getoffmyearth | EXSILIUM; IC INBOX

Yeah? All right, shoot. What's on your mind?

A couple things. First thing: you remember that rover we found out there? We're not sure when or if the UE will send up another one that actually works, so I was thinking people who can actually go out there should probably go and check for them pretty regularly. If you know Jean, I already asked her, and she's up for it.

I am more than peripherally aware of Jean's existence, yes. [And he really feels like he should be keeping an eye on her. She seems nice and all, but the problem with the Phoenix Force is how very not-nice it is.] And I remember. Don't really have a lot of faith in either group's capacity to make anything work, but the possibility's always going to be there. Especially if they can rip off technology from us. [There's a couple of things that it would be really bad for them to have, including the secrets of a Cosmic Cube.]

I also think we have enough people around to make sure nobody has to go out there alone. Just in case. Even if it's Jean.

[Words cannot begin to describe his relief that Peter's all for them going out in pairs.]

That actually leads up to my next question. The Transporter sends people home at random which means that we might not even be around for long. A friend told me that she picked up some spacesuits, and I think it'd be good if more people than us could check out the area. Buuuut most people around here don't actually know how to use spacesuits.

[...if you catch his drift here.]

[WELL TO BE HONEST SOMEBODY'S GOT TO KEEP AN EYE ON THE PHOENIX FORCE...]

Are you talking about Steph?

That's right. You know her?

I went with her to get them.

[They had an argument about guns. It's a bit awkward.]

Oh, cool.

[Hey, his friend knows his new ally! What good news.]

This is pretty much my roundabout way of asking if you could consider giving, uh, astronaut lessons? If me and you and everyone else who can go into space suddenly disappears, we've still gotta be able to go patrolling for rovers somehow.

[A long moment of silence greets this request.]

...You know I haven't been a part of that kind of thing for awhile, right.

Is that a no?

No, it's not- I'm not saying no. I'm just saying-

[He's not sure what he's saying. He can't explain why he feels awkward about his time in NASA, why he sort of wishes now that he'd never brought it up, because nobody knows that. Peter doesn't want anybody to know about that. He was so young. He was so stupid and selfish. And he'd thought he'd grown out of that, until he discovered he wasn't, after all.]

Who are we even talking about here?

I hadn't thought that far ahead yet, I just figured it's something we're gonna need to do. [A beat.] Uh, we don't have to call them astronaut lessons?

[If he prefers. How about you go around giving Star-Lord lessons, Peter?]

[IT'S LIKE NOBODY HERE KNOWS HOW DISASTROUSLY HIS ORIGINAL CAREER AS STAR-LORD WENT oh wait nobody does know that...]

Don't mind me. It's a good plan. [He'll just have to get over his issues like usual. Because otherwise he'd have to admit to them.] But I can't just go handing out these suits to anybody. I mean, for obvious reasons.

I guess not. [He hadn't thought about that, but yeah, he supposes you wouldn't want to give precious supplies to just anyone - especially for something as dangerous as space.]

But it's hard to make a list if you don't even know who'd be interested in the first place. Can you think of anyone you think would be good at it?

[IN SPACE NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM EXCEPT OVER YOUR COMMS. But seriously with the level of technology they're talking about (and ok so his uniform is sort of higher tech but he's not really rocking SERIOUSLY HIGH TECH here, the whole point was for it to be low enough not to tip off the Phalanx) there are a lot of dangers that can come from getting unexpectedly backstabbed.]

Steph, since it was her idea in the first place. Katie Kane. I won't need it, Gamora won't need training, Adam's got magic, he won't need it...Sue might want it as a back-up? I'm not super familiar with her strengths. Collette? I have no idea what she can do or what her background is. I can probably talk James into it, maybe, if he could get over himself and accept that it's not going to be a space tuxedo.

...I think I don't know enough people. Or at least, I know people, but I have no idea if I could trust them with something like this.

[Incredulously:] Katie? [Man, that woman is a lot of things, but she never struck him as a Katie. Besides the point of course.]

But... yeah, Kate for sure, and you can trust Steph. You can trust Collette too, but unless you know something I don't, the wheelchair thing will probably get in the way. [He's silent for a moment, thinking.] Sango, Helena, Nathan and Blue are all good people, but Sango's from Feudal Japan so the technology barrier probably counts her out. [Little does he know that two out of the three can already go into space!] Billy'd be a good choice too. If you trust my word for this sort of thing, I mean.

[He's met a lot of people here. It's weird, thinking that after all these months, he's got a sparse eight people on his list.]

I mean, I know ways to get around the chair, we got Jack Flag up and walking again, but...it'd require finding some resources I'm not sure I could get my hands on all that easily. [For a second, he'd forgotten that he can't just poof back to Knowhere and get whatever he needs.] I don't know any of those names. Fill me in?

[As he speaks, his voice gains a cadence meaning that he's listing them off on his fingers.] The ones you don't know? I met Sango the first month I got here, and she's been great on pretty much every mission I've done with her. I can vouch for her. Nathan's got more field experience than I can imagine, and I'm in his spec-ops group. Blue's really smart, and he's been helping me with understanding the whole clone thing that went down back on Earth, and I think he's been busy looking into when the UE's AI was put into place. Billy only actually knows me when I'm not doing the Beetle thing, but... anyway, he's always been really steady; he's been working as an engineer on the power generators since we got here. Helena...

[What can he say about Helena? The Huntress thing is a secret, isn't it?]

She's helped me a lot. With a lot of things. She's pretty - [prickly] - private, though, so if you want her on the list, I'd rather talk to her first. That about cover it?

[It would help if Peter were faster on the name uptake to realize-]

You mean Nathan Summers, right? Not some other guy?

[WHATSHISFACE MUTANT GUY. Peter can remember names. He can. It just may take him a few seconds half the time.]

I don't know any of the rest. But I'm willing to at least try them out and see how it all works and go from there, if you think it's a good idea. Tell the truth, I'm too new to know, so I'm just gonna trust your judgment on this one, ok?

[BIG RESPONSIBILITY HERE JAIME. Can you handle it.]

That's him.

[Oh boy. He really hopes everyone he listed will actually be trustworthy and that he won't find himself getting yelled at later.

He wanted to be a dentist when he grew up. All he was supposed to be responsible for was cavities, not helping send people through ~~astronaut~~ Star-Lord training!]

Sure. How many suits did you guys end up getting again?

[SHH JAIME SHHH IF ANYBODY WOULD KNOW THAT MISTAKES HAPPEN IT'S PETE.]

Seven. On top of the people we already know can go out there, that gives us a pretty decent force on which to draw from at any time, if something happens.

Nice. You want me to contact 'em, or what?

Well, everyone except Kate. I got a feeling she's gonna be talking to you soon anyway.

They're mostly your people. You can sound 'em out and anyone who sounds interested, you can send them my way and we'll start working things out.

I'll talk to Kate.

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