ataraxion | oo1. audio.

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oo1. audio.

I want a transport arranged for me back to Earth.

[ It's just a voice, but it's a distinct voice -- female, with a thickly Scottishish brogue and cadence, if still a little left off centre from that. She sounds like calmness is a thing she is gripping onto.

Keeping as much fear as there is anger at bay. ]

Not saying I'm going to hurt anyone, but a ship this class, you'll got coolant systems, a waste and water supply system, purification. A delicate ecosystem on which depends things like pressurisation, temperature, oxygen. I can compromise all of that and force your mission objective a turn around, but I'd rather just keep it simple. I want a shuttle and a pilot and I want it as soon as physically fucking possible.

If you're listening, you'll remember we had a deal. You can arrest me again when I'm on solid ground.

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[ The responding voice is that of a teenager, and early teens, at that. ]

One, if you disrupt the system, you'd just be killing, like, two hundred people kidnapped the same as you were. And probably won't get to whoever's responsible.

Two, it's not sure the shuttles can get far enough from the ship to get anywhere near Earth, provided it actually still exists, here.

Three, whatever year it is for you, chances are it's not the same year here.

I don't speak for the people in charge of shuttles, but these are things that you can use thinking about.

[ Kate keeps her sigh off the feed, but there's a hint of dry exasperation in her tone that really isn't fair. It's not this person's fault they don't know what's going on. The shades of terrorism and hints at water-related powers are actually pretty novel, if not at all endearing. So it's just a hint, and it fades as she gets going, subsumed beneath a matter-of-fact firmness. ]

Okay, first of all, everyone that you're talking to is a prisoner here just as much as you are. We're not piloting the ship, we didn't bring you here, we don't know who did or how. We can't send you back to Earth or anywhere else, it doesn't matter what you threaten us with since nobody knows the way. You've been kidnapped to another universe, just like the rest of us. Welcome.

Second of all, threatening to pretty much shut down life support isn't going to get you anywhere or make you any friends [ that's probably a lie, it just won't make her friends with anybody nice ] so I'd quit that right about now if I were you.

One, I know what I'm doing, little man. Two and three can hold on a minute 'til you tell me who is in charge're the shuttles.

[ Her voice hasn't softened a lot, but nor has it sharpened. Kids. ]

Edited 2014-12-08 20:30 (UTC)

Yeah, well. Threatening life support isn't exactly trust-inspiring.

And I'm actually not sure if there aren't any changes in the department there after the jump. Sometimes people don't wake up for a jump, and some are sent back home and disappear altogether.

But you can take one of the elevators to the shuttle bay, people there'll know who exactly is in charge.

[ He's not lying, either. He's with Communications, and he knows how somebody's disappearance can get things muddied for a bit. He'd rather not give imprecise information. ]

Bullshit.

[ There's almost a laugh in her voice, even if it's a bit dire, bleak, and suppressed. ]

You've been fed bullshit. Of a particularly creative sort, mind.

[ If there's a laugh in Kate's it's the mean kind. ] You've been here for a day. How the hell would you know?

The only trust I need inspire is trust I'll do what I say if I don't get what I want.

[ Little point in threatening life support only to assuage those fears, even if talking to a teenager. A chatty teenager. ]

I'm looking to get their attention before I go anywhere. [ But-- she sounds irritated for having been diverted off her course, but she has to ask; ] What do you mean, they disappear home?

Yeah, well, I come from a city where people make such statements before they release fear or laughter or whatever inducing toxins in the water supply. They know what they're doing. Doesn't mean that I'm okay with the people who die because of them. Soooo. You can see how your statement doesn't sit very well.

[ Sorry. He's not happy right now, but. He nods to himself. ]

There are two ways people leave the ship. One, they die. I know of two who have, since my arrival here. Two, they disappear during the jump.

Since a friend disappeared, and then showed up again recently, and he did say that he went back home between the two - though it was longer for him there than the number of jumps we had here in the interim - basically if somebody disappears during the jump, evidence suggests they do get returned home. When and where they were taken from.

If it sounds like bullshit, it generally is.

[ Rules to live by. ]

If you make a thing, escape, seem impossible, then it becomes impossible, don't it. There's no thing like other universes, we only got one. That's the point of a universe.

I don't know about this place, but I do know I don't belong here. I came from Blackstone.

I didn't say escaping was impossible. [ Kate is striving for patience. She sort of achieves it? but still sounds frustrated. Though if everything she's saying is true, maybe that could be forgiven. ] But right now we don't know how. We didn't bring you here and we can't send you back to Earth. Most of us are trying to figure out a way there ourselves. Or back to wherever else we came from.

As for the universe thing you can believe what you want but good luck holding on to that idea here. We're all from different worlds, different times, different versions of Earth or other places.

Where is Blackstone?

It's not a where.

[ But she can't quite disguise that bland denial to Kate's claims isn't working as it should. She answers the question mostly as a means of grounding herself, by the sounds of it, but the subject matter doesn't help. ]

It's a what. A programme, a deal I made. Keeps people like me out've prison. Or it was supposed to do.

Like magic.

[ Cynicism. Not cynicism towards the kid, necessarily, but that anyone is mysteriously disappearing at all. It all sounds like a very elaborate ruse. ]

[ Quiet snort. ]

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur Clarke, I'm pretty sure.

Though I have seen magic, too.

Would it matter if it's science or magic, though? A kidnapping is a kidnapping. Somebody or something is responsible.

'Fraid it's not that simple. The shuttles are landing craft, nothing long range.

[Also a real pain to get working again so he doesn't just give them to people]

Besides, we don't have a right clue which way Earth or any planet anyone's ever heard of even is from here. We're pretty stuck for now and have enoguh to worry about without someone taking out life support on us.

So that's a no on the shuttle.

Enough to worry about.

[ Repetition requests information. Flatly. ]

Magic might exist, but so do charletans. Smoke and mirrors. Fear tactics and hope without agency. If you're lucky enough, you might get what you want, but if you try anything, you'll likely die.

I've heard this before. How long you been here?

Ship periodically tries to kill us all.

[you get another teenager responding, lucky you.]

If any of us were capable of that, there wouldn't be anyone here for you to threaten.

[ Kate's just going to cherry-pick the most interesting (and probably most likely to raise hackles) part of that. ] People like you?

I'm not sure how many people it'll take for you to actually believe that there's no easy way of getting back to where you come from once you're here, but I can keep adding to the tally if you want.

[ More importantly - ]

Please don't do anything to any water, waste, or eco systems.

Oh, yeah.

[ There's a detectable half-grin in her voice. ]

The regular sorts of lunatics don't get second chances.

[ A long silence. ]

How's that?

I was talking to the people that are.

You didnae say pretty please.

Is a cherry on top also required?

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