Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ndn-corridors

And soo, the engineer and the others walked off into the corridors to make his way to #ndn-engineering . #EngieSquad but it was one engineer, and some other officers who claimed to have experience with technology to some degree. What more could you ask for? How hard would it be to just 'fix some lights' anyways? Well, if past missions said anything... might be a bit more trouble than they initially thought, so... now would probably be as good as a time as ever to test out those comms Vara'l had so smoothly mentioned. And so he sent the comms ... straight to Vara'l. Who was also in the corridors by now. "Hey uhh, Commander, you hear me okay? Like, obviously, like, in the room, but like... on the badge, is that coming through okay?" He couldn't help but laugh a little, but it was a genuine test!

Lama stepped into the corridors with his arms by his side now. He didn't have the same bounce in his step that he usually did, but one could easily assume that Lama was just focused and recognised this was no time for playing around.

Copia wasn't far behind, making sure to stay as close to the group as possible. Thankfully, #EngieSquad™️ was calming her nerves. She considered it a hunch, but she felt there was much more to this light problem than anyone had initially anticipated. She'd just have to wait and see.

Vara moved with the squad, giving a nervous look to her phaser. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to use it. “No guns…” She whispered. (edited)

Vara'l, as his badge chimed and brought through a voice that he also happened to hear from in front of him, suppressed a smile as he tapped his badge. "Hello Lieutenant, I hear you just fine." His voice likely coloured with the smile he suppressed and the edge of a laugh of his own that wouldn't ever see the light of day or well a corridor. "Comms appear to be working just fine." As he continued to walk, Vara'l made sure to modulate his stride as he worked to ensure that Lama remained close and in view. The Romulan concerned that the other happened to be struggling more than he'd currently let on with the mental noise of the place, or whatever the stuff a empath may detect might have been called. This concern born of a slight..concern about the total absence of how Lama normally moved and the like. Yes it might be a focused approach in the face of the situation but..with the other stuff in the transporter room? Yeah.. he was concerned, even as he glanced in the direction of the ensign as they moved off with the engineers and he walked with Lama off in the direction of the quarters. Glanced off in that way and silently thanked the elements for Lieutenant Copia's presence in that group as he considered the ensign. (edited)

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It was good to hear comms working and Lama glanced briefly at Vara'l as he continued walking forward. The uneasy feeling was not going away, but at least he could ignore it for now. It was times like this that Lama wished he was fully Romulan, but alas he couldn't choose his species. He wondered how his brother was doing in the Republic since just like him, Taev was also an empath. "Okay, we're gonna be turning here for #ndn-quarters ," Lama told the others, pointing towards a corridor up ahead.

As Mirrim walked down the corridor, her hand creeped towards the phaser at her side. When she noticed she let her hand drop as if the weapon had burned it. It wouldn't do to appear paranoid. They did not suspect anything suspicious, it was just her being careful with the health of a fellow crew member. Mentally gathering whatever she had left of the confidence Gajina had had once, she stood up a little straighter. She was supposed to be here and the crew of the New Dawn had no acceptable reason to refuse her colleague access to health care.

Eshen entered the corridors, probably still seeing the others enough to give them a wave, but going down a different corridor to where they were going toward #ndn-sickbay .

"Thank you soooo much, Commander," Allan, on the other hand, could not stop smiling right now, and could only hope that one day he'd be able to see the other do the same. "Glad to see they're doing well. If they stop doing well, give me a c- well, um," he shook his head as they approached the split in the corridors off to engineering, "we'll figure it out. Good luck, everyone! #EngieSquad out," he said as he led the group of them off towards #ndn-engineering .

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She moved with, purple uniform contrasting against the other two as she went with. (edited)

Senang followed after Mirrim and Eshen, making sure to keep them in his field of vision. He saw Mirrim's hand creep towards her phaser, and could only hope she'd be able to keep her cool. But, in the end, he'd take responsibility for her and the Lieutenant with them. He stayed silent as they quickly made their way to the sickbay. (edited)

Vara'l nodded in understanding of Lama's words and followed Lama. "Remember everyone, remain in Comm contact and...I do take your meaning there Lieutenant, good luck everyone." He headed off as he followed Lama.

Lisa had followed Lama and Vara’l to the #ndn-quarters, she belonged more with the Security and Tactical people than with the people going to Engineering or Sickbay.

After leaving sickbay Sadhbh arrived at the rendezvous point, while she waited on the quarters group to arrive she moved her hand to her comm to hail the engi squad.

And just as she was about to do that, Allan and said engie squad walked into the corridors nearby! He waved to her from across the corridor, looking quickly behind him to make sure everyone was also behind him and that there were no stragglers left behind, which would absolutely make them look more suspicious than they were. Which, they were not! At least, not engie squad. "Hey, Commander! Things going okay for you guys?"

Sadhbh lowered her hand from her commbadge. "I was just about to call you Lieutenant Allen. Three members of the seinor staff are overdue physicals and the CMO is a bit judgey but other then that its been normal. What about your team?" Sadhbh enquired as she walked over to Allan.

Gregor followed just behind with his quite heavy repair kit, he had stuffed a little more in this kit than what was standard since it never hurt to have a little extra just in case. He couldn't help but long to just sneak back to Engineering and turn the place upside down just to inspect every little detail of the systems, maybe in another lifetime. Gregor quietly hummed a few seconds on the song that had annoyingly lived rent free in his head for at least a few hours.

Lisa was also here, coming from the direction of the quarters. She was glad to see the others, because she was done with everyone’s lying BS aboard this ship.

"Huh... well, uh, strange as that is, we found out the lights are actually being triggered manually, so we let the chief engineer know - who, by the way, had uh, very strong feelings about the Captain and said something about a secret meeting without her, the chief engineer, sooo... if the ones overdue for their physicals don't include her and include the Captain..." he shrugged, and then looked at the corridor ahead of them. "Well, we let the chief engineer know we're gonna go actually inspect whatever in the uninhabited deck's manually flickering the lights. Probably some sort of wire trip was what we said, but uh. Who knows." Probably someone, he figured.

Right on cue, Copia rushed in, PADD in hand, and ready to disclose everything to Sadhbh that she had heard "Commander!" Copia exclaimed. "Commander. We have just gained Intel from the New Dawn's Chief Engineering Officer. I commend Ensign Zh'rahlor for conducting a thorough questioning on that front." She decided to give Vara the benefit of the doubt again - her ex-thief skills came in handy! "Commander," Copia continued. "As Lieutenant Allen mentioned, the delay in answering our hails was no accident. According to the Chief Engineer, Tewari and her main bridge crew happened to have their secret meeting without her." Then Copia added, "but something else that the Chief Engineer disclosed. Apparently, Tewari started acting up, and according to the Chief Engineer, influencing others to start acting strangely. The full details of the questioning are saved in my PADD for reporting."

“She also mentioned how the weirdness isn’t recent, it’s been around for as long as she’s been on the ship, which was the beginning as she said.” She said as she took a lean against the corridor and looked to the celling.

Vara'l entered the corridor and moved over toward the commander. "Looks like the group of us who went to the quarters happened to come close to having weapons drawn on is in the quarters, when we queried the present situation and asked if all was well." Vara'l reported a moment after Ensign Zh'rahlor had made their own report. "Your call provided us with a rather good excuse to extract ourselves from the situation before it happened to turn anymore hostile than it already had but...they'd moved hands to weapons and looked to be serious." He added then smoothly, his voice calm.

"The CO, COO and CTO are all overdue physicals, were either the COO or CTO at this secret meeting?" Sadhbh answered Allan's Question and responded with one of her own. She turned to Copia and nodded in thanks for their breakdown. "Right so the somethings been off since she was launched that doesn't bode well." She said in response to Vara. Before turning to Vara'l with a raised eyebrow. "They nearly pulled phasers on you? What did you ask that pissed them off?"

"We referenced the distress call as justification for the wellness check and asked if all was well and then highlighted the oddity of the change of the story one of them provided us following his mate stamping on his foot, sir." The Lieutenant Commander informed the commander simply. "We didn't push them anywhere near to the point that the reaction they plumped on could have been justified and the language used happened to not stray into anything that would have happened to impinge on anyones honour or normally provoked severe response."

“It’s odd that they all have different stories for what’s happening, if you ask me. It doesn’t seem like they are collectively on the same page.” She said quietly. “But they all seem….odd? At least from the two people I’ve seen and what you lot are describing. Like, the two knuckleheads your talking about there seem to more in the loop then the chief engineer. Nothing works that way unless something is going to happen to the person being iced out of the loop.” She blinked. “In my experience, at least. I don’t think anyone here would do something to a member of their crew in their right minds.”

Copia started to put together the pieces in her head. "If you remember, in one of the hails we conducted to the New Dawn the crew members behind Tewari seemed exclusively in the loop, one of them saying 'quiet.' It may be that the only crew aware of this are on the bridge of the New Dawn itself. A -- a mutiny of sorts? But a mutiny performed by the ship's own captain...?" (edited)

“But the captains in on it, and the CEO seemed to be doing good work. Logistically some manner of conspiracy doesn’t add up, it’s not a power struggle if the person with the power is leading some kinda struggle.” She said with a hum. “There was that one officer on the bridge who offered the idea to let us on board, but they got quieted right away. It’s not organized enough.”

"Well, it's not just one person. The Chief Medical Officer was also worried, but unaware of anything going on. So it's not like there are specific people being shut out. What seems to me far more likely is only a select few people being in on whatever is going on." Senang pointed out calmly, having stayed quiet until now. They didn't have much information to go off of, honestly, but he knew his observation was sound, at least in theory. "It seems prudent that we look for more information before coming to a conclusion, though. We simply do not have all the facts."

"We should, we should also talk to the communications officer who sent the distress call." Sadhbh walked to a computer pannel. "Computer locate the communications officer who was on duty when the distress call was sent out."

In contrast to what had been said during the hail between the two ships’ crews, it appeared that the communications officer had not gone to their quarters following the distress call being sent. The Computer reported that they were in the brig.

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“Ah, okay that’s not great. What do we know about this Captain, by the by? They aren’t exactly coming off great to me right now.”

"That doesn't inspire much good hope," Senang commented dryly, before waiting for a plan of action.

Copia let that compute in her head for a moment. "You may have a point, Lieutenant. That seems even more likely. Instead of shutting out specific individuals, whatever is being held is being held from most of the crew as evidence by the crewman who was indifferent to our beaming aboard the New Dawn." Copia considered for a moment. "Commander Ni Dhuill, I suggest we split up further and tackle more areas of the vessel. Being in a large group in these corridors may draw unnecessary--- attention to us," Copia said, suggesting they were still being monitored and may very well be suspicious to the crew of the New Dawn if in a large group together talking about this. Then, Copia heard that the communications officer had been thrown in the brig. "Hmm... so the distress call may very well have been sent on purpose -- as for the--" Copia's eyes widened. "As for the flashing lights in morse code for SOS!"

Having expected this in part, at least in the case of the person who'd happened to send the second of the two distress calls, Vara'l only nodded slightly then. If someone had intended to compromise the ship and one of the crew had managed to get a distress call off, it'd be in the best interest of a certain party to isolate the person who'd sent the call somewhere separated and well away from the Starfleet visitors. Copia's sudden deceleration, following their comment about likely still being monitored and the like, about the Morse code, succeeded in drawing a half suppressed wince. Well, if someone had been watching them and had still not worked out why they were really here despite...the wealth of hints they suspected the exclaimation at the very least had just declared to whoever was watching what the subject of their conversation happened to be at the moment.

Well, that's not protocol." Sadhbh said with a harumph after hearing about the comms officer before turning to the group. "Okay the engineers and co, yall head to the uninhibited corridors and see what the story is down there. Anyone who was with me were gonna take a trip to the brig, and the rest of you have a look in the lab areas maybe you can see if they were doing some kind of experiment that went bad that caused personality shifts in the officers ala Pa Wraiths or something like that." (edited)

For moment she considered asking to go the brig, but her relative dislike of the commander and the fact that her skillset didn’t oft include breaking into a jail cell and the leaving, she nodded. “You got it boss lady.” (edited)

"You got it, sir!" Allan said, maintaining his chill attitude despite feeling somewhat similarly to Vara'l at Copia's exclamation - god forbid someone was watching them, really. "Alright, 'engineers and co'," he looked to each of them - honestly, a pretty decent group of two engineers and two others now, "to the uninhabited decks we go. Copia, Vara, have you.. ever actually been down there?" He asked as they walked down the corridor, assuming that Gregor, being a higher rank than himself, had.

"I don't think 'boss lady' is on the list of appropriate forms of address for senior officers," Senang said, taking his place next to Sadhbh so he could follow her to the brig.

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“I’ve worked in places with little oxygen, but not for long.” Vara said as she moved with the lieutenant. “In terms of actual uninhabited decks? Nah man.”

Copia nodded respectfully to Sadhbh. "Right away, sir." Copia turned to Allan and considered the question before responding. "Negative, Lieutenant Allen. I have not been on any uninhabited decks on a Khitomer-class vessel before. I have been on uninhabited decks on previous vessels, but not for long. I believe this will certainly prove different to my previous vessels." (edited)

"Yes, sir." Gregor finally said after having listened in on the conversation that had just happened, this whole situation was just fishy, strange something along that way, he followed with the group he was assigned to. "I didn't go to the uninhabited decks while I was looking around the ship.. By the way the name is Lt Commander Gregor McGuire." Gregor said with a smile as he gave a three fingered scout salute just to add with it, not that he had really been a scout in his youth since he wasn't that interested in being one.

"What should we tell them why we are checking in on the lab?" Mirrim had been staying close to everyone else withoutsaying much seeing as she didn't quite know what she could contribute to the conversation. "Also, sirs, would it maybe be smart to send an update back to the Eventide, just in case something goes wrong?"

"Previous vessels'll do," he said to Copia, "they'll be oxygen, or we'd be dead." He looked at Gregor and did a little two-fingered salute back, although upon noticing he was using 3 fingers he switched it up to the same. "Any previous vessels, though?" he asked, a slight bit of concern on his face as he hoped that the Commander had just meant this ship's uninhabited decks - either way, they entered the #ndn-uninhabited-decks at that moment...

Vara'l looked to the Lieutenant Junior grade and proceeded to, when the other queried those to things, first looked to the Commander and the other Lieutenant commander before he then proceeded to say. "Sir, while the wellness check in some ways covers a brief check on the lab, the other point there happens to be a good one in my estimation, an update to the eventide on the progress of this 'check' might is something I'd put forward that should indeed be considered."

"Thats a good call, I'll call em and give em an update as I'm heading to the brig." Sadhbh gave Vara'l a not as she turned on her heels to lead her group toward the brig.

Vara'l nodded once then and looked to the Lieutenant Junior grade from medical for a moment before he heeaded off with other members of the Lab group. As he headed off, Vara'l made sure to keep all the members of the group he happened to now be a part of in sight. He'd also done his best so far and continued to do his best to keep track of Lama and how they happened to currently look, this thanks to the fact he happened to still feel a tad concerned about them. With that, Vara'l proceeded off in the direction of the #ndn-science-labs (edited)

Lisa also headed off to the #ndn-science-labs

After definitely listening to and enthusiastically taking part in the discussion about what was going on, Eshen decided to head to the brig with Sadhbh.

T'she exited from the science labs and looked to their companions. Something was bothering them, of course, but they could not verbalize what exactly it was. Perhaps speaking with the others would be able to help.

"Hey, Commander," Lama said as soon as they were out of the science labs. He turned to Vara'l with a slightly worried look on his face as he contemplated how to phrase his next statement. "So... we're here on like... A covert investigation mission. We don't know who's involved or what people's intentions are and there are clearly some people uninvolved with whatever is happening," Lama waved both his hands in the air as if trying to swat an invisible fly. He was trying to add hand gestures to his speech but clearly had no idea how to properly do that so it just looked like he was fighting some invisible battle. "We need to keep the conversations natural and not go in with question after question. Ya know, I don't want to worry people more than what is already here," Lama put both his hands to his chest and breathed slowly. "I'm Betazoid, I feel things... Way too many things," As if that weren't already obvious, Lama chuckled dryly. "That guy, he felt like we were interrogating him, which... Was not a very great feeling."

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Vara'l exited from the labs with the others and followed them out into the corridor space. Briefly deep in thought before the Lieutenant proceeded to speak and drew him out of that state. "We are here under the cover of a 'wellness check', Lieutenant, while we might actually be here for other reasons I conducted myself in there in a manner that fit an individual of my sorts conducting their first ever wellness check in a role such as mine might have following almost the earlier almost overtly hostile encounter with two other crew members." Vara'l responded then as he turned his focus to the other and considered their point. "I saw no sign that he happened to fully discount that that happened to be the reason behind the questions,however unnatural they seemed in a 'Questions after distress call' sort of format,though I imagine you will know more as to their feelings that I ever would." The Liberated Borg continued before he then Conceeded. "And..you do have a point there and it's one I will keep in mind Lieutenant." Vara'l added sincerely and completely seriously,conscious he happened to be rather new at the ACTO role and the like. "And I apologise for the part I played in the discomfort you experienced." Vara'l then added as he continued along the corridor briefly then stopped and turned to the other. His tone likely coloured with genuine contrition then. After all he hadnt happened to enter into that conversation with such an outcome as the causing of discomfort for another officer in mind. "Though the information gathered from that approach and whatever cover it might provide may still have a modicum of use in conjunction with whatever the other groups have gathered."

For a rare occurance in Lama's life, he seemed quiet serious when listening to Vara'l's response. He put one hand on his hip and the other combing through his artificially blonde strands of hair, fully revealing his forehead ridges. "Yeah uhh, this isn't like a doctor's appointment where you ask a person about their ailments," Lama was slow with his words, having to shake his brain to make sure his phrasing was exact. Thankfully the person he was talking to was Romulan so he could formulate his thoughts properly in his native Rihannsu without any fear the UT would butcher any of his phrasing or meaning. "Yuh-uh, I know you didn't see the signs, that's why I mentioned it just now," Lama grimaced for a moment, showing off his slightly pointy teeth and brown gums that stood out against his green lips. "I know we are here to do a job, but a lot of these guys seem pretty friendly. We don't need so many formalities, we're doing a wellness check not an inspection. Maybe do a lil exercise and loosen yourself up," Lama suggested, noticing the ACTO still had some stiffness about him. It was good for when he was doing some tactical stuff, but Lama worried that the other's rigidness would only make the New Dawn feel like they're talking to an inspector and not just a friendly Starfleet officer. "A lot of these guys aren't Starfleet and are from factions that had not always been friendly with us so we need to keep that in mind. Going on with questions, stiff posture, not even asking about the weather," Lama would be the guy to ask about the weather on a starship. "Anyway, yeah, we should find the others and report to them out findings. Remember, we want to be friendly with these guys, chat them up. No one is gonna feel comfortable if you just ask them the who-what-where-why's straight outta the gate. I mean, I know I wouldn't," Lama said just like a true Romulan intelligence officer, only he was a Starfleet detective now.

03:00

"Yeah, uhhh-- I'm so sorry, I didn't catch your name, I'm Lama, by the way. Lama tr'Ehweia, yeah half Romulan, half Betazoid, full sexy. I'm a detective but I used to be in intelligence," Lama turned to the Vulcan officer with them. He waved both hands with a smile on his face, going back to his silly self. "I know Lieutenant Lisa is the ACSO, she my boss," Lama did a little fist pump and looked at Lisa.

After their excursion to the Brig Sadhbh walked back into the hallways to confer with the other two teams.

Copia crawled out behind the others through the entrance to the uninhabited decks, before using the wall as an anchor to get back up to her feet and stand before reconvening with the others. "Commander," Copia said. "We have gained valuable information from visiting the lower decks. Hopefully information that coincides with what you and others have discovered elsewhere." Copia lowered her voice in the interest of not being caught by whoever could be monitoring them. "A device Lieutenant Allen identified as an exocomp was the device responsible for sending out the SOS through the lighting array on the exterior of the ship. One that someone must have programmed to perform such task accordingly. Perhaps that is how the Morse message went unnoticed by the remainder of the crew."

Gregor followed not shortly after with his repair kit in hand, he pulled down his shirt yet again. "Not to mention the paint job on the exocomp was green, silver and a pair of wings so it could be a Romulan Engineer but that's just a guess." Gregor shrugged, it might have been a wild guess but he did believe the paint job had some significance in discovering who the person might be. Gregor sat down the repair kit on the floor to rest his hand and arm then he decided to stay quiet to listen to what the others had to report, this was quite the odd mystery.

Ah, that must have been the engineer friend. "Yes, just talked to someone in the brig who sent the distress call. It seems they've noticed something's up with certain people - particularly Captain Tewari and her first officer, who seemed to 'spread' their oddness to the Tactical Chief, the Ops Chief, the security Chief too... I think the CMO, CSO and CEO are fine, though, unless I've forgotten something. The CMO said some members of staff had been avoiding their physicals, and I suspect those members of staff are the same ones acting suspiciously. The question I'd like to ask you all is: what do you think this means? Are there any details I've missed?" He had his own theory, but he wanted to hear everyone else's input - time to add up the clues!

"They might have gotten some kind of alien sickness that caused a personality shift, or they could be possessed by demons." Sadhbh said the first suggestion seriously and the second more as a joke to keep morale up.

"Hey gang gang!" Lama said, throwing up ta'al like it was a gang hand sign. "Oh hey-- yeaahhh we chatted with one of the scientists. He mentioned some people were acting a lil strange-- like the COO and the CTO? They called us Starfish ahaha," Lama gave out what he knew, hoping to help with some mystery solvnig. "Exocomp? Do you have it here or something?" Lama asked Gregor, way too short and on the other side of the group so he couldn't actually see the man, just heard his voice and mention the exocomp.

Rushing down the corridors was--- The Romulan engineer in question! Sihul stood at a very average height for her species, just above 6'5, but a small frame, great for crawling through the tubes. She seemed a little confused why there was a bunch of people in the corridor, but that's when it hit her-- Eventide!" *Hello, it is good to see you guys," *She greeted in Standard, her voice melodic but still carrying some weight, as if she were an opera performer. "Starfleet, I assume?"

Vara'ls eyebrow quirked up slightly at the second comment, the tone of it especially as more people arrived one that didn't entirely rub the right way. Something of a reaction that he suppressed as it was entirely improper and damaged his ability to focus on what they happened to be saying, the suggestion they made however it happened to be worded in the frame of Lieutenant talking to officer of superior rank one that happened to be one he reckoned need to be listened to and analysed. Even if their earlier comment, if the group had happened to be under surveillance had announced their true intent. As others proceeded to approach, Vara'l suppressed the brief urge to raise another point for consideration, the fact that as only one of them was a empath and neither of them was a telepath they both happened to not know if the feelings that the other had detected throughout the conversation hadn't at least initially been born of other causes. Stuff like the fact they'd just been presented with the fact that something happened to be up on the ship when it was rather apparent that they well..hadn't exactly been aware of that fact. No, instead of doing that or anything else, Vara'l instead proceeded to say. "I will take your suggestion and other attendant points you raised onboard Lieutenant, thank you for highlighting them." Before he turned to the others and listened as they started to speak. "The Scientist in question with the New Dawns CSO, they confirmed what you've said that the change in personalities seemed rather gradual and indicated that meetings and the like involving the full senior staff have ceased, he seemed to also indicate the same personnel as mentioned as fine or not fine." "We were also informed that the two people we met and talked too who were hostile earlier...aren't normally like that at toward people clearly simply doing a job." Vara'l then turned to the engineer as they approached..and simply watched her.

Sadhbh was listening to Vara'l but lost her train of thought entirely when the Romulan approached. She turned to face the newcomer. "Yes, we got your distress call on starbase 777." Sadhbh said not wanting to say too much in case this person was also someone acting strange who couldn't be trusted.

Copia felt like saying something else, especially when the Romulan approached, but decided to stay quiet. She was ultimately better off keeping her mouth shut especially when a member of the New Dawn crew was near, and even moreso members of the New Dawn crew who she was unfamiliar with. That is until she'd eventually live up to her android nature and inevitably run her mouth too much. All too predictable, really. However, it didn't seem that this Romulan posed much of a threat. They seemed nice enough - they didn't immediately raise their weapon. Which also could mean they were bluffing to create a false sense of security. Copia listed all of the possible outcomes in her head, and decided to be vigilant instead of act on any impulses.

"Lo, a stranger! As the Commander said, we are indeed Eventide. You're the first person to seek us out yourself." They had to go around bothering everyone else. "Did you need something?"

Vara eyed the Romulan with suspicion, she didn’t trust anyone on this crew, and someone coming up to them didn’t exactly set her heart ablaze.

"Oh, thank the elements," The women said, putting a hand on her chest and smiling. She seemed relieved for a few moments, but that relief was short lived as the crew would see her expression shift to be more concerned. She smiled at the friendly Vulcan... Klingon? Who just greeted her, offering a weak wave and a half smile, clearly too worried to give much more. She then looked towards the Andorian who looked at her suspiciously. She told herself this was to be expected, things were certainly suspicious here, but she did feel a little uncomfortable that someone she didn't even know was giving her such a look before she could even say a single sentence. "Yes, well..." She looked around, hoping no one was eavesdropping on them. "My name is Sihul t'Xeret, I'm just an engineer. Oh, erei'Erein, or in your ranks, ensign," She introduced herself with a bow and took another deep breath. "I am... the one in charge of fixing the lights," She had to be careful with how she worded things, especially out and about in the corridors. "The exocomp is mine-- oh you left it in the uninhabited deck?" She asked, raising both eyebrows.

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Lama let out a soft squeak when the engineer began whispering. That weird uneasy feeling was coming back, was this just his gut health in shambles or was it this other person? "I.... Guys... I'm worried," Lama thought it would be a good idea to announce.

Ah, that explained the paint job and wings. She knew it looked Romulan, she supposed she’d let the others talk to her. She moved over to Lama. “Take a few deep breaths and count to 10, maybe if we move this conversation out of the corridor you’ll feel better.”

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"Umm..." Lama paused and looked at Vara, dark Betazoid eyes and messed up hair, he was clearly not feeling very great. "I... Yeah, umm... I'm Betazoid so... It doesn't really matter where I am," He explained as he shut his eyes for a moment and rubbed his fingers against the ridges on his forehead. Similar to how some people massaged their temples, Lama massaged his ridges, it was a soothing action held over from his intelligence days.

Allan had nodded to what Copia and Gregor had said about the exocomp, and listened along as the rest of them chatted and ... the Romulan engineer walked up. "Just an engineer? Gotta give yourself a little more credit than that, being able to program an axionic chip in the first place is an amazing feat, I'll tell you that," he said, even though he fully knew that she had probably said that in reference to her levels of suspicion, not talent, with an axionic chip being what you needed to know in order to input a program into an exocomp. "We... did, I moved it away from the controls but I can like, totally go back and get it!" He laughed, and gestured behind him back towards the way of the decks, quite confident in his abilities to speedrun through the uninhabited decks' tunnel twice more. Perhaps a bit too confident, but he did this type of thing on a near-daily basis anyways.

Vara'l turned to Lama and took a moment and scrutinised their posture and the like with his storm grey eyes and attempted to spot any signs that the other happened to have just started to have a medical problem. After doing that, Vara'l then moved over a tad closer to Lama and proceeded to ask. "Is it something to do with the new arrival, Lieutenant tr'Ehweia?" His voice pitched quiet enough that he hoped it'd only be picked up by Lama and the ensign.

"That's very kind, thank you." Her smile widened a little at Allan's compliment, though faded a few seconds after, still clinging to that same air of anxiety. Her eyes darted from Vara'l to Lama, though she chose to say nothing on the matter. "I would...like it back, yes, but," she sighed, thinking of the poor little exocomp, all alone in the uninhabited decks.. She shook her head quickly. "There are more important matters to attend to for the moment." She checked once again there was no one around, taking a tentative step closer, keeping a respectable distance but close enough to speak softly. "We -- I was worried that you wouldn't take a closer look at things. With the communications issue, and all," choosing her words carefully, just in case. "Have you spoken to Ensign Gaal?"

Aha, so this was the engineer friend. "Yes! They filled us in. I think we've found out all we can, honestly - we just need to decide on a plan of action. I'd still like to hear everyone's thoughts on what this all adds up to, too."

Senang, who had totally arrived together with his team, spoke up as well. "Yes, we just came from there," he said, pointing at himself, Sadhbh, and Eshen. He continued in a lower voice, taking care not to be overheard should anyone outside of their group walk by. "It seems like there is a lot of information, but not too much hard evidence. Based on what information we do have, we can assume that changes are gradual, and originated with the commanding officers. It causes switches in temperament, causing them to act more hostile, to a degree that other people agree is unreasonable for their usual characters. The phenomenon seems to be confined to senior staff, or in other words, the people the commanding officers interact with regularly. I have no useful guesses as to the nature of the phenomenon." That should sum the situation up pretty decently.

She hummed as she leaned against a bulkhead in the corridor. “But the phenomena didn’t affect the CEO, and surely they would’ve interacted enough for it to affect her pre them icing her out of the command structure? Maybe all the people affected have been chosen for a reason?”

"The CO, XO and CTO have all been 'changed' their the most important officers on a starship if you want to do something to it." Sadhbh said, continuing varas train of thought.

"The Chief Science Officer appears to be normal, though he has noted that some of the officers appear act like completely different people -- and that he does not often speak with other members of senior staff. Though what puzzles me is when this occurred, as there seemed to be no sudden shift that caused this." T'she added quietly, hoping that their contribution would help. Really, they were curious as to how this may have happened.

Gregor stood there silently listening to what was being said. Hey, the CEOs are important officers to after all they keep the ship running smoothly. And how where they going to find out what the cause of these change in personality came from, Gregor stood there stroking his chin in deep thought as he couldn't find a good explanation for any of this, all of this was just strange.

"Well whatever's going on were not gonna get to the bottom of it in a hallway, we should make for the bridge and see if we can get to the bottom of it there." Sadhbh said to the group. (edited)

Eshen nodded. "Good idea. That's where the suspicious senior staff might be."

Copia thought about this for a second, taking in all of the information she was hearing, before she made a realization. "If I may," Copia said. "I find it intriguing that, despite our being on the New Dawn for a somewhat lengthy period of time, we have not begun a similar shift in behavior to the crew of the New Dawn. If it were something akin to a virus or other biological entity, it would likely have affected the other organic life forms from our away team." Copia considered it more. "Which means it is being delivered to a very specific group of New Dawn crew members, on purpose. The shift in personality is being made deliberately." Copia nodded to Sadhbh, understanding her order. Yes, the bridge would have the answers they sought. (edited)

She hummed. “Have we identified if it’s species or governmental specific? Just a thought.” She said as she nodded to the commander.

"Yes, quite," T'she agreed as they brushed off their uniform (despite the fact that there was no dust on it). "We should find our answers on the bridge, but... please do be careful."

Senang followed too, responding to Vara. "Well, it's been two former Starfleet officers, a Reman from the Romulan Republic, and two KDF officers, right? All different species, from different fleets. The idea that it's specific people being... altered, because of their positions makes the most sense," he said, before moving quicker to stick near the front of the group.

"It's neither specific to species or government. All the targets have in common is that they're high-ranking." It was the kind of people you'd aim for if you were doing some kind of infiltration. "Copia is right in that it's too specific to be a virus, but it is something physical. That's why they haven't been turning up to their doctor's appointments."

Vara nodded as she moved with the group. “It also seems to take a while to take effect? Considering there’s a few crewmembers who seem well adjusted comparatively.”

"I think the people targeted were targeted for a reason, maybe the reason why the other members of senior staff remained unchanged is because there isn't something changing the senior staff, more replacing them -- hence how some of them are acting like different people, and why senior staff is being kept apart from each other -- to prevent them from noticing something is wrong." T'she finished before they kept walking.

"..The captain the XO,the CTO the CSO,two other non senior staff officers known to the CSO and potentially some others." Vara'l mused aloud to himself as he considered things. "I'm still not convinced that isnt specific as in that list are the main people needed to not just do something with the ship but also to snarl up any response by the CEO or CSO, one by simply ending their prior relationships" He paused briefly "and the other by curating the information recieved by them about the crew potentially." Vara'l shrugged then as he sighed. "..Apologies, what I'm trying to say is that what they also have in common is what the commander touched on and the Lieutenant highlighted." "They're the senior or well high ranking staff in some of the most important positions and best able to ensure that the alarm isnt raised in time and any response is contained and neutralized before spreading ship wide."

"Replacement, rather than alteration... that could be a very logical explanation, Lieutenant," Senang said, complimenting T'she.

Copia was careful to intake all these new viewpoints - hmm! All this certainly could be an explanation as to what was happening. Then, T'she mentioned 'replacing' the senior staff. That sent a chill down Copia's spine. "Lieutenant... You may be onto something. Considering the behavioral changes of the senior staff, perhaps it is a form of mind control that is affecting them? To completely replace the senior staff inside of their own physical manifestations, for a completely different personality... It brings me to believe they are being actively controlled, almost like a Jekyll and Hyde situation." Once Copia said Jekyll and Hyde, she hoped that wasn't the correct explanation...

"Yes, T'she! That's what I was thinking. After all, that did happen during the Dominion War." As they'd all probably studied in their academy history lessons, the Changelings would kill or imprison Starfleet officers and replace them. Eventually you could sus them out by asking for samples of their blood, which would turn to goo after a while and give them away.

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T'she actually smiled a little at the compliments, even if they were dealing with a difficult situation. "Then we really should be careful during this confrontation, as whoever did this may have no qualms hurting us."

"Well I do remember the Dominion war quite vividly.. Changeling infiltration, acting like those they had replaced.. But I'd imagine if it were Changelings they'd be smarter than to act like this." Gregor said in response, almost everyone he knew was paranoid during that time and they had a right to be as well even he was just the memories from that time gave him the chills but he didn't let his emotions show on his face, his poker face remained intact as he leaned down to pick up his repair kit.

"Good luck," she managed somewhat tentatively, offering a weak excuse of a smile.

"Right lets go." Sadhbh began leading the group to the bridge.

And off they all went down the corridor to #ndn-bridge ! (edited)

"Yup," Allan said as he let go of Gregor and ran down the hall to #ndn-engineering , making sure the other was running with him. "How good are you with computers? Or are you more of the mechanical type of guy? Both?"

Gregor ran with Allan to engineering, he hadn't run this fast for a long time. "More of a mechanical guy, computers still don't agree with me." He said as he was running through the hall with the repair kit, he hoped no one would try to stop them in Engineering and it would just be clean since the CEO seemed nice enough.