"Fascinating- if a bit slightly revolting..." Chao cheerfully stated even as she ever so slowly shuffled backwards with her trademark slit-eyed grin, though it was a bit more tremulous than before after seeing the miracle of life so close up that it soaked the tip of her boots. "Well, you can do it the hard way by running around to pick up the leechticks with your own two hands but that would just waste a lot of time and effort. I suggest someone lug around a small yet hot enough piece of tech with high heat as bait towards a container to herd them in for far less trouble."
Demonstrating seeing as how effortlessly she was pulling in the thing with her blowtorch finger, Chao tapped a button on her communicator before getting up to a walking postureand moving slowly enough to tempt the rascals. "This is Officer Lingshen to the staff, requesting sturdy ventilated cargo containers to help with the situation in Dect T, over." With that stated, Chao began her job of being an egghead and used her brains to try to attract clusters of the ticks out into the more open areas for easy retrieval, her gestures towards the crew telling them to get a move on before they were buried within a sea of xeno offspring.
T Deck
Or do it the easy way.
-Eying the leechticks with distaste before looking upwards, P'li swings her arms around, muttering litanies taught to her by Avitus.-
His will is my torch...
-A ring of fire forms around her torso before flying upwards and expanding, hovering severeal feet above an empty patch of deck.-
...with it I destroy the shadows. Look down!
-The ring of fire flares up, sending light and heat radiating throughout the deck like a miniature sun. P'li's eyes remain fixed on the ring's center, her expression particularly ill-tempered.-
Tatsumaki—U.S.S. Verne—HEV Suite->Transporter Room
Tatsumaki arrested mid-fitting as Croaker gave his report. She had, as he put it, 'figured it out already', but she had also been fervently gunning for internal sabotage instead. Can the finest shields in the fleet resist molecular decomposition? Her thumb paused on the clasp of the wrist seal, before pressing down with a definitive hiss. Let's hope we won't need to find out. "Understood. Keep me posted." She said brusquely, and somewhat redundantly, before closing the line. Enveloping herself in a green tinge to get used to the telekinetic feel of the suit's weight, her feet touched the ground as Leo's message about the survivors came through. "Two steps forward, one step back." She mused quietly, before responding. "Coordinate with the Medical Bay once we establish contact with the survivors. As soon as they're onboard, we'll begin the journey to... Mumbai Station, I believe is the closest. Begin drawing up navigation in the meantime. And as always, maintain vigilance. It is very likely we are not alone."
Tatsumaki then closed the line and walked out of the room, taking a wrong turn before the ship's architecture clicked and she was able to suss out the location of the transporter room. Floating through the entryway, she noted the inhabitants, and noted wryly that despite her and the security staff, she was the only one in need of a suit at all. "Attention." She said, landing and turning around at the space just before the transportation platform. "For those of you who do not know me, I am First Officer Tatsumaki. Our mission today involves the rescue of the one hundred"—she clicked her molars togather in an irrational annoyance, for a life her pride demanded she'd saved despite the impossibility—"of the ninety nine souls still aboard the station's residential district." She then began turning, addressing each department in turn. "Engineering staff, I want constant analysis and maintenance of cabin pressure. If the seal breaks, everyone on board the station will die. Science officers," She said, turning to address one of Seath's minions, "this will be our best chance to find out what happened to New Delhi station, readings-wise. Gather all of the data you can while we are inside, as I do not intend for us to come back. Medical officers—I think the job speaks for itself. Stabilize everyone you can, you will have the final authority on transport readiness. Once they are cleared, get them off the ship and into a proper medical suite. And security," She said, turning to the flock of red-shirted men, women, and other, "Do not fire unless fired upon. This station is fairly cosmopolitan, and just because it does not have a face does not mean it is hostile. With that restriction, clear each room before we enter. If something is hiding from our sensors, don't let it hide from you."
Tatsumaki net her hands behind her, giving the motley crew one final look-over. "Any questions?"
If I had that kind of power, I'd have dropped a meteor on your house ages ago~"See, buddy, that's why you got replaced by me." The relief Second Pilot said, not even bothering to look at Zim (somehow, all three of his eyes managed to do that mildly annoying snobbish look). Whatever snobbishness he had was replaced with embarrassment when Browning called him Tiger. "Never had a nickname like that before..." He mumbled, trying to bury his face in the controls.
"Now, now," Captain Joseph said over the hubbub, walking back into the Bridge with his arms crossed. "Try avoiding a fight, will you, Zim?" He told the Second Pilot as he left the Bridge. Truth be told, I don't think they had to be relieved... He thought to himself, returning to his seat. They did a pretty good job taking us out of that wormhole! I'm going to convince Tatsumaki to bring them back. Yeah, she'll understand. He nodded to himself and smiled. Of course, they'll thank me, the best Captain.
"Alright, Relief Pilots, Leo." Joseph said, giving Leo a sharp wink. "Bring us closer to the station."
As the Second Pilot kept watch, Joseph leaned back to hear Dross' message. "Good thing we're heading there, eh, Dross?" He said, giving the robot a thumbs up without looking back at him. Pressing his badge, he opened up a link with Tatsumaki. "Yo, Tatsu!" He chirped happily. "Joseph here. I want you to find whoever's responsible for the residential station. Ask them what happened. And tell the people we're taking them to Mumbai Station, alright? Make them as comfortable as possible. Also, and this one comes from the higher ups, if you find the culprit, don't shoot! No violence on first contact. Joseph out." With the message sent, he leaned forward in his seat, narrowing his eyes. "Once we get Tatsumaki's response, we should be able to come up with a good answer..."
"Dross!" He raised a finger to grab the robot's attention. "Send a message to the EA. Ask them what happened to that giant chunk we dodged, if they spotted it, where it landed. Browning, I want you to get us as close as possible not just to the ship, but to the unexplored quadrant too! Keep an eye on those scans. Once you see anything out of the usual, tell me!"
The Leechticks are immediately drawn to the ring of fire P'Li created, some of them already squirming as they rest on their two front legs, trying to push their newborns from inside. The baby Leechtick also exhibits its first signs of conscience, as it stands up on its tiny feet and crawls towards the fire, closer to its mother-father-creature.
"HUT HUT." A pair of identical large square-ish Engineering officers wearing square gray masks
that covered up their entire heads marched in, bringing the containment stations Chao had asked for. They went in and out, in and out, bringing more and more stations in with incredible ease, their large hands lifting up the heavy objects as if they were nothing more than pieces of crumpled up paper.
"The cargo containers you asked, ma'am." One of the twins spoke up, as they both stood completely still, waiting for additional orders.
"Stack Twins!" Ensign Nadir snapped, and the two turned towards him and ten-hutted. "Yeah, sure, okay, start collecting those things and putting them on the containers!" With that order, the twins marched up to the ring of fire, grabbed one Leechtick each (the little creatures began trying to reach for the fire) and then slid them into the container, sealing it up so they wouldn't leave. A slow, meticulous, eerily silent, yet successful process.
"Oh, I'm not the sole survivor, not yet." Captain Pines mumbled, pointing at Croaker. "That is, I won't be if you bozos don't turn around. I know those things are going to come back just to get you and your crew, alright? I'm not dumb." He waved his hands, trying to shut Croaker up. "And it wasn't a ship, alright? It was like... a bunch of clouds. A bunch of multicolored light clouds who demanded to talk to us. And they said that the captain of the vessel had to stand trial, and I went, and I told my First Officer to start evacuating everyone, and he did, but then I look back, and pretty much everything is gone! Gone in the span of a second!"
"Buddy, I know what you're thinking. You think I'm cuckoo, crazy, that I'm lying or, worse, that I'm bait. Well, let me tell you something-" Captain Pines leaned forward. "Call me whatever you want. But tell your Captain that if he doesn't get out of here right now, there won't be anyone to warn the Earth Alliance about those things."
"Ah, Counselor Quinzeel!"
The high-pitched voice came from the back of the Sickbay, as the only unoccupied doctor- a short, toad-ish man with a brown bowl cut and a large pair of black glasses- came walking in, digital clipboard in hand. "Such a pleasure to see you again. You probably don't recognize me, but we met before, in one of the pre-flight parties?" The man grinned, then ungrinned, then grinned again, clearly trying to settle on the most good-looking smile. "I'm Doctor Octavius. Otto Octavius, but you and your friend from Security can call me Otto."
He kept on grinning for a while before noticing Harleen had come there for a reason. "May I help you two?"
"Yeah, I got a question." Engineer O'Brien grumbled from the controls, raising his head. "Are we sure everybody picked their phasers and their holoshields? Cause I've got an additional shield here and I swear, I'm not getting blamed if someone comes back with a huge searing wound in their backside!" He waved the holoshield around a little, eventually just handing it off to one of the Security officers.
"Alright. Everyone pick one of the circles on the floor and stand on it." O'Brien instructed as his fingers flew from keys to dials. "No sudden movements, no jumping around, no moving your arms, just relax. Oh, and if you don't want your food to suddenly jerk itself back up your throat, don't move your heads!" He pointed at Guy, as if that served any reason, and then started pulling down on a thrust lever. "Alright. I got a lock on. Here we go!"
A warm sensation spread across the tip of the away team's skin. It grew and grew, until at one point it was almost as if a thousand ants were crawling over their hands. Until, suddenly, there was a sudden heat wave, strong enough to create at least one bead of sweat and—
—they arrived at Delhi Station's residential quarters, a long series of corridors connecting to a variety of rooms, some luxurious and some modest. The instant their feet touched the solid metal floor of the sector, they would feel the wobbliness of zero gravity washing over them (the result of the station's gravity control being busted by the attack). Planters and benches floated past defective screens displaying ads for Delhi Station's commercial quarters, and a voice enthusiastically offered any passerbys the opportunity to "gain a ticket to the Intergalactic Circus of Mobius today".
Leo's scan, helpfully downloaded to the away team's tricorders, would lead them through one of the upper stairways, as the other two had been locked off by the attack. Air was breathable and there seemed to be no electricity problems, let alone a shortage of oxygen. Floating past empty quarters, the away team would follow the signal all the way towards a small public area
◊, where all of the one hundred souls still left on the ship were reunited, huddled around the once prideful Fountain of the Alliance, which had been deactivated and turned into a temporary stockroom, whilst its Christmas tree had been removed and was floating close to the giant window-wall, currently displaying the beautiful emptiness of where Delhi Station had once stood.
"SOMEONE'S HERE!"
There was immediate yelling, cheering and celebrating from the group, as they began floating towards the away team. Most of them were women or men with children- by the light green badges on their clothing, probably the wives or husbands of the officers of the ships- along with the occasional elder or Security officer. Kolaan made sure to float ahead of the group, raising his hand to attract the attention of the survivors. "Injured, please, form a line! I am Anchorite Kolaan, and I will heal those in need!"
Whilst some of the men helped lead a couple of women who had sizable burn injuries on their legs towards Kolaan, one of Genji's Security officers floated over to him. "Sir," Officer Zarna, a short woman with a buzzcut and a yellow eye, whispered, one hand already reaching for the phaser whilst another pointed over at a lone robe-wearing man standing near the edge of the group.
◊ "I'd recognize that species anywhere. That's a Shaigan, sir— their planet has been at war with the EA for the past two years. I think we found our culprit."
edited 8th Oct '16 1:11:46 PM by Stratofarius
The feeling of being transported all the way to the station was something Genji would need to get used to eventually, it definitely felt weird. After arriving though, Genji was faced with a lack of gravity in the station that, now that he thought about it, was to be expected. This left him a little concerned, the lack of gravity was going to really hinder his mobility which was everything for a ninja like him. Maybe he could try seeing if he could get something installed in his robotic body that could help him keep himself grounded even in zero gravity, that was a concern for later though.
Fortunately they managed to make it to the residential sector with no issues and everybody they needed to rescue was in the same place, things were going pretty well and he just watched the events unfold around him. However, soon one of the security officers came to him to tell him something important: one of the people in the room was of a species that had been at war with the EA for a while and could be tied to the destruction of the station. However, it was a little odd, nobody else seemed to mind that guy being there and why was he still there if the job of destroying the station was presumably done?
"Tell the other officers to keep an eye on that guy in case he tries anything, but do so quietly and don't be hostile yet so as to not cause any unnecessary panic." he instructed Officer Zarna, taking notice of her already going for her weapon, "After that, if you can tell me anything important about those Shaigans, I would appreciate because that's a field I'm not very well-versed at."
edited 8th Oct '16 3:40:30 PM by FullMoon
GIR snuggled in nice and comfortably within the warm embrace of Guy's duffel bag. The fabric felt so soft, and there were so many nifty little tools squashed on top of him that he could fiddle about with in the spooky darkness. The little gizmo could barely contain himself, but the nice TV-Face Man had promised him tacos if he stayed hidden long enough, so he did his best to keep his mischief to a minimum. Naturally, his sense of restraint was not all encompassing, but what squeaks and giggles there were got muffled by the bag...which, hopefully, also muffled what happened next. Just as GIR found the end of a tool that he could put in his mouth, his antennae suddenly extended, and shifted into miniature satellite dish, which projected a flickery image onto the tools in front of his face.
"GIR!" barked the image of Zim. "Location report, immediately! And stop pressing your nose against the screen, I can almost see the germs on that metal face of yours."
"I can't! This duffelbaggies got a reeeaaal big hug on 'em! It's friendly like a squashy bear."
"Bag? What are you doing inside a duffel bag? Get out of there, I need you over-"
"♫Gonna get a taco at the deeeliii, a deli with a taco I will gooooo!♫"
"Enough! This ship has no deli on it, and you're not getting to the food hall on the inside of a taco bag- I mean duffel bag!"
"Sure I am. Duffel bag's goin' all the way to the deli floating outside the space box!"
"Outside...?" Zim gasped in shock. "The station? You're going into DELHI STATIO-?!" The communication briefly cut out, as everything around GIR briefly went translucent and shimmered with glittery light. Once it stopped, the communication went back on a second or two later "-back here right this instant! GIR, can you hear me?!"
"Eheeheeheeheehee! Teleportin' tickles my feetsies."
Zim facepalmed. "Fine. As long as you're over there, you might as well be of use to me. Investigate the wreckage, and report back to me with any findings. IMPORTANT findings. Can I trust you with that?"
For a moment, GIR's teal lights turned blood red, and he adopted a grim expression followed by a stern salute.
"Very well! Go forth, my servant, and doo not faaiil meeeee." With that, the image went to static before vanishing entirely. GIR's lights went back to their original colours, and he turned his attention back to the fascinating instruments before him.
edited 9th Oct '16 12:24:42 AM by LizardOfAus
And a Strange Figure Emerges.Peridot - Away Team
Peridot had arrived to join the team, picking up her tricorder and phaser with a mix of derision and comfort - It may be inferior human technology, but she still felt better for having it. Once she had materialized securely on board the station, she flipped open her tricorder and started scanning around. The diminutive gem seemed quite happy to ignore the crowds of survivors in favour of the chunk of station's systems.
"Hmm... life support seems to be functional." She mused, running the blinking lights of her instrument over a bulkhead. "And power systems are nominal as well." The engineer frowned in confusion below her visor as she flipped her tricorder shut again. "Homem Christo, let's find a computer access terminal. I want to work out how this chunk of dilapidated durasteel still has power."
Dr. Harleen Quinzel stared at the sickbay clean room, frowning. She then blinked and turned to look at Octavius. "Oh, yes, Otto. A pleasure to meet you again." she says, switching the tablet to her left hand then holding out her right hand to shake hands with the toad like man. She shakes her head suddenly, as if trying to get water out of her hair.
"So, Odd-o, Dr. Crock-pot wanted me to go through the psych profiles and do some profilin'." Harley says, her voice a little more high pitched then her earlier professional tones. "I was thinking the chief doctor guy wants to see this as soon as I got done. Is he in there?" she asks, pointing at the clean room.
T Deck
-As Avitus clambers out of the pit, he takes stock of the situation, giving a P'li a single nod.-
Continue, Initiate.
-This highest of praise delivered, he turns to the technicians, holstering his bolter to aid in picking up the repugnant creatures, trusting in his ceramite gauntlets to resist whatever disgusting fluids they might ooze forth.-
What contigency measures have we for the xenos' storage, Enginseer?
"Eugh, no way I'm touching those things" It was bad enough when they were possibly dangerous, now they're giving birth? Instead Moloch elected to go find a torch to attract them towards something once they figured out what they were gonna put them in beside just holding them. But before he could get one that one security officer went and mad a ring of fire in the middle of the room! He covered his eyes as instructed, and nearly smacked the security officer in the back of the head for making that much fire in the engine room, except a pair of crewman showed up with boxes and started getting them into a crate, and it was working. Moloch settled for glaring at the back of pyrokinetic's head until the leechticks were almost all crated.
Croaker - Deck G - Sickbay
So far this guy was hitting all the right points. He was starting to calm down and give out his story with more detail. Just what you would expect. To an extent, I agreed with him. It had never been the way of the Company to fight if it could be avoided, and when you had to fight, to win it before you stepped onto the field. We did not know enough about this new enemy, but we had to linger here to pick up the other survivors to remedy just that. Because he did not know that, he urged me to hurry. I shrugged.
"You heard me tell the Commander just that, friend. She knows her business, I'd guess we might already be underway. I don't get into what goes on up on the bridge much. Besides, you want us to tell the Alliance to watch out for some galactic-scale Christmas tree lights? If they can take out a station as big as Delhi, there's nothing the EA has got to match'em anyway. I don't suppose they told you what it was you were on trial for? Anyhow, you looked over your shoulder and the station had gone poof. You see a blast, or did it just splinter into a skillion pieces without so much as scratching your shuttle? And what happened next?"
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. -Lao TzuBridge
Leo nodded as Tatsumaki relayed her instructions, despite the fact she couldn't see him, and had just closed off with a short "Yes, ma'am." when Officer Dross passed on his message to the captain. Wait, the captain? Sure enough, there was Joseph back on the bridge. Leo tensed at the unexpected presence of authority, and just as quickly felt it dissipate in the face of Joseph's cheerful attitude.
"Sure thing, captain!" He turned to face the viewscreen, crunched a few basic numbers in his head while he judged their position in relation to the station, and then let the computer handle the more complex calculations. "Bearing change of twenty-five degrees. If we don't adjust our y-axis while pulling up beside it, and if we decelerate to match its drift, then we should be able to maintain a parallel course to the wreckage. I mean, at least until we can get the survivors onboard."
He sent the specifics to Excellen and the Second Pilot, his mind already on the next job. If he kept himself busy then there wouldn't be time to stop and worry about the ship's other problems, or whether another misfortune was about to befall them, or whether he'd just screwed up. To that end he called up the sector's star chart and began plotting the course from Delhi to Mumbai. It'd likely take an hour or two at mid-warp speed, barring some other surprise, but otherwise it was a straightforward path.
So straightforward, in fact, that the route didn't even require that much brainpower to map out. In-between calculating distances he opened up a communications line again. "Bridge to..." he cast about for the name of the doctor, "...Chief Medical Officer Croaker. This is Junior Officer Clo- Watch, Officer Watch. The away team has beamed down to Delhi Station, and we have an update on the bodies our scanners picked up there. That is, uh, whenever you're ready, sir."
they/them || "Forgive me, regent of queer amphibians" - Lt.BGobOnce Chief Engineer Peridot had arrived, Guy had silently fallen into line behind the small alien. He watched her curiously as they moved through the empty halls of Delhi station, while at the same time scanning the area. Gems were an interesting race, from what he had learned over the years. Their bodies weren't the actual physical being you would call a gem. It was more of a hard-light projection that the gem could naturally project. And their technology was all very crystalline-based and fairly esoteric as well as being highly advanced.
Guy was loath to admit that it was one of the few technological bases that he had worked with and researched that he had trouble with. And he would never admit it out loud, but their culture also made him a bit uncomfortable. The idea of being created as almost a tool for one purpose... it didn't sit well with him. Maybe time with his superior would help dull that discomfort.
The sight of the cheering crowd made it clear to the android that he was very uninformed of just what was going on. It had been obvious from the general atmosphere of the team that something was wrong, but everything was pointing to something far more serious than he had expected. He'd need to correct that ignorance quickly.
"Yes Ma'am." Guy intoned, then paused for a moment. "...Ma'am, what happened here? I was not told quite what the mission was."
Botanica materialized a few seconds behind the rest of the away team - her gold-green body popping into existence as her teammates were already getting to grips with the situation. There was the faint familiar noise of her T-cog spinning gently, re-adjusting her internal gyroscopes to cope with the sudden and abrupt loss of gravity. As gently as she could, she nudged a potted plant out of the way, sending it spinning lazily off on an entirely new trajectory.
Floating in zero-gravity was an experience that she had very rarely experienced - only once, during her time aboard the Star Arrow when the artificial gravity generator malfunctioned. The odd, almost surreal beauty of having one's sense of direction thrown to the wind was severly undercut by having to listen to her geriatric Builder captain wheezing angrily about how the lack of gravity was going to damage his datatrax.
So for a few moments, Botanica just let herself drift, enjoying the novel freedom of perpetual free-fall. Only for a few moments, though - there was a few clicks as she engaged her altmode jets at minimum power; pushing herself as gently as she could towards the crowd and looking as natural as any seven-foot tall mechanoid could under the circumstances. She arrived just in time to hear one of the survivors mention a "Shaigan" - a species she wasn't familiar with off-hand, but the tone of voice told her just about everything she needed to hear.
"Hold the phone," she said, fumbling around the awkward human phrase note "Is there evidence that this individual was behind the attack, other than the nature of species?" she asked, watching the Shaigan for a few moments as she tried to look for any connection between the current state of the facility and Guy's prisoner of war, safely ensconced in a maximum-security duffel bag.
Deck Leechtick
Fortunately, Engineering had some members with heads on their shoulders beyond Tails. "It appearsss thossse crittersss need a great deal of warmth to reproduce." He hummed, putting the one in his hand back to the cage brought by the Twins. "Or, at the very leassst, it ssspeedsss up the processs."
"I, for my part, cannot help but be curiousss about sssuch a creature breeding like a mammal." Well, roughly speaking, at the very least. Seath turned his attention to Avitus. "Worry not your head about thisss, sssecurity. Thossse cagesss are more than enough for thossse, even in face of their reproduction."
Well, they certainly looked like it, "...these pet carrier things." He kept along with the leechtick wrangling, because while disgusting, the faster he did it the faster they'd go away. At least they weren't afraid of him, like cats were. Oddly enough, cats never seemed to be calm wherever he was.
Ricco wasn't a fan of cats for this reason, to put it lightly.
Deck T
The security chief arrived on the engineering deck somewhat later than intended. He had, to his mild embarassment, spent far too much valuable time in the armory choosing between a selection of heavy weapons, being forced to discard several when he became too weighed down to walk. And now it seemed to have been for nothing, as the invasive creatures proved to be totally harmless? What a pity. Still, maybe they'd prove dangerous later. Grow into something big and scary, that sort of thing.
"Hm. Agreed, officer Ricco. These things should be contained more safely until we find out more. For all we know, they could mature into something more dangerous."
Of course, a Xenomorph would know all about that. If they were lucky, these things would grow into something big and scary, and fast.
Delhi Station - Residental Sector
Alright, Deadliar thought, so let me see if I got it right.
So this woman- Tatsumaki- was the second-in-command of the USS Verne. She gave this briefing, with Akihiro being ordered to not fire unless fired upon. Then he got beamed down to the Delhi Station (the residental sector, to be more specific). The lack of gravity was somewhat weird; While Deadliar could levitate, Executor and all, the feeling of weightlessness was an unfamiliar one to him.
When someone found what Officer Zarna called a 'Shaigan', Deadliar wanted to learn more about him to make a proper judgement. Adding on what the Cybertronian said, he interjected. "I agree with... whoever-she-is. We should at least try to gain more information, then decide on what to do with him."
"If you judge a book by its cover, you might as well as not read the book at all," Togari-Maru added.
Rero.Kaylee|Engineering
Kaylee had gotten to Engineering fairly late, missing the start of the kerfuffle and the away team. Arriving there, she immediately went to say hello to the warp engine, the heart of the ship. It was covered in...somethings. Around the engine, crew was packing these things into carrier baskets.
"Hello, Verne! Are these things bothering you? Anything I should be concerned about?"
She spoke with her usual cheer, filled with enthusiasm at all the pretty things of the ship, the computer, the new EGT model compressors, the people. To those around her, who weren't aware of her abilities, Kaylee would appear insane, talking to thin air as if she expected it to respond. Of course, she was expecting it to respond, and would get concerned if the ship didn't. Noticing the security personnel (Ricco and the Chief) within the room, she left that spot, still listening for a response, and approached them confusedly.
"What's goin' on? Something I should be concerned about?"
edited 15th Oct '16 9:54:36 PM by secretlyasuperhero
[TOP SECRET]"Did you ever expect you'd get this much excitement and hands-on experience on your first day, Junior Navigator Watch?" Joseph commented from his chair, leaning forward with interest as he rested his chin on his fist. "Avoiding an extremely rare event and helping out on a rescue mission in the span of an hour. Maybe you won't be Junior for much longer!"
Once he heard his nickname, Otto's permanently plastered smile faltered for a moment, and he adjusted his glasses as he regained his grin. "It's Otto, Ms. Quinzel." He corrected her, clasping his hands nervously before remaining in front of her. "The Chief is currently very busy... I can do it for you." He held out his hands, snickering proudly. "After all, I am the most intelligent Medical officer in this room."
"Heck do I know! All I heard were the words 'trial' and then, poof, it was gone!" Captain Pines continue, hammering his fist into an open palm. "When I say 'poof', that's what I mean, alright? Poof! You're probably thinking 'oh, he's just exaggerating, things can't just suddenly disappear', but that's what happened! It was as if Delhi Station never existed at all. That's why the only appropriate word here is poof."
"You're not going to dissect them or anything like that, are you?" Ensign Nadir asked Chief Seath, starting a conversation he'd probably regret in the future. "They're living creatures who are pregnant and who apparently poise no harm to us. I think what we need to do is analyze them, add them to the database and find their planet so we can send them back home safely. It's the humane thing to do, right?"
Seeing the sudden new arrival of Kaylee, Ensign Nadir promptly pulled her into the conversation by pointing at her. "Am I right? I think everyone agrees with me on that. The most these Leechticks did to us was rub against our legs, and if that was enough for something to be considered a threat, dogs would have been extinguished centuries ago!"
Zarna gave some of the nearby Security officers a quick sign, turning to Genji so she could deliver the information covertly. "They're a race famous for their distaste of expansionism of any kind, even the good work we at the EA do. Some of the more extreme factions of their planet thinks nations should stick to their planets and not meddle with the nature of others, and have carried out several attacks against EA bases." She scoffed at Botanica's suggestion. "Honestly, I'm not surprised you don't know what we're talking about. The Shaigan were behind the attack on the USS Haley last year! How is that not enough proof?"
"Are you the... Engineer in Command?" A pudgy black man with a buzz cut floated up to Peridot, looking at her with some confusion. "I'm guessing, what with all the commands and the yelling and things like that. Sure hope I'm not accidentally shaking the hand of someone's pet project. " He held out his hand, smiling awkwardly. "Hi, my name is Max? I am one of the Delhi Station engineers. I heard you said something about how we're still running, and, uh, that's because of our auxiliary engine, each sector had at least four because Delhi Station was originally designed to be several different stations joined into one and they could, uh, maybe separate and do their things?"
He absentmindedly nodded to himself, before remembering there was a conversation thread he had forgotten about. "Oh yeah! They're running at full power now, I can take you to see them, but they won't be for long."
T Deck
-Highly unpleasant memories of the Ymgarl expedition surface in Avitus' mind as Nadir continues to defend the scuttling creatures. Do they too possess a hive-mind? Is Nadir's brazen lack of intelligence merely to hide his absorption by the entity, ready to sabotage the ship or give his life for the brood on its orders?-
The humane thing to do is preserve the life of the crew aboard this vessel. Giving this exponentially-spawning vermin free run about the ship runs counter to all security protocols.
Initiate. You will escort the Enginseers to storage, and remain there until relieved by security and satisfied that containment measures will prevent an outbreak.
It sounded like an argument could end up starting between the officers over how to handle the situation with the Shaigan. Seeing that, Genji decided that it was better to cut it short before it distracted everyone from their duties further.
"Do not be so quick to judge." Genji advised Zarna, his tone sounded less like he was reprimanding the officer and more like a simple suggestion as he spoke calmly, yet firmly. He then glanced over to the Shaigan briefly before making his point. "while his species might be at odds with us and is a likely culprit in this incident, we don't know what role this individual played in all of this."
There were few explanations to the Shaigan's presence in the station that Genji could think of. One of them being that he was tasked with trying to infiltrate the Verne from the inside, after all, the fact that the ship was coming over to the station was pretty well-known. Another was that he was abandoned in the station for one reason or another, either because they left in a rush or because he could have rebelled against them. At this moment in time it was hard to come to a definite conclusion.
"We'll bring him for questioning and keep an eye for any suspicious activity. He could provide us important information about what happened here and once we have a better understanding on the situation, then we'll be able to make a judgement." His attention then went to all the other people in the station, pointing with his head towards the crowd, "Right now, the focus should be getting these people safe and sound in the ship. Give them some time to rest before we start asking questions, this entire experience must have been traumatic, especially since it looks like a majority of the survivors are women with children."
Finally, Genji glanced at each one of the individuals involved in the discussion before speaking up again.
"Any objections?"

Brother Dross; Bridge
The coercarn caught Croaker's message, but his circuit-soul was still ensconced in the depths of cyberspace. It took him several seconds to respond.
"Acknowledged, Officer Croaker. Dr. Quinzel shall be watched."
So much for acknowledgement. There was leeway when it came to the Chief Medical Officer, however, as there would not have been with the First Officer or the Captain. Brother Dross did not see the point of delegating anyone to the task, and besides, Officer Browning was at the helm.
Like most humans, Brother Dross could not focus on more than two or three things at a time. Unlike most humans, Brother Dross had complete control over his electronic brain. He partitioned off a small segment of his compucoder-cortex and hooked it to Dr. Quinzel's tablet via the Verne intranet, taking control of a very specific set of subroutines. Automating the monitoring process was only a matter of will - or, in the positronic sense, programming from scratch a retard AI to take over the assigned functions. EA-standard AIs were the only electronic entities even capable of dealing with the complexity of an Axiomatic's circuits.
The matter now in his subconscious, so to speak, Brother Dross turned to First Officer Tatsumaki... only to note that First Officer Tatsumaki was, in fact, not there. He scanned blank eyes across the bridge - and lo and behold, Captain Joestar, newly returned from his engine room sorjourn. Dross's eyelights lit.
"Orders from Gamma Station, Captain Joestar. We are to take the survivor to Mumbai Station, but before that, you are to find the cause of Delhi Station's destruction. Gamma Station has no knowledge of any possible instigators."
The coercarn paused.
"We are to avoid violence on first contact," he added thoughtfully, as if the clause were a minor addendum.
edited 6th Oct '16 6:47:09 AM by troydenite