Star Trek: Starbase 777

The bridge, too, carried the signs of corruption - yet all the consoles seemed to be in working condition. There was also someone standing by the large window, looking out into space.

Aoife walked off the lift, she took a moment to look around the bridge, to see if anyone other than the commander was on the bridge and to look for any potential surprises and to look for other exits. Eventually Aoife spoke. "I take it your the Commander." Aoife stated to the person looking out into space.

The vast array of stars was sprawled out before them, moving slowly as Kinaen kept on circling, hidden in her safe space. Illuminated by the lights, her Commander's tall, angular figure was cast in a soft greenish glow. As soon as he was addressed, Lhaes turned towards his visitors - revealing the mosaic-like pieces, signs of assimilation, that circled the side of a face and eyes. The old Romulan gave them a silent stare, before finally he tilted his head to the side with a short, concise reply: "That I am. And you?.."

Aurisk stepped out of the turbolift not long after Aoife. They saw the Lieutenant speaking to the Romulan commander and decided to stay quiet for now.

"Lieutenant O'Reilly." Aoife gave Lhaes an equally concise reply. She kept her rifle low but within reach. Her eyes studied the commanders partially assimilated face. Aoife's voice was neutral with no malce or threat to it, but it was equally firm. Aoife took a step closer but still kept a distance from the commander. "Quite the warbird you have here." Aoife opened a conversation trying to gleam some information about the Kinaen's history.

Hal stepped out into the Bridge. She stayed by Aurisk, silent.

The hardy lines around his eyes and mouth had eased somewhat, giving the Lieutenant a rather rare Lhaes smirk. "I apologize on her behalf for unceremoniously whisking all of you away like this. The scans and probes prompted a decision to flee." He turned his attention to the stars briefly, face once again carefully neutral. A habit, instilled by many decades flown under the Raptor's wings. "She's a science vessel, originally. Then she was assigned patrol duties. Now, though... I can't really say what Kinaen has become. A failure of the Empire, perhaps." Lhaes shook his head then, a crease settling in between his eyebrows. "I don't know if it was faith that brought us here - my kin does not tend to believe in such coincidences, despite being rather... fatalistic, by our nature. Perhaps it's for the best. Tell me, though - what is going to happen to my crew, after all of this?"

"A decision? Is she sentient?" Aoife asked, she being the ship itself, the concept of a sentient ship was both intriguing and terrifying. But Aoife's mind shifted to what would happen to the Kinaen's crew? Being truthful she had no idea. Aoife took another few steps closer, now standing almost next to the commander, she looked out the window enjoying the inky black expanse of space. "I could tell you that the federation will make everything okay, and everyone rides off into the sunset all happy. But I'm not the type of person to bluster on and on and make promises that are above my station, I'm just a soldier. Truth be told I don't know what will happen, but whatever does end up happening has got to be better than the mess you seem to be in right now." Aoife was direct, but not painfully blunt she didn't want to give someone false hope and make promises she couldn't keep. She also gambled that the commander would respond better to directness than a long winded idealist spiel.

"I could tell you outright, but keeping it a secret to make you lose sleep at night does seem like a more entertaining idea," he shrugged, deadpan, yet there was an obvious spark of amusement in his eyes. "Maybe it's just my years of captaincy of this vessel. But.. let's just say... I think that something, inevitably, has changed after we got attacked." He fell silent for a bit, listening to Aoife talking. You would think that the Commander would be the one to give the unwanted guests the hardest of times, but... here he was. "Circumstances are circumstances, but considering the uniforms we bear... Ack. Maybe it's best not to speculate. Ah, by the way, if any of you were in any way curious or concerned - the drone is dead. I made sure of it." That was a rather abruptly made statement, but... at least they had one less thing to worry about?..

"I lose sleep over plenty of things, one more to add to the list is just a new addition to the nightmare factory." Aoife deadpanned, but her face curled into a wry smirk, seeing the humour of the commanders words. "Good, I think." Aoife simply stated in response to the quip about the drone. Coming face to face with the Borg was something that would remain in the realm of fantasy for Aoife, probably for the best. "So, what now?" Aoife asked, suddenly aware that she wasn't really sure of where to steer the conversation.

He blinked, rotating his body to face the lift doors, probably just in time for the first party to be entering the bridge: "We wait for the rest."

"And then?" *Jamis piped up. He was still suspicious of the Commander, and did not like the way he was biding for time, slipping around the questions being asked towards him; it was standard old Imperial Romulan tactics, yes, but there something different he was picking up too. Jamis couldn't tell if he was genuinely stalling or if this was indeed in good faith.

Soon enough, for the first time in what felt like forever, the bridge was once again a flurry of activity - mostly from the Kinaen's crew, surprisingly. Lhaes greeted each of his crewmember with the same amount of reserved fondness, meanwhile Karrim, as soon as he got himself out of the lift, was by his sister's side in less than a heartbeat, enveloping Jaeih in his arms and letting her shed all the tears she needed into his shoulder, feeling just a bit more like himself, again. The engineers would join later, whenever they felt their work done, the core no longer wheezing and stuttering like it did before - and the bridge had suddenly gone louder, Juler immediately glued to Sindari's side and engaged in some harmless banter, encouraging her that the metal plating over her missing eye "could be worked on, Dari, I promise!". Maybe perhaps because of the hopeful, celebratory mood his most loyal, most devoted crew, friends, family, was currently in, Lhaes' own defenses minutely eased, allowing the officers to talk to him easier. The decision to guide the ship back to the Xarantine sector was made - with reluctance on the Romulan part, because sure, they were alive and somewhat whole, but that didn't mean that the fear of punishment, instilled by their Empire, had left them. But before they could do that, just as Kinaen began her movement... ... Eventide popped up, probably not expecting what they saw as soon as their hail was answered. The IRW Kinaen was thus escorted by her, out of the fog, back to the Xarantine sector - back home, to the starbase.