StarGate: Traditions

[Kemrain]

Ashley stares down numbly at her small pile of chips, looking up as Julian splits his mound in half for Colonel Johnson, suprised both that she lost and by Julian's nonchalant additude towards winning.
You're a better player than you let on, she thinks, smirking, I'll have to beat your pants off.
She smiles when Bubba sits down, nodding to him when she catches his eye and snickering softly at his Matrix reference.
"Oh, he's a computer freak," she volunteers for Julian, in answer to the Colonel's question, "But with a name like his you'd expect him to be an FBI field agent, or a doctor." She smirks at Julian playfully, waiting for the cards to be dealt so she can trounce him.

 

[Jaeden]

Julian deals out a hand to the Colonel, sliding over the pile of chips. Again, he doesn't even look at his own hand. However, he's now sweating a bit, in the presence of two superior officers (one, from what Felger said, even ran his own Stargate team), and a very rare find indeed - a good-looking girl, with a brain, who hadn't run him off in the first ten minutes.

"Oh, he's a computer freak," she volunteers for Julian, in answer to the Colonel's question, "But with a name like his you'd expect him to be an FBI field agent, or a doctor." She smirks at Julian playfully, waiting for the cards to be dealt so she can trounce him.

Julian returns a dumb-looking smile at her, before turning to give the Colonel a more meaningful response. "Well, Colonel, I hope I didn't do anything too bad, to have been noticed after a week on the job. I'm just getting settled in here, coming from Air Force intel at Langley. I work with Dr. Jay Felger in the lab, analyzing the artifacts recovered by off-world teams." He grins at Ashley, the realization that he shows a lot more deference to the objects in the Colonel's presence than the "cute little trinket" line he made to her not being lost on him.

"As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure the sonar cloaking device we've been working on the last two days was brought back by your old team, SG-4. Off'a planet P-326224, if I recall." Julian knew he recalled correctly, but modesty seemed in order here.

Taking advantage of his right as the dealer to get a flop without bidding, he does so, but still has his eyes locked on the Colonel (with occasional impish grins in Ashley's direction - Major Davis might as well be a housefly for all the attention he's getting).

At the table next to the card game, Julian's laptop suddenly plays a short sound byte from the Matrix movie, and an animation shows a letter flying into a bin near the toolbar. Grumbling at the machine's outburst, he pulls out a small black remote control from his pocket, pointing it at the PC and pressing a button. The machine's shutdown sequence initiates, and with a mournful bleep, the screen goes black.

"Sorry about that. I think I have the only PC on the base with separation anxiety."

 

[reveal]

"Intel huh? How'd you like it there? You worked for Colonel Willingham, right? Nice guy. What'd you think of him?"

Colonel Johnson will continue to play and bet, trying to win.

 

[RandomUsernamehmimo71]

Major Davis smiles as the Colonel approaches the table, glad to see Colonel Johnson socializing.
“Glad to see you here, Sir. Maybe you’re going to be the thing to turn my luck around a bit tonight. These card sharks here have been working me over.”

Turning to Hinda, “Japanese? Interesting. I don’t think we’ve seen many other Japanese-influenced civilizations. I know it’s early, but do you think you can derive much of anything from their society since they left the planet?”

“I was almost stationed at Yokota a few years ago, but my orders were pulled at the last minute. Beautiful country though. Over 3000 islands, held together by a common culture and tradition. They have the highest Life expectancy in the world, don’t they?”
Davis would smile, a little proud of his ability to recall the information.

He’d cast a glance at Julian as the Sergeant brings up Sg-4, not being sure how the Colonel would respond.

Taking a look at his cards, and almost wincing “Who dealt these again?





{{OOC: The next few rounds of cards will proceed as they talk.

Round 1 goes to Colonel Johnson. Round two is a tie between Colonel Johnson and Davis. Round three goes to Julian, and round four goes to Davis. Barely.

Ashley gets +9, Results- 24, 27, 11, 11
Julian gets +3, Results- 13, 11, 21, 21
Bubbah gets +11, Results- 27, 31 , 17, 23
Davis gets +12, Results- 17, 31, 14, 24}}

 

[Jaeden]

"Intel huh? How'd you like it there? You worked for Colonel Willingham, right? Nice guy. What'd you think of him?"

"Langley? It was OK... Nice waves out there in the summer. Not as good as Kwaj, but nothing is. Wasn't a lot of night life, though, unless you're into Civil War re-enactments and the Redskins.

The crew out there was pretty good, but the data processing gig got stale after a while. Not enough challenge, ya know? After a while, you've written every video enhancement algorithm there is, and Saddam's Baghdad Bugle or whatever the hell they call their newspaper out there doesn't get any clearer. I guess one of the listening devices picked up that I was getting bored with intel, because one day two generals show up, and kazaam, here I am in NORAD playing cards.

Julian sighs as he gets the second deal. "Umm... Go fish?" He folds, taking the opportunity to walk up to the soda fountain. He fills a small plastic pitcher with Coke, and another with Sprite, bringing the two back to the table for anybody who needs a refill on their drinks. At this point, the kitchen staff is probably beginning to clean up the evening meal.

... Colonel Willingham? He's alright. Kinda like a parent; like, he drives you crazy sometimes but then you realize it's for your own good. If you're friends, you might be interested to know his wife had his 2nd daughter about 4 months ago... Elizabeth Ann, I think they named her. I heard he's up for General in the next couple months, too."

Julian folds his hand, tossing his cards in before the third round of betting and rubbing his temples. "Ugh, I don't wanna do any more work tonight. None of you guys would happen to know where the NID keeps their encryption key discs, would ya? Damn thing's had me going all day. When I get that code cracked, I'm printing out whatever that data is and framing the friggin' thing."

 

[reveal]

... Colonel Willingham? He's alright. Kinda like a parent; like, he drives you crazy sometimes but then you realize it's for your own good. If you're friends, you might be interested to know his wife had his 2nd daughter about 4 months ago... Elizabeth Ann, I think they named her. I heard he's up for General in the next couple months, too."

"Really? I'll have to send my congratulations. So what do you think about this place? Obviously, they frustrated you already."

The Colonel smiles as he says this and folds his card.

"Guess this isn't my hand either. What are you working on?"

 

[Jaeden]

"Really? I'll have to send my congratulations. So what do you think about this place? Obviously, they frustrated you already."

"So far, I like it all right... The security's a little freaky sometimes... and to go from Kwajelein, where you can see nothing but ocean for miles, to 300 feet below a mountain... Well, it's a little claustrophobic. But at least the work is challenging. I think I could get used to it here... So long as nothing unfriendly decides to pop in on us." The last few words are said as Julian motions with his head in the general direction of the Gate Room.

"Guess this isn't my hand either. What are you working on?"

"They gave me a CD... something encrypted. Looks like the NID had something to do with it, because the disk is harder to read than a Chinese phone book. It's wierd though... If we have the only Stargate on Earth, why are we trying to hack stuff that other Earth people... Tau'ri? Is that how you say it? ... put there? Seems like we ought to all be on the same page, if SGC is the 'Gatekeeper'."

 

[Kemrain]

Ashley raises an eyebrow at Julian's talk of the NID, having been dividing her attention between Davis, Julian and Johnson, but now giving it solely to the computer technician, the card game forgotten.

"There are two Earth Stargates. Or, there were. One of them was destroyed not too long ago, and we're using the backup Stargate now. The one we found in Antarctica. But for a while the NID was operating the second in synch with the SGC's. They called it the Shadowgate."
She watches him for a moment before asking, "You were given an NID datadisk to decrypt? I'm not even going to dream that it's the one I was working on today. They said it would take weeks to get someone looking at it, let alone get it decrypted, and they'd probbly have the whole thing shipped off to Area 51 before they even started. How do you know it's NID? Was it labeled? Could you crack any of it?"

 

[reveal]

Colonel Johnson will keep playing but take definite interest in the conversation between possible teammates.

 

[Jaeden]

"There are two Earth Stargates. Or, there were. One of them was destroyed not too long ago, and we're using the backup Stargate now. The one we found in Antarctica. But for a while the NID was operating the second in synch with the SGC's. They called it the Shadowgate."

"Shadowgate? Sounds like my favorite RPG... But they don't have it anymore? That's good, I s'pose... Are we sure there isn't a 3rd gate anywhere?"

She watches him for a moment before asking, "You were given an NID datadisk to decrypt? I'm not even going to dream that it's the one I was working on today. They said it would take weeks to get someone looking at it, let alone get it decrypted, and they'd probbly have the whole thing shipped off to Area 51 before they even started. How do you know it's NID? Was it labeled? Could you crack any of it?"

"It wasn't labeled, but the writeup I got claimed it was NID. The encryption on the disk backs that up; it's consistent with the US intelligence standards. I cracked one layer of crypto, but I'll need to find a key disk to complete it.

As for whether or not it's your disk... Not sure. I know it was one of those new mini-CDs, about half the diameter of a regular one.. And it was blue. Memorex brand, I think. I got it this afternoon, about 14:30.

Come to think of it..." Julian pulls out his laptop remote, pressing a button, and the CD tray slides open. Julian reaches over, pulling the disk out and setting it on the table, on top of his folded poker hand. "Dr. Felger said I could work on it tonight. Look familiar, Ms. Wolfe?"