Mess Tent

After a few minutes, the security details start straggling in. They're all looking a bit grumpy and disheveled--most of them with ruddy faces from exposure to the cold--and to a man they go immediately for coffee before filing to the back corner of the tent, where they all sit at one table and wait for Wantanabe to join them.

Jake shambles in quietly behind the rest he had changed clothes, or at least up on a heavier coat. He forgoes the coffee, for water and sits himself in the back corner a few chairs down from the rest of his compatriots. He sits quietly the red never really disappearing from his cheeks, though he seems not to be bothered to much by the cold.

Bethany nods vigorously at Morgan's assessment. "Just wait until you get to see one up close," she opines before addressing the major and Findy. "It shouldn't be too hard to work out the gate's function. Most of the interface has seemed--well, rather intuitive," she concludes a bit lamely.

Captain Sarah Morgan

"I've seen their handywork," she comments wryly. "That's scarier. Makes me think that whatever you all saw out there is cute and cuddly compared to the other wildlife around here." With a tired shake of her head she adds, "To secrete a toxin that can clot that much blood that fast... the things that prey on it or that it preys on have got to be pretty... unfriendly. Don't want to think what they look like or their arsenal is."

"Humans were not designed to live in this climate..." she says with a tired grin at the Major as she takes a sip of coffee. A grimace crosses her face as she chokes the sludge down. "And frankly, I think we are going to find ourselves woefully unequipped to fend for ourselves against the wildlife. The prospects of the various toxins that could be present on this planet would make any medicinal chemist salivate, but it makes me wonder if we can really can survive here. You'll note that the Ancients got out of Dodge... we should follow their lead..." Sarah trails off with a small smile of insight.

"Where DID they go... I know they could be capricious, but I'd bet they left a note, or at least some clues. And odds are they picked a more agreeable climate than this...."

But then what was so damn special about this planet that they would risk life and limb to even try and colonize it? And why did they give up? Did they leave a field guide up at that stone circle. If she could just find their records of biology of this planet there was so much potential, both now and later. Maybe, just maybe... Sarah's mind spun off into on tangent upon tangent as she tried to puzzle out what everything meant and what information she should try and locate in the holo-encyclopedia.

Captain Micheal Wantanabe

"Is that our mission now? Find out why the ancients where here?" The captain asks joining the group with a hot cup of coffie.

Major Eileen Thorsson

"It's entirely possible they never actually lived on this world," Eileen points out in asnwer to Captain Morgan. "But only used it as an experimental station. Rather like we did with the Antarctic bases. And unless there's another of those DNA resequencers that can turn us all into penguins, I agree that getting out of Dodge is the best idea. Getting to Dodge, assuming this proto-'Gate still works without killing us all first, is, of course, the priority. But yes, Captain," she adds, nodding to Captain Wantanabe, [color=orange]"I think we need to figure out - and fast - exactly what the Ancients were doing here, where they went, and how. And I think we might need to accept using up the fuel in one of the '302s - we can cover more ground and use its sensors.

"Even if the 'Gate is essentially on the other side of the planet, the controller is here. There has to have been some way to get from there to here and back again - I suppose it's possible they used Jumpers, but if you wanted to salvage a malfunction that might be too much time in transit, right?

The Major sighs and brushes back her hair, pausing to think her thoughts through. "It would make sense for this to be the 'primary' transport site, as it were - have any visitors ring down at the operations base. But to get to the 'Gate itself, the fastest way would be another set of rings, located at or close to it. Since the rings are line-of-sight there might have been a relay satellite at some point - or a ship, that would make it even more secure. Perhaps we could rig up a re-transmitter program that uses the Hammond's rings as a relay point? Assuming of course that I'm right..." And that the cold isn't frying my brain...

Captain Sarah Morgan

"The Ancients intended to live here, at least based on all the schematics we have seen." Sarah state plainly. "And to build Ice Henge up there, they had to have spent some time here, even if it was just their advance scouts. It seems like they decided to change their plans, given we have no indication they carried out their plans to set up a colony.... probably after having some similar run ins with the flora and fauna."

"You know... if the rings are looking for the closest set of rings, maybe there is a set up by the gate." She points up towards the sky. "The Hammond is what, only about 100 miles away when it is on our side of the planet. That's pretty gosh darn close. I think we'd estimated that the gate is something like 2000 miles away. But the Ancients probably didn't have the Hammond orbitting the planet. The rings might have been the closest or even only set they had. What if we try and use the rings when the Hammod is on the opposite side of the planet. Send Findy's little robot through and see what it finds?"

Major Thorsson

"Wouldn't that have line-of-sight problems? Unless of course there's something to work around that..." Eileen muses for a moment, then nods. "No reason not to try it. The worst thing that could happen is it sends us back to the drawing board, as it were."

Bethany shakes her head. "Think about it for a second. How long does a gate hold a stable wormhole? About a half hour, right? You think you could make it from Icehenge to the rings, and from a second set of rings to the wormhole, in that kind of time?" She drums her fingers together, focusing on the table for a second. "There's got to be a local activation site--maybe this one is for training or research?"

Captain Sarah Morgan

"We're dealing with an eleven chevron gate in the middle of who knows where... what makes you think these rings play by Milky Way rules?" she asks, her direct and sometimes argumentative streak returning as the caffeinated sludge starts taking effect.