to boldly go...

[bravejemma]

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[bravejemma]

What, you never broke into your boss's living room to have a date?

okay so SLIGHTLY BEFORE THE OTHER THREAD

[projecthydra]

[There was no reason for the holosuite to be active, but ever since interfacing with that alien substance, people had been coming int the lab complaining about receiving real-world injuries during their fantasy scenarios. It was both an engineering and a medical issue, it seemed -- which meant that both departments' lead officers ought to be examining the issue.

It sparked when it shouldn't have. Even though there's really no reason for Jemma to be in a virtual environment, she's certainly not onboard the ship anymore in any tangible way her senses can detect. But there's no program loaded, either. There's just a white space, lacking doors or windows.

Doctor Simmons is welcome to attempt diagnostics from within.]

[bravejemma]

[Great. Computers aren't really her expertise or even purview, but when your best friend of ten years is an engineer of genius caliber, you pick up enough to know your way around simple repair and diagnosis of problems. And the fact that injuries received on the holodeck could now exist outside of the suite did make it her business.

She takes in the whiteness serenely at first -- not something to be immediately alarmed about, but when it makes no sign of attempting to reboot, she says:]

Computer, run diagnostic protocol A.

[May as well start at the beginning.]

[projecthydra]

[If everything was running according to plan, a scan and reboot cycle ought to have progressed from there. It shouldn't have taken more than a minute or so until the system shut itself down and ran through a boot sequence.

And yet, nothing responds. There's no change in her condition or surroundings. The computer continues to hang, unresponsive. There's simply nothing.

Things are still. Oppressively so.]

[bravejemma]

[She'd read the phrase "deafening silence" of course, but had always thought it to be pure hyperbole. But here it surrounded her, even stuck to her skin like an oppressive humidity they'd only experienced on jungle planets. It's almost becoming eerie.]

Computer, what diagnostics are you able to perform?

[projecthydra]

[Perhaps it would have been encouraging to have an answer then, even a broken one.

But there's no garbled half-answer. There's no denial, and certainly no confirmation. There's just nothing. It hasn't even simulated an artificial self for her. There's no hyper-realistic image of herself in an outlandish fantasy attire.

She's simply here in silence.]

[bravejemma]

[An answer certainly would have been nice. Even a milder shade of background, the white was becoming blinding and irritating. She looks for a door, it's quickly becoming obvious that this isn't going to be something that they can solve from the inside. But for the first time, she realizes there's no door -- not that she can find, anyway.

Come to think of it, there aren't even walls to speak of, or a defined ceiling. The only reason she thinks there's a floor is because she doesn't feel like she's falling, and there is something solid beneath her feet. And on testing it, she can walk in any direction she wants. There's just no indication that she'll reach anything by doing so.]

Computer, eject subjects from the holosuite.

[A crude but effective command designed for emergencies, such as the one this is quickly becoming.]

[projecthydra]

[It almost feels like there might have been something from that. The faintest slip of sound sneaks in.

"--ma, can you h--"

But that's all there is. There was silence before, and now silence again.

As Jemma explores, she might find that the idea of "any direction" applies to less conventional ones as well. Should she decide to walk upward, whatever tenuous notion of "gravity" will easily shift to allow her to travel as if wall-walking. It's simply a matter of moving along the Z axis instead of limiting herself to traditional X and Y.]

[bravejemma]

[Even though it's faint, she thinks she hears -- no, she knows she can hear Fitz.]

Fitz!

[There was only the pressing, frustrating quiet.]

FITZ!

[Her voice doesn't even echo. Sound must travel in here a little, she can hear herself, but otherwise it's an acoustically dead space.

She tests the boundaries little by little, with a hundred steps forward, quarter turn right, then another hundred. She turns left to go what would have been forward again, and inadvertently discovers the third dimension. It gave her stairs wherever she mentally put them, or inclines, but still no limits to the directional.

Worse over, she doesn't hear Fitz anymore. If this were a space, per se, she might be worried that she'd wandered too far to hear him, but that didn't seem to be the case. It was, none the less, frustrating. If there were no limits, was she even going anywhere? What was the point of moving?]

[projecthydra]

[She's left alone to ponder her solitary confinement for an incalculable stretch of time following that. It's uninterrupted nothing, undisturbed by hunger or thirst. It's ultimately broken by a chime.]

>Acknowledged. Full system reboot starting in 10
> 9
> 8
> 7...

[It ticks down to 0, but doesn't jolt Jemma out of the program. Instead, the white glow goes black instead. There's somehow managed to be even more Nothing than before.]

[bravejemma]

Bloody well took your time about it, didn't you.

[Grr computers. The black wasn't any better than the white, really, and seemed even more dark and dense following it, and at least a change of any kind showed that the computer was, at least, working.]

Computer, start a system scan.

[Hey, a girl can hope.]

[projecthydra]

[again, her commands are ignored. She's left in darkness and silence for another stretch.

And then, all at once, the setting changed. She was settled in a medbay cot, staring at a familiar ceiling. it was all perfectly routine, if not for the fact that it seemed to be thoroughly abandoned. It's very much her workspace, but a ghost town version of it.]

[bravejemma]

[... What? But she'd just been... hadn't she?

She sits up, gingerly at first, but she finds there's no pain anywhere in her body. Even the bump on her head that she'd received for her trouble of cleaning this same medbay earlier... that was earlier right?

She felt a little foggy, but steady as she lowered herself off the cot and onto the floor. It should be cold under her bare (?) feet, but is just instead the neutral firmness of before.

The medbay looks like there was a combination of a fight followed by disuse. The stainless steel looks dull, and cabinets are unlocked, hanging open.]

Hello?

[She calls cautiously, not really expecting an answer. The computer has been unresponsive so far, and no one else is in sight in the simulation.]

[projecthydra]

Hey. Does this one make you feel better? Figured we could at least try to make you comfortable.

[There's still nobody visible, but the sound is as clear as if someone was directly beside her. It's a man's voice, speaking in a clear American accent.]

You looked pretty scared about T-3600 ago.

[bravejemma]

[If she looked scared before, the disembodied voice didn't do much for her, either. She jumped, and calmed only a little when there was just the empty space there. And she's not exactly sure what T-3600 is supposed to measure, nor who she's speaking to.]

It'll do.

[Because, hey, at least this space is defined.]

Why are you unable to run system diagnostics?

[projecthydra]

Be...cause that's not what I do? I mean hell, for that matter why can't you run diagnostics? You've got just as much access.

[It pauses for long enough to take a breath, if disembodied voices had the ability to even do that.]

Why did you jump just now?

[bravejemma]

[Really now?]

Because I am not a computer, I am a human being who decides what to do with the results once I have them.

And I'm speaking to someone who isn't here, but--

[He -- it -- is so close it should be speaking right in her ear.]

Who are you, exactly?

[projecthydra]

Of course I'm here. Same as you. What, you want to keep playing with avatars?

[When she blinks next, there'll be a man settled beside her, the sort of person who looks like he might be better suited for rugby than running complicated mathematics. He's settled in a blue patient's gown, for effect. It matches the theme.]

I'm a wireless integer logistical locutory. But that's a mouthful, so just Will is fine.

What about you? You seem a little tentative about your own function here.

[bravejemma]

[This upjumped bit of circuitry had a lot of nerve, telling her that she didn't know what she was doing. She regrets the thought as soon as she has it, after all, there were people who would say the same about Fitz. But still, the utter impertinence!]

I am very much sure of what I should be doing. I'm supposed to initiate the diagnostics within the holosuite until the problem is found, and then Fitz and I will find a solution.

[So there.]

[projecthydra]

Ah. So you're a JEMMA. That figures.

[The upjumped bit of circuitry might be sassing her.]

Well then go right ahead, Miss Judicious Encryption Motherboard Macro Analog. Continue your testing process. If you're running a Fitz-level program, you've definitely got a bypass through the firewalls.

[bravejemma]

[A JEMMA? Somehow she can hear all the all caps, even before he spells out the acronym.]

My name is Jemma. I'm a person.

[Does it know what a person is?]

I'm not a computer.

[projecthydra]

[He snorts at that.]

Is this your way of checking for a virus? Users don't just hang around when the suite is powered down.

[bravejemma]

How do I know you're not the virus?

[projecthydra]

[He laughs at that, revealing rows of perfect white teeth.]

I guess you don't. You might just have to trust me on that one.

[bravejemma]

[You know who else has perfect teeth? Sharks.]

Okay, this is...clearly a rather enormous malfunction that is going to require more than a simple scan.

How do I get out of here?