Star Trek: Starbase 777 - bf-central-corridor

The first room that the away team entered into was the decon chamber, a narrow room with wide sides. The team could fit. Another airlock door sat before them, though it was clear that decon would have to be run before they could proceed.

She kept an eye on her tricorder as she moved along, looking at her surroundings for a moment.

"Yeah, this screams sanitation and containment protocols."

Like in the outside, Paco checked if there was any surveillance equiptment around and if they were operational as he looked for whatever controls activated the decon chamber.

"No way do we actually have to go through ancient decon," Holly muttered. She had, upon Vara'l's request, raised her phaser a little higher than before, where she had simply been carrying it by her side.

A control pad for running the decontamination protocol rested near the front entrance. The thing is, Paco, that running this protocol would mean shutting the door.

5

Sak firstly, scanned the door of the airlock, up and down and pressed in a few buttons. "This is like an old earth thing, they used these when creating biological weapons. Whatever's behind this, must be dangerous, destroyed, or hiding, or nothing at all!" (edited)

As William entered into the decontamination chamber, he had to stifle a chuckle as his thoughts ran back to the 2150s. Hopefully the group won't have to put on any of that decontamination gel or whatever it was that the NX-01 had for their decontamination chamber.

"I think we need to run decon before we can push further... but that would imply shutting the door. Once we do, there's possibly no turning back." Paco stated to the others.

Vesta shifted, normal weapons she could handle, bio weapons though… they made her very uneasy. But if there was a threat to Starfleet, they owed it to the organization to do whatever they could to put a stop to it.

"Don't say that, there's always a way back," Holly commented, "We could leave a couple people stationed outside to be sure."

"Leave people outside? To the mercy of that thing who's roaming around killing animals and breaking cameras?"

"Okay, E.V seals checked... Let us let security do their job first once were in."

"As opposed to all of us being locked in here?" Holly turned to look at Sak, "Yes. A safety precaution in case the door only works one way."

"I meant we can't go out through that door, unless that is there are controls in this side that open the door. Or an alternative way out." *Paco said to Holly, *"I would advise, sir, against leaving people outside, especially with the possibility of a threat, or multiple threats, being out there."

"Probably should make sure we have a way to scurry on out. Before we g'wed." She decided to scan the massive airlock door for it's materials. Perhaps it could be penetrated by modern phasers?.

It could be, but it would take a hot second.

"Good idea." William said to all those around. "We should also check if communications work while we're in this building - see if we can still contact Eventide while inside."

"Leaving a group of us outside means leaving a smaller group to face whatever may be out there or any Breld response if they're detected and it comes." The CTO mused then as he checked his suit seals then headed to the front, proceeded to take position near the door further into the facility. "And decontamination doors were normally designed to work both ways." The CTO added then before he looked for engineers in the group. "Can one of the engineers scan to see if this door will go both ways?" "Given whoever made this place seemed to be of the opinion this was needed, I'd like to know if we've a option other than cutting out."

"Don't say I didn't warn you when we're all trapped and unable to call for help." Holly shrugged.

Paco, while standing at the controls, you are prompted for a fingerprint scan.

William shot Holly a sly smile, raising one eyebrow. "Aw, come on now. Don't jinx it." He said, half-jokingly.

"Even if it doesn't, We could use our phasers to cut our way through. Would take a proper minute, but y'know, it's not impossible." She responded to Vara'l.

"I'm beginning to wish I would have stayed behind," Holly admitted to William, "I don't think there'll be any civilians to liaison here."

"I'll stand by the decon controls. I'm ready whenever you're ready, sir." Paco said to Vara'l as he stood by the controls, also looking for any other pieces of information or context like, maybe a guidemap, or a poster, or something. "...a fingerprint scanner? Only Breld personnel are allowed in here then... If I touch it, alarms might get set of..." Paco thought to himself out loud. "...Can an someone also check this please? Maybe we can bypass it?"

Suun followed the others, quietly taking it all in, before narrowing her eyes at the fingerprint scanner. “Strange.”

"Maybe it be easier to have someone hack it, anyone good with computers?."

With the fact it seemed the lieutenant wouldn't be checking the door without a further prompt, Vara'l turned to Lieutenant M'Kahl and asked. "Even so, Lieutenant, please check the doors." He then paused. "We also need the scanner checked as well." He looked to the ops and any engineering people, then glanced at the intelligence peeps.

There was a 30 second countdown that appeared beside the scan prompt.

3

The doors would inevitably work both ways, or there would be a different exit. This was a scientific facility intended for researching and developing foreign technology, not a death sentence... The level of paranoia present was grating for its tendency to get in the way of common sense. "The engineer should be able to short the identification system with regular tools, if it's not too complex," he told Vara'l.

3

"I can try to bypass it," Five offered lightly. "Maybe there's a record or something we can access and bring up?" They began searching for an access panel, or any way they could get into the guts of the machine.

Holly eyed the countdown with a very distinct air of 'I told you so. You stupid idiots.'

One of the panels on the wall beneath the controls could be loosened, Five, but the countdown continued.

“Smart thinking.” She replied, “I can help you, if it’ll get it done quicker.”

She walked over to the scanner, hooking her tricorder up to see if she could somehow access any information from it, or potentially find a way to bypass it.

"This is a secure facility... if any of us put our fingerprints on that scanner, or do something to trip the system we might get locked in here." and I don't want to be put in a tightly spaced box again like that one time in the Tal'Shiar solitary PaConfinement cell again. Paco thought to himself "Good luck..."

Marze didn’t miss that countdown. They were probably fucked, weren’t they?

"Please don't ask, just help—" we're running on limited time!

She nodded, rushing up to them and got working, in tandem with Five.

15 seconds!

Vara'l accepted Timi's statement at face value, the man happened to know far more about these things than he. ..Well, he could have breached these doors in a few ways with the proper equipment to storm the place. Not that that mattered. "Right." He nodded. He then looked to Five and the others. "15 seconds."

Holly stepped as far back as she could to make room for all the engineers and otherwise qualified people.

William was content with staying out of the way, stepping back from the scanner as the group of engineers worked at their job. He remained in the chamber, nevertheless, possibly to his detriment. Besides, no one had ordered an evacuation - the situation was probably under control, right?

1

Paco could... he could shoot the damn thing. That is how people usually bypass security systems in the movies... but Vara'l might get dissapointed and he didn't like that possibility as he took a couple steps back with Holly.

Timi grabbed his phaser, aiming with the surety of a man who had never in missed in his life. If all else failed, he would shoot the console at one second left.

2

Dakom understood full well that in some circumstances, the best thing one could do was be out of the way of those equipped to handle it. And that's exactly whare he was doing.

Ehlai was taking mental notes on everything that was happening. He wanted to be effective at being an away team coordinator after all, and to do that, he needed to learn how to coordinate.

10 seconds! As William and Holly stepped backward, there was a slight shift in their footing. It appeared as though they tripped a weight sensor of some kind. The countdown suddenly voided, and the controls went red, “FOREIGN WEIGHT DETECTED. LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL INITIATED.” With a wheeze, the door to the outside began to close!

She whipped around, cursing to herself before turning back and continuing to try and fry the sensors. If not out, then forward.

"Ieieee--" He muted his E.V suit.

"No!" Holly lunged forward the moment she felt something shift under her feet, but it was too late.

Damn. She had been kinda curious about what the countdown meant. “Everyone mind the door!” Was it closing slowly or fast?

It was closing slowly for now, but it was a heavy door. Gravity would do the rest of the work as it reached the halfway point.

Timi just kept his phaser trained on the console. He stopped breathing, to steady his aim further. He would not miss.

Feeling a weight shift under his feet, William instinctually tried to get himself off of that part of the floor - to no avail. Whatever he had triggered was already shutting the damned door behind the group. Great. "Oh god damn it." Was all he could muster out in that moment.

Vara'l also aimed his phaser rifle at the console, spotted Timi having done that and then lowered it. Not much point, two doing that, far as he was concerned. The Romulan's jaw worked a bit before, as the alarm triggered he turned and noted the door. "Get that console bypassed." Vara'l re-stated.

“We’re in the process of it!” *She replied, gritting her teeth as she tapped away furiously in an attempt to do just that.”

”Stay where you are! Better that door closing us off than closing on you!” She directed that towards the diplomat. What? Holly had said it was their duty to protect the guy.

The door creaked, and the weight of it began to work in its favor as it started to fall into place!

"Vokk to ship, we may get trapped into a bunker" He used his commbadge but no idea if they would get it, nothing hates comms like half a feet of rocks

Five seconds!

The moment he eard the words 'LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL', he immediately reached to pull out his phaser and looked for possibly anything else asides from that console that would get that door to open

"Fuck bypassing it, shoot it!" Holly shouted at the people working on the console.

Just as she was working away on her tricorder, she heard the doors close. Damn it. She continued to try, glancing at Sunn and Five as they worked on their own attempts. Well, No Shit, Mr. Tactical. What did he think they were doing?

Timi's finger found its place on the trigger.

Damn it, there wasn't enough time to do anything! "Just move!"

She huffed, resorting to punch the console with as much force as she could before stepping back, eyes still trained on it.

Vara'l turned and proceeded to aim and fire at the console.

With the sound of Five's voice, she ripped her tricorder and her hand off the console, staggering back as quickly as she could just as the Commander shot the console.

His finger tensed, firing a sustained beam of energy at the console. If Suun was giving up, he wasn't going to wait for the rest.

The crack of a phaser fire echoed through the decon chamber, punctuating the first airlock door slamming shut and locking behind the away team. …however, as sparks flew from the controls, the lock on the second airlock door spun, releasing its hydraulic locks and opening, revealing a dark corridor lit by low light red emergency lights.

Dakom was making a truly commendable effort to be calm, which was made difficult by several people now being very much Not Calm about the situation. He tried to focus on Timi. That guy seemed to have it together.

“Let’s move,” She snapped, brushing forwards without a glance at the others. What kind of bullshit was that?! Everything can be solved with operations. Except this.

"A door closes, a window opens, I guess ..." Holly peered into the corridor with a mixture of curiosity and ... disgust.

The screen on the controls flickered, glitching from the phaser fire, but showing that the weight sensor was searching for a specific weight, something two officers could easily trip.

6

Vara'l lowered his phaser, inhaled then exhaled before he then looked to Lieutenant Commander McGrath. Stared at her for a moment. With that, he then looked to Timi, nodded once in honest to goodness respect and started inside. "Aye, lets move, people with rifles to the front, lets get scans going." He started as he moved forward and watched for movement ahead as he progressed in.

"There may be a master control room somewhere inside the bunker proper.. still we should be careful."

She turned her head from the wrecked scanner over to the ambient red glow of the corridor. Her breathing a bit staggered after all of that. but she was otherwise rather calm. "Yeah, Is right." She muttered, following behind Sunn as set her tricorder back to scan.

Timi motioned for everyone to follow Suun. He jerked his head at Vara'l, indicating he would be walking at the very back to keep an eye on everything at once.

Holly raised her eyebrows at Vara'l. "What?" Anyone could have tripped that sensor. They wouldn't have liked William and Holly standing in the way either, would they?

She walked with the fury of someone who had been outgunned, not against those who’d fired but instead at herself. She stepped between red alert lights, walking in a bit of a blur.

"Commanders." William said, to the senior officers generally. "I- or maybe we- engaged some kind of... 'trapdoor' mechanism that caused the bulkhead to close. Suggest we be on the lookout for similar traps in the future." (edited)

"I'M NOT GOING BACK TO SOLITARY!" Paco impulsively punched the screen. Afterwards gave himself a moment before booking it and joining the others in scanning around "... ahem ... Some of the rooms may have weight sensors, like the decon chamber. That's set off the alarm. Best we try not going all at once going forward then."

5

"Sir if you need we can make breathing exercises, and the oxygen here seems stable."

"Single file it is, then." Holly shot Paco a sympathetic look. Poor guy. "Don't worry, you're not alone."

"Belt up, will you?" She turned her head to Paco. The ambient stress getting to her as well. "Yeah, this isn't a sound situation, but it's better to keep our heads down." (edited)

Aoife kept to the back of the group near Timi as the pressed on.

Vesta had been in Starfleet long enough to know that things like this all just kinda… happened. She stayed calm and watched the words of her crew mates file through her visor, keeping a look out for her senior officers instructions to follow them.

Suun took a deep breath, realizing that she’d gone pretty far ahead from the others, and stopped to let them catch up. She shook it off. Life would go on.

Trapped. Why do they always end up trapped? First the sentient ship, then the time loop, then the borg cube. Five's fingers dug into their palms— separated by their EV suit, then gloves, then metal— and as such he felt nothing. "Great," they said quietly, exhaling a shaky sigh, moving to begin to follow the group.

“Five?” She asked, turning to her fellow Ops officer, “Everything good?”

He pulled his tricorder again and analyzed the area, if it had oxygen plus their e.v's supply and filter's they should be safe in that front.

This was fine. Missions like this always seemed to go wrong. If it wasn't time loops, or terrorists, or Tal Shiar, or some other alliterative thing...

5

Vara'l nodded once to Timi and then tapped his head then signed. "If you need to." As he in essence indicated that the other could telepathically communicate with him if needed. No need to knock on mission. At the question from the Lieutenant Commander McGrath the CTO stated. "Not mission pertinent." He stated then before he looked to the Lieutenant and nodded. "Scientists, keep scanning, keep compact and keep watch for any further traps, agreed." He paused then before he added. "Ideally, any traps'll be flagged by scans, but caution is best." Vara'l proceeded to shoot a glance at Five then. Concerned for their friend, only looking away when he spotted that someone had already checked on him. His focus returned to looking ahead as he moved forward, clicked his phasers torch on and swept the ground in front of him as he went..

Instead of talking to Vara'l more, Timi started bothering Aoife telepathically. He didn't even say anything, there was just a vibe of general disappointment that was being beamed into her brain.

6

5

"I know how to breathe, ensign. Don't mind me just.... Lets... lets just get going." Paco said quietly to Vokk before he turned over to holly and nodded to the both of them "Thank you both..." Why do the missions he was involved in have to include some bit of claustrophobia in them. This is fineee. Totally finee.... at least they weren't being shot at! This is SLIGHTLY better than prison! Paco followed Jayri's advice and belted up as he kept to his scans, looking out for any surveillance cameras about to see if there was someone actively observing them...

A shadow darted through the red emergency lights before disappearing into the darkness beyond the corridor.

"Shadow thing????" Paco briefly reported to the others before continuing on "Probably nothing???" Did that pop up in his tricorder as a lifesign or something?

Aoife shot back a sarcastic vibe of "what the fuck did I do now?" as she continued into the bunker. Timi would also pick up on her thinking (she knew he was listening) that this single corridor in and likely out was a great place to be murdered. (edited)

"Oh, come on, that's not fair," Holly muttered in response to Vara'l. What the hell? "I didn't mean to trigger the sensor if that's your problem." She fell silent at the sight of the strange shadow.

Well well well, if it wasn’t one of those “break out of a locked up facility” missions. Marze had definitely done good in listening to the little voice that told her to volunteer… wait. What the fuck was that movement? “Movement ahead! We dont seem to be alone.”

The shadow didn’t give off a lifesign.

3

"Sirs we should focus...OH FU--"

7

"I don't detect any life signs on my tricorder-" She spoke before Vokk's inspiring commentary echoed out.

"No, its not." The CTO stated simply then before he added. "It's not mission pertinent." He moved to say more before he spotted movement. "Potential contact front." Vara'l snapped. At the revelation it lacked a lifesign, he frowned. "That was definitely movement." He raised his phaser rifle as he continued to move and played his torch down the corridor.

"You didn't do anything, just-" all of them, Timi didn't say, though he broadcast it pretty clearly. "At least with us here, we can be sure the mission gets completed." His faith in everyone else was clearly pretty low at the moment.

5

They opened their mouth to answer behind the cloth, though soon snapped his mouth shut and ducked behind the nearest person with a phaser. Yikes!

William had considered getting involved in the "conversation" between Vara'l and Holly when the shadowed figure went past. His gaze immediately shifted in the direction of where it had gone, staring into it for a few seconds, before he convinced himself that whatever it was was either gone, or had just been a figment of his own imagination. Hearing Vara'l and seeing him get into a more tactical posture, William recognized it wasn't just his imagination. He'd just do his best to stay out of the way, given he didn't have a phaser, in case something did occur. He'd continue following the group in the meantime.

Vara’l’s torch highlighted more of the hallway resting before them. It was long, narrow, and stained with… …well. It could be anything, but it certainly looked like blood.

5

Was too busy being afraid and making sure he remained in the middle of the group "Oh...keep it together man."

With her own weapon drawn, Holly stepped in front of William slightly. "Then keep your secrets," she muttered under her breath before speaking up again. "Is that blood?"

Fuck. He hated red lights. Absolute worst kind of light. And, oh, fuck, shadow people. Absolute worst kind of shadows. He was not a fighter and neither was Dakom (he presumed, though he gave his physique a quick assessment just to make sure), so he kept to the back with Dakom, keeping an eye and ear out for anyone getting hurt.

4

He started to mumble a mantra and breath, then focused his energy back out, namely on listening for anything that wasn't them.

Hey, he was competent! He just hadn't had an opportunity to demonstrate it as of yet, and so "being out of the way" was the best he could do right now. Except, oh... blood. Now that was relevant. "Yes. Can we get a scan on its origin?"

"On it!" Paco said as he scanned a sample of the blood-like thing.

William noticed Vokk's behavior and gave him a little pat on the back. Truth be told, William was a little frightened too, but he knew such a young ensign had more of a reason to be. Maybe a little conciliatory gesture would help let him know he isn't alone.

Aoife responded to Timi telepathically once more as she raised her rifle to the shadows. "I hate being a babysitter they should have just sent the two of us to check this out it'd be a lot quieter." Aoife shared in Timi's limited faith.

4

By now Jayri had begun to tune out some of the chatter, as she pointed her tricorder and scanned the blood.

Human blood, streaked across the floor like someone had taken a hand and dragged it across.

"...Human blood..." Greatest scientific commentary this year.

Holly raised her eyebrows. Not much they could do about that but keep going, as unnerving as it was.

"Yup." She nodded to Paco's statement, continuing her scan to try and determine how old it was.

Mentally agreed with the officer in comms

Vara'l moved forward a bit and proceeded to take up a position down the corridor at the front as others scanned the blood and the like. As he moved he stated. "I will tell you after the mission, Commander, it's nothing major and again not mission pertinent." He wanted to ensure the front was covered while the science people and engineer worked.

The blood was recent. Very recent.

”Clawing markings on the outside, trap door mechanism, blood from something… someone, being dragged.” She enumerated. “Whatever was outside was not supposed to get inside, and yet it did.” She wondered if the thing had not stayed outside at all.

"And there certainly would not have been a temptation to investigate a random deer in the forest," Timi agreed. "I'm almost considering putting together a how-to guide for stressful away missions. Almost."

"Alright, noted." He didn't have much else to say about that at present, but he was keeping quiet track of where everyone was, just in case more was about to be spilled. Oh, who was he kidding? Of course something would happen.

"Hm. Blood." Hadn't he and Dakom been talking about that earlier? Foreshadowing. "Well, everyone do your best not to create more of it."

6

Closed his eyes one last time and took a breath "Okay we have a way out, so we should decide wether to keep investigating or get out and seal the bunker for good." (edited)

"According to Eventide, Engineering Lab's at the west corridor after we go out the back end of this one." Paco reported to the Senior officers of the room.

Vara'l tapped his com badge then even as he contented himself with putting part of his mind to the prospect of a designed drill. Something stressful and aimed to foster proper focus and such. Most of him remained focused on the path ahead. "We've a mission to complete." The Romulan stated then. "But we do need to get that lockdown lifted to secure our line of egress."

"Aigh sir, we should stick together tho, we don't know the hostiles capacities."

"Let's follow their directions." The blood had sparked her curiosity. And her sense of duty, in a way. Didn't they have an obligation to figure out if there was anyone alive being kept here?

"Blood was recent." She spoke, rather calmly. "Whatever did this is likely still around." (edited)

As the crew continued forward, some of the blood led directly into the #bf-sleeping-quarters.

“We’ll have to head to the back ‘n loop back ‘round to the east hallway…last I checked, everybody was holed up in the canteen,” Silas said as he peeked out into the hallway, looking up and down before stepping out. The emergency lights still bathed the facility in an eerie red glow.

“We’ve been through here earlier. I guess we didn’t check this way.” She said as they walked down the corridor

She plodded after him, nodding along as he spoke. “Can you give us some context? What happened?”

"Excuse me, sir - do you have reason to believe we might not be Starfleet?" He asked the plunger man, whose name he had already forgotten.

Started running some extra scans, so they don't show on thermal, maybe movement sensors?, he also ran a general anomalies and old style radar

Keeping pace with silas, a few paces back, she asked “Did you get a good look at whatever it was that did this?”

Blegh walked nearby to Suun, tapping her comm badge to report back to the Eventide as she did so.

Silas glanced at Suun out of the corner of his eye, before turning attention to Dmitri, “Oh, uh…naw, just…weren’t expectin’ y’all, I guess.” He dodged Suun and Daso’s questions.

5

Huh. Bizarre. “Are there any you know are wounded? Any doctors nearby?” She pressed, folding her hands behind her back.

“We are here to help. If you know something, let us know. Nothing is bad intel. No stupid questions, either.”

Silas shot a look back at Daso, “…last I checked, our medic tried runnin’ out of the bunker, and one of them followed after him,” He answered Suun, instead.

He had been hoping for a distress signal, and yet hadn't been expecting Starfleet to arrive. Very odd. Blegh continued along with the party after making her report.

“Them?” She raised a brow, “Who’s them?”

“It’s harder to help with less information.” She said, keeping her voice even, as she kept her mounting suspicion out of her voice.

“…just…them,” He said, his eyes a bit wide.

“Whatever it was that did this?”

Sak took out his tricorder, and started checking for life signs. "Silas, are you absolutely sure, that people are in the canteen. Do you think they might relocate, like the medic?"

"If there is an active threat in this area, accurate information is needed in order to effectively protect you," Blegh said with a slight edge in her voice. She was growing more and more suspcious by the moment.

Ah. That might explain the unusual thing that the group saw in the forest before entering the bunker - did that "something" manage to escape the complex? Not only that, but there were potentially multiple of these "things" still in the bunker? Ah, fuck. (edited)

“Yeah, yeah…that,” He said with a nod as the group came up to a wide entrance to the next corridor. Silas froze, and his eyes scanned the entrance for anything of note. “…I mean, they ain’t gonna get too far without bumping into us,” He said, “One way in, one way-” A skittering cut his comment off.

She drew a sharp breath, glancing around. “Silas, we need that information to not end up like your friends in the other room.”

"We cannot track the creatures, but we may be able to find the medic's lifesign" He posited.

Blegh drew her phaser, ensuring it was set to stun before scanning the visible area upon hearing the noise.

“What did whatever chased the medic out look like. We can’t help if you leave us out of the loop- What was that.” She asked, hearing the skittering. under her breath she whispered “I swear if its bugs im gonna lose it.”

The Tellarite hesitated, but after deciding that attempting to stay hidden was useless with how the party was currently moving, she called out: "Is someone there? We're Starfleet,"

He readied his nothing, because he had no weapon. "Ah, skittering! My favourite form of ambulation."

4

Following her lead, she mustered up her courage and grabbed her phaser. “Here, I have a second phaser. Never hurts to be prepared.” She held it out for Dmitri.

“It ain’t- It ain’t bugs,” Silas said, his eyes scanning the area before he paused, and slowly, turned his head upward.

8

He actually giggled at dmitri's remark he was funny.

Up. Of course it was up. Is there something on the ceiling? Blegh looked up, too.

“So you do know something. What are they. What do they look like. Please.”

Seeing Silas perk his head up, William's own head darted upwards in an effort to see if anything was up there. Ah god, was something on the ceiling?

She clenched her jaw, slowly bringing her eyes upwards. “…oh.”

Clinging to the ceiling was…some kind of humanoid figure, which upon realizing that it was being looked at, slowly turned its head toward the away team, a complete 180 degrees, and stared down at them with blank eyes.

7

Sak stopped and scanned the area at the front. No life signs. As Silas looked upwards, Sak followed, slowly. "Oh fuzzbuckets."

Right. Okay. What the hell was that. “Hello? Can— fuck, does it speak?” Her heart hammered in her chest.

Looking up “OH HELL NO.” She pointed her phaser at it

“…Silas. Explain what we’re looking at.” She snapped, furrowing her brows as she couldn’t tear her eyes from it.

William froze. Right - no sudden movements. This is fine. Don't do anything to alarm it. This could just be a new lifeform after all, we don't know if it's the creatures that were responsible for the massacre so far, right? Right?

Before he could accept the phaser or not, everyone started looking up, and he decided he was going to cover his head with his arms instead. He was not getting facehugged today!

3

“TAKE THE PHASER, MAN.”

Oh, Silas was gone. He ran.

Bastard. “Go!” She shouted, looking back at the others, “We need to go! Now!”

Blegh clutched her phaser a little bit tighter as she waited for a response from the Thing, if there was ever going to be one. She huffed in irritation as Silas sprinted off. “Everyone run. I’ll keep it distracted.”

Uaugh! That thing reminded her of the Trill from Intel, but worse. Icky.

“Oh crap.” They broke out into a run, following the sound of footsteps, hopefully silas’s

The thing on the ceiling continued to stare at the group, but the instant they began to move, it started chasing them on the ceiling.

Suun didn't need to speak twice. In an effort to get out of the area as quick as possible, William darted in the direction Silas had supposedly run. (edited)

Why did he had such short legs, latinuum whyyy???.

“Hell no.” *With the phaser set to stun, she took the shot.”

What the fuck. What the fuck. Khirena was really regretting leaving the Bridge right about now. But Suun’s suggesting sounded really good right about now, so she ran as fast as she possibly could right behind her, not even bothering to look back even though she could hear it chasing them on the ceiling.

Fuuuuuck no no no not good. “HEY! THING!” Blegh waved her arms, firing off a warning shot, hoping to effectively distract it as she’d said. “OVER HERE!”

As he moved with the group, tapped his com badge and slowed to keep to the back of the group as he fired a stun shot at it too. "Run!"

Her eyes shot to Blegh, her legs slowing for a moment. “Blegh! Get out of here!”

“Dude i shot it why is it moving?”

“Pleanty of things are immune to phaser blasts!” Vesta signed quickly, not the easiest thing to do while scurrying away, but she managed.

Into the #bf-back-corridor! Blegh, the thing leapt down into the hallway and, after being shot with a stun by Vara’l, staggered. It paused in its pursuit, and then slowly turned to the Tellarite.

2

It was clear to Blegh now now that whatever it was, the pair of eyes that were reflected back at them may have been a trick of the light.

4

Ignoring Suun, she continued to try and make herself the biggest, loudest thing in the hall. This was her job. She joined Starfleet to keep people safe.

"OH NO!" Hearing the order to run and seeing whatever the living FUCK that was, Paco's first instinct was to scoop Vokk so he could keep up with the others as he ran

"Doesnt seem completely immune to stun fire!!, try again!."

The thing stared at Blegh for a few moments, like it was scanning her, before sprinting full force at her.

Yes he hadn't left he was too worried for the crewmate.

Her heart pounded in her chest. She could now barely hear the others around her over the drumming. She stood her ground. Phaser set to kill, she fired.

He grabbed the phaser with one hand and Dakom with the other and ran the same way everyone else was, not looking to get split up. For a guy who never watched horror movies, he sure knew the tropes.

Vara'l swiftly switched to high stun and joined his fire to Blegh's as he called. "Run, ensign!"

The phaser blasted a hole clean through the chest of the thing, but it didn’t stop, and tackled Blegh to the ground. Wrestling her phaser out of her hand, the thing grabbed at Blegh’s arm and broke it clean in half before being shot by Vara’l. It wobbled and fell onto the ground. Whatever version of adrenaline keeping it moving had been knocked out of it by the stun. It stared at Blegh, with one silver eye and another dangling by a cord in the void that was half of its face, and then leapt up onto the ceiling again, skittering away into the darkness… - Blegh, your arm is broken. (edited)

6

If the ACSO was going to stay, so was she. She joined the others in their phaser wielding, setting it to a higher setting and aiming it, holding her fire.

2

Took a last look, at the fight, but he know the commander was right he was probably just a sitting duck, so he started to run towards the group.

Ow. Owwwww ow ow. At least nobody else got hurt? She laid on the floor for a moment, chest heaving.

“Shit.” She signed absentmindedly as she rushed over to the ACOS. She kneeled down next to her and waved over one of the doctors. “Commander, are you alright.”

The sight was awful, nauseating, and her eyes immediately shot towards Blegh, her legs bringing her towards her before her mind could keep up. She was not medical, nor was she sure what the hell had happened, but she moved to crouch next to her, at a sudden loss for words.

Blegh sat up slowly, adrenaline still keeping the injury from feeling as serious as it was. She’d never seen her own bones before. Wow. Despite the distant echo of pain, she smiled. She’d done her job. She’d protected her people. No one else had gotten hurt. Sucked that she’d lost her phaser, though. “I’m fine. I’m fine, which way did it go?”

Now is the time for decisions. The scary thing skittered away, so that would mean the coast should be clear. Paco ran towards Blegh, seeing that Vesta was tending to Suun. "It skittered away, sir. Are you alright?"

As Sak heard the orders to run, he thought 'I'm not abandoning my friends and peers! I'm going to fight.' And so he put his tricorder down and picked up his phaser that he so very conveniently brought. On seeing Blegh get hurt, he decided that the specimen could not be hurt, and felt it more useful to go to the commander. "Commander! Are you okay? Are you able to walk?"

She grunted, trying to get to her feet. “Is everyone else alright?” She asked, ignoring the question. “I need a phaser,”

Sak held out his phaser backwards. "Here, you can have mine."

"The others went to the back corridor." Paco answered as he helped Tollum up.

Blegh took the ensign’s phaser, giving him a curt nod as Paco helped her stand. “Thank you.” “Let’s regroup,” She said with authority, starting towards the rest of the away team, her arm still hanging on by a thread, literally. A wave of nausea rolled over her.

“We have to keep the arm still until we can get you to a doctor.” Vesta signed, then assisted Blegh to tuck her arm in by her chest. She was familiar with field first aid, being an SRO. “You need to hold your arm in place with your other arm to try to prevent any more damage.”

2

Walking into the corridor, she made eye contact with the rest of the team, visibly relieved that everyone was alive.

Yeah they start arriving back in, vokk goes straight to checking the area for biological tissue.

Blegh holstered the phaser she’d been given and did as she was told. The word ‘doctor’ made her skin crawl, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off and she was in no state to argue.

Sak opened his fanny pack containing his science kit, and looked around where the specimen got shot. "Okay, we need a sample." Sak was about to tap his badge when he stopped. "We should inform Eventide."

He looked at sak and giggled "Great minds think alike!."

“I already did.”

18:36

“I told them about us splitting up. let them know we merged.”

Sam nodded at Daso's instructions. "Do i tell them about Commander's injury?

She nodded. “Yes please, thank you ensign.” She looked to the lieutenant commanders for further instructions.

William returned into he central corridor, hopefully with Silas and the others. Thank god the thing didn't follow them down that direction. He took a moment to inspect the situaton. Seeing Blegh, he grimanced. "Anything I can do to help?" He asked, to no one in particular.

Sak, there were some kind of metal shards present on the ground from where it was shot, now mixed in with the blood on the floor. (edited)

Cool. Cool. Cool. Trapped in a freaky bunker with a thing on the loose. Five gripped their chest, breath so sharp it was starting to hurt. Even so, he mindlessly peered over Sak's shoulder. "Maybe we can figure out its weaknesses if we can identify it," he managed weakly.

"Metal?" He looks around for were that may came from

He entered with the rest of them. "I'm a doctor. Bring her to me and keep her arm straight." Since the bone had punctured skin, the job would require both an osteo and dermal regenerator, so he used both. He also handed her his phaser.

Sak looked down on the ground where it was shot, and upon seeing the shards, put on some gloves and held one of the shards in the air. "Jackpot." He put each blood laden sample in its own bag, and stuffed them carefully back in his fanny pack. As Five spoke, Sak answered him. "Yeah, but i'd need time."

“Five. Calm down. You’re going to be okay.”

Blegh started swaying where she stood. Actually, maybe a doctor wouldn’t be too bad right about now.

Vokk, Sak, the metal shards were very small, seemingly obliterated by the force of running into the phaser shot to kill. It sprayed out from the position the thing was in, like a blood splatter.

Ran a tricorder scan over the blood and metal, it may not be as precise as lab work however. "What do you think sak? biocyborg?."

“If its part mechanical, I might have some insight.” She said as she peers over their shoulder.

Vesta noticed that Blegh seemed to be getting dizzy, likely from the drop off of adrenaline rather than blood loss. “Let’s get you to the floor.” She signed one handedly, and then too Blegh’s shoulders and got her to the ground. Even though her injury was fixed, she still needed a moment of rest. (edited)

"That would be a readily welcome insight sir."

Sak nodded as Vokk spoke, seemingly agreeing with his conclusion. "Maybe, but i'm not sure. Maybe it's an advanced android, with flesh and blood. I can't say for sure. Vokk, try and get some shards of your own if you can." As Daso offered their insight, Sak nodded. "We need all the information and insight as possible." (edited)

“Can you hand me some of the metal, I might be able to identify it.”

“Have you tried scanning it yet?” She asked, her own tricorder ready in case nobody had. (edited)

"I am calm," the xB retorted despite the lights of their implants blinking red. They were stable enough to keep steady. That was enough. Five swallowed. "Maybe if we can— if these things are meant to be here, there may be spare parts around, right? Or things it needs to be repaired, or..." He shrugged.

He pick's some samples up and after separating one for their own research he hand's some to Daso. "Anything you recognize sir?."

Sak opened his fanny pack and held out a bag to Daso. "Take some gloves too." *Sak handed them some gloves aswell."

Blegh let herself be lowered to the floor, trying to keep her breathing even. She felt like she was going to hurl. Luckily, what was being discussed didn’t need her input, so she just sat and tried not to lose her lunch. Who knew breaking your arm hurt so much?

The scans done to the metal reported back a specific sample of metal found within the Pralor System in the Delta Quadrant. Maybe this was it, what Breld took from the quadrant?

6

“Thank you, Ensign. This is… weird.” She explained what the metal was

18:49

“Its a bit far from home”

Sak stood up, took off his gloves, opened another pocket of his fanny pack, and discarded his used gloves. He nodded at the tricorder readings. "Huh, would you look at that. Pralor system. It's likely breld's handicraft."

“Not sure why its in a blood puddle.”

Blegh could answer that one! She didn’t say anything, though.

3

Because it ended up there due to a certain Tellarite.

"I'm pretty sure that's the commander's blood. Not the...thing? Specimen? Whatever you call it."

“That would be the Commander’s.” Vesta signed, turning back to Blegh. “Are you feeling better, nauseous, in any pain?”

"I've done the best I can with the tools at my disposal," he said, addressing Blegh and his fellow doctor. "It was an open fracture, so some repositioning was needed. Your arm should be functional, but if it feels or moves strangely, please schedule an appointment once we get back to 777."

"Yup tellarite blood, very nice hemoglobes commander!."

3

Blegh nodded slowly at the words clearly directed at her. “Do you have…” She took a deep breath, swallowing, “Anything for pain?” She would be alright, she just needed a minute.

“Whats the metal from, though? Im not medical but im pretty sure thats not how that works”

"Pralor?" Paco spoke up as he turned to Sak. "They're a species Voyager interacted with while in the Delta Quadrant."

She silently hands a few pain pills to the commander

18:54

“What? I’m prepared!”

"Uh let's wait for the doctor's say..." (edited)

1

“Thsi company has a history with… odd androids.” *Vesta signed.”

Sak looked around the corridor, and decided he should go for the canteen, to save the other people. Before he decided to speak up about going there, he answered Paco's question. "Right you are, sir! Thought to be an extinct species."

“Huh. Wack.”

"Yes." After making sure there weren't any types of pain medicine she couldn't take, he gave her a fast-acting hypospray.

18:58

Also, no, he did not let Aatha give her mysterious pills.

2

"Thank you," She mumbled, sighing as the nauseua stemming from the searing pain began to reside. Slowly, the world came a bit more into focus.

Sak looked around again. "If it's all the same with you all, i'd like to check out this canteen. And i'd like to take Silas and a phaser, if possible. You all stay here."

"I don't think splitting up is a good idea." William commented. "There's a benefit to strength in numbers - the more people with phasers, the better."

"No splitting up," Blegh agreed, sitting up somewhat, trying to figure out where in the conversation everyone was. "I blew a hole in that thing's chest and it didn't die," she shuddered at the memory.

“Splitting up is like textbook bad idea.”

"They are extinct. They had a war with the Cravic and it was to the point both sides made automated personnel units to fight for them. Could the metal be from that perhaps?" Paco explained to Sak as he scanned the metal to see if it was a match with Voyager's data "I am armed... apparently" Paco said quietly to William before moving back to scans. "Splitting up the party never goes well in D&D parties, let's not do that."

“We both shot it, and it didnt die. which is worse.”

"Yeah sak, your my man but let's move as a group, we should all move where silas wanted once the commander is better."

Sak interjected. "Thats only viable in some situations. If we stay grouped up, then we're just going to be dinner for this specimen. And if we don't act then people will be waiting for nobody! If I go, alone, then if it kills me, then you all can be safe, if it's not going to kill me, i'm going to get the rest of the people for the canteen. C'mon guys, just think this through."

Blegh saw red. "I am not letting that thing kill anyone," She growled, then took a deep breath. "You are outranked, ensign. We go in pairs at the bare minimum."

“But if you go alone theres nobody to watch your 6. we dont want you to die.”

William was going to speak, but chose not to. He felt content letting others speak - especially the senior officers. Splitting up was a terrible idea in his opinion, especially someone going alone. The group would get moving to the canteen soon enough, anyways.

She didn’t think there was a psychiatrist with them but uh, maybe they should. “Why do you think going off alone to be killed is a good idea.” She glanced over at Blegh and Dmitri, she was genuinely concerned about what the ensign was saying.

2

Wow. Uh.. yeah, Khirena was not contributing to this. She trusted Blegh’s judgment here on not splitting up. She stuck kinda close to William, looking at him with a sort of confused expression as one guy just went and volunteered himself to go get killed.

"I think he's just worried for the civies, but we won't help them if we get killed dude."

If anyone was dying today, it would be Blegh, ideally, but she chose not to voice that. She got to her feet slowly, grunting as she did so. "We go as a group. Ensign Dergin, you are more than welcome to go off and look for survivors, but you will be taking at least one other person with you. Ideally, all of us will go." She paused. Silas had been awful quiet.

3

Sak opened his mouth, to argue with Blegh, but decided not to. "Fine, I won't go alone. But i urge you all to stay here. You, sir are in no condition at all to go anywhere." He directed last part at Blegh. Sak noticed Silas' quiet expression, and talked to him. "Hey, Silas, cat got your tongue?"

"Ensign. Shush." Paco quickly said to Sak, subtly patting his arm. He was not going to add anything more to this, though he feels they need to start moving since staying still in a time-sensitive mission wasn't a good option either. "Insulting people won't help us here."

2

Her left eye twitched just once, barely perceptible, at the implication of an ensign attempting to order her out of harm's way. But she held her tongue. "We need directions if we're going to continue our search," Blegh pointed out.

Sak nodded. "Doesn't Eventide have a map of this...?" "I think they did." (edited)

Now was the time for William to speak up. "When we regrouped with Silas, we were in the back corridor area, and he motioned towards an area off towards the east corridor. The canteen might be in that direction." (edited)

"Ensign, giving advice to your superiors is good yes, but don't give them orders and tell them what to do." (Paco advised noticing Blegh's eye twitch. "Try to remember that..." He added before he turned over to William "Eventide said the engineering lab's at the western corridor after the back corridor, so yes the canteen would be in the east corridor." (edited)

2

“Yeah, ‘at’s right,” Silas said from where he was stood. He didn’t exactly have much to add to the arguments of Starfleet. If anything, he found it entertaining, “Y’all wanna get a move on?”

She nodded to the man. "Lead the way,"

Holly had stayed near William – even though last time that had triggered a sensor – watching the mess unfold. Bold of Sak to try and order Blegh to do anything. Getting a move on sounded fantastic under the circumstances, though, so she nodded.

3

2

To the #bf-back-corridor!

Ehlai had been staying quiet this whole time, still taking notes on how he could better improve his own craft... one day... when he was not just a measly cadet. He wanted to get a move on though!

"Let's move." Paco said, probably for the first time, with a bit more authority to those he actually had ranking authority over, particularily Sak.... pulling rank still felt very uncomfortable though.

Vara'l nodded at the lets move, having remained silent before, as he started to move, he looked to Ensign Sak. "Ensign, nobody is going off alone and to add to Lieutenant Commander Tollum's direction, security or Tactical personnel will accompany any group." He then added. "And, until we know far more about what we're dealing with, we're remaining together." Vara'l stated then before he added. "And Ensign decisions on medical capability for duty during away missions are the province of the Medical department, not the Science dept." Vara'l continued on to the other corridor!

1

The lockdown released, and the hydraulic locks on the front door opened.

2