Back On The Horse

Posted on Sun Mar 10th, 2019 @ 10:09pm by Brigadier General Nathan Wolf & Major Jacob Asher & Staff Sergeant Rhiannon O'Connor & Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Corvus & Civillian Shae & Civillian Dr. Jessica Andrews & Civillian Ravi Azad PhD & Civillian Selyna Braeden

Mission: The Lost Boys and Girls
Location: Cheyenne Mountain, Project New Dawn
Timeline: Current

Nathan entered the conference room to find Jake and Ree already there. They obediently rose and came to attention when he entered the room. "As you were," he said, waving the pair back to their seats. "I'm going to assume everyone else is on the way."

"That would be my assumption, sir," Jake said.

"You've seen the report?" Nathan said.

"Yessir," Jake said. "And may I say, sarcastically of course, how that situation isn't the least bit creepy, sir?"

Nathan laughed. "I think you just did," he said. He turned to Ree. "Don't worry Sergeant, I'll explain everything when everyone else gets here. Until then, enjoy your coffee."

"Mathor, Gen'ral," Jeremy said as he came into the conference room, carrying a large mug in one hand with a donut balanced atop it. In his other hand was his issued tablet, a notepad and a pack of pens. He carried a second donut, in his mouth. Seeing only the other three, he tried to be unobtrusive as he made his way around the room and sat before setting the various items on the table before him. He did manage to remove some napkins from his breast pocket and put the donuts on that before looking around the room, then at his watch.

Jessica entered behind Jeremy wearing a women's suit and skirt and stole the doughnut being balanced on the mug. "Thank you, Sergeant." She dipped it in her own coffee and began munching on it.

"Hey!" Jeremy said about to snatch his donut back when he caught a look from the Major. "You're welcome," he said, moving his other donut closer to him to ensure no one else gets the idea to steal his food. I mean, it's not like everyone here didn't know where the DFAC was. He cycled his tablet to continue reading through the documents he was assigned on arrival. No part of him was ruing the completely unfair punishment the Major gave him for no reason at all.

Shae was not fair behind them, entering the boardroom in the standard green fatigues she had been issued for being part of the team. She had her new tablet with her, but it was simply playing some music through some earbuds, and once she sat down at the table she turned off the music and removed the earbuds, winding them up and putting them in her pocket. Following her little shopping trip with the ladies, she had acquired some Henna to color her hair so she would not stand out as much with her white hair, and so today her hair was a deep, rich brown and still smelled of the fragrant leaves.

"Ohayou gozaimasu" Shae said politely as she settled into her chair.

Jake smiled at Shae. "Good morning. The new hair color looks great."

"Oh, thank you," Shae said shyly, and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "The timing was quite fortuitous, someone came by my quarters to get a picture for my identification, he said I do not look like an 'albino' anymore, whatever that is," she said. She was still blinking her eyes in irritation from the camera flash.

"It's a person or an animal that's congenitally devoid of pigment, Foxy Chick," Ree said. "They tend to have pale skin and white hair." Ree realized that people were looking at her. "What?" she said. "It's a medical condition and what field am I trained in? Oh, yeah! MEDICINE! Sheesh!"

Carrying a tablet as well as a notebook and pen, Ravi finally showed up for the briefing. He didn't say anything, but nodded to his new coherts. He wasn't one hundred percent sure what to expect here, but whatever it was, he was ready for it.

"Hey, bro," Jeremy said, quietly, as Ravi sat. "I had one of Mama's donuts for you, but someone else stole it." He gave a side glance toward Jessica, not wanting to look at her directly. They had a meeting to get through after all. "You hear from Amelie?"

"She texted me this morning," Ravi replied. "Why?"

"Because you're my friend and I'm curious how things are going between you two," Jeremy replied. "You have a lot to learn about being human, geekboy."

"Gee, thanks," replied Ravi. "I really like her, but we have agreed it may be best to just be friend for awhile. Given that she is working on her doctorate and my job is... what it is. It is probably for the best."

"Wait..." Shae interjected, utterly perplexed. "He has much to learn about being human, but is he not human?" And she thought she had a lot to learn before, but each day she grew more and more confused the longer she was around these people...

Jake chuckled. "I think that Crow is suggesting that perhaps there are at least some aspects of being human that Doctor Azad hasn't quite gotten the hang of yet." Jake turned to Ravi. "Don't worry, Doctor. Nobody ever masters being human, except perhaps for our fearless leader, Generalissimo Nathaniel Zachariah Wolf, himself, himself."

Nathan laughed. "Jake," he said. "If I hadn't already put so much effort into turning you from that annoying kid you were into the only mildly less annoying almost grown-up you are today, I'd have you drummed out of the service!"

"As always, General," Jake said, with faux solemnity. "I hear your words, and seek wisdom in them."

Nathan chuckled and shook his head, but inside he was pleased. Jake had grown up a lot over the years and one of the lessons he'd learned was just how far he could push, and how to use that distance to keep morale up.

"You Tau'ri are so confusing..." Shae replied with a sigh and a dismayed shake of her head; she was never going to learn how to assimilate into this culture if they kept this up!

Jeremy whispered to Ravi, "We'll talk about this later, Rav." Then looking up, "General, sir, if I may, I'd like to hear more about the Major as an 'annoying kid'. I'm real sure it'd help my morale a whole lot, sir.'

"I'm sure you would, Sergeant," Nathan said. "But while reminding Jake in front of people that I knew him when is amusing, actually embarrassing the guy may run contrary to good order and discipline. So for now, Sergeant, you'll just have to use your imagination."

"As always, General," Jake said. "I hear your words and--"

"Oh will you knock it off!" Nathan said trying to keep from laughing.

"I look forward to the time you're able to improve morale with storytime, General," Jeremy said, smirking and not looking toward Major Asher. "Until then, I shall certainly imagine many embarrassing scenarios that feature the Major as you instruct, sir."

"Watch it, Sergeant," Nathan said. "I've known Jake for a decade or more. We've been in some really nasty situations together. We've established a rapport, you might say. Do you feel you have that with Major Asher? The Major has a sense of humor, Sergeant, but remember that you have to earn your teasing jokes before you make them. Alright, everyone settle. We'll start soon enough."

Selyna came in quietly, not wishing to distract anyone. She had an insulated mug in one hand and her tablet -- a stylus was clipped to its side now -- in her other hand. Her hair was pulled back into the braid she normally wore when working, and she was dressed in a faux turtleneck of light blue, black slacks and low-heeled black boots. She looked as if she hadn't gotten much sleep -- she hadn't; these bunks were hard to get used to -- but she was alert enough for a briefing. And what she didn't process immediately would be captured by an app on her tablet and her almost subconscious note-taking. She moved to a chair -- she didn't really pay attention to whom it was next to, only that it wasn't occupied -- and sat, setting the tablet on the table in front of her.

"Welcome, Doctor," Nathan said, keeping things professional for the briefing.

TAG HAWK

"Okay," Nathan said. "Let's get started. First of all, I know Jake and I have had discussions with most of you individually about the direction I intend to take, and I assume anyone we didn't talk to personally got the memo, and least my assistant got replies confirming that everyone received and read what I sent. I want to make sure everyone knows that the difference here with what we've been doing on the planet, is that we believe, with reasonable certainty, that the people we'll be dealing with want us there. The communities and cultures are smaller and there won't be dealing with as many factions. We don't expect insurgency. Most importantly, we're not going to be engaging in nation building by military force. I heard an interview with a former Secretary of State who pointed out that we suck at nation building. I agree with the man to a point. We suck at nation building when we try to do it by force. I don't intend to do that here. No one out there will be forced to accept our help, and we're not going to get bogged down struggling in places we're not welcome. That is a poor use of our resources which, while impressive, have their limits. Okay, on to what we came here today for."

Nathan turned on the big monitor that had been placed where everyone at the table to see it if they angled their chairs that direction.

"We've been sending probes, MALPs that have been greatly improved since the old SGC days, through gate to various planets to try and get a feel for the next place to investigate," Nathan said. "One that caught our eye was P3X842. In this case, though, we think we may be talking about a combination of a humanitarian mission and an investigation of what appears to be an alien piece of technology."

Nathan started the audiovisual recordings taken by the MALP. The MALP appeared to have emerged in a clearing in a forested area. There was some kind of path marked by stones leading away from the gate. The MALP recorded environmental data while panning it's visual sensors to view the area. After a few moments, a UAV was launched from the MALP remotely from New Dawn. It began to fly over the forest, following the path as best it could.

"I'll show you the UAV footage first, then we'll come back to the MALP," Nathan said. The UAV flew overhead until it came to another clearing. "As you can see, there's some kind of open air structure that might be an altar. In a moment, the UAV will zoom in and you can get a closer look at the artifact we think might be some kind of technology."

The UAV did zoom in and there was...something at the center of the altar. The UAV feed also caught a glimpse of some kind of runes on the altar and the device. They were hard to make out, but even to the untrained eye, it was clear that more than one language was being used.

"Now let's go back to the MALP feed," Nathan said. The screen switched back to the MALP feed and Several children ranging from around age eight or nine, to maybe early to mid teens began to appear out of the woods. Some of the older ones had spears or bows, but all had daggers. They were clad mostly in leather vest like tunics and breeches, but some wore raggedy looking kilts. There were both boys and girls. They had tattoos on their arms and faces. They could be heard talking to each other, but not in English. "The kids poke around the MALP for awhile. They get a little startled when it moves away from the gate to gather more information. We didn't send it out past the clearing, so we can't be sure about this, but we didn't see any signs of adults. We did find other disturbing things though."

Human remains appeared when the MALP took a closer look at the ground around the gate and in the brush around the gate. Quite a few bodies, mostly decayed, most just skeletons with some clothing left on them. On closer examination of some of the remains, it became obvious that a) not all of them were human, and b) some of them had been gnawed on by some kind of fauna, probably some kind of scavenger species. Some of the bite marks on the bones were quite large. Nathan shut off the feed.

"Okay," Nathan said. "First of all, the idea that there may be human children out there fending for themselves is a concern, but obviously we don't know for a fact there are no adults. They may just have not come near the gate. We definitely want to take a look at that altar and the artifact or device or whatever it is, but while you're there on P3X842, your secondary mission will be to make sure those children are safe and well cared for. What I'd like now is some first impressions. Doctor Andrews, Shae, I'm going to want your impressions Doctors Azad and Braeden, both of the altar and the children. Does anything about them seem familiar to you? Language, clothing, those tattoos, anything. But before we get to that, Doctors Azad and Braeden, I'd like your first impressions from what you can see of the device. I know the UAV feed didn't give you much to work with, but just do what you can."

Selyna studied the image from the UAV, frowning. While the image was in HD, the device was too far away for a really good close-up image. What she could see of it, though, showed her that there were definitely runes of some breed on it. She didn't recognize them, but then, she was no language expert. The device itself was fairly small, though not small enough to be carried by a single person. "I can't be sure, but the device and the altar-thing may be connected." she theorized. "Some of the runes on both look like they might be the same?" The questioning tone was a request for someone to confirm her thought or disclaim it.

Jessica took a look at the pixelated runes. "Possibly Gaelic or Celtic Runes. Can we have the Malp get a clearer picture? I need to know what these are."

"It's too far from the gate," Nathan said. "That's why we used the UAV and that's the best picture we could get. Doctor Azad? Any thoughts? Shae, feel free to chime in as well."

"Well I should warn you, my skills with reading and writing are not as developed as my ability to speak the languages I know, but the symbols do seem familiar," Shae replied, watching carefully as the MALP and UAV footage repeated. "Actually, I'm finding the markings on the children more familiar... It's called woad, but this is highly unusual, the worlds I've seen this sort of thing on, they never do it on children. The oldest one, there," she pointed out the boy who seemed to be the oldest, "he's barely of the age to get his first pattern, he should not be fully detailed like that."

Jessica spoke. "If there are Celtic societies here, why would they tattoo the woad onto children. That is done only on young men who proved themselves as warriors. Perhaps impatient children's games?"

"I can't tell for sure from the images, but it's possible the markings could be painted on," Shae theorized, although she didn't sound entirely convinced of this because the lines and patterns didn't look like a child's sloppy finger painting. "Although... It's very rare, but I have been to worlds where tattoos and ritual scars are applied to children, so maybe this world is one of those rare ones that developed this tradition this way?" she offered instead.

“My area of expertise is mechanical engineering,” Ravi pointed out. “I did not see anything mechanical. I am certain there are mechanics to it, but it is difficult to see without getting my hands on it and preferably taking it apart. Other than that, well, it looks small enough to move without too much difficulty. I am not certain how helpful that is.”

Jake jumped right on that. "Sir, I'm not that comfortable bringing something back here when we don't know what it does."

Nathan nodded. "I agree with you, Major," he said. "Which is why, Doctor Azad, since it seems unwise to bring the device to you at this juncture, we're sending you to the device. Along with the rest of SG-1. Today that means Major Asher in command, Doctor Andrews as second, Hawk as third, and we'll round the team out with Crow, Shae, Sergeant O'Connor, and Doctor Azad. That's a bit of a big team, and yes, we maybe be breaking the teams up a bit in the near future. Hassan and Mantelli will be on back up. They've already been briefed. Any other questions?"

"I have a question," Shae stated timidly. "How much time until we are to leave? I would like to see writings of this style from Earth to help me understand the markings on the structure, but I am still learning how to use this," she said, gesturing to her new tablet. "Also, if the children truly are alone, what are we to do with them?" she asked, understandably sympathetic to these kids who could possibly be without adult care.

"Our other experts believe that just bringing the children through the gate to New Dawn might be too big a culture shock. Once you have completed your primary mission and determined that the area is safe, a team will be sent through with the purpose of seeing to the children's care and, if possible, preparing them for possibly coming here, where they will be placed with specially selected families with cultural backgrounds as close to their own as possible. That's going to take a little doing, but give it time. We'll work it out. The new MALPs can be stripped down and used as cargo haulers, so stripped one down and we're loading it with supplies you can share with the children. Food, blankets, clothing, tools, as well as extra medical supplies in case Crow and Ree need to provide the children with medical treatment." Nathan said. "Once you've unloaded the supplies and then determined that the device is safe to bring back, you can use the stripped down MALP to transport it. As to your other question...not long. How much time do you need to do your research, Shae?"

"I do not know; as I said, I am still new to this technology and your English is not my best language," Shae replied. But, she understood that they had a schedule to keep, and she didn't want to keep those children waiting any longer than necessary. "I will find someone to help me so I can work faster, I'm sure I will be ready when it is time to go."

"Doctor Azad." Salara noted. "Be very careful with what you intend to take something apart. Some of these technologies can end your world, and I'm definitely not sure the Goa'uld invented all their technology... more like found it and some experimented with it with terrifying effect." She mentioned. "I agree with the Major, and be very cautious. It's times like these, when we do not have all the answers, that is the herald of woe." Salara could be very poetic at times, especially during one of her warning.

"Well that was certainly ominous enough," Nathan said. "Okay. Dismissed. Ready to leave in two hours."