driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Beverly Crusher and all you other fine redheads
Broadcast: Networkwide Video
Action: Blue Fish, Cargo Bay
When: Right after the shuffle!

[The video feed cuts on to show Beverly, grinning with amusement, though her tone remains professional as she addresses the fleet.] Attention, Drift Fleet! This is Dr. Crusher of the SS Blue Fish. [Sorry guys, it's going to be a while before she stops talking to the network like she's in Starfleet.] We've received an... interesting delivery here on board the Blue Fish that I think some of you will want to see.

[She steps back from the camera for a moment, revealing the Blue Fish's cargo bay, stacked floor to ceiling with crates of what looks like... shampoo? You'll also see the Blue Fish's intrepid Captain Sokka in the background, mouth open in angry shock about this intrusion into his cargo bay. Beverly walks over to the nearest crate and pulls out a bottle of shampoo to hold up closer to the camera. The shiny red bottle looks suspiciously similar to a certain famous salon brand of hair care products from late 20th or early 21st century Earth, if any of you happen to be familiar with that. "JOHN FLOOTER" is emblazoned prominently on the top along with the words "RESPLENDENT RED" in gold.]

In case you can't tell what is in the crates, it's shampoo, and tons of it.

[Her face pops back onscreen.]

Someone out there must really have a thing for redheads. [She waggles her eyebrows.] But who can blame them?

[She sets the shampoo back in its box before continuing.]

Of course, it's not all for just me and Kairi! They sent a list, which I'll upload onto the network, and if your name is on it, you can come by the Blue Fish at any time to pick up your gift. Or, if it's easier for you, just let me know and I'll bring your box by your ship at your earliest convenience. Thank you!

((ooc: if your character is a redhead, assume they're on the list. someone in the audience just really wanted an excuse for all the redheads to get together, okay???))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Natasha nods. It makes sense, and opens up a slew of other questions. Starfleet is easy enough to break down; the doctor had mentioned living on a starship previously, she assumes Starfleet is the organization that she worked for, or with, aboard that vessel. Studying the inputs and outputs, she looks deep in thought.]

What about data that doesn't correspond to anything in your records? Do you get a baseline unknown, or can your tricorder break down those readings further, to try and interpret them?

[She's especially curious to see if the doctor has found anything unusual about the magic-users aboard.]

It depends on the data, really. There are some things it simply can't get a read on, and there isn't much I can do about that, except to turn to more traditional methods of research. For everything else, it is capable of some extrapolation and analysis, but ultimately, it comes down to me or whoever is using it to interpret the raw information.

[She's clearly processing what the doctor is telling her, thinking further, looking intently at the tricorder.]

Is it at all compatible with the fleet's systems? If you do diagnostics in the Blue Fish's medbay, can you upload the results to your tricorder, give it more to work with?

[Tony'd give his right arm to see this. Or someone's right arm, she thinks. Probably not his.]

No, it isn't. Whatever Atroma did to it to prevent it from being used for communications, also prevents it from syncing with the fleet's computers. I have to manually enter any data that I want transferred.

But you at least have the option. Might be tedious, but you could expand your database.

Have you noticed any real difference between the humans here, in scanning?

[Not even necessarily just the magical ones. She's curious, wondering if different universes mean different core compositions. What makes one person this, and the same person that somewhere else? It's fascinating.]

Not much at the molecular level, no. After all, it seems the majority of us still originated on Earth, we just come from divergent universes. And even the humans whose home planets are very different... I'm not entirely convinced that those planets are not still Earth. Parallel universes are theoretically infinite, so it only makes sense that there are Earths out there that have evolved so differently as to be unrecognizable to us. Either way, humans from those worlds still share the majority of our DNA. Some here have just evolved their mental capabilities differently or, arguably, further or have developed senses beyond those I would classify as normal in humans.

[It's a solid enough theory, and one she can accept, for the time being. Parallel earths--it's close enough to explain the men who look like ones she's known, but couldn't be more different. And hadn't they learned something similar from Thor? His Yggdrasil wasn't that much different a concept. Stark would have found it infuriating and fascinating by turns. She nods briefly, the faintest smile flitting across her face.]

I know someone back home who'd love to debate this with you. As it happens, I more or less agree.

[Stark could argue this all he wanted, but considering multiple, unconnected Starfleet personnel have encountered these parallel universes, Beverly's pretty confident she's right. She smiles back.]

I'd love to discuss it with them, if they were here. What I find fascinating is seeing where and when the timelines diverge. For example, I was talking to another one of the other members of the fleet who comes from Earth in the year 1999, but his 1999 is radically different from what happened in my Earth's 1999, yet both our Earths had the same moon landing in 1969. So I'm guessing the divergence came sometime after that.

Edited 2015-07-03 14:10 (UTC)

[His year 1999, she notes, and while she doesn't want to assume directly that she means Ray, it's likely. How many other men in the fleet come from Earth circa 1999? Not many possibilities, judging by what she's seen.]

Is that your theory? That we're all from some version of the same Earth, just after multiple divergencies?

Well, not all of us. Many people here are clearly from different planets and species all together... and not any that I'm familiar with. They may not even be necessarily from the Milky Way Galaxy. But it seems more likely than not that the humans at least are coming from, if not necessarily divergent universes, parallel ones. We've encountered more than a few of them in Starfleet, though usually the differences aren't as great as the ones I've seen here.

[The catgirl does come to mind. Although she supposes evolution has taken enough by-paths over the years to make anything possible. The parallel universes theory grabs her attention more strongly at the moment, though:]

Really? Smaller differences, how so?

Well, the most famous example - or infamous, I guess would be more accurate - was discovered about a century ago by Captain Kirk and his crew. They found that versions of themselves existed in that universe as well, except there, they weren't part of a peaceful republic, but rather a brutal militaristic empire, where torture, murder, and betrayal were commonplace. Otherwise technology, places, people, even some historical events were roughly the same as they were in our universe.

Fortunately, no one has encountered that reality again, but there have been others. One of my crewmates was caught in a state of quantum flux and shifted through several different realities before he was able to correct the original quantum incursion. I myself have been in another universe, though that was not exactly comparable as it was unstable and didn't exist independently from our own universe.

So in that first alternate world, similar histories existed. The same people were there, but different. Altered by their experiences, I guess. [She knows all too well what that's like, these days.]

I take it it didn't end well, that first time. People from your world meeting people from the other.

They all survived the encounter if that's what you mean. But barely. It easily could have gone very, very differently.

Mm.

[She's lost in thought for a moment, considering the not!Steve. The hatred and bitterness in his eyes. She still can't believe that a man like Steve could become someone like that. She would say could look at her like that--but that she can believe well enough. Looking back at Bev, she offers a one armed shrug, finished with her examination of the tricorder.]

I can't imagine it was any easier for them. Seeing people they could have become.

Perhaps. From all reports they seemed to get some sort of sadistic enjoyment out of harming others, but having never been there myself, I can't say for sure.