4955/So, let's talk about space.

So, let's talk about space.
Date of Scene:	19 July 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Nuala wants to know whether Colette has been infected with Aliens. Colette wants to borrow Nuala's spaceship. Negotiations are strange.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Nuala Duvall

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Stardust has posed:
The meeting has ended, but the pizza has only just begun. It's clearly a traditional way to end meetings at Titans Tower. For all Nuala knows, it may be a more general tradition, but the fact that the tower computer systems appear to have a pizza place on speed dial and said pizza place understands the concept of 'The usual order' makes it clear that here, at least, it's a tradition.

As she opens the boxes to reveal a selection of steaming pies within, Stardust gives Nuala the short, and probably heavily censored version. "Basically, I've got a bunch of ghosts living in my head. Most of them are aliens. One's an Australian originally, but he spent most of his time in space after World War 2. So that's how I know space stuff. They tell me. Well generally speaking the Australian speaks to the rest of them, and then he tells me. 'Cos I don't speak their languages. Though I am learning Interlac."

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala eyes the pizza, unsure what to make of it for a moment. "Tomatoes, cheese, and...various meats and vegetables," she muses, taking a slice onto her plate. She takes a bites, and seems to appreciatively chew. "This is good," she says slightly around the bite in her mouth. She listens to the short version of the story, and seems to become a little uncomfortable. "So...parasites," she condenses the story further. "Alien parasites." She sounds apprehensive. "Do you know what any of them are called?" The look on her face is of grave concern, as if she just found out the girl has cancer.

Stardust has posed:
Stardust sits back comfortably, enjoying a slice of pizza. "Oh they have a various names. Again, alien. I haven't really got to know them the Australian acts as kind of an intermediary. His name is Ash. He's very annoying, and I'd love to know how to make him shut up sometimes. Often." For all the oddity of what she's describing, she's very nonchalant about it. "On the other hand, I seem to be virtually indestructible now. That's pretty useful."

She finishes her slice before looking at Nuala through narrowed eyes. "And how about you? You're from space. Are you one of these Xandarians? You look pretty human to me. Though to be fair, it's amazing how many aliens do. I've met aliens from half a dozen different worlds so far, and most of them look incredibly normal. Well apart from the laser eyes, magic hammers and so on."

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala takes another bite, chewing slowly before answering. "I am human," she says, having thought about her response. "It is a long story. Like you, I was taken by a parasite. I was very young, it was trying to use me as a host for its invasion. I was rescued by the division of Nova that I now work for. Xandarians look similar to humans, but...you'd know something looked different if you saw one, hard to put your finger on."
    "You need to understand, there are many life forms in this galaxy that prey off of others, using them as hosts." She says it in a tone as if she is counseling Colette through a traumatic event. "This fungus is among the worst of them that I have seen. But some attack people in more personal ways. Inside their bodies."

Stardust has posed:
Colette gives Nuala a long, hard look before breaking away, smirking. She looks aside with a distant expression that's already become familiar; communing with the inner voices. "He says you're worrying over nothing. Well, actually he said 'Tell the daft Sheila to drop the parasite yabba'. Sometimes he's harder to understand than the aliens. But I'm not being 'preyed off' by anyone. It's more like... cohabitation. Actually..." she looks thoughtful. "It's kind of like gut bacteria, if you think about it. I mean I read that about three percent of the human body is bacteria living inside us. They're not preying on us though, are they? We couldn't even live without them. Okay, now he's calling me a daft Sheila too."

Leaning back and taking another slice, Colette smiles wryly before saying "So. You say humans aren't allowed on your ship. But you're a human. Does that mean you're not allowed on your own ship? Oh. And he wants to know if you are Centurion rank or above. Centurion? Seriously?" She peers at Nuala under a raised eyebrow. "Are these Nova guys like Space Romans, then?"

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala eyes Colette for a moment, then she reaches up and pulls the silver band from her forehead. She gives a sudden wince, as if someone pinched her. "I am outside the normal chain of command," she says, trying to distinguish the pile of voices that she hears. "I'm not sure what a Sheila is. I thought that was a name. And there are no yabbas on Earth that I know of." Apparently that's something on another planet. "Anyway. It is complicated. I'm human, I'm not terran. I am human so I can come to Earth, and no government is going to complain about it, because I was born here. I am Nova, so I have access to my resources as a Halal agent.She looks a little uncomfortable, and takes another bite of her slice, then takes a paper towel from the nearby role and wipes her mouth.
    "Since I am with Nova, but I am human, it allows me to help enforce the 'aliens stay away from Earth' rule, without Nova breaking it. But if I let terrans on the ship, I am breaking the rule, because...well, you're culture is not realy for this level of technology."

Stardust has posed:
It seems that Colette has been downplaying things. There are a LOT of voices. Hundreds. And that's rather mysterious. No doubt Timmy could find references to a few very rare and extreme examples of multiple personality disorders in very strong telepaths, but that wouldn't explain the knowledge. There are examples in the records of psychic vampirism that might explain it, but Colette doesn't seem like that kind of girl. Unless she secretly has possession of the Soul Gem, which seems extremely unlikely. There is one very obvious parallel though - her psychic profile is, though on a much smaller scale, rather reminiscent of the Xandarian World-Mind.

Colette seems to have forgotten the pizza now, and is looking rather calculating. "Yes. Something about a non-interference treaty. Hey, who'd have thought it, the Prime Directive is real. I wonder what the legal status of that treaty is now, given the fall of Asgard." Someone seems to have been giving her a primer on intergalactic politics. "So, how about non-human terrans? I mean I personally have met three Kryptonians, two Asgardians, two Tamaraneans, and... a few others. Living here. Obviously the technology issue wouldn't apply to them either, as they've already been exposed to that level of technology. So I assume they'd be allowed on your ship? To be fair though, a lot of humans have too, lately. I spent a chunk of the last year recovering literally tons of Apokalyptian contraband from the streets."

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    "They are not Terrans, they..." Nuala shakes her head, and then puts the silver band back across her forehead. She takes a deep breath, and lets it out. "They...are different. I am not a politician. I do not make the laws," she concludes with little more justification. It sounds like whatever minor prepping Colette has, it's more than Nuala does. "How did you get so many minds in your head. I would think that it would...leak, or something."

Stardust has posed:
At the suggestion that minds would leak, Colette bursts out laughing. It's quite an image. She shrugs her shoulders expansively, arms wide. "Don't ask me. It's something technological. Or... sorcerous. Or both, apparently. Also, something to do with quantum. I don't think they /actually/ live inside my head. I don't think there would be enough room. More like there's some kind of linkage thing." She suddenly looks rather impish. "Probably it's a level of technology that neither of our cultures are ready for," she adds with a wink.

Colette gets to her feet, taking a slice of pizza with her as she steps over to the window, staring out over the bay. "Okay. So it seems to be we have a problem. These mushrooms represent a threat to this world, and to countless others if they are not stopped. Using your ship would be very helpful in stopping them, but you don't want to break the rules. I get that. So suppose there was a team that consisted of someone who's got enough alien guests in their head to be /on average/ non human, and an actual alien, and someone who's I don't really know what but probably from an entirely different dimension, and someone who's actually technically not a human because they were artificially created, and someone who's able to manipulate Fourth World technology through is own personal Mother Box, and another person who comes from a dimension so wierd you really don't want to know, and... " she turns back from the window to look at Nuala, and gives a sheepish grin. "Well, you get my point. The question is, how strictly do you need to interpret those rules, when the future of entire worlds is at stake?"

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    Nuala tilts her head up, looking down her nose at Colette. "I do not think I like your aliens," she says simply. Colette has clearly given her something that she is uncertain of the rule regarding. She mulls the the question in her head. "I do think that in the spirit of the law," she admits. "It matters to prevent someone like yourself from seeing the ship. But it is not a toy, or a joy ride!" she points a finger. "I do not know for certain that we will find the answers we need at Knowhere, but the Collector is supposed to be there." She sighs, looking resistant to agreeing, but Colette's argument seems to be taking a toll.

Stardust has posed:
"Oh be fair," Colette says grinning. "Some of them are probably nice guys. The one who's an asshole is human." She finally takes a bite of the pizza slice she'd been holding, and returns to her seat. "I mean I could talk to Brick about just opening a Boom Tube direct to Knowhere so we could go without your ship. We do have that technology, you know." There's a smirk. "We probably don't have the energy source though." The smirk vanishes. "I mean, in all probability we could work with Tony on the problem. I'm not a scientist. Brick's mentioned something called Z-power? I don't know. Probably one of these fourth-world things. But he can only channel a limited amount. But if we really HAVE to, I mean if the fate of the world depends on it, I'm sure we could manage to interface this thing to that thing and whatever. Then BOOM! Knowhere."

Colette takes another bite, chewing as she lets what she just said sink in. "Of course that would take a while. Maybe too long. Maybe the world would die. Maybe the chance to stop the fungus before it invades other worlds would be lost. But, on the bright side, maybe not!" She beams a smile at Nuala. "Of course from your viewpoint it might be better to just you know, let a few people who've already been exposed to alien technology on your ship rather than encouraging us to develop our own technology to levels that... how did you put it? Our culture is not really ready for." She's really not pulling her punches.

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    "Z-Power. Timmy?" she asks her wrist.
    "It is not a power that is commonly used. Highly concentrated and beyond most conventional technology. Certainly far beyond any terran technology. Xandarian scientists are aware of Z-power, but it is still many years from any expectation for usable development."
    Nuala shakes her head. "I am not sure what a boom tube is, but you are talking about traveling almost a million light years away," she says. "That's the distance light travels in a million years. I somehow doubt your friend has that ability. And if he does, you should not go to someplace like Knowhere without someone who has some idea of what to do when you get there. A few kids like you, no offense, but you will be dealing with beings you know nothing about."
     She gets up, and paces back and forth. "/If/ I take you," she says. "You will need to listen to what I say. You cannot go playing your hero cards there. They will not care about your reputation on Earth. They may even think that it makes you either an exotic person to kidnap and trade, or take you for a ride with a deception that would never work on someone accustomed to intergalactic etiquette."

Stardust has posed:
"Boom Tubes are dimensional gateways as far as I understand," Colette replies. "Wormholes." She stops and does the listening to the voices in her head thing for a moment. "Einstein-Rosen bridges, in Earth terminology. No, he doesn't have the ability, I've asked. That's why we didn't go already. But I've seen them used for interplanetary travel before, so it's just a matter of tuning, right?" She leans back, smiling. She feels like she's winning the argument. "Tony's good with power sources though. I'm sure they'd figure something out eventually."

Colette gets to her feet, and positions herself to intercept Nuala's pacing, hand held out to shake. "Deal. I'm not stupid. I know that space is a foreign country. You always listen to your native guides, you trust nobody, you never make the mistake of acting like it's home. I agree to your terms." Apparently she didn't hear the 'If', or if she did she's carefully ignoring it.

Nuala Duvall has posed:
    "I did not agree yet," Nuala points out. "I have something I must attend to. We will be gone for several days," she says. "It is a long journey. I have one of the fastest drives out there, but it is still a long way. You would need several days of clothes." She sounds to be agreeing, considering she says she's not agreeing.

Stardust has posed:
"I travel light," Colette says with a grin. As she speaks, her costume shimmers and changes - sturdier boots, a thick jacket, a neck-to-toe form fitting undersuit. The kind of thing that looks like it might even be quite suitable for space travel. She's obviously showing off, but it's an interesting reminder of just how unpredictable these Terrans can be. Some kind of illusion? Presumably. It would after all be a spectacularly wasteful demonstration of matter manipulation!

"Understood," she replies with a smile. "I'll get a team together and get them prepared. When you're ready, you know where to find us"