Star Trek: Starbase 777 - staff-quarters

Asleep in bed, the portable regeneration device situated next to him and active, Vara'l is located in bed at present. Its about half an hour before the alarm he's activated will wake him up at the end of his regeneration cycle, a brief period of wakefulness before he returned back to sleep. For now, in this final countdown before waking up, Vara'l's breathing remained a occasionally stuttering but otherwise steady in and out. The Romulan blessedly not too badly hounded by his nightmares this night, so far.

As the alarm finally then started up, Vara'l snapped awake. He smoothly moved then as he deactivated his portable regeneration unit and slipped out of bed. Once out of bed he settled into a free point in the middle of his silent room, conscious of his movements even while his hearing implants were turned right down. Once there he'd started a series of meditative exercises as he worked to calm his mind down once more before he returned to bed.

Disturbing everyone, no matter what they were doing, was the sound of the red alert klaxon booming through the quarters. It only lasted for a moment before it got cut off – and any lights, nightlights, computers, or PADDs suddenly went offline.

Evoras had woken up about half an hour ago and was sitting cross legged in her bed, a cup of replicated tea in hand, staring into the darkness. She hadn’t had a nightmare, not exactly anyways, she hesitated to call her dreams nightmares if they did not actually include anything genuinely gruesome, and this one had been stressful more so than terrifying. After taking a few deep breaths, downed the still slightly too hot tea and placed the mug on the floor next to the bed. Then she stared into the darkness some more, her mind replayed some of the choices her dreamself had made and she cringed in something between normal and second hand embarrassment. It was very good, she thought, that she did not behave that way in real life. Perhaps she should just listen to music, she thought and had just turned it on when the red alert started and the power went out. She blinked, before quickly getting up, almost tripping over the mug in the process and rushing to the door trying to open it.

No response from the door unfortunately. It didn't slide open as usual.

Vara'l snapped to full awareness from his meditative stance and immediately proceeded over to his chest of drawers. Once there he rapidly slipped into his uniform and boots before he then noticed something. His hearing implants had not initialised when he'd commanded them to. Then he started to feel..that other stuff wasn't working. Stumbled, slipped to the floor as one hand closed on his phaser. "Te-lim" He gasped as his mind reeled, as his body reacted to the sudden absence of active..anything. He realized quite quickly that his body'd soon fail him enough that'd he'd slip into unconsciousness. "Telim, I don't know if you can hear me, I'm deaf at the moment." He managed to gasp out as loudly, he hoped, as he could manage. "Somethings happened, techs failed..stay calm and remember what I and Wyram taught yo-u about emergency situations, what to do when..where to go." Vara'l had half growled as he tried to keep himself awake a moment longer. "He'll be coming or trying to, okay?" At that point, Vara'l slipped into unconsciousness.

Essen stepped out of the Jeffries tubes and held a hand to Kaylee in case she needed help before using as much muscle memory to locate Vara'l's quarters in the dark. She thankfully found them, knocking on the door. "Sir! SIR!" Essen called. "This is Lieutenant Junior Grade Essen! I'm with Lieutenant Junior Grade Kaylee Valkyrie! Do you copy, sir? Repeat! Do you copy?"

After pressing the button another two times for good measure she too had the brilliant idea of just pushing it open only to be met with a corridor that was just as dark as her room. Right. Not… optimal. She did a one eighty as she realised that she was still in her pyjamas and not currently wearing any shoes and pulled the pieces of her uniform that she found quickly over what she was wearing, slipped into shoes and returned to the corridor that she then started to slowly walk down looking and listening for any people and anything strange.

Kaylee, as Essen had taken command, stated silent. Two people yelling might not help. Might overwhelm others. "Essen, if we don't get a response, we might have to force the door open. If he is having trouble he might not be able to tell us."

After a moment of no response from Vara'l, Essen looked to Kaylee. "These are pretty heavy, be careful," Essen said, taking one side of the door. "One. Two. Three!" Before she heaved as much as she could to get the door open, and slip inside. "Sir? Sir!" Essen looks around - but forgot that there were another set of doors. "Telim? Telim, are you here?" She called out, if Telim was there maybe he knew about any of this too. "Telim, we need to get your father to medical! Kaylee, can I have a hand please?" (edited)

A moment later emergency lights kicked on. That was a sign that back-up generators were working, all of which controlled things like life support… But judging by how long it had taken to kick in, they weren’t functioning as well as normal… So how long would life support last?

With Telim busy as they tried themselves to raise Vara'l and Vara'l unconscious at first, the duo likely received no reply as they forced their way into the communal area of the quarters. As they entered, they first a communal area vacant of all but a now very much awake Epohh. Located them and likely heard Telim as they hammered on the door to their bedroom, not having the strength one needed to have forced the door open. Nothing heard from Vara'l, the Romulan only half conscious by the time they'd forced their way through the door to the communal area. Barely aware of the world, deprived of all his implanted tech as his mind reeled from that sudden.. absence. (edited)

;Kaylee came inside, not seeing a whole lot until the emergency lights finally came back. "Finally....Of course." Kaylee came beside Essen. Not here. Must be in the other room. Was he even alive? She didn't know a whole lot about Vara'l. She'd only met him maybe once. "Sir? Sir? Are you okay?" She called out as she tried to pry the bedroom door open, hopefully he would be.

She pushed the second door open, using all her might to do so, before finding Vara'l unconscious on the ground! "OH my God! Telim, we need to get your father to medical," Essen said. "Kaylee, you stay with him, I'm going to try and get help," Essen said before rushing back out to the hallway. "Help!! We need help in here!"

Thankfully, help wasn't far behind. Matryx was frantically looking for anyone who he could help, any doors that were open. "Aha!" He said, approaching. "Lieutenants, you did the right thing by getting the door open. Thank you. Let's see." He said, before taking Vara'l's pulse. "I can feel a pulse. He's still alive. You both acted fast, you should be very proud of yourselves. See if you can get him to wake up."

Kaylee, with Matryx, stayed by Vara'l. Hopefully he'd wake up. Wait, Essen mentioned another name.. Who's Telim? "Sir, is there anyone here with you?"

Vara'l, barely aware at present, stunned thanks to the lack of such much that his body relied on blearily looked up at the people who seemed to have crowded around him. Looked up and watched as they attempted to speak to him. What were they saying? His mind sluggishly attempted to read lips..but failed mostly. "No implants..I'm deaf." He managed quietly as he finally attained a more conscious state.. then tried to move, his voice coloured with a indescribably deep concern mixed with worry. "Telim-my son, other quarters bedroom." The Romulan gasped, his words unknowingly coloured with that off tone tell of someone who had heard none of the words he'd uttered.

"Sir, I'll go find his son!" Kaylee shot up and dashed to the other room. Another slammed shut door. Damn. "Hello? T-Telim? Are you in there?" Kaylee shouted through the door, trying to get a response. "I'm going to open the door now, so mind your fingers!"

Telim, having remembered what his dad had taught him, had tried to open the door or to raise the babysitter or someone. When none of that had worked, he'd looked for otherways out. That was what he'd initially done before, when the door opened a crack.. and he'd then started to hear other people, he'd started to hammer on it. When he heard someone speak, call his name, he rapidly responded. "I'm here, o-okay!" Before he asked. "How's dad?"

After Kaylee had managed to get the door open, she spoke to Telim. "Your dad is fine. A commander is with him. You're Telim, yes? I was sent to find you, bud. I'm Kaylee." Kaylee thought the best way was to just introduce herself. She wasn't sure how old Telim was, but she didn't want to panic him. Kaylee led Telim back into the more open area of the quarters, in case the door decided to close in on them again.

"He's.. on the floor." The kid proceeded to say, when the other responded as she did, once the door had been opened enough for him to see them and the other quarters. He allowed himself to be led out of the room to that area as he proceeded to say. "H-heya Ms Kaylee, are you Ms Essens girlfriend?" He asked before he continued on and inquired. "What..happened to the lights?"

"Yeah, but he's okay, Telim." Kaylee spoke, to his gentle words. And then her heart melted. She hadn't been called Ms before. "Oh, uh, I am, actually. Have you met Essen?" "The lights...uh, the lights...there's been a small, tiny issue with the stations systems, but the rest of the engineers are working hard to fix them, I promise." No don't promise that Kaylee you don't know that. Too late...

"..B-but if the tech's all off, what about dads ears and stuff?" Telim looked up at Kaylee as she responded and a frown crossed his face for a moment before the kid consciously proceeded to make the effort to look like that had reassured him. "Okay..a-and well, not really met them.. just kinda hid behind dad and seen em." He admitted softly then before he then asked. "Does the commander person know dad's deaf?"

Having managed to fully return to consciousness by this point, Vara'l idly tried to sign something. It was at this point he idly noted the fact that he struggled to move his more..borged hand at all. Noticed and then frowned before he switched to a standard sign language variant that was less effected by such problems. One that he hoped was close enough to what people knew so as to be understood. ["I'm fully conscious."] He'd signed before he said. "I'm gonna need a hand up." Uncomfortable with speaking when he happened to be hearing.. nothing.

Kaylee noticed the frown. She wasn't a doctor nor a professional caretaker of children...she wasn't exactly sure what to say to him. "He'll be fine, Telim..I promise you. I think the Commander knows, he should know, anyway. But, are you okay Telim? You're not hurt are you?" Kaylee didn't even know Vara'l was deaf until a few moments ago, and didn't know much about Telim either. So she'd better ask. And it was a good distraction anyways.

Telim, as he spotted his father sign, seemed to perk up a bit before he glanced back up at Kaylee. "He's conscious now!" He declared before he then looked himself over. "I'm fine, my hearts being all ba-bum ba bum but like, I'm fine!" The young Romulan responded before he then glanced to the door. "Wonder how my babysitter's doing..worried." The kid visibly concerned as he'd considered the man he'd come to really respect.

"You know sign language, Telim?" Kaylee asked. Not shocked, because if someone's father was deaf, they'd probably learn that first. "Its good you're okay though. But if you could ask him what's wrong, that would be good." Babysitter. Was there someone else in the room too? "Who's your babysitter Telim? Are they here too?"

Telim nodded. "Uh huh, three sign languages!" He confirmed proudly before, when they asked him to ask what was wrong with his dad, he nodded and started over toward his father. A trot he only paused in when they asked after his babysitter. "Mr Wyram, they're gonna be in their quarters at this time, I know they're probably fineee but I wanna know they're fine." The kid sighed a bit before he signed to his dad. After a bit of signed back and forth conversation, Telim turned to Kaylee and the other officers. "Dad says that all of his implants and stuff arent working and..thats whats wrong..." His voice concerned.

"Wow, three. That's....three more than I know!" Kaylee said. Mr Wyram. She didn't recognise the name. "Well, we can go find them once we're done here, how does that sound?" Kaylee nodded as she watched Telim sign to his dad and back. "Okay, aside from his ear implants, is there any other important implants your dad has?"

"Was really fun to learn them all and standard too!" Telim actually giggled a bit at the declaration from Kaylee. He really appreciated how they were trying to help him stay calm. Even if it might have, in other circumstances, presented itself as a bit..condi..whatever the word was, to him. "Sounds good, though I bet he'll find us, he shot the monster under the closet back on Mol'Rihan!" Telim, when Kaylee then proceeded to ask their other question, proceeded to sign as he declared. "I'll ask!" Before, when he received a response, he started to say. "His hand stuff and loads of other things, some stuff helping him cause of a ouchie ages ago, he said he's more worried about the blood stuff."

After he signed that bit, Vara'l with the help of the officers with him, attempted to stand up. After an abortive first attempt, he just about managed this and then looked to Kaylee. "Aye." He then proceeded to say, his tone off tone in a manner that very much indicated he was stone deaf. "As he said." The Romulan then grunted a bit. "...Seems somethings affecting at least some of the stations technology.. power..and my implants." He observed a moment before he proceeded to say. "Computer?" And looked to Kaylee as he mouthed 'tell me if it replies'' and then proceeded to ask. "Status report."

Kaylee tried to help Vara'l stand, standing closeby in case he went down again, offering her arm for him to grab if he felt unsteady. "Okay, so as long as there's nothing too serious, he should be okay for now. But we should try to get him to medical, they'll know better than me, Telim. But you've got a very important job for now, you need to translate for your dad." Kaylee then listened for the computer. She didn't expect a response, but she was hopeful.

Nothing from the Computer. Sorry!

Vara'l continued to look at Kaylee as they proceeded to respond, an appreciative smile affected in response to their offer of an arm. A offer he was forced to make use of only once. "I'll be okay for a bit, but.." He to affect a grimace that he hope conveyed what he wanted to not..openly say in front of of his son. The grimace accompanied by a gentle smile as he smiled at Telim briefly and attempted to reassure them before he looked to Kaylee once more.

Telim grinned when Kaylee proceeded to say what they said, before he then listened to his fathers words. Listened to them and then hugged them very gently before he broke away and proceeded to speak to Kaylee again. "How are we gonna get to medical?" The question asked as he looked about the group of adults, adults he trusted. Starfleet officers.

"If you're sure sir." Kaylee had to seriously consider this. Could she bring the pair of them through the tubes? Wait. If the power went out, is life support still active? Will it last long? It hadn't even crossed her mind until now. She wasn't they kind of engineer, but she was going to try and help. "We'll figure it out Telim. I just need a moment to think."

As the Epohh in the communal area finally proceeded to wake up and proceeded to dash into Telims room as it concealed itself under his bed, Vara'l watched Kaylee. Watched as he idly wondered if she'd picked up what he tried to convey. Wondered about that..and then realized the other thing that a lack of power meant, regarding life support systems. That realization now firmly in mind and accompanied by the realization he happened to not be in a good state to be of help, Vara'l winced slightly. "Tubes'll be the only way to Command deck, medical or..engineering, if main powers completely down as it seems." He murmured, unaware he'd happened to have just spoken quite quietly.

Allan was in Alizati's quarters, playing Kal-toh with him and the Furberus. The Furberus was just about to make its next move: it was a close game already, and just one placement could make or break the game at this point. "Yeah, so I was thinking like, I'm doing a good bit you know, it's been a while, and so you know, I'm vibing, and like - oh, by the way, did you see the blueprints I sent over yesterday? It was like, just yesterday, so I totally get if not, but.." It was a swift succession of events. There was a brief red alert sound that blared in their ears, and then everything started to go. The lights shut off, the Furberus suddenly dropped the Kal-toh piece and its heads fell flat onto the board, and the man across from him - Alizati, his boss, a key part of his support system, his daehlen - likewise fell against the floor. And there was the even more distinct lack of the soft humming that came from every electronic ever in the room. Allan took a very deep breath in and out, realizing that whatever this was, it wasn't personal, it wasn't personal, and more importantly, this was some sort of power outage. Well, given that all of the computers including Alizati had gone down - some sort of EMP attack. Cool. He gently picked up Alizati's frame to set it along the edge of the couch so he wouldn't be on the floor when he woke up, at least, and then headed out into the corridors. He was most certainly no longer vibing.

"That's right sir. That's how myself and Essen got here. Do you think you can manage the tubes, sir?" Kaylee's concern was clear and almost justified. He was deaf, and they'd found him unconscious on the floor, so, not great.

Vara'l seemed to consider his current condition and body as he looked to his son, who translated all that Kaylee had just said. "..I reckon I probably could, but slowly." He responded simply. "The sudden loss of my implants, especially the ones in my uh,skull was what..what is it humans say, knocked me for six." Vara'l informed her as he forced himself through a series of breathing exercises as he warred to try and regain some more control of his body. A body that felt sapped of a lot of strength in its current state. "Right now, its just..the current state of the implants." He sighed. "If we go now, I can manage it, though we should check on the other senior staff enroute."

"Alright, but we'll take it slow sir. If you think you'll need to stop, just say it. We'll stop. The last thing we need is someone falling halfway down the station." Kaylee said. This was when she took the time to double check her things. Her uniform was not exactly as neat as it should be, so she tried to smoothen it out, and quickly redid her hair. She wanted to at least look presentable. "As soon as we get to medical, we can start figuring this out, and look into some more serious issues." She meant life support. She doesn't know if its going to last too much longer, but wants to make sure everyone with her will be fine first.

"Agreed." He responded, slightly louder as his son indicated he had spoken a bit too quiet before. "And..that seems best, though lets ah..stop near the CO's quarters on the way, if I was trapped I suspect any other senior staff in quarters probably will have been trapped as well and might need help out." The Romulan observed simply before he then continued on to say. "Then..we go to medical."

Fun fact about Bandit: she was leash-trained, and she liked to have nightly 'walks'. Nightly? However night worked on a Starbase. It was during one of these walks that there was one brief loud klaxon noise and everything shut down, leaving him alone in the dark with a spooked cat. She calmed down quick after some petting, though, and then took quite well to the dim light - the perfect time for cats to hunt. As she pounced on a nearby piece of lint, he said, "No time for that now, Bandit," and made his way to the turbolift - only to find it inaccessible. Coming back here, he pondered what to do. The tubes? He could climb those. It was just like back when he was an Ensign. Bandit, being a cat, would have no trouble climbing either - but was it wise to take her with him? Maybe not, but he didn't want to leave her alone. Maybe he could drop her off with someone else? He'd leave her back in his quarters, but he couldn't get the doors open. Ah, but there was one door open. He poked his head in, addressing Kaylee and Co. "Everything okay in here?" (edited)

Vara'l, as he spotted the Captain as they poked their head in, proceeded to shake his head slightly. He then sheepishly proceeded to say, his voice slightly off tone. "Apologies sir, I'm presently totally deaf due to extensive implant failures throughout my body." He then paused a moment before he sheepishly coughed and added. "I..assume you ah..asked if everything was okay?" After he uttered that, he briefly glanced to his son and then to the captain. "It'd appear there's been extensive power failures sir, emergency power seems to be active but..bar that." He trailed off then and visibly winced as his body cried out once more about the lack of active implanted tech. (edited)

"Everything seems to be fine with us sir, aside from the malfunctioning of the station! We were just coming up with a plan, in fact, sir." Kaylee explained. Since Vara'l had practically explained everything else, far better than she could've put it.

Faced with Captain M Mo, Telim proceeded to half hide behind and to the side of his dad. While he did so, because new person plus anxiety, the kid continued to translate for his dad when people spoke, his hands quick as he signed with a proficiency born of fluency. Telim quite fluent in sign, especially for his age.

Well. He looked bad. From a glance, it was possible this man was liberated Borg, which meant he might have nanites in his blood that just shut off. And Mo's ability to communicate with him was limited, considering he didn't know sign language. Actually, the universal translators weren't working at all right now, so he hoped everyone would be able to speak Standard. He looked at Matryx. "This man is on a time limit. I trust your judgement as to how to proceed from here, but I don't think you 'ave long -" he turned to Kaylee - "So whatever your plan is, be quick about it. What've you got so far?"

Vara'l very briefly looked pained at the captain when the other proceeded to say he was on a time limit then glanced to his son. Worried as to how Telim might react to what the Captain had just proceeded to say.

Telim stared at the Captain for a moment and then hugged his father tightly. Time limits never sounded good. He hated them in exams, he'd hated them..when his mom. Well. He hated them for many reasons and this one scared him.

"Well, we don't know how far this blackout has gone, sir, so we were going to get the Commander up to medical, then I'd head to engineering to see how the other systems are managing, of course, trying to help people who need help along the way." Kaylee, all of a sudden, lost complete confidence in her plan having to explain it to a Captain. The Captain. Jeez. Hopefully its good enough. She was never really the 'plan' type. She would offer up knowledge she has, and follow whatever everyone else came up with that sounded decent.

He sighed, then nodded. "Hoisting him up the tubes doesn't sound great, but I can't think of any alternatives right now." Even with Matryx here, he couldn't use any medical gadgets and gizmos to help Vara'l, and he needed more intensive care than that anyway. Even if they fixed one of the turbolifts, the ion storm would break it again. If they even had one single working replicator, he could make an anti-grav device that would make getting through the tubes easier... But they didn't. He was out of ideas. "Sorry, but I'm only poppin' my head in for a moment - need to get to Command." He would've liked it if someone came along with him in case he fell and broke his neck, but it wasn't necessary. Looking around, it seemed like this was not a good place to leave a cat - the door was wide open. He wondered briefly if Telim might want to look after her, but felt bad saddling him with that all of a sudden. With that, he left - and it looked like Bandit was coming to the tubes with him.

"I can climb safely sir." The Romulan responded softly. When they then departed, Vara'l looked to Kaylee and then to his son before he then proceeded to speak again. "..We should begin to head to the Jeffries tubes." Vara'l then looked to Essen. "I'm aware the Commander will likely say I'm unfit for duty Lieutenant, but whenever we find people again, I need you to pass the word to tactical personnel that we're under emergency response conditions." He informed them. "All crew to stations if able, if not, they're to try to report to medical or nearest triage station, if any have been set up."

After a brief moment of planning next steps, anyone who wouldn't be staying in the quarters headed off to make the ~~very fun, definitely not stressful and physically gruelling~~ journey to their workplace or to triage in the mess hall.