STF

Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS

Posted Dec. 5, 2022, 9:10 a.m. by Gamemaster Matrix (Gamemaster) (Sage Pennington)

Posted by Lieutenant Maria Beckett (Chief of Security) in Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS

Posted by Commander Dantius Massana (XO) in Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS

Posted by Gamemaster Matrix (Gamemaster) in Main Sim - A Rare Meeting - tag XO, COS
Posted by… suppressed (40) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

The old man paced back and forth while Beckett and Massana exchanged words. “It is unfortunate that fear grips the king the way it does.” Resentment twinged his voice. “It is very few who wish to send you away.”

As for exfiltration and whether they were armed, it was true Beckett had seen no weapons being carried, but the automatons did seem to have some built in armament.

-GM

“For the sake of making sure that we are following a directive from a duly chosen authority - is the king’s rule autocratic? If it is true that a majority of the inhabitants here do not desire our departure, and the king does not have full authority of command, we would be remiss to obey his instructions.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“The people who lived on the surface. The ones who were left behind. They were dead but they were reborn. But they were different. Some now have strange abilities, others barely survive. The King has the power to exert his will by force should he see it being defied. Unless you are prepared for what he may bring, then run and never speak of this place again. It would be wise.”

-GM

The more time she spent down here on the planet, the worse the cold knot in her gut seemed to get. Whether or not some of the locals had abilities or not, it seemed they believed it, and that was a bad enough reason. Outnumbered as bad as they were, a determined group could overpower them by weight of numbers. Belief was a powerful thing.

Becket

“As esoteric as that response was, a simple, ‘Yes,’ may have served the same purpose. However - are you actually saying that the people ruling over you now were somehow reanimated after perishing? Were you witness to these events?”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“They are the children of the ‘reanimated’ as you put it. I was a child when we were left behind. I did see things. But it was many ages ago.”

-GM

Maria tilted her head to the side, sensing an opportunity. “What kind of things,” she asked, curiosity mingling with tension. The latter wasn’t so much directed at their de-facto guide, but at the situation. “Please,” she added with a small smile directed his way. “It could be important.” She spared a glance for the Commander, but immediately refocused back on the man. “And forgive me if I missed it, but I didn’t catch your name, sir.”

Lt Beckett, COS

Massana turned to look at the man. Senior to everyone, but not in charge. Was this man included in the four crew listed as missing, or was he someone not on the crew manifest? Why did he not fall like the others? So many questions, and yet he saw no way to ask them without traumatizing the man or inviting more trouble. He noticed that Beckett was trying to get the man to reveal who he was, even though he had already asserted that he did not have a name.

Mysteries upon mysteries, and given how the leaders had suddenly vanished without a trace, it seemed that there might be nefarious individuals who would see some sort of tactical value in this planet. Whatever the case, the king had not dismissed them, and so he doubted that the automatons would let them leave the hall.

  • Commander Massana, XO

Asked what he saw all those years ago, the old man said. “Some of the adults grew I’ll very quickly. They lost control of themselves. Of their minds. The sickness destroyed them. And it was decided that those who weren’t sick needed to flee. Their ship left three, including myself behind. Two unburied soon to rise. And myself, just a child. They said I was infected with something. But I was never sick like the others. A week later, the others rose from where they had been left, unconcerned for having died.”

The old man’s response to being asked his name again was… complicated. There was something there. But he had clearly been told, convinced that he should never say it ever again.

-GM

Dantius processed the news with a somewhat procedural take upon things. Two adults abandoned because of an infection, two others who had gone into a hibernation state so complete that they were mistaken for dead, and a child whose infection was declared but not justified to the boy. How to account for all the other people here? He chose this as the best line of investigation.

“Is everyone in the settlement related to these four? Did those four let you start your own family when you came of age?”

Massana was trying to tread carefully. If anyone here was being held captive instead of living there because they lacked an alternative, there were implications which the Commander had to consider.

  • Commander Massana, XO

“Some are descended from the four. Others from a shuttle crash 57 years ago. They were lost, we saved them.”

=^=Commander Massana, Chief Engineer Allance. Were just checking in. All’s well here, Sir. =^=

-GM
((Thanks GM… Just realized I forgot cross post))

Maria startled at the extra voice breaking in suddenly but visibly relaxed, placing one hand over her heart just for a moment. Having communications back was a good sign. At least they had that much going for them. It might mean transport was an option. Looking back to their apparent guide for the moment, she nodded. “Do you remember where the crash was? Coordinates or what landmarks are around?” It wasn’t so much that she wanted to fact-check the man, though that played a role. THey still had air assets overhead, and they might be able to recover information from the shuttle and/or haul it back up to the Memorial.

Lt Beckett, COS/CIO/CAG

“It was just beyond the frozen lake north of the settlement. Though the wreck must be buried under the snow by now.”

-GM

=/\= Understood, Chief. We are unharmed but currently still in discussions regarding the situation. Continue with standard operations until otherwise instructed, =/\= Dantius said before turning to the old man.

“Did the distress signal come from someone from the shuttle crash, or someone related? If they have been forced into settlement instead of willingly remaining, they should be allowed the choice to depart.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“The first child of the ones from the crash. They’ve never had the means to depart. So we continue to cohabit.”

-GM

“This disease you mentioned, do you know what the R-nought value is? Or rather how likely is it to spread and how fast,” she asked. While she wasn’t a medical expert she knew enough about quarantine procedures and the like. Having to enforce them was one thing. But also knowing them in the case of a bio-weapon attack, or knowing the ‘yield’ of a bio weapon. That was part of the job. There was a growing gnawing in the pit of her stomach. More questions floated on the edge of her mind, but for now she didn’t want to overwhelm the gentleman with too many questions too fast.

Lt Beckett, COS/CIO

“The surface computers might, unfortunately I know very little about the disease itself.”

-GM

The Commander nodded. “If lacking a means to depart is the only reason why they remain, why is the King insistent upon forcing them to remain here?”

  • Commander Massana, XO

The old man waved his hand dismissively. “Power requires a means to exert itself. He has power, literal and figurative. The literal maintains the figurative for only Alexander’s sake. Why risk violence if there is food and warmth here? So the power balance remains as it is.”

-GM

“And if the people around - did you say Alexander is the king’s name? - knew that food and warmth are available elsewhere, would they still be as willing to remain?”

Dantius knew that he was treading dangerously close to asking if the people around were willing to revolt. He was somewhat unable to stop himself; his homeland on Earth had gone through multiple revolts on its way to independence. Additionally, those revolts had occurred with the French Revolution in the background. He was very wary of despots of any form, and was also a little more interested than some of his compatriots regarding the personal liberties of a society’s inhabitants.

  • Commander Massana, XO

The Commander had some very good questions. She’d caught the name drop as well, but he’d beaten her to the punch, not that she wanted to interrupt. And he had a good point as to why the people stayed. It wouldn’t be anything for the Memorial to move them, give them citizenship, set them on a new world with better conditions if they wished, or let them visit any particular world they wanted to go to. Earth, Risa, Bajor, Gamma Tiltium IV, Kaminar… there were so many worlds and peoples out there.

Lt Beckett, COS

The old man sighed. “Even if they could be persuaded that there was an elsewhere, getting there safely remains a large enough doubt that everyone may not accept the risk.” He didn’t verbally acknowledge that he had given away the King’s name, but his face betrayed that it made him nervous.

-GM

Commander Massana found himself intrigued.

“Would they be more likely to be afraid of the journey, or of the risks involved with departure?”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“The risks for traveling would not be very high at all. I fail to see how that would be a greater risk than staying here. Departure, sure. But the actual getting to somewhere new, at least within Federation space, isn’t all that dangerous.”

Lt Beckett, COS/CIO

“Departing is the most dangerous thing for any of us. Even discussing it, I’m taking certain risks.”

-GM

-bump-

Dantius nodded. As he, Beckett, and the three Security personnel accompanying him had still not been given leave to depart, he knew that they were also likely in danger.

“Have you all become dependent upon this planet’s environment? If so, I am sure that our medical personnel could figure out a solution. Benzites and Barzans, for example, use specialized atmospheric devices to assist them away from their natural planetary environments.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“We are accustomed to bitter cold, and the absence of any sun. Some of the healers predict that younger children may struggle with exposure to direct sunlight at all. Now that whole generations have existed underground. I do not know if it is true, but there are children now born to parents who have never themselves seen the sun. What that does to a child… I cannot say.”

-GM

-bump-

Maria nodded. “I’m sure there’s a lot of nutrient deficiencies going on. Like living on a submarine, or on a deep space cargo vessel. It’s different with access to proper healthcare. But in a situation like this?” She shook her head. Having grown up on the SS Atlas hauling cargo from one world to another, she had some idea. Then there would be the xenophobia. The older generations might lack it or have it to a lesser degree, but the younger generations, having never known the outside world, would be pretty much terrified of any strangers. Until there was enough generational gaps to be curious about the outside world. The other factors, she couldn’t immediately guess at either.

Looking toward her superior, she frowned. “With your leave, I’m going to start looking for solutions for a quick extract in case we need it. Though I wish we had a science officer or engineer with us. I’d feel a little better about it. I’m a little rusty.” She was still engineering certified from her time on the Atlas, and kept up on it, and wasn’t too bad with general sciences and particle physics, but she wasn’t actively working in those fields.

Lt Beckett, CoS/CIO

He waved his hand permissively. “Do what you will. But please, do it subtly.”

-GM

Dantius nodded. “At this point, yes, feel free to think of a way for us to leave quickly if need be.”

Commander Massana looked around and put a hand to his temple. This was a far more difficult situation than he realized. People from a shuttle crash had come here, been subsequently (and, he surmised, forcefully) integrated into the society that had developed following the time when the original team had abandoned the research outpost, had families, and then never been given a way off the planet. They were forced to live underground, and were now incapable of living anywhere but this subterranean facility.

“If, instead of offering a means for any of the inhabitants to depart, we offered material aid, would King Alexander accept any of it?”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“Himself? Unlikely. If you could reach the council, his primary advisors, they might be persuaded to your side. And by being familiar to Alexander, persuade him.”

Maria stepped back from the other two and let them talk. In the meantime, she adjusted her tricorder. She shifted it to a multi-spectrum analysis, using everything from passive X-ray to ultrasonic pings to map out the space, in addition to the built in inertial mapping. Ideally she would be able to see the spaces in the walls, ceilings, and get a more expansive layout to the place on the screen, as well as start getting an idea how far down they were and what the various sub-strata was comprised of.

Once she had an analysis complete, well… then would get to the real fun. In the meantime she kept an ear out as she visibly looked around, using the scanner projecting from her head piece to reach out and scan the area. At the same time, the system had a communication range of 40,000 kilometers, which should be enough to reach the Memorial. A tricorder could create a dispersion pattern, preventing transportation. She supposed, in theory, it could act as a pattern enhancer with a little bit of work. Provided it could reach the ship. Comlinks were working again, for now, so it was possible.

But first… data data data. She could not make bricks without clay.

Lt Beckett

Beckett’s tricorder returned a basic outline of the space they were in. There were five total chambers, and the entryway from the elevator. The largest chamber was the camp they had seen earlier, though based on scan data it was unlikely they had seen all of it. At the back of that was the chamber they were currently in. To the left from their current perspective were two chambers connected by a narrow tunnel. To the right was a chamber that seemed much more purpose built in its outline than these others.

The mineral composition of the outer layers of the surface was what had so far prevented the sensors from detecting the settlement. Beckett would need to feed the memorial basic information about how to transport people out, such as how many there were and their precise locations.

-GM

It was a start. Tapping at the controls, she chewed her lower lip. The mineral deposits were acting somewhat like kelbonite. That may well have been what they were, which would make things difficult. A pattern enhancer set would have been nice, or personal iso tags or emergency transporter tags. But they didn’t have any of that. But they did h have the tricorders. Which could possibly do the job. But first…

They had communications, or they once did. Reaching up she tapped her combadge. =^=Lt Beckett to Memorial.=^=

((Leaving it up to you to cross-post GM if you decide it goes through. If not, well…still need to know if all we get is silence.))

Lt Beckett, COS

The Captain’s response came back =/\= Aw- -eam Co- You -roke up!=/\=

-GM

-bump-

The lieutenant frowned, studying her readouts. Signal strength wasn’t too bad, but it was getting scattered and distorted. Pulling up the signals analysis subroutines, she worked to see if she could fine-tune the bands and get a more coherent signal up to orbit.

Dantius nodded. He was hardly surprised at the limited connectivity they had down here. This was hardly like the Genesis planet, where Khan had taunted Kirk and those with him; then, in spite of planetary separation, the base had direct communications lines which Singh had not severed. Here, whatever this place was, a Starfleet outpost it definitely no longer was. Whatever communications equipment they had, it was either solely internal, or at least not interfaced with Starfleet computers any further.

=/\= Madam, I am unsure how much of this you understand. However, we seem to have come upon an autocracy. The distress signal may be illegitimate, in as much as it was contrary to the will of the ruling authority. We will attempt to resolve as much of the situation as we can - there seems to be a general state of malnutrition and ill health due to sustained subterranean living. However, identifying the source of the distress signal may need to be abandoned. =/\=

  • Commander Massana, XO

“I’m not sure how much of that got through, Commander. There’s a lot of interference. It might be easier to send up a text message or in a burst transmission.” Getting signals through bad situations like this were usually more of an engineer’s job. But being a certified engineer, having certifications in tactical engineering, and of course having to work with ECM and Jamming problems as an intelligence operative, it was part of the game. For now all she could do was wait for a reply.

Lt Beckett, COS/CIO

“Low-bandwidth data, at any rate,” Massana said. He felt like that would have been a pun in an earlier era, but could not for the life of him remember why at this particular moment. He turned back to the old man. “Given the King’s directive, do we have leave to depart, and therefore are simply standing here because we have nowhere else to be?”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“You are free to leave. The king will likely welcome it. Return will be difficult should you choose to. But if your business here is concluded, you may leave how you came.”

=^=”yeah - breaking up pr- bad But do - best you can - try to get into bet- contact - soon as you can - need us to we can start beaming down supplies - living down there I guess”=^=

-GM

Maria frowned but nodded to herself. That was about as good as it was likely to get for now. It was still coming through broken and sloppy, but mostly intelligible. The question about leaving caught her ear and she turned to regard the other two. “Commander?”

Lt Beckett, COS/CIO

“As we just heard - inform them of what supplies the people here need so that they can begin sending them,” Dantius finally said. He turned to the old man and said, “Is there any way that you could give us a list of your most urgent needs here? Regardless of who sent the distress signal, it is clear that your settlement is suffering from deprivation. If there is any way we can help the general welfare here without causing danger or upheaval, we will.”

  • Commander Massana, XO

“Food, clean water… basic survival things.” They clearly needed everything, but if they needed anything, it was clean sustenance. “If anyone tries to follow you out- I won’t have any hand in stopping them.”

-GM

Dantius nodded and took his PADD in hand. He sent a quick burst communication to the Memorial in text form.

=/\= Settlement beneath surface has limited capabilities for self-sustenance. Send down a years’ worth of regular supplies and rations for a population of roughly 50 individuals, as well as a self-sustaining power supply and a mass replicator, if possible. =/\=

  • Commander Massana, XO

Beckett shook her head. “Following us out won’t do much good.” Taking a moment to change channels, she tapped her combadge. =^=Becket to Recon Two.=^=

=^=Recon Two.=^=

=^=We’re going to be pulling out soon. Be on station just in case we need you to lay down some hate.=^=

=^=Ayfirm. Turning hot. Angels three. Speed one two zero. Weapons hold.=^=

Beckett smiled at the dead calm and cool professionalism from the Bajoran woman up there in her fighter. =^=I should buy you a drink. Beckett out.=^=

“Ready to go?”

Lt Beckett, CoS/CIO/CAG

=^=”Zoarhi to -mmander Massana Is -vacuating - people who live - this world no- an option Given there isn- -pposed to be anyone on this Restricted worl- let alo- in -is system?”=^=

-GM


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