002. telling the tale.

[imahologram]

Who: Leia Organa
Broadcast: Video; text
Action:
When: February 1

[Video]

Good afternoon.

[This feels so much more formal than her first, pretty much accidental broadcast. Leia's sitting at a table she found in a quiet corner of a Starlight restaurant, hands folded on the surface before her.]

I'm interested in any information you might have on past escapes from the Fleet, whether successful or not, or on people who have been sent away by the Atroma. If we pool our resources, my hope is that we'll have a better chance of finding ways to send home those Fleet members whose priorities lie elsewhere.

I've attached my own experiences below, in the interest of adding to our current knowledge base. Any intelligence you can offer, however small, has the potential to be of use.

Thank you.

[Text]

[It's the executive summary of a report, because of course it fucking is.]

Timeline: First three days docked at the FS Starlight
Location: FS Starlight, SS Lornlo
Contact: Leia Organa, Windrose

Mission goal: Begin journey home using local transport

Highlights:
‣ Made contact with beings (both human and alien) of various ships
‣ Demands from many for payment up front for
‣ Traded work for passage on the SS Lornlo
‣ Completed menial tasks aboard ship for Captain Graatix
‣ Duration of trip: several hours
‣ Transported back to the Fleet immediately upon leaving Fleet area of influence

Notes:
‣ Evidence in favor of the augment's primary role in tying beings to the Fleet
‣ Ship quality outside of the Fleet appears to be as good or better as within
‣ Multiple alien races present on the FS Starlight,
‣ No additional details on location gainned

Next steps:
‣ Investigation of potential for disabling augment
‣ Purchase of ship parts (local equivalent to hyperdrive?) to patch into existing Fleet systems
‣ Further questioning of locals for information regarding area
‣ Discuss experiences with Fleet members for further insight

[ooc: Interaction around/during said escape attempt can also happen here if you're interested.]

Comments

Video

[passingthrough]

Before I was mysteriously abducted for a space adventure I was mysteriously abducted for an undersea prison adventure. Same kind of deal. People from different realities, worlds, and times. You were one of them, and you don't remember me so either your memories of it were wiped or different version.

Video

[imahologram]

I see.

[WELL, THAT'S NOT UNSETTLING AT ALL. The thought of other Leias somehow existing in other realities--or worse, the possibility that she should remember this underwater prison of Kitty's and doesn't--is up there with Captain Romanov's theory that everyone here could be a clone for creepiness.]

Let's hope it was a different version. [That's mildly less eerie.] It's nice to meet you, anyway. Did you just arrive?

Video

[passingthrough]

It feels like the better theory. [And she can understand it being the less unsettling one. She nods.] Just today.

You basically said everything I would have here if I was a little less confused about where I was. [Not the note part. Not really a note taker.]

Video

[imahologram]

Then welcome--you have my sympathies. [She can't imagine moving from one universe-wide prison to another.]

While we're talking, can I clear any of that confusion up? I've only been here about a month, but I can try to answer your questions.

Video

[passingthrough]

Thanks. [Would you believe it's prison, and not home she kind of misses most right now?]

I'd like to know why we can't just fly the ships away. I realize that won't achieve multi-dimensional travel, but it could be a start. But it sounds like you're still working on that?

Or how are we expected to run them? I mean we can't all have experience in that? [She has every confidence she could figure the inner workings out. She's done it before with alien technology, but that's kind of her thing not an average skill set.]

[imahologram]

[She wouldn't be the first one Leia's met. She doesn't understand it, exactly, but she has a whole galaxy of problems to solve waiting for her at home.]

You've got the right idea--but the ships are tethered to the Marsiva. If you fly too far away from it, you're yanked right back. It doesn't help that they aren't exactly designed for quick getaways. None of them have hyperdrives.

[It's kind of a downer to shoot down all Kitty's hopes a moment after she's had them, but she needs to know what they're up against.] Have you noticed the augment they gave you? Behind your ear.

[passingthrough]

[It helps if you were about to die at home anyway and even if you weren't going to die your timeline was going to be reset and you as you exist currently were going to be completely rewritten.

She's not even that worried about being shot down. She was expecting it. She used to be the old timer in the land of people coming in thinking they were getting out later that day. Doesn't mean she wants to leave it unquestioned though.

That question gets a look though. And then her hand reaches up, touching behind the wrong ear first and then the other. It's almost nothing—a little bump. She wouldn't have noticed it.] I'm not going to like this am I?

[imahologram]

Probably not.

[Leia didn't, after all.]

They put that in before you woke up. It gives you all the information you need to get by in your crew--but if this entire experience has shown me anything, it's what's keeping us here.

And apparently [this is news to her, and not what she'd call good news], you don't want to try and remove it.

[passingthrough]

Definitely didn't like that.

...What happens if you try to remove it? [Because she was already trying to see if she could isolate keeping it solid while she phases the rest of herself so it falls out.]

[imahologram]

Some kind of psychological pain, according to Doctor Crusher. [Without having experienced it herself, Leia doesn't have nearly as good a description as she'd like...but she's not sure she wants to try it out herself and fix that.] Her theory is that they've tuned the augment to each person's threshold--so no matter what you've experienced before, it's worse.

[passingthrough]

Okay. I'm slightly less eager to try it then. My ability might make it possible for me to disrupt it before it can activate though. Just...probably not on myself.

[imahologram]

What kind of ability is that?

[passingthrough]

Phasing. I can make myself intangible and pass through almost anything. It disrupts electronics.

[imahologram]

[Her brows shoot up. She's never heard of such a thing before--it's not exactly a Jedi ability.]

Maybe we should do some experimenting with that sometime. I'm not sure how it might affect the augment.

[passingthrough]

Are you volunteering because it sounds like it goes to a very bad place if it doesn't work. [Which she would know since she is the one who informed her of that.]

[imahologram]

Maybe. [There's not a lot of certainty behind that, though.] I'm going to look back through the network archives and see what I can find before we make any plans.

[passingthrough]

I'd like to know more about it first too. People probably know more than they think they know about this place and it's a matter of connecting the dots.

Sadly, they don't all record it like you.

[imahologram]

I'll let you know what I find out.

They probably don't come from places where they need to. But if we're going to do anything about this situation, we need the facts in front of us.

[passingthrough]

Agreed.

This is standard operating procedure for you back home?

[imahologram]

[Leia nods.]

When I'm not trapped in a holo-drama, most of my work is tactical or diplomatic. [It's occasionally diplomacy with a blaster, but...] What did you do at home?

[passingthrough]

Holo-drama?

[She should really find a good, safe stock answer for this, but blunt honesty is more her thing.] Freedom fighter, vigilante, assassin, gene traitor. You can pretty much take your pick. Kind of depends on the point of view. So, generally combat.

[Head tilt.] Also a teacher and a trainer.

[imahologram]

They've told you about that part, haven't they? How we're being recorded? [Leia doesn't bother keeping her contempt from her tone.]

It sounds like we're in the same business--aside from teaching and training. What war were you fighting?

[passingthrough]

Right. I heard reality TV. [Not holo-drama, but she gets that they must be basically the same now. And the contempt is warranted as far as she's concerned.]

We're trying to stop a genocide.

[imahologram]

That's another name for it, as far as I can tell.

[No contempt for Kitty's goals, though. Leia's interest is piqued.] How's it going?

[passingthrough]

More people die every day. Guess that'd be true even without it going on, but not at his rate. We were close to...something before I was pulled out. [A very drastic plan.]