Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reira Akaba (Scientist) in Abell-level main lab - Nakuto and Akaba go exploring

Posted by Commander Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher - Yellow (Engineering)) in Abell-level main lab - Nakuto and Akaba go exploring

Posted by Ensign Luna (Security Officer / RTF) in Abell-level main lab - Nakuto and Akaba go exploring
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻
OOC: Jim did some fantastic work on the layout and contents of the lab when he was here, so please have a look at the following threads if you want to get a sense of what the lab looked like:
https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/leviathan/posts/94821/
https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/leviathan/posts/90336/

IC: The corridor held only two doors. Both reinforced. Both impenetrable without the requisite, elevated clearance. The left-hand door was as familiar to Nakuto as her own quarters. Perhaps even more considering the long hours she was dedicating to her work. But of the right-hand door, the half-Klingon had been battling to ignore it, to deny its existence and resist the pull of secrets buried within. To avoid facing the truth that, once again, she had been party to the disappearance of a dear friend.

Her last conversation with John McHarrie had been unsettling, the Welshman forcing her to accept a terrifying truth - that a creature once relegated to legend was not only real, but here, as a specimen, on this ship. Inevitable, John had told her, that Section 31 and James McHarrie would come in pursuit. All he had wanted was to complete his experiment before they arrived to claim it back. Had his quest for answers been rewarded with success?

At the threshold, Kara paused and glanced at Reira. No requirement to speak aloud her warning of the dangers held within. Akaba knew John’s history better than even she. Still, she offered him a final “Ready?” before pressing her fingertips to the scanner and then with a final glance over her shoulder, taking Reira’s arm and leading them both inside…

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

In the shadows, a lone man sat quietly. No one knew he had entered this area, that was more like the tunnels on his homeworld of Turkan IV than Harel wanted to admit, before he had even seen his quarters. After all, he was likely going to be spending more time in here than at home. He didn’t say anything or make any movements. Just stared at a read-out on his PaDD taking in every word. Yes, this job was going to do nicely. Maybe eventually it would lead him to his ultimate goal. Of course that was secondary. First was duty to this ship and duty to the research.

Lt. Cmdr. Llakar Harel, Abell Consultant

She sensed the presence of the other before she saw him, tiny hairs bristling along the length of her spine at the realisation that they were not alone. With subconscious instinct, her hand moved to her left hip and the hilt of the concealed d’k tahg, although for the moment she made no attempt to draw.
As always, for one formed from dual, and often conflicting, cultures, it took a moment for Nakuto to settle on her path. To retreat from the room as silently as she had attempted to enter? Or to follow, instead, the instinct of her mother, a true daughter of Qo’nos…

“This is a restricted area!” voice echoing like rolling thunder as she advanced upon Harel. “Do you possess the appropriate clearance to be in here?”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

The danger lay just in reach… But the answers were there too, John was clearly playing with fire and Section 31 were the Gods of Olympus about to punish Prometheus for giving it to humans. He needed to know for so many reasons, where his partner could have gone and what precisely were these Reman Imps? He knew of them back on the Viking, when he was fresh and thought he could escape the shadow of his father without slaying the monster.

Nodding at her final ready, he snuck inside and began examination, something made the hairs of his neck stand up on the back of his neck. Programming himself as an authorized user very quickly in case of alarms and moreso to access all systems, Kara’s voice cracking like thunder would have made him jump if his life running from his childhood nightmare of a father hadn’t made his nerves harder than deuterium.

“Lieutenant Harel, I do not believe you have the appropriate clearance to be here. State your business.” Reira commanded, his tone going from warm and kind towards an old friend to harsh and demanding and rather similar to the Collective, inflexible and intolerant. Even if he didn’t move or make a sound, he could hear his heart beating, the thermal variance caused by his breath. His own hand subconsciously reached for one of the several knives he kept on him at all times, hidden in boots and sleeves as well as at least 2 modified phasers on him. Reira never went anywhere unarmed unless he could help it, he knew to be ready to fight at any time. He felt the cold metal of the hilt on his fingers, ready to strike like a viper.

Lieutenant j.g. Reira Akaba (Science)

OOC: Harley, if you still want to respond then we can leave some space to play that out here…

…otherwise, I’ll continue the below as if introductions have been completed and Reira and Kara are once again exploring the lab, which Harel is, of course, welcome to join in with…

IC: The last time she had been in here, she had seen it with her own eyes. On the desk immediately before them, a holographic representation of the creature had been lain out like a frog pinned to a dissection board. And over there, in the top-left corner of the room, the real anomaly had been contained and worked on by ghostly representations of McHarrie’s own hands.

“There,” she pointed to the containment unit, its door now hanging open to reveal an empty blackness inside. “John had kept it secured in there. He knew it was only a matter of time before his uncle tracked it, and him, down.”

Slowly, she approached the empty unit and, retrieving her tricorder, scanned the entire area in the hope of detecting any clues…

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

” Is that why John disappeared” luna asked as she stepped into the lab. ” So what are you two strangers up to” she asked.
Ensign Luna.

Nakuto spun round at the sound of another voice, then offered her friend a genuine yet weary smile.
“I do not know why John disappeared. Or where. The last time I spoke to him we were investigating a potential breach of this lab by his uncle. Remember?” she asked Luna. “John had retreated to his quarters to investigate further and then…” A shrug. “Then he was gone.”

She turned back to Reira and shook her head. “This is probably not what you expected for your first assignment on the Leviathan. But this reaches far beyond our own ship and crew. It was John’s belief that the section had plans to weaponise the imps. And that his own research could be key to them achieving it.”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

“His uncle is likely up to no good. I’m almost certain 31’s aim was to turn these Reman Imps into some sort of biological weapon to be used, unleash a few on an enemy ship or space station and watch them get to work. We need to find out what happened here and most importantly, what the hell happened to my husband.” Reira stated, instantly going over to a command console and looking through the files, intending to restore anything deleted.

“As always, their plans reach well beyond our ship and I doubt the rest of the crew would believe us. I also believe my father has something to do with this, he’s had a keen interest in John because he’s someone he can use to get to me. Either his research was dedicated to destroying these things, or the more worrying possibility is that they were coercing him to assist in their research.” He offered.

Lt j.g. Reira Akaba (Science)

“Your father?” There was a trace of alarm in the half-Klingon’s tone. “You think he had something to do with this?”

Whatever had transpired in John McHarrie’s lab, Kara was beginning to doubt that any evidence could remain. These were no amateurs they were tangling with but devious and talented professionals. In that moment the task seemed insurmountable.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant Researcher)

OOC: I’m sorry, in the absence of any response yet from Jim, I’m really struggling to know where to go next with this. I really don’t want to risk taking it somewhere that would ruin any of Jim’s own plans, so think we might be best putting it on hold and I’ll come up with something else for our intrepid trio to investigate…unless either one of you has other ideas?

• Sharon