Crossing Lost: Getting Here is the Easy Part

Rodney carried a few extra items, one of which was the satchel in which he had his laptop, a small tool kit, and random, odd connector cables. Given time, he could connect his computer to pretty much anything, as evidenced by his previous experience linking things that were essentially of crystalline structure to slightly below bleeding edge, Earth-bound technology. Couple that with his provisions+ (hypoglycemic, McKay had to eat every couple of hours or he'd pass out from 'manly hunger'), and he was pretty much weighed down. He was slow to begin with, and while his ribs didn't bother him quite so much while seated and doing little: read, it didn't cause massive amounts of pain to breath, they ached a great deal the longer they were out and walking around. The occasional stop was appreciated.

From:

Rose had wanted to try and carry some of McKay's equipment, but The Doctor had stopped her with a shake of his head. He did however take the tool kit and wires soon after they started out.

"Ah, I get it. It's some kind of geek thing." She gave them both a grin. "No getting help from girls, then."

She moved to walk alongside Tara. "So, you often volunteer for long tedious trips to the back of nowhere?"

From:

sophiedb.livejournal.com

Jon snorted quietly as he overheard Rose's question about "long tedious trips to the back of nowhere," scanning around and settling for his own sarcastic mantra of "trees, trees.. and more trees." Some things never changed.

He glanced over to McKay and made a note to check on the guy's ribs and pack next time they stopped - maybe then he'd be willing to split the load some more, and it wasn't like Jon hadn't just gotten over damaged ribs himself. He knew how badly they hurt, especially with the added irritation of jungle humidity, and he was carrying the team's first aid kit (courtesy of Daniel) - wasted space unless he actually used it, even if the patient was a hypochondriac under normal circumstances.

Jon's next subject of observation was the Doctor, who still made his nerves tingle in warning. An alien, yes.. but he'd not really spoken to the man (man? well that's what he looked like anyway) and was having to go by Chinese whispers so far. At least his eyes didn't flash, but that was no guarantee of continued good intentions.

And then there was Sayid, who made his hair stand on end for a very different reason. Jon's awareness shifted to the gun in his waistband, though he made no move to actually hold it. If there was one man on the island whom Jon refused to trust on principle, despite the disagreement of his gut instinct, it was Sayid.. almost the reverse of his thoughts towards Jacob Carter after his 'blending' with Selmak. Snakes were bad, and that was a fact. So were Iraqis with a military bearing. Case closed.

From:

There were worse things in the universe, amazingly enough, than snakes with the flashy eyes. Them, remarkably, McKay could deal with. They didn't suck life from a person with their -hand-. They were just over-the-top actors with a god complex. -There- was the understanding. As for the Doctor? Well, he'd worked with the man long enough, or as long as one could while on this island, that he could trust him-- as far as one could trust an alien, that is. A sort of working relationship had been built, and that went a long way with the astrophysicist. It was Jon, really, that sort of weirded him out. Still, he'd seen stranger things. Kind of. To work for the SGC meant that one had to keep one's mind open to many, many, many things, so many different possibilities. Energy beings. Life suckers. Snakes that bury themselves in people's heads, 'incubated' in people's guts... shadow creatures. Dinosaurs. Doesn't mean he liked it, however.

Step. Step. Breathe. Not too deeply, no. He'd positioned himself in the middle of the group out of habit. In good times, McKay was out of shape. He was a /theoretical/ astrophysicist. Never trained with guns, never trained in military tactics even though he was on a 'gate team'. By now, they'd have forgotten him, Zelenka replaced him, and the entire city was at the bottom of the ocean, thanks to the man's incompetence. Truth be told, he probably wouldn't have minded Rose's aid. After all, while he wouldn't classify her as a hot blonde, she was cute. On the flip side, however, if anything happened to his laptop, he would probably have a nervous breakdown.

Step. Step. Breathe. Not too deeply. One foot in front of the other as his thoughts shifted towards the 'are we there yet?'. "How far" *pant* "is it?"

From:

“At this rate, we’ll be to the TARDIS tonight. It took us about a day’s travel to find the main camp… or Scott, anyway. Now we know the way as far as the ship, so even with the frequent stops we should make descent time.” The Doctor switched the toolbox to his left hand. “We could sleep in the Consol Room tonight, not the most comfy, but it’ll be totally safe. Then tomorrow it looks like another half day’s walk to the transmitter site.”

As they walked, every once in a while the Doctor would look over his shoulder, checking up on Rose, Tara and Jon, no doubt. Actually, the former more than the latter. Sayid had taken point and walked alone.

“At least tonight you’ll be back in top shape.” The Doctor almost laughed at Rodney’s face at the thought of an all day trek to relief. “Think of it as a character building outing.”

From:

Rodney stopped briefly, his shoulders pulled back as if some unseen force held him, his head rolling in a vain attempt to loosen impossibly tight muscles. A wince crossed his face, as a hand rose. "Tonight. What is it about people parking so far? Is it a pilot thing, or what?" He'd noticed that even flying the jumpers, they'd always be parked way out in the middle of nowhere and had to walk. Lots. Oddly enough, he'd never asked his friend.

His expression turned to a pained scowl. Essentially, the response was 'For your own good', quite literally. "Yes, funny. Character building. I've had more of that..." in the last year. "I don't need anymore."

From:

“Wasn’t like it was a planned landing, now, was it? We’d just been through… a major crisis, and it completely drained her power sources. Just lucky she got us to Rose’s planet and general time, not toss us up on Janusia II during the great Rebellion. All considered it was a stellar landing. And nicely out of the way of our fellow cast aways. Don’t need them poking about.” The Doctor got a bit defensive. “Course if we were on Janusia II during their great Rebellion we could have nicked enough proper power supplies to get us moving again and I wouldn’t be stuck on a little island with a bunch of silly little apes. Maybe the landing wasn’t as good as all that after all.”

Rose laughed from behind them, as the Doctor was not being particularly hushed. “Don’t ever pick on the TARDIS. Although the piloting bit tends to be off a bit here and there. Few years, couple thousand miles.”

“Like to see you do better. Besides, she usually takes us exactly where we’re needed, if not where we were aiming for.”

“Just part of the adventure.” She nodded.

“Yup. Don’t want things to get too boring now, do we?”

From:

The thought of navigating through space and time was just something that McKay would love to get his mind around. The formulae would be intense. Of course, it could simply be a case, now, of pushing buttons, which would be very disappointing.

McKay had been on the move again, his breathing coming laboured, the exertion evident as the Doctor ringed himself in his own logic, coming out to the conclusion that, perhaps, the landing wasn't all that great. He stopped once more, however, at the characterization, his features turning insulted and vaguely irritated. "Who are you calling 'silly little apes'?" Not him, surely. Translating, perhaps, is in order, and a glance was given to the blonde. "Apes?"

From:

“Don’t get him started. His people were navigating space and time when ours were just slithering out of the primordial slime.” Her tone was long suffering. “We’re barely one step up from Neanderthal in the scale of time, and it’s amazing we managed to discover how to make fire without setting ourselves on. He’s having you on. Makes himself feel superior when he gets defensive. He stubs his toe and does a half hour on megalomaniacal alien dictators he’s outsmarted. You don’t want to know where he goes when he slams his hand in the kitchen drawer.”

“OI! The TARDIS did that to me, cause she was taking Jack’s side.” He shot back.

“Doesn’t change the fact that you always think you’re so clever.” She was grinning.

“I am so clever.” He answered with a grin of his own.

From:

"And look where we are now, and where he is." McKay could very well go into a treatise about stagnated worlds where they've plateaued, and humans have continued to learn, to grow, to move, change and even surpass those others. The fact that the astrophysicist has a shot of -understanding- the science behind the time travel speaks volumes. At least in his book.

"Not bad for an 'ape' to be able to understand what they've been doing for 'millions of years', all in... what? A blink of a cosmic eye? Hmmmm?" Clash of the egos. Still, while McKay wasn't necessarily smiling, his tones didn't carry a combative tenor, simply an intellectual challenge, exchange. He's willing to grant the timelord's people millions of years of experience, but the human physicists have done a pretty credible job in playing 'catch-up'.

From:

“Never said you didn’t have potential.” The Doctor pointed out, “One of the reasons I keep coming back to this little blue planet. You’ve just started to expand, branch out, look beyond your own little selves to what’s really out there. Eventually you’ll spread throughout the universe, exploring, discovering, building…”

“Dancing.” Rose laughed.

“Dancing.” He grinned. “You’re quite the expansive little race. You embrace everything, sometimes when you shouldn’t. If you don’t let greed and jealousy get the best of you, you promise to become one of the dominant species in the universe. So, yeah, you can learn. But you’re still evolving, intellectually if not physically.” He threw himself into the debate with exuberance. His mobile face accentuating his speech, his hands flying.”

“As for where I am now, could be worse. Could be better. At least the scenery’s nice even if the diet could use improving. The neighbors are a bit rowdy though.”

From:

...Eventually you'll spread throughout the universe, exploring, discovering, building...

Rodney had to snort, the sound of a laugh as he, once again, pulled himself to a stop, his head rolled backwards in an 'oh, come on' gesture. Before he actually said anything, however, he paused, considered, then with a rather dramatic, put-up sigh, took another step forward to begin again. The ache was getting to the point of convincing him he'd never take a full drought of air again.

"I'll grant you that we're still evolving, but the point was, we're not 'apes' anymore than-than-than-- well, I don't know." He withdrew from biology courses in favour for the hard sciences. "But-but-but the point stands that we are pretty advanced for the sliver of time-- and I don't believe I'm having this conversation... Jon... Can you believe I'm having this conversation?-- I was speaking metaphorically."

From:

sophiedb.livejournal.com

"Hey, don't bring me into this," Jon replied from the back of the line, annoyed by how close McKay was to spilling the beans. "I'm just glad we haven't blown ourselves up yet. Besides, he's got a time machine that flies through space. We have the shuttle and a few unmanned probes. We don't even come close, right?"

He knew the Doctor could speak Goa'uld and knew something about the Ancients, so chances were that Rose had a clue as well, but as far as he could tell there were still two Earthbound humans in this little group and that was more than enough to put a lid on this conversation. The thought of seeing this TARDIS wasn't bad though - if Rodney could keep his hot little hands off whatever undoubtedly sensitive controls there were inside.

"You want some painkillers? Or to offload some of that junk on your back?" Jon grinned cheekily. "I know how easily you old folks tire."

From:

"Right." The word was a mumbled response from McKay. He shifted his equipment around once more before giving Jon a good, old-fashioned glare, though it didn't stop him from pausing his travel once again and handing one of his briefcases with potentially useful bits of electronic equipment, a 'home built' circuit tester, and the salvageable tool kit from the aircraft. He held on to his laptop, however.

"I bet you won't see thirty years," McKay grumbled as he continued on his path once more, stumbling over a branch. It took a couple added steps to right himself, his hand going out to catch himself before another complaint came. "It can't possibly be that far. We-we-we've gone... how far? It must have been..." For an astrophysicist, he was a bad judge of physical distance.

[Doctor] Team Transmitter (tag Tara, Jon, McKay)

From:

purplerhino.livejournal.com - Date: 2006-04-13 12:22 am (UTC) - Expand

From:

Tara smiled at the question and shook her head. "No, not really, although I suppose patrolling might count."

Actually she had been very curious to see The Doctor's Tardis, and to just see more of the island as well. For all of it's many dangers, it was a truly beautiful place.

There was another reason, that she wanted to talk to Rose alone, but this wasn't just the place.

From:

She returned her attention to Tara. "Patrolling? Sounds like looking for trouble. So you can handle yourself, yeah? I mean beyond the..." Rose wiggled her fingers in the air.

"Can't say I'm not glad to have the company. Those two will be drivin us all mad by noon. Sayid isn't big on conversation, and Jon hasn't been much with talking so far."

From:

Tara was distracted by a creeping vine that was attempting to pull her boot off, and she answered without really thinking, "Patrolling, yeah, graveyards, vampires, all that...." She got her foot free, and just managed *not* to fall in the process. That accomplished, she grinned at Rose, "And I took out a demon biker guy with an axe one time."

From:

Rose looked more curious than surprised. “Demons… real demons. Ike with horns and tails and everything? And Vampires? The blood sucking undead like in a Hammer film?”

“I mean, I’ve seen Zombies, sort of. They were actually aliens made of gas inhabiting human corpses. Not Zombies in the sense Ash talks about. But I can relate a bit. And I’ve seen aliens of all sort. Some might pass as demons if you didn’t know different. But real demons? That’s… different. An axe, hm?”

She didn’t disbelieve Tara. After all she was a witch and worked magic. At this point Rose had become very open minded.

From:

Tara was rather enjoying talking about Sunnydale life in such a matter of fact way. She brushed her hair back, and said, "The town where I lived, where I was going to college anyway, was just infested with vampires. My girlfriend..." she trailed off, looking away before continuing, "My ex-girlfriend was part of a group that tried to keep the vamp population down, and I got brought into it through her. This girl led the group, Buffy Summers, she was the chosen Vampire Slayer, had almost superpowers, strength and speed and quick healing and all."

She gestured to the jungle around them, "It's certainly got more vines and such than graveyards, but at least it's daylight. Either way, gets you in shape, running after," she grinned at Rose again, teasingly, "Or sometimes running away from the undead. And I'll admit I've done my fair share of running away as fast as I can!"

From:

Rose laughed. "I got the running away bit down pretty good. Seems we're forever running for our lives. We've ticked off the prime minister of some obscure planet, or foiled intergalactic drugrunners who are none too happy about it, or someone forgot to tell me showing my legs in public was considered sacrilage on that planet in that time period... Add in the running before things blow up and I've got to say, I'm in pretty good shape." She handed Tara an apple.

"So... vampires. Still wrapping my head round that one. And superheros to fight them. Micky would be having a field day." She mused.

"Or hiding behind the couch." The Doctor smirked. "If Ricky ever found out there were vampires he'd never leave his flat at night."

"You knew about vampires?" Rose looked suspiciously at the Doctor.

"Know about a few kinds of vampires. Not sure about Tara's kind." He pointed out.

From:

Tara thanked Rose for the apple, and munched down, savoring the crisp flavor. She liked to hear of Rose's stories of running as well, intergalactic drug-runners sounded as bad as biker demons!

She turned a little to look at the Doctor. He seemed much less intimidating now, since the lessons had started to go well. "There's more than one kind of vampire? Yikes!" She took another bite of apple, and then went on. "Well, 'our' kind were humans once, and the way it was explained to me, a vampire catches someone, drains their blood and shares their own before the person dies. Then the poor guy does die, and when he, or she, wakes up their soul has left the body, and a demon inhabits it. Still has the brain of the person, so they still have all their memories. They don't age or die, except from...." Having finished the apple, she gently tossed the core into the bushes beside the path. Then she ticked off on her fingers: "Fire, lots of sunlight, beheading, or a wooden stake to the heart... um... yeah, I think that's mostly it."

"So, what other kinds are there?"

From:

“Well, the original vampires that I know of were capable of sucking whole planets dry. The Time Lords actually stepped up as a whole to interfere for the first time in a hundred thousand years. They had to be stopped, or they would move through the universe until there was nothing left. They were never human. In fact, they were huge, giants. It was the first time we committed genocide, and while we saved the universe from the immediate threat, genocide was not something to be proud of. The last of the Vampires, wounded, but not dead, fell on a human exploration ship, and promised the crew eternal life for their help. He made them into creatures very like you described. They managed to hold him in a kind of stasis. But the only thing to return him to power was the blood of Time Lords. Needless to say he didn’t succeed, and his little vampire puppets fell when he did. But it is possible they spread the condition.” The Doctor took a long drink of water. “So while the original and the infected were hardly demons, it’s easy to see where some cultures would mistake them as. The second type I know of are evolved… or mutated humans. Very sensitive to ultraviolet light, they can’t tolerate any sustenance but blood. They have longer life spans than humans, but only about double.”

“Truth is, if you can imagine it, somewhere out there, at some time, it most likely existed. It’s a big universe, and only one of many.” The Doctor finished his mango and tossed it into the wood. “Yet there are still humans in this time period convinced they’re the only life in the universe. You know for all you’re advances, you are still a remarkably egotistical lot.”

“Pot, kettle… you’ll get along great.” Rose announced.

From:

sinanju.livejournal.com

Ash trudged along uncharacteristically silent. He'd said hardly a word all day. That wasn't his usual approach to life, but occasionally--just occasionally--Ash could learn something by letting someone else talk. Today's trek had been eye-opening in the extreme. Vampires, demons, time and space travel, vampires of another sort, zombies of unfamiliar kinds, vampires of still a third sort, alien lynch mobs...it was terrifying.

And kind of exhilarating. He already knew the world was bigger and stranger than most people ever imagined. But the longer he stayed on this island and more he listened, the bigger and stranger the world--and the universe--became. Ash was looking forward to getting a look at this "tardis" thing. Some kind of space- and time-traveling spaceship, from what he'd gathered. He wondered what it would look like.

Well, they'd soon see.

OOC: Yes, I'm retroactively inserting Ash into the group. He's got nothing to do back at camp with all my other characters, so now...he's here.

From: