Star Trek: Starbase 777 - 37-kahless-street

The curtain swished back to where it had been before, and there was the sound of shuffling from within the property. It soon got closer and there was the sound of a few beeps from a panel on the other side of the door – presumably disengaging the locks. A few seconds ticked by, and then some more, and there was some more beeping from the panel… And finally the door opened a fraction, just enough to see who was outside. A couple of eyes peered out of the small gap, belonging to what appeared to be an elderly Bolian woman. “Hellooo?”

Lama's ears twitched at the sound of the locks unlatching and stepped back when the door cracked. "Jolan tru," Lama waved at the elderly woman, very aware she was probably Undine, but hey he was gonna play along. "Uh, we're the," Lama looked back at his team and then at the woman. "Pipe inspectors. We're here to uh, check your pipes."

“Ooooh, the pipes!” There was some frantic nodding from the Bolian and she opened the door completely, stepping aside. There was a moment while she squinted at the group, looking them all over. Maybe she was an elderly Undine too. Did Undine age? “Ahhh yes, young strong engineers like yourselves are good for pipes! Come in, come in! Would you like some cookies? I was just baking some.”

"Yeah yeah, we're all strong engineers," Lama, who had the weird cuffs on his belt and a phaser too, responded. He didn't look very threatening though, the armour was certainly a choice, but as he had learned, it clearly did not upset the Undine. If anything, they were curious. "Uhh cookies, yeah sure," Lama was planning on not eating the cookies, but he was going to play along if it got them into the house. "Oh and hi I'm uh, Liha tr'Merrus, expert in the pipes," Lama decided to give a fake name, his agent name, in fact. It was the first thing that came to mind and he did not want to be giving out his real identity to Undine who would be jumping on a chance to amogus him too. When he was Liha he worked as an influencer on Rator III, and was very famous!

“A pipe expert!” The old lady Bolian repeated joyfully, and clapped her hands together once. She started shuffling further into the property, beckoning for the away team to follow her. The house did actually smell like cookies. “Well I’m glad that my property is in such good hands. The kitchen is just through here! Would you strapping young things like some hot chocolate too? It goes very well with cookies!”

Lama followed the woman deeper into the home, inhaling the sweet cookie scent. They did smell good, truly forbidden snacks. What if the cookies were Undine? What if the walls were Undine? At this point, the toilet could be Undine. "Oh uh, I gotta hold off on the hot chocolate uh, half Vulcan," Lama pointed to his ears, hoping she would buy the excuse. If one didn't know what aliens looked like, perhaps Lama's act would have been believable. His forehead ridges were covered by his fringe and for all anyone knew he could have just had dark eyes, many people had them!

The elderly Bolian legitimately looked somewhat sad at the fact this ‘Liha tr’Merrus’ couldn’t have any cookies. He really was missing out. “Such a shame, but I understand. Here!” In the kitchen she picked up a plate of still-warm cookies, and padded back through to the away team in the lobby. “For the rest of you then! Go on, take some – I use the perfect recipe!”

“Oh I’m good, but thank you for the offer! I just ate recently.” She said with a smile.

Pipe experts? Copia definitely didn't pick up on the double entendre of that. Anyway, Copia did oblige to a cookie! "Thank you," Copia responded politely, taking a cookie and biting into it - wow... Indeed, it was quite delicious! Copia resisted the urge to immerse herself in the flavor as she usually would, and remained neutral and calm as she had for the majority of the mission. "You're not exaggerating - it is the perfect recipe!"

Copia having one of the cookies brightened her right up. The elderly Bolian practically beamed, grinning from ear to ear. "Oh, thank you! I've been trying so hard to get the recipe right. Here-" she placed the plate into Copia's hands before turning to shuffle back into the kitchen again, still speaking as she did so, so her voice became quieter the further she got from the away team. "Let me get you your hot chocolate..."

Copia nodded and took the plate of cookies respectfully. "Thank you," she said politely, before she turned to the rest of the away team and shrugged. "In the perception of taste upon the sensory matrices lined inside my mouth, the cookies themselves do provide a satisfactory and overall harmonious experience, in conclusion, they are safely edible," Copia whispered discreetly to the team.

Lisa, of course, had been with everyone the whole time. The RPer, unfortunately, was away yesterday. She had seen all the beautiful scenery outside- it was a shame this place was in enemy hands. Nobody did what they did to Tewari and got away with it- Lisa was on a mission. But still, these Undine were getting better and better at acting. If she hadn’t known better, she would’ve thought this Bolian was an actual grandma. Still, she did want to keep the act up as long as possible. Fighting while completely surrounded by enemies wasn’t the way to go. They were lucky the UnAllan incident went semi-well. She did have the muscles to look like a pipe worker, she looked older so maybe she could be their “supervisor”. She did take a cookie, but didn’t take a bite until she heard from Copia that it was safe. “Thank you,” She said to the Bolian. “Thank you, too.” She whispered to Copia.

“Copes, you can just say it tastes good.” She said with a smile before looking to the Undine. She decided not to eat anything, she wasn’t much hungry and she honestly didn’t trust the food. Allan might have gone missing after the Gagh incident after all.

There was the sound of Klingon opera (quite expertly sung too) as the elderly Bolian went about replicating only the finest hot chocolate for the away team. "Come on, come through here! I don't know if there are any pipes for you to inspect in the kitchen, but I do have your

hot chOooOooOoocolAateeeee!

It really is quite good, don't be shy! Oh, I never get visitors, this is so lovely~"

Copia set down the plate of cookies on a nearby table so she could make room for the hot chocolate. She took a mug gently. "Thank you once more," Copia said, before taking a sip-- OOH! HOT! It was indeed fresh! Although, Copia couldn't really show how she reacted - and thus briefly padded the signal from her emotion chip to ensure she did not react out of turn. Although... if she was supposed to be Undine... then she'd be able to feel the temperature! So in fact, she DID need to act as if it was hot! "Ooh! Hot," Copia exclaimed, bringing the mug away from her mouth and blowing on it. "Be careful, all, it is quite hot, but it is quite delicious!"

Allan had also walked in with the group, even though he looked like a fucking bloody mess all over his face still, staying close to Lama. "Cookies?" He laughed a little in disbelief, but smiled when he was offered them, getting one from the tray and taking a bite. "Oh, that is - that's really good, actually. They're supposed to be very melt in your mouth sort of feeling, and it's doing that really well, so - great job, really."

”Oooh, sorry about the temperature, this replicator is always on the fritz. I’m glad you like it, though!” She picked up another cup from the replicator and turned to give it to whoever was talking – only to gasp at the sight of Allan’s face. “You poor thing! Did you fall? That won’t do at all! Let me find my little first aid kit…” The cup of hot chocolate was subsequently handed over to whoever was closest and she bustled off (as fast as she could, old lady legs not being very quick) to find her first aid kit.

"Y-yeah, fell," Allan quickly confirmed, taking the cup of hot chocolate as well with a smile. "Thank you- you know, it's odd, the streets we walk on aren't very nice to our bodies when we fall on them. Or maybe it's just human skin that's so fragile, I dunno."

There was no reply, but in the background there was what sounded like the contents of a bathroom being thrown about the place as the elderly Bolian searched for a first aid kit.

While she was distracted, this might be a good time to try to find the generator console. Hint hint.

Copia whispered right away to the team, making sure to keep her voice down. "We need to keep moving," she began. "Lieutenant tr'Ehweia and Lieutenant Allen, I recommend it's best for you both to remain here and keep our friend here distracted. If she asks, we're fixing her pipes. Lieutenant tr'Ehweia, you're security, you can -- what's the term? BS your way through it? Tell her that she needs to help with Lieutenant Allen's recovery if he is to make it. Vara, Lieutenant Sanders, perhaps it's best if you both are with me, to the generator." And with that Copia started to make her way downstairs, tricorder in hand.

The tricorder was indicating that the generator console was in the basement. Thankfully it wasn't a creepy basement - the place was quite modern and up-to-date. A door opened into an area that clearly wasn't used for much other than storage - and hidden behind some boxes of various trinkets, there was a wall-panel.

Lisa was the first of the group into the basement. Immediately, she spotted the wall panel. She was a very observant woman, what could she say. “There’s a panel there, behind those boxes.” She whispered to the team.

Copia descended a few more stairs into the surprisingly well-kept basement - a basement in which she wouldn't have expected to have been so polished. But, that thought passed her by quick as she checked to see if the coast was clear... yep, no traps or anything in here. Just like the rest of the house, she presumed. Welp! Onward and forward! Copia carefully and quietly moved some of the boxes per Lisa's observation to reveal the panel. "I believe this is it," Copia whispered.

Vara hummed as she walked with the team. “Let’s see what we got here.” She said as she checked for cameras quickly.

No cameras, just some old lady storage boxes. There were some nice blankets. Pink underwear. Some Undine-style PADDs on how to learn Standard, Klingon, and the likes.

"Oh, okay, yeah, I can stay up here," he said to Copia. He was the real engineer here, but maybe that would just make it easier for him to 'BS' through it by talking about the pipes. Or whatever else the woman would want to talk about, really. (edited)

Honestly, Allan probably could have gone downstairs if he wanted. The elderly lady still hadn't returned with the first aid kit, and it still sounded as though she was throwing things around trying to find it... While singing Klingon opera very loudly. Lama (whose roleplayer was offline) could stand guard.

It was at this point when Copia realized she had made a mistake in judgement. Thankfully, apparently Allan was not too far removed from the situation where he could help. Copia tapped her communicator badge... [COMMS] "Lieutenant Allen, it looks like this will be more complicated than I anticipated. Do you have enough strength to come downstairs to the generator? If you think it beneficial, I can switch with you to provide backup to Lama."

He was actually starting to enjoy the Klingon opera, strangely enough, and had taken another cookie- which he was taking a bite of when he got the comms message from Copia. "Uhm-" he scrambled a little to eat the rest of the cookie before replying to the message, "yeah, I'll be right down, I can look like a hot mess a bit longer," he said and went down to the basement too! "Are there any like, actual pipes here to whip out and use as an excuse if she comes down here for some reason..?" He asked as he walked up to the wall panel.

Tricorder scans didn't indicate any proper pipes unfortunately, but there was a vent on the wall. Maybe fiddling with that would count - was an Undine even going to know what pipes were for, anyway?

“No cams either, we’re clean on that front.” She said as she looked to her teammates. “I get the idea of hidden in plain sight, but I don’t love how undefended this is.”

Copia nodded at the vent - that was the best thing that counted as a pipe. "That should do," Copia whispered to Allan. "Lama should be alright on his own distracting the old lady. I'll keep watch of the door." (edited)

"Oh, I'm sure he will," Allan laughed when Copia said Lama could be an alright distraction. "Cool, cool, yeah, just open the vent then and look into it or something, I think.." he opened up the wall panel to, hopefully, find the generator.

The generator wasn't inside, but the console connected to one of the individual generators. From here, the away team could attempt to access its controls -- or do anything else to shut it down.

Right! The generator console. He plugged the little chippy into it, and attempted to get to the controls inside of it by, well, at first just trying to get to the controls like anyone would: click the nearest looking thing to a gear icon. Easiest way to find the settings in any console, duh. Everyone absolutely knew this. Totally.

While Copia watched the door, she couldn't help but glance from time to time at the vent. "I am curious, is there anything within that vent that might aid us? Perhaps is the vent hiding something we may need to deactivate the generator?"

The isolinear chip started to translate the Undine's console into Standard, making Allan's job far easier. The only difficulty was that as soon as he tried to get into a settings menu, it immediately asked for a password. Meanwhile, the vent did have a whole lot of power conduit links behind it. It was possibly what connected the console to the generator.

Right away, Copia's suspicions couldn't be soothed enough. "Can someone who isn't occupied please watch the door for me? I wish to take a look at the vent," she said before stepping aside towards the vent, and using a few boxes as steps to push herself higher to the level of the vent. Sure enough... "Aha. Lieutenant Allen, there appears to be a number of power conduit links hidden inside this vent. Perhaps these will make it easier to deactivate the generator?"

“I’ll watch the door then, I’m not as good with all the tech things.” Lisa stood close to the basement door, ready to warn the rest if someone came close. But, she was also willing to help if something she knew more about came up. She just wasn’t as experienced with tech-related stuff and thought that it was best if more experienced people handled it. She was more experienced in kicking ass and running at high speeds.

"Ooo, password cracking... one of his favorites! Unfortunately, he did not know Undine, so he figured his guess of 'generatorpassword' would not work. Or would it?* "Yeah, power conduits could either be to this or the entire house. Don't wanna cause the woman's replicator to buzz out on us, then we don't get any more hot chocolate, but... you could get the tricorder to show you where the wires lead off to, probably," he said, taking a sip from said hot chocolate. Fuck, it was good. Could use a little more spice or even some cheese, but overall pretty good.

Unfortunately, generatorpassword didn't work. Good try though! A tricorder scan would reveal that the conduits started to lead downwards into the terrasphere's core, presumably to the generator... But if you disrupted the controls between them, would it stop the generator completely, or would it just disable the control panel from turning it off?

Copia promptly pulled out her tricorder and changed the target to the conduit links inside the vent. And sure enough... "The tricorder readings indicate that the conduits start to lead downwards into the core of this terrasphere. Perhaps that yields a link between the core and the generator as a whole? Lieutenant Allen, how would you suggest handling the deactivation process?"

Okay, so generatorpassword didn't work.. time to bring out the good ol' rainbow tables. He only could hope that the isolinear chip would do some translating work here for real ... but then again, he could always... "Hold on, I'mma try something," he said, and then just. Leaned against the control panel key for a while. Some letter or number or whatever. And then after a while of that, he copy-and-pasted it about a bajillion times and pressed enter, trying to use the 'confuse the computer with such a huge amount of inputted information that it overloads and lets you in anyways' method.

You would have thought that something like that wouldn’t work – Undine technology was highly sophisticated, right? But this terrasphere already had a good few generators down, and it would appear that was impacting the rest of the systems. The wall console lagged, went black for a moment – and then let Allan straight into the settings.

Copia looked over just at the right time to see the generator letting Allan right into the settings. Logic suggested that that would NEVER work - but here he was, right in the settings, and causing Copia to undergo much confusion. "How the fuck--" Copia's eyes POPPED open at that as she covered her mouth. Did she just...? "Excuse my language! I did not mean to... but you just... and then you... huh??"

When the console let him in, he started laughing, and Copia's response only made him laugh more. Shaking his head at the console, he started scrolling through the settings, but he had to stop for a second because he was really laughing at all this - perhaps a little too much, and perhaps after a while it seemed less like an entertained laugh and more like a 'I can't fucking believe this is reality' laugh, but nonetheless - eventually he stopped, looking at Copia with a grin. "Well, um- sort of one of the oldest tricks in the system, but you know - these motherfuckers, I did not expect their stuff to be this shit, and yet - God," he laughed again, "man, they fucking suck, don't they? Talk up all this shit to you, to me, to us, and yet they can't even have a good fucking computer -" yeah, he was going through the settings now. Trying to both see the status of the other generators and how this one could be turned off.

During the briefing it had been stated that nine of the generators were running. This was now down to eight, so it seemed as though one of the other away teams had gotten there first. Hacking into the console this way had given Allan a very easy option for shutting this one down: he literally had access to an off switch.

Copia blinked a few times incredulously as her mouth hung open. "Well... okay," Copia said, baffled and startled by how easy he was able to get into it so quickly. It didn't make sense - like Allan said, such tough shit talkers and they have horrible tech? More bark than bite, she supposed. But in the meantime, Copia couldn't help but mouth the words 'did I just swear?!' As if that was the most Earth-shattering thing that ever happened to her. Welp. Back to the mission.

"Yeah, ugh, that's-" he scrolled through just to double check that the isolinear chip had done the automatic downloading it was meant to do, if anything was there to download, and if there wasn't, he clicked the off switch. If there was, obviously, he waited until that was done. "Really, they- and yet.." Was he losing it just a little? Was he wiping a little bit of tears and blood across his face now? Maybe. "You know, I think we're going to do just fine, actually. This shit is easy." Had to at least convince themselves of that much.

There had been something downloading to the isolinear chip as Allan worked - it could be synced to a tricorder and viewed once they were out of here. The next generator was down! Time to head out... And maybe snatch some cookies on the way.

Copia nodded to Allan approvingly. "You have done well, Lieutenant Allen. The isolinear chip can give us valuable intel if integrated with the tricorder's data access mainframe. All, let's move out. But first, let's cover up the place and have it appear as if nothing happened. Leave no traces of our presence." And with that, Copia began stacking boxes back the way they were before as to eliminate all suspicion if the old lady happened to walk downstairs.

"Yup," he agreed simply, closing the wall panel after taking out the isolinear chip, and made sure the vents were closed and everything else before going upstairs. "Do you think.." he hesitantly took another cookie, because one they were good and two they were excellent for mental stability, truly. He somewhat wished that the old lady had found the first aid kit, but he supposed he'd look like a hot mess for a little longer. "Where to next?"

As the team emerged from the basement, the old woman emerged from another room. It was not the bathroom that she had been looking before. "Did you find the pipes okay?" She asked, giving a beaming smile to the group. A cute little first aid kit was then pushed into Copia's hands. "Here you go! Be a dear and help fix up your friend, look at his poor face..."

Copia nodded respectfully as she was handed the first aid kit. Well! No need to press X to revive here! Thank goodness. "We did," Copia responded. "Everything is in good working order, and we'll make sure we patch up our friend here in no time. Onto the next house, I suppose?" Copia addressed the team. (edited)

"Oh! Thank you so much, yeah, everything is just fine, thank you again for the cookies and drinks too!" Allan smiled at the woman who, you know, despite being Undine was being incredibly kind regardless, even if that was solely because she thought they were also Undine. "Yep! Onto the next," he said to Copia, waving a last goodbye to the woman as they left. "So um, should be a wet wipe in there or something, yeah?"

There was a last wave from the woman and she shouted "goodbye, come back soon!" even though to her, the group were just some pipe mechanics. The team were free to head back out into the #residential-square.

Copia promptly opened the first aid kit to examine its contents... bandages, no, that's not it. Burn cream? No. Aha! Wet wipe! Copia picked it out of the first aid kit and handed it to Allan. "In fact there is. Here you are, Liuetenant!"