Star Trek: Starbase 777

Old, bulky biobeds lined the walls — their screens and the medical replicators no longer functional, whatever supplies that were once in the room looted a long time ago. Tools trapped under the thin web of membrane coating the room.

Oh. A sickbay. How wonderful. How quaint. Saren stood by the door, watching everyone go in, meanwhile taking his time to reply to Vara'l.

Lotta membranes in here! If she didn’t like barbecue so much, she’d go vegetarian after all this. This place was creepy as all get-out, and she wanted to leave post-haste as soon as they got enough info. A quick look at the biobeds and replicators told her they weren’t functional, but she decided to look around for another console to get into.

Well, this was somewhat familiar. More so than the rest of it, at least. He held back any expression of disgust at the coated tools and furnishing, sticking to the back of the group while preparing for the worst.

Medical logs and casualty reports would more then likely be here, and, if they had a morgue, they could find a solid center of membrane growth. Plus an estimation of the deceased that were recorded... a very lose estimation, as most bodies would have been consumed. The lighting was deeply familiar though... Her whole body froze up , and she barely moved outside breathing heavily.

1

Looked like all of the consoles were covered in fleshy bits...

Garcia noticed that both Saren and Ellie seemed… hesitant. At least that is how Garcia interpreted Saren waiting by the door longer and Ellie all but freezing. She stopped right by the golem and smiled gently, it was visible even under the helm. “You alright, ensign?”

Ellie took a moment to react, looking back down at Garcia. "Y-yes? What did yo- oh yes, I... I am... I will be fine." She struggled, caught off guard and running off instinct for a second. "Thank you... for your concern. I... I just need a moment."

Would this stop C’Tessa? No way! She attempted to push away, if they moved easily, or peel away if they didn’t, enough of the fleshy bits to be able to see the scene and type. C’Tessa was not deterred. She tried not to damage the flesh though.. who knew what would happen if the flesh was angered.

Apollo hummed to himself. "Everything's still here." Apollo looked at the meaty tools trays. "Whatever the reason they're gone, they sure left fast."

“It’s all laid out, though.” He muttered, hovering his hands over the trays, “Like they were ready for a procedure. Wouldn’t tools be all over the place if there was a struggle?”

The romulan looked slowly across the room, grimacing slightly at the sight before her. "Wow, do these guys never clean this place? I seriously doubt this is sterile for medical work..." She said with a muted chuckle. "No? Bad joke?"

”They seem to have taken the medical supplies at least… the medications and substances I mean.” She knew nothing about sickbay organization though, most of the times she needed it she was either too out of her mind or downright unconscious.

"Or, perhaps, it was all consumed by the organism," he offered from where he stood, as Saren just finished with the communications.

“…these are ancient.” He almost laughed to himself, “It’s frozen in time, except for… y’know, all of the fleshy stuff eating them slowly.”

Apollo squinted at the tools under a layer of meat. The man attempted to pry away the viscera over a scalpel. (edited)

"Here, lemme help—" With some difficulty, Sai helped C'Tessa free the console. Cleanish.... Nah. Totally gunked up.

"Hello.. o..oo...?" Sterling's voice echoed down the hall, slurring slightly as they spoke. "I am — equipped to aid...."

5

No, idling felt... restless. After he counted the people and was left satisfied (and trying not to think too hard about there being a fellow Romulan that he didn't know anything about and has never seen before), he decided to-- Sharply he turned his attention to the door, phaser in hand.

“Is that—“ His ears straightened, the tips of them pointing to the ceiling, “That’s definitely— he sounds… wrong.”

C’Tessa’s head cocked to one side in a totally-not-cat fashion, ears swiveling a bit towards the sound. A voice? But not a voice from the crew? Someone said it sounded wrong.. well, C’Tessa had watched enough horror movies to know not to investigate. Back to getting into the console to check for any medical logs or other interesting things. Thankfully her EV suit meant the gunk didn’t get in her fur! “Yeah.. I’ve seen enough horror movies to know that we shouldn’t go to the creepy voice.” She said quietly.

Apollo nodded to C'Tessa's statement. "Agreed. Best not to listen to any voiced not coming clearly from an EV suit."

He is... no, he is not letting anything come in and take his crew. Saren stayed where he was, focused on the door, straining to hear any additional sounds...

”Mas que cara….” She turned towards the voice, a chill going down her spine. It sounded wrong. Even more… dead, lifeless, than the original android.

tw// death, rotting, parasitic infection?, disturbing content This one also required a security clearance, but was easily bypassed using the same method from earlier.

MEDICAL LOG: STARDATE [REDACTED] The infection is steadily progressing. The quarantine zone is enough to contain the patients for now, but attempts at a cure are futile. The growth overtakes the body with the intent of infecting those around it, spreading to nearby surfaces if left stagnant for too long. It controls the body's movements, leaving their mind and consequently their tongue intact. The body will die without intervention, as the mass only seeks to gorge itself on whatever skin it covers. Removing the growth is not a viable solution. Whatever rescue parties arrive are consumed. Phasers are hardly effective against it. No one is coming. God save us all.

6

2

“Oh… wow. Lovely, this is— lovely times. Not… horrifying at all.” M’Rish muttered, eyes wider than saucers as he prayed mentally to be put anywhere but here by some divine intervention.

"Mind and tongue intact... Like cordyceps, but for everything." Hey man, why'd you make it worse.

6

“What in the “The Last Of Us: Remastered”… holy fuck that’s disturbing.” She muttered. At this point, she had to make a reference just to stay sane. They were in the same situation as those rescuers. C’Tessa was not above being turned into a sentient meat zombie. God save C’Tessa. She did that same cross motion from earlier because holy shit did she need good luck right about now. “Okay… we need to figure out how this spreads, and make sure we don’t end up like these guys.” Which, she tried to look up, upon getting back into the console.

Apollo's heart surged at the description. He could feel his throat tightening. He took a step away from the console and sucked in slow, sharp breaths. He brought his attention to the crew. He focused on their reactions and being accessible if necessary. "Everyone okay? If you can feel yourself panicking, please say so." He attempted to be of use.

“Wow.” He blinked, staring blankly at Iki for a moment, “…Fun. Very fun.” He was not going to panic. Not more than usual. Definitely.

Saith moved to cover the entrance, fingers curling around the phaser without fixing on the trigger.. activator... "I'm so, so glad we've got our suits on right ——" He froze, pointing his phaser down the hall.

"Ss.. sorry.." came an unfamiliar voice, sticky, stumbling footsteps moving towards them, any echo muted by the meat covering the walls. "'m soorry..."

5

1

Kya brought her rifle around. “Stay back sir.” She said, flipping to max stun quickly.

"That's not a voice I recognise," Iki said, which was quite telling for the remembering rememberer. Not that anyone here would. know that. "Is it getting closer? How fast is it?"

He flinched hard enough to look like he’d been struck, shaking slightly at the sound. Good gods, did he want to leave. Creepy voices were his limit, if a moon made of skin wasn’t past it already.

The Romulan bristled at the sight, a snarl edging itself onto his features (it was approaching Saith) like a thundercloud creeping over the clear skies. The phaser was set to the highest stun (it was approaching Saith, move, IDIOT) as he settled right behind the ~~cadet~~ curly-haired ensign, out of Kya's range - even if he seemed to barely react to her words - and the scientist's phaser aimed unwaveringly at the approaching man's torso. (edited)

"Stop, don't attack!" Apollo called. "We don't know what it will do." He began to run his mind. How could he solve this without harming this creature. What if it was thinking through the officer? But he couldn't let a crewmate be hurt.

And, phasers out! Trained on the approaching figure, as if it would do anything. The recording had said they were hardly effective.. and all she could think of was The Last Of Us. Great job C’Tessa, you remembered how to play a video game. This is real life though, so it’s not much of a use.

1

"Everybody just... Stay back, maybe, and we can handle this—" it wasn't an order from the Ensign, obviously. "It's not very fast. It's coming down the hall, so we can slowly back out of the room, or.. or..."

"Stop," echoed the voice, sounding choked up— gargled, as if there was something stuck in their throat. "Stop, stooop...."

Apollo took a cautious step forward. "Hello? Can you hear?"

"The mind and tongue intact... does that mean it's communicating with us, or fighting itself?" Iki asked as they backed away, allowing other people to deal with combat scenarios. They were more useful for other things, like asking unsettling questions from the rear.

Ellie snapped out of it, grabbing her phaser and tightening the grip. It sounds like someone was in pain, but as far as she was concerned, there was an active threat her, and she had to try and calm down. "Phasers were mentioned as being useless. We should find other alternatives." Ellie begun to panic, she couldn't fail a group again, she had to keep moving. Looking to Saith she commented. "Perhaps we can utilize poles of some kind?" She excited, she didn't know what to do here. The police manual didn't exactly detail how to dispatch flesh beings.

Kya looked to the group. “Everyone just step back!” She said, aiming her phaser at the officer (and also lightly pushing Apollo back). “Ensign shut up if you’re not going to be helpful.” She said swiftly to Iki.

Hand hovering over his phaser anyways, which stayed at his side, he grimaced, backing up and sticking to the tail end of the group.

"I'll shut up when I want to shut up, thank you. I'm trying to think about this, you're just acting on instinct." Yikes.

1

"That thing has been shambling around alone for like, almost two hundred years," Saith took a step back, "I don't think it counts as being alive anymore. What kind of life is that?"

"Focus, everyone," "for god's sake" was left unsaid. His grip only tightened around the weapon as soon as Saith took a step back. "Is both fire and stun useless? What else did it say in the report?"

“Ethics is out the window if our phasers aren’t going to do anything.” Kya growled. “Let’s just try to back away.” She said, ignoring Iki before she said very unkind things in a life or death scenarios.

"We don't have record on how to kill it." Ellie explained, lowering her phaser down into a holster, and looking for something, settling on a medical trolly she had to pluck from the viscera. Utilizing some of that good old artificial body strength. "We just need to incapacitate them for now." Ellie was trying to come up with a solution of some kind, and was desperate.

“It just said phasers, so I assume they tried both. Unless you’re talking about actual fire, they didn’t mention that.” Now that she mentioned it, fire could be an option.. if they weren’t currently in the room with it, that is. C’Tessa said, trying to keep a level head. C’Tessa did not believe in becoming more irrational and unkind, even in a life or death scenario. Staying cool was much better.

The romulan moved to flank alongside the group standing opposite Kya, phaser also moving to max stun as she held her rifle steady, even if it wasn't going to do anything, if it came down to it, attempting to shoot the creature was better than just letting it devour the away team. "Just say the word, I'm certainly willing to test if it's suddenly lost its resistance over the last 200 or so years."

"It may not be impervious to all forms of attack, but the only other alternative would bring us too close to the creature. Not a risk worth taking at the moment." She spoke calmly, her hand still steady on her rifle regardless of effectiveness. "Considering that lethal phaser fire settings are already quite hot, regular fire may not be effective at all."

Kya hummed. “Could we blast out the ceiling to trap it and stop it from progressing?” She asked (mainly to the other tactical guys).

"Decent idea. Worth a shot." She replied swifty.

“Please. That— it sounds like a good idea to… crush them. Maybe.” He exhaled, wanting to plug his ears to no longer hear the strange rambling of the fleshified officer.

Think, think... "Ensign Kadal, what did you mention about the mind and tongue being intact? What was described in the file?" He was guarding the door when that report was pulled up, after all. Eyes focused elsewere.

"We don't know how structurally sound everything is, so we.. we'd have to be really careful about that one," he offered tentatively. "Whatever we do decide, we have to decide fast——"

Because it was lunging forward.

2

”JESUS, MARIA, JOSÉ.” Garcia was right behind those with the phasers. She had one. She would die if she depended solely on it.

“CELLING NOW!” She screamed, it was the only idea they really had so it was time to blast the roof out. Hopefully it falls on Iki.

4

Not even able to stop a scream, he gripped his phaser, joining the largest grouping of others for whatever kind of protection he could manage.

On instinct, she fired at the ceiling the moment Kya began to speak. Maybe it could buy them time. Hopefully.

"Fucking shoot it!" Ellie swore, getting ready to charge forward with the trolley if needed to pin it down. She was on the stronger side, so she could maybe hold it down if it somehow got up... somehow.

Blasting time! She too aimed her phaser at full power at the ceiling over the flesh creature.

Apollo fumbled, grabbing at his phaser, while clambering back. He shot at the ceiling. Hopefully this would not harm the creature and could only apprehend it.

"It said the infection- which, I have to object to that word usage, but that's a digression- 'keeps the mind and subsequently the tongue intact', only controlling the body itself. You know, like cordyceps." Please be on their side here, Saren. You get what they're talking about. Iki moved away from where the tactical officers were trying to cave the ceiling in. They were no help in a fight, and they weren't going to try. They'd really be in the way then, and they weren't going to risk lives with some misguided attempts to land a hand. "I was simply wondering whether this tongue was telling us to stop what we're doing, or whether it is fighting its own body, still, after a century and a half. If communication is possible, it'd be an interesting conundrum, but I concede that trying to test the theory is probably not useful at the moment." That Vulcan brain was doing a lot of heavy lifting, allowing them to remain calm in the face of a stressful situation. Or perhaps it was the cataloguing and sorting of information that was allowing them to keep their head cool. (edited)

3

It lunged-- Saren felt and saw the dust cloud begin to form above their heads - his, Saith's, creatures - and the only thing that felt rational in that moment was to turn around, grab the ensign, and throw both of them onto the ground, as far away as possible from the lunging beast, covering the smaller body with his own.

The ceiling crumbled with a deafening sound, and the dust began to settle in silence, broken only by the sharp breathing of the officers. But that was your way forward. What now?

She held her arm in front of her face to block her visor from getting dusty. “Anyone get hurt in the fall?” She called out, quickly checking for the infected and if they were still an issue.

Being tackled to the ground was nothing new to him. He had been in SFA's wrestling team, after all, but it didn't stop him from nearly getting the wind knocked out of him on the way down— he'd shielded his face on instinct, adrenaline-fueled brain forgetting that they were in suits. "I'm fine," he wheezed from somewhere under Saren, scooting himself free and squinting accusatorially up at the senior officer as he moved. "What the hell— I was.. I was trying to help! You don't have to baby me, I'm not a cadet anymore--"

“Not— not hurt.” He waved away some of the dust, taking a big step back, “Is it still… y’know… Did it crush the thing??”

It didn't rear its ugly head. Something in it was either dead or dazed, that was for certain.

“Clear for now. Next moves, what are we doing?” She asked to the group.

Dust and specks of debris settled down upon his back and shoulders as they lay there, in the long moments between the fall and the silence. His head moved upwards, before Saren's body would follow, the scientist lifting himself from his elbows onto his palms, his breathing coming out in shuddery two's. One two. He stared somewhere past Saith, glassy-eyed. One two. The moment lasted for just a few seconds, before Saren blinked the horrid weakness away, his pale face turning towards the ensign as he heard Saith complain. "..." one, two. "I apologize."

“We need to find an alternative way out. Or— or, I guess, we’re digging?” M’Rish suggested, with a bit of a forced grin, as if trying to be funny.

“In a non-flesh-hell type of situation.. I’d say find a maintenance duct or something to get into to bypass this.. but yeah, I’m not gonna crawl into an even smaller flesh tube. So we’re probably digging.” She said, though she did take another look around the room to see if there were other doors underneath all the flesh that they could possibly pry open.

She had been far enough that not a lot of debris fell on her. God damn it! The phaser in one of her hands felt heavy. She knew of her weaknesses, and if they now had to fight their way through, she would be most likely a weak link. She sighed. “Garcia still here. Good thinking on the ceiling… though, can we still advance?” She took a look. With luck, the collapsed material was walkable over and they still had access to the next area?

“Well, no way out but through, I suppose…” He whispered to himself, giving a pile of debris a little kick, watching as it fell and settled around his foot. He could only hope no one got caved in.

"I don't really fancy moving any of the stuff around where there's a horrifying flesh monster potentially still alive under there... So, let's see if we have any alternatives to get out first..." She said as she shone the light from her EV suit towards the pile of ceiling currently covering the creature.

He was unnerved, very unnerved. At the very least, he could tell that crushing injuries did something to these meat... beings. "I second looking for another way out... I wonder whether there is a better way to disable them... put them out of their misery..." He spoke quietly.

Seeing they now truly had no way forward, Garcia turned her eyes to where a ceiling once was. Maybe they would find access to ventilation tubes or this outpost’s version of jefferies tubes. If they couldn’t go back or forward… maybe up, at least until the next area, was the answer.

His eyes flickered past to the pile of rubble, dangerously close to where the two of them once stood, then back to the hollow look Saren carried. "Sorry," he echoed in a small voice, "thank you. I didn't mean it." This place was getting to him. The hopelessness of it all, being stuck in infinite isolation, when your mind is your own and your body isn't.. He squeezed him in a very quick (awkward, because of the suit) hug, brushing off whatever dust he could off his back. "I really hope there is, 'cause I don't like being squished to death as an idea," he said with a wince. Had it even worked, or had they just obliterated any shred of morality the thing had left?...

2

Oh, would you look at that. Ventilation, ripe for the climbing. All of it crawling with pulsating muscly filth.

3

Apollo sluggishly lifted himself to his feet. He looked ahead. He hoped to himself that creature wasn't truly alive. Or that if it was, that he hadn't just killed it. He sighed. "There a plan now?"

”Up!” She said that with a small spark of genuine excitement pointing towards the entrance. Excitement for having found the alternative, that soon died as she realized that meant crawling around on the meat. “Well… yeah, that’s is our most viable way now, I think. We can access the next area and then resume through the hallways.” She then looked around at her colleagues, Saren was the last one, as she waited to hear his input on her idea as their current commanding officer.

The rather stifled hug was reciprocated with a soft pat on Saith's back. He was... okay. They were okay. After that, Saren would stand up, turning towards the rest with a slightly more put together look on his face. "This was risky," was the first thing that came from his mouth. He jerked his head towards the debris, "I would appreciate if our creature-wrangling methods did not endanger the officers. I, however, do understand the urgency behind these actions." One... two. "I think the digging should be our last resort. We should search for alternative paths first, given that a successful find would save us both time and energy, as well as create less noise for the... potential guests." He saw some officers already looking around, the engineer Commander potentially finding something already. Good. But before that, Saren turned to Iki: "The thing you said about the cordyceps. I think you are onto something. The behavior... it wasn't conscious talking. The thing... repeats phrases, like it did with me, and Lieutenant Sterling. The movement was sluggish. A simpler organism piloting a complicated meatsuit, forgive me for the lack of tact in that comparison. Which, if this theory is true, means that... we should try targeting their heads. That's where all of the action could be happening." He blinked, then, considering something. "While we're at it... Ensign Kadal, could you come closer, please?"

1

Apollo could feel the wheels turning in Saren's head. He let out a slight breath. "I sincerely hope that's the case." He looked down at the caved-in roof. "But I'm concerned if that's not the case."

"I wonder if there is a way to sever the connection between the head and the rest of the... well... meatsuit. If everything is happening up there, then messing with those impulses somehow might stop it. But then again... how would we go about doing that..." Zhi'rev mused as he looked around, not wanting to brave the ventilation shafts just yet. He would much rather have a plan first.

Iki nodded along to what Saren was saying. No consciousness but instead an imitation of such was a plausible alternative to their theory, and they walked up to Saren as instructed. "It's incongruent with what the report said, but not with our own current observations," they offered, looking up (way up) at Saren's face.

“Up there… like— in the vent shafts, up there?” He grimaced, eyes widening once again as he looked to the Lieutenant Commander.

1

The lack of answer did not discourage her. Hell, what a situation they were in! There were literal zombies infected with a meat-fungus like thing that would actively hunt them by the looks of it. Discussing them was just as important as moving and right now they were relatively safe in this room. They had time to talk, and that is why she took no offense when the Romulan decided to do so with the ensign. And so, she simply decided to move closer, up the pile, to inspect the ventilations, at a distance she still considered safe. Phaser in one hand, tricoder on the other. She may not have much of an aim with the weapon, but it was… something. And she simply wanted to see if the structure appeared stable enough for climbing.

As stable as a 169 year old meat covered ventilation system could be.

4

Apollo let out a breath as he followed Garcia. Being forced to worry over harming a mindless being was far from what he'd signed up for. He turned back to Zhi'rev. "That would be ideal."

He had to... look way down to meet this ensign's eyes, good lord. The tip of their head didn't even reach his shoulders... Hoping that from Iki's perspective, his stature didn't feel like an ominous sort of looming, Saren lowered his voice: "I do greatly appreciate your input. Just... try to be a bit more tactful with it to the rest of the crew, okay? Bickering won't get us anywhere, especially in situations similar to the one that just happened," he sighed, then. "That being said... respect is expected to be coming from both sides, and telling ensigns to "shut up" is not something that is allowed in any possible case, no matter the rank or situation. I shall address that, too."

"Understood, sir," Iki said, not actually planning to make any adjustments to their behaviour. "But I assure you I was in no way emotionally affected by the commander's outburst. Don't feel pressured to escalate on my behalf." Lord knows they were very capable of doing that themself, anyway. They looked Saren up and down once, clearly not particularly cowed by anything going on, but especially not by their ACSO, before turning around to see what M'rish and Garcia were looking at. "That's going to be fun," they commented, referring to their own diminutive stature, and the fact that the top of their head wasn't even near the opening of the shaft.

5

"I can head up first, to scout it out," the tall, lanky ensign offered, sizing up the vent. "If someone wants to gimme a boost."

Saren, despite the absolute shitshow they were in, and despite himself, softly chuckled: "I can see that. Still, duty is duty. Thank you for listening to me." His attention then was shifted to the vent, taken by the discussion surrounding it. "Scout it, huh..."

"If you do end up scouting it, do be careful. I would hate for something to happen to you, Ensign," He told Saith as he looked up to the ventilation shaft in question. He was worried that there was something in there.

”Well, its our only alternative to digging the debris and maybe finding our friend underneath… active.” She refrained from using the word “alive”. “So, eventually we all need to pass… but it would be good if someone confirmed there is a way to the next room.” She looked over to Saith. “Are you sure about volunteering?” She was asking to make sure, but her smile was definitely encouraging enough.

“…this is a good idea. Very good idea.” He mumbled to himself, trying to convince his mind that it was, in fact, the best idea they had.

"Yeah, I'll be ok," he said with a little flip of his phaser, having strapped his rifle to his back. "I'm a pretty good shot, if anything happens. And I'm good at being loud."

"I will give you a boost then, hopefully the scouting goes well. If something happens... yell. We will come get you as soon as we can," He spoke as he readied himself to get Saith up there, trying to be as reassuring as he could be in such a situation.

"Please be careful," why did that sentence sound so hollow...

She moved over and stood next to Zhi'rev with a nod, as she tucked her phaser over her shoulder as well. "Here, I'll give you a hand. C'mon then, Ensign."

The comm call was met with a quiet curse. He... completely forgot to reach out. Fuck. What if something had happened?.. He replied to the caller in haste, turning away from the group.

"Hup..!" with the efforts of two of the other Romulans in the room, Saith was up in the vents. He flashed a peace sign before he vanished into the meat tube.

Just as he finished talking with Xuan, Saith reached out to let him know that he made it and it was safe to go. "Okay... okay," the scientist sighed, giving the room a quick once-over. "Everyone, please get ready to crawl. It was deemed to be safe. Those who need help will go first, and those who are willing to help them out please do so. I shall offer a hand, too."

Zhi'rev prepared himself to help up as many as he could, he was tall, he was strong, he could handle it. He was prepared to take up the rear anyways, it was only right, he could handle himself -- hopefully, that was.