twenty-eighth jump;

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Any and all.
LOCATION: Gravity Couches and beyond.
WARNINGS: Maybe some swearing, or even some violence, and more than likely some implied (and possibly explicit) nakedness.
SUMMARY: Another month, another jump, another round of new faces.
NOTES: It could just be the standard sensation of air on wet skin, but if you bother to check, you might notice the steam rising from your body, barely there and gone within a minute. By the time you get to the showers, it will be clear that it's not just taking you time to adjust. The room is cold — colder than usual, but no worse than the last jump. While it's nothing dangerous, it's certainly motivation to hurry through the usual routine and get dressed quickly.



It's getting closer.




YOUR EYES ARE OPEN.

KEEP LOOKING.

You wake up in darkness.

There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're deposited on the floor of a stark, sterile medical bay.

You are not alone.
There are others who have come before you, others who are awakening beside you. Some may be familiar to you, perhaps even friends. Others have much less amiable plans. Some are merely alien and inexplicable, but there are always those who might mean you harm.

After you catch your breath and your vision returns, you notice a number on the inside of your forearm. Maybe it's a familiar number. Maybe it means something. Maybe it's just a number. But the number—completely unique to you—is a tattoo, and it does not come off.

If you enter the room adjacent to the medbay, you will find a small locker with your number on it, surrounded by rows upon rows of identical lockers. Inside, you will find a few of your personal items, a communications device, and a ship's uniform in your exact size. The comms device is fully powered and connects directly to the ship's network; it's your only means of communication beyond physical conversation. Upon turning the device on, a neutral, automated voice will say, "Please take the blue lift to the passenger quarters." Any other attempts at communicating with the rest of the network are met only with static.

This is your welcome party.

Comments

[andblockbuster]

Oh my God, you're alive. [He runs his hands through his hair to resist the urge to hug the scruffy son of a bitch, because that would be kinda strange.] We thought we'd be scraping you guys off the bridge for a week.

[SENSITIVE??]

[foolproofed]

[AT LEAST YOU'RE NOT PUNCHING ME??

He scoffs and half-heartedly strikes a pose.]

We're like cockroaches! Too damn hard to kill.

Or something just happened to let us out. But that's not as fun to think about, right?

[andblockbuster]

Not really, considering it was probably Smiley being cryptic and weird again. [Le sigh.] So taking over the ship's a bust. That's great.

[A beat.]

What was it like in there? I've always wondered.

[foolproofed]

It sucked.

[He deflates a little in the shoulders, looking grouchy.]

Everything was boring and most of the shit was pretty linear, in terms of what you'd expect on the bridge. It was mostly the weird hallucinatory stuff that made it a bitch to be down there.

[He might still be a weeee bit fucked up over that. Not that it's totally that obvious, since he's already a little unhinged from the start.]

[andblockbuster]

Weird hallucinatory stuff.

[Topher stares at him for a moment.] That definitely sounds like the ship, all right. [He shoves his hands in his pockets and sighs.] But at least you're not a puddle of goo. Silver lining!

[foolproofed]

Right. Silver lining.

[He plants his hands on his hips, frowning.]

... God, this place is a fuckin' weird place.

[andblockbuster]

Why couldn't we get kidnapped to the Enterprise or that one creepy ship in that ill-conceived Stargate spin-off. Instead, we get the freakin' Event Horizon.

[foolproofed]

And there aren't even any cool Japanese robots or anything.

[andblockbuster]

That's because they turn all the robots human. What's up with that?

[foolproofed]

... That is kinda weird. Maybe... to make the whole nanomachine thing easier?

[andblockbuster]

Or so they can't cheat and stay out for a jump. Weird things happen during jumps, bro.

[foolproofed]

Oh yeah. Something about complete horror and blood and evil shit, right?

[he was clearly paying attention to important stuff]

[andblockbuster]

Basically, Jaye hasn't been okay since that time her cow exploded and she got stuck outside. [Sage nod.]

[foolproofed]

...

Yeah. I think I missed that one.

[exploding cows

really]

[andblockbuster]

It's been a really rough two years, Marty. I feel like I'm in 'Nam and all the people who haven't been here since the single digits are just the plucky new recruits who haven't seen the trenches yet.