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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Vala just shrugged at the comment about her mother. Her fractured family was one of the last things she wanted to get into, and it wasn't something she made an effort to dwell on if it wasn't completely necessary.

"Honestly, I don't have any idea how I would have handled it if I wasn't already used to spaceships and Stargates... Although without all of that, I wouldn't have ever left my home planet, and then I wouldn't have any reason to have to get used to it, would I?" She shot him her own patent charming smile. "But seeing people react to it, well, I don't blame Earth for covering up knowledge of advanced alien races and space travel. I don't think everyone would take it quite as well as you."

"It helps that I was trying to escape that castle and my mysterious captors." Neal didn't explain that he could accept a lot of things in his course to escape prisons, or things like prison. "The motivation was already there. That and... well... I wasn't really awake for the whole space travel part. Pretty sure it's not entirely real to me yet."

That part he wasn't just pretty sure, he was absolutely sure. Vala could tell him they were in space all she wanted, but since he'd passed out before they'd even left orbit, they could just as easily still be trapped in some new weird room in the castle. Weighing his options, Neal was pretty sure he'd rather be in space than back where they'd been, so he had no choice but to get on accepting it.

Internally though, he made a note to seem extra awed at the next futuristic notion, just in case he was doing his con artist thing of adjusting too well to uncertain circumstances.

"It's really a shame you missed that," Vala lied. Neal passing out ended up being the best thing that could have possibly happened; she didn't have to deal with being sneaky about overriding the ship's homing device, or betraying just how much she actually knew about piloting a space craft.

The idea was still to come off as a somewhat clever airhead, and Vala had to remember to keep that in check. She didn't think Neal suspected anything yet, and she didn't want him too. Especially if they were going to be looking at spending an extended amount of time together.

"Once they release you, we'll see if we can find a window. Looking out into space will make it significantly more real than just talking about it."

"It probably is no comparison to standing on top of a sky scraper huh?" he wondered. Neal was already excited, and it wasn't out of line with his con for him to show as much. Grinning just a little, he wondered "Does it still fascinate you? The space travel part I mean. I suppose if it's normal where you're from it wouldn't be especially exciting."

The clock on the wall continued to count down, a warm set of numbers that were positive in their reminder that Neal was alive and about to get released. He was willing to trust that he was going to live if only because he certainly felt a lot better than he did when recovering at the castle. Glancing at Vala, it occurred to him just then that she seemed to make a habit of being around when he was injured.

"You know, I'd have to wonder if you like seeing good looking guys get knocked down a peg or ten," he said, charming bachelor's grin already in place.

Vala smirked at his last comment. She legitimately did feel bad about the lot he seemed to have accrued over the past few days. "Oh, not at all," she replied, her tone almost fond. Meeting Neal had, luckily, been under better circumstances than her first encounter with Daniel; that certainly made manipulating Neal the more easier, because he didn't have any idea what kind of person he was actually dealing with. Daniel had, at least, a little warning.

She glanced up at the clock, thinking about what he had said. "It's always exciting. New places, new cultures, new... artifacts and histories to uncover." She turned back and grinned at him. "I've never been on the top of a skyscraper, however, so I don't have much comparison in that sense."

Neal heard artifacts and histories, but what he really was seeing was profit. The future must have had so much more to steal. He could imagine relics from the right places and planets being worth more than any of his heists had been back home. He listened to what Vala went on to say but as the time crept down to his release, his brain was feeling more and more cognizant and he was putting more time into his future exploiting... the future.

"Never been on top of a skyscraper but you've flown in space...?" Neal laughed a little at that. It took all kinds apparently. "So where are we in space anyways?"

"Spaceships are a little more common where I come from than Skyscrapers," Vala explained.

Vala hadn't moved too far part trying to see if she could get a free meal out of the evening, so she hadn't quite reached the level that Neal had. If nothing else, they had a ship, and Vala could make do beyond that.

"I don't know," she admitted. "We weren't in hyperspace that long. I would have to get access to the ship to see if I can coordinate our location..." She paused and laughed nervously. "Hopefully no one will ask me any questions about the ship."

"I suppose space ships are now going to be more common all the time then. Shame, you're missing out on the incredible view."

Soon enough Neal would have a real and true concept of a breath taking view. For now though, he was content to imagine what he assumed would compare to pictures he'd seen taken from the International Space Station. Only, without Earth in the frame. That thought, it ached just a little. He wasn't sure he had a home to go to anyways, but it was a little daunting he might be one of the last humans left and certainly the last of any he knew besides Vala. Vala, he wasn't even completely convinced she was from Earth and human anyways, he just hadn't been ready to ask.

Just as Vala mentioned coordinating their location, a panel lit up on the wall closest to her. It would appear that the ship could understand English and was more than happy to explain where they were, which at the current moment was multiple galaxies quite far away. The distance they were from Earth could only have been at a Stargate level.

Vala stared at the panel as it explained their location, trying to disguise the look of alarm on her face and doing a really terrible job.

She'd seen a lot of technology in her time. Even with the most advanced Asgard technology, it still took them three weeks to get to the Pegasus galaxy in hyperspace. She and Neal hadn't been in hyperspace anywhere near that long, which meant only one of two things; the first being the planet the castle was on was a lot further away from Earth than they had ever believed, or that ship was more advanced than anything Vala had ever seen.

Vala explained as much to Neal. "I've never seen instantaneous travel of that magnitude with anything other than a Stargate," she finished, pressing her lips together. "And honestly, I don't think that ship's systems were near that advanced. There is something really strange going on here."

There was that word again. Stargate. He was pretty sure she'd tried to explain the concept long ago at the castle but, admittedly, Neal had been far more convinced of her insanity than anything else at the time. Not that he would admit to having half listened, or that that he saw any value in reminiscing about how legitimately sane she was and he'd been the one entirely wrong. None-the-less, he was going to have to get a lexicon going of all the words he'd been hearing since coming to the future.

Before he could implement his plan of further pretending to be an airheaded millionaire and going on a fishing expedition about Stargates without seeming too interested, Neal saw that look on Vala's face. Something in features had shifted from light nerves regarding the ship to a look nothing short of dread. Neal wasn't sure that 'something strange' really matched the expression the brunette had.

"You're a terrible liar, if that fear in your eyes is any indication," he teased her. "Define... travel of that magnitude."

Neal wasn't sure he wanted to know just how far in space and time they'd gone, but avoiding the information wasn't going to change reality.

Laughing nervously, Vala shrugged and tried to think of a way to explain this to someone who came from a world where intergalactic travel wasn't an everyday occurring.

It was strange to her. She's grown up on ships and traveling through 'gates and everyone at the SGC took it all as easily as she did; after all, they'd been at it long enough. But the rest of the world was different, and it confused her. Sure, it had taken only a few hours of television and conversation with Teal'c to grasp the fact that most people on Earth wouldn't deal with the idea that they weren't alone in the universe very well. They had a hard enough time dealing with their next door neighbors, never mind having to stomach the constant threat of a busy universe that, more often than not, would be more than happy with the annihilation of the entire planet.

But a long time ago, the Goa'uld had gone to Earth and taken a bunch of humans and spread them all over the galaxy. Sure, she wasn't from Earth, but she was still human, and the fact that most of Earth didn't realize the number of distant relatives they had scattered across the stars was confusing to her. Earth was very, very small. But she imagined, to people like Neal Caffrey, it was big enough to make the rest of universe inconsequential.

"We're lightyears away from Earth. Stargate travel is instantaneous because of the method it uses; basically, your molecules are separated so that you can travel through a wormhole to the connecting Stargate. Hyperspace works differently, and while it's fast, it's not that fast. What happens in seconds through a Stargate often takes weeks at hyperspeed. We're not even in the same galaxy as Earth, Neal. However we ended up here, well, I can't explain it." And with that, she shrugs again.

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