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[Pre-Milliways: There are only so many things a shipboard AI can do to pass the time.]

Alyx Vance is in Milliways this evening. This, in itself, is par for the course; she's been coming here almost every night to relax, lately. Tonight, though, she doesn't look relaxed. She looks anything but, as a matter of fact.

In her hand is a sheet of computer paper (with tractor-feed edges, even). On it is printed the message carried in the encrypted radio signal that PIaDOS picked up and decoded less than an hour ago.

There's not much to it, really. Just three lines:

30.45°S
137.17°E
HELP

[ooc: Open until it scrolls, assuming my keyboard doesn't completely die on me.]

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It's a look Ellen recognizes. She's seen it often enough back home. "Hey, Alyx," she calls as she approaches, Dogmeat at her heels. "What's up?"

"Picked up some kind of distress signal," says Alyx without looking up. "Hi."

Ellen tenses a little, purely out of reflex. "Human?" she says. "Or is the Combine trying to contact home?"

"It's either humans or the Combine trying to lure us into a trap," says Alyx. "Too early to tell which yet."

"Be careful," Ellen says. "I mean- I probably don't have to tell you that, but- twice now I've followed what I thought were distress calls, and both times they wound up going really, really ugly on me."

"Oh, I plan on being careful, don't worry. But I can't just ignore it, either..."

Ellen nods. "I would imagine not," she says. "Where's it coming from?"

"Well, the coordinates in the message are somewhere in southwest Australia," says Alyx. "Whether the signal actually came from there is something else again. PI's working on that."

"Huh," says Ellen. "That's... wow. How far is that, anyway? To put out that strong a signal..."

"Something like eight thousand miles. We were damn lucky to pick up on it at all. Or somebody was lucky, anyway."

Ellen nods. "Do you have any way of getting some kind of advance scouts in closer, before committing to a real effort?" she says. "So you don't lose too much if it turns out to be a trap?"

"Well, yes and no," says Alyx. "Our only reliable long-distance transportation is the Borealis herself. We could port in off the coast somewhere with a skeleton crew aboard, but the ship ain't easy to hide..."

And if the Borealis is destroyed, they're screwed. And if the Combine get it intact they're even more screwed.

"And it's not the kind of resource you want to send with a crew that can't defend it," Ellen says. "So it's an all or nothing deal, isn't it. Ouch."

"We'll probably do what we usually do. Find a reasonably safe spot to 'port to, then send a small team in while everyone else stands guard on the ship. This isn't my first rodeo."

(And, yes, Ellen is unlikely to know what a rodeo is. Alyx herself is only vaguely aware that it involves cows and severe injuries, and that much she knows from listening to Gordon's CDs.)

Yeah, Ellen's just going to blink blankly at that word, but otherwise nod. "You know better than I do," she says. "I can handle myself and my dog and maybe one or two other people in a firefight. Planning something like this is ... it's for the experienced people."

She fidgets a little.

"Um. Speaking of which. I'm actually going home tonight. I wanted to let you know before I left- I'm going back to the Citadel, and they're going to see how ready I am to get out into the field."

Edited 2011-02-02 04:04 (UTC)

"Oh?" Alyx quirks an eyebrow. "Any idea how they're gonna be testing that?"

"Well, they have their medic," Ellen says. "I'm assuming there'll be a physical examination. And then they'll probably send me out to have one of the paladins or senior knights test me. Soldiers have to pass a test to get out of doing basic training all the time, right?"

(She's grasping at straws here. This was not a question she thought to ask Elder Lyons when last she saw him.)

"You think you're up for that?"

Ellen does seem to be doing a lot better, but whether she's up for actual combat action at this point...

"I don't know. But if I'm not I'm at least close enough that I can get away with coming to the Bar from somewhere in the Citadel each night and working on getting better here for a week," Ellen says. "Just waking up and walking out of the infirmary in perfect shape's going to be too much for anyone to swallow. Getting much better fast, with people seeing me every day, is something else."

"Fair point," says Alyx. "Well, don't work too hard, okay?"

"As long as I don't burn myself out I should be good," Ellen says. "I'm not going to just lie around if I have something else I can do to get back to work."

"That sounds familiar."

Maternity leave? What maternity leave?

Ellen nods. "I'll do my resting here," she says. "Unless I have to sleep at the Citadel for some reason, it'll give me more time to get things done."

"Milliways is great for that. I'd be going nuts if I couldn't get a few extra hours here..."

"I can only imagine," Ellen says. "Do people back in your world know about this place, or do they just assume you can make do on a lot less sleep than normal?"

"Most of my close friends know about it," says Alyx. "Everyone else... well, it's not really any of their business, is it?"

"No, I guess not," Ellen says. "Back in my world the only people who know about it for sure are Star Paladin Cross and Fawkes. I'm pretty sure Elder Lyons knows, but he's not admitting it... that's it, nobody else. It's a little weird keeping it from them, is why I ask."

"Well, again, it's not really any of their business. Plus it's kinda hard to explain to people, y'know? I mean, I come from a world where the existence of other realities is proven fact, and it's still hard to get people to believe this place exists."

Ellen nods. "Whereas if I do convince the people who're closest to me that this place is real, they're probably going to be duty-bound to try and get here and take back as much as they can, and nobody wants that," she says. "So if I tell them, I'm crazy, and if I tell them and convince them, it gets ugly... so the best I can do is just sort of hope I don't get asked."

"I think that's the case for a lot of people here."

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