Star Trek: Starbase 777 - singularity-core-access

It was a massive, round, green lit room, lined with engineering consoles and computers along the walls and near the walkways and stairs that let down into the center of this room, where the large sphere, it's dark surface littered through with cracks of glowing greenish white, was spinning at a constant speed. The sphere was held up by two giant gears that spun along with it, making the whole construction look like an enormous, glowing armillary sphere. The light that was seen through the cracks would pulse - it was the raw energy that kept the Warbird going. The team was looking at what essentially was Kinaen's heart. Occasionally her heartbeat would sputter and quicken, letting out a soft wheezing or whistling noise, a sharp contrast to the room's ghostly, yet soothing, humming.

He watched the irregular heartbeat of the Kinaen and almost felt sorry for it. Her. But she'd just stolen them all away. Why? "It's... oddly beautiful."

As they walked into the room, Allan felt a little frozen in time for a few reasons. One, holy shit the ship just came to life again. Two, the singularity core really -was- a beautiful sight to behold, and he stared at it for a while as he followed Eshen and Alizati into the room, watching the giant gears spin, watching the glowing cracks spin across the thing in an electrifying sort of way through a sort of pulse - it was mesmerizing, almost. "It is," he had whispered to Eshen almost automatically, but... but then reason three was the reading that popped up on Allan's screen as he had crossed through the entryway with everyone. "Hey, uh, guys...?" He asked slowly, inching a little closer to Eshen as he did, "so you know how uh, before the ship decided to do this, I said we should probably check the body again 'cause of the masking chip shit Five had mentioned? Well, um, I did, and - uh-" he looked up at the group for a second and back down to the tricorder, "it's reading back 'Borg lifeform dormant' so uhh..." (edited)

"Hmmm... Mo mentioned they'd scanned and found one Borg. Is this that Borg, or have the others found more? Hold on, I'll comm them. You guys do your thing, I'll keep any eye on the door in case getting that chip thing off its neck is going to make it un-dormant. Dorman't." He tapped his commbadge.

Saren watched the core spin, motion familiar - but turned back to his team as soon as the concerning news were brought up. "I will go and stand guard near the doors, to see if that guy moves," he offered, nodding towards the door. "I won't go close to him, I'll just stand so that the doors are kept open and I can see him. Borg drones walk slowly, so if anything happens - I'll be able to react first. Meanwhile our two engineers can work on the core... and maybe there is some stuff here to find on the computers?" He was also armed - if anything, they would get alerted by his phaser shots. Much better than being suddenly snuck up on by a potentially very unfriendly Borg?

"On your own? Hmmm... Fine, I'll look around, but once I'm joining you in your valiant protection of us all." Checking to see if Alizati was occupied, he gave Saren a kiss on the cheek and then moved to the nearest computer or console in the room.

"Dorman't," he couldn't help but smile at that little joke, which almost sounded like it was an ant going to college. Living in a dorm. Dorm ant. Joke aside, though, he went with Alizati to, presumably, the core, approaching the console near it and seeing if there would be any signs of what was currently going on with it, any abnormalities of any sort or things like that that may cause it to do whatever it just did again. "Eshen- if you can see any um, logs on how fast it's going or went before- that might be on there," he said with a nod to the console Eshen had gone to. That would help determine where they were, right? Because they couldn't have gotten... too far, and they were in a... decently populated sector, right? Right.

There was actually a bunch of warning that have popped up there, probably during the battle. The core's malfunctions seemed to be related to the issues in the wiring of the giant cogs that were responsible for it's turning, and there were issues with the systems themselves - some parts of them offline or failed, and so on. Indeed, there seemed to be some logs on the console - and they supported the theory that the core's malfunctions began after the fight, for there were also logs for it's excessive usage for jumps and radiation bursts, likely to dogfight the other Warbird. Eshen could map out the ship's movements from the Hobus sector all the way down to Xarantine, where 777 resided. And as of now, the ship was circling the border of Rator sector, cloaked.

He relayed most of that information to Allan and the others and then remarked, "We're circling Rator for some reason.. Rator III is where the capital of the Romulan Empire is, I believe. Why did the ship bring us here?" He searched further. Were there any readable logs? Ones containing important lore info? As he did so, he decided to check up on the others.

"The... core's got some fucked up wiring here, I don't know if you saw that boss," he glanced over at Alizati who was probably also inspecting the core, "there's also some offline systems, I'll try to go into the software there and see what's causing them to fail," he explained before, well, doing that, going into the details of each of the offline systems and attempting to bring them online. "...I'm not sure, actually, but - I'm glad we at least have some sort of idea of where we are. I'll tell everyone else, maybe they'll have an idea?" He said, pressing his commbadge and speaking to the other two teams.

The important lore logs seemed to not be here - but, perhaps, the information that they currently were on the border of the Rator sector, not really delving further into it, in a cloud of cosmic gas, was important. Maybe Kinaen was hiding? Being so close to the core was loud, but also... rather warm, in a pleasant way. It seemed that there was a power outage that knocked some of the systems out. Some places had burns, but nothing was melted - thankfully. Slowly but surely, Allan and Alizati were succeeding in their tasks, like two surgeons stabilizing a patient. As for Saren-- Wait. Where was Saren?..

After reading all that, he spoke on comms: "Hellooo?" A sigh. "...Well, that's not a very comforting silence. Hey, maybe you folks should go right to medi..." Something caught his eye - or, rather, the lack of something where Saren should be. "Saren? Hey, Saren? Where -" He tapped his commbadge off and walked towards the door, though didn't go through it, then paused. "Allan, I - Saren's gone..." He could leave Allan with Alizati, but he didn't like the idea of splitting up like this, but he needed to find Saren as soon as possible... He took a deep breath, willing Surak to calm his nerves, and spoke in a blank tone: "...We need to find him."

There was a weird way that engineering in fact did feel like he was doing his own little form of surgery on a patient sometimes. The way you had to pay attention to each little part and piece and the way you had to make sure they were all connected to the main source of power, the way you had to treat the parts - and even the code that ran them, really - gently and without risking losing the whole thing... Oh, but speaking of losing things, they'd lost Saren. They'd- "No," was the first thing out of Allan's mouth when Eshen had said Saren was gone, a reaction of doubt despite knowing that Eshen wouldn't just say something like that as a lie or a joke or anything else. Despite the fact that his brain told him the doors would have made an obvious noise when Saren left and how come he hadn't noticed it, even though if he had stopped to actually think about that, it was because the core he was literally working on was so damn loud. "I mean - Alizati, this is ..." he looked back at the system he'd currently been working on and scanned it for any other abnormalities quickly and fuck, there was- "I think we've gotten it to the point where it won't just... randomly jump again? But it's hard to be sure -" he said, in the meantime stepping back towards Eshen and the entrance of the room, where Saren -was-, where he had been just a fucking second ago- "we do." He walked towards the door as well, took a deep breath, and stepped juuust close enough within the range to let it open.

Eshen actually physically stepped in front of Allan before he could get to the door, then muttered an apology and told him to get behind him as he stepped just within range himself. It wasn't that he didn't think Allan was weak and couldn't take care of himself, or that his life was worth less than Allan's - it was that he didn't want to lose him, too. Besides, he was good at protecting people. This was a role he could play.

The doors opened, showing the engineering corridor. Empty, save for the familiar Borg in the wires, still fast asleep. What Eshen's sharp hearing could pick out, though, were the sounds of fast footsteps and a muffled thud somewhere nearby.

Eshen's head snapped to the direction of the noise and he stepped out into the corridor...

Alizati gave his friends an acknowledging nod before turning back to his work on the core. He was also worried about Saren, but someone had to stay behind and make sure the core was stabilised because if it wasn't... Well then it wouldn't matter who or what was lurking around the corners snatching up people because no one could escape an uncontained singularity.

Funny he thought about that - because, motivated by the rules of the Murphy's Law, shit decided that if would happen. Alizati could hear a whoosh of a door and the footsteps coming in.

Hearing the doors whoosh open, Alizati turned his body to see who it was. It was probably one of his teammates, surely. Eshen and Allan had gone to get Saren, although it was odd that he heard only one pair of footsteps. Maybe Saren was looking for him? "Is everything alright?" Alizati asked, assuming it was one of his teammates, he said the words in Standard as well as he still assumed the person was one of his three teammates.

An already familiar Borg-ified Romulan, who was hanging out in his wire cocoon not too long ago, stared right back at Alizati (or, rather, up - his stature was on the shorter side), giving the android an owlish, slow blink, the expression of anxiety slowly settling onto his round face. "... What're you doin' with our core?.." he asked casually, awkwardly patting himself down for a disruptor, not finding one, oh-h-h-h shit, "And what're you, uh, doin' in here in general, mister white-shoulders officer? We were dealing with Tal Shiar attack before, when did you?.."

Alizati was surprised to see not one of his teammembers but the 'corpse' from earlier. He noticed the man seemingly feel around for a weapon? There was a moment of silence as Alizati was trying to to figure out just what the situation was. The man was clearly dead, but why was he alive? The device on his neck, hm that was probably it. Although he didn't exactly know the specifics of what had happened, the man was clearly not dead and seemed to be willing to talk. He was unfazed by the less than friendly nickname, he was fully aware the crew would have reservations with Starfleet officers on board. "I am attempting to stabilise it," Alizati said in his best proper Rihannsu accent, although the weirdness of his Rateg dialect found its way in the way he elongated his vowel sounds and aspirated his hard h's. "We found your ship adrift outside of our station in the Xarantine sector. We are here to investigate what happened to this ship and to you. We mean no harm, if anything, we want to help you. My name is Lieutenant Commander Alizati tr'Kota," Alizati introduced himself, not an inkling of anxiety on his face despite actually being full of shock and bewilderment. It also did not occur to him that responding with his family name right when the man said they were fighting the Tal Shiar may not have been the best course of action.

His fingers twitched at the words "stabilize it", as if the mere idea of someone else tampering about Kinaen's core sent a spike of fear through the engineer's heart. Well-- that was fair, kind of. He worked with her for a good couple of years, and she almost became his final resting place, and who knew really if this stranger was helping them? What if he was doing the opposite? "Xarantine?!" he exclaimed, shaking his head, "No way! She was mapped to a different direction! Xarantine's where..." Oh. Suddenly, the fact that Starfleet was here... made too much sense. Juler full on facepalmed, fingers clanking against the metal plating on the side of his face, as he then peeked at Alizati through his fingers with a half-sneer: "Kota. Oh, this is hilarious. I'll play along with you, Lieutenant Commander - takin' you on the promise of help, as long as you deliver. Lieutenant Juler tr’Keirianh, by the way, Chief Engineer of IRW Kinaen. Now, tell me where she's hurtin'."

Alizati's expression remained unchanged, just staring at the other engineer with his typical Vulcan stoicism. It did not come as a surprise that the other engineer seemed a less than thrilled to have a stranger-- much less a Starfleet officer, invading his turf. Alizati spent enough time around his Romulan family to know they were very territorial. Alizati was amused by the face palm and the shock when the man found out his ship had drifted way off course. "Yes, the Xarantine sector. Upon initial scans this ship was devoid of life and as Starfleet officers we took it upon ourselves to investigate, especially considering all of the Borg tech you have," That Alizati still knew little about. He took careful note of the implants on Juler's face, glad that the man seemed more or less functional despite whatever happening to him that made him appear dead. "I am Vulcan raised, if that makes you feel more at ease. And this is not a game, we are here to help, I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant Juler," He decided not to mention that he was an android, it would probably do more harm than good in this situation. Anticipating Juler stepping closer, Alizati initiated his organic functions so he could breathe and blink and seem less... Suspicious. Alizati stepped to the side so Juler could stand next to him and he began to give the man a run down on the repairs he had already done with the help of Allan. "... And right now we are attempting to stabilise the core so we can singularity jump back to these coordinates," Alizati keyed in the numbers for their previous location for Juler to see. He hoped with the thorough explanation as well as he calm Vulcan demeanour, the Romulan officer would see that he and the rest of the away team had no ill intent.

"I'm to blame for that," he stated, proudly. "The chips have worked after all! Splendid! Ah, but... let's focus." *Juler seemed to be a very easy guy to talk and compromise with - maybe he really was that simple... or there was something more in the background and on his mind. But in any case, the engineer did pick up on the pointed out issues, and after cussing under his breath at "that shitty shitty Warbird, damaging Kinaen like this...", Juler set to work alongside the Starfleet officer. *

"I would be interested in learning more about the technology. Strange how the back of the neck seems to be a favourite spot for such things," Alizati said, not giving away too much information, but at the same time trying to sound just as casual as Juler was. If he was to get the engineer's trust, he would have to try and speak his language. Metaphorically and literally, Alizati was struggling to enunciate his words through his own thick accent. "I would like to hear more about... Your predicament. Everything that happened," Alizati said as they worked, eyes focused on the job at hand, but occasionally glancing at the other engineer. It felt odd working alongside a Romulan engineer, a Star Empire engineer, technically. This was something he nor Dzharok had ever experienced, but for some reason he didn't feel as out of place as he had expected.

"It's something to do with the nervous system, the proximity to the brain, and just the general convenience of the spot," he explained, rather eagerly actually, finally having someone to ramble to after who-knows-how-long he had spent in that half-dead, half-asleep state. "It was our lead scientists idea first, I just worked the blueprint into a somewhat workable condition under a very literal deadline, but it had served it's purpose well enough! Perhaps if Kinaen wasn't malfunctioning, we would be at our original destination a long time ago." The next question... left him in a less excitable mood. "We got lab rat treatment from our new higher-ups. Tried to run first, but... y'saw what actually happened. I, ah... I got caught first. They also decided that it would be funny to leave an engineer stuck in wiring, so.. that's how that happened!" he gestured vaguely, a nervous chuckle blurting out past his lips. "Whatever you lot plan to do with us... I hope there's free therapy available."

"That is logical," Alizati said in response to the placement of the chip. He listened as he worked, not smiling, but he was amused by how casually and openly Juler spoke about the incident. Alizati couldn't ignore the dead bodies he had seen earlier, however he did appreciate the tenacity of the crew. Although he was raised Vulcan, there was something about being able to work as a team alongside another Romulan engineer that simply hit different than all his other experiences. "They? Oh, them," Alizati raised an eyebrow in curiosity before realising that Juler was speaking about the bodies from earlier. So that's how that went. "Whilst I cannot tell you what is waiting for you after this, I can say with confidence there will be therapy," To that Alizati gave his fellow engineer the slightest of smiles. "We have the Romulan Republic now. Much nicer, much more open. A lot has changed," Alizati wasn't sure how Juler would feel about yet another Romulan faction existing, but he hoped speaking to the Republic's open mindedness would at least reassure the engineer that he would be treated with dignity and respect, whatever fate may lie ahead for him. "I think you will like the Republic, it is a place I am proud to call home. Just like how Starfleet is also my home. I understand how much you gave for your crew, there is nothing I would not do to protect mine," Alizati stopped breathing and blinking for a moment to refocus his mind and not gush about how much he loved his friends. "Hm, we should focus on getting us back to the Xarantine sector, I.. Just want to see you and your crew to safety," Alizati looked at Juler with a twinkle in his eye, understanding what he sacrificed for his crew and immediately thinking back to how fast Eshen and Allan had bolted out of the room to find Saren. Maybe it was because they were both chief engineers but he already had great respect for Juler for what he did for his crew.

Juler stayed mostly silent through Alizati's speech, feeling weirdly... tender, that he was offered sympathy. It would be completely understandable for a Starfleet officer to regard all of this from a more critical standpoint - hell, before this occurred, Juler probably would do so too - but the half-Vulcan, somehow, managed to ease some of his fears. "Think they would accept us?" he asked with a lopsided sort of smile that pulled at his scarring. "Bunch'a half-Borged Star Empire rebel freaks... I don't know how my nieces and nephews would react at seeing me... like this, but.... at least I'll still have my little team. And--" As they were interrupted by the commbadge, Juler's expression brightened up upon hearing the familiar, always slightly annoyed-sounding drawl of his cranky best friend. "Dari, dear! Oh, right, she can't hear me. Hmm, but maybe we should stay to fix the core..."

And then he was here! Kinda like magic. "Eyy okay boss, so Saren's okay, there was just this uhhh guy who wanted his sister? But she's good, and we're good, and we're gonna go to the bridge after we fix the core, so-" And unfortunately this seemed to be interrupting Alizati and - wait was that the Borg dude who was dead earlier? No, dormant. Right. "Oh! Hi. Hey. I'm Allan," he said as he. Scooted next to Alizati and helped fix the core back up to its functioning state - which was quite fun, probably. His first time actually working on a singularity core for real.

Juler did hear the sound of an opening door (which had probably interrupted another one of his unintentional rambles), and soon he saw a human walk in - and while, instinctively, he did tense up, not knowing how to react to another Starfleet officer coming in, but... it seemed that all was well? The very casual greeting and no attempt at immediately murking him did make Juler have some faith in this interaction. "Another engineer, yes?" he nodded his head, glad to get another pair of helping hands. "Juler. You, um, walked past me a coupl'a times already, probably. Hop in, if any questions about all of this mess arises, I can help." Which also probably meant that he would reply to just general, out-of-curiosity questions - which Juler liked. A lot. An unhealthy amount of a lot.