dictated;

[rightchoices]

[ Lee clears his throat twice before he starts. Sure, he's fine lecturing to a classroom full of university students, but addressing a castle full of strangers via magic book is a different monster entirely. ]

Heard a lot of talk about people looking for ways out - trying to figure out how to get home.

[ How much is okay to share? How much does he even feel like divulging? Carefully, he continues: ]

What about the people who want to stay here? Think there's a shot at that?

Comments

[rightchoices]

"Freelancer"?

[ Nosiness more than legitimate curiosity. ]

[encryptedlock]

United Nations Space Command, Special Operative Project Freelancer. There are a couple of us here.

[rightchoices]

Sounds fancy.

[ He's idle, contemplating. ]

Don't think the United Nations has much of a space program where I'm from.

[encryptedlock]

Let me guess. Twentieth or twenty-first century Earth?

[rightchoices]

You got it. Am I that obvious?

[encryptedlock]

It's by far the most common place and time to be from, that's all. Fact that you know what the United Nations even is puts you twentieth century at the earliest.

[rightchoices]

Wonder why that is. If this place really is an experiment, bringing so many people in from the same era doesn't seem smart.

[encryptedlock]

Nobody's really come up with a good theory so far, but I think it's pretty significant anyway. Besides, a lot of the time there's something just a little different about everyone's version of Earth - magic, or aliens, or whatever.

[rightchoices]

.. or a slew of walking undead. I'd ask what the future's like, but I get the feeling mine is gonna be nothing like that.

[encryptedlock]

No shit?

Yeah, we just have endless hordes of aliens instead. But would you believe some of them are kind of like zombie aliens? They had to glass half of Africa because a single spore ship landed there.

[The Flood is bad news. In other words, York feels your pain, bro.]

[rightchoices]

'Glass' it? The hell does that mean?

[ Again, it's not angry or defensive -- not really bewildered, either. Confused. There's a lot he doesn't understand, but he wants to learn. ]

[encryptedlock]

When they bomb the surface with plasma so hot it melts the rocks into glass.

[Which, needless to say, not only kills everyone caught in the crossfire, but makes it uninhabitable for the future as well.]

[rightchoices]

Sounds pretty extreme. Guessing that's a last resort sort of thing?

[encryptedlock]

[He only wishes.]

No, not really. It's something they always do within a few days of finding one of our planets. Anything that takes longer is a rare exception.

[rightchoices]

.. that's a pretty heavy-handed way of dealing with things.

[encryptedlock]

Yeah. Hence why I like it here better.

[rightchoices]

Well.. good luck, then. I mean that.

[encryptedlock]

You too, man. And just let me know if you need anything, okay?

[rightchoices]

You got it.