LT Gila Sadar - Out of My Political Depth
LT Gila Sadar
(( Mysterious Facility - Underground, Breetia Township, Galaris IV ))
Gila had never been very good at reading or using alien technology. Coming from a planet with a lower level of technology than the Federation had been the cause of quite a few hardships in her initial integration into galactic society, but she was getting better. This ominously blue-glowing alien console though?
Still extremely eerie.
Sadar: It’s... Receiving a signal? And... Distributing it.
Bancroft: We’re officially playing in someone else’s sandbox now.
Cole: Hopefully they don’t mind us being here. Any idea where it’s distributing the signal?
Sadar: I’m... Not sure. It’s difficult to tell where it’s going. ::beat:: But I can say where it’s coming from: not planetside. ::quiet breath:: Seems we have the ‘credence’ you spoke of, Ensign Cole. And more.
Bancroft: Off-world signal, autonomous system… this wasn’t meant to be found. Not by us, anyway.
Regardless, it was they who had found it, and now they needed to make heads or tails of it. Preferably, they needed to find out what this console was for. Without a skilled Engineer present, Gila didn’t have the faintest idea of how to identify whether the console was distributing the signal to either of the two warring factions, or an entirely third party, and in that state, it didn’t make for very good evidence. It was all far too circumstantial… That meant they had only two possible options left open to them: Retreat and get Ensign Tho’Bi down here, or try to find the source of the code out there in space somewhere.
Cole: On the bright side, if we weren’t meant to find it, maybe no one knows we did. ::beat:: Unless it just told them.
This was when the console started behaving erratically, again with no apparent trigger committed by Gila or the Ensigns. That autonomous behaviour was starting to creep her out. Several panels along the far curve of the chamber reacted to the console’s continued whirring, as two cylindrical tanks were revealed. Their surfaces were fogged up and a similar blue tinted light as the one lighting the display on the console revealed their contents. A Grunden in one, a Kobyar in the other.
Bancroft: Lieutenant… those life signs we’ve been chasing? We’re looking right at them.
Thankfully, that meant the two individuals within the tanks weren’t dead, but it also meant that they were being kept alive for some reason. Despite her growing anxiety at the inexplicable circumstances they’d landed themselves in, Gila slowly stepped around the console, her tricorder switched to its medical setting as she scanned the lifesigns within.
Cole: Well this solves one of the every growing list of questions we’ve had.
Sadar: Standard Kobyar, Male, middle-aged. Standard Grunden, male, middle-aged. ::taps medical tricorder with focused expression:: Artificially induced comatose condition. All systems read functional and cared for, so they must be receiving sustenance from the machinery... But, why-
Her contemplations were paused when a mechanical erupted from the tanks, the glow increasing to a luminescence that made her eyes burn after so long shifting between heavy fog and the darkness of being underground. Then, a familiar sound, like the sound made when medicine was drained from a hypospray. The wet sound of liquid moving through carefully sealed vents, and she saw as the fluid the two aliens had been contained in started to drain, revealing them fully.
No wounds, as far as Gila could see, which was a blessing in disguise, though they still weren’t sure what stance the two aliens would take to intruders in the facility.
Bancroft: Lieutenant Sadar, Ensign Cole – our friends here are coming out of it.
Cole: Okay. One Grunden, one Kobyar. Either someone was building an exclusive guest list, or we just walked in on a science project.
Gila hoped they were friends and they’d all be reasonable adults about this whole ordeal, but she wasn’t willing to take chances. She’d been through too much to make assumptions about unknown aliens.
Sadar: Keep your guard up, Ensign Cole. Ensign Bancroft, get ready to administer rudimentary first aid if needed.
The last fluid drained, small, thick droplets of nutrient-dense liquid resting at the bottom of the tank, and then the two of them woke up, almost as though they had heard the same alarm clock. The two of them seemed disoriented, but none the worse for wear, and when the glass receeded and allowed them to come down, the Grunden stumbled out of the tank first, with the Kobyar soon following. Gila halted herself from stepping backwards, looking between the two with caution.
Cole: ::calmly:: Let’s all stay friendly, shall we.
Bancroft: Response
Sadar: D-Do you... ::twist anxiety band twice:: D-Do you know where you are?
Grunden: By the Ancestors-
The male Grunden’s voice was heavy and weathered, examining the three of them with something bordering on macabre interest. The Kobyar male, meanwhile, twitched in response to their presence, though Gila couldn’t tell whether it was from fear or something else.
Kobyar: ::breathy disgust:: Monsters! High Chief Kraton and the Grand Marshall have finally pushed the war too far!
Oh, well, disgust was a possibility too.
oO High Chief Kraton... That’s one of the Grunden government figures... Oo
Gila recalled his name, since - according to the dossier - he’d been one of the few otherwise conservative and progress-averse Grunden who’d supported their push to warp technology. Evidently, they were being suspected of being biological mutations of some kind...
Gila didn’t know how to process that information.
Bancroft/Cole: Response
Sadar: I-I assure you, w-we aren’t monsters. W-We’re, uhh, a-aliens. From, space? ::brief pause:: Wh-Who are you?
She attempted to voice this in as diplomatic and calm a voice as possible, but she wasn’t sure the two previous captives were properly digesting the new information. The two of them exchanged a long thoughtful look, before looking back at them.
Grunden: I don’t trust them.
Kobyar: Calm, Nensi. ::to the Starfleeters:: Greetings... Aliens...?
That notion seemed to almost amuse him.
Griil: I’m Bruufo Griil, Chief Engineer on the Slingdrive project... Or, I was. And this ::gestures to Grunden:: is Doctor Nensi. They were the Lead Astrophysicist who worked on the Grunden Warpship.
Gila blinked, clear shock on her expression as she realized who the two captives had been.
Sadar: Y-You... You’re part of the teams that brought Galaris IV into the warp age…
Nensi: ::scornful scoff:: For all the good it did us.
Bancroft/Cole: Response
Griil: I will share all that I can, but really, I’d much rather we got out of here! If you truly aren’t with Grand Marshall Vef-Lai, maybe it’s not too late to expose him for the greedy warmonger that he is! Make my people see some sense!
Gila’s eyes widened. That was a statement and a half, but all things considered, she didn’t exactly see a reason to object to getting out of the facility. Especially if Ensign Cole was right and the activity down here had already alerted whoever put Doctor Nensi and Engineer Griil in the tanks in the first place.
And frankly, she’d much rather have Captain MacKenzie do a proper debriefing with these two. She felt firmly out of her depth with the political ramifications of this.
Sadar: I- Uhh, o-okay. ::looks to Ensign Bancroft:: E-Ensign, make sure Doctor Nesin and Engineer Griil are healthy and fit to move. ::looks to Ensign Cole:: Ensign Cole, please keep watch by the door until we’re ready to go. I’m, uh, not interested in more surprises.
Bancroft/Cole: Response
TAG/TBC
(( OOC: Doctor Nensi and Engineer Griil are what we call General NPCs, similar to the civilians we’ve encountered earlier. This means that everyone are allowed to SIM for them regardless of position, so feel free to commandeer them as we get out of this creepy place! xD ))
LT Gila Sadar
Assistant Chief of Medical
USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1