parts 2 and 3 blog - Kage.Ookami

Location: a ship in high orbit...
Warren leans forward in the command chair with a deep sigh, then looks over at his sister who is sitting at one of the consoles
"Kara, did you even push the button?"
"Yes! It just takes bit to 'port them all up here. Seven people scattered across the Earth is not an easy job, and this automation code you HELPED write doesn't do anything good for the teleport speed, let me tell ya"
Warren stands up to get a drink, when he returns with his soda, he points a finger at Kara
"Could you have done it without Caine and a room full of other Techs at SGC?"
She shakes her head.
"Ha, thought not"
A light fills the bridge, then seven wide-eyed gamers appear. Warren stands, seems about to say something but stops. Then his demeanor changes and he says with a dramatic voice
"Welcome to the BC-304D Aries."
Then he breaks down laughing
"Sorry guys, I had to do that! Kara, is everyone here?"
She gets a evil grins, then says in a sing-song voice
"All but one"
Her hand hovers over a button. As the seven freaked out gamers stand there, staring at their new surroundings and twitching, Warren dives at Kara screaming
"NO!"
but falls on his face as the others point and laugh, the daze seeming to have pasted at this point, perhaps because of his fall. SoE and Caine help Warren up, and walk him over to where Piper and Kara now standing. They look up to see on the girl's faces the kind of grin that sends a chill up and down a man's spine. All the men in the room say in one voice
"What'd you do?"
Both of the girls point at a screen showing a very dazed looking Af sitting in a chair holding a Xbox controller. Kara waves a hand to calm her brother down
"Don't worry, he's in locked in a room for now"
Warren glances at the control panel
"Which room?"
Kara looks down "The weapons con..."
she goes bug-eyes and slams a button, Af vanishes and then appears on a new screen
"....the mess hall."
Alex smiles and says
"smart move. So.....why'd you beam him up?"
Kara gets that grin again,
"For Warren to play with"
Warren thinks for a moment then gets a grin of his own
"Hey guys, he has no idea what's going on or who's behind it...anyone thinking what I am thinking? Nah, that'd be too evil. Lets head to the mess hall, say 'Hi' to Af and get some food and then I'll tell you why you're all here"

End of Part 2

Part 3
Location: The Aries mess hall...
While gathered around the captain's table, everyone enjoys the meal and talks about the fun they have had in the past and the fun they should have in the future, even though most had never met face to face before today.
Warren stands up, and puts his hands in the air to get everyone to quite down so he can speak.
"Now, I know you're all having fun, but there is something we need to talk about. The reason you are here"
He walks over to a screen set in the wall and pulls up an image, a dark swirling mass appears on the screen.
"This is a rift in space time. It is outside of our galaxy, near rim of the Pegasus galaxy. We are not sure how it opened or were it leads, and that's were we come in. SGC and the IOA want it scanned, they have this ship, but no crew for it. Caine..." He points to the amazingly young boy next to him, "...and I helped write code for this ship, so I said we'd make the run with a few coders we know, that way we can make changes to the code on the way if needed. The code we are testing is some automation updates to make it so a ship's whole crew can leave in fighters or whatever and the ship will jump away, and jump back when called. Anyone want to come?"
The hands of everyone in the room fling up too fast to see.
"Good! Your family's will be told you're joining a Think Tank in.....Texas, and you will be beamed down to get some of your clothes, computer, games, say goodbye and the like. Not sure how long this trip will take, but flying there will take about 2 weeks. Well, you'll beam down in a bit, and the ship will...er...um..sail..in the morning. See you then."

End of part 3