shatterverse | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Barbara Gordon can't really 'go for a walk', but even she sometimes needs fresh air. She really misses her car from back home. They haven't had time to modify any of the recovered vehicles here for use by a woman with no working legs, and that means she can't actually go too far from the farm. Still, she goes as far as she can. It's not far but it gives her at least the illusion of distance. Of solitude.

At least if she ignores the laptop tucked under her seat which will give her a signal if any7 of a dozen of her algorithmic alarms go off.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"There's always something that needs looking into," she sighs. And most of her operatives kept getting sent to far-off lands. "The satellite network around the planet is unfortunately spotty." And she didn't have enough normal operatives to fill in the gaps.

"You getting bored out there?"

"You have a satellite network?"

This is far more important than his boredom. Especially since Sam asks with far more interest than stunned amusement.

(though there's some of that in there, too)

"Well, no one else is using any of them, so... I borrowed most of the stuff still in orbit." She snorted. "How do you think I keep track of everything?"

Sam is starting to grin again, impressed as much as amused. He has to drive three hours to find fruit and someone's got a satellite network up and relatively running.

"Superpowers?" he guesses, still grinning. "I don't really know what all you keep track of. I guess I figured phones and radios were the height of technology here."

"Please," Babs rolls her eyes, subtly pleased that someone is impressed. "You can't save the world with phones and radios. I'm just lucky that I came across with most of my hardware." It would have taken a lot longer to coopt all those satellites and computers if she'd had to start with just a laptop.

Eyebrows lift high but Sam chooses not to explain how phones and radios can come in really important in the course of saving the world.

"Lucky," he echoes, nodding seriously. "So you just jacked into the satellites still hanging around and... what do they even show you?"

"You want to see?" she asks, still pleased, this time with the idea that she can show off a little bit for someone who will appreciate it. "We can head down to the bunker and I can give you a quick tour..."

Eyebrows lift again, but this time it's out of pleased surprised that she's willing to show him. Sam smiles eagerly and nods, hands slipped into his pockets. "Yeah, that'd be great."

"Well come along, then," Babs tosses over her shoulder as she turns her chair and begins the slow process of rolling back to her command center.

"So," she needs to fill the time that it'll take to get there somehow, "How's Leah?"

Sam's excited now, looking forward to the prospect of something new and interesting to discover that doesn't shake the foundations of his world.

But he's not distracted enough to answer that question, or to forget the last time Barbara asked him.

"She's good. You guys keep in touch, don't you?"

"Yeah, we do, but neither of us travel that much so it's voice only. And she's still better at reading those than I am."

Is laughing inappropriate here? Sam will find out later, when he's finished.

"She's good," he says again, grinning. "How about everyone here? Everybody doing okay?"

Don't think she didn't notice the way her question hasn't been answered.

"The people here," the ones who are still on the farm, at least, "are holding up. It's relatively peaceful since we're in the center of the safe zone."

'Good' is an answer.

Sam nods, pleased to hear this. Sure, he's bored, but there are a lot of civilians in this world, too. There should be places where they can be bored.

"And outside the safe zone?"

That's... not so happy. Fortunately they've reached the bunker. "Easier o show you," Babs tells him as she rolls down the ramp into her underground command center.

Because that's not ominous.

Frowning, Sam follows her down the ramp, eyes alight on everything that comes into view. It's all very-- professional.

(it's a shame he's not the Winchester that read comics or he'd be a very happy geek right now)

Babs slips the laptop from under her chair and taps a few rapid commands on the keyboard to bring all her displays to life. There are dozens of screens showing various information streams, and in the center of the room a holographic projection of the planet, spinning slowly, with colored icons spread across indicating Babs only knew what.

"Welcome to my lair."

...again with the ominous.

Sam's eyes are wide, jaw slightly dropped and he manages a very quiet and anticlimactic

"Wow."

"You can see the safe zone because there's an utter absence of incursions within it." She waves at the blinking red circles scattered across the hologram. There's a cluster of them around Cairo at the moment.

And with that little hint, all of Sam's attention is on the hologram now. It's far more high-tech than he's used to dealing with and that makes it hard to take seriously - since it looks like it came straight out of a comic book - but he knows Barbara, at least, and how good she is with her information.

So it's only logical to assume her equipment can do everything she says it can.

He circles the holographic planet, frowning thoughtfully at every red circle that pops up. There are... a lot of them. A lot. And coming in fast.

"Do you have any way to see what it's bringing in?"

"Sometimes," Babs sighs. "But most of the time it's just guess work. The flashes are bright enough to be seen from space with the right equipment, but a lot of times there's nothing in the right position to get a good look at what's on the ground."

"You've got a few people outside of Kansas you keep in touch with, right? Any of them international?"

He remembers, vaguely after his first flash-in, that there had been a girl who spoke English. And then nothing for however long he was... out, months after he'd recovered, and finally Leah.

He's hoping Barbara's "circle" has grown since then.

"Most of them are international, actually," Babs grins. "There's a lot of world out there, and most of it doesn't have relatively easy access to the safe zone."

Sam smirks a little, glancing at her. "No kidding."

What he would have given for a radio and a working signal in Austria-- before meeting Leah, of course.

"Why do you ask, anyway?"