Alternates - Nate - OPEN

[Natalie Blake]

This was absolutely ridiculous. Rifts and warps were one thing, but friggin' alternate dimensions? Come on. Who really wanted to meet another version of themselves? It would be like a bad acid trip. But even so, Nate had agreed to attend the meeting. Why the hell not, right? It's not like she had anything else to do, beyond work--and she hardly did that anyway. So off onto the other Venia it was, to hold a nice, big, family-like chat about how to get their sorry asses back home.

The thing was, there were changes in the layout of this alternate Venia, and she'd clearly taken a wrong turn somewhere. She wandered around for a good five minutes, pretending to have a clue as to where the hell she was. In the end, she'd only succeeded in getting herself utterly and completely turned around. Were the others having this much trouble? Cussing under her breath, she continued in her pointless search for the meeting room.

By the time I finally find the god-damned place, the meeting will be practically finished! she thought waspishly, turning down another corridor. She finally entered what turned out to be engineering, and letting slip a rather vulgar exclamation, she kicked a nearby console. "Well, this sure as shit isn't the meeting room. So where the hell is it?!" It was then that she heard something move, and she whisked around. "Who's there?"

[Gordon McFadden]

"Hey, watch your mouth around here pal!" Gordon scowled slightly as he walked over to the computer that Nate had kicked, looking over it for a second before satisfaction was reached. The tactical officer had been down in engineering for a slight moment to grab a few tools he would be needing for his mission later on(One was done, but another had come up...just his luck). After grabbing said tools, he had noticed this knock off version of Natalie(he knew it was knock off because he had never heard Natalie cuss...she was too much of a goody two shoes..or at least, that's the impression Gordon had of her) kicking computers. As if the ship needed any more abuse.
"Now what in the world are you doing down here? Aren't you supposed to be in that meeting with all the other clones?" Speaking of which, he probably should have been at that meeting himself, but he was only passing through the ship for a brief moment. He knew the others could handle it...or so he hoped.
"Or did you get lost? That clone brain of yours have a fault sense of navigation or what? Don't they have directional ability where you come from?" Gordon was laying it on pretty thick, but he couldn't help it; he wanted to see how angry she would get.

[Natalie Blake]

Oh, hell, not Gordon. Of all people, why did it have to be him? But as he spoke to her, Nate realized this had to be his alternate; the Gordon she knew wouldn't be so stupid as to intentionally set out to piss her off. She disregarded the fact that he could probably show her the way to the meeting room as the word "clone" fell from his lips. "Who are you calling a clone, McFadden?" she asked dangerously, one blonde brow curving upward. "I think you'd better look in the mirror, moron. You'll find that I'm not the only double around here."

Oh, he was really asking for it now. Calling her a clone was one thing, but now he was taunting her and accusing her of stupidity. "I'd watch my mouth if I were you, McFadden," she warned, balling her hands into fists, "Because that pretty-boy face of yours won't survive the next few minutes if you keep that up. I don't know what the Natalie you're used to is like, but I don't take lightly to insults."

[Gordon McFadden]

(This is FANTASTIC! I love the character interplay)

"I don't take lightly to threats." Gordon, although working himself into an angered state, knew he couldn't hit a woman. It was just ingrained within him, as if someone had come along in his mother's womb and planted the idea in his developing brain so that in case of a situation like this, he would be inhibited. Gotta love self-made ethics.
"Listen Natalie two, lets say I make a deal with you so we can both get out of each others hair: I get you to your little shindig with the other misfits and we can separate from there." To be honest, Gordon needed to move: he had a shuttle to catch in a few hours on the surface of New Earth that would take him to where he needed to be for the next op. But he could spare a few minutes getting this psycho to her meeting(a psycho with a better rear end too. Whatever it was, this version of Natalie was lookin fiiine).
"Well? You want help or you think you're going to kick a few more terminals over before you wind up in the airlock?"

[Natalie Blake]

((Agreed!))

Words could not express how badly Nate wanted to give Gordon a good wallop to the face, but unfortunately, this version of him was logical. Even though he was still infuriating her, he offered a solution to her problem that she'd been an idiot to turn down. It went against everything she'd become in the last eight years or so to accept help from anyone, let alone some brainless ass who thought he was better than her because he was "original", but she grit her teeth and got it over with.

"Fine, fine," she grumbled, shoving her thumbs through the belt-loops of her jeans. "Show me the way to the freaking meeting room already. The sooner this bull-crap meeting is over, the sooner I can get away from this bucket of crazy." They set out in stony silence, but after a few minutes Nate's damned curiosity got the better of her. "What's the Natalie you know like, anyway? Please tell me she's not some total ditz or something."

[Gordon McFadden]

"She's a lot sweeter than your are, honeybunch. A whole lot sweeter. Just a good girl who doesn't throw fits when she can't find an area she's looking for. She and that raggedy engineer guy she dates are good people." It wasn't very often that Gordon would praise someone, but in the case of those two, they deserved every word of it.
"She also has a flatter butt. Yours is a lot more curved. Maybe in your world the women have bigger rear ends. Wouldn't mind visiting sometime." Gordon, while a huge smack talker, also was a gigantic flirt and would speak his mind on almost anything he was thinking(a trait that he had tried to suppress after Anna and he had talked about emotional control). But hey, this knock off wouldn't ever see him again, so why not lay it on thick and heavy? It'll give her some motivation to stay on the other side. Speaking of the other side...
"What's my clone like anyway? Is he a wimp?"

[Natalie Blake]

"Sweet, huh?" Nate repeated, her tone coloured with distaste. Her, sweet? That would have been laughable, had it not been true in this dimension. At the mention of a man, she almost tripped over her own feet. Christ, the Natalie here had a steady lover? Gracious, they were polar opposites. "Who the hell is she dating?" she asked, though she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know.

How Gordon had so effortlessly moved on to discussing butts, she wasn't entirely sure, but she smirked at his comment. "So you rile a girl up and then check her out? Damn, you're different here." Of course, that raised the question of what his other was like. "Not a wimp, per se, but he's certainly far more subdued than you are. For example, you wouldn't go around irking me or complimenting my ass."

[Gordon McFadden]

"Subdued? That's another term for wimp in my book. Speak your mind and it'll set you free. Somethin like that anyway." He led her down another corridor and into a lift that was programmed to read the thoughts of the occupants and determine their location. Gordon thought about the meeting room and the doors slid. Technology was a life saver.
"Dating..what's his name..Will, I think? Good guy. A bit too English if you ask me. Guy needs to lighten up and enjoy life instead of worrying about protocol." Gordon's mind then drummed a question up, one that now bothered him more than anything else.
"If you're from an alternate universe, then why in the world are you people on the Venia? What are you fighting? And can it bleed into our dimension? I don't need to fight two terrorist groups."

[Natalie Blake]

"Yeah, it can set you free--but it can also get you a good ass-kicking." Most people didn't learn that one by beefing it out with their parents, though, Nate had to admit. Maybe she was just lucky. Pfft, yeah, lucky. Definitely the right word to describe it. That train of thought was sufficiently derailed when Gordon dropped the bomb on who her alternate was dating. "Hold up, you mean, Will? As in, William Blake? I'm dating that... that nerd?!" It wasn't a strong enough word, but she was too bewildered to think of anything better.

This entire situation was broaching a whole new level of insanity. That the rift had pulled the Venia through was one thing, but that it had delivered them right next to a freakin' alternate Venia was over the line. And discussing her alternate self with the other Gordon, of all bloody people, was like the icing on the crazy-cake. Hopefully this would get sorted out soon, and she could file it all away as nothing more than a bad memory.

Rolling her eyes slightly at his tirade of questions, Nate pushed her hair out her face and shrugged. "We're fighting a terrorist group, yeah--probably the same one that you are. W4? That sound familiar to you? Well, our scientists were taking a reading of one of the rifts, and somehow we ended up here. Sucked through, I guess. I ain't no scientist, though--so how we got through, or if anything else could get through, is a complete mystery to me. So untwist your boxers and don't ask me questions that are way above my pay-grade."

[Gordon McFadden]

The elevator doors opened as Gordon replied rather sharply:
"Listen girly girl, I don't have time for you to spout attitude in my direction. You save that for your alternate reality or wherever you came from. Keep it clean on this ship." He was a bit angered at how this Natalie acted. Her mannerisms, the way she carried herself...she was a grade A hussie, that's for sure. Not like the Natalie he knew. He would have to tell Natalie how much of a pain her alternate was sometime. It would be a fun story...for him anyway.
"Conference room is right down the hall. I guess you'd better..." Gordon's sentence was cut off by the fact that the conference room doors were already slid open...

And no one was there.

Gordon jogged down the hall to investigate, his mind not computing the situation. Surely they HAD scheduled this meeting...right? I mean, it's not like the others to have something on the docket and then just not show up. The conference room chairs were empty, holo screen showing no image.
"I dunno what to tell you." For once, Gordon didn't know what to say. Honestly.