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

[elementaire]

"Sherlock Holmes," Holmes introduced himself, studying the scarring on the man's face and making absolutely no effort to hide it. "Not as such, no. When are you from, captain?" Presumably some time after 1800, given the mention of Malta, but the mock-up uniform was too vague for him to pinpoint it more precisely.

[luckyjackaubrey]

"Happy to meet you, Mr. Holmes." Although it still struck him as odd, Jack was getting used to that question. Every person he'd met so far had asked it where in any normal conversation he would have been asked about his family or his ship, but this was nothing approaching normalcy.

"1813,' he replied and smiled. "I presume you are ahead of me?" Jack asked after a beat. He was sure there was a pun in that, but he hadn't enough time to work it out.

[elementaire]

"Two centuries to the year," Holmes confirmed, bypassing the easy pun on account of having better things to do, like thinking about what he knew of the Napoleonic Wars. 1813 would have been at the height of it, for Britain. "And you've joined us today?"

[luckyjackaubrey]

"Seems I haven't aged a day," he commented and then went on more seriously. "Not rightly today, I should think. I was quarantined for some time and I by now this must be another day," he said, agreeably. His internal measure of time had often been better than any watch. It didn't wind down.

[elementaire]

"Ah, but quarantine, from its very concept, can hardly be conceived as joining the lot of us," Holmes pointed out, absent-mindedly, and stuck his pencil at the corner of his lips to better pick up his communicator and type away. It never hurt to check things out, starting with the captain's name, although he seemed to be telling the truth.

[luckyjackaubrey]

"Your point, sir," Jack conceded. This was not his place nor his rules and he wasn't about to argue with someone more native than he.

"In any case, now that I have, I am better acquainting myself with my surroundings, which I'm certain looks a good deal like wandering." And although Jack had been wandering, he was carefully constructing a map in his head. Having his bearings made him feel a good deal more comfortable all together.

[elementaire]

"Looks like wandering," Holmes echoed, his attention still on his communicator, "but isn't?"

But for all that he sounded slightly distracted, he was also paying attention to Captain Jack Aubrey. That was easy multitasking, compared to what he had trained himself to do.

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack's expression was no longer as amiable as it had been. The man is answering him easily, but Jack was not used to even the closest of acquaintances allowing themselves to be preoccupied with other things while in polite conversation.

"No indeed. I am attempting to get the lay of the land, so to speak," he said. "You are working on something very important?" Jack asked after a beat as neutrally as such a question may be asked.

[elementaire]

Since Holmes had been checking out Captain Aubrey on the Cortex (or attempting to, the veritable deluge of information was always difficult to wade through, even for him), and did not consider that as work, his mind logically leaped to the papers strewn around him.

"Some things, actually, but yes," he confirmed, putting his communicator back down and starting gesturing at the papers. "This is a map of the air vents, as much as I've been able to make of it. You've heard about our sleepers? The gas came from the air vents, and I've been trying to determine its actual point of origin." He gestured at another array of papers. "This is about everyone I have been told is or has been on the station since March of last year. Notes about the previous residents," with another gesture, "and about the events of the last year and three months. There are either too many patterns, or not enough. Nothing conclusive, so far."

Clearly, the papers were arranged according to a specific system, with arrows leading from one note to the other, but it seemed more like a partially organised mess than anything easily graspable.

"Would you consider yourself an important person in your world, Captain?"

[luckyjackaubrey]

As Jack's eyebrows climbed at the number of, what would seem to Jack, very important things he started to chuckle. "I must be more careful what I ask," he said, but it did send his mind off in a few directions until Holmes called his attention back.

Taken aback slightly by the question, Jack smiled. "An important person?" Like most men of Jack's disposition, he did not like to boast, but at the same time he was proud of his accomplishments.

"I have been lucky," Jack answered finally, "And have made the best of that luck for which I have been recognized and become known." After a beat he continued, "But I do not suppose that the outcome of the war will be very much different without me." Even as he said it though, there was a note to his voice that said he didn't fully believe that.

[elementaire]

Holmes made a noncommittal noise in answer, and took the pen from behind his ear to make some notes on a paper he picked up. One more occurrence to add to the pattern, but it brought with it no epiphany.

"Even the most apparently insignificant jack tar might change the outcome of the war," he stated as he scribbled, "but rest assured, testimonies from people who knew each other in their original worlds suggests that you might still be present in yours."

[luckyjackaubrey]

Jack nodded, accepting the truth of the man's statement. It was true that certain officers distinguished themselves in ways that had far reaching consequences.

"Someone said something about that, but I'm not sure I followed," Jack admitted. There were a great many things that day that he took on faith and had decided were not important to operate against for the time being.

[elementaire]

"Best not to try and understand it, Captain," Holmes advised him. Even if he was clearly (and naturally) well-educated, he did not expect that a mind at all unversed in even the existence of quantum physics could grasp any of the theories that might explain it. "Simply accept it. You are still there, even as you are here."