amethysts | [ic contact] atom smashing white hot--

How've you been holding up?

I've been better. But hey, life. You?

The ship's not counting down to self-destruction, so I'm thinking better than it has been in the past.

Sure, except for how people are dying and vanishing in hordes.

Hey. I've wanted to talk to you and Carolyn. Now that we have enough shuttles for everyone are you making an evacuation plan?

They have every jump. That's not changing.

[ Just that it matters to Libby who's going. ]

With the numbers as they are, we can get something figured for short distance mass transit. The problem still comes down to people with training for systems that can autopilot without end coordinates to autopilot toward. If we can get a communication system up that talks to each ship's navigation controls, that won't be as much of a problem. Not as long as we have someplace to go, or some way to keep people using minimal resources.

Could we freeze people or something? With fewer of us I bet we could fit in some of those sleep pod things. We'd need science department and engoneering to collaborate, but we never have a problem with that anyway.

I'm talking to Uhura about the ship systems. I don't think we're getting anywhere. Have you ever talked to Dr. Baltar?

Anything closer to what we use for cryo-sleep in my section of the universe would help. Which means yes, freezing people for transport.

Dr. Baltar? I don't think so, not in person. What can you tell me about them?

I'll ask around. See who wants in, maybe.

He's the guy on the network asking to talk to Resnik. President of something. Whatev. The point is he says he knows ships like this. I figure we give him a shot at rewiring the shuttles so we can tell the autopilot to fuck off.

That'll be a big help. Thanks.

There's no reason for him to not give it a go, let alone after what happened with the last stop. I don't know if it's just the part of the universe we're running through or our 'luck.' There's good reason to not want anyone to be able to touch the programming in any given system, but having the access limited to people who don't trust us in the first place, or to not be able to trust manual overrides? Too dangerous. Not to mention stupid.

We can start on one of the more shakey shuttles. It needs work still, so any fuck ups won't throw us entirely off schedule.

No problem. You and Carolyn are the only people actually thinking about this, and I sorta want to live.

Yeah, good idea. We don't need it to even be flight ready, just to have the computers up with autopilot. I think I know the one to try it with.

Should we call in flight crew? You know. For programming star charts or whatev they do. I don't know flying. I just build things.

If they have star charts, or have pulled any out of the systems here. If everything's as squeaky as people've been complaining, I don't know how much we'll have to work with, but we won't know until we try. It's worth pulling them in to make sure they know what and how to get information into the system to keep up with whatever we collectively pull in.

We don't have access to what course Ward's got Tranq on as far as I know. It'd be nice if we did, maybe help us predict what prats of the galaxy we're leap-frogging through so we wouldn't be as blind as we are now. We'll deal.

[Libby is taking meticulous notes: after the Jump, she thinks, and with their names behind it--she's really just synthesizing information, and she knows for a fact she can't mangle that too much.]

We'll deal for sure. At worst we'll have to throw out beacons, right?

I can't be the only one who thinks it's strange that we're supposedly in inhabited space belonging to this Alliance and nobody has ever checked up on the ship. It's not small. Everybody before us disappeared and no one who knew them is wondering why?

I don't think we're in anywhere like what they're saying we are. Especially not after Strela.

Right.

Chances are, we aren't. Or if we are, there's a reason no one's touching us, not even the salvagers. We're moving too far with the jumps to be easy to keep up with, but in any available sector, and with decent transmission relay systems we should at least have people on alert and looking out for us.

We might even now. Nine months, ten months isn't that long to catch up with a derelict craft, especially when it's leapfrogging over known space.

[ Still. She doesn't want to discredit what Libby's saying, anymore than she wants to make it seem like this couldn't happen even in the heart of inhabited space.

Because it could. And it had, before. ]

[Libby is more than willing to entertain the thought Ripley knows more than she does--pride is subjected to her desire for her own survival, and the survival of people she cares for.]

How bad do you think they want us dead?

[Because for her that's still the thing. To hell with pride. Libby wants an answer from someone smart enough to know the truth.]

[ic contact] atom smashing white hot--

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