Seath The Knowledgable, Bridge
Botanica should be by his office by now. He was hoping that he would be able to reach it on his own, but it seemed he had to linger on the bridge for a while now.
"Officer Botanica, I will be sssending you a combination for an accesss to my archivesss. Once there, do prepare the hardware for diagnosssticsss of that piece of debris we're about to passs." Speak of the devil, that helmsman gnat was feeling adventurous.
"If there is an afterlife, I will be sssure to find you there and wring out your neck, if you feel like dooming usss all to it." He sneered in his direction before focusing back on both the fact that their wormhole inexplicably shortened, flinging them through space in but a few minutes and the fact that a piece of space station was there in the first place... could it be?
"And thisss... thisss could be a double wormhole." He pondered aloud, tapping his chin in thought. It was pure theory right here and he would certainly appreciate the image relayed by Crystalians if they weren't fighting for dear life at the moment. Nevertheless, the piece of debris still had to be analyzed, if only to determine who felt like taking a dig at Delhi station. Seath sent the combination via the binary code to Botanica's sensors only before going back to theorizing on the reasons of this being here.
"I doubt Earth Alliance isss resssponsssible for thisss. Perhapsss... a third party, raidersss from the landsss unknown..."
edited 17th Sep '16 3:47:46 PM by FergardStratoavis
"Oh... my... stars..." Peridot whispered as the numbers from the probe's telemetry scrolled across her screen. A double wormhole. It was unheard of. The full ramifications of the event would have to be put aside, as a red warning box popped up in the corner of the display. Running at full power was putting a lot more stress on the engines than standard cruising speed, and the gem had her hands full managing power outputs and temperature control.
Even so, she let out an incredulous splutter as the helmsmen argued back with the captain and first officer. Peridot couldn't believe what she was hearing. Were all alliance ships run with this level of incompetence and insubordination?
"A few seconds of micro-gravity would be vastly preferable to certain death!" She snapped across the bridge, not looking back from her console. "The chances of Second Pilot's Zim successfully completing his maneuver without multiple catastrophic failures and the loss the Verne with all hands is abysmally low."
"So stop arguing and start dodging, you clods!" She shouted, her hair practically bristling as she angrily stabbed a plasma containment control with one finger.
"Met, met the monkey?" The words slipped from Guy's mouth before he even realized what he was doing, his french accent easily apparent. Everything the little robot had said so far made almost no sense, but for some reason it being directed at him threw him for a loop. Maybe it was the conviction that is spoke with, like everything it said actually did make sense, or that what is was saying almost did make sense if you thought about it.
He was snapped out of his own internal ruminating by the cybertronian (He really needed to learn her name); Suggesting they could take the odd robot to her quarters for an Ambus test. The words trigger a piece of knowledge in his head. It was their equivalent of the Turing test. It wasn't a bad idea, actually. Guy nodded, first in agreement with her idea, and then again when she asked him to watch the excitable bot in his hands for a moment. It's not like wasn't doing that already, after all.
He stood by, watching curiously and making sure to keep a firm grip on the robot. The small hologram coming from her hand held a figure he was familiar with, if only by reputation. Seath the White. A warlord in all but name history tells, and one absolved of all crimes for his knowledge and technological contributions. It sent an unpleasant tingle across his body at the thought that he would be working with him in some capacity.
Guy-Manuel tilted his head slightly as he finished the call. So her name was Botanica, then. Interesting name, but oddly suiting. And then she took off, but not before leaving him with instructions, and softly spoken threat to keep the robot away from her garden; Among other places. But before he could say anything, she was gone.
He hadn't even known she'd had a garden. Where would it even be? Her quarters? Why did she think he would go near her quarters? The android shook his head to try and clear the mounting confusion. He'd come looking for a bit of quiet time to work on his music, and he’d gotten… this.
It was, of course, at that moment that the captain come on over the com, to warn them of something fairly serious sounding, and to hold on. He dropped his head and sighed, before moving off to try and find something to hold on to; The little robot slung under his arm.
Bridge
"We got a 3% estimate to make it out of this alive, eh? That's workable," Ulrik boasted.
The First Pilot looked down to his control panel confidently, but the sweat forming on his forehead was beginning to betray his self-confident image.
"Alright, Zim, I'll direct torpedo one into the heart of it. You'll send torpedo two into the side, to stop all of that wobbling. I'm going to get the Verne out of here unscathed."
With no further ceremony, Ulrik had the Verne fire a high-yield torpedo straight into the of the center of the oncoming obstacle, and prepared to steer the Verne manually through the hole that he created. All of his attention was focused on the controls.
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"The maneuver was supposed to go on without a single problem. Ulrik's torpedo created a sizable hole in the middle of the chunk, enough for the Verne to pass right through (and the debris created from the explosion weren't big enough to cause a problem for the ship, harmlessly disintegrating before even coming close to the Verne's hull). With a small boost in warp speed, the ship surged forward, sending everyone an inch deeper into their seats (and those who weren't holding to anything right into the ground), passing through the wormhole as the ETA started getting crazier and crazier- 67 minutes, 67 hours, 67 days, 67 years, 67 milennia (wow, I didn't know the ship's computer counted that high), before finally settling on exactly 67 seconds.
As the ship passed through the debris, the people behind the controls would soon realize something: although Zim's torpedo had stopped the wobbling, inertia still applied to the insides of the wormhole, and the other edge of the giant chunk was about to hit the Verne. Fortunately a simple dodge was all that required. But that dodge was enough to send the ship tilting to the side for a few seconds, sure to surprise anyone who thought the brunt of it was over.
Already Chief Medic Croaker's personal tricorder started receiving requests: some people hit their heads in Deck E and someone broke a leg on Deck G. Certainly nothing some good old fashioned medic-ing couldn't help, and there were no fatalities (for now). And just like clockwork, the wormhole began to disappear around them, as the ship went down the warp speed scale, until finally stopping at a lovely number zero, having returned to the emptiness of space.
Yes, the emptiness of space... a space that wasn't supposed to be empty. Where was Delhi Station?
Like a sadistic writer answering a question he himself had put in his character's mind, another chunk floated harmlessly past the Verne's viewscreen. A simple move to the side later, and the exploration ship finally saw Delhi Station... or what was left of it. At least eighty percent of the station had been destroyed (including its state-of-the-art research facility, built to resemble the Taj Mahal from the outside, but which now looked like the Taj Mahal if someone suddenly stepped on it). The twenty percent that was still around was half of the central operating station and one of the residential quarters, idly floating about like a lunchbox bobbing up and down in a river.
The Communications panel lit up with another message: the word help repeated four times (the fourth one with a grammar mistake), along with a set of coordinates and a request to be transported aboard the ship. The coordinates pointed to a small shuttle also floating along in space (its engines had clearly been blown out), the sign of Delhi Station painted across the wall.
Inside the vent, the scent of the animal only got way stronger, leading into one of the many corners the air ducts took. Ricco could have tried to go in deeper, but, unfortunately, the thing wasn't designed for someone of his size. It was designed, however, for the thing that peeked around the corner, chirping silently: a little animal, perhaps the size of a human head, with a large yellow-ish back, standing on four stubby legs, claws moving back and forth
as they sized up Ricco and found him to not be a threat, but instead, a friend. The animal leaned close, probably to do its species' version of sniffing someone else's butt.
"Did you guys see something?" Ensign Nadir asked, letting go of the rails he was holding to take a step closer. "I didn't see anything. There's no way something could have sneaked into the ship- we just left Earth, and they checked everything here thoroughly! For something like this to happen, one of the crew members must have sneaked it in—" Unfortunately, just as Ensign Nadir moved to follow Ricco, the maneuver happend. He desperately tried to reach for something as the ship tilted to the side, leading him towards the pits around the engines. "Wowowowowo— someone grab me!" He yelped, as he rolled towards the pit surrounding the engines.
Stability restored, informed the computer, and Ensign Nadir hit the railings and fell over them, into the engine pit. Luckily (and quite surprisingly considering how frail he was), he managed to grab onto one of the railings, hanging by a thread right over a stereotypical pit of eternal darkness. Except the glow of the engines quickly killed the 'darkness' part, illuminating the area under Ensign Nadir, showing what was really waiting for him down there: dozens of the little aliens Ricco had just found, all of them scurrying around the engine and rubbing themselves against it.
"Uh, guys? GUYS?! PLEASE DON'T LET ME DROP!" He squealed.
edited 18th Sep '16 3:09:34 PM by Stratofarius
The Bridge
Being in the epicenter of activity made it easier to brace for what was happening with the ship. Excellen braced herself for the maneuvers that pulled them through the danger of collision with the piece of the station. That would have been a pretty poor start to their expedition into space. Being in the epicenter of activity also got her a front row seat to see what was in front of them, or in this case what wasn't.
They were expecting to find a station and instead found floating chunks of scrap that once formed a space station. It was eerily serene in the way the pieces lazily floated in place. Even the normally bubbly Excellen was not in the mood to say anything in the face of what was most likely a great loss of life. Silently, the communications officer wondered if the Morse code was coming from a system that somehow managed to survive whatever caused this.
Out of the corner of her eye, the blond noticed one of her panels lightning up upon arrival. She switched her channel to that one and placed an hand over her headset to drown out any background noise. "Captain!" She called out, turning from her station with a bit of her pep returning. "We've got a distress signal and a request to be brought aboard."
Deck T
Once she was certain she wasn't going to fall flat on her face, Sarah released her hold on the pipe and stepped back on the ground. She eyed the strange creatures cautiously, keeping her phaser at the ready in case any of them tried anything.
"What the fuck are those things?" she asked as she made her way to Ensign Nadir and grabbed him by the wrist with her free hand to pull him up.
edited 18th Sep '16 4:48:43 PM by emilyorthoclase
The tension had passed, the manuever was a success, the ship had made it through the wormhole with barely a hair out of place. Only one thing left to do now...Zim straddled the console and let out a triumphant cackle. "URAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA! I DID IT! I HAVE DONE IIIIIIIT! THE SPOILS OF VICTORY GO TO ZIM!" He danced about on his chair, pointing triumphantly at Peridot, Seath and Leo in turn. "And you said it couldn't be done! You doubted the incredible tactics and armament skill of the mighty Zim! But now who does the laughing? Zim does the laughing last! For now, Zim does...does the, uh...the vict...tor...ious...uh..." Zim trailed off, having finally noticed the emptiness outside, followed by the bleak remnants of what was once the Delhi station. The Helmsman chuckled nervously, and loosened his collar as he shrank back into his seat again.
edited 18th Sep '16 3:52:11 PM by LizardOfAus
And a Strange Figure Emerges.It was honestly one of the few things that he could describe with that word, and he had been traveling the cosmos for most of his life. It wasn't moving in any way that could be called aggressive, so it couldn't hurt to just reach out with one, long finger and pet it a little...
Ricco's Petting Party was stopped entirely when the ship took the bump, if you could even call it a bump. He dug in tight with his toes, still prepared to catch himself, and managed to ride it out with only a slight bump on his head when stability returned and knocked him into the rim of the air duct. As soon as he had stable footing, he pulled himself out of the vent and immediately ran to Ensign Nadir's aid, helping Childs pull him up from the pit.
As soon as they had, he responded to Childs with "Whatever it is, it doesn't seem violent in the least. It was more interested in what I smelled like, it seemed." Ricco noticed the smell and sound coming from the pit, and he could see the small crowd below. "...Whatever they are. I figure someone must've smuggled a breeding pair on board to have this many."
Deck T
"Wait a second, I'll come."
After the shock, Tails released the pipe he was hanging from. After landing on the ground, he flew into the engine pit. He grabbed ensign Nadir and took him out of the hole. He was slightly shaken by the sight of the strange creature.
"Brr, these things creep me out. You think someone snuck them onboard? I don't know much about zoology, but couldn't they have snuck in the ship by themselves?"
edited 18th Sep '16 10:22:46 PM by Alecoene
Croaker - Bridge
I looked on, amazed, as the two helmsmen ignored the Captain and Commander and went with the double-risky maneuver. I had not been with the spaceborne branch of the Alliance long, but it could not have survived without some kind of discipline. Pulling that kind of shit in the Company would have either ended with me being asked to patch those two up or detailing a squad for burial duty. Not even One-Eye and Goblin, mad little wizards that they were, ever pushed their luck that far. But luck was with us, for fortune is a lady that enjoys a man who knows what they want and goes for it, and we squeaked right on through, clean as you like, hardly scratched the paint.
The same state could not be said of Delhi. We came out of the wormhole and naturally, everyone's eyes went back to the viewscreen. And there on it was about three skillion bits of splintered metal, probably with a good deal of body parts mixed in. That was one hell of a cold mass grave floating in front of us. A couple parts of the station were somewhat intact, but I doubted they still had power or live occupants. What did show promise was the half-wrecked shuttle blaring a distress call to anyone within hailing distance. You'd think that anyone with enough firepower to paste Delhi would be smart enough not to leave survivors, but that was the first rule of massacres, someone always gets away.
My tricorder was buzzing at me, whining about a few bumps and bruises among the crew, and I'd need to be on hand when they got the survivors aboard, so I slapped the release for my harness and stood up, heading for the turbolift. I did not want to be here when the Captain and Commander dealt with this insubordination. That sort of thing is just uncomfortable for anyone not directly involved. As I walked, I got out the tricorder and tapped my way through a few menus. Damned geniuses kept making their screens smaller and I had to squint down at it, but I sent a few nurses out to gather up the injured and get them hauled back to Sickbay. If the folks in the shuttle were in as bad shape as the station, we'd need all our specialists close at hand.
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao TzuDespite the commands to not do it, the pilot decided to shoot at the chunk of metal anyway, which led to the ship having to make a dodge as it didn't quite get the debris out of the way. Genji held on to his terminal as the ship turned and managed to keep himself in place until it was over. The Delhi Station being nowhere to be seen initially made him wonder if they took a wrong turn somewhere thanks to the reckless actions of the pilot, but once the truth came out... He could only wonder how many people died in that attack but also who did it and where were they. As things stood right now there was a good chance the Verne would be attacked as well, so as the First Officer told him to, he began calling his personnel.
"Genji here, things are getting pretty ugly, so gather up at the armory and do a weapon check just in case things start getting even more dangerous. I'll be joining you there shortly," he said through the communication channel, sounding almost unfazed by the sight of the mostly destroyed station.
With that done, Genji began heading towards the turbolift as well, being not too far behind Croaker as the doctor himself seemed to have things to do.
edited 18th Sep '16 11:09:38 PM by FullMoon
Engineering
-Having stabilized himself as best he could to ride out the shockwave, Avitus looks down into the pit before going back to the security channel.-
*Avitus. We have a xenos infestation in Engineering and possible security breach.*.
-While he waits for further orders, Avitus points his bolter at the creatures below. Even with explosive projectiles, parts of the swarm might escape a cleanse, requiring a more appropriate weapon. With the plasma cannon back at the armory, however, less subtle methods will be needed.-
Stand ready to purge, Initiate.
Yes.
-P'li stands at the edge of the pit, focusing a bright flame into each hand, waiting for the signal to burn the invaders to cinder.-
After ensuring the Ensign Nadir was safe (and thinking how much of a princess treatment he was getting considering three people were helping out one after the other), the anchored scientist swayed about as the ship did an abrupt jerking movement that temporarily threw things out for a loop. If it wasn't for her magnetic boots and physical abilities, the woman might have been rather hurt from slamming into something solid. As it was, all she had experienced was something like the sudden drop of an amusement park ride and a bit of wild swaying about as she used the principles of a pendulum to to reorient herself back into regular position. "Ara, so rough..."
The appearance of the creatures scuttling about in the engines invoked imagery of ticks and crustaceans, the things as large as a dinner plate and scuttling about in a manner that would have caused primal revulsion in a majority of humans. Even Chao felt a bit out of sorts upon seeing the things, though her thoughts then turned onto whether they were a threat and maybe their edibility. Best not to freak out the crew by stating the latter though. "Scanning..." Using her handheld device, information soon popped up on the tool.
"Biology of mystery creatures reminiscent of parasites, especially ticks. Chitinous in several places, especially legs which end up in claws that seem to be able to cling to flat surfaces considering earlier encounters. Muscular density of legs are above the norm, indicating the ability to jump surprisingly high. Mouth located on the underbelly of the xeno, similarity to the beaks of squids and octopus. Might possibly be carnivorous considering mouth part and claws, conjecture is that they are used to latch onto prey after the claws dig into flesh and the mouth part either gouges out flesh with the beak or hold onto prey itself much like ticks to suck blood. Upper body seems to be mostly unprotected flesh and softer chitin, furthering hypothesis that they attack via the lower body as a sort of ambush predator. Various foreign body parts are hidden deepr inside the main body, usage unknown. In-depth analysis will have to wait until specimens can be acquired for dissection, preferably dead as opposed to alive unless specialized containment is available." Reading through the data in a manner that eggheads could easily follow, the Chinese researcher's forehead was ridged with wrinkles of worry.
Said wrinkles only grew all the more when an overzealous member of that one Imperium actually decided to jump into the fray within range, and armed with high end weaponry at that. In the engines of all places. "Officer Avitus, please do not use your ranged weapons so close to the engines. It is relatively unarmored compared to what you are used to and we cannot have a mishap occur during this moment in time considering the bridge has appeared to encounter troubles. Officer P'li, the same goes for you with your pyrokinetic abilities. Please retreat, or if you intend to sterilize the infestation, lure them as far away from the engines in question before engaging in extreme violence."
Hearing Genji's message throughout the intercoms, Chao sighed and pressed a button on her own wrist-com, a bit of worry heard in her normally cheerful voice. "Science Officer Lingshen to Bridge, please come in. We have discovered an unexpected xeno infestation of non-sapient/non-sentient possible parasites inside the Engine Room, the dimensions roughly on par with a dinner plate and evoking evolutionary resemblance to crabs and ticks. I'd advise people do not come inside the Engine Rooms unless prepared for possible violent confrontation and sufficiently armed or having abilities that are useful for combat. Be ready to pull down the Request for sturdy containers so that we can entrap the problem. Be ready for the possibility of locking down the engine room itself with isolation doors in case the infestation either gets out of hand or has greater numbers than we thought, over." Heaving out a sigh, the woman then pressed another button so that Chachamaru would bring her a set of power armor post-haste.
edited 19th Sep '16 9:49:04 AM by Makaioh
The science deck was... clean. Cleaner than any of the other rooms she'd yet seen aboard the Verne, bristling with top-of-the-line science equipment. Suddenly - for a moment - she was back in her first day in the Academy, hopelessly fumbling her way around a mock-simacrulum of an average EA ship's lab, trying to cope with the realization that so many other races had already begun to outpace the technological developments of her own species. Those days were past, she told herself, as she teased a cable from a nearby computer and plugged it into the tip of one of her long fingers, feeling the rush of information pulse through her datatrax.
Botanica first ran the data through her own internal systems, hoping to try and make sense of what she was seeing before resorting to the big guns. Her personal sensor subroutines ran a few limited diagnostics on the data, compiling some interesting, if rather erratic, data on what was presumably a piece of the space station. Still - concentrating, she downloaded the data into the lab's mainframe, throwing a few more powerful tools at the data she'd been given.
According to Azimuth's Theorem, the average kinetic energy of the molecules within the tattered hull should...
... well, that was interesting, if nothing else. Certainly not quite what she'd been expecting, but the bridge should find this interesting...
"Botanica here," she spoke into her palm-mounted commlink, patching her message through to the Seath and the other crewmembers aboard the bridge. "I've finished analyzing the data compiled. According to my diagnostics... whatever did this to the metal has somehow dissolved the molecules entirely - as if whatever held this piece of metal in place never even existed."
Optimus Prime, what could have done this?
Parties never were Moloch's strong suit, the prospect of sitting around eating and drinking and being excessively polite to put on a show was far from appealing. But at least they had food, and one or two drinks helped the time pass smoother while the media focused on the commanding crew and the various species joining the Verne on it's exploratory voyage as a symbol of the EA's unity and such, definitely a political statement, but at least it kept everyone else too busy to notice the average human member of engineering.
At least at first, eventually someone had the bright idea to ask how he felt about all the different kinds of people in the crew, and try and tease information about the ship based on his appointment and expertise, then "Von Zinzer? Didn't you spend a few years captured by aliens?" and that just attracted more attention and more questions about how he felt out in the unexplored reaches of space with so many non-humans. "Safe? Well I'm certain there's going to be some excitement, But considering everything I doubt there's gonna be a safer ship to be on than the Verne"
Suddenly Moloch's thoughts were interrupted by an announcement by the captain... There was a piece of a space station headed for them? What?! He didn't waste any time halting his explorations of the ship's systems and grabbing the nearest solid object moments before the ship lurched "Seriously?! We've been flying less than an hour!" he shouted at nobody in particular as he clung for dear life until finally the ship settled down, likely as it exited the wormhole. Not that he could tell that from here at the moment, but maybe checking into one of the terminals might give reveal something about what's going on..
Bridge
Leo clutched his head where it had banged against the bridge's wall. The impact had torn open a small cut, but the amount of blood and pain was negligible and bearable respectively. His other hand held onto his workstation for dear life, unconvinced as he was that yet another dreadful surprise wasn't about to sneak up on them. Parasites were infesting the Engine Room. Delhi Station was almost completely gone- dissolved, apparently, and its wreckage had impossibly followed them through warp. Why would he think that they were in the clear now?
He couldn't find it in himself to ask the pilots what the hell was wrong with them, as much as he wanted to after Zim's little "celebration". The sight before him was almost too grim to look away from. More numbers flashed across his console, and he distractedly translated them for the crew- "Returned to sublight speed. Position is stable. Coordinates are 198-mark..."- but he didn't start actually paying attention until Excellen's report of a distress call.
Of course, survivors! Excellen would know where the call came from, but there may be other people in the area unable to send out an SOS. Detaching himself from the console, Leo called up the commands for the Verne's sensors. "Setting sensors for life form registration! Short range, high energy."
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGobKolaan looked up from his pondering when the ship jostled around like it had hit some kind of turbulence pocket. Kolaan held on for dear life while the ship shook, and then things went still again. Soon enough, wounded began to arrive in Sickbay and Kolaan walked over to the nurses. "What happened here?" Kolaan asked. He was told about the disturbance that had shaken the ship. Kolaan's brow furrowed.
"Let me see what I can do," he stated, examining each of the patients one by one. A couple bumps here, a few bruises here. One unlucky ensign had a minor fracture in his upper arm. "Pheta," Kolaan muttered, preparing for treatment. He closed his eyes, rubbed his hands together, and moved his arms in the direction of the injured crew members. "This will not hurt. Light embrace you," he told them, and a glowing yellow aura radiated from his hands. Where the glowing aura touched, the wounds seemed to begin healing quicker, though not instantaneously. Most of the injured were already beginning to feel much better.
Kolaan approached the ensign with the broken arm. "The Light will expedite the healing process but you will require more time. I will give you an anti-inflammatory and analgesic medication, but you will need to need to keep that arm from moving too much for the next day or so." Kolaan pulled out a small device, putting it up to the ensign's shoulder with a hiss as the medication was injected. "Very good. Walk in the light, my friend."
I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.Seath The Annoyed, Bridge -> Deck T
After the gravity went back to normal Seath, much to his own displeasure, didn't exactly come out unharmed off out of this intimate meeting with the floor. Grumbling as he shuffled up he just had to hear Zim's gloating that was cut short by the man himself. The Crystalians provided him with a feed to explain this sudden change of tone.
"Victory... ashesss of victory." He sneered as the information about the infestation reached the bridge. Parasites? Nothing his crystal entourage couldn't handle as he tapped his communication node. "Thisss isss Ssseath. I will have the golemsss go over there to handle the parasssitesss." Indeed, a moment later a group of Crystalians emerged from his private lab and headed over to Deck T. "Officer Lingshen, be ssso kind to monitor their progresss and prod them in the right direction while I'm heading there."
Thus came the third message, the result of the analysis of the debris. Seath tapped his chin in thought. He has heard of technology able to strip one's body down to a molecular level, but not on such a scale. The stray powered-down shuttle was an awfully convenient way to get their attention. Gods only knew what could really be on that ship.
He previously suspected a party from the lands unknown, but the presence of parasites made that theory go up in flames. No, someone clearly didn't like him leaving Earth. Or, perhaps, those two things were done by two separate groups. Well, for now the command had to admonish their idiotic pilots and he was of no use in such a scenario. Thus, he turned right around and turbolifted to the Engine Room alongside his two attendants, his slithering silhouette again hunched over as he looked over - so to say - the situation and the people gathered. "Sssomeone ssseems upssset about our leave." He muttered to no one in particular.
edited 20th Sep '16 8:09:13 AM by FergardStratoavis
Tatsumaki—U.S.S. Verne—Bridge
As the speed-shifted blue of hyperspace gave way to the star-spackled blackness of space proper, Ulrik may notice another color tinting the edge of his vision—a distinct evergreen hue. Provided he did nothing to avoid or stop it, the harnesses of his seat would whip out to wrap around his arms, wrenching them back and away from the controls in a way that would cause a small but persistent amount of pain. Were he to then turn to the right, he would see Tatsumaki floating several feet above the deck’s floor, safely untethered from the inertial forces that had wrested the rest of the ship to the side moments before. Her hair, floating Medusa-like out from her head, drew focus to eyes quivering with undisguised rage. She was no longer distracted.
“Relief Pilot Browning.” She said, in a grinding tone fit for tumbling rocks, “relieve former First Pilot Svensgaard from his position, on medical grounds. By way of faulty ear drums, or brain damage, I cannot begin to guess.” She then shifted her gaze, heavy with naked fury, to Zim’s posturing form. “As for you—”
But something in his expression stopped her cold. She had seen it before, perhaps one too many times, in one too many families. Turning to the viewscreen, her wrath was rapidly cooled as what was left of Dehli Station dominated her vision— solid chunks drifting amidst an inexplicable absence of debris, like the visible head and hands of someone in stockade. Her aura dimmed and slowly deposited her deckside, hands unballing as she processed the deluge of new information that was flooding the bridge. Those at the front may see her mouth set in a hard line, eyes brimming with calculations, cold and otherwise, along with a clearly foreign flicker of something more primal.
And then she spoke. “Junior Officer Clock.” She said softly. “In addition, delay the Class-8’s return trajectory, and fire its' retrothrusters. Put it on whichever path you can to swing it past the residential quarters. And the shuttle.” She was aware that utilizing a probe designed to work at speeds in excess of Warp 9 in order to search for life signs was equivalent to recruiting a neurosurgeon to diagnose the common cold. But a physical probe had certain advantages to blanket signal readings; no matter how much her stomach jumped at the idea of survivors, if any part of what they saw before them was a trap… better the web to catch a fly.
She then turned her gaze to Zim, eyes narrowing once more, though her voice remained steady. “Second Pilot Zim, keep phase cannons charged and ready.” She found herself endlessly aware of the potential for ambush at any moment. “If your finger touches the trigger without the Captain’s or my permission again, I will have it removed.” She said, not bothering to specify which of the sentence’s articles she was referring to.
She turned fully around. “Science chief Seathe—” She said, just before catching the indicator light on the turbo lift. Let the record show that the one time the lizard is needed, he goes off to play with his pets. “Chief Engineer Peridot,” She continued, turning slightly further to address the next-best qualified. “The Science Chief called it a “double wormhole”—I want to know what conditions need to be met for this to happen, and if it has happened before.”
edited 20th Sep '16 12:08:48 PM by Uncandescent
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~There was the slight, and hopefully non-existent chance that the people keeping this ship in drydock completely forgot to do that, but he believed that the people in charge of the Earth Alliance Navy were sane, level-headed people that took their time. Though, considering Dr. Quinzel's hiring...
Officer Lingsheng's lengthy description only reminded him more and more of his own species. Jumping high in the air, latching onto things, and the comparison was clear. They were cute because they looked like the infants of his own kind...as much as he didn't want to admit it.
When Avitus and his...relation, of some kind (Ricco tried to make sure he could remember everything in his personnel files, but the woman escaped his memory) readied to fire, Ricco jumped in with Lingshen's words of caution. "Aside from the fact that you might blow the whole ship apart, we don't know if they're hostile or not. If someone really did smuggle them, perhaps they're just pets for all we know!" Though, looking down over the railing, he was reminded about exactly what his own species was capable of, so he added a meek "...But if they do try to hurt someone, don't hesitate to fire if you have a clear shot."
Response from the science department was fast, and oddly enough they sent the head honcho: Seath, with two of his crystal attendants. Ricco was entirely aware of what his problem was, but he was also aware of how effective he was as a scientist. He greeted the dragon with a salute, standing up as tall as he could and almost reaching his height. "Officer Seath, the aliens are down in the engine tubes, and in the ducts. They don't seem hostile...but could you please explain what's going on up there? What caused the bump?"
edited 20th Sep '16 2:16:13 PM by wikkit
T Deck
-That the others think him trigger-happy to the point of bypassing the chain of command is one thing, but Horner's naiveté is entirely unbecoming of anyone living in a closed environment, much less responsible for its security.-
Pets.
Leaving aside the issue of why a brood of an unknown species were brought aboard without quarantine, containment or even informing security and medical officers, shall we still leave them be once we are knee-deep in these pets, succumbing to starvation once they get into the supplies or to whatever diseases they may carry and spread?
-Behind him, P'li's expression does not improve on hearing the slight against her bending, but she holds back whatever comment she was about to make, keeping an eye on the creatures below.-
edited 20th Sep '16 12:47:02 PM by Chabal2
Deck T
Tails listened to the security officer's explication, and beat himself up a little for having forgotten this particular detail. He found the officer's choice of word to the other security member's radical propositions a bit odd, but he decided to try to be diplomatic. "Well, i don't think someone would have smuggled in so many parasites just to serve as pets, but I agree with the fact that shooting them while they are still near the machinery is a very bad idea. I propose that we wait for command's decision."
However, Tails soon directed his attention to the science officer and her magnificent arsenal. "Wow! What model are these ? I read about some machines similar to them, but i never saw them in person! Where did you get these ? Or did you build them yourselves ?"

Bridge
Leo paused for a good few seconds at Zim's retort. It was mostly just the pettiness of the insult thrown his way that knocked him off-kilter. "Squint... Three seconds of weightlessness is going to hurt us a lot less than a collision with that thing! And that's on top of the risk of the blast knocking us out of warp-"
He tapered off as Tatsumaki floated into the edge of his view. It dawned on him that bickering with the helmsman was the last thing he should be doing in a crisis, especially after their captain had just told them to keep calm. With equal parts shame and frustration he turned to his console, diverting his attention back to his actual job as Tatsumaki questioned the results.
"Ma'am! I've double-checked the numbers but they've come up the same each time. It's possible that the debris' presence is messing with our systems, but, uh... honestly speaking, the probe doesn't seem to be wrong. Margin of error is only 3%." Leo took the data and converted it into a crude wireframe image for the first officer's sake. Despite its simplicity, it was sufficient in conveying its point; the wormhole's length 156 seconds after the probe's launch differed from its length 186 seconds after. While he believed in the numbers before him, he nevertheless queued up another probe at Tatsumaki's command. "I-I never heard of anything like this at the academy..."
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGob