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Mission Start - Life & Death

Posted Feb. 25, 2023, 8:46 a.m. by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vora Zorell (Scientist) (Lindsay B)

Posted by Lieutenant Steven Leon Marsh (Chief Science Officer) 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 (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“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.

With Zorell looked after, Abrams focused on her task. “At our current speed, ETA is 8 hours,” Abrams called out.

“Go to maximum warp,” the Captain promptly ordered.

“Aye, Sir, ” the NE at the helm replied, changing their speed.

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

Vora shook her head. The things she saw, heard and felt were not things she could speak aloud. Ever. Except with the one person on the ship who already knew about them and they had agreed it was safest to keep it between them. She didn’t dare look at Johann right now. Her distress was still there but it quickly shifted to embarrassment. She focused on breathing deep and even breaths, letting her chest and stomach expand fully before blowing them out from between her lips.

Ensign P’Mala Dawes wheeled through her mental Rolodex of medical training, of how to react in a trauma situation, but there was no real timeline in her training for how to best accommodate for a Tenraith Starfleet officer with an eidetic memory.

“Good, you’re breathing very well,” P’Mala coached Vora. “Is the moment of significant distress passed? How are you feeling?”

Johann noted that the previous question did not get answered, and had a pretty good idea as to why. He wasn’t going to call attention to it.

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.

The Captain was convinced that this was a situation in which nearly flying the ship apart would be appropriate. Though might still also not matter by the time they got there. Nevertheless, he assumed people knew that when he said “maximum warp” earlier, he was not talking about sustainable speeds.

“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

“I was actually coming up because I thought a face to face might be a nice change of routine. Maybe I should’ve stayed in engineering.” Mathys said, not liking what he was hearing.

Death was never pretty no matter how it happened. He was grateful that the CO didn’t get into grisly details as he let his thoughts wander. People didn’t call pirates ‘it’. That small, minor detail stuck out to him.

“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.

Johann did not actually know that the Ancient Greeks used letters as numerals. He’d have to look that up in the computer later.

“It’s in the Copenhagen Expanse,” Vora said, straightening and adopting a neutral expression. She stepped forward to the console and ran query in the database. Was she okay? Not really. But having something else to focus on certainly helped.

~Vora Zorell, Sciences

The initial query by the Tenraith scientist returned with a response that probably would have confused one with eidecit memory such as her, particularly if she had heard of it before. =/\= My records indicate there is no such soutpost by that name. =/\= the response came.

Cassidy frowned. “Never heard of it,” she said, though she was glad Vora was at least somewhat functional enough to work. Or at least it appeared. Her mind thogh was more on what happened when they got there. Someone was going to have to investigate and she knew she’d need the right team.

Abrams, COS

P’Mala, feeling comfortable with Vora’s state, was now concerned about the cat that slipped out of the Bridge and was now on Deck 1 somewhere. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Y’all, I think when I walked onto the Bridge earlier, a little black cat snuck in between my legs,” P’Mala announced unprompted. “Should someone try and locate the feline? I could do it.”

-Ensign P’Mala Dawes

The Captain turned to look at P’Mala, largely because he had never heard a Vulcan say “Y’all” before. The uniqueness of it attracted a great deal of his scrutiny in that moment. This person must have a fascinating personal history, he thought. Though he also considered her interactions with Vora earlier, and knew that it was best if she didn’t hover around her right now.

“If you’ve got the time for that, that’d be great. We’re probably about to get a little busy here.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Abrams looked to the doctor. “Our records pointed to it being likely Barbara Wheeler from Engineering. She just boarded recently from Black Rock. Her cat’s name is Dart.”

She went back to keping na eye on the sensors. Whatever was going on at the Outpost required their attention, yes, but also caution.

~Abrams, COS

The ship sped up as per the captain’s orders and system confirmed for the helm that they were going to reach their destination in 2.4 hours.

– GM
OOC Shaun, I’ll start up a thread for your great cat hunt …

Russell

“Yessir, Wheeler.” P’Mala said, secretly thrilled to be given a task by the bridge crew. “I’ll– I’ll be available by comm.”

Before she left the deck, she gave one last peering look at Vora Zorell as if to see if the Tenraith was alright.

Silently, she slipped off of the bridge in search of the feline that seemingly belonged to Ensign Wheeler–hopefully to unite the two.

-Ensign P’Mala Dawes

OOC: Sounds good! -Shaun

Mathys couldn’t help but glance toward Vora’s still distant behavior. He silently hoped she would be fine. Before he could comment on the cat, he spotted Dawes exit. He sighed, but continued to monitor the speed and ship’s condition.

-CE, Mathys Ducote

Stephen stepped out of the turbo and moved to the science station behind his officer “You okay?” New traveled fast and while the woman was entirely capable of manning the bridge, Stephen knew medical had been called and was briefed on the upcoming mission.

Stephen Marsh CSO

Vora turned her gaze on him and took a deep breath. “Yes, and no. Well enough for the moment, but I might need you to take over,” Vora said softly.

“We’re off to a pretty gruesome scene at Iota-Gamma Outpost, in fact…” Vora had the computer run a check on the Outpost to see what else they could come up with. Surely there was more than had been revealed?

~Vora Zorell, Sciences


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