Star Trek: Starbase 777 - heart-of-the-fog

Fog choked the area, suffocating all who dared to enter with gloomy darkness. In the depths of the room, something growled at the intrusion.

5

"there's something spooky out there... and I know that they are hallucinations and we are to believe that we should not be scared of them because we're all super high right now, but I feel we should be at some amount of scared that there is actually something out there that's going to kill us." Paco said after taking a step back from the entrance of this area and hearing the growling. "We should send Drono in first to scout ahead... we know he's real, so if Drono becomes no mo', then we can think about how this would go."

2

“Oh yeah that’s a good plan.” She whispered as she ducked inside.

Growling?.. He angled his head, listening intently on what was going on inside. "What shall we do if it does end the drone? We might not have the time to comjure up a plan."

"Either we fight it like the trained, experienced, and brave Starfleet officers we are brought up to be... or run away and find inform Engineering of what we have found so that they can come up with a better solution and update them on the situation. Honestly, I feel the latter would be better at this moment, and also Drono's going in there either way." Paco suggested with a shrug. "Okay Drono. As your probably superior officer, I order you to go in there and scout ahead... where you would possibly sacrifice yourself for the good of the many." Paco ordered. He felt, for a moment, that he could probably take on the Senior Officers Exam... well the reviewer version of it anyway. That shits hard. "Take Eyeo with you. There's strength in numbers."

"If I have anything to say about it nothing is killing any of you. If the drone dose get taken out we would at least know we have to be cautious, the drone can not have hallucinations of getting damaged." She too tilted her head. "Either way we should be carful. Do you remember what part of the lab the capsule was at?"

"All Engineering said was that it is somewhere in the Chemical Lab, that's where all of this started... and that's probably where we are right now..." Paco answered, looking at the fog to see if there was any movement in the mist.

"Middle table in the furthest right row," he replied quickly. "The middle row was also moved to the left to free up more space. So we have a narrow corridor in the left side, and more space around the capsule."

Maggie nodded as she looked forward. “Right!”

Another low snarl rumbled through the tight space, before there was a sickening metal crunch and something clattered to the ground. A putrid scent festered in the air as the silhouette stalked forward;

Its head low, hackles raised, salivating at the prey in front of it.

6

"C'mon Drono. Go be a hero. We need to know if it can actually physically kill us and not just traumatize us even more than we probably are now." Paco nervously said to the drone.

Maggie looked at the silhouette. “Hey guys…what’s that?”

"A canine," he whispered, watching it with fascination in his eyes. "It's kind of cute. In a grotesque way."

8

"...I'm more of a Cat person to be honest..." Paco commented as he looked ahead to the scary flesh doggo.

“Oh! I love dogs! My mini golden doodle Luke is coming here from Earth next week!” She said before looking back at the dog in the shadow. “Good…doggy?”

The canine cackled and snapped at the poor souls in front of it, stalking ever closer, driving them into a corner. Like a good boy.

"It's alone; if we separate and keep it's attention on us while someone neutralizes the capsule, we could get out of this situation... mostly unbitten," he suggested, subtly trying to get in front of the group to shield them from a potential lunge. Out of the four of them, he and Evoras were the least... squishiest. "Perhaps we could attempt to trap it via the desks?.."

She looked at the capsule. “I can go for the capsule!” She said, time to be brave Maggie.

"Shall we count to three?" There was not way she would let Saren stand in front of her. "If no one does get hurt that would be by far the most optimal outcome."

5

5

"We got your back, Maggie," he gave the Lieutenant a small smile, before nodding at his Chief: "On the count of three."

5

She nodded. “Thank you.” She said as she lightly stretched. “One.”

5

The beast growled and pressed in closer, jaws snapping.

"Two..." he was prepared to move.

“ONE!” She said as she started running, trying to get past the dog. “Cover me!”

4

He bolted in the opposite direction, taking an angle closer to the dog, hoping his actions would grab it's attention and keep it on him - and not Maggie.

She ran as well, if she had anything heavy to throw she might have done so to distract the dog further despite the fact that she did not want to damage the lab more than nessesary, but seeing as she hadn't anything that was irrelevant. Instead she threw curses in heavily accented Vulcan at the dog, hoping the additional noise would distract it.

The creature sprang forward, only for Maggie to swiftly dodge around it. It swiveled, nails scrabbling against the ground as it directed its focus, attention split between Saren and Evoras.

“You can swear? She whisper shouted as she made a mad dash for the capsule, moving on her long legs to get to the thing. “Please be here please be here!”

Deeper into the fog, until Maggie's fellow scientists were mere silhouettes. She stumbled over something in the dark, something sharp that sliced into her ankle. Something heavy. Could it be?

"Get over here!" he commanded loudly, matching the Vulcan's intensity and volume. "Come on!"

"Why would I not know how to swear, Lieutenant?" She was yelling, she would not do so usually but in this case it served a second purpose.

“Fuck!” She said as she grabbed her now bleeding ankle, wait! She looked down at the heavy object. “Please be it please be it!” She said in a pained whine.

Yes! The capsule was there, a distinct crack in the glass, but there nonetheless. Now to find a container..!

tw: ✨injury✨ The slavering beast raised its head at its unnaturally straight angle, attention bouncing between the two. It made its decision, and lunged for Saren— how fitting— teeth slicing into his leg, carving rivulets of green through his uniform.

His yelling got abruptly choked off on a startled gasp, the hound's lunge causing him to lose his balance and fall down - but not before his arms curled themselves around the dog's neck in a chokehold and started to squeeze, hoping to wind it out, and prevent it from running off as well, adrenaline helping him to overcome the pain - for now.

“I have it! Shit shit shit!” She said as she swiftly looked around for something. “Wait, okay. We hold gasses here all the time.” She said, visualizing the space in her head. Going towards a cabinet she know had holding devices, which was still here! She opened it up and found what looked like a super tiny fridge normally, but now looked like a scary box. “Just like the jar!” She said as she got it out of the cabinet and placed it onto the ground, opening it up and lightly putting the capsule in it. “Please work!” She said, closing it with a thud.

4

The fog spilling from the capsule like blood from a festering wound ceased, trapped inside the container.

19:33

The thick blanket in the room still remained, however..

The hound yelped— not yelped, really, it was more like a gurgle with Saren's leg still firmly in its mouth— and dug its teeth in deeper still, as if trying to drag him off to some unseen den, though its struggling was gradually starting to weaken.

Without so much as a second thought she sprinted in the direction she could hear the hound in. When she saw it attached to Saren's leg she fell to her knees next to it and grabbed at its head trying to get a grip on its jaw to yank it open with all the strength she had.

5

tw: ✨injury✨ part 2 Evoras' prying resulted in a sickening crack, and the canine did whine this time— a high pitched, piercing thing as it staggered backwards, shaking its head to shake off the pain. Sensing it was outnumbered, it pitched its head backwards and howled. Gradually, from all across the station, similar cries began picking up in the fog...

8

He breathed out raggedly, swallowing down a noise of pain and immediately clutching at his leg - and smartly deciding not to look at it too much. "We need to move," he uttered, blinking a bit too harshly. "Need to... let the engineers know the capsule is contained."

Maggie rushed over to Saren’s voice. “I can carry you Saren, and yeah. Back to the safe spot?” She said, blood dripping from her ankle.

"I'm fairly certain I'm stronger than you, Lieutenant, and also less injured. If you can, take the sealed in fog, we do not want someone or something reopening it." She looked up from her hands to Saren. "I would ask if you are alright with being carried, but you do not have a good good alternative option currently."

“Yessir!” She said quickly moving over to the box that held the capsule. “Okay okay I’m set.”

"I really don't have much of a choice right now I'm afraid," he managed a tight smile. "Permission granted, Chief."

"How gracious Lieutenant." She whipped her hands on her trousers before picking him up and making her way to #experiment-rooms in order to get back to the computer lab.

2

Maggie rushed after them, grabbing Paco along the way as they went.