Lt. JG T’Fearne - A Shuttle for a Heart
Teayl Thorn
((OOC: Opinions of the characters are not those of the writer. Aneesh, I laughed so hard when Nakada suddenly fessed up to having a compromised suit. T’Fearne is a little mad, though. 😂 Also, it's up to whoever goes next if we blow up the bottom half of the ship or not. Enjoy))
((Engineering, Deck 04, USS Compass Rose))
The large empty space the warpcore had occupied drew her, and T’Fearne wandered closer curiously. Her boot touched what she initially dismissed as debris, but then a delta caught her eye, and she crouched to examine the deck more closely.
A Compass Rose delta, some sort of engineering kit lay open, tools, a plasma torch, and a Bajoran d’ja pagh nestled amongst a fine scattering of dust and the partially disintegrated remains of a uniform. Someone had been here, doing something to the warpcore, and then every organic part of them had been vaporised by the baryon sweep.
T'Fearne: Someone was here. :: Gesturing to the signs :: Likely they died before the radiation swept the bay. It’s difficult to tell what they were trying to do. It could be sabotage or repairs for all I can tell.
The wrongness of the warp core void was a distraction. She sensed Kel arrive at her shoulder, perhaps unsettled in his own way. Catching his gaze, she held up the delta and the d’aj pagh.
Kel: Raka-ja ut shala morala.
The familiar cadence jolted her. A ripple of unease chased down her spine at the familiar language. Since her involuntary trip to ancient B’Hala, she had found it relatively easy to understand the Bajoran language. She thought it was a side effect of whatever compulsion her team had been under from the wormhole aliens that had sent them back. Though it was disturbing on a level, it felt fitting here and now. The commander's intention to honour the fallen was clear.
Nakada: :: pointing at the core :: Is that … is that the computer core?
Roop: Response
She slipped the earring into a suit pocket. It might be the only way to tell a family their kin was truly gone. They would never be able to recover the body, and they deserved more than dust.
Pulling herself back to her duty, the Vulcazoid security officer swept the compartment, phaser drawn, scanning each doorway and Jeffries hatches, even scaling the high bay to check overhead entries.
T'Fearne: :: grim :: Engineering’s secure, for now. But if someone wants in, it won’t take much. Site-to-site transporter control should be a high priority. Stay sharp while you work.
Kel: ::glancing at Roop and Nakada:: Remember we want to make sure the systems are operational and see if we can get impulse power.
The engineers were doing what engineers do, examining the equipment in the bay and testing to see what was sound, what was broken but fixable, and what was “toast” as the Terran expression went.
Nakada: :: still examining the panel :: Most of these cores are burned out. No wonder the computer is doing random things. It’s possible the eject request for the warp core was simply stuck in queue.
Roop: Response
Nakada: :: to the team :: We need to find replacements for these computer cores. They can’t power toaster in this state.
There it was! She was gratified that someone had mentioned “toast or toasters” sooner rather than later. T’Fearne stepped up to the cracked MSD to see if she could be of any use as Kel worked over a device he brought out from his gear.
T'Fearne: Anything I can do to help?
The commander smiled and held out a swab.
Kel: Take this and collect a sample from over there.
T'Fearne: Sir.
She took it from him, gingerly between gloved thumb and finger, and went over to the area he had indicated, crouched, scraped the grey dust into the swab, and brought it back, stiff-armed, for the scientific machinery to eat.
Roop: Response
Kel’s device whirred softly. The security officer watched it, vaguely curious about the scientific side of things, but eventually her attention went back to threat assessment and scanning the area.
Kel: =/\= Kel to Beck. How's it going on your end? =/\=
There was a pause and then a response.
Beck: =/\= Just living a horror movie right now, that's all. What have you found? =/\=
Nemes/Naledi/Avae/Dohna (Optional) : =/\= Response =/\=
She had nothing to add at that moment but stayed close to listen to the update. It seemed from Kel’s demeanour that he had found something, and she wanted to know what it was. The more information she had about the situation, the better she would be able to do her job, keeping everyone safe. She extended the range of her tricorder and set it to scan for risk factors in her mission analysis.
Roop: Response
Kel: =/\= I've found no traces of bacteria or fungi, which means we could be looking at a viral vector. I found this hard to believe, but now I think I have something. I found some unique proteins. They're more like molecular machines. =/\=
Beck: =/\= Yeah, that tracks with what we've been thinking. This is not some random virus that someone picked up from daycare - someone built this thing. How is it put together? =/\=
T'Fearne: :: Quickly stepping away from the remains and joining the comm call :: =/\= Machines? You don’t mean like nanites? As in of Borg origin? =/\=
If this had anything to do with the Borg, then her threat assessment, which was already not good for this mission, would go from dire to catastrophic.
Nemes/Naledi/Avae/Dohna (Optional) : =/\= Response =/\=
Roop: Response
Kel: =/\= Think of a ribosome, it's a subcellular factory. These are similar, but they do something to modify the host cellular machinery. =/\=
She felt her slanted brows scrunch together and her dark eyes start to glaze over. His explanation was not particularly helpful. She had nearly failed the Xenobiology course, BIO101 at the Academy, due to a personal issue with her lab partner on the main assignment, but even if there had not been a distraction, she still probably would not have done well. Biological and engineering were not her strengths.
Beck: =/\= I've got a lead for you to follow, too. One of the patients that was sent over here mentioned a 'Black Tear', referring to the Pah-Wraiths from the Bajoran religion. We think that maybe that's referring to whatever was storing the pathogen and opening it is what let it loose. Where it came from, we don't know, but… I'd keep a lookout for something like that. Make sure you tell Alyndra the same. =/\=
Nemes/Naledi/Avae/Dohna (Optional) : =/\= Response =/\=
T'Fearne: =/\= Thank you Dr. Beck. We’ll pass along the information. =/\=
Roop: Response
Kel: =/\= I'll keep you updated. Kel out. =/\= ::looking at the rest of his team:: I think someone has packed a virus full of genetic plans for bio-based nano machines.
The comm closed with a subdued chirp. T’Fearne wasted no time sending off a quick message updating both Alyndra and Kessler on the information found by Beck and Kel.
Nakada: I feel that I should mention I had a very brief leak in my suit a couple hours ago.
T’Fearne abruptly snapped her head around to look at Nakada, then regretted it as her temple twinged in pain, warning her not to move too rashly. She drew in a sharp breath and addressed the hapless engineer.
T’Fearne: Ensign! You’re only just mentioning this now? If your EV suit is compromised, and we have to be emergency transported back to the Ronin? You’re actions could endanger not just yourself, but the ship and the rest of the crew…
She broke off abruptly, realising she was ripping into another junior officer in front of his peer and their 2O, he didn’t deserve that, and it wasn’t her place to judge him.
Kel/Roop: Response
Nakada: Feel okay, nothing unusual. The suit was at positive pressure, so in theory nothing should have gotten in. It’s sealed now.
He seemed uncomfortable, eyes shifting around, glancing away from the remains on the deck. The implications hit her like a wave, and she felt a pang of regret. Nakada might be infected, might be dying right now.
Kel/Roop: Response
T’Fearne: Nakada…as long as you are sure you feel well. You’ll say if you feel anything changes?
He just seemed to want to put the conversation behind him and return to work.
Nakada: Alright, well, as I mentioned before — the core is dead. :: to Roop :: Do you know if the spare processors we have on the Ronin are compatible?
Roop: Response
Nakada: Well, then where can we find :: glancing around :: at least thirty year old chips?
Roop: Response
Nakada: That could work actually! So we would remove the chips from a shuttle? :: thinking :: that would take a while.
Roop: Response
As the engineers returned to a technical discussion, she mentally returned to her concerns of a few moments before, cast a still suspicious eye at the remains on the deck and let out a slow breath aimed at re-centring her emotions.
T’Fearne: From the context of Dr. Beck’s call, I gather that we are not looking for an actual Bajoran artifact but something that might pass for that to a Bajoran suffering paranoid hallucinations?
Kel: Response
Nakada: I see … are you thinking with the Luster? Or another shuttle?
Roop: Response
T'Fearne: I’m not a scientist, Commander, but if you can tell that this is not Borg, is there some other identifier or clue to its origin?
Kel: Response
This was not particularly reassuring to the security officer.
Nakada: Alright, then, let’s see if we can find the comms array and wire it up. :: To T’Fearne :: Lieutenant, any security issues here?
T’Fearne: None that I can see with using one of the Ronin’s shuttles to bypass control of the Rose’s systems. It sounds like it would provide an added safety measure. :: Looking at the hole in the deck and seeing the outrigger below ::
Kel/Roop: Response
She glanced over at the efforts of the two engineers. They seemed busy with an unusual plan, a creative angle for the ship that gave her pause and not a slight amount of admiration at their ability to tinker and make things happen with ingenuity and a hypospanner. It seemed like they were planning a transplant. To embed a shuttle in a temporary place of the Rose’s warp core, a transplanted heart. Maybe engineering and biology were very similar.
V’Len, on the other hand, seemed to be contemplating murder. Her empathic sense seemed to be coming back online, but it was often confusing and frequently out of sync, so she carefully ignored it unless there was corroborating behaviour to support her senses.
She turned back to her duties of safekeeping the team she was entrusted with.
Nakada: :: to Kel :: Commander, if you could, ah, keep me updated? If you find out anything?
Kel/Roop: Response
T'Fearne: I’ll sweep the compartment again.
She resumed her scan. The tricorder chirped. An energy reading pulsed faintly at the edge of detection, low and deep below.
T'Fearne: I’m getting an odd energy spike reading, :: glancing at the engineers for confirmation :: approximately 60 meters below and aft of our current position. I think it's in the outrigger, deck 09, maybe.
Nakada/Roop/Kel: Response
She located the power source. It seemed to be coming from a single torpedo. She had been worried about someone with enough skill and access trying something like this. If the readings were right, someone had rigged a torpedo to overload…in the magazine bay.
T'Fearne: We don’t have time. The power source is going critical! Can you re-route power to structural integrity or get a lock on that torpedo and beam it out of the magazine bay?
Nakada/Roop/Kel: Response
Either way, she dropped into a crouch, boots magnetised to the deck, every muscle braced for another explosion.
[Tags / TBC]
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Security Officer
USS Ronin - NCC-34523
R240107T14