Ensign Delphina Wren: Torn Asunder
Grace McDermott
((Wherever. Posterior Dorsal, Narhelion))
Velis: Looks like we’re good for now. ::pauses:: I hope this means Narhelion has run off the enemy ships.
Delphina scrambled to her feet as they finally came to a stop, trying not to look as disheveled as she felt. Adrenaline had cleared her head, ironically as it had done the exact same thing for the Narhelion mere hours earlier. Right now, all she could think about was moving. Moving away from the death, moving away from the noise, away from the chaos. She didn’t feel tired, she didn’t feel fatigued, in fact. She could barely even think.
De La Croix: I suppose hopelessly lost is an improvement over being chased by irritated crystals, although I do hope they're not further damaging Nary's interior. The poor girl has gone through a great deal and I'm concerned about her ability to heal so much internal trauma.
Wren: She’s doing what she can to stop them. I don’t know how, but they’ve all slowed down considerably ::stumbling a little as she feels Narhelion’s inner muscles move again:: oO She seems more concerned with getting us where we need to go…. Which is fine. I don’t think I really need to know what she’s doing right at this moment. Oo
Marsek: =/\= Lieutenant Dohna had us pressing forward with Commander Kel. If you're in front of the cargo bay, turn and head west. Follow the ceiling cables. ::pause:: Oh, right. This is Marsek. =/\=
Velis: ::shrugs:: I guess we’re going somewhere different?
De La Croix: =/\= Leave it to Starfleet to suggest there's a west inside a space whale...next you'll be telling us to loop by the gift shop in the galleria! =/\=
Delphina glanced at her own tricorder, tilting her head as she saw life signs up ahead. Tapping a few buttons, she was able to verify that they were humanoid, and had starfleet badges. So, unless the members of the Alliance had suddenly decided to enlist, they were headed to a group of their own. That was a relief.
De La Croix: West whale is this way, ladies. Lets be about it...who knows, the way this day is going maybe there really is a gift shop.
Velis: All right. West it is.
Velis: At least this is the most specific set of directions we've received all day.
De La Croix: Isn't that what you Starfleet people love, the unknown? Quick, look over there...::she gestured in a random direction::...I doubt that's known. Or that. Or any of those.
Wren: ::trying to go with it:: Doctor, tell me you didn’t just call a macro-spleen ‘unknown’....
((A few minutes later, Maintenance Bay, Narhelion))
Velis: There they are.
Delphina glanced up from her tricorder and paused, eyes wide, oO Oh….. this is a womb… Oo. The Narhelion had been busy. All this time, while the Tholians were breaking through her skin and muscle, while the Alliance had been forcing her to fight for her life…. She was building a baby. She was…
Rage was not an emotion Delphina often felt, as she rarely found it useful. Growing up with someone who didn’t want to know how to control his own rage had left her with a tendency to just let things flicker past. She would let brief periods of anger warm her from time to time, but she never lingered with it. But the knowledge that Narhelion had already gotten this far into her pregnancy, that she was being hunted like an animal while she tried to keep her Caretakers and infant alive….. That burned.
Dohna: Is it building another ship?
Marsek: ...Using...wow, it's using everything it's learned…
Velis: ::murmurs:: It’s so beautiful.
De La Croix: Basic bi-radial symmetry...structural elements look complete...there are defined features and protrusions in several places. If this was a humanoid pregnancy I'd say it was well into the first trimester. Maybe early into the second.
Delphina immediately drew up close to the side of the fetus, glancing up at the ceiling for a moment to see if Narhelion had any problem with this, before she slipped her engineering gloves on and rested her fingertips across the fetus’s ‘skin’.
It was caught between organic and synthetic, feeling almost like very tightly pressed spider silk. She didn’t dare give more than a feather’s touch, but she could feel the ‘skin’ shifting slightly beneath the gloves. It was growing. Her eyes travelled upwards to the imitation of nacelles, which appeared almost feathery from the organic fuzz covering them.
De La Croix: Nary dear, I'm very happy for you but it's a bit unladylike to meet a...ship...you like and immediately decide to have a child. Sigh...no appreciation for romance in this day and age.
Wren: ::still enthralled by the baby ship:: Well, my mothers always said if you want a baby….sometimes you make do.
Akani: Response
Dohna: ::pointing to the red and blue tubes:: Are those nacelles?
Marsek: ::checks the tubes and does a quick reference on her PADD:: ...Nacelles from what appears to be--wait, is this early Bolian? ::ponders:: Might actually be Trill, I'll have to cross-reference. Sorry, I know it's not important right now, but those are definitely nacelles.
Velis: ::shakes her head:: That doesn’t appear to be a Trill design at all.
De La Croix: This is the most incredible example of self-sustaining bioengineering anyone has ever seen and you're debating the finer points of nacelle design?!
Wren: Well, if we’re tracing genealogy of a new-found species, which is essentially what we’re doing, it would be helpful to know what genetics it took from what parent. The replicated Nacelles are based on a variety of designs from a variety of starships. It’s possible that what we’re looking at is… well, all of them. I can see traces of several design fingerprints. Although… look at this slight curve to the top here at the end ::pointing:: And the… I think they look like tendons where the nacelles connect. This looks almost like a flexor? If that’s what they are… the nacelles seem almost like they could flex and move to aid flight.
Akani: Responses
Dohna: I'm guessing it's early in the process, but the core is online and the keel has been laid. If those are engines they need to grow quite a bit.
Delphina carefully stood up, walking around the baby ship. And, despite everything going on in her mind, she couldn’t help but feel a swell of affection for the creature in front of her.
De La Croix: We only have our Federation biotemplates to compare it to but usually a child is somewhere between four to ten percent of the parents mass when born. Considering Narhelions size...::she looked around the massive bay and realized it wouldn't be long until the space was entirely full::...we'll have to monitor the growth rate carefully.
Akani: Response
Dohna: I mean, I'm no doctor, but it seems like its healthy.
Marsek: ::does her best to disguise her hobble over to a monitor and checks:: It's reading stable.
De La Croix: Stay still, you've torn several ligaments in your leg and hip...what have you been doing? Wait, forget I asked...weren't you dragging an unconscious Commander around? Where has he gotten off to?
Akani: Response
Marsek: Look, it's building inside-out - I think those are the warp coils! I guess it built warp first, impulse second.
Velis: ::grins:: This is marvelous! My colleagues will be green with envy that I got to witness something like this first hand.
Wren: When the cosmozoan chose to reproduce with tiny predator, she created an entirely new form of life. I doubt anyone like it has existed before, or will afterwards.
De La Croix: Ah yes, our colleagues. Fascinating as this is...should we not be...escaping by now? I seem to remember some plan including runabouts...and a bath…
Wren: ::pulling out her tricorder again:: I’m seeing that a large number of us are engaged in a different atrium to th-... above us. Considerably so. But I’m seeing everyone is accounted for thus far. ::with immense relief:: There don’t seem to be any casualties.
Akani/Dohna: Response
Marsek: How long do you think this will take? I'm guessing it'll grow more once it's...erm...-birthed-, so to speak. Does Narhelion provide the basics and then protect it until it's old enough, I wonder...
De La Croix: It's grown nearly two percent in just the last minutes...at this rate it'll be the size of this entire room within a few hours. Beyond that...I have no clue how Narhelions reproductive cycle is supposed to function. I'm a surgeon not an obstetrician.
Delphina looked over the doctor’s shoulder, taking in her readings with slowly rising eyebrows, before pulling out her own tricorder to double-check. oO That…. Couldn’t be… Oo
Wren: It’s…. There are membranes forming on the inside that look like walls. Like it’s forming quarters?
Akani/Dohna: Response
Marsek: =/\= Marsek to Commander Raga. Sir, we've discovered Narhelion's maintenance bay and the source of the power drain. She's--she's diverting power to create a new cosmozoan. =/\=
De La Croix: Oh don't forget to mention Commander Kel. I assume he's around here somewhere....and...oh...
Delphina: oO No casualties, but…. Severe injuries. And a man lost. And- What is the doctor doing over there?? Oo
De La Croix: Did you happen to lose anyone else? There seems to be humanoid lifesigns over there.
Wren: We still have someone unaccounted for, but-
Raga/Akani/Dohna: Responses
Velis: It's a nursery.
There was an enormously wet squelching sound, and Delphina’s mouth dropped open as the wall opened, and a figure flopped out. oO Doctor Beck!! Oo. A gasp of relief that Delphina hadn’t realized she’d been holding tore out of her, and tears of relief welled in her eyes.
De La Croix: Oh look, I seem to have found Beckie.
She kicked the side of his eva suit with a toe and ilicited a small groan.
De La Croix: And he isn't even dead. Will miracles never cease.
Wren: ::Softly:: Thank you, Narhelion….
Raga/Akani/Dohna: Responses
Velis: That's...actually kind of incredible. ::grins:: Terrifying. Complicated. Possibly a nightmare from an engineering perspective. ::glances at Dohna:: But incredible.
Dohna: Response
De La Croix: Much as I'd like to take this opportunity to remove that vile mustache, we should probably focus on Commander Kel.
Raga/Akani/Marsek: Responses
Velis: ::sighs:: =/\= All right, Commander. Now what? =/\=
Raga: Response
Delphina’s heart stopped for the second time in one day, and she whirled around, staring in the general direction she knew Raga to be.
De La Croix: Did he say we're diving towards the fissure? I seem to remember it being a point earlier that the fissure would most certainly kill us all...most thoroughly.
Wren: ::a little panicked:: Is the Ronin in any shape to go through it?? Who’s in charge of engineering, is it Nakada? Is he any good??
Dohna/Akani/Marsek: Responses
Delphina took a deep breath, but she didn’t have time to call home and check. Light flooded the chamber, and she squinted as colors she didn’t even know existed washed over them. Then, as they went through the fissure, an explosion of well-earned agony burned through her. She cried out, falling to the ground as her body burned. She was at the end of her rope. She didn’t know what had happened on the outside, all she knew was that she was sure the pain would kill her. It tore through her mind, and she felt something catch her before she hit the ground. Her head lolled back as the colors filled her very soul, pulsing in time with all the pain the Narhelion had tried so hard to keep her from feeling poured over her. The fissure snapped closed and, as it did so, Delphina lost consciousness.
[Tags/End Mission for Wren]