SG5 Missions Thread

[Oranos]

As Themyrius led the team away from the gate and towards the polis, Robert followed behind with Crescent and continued. "I don't pretend to be an expert on the culture. If this sets them off, or that does, or just shouldn't be done." He let his eyes drop to his feet and as he just stared down there. "This isn't easy for me, you know. I'm not the person that admits he needs help or even really asks for it. And I am most certainly not diplomatic. So I'll take what help I can." 'You know,' he decided, 'For not wanting to talk to chaplains and psychologists, and ignoring most of the base, this isn't half bad.'

But he was a little out of his element now. "And we'll call it 'Greek Culture for Dummies.' Because I'd prefer to piss off as few of them here as possible."

When Ak'nar introduced himself, Robert gave a bow of his head. It was both diplomatic and safe. And he focused again on Crescent.

For all the doubts he had about himself, he could at least BS part of his job. "I mean, I can do 'bodyguard' when the times comes, that's easy. I think we can safely say that I have the physically imposing, bad*** and extremely deadly covered." He leaned in close with a hint of a smile. "You are intimidated by me, right?"

[Ryn]

<< Smyrna, saying "Hi!">>

Williams found himself becoming somewhat irritated with Hughes' behaviour. What was he doing back there ? Flirting with Crescent ? From the looks of it, it could very well be. David hadn't heard any of their conversation, however (only Crescent's giggle), and would not address Hughes on it until it was absolutely necessary. He himself was only just accustomed to their new surroundings. He found himself standing near Stevens and bowed back to Ak'nar as they were introduced.

"Hello, there. I'm David Williams. Nice to meet you, Ak'nar.".

He hoped the first ever greeting on an alien planet to an alien wasn't going to go all bad on him, and the linguist kept his posture as non offensive as possible. Hands visible with one outstretched for Ak'nar to take. His other hand was nowhere near any weaponry concealed about his person, which he was sure the Jaffa must have noticed and catalogued by now; those guys were SMART with a capital, even bold S, and the weapons' shape was probably a dead give-away.
He of course couldn't compare their battle skill to that of the SG-5 marine in their midst, having seen neither in action, but given the similar muscle tone, he suspected it would be about even. He'd only have to hope Hughes would be alert enough to take action should the Jaffa be offended anyway.
Forcing his attention on the Jaffa and the Major, David shushed his mind, it was running off in circles again.

[DragonGate]

Crescent rolled her eyes. "You, intimidating? Please, I got to be around the boss when she was five, now that was scary. Trained SFs ran in terror. Just play yourself down, don't make him feel like you're challenging his honor or competence."

Stevens went back through introducing her team in Ak'nar, thankful that everyone here needed introduction. "This Dr. Williams, our historian. Behind us is my second Captain Crescent and our weapons expert Lieutenant Hughes."

Ak'nar accepted the hand Williams offered, gripping more on the wrist and forearm. The man seemed distracted, but he'd spent enough years with Theolaus' occasional flights of fancy, wedged in between insults at him and his men and flagrant courting of their mistress' lo'taur that he took the doctor in stride. He bowed politely to acknowledge the light-haired woman Crescent, and offered a hand to Hughes. Though he knew from hard experience that almost any of the Tau'ri could fight if forced to, he also knew that some were trained for it more than others, and Hughes was clearly 'it' for the team.

"We will speak in the office chambers off the Senate. I may know someone with some idea of why your team has come here, Major." He cast a speculative eye, they had brought little gear but weapons, and the ribbon device the small woman tried to hold unobtrusively was impossible to mis-interpret. "And I can be so bold as to presume you will be going back into the Temple for some of her things?"

Stevens nodded. "Preferably without the pomp and circumstance and ceremonial fire to open the doors. We'll need some guidance to find the old priest's entrance."

[Ryn]

His arm hurt. So much so that he was sure the "Jaffa-handshake" had left a bruise. OK. Well. At the very least, his head hadn't been bitten off, figuratively nor literally. That was a plus. He rubbed the arm a little.

And oh, what, a Temple, why yes that would make sense. "I could... probably... find that entrance, have studied enough of these to get my bearings quickly, although of course never in one that wasn't in rubble.". He smiled and blinked a little, already looking forward to this.

[Oranos]

Robert jerked back, mouth agape. Was Crescent toying with him? "Ouch, just ouch. Smooth rejection." He couldn't believe it. "Owned by a five-year-old kid, fantastic. So if not intimidating, what would you describe me as?"

He'd already commited Crescent's advice to memory, another mental note made. It sounded simple enough, he could probably do that.

As Ak'nar offered his hand, Robert tried to copy the traditional greeting as best as possible. How had Doctor Williams done it? He doubted the attempt was perfect, or even close to, but he hoped it was good enough to pass.

[DragonGate]

Crescent shook her head, blonde hair catching the bright alien sun. "Oh, I was teasing, do you mind having your given name used? Yes, you are very tough and intimidating, I would say big but that's a matter of comparison-"

Stevens shot her a look, yes, she knew she was the shortest person here by four inches at least. "That'll be your job, Williams. We need to get into the temple and retrieve some of Nemesis' things if I'm gonna pull this off."

"Her priests left the planet soon after it was clear that she would not return, that entrance should be near the back, though traps are possible." Lieutenant Hughes had a firm grip, Ak'nar made note of that. It took a fair helping of intelligence and shrewdness to get where he had, and figuring out who to watch out for and keep an eye on.

"Then to the Senate chamber, and send for the person you mentioned." Stevens gestured her team forward.

"An elderly Jaffa woman, recently a handmaiden to Aphrodite freed to live out her last days, arrived here with a story of the latest works of her mistress' husband Hephaestus. She had no great details, as anything Aphrodite repeated of her lord's work was so garbled by the queen's repetition that it made little sense." They had reached the main square of the polis, and Jaffa and the occasional human alike were stopping to stare at what could seem to be the return of their goddess.

Stevens gave a meaningful look to Hughes and Crescent. "Keep a lookout for trouble, not everybody out in the galaxy gets the concept of the Goa'uld as slimy snake in someone's head." She picked up the drop of the foremost Olympian scientist, more occupied with inventing then ruling his planets. "Was she able to get straight what kind of thing it was?"

"Only that it was no physical weapon, Major Stevens, and Aphrodite did not understand how it would unbalance the Treaty when the Olympian Council were not signatories."



Captain Kari Crescent

[Oranos]

He looked Crescent over once. Flustered, Robert stumbled over his next words with a nervous laugh. "You were…you were teasing me? Of course you were. This is so embarrassing." He still managed a small grin. "But at least I'm still tough and intimidating."

Bound for the senate chamber now, Hughes continued, shaking off some lingering humiliation. "You may have noticed that I'm not very big on formalities." He nodded up towards Stevens. "She practically had to beat me into saying ma'am. Robert'll be fine."

As they walked on, Stevens turned back to her two officers, reminding them to be alert. "Been on it, actually," Robert called back up to the major. "I'm always expecting trouble, remember?" He'd always had to look over his shoulder growing up, after all. Why should now be any different? Beyond the fact that he had a couple of people he trusted around him.

He continued to pick up on bits and pieces of the conversation taking place in front of him between Stevens and Ak'nar. Robert frowned. Not a physical weapon, the former First Prime had said. Curious, he decided, but remained silent on that issue for now.

[Ryn]

<<Smyrna, city>>

Oooh. Now that was what he had signed up for. David mentally rubbed his hands in glee. The possibility of exploring ancient rui..no. Actual, real, live, used, buildings. Temples. Gosh. This really was Disneyland, wasn't it ?
Williams knew he had to be stern with himself though. Keep your mind on the mission. Don't run off, don't be all wide-eyed and all that stuff, keep in mind this is REAL, not on a screen, not in a book.

He looked around to find the place of worship, mildly amused by the conversation about their respective heights in the background. With his 5'9'' David towered slightly over the two women, though of course Hughes was the tallest. Secretly though he was glad he could look Hughes in the eye without any neck strain.

All right, back to the lookout. Those Temples were usually located on a hill or something, in order to be closer to the gods they were worshipping. Not picking it up immediately, he decided to ask their guide.

"Hmmm, ok. Is the temple close by, Ak'nar ? Or do we have to walk far again ?"

He sincerely hoped not to have to, it was going to be tiring enough avoiding... huh, what ? Traps ? Oh dear. A sudden flash of memories, Indiana Jones-related movie scenes of traps the intrepid explorer had managed to survive, filled William's mind with dread. He knew he would be killed on the first go. Beginner's luck was probably something David wasn't going to get.

"How good are you with traps, lieutenant ? Or captain ? You'll have to watch out for me, can you do that ?"

Then his mind managed to process what else Stevens and Ak'nar had talked about.

"Not a physical weapon ? What, you're telling me they perfected mind control ? Telekinesis ? What really happened to that woman ?" It was almost impossible to believe. Knowing the Goa'uld, there just HAD to be some kind of technology involved.

[DragonGate]

Crescent chuckled. "Then I'm Kari, just give it some time. Work with her long enough and she relaxes a lot. Just never gives herself that when dealing with anybody."

Stevens brushed at her hair as they stopped at the steps of the Senate. "All right, Hughes and Williams, try to get into the temple through the priest's entrance." She pointed to a columned building at the other end of the square, a large statue of a lion bearing a winged woman as a rider with an altar for the ceremonial fires at its base. The statue bore the evidence of abuse and defacement.

"If all else fails, we can get a fire going on the altar and activate the machinery to open the main doors. The problem there is that only a small percentage of this planet that realizes it's steam-powered machinery and not divine power."

"That would not be the most advisable course, Major Stevens." On one hand, he knew what was really there, he'd seen many decades ago as a small boy when the water vessel in the mechanism had broken and Nemesis had brought a human from elsewhere to fix the mechanism. The man had been allowed to speak to no one, and bore no marks of being anyone's slave. It was still amazing to see, fire devoted to the goddess opening the doors to allow the day's worship.

To Williams, Ak'nar gave a slight shrug."As I said, she was not clear. By a third-hand account, that was all she was able to get across. Goa'uld queens tend towards the brainless, and the woman is very old."

"We can hope that it might be what's giving the Asgard computers apoplexy, Doctor. Break their ability to enforce the Protected Planets Treaty, and help us, and all the Council has to do is come back to Gaia with a much larger force than last time and finish the job they started on Earth." It was her own theory, but it did make sense. If anybody could write a virus to screw with the Asgard, she'd put it right at Hephaeustus' door. "We'll definitely want to speak to her, Ak'nar."

The ex-first prime nodded and roped in a boy who was crossing the plaza. "Boy, do you know where Mistress Prima lives?" He only nodded. "Go to her and ask her to come to my offices in the Senate. Help her along to come here. There's a drachma in it for you if you can do it quick enough." The young man raced off, motivated by the thought of money. Ak'nar gestured the two women to follow him inside.




((Check out the link for more information about the temple machines Heron of Alexandria invented back in the day. First saw them on a History Channel show, seems right up the Goa'uld's alley to me.))

[Oranos]

"Fair enough...Kari." He hesitated to use her first name, but he appreciated the sentiment just the same.

As the two parties separated, Robert groaned a little. What he wouldn't give to be in Crescent's place. So it wasn't necessarily a weapon in the traditional sense, but still. Here he was stuck with Williams, the person he most wanted to avoid, to bypass a temple's main doors.

He waved at Crescent as he continued to back away. "Juicy details, please?" And put up his thumbs with a nod and smile.

He looked over at Williams as the two approached the temple. "Let me make this perfectly clear, doctor. You touch nothing unless I tell you to. You do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it. And you pay attention to what you're doing. Remember, this is not a debate. If we're now clear on that, where do you suggest we start?"

On second thought, some of the traps at the priest's entrance were sure to be interesting. Maybe this wouldn't be quite so bad.

[Ryn]

<<Smyrna, central village square>>

Ah. He should've known that that building had been her temple, it was so obvious. OK. Obviously, Goa'uld took what they needed from local culture and changed it to suit their needs. Yes, of course they did...

"Right. Am on it, Major." He glanced over at Hughes, wondering where the man had gone off to. Chatting with Crescent ? Again ? Hmmm.

The mechanism Stevens talked about seemed really interesting, this was another prime example of the Goa'uld and their love of tech. Even basic simple tech like steam power. Most ingenious. He stood in admiration of it, then filed it away as Ak'nar called on the boy and sent him off on the errand. Important as the errand was, David wanted to add a few more drachmae to that reward. But of course he had none on him and there was no way to actually pay Ak'nar so he could give it to the boy. So the linguist just smiled, hoping it was enough.

By then Hughes had found his way back toward him and the marine was busy delivering a rather thunderous speech. It did not perturb the linguist in the slightest. Not responding at all to it, Williams just shook his head and walked off, already working out where said entrance might be. Somewhere at the other end, probably. There were only three walls to be checked out anyhow, right ? It would probably be obscured from view. Ah, yes, how about that shadow over there, that looked promising ?

He walked towards it.

[DragonGate]

<<Inside the Senate chambers>>

Stevens, Crescent, and Ak'nar walked up the steps. The major wondered idly whether or not she should have sent Crescent with Williams instead, but the doctor and the marine had already headed off. Between them they balanced out, though.

Ak'nar pushed open the wooden doors, adorned with plates of metal done in designs from myth. "My offices are up ahead to the left, I have become the unoffical leader of the citizen's militia by default after Nemesis' demise."

Crescent turned in a circle as she walked, taking in everything with as much fascination as David had. Nearby, a pair of togaed Jaffa senators were arguing privately over the recent vote. A tall dark-haired woman moved past them, stopping dead when she saw the women, then dropping to the ground, "Mistress, you have returned."

'Well, Stevens, you wanted to find her anyway.' "Oh, get back up, Namara, you know damn well I'm not Nemesis."

Namara got up, still giving the major a shrewd visual study. But it was clear that the symbiote was gone, and any last hope of regaining her privileged place. Pity the people she wanted to take it out on weren't present. She settled for Crescent. "This is all your fault and the rest of them. I had a good place, a good life, until they came here!"

Ak'nar interfered, taking a firm grip of Namara's upper arm. She yelped at the Jaffa's grip, glaring. "I would strongly recommend that you take your indignation elsewhere, Namara. This is the better life, we are free people, no longer bowing to a power-hungry serpent."

"That's easy for you, Jaffa! I was loyal to our goddess, I was to be her next vessel!"

Stevens rolled her eyes. "You were better off not being, believe me." As they walked on, Crescent was still reeling, looking behind at the other woman. 'And I have to learn how to be a lo'taur from her?'

Ak'nar opened his office door, simple wood and gestured to two stools in front of a half circle desk littered with defensive plans and military proposals he hadn't put to the Senate yet. "Since we are alone now, if you would stop beating around Athena's olive tree and tell me what you are looking for, Major Stevens?"

"You know the Asgard, the Reenlokia?" At a nod, she kept going, "They've been hit with a nasty computer bug that's crippling their technology, they came to the Tau'ri for help like always, so we have teams out across the galaxy looking for information, under the running theory that the Olympians did it as a round-about away to get at us by weakening our only reliable ally."

Crescent added her two drachma. "We're thinking that the non-physical weapon Mistress Prima mentioned could be it. Right, Boss?"




Captain Kari Crescent

[Oranos]

<<Smyrna, Village Square>>

Williams pushed by him without an answer.

Robert felt his hand start to ball up into a fist. But maybe he was the one being just a little unreasonable here. Command obviously came more naturally to Stevens and Crescent. She really should have placed her XO with Williams. Why hadn't she?

Stevens knew the two men didn't see eye to eye. She knew the two men were on the verge of intense dislike. And she'd put them together anyway. Was that what this was supposed to be about?

He held his arm out to stop the other man, a sure impedement. They at least needed to come to some kind of understanding if this was going to work. "Stop walking for a moment, please." He took a deep breath. How to say this? "Look, doctor, I know I'm not the easiest person to get along with or take orders from, far from it. I have my reasons for it and I don't really care to explain myself. But I'll try to be a little more flexible and less of a jerk, but you do have to put up with me and you do have to follow my orders."

He hesitated, unsure. "So what do you say? At least try to make this work?" He'd made his best attempt at the spirit of cooperation. He still didn't like the man, but brownie points for effort or so he decided.

It was time to explain his ground rules, too. "And just to be clear, though it may just be a completely overactive imagination on my part, I strongly suspect the Goa'uld came up with some pretty nasty surprises. So when I tell you to do something, it's in your best interests."

Robert continued on with a small shrug and chuckle. "Besides, don't know about you, but I'd rather not be maimed or dead. I have weapons to study, maybe visit a tropical island paradise with friendly natives and piña coladas, and there's people I'd like to see again, too. Not necessarily in that order."

[Ryn]

<<Smyrna, Village Square, near Temple >>

Over his shoulder, Williams saw the Major and her party enter the Senate. He should've been there too. Tons of things to see in there, but instead here he was, working out an entrance. Well, it was good to get experience, wasn't it. His trail of thought became interrupted. Hughes again. It was impossible to shush the man, had he been taking lessons from the linguist ? David mentally snorted at that, but did pick up the main gist of it all though.

Once the other man had finished talking, he nodded and began to answer, all the while still looking for the entrance. The shadow had proved nothing of value, so now it was just a matter of studying the stone walls, looking for a distinctive crack or something. Hmmm, those columns really do seem mathematically aligned... How beautiful.

"All right, Lieutenant, I get it, don't worry, we'll do just fine. I only have one thing to ask of you. I do not do well with people barking orders at me, which is why I ignored you just now; you are not my drill sergeant. So you do not need to act like one. Of course we will work together. You tell me when I do something stupid, and I'll tell you to stop flirting with the good captain Crescent before it gets out of hand, is that a deal ?" He smile/blinked, wondering if this button-pressing would continue. It was only fair to return the favour, and fun while it lasted, but they really did have to do their jobs now.

"Now be a good lad, and help me with this wall, we need to find some kind of door handle or a loose stone or whatever, though if you find something the least bit suspicious, don't touch it. You nor me want the loss of limbs or much worse."

[Oranos]

<<Smyrna, Temple>>

He started up the temple's steps. Williams seemed to believe that this wall was the most likely candidate. But Robert decided to ignore the other man throwing his orders back in his face. "No, no, no, this is not a negotiation, not exactly. If you don't like my orders or the way I give them to you, you still have to follow them. I get the point, I've been a little unreasonable, and I'll try to cut back, and-"

His jaw hit the floor hard. "And wait just a damn second. You think—Kari and I—you think we were flirting? As in, I want to roll around in the sack with her?"

Robert pulled his hand away from the wall. 'A history geek thinks he knows flirting? This is rich.' He shook his head. "Have you ever even had a relationship to compare that against? Or are you one of those people that thinks men and women can't be friends? That any involvement between them has to be purely s**ual."

Robert forced himself to laugh and picked back up with the search. "What exactly do you think you saw between us? Because believe me, all we are is friends. And if we weren't, if we were doing something more, we'd already be dead. The major would have both our heads."

He ran his hand lightly over the wall. "Think I may have something here, doctor."