Away Team: Exploration Pt. 1

Posted on Sun Sep 1, 2013 @ 4:12pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant AJ Taggart

3,786 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: A Whole New World: Part 1 - Precipice
Location: Transporter Room / Alien Ship
Timeline: 62536.389 {Tue, 04 Dec 2384 14:24}

Transporter Room

Entering the transporter room fifteen minutes after he'd left the Bridge, Ens. Kincaide shifted and stretched slightly in his fitted EVA suit. The suits were made of sturdy, flexible material but they were somewhat uncomfortable in his opinion. The crotch particularly was pressing into places he'd rather not be pinched..

"Ens. Kincaide reporting for duty.." he said as he walked in, looking curiously to see what others were going on this little adventure.

"And not a moment too soon, Ensign," Nicole said drily, suited up and standing by the doors, arms folded.

"Glad to have you Ensign." Alec replied pleasantly while giving the CMO an amused look.

Alex stepped through the door shortly after Kincaide and gave everyone nods and smiles before slipping rather easily into his EVA suit. As he adjusted things a few things and prepared the video device he'd been instructed to carry he addressed no one in particular. "I'm guessing no power and no atmosphere means no gravity as well?"

"Just keep your lunch down," Nicole said.

The comm chimed, followed by the Captain's slightly husky voice asking, "Are you ready to beam over Number One?"

"Ready and waiting Captain, the entire away is eager to investigate that ship," Alec said.

"I know I'm all a-quiver," Nicole grumbled behind her faceplate.

Alec shot her a look and then looked back at the intercom grid. "Requesting permission to beam over."

"Permission is granted. Go see what if anything there is to find out. And be careful..." she added.

"Sage advice Captain. Rest assured we will be. Hunter out."

Alex chuckled quietly as he made his way up onto the transporter pad. "I still don't see why you all hate EVAs so much. These suits aren't that bad, and zero G is fun."

Following orders, Kincaide stepped up to the transporter pad and took position. A moment passed, and then the transporter room disappeared in a haze of energy. The brightness of the Victory's transporter room was gone, replaced by total darkness for an instant before their suit lights snapped on and cut through the black to reveal--

"What is that..." Kincaide said on reflex. Instead of a smooth, metal or other fabricated bulkhead wall what he was looking at in his light looked almost like it was.. some sort of grown tissue! Impossible to tell what color it might once have been, hard as steel yet with a decidedly organic appearance to it, the black surface looked almost like muscle fiber...frosted over with a fine layer of ice crystals which glinted and reflected their lights back at them.

Nicole's brow furrowed and she took a few steps towards it, tricorder open and scanning.

Even before looking at anything Miguel had opened his tricorder and was scanning. "Fascinating... it's metal and yet it's like nothing I've ever seen before." Miguel said as he scanned the bulkhead with every scan he could with this device. He had brought his engineering kit with him, but he didn't have the kind of equipment he'd need to run proper tests on it. "I'd love to get a sample to take back with us for further study."

"Torres," Nicole said, looking at her tricorder, "are you reading what I am? There's...a grain to it. Almost like it was spun like a fiber, or pulled like taffy."

Miguel nodded, which with his helmet on probably wasn't noticable since it was hard to move it the damn thing. He placed his hand on the bulkhead as if trying to feel it through the gloves. He came to a point where he felt a seperation. "I think I found something." he said closed his tricorder and then opened up his tool kit and removed a spanner. He seemed to wedge it into the wall and pulled until the section came loose and opened up. He then shined his light on what was underneath to reveal a spider web-like material. He opened up his tricorder again and scanned. "I'm not sure but I think stuff is their version of an EPS conduit."

"Reminds me of the reports on the bio-vessels of Species 8472," Nicole said, looking over Miguel's shoulder. "I'm detecting some organic traces, but nothing my tricorder can make sense of."

"A blood vessel?" Alex was smiling to himself at the comment and couldn't help it so he made sure not to face the others and kept his eyes on his tricorder. He also reached out and let his gloved fingers slide along the hard, organic surface and said something to himself, quietly and under his breath. He turned to face Hunter. "Well, assuming it's an organic ship and not just some space-dwelling whale, I doubt we'll be able to gather any sort of star chart data from it without power."

Over the comms the Captain spoke then, "Bridge to Away Team. Cmdr. Hunter.. report."

"Hunter here Captain. We arrived safely on the alien ship. Miguel and Doctor Anderson are looking at the metal the entire floor seems to be comprised of. It looks organic in nature. We'll try and get a sample so we can study it on the Victory."

"Away Team can you read me?" Yarin said through the comm system. "If I am reading this sensor data correctly I believe you are in a cargo bay. Doctor I believe there is a door two meters to your left, that should lead you to a corridor. Remember to bring back plenty of samples I would enjoy studying them." Yarin said.

"I'm a Doctor, not a scrap metal collector," Nicole grumbled. "We'll see what we can get you."

While the others were focusing on the properties of the unusual composition of the vessel's structure, Kincaide was more focused on scanning other sections of the ship which were within range of his tricorder. Most of the readings were unexciting, the ship appeared to have been abandoned here for a very.. very long time. But, as he walked slowly across the large open space where the away team had materialized, as he neared an opening leading into a dark corridor which appeared to move deeper into the ship something interesting appeared on his tricorder screen. "Commander!" Kincaide called out. "I'm picking up definite organic material consistent with mummification.. looks like we may have a body in a chamber down this passageway.. it's 52 meters ahead.."

Hunter moved to Kincaide's side and looked at the readings the tricorder was displaying. "I'm inclined to agree with you Mr. Kincaide." He looked back at the others. "Doctor, come with Mr. Kincaide and myself, we may have found something to amaze you." To Miguel and Volos. "See what you can do about getting a sample just in case. Stay together...... no wandering off."

"You know, like we're doing," Nicole said to Miguel as she passed, then smacked Kincaide upside the head as she passed him. "It's called a comm unit, you don't need to shout," she grumbled, pointing her tricorder ahead of her as they approached the corridor Yarin and Kincaid had found.

"I don't think we'll be able to get anything of importance here. Volos and I should try and find the engine room or whatever they use for one." he suggested to Hunter.

"Alright Mr. Torres, you and Volos see if you can find the engine room. Stay in constant communication." Hunter replied. He didn't lie splitting the away team but it was the only way to cover more ground and hopefully get more information on this ship.

"Aye sir." Miguel said and then turned to face Volos. "Let's see what trouble we can get into." He put his tools away in his kit and then reopened his tricorder and configured it for standard power sources. He also activated his com unit "Torres to Victory, I need a sensor scan of the vessel looking for radiation sources. Specifically anything that could indicate a possible power source."

After giving Hunter a nod, Alex gave his tricorder a few pokes with his finger. "I'm sure not nearly enough." He grinned at Miguel. "Normally I'd say we should head aft to get to the engine room, but this isn't exactly a standard ship. Though is there's no other clues," he said as he frowned at his tricorder, "I'd head that way." He pointed off away from the group.

"Then it's a hiking we shall go." Miguel said with a huge smile. "Victory be aware that we have switched into two teams. Volos and I are now team 2." Torres said reporting back. This way he hoped their wouldn't be to much confusion back on the ship over who was where.

Back on the Victory Yarin was scanning the interior of the ship trying to find an energy source. "Volos, there is a high concentration of power 50 meters to your right and two decks up I believe it is the engine room although I do not recognize the energy configuration." Yarin said as he clicked his communicator with his upper left hand while his other three moved over his council controls.

The two men had already been walking for a few minutes when they got the call from Yarin. Miguel look at his tricorder readings and pointed to the screen. "This has to be the area he's talking about. At least it isn't to far away." Miguel said.

Alex nodded inside of his helmet as he leaned over to look where Miguel was pointing. "Agreed. Thanks Yarin." He said through the open comm. "Which means..." he started looking around at the walls and ceiling, "that we'll need to find a ladder... or something, pretty soon." He peered down the dim corridor before adding with a quiet laugh, "going up two decks is where zero G is nice."

"That it is.... but if we stay in it to long my stomach will be having issues with me." he said with a laugh and continued to lead the way til they found the ladder or the at least the hatch that Yarin had told them about.


----------------------------------Corridor----------------------------------

Nicole scanned the darkened corridor, sweeping ahead with her wrist beacon. "Someday, I am going to write a paper on this."

Hunter chuckled softly at the CMO's complaining. He found it somehow reassuring. Shooting an amused grin at her they continued on.

"A medical paper on a ship Ma'am?" Kincaid said.

"On the body's need to suddenly have ones nose itch when there is no physical way to scratch it," she said, screwing up her face trying to relieve her discomfort. Finally she sighed and shook her head, doing her best to ignore it.

"Why Doctor you yourself know that it's just a simple matter of mind over matter. If you don't mind it won't matter." His tone bantering like it had been on the holodeck.

"Does that mean I shouldn't mind you?" Nicole said, frowning at her readings. "This can't be right," she said as they neared the end of the corridor.

"But of course Doctor. You don't have to mind or like me but you will obey my orders." Hunter replied without missing a beat. His tone changed at her mentioning this can't be right. "Report. What can't be right Doctor? Explain your statement."

If Nicole could have thrown an annoyed look without having to turn her whole body in her suit, she would have. Instead, she tapped her controls and frowned again. "I'm reading....well to be honest I don't know what I'm reading, but the typical organic decay of mummification isn't quite there, and I'm picking up a lot of inorganic compounds, almost as if it's been preserved in some kind of inorganic sol-gel."

"Why that's extraordinary. It must be something of true scientific value for you not to know." Hunter quipped.

"Well one good way to find out," she said, approaching the doorway and stepping through.

"Damn hard head." he muttered as he followed her through the doorway. "Doctor I applaud your scientific curiosity but please allow me to enter first. Your safety is my responsibility." He looked about. His gaze falling on the tank in front of them and something immersed in the liquid. "Doctor, just what are we looking at?"

Nicole's first instinct was to comment on sexism in the modern age, and her second was to blandly state 'a tank.' However, the sight in front of her left her at a loss for words.

The tank was slightly larger than a coffin, or a bathtub, glass--or something akin to it--and filled with, near as she could tell, a body. The machinery, tubes and strange appendages going in and out of the tank were disturbing enough to look at, but as Nicole scanned it, she could barely believe what she was seeing. "True nanocomposite fusion," she muttered.

"Explain please." Hunter asked from her side.

"This body, whatever it was originally, was in the process of being fused with inorganic compounds. A hybrid of biological and non-biological life."

"Like a Borg? Could this ...... being be akin to a Borg?"

Nicole shook her head. "No, the Borg aren't a fusion, they're a hodgepodge. Mix salt and water, and you get a solution, saltwater," she said, pointing at the tank. "Mix sand and water, and you get sand and water. They may interract, but they're not unified on the molecular level. This," she pointed at the tank again, "is."

"So, this is a fusion of organic and inorganic material. But not a Borg." Hunter was getting a bad feeling about this ship. The Borg were bad enough but what they were looking at might well put the Borg to shame.

Looking back at the tank, "Was this an experiment? If so why was it stopped? Any ideas, theories, wild speculations?" He asked Anderson.

Nicole's eyebrows bobbed as she looked it over. "Could be an experiment, but this is an awfully large ship just to do an experiment on. As for why it was stopped, why is the ship deserted and the power off? This could be a failed attempt at taking their species to a new level of advancement...or this could be like finding a victim of an ancient volcano eruption, caught in their bathtub." She shrugged her shoulders. "Without knowing more about the culture, I can't tell you which end of the spectrum this falls under."

Hunter listened as the CMO spoke, when she had finished he asked her,"good points. Though this doesn't look like someone being caught in their bathtub. It has the look of being controlled, thought out. Is it safe to transport this back to the Victory? Where you can continue your investigation into this.... experiment?"

"Well as much as I am looking forward to getting out of this suit, I'd rather not transport it aboard. It most definitely is controlled, thought out, and it has a definite purpose, but I don't know if I want to expose the ship to whatever icky things might be in that fluid."

"Your concerns are noted Doctor. "Can we take enough of samples of the being as well as the fluid it's immersed in, for you to study on the Victory?"

"I suppose," Nicole said, chewing her lip. "I'll bring them to my private lab. Only place I'd say is safe enough to keep them contained."

Unable to help it, Kincaide spoke up then. "I'm not sure we should take any fluid back aboard the Victory. We're in an open vacuum.. there's no atmosphere left inside this ship.. so why hasn't that fluid..whatever it is.. boiled off or frozen solid? Why it is still a liquid against all the laws of physics as the Federation at least understands it.."

"Not all the laws of physics," Nicole said, eyeing the tank warily. "But it's safe to assume this ship once had atmosphere. Still..."

Yarin activated the channel that was monitoring the XO and his team. "Doctor what have you found?"

"Something that can only be described as 'icky,' Mister Yarin," she said, folding her arms and pacing a bit. "A bioengineering lab with some kind of nanocomposite fluid. There's a cadaver inside it, apparently in the process of being infused with inorganic compounds."

Kincaide looked about more as the others were speaking with the science officer back on Victory. If this chamber was a lab it wasn't like any lab he'd ever seen. The only contents in the chamber was the tank with it's gruesome mummified contents. No computer consoles. No video screens. Just dark walls, a few darkened structures he suspected once had been light emitting diodes. But that was it!

"This ship gives me the creeps.." he muttered while scanning the chamber's interior taking video images as well as using a laser system designed to completely copy the entire space for replication in a holodeck.

"I need to take samples and I need to run tests, but there's concern about bringing it on board. I'm thinking of establishing a remote lab here," she said, then belatedly looked to Hunter for permission.

Yarin tapped his communicator "Captain I request permission to go over to the alien ship with my background in bio genetics I think I can make sense of what is going on also it would be the scientific study of a lifetime."

The Captain blinked, a little surprised by hearing the science officer speaking on the bridge and his voice coming through the comm at the same time. "Mr. Yarin I am here on the Bridge with you.. there is no need to use you comm badge to speak to me." she told him, then added "And no, permission denied. I need you here on the bridge to monitor the data coming back from the away team as previously ordered."

Then, she activated her own comm and hailed the away team herself.

As if cue, the Captain's voice rose from the comm system. "Kennit to Commander Hunter. Status report Number One."

Dr. Anderson, Ensign Kincaide and myself are currently standing in front of a tank filled with some sort of liquid .... along with a being inside it. It appears as Dr. Anderson puts it to be a fusion of both organic and inorganic material. Commander Torres and Mr. Volos went to find the engine room. Other than this being we haven't encountered anyone else. Permission to bring samples aboard the Victory." As well as answering the CMO's request.

"My apologies Captain." Yarin said facing her. "I did not wish to turn my head I am getting some very odd electromagnetic readings from the ship and I did not want to miss anything."

To the science chief she answered, "Keep an eye on the sensors and make sure you record the data we're collecting Mr. Yarin." Then, she responded to the XO's request. The idea of bringing an unknown biological compound aboard the ship was worrisome, "You want to bring samples of this liquid aboard? What about the danger of contamination.. I'm not willing to put the crew at risk.." she answered.

Alec's voice came back through her com. "To be honest, I don't know what the risk is. However I see only three options. It's either bring some samples aboard the Victory and have them in Dr.Anderson's private lab or have the doctor set up a lab here which I am totally against Captain. Or beam back with no samples. This ship from what we have seen is a complete enigma."

"This ship's a dead enigma," Nicole said. "Whatever was going on here has long been inert. I'd say staying here wouldn't pose me much risk as long as I don't try to activate anything. However my private lab is completely cut off from the rest of the ship, and can handle anything short of a warp core breach. If we beam just myself and my samples there directly, the risk is minimal. Mister Yarin can tie in from his lab and we can work in tandem."

The Captain was silent for a moment as she weighed the options vs. the risks to her ship and crew. Finally, she said "I want anything you bring back from that ship to be kept inside a quarantine field and it doesn't come aboard at all without first getting a full confirmation from a full spec medical workup that there are no microbes or other hazards to the ship or crew."

"Gee, and I was hoping to taste it," Nicole grumbled. "Captain my lab has a level ten bioscreen field around it. Nothing gets in or out without my say-so, I assure you."

"Follow all protocols to prevent possible contamination." the Captain said. "Make certain it stays inside that level ten bioscreen.. I've had the distinct misfortune to be present when an accident allowed a nasty viral contagion to spread .. and I don't want to repeat the experience."

Hunter fixed the CMO with a stare after her latest comment then to the Captain, "Understood Captain we'll follow all protocols. Don't want this stuff getting out into the ship. Especially since we're not really sure what it is."

-----------------U.S.S. Victory----------------

"Yarin, I need a full sample kit, sealer and all, two dozen vials and a laser scalpel," Nicole said, all business as she turned her attention back to the tank. "Once I'm in my lab I'll tie in with you and we'll start playing around."

"Aye Doctor right away, Captain the Doctor has requested that I help her with what she brought back on the ship." Yarin said

The Captain looked at him and nodded, "Very well...get a replacement up here and then as soon as your relief arrives you may depart the bridge."

"Yes Ma'am," Yarin said, sending a page to one of his staff. Once the replacement had arrived, Yarin turned and quickly left the bridge. He emerged from the turbolift and headed for his lab, putting together a case of sample vials, tools and whatever else he could think of for the samples he wanted her to take.

He stopped by the transporter room, sending the contents of his 'goodie bag' down, then made his way back to the bridge. "Package delivered Doctor," he said as he stepped back to his post.

"I have it here," Nicole's voice said through the comm system. "I'll let you know once I'm back on board."

"Acknowledged.." the Captain answered.

---

To be continued in Part 2. This post has gotten a bit lengthy so, I'm splitting it here and will send out part 2 which contains the rest of the post as it is currently so that it's a little easier to work with. ~Kennit

 

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