Star Trek: Starbase 777 - temhruuhi-brig

Ed, having been in the middle of prying the device from himself at the time of transport, blinked at the sudden change in surroundings. “Motherfucker!” He whispered, slamming against the wall from the half-sitting position he’d been in pre-transport.

Tavek blinked.. and appeared in what looked like a ship’s brig. He quickly stood up, taking it all in. He didn’t know how long he’d be spending here.. hopefully not long, as he could not go forever without charging, unless he figured out a way to wire himself into the ship or something. He was trying to suppress his own feelings of fear, tamp down the indignant hatred. He quickly sat down again, quickly turning off his senses of smell, taste, his sense of touch in all places except his hands and feet, in order to save power. He looked a bit of a sorry sight, to be honest, an absolute mess of emotions.

The android’s eyes adjusted to the sudden transport, the bright blue lighting throughout her body bringing some low light to the dim brig aboard the foreign ship. She silently kicked herself. She knew fighting back was going to make things worse (case in point, Eicran and Victoria), but she still felt guilty. The zip-tie still around her wrists confirmed she had little chance to do something here and now…nevertheless, Aria’s mind went racing, trying to figure out what the group here could even do. In the back of her mind, a few emergency processes lit up, alerting her to the fact that she will be running her battery thin very soon. She had no access to her charger here in a brig, and very likely won’t for a while. Her eyes shifted down to her lap, apertures dilating as she very sadly began to consider what parts of her she would be able to shut down to conserve power. “…are there any injuries?” She asked into the air, lifting her head. She didn’t know what else to do besides keep moving.

Still against the wall, and practically unable to see his own words spoken, Ed shrugged. “Anyone know where we are?”

The Golem sat incapacitated on the floor for several minutes, drooling from the sensation, or lack there of, from her nervous system being fried by several separate phaser stuns. Over several minutes she felt as appendages decided to manifest into more then numb extremities, but useful parts that could bring meaning. Her hands initially quivered as Ellie tried to shake her body awake. She was nearly fully conscious, she had a high mental pain tolerance, but physically she was still vulnerable. Her face was crooked and she seemed to have split her cheek on something. Emotionally she was beating herself up violently, she had failed at her one job, and now everybody else in this... what where was she? So busy wallowing in self pity she didn't take any time to consider her situation outside of glassy eyelids. She let out an audible groan at the first instance of vocal cooperation. Trying to stir limbs into solid mass instead of separate minds.

Shane woke up and immediately had a splitting headache and was half-deaf.** "G-gop wha habba?" *He stuttered as he propped himself against the wall as if he had a terrible hangover.

Tarsek was still recovering from the stun effects. It had all been so sudden. The granade, the flash, the ringing in his ears, feeling himself being maneuvered. Failing in contacting Garcia before it was too late. The transport. Failure kinda summarized everything so far that brought him here. He blinked his eyes, adjusting to the new environment. A brig. Of course, they were now all prisoners. His bound hands tried to provide him some leverage so he could bring himself into a seating position on the hard metal ground.

He hoisted himself to his feet, trying to fidget his way out of the zip-ties still around his wrist as he took in the room around him. “They’re not great decorators, I’ll tell you that.” He joked, to no one in particular.

Dezyim’s eyes were screwed shut in anticipation, but he could feel the temperature difference between engineering to this new place without even opening them. It hadn’t felt like he had died, but for a second he had truly been expecting it. Even though they had said transport, he wasn’t one to trust the words of their assailants-turned-kidnappers. He opened his eyes and unfurled from the little ball he had turned into and began to test the zip-ties strength. While someone stronger than him might have been able to break them, he just struggled against them in vain for a moment before giving up and looking around.

Tavek physically could break the zip-tie, but he didn’t know if he would be punished for that later. The last time he had been in the captivity of the Tal Shiar.. he had been beaten for just telling the truth, that he had no information for them. Those few days in the hands of the Tal Shiar had broken any potential he had ever had to be gentle, to be kind. He was not that anymore. But if he slipped his bindings, who knew what they might do to him and everyone else? And anyway, he needed to save his strength. “It’s a ship’s brig for sure.. as to what model of ship, or where in space we are, I’m not sure.” He said quietly.

Ellie was one of the only people without a pair of restraints cuffed around her wrist... of course not counting the restraint her entire body served as. She pulled at her own body trying to pry it into cooperation. Failing miserably she focused more on trying to keep her eyes moving and scanning across the details of the room. There were none, for it was unremarkably blank, and there was nothing she could really focus on besides slurring out. "Cab I bet bah bandh." Was all her weak state would allow her to say before she coughed on something dryly.

He exhaled, blinking and trying to shake off the residual discomfort from transporting without being prepared. “This is ridiculous.” He mumbled, “We should have just ran.”

“They would have found you anyway. Running would have only upset them further. They must have a reason to take us.” He took a moment to think. “Most likely, we’re hostages of some sort. If they wanted information, they wouldn’t have taken targets so randomly. They probably won’t kill us.. at least, I hope so.” He said to Edgar.

He sighed, staring at the wall, taking in the patternless as if it meant something to him. “That’s reassuring.”

Slowly, very slowly, Elohae started to twitch a bit as he returned to consciousness. He'd attempted to resist somewhat when he'd realized who'd bumped into him and paid for that, to try and give enough time to ensure that Telim could have escaped. Escaped from what had come. Facts that howled into his mind with dagger like speed as twitched movements became the rapid twitched tests of limbs as one checked the extent of his injuries and if he had been restrained following what had happened. Tested as the deaf Romulan's mind raced, raced filled with concern, deep concern for his charge more than anything related to him. In the face of Telim's, Vara'ls son's safety he in his own estimation happened to be expendable. Elements, had Telim managed to get out of there? Had they managed to get him, what had happened? Had Vara'ls past, passed to the Free State repatriated by the Federation who'd liberated him come back to bite him, Elohae wondered? Oh elements, he hoped the boy had escaped. He knew that fine would not be something in the lads vocabulary for a while if he had, presented by the people who'd deprived him of his first father. But Elements please oh elements, let the lad have escaped! The plea a silent prayer that raced about Elohae's head as he shifted from where he'd been situated and settled cross legged onto the floor and looked around. Saw Tavek and the others, signed as he discovered to his pleasure that his hands remained free, that what was the closest thing to his voice was un-silenced. "Where are we?" Knew that, deprived of so much of the tech he'd started to rely on to assist him in communication with people who happened to lack knowledge of sign, he might well be in a room full of people who happened to be unable to talk to him.

Ed glanced down at Elohae, crouching to be as close to face-to-face as he could. “Look, I… I don’t know how to sign. And even if I did, I can’t.” He muttered, holding out his still-bound wrists, “I’m assuming you’re confused, like all of us. We don’t know that much.”

Elohae grimaced as he looked to the ensign and focused on them for a moment. Swished his head from side to side in a 'sort of' before he then proceeded to gesture to them and mimed a 'ouch' as he attempted to inquire if the ensign was injured at all.

He shook his head, putting one hand, and therefore both, up. “I’m all good. I don’t think anyone is too injured. Yourself?”

Elohae smiled a bit, clearly glad the other wasn't injured...or at least too badly injured. He then seemed to think for a moment before he raised a hand up, turned his head to show a beauty of a bruise that had started to form then mimed shooting something. Did so before he gestured to a stun-scorch mark on one shoulder.

He winced at the sight, nodding in understanding. “I’m… not a doctor, but they don’t look dangerous. I’m guessing it hurts like a bitch?” (edited)

Finally at least partially recovered, Tarsek focused on the zip maintaining his hands bound. Maybe, if he put enough strength in the correct movement he would be able to free himself. Following much what was previously attempted in engineering, Tarsek managed to, in one fast movement, tear the zip.

Seeing how easy it was for the Vulcan, Ed attempted to pull off the zipties again, with little to no avail. He huffed, opting to leave them be for now.

The deaf romulan nodded slightly at the first part of the Ensigns comment. Didn't feel dangerous either, he reckoned so well, it wasn't something he happened to feel that was worth being worried about. He was worried about Telim, that was who he was worried about primarily, all he cared about related to himself was if a injury happened to be particularly dangerous. That and if their captors had twigged to his past or if they just happened to think of him as a deaf civilian. He'd nodded at the last bit too though. It did hurt, oh that was something clear enough with how pain thrummed along the side of his face. Nodded before he then looked about them a bit, nodded slightly to others he'd seen then returned to the Ensign. Watched them as they attempted what they did before after a moment, he closed his hands together like they were ziptied. Did so then slowly mimed bringing his arms out before he sharply pulled them back and away from eachother. Looked at the Ensign pointedly as he did that.

Allan was about to attempt to break his own zipties when he saw Dezyim struggling, and he went over and gave him a light smile. "C'mere, let's try something," he said, a little glint in his eyes that was... characteristic, really, "back up against me." He turned around, and if Dezyim did as well, he leaned down enough so that their shoulders were touching. "Okay, so just, like - keep your wrists as still as you can, and push your shoulders against mine, okay? On 3, I'll pull.." he said as he shuffled his hands so they were looped in with Dezyim's ziptie. "1... 2... and 3." On three, there was a sharp pull that contrasted the push of his shoulders against the other's - but a snap!! Both freed, yay!! Still, though, it was quite a lot of push and pull, so if that had sent the ensign flying in the other direction, he reached out and grabbed the ensign's hand to keep him from doing so. If that was the case, it almost looked like they were doing some sort of prison dance.

Ed watched Elohae closely, before mimicking the movements to the best of his ability, eventually snapping free as well. He grinned, offering a mouthed ‘thank you’ as he took a closer look at the bruise blooming on the civilian’s skin.

Elohae nodded slightly as the other mimicked the movements he'd used, watched then as he'd snapped free successfully. Smiled and proceeded to give a thumbs up. Did so before he mouthed a 'You're welcome'. Mouthed that and then watched them approach. Watched them then, as he realised their intentions, turned a bit to let them get a better look at the bruise as they closed with him. Allowed them to see the greening of the skin in places where the fist had impacted flesh with force. Sufficient enough not to cause major damage but enough that the site of impact happened to be apparent. The bruise hurt as much as it probably looked like it did. A good bit, right now. Though Elohae had discovered he happened to not particularly care. He'd observed that well, he could see and he remained active and present. That was what counted to him, right now, considering where they seemed most likely to be. (edited)

He narrowed his eyes at the bruise, before stepping back. “So… probably a bad question to ask someone I can’t understand, but how’d you manage to get the burn?”

He got up, now with his hands free, and looked around the room in which they were confined. “Is anyone hurt?” He asked, mentally cataloging each officer, or civilian apparently, present.

He was freed! Dezyim’s hand was cold, and he stumbled just a little bit as the zip-tie was broken, pulling on Allan. He stood up straight, letting go of the lieutenant’s hand as he did so. He turned back to him, righting his uniform. “Thanks.” He smiled at Allan. Breaking the restraints had been sort of… fun. Like one of those weird team building exercises. “This is twice now we’ve ended up in a prison together, thinking we were captured by the Tal Shiar. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t actually them this time, though.” His face fell, thinking about what they would have in store for the officers. It had been an organized and clean attack— definitely more professional than their Hhiudlir Caernu captors had been. That didn’t bode well for them.

The Romulan proceeded to mime as he responded to the question asked and pointed to himself then gestured off to one side like 'I'm there'. He then acted like he'd walked into someone then turned and pointed a imagined weapon then 'fired' at where he'd mined he'd been. A rough and ready indicator 'someone shot me.' outlined as clearly as could be managed with someone who happened to know no sign. He then indicated then 'He was close' as he pointed to himself and then mined the weapon before he moved his hands close together. Then swallowed as he pointedly motioned like he'd pushed someone behind him. Hoped they'd understand what he'd attempted to indicate. 'I was protecting someone.' (edited)

"No problem," he said with a smile, rubbing his wrist a little as he stood straight as well. "Yeah, I think an outright attack on the station is a bit different than us walking into a place, so.." he sighed, but then smiled again. "It's my third time being in a prison, then, if you're counting that one - first was back in New York City. Lotttt better than this, though. Is everyone else..." he did a quick headcount of the room to make sure that the same amount of engineers here was the same amount of engineers beamed out of engineering - it was, okay, cool, great... and then added the amount of people here otherwise. It was nice to see, strangely enough, that the XO was here and that he wasn't the most senior officer anymore, but it wouldn't hurt to still keep count in case something happened. "Okay?" He asked, his gaze landing over at Elohae. Was he bleeding any?

Ed nodded slowly, the motions slowly clicking in his mind, before his eyes widened a bit. “Who were you, uh…” He tilted his head, “Who did you get hurt for?”

The punch had managed to break skin a bit, partly cause he'd then introduced his face to the deck once he'd gotten stunned. So he'd bled and likely continued to bleed though it was extremely minor and something that'd already slowed. Just a cut. At the Ensigns question, Elohae actually winced slightly. Did so before he acted like he ruffled the hair of someone who was smaller than him then mouthed as slowly and as clearly as possible. 'Babysitter.'

While counting the ones present a thought occurred in Tarsek’s mind. Now that he had moved to the senior quarters area, he no longer had a roommate. Shelly was alone. Well… he supposed it was good he did not see Garcia among the engineers. She would know what to do with his companion.

His brows shot up in a bit of surprise, and he seemed to understand that, at least. “They tried to hurt the kid you take care of?” He tried to clarify. The thought of it sent a pang through his own chest— he would have done the same with any of his siblings, or a littler person who depended on him.

Elohae's expression looked somewhat harrorwed then before he shrugged slightly. Mimed a 'so-so' movement of the hand then and then looked around a bit, not at the officers but at the walls. Hoped the ensign would get that. 'We might be being monitored'. *Hoped that even as he mouthed. 'Officer' then 'Kid'. Hoped they'd get that. That he'd been captured as he babysat a Starfleet officer's kid. Indicated himself then the small person who's hair he ruffled again and mimed a weapon being discharged. Did so then shrugged. Hoped they'd understand at least some of what he wished they knew sign for him to just out and out say even as he'd mimed to them. 'Could have been either of us' *

Ed got a bit lost in the middle, but he recognized the last bit without too much issue. “For what it’s worth, it’s good that neither of you are seriously hurt.” He offered a thin smile, the best he could offer at a time and in a conversation like this, “I’d have done the same.”

The Romulan civilian grimaced slightly at the first part then smiled. All he'd managed to think of doing to indicate he happened to not know if they'd managed to get Telim or not. Did that before he nodded slightly then pointed to the ensigns Starfleet uniform. 'You're Starfleet.'

He pursed his lips, looking down at his uniform, specifically his badge. “Yeah.“ He shrugged, “I am.”

Seeing others trying to break out of their zip ties gave him confidence- using the same motions Tarsek used, and a bit of his android strength, he snapped the zip tie.

As he looked at Elohae, it did seem that it was bleeding just a little, so he moved a little closer, sitting down next to them. He'd met the shopkeep a few times, both at their shop and while obtaining old PADDs. Mostly the latter, actually. "Can I look at it..? I might have.. something," he shrugged his jacket off, and looked through one of the pockets before he pulled out a small little square. "I've got like, one of those little wipes," he laughed a little, holding the packet up, "the ones they like. Use to wipe off your hands when you're eating messy food. But uh, it's just a sterile water wipe, really, so.. it could help?"

Elohae honestly wasn't that surprised that the other might have failed to twig what he meant by having pointed. Oh how he wished he could elaborate or anything but well, the Ensign happened to know no sign. So he just mouthed. 'Starfleet Protects.' then smiled at them before he looked around, checked to see if everyone else looked okay. Checked and idly wondered why he was here. Was it as a message to Vara'l? Was it something else? He happened to not be too sure about that. Though elements, seeing to it that the CTO's kids babysitter was snatched certainly could be something that damaged Vara'l. Especially if they happened to know how much the man had been through. Elements. He wished he knew if Vara'l, if Telim was okay. But well, he struggled to work out other reasons why he'd be wanted other than perhaps just as a simple hostage. He was twitched out of his thoughts then as someone else approached. Twitched out of them as he turned and fixed the newcomer with a careful and highly attentitive stare. Did so as he watched their mouth, watched how they stood, noted everything he could about their movements. Filled in what he missed while he lip-read, something he'd disliked doing but appreciated having in his arsenal of things, before he looked closer at the packet then looked to them. Did so before he smiled and angled his face toward them and nodded slightly. Angled it so that they could get a look at it as they'd requested, hope they'd take that to mean he'd assented to it being looked over, to the cut being looked over.

Ed’s eyes widened in understanding, nodding. “Yeah. And, uh— once we get back to the station, we can communicate properly.” He chuckled, a bit self-consciously.

"Thanks," Allan said that and also signed it. He didn't know much sign, but he did knew a few basics. "You doing alright, ensign?" He said just after, speaking to Ed of course who was right next to him as well as he tore open the packet, lightly dabbing at Elohae's wound until it was cleaned of blood as much as he could manage. "That should um.. help a little bit. Until a medical officer can look at it, at least," he said, looking over to said medical officers. Surely one of them knew better than he did..

He looked up at Allen, nodding. “Yeah— yeah, I’m fine.” He nodded, a tinge of humor appearing in his voice, “Never better.” He looked over to the others, and then watched the lieutenant deal with Elohae’s wound in rare silence.

There was indeed a medical officer who knew better, though she was still zip-tied. The nurse lifted her head and shifted how she was seated in an attempt to get attention, “I-I require aid,” She said softly, in the direction of Allan and Ed.

Elohae patiently waited as his wound was dabbed at, winced periodically at that even as he smiled at Allan and Edgar. Did so before, once it was done, he moved a 'thank you' to Allan, then looked around a bit. Either, when someone looked in Aria's direction or once his eyes proceeded to fall on them, Elohae simply started to trot over toward the Ensign. He then mustered a smile at them, noted how they were ziptied and the like, waved then adjusted his position to mimic them. Did so before he moved slowly to be more situated to give more movement in which his arms could be moved. Once he did that, Elohae then mimed bringing his arms out. He then sharply pulled them back and away from eachother as he looked at the Ensign pointedly, just as he'd done with Edgar.

Ed looked to Aria and nodded towards Elohae. “Listen to him, he’s good at it.”

In the quiet of the brig, the little apertures and servos in Aria’s eyes could be heard ever so slightly. They flitted around in an attempt to get as much information as they could, watching patiently as Elohae demonstrated what to do and how to do it. The android’s eyes flicked to the floor for a moment as she took in the information. Though it was largely visual, she could start putting the pieces together. “U-Understood,” Her vocal modulator glitched out, before she did as she was shown and snapped the ziptie. With shaky footing, Aria helped herself up to her feet, the remains of the ziptie falling free from her wrist as she lifted upward. She looked around the dark room, shedding some low blue light, and did her best to steel herself, “A-Are there any injuries?”

Allan followed Elohae once he'd gotten up, following him to the medical ensign. "If you can't get it, I can give it my best shot," he said with a shrug, not sure if anyone much else had seen Dezyim and his little team building exercise of a ziptie-break. But thankfully, she had done it herself successfully! "Yeah, he's got one on his shoulder here, it's mostly alright but I figured it'd be better for a medical officer to look at it," he gestured to them, and then looked back at Aria for a second. She looked... familiar. Like he'd seen her somewhere. Hm..

After several minutes of incapacitation, Ellie tried to sit up with a complaint from aching limbs. Propping herself on her elbows, and better absorbing the environment. Lots of similarly sickly looking people. The visuals of people in orange-yellow streaks on their federation uniforms made her wince from guilt, but it easily seemed like complaint from the measly repositioning. The Golem caressed her face plate as she settled a bit, and felt along the cut that streaked from ear to upper lip. It was thin, not deep, and she probably got it from trying to dive down on the floor. The woman fiddled with her lower jaw, clicking at it until it made a subtle pop noise. "We need to do a... head count," she paused to let her body cycle itself better as it glued pieces together. Letting herself stare at Aria who seemed to be in the worst state from her position on the floor. She crawled up and made her way to some of the transporter victims still tied up, trying to go around and loop a finger through and breaking them.

“Affirmative,” She replied to Allan, beginning to take a look at the shoulder injury Elohae had gotten. Her eyes shifted back and forth before giving a little nod, “It appears t-to be alright. I am u-unable to sterilize it, so it will be b-best to keep it covered,” She turned her attention toward Allan. An engineer, “Do you have any e-equipment with you?” At the words of another, Aria’s gaze flicked to Ellie on the floor. Without waiting for Allan to answer, the nurse quickly moved to help Ellie to her feet, “H-Hello, I am Ensign Aria,” She said as she crouched down beside the golem, “May I h-help?”

"Some equipment, yeah, what do you think'd help?" He asked, glancing over to the security officer. "I've got a headcount, wouldn't hurt for you to as well," he said. When the medical officer introduced herself to the security officer, saying her name was Aria, things clicked into place and he actually smiled as he said out loud: "Oh! Aria, hi! You're - you're Four's girlfriend, I've heard a lot of great things about you."

Aria froze in place at Allan’s statement. She lifted her head up from Ellie and back to the engineer, blinking in surprise. She hadn’t considered Four would speak about her to others, though she had been doing much of the same concerning them. It was also in this very moment that she realized she had been so in shock she had not considered that Four may be in danger, or (in the best of scenarios), incredibly worried for the androids wellbeing. “…affirmative. F-Four is a very important individual i-in my life,” She said, managing a small smile, before turning to the task at hand. She continued to speak as she lent a helping hand to Ellie, answering Allan’s question, “I-I and any other android members of the crew present will r-require power,” She said, her glitching voice almost becoming grave, “I-I will not last long.”

Ed looked to Allan, and then back at Aria. “Where do we get power here?” He asked softly, “No way in hell are our captors gonna just… give us batteries.”

"That's good to hear. I suppose I'm just, uh, the guy who introduced them to cookies." Which turned out to be a pretty big thing! "You will," he nodded to Aria's statement, and then sighed, "so it's probably best you sit back down again. Lean up against the wall, even. Whatever position's going to use the least power for you. I'm not sure who usually does checkups on you, but if you trust me enough, we can try doing something to draw out the power longer. Tavek, do you think I'm right about that..?" He asked, turning to the roboticist. "He'd know more than I do, but I at least know a good bit about managing power sources. I mean, you don't run an entire network system in your basement without learning at least some energy conservation methods."

"I believe I will be okay. There are likely to be... injuries worse then mine." She heaved together, putting a hand gingerly on Aria's wrist. "My wound is minor, it does not take priority now," She pointed out, "best you conserve yourself." Ellie wasn't not thankful of course, but her unchanging tone could easily depict that. The Golem rose a little more, and despite her pathetic state she tried to hold it together. "I will... do a headcount, and look around as well." She stated, finding out where they were outside of a 'brig maybe' was all she cared about, and something she knew how to do! In sharp contrast to the d-list bullshitting she failed at on the station. "Who needs a hand with the restraints?" She inquired. Taking a second to turn around slowly, her height was an advantage in getting an eagle-eye view of some kind.

As much as the nurse understood that Allan and Ellie’s suggestions were logical, especially considering that she was not the only medical staff member present within the brig, she was not a young woman governed by logic. She stepped aside from Ellie after the security officer denied help. She stood and stared down at the ground for a moment, her eyes sliding over toward Allan, “N-No,” She said very firmly, “I-I am able to provide aid to others. I will be c-capable of operating at efficiency for upwards of 72 hours b-before I will be at r-risk,” If she was able to be useful, she wanted to be useful.

"You're stuttering," Allan said, a calm tone to his voice. "And you're fine to provide aid to others sitting down, too. And, you're not the only medical officer in the room," he pointed out, nodding his head over to some of the other medical officers in the room who were fine. "It's really, really best that you sit down. You can get up if someone needs aid, okay?"

Ellie considered arguing, but thought better of it. It'd be hypocritical to say 'I'm not wasting your time' and then waste it by arguing. Despite how she wished she'd disengage to work, Ellie thought better of it, and stated simply. "Just don't spend too long on me." She receded, kneeling back down to give Aria a better position, continuing her wandering gaze as she counted visible heads, conscious or otherwise. Taking into consideration their ranks and their origin.

“I-It is a glitch,” She said, her eyebrows furrowed, “The result of m-my emotional regulators misfiring in high stress s-situations,” This robot’s got anxiety! That’s crazy!! Ellie surrendering to medical aid caught her attention, and she crouched down beside the golem. As she gently began to look over the injuries the officer had received, her eyes focused on the small diagnostic readout on her HUD. 70 hours…she could make it count, right..? “…a-allow me to make sure th-this officer is alright,” She said softly, looking over her shoulder at Allan. If she wanted to make it count, she’d have to be sparing.

Ed, listening idly, slumped against a wall, sliding down to sit on the floor, legs crossed below him. There, sitting on the floor of a foreign brig, did it finally hit him that he, and a worrying amount of others, had been taken, and had no way for the moment of getting home. Shit. He watched Aria, wondering how long the energy stored in the various androids’ bodies would last before they dropped, leaving significantly less manpower than before. (edited)

"Right," Allan said, taking in a deep breath and letting it out as he watched the medical officer sit beside the golem. "Yeah, that's... that's okay. Just lay down right after you do that, okay?"

After a short moment of letting Aria clean the wound minorly, enough to clear up a few of the initial layers, the wound was already clotting as the Golem system permitted. "I believe that is sufficient." Ellie reckoned, a partial lie, looking at the reflection on the iris of the woman in front of her. Making out the little details enough to discern that most bleeding had stopped. Analyzing details was her job after all. Speaking of detective work, Ellie had grown to know how to analyze people well, and Ellie knew the tells of a lie lingering on somebody's face. She knew Aria was worried about power, and the comment on emotion regulators was in an attempt to switch the goal post. She did not vocalize this though, perhaps she'd discuss it later. "I counted, currently we are at around..." she then listed off the exact number she perceived so far. The number of individuals of each division, and the count of each rank. Committing the face of everyone to memory. "I am Ellie Findley by the way. I'd rather have introduced myself to you in better situations." She introtuced to the small group around her, It could have been a joke, but her tone gave off like a very matter of fact statement. (edited)

"Yeah, that's what I have, too," Allan confirmed to Ellie when she gave the headcount, glad that she'd come to the same number he had. "I'm Allan, it's nice to meet you, too. It alright if I call you Ellie?" He asked, sitting down next to the group. While not an android that needed to conserve power, he was a human who needed to conserve energy all the same, really, because he didn't feel too keen about passing out in such a situation right now.

For his part, Tavek thought he was in this for the long-haul, so he had already entered power-saving mode a while ago, he was passed out against a wall or something. If he was desperately needed, he could be woken up, but for now he was out like a light.

"Ellie is preferred yes." The woman clarified, nodding with an anxious grin. She always knew how to do introductions decently well. Atleast the part of saying your name. After was where she struggled. Thinking of conversation topics. Lighter ones that might still be of assistant to her knowledge. "If you don't mind me asking Allan, who were the individuals who are conducting this? If you do know anything I'd like to be informed. I have faint reports of people like this in my memory, but I never found proper time to look into it all." She quizzed, defaulting to her usual curious self to develop a cross-examination. (edited)

"Ellie it is," Allan said, smiling at her, but his smile fell when she asked what he knew about the situation. "Tal Shiar," he said plainly, "I mean, I'm not sure about the individuals, but - that's what who we're dealing with, I'm like... 99% sure about that," he said, leaning back against the wall and looking up at the ceiling. "How long have you been on the starbase for..?"

Victoria stirred from the corner of the brig where she had been deposited face down, scratching her face in the few moments between her forced slumber and regaining full consciousness. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rolled over, then up to a seating position, leaned forward against her own legs. Blinking once, then harder once more as light assaulted her vision, she finally furrowed her brows as she looked over the faces that surrounded her. "Are we in... theeee-" her words dragged as she noticed they didn't appear to be aboard 777 anymore, "...brig?"

"Yeah." She muttered, leaning against the wall. Even if she herself had gotten some sleep, it wasn't with a peaceful mind. "You slept well?" She asked, somewhat rhetorically. Jai herself visibly tired and disturbed.

Tarsek finished accounting for the abducted. Indeed there seemed to be no immediate logic to the Tal Shiar choices, though he would be careful before afirming that. It was information stored for later analysis, once they knew more. A couple of engineers, medical personnel, security, civilian and two senior officers. The fact they had taken him and left the captain was one more argument towards randomness. And randomness was dangerous. He could see most had already managed to snap the zippers. “Does anyone require assistance with the zip lines?” If they were gonna stay trapped in the brig, at least let them have useful hands.

"Paco sad. The past few months were not nice." Paco quietly announced to himself after mostly staying quiet after he had woken up. He layed there face down until he decided to roll over to look over to Tarsek. "Paco would like help getting out of the zipties please...."

Elohae, after being treated by the ensign and after he'd indicated his gratitude as best he could with a warm smile and a mouthed thankyou, turned and started to walk around as he checked the others. Checked and discovered that he seemed to be the only civilian present. That was something he frowned a bit at before he nodded slightly to the vulan who looked in charge and moved to check to see if anyone else was injured or well..restrained. What else could he do? It looked like someone was speaking but well, given they'd spoken while they'd not faced him he hadn't a clue what they'd just asked or stated or anything. So well, he just continued to do what he'd been doing and well, checked.

Ed found himself anxiously fidgeting, a combination between nervousness and boredom settling over him. He stood and paced in the back of the brig, hand tracing the wall as he did so.

Sluggishly Eicran blinked to wakefulness, although that was soon replaced with a sense of confusion and then concern at the fact he was somewhere completely unknown. He pushed himself upright awkwardly given that his wrists had been bound. Slowly he looked around, taking everything in: looking for the way in and out of this area that was presumably a brig, the number of people here, and the variation of them all. Other fellow medics were here. There were people of multiple ranks, divisions, and species - and maybe even a civilian, unless they were an officer out of uniform. The only saving grace was that none of sickbay's patients had been taken. ...What were they all doing here? The last he remembered was fighting an officer who he presumed belonged to the Tal Shiar before he was shot... Shot by someone who bore a striking resemblance to the former CTO of the station. So the Tal Shiar had what - invaded the station (concerningly quickly and without a fight) and started snatching up officers? What was their plan? Take over the station for some strategic reason? What was their goal? Ah, too many questions... None of which he had the answer to, which only helped to drive the gnawing feeling of concern that had set in. He wanted to say something - to ask questions, to rally those here, to build morale, anything - but annoyingly found himself tongue-tied. ...Best leave it to those in a higher position than him anyway. Senior staff would rally everyone and give instructions. For now he simply gave a short nod to Tarsek, thankful to at least get out of the restraints.

Having spotted Paco, though he'd not heard a blessed bit of what they'd stated for obvious reasons, Elohae trotted over to them. He then waved at them briefly. Gestured to the ties and cocked his head for a moment and mouthed. 'Help?' He'd roundly decided to not assume that people knew how to sign and well, when you were ziptied that tended to make it harder to sign. So well, he just indicated their wrists then once he was sure their attention happened to be on him, brought his wrists together once he was situated like they were, but standing. Did so and then mimed bringing his arms out before he sharply pulled them back and away from himself and looked at them pointedly. He hoped that the 'like this' would be..clear.

Upon noticing both Paco and Eicran were still bound, he moved towards them intending to show the movement they could use to snap it. The restrain was not strong and if done correctly and fast, both of them could get out. If not, nothing a bit of his Vulcan strength could not rectify. “Are any of you two hurt?” How convenient Paco and Eicran had been dropped close to one another! ~~It helps the player Moritz a lot~~ “How and where were you captured?” Tarsek intended to discover just how infiltrated the Tal Shiar had managed to be and where they had gone in their station.

Jai moved over to Edgar, pausing for a moment before speaking. There wasn't much she could say that could make the situation any less tense, but at least she could say something. "Hey, Edgar, right? How are you holding up?"

He turned on his heels to face her, forcing himself still for a moment. “I think we’ve all been better.” He shrugged, “I’m doing okay, all things considered. How about you?”

While on his way, Tarsek noticed the, apparently, civilian moving towards Paco as well. “I would like to know your answers for the questions as well, and I believe I do not know your name.” He addressed Elohae. (edited)

Focused on what he was doing, having been standing infront of Paco and having showed him as best he could through mime how cuffs could be snapped, Elohae didn't react at all when asked that question. This wasn't out of him being rude or anything, it happened to be out of the fact that his assitive tech other than his implants happened to presently be on the floor outside of where he'd been abduccted. So all that Tarsek's comment came off from as him was data that he lacked the tools to tell him about. That and a alert about the fact people happened to be near him and talking that really happened to help as much as a chocolate mug did for holding a hot beverage. So, the question passed by un-noticed and un-answered.

The restraints being broken so easily was surprising. He would have expected stasis cuffs at the least to be used. Maybe it was a good sign - like the Tal Shiar just needed them momentarily out of the way, so there was no point in wasting time on them? "Thank you, sir," he said to Tarsek. Hadn't there been some sort of internal announcement that this man was going to be the new Deputy Station Commander? At least they knew who to go to for instruction. "We were in the medical bay. The yellow alert had barely sounded before the Tal Shiar officers arrived - including the former CTO, I'm sure. They turned on the EMH to man the medical bay. A few of us tried to fight back, but we were stunned and taken here."

Paco nodded too Elohae's question, before he looked over the motion Tarsek and Elohae doing and tried to immitate the motion. Its plastic zipties, where the weakest point was the bit of plastic that held the loop together. It took Paco a couple of tries, but he got it eventually. "I was shot by a disruptor... again..." Paco answered, if he had two strips of latinum whenever that happened, he would have two strips. Not a lot, but still strange it happened twice. * "I was captured at my quarters. I went out, saw a whole bunch of Romulans going around and Evoras heading to the turbolifts, and I just hid in my room." *Paco explained. "I was picked up by a mean scary looking guy, whom I tossed hot tea at him And then smashed my mug in his head after he picked me up. Then Paco got shot." In the same place where he was shot in the Borg Cube. After saying all that, Paco looked over to Elohae, noticing he didnt react to Tarsek talking and just simply signed 'thank you' and 'deaf?' in Standard Sign Language (edited)

"Good. As good as one can get here." Jayrehi smiled softly, trying to be somewhat reassuring. "Did you get any rest?" *She chimed up. "Pretty hard in a place like this, but y'know"

He snorted, as if the notion of sleeping in a place like this made him laugh, although he stopped when he realized how much of a dick he came off as. “Not… really, no.” He muttered, “Yourself?”

Elohae smiled a bit when Paco finally managed to break the zipties, having moved slightly as he mimed suggested corrections just before the officer got it. He then winced as he pieced together that this was most certainly not the first time the person had been fired upon or shot. Not good luck that, he supposed. His stomach twisted in a mixture of emotions when the officer then actually signed signed to him! He signed a smoothly fluent. "You're welcome." In Stanard Sign Language then before at the question that followed, he nodded once and repeated the same sign as he confirmed that he was indeed, deaf.

She sighed, before chuckling herself as she leaned the back of her head against the wall. "Yeah, got a bit." And even that was an overstatement. "I hope they'll redecorate this place. It's a bit stale. Not exactly comforting." She chuckled, trying to make the situation just a bit easier to swallow.

"Eh. not the worst sleep. Disruptor burns didn't help." Paco answered Jayrehi and shrugged "2/10, would not stay here again." Paco is happy that the months he voluntarily spent learning SSL in the academy finally paid off, smiling to see Elohae happy also finding someone else wo knew sign.

He nodded to both. “So Station Operations, Engineering, Medical bay and Crew Quarters. The two first are logical points of interest when trying to take control of a starbase. The others, not so much.” He stopped for a moment. “It is possible they were looking for specific people aside from the senators.” Noticing the interaction between Paco and the civilian, Tarsek finally understood why his question fell into deaf ears. Literally. He moved his hand slowly to get the romulan’s attention. “Forgive me. I was unaware.” He signed. “May I have your name?”

Ed snickered at Jay’s comment, nodding in agreement. “You read my mind.” He huffed a quiet laugh, “Maybe wallpaper, or…”

Shane's hearing had mostly come back now but the headache from taking a flashbang to the face still remained. He propped himself up against a wall as he had slid down the side when he slept for a while. "What have I missed? I've been deaf for the last while at least?"

Elohae visibly twitched then, when the hand appeared in his vision. Twitched then turned sharply toward Tarsek as his body moved first into a trained fighting stance then smoothly straight out of it before he then signed. "It's alright." Smiled a bit at the fact he'd encountered someone else who happened to know sign language, thank the elements, then signed his name. Signed it in the 'name, me- name' format he'd grown up utilizing before he corrected it to SSL format and signed. "My name is Elohae tr'Kyrmyra." Once he signed that, he then looked around then looked back to Tarsek and added the signs for. "Babysitter" And, as he formed his face and posture to ensure the next sign was turned into a question or request for confirmation. "Abducted?"

Victoria had scooted up against one of the walls, not being the most outgoing amongst new faces to begin with - let alone now having been taken prisoner. She shook her head. "Not everyone in medbay is here. I've never seen a Tal'Shiar in my life. If they were being specific, they got the wrong guy." She shrugged. "Or maybe I'm just unlucky."

The Romulan then glanced off toward Victoria and the others before he once again looked back to Tarsek. Did so as his jaw worked a bit and as he signed again. "Babysitter." Then finger-spelled out. "C-T-O." Hoped they'd understand what he'd just tried to inform them.

"Babysitter...CTO... Vara'l?" Paco asked with a curious look.Then one realization came to mind based from those hints "...Vara'l has kids?" Paco briefly asked, and then another question popped up quickly after he said that first one "You were babysitting for Vara'l?"

The reaction surprised Tarsek, though it was not unjustified. “Be calm, I am no threat.” He signed. Upon receiving the name, he responded in kind “Station Deputy Commander V’hgai Tarsek” ~~the clan name then the name!~~. “I was not talking about us. We so far do not know why we were taken.” He answered Victoria before turning back to Elohae and seeing the subtle explanation. “I see. At least he will be home studying his signs.” He tried to be as subtle, Paco not so much apparently.

The Romulan nodded slightly as he acknowledged Tarsek's comment did so before, he looked to Paco who's comment he'd half glimpsed and somewhat glared. Did so then signed. "Tal-Shiar." Then signed. "Warship." Then added. "Brig." With that signed he looked fully back to commander V'hgai Tarsek and signed. "Jolan tru." His gaze remained fixed on them for a moment before he casually pointed to himself, added the sign for kid and gestured next to him. "Kid, there." Then gestured to himself. "With me." Telim had been with him when he'd been abducted. He hoped they'd pick that up, that they had picked that up before he added. "Brought here?" Then proceeded to shake his head in a. "No." They'd not captured Telim too, from what he'd managed to see and from his look around the brig. He'd then signed the signs for status and unknown then the sign for kid again. "Kid's status unknown."

”I see. If the kid is smart, maybe they managed to find a safe place. You protected them.” It was definitely a good thing that they did not have a child with them here. Though the lack of their presence did not put Telim out of danger completely.

Elohae nodded slightly then signed in response. "Kid trained, bought time." Did that before he added the sign for. "Run." Signed that even as he formed his face in a grimace, a grimaced indication he hoped V'hgai Tarsek would take the right meaning from. That he happened to be fully aware that Telim likely wasn't out of danger completely. Grimaced as he then signed. "Kid." And added the sign for. "PADD." Before he signed the signs for press, button and panic. Risked that right now as he knew full well that if the Tal Shiar were after Telim or if they'd otherwise accessed the station and secured it to the degree they might have done, that they probably had noted what Telim had had in his hand.

The sudden lack of resistance against her struggling caused Havra to topple forwards. Instinctively she tried to catch herself with her hands only to have a sharp pain shoot through her shoulder and her arm give out. A strangled yelp escaped her as she hit the floor, then she just lay there, breathing rapidly but otherwise motionless.

He glanced down at Havira, quickly heading over to check. “You good? Hurt?”

She did not respond, too busy trying to find any way in which she could frame this situation in her mind that would not make her break down. Being here was bad enough. The possibility that she might give away information they didn't already have made her head spin... or maybe it was the pain. There was a hole in her clothes at the left shoulder that was starting to become discoloured.

Ed furrowed his brow, looking down at her with a bit of concern. “Blink twice if you’re not dead or dying.” He suggested, half-joking.

Seeing Elohae glare at him very quickly signaled Paco to zip it for a minute and let the man say his story himself. Paco respected that, subtly signing the word 'sorry' before he started to look around. Not only to his fellow crew to see how they're holding up but to the brig if there could be something that can help get them out. Then he took notice of Ed, and more concerningly, Havra. Paco quietly moved over to the both of them, trying to keep himself as calm as he could as well. "Lieutenant?" the scientist quietly asked Havra.

The materialisation of another officer out of thin air wasn't something Victoria could be too surprised about, though the way in which they flailed and slammed into the floor was more than enough for her to draw her knees right back up against herself. She only relaxed when she determined they weren't a threat, but instead a hurt crewmate. Oh shit- hurt? Fine, she'll get off her ass. The speed at which she navigated the crowded brig wasn't so much a sprint but a frenzied scramble, going so far as to nudge people out of her way. "Move," she'd demand half-heartedly, not really paying heed to who it was she pushed. Almost skidding to a stop, Victoria dropped to her knees. "If only things were always that easy," she remarked offhand to Edgar, moving her head to better see the extent of the wound. Shit. Not many choices here without supplies. She pressed her palm down firmly, with the help of her body weight, against the wound. "Anybody happen to have a vascular?" she called out to the room.

He quickly stepped back, immediately realizing this was neither in his jurisdiction nor depth at all. “Yeah, you— do your thing.” He stammered, sitting against the wall.

Likewise he would have ignored the beaming in of a new arrival had it not been for the way that they faceplanted the floor. With Victoria springing to her feet far faster than he did, Eicran weaved through the openings in the crowd that she had created. "I don't suppose you happened to be beamed out with a medical kit in hand?" He asked, voice light. It was a meagre attempt at humour to conceal the undertone of concern beneath. "Here." Crouching beside Victoria and Havra, he shrugged off his jacket and offered it up to help apply pressure with. Leaving control of the bleeding to Victoria, he shuffled around a little so he could face Havra to continue a primary survery. He could see the rise and fall of their back - breathing, certainly - but the fact that they hadn't said anything was a little more concerning. "Can you hear me, officer? Open your eyes for me."

"Now that would've been too nice of them," Victoria responded under her breath, glancing up at her colleague under furrowed brows. "Thanks," she continued, quickly snatching the offered jacket with one hand and bunching it up with her fingers. For a moment, Havra felt the load against her shoulder vanish before it returned, as the fabric replaced her palm, and Victoria re-adjusted her position to push down as sturdily as she could. She left Eicran to follow-up with his survey, turning to locate Edgar, "and you- if you can find a camera, try waking up one of their guards? We're gonna need a medkit, or... at least some bandages."

He nodded at the instructions, giving a half-assed salute as he turned to search for the camera he knew was there.

17:12

Eventually spying the hidden camera lens a little way’s away, he tried to get its attention. He took a deep breath, and yelled out to it. “Hey! Assholes!” Without an idea of what else to do, he did a little shimmy, waving his arms in a terrible rendition of a dance.

Between the newcommer, hurt officer, now being aided by medical and the engineering ensign trying to get their captors attention by… dancing. Tarsek chose to make himself ready as to if the latter happened to work.

Hey, how awfully convenient. The doors to the brig slid open, revealing six Romulan agents, one of them lagging behind as if carrying something. "Everyone, keep your arms where we can see them. The forefield will be lowered to add a prisoner, if you so much as twitch, everyone gets disintegrated," one of them said in a rather disinterested voice, utterly ignoring the monkeying by the cameras. That is, until they spotted the accumulation of people around Havra, and something that looked awfully like blood on her shoulder. Their eyebrows furrowed: "Did something happen?"

He froze, arms still half in the air as his eyes followed their captors.

"Hey I dunno smart guy, does it look like something fucking happened?" Victoria spat, snapping her head from Havra to the officers that had just entered. One could only imagine how much more effectively she'd be making her point if she had her hands available to assist. "We've got a stab wound, and we need a medkit. Now please tell me you guys know what that is."

"Stab wound? Ugh, seriously, who the fuck is so trigger happy...." an impressive eyeroll followed that tremendous sigh, as they turned around to talk with one of their colleagues. That person nodded and left. "You will have five minutes to patch it, so make the best out of it."

Dezyim crossed his arms, and slid down the far wall of the brig, watching everything that was going on. “That sounds like some extreme test they’d make you do at the end of your medical training. Which… I suppose is why Starfleet makes you do tests like that in the first place.” He’d certainly had engineering tests similar to that. Medical just seemed… scarier, though.

"It's not my decision and not something I can change," they shook their head, just in time for the other one to return with a first aid kit. "Same instructions apply. Arms up, don't move, except for the wounded and the singular medic."

'Singular' medic? Glad to know he was invisible. If only that had come into play earlier - then he could have avoided being spotted by the Tal Shiar to begin with. "Can you at least take the medical kit over here, please?" Maybe some manners might get them better treatment. Who knew? "The doctor has her hands full." Literally, given that she was still putting pressure on the wound while Eicran himself had been trying to get a response from Havra. Unconscious or refusing to talk due to fear, he wondered.

There was this really weird aura of a very tired service worker around this guy. They sighed: "Two medics, okay. Go for it." And with that, the forcefield was brought down. The speaker of the group came closer, and put the kit in front of the three with a soft "thud." An almost normal scene, if you ignore the literal wall of disruptors, that is. The carrier in the back was still obscured.

Edgar watched, in almost amazement, how done with them their captors were. It was a skill he one day wished to master, pissing someone off that much.

Given that he had very much not stated his frustration out loud (for he didn't have a death wish), Eicran narrowed his eyes slightly at the 'two medics' comment. The last thing anyone here needed was a telepath digging inside their minds as well as whatever was going on in this situation. "Thank you," he said and opened the medical kit so he could hand Victoria equipment.

Victoria nodded in appreciation of Eicran's statement, much more eloquently put than she would have put together if left the opportunity. She dipped her head further in frustration of the situation until she was looking straight down at her hands, waiting for their captor to stroll his way over. "Jeez, job satisfaction, huh?" she quipped, once the Tal Shiar turned back, though not before he was out of earshot, "any chance these guys pack regens in there?"

"This looks like an autosuture," he offered and held up the instrument in question. "Don't quote me on that, though. Their equipment looks different to ours. There's what seems like a dermal regenerator as well."

"Correct on both guesses," at least they're somewhat helpful sometimes?..

Havra still had her eyes closed but her breathing had gradually slowed down to a more normal pace. "You know if you let me bleed out..." They were Starfleet medical officers, she was certain they would never even consider this, but... no actually this was an awful train of thought. It wasn't like they had been disappeared and no one would know to look for them.

"If we let you bleed out you'll come back and haunt us?" Eicran replied. It was good to hear Havra responding, albeit in such a negative way. He was well aware of the path that she had actually been going down with that statement, but he wasn't going to entertain it. That was why he played it off with the joke instead. "No haunting required. You're in good hands with Doctor Bishop."

"Yeah, what're you, threatening me?" Victoria shot back at Havra, raising one hand to take the offered instruments, each clasped between a different pair of fingers. She scooted her knees back to lower herself closer to the wound, the lack of sickbay lights making things a little tougher - just like the good ol' days back home, hey? "Relax as much as you can, kay?" she asked, lifting the jacket that currently padded the wound and getting right in there with the autosuture, followed shortly by the dermal regenerator. "Hm, don't think you'll be doing much haunting today," she remarked as she worked on sealing up the wound.

"Thank fucking God. Ghost festival was at the beginning of the month, sorry to say you've missed your haunting opportunities," he said, hanging out near the other engineers. Oh, and yes, he was keeping his arms still - which was very hard for him while he was talking, but he managed. (edited)

Edgar huffed out a quiet laugh, leaning against the back wall. “You can say that again.”

"I don't doubt the doctor's competence." Havra let out a sigh, entirely uncertain how to feel about getting patched up, but followed the instructions and relaxed as well as the part of her brain told her to stay alert would let her. As Victoria started to work she opened her eyes looking directly at her shoulder.

"Already done? Grand," it could be read as a compliment if you wishful thinked hard enough. The agent clicked the kit shut and picked it up: "Do try to not get any injuries after this, yes?" They turned their head towards the rest of the team, nodding their head at them, "Alright. Let's do what we came here for and leave. Or we won't hear the end of "how we've been stuck here for far too long"..." Hearing that, the rest parted slightly to let the person at the back step closer to the brig, dragging something-- no, someone, with him. Said someone was then unceremoniously half-pushed, half thrown into the free spot: "In you go!" After that, the forcefield was brought up again, and the six agents left.

"Hff--" Saren barely managed to catch himself against the wall, before he faceplanted on the floor. He turned his head around to watch the group leave, eyes bright and alert, despite the closed off expression, "Thanks..." The scientist looked slightly disheveled, the beginnings of a bruise already forming on his lower jaw. Otherwise, he seemed to be fine... visually, at least.

Okay, so Havra was attended to, and the forcefield was already being put back up, there was a new prisoner among them, and Allan's eyes went to look at them, see if he recognzied them, and see if they were alright, too, and it was - oh. It was someone far too familiar. Similarly to how Saren had found his way to him in that Undine control room, Allan was in front of Saren the moment the forcefield had been brought up again. Feelings were hitting him like a sudden wave at the beach, but he let himself run on instinct. "Hey," he said first, looking over the man, trying to see if there were any other injuries, looking at the bruise on his jaw as his hands - one of his hands went to one of Saren's, the other on his shoulder. "Saren," he looked back at his eyes, "are you alright? Like.. um," because he knew the obvious answer for everyone here was 'no', but.. "relatively?" God, he hated words, he was reminded.

"Great," Victoria plopped herself onto her bottom, looking down at her bloodied hands and Eicran's ruined jacket. She provided a few moments of silence to watch over Havra, in case any other complications turned up right after treatment. Only when she was satisfied would she raise the jacket up towards Eicran, careful not to drip blood over their patient. "Haven't had to do that in awhile. Thanks for this - all yours if you want it back."

Hoping that they might end up leaving the officers with the medical kit had been wishful thinking. He had a thousand other things that he wanted to know - like what they were doing here and where they were going to be taken, for sample - but it felt like as soon as the officers arrived, they had vanished again. After a quick look to ensure that the new prisoner wasn't injured (at least not in a fixable way, he couldn't do much for bruises just now) he sat back next to Victoria. When his now rather-wet-with-blood jacket was offered back to him, he cringed. He kept his voice quiet as he didn't want to worry anyone, but something told him that they were all thinking the same way. "Maybe we ought to keep it aside... Tear the unsoiled fabric into strips. We have no idea of how long we might be here or what might happen. It may be best to prepare however we can."

There was a moment of a completely... alien, expression on Saren's face - when he noticed someone approach him and his eyes began to frantically jump from one person to another, and to another, and then another, looking all too much like a dog forced into a cage with a stranger pack, overwhelmed by the amount of people here. Then-- "Ah-- I'm okay, Allan," his hands were now on Allan too. Not shaking him off, but... holding him at a respectful distance. He offered the engineer a tight smile, "Thank you. How about everyone else? What even happened?.."

Tapping his feet from where he sat against the wall, wanting to do something, if anything, Ed offered a shrug and a thumbs-up, before looking towards the others as they answered. He swore he’d never been this silent in his life. It was… most likely a bad sign, as he was known to not shut up in the worst of times. That, or he’d just run out of steam. (edited)

"Yeah... probably," Victoria said in agreement, quieting her voice to match. She scooted backwards a little, feeling just a tiny bit more comfortable having her back against the wall. Slowly so as to keep the noise as inconspicuous as possible, she tore at the jacket from its seams - first to remove as much of the visibly bloodied part as she could, then the remainder into two larger bits. By the time she passed one of those bits to Eicran, she was already visibly tired from her recent efforts. "Who would've thought being taken prisoner was so damn tiring?" she sighed, back of her head lightly thudding against the panel behind.

The ensign nodded in agreement, eyes on the lieutenant as she spoke.

Allan was at a loss of words for a brief moment, unsure of how to answer given everything, but he let Saren do what he needed to, hold him however he wanted - and gave a bit of a weak smile back. "Everyone else is... fine, seeing that Havra's been patched up, um... I think what happened depends on where people were. Down in engineering, there was like - seven of them that came in there, tied us up, put us here, put some EMP devices down, took computer control.. I think the medical folks just kinda got stormed in on, too? Elohae was in the promenade, with Telim.." He hoped he was getting these things right. Ish, at least.

Vovvi's head was swimming again. She'd been perched in the corner for a.. good bit, now, her eyes darting around the room, searching for an exit, searching for an answer. "Smoke bomb in Intelligence," she chimed in. "They did not even bother with tying us up. Restrained Lieutenant t'Mrian, cornered myself, and.. " she let out a trembling exhale, resting her cheek against her arm.

”Now we know they do intend to keep all of us alive for the time being, even with the significant number of people abducted.” Still, Tarsek could not pinpoint why those people and why that number in particular. He turned to Saren. “It is good to know you are in acceptable conditions.” He did not get too close, but again, the brig was small for the number of them. Quite claustrophobic inducing indeed. “We were subjected to a stun grenade on Station-Ops. They took me and Lt. Cdr. Lawson. I am unsure as to why we were the only ones captured from the officers in the room.”

The nurse had been seated against one of the walls, unable to aid Eicran and Victoria on the orders of both their captors and for fear of the worried looks she received every time she began to move. Perhaps she should’ve kept her power problem to herself, but doing so would’ve been a disservice to the further safety of the group. There was nevertheless a somewhat selfish desire to have kept it close to her chest, if only because she didn’t want to worry everyone. She did, however, tune into the conversation at-hand, and from where she sat, she quietly offered, “L-Lieutenant Commander T’Shai chose medical staff seemingly at random for capture.”

Unhelpfully faced the wrong way for part of that, though he had indeed twigged at the fact he'd needed to raise his hands, Elohae nodded a bit at one he glimpsed of what Allan stated about himself. Did so as he looked around a bit more, missed another thing that was said. Missed it as he grimaced and reached up to the side of his head. Damn it he wished he had more of his assitive tech with him, the repeated alarm that people were talking that people remained near him that people had talked behind him had started to get excrutiating. A tone that resonated in his mind as his implants informed him of this or that thing this or that thing. What was helpful something that turned into anything but. As helpful as if someone was offered a chocolate cup and chocolate tea pot both full of tea. He briefly pressed his hands to his head, inhaled a bit then exhaled and looked around again as he attempted to catch back up with the conversation as it progressed. Attempted to, though he happened to be sure there were bits of this he missed and continued to miss.

Finally, all the commotion had managed to wake Tavek up- he hadn’t lost any battery, which was good, but he was also just somewhat confused, and a bit of blood had somehow found its way to one of his sleeves. He sat up, trying in vain to rub out the blood, but it wasn’t going anywhere. It didn’t bring back any good memories, that was for sure. “Is everyone at least.. somewhat alright?” He asked, having missed out on some events for sure.

Havra who was now lying with her back on the floor staring up at the ceiling let out a noise somewhere between a barking laugh and a sob. "I am the furthest thing from alright I have been since I first entered federation space."

Oh Elohae missed that entirely, though he probably betrayed the fact that while he was physically alright, this situation had started to ware him down a bit. There was a reason he'd snatched at all he'd been told about other assitive technology and had started to use it. When he lacked a good bit of it and was just left with what was implanted in him, what happened to be helpful in normal circumstances ended up anything but. Reasons why he proceeded to blink a bit rapidly and proceeded to back up as he attempted to find a wall to press against. He wanted to at least catch some of what people were saying and if being in the position he'd ended up in was just going to ensure that alarm peeped alot, he needed to move. So he moved, located a wall and pressed against it, pressed his back to it, ensured nobody happened to be behind him. Watched as things progressed from this new position, sighed a bit as the information his implants provided him at least started to come in less of a rush.

Pursing his lips, Ed watched everyone chat, feeling a bit too small for his liking. If he wasn’t able to make light of it, what was the point? He picked at his fingers, tucking his knees to his chest as he took a deep breath. Everything would be fine. If it wasn’t, they’d make it fine. Starfleet always came. Didn’t they?

“I want to believe this is all a hallucination… it’s fucked when my entire brain failing and frying out and believing that old memories are happening again would be preferable to what’s actually happening.” He said dejectedly, looking down at the floor once again. There was no laugh or sob from him. Just quiet acceptance that he likely would die this time. He couldn’t keep getting lucky forever.

He hesitated, unsure whether or not to voice his worries, before speaking up. “They’re… coming to get us, right? They’ve gotta be looking for us.”

”Yes. Assuming they can get our systems back online and the Eventide freed.” Tarsek answered.

“And if they can’t?” He furrowed his brow, tucking his knees closer to his chest.

"Perish any other thought, Ensign." So many younger officers. She had to be strong. She had to be... "They're coming."

The 70 hours on Aria’s diagnostic had begun to steadily tick down as time passed. The nurse, known for her practiced smile and cheery attitude, wore a particularly morose expression. As if to punctuate it, she made the decision to dim her interior lighting, the brig becoming that much darker as the blue light shining from Aria retracted in on itself. She needed to conserve power, but she wasn’t going to start shutting things off yet. That would come later. The nurse lifted her gaze from her lap toward Tarsek and Edgar, taking in a glitched breath. It was odd. Almost every vocalization from her stuttered, like a CD with a scratch, “Th-They’ll be here.”

"A hallucination would be much worse. All things considered we have been served with five star treatment... so far." Havra could have imagined thousands of worse situations she could be in that a hallucination might have pulled from, sadly knowing that it could be worse did not make her any more thrilled about the current state of things.

He nodded, shutting his eyes and resting his forehead on his knees. He would say something, anything, to try and lighten the mood, but for the first time in his two-and-a-half decades of life, he was speechless. So this was what it was like.

“They will come.” He said quietly, more as an assurance to himself than anything else. He had to believe that. He’d had no time to say goodbye to anything.. his fucking cat, he would miss Azuki so much, he would miss Silver and Shinji and Alizati and all his fellow engineers, he would miss the feeling of things being finally alright for a change. He could not die now. It could not end like this.

”Our current goal is to keep ourselves alive for as long as it takes them.” Tarsek said. Indeed, there were many young officers here. He started signaling as he spoke, not forgetting about Elohae that had backed himself into a corner. “For those new: remember your training. For those experienced: use what you have learned before. Keep together and do not provoke our captors.”

Victoria shook her head in disapproval at some of the comments that were being flung around the room, attempting to distract herself as much as she could by ripping bits of fabric apart in case anyone else got stabbed.

He gave the redhead a nod, slowly letting go and taking a better position by the wall. He wasn't aware of how much they knew about his life on the starbase, but the less material he gave them to work with... the better. Can't be used against himself, or others. "I was... approached on the promenade," his jaw worked for a bit, before he settled on a simple, "Took me away. I... haven't seen much of the place, they had me blindfolded for the duration of the walk here, but I can almost confidently say that we're on a warbird. Relatively huge, too."

“Anyone have anything interesting to say?” He suggested, sitting up, “Jokes, funny stories… anything. I have a few, if you guys want me to start. We gotta distract ourselves somehow.” (edited)

The positive side of him that emerged from a desire to boost the morale of others told him that everything would be fine. The officers here had no idea what was going to happen to them. For all they knew, the Tal Shiar had plucked them up in order to take over the Starbase. Maybe there was another brig full of more officers until everyone was off the station, and then they would all be transported to some nice colony where they'd be dropped off. Maybe it'd even be like Risa. They could go swimming. Unfortunately, the wiser and more experienced part of him knew that wouldn't be the case. Going by the treatment so far, the Tal Shiar weren't afraid to cause harm - but they also didn't want to kill. They had kept Havra alive for some reason instead of letting her bleed out. Eicran could only think of the PoW camps attached to the field hospital he used to work in and wonder if they were headed there. ~~He didn't think that the Romulans would abide by the same humanitarian conventions that the Federation did, but it wasn't as though Starfleet had abided by them back then either.~~ He let the others talk and kept his thoughts to himself as he tore up what used to have been his work jacket. Someone more skilled than him could do the morale building.

A classical Vulcan brow arch from Tarsek was all the reaction the Ensign’s idea provoked. He said nothing. It was… almost fascinating how this one had come up with that in the middle of this chaos.

He shifted to sit cross-legged, still against the wall. “Okay.” He clapped his hands together, “We gotta have someone go first.”

The nurse’s dim eyes flicked over to Eicran and Victoria as they shredded their jackets. She didn’t imagine they were gonna let her start ripping her own jacket. Putting her strength into ripping fabric from her sleeves would expend a fair amount of power, so the nurse simply slipped out of her jacket and held it out toward her senior officers. “Material,” She said softly.

Without anyone to object, he shrugged, starting on a story. “When I was seven, I got into a fight with my oldest sister, and it got really loud. I think it was over who got to be the captain when we were playing pretend or something. Either way, my other sister, she decided that the smartest idea wasn’t to break us up, but to play something that sounded like a red alert over a speaker. Scared the shit out of us, but nothing could have prepared us for how fast our parents came running.” He paused, letting out a chuckle that reeked of nostalgia. “They were both officers, and I guess they got Pavlov’ed into panicking when they heard it, because within, like… five minutes, they had both cycled through twenty different emotions and were lecturing us for hours.” (edited)

"Material," Victoria repeated, sounding as chipper as she could be as she took the jacket offered. She met Aria's eyes for a moment, glanced away, then turned right back to take a second look. "Look," she sighed. Morale officer was never really a place someone who knew what they were doing would post Victoria. She pushed both palms outwards to anchor her breath. "If you're worried, don't be, we're gonna be out of here in no time," Victoria attempted to assure, flicking her eyes to watch Edgar begin his story with a tinge of interest. As she let out a grunt of effort to aid her in ripping the jacket in half, she nudged her head to the side, tilting towards Aria, "just, you know, enjoy the stories for a bit, maybe tell your own. This is Starfleet, they'll get it done."

Aria met Victoria’s gaze with her own, the dimmed light showing off some of the interior mechanisms beneath the crystalline material her eyes were made of. She blinked, turning them down to her lap for a moment and taking in the words the doctor had said. She watched as Victoria pulled to tear her jacket, bobbing slightly at the effort she’d put in while the android remained relatively still. “…affirmative,” She replied, a staticky sigh following it, “I-I have been informed that being worried is within the description of multiple medical careers,” She said to Victoria, looking at her rather blankly before managing a very small smile, “That is a j-joke.” (edited)

It had happened again. Again.* *To get captured as a prisoner of war once had to have been enough - but even though the chances of being captured a second time were not statistically measurable, here she was, living out her worst nightmare once again. The universe was a cruel trickster god and she was the butt of the joke. Alanna was aware of the deal from the last time, make yourself as small as possible and maybe, just maybe, your captors look over you. To aid in this, she was digging herself into the furthest corner of the brig cell - any sane person would be quietly sobbing right now, but despite the internal grief Alanna was outwardly looking rather indifferent. Just being there, in the corner, legs squished up against her torso, her eyes looking nowhere in particular. For Fuck's Sake.™

Allan was, for a moment, confused, standing still for the better half of a minute as he listened to Saren talk. "Gotcha. It.. doesn't sound like we're moving, at least." He spoke those words, but his mind was still questioning itself, not on that, but on what had just happened between... well, it didn't do any good to listen to the worst questions, there. It was probably something reasonable and understandable and it was probably just that they were in a large group of people in a brig run by a bunch of fascists, who were probably known to use anything against the.. ah, there it was. Was great when his mind came up with its own answers. So, though it was odd to be holding himself back so much, he did, sitting down.. a good amount of space away from Saren, then. Listened to Edgar tell his story, watched as Eicran and Aria and Victoria contribute their jackets to The Scraps, and then took his own jacket - not to rip it, but to take some already-scraps out of one of the inside pockets. "Um... I have these," he said as he handed them over to whichever of the medical officers was closest, "it's uh, cut up bits of the uniform pants." Hopefully it was obvious how he had those from how he was wearing the uniform right now - he'd had a habit of carrying those scraps since years ago when he helped stop bleeding on someone's wrist with some.

Finishing up the story, Ed turned to the others in front of him. “Okay, so… story one, told. Anyone else want to go? I’m happy to air out my siblings’ dirty laundry, but I think it’d be good if someone else went.” He glanced towards Tarsek, whose eyebrow he’d seen raise in that oh-so-Vulcan way. “Lieutenant Commander?” He asked, “You got any good stories? Or are you gonna let me keep on rambling?”

Elohae looked to Commander V'hgai Tarsek and signed. "Thank you." To him when he spotted that the Vulcan had started to sign. He then adjusted himself slightly to ensure they remained firmly in view as he watched what was going on. If he was being talked to, he'd missed it so he just moved a bit closer to people and sort of just watched as the ensign finished his story. While Elohae would have loved to contribute, he'd rather arrived at the opinion that the command probably happened to have better to do than ensuring a Ensign who happened to know no sign could understand him. He'd then glanced to the lieutenant commander, spotted the lieutenant in the corner and waved a bit to try and get Commander V'hgai's attention. "Lieutenant in corner, needs help?" He'd signed then as he hoped they spotted his sign.

Noticing the motion and the question, Tarsek placed his eyes on the officer in the corner. They seemed physically fine, though their body language suggested fear, even if her face was devoid of emotion. A terrible sign in Humans. Indeed it seemed it would be good to get the officer back into the present. “I will check.” He signed discreetly back to Elohae. He had not seated yet and so he elected to do so next to her. Not too close as to not provoke discomfort. “A story you say.” He addressed the ensign responsible for this activity. “Do you have a preference for Starfleet related happenings, or would one from my previous career suffice?”

He grinned, nodding. “Whatever you’re willing to tell, dude. Go for it.”

The Lieutenant in question barely registered Tarsek sitting next to her. However, she was listening intently (even if she didn't show it on her face). At best it'd be an attempt at distraction.

She sat there, leaning a big forwards as the group chatted on. The Trill wasn’t exactly chatty, but nodded along. At least her thoughts were distracted, for the time being. That alone was able to make her smile a bit, and forget exactly where they were.

The use of the word "dude" had him arching a brow again, but evoked no further comment. "Very well. When I was 23, soon after completing my higher education at the Vulcan Science Academy, I had the opportunity to start my field research with a well known excavation team, at the region of Gol." He started. "While exploring a complex of caves and tunnels, I did not pay close attention to the possible instabilities of the terrain. The floor under me gave in and I fell through what was the ceiling of an ancient chamber." Through all of his words, he would sign. "At first I did not know what purpose it served. It could have been a tomb, a sacrificial chamber, a nursery. Upon further observing, it seemed to be a place for ceremonial worship. There was an altar at the center, the walls were painted and engraved with high reliefs that seemed to tell stories of an old god. I was trapped inside for 5 days, as the team could not risk collapsing the ceiling further. They would pass me water and food, while I kept my work of analyzing. Eventually they found a way to free me and to stablish a safe route inside so research could continue. The chamber was dated to have been more than 4000 years old. Quite fascinating." He ended his story there. (edited)

He let out a low whistle, eyebrows raised. “Damn! That must’ve been terrifying.” He commented, before doing his best therapist impression, “Either way, thank you for sharing with the group.”

”Do not worry. I assure you I was not frightened by the experience. It was a privilege to have made the discovery.” Tarsek answered, unaware of the joke the other tried to make.

“I have one to tell, if anyone wants me too. It’s not nearly as cool as finding an ancient chamber, though.” Tavek said, looking up at everyone with a small laugh.

He nodded excitedly, leaning his arm against his crossed legs. “Yeah, go ahead!”

After handing over his pants scraps, Allan looked around the room again. Okay, so it made reasonable sense to avoid seeming close to the people he was close with. But for a guy who knew so, so many people, some less than others... his eyes landed on someone he didn't know, had never even seen before, unlike Victoria, who he'd seen on a previous mission, and Aria, who he'd heard about through Four. No, here was someone he actually, truly didn't know - so why not go over to them? He walked over and sat down, similar to how Tarsek had, listening to his story, but also leaning over to look at the medical officer. "So, um... I know the names of everyone in this room," he said softly, then a little breath of laughter escaped him, "um - that's a weird way of saying that, sorry. I mean, um - I'm Allan."

“Alright.. this was actually quite recent, this was back in February.. I was on Okinawa, and I was kind of wandering around the island trying to decide what to do with myself- I’d just come back from the beach. I was walking down a side street when I heard this really pitiful meowing coming from an alley, and I had to check it out. And.. it was a little orange kitten, stuck face first in a box. I got him out, of course, took him to a vet. His claws had actually dug into my skin, he really did not want to free me from his clutches. But he didn’t have any microchip or anything, and no one came for him.. so they told me I could take him. And.. uh, that’s how I got Azuki, the little guy that I post incessantly in the chatroom. His name means red bean in Japanese, which is fitting because he was stuck inside a box of red bean mochi.” He said, he wasn’t exactly the best at telling stories, but he’d tried. He really did love his cat, and would yap about him at any possible opportunity.

Elohae had just watched the conversations going on. He was contended in just lipreading what he could and reading what Tarsek signed. Not everyone here likely happened to know sign, he happened to know one Ensign who certainly didn't so well, it seemed better to just watch. If someone needed him or wanted to talk to him, he hoped they'd make it clear or well. Even odds it'd be something he missed. Meanwhile, he watched and attempted to fill in the gaps of whatever was missed when someone turned or if the Lieutenant Commander stopped signing at all with context cues as he attempted to lip read as best he could. Allowed himself to be treated to the story the most recent officer had just told as he continued to keep his stories to himself as he doubted he'd be understood by everyone anyway.

Havra eventually sat up as the others started telling stories. After a short consideration she also got out of her jacket and handed it to the doctor that was now ripping up jackets. She was wearing an undershirt that she seemed less keen to part with and started to undo her rather complicated hairdo while she listened to the ongoing conversation.

Out of everything going around (and while Tarsek's tale was very intriguing), the one thing to break Alanna out of her near-trance like state was Allan coming over. Alanna look over at Allan next to her, then realised she had no PADD to type things out. Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck, okay - just breathe and take your time. She knew how to sign it, she just had to stay focused and try to recall the letters. One by one, she signed out each letter of her name: A-L-A-N-N-A. Good job Alanna, you did it! And come to think of it... Allan's face was somewhat recognisable too. Give her a minute, she'll make the connection.

Allan watched her spell out the letters, understanding them. Like noted when he was talking to Elohae earlier, he knew the basics of Standard signing - just not super conversational in it. Lightly, maybe. "Alanna? Am I saying that right? It's... I mean, there's a lot of the same letters there, you know. In our names. Especially when you consider my last name, which is, uh - Allen. Uh, the first name is spelled -" and he spelled out his first name in sign, "A-L-L-A-N, and then the last name is," and he did the same, "A-L-L-E-N. One letter off. My parents are like, only a little crazy."

Holy fuck it was him. Alanna nodded to confirm Allan's question, then started to sign a bit faster and more confidently. "The kid who hacked Starfleet? Didn't you go to prison?" Mandela effects went hard sometimes. To be fair to Alanna, it wasn't completely like seeing a celebrity in person - more of an urban legend. (edited)

Allan took a little bit to process what she'd signed, and he think he understood. Kid, hacked, Starfleet... prison, yeah, okay. It really was interesting to him how some people still recognized him off of that, and not being ACEO or 'the guy dating the Captain' or just on 777 in general. "Yeaaaah, but, you know - I mean, they sent me to the New York City prison, which like, sucked ass, but like - I went to the Academy after that. They kinda just let me in," he shrugged, not trying to dwell on that thought for too long. The imposter syndromed would settle in if he did. "How long've you been on the starbase? I've been here for like... more than 3 years, now."

Listening to the stories, Dezyim took his own jacket off and donated it to the supply. He had to give it to Edgar, the stories were making him less apprehensive. So he decided to contribute a little bit to help others as well, and tried to pick a story that wasn’t utterly terrible. “Before I joined Starfleet and after my predecessor had left the Dominion,” He cringed a little internally. He never liked bringing up the Dominion around Federation people. But he continued on with his story. “My predecessor, Dezyim 4, was… not a happy or… good person. In fact, he was incredibly lonely. No friends to speak of and, of course, no family.” He laughed awkwardly before clearing his throat. “It became something of a mantra to him that if he could just find something to care about properly that it would fix… everything, really, that was wrong with him. If he could just find that one thing… of course, he never did; but after I was cloned and before I left to join Starfleet, I decided I would get something. To hold on to. To care about. So before I left, I stopped by a pet store and picked up some fish. Supposedly they’re from the Vorta homeworld, but I have no idea how true that is. They’ve been altered so severely since then that I doubt they even resemble the original species, but…” He trailed off. He was getting off topic now. “I still have them. They’re in my quarters, swimming away happily I imagine. Quite beautiful, I imagine. The story of your cat Azuki reminded me of that.” He gestured to Tavek, offering him a small smile.

Ellie had gone silent for a while now. In truth she was deep in her mind as she tried to piece things together. Studying the guards when they had come in. They were needed alive at the very least. She need to talk to people more but a faint picture was modeling into shape. Clinching her jaw again she sat up fully from the floor. Towering over practically everyone in the room. Counting people again to double, or triple check, the number of lives involved in this case. A case. That's what is was, wasn't it? Being on the inside of a kidnapping gave a few responses to questions that being the investigator outside didn't. If there was any real hope of getting out, finding out where she was is the start. Yes they were in the Brig, but where was it in the context of the ship? Ellie stepped weakly along, her legs still static from the sensation of electricity riding along her artificial veins. She held an ear up to the wall. Focusing mental energy solely on the ear pressed against the cold exterior. The scar streaking her face stared out into the kidnapped crowds. (edited)

Although it didn’t change where they were, Ed felt the smallest amount of hope welling in his chest. It brought him more joy than he’d expected, talking and telling stories among those he’d been trapped with.

She heard nothing, atleast initially, but she might need a better environment for her to do something, she was still recovering, and still piecing limbs together. The idea of prying at the walls was pushed to the side. Ellie twirled on her heels and looked around at everybody. She might as well try to socialize, distract from the bitter situation, but she was not really a 'people' person, with her monotone voice and sometimes threatening demeanor. She knew this, and hated it, but she felt trapped in that cycle. All she could now was ask questions, and meet people. Put some pieces together while trying to keep herself from going mad from anxiety, she knew tactics like this, cold stale rooms, imprisoned for days, weeks even. She'd have to try and get along with everyone. She pulled out a note pad, and a visually gnawed pencil, and made her way around, walking to where the most people were and they were discussing stories about their life. It interested her, but she was a bit reluctant to share. To say she has plenty would be an understatement though.

After a long pause, Jayrehi decided to speak up. “I… I had a funny incident once. My ship at the time, the Villeneuve, was doing some exploration near Alpha Persei. A station was under construction around the sun, so me and some other engineers went over to help. Anyways, there was... I think some kind of solar flare that occurred whilst me and a few others were installing a communication relay. Hit the station hard, and we were flung into space." She chuckled, a slight smile cropping up as she recalled the absurdity of the moment. "One of my teammates couldn't manage to hold on, so I, rather recklessly to be honest, jumped after them. To get as back towards the station, I overloaded my phaser and we rode the blast to safety. It was a bit terrifying in the moment, though."

"Honorable, you were willing to put yourself at risk to save somebody. That's not something everybody can do in the moment." Ellie complimented, feeling awkward about it, but still doing so none the less. It was an interesting story, one she took note of mentally. She didn't know this woman, but a story, if true, showed a lot about an individual. (edited)

While they had tried to be discreet about the whole 'tearing up jackets for makeshift bandages just in case', people caught on very quickly. Aria he was fine with, aware that she was an android and likely wouldn't get cold unless she was shoved into a freezer. The scraps from Allan were accepted - did he walk around with the remains of uniform trousers in his pockets all the time? Offers from anyone else were politely rejected after that. He wasn't sure the Tal Shiar would approve of their activities. The amount they had right now was enough to distribute between the medics and hide in pockets, but anything more would be difficult. Plus in Havra's case, she needed the extra warmth. She had been bleeding profusely only minutes before after all.

Huh, Alanna truly had stayed under Allan's radar. 'About the same.' She signed. If she thought about it too long then she'd feel old, and to be completely honest, more important things should really be on her mind right now. 'How are you holding up?' Alanna asked, once a doctor always a doctor.

Aw, man, he was starting to lose the conversation. He got 'same', and he got 'how are you', not quite the holding up part, though. He assumed it probably was similar? "Umm, okay, gonna be real, I don't actually ... know everything you just signed, but if you're asking me how I'm doing, um.. I mean, I'm doing..." he looked around the room, particularly at the engineering ensigns, then lowered his voice. "As good as I can be, I think. I mean, I'm not gonna lie and say I'm doing fine, but... it doesn't make sense to um, dwell on it, right, so I'm trying... not to do that," he admitted, then looked back at her. "What about you?"

Before answering, Alanna though for a quick second, then mimed writing something on her hand - a way to ask if he had/he knew anyone who had any writing apparatus. Extended conversations in sign language were hard when both parties concerned were reaching the end of their SSL knowledge.

"Ahh, hold on, I think I've got..." Well, no, all that was in his pocket as far as paper was a slightly crumpled fusion reactor diagram, but he did have a nice pen, which he took out of his pocket and then looked back to everyone else, particularly at Ellie, who had a notepad out. "Hey, do you mind if we borrowed that notepad..?" Allan asked her, and once he was given said notepad (or another that she might've had - who knew what that trenchcoat held) witha quiet 'thanks', he handed it to Alanna with the pen and a smile. "There we go. Let me know if the pen's too weird, I also have a pencil, I think."

Fuck yeah, now she could cook. Taking the pen with gratitude, Alanna began to write.

 Considering this is my second time in a situation like this, I like to think I'm doing better than I did during the last one

You can't beat dark humour, especially at a time like this. In all honesty it was kind of the only thing keeping Alanna from slipping into absolute total despair. At least now she had been given some time to think about it.

"Second, wow," he said, looking down at the paper and then reading it again to make sure he got it right before he looked back up at her. "Do you have any, ummm... like, uh - tips..?" What the hell kinda question is that!? "Like, uh - I don't know, sorry, you definitely don't have to answer that, it's just, like - I mean, I'm assuming this is pretty new for just about everyone else, here."

Alanna exhaled through her nose in amusement. Tips... Alanna had suddenly found herself thinking back to parts of the Iconian prison that didn't rotate constantly in her mind. A nice change of pace (and if she was going to be honest to herself, something Alanna never actually thought she could do). As soon as it's possible, hide an extra prison uniform in your cell - your nose will thank you She had no idea if Iconian practices were the same as Romulan practices, but it wasn't meant to be genuine advice (although it did help).

Allan laughed a little bit once he'd read what she wrote. And then he looked over at the people who had taken off their jackets for scraps. Hm. "Yeah, feel like that could actually pretty useful for some people especially." He looked back at the pen and paper. "You know, if we get like, super bored, I know a lot of games you can play with just paper. Or nothing at all. Or if you spin the pen, you can play spin the bottle, but like - a more, uh, appropriate - like you know, you combine it with another game," he was trying his best to explain this.

Upon hearing Allan’s question, it took less than a second for Tarsek’s eyes to give the “bombastic side eye” reaction and then go back into paying attention at the other’s stories. When the words “spin the bottle” got to his ears, he could not help but be concerned for his colleague’s current common sense skills. (edited)

“I’ve been either completely turned off or playing those browser games in my head for this entire time, but I don’t think that’s feasible for you guys.“ He laughed quietly. “What game would you want to combine it with?”

"You know, like, you just use it, like, a general... general spinning-choice-mechanism sort of thing, right? So, you could use it to choose who goes next in all sorts of games, right, like would you rather, truth or dare, story builders, whatever, right? And, you know, actually - depending on how much paper we have, we could even make like, an actual little game and use the spinning as a dice substitute? Could set up a Ludo-type game." He was not a board games guy, but he DID know a few people who really were.

The humming of the vessel was suddenly interrupted by a steady build-up of an engine rumble...

Alert and on his feet in seconds, Ed shot towards his view of outside the brig. “Holy fuck—“ He blinked, “You guys hear that?”

With a hand on the floor, he swore he could -feel- the rumble of powerful engines, as if getting ready fire up and fly away, with them as unwilling passengers. “I have a strong feeling these guys are about to take this show on the road.”

Giving the wall a frustrated hit with the palm of his hand, he stepped back. “Shhhhhhhit.” He hissed, “Not good. Very not good.”

Allan nodded. "Yeah, sounds like we miiight be about to start moving - soooo... I recommend you sit down again, Ed, actually," he smiled, but he really didn't want the guy flying if they suddenly went turbo speed out of nowhere.

He nodded, with a bit of a chuckle as he imagined getting flung. “I mean… could be fun.” He shrugged, leaning against the wall and sliding back down to sort of jam himself in a corner.

Dezyim had shouldered his jacket again at Eicran’s rejection of it, not bothering to zip it. He felt the rumble of the floor through the deck as he sat on it and grimaced. Hopefully they wouldn’t be thrown around too much.

Confident in his weight and density keeping him in one place, Tavek just stayed sitting where he was, trying to stay casual. “Let’s see if the grav control on this ship’s up to snuff, or else we’ll go flying like pinballs.”

"I mean, we're not floating right now, so I can assume their grav control's at least decent. Feels fine, at least, but - you know, sitting down's a good call either way. Again, energy conservation." Because boy, those androids especially needed it, but so did everyone else! They could only stay awake for so long, and he was already starting to think about having to sleep in shifts or something like that.

"I'm sure the Romulans have inertial dampeners," he commented. Internally he was just as concerned as everyone else, even though his demeanour was still calm. "I'm sure they don't like being flung about when jumping to warp any more than we do."

“They also don’t like us. They might just rattle us around and see where we land.” He grinned, half-joking.

"They wouldn't bother with the medkit if they didn't have the dampeners here," he quietly added, first thing Saren said in... quite some time. Somehow he became even paler in his face after the engines came online. "Smooth sailing..."

"I am sure there are ships right on our tail," Vovvi pitched in, her gaze lingering on Saren— both of them were quiet, unwilling to face what was awaiting them. There had to be something, right? She couldn't just sit here and sulk..

"Definitely," Allan agreed with... well, both of those things. They definitely had dampeners, and there was definitely at least *one ship on their tail.* "Even if the Eventide's out of commission still, which - I'm not sure why she would be, she gets up and running pretty quickly - there's been plenty of time for some backup to come in, or even just get some other ship in the dock already." But all in all, there wasn't anything they could do about that line, so.. he looked back down at the notepad, politely asked for a few sheets, and if he got them, he took out his pencil. "Does... anyone want a sketch of like, a bug or something? I can do birds, too, but not as well. I'm really good at butterflies, but I know a lot of specific bugs, now." Partially thanks to a certain someone in the room, really.

Raising a brow, he looked over at Allen. “You can draw?”

He shrugged. "Ehhh, a little? I mean, it's not gonna be like, super textbook quality, it's more uh, cartoony, I guess, but I think it's fun. I'm more of a photographer, so otherwise I'd show people my photos, but, well - obviously, don't have my PADD to do that, so... gimme a bug," he said with a smile, twirling the pencil in his hand.

He thought for a moment, drumming his fingers against his leg, before requesting one. “Sorta basic, but a spider?”

"That works. You have any specific types you know, or just any?" He asked, already thinking of one in case Ed didn't have one in mind.

He chewed on the inside of his cheek, trying to think of a spider species. “Uh… jumping spider?”

"That's a good one, thanks, I'll do that," Allan grinned as he got to work drawing it, "they're really fun, I'm a big fan of their eyes, and like, how fuzzy and cute their uhhh, oh, what is it.. chelicerae?" He was trying soooo hard to remember these things told to him.. "Pedipalps? Wait, pedipalps, yeah, their uh, chelicerae is actually, um - some of them almost metallic, actually, it's pretty cool." After a little bit of silence, he tore the paper to hand it to Ed. The drawing was not perfect by any means - really, very simple shapes and some little bits of shading done to the legs to be a little fuzzy and stripey, and the eyes were fully colored in, with a small erased bit as the "shine" in them. "Okay, so like, not my best work, but like - okay, it's supposed to be waving. I don't know if they can... actually do that or not."

From where he was situated against the wall next to Victoria (still keeping an eye on Havra just in case), he now shot a glance over to the ACEO. Was he having a stroke? Oh, pedipalps and chelicerae must be bug-related words. Carry on.

"They can," he can't help himself, okay?.. "It's to check around them in case there's spiderweb or anything else they can grab."

He let out a low whistle, looking over the spider. “This is good! It’s so sick how you can just, y’know, freehand it.”

When Allan heard Saren speak about the spiders - the thing was, he was already smiling a little, but it was that sort of smile he put on when he was trying to distract himself from something else - hence, the random bug drawings. But as he listened to Saren, it was very clear that the smile on his face was something really genuine, as if something in him lit up every time he heard the guy say something like this. Because, well. That was true. "Ahhhh, okay, okay, thanks," he said, then turned back to Ed, "thank you as well. You can, I guess, draw in a little spiderweb for him to grab onto, then, probably. That'd be kinda a fun addition, draw it off the heart, a little. Anyone else want a bug?"

Dezyim watched the interaction with quiet appreciation. It wasn’t so bad in the brig right now. He mentally made a note to himself that he or his successor try to remember that; regardless of whatever else followed, this moment was alright. “A moth, maybe? I don’t know very many different types, but I’ve always liked the idea of them completely changing shape.”

"Moth? Yeah, sure," he said, "that's like... butterfly-adjacent, kinda. If only I had different colors, hmm... I think I'll go with a ... you're not uhh," he paused for a second as he tried to think of the word, then shook his head, "um, fear of like, a bunch of tiny circles or holes, forgot what it's called, do ya have that? If not, I'm thinking a leopard moth."

He furrowed his eyebrows as he processed that. “I’ve never heard of a fear like that… I don’t think I have it, at least. It sounds fine to me, so… go for it.” He smiled at Allan before looking off into the distance trying to imagine what exactly would cause someone to have a fear of clusters of small holes.

"Alright, leopard moth it is," Allan said as he started sketching it. "It's actually... I think it's a giant leopard moth, there's another one called a leopard moth that actually has closed holes and is uh, smaller, I think.." he was taking a pretty long time on this one - probably on account of drawing all the little dots.

There was a rumble, going through the ship like a dull ache...

Silently, Eicran wondered exactly what the Tal Shiar's end goal here was. Why had they been taken, where were they being taken to, what was going to happen to them? Not knowing or not understanding things had always frustrated him, and this was quite a severe instance of wanting to know more. The vibration through the ship's hull only made him more tetchy. He wanted to be doing more too. Couldn't one of these engineers break into a console and raise the holofield, and then they could try to take the ship? It was probably pointless though. Who knew how many Tal Shiar officers there were on board, and given that they were monitoring the brig already, any attempt to escape would probably be stopped before it began. (edited)

Tarsek kept himself seated. His eyes closed while he payed as much attention as possible to any sound, any fluctuation on the rumble. If they were moving that could mean two things, maybe they had completed their mission and maybe they were being chased. Both could be true, and he expected to be able to confirm the second hypothesis by the unmistakable impact of enemy (or in this case friendly) fire. At least in that scenario, they had an actual chance of being rescued before disappearing into whatever sector the Tal Shiar planned on taking them.

Dezyim watched Allan draw with marked interest as he ignored the rumble of engines, fascinated the lieutenant could remember how the creatures looked off of the top of his head. He had always had trouble remembering how things looked, and drawing them and making it look good after that seemed significantly harder to him. (edited)

Biting his tongue to keep from saying anything, Ed watched Allan continue to draw, trying to keep his mind distracted.

Victoria was very much not someone who'd been adjusted to ships that moved very quickly. No, she much preferred floor panels that didn't vibrate as though pulsing with power. Hell, she wasn't even able to tell they were stationary until the ship started it's rumble in the first place. "It's just like forced shore leave... to a dungeon, or something."

He snorted at that, glancing towards the Lieutenant who said it, but uncomfortably shifting at the ship’s movement.

And hits he felt! The force being dispersed through the metal as the vessel received fire. He assumed it must be Starfleet somehow. It was unlikely the Tal Shiar would have been discovered and attacked by someone outside of their current conflict ~~of course he had no way of knowing about their new allies~~. There was a chance of the Eventide being behind it, if they had been quick enough to free the ship. In any case. This ship was being pursued and attacked. And for them that could mean rescue. “It seems the Tal Shiar were not awarded a calm journey back home.” (edited)

"On the bright side we can assume we're near the engines." She commented, the brig was likely thickly Reinforced by dozens of centimeters of solid alloy to prevent any attempted escape. So the fact the engine roared so loudly in their proximity implied that yes they were on a lower deck, near the engines. Scratching her scalp with the chewed pencil. Ellie contemplared, puzzled. This information, no matter how big or small, was useful in case they made long-distance communication.... somehow. It was unlikely, but possible. "I'm assuming they have a cloak of some kind up." She pressumed to herself, tapping the eraser end against the temple of the skull. Perhaps that dull noise was more then the ship driftung away. Perhaps the ship had been struck by something? Why would OPS do that though? Unless it was federation. "Hopefully they don't strike us." She said to Tarsek, who Ellie had wandered to while pacing. Stopping to think. If she could have, she'd check the door, since that was likely the thinnest point in the room's density, and if the Tal Shiar had been struck an alarm would be blaring outside. But that wasn't really possible with the big forcefield in the way wasn't it? Taking slow steps she approached the nearest wall, adjusting internal mental specs to see if she could hear anything in the three she had access to. (edited)

"Be careful," he cautioned as Ellie approached the wall. "We know that they're watching and listening to us. You don't want them to see you prowling around - they might think you're looking for a way to break out." ...But when he thought about it, maybe they were all too busy if they were being fired upon. Maybe this would be an opportune time to try a break-out. (edited)

Alin had mostly been sitting in bewilderment this whole time. It was like his brain was failing to catch up to him this whole time, unable to comprehend what was happening. He just watched everyone interact in silence, with glazed over eyes that failed to register what would ostensibly be his first major traumatic life event. It wasn't until the ship was jostled and started lurching that he seemed to wake up a little, as if finally the horror of what they were going through was dawning on him: the fact that they were captured, on a Tal Shiar ship, and now they were caught in an altercation, a firefight, something that could cause them to lose their lives. It wasn't that Alin was unused to anxiety or fear... but it wasn't common for him to be unable to use his own techniques in order to mitigate the worst of it.

Edgar stood up, back still against the wall as he slowly raised himself to his feet before a quick jostle sent him flat on his ass on the floor. He cursed under his breath, before heading back to the corner.

Ach, screw it. He had always hated being inactive; if something could be done then he wanted to do it. "I know we have no information on how many officers there are on board," he spoke up, "but they may well be distracted and not paying attention to us right now. If the ship is taking damage, can we, I don't know - investigate the wall paneling? Find conduits or something that we can use to pull power from the holofield? Anything to get us out of here, and then we can find the shuttlebay or transporter room and try to get across to whoever's firing upon us?"

Ed seemed to perk up at that, looking around at the walls surrounding them. “There’s a bunch of stuff outside the field.” He said, “Not my place to say what we do, but… could we try and get something through?”

Victoria raised a finger into the air shortly after Eicran began speaking. Perhaps she might not have done so, had the idea come from somewhere further in the brig from where she sat, or had it not come from her fellow jacket-ripper. "I kinda- prefer not being shot at. Some of us," she attempted to speak for more than herself, sounding significantly less confident with her words than she had minutes ago, "aren't exactly fighters. I flunked all my phaser classes." (edited)

"We need to figure if they are actually under fire first. No jumping to conclusions." Ellie commented in response to Edgar and Kehal. "Just... one... moment." She sat leaning hard against the alloy trying to tune her ears slowly to the best balance to hear anything on the other side. She tried knocking at the panels as she worked, trying to find a hollow spot of some kind. Shifting position and angle, really trying to figure out where everything was.

“Okay, that’s— fair. Very fair.” He shrugged, giving the field a little poke before jolting, ripping his hand away, muttering under his breath, “Touching this is a bad idea. Why did I do that? Nobody touch this.” (edited)

”There is no way of knowing how far we have moved from our base, how many agents are there or what sort of security they have on this ship. A move to flee as risky and uncertain as this is certainly unadvisable.” Tarsek came in. “However, discreet moves to investigate our surroundings could be useful.” (edited)

"It's either we do something or we let the Tal Shiar take us to god-knows-where. This..." He was going to say that it might be their only opportunity to try, but Tarsek spoke up. Unadvisable. Everything about this situation was unadvisable whether they were trying to escape or not.

There was also the security system they should keep in their minds, if they're about to try to do something very un-brig-ly. The unblinking eye of the camera in the corner, for example...

Tarsek faced each officer for a split second. There was a diverse range of emotions in the room. He well knew this situation could bring out the most extreme decisions. “I understand possible motivations for those who wish to take the risk. I ask you to understand that this decision is not individual. We are prisoners together. The actions of some bring consequence to all of us. It is better to ensure survival of the group another day than to risk it all based on… fear.” The words were cold. That Surakian logic making itself known in the room. “Let it be warned. If any of you make an attempt to escape now, and consequently bring danger to the group, you do so against my orders. You do so as a mutineer.” Maybe the first time since they were captured that Tarsek had actually completely evoked the authority of his rank. The words were rash. He would leave no room for misunderstandings.

His jaw clenched, teeth grinding together. Internally he felt the most angry that he had felt in a long time at essentially being told that his idea, his need to act, would bring danger to everyone. He had done enough of that over the years already. Thirty people PLEd in one field hospital that they had left undefended, for example. "Understood, sir," he spoke in monotone.

Victoria sighed at the whole exchange, scratching her forehead awkwardly with her fingers. Well, if she had known the boss' boss was gonna pull rank she wouldn't have said anything. Something, something, something about united fronts and morale, or something. "Harsh," she muttered, then a little louder, "you okay? When Starfleet gets us, I'm sure you'll get to knock out one or two of these guys."

"I've worked a negotiation case like this before. I was handling the investigation into the culprit but I worked with the crisis team." Ellie commented, it was an assumption this was a hostage case so far atleast, hearing pulsing and silencing as she peeled at her interal electronics. "We will likely be given indirect line of communication. To discuss terms. Until then, we need to piece what we can together. If anybody can, try looking for an identifying model mark of the ship somewhere in here. It is unlikely they will give us direct communication, so stating plainly is off the table. Just be subtle, and we will find that to be the best outcome." Ellie promised, leaving out some of the details about how the case she worked involved saving the victim from being put under inhumane conditions that were assumed to need years of psychological help. "If they pull any one person out, do not fight, try to pry whatever you can out of them." The Golem finalized as she took back to trying to eavesdrop past the bounds of the walls. (edited)

The ship shuddered and surged forward as it lurched into warp speed, threatening to take any hope of escape with it.

"Mhm, thank you," he replied to Victoria. He might have elaborated but given that they would be in earshot of the new XO, he didn't really want to be overheard. Shoving down his frustration, he tried to move things on instead. "...Let's hope that they're warping us to Risa."

Tavek, hands still on the floor, felt the ship itself thrum against his fingertips, packed full of sensors as they were, as it bounded into warp. He closed his eyes, wishing for tears to roll down his face that he knew would never form. Now, he understood why Silver had begged, pleaded for her new body to be able to cry, when she was rebuilt after being pulled from the ice. There was no release for this feeling of despair. Anger was sudden and hot, filling one with drive and purpose. Without an outlet, it faded into despair, cold throughout his body. The further this ship got from Starfleet, the slimmer his chances of survival. He knew that. He just wished his poor cat would be alright with Shinji and Silver.

Still tucked into his little corner, he clung onto the walls for dear life, watching his crewmates as they fell apart alongside him. This would not be fun.

"Yeah, Risa," Victoria chuckled, unable to help but roll her eyes at the mental image of being dropped off on a forced vacation by a bunch of Tal Shiar agents. "Don't know about you guys, but I could go for a few rounds of volleyball by the beach right about now."

He huffed out a half-assed laugh. “You’re speaking the truth.” He chuckled, still clinging onto his safe corner, where he wouldn’t be thrown across the room, before asking, “Y’know— is Risa really everything people say? I’ve never been.”

Ellie sighed at the noise, really a minor expletive of how she felt. And how did she feel? Truly awful, like an utter failure, she'd need to keep her composure, but if she had the ability do so proper, she'd be hyperventilating. Just keep her composure, try to help everybody out, somebody would come get them. She'd need to retreat into investigation before things got worse.

“I’ve been.” He said, quietly. “There’s too many tourists. It’s so crowded in the peak seasons.. it’s overhyped in my opinion. There are lesser known planets and places with the same vibes. When we get out of this, I’ll send you a list.” The “when” was a lie on his part. He knew the chances of him surviving to send that list were small. He doubted the Tal Shiar would show mercy to him.

He couldn’t stop a tired grin at the offer. “Yeah. I’ll take that list, honestly, whenever you have it with you.”

"If you've found it too crowded then you haven't been to the right areas. You need to avoid the stereotypical resorts and do something like camping instead." Hey, maybe they could pretend that this was camping in a very boring location. If they pretended that they were taking part in one big sleepover then maybe they could simply forget about the Tal Shiar being involved.

”I mean I haven’t, but beaches are nice, so,” Victoria shrugged. She’d only seen her first, proper beach at some point in her twenties, and spent probably less than an hour there. “What’s wrong with the tourists? Other than… how good they are at getting impaled on things you’d think are pretty impossible to get impaled on.”

Eyes wide, he covered his mouth to hide a laugh. “Alright, that’s… fair. I’ll check the place out someday.”

Elohae had settled into a corner as he'd watched people initially. Watched before he'd felt what he'd felt through the hull, noted the signs he noted. Noted them and watched as others talked, attempted to lipread as people understandably started to become.. otherwise engaged and so much of the conversation that had occurred slipped past him unnoticed. Watched as he mentally, as he arrived at the realisation another had. Realised, thanks to training he'd never managed to shake even after he was medically discharged from the Republic navy, that his survival chances had dropped. How far they dropped rather depended on why they'd elected to kidnap a babysitter, a ex-fleet and Imperial Navy defector one but still, but they'd still dropped. Not that he was...particularly fussed about himself at the moment, he discoverd. What continued to grasp at his mind, continued to shove icy emotion into his gut as he remained there was the fate of someone else. The fate of the person he desperately hoped was if not fully okay, as who at that age when the Tal Shiar entered their lives again could be okay after that, had at least managed to escape the Tal Shiar. Managed to get away with what meagre time Elohae had managed to buy the kid by being punched then shot. Oh he still discovered the stirring of emotion, as was expected when you faced a potential end all the stuff he'd wished he could have done before now and how he worried about what they faced but. The deaf romulans mind happened to be quite...focused on that. On the young teen he babysitted.. had babysitted he supposed, hoped he'd see again. The one he'd not hesitated to stick there infront of a Tal Shiar to buy time for, as well. He loved that kid and in a way, he loved the kids father, his friend, Vara'l too. Not that he'd ever have admitted it to the CTO. For one, he happened to be pretty sure the man was straight. He also happened to be a widower.

Allan was just drawing this moth for Dezyim. And he was listening to what people were saying, of course he was, and of course, hearing Eicran, he did think about it. Investigating the wall paneling without any tricorders or anything on hand would mean prying the wall panels themselves off, something that would surely catch the attention of a security camera. And then Tarsek spoke, and he supposed that was that. Well. He kept drawing the moth. It was taking him a bit of time. Unlike the jumping spider, there were less big, round shapes and a lot of fuzz lines to cover up his mistakes. He drew the wings, drew some creases, and then erased them with the pencil, but not to the point that they'd be invisible. Just to try and fade them a little so he could draw the main point of focus, the leopard spots. It was taking a lot of time to draw all the little spots. There were a lot of them. And he kept erasing the legs to try and get them right, too. And there was that noise. He knew what it was. But man, hm, these spots! Once he was done, though, he handed the drawing to Dezyim. "Alllright. One giant leopard moth for you, sir. Who's next?"

Tavek thought for a long hard while about what bug he wanted, only to realize that he knew nothing about bugs. And not being connected to the Internet now, he had no way to search. So, he defaulted to literally the only bug he knew anything about. Silver’s bug, but he loved it too, because she loved it and he was her friend. She had made the fact that he was her friend very clear upon their first meeting. She thought most people were her friends, but it was still honorable to him considering the condition to be her friend was her thinking you were nice, and he wasn’t exactly the most nice and lovable person at all times. “A monarch butterfly, please? Or just any butterfly.”

"Monarch butterfly's soooo easy, I gotcha. Yeah, fuck, if only they gave out colored pencils, huh," he laughed, and hoped it didn't sound too nervous of a laugh. "Could use a pack." And then he got to work. A specific butterfly to work on, it was in fact pretty simple for him to draw from memory. "Did you ah - did you know Puerto Rico - where I'm from, back on Earth, ah - has its own subspecies of monarch butterflies that don't migrate? All the other ones do, I'm pretty sure."

“Oh, really? I mean, they migrate because it gets cold, right? I’m pretty sure it’s mostly warm all year in Puerto Rico, so if it never gets cold, they’d never have to migrate?” The lack of bug knowledge was very apparent. He was a tech guy through and through, each mechanical brain cell devoted to machine and not flesh.

"I... don't actually know, huh. I mean, I know they're in the southern part of North America too, and they migrate there, maybe it's something with the ocean all around us? I don't really know," he shrugged. He was also a tech guy, he just knew all his bug info from a select few people. "Beautiful things, though. Did a school project on 'em way back when I was really small."

Dezyim moved to take the scrap of paper from Allan. “Thank you,” He bowed with his head and upper body just slightly, a small smile on his face. But instead of taking the paper, his hand found Allan’s. His grip was cold and surprisingly firm, and he leaned in just the slightest bit. He was making intense eye contact, and it might have been intimidating if it weren’t for his small size. “Do you remember what I said when we were last captured? What I said I would do? If it will help us, if the time is right, I will.” He released Allan’s hand as he took the drawing, looking down at it. “This is quite good! I didn’t realize you were skilled at art, lieutenant.” He folded the drawing up carefully and placed it in his pocket as if he had said nothing of weight.

"Last captured? What do you mean last captured?" Ellie overheard, sounding genuinely exasperated for once; while she didn't particularly get the sentence after, phrased in anonymity. She was still was confused. "This just once is already absurd." She commented leaning back and resting the base of her skull against the alloy plate walls.

“Would you all believe it if I said this was my third?” Was the reply he wanted to give, but he refrained. His chances of dying were high, but not high enough to out his prior life to people he actually interacted with just yet. He just looked away for a moment with a melancholic sort of face, as if looking back into his past, before returning to the present. (edited)

"I-" Ellie had never stuttered before now. This was honest to God a first occurrence for her in... years. She was always well spoken in most regards, but the stress of the situation was peeling away at her layers already. She fiddled with her knuckles like she had done just before the yellow alert, contemplating a lot. There was a feeling of comedic absurdism and anxiety that she hadn't felt since her spine had turned on her. She tried to settle her nerves. "Let's make this a last, yeah?" The Golem returned some of her monotone composure on the statement.

“I for one have had enough Tal Shiar bullshit happen to me for three lifetimes. And I could theoretically live forever.” He finally stated, crossing his arms and leaning back against the wall.

His face shifted to one of mixed astonishment and horror, and he stared towards Tavek. “Three times.” He stated, disbelieving, “You’ve been kidnapped three times??”

“Wait.. did I say that out loud? I could’ve sworn.. I must be going insane in here. But yes, more or less. For reasons I can’t get into here, I’ll leave it at that.” He said quietly, enough for Edgar to hear though. Maybe he was actually going insane in this brig.

“…holy shit, dude.” He blinked, speechless for a moment, “If you had a nickel every time you got captured… you wouldn’t have that many nickels, but still, holy shit.”

Allan was a little surprised when Dezyim took his hand. Firmly. He leaned back some when Dezyim leaned in, very unsure of what the man was trying to do here, but kept the eye contact. And listened with a curious smile on his face. That smile faded and it faded fast. "You -" he paused, to remember exactly what Dezyim had said last time, to make sure he had it right. Yeah. He spoke again, quiet and trying to not be heard, voice trying to be calm, and kind, but still serious enough to carry what it was saying. "Dezy - en- ensyim - fuck," a little huff of laughter left him, but he shook his head before he spoke again, his look one of soft concern, "You will not be doing that, actually. You're not going to be asked to do that by any of us, and you'd better not do that for anyone else who's trying to get you to, okay? Do I- you get that?" He looked away from him, back at everyone else, then back to him again. "Um... thank you, I... I enjoy doodling them, seeing what I remember. Easier to remember the ones with pretty unique patterns."

Dezyim stayed where he was seated and very intentionally didn’t respond to Allan, allowing him to return to his role within the crowd. He wasn’t going to make a promise he didn’t fully intend to keep, and it was certainly an avenue worth exploring— regardless of the stigma everyone else had around death. And stigma there was; he was aware of it, of course, but hadn’t truly felt it until the topic had come up in the recent months. Had he become so used to being replaceable that it had soured his perception of things, or was it just that people who couldn’t be replaced could never truly understand the complexity? After all, was it dying? Sure it hurt and his body would indisputably die. Six would have a funeral as he had had for Four, but… everything that made him Dezyim wasn’t dying, right? In fact, it was possible people wouldn’t even realize he had died, provided that Six wasn’t defective… His eyebrows furrowed once again and he pulled up his hand to massage his temples. He was giving himself a headache thinking in circles like that. He wasn’t smart enough to be philosopher. He cast that train of thought away, reclined against the wall, and went back to paying attention to Allan’s drawings.

Allan hesitated, and almost considered asking Dezyim if he'd upset him in some manner - but decided that perhaps carrying on with the subject wasn't really the move considering how quickly they'd moved past it and that, of course, even Dezyim was going back to watching... oh, his drawings. Yeah. The butterfly was a simple task in the engineer's head in terms of the steps laid out before him, but that didn't mean it wasn't taking a while. Thankfully, the monarch butterfly was one that he was very familiar with and could picture the patterns easily in his mind, and so he drew up a grid like the engineer he was and got to work, trying to be as symmetrical as possible, before he started coloring things in and thickening up the pattern lines. The eraser didn't perfectly get rid of his gridlines, but that was fine. Once he was done, he got up and handed it over to Tavek. "So, I tried making it a little symmetrical and stuff, but uh... yeah. On to the next bug?" He asked, looking around the room. Come get ya bugs.

Tavek.. didn’t know how emotional he would actually get upon being handed the finished drawing. It was such an engineer thing to do, focusing on the symmetry and such, and he actually liked that he, possessing sharper than human eyesight, could still very much see the grid lines. It felt like a blueprint almost, it was.. a touch of an Engineer’s hand in the drawing, and that was something he could appreciate even if he wasn’t an artist. It was.. physical proof he was cared about. Allan wouldn’t have spent his time on Tavek’s request if he didn’t like him. Silver wouldn’t have shared her love of butterflies with him if she didn’t like him (debatable, Silver would yap to almost anyone, but let him have this), and her butterfly obsession had been the reason he’d even thought of them. He loved the people 777 with all his heart, this was proof they loved him back. Not having the physical capability to cry over it, he just stared at it for a good long while. Finally, he spoke. “Thank you, Allan… this means a lot to me.” He said quietly. Having fully and completely memorized it, now it was time to store it in a way it could not be taken from him. So, he folded it, cringing as it creased but knowing it was necessary, taking care to keep on the lines of symmetry. Finally, it was small enough, and he rolled up his sleeve and tucked into the seam of his elbow joint, only a little bit of paper left sticking out, flexing the joint to make sure it would stay in place before rolling his sleeve back down. This way, it would stay with him, even if he was forced to empty his pockets later. “Now no one can take it from me later.” He said.

"Yeah, no problem," Allan gave Tavek a genuine smile, and then watched... watched what the officer did with it, laughing a little. "That's... wow. Neat hiding place." Was he very honored that his little butterfly drawing was worth that much to Tavek? Absolutely. Was he wanting to get emotional about that right now? Absolutely not. He had more bugs to draw. And bugs he did draw. Not in this order, he drew a dragonfly for Eicran ("I don't even remember all too much what a dragonfly looks like, but I'll do my best", he'd said), a beetle for Alin (he chose a click beetle, and told a story about being so fascinated by them as a kid), a praying mantis for Vovvi (another childhood story accompanied this one - and how he swore he'd seen one in a cathedral, and then returned it outdoors), a stickbug for Victoria (he drew some accompanying stickmen as friends), a scarab beetle for Elohae ("is that just the first beetle everyone thinks of?" was his clarifying question), a firefly for Tarsek (yet another childhood story), and a ladybug for Saren. When he'd given the ladybug to him, he'd explained that he had no clue what the caterpillar ("larvae?") looked like, but he remembered it had "freaky orange spikes, but freaky in like, a cool freaky way", so he'd drawn that on the back of the paper. The ladybug drawing itself notably had two hearts instead of the usual one he was putting on the other drawings, sure, but it also had a couple hearts snuck into the spots of the ladybug itself.

"You know what's going to happen, don't you?" The wall he was curled up against had long since lost it's comforting coolness. It radiated his own warmth right back at him, like an ill, feverish body, decaying right in front of his eyes. His reflection stared right back at him, colorless, emotionless. He went through the motions to interact and participate. The selection of the insect was beyond him - just the first thing that sprung up in his mind, round little things as bright as gemstones, red the opposite of oppressive green surrounding them all. The drawing ended up in his jacket's inner breast pocket. The swelling of the ship's gait, the unmistakable shift into warp was met with a shudder, the rise of emotions in his fellow prisoners a background noise. Saren surprised himself with just how... muted, his reaction to it all was. He was barely touched, yet somehow, the elder Lareth had beaten him into submission by just mere presence and word. The brazen confidence, perhaps? Or was it Saren's own proficiency as a student, who had learned his lesson the first time - said lesson being that no one dared question nor oppose Irok's authority, be it his subordinate or the child of his son. He didn't know. What he did know, is that Irok wouldn't make the same mistake twice. So he curled his hands over his side, where his skin was forever marred by the elder's wrath, and closed his eyes.

Time passed both too quickly and too slow. The only indication of things actually happening were the sounds and movement of the massive vessel they were trapped in, as well as the clockwork appearances of agents. They never spoke much. Their treatment of the esteemed guests was efficient and to the point, albeit without any unnecessary violence - a blessing, though it only worsened the paranoia for some. Food, washroom, food, repeat. Keeping the bunch clean and fed - likely to prevent illness and infighting and whatnot - but understimulated and guessing. One time their caretakers were followed by a medic and an engineer, to look at the bunch.

Tapping at the wall again in a rhythm he remembered to keep his hands and mind busy, Edgar watched the others.

Ellie had taken to utter silence as she contemplated. This was likely to last days, weeks, and she knew it, this was only the temporary arrangement. Her silence broken by the entrance of the medical and engineering unit. Seems like the 'sleepover' here was likely coming to an end. She shifted in her slouching. Adjusting to study their faces, look for emotional vulnerabilities. Dissect them and manipulate their minds like she had before to the malicious. Turns out, she was wrong, just a check up. The Golem had to be clinical in her efforts. (edited)

Another shudder. While the occasion itself wasn't new, this one... was different.

Jai was barely awake. Her glasses had nearly fallen off her face, so both sound and sight seemed distant to her in the moment as her eyelids tried to keep themselves shut. She forced herself to blink, to wake up, to open her eyes. Even if there wasn't much to see, even if there was nothing to do. Perhaps it was her way of not giving into despair. The only way she knew how to be stubborn.

He kept on fidgeting, playing with his hair (which he had braided and unbraided at least ten times) and picking at the floor. If he kept moving, he wouldn’t sleep, and whatever the captors did to him, he wouldn’t miss it. Although the idea of nodding off was alluring, he couldn’t get his hyperactive mind to slow its erratic activity enough to remain asleep for long.

Dezyim, on the other hand, was passed out. He was curled in on himself, using his elbow as a pillow. He’d draped his jacket over him to at least have some cover, and he did not stir when the ship shuddered.

Elohae remained where he'd been for most of the trip since he pushed against the wall. Remained there as he watched the room around him and attempted to at least lipread some of the conversation that went on. He couldn't have ever managed to get everything, managed to read everything, managed to see everything. He couldn't hear for one. Anything that was uttered to him out of his eyesight was missed. He couldn't have managed in here to keep his mind clear for another. Lost in thoughts and worries that occasionally dragged at him, focused when they came on those that...visited for a time. Brooded in what at some times happened to feel like isolation, worried and remenisced. Prayed prayers into the silence and in silence, trusted that the elements would hear it all the same. Trusted those cared for faces that had, at Tal Shiar hands or others, already ...departed, would see it. Managed to understand it. Perhaps, I'll see you all soon. Prayed not for his survival, but for others. For the Starfleet officers here, for Telim and Vara'l both of whom he loved. Prayed that Telim was safe. Offered his life to the elements, if they cared to here if that'd by the lad and Vara'l more safety. See the damage the Tal Shiar had done to him, the scars re-opened closed in time even if he knew it might not yet. Prayed here in this brig of people of whom there were only a few he happened to be familiar with. Not fussed with grim fate but concerned more for if that boy had survived. Expendable if it meant the boy was, the boy remained safe. If Telim had escaped. Prayed and worried. Did so for a time before, as he detected the shudder through the wall behind him, he waved to the Ensign he'd had to mime too when he'd first encountered them. The deaf romulan concerned about how the other acted. Had the ensign slept all that much? He wondered about that. He discovered he..wasn't too sure.

Tarsek opened his eyes, his meditation interrupted by the motion. So far, they had been taken care of, the bare minimum at least. The Tal Shiar certainly wanted them alive and he had a very settled idea of things they would be subjected to, even if he did not knew what they wanted to achieve by those. He kept vigilant. Any change was an alarm going off in the back of his mind. A small part of him hoped whatever arrangement would be made would allow them to give each other support. It was his duty to take care of the others, make sure they survived, be present to make the burden lighter…. Illogical hope. Their captors certainly knew separation and isolation was a powerful and compelling tool. Waiting was all they had left. And wait he did. No use for plans now. No use to create hopeful illusions either. Clean mind and keen sight was what he needed.

"...better than being dead... or borg'd..." Paco quietly reminded himself as he was stirred awake and kept himself sat near a wall. He had been asleep, but had been woken up by the shudder. Again and again he had thought this was all a bad dream, and when he finally wakes up for realsies this time, he would be back in his quarters with just enough time to meet a therapist or maybe have some Nasi Lemak, stirfry noodles with siomai, and Kalamares with chili garlic. but no. Paco was here. He hated being here. And aside from occasionally looking at whatever he assumed was a camera and saying '"Mama mo." (literally: 'Your mother") while he pointed at it, Paco just prayed to the Prophets in silence. All his anger, frustration, and fear stewed to some glimmer of hope for someone would be out there to save them, or at least no harm or death will come their way. And if it were to be the case, it would be quick.

Strangely enough... Allan slept pretty alright, all things considered. It might have been the fact that he chose to sleep next to Saren, someone who he felt safe with even in the worst of situations (and the whispered "te amo"s before he slept gave some sort of thing to his brain), or the fact that he was used to nightmares and the increasing amount of them he'd had in the past month, or perhaps that he knew he needed to rest well in order to stay healthy enough to be there for everyone else. It was all of the above, really, but the last one was the one that he had at the forefront of his mind. If he didn't sleep, he'd be tired and emotionally unwell more than he already was, and so he tried his best. Whenever he woke up from a nightmare, he looked to Saren, made sure the man was alive and breathing, and then scanned his eyes around the room, doing a headcount, making sure the number was the same, and going back to sleep. He did that every time he woke up, and when he woke up in the morning, he walked around the room (best he could, he didn't want to disturb anyone else who was sleeping) to check up on people. Because he could. He also helped out anyone with folding their uniform jacket into a small pillow, because he knew how to do that, give or take. As he stepped around the room this time, he decided to stop by Ed, who he'd noticed hadn't slept in quite a while. "Hey," he whispered, "what's up..?"

Ed blinked, having been somewhat zoned out from the dimmed chaos around him, and looked up at Allan. “Oh—“ He searched for the words to answer, and they took a frustratingly long time to arrange in his mind, “It’s… I’m just— bored, I guess? Not in the nothing to do way, but… I don’t know.” He felt a bit sheepish at the lack of something to say, some funny quip to lighten the mood, as he was sure his stock of them had been never-ending. “I feel a little like the walls are closing in.” He chuckled, sounding more done with everything than actually amused, “Y’know?”

"Yeah, it's a tight space," Allan agreed, sitting down next to him. He thought for a moment, and then looked right at him. "Y'know, if you're worried, I could stay right here while you sleep. I'd wake you up the moment anything changes."

He considered the notion, and, while tempting, he wasn’t sure if he could get his eyes to close at all. Tucking his knees up to his chest again from his corner, he chewed on his lip. “I— maybe.” He exhaled, “That could work. Just… I don’t know if I can. And I feel ridiculous, I’m a Starfleet officer, and I’m freaking out because I can’t sleep.”

"Helps if you lie down. I can make you a little pillow out of your jacket, too," he offered. "I get it, though, it's not ridiculous. You're a Starfleet officer, but you're also, like, a human being who has feelings and shit, you know? Starfleet or not, it's something that happens. It's normal to freak out when you can't do something."

He took a shaky breath, watching him closely before nodding. “…thank you.” He mumbled, “And… yeah. You’re right.”

Somewhat isolated, or feeling like such, with his feelings Elohae slipped to his feet and started off to find somewhere else to sit. He'd managed to sleep a fair bit but well, he was half tempted to try for more sleep. The wave hadn't been noticed and the Ensign was being dealt with. That was good but well. Every time he looked around here he was reminded he was a civilian amongst Starfleet officers. Officers who seemed to know eachother, who had other things they needed to focus on. When he discovered somewhere else to sit, he slipped down onto the floor and well, closed his eyes.

"Courage is fear but with the strength to continue despite it." She spoke up, her voice still quite soft and raspy from an uncomfortable slumber. "You don't have to feel ridiculous. It isn't at all. And if it's any conciliation, I don't think most of us got much rest either." She smiled a bit, a light chuckle escaping her lips as she leaned against the wall.

"Is that a yes, then..?" He asked, holding his hand out to take the guy's jacket if he wanted him to make it into a little rectangular pillow. If he gave it to him, he went ahead and did it while they talked. "I will say, the less you sleep, the more crazy the thoughts get, so it's good to at least give it another shot."

He offered a grateful smile, hearing the words of comfort from his crewmates. “…yeah. I’ll give it a shot.” He murmured, taking off his jacket, handing it to Allan when he held a hand out.

She looked over at Edgar, trying to give a reassuring smile before chuckling a bit. "Would you like us to sing you a lullaby?" She asked in jest, trying to lighten the mood a little.

A bit caught off guard, he snickered, shrugging. “If I can sing along, sure.” He joked right back, “I was known to have the dulcet tones of a garbage disposal when I sang as a kid.*

Allan made the little jacket pillow in no time, having done it for several others already - he handed it back to Ed with a small smile. "There ya go - though.. maybe we should hold off on the lullabies for the sake of everyone who's already sleeping?"

He slept, facing the brig doors, only for them to slide open and reveal the tall figure behind it; he couldn't move as it began coming closer, a dagger in it's hand, the glint of it catching a glimpse of those cold grey eyes before his doppelganger lunged and-- Saren jerked awake, hand immediately slipping under his makeshift jacket-pillow for a knife. There wasn't one. "Fff- shit," it came out as a frustrated wheeze rather than the scientist's voice. He licked his lips and wobbled himself into a sitting position: "I think the ship has stopped."

Nothing but observe and wait, at least. Tarsek witnessed the talk between the others. He worried about the younger officers. This was possibly one of the worst situations to be in. Even the seasoned officers among them would have all of their limits harshly tested and broken. This was not Tarsek’s first time as a prisoner, he knew what to expect, and he knew the perspective would not help the ones that had not gone through anything similar. He was also not the most qualified for… Emotional support. Allowing the others to comfort the ensign, his eyes found Elohae. Out of all of them, he was surely the one dealing with the most isolation. He debated for a minute and then rose, walking towards the man with heavy steps to announce his presence, since he noticed the other had closed his eyes. Tarsek did not wish to surprise him.

Nodding in gratitude as he accepted the jacket pillow, he cracked a grin. “Good point. And… thank you again.” Ed blinked, looking towards Saren as he moved the pillow to position his head against it. “You okay, man?”

After giving himself a minute or two to wrap up praying, Paco got up and tried to move around for a little bit. Being in a tight space like this will always give Paco a deep sense of unease, but he was around people he was familiar with, which helped significantly. Speaking of, he overheard bits and pieces of conversation between Ed, Jayrehi, and the Short Shorts Man™. He had been in a similar spot before, which made him decide to move towards them. "We only have the what's next to think about. and what's next is we're getting out of here together one way or another." Paco quietly said before he promptly looked at another spot he thought was a camera and casually flipped it off. "And no one will know that you couldn't sleep, or I threw a mug of tea at a Romulan's face and ran right into him while trying to escape..." Paco was unsure if any of that helped, but Paco was trying. "We must be here then..." Paco said, aside from being miraculously rescued, this was the only other possibility

Elohae's eyes flicked open as he detected the thump-thump-thump of vibrations through the floor. Looked about for whoever had decided to approach, spotted that it was the Vulcan and cocked his head at them. Did so as he watched them grow closer. Watched them, wondered why they'd decided to approach. Moved his hands as he signed. "Jolan tru." Then formed the sign for 'Everything' then signed 'Okay?' as he frowned a questioning frown. 'Is everything okay?' Did that as he looked up at them, face perhaps betraying much through the fact it betrayed little past a tiredness born of isolation. That mixed perhaps with something else. Not acceptance but, worry of a sort mixed with something else. Something he mostly managed to keep concealed. The fact his fate wasn't something that particularly fussed him all that much. He had been and remained far more worried for others, for Telim.

"No," came the simple reply. He gave the group an uncharaceristically wary look: "I think we've arrived. I wonder where. Is it Rator III? A colony of hers?.."

He settled against the wall, the jacket bundle behind his neck as he furrowed his brow. “Who’s… her?”

"The planet, Rator III..." Paco whispered to answer Ed. (edited)

She turned her head to listen, but in truth her mind had begun to wander slightly. Not enough for her to let go of that hope, but just enough for her to pause. Jayrehi turned her head slightly, eyeing the security camera that was watching them. She wondered who was on the other side, looking above them, perhaps judging them. Eventually she turned back to face the others, her eyes never quite focused on one thing in particular. “Presumably a base they’re operating from.”

The commotion was finally enough to wake him. Dezyim sat up, replacing his glasses on his face and putting on his jacket properly. After a couple of seconds, he finally realized that the ship had stopped. The sense of dread that had been growing in him took a massive spike, and he looked paler than normal when he stood up. He stayed silent, glancing at people as they spoke.

"Or maybe, its their mother's house, and I could insult them... So we can go home." *Paco was not sure of what he just said, but he was frustrated of the circumstances. He turned towards the camera, and showed one fist, and then placed his other fist next to that as he began to slowly crank it like a fishing line, revealing a middle finger on the first fist as he flipped the camera off again. It was only for a brief moment, but that's the most defiance he had the energy to showcase at the moment. *

He had to look away to keep from laughing, as he saw Paco flip off the camera in his peripheral vision. He closed his eyes, facing the wall and hoping for a moment or two of sleep before all hell broke loose, yet again.

Jayrehi chuckled as she saw Paco flip the camera off, turning to stick her own tongue out a moment later. It felt nice to be silly, even if the situation they were in was less than ideal.

"Do not," was thrown at Paco, tone not angry but... scared. Concerned. "Do not harrass them if you value your well-being. They might show patience, but only for so long..."

"Understood..." Paco said with a nod. That was the last one he had for them anyways. and a good final act he would do with his hands if things went for the worst. No regrets, probably.

“Ah… I am also on team ‘let’s not harass our captors’” He raised his hand meekly. Saren seemed competent; he wondered briefly if he had much experience with the Tal Shiar. Either way, annoying them seemed like the opposite of what they wanted to be doing to him.

”I came to ask the same.” Tarsek kept his words signed only, no verbalization at this moment. He noticed the tiredness, but maybe was too unfamiliar with emotions to make a deep reading of it. Even if his ability had gotten better after all those years of diplomacy, he was sometimes still held back by his upbringing.

Elohae stared at the Vulcan at their question and huffed slightly as he then responded and signed. "Surviving." As his jaw worked a bit then before he signed. "Thinking about." Then added the sign 'babysitter' and then signed 'kid.' Hoped they'd get what he was trying to say, hoped they'd not push too much further into other things. "Otherwise, surviving." Neglected to expand on that. On that tiredness that betrayed little past that tiredness and perhaps through that betrayed much. Betrayed much as he signed. "How are you?" And attempted to draw the conversation away from how he happened to be feeling, how he continued to feel.

"Don't test them, they are likely looking for any reason or excuse to harass us." Ellie commented solemnly. Picking at the dry cut across her face, fidgeting nervously trying to calm her nerves. She wasn't used to this. Not at all. She's seen worse, faces caved in, mortal phaser shots, but the woman could dissociate into the fact that she was solving that issue at the time. Now she was powerless and pathetic curled up on the floor of a ship, likely taking them all to a proper institution of imprisonment. Not like they were taking them out to sip Martini's.* "Just focus on collecting what you can," was all she shuddered to herself; pushing off the floor to pace around again, talk to somebody, metallic stoicism creeping along every crease in her face trying to not exemplify the stress for others.

Whatever conversations were going on would were brought to an indefinite halt by the wheeze of the opening brig doors; in came agents, just like before... except for the fact that there were many of them, and the air they brought in with them was very, very different. Ominous.

One of the Tal Shiar agents stuck out like a sore thumb, with that blonde head of his. The man smiled - just like he did many days ago, on camera, while they were tearing apart the senate and he got a kill on that turbaned fool - and lifted his hands to show off strips of fabric he was holding. Blindfolds. "You must be cramped here after so long! Let's move you all to your new rooms, yes? Hands where we can see them!"

Blindfolds, handcuffs... and then the unmistakable feeling of dematerializing into atoms by the transportation beam followed, whisking the prisoners away from the brig.

Jolting back upwards, Ed blinked as he took in the view of the agent, before he was once again plunged into darkness, barely having a chance to wake up.