Log:A Breach in the Case, Scene 17

A Breach in the Case 2016/06/20

17

Indira and Quiet get a remarkable view as Breach and Griffin warp into the street outside of StarGuard. Spacetime bulges in a roughly spherical way as the last of the sarcophogi and those mysoginist bastards that split the team up begin to glow into existence within the warp bubble. There is a distinct sensation of impossible distance between where the silhouettes of light begin to emerge in warpspace and the fringes of the warp bubble itself.

Of course, as the glow intensifies and the silhouettes begin to solidify into shapes with distinct mass and complex forms, that sensation of distance begins to diminish. It could almost be mistaken for watching the objects charging through space toward a telescope.

Almost.

When the warp bubble "pops" and everyone is once again united in normalized spacetime, Breach utters a howl of pain and wrenches the hand he slapped the control console back from what had been the edge of the warp bubble. The Undead Soldier drops to his knees, cradling that one hand with his other forearm, blood dripping into the street in spite of the fact that his hand should be covered by some kind of protective glove... Shouldn't it? Wasn't it?

StarGuard agents continue to swarm out of the StarGuard building proper and begin ushering civilians out of the area. Other agents begin halting traffic and forming a strategic perimeter around the sarcophogi while Indira and Quiet are approached, semi-cautiously, by agents looking to get some kind of explanation for the two dozen sarcophogi and all of these damn warped spacetime teleportations happening in the middle of the street!

The strange howl of an injured hooman gets Indira's attention. She holds her hands up in the human sign of peace. Or is it surrender? She's not sure, but she tells the StarGuard agents, "Please, we need assistance. Your medical teams, and some men to get these devices to safety," she motions to the sarcophogi.

Before giving them a chance to answer or say more, she turns on her heel and heads for Rick without wasting another moment more. "Rick, what has happened?" she asks before she gets a view of the blood on the ground, seeing him clutch his hand. Teleporter accidents. She knew she should've stayed.

Quiet is somewhat torn. She is happy to see that the popping bubble contains the rest of the team, as well as more liberated GI-cicles. She's less happy to be approached by potentially trigger-happy agents. At least her weapon was slung so she could try to get coffins out of the street.

And then there's Rick. Howling in pain. Possibly bleeding. Alright. Her conversation with him can wait until he's more intact.

After leaving her last relocated bodytube, she doesn't quite put her hands up, but does keep them well away from her weapon and non-aggressive. For her, that is.

"What are these devices, ma'am?" demands a grizzled looking older agent. Griffin and Quiet probably recognize him as Sgt. Jackson Simmons, one of the StarGuard security personnel that monitor the building's public access points. Indira and Breach may or may not regularly bypass his station in favor of the diplomatic entrances. He grunts as Indira simply strides away and he grumbles something about 'damned little green' people and 'not enough respect for' his authority.

Simmons instead turns toward Quiet and starts signing at her. If nothing else, Sgt. Simmons recognizes Quiet. He also seems to be holding the more trigger happy security personnel in check at the moment, with his apparent understanding of who and/or what they're dealing with here. Repeating his question of Indira to Quiet, Jackson Simmons folds his arms across his chest and waits for an answer while he chews on what 4 out of 5 dentists believe to be an imaginary stogie.

Breach's hand seems to have staunched the bleeding by the time Indira reaches his side. She can plainly see that his lightly armored glove is flopping free of the back of his hand, the entire palmside of his glove completely missing. It probably doesn't help matters that his flesh is still in the process of growing back in over the deep "teleporter burn" covering his palm and fingers.

"I don't know," hisses Breach through clenched teeth, "I popped out here with half my freaking hand missing. I don't remember freaking Star Trek having this problem with teleporters!"

To be fair, Star Trek teleportation largely didn't revolve around the strange SCIENCE that seems to have driven the device that delivered SPACETEAM to StarGuard's doorstep this day. Star Trek's FTL transit, however, may or may not rely on comparable principles. It's hard to tell without actually knowing how Operation Sundial's technology works. Maybe that's covered in the gosh darned server Indira copied into her suit's on-board memory?

Already a dozen or so (less well-armed) agents are beginning to spread out into the street as an official military cordon is put into place. They carry an assortment of high-tech pieces of gear for moving heavy loads. Small hover dollies and grav clamps abound, amongst other military grade goods transport technologies. No doubt the removal of the sarcophogi and re-opening of the street shouldn't take long, once they're given the all clear to remove these things.

"Earth teleporters are still unreliable. I'm surprised they are used publicly. At this stage in your people's scientific development, they are still death traps," Indira explains, which probably does nothing to comfort Rick through the pain.

She crouches down beside him as he clutches his hand. "I know you will heal soon. Is there anything I can do for you?" she asks in gentle concern. She glances back momentarily to see the agents begin clearing away the sarcophogi, then looks back to Rick.

There's one small ray of light to this gray, murky, Seattle-London soup of a moment. Quiet signs back to Simmons in attempt to explain the situation, in summary.

Hidden screte laboratory. Illegal human experimentation. Naked muscular men.

All the important details.

"Everything's a jagged metal death trap to you," grumps Breach. He bites down on his cheek, eyes rolling up in his head as reforming nerves send the most unpleasant "skin crawling" sensations directly into the base of his brain. There is a second where Breach half-swoons, overwhelmed by the intensity of his re-constructing nervous system and the echoes of blinding pain from when he first emerged from the warp.

Breach may or may not startle when he finds himself buried, helmet-first, in Indira's shoulder and upper chest. He is blessedly unaware of Quiet's executive summary to Sgt. Simmons. Instead, Breach sort of half-splutters and half-groans as he starts swooning the other way. What in the hell did they make that warp bubble out of? It's like Breach is having a hard time regenerating from the damage it did to him.

Jackson Simmons raises an eyebrow at Quiet's executive summary. One can just imagine his imaginary stogie hanging tenuously from his lower lip, not quite having made it back to the corner of his mouth when he froze in mid-chew. There is a long pause before the sergeant signs back, incredulity written large on his face, 'Naked muscular men?'

Talk about sign language conversation you never expect to have when you learn the language for work.

Speaking of naked muscular men, where is Breachy with the Black Hair?

Indira thinks silently on Breach's grumpy comment. "That it...true. This whole planet is one impressive death trap." She's attempting to use humor, but for her, the statement is also very, very true.

Before she realizes what's going on, she ends up with a Breach swooning helmet first against her. As he swoons the other direction, she tries to wrap her arms around him to hold him in place, or to provide some comfort. "Just relax. You can relax and be safe," she assures him, trying to assist him while his regeneration kicks in. Although, she's seen him shake off worse before, which is concerning.

She looks over to Quiet and Simmons as she tries to wrangle in Breach. "I think we need a medic! Do you have something for pain?" While Indira was distracted taking care of Rick, she had taken eyes off of the naked Black-Haired Breach. How did a naked man just get up and saunter off without being seen?