Star Trek: Starbase 777 - southern-cave-structure

The interior of the cave was dim with no natural lighting aside from through the entrance that the away team had just come in by. It was also damp, carrying the humidity of the air outside, but perhaps being a little less oppressively hot given that it was shaded and out of the way. Initially it looked like a completely normal cave – jutting rocks, patches of moss… But only a short way in, the natural look vanished and turned to polished metal lined with yellowy-green, Undine bio-technology lines.

He entered the cave in a rush, before stopping shortly after entering, taking in the space, and how quickly it shifted from the natural look to the strange undine technology. He waited for the team to all enter before moving forward.

"Yeah, let's fuckin' go," Allan echoed when he heard the Commander say it, kind of surprised the other used said phrasing, but not in an unpleasant way, that was for sure. He was so excited too, though, that he had to really do some work to avoid bumping right into Tevis when the other stopped shortly, actively taking a step back and hoping that didn't cause any domino effect to the hopefully slower-approaching person behind him.

"Cave time!" Lama bounced along with the group with his phaser in his hand and a smile on his face. He was going to be a good security officer and protect his team-- for real now! He had to squint to make out what the interior of the cave was and see the lines. Oh how Lama wished he had night vision or something, but no, he was just a Betazoid-Romulan guy with normal ass vision.

Right behind Tevis was Copia, although she didn't have the 'let's fuckin' go' mentality he had, she was much more cautious and observant of all of their surroundings, especially the transition from the mossy cave to the techy side, she kept her eyes sharp and her ears alert. Her eyes practically darted from side to side, so she could analyze every aspect of this cave, understanding its weak points if there were any and if she could find any. But one thing was glaringly certain - Copia was not at all unhinged and emotionally compromised like the last mission. The end was in sight for everyone to be able to put a stop to all this, to free the prisoners and return safely. With that, Copia remained calm, cool, collected, but most importantly, silent.

Vara stood lightly behind everyone as she held her phaser out, looking around the cave with a breath. “You know, like this more than rainforest.”

As the away team crossed the threshold between the cave’s natural appearance and the section that turned into dark, brassy metal, a noise appeared to pick up. There was a dull, droning hum reverberating throughout the cave, almost like a warp core’s ambient noise travelling through a ship. It was possible that while the holoshields outside had gone down, something within the cave itself was still being powered. The tricorder’s screen lit up with two dots: there were two Undine, just ahead around the corner.

With the tricorder in hand, Copia kept her senses sharp before she noticed the two dots on the screen - two life forms - matching the signature of the Undine. Without saying a word, Copia stopped in her tracks and held up her hands - she did her best to silently communicate that there were two Undine around the corner. Either they could simply try and evade the Undine or fight, but Copia held a finger to her mouth to signify that now there was someone who was around the corner, someone who was dangerous and wouldn't hold back on attacking the rest of the team.

Lama steeled his mind when he heard the noise, immediately picking up the unfamiliar vibes. He had gotten pretty good at focusing his empathy and tuning out the off vibes from the Undine. He crouched down and clutched his weapon, keeping his pointy little ears open for anything unusual. He gave Copia a nod to acknowledge her. alright so... Two hands... twenty undine? Lama gave Copia a thumbs up.

3

Being as short as he was, crouching wasn't really necessary, so in turn, he simply kept his phaser powered and aimed, ready to attack if necessary. However, in this case, he would see if they could simply wait out the undine or evade, rather than open combat, knowing it would likely be a difficult fight. He held up his hand in a 'wait' gesture, hoping that the undine would just leave soon.

2

With that Copia came to a complete halt. She didn't really want to be in charge of the tactical operation here, just pew-pew-pew-ing when necessary and saving the prisoners. So, she deferred to Tevis on this.

The red dots on the tricorder's screen were moving, but slowly. It looked like they were pacing back and forth. Perhaps they were guards here.

Huh. They were just... pacing? They weren't approaching the team, or exactly moving away from them. It looked like they were just chillin' in their own world. Nothing seemed like it was imminently ambushing them. Copia shrugged and looked to Tevis for guidance.

Well...fuck...they were just pacing...it might be time for the 'guns blazing' approach he supposed. He figured in this moment the only person he could communicate with silently was Lama, which, given that he was a security officer, is a good thing. Without turning, he reached out to speak to Lama telepathically. 'Lieutenant, any ideas?'

Lama had completely forgotten the telepathy! He was happy to hear Tevis' voice, although he wished he had 'hid' some of his more cringe memories. At the moment Lama was remembering the time he went on a field trip for school and slapped an Akaana boar's ass at a petting zoo and it kicked him right into the mud. Needless to say, he really earned the nickname 'wet lama'. "We should try and take these two down, but we need good aim. I'm not even going to pretend I'm good, do you or Copia have good shots? I don't know if we should ask Vara," Not to hate on his fellow officer, but Lama thought him and Vara would probably do best taking verbal shots than physical ones.

2

3

4

Tevis politely did not say anything or laugh at the memory he'd unintentionally peeked, and instead focused on the task at hand. "Copia is an excellent shot from what I've read in her file, and I am the CTO, so I believe we could take the two down with enough suppressing fire from you and Allan. I'll try and relay the plan to copia, if you'd like to do the same for Allan?"

2

Too late... With too much talk and not much action, the Undine had heard the voies of the away team. Red dots on the tricorder screen moved closer all of a sudden, and then they came into view; two towering Undine rounding the corner, breaking into a charging pace as soon as they caught sight of the intruders.

Lama nodded and gave Tevis a thumbs up. The CTO coming in clutch! "Au'e- Au'e, boss! (enthusiastic 'yes')" Lama said witha little salute, not even realising he was thinking in Rihannsu. He then turned to Allan and whispered to him. Lama was about to tell Allan when the Undine came charging and he quickly stood up and aimed his phaser at them to fire. He prayed to the elements his shot was better than in the simulation, please please! Lama was cursing his Tal Shiar trainers for not drilling him more on target practice!

Tevis didn't even bother to whisper under his breath when he cursed at the sight of them. "Fuuuuuck..."

3

01:05

With a lightning quick reaction, he pulled his phaser, and fired wide beam at the two of them, hoping that at maxiumum stun it would have some effect.

Without any hesitation, Copia also raised her phaser to fire... and she had to remind herself that she was with a fairly new emotion chip--wait... that... that was it! That's why she was so emotionally charged! That's why she found it so difficult to manage emotions on the New Dawn! Finally... she knew why! And with that knowledge, Copia took a breath, centered herself, and fired with much more discipline and precision than the New Dawn. She could do this... the Undine wouldn't emotionally wreck her. Not this time.

Any normal being would have dropped near-immediately upon being hit by a phaser. Some would have sunk down slowly, fighting unconsciousness for a few moments, sure. But these Undine merely slowed. Two shots to one Undine, one to the other… And snarling, their charge slowed to a ground-shaking stomp, but still they moved onwards. There was now about ten meters between them and the team.

"Set phasers to kill!" Tevis yelled out, before firing wide beam again, this time with as much energy in the shot that the phaser was able to provide.

Lisa had her phaser already set to a high stun, and realizing the Undine were only slowed instead of stopped, she aimed at them. Hearing the order to set to kill, she did so- to the highest kill setting possible. Since they were moving slower, she decided to try and sustain a wide-fire shot on them for several seconds, hoping to hit them both for a few seconds or longer until they hopefully dropped. Hopefully, if highest stun didn’t drop them, highest kill would drop them instead of vaporizing them.

Tevis didn't have to ask Copia twice for that either, as she quickly set her phaser to the highest kill setting available, and wide beam as well, before repositioning herself for another barrage of firing. Still keeping herself as composed as possible, Copia kept her aim direct and deliberate.

The front leg of one of the Undine gave out under Tevis and Lisa's extra fire, sending them crashing to the floor... But with a disturbing strength and determination, they started to drag their way forwards - only to be stopped when Copia's third shot to kill hit them. The second Undine made an attempt to dodge out of the way, but the issue with being giant was that you were an easy target. They bellowed out a guttural howl, standing frozen as their body was hit by multiple shots of the phaser... And then they dropped.

5

"AND STAY DOWN FUCKHEADS!" He yelled, giving the two one last phaser blast to make sure they stayed down. Once the commotion had settled, he turned to the team, leveling them with an assesing look, as well as a minimal empathic scan, just to make sure everyone was ok as they could be in that moment. "We're good...they're down." He said, letting out a sigh of relief.

2

Lama steeled up his mind and lowered his weapon when the second one dropped. He was mentally preparing for a psonic attack. The Undine were down physically, but he didn't know what that meant mentally. "Wooooo we did it, team!" Lama threw his hands up in the air and waved them like he just didn't care.

2

3

Copia was a bit surprised by Tevis's bursting out saying 'stay down fuckheads' - what was that? A one-liner after the kill? Like she'd seen in a few of those Matrix movies? Well, Copia decided she wasn't going to deprive herself of that opportunity. "Bedtime, motherfuckers."

3

Lama had been right in his assumptions. Did the away team really think that the Undine wouldn’t let their colleagues know about the intruders..? There was a sudden whisper in Lama’s ear, as if someone was leaning over his shoulder and speaking in a low tone right behind him – but it reverberated right through his skull. “W e k n o w w h o y o u a r e.”

5

Lisa wasn’t as bold to yell as Tevis had, but she did let out a deep breath that she had been holding as she was shooting. She didn’t want to kill anyone, but if they were dead, she didn’t care. “Stay down or I’ll vaporize you both.” She said to the Undine, phaser still in hand and pointed at them in case they decided to try and go at them again. Lisa didn’t fuck around. “Everyone alright?”

Allan, amongst all the shooting and stuff they were all doing, including him, was at least glad that these Undine weren't also disguised as people still. It made it... at least a little bit easier to handle. "Cool, cool, we're... good?"

Through the talking of the other members of the away team, there was another whisper in Lama’s ear. “W e k n o w w h o y o u w e r e.”

5

Lama stopped flailing around and his expression turned dark as he looked left and right, as if searching for the source of the voice. "Umm.... The Undine are still like... telepathically here, we should keep our guard up," He warned, not quiet sure what the Undine were up to and why they were talking to him. He closed his eyes for a moment to try and send a message back to whoever was trying to talk to him. "Yeah, I was ugly, so was everyone at like... 13-16, no one knows what they're doing with fashion," Lama assumed the Undine had dug up the memories of him trying to dress himself when he had first moved to Betazed.

5

The tone of voice was flat, but somehow a spot of distaste became prevalent through the telepathic link. “L i t t l e T a l S h i a r b o y …” (edited)

6

Vara continued to aid in the rest of the teams firefight, hiding behind some cover with some shaking wrists. “This is why I worked alone! Never had to fire one of these stupid things when I was solo! Never had to use a firearm once!” She ranted. “Because I was above it!”

Immediately Copia heard alarm bells, not literally, but certainly metaphorically when Lama mentioned that there was the possibility that the Undine were still telepathically there. Then she noticed his facial expressions and mannerisms. "Lama... what are they saying to you?" Copia asked.

"Hey! You're not supposed to know that!" Lama frowned, now very angry that the Undine were digging up things he was certainly not comfortable with. "Get out of my mind you stinky Undine!" Lama thought back, his eyes squeezed shut as he blocked out the actual sounds around him. He seemed to be focusing very hard on ths voice, he needed them to get out of his mind! ".. Gahh!! Fuck I'm not in the Tal Shiar!" Lama said aloud when he was trying to say it mentally. His mental abilities were strong, but they were no match for a fully telepathic Undine. It was also to be noted, Lama, much like other Romulans, would never say the Tal Shiar by name, especially not in front of others.

6

5

While it was directed towards Lama, Tevis telepathically reached out to bolster Lama's mental blocks, hoping to help hold off the Undine from doing actual damage. Speaking audibly, he focused the full brunt of his ire towards the Undine. "Stay the fuck out of my teams minds you shitheel cunts..." He practically growled out, snapping his tusks at the two as he fired another wide beam stun, hoping to shut them up.

5

Vara blinked, looking at Lama with a bit of judgement in her eyes, as she continued firing at the Undine. She didn’t exactly spout, encouraging words towards Lama. “Focus on the job.” She muttered.

Allan also looked very concerned for Lama, moving closer to him. "Lama..? Hey, Lama, it's okay, whatever they're saying, they're um- they're bitches," he whispered, hoping that whatever was going on - some sort of telepathic stuff - would calm down as Tevis fired another wide beam stun at the two. Funny how he believed that about whatever they were saying to Lama, but not to himself.

Despite Lama’s protests – both out loud and telepathically – the Undine continued. “W h o c a u s e d t h e d e a t h o f t w o … A n d s o l d o u t t h e R e p u b l i c.” And then the voice jumped; the presence vanished from Lama’s head, but became a reverberating whisper in Tevis’s instead. It would appear that his assistance to Lama had not gone unnoticed. “A n d y o u … L i t t l e P o g … R u n t o f t h e l i t t e r …”

6

Copia had the urge, the STRONG urge to call out to the Undine saying something like "Leave them alone, it's me you want," when Copia agreed with Vara instead. "Vara is right, Lama," Copia said. "The more you let them in, the more they'll control you. Don't let them in. We need to keep moving."

She grunted as she moved out of cover. “Copia focus! I wasn’t trying to encourage them! Don’t be an idiot and try and encourage them!” She said as she moved closer to Copia. “If they’ve been in the Tal Shiar, they’ve seen it all before.” She said with a hint of venom. “We need to keep going.” (edited)

Tevis growled out again, upping the power of his phaser as he hit the two again. "Yeah, but I'm not so much of a runt that I can't fuck your Mother you tripod peices of shit..." He actually said both out loud as well as telepathically, pushing back hard as he tried to inflict some sort of telepathic harm back on them.

6

Lama was not going to cry, he wasn't going to cry, his mental abilities were strong. He quickly tried to think of the most cringe and nasty memories he could think of. Unfortunately he was thinking about the Tal Shiar. "Fuck off, fuck off," He said aloud. He did 'feel' the CTO's mental assistance, but it wasn't doing that much. He listened to his teammate's spoken words and tried to get himself together. How the fuck did the Undine know? "They're bitches-- yeah that's right! I did not kill anyone, I did not sell out the Republic, I never wanted to hurt anyone, they...." Lama said aloud and then mumbled a few incoherent words under his breath, clearly struggling with his thoughts. "Fuck the Tal Shiar, I'm not with them anymore and I'll never go back!" Lama spoke telepathically this time with both hands shaking. He didn't even catch Vara's comment, he was doing to close off his mind completely now... Hopefully. "Okay this is like... A trick. Damn Tevis you got words!! Me too, I have the power of GOD AND ANIME ON MY SIDE!"

9

7

The voice on the other side of the link was unrelenting. It appeared that Tevis’s efforts weren’t doing much damage – or even any at all… And it would also appear that the Undine were about to get savage. “S p e a k i n g o f m o t h e r s … D o y o u t h i n k y o u r p a r e n t s c a u s e d t h e s h u t t l e c r a s h t h a t k i l l e d t h e m o n p u r p o s e ..? S o t h e y c o u l d g e t a w a y f r o m y o u..?”

10

8

At the awful sentiment, Tevis simply inhaled and exhaled deeply, not letting his mind stray back to the memory of his parents death for even an instant...he couldn't go back to that place again... "It was an accident!" He practically screamed, before clenching his jaw, deciding in that moment he wouldn't let them get to him...no, he wouldn't "You don't know me...you're just a bunch of xenophoic, hateful cunts...you don't even know why you're here...you joined becasue everyone else did? Or maybe you felt it was you're duty or something like that? How fucking pathetic...you can't even make your own decisions...I'd rather be in that shuttle accident myself than let you get to me or my fucking team...because we, unlike you bescumbent little shits, have some actual fucking agency..." He said, before pushing back mentally as hard as he could, as well as firing at the two with maximum stun once again. "Anyone else who can, fire at these two, as much stun as you can..." He said, eyes fully bloodshot now with the force of the telepathic push he was putting in.

6

"Sir?! What are they--" Copia noticed right away from both Lama and Tevis's behaviors that the Undine were not going easy on them at all. And for what?! Neither Tevis nor Lama ever had any beef with the Undine! Regardless of if Lama was on the New Dawn mission, Lama certainly didn't have the same offense that---that... that Copia did. If the Undine were to talk to anyone they should talk to Copia. She lashed out at Undwari on the bridge and was an absolute shit to them, she berated and yelled at Undwari in the long-term brig, she was the one who was so emotionally charged that she originally pushed aside Starfleet protocol for treatment of prisoners. *Lama and Tevis didn't deserve any of this. The Undine were picking on someone who was defenseless. If Copia had telepathy she'd actually say, without hesitation, that she was the one the Undine wanted. That she was the one who they should pick on, the one they should chastise. She'd gladly take it over Lama or Tevis receiving it. Lama and Tevis were innocent, regardless of their pasts. But Copia wasn't. She had the feeling that her punishment was due. She was convinced, she was the one the Undine would want.*

4

"No, the Undine are not in the room, I don't think," Lama spoke up through the chatter in his mind. "We need to continue, firing at these two- yeah it's other Undine, they know we're here!" Lama told Copia and anyone else who was listening. He attempted to steel his mind one more time, shutting out all thoughts. The only memories he kept in the forefront were... Well his Tal Shiar memories, but only the nastiest ones. There was a memory of him buying his first pair of crocs on Rator III, him getting into his egg costume, the nasty body odor he had after dancing in said egg costume. Yeah, those were gross, that'll show the Undine who try and get into his mind.

4

3

“Get out of everyone’s heads you pieces of absolute SHIT!” And with that, Lisa fired at one of the Undine, highest kill setting. She continued to fire a continuous beam at it for ten seconds. Maybe it wasn’t these specific Undine doing it, but she hoped they would all get the message not to mess with anyone else.

5

Despite being confused as hell on one side of this seemingly two-way conversation, he figured from the side he was hearing that it was Bad, and was about to fire as ordered when Lama pointed out that there were Other Undine doing this. Ah. "So... keep moving, then?" He asked, carefully stepping further onwards and checking his tricorder to see if it knew where these other bitches were.

Tevis groaned with the force of the telepathic assault and moved forward, not stopping his phaser assault on the Undine. "Keep...moving...thats...an order" He managed to get out, taking step after step, hoping to move past the prone enemies.

Vara could see what was happening, she could tell the judgement in their minds. She could yell it. So she moved back quietly, already being near the back due to their natural fear and distaste of firefights, so she moved back with grace and catlike reflexes away from the rest of the group. Still in the caves of course, but quietly trying to avoid the telepathic judgement. She needed to be in the back of the team, a few paces behind. Vara Zh’rahlor would not be judged for her sins by telepathic shapeshifters, she refused on every level. Denying her judgement day, even a little longer….that would be nice.

Precious. How completely precious. There was almost a sense of amusement from the other side of the link. Both Lama and Tevis put up such a lovely fight – but unbeknownst to them, they weren’t fighting just one Undine. There were **multiple…. And the Undine on the ground of the cave had nothing to do with it. Suddenly, the sensation of voices whispering in ears became louder, ringing, reverberating, clanging through their skulls. The noise became deafening, white haze began to seep in to the corners of their vision – and a moment later it spread to the rest of the away team. White haze fell over everyone’s vision. From out of it cut an image: a ship being destroyed by another. And then another ship being destroyed. And then another. And then another – until suddenly the scene was an all-out war, shrapnel flying and flames flickering in the void of space. The scene cut, and a moon exploded – Praxis – and then a planet – Romulus. The scene cut again. Ground combat, phaser-fire and disruptor-fire and fire from every sort of energy weapon possible, orbital strike raining down from overhead -- And this repeated again and again, images flashing and the sound of war and destruction deafening all of the away team… All except one, who hadn’t been detected, and who couldn’t be affected given that her brain was positronic.

6

4

4

Copia was noticing how visibly uncomfortable and even pained that Lama and Tevis were getting. She couldn't handle it any longer. It was irresponsible as an officer to let your senior officers suffer. So, without any more hesitation, Copia followed orders like Tevis said, but she said aloud, "Leave them alone. They're innocent. They never have offended you, you're picking on someone who hasn't done anything to you. You want someone to pick on? Pick on me. Yeah, I've actually offended you. I berated one of your kind while they were behind bars in our correctional facilities. I treated them like shit. You want entertainment? Leave them alone. It's me you want. I'm all yours. I deserve it." (edited)

"Yeah keep moving-- it's not these dudes, come on guys," Lama agreed with what Tevis was saying as he began to move through the cave. His kept his nasty memories in his mind, even though all the loudness that was happening. The scenes of war and destruction were very disturbing, but it wasn't until he saw Romulus t hat he really got upset. Lama put a hand over his heart (Betazoid placement, not Romulan) and took a deep breath. He wasn't going to say anything, he was going to remain calm, he could do this. "They don't want us here, everyone, keep your mind shut, we need to find those people."

Vara fell over, she fell over hard from the images. She scampered back and away from the rest of the group, hiding behind a cave wall as she grabbed at her face. Trying to force herself out of the the visions of war and destruction. She tried to listen and shut off her mind, she had to try. Yet….it wasn’t enough. She had dealt with the dregs of the universe in her life, criminals, mobsters, capitalists, those who lived in their shadows. She had stolen from them all. The psychic force of the end of the universe being forcibly projected into her mind, was not something she was prepared for. “MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!”

6

Copia couldn't bear it - was this a hallucination? Were her systems going haywire? Was it something else? No matter. Copia had enough, especially now that Vara was starting to feel the effects. "I said, LEAVE THEM ALONE! IT'S ME YOU WANT!"

Oh, God. Now the non-telepaths were being affected by this? Or this was all a simulation and it wasn't real or this was his own personal hell and everyone around him wasn't real or something else, something else... but the ship being destroyed was the first image that hit him, and it was fucking bad, considering that was an image eerily similar to that of a certain shuttle explosion, on a larger scale, on a - He didn't really hear Lama. He didn't really hear anything except the burning, the explosions, the sound of his heart fucking pounding faster and faster as his breathing also quickened, trying to cut away from it all, trying to try to cut away from it just enough to grab onto the cave wall or something, but he probably wasn't even aware of it when he instead fell against it.

1

3

Lisa, not very well trained for this sort of attack, saw the images of destruction and war. It was awful, it was an image that she knew well. She had seen a ship destroyed with eleven innocent people trapped inside- and yet this was worse. This was true, total war. It was awful. Lisa tried her hardest to push it out of her head, letting out the deepest rage inside her as she did so. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD, OR I WILL FRY YOU ALL! YOU HEAR ME? FUCK OFF!” She roared.

1

"I got the power of god and anime on my side," Lama kept repeating in his mind as he looked around at the distressed faces of his team. He then saw Allan falling against the wall and quickly went to his aid. "Allan!" Lama gave Allan some supportive pats on his shoulders right before his ears were filled with the defeaning screams of-- Lisa? He turned his head to look at her. He was Vulcanoid for Surak's sake, the scream was very overwhelming. "Screaming won't get them to stop, we need to keep moving guys," Lama was still supporting Allan and giving his back some supportive pats. He was mentally strong, but his non-telepathic friends were hurting and there was no way he could help them aside from using his words or actions.

2

Anyone who tried to move was forced to their knees, pain searing through their skulls. Blinded by literal fog of war drilling into their skulls, the away team weren’t aware of the arrival of five new arrivals to the room. They entered this section of the cave with an eerie grace; footsteps silent and soft despite their hulking form. The group of them fanned out in a v-shape, like birds flying in formation. A smaller, unarmed Undine stood at the front. Two, with weapons over their arms, stood behind. Behind them were Undine that were even more heavily armoured, bodies covered with dark metal and glowing green lights. The smaller Undine at the front of the group surveyed the away team, still being psionically assaulted, and then looked to Copia – who somehow was still standing. “You. What are you?”

5

Lama was trying with all his strength to support Allan, but alas was forced to his knees. Definitely not the situation he was hoping for when he thought about being on his knees with Allan, but here we were. Lama clutched the phaser in his hand and attempted to shoot at the Undine, but his aim was already bad so... hopefully a shot hit, but he wasn't hopeful.

5

4

Copia looked at the five new Undine - and didn't even flinch. In fact, she even put away her phaser. To show that she was the one they wanted. It was working - take the attention away from the rest of the away team, she supposed, and let them all go from the psionic warfare. But she was willing to be the physical hostage if necessary. Copia approached the Undine, calmly. "I'm not like the others. You can call me... The Cardinal. And I'm your biggest offender, not anyone else here. I berated one of your kind while they were locked inside of our imprisonment system, treated them like shit, and called them murderers. I was on the mission in which we captured them, and even then, I aimed to kill every last one of them. So it's me. I'm the one you're after. Let the others go. You'll get much more satisfaction with me than you will with them."

For all his bluster, Tevis at this point was knocked out cold on the ground, having used every bit and more of his mental energy, which had simply ran out at the assault.

5

Vara had given up to be honest, it was too much. It was too much, she tried to crawl towards the exit of the cave….she was going to die. “My terms…my terms….” Of course, her trying to move at all simply led to more pain. She left her little spot behind cover and was slumped against the ground, in full view of Copia. “Copia….run….” She forced out.

1

This time it was not the smallest Undine who spoke. Copia’s words seemed to have piqued the interest of one of the well-armoured Undine who was presumably higher ranking. From where they had been staring straight ahead, they watched Lama’s phaser-fire hit the rock at the side of the cave… And then they looked to this ‘Cardinal’. “I do not care for how you treated our members, Cardinal. They deserve such treatment for being caught. Do you have their designations? I would like to mark them as captured on our list…” As this Undine spoke, the pain and visions that the rest of the away team were experiencing lessened… With this Undine distracted, perhaps one of the numbers conducting the psionic attack had been reduced.

Lama noticed the psonic attacks had lessened and now he could open his eyes and he looked at Copia. "Yeah yeah, the cardinal-- how cool," Lama wished he could communicate to Copia to keep talking, but he couldn't so he decided to join her and boy could Lama run his mouth. "Yeah yeah, warbirds in a flock, make them hot, that's some warbird attack patterns, i'm talking wap wap wap..." Lama began to rap the only song that came to mind at that moment. It was the stupid song he made up during his final exam when he was with the Tal Shiar.

8

7

Copia looked back at Vara and Lama, nearly crumbling under the pressure, but turning back to the Undine with a calm expression on her face. "I say once more. Leave them alone, and take me. You're wasting your energy and breath on souls you don't even know. I imagine interrogating and torturing me will be much more satisfying to you than me just giving you their designations. As of right now you're not getting a word out of me about this. So do you want to do something useful with your time or not?"

6

2

Lisa was able to actually see a bit clearer now, and she took this moment to try and gain back some of her mental energy that had been lost. She didn’t know how everyone else was faring- not good, from the looks of it. She knew she couldn’t fire at them all without backup from the rest of the team, so for now she was catching her breath. She was feeling pretty grateful for being the eldest of five children right about now- it really gave you a deeper well of mental energy to deal with four younger siblings.

3

Copia decided to pull at their strings even more. "I'd imagine picking on those who have no gripe against you and are defenseless to your attacks, the move of a coward. So come on... put up a fight with someone who is going to give you a real challenge."

Meanwhile, Tevis was just an adorable, unconcious CTO-shaped lump on the ground, monkey wounds bleeding all over the place, making him a little less adorable and more...bloody icky.

4

There was a tilt of the head from the Undine. Three of them had their gaze focussed straight ahead, the smaller one to the front constantly looked over the team… But this one still had Copia’s attention. “Will your fellow officers leave this terrasphere if we agree to let them go?” They enquired. An android could be useful to their cause. How much knowledge would they have in their positronic net..?

Lama glanced at Tevis who was now not only short, but short and passed out. He continued singing his rendition of WAP in his mind as he moved towards Tevis and grabbed his dermal regenerator to try and at least clean up the wounds. "Dying is cringe, don't die," Lama mumbled between his verses. (edited)

7

6

Copia looked the Undine Commander straight in the eye, and said without hesitation to his proposition... "Without any terms or conditions."

No, no no. She wouldn’t let them take Copia. Copia was good, she couldn’t let her suffer. She didn’t care if this sent her back to jail, she was in the back, and she was skilled in sleight of hand, she could do this w quietly. She grabbed her phaser and set it to kill, and lightly aimed it towards the commander from her spot on the ground. She just had to wait for the right chance to fire….

"There's some whores in this sphere, there's some whores in this sphere," Lama repeated verbally over and over as he ran the regenerator over Tevis' monkey wounds to seal them up. He could hear Vara and Copia speaking, but his mind had to stay focused on only a couple tasks.

5

Out of the corner of Copia's eye, she could see Vara pick up her phaser and aim to be ready to fire. But Copia didn't see any other way out of this. "NO," Copia said to Vara. "Stand down. That's an order."

Spotting Vara aiming, she still had her phaser with her. She still had energy, she wouldn’t fall for real. But she could pretend. She faked crashing to the ground, hoping it would distract the Undine so everyone else could fire. If it didn’t, that just meant she could surreptitiously aim.

4

“Hm.” It was stated through the universal translator as less of a ‘hmming’ noise and more an actual word. No attention was given to whatever was going on with the rest of the away team, except from the one Undine at the front. The others were considering, considering… And suddenly, the psionic attack on the others stopped. “Very well, Cardinal. Have your officers beam out, and you shall come with us.”

He started to come around slightly as Lama healed him up, groggily looking around, blinking as he spewed out obscenities. "...Fucking ugly ass, three-legged, fucking dick-head looking brain hurting oogely boogily bitches..." He said, before finally getting his shit together and leaping up, and turning his full ire on the Undine Commander. "I think not you scheming peice of shit! No one is taking my team! If you want someone, take me! I'm hot and fun-sized!" He said, cocking his hips and blowing a kiss to the Undine.

7

5

Lama wasn't sure if Copia surrendering herself would really be the way, he wanted her to just fire on the Undine. Fire on all of them, get them out of their minds becaues hell, they were still there. Lama still sensed the psonic attacks. "You tell 'em!" Lama was happy when Tevis came to his senses, He put the regenerator back in his pocket and clapped for the CTO. "Yeah, bitches! We got that wap wap wap," Lama was still singing the song!!

“Copia babe…I’m fucking bad at orders.” She said before firing a kill shot straight for the commander speaking to Copia from her position in the back and on the ground, before trying to fire more at the ones surrounding.

Copia stepped towards the Undine, before turning around to face Away Team One, for what seemed like one last time. Copia pretended to hit her communicator badge, but instead, she faked it, and gave a wink to the Away Team. "Mothership, this is the Cardinal," Copia said. "Away Team One is Ready..." And with that, she grabbed her phaser. "TO FIRE!"

7

And then Lama fired! pew pew! With his Reman soldier aim, but he was hoping he would at least land a couple. He failed the first shot from earlier, but he wasn't going to fail the next!

"Yeah fuck you guys!" He said, firing a maximum-kill shit at the Undine Commander.

Things certainly escalated quickly! And you know what? Copia’s bluff about a mothership actually worked. The Undine knew the limitations of their own terrasphere, and it was certainly a structure that you could orbital strike. There was a mass panic when the shooting started. The smaller Undine immediately dropped, and the other four sprang forward while trying to avoid immediately being killed. One commander dropped: two lieutenants and the other commander to go.

4

Following Tevis coming to and getting up, Lisa decided to get in on the action. And when Vara shot, Lisa wasted no time in firing. She was also towards the front, so she went for a wide beam to hit them all at once, to the highest kill setting. Of course, she made sure none of her team was in the way. From her spot, it was only the Undine being hit. “Fuck you all! Eat my fucking phaser!”

With that, Copia also set her phaser to kill and, like Tevis, went out all guns blazing! "Heh! Dumbasses! You think I'd abandon my team like that and give over precious info? You're stupider than we thought." With a reload of her phaser, Copia did her best tribute to Scarface. "Eat phaser, motherfuckers," Copia said before firing again!

"Fire at will! Take these assholes down!" He said, firing at all of the Undine with his nearly overcharged phaser, hoping to chase them off.

"You chose the wrong ex-Tal Shiar camelid to mess with!" Lama continued his firing, now without the psonic attacks,he could focus and he was doing pretty well.

One of the Undine Lieutenants took multiple hits, dropping rather swiftly. One of the others, however, managed to get close enough to the front of the group to lash out wildly - swiping with both arms, an Undine bayonet weapon around their forearm making it even more dangerous.

Vara aimed for the one with the the forearm weapon and let loose four kill shots towards their chest and head. “Die….”

3

"Fuck this, I've already been monkey'd today..." He said, charging with all of his might at the Undine Lieutenant, firing a wide, heavily charged beam at it at point-blank range. "Just fucking pass out already!"

3

After coming to as well and stabilizing his breathing, he shot at the Undine as well, phaser set to maximum like the rest, aiming specifically at the Undine with the scary bayonet now.

Fortunately, Lisa wasn’t interested in getting any more scars. She bent backwards, narrowly dodging the bayonet, before leaping back and firing at the Undine with the bayonet, aiming right for their head.

Alright, alright, that would do it! Geez min, this was Undine abuse! The guy dropped dead. Not even stunned, straight up dead.

6

...But guess who wasn't dead. The second of the commanders was still here - and as their comrade fell, they appeared from behind them, suddenly towering over the group. A single hand lashed out and grabbed Lisa, the closest target, straight around her throat. In an instant she was hoisted off her feet as if she weighed nothing.

5

But Copia was right up behind the Commander and sent three, four, five kill shots to the Commander, being sure to aim for the heart and the head.

1

"CAREFUL WITH THE FIRE," Lama shouted, aiming his weapon down to try and shoot the Undine's legs because the phaser was set to kill and... he couldn't risk shooting Lisa.

"This fucking guy..." He mumbled out, before marching up to the asshole that'd grabbed his teammate. "Let her the fuck down asshole! I may be short, but I'm not too short to shoot you in the dick...or whatever you have!" He said, aiming his phaser at the Undine and firing with gusto.

4

And, for good measure, she managed to kick them, hard. And with the heels on her boots, it would probably hurt. And she hadn’t dropped her phaser either, and at ultra-close range, she fired, practically touching it to them as she did so. She decided to go with a sick smile on her face, hoping it would be the last thing they saw before they hopefully died.

"HAKEEV WOULD SWIPE LEFT ON YOUR MUM ON SPACE TINDER," Lama said, hoping his gift of shit talking would help him here. "YOUR MUM WOULD LOSE A FIGHT AT WAFFLE HOUSE!"

7

The last of the Undine froze up, a quiet growl coming from the back of its throat... Until it turned into a deafening roar as it stood there, absorbing phaser shot after phaser shot. At the kick to the face they used the last of their remaining strength to hurl Lisa into some of the closest members of the away team... And then the Undine's legs gave out and it fell to the floor face-first, narrowly missing crushing the team beneath it.

Tevis took the blow from the big Human crashing onto him and several others, before reaching out and shooting the undine right in its 'face'. "So dramatic..."

Lama, the strong half-Vulcanoid, caught Lisa but fell backwards when he did so. At least he broke her fall! He was okay, the armour was good and as Allan said before, it did protect the ass which was certainly a valuable asset to Lama. "Lisa!" Lama patted Lisa's side. "I got medical stuff in my pocket, are you awake?"

"No Undine...or monkey will keep us down!" He said, holding up Lisa to make sure Lama could check on her.

Copia followed Tevis's shot right to the Undine Commander's 'face' a few more time to ensure it was getting the full brunt of the attack. Then, she approached the fallen commander and grabbed its neck. "You know why I gave myself the nickname, Cardinal?" And after a moment, she got right up in his face. "Because if you were still conscious... you'd be begging for forgiveness at my feet." And with that, she dropped the commander to the ground.

2

Lisa, in fact, was quite alright. In fact- she was laughing slightly, a sick, broken laugh. Nothing was funny here, she had just absolutely broken. She had lost it. Now, it was time to find Tewari. “Oh- hah- I’m quite alright. Now.. we’ve got a mission to get on with. I’ll be fine.” She did however have to take a moment to catch her breath. She had already dealt with worse stuff around her throat. Namely, almost getting her throat slit open. These Undine weren’t the worst she had ever faced.

Vara grunted as she stood to her feet, holding on against the wall. Before dropping against it and pressing her head into the wall. “I….I killed someone….” She said with a breath. Her entire life, she had never killed. At best she had dropped a chandelier on some guys to escape, but….this was different. Any claim to morality she had left had gone when she fired to protected Copia. She sat there, shell shocked.

1

After all that... Copia finally felt like she had mastered the Undine. Maybe not fully... but certainly more than she ever had. Standing over the fallen Undine, she rolled her shoulders back and stood with a newfound confidence, in a stance that can only be described as one performed by a superheroine who had just freed the city from the villain. Her eyes peered around for any other Undine that may have been present, and when she checked her tricorder, she felt a sense of ease wash over her. With that, Copia approached the team. "Is everyone alright? I'm sorry, I could have chosen any other option to get us out of this. I had to act fast and with the most creative reverse-psychology method I could." Then Copia noticed Vara - still a little distraught. "Vara? Are you okay?" Copia said, not having noticed Vara saying she tallied her first kill.

“Copia, if I could, I would promote you right here, right now, because that was genius. You did spectacularly, and don’t even think about denying it.” Lisa did just kill people, but she was also out here spreading positivity to her team. She respected the hell out of Copia, that was some badass work.

4

She sat there, staring at the body of the commander she had fired first at. The impact still raw. “I never killed before, I prided myself on it. My entire career was built on being a gentlewoman thief. No firearms, no blades, not even a fucking hammer. I used tricks and my smarts, I used my looks and my charisma and I got fucking rich off of it Copia. I robbed the worst of the worst to make the empty hole in my heart where love should be! I tried to fix myself with hedonism, with booze, with drugs, with women! I still had that one,…that one singular fucking rule. And I broke it. I look myself in the mirror every morning and I could feel fine about myself because I have never harmed anyone! Even fucking mobsters I robbed from, I left notes for! NOTES!” *She said as she stood up * “Now what am I! Those….fuckers! They sent images of the fucking apocalypse into my brain!! And guess what, when it’s my turn to be judged in front of whatever fucking god you want, I’ll be right next to those mobsters I robbed from.” *She said with a shaky breath * “My entire life, that one rule. Gone.” (edited)

2

Lama was happy everyone seemed to be in one piece and conscious. He stood up and brushed some dirt off of himself. "Yeah, good work team, that was good Copia," Lama wished he had remembered more of what Copia said, but he could only remember what the Undine said. The visions of war stayed with him, but moreover, was the whispered directly targetted at him. How the Undine know? He was sure he had closed off his mind. "You guys were all great, anyone need some first aid? I got some stuff!"

1

Now was another chance for Copia to be a leader - while she wasn't a counsellor, she certainly was not only a team member but Vara's friend, and she'd do anything for Vara. This certainly was no exception. "Oh, Vara... may I hug you?" Perhaps some reassurance would help Vara out?

Vara looked towards Copia. “I’m….I’m fine.” She said as she sat against the wall, and tossed her phaser towards the other side of the cave. “I’m fine!”

Lisa managed to get up. She hoped she could comfort Vara. The first kill was always hard, always. For her, she had to beat an attacker to death with a wrench because they were trying to kill her and a few other people. She hadn’t meant to kill them, only knock them out, but she had no phaser on her. She hadn’t gotten over it, ever. But now, she knew. Even though you can try to save everyone, some people simply needed to die. She didn’t touch Vara, she simply walked over to be at her side. Not invading her space, just There. “No, you won’t be judged like them. I’ve seen some shit- I killed a man with a goddamn wrench- and still, it was to save my own life. This was to save all of our lives and to save the prisoners. You saved us, Vara.”

Copia knelt down to the ground beside Vara, still giving her enough space, and looking Vara in the eye. "You did not do anything wrong, Vara, I promise you. You have even told me this yourself when I was emotionally distressed. If there's anyone I've listened to in the past, it's you. It's for the good of so many other people. A wise Honored Elder once told me that. Few losses prevent the losses of billions of others. And you did just that. In fact, Vara, you're not a murderer. You're a hero. And you know what? I'm still proud of you. I always have been. And I always will be." (edited)

Vara laughed slightly..^ “I could kiss you Copes, you know that.” *She said as she buried her head into the androids shoulder. “Thank you..” “Could someone grab my phaser please?” She choked out.

1

Copia was arrested by that - especially the 'I could kiss you' part. In truth, Copia had never been kissed before except by her own father, on the cheek -- ahhh Copia was going down another rabbit hole in her head again. But Copia did embrace Vara as she buried her head into Copia's shoulder, and Copia felt so much more comforted again knowing her best friend would be alright. (edited)

"I got it!" Lama said as he hurried to grab Vara's phaser and hand it back to her. He let Copia and Vara have their moment and turned to Lisa and the others. "Yeah that was rough, uhh..... I hope I didn't say anything too cringe. In my defense, anything I said was to drive off the Undine, no I did not hit the boar's ass on purpose and the twerking was because I thought the faster I shook my ass, the higher my grade would be, okay!" Lama said as if he wasn't just yelling about being in the Tal Shiar a little while ago.

6

Once he'd calmed slightly, he turned to look at the group with a proud grin. "You all did bloody fantastic! S' proud of everyone here! I jus' need a lil' nap I think... " He said with a distinct slur to his words before he unceremoniously keeled over and passed out again from a combination of blood loss, shock and psychic trauma. (edited)

4

5

6

Copia's eyes widened at this. Surely they couldn't lose the commanding officer of the away team! She grabbed the first aid kit and gently sat next to Tevis. "Does anyone have any spare food or water they can provide for Lieutenant Commander Pog when he awakens?" Copia said. "If so, please give it here. We need to ensure his recovery."

Allan had still been recovering, mostly getting his breathing back to normal as he sat with his back against the cave wall, hugging one of his knees close to his chest to rest his forehead on it, trying to refocus on everything after the events that had just ensued. The conversations faded in and out of his ears, but he did seem to refocus more when he heard the word 'twerking' come from Lama, and he smiled a little. "Ah, yeah, I tried that once in the Academy, didn't work out," he laughed some, and then looked through his stuff when Copia asked about food and water. "I have some extra cookies I took from the house..?"

1

Copia nodded respectfully to Allan. Maybe cookies would not only give Tevis nourishment but provide him with much-needed energy to keep going, she mused. She wasn't sure if anyone had anything else, so if this is all they had, they'd see to it, she supposed. "Thank you, Lieutenant Allen. However many you are willing to provide, we are grateful for your generosity. I am hoping this nap will improve his condition."

"A-- damn," Lama burst out laughing when Tevis just passed out. Fair though, if Lama was of a species that needed daily sleeps he would also want to sleep now. Well, Betazoids did sleep daily, but Romulans did not. Saved again by his Vulcanoid genes. "Oh cookies? Yeah, totally!" Lama slowly crawled over to where Allan was. He could tell his friend needed a breather and he wanted to be there to comfort him if that would help! Lama also was influenced by Vara and Copia hugging, he wanted to comfort someone too! Tevis was asleep so obviously he couldn't really comfort him. "I'll have one, never got to try it. I was busy trying to be pipe man," He patted his chest and smiled. "Eyy yea I did horribly at the fucking... man, the intelligence academy," Don't say Tal Shiar, but he almost did. "I kinda regret not taking the whole combat portion more seriously. I'll perform Warbird Attack Patterns later if you wanna see, I am pretty proud of myself for that."

“I uh, going to sleep too. Copia can be in charge of waking me up.* She said with a breath as she rested her head against the wall, folding up like a cat as she sat there.

3

"Am I really the only Vulcanoid here," Lama looked around at everyone who seemed to be catching some z's. Lama was tired too, but he couldn't sleep. He... There were too many thoughts in his head and a part of him feared that if he slept, something bad would happen. "Alright, I'll be guard and make sure no one disrupts you guys."

"Mm, me too," Allan mumbled in response to what Lama had said, still leaning his forehead on his knee, looking down at the ground. "Don't think I could sleep if I tried. Well... I might, but - actually, I dunno if falling asleep or staying awake is better," he sighed, genuinely unsure now.

"I get it," Lama wasn't entirely sure what the Undine said to Allan, but he had a feeling it was on the same level if not worse to what they did to him. At least he didn't get physically beat up by them. "We can chat a little if you want, Allan? You know,,., sooth your mind?" Lama suggested as he looked at his friend, the softest look in his tapioka-pearl-like Betazoid eyes.

Allan still hugged his knee but lifted his head up to look at Lama, catching his soft look and giving one back, a hint of a smile on his face too. "Maybe? There's... I mean, you saw the same visions, it was... I mean, that alone was a lot," he said, taking another deep breath as he tried not to remember too much of it.

"Yea, it was pretty crazy," Lama plopped his little ass down right beside Allan and sat up right with his legs criss cross apple sauce. "We're in the clear now though, they're all gone," He said with a reassuring smile. "Maybe we can try and focus on happy things like umm... maybe you can tell me why you twerked during the Academy? I've always wanted to go to a real Academy. Never been, to be honest. I wanna visit Earth."

4

"Yeah," he scooted a little closer to Lama when the other sat down, sort of shoulder-to-shoulder with his friend. "For now. Um..." he nodded when Lama said they could focus on other things, laughing at the mention of twerking again. "Oh, I mean - like you said, to try to get better grades. I was trying to convince the physical trainer that it was a better display of my uh, glute muscles than an actual exercise, but that's ... not how that works," he chuckled, and tilted his head, "never been to Earth? Aw, man. Once we're out of here, honestly, I'd love to take you! I know a lot of good places."

Lama happily touched shoulders with Allan, it was a small bit of physical contact, but it was the small things that counted. He was all sweaty from fighting and the mental stress had also taken a toll on him, but he doubted his friend would mind. "It is a show of glute muscles! Totally!" Lama said with an excited tone, chuckling at the end of his phrase. He grinned a toothy smile, sharp canines and full lips, it made him look like he was some vampire rodent or something. His name was 'Lama' but he definitely looked more like a small rodent than a camelid. "Really? Like what sort of places? I wanna see a real llama, you know, my bretheren."

3

"Well, I mean, I did tell you in the chatroom that I'd take you to the Franklin Park Zoo," he said with a laugh, "but there's other zoos I know, too - and a lot of places I know of where you can just see the animals up close! There's a lot of places in Puerto Rico and everywhere else like that, really, so many places to just like observe-" he paused, and then his mouth was open for a moment as he just realized something. "You know, I should probably ask Saren to go with me to the zoo too, do you - do you know Saren? He's on one of the other away teams, cute curly hair kinda like mine but it's black, also cute green eyes like mine kinda, um, very handsome in general, really," he couldn't help but smile at the memory, and a brief flash of worry for the other teams came across him, but - well, if they were doing fine, surely everyone else was, right..? "But yeah, um - they have real llamas there for sure!"

1

"Oh yea that sounds fun, I do wanna see the zoos," Lama was also hoping to see the petting zoos too. He learned his lesson the first time though, no patting animals on the bum, that never ended well. He didn't need to become wet lama electric boogaloo 2. "Oh, no I don't know him... I think?" Lama tilted his head at the name. Judging from the name the person was probably Romulan, but he could not for the life of him remember if he knew anyone by that name. "Well if you say he's cute then he's definitely cute," Lama said with a smile and a wink. "Yeah he is totally welcome and yea I wanna see the real llamas. We can all go! Maybe I wanna invite my siblings, I miss them," He really missed his siblings. All three of them. Lama missed his family so much, he didn't realise this mission was going to be so stressful. He was prepared for the psonic attacks, the images of violence and war were distressing, but he was partially prepared for some batshit stuff like that. He did not expect to be mentally talking to some Undine who... knew too much about him,. More than the Republic, more than Starfleet...

3

All the while, Copia sat with her back against the wall, and her eyes staring out straight into nowhere in particular, she didn't really want to have any particular focus right now. Her mind was now fixated on the sheer panic and dwindling on the faces of her teammates as they suffered those unrelenting psionic attacks, how they were in so much pain, so much anguish, enough to the point it would all probably kill them, she feared. She wished, she prayed, she begged that she didn't have a positronic brain, or at least had a psionic link like everyone else had. She'd take that pain and endure every single combined force of the psionic attacks from the rest of the team all on herself, if she could. That's all that mattered to her at the time. Just as Yoro'clis taught her... Minimize losses, save billions of lives... And she would gladly be one of those losses if it meant the success of the team, the mission, and the rescuing of the hostages.

After what seemed like a long silence, Copia decided to check on Tevis. If anyone was as vital to the success of the away team for this mission, it was him. Copia gently moved closer to Tevis before speaking. "Sir? Sir, awaken, please. Are you alright, sir?"

[Comms] After a while of the away team recuperating, a voice spoke through the commbadges of the officers. "Away team one from the Eventide. We can see that all of you have been still for a while now - are you all okay?"

He chose that of all moments to come to. With a groggy groan, he stood, balancing himself on a nearby wall for a moment, before finally regrouping. With a deep exhale, he pressed his combadge to respond. "We're all fine now, if not a bit banged up physically and a bit more mentally, but..." He said, looking around to the team, giving them a visual and then a surface level mental scan to check and make sure they were atleast able to go on further. "...we're a tough lot, moving back out soon. I'd advise other telepaths on the two other teams about making sure to keep up their mental blocks, these Undine play dirty with their psychic skills." He said, before gulping down a nearby cannister of water, and throwing his team a tight-lipped grin.

4

Vara grunted as she was woken up by the comms. “I’m still trying to sleep…” She murmurered. “Copiaaaaaa….tell her it’s sleepy time.”

3

Copia heard the comm come in from Zai and right away felt a bit of ease. Unfortunately, Copia didn't really understand grogginess or sleepiness, so she couldn't really relate. "Negative, Vara," Copia said. "We've been contacted by Lieutenant Commander Zai and I believe it soon that Lieutenant Commander Pog will order us to move out. We must regain our strength as much as we can to continue onwards. Is there anything else I can do to help you regain your strength?"

[Comms] "I'll let the other teams know that they're using psionic attacks. ...I have some bad news for you guys as well."

Copia's eyes POPPED open. Bad news?! Now?! After all this?! Welp. Not much she or anyone else could do about it, she supposed, unless they received more info on that front. Copia hit her comm badge. [COMMS] "Lieutenant Copia here. Please, spare no detail, Lieutenant Commander Zai. What is going on which you consider bad news?"

[Comms] "It looks as though the Undine are starting to divert power, probably because they've worked out something suspicious is going on with their generators going down. Transporter inhibitors are active: there's no way of us getting you guys out until you knock out more of the power."

Vara sighed slightly as she stood to her feet, letting Copia speak. Great, this was going great. She slapped herself lightly to wake herself up. “Okay, okay. I’m ready. These generators are going to be wrecked…”

Copia saw this not as a huge obstacle, however - but as a challenge. She'd need more of a challenge, everyone would, if they were to take the best away from this rescue mission. They couldn't just walk away with everything easily, that wouldn't teach them anything. "Fear not, Lieutenant Commander Zai. By the time we are finished, the Undine won't know what hit them. And I don't mean the generators and diversions. Copia out." Copia pressed her comm badge before cracking her knuckles and tilting her head. "If only I had some tunes to play..." (edited)

"Thank you for the update, we'll be in touch, Pog out." He said, also tapping his combadge to end the transmission. "I suppose we have more work to do then. Are we ready?"

3

Copia turned to Pog, a renewed sense of vigor and confidence in her behavior, although she was careful not to be overconfident or cocky. They still had a bunch of Undine to get past, and a few more obstacles. So, she was cautiously optimistic. "Ready, sir."

“Yeah I’m ready, I’m ready to go.” She said with a breath as she went to pick up her phaser she had tossed before.

Grabbing his weapon, pack and water, Tevis moved to walk further into the cave, making sure to check that the team was following every now and then, all the while taking the time to sure up his mental defenses, just in case the Undine decide to get nasty again.

Copia made sure she was loose and adaptable, given that anyone or practically anyTHING could be Undine. She didn't think they'd become inanimate objects, though. This didn't need to become Prop Hunt. Anyway, Copia kept her phaser and tricorder handy, scanning the area for any 'friends.'

The structure of the cave that had turned more artificial led into a thin corridor; just tall and wide enough for an Undine to get through. Condensation dripped down the walls, and there was a noticeable change in temperature with the further they got. While the entrance to the cave wasn't as humid as it was outside, it certainly seemed to get colder the more the team walked. The tricorder didn't display any more Undine life signs - but soon enough, on its screen blinked up four other weak life signs. Two Ferasan, one Romulan, and one Human.

With the four new life signs in the tricorder displaying what Copia and the rest of the team hoped they'd find, Copia's smile widened. Bingo. That's what they were looking for! The hostages... Finally! And specifically, if Copia remembered correctly, these were the ones from the United Federation. The REAL Tewari was here! Immediately she didn't react with words or sounds, but her body language told the whole story.

After looking at the results from the tricorder, he turned back to the team and made sure to get their attention. “Looks like this is it team, as I’m sure you all have seen on your tricorders, it seems like the hostages are just ahead. Let’s talk strategy for a moment and create a plan.” He said, before pulling out his tricorder and gesturing to the screen. “We’re reading four life signs, non-Undine, and they appear to be weak. We’ll need our medics standing by to render aid, along with tactical and security officers to keep watch for any incoming attacks. Our main challenge is the transport inhibitors, so our main priority after will be charting our ex-fil route. Any questions, comments, concerns?”

She hummed lightly. “I could try and see what the prisoners are dealing with, while the rest of you buy some time and take out the Undine?”

Copia thought about it for a moment. "Perhaps I am one of the best suited to take out the Undine given I do not have a psionic link with them. I have been able to manage already, although I obviously cannot be alone. Vara, I agree you have the stealth to sneak into where the prisoners are." Copia did somewhat pride herself on being Undine bait. (edited)

There were no other Undine to contend with in this area. Yet.

3

He thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best placement for each member of the team, before nodding mostly to himself and laying out the plan. “We need to stick together in this, a divided team is a weak team, especially in this instance. I have a feeling that we won’t run into anymore Undine for the time being, so our main focus should be on the hostages. We’ll worry about our combat capabilities later on.” He said, laying out his reasoning, before gesturing forward. “Let’s keep moving while we have momentum and a clear path.”

Copia evidently misunderstood Tevis's game plan the first time. She was thankful she reiterated and now understood fully what was going on. "Understood, sir," Copia said, following his orders and moving along.

Further down this thin corridor, the clear path ahead eventually came to a halt by a very thick, reinforced metal door. Greenish-yellow lines, often seen on Undine biotechnology, moved up and down upon its surface. The air had gotten colder - so much that if you breathed out, you could see your breath - and a faint mist swirled from just beneath the door.

5

Not having known everything about Undine biotechnology specifically, as that's not what she thought she was supposed to familiarize herself with in the past, Copia right away saw all of these signs as red flags. Colder temperatures? Nearly-sealed door? Mist swirling from beneath it? Were the prisoners being kept in cryotubes?

“Well fuck me thats ominous…” Tevis mumbled out in typical Tellarite fashion, before turning to the team, brows raised in curiosity. “Thoughts on how to get through? This is quite the chonker of a door…”

Vara was chill in the cold. “Eh? It ain’t that cold.” She said as she walked forward. She examined the door for any panels or anything she could theoretically break into.

Copia looked up and down the door, trying to spot any sort of physical characteristics that would allow anyone on the team to open it. From what she saw, nothing popped out at her right away. "In truth, sir," Copia began. "I'd imagine if the Undine were keeping prisoners here, logic suggests that they'd want to seal the door with technology only they could control. Unfortunately, I believe it best not to conduct any psionic link with the door as to protect your minds."

The lines on the door seemed to glow and move to a specific spot in the very centre - perhaps some sort of method of access?

2

“Ah! One second!” She said with a hum as she moved towards the spot and quickly began to feel it out for anything to pull or grab onto it. “Come to momma…”

3

Copia couldn't help but contort her face in confusion to Vara's remark. Vara was a momma...? How? Eh well, probably not best to answer that. Anyway, Copia did see what Vara was getting at. "Is there something on the door which I can attempt to link to? Lieutenant Allen suggested becoming the glitches to control the glitches earlier. Perhaps there is something I can connect to?"

There was a square shape slightly indented into the center of the door. It didn't appear to be a handle or anything that could be grabbed, but as soon as Vara started physically inspecting the door, it lit up with a series of thin, bright, green lines. Perhaps it was some sort of scanner?

4

“Oh! Maybe it scans for Undine!” She thought for a moment. “Gasp! Can we go back for the bodies of the Undine from before get it to like, scan them?”

4

Welp. Apparently not. But Vara did at least uncover the scanner-looking interface! So that was a plus! "A scanner interface. Before you do, Vara, the only question is, what does it scan? Is it biometric? Eye pattern? Voice recognition?"

“I think we could probably figure out a way to dupe the scanner by emitting fake Undine bio signs from a tricorder? That seems the most painless I think.” He said, spitballing ideas even though he was definitely not science minded.

2

6

Copia's eyes twitched back and forth, around a few times, before she returned to Tevis. "Theoretically, it is possible, sir," Copia said. "The quantum flux array can confuse the input array on the scanner, although I am only speaking from experience on Starfleet scanner material. The Undine's technology may be different or analogous to our own."

“I think it also depends on what it scans right? We can’t fake eyeballs can we? If we can’t science our way through, I can go grab one of the commanders.” She said with glee, she was in her element. (edited)

Copia nodded. That was the key, wasn't it? What did the scanner scan for after all? Was there any indication on the door? Any indication on the scanner panel what it was used for? Or anything else in the vicinity that would be a giveaway - a camera for an eye scan, a microphone for a voice recognition?

After telling Lama that of course, they could all go to the zoo, especially his siblings too, the team moved on together, and seemed to reach... some sort of door. "Don't think the Undine have eyeballs, but.." Allan just had his tricorder scan the scanner to see what it would read about the biotech - maybe it would show some sort of pattern to it..? "It's fucking cold, though," which was probably irrelevant but he said it just as a matter to say something at all.

The locking/scanning mechanism actually did confirm that it was looking for a retinal scan.

6

5

Copia couldn't help but chuckle at this realization. "Oh Vara," Copia said. "...go get one of the commanders."

"Damn, okay, looks like they have eyes. Unless someone else's eyes is what they're looking for..?" Allan asked, but he wasn't actually too sure. "Probably gonna need two people to pick one of those fuckers up," they were like... really big after all.

“Yeah full admission I’m more known for my flipping then my fears of strength. Maybe Copia should go with somewhere else strong?” She said.

4

Copia shrugged - well! She was able to pick up one of the commanders by the neck -- well, not his whole body though... So that may have been a different story. So, she obliged. "Very well! I will go, who else will join me?"

“I’m much stronger than I look…like an ant.” He said, gesturing for Copia to follow him. “Shouldn’t be too much trouble…” He said, hoping he wouldn’t end up regretting his words later on.

Copia nodded respectfully to Tevis and then to the others. "We'll be back shortly," Copia said, joining Tevis.

He looked up at Copia as they walked, the silence being a little too much for him at the moment, so he indulged himself in some idle chit-chat to distract his mind for a moment. “So, have you ever carried an Undine before?” He asked, before screwing up his face in thought for a second. “I hope it’s not slimy…”

2

Copia couldn't help but smile at that. She found slight satisfaction in being the Cardinal. Or the Painkiller. She didn't really know. One of the two. "Not carried, per se, sir," Copia said. "But I certainly picked one up towards the neck before instilling fear into its already-deceased form." Definitely not ominous.

“Well thats uh…something…carry on…” He said, figuring he really didn’t need to make anymore conversation after that because like, what the fuck.

1

The more open area further back in the cave was just how the team had left it. Multiple Undine were on the ground, either unconscious or deceased.

Once they approached, Tevis took a moment to survey the scene, and immediately headed for the fallen Commander. “Let’s take the Commander, they’ll definitely have the credentials to get past the door.” He said, before heading to the fore end of the Undine, volunteering himself to carry the delicate half of the alien, and the part with the important bits they needed to open the door.

3

4

Copia nodded before scurrying to the other end of the Commander. "Aye, sir," Copia said, hoisting up the opposite end of the Undine as Tevis did, not before. "Alright, a little heavier than I expected, but still manageable. We don't have far to go anyway." (edited)

2

“We’ve got this! Let’s fucking GOO!” He said, before getting a little hustle on, not wanting to be back with all those creepy fuckers for any longer than he needed to be. And just like that, they’d gotten back to the door, at which, Tevis wrangled the big fucker’s head to face the door, taking a moment to look back to the team before opening its eyes. “Ok, we ready? I’ll open its eyes, and then BOOM we’re in!”

2

Copia herself had a what the fuck moment on Tevis's sudden jump in energy. Obviously not as problematic because as far as Copia knew he couldn't say he stared into the soul of his deceased enemy and instilled fear into them. But still. A cool kind of what the fuck. A cool one. "Aye, sir, ready." (edited)

3

Figuring it might be prudent to stall for a bit so that everyone was ready, Tevis tried once more to make some idle conversation, all the while holding up the heavy-ass tripod alien. “So, what do you all give the overunder of us finding something horrific and or gross immediately after the door opens?”

Copia's eyes twitched at that, as in her mind Tevis technically gave an order to calculate the probability of that happening. "By my calculation, the probability of us opening the door and discovering an outcome qualifying within the relative subjective stimulus response as horrific, gross, terrifying, scary, and overall unpleasant, is approximately 69.42%. I am not making that up."

"Pretty fucking high. Definitely higher than 69%," Allan said, putting one hand on his phaser as he thought about it. "I mean, it requires clearance to get in, that's kinda bad enough of a sign."

"Yeah I'm not expecting a spa in there." She said as she pulled her phaser without a tremble in her hand. "Let's rock and roll."

“69%? Nice!” He said with a chuckle, not even resisting the temptation to laugh at the sophomoric joke that’d been handed to him. “Ok, well, let’s boogie…” He said, before opening the eyes of the Undine, and watching and the scanner beam hit them, hoping that it would work…

3

The Undine wasn’t exactly easy to carry, being an almost ten-foot tall tripedal being clad in metal armour. A lot of dragging plus Copia’s android strength managed to haul them through, however. The next difficult step was hauling them upright so their eyes would be in line with the retinal scanner… And then peeling back an eyelid in order to actually do the scan. Eugh. The away team’s idea worked, however. There was a series of dull clanking noises as locks on the heavy door turned and disengaged. Slowly the door slid open with a groaning sound of metal against metal, the thick, cold mist that had been swirling from under the door intensifying. The frigid air hit immediately: temperatures more than certainly in the minus, and a stark contrast to the rainforest outside. Perhaps that outdoors temperature had been nice after all. When the swirling mist dissipated, the interior of the room became visible. It was a medium size, hexagonal in shape, with four chamber-like pods being set against some of the walls, lain flat on the floor like caskets. Glowing bio-technology lines constantly fed through the walls to the chambers, quite possibly indicating power to them. In the very middle of the room was a transporter pad that looked wide enough for at least three Undine – possibly how they transported prisoners.

She was right! Cryotubes! That's how the prisoners were being held! And... That's why none of them made any effort to reach out for help. All of a sudden, Copia realized how dark the Undine has gotten with their capture methods. To completely silence their prisoners without killing them, was a whole new level of messed up that she didn't even realize. But they were here now... And they had the prisoners in the palm of their hands. "Good God..."

Vara got to work quickly, being a tad desensitized to awful things as she began examining the pods to see how one might be able to free them, and if there was anything that might harm the one inside if they tried to remove them. "Let's see here.."

“Looks like that 69% was right…” He said, before unceremoniously letting the Undine fall to the floor, and wiped his hands on his suit legs quickly after. He took in the space, the horror of it for a moment, before stepping in, and walking up to the nearest pod, unable to see inside, he could only guess who it was. “Ok, time to get to work! We need to figure out how to open the pods and revive the prisoners inside, and then get the fuck out of here!” He said, hoping that the others would have ideas on how to open the pods.

Copia dutifully approached one of the pods, and scoured it from all sides, looking for any semblance of a control panel, or perhaps other scanner technology -- although why would they need more than one round of scanners? Anyway, Copia scoured every inch of that pod to see anything that might be of use.

The cold hit him first before he was able to look around, breathing it in was not exactly the most pleasant, even with all the layers they were wearing - he really was never keen to the cold, anyways. "Yeah, shouldn't be... too complicated..?" he mused, also looking around one of the pods that the others weren't near for any sign of a switch, panel, or lock of some sort.

Unsure of what to do, he aimlessly felt around the pod, slapping the side of it, tapping it, waving his hand, anything he could think of.

The chambers were so cold to the touch that it hurt to physically examine them, the freezing temperature immediately threatening ice burns. Each chamber did seem to have a screen built in, covering the top. The text upon them was Undine but presumably it contained information about the likes of the status of the chamber and the occupant.

5

3

Putting his hand near one of the pods to try and touch one of the screens caused him to instantly take it away before his hand even touched it, realizing that it was insanely fucking cold. "Fucking hell," he whispered, looking to see if there was anywhere he could just plug that isolinear chip from earlier into. Maybe then he'd be able to access the screen through that?

He yanked his hand back as soon as the cold started to get to him. “These things are colder than a witch’s tit! Watch out, they’ll hurt ya!”

3

It seemed Copia was the only one who did not have any sort of reaction to the cold - surprisingly, she thought she'd be on the ground in pain given that in the past she'd been established to be quite ticklish, but apparently she didn't have any reaction to the cold. "It appears I am the only one who can safely touch the pods. If you give me orders on what to do, I should be able to open them without any problem."

“I defer this to the judgment of the ACEO, he knows best in this instance.” He said, delegating to the younger officer, knowing that he’d have some idea about this.

There were a good few ports on the far end of each chamber. Who knew what they were all for, but if isolinear chips had fitted into the generator consoles then it was worth a try here!

"Uhmm.. I'm gonna try plugging the chip into the ports," he said, unsure of it would work, but decided to plug it into the one closest to the screen, whichever one that was.

It worked! The screen upon the chamber started translating into standard. Apparently this chamber belonged to someone named 'M'Zrrol,' a Ferasan. All of their observations were low - slow heart rate, low BP and the likes - which made sense for someone in some form of... Partial stasis? There were readouts on the screen regarding the concentration of some sort of liquid within the chamber too, containing different concentrations of nutrients, minerals, and such... So perhaps this was a little more than the average stasis pod.

He watched with eager anticipation as the screen started to do things. “Report Lieutenant! What does it say?”

"Says the name and species - M'Zrrol, Ferasan, some uhh, medical stuff like heart rate, blood pressure and such, um... and the concentration of the stuff in the liquid of the chamber?" He said, gesturing to the screen. "Could probably try plugging the chip into the others too, to see if there's any difference?"

He shrugged at the suggestion, and was now somewhat optimistic that they would be able to rouse the hostages. “It’s worth a try…”

"On it, then," Allan nodded, and went over to the next chamber to plug in the chip. This time, he also tried to check if there were any obvious mechanisms to safely release the hostages.

Lisa was, of course, shocked to see how the prisoners were kept. It was definitely spooky, and fucked up. Copia had been right with her odds of them finding something weird. She had sort of been expecting the prisoners to be in cells, not in stasis pods. Well, on the bright side, at least they weren’t conscious and aware of their nine months of captivity.

When inserted into the other chambers, the isolinear chip did its job and started translating into Standard. The further three chambers indicated they were inhabited by another Ferasan named H’Reirru, a Romulan curiously marked as ‘Fridge’ tr’Kayton as if they hadn’t been able to work out his real name, and a Human named Rhea Tewari. The latter was presumably the real person, having been replaced by an Undine impostor on the New Dawn. On each chamber there were controls to begin a revival process.

5

6

"Okay, well, the rest are all displaying just fine too, um- should we try to revive Tewari first? She's been here the longest, I think, based on the visitor list we looked at earlier," he said, looking at the controls that would start the revival process, waiting on feedback from the rest of the team before doing anything.

Holy shit, it was Captain Tewari. Lisa had come here primarily to save her old Captain. Tewari should be revived first in Lisa’s humble opinion. “Yes, I think we should revive her first. It’s only right when she’s been here the longest.”

Copia nodded in agreement. She needed to atone for her past mistakes. This. It was part of her penance. "I agree. I vote to revive Captain Tewari first."

“Agreed. I’ve heard of Captain Tewari, maybe she could give us more information about how she and the rest of the hostages ended up here.” He said, nodding to Allan to start the revival process for the Captain. “Go for it Lieutenant.”

With a nod, Allan used the controls that would start said revival process on Captain Tewari's pod, stepping a few steps back from the pod just in case anything weird happened. Like an explosion. As unfortunate as that would be - it was always a possibility, and after everything in the psionic attack, it was still fresh on his mind.

Thankfully there was no explosion. Instead there was a ‘hssssss’ sound as the chamber began to increase in temperature, steadily staring to give off more warmth than the freezing temperatures of moments before. Metal creaked and groaned as it great warmer, and like with the doors, there were a series of clunks and clicks as the locks on the sliding lid of the chamber deactivated.

Copia had to remind herself, reassuring herself, this was not her enemy. Even though she looked and sounded just like Undwari. It wasn't her. She was the real Tewari. Not Undwari... Breathe... Breathe...

“Let’s give her some space when she revives…” He said, taking a pace back.

The lid of the chamber slid to the side, stopping at the wall. In the pitch black of the chamber’s interior the red lighting of two Borg implants flickered to light, still dim compared to the usual glow. If it was any reassurance to Copia, the person contained within this chamber looked far worse off than the Undine that had been held in the brig. Not much remained of a previously toned frame, some Undine form of wetsuit loose around the figure's body. Cheekbones were more pronounced, face almost gaunt; skin ashen and hair greying through a damp fringe. There was no movement, no sound, as if waiting for whoever had activated the chamber to make the first move… But when there was nothing, a shaking hand, dripping some sort of viscous, orange liquid, reached up in an attempt to grasp at the side of the chamber.

7

6

Copia took a second, hoping that Tewari could be able to recover after a few moments of acclimating herself to the new environment she'd been woken up in. This was it. If this worked, then it all would work. "Captain Tewari," Copia spoke aloud. "I am Lieutenant Copia, Mission Specialist from the Federation station Starbase 777. I'm here alongside team leader Lieutenant Commander Tevis Bor Pog, Engineering Lieutenant Allan Allen, Security Lieutenant Lama tr'Ehweia, Intelligence Ensign Vara Zh'rahlor... And I believe you know Lieutenant Lisa Sanders. We're here to rescue you. All of you." (edited)

“Copia, please, give her a moment, she’s likely to be very disoriented. We don’t want to overwhelm her.” He said, his tone taking on a more serious and professional lilt, as he realized the importance and tone of the situation, and the need to step up as a leader in this instance. He stepped up to the pod, and took a moment to take in the state of the Captain, far off from what he’d remembered from her file. He offered his hand for her to take so she could get up out of the gooey chamber. “Captain, I can imagine you’ve been through quite a bit, but I’d like to reassure you we are indeed the real article, and not Undine. As the Lieutenant said, I am Commander Tevis Bor Pog of Starbase 777, we are here to affect the rescue of you and several others. Please take your time, it seems that the Undine have not treated you all as well as they should have.”

“Oh my God.” Lisa whispered, seeing what had been done to her former Captain. She looked absolutely frail and gaunt, nothing like the strong Captain she had once known. But she was alive, her hand had moved. She just hoped that Tewari could make a full recovery, after months of stasis. This was truly awful. She felt no remorse for the deaths of those Undine now, if this had happened to all of their prisoners.

Copia right away realized Tevis was right, and stepped back. "Aye, sir."

1

Tevis was quite right. To her, there were voices from somewhere, muffled and distant and all merging together as her brain struggled to process what was being said, never mind keep up with it all. The faces of these people were indistinct, fuzzy. Even though it was dim in this section of the cave she still grimaced, feeling as though the light was blinding. What she did manage to make out was a hand being offered to her. From what she could process, it was noticeable that things were already different to normal… The normal officers weren’t this slow. The officers would have had her on the transporter pad already, off to wherever the admiral wanted to go through more questions this time. This was different… And disorientated, with no clue of what to do, she made a weak attempt to grasp the hand that had been extended to her.

Notably, given the pitch black interior of the stasis chamber, maybe the cave’s natural lighting did seem blinding despite being so dull. But if you were in stasis then you didn’t see the inside of where you were being kept, right? You were asleep for it all. …And if you were in stasis then your body didn’t change. Your muscles didn’t atrophy. Your hair didn’t start greying. There was more going on here than just stasis.

“Wait.. everyone.. if this was just stasis, she wouldn’t be like this. She’d be the same as she was nine months ago.. something else happened here.” She said in a quieter voice, piecing together the situation. Something more than simple stasis had happened here. Something much more nightmarish, from the looks of it.

As gentle as he could, he took Tewari’s hand and slowly started to pull her up out of the tank with a deftness the tactical officer usually didn’t employ. While he did hear what Lisa was saying, his full attention at the moment was on making sure the Captain fully came back to her wits (or as much as she could in that moment). “Easy does it Captain, I can imagine you’re quite out of it.” He said before returning his attention back to the team for a moment. “We need to figure out exactly what has happened here and soon, I have a feeling things going forward are going to get much more complicated, especially given the transporter inhibitors.”

7

Vara blinked as she looked at them. “Hey uh, is something wrong with em? They kind of seem like they’ve been uh, exhausted, or syphoned? Could we like run a few scans on them?”

“We definitely should run as many scans as possible, get a record of everything in here.” He said, still making sure Tewari didn’t keel over.

Tevis definitely would have had to do most of the work, all but dragging Tewari upright. She wobbled on her feet, and definitely would have been using Tevis as a crutch had he not been. Well. A little vertically challenged. She simply stood there, swaying, dazed and dripping from that thick liquid from the chamber’s interior.

4

Any tricorder scans showed the same as what the screens on the chambers indicated. These pods were capable of stasis, but the liquid wasn’t required. It seemed that the liquid was tailored to each species, containing different nutrients that could be absorbed through the skin… Just enough to keep a person alive if they were awake in the chamber.

7

5

Vara had been doing some scanning with her tricorder. “Hmmm, yeah. This ain’t good. It looks like the liquid wasn’t required for the stasis, it’s just enough to keep each person alive if they were awake.” She said with a chill. “Freaky. We should torch these pods.”

"Uh, torching would not be great, actually," Allan said with a nervous laugh, hoping that was just a joke. "Well, might be fine after we get these people outta here. Should I get the rest of 'em out...?" He asked, going over to one of the other pods and hovering over the release mechanism for that one as well.

Lama looked at the stasis chambers and then at his team. He was happy to see Tewari but... "... Yeah, we need to free them but umm," Something about this seemed really ominous, but then again Lama had not been feeling well since their first encounter so it could have been just is latent Romulan paranoia finally being let out.

"Please do. Lets get them out revived and lets get out of here as quickly as possible, it doesn't feel...right in here." He said, having felt the telepath equivalent of the 'screaming willies' from the moment he stepped into the room.

Copia didn't want Lama, Allan, or Vara to have to free the others alone. She stepped right to Allan and Vara's aid. "I shall assist in any way you need it," Copia said. "Especially if the others need help exiting from their pods."

Allan nodded, and immediately released one pod after the other. "Everyone can take one..?" He asked as he clicked through the release mechanism on the last pod.

Copia waited just a minute longer before approaching the pod closest to her, and observing, closely, carefully, when the occupant inside would be trying their best to emerge. Thank goodness they weren't zombies, though. Zombies were Copia's WORST fear. Although she never told anyone that except Tobias. Not even Yoro'clis knew. Whatever, she held out her hand when she felt it appropriate for the occupant to grab hold.

Lama nodded and looked pensively at the pods, approaching one of the pods near him. His whole body was shaking and his mind was racing. There was a reason he had stayed silent throughout their walk here, he had... So many things going on. Lama just wanted to break down crying and screaming, but he couldn't do that now, he needed to focus on freeing the prisoners. So he looked at Allan and nodded to acknowledge he was ready.

2

Like with the first chamber, there was a moment or so when they began to raise in temperature before the lids slowly slid to the side, metal creaking as it did so. From two of the chambers there was silence, the occupants possibly trying to work out what was going on… But from the third – the one that Copia was closest to – there was a groan of complaint.

Lost in the bio-gunk sauce with fur plastered down with wetness was a white-furred Ferasan. “Uuuuughghghg,” he groaned, and tried to curl up into a circle as much he could with the limited space. “I’m not answering any questions today. Five more minutes…*

5

Lisa nodded, walking over to the pod nearest to her. She held her hand out for the occupant to take once the pod opened. All of this was just so horrible. It was all a form of torture, it was something Lisa could barely comprehend.

Unfortunately, Copia tried to figure out how to pronounce the man's name, so she just returned to ol' reliable. "Er... sir? Sir, please, you need to wake up," Copia said. "We're going to get you out of here."

"Yeah, what she said. You don't gotta answer shit, but we gotta getchya outta here, man," Allan said, sighing as he bent down next to the pod now and offered his hand. "We don't really have five minutes, I'm afraid." Cause literally any bad shit could happen at any moment. The Undine could descend from the ceiling like Sadhbh did that one time. (edited)

There was a second where he tried to curl back up further, but then the Ferasan blinked an eye open. “Get me out of here? We’re leaving? Is there a new base somewhere?”

And from the chamber that Lisa was closest to, a hand suddenly shot up and grabbed her by the wrist. With a surprising strength, they pulled with all their might and tried to drag Lisa down into the chamber with them.

2

Right away Copia saw danger with the other occupant trying to pull Lisa in. And so, without any hesitation, as Allan had M'Zrrol taken care of, Copia dashed over to Lisa and offered Lisa her hand. "Lisa! Give me your hand! I'll keep you above the chamber!"

"Rescuing you. We're not those Undine motherfuckers, c'mon." He explained, "we can explain more on the way if you want, but for now we gotta get moving, yeah?"

Even while acting as a crutch for Tewari, Tevis shook his head and facepalmed, muttering under his breath. "Jesus fucking Christ..."

Lama leaped and headed to the pod that Lisa was near and started to slap at the person's arms to try and get them to stop. Lama made some incoherent grunting noises, but he was very upset and not going to tolerate any sass, even if this person was super beefy and Lama was very much not.

3

Lisa, of course, objected to being pulled into the orange goo tank. She, having not been trapped for months and instead having worked out for months, pulled back, taking Copia’s hand to hopefully get them both out of the tank. Still, she didn’t try to hurt the person in the chamber- they were only a victim. “It’s alright, we’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to rescue you, nothing bad will happen to you.” She said in a surprisingly calm voice.

And with all her android strength, she pulled, and pulled, and pulled, to ensure she and Lisa were evenly strong against the occupant inside, hopefully enough so to be able to pull him out. Copia stomped onto the floor to ensure enough traction from her boots and pulled. Although, Copia was obviously careful not to dislocate Lisa's arm. Because that would be bad.

5

”Woah woah woah, slow down, buddy-o.” The Ferasan sat up in the chamber but looked somewhat unhappy with it. Not that Ferasans were cats, but he really did look like a grouchy cat with his fur plastered down and his ears flattened back on his head. “What Undine? Are you survivors? Or are you just pretending, and you’re the bad guys who wiped everyone out?”

The Romulan never relinquished his grasp on Lisa’s wrist, using both her and Copia dragging backwards to get himself upright instead. The man was near-bald, with a deep scar up one side of his face, and was built like a fridge, one might say. “Like hell you’re here to rescue anyone! You’re the enemy! C’mere, you’re not gonna kill anyone else!” Shivering and swaying a little, he still did his best to square up.

Thinking extra quickly, Copia hit a button right at the point where her skin met her hairline on the back of her neck. And POP! A section of her head swiveled up, revealing cybernetic links and definitely non-Undine android components visible. "We're not the enemy. See? We're real. In the flesh and blood, or in my case, metal and circuitry. We're with Starfleet. We're going to get you out of here."

"Some motherfuckers called Undine kidnapped you all and put you in these," Allan gestured to the pod M'Zrrol was in, "and her over there-" he gestured to Tewari, "was in one too, and we know her, and an Undine was like, impersonating her and so we found out that the real her and a bunch of other prisoners including yourself were here," he tried to explain. "We're here to get you to an actually safe place and not a place where you're stuck in these pods, yeah? Back to wherever you're from."

"Hey buddy," Lama stopped at Fridge, although his hands did slap his bald head a couple times. "We're the good guys! I swear!" Lama exclaimed, throwing his hands up. When the dude was upright, Lama could see his face clearly and realised hey-- same species! "You can trust me, we're both Romulan-- wait that may make things seem more suspicious- ahhhh!!" Lama backed up and crossed his arms, slightly scared of this beefy guy.

“Well that’s not right.” He said to Allan. He seemed content to sit in da sauce, tail swishing through it. He crossed his arms grumpily, but was being far more chill than Fridge over at the other chamber. “We saw everything get destroyed. Ferasa, Nausicaa, Qo’noS, Khitomer. All of the KDF is gone. There aren’t Undine here. Just Dahar Masters, trying to work out how to rebuild. They keep asking me questions so they can re-build the Chamber of Alliance.”

Vara meanwhile stood watch while everyone was trying to calm down the rest of the captured. Phaser drawn near the entrance as she looked out. It would only be a matter of time till they sent more.

”WHAT THE EVER-LOVING FUCK,” he exclaimed at seeing Copia’s cybernetic ports just. Open up from nowhere. “SO IT WAS ANDROIDS WHO WIPED US OUT! THE ZHAT VASH WERE RIGHT!” And with that, he lunged forwards – but slipped, and smashed his head off the edge of the chamber instead. Ouch.

6

Lisa didn’t square up, actually, she took a step back. She wasn’t scared of him, she had fought worse, but she could also be extremely intimidating what with the muscles and scars. She didn’t want to seem any more threatening to any of the prisoners. She looked pretty cool and calm for someone who had almost been dragged into a vat of goo. “You’ve been trapped here for months. Nothing’s been destroyed. The Undine were using psionic attacks to cloud your minds and make you believe something that wasn’t real. Everything outside is safe, exactly as it was when you were kidnapped by these people. They were asking you questions in the hope they could take more people for whatever reason, and do more damage to everything else.”

“Buddy, the only reason you are out of that pod because of that android’s help. So maybe show some damn respect.” She said to Fridge.

There was only a dull groan from Fridge in response. That slip may very well have given him a good concussion.

Copia tried to do her best to explain that she was not responsible for that. Well, as much as she could. The Synth Ban? Yeah. Not a time she even remembered. "Sir, not all of us are--" Fridge go thud. "--androids... ergh."

2

“Vara, please don’t antagonize the prisoners. They’ve spent months being tormented by those bastards, give them a break.” Lisa said in a matter-of-fact way, not confrontational at all. Lisa was very interested in not being confrontational right about now.

"Just listen to them, they're telling the truth. We need to get you all mobile and out of here now! We do not have the time for this..." He said with a deep sigh. "Everyone, lets get our shit together and get moving, no time to argue!" He said, letting every ounce of command and authority he could into his voice.

"Yeah, I did too. I did - well, different planets, but - these Undine, they fuck up your brain, alright? Make you see visions of all that shit. It seems real. It seems so fucking real, man, and everyone in this room know what I mean - except the android, but um- point is, those places are still there, I fucking promise you. On my fucking life, dude." He held out his hand palm up again. "Even if I'm some sus guy or whatever you can easily overtake me, okay? If I end up being evil or whatever go ahead, but like - really. This is a rescue mission. I swear."

“There are others working to save anyone else still here. You were taken to be replaced in whatever positions of power you had, like on the New Dawn for instance. We need your help to right the wrongs these lot did in your place. In simple terms, you provide a value that we can’t squander. This isn’t malicious.” She said from her corner.

"Umm," Lama pulled out his tricorder to scan Fridge to make sure he was alright after that bump. He was hostile sure, but they were here to save the prisoners, not cause them more harm. He let the others speak as he focused on making sure this angry beefy guy was okay.

8

7

Copia knelt down to Fridge's side, offering him her hand. She'd do whatever it took to help him up. "Sir, please, you have to trust us. Let's go!"

In the chaos of the other two being woken up, the person in the last pod had been eerily quiet. They had been watching, listening, observing – as best they could through the freezing cold and the pounding in their head that came with all of the sudden noise. A clawed, paw-like hand appeared at the edge of their chamber. Then another. Then their feet… And then they pounced, a second Ferasan now hurtling straight towards Vara.

6

The white Ferasan still seemed quite unhappy with the situation… But actually seemed to be considering this officer’s words. He blinked a couple of times to try to clear his vision and work out who this guy was. Everything had seemed so strange. He had thought that those images of wars and conflicts weren’t quite right. Every Klingon Empire citizen learned about Praxis, and it had been shown in the footage. “…How do I know to trust you?”

There was a low grumble from Fridge as Lama got close. He turned his head to look at the approaching officer, but didn’t try to move. “…Romulans conspiring with the Androids… My grandma was Zhat Vash. She would have been so sad…” He actually sniffed then, voice wobbling. It appeared that everything was hitting him all at once. The list had said that he had been here for the least amount of time. “If that freaky android vision hadn’t driven her insane…”

Vara could hear them coming just barely to dodge out of the. “Woah! Oi come off it.” She said as she tried to appear less hostile. “I’m not trying to fight you!”

Lisa, however, was quick. She pushed Vara out of the way of the incoming Ferasan, hoping to miss the attack

Tevis was frozen in place, as he wanted to help Vara out, but couldn't without letting Tewari drop like a sack of potatoes, and was thankful to see Lisa help her out in the last moment.

"Stop the fuck!" Lama exclaimed suddenly at Copia before realising what he was doing and he quickly apologised. "Sorry I.." Lama shook his head and looked back at the beefy Romulan. "Yeah umm... I.." Lama shuttered at the words 'Zhat Vash'. Although he was obviously not part of the Zhat Vash, the Tal Shiar was one in the same with them. He back up and put his tricorder down. "Copia, I think you should talk to him," and with that Lama stepped away and went to go see what the Feresans were up to.

Copia nodded to Lama. She didn't know enough about the Synth Ban to speak on it without butchering details. But there was something she did know. "Sir, please, the Synth Ban is over," Copia said. "I can assure you, I have no interest in conspiring against you. I'm trying to save you! I'm not like what you've heard."

Allan wasn't exactly sure how to answer that question. His first response was going to be something along the lines of 'I'm just a silly little guy', but that was not really the answer. "Um, other than saying that we're Starfleet officers, I'm not really good with thinking of answers to stuff, but like I said, like, any place is better than here, okay? If at some point you think I'm betraying your trust or something you can just leave, yeah? You can follow us up to whatever point you want, but - really, please," he was running out of words at this point. He never had many to begin with.

“I don’t care about any synth ban,” he mumbled, apparently close to sobbing. From where he was lying face-first in da sauce, he put his arms above his head and placed his chin on them. He was incredibly well built, but it would appear that his emotional strength definitely didn’t match his physical strength at present. “You’re the enemies… You destroyed all of the Republic… And now you’ve come for the only survivors. Just get it over with…”

5

The white Ferasan shook his head. “Starfleet doesn’t exist. They got us all. Everyone. Even-“ But then he stopped suddenly, eyes widening as they focussed on what was going on behind them. He had just seen a black Ferasan launch themselves at some people. “SISTER?!”

6

"Tell that to the totally sexy Starfleet combat unif-" Allan was promptly and honestly rightfully interrupted by what seemed to be a family reunion occurring. "Yeah, uhm, that your sister? Might be worth getting out of the tank to say hi, yeah?"

Lama turned his back to the Fridge Romulan, trying to pretend he didn't hear him. He knew he wasn't Undine, but his words were... Not the best to hear at that moment. "Yeah, if you need help getting out of the tank I'm here!" Lama said to the Feresan, offering out both arms to help.

That was enough to get him to his feet. Sorry Lama, no help required! He didn’t have the same agility as H’Reirru and couldn’t fling himself as they had, still shivering and certainly wobbly, but as soon as he was down from the chamber he made a beeline for them.

5

And M’Zrrol’s shout had been enough to stop them in their tracks. They turned to Rol in disbelief… And sprang forward to close the gap as he headed towards them, the two immediately folding into a hug. “They told me you were dead,” they muttered, voice hoarse from disuse. “They told me everyone was dead…”

6

5

Immediately, Copia had to think fast. She didn't know what else to say. So, she decided not to. Instead, she thought Tobias would do it. "From my own father." She said, before she played an audio recording back: "My Copia. I'm so, so sorry about what happened to you. I can't believe the Zhat Vash did this to Starfleet. To the galaxy. No one deserved it. Synth, or not. Especially you. 14 years underground hasn't done you much good. It's safe for you to go back out there. It's safe for you to spread your wings and fly. I want that for you. That's what you deserve." When the recording ended, Copia simply said... "Does that sound like the father of someone who would destroy your Republic?"

6

“Oh cool. I was gonna make like a joke about how I like my women aggressive and what not, but sibling affection is pretty cool.” She said with finger guns at the siblings.

5

His words were muffled from where he had his head down in the crook of his arms, mostly talking into da sauce… And maybe slurring a bit, given how hit he had thwunked his head on the way down. “…You’re really not the bad guys?” He sniffed, listening to Copia’s message. “Who are the bad guys..? I should fight them… Defend the remains of th' Republic…”

5

Lama watched the touching reunion and then looked over at Vara when she began talking. It seemed like things were going well so far... ish. He glanced at Copia who was chatting with the Romulan, proud of her for doing the talking but he felt so so guilty. They were being the good guys here, rescuing people, but he felt like the bad guy. At least the beefy guy seemed to be coming to his senses and seeing they were not going to hurt them.

Now that nobody seemed to be actively swinging at eachother anymore, Allan started looking around to see if there was any further continuation or exit, that wasn't the one they'd just come through. They had to get out of here somehow, and that had to do with turning the rest of the generators off, right? Somewhere... he looked at his tricorder to see if it knew like it knew the other locations. Tapped it if it wasn't working for good measure.

Copia slightly stepped towards Fridge, while still giving him space. A smile appeared on her face. "Well, it just so happens that, you might be able to fight them," she said. "A species of shapeshifting beings known as the Undine. They've kept you here. In stasis. For far too long. We're going to get you out of here. If any of the Undine are left here... you might get to fight them."

“…Undine. I’ll get ‘em all.” He moved to stretch both arms up to the edge of the chamber’s side. He then hoisted himself up – but not far enough. Slipping and sliding, he slid right out and onto the floor.

5

6

5

"Lieutenant..." He said, getting Allan's attention. "Do you know any way out of here?"

Lama jumped when Fridge fell to the ground and-- okay he laughed. He legitimately laughed, but then went to go assist him. "Hey," Lama offered out his hand. He wasn't planning on interacting with him again but he still was going to help him! He felt awkward doing it but, whatever, they were here to help the prisoners. His little internal battle was his fight alone. For another time.

5

The tricorder's screen once again indicated the generator consoles - the next of which was ages across the terrasphere. However, when Allan tapped the screen, it started picking up something else. It indicated the power source for these chambers, leading somewhere nearby. Perhaps there would be a direct link to the generators aside from the consoles that Intelligence had scanned...

From his position on the floor, the giant Romulan groaned again before reaching out and grabbing Lama's hand. He hauled himself to his feet but slumped over, right onto Lama's shoulder. The guy really was large, but luckily he didn't knock Lama off his feet... And he didn't seem combative any more either, simply confused and concussed.

Lama steadied himself as he supported the beefy guy. It was a good thing he was half Romulan and had the strength of a Vulcanoid. Had he been fully Betazoid, he would have probably crumbled, but then again if he were fully Betazoid... maybe less people would have been hurt by his actions. He quickly pushed those thoughts aside and patted the guy's back. "Eyy, you think you can try standing again my guy?" Lama asked with nervous laughter.

Fuck yeah, the good tap and it'll work better method! Turns out silly tech methods were working really well for the engineer this mission. "Seems like the power source for the chambers is going uh, that way, Commander," he pointed to wherever the tricorder was saying it went. Through some sort of door maybe? A creepy vent they had to crawl through? "Might lead to everything else too. Like a master operations center or something?"

There was a grumble and he hauled himself upright, but then groaned and slumped down again. Nope, sorry. Lama’s shoulder belonged to him now. The guy was **definitely concussed.

3

In the background, despite still being suspicious of everything going on, Rol and Rei had been actively trying to calm one another down. Everything hurt – light, sound, touch – but the fact was that one another was alive when they had both been told otherwise. They wouldn’t have found that out without the help of these Power-Rangers-looking Starfleet officers here.

8

7

This room was hexagonal shaped: one side had the entrance, four sides had stasis pods… And the other side had what looked like another thin corridor. The tricorder pointed to head that way, and the green, vein-like lines of Undine bio-tech power seemed to flood in from that direction too.

"Lead the way Lieutenant...I'm ready to get out of here..." He said, gesturing towards the direction the tricorder had shown. He then turned and spoke up to the rest of the team in what was just below a growly-shout. "Everyone! We're moving out! Let's go!"

Vara nodded as she moved with Trevis. “Come on siblings! We’re getting you out of here.”

Lama wrapped his arms around Fridge so he could move whilst still supporting the guy. He still felt guilt but.. Maybe it was okay if he could prove to himself that he was better than his past self. Alright, new motivation, do his best to help Fridge, Romulans supporting Romulans, fuck yeah! "Umm..." Lama spoke up, realising he could not be very nimble or fight-ready when he was carrying Fridge. He would typically haul the dude on his shoulder as if he were Terran Jesus hauling a sheep (sheperd's pose for any art history fans), but Fridge was just too heavy and big. Lama was cursing his Romulan mother for not giving him the tall genes at that moment.

"Aiight," Allan said, following said order and stepping into the thin corridor the tricorder had pointed to, keeping an eye out for descending monkeys or other creatures and whatnot. "Got everybody?" Four prisoners. There should be four, if he looked back at them all.

"Yeah, I got this one," Lama flexed his back muscles so he could carry Fridge better. He really hoped this guy would wake up, but if not maybe staying back from the fighting wouldn't be a bad idea considering his mind was still recovering.

3

Tevis marched on ahead with Tewari in tow, sure that everyone else would be along shortly with their assigned prisoner. Like a girlscout hike, but with adults, and on an alien spacestation in another dimension, and with a criminal lack of cookies.

4

Actually, they had plenty of cookies! Most of which were with Allan, but the grandma on Kahless Street gave out plenty! In fact, just as a demonstration of such a fact, he decided to eat one for some quick energy as they walked through the corridor to hopefully a power source or something. Tricorders didn't lie, right?

5

Lisa was following close behind Lama and Fridge. She saw that Lama was struggling a little, and wondered if he needed an extra hand. “Lama, if you need any help, I can help carry him so you’re more prepared if we need to fight again.”

Meanwhile, while all of the prisoners were being helped, Copia kept watch of any 'friends' that might have begun to make their way towards them. She didn't know! How would anyone else? So her eyes darted back and forth in all directions searching for any trace of 'friends.'

"Warbirds in a flock, numbers on the clock, that's some warbird attack patterns, there's some whores in this sphere there's--" Lama began to sing softly to himself as he breathed in and out. He was only interrupted by Lisa who offered him help. "Nah, I got it. We're Romulan, we gotta stick together, I can do it," Lama said with his mind fully focused. He was back in battle mode, well, carrying this guy and keeping his mind safe from any psonic attacks mode!

Vara moved towards Copia with a hum as she looked to her. “Hey, good job Copia.”

1

3

Copia's eyes darted to Vara. Good job...? But Copia didn't even do anything...? Did she? She must have been missing something. But hey, maybe Vara had something else in mind that she did that was considered a good job? What was a good job, anyway? Shit. Deep philosophical questions. Oh well. "Huh? Oh! Thank you, Vara, er... a good job in doing what, exactly?"

Vara giggled as she looked to her. “Being you, you’ve done great at every turn this mission.” She said with a smile. “And just being a good gal.”

3

If Copia could blush, she would be hardcore blushing right about... now. With an unintentional giggle back to Vara, Copia couldn't help but feel like she had finally accomplished something that seemed truly impossible. She felt so much more alive, so much more awake! So much more... her. Of course, Copia couldn't take all the credit. "Oh, Vara... thank you. I've genuinely tried my best. And you... you've excelled in every way possible. You're a good gal too. You really are."

There was no complaint about her being practically dragged along by Tevis. During all of the commotion she had been completely silent, not a single word spoken.

Fridge was still speaking though. In his concussed, mumbling state, he still managed to start muttering along with Lama’s lyrics. “Tha’s some warbir’ attack patterns…”

4

And Allan’s tricorder didn’t lie. The corridor that led away was winding, seemingly following the natural ‘cave’ system that had been generated by the terrasphere. At least the way was lined by metal walls and flooring as opposed to them having to clamber their way over uneven terrain. Although, the terrasphere must have still been glitching somewhat. In a cave it might have generated bats… But instead, while marching through the corridors, a sudden group of butterflies swarmed From the ceiling, frantically fluttering about the faces of the away teams.

11

10

10

10

10

8

Lama's eyes widened and a big grin appeared on his face. He knew the song?! Lama was just about to continue singing when the swarm of butterflies suddenly appeared. Having very little knowledge of terran animals he shut his eyes and held his breath, trying not to drop Fridge in his own terror. This was how he was gonna die, these terran creatures! He knew what bees were, and these were not it!

5

6

Lisa, who had had enough of this bullshit by now and didn’t assign pretty privilege to animals, simply swatted the butterflies away from her face and kept going. Lisa didn’t care about the butterflies. They weren’t even real anyhow. Lisa had things to do. “Fucking butterflies, really? Not even dangerous, just annoying.”

7

He looked back for just a moment to see butterflies, and let out a soft chuckle, shaking his head incredulously as he muttered under his breath. "Be glad those are butterflies and not psychotic monkeys..."

6

Copia let a butterfly land on her finger, calmly letting them pass her by when... "Hey! I liked that monkey!"

3

As he was leading the group through the tunnels, the metal and the cave seemed pretty safe for now, and they were just headed down, and - then, at the front of the group, he stood still as he heard the sound of butterflies swarming before he saw them. Tons of them. And there wasn't a single thought in his brain for a moment as he stood completely still, the tricorder blinking idly in his hand.

1

1

“You’re quite right, sir. But maybe don’t tempt fate.” She chuckled as well.

Vara gasped as she pressed a kiss to Copia’s check. “Thanks, Copes.” Vara gasped as the butterflies. “Wow….”

1

"O-Oh, I was about to say my goodbyes," Lama laughed nervously when he realised the butterflies were harmless. That was good, at least it wasn't bees, because they did sting. He continued to walk and carry Fridge with him, he was going to get all his steps in that day!

“Nope, they’re harmless. They don’t bite or sting. But I daresay the butterfly garden back on 777 is going to have a far different vibe now.” Lisa joked.

BLUSSSSHHHHHH!!!! Copia had practically completely let the fear of the Undine, of the whole terrasphere escape her! Jeez, did Vara have a doctorate's in how to be legit, hands-down, the BEST friend she's ever had?? Copia felt her cheek with her hand... wow... it was so... warm.

The butterflies continued to swarm, but it seemed they weren't doing so maliciously. They were just spooked. A few actually started to settle, landing on the heads and shoulders of the away team and the prisoners. One landed directly on Lama's nose... Although now it wasn't the butterflies holding anything up. It was the fact that, at the front of the away team, Allan had gone completely still.

7

Vara blushed as she looked at Copia. “That uh, wasn’t too much right?”

1

Lama flinched and shook his head to try and get the butterfly off. Between the delicate wings he saw his friend in the front go completely still and stopped in his tracks. "Guys..." Lama would have held his hands out to signal to the others to stop as well, but they were too busy holding up Fridge.

As if Copia suddenly were injected with happy serum - if that was even a thing - Copia shook her head with a smile at Vara. "Nuh-uh! Not too much! First time!" Was... was Copia okay? "Noooope! Not too much!" Apparently so.

They were, in fact, landing on people - and therefore on him as well. His shoulders, his arms, his tricorder - one on his nose that opened up its wings, a metallic blue with orange spots at the end. If he was thinking anything coherent right now, he would identify it as a pipevine swallowtail, but his brain only registered it as familiar in relation to the rainforest, familiar as in relation to what the Undine had told him earlier when they got his blood on their claws - and while he was completely still before, his tricorder dropped from his hands before he fell back some, catching himself and gasping for air. It seemed he hadn't been breathing before that. Woops. "Um-" he shakily bent down to pick the tricorder back up, but the butterfly had still been on it somehow. How could he disturb it? If he picked the tricorder back up, what would happen to it? Would it get caught in something? Would it fly away safely? Would it fly away only to a few seconds later, disappear forever in an unexplained commotion?

6

9

8

7

8

Vara smiled lightly. “Well, I can give you more than a cheek kiss.” She said. “If you want!”

1

2

"Allan? Allan," Lama took a deep breath and jogged forward with Fridge still in tow. He stopped when he was shoulder to shoulder with his friend and looked him in the eyes. "You good?"

1

Copia giddily let out an unhinged giggle at that-- wait. They were on a mission after all. But... Vara! And--ergh... "When we get back? Don't want, uh... our friends to interrupt it? I promise. When we get back."

She nodded with a smile. “Fine, back to the ship.” She said with a smirk.

1

Tevis turned around to watch the chaos going on behind him, and didn't even resist the urge to faceplam. With a deep sigh, he turned to look at the still incoherent Tewari with an apologetic, exasperated look. "Sorry Captain, they're not usually like this..." He said, before marchong along further, not even acknowledging what was going on further back in the group anymore.

5

And Copia could only snicker as her head fell into her hand, and she started laughing into it. Ahh, this mission went from what-the-fuck-oh-my-god-i'm-gonna-die to the most fun ever!

Himself and Rei had been supporting one another, in the middle of the group. When they came to a halt the two of them looked ahead, and Rol called over. "Hey, guy-who-is-definitely-not-a-bad-guy-and-might-be-our-rescuer! You good?"

6

2

After hearing some of the prisoners as well as Lama check in with Allan, Tevis subtely projected a low-level telepathic sense of calm, hoping that would help Allan, even just a little.

1

Lama's attempt to check up on him was surely an attempt. While he didn't catch the look in the eyes - his eyes were fully locked onto his tricorder and the butterfly resting on it as he was in the same squat on the ground that he'd bent down into to pick it up. But he heard the man, at least. Faintly. But he heard him. "I'm, um-" he remained still, as if fearing that if he moved, everything would go wrong again. He fully expected that something would happen. That someone would be yelling in his face soon, and then he heard someone else ... address him? They asked if he was good, he thought. Something like that. And he sort of wished he could say 'yuhh, we good', but... "no?"

8

At hearing Allan was not, in fact good, Tevis looked to Vara and Copia, leveling them with a highly unimpressed look. "You two, cut that out. There is a time and place for that, and now is most certainly not the time nor place. Understood?" He asked rhetorically, before turning to face Allan, giving him a soft, understanding smile, before speaking in a soft, calm voice. "Is there anything we can do to help you Lieutenant?"

7

2

Lama looked over at Tevis when he sensed the other was using his telepathy. "We should probably keep our telepathy down for now, you know, in case Undine can hear us," He told the CTO, thinking that the Undine had caught them earlier when they were telepathically talking. Seeing how the Undine were superior telepaths, they could probably 'hear' them. Lama's attention then turned back to Allan when the other spoke up. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but he had seen it before. He had seen it in his older brother soon after arriving at the Flotilla. Lama spoke up softly, "It's alright, Allan. It's going to be okay, take deep breaths, we'll be good."

Despite not having said a word, still appearing completely dazed and barely able to stand, there was a very slight nod from the Captain following Tevis’s words. Perhaps there was some awareness of what was going on – and a sense of approval at what he was doing.

7

Well, if Copia were to get in trouble for anything, she'd certainly take this over not fulfilling job duties. She legitimately had not noticed anything going on with Allan - and once she did realize something was going on with him, Copia immediately changed her tune. "Understood, sir," Copia's responsible lieutenant voice returned as her attention turned to Allan. She looked at Lama, unsure if anything she said would help Lama out.

The calm vibes perhaps helped. Or perhaps it was the calm voices around him of Tevis and Lama, and while he still couldn't quite see them, he could make out what they were saying a little clearer now. "I, um. I don't-" he'd meant to say he didn't know, but he had started to get that feeling in the back of his throat to where if he did say anything else, it'd come out in a choked sob. And that was exactly what happened when he answered Lama, although he at least took one good deep breath before that. "Is it??" he tried to take another deep breath but it got worse as he started hyperventilating instead, pulling himself to fully sit on the ground now and move away from the tricorder and towards.. who the fuck knew what. At some point he tried to find where the voices were coming from. He probably saw Tevis first by sheer virtue of him being the closest to his level (sorry Tevis). "I'm not- it's not.."

9

7

Lama took a deep breath so he could slowly crouch down. Despite his sub-par marks on his physical fitness exams, he had quite good squatting form which allowed him to get down to Allan's level even with Fridge leaning up against him. "Sorry dude, Allan needs my help," He whispered a soft apology to the large Romulan he was supporting. His voice was breathy and soft and definitely sound more sensual than he had planned. With himself lowered into a squatting position, he could look Allan eye to eye. "It's okay to not be fine, we got your back, well, me and Tevis for sure," Lama was honestly not sure about Copia and Vara, but he was trying not to think about how in the Romulus those two could be flirting at a time like this. He spoke softly to Allan, actually speaking Standard for once. His strong Rihan accent coming through with each syllable, but he knew how important it was to speak another person's language at a time like this,

1

The more Copia noticed how pained Allan seemed with what was going on inside his mind, the more Copia sobered up back to the reality of it all. It didn't matter that she was formerly having a good time - what mattered was that a member of her team was not well. At all. Especially given that there was no Undine control that Copia could see. And from the looks of it Allan wasn't seeming to be getting any better. Copia made sure that, upon arrival back to 777, she would surely write a full, formal written apology to Allan, Lama, Tevis and Lisa for her deviation in her behavior and educate herself on whatever condition Allan was undergoing, at the bare minimum. But right now? Right now Allan needed support. So Copia stood by, respectfully, and silently, in the event Lama needed a hand. (edited)

"We're here for you, whatever you need." He said, lowering himself to be fully eye-level with Allan, keeping his voice low and calm, as well as his posture and expression open and neutral.

1

He covered his mouth with his hand in some sort of attempt to stop crying and slow his breathing, but it didn't really work out too well. Well, it did somehow help slow his breathing, which was good, at least, and he took some more deep breaths as he looked from Tevis to Lama, tears still running down his face but... both of them were looking him in the eyes, both of them were ... calm. Nobody was shoving him, nobody was yelling at him... "Y-yeah, I-" he was glad for the eye contact. Because it allowed him to keep his eyes open. Who the fuck knew what would happen if he closed them. The normal visions of this type of attack were enough for him, combine that with memory of the psionic attacks from the Undine earlier of even further explosions... no, he had to keep his focus on those in front of him right now. "I.. I need to ... to get my s-shit together, right? To um, um." He swallowed, trying to stop the choking feeling in his throat from crying, looking away around the room for a moment, "can, um.. someone," he took a deep breath again, "someone else needs to.. needs to take the- the tricorder."

8

7

"It's all good, bro, you don't need to rush. Things have been stressful and it's perfectly fine to need a breather," Lama reached forward to grab the tricorder, making sure not to touch the little butterfly that had landed on top of it, He then turned his head to look at Fridge and went back into power lifter Lama mode. He hoisted himself and the beefy Romulan up with him with the tricorder in hand. "I got this," Lama felt a strong sense of duty. It wasn't just about getting them out of this hellsphere or about the prisoners. He... Felt like he owed a lot to the universe. For all he had done. He had certainly repented for his past wrongdoings, but now was his chance to really show it with action. On that shuttle on that faithful day he was taken to the Free State, he told himself he would get strong so that he could protect others. It was finally his chance to do that. He was going to protect his friends, new and old. "I'll lead the way, someone needs to help Allan," Lama looked at the rest of the team, seeing if anyone was unoccupied and prepared to help Allan.

6

Tevis crouched down next to Allan, and ran a reassuring and comforting hand up and down the engineer's back, nodding up at Lama when he took the tricorder. "Thanks Lieutenant, I'll take care of Lieutenant Allen here. You go on ahead." He said with a soft smile to the Romulan/Betazoid.

4

With Fridge on his back and the tricorder in his hand, Lama looked down to check the readings of where to go next. He assumed forward, but he had to make sure.

4

He spoke in low tones to Allan, wrapping a small arm around the much larger Human's shoulder. "We can go whenever you're ready, no rush, ok Lieutenant?" He said, leveling him with a soft smile.

4

Allan nodded slowly when Lama told him it was okay to take a breather. God, what a fucking.. what a fucking normal response to him having an emotional breakdown, and yet he had been led to believe in 2411, before he ever came to this starbase, that a normal reaction to having any sort of emotional outburst was being told you were being unprofessional and insubordinate and- this was. This was the opposite of that. "Thanks," he whispered eventually as he watched Lama go on, and he closed his eyes to let the tears flow a little bit more freely out of his eyes as he gave a very small smile to Tevis when the other gave him a pat on the back. And as much as he tried, he was full-on sobbing by the time Tevis's arm was around his shoulder. He was there like that for a moment before he just leaned his head on Tevis's shoulder to cry and held him in a hug. He might actually be okay after all. Maybe. With any luck. And mostly friends and people who supported him. Especially those, actually.

7

"Its ok buddy, let it out, I'm here for you..." He said, not quite using telepathy, but definitely leaning on that Betazoid empathy, along with the fact he just, genuinely cared for everyone around him, especially thoses under is command. He hugged Allan close, even though the Human was far bigger than he was, and hummed a quiet, rambling melody his mother used to do for him as a child before the accident. "When we get back to the station, if you'd like to chat about this, or anything else, just know I'm here for you ok Lieutenant?" He said, locking eyes with Allan before patting his hair softly.

7

Copia followed silently, and would not utter a single word for the remainder of the mission unless spoken to by a higher ranking officer. Not after this.

It was a while of a little more crying, a lot more deep breaths, and a genuinely relaxed sigh when Tevis hummed a tune - he wasn't familiar with it, but it was a melody, it was music, it was - something that in any situation was bound to bring some sort of positive feeling to him. "I.." he broke away from the hug to look at Tevis and actually smiled at the pat to his hair - something he usually was not too much of a fan of, but now it was actually quite nice - "Will.. keep it in um, kind- mind. Yeah? Yeah. Um-" he sniffled and took another deep breath before placing an arm behind him in order to get up, "thank you, really, I- really." Maybe his words weren't perfect, but on a deeper level Allan wanted to make sure that Tevis knew that it was that genuine care he had for those under his command that mattered so fucking much at the end of the day. "The.. it's that way?" he said as he slowly got up, pointing in the direction that he'd thought Lama and the others had gone in. (edited)

5

2

"No need to say anything, all in a days work." He said, leveling Allan with a wide smile and a soft pat on the shoulder, making sure to keep eye contact with the Human for just a bit longer. "You matter, you're important to so many people, and everyone here cares about you so much ok? We all want the best for you, and if no one else says it, I want you to know how proud of you I am Lieutenant, you've done an exceptional job over the course of this mission, and I cannot say how thrilled I've been to work with you." He said with a genuine, eye-crinkling smile, teeth (and tusks) gleaming, which, him being the grump he was, was somewhat of a rarity. With a cheeky smirk, Tevis pointed in the direction they were supposed to go and pumped his fist. "Tally hoooo!" He said, leading the Human along with them to join the rest of the group.

5

4

You know, he had stopped crying for like, a second. And then Tevis spoke again with all those fucking words that made him look at Tevis with a smile, a small breath of maybe some sort of laughter escaping his lips as more tears fell down his cheeks, but - at least these were good ones. "I- sir, there's nothing I can even say to..." he had to sniffle again, realizing he didn't have to finish that, he'd already said thanks, and he found himself shaking his head as he only further caught that contagious smile the commander had. "Fucking - yeah, I-" a little voice crack, maybe, but he laughed actually when he heard the funny little phrase and he followed along. "Yeah. Let's fucking go, tally ho or whatever."

5