Star Trek: Starbase 777 - operations-hub

Old, old technology — all colorful buttons and bulky switches, switchboards that would have once blinked with lights now gone dark. A sticky, oppressive heat lingered in the air, the consoles and walls completely covered in the same material as the outside of the outpost. A stretchy, thin substance, ever so slightly see-through.

Kya looked around with a hum as she looked at the substance. “Science.”

“Yep!” She said, rushing over to scan as Kya covered her scanning of the substance. (edited)

Shears trailed further behind in the group, looking around more than they were walking ahead. They poked at the squishy meat-floor with their foot. "Perhaps whatever lifeform is present is proficient in computers?" They offered. They didn't like the idea that whatever organism coated the walls was alive, but it was possible that if it was, it knew how to run an OS. Anything was possible.

Joining Lieutenant Roode in scanning the substance, Sterling tilted his head to the left and bent down to look closer. “Very strange.”

It was the same material as outside— membrane stretched thin, coating the walls. Thicker in some places, pulsing faintly if you held a hand on it for long enough to feel it.

He analyzed the material, eventually just opting to poke it, watching it move as if it had a slight heartbeat. Was it a heartbeat? Did it have any kind of blood supply, or circulatory system?

Impossible to tell. It didn't bleed when Saren pried it off, earlier, so who knew?

Apollo sucked in a breath. He crouched down, placing a hand on the ground. "Attempting to read any lifeforms." He informed his crewmates. Apollo closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, trying to listen to any emotions or thoughts that could be identified.

Nothing. At least, nothing close enough to tell.

Apollo sighed. He raised himself to his feet. "I can't hear anybody, sir."

”Interesting… you would think that, maybe, this peculiar growth would damage the structure and the tec after so many years… but the powerlines seem to work at least.” Her tricoder worked on anything that could seem close to a console as she tried to find an access point, but still not actively touching anything. “We might need the schematics to proceed further if we want to do so safely…”

A console nearby, with only a little bit of membrane clinging to the outer shell. The panel remained partially untouched. It was even lit up.

6

Amber stopped as she passed it, catching the glow as she swept the walls to the side in her scan. She'd taken out her tricorder when ordered, and now pointed it in the console's direction. Her free hand pointed towards it as she turned back to the group. "I ain't touchin' that damn thing, but maybe one o' ya smart-uns might wanna."

C’Tessa could not resist the allure of a console. So, she walked over, trying to turn it on.

After using her tricoder, and if deemed safe enough, Garcia used her hand to remove the membrane. “We might find out more here… maybe I can access diagnostics, or find somewhere from where we can.”

Shears followed, tilting their head as they looked at the console. "Is it able to access security files? Those can include data on what computers on the ship are active, or cameras if they are still operative."

The screen lit up, flashing with an old timey interface..

5

"That shouldn't work," she said quietly, peering at the console cautiously. "Be careful. I don't want any fires starting.."

Apollo nodded to Five of Eight. "I doubt it's that dangerous."

“Oh, wow.” He perked up at the console actually turning on, cautiously watching from the back of the group, “How old is that thing?”

Amber tagged along anyway, placing the detachment between herself and the rest of the group, in case anything came down the dark hallway. Posture still relaxed, she deemed it worth it enough to attempt to peek over someone's shoulder to see what was going on on the screen.

"Worn-out wires and such are absolutely dangerous. Especially if they've been exposed to the elements," he waved vaguely to the entrance, "but I have no doubt the Ensign knows what she's doing, so..."

She turned her head when Amber spoke, her gaze shifting to the lone, lit up console. Clearly it was rather outdated, especially by current standards, though this was the first time she herself had seen technology from this era. "Curious. Is our equipment even compatible with these consoles?"

Good thing C’Tessa liked vintage tech. She tried to navigate to the operations systems, to see if she could tell any damage or things wrong with the station from this console. “Don’t worry, I won’t fry us.”

Xuan was behind the group, just observing. "Yes if I recall a lot of retro tech has issues in terms of power distribution, short circuits and blow outs are common when handling old tech."

"Please do not fry us. It would not help with the hamburger jokes." She responded succinctly.

Apollo shrugged. "Oh- Well, nevermind."

“Should we be ready for injuries, then?” He murmured curiously, still mesmerized by the light of the old tech.

2

A ton of alerts about foreign contaminants that had clearly gone unnoticed, mostly. The cameras were either dead covered in membrane that rendered them pretty much useless. No reported damage besides what was typical disrepair from almost 200 years without upkeep. Anything else?

"Yes, stay on standby for any injuries or perhaps any medical situation that may arise," Xuan said, wondering if the weird fleshy ground from earlier may be a creature? in need of medical assistance.

“Alright,” He hummed, eyes still locked onto the screen, and the sinewy stuff stretched across it, “…Mind if I, uh, ask if you have any guesses? Like— for what all the skin-stuff is?”

“Nothing good.” She said simply.

"Well, nurse." Apollo moved to M'Rish's side. "Usually if a being has a brain or a motherboard, I can read its thoughts. Not here, though. I suspect this could be like a jellyfish. Living, but possibly without a central consciousness. At least, that's my theory."

"I am not a xneobiologist, but it seems like perhaps the.. fleshy being had something to do with the colony's demise?" Xuan scanned the area with their tricorder to see if they could find any other clues. The dead cameras were easy to spot, well, they assumed they were dead. They were covered in.. whatever was everywhere.

“See, no explosions.” She commented. She tried to get into the medical and science systems next, seeing if she could tell what contaminants had entered, and to get more info about all the.. meat. “So far.. a lot of foreign contaminants that went unnoticed. We can’t use the cameras or anything.. so anything in here with us, we won’t know about it.” Chilling.

“Like an infection?” He added, “And… yeah, the jellyfish thing makes sense. No brain, no thoughts, no emotions, but still fleshy and pulsing like it has a muscular system, or at least some kind of energy running through it.”

Access to medical and science systems had been blocked. It seemed, for whatever reason, they'd have to be accessed from their respective consoles in their designated areas.

“Well.. I can’t get into the medical and science stuff. We’ll have to go to those areas if we wanna figure out more about all this.” She said, putting a hand on her hip- which would look cool if she wasn’t under five feet tall. Her tail twitched in an annoyed sort of way- she was curious, damn it!

"Hmm.." Xuan pondered when C'Tessa mentioned that med and science stuff was inaccessible in their current location. "A strange shot in the dark, but if we have any telepathy individuals with us, it would be nice to know if there is any other sentient creature on this planet. I do not possess telepathy, unfortunately."

Sighing, she wondered what else she could do. Well.. it was an ops console.. she could open up some stuff for everyone. So, she tried to pull up a map of the outpost to show everyone, and to see what doors to open to allow everyone to advance further into the Science and Medical areas.

The consoles showed that it had been triggered, but with the cameras down, there was no way to tell if it really worked.

“It says the doors are open.. but if we wanna make sure, we gotta check ourselves.” She said.

“We are grouping into our respective divisions to check, then?” Sterling suggested, “It may be quite efficient.”

"I believe we have enough security and tactical personnel to split up to find those areas if need be, though I'm not sure if that's the wisest idea. I don't think we fully understand the circumstances we're dealing with here, though there is little to be immediately concerned with." She replied, in reference to C'Tessa's statement from earlier.

"I say we proceed, we have two medical officers, I think we will be able to help address any potential dangers," M'Rish was a nurse, but they were still a medical officer and if anything serious went down, Xuan was a surgeon, but they were hoping they were not going to be doing any surgery. "We may split up, myself and M'Rish."

“Oh, are we—“ He blinked, voice pitching up slightly at the thought of leaving the somewhat safer large group, “Yeah— cool, cool, cool. We can, um, yeah. Splitting up.”

Almost on cue, the console began flashing. INTRUDERS DETECTED. ENGAGING LOCKDOWN, and the room was swiftly cut in two with a lowering wall of steel, dividing the away team in two as well.

3

Taking a bit of a staggering step back, Sterling looked up the wall, down it, and then up it once again, as if in disbelief. “Unfortunate.”

Xuan did not scream, but they rolled to the side to avoid the lowering wall of steel.

17:11

"I think that settles the splitting up idea..." They said, looking up at the large wall.

The alarm hadn't gotten through its first word before Amber swung her weapon up from its holster. So relaxed and close to leaning herself against the wall she had been, her spine now locked itself into place. She kept her stance defensive, albeit not conservatively so, the phaser's business end pointing to the ground towards the nearest hallway as it powered up. "We expectin' a welcome wagon?" she asked, nobody in particular.

She jumped back immediately as the the wall cut the room down right in front of her, the Vulcan stumbling for a moment before she swiftly regained her composure. "Hm. That is regrettable." (edited)

Definitely being one to scream, he found himself pinned to the back of the room, the furthest from the falling wall. It took him a moment to realize that he had ran away from the others, and sheepishly rejoined his half of the group.

Hal Gertie flinched and turned to scan around the new half of the room for any other defensive measures they may have accidentally triggered. Some sort of automated weapon system mainly, but anything else as well.

Nothing. The room was still quiet, and deadly still...

C’Tessa, so un-dramatic, sprang about half her height into the air, only to end up landing back on her feet, phaser out. Well.. this wasn’t ideal. Looking up and down the wall.. yeah, that wasn’t being raised anytime soon. Curiosity definitely seemed to kill the cat. “Well this is great.” She muttered.

At least she was still right by the console, if she wanted to poke around at anything else ...

5

Kya looked to the side of the room she was trapped with. “Everyone sound off. Pok speaking.”

Of course she wanted to poke around! The cat was still curious! So, she crept back over, trying to get into the security system to see if she couldn’t override the lockdown, or at least figure out what the lockdown had actually done. “I’m alive, C’Tessa’s still kicking.” She obliged Kya, calling it out.

No beans.

“Bitch.” She said to the console.

17:21

“No dice with this thing.” She called out, referring to the console. She tried to pull up the map again, to see where the people on each side of the new Iron Curtain could go.

“This is, this— uh— M’Rish, still alive!” He stammered, trying to appear slightly more composed, “Everyone okay?” He watched over C’Tessa’s shoulder, curious about the console once again.

"I hear you, T'Evoryn responding." She responded, dusting her off shoulders with her free hand as she lowered her rifle. (edited)

Amber, after having been satisfied that there wasn't anything coming down the hall for them, took a moment to glance around her side of the room. "Everybody still in one piece?"

... Well then. Saren lifted his hand, "Saren, here," because using his House name felt... wrong, and began headcounting whoever it was at his end of the room.

“I believe many of us are unharmed.” He replied to Amber, “Are you alright?”

“Vallance responding. It seems we’re separated but otherwise alright.” He responded to Kya’s call. “Everyone stay vigilant. We don’t know what other security measures could have been activated yet.”

"I'm here, too," Iki spoke up, "Iki Kadal." What had even triggered that? Messing with the computers?

"Aye, never better," Amber responded, clearly ticked off, probably more so at their circumstance than at Sterling checking on her. "Well, if anybody's watchin', they know we're 'ere now." She nodded in agreement to Hal. "If ya see somethin', best ya say somethin'."

He began to look around. Was there any other console? Or... a way for them to go?

Xuan stood up and brushed themself off. "Yes, I am here. Our team's medic I suppose considering M'Rish must be on the other side of the wall."

Apollo groaned. "Apollo present," he said calmly into the microphone. "Still no luck reading anything's thoughts. If this thing's got a brain it's no sort I can recognize."

"Crewman Shears healthy." Shears reported. They equipped their phaser and stood near Xuan, in case of any emergency that would require defending them. (edited)

"Vara'l, present." The Romulan stated simply as he looked around. As he visually checked each officer he could see Vara'l, who'd started to rather dislike how this was going, pulled his tricorder out and also started to continuously scan for lifesigns. "Tactical officers continue perimeter scans, the commanders right, stay vigilant."

”I’m… I mean Marze, here, alive.” She corrected herself quick enough. The other group couldn’t see her so “I’m okay” really did not help in identifying anyone. “Fucking hell…” She muttered lowly to herself and readied her riffle. She was not scared. Actually there two things she could feel at the moment: tension, for the group was now divided and that was not a good sign, and a growing dose of excitement for possible conflict. She had Klingon blood after all. Vara’l’s presence also did not escape her. She remembered him from the ball when she and Amber had their disagreement. She was most sure the impression she left had not been positive. Amber was also in their group. Fucking great.

"Cheese 'n crackers," Saith mumbled to himself, shifting his phaser from one hand to the other, and back again. "Ah, uh.. Everybody seems to be still intact on our half... Saith tr'Dharvanek, still here and not sliced in two." Sick.

"Five of Eight," Five answered almost meekly. Why can't she ever go on a normal field trip???

He would've indulged more in the conversation with Timi, because what the man mentioned - the sustenance - was the most interesting and nagging part in this whole mystery, at least to Kairos, and boy was he ready to shoot forward some of his theories... but of course, timing was a very tricky universal constant. "Exactly, and for such a large range of cells, they would need a lot of sustenance, right? Like--" the click and the shift of steel would cut him off. Timi then could feel... something, snaking around his knee, but thankfully they were not in the vicinity of the lowering wall. Still, they would soon lose any sight of a good half of group. Which... not good! "..." he lowered his hands, staring accusingly at the newfound partition.

Alrighty.. now what. Surely there was more to glean from this console while she could- before they had to leave or head further into the bowels of the outpost. So, she tried to gain access to the outpost’s communications, to see if anything interesting or relating to this.. meat stuff, had been said.

“This is quite the inconvenience.” Sterling mused, “This is a… bad time. But we are unharmed, so continuing is our best option.”

Garcia most definitely did not jump with the sudden closing of the wall of steel that dropped from the ceiling, that was not unnerving at all, nope. The thought of it accidentally crushing one of her colleagues or herself did not even pass through her mind. “Lt. Cdr. Beatriz Garcia Morais, present!” Well, now she could say she and Tarsek were even on the hole “my best friend is trapped somewhere far away”.

Timi huffed at the sight of the wall bisecting the away team, nothing more than a deep exhale but about as much sound as anyone was likely to get out of him. "Seems everyone is intact, if not in sight," he concluded to Kairos, surveying the people he could still see. About half the group... were it not for the other group having some capable tacticians in it, he would make an effort to reunite immediately. As it stood... splitting the team might not be the worst thing ever. They could cover more ground that way.

Zhi'rev had been there, the whole time, in fact. He just had not been saying anything. But, it seemed they have been separated -- for whatever reason. And all Zhi'rev could say was that he had a bad feeling about this whole thing. "Lieutenant Commander Zhi'rev tr'Lareth, present," he spoke, echoing what everyone else was doing.

Upon hearing that name, Saren's head turned towards Zhi'rev with a sharp squeak of the EV suit. How in the fuck did they always end up in Situations. ... and Saith was there, too. Saren closed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling, even though he knew there was no salvation in this god forsaken fleshpit.

Conveniently, the team had been split right down the middle between hallways. The left went towards the actual work stations, and the right went down towards the mess hall, quarters, things to that nature. The entire place pulsed with life. The membrane stretched thin like a spiderweb across the moon's surface was alive, and only became stronger as they went deeper. The planet itself was registering as a life sign. The sheer amount of it seemed to be blocking out anything else... The computer flickered as C'Tessa fiddled with the communications. Static, at first, then... "Outpost, this is the USS Nighthawk. Can you hear us?" .... "Outpost, copy." ........ "No response to our hail, Captain. They're either not hearing us, or something is blocking communications.." "Very well. Lieutenant, prepare an away team—" "Please— please, god, don't let it take you."

5

After looking around to those that were still on her side of the wall, Garcia approached C’Tessa. “Now that’s a scary recording! Being considered an intruder by the systems is definitely not great.” Who knew what kind of defenses this outpost had? “Can you find out what triggered this separation? Motion sensors? Maybe the lack of ID? Couldn’t be the console access, otherwise it would have tried to cut your access off from everything. But it is still functional.” She frowned. “Or… we are not alone and it was triggered manually… thats not a scary thought at all… specially with what we heard… can you try to find the source ensign?” She smiled. Garcia was back to her usual self after that wall scare. Not even the recording seemed to affect her as much as the sudden division had.

"I'm alright too, that is I'm Ensign Saeihr t'Llairne and I didn't get squashed by a metal wall." There was a slight shake to her voice, probably because the wall had cut to room in half rather closer to her than she was comfortable with. As she looked around the room she realised that the were cut off from the way they had come in, which totally did not put her on edge at all. To distract herself from overthinking awful scenarios of what might happen to them she found herself looking for any other doors and other ways one might enter or exit their current location so she could keep an eye on them.

C’Tessa listened intently to the recording. Well.. that wasn’t good. At that time, a ship had tried to respond- but it seemed maybe the outpost had refused the help, to stop anyone from the ship from being hurt maybe? Maybe whatever caused this meat had caused the demise of the outpost. “Well.. that’s creepy as fuck. But yeah, I’ll try and find the source.” She tried to go through the console to find out what triggered the security system, so they could avoid it in the future.

"Don't let 'it' take you? What is 'it'?” Iki didn't sound particularly panicked, and was asking the question almost as if they were pondering a particularly puzzling clue in a crossword. "We have no reports on what the crew of this outpost may have done after leaving, correct? Only what they sent as they were still actively performing duties planetside." Moonside, technically, but whatever.

“That’s… ominous. Maybe whatever’s all over the outpost took them?” He guessed, hoping that it wasn’t true.

"Beyond its capacity for growth on inhospitable surfaces, I do not yet see evidence to support that theory," Iki said, which. It wasn't exactly clear if that's what they believed, or if they were simply saying that to keep spirits at least level, but they sounded serious enough either way. (edited)

Oh Marze's presence had been noticed. He just elected to not comment on it as he just glanced the Lieutenant's way then just looked to his tricorder again. That was until the voice sounded out and he frowned then looked up. "I think it may be best if Tactical and security personnel take up front and rear, while we've not got sufficient evidence to know what this is yet but additional caution is advisable." Vara'ls jaw worked a bit as he looked down to his tricorder and checked his scans to see if anything odd had been detected.

Hal Gertie’s mouth tightened into a thin line as Iki and M’Rish’s conversation echoed through the wall. As far as they knew, the other team was part of the meat they had walked on to get to the hub. He didn’t want their mission to meet the same fate. He moved towards the entrance to test the door. If it was a possible exit if they ran in to trouble, that would be fantastic to know…

"Yes, sir!" Saith almost too eagerly scooted to the front of the group, lingering closer to the door. It groaned open as he approached, and he jumped back, phaser pointed down the hallway. Fucks sake.

The maw remained wide open, almost taunting them with the view of the outside only they had access to.

5

"Ah I realised I never introduced myself. You can address me as Enarrain or Lieutenant Commander Xuan. My surname is much too difficult to say," They said, realising that they hadn't introduced themself to their team. "I am an ear nose and throat surgeon, but as all medical officers are, I can deal with any sort of basic medical treatments. I hope no one will have any super specialised injury like cardio or liver problems," Xuan said with a little tilt of their head.

"Should... we go inside? I mean... should we go deeper? This seems like one of those 'the only way out is through' situations..." Zhi'rev posed to the group that he was with, ready to go with whatever the group consensus was in their current precarious situation.

"That is good," he signed, slowly, in response to Timi, meanwhile looking around. A door... seemingly overgrown, but after finishing his sentence and signaling to the senior officer that he was about to walk away, Kairos ventured over to the sliding door to inspect.

Xuan followed a little behind Kairos. Even though they knew the intelligence officer would not need their medical services, they still wanted to back him up if there was trouble on the other side of the door.

Timi let Kairos go, staying behind at the far back to get everyone in his line of sight again. He took the rifle off of his shoulder as a precaution, hoping he wouldn't need to use it but making sure to be prepared if he did. He needed to ask someone to test their comms before they left, ideally, but- ah, well. He'd get Kairos on it soon if nobody else had the same idea first.

She watched C’Tessa try with the defense systems, but it seemed they had milked this access point dry. “Might be a good idea to move along then… find other stations. Doesn’t seem like this wall will go back up, so we need to find our way around.”

"Yeah, that's a good idea, I want to see what else this place has to offer. See the sights, as it were," Zhi'rev said, trying to keep his mind off of all of the horror that he had seen, even in this short time.

"Yaaay, vacation," the ensign mumbled under his breath, still squinting down the hall like it was harboring some unknown freak of nature. (edited)

Amber joined alongside Kairos and Xuan at the door, phaser at the ready, putting some temporary distance between herself and her past disagreements. Her brows had entered a constant state of furrow, by now.

Xuan walked with their knees bent, fully aware they towered over many of their colleagues and not wanting to look like an easy target for being so tall.

1

”Guess thats the spirit!” She smiled at the tactical ensign. “Just… think that hard enough till you feel it’s true.” Because that was exactly what Garcia was doing. Mentalizing and manifesting. “We are fine, we are good, we are smart and we are going home!”

"Coast seems to be clear," he announced, peering into the ominous unknown. "We're good to proceed as soon as possible, I think. I can also walk in there and check, if there's a need?.." He was also signing as he was saying all of that out loud, very unsubtly looking at Timi specifically.

“I think I liked Risa a lot better.” C’Tessa muttered, off to the front of the pack just so she could see. Short queen and all.

"Anyways, I am going to move onto the next location. Maybe we will find some more information there that will help us!" Zhi'rev called as he joined C'Tessa at the front of the pack. He was heading towards the #engineering-hub .

She did not waste much time before joining them and leaving the operations hub behind. This was fine!

"Not picking up anything other than flesh on Scans either." Vara'l mused softly before he proceeded to look to Kairos. "I'll cover you, Lets get moving."

Amber, leaning against the doorframe by Kairos, was about to say something probably rather unhelpful in the moment, before Vara'l had taken the initiative. She took that as permission enough, and waited for Kairos to head in, since he seemed so eager, joining up right behind.

”Flesh not even good for bleeding…” As she had observed that no one so far that had tampered with the tissue provoked the loss of blood. She would trail after them with her weapon in hand.

"W--" ah, fuck. Okay, they were going, and the room ahead did seem to be fine. That he could deal with. But, before leaving with them, Saren decided to press on his commbadge and check if it would work - in case the two teams would need to communicate, for the one on the other side seemed to be leaving, too. His experimentation target ended up being Vara'l.

After confirming that the communications did indeed work, he gestured for the rest of his team - unofficially the A team - to the door: "Let's make sure we stick together, yes?" After that, he would slink after the rest into the engineering hub.

He didn't need to be told twice! Off he went to the mess hall.