maskormenace | Second Gate [Video]

[When Jennifer turns the camera on, she smiles shyly and hesitates a little before starting to speak:]

So... this stuff that's been going on recently got me thinking. I'm trying to think about long-term plans, since for all I know I could be trapped here a while... [She hesitates again.] Back home, I got recruited for my job straight out of med school, and while I loved it and loved what I did... I think I'd like to open my own practice, too. But there's more than that... [She places her free hand in her lap, looks down at it, then back at the camera.] I also got to go around to other planets where people didn't have easy access to a doctor. To help them with diseases and injuries, and... I'd kinda like to do something like that again. My powers could be a big help with that and mean less equipment to transport... but I'm also only one person.

I don't even really know why I'm putting this out there. I guess my question is- have any imPorts taken a stab at having their own business here?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Is that a normal kind of job where you're from? Or as normal as Peace Corps or Doctors Without Borders, anyway. In my universe we've had a few invasions and a few immigrants, but not that many people who get to go the other way. Mostly the Avengers and sometimes the X-Men, when they're doing their cosmic stuff.

[ "Cosmic stuff" like that is in and of itself a meaningful term. Which it isn't, even in his universe. ]

Edited 2014-10-18 00:34 (UTC)

Yes and no... my work was in a different galaxy and had to be kept hush-hush, since I worked for the U.S. military. I guess you could call it "cosmic stuff", in a way- technology that enabled near-instantaneous travel between distant planets and galaxies was discovered by humans, but they had to spend a lot of years and bring in a lot of brilliant scientists to figure out how to make it work.

Not to be a broken record, but that ... is really, really cool.

[ Maybe the novelty of interplanetary travel should have worn off by now, but the planets he's lived on as an imPort are still Earth, and Pete's a sci-fi geek at heart, even underneath the costume. ]

Hey, I agree and I've lived through all of it. I've seen things I never imagined I could have in my entire lifetime... met my closest friends, too.

Well, take it from someone who's been an imPort for four years now -- [ not to mention a superhero for more than a decade ] -- going through weird stuff together is one of the best ways to make friends.

I've found that to be so true. So what kind of weird stuff can I expect to happen here? I feel like it's been relatively quiet since I arrived.

Oh, you know, nothing too spectacular. Political conspiracies, kidnapping, acts of terrorism, the probability that we're all being manipulated by a near-omnipotent AI -- but no alien invasions yet, so that's progress over the last universe.

Sorry, I guess gallows humor only goes so far, doesn't it. Honestly, most of the time it's a lot quieter than where I come from -- it's just that when it does busy here, there's no such thing as small stakes.

Aww, darn, I was hoping for a good old alien invasion- that's at least something I've dealt with before.

That's good to know, though. I've dealt with large-scale medical emergencies before... but then again, I also had a team behind me. I'm not quite used to working alone.

Who'd have thought that Earth is such prime intergalactic real estate, eh?

There used to be an imPort-run clinic, back in the first universe we got sent to. There must be other imPorts with medical training somewhere around the place, even if most of the ones I know have been sent home.

Seriously. Even in fiction, the alien invaders seem to just love us.

It would be nice to set up an imPort-run clinic, in light of everything. Having my own pracitce would be great, but helping others, especially if they might not otherwise be able to see a doctor... that's what I really loved to do.

I'd ask how you got into the space doctoring, but I'm pretty sure if you told me you'd have to kill me.

I did have to sign a number of very hefty non-disclosure agreements, yes. But on the other hand, does it matter here? This isn't the same military I worked for back home, and this government already knows a lot about me...

I won't tell the nonexistent brass if you don't.

Pinky swear. [She grins and holds up a hand, sticking the pinky out.]

Truthfully, I was one of those smart people who blasted through school. Skipped grades and everything. The U.S. government took notice and was scouting me for the Stargate program before I even left medical school. I was nervous about leaving home, but how can you say no to an opportunity like that? So I ended up on the lost city of Atlantis which, as it turns out, wasn't lost, just left behind in another galaxy.

[ He holds up his own finger, grinning back. And then he laughs. ]

Oh, come on. All that buildup about top secret government stuff and that's all I get? At least tell me the G-Men were wearing black suits and sunglasses.

Just ordinary military uniforms. Most of the people who worked on Atlantis were civilians, so we had something a lot less formal. No suits or memory wipes, sadly- just a secret mountain facility housing the first Stargate that was discovered. If I'm remembering the recruitment video correctly.

I guess a secret mountain facility is something, anyway.

My first thought when being brought there was "could this be any more stereotypical?" It makes sense, though... makes it more difficult to discover and easier to defend.

Admit it, you would have been disappointed if it was just a nondescript office building in small town America.

Guilty as charged. The mountain base may have been stereotypical, but it did house something extraordinary inside, at least. And I got to be a part of it.

Second Gate [Video]

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