to boldly go...

[bravejemma]

Comments

[hypoxic]

Whatever you're comfortable with telling me. Whenever you're comfortable saying it.

[bravejemma]

[For now, it's too much. She closes her eyes and lets him hold her, smoothing her hair down while she goes into sleep mode.

Or falls asleep.

She dreams about cascading numbers, and being drawn to her death in the tentacle sea. Will bleeding in front of her -- except it turns into Fitz, and his heart beats more and more slowly, until it stops completely. She wakes suddenly, and he's still there, worried, but none the worse for it.]

I became part of the ship's computer, Fitz.

[hypoxic]

[She announces it, but Fitz doesn't reply. He's still there with her, but he's still and solid. Ironically enough, he's slipped into his actual sleep mode. He hasn't been charging himself properly these days.]

[bravejemma]

[But she doesn't lift her head to notice.]

I thought I was dead, I thought...

And some of those scenarios are really just awful. We should have a tighter policies around what can be --

We could feel pain.

[But he doesn't answer. He's not even moving.]

Fitz?

[He hasn't taken care of himself. She gently strokes his cheek.]

You haven't taken care, have you?

[She frowns, hating being the cause of such a thing.]

[hypoxic]

[There's a corresponding noise when she strokes his cheek. Fans kick in, and a soft buzz announces his electrical mechanisms coming to life again.]

.... Sorry?

[bravejemma]

Nothing.

[For a moment she has mild alarm, but remembers: he's mostly machine now, based on her designs and some of his own work that she applied to the process.]

Are you charged, Fitz?

[hypoxic]

Oh -- I don't need to yet. I've still got ten percent. [It's been weeks since the last time he settled down to charge about twenty. It's an annoying, time-gouging process.]

Are you all right? Can I get you anything?

[bravejemma]

That's still low.

[She's glad he's here anyway. It's far less frightening.]

I feel a little better.

[Than earlier anyway. But she still feels someh fragile, like its something that could change at any minute.]

[hypoxic]

I'm happy for that. You gave us quite a scare, you know.

[He ignores the remark about his power level. Self-maintenance doesn't matter. Only Jemma does.]

[bravejemma]

I don't doubt it.

[She feels like she may, yet. She focuses on the light blanket spread over her legs.]

I was part of the ship's computer. Or the holosuite's, anyway.

[hypoxic]

I'm... not sure I follow you.

[That's not quite the way he understood things.]

[bravejemma]

[She doesn't know how to explain it, at least not any clearer.]

Something happened when I went in, to run the diagnostic. The computer... I was kind of running as an independent program.

[hypoxic]

Well -- yes, um. There was an anomaly triggered by a misfiring holographic imaging system. It normally projects images into something the brain can interpret, but there was an error that never released you from the projection.

I imagine that you were made to dream a series of odd things.

[bravejemma]

Some of them were.

[If it was an error, then what about Will? Did she make him up? How could she have? If she told him there was someone else in there, would he believe her?]

[hypoxic]

Whatever happened, it's over now. We'll overhaul the system and wipe the harddrive. The firmware's as old as the rest of the ship, so it's been needing an update for a long time.

[bravejemma]

No, we can't wipe it!

[hypoxic]

[He pauses.]

Well, I understand that it'll reset everyone's settings, but it's really necessary if we want to keep it safe.

[bravejemma]

No, it -- there was someone there, he... He was stuck, too.

[hypoxic]

Jemma, what are you talking about? We would've known if this incident happened prior to yours. None of us are fond of allowing mistakes to happen twice.

[bravejemma]

His name is Will, and he's been there fourteen years.

[They at least have to look!]

[hypoxic]

"His"?

It was probably just a hologram AI...

[bravejemma]

He said we'd come from the same anomaly -- how do we know he didn't?

[She knows how crazy she sounds. But she can't let Will get erased.]

[hypoxic]

[It sounds ridiculous, like she's thinking whatever fever dream she had was real. But he can't tell her that.]

Then we'll just have to get him out as well. What can you tell me about this Will?

[And why was she dreaming about someone else?????]

[bravejemma]

[Even if he doesn't believe her completely, he's acting like he does and that goes a long way for Jemma at the moment.]

He'd been in there quite a while, and I suppose he was about... Middle thirties. But that could have been his age when he was taken, not how he'd be now. He said he came from California... San Mateo, I think...

[hypoxic]

He just happened to be from Earth as well, then.

[That's convenient, isn't it? He's skeptical.]