Star Trek: Starbase 777 - colony-square

The square seemed to be in much better shape than the outer parts of the colony, likely thanks to the dam taking some of the force. There was less damage structurally, but also a few people around, having moved to aid those less fortunate. More children at play, even in the mishap of it all, an older Gorn gentleman sitting and keeping an eye on the little ones from where he sat.

Victoria had sauntered in with her tricorder kept in her pocket, just for the moment, having taken note of how most of the people she could see were in good enough shape that she might consider turning back to helping her colleagues in the outskirts. But these things were worth a quick glance over, and sometimes a double-check. She smiled, hands still in her pockets as she approached the man, seeming as unbothered as she could about the whole situation, although her eyes would scan for any signs of hurt. "Looks like you guys were hit pretty hard - we came as soon as we heard. Everything okay around here?" she asked.

The man eyed her with an air of quiet suspicion, leaning back in his chair. "We're alright as we can be," he answered gruffly. "Few dead. Plenty injured. Plenty sick. It could have been a lot worse, if not for... " .... " If we didn't get lucky. "

One followed after Victoria, hoping to catch what she was talking about. They felt awkward seeking out hurt and bereaved people to find a way to help, but maybe they could coopt Victoria's efforts and help out that way. Especially since she was venturing out on her own, they felt it was the best course of action. For people who got lucky there sure was a lot of damage, One thought. From years of working alongside people though, they knew that saying that wouldn't help. "Is there anything we can help you with, sir?" they asked, not wanting to move on before this man had been given appropriate attention.

"I'm doing just fine. You'll wanna keep an eye on the li'l ones," he said, gesturing towards a small group of children, all gathered around a little Caitian boy with orange-patterned fur and a wrapped up leg. They were passing a ball back and forth.

Victoria nodded and stuck out her lips in thought, turning back to look at the officer who had followed her. Interesting! Pulling out her tricorder, she shrugged and headed towards the group, a quick "thanks for your time" passed to the older gentleman as she left. The look she gave One as she did showed she wasn't quite happy with the answer in the moment, but figured it would be more pressing to check on any injury the child might have sustained. She waved at the boy as she got closer, dodging the others as best she could.

One did not want to keep an eye on the little ones. By absolutely no standards were they qualified in the slightest to be looking after children. However, duty called, so he simply returned Victoria's look with an impassive shrug, and followed her to the group of kids.

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The ball narrowly whizzed past Victoria's head, and just like that, the group froze. "Sorry, miss lady!" the injured Caitian squeaked, cringing. "I told you not to throw it so high, dummy!" another hissed, looking a little younger, dirty fur but relatively unharmed.

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Having noted that a good few people seemed to be in the outskirts and seemed to have things in hand, Vara'l slowed to a stop behind the two other officers. He then moved to go and retrieve the ball. "Nobody was hurt." Vara'l stated as he smiled, the cringing noted. "Are you all okay?"

"Hey!" Victoria shouted, dodging the ball so hard she almost fell over, stumbling a few steps as a result, and right in front of the others! That would wound her pride for a fair few nights to come. She dusted herself off when Vara'l called out, clearing her throat. "Old guy's a bit weird," she said softly, gesturing with a thumb over her shoulder, "kids are trying their best over here, but I think I'll live." She grumbled something unintelligible then continued onwards to sit next to Caitian.

"I see." Vara'l responded as he bent down and attempted to retrieve the tossed ball. Did so as he considered what he'd seen, what she'd said and what he'd noted of the kids. "If you need a hand at all, please let me know." He stated then as he pulled out his tricorder one handed and if he managed to retrieve the ball or didn't, followed Victoria toward the kids. He then slowed to a stop near them. "I believe one of you miss-placed this." The Romulan stated then with a smile as he offered the ball to the kids.

The kid took the ball, bouncing it on the ground for a bit. "Who're you?" he asked the two officers pointedly, little ears swiveling to face Victoria as his head did, rather than airplan-ing as they had been a moment earlier.

"We're with Starfleet," One answered. "We are here to provide disaster relief post-flood." Don't let this guy be in charge of kids like actually.

"Cool," he said, staring like he was trying to engage One in a sort of staring contest. "What do you do?"

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One was up to the task. In many ways they were like a strange little kid, and they could definitely hold a staring contest. "I scan the environment for potential instabilities, and I have knowledge of settlements and the behaviour of sapient lifeforms. But for the most part, I assist my fellow officers with anything that might need doing." Did having only one eye help or hurt when doing a staring contest?

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"Instabilities, like, uh, the roofs and houses and stuff falling down, right?" He accepted his loss to roll the ball towards One's feet, careful not to launch it at the poor officers again. Likely just trying to see what would happen if they did. "What's sapient mean, is that.. a kind of person, or...?"

"Sapient means intelligent, capable of thinking for itself. So yes, people are sapient." One lost the staring contest, looking down at the ball at their feet. They... didn't do anything with it. They had probably never really played any kind of ball sport, and they certainly hadn't done so since being liberated. "And if the ground is unstable, houses may indeed cave in. It's important to examine the soil for assessing current and future damage."

Vara'l settled in behind the two officers as he watched the scene. It seemed One had this handled right now so he visually checked the kids over for any injuries. Did that then looked for the adult previously mentioned by a officer.

A successful distraction resulted in a razor-sharp grin nonetheless, and they picked their ball back up to keep bouncing it. "Ohhh, okay." A bounce in their direction, this time. "So like... Animals, 'n stuff, they're not really sapient? Since they work based on surviving, not really.. thinking?" In spite of One's awkwardness, he seemed genuinely interested and engaged. There was a bandage wrapped around his leg. The old Gorn had his eyes on the other children, rocking chair teetering back and forth.

"Correct, for the most part. There are a wide variety of animals in the galaxy whose sapience is hard to quantify, and technically, there are only a few sapient species that do not qualify as animals, but most of the time, we call only those capable of organising themselves into proper civilisations "people"." This was quite possibly the best kid for One to have made contact with in the entire galaxy. They grabbed the ball with their artificial arm as it came towards them, coordinated despite being unathletic; with a fairly smooth but somewhat weak movement they gently threw it back to the kid.

Through all this time, Saren was busy with unloading the brought supplies and ensuring any colonist who approached him got what they needed. At some point, he got replaced by a fellow officer, to whom the Romulan scientist nodded a thanks, before leaving to wander off in the direction he'd seen his colleagues go. Spotting the exchange between the kids and One of One was a spontaneous and... a weirdly endearing picture Saren did not expect to stumble upon. The younger of the two assistant officers stopped a few paces away from the group, watching their conversation with live curiosity on his face.

Nearby, an older Aurelian woman with dirty white robes carefully climbed down a ladder, brushing off her hands. "That should hold until we get those Starfleet officers to take a look at it. I would recommend everyone keep a wide berth all the same," she said to someone inside, whose response was either inaudible or too quiet to make out as they slipped out through the back. Spying Saren, she made her way over. " I hope you all know how much this means to us," she said, exhaling. "Is there anywhere I can offer my aid? Anything I can get for you all?"

A careful rhythm was established— a back-and-forth with the ball, a back-and-forth with question and answer. His expression scrunched up a little as he processed. Okay, One, you lost him a little bit there, but it's alright. "... Got it. How do you know, which of the.. the civil, um... The places to visit? Do you just scan the planet and go based on that? I know you've got your fancy thingies. Have you ever seen anything, like......" He paused, as if to figure out how to word something. " Big...? Like. Real big. Bigger than houses, big, " he stretched his arms up verryyy tall, which, for a little guy, wasn't much.

"On the human home world there are skyscrapers, which are buildings that are sometimes so high they pierce the clouds. The largest animal I have ever seen was quite recently, on a world full of flighted animals that would not be misnamed as dragons." That was quite an interesting mission. One remembered the rather charged report they had written for it very well. They passed the ball back. "As for how we know what to visit, our spaceship has very sophisticated sensors, which we can use to estimate how technologically advanced a civilisation is. We're only allowed to visit the ones that have managed warp-capable spaceflight, or the ones that have become extinct. Anything else would be in violation of the Prime Directive, as it could cause major upheaval to a society and culture that has not yet developed as far as we have."

He turned his attention towards the approaching Aurelian woman, bowing his head to her in a respectful greeting. "We're here to offer as much aid as possible, so your colony doesn't have to trudge through such struggle alone," Saren knew a thing or two about that. "I think that the biggest help you could offer us would be direction - is there anything vital to fix? Or something you are struggling with? We have a variety of specialists here that can help out, be it medics or scientists or engineers or whoever else."

Arms recently freed of the rubble he’d been asked to lug around by a civilian, Ensign Castello brushed off his dust-encrusted sleeves and let out a quiet exhale, pulling sweat-dotted hair out of his face as he scanned the area for another task, before it was time for him to report back to the Starbase.

Having also spotted the Aurelian woman as she approached, Vara'l turned and bowed slightly. "Jolan tru." He'd stated in greeting initially then before he'd simply lapsed into silence and watched Lieutenant tr'Lareth and the woman converse.

Okay, okay, the prime directive was cool and all, but DRAGONS? The kid's eyes went big, the ball slipping right through their paw-hands. "No way," he said in a kinda-whisper. "Dragons aren't real, though!! They're just in story books!!" He grappled with this, the ball left forgotten for a moment. "Did they have teeth? Real big, sharp ones? Did they breathe fire??? Did you DIE????" " You gotta show me, I don't believe you til I see —!!" A little too excited, as the little one surged up to his feet, and immediately shrank back down with a flinch. "Ow, ow, ow..."

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Lioohn opened her beak to speak, but paused, glancing towards the trees at the word 'vital'. Nothing in that direction but more of the colony, but... She considered something for a long moment. "I don't know about vital, but if.. Do you have people to spare? It's a matter of grave importance— hello, Commander— and while none of us are quite in danger, it would certainly help some of us sleep at night..."

"Hello." The Commander responded then before as the conversation then started to go a certain way, he started toward them. Did so then heard the sound of pain and turned. "That looks painful, Lieutenant Bishop." He began and he called over the kids, nodded to the medical lieutenant. "Is a doctor, she may be able to help make that feel better if you want." He then looked over to the Elder again and to the Lieutenant as he then stated. "I'm available if you need a extra hand assisting, Lieutenant." And looked back toward the kids for a moment.

"If you sit down, I might have pictures. I will not promise anything," One said, noticing the hurt foot. They sent a look to Victoria, urging her to do something about it, before grabbing their personal PADD, trying to see if there were images stored on it. "Oh, see, here," they said after a while, turning their PADD around to show an image of one of the massive Thrakos V lifeforms. (edited)

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Following behind Syrax into the square, the Lieutenant Commander scanned the environment that they’d now found themselves in. The smallest of a smile came across his face when he noticed the children enjoying themselves despite it all. At least some innocence remained.

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Instinctively he also looked over to where Lioohn's gaze went, and he saw... nothing there. "I think we do..? Do you need anyone specific, or just as many people as possible?"

"Ah, well.." Lioohn thought for a moment, counting off, "A doctor or two in case something goes wrong on the way down, engineers, some extra muscle... As many as you can spare would be wonderful, as long as the rest of us aren't left high and dry topside. I'm not even sure if you'll be able to help, really, it's .. a lot of effort, a lot of manpower, for something that may seem silly to you, but it's... Important. To us." Her expression was unreadable beyond seeming deeply, deeply worried.

Obediently, the little Caitian remained sat ready to receive medical attention, hands between his knees. "Woooooah," he whispered, still bug-eyed. Yes, teeth, yes, flying... His tiny mind was blown. "That's so awesome... You're so cool. Do you just do this stuff all the time? Find cool stuff and save people?"

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"We do it often enough, I have been on quite a few missions. I have other daily responsibilities though, as I am the Assistant Chief Science Officer at my station. This means I am partially responsible for the entire department, and have hundreds of people to look after, making sure they are healthy, and able to do their work comfortably. It is not as exciting, but it is an important job that I hope I do well," One explained, swiping over to another big Thrakos V dragon to show.

Medical, engineering, strong officers... perhaps they needed to get some sort of generator fixed? Saren hummed in response: "Can you give me a moment to go talk with the other officers? I'm sure we can put a team together no problem, but I need to make sure they are up to date. Anything specific you want me to tell them, besides what you've already mentioned?.."

"Um.." Lioohn wrung her hands. "Not to be disappointed if it can't be fixed. It's at least a century old, and you've done so much for us already. Tell them to meet me by the treeline when you're all ready to go." She placed a hand on Saren's shoulder, angling her head a little to one side. "I cannot express enough how much this means. Thank you for even considering it."

He nodded, again, meanwhile trying to wrap his head around the "century" comment. Such longevity was impressive, though it did not give him any sort of answer or clue for just... just what this mysterious object or place was. And while such cageyness around vital details would normally make anyone suspicious, Saren couldn't help but feel like this Aurelian was... Protective. He walked off into the direction of arriving officers, lifting his hands to wave them over to himself.

After the talk with the kids, Tarsek went after the elder. Back in the square he looked around before spotting Lieutenant tr’Lareth – whom he recognized from the Borg cube mission, and hoped was doing alright – and a colonist. Approaching he offered the ta’al. “Excuse me, I do not mean to interrupt, but do you know where I can find elder Lioohn?” He asked the Aurelian.

"Oh! That would be me." She turned, folding her hands in front of her as she faced Tarsek. "What can I do for you, Commander? Is everything alright?"

"So, like..." The Caitian tilted his head, studying the photo (awesome), then flicking his gaze back to One (also awesome). He seemed content with the answers given, tail swishing back and forth behind him in interest. "You're the science boss? Are all the other blue ones science, too?"

”I see. I am Lieutenant Commander Tarsek V’hgai.” He knew her name, but she did not know his, and so he saw fit to introduce himself. First rule of diplomacy: there can be no dialogue with whom you do not know. “I was with some of your young and after delivering them food they asked if we could help with “fixing people”. They said it was important and that you, Elder Lioohn, was worried and needed help.”

Actually, all of this could be done easier. So Saren just reached for his commbadge, relayed a short message - and waited.

"I am one of the "science bosses", and the people with the grey and blue uniforms are indeed my fellow scientists. The people with the white and blue are all medical officers, they're not part of my division," One explained, before looking up and around for Saren at the sound of the comm call. "Ah, I apologise, it seems I am needed elsewhere. If there is time later, I will answer more of your questions."

Rozamal smiled as he walked forward, his specialty cane making a little clack clack clack sound as he came. “How can I be of assistance Lieutenant?” He said before giving a polite bow to the elder. “I am Rozamal, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

For an instant, she was startled, then her gaze shifted into something fonder. "Did they, now..? Aren't they darling..." She sighed, gesturing over to Saren. " Well, you can join the Lieutenant, and we'll discuss when we make the walk over there, hm?"

"Okay! Good luck!" One last toss of the ball, if permitted, and the Caitian gave One a giant sharp-toothed grin. "Thank you!!"

The man with a plan was here! (he did not have a plan) Ezran moved to joined the others ready to help out wherever needed, still watching over the group and keeping an eye on any of the residents incase anything happened.

One tossed the ball back one last time with a firm nod before walking over to Saren.

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Karavix, with curiosity piqued, made her way to the square alongside the others. She waited patiently near the group of officers, folding her hands neatly behind her.

Upon receiving the message through the communication channel he nodded. “Certainly, Madam. It seems my colleagues were highly efficient already.” He promptly turned to join the others.

Hal Gertie, distracted by his task of clearing rubble, moved over to where the team was forming. The rubble could wait; Saren had said this was important, so he trusted it was important. He moved into a neutral position, looking around seriously— it was like he never left ‘security’ mode sometimes despite his best efforts.

Silver, who had been dutifully clearing away rubble elsewhere, drifted towards the town center, ready for anything she might be asked to do.

Allan had been... somewhere, but of course his attention was taken away by, firstly, his boyfriend's voice over the comms, and secondly, the word 'engineers', so before he knew it, he was in the square, next to the very familiar science officer who'd made the comms message. "Heyyy," he said, a smile on his face with an excited energy not too far away from a puppy dog called up by its name, "heard we needed engineers? I'm an engineer." No shit!

Jayrehi had been following the group into the square, keeping to herself for the time being. In truth, she wasn’t exactly sure what she should do at this moment. At the very least, she was in the right place.

Looking around at the group that had gathered, Lio exhaled in quiet relief. She'd stressed that this wasn't important — not a big deal, compared to the lives of her fellow colonists— but it was important to her, clearly. "Thank you all for coming," she said, raising her voice to be heard. "Now, if you'll follow me..." And she lead them down the #temple-path.

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"Well, you heard the Elder..." after letting some of the people go in front of him, Saren followed...

Victoria, who had definitely been about the entire time, was admittedly quite grateful to One of One for taking the kid's attention, lest she find herself stuck after so much as asking for the Caitian's name. Dragons were definitely much more interesting! The distraction gave her enough leeway to undo the makeshift cast and get to work. By the time One was pulled away, she would be done. "Stay safe, kid," she said, patting him on the shoulder before standing and following along.

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