Chapter 15: Ships and Friends, Old and New
"Ladies and Gentlemen," said Saurial with a grand flourish, "I am now going to ask Randall up to present the ideas for refitting the Ship of Fools."
The group of them were sitting in a stone amphitheater inside the expanded portion of the BBFO office. Apart from the four members of the Family and the crew of the Ship of Fools, Dragon, Randall, Kevin, Linda and Danny were also present.
"Wouldn't it be better to let one of the tinkers give this overview?" Danny asked Kevin quietly.
Kevin grinned. "Nah, Randall's been ramping up his public speaking skills."
The young man walked up to the podium and thanked Saurial graciously. He then stood for a brief moment and surveyed his audience in a way that allowed him to make eye contact with each of them, ensuring that he had their attention.
"My friends, we have here an opportunity to take technology that is the end result of thousands of years of progress across multiple civilizations and combine it in a fashion that allows us to achieve our primary goal: we intend to return those of you from alternate realities to your homes. BBFO and the Family, however, are not satisfied with simply providing transport, as impressive as that feat may be. In typical fashion, Saurial and her scaly relatives want to make sure that you return in a way that is both safe and leaves you in better circumstances than you departed," began Randall.
"I'm not just speaking about the immediate circumstances prior to your arrival in other realities, of course. The vast majority of you were involved in or recovering from battle, usually against forces that would give even the heroes of this world pause." Randall looked around and could see a few members of his audience giving small nods or smiling appreciatively. This was a truly impressive group of people, even if most of them were too self-deprecating to admit it about themselves. "BBFO, the Family, and affiliated members of the DWU are going to work to address some of the issues you're facing, hopefully giving you the chance to rest and recover for a time once you're home."
"In order to do this, we're going to be refitting the Ship of Fools into a mobile base of operations that will allow us to accomplish these tasks. After conversations with the crew, the Family and their affiliated engineers have come up with a plan to address three different specific concerns. Namely, 'How do we get where we need to go?', 'How do we keep our crew safe?', and 'How do we support the missions we want to accomplish?'"
"The most obvious aspect of transport, given our crew's origins, is enhancing the wormhole drive with improved control systems that allows us both to target specific realities and pinpoint both spatial and temporal locations, with safety measures built in to prevent both collisions in realspace and temporal paradox. Saurial and Raptaur are confident that the changes they've conceived will satisfy our objectives in that regard. We're also going to replace the warp pylons Miles constructed using salvage from his original runabout with pylons that will allow for transwarp."
Miles raised his hand. "How are you going to do that without a transwarp network? The Borg from my universe needed a certain amount of infrastructure in place to use transwarp."
Randall was expecting this question. "Linda and Raptaur realized that transwarp is a crossover technology between the hyperspace of Ellen's and Daniel's universes and the common warp drive of yours, Miles. It doesn't actually require a fixed network if you have the ability to compensate in real-time for the shifts in dimensional relativity between hyperspace and realspace. They're going to sit down with you and Daniel during the refit and make sure you're familiar with the mathematics underpinning the drive system." Miles nodded, satisfied with the answer.
"We also intend to add gravitic thrusters to the hull to improve in-atmosphere and micro-scale maneuverability," continued Randall. "To facilitate stealthy reconnaissance and insertion, we'll be adding a cloaking device paired with a FamTech SEP field."
"Wait, you mean a Someone-Else's-Problem field, like in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?" asked Taylor.
"Someone-Else's-Problem?" interjected Ellen.
"In the book," explained Taylor, "a SEP field was...sort of an indirect cloaking device. If you wanted to hide a mountain, for example, you would paint it bright pink, then put a SEP field on it, which convinced anybody who saw the mountain to ignore it as a concern for somebody else."
"And you can build something like that?" asked Ellen.
Linda answered, "I've spoken with Kevin about it, and between the two of us and the Family we have the technology and know-how to build it."
"Having a SEP field will compensate for any weaknesses in the cloaking device," added Randall. "For example, even a cloaked ship will leave a visible wake in an atmosphere. With the SEP field activated, any observers would dismiss any evidence as some type of unusual natural phenomenon." Everyone seemed to accept this explanation.
"Let's move on to safety. Our plans are to reinforce key structural elements of the ship with EDM, and replace most of the hull plating with Starfleet-grade hull materials," said Randall.
"Why not just replace everything with EDM?" asked Daniel.
"EDM is heavy," explained Saurial. "The structure of a Firefly-class bulk transport wouldn't support replacing the full hull with EDM."
"Firefly-class?" said Daniel, slightly confused.
Dragon spoke up with an explanation. "The ship you found is actually described in yet another piece of fiction available in our world. In that reality, the ship is called a Firefly class, in part due to the ship's profile and in part due to the fact that the original graviton drive would glow at the tail like a firefly."
"You're going to replicate Starfleet hull alloy? Duranium and tritanium? What about the structural integrity fields?" asked Miles, refocusing on the refit.
"Yes, the new maneuverability of the ship is going to require an SI field," confirmed Randall. "The primary exception to using Starfleet material science is that instead of transparent aluminum, any clear surfaces and ports will be replaced with synthetic sapphire with an embedded EDM mesh. That provides superior protection. We're also going to add deflector shields."
"Are you expecting the ship to go into combat?" asked Peter.
"We're not intending to make it a warship," answered Randall, "but it's better to be safe than sorry, and shields protect against things like radiation and stellar debris, as well. The engineers here have designed a two-tiered multiphasic shielding system, with one layer hugging the outer hull, while the other creates a more traditional shield bubble around the ship. There will also be a series of phaser emitters for point defense." Randall didn't bother to mention that the planned point-defense phasers would be capable of piercing the shields of a runabout similar to the Amazon in a single shot.
"We believe we can set the shields to prevent or allow dimensional transport, as well as temporal manipulations. When the shields are activated in that mode, a Stargate from Daniel's universe, for example, would fail to connect." added Raptaur.
"Once we mature this technology," said Metis, "we even think we'll be able to rescue the victims of a villainous cape from our world named Gray Boy."
"Gray Boy?" asked Jimmy. "That's an odd name for a super-villain."
"It came from the odd monochromatic visual effect his powers created. Don't mistake him for a normal super-villain, though," warned Metis. "His habit before he was killed was to torture people to the point of insanity before locking them into a stable time loop that would repeat the sequence infinitely. Nobody in our world has ever successfully broken one of those loops."
Randall could see that some of the folks from other worlds looked grim, with some even appearing slightly nauseated. Taylor was the exception, as she was already familiar with the history of the Slaughterhouse Nine from her own world, including Gray Boy. He moved to change the subject back to the Ship of Fools.
"The final area of enhancement is going to be in mission support. For local insertion, we're adding a teleportation station based on a system that we believe is similar to the Asgard's teleporter from Daniel's reality." His descriptions of how it operated based on half-remembered knowledge had made it sound very much like a technological version of how Taylor and Varga were able to effectively teleport, only without the duplication effect. Saurial had tried to explain the math to him, but even boosting his math skills didn't prevent a headache. "This will allow us to land folks places without having to bring the ship. We just have to be within a hundred thousand kilometers."
"That's more than twice the range of a Federation transporter!" said Miles, slightly incredulous. "How do you get so much range?"
"Increased power and improved sensors. We're going to be boosting the power systems with an array of extra-dimensional flywheel capacitors that can be trickle charged from the zero-point energy source already on board the ship. You've already integrated Ancient sensor technology superior to the subspace sensors standard on Starfleet vessels, and Saurial devised a method to use the microwormhole technology from the drive system to allow for deep scans at range," exposited Randall.
"We'll also be adding some medical facilities," added Ianthe. "There will be producer plants for the one-shot symbiotes, but we're also devising a stasis pod in the event you run into something the symbiotes can't handle. We also have some more permanent treatments and enhancements that we're going to offer each of you before you head off on your journey back home."
"We're also increasing your computing and data storage capacity by a significant degree. One of our goals for reconnaissance will be remote access to the information networks in your home reality," continued Randall. "Dragon is helping us design a virtual assistant that will function as an information warfare specialist and researcher."
Xander raised his hand to get peoples' attention. "This all sounds great...and part of me is geeking out over all of this...but what do you intend to do that is going to need all of this tech?"
Saurial stepped up to address Xander's question. "While we're working on the refit, we are going to have each of you review the fictional materials available to us on each of your realities. That's going to give us an outline of what we want to accomplish, as well as suggest targets for information gathering once we're physically present in each reality."
"I believe there may be friendly resources in some realities that can provide aid in return for assistance that we can provide on other matters," added Metis slightly cryptically.
"So, we're going to be jumping from reality to reality with a series of objectives?" asked Jimmy for clarification.
"Our suggestion," said Randall, "is that we use this reality as a base point for missions, and that we return here for down time in between. Our first missions are likely to be focused on information gathering and consolidating our plans for each reality."
"Some of us have urgent information that needs to be shared with people at home," said Ripley.
"Yes, are we going to be able to communicate with our people?" asked Daniel.
"Our most effective strategy for collecting information is going to likely be sending non-natives in to gather data at a time before any of you actually left," said Raptaur.
"...and I'm guessing bad things would happen if we just prevented the circumstances behind how we got here?" asked Xander.
"That would be ill-advised, unfortunately. There are restrictions on time manipulation in places where it is possible for a reason. It's one of Harry's Laws of Magic, as well as being a fundamental restriction enforced by the Ancients in Daniel's dimension," clarified Raptaur.
"Much as I might want to fix some things in my own past," Harry said with a pained expression, "everything I've read on the topic suggests that it would be a spectacularly bad idea to try and do so."
"Then how are we going to accomplish anything by arriving before we left?" demanded Ellen.
"We are going to avoid having the natives of each reality interact with anybody, and we are going to stay far away from anyplace close to your points of departure," explained Metis. "We won't, for example, be walking down the streets of Sunnydale in the days prior to the attempt to open the Hellmouth." She made eye contact with Xander as she said this, seeing him nod his head in acknowledgement.
"Who is going to be going on these missions?" asked Jimmy.
"I suspect we'll adjust the crew based upon the mission profile each time," answered Saurial. "Not everybody needs to go on every mission."
There were some minor follow-up questions, but everybody seemed satisfied with the plans so far. As it was getting late, the crew decided to head back to the Ship of Fools, except for Taylor who was going to stay to talk some more with her father and her local self. Dragon went back to the Rig to check in on her official responsibilities and to continue to compile information to share with the dimensional travelers.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Taylor, Saurial and Danny were sitting in the front area of the BBFO office. Taylor had a cup of her favorite tea, which the local Taylor also kept stocked for obvious reasons. "What did you guys want to talk to me about?" she asked the other two.
"There are a couple of people we want you to meet," said Danny.
"Also, we should discuss some things," added Saurial. "For everyone else, we have some information based on fiction, but for your reality, what we have is mostly personal knowledge. One of the things we will be looking for, however, is to see if any of the alternate realities actually have fictional accounts of this reality...or yours, of course."
"You think there are stories about us on other version of Earth?" asked Taylor.
"Maybe not us specifically," said Danny. "Our worlds may be described, though."
"I can't imagine that there are many stories focused on Taylor Hebert," said Taylor self-deprecatingly. "Up until fairly recently, I was a pretty average high school student."
"There may very well be references to the Family, or to the future career of Skitter," said Saurial.
Saurial's manner shifted slightly, and Varga said, "There may also be references to worlds from my past, or even references to my own kind."
Taylor looked at the lizard girl. "That's a little odd to see and hear you shifting back and forth like that."
"You should see it from my perspective," said Danny with a smile. "The first time I 'met' Varga, I came home to find my daughter being controlled by a demon."
"You adapted quite well to the circumstances, Danny. I was quite impressed," said Varga to the older man. He blushed slightly in response.
Before he could reply, the inner door opened, and two teen-aged girls walked out...two girls that Taylor recognized immediately.
"Lisa? Panacea?" she asked, slightly surprised.
"Hi Taylor," said Lisa. "It's a pleasure to meet this version of you." The freckled blond girl held out her hand to shake Taylor's.
Amy Dallon stepped up beside Lisa and said, "Hello Taylor, you can call me Amy out of costume." She also reached out to shake Taylor's hand.
Taylor hesitated slightly at touching Amy, until Saurial said, "Don't forget, Taylor, that Amy's already examined you as Ianthe back on the ship."
Taylor grasped Amy's hand at that, and asked, "So, that's really you two, 'driving' Metis and Ianthe? It's hard to believe. The two of them seem so authentic..."
"To a degree," replied Lisa, "they are authentic. Amy's powers really are bullshit."
"If you can do all that," said Taylor, looking at Amy, "why are you only known as a healer...or are you known as more than that in this reality?"
Amy shook her head with a frown. "Part of it is the reputation biotinkers and similar capes have. Nilbog, Bonesaw, and to a lesser extent cretins like Blasto. The Protectorate and the PRT would freak out and probably set aside an unsigned kill order for me if they really knew what I could do."
"Amy could easily be an S-class threat," said Saurial. "Her powers are truly impressive in terms of flexibility and scope." Taylor looked at the "healer" in a way that clearly said she was doing some reassessment.
"Part of it was also your relationship with Carol," added Lisa.
"Carol Dallon? Your mother?" asked Taylor.
"My adoptive mother," said Amy. "Up until I met this nutjob," said Amy, pointing at Saurial, "we had a relationship that was strained, at best. Carol had issues with the fact that my biological father is Marquis."
Taylor's jaw dropped open. "What?"
"When New Wave put Marquis away, the Dallon's adopted his young daughter, who became known as Amy Dallon," explained Lisa. "That explains why Amy has broad biotinker powers, instead of the powers more broadly associated with New Wave, since powers run in families."
Taylor grew thoughtful. "I wonder if that's what Lisa was threatening her with...?"
"Threatening her? You mean my counterpart in your world?" asked Amy, concerned.
"It was during the bank robbery. Glory Girl was outside, and Lisa needed to delay her so that we could escape. She threatened to reveal some of Amy's secrets as a way of forcing her to delay her sister," explained Taylor.
Lisa looked thoughtful and slightly worried, and glanced at Amy. "That...could be bad. I think we may need to be extremely careful with your counterpart when we go back to Taylor's world."
Amy thought back to her mental state before meeting Taylor...her burnout, her resentment of Carol, and the way she felt about Vicky. Then she imagine what Lisa could do to somebody like that if she felt the need, especially given how focused she used to be on proving how smart she was. "We may want to keep Taylor and Lisa away form her until I have a chance to speak to her."
"We could bring Victoria into this," suggested Saurial. "If you trust her, we could read her into more of our secrets."
Amy looked at Saurial and shook her head. "No...I think that might be a bad idea for several reasons, not the least of which being that Vicky's counterpart is probably still a hothead who rushes in without thinking things through." Lisa looked sharply at Amy, obviously suspecting more, but she didn't say anything.
"We also need to deal with Coil," said Taylor. "He kidnapped Dinah Alcott and is forcing her to use her power to help him."
"That part may be easier than you think," said Lisa. "We know who Coil is, and where his base is, including where he probably has Dinah stashed."
"Coil is actually a man named Thomas Calvert, and he works for the PRT in Brockton Bay," said Saurial.
Taylor stared at her for a moment. "Motherfucker..." she said quietly to herself.
"The Family dealt with him and his mercenaries quite effectively," said Saurial. "The good news is that taking out Calvert is almost guaranteed to get your Tattletale's immediate support, and it will also be favorably received by Director Piggot of the PRT."
"She and Calvert have history going back to Ellisberg," added Lisa. "The bad news is that Coil has a number of infiltrators in the PRT, as well as back doors into most of their computer systems and booby traps set in the event that he's discovered."
"How the hell did he manage all of that, even if he works for them?" asked Taylor.
"His power," replied Lisa. "It let's him simulate two different scenarios simultaneously. He can effectively see two different paths based on his actions, and keep the one he wants while maintaining knowledge of the discarded path. He used it, for example, to plot crimes. In one path, he would give a go order to the Undersiders. In the other, he would not. If the crime was successful, he would discard the path where he told them to stop. If it failed, he would discard the path where he told them to go."
"The presence of the Family seems to massively disrupt his power, as well as thinker powers in general," added Saurial. "As we were taking him down, it became clear that he couldn't use his power as he normally could. He became quite distraught," said Saurial with a grin.
"We know most of what Coil had prepared in this reality, so we should be able to go to Dragon and Armsmaster in your world and circumvent most of that," said Lisa.
Taylor's expression was enough to prompt some further questions about her relationship with Armsmaster, which in turn led to Taylor telling them how he had deliberately betrayed her by hiding her intent to infiltrate the Undersiders, and also led to her ranting about her discovery of Shadow Stalker's identity.
Danny, who had been listening quietly to all of this, was clearly on the verge of losing his temper over what his daughter in another time and place had been forced to endure. It became clear to everybody that there would have to be a lot of conversation and planning before they brought Taylor back to her world.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Xander and Jimmy were both browsing the Internet after dinner. Dragon had already forwarded them some Internet wiki sites about their respective realities. Jimmy was chuckling over some of the entries on a site amusingly enough titled, "Superdickery," while Xander had discovered a quite disturbing volume of fanfiction about his home universe, including a shocking amount featuring him as a main character.
"According to this," read Jimmy out loud, "I once had a girlfriend who was an ancient Viking, but she turned out to be a robot. How do they come up with this stuff?"
Xander winced. "Actually, my ex-fiancee was a Viking."
"I thought you said she was a demon?" asked Jimmy.
"She was, but originally she was a Viking woman named Aud," explained Xander.
"Her name was Odd?" said Jimmy.
"Not Odd, O-D-D, but Aud, A-U-D," clarified Xander. "Also, Buffy's mom dated a guy named Ted who turned out to be an evil robot."
"Huh," said Jimmy. "Your world is kind of strange."
"Says the guy whose world has a group called, 'the Newsboy Legion.'" joked Xander.
Jimmy frowned. "That was kind of a joke name...and what happened to them wasn't funny..." he paused for a moment, "that whole mess with Cadmus wasn't funny."
"That actually happened?" asked Xander, surprised. A lot of Jimmy's stories tended toward the more prosaic and plausible world of an investigative journalist, albeit in a world with criminals like Intergang and Lex Luthor.
"It did. There have been some very strange things that happened in my world, admittedly," said Jimmy grudgingly.
Xander paused for a moment, then asked, "So, did you actually go back and time and get a medal from Adolf Hitler?"
"WHAT?" said Jimmy. "Of course not! Don't be ridiculous. I've never literally traveled in time."
"Have you traveled non-literally?" asked Xander, curious.
Jimmy hesitated. "I relived the life of Marco Polo thanks to a magical gem. Did you know he knew kung fu?"
"Huh," said Xander. "I did not know that."
"It was pretty cool," said Jimmy a little wistfully. "He kicked a leopard once."
"I knocked a guy into a pit of mystically-enhanced hyenas once," said Xander in response.
"Why?" asked Jimmy.
"He was trying to kill Willow," answered Xander matter-of-factly. That was enough for Xander. He never really quite got why the Slayers were so nervous about killing evil humans when they were perfectly happy to kill thousands of non-humans who were nevertheless thinking, feeling, sapient beings.
"Fair enough," said Jimmy. He sometimes wondered why Superman didn't just kill Luthor, or at least dump him in the Phantom Zone.
The two got back to their reading.
