theliar | transition into the future (for not_a

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transition into the future (for not_a_conartist)

[[continued from this log]]

Vala bit back a pontiff smile, because if there was anything a con artist knew, it was not to give away all of her secrets right away. She tried to remember the Earth saying Mitchell had taught her; "Don't show all your cards." Vala would, most decidedly, be keeping her cards away from Neal for a while.

It was funny, in a quaint sort of way, how humans had all these hang ups about time travel and whatnot. Vala learned quickly that the SGC was far from the ordinary, and most humans didn't have half the idea how utterly insignificant they were in the scheme of the universe. It was absolutely endearing.

"Come along," she chirped, turning back to the door. "We should drop by my room and pick up some supplies. After all, we don't know what we're getting into, and the first step to adventure is to always be prepared."

Mostly, Vala wanted to make sure she had everything she needed in the case that there was something shiny, rare and/or valuable that she may need to, er, liberate. "Some water," she chatted idly, "a first aid kit. And, oh, some of those delicious granola bars from the kitchen. Have you tried those? They're really good."

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The crew on the space station was minimal and seemed to be generally there on assignment from some other place. It was an unaffiliated space station, but all appearances, though there really was a hint of 'too good to be true' about the place. Vala, having been familiar with space travel for most of her life, was not wrong in her gut instincts.

The station was big, capable of its own flight, but likely not the biggest Vala had seen in her time. The design was very futuristic, some of the most advanced technology available in the known universe. Most of the coloring was clean whites, sterile chromes, and the occasional blue. Most of the place seemed automated, with the personnel to a minimum, though that wasn't unusual on robotically manned stations.

Once they'd docked on an incredibly spacious landing pad, security met the new arrivals quickly, ushering them immediately and directly to sick bay. The rooms were private, so once the staff was certain Neal wasn't either dead or too far gone, the pair were given a smoothly walled room with ergonomic seating. If Vala were to touch the wall in any space, a display would soon illuminate on the seamless wall.

When the injection was shot into Neal's neck there was a low hiss and a moment of blue digital writing in a circle on his neck. Once they'd finished, he was put on life monitoring devices, simple wireless electronics affixed to his forehead and over his heart, his broken arm was cheked for additional damage, and the nurses took their leave of the "newlyweds."

It wasn't long before whatever the medical staff had done ran its course and Neal was on the mend. In about an hour, Neal's fingertips twitched some. He slowly came to life with a groan, though it didn't sound like much pain was in his voice. Mostly, Neal was feeling a little floaty. The injection agents he'd been given were engineered to bring him out slowly, without panic, so he was, in effected, drugged when he first awoke.

Rolling his head to take in his surroundings, Neal was relieved to see Vala. If they were in prison at least she could tell him what he needed to be looking out for. That and it was a relief to wake up besides your accomplice, whether or not they were knowing, to know you weren't alone.

"Vala..." Neal mumbled. "I feel real strange... but not like last time..."

He didn't bother to explain what 'last time' was, he was a little too out of it for that and was unaware that Vala knew what had happened.

When Neal woke up, Vala allowed herself a rather large sigh of relief. She'd been holding it all in - somewhere in between worried sick for how he would recover, and annoyed with herself for being stupid enough to let this all happen in the first place.

But things had gone smoothly. No one was asking questions, and they had left them alone, apparently taking her stupid story at face value. But playing the attentive and devoted wife was a role she had some experience in, so it flattered her in a strange way to think she played it well.

Leaning forward, Vala grabbed his hand and gave it a small squeeze. "That's because we have actual doctors here, Neal." She paused, trying to make sure she got her story straight before she moved on. "There was some kind of malfunction on the ship... I don't really know what happened. But I was just so worried and I didn't even think to turn back. But we're safe now and you're going to be just fine, like I said." She punctuated the news with a proud smile, even though she knew he didn't have any recollection of her comforting words on the ship.

Neal smiled just a little, a tired shadow of his dashing grin though this time the drugs had it being more Neal's smile and less the con's. Looking around the room, despite the cloudy haze in his head, those blue eyes got a little wider. He could tell that wherever they were was very much not something he'd ever experienced.

"Where... are we...?" he wondered a little absently.

Once he'd panned over the room, he brought his gaze back to Vala with that same dopey smile and squeezed her hand.

"You look... like you were worried."

"Heh. Me? Worried? Never." She denied it playfully, but it was pretty obvious she had been.

"We're on a space station. It actually showed up... rather conveniently. And good thing, too, I wasn't sure you were going to make it." She smiled and then lowered her voice, leaning into him. "Also... there was a tiny misunderstanding I should probably... warn you about."

Neal didn't believe her and his face said as much but he was too disoriented to bother arguing. Giving her hand a brief squeeze, he was quick to try and dissolve any lingering worries.

"It takes a lot more than car crashes and evil... force fields...? ...to stop me."

That much had (mostly, barring that four year stint in prision) been the case. Even during his time in prison, Neal like to think he was staying there because he wanted to, not because they could hold him. Looking back up at the ceiling he squinted to try and determine the direct source of light, but there wasn't one.

"Space station... of course..." Neal said. He hesitated at the last part. "...We're in prison aren't we?"

Vala tried to cover up a shudder. She didn't even want to think about being in prison (again). Not that she thought Neal knew anything about that - he seemed far too straight-laced to ever have had to deal with prison - and a compassionate part of her decided it would be unkind to let him think that was where they were.

"No, no, we are definitely not in prison. It's a space station, that I know for sure." She frowned. "Also, they might think we are married."

The look of relief on Neal's face was genuine. What Vala didn't know was that he was relieved to not be going back to prison in some far away galaxy where he could never escape. The chemicals in his blood hadn't diffused yet, so he wasn't doing a great job acting. Fortunately, he was have the appropriate reactions even if the motivation wasn't what Vala perceived.

"Oh thank... What??" Neal was confused by this turn of events. He gave Vala time to explain it but somewhere in his fuzzy brain a warning bell was trying to go off. "...Why...?"

Laughing nervously, Vala brushed back some of his hair from his face and bit her lip nervously. She wasn't exactly excited about having to explain this, but it would seem less strange than him hearing anything from the nurses.

"They were asking all kinds of questions and I just panicked," she lied. "I wasn't sure what they would do if they found out I practically..." she paused for effect. She was enjoying lying again, to her surprise. "If they found I practically stole that ship, I didn't know how they would react. There's all kinds of cultures with rather outrageous punishments and I didn't want anything to happen to us."

She thought she felt a few tears welling up. This was good.

Something wasn't quite right there but Neal was far too gone to even notice and he waved his good hand dismissively. The one thing that could help push Neal's sincere buttons was someone looking that unhappy because of him. In his medicated state, he didn't think too much about what she said, just that he'd gotten them both in so he might as well play along.

"Hey, I don't want to be... alien food... or find out what they do with... dead people... in space... So it's okay."

Shaking his head a little, Neal tried to clear his thoughts. It wasn't working well, but at least he could string sentences coherently. This time around, it would appear if he had been concussed it was cured by the extraterrestrial shot.

"What... else did you tell them??"

Neal really hoped she hadn't made it sound like they'd been doing anything suspicious. He'd take her out to dinner that night if it kept them from being put in prison. Flowers, dancing, all of it. Neal wasn't about to take any chances in a futuristic world, no universe, that he'd been in for less than a day.

Happy with his response, Vala reeled in the tears a little bit and tone up the compassion a bit. "Just that we were on our honeymoon when you passed out and I didn't know what happened. That was all, I swear."

Settling back into the chair she had pulled up next to the bed, she shrugged and tried to brush off the whole ordeal. "Don't worry, I think they were much more concerned with making sure you didn't die than my story. Besides, being married to be is hardly the worst thing that could happen."

Neal wasn't going to argue with her version of events. He knew that once a lie had been told you had to keep it going or that's where everything fell apart. He'd just play the helpless guy angle, it was mostly true with that damned arm break anyways, and hope that they could pull off getting away if things went south.

"Certainly managed to get a very nice wife... for not trying and being... a cripple." Neal yawned a little. "Where were we going to honey moon?"

It was routine, to make sure all the details of the con would be perfectly planned. Any number of questions could be asked casually and Neal wanted to make sure that he and Vala were in 100% agreement on the facts. He tried to make the question sound like a joke, rather than an information dig and hoped that her already taking him for what he'd said he was and knowing he wasn't "himself" at the moment were enough to keep her from wondering too much.

A little thankful he has asked, Vala thought about the answer. She hadn't got as far as being concerned that their answers would line up, being she was too distracted in hoping he wasn't catching up. But whatever wondrous drugs they had given Neal were obviously effecting his judgement, and for that Vala was incredibly thankful.

"I hadn't got that far," she finally admitted. "I'm not familiar with the planets in this sector, and no one asked. I suppose we could just tell them we were out for a private jaunt in our brand new spaceship..." She grimaced. "Which, by the way, you inherited from your recently deceased and mostly estranged Great Uncle Darrell."

Neal was glad she seemed to be willing to fill in the blanks. He was too looped to try and come up with something believable that didn't sound like a plan conceived by an idiot. The details were simple and Neal like simple. Good cons left no room for extraneous questions unless absolutely necessary and if that was necessary, a very good rehearsal was needed. Relieved it was going so easily, though that was a very medication induced sense of relief, he patted her hand.

"Great Uncle Darrell and Dad hadn't talked in years. Something about a fishing trip..." he joked. Neal hoped he just seemed like he was trying to keep them out of trouble with creativity.

"Too bad Great Uncle Darrell was also... entirely repulsive so he never managed to find a lady... much less reproduce. Lucky me."

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