Northrop-Grumman
04-07-2005, 07:28
Executive Tower - Centennial Plaza
Caprica City, Northrop-Grumman
Monday, July 25, 2039
6:45 A.M. CCST
Chairman Jack O’Neill stood by the window of his four-hundredth-floor office and gazed out on the sunrise before him. As he sipped a mug of Colombian coffee that he had made just moments before, his thoughts took him back to all which had transpired over the last few days. Saturday, he had gotten married to a beautiful wood elf by the name of Siri after their two year long relationship. They had the ceremony in her small village on the distant planet of Nirn. Present there were only close friends and family of the couple. They had opted for a traditional Elven wedding on her planet instead of a secular human one at Northrop-Grumman’s capital building because Jack had wanted to keep the press and everyone else from hounding his wife.
His attention snapped back to where he was when there was a knock at the door. With just a wave of his hand, the door automatically opened and revealed his elderly secretary who was carrying a tray of something. He could not tell from where he was.
“Good morning, Jack. Here’s the mail and newspaper and a plate of cookies that I had made last night for my grandchildren. There were a few left over from the recipe.”
As she laid the tray on his desk, he picked one up and tasted it.
“Mmmmmm…chocolate chip. These are good as always. Thanks, Frances.”
“Jack, anytime you want some more. I’d be glad to make them. Just ask.” She looked around for a second and asked, “Where’s Siri?”
“She’s over in the bathroom getting ready for the press conference. I wonder what’s taking her so long.”
“Most likely getting herself to look just perfect.”
“Probably. She had said that she wanted to look nice when she goes on TV for the first time.”
“She’s right. First impressions should always be good,” she replied. ”Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to filing those reports that are on my desk.”
“Ok, you have a good day, Frances.”
“You too,” she replied as she walked out the door. When she left, Jack waved the door shut and walked to the bathroom door in the master bedroom.
The capital building had been designed so that the top floor of the Executive Tower doubled as both Jack’s office and an apartment. The reason for this was so that if he were not able to get home or if there were security problems at his suburban home, he would have a comfortable place to stay.
Today, it was being used because Jack and Siri had just arrived a few minutes earlier from their daylong shuttle trip from her home planet and did not have the time to go home and change for the press conference.
“Are you all right in there?” Jack shouted into the bathroom.
“I think so. How do you work this faucet?” came the reply.
Jack stood there for a moment trying to think of which button turned it on. That was one of the downsides to this new capital building. The engineers overdid themselves with technology and made the simplest of things way too complicated.
“I think it’s the bottom right button.”
When he heard a scream, he cringed and realized that he had picked the wrong one. Ouch. That must’ve been the industrial strength hair dryer.
“Uh, sorry ‘bout that, honey,” he yelled back.
Siri muttered something in Elven under her breath then replied with a sigh. “That’s all right.”
“I’ve gotta get them replaced because you need to be a rocket scientist to use them.”
“Indeed.”
Jack left the bedroom, walked back to his desk, and looked over the mail.
“Let’s see what I’ve got here,” he mumbled to himself. “Bill, bill, another bill. Hmmm…I may already be a winner of a million dollars from the Publisher’s Clearing House.”
He laughed as he tossed that one into the trash.
“Ah, here’s a package from the Department of Immigration and Naturalization.”
He opened it up. Inside was Siri’s new national identification card that contained all her personal information, driver’s licenses, credit and debit cards, and her security clearance information such as copies of her fingerprints, retinas, and DNA. The ID card was a heavily encoded mini computer that was only operable when the fingerprints and the DNA of the user’s hand matched what was stored on the card. He raised up an ultra-thin, translucent computer screen out of the top of his desk and inserted the ID card into the computer to verify that the information was correct.
Full Name: Siri O’Neill
National ID #: 78-5328-6308-4328
Gender: Female
Species: 3/4 Bosmer, 1/4 Human
Height: 5 feet, 2 inches
Weight: 116 pounds
Date of Birth: April 25, 1704
Place of Birth: Ascadian Isles, Nirn
Date of Naturalization: July 23, 2039
Occupation: N/A
Spouse: Jack O’Neill (12-4298-0752-1039)
Children: None
Jack was glad when he saw that everything was correct. It was a real pain to get a new ID card especially with the loads of paperwork that needed to be filled out. As he took the card from the computer, Siri came walking out of the bedroom wearing an ankle-length green dress with gold hand-embroidered in the shape of leaves on it. She had also let her long blond hair flow freely instead of having it tied back in a ponytail.
“So what do you think?” she asked as she twirled around.
He laid the card down on the desk and grinned widely. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”
“And you’re quite handsome in that uniform,” she replied as she walked over to him and placed her arms around his neck.
He then wrapped his arms around her and asked softly, “You know what?”
She shook her head and gazed expectantly into his eyes
“Never in my life have I felt as happy as I am now, with you.”
She smiled and leaned her head closer to his and they began to kiss each other passionately. They continued for several minutes until the grandfather clock on the far side of the room began to chime loudly that it was exactly seven o’clock.
“Looks like we’ll need to be going down soon,” commented Jack in a rather disappointed tone.
When they let go of one another, Siri noticed something was missing from her husband’s uniform. “Jack, why aren’t you wearing your sword? I think you would look nice with it, and since you’re the equivalent to a king, you would need a sword.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll give it a whirl.”
He reached up and took the scabbard containing the longsword that Siri had made especially for him off the shelf and strapped it onto the belt around his waist. The sword’s gold handle with its emerald pommel shone brightly at his side.
“The last time I wore anything like this was back in my academy days.” Jack then looked on both sides of her waist. “Well, why aren’t you wearing yours?”
“You know how I am, Jack. I always feel better without it on.”
“Bah, you never know when you might need it, and I think you’d look good with it on. Besides, if you say I’m as a king, then you’d be the queen.”
“Fine. I’ll wear it.”
He lifted the scabbard containing her silver rapier off the shelf and handed it to her. She shrugged and fastened it onto the belt on her dress.
“There now. All set.” He looked at his watch. “We’re a little late so let’s go down and meet the press. Ready?”
“I believe so.”
Jack waved the office door open once again, and they both walked out to the elevator hand-in-hand. After a short trip, Jack and Siri entered at the front of the room where the live televised press conference was being held. They took their positions at the front of a raised platform. Two microphones automatically rose out of the floor to the precise height of their mouths. Jack leaned forward towards the microphone and began to speak.
“Thank you for being here. You are probably wondering why I have called this press conference. Well, I have a something important to say.” He motioned towards Siri. “For the past two years, I have been dating Siri, the most wonderful lady that I have ever met. In that time, we have grown closer together, and after a while, decided that we would like to spend the rest of our lives together. This past Saturday, we did just that and were married on her home planet out on the edge of the Milky Way. After the ceremony and reception, we flew right back here to make this very announcement before we make our final plans for the honeymoon. Now I’m pretty sure you have many question so right now I’d like to open up the floor for any you may have.”
Several hands shot up. Jack and Siri began to answer them one at a time starting with a man sitting in the front row.
“Mr. Chairman, why all the secrecy with this relationship?”
“To be honest, I didn't want any interference from anyone, especially the press. I knew that once someone caught wind of it, crazy speculation would be all over the tabloids. Also I wanted to treat the relationship as if I was leading a regular life as one of y’all. So I decided to hold off on telling until we had gotten married and had one of these press conferences.”
A fairly young woman near the front was called upon next. She stood up immediately and spoke.
“Just out of curiosity, sir. Where are you planning on going for your honeymoon?”
“Well, we haven’t quite decided yet. If you’re married, you know how it is. She wants to go here, but I don’t want to, and I want to go there, but she doesn’t want to. It’ll get all sorted out though. We’re still not finished looking yet.”
A man in the middle of the room was called next and stood up. His name was Randy Bohanon and was from the Caprica City Times. He was one of the few reporters who had gained the respect of the Chairman and was considered one of his friends.
“I have two questions. First, will you be giving your wife any executive powers now?”
“Of course. I believe she is capable of handling it. Besides, she has over two hundred years worth of military background. I think she can make some improvements here and there.”
Someone towards the back of the room made a rude comment under his breath about having another incompetent running the government. Siri heard it, but not Jack, and became slightly annoyed with the person. Fortunately, Randy directed his next question at her.
“And secondly, Mrs. O’Neill, what sorts of improvements could you make around here? I’d like to hear them.”
“One thing I have noticed is that the military forces use knives for hand-to-hand combat. That is fine if the enemy you are fighting does the same, but what if he doesn’t? Then you would be at a major disadvantage. What I would like to propose is to have a small training program with a select number of soldiers to train them to use swords like this one.” She drew out her sword and held it up. “If the program is a success, then I would open it up to the entire military and make it a necessary part of their training.”
As soon as she finished, that same voice from earlier made another comment which was audible to everyone.
“Now were diving into medievalism. I wonder if we’ll start sacrificing virgins or burning people at the stake or better yet, restart the Inquisition and have religious persecution all over again.”
She took her sword and pointed it right at the man. “I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.”
He stood up and approached the platform to within a few feet of Siri. “I can make whatever comments I like.”
Jack eyed the man carefully. He thought that he had seen the man somewhere else before but couldn’t quite place him. As he thought about it for a few moments, he began to realize who the man was. He was Roger Hunt, one of the men working under John Northrop five years ago at the start of the civil war. He had been one of two people who dragged Jack into the stargate terminal and thrown him through the gate to the deserted planet of Zaragoza. Unfortunately, disguised as a cameraman, Roger had gotten into to the capital building without an ID card because the card system was just being introduced to the citizens. Not everyone had one yet. Jack decided that enough was enough and called out to the man.
“Mr. Hunt, it took me a while but now I remember who you are.”
Roger stopped his yelling and turned towards Jack. “So you do. Well, before I take your life, I’m gonna take hers.” He pulled out a nine-millimeter pistol from behind him and aimed it right at Siri. “It’s amazing the little things you can hide inside a camcorder.”
Security guards in the room had their weapons drawn, but Jack motioned for them to stand-by and replied to Roger. “Put the gun down. There’s no way out of here.”
“I don’t give a damn. Put your hands on that microphone stand and keep them there.” He then yelled at Siri. “You. Keep the point on that thing on the floor.”
Jack thought for a moment and put his hands on the retractable stand. He looked directly at Siri and nodded his head towards the floor. She got the general idea on what her husband was trying to do, so she decided to play along by getting Roger’s attention.
“Well, I should just put it back in its scabbard.”
“No, I don’t trust you enough. You’ll pull something.”
As the two argued about it, Jack dove right onto the stand, snapping it at the base and slamming the microphone and himself right into the floor. Roger heard it, spun around, and tried to fire a few rounds at Jack, but missed. Siri saw that he was preoccupied, so she took her sword and drove it right into Roger’s chest. He fell backwards to the floor and died from the lethal blow. Jack got up from the floor and ran over to Siri.
“Are you ok?” he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.
“I’m fine. Though I’m glad you persuaded me to bring this along.” She pulled the sword out of Roger’s body and wiped it off on his pants.
“So am I.”
Jack looked down at the body and closed his eyes. A beam of light came down from the ceiling and vaporized it, leaving not a trace of it behind. Afterwards, he got back up on the platform with Siri and apologized to the rest of the press.
“I’m terribly sorry you had to see all of that.” Jack looked around at them. They were mostly in shock after seeing what had happened before them. “I think we’re almost done here. Are there anymore questions?”
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OOC: Alright, this is open if you want members of your press there to ask questions, or if you just want to reply ICly in other ways.
Caprica City, Northrop-Grumman
Monday, July 25, 2039
6:45 A.M. CCST
Chairman Jack O’Neill stood by the window of his four-hundredth-floor office and gazed out on the sunrise before him. As he sipped a mug of Colombian coffee that he had made just moments before, his thoughts took him back to all which had transpired over the last few days. Saturday, he had gotten married to a beautiful wood elf by the name of Siri after their two year long relationship. They had the ceremony in her small village on the distant planet of Nirn. Present there were only close friends and family of the couple. They had opted for a traditional Elven wedding on her planet instead of a secular human one at Northrop-Grumman’s capital building because Jack had wanted to keep the press and everyone else from hounding his wife.
His attention snapped back to where he was when there was a knock at the door. With just a wave of his hand, the door automatically opened and revealed his elderly secretary who was carrying a tray of something. He could not tell from where he was.
“Good morning, Jack. Here’s the mail and newspaper and a plate of cookies that I had made last night for my grandchildren. There were a few left over from the recipe.”
As she laid the tray on his desk, he picked one up and tasted it.
“Mmmmmm…chocolate chip. These are good as always. Thanks, Frances.”
“Jack, anytime you want some more. I’d be glad to make them. Just ask.” She looked around for a second and asked, “Where’s Siri?”
“She’s over in the bathroom getting ready for the press conference. I wonder what’s taking her so long.”
“Most likely getting herself to look just perfect.”
“Probably. She had said that she wanted to look nice when she goes on TV for the first time.”
“She’s right. First impressions should always be good,” she replied. ”Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to filing those reports that are on my desk.”
“Ok, you have a good day, Frances.”
“You too,” she replied as she walked out the door. When she left, Jack waved the door shut and walked to the bathroom door in the master bedroom.
The capital building had been designed so that the top floor of the Executive Tower doubled as both Jack’s office and an apartment. The reason for this was so that if he were not able to get home or if there were security problems at his suburban home, he would have a comfortable place to stay.
Today, it was being used because Jack and Siri had just arrived a few minutes earlier from their daylong shuttle trip from her home planet and did not have the time to go home and change for the press conference.
“Are you all right in there?” Jack shouted into the bathroom.
“I think so. How do you work this faucet?” came the reply.
Jack stood there for a moment trying to think of which button turned it on. That was one of the downsides to this new capital building. The engineers overdid themselves with technology and made the simplest of things way too complicated.
“I think it’s the bottom right button.”
When he heard a scream, he cringed and realized that he had picked the wrong one. Ouch. That must’ve been the industrial strength hair dryer.
“Uh, sorry ‘bout that, honey,” he yelled back.
Siri muttered something in Elven under her breath then replied with a sigh. “That’s all right.”
“I’ve gotta get them replaced because you need to be a rocket scientist to use them.”
“Indeed.”
Jack left the bedroom, walked back to his desk, and looked over the mail.
“Let’s see what I’ve got here,” he mumbled to himself. “Bill, bill, another bill. Hmmm…I may already be a winner of a million dollars from the Publisher’s Clearing House.”
He laughed as he tossed that one into the trash.
“Ah, here’s a package from the Department of Immigration and Naturalization.”
He opened it up. Inside was Siri’s new national identification card that contained all her personal information, driver’s licenses, credit and debit cards, and her security clearance information such as copies of her fingerprints, retinas, and DNA. The ID card was a heavily encoded mini computer that was only operable when the fingerprints and the DNA of the user’s hand matched what was stored on the card. He raised up an ultra-thin, translucent computer screen out of the top of his desk and inserted the ID card into the computer to verify that the information was correct.
Full Name: Siri O’Neill
National ID #: 78-5328-6308-4328
Gender: Female
Species: 3/4 Bosmer, 1/4 Human
Height: 5 feet, 2 inches
Weight: 116 pounds
Date of Birth: April 25, 1704
Place of Birth: Ascadian Isles, Nirn
Date of Naturalization: July 23, 2039
Occupation: N/A
Spouse: Jack O’Neill (12-4298-0752-1039)
Children: None
Jack was glad when he saw that everything was correct. It was a real pain to get a new ID card especially with the loads of paperwork that needed to be filled out. As he took the card from the computer, Siri came walking out of the bedroom wearing an ankle-length green dress with gold hand-embroidered in the shape of leaves on it. She had also let her long blond hair flow freely instead of having it tied back in a ponytail.
“So what do you think?” she asked as she twirled around.
He laid the card down on the desk and grinned widely. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”
“And you’re quite handsome in that uniform,” she replied as she walked over to him and placed her arms around his neck.
He then wrapped his arms around her and asked softly, “You know what?”
She shook her head and gazed expectantly into his eyes
“Never in my life have I felt as happy as I am now, with you.”
She smiled and leaned her head closer to his and they began to kiss each other passionately. They continued for several minutes until the grandfather clock on the far side of the room began to chime loudly that it was exactly seven o’clock.
“Looks like we’ll need to be going down soon,” commented Jack in a rather disappointed tone.
When they let go of one another, Siri noticed something was missing from her husband’s uniform. “Jack, why aren’t you wearing your sword? I think you would look nice with it, and since you’re the equivalent to a king, you would need a sword.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll give it a whirl.”
He reached up and took the scabbard containing the longsword that Siri had made especially for him off the shelf and strapped it onto the belt around his waist. The sword’s gold handle with its emerald pommel shone brightly at his side.
“The last time I wore anything like this was back in my academy days.” Jack then looked on both sides of her waist. “Well, why aren’t you wearing yours?”
“You know how I am, Jack. I always feel better without it on.”
“Bah, you never know when you might need it, and I think you’d look good with it on. Besides, if you say I’m as a king, then you’d be the queen.”
“Fine. I’ll wear it.”
He lifted the scabbard containing her silver rapier off the shelf and handed it to her. She shrugged and fastened it onto the belt on her dress.
“There now. All set.” He looked at his watch. “We’re a little late so let’s go down and meet the press. Ready?”
“I believe so.”
Jack waved the office door open once again, and they both walked out to the elevator hand-in-hand. After a short trip, Jack and Siri entered at the front of the room where the live televised press conference was being held. They took their positions at the front of a raised platform. Two microphones automatically rose out of the floor to the precise height of their mouths. Jack leaned forward towards the microphone and began to speak.
“Thank you for being here. You are probably wondering why I have called this press conference. Well, I have a something important to say.” He motioned towards Siri. “For the past two years, I have been dating Siri, the most wonderful lady that I have ever met. In that time, we have grown closer together, and after a while, decided that we would like to spend the rest of our lives together. This past Saturday, we did just that and were married on her home planet out on the edge of the Milky Way. After the ceremony and reception, we flew right back here to make this very announcement before we make our final plans for the honeymoon. Now I’m pretty sure you have many question so right now I’d like to open up the floor for any you may have.”
Several hands shot up. Jack and Siri began to answer them one at a time starting with a man sitting in the front row.
“Mr. Chairman, why all the secrecy with this relationship?”
“To be honest, I didn't want any interference from anyone, especially the press. I knew that once someone caught wind of it, crazy speculation would be all over the tabloids. Also I wanted to treat the relationship as if I was leading a regular life as one of y’all. So I decided to hold off on telling until we had gotten married and had one of these press conferences.”
A fairly young woman near the front was called upon next. She stood up immediately and spoke.
“Just out of curiosity, sir. Where are you planning on going for your honeymoon?”
“Well, we haven’t quite decided yet. If you’re married, you know how it is. She wants to go here, but I don’t want to, and I want to go there, but she doesn’t want to. It’ll get all sorted out though. We’re still not finished looking yet.”
A man in the middle of the room was called next and stood up. His name was Randy Bohanon and was from the Caprica City Times. He was one of the few reporters who had gained the respect of the Chairman and was considered one of his friends.
“I have two questions. First, will you be giving your wife any executive powers now?”
“Of course. I believe she is capable of handling it. Besides, she has over two hundred years worth of military background. I think she can make some improvements here and there.”
Someone towards the back of the room made a rude comment under his breath about having another incompetent running the government. Siri heard it, but not Jack, and became slightly annoyed with the person. Fortunately, Randy directed his next question at her.
“And secondly, Mrs. O’Neill, what sorts of improvements could you make around here? I’d like to hear them.”
“One thing I have noticed is that the military forces use knives for hand-to-hand combat. That is fine if the enemy you are fighting does the same, but what if he doesn’t? Then you would be at a major disadvantage. What I would like to propose is to have a small training program with a select number of soldiers to train them to use swords like this one.” She drew out her sword and held it up. “If the program is a success, then I would open it up to the entire military and make it a necessary part of their training.”
As soon as she finished, that same voice from earlier made another comment which was audible to everyone.
“Now were diving into medievalism. I wonder if we’ll start sacrificing virgins or burning people at the stake or better yet, restart the Inquisition and have religious persecution all over again.”
She took her sword and pointed it right at the man. “I suggest you keep your comments to yourself.”
He stood up and approached the platform to within a few feet of Siri. “I can make whatever comments I like.”
Jack eyed the man carefully. He thought that he had seen the man somewhere else before but couldn’t quite place him. As he thought about it for a few moments, he began to realize who the man was. He was Roger Hunt, one of the men working under John Northrop five years ago at the start of the civil war. He had been one of two people who dragged Jack into the stargate terminal and thrown him through the gate to the deserted planet of Zaragoza. Unfortunately, disguised as a cameraman, Roger had gotten into to the capital building without an ID card because the card system was just being introduced to the citizens. Not everyone had one yet. Jack decided that enough was enough and called out to the man.
“Mr. Hunt, it took me a while but now I remember who you are.”
Roger stopped his yelling and turned towards Jack. “So you do. Well, before I take your life, I’m gonna take hers.” He pulled out a nine-millimeter pistol from behind him and aimed it right at Siri. “It’s amazing the little things you can hide inside a camcorder.”
Security guards in the room had their weapons drawn, but Jack motioned for them to stand-by and replied to Roger. “Put the gun down. There’s no way out of here.”
“I don’t give a damn. Put your hands on that microphone stand and keep them there.” He then yelled at Siri. “You. Keep the point on that thing on the floor.”
Jack thought for a moment and put his hands on the retractable stand. He looked directly at Siri and nodded his head towards the floor. She got the general idea on what her husband was trying to do, so she decided to play along by getting Roger’s attention.
“Well, I should just put it back in its scabbard.”
“No, I don’t trust you enough. You’ll pull something.”
As the two argued about it, Jack dove right onto the stand, snapping it at the base and slamming the microphone and himself right into the floor. Roger heard it, spun around, and tried to fire a few rounds at Jack, but missed. Siri saw that he was preoccupied, so she took her sword and drove it right into Roger’s chest. He fell backwards to the floor and died from the lethal blow. Jack got up from the floor and ran over to Siri.
“Are you ok?” he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.
“I’m fine. Though I’m glad you persuaded me to bring this along.” She pulled the sword out of Roger’s body and wiped it off on his pants.
“So am I.”
Jack looked down at the body and closed his eyes. A beam of light came down from the ceiling and vaporized it, leaving not a trace of it behind. Afterwards, he got back up on the platform with Siri and apologized to the rest of the press.
“I’m terribly sorry you had to see all of that.” Jack looked around at them. They were mostly in shock after seeing what had happened before them. “I think we’re almost done here. Are there anymore questions?”
-----------------------------------------------------------------
OOC: Alright, this is open if you want members of your press there to ask questions, or if you just want to reply ICly in other ways.