Tweak

InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Owah tagoo syam..."

Fred Burkle (notjustageek) wrote in parabolical,
@ 2009-05-27 22:26:00

Entry tags:

calendar: may, fred burkle, sam anders

Who: Sam Anders and Fred Burkle
What: Discussions
When: Afternoon on the day after they talk on graffiti
Where: The Lux
Rating: TBD

To be honest, Fred was very interested in what Sam had said. Considering that the technology that she knew couldn't even come close to competing, much less do as much damage as the Cylons had to the human race. At its worst, it could probably hijack the coffee maker in the employee lounge.

...all right, maybe a little more than that. But it was most definitely not at the level they'd just discussed.

Her laptop and a few notebooks tucked away in the oversized purse at her side, Fred made her way to the Lux as they had discussed, excited that she might be able to help someone as well as the unexplored depths of science. As she headed into the Lux, she paused to take a look around, searching for Sam.

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-28 06:14 am UTC (link)

Sam was nervous. Very nervous if he was honest with himself. Despite the reactions of those in this city about Cylons, the idea of actually telling someone he was one still filled him with dread every time. Still, it was necessary. There was still so much he didn't know about his own programming and with Mirta and now a baby on the way, Sam needed to know that he wasn't about to have a switch flick in his brain and go crazy on them.

He saw the woman he guessed to be Fred enter the bar and took a deep breath, wandering over with a faintly strained smile.

"Hi." Pretty lame opener, but it would have to do. "Thanks for coming. Can I get you a drink?"

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notjustageek
2009-05-28 07:47 am UTC (link)

She hadn't been in the Lux since it had changed ownership, her attention momentarily caught as she glanced around. It still looked like the same place, a no violence sanctuary like Caritas had been. She turned to see Sam approaching, a smile appearing.

"Hey!" she replied as she held out her hand. "It's not a problem at all." She glanced past him thoughtfully. "Water would do it for now. I'm parched and a lightweight," she laughed.

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-28 11:20 am UTC (link)

"Water?" Sam echoed, an amused smirk crossing his face despite the turmoil in his head. "At least Mirta will be happy with that."

He reached behind the bar to the fridges, grabbing a couple of bottles and holding them up. "Still or sparkling?"

It was good, distracting himself with the bar talk. It was something he'd grown comfortable with over the last few months and helped calm his nerves.

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notjustageek
2009-05-28 12:38 pm UTC (link)

Fred nodded sheepishly, clasping her hands in front of her. "Mirta? She's the co-owner, right?" That was a good thing. She didn't want to make anyone unhappy, unless they had evil plans. Then they could go sulk in a corner all the wanted after their plans got squashed.

"Still would be just fine," she replied as she approached the bar, resting her elbows on it. "It's so nice here. I say that every time I come but I keep thinking how laid back it feels. Being violence free probably helps but it's still got a lotta nice atmosphere to it."

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-28 12:47 pm UTC (link)

Sam smiled widely at the thought of his girlfriend. "Yeah, my partner. And girlfriend. She likes those profit margins to be good. Me, I'm a bit more relaxed."

He opened the chilled bottle, slipping some ice into a glass before pouring the drink. "There you go. Just let me know if you want anything else."

He glanced around his club with no small amount of pride. "Thanks. The wards help, plus we have some amazing security people to back them up. I know there's the whole good versus evil thing going on, but honestly, I just like keeping this place as a neutral ground where anyone can feel safe."

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notjustageek
2009-05-28 12:55 pm UTC (link)

She found that downright romantic. Two people in love working together. "It's balance," she replied with a grin. "Which is good because balance is always needed. But I think you guys will do just fine. I haven't heard a single complaint about this place." She waved a hand in the air, indicating the entire building.

"Thank you." She accepted the glass and took a drink.

"That's what this place needs. A friend of mine used to run a karaoke bar, smaller than this, that was neutral ground. Demons and vampires and humans all sittin' together, havin' a good time. It's nice to have a few moments like that without worrying about someone out to get you when you're not looking and situations like that," she rambled. "A break from the war."

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-29 12:37 pm UTC (link)

"Good to know," Sam grinned. "Would bother me if there were bad reviews going on that we don't hear about." Making things work with Mirta, both as a family and as a business was important to him.

"A karaoke bar?" He raised an amused eyebrow. "Sounds like something worth seeing."

He half smiled and grabbed a drink for himself, just a coke for now, needing the sugar and caffeine for a moment.

"A break from war is good. Back home, on Galactica, they built this bar for people to try and forget the war and the Cylons, if only for a few minutes. Not that we exactly had much in the way of alcohol there." He screwed his face up with distaste. "The Chief had this moonshine that no one was sure if we were meant to drink it or clean the engines with it."

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notjustageek
2009-05-30 08:35 am UTC (link)

"I don't think there could be," she replied with an honest assurance. She shifted to sit down on the stool, moving her bag so that she didn't sit on it. "It was very colorful. Bright." And she missed it and the demon that had run it.

His story about the moonshine got her laughing as she imagined their faces as they tried to drink it. "That's horrible," Fred said, shaking her head in a sympathetic gesture. "Especially since y'all didn't have much else to choose from."

Picking up the glass, she regarded him with curiosity. "So you fought in the war?"

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-31 05:49 am UTC (link)

Sam laughed slightly. Yes, the moonshine had been frakking awful, but people had still been happy when they got together in the bar to drink it, or what tiny scraps of Ambrosia they had left. The bar had been put together from scrap metal and was dingy and falling apart and crew had loved it.

"Everyone did, pretty much," Sam sighed, his eyes looking into space. "Where I'm from humanity was living across twelve colonies, Caprica, Picon, Tauron, Geminon," his voice trailed off as he looked at Fred with a faint smile, wondering if she'd got the connection with the names. "Then one day the Cylons came and bombed them all. A few ships, ones that were off worlds at the time, escaped. I was on Capric at the time, doing high altitude training with my Pyramid team so we survived the nuclear blast. We gathered the few survivors there were and set up a resistance movement. About a year or so later the rest of the Fleet came back for us and I trained as a Viper pilot to keep fighting. The Cylons kept chasing the fleet. Frak, even when we tried to settle on New Caprica they came after everyone and enslaved them. Had to do the resistance fighting all over again."

The silver chain from Mirta around his wrist felt warm. Ramik'ad. Mando for resistance, fighter, commando.

He half laughed. "Running a bar is pretty different in comparison."

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notjustageek
2009-05-31 08:28 am UTC (link)

Fred leaned forward, the glass set back down at her elbow, her chin resting on her hand as she listened with a full mind to Sam speaking. This was important, another person's history, maybe to help in what he'd asked her about, maybe just to hear it. Either way, her attention was rapt.

"The astrological signs," she said, sitting up a little straighter as she caught the connection. But the expression of pride softened back to sympathy, this time for the men and women and children who had lost their lives in the attack and those that had been forced to fight to keep going. "I'm sorry." Fred looked up at him and reached over to put a consoling hand on his arm. He probably didn't need it but she wanted to give it, no matter how brief. "That says a lot about you that you came through that. Will to survive and a lot of luck."

She joined in the laughter quietly. "I'd imagine though I'd guess sometimes in a bar you'd see some pretty fierce battles. Only not here 'cause sanctuary and all."

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-31 09:20 am UTC (link)

Sam nodded slightly, pleased someone had gotten the reference, rather than the blank looks he usually got.

He turned faintly red at her comment, not really feeling that he deserved the sympathy. Not with what he was. And even aside from that, he'd just done what he needed to do. Like the rest of them.

"We tend to get the fights out on the streets," he smirked slightly. "Not quite like home though. It was worse once people realized that the Cylons looked human. The first war, about forty years ago, they looked like these big clunking robots. But after they vanished into some corner of space they evolved or something. Got pretty nasty when that came out. Suddenly everyone was a suspect. It was how they'd won, humanoid models sneaking in and disabling defense codes and stuff." Sam sighed and ran his hand over his hair. "Not all of them even knew what they were. Betrayed people they thought of as family with no choice in the matter."

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notjustageek
2009-05-31 09:32 am UTC (link)

"Less destroyed furniture that way," she quipped, followed by a laugh.

The facts were quickly stowed away in her memory for later reference, her brow furrowing slightly. Humanoid Cylons. It really was a brilliant tactic, make the enemy look like the ally. She almost shivered at the thought of artifical intelligence so malicious in intent with such brain power to work with. "No one would know the difference," she murmured.

Her head tilted slightly, nodding. "Because of this switch that was flipped?" It was supposed to be a statement after what they'd discussed over the boards, but the lilt at the end made it a statement with a covert look for confirmation. "But if the switch was eliminated, they could go on living their lives as they had."

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-31 09:59 am UTC (link)

"Exactly," Sam smiled slightly before it faded.

"They look and feel exactly like humans. Identical, they even bleed. You have to get down to the molecular level to see any difference." He shook his head a moment. As much as he loathed Baltar- Gods he really did, he had to admire the scientist for that little discovery.

"It makes some of us wonder," he spoke carefully. "One of the Number Eights, a model called Sharon, she was serving on Galactica as a pilot with the callsign Boomer. And one day she just flipped a switch and shot the Admiral. But then there's another Sharon who betrayed the Cylons to fight with the humans because she fell in love with one. We call her Athena. They can you know, love I mean." He had to smirk. Once he'd questioned a machine's ability to feel emotions, but now he had no doubts. He loved. He loved Mirta and their child completely, even if he was a machine. "It raises so many questions. How in control are the Cylons? Are there secret programs? And can they be removed without damaging the Cylon?"

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notjustageek
2009-05-31 10:33 am UTC (link)

"Like nanotechnology?" Fred asked, sitting up a little straighter and leaning into the bar. The sheer advancement of that kind of technology was astounding to her. She thought she had seen it all at Wolfram and Hart. Now she was finding out otherwise.

She smiled slightly. "That makes sense. It doesn't seem so far fetched that love gets 'em muddledbrained like everyone else." She held up a hand. "I mean that in a good way, of course. Most of the time." Her chin returned to its perch on her hand, frowning in thought again. "It's a possibility. If a Cylon is identical to human beings until you get down to the molercular level, maybe the switch is something psychological, programmed in to activate the Cylon nature." She shook her head. "Of course, that's just huge theorization. There are plenty of possibilities but for that kind of switch to occur, there has to be something to set it off. The removal is the tricky part, depending on what the program is."

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-31 11:09 am UTC (link)

"If I knew what nanotechnology was, I could answer," Sam smirked. "Just a pyramid player, turned fighter, turned bar owner here."

He listened to the psychological theory, wondering if maybe she could be right. No one knew quite what had triggered Boomer to suddenly go crazy.

"From what I'm told the Admiral was like a father to most of his crew, including Boomer. Something made her flip, putting two rounds in his chest. She was turned against everyone she cared about."

He breathed in sharply. That was really the center of his concerns, that one day he might be turned against the people he cared about because of some switch in his brain.

"I'm one of them," he said abruptly, mostly to get it over with. "I'm a Cylon."

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notjustageek
2009-05-31 11:20 am UTC (link)

Fred blushed slightly and ducked her head. "Sorry, thinking out loud," she replied. "Nanotechnology is like machines on a level so tiny that they could only be seen through microscopes. This day and time, only a few groups are close to that kind of technology. To use it for erradicating cancer cells on a molecular level."

She was quiet for a moment as Sam came out with it. What he said was really true. Not that she'd disbelieved him but now she was really getting it, appreciating the amazing technology of it all. And understanding why he seemed to be so worried. As nice and normal as he was now, any moment he could...

A look of determination crosed her features.

"Well, that's not gonna happen to you then," she said, head tilting up in a defiant manner. "I'm not an expert in the area but I am a very stubborn genius who likes to help people." She faltered. "That is, if you want help. I mean, I wouldn't force it on you."

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pyramidcylon
2009-05-31 02:02 pm UTC (link)

"That sounds kinda like Cylon technology, well from what I know of it," Sam rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he sipped at his drink to calm his nerves.

"I'd really not turn down help," he admitted with a sheepish smile. "I never knew what I was until recently. Thought I was just a normal human guy, growing up on Picon. I've got memories of going to school, parents, friends. Then found out none of it was even real." He smirked bitterly. The only parts of his life he knew to be real was his Pyramid career. Documented in public.

"I don't know if I'll ever switch. Even here, even in this city, in this time. And I can't take that risk. Not with Mirta and not with the baby. Our baby."

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notjustageek
2009-05-31 06:20 pm UTC (link)

"And that is what you're going to remain," Fred stated as she slid off the stool. "That part may have not been real but what you have here with Mirta and your baby? That's going to be real. Without having to worry about a switch." She grinned suddenly. "And congratulations to the both of you!"

That was the part she liked about people being brought here. Those that hadn't been in a good place before had the chance to start over, maybe find someone right for them. It still wasn't right but at least something good was coming of it.

"Since it's nanotechnology..." She paused and tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Or a version of. Something at the molecular level, I could take a sample and maybe get into the university lab, get an idea of what they look like." It was times like these that she still wished she had the firm's resources.

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pyramidcylon
2009-06-01 10:07 am UTC (link)

"Thanks," Sam offered a genuine smile as he turned slightly red. He was still getting his head around the idea of being a father. The fact it would be a hybrid child and if anyone from his galaxy turned up they'd all be in danger. But it was still his child and he'd always wanted to be a father. Well when he'd thought he was human that was. And Mirta was frakking good at hitting him over the head when the Cylon part started freaking him out too much. All that remained was knowing for sure if there were any hidden programs in his mind.

"Anything you need. Blood, hair. Frak, take anything you need from me if that's what it takes." he half laughed. "I need to know they'll be safe with me. Even if I am what I am."

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notjustageek
2009-06-01 11:34 am UTC (link)

Fred laughed, quiet and genuine. "I promise I won't take too much," she assured him as she dug into her bag. "Probably just a blood sample." Not finding what she wanted, she switched to the smaller pocket, her fingers brushing against crinkling plastic. Out came the wrapped syringe and an alcohol packet.

"Here we go." She left her bag on the counter and motioned to Sam. "Do you mind if I..." She indicated drawing blood.

"I have a few supplies left in my field kit from when I jumped forward a year in time. Never knowing what I'll need, I just drag it with me everywhere. It saves time!"

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pyramidcylon
2009-06-01 03:37 pm UTC (link)

Sam raised an amused eyebrow with a laugh. "A woman who's prepared, impressive. Looks like you're ready for just about anything there."

He rolled up his sleeve, offering his arm.

"Of course, please. You're doing me the favor here after all."

He flexed his arm a few times to help the vein stand out. Even as a machine he worked in the same way.

"Thank you," he said quietly, his gaze on his arm rather than anywhere else.

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notjustageek
2009-06-01 04:10 pm UTC (link)

Fred blushed as she gently took his arm, giving him an approving nod as he found the vein for her. "I used to work...well, the evil law firm. Except they gave it to us to do with it as we pleased? We tried to turn it good, then I jumped a year ahead, and it looks like it didn't work." She shook her head. "Not that I shouldn't be surprised. It's a whole lotta evil."

She pulled on the gloves and tore open the swab, cleaning off the area. "Just a prick," she said before sliding the needle in as carefully as she could. "You trusted me to ask for the help. That's a compliment," she added, drawing back the plunger.

Sliding the needle out, she put the cap back on and set it in a hard case that was for other purposes but would work just fine. "There you go." She held the dry alcohol swab over his arm and tilted it up. "I'll take a look at this and we'll see what we've got to work with."

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