Xaviers!

Does Xaviers have specially-sanctioned X-Buses? Probably not, but there were certainly vans in the motor pool, and it was one of those vans which ASHLIE sent to RAF Feltwell to pick up their...military guests.

What ASHLIE may not have been expecting was that two of the five members of the military party were Lt. Sara VanBuren and Major Briggs himself.

Briggs stepped out of the van and stretched his neck, as two of the other officers began unloading a few unlabeled crates from the back of the van. All five were clearly identifiable as military personnel -- they were wearing full uniforms and everything. Not exactly the most subtle arrival.

((open))

Tosh stood with the "welcoming party," hiding nervous eyes behind dark sunglasses. His shirt featured a cartoon shark-man dressed like a Secret Service agent.

Who's the grumpy old dude?
The one in charge.

Knowing where exactly the car was had made it easy for Ashlie to step outside just as they rolled through the gate. And being a computer program let her keep any obvious surprise from playing out on her face.

"Major Briggs. I didn't expect you to personally escort your men all this way. I appreciate trying to stay subtle but maybe some camo would have made them less obvious."

"We only wear camo in combat zones, Ms. Minamida. Do I have reason to bring out the camouflage?" he said, looking down his nose at ASHLIE

"I would hope not. Where would you like your equipment to be set up? The biology lab would seem obvious, but my workshop is where most of our high-tech resources are."

"These require a lot of power and space, so the workshop is probably more logical for a central location," VanBuren said, brushing some hair out of her eyes. "We'll probably be running back and forth as we hook everything up for a while, so my apologies in advance."

"Let me show you to the Point then." she says as she hands out small plastic cards to them. "These will get you through all the relevant doors. There's a freight elevator that opens into the workshop if you want to drive those over, it's large enough to accommodate the van."

"All the 'relevant' doors?" the Major asked, raising an eyebrow.

"As I told you on the phone, some areas of the Point are off-limits. Both for the privacy of my students and the proprietary technology in the facility."

"Your precognitive abilities must be impressive indeed, if you're able to ascertain all the equipment we'll need access to before we even begin."

Natalie wanders up to join the welcoming party, looking like just a late arrival. She keeps a certain distance from Ashlie, not wanting to be blinded by robotic science.

"I can calculate a great number of things, but the future is not part of it. If there is anything you need that the workshop doesn't provide simply let me know. My attention can be in many places at once, so don't hesitate to call for me."

"If your attention can be in many places at once, headmistress, I'm looking forward to your explanation as to how both one of your students and a highly sensitive piece of exo-biology was able to wander off of campus to begin with."

"Would you two give us a hand with some of these boxes?" VanBuren said, turning to the Welcoming Party.

"The same way a highly sensitive piece of robotics wanders off of campus. Under it's own free will. Just because I could does not mean I place my students under constant surveillance."

"I believe I advised you, many months ago, to keep a close eye on the 70-N. I hope you take your other students' welfare more seriously.

Well, the damage is done. Let's see what we can do to get things to something approaching normal."

Lt. Sara VanBuren wrote:"Would you two give us a hand with some of these boxes?" VanBuren said, turning to the Welcoming Party.

"Sure," Tosh said, walking over, "Anything to distract me from the bizarre measuring contest going on over there."

Perched on the edge of one of the rooftops nearby is a redheaded girl, watching those unloading from the van intently.

But this is Xavier's, so surely that's not so unusual.

Natalie nods to Sara and follows Tosh, "You probably don't want this stuff out any longer than it has to be."

"That's right!" Sara smiled. "We need to get these inside."

The box she had them pick up was rather cold -- refrigerated? Climate controlled, at the very least.

There was also a bunch of tech in some of the other boxes -- most of it off, but Natalie could at sense at least one box up and running already. It sent out a "ping" every fifteen seconds or so.

As they pick the boxes up, Natalie's brain tries to get a look at where the ping is going and what purpose it serves.

"Oh that's heavy..." Tosh grunted as he lifted, "...and cold, but mostly heavy. I should have dressed for heavy lifting."

"You want cold, you should work in the Antarctic. I haven't been back to England in years; it's much warmer than I remembered!"

"We have a cryokinetic on campus. She could help you feel more at home if you're missing it," Natalie says partially helpfully and partially just trying to keep things amiable.

"Ugh, no," he said, making a face, "Californians don't do living at the poles." Besides, one Will-obsessed Antarctic science base was enough.

Natalie Denisov wrote:As they pick the boxes up, Natalie's brain tries to get a look at where the ping is going and what purpose it serves.

The ping was going up.

Well, I mean, technically, it was going everywhere; it was omnidirectional. But it seemed to be transmitting towards a satellite, high above campus, watching the events down below.

The pings were brief databursts -- GPS data, some barometric readings, and something encrypted.

Natalie Denisov wrote:"We have a cryokinetic on campus. She could help you feel more at home if you're missing it," Natalie says partially helpfully and partially just trying to keep things amiable.

VanBuren laughed. "No, I'm sure I'll manage."

"Interesting." Her brain dashed off a secure e-mail to Ashlie.

Code: Select all

One of these devices is pinging a satellite. GPS, Weather, and something encrypted. Just thought you should know.

"I didn't think so. Of course, Wales has superior weather to England." She would run out of stock conversation lines eventually.

"Definitely. I'm from Cardiff, myself. Originally, that is."

"You need me to make sure that box can reach the satellite it's talking to? The Point is underground, might have to patch it through our dish." Ashlie says almost offhandedly.

"No, I'm quite sure what we have will be more than sufficient. Thank you for your concern, however."

Natalie would go for a high five except her hands are full. "Really? I'm from Cardiff myself."

"Well, then, my commiserations for being surrounded by the English," VanBuren laughed.

"And the Yanks, don't forget the Yanks," Natalie says, obviously directing it at Tosh.

"Yeah but I'm one of the cool...ish ones," Tosh quipped.

As they walk and focus shifts to Tosh, Natalie uses the distraction to allow her brain to start parsing the encrypted portion of the device's signal. It's not going to be a swift process, because she has to look for the keys, but she has to start somewhere.

"So... what are we lugging around here? Or is that classified?"

Toshiro Narumi wrote:"So... what are we lugging around here? Or is that classified?"

Sara laughed. "Nothing like that. We just have some specialized equipment we've designed from working with Will's landing site for 60 years, and a few uncontaminated samples for comparison purposes. A selection of possible solutions, as well -- we obviously couldn't bring our entire lab here, but this is the next best thing."

Natalie Denisov wrote:As they walk and focus shifts to Tosh, Natalie uses the distraction to allow her brain to start parsing the encrypted portion of the device's signal. It's not going to be a swift process, because she has to look for the keys, but she has to start somewhere.

It certainly would take time -- this was military-grade encryption, afterall. It would take a while of focusing on it to get it sorted out.

The patterns and rhythms almost felt like a dead man's switch -- like it was sending information on a constant basis to prevent something else from activating, initiating or happening. Hard to tell if that was correct -- or what it was a dead man's switch to -- at this point.

Another secure e-mail to Ashlie.

Code: Select all

Encrypted signal feels like a deadman's switch of some sort. I don't recommend interfering with it.

"Well, hopefully you can help figure it out. Whatever this chemical stuff is, it's nasty." Her mind relegated the encryption problem to the back burner for the moment, intending to pick it up in earnest as soon as she could focus on it.