Commander Jo Marshall - Whole Lotta Flux
Jo Marshall
((Engineering Annex, Gibaria Outpost))
The vines came shooting back through the wall, the ceiling, the floor, shooting forward towards the bipedal warm things that were temporary tenants of the Engineering Annex. They poured through the cracks the harmonic resonance device had driven them from, only now they were thicker, darker, pulsing with bioluminescence flickering in patterns. Pushing, Pulling.
Around them the subspace bubble held. Vines pressed against the perimeter like faces against the glass. The canister in the corner rumbled and Jo had the profounding uncomfortable thought they were looking in. Her heart drummed hard against the inside of her chest, and the more Jo stared at the gathering of vines, the more she wanted to book it the hell out of there. That was the thing about fight or flight response, no one ever really discussed the third option, which was to stand there staring at the thing and think about how interesting it was.
Marshall: How long before they figure out it's just a frequency they haven't adapted to yet?
Fenn: The device was fitted with a rotating frequency modulator so it should be a while, if ever.
Kovar: A logical hypothesis, though one I have no interest in testing.
There, Jo observed, Kovar had made an important distinction between the scientist and the engineer. The one who said I wonder what would happen if and the one who said I'd prefer not to find out. One advanced the frontiers of knowledge. The second was still alive to publish it.
A single vine, thicker than the others, separated from the mass and pressed against the bubble. Patiently. Pushing again. This time, the bubble started to ripple. Not waiting for any kind of prompting that came from anything remotely within their sphere of universe, Jo glanced to the side as the hum of the resonator started up again, and Fenn brandished it, causing the vines creeping their way to recede swiftly once more.
Fenn: I think that’s a good enough field test. What would you both say to getting out of here and going.....somewhere?
Kovar: That would be prudent. Though anywhere might be better than here at the present moment, I would highly recommend getting the Commander to a member of medical personnel.
Marshall: I'm fine, Ensign, but I appreciate the thought.
It was as comfortable with lying as Jo came close to. She felt fine, nothing physical ailed her in any sense. Everything worked, nothing was broken, all the important bits were where they'd been that morning. Just the brush of that voice felt like something else. Something she'd never felt before. Like it hadn't come from within so much as from without, and with a depth like a heady glass of wine mixed in with motor oil. Ignoring the lingering effects of the sensation, she turned her attention to the problem at hand.
Fenn: Well, whatever we do remember that the resonance device only has a five-meter range so I suggest we stick together.
Kovar: That would also be the prudent thing in this situation. Clearly the vines are all around us and will strike given the opportunity.
Marshall: Whatever we've done to piss them off, we've done it well, and a lot sooner than anticipated. ::She glanced around at the annex which felt more like a throat than an engineering bay.:: Is there anything else we need from here before we make tracks?
Kovar: Given everything we know and have witnessed here, I do not think that we will have the time to replicate an adequate harness for the subspace generator. The handles on the control frame will have to suffice.
Fenn: We need to grab the other items before we leave.
Kovar: As we will not be able to transport elsewhere due to the active subspace generator, we will have to get to our next destination on foot. We will need to maintain the utmost vigilance for potential hostilities.
Starfleet could make anything sound like a reasonable afternoon. Jo made a mental note to remember that one to put in her report later, as it succinctly said the building was trying to digest them and if they stopped paying attention for a fraction of a second, it likely would.
Without missing a beat, their Bolian scientist knew what they needed and pointed it out. Above their heads, the tendrils of the vines moved silently across the ceiling, like sweeping dissonance through the cracks, finding every sliver of leverage they could. Watching and waiting, that's what it felt like, and Jo couldn't shake that notion even if she tried.
Fenn: Kovar, grab the EV suits please and Commander, would you mind carrying the subspace generator please?
Marshall: I've got it. You take point, Fenn. Back us out slowly.
She hefted the device up, which was heavier than it looked, which was the sort of thing that was always true about important equipment and never true about things she actually wanted to carry.
Kovar: Response
With the harmonic device in hand, the bubble created around them warded off any undue attacks from the vines now starting to see what their plans were, the trio paused at the exit of the Engineering Annex.
Fenn: So where to next?
Marshall: Observation Bay is just behind us, and they didn't have the same issues there either. We'll head there and see what else they've got we can use. Kovar, you good?
Kovar: Response
Marshall: Then let's move. Kovar, get in between. Fenn, on your six. Go slow and steady.
They moved.
And Jo Marshall, who should've kept moving and her eyes forward and her mind on the exit and her boots pointed firmly in the direction away from the entities trying to squeeze through the ceiling and devour their souls, stopped. Her eyes darted toward the canister in the corner where they'd left it, the small tendril vine pressed up against the glass. It was trembling. Trembling like it was small and afraid and reaching out, pressing itself toward the retreating bubble of resonance as though a lit window had opened up in the middle of a storm.
The smart thing to do would be to leave it, and even Jo would've agreed. Starfleet probably even had regulations that would tell her so, in a subsection about unknown biological specimens and the importance of not bringing them home like a stray cat.
For whatever reason she would argue with herself about later, Jo reached out for the canister and grabbed the handle, pulling it inside the bubble. It didn't appear to be affected by the harmonic resonator, and instead the vine coiled back again onto the base of the canister. She huffed out a breath and hoped to the Prophets she wasn't about to regret it.
She was probably about to regret it.
((Observation Bay, near Engineering Annex, Gibaria Outpost))
They stumbled into the rear of the Engineering Annex, where the Observation Bay had somewhat of a misleading title on the maps. Maybe something to do with grants and funding. Once they were safely through the reinforced doors and Jo had sealed them in with a bypass that she was rather too practiced at, it looked something closer to a cathedral converted to a machine shop by scientists who thought cathedrals weren't ambitious enough.
The ceiling swooped overhead in a sweep of transparent aluminium panelling looking out onto the bruised sky of Gibara, and the room stretched wide enough that Caedan could've landed a shuttle in it with room to spare.
Marshall: Well… ::She let out a breath and heard her voice echo back.:: This is new.
Kovar / Fenn: Response
In the middle of the bay, sunken into a recessed platform and surrounded by banks of monitoring equipment blinking in the quiet, sat a vehicle. Or rather, it sat in several places at once. It was a modified shuttle, that much was clear. Type-9, standard Federation issue and Starfleet aftermarket judging by the paint stripe that used to be along the side, but the modifications along were extensive. Erin might've said unhinged.
It looked like the scientists had mounted it to a platform inside a tunnel that ran the full length of the bay, in a tube of interlocking emitter arrays pulsing with low, rhythmic thrums Jo felt in her back teeth. Parts of it were translucent and others flickered, as if it couldn't quite decide which dimension to inhabit.
Marshall: I might be hallucinating, but is that… a dimensional shear array?
Kovar / Fenn: Response
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