[D20 Modern] Stargate - Part I Recruitment - IC [PG-13]

[Jarval]

Catching on to what Leonard's trying to do, Lucas tries to steer Lorelai away from Durant.

"Professor Nguyen, right? By the sounds of things, you might have some clue how this Stargate thing works. Any chance you can reassure me we're not going to be going through some kind of intergalactic cheese-grater?"

 

[Vardeman]

The Lear Jet, JFK Airport
New York, New York
12:05am, Late Spring 2003

Montoya nodded in response to Campbell's request, "Sure bet."

V

 

[MadThinker]

Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Main Entrance
Goldsboro, North Carolina
1:55pm, Late Spring 2003

Donovan could not believe what he was seeing.

"*%$#% Air Farce. Can't handle anything without wings!"

This would have been amusing if he didn't think his legacy would be dying in an upside down car at the hands of some punk MPs.

Donovan decided it was best to listen and watch for a moment longer before acting hastily. Besides, with the car spinning and how his luck was going, he'd probably sprain his snkle trying to get out of the car.

 

[Keia]

Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Main Entrance
Goldsboro, North Carolina
1:55pm, Late Spring 2003

In a heavily Southern accented voice, she asked, “Excuse me, kind sirs, but I’m looking for a Lieutenant Luther Donovan, have you seen him?” as she blew the ‘annoying’ curl off of her face.

The MP’s laugh continued a moment or two more . . . at least until he saw the man sitting next to Lt. Reed laughing as well. In a serious and aggressive tone, the MP said, “Ma’am, the next place you’ll see Lt. Donovan is the stockade or at least a military court-martial. Who wants to talk with him?” The MP asked as he looked back into the vehicle. Only one MP was currently watching the two occupants of the upside down sedan.

“Well, officer, I have a Lt. General formerly of the Russian military with me – something about a military investigation and national security. I’m supposed to pick up Donovan and have both of them on a flight back to the Pentagon ASAP. I don’t think General Rand is going to care about something minor when national security’s at stake. I have him on speed dial if you want to confirm that with him personally,” Reed offered. Her calm nonchalance and name dropping seemed to have a significant impact on the MP.

“I don’t know ma’am – we’re to detain Lt. Donovan for General Bauer . . .” the MP said slowly.

“Alright, officer – if you think it’s best to interfere with an investigation and a matter of national security,” Reed said as she pulled out her cell phone. “I’ll just need your name for my call to General Rand.

The MP had a look of real indecision on his face. A glance to either of the other MP’s brought shrugs and quick looks away – giving responsibility to the gruff, uncertain MP.

The MP looked into the sedan and motioned to Donovan, “Get out of here.” He motioned to Lt. Hearst who was just working his way out of the sedan. “You, sir, are staying here to answer some questions.”

Not allowing a moment for the MP’s to gather themselves, Lt. Donovan gathered his gear and hopped into the back of his second Air Force black sedan – hopefully with better results. Within fifteen seconds the sedan was on the way down the road.

“Lt. Donovan, I presume?” Lt. Reed asked of the newcomer.

OOC: Ilianov, Donovan

 

[Nuke261]

The Lear Jet, JFK Airport
New York, New York
12:05am, Late Spring 2003

Durant stood and listened to Lorelai spout off about how immaturehe was. If she was not so breathtakingly beautiful I don't know how I would tolerate her. Then she reached and took his glass and downed the rather heavy drink all at once! NO way she recovers from that in the next 24 hours!

He takes a few steps toward Durant. "Sir, could I have a few words with you?"

Durant made no attempt to hide his smile as he turned from her. "Sure thing Leonard. What can I do for ya."

 

[Fanog]

The Lear Jet, JFK Airport
New York, New York
12:05am, Late Spring 2003

He'll probably expect me to start about the Professor. Let's not make it that easy...

Leonard takes Durant to the side so they can have some privacy.

"Sir, I must assume that I was asked to be on this team so I could handle communication with whatever, or whoever, is on the other end of this Gate thing. That's what I do. But I'm also the one who checks if everyone is still doing okay..." Leonard seems to rethink his plans, and continues in a somewhat different tone. "Sir, I'm going to dispense with the b.s. for a while and tell you upfront what I think - you strike me as someone who'd appreciate that." A slight smile appears on Leonard's face at that.

Now fully committed, the smile disappears as Leonard continues. "The 'Tough Marine' way isn't going to bring these people together in the time to do it. It works in boot camp, but these aren't recruits and there's no time to "tear 'em down and build 'em up again". I understand what needs to be done, but I've spent some time with these people today, and I don't think the 'Drill Instructor' routine will work. Many of them are civilians, it would take them too long to get used to military protocol."

Assuming that Durant hasn't interrupted him so far, Leonard adds "Sir, in my professional opinion, a more informal approach would be better, considering the nature of this group..."

I think I cut off all of the obvious retorts. Tricky situation, though...

 

[KitanaVorr]

Lorelai nearly drop her glass as alcohol burned down her throat. Her eyes watered and she nearly spit up the whole drink all over Craig in the process. However, she persevered and managed to swallow the whole thing, feeling like her throat was on fire.

What the hell was in that?

Originally posted by Jarval
"Professor Nguyen, right? By the sounds of things, you might have some clue how this Stargate thing works. Any chance you can reassure me we're not going to be going through some kind of intergalactic cheese-grater?"

Replacing the glass unsteadily in Durant's hand, Lorelai turned to smile at Lucas. "Mr. Fisher? That would be the kabillion dollar question. Travel by wormhole is quite a dangerous little trick because it is in essence time travel. You are bending..." She reached over and picked up a straw. "...What is believed to be a straight line - as in space and time - between two points as in this case, the ends of the straw. A wormhole brings these two points together."

She bends the straw, touching the ends. "Essentially, you are speeding up time, skipping the entire length all together. That of course sets you up for some interesting time paradoxes, but I won't get into that just now.

Wow...I'm starting to feel really warm and lightheaded.

"The Einstein-Rosen bridge is what I believe this Stargate must be based upon. It describes a condition where tiny rip in a black hole could be connected to another tiny rip in another black hole, joining two disparate parts of space-time via a narrow channel, basically a black hole attached to a mirror image of itself."

"The problem with using these wormholes - or rips in blackholes - is that the channel between them is absolutely miniuscule, smaller than the center of a single attom." She squeezed one eye and lifted her hand, pushing two fingers together as if to demonstrate.

Feeling pretty happy - oh happy - let's talk more about things I love!

"It can only remain open for a fraction of a second, if even. Even photons couldn't past through that fast. Of course the immense gravitational forces needed to create such a rip - a black hole's - would rip you apart into, oh yes, like you say, a cheese grater."

"But..." the professor continued cheerfully, her entire face lighting up into a happy sparkle in her eyes, her skin a vivid pink from the heat of the liquor. "There have been a few ideas on how you could circumvent that..."

 

[Dark Nemesis]

The Lear Jet, JFK Airport
New York, New York
12:05am, Late Spring 2003

Rylee sighed softly, taking a moment to regard the other people on the plane. The arguements between Durant and Lorelai sharply reminded her just how long it had been since she was last among a group this size. She was getting a splitting headache.

For the moment, she was content to divide her attentions between Lorelai's explanation for the Stargate, and watching Leonard converse with Durant. She had heard Leonard tell her to give them the tour of the plane, but from the looks of it, no one was really interested.

 

[Jarval]

"Ah, so I wasn't going out on too much of a limb with the whole cheese-grater thing then." Lucas listens intently to what Lorelai's saying, despite only understanding a fragment of it.

"So, how might we avoid the food-blender effect? And you say it's basically time-travel. Could we end up back in the stone age or something?"

 

[KitanaVorr]

The Lear Jet, JFK Airport
New York, New York
12:05am, Late Spring 2003

"It is theoretically possible to manipulate wormholes into time travel - if you can get around the problems with time paradoxes. Time flows different internally to a wormhole than it does externally."

Lorelai displayed the straw again, holding pinching one end. One finger ran along its length. "Think of the length of the straw as distance in the universe from one point to another. Now you create a wormhole that links one part of the straw through the other."

She bent the straw so that the part she was pitching was above and the other end was below, forming a U-shaped loop. "One end stays still, but the other end is moving - meaning one end of the wormhole is still relative to you while the other is not.”

Moving the bottom part of straw, the loop extends forward toward Lucas. “So you see, the distance between the wormhole increases while the actual length of the wormhole stays the same. So that means that the mouths must experience different time flows but if you’re within the wormhole looking outward, you experience a different time.”

“But the problem to time travel is this, it’s impossible to travel back to a time earlier than when the wormhole was first created. Just looking at how the wormhole works in this example should show you this point.” She pinched the top part. “You can’t go farther into the future than the second point in time because you can’t go beyond where the second point has reached until it gets there.”

Lorelai giggled slightly, feeling rather lightheaded. “Do you understand that, Mr. Fisher? I know Lt. Terrell understands. He likes to talk to me, don’t you, Lt. Terrell?” She gave the lieutenant a dazzling smile and a wink.