"What do you mean she's not real?" Xander demanded hotly of his holographic avatar as Alexander tried to explain again.
"I didn't create her, she was never a part of the Sunnydale sim, it is impossible for her to just show up there and even the idea of her being here is so absurd as to be laughable." Alexander said as he re-ran the coding for 'Sunnydale' through again trying to figure out where the young woman came from.
"Well if you didn't code her maybe your system was hacked." Xander countered and ignored his counterpart's glare.
"Oh, so someone found a Heritage class heavy cruiser floating empty in that radiation cloud, snuck onboard, found you running that sim among all those dead Nietzscheans, inserted a completely foreign entity into the Dim-World matrix 'without' corrupting the entire thing or leaving any fingerprints and then managed to get back off without tripping any alarms all while wearing a radiation hard suit. Is that what you're saying happened?" Alexander snapped while Xander simply cocked his head to one side.
"Your saying it couldn't happen?" he countered as Alexander threw his arms up in disgust.
"Of course it could happen, it would be difficult in the extreme and any possible gains would be far outweighed by the expenditure, but yes as a matter of fact it could be done." Alexander conceded before interrupting Xander's victory. "Her metamorphosis from digital to physical on the other hand is not possible in any way shape or form. This is not Pinocchio, not a fairy tale and things like that just don't happen." Alexander ranted at the android representation of himself.
"And yet," Xander said simply as he waved to the medical bed the still unconscious woman was secured to.
Considering all possibilities, Alexander finally came to a conclusion. "She was on the bridge all along. She probably was the one that reprogrammed the dim world to include herself to gain your trust then entered a stasis pod on the bridge knowing the sensors up there were out, once we made it back and the repairs got atmosphere back in command she was ejected from the pod before it self destructed using the data dump as a cover." He stated confidently.
Xander stared at the hologram for several seconds as he tried to figure out his reasoning.
Yes it was possible that was the case, it was also supported by an ungodly amount of circumstantial evidence.
So much in fact that Xander only had one response, "Are you stupid or did all those years talking to yourself finally make you as bonkers as everyone thinks we are?" Xander questioned as the AI glared at him again.
"I am not stupid and our mental faculties are in perfect working order." Alexander countered.
The argument would probably have escalated if Dawn hadn't chosen that moment to wake up.
Hearing the gasp, both turned and looked at the medical bed as the object of their debate stared back in wide eyed fear.
With a mental shrug, Alexander cut the feed from the projectors and disappeared.
Xander considered his possible responses before settling on one he hoped would work. "Miss Summers your friend is in another galaxy saving the universe… I'm his beta unit."
Dawn stared at where the two identical Xander's had been before blinking as the remaining one's words finally settled in.
"If you pull off your head I'm gonna freak." She warned as Xander smiled.
"Not even a little bit, I could be nearly headless Harris." Xander said and accepted the giggle as proof she would make it.
He would have tried to get her a bit more settled, but the mysterious purple alien known as trance Gemini walked through the door.
He watched carefully as Dawn tensed before relaxing and looking back at him. "Not a demon?" she questioned.
"Nope, what gave me away?" Trance answered for him as she set the tray of food by the bed and started looking over the charts.
"Well you look kinds like a Mergratha but they're dark purple, kinda like the Nightcrawler out of the comic books but with scales. Second clue, No scales." Dawn joked as Trance nodded at that.
"I know I hate scales, their horribly hot and when you shed its like peeling this enormous scab that covers your entire body and then you have to get rid of it, unless you eat it but then that messes up your entire…" she trailed off as she noticed Xander and Dawn's stares. "Sorry, too much information?" she asked and quickly turned and walked from the room at the two's slow nods.
Watching her go, Xander chuckled at the memories he had of a small group of people surprisingly similar to her he had helped several hundred years earlier.
Turning his attention back to Dawn, Xander smirked as he moved over to her bed. "So, if you promise not to assault anyone, I think I can get one arm free and sit you up so you don't get food all over yourself." He offered before looking at the plate of grey and green 'Stuff' that was the prescribed meal for sickbay 'unknowns' and shuddered. "Of course might I recommend taking a vow of fasting… for the next twenty years or so."
--
Dylan Hunt stared at the screen as the images showed the two interacting like old friends. "What is she?" he asked as Andromeda's Holographic avatar blinked to life beside him.
"Scans are conclusive, Native Sol primary sentient, un-modified un-enhanced no match in commonwealth databanks or any of the updated planetary databanks we have accessed since our return. Best estimation is three hundredth generation human. Blood screen chemicals are concurrent with twentieth to twenty first western hemisphere America. 'I' couldn't forge a blood chem as authentic as this." Andromeda said as she watched the two inside chat and banter back and forth. "As far as I can tell she is exactly who Xander says she is." Andromeda said as the two laughed at a shared joke.