Captain Jack Aubrey: Debut

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack's transportation out of the cell and into one of the largest rooms he'd ever encountered was no less disconcerting than his arrival in that cell twenty-four hours earlier. At least Jack's ability to sleep through anything and at any time had no failed him, and most of his confinement he had spent snoring with no notion of the time on waking which was just as well.

In any case, having no explanation for either arrival, Jack dismissed the question from his mind and set about examining the area. His footfalls echoed off the great empty chamber as he paced about, first in one direction and then the other, finding no clue at all as to the manner of his capture, for captured he surely had been.

"Discourteous of the buggers not to present themselves and state their intentions," he said softly to himself.

Finally, Jack stopped, facing down one of the long corridors, and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Ahoy!" he called in his booming ship's voice. "Hello!"

Comments

Porta Ianualis

[luckyjackaubrey]

Finally, Jack stopped, facing down one of the long corridors, and cupped his hands around his mouth. "Ahoy!" he called in his booming ship's voice. "Hello!"

[good_cop]

Sam can't spend her whole time hovering around Lauren. Which isn't to say she wouldn't like to. But, well, she can't. Or isn't. So here she is, running her usual circuit when she hears an unfamiliar bellow, and diverts course.

She's not exactly at her best for meeting new people - she's wearing jogging bottoms and a vest that's already got patches of perspiration on it, hair scraped back and already escaping from its ponytail.

"Hello," she says, drawing to a halt. "I take it you just arrived."

[luckyjackaubrey]

Just as he had been to been alone before, Jack was surprised by the suddenness for which he found himself in company. He had heard the soft footfalls and had expected a barefooted boy before he turned to get a good look. She, a severe looking woman dressed in less than he had ever seen on a woman outside of a bedroom or a whorehouse, was so wholly unlooked for that it took a moment for Jack to gather his wits.

"In a manner of speaking, ma'am, yes," Jack agreed, bowing slightly, his eyes resting somewhere around her face, but almost as if he's looking beyond her.

"Would you be so kind as to tell me who is in charge?" he asked, this time meeting her eyes with a kind expression.

[good_cop]

Sam's eyes swept over the man before her. It seemed clear from his manner of speech and the polite little bow that he wasn't from 'today' (or her today anyway), but with the identical outfits the inhabitants of the station all found themselves in on transportation it was impossible to say much more than that - going by the ma'am only gave her any time between about the first half of the twentieth century and... maybe the seventeenth? ...and even then it was hard to say given the general inaccuracies that tended to creep in with costumed affairs, not to mention the fact he might not even really be speaking English... I'm sure Sherlock Holmes would have him pegged to within a decade in under a minute. Well, regardless...

"'Fraid that's a difficult question," Sam said with an apologetic smile. "As far as the people who live here go, there isn't anyone 'in charge' exactly, for reasons we can get into - some good and some... less so." She paused, trying to figure out the best way to frame her next words without confusing, scaring or angering the poor man. "Beyond our little group... everyone was brought here against their will, just like you, but if we have a prison guard, we've seen hide nor hair of them."

Accommodation. The word came floating back to Sam from her undergrad as she said 'hide nor hair'. She was slipping into archaic turns of phrase she would never usually use to make this man feel less uncomfortable, just the way she used to broaden or lighten her accent speaking to some interviewees depending on how they spoke. Once a copper...

"Anyway, we're in a bit of an upheaval at the moment for various reasons but I'll answer any questions I can. I'm Samantha Murray," she finished, reaching out a mercifully not too sweaty hand to him. Her full name, because just 'Sam' might be a little unsettling. The handshake from a woman because, well, best start as we mean to go on, eh?

Hallway

[luckyjackaubrey]

Armed with the vague knowledge of what had befallen him, Jack strode down one of the many endless corridors that the Proserpina seemed to posses. To Jack, used to cramped quarters at sea for a year or more at a time, the place seemed impossibly vast and empty, void of people, a labyrinth of rooms that he could not divine the purpose of.

The only people of the station that he had met so far had assured him that there were others, but it was not until he actually saw another for his own eyes around the bend in one of these corridors that he believed it.

"Good afternoon," he said when they have drawn close enough together. "At least I believe it is afternoon. I admit I find it difficult to tell." He said, and tried for a friendly smile.

[girl_who_waited]

"It's-" Amy shook the watches - two of them - that she was wearing down her arm, and peered at the faces on the inside of her wrist. "3pm. Or-" She tipped her head to the side. "6pm. I'm not sure which watch is right." She shrugged, and then flashed a bright smile. "You won't tell from the windows, though, you're right."

She blew out a breath, and then she looked at him a bit closer. "You're... new? I mean, you've got the jumpsuit and all." She hadn't worn the jumpsuit in months, instead opting for the sort of thing she was wearing now instead.

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack cleared his throat, looking somewhat embarrassed as his eyes slid away from her and back again.

"Yes, that is I had supposed that I might be stuck with it. Bad luck, me," he replies. Beyond his own self respect, Killick would have put out his eyes before he would have let Jack step foot through his cabin door in such a shabby rig as what Jack for the moment had to be content with.

Finding himself lost for words and uneasy without knowing the girl's situation, he put on his best winning smile, a made a leg. "Captain Jack Aubrey, at your service, miss."

[girl_who_waited]

Amy's brows shot up when he sort of looked at her, then looked away, and she tipped her head to the side, ducking a bit to catch his gaze. "There's other clothes," she says like Don't you see, I've got other clothes? even though it's not obvious, and like as much he doesn't know here from a hole in the ground.

"Amy Pond. Nice to meet you, Captain Jack Aubrey. Call me Amy." She backs up a step and nods behind her. "C'mon, then. I'm guessing you've not had lunch, and I know where there's tea and clothes, and pretty much whatever you may want. Everyone's a bit on edge at the moment."

Re: Hallway

[commanderbond]

"Afternoon is as good an assessment as any," Bond said dryly. He was somewhat more interested in this man than most, if only because he seemed to be from his part of the world.

"You seem unfamiliar. Are you new?"

Re: Hallway

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack smiled easily. "You've smoked it. It seems I'm a marked man," he said. Although he had found clothes more his own comfort, there were not enough people here from what he knew for him not to stand out a great deal.

Re: Hallway

[commanderbond]

"You have that air about you," Bond agreed. He had also been trained to easily discern discrepancies and it would have been a discredit to the Crown if he'd gone lax.

"How recent?"

Quarters

[luckyjackaubrey]

Given directions that had been more or less easy to follow, Jack made his way to what he had been told was a residential area where he could find quarters. He'd been told to look for a green light outside of a door that would indicate an empty room, but on finding such a door, Jack regarded it doubtfully, looking from the light to the strange device in his hand.

Finally, after some hesitation, Jack held the device up near the panel next to the door and jumped back a step as it flew open to reveal a generous suite.

He opened his mouth and began to smile until he heard the laughter behind him. Well that is unkind, he thinks, frowning slightly before he turns around to see just who might have the gall to laugh at his predicament.

Re: Quarters

[xiii_legion]

The person in question is a tall man with a shaved head and an interesting manner of dress - a sort of loose tunic and shawl combination like something out of a book on ancient philosphers. "I did the same thing when I got here," Pullo told the newcomer, a broad grin on his face. "Doors flying open, food appearing out of the wall - it's a bloody shock to the system is what it is. You get used to it though, more or less."

Re: Quarters

[luckyjackaubrey]

After realizing he was not the end of a joke, Jack relaxed. The man before him, though dressed in garb only familiar to him from his classical education, had a wholly familiar air about him. He would have fit right in on the deck and in the rigging of the Surprise.

"It is somewhat unsettling," Jack agreed. Well it seems we have one thing in common, and that is a start, Jack thought before bowed slightly to the man. "Captain Jack Aubrey, and you are, sir?"

Re: Quarters

[xiii_legion]

"Titus Pullo," came the good-natured response, and he even threw in a little bow of his own, though it looked a bit comical coming from the Roman. "A captain, eh? Is that a captain of men, or ships?" Personally Pullo was hoping for the former - more military-types could never go amiss, especially now with all the supers down for the count.

Observation Deck

[luckyjackaubrey]

"Heavens," Jack breathed as he turned the corner to be faced with one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen, and one even more breathtaking for how unexpected it had been. He was reminded of his first climb up to the very top of the mainmast on his first ship when the sky had been so blue and clear that the sea and sky seemed to go on forever.

Great emotion swelled in Jack's breast as he looked out, stepping close to the glass.

None of the stars were those he knew, but they were dear all the same.

Re: Observation Deck

[elementaire]

"Quite the sight, isn't it," Holmes spoke up from the very back of the room, steps up from the level the newcomer was standing on. He was on the floor, amidst a sea of paper, his communicator beside him. He was wearing an old t-shirt and a pair of brown pants, tattoos obvious on his arms, he was barefooted, and his hair was sticking up in odd directions.

But he was, at least, obviously English from his accent, and he was looking over at Jack curiously, and very closely, even from all the way across the room.

Re: Observation Deck

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack looked toward the man, back to the glass, and back to the man again, the look of delight still clear on his face.

"Quite," he agreed and then with another backwards look out at the stars, Jack advances and bends to hold out a hand to the man, who although a little odd did not look so strange to Jack as some of the others he had met.

"My apologies," Jack said. "I was so taken in by the view that I must confess I did not see you there at first."

[elementaire]

"I'm very difficult to offend," Holmes assured the man, and reached out to shake his hand. Admittedly, he wanted to feel his hand rather than shake it, to complete his mental picture of who the gentleman might be. "Royal Navy?"

Holodeck

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack had caught sight of a tall man who Jack was sure had seen him as well, but had not stopped to greet or even acknowledge Jack's presence or friendly hail. The man had just kept right on, swiftly walking in the opposite direction.

Not to be deterred, Jack followed the man, always just catching sight of him around the next bend, but without running Jack would never fully catch up.

In the next moment though, Jack was in luck. He caught sight of the man again entering through a large door. Composing himself for a moment, Jack followed after him and stops short in the doorway at the unexpected sight. A score of people, laid up in beds with a few men and women looking busy, although Jack could not make out exactly what it was that they were doing.

"Well don't just stand there, in or out," someone said, and Jack stepped into the room, letting the door slide shut behind him.

"What has happened here?" he asked. "Is it the plague? Yellow fever?" He's not sure what illness might have turned two women alternately blue and green, but he was certain that Stephen would have been able to tell him.

[sharpshooting]

"Nothing that simple, I'm afraid," John answered, approaching the stranger as he shoved his comm unit back into his lab coat pocket. "And if you're new here, it's a long story." One he definitely didn't have the energy to tell, especially to a newcomer who might not even understand what terms like superpowered meant. "Suffice to say they're not contagious," he said with as close to a smile as he could muster.

He regarded the man closely. His hair was long, his expression grave but focused; he didn't seem as unnerved as most new arrivals. "I'm John Watson," he said, somewhat belatedly, offering his hand. "Welcome to the Proserpina."

[luckyjackaubrey]

There was something about the man that instantly reminded Jack of Stephen. It may have been the obvious medical air about him and the offhanded way in which he dealt with the question so obviously outside of the knowledge of his audience, but it hit Jack with a painful ache.

Jack smiled then and took the man's hand, pleased by his firm steady grip. "Then we carry the same name, sir," he said with a smile. "I was born John Aubrey, although I answer to Jack. Captain Jack Aubrey," he added.

The Vents [For Sharon]

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack strode down the corridor heading away from the sick bay where he'd learned that most of the station's inhabitants were unwakable. It was a puzzling development, but like all such things in the medical realm was one which Jack could do little to help except to muddle through and provide an assistance within his power. It troubled him though. He had his bearings more or less, but the situation aboard was not ideal.

Caught in his thoughts as he paced, black hessian boots falling softly on the floor, Jack did not immediately notice the blond woman, like all of the others dressed like a man, but not in a way that was entirely unpleasing to the eye. When he did though, he found himself puzzled to ascertain what it was that she was doing.

"Hello," he greeted her. "If it's not too bold, may I inquire as to what you are doing miss?" he asked.

[withmyshield]

On top of the list of things Sharon doesn't have time for might be a guy dressed like an extra from H.M.S. Pinafore.

She's setting up a ladder at the moment, painstakingly checking all of the accessible vents and ducts in each of the nineteen places where their friends had fallen. She intends to check the rest from the top down when she's done. Because sleep is for people who don't have lives to save.

The spreadsheet in her comm says that this is where they found Mystique and Erik Lehnsherr, so she's planting the 5ft ladder when Captain Ahab starts talking. The 'miss' makes her want to address herself as agent, but for once in her life she's too tired to be a pill.

"It's Carter. Sharon Carter. I'll explain while I work, OK? Hold this steady." She can manage without the spotter, but it's actually a lot easier when she doesn't have to pay attention to how far she's leaning.

[luckyjackaubrey]

"Certainly Miss Carter," he said, taken aback some, although by this time he had already grown somewhat used to this different sort of woman. Jack had begun to look at the whole misadventure as he viewed any number of his voyages. When he'd met with strange cultures it was always with diplomacy and curiosity and this was no different for all that so far, with one exception, the people he'd met looked and sounded as if they hailed from a place very much like his own.

Helpfully Jack steadied the ladder for her, looking up occasionally and allowing her to speak on her own time.