Lt. Commander Doz Finch - Catalogued
Doz Finch
((Dry Lab Complex, Gibaria Outpost))
So the mission was on, and the objective was clear as day: secure a path through to the dimensionally bleeding gate. Sounded simple enough, if one ignored the twisting and growing vines, the handprinted blood on walls and doors, and the yet unannounced presence of dangerous creatures. With her engineering mind, and Ayiana’s science, paired with Samira and Naledi’s security and tactical prowess, they had more than the capability to do it, but as ever…the issue was the clock.
Finch: We’re going to have to either modify it, or consider another approach.
Sevo: We could try various levels of phaser fire on them; see if we can cut through the vines.
Neathler: Before we try that, can’t we change the frequency of that pulse you emitted? Perhaps they only react on a certain frequency?
Naledi: Crick Chirp Snap Pop Pew… It advises against it. Stimulus appears to engage the vines. We must ensure their destruction. Leaving them partially alive may mean they only grow stronger in fear of us.
Naledi wasn’t wrong there. Any form of contact, whether it was physical or subsonic vibration, seemed to rattle the things like a disturbed formicarium.
Sevo: It’s risky. If they have a fight-or-flight response they might try and fight back.
Neathler: We already know they react on touch.
Finch: Indeed, so that doesn’t leave us many options.
Sevo: Alternatively, we can take some time to analyze them; see what makes them tick. Maybe we can find a more scientific way to stop these things.
The 2O shook her head at that, not quite confident that they had the time to properly analyse anything. It was a tricky situation to be in, because they had to clear a way through, but they could only do it through a proper understanding of their environment. The last thing they wanted to do was leave the place even more dangerous than it had been before, like a warp core with a fracture in its chamber.
Neathler: Or we’ll find some answers in those labs, we have to clear them anyway.
Naledi: Pew Pop Crack Snap… It would prefer analysing the data that already lies in the labs. It is sure another team can analyse better than us. None of us are scientists.
Sevo: Well, we’re kind of on a time limit here, so as loath as I am to skip a fascinating scientific study, I’d say we try the phasers first. See if we can just cut through them.
Neathler: How about we clear the first two labs, see if there’s anything in there we can use. We can fire at those things when they’re really blocking us.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Hiss.. A sound suggestion. It recommends a fine penetration beam as a phaser setting.
Inhaling the cold and murky air through her lips, she nodded to the team, agreeing that making a start on at least two of the eight labs was the best foot forward. And there was truth to Samira’s reasoning; the vines were reactive, defensive…and so seemingly not deliberate. Which meant they just had to tread very, very carefully.
Sevo: Maybe we can find some isolated samples to test on in one of these labs.
Finch: They’re dry labs, so there may already be computer-generated models or simulations we can take a peek at, assuming that the poor sods had time to even analyse anything.
Unlike the experimental wing, or wet labs currently occupied by the other teams, they were unlikely to come across any equipment to support physical testing, but that probably wouldn’t stop Ayiana — the Trill was a machine when it came to her core interests.
As they moved toward the first lab, Samira stopped herself from hitting an access panel, and for good reason.
Neathler: There’s bloody fingerprints on there.
She scanned it, and Doz carefully came to her side, the corner of her mouth twisted with curiosity.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop… We have seen this before, why stop now?
Neathler: These bloodprints are all from the same person.
Ayiana and Naledi ran comparative scans, and apparently came to the same conclusion as Samira.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Hiss… Confirmed, these are identical.
Sevo: Judging by the decay rate, this one was created shortly before the one in the corridor. The owner was heading that way.
Neathler: Response
Finch: Commander Naledi, can you discern who the blood belongs to?
As Naledi analysed the data, all cricks and snaps, a brief memory entered Doz’s mind of being dragged through the halls of Vrekil prison, flanked by Xindi insectoids. A strange and hazy vestige of a life that wasn’t real and that wasn’t technically hers. Gramma’s life. She straightened her back to shake the memory off.
Naledi: Pop Pew Snap… These prints belong to outpost scientist “Klair Novau”, a Kantare.
Beside her, Ayiana did a bit of cross-referencing to double check the information, the beeps and boops of her unique tricorder ever-present.
Sevo: Confirmed. ::She read aloud key details about the person. :: Klair Novau, Kantare. Female, 31 years old. Junior scientist studying multidimensional physics.
Finch: If this is where she worked then she might have been a data analyst, or engaged in computational modelling.
Neathler: Response
Naledi: Crick Chirp Snap Pop… Kantare are well known for creating holographic imagery. Perhaps they used those skills to create a defence against the vines?
As Ayiana checked her device again, Doz wrinkled her nose. She’d already done a visual sweep of the corridor and hadn’t seen any evidence of photonics, and no audible giveaways either. Naledi couldn’t know it, but hologram technology had featured heavily in Borg sphere tech over in Johnson’s contorted timeline, and had become a topic she was rather well versed in. The sphere her team had been charged with stealing had been fitted with emitters throughout, resulting in a fight she, and probably Gnaxac and Nera, could hardly forget — not to mention, she doubted she’d ever get the image of a flailing cyclops out of her mind.
Sevo: There’s no photonic activity in the area that I can detect; besides, with the power issues — ::She nodded to the lights which were flickering:: — such complex holograms couldn’t be maintained with the current power levels.
Finch: Quite right. Even without power issues, they’d want to conserve as much power as possible. A multidimensional gate doesn’t feed easy.
Neathler: Response
Sevo: What’s bothering me is we haven’t seen a body on our way in. And this Novau hasn’t shown up on the medbay’s patient roster so far. ::She checked the information streaming from the medbay team, making sure.:: So where did she go?
The white-haired woman sucked air in through her teeth with a shrug.
Finch: She might have made her way to the experimental wing, getting the doors to the complex closed on her way through.
That at least would lend some explanation for the initial handprints on the door. Still, as horrible as it was, they weren’t there to fixate on what had happened to the woman. In an ideal world, she’d been found and was in the medical bay, and if she wasn’t there…well.
They had a path to clear.
Neathler / Naledi: Response
Sevo: A mystery for another time, maybe. Right now, we need to focus on getting through these…things. ::Nodding to the vines.:: Best bet is to start in the labs. See what we can find.
Doz smiled with a twinkle in her eyes, then gestured to the door in front of them. Samira’s strategy was cracking, and it was the one they’d use.
Finch: That’s the plan! Check them out and if there is anyone or anything inside, seal them off. The goal being to create a singular and safe direction to and from the gate so that there aren’t any complications along the way for whoever heads inside.
Neathler / Naledi: Response
Sevo: This first lab here — ::Gesturing to the wall with the bloody handprint.:: — has a door just around the corner, unblocked by these…things. We might be able to get inside and maybe find a path around as well.
The scientist turned mission specialist was seemingly referring to the partial subsonic results that had catalogued some of the inner environment of the lab. The current door wasn’t actually blocked, at least as far as she had seen from the outside, so it was possible that the spotted woman was referring to what lay on the other side instead.
Finch: Very well, we’ll try the other door.
Neathler / Naledi / Sevo: Response
As they moved along the corridor, they reached the alternative entrance to the room. With no blood prints on the access panel here, she entered in a few commands, and the doors released open, beckoning the team inside. She moved over the threshold, and a series of advanced computer interfaces came into view, in long lines in the middle of the room, with cupboards and shelves lining the surrounding walls. Most of the computers were offline, eerily so, but one was lit up and appeared to have data flickering across it.
She looked down at her tricorder, tongue resting on her bottom lip with focus.
Finch: There’s no one in here. It’s just us.
Neathler / Naledi / Sevo: Response