† 009 [31 july, shortly after fitz's post]

[klutziness]

[even though the feed is garbled, rikkus' frustration and something akin to fear are clear in her voice]

Don't be ▒▓▒▓ing idiots. Get to medbay or somewhere not en▒▓neering! Trust me, you don't want a▒▓ of what's here.

[there's a short pause]

I need my engineering cr▒▓ on deck though. Stay together, stay safe. Find Fitz, stick with him. He'll ▒▓▓▒▒▒

[the feed abruptly cuts to white noise]

Comments

[video]

[tadashiwashere]

[Nearly half an hour later, Tadashi has his communicator working again. Beading sweat dots his forehead, but he doesn't seem to notice at this point. Other things are more urgent.]

Rikku! ▒▓ you okay?

[His expression twists in concern as he tries to piece together everything she said through the static.]

I haven't ▓▒▒▒ Fitz anywhe▓. Any idea ▓

[Tadashi's face is torn between alarm and frustration as the static over the feed increases. Finally, despite his effort to make adjustments to his communicator, his video feed cuts out again.]

[klutziness]

▒▒dashi! Get ▓▓ medbay or some▓▒▓▒. You're not officially en▓▓▓ring.

[read: you've got a little brother to worry about]

[tadashiwashere]

You ▒▓▒'t tell me tha▒ you don'▓ need the help.

B▒▒▓een here and ▒▓▓bay, I can do ▓ore g▒od ▓ere. This ▓▓ my field -- ▒▓t me help.

[read: he's not going to abandon you guys -- he's got Hiro taken care of for now.]

[klutziness]

[you're insufferable & stubborn & she kind of likes you for it]

Gu▒▒▒ what, that's what I'm tel▒▒▓g you! Your field is ▓▓▓ling, so get to he▓▓▓ng and whatever. Take c▒▒e of other people. I'll be ▓▓▓▓.

permavid

[knackered]

[Not long after Tadashi's reply, Arthur's broadcasts. He's come out of fighting in space and--he handled it well enough, but not as much as he'd liked. At least he had dignity during his first space battle.

He doesn't bother mopping up the stream of blood running down the side of his face. At the moment, as evidenced by the shaking and groaning of the ship, there are more important things to worry about than vanity.]

Hello-- is-- Are you there?

Can anyone hear or see me?

--Look, whoever-- whoever can-- We've got to do something. It may be a fool's errand but we've got little choice. I refuse to-- [he breathes deeply to remain calm]--

I refuse to allow them to take us. That woman, she said something about us having a chance at forcing the ship to jump. These abilities, if we combine them--perhaps we can.

I'm well aware it hasn't been successful in the past. [Arthur lets out a low, hoarse laugh.] Maybe it's different, I don't know. With that thing in our heads, it very well could be.

[He finally wipes some of the sweat and blood from his brow and considers the device.]

Before anyone considers anything, remember that in this fight, death is inevitable, and being taken prisoner, perhaps something worse than that fate. We ought to be able to choose our fate--to have a bloody chance at staying alive and not shackled by a government who may very well consider us liabilities--that means disposable.

[Arthur's breathing at last evens out. He closes his eyes. Opens them again. He is resolute, if a bit resigned.]

If we can get everyone to focus these abilities, if there are those of us who wish to force a jump or at the very least, try, I urge you--we've very little time, we must act quickly. As reckless as it may seem, we've got to try and reconnect with Engineering, and fast.

I may be a stranger to most of you on board, but in my time on this ship I've come to admire those who came before me--all of you--for enduring here.

We will not be taken into the hands of people who will likely see us without mercy.

[With the stare and conviction of two millennia behind his eyes:]

I refuse to let that happen.

[with that, he cuts it off.]

text.

[fullmoon]

Charlotte said it could kill us all.

[knackered]

By my reasoning, we'd be choosing certain death over possible death. I prefer the latter.

[fullmoon]

Neither is certain. I don't think they came here planning to kill us. I don't think they could now, if we got face to face with them.

[kutte]

So could Van Rijn.

[fullmoon]

Sure.
Or we could kill him, which is more than I can say for whatever is on board with us.

aint nobody got time for anon for once, voice

[lostsoldier]

Anybody got odds on survival if we do it? Ballpark figures? Risks? Anything?

[ Where my smart science people at. ]

[voice]

[sorrycharles]

The Tranquility’s mission was to find habit▒▓▓▒ ▒lanets.

Now ▒▓n Rijn wants to help us find our homes.

Given the disparity in ▓▓▒▒▒olog▒cal advances, in the event of surrender, I project a zero ▓▒▒cent chance of survival for planet earth in 197▓.

Back to you.

voice

[knackered]

We're running out of munitions and by the sound of it alone, the ship has taken serious damage. It didn't look good either while I was out there. [Space ships, air ships, water ships; they all needed a certain amount of structural integrity. Arthur is by no means an expert but it doesn't take an expert to use their eyes and ears to gauge serious damage to any vessel.]

The risk is death, but that goes without saying now. Anything we do will have a high chance of mortality--near certainty, if we keep trying to fight them and do nothing else.

If nothing is done, we will be captured, and-or killed. We don't need numbers to tell us that.

[although he wouldn't mind if someone had a more sciencey take on it.]

voice.

[navigational]

Tell me how to quantify our ability to control forces we don't understand in opposition to an entity of unknown origin, power, and motive, and I'll run some numbers for you.

[Text]

[tadashiwashere]

[Video has gotten dicier since Tadashi made it to Engineering. He tries to send five separate garbled messages before sending a text through.]

If we f▒rce a Jump, it could des▒ ▓ ▓ ▒ the shi ▓

But this c ▓ uld be our ▒▒st shot. If w ▓ do this, we need to have as many p ▒▒▓ ▓ le as possible ready ▓ the gravity couch ▓rea.

[text]

[ryuuzaki]

[Unlike Tadashi's message, it's not garbled. However, L does send his message to Tadashi several additional times in a row to be sure it gets through.]

Agreed. We can waste time arguing about it, but the fact is that anyone who is interested in making the jump happen will probably not be dissuaded from trying to do it by public disagreement. If that describes enough people, the jump is likely happen, regardless of who's opposed to it, which means that everyone needs to be prepared for it. Whether or not you can survive outside of a gravity couch isn't predicated on whether or not you wanted to take the risk of making the jump to begin with.

It's equally pointless for anyone to demand statistics when they know very well that we don't have any reliable way of generating them. Call it fifty-fifty. Or call it ninety percent. It doesn't matter: we jump or we don't, and I doubt this is how the decision will be made.

[yardbird]

I can help wrangle people to prep the pod area for the jump. Whether we decide to go through with it or not, we'll at least be safer there than anywhere else.

video;

[cabins]

[about frakking time! But Laura says nothing along those lines. Instead, she looks at the camera directly.]

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Tranquility. We do not have time to be debating if we should or should not jump. The enemy is barreling down on us, and we are sitting ducks. We may be able to hold them off for a time, but for how long? Are you willing to risk every life here to eventually lose?

No. If we are going to sacrifice anyone's life, it'll be so that we may actually have a chance of living without Van Rijn's influence!

There is no time to weigh pros and cons. There is a small chance Van Rijn may not mean to harm us. But there is a larger chance that he could make our lives even here onboard Tranquility, far more worse. THE ONLY chance for survival is to jump away.

Here, at our disposal, we have a group of multitalented individuals who have been through Hades and back. We. Must. Make. The. Jump. Give us a head start before they come after us. If they come after us.

We have a chance for escape. We are fools if we don't take it.

We have all been taken from our homes. Kidnapped here by Van Rijn and his oversights. Why should we let him kidnap us again?

[She takes off of her glasses, still looking at the camera. She's so exhausted, dark circles under her eyes.]

We must make the jump.

[And when they do, well, it's best to do it with as little panic as possible.

She looks down, taking a breath, putting her glasses back on. She's been doing this for four years now, on Galactica. On TQ.. So explain why it felt like thirty.]

I hate to bear the bearer of bad news, but we have no other choice.

voice; does the timewarp to give you tetchy wizard instead of agreeable lt

[fullmoon]

[ He's still in the midst of bickering with people above, so he sounds a little frayed—just on the edge of mouthy, if not quite there yet. ]

Not even one other choice?

voice.

[milagros]

I'd like to offer food for thought to those of you who're under the impression that it's a better idea not to force the jump:

Smiley agrees with you.

( guess who has two thumbs doesn't want to be on whatever team smiley's on? this bitch. )

Earlier, a command was issued to those individuals who have previously fallen under Smiley's influence - a command to sabotage engineering. I don't know how many people received this command, or how many of them intend to follow it, but I do know that that instruction was not intended as a peaceful fucking debate.

Wherever that thing wants us to be, I strongly suggest we should consider doing everything in our power not to be.

( it is worth asking where mila got her information, but it's unlikely she'll cough it up. there's a reason she's putting it out there and not the wanted fugitive. )

text.

[doggedly]

[Suspiciously reads this a few times before he hazards to ask:]



who told you they got a command to sabotage

I CAN FINALLY REPLY TO MY OWN POST

[klutziness]

[rikku spends a long time thinking about this. it's something she'd thought about before, but she hadn't known if it would go over well. she knows first hand what can happen when even a few people disagree with such a large decision. it's how governments and religions fall. is she ready to risk the entirety of the ship's population on the slim chance that they could force a jump?

well.

she's the one in charge. and she's probably the one deepest into engineering. if the nay-sayers are going to focus their fear and hate on one person, it should probably be her.]

I have to fin▓ the drive first. Or wait f▒▒ it to find me.

[voice]

[notyourutopian]

[Eleanor sounds hesitant, uncertain, but she can't say nothing, right?]

Do you...are people stuck down there? I...ah...might be able to help...

[klutziness]

St▓▒▒ is one way to put it. What can ▒▒▒ do?

[notyourutopian]

[There is a pause as she tries to decide how to answer, how to explain. 'Oh I break the laws of physics.' Finally there's a sigh.]

Teleport.

[She'd either believe her or she wouldn't.]