Commander Jo Marshall - Cold In Carmine Red
Jo Marshall
((Past the Outer Marker, Gateside Dimension))
It took a few minutes of concentrated effort on all sides while the computer registered its mild displeasure at the non-standard power configuration in low advisory tones, which weren't exactly a problem as Jo had been ignoring advisory tones for her entire career. Finally, the sludge began to look thinner, more gossamer like a wave of nebula gas rather than wading through the Mayak Swamp.
Marshall: Better. ::She looked between them.:: What have we got?
Fenn: The shuttle should be a flying repellent of all things from this dimension so we have a safe harbour.
Kovar: Sensors show two life signs consistent with Kobliad patterns. One appears to be wounded.
Jo nodded, reserving that knowledge in the bottle in her brain set aside for problems but not yet the most immediate problem. Such a filing system had a significant workout lately. One of the Kobliad wounded meant taking a medikit with them into unknown and definitely hostile territory. Equally it could mean an earlier evacuation. Time would tell either way, and she didn't have much time to dwell on it.
Out of the murk came the structure as their shuttlecraft closed the distance. Jo found herself leaning forward, toward the viewscreen, as if the mechanical motion would give her a better look. The scale of it was on another level, and one Jo hadn't quite realised until they were already uncomfortably close. Built into the geological features of the landscape, as though it had sort of grown there, or had always been there, and allowed the geology to exist around it as a courtesy. Obsidian dark, casting silent shadows. Two spires reached up into the carmine sky. Multiple levels dropped beneath. It reminded her a lot of the imposing government structures of Qo'nos; meant to intimidate the pagh out of the observer into obedience.
And handily, a landing pad sat in front of it, which looked like it was added by someone else entirely. A brushstroke of another artist.
Fenn: ETA 60 seconds Commander.
Kovar: Well, this facility was constructed with an… interesting aesthetic. Is it characteristic of known Kobliad architecture?
Marshall: You can say that again. ::She murmured as she pulled up what little data they had.:: Not especially. Kobliad construction tends toward utilitarian, or modular. Gets the job done and doesn't lose sleep about how it looks doing it. This is… something else. Or it's very old. They're not mutually exclusive.
Fenn: Shall I begin descent or would you like to circle around this thing a little Commander?
Kovar: I show the Kobliads deep within the facility. We will have a walk ahead of us. Though, fortunately, it seems that the environmental systems may still be active.
Marshall: Let's hook once around. I want a good look at it before we commit to anything so unhinged as landing there.
She cracked off the joke like this was another day in the proverbial office, and they weren't about to sling their anchor onto the back of beyond. Stay the course and trust the team, is what Caedan would say there. Of course, the engineer would also have some choice words to say about their decision to use the shuttlecraft to traverse the dimensional barrier in the first place.
Kovar: I find the landing pad to be most curious. One would think that it would be constructed of the same material as this facility. Is it possible that the scientists did not build it, but merely discovered it already here?
Marshall: That's an excellent question and I'd very much like an answer to it before we set this thing down. What's it looking like it's made from?
Fenn: Response
The shuttle continued the circuit and Jo watched the structure slide past the viewscreen, the spires tracking against the sky. It didn't sit easy in the pit of her stomach, and the unease rode on her shoulders like a second vine had decided to hitch a ride back home.
Marshall: So either the scientists found it already here and had the presence of mind to put a landing pad on it, or someone else put it there for reasons we don't currently understand and probably won't like when we do. ::Exhaling a breath, she nodded to Fenn.:: Alright Maezel, take us in on a slow approach. With any luck, we'll get a chance to have a look outside before something tries a boarding manoeuvre.
Fenn / Kovar: Response
Marshall: Apart from the wounded scientist and the other life sign, are we picking up on anything else?
Fenn / Kovar: Response
As the shuttle banked into descent, the landing pad grew on the viewscreen from an abstract curiosity into a concrete (though not necessarily concrete in the strictest sense) thing they were about to put their faith in. It looked solid, and remarkably well maintained for a structure sitting in a dimension that appeared to treat everything else like a longer term renovation project. The same bubble of notable and understandable caution rose up from Jo's stomach into her heartbeat, the rhythm finding an uptick on her forearm display.
The landing struts made contact and the shuttle settled, the engines dropped to the hum of their idle status, and outside the viewscreen, the carmine dark pressed down. Obsidian walls looked like blank canvases outside, enormously indifferent to the plight of the plucky Starfleet crew, and the two spires disappeared into the swirling murk this place called a sky.
She didn't like it. Not one bit.
Marshall: Right, last check. We need suits sealed, weapons ready, and a resonator sweep before that hatch opens. We go in, we find what's in there, complete the objective, and we book it out of here. Any questions?
Fenn / Kovar: Response