Star Trek: Starbase 777

@Away Team Three went to the museum, walking in alongside some Undine. There was no real entrance like normal museums usually had, and the space immediately opened up into a big hall that showed many items on display. It had cultural clothing of many Khitomer Alliance species, and weapons of all kinds, all labelled and provided with descriptions. The various Undine in the place seemed to be staring at the plaques intently, as if diligently absorbing the information provided. More sinisterly, there were also items that seemed not to fit in with the larger collection. Some things seemed to be more along the lines of... personal items, rather than holograms of cultural artefacts. These too were provided with descriptions, and seemed to be met with the same diligent study as the rest of the collection.

Vara'l tasked his Tricorder as he entered to continue to conduct proximity and to chime twice if it detected any non-away team members in proximity with a Undine infiltrator like return and three times if it detected a non-anomalous, not undine non away team signature. "..I don't like to think where they got those items from.." He softly commented.

Something felt....off. Vovvi's eyes narrowed just a touch as she moved carefully, thumbing the end of her phaser. "We may as well take a look," she replied, tentatively moving towards the oddballs of the group, taking a look at the descriptions that came with them.

Sticking close to the team, Maya looked around the museum with a mix of mild amusement from the novelty of it all, and just a sheer feeling of the uncanny valley weighing down on her when looking at some of the museums... 'exhibits', nodding in agreement with Vara'l. "In all honesty... I think my cousin would be really into this place if he were here..." Maya added, knowing how much of a fever dream this would be for the young Anthropologist back in the Station as she set her tricorder to look for energy signatures similar to the previous console.

The tricorder kept beeping twice. All other people in the building were Undine imitators, staring at the different plaques and internalising the information. Among the anomalous items, there was an old Bajoran phaser which had carvings on it, something that looked canine with the initials "F.A." beside it. The description told of humanoid tendencies to mark their belongings with their names or initials and to decorate them, so that other people would know it belonged to them. A little further in, there were two beautiful knives of obvious Romulan make, blood still on it, beside a jewellery box, with descriptions about the humanoid love for self-decoration. And, perhaps most nauseatingly, a little further in still, a plaque hung to describe the humanoid habit of putting pictures of their loved ones in their living areas, in order to display familiarity and commemorate certain occasions. Above it hung a picture of Arrain Sioturik, Chief of Security of the AFS New Dawn, with her family, judging by how the people all seemed to look alike. These items, most certainly, were taken from the prisoners that had been replaced.

Vara'l reacted to the constantly chimed warning with swift movements. First he routed the tricorder audio cue through his hearing implants processor with a tapped series of buttons and set it to proximity warning. Then he softly proceeded to say. "Undine all over the building" ..Then once he issued that warning he checked his tricorder to see if it had detected abnormal energy readings. Once he'd finished doing that he looked about..and fixed his eyes on the New Dawn security officers stuff. "...Captured items." ..He softly commented.

Vovvi tilted her head a little at Vara'l. Of course there were Undine everywhere, this museum was flooded with people and there were dozens on the streets who clearly didn't quite belong. She, however, said nothing, halted in front of the photograph and tightened her hold on her phaser. It made her just a little queasy. She couldn't quite recall just what happened to the crew, if it'd ever been confirmed they'd been killed or something else entirely, off the top of her head. "No kidding," she mumbled, grimacing just a little and moving on.

Vara'l noted the others comment,idly checked to see if the Lieutenant happened to still be talking about what they'd talked about and continued to move on. He declined to comment about the others words as he did so and instead looked over the different items as he continued to keep a eye on his tricorder as he waited to see if it detected anything generator like energy signature wise or not.

Maya kept her head down to her tricorder as she tried to look out for any sign they are heading in the right direction to find the next generator, the fact that they were in a whole building of Undine did not really help settle her nerves either. She made the occasional glance up to see if she was still following the rest of the away team, perplexed by Vara'l and Vovvi's reaction to one of the artefacts and looked over to it out of curiosity. She recognized the face in the family picture from the Terrasphere's external crew list. Arrain Sioturik, currently played by Designate 4647 back in the station. A feeling of disgust and sympathy sat in her, but she couldn't dwell on it for long as she continued forward with the others. (edited)

"I think there's fellow Undine all over everywhere, really. That's kind of the point of this place!" Fellow in case anyone was listening to them. "I won't lie, this is kind of fascinating." It was insight into the various cultures from the Federation from a species that was even more alien than all of them. What kind of people were the Undine if they weren't familiar with many things they thought of as basic parts of life? Was there any way he could use this information to bridge the gap between them somehow?

Vara'l smiled at that. While he'd been concerned about the fact one of the group had well..talked Starfleet rather than talked Undine. This helped deal with that concern. "Indeed it is, just thought I might highlight that and it is always fascinating to see the items and other effects of the enemy." He responded simply as he checked his Tricorder again for any abnormal power sources indicative of a generator or something else as he played it over some of the weapons as well.

The enemy? Well, never mind about talking like they were one of the Undine. He supposed it would be a bit difficult to discuss plans of action while pretending they were Undine, but still, if someone overheard them and figured out what they were on about... "It's kind of nice, isn't it? Even though they're doing it for nefarious purposes, they are attempting to understand us. Everything they learn here will have a knock-on effect on the rest of their culture, and knowledge of other cultures is a bridge to understanding and accepting them." It wasn't perfect, of course - they'd still stolen most of this stuff, and there was definitely an air of that 'look at how bizarre these people are' brand of exoticism, but he wondered if they could salvage this somehow.

"...In a way, I think you're right, and I believe my cousin would agree as well." Maya said as she looked over to the conversation between Eshen and Vara'l. Unorthodox as it was to them, it still does appear that the Undine are at least curious about other cultures. "Aside from motive, what they're doing might not be that different from how Starfleet probes and observes different cultures of species as they develop. In the end its the question of when and how the olive branch will be given... We're as much of a threat to them, as they are to us, which is the sad part."

Ezran stepped forward, speaking in a hushed whisper. "If by 'attempting to understand us', you mean, learning how to more expertly infiltrate our society much easier so they can take down our entire way of living... This is just creepy to me, stolen personal belongings. These used to belong to the people they have held here, this is the sentimental items of some of our closest allies. If anything we should be returning these alongside the prisoners."

"When all is said and done, perhaps we can convince Command to have us return for them," she offered with a little nod to Ezran, keeping her voice just as quiet. "For now, we're hopelessly surrounded. There's no chance we pull off a museum heist and make it out alive. So let's do our best to keep out of suspicion, hm?"

Having remained at the back of the group to keep watch, Elwyn had trailed along with everyone else, their rifle once again slung behind their back so as to not arouse suspicions, despite how little they currently trusteed the Undine surrounding their team. Upon entering the museum the android couldn't help but look around with wide eyes, processing the information before them as best as possible. Why would they all be pretending to be other species? What was this place for? Why did they have so many artefacts here as if they were old from a time gone by? It made no sense, because there was no one to keep a ruse up for, it seemed, so why try? As they listened to what the others were saying their mind whirred away, trying their best to understand the circumstances they were surrounded by "If these items belong to people they're keeping here, why are they pretending these people are deceased? This whole place reminds me of war museums." They whispered, the expression on their face far from their usual cheery demeanour, and instead that of a furrowed brow, confusion, and concern.

"Yes, I do mean that, and I also mean attempting to understand us. The situation is nuanced, and it's my job for look for ways to establish communication between two hostile cultures. What I want to know is if some of them are actually enjoying all this." There had to be SOME people who were lost in the sauce.

"In all honesty Commander, many in Starfleet practically said the same thing about the Changelings a long time ago when Sisko was around, and now we are in a full Alliance with the Dominion. There may be potential for mutual understanding, and we have to be open to it when that comes around." Maya replied to Ezran quietly before getting back to her tricorder, with a few bits of her cousin's hopes for Starfleet living rent free in the back of her head.

T'she was not sure what they felt about the museum, about the grisly scene in front of them, but at the same time, they could see, or at least they hoped, that this came from a place of genuine want to understand instead of something more nefarious. "Even still, I would feel much more comfortable with these things returned at the end of the day."

Being one to think the best of people usually, the vibes this museum was giving off was really pushing their positive mental attitude to the test, but despite that Elwyn tried their very best to remain focused on the mission at hand. "Perhaps one day when we're all older we won't have to hide who we are to each other, and we can all be friends." They said quietly and softly.

Vara'l watched their surroundings and tricorder as the conversation continued for a bit before at the final comment he glanced from that to the ensign. "..Perhaps, one day," He mused softly as he considered what had been said for a moment and then returned his focus to his surroundings and the like.

Maya paused for a few moments when she heard what Elwyn said, trying the best she could to resist the sudden urge to give her a hug for saying the most wholesome thing she heard all day. Instead, she simply turned towards her and gave the ensign a nod in agreement. "One day..."

For team three too, their surroundings started to glitch and falter. Items started disappearing, walls phased in and out of existence, and the Undine around them all filed out of the museum to investigate, or relocate to an area that was safer currently. When part of the wall disappeared, the picture of Sioturik fell to the ground, the screen breaking with a devastating crunch as the tempered glass met unflinching simulated concrete. The museum was now deserted, but at what cost?

Yoink. His picture now. "Everyone's gone! Quick, let's look in the places we're not allowed in before everyone comes back!" He looked around for some kind of staffroom.

Looking around as everything began glitching and failing to look even the slightest bit real, Elwyn's attention snapped towards the crunch sound as their right hand moved up towards their holstered phaser, only to see the picture had fallen off the wall. Watching as the Undine left, their attention soon turned towards Eshen as he took the picture, their head tilting like a confused puppy. "You know those items that we wanted to collect to give back to their owners?" The android asked as a cheeky, sneaky grin crossed their face. "Now might be a good time to get them."

Extremely confused by everyone and many things else suddenly disappearing, and hearing Eshen give the go signal to begin freely searching the museum for where ever the fuck the generator room is, Maya impulsively lunged over in an attempt to nab the Bajoran phaser and the Romulan knives before they could disappear if possible. "For the Prophets!" She declared with heart in the best Paco impression she could muster. Whether or not she would've actually gotten those items, she would raise it (or her normal phaser if she got nothing) and her tricorder up in the air as she spoke before she ran off to look for some sort of control room, maintenance workshop, or power grid panel: Her best guesses for where the generator would be.

Going along with the logic of taking the items that very clearly belonged to someone, Elwyn went and began doing just that, finding any items on display that she could reasonably fit into a pouch on her uniform. She need to be agile, mobile, nimble, so anything too big wouldn't be an option, but she at least hoped to be able to take a few items back with her to reunite them with their owners, or their families.

While there was no staff room, as the building was genuinely just a big hall used to educate Undine about different things related to major humanoid cultures, there were plenty of things that didn't disappear even as large parts of the exhibits phased out of existence. The jewellery box fell when the table it was laying on, sending a number of hand-beaded works scattered across the floor, and aside from that, little mementos were sent flying all over the place as the exhibit they were a part of disappeared before reappearing immediately. A small model of a ship, labelled "Raptu-" on a damaged nameplate stuck in the wall it had once been hanging, was stuck halfway through a table.

As the jewellery box fell Elwyn's attention turned towards the various pieces that fell out of it, immediately heading over to where they had landed to pick as many up as possible and put them into the pouches on their uniform "These are so pretty-" They said quietly, before turning their attention to the box itself once they had finished collecting the strewn items that came from it. Picking it up, the android removed the remaining items and added them to their Return To Owner collection, before carefully putting the box down on the floor. Wandering around and occasionally picking up the odd thing here and there, all while trying and failing to determine which were of a higher priority, it wasn't long before they came across the small ship model stuck in the wall. Tilting their head as they looked at it, it was very apparent to them that it wasn't exactly meant to be in the wall. "Does anyone know which ship this is?" They called out.

The man stepped forward towards Elwyn, looking down at the small ship model in her hand. "I don't see why that's relev- Wait, I do know what ship that is. That's the USS Rapture. I served aboard that ship back during the iconian war as Chief of Security... She was commanded by Captain Rhea Tewari and Commander Tivop Cronos, both of which are marked as missing following the mission aboard the New Dawn. If this is here, there's a pretty good indicator that they're also aboard this facility."

Looking between Ezran and the ship model, the cogs began whirring in the android's head as they attempted to figure out how to get it out from the wall. "Okay, so this is important, too. It's important to all of us in a way. But it's stuck in this wall." They said with a slight huff. "But, if we can wait until the wall glitches out and grab it before it gets stuck in there again we might be able to rescue it!"

"Let's just hope our other companions are successful in taking down the other generators soon. It seems like that's having an effect on the stability of the simulation." Ezran moved over to begin searching the Museum for anything else that was significant they could easily take with them. "You might want to keep hold of that, Elwyn, we don't want the simulation to fail and it to like... Fall through the world." He looked up with a vague panic upon his face. "Wait, we aren't gonna fall through the floor too are we?"

“Yeah, I really don’t like this glitching.” Elwyn replied to what Ezran initially said. Nodding in response to him suggesting she held the model to stop it falling, thinking it a good opportunity to be able to yoink it as soon as a glitch happened, the android’s eyes widened when he suggested they too could fall through the floor. “I really don’t want to think about that right now, so let’s just hope we’re not too high up in case we do.” Or, you know, suffocate underground. Or worse. (edited)

As the third generator was turned off, the museum really started glitching properly. Everyone had to dodge things that went flying towards them, tables that got flipped and glass cases that shattered in many directions before disappearing and returning completely whole. At one point, the walls all gave out simultaneously and the ceiling came crashing down, but before it could hit and severely injure someone, the entire scenery changed drastically.