Star Trek: Starbase 777

[D] Deep in the bowels of the ancient ship, a power surge caused by the connection to the station power umblical awakened something that had been left dormant since the ship's trip to the 25th century, the power it had been fed igniting a single driving force within its energy field...hunger...

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Allan walked into #engineering with the #EngieSquad now that he had the entire gang together, although the moment they had entered, the power went out, and he sighed, turning on his flashlight and shining it around the room. "Okay, so we've lost power, and..." he looked over to where the most critical systems would be, trying to see if there were ghosts hammering away there or something, "that's... okay. Speak up if you see something suspicious though, yeah?" He asked, making sure everyone had their flashlights working properly for a second, although that left him temporarily distracted from his surroundings.

As soon as Allan walked into engineering, an errant ghost floated through the nearby lift, causing it to short out and explode, leading a small peice of the support structure to dangle off and bonk Allan right on the top of his head.

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"Should we work on getting the lights on?" Five asked, flicking on their flashlight and starting to move closer so they could observe the most critical systems— They flinched at the explosion, hands flying up to protect themself. "Are you alright?!" they asked quickly, speeding up to catch up to his side.

Lente walked in right behind Allan, fumbling with her flashlight as she heard the explosion. She managed to turn it on right on time to see the piece fall, but didn't manage to let out more than a gasp before it hit Allan. "Uh. What are we looking for, exactly?" she asked, trying to recover at least somewhat gracefully.

"Yeah, lights on would be fantast-" he was cut off by a small crackling when he heard something short out and explode, looking up just as - ah, it hit him in the face and he fell to the ground. "Fantastic," he finished, "fuck- ouch," he was laughing out of instinct as he held his head on the ground, looking at Five with a confident smile on his face. "Yeah, thanks, I- I'm okay, don't worry," he said, getting up and straightening himself up (as if he even could be straightened). "I'm um," he smiled as he looked back at everyone and swept a hand through his bangs, looking back up at the source of the explosion, "...used to getting hit on by ghosts." He looked at Lente and nodded, shining his flashlight back over to a console panel nearby where they could probably.. "Somewhere we could get the lights on, preferably," he said, looking up now as he moved towards the console, "just - keep an eye out, and well, listen for any more shortages, frays, the like." Deep breath again.

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Lente decided not to comment on the 'getting hit on by ghosts' comment, instead turning around to see if she could find and fix the console for the lights. If there was a way to get them back on, she was going to try her best, and, in case anyone needed her to fix up any life support systems, she'd be nearby.

Kaylee, flashlight in hand, started to look around the Kon-Tiki's engineering. Looking for anything interesting or that could be useful. Deep, slow breaths as she walked...lights, power, anything of use. Cmon.... "Let's just hope nothing else explodes." As she looked around, however, she couldn't keep her mind off Essen. Not just because she was in love with her, but because Essen had already been scared to the point of fainting once, and Kaylee didn't want it to happen again. Especially since that first time she landed on the bed, but this time there was no soft bed to catch her.

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She couldn’t hold a giggle at Allen’s comment as she looked at the accident’s scene, hoping no one was seriously hurt. “It seems you’re fit to lead us then.” Looking closer, she sobered up when seeing the newly exposed aspects of the section. She stayed around the area, hoping any other architecture weren’t going to fall down or break again. For that, she was careful where and what she poked, looking for any generator or power source that fueled the lights.

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Five frowned gently in concern, though didn't press any further. They had other things to do, anyhow. They examined the consoles with a soft sigh. "The lift's out.. I hope we aren't stuck here," they said quietly, probably jinxing it. If the ghost was still there, they aimed a stunning phaser shot at it. Bastard spectre. "Is there anything else we should look to?" they asked Allan, turning their head to look at him. "Besides the lights."

Out of nowhere, the warpcore lit up like a christmas tree, something in the electronics of it making a high-pitched squeal that had most of the team in the bay struggling to stay focused.

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When they finally made it to engineering, Tevis was quick to assess the situation, making his way to Allan to check the status of the team, and what had happened in their absence.

Essen slowly and steadily entered into engineering, per Tevis' orders, using Copia as a body shield. Essen's teeth chattered, her eyes were wide open at all times, and her heart beat FAST. "C-C-Co-C-Co-Copia?" Essen asked, stuttering. "D-di-did we make it??" Essen scanned around, using her flashlight, to search for both anyone she recognized, and for Kaylee. (edited)

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Copia was just as afraid as Essen, staying close to Essen for protection as well. "Affirmative," Copia said. "We have arrived in engineering per the order of Lieutenant Commander Pog. We now will assist engineering per his order as well." Copia broke off from Essen, scanning around using her flashlight as well.

Snake also stayed close by, keeping his flashlight pointed forward, and scanning as much of the area ahead of him as possible. "Essen, hey, you're okay," Snake said, completely dropping the mocking her bit. He was now comforting and supportive. "You got this, okay? We're here." Snake scanned around, and spotted Kaylee in his flashlight. "Essen, look at the path of my flashlight," Snake said. "Kaylee's over there."

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"Jesus Christ, shit, I mean, fucking hell- no, uhm. Excuse my language. What the fuck is happening?" Lente asked, frazzled, not too loudly but loud enough to be heard from where she was behind a console.

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Reunion with one of the lads! Eshen gave Allan a wave, though he couldn't focus on him right this second - he had questions to ask. "You folks found anything interesting? Why's the warp core screaming?" It was like a Klingon heavy metal opera in here. Maybe he should get some samples for he and Allan's next song.

As if on cue, as soon as people started arriving into engineering, the warpcore lit up even brighter, the sound even louder, and vibrations shaking the ship becoming almost violent as conduits and relays all around them started shorting or exploding, sending showers of debris and sparks all over the massive space. In time with the chaos, a huge, ghostly energy field started rising up out of the warp core, crackling and arcing pure-energy across bulkheads and decking all around the chamber.

Five had their hands tight over their ears, the howl from the depths of the warp core like something ripped from the beyond itself. "We need to get out! It's not safe!" they shouted over the noise, eyes screwed shut to block out the light. "It's — too many power sources, too many people, the damn thing is going to burst if we aren't careful!!"

Essen saw Kaylee and dashed over to her, her gaze on Kaylee unbreakable as she did so, and when she arrived, she gave Kaylee the biggest hug. She felt so much better already. "I'm here, baby girl," Essen said. "I'm here." Then, the warp core acted up, glowing brighter and getting louder. Essen turned around and used herself as a body shield for Kaylee, both covering her ears and squinting her eyes. Essen began to feel light headed again, but not too much so that it would lead to her fainting again.

"That ain't good! Enject the core, no?" He tried to catch his balance and not fall. His hands now moved to brace against a wall.

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Lente wasn't covering her own eyes or ears lest she missed something, even at the risk of ear or eye damage. Those could be fixed later, if she didn't die. "Is there no way to shut it off?" she yelled back, "we didn't exactly find anything we came for yet over here!"

She scowled, having one side of her head throb and string as her left side nearly went deaf with static and the usual blankness. "I wouldn't!" She hoped she heard Mokath correctly before fully turning to Lente. "If we can find some sort of generator, maybe!" She started to look around before her eyes started to ache with the bright light of the glowing Warp Core.

Just as she entered engineering along with the rest, and then saw the huge energy field, Elwyn immediately started backing up again as she held her phaser at the ready, not wanting to get zapped like a console.

As what happened happened, Vara'l snapped out his tricorder and proceeded to run a scan of the field while he backed up slightly. "Recommend personnel remain at a safe distance from that." He commented as he continued to keep his phaser raised.

Snake, looking at this whole thing, had his theory of communicating with the ghosts pop back up in his mind. Maybe this didn't have an engineering problem after all. He was a Diplomatic Attaché, in truth. "Has anyone tried talking to the ghosts?" Snake asked. "Maybe they just need a negotiation. If they know we mean them no harm, maybe they'll leave us alone."

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Ouch. That sound was NOT good for his Vulcan ears, and he had little idea of what to do about it. "I've thought of that, but I can hardly hear myself talk, and I'm not sure how you even communicate with them, since they've shown no signs of understanding language. Unless anyone can devise a way for me to mind meld with an incorporeal being?"

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"Yes, nothing else exploding would be.. the optical outcome," Allan had said to Kaylee, giving a smile to W'otres as he looked towards Five. "Should be fine, there's always the tubes, and - well, we should probably investigate why everything's actually gone out, considering on the station it was more of a temporary drain, not a complete..." Without much time to do so, though, the engineers had two more things to deal with; the warpcore lighting up like a damn Christmas tree, an absolutely harsh, contrasting squeal coming from the core, and an entire other group of people coming in at the exact time. He looked at the source of the noise, this beautiful bright pink piece of ancient technology just staring back at them, trying not to get distracted by the flurry of conversations that occurred and tried to just seek out the leader of the - this was the command tactical team walking in, so the Commander was currently who he was looking for, though he did wave at Eshen briefly when he heard the other's voice. "Well, I-" divider

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Oh, and now it was brighter. And louder. And the vibrations - hey, that was kind of a nice bass - no, it was a massive wave of energy going out and shorting everything else on the damn ship that wasn't already. Okay. Okay. And there was... the ghosts? Ghost? "I think it's trying to... okay, this isn't actually ... this isn't actually going to explode, it's just - who can get me like, a reading on that field, I know it's bio-electric, but can someone tune out exactly-" he looked past the other team and at his own, those little ducklings all scattered about now, "what you're reading in that field, there's a chance we can generate something ... strong enough... that'll dissipate it," he said, and then his head whipped around hearing a tactical officer suggest the ... ejection of the warp core. "So, one, that is not what we're doing, but two, it isn't possible on a ship like this, so..." deep breath again, grateful for W'otres's confirmation of such, "yeah, the - keep your distances, keep an eye out for any falling objects, they... don't seem to be communicating, no," okay, that lightened his spirits some to hear that suggestion, at least. "Just um, get a... good reading on it, is all we need," he said with another hopeful smile to the #engiesquad, one of whom would hopefully get said reading so they could start figuring out what they were actually dealing with here as he kept an eye on... well, everything else.

"Aye, sir." Five piped up, working on getting a reading from the thing despite the fact they were still shaking from the assault on their senses. Not to be rude, but ejecting the core was an awful idea. Generating something strong enough to dissipate it... That sounded right. They shook their head to focus. "Sorry for panicking. Loud noises," they explained away quickly, embarrassed. "I still think the amount of people present is having an impact on it." (edited)

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Lente whipped out her tricorder. Bio-electrical, that sounded like just her thing! She threw her torch aside, it wasn't serving any purpose right now anyway. Instead, she focussed on her tricorder, trying to get its readings. It was hard to see, though, with the lights. It took her a good few seconds of hard looking before she got anything she even recognised as numbers.

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Lente's readings suggested if a phaser EM blast tuned at 384.6 kEV was fired at the ghost, it should completely dissapate it and in turn, every ghost currently plaguing the station complex and other docked starships.

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Vara'l scanned the field as he attempted to work out if it happened to be looking like it was getting worse. He also attempted to work out if being too close to a bulkhead happened to be unwise at the moment and if so, how close wasn't wise.

"Sir! It says-" Lente took a second to confirm her readings, but they seemed stable enough. "If you shoot it with a phaser at 384.6 kEV, it should be destroyed!”

Vara'l proceeded to look to the CTO for permission to switch to that setting there. Looked there as he continued to try and keep a eye on the field and on the bulkheads.

"I belive we should let Ensign summer do so. Her and the engineering team have more experience in this area." He said, gesturing to the officer who'd made the discovery.

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"Don't apologize, you're keeping just fine," he said to Five, a gentle smile to hopefully reassure them as he realized he had meant 'keeping cool' but hey, words hard. He watched Lente throw aside her flashlight, the light rolling across the floor, before she read out the reading, "a - a phaser..." he walked over to her, gesturing to look at her readings and upon confirmation of that, he took his phaser and adjusted it to just that, placing it into Lente's palm where he'd taken the tricorder from and gestured up to the little ghost field (well, it was big, but - you know). "Bet." A pause. "That means 'go for it, Ensign Summer'." In case she didn't know. (edited)

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Vara'l nodded once and then turned his focus back to the field and bulkheads. He was fairly near to one that it happened to have arced toward, something that as he observed it proceeded to cause him program his tricorder to alert him if the thing happened to arc in a manner that happened to put him or others in the danger zone. With that, he simply resumed just.. watching.

"Let your phaser-shot fly fast as a summer tanager!" Eshen cheered, though it probably wasn't very audible over the noise.

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Lente shot Allan a wide-eyed look as he handed her the phaser, almost as if to ask "are you sure?" not used at all to situations like this. Then, as if having gathered her nerve, she set her shoulders and aimed for the ghost.... energy being, whatever. She pulled the trigger, shooting an energy beam at the ghost, only loosening her grip when the being seemed completely dissipated, taking care not to damage the warp core too badly, if she could help it.

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As soon as the ghost dissapated, every undamaged system came back to life, the warp core returning to its usual swirly purple hue, and the lighting slowly came up to normal levels, the only evidence that anything had happened being the damage to engineering itself, and Allan's poor bonked head.

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They let out a very long sigh of relief when the screeching finally stopped. Five inched forward a little tentatively, offering the Ensign a high five if she wanted it! "Well done," they said, a little bit more chipper in tone already. Bad loud noise was gone now.

Speaking probably louder than needed, still barely hearing on one side, she cheered at Lente. “Nice shooting!” She looked around, happy to see the ship come back to a semi-normal state. The damage was… something, as debris was all over the place, small or large.

Allan laughed, half-surprised that it worked, and also offered Lente a fistbump, if she wanted, when Five offered the high-five. "...nice." He nodded. "Absolutely fuckin' nice, #EngieSquad and all, and - Five, could I hear a nice quack from you, actually? Really set the mood."

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Vara'l allowed himself a deep sigh of relief as the situation seemed to resolve itself before...as he then picked up the fact that the PADD on him had started to flash with a message. As he then checked his PADD, Vara'ls face hardened and his eyes clouded with those storm clouds a moment before he looked to the C.T.O

"Good job team. I will be sure to speak highly of you all in my report." He said, before walking off to speak with his superiors.

"Sir, request permission to return to the station immediately." Vara'l chimed in once the other walked close enough. The thing he requested followed by him turning his PADD slightly as he showed the C.T.O the notification on his PADD that indicated Telim was distressed.

Lente took Five's offered high five, and Allan's fist bump, though they were a little dazed, as if she was coming down from an adrenaline high... which was probably a fairly accurate description. "I might need to see a doctor," she thought aloud, "staring into the light for that long may have damaged my retinas." She dropped her hands, letting the phaser clatter to the floor on accident, which she didn't really seem to register.

"Absolutely. Go take care of your family Lieutenant." He said to Vara'l before turning back to his PADD, and heading back to the station.

Essen watched as Lente took care of the ghost, resisting the urge profusely to step in herself. But she didn't, she followed orders and swallowed her pride. Then, when Allan requested a quack from Five, Essen's eyes popped open. "Wha--- whyyyyy??? I thought I was done! I thought it was over!" Essen fell to her knees, keeping her hands out in self defense. "The power of Vulcan compels you! The power of Vulcan compels you!" Of course Essen saw the ghosts having been neutralized. Perhaps the real scares were left in The Quackening™️. (edited)

[COMMS] "So I assume you lot fixed the problem? That was quick."

"Well, that was thrilling," he said, a sigh escaped him. He turned to the others and nodded before he started to head back onboard that station. "Think I need some rest after that thrill."

Vara'l turned and started to race back the way they'd come with the speed of a father that happened to now be focused on cutting the distance between his son and him down to nothing as soon as happened to be Romulanly possible.

? Five tilted their head a little at the request. Before they could stop themself, a grin spread across their face. "Quack!" they chirped in reply, though their eyes widened in what may have been horror as the Captain came onto the line. They slapped their hands over where their mask covered their mouth, going scarlet in embarrassment.

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Copia noticed Essen's reaction and couldn't help but smile. "Quack!" Letting out a laugh, she just was so tempted to see Essen's reaction. It was that simple.

[COMMS] "Yes, it was very quack work indeed, officer." You know when you can tell someone's smiling from the way they're talking? Yeah.

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Fighting the urge to explode on the spot, Five stammered out a reply; "Everything went just fine, Captain. Only...er." Glancing pointedly at Allan, "mild injuries. Consider the station Ghostbusted, sir, thanks to Ensign Summer." (edited)

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Allan gladly fistbumped with Lente, and then looked concerned as she mentioned the light damaging her retinas as she dropped the phaser, picking it up as it was his anyways but he also picked up her flashlight, looking at her and gently putting a hand on her shoulder, "hey, that's - you need to get to sickbay or something? C'mon, we can - you can see, still, right? Here, I have-" he rummaged about in his bag and pulled out a pair of sunglasses, handing them to the ensign. "Put these on, it might help?" And of course, when Five quacked, he chuckled, smiling brightly at the chorus of quacks that followed. "Thank you, Chief. Very delightful."

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Essen was probably more freaked out by the Quackening™️ than the actual ghosts themselves! "Captain?!" Essen said. "You're encouraging this?! How the--- what--- but why--- and who---" Essen took Kaylee's hand and encouraged her to join her. "Babe, come on, the ghosts aren't even as scary as this." Heh. Essen defeated by a few simple animal noises - she made her way back to the ship.

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Snake couldn't help but call out a retort behind Essen as she left with Kaylee. "We'll be QUACK sooner than you expect, Essen!"

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Was totally with his team the whole time, Lama clapped when they arrived back on the station and looked over at the rest of the people arriving at the airlock. "Good quacking team! And by the way Allan, you looked sexy when you took on that random piece of bulkhead. I'd trust you to slap my enemies any day," Lama laughed at his own comment and then began to make soft duck noises because apparently that was the thing to do now.

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The situation having been resolved and there no longer being a threat of themself being zapped, drained of all energy, and subsequently shut down, Elwyn slowly emerged further into the room just in time for the quackening. “Quack!” They exclaimed with a grin, their phaser now safely secure in its holster once more, and only feeling a little sheepish about having really not helped all that much during this mission. At least everyone was safe, though!

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Lente took the offered sunglasses, seeming to come back to herself a little. "Uh, yeah. Sorry, uhm, I can still see, but there's spots? I would feel better getting my eyes looked at, I think."

Practically out of the room Vara'l charged past said romulan near the door out "'Xcuse me coming through!" And snatched out his PADD from where he had deposited it again as he rapidly tapped open the message function and proceeded to trigger the text to speak function. "I'm on my way Telim!" He gasped as he ran and disappeared into #corridor

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Lama jumped when the liberated Borg Romulan began to push through the crowd and let out a loud and high pitched 'QUACK QUACK' as if he were a distressed duckling. "Man, who's chasing him with a knife?" Dark eyes widened as he was extremely confused what had gotten into Vara'l, but he heard the name 'Telim'. Ah that was his son. Wait, Vara'l left his ten year old son... ALONE?! "Oh uhhh....... quack?"

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"Totally," Allan said to Lente, glad as she started to seem like she was getting more grounded. "Lama! Thanks, can you- follow along here, actually-" he gestured for the detective to come over as he looked at Lente and started walking to the #corridor , taking his hand off her shoulder, "we can get you down to sickbay, yeah?" he asked her again, "oughta be something there for uh, eyes and spots and shit."

[COMMS] "I'm glad nobody suffered any bizarre mallard-ies. Those of you seeking a quick exit, feel free to request a beam-up."

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Copia couldn't help but snicker at Mo's joke. She enjoyed his sense of humor just as much as Snake and far more than Essen. "Sir, if you would like, I can certainly keep Ensign Essen occupied with duck-related puns, as, judging by her reaction, doing so would certainly fit the... bill? I'm certain it would certainly make a splash with her." Copia -- out of all people, COPIA - suggested that?? Interesting! She headed back with Snake back to the ship.

Five thought about biting their tongue. They really did. Copia continued the chain, and they couldn't resist tagging something on to finish it off before they left; "Nonetheless, all our ducks should be in a row now, sir. We'll get to cleaning up after those fowl ghosts." Ok, ok, they were done now. Leaving!

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[COMMS] He had no more duck puns left in him, but congrats to Five and Copia for managing something not impossible, but certainly uncommon on missions like these: making the Captain wheeze-laugh over Comms.

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Chuckling at the waterbird puns, she checked all her gear and started to head out to the #corridor, seeing her work done and needing to put her head in a quiet room. Hopefully her quarters, maybe even fix any messed equipment she can't see or comprehend right now. "What a day, happy to be a EngieDuckling! Quack-tch you guys later."

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