Star Trek: Starbase 777

A room full of consoles and other machines. Odd to put something this important near a restaurant where anyone could walk through the door to talk to it, but it WAS the manager.

A flickering hologram, pacing, stopped as soon as they came through the door. "I'm sorry for all this. I hope one day you'll be able to stop by my restaurant and try one of our delectable cheeses - if this whole thing hasn't put you off it completely!" For some reason, he kind of looked like if dracula was also a magician.

4

As the first to walk in, he looked around at the consoles first, the engineer in him engineering, before he looked at the hologram. "Oh! Hey, yeah, um- I'm Allan, assuming you're Brien? It looked, um, like it'd be pretty nice if it weren't for the mess," he laughed a little, "would you happen to know anything about.. well, all the... cheese? The stuff that's taking over, I mean." (edited)

Essen followed behind Allan... Looking at this man who she now assumed was Brien. "Hi, Brien," Essen said after Allan. "I'm Essen. I'm the other one who talked to you on the phone, heh. Yes, do you happen to know what's going on with all this cheese?"

He shrugged, sitting on thin air and swinging his legs. Hologram things. "Unfortunately, I am not entirely sure what happened myself. I know it's some kind of fungal biotech capable of merging with me, to the point where it has granted me a level of self-awareness and control over my actions I was never allowed. I was always dully aware, but right now, I feel... I feel, yes, is the word. I feel delight, anguish, taste, and pain. Unfortunately, the same thing that grants me such awareness is also going to kill me."

Essen's eyes widened. She looked at this man with a visible concern now. "You're... dying?" Essen asked. "This fungal biotech is killing you? Then we need to stop it!"

Allan frowned. So this cheese could give this AI sapience, it seemed, and yet it also was... killing, somehow.. "Is there... do you know where it is? Like, where your programming is, um.. somewhere.. the holoprojectors?" He started looking for where those would be.

"No. I'm living." The holoprojector was on the ceiling, like a light. "I just don't think I'm entirely compatible with this technology. The biotech simply doesn't know what to do with me. Have you seen any creatures skittering about?"

"We.. heard one, earlier, but got distracted by the robots trying to kill us," he explained, looking at the ceiling holoprojector, "why?"

"There's little tentacled creatures running around. I swear I remember them, but I had to shut off much of my long-term memory capability to continue functioning. I'll turn it back on if I'm ever fixed. Can't remember half my favourite recipes." He held up his hand and project an image of a creature. It was a bad image, though. All you could make out was one eye and five thin tentacles. "Everything else that comes onto this ship dies except them."

2

Essen's skin crawled once she heard confirmation... "So those weren't rats or mice..." She said. "But tentacled creatures? And everything else that comes onto the ship dies except them... So they're like decomposers?" She asked. "Well-- since you had to turn off long term memory. It wouldn't be entirely fair to ask." Then she thought... "Well, Brien, if I may ask, what do you remember? Anything you have that can help us out. That way we can help save you."

"I remember my first priority was getting everyone on the ship off it. I should warn you that, as a result, there are no escape pods on this ship. I remember... Hmmm..." He tapped his chin. "Travelling a long way, securing some important cargo, and travelling back."

"Ah, so... this might've gotten in on the cargo, then..?" He looked up at the holoprojector yet again. "Do you know, eh, give or take, how much time you - and we, for that matter, though we're the ones with the EV suits - have here? Like, obviously, we'll figure this out, but if you're, like... at a huge risk right now, I can take a look and try and slow it down a little? If you get what I mean?"

He floated above Allan so they were making eye contact. "Hard to say. I'm at least half dead at this point. I know I seem articulate, but you have no idea how much energy I'm using up to talk to you. I might have to switch to audio-only soon."

1

He hummed a little as he thought about it - he didn't really want this guy to just fizzle away while they searched for the tentacle things. "I can try to fix you up just a little bit for now, if you'd let me? Rearrange your energy flow."

A long pause. "Are you sure? This is unfamiliar technology even to me. You might make me worse."

Given the situation and how it seemed very much like a engineering and science thing, Vara'l just covered the door for now. He hoped the others could save this person but he reckoned that as the sum total of his knowledge of such technologies as a AI core was how one could have trashed the thing with the application of 'percussive non-maintenance' he remained relatively silent and just watched the door. (edited)

Essen felt the need to speak up now. "No, nononono," Essen reassured Brien. "The last thing we want to do is make you worse. If there's anything Starfleet stands for it stands for making sure everyone gets back safe from every mission if possible. You're no exception. Allan is our Assistant Chief of Engineering, he has proven experience under his belt."

"I ... I do, but he's got a really good point, I could - the least I could do is look at it, without changing anything. If that's something you would be alright with?" He asked, definitely not wanting to risk things when it came to someone's life like this.

"You want to open me up and look at me? Take me out to dinner first. The restaurant's right there." He laughed — — The laugh sharply ended. Lights dimmed. Sirens stopped. As though there was nothing in the room. Gravity lifted for a second. All in the room floated. Then everything flickered back on, but not the hologram. Audio only. "...Okay." (edited)

3

2

He laughed too, genuinely amused at Brien's comment, before he also stopped when the the glitch occurred. Glad that the gravity wasn't off for long enough to drop them from too up high, he sighed and then let out a little laugh again. "Ah, I.. was just about to say that as great as you look, there wasn't a need for the visual energy at the moment. I'd be glad to, honestly, after this whole thing is solved and over," he said, looking up at the holoprojector and then at the rest of the group. "I think if someone could lift me up on their shoulders there, I could reach it..? Unless you've got a console further down with the same access, Brien."

"There's consoles everywhere in this room and they can all access my software. I'll give you permissions." Something about the voice sounded a little flatter, like it was too tired to pretend to not be artificial.

Xuan, who was here the whole time looked at Allan and gave him a nod as if communicating that they were going to pick him up. With their fencing background, Xuan had fantastic shoulders and thighs. They did a deep squat so Allan could get onto their shoulders.

1

"Oh hell yeah, thanks Xuan, let's get up there," just for funsies! They could afford a little bit of fun, didn't matter if it was a console or the the ceiling holoprojector circuits, he just had to access the code, and getting lifted up was the more fun option, really. He got on their shoulders easily, clearly someone who was used to this sort of thing (chicken fight games in the ocean were no joke!!). "Aight, I'm good to be lifted up when you're good," he said to Xuan.

"I will go slow," And slow they went! Like a forklift , but it was some Trill/Romulan and a human. Xuan stood at a very tall 6'7-- a height that they got from their fully Trill father. Their Romulan mother was actually normal sized at like 5'8 or something. "Consider yourself lifted," They said once they straightened out their legs. Not locking their knees though, that was dangerous!

2

"Let's fucking goooo," Allan laughed a little once he was fully lifted up, opening up the little panel and holding his tricorder to it. "Okay, like I said, I'm just gonna look at the code, not change anything, so you might... feel something when you're live like this, is that still okay?" It was never really custom practice to work on an android or otherwise sapient technical being's code while online, but... it seemed like that was how they'd have to do it here.

"Sure." He was a little worried if he got turned off he'd never come back on again anyway.

3

"Alright, going in, then," he said as he hit the button on the tricorder to inspect the code, doing exactly what he said: only viewing it, not pulling any editing software up, trying to look for what was drawing the most energy away from the AI and if there was anything else of note that would stick out.

The robots, probably. Wirelessly charging all the time, and yet doing naught but attack people. Constant futile attempts at repairs were also a power drain.

"Alright, it's... all the robots are drawing away a lot of energy from you," he said, scrolling through... oh, that was a lot of them, yeah. "Do you think if I shut them off - or even put them on a sleep mode, that'd help? If you think it'd hurt you somehow, though, don't worry, we - it's just a suggestion."

A hum. "If I would, I could. It's pretty hard for me to establish a connection with even one of them. I had to try pretty hard to contact you guys today."

"I mean.. severing the connection between you two, for now. Cutting them out of the code. But that sounds.." he bit his lip and then sighed. "...pretty dangerous, if you've never done that, yeah. Hm. Xuan, put me down, I, uh. Got the connection link."

Maggie stood there awkwardly. She looked around quietly as she watched the AI, this was so weird, and she didn’t just mean his facial hair. “Would just like, destroying them like we have done help?”

"Alright," Xuan said as they slowly lower Allan down, using their strong thigh and core muscles to help them.

"Thanks," he smiled at Xuan when he was put down, looking at Maggie briefly and then back at a random console as she asked her question. "Maybe? I don't think we've been destroying them, though, just stunning them? I think they still try to keep the connection when they're stunned, for some reason."

"If we are able to monitor the fact the robots are constantly charging, and I'm assuming we also have access to power management and all the robots have batteries, why not reallocate the load priority?" The mechanic spoke up with a shrug as she perused through the consoles. "We may not be able to establish a connection with the robots directly and tell them to buzz off, but we might have access to whatever is wirelessly charging them, and shut off non-essential things around the ship. We can shut those off for now and reallocate the power load to the AI core." Maya explained "We won't need to deal with stunning or destroying the robots, though they will probably still run around, but we will have more power to help Brien out."

Allan nodded, already scrolling through the same things Maya was looking at after she'd suggested the idea. "Mm, yeah, that's a good idea, if we can't just cut them out conpletely - redirect the power source, yeah.. we just have no idea how the power source is even coming in in the first place given all the mess, but assuming we can figure that out... in a safe enough way, that is - that might be the plan."

"Doesn't all electricity in a starship come from the warp core and through the EPS conduits?" Paco inquired, a bit confused. "Like. uhh.. All the power systems are probably still the same, but from what we have seen so far, a lot of it is probably filled with.. uhm..." With out a better word to articulate it, Paco gently smacked a hand on a table with an audible thud like James May laying down a block of- "Cheese."

"If that's the case, Paco," Essen pointed out. "Then we'd need to move fast. If that's the key to redirecting the power from the robots to Brien then the power conduits might be the obstacle holding us back. All this cheese is gunking up everything." Essen thought for a second. Tactically. "This is a long shot. If we redirect the power to Brien could he somehow give more power to the doors or disseminate more of the acid to dissolve the gunk ship wide, maybe to the emergency fire sprinklers? If we give Brien more power and the cheese gets dissolved maybe more systems will start to work again and put less strain on the ship, and less strain on Brien. Like I said, long shot." (edited)

"The stuff blocking the doors is not the same material as the cheese," Brien said. "There's no guarantee that the acid would work on it. Additionally, much of the cheese has mimicked my structure and getting rid of it all at once would cause the ship to break apart, ejecting you all into space."

WIIIIIDE eyes when she heard Brien say that. "Ah..." she replied shakily. "Good point. So whatever we do we can't get rid of all the cheese at once or risk turning into space popsicles." (edited)

He thought back to Maya's idea, then. "Yeah, I think... redirecting the energy sounds pretty solid, then, right? Prioritizing it away from the robots instead of trying to shut them down?"

“I think that works, yes.” She said with a nod from her spot near the back.

"Yeah precisely. Shut down the chargers and shunt that power to Brien." Maya answered Allan with a thumbs up. "The robots would probably tire themselves out at some point, so thats a double win for us, I guess. Double thumbs up

"Tactically that checks out. That's step one," Essen agreed with Allan, Maggie and Maya.

Paco was just going to keep his guess of 'Ferengi Ships, and probably these robots by extension are powered by Gold Pressed Latinum and Capitalism' to himself for the time being. He just wants cheese and to do more science. (edited)

"Keep it simple for now, anyway. Sorry, but anything too complicated might just make things worse." A long, static-y sigh. "I'm getting a little tired now, so you should do what you need to do and then move onto the next room, but before that you should know that whatever it is that's taking over me doesn't feel... Malicious. It's too indecisive. It can't decide whether it wants to kill me, be me, or cooperate with me. It's just as confused by me as I am of it."

1

2

"As long as that's alright.. yeah, okay," he took a deep breath, a little worried at doing anything here, but the fact that it didn't feel malicious was... just the slightest bit comforting. "Maya, if you could shut down the chargers, I'll shunt the power over? Just.. be careful, do it one at a time if you can."

"My gut tells me that whatever this entity is, is going to be found in or at least tied to the important cargo you picked up," Essen said. "Maybe that's step two after redirecting the power. But first things first." (edited)

"Yeah, that's my guess too. And we gotta find the uhh, tentacle things," he said as he shunted the power away from the wireless chargers once Maya had shut them down, redirecting them to the rest of the ship and Brien.

With a nod, Essen agreed. "I can secure a perimeter around where you and the other engineers and scientists are working," Essen offered. "So we don't have any... 'company'... interrupting you when you redirect power." (edited)

"Already done, actually, but thanks for the offer, Lieutenant," Allan said with a smile, assuming that the console didn't spit out any weird errors at him. "Let's go look for those tentacles...?" Not a phrase he thought he'd be saying.

Widened eyes on the Vulcan girl as she looked and noticed the power indeed redirected. "Well that was easy."

Achille grimaced a little, not looking forward to having to look for the tentacles, but about as ready as he would ever be. He was a cadet now, after all, he needed to be ready for anything.

"Maybe we can scan for lifesigns to see if they show up on it?" Allan suggested, logging back out of the console to prevent any unnecessary power draw from that, too.

"I... can do that, if you don't mind..." He offered as he pulled out a tricorder so he could do... some scanning!

Didn't work. Long-distance scans were too disturbed by all the cheeto dust in the atmosphere.

2

"So, it didn't work, so I think we will be going in blind... at least... the long distance scan didn't work." He spoke, shaking his head slightly before he tried to think of another course of action.

"There's a lot of sharp objects and hazards in the next room. Be careful." It's time for the platforming section!

2

"Damn, aight, well, thanks for doing it anyways, Cadet, ah.." he took a deep breath, "yeah, guess we just go in the next room. Thanks, Brien, we'll... we'll be back. Promise." Bold promise to make! But it was a little bit of a reassuring thing to say, because he didn't break promises, so... clearly, that meant they'd have to all make it back just fine. Quick headcount.. and then he walked up to whatever door might lead them to the next room, then!

It was a normal, un-gunked, sliding door.

2

Essen looked to Brien. "You be careful too," Essen said. "Like Allan said. We'll be back." As she followed Allan!

They all came back in from the normal, un-gunked, sliding door.

Achille was in the AI core now, ready to move to the kitchen as soon as possible, but not before getting the idea to maybe talk to Brien... if that was possible, or if that was needed.

"What are you guys doing back in here?" The voice flickered back on, sounding almost sleepy, like he'd been having a nap.

The waypoint to the kitchen was the AI core. Essen turned to Brien who just woke up. "Hey, Brien, don't be alarmed," Essen said to him. "We're backtracking to try and find something to help us move across a big gap in the waste management room. Big piles of bubbling cheese a la lava traps... Cadet St. Martin had the idea to replicate something in the kitchen to use in that room. Do you have any insight on what we can replicate?"

"Nope." Wouldn't be much fun if he did the players' work for them, would it? "I can give you my opinions on your ideas, though."

1

"I... was thinking about replicating a polymer that was both flexible enough to be replicated in bulk and strong enough to support weight..." Achille spoke up after biting his lip. He wanted to see if his idea was even feasible in the first place.

2

"Almost like trampoline fabric?" Essen asked Achille.

He laughed at the comparison to a trampoline, imagining them all bouncing across the corridors. "Sounds great. What shape is it gonna be? One big long rectangular chunk? Or a big rope?"

"I was thinking of a big rectangular chunk, something wide enough to safely move across and long enough to get us through the corridor... if that makes sense..." He smiled slightly, happy that his ideas had been well received int he first place.

2

"Like a big plank? That's good. Maybe you could use some kind of glue to secure it wherever you put it so it doesn't wobble around." Some of the jutting spikes were a bit uneven.

1

He nodded, thinking that the glue would be a good idea. "I know a few compounds which would be good for securing whatever we end up making."

"Sure. Go for it. And replicate some first aid materials or something in case something goes wrong while you're at it, okay?" There was a hint of concern in his voice. Flesh people were fragile! (edited)

1

Another nod, he should probably also replicate some materials to patch up their suits as well -- just in case the worst happened. If that was all, he was ready to move on to the kitchen once more.

Into the kitchen you all go!

Here they come again.

"Is this what being a revolving door is like?" He laughed at his own joke.

1

"Sorry for waking you up and bothering you..." Achille spoke up before he turned to the door to the Waste Management area.

"You're doing more than enough to make up for it, don't worry." A hand materialised and gave Achille a pat-pat on the shoulder.

2

He smiled slightly, feeling a little better about his contribution to the team. But he was ready to move on and help everyone move on!

2

Back into waste management.

"Heyyy, Brien, we're back! So, we got a guest, um - told us some things, well, told her some things, if you'd like to explain, Lieutenant?" He offered Essen a smile.

1

Essen, with the truckle on her shoulder, approached Brien. She took a breath, knowing she could get worked up from what she saw, and then nodded to Allan before she looked to Brien. "Yes, well, Brien," Essen said. "Like ACEO Allen said, this little guy here linked psionically with me and told me just how it got here. I saw some images of him and others of his kind stuffed in a cage, then escaping from said cage to try and search for food and biomaterial the Mouthfeel. I also saw images of them reforming this ship, its atmosphere, and its tech to fit their habitual and survival needs so they could try and send it back to their home planet... any of this ring a bell, and do you care to explain what that's all about?" (edited)

It's the boys (gender neutral) back again. Xuan stood close by Essen and Allan, hoping not to be caught in another acid sneeze or something.

1

"Oh, it's that tentacled creature!" Brien said, voice coming from all around them. "I don't know. I locked off my memories, remember? So they were in a cage... This was the cargo, then? That's what's been changing me? And it's doing it so it can breathe here and steer me back to its home?"

3

"Pretty much, yeah, I think - it'd explain the ... randomness, I guess, of how it's trying to interact with the technology here, indecisive, as if it's just trying to get it to work in a way that works for them, not knowing if melding with it or destroying it will help, I guess, just kinda.. experimenting?" He tilted his head, not that Brien could see that. "Also, you?" (edited)

"That's what I saw," Essen said. "Images, too, he didn't tell me, he showed me."

"Yes, it seems like he has.. telepathic abilities of a sort," Xuan glanced at Essen and then back to Brien, with the same dead-looking eyes as always.

"Me. I'm the whole ship. The AI is just an interface. Wasn't that obvious?" As he mentioned it, the AI hologram appeared, then flickered out again.

"Interesting," Xuan nodded, completely unfazed, just accepting whatever Brien said.

"Oh. Um... not exactly, no, but - okay, yeah." He was the entire ship? Okay, maybe there was a bit to his tone that implied he was just a little more interested now than before. If only Serin knew about this.. "Hey, save your visual energy - so you.. don't know where the cargo was from, though? Would it be in your logs?"

"I'm interested to get a view of the logs as well," Essen remarked. "Those can give us a bit of a clearer picture."

"A lot of my data is corrupted. Go ahead and use my console, maybe you'll be able to make sense of it." The console lit up, making sci-fi beeping noises.

"Oh - yeah, if you're giving me permission to," he said, using the console again like before upon being given said permission. Back into the code! Looking for any sorts of shipping logs, probably the most recent..

Essen watched as Allan went over to the logs, and took a breath to center herself further. She turned her head to look at the truckle. "You alright, lil buddy?" Essen asked it. She held up her other hand to it. "High five?"

3

Maya had mostly been here for most of the time, carefully shutting down the wireless chargers to get Brien more power. :p. "Restoring corrupted data should be easy enough." she said with a shrug as she helped Allan with that. (edited)

"So all of this is because of animal trafficking? And he has been trying to readapt the ship to suit its needed environment?" Paco asked, totally not because his writer was asleep and trying to backread everything else that had happened. (edited)

"Brien hasn't readapted the ship," Essen said. "But these lil guys have."

"Yeah, 'He' as in those little guys. he who readapted the ship to suit their environmental needs. Or do they have different pronouns?" Paco asked

"Ah," she replied. "Huh... I don't know about their pronouns. We'll have to find out when we figure out their language!"

"It is possible they have a different concept of pronouns all together. Perhaps different genders that we have not encountered?" Xuan liked to consider themself an 'other' gender. They were not quite a man, not quite a woman, not even genderless. Maybe they were Sul'hoth/worm gender. "They are very impressive though."

There was a corrupted log. Shipping manifest: 'truckle'. Intelligent, warp capable lifeform. Languages: psionic and written. Value: a large amount of gold-pressed latinum. Acquired from: code corrupted. Cleanup needed.

"Alien trafficking, yes." An artificial clearing of the throat. "So here's the summary: they're trying to change me so I can fly them there, but the process of doing so will destroy the me that you know. However, curing me will almost definitely make the atmosphere here uninhabitable for them, and they will never get home." (edited)

"Alright, there's.. I can clean up the code, Maya, if you can work on getting the information that's there over to our systems? For data purposes and all." Always good to have that for a first contact situation.

"We could separate the two of you? Put them in an environment controlled area? Like some sort of.. computer partition?" Xuan suggested, watching Allan doing his lil thing, trying not to look too much at his hands.

Essen realized just how much pain the truckle went through. How all of them went through. And yet, Brien could not coexist with the truckles simultaneously. "These little guys were taken from their home, in an act of alien trafficking," Essen said, protectively looking to the truckle. "They shouldn't have to live like this." And with a sigh... "But neither should you, Brien. There has got to be a solution where we preserve you and still get these little guys home."

So it was to be put into an enclosure? A new cage? It made a distressed whine.

"Hey, nononono, Xuan didn't mean it like that," Essen said, trying to calm the truckle. "They didn't mean it like that..."

"Oh... We came here on the Eventide right? Can't we transport them there, ploop them in a room or holodeck that fits their environment and take them home after we find where they're from?" Paco suggested, feeling bad for the creatures. They must've gone through hell.

"Consider it done." Maya said with a smile and a thumbs up as she worked on transferring the information over to a data rod.

"No no, not a cage," Xuan sighed, realising they had distressed the poor creature. "But we cannot survive in this environment, Brien cannot survive in this environment. We will ensure you can get home so you can roam around, being free to spread... cheese," Xuan tried to reassure the small creature.

"Thanks, Maya," Allan said, and then he got to work on what he did best: code! He attempted to uncorrupt it via standard methods, but the cleanup needed message was throwing him off a little - he wasn't going to try deleting anything unless it implied he needed to.

"Either that, or we transfer Brien to the Eventide, while these lil guys stay here on this ship and head for their home since they've already made it their own," Essen said to Paco. "They've already done enough to make this place their home."

"Brien's the entire ship, we can't.. put this ship in the Eventide," he chimed in. "I like the idea of recreating an environment for them on the Eventide, or even a shuttle, if that'd fit them."

"I am unsure if this ship would fit on the Eventide," Xuan said, no engineer, but it seemed a little risky to have the ship on the Eventide... what if the spores escaped onto the Eventide itself and then they'd have the same problem?

"Yeah... but I think its better to bring them home... like the space whales that Kirk helped in their voyage home" Paco said to Essen. "All creatures deserve to be back in their natural environment... plus I don't think the Ferengi guy who owns this ship would like the idea loosing profit because another species commandeered it." The scientist added with a shrug.

3

4

Achille looked between everyone, staying quiet because he hadn't come up with his own thoughts on the situation yet.

"Oh, I agree with you there," Essen replied to Paco. "These little guys are getting home, if I have anything to say about it."

It hissed, unhappy with the situation for reasons too complex to express without brain blasting Essen again.

4

"It's a pity Ferenginar doesn't take first contact quite as seriously as the Federation does. If she gets a really good lawyer, Zenith - my owner - might avoid punishment for this entirely." Sigh. "Not to mention it's not like I have personhood rights. I don't even know if I'll retain my own agency once the fungus is removed."

2

"Hey, hey hey hey," Essen said to the truckle. "Shhhshhshh, it's okay, I've got you. It's okay. No one's gonna hurt you... no one." She wouldn't even mind getting brain blasted again. She just couldn't let this little guy down. Not after everything she'd done for it.

Essen was not going to get brain blasted again if Xuan had a say in it. They were already fearing Essen having any lingering side effects from the spores as it was. (edited)

By the way, code corruptn't. However, the coordinates were pretty far away. Brien could get there, but he probably wouldn't be able to get back. One warp only.

3

"Okay, the coordinates they came from are.." he read them out. "Shit, that's far as hell." He sighed, tapping the console away from the buttons as he thought. "I mean, what would you want to do, ideally, Brien? If the fungus was removed, where would you want to go, what would you want to do? If we could somehow..." he looked back to the truckle, "get them another ride home."

3

"Perhaps another ship or shuttle? On autopilot or perhaps with an android... AI companion? I believe the chief engineer had something like that?" Xuan said, randomly remembering reading the weekly working reports from senior staff where stationwide updates and projects were summarised for the rest of the crew across divisions so everyone could keep up with the new stuff that was happening.

"I would like to become a free ship, go where I please, and invite people to dine in my restaurant... So the things I was already doing, but on my own terms." Despite it all, he'd actually enjoyed managing the restaurant, and, most astoundingly, even after all this, he still loved cheese. True romance.

3

"We can always lie and say that the ship was too far gone to fix after we patch up whatever we can to keep your systems stable. And then you, Brien, can go off and be free... That's one of the options of a bunch you can choose from." She suggested with a shrug before she turned over to Xuan. "An Emergency Engineering Hologram? Ooo!"

"So why don't we give you a fresh start?" Essen asked Brien. "Like Xuan says. We can move the AI program to a new ship."

"No." That was blunt.

"But Maya, lying is bad..." Paco quietly said to his cousin.

"It's only bad when you get caught." Maya answered, half joking

"No, Xuan was saying giving the truckles a new companion, not - again, Brien's the ship, he's not moving to another one," he said, or at least that's how he saw it- "what Maya said is... wait, a no to which, Brien?"

"Yes, I suppose you could call it that," Xuan responded. "Yes, I was referring to the truckles having a new companion. We would allow Brien to keep ... well, Brien to continue as they are. With their restaurant," Although Xuan was going to stay off of cheese for a good while after this. They didn't even like cheese that much, but they would not say that aloud.

1

The audio sounded slightly closer to Allan. "I'm not just an AI program you can transplant. Would you like it if I moved your brain to a whole new body? If this ship can be fixed, I'd prefer that."

"Okay, so you were saying no to what Essen said - yeah, I didn't think so, that's why I also said no to that," he looked in the direction of the audio anyways. "We can fix the ship, it's just a matter of figuring out how to get the truckles home safely afterwards."

"Well technically some species can move entire brains to other bodies and.. ahh, that is not the point here I suppose," Xuan couldn't help but chuckle a little, touching their belly over where Sul'hoth lay, just chilling, being a fucked up worm.

"So is that a yes on patching you up, make sure the Trunkles are happy until they can be sent home and the robots can fix the rest of you, sending you off, and lying in the end?" Maya asked with a confused thumbs up. "If this is an entertainment ship, the holodecks ought to be really big, or there could be very big rooms we can keep them in and set environmental control to suit their needs."

"Maya, the robots are more broken than he is," he said, "they literally attacked us. And kept doing it. There's no way we can just program them all to fix the ship, we're going to need to do that part."

It tried to pry at Essen's helmet again. It had something it wanted to say...

3

"Everyone! Wait! It wants to talk to me again!" Essen said. "What is it, buddy? You want me to take my helmet off again?" As she looked at Allan and Xuan. "If the others will let me? If you can keep it brief, then maybe?"

"Just hold your breath again," he said, but otherwise made a hand gesture that signaled her to continue.

"Alright, buddy, go ahead," Essen said, closing her eyes, and then inhaling to hold her breath... and she took off her helmet.

"..." Xuan gave no response but it seems like Essen was taking her helmet off again. They were at the ready with their hypos like a character on a customisation screen again.

2

2

Once again, it put its tentacles on her temple. It was hard to describe in words what she saw. Psionic language was very direct. It wasn't even right to call it a language, exactly. Without the barrier of the words, Essen simply understood how the Truckle felt: abducted from its home and put in a cage by strangers, and then once it freed itself more strangers arrived and started talking about putting it in another cage. How was it to trust that wherever you all put it and its people wouldn't be just another cage? How could it trust you all when the last aliens they met betrayed them?

4

A HUGE flash in Essen's mind... as she saw this vision once more she felt the pain and anguish return... perhaps she shouldn't have asked for it to be brief... as she felt so much in a short period of time, and felt so many of this truckle's fears... her body shivered as she saw these images in her mind...

Also, its name was Ekek'osid The Third, Fourth Of Its Creche, Spawn Of Osidn'uk, Mother And Father Of Six Yet-Named Pupae, Heir To The Minor House Of Leaves, and it doesn't know what a pronoun is.

3

Xuan was not going to be caught off guard this time, they were fully prepared to catch Essen should she fall.

When the psionic images stopped and she could tell the tentacles were gone, Essen slipped her helmet back on and nearly collapsed again, GASPING for air... her tears flowed out of her eyes again as she kept the truckle on her shoulder, and looked at it... a long, silent moment. One where she looked at everyone around her... as if she didn't even know them anymore. "Its name... is Ekek'osid The Third, Fourth Of Its Creche, Spawn Of Osidn'uk, Mother And Father Of Six Yet-Named Pupae, Heir To The Minor House Of Leaves," Essen recited out, almost as if she was indeed the messenger. "Forgive me in what I'm about to say. But from what it just showed me, if i lived Ekek'osid The Third's life, this is what I would say... imagine if I were abducted from my home. The only one I ever knew, and I was abducted by strangers. Then once I got free... even more strangers started talking about putting me in another cage." She looked around to everyone, waterfalls pouring from her eyes. "How can I trust you all? That wherever you put me, and my people, my family, my offspring, won't just be another cage? How can I trust you... when the last aliens we met... betrayed us?" She stood, wide eyed, now sobbing silently, but not moving an inch except for her eyes at everyone in the room.

"Arrain, it is alright," Xuan stood close to Essen, hoping that she would be able to catch her breath on her own but if not, they had a hypo to help with shortness of breath and to calm a person down. Xuan also still did not understand ranks very well, Essen would get what they were saying though. "I understand you apprehension. We mean no harm. We just want to get you back home safely. It is unfortunate that we cannot live in the environment you created, else we could bring you back home on our own. Brien can only move so fast as well.."

1

Aw... six kids? Wow. "Well... I mean, this will mean nothing to them at first mention, but we're Starfleet, right? It doesn't say exactly who brought them here, but it was a Ferengi operation, and.. well, it was probably done with profit in mind, where ... we don't have that, right? Obviously, we don't have like, proof of that on hand, I guess, but... we don't have any reason at all to not get you home. There'd be nothing in it for us."

After a moment to gather herself, Essen continued. "Let me be clear," Essen said to everyone in the room. "You hurt them..." And for a long moment she said nothing. "You hurt me." (edited)

Seeing Essen's distress, it pet her hair and made soothing clicking noises, almost purring.

3

And right away... as soon as the petting started, almost instinctually, Essen began to calm down. "And I--" As she shut her eyes... "I..." And she looked to the truckle. "Heh. Thanks buddy."

"Perhaps you could let it read all your thoughts and intentions?" Brien suggested. "Then it would know you mean no harm."

Essen thought about it for a second... considered all of the implications... "A mind meld to this little guy. Heh... maybe... yeah. Maybe it does need to see. Maybe it does need to understand." As she looked to Allan.

"Yeah," Allan nodded, "if it can, I guess? If its energy is powerful enough for it, sure," he was human, after all. He went over to the truckle, though, sitting down next to it and putting his hand next to his helmet. "If you want?"

It did a happy little wiggle of approval.

3

"Alright. Xuan, you got my back, you know how good my lungs are," he laughed a little, before he took a deeeeep breath in and held it before he popped his helmet open.

"Sir," Essen said. "If you're going to do this, just... be careful. It really happens quick, and it happens--" And Allan lifted his helmet. "--powerfully..."

Xuan looked slightly concerned at the idea of letting another being read their mind, but then saw Allan volunteering himself. Thank the elements. Xuan was not a fan of telepathy, not because they had secrets but they were very private and a part of them was a little embarrassed about Sul'hoth being in their mind. "Your lungs are in working order. I would still proceed with caution, Arrain Allan. You are clear to take off your helmet, I am here."

The truckle put its tentacles on Allan's temples and dove deep into his thoughts, searching for bad intentions. As someone who'd experienced a mind meld before, it wasn't unfamiliar to Allan. The Truckle would also perform the same process to anyone else who consented, and once it confirmed that most people had good intentions, it chittered joyously.

3

Essen watched, then turned to the group. "Well, uh... anyone else want in?" She asked matter-of-factly. "I'll want in after everyone else who wants to goes. I wanna show my little buddy some good memories I had too."

"I'll... I'll do it too..." He said as he raised his hand, even if it might not be the best idea, he still wanted to show the truckle that he also had good intentions.

3

It already done did it for everyone who consented. I'm not writing a post for everyone who gets mind-read. Feel free to write out your reactions, though.

2

Once the truckle was done, he put his helmet back on, smiling at Xuan. "Thanks, doc. And thanks to you as well, Essen, it's a good warning if I wasn't already used to the feeling," he smiled genuinely at her, wanting her to know it was a fine thing to say.

2

"I think I will politely decline. I already have a mysterious creature in my brain," Xuan replied, assuming they could get whatever information needed from those around them.

"That was very strange... to say the least..." Achille mumbled to himself, since this was the first time he had any real mind meld experience.

As long as MOST people consented, they were fine with that, although reading two whole minds in one body would have been an exciting surprise for it. (edited)

"Yeah, it's a little disorienting the first time. You alright, though?" He asked the cadet. If he heard him. If he was not speaking at such a volume, ignore this post because Allan doesn't have Vulcanoid hearing or anything.

"I'm fine... I'll be fine, Lieutenant!" Achille spoke up a little louder in order to respond to Allan.

Essen went through the procedure one more time, this time not full-on sobbing afterwards. "You like those memories, little buddy?" Essen asked it. "So many happy memories. I hope those helped you see who we are." As she smiled at the truckle with a genuine, plastered smile.

"I think that means it agreed. What now? What was your plan for me?" Brien's voice was back to full surround-sound.

Allan nodded, looking just the slightest bit concerned for a moment - he was a little too used to people saying they were fine when they weren't, but he was similarly used to letting himself take people at face value until he knew them better. "Cool, just lemme know if that changes, yeah? Or - you can also ask a medical officer, more appleca... app. Applicably." He smiled. "You can call me Allan, by the way, if you want. I have most people call me that, Lieutenant is a whooole lot of syllables, you know?"

Achille nodded, making sure to remember that Lieutenant Allen would like to be called Allan. Which made sense! He would be sure to talk to medical if he wasn't feeling alright, but... he was feeling just fine! It was just different!

3

"Plan is to fix you. We make sure the truckles have an environment set up properly in one of our holodecks, and then we... get to work, here." He said to Brien.

"I volunteer to be with the holodeck and ensure all of them feel well cared for and looked after, if anyone else wants to join me," Essen offered to Allan. "So you and the engineers can focus on fixing Brien."

"I have no problem going, I am a doctor after all," Xuan offered, wanting to do what they could to protect these creatures even if they were a little gross.

"We probably need one of them to tell us how to remove this, though, if we're going to fix the ship. Maybe have one or two stay with us for the time being..?" He suggested, not knowing if they could fix the ship on their own.

"I... can go either place, I'm a little more confident in my engineering abilities though. So maybe I'll be more help there," He offered, looking between Essen and Allen for a moment.

"Hey, buddy, you want to stay with me in the holodeck or help our friends out in fixing Brien?" She asked Ekek'osid. "Either way! If you come with me, can you please ask one of your people to help Allan out?"

It pointed a tentacle at the others. It had engineering skills!

"Okay!" Essen replied back to Ekek'osid. "You keep Allan and the engineers company, okay? I'll be in the holodeck with the others." As she then looked to Xuan. "Shall we?" She asked Xuan.

"Really?" Allan asked Achille with a curious, but amused tone to the question, "what kind of specialty you lookin' at? Sure you don't wanna switch over? I'm sure it's not too late," he grinned when he saw the truckle point at them, too, "oh fuck yeah, Ekek'osid, let's gooo."

"I'm looking at observational astrophysics... I need to know at least a few things to fix up my instruments," He responded before he smiled at Ekek'osid as well. "If you need me to relay information, I can do that as well," He told the Truckle, hoping to help.

"Yes, let us head to the holodeck," Xuan said to Essen with a nod.

"Ahhh, alright. Well, that makes sense enough. You're an honorary member of #EngieSquad for now, then, I've.." he did that little motion that people did in ancient times when they knighted someone, "officially claimed you as such."

4

3

"Alrighty y'all, let's get this bread--or, cheese, rather!" Essen exclaimed as she marched in the direction of the holodeck with Xuan!

It chirped proudly. Of course these strange beings would need its help. Their biotechnology was incredibly sophisticated, after all.

3

"Sounds like you all have a plan. Do you need me for it? If not... I'll rest." He sounded very tired. Even the audio was hard to hear.

"Not at the moment, no. Get your beauty sleep, we'll fix ya up in no time, alright? You'll wake up sooooo refreshed." He said to Brien.

Brien nodded, then there was the click of something turning off. It seemed Brien was out for the night. Make your last posts now. I'll wrap up this adventure next post!

3

Achille would dedicate himself to being the best assistant possible, he was taking his new title as an honorary engineer very seriously after all!

5

5

"Don't tell Brien, but I have had enough of cheese for a while," Xuan said as they exited the room with Essen to go to the holodeck. It was at this point that they allowed a tiny smile and a laugh to escape their lips, amused by all this even if they were still a bit grossed out from all the cheese.

3

And Allan definitely appreciated that! Him and Starfleet's finest, as it was said, worked diligently on the ship for as long as they needed, definitely a lot of holding breath and asking Ekek'osid for assistance with removing the cheese damage and such from all the inner workings. Honestly, it might have ended up being more of a cleaning job than an engineering one at first, but, well- after the cleaning came alllll the engineering, repairing conduits, piecing wires back together, bringing so, so many robots back together... Oh, and changing the robot's code to not be weird and hostile, although that was probably helped out a lot by removing the fungus, and... well, at a point, things were done, and the engineer could, actually, relax. And, well.. one way of relaxing, in his mind, was going to be to take - at least, attempting to ask Brien out to dinner. And maybe a bit more than that. The Captain would understand what he'd mean by double checking the ship over for about an hour or so, right?

4

As she exited with Xuan to the holodeck, Essen felt a renewed sense of purpose. She never really had the chance to be on a first contact mission before, especially one which was not informal like this. But in connecting with Ekek'osid like this, in learning about the truckles' past on this ship, in feeling what they felt... she wanted to know more. She wanted to be there for them just like Ekek'osid was there for her. To support them how Ekek'osid supported her. And to fight for the truckles when no one fought for them on this ship. This wouldn't be the last of Essen with the truckles, she hoped. With a confident and beaming smile, Essen proudly marched to the holodeck, to help the truckles for when they were finally going to come home!

3

"I'll join the others in the holodeck, it would be interesting to learn more about the Trunkles before we get them back home, and also help them be more comfortable." Paco said with a prompt smile before he headed off to join Essen and Xuan.

3

"Woo! Another one for the EngieSquad!" Maya cheered as she wrapped an arm around Achille, ready to help wherever her mechanical expertise would allow. "Alright! Let's get to work, shall we?"

3

2

And to work they went! It took a bit of a timeskip, but Brien was speedily de-cheesed, broken parts fixed or replaced, etcetera - basically everything already said in Allan's post, enough that his condition was stable, though he'd have to stay at 777 ship hospital for a bit to recover fully, during which time he did, in fact accept Allan's proposal - and more. Meanwhile, the Truckles had a custom environment set up for them to live in for now: a nice, cheesy, mushroom-y biome for them to skitter and slither around in until passage back home was secured. Research was being done into fitting them with a communication method that would enable them to use telepathy to speak. Congratulations on a successful unexpected first/second contact mission, crew!

6

5

6

5