest in coming along.

Once in orbit with the planet between their position and the base, he began showing Kyria the basics of piloting the ship. When he was reasonable confident she could move it around he to a seat in the other seat and hooked up his Goa'uld datapad and got ready to do some serious code hacking.

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia reached for Charlie's hand, smiling. "Are we ready to try this out?" she queried, her expression eager. She really wanted to get started on this; the chance to try out a new power was always something exciting.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie took it and nodded. "You'll love the wind surging from back to front as you fire." he said with a smile. After Livy had absorbed the powers and nodded back, he moved back to the opposite end of the clearing to give everyone else the space.

Out of the wish to reduce any trouble with his own being hurt, if Livy went full blast, Charlie harded the air molecules around him and began circulating it around him.

Click to reveal..

Shield up, 27/30 QP left, Soak now 9B/7L

[z028 Riley]

Kyria zoomed around the planet like a kid at space camp, grinning like an idiot and obviously having the time of her life. Other than a few slightly wobbly fancy moves she tried, the exercise was progressing smoothly and with a modicum of giggles. "Hmmn.....Declan should have come with us. This is fun!"

She glanced over at where Cam was sitting and hacking through the system. "Do you have a significant other, Cam? I've been trying to be more 'respectful of the mental privacy of the SGC personnel', as I believe it was put in the lecture, but it means I know so little about most of you. It's like wandering around and everyone has a mental shield up, or at least trying to pretend like that's true."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia gathered Cole's power to her, focusing on it and feeling it. She was more professional, more like a soldier than she normally was. She turned away from the others, as carefully as if her empty hands were loaded guns.

Concentrating, she solidified the air into a single vicious attack. Her hands shot forward in a pushing motion not unlike tossing a basketball through a hoop. But the rush of wind that barreled into a sapling and snapped it at its base was no game. "Awesome," she said softly, drawing back to try again.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie nodded approvingly. "Good. When you want try the next trick, you can 'harden' the air and circulate it around you. It's a good shield."

[z-Olivia Jenings-Izumi]

Olivia nodded, reaching into herself. Her eyes closed and she concentrated. It was always odd, using powers for the first time, like dancing to a new song when she already knew all the steps. It was there, the information; all she had to do was will it into being.

The wind stirred and shifted around her, and Olivia grinned at the low roar of power began to solidify around her. "How's this?" she asked, her dark eyes meeting Charlie's.

[Charlie Cole]

Charlie shut off his shield and picked up a small stone from the ground. Walking closer to Olivia, he shifted his grasp on the rock and told Olivia "Let's perform the simple test."

Tossing it underhand from a short distance, the stone sailed up to Livy's chest, but the winds of the shield caught and whipped it around with great force at another sapling. The impact lodged the rock a little bit into the tree.

Charlie gave Olivia a nod of approval. "Good, good. The next question is, do we want to do the 'trapping' trick or not?"

[Yseult Sierra]

Yseult settled back to the ground, boots sinking slightly into the humus rich earth, her blond hair in disarray from her short flight. She ran her fingers through her hair, attempting to tame its wildness, her face flushed, a small grin visible through her panting. Holding oneself aloft telekinetically was a terrible strain, but she had to admit, if privately, quite thrilling.

The beautiful blond doctor sat down, back braced against a tree as she watched Charlie Cole from another dimension and Olivia testing his powers. She arched an elegant brow as she saw the results of the rock being lobbed at the shield of air. With a mild exertion of effort, Yseult extended an ephemeral grasp and plucked the rock from the tree. Several other rocks rose up under the power of her will and joined the other one as she began to weave them in an intricate dance, while she watched what else Olivia, and by, Charlie, was capable of.

[The Red Man]

Meanwhile, not too far away, Dec was hunting.

The planet that was home to the Beta Site was a verdant world rich in varied temperate terrains. Thick, primeval forests and vast rolling plains of ten-foot tall grass acted as support for a vast array of fauna. Though there were predators as well as prey, the predators kept away from the strange two-legged invading creatures, preferring to hunt the plains in any case.

A predator of a different and much more dangerous sort hunted the woods right now.

Dec ran through the gloom of the deep forest on the balls of his feet, as tireless and silent as a wolf. He knew his quarry was ahead of him, could smell the mingled scents of cologne, gun oil, grease and metal as side notes to the distinctive smell of Man. The SGC area patrol was following it's usual procedure, and Dec was following his, namely to shadow the Airmen like a ghost, seeing how close he could get to them without their knowledge. It was fun, the stalk, and though wasn't as satisfying to his bloody alter-ego as a kill, it sufficed to take the edge off Red's murderous boredom. Last week, he'd gotten close enough to steal one patrol member's canteen during one of their rest-breaks. The Airman had found the missing piece of kit on their pillow in the barracks, a smiley-face carved into it's side.

Even Red had enjoyed that touch. So the two of them were going to try for it again, maybe tying someone's bootlaces together, or putting a 'kick me' sign on their backs.

Okay yes, it was puerile. But when you're Death Incarnate, an unstoppable killing machine without peer, a veritable one-man army who gets bored when there's no battle to fight and the screams of the dying aren't in his ears..? Well, puerile pranks was one of the better outcomes. Seriously: think of the alternatives.

But as he was closing in on the patrol, the shifting breeze brought other scents to Declan's keen senses. Three scents, to be precise. Two he knew, and one strange one. Dec stopped and grinned to himself, a phrase that has much more meaning when a person has two 'himselves'. *What's Livy doing here?*

*Well fuck, let's go find out. I smell the French doctor chick, too. Don't know the guy.* Red answered. *Hey, I got a GREAT idea-*

*Want to stalk them?*

*Thought you'd never ask, bro. Let's DO this. I want to know how Sexy Sierra smells when she's frightened.*

*You're a real charmer.*

*That's me. A regular ladykiller.* Red's laugh was not pleasant, but at least it was good-humored. The two-as-one set off in the new direction.

* * * * *

The killer drifted to the edge of the clearing, keeping downwind of the other Specialists. He saw Livy and some strange dude in fatigues doing... some kind of weird shit with wind and air currents. Hmm, when did Liv pick up that trick? He can do it too... New Specialist? Then he caught the golden gleam of Yseult's hair as the elegantly lovely woman rested against a tree.

*C'mon, Dec. Let's get her!*

*'Get' her?*

*Don't be a douche. I mean give her a scare. Fuck, man. You know what I meant.*

*No, I thought I knew. I was makin' sure.*

*Whatever, man. Get sneakin'!*

Moving in a fluid crouch that would put a panther to shame, the enhanced Ranger moved through the treeline, circling around to Yseult's tree. He moved with the wind and the natural swaying of the bushes and branches, none of his motions jerky or eye-catching.

Click to reveal..

Activating Catfooted - 1 QP for the scene

Dec's Stealth roll:

first 2 dice megas

1d10=9, 1d10=10, 1d10=9, 1d10=4, 1d10=5, 1d10=9, 1d10=2, 1d10=5, 1d10=4, 1d10=8, 1d10=10

!

9 succs!

+3 succs from Catfooted

12 succs to sneak up to Yseult's tree unnoticed.

[Yseult Sierra]

Under the influence of Yseult's telekinetic skill, the rocks spun and gyrated in mathematical precision, forming an intricate, fluid, fractal pattern. It only took a tiny percentage of her focus to maintain the dancing stones, their ever shifting configuration following the vagaries of her mind as she watched Charlie and Olivia, lips curved faintly.

Despite senses at the peak of human potential, and even beyond, Yseult was completely unaware of her unseen stalker, moving as one with the unindustrialized environment. Crouching right next to his pretty prey, Declan's calloused fingers stroked up the fine hairs at the nape of Yseult's neck, then ran through the silken wealth of her honey-hued hair.

Yseult shrieked at the unanticipated caress. She hurled herself forward, her telekinetic field snapping roughly into existence, rippling her clothing, launching the rocks she had been manipulating at the source of her surprise. She barely had time to disrupt their trajectory from imminent impact when she saw the cause of the unexpected touch.

Sgt. Declan Perault, a gloating smirk on his face, silver eyes crinkled with laughter. He seemed utterly unperturbed by the ballistic stones that narrowly missed him. Declan's grin only widened as Yseult spewed forth a stream of oddly sensual, foul French profanity.

The fuming French beauty inhaled deeply, intent on continuing her diatribe, when the sounds of sputtering cut her off so abruptly, she almost choked. Yseult turned her narrowed eyed, turquoise glare on Olivia.

Olivia had her hands over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter, then gave it up as futile and giggled openly. "I'm sorry, Yse, but you should have seen yourself jump, you must have cleared ten feet. And the look on your face..." She burst out into fresh peals of laughter.

Yseult tried to hang on to her righteous indignation, and she gave Declan and Olivia a sharp sniff to show her annoyance, but her full lips kept quirking up at the ends. Finally unable to stand firm in the face of their delighted glee, Yseult broke down, chuckling ruefully at herself.

"Bien! Sgt. Perault, that was well done. The biologically perfected predator, he is capable of surprising the doctor more accustomed to working in a lab out of several years of her formerly lengthy lifespan. It was worth it, yes?"