Star Trek: Starbase 777

In the turbolift, going from A to B was Quinn, working away on the Gamma shift for a change. They had just been on a 'house' call to check up on a Risian Ensign who had someone managed to catch a Denobulan flu despite having not left the starbase for the past four weeks. Hand clasping the handle of their medical bag and noise reduction earplugs firmly plugging their ears, if this was going to be the pace of the rest of their shift they wouldn't have a single complaint.

7

7

Five stepped in with a jovial little hum, stretching their arms up above their head. They'd been up for hours, but they were still quite tired. "Good morning," they said to the good doctor-- and, ah, they had earplugs in. Awkward. Five just waved instead.

3

Adding to the turbolift party in walked Shane, looking groggy and bored. Seemingly he hadn't been able to sleep and was headed to the gym wearing his Starfleet branded hoodie and shorts. He ambled into the turbolift half asleep.

3

As the elevator came to a halt and people got in Quinn gave a nod and very low wave with their spare hand to Five. Despite having the earplugs in they were the fancy kind that let you hear people talking, so they definitely heard the friendly 'good morning' they had received. "Morning." They greeted in turn, eye contact only briefly being made as the MCPO entered the turbolift. Next entered a Commander, whom received a simple nod as well. How did the turbolift suddenly go from one to three people so quickly?

4

Ding, and the turbolift stopped again. This time it was Talos who entered, clad in sportswear and holding a water bottle, ready to go to the gym. That's what 4am was for, right? That was a completely reasonable, not-stupid time. Her regen cycle aways had her waking up early anyway. She noticed Shane's attire - looks like she wasn't the only person heading to the fitness suites.

5

Of course it stopped again... It was almost as if 4am meant nothing when people had different body clocks and were on different shifts or something. It was, however, when the doors opened and the literal Deputy Commander of the starbase stepped in that Quinn's complaints quickly shut up in their own head as if they could be heard. Once again, a respectful nod was given to Talos.

4

The lift stopped and Vara stepped in awkwardly, she was wearing a full black tuxedo with a long coat falling behind her as she walked, a masquerade mask and purple calling cards in the pocket of her coat (she was in the holodeck leave her alone). She coughed as she stepped in. “So uh, how’s the weather at 4 am?”

7

Through the speakers of the turbolift there was the sudden sound of the red alert klaxon, although it only lasted through the first ‘woooooop’ before it cut off. False alarm? Couldn’t be – for a mere second later, the lights went off. The turbolift shuddered, plummeted – but then slowly slid to a halt as the emergency breaks started working.

3

"Now look what you've done. You broke it," Five told Vara, deadpan, though soon broke into a smile to show they were joking.

Vara yelled out in fear at the sudden jump, and soon leaped like Scooby Doo into the arms of Talos. “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD-“ She paused as they stopped. “Oh hey! We’re alive!”

3

While the turbolift plummeted Shane took a bang to the head; good thing there wasn't too much up there aside from 'planes cool'. "Ow." He groaned after the lift halted. "The hell was that? Did we overload the lift or something?" (edited)

It was a miracle that she managed to catch this random Andorian leaping into her arms. Call it sheer instinct and sudden adrenaline, because she definitely hadn’t regained the strength to straight-up carry someone, what with the whole terrasphere incident and all. It was only after the lift stopped that she suddenly dropped Vara; and that wasn’t due to a lack of strength. Talos found herself suddenly blinded by optics going offline, and unable to hold the weight of both herself and Vara as a feeling of numbness very rapidly washed its way up her spine. Instantly, her legs started to buckle.

6

4

Vara immediately slammed against the ground as soon as she was dropped, letting out a low pitched wine as she hit the ground. “Owww. Oh! Captain Talos!” She said as she struggled up to look at the fallen captain. “Shit, we need to get her to a medic or a tech.”

Five would have offered to take a look at the turbolift. Though, if they took a step forward, they'd find their leg had locked into place, making them unable to move. Perfectly synchronized with the turbolift shutting off and the Captain dropping, Five slumped to the ground.

4

Vara blinked at the two collapsed ex-Borg. “Okay, I just wanna clarify. I didn’t break them when I stepped in.”

5

Talos had no idea of what was happening, but she figured that she had managed to drop the Andorian. "Sorry," she apologised while trying to find a hand-hold on the wall. There wasn't one, and her other leg buckled. She rather uncerimoniously slid down the wall into a seated position instead. Looking fantastic in front of your officers, Rhea! "Anyone want to explain what's going on - if you even know?"

"I can't -- my leg," Five scowled, trying to move to push themself out, but their mechanical arm wouldn't budge either. "The turbolift power, it must've gone out, but why is that affecting us? Fucking dead weight," they spat indignantly at their prosthetics, which didn't respond, as they couldn't speak. (edited)

4

"We need to get out of this lift for a start." Shane said over the ringing in his ears from his probable concussion. "Ensign give me a hand with the door lieutenant try and figure out what's wrong with the chief and captain." Shane moved toward the door in an attempt to pry it open.

Vara popped up to her feet and moved to the door, trying to open it with Shane. “What do we do if we’re not directly opposite the door?”

4

"Climb." Shane said flatly. As he began trying to pry the door with Vara.

4

"Thanks for the answer," she stated rather bluntly, to the point it was difficult to tell if she was joking or serious. "Really though - explanation, please? Anyone want to tell me what's going on? I can't see, so I can't exactly tell."

"They're trying to get the doors open. There's no lights on, not even emergency lights, and the lift is on emergency brakes." Five tried to use their good leg to scooch closer to the Captain. "On your left, sir. Five, ACOO. My prosthetics are dead, can hardly move a muscle..."

2

"Thank you," she replied to Five, glad for both the explanation and the mention of where they were currently positioned. No lights, emergency breaks, doors not opening by the sounds of it. "Something's fried the station's power - and by the sounds of it, it's been strong enough to take out our Borg cybernetics, too."

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?

Five swore under their breath. "What about nanoprobes..? You don't think -- ah. The lights are back on. Emergency lights. Means life support is functional again, at least, but.."

"Surely there's enough air in the station to last like 24 hours even if life support goes fully offline?" Shane asked, his limited knowledge of non-fighter of shuttle based engineering showing.

As red alert briefly rang out for all of a second before stopping, Quinn's attention immediately perked up. What followed was nothing short of horrific, in their mind. The turbolift shuddering as the lights went out, only to begin falling before the emergency brakes kicked in, knees almost buckling from the force of the brakes. Stood in the middle of the lift they couldn't help but breathe quite heavily for a moment, swallowing hard once it had come to a stop, their earplugs no longer functioning as intended due to their power also now being dead. Looking around the blackness surrounding them, the Junior Doctor's mind very quickly rushed from panic to Starfleet training to medical training. Despite thinking it a terrible idea to open the doors when no one could even see anything yet, Quinn decided to keep their mouth shut and instead open their medical kit and try to find their flashlight. "If your prosthetics are dead and the lift is dead I wouldn't be surprised if everything in here is dead." They stated plainly, their tone flat as per usual, as they finally found what felt like their flashlight. Attempting to turn it on, of course nothing happened. With a sigh they put it back in their bag. "Yep, my flashlight is dead as well." They continued, only for the emergency lighting to kick in. "Oh, good." They said plainly, only to now be able to properly see the chaos surrounding them. The Captain, the ACOO, both on the ground, while the others tried to work on opening the door. "Oh, not good. Does anyone have any injuries or medical concerns at this time? I mean, besides prosthetics."

“I’m good! Just trying to get this door open! Also sorry for jumping into you captain! That was a mistake!” She said as she worked to open. “Not as much as trying to do a shaft climb, not fun! At least from experience.”

"I hit my head on the way down, feels like a concussion from the tinnitus." Shane replied to Quin's question.

"Bit lightheaded, doc." Five cracked a weak smile, reaching up to rub at their eye. "Besides that, I'm feeling fine."

Vara nodded as she looked to Five. “[Hey, at least I didn’t break it.]” She said in full Romulan, getting raised in a Romulan orphanage would do that to you. Of course, she didn’t notice the dialect change. “[Come you bloody door!]”

Five stared blankly at Vara for a moment, brows furrowing. "Sorry, Ensign, what was that...? I didn't-- ah, fuck," they smacked their flesh hand against their forehead, "UT must be down."

Vara blinked. “[The fuck did you just say to me. Oh shit is the UT down? Damn it all to hell].” She said, again in Romulan.

Running through quite a few too many thoughts in their head, Quinn couldn't help but feel the weight of the situation falling on them with every passing second. "One concussion, one light headed, the UT is dead, and..." They rummaged around in their bag again, pulling out their Medical tricorder to confirm their theory. "...And none of my powered equipment works. Splendid." They stated flatly. Sighing, they tapped their commbadge as they closed their bag, seeing no point in looking further through it right now. "Annnnd comms are down, too."

“[Oh hey! I can swear on the job now! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck open you fucking door!]” She said as she continued to try at opening the door.

1

"Life support depends on how much the backup power system is having to account for. If the universal translator is down, then it's already not working completely right - that should have come back online by now. At least we've still got gravity, oxygen..." The important things, you know? "If you try to open the doors a little you can see if the turbolift has stopped at a particular deck. If not, you'll have to go for the hatch above - it'll open into the turbolift shaft, and directly behind those are the jefferies tubes."

Turbolift doors were dang heavy. After what probably constituted as an entire workout, they started to open slightly... Only to face the side of the turbolift shaft and no specific deck in sight.

5

6

"Door is open. We'll have to go through to the tubes," Five reported to the Captain. "I can't see that happening with the two of us, though..."

"Fucks sake!" Shane was annoyed but at least he got a good back workout in with all of the pulling on the doors. "Right upper panel it is."

4

Vara took a breath as she quickly leaped to the top of the lift and pulled down the upper panel (she was experienced in this kinda thing), and crawled up to the top of the lift and quickly began to look around for nearby entry points into the tubes. “[Let’s see…]”

It would appear that it was time to get climbing, but there was no way in hell she was going through a vertical jefferies tube while blind. There was a popular belief that most Starfleet captains had a death wish, but she didn't. "I'm pretty sure that things wouldn't go very well if I tried. You uh, three?" There were three people other than herself and the ACOO, right? "Get up there, head to the next deck. I'd say go straight to either ops or the command deck, but you'd be climbing for days." This would have been bad enough on a starship, never mind a starbase with 48390482309483290 decks. That was an overstatement, but you got the gist.

5

Five grumbled under their breath. They had to get to Operations, but they couldn't do that with a one leg and one arm. On opposite fucking sides, too. They dropped their head back against the wall, forcing themself to smile reassuringly. "Good luck, you all. Please be careful.."

Listening to the Captain speak, looking up at the upper hatch as she spoke, Quinn couldn't help but feel quite a degree of conflict in what they should do considering their duty of care. Abandon two people in a turbolift for god knows how long without any way of contacting the outside or leaving, or go with the others and try to help elsewhere. "I must admit, Captain, I am conflicted. I have a duty of care to everyone, including yourself and the Chief. I feel like abandoning both of you when neither of you are in a fit state to leave goes against that." They said honestly, tone of voice shifting from their usual flat one to sounding genuinely, honestly conflicted.

4

"We'll need to come back for you both." Shane said as he looked around the turbolift shaft trying to see how far the next deck was and if he could make out the deck or section number.

[“Hey! We need to get a move on, you coming doc?”] She spoke into the main hold of the lift, not that Quinn could understand her.

"I'm more than fine, Lieutenant. I've got my phaser if the worst happens, and I've still got an arm and a leg. You can go look for help." Five glanced sideways to Tewari. "Final word, Captain..?"

"Final word is go, you'll be more use out there than you will be in here with us." She had no idea who she was speaking to at this point, but someone had mentioned being conflicted.

"I'll see if there's a way to get partial power down here once we're on the next deck, maybe if I can dump some energy from a phaser array into one of the turbolift control nodes it would get you moving." Shane said thinking out loud, the phasers would probably have some power still.

"Aye, now get a move on. Lord knows how much time we have.." Five huffed. This was easily a contender of Top 10 Worst Shifts Of All Time, seconded to when they and their then-fiancé had contracted a life threatening disease.

1

Hearing the reassurance from the Chief, and then the final word from the Captain herself, Quinn glanced downward towards the floor, before looking back at both of them, nodding at the Chief (being as they were the only one who could see) before deciding it best to follow orders, given the lack of threat to life. "I agree. But don't count on your phaser to help you, it's probably equally as dead as my tricorder if all batteries got drained." They stated plainly, before turning their attention to somehow climbing out of a fucking turbolift. Briefly opening their bag up again, they reached in and took out their basic trauma kit, the only thing that didn't actually need power, before putting the bag on the floor and the kit in their coat pocket. "Feel free to use my bag as a bludgeon if someone tries to kidnap you." They deadpanned, before climbung up to Shane and Vara on the outside of the top of the turbolift, officially confirming that they had a fear of the outside of turbolifts. Why did it feel so wrong to not be inside them?

Five raised an eyebrow at that. "Bag to your left, by your leg. 's a trauma kit. I'll take it." They pulled it into their lap, staring idly at the emergency lights. "I'd like to see someone try to drag me, though..."

She listened to the sound of the other officers clambering up through the hatch and into the turbolift shaft then the jefferies tubes beyond. It didn't feel particularly great to be sending off a team to do something themselves instead of leading them, but alas. "...You reckon the jefferies tubes are wide enough for them to give us a piggy-back?" Talos added off of Fives' own comment, hoping to lighten the mood. If the two of them were going to be stuck in here then they might as well make it a not-awful time. "Something tells me no."

Five chuckled. "Maybe they'd put us in potato sacks, try to drag us that way. Like the little backpacks parents put their children in, but...huge," they posed, head tipped thoughtfully, finger tapping against their metallic leg. "Oh, or.. maybe a huge magnet, like the ones in old Terran cartoons, the red ones." It certainly helped to lift the old Chief's spirit.

3

"You know, I've never thought of that before. If you pointed a giant magnet at us, would we go flying towards it?" ...Or would it rip out your cybernetics? Eugh. "...Maybe not the best idea. I'm sure they won't take long to come back for us - or send somene else. Surely the whole station has worked out what's going on. They'll all be making their way to their workstations just now, figuring out how to un-do whatever this is..." Wishful thinking.

3

Five wrinkled their nose at the prospect of going flying, but Tewari seemed not to like that idea either, quickly switching off it. "Yeah, I hope for the best. I wish there was something I could do. My leg's starting to numb." They picked their other one up, stretching experimentally. "I'm half tempted to take a nap..."

"What shift were you on?" She asked, casting a sidewards glance to the ACOO before realising that she couldn't see them. If you ever wondered why she hadn't been smart for the likes of the science division, this was an example of why. "Normally I'd encourage people sleeping after night shifts, but if your nanoprobes have been fried, then... Maybe it's best to stay awake."

"Ah, you're right. I've still got another... four hours? 'til I can sleep." Five dragged their hand down their face with a sigh. Right, rational thoughts. Don't focus on how tired and bored you are in the meantime. "I'll try my best to keep up. Perky as I can be, anyway.. I could really go for a coffee right about now." *

"When we get out of here I'll make you coffee myself. I'm more of a tea person so that's not to say that it'd be any good, but I'll try. ...Or just ask the replicator, that might be the better bet." Normally she was keeping up morale for a bridge crew, not for one person. Why was it more difficult to keep a conversation going like this when it was one-to-one? "Think about what you want for breakfast. Not long and we'll be out of here, everything will be sorted, and you can have it."

3

Apparently there had been a bouncy ball in the pocket of her jacket all this time (it was definitely something she'd have on her, don't question it,) and so Talos had taken to bouncing it off the wall and trying to anticipate where it would return to. So far she had caught it a couple of times but had it hit her in the face more often. After it smacking her directly in the nose this time, she let it drop to the floor and roll away. "Bouncy ball's yours if you want it," she told Five.

Five hummed idly in response, grateful for the distraction, and Tewari's kindness. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. "What's your favorite color?" they queried curiously, desperate not to lose their mind. "D' you have any pets?" (edited)

"Uh... Not to be the stereotypical Command officer, but probably red. I think it's the thing that suits me most, y'know?" Darker reds, like burgundy, alongwith more sunset-colours had always been her go-to. "And no pets, but I was thinking about getting one. I'm not sure what to get, though. Do you have pets? Have any suggestions?"

"I've got a cat. He's one of Bandit's litter, Captain Mo's cat. Black and white, and he's got a little spot on his nose. His name is Holly." He smiled a little. "You know, I take him to Dæhlenal, one of the vet clinics on board? You could always ask a vet for a suggestion, based on your hobbies, and what time you have..." Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. "And there's always the robots."

3

"I wouldn't have clocked the station commander as a cat person." What type of person would she have clocked him as? Good question. So far, the man had seemed to be a bit of an enigma. "That's a shout, though. I'll maybe see if there's a pet store on board as well, just to see what they have available... Not sure if I'll go for it, but it would be nice. Quarters can be a bit quiet without anyone else there, pet or person." There was silence for a second before her mind wandered back to what she had been saying previously saying. "You know, I don't know much about the other senior staff on board yet. Want to give me the run-down?"

"Ah.. I don't know all of them, actually. I was friends—" Friends, were they really?... Well, she wasn't here to refute that, and they'd like to think so.. "with the former ACMO, Niwayiva, she's lovely, very kind and very hardworking. Allan, ACEO, is fun to be around as well. He's stubborn as a damn mule, but he's got a big heart. Oh, Vara'l is a good friend of mine as well. He's...ah, he's a bit of a handful, but I mean that lovingly. Has a tendency to get himself into trouble." They counted down on their working hand. "The Captain interviewed me for Holly, and I bring him to visit every now and again, so from what I've gathered he's quite alright. Dagis is the COO, she's my boss and a delight to work with, and -- oh, One, we've been talking a bit recently! They're science, I think, we pass book recommendations back and forth and I send them some of my favorite teas to try." A little breathless and a lot happier, Five realized they'd let the ball roll by their feet. "If I've met anyone else, I can't recall at the moment. But, ah, I hope the station is alright for you so far?" (edited)

7

The Captain was quite happy to let the ACOO go on, leaving their speech uninterrupted. It was always interesting to hear different people’s perceptions of the folk they worked with. It sounded as if the Chief here got along with most people well – and from what Talos was hearing, the Chief seemed to be a fine person themselves, too. “Vara’l is the CTO, right? Vara’l tr’Hara? There’s always someone who has to be a magnet for trouble. I’ve barely had time to meet anyone yet so I’m completely new to all of this, but it sounds like everyone gets along with you well. That’s a good sign. It’s always such a drag when officers have some weird dislike for one another. …There isn’t any sort of drama that I should know about, is there?”

"Oh, no, not at all. Not that I know of. Engineering and Operations, we get along like a house on fire," Five chirped cheerfully. "There's some tension every now and then, but it's usually personal rather than professional... as you can expect from any station, really. At least in my experience. Did you-- where did you transfer from? A ship, right?" They'd heard bits and pieces, not much else. "What was it like over there?"

It was good to hear that there weren't any noticeable dramas. Every Starfleet installation had them, but in some places it was really obvious. Different divisions could have serious beef. "Eh, a ship... Kind of. I was somewhere else for a while." She didn't want to turn this into an angst-fest by going into the topic of the Terrasphere. That wouldn't do them any good for morale! "But before then, I was on my own ship. The USS Rapture, a Presido-class. There are a few people on board who once served on it too. What a beauty of a ship. She was the perfect tactical-command vessel."

Before Five could respond, the lights of the turbolift flickered before being replaced with emergency lights again, and the turbolift slowly began to move.

4

3

21:00

After a bit of sputtering, the doors revealed the #science-labs.