~| Outside the Tempest facility, near the shores of Loch Muick |~

Astridh Nic Shitric looked out over the expanse of Loch Muick. She was sure this time that it was the right loch. It had the right shape and size at least. She had not really needed to go up here, but she had wanted to see for herself whether the facility was truly invisible. Well, to be fair, it had been Eydis that wanted it. She simply didn’t mind seeing for herself. While similar in appearance to her homelands in Ireland, this region of Scotland was also very different. [i]‘You can see how the glaciers scoured out this lake from the bedrock. Before one of the last ages of ice upon this world, this place was flat. The weight of the ice scoured out this entire valley.’[/i] Eydis’ thoughts flowed straight into her mind. Where these thoughts had once been unnerving and alien, they were simply natural now. Astridh could not imagine not having Eydis in there. She would have been so alone. They did not always agree, but that was only natural and provided ample opportunity to for silent discussions. They respected each other so highly that neither would try to force the other to do something they disagreed upon.

She could feel the strain the climb had put upon her legs, how they were unused to such exercise. Working on naval vessels, especially on the bridge as she had for the past year and a half, did not result in much exercise in the form of hiking. To be honest, she preferred to stay home (whatever base or ship that might be at any given time) and watch movies or read books. Only Eydis’ insistence had her exercise more. Ever since blending, she had gotten in far better physical shape, that was for sure. The fact that her appearance and health improved as a result of it, was a nice boon. She just had not had the patience for focusing on such in her youth. She hadn’t been unhealthy, but she had not been very fit either.

The view was undeniably magnificent. At some 710m, the height known as Ant t-Sròn wasn’t the tallest hill around, but it was the tallest one this close to the Loch. She was glad that Eydis had not insisted on climbing any of the others. [i]‘I heard that, Astridh!’ [/i]echoed into her mind. ‘I know. You were meant to.’ she answered, attaching a mental grin to the thought. Though tall, Ant t-Sròn was not tall enough to show the royal holding of Glass-allt-Shiel, where it lay to the South-Southwest. Even having some idea of what to look for, she could not see any sign of anything buried in the depths of Loch Muick. [i]‘The Tau’ri have once again proven their skill at construction. Had I not sensed the faint trace of naquadah down there, I would not have thought anything strange about this lake.’[/i]Eydis thought to her. ‘Loch, Eydis. Loch. Not a lake.’ [i]‘close enough.’[/i]

Having seen what Eydis needed to see, Astridh relaxed, letting the faint breeze cool her. She was glad they had had her spare clothes and equipment sent to the ship already. It would not have been fun to carry all that up here. And she sure looked forward to a shower and dressing in a proper uniform again. After nearly 6 years of naval service, civilian clothes felt odd. She felt almost naked without uniform of some sort. Opening a pocket, she drew out the small comm device. After the training course in crewing Tau’ri ships, she had been provided with it to use when going to the tempest. Unlike cellular communications, nobody could listen in on the signal. “This is Lieutenant Astrid Nic Shitric, Clearance Code 362156-B calling the H.M.S. Tempest. I am ready for retrieval. Beam me down.”

Less than thirty seconds later, once her clearance had been verified and her exact location found, she found herself aboard the Tempest. 

“Welcome aboard the Tempest Ma’am.” The technician manning the beaming controls said to Astridh once she had materialised.

“Thank you. Where do I go from here? I have not quite memorized the layout of this ship.” This was the plain truth. She had not had time to do so, not even with Eydis’ aid.

This time the response came from one of the two marines guarding the room. “Ma’am, I’ll show you to your quarters. Please follow me.”

“Thank you.” She followed the marine, ignoring the looks of the non-navy personnel following her. She wasn’t dressed in a uniform, so it was to be expected. At least the navy and marine personnel had the sense and training not to look where they were not supposed to do so. They did not walk far before entering an elevator, taking it several decks up. Not knowing the exact dimensions of the ship or where they started in it, neither Astridh nor Eydis could tell where they went. Their shared ability to sense naquadah was no help either. There was so much around that it would take days or even weeks to get a sense of direction through it. After leaving the elevator, the marine led her on what might have been a roundabout route, but eventually they stopped at a simple door in a corridor with other such doors It had a keypad beside it. Without saying anything, the marine held out a keycard. Astridh accepted it and spoke to the marine. “Dismissed.” 

After the marine left, she waved the keycard in front of the scanner, typed in her code and entered, intending to shower and get back in uniform.

~| Several days later. |~

Now that she had been here on the Tempest for a while, Astridh was finally getting used to the layout of the Ship. Astridh knew they could’ve learned it even better by studying a map, but it would be better not to get too familiar too quickly. Astridh was actually pleased that she wouldn’t be allowed down in engineering. She knew next to nothing about engines herself, and they had not been a favored study for Eydis either. Other than minor exploration of the ship, she had mostly spent her time getting used to the particulars of the Tempest tactical consoles and computer systems. Some elements were familiar to Eydis, others were very different, probably the asgard-inspired elements. Unless of course they had implemented some Ancient elements as well. Neither of them was sure about it. 

Ending the Call, West took a look around. Home. Taking a moment, she looked out of the giant window in front of her, wondering what the view will be like outside of the dock. Her controls beeped as the reports started coming in, snapping her out of it. Turning to her side, she looked at her Tactical Officer. The woman was here for the shakedown, like most of the bridge crew, but between making sure the ship was ready and making sure she was ready, Alexis didn’t find much time to talk to any of the crew, and only stormed through their profiles, not that they could tell her much.

“Lieutenant, when all stations report all clear, contact dock control and get a permission to depart, we wouldn’t want to have anyone taking a bath when we leave. Once cleared Take us into low orbit.” the Captain ordered, standing up and walking to the window. Leaning on the guardrail, she looked out again. Alexis hated that chair. She was used to standing for long hours in the sub, ready to take place of any of her crew should they be incapacitated. Somehow sitting on a throne didn’t feel like command to her, and before she had it modified, it didn’t even give her as much information as a periscope. Deciding now was as good of a time as any, she turned to the tactical officer for opinion: “What do you think of the ship, lieutenant?”

For a moment, Astridh was silent, gathering their thoughts. “It is... interesting. Very different from the Navy ships I have served on before, yet also similar. This ship is so advanced. Its almost like it has been drawn out of my favorite Science fiction series. How about you, captain? What do you think of it?”
“It kind of does, doesn’t it. At least you served on actual ships. My sub barely had any guns, my things are torpedoes and missiles.” Alexis said to chip in her own on comparing the [i]Tempest[/i] to surface vessels. “Although from what i’ve seen, the armaments are quite well placed. There aren’t many blind spots in the point defense and our main guns can project at least 50% of our firepower into any direction.” the captain noted. She might have not been happy with the caliber of the guns, but she had to give it to the designers that the ship was well built. “After all, they had the 303 and 304s to learn. If they done goofed on this one, I’d recommend Americans never build another ship.” West snickered. “That being said, the Mark IX missiles ARE impressive. I am not sure what to make of propulsion yet. Just the fact we can even reach thousands of kilometers per second in few moments without feeling any acceleration as just a little too hard to wrap my head around.”

“I never was all that fond of the how of making things blow up. I preferred to figure out the best way for the gunners to get it done. Makes it less… personal.” Astridh smiled. “If I read correctly, the reason they can do that is something called ‘inertial dampeners’ or something like that. The ability to go fast has been easy long, its just that human bodies couldn’t take the pressure involved without such. I think there was an episode of Wormhole extreme that was curiously close to the truth about that.” Astridh was silent a couple of seconds, then spoke again. “Have you seen any of that show, Captain?”

“Well that’s what the people smarter than us are here for. If they weren’t we would be collecting their salaries.” West said with an amused look on her face. Her eyes widened though at the mention of [i]that[/i] show. “I wish I didn’t. It was ridiculous. But imagine the shock when I discovered it actually was a far-fetched version of the truth.” she said, shaking her head.

“Captain, any idea how the producers could get it even that close to the truth?” Astridh asked. “Surely those Americans wouldn’t want anything with such a number of real truths in them pass through without being controlled.”

“That’s what I thought, then they showed me the actual stargate. Naturally I started digging. You really should find time to read the SGC’s reports. Since we’re an exploration vessel, they gave us access to pretty much all of them. Some of it is interesting reading indeed. It turns out, there was an alien on Earth all this time. Somehow, he caught the wind of what was happening and decided to base the show around it. I don’t remember the details, but SGC eventually allowed it to go on, for exactly the reason you mentioned. It’s close to the truth. And eventually, they just won’t be able to keep this from the public. If they see this, they might react a little better. Or so they think.” West ended sarcastically, really not being a fan. both of the show and the public.

“Huh. I never realized. Makes sense, though. You never know what might hide in plain sight. Not with how human-looking aliens can be.” Astridh was silent for a moment, only to be disturbed by a ping from her console. “Captain. All stations are go for launch. All crew are reported to be at assigned posts. All passengers are in designated zones. We are go for launch. The honor of firing up the engines is yours and yours alone.”

Turning to face Astridh, Alexis’ eyes momentarily stopped looking straight to hers, as if West was trying to get a glimpse of the soul behind them. “Oh, the glorified push of a virtual button. How bad, I love buttons.” West said in a cold, ironic voice. Turning sharply, she walked back to her chair. Not bothering to sit down, she flipped the screen, found the appropriate control and after entering her command code, the ether was filled with the slight buzz of the engines.

The moment the engines were powered up, Astridh input the launch command, letting the ship start the process of lifting off for the first time. Even through the hull, she could feel the docking clamps releasing. She could naturally not feel them retract, but knew they did. Soon afterwards, the ship started to lift off from the hangar floor.