Star Trek: Starbase 777

The turbolift appeared to be broken - and an occasional sparkle of electricity only confirmed that.

Great, okay. From that alone, it was easy to guess that at least one issue may be connectivity to power. What else?

Austin stepped into the turbolift with five just incase anything was to happen. He was also capable of lifting heavy things if that helped at all... "If you need any help from me for any reason, don't be afraid to ask." He leaned back against the wall of the turbolift.

"I've got it, sir," Five promised, squinting a little. "Looks like there isn't much power. I wanna see if there's anything else before I reconnect— just to ensure it doesn't...explode or something the second I do," they explained.

Lingering just short of the doorway was Niwa, not wanting to get in the way (and also a little nervous about the possibility of a broken turbolift just... Plummeting downwards without warning.) She kept one hand on the doorframe and poked her head around the corner, looking around the turbolift's interior. "Let me know if I can do anything, even if it's just holding a torch. But be careful, please," there was a slight grimace at Five's mention of the turbolift exploding. "Don't get electrocuted -- or blown up."

"Ah, a torch would be great." Five looked back. "I've been doing this for a long time, Lieutenant. I'll be alright," they promised, voice just a little gentler to assure her. "And if I do, I want whatever's left of me cremated 'n turned to soil for my plants." FIVE.

The talk of cremation and whatever was left being food for the plants simply earned a blink from the Vau N’Akat, seemingly stunned into silence. Another blink, and she moved to set down her medical kit and extract a torch. “You know, I don’t really want any casualties because it means that I haven’t done my job – but someone being charred isn’t something I can fix, so if we could just… Avoid being charred, please?” She clicked the torch on and held it into the turbolift, moving it from point to point for a moment so they could take in the damage – or see if anything was of use for the repairs.

3

It seemed like, besides the electric issue, the motor of this turbolift seemed to be faulty too. The good news was, that the occasional sparks seemed to be too weak to cause any significant damage to the OPS at work - little victories also counted, right?

"Well, in the hypothetical situation I do get exploded," Five started, rolling up their sleeves and keeping their focus on the panel, "You have full permission to blame me for being an idiot, considering I've been on the job for as long as I can remember and still somehow managed to fuck up a turbolift. Granted, 'as long as I can remember' is not long compared to others." He grimaced. "Lucky for you, there won't be anything but minor injuries if I do fuck up. Motor's faulty. Let's see what I can do about that..."

19:32

Is the motor, like, beyond repair/needs replacing? Or can they salvage it?

With a bit of work and time, there was a good possibility that the motor could be repaired.

Okie dokie, let's do it then!

19:39

Five got to work doing just that, silent and focused in. They were never much of a chatterbox to begin with, but now it seemed they were really in their element...cruel pun intended.

The interior mechanics of the turbolift’s motor looked like a whole mass of mangled metal and circuitry to Niwa. Maybe that’s exactly what it was. Not wanting to distract the Chief, she stood by with the torch positioned in what she hoped was a helpful location, watching and having not much idea of what Fives was doing at all. Having been doing her foundation training at the same time as basic training at the Technical Academy, it was clear that she hadn’t remembered much of the engineering modules at all.

Eventually, the motor was fixed enough to be in a workable condition!

7

Austin begrudgingly offered Five a high five. He figured it would help morale to offer some sort of congrats even if he wasn't truely familiar with five he figured it would be a nice gesture. In truth however the closeted geek just looked sort of awkward as he silently offered up a high five with no other prompting of congratulations.

3

"Got it!" Five drew back. "Well- got the motor. Power should be easy compared to it. Lieutenant, light a little to the left, if you wouldn't —" They blinked, looking up at Whidbey, who wordlessly held out a hand. "What is that?"

4

He slowly put the hand back on his phaser. "What?" He tried his best to sound as if he had no clue what Five was talking about. "What is what?"

"Were you going to attack me??" they asked genuinely, complete with a tip of their head. "You had your hand out."

"No I didn't." Time to put to use some of his secretive investigation training. It was time to lie as best as he could... too bad he barely passed that class. "Why would I possibly want to attack you? You're part of my team."

Niwa moved the torch as requested, but paused when Five asked the question. She thought someone should clarify. "It's a high five. It's a thing that... Humans do." The end was given a little awkwardly, gaze falling upon Five as she took in the Liberated Borg's features. Were they also not Human? It seemed that the Chief tried to cover Borg implants or perhaps what remained of them, but there was no hiding the skin tone -- or the name, 'Five of Eight.' But were they Human too? They were Human, right? But didn't know about high-fives? Just how much had assimilation took from them..? Very abruptly, the concern about being aboard this ship turned to concern for Five. Surely being here couldn't be easy. (edited)

7

Austin nodded. "Ohhhhhhh that." Austin was awful at acting. He played a tree in his school play in elementary school. "Yeah I just wanted to offer up a high five. Good job on fixing the turbolift."

5

Almost experimentally, Five gave a little wiggle of the fingers of their robotic hand. You could hardly tell thanks to the gloves, save for the faint mechanical whirrs. They then decided against it, and raised their fleshy hand to Austin. Another attempt at a high five, since they'd missed the first one, and clearly the Lieutenant Commander was a bit embarrassed by it. "I think I understand," they answered, then nodded as if to reassure himself.

3

The celebration could be interrupted by the very loud, very obvious, sound of blasting phasers back in the corridor.

Without even thinking Austin slapped Five's hand with what was probably way too much strength. He and his old buddies used to find it funny to see if they could get a reaction from the others that way. Austin never really liked the game but it had become ingrained in his head. Then he heard the blasting. "God damn it. Everyone get down now!" He jumped behind the turbolift door for cover and pulled out both of his phasers.

3

They cringed hard in the middle of drawing their hand back, clapping their hands over their ears out of pure instinct. Too loud. Was there someone aboard alive after all? "What's going on!?" they demanded, cursing under their breath. (edited)

The echoes of her pained groan were felt here, too.

Oh. They'd gotten worked up for no reason. What a cruel reminder of the reality of the mission they were on. But a necessary one, he found. Don't get sentimental. Not now. Not when you're in the face of how you lost everything. They took a deep breath. In. Out. Five's expression, which maybe two minutes ago had been genuine curiosity and maybe something bordering on delight, fell to grim determination again as they turned to continue fixing the power, not noticing they'd been left alone in the turbolift. "Poor thing," they muttered without thinking as the ship groaned in agony. She was beautiful, yet terrifying. Every rose had its thorns, they supposed.

8

With things hopefully(?) having calmed down outside in the corridor, she turned from the discussion going on and returned to the turbolift instead, having noticed that Five hadn't exited. "Everything alright?" She enquired, gingerly stepping over the gap between the floor of the current deck and the floor of the turbolift. Not that a tiny gap would do anything compared to the entire turbolift plummeting, mind... But it was fine. She had faith in the Chief's repair abilities.

"Fine," came the dull reply. Five had entirely tuned out the squabble in the hallway and tuned back in to the panel. "I think I've almost got it, actually. Thank you for your help." That last part seemed genuine despite the flatness of their tone- they were just too focused to pour any more emotion into it right now.

”Oh, I barely did anything,” she replied with a smile. “All I did was hold a torch. You did the real work. I’d have no idea where to even begin with all of this. All of this technology and mechanics is beyond me.” With the torch-light having been removed from the turbolift when everything went down outside in the corridor, she turned the torch on again and swept it over the turbolift’s interior once more. “Do you think that’s all it needed – the motor? Is it operational now?”

Five's good job had finally rewarded the team - soon enough, after some more pokes and stitches, the lift came back to life. Yay?

6

"Well," he paused, thinking it over for a second as everything seemed to finally weave into place. "I suppose we're even, then. I hardly know a thing about medicine and treatment." He closed the panel back up. "If someone were laying front of me with an infected stab wound, I wouldn't have the foggiest. Besides, mechanics just..." Another flex of their metallic hand. "Feels right." He poked his head out of the turbolift to call to Austin.

Austin took a position just to the side of the turbolift entrance. His protectice instincts were even stronger after the fakeout but atleast he knew that he was somewhat prepared. He didn't want to let his guard down with high fives or petty things like that. The time for congrats was later, the time to save lives was now. "Perfect, where shall we go? Perhaps the bridge would be most prudent."

Five stared at him blankly for a few seconds. "When did you become a prude?" they asked, just a bit of sarcasm laced in their tone. "And shouldn't we communicate with the other teams first, so everyone knows where everyone is? Furthermore, shouldn't we at least test it to make sure we aren't plummetting to our demise?" (edited)

6

6

[COMMS] "Saren here, team three. Turbolift two is repaired. We're thinking about heading to the engineering section, first. What is your status? I recall that team one has the ACMO on their team - perhaps you're going to check the intensive care, or?.."

"Five of Eight here. I have just finished on the turbolift. Lieutenant Commander Whidbey suggested the bridge, but I agree intensive care would probably be a better idea..?" He looked to the rest of the team for approval. (edited)

[COMMS] "Just think it through and let us know, just so we are aware of where you are. As for team two, there are a few science labs available, if I remember correctly. The same instructions apply to you. Keep in touch, everyone."

21:43

[COMMS] "Oh, and... perhaps don't make too much noise anymore. A precaution, if anything. I don't like this place and neither should the rest of you."

"I don't like it either," Five grumbled, complete with a little huff. "Will do. Good luck. Stay safe."

”Heading straight for the bridge feels… Premature,” she commented once Five had concluded the comms call, musing over things mentally for a moment. “I feel like the Tal Shiar are the sort of people who would try to keep things meticulously documented. If we make it to their medical bay then we might be able to find out more about the spread of assimilation through the ship… Or depending on how fast whatever killed those people travelled, if they had any injured in their medical bay then they might have been looking into the cause of death… Or if they hadn’t gotten that far, then maybe we can.”

"Quite honestly, I think not going would be a waste of your talent," Five agreed, crossing their arms over their chest. "We could get valuable information on the crew and what happened to them." They'd never had any run ins with the Tal Shiar personally, so they just trusted Niwayiva on this one. And since it was brought up... "I don't like how well-integrated the ship is with Borg tech despite there (supposedly) only being one body. I agree with the station Captain's theory, but something still feels...wrong." His eyes suggested a frown under the mask. "I don't know. Intensive care it is, then?" (edited)

She wasn’t sure about it being a waste of her talent. Generally speaking, her talents lay amongst the living. The only time they extended to the dead was if she had failed… Or in nicer (but still bittersweet) cases, in the event of hospice care. Hopefully she would be able to offer some insight if they found anything within the medical bay, but if it was like it had been up here – i.e. with handfuls of dead bodies – then her skills wouldn’t be as refined. She would take a gander, of course… But she was no medical examiner. “No, I agree. All of the deceased that we’ve found haven’t been the victim of assimilation, and we know that the Borg wouldn’t have any reason to kill. They wouldn’t have use for someone that’s dead. The outside of the ship definitely looked… Integrated-“ she used Five’s word, unsure of what the best term would be otherwise “-with Borg technology, so it’s odd that the people aboard aren’t. Let’s see what’s in their medical bay. With any luck, it might offer us some explanations…”

"Medical bay," they called confidently, one arm folded neatly behind their back as they stood up straight. Default position at this point. "Yes, absolutely. Look, it's even... You can hardly tell unless you look closely, but..." They ran their gloved fingertips delicately along the wall by the panel, over the vague hints of green and black running through like veins. They were made hyper-aware of the cold metal strapped to what was left of their arm, and furrowed their brows, drawing it back. They were definitely going to need psychiatric evaluation after this mission, even more desperately than before. "Curiosity kills the cat," he said gravely, then paused. "At least, I think that is how it goes. Someone poking their nose where it doesn't belong." (edited)

Hal walked into the turbolift, looking rather sheepish about the bulkhead debacle. She had heard Aoife, and assumed everyone else did as well. She supposed she’d be going to the Medical bay. The Medical bay was where she was most comfortable anyhow.

Aoife followed Hal into the lift. "Where are you lot going?" She asked to the members of Whidbey's team who were in the lift.

"Medical bay," he answered, looking to team two. "You?"

"We should make a play for security, a ship being run by the Tal Shiar probably has all kinds of records and logs in the security hub about what the ship was tasked with and what exactly happened here." Aoife said, pretty much taking the lead on team two.

“I’m of no use in Sickbay. Pretty much the only way I’d be useful is if we go to Medbay. Unless one of you gets shot, and considering none of us have been shot so far, except almost by that other guy, getting shot seems unlikely.” She said, still a little shaken from that man losing control of his temper so badly. Hal seemed chill in comparison.

"But we're already going to Medbay. It's best to split up," Five remained Halcyon gently. "It's the whole purpose of different away teams." (edited)

6

Aoife nodded in agreement with fives. "The Chief's right. And just cause no one has been shot yet doesn't mean it won't happen." Aoife shot Austin a look as she mentioned getting shot. (edited)

5

“I agree with O’Rielly ,” they said. “Security seems like our best option.” The Aurelian turned to the aforementioned Lieutenant. “You‘ll probably have to take the lead, though. I’m afraid I’m not that familiar with security systems.”

“Well, I’m dead weight except for that scenario, because I know absolutely nothing about Security. But whatever. To Security we go.” Said Hal, very sad that she couldn’t go see the cool alien Medbay. She was a whole-ass medical officer and she couldn’t go to the one place she could be somewhat useful. She also shot Austin a Look, communicating she was a little bit angry that he was giving her and Aoife grief because he couldn’t hear Aoife when she was very obviously audible. At least, she was audible to Hal.

While the team two went on with their discussion trying to decide where to go, team one made it safely to the medical sector of the ship.

"Good luck to you all," Five said politely, absolutely delighted to be out of the cramped elevator as they stepped out.

"Same to you chief." Aoife said with a professional nod in Five's direction.

2

23:03

"That leaves security for us then folks." Aoife said to the other members of away team two.

Assuming there were no further objections - and because the GM was starting to grow Very Tired - they waited for the lift to come back, and used it to get to the security sector.

Aoife stepped into the turbolift intent on heading up to #the-corridors with her team.

Was it their general unease making the hum of an unfamiliar ship sound like footsteps, or...

3

Aoife's ears parked up so to speak, she started listening for these footsteps, trying to figure how many people were approaching if there were any. She also raised her rifle, pointing at the door of the turbolift.

The sound persisted, a bit too monotone to be footsteps, but... you never knew. Eventually, though, it went away.

Aoife lowered her rifle, very much weirded out. Despite these ghostly footsteps she continued on her journey toward the teams meeting point in the hallway they first started on.

Jamis, still behind Aoife, was now at her six, listening closely for any more of those ghostly steps. He thought of a line, resistance it for a moment, then went with it anyway. "It's quiet... Too quiet."

"You heard them too right?" Aoife asked looking to Jamis? "Hearing footsteps in a turbolift is damn peculiar." Aoife thought she was going mad. What kind of normal person hears footsteps while in a moving lift?

Hal muttered ‘fuck’ under her breath a few times. Footsteps were no bueno, she knew that. This was not great. Hal was not having a great time here. “I hear them.. footsteps. Anyone feeling off.. we could be having a collective auditory hallucination maybe.”

"Yeah, I heard it too," Jamis confirmed. "It's odd. But this ship is a mess. It could be anything from internal systems screwing around in the background to...something much worse. I hope the other teams aren't in danger." Jamis took a moment to reminisce in Siren's memories a bit more. They weren't exactly...comfortable ones, but they still served as a reminder that Romulans were not longer the bad guys Starfleet once saw them to be. "It's weird. Back in the days of my host Siren, she used to revel in the silence of turbolifts like these. She was an occasional exchange officer aboard Romulan ships in the early days of the Republic. She found the Romulans on those ships very noble - even if she still had her doubts. But that was then. This is now. And we've gotta be an alert in case anyone else onboard is not as noble."

"This is damn peculiar. I hate this damn ship already. And I doubt we're hallucinating, there has to be some crew still alive it's probably them crawling around, I'd be half expecting an ambush based off of personal experience." Aoife said with a deadpan tone in her voice. "Look sharp, we should be coming up on the meeting point with the other teams in a sec."

They arrived at their destination with no further issues. A good sign, or calm before storm?..

"No response from Team One. That's...not good news. Phasers?" He asked, looking to Aoife once more for a proper order.

"Something's wrong. Phasers out." Aoife ordered, raising her rifle to her shoulder. "Check your fire, don't pull a Whidbey and fire on friendlies." With her rifle ready to go she took a step into the hallway ready for a fight.

5

Yet another time Aoife walked into the turbolift! This time ready to head to the bridge with the rest of her team.

Jamis sighed as he entered the turbo-lift too. It seemed this place was a maze of them, and he was beginning to feel the frustration among himself and his team. “So, once we’re on the Bridge, what then? Negotiate with the CO to stop the flight and find a way to contact the Eventide? Because I somehow doubt it'll be that easy...”

Hal walked onto the turbolift. She didn’t know what she’d do either, she just knew she had to look somewhat smart. She smoothed her hair back and adjusted her glasses.

"Something along those lines yeah." Aoife siad looking to Jamis. Once the lift arrived Aoife stepped onto the bridge, she didn't raise her rifle not wanting to look aggressive.