Ensign Tho’Bi - The Pull of a Simple Life

[Tobi]

((Purple Liquid Vats, The Seedery - ‘New Hope’))

Flat, broad leaves rustled in the artificial breeze. The steady irregular tap of purple liquid dripped from those leaves. The grumbling grind of six rail elevators hauling battered old hexagonal containers loaded with food, reverberated around the cathedral-like Seedery. The quartet of Starfleet Officers stood around the shaken and sodding Boraxian Seeder. 

Kulpadu: They needed a Seeder ::nods once:: The Yurum needed a Seeder ::beat:: my youngest is still in the Spires. But these Yurum, they will get their chance ::beat:: to decide their lives.

The diminutive Helms Officer wiped one of their eyes as the Lieutenant Commander began speaking.

Silveira: We are working on not just having these Yurum decide their own lives. Our purpose will be to have Yurum and Boraxians deciding it together if possible. ::he gestured to the others:: As you see, we are all different and work all together.

With the Lieutenant Commander's words still echoing softly down the vast chamber, the Betazoid Lieutenant reached out and gently touched her heart.

Storm: My heart aches with yours.

Meris: They were so little... and they were taken... ::sniff::

The Andorian titled his head to one side as he watched his crewmates exhibit their empathy, express their emotions openly; his own people such a paradox in this regard, quick to anger, and yet so reserved in their most heartfelt, intimate emotions.

Silveira: We all understand your point of view, Kulpadu, and it does look like we have bigger mysteries at hand. So, please, help us find Dariell. Could he be hiding somewhere? Where would he go?

Kulpadu shrugged both arms and shook his head.

Kulpadu: I really don’t know.

Silveira: Do you have any suspicion on where he might have gone?

Kulpadu tipped his head.

Kulpadu: He could have returned to the City ship.

The Boraxian Seeder's speculation was met with a frown from the Artemis Helms Officer. 

Storm: Could he have done that without being detected?

The Helms Officer shook their head.

Meris: ::emphatically:: Absolutely not.

Tho’Bi: ::nodding:: It is highly unlikely.

Silveira: How?

The Lieutenant Commander's question inspired a look of surprise from the Boraxian Seeder. 

Kulpadu: We have a ship hangar.

The Lieutenant Commander arched his eyebrow.

The Master System Display located the galaxy-weary Boraxian vessel's hangers as located aft and above the Seedery. The Andorian Engineer's flicked across the PADD display to confirm this.

Storm: But wouldn’t his departure have been detected? And where is this hangar?

Meris: The Artemis would have detected any launch from the colony ship.

Kulpadu: A few decks below us. I don’t know how to pilot them, few of us do. Maybe Dariell had gotten one and left.

oO What? Oo

Dark blue eyes glanced down at the Boraxian Master System Display synced to his PADD and rendered in electric blue on its flat rectangular display. The hangar bays were located aft and above the Seedery.  

Silveira: Ensign Tho’Bi, see if that PADD was used to commandeer a ship or craft. ::Turning to Meris:: Ensign Meris, scan for the hangar and find us the quickest way to reach it. ::He finally turned to Alex.:: What do you think, Lieutenant?

Storm: I think we go a-hunting. ::beat:: Preferably for someone who can explain why every mystery we touch turns into a full-scale existential crisis.

The Artemis Helms Officer was already working their Tricorder. 

Meris: There is a space that is likely some kind of shuttlebay two decks below, midships on both the port and starboard sides. It appears to be a pass-through section of the ship.

Dark blue eyes scanned the electric blue lines of the Boraxian Master System Display; the Seedery occupied the lowest decks of the ship.

Storm: Can you give us directions to the hangar bay?

Meris: I can, but I'm telling you there is absolutely no way the Artemis would not have detected a shuttle launch from the colony ship. ::a pause and glance towards Tho'Bi:: Unless...

The Andorian did not look up, such was his preoccupation with his own confusion, he more or less knee-jerk-responded to the Helms Officers lead in.

Tho'Bi: ::absent mindly:: …unless the Boraxians have cloaking technology sufficiently advanced to fool our sensors ::beat:: which is highly unlikely. 

Silveira: Response.

Storm: And should we use that gadget to get clearance, or is there someone we need to speak with?

Meris: ::patting their phaser with unearned confidence:: Right here's my clearance. There's an elevator that travels downward in the next section. ::gesturing aft, and beginning to move in that direction::

The Andorian Engineer glanced across at the Helms Officer’s Tricorder display; unlike the Andorian who was using the Boraxian's own Master System Display, the diminutive J'Naii Ensign was working off the Artemis scans.  

Blue fingers rapid-tapped and the Artemis scan of the Boraxian Vessel superimposed over the Boraxian's own Master System Display.

Tho'Bi: ::hushed irritation directed at himself:: Sk’rk! Lesh’kar leks dgrul!

The Andorian Ensign turned toward the Lieutenant Commander and bowed.

Tho'Bi: ::apologetically:: I am sorry, Sir ::beat:: I have been working from the Boraxian Master System Display. It did not occur to me to check Artemis’ own scans. I should have known about the additional Hanger Bays. ::beat:: There is no excuse… the error is mine.

All the young Ensign had wished to do was get his head down and prove himself worthy of the uniform; in this regard, once again he had failed. Once again, he felt himself to be an ill-fit in the black and gold of his uniform. Once again, he felt the pull of a simple life as the Engineer aboard bestfriend, and Ferengi trader of honorable intent and questionable action, Zee's Cargo Ship.  

Once again, life aboard Artemis felt isolated, an outcast.

Silveira: Response.

Meris: ::to Kulpadu:: Thank you for the information. Best wishes upon you.

Kulpadu: Favorable tidings. If I can be of additional service...

Thump! The Boraxian Seeder turned away from the Helms Officer and into the Andorian Engineer, knocking the Boraxian Hexagonal PADD out of the Andorian’s hand and sending it clattering across the rusted out deck.  

Be it the Euphoric haze or the Boraxian's four armed agility, it was the Seeder who scooped up the PADD and returned it to the slower-to-react Andorian. Clasped with fingers above and thumb out of sight below, the Boraxian Seeder placed the hefty hexagonal PADD into the awaiting, open blue palm.

Without saying a word, the Boraxian Seeder then turned and hurried away, soon his figure was lost in the mass of plantlife and mist. 

(( Ventral Service Transport Capsule, The Seedery, ‘New Hope’ ))

The group moved swiftly through the lines of plantlife.

Meris: Commander, that data PADD... if it can access ship systems throughout the Boraxian fleet, that could prove very useful to keep handy. Should anything untoward occur - or the Artemis be threatened - it's a kind of master key. Like a starship’s prefix codes.

A quick sequence of blue fingertip inputs called up his Starfleet PADD's remote interface for the Boraxian PADD. The Ferengi Crawler, he had piggybacked onto the Arcade Game Upload, was gradually mapping the Boraxian PADD's system, but it was taking time.

Tho'Bi: ::to Silveira:: Sir, the Ferengi Crawler I uploaded to the Boraxian PADD is mapping its systems, but… slowly. ::beat:: If there is a Command Input Log, the crawler has not found it yet.

The Andorian felt like he had spent the entire mission telling the Lieutenant Commander that he did not know or it would take time.

Silveira/Storm: Response.

The Hexagonal Transparent Capsule was more stuffed into than located, sitting as it did in a crudely cut hole in the bulkhead. Using both his hands, Ensign Meris activated the door control and the door clunked open. The stale, pungent odour of compost greeted their noses. Among the scattered mess of decades of discarded whatever, heavy purple stains festered on deck and wall.

The diminutive Helms Officer pinched his nose between thumb and finger and looked at both the Lieutenant Commander and the Engineering Ensign. 

Meris: ::nasal voice:: You know how to operate this transport capsule, right?

The Andorian Engineer trudged inside and nodded. He began tapping away at the hexagonal cluster of seven shimmering individual hexagons, as he spoke. 

Tho'Bi: Yeah. ::beat:: The Boraxian Salia did not mention this Transport Capsule. ::beat:: He may simply not have been aware of it… or Dariell may have reactivated it in secret.

Clunk! The door of the Transport Capsule shut and the Capsule began to rumble and rattle it way the short distance to the Hanger Bay.

Silveira/Storm/Meris: Response

An alarmingly loud grinding sound for a magnetic Transport Capsule announced their deceleration and arrival at the Hanger Bay. The ever-shifting metallic light flickered as the battered old Capsules shuddered to a halt. 

Clunk! The door snapped open and promptly fell off. Clang! The heavy flat door smacked off the now dented decking.

((Hanger Bay, Boraxian Vessel - ‘New Hope‘))

The Andorian Engineer stepped out of crippled old Transport Capsule and onto the pristine, sleek deck of the warmly lit Hanger Bay Control Room. A cluster of four hexagonal control columns sat in the centre of the hexagonal chamber. Beyond them, the opposite wall to the Transport Capsule was entirely transparent and looked out onto the Hanger Bay.

His Engineering Tricorder chirped and beeped as he swept it around the refined and ergonomic space.

Tho'Bi: The technology of this Hanger Bay is contemporary to the technology of the Boraxian PADD. 

Silveira/Storm/Meris: Response

The Andorian reached the opposite wall in a quick series of long strides, and looked down into the sparse, cavernous Hanger Bay. The deck of the Bay was also transparent; across the darkness, the Boraxian City Ship hung in the black, a mess of smaller Boraxian Vessels fussed around it.  

The Hanger Bay itself was dominated by a large hexagonal tube that projected out, beyond the bay and toward the City Ship. Floating above the tube, as though stuck in invisible amber, a sleek silver shuttle craft glistened in the smooth, ever-shifting metallic tones. 

Tho'Bi: Woah. ::beat:: This Hanger Bay works like a Rail Gun Turret ::points around the ceiling:: the entire bay sits in a gimbal mount ::points at launch tube:: a series of electro-magnets accelerate a projectile ::beat:: but instead of a projectile, it is a shuttle.

Silveira/Storm/Meris: Response

The Andorian outstretched arm swept the Tricorder up and down the glistening shuttle, suspended beyond the transparent wall of the Control Room.

Tho'Bi: The shuttle relies on small Fusion-Powered Ion Thrusters, built into the nose and along the fuselage, to manoeuvre. ::beat:: But.. the main vector force comes from the launch tube.

Silveira/Storm/Meris: Response

The Andorian turned his attention to a shimmering line schematic of the hexagonal tube, set into one of the flanking walls to the side of the transparent wall. A series of metallic lights pulsed along the length of the tube schematic; first one way, and then the other.

Tho'Bi: The launch tube appears to double as a focused-targetable tractor beam pulls the approaching shuttle into the tube ::beat:: before then acting as an electromagnetic decelerator. 

Silveira/Storm/Meris: Response

The Andorian Engineer turned away from the schematic and toward the room.

Tho'Bi: It is a highly energy efficient way to propel shuttles short distances between the Boraxian Vessels ::to Silveira:: The Theta-Band Radiation from the damaged Transceiver could have interfered with Artemis sensors enough to allow Dariell to escape in a passive propulsion vessel like this shuttle ::beat:: once Dariell reached the Boraxian Fleet, the shuttle may have been mistaken for regular inter-ship traffic.

Silveira: Response (if required)

With a twitch of antennae, the Andorian Engineer nodded in the direction of Ensign Meris. 

Tho'Bi: Now they know what to look for, Ensign Meris should be able to review Artemis logs and extrapolate a course for any departing shuttles.

Meris: Response 

Silveira/Storm: Response

Tags/TBC

((OOC: ‘Sk’rk! Lesh’kar leks dgrul!’ means ‘You're so stupid, you'd p*ss in the snow and eat it.’ I'll add to SB118WIKI once Sim is live.))

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Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11