TEST DRIVE #2 - The Holodeck/Ten Forward

[tenforward_m]

Where were you a minute ago? Well, you aren't there anymore. Instead, you're standing in a very large, dark room lined with yellow. There are doors at either end of it.

Here's where things get a little choose your own adventure-y. You could:



1: Approach a console filled with buttons, located a few feet away. Press one, and it'll let you out of the room. Travel down a long hallway and you'll be in Ten Forward, the Enterprises' entertainment lounge. Have a drink, mingle and try to figure out why you're here.

OR

2: Maybe you just muttered some vague request under your breath. Maybe you wished aloud you were somewhere else. Or for help? If you did, might be in a fire station. Muttered something about killing whoever dumped you here? Surprise - you're in a slasher movie!

Though they're confusing, these visions feel about as real as they can be. And guess what - other people can experience those fantasies with you, as if they too were really there. How ever will you escape? Or do you want to?

[OOC: Welcome to the Holodeck! If you choose this option, whatever your character chooses to say out loud will cause a virtual reality program to load and play. While your character feels as if what they're experiencing and seeing is quite real, they're purely living through the latest and best in what he Enterprise has to offer in entertainment. Make sure to detail what your character's fantasy is, so that those threading with them will know how to react.

Open til next month's test drive!]

Comments

[a_quick_study]

Jonas is ... watching. There's a whole lounge full of people here, and somewhere, there has to be a clue. There usually is, if he looks hard enough and notices enough details and puts them together in the right way. Of course, it's easier with Carter, O'Neill, and Teal'c, but since he's seen no sign of the rest of SG-1 around, it's up to Jonas.

So as he wanders around the room, apparently looking for somewhere to sit, he's also he's looking at the people around him, studying them without appearing to study them. Most of the time, he just needs a glance.

He hasn't seen anything that tells him much yet, until ... there. That guy over there in the corner, with one hand using some sort of electronic device and the other drawing something circular.

Something very familiar that makes Jonas step closer, frowning, intent.

You can't study the Stargate as an unknown ancient relic, then study countless schematics and mission reports about them, and spend day after day looking at the one in Stargate Command, without recognising one when you see it.

"Have you seen something like that around here?"

[ancientstalker]

Orlin looks up from his work, eyes locking with the man who distracted him. He smiles slightly, still maintaining a neutral expression.

"There is nothing like this in this universe."

Yet. Orlin had been studying their holodeck. The holographic technology was pretty impressive. Perhaps even superceeding Alteran projection methods. He had an idea, hopefully one that Q hadn't thought of yet.

[a_quick_study]

"This universe?"

Of course there is. There's one right in the base at Stargate Command. There's one in Kelowna. There are unknown numbers of them scattered all throughout the galaxy. That's the whole point of the Stargate Program.

It wouldn't be much good without a Stargate.

But the man says it so calmly, like he's just imparting information, that Jonas' immediate instinct to protest is quelled.

"What do you mean, this universe? I've seen them. I've travelled through them."

Unless there is something far, far worse than he thought going on here. And it was bad enough already.

[ancientstalker]

Orlin's smile widens. Yes, this man knows the Astria Porta. This will make things interesting.

"You're no longer in the same universe you were. A being, known as Q, has pulled you into this dimension. Myself included."

[a_quick_study]

He smiles more broadly when Jonas mentions travelling through the gates; maybe he, too, is a little relieved to find someone here who seems to have any idea of what a Stargate even is.

Talk of finding worlds behind fur coats in wardrobes is interesting, but in a situation like this, he'll take someone familiar with what he knows.

The reassurance in finding someone else familiar with the Gates doesn't last long, though; the clarification the man gives him drives it away.

"Another dimension?" Jonas frowns, turning his head slightly, eyes glancing around like he'll see some sign to deny what he's just been told. "Surely no being is powerful enough to do that."

[ancientstalker]

And Orlin's smile shrinks to a concerned look.

"Unfortunately, the Q are omnipotent. I don't know how far their power has reached, but the circumstance remains the same regardless."

A pause.

"Q has outright admitted that this is his doing."

[a_quick_study]

"Omnipotent?"

For the first time in their conversation, the man's calm expression looks uneasy, even a little worried, like he doesn't like what he's saying.

Jonas doesn't like it either. More than just not liking it, he's not sure how it could be possible. They've come up against some pretty impressively powerful aliens in their time, but none of them are omnipotent, not even the Four Great Races. But here, apparently, there's a race not only omnipotent, but using that omnipotence to bring people into another universe.

That thought makes even Jonas uneasy.

"How can they be taking people from other dimensions?"

[ancientstalker]

What makes this even more concerning is that Jonas is speaking to a member of the Four Great Races. An Ancient, Alteran, Lantean... whatever.

He taps the pad of paper in front of him, frown still present.

"I'm not sure. Individual Q have an immense bank of power. Nothing I know of matches it." But... "Luckily, they don't seem to be entirely omniscient."

He's working on a plan, and it's almost complete.

"I'm not too sure about anyone else, but I may have a way to get back to our universe using the Astria Porta. The Stargate."

[a_quick_study]

"Well that's something," he says, though he says it so dryly that it sounds less genuine than it is. If there's an omnipotent rate messing around with people and pulling them into alternate universes, then at least it doesn't know everything that's going on.

It just doesn't make any sense with anything Jonas knows, and ... sure, he doesn't know everything, but he thought he knew a fair bit, after his time spent studying up on SGC mission reports.

Actually, it's all more confronting than he's willing to admit.

Before he can say anything else, though, the man keeps talking, and what he says makes Jonas's brows crease in concentration. Astria Porta. He's never heard the Stargates called that before, but he knows the words, has read them somewhere, and for a moment, he doesn't reply, concentrating instead on the words.

Doctor Jackson's notebooks.

That's where he's seen those words before.

"Astria Porta. That's ... Ancient, isn't it? You think you can come up with a way to use it even without one in this dimension?"

[ancientstalker]

"Ancient..." A slight smile, there. "Yes, I guess it is."

Orlin looks at the PADDs, pulling one towards him, before offering it to Jonas. It's the specifications for a particular holoprogram... One with a pretty familiar structure designed in the centre of a room. It's pretty detailed. Way more so than any of the diagrams in the SGC.

Why, it's almost like this man has built a Stargate himself.

"The holotechnology of this Federation is very advanced. The Enterprise's holodecks may serve a purpose. The only difficulty now is trying to find how to open a wormhole back to our dimension."

[a_quick_study]

Jonas has never heard anyone speaking Ancient, except occasionally reading out a word when they're working on a translation. But this man just called the Stargate the Astria Porta first. Like it's the first thing he learned to call it. Not the Stargate. Not the Chappa'ai.

And he's got a detailed schematic of a Stargate in front of him on the handheld computer he's using. It's broken down in a way that he's never seen it explained before. That's ... incredible.

"You're an Ancient."

He should be paying attention to the explanation of trying to use the holodecks to design a Stargate, but that fact ... it's kind of stuck.

An actual Ancient.

[ancientstalker]

A slight smile.

"I guess I am."

His smile widen. "My name is Orlin."

[a_quick_study]

He murmurs a greeting, as best he can manage in a language he's read but never spoken.

"Orlin. Wow. It's an honor."

But he knows that name. His finger presses to his mouth for a moment, but he's sure. He knows it. The SGC has encountered Orlin before.

"But I've heard of you. My name's Jonas Quinn. I ... I know Samantha Carter."

He's read those reports, including the analysis of the makeshift Stargate that Orlin constructed in Carter's basement. If anyone can figure out how to build one and make it work here, it should be Orlin. He's done it before.

Just not from another dimension.