What Happened?
Posted on Mon May 31st, 2021 @ 11:11am by Captain Christine Applegate & Lieutenant Commander Ian Ryan & Lieutenant Commander Zayn Satu M.D. & Lieutenant Baktosh Redclaw & Lieutenant Solana Milner & Lieutenant Jennifer Matthews & Cadet Junior Grade Isamu Takato
Mission:
Mission 5: Research Team - Missing in Action
Location: Research Station - Underwater, Binides - Command
Timeline: 2389 229 at 1500
Having waited until everyone arrived in the command area, Christine was on edge. This didn't feel right, didn't feel like an accident. What was paused on the recording was frightening enough. It had to be a face. It was obvious. But why was this face here, right before everything cut out? What caused the odd storm?
She was leaning on a console, watching the others filter in. "Take a look a the image, guys."
Solana was also leaning on a console near the Captain. The video footage was indeed unsettling. Growing up in a mountain region the engineering officer knew that storms can, in fact, just seem to appear, but not like that.
"I don't like when science can't explain things." She said as she looked at the screen. The image was startling and upsetting.
Having begrudgingly come back to the command area with the others, Satu looked up at the screen and stifled a gasp. That was not what she was expecting to see when she arrived here. "What the heck?" She said aloud, then gave Tine a sheepish look.
"You all have the same thought I do when I saw that come up on the recording," The captain stated with a heavy sigh.
Niobe stopped and looked, then looked to Amulius. "Where the hell did that come from?"
"The last bit of external sensor video we have," he stated with a sigh.
She raised an eyebrow and looked towards the crew. "Anyone recognize it?"
"I have no idea. It is very unsettling." She turned and looked at her crew.
Solana crossed her arms over her chest and signed. She hoped someone else's might have more information than she did.
Jenni shook her head. Clearly, it wasn't familiar to her, but the way the Captain asked the question, it made her think the face was somehow connected to the Medea's adventures prior to her arrival.
If it had been a face that the crew had seen, Baktosh didn’t recognize it. It didn’t help, of course, that much of the Kzinti’s personnel recognition came from other cues. How a person stood, how they moved, changing facial expressions, and most importantly scent. A still image of just a face would be difficult to discern absent other context clues.
“Whoever that is, obviously they should not appear like that on sensor feeds,” he said, regretting being unable to add anything more constructive.
"I don't think it's anyone I've ever seen. But could we run the image through our computers and see if there's a match somewhere in the database?" Satu asked, trying to be helpful.
While everyone else was looking at the image, Jenni continued to tap away at the console. Several ideas had struck her, ranging from using a fractal algorithm to recover or reconstruct the distorted image, to expanding the record's metadata to see if anything there would provide a clue. She started with the metadata as she figured it would provide a more solid direction.
"Hold on," she remarked quietly. "This record has something unusual in the audio feed." Without waiting for a directive, she queued the file to play and started it.
The voice was not translated. However, anyone who just might have been in the cave of Alpha Quadrant artifacts...it sounded vaguely familiar...
Satu blinked, tilted her head, and scrunched up her face. There was something familiar about that voice, but she couldn't place it. She stood like that for a moment, before suddenly gasping and clutching Baktosh's arm. "Baktosh! That voice! Those words... do you remember that cave? Where I got that disco ball?" She gave Tine another sheepish look, upon remembering the chaos that simple disco ball caused. "Doesn't that voice sound like one of the ones we heard after the cave in?"
“You’re right,” Baktosh said, nodding. “Still no idea what the voice is saying though.”
"That's the voice from the cave in, But I don't understand it either. TO be fair, I didn't understand it then, either. " She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. This was frustrating, and she wanted to help more, but she wasn't sure how. "This doesn't make any sense."
"So I guess the only option is to go inside the dark, possibly drenched, cave and see if we can locate the source. You know..." Ian said, "Funny story about dark caves and what have you..." He paused, "I forgot it though."
The captain raised an eyebrow at the voice, not recognized by her, but then looked at the others, since they'd been on that mission. "Wait, the voice is familiar...from that cave?"
Both Niobe and Amulius shrugged. "Can we ask what you are talking about," came Amulius' voice finally.
"I'm not completely sure. But, during a mission, we ran across a cave full of Alpha Quadrant artifacts, some extremely old from the reports." Tine looked to Jenni and Isamu, since they hadn't been on that mission. "See if you can connect to Medea's computers and try to match anything from the tricorder readings of that mission to the sensor readings here before they went out."
Jenni nodded and started to tap away at the console, only to be greeted by an error. She frowned and tried a new sequence of commands, only to find the same error. "Cadet, run a diagnostic on the transceiver. I can't seem to establish a connection with the Medea's computer."
Looking at her tricorder and slides some options but shook her head "No option to get connected to our mainframe sir" Isamu replied a bit concerned.
Glancing to Isamu and Jenni, the captain just sighed. "Why did I figure we were too far underwater to reach the ship? Okay..." She knew this was Ian's mission, but things seemed to be changing with how this was turning out.
"We have to get everyone out of here."
Niobe frowned, knowing what that meant, "We have to evac, don't we?"
"Once we lost communications, Niobe," Amulius finally said, "We knew something would be done, and we can't function this way anyways. Go get the others and get packed."
Tine bit her lip and looked to her crew. "Help get everything downloaded and saved. All experiments, all information. We're going to bring them with us."
“Recommend we keep all of their material, physical and electronic, isolated until we can be assured they don’t pose a security risk,” Baktosh suggested. He looked to the researchers. “I have no concerns about you, but the last time we encountered these voices, an object we took with us ended up causing a lot of damage.”
"Agreed," the captain said in response to the suggestion. "Better safe than sorry."
Jenni wished she would have brought a portable data core. If she used every tricorder, padd, and even the shuttle computer, Jenni would be lucky to store ten percent of the station's data. If a comlink could be established with Medea, that would have solved the problem. "We may have to remove the data modules directly. Those will be easy enough to quarantine once we get back to the ship."
"Whatever you need to do," Christine said as she watched her crew.
"We can help with that," Niobe said, "It might take more time to pack our personal items honestly. The data modules are simple enough."
"If you can direct me to those," Jenni said to Niobe, "I'll work on downloading and securing all of the data, as well as transporting them to the shuttle."
Niobe nodded to Jenni, "Yeah, no problem, follow me. I've got to let the others know to pack up anyways." She led Jenni off to find the data modules.
Amulius let out a frustrated sigh, "We've lost the research facility at this point, haven't we?" He ask just in general.
“You’re alive, despite having been thrown to the bottom of the ocean,” Baktosh observed. “You are being rescued. And your data is salvageable as well. Everything irreplaceable is fine. The loss of the facility is tragic but, unless I’m missing something, acceptable.”
"This was supposed to be a long term thing, guess not." Amulius looked to Baktosh, "But, that is true. Hopefully we'll have an explanation for Starfleet by the time you get us back there."
"A new facility can always be built. What is more important is saving your people and your data," Satu said, in concert with Baktosh's statement. "Is there anything I can help with?"
Amulius gave a small shrug. "I guess just the packing. There are only 5 of us so...mostly personal things. We planned on being here a while, so we have little things all over the place.
“We’ll split into two teams,” said Baktosh. He pointed to Niobe and two more. “You, you, and you, will come with me and collect your personal belongings and anything else important that isn’t in this room. You and you,” he continued, pointing to Amulius and the fifth person, “will finish packing up here, and when we get back I’ll escort you to get your personal things.” With a gesture of his paw, three scientists followed the giant Kzinti out of the command centre and toward their quarters.
Niobe and the others followed Baktosh, still wishing this hadn't happened. But they also didn't have any real control. over it.
Solana looked at Tine and sighed. " I'll go back to engineering and get to backing up and removing data to take back with us. It shouldn't take me long to get everything together. Then I can start helping everyone get their possessions in order." She turned to go to engineering and spoke as she walked away, "Just call for me if you need me."
Christine nodded and did her best to also start helping pack the little things.
Solana was back quickly with several data modules. "These will be easy enough to isolate and scan once we get back to the ship."
Satu helped the two remaining scientists pack up the things they needed from the immediate area, being extra careful with things so she didn't break anything. Humming to herself as she packed away the items securely, she worked quite efficiently. Within a few minutes everything she'd been handed was stowed neatly in a bag.
Ian looked at the Captain, "As soon as the first group is ready we probably should begin beaming them up to the ship otherwise it'll take a long period of time. And, I'll have to sit with the quartermaster to arrange quarters for them too."
"No contact with the ship." Tine sighed heavily and went over to Ian. "Us, plus equipment from here plus 5 additional people. It'll be a tight fit but I think the shuttle can handle it. Isamu might be fighting any strong currents a bit more with the added weight but, what choice do we have?
Baktosh returned with the first group, hefting two bags while the three scientists each carried one. “First group is ready, Captain. I can take the last two for their things in a moment. We were thorough, so we can be fast with these last two.” He set his bags on the deck, collected an empty one, and got Amulius and their fifth compatriot to follow him back into the station.
As he had predicted, they were back within a few minutes.
Satu looked at all the gathered items and people. Tight fit was an understatement. But at least most of the crew on the mission were smaller, so it wouldn't be too bad. But for Jenni and Ian, it would be a tight squeeze. But the one she felt really bad for was Baktosh though. He was by far the largest of them.
Looking over the group of them, the captain let out a heavy sigh. "Had we known any of this, we'd have brought a larger shuttle. But, we'll make due. Alright everyone, let's pack the shuttle and get back up to the Medea.