[for postarity's sake- I hope this is ok AJ] (original) (raw)

Backdated: a chat log that's set after John kidnaps Draco

WHO: Draco, John Conner, Tycho
WHERE: on the surface, later at a bar
WHAT: Tycho rescuing Draco

He didn't recognize the man with the gun (a new arrival?) but he did recognize the blond kid, stumbling sullenly forwards, a gun pressed to his back. He didn't have a weapon himself, and besides, in a situation like this, if he went in guns blazing, the kid would most likely end up dead. So time to do some old school hostage negotiation.

The man was a new arrival, and just as angry and confused as they all had been when they first got here. He wanted to leave, and so Tycho offered to take him to the hanger on the surface in exchange for Draco's safe release. Once there, Tycho admired the skill with which the man quickly and efficiently commandeered a primitive combustion engine helicopter- they could have used someone with his skills in the rebellion, Tycho mused.

The man didn't trust that it might not be a trap though, and demanded that Tycho go with him. Personally, Tycho wasn't sure at all that the thing wasn't dangerous- I mean, they burned hydrocarbons as fuel! There were so many ways that could go wrong, Tycho couldn't count them all. But he hadn't come this far to not rescue Draco now, so he reluctantly agreed.

He felt his concern was completely justified, when they reached the perimeter of the base, and they were dumped back on the other side, the helicopter continuing on without them. Pilotless, it promptly crashed and exploded into flames.

"See I told you that death trap would get us killed. I hope you're happy now. And I hope it's alright with you if I take back the innocent kid you beat up and took hostage"

"How the fuck was I supposed to know it would do that?! What's wrong with your physics?"

"hey as far as I can tell, gravity works just fine. Did the fall jar your brain or something?"

"Hey that kid has a smart mouth"

"And on your world, that's a crime?"

"WHEN KILLER ROBOTS POSE AS HUMANS AND TRY TO KILL ME FUCK YES!"

"No wonder you can't pilot, having a smart mouth is basically a requirement for good flying skills"

"I mean how hard is it to say oh yeah you're new here's the fucking brochure. Yeah well hard to get flight hours in with oh yeah THE FUCKING WAR ON!"

"I did say that, you were too bloody thick to listen to me!"

"Draco, you're not helping"

"Don't make me duct tape you again."

"Don't talk to me about war buddy"

"What, you in to that or something? you that kinky?"

"Draco, if you don't shut up, I just might help him"

"You're not one of those Jedi-whatsits are you? then piss off"

"Please tell me you people have beer here? PLEASE!"

"Yes"

"Good, and aspirin cause the kids giving me a headache."

"You drink it while watching your primitive combustion engines drive around in a simple circle"

"Yeah how'd you know?"

"On the two dimensional holovid"

"You have TV? Fuck so there was no Judgement Day?"

"That's what I was trying to tell you you dim wanker! Your world is not real here!"

"... Draco has a point, though he could say it in a less insulting fashion"

"Yeah well paranoid human is a live human."

"Oh piss off, tosser. You try being choked and taped up and see how your temper is"

"You try getting stabbed through the heart with a piece of rebar and see how trusting you are."

"In my universe paranoid and trigger happy often means dead"

"... how are you still bloody alive?:

"Long story"

"... I thought somebody mentioned consumption of alcohol"

"......... do they have butterbeer here?"

"Yeah, I haven't had anything that wasn't rotgut in a long time."

"Well come on then you crazy bastard"

"So.....wait did the kid say there are Jedi here? Weird."

"Are you finally satisfied you can't leave or do you need to crash some more vehicles- hey, some of those jedi are my friends ... others are anakin skywalker"

"No, I'm satisfied. Just so long as there aren't any killer robots here."

"..... not sure if the cylons count as killer or not"

"Hey I don't have anything against Jedi, and wait THE Anakin Skywalker. Like breathing problems would die without the respirator Anakin?"

"I wish"

"Cylons what?"

"The one in the suit was less mouthy than his de-aged and teenaged versions"

"What?"

"And easier to shut up too, all you had to do was disconnect his vodocolor"

"Wait what?!"

"The cylons are from some show ... Battlestar Galactica I think it's called? There's some humans from their universe here too, you should talk to ... Helo, I think his name was. Anakin .... it's best to avoid, if possible"

"...... muggles are strange. I wish death was here- then I could at least have a decent conversation"

"Yeah I think I'll avoid Vadar thanks. I'll uh talk to that Helo guy."

"And who's king of the non-sequitors then?"

"Death......nevermind I'm too sober for this."

"Oh, he's not vader anymore, he's redeemed, thank the Force. Good anakin is waaay more than enough to handle"

"Oh......this place is weird."

I should have known you wouldn't be able to handle Death. Crazy muggle"

"Does he ever shut up?"

"It takes someone of a certain distinction and refinement to be able to appreciate their place in the universe enough to understand death"

"................. I hope so. Draco, shut up"

"... I wouldn't be here talking to you anyway, if Mr macho over there hadn't felt the need to forcibly drag me with!"

"Okay yeah I can do without the superiority talk again. I'm just the savior of humanity but you don't hear me going on about it."

"Excuse me. Excuse me. I died to save everyone on this base. I don't see you sacrificing your life"

"Good for you. Maybe next time you can do it without the dying part."

"I died too Draco, it's not that special"

"You didn't save anyone tho, so piss off"

"Uh Huh"

"It happens a lot around here. People dying. You .... sort of get used to it, sort of really ... not"

"Already used to it. and then not really."

I know what you mean. But here it's the coming back from the dead that takes the getting used to. And yeah. Something stronger than beer I think. Whiskey?"

"Yes please."

"They don't have whrryn's here, but they have some pretty good stuff. Bar is right this way"

"Whatever, you bunch of pathetic lushes. Trying to drink your problems away. I'm leaving"

"... good riddance"

"Finally. So....I'm John Connor by the way."

"Tycho Celchu. Xwing pilot"

"Cool, so....you know Luke?"

"So you've seen our movies"

"Of course"

"Luke actually recruited me into rogue squadron. After ... after I defected"

"Seems a lot of you did that.

"Well, it would have been a little hard to stay, after seeing the true face of the evil of the Empire. Thankfully ... enough joined our fight. You're already familiar with me though then, what about you? Something about robots?"

"The Machines, been at war a long time with them."

"That seems to be a pretty common theme in this planet's fiction"

"A defense computer became self aware. Decided to take out all of humanity. Launched all of our nukes at Russia they fired back....Judgment Day."

"That was thirteen years ago."

"That's ... it's still hard for me to think of the human race on a single planetary scale. For me we're spread across galaxies. I can't even imagine ... it's such a fragile thing, a single planet"

"Yes, it is. There weren't many of us left afterward. SKYNET has been trying to correct that since."

"The few survivors, fighting for your lives... at times the rebellion was that. Hanging on by a thread, hounded across the galaxy. I cant imagine being on a smaller scale makes it any easier. Is there any end in sight, for your fight?"

"Not really, Though you get to know your terrain better. One of the only ways you can get an edge on them. Yeah there is an end in sight....not for a while though. If the timeline holds it's going to be another eleven years."

"The timelines?"

"Yeah....it's complicated. Sorry."

"Have another whiskey?"

"Sure. Time travel okay. That's what it is."

"Wow. Luke tried to explain to me once, about how with the force, time wasn't linear. I never really got it."

"Well not quite the same thing here. See when we beat SKYNET it will in desperation use its time dilation equipment to send a Terminator into the past. To kill me before I'm even born."

"That's ..... you, specifically?"

"Yes me specifically. I'm the leader of the Resistance."

"..... for your entire planet? That's .... wow"

"Yep."

"... for the whole human race....?"

"What's left of it."

"No wonder you were jumpy. I would be too, with that kind of responsibility on my shoulders. I only have to lead one individual squadron. It may be the most decorated fighter squadron in the whole galaxy, but only 12 men and women's lives depend on me"

"Glad you understand now."

"And that's the hardest thing I know- to have another person's life in your hands, in your control. To watch someone you're responsible for die"

"Too often."

"Yes. too often. Too many brave, good young men and women. Far too many"

"Always too many."

"Even one is too many. And you always ... you always wish it could have been you instead"

"In my case I can't. Because then they'd all be dead. Every last one of them."

"Well here, at least, you don't have to worry about that for a little while. Here, you can take a break from your war ... even if you realize that you're useless without it"

"Oh. I hadn't thought of it that way."

"I've been here for a while, and trust me ... it gets to you, eventually. U don't know about you, if you're like me- but I've been at war my whole adult life. I don't know how to be at peace anymore"

"My whole life has been preparing for, and then fighting this war."

"My childhood- this is irony-"

"Everything my mother did was to make sure I was ready for what was coming."

"My childhood was preparing for peace. For pacifism. I joined the military to try to promote peace from within. And then they went and blew my planet up"

"Alderaan? Shit, I'm....I'm sorry."

"I do know something, about how fragile one planet can be ... And how humans can take technology too far. In my case though, we did it to ourselves. Someone should have stopped him, the Emperor, the Empire. Before it was too late. We learned that the hard way"

"We did it to ourselves as well. We built SKYNET, we let it control all our defenses. And it almost wiped us out for it."

"Too much power, concentrated in one set of hands ... it can never be good. Even, I guess, if those hands are machine"

"Especially if it's a machine. No emotions, nothing human to appeal to. It decided our fates in a millisecond."

Silence reigns for a moment as both men think of what they've lost, and then they both of them take another deep drink.