Star Trek: Rapture

The away team simultaneously materialized aboard the Kon-Tiki only to find it perfectly clean, well-lit and running as if it was brand new. The team themselves seemed to be the only living things aboard just as T'Asha had asserted. The only thing that would give them any thought that something might be out of the ordinary was a slight shudder felt throughout the ship's spaceframe several seconds after their arrival.

"We will not be going on the road? Alright," Rai said right as he materialised on the ship. He didn't get the idiom, but whatever, they were on the ship now!

"JOLAN TRUUUU!" Lama said, rather loudly before hearing the echo of his own voice. He promptly shut up and covered his mouth before snickering and looking around at the others.

She materialized, and was actually stricken with nostalgia. She had immediately whipped out a tricordor and had performed her initial sweeps of the corridor. No matter how badly she wished to just run about and explore the ship. Suppose there was always the holodeck.

As soon as Sy materialized, he gave the ship interior a curious, if not a tad... puzzled, look. "Looks awfully clean and pretty here, no?" Sy voiced his pesky thought out loud, just in time for the ship to shudder, as if the arrival of a bunch of intruders made it physically sick. Huh...

Anyone attempting to use any of the equipment they had brought would have started to notice very quickly that as soon as the shudder took place, all of their 25th century technology overloaded and burnt out, rendering it useless. (edited)

Having never quite liked transporter travel, he was content to stand next to a bulkhead and get his bearings for a moment, a slight scowl coming to his face at the shudder.

Upon materializing he had to physically reign in his excitement, gripping his tricorder to keep himself from spewing a string of excited explitives.

Upon arriving, he was quick to pull out his tricorder just as the Doctor had and try to perform a series of scans, only to find it was completely inoperative.

"Yeah squeaky clean! Haven't seen a ship this clean since my Free State days, wooooo!!! Oh and love the hair btw," Lama looked at Sy and shot him a couple finger disruptors (with sound effects).

S’tihuur looked around, eyes narrowing. They didn’t really like how… Empty… It was. It just felt… Wrong. It took quite a bit of willpower not to grab their phaser. They took out their tricorder, frowning once they noticed its state “That’s strange… Um… Hopefully that’s not too bad of a sign…”

At the feeling of the ship shuddering underneath him, he could no longer restrain his thoughts to simply himself. "Possum in a gumbush what in tarnation was that!"

Rai cleared his throat in an attempt to get everyone's attention. "It seems my tricorder isn't working. Commander are you getting anything? Or anyone else for that matter?" Rai asked as he shook his tricorder before hooking it back onto his very useful utility belt. He tried his back up tricorder but there was nothing. "I think it is a bad sign...... Hmm," Rai looked at S'tihuur with a slightly worried look. "And ensign, what are you saying? I am sorry, can you please try to speak Standard? My UT does not seem to be compatible with your language."

She looked down at her own instruments and had furled her brows in confusion, she had immediately tried to reset the device, but found it was burnt out. She looked toward Rai. “No, mine doesn’t seem to be functional at all. No matter what I do. We may be restricted to using our eyes.” Angela tried her commbadge next, trying to test their communications system. But she didn’t quite understand how the instruments had been burned out after what appeared to just be turbulence. Perhaps that had nothing to do with it, maybe they just had faulty equipment.

"I have eyes! Two of them!" Lama raised his hand and began to.. Sniff around the room. He literally said he had eyes but now he was sniffing around like he was some dog.Actually, Lama did have a useful skill, he was an empath, half Betazoid! But for some reason he didn't mention that.

The Texan once again chimed in, excited to be able to finally utilize his deep knowledge of 22nd century ships and technology. "Ma'am I reckon' I might have a dang ol' idea! What if us all see if we can rustle up some equipment from this ol' hulk! It might be right as rain!"

"We should probably think about splitting up into groups. We have lot of ground to cover. We also need to assume our phasers may not work so I hope everyone remembers their hand to hand training if we do need to fight," Rai told the crew, looking around the room and thinking about how the teams should be split up. ".... Ensign, I appreciate your suggestion but... Wait, can anyone help interperate? I apologise, I only speak Rihannsu," Rai was really trying to converse with the human ensign but he couldn't make head or tails of what the man was saying. Hopefully another human officer could assist.

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Maya looked around as she beamed in, taking out her tricorder to only realized it had burnt out after the shudder effect occured. She took a few steps away from the main party, testing her Combadge if that was dead as well. The sight of the 22nd century vessel's interior still amazed her though

“Um… Something about it raining I believe?” S’tihuur tried to help at least- even if it wasn’t really all that accurate “And that the ship is… Rather muscular?” They were having a hard time figuring out what half the things coming out of Parker’s mouth were, not really getting the whole slang / saying thing.

Giving Lama a Look ™️, he stepped off of the transporter pad to take a better look around - making his way towards the console, where one of the ops officers would usually be stationed by. "We got any operations or engineering guy or gal here? Maybe it's worth a look," he pointed to the console, "Meanwhile I offer all of ya to find a tricorder or something, local to the ship. If ours ain't working, maybe that one will?.. I don't know, heh."

2

"Ships do not have muscles? And I do not think we have weather in space," Rai tapped his chin, trying to figure out what was being said. He didn't want to overlook the ensign's suggestion just because of a langauge barrier.

"Ohhhh I'm-- security. But I know some operations stuff! I used to be a quartermaster!" Lama said, bouncing over to the operations console and looking around for a tricorder.

“Not quite.” The Doctor had began, addressing Rai. “I believe what he’s saying is that we should use the equipment from the ship to aid in our investigation.” She had stated, replacing her tricorder in the holster.

"Oh, that is a good suggestion. Everyone, please search the area for any tech, tricorders, phasers, anything like that," Rai instructed the team as he walked around the room, trying to see if there were any cabinets or hatches with supplies. Rai had never been on a retro Starfleet ship. He knew Rapture, but Rapture was the first Starfleet ship he was ever on. This ship looked so different though, Rai was thankful Angela was there to help too.

As the away team members looked around the transporter alcove, a few strategically placed equipment lockers could be seen, full of tricorders, phasers, medical equipment and anything else the away team might need.

Lama found one of the equipment lockers and opened it. He pulle out a phaser and a tricorder, but continued to look around. "Hmmmm are there any knives here? Or some of those electric blades?" He thought aloud, rummaging through the cabinet.

"Well... thats convenient" Maya said as she approached one of the equipment lockers before attempting to open one and grab a tricorder and phaser, amazed by how different the designs were back then compared to now before turning the tricorder on.

No knives could be found here, perhaps somewhere else on the ship would have them...

"Booo no knives, how am I suppsoed to live out my Romulan dream?! Anyway," Lama laughed and shook his head, backing up from the locker so someone else could grab stuff. "Okay, uhhhh I got a tricorder and a phaser, I'm ready to explore!" Lama walked over to wherever Sy was standing and gave the man a thumbs up and a wink. If they were going to split up into groups he wanted to be with the cool mullet-Romulan!

The Doctor had moved about the corridor. “This lay out is rather cumbersome, can you believe they actually lived aboard this thing?” The Doctor had stated, she seemed to be walking in circles, it was absolutely baffling that the Rapture was some kind of distance relative of this thing. “Maybe we should find the command center? Or perhaps a place from which we can control the ship?” She asked from across the hall.

He quietly made his way to the console, checking to make sure it was funcitonal. After some cursory navigation, he was pleased to see that as far as he could tell, everything on the ship was in perfect working order.

He nodded to Lama - what a Fellow - to then locate one of the lockers. It popped open (which, also weird! You would think it would creak or get stuck or something, but no, good as new), taking out a hopefully functioning tricorder. Que Zelda item acquired jingle! "I'll take a quick peak down the corridor," he announced, intending to scan it. So the Romulan turned, walking to the sliding doors... ... but instead they were the old, push-button ones. So the six foot eight alien just walked right into it with a muffled "thump!" and a quiet, heartfelt, "ohhh-h-h-h-hhhh, fuu-u-u-ck!!" that followed. "... by the way, the doors are not automatic!" (edited)

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Rai pulled out a tricorder and phaser and was in the process of hooking the items to his belt when he heard a loud thump and looked up to see-- Sy? "You alright, Lieutenant?" He asked, staring at the door and then at Sy.

"WAAhhhh!!!!" Lama said before proceeding to slap the door with his hand. "Yep, not automatic at all! Damnnn, you're okay, right Mr. Mullet?" Lama couldn't help but laugh at Sy's misfortune, but it was alright, Sy didn't seem seriously injured.

Upon hearing the thump of Syrax running into the door, he couldn't help but absolutely start losing it laughing, tears of mirth gathering in the corners of his eyes. "S-Sir, I lost my brain for a hot second and forgot to tell y'all, the doors here don't have a lick of automation! Ya' gotta push a button to open em'!"

"Please do not lick the doors, ensign!" Rai waved his hand and shook his head at Parker, really hoping the ensign would not make the same mistake he did at the Christmas party and lick something he wasn't supposed to.

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S’tihuur rummaged through a locker, grabbing a phaser and tricorder. Why did they join this mission anyway? They knew absolutely nothing about retro ships! They should have just stayed back and watered their lavender or something…! “Someone remind me to bring a spear on the next away mission… Much more reliable…” They mumbled, more just to try to think of something else, but were suddenly distracted from this by Syrak running into the door.

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"Agreed, but its still amazing how far we have gotten in terms of engineering and design though." Maya replied to the Doctor, she herself was still pretty star struck on the experience in the vessel. "Now that we have comms from the old equipment here, I'll try to find head to engineering. If we are able to jumpstart the ship, it could be possible to escort it to a starbase."

He made his way to the Lieutenant, tricorder in hand and performed a quick scan on him, before grinning and giving him a thumbs up. "You're all good Lieutenant! You're just going to have a nasty bump on your head for now!"

“Just try not to bump into any doors.” Angela had added, she had also began to reach for her tricorder, but she remembered the device was completely inoperable. “It’s too late to return to the Rapture is it?” She stated with a joking eye roll.

Having double checked all his findings he nodded to himself, before raising a hand and looking toward Rai. "Sir if I may have a moment? I have some good and bad news..."

"Fuckin' peachy," he replied to Rai, giving him a thumbs up, soon offering the medical ensign a reassuring smile. His other hand was busy rubbing the crown of his head - fucking hell, 22nd century ships are apparently dangerous to tall future people. "Don't worry, I'll live. Just, uh... be sure to check for buttons everywhere, I guess?" He then looked towards Lama: "What about that engie console? Anything interesting there?"

"Go ahead lieutenant," Rai looked towards Topek and nodded, preparing for somethimg terrible.

"Yeah buttons! I'm good at pushing buttons, that's what my colleagues at my last posting said," Lama laughed and clapped his hands making a noise much louder than he had anticipated. "Lemme check!" Lama said in response to Sy, skipping over to the console and tapping a few buttons to wake it up. Maybe they could see a map of the ship or something.

He took a deep breath, before loading all of the information onto a neaby padd, and handed it to Rai, a look of resolute determination on his face. "Sir, it appears that the ship is fully functional, everything from the replicators to the UT!" He said with enthusiasm, before his face took on a more serious look. "On the other hand, after several confirmation scans, it appears that the ship, and all of us on it have been sent back to 2177, in a bit of interstellar space near the Eladarius sector. One other rather strange thing to note is that all of the escape pods seem to be missing, and when I went to check the logs to see why it was so, I found nothing...no logs...no reports...no orders. Nothing related to Starfleet, the ship's mission or the crew manifest."

Rai nodded when Topek said that everything was fully function, that was good, but then when he mentioned they were sent back in time his eyes widened. Rai looked around at his team and then back at the engineer. "..... We need to get back. Not just to preserve the timeline, but if we have any encounters with other ships." After Rai said that he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, rubbing the side of his face not realising he was only rubbing his already smeared make up more. "Anyone who isn't human or human passing will need to keep a low profile. I think humans were friendly with Vulcans? I don't think I could pass as Vulcan though," At least they had Angela who was a senior officer as well to help, but sadly everyone else..... Well, they couldn't risk being seen by anyone or it could create some political scandal. Romulans on a Federation ship? A Reman? A Gorn?

S’tihuur froze, even the unconscious twitching in their tail went still as realization set it “Well… Um… I’m not sure if I’m getting this incorrectly… But wouldn’t someone seeing me uh… Mess with the our timeline…?” Who was going to water their plants?! They were due to be misted tomorrow- well… it wasn’t exactly tomorrow… But still! (edited)

“Agreed, however- it’d be best if we avoid contact altogether. For god’s sake look at our uniforms. There is no way we can appear in front of a viewer wearing our normal attire.” The Doctor said with relative cool, which was certainly noble considering the fact they had traveled back in time. Or at least it appeared that way. Even then there was no way they could run this entire ship alone, because it simply didn’t have the level of automation one would come to expect from something like the Rapture. Or maybe it could? She didn’t know she was a Doctor, not an Operations officer! (edited)

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"... Well, aren't those some fantastic news," mentally he checked off the "time travel" square off of his Shit Happens In Starfleet bingo. You would be surprised how often that happens. Temporal agents will have some work to do after this! "We'll figure something out though." He turned to look at Rai, giving him a somewhat solemn nod. If any passing ship would hail them... "Out of the three of us, I think only I somewhat can pass for a Vulcan, save for the very obvious lack of an obnoxiously perfect geometrical hairstyle." He pressed the button - he learned his lesson rather quickly - to open the doors to the corridor. Vast. Empty. Kinda creepy. "It's no use lingering here, though. Maybe we should explore?"

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As Maya listened in to what Topek had to say, her expression faded from optimism from going inside a cool antique starship to one of absolute horror in realizing they were essentially blasted back in time. "2177... a few years after the first Enterprise launched I believe..." After taking a moment to calm herself down, she straightened her posture, nodding in agreement with Syrax "Agreed. the sooner we can get the ship moving and know how it works, the better it would be for us. We're practically sitting ducks."

"Perhaps we should split up by division? I for one would like to head to a science lab, maybe there is something there that could give some clues there?" The Nurse said in a calm, bedside manner tone, his soothing Londoner accent projecting a focused, yet serious motivation.

"TWENTY SECOND CENTURY?! Maybe we'll find my bestie Veren! He was in this time period to woo his super hot conspirator!" Lama chimed in, way too relaxed even though their leaders both had said to keep a low profile. He was doing anything but keeping it 'low'. "Yeahh let's exploreeee!!! Uhh teams! I wanna be with Lieutenant cool mullet!" Lama said, pointing at Sy and doing a little spin.

"I know this ship is empty, but we need to proceed with caution. The systems are all recording devices and logs. We need to focus on getting back to the 25th century. I think we should split up with an even team, the team leader being the most senior officer," Rai agreed with Teekah's idea, although he wasn't sure it was safe to have all scientists or all medical together, they needed one of each type of officer on each team just in case. "I can lead a team towards the bridge," Rai volunteered, thinking that was the best place for a tactical officer to go.

“I’ll take care of the science lab. Perhaps it’d be best if my team looked there as well? It’s on the way. And it’s a critical area we should secure it.” Angela added, as the next Senior officer and the obvious choice for the second team leader.

"I volunteer to lead a team to engineering!" He said, with restrained excitement in his voice, eager to get his hands on an engine design as famous as Henry Archer's.

"Sounds good, that's three teams, everyone please divide yourselves up accordingly. I think the other medical officer should go with Lieutenant Topek," Rai suggested, thinking there probably wouldn't be any injuries on the way to the bridge. Engineering had a lot of equipment and stuff that could go wrong so maybe they needed a medic.

"I'll follow you then. Perhaps I can try and wake the sleeping beauty up," he nodded to Rai, then turning to give Lama a somewhat amused stare: "Will you now? Alright, but remember the low profile rule, Lieutenant. Three Romulans on a Starfleet bridge does sound like a beginning to a rather shit anecdote..."

”I suppose it’d make sense if I head to the lab with the medical team…?” S’tihuur suggested / asked. It seemed S’tihuur’s division was a bit of a wildcard in this… Vote?

She nodded towards Ozzrz they were the obvious choice as the science officer to accompany her team to the science laboratory. “I’m a bit rusty in my knowledge of this ship design, but I know that the Constitution Class starship Enterprise, had similar communications panels on the walls so that the crews could keep up with each other.” She gestured to a wall panel. “That’s how we’ll check in.”

He gestured to his tool kit, pulling out several old-fashioned communicators. "Those on my team should take one of these, certain parts of the ship do not have wall panels, the only way to communicate are these."

"Three Romulans walk onto the bridge of a 22nd century Starfleet vessel... And then start grilling some delicious Hlai'vnau yum , love me some nuggets!" Lama said with a laugh, bouncing over to where Rai and Sy were.

"Wall panels? I suppose we will have to do it that way since our comm badges do not work," Rai said, thankful that the ship seemed to have a built in UT. He was lucky he could understand Standard even if he didn't speak it very well.

"Off to engineering we go then, Sir" Maya said with a smile as she patted Topek in the back before taking one of the older communicators. She hoped what she had learned in the past would translate, with the California class of the 2380's being the oldest ship she had worked with so far before this.

He gave Maya a soft grin and gestured for anyone who would like to follow him to do so, finding a nearby entrace to the jeffries tubes and making his way in. "There's just something so comforting about crawling around the tubes!" He said with unrestrained glee, clearly in his element.

Having interacted with the Doctor before, and quite enjoyed her prescence, he decided to follow her to the science lab, he would do just as well in the lab as a lawyer as anywhere else. "I'll join ya Doc'! I wouldn't mind hookin' my peepers on some bleep bloops in there!"

"Enjoy the tubes!" Lama waved to the engineers. "I used to crawl around them a lot back in the day, best place for privacy! Used to hold hands with some cute officers in there," Lama winked and then laughed when he said that NSFV thing. His face was very green when he said it too, who knew Lama was such a scandalous fellow! Anyway, he was preparing to follow Romulan club to the bridge. He didn't even think it was weird that all the Romulans were together and heading to the main command centre of the ship. Nope, not weird at all!

".... Do not hook anything and no bleep bloops, I am unsure what that is but please be careful. Everyone," Rai pressed the button to open the door. He had seen the map of the ship and thanks to his photographic memory (thank you Romulan education), he had already mapped out a tentative plan to get his team to the bridge. Of course it would mean nothing if the other two teams didn't make it to their destintaions, this was a team effort.

[D] Having definitely been here the whole time, Hopps stuck to Lama's side. As the only person here he kind of knew, he was more of a reassuring presence. He tried to keep his emotions stable, though; Lama was a Betazoid, and he didn't want him absorbing any of his emotional runoff. "I have no idea how I can be helpful here... Hopefully some animals turn up?" He did have other skills, though... And so did his past lives.

"You will be super helpful! I mean, you already got more going for that me. I'm just a pretty face!" Lama said, batting his eyelashes and twirling a short piece of hair around his fingers rather terribly. He had confidence though, that was unmistakable. "You got looks to match mine and science skills!" Lama said, doing jazz hands in front of Hopps to hype him up. Lama was dedicated to his roll as cheerleader, he hyped everyone up! "Uhhh let's goo! Remember we gotta press the buttons for the doors!"

He shook his head, then combing his hair back to attempt and tame his slightly disheveled mullet. After succeeding, he moved closer to the (open) exit doors, shooting a quick smile at Hopps and Lama bouncing around the scientist: "I mean, who knows what's on this ship? If anything, Lieutenant, I can say that I feel slightly more reassured with you being here!" And with that and a wink, he ventured into the corridor, immediately whipping out the 22nd century tricorder to try and scan the area - and to see if it worked.

On the tricorder the readings were completely bare, no life signs, yet for some reason there was some knocking noises further down the corridor. Perhaps inaudible to species with human-level hearing, but to anyone with sensitive hearing they were clearly in a sort of rhythmic pattern.

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"Aww thank you, I am here for morale!" Lama was happy he put the mullet guy at ease. He was happy to be on the team he chose, everyone seemed pretty trustworthy and he didn't think there was any danger. If any sentient beings were lurking, he'd feel them! Anyway, he still kept a Romulan distance apart from everyone, walking behind Sy and a little closer to Hopps.

T’Asha had absolutely been here making observations and being helpful, haha. She was here now with a tricorder and phaser. She stuck close by the other scientists and Olson, feeling for all intents and purposes like she was in heaven. This is what she always dreamed of doing, actual exploration, actual discovery. This was her dream come true and she was unbelievably happy about it. But she still looked calm and expressionless.

He more or less meant Hopps - Lama had those weird, suspicious vibes that Sy mostly assumed was his instinctual paranoia talking, but who knew really - but the Romulan still chuckled, glad that there was someone overconfident and cheery go keep up the morale in their admittedly shitty situation. Gods knew they might need it. The easy smile somewhat hardened when he heard the knocks. After giving it some silent thought, Syrax slowly started to approach it...

1

They weren’t really having the greatest time so far on this ship. Their unfamiliarity made them nervous, and that stacked on with that nagging feeling that they might be getting it the way, but having someone else radiate more… Positive energy helped quite a bit. Despite having already scanned the area a few times S’tihuur tried again, making slight modifications to the way the tricorder was scanning each time. They weren’t exactly enjoying this ghost ship feeling, so the lack of any change in data was a bit… Concerning to them, yet somehow for probably the first time on this away mission they spoke with some clarity “I have no knowledge of these ships, but how many people approximately does it need to preform its base functions…?”

T’Asha also heard the knocks. This intrigued her, and even though she wasn’t strictly following her group (which was Science, by the way, who else would she be going with), she had to start approaching it. She was behind Syrax, sort of knowing that if something came at him she could shoot if he missed or it got him first. But this ship was sterile, so no need to worry about that. Right? “I will be investigating these knocking sounds, is anyone else besides me and Lieutenant tr’Morvar going to follow?”

”Knocking soun- I can help investigate.” S’tihuur raised their right hand like a school child as they volunteered, trying to smile at least a little bit.

Hopps laughed, flustered but not necessarily put off by Lama and Syrax's boldness, blushing under his freckles. "W-well, thanks for the encouragement! You are pretty - both of you, but, uh, I mean, I'm sure you're more than that! Alright, let's go!" Maybe if they needed to fight, Hopps could help? He was pretty athletic. Then there was the Stalker's... No, he didn't want to tap into that skillset.

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"Ehehe okay, shhh let's gooo," Lama followed the team, looking back occassionally to see if everyone else was following.

Approaching the knocking sounds there was nothing. Just the cold hard metal of the bulkheads. But then-- the light began to flicker just before completely shutting off, leaving the whole corridor dark.

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To the sudden darkness, Rai ended up walking right into S'tituur, probably startling the poor Gorn-Saurian. The very tall and beefy Romulan let out a gasp and took a big step back, hitting his butt against the wall which caused a very loud 'thump'!

"WAH!!!! GHOST!" Lama shouted before slapping the wall and making an even louder noise.

T’Asha froze when the lights turned off. But she didn’t hold her position for long. She used the flashlight function on her tricorder to shine some light down the hallway. Now she’d be in the lead, lighting the way. “My tricorder can act as a flashlight. I will lead the group. If anyone has another tricorder, you should be behind everyone else and lighting up the group in front of you, as I can only light what is ahead of me.”

S’tihuur let out a screech, sure all logic would have that it was just a member of the party- but the sudden blindness had them a bit panicked, plus they weren’t exactly all that logical in the first place. They were glad for the flashlight. Sure their eyes were capable of adjusting, but there needed to be some kind of light source somewhere. Plus the light simply made them feel safer.

There was a soft hum that could be heard by all species in a pulsing pattern like it was some sort of mechanical heart that could be heard throughout the length of the corridor.

Rai ended up dropping his tricorder to the ground, startled by the sudden noise. "I'm so sorry!" Rai said to the poor scientist, feeling bad for causing a scene. He was way too tall and took up much too much space. Maybe it would be best to stay in the back.

With the sudden change, Sy's demeanor changed too - he extended his arms back: "Stay still and stay calm," he uttered, voice low and calm. Something shifted - he probably looked back, approximately where everyone should be: "And keep quiet. This is probably a power outage. But let's keep our wits, shall we? Rai, we should keep moving towards the bridge. Everyone else, go to the tubes or to the science corridors, the lack of lights ain't gonna stop us--" The humming made him pause. "... Also ready your phasers, just in case. We should probably check out engineering at some point..."

“This.. sounds like a mechanical heartbeat. I suggest not going further until we scan this.” And so she did, using her tricorder to try and determine what lay ahead. She still had a hand on her phaser though. She needed to find out what this was. To hell with the original plan, if she could just know what this was. She came here for the purposes of being a scientist.

"Engineering team should be heading there, through the tubes. I wish we could use our comm badges," Rai said, a little frustrated they had limited technology in this era. He continued walking, keeping his wits about him.

The lights began to flicker again before they finally switched back on except they were dimmer than before. Nothing showed up on tricorder readings, but there were a couple of oddly shaped shadows moving up ahead.

“I am getting no results on my tricorder. But does anyone else see those shadows?” She pointed up ahead. She thought she was seeing things, really. This ship was sterile. Nothing could be making those moving shadows.

"Uhhhh it's not real guys," Lama said, patting his chest and trying to get his bearing straight. "Like... I'm Betazoid, trust me. I am getting nothing, maybe it's just uhhhh the wind," Lama chuckled nervously in an attempt to keep morale up but he was starting to get nervous seeing things that he couldn't feel first. He never realised how much he relied on his Betazoid empathy until now.

Hopps readied his phaser, ready to pew pew if needed. He kept his eyes on the shadows. "Who are you?" He asked, in case those shadows were people, though he didn't expect a reply.

The shadows did not respond, instead they just disappeared and the lights switched back on as if nothing had even happened.

”Oh lovely… Shadows… That’s normal…!” S’tihuur chuckled nervously, their tail lashing “And disappearing shadows at that…”

"Smells like a Tal Shiar plot," Lama whispered under his breath, not realising he was litearlly right beside Sy when he said that. Maybe not the best person to whisper that to.

“That’s it. I’m seeing things.” She said to herself. She had her phaser tightly gripped now though, but carefully went forward. She was still leading the group. She wanted to get closer to where those shadows were. “We should move to where the shadows were and try to see if there is any physical evidence something was there.*

S’tihuur let out a sigh in an attempt to let out some of the negative emotions building up inside of them “That makes sense…! Although I uh… Don’t really like how they just disappeared like that… It’s giving me quite the…. heebie-jeebies?”

"Oh," he blinked, seeing the apparitions disappear. "Well, at least the crew is still here, it seems. They look to be harmless, though. Still, let's avoid them as much as we can, yes?" He did catch that whisper - and Lama earned themselves a quick, squinted look, but the helmsman said nothing. Instead he just inclined his head - family trait? - and turned back to face the corridor, left hand spinning the phaser like Sy was some sort of a Romulan space cowboy.

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Hopps nodded and approached the shadows, probably with T'Asha since she was in front, feeling the calm presence of Cupid in the back of his mind pushing him in as he often did in crisis scenarios. Well, his memories, anyway. There wasn't a whole 'nother guy in there. He looked around to see if there were any marks or footprints or any signs of life. Or death.

Yes, T’Asha was with Hopps. She also was looking for signs that something had been here. Blood, hair, anything. She was desperate for an answer. It was eating away at her, and she didn’t like it.

Lama noticed the way that Sy tilted his head and waved his hands. "Oh sorry," He said with a sheepish grin.

"Well at least we have lights," Rai said as he continued to look around, seeing no signs of life. Were they all collectively hallucinating?

There were absolutely no signs of life, nothing. No hair, footprints, not even a scent. The mechanical pulse still persisted though, just in the background. The ship almost felt like it could be alive.

“There is.. absolutely no signs of life. Does anyone have a hypothesis on what else could make these shadows? Of course she was hella scientific about all this. She lived and breathed exploration. She wasn’t scared really, just excited. This was the greatest thing she’d ever done and perhaps the greatest she would ever do, in her mind. It was such a relief from the monotony of everyday life

”Did they have…. Holodecks back then? Maybe it was a hologram of some sort…?” S’tihuur tried, it was the only possible answer they could think of that wasn’t borderline terrifying to them.

"The Phantom of the Kon Tiki! Man, I love that opera!" Lama chimed in, trying to lighten the mood and ease some of the tensions with some silliness. Somehow he was virtually silent as he walked, taking careful steps and keeping a stabbing distance apart from the others.

"Yeah, holograms or temporal or spacial distortions are the only things I know about that create illusions of people that Betazoids can't sense without them just being Androids, which wouldn't just disappear like that... Unless they were transported, but I didn't hear the transporter noise. You know, the - like - shwₐₐₐₐₐaaaaᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃ," he said, attempting to make the noise.

"I think the corridors for the science lab are up ahead and we can split off," Rai said, pointing to a fork in the corridor coming up. As much as he enjoyed T'Asha and S'tihuur's company, he was looking forward to having a smaller team. It would make him a little less paranoid too.

As soon as Hopps said 'shwₐₐₐₐₐaaaaᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃ,', a voice echoed his own from down the corridor where the fork was.

2

"ShwaaaAAA!" Hopps yelled, spooked by the echo.

shwₐₐₐₐₐaaaaᵃᵃᵃᵃᵃ

"Sh-shwaaa?" Hopps said, testing the echo out.

"Ohhh establishing communications!" Lama gave Hopps a thumbs up, whispering so he wouldn't throw off the echo.

This time the voice was much lower than Hopps', "shwaaaauuuuuu".

"ˢʰʷᵃᵃᵃ," Hopps whispered.

Woo, ghost ship with ghosts! But as long as the literal shadows of the past weren't hostile and just kept on moving doing their spooky Starfleet business as usual, they would be fine. "Let's just hope that our role in this opera is not one of Christine's." He then looked towards Rai: "We should continue our way. I peeked at the map, and there should be a pair of turbolifts..." Like a hound that heard a deer's call, Sy whipped his head towards the sound and readied his phaser, meanwhile taking steps forwards to be at the front of the group. He was not going to take any chances with the spooky shit and the voice that sounded nothing like Beauregard's... "Hello?" he called out loudly.

There was no response this time, but a glowing orb appeared at the end of the corridor, just floating, exactly 9.3 inches above the ground, it could be scanned.

"I'd give it all to meet Erik, he was hot," Lama said with a laugh. "Kinda looked like our commander but like human," He whispered, just low enough that Rai couldn't hear.

S’tihuur pulled out their tricorder so fast you’d think they’d get whiplash. They subconsciously took a step back, scanning… Whatever that was…

On scans the orb seemed to be made of risidual neural energy, of Tholian origin. Tholians of course were the race capable of time travel.

1

T’Asha had also pulled out her tricorder, but S’tihuur was faster. Internally, she thought, what the fuck. But she didn’t dare say that out loud. The voice, the orb, everything.

“I’m picking up residual traces of neural energy…? Specifically Tholian in origin…? Is this a normal thing when it comes to ominous floating glowing orbs?” S’tihuur frowned, looking towards T’Asha for some sort of aid / information.

"Ohhh should we zap it?" Lama asked, hand on his phaser ready to do some pew pews. He couldn't feel any emotions from the orb so it wasn't sentient-- unless it was an android or hologram, but it didn't seem like either.

"It's not doing us any harm so I don't want to provoke it," Hopps said, "especially since it seems to be copying what we do, maybe?"

"Tholians? The spider-shaped dudes with time travel shenanigans? Well, that's... probably not good..." he frowned, pondering the orb, and after hearing Hopps' hypothesis about copying, the tall Romulan inclined his torso to the left, as if to see if the little energy ball would imitate him. "I agree with Lieutenant here, let's leave it alone for now? It seems to just be floating around and doing orb things."

Hopps smiled to himself, oddly fond of this mimic-orb. "Sometimes I'd like to be an orb, just floating around and doing orb things. Should we split up, then?"

'Should we split up, then?', a voice echoed from the orb, a deep voice, this time it sounded close to Rai's.

Rai chose to ignore the orb copying his voice and just nodded in agreement to the scientist. "Yes, we should split up. Science go that way, bridge come with me," Rai pointed to the left corridor for the scientists and then to the right for his team.

“I agree with Lieutenant Tr’Morvar. I would not antagonize the orb. Any scientists, follow me to the left corridor.” Phaser still in hand, T’Asha headed towards the left corridor, sad to leave the sphere behind but she had order. She had to go on. There would be more science surely.

S’tihuur nodded, following T’Asha. They were a bit sad to leave the orb behind, it was sort of… Friendly feeling. But they suspected they’d most likely see it again.

Ace, who was on Team Rai because he was a helmsman, followed Rai wherever he would go. He was also with Syrax, a fellow helmsman. The orb shenanigans had been a bit spooky for him, but he was still doin’ his job.

Hopps pondered the orb. He wondered... If he could touch it? Was it solid? Cupid's impulsive nature made him reach out a hand...

The orb remained there, unbothered, moisturised (???), fluroushing, in its own lane. When Hopps touched it, the glowing became more intense and it felt a little warm and tickly, but other than that it just remained there.

"Hey, bun bun," Lama whispered when he saw what Hopps was doing. "Maybe it's a Vulcanoid orb, don't bother it!"Lama knew not everyone appreciated being touched and didn't want his roommate to accidenetally agitate the orb even if it probably wasn't sentient. (edited)

He almost reached out to pull Hopps back - who knew, what if the orb decided to ponder the half-Trill? - but it seemed... fine. "You feel okay after this?" Sy asked with a hint of concern in his voice, glancing around as he did - he needed to follow Rai, but he also needed to make sure that everyone was okay, and the curious scientist was, too!

Touching weird stuff in Starfleet was usually a really bad idea - it could kill you or infect you with an alien disease or turn you into a lizard! Luckily, it just made him giggle slightly, and then more at Lama's nickname. "I'm fine," he assured Syrax, "Maybe I should have asked its permission or something first. Bun bun, though?" (edited)

"Yeah, but it seems okay, whew, that was close," Lama chuckled and stepped back from Hopps. He was glad the orb didn't do anything funny or turn Hopps into an actual bunny. When the scientist asked about the nickname, Lama's whole face turned bright green. "Y-Yeah, thought it was kinda cute at the moment, but ehhhh let's keep going!"

From beyond the corridor a high pitch screetching noise could be heard. It was uncler if it was coming from an organic being or a mechanical whistling.

"It's okay, I don't mind. Seeya, Syrax, Lama! Be careful!" Hopps said, leaving him for #science-corridor . (edited)

He snorted at the blush, trying and failing to hide it by covering his mouth with his palm; unfortunately that amusement was short lived because of the screeching. He was on high alert again, watching with anxiety as Hopps went away - curse his habit of quickly becoming attached to people - and just hoped that the other two teams were fine and safe. "Anyone brave enough to go with me and check out what the fuck that was?" he offered quietly, already moving towards the sound source with slow, careful, methodical steps. He did not expect himself to be on the defensive role so much on this mission, but someone had to be, right?

"Me mee!" Lama raised his hand and bounced over to Sy to follow him towards the source of the noise. Just like before his footsteps were virtually silent. A skill he got from the Tal Shiar of course. Despite Lama being a very loud person, he was also clearly capable of being dead quiet.

Sy walked quietly too, though his reasoning was less of a "I've been trained into this", and more of a "I had to be as quiet as a mouse in my own house". So the two of them stalked closer, the helmsman's fist raised up as he held the phaser, it's comparatively ancient design odd and alien, and then froze at the edge where the corridor ended - approximately where the screech would've came from. And listened...

“Alrighty, I guess I’ll come. This is spooky as hell.” Ace commented. He had his phaser out still. He was a little scared, but still doing alright. This ship was haunted in his opinion.

The orb was silent, just chilling. It moved closer to Sy. It was warm and had an eerily comforting aura.

"Look, you made a friend!" Lama said, pointing to the orb and then to Sy.

"Oh lieutenant, good to see you. We need more humans," Rai got a little bit of a shock when he saw Ace, his heart skipping a beat. "Yes, we need to proceed with caution," He whispered as he watched Sy and Lama deal with the orb. Rai had h is hand on his phaser just in case whatever it was decided to be hostile towards them.

Syrax felt the shorter hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the sight of the approaching orb - anxiety because of the comforting feeling it brought with itself, unwanted and sudden? Why was it approaching him? He shushed the talking by putting a finger to his mouth, and then proceeded to carefully touch the orb with the side of his phaser - not shooting it, but also not willing to make physical contact with the floating wisp, at least not yet. He wanted to check, first.

The once docile orb seemed to completely change direction at a moments notice, the lights flickering as a single piercing shriek rang through the corridor as it dissapeared into the wall.

Syrax jumped back, now properly spooked, and just watched the wailing orb fly off like a bullet and... disappear. The Romulan blinked, then looking at his companions with a mix of bafflement and worry in his gaze. "I think we should, um. Contact the other teams as soon as we get the chance, just to make sure that they're, one, okay, and two, aware that these things shriek like a banshee... let's continue, then..." If the 22nd century ship didn't feel uneasy to him before, it sure as hell did now. Something seemed off, horribly off...

Just as Syrax suggested contacting other teams, several of the orbs appeared in the corridor, almost as if they were herding the team somewhere, just as they were set to intercept the team, they moved toward the celing, lights flickering and intense screeching following as they did so.

As the lights returned to normal, a faint whispering could be heard again, almost as if Rai's thoughts we being piped straight out of a speaker. The echo kept repeating 'we should get to the bridge' again and again, only stopping once the team was at the end of the corridor near the turbolift.

[COMMS] "Lieutenant Xakarix to Commanders Olson and tr'Torre'vnau, we may have figured out some crucial information down here."

[COMMS] "Glad to know you have figured out the wall panel Doctor! We were able to recover a single log entry left by the helmsman shortly before the events leading to the ships departure from the 22nd century." "It seems that the Kon-Tiki had been sent to study our wormhole friend when they got intercepted by a Tholian cruiser. Apparently the Captain of the Tholian ship decided to pull a very stereotypical move from the likes of ancient Terran movies and described in detail exactly what they had planned to do to the crew and ship, and boy it was a doozy! Apparently the Tholians utilized some sort of bio-electric 'mind control' field on the crew and had them load up the escape pods and jettison them, leaving the ship prime for study and dissection back on their homeworld. That devices afteraffects are what have consituted our little ghost friends, residual bio-electric energy from the crew." "I have a theory of what happened to the crew and the ship though. We think before the ship could be snatched by the Tholians, the wormhole fluctuated and sent the ship through, somehow sterilizing it in the process and dumped it ever so carefully on Rapture's doorstep. I'm surmising that the escape pods, and the poor souls in them suffered a similar fate, though where and when they went I couldn't tell you."

[COMMS] "We all would appreciate any more information you could give us Doctor! We have some very good news for you as well! As far as we can tell, this ship is as fully mission-capable as it could be, almost like it was just built! We've currently got every system online and running at full capacity, even replicators!"

"We should get to the bridge." Yeah, they sure had. And after hearing the story of the ship, the "should" evolved into "need" rather quickly. "Oh boy, let's go then..." he urged, not wishing to waste anymore time. Syrax made his way to #turbolift-1 , which would hopefully take them to the bridge! And, hopefully, there would be no nasty surprises on the said bridge! Fingers crossed, mullet ruffled up!