Lt. Commander Doz Finch - Welcome to the Jungle
Doz Finch
((Dry Lab Complex, Gibaria Outpost))
After Doz gave the signal, the door to the taxidermy lab opened, Ethan’s tricorder went spinning into the middle of the room, the pulse activated and a blur of sable and red whizzed through past her in a twisted tumble of limbs, hot breath and spit; one by one everyone piled out of there as quick as they could. The newest among them found himself rolling into a table, but the tangle of vines strangling and ripping apart creatures served as enough backdrop noise to disguise it.
In the corridor, she turned on her heel after the last one out, lifted her phaser, aimed it at an exposed spot of conduit, and sent a calculated beam in its direction. Just as she had predicted, an automated containment system inside the room sparked into life. The tips of her cheeks turned hot pink from a gust of heat in the moments that followed as the protective fields shot up like the zip of a bag, and the room within it became shrouded from view by a scorching cloud of energy.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead, relieved she was right, by god, but also vibrating a bit at the reality of the risks that had been involved.
Finch: Isolation protocols. ::She wiped the sweat from her forehead, her voice a tad crisp.:: Powered by a back-up system.
Naledi: Crick Snap Pop Hiss… Is it alright? It is leaking fluid from it’s skin?
The Chief Engineer pulled her brown eyes away from the tyranny of the room behind them, and the occasional sizzling thump against the forcefield of a burning vine, and took half a minute before responding, a smile there on her face if a little strained. It looked as though their ensign was on the sore side, too, holding his ribs, but thankfully he was all in one piece.
Finch: I’m quite alright, thank you, Naledi. That was a very, ::she coughed,:: close call. Well done! All of you.
Naledi: Tick Crack Pop Hiss… Can it proceed? More creatures may be dormant nearby.
Neathler: Agreed, let’s move, at this rate we’ll never reach the gate in time.
Espinoza: Don’t gotta tell me twice…
The grimness to the lads' tone no doubt came from what was going on behind them in the contained laboratory. A violent commotion of guttural and wet, clicking cries was muffled by the continuous thrashing of broiled flora, and it occurred to her in that moment that everything else in there was gone too. The strange taxidermied collection, and any evidence of whatever transmuted evolution had taken place in there.
The cost of survival, she supposed. It was either that or them.
Finch: Let’s move on then. There’s a handful more of these labs to get through, but we can do it quicker now that we’re more acquainted with…what’s actually going on down here.
Naledi: Tick Snap Crack Pop Hiss Crack Pop Pew… Could the conduits be utilised as a sterilising device for the vines? Since the ones in the other room appear to be neutralised, could we start a chain reaction and burn all of them? All the way to our goal?
Neathler: That will only stop the vines, there’s still the creatures to consider.
Espinoza: I’d rather deal with one threat than two, but… we probably oughta consider the vines might be the only thing that’ll slow those things if more of ‘em show up.
They started their journey through the rest of the dry lab complex. She made occasional, tactically timed hops to try to avoid the fleshy vines threading through the flickering grey in front of her like veins. Naledi had caught on that the vines weren’t impervious to conduit energy, definitely something worth banking, but Samira and Ethan both made valid points as well, that their priority remained the creatures, and that the vines had, in a sense, proven themselves a legitimate tool to use in self defence.
Finch: Here’s the next lab and…good grief.
Neathler: I don’t think anyone or anything will enter this lab.
Espinoza: Is that…?
Naledi: Response
She moved a few steps closer to see if her eyes had deceived her, and unfortunately they hadn’t. What Samira meant by no one or thing would or could enter that lab was that the door, and the panel to access it, was entirely covered in criss-crossing vines that stretched through the eternity of the room like a filigree.
Yet the part that alarmed her wasn't that, but something else far more horrifying. Pressed against the glass of the window pane stretching the length of the wall, was a scientist frozen in place and seemingly in time. His grey cheek squashed against the transparent surface, his hands splayed flat and stuck like glue, his mouth yawning unnaturally as a thick and black vine crept out from it.
A brief silence fell over the team like a cold blanket, and as Doz stared into the milky white of the dead person's eyes, Samira’s tricorder tweeted beside her.
Neathler: No life signs.
Espinoza: They’ll spread through anythin’... what a terrible way to go.
Finch: Indeed. ::She blew air into her own cheeks and shook her head.:: We’ll move onto the next one, shall we?
Naledi: Response
Heavy was the burden of the role, sometimes. It just seemed to Doz that death followed her wherever she went. Whether it was in her personal life, or out on an away team mission, it always lingered there reminding her of the inevitability of time, and the creative cruelty of what that time could look like.
She stretched her neck and shoulders, then pressed on, venturing deeper with her colleagues through the corridor.
Neathler: That might be a tight squeeze.
Finch: Mm and there’s no special strategy other than just going through it, by the looks of it.
Naledi: Response
The flora had become denser, more crowded in this area of the complex. But the reason they’d come to a stop was because of a shower of the things dangling down from a crevice in the ceiling above. Thick and twisting tendrils hung there like curtains, giving the place the appearance of a hideous and mangled jungle more than the cool airiness of a science outpost. The crucial part was getting through the thicket, and it appeared that a very narrow passage was their only…ticket.
Espinoza: I guess I’ll take the greenhorn privilege of goin’ first. Watch my back, please…
Finch: Nice and easy, now, Mister Espinoza.
Naledi / Neathler: Response
The ensign twisted sidelong as he moved through, and the vines briefly quivered into a copse. Thankfully they didn’t seem out for revenge over what had gone on in the taxidermy lab, though it only made her all the more curious of just how far the sentience of the flora went. Had the other teams figured that out? What had Meru and her lot discovered? Had V’Lar interacted with the things? Had Vesela? Or Jo and her splendid bunch?
Espinoza: If anythin’ goes wrong, maybe we oughta just put out a subsonic pulse, hope it disorientates ‘em, and run.
Finch: We'll definitely keep that one in our steadily developing arsenal.
Naledi / Neathler: Response
As Ethan disappeared from view, shimmying deeper and deeper into the corridor beyond, the older woman turned to look at the steps they’d already taken. She could have sworn she heard something in the distance, a fluttering sound, although it very simply might have been static from the forcefield.
She rubbed the front of her teeth with her tongue, and turned back to her team.
Espinoza: Take it easy… keep calm… don’t lose your mind right now. ::he mutters quietly to himself::
Doz twisted her mouth and looked over at Samira, then Naledi, before leaning into the curtain before her. There was a bit of a fumbling sound, and a breath or two, before the young man’s voice called out through the grim portière.
Espinoza: Come on through, nice an’ slow. ::he calls behind him:: You’re, uh… probably gonna wanna see this.
Finch: I doubt that. ::A mirthless laugh.:: I'll go next, loveys.
Naledi / Neathler: Response
She stepped carefully into the dangling forest of creepers and began moving sideways, doing her best to maintain her balance, but occasionally losing it to the chagrin of the disturbed, shivering things around her. She never was graceful, even after forty odd years climbing through Jefferies tubes. And at her small height, she really didn’t know what her excuse was either.
Eventually after a bit of a struggle, and far too many sweaty, coiling encounters, she came to the end and jolted her way out into the corridor beyond. She exhaled a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding, and then looked up into utter darkness. There were no glimpses of steel, nor grey or white, no discernible furniture or windows to view labs through. Just an endless latticework of thick, dominating xenoflora.
She could smell something, too. An odd combination of sweetness and rot this time. The light of her torch glistened on the oily surface of something bulbous nearby that she hadn’t seen before yet. Like a pustule, readying to burst at a moment's notice. Bloody horrible.
Finch: Well then! This is quite something, isn't it?
Naledi / Neathler / Espinoza: Response
Finch: How close is this section to the gate? I wonder if the proximity might go some way to explaining how thickly spread this all is.
Naledi / Neathler / Espinoza: Response