Another World

Rumplestiltskin was confused and not a little disoriented but that was something to deal with later. Right now, even though it was hard to sort out exactly where 'here' was, the first thing they needed to do was get out of this room and make plans.

"Rum...Richard?" Belle stopped, confused as she threw herself at the oddly dressed version of her True Love, fumbling for his cursed name in the face of all these strangers. Two armed men moved to stop her but they weren't fast enough and he caught her, reminding himself no matter how much it hurt that he couldn't do what he wanted, which was crush her into his arms and growl at anyone threatening her.

"I think not, Dearie," he said, trying to remember how Dr. Rush talked from the confusing images in his head, and hoping she understood. "Later," he whispered quietly in her ear as he moved her carefully to arms length before allowing (reluctantly, oh, so very reluctantly) the armed men to move her onto her own two feet and away from him. They were looking at him confused, and he cursed. Apparently he was acting out of character, but that could be sorted, after he found a way to protect Belle. It felt like he was letting her down again, but she met his eyes and nodded once.

"Oh, of course, you couldn't be. I..." she looked flustered. "I thought you were someone else."

"Clearly. Dr. Nicholas Rush," he introduced himself, barely resisting the familiar (to her) flourish. The words felt foreign on his tongue and his body was stiff and clumsy, like an ill fitted suit. After living for so long with a leg twisted and poorly healed, two working legs made balance an awkward task. But before she could answer, two more people entered the room. One, who his memory identified as TJ and the medic, went straight for Belle and it took an effort not to get between them. Besides, she meant no harm. The other person, however...

"So what is going on here?" Young shouted. "Rush, explain." Rumplestiltskin shivered in his unfamiliar skin and resisted the impulse to reach for his magic and turn the man into...well, something. But for right now that wasn't an option, or one that he was willing to rely on anyway. Right now, he needed to get Belle alone and figure out exactly what happened. At least she had her memories, he wasn't sure he could go through that nightmare again.

"That's what I am trying to find out," he snapped back at the larger man. Something about him reminded him of every King, General and Military commander he had ever known and despised in his frighteningly long life. Well, except Charming, and he had his moments too. "I need to question B...this woman, and..."

"First she is going to the infirmary," TJ informed him. "We need to know where she came from and how she got to the planet, not to mention whether or not she is carrying any foreign pathogens."

"I'll go with you," he said, earning him a strange look from the rest of the crew. "What? At the very least, I look familiar to her, perhaps she would feel more comfortable with me present." He looked at one of the men, younger than the rest, with the look that spoke of something other than the military. Eli, his memory supplied the name, smarter than the rest for the most part, annoying but capable. "You, Eli, get down to... the console room and start analyzing the data. I'll handle this," he barked the order. For some reason that seemed to relax people, as if he at least sounded like the Dr. Rush they were familiar with. Good. Right now they needed time and time meant acting the way they expected him to. Belle had said nothing more, merely standing looking back and forth between the people around her, making notes and observations for later use, just as he was. That was his girl.

"Rush, I need answers, not you gallivanting off with some alien..." He turned on the man. A quick troll through his memories told him Rush didn't like him, and trusted him somewhat less after an incident that he needed to explore more throughly later. Most certainly he was just waiting for his chance.

"And I have several hundred things which need my immediate attention as well, including but not limited to finding out more about the world you just gated back from, analyzing the data, making sure that nothing life threatening falls apart and finding out what B... that girl was doing out here. Then, when I've finished all of that, I'd like just a few moments to tend to some other personal matters, if you don't mind too terribly?" He stopped. His voice had been going up dramatically and he'd advanced on the larger man, slowly driving him back a step with nothing but the force of his anger. Now he just wanted rid of the commander so he could tend to important things, like Belle. Like getting Belle back to his quarters and reminding her and himself exactly how much he loved her. And a shave, he needed a shave. While his wife had never seemed to mind when he had scales, she was not a fan of stubble, nor to be honest was he.

Looking down for the first time he took in his appearance with a twisted smirk of disgust. The body was familiar, the usual bits minus a few scars and his twisted leg, now straight. He was no more lovely than he ever had been, but as long as Belle would still have him, that mattered not at all. But the clothes, what was he wearing? He looked and felt like he'd slept in them, possibly had been sleeping in them for some time, and that would never do. He'd not done that in, well suffice it to say long before the crew of this ship had been born, possibly longer than their entire lives put together. Jeans? He had never worn blue jeans in his life, nor any of these other...things. The waistcoat was nice, familiar, if not particularly attractive, but the rest, this would never do.

"You...you do that, just..." Young said. The man seemed disturbed and Rumplestiltskin cackled, internally. Men like Young were unaccustomed to being intimidated, certainly not by a man who he perceived as smaller and therefor weaker than him. That it was also not his usual reaction to Nicholas Rush was confusing him even more.

"Good, I'm glad we're in agreement then," he growled with a twist of lips that could only be considered friendly to those who knew nothing about human expression. He waved to TJ to accompany them and offered a hand to Belle, who reached to take it, as always, but for TJ, who warned them apart much to his annoyance. Greer followed, apparently guarding Belle, though what he thought the tiny woman beside him would do, he didn't know. Not that she was harmless, he had taught her a few things over time, as had Emma when they got time after her little set to with Hook. Actually she had not done badly on her own, but she had always been a resourceful one.