Star Trek: Starbase 777 - crew-quarters

The hallway was entirely overgrown, doors completely stuck shut with only one exception where they had instead been glued open. With the state the room had been left in, it would be hardly recognizable as somewhere people truly lived if not for the beds. Signs of a struggle now coated in viscera, a bump under the flesh that vaguely resembled a knocked over desk, a chair, a mug…

When they approached the open quarters, Kairos took a cautious peek inside, his eyes scanning the overgrown surroundings for any sort of odd movement amidst the constant pulsation. Spotting nothing, the android would signal as much for the rest of the team, before taking a few steps inside.

Xuan walked in right behind Kairos, stepping cautiously and looking around to survey the area. It looked like whatever creature infiltrated the room, it had completely consumed it. "Seems like the beds are the only things that weren't eaten."

Sterling followed behind the two, tricorder out once again as he stepped into the room. “If it has the ability to digest anything, including non-organic matter,” He mused, “I am… not as safe as I thought I had been, that is a useful fact to know.”

"Is it just covering everything, or has it eaten through it?" he asked, tilting his head towards the tricorders held in the hands of the suited officers. "If it's the former, then it's just using everything as a coverage to spread over. If the latter... maybe we can figure out what is the chemistry that this thing feeds on?"

"It would make sense if it could not digest certain materials, since it hasn't attempted to eat us." Shears stated. "Unless there is some reason it hasn't tried." Shears looked down and held their rifle high. They were prepared to shoot any area that twitched and squirmed out of line.

No use when the whole space around you is pulsing and shuddering with life, is there?..

“That’s a good point.” He stayed a good bit away from the meat but leaned in, trying to learn anything he could from the struggle indicated by the blobs. “It’s possible it’s not digesting those materials but… setting some kind of trap? From what we’ve seen it doesn’t seem to move all that fast and it does need meat. It could grow over an area and then wait for prey to stumble into it, like a spider web.” He stayed focused on where the desk was. It seemed like wishful thinking—it was hard to believe that the only thing preventing the meat from eating them all was the barrier the EV suit provided, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something else it was using as bait that they hadn’t come across yet. (edited)

“In that case, every step our groups take would be a risk. The outpost’s structure is somewhat known to us, but not enough that we can recognize a trap of that kind immediately.” He moved to crouch near the slowly dissolving desk beneath the surface, watching it for a moment.

"Maybe the EV's are just nasty. The meat might have standards, you know?" Kairos shrugged. Dude...

4

"I wonder if we walk around long enough, they'll be appropriately seasoned..." Five mused thoughtfully, having gotten a bit of her color back, but still seeming a little out of it.

“The sinew is difficult to remove, there is… a probability that we will be ‘seasoned’.” He replied, with a strand or two of viscera and its juice still drying on his EV suit’s head.

The floor wasn't wholly overgrown — there were patches where things were almost normal. Like a small hole in the drape over the desk, for example. The light caught the reflection of something..

3

"Then we better finish this up quickly." He turned to give Five a reassuring smile that couldn't be seen through the suit. But in doing so, something caught his eye. He turned back to the desk. "There's... something in there. Not a part of the meat, I mean."

Maggie was shivering like Scooby Doo after seeing a old man in a ghost costume. She hated it, she hated how much it reminded her of the cube. It’s as if the cold unforgiving steel was replaced with fleshy meat. “Could be um, somebody?”

"Want me to check what it is, orrr..." a willing sacrifice, huzzah.

"Can a better view of that be gotten without approaching it?" The Romulan, who'd tagged along at the back of the group, inquired then. Did so as he attempted to not think of the fact he happened to be spending his birthday on a meat planet wahoo. "Whatever that is?" As he asked that, having spotted it thanks to the others having started to talk about it, Vara'l pointed his tricorder in that general direction and attempted another tricorder scan. "I'll cover you if you're wanting to approach, Ensign." The Romulan then offered to Kairos as he checked his scan. "Just...in case." Was the addition that followed as he tapped his combadge. With that brief use of the combadge then completed Vara'l then added. "..Also, could we potentially learn a bit about what the flesh is deriving from what it envelops through...scanning the lumps potentially?" He asked as he glanced to the science officer present he'd spotted. An android lieutenant he'd not actually encountered before.

“We could potentially derive that information, yes. I can fine-tune my scans to search for enzymes and other substances that are not cohesive with the outdoor samples I’d analyzed.” He retrieved the past scans from the fleshy ground and somewhat not-quite-fauna outside, assuming that it had the same chemical properties as what they were finding at the moment. “Cross-referencing samples from differing parts of the area could give us a better idea of the purpose of its behaviour.”

Sinau was here, but remained quiet. Worried and disgusted that whatever anomaly in the floor had been a sentient person. A fact she was still scared to accept, the past was unchangeable after all, and the only security she had was Shears and elsewhere.

"Welp, I am not hearing a "no"..." he cracked his neck left and right - purely for show - and began making his way closer to the mysterious reflection, making sure to keep his steps light and careful. Could he see what it was from up close?

Vara'l moved to cover the ensign as he approached the strange reflection, tricorder scan checked and noted before it was returned to his EV suits holster for it. He grasped his phaser rifle in both hands as he watched for any indication of a threat to the Ensign.

A PADD. More bulky than the modern, sleek design, and certainly not holographic.

4

Sinau lit up at the sight of the PADD. Breaking open things like this always intrigued her, and if it was locked she'd have a little field day with it. Serving as a distraction. "May I check it, Sir?" Sinau stepped forward as she spoke, her steps squishing occasionally.

"Ooh, a shiny! Old as hell shiny!" he audibly celebrated his delight at the discovery, the tail swishing around. He then picked it up and showed to the rest of the team like it was a hard-earned trophy, before walking back with his prey to deposit it into the hands of an engineer.

Sinau gingerly took it from the eccentric ensign. She couldn't help but giggle at the display a bit. Something to cheer her up by it's absurdity. "Thank you." Sinau greeted, whipping dust and residue from the screen, she'd seen this model before. She opened it, perhaps it was unlocked already.

It was unlocked. Looked like any security measures had been stripped by force..

2

"Strange, the security is completely stripped." Had somebody already gone through this? Again, there was no record that anybody had, but so much had been unrecorded and not sent to the Federation. That wasn't for her to figure out though, first things to check were information about the handler, before logs. The previous owner could determine the encompassed information within logs.

Lieutenant JG Jessica Manning. A software engineer. The PADD auto updated personal information year by year, so she was around 28 years old in 2250.

"A clue perhaps?" Xuan said, walking a little closer to Sinau and Five.

"No security measures whatsoever?.." Five poked curiously over Sinau's shoulder, trying to get a better look. "I guess someone wanted us to find this?" (edited)

Working on the cross-references whilst the rest of the group gathered around the PADD, Sterling kept one eye on his task while turning to look at their findings.

While the others seemed interested on the PADD, Marze took her time to really look around. So far, nothing had moved, which made her less on edge. Moving among the flesh, she spotted the knocked over furniture. There had been a fight here, possibly. She approached one of the pulsing parts, touching it with the end of her riffle. It was charged, so maybe it held some heat to it, nothing close to a phazer blast heat though, as she did not shoot.

Sinau extended her arms out, making it so everyone could see the PADD a little more clearly, moving over to the logs immediately afterwards after most had seen the page.

Shears noticed Lt. Marze poking at the furniture. He approached her. "Is there something wrong?"

"So we have the name of one of the people here, but it seems like it cuts off at.. 2250," Xuan concluded from the infomation on the PADD. They had to squint a little to read it. Their elachi eyes were allegedly just as good as their natural Romulan onces, but the visor of their EV suit and the.. goo, made it difficult to see.

Not much of a response from the fleshy bits. Whatever was here was... Mostly identical to the samples in the other room. Whatever nutrients it'd broken down from the beef were beginning to trickle in, and there were traces of the same compounds, as well as some metals that had been broken down. Evidently, all of this sinew was connected. As for the logs, one was dated for late 2250... "Okay. Okay. Computer, lock the door," the voice was a soft, desperate whisper, paired with some shuffling sounds as they moved around their quarters. "My - My name is Jessica Manning, I'm leaving this log behind in case... In case... God, fuck. I don't know if there's anyone left in there, but I can hear them. Their voices. I can hear them," her voice wavered, trembling, "They're crying for help like they're still in there, but they can't — they can't be. I had to... I had to burn the bodies..." "I don't know if anything works. Phasers don't keep them at bay for long, I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Commander T'pal, and when we tried to get to the armory, they... she... she's gone. I'm screwed." .... "I'm gonna try to get my hands on some heavier firepower. If I can't, I'll try to at least get a signal out for help. I'm taking all these fuckers down with me. There's no life worth living if I end up like one of them." "End... End log... "

6

“It appears that—“ Sterling began, but stopped mid-sentence at the sound of the log. What a tragedy, to be the one left in a horror like this. There was something in his simulated heart that felt for the officer, having been the last standing in his own experiences as well. He looked to the others, as if to gauge their reactions and hear the next steps given by a commanding officer.

Xuan listened to the log in silence and then looked at the rest of the team. "Mmm.. It sounds like some sort of ... disease that infected the crew?" Xuan wanted to say zombie, but wasn't fully detailed on the definition of a zombie to say the word. They didn't want to say something that was incorrect after all.

As the log progressed, Marze slowly broke contact between her riffle and the Viscera. She was suddenly much more serious than how she had carried herself so far. “I feel she died… honorably. She sounded brave.” Brave enough to vow taking the threat down no matter what. Even at her own expense. Avenging her fallen comrades.

Kairos didn't comment on the log. The android just turned his head towards the door, focused.

Upon reading the subtitles to the log, Timi repositioned himself. Flesh zombies... He needed to keep every potential entrance in his sight. The fact that no signal ever went out meant this officer had failed in what she set out to do. But he agreed with Marze that it had been a noble attempt.

"Fuck," Five choked out breathlessly, hands (still instead of trembling, that was one upside of metal, he guessed) fixing on her phaser. "We're doing brain altering diseases now?.."

"It appears we are. It is good we have these EV suits," Xuan pointed their tricorder to the other parts of the crew quarters, curious if there were any other clues hidden away.

That was... not good, to say the least. But they would have time to be emotional about it when they got back to the starbase. They were not quite clear of danger themselves. As callous as it might sound, they had to focus on their mission, reconnecting with the rest of the team, and getting back. "The log said phasers aren't that effective--I'd hate to have to figure out an alternative in the moment. We need a plan B."

“We are lacking in any other weapons. If we are to harm the viscera, we will need to find some kind of alternate weapon, or possibly a source of extreme heat.” He suggested, “Fire is harmful to many, if not most organic matter.”

Shears hand twitched. They pointed their gun down. They felt terrified at the idea. Worse than just being eaten—being taken over before being eaten. They instinctively brought a hand to their arm. "Er- Perhaps reinforcement to the EV suits would be advisable?"

"That would not hurt , certainly," Xuan brought up. "But how would we do that? Reinforce the EV suits that is. Fire is not a bad idea, but we need to find a way to create it," They added in response to the two proposals that were brought up. Xuan put one hand on their hip, debating the options at hand.

“Fire may be too destructive for a space like this. I agree with Crewman Shears, reinforcing the suits is less of a risk.” He nodded, “For an open flame, or some kind of extreme heat source, a chemical reaction is needed, or some kind of external source of fire, which would be very difficult to find.”

"Agreed, let's not make any big fires in the small crew quarters," They stated, looking around at their surroundings. "If it is a disease, then that is my realm of expertise. Well, relatively. I am a surgeon, not an infectious disease specialist."

"The cloth on the beds seems mostly unharmed if we wanted to tear strips of it off for the suits, but I have a hard time imagining that'll do much, considering..." He gestured vaguely at the viscera covered desk. "Other than that I'm out of ideas."

"Perhaps we should do a little more investigation elsewhere before we do something that could possibly be very distructive. Maybe the other team has more answers?" Xuan theorised, wondering how the other team was fairing.

“We are still able to contact the other group, yes? Losing comms with the rest of the away team could be disastrous.” Sterling questioned, attaching his tricorder to his hip.

"So, what, you want to try to reinforce the suits?" he asked, still staring at the door. Guard dog ass behaviour. "If so, I can guard while you guys do just that. Though, with the meat goo everywhere... I am unsure how long the bedsheet would last for. Maybe it's for the best if we just keep ourselves as mobile as possible?"

"Is it safe to take the PADD with us?.." Five glanced down. "I wonder if we can find any information about any surviving family, if she's got any long-living relatives, or.. something like a funeral,"

"Yes, well we need an engineer to help. Meanwhile I'll contact the other team and see where they're out," Xuan said as they tapped their combadge.

"Mm." An affirmative noise. "It seems like a better use of our time and resources to just keep moving." He responded to Kairos. He took a step towards the door before turning back to wait for Xuan to finish contacting the other team.

Timi kept watch on the door as the rest of the group made their way to the next room. With Kairos and Vallance up front he wasn't worried about that, but he needed to make sure nothing was coming after them, either. So he started herding everyone to the door, getting them to get a move on, motioning for Kairos to go ahead.

"Aye aye," Kairos nodded to Timi, helping the senior officer with the herding and moving along.

”Feels like walking through guts, like something swallowed us.” Marze’s tone was nonchalant. In her mind she imagined herself bursting out of a huge and dangerous creature’s stomach, defeating them from inside out. “I mean, its what I imagine, I’ve never been swallowed.” She followed the group, phaser ready to protect their behind. TW: description of guts, disturbing content