Lieutenant Luxa Lorana - A Prisoner
Luxa Lorana
[[Corridor, 47th level, Lattice Alliance Unknown Structure]]
Lorana: Sencha Niac. They’re holograms!
Luxa sputtered in almost disbelief. It seemed like a personal insult to the woman, who’d given her life in the creation of the very thing they’d contorted to a weapon.
The second hologram joined the first, the scowling expression looking utterly out of place on the gentle, pensive countenance. The hologram raised another weapon, and, just then, the silence that had settled in broke with a cheerful, out-of-place beep.
Raedai: =/\= Rhine to away team, you have indeed encountered holograms, but the security protocols are activated. It must not be a security system, nothing else seems to have been activated. =/\=
Alieth: Do not move.
Luxa remained still, her phaser remained pointed to the potential threat.
Then, the Sencha Holograms opened fire on them…
The blast lit up the corridor as they headed towards the small group, a group that was further reduced when the rookie officer jumped to one side and ducked.
Raedai: =/\= Try not to damage the system, if there is any problem I could notify the station. Also I can inform you that this complex seems to be attracting the Gormangander with Alpha particles to an outer area with high concentration of Sencha radiation. I do not know the purpose at this time. =/\=
He reported them, tas the phaser beams streaked down the corridor and hit the standing officers' EVA suits.... and dissolved into innocuous photons when they reached their breastplates.
Luxa looked down at it and then to the Vulcan in an expression of disbelief.
Syrex: How likely is it that this station is designed to feed the Gormangander? :: Continuing to duck from the phaser fire:: could there be a mutually beneficial relationship between them and the lattice Alliance?
Alieth: The presence of the Gormangander probably has more to do with the degradation of alpha particles due to Sencha radiation. I doubt the Alliance designed this to attract the whales, but rather the whales have been attracted by the presence of the structure.
Luxa nodded in agreement, it was very likely yet could be useful in understanding more about the S-Wave and she hoped Raedai would unlock some of the mystery around them.
Syrex: What if the LA is also harmed by Sencha radiation, what if the Gormangander pods are unknowingly cleaning up this area of space for them?
Alieth: It is a theory, but I do not think it is true. :: She tilted her head once more:: =/\=Lieutenant Raedai, I expect you to find the reason for the Gormangander's presence, as well as the reason why the LA allows their presence. =/\=
Raedai: =/\= I will do my best.=/\=
At that moment, the two holograms stopped firing. They stared down the corridor, their eyes looking beyond where Alieth stood, as if they couldn't fully see her, and then turned away.
Alieth: I have successfully reprogrammed their primary order to a damaged holographic pattern alarm. Now, they should lead us to their nearest computing unit.
Lorana: And hopefully to the core or the generator.
Syrex: What now? Should we fire back?
Alieth: ::starting to follow the Sencha Clones:: On the contrary, let us not disturb them. We will follow them and find out if they lead us to the main computer, or a system that will allow us to get to the main computer.
Lorana: They don’t seem like normal holograms. More like automatons. They probably serve a purpose … :: she looked to the oil :: Perhaps to keep the bio-neural substance … healthy?
Syrex/ Raedai: Response
The corridors twisted left and right as they followed the holograms, more organically than logically, in a sort of spiral that ascended and descended, leaving bifurcations on one, the other or both sides.
Luxa scent the area around her, her felinoid mind had already begun to map the area based on her senses. Which was just as well, as it was some kind of a maze, although Luxa already noted the pattern, like everything else, in that hexagonal honeycomb shape.
All the corridors seemed equally dark, with the hexagonal shape of the disgustingly organic walls and the six-sided nodes glowing red at regular intervals. Despite the twists and turns that they took, what seemed clear was that they followed the same direction as the small purple running lights that seemed to flow through the oily liquid that made up the walls.
Alieth: We are moving towards the colder area that Ensign Syrex detected.
Lorana: It’s up ahead.
Syrex:: Response
As they approached the ground was wet, and Luxa could see that this corridor narrowed somewhat. There was a disturbance to the pattern ahead. A single archway and the holograms disappeared into the chamber within.
Alieth: It looks like some kind of saline biological fluid. It has traces of proteins and some simple carbohydrates…
Lorana: I think it’s time to get some answers.
Syrex: Response
Then the commabadges chirped again.
Raedai: =/\= Rhine to away team. The Gormangander's target is Alpha particles. Consuming them diminishes the Sencha radiation, but does not eliminate it and does not seem to be affected by it at any time. =/\=
Lorana: =/\= Thank you, lieutenant =/\=
Alieth/Syrex: response
Raedai: =/\= In the long run, watching the Gormangander interact with the radiation is fascinating and useful. But the section they are approaching is shielded with a subspace field, which is more than likely at the right frequency to contain the radiation and prevent problems for the station. We need to run an active scanner that doesn't necessarily give us the necessary information, but can certainly warn them of our presence. But this subspace frequency must be in the systems of this complex. =/\=
Lorana: =/\= So in other words, we need to hurry things up? =/\=
Alieth/Syrex: response
Raedai: =/\= If it does not cooperate, we can connect the Rhine's computer to the complex's systems, pull up all the information while the active scan is running and run away. =/\=
Lorana: =/\= We’ll do our best, we don’t know what it is we’re dealing with yet. In any case prepare for a quick getaway :: playful :: don’t get too comfortable in the pilot’s chair Raedai. I’ll be expecting it back. Away team out. =/\=
Alieth/Syrex: response
The three of them moved forward into a chamber of sorts. There was a walkway that crossed above a large pooling of the substance. The tricorder was presenting her with an interesting composition of the matter.
The pool glowed brightly, casting an ethereal light through the chamber.
In the centre of the room, held up with intersecting pylons was a cylindrical tank filled with the dark substance, with flashing lights within. It appeared to surround the core.
Luxa turned to Alieth as she thought she saw something swim within.
Lorana: Ensign, any life signs?
Alieth/Syrex: response
Lorana: A symbiont? Without a host?
Alieth/Syrex: response
((OOC : myself and Alieth planned some interesting things but with Act Two ending we've kind of had to accelerate our plans))
Luxa approached the main terminal at the base of the large cylindrical tank. To either side of her was Alieth and Syrex.
Lorana: Gaining access. The security protocols haven't been updated… from what I can gather this is an old facility… mostly abandoned.
Alieth/Syrex: response
Lorana: Look :: points to a file :: It's Sencha Niac's original experiment. A power source… it's been adapted as a shield generator … by Roda Salix, Sencha’s lab assistant.
Alieth/Syrex: response
Lorana: These configurations explain everything. It works as a converter, it transforms the S-Wave blast into an energy source … this could be why the Gormaganders are attracted to this area of space.
Alieth/Syrex: response
Lorana: This index here … the host for the Salix symbiont died … and LA put the symbiont in here, as their prisoner and forced it to change Sencha's work.
Just then the substance appeared to glow as the symbiont swam around the tank at their level. On the screen of the terminal letters written in Trill scrawled along the screen.
Alieth/Syrex: response
Lorana: It wants to be free? Return to Trill.
((OOC - we're going to have to return to the station/Ronin at some point so don't want to go mad here! It's a shame we've ran out of time))
Tags/TBC
Lieutenant Luxa Lorana
Science Officer (Astrometrics, Meteorology, Xenology)
USS Ronin
A240004LL2