Posted by Commander Valentina Bellini (Executive Officer) in Main Sim: Into the Looking Glass… XO Arrives

Posted by Gamemaster Gremlins Mouse (GamesMaster) in Main Sim: Into the Looking Glass… XO Arrives

Posted by Commander Valentina Bellini (Executive Officer) in Main Sim: Into the Looking Glass… XO Arrives
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

The video showed the crew going about their daily duties, a science report indicated that there was a anomaly approximately 10, 000 km ahead and growing. Within moments a bright white light flashed and when it was gone, the bridge was empty as was the rest of the ship, save Valentina and the two or three NE’s that had been in secured areas with higher force fields. The ship hadn’t even had a chance to raise shields.

Looking at the data, there was a small class M planet that was just beneath the Connie. Could that have been where the crew was taken. Suddenly, Valentina would feel like she wasn’t alone on the Bridge. It was just a hint of a breeze that swept by her…and then was gone.

Mouse

The XO spun around. Her hand went to her hip only to realize she was unarmed. “Good job, Len… let’s fix that…” She went to the Captain’s office to the small cabinet that should hold at least one phaser, if she was lucky.

While she was looking, she stopped at the desk to comm the shuttle. =^= This is Valentina. Something’s wrong. You, me and those two with you are the only ones left on the ship. I’m on the bridge. We’re over an class planet, but I don’t think we’re alone. Make sure the three of you are armed, secure the bay and I’ll get back to you in a few. =^=

She’d get the weapon then head back to the bridge and try and hail the Captain from the bridge.

Valentina
XO

Valentina was able to locate the pistol and as she returned to the Bridge, she noticed the console she had been at was not completely black as if someone had unplugged it. But there was no one visible on the Bridge. The hail for the Captain only came back as static as if there was something blocking the transmission.

Mouse

She frowned and tried to reboot the console before moving to another to use while it did its warm up, she hoped. “COMPUTER…” she called out. “Are comms clear to the ground?” She checked the console to be sure its answer and the computer’s matched. She searched for interference in the form of jamming signals, storms of note, and additional signals either incoming or outgoing from the ground and surrounding space. Periodically she glanced to the black console to see if it was back up and running.

Valentina
XO

The computer took a moment to respond =^=Communications are clear to the surface.=^= It said =^= Communications ceased five hours ago.=^= The computer said helpfully. As Valentina was studying the console, the information that the computer was giving and what was on the screen matched. As she stood there, she felt a woosh against her back and a stinging on her neck causing the hair to stand up.

Before she could comprehend that her comm badge activated and one of the NE’s in the shuttle bay spoke up =^=Commander, we have a situation down here.=^= He said and sent her a view screen of what was happening all of the items in the shuttle were shifting to the opposite side of where it was originally. The three ensigns were simply standing there.

Mouse

She reached up to grasp the back of her neck as she spun, her other hand had the phaser out of its holster before she could think. Her fingers lightly danced on the skin of her neck as she felt for a needle mark, a burn, or some indication what had occurred to her. The comm pinging made her jump and she glanced back at the screen watching the objects move thru the room. =^=Get out of there and come to the bridge. Something tells me things are flipping around more than just in the bay. Bring the shuttle pilot. And grab a couple phasers from the emergency locker to make sure you all are armed. Something is more wrong than I thought. And hurry! =^= She closed the comm. If there was no one else left and the anomoly was affecting the bay, she couldn’t take a chance at losing her only ‘back up’.

While waiting for them to arrive, she moved around the bridge and tried to find where a breeze, or something else, would give her a reason for the brushes against her.

Valentina
XO

As she moved around the bridge, she suddenly felt her vision shift, she was still seeing the Bridge, but she was now seeing the surface, some wooded areas and a sense of unease. Whoever she was seeing through their vision, looked up and saw a large winged creature, something akin to a dragon looking creature. The eyes turned and she was able to see the face of her new captain. So that told her the crew at least seemed to be still alive. She would feel a pressure on the sides of her head and the world would flash brightly and then the vision was gone, but she now had three bruises on each each side of her head, like fingers had been pressed very hard on her head and she had a splitting headache.

There was no breeze or reason for a breeze to be felt on the Bridge. The Ensigns confirmed her orders and when she didn’t respond they tried again =^=Commander! Are you there?=^=

Mouse

She swung her arms and shook her head. Leaning on the console behind her to balance herself once more. Her free hand rising to touch the tender bruise spots. “All right… so they are alive… I think?” She realized the Ensign was reaching out to her again.

=^=I’m here. Something attacked me. I think I saw the crew. It was like transporting somewhere then back again real quickly. Be careful. Something tried to grab my head and I’m bruised. So cover each other and watch yourselves.=^=

Valentina
XO

The Ensigns agreed =^=We’ll be on the Bridge in just a couple of minutes Commander.=^= The NE from the shuttle bay stated. She could hear them rustling through the weapons locker to get themselves armed. In the quiet of the Bridge, Valentina would swear that she could hear a quiet conversation, but the voices were everywhere and nowhere. It was very disconcerting as she tried to pinpoint one specific voice. As she stood there, the comms station started beeping incessantly with an incoming message. Looking at the console it was not a federation message, it was in a language that she did not understand, but the computer was working to decipher it.

Mouse

Valentina frowned and tried to suss out what she was seeing. Occasionally she swung her arm around her as if swatting someone or something. Something had definitely come close enough to hurt her. She was sure it wasn’t going to help. But it made her feel better. Even if it made her look ridiculous.

She kept glancing at the doors to see if the others were coming. She was trying to figure out how to find these ‘invisible’ beings, or whatever they were. She didn’t relish the idea of waving her arms for the next several days, worse case scenario. And she was already acutely aware she was going to be sleepy soon. She hadn’t slept on the shuttle, figuring she would check in, enjoy dinner and turn in early to start fresh in the morning. Something told her she’d sleep on every shuttle ride she took from here on out.

Valentina
XO

Valentina was getting the right idea, if there was something that she couldn’t see. The communication was finally translated and the message stated that all critical areas had been secured and that they were ready to move onto the second phase.

Mouse

“OOooohhhh nonononono,” the XO growled low under her breath. Trying her best, she started checking the systems she hadn’t thought of before. Engineering, Security and medical. If she could get in, she could reroute and lock them up.

As the hairs on the back of her neck went up, from not swiping her hand out in the last several minutes, she got the the point she couldn’t hold it and she shuddered. Turning suddenly she swung her right hand and her fingers squeezed the phaser to let the beam wide spread ‘stun’ in a 1/4 arc of the bridge. Anything directly behind her would be spared, but anything to her immediate right and in a partial arc around her would get sprayed with the particles. She had never had trouble being alone before. But this ship was giving her the creeps.

Valentina
XO

The arc made contact with something and it squealed in pain before it fell to the floor and a small device fell off and revealed a ugly looking creature, there was a rush of air as something moved to the now fallen creature. Valentina would now know who was attacking her and causing trouble on the ship. It was at that moment that the bridge door opened and the three other crew appeared.

Mouse

Valentina jumped and aimed to the turbo lift. Seeing her own crew, she called out. “Sweep the whole deck on STUN! Hit every square inch!” She laughed. “Don’t hit me!”

She spun the rest of the way around, her own phaser completing the sweep she had begun. Unless they were standing on the console she had just been typing on, chances are, they’d be hit. She kept her back to the console to keep herself out of the sweeping line of fire of the others.

Valentina
XO

Valentina’s phaser fire hit another two of them. Gods only knew how many more of them were on the ship or what they were doing with the rest of the crew on the surface.

Mouse

As the phasers seem to drop several on the bridge, Valentina swore. “Well that explains the headache and hallucination. I believe the crew is on the surface at the mercy of these folks.” She rubbed her temple where she felt the bruises. “I think they have some kind of mind manipulation.” She growled. Secure them. We need to find a way to basically phaser stun the entire ship and get whoever is left. And,” she moved back to the console to check some things, “Make sure we have control of the ship’s systems once more at 100%. We need to lock those commands to the bridge as well.”

She glanced at those with her. “We’re it, guys. We have to save the ship, then save the crew. If you aren’t up for it I need to know now. You can remain on the bridge and keep it secure.” She glanced at those around her in between checking security, engine control and life support. A slight frown of thought crossed her brow as she murmured, “Life support....” as if trying to remember something integral about it.

Valentina
XO

The others nodded “Yes ma’am.” They didn’t seem to be afraid to jump in and do the dirty work “What about using one of these to short out the others that are on the ship.” He said looking up “You can set the scanners to this frequency and we can see how many there were on the ship and we can remotely secure them or something.”

Life support was secured as was Engineering now. Security was still questionable, but Valentina at least now had security cameras that she could use to look at the various parts of the ship.

Mouse

Valentina was grateful she wasn’t going it alone on this. “Ok, so let’s do that. We need to secure Engineering, Security, especially the weapons, and Medical as well as the bays.” She growled slightly under her breath. She’d have to leave the bridge to help check out and secure the rest of the ship. But she was loath to do that yet. Glancing back at the ones they had knocked out and secured with bindings, she frowned as a not so Valentina thought crossed her mind.

She stepped towards the one she had stunned first. “Or perhaps we can just ask them to round themselves up and give us our crew back....” the way her voice deepened, made her sound a bit more serious, and a little more scary, than she should have been able to be. She had planned to come to her new ship, get to know the CO and crew and have an exciting adventure. She hadn’t planned on coming onto an almost empty ship full of hostiles that had captured the crew and were mentally torturing them.

She knelt down and looked at the creature before her. Without looking up, she spoke low and slow trying to keep her rising anger in check. “Get me the first aid kit. I want the amyl nitrate capsules. We are going to get some answers.” She slid the body to the center rail behind the Command Chairs and propped the alien up. In clenching her jaw, she felt the bruises on her temple. She was already getting a headache and was trying her best to relax because it was making it worse when she ground her teeth.

Valentina
XO

Lt. Burcham woke up in his chambers. He didn’t remember falling asleep. He walked to his CoS office and grabbed his padd, noting that no one was in the security wing. He made his way to medical to start his check up, but there was no personnel at all. =^= “Lt. Burcham to bridge, I’m in sickbay right now, I was just in my security office, and there isn’t a soul on this ship. Is anyone there? What’s going on?” He asked as he was trying to keep himself calm.
LT. Drake Burcham, CoS