Star Trek: Starbase 777

The shed was actually more of a utility building, clearly built to protect some important infrastructure. There was a water pump and filtration system inside, and just about enough room to fit three people. As Dmitri and Kirio muscled their way in, a bit of the fog came in with them before they were able to close the door, and seemed to hang curiously in the air, not dispersing immediately as would perhaps be expected of fog.

"So obviously there's some kind of... Strange geological phenomenon..." He blew on the fog, trying to see if it would disperse. "Maybe it contains some kind of hallucinogenic?"

The fog moved slightly in the wind. With a slight inhale, some of it just barely reached Dmitri's face, leaving behind a strange scent and a foreign, almost filmy residu on his tongue.

"Eugh." Exhausted, he maneuvered the man they'd helped into a sitting position against the wall, then sat down next to him, breathing in and out in measurements of five seconds each. "Well, hopefully I've not just breathed in any kind of toxic gas." In a closed environment like this, it was inevitable they'd all breathe it in eventually, but nothing to be done about that now. (edited)

Only slightly toxic dude. Only a little deadly. The townspeople don't even fear it like it's the harbinger of the apocalypse or anything, you're totally chill.

4

"I don't know, man," Kirio answered, lowering the man to the ground with a little grunt of effort. "Can you come make sure he's alright? I think he's still breathing.."

"Sure." He took the man's wrist and checked his pulse, noting if it was slower or faster than expected. He'd expect a little slower, since he was asleep.

The pulse was slow yet strong, similar to his breathing. The Betazoid was fast asleep, dead to the world save for an occasional twitch and the persistent grimace on his face...

"Can you scan him or something?" Kirio hovered nervously nearby, wringing the edge of their uniform jacket. "Maybe we can get more information about why he passed out.."

"Sure," he said, doing just that. "It's a little concerning that he's been out for so long, actually." Either he had been exhausted prior to passing out, or he had serious brain damage. Hopefully the former.

"Very comforting," the detective mumbled in reply, though from the twist of their brow it was clearly from a place of concern rather than annoyance.

The tricorder... pinged. The scan concluded that there was an inhalation of some kind of aerosol, that... the tricorder actually had a match for in it's database. A singular one, with the origin of it being Starbase 777.

3

"Mhm. Fog's got stuff in it." He looked up more information about that in the tricorder's database.

"Fuck do you mean, stuff?" they huffed, exasperated, peering over Dmitri's shoulder.

Pathogen, ID: 240299. Virus-like microorganism, takes the appearance of a thick fog. Point of entry: inhalation, affects the amygdala of the brain. Symptoms: restlessness, anxiety, vivid hallucinations (individual and group-wide), deep sleep. Origin: Unknown, was found abandoned by a patrol. It arrived in a glass capsule to the Starbase 777 for study; it was involved in a station-wide incident, on Stardate 91892.1. Avoid inhalation. Exposure to clean air can flush the organism out of the affected body. Usage of gasmasks or anything else that can filter particles out of the air, is strongly advised. Note: Prolonged exposure is dangerous not only for it's hallucinogenic properties, but also it's apparent ability to manifest in a physical manner to pursue it's victims. While it's properties can be interpreted as malicious intent, there was no feasible way to test it's possible sentience - the experiment being deemed too dangerous. Proceed with utmost caution! -- Lt. JG. tr'Lareth.

He summarised all that for Kirio. "So it seems like this guy is in deep sleep because of the gas. Notably, it didn't say it kills you at the end of that." He looked to where the fog in the air had been, seeing if it was still there or had dispersed by now.

"Great," Kirio said quietly. "Not fainted, just sleeping... Which means we'll be carrying him around for a little while. What do you think we should do?.. We can't stay in here forever, not with some of the stuff in the air, but.." Already restless, the detective moved, examining the water pump— they weren't expecting any information besides "water and filter in here", but.. hmm. "If we can wet some cloth, do you think it would help? Like, um. Smoke. With fires.."

The fog did indeed dissipate. The odd taste on Dmitri's tongue persisted, and-- did someone say something behind the shed? Some familiar voice? No, surely not... Kirio, meanwhile, could see many a box with materials in it. There were, indeed, some pieces of cloth stacked in one of them, old yet neat and... somewhat clean.

"Bingo," they mused in a sing song voice, holding up the box triumphantly. "We could try to find the others. Did you see— did you see where the priest went? I lost sight of him after the crowd went nuts."

He looked over in the direction of the voice, narrowing his eyes, still talking to Kirio but not looking at them. "Wetting some cloth could work, but as you can probably figure out yourself, it doesn't provide one with much oxygen."

They clicked their tongue. "You can still breathe through it, just not very well. I don't see you having a better solution..." Kirio sighed, glancing down to the sleeping man. "We can't leave him here, but I don't think any shelters will open their doors to us. They won't want to let the fog in."

He sighed. Prophets, he could be rude without even intending to be. This is why he'd given up on politeness a long time ago. "I don't have a better solution. I wasn't shooting down your idea, just responding to it. Would the wet cloth be for in here or for navigating outside?"

"You're right, 'm sorry." Yay, communication. "I don't know... What do you think we should do? In an ideal world we could use them temporarily until we found a better thing, like a gasmask, but like I said. I don't think we'll get someone to open a door."

"I saw a large... thing outside earlier. Some kind of shambling beast. Apparently it can manifest as physical matter to pursue its victims. I think if we go outside, it'll see us, and we'll have to run. Doing that with low oxygen is... A bit of a disaster. Although..." Ugh. His mouth felt weird. He coughed a bit. "Does it even need to see us? Fog doesn't have eyes."

"Not ideal. The report said something about it manifesting itself physically.." God damn it. "If this thing happens often, do you think they'll have supplies out in the open?.. We would've seen them if so, though. And the hallucinations bit..." They were just thinking aloud at this point, wetting four scraps of cloth (just in case) that looked long enough to tie around everyone's mouths and noses. They tossed one to Dmitri, and gingerly tied one around the sleeping man's nose and mouth as well, before doing the same to themself.

He didn't put his on yet, hesitating. Perhaps it was better if one person who'd already inhaled the most of the fog out of all of them inhaled the rest. It's not like he was unfamiliar with having hallucinations anyway. "The only place I can think of that would have something close to a filter is the medical center," he said. "They might have oxygen masks, and that would also probably be a better place to keep this guy. It's also a lot bigger than this shed, so even if some fog gets in, it will disperse in a thinner fashion. However, we couldn't make it there with low oxygen and carrying someone, too..."

"We should at least try," Kirio answered, nodding as they began to hoist Mr. Sleepyhead up onto their back. "I'm used to running when I'm short of breath." Probably. Idk, Mari isn't an athlete, but Kirio is. "You should put that on. I can't carry both of you if you fall asleep— but you should take my phaser, just in case." They bit their lip. "Keep it on stun in case stuff is messing with our heads."

He glanced over to where he'd heard that voice earlier. "I fear I may already have been messed with. I'm not as fast a runner as you, so if I fall behind, just keep going - I'll get there eventually." He put the mask on, already disliking the restricted breathing. "Perhaps we should peek out first?"

1

"Sure thing. Make sure his mask is tight?" Kirio leaned over to let Dmitri get a peek at the guy, just in case.

He checked if the man's mask was tight, and Kirio's, too. "Looks fine. Let's peek." He opened the door a sliver of a crack.

Foggy. Ominous. But... no one there.

Great. They nodded to signal they weren't seeing anything, figuring it'd be best to save their breath— talk as little as possible, just in case. Off we go!

He nodded back, then legged it! But slowly. They hadn't really agreed on a speed, so he was defaulting to walking until they saw something fucked up and evil.