likesthecoat (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likesthecoat) wrote2008-02-12 10:34 am
likesthecoat) wrote2008-02-12 10:34 am
Entry tags:
Online canon: Owen's mission report from the Himalayas
MISSION REPORT #2008/043
Author: Harper, O
Nobody wanted to write this one up, but it looks like I drew the short straw.
Ianto picked up a call came early one morning and called us all in at about 5am. Something funny going on in the Himalayas. I said, perfectly reasonably I thought, you got me out of bed to tell me about what’s happening in China? Ianto said the incident was actually in Pakistan, but I said it’s neither here nor there, the Himalayas are just a bit outside our usual turf and how was this our problem exactly? UNIT should get onto this. Ianto said UNIT were already there and they’d asked for us. All four of us. According to them it was connected to Abaddon.
At that point the day got slightly worse.
Our experience would be valuable, apparently – regardless of the fact that we had no clue how to stop the thing before, Jack was the one who sorted that out and (a) it nearly killed him and (b) Jack disappeared after he came around. Regardless, we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to go. Orders from the highest authority, apparently. With Jack not around to grease palms, we couldn’t get out of it. So we went.
A mere three flights and a helicopter ride later, we were there. We were briefed on the way. They reckoned that they’d found another Rift, halfway up K2, and that it was linked to ours somehow. They’d tied in our report of the Abaddon incident to some strange goings-on there, and seen similarities. If it was true, we needed to liaise and study it (so more paperwork). They gave us the location and an experienced escort party and we set out to take a look. When I saw all the climbing gear I had flashback to Touching the Void and felt a bit ill, but it was just for emergencies – we took a chopper up most of the way, then it was about a half-hour’s walk up a shallow slope.
So we hit the spot, right in the middle of an unbroken stretch of snow, and Tosh set up all the equipment. Spent a couple of hours probing the area, checking for any weird energy… nothing. Then, suddenly, the ground began to shake and we all heard a noise which I can best describe as ‘SPROING!’ And this vaguely humanoid shape popped out of the snow. It was Jack… or rather, it was a sort of doll with Jack’s face. Quite a good likeness. It had popped out of the snow on a spring.
A Jack-in-the-box. How bleeding hilarious.
Then it exploded. And that’ll be what triggered the avalanche.
Fortunately it didn’t come our way: it started higher up the mountain, and we only caught the very edge of it. But it did partly bury the chopper, and we were stuck up there for a few hours until it could be dug out. Whilst they were doing that, Tosh dug up what was left of the Jack-in-the-box and took a look at it, and she says it was activated by her probing for Rift-type activity. So it was set up by someone who knew what we’d gone out there to do. There was no Rift. The whole thing was a set-up. Gwen tried to get some answers about who’d reported the activity, but suddenly nobody seemed to know anything. So we decided to head back home, although suddenly there wasn’t an available transport, so we spent two days waiting.
On our way back, they told us Harry Saxon had won the election, then he murdered the American President, then he was shot dead by his wife. A week really is a long time in politics.
[copypasta'd from here.]
Author: Harper, O
Nobody wanted to write this one up, but it looks like I drew the short straw.
Ianto picked up a call came early one morning and called us all in at about 5am. Something funny going on in the Himalayas. I said, perfectly reasonably I thought, you got me out of bed to tell me about what’s happening in China? Ianto said the incident was actually in Pakistan, but I said it’s neither here nor there, the Himalayas are just a bit outside our usual turf and how was this our problem exactly? UNIT should get onto this. Ianto said UNIT were already there and they’d asked for us. All four of us. According to them it was connected to Abaddon.
At that point the day got slightly worse.
Our experience would be valuable, apparently – regardless of the fact that we had no clue how to stop the thing before, Jack was the one who sorted that out and (a) it nearly killed him and (b) Jack disappeared after he came around. Regardless, we were told in no uncertain terms that we had to go. Orders from the highest authority, apparently. With Jack not around to grease palms, we couldn’t get out of it. So we went.
A mere three flights and a helicopter ride later, we were there. We were briefed on the way. They reckoned that they’d found another Rift, halfway up K2, and that it was linked to ours somehow. They’d tied in our report of the Abaddon incident to some strange goings-on there, and seen similarities. If it was true, we needed to liaise and study it (so more paperwork). They gave us the location and an experienced escort party and we set out to take a look. When I saw all the climbing gear I had flashback to Touching the Void and felt a bit ill, but it was just for emergencies – we took a chopper up most of the way, then it was about a half-hour’s walk up a shallow slope.
So we hit the spot, right in the middle of an unbroken stretch of snow, and Tosh set up all the equipment. Spent a couple of hours probing the area, checking for any weird energy… nothing. Then, suddenly, the ground began to shake and we all heard a noise which I can best describe as ‘SPROING!’ And this vaguely humanoid shape popped out of the snow. It was Jack… or rather, it was a sort of doll with Jack’s face. Quite a good likeness. It had popped out of the snow on a spring.
A Jack-in-the-box. How bleeding hilarious.
Then it exploded. And that’ll be what triggered the avalanche.
Fortunately it didn’t come our way: it started higher up the mountain, and we only caught the very edge of it. But it did partly bury the chopper, and we were stuck up there for a few hours until it could be dug out. Whilst they were doing that, Tosh dug up what was left of the Jack-in-the-box and took a look at it, and she says it was activated by her probing for Rift-type activity. So it was set up by someone who knew what we’d gone out there to do. There was no Rift. The whole thing was a set-up. Gwen tried to get some answers about who’d reported the activity, but suddenly nobody seemed to know anything. So we decided to head back home, although suddenly there wasn’t an available transport, so we spent two days waiting.
On our way back, they told us Harry Saxon had won the election, then he murdered the American President, then he was shot dead by his wife. A week really is a long time in politics.
[copypasta'd from here.]
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Something like this will probably take some time to get over, though. Maybe some sort of group activity that isn't psychologically and phisiologically hazardous might help...?
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G. has been pressing going to a rugby game together. I think we may actually do that.
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Honestly, my knowledge of sports is almost non-existent. The closest thing I've ever come to playing a sport is walking (and I didn't even do much of that until recently). I suppose I live a very sedentary life, really...
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I was something of an athlete growing up, but I don't have time for much now aside from running.
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I imagine running is very calming, though. I think I were going to take up a form of exercise, it would probably be that... I can't imagine I'd be any good, though.
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Running is marvelous calming. If you do it right it's like meditating.
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I imagined as much. Have you tried meditation, then...? I've always meant to but never got around to it...
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I have tried meditation. It helps a bit with stress.
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What kind?
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I might give it another try, though...
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I'll definitely try it again when we're back in England, though. I imagine I'm going to need some kind of stress management once I start work again.
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Sometimes when you're starting out it's good to have some kind of object to focus on.
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Real or imagined?
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I think very few of us think of "nothing" even when we're not thinking. It's a matter of suppressing conscious thought--calming the self and focusing on one thing. At times I've found it best just to think "breathe in, breathe out," if that's what it takes.
But that's why I like running as a kind of meditation, too: I get in the zone, so to speak, and I'm not aware of what I'm thinking.