Lt. Commander Doz Finch - When Eight Became Seven
Doz Finch
((Dry Lab Complex, Gibaria Outpost))
The team had entered the first lab using Samira’s two by two strategy. Two labs, then another, then another. She rather liked having the Chief of Security and Tactical with her for that reason, the full circle moment that it was. The pixie-haired woman had been one of the first officers she’d gotten to know on the ship those years ago, and incidentally was a person she’d trust her life with. Yet conversely, she hadn’t seemed entirely herself since they'd returned from the “Borg dominion”. There was something going on there. Still, when it came to her work, well, the woman remained as sharp as a blade.
And that was the hallmark of a classic Starfleet Officer.
Finch: There’s no one in here. It’s just us.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Hiss… Your assessment appears to be true.
Sevo: Honestly it looks like it has *never* been used. It’s too clean. No detritus of experiments, and the items and equipment on the shelves look brand new. Hermetically sealed, too; which explains why the flora didn’t break in here.
Neathler: It doesn’t appear that Novau entered the room.
The room contained a series of advanced computer interfaces that came in long lines in the middle of the room, with cupboards and shelves lining the surrounding walls, including a set seemingly blocking the door they’d originally intended to enter. Most of the computers were offline, eerily so, but one was lit up and appeared to have data flickering across it. Naledi was the first to make for it, whilst Ayiana surveyed the place with her trusty sidekick tricorder.
Naledi: Crick Pop Snap Hiss… The mainframes logs confirm that nobody by that name has entered this room is quite some time. Crick Snap Pop Pew… It is possible that the subject tripped and caught themselves on the panel.
Sevo: Yea, it seemed like she was running. Probably from those things. ::Ayiana pointed to the window and the vines and flora outside.::
Finch: And the rest.
Said rather grimly, like a person who had read a report the likes of which belonged in one of Gnaxac’s horror holo-novel collections.
Neathler: Any luck on that computer?
The tall Xindi insectoid turned away from the computer with a link apparently established between it and the device held between its hands. It was a curious experience, working alongside Naledi, and a first in her career, which after forty odd years was rather refreshing. At least, minus the ghostly flashbacks to a miserable life in Vrekil, where Xindi insectoids had been prison guards, and she was the ex-convict known to the crew of the Skarbek as Gramma.
Naledi: Pew Pop Crack Snap Hiss… Uplink is secure. Information is being processed.
As Samira moved to a nearby wall, and Ayiana fiddled with her tricorder, Doz meandered to Naledi’s position in the room, brown eyes sparkling with intrigue at what they’d managed to download from the terminal.
Sevo: Hopefully they’ll have some information.
Neathler: Whatever is on that computer, our time is running out, the vines are trying to lock us in.
Bushy brows pressed together like The Creation of Adam, she glanced at the door where the outer edges of bulky vines writhed in a tangle as if they were plotting and scheming. She wanted to call them nuisances, but at their worst, they were probably far more dangerous than that.
Naledi: Pop Crack Hiss Snap Crack Chirp… Lock, This section of the outpost was quarantined following an outbreak of a disease that was brought to the planet on contaminated foodstock. Very few crew were left here during that process. One of whom was Klair Novau.
Sevo: A disease? So not related to the dimensional breach?
Neather: Response
Naledi: Pew Pop Snap Crackle… It is possible that trans-dimensional energy from the portal is feeding the contamination, mutating it into something worse than it was. It would explain the density of vines as we go deeper into the outpost.
A theory, and a dreary one at that. Although Doz could navigate science to an extent, that sort of revelation needed a more seasoned mind, and thankfully they had Ayiana there for just that reason.
Sevo: Let’s not jump to conclusions without evidence or testing. For all we know, this flora is behaving normally, for it. We don’t know the physical or biological norms of the other side.
Neather: Response
Naledi: Chirp Snap Pop Hiss… The contamination was viral in nature, meaning that the plants would be more vulnerable to anti-viral medications than usual. It is not a doctor, it cannot supply more information than that for virus.
Sevo: Unfortunately, I don’t know much beyond the basics of virology. But considering there’s no data on the outbreak in the information dump Naledi gathered, we won’t be able to create any sort of cure. That’s a job for the medical team, anyway.
The information was still valuable, even if it didn’t serve her own teams primary objective, and so with an encouraging hand to Naledi’s elbow (because it was so tall), she forwarded the information on to the other teams. Tahna would no doubt make use of it, even if the theory proved to have no connection at all to the dimensional bleed.
Finch: Indeed it is! Though I’m sure they’ll find the data worth having regardless.
Neather: Response
Sevo: Is there anything else in the information you managed to scrape? ::Ayiana asked Naledi, as she checked the information herself on her tricorder. ::
As the two officers exchanged data, Doz did one last final sweep of the room, eying up the various different power systems coursing, or not coursing, through it. Power being as unreliable as it was presently, much of the room was a flickering, silhouetted mosaic of screens, and that was about all she needed to see.
Neathler / Naledi: Response
Sevo: It didn’t look like there was a path through the area out the back door. ::She thumbed to the door they entered.:: Looks like we’re back to square one.
Thankfully the aversion that the vines had to touch was something that might work in their favour. At the very least, they could prod it with the magazine of a rifle, or the edge of a tricorder, if the things got in their way. As long as they didn’t send out any more subsonic pulses.
Neathler / Naledi: Response
Sevo: Maybe we should try some more…overt testing? ::Ayiana tapped the handle of her phaser rifle peeking up from behind her shoulder. ::
Finch: We can try that in the next lab! Which is just on the other side of the corridor.
Neathler / Naledi / Sevo: Response
As they quickly and carefully left the room, the vines surrounding the door recoiled again. She accessed the panel, now teased by the end of a tendril, and initiated an isolation sequence, forcing the doors of the lab into containment mode, sealed without need for any welding. They wouldn’t open without a specific and manually engineered override, an intentional choice.
She ran her hand along the outer rim of the door as if giving it one last check then rapidly pulled her hand back as part of the flora twisted towards it. She turned to the next checkpoint with rosy-tipped cheeks.
Finch: One down, a fair few others to go!
Neathler / Naledi / Sevo: Response
Finch: There very well might be a terminal somewhere that’ll enable us to get the labs all locked down at the same time. The issue, as ever, remains our wriggling friends here and how they might react to such an abrupt and simultaneous action. ::As she began to walk, she turned to the Trill.:: You said something about hermetic sealing, Ayiana?
Neathler / Naledi / Sevo: Response