Lorean responds, "You are not limited to local timelines, we can go anywhere, but the 'stranger' you get from the current timeline the longer it will take to get there. The greatest jump I can make would be about a 5% difference in the timelines. Basically, the more variables you introduce the more difficult it is for me to feel the right timeline to jump too. However, once I have visited a timeline I will be able to return to it in one jump. The same is true for travel through time, it may take us months of travel to go back millions of years, but I could return to the present in one jump since I 'know' the location."

She pauses a moment to give everyone time to digest that before she blushes slightly and continues, "I am not sure about this since I have no direct experience yet, but I believe that some time lines may be easier to get to than others. The more probable a series of events the more timelines will contain versions of those events, the less probable the fewer timelines. For example, though there are only a few variables, I cannot feel any timelines where Omar is elected President of the United States. Such a timeline would require a very unlikely chain of events. Given that every choice spawns a timeline, it must be concluded that somewhere a timeline does exist where Omar becomes President, but the possiblility is so remote that I cannot 'feel' such a timeline from our present location. With a few jumps in which we choose variables likely to lead toward such an event I would eventually be able to home in on the right timeline."

She looks at you hopefully, "Do you understand?"

Steve nods slowly,

"Thank you Lorean, that helps a lot."

Steve exchanges a glance with Cody and tips an imaginary hat to him. While Cody wasn’t exactly on target, he was closer to the truth than Steve.

Carter gets a malicious smile of his face, clearly he has thought of something nasty.

"I say we get back at these 'watcher' guys for screwing with our lives. We can go into the future and pick up a time machine which is not compelled to prevent us from returning to our original time like Lorean here. Then return to our home earth after the interdiction period and travel back using the other time machine!"

Cody nods back. "Must be getting slow in your old age!." followed by a freindly wink to show that he's only jesting as usual.

Cody actually sputters a cough at that one.

*Ahem*

"They *are* called The Watcher's you know...Im operating under the assumption that they know everything that is going on with us and this ship, including the link we now share, though I would imagine such surveilance is hidden even form Lorean's consciousness. After all, they went to great lengths to make her "trustworthy" for us *No offense Lo...* Any being that can hand out omniversal starships like its nothing has got be pretty damn advanced if you ask me. And being so advanced Im sure they wouldn't have given us all this power if they thought it would cause them problems...in fact, they claim we were brought here to prevent such problems. I think you can all see where I'm going with this..."

"Just because the could have done so doesn't mean that they will have done so. As far as them keeping survielance on us via the link or otherwise, if these watcherswere going to invade our privacy in order to prevent us from messing with things I would think they would have taken then next step and simply blanked us and left us at home.

"We won't know until we try and frankly I can't think of anything I'd rather do more than get a little revenge."

Steve comments,

"We were willing to give that Con man a half a million, just to get rid of him and because it was nothing to us."

Omar looks at Carter, a little aghast at his suggestion. "Do we really want to get revenge on people who have done us no wrong? Sure their technology took us from our timeline. And yes, we can't go back. But was what they did, intentional? Is what happened to us really their fault?"

"We were the ones who went to their base. Remember?"

"Personally, I am a little excited at the prospect of visiting an infinite number of universes. We can make such an impact in some of these places, that we will become mythological. Who is to say that the heroes of myth and legend in our earth's past were not travellers like us."

"Call me arrogant or selfish if you wish, but I think that we are here for a reason. Going after those who have allowed us this opportunity is wrong."

He reached across the table and grabbed an orange. He then filled his plate with eggs. After giving the others a smile, he nodded and began to shovel the eggs into his mouth.

Lorean listened with some alarm before speaking, "Revenge is out of the question! Not that I wouldn't be willing to take you anywhere you asked, but I don't think you would have any chance of doing them harm, and I would hate to see you harmed in return."

Carter snorts, "I think you have me confused with a guy in tights and a cape. I'm no hero and frankly I'm pretty pissed off. These watchers sure as hell intended this shit to happen. If they are really so powerful they either could have hid their base better or simply used one of this ships as we are now."

Carter is obviously getting riled up again, "I realize you have a pretty terrible life before you erupted, and that as a result you want to do good for people and inspire others. No offence but I'd rather take a long walk out a short airlock.

"As for traveling the multiverse ... well I didn't ask for this. Isabel didn't ask to be separated from her brother. Some of you guys have no ties to home, but for my part I want to go back, I mean really go back. And if I can't do that maybe the next best thing is to get revenge on those who did this to me."

Lorean looks at Carter with a great deal of concern in her eyes, "I really don't think revenge is an option. I know very little since I was only awakened when you arrived, but from the evidence I speculate they are powerful beyond the scope of anything you could do to hurt them." She pleads, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather roam the timelines with me? I can make you very comfortable! I can take you to any timeline except one!"

"I don't want revenge." Isabel says simply, staring intently at Carter, "these Watchers have taken something from me. Something that I want back," and that last comment was practically a declaration of purpose, the words hot and sharp, "but I don't wish harm on these... who watch."

And if I do, she thinks to herself, I won't talk about it with their pet spaceship listening

Steve says,

"Cody and I didn't find their base. We found evidence that would have let us deduce their existence. What I suspect they did is look forward in time and see who is going to cause them problems, then take steps to make sure they don't."

Steve stands up,

"OK, I think we need a slight change in topic now. I'm leaning towards involving other people in running this. Presumably that means recruiting baselines."

"Does anyone have any ideas on how to hire them?"

Morgan nods. "Not so much about how to find them, but I definitely like the idea of anyone we hire submitting to a scan just to confirm loyalty. As for how to find people, you and Cody are private investigators, use your skills to find people that either have no ties that would hold them back, or couples that would come aboard together. We have more than enough room for a few extras if they have family providing the other members can be useful." He laughs and adds, "Scifi geeks would be nuts for the chance to join us."

Carter rolls his eyes, "You have got to be kidding me!" he exclaims. "What the hell is going on inside that head of yours? You think you are some kind of new wave Doctor Who? You gonna start some kind of crazy little space ark? You guys are friggin' nuts!

"We don't know what's in store for us if we choose not to go home. Hell we don't even know for sure that the damn watchers are done with us. Maybe Lorean is thier spy in our midst? She might not even be aware of it ... for all we know they might be planning to use as for their own ends at some point ..."

Carter trails off, without realizing it he had stood up and backed away from the table. He walks over to the holographic console, "How do we know we can trust you eh?" he asks of Lorean, "How do we know these fuckers won't recall you so they can mess with us some more?"

Steve chuckles at Carter's question,

"And what will her answer tell you? We don't know. She doesn't know. On the other hand, they didn't need any help to nail us last time."

"But I'm not choosing not to go home, and I'm not preventing anyone else from going there either. If you want to go home, be my guest... oh, wait, that's right, you can't."

“Yeah, you're right! We got screwed. Dream of vengeance if you want, I’m not going to waste the time on dreams when I can change my reality.”

"Revenge isn't a plan, revenge is a goal. And it's a goal that isn't going to happen on this timeline, or without a whole lot of tools and information that we don't have right now.”

"My plan is to learn a whole lot more about all this. That’s a plan, not a goal. After I get better intelligence, practice, and tools, I’m expecting goals will make themselves known.”

“The question is, what are you going to do? If you've got actual plans of revenge, then put them on the table, maybe I’ll help.”

Cody snorts derrisively.

"Yeah? You and what army? Listen man, I can understand you're upset right now. But a friend once told me, in Life, when a door closes, another one opens. I think you are correct on one thing though...the Watcher's knew this would happen. Time itself is malleable to them, and Im almost inclined to think we were led here. Perhaps because we are destined for something important, but more likely cuz they like to Watch. We could be merely an experiment."

"However. I don't like to live in what if. I want to live in what is... maybe this is all just a dream, but while Im here Im going to be here, and that means making the best of things. Being productive, and not wallowing in anger and spite."

"Its true. You've lost everything you have ever worked for...in a way it does feel like we have died and this is some kind of afterlife. We're like ghosts now, adrift in time. But we ARE still alive, and the only people in all of reality who can know and understand what you are going through are in this room..."

"So buddy...given that revenge leads to the Dark Side, and believe me...you don't want to go to there...

why don't you tell us what you really want?"


"Well first, we need to get to what *this* is. I'd still like to hear from Marcus, and hopefully some elucidation of Isabel's cryptic answer."

"I think the idea of hiring help is a good one, but way more difficult than it sounds at first. I mean, how do post a job offer? "Must be willing to travel long distances and being on the road for long periods of time." Why not just jump to a future where we can buy some robot androids or something?"

Morgan laughs, "I'll pass on the killer androids, that never works out well in the movies." Smiling he continues, "I really don't think it would be hard to find people though with TV shows like Stargate at all time highs of popularity. I figure there has to be a ton of people who would give their right arm for a chance to join the crew of a real live spaceship and travel to alternate worlds."

His smile dims as he addresses Carter, "I feel your pain, but life does go on. I lost my wife a few years ago, and practically gave up living for a while, but this whole mess we're in has reminded me that life isn't done with us. Find what joy you can in this life, or it will be a very long and very joyless existence, because as novas we're gonna beat the baselines average life span. Hell, we might just be immortal if we try." He tilts his head to the side as he regards the other man thoughtfully, "Your old life was a pursuit of money, power, and occasional romantic entanglements? We might have unlimited wealth now, but you'd have had that eventually in our timeline anyway as a nova, same with power and romance. So what's really different for you here? Some things might come easier to us now, but the challenges that really matter are still there. The quest to not fall victim to taint, the pursuit of happiness. Nothing has really changed but the setting." He pauses and becomes grim, "Revenge isn't likely, and I won't take part in any plan to try to accomplish it. One of my goals is to live forever and enjoy myself, but that won't happen by commiting suicide."

Cody laughs.

"A little speciest aren't we? Androids are people too..."

"Seriously though, Its not that I think we will have a problem getting recruits...but screening them to find the *right* ones isn't so easy. We need people who are *really* ready to let go of their former life, which Carter has shown isn't always easy. Theres alot of people who would sign up just to take advantage of us or steal tech for their own ends. Id have to scan them to be sure...hmm. I guess it would work. We find people who suit our needs and give them the choice. If they refuse or turn out to be insincere we just erase their memory of us and move on..."

"Id also like to suggest finding people who were terminally ill anyways, who we could offer new life with our Nova-medicine."

Morgan looks surprised, "Hey, now there's a good idea! Offer them a second chance at life, and a heck of a good life too."

Steve answers,

"At a guess, She wants her brother back, maybe others as well. Three ways to proceed on that, first and easiest, go to a timeline where she died and her brother didn't. Second, send a message to the Watchers asking for her brother to be exiled with us. Third, and most risky, is to try that other time machine gambit, sneak in, get him, and sneak out."


(Steve listens to the others and doesn’t comment on the robots idea).

“As for hiring people, I’d suggest the young. They are the most flexible, and the most open to new ideas. The old are set in their ways, and we don’t have a way to make them young either unless someone here is a temporal manipulator.”

“So… put a full page ad in a college newspaper? 6 Demigods want Cooks, maids, agriculturalist, & Doctor; must be willing to leave this timeline, possibly forever, and explore the reaches of time?”

“And yes, I know it will cause a stir… but college newspapers are famous for this sort of thing and by the time anyone important figures out we’re serious we’ll be gone. Or we could go to an employment agency. Give them a million dollar finders fee. Seriously, there are lots of problems that can’t be solved by throwing money at it. This isn’t one of them.”

“But this does imply we pick up most of our other gear first.”

"Puting an advertisment in a college paper would cause quite the stir." Omar said laughingly. "There could be a thousand applicants. Might I suggest looking to some of the faculty. I can guess at any number of professors who would love to be able to do research. Historians, astronomers, physicists, sociologists, geneticists, botanists, and anthropologists would all be viable prospects. Of course no-one may take us seriously, in which case, we would have to do something else."

"That's why I think a job fair would be a great recruiting device. After they get a look at us and at some of what we can do, they would realize that we might just be serious. We don't tell them about the ship of course, that will only come once we have hired them. But as for showcasing our abilities...it would go a long way towards making our offer credible. So what if we make our presence known. It's not like we plan to stay here long."

"Afterall, if someone signs on, thinking its a joke, and it's not, they might feel some resentment at their situation."

"I will volunteer for the job fair. Anyone else?" Omar finished his suggestion with a big smile on his face and a bright gleam in his eye.

"Job faire is a good plan. Just have Cody scan everyone one at a time to see if they really would be receptive. That will eliminate at least 80% of the candidates, then really look closely at the ones that would actaully do it."

Cody frowns.

"I don't like the idea of screening thousands of applicants and wannabes. Id much prefer to keep this low-key. I say we research prospective "employess" extensively, even before we approach them, much in the manner of intelligence agency recruitment."

Omar listened to Cody but then started shaking his head. "No offence Cody, but we don't have the time to spend months checking each recruit. I'd rather be doing something else for the next 100 years than searching for viable job applicants."

"At the table at the job fair, when the prospective candidate approaches, we ask them a few questions. One of you detects if they are lying."

"Those that pass the first round of screenings, get an interview. There, they are scanned, and told that they may never be able to see their friends and family again. Those that pass, and accept, we hire...those that don't, we thank and give $100.00 for their time."

Omar paused, and then spoke again. "We need to add benefits, other than working on the ship. We should let them get out and visit some of the worlds too. Afterall, what good is a million dollars if you can't spend it."

"Besides, I'd hate to be locked-up on this ship my whole life."


.

Steve remarks,

"There really are two ways to approach this. The first is to use the information age. Hire professionals to look for us, post ads, that sort of thing. We'd be looking for the one person in thousands who'd be willing to leave. This timeline has it act mostly together."

"The other way is to visit hell. Visit a timeline where the human race is about to go under, probably lots of people are willing to leave. Big natural disaster or atomic war, about 5 years ago. I've been toying with going to a place like that anyway, the big banks will have gold and the like just for the taking."

Morgan asks, "So, then stay in this timeline till we hire folks, or try Steves approach and knock off Fort Knox while we're visiting Mad Max." He grins at the thought and turns his head sideways in profile, "What do you think, look good on a coin?" He chuckles.

Steve says,

"Those approaches aren't exclusive. Let's try finding people on this world first, if we can't or fail or whatever we'll try the next one."

"Cody, you're the one with the keys to the car, so that means you're on pick up duty today. Add to that ever growing list of things we need radiation detectors and survival gear in case we have to go see Mad Max."

"Omar, I'd like you to go with Cody. Word is going to get out he's paying cash for everything out of a suitcase and people will take interest."

"I'm going to be setting up that jobs fair and/or interviewing people. I'm also going to be buying clothes as I'm wearing all I own. Right about now I'm envying you eufiber types."

"Everyone else, shop or pick up or do something else."

Steve loads up a half million dollars in the smallest bag available. When they reach the surface, after dropping off those two thugs he will rent a limo (with driver), buy a cell phone and phone book, visit a clothing store, and start making calls.

Time permitting, he will visit the local university, several employment agencies, and a medical college and tell them that he is going to be buying a very large ship (yes, he's that person) and leaving the country for several years to explore very remote parts of the world. He's looking for someone to run a hydroponics bay, a nurse or doctor, a pair of cooks, house keepers, someone to run the staff, etc. Presumably the ideal candidate would be relatively young, fit, and without ties. The good news is he's willing to pay 5 or 10 times the going rate for this.

(Luck roll please, and Investigative Prodigy if appropriate. I suspect this is going to mostly be Bureaucracy)

Omar stays at Steve's side, watching to make sure that no-one tries to take the cash. When necessary, Omar uses his good looks to help Steve get by annoying secretaries, and mealy-mouthed bureaucrats.

He also plays pack-animal for steve, carrying the heavier equipment and ferrying it to the limo.

(Where appropriate, Omar uses Awe-Inspiring to help Steve navigate the bureaucratic mazes.)

Carter sits quietly as the others plan to go about hiring 'norms' to works for them on the ship. Pointless, I can't imagine that Lorean can't do for us anything that we couldn't. he thinks to himself.

He eventually leaves the table as people begin to disperse and heads back to his cabin, locking the door behind him.

After breakfast and the discussion that doesn't quite resolve everything you break into groups to take care of the business that you've decided on. Steve and Omar catch a ride with Cody, Isabel and Morgan. Marcus sets about cleaning up after the big breakfast and relaxing a bit. Carter locks himself in his room to spend some time thinking.

Once down on the planet it takes only a few minutes to drop off the criminals in an out of the way location that they will have difficulty finding their way back from, they are also missing a few hours of their memories.

In Vegas Steve and Omar rent a limo and driver for the day and head about their errands. Buying a prepaid cellphone takes only a few minutes to setup, and then they head to a clothing store, where the manager takes one look at the cash that Steve is flashing and the limo outside the front window and begins to fawn all over the rich man and his body guard. It takes three hours but once it is over Steve has a complete wardrobe with everything from casual wear to a hand tailored suit and he leaves the store $15,000 poorer than when he entered. It is noon by the time you finish shopping and head toward the universities and employeement agencies. Talking to each in turn takes only a hour or so, but by the time you are done with them all the day is over, and it's time to head back to