Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Mission Start - Life & Death

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Mathys Ducote (Chief Engineer) in Mission Start - Life & Death

Posted by Ensign Dr. P’Mala Dawes (Doctor) in Mission Start - Life & Death
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

Warm blood seeped over her hand, spilling over his body and onto the deck. His eyes vacant while her hand was wrapped around the knife and she was frozen. The images in her mind shifted. The splatter of blood all over her and Salla as Vora held the gun. Self-defence, but it still shocked them. After the terror the man had inflicted on them for days, they had become the thing that others took pleasure in. Vora just wanted to vomit.

Zorell stood frozen at her station, her breath ragged.

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

From the looks on the faces of the NEs around her, it was like this was a distress call like none P’Mala had seen before, and she had been an ER doc in Kentucky.

She noticed Vora–her breathing seemed… off.

“Distress call,” Abrams called over to the newly arrived ensign. They needed more information and she was about to call over to Vora but the expression on her frined’s face was telling. The Tenraith was so deep in a memory, she’d not likely hear anyone. She needed help but they also had a situation to deal with. Her fingers flew over the keys tapping into the sensor readings. “Double checking for a timestamp,” she said, hoping to establish when this had been likely sent so they had a reference point and checking the distance to the outpost to know how far away they were.

The outpost was approximately 0.67 light years away.

At their current cruising velocity at warp 7.25 , the Europa would reach Iota-Gamma Station in about 8 hours.

“Vora?” Abrams called over, hoping to grab the scientist’s attention but she knew it was likely of no use. “Doctor?” she called over, gesturing to Zorell with her head. “Bad memories.” She didn’t want to reveal personal information on the bridge, but leaving Vora to suffer in her eidetic brain was hardly the kind thing to do.

Abrams, COS

Johann turned from the viewscreen. Uh-oh, he thought.

P’Mala rushed to the Tenraith scientist’s side. “Lieutenant?” she asked. From her Vulcan intuition, medical training, and her brief knowledge of the doctor’s special mind, she sensed a trauma response.

She approached the woman. “Vora, it’s Dr. P’Mala Dawes. Hi. Can I touch your hand?”

Vora didn’t reply, her gaze unfixed.

P’Mala modulated her voice, cool and warm and slow. “You’re here on the bridge. Take slow, deep breaths, and when you feel calm, look around the room and just describe to us what you see.”

-Ensign P’Mala Dawes

Good, he thought approvingly of the doctor he had not really gotten a chance to meet yet. He didn’t know if the touching her hand thing was actually going to be the best approach idea given Vora’s memory, but it was a good idea. He was going to watch what happened here without looking too obviously concerned. Even though he was. He had to think about more than just her right now.

As the turbolift’s beams rotated down his face, Mathys took a deep breath. He was heading up to the bridge to report to the CO face to face. The ship was operating smoothly, but something felt off. It had nothing to do with the old gal though.

When they entered the Copenhagen Expanse, something stirred in his gut. He didn’t like how little data they had over the place. For all they knew, it might’ve been pirate smuggling grounds. Memories of the USS Zeus’ pirate encounter flickered across his thoughts. His eyes closed and pushed his anxiety down, centering himself. Moments ticked into seconds and finally minutes before the feeling died down.

The CE made a mental note to meet with the counselor again.

As the doors open, he took a step out only to halt in his tracks. A black streak darted past him and disappeared down the hall. His eyes watched it until it vanished among the crowd. Letting the rapid beats of his heart become steady again, Mathys continued to the bridge.

Spotting the scene budding, the CE’s concern surfaced. He waited to the door’s side as he tried to figure out what he missed.

-CE, Mathys Ducote

Johann saw Mathys, obviously concerned. He happened to be more concerned but there was a starship to keep running. That starship needed to run faster. Getting the ship to go faster required people to be doing their jobs and not rubbernecking. “People” included himself.

“Ducote,” the Captain said. “We need more speed.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

As often happened, Vora snapped to without being able to fully differentiate between memory and reality. It was brief but just the presence of someone next to her made her take a step back, her panicked breath catching in a gasp as she put her hands out to create space between her and the scene. She blinked and saw the console and P’Mala and the bridge. She bent at the waist and forced herself to breathe, her cheeks hot. Not again.

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

From her medical training, P’Mala Dawes knew that what Vora needed was some time and air and focus. Maybe a drink or a pill, depending on how intense the episode was.

“Vora,” P’Mala repeated, her voice modified to be calm and slow. “Very good. You’re breathing, and you’re here on the bridge. Are you alright? What do you see?”

If her new friend had that kind of reaction to whatever this distress call was, the crew was certainly in for something bleak to come.

-Ensign P’Mala Dawes

Mathys nodded, slipping into a seat nearby. His fingers tapped on the console and promptly increased the ship’s speed. Unlike the rest, he had missed the earlier events on his way up to the bridge.

Pushing the engines to the sustainable maximum warp speed of 8.6, they would arrive in 4 1/2 hours, and if they really pushed the engines, they could reach warp 9.8 and reach their destination in 2.4 hours.

“Based on your reaction, Sir, assuming we’re in trouble.” Concern edged into his tone, signifying his worry.

-CE, Mathys Ducote

“We’re responding to a distress call,” the Captain explained briefly. “We basically just watched two people get murdered on the viewscreen, with the implication that other people on the Iota-Gamma Outpost are in immediate danger. From something the person we were briefly communicating with only described as ‘it’.”

It was a succinct, fact-based summary, without actually describing any of the violence in detail.

“So we’re actually not in trouble yet, but we’re about to be. Unless you came up here to tell me we have some other problem.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

“Does anyone know anything about Iota-Gamma Outpost?” NE Helpful asked in a tight voice from her station, her eyes wide in shock, her knuckles white and tight as she gripped the railing near her station on the bridge, “Apart from the fact they are ten and three in Ancient Greek, of course.”

– GM Tribble
OOC: Calculations from a handy little online calculator I discovered online. Cruising/Maximum Sustainable and Maximum for 12 hours warp speeds from Discover specs.