Episode Twenty Three: Eighth Wonder

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1335
Cave system
Outskirts of Akrotiri


Captain Cromin and the rest of the team continued to make their way through the cave system in search of the second UAV. As they made their way through the dark hallways of the cave Cromin was deep in thought trying to remember where he had seen similar tech and that is when it came to him. The crystals looked like the kind the Tokra used to creat their underground bases. As soon as he figured that his thoughts jumped into his early days in the program when he first went off world and dealing with that went with that but now he just took it like any other day. After dealing all these bizarre things normal seemed to be the new strange.

As they went around the corner someone quickly ran up to the Captain and when the Captain turned around it was the new girl, the tech expert Kindle Knox. It seemed like she had something to say so Cromin turned his attention to her waiving her to walk with him. "Kindle I believe, Kindle Knox, how can I help you?" Kindle replied saying "Captain I don't mean to interrupt but there's another strange thing happening here. How the hell did an alien space crystal-swarm-monster-thing learn something that originates in another galaxy? Also - if it eats energy, what is the waste? I might not be a Xeno-biologist, but every creature on Earth at least is not fully efficient, meaning it produces waste. I'm thinking a power eating monster might excrete some other form of energy from its crystal rear, that technically has the potential to be more powerful then a ZPM. A low potential - but it's still an option." Cromin listened with a smile on his face as he listened to her release words non stop from her mouth with sincere curiosity in her eyes, Kindle seemed to be a very passionate girl and very brilliant Cromin had heard. The Captain responded to her answering her question. "You might be right but right now lets check out this other angle. First question, how the hell did the crystal learn morse code, well according to SG 1 mission report Gen O'neil touched some crystal on some planet briefly for a second and that was all it took for the crystal to clone him including downloading all his memories. So that could have been a possibility, maybe just maybe someone has touched it but the obvious answer is that the crystal was connected to the jumper we found in the cave and maybe it had gone through its data bank and it has also being connected to the city so maybe it has gone through or gotten some information some how from our databank, so it could have figured that out that way." Cromin continued answering her question "Second question where is the waste since all creatures on earth release waste, well for one the crystal is not a creature because all creatures are organism which this is clearly not and secondly we are not on earth so earth rules sometimes don't apply as in this case, thirdly not all life forms or beings release waste, ever heard of the replicators, all they do is grow and multiply their numbers, nothing is wasted by them. So you see why earth's rules might not apply here . . . and if it excretes something more powerful that a ZPM why the hell does the crystal not eat it back, it will be energy after all"

Cromin finished answering Kindle's questions with all sincerity and hoped that he got across to her. She's kinda spunky he thought"I know you are anxious to prod this crystal, don't worry you will have your shot, not right now. Let's do things in order then you will prod all you want in a controlled setting where all the necessary precautions would have been taken." Captain Cromin hoped he convinced her of why things were being done a certain way, the chain of command keeps people alive.

<Tag Kindle, loveridge and base personnel>

[Troy Loveridge]

1335
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Everybody in the FOP held their breath as Captain Cromin took a flashlight from one of his team members and sent a message in Morse code to the crystal. There was total silence as nothing happened, then a collective gasp as the rock formation flashed a reply. Robert radioed back in with the translation of the flashes, which seemed to indicate the crystal had some sort of self awareness and was capable of communication.

This of course made things a lot more difficult - if it had simply been a rock the Colonel would have had no trouble blasting it away to protect the city, but he was now looking at a living creature, in a manner of speaking. He couldn't simply kill it, not if it could be reasoned with. The crystal also represented one of the few remaining life forms on this planet, thanks to the expedition letting the Olympian Athena bomb it to high hell. What had started as simply poking around in a cave was turning into a nightmare.

Over the radio he heard Ms. Knox thinking out loud, with Robert explaining the crystal could have learned to communicate from 'absorbing' information from the Puddle Jumper. "Morse code is the simplest form of communication, it only uses two signs - a dot and dash." From behind him Troy heard a scientist explain that Morse code was similar to the binary language or 0's and 1's that computers used, suggesting the creature's intelligence could be more powerful than expected. It could even be the case that it was 'dumbing down' its language to communicate because it didn't think humans were smart enough, or so the scientist suggested.

Again a discussion about the crystal creating ZPM's in the form of its bodily waste came up, a train of thought the Colonel noticed everyone getting onboard. Robert was right - it was hard to apply Earth logical to a giant sentient rock-based life form, but it was always good to see civilians not being afraid to ask the tough questions.

"How far are you from the black box?" Troy asked. After they found the flight recorder from the crashed UAV they'd have more data to work with, and might be able to figure out if it was safe to take a sample of the crystals or not.

< Tag base Personnel >

OOC: And watch the tags, if you're in the cave use 'Cave System' or something like that so we don't get confused with people who are at the FOP

[Vanessa Collins]

1335
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

With the news that arrived, Vanessa was glad that they tried at least on option before any other measures were taken. If they had found out that this were living creatures, she would have made sure Cormin was in her office for the rest of the year, every single day or at least the amount of lives that were in the crystals which would have been destroyed.

She gave a smirk at the explanation that was going on in regards to the Morse Code. It was one of those codes that had been used in the past during the wars to communicate when no telegrams could have been able to reach the personnel who had been in the battle. She was certain her Code history knowledge was wrong. It had been years since she had to dig up Earths own current history that transpired in the last century.

"Let's hope it's not too far off," she commented to no one in particular and prayed that it wasn't already accessed.

<<Tag Troy/All>>

((Sorry lamely short, wasn't sure what to do with her ))

[Troy Loveridge]

1335
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

"Shouldn't be much further down the tunnel," a technician replied and Troy's and Vanessa's queries. While the UAV's were able to cover serious ground out in the open, they'd been forced to fly at a snail’s pace in the confined tunnels, and hadn't made it too far from the entrance when they'd gone offline. While it had first been suspected that they'd crashed for unknown reason, the recent revelation that the growing rock formation was sentient suggested it may have had something to do with it.

It that was a good thing or a bad thing remained to be seen.

As he was watching the footage from the helmet camera, a small shiny object caught the Colonel's eye. "Chief, what's that at your feet?" he asked down the radio. The camera view swung around for a moment as its operator searched for the object in question before focusing on the ground. A hand came into view and picked up the object, holding it in front of the camera. "Some sort of funky jewellery sir."

"Zoom in, pull it up on the main monitor," Troy said to a technician and he moved himself to better see the image. The main screen, previously showing an overlay of the tunnel system, switched to show the camera feed from the Warrant Officer's helmet. Now on a larger screen, details of the jewellery were easy to see. It looked to be some sort of gold bangle, a few centimetres wide with a snake coming out of each end that would wrap around the wearers hand above and below where the bangle would sit. A few small gemstones of various colours could be seen inlayed into the gold. (Image!)

It was a very unique piece, one Troy had seen before.

"Ria," he muttered under his breath. He remembered seeing the Titan wearing it while posing as an innocent ally to the expedition. He was certain the piece was hers. Since being outed during the battle of Tartaros she'd been kept in a maximum security cell, guarded around the clock. They'd questioned her initially, but she'd shown no signs that she'd ever talk. Troy was currently in talks with the NID to have an interrogation specialist brought in to deal with her. "That bracelet belongs to her," he explained to Doctor Collins.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1336
Cave system
Outskirts of Akrotiri


As the Captain and the rest of the search crew made it down the hallway they continued to watch out for any booby trap and any other sign for something new that might help them with their current predicament. Cromin started thinking about the situation they were and what he would have done if he had to make the call. He did not envy the Colonel at all especially since they had just confirmed that the crystals were some sort of lifeform, an intelligent lifeform, how intelligent remained to be seen. Captain Cromin always simplified whatever was before him with the facts that he had present. There was a life form who threatened the expedidtion, and as a result human life whether intentionally or not, that remained also to be seen. If they could not find a way to help the crystals then they had to make sure that the expedition survived, afterall they had a mission to complete. The Captain did not really envy the Colonel and the decision that he was going to have to make if things don't pan out well.


As they were about to make the corner a call came over the radio, the Colonel was trying to inquire about something that caught his eye from the footage being sent back to the FOP. As soon as Cromin heard the Colonel he went back to inquire about the find. He ordered to air men to cover the hallway so that there are no suprises from beind them. As the chief moved it close his helmet camera so that the Colonel could take a proper look at it Captain Cromin also inspected it, they had found a bracelet and that means that some how someone who had that brace had walked these cave systems. Whether they walked it when the crystals were already here remained to be seen. And also could it be that these crystal were created, then that would mean that they are some sort of artificial inteligence. Before the Captain could finish his thought the colonel muttered under his breath "Ria; That bracelet belongs to her" Captain Cromin had heard that name before but had not had time to read any files on her.

Cromin tapped his ear piece "Colonel did you say Ria, I have not read up on her, do I need to worry about her on this OP, do I need to be read in on her right now" Captain Cromin knew that name meant bad news because of what he has heard about Ria back in the base but he wasn't entirely sure what they would ultimately be dealing with.

<Tag base personel>

[Vanessa Collins]

1336
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

She watched as the camera zoomed closer to the object that was found near the feet of one of the crew members. The gold bangle that was now the focus of the current screen and their attention was Greek/roman -ish. Despite being thousands of years old or less than that. It was still strange yet beautiful piece of jewelery. The design told that it was usually wore on wrist also a possibly on upper arm, and she didn't think it mattered which wrist or upper arm. The gem in the center of the piece was either emerald or Sapphire. Simple yet stunning.

Troy muttering something made her look at him. With slight confusion she wonder if the fresh air was going some good or was he just behaving due all that stress he was bottling since the kidnapping of Pooja. With two senior members of the expedition missing in action. She wasn't shocked with some cracks showing; the man had been holding the best as he could.

Vanessa looked at him in surprise when he told her to whom that bracelet belonged to. If it wasn't for Ria and Kerios, they wouldn't be in the situation with Jerry and Walker. Jerry had been refusing to talk or interact with anyone. Which was really starting to worry her. She knew Kim had little luck, but in the end the woman's presences was helping Jerry in the long run. Which brought them back the present and the bracelet, groaning, "Hasn't that woman caused enough trouble," Vanessa pouted, "what could she be fiddling with the crystals for?"

Vanessa prayed that the woman didn't planted this to distract them so she could make her escape. Their full bird colonel and two silver oak holders would happily kill her if chance was given. But in order to find Kat and Pooja they needed Ria alive, so three of them wouldn't risk the chance of losing that link.

<<Tag Base Personnels>>

[Alec "Wildcat" Styles]

1336
Cave System
Outskirts of Akrotiri

With the two other enlisted men sweeping up front, Styles followed along behind the group. He focused mainly on the ceiling of the caves, as it would more likely for the men in front to miss something there than on the walls of the corridor or the ground. His P-90 moved with his eyes, although in a chest-level ready position. He monitored the radio, observing the movements of the team and keeping an eye peeled for danger.

The group stopped ahead of him, and he halted as well, the sudden lack of movement stirring up dust from the ground as his boot dug in cautiously. Alec crinkled his brow at the mention of Ria. The fallout of the collapse in the heirarchy among the Olympian government had brought a steady flow of potential allies coming to the expedition, with a handful doing so with ulterior motives - Ria and her crew among the worst. Much was still unknown to the Delta personnel regarding them, but it could not be a good thing that they discovered signs of them here.

"Given the present situation," Styles began, "I'd be extra careful with that bracelet. From what little we know of her, I keep having images in my head similar to Niirti, that Goa'uld scientist pest from the SG-1 archives."

<Tag Anyone>

[Troy Loveridge]

1337
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

A freeze-frame image of the bracelet hung on the main monitor, drawing the gaze and study of all those posted at the FOP. Yes, the Colonel was not 100% sure that he'd seen Ria wearing that item of jewellery when he'd helped rescue her from Tartaros, after which she'd spun him a story about being an enemy of the Olympians and the perfect ally to the expedition. It had of course all been a lie, one uncovered by Doctor McKillop, but not before Troy and the expedition had helped her break the rest of the Titans out of Tartaros, during which they'd taken Pooja captive. It was a dark spot on the history of the expedition and his service record, one he was hoping to erase.

From down in the tunnels, Captain Cromin asked about Ria. "We're holding her back in the city, under tight guard," the Colonel replied. "I'll have her brought out, she might know something about the crystals, but I doubt she'll want to talk." Since being taken into custody, Ria had been unwilling to say another other that abuse toward her captors. Maybe it was time to bring out the big guns, resort to some desperate matters. "Right now that black box is the best chance we have at stopping the crystals."

"Hasn't that woman caused enough trouble," Vanessa pouted, "what could she be fiddling with the crystals for?" Troy pondered the question for a moment. "Her and Kreios were planting some sort of sabotage on the Aeneid when we were leaving Tartaros, this could have been a backup plan?" Asides from access the expedition's personnel files, the Titans plan to damage the ship appeared to have been halted before it could be put into action. Afterward the ship had been swept for any signs of sabotage, but areas of the ship were still cut off due to the damage she'd sustained.

Activating his radio, Troy requested Ria be brought to the FOP under heavy guard. He wasn't quite sure how he was going to plan this - maybe he'd convince her that the city's destruction wasn't in her best interests, or that the crystal threatened the destroy the whole planet. It was times like these a psychologist was handy, hopefully Vanessa would know how to get into the woman's head.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1338
Cave system
Outskirts of Akrotiri


Captain Cromin had all kinds of things happening in his mind, he hated curve balls being theown at him whenever he was on a mission but he knew to expect them all the time. Infact he was hoping that this wasn't one of the days were all that could go wrong go wrong, he wasn't in the mood for it at all. He was hoping for a miracle but against all odds it was starting to feel like one of those days, he was already seeing signs. Ria was another curve ball, he knew little of her since he wasn't on the mission that captured her and he hadn't had time to go through her files. The Colonel fed him what little intel he had and at the moment he was to continue on mission to recover the black boxes from the UAVs sent in earlier. The Colonel was going to get back to him as soon as he knew more.

Captain Cromin was supposed to have a date later with a nurse in the sick bay, he had planned to take her to this area of Akrotiri that he found where the fields were to die for, they were endless in site and good for picnic. All he had that day was some training mission and then he was off the rest of the day but then this happened and he has to deal with it.

He snapped out of his wishful thinking as they made the corner where the other UAV had fallen. One of the engineers with him was able to get the black box out. They made their way to the third having recovered the third Black box. It wasn't long before they got all three and started to make their way back out to the surface. Captain Cromin informed the Colonel that they were on their way back out so that security would be aware of their approach. The Captain wondered what the black boxes would actually reveal as they made their way back out. Ria was on her way to the FOP and he was looking forward to meeting with her.


<Tag all>

[Vanessa Collins]

1337
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

She jumped to her feet, the laptop nearly tumbling over in processes in shock and anger, "No, No, No," she told him dead flat as she saved the computer on time before it went splat on the floor, "Absolutely not. That woman isn't moving an inch from that cell. I don't care if she's not talking. She's worth more trouble than we or you can afford right now." She nearly glared at the Colonel. For the moment she didn't care if he was Leader of expedition, she would still tell him off.

Tapping her foot, she hoped she didn't needed to remind him of the pressing matters in regards to Pooja and Kat were at hand than that devil of a woman."Send me or Frank, You bring that woman down here, I swear to you, heads will roll." And it will take ages to calm down Collins. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this ticked off.

Hearing what he was saying, Vanessa almost swore, so that what happened to the ship, "Or this was their plan." she pointed out. Irritated with herself for trusting these people, she wondered just what they were dealing with, when it came to the Titans. Just who were they? What did they want? Between her and Troy they had more questions than answers.

Flopping back when the small burst of energy died out, "Just what are we dealing with?" she asked in regards to the Titans as she rubbed her temple when it started pounding.

<<Tag Troy>>

[Troy Loveridge]

1345
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

From down in the cave system Captain Cromin radioed that he'd recovered the black box recorders from the crashed UAV's and was making his way back up toward the surface. The flying probes had crashed mid flight while exploring the tunnels, and at the moment the growing sentient crystal that threatened to drain their base of power was to blame. It was hoped the recordings from the craft would be able to shine some more light on what was going on down in the tunnels.

As the recovery team made the trek back up to the surface, Troy talked with Vanessa about bringing Ria to the FOP to see if she would talk. Their Titan prisoner had long posed as an ally to the expedition, and might have herself planted the growing crystal - a piece of jewellery found in the tunnel placed her down there at some point prior to being revealed as an enemy. It wouldn't have been the first attempt at sabotage she'd engaged in, and when presented with evidence that the expedition was onto her Troy hoped she'd be more likely to open up and confess.

Unfortunately, Vanessa didn't share this belief, and argued that she shouldn't be let out of her cell. Being the base's psychologist, it was likely that she'd carried out some sort of evaluation of the prisoner when she'd been brought in.

As a member of the medical department, she could probably order Troy not to release Ria based on her profile, but Troy didn't want it to come to that. "We'll see how the black box goes," he explained, just as the recovery team arrived at the FOP. The three black box recorders were taken by techs and hooked up to the computers, with the readings scrolling across the screen. "Can anyone read this?" the Colonel asked, only seeing likes of unrelated numbers.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Robert "Scarecrow" Cromin]

1346
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Captain Cromin and the rest of the search crew had made it out of the Cave system, the engineers immediately went into work mode because as of right now they knew that the expedition needed to know what was in those black boxes. Cromin had noticed that Ria was not at the FOP yet so he called on a sergeant who had been near the Colonel providing security and asked whether he knew why Ria was not in the FOP yet. The Sergeant said that Dr Collins had raised opposition to the Colonels decision and at the moment the Colonel was going with the Doctor's opposition.

Captain Cromin walking towards the Colonel asked if he could have a word with him in private. When they were clear of listening ears Captain Cromin then began to speak. "Colonel, permision to speak freely" Captain Cromin thought he saw a nod so he took it as a yes and began to speak. "Sir, I hear the good doctor is in opposition to bring Ria to the FOP, I understand she might be able to order you to stand down if it was a medical issue, but sir this is a security issue, the whole expedition is threatened by these crystals and we need to know what Ria knows . . . like yesterday. I can go to her, if you insist on staying out of the doctor's crosshairs for now, we can have Ria relocated to a military only part of the city and have her interogated there. Your call. Sir you and I have both done this before, Ria is not going to willingly talk so we might have to be creative with our interogtion"

And with that Captain Cromin waited for a go ahead or a no go with regards to his recommmendations to the Colonel. Captain Cromin always placed priorities on issues, not that he despised civilian authority, but sometimes he thought that they were a little naive and unrealistic about dangerous issues such as what they were currently dealing with. That is why he was happy with the General becomng a civie, at least there was some form of reality being fed to all of the civilian authority.

<Tag all>

[Taylor James]

1347
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri


Having been quiet this whole time, Master Sargent Taylor Lee James did one of the things he was best at: he listened, observed, and reasoned carefully.


Given all the reading he had done back on Earth at the SGC, and on his way here to D2X-374, and the "lost" City of Akrotiri (but since they where now hear using it, didn't that mean it was now "found"? ehh...) it was clear that this Ria woman was like the harbinger chaos and destruction, if given an inch, she'd take a whole planet, and no matter how one sliced it, that was bad.

Unless...

'If this is a fail safe option formed by Ria and her cronies, then they might not have been planing to stick around, at least that would be logical, given their behavior towards the whole outfit here... Hmm... And given the nature of this crystal like being...'


Time to earn his pay.

"Sir if I may?" Taylor said as he stepped forward, sidearm holstered, and an MP5A, with piggybacked clips slung over his shoulder, his uniform clean, but slightly wrinkled from being worn, as all uniforms where meant to be, his stripes clearly marking him as an E-7 combat specialist, smaller insignia marking as a vehicle driver of the highest value.


Pointing to the pictures of the crystalic formations, he spoke rapidly; "The Cap's right, she's hell on wheels, and as such, we need to know if this is some form of fail safe, final option maneuver, and barring the Morse code, everything points to that thing being a kind of doomsday option, I mean, think about it... What BETTER way shut us down then to suck out every scrap of power we got?"

Then looking to the feed with the Doctor, he then held a hand to to head off her protests, as well as the rebuttal of the other egg heads on base; "And before you jump my ass about it talking with the flashes of light, yes, that's a valid assessment, but it's simple, cut and dry, three options." he looked from the Commander, to the Video feeds and paused for just three rapid heartbeats before speaking; "History has proven that situations like this are caused by only three reasons, one, it's a final attack sent by our enemies to wipe us out. Two, it's honestly just a sick or helpless person--er-- I mean BEING, trying to survive, and we have the bad luck of being in the way and tasting really good, or the third option..." he stopped for a moment and then looked dead at his commander and sighed; "We somehow made that thing when the puddle jumper crashed. Search me as to how, but stranger and more wild things have happened, with both the SGC and Atlantis, more than once even, we've blundered into things and ended up shooting ourselves in the foot..." he blinked and then shrugged; "I'm just sayin' sir's n' mam, it's going to come down to one of those three things, and we need to find out which it is right the hell now, because time clearly isn't on our side, and we don't seem to have a way to fight this head on... Sadly."


Okay, he'd talked enough, now to let the powers that be figure out what the hell to do next.


Still, one thing that crossed his mind was the Captain's suggestion to "get creative" with the questioning.

'... Maybe threatening this Ria lady with the crystal entity might tell us if she knew what was going on or not?'


But that wasn't his place to suggest or voice that idea, he'd already said more than he likely should, even if it was needed...


{{{YAY! First post IC xD}}}

<<Tag CO's Troy, Vannessa, Rob>>

[Troy Loveridge]

OOC: Please refer to the mission Locker Room so we can plan our next moves

1345
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

With the teams that had explored the tunnels and recovered the black boxes back at the FOP, it was time to plan their next move. Battle lines were quickly drawn.

On one side there was Doctor Collins, whose assessment of Ria stated that the Titan was too dangerous to be brought out of her secure cell to the further questioned. Getting into people's minds was Vanessa's speciality, and in her defence Ria hadn't said a word since she'd been looked up, short of cursing out everyone she came into contact with her. The jewellery they found linked her somehow to the crystals, although the nature of the link hadn't been explained. For all they knew the crystals had been planted for the very purpose of having her released from her cell to answer questions. It was a hell of a risk, especially if she was as dangerous as they suspected she was.

On the other side was Captain Cromin and Master Sergeant James, who were in favour to applying some 'advanced interrogation techniques' to their prisoner. Their case was just as solid as Vanessa's, albeit the polar opposite. If Ria know something, anything about these crystals or how to stop them from destroying the city, then that information should be extracted at all costs. So far they'd played nice with her, but the gloves could quickly come off and the Geneva Convention thrown out the window if it meant saving the expedition from destruction.

Either way they looked at it, a decision needed to be made. Should they keep the most dangerous prisoner they had locked up and continue to work their way through this on their own? They'd managed to save the expedition from threats before, often by the skin of their teeth. Or should they bring Ria down here for questioning, and risk her somehow turning the tables on them? The Titans had scared the Olympians - the largest space empire in the galaxy - into locking them up and throwing away the key, surely there was something in that.

"If we let her out, we risk losing control of the situation," the Colonel mused. "But without her, we could be going about this the wrong way." He looked around the FOP, wanting to hear what everyone else thought they should do.

< Tag Base Personnel >

[Vanessa Collins]

1345 - 1347
Forward Observation Post
Outskirts of Akrotiri

Hearing what Captain Cormin was saying, Vanessa nearly threw her hands in the air in a give up gesture. If he wanted the whole expedition slaughtered at Ria's hands, then he was more than welcome to bring the woman out. She knew just how dangerous Ria was going to be to the security issue. The woman was far more clever than Vanessa gave her credit for. She wasn't arrogant to the issue the Titan presented.

If the female Titan could fool the Expeditions Chief shrink, and the - then - Acting Expedition Leader, by playing a friend, then there was no way these people weren't going to be fooled. Not to mention if the woman used her combat training, the guards were hardly going to match up to her moves. The escape then would be far too easy.

She frowned a little when the creativity part got her attention, last time they did that - got creative - Vanessa recalled correctly that Troy had to face that what's his name Judge. If Cormin was heading towards the same, she better get that letter written.

She turned her head when James started speaking, on the side ready to bite if needed. "If this was the final attack, I reckon we did be dead by now. But," she moved around the small area, "I don't think killing us was on the agenda for them. Slowing us down maybe. But killing, no....not yet.

They used Major Logan to get the information they needed, Lieutenant Garret shot her clone when it was discovered. Based on Troy and my recommendation, Commander Garcia led SD-1 to free the other Titans, resulting in his wife's kidnapping, over what purpose, we still do not know. If they use Doctor Garcia for information, they won't kill her.

If they wanted to, they could have blown the ship when they had the chance, leaving no trace of their hand in the demise of people there." she paused and looked a the men, "Yet they didn't. They still us for something, but what?"

She hated herself in playing the part in her friend's kidnapping, and would never ever forgive herself in that regard. Causing Jerry pain, shamed her. She had wanted to see how he was doing, but was afraid of the backlash - even if it would be well deserved. But she hadn't. Not after he nearly slid Troy's throat with standard issued knife, shortly after Pooja had been taken.

Landing her eyes on Troy, when the man spoke, "Can we risk trusting her with this? Even after what she's done." While it was a loaded question, Vanessa didn't trust herself to trust Ria.

<<Tag Taylor, Cormin, Troy>>

((OMG super long post *dies* She got super wordy....haha!!))