Tenth Gate [Video]

[forsometimenow]

Who: Jennifer Keller and you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: N/A
When: Now

A year, huh... [Jennifer looks distant and sounds a little sad.] How... [She hesitates.] If you've been here for a while, what kinds of things do you do to cope when you're really, really missing home? Because I've been thinking about my friends back home a lot lately, and having been the only person from my world here this entire time... [She trails off, and decides to just wait for responses.]

Comments

[forsometimenow]

Ours were the "small gray guys with big heads" variety of alien. From what I remember of my "welcome to Stargate Command" introduction stuff, ancient contact with Earth led to some of early humanity's beliefs and names being spread to other alien races, who adopted them as their own, hence why they called themselves the Asgard. Our Asgard are all dead now, though.

[dancingmd]

I don't know of any species that fits that particular description. But I do know the Asgardians I have heard of from others are still very much alive, in their world.

[forsometimenow]

Hmmm... so there are some similarities and some differences between the worlds we come from. It makes sense from what the others have told me about the alternate universes they ended up in, though. Like, in one of them, Rodney and I still ended up together, but the circumstances were very different.

[dancingmd]

Mmm. It's been my personal experience with parallel universes as well.

[She grins.]

Apparently in one I get to be the captain of my own ship. Alas, I didn't get to see it myself, but I like the sound of that one.

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer laughed.]

I think you'd make an awesome captain. It'd be a lot of responsibility, but then again, being a doctor is already a huge one, too.

[dancingmd]

[She smiles.]

I'm actually not too far from being a captain - I already have the rank of commander and have captained the Enterprise on occasion, when the need arises or during night shifts. It's... something I only recently started considering though. Always figured being a doctor was enough.

[forsometimenow]

Wow... that's really awesome! I'm not sure I could ever do it myself- I've lost enough sleep over my current role.

[dancingmd]

You already have a lot more responsibilities though than I did at your age. I was only just finishing med school at that point.

[forsometimenow]

That's true. I had to go and be the overachiever, after all- it's no wonder I feel like I haven't gotten a proper night's sleep in years.

[dancingmd]

[She laughs.] That I can sympathsize with, though I was awake at all hours because of Wesley, not because of my job. Do you know? He always slept best in the engine room. The engineers on Gamma shift loved having a baby around and it always got him to calm down, but as soon as I tried to take him out of there, he’d start fussing again. Probably should have taken that as a sign of some sort.

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer grinned at that.]

That's pretty cute- I know some babies just find the noise and vibrations to be soothing. I was kinda that way, too. Dad sometimes had to put me in the car and go around and around the block to make me sleep when I was a baby.

[dancingmd]

Getting them to sleep can be a trial, but once they are asleep - I think there are very few sights more peaceful.

[She smiles fondly at the memories.]

To tell you the truth, as tired as I always was back then, I kind of miss it.

[forsometimenow]

I can only imagine... it's got to be hard to be separated from him. You probably still worry about him, no matter how old he gets, huh?

[dancingmd]

Of course: Mother's prerogative. I think he worries about me too though.

[forsometimenow]

Because both of you ARE out in space, right? And you never know the kind of trouble you're going to get into.

[dancingmd]

[She smiles.]

I don't think it's space that worries him. He grew up on Starships after all.

[forsometimenow]

True- I keep forgetting that space travel was the norm for you all. I never rode on a spaceship until I was an adult.

[dancingmd]

And I keep forgetting I'm the odd one out here. It's easy to forget, now that we all live in space, that most people here don't have that at home. Even people who aren't in Starfleet take Starships like you would... airplanes and trains, I suppose. They go on vacation, visit relatives in other star systems, that sort of thing.

[forsometimenow]

Man, that sounds like a lot of fun, though. The ships we DO have back home are usually used either for combat or for our scientific investigations... not very often for leisure.

[dancingmd]

[She nods.] It was that way in the beginning for us too. I'm sure as space travel becomes less difficult, more civilians will be using it as well.

[forsometimenow]

I can see that happening in my lifetime, definitely. And I'm kind of excited for it to happen. Leaving home, leaving Earth... it expanded my horizons. I feel like I've actually LIVED now.

[dancingmd]

[She laughs.]

Soon you won't even want to stay in the same place for very long. It's like an itch that won't go away.

[forsometimenow]

I'm already feeling that here, believe me. I never thought I would, since I was such a homebody growing up. I didn't even go out of state for college.

[dancingmd]

What made you decide to join the Stargate program then?

[forsometimenow]

Well, they started courting me while I was still in school after hearing about my academic prowess, though they were very vague and made it sound like I'd end up in Iraq or Afghanistan or someplace like that where I'd be out of contact for long periods of time. I was initially going to say "no", but... my dad and I had a long talk about it, and he told me he understood my hesitation, but he also felt like it would be a great challenge to face. And I've always been about bettering myself. Of course, I never expected I'd be head of the medical department so soon... but even if I wasn't, I would have stayed.