The Arrival

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

Lilith rubbed the back of her neck. At least the Collector threat had been ended, or so she hoped. And they'd stopped the construction of the new Reaper. While the threat was still out there, they at least had a breather for a while.

"Lead on." She and her companions would follow Julia to the gate room. While the humans, and Tali, had a habit of taking in their surroundings as they went, Legion seemed to simply follow along. It could be that it just wasn't as obvious about gawking as the organics or it simply wasn't interested in what they were seeing as they walked.

"Almost looks like what'd happen if a relay stood still," comes from Kaidan when they see the structure.

"Almost." Clearly there was more to the 'stargate' than met the eye but for now, it seemed dormant. Once again, though, Lil found herself wishing Liara could be with them. If nothing else, the asari would likely find the structure fascinating.

(Lil doesn't rattle too easily, though the outward explosion might cause a bit of a jump because, well, suddenly there's something in the room.)

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia nodded slightly before replying.

"Let's see if what happens when we activate it looks familiar in any way to you. Oh, stand behind where I am for now, you'll understand why in a moment."

Turning to a young man standing at a control interface panel, she added, "Dial Atlantis."


A "Yes ma'am" followed that, and was then followed up by the young man pressing a series of eight buttons.

As he pressed the buttons, the inner 'ring' of the gate came to life, beginning to spin slowly. At various points it would stop, and the very top 'chevron' indicator would slide open, then back, locking the symbol in what what had to be a coordinate system. This happened seven more times in almost the exact same manner, save for the symbol locked was different each time. Then, for a few moments after the eighth locked, nothing happened.

Suddenly there was a strange noise, followed by the explosion of a 'puddle' thrusting out from the gate itself, which then collapsed back in on itself, revealing what they might consider, should they be familiar with the concept, to be a wormhole. An artificially created, and stable wormhole at that.

Grabbing a device, Julia spoke into it, and that was followed by another mans voice, one whom they couldn't see, replying to her. Something was said about sending a remote probe through, followed by an all clear, and then a small floating ball was produced. This was then sent through the puddle, a small display screen popping up in the room where Lilith and her crew could see it. For about two or three seconds, it was blank, and then suddenly the probe began transmitting back images of an advanced looking city design, from the inside. Radically different from the design of this station, even still the room displayed was humongous. After allowing the group to soak in the information for a few moments, Julia would turn and drop the 'bombshell' on them.

"The images you are seeing now are coming from another planet. That planet is located in the Pegasus Galaxy, which is three million light years away. If you were to step through the puddle now, you'd be on Atlantis in approximately four seconds."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

Lilith watches with interest as the gate goes through its motions, though she doesn't make any comments as to whether or not things look familiar.

As the puddle explodes, she does jump slightly, not expecting it to do that. There's also an exclamation of surprise from Kaidan and a startled "Keelah!" from Tali. Once they've settled, there's actually some interest in the probe, too, mostly from Tali.

At the new information, Lilith shakes her head. "It's certainly..." She rubs her fingers over her lips. "Something. At the core, it's similar to the mass relays we use, but those are designed to move ships, not individuals."

"Unless you count the one in the Citadel," Kaidan remarks off-handedly, which gets him a glare from Lilith. He holds up his hands, prompting her to shake her head.

Her attention back to Julia, she continues. "It's becoming clear that we're looking at things that certainly developed differently. What that means for us...hopefully we can adapt. Find enough similarities to make things work. At least until we can figure out how to get home."

Definitely a woman who takes the seemingly impossible in stride, it looks like. Might be the military in her or might be something else.

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia paused for a moment, then decided whatever had popped into her midn should be said.

"There are a few of these gates on a much larger scale that were designed for ships actually. The Stargate's operate by creating an artificial wormhole through subspace. That whoosh effect you saw earlier, it's the unstable vortex that shoots out on the initial formation of the wormhole. Because it's unstable, if you were to be standing in it's path and it touched you ... well let's just say I can't imagine being instantly vaporized is a pleasant last experience. Once the whoosh dies down and it settles like it is now though, perfectly safe. As far as things developing differently, it sounds that way. I'm guessing in your dimension, or reality, whichever that you came from the Ancient's never came. Or their technology developed differently than it did here. Either way, it's hard to say how easy adapting will be, and I'll admit to you, although we'll do everything we can to try to get you and your people home, I can't make any promises we'll succeed. As I said before, we've been unable to duplicate the technology that initially brought us here, something doesn't seem to work. If there's anything else you need besides repairs and information access, please, let me know."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"Or, like other things, your Ancients developed differently than ours. We had the Protheans...and, unfortunately, the Reapers. They're the ones that seeded our galaxy with the mass relays and left the technology behind that enabled us to advance our own. Who knows what else we'll run into."

As Julia mentions adapting, Lilith's lips curl up just a bit. "My team's been through and seen a lot. Takes quite a bit to really throw us for a loop, though we're not above being surprised." She'll nod toward the stargate. "Most of them are used to living in space, specifically on the ship, so they should be fine. I don't doubt there'll be cultural differences but we're a talk first, shoot later sort of bunch." The last part comes out with a bit of a chuckle.

"Except maybe Grunt and Jack," came from Kaidan. Lilith gave him a look. "Tell me I'm wrong."

"Point." She'll turn to Julia again. "Jack...has a very volatile personality, to put it mildly. And she's a biotic." There's a pause. "If you knew an asari, especially a commando, then you know what Jack can do. Except ratchet up the power scale by about twenty. She's mostly all right, unless someone gets in her face or she feels like she's backed in a corner. I'll have someone stick with her initially. Just to make sure. Grunt's people are particularly war-like. They enjoy a good fight. He's not likely to fly off the handle unless the handle flies at his face. Other than that, I don't foresee any possible confrontations."

"If I may, Commander, we might also want to look into supplies. The ship can accommodate Tali and Garrus for the time being, but we are limited."

"Special diets," Lilith translates. "Tali can give you the rundown if you want or we can talk about that later. For now, as EDI said, we should be able to take care of them ourselves, though."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia nodded, getting the idea.

"I'm sure things will be alright. We'll see if we can help with anything you might need for those among your crew with special diet concerns."

There was a pause, then she shrugged.

"I'll have to check in with Siphon about the Commando powers and refresh my memory. He'd know, he was married to her for several years before the hyper-drive incident. Damn near killed him too. They had some sort of telepathic bond, I don't fully understand it but ... if anyone has an idea of what to do if there's a problem, it'd be him. When he returns, you may want to speak with him, at the very least to see if he can help you with other information. I swear, the man has done more inter-dimensional travel and the like then entire civilizations can dream about."


At some point, the Stargate had shut down, and only now did the young man at the controls speak up.

"Excuse me, ma'am? The Nasara just messaged us, they've engaged the Hive."

Julia frowned slightly, shaking her head.

"Earlier than we thought. Dial the gate and keep it open as long as you can, divert whatever power you need."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"Any testing, Commander, and Garrus will have to do it. I don't particularly like the idea of experimenting when I'm this isolated."

"Understood, Tali. We'll figure something out. I'll put Mordin on it."

"That's supposed to be a comfort?" There was a touch of laughter in the girl's voice, though.

The mention of the telepathic bond seems to furrow Lilith's brow a little. "I know the Asari can share a person's consciousness. Maybe it was something like that. As for what biotics can do, I'd have Kaidan give you a refresher but I don't think your people'd appreciate having things suddenly getting flung around the room."

"And I don't appreciate being asked to do things that might get me shot by surprised military," came from the aforementioned. "Of course, Lil lives for getting us into those situations."

"Didn't I already order you to hush?" Up went his hands in supplication. At the announcement, Lilith raised a brow. "You're involved in some sort of engagement?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia nodded after a moment.

"You could say that. We've had an issue long standing with a particular individual who's raised his own little army. We thwarted one of his plans a while back to enslave multiple planets and begin a galactic wide conquest, so he's evidently decided the best way to get what he wants is to attempt to create a weapon capable of wiping out all life in an entire galaxy, using the Stargate's as a delivery system. We sent a number of our people, as well as allies to stop him. What we're doing right now is blocking his gate from being able to dial out, preventing him from escaping easily. If he does manage to escape though, with the weapon, or at least the blueprints to build another one ..."

She trailed off, the implications rather clear.

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"Well, nothing new to us." It was amazing how Tali's synthetic voice managed to hold a lot of sarcasm in it, though it more seemed like she was mocking their own situation rather than that of the station's.

"If I'm understanding the way this thing works, wouldn't that mean he'd end up here?" Lilith gestures to the room around them.

"Or there is a high probability that he may send hostile forces through the conveyance to both facilitate his escape and strike at your command center."

"Don't jinx us, Legion."

"My stating of the obvious does not actually increase the probability of it coming to pass, Commander."

"You've been taking snark lessons for EDI, haven't you?" She holds up a finger. "That was rhetorical," she adds quickly as it sounded like Legion was going to attempt to reply. "How right is he, though?" she'll ask Julia. "Should you be prepping for trouble?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia shook her head.

"Matter will only travel one way through the gate. Since we dialed his planet, the gate will only accept travel from our end to his. If he or anyone on that end tried to go through the gate, they'd never re-integrate. They'd just simply cease to exist."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"That's...good to know." Heading through uncharted relays was one thing. Traveling through something that could make you cease to exist was slightly different. "How long will that stay active, then?"

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

"Under normal circumstances, 38 minutes. However, with enough power to devote to a Stargate, a wormhole can be maintained indefinitely, although it's a lot of power to do that, and normally not worth it. Under these circumstances though ..."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"Makes sense. I'd say what about guarding it from the other side, but if your troops can't retreat, it doesn't seem very tactfully sound. Plus, if they were to get overwhelmed, he could possibly get through."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia nodded.

"Basically yes. If for whatever reason we can't keep the wormhole up, that'll be a problem. Which is why every bit of power we can spare has been channeled in for this. With any luck, Siphon and his team can bring this to a swift end, and we can get back to some semblance of normal."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"If I may inquire as to how the energy is channeled," EDI's voice chimed from Lilith's omni-tool. "Seeing as how the Normandy is grounded right now..."

"Don't go pimping out my ship, EDI. Besides, we don't know if the technology is even compatible. It might cause the drive core to explode or something and nobody wants that."

"Just making a suggestion, Commander. It wouldn't be the first time."

"We used the Mako for that, not the ship and it was a generator not an interstellar transport device." She shakes her head. "Just ignore that. Doubt we could even manage to hook it up anyway."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia smiled just a bit.

"Drawing from the gate itself wouldn't work anyway. The gate is essentially a massive super-conductor, the power supply is actually significantly smaller. Are any of you familiar with Zero Point Energy?"

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"Gotta say, that's a new one to me."

"To put it simply, it is a supposed unlimited source of energy that results from--"

"EDI, let the woman talk. If she gets too far into technobabble, then I'll have you translate, okay?"

"You're just worried EDI's going to overwhelm you with technobabble."

"Do you live to undermine my authority, Major Alenko?"

That prompted a grin. "No, ma'am."

Lilith's attention came back to Julia. "Just keep it as simple as you can."

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

Julia smiled again.

"EDI as you called her was on the right path. Think of it like having an artificially created universe in a bottle that you can draw it's energy from, like a vacuum. Not entirely unlimited since these are micro-universes, but they'd meet the needs of a civilization with just one of them for far longer than most humanoid individuals would live. Using the blueprints the Ancient's left behind, our people were able to duplicate the technology quite some time ago. Long before we came to this dimension, but that's another story in and by itself. Suffice it to say, we know how to make more of the modules."

 

[Copper]

Re: The Arrival

"Definitely seems simpler than what I think EDI was going to get into. Still a bit mind-blowing, I'll admit, but simple enough."

"That definitely sounds like something the Fleet would be interested in." This came from Tali.

"Let's get to know them a little better before we start to ask to borrow their stuff, okay, Tali?" Lilith flashed Julia a bit of a grin. "Always interested in new technology, this one. Especially if she gets to take it apart and put it back together again."

"Usually for the better." Lilith nodded in acquiescence at the other woman's words. "Though I don't know I'd want to disassemble something with a galaxy inside it."

((Note: Added video of character voices for reference under the spoiler in the first post.))

 

[SiphonTalvesh]

Re: The Arrival

That drew a laugh from Julia.

"Yeah chances are you don't want to try. Last time someone tried something like that ... well let's just say an entire continent vanished and leave it at that."


((Running out of things for them to do, we have to think of something lol!))