PNPC Crewman Jozial Renirs – We're starting to click together pretty well
Jovenan
((Rakantha Province, Bajor))
In Jozial’s opinion, the steely, confident, unemotional look was the coolest. Cool chicks didn’t babble, they leaned against walls with their arms crossed over their chest and greeted anything either a nod or sufficient level of violence. Jozial was like that. She was the toughest person on the ship, which wasn’t that difficult thing to pull off, considering that half of the crew were officers.
She just so happened to love babbling and waving her hands excitedly, and if she happened to let her bubbly interior let loose, she couldn’t control it. That must mean that cool chicks did indeed babble. Funny how that works.
Gnai: Oh, sorry... ::pause:: No, Galadorans are not humanoid.
Better avoid French cooks just in case anyway.
Renirs: Thought so. Those petty losers didn’t see what stroke them in the ears! You know, maybe I could teach you. Yeah, you and your soft-hand academia colleagues could do with some new ways to think things. Insight and stuff!
She couldn’t determine well how it reacted to her proposal, but she was certain that if it had a face in the typical sense, it would be showing the expression of excitement!
Gnai: Perhaps not.
Jozial shrugged. People didn’t seem to understand the value of her offers for training. Gabe had been interested in her training his officers in preparing for surprise attacks but had never contacted her again on the subject matter and kept avoiding her so much as to transfer off to a station. And she would been okay with giving her guidance for free! Did no one realise how much latinum they’d need to pay if they had hired anyone else?
Either way, she stopped waving her hands around and instead looked at the tricorder she was still holding. It looked like she should have just kept it pointed in the rough direction of the river after all, as she had been receiving a mix of garbage data from all around the plateau and the nearby hills, and none from the river itself.
It wasn’t all garbage data though. The scientific and engineering tricorders weren’t that different, and Jozial could tell when she saw a reading of a covered empty space. Typically, those indicated the access points in the Jefferies Tubes, or places where to hide the mostly legal stuff on a ship, but there were very few EPS conduits in a godforsaken Bajoran wasteland.
Renirs: Like, if you never raise your eyes from the ground, you’d never notice that there’s an old, hidden entrance to a cave at the bottom of that hill. Wanna go investigate?
The mellow fellow jello turned its viewing organs towards the direction Jozial had pointed out to it. It was an officer, but Jozial didn’t want to label it as a stuffy fun-slayer, like Granpa Talos. She expected it to say no, and prepared to argue that they had been ordered to investigate any anomalies and she’d go anyway and that it was responsible for her so it couldn’t let her go alone and that the Miss Teacher-you-forgot-to-give-us-homework would be pretty mad about for not accompanying her and…
Gnai: It is on the way, as the toxins are in higher concentration in that direction of the river. An investigation is only prudent. Perhaps... toxins can be scanned for inside. It could provide more data on their origin.
Huh. She had expected all blueshirts (or blue-mecha-suits) to be more like the brick-face Kawarda, but this one wasn’t such a “don’t-eat-dirt” kinda personality after all.
Renirs: Yeah! And we were told to investigate all the anomalies. Let’s go!
They walked to the hill where Jozial had spotted the cave. She had grown in an urban environment, so this was pretty much the first cave she would be in, unless you count one particularly unpleasant man-cave she had the dishonour to visit once. Jozial had heard stories of people hiding all the sort of interesting things in caves, like treasures, illicit arms, dead bodies, and cheese. She would have loved to find any of those in there.
Gnai: =/\= Ensign Gnai to Lieutenant Jovenan. Renirs has spotted a cave that may be of interest in the investigation of the river toxins. Please do not worry if you cannot see anyone near the river, no one has disappeared, sir. =/\=
Jozial turned sharply to the jellymon. It had contacted the Lab Jacket Princess via the combadge. Did it really have to do that? She ignored her drag-along and focused in gaining entrance to the cave.
Jovenan: =/\= Jovenan here. Okay, you can start studying the cave, but don’t wander off too far. I’ll be joining you two in a moment. =/\=
Hmm, the cave opening (entrance? mouth?) was behind some stones, hidden but not impossible to enter after moving them slightly away from her way. She could move a few (certainly much bigger once she talked about it back on the ship) and peeked into the gap she had created. It was too dark for her to see much ahead of herself.
Gnai: =/\= Thank you, sir. Utmost care and concern will be taken towards safety. Do not worry. =/\=
Jovenan: =/\= I expect nothing less. See you in a bit. =/\=
As the jelly was ending the conversation, Jozial had moved the rocks enough for them to enter. Jellybelly didn’t seem to hesitate much as it pulled out the tricorder again and stepped into the dark, with Jozial rushing to walk alongside it, not wanting to appear like she needed an officer to clear the way to her.
Other than the small amount of sunlight through the entrance, the tricorders and the lightshow organized by the jelly, they were in pitch-black darkness. Despite not seeing much ahead of herself, Jozial could tell that the place had plentiful of moisture in there.
Renirs: The heck is this smell? It’s like some single guys first flat in here. ::foot slides in slippery rock:: Ew!
Gnai: Response
Jozial tried shedding more light ahead by pointing her tricorder’s screen towards the back of the cave, though it didn’t illuminate the walls much.
Renirs: So, what do you think this cave is for? I wanna find some old Cardie guns, those are expensive. Or a bear!
Gnai: Response
She walked further into the cave. Sure, they had been told not to walk off too far, but when has that stopped her from doing anything. Besides, the cave seemed entirely safe. Damp, slimy, smelly, but at least so far there had been no animals, hiding Cardies, collapses or clicks…
Click?
Renirs: Huh?
She had stepped on something. At first, she had thought it was just a stone, but it gave way under her foot. Jozial couldn’t react to the unexpected clicking sound before her ears were filled by a much louder sound, her vision turned briefly white, and her body was thrown several metres from where she had stood.
Gnai: Response
TAG/TBC
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Crewman Third Class Jozial Renirs
Enlisted technician
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11