To Our Higher Purpose
Episode Name: To Our Higher Purpose
Written By: Daedalus
Cast: Arzt, Daedalus, Haven, Kirkpatrick, Krylow, Moulin, Norvan, Rimosi, Shamash, Solange and Vetra.
Produced By: Starfleet
Directed By: Daedalus
Aired On: Fri Jul 15 20:19:52 2005
Stardate: 55117.5
Time: Fri Jul 08 19:00:49 2005
Stardate: 55100.6
The interior mess hall of USS Thomas Paine. A bird's-eye view. Four officers clustered around a large table. The conversation is in progress...
"And," Ensign Moulin continues, "We're given to understand there was some sort of bio-research--the village where you encountered the demon and so many dead, oui?" she asks of Krylow. "It's unclear the exact nature of the research, or how the village fits in, but think of this: the Andorian people have, to one degree or another, a great interest vested in the proving or disproving of the Bright-Laco hypothesis. This 'demon' seems to have a great many characteristics that indicate it's the logical ancestor of the cobalt based specimens we've seen: the whale, the fish-that-were-not-fish, the reptilian-insect creatures..."
"What if the Fimardi colonists sought to prove, so that they might better supress, or /disprove/ the hypothesis themselves?" asks Ensign Moulin, quietly. "A mutagen run amok, some process to hyper-speed evolution toward bi-pedal, humanoid sentience... it would explain the cell growth, would it not?" She pauses. "What if it's still evolving?"
Panaflex Camera has left.
"From what i can tell of past experience and from what occured here on the station as well as on the planet itself, I would most certainly concurr that there is a strong faction that is set out against said hypothesis.", Shamash mentions. "I take it, that finding the ...demon... is a secondary mission objective?
Krylow smiles faintly to Moulin. "Again, I'm not a scientist so following with this is not my strong area. On the last mission I had under my command Lieutenant Haven, then the station's Biosciences officer, Lieutenant Albertz and Lieutenant, both accomplished doctors, to handle the science side of things. I do recall, however, that the so-called demon's DNA contained Tellarite, Orion, Human and interestingly enough Jem'Hadar sequencing. Given the DNA sequencing I'm not sure if I can agree that they were attempting to simulate their own evolution."
Kirkpatrick sips deeply from his lapsang souchong, raising an eyebrow as he continues to look at the PADD, "Perhaps taking a hodge-podge from the Catalogue-o-DNA then," he ponders audiably.
"Alternatively..." Moulin rests her chin in her hand, a week of hyperfocused research crammed in between diplomatic functions and duties catching up with her. She's visibly running out of steam. "Good point," she nods to Krylow, stiffling a yawn. "Could we be looking at a common ancestor, then... of /all/ of us? Perhaps this being wasn't /created/... isn't an /experiment/ at all? Perhaps it's indigenous... what the Andorians would have become if they had not, hypothetically, been displaced to Andor. The hyper-mutation might have been triggered by the gamma pulses..."
Krylow lets out a slow and long breath before responding to Moulin. "That might be a possibility though I'd prefer to wait until we gather the information that we need to create an accurate hypothesis. I'll let the scientists with the data and figure out what this thing is."
"Gamma radiation is the most energetic form of radiation that exists. It also has the shortest wavelength of any radiation in the electromagnetic spectrum," Kirkpatrick states after a sip of tea. "However I have only seen it used to re-crystalize dilithium."
Shamash smiles and looks once again at Moulin "Keep that up and i am only confirming my theory that you are in the wrong department, Miss Moulin." beat "And the point of having one common ancerstor makes me think that you have read through old archeologic journals from 2369 about the Progenitors." he nods to Krylow. "Data first. Analysis can take place in the security of the station."
"I think it's important," Moulin offers, rubbing at one of her eyes and stiffling a yawn, "That we recognise--that we keep foremost in mind--that this is a sentient being. An /intelligent/ being. I worry--and I am guilty of this myself--that we are 'dehumanising' it," she smirks at herself, "But calling it... 'it'. Demon. Creature. Thing."
"And the initial genetic analysis," she adds after a moment, more to Shamash than in general, "would support such a correllation, would it not? To the Progenitors? A sentient that has, as it were, the 'makings' of a human, an Orion, even Jem'Hadar."
Shamash says, "The correct method would be to call the being by its species identifyer, if there is one." beat "While 'demon' is essentially a derogatory term, it was the first one that was applied to the being. Such names do have the tendency to stick around."
"I think we'll worry about re-classification when we arrive back at the Station," the red-haired Planetary Sciences officer says as he finishes off his tea. "Do not feel bad, Ensign. Aristotle classified humans as biped featherless animals which do politics."
Krylow shakes his head a little. "I think I'll keep in mind that both previous times station personnel encountered the creature it proved that it can be be violent. In fact, lethally violent. I think its sentient, but that doesn't stop the potential for violence."
Haven steps in from the corridor.
Haven has arrived.
"Sentience doesn't stop the potential for violence among human beings, either, Lieutenant" Moulin notes. "Or any other sentient species I've encountered. It /was/ being hunted by the ADF, was it not? And lured into traps? I think any of us might be violent under such circumstances."
She pauses, and then asks, "When was it lethally violent?"
Arzt steps in from the corridor.
Arzt has arrived.
Krylow shakes his head to Moulin. "It was being hunted or lead into a trap when it attacked the scientists that Ensign Valentine rescued during her mission to Fimdari."
Shamash nods "I agree, Mr. Kirkpatrick. Well said." then to Krylow nodding with him this time. "All before your time on the station, Miss Moulin. But I can tell you, Fimdari is.. not forgiving mistakes."
"Wasn't he?" Moulin asks, apparently deciding for herself that Frosty the Demon is no longer an 'it'. "If he attacks unprovoked, why did he try to initiate communication with the gamma beacon? Why didn't he smash it?" She pauses. "And why, when he 'determined' it was sentient, did he leave it alone?"
Haven slips into the mess hall silently and simply waits by the door, listening to the talk being had by the others. Her arms cross over her chest as she settles in against the bulkhead.
Ensign Moulin cants her head, studying Krylow. "You don't /really/ think the Hoarfrost Demon was responsible for those thirty dead villagers, do you?"
Kirkpatrick puts his tea cup in the replicator, pressing the button to break it back down into its component substances, "I am not suggesting that we attack it, Ensign. I don't think any of us here fancy that notion" He sighs, and nods to Arzt as he approaches her, "Welcome to Xenobioethics 101."
Krylow smiles slightly to Moulin. "I've already said we don't have the information for those answers, Ensign. While they are good questions, I can assure you that I will have my phaser ready for protection. I have no desire to use it, but the death toll on Fimdari from this creature, and yes until until I see otherwise I will believe it killed at least some of the villagers, I'm ready to defend the mission team from it."
"You are aware of the general rules for away missions and how investigative tasks and information gathering are to be done", Shamash mentions to Moulin. "If you can establish a sort of communication so much the better, but you should first stick to the mission objectives" Whatever they are.
Arzt makes her way into the Paine and gives a shy smile to all present. She glances over at Haven who doesn't seem to be involved in the conversion or even be a Starfleet officer and holds out her hand in a tentative greeting, "Hi, I'm Ensign Arzt."
Kirkpatrick nods to Moulin, "He's right. I would much rather be cautious in this situation than dead. But I'm a science officer, not a security officer. Answers are found not by speculation, but by testing a hypothesis. I intend to pack a Tricorder instead of heat, Ensign."
"Yes," Moulin nods to Krylow. "I did hear you, sir. And /I/ am not suggesting we let down our guard, bare our throats, or invite him to a Love-In. Not all questions require answers, or even immediate decisions. They need to be voiced, though, so that we recognise the answers when we see them. Please--be ready to defend us. Sancte Dieu /knows/ we'll need it, from /something/. We're an away team, after all." She dimples a wry smile.
To Kirkpatrick, she says with a faint smile, "Without speculation, M'sieu le parrot, how can you have hypotheses to test?"
Haven rubs her damp towel over her dust covered face, removing the last of it before she notes out loud. "Not to be a kill joy or anything but perhaps someone might wish to brief the local Bio Scientist - Medical Doctor on the exact nature of said mission?" She waves her towel in a vague gesture in the air, "Just.. you know.. so we are all on the same page?"
Kirkpatrick crosses his arms looking at Moulin, "A hypothesis is an educated guess, Ensign," he says, offering a smirk and raised eyebrows.
Arzt lowers her hand and flushes a little, stepping back as she realizes that the Bio Scientist/Medical Doctor doesn't seem to be interested in shaking hands. As Kirkpatrick and Moulin begin to talk about the possible violence of the upcoming mission, Arzt's eyes widen a little and wipes her palm on her pant leg.
Krylow glances to Haven and shrugs. "As I'm the ranking officer present who will be on the mission and I don't know all the details we're going to need to wait for Lieutenant Norvan. At least, unless someone else is fully briefed."
Kirkpatrick sighs. And with that, he leans up against the bulkhead and rubs his left temple, clenching his jaw.
Haven glances around for a moment then touches a finger to her chest. "Dr Haven" she tells him all before she turns and ducks out of the mess hall.
"Lt. Norvan will be heading the away team, Loni", Shamash mentions to Haven in a pleasant tone, then he nods to Krylow "I would not want to skip ahead and past the away team leader."
Norvan steps in from the corridor.
Norvan has arrived.
Solange steps in from the corridor.
Solange has arrived.
Krylow smirks a little at Haven's sudden departure and the settles back in his chair to wait quietly.
The doors hiss open, and in walks Norvan, already in mid-conversation with Solange. "...know of Lieutenant Laco? The officer who was recently killed in the line of duty during a diplomatic mission? Well, he and another officer named Bright came up with a fairly controversial hypothesis, based on some research conducted on Fimdari, that indicated..." As she glances up, and sees the gathered group, she gives them a small smile. "Good to see all of you hard at work already. I've just been notified that we'll be departing in ten minutes."
. o O Krylow thinks, "No time like the present."
Solange follows Norvan, nodding slowly as she is briefed. She's already busy with a padd, recording it all down, and making notes. When she cuts off, Solange looks up, and immediately stands at attention once more. Lot of people who outranke here here. She says nothing.
Arzt is quietly standing at the side when Norvan enters. She straightens up and smoothes her palms on her pants a little nervously. She gives all her attention to Norvan, wanting to make sure she has all the details before the mission begins.
Kirkpatrick attention is directed to Norvan as well, his back raising off the bulkhead as he awaits for instructions.
Krylow smiles softly to Norvan as she enters, from where he sits. "Good evening, Lieutenant. Nice to see you again," he says, inclining his head to her politely.
"Good to see you as well, Lieutenant," Norvan replies to Krylow, giving him a small grin, before turning back to the rest of the group. "I want to warn all of you now, this does have the potential to be a somewhat dangerous mission." Her dark eyes flicker over the officers in attendance before continuing, "How many of you are familiar with -- or have been briefed on -- the Bright-Laco Hypothesis?"
Arzt tentatively raises her hand and notes, "I've come across it sir in some of my research when I was compiling data from search queries."
Solange doesn't actually respond, instead letting her hand hover over her PADD, ready to record whatever pertinent info might come up, evidently settling into the role of faux-secretary.
Krylow nods to Norvan's question. "I'm famaliar with it. I was briefed before the previous mission."
Kirkpatrick purses his lips, "I've been introduced to it, however not formally briefed," he adds to Arzt's statement.
Shamash nods to Norvan giving her a small smile in greeting but otherwise assumes the position as silent observer and souffleur if needed. He will not participate in that mission, he is just here to support the briefing.
Norvan glances around the room, nodding to all of the responses, before she brings her hands together behind her back, and continues. "Very well. For some of you, then, this may be a review session... but under the circumstances, I really don't think we can be prepared enough. And I'll bring the rest of you up to speed, as well. Now, essentially, the Bright-Laco Hypothesis suggests that the people of Andoria were..."
Time: Fri Jul 08 21:04:13 2005
Stardate: 55100.8
Fade in. A northern corner of someone's idea of the afterlife for those who have been less than worthy in life. It is cold. Bitter cold. Wind howling. Ice and snow moving in the gusts. Rock and ice cliff faces surround. On what passes for a rocky promontory, seven humanoid figures coalesce, fully equipped. Next to them, there is climbing gear, where an eighth person would be. A voice comes over a combadge about a half-second after the last motes disappear. "Lieutenant, your team should be seeing a small breach in the rocky face about 20 or so meters at 19 degrees off, starting at what might be about waist high at your current platform. Do you see it?"
Norvan immediately braces herself as the wind swirls around the Away Team, taking a wider stance to prevent herself from losing her footing. As soon as she's taken in the surroundings, her eyes sweep the snowy landscape, and she pulls her tricorder out of its holster on her hip. "I think I see it, Commander," she calls out, straining to be heard over the sound of the wind. "We're starting in that direction now." And she motions for the rest of the group to follow, as she carefully heads in that direction, moving at a cautious pace.
Krylow glances in the direction indicated, eyeing the landscape before he moves to follow Norvan. He two pulls out his tricorder, though for the moment he just lets his eyes do the exploring.
Haven, bundled up in Klingon snow gear, looks out from behind the tinted goggles to eyeball the area spoken about on the combadge. the climbing gear gets a quick look before she looks around at the others. She leans into the wind, heavily protected boots crunching through the snow as she follows along. One tug on the fur trimmed hood she wears and she has it pulled closed to her face, blocking out the biting cold. She's changed the setting of her blade so that it now rests outside her parka on a belt that keeps the parka cinched to her wait. Now it's in handy range.
Arzt burrows deeper inside her parka, unused to the bitter cold of Fimdari. She does her best to keep her footing as she follows Norvan's directions, taking very careful steps to make sure that she stays on her feet.
Solange shrugs and follows the lead of her superior officers. Brushing off the screan briefly, she pulls out her tricorder, actually humming to herself. For all that, she is actually smiling brightly now, murmuring,"Beautiful place..." Of course, the taciturn Cadet /would/ open up when they're out on top of a freezing mountain. She takes a deep breath, and rolls her shoulders, working out a few more kinks from after the climb. "Hmmm..."
Kirkpatrick nods in agreement as his snow shoes crush the snow in his steps, his crimson eyebrows already encrusted with ice even though his parka is pulled snugly around his head, "That should be it.." the Planetary Sciences officer says, wiping away bits of snow from his tricorder. "Man, what I wouldn't give for a hot cup of Lapsang Souchong right now.." he dreams out loud.
. o O Krylow thinks, "Beautiful place? Its freezing here."
Mon Dieu. Ensign Moulin, raised by one of the handful of humans on Terra who still believed, firmly, in an afterlife, knows for certain her pere was wrong: lakes of molten lava and plains of brimstone seem entirely preferable to the environment around her. Shivering violently and clenching her teeth, she sets her sights low: keep up. Avoid embarassing herself. Humble ambitions which seem /just/ out of reach. She plods along in dogged silence.
Norvan glances over her shoulder. "Lieutenant Krylow... Lieutenant Kirkpatrick... you two carry the climbing equipment." And then she continues towards the breach, using her tricorder to scan for signs of life, dangerous substances, potentially hazardous conditions... your typical sensor sweep, handheld-style.
. o O Moulin thinks, "Lieutenant Shamash seemed so worried I'd be stranded here... Now I see--MERDE THE COLD--why..."
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Fails.
Solange is paying more attention to the rock formations they're on, herself. She's never climbed in this place before, and didn't get much of a chance to check out the stability of where they were going, and so, she does that now. As best she can, anyway.
Krylow glances to Norvan and nods, stopping in his path to the climbing area before turning and moving back towards the climbing equipment. With all the gear he's already carrying it takes a moment to lift his portion, before humping it towards the goal.
Arzt studies her surroundings for a moment and then the idea hits her. She moves behind the much larger Haven, allowing the woman to act as a wind buffer for her so she can pull out her tricorder and run some routine scans of the area.
Kirkpatrick nods in confirmation, "Aye, sir." He continues to scan for a moment...life forms, geological hazards in particular...just your standard sweep. He then bends down with Krylow to help him out shleping the climbing gear.
The wind shield plods along, helping to crush the snow down for those behind her. Loni ducks her head and fishes out her own tricorder to make a few sweeps to locate any life signs.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Solange contests her Personal Equipment vs Routine and Automatically Fails.
Oh, buggery. Might as well try to be useful. Moulin fumbles out her own tricorder, emphasis on the fumble--her joints are frozen to near-immobility--and attempts a sweep, herself. Who knows? Something might jump out at her...
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Moulin contests her Personal Equipment vs Routine and Succeeds.
Krylow nears the designated area and settles the climbing gear on the ground, before pulling out his tricorder again. This time he starts a scan as he looks over the area they'll be climbing.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Fails.
GAME: Haven contests her Personal Equipment/Medical Tricorder vs Routine and Marginally Fails.
Norvan frowns as she glances over the readout of her tricorder, gloved hands tapping at the controls. "I'm having a hard time adapting to the weather conditions... I don't exactly have a lot of experience with operating in an environment like this," she calls out. "Any of you doing better than I am?"
Arzt looks up from her tricorder and notes, "Lieutenant Norvan, there seems to be some slight radiation traces in the direction you're heading in sir." She takes a moment to get a lock on the radiation and run a more thorough scan on the area in question.
Kirkpatrick takes up the pack filled with climbing gear, removing the clam-shell off the Tricorder and continues to scan, tapping on it as the results come out. "Well, I'm not picking up any lifeforms, or hazards as of the moment. Nothing but a wasteland of frozen H-Two-Oh over flat formations of volcanic rock." He shrugs off some of the cold, "Be pretty interesting if this were a geological survey, though." He looks at Arzt as she mentions radiation.
Ensign Moulin smiles as she regards the readouts on her 'corder--all that training at the Academy coming back to her in a rush. She /was/ learning all that time! Who knew? Certainly not her instructors. The smile dwindles quickly, however, settling into a perplexed frown.
"Oui, Lieutenant... My readings confirm that. Trying to get a better idea of... what exactly it is. The signature is significantly different than the background radition. Faint, but definite..."
Haven raises her voice to be heard over the wind. "Keep in mind that with the thickness of this ice cap, something could easily be hiding in a deep enough crack that it'll avoid detection."
Apparently, Norvan and Krylow heading in that direction seems to be enough for Thomas Paine, above. "We'll keep an eye on you. If you plan on going deeper than your com signals can penetrate, send us a signal somehow, even if it's just a phaser shot into the air. Paine out."
Kirkpatrick asks Arzt, "What kind of radiation, Ensign? Heat radiation? Maybe someone built a fire...or has a heating unit of some kind."
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Dramatically Fails.
GAME: Moulin contests her Personal Equipment vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Once the Thomas Paine has signed off, Norvan refocuses her attention on her tricorder, tapping at the buttons a bit more. "I'm seeing it now. Looks like... some very faint traces of gamma radiation and delta radiation." She turns to look at the rest of the team. "That's pretty unusual. Gamma radiation *can* occur naturally, but delta radiation... that's pretty unusual. It's not a strong reading, though, so either it's a weak signal, or it's beneath the ice somewhere."
Krylow scowls slightly to himself before looking to Norvan. "The last time I saw the creature it was disappearing down a tunnel that can be reached from this crack, Lieutenant," he says gesturing to area before him. "I'm not surprised we're reading gamma radiation on the scans," he adds, tapping the device he brought. "That's how we summoned it last time and that's what this is for, a gamma pulse emitter. I field rigged one last time to summon it and communicate with it."
"Delta rays can be extremely lethal, and can weaken metals," Kirkpatrick muses. "It's a good thing it is a weak signal," he mentions, scanning with his tricorder a bit further.
Arzt's eyes widen as she sees a huge radiation signal that's causing her tricorder to spike. She looks up and shakes her head at Norvan, "No, sir, I'm reading a *huge* radiation signal coming from that area...I'm not sure if we should go further." Arzt is looking a little alarmed as she reviews the data.
Solange wrinkles her nose briefly, before she gestures to Krylow, offering,"Sir... with your permission, perhaps we should begin setting up the gear for climbing. I'd suggest two lines so as to minimize the weight on each rope, as well as proceed more quickly and efficiently, if I may?" As ever, she does her best to be polite... as polite as one can be on top of a freezing mountain, anyway.
"M-muh-/metal/," Moulin confirms, stuttering through a spasm of cold. She grinds her teeth and tries again. "The... the radition... is behind shielding. Metal shielding. That's why the signal's weak--but the free electrons have d-definitely been stripped from something metal."
Norvan glances over to Solange, and gives her a quick nod. "Go ahead, Cadet." And then she turns her attention over to Krylow. "Are you suggesting that the gamma radiation source is attracting the creature, Lieutenant, or...?" And then Moulin's interjection gives her pause. "Perhaps something's been constructed down there? And the radiation is coming from some kind of power source?"
The command ensign looks around for the nearest shred of blue. She needs the eyes of someone in science. Preferably connected to the brain of someone in science. "Lieutenant Kirkpatrick? Could you come look at this, sil vous plait?"
Kirkpatrick nods to Moulin, "Sure, Ensign. Let me take a gander, he says, taking a look over her tricorder. "Or a bi-product of a power source. A dirty-one at that too."
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Fails.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Material Engineering/Metallurgical vs Moderate and Fails.
"A gamma pulse emitter attracted it last time," replies Krylow. "Both to the village where all the villagers were killed and later to our runabout site," he says, turning and nodding to Solange. "Two lines will work nicely." Turning back to Norvan, he says, "I'll take the first line and lead the the team down. The Cadet will take the second and follow closely behind, so we can make sure the climbing lines are secured safely, if that's fine by you?"
Arzt looks up from her tricorder, raising her voice this time to get Norvan's attention, "Sir, my readings are showing much more than mild radiation...there's a real problem sir. If you want I'll check my scans again, but it doesn't look good."
Solange nods to Norvan then. If she has the XO's 'OK'... She begins hunting through the equipment for the gear, humming quietly as she looks over the ropes, and begins stringing out and setting up the climbing gear for both her and Krylow, whilst she meanwhile surveys the climbing face, searching for the best place to begin the climb. As an afterthought, she double-checks her gloves.
Kirkpatrick sighs, "I can't make anything else out of it other than what I have with my own scans, Ensign." Kirkpatrick cringes his teeth, muttering a semi-audiable curse in the howl of the snow. "I hope that shield isn't viterium...or the delta rays will eat away at it like a Ferengi at a grub buffet."
Well, now things are different. Now Ensign Moulin is being offered tantalizing /bits/ of information. A mystery. A puzzle. And now it's a bit easier to forget how bone-numbingly cold she is. She nods absently to Kirkpatrick and plods forward with purpose, now. She has to get a better reading--ergo, she has to get closer to the source.
"Sounds good to me, Lieutenant," Norvan nods to Krylow, before turning to Arzt. "I'm only getting a faint signal; did you manage to get a better read through the ice, Ensign?" She glances back over to Krylow. "What kind of equipment would give off delta and gamma radiation?"
Krylow begins to double check the gear Solange laid out for him, before turning back to Norvan. "A lot of equipment could, though if I knew what the metal was down there I could narrow it now. Anyone have scans on the metal to look at?" he asks, glancing around to the others.
Kirkpatrick adds to Krylow's conjecture, "It could be anything from a crude matter-antimatter reactor to a ruptured baffle plate."
"I might be able to tell from the free electrons, Sir..." Moulin hazards, frowning at her tricorder as she attempts to configure another scan.
GAME: Solange contests her Athletics/Climbing vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Ensign Moulin shakes her head. "I can't make heads or tails of this reading--it's beyond me--but it's quite strong. Distinct. If you'd like to have a look, Lieutenant?" She approaches Krylow, offering her tricorder for his perusal.
GAME: Krylow contests his Material Engineering vs Moderate and Fails.
Solange finishes setting up her equipment, finally, and, dusting off her hands, calls out, getting a hand on the line,"Okay, Sir. We're set to go... No more than one or two on a line at a time, so I can make sure everything goes well. I'll descend after everyone's down safely. Are any of you afraid of heights, or never climbed a tree or anything?"
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment vs Moderate and Fails.
. o O Moulin thinks, "I can't feel my nose..."
GAME: Krylow spends a courage point.
GAME: Krylow contests his Athletics/Climbing+A vs Moderate and Fails.
GAME: Arzt contests her Athletics vs Routine and Marginally Succeeds.
GAME: Krylow contests his Athletics/Climbing+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Moulin spends a courage point.
GAME: Moulin contests her Athletics+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
With the twin realizations that firstly, they need at least a little bit less distance to get better readings and secondly, that the bitter cold is cutting right into this ledge on a harsh wind angle, the team must begin at least a short descent. Solange's team, with the young cadet giving hands-on help before coming down last herself, does alright. Krylow's team? ....
Norvan brings her team to a stop, halfway down the rope, letting all four team members take a quick rest on a ledge. "Let's see if we can get a better reading now, folks." And she flips open her tricorder to try and do just that.
GAME: Norvan has the merit of Mathematical Ability at 3.
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Norvan contests her Physical Sciences vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Krylow leads his team down the second rope, pausing at the same ledge as Norvan and helping Arzt and Moulin off the rope as best he cann.
Haven hangs easily by one hand and begins to scan with the other. The spiked souls of her boots bite into the rock and ice, helping to hold her steady. And once again.
Ensign Moulin stands for a moment, looking up the rope, dazzled by her accomplishment. Her grin is positively goofy and unguarded for a moment--radiantly ingenuous.
"I made it down in one piece!" she announces to no one in particular, looking about for the standing ovation. She points up, just in case she needs to clarify. Of course... it sinks in rapidly that few sentients, if any, have gone down in history as She Who Climbed Down a Rope. So. Perhaps it's not quite so great as she thinks.
...
Hey! How 'bout that tricorder!
Arzt is climbing down the rope and her foot slips. She suffers a momentary feeling of vertigo as she starts to loose her grip. After a moment of scrambling around, she manages not to let go and fall to her death. She grips the rope tighter and starts breathing in and out quickly as the little ensign goes into full mode panic attack. She manages to somehow get down the rope but when she hits the ground, she drops to her knees and has to take a moment to regain her composure.
Kirkpatrick comes down as well, looking at Arzt as she gets herself back on her feet. "Are you all right?" he asks her as he brings out his tricorder to look at the scanning results almost instinctively.
Solange is encouraging, pointing out the people on her line the more steady handholds and footholds, and pointing out the more treacherous areas of the ice. When she looks over to see Arzt slipping, and panicing a little, she calls out as she can,"You're doing fine sir! Calmly now... see... you're down now!" Suddenly, team's taciturn cadet turns small-time cheerleader. But then, by the look of exhileration on her face,"I've got to get a copy of this place on a holo-program..."
GAME: Moulin spends a courage point.
GAME: Moulin contests her Personal Equipment+A vs Challenging and Dramatically Fails.
GAME: Kirkpatrick spends a courage point.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
Arzt manages to calm herself and looks at Kirkpatrick with a flush on her face, nodding that she is indeed okay, "Umm, I'm okay, just had a little problem getting down there." She takes out her tricorder and starts taking a reading on the radiation, just to keep herself busy and draw attention away from her near fatal fall.
Haven mumbles out to Solange, "I encourage you to browse through the holosuit programs, Cadet as there are no few programs outlining areas such as these." Then it's back to her scanning.
Norvan taps on her tricorder for a bit, eyes darting back and forth over the readout, and then she glances over to the ledge where Krylow's team is resting. "Lieutenant, I'm getting strong gamma rays... weak delta rays..." She looks back down at the tricorder. "Traces of diburinium and nitrium... and a very weak trace of rodinium. But the rodinium hasn't had its electrons stripped... it's separate from the radiation, looks like." And she tilts her head back up to Krylow. "Any idea what that might mean?"
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Planetary Sciences/Geology vs Moderate and Succeeds.
*CLACK* *SPROING*
Ensign Moulin... seems to have popped the casing on her tricorder. She casts a glance about, looking like a guilty child. "Ah. Uhmm... Can this be fixed?"
. o O Moulin thinks, "Stupid machine."
GAME: Krylow contests his Demolitions vs Moderate and Fails.
Solange goes to confer with Norvan, though, showing that ever-present curiousity,"Sir... is it anything strong enough that would require inoculation?" Curiousity, or worry... She then begins looking over the ledge, looking over the rest of the descent curiously.
Kirkpatrick looks over at Moulin, "Whoops. Party foul," he says. He looks over to help her, but suddenly his tricorder beeps rapidly. "Wow..." he says to himself, "I think I have something here. Beyond that rodinium source there is a huge hollow cavity, and I can conject that it is not formed by erosion, volcanic, or seismic activity. In fact...this entire area seems...artificial." He says in amazement, looking around like a geologist in a rock collecting store. "It doesn't match to any known natural phenomenon I know of..."
Krylow pats Arzt gently on the shoulder and smiles to her. "You're doing just fine, Ensign," he says before looking to Norvan. "Strong gamma, weak delta, traces of diburinium, nitrium and rodinium? That's some type of explosive, though I can't remember which one right off hand. I can check my reference material though."
Moulin tucks her broken tricorder away and peers over Kirkpatrick's shoulder. Chances are she can't understand a thing on the display, but--well--she /is/ interested in the new information.
Kirkpatrick looks at Krylow, "If it is nitrilin it would pretty pretty unstable," he wipes the snow from his face as he goes to the face of the rock surface, running his tricorder over it, "What could have formed this fissure?"
GAME: Haven contests her Medical Sciences/General Medicine vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Arzt contests her Computer/Research+D vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Norvan listens to Solange's question, and then glances over to Haven. "Are we going to have any problems with that radiation down there?"
Haven completes her scan then looks over at Norvan. "If you plan to dally in this area, I need to know and quickly" she answers. "More then a few minutes and I will need to shoot you all."
Arzt gives Krylow a grateful smile. Then she thinks for a moment, puts away the tricorder for a moment to pull out her PADD. After doing some quick searching, she mentions, "With the profile of a narrow range...it would be a spatial torpedo." She looks up, a little confused, "Mmmm, I'm not quite familiar with that, but it's the closest thing I have here."
Kirkpatrick looks up from his tricorder, the young rockhound interrupted from his work for just a moment, "A spatial torpedo? That's pretty crude."
A faint hail comes down, from the acting Mission Operations officer on Thomas Paine, a Cadet named Battles: "Thomas Paine to Away Team: We're getting some ADF activity coming in. Commander Park hasn't been able to convince them to back off, and they're curious. Lieutenant Norvan, he says you're authorized to negotiate with whatever groundteam they send down and he'll back your play. All future hails should be as encrypted as you can make 'em." And he cuts out.
GAME: Krylow contests his Demolitions/Military Explosives vs Routine and Succeeds.
"Copy that, Paine." With that piece of information, Norvan's head snaps back over to look at Haven. "Vice-Consul, I'm going to need an explanation of that, and quickly, if you please."
GAME: Moulin spends a courage point.
GAME: Moulin contests her Law+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
Solange seems to look up, too, when she hears that report,"The ADF... It'll be good to see some negotiation in action, for once." A moment's pause, then, before she goes on,"Do you think they'll cooperate, sir?" And then she's peering back over the lower ledge, once more.
Krylow lifts his PADD and inputs some information before frowning a little. "Its primitive military-grade nuclear weaponry, the weapons the early photon torpedoes replaced. Starfleet stopped using them around the mid 2200s. In 2311, when the Treaty of Algeron was signed they were one of the many primitive weapons declared officially illegal, so this thing is at least that old. Some civilian mercenary units kept using them until the 2260s, setting the warheads off as ground explosives, until that too was outlawed."
Haven simply shrugs and gestures to the area in which the radiation is coming from. "If you plan to remain in this area for long where there is radiation present, I will need to introduce the correct innoculants into your blood streams to protect you from undo damage."
GAME: Solange contests her Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Ensign Moulin, with none of the uncertainty with which she reported tricorder readings, "Lietenant Norvan. If I may provide some insight on procceding with our imminent guests?"
Kirkpatrick holsters his Tricorder, "The ADF wouldn't be using them, would they?"
Solange calls out to Norvan,"Sir! I think there's someone down there... It looks like a body, frozen stiff..." She sounds a little shaken, but then, who wouldn't be their first time? "It's humanoid..." She points towards the vague area,"Should I check it out?"
Moulin shakes her head. "Not these, I think," she says to Kirkpatrick. "If they were, and we were about to stumble into their cache, we would have a much larger force bearing down on us right now. And negotiations would be out of the question."
Arzt looks at what Solange is talking about and runs her own scan on the vague area where she's pointing to.
"I think that would be my area, Lieutenant" Haven says calmly as she peers over at the Cadet.
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
Solange nods softly to Haven, not looking at all perturbed. If anything, she looks a little relieved,"Yes Sir." She steps back from the ledge, decidedly finding some other place to settle her eyes.
Kirkpatrick walks over to Arzt, taking a look at her tricorder readings as they come out while adjusting his gloves tighter on his all ready chilled hands.
Krylow shakes his head to Kirkpatrick. "The ADF has access to state of the art technology. Some of the mercenaries might have used them between the mid-2260s and 2311 as legion irregulars, but after 2311 even they wouldn't have."
Ensign Moulin ventures, "Do you think so, Doctor Haven? You're not a Starfleet officer, and this is a Starfleet mission. You are here, as I understand it, in an advisory capacity. Therefore, your area is, essentially, what the commanding officer says it is. If Lietenant Norvan instructs you to investigate the matter, then you shall. It's improper, however, for you to treat even a cadet as though you were her senior in rank. You are not."
Arzt finishes her scan and then shudders at the sheer drop and quickly backs away. And then moves over to Doctor Haven to show her the scan and ask her opinion...but stops when she sees Moulin just rip into Dr. Haven. She pauses and looks between the two, uncertain what to do.
Kirkpatrick looks back through the howling snow, and allows the commanding officer to handle this argument-of-pips. For the moment, he is interested what is down there. He looks at Arzt as she backs away, going back with her asking, "What did you scans show, Ensign?"
Haven smirks at Moulin. "Perhaps you missed the /Lieutenant/ part of my statement, /Ensign/ which would indicate I was not speaking to Cadet Solange. I would thank you to worry about your job while I worry about my own." She turns her back on the woman and looks to Norvan, to whom she was speaking in the first place. You know. Mission CO on the ground?
Arzt turns to Kirkpatrick and shows him the readings, "I'm by no means a medical doctor, but here's what I pulled."
Medical Doctor. Oh hey. That would be Haven. "May I?" she asks of the scan Arzt took of the body.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Life Sciences vs Routine and Fails.
Kirkpatrick allows the Doc to handle this one, "I'm sorry, despite that it is a corpse, and it's most sincerely dead - it's all Greek to me."
Arzt shows Haven the scans gratefully, happy that the tension has seem to dissipated.
"Actually, Doctor, you're correct. I misheard your statement. Unfortunately, suggesting to the CO what your actions are to be instead of asking is even worse form," Isabeau intones, mildly.
GAME: Haven contests her Medical Sciences vs Moderate and Marginally Succeeds.
Krylow steps over to Haven and says, "I'm sure we'll need the innoculations. Please begin to prepare them for the team," he says, glancing to where Norvan's still handling her work. He looks backs to Moulin and shakes his head a little. "Ensign, let's work as a team. You mentioned insight you had into the situation?" Yes, apparently he's working as a team with Norvan to try and relieve some of the tension.
Solange speaks up rather suddenly, offering in a soft tone,"I'm sure that all was said in only the best of intentions. She /is/ a civilian, anyway... Differences in etiquette are to be expected." She looks between Moulin and Haven both.
Haven completely ignores Moulin as she reads the data on the PADD. "Hmmmm" she offers with a frown. "I would agree" she tells Krylow as an aside. "Especially now."
Kirkpatrick unholsters his Tricorder, continuing to read out the geological data which he recently took. "Quite a little project to create this fissure. Perhaps I could obtain a geological sample when time permits."
Ensign Moulin studies Solange for a moment, then nods. "J'onte vous, mon sur," she murmurs. "You should consider diplomacy." A beat, then to Haven, "Madame Physique, forgive me."
Finally, turning to Krylow, she says, "Mrm. A cover. Which, I sincerely hope, will make them go away--by point of law, it should be airtight... and at least stall them for a good length before they can find any way to legally refute it. Tying their hands with red tape."
Arzt glances over at Haven and asks, "Do you want me take any more readings for you Dr. Haven?" She glances over at Krylow and gives a little smile, trying to be as friendly as she can be.
Haven shrugs, not that you're likely to see it with her hidden with in her parka. "A scan taken closer to the body will net us more information that will be needed to properly chronicle cause of death and when." She pulls her pack free and begins to put together a hypo and container of medication for the group.
"We're performing paleontological research. This is not a lie." Moulin elaborates. "Since paleontological research of an already established world is not technically part of the Andorian Astrometric Survey's mandate, and the ADF has nothing to do with scientific surveys at all (being purely military), it's being done as a Starfleet matter. If we assert that, and the weapons stay in, and the military grade explosive being talked about is taken care of (or stays off the ADF's radar, to avoid giving them an excuse to claim military jurisdiction), we can continue to claim Starfleet pre-eminence by charter on a purely scientific matter, and invite ADF observers. We can't refuse them, but we can claim primary jurisdiction and keep command of the situation."
Solange offers to Ensign Moulin a moment later,"Souci pas. Les mots dits dans la chaleur ne multiplient pas des intentions ` froid." Shaking her head to clear it a little, she nods slightly to Haven, and then checks the ropes over once more, shaking them to clear them of any gathered ice.
Within another minute or two, basic inoculations are prepared and used, and those who are keeping track of such things are getting faint ADF communication ssignals nearby. The ropes are set up again for the next descent once the radiation treatments are done. Sometime in the next five to fifteen minutes, there will be company, so now things are dependant on time, and whether Moulin's legal knowledge is up to snuff.
As the teams gear up to head down the ropes, Norvan glances over to Krylow. "Lieutenant... is there any way of making sure that the weapon down there has actually been disabled? So we don't have to worry about accidentally setting it off while we're down there?" She turns to Moulin, and gives her a smile. "Thank you, Ensign... that's a good plan." And then she looks at her tricorder again. "If we go much further down, we might have a difficult time talking to the ADF, with all of the radiation and interference we've got..." She looks over to Krylow. "Lieutenant, go ahead and take your team down. I'm going to try and deal with the Andorians before we follow you."
Krylow nods to Haven as she finishes and then gestures Arzt and Moulin over. As he does he slips his own gear back into places and, even though Solange did it, checks his line. Safety habits apparently die hard. "Alright then, let's get ready for the next stage of the climb. Ensign Arzt, the trick to climbing is not to look down," he says with a little smile and wink. He glances over to Norvan. "Its definintely unexploded ordinance, and likely unarmed. Where it it armed its own decay would likely have set it off already." He glances to his team. "Alright then, let's going," he says before moving to climb down.
Solange nods softly to Norvan, then. Shuffling her feet, a little, and scuffing something in the snow, she looks up, and, taking a deep breath, fixes a calm look on her face. To Moulin, she comments,"I always did want to be a diplomat. Now it looks like I'll see it in practice, Sir." She goes to stand near her own line, ready to attend it in case rapid ascension or descent is required.
Arzt nods to Krylow, giving a weak smile, "Yes sir...I'll do my best not to look down." She prepares herself the best she can and then makes her way to the edge of the ledge to climb down some more. It's clear that the little science officer is dreading this part by the paleness beneath her skin as she approaches the rope.
Kirkpatrick gives Arzt a thumbs up as she prepares the descent, "Piece of Cake, Ensign," he calls out, holstering his PADD as he awaits orders from Norvan as the party expects the advent of the Andorians.
Haven turns her gaze on Norvan and offers in that same no-nonsense tone, "I will stay with you, Lieutenant, if you are not opposed to such?"
Moulin gets ready to climb down again, grinning ruefully at the Cadet's words. "Well, you just saw a classic example of how it /shouldn't/ be practiced," she chuckles. "I think, if you wish to take instruction from anything I wind up doing today, that would probably be the most valuable." She visibly screws up her courage as she clambers over the edge and lets the rope take her weight. Before she begins carefully descending, she adds, "You'd be good at it, you know. Quite seriously."
Norvan glances over to Haven. "As long as you don't want to go take a closer look at the body, Doctor, I don't have a problem with that..." She tilts her head to the side. "Do you think that radiation might... might be responsible for the creature we're looking for? A mutation of some kind?"
Solange nods to Moulin, before she offers,"Thank you. But it will only be useful in places where the people I'm negotiating with don't have exceptionally bad feelings about Orions." A light grin, and then she shakes her head, waving her hand dismissively. "That's why I'm here... to learn... Everybody check their safety harnesses..."
Within a few moments, Krylow, Moulin, and Arzt are out of sight. It is maybe a minute later that the voice can be heard from above: "Hello, down there! This is Shaklas Trae Kaleth of the Second Legion. Do you need some assistance?"
GAME: Krylow contests his Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Fails.
GAME: Moulin contests her Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Succeeds.
GAME: Arzt contests her Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Norvan glances over at Solange with a wry grin. "You wanted to see some diplomacy, huh? Well... here goes nothing." She reaches up and taps her combadge. "This is Lieutenant Norvan, Station 419. Thank you for the offer, Shaklas, but we're doing just fine at the moment. We're from the Thomas Paine, and we're just doing a little bit of paleontological research. We don't expect any trouble, but if your flight plan is going to keep you in the area for awhile, we'll definitely contact you if anything goes awry."
Kirkpatrick leaves the diplomacy to the commanding officer of this mission. Instead, he uses this moment to inspect his geological data, awaiting for the appropriate moment where his services can be rendered.
Haven's response is left for another time being as Norvan opens a com talk with those above their heads. She stands silent and ready.
Solange waits as well, though she murmurs quietly,"Where are our... *ackhrm* Paleontological tools, just so I remember, in case..." Right. Idly, she looks down at her phaser. Hopefully paleontologists carry phasers.
Kirkpatrick clears his throat, crossing his arms as he looks at Solange, "You can cut through rock with a phaser, Cadet," he says with a wink. He brings his fingers to his lips, grinning.
GAME: Norvan spends a courage point.
GAME: Norvan contests her Command+A vs Moderate and Fails.
Arzt notices the same thing that Moulin does, but doesn't allow herself to talk as she climbs down. Climbing down safely has got all of her attention.
Kirkpatrick sighs, "Well, while we wait, I guess I should do some surveying. Afterall, that is why we are here, eh?" he says with a smile as he goes to the ledge, running a tricorder against the bare rock.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Fails.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Krylow spends a courage point.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Physical Sciences vs Moderate and Automatically Fails.
GAME: Krylow contests his Energy Weapon/Phaser vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Haven says as an aside to the others. "Arzt can take further scans of the body, Lieutenant. As for the mutation, I would need more time to do more research and take more samples. Is it possible? Yes. But only in the broadest sense of the word. Something specific would have to be engineered." Then she's silent as the voice calls down from above.
Solange meanwhile begins going over in her head what she's learned of Andorian society, and more, what sorts of things she's learned over time, about such diplomatic situations... In other words, she's pulling free her trusty Padd and scrolling through it.
Kirkpatrick looks up, "I can't make out much of a geological survey due to the radiation or something...but Ensigns Arzt and Moulin - they are practically on top of the rodinium."
Cut to the bottom of the crevasse, where Krylow can be seen standing over a now-rendered-inoperable spatial torpedo warhead, about 10 meters from a frozen body. Not far off, Arzt and Moulin are melting the ice around a grating of some kind, which seems to lead down into the frozen ice and rock beneath the crevasse, and clearly leading down into whatever artificial cavern Kirkpatrick previously mentioned. Norvan, Haven, Solange, and Kirkpatrick, with two very junior ADF officers clearly not much older than Solange are coming down the ropes.
"Is everything alright?" Norvan asks as she alights on the cave floor, with a concerned expression on her face. "I heard a phaser blast..." She disconnects herself from the cable and heads over to Krylow. "What's the situation, Lieutenant?"
Krylow tucks his phaser back into its holster and gestures to the warhead embedded in the ice. "I vaporized the radioactive material from the warhead, so its safe now," say Krylow, before nodding to Arzt and Mouling and the grate. "This however is interesting and definitely not natural, Lieutenant. Shall we take a look?"
Solange is careful to make sure that she oversees the ADF officers coming down as well, making sure all come down without incidence,"There we go... there we go..." She dusts off her hands,"That everybody?" A slight smile to the officers, though her eyes carry a nervous little twinkle. Paleontology is nervous work.
Kirkpatrick comes down with one of the Andorian ADF officers, assisting him down from the ropes before he surveys the awe-inspiring view of this artificial cavern. Well...awe-inspiring for a Planetary sciences expert. He unholsters his Tricorder, awaiting to scan the grate and the inside after the ice is thoroughly melted.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Marginally Fails.
Arzt stands back, letting Kirkpatrick do his scan. She looks over at Krylow and mentions, "I'm probably smallest on the team sir, I might be a good candidate to go down."
Moulin peers over Kirkpatrick's shoulder, scrunching her nose sympathetically as the buggy thing garbles data and signals. If only those silly Americans had broken the back of the Gates software monopoly, centuries ago. "Tch. Mind if I have a go?" She points her stowed, but broken, tricorder. "Party fouled mine, ne c'est pas?"
"Very interesting indeed," Norvan murmurs, flipping out her tricorder to do a cursory scan of the grate and the area behind it. As she's doing that, she motions to the two Andorian officers, indicating them each in turn. "This is Chak Rimosi and Chak Vetra..." And then to the rest of the crew that were on the ground during the earlier introductions. "And this is Lieutenant Krylow, Ensign Arzt, and Ensign Moulin." With that out of the way, she takes a quick glance at her tricorder's readout, and then turns to Kirkpatrick. "Lieutenant, if you could maintain a steady scan of the cave for anything unusual as we proceed, I'd appreciate it." And then she glances over to Arzt. "That's true, Ensign, but if any wild creatures have decided to take up residence in there, being the smallest on the team might not be that advantageous," she muses, before glancing back at her tricorder, searching for life down there now.
Krylow eyes the mesh over the grate and then turns to Norvan. "Well, that's rodinium. A hundred years ago the weapons couldn't have punched through it. If we back away, a phaser blast on full power ought to vaporize it and then we can all enter it."
Kirkpatrick continues to scan even though his tricorder continues to not give adequate readings. "Aye sir," he says in acknowledgment to Norvan.
Solange starts playing with her hair briefly, trying to fix it as best she can within her parka. A brief glance back to the young Andorian officers, and then she stands up a little straighter, raises her chin a bit, and assumes a slightly 'lazy-seeming' posture.
Moulin darts a glance at Solange, swallows a grin, and then reaches for Kirkpatrick's tricorder, seeing that he's still having trouble. "Please? I promise not to break it."
GAME: Solange contests her Charm vs Moderate and Fails.
Arzt looks over at Kirkpatrick and asks, "What scans are you trying to run...I might have better luck."
Kirkpatrick looks up from his empty hands, handing his tricorder over, "Your welcome, Ensign," Kirkpatrick says rather saucy-like. He stands, going over to Arzt, "Scan for any traces of its geological history - drill marks, carbon-striking...anything. Lifesigns would be good too."
Arzt nods and then does the scan, searching for geological history - drill marks, carbon-striking...as well as lifesigns.
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Fails.
Solange manages to grab the attention of one of the Andorians, but for whatever suspect reasons, the other officer still keeps his eyes on the group. Still, as she moves back, she makes sure to put plenty of sway into her hips... just so that the young Officer's eyes stay glued. Make no mistake, for whatever reason, she's trying to draw attention herself. She even speaks to him, trying... 'the voice',"Have you been with ADF for long?"
"Merci beaucoup, Sir," intones Ensign Moulin sweetly, pleased as any woman given her way. She begins cycling through the routine scans, seeing if just by some happenstance she might, currently, have The Touch. You know. Like that ketcup bottle you absolutely CAN'T open until you hand it to your little brother who pops it right open without any effort at all.
GAME: Haven contests her Medical Sciences vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Moulin contests her Personal Equipment vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Krylow listens to the comments going back and forth and the reports from the scans. He's picked a spot to the side of Norvan to stand and watch. His expression is nothing more than a slight frown as he stands there. After a moment he leans a little closer to Norvan to whisper something to her, still watching the group as he does. Krylow whispers to Norvan, "Did we want to try vaporizing the mesh? Or are the ADF officers going to cause trouble over doing that?"
Kirkpatrick looks over at Moulin as her readings apparently begin to feed, "Report, Ensign," he says, awaiting to receive some hard data with which the rockhound can use.
Arzt shakes her head as she tries to run the scans, "Maybe it's because this isn't my specialty or I'm still getting some left over interference but I'm getting nothing."
Haven completes her scan of the frozen body and frowns. With a look over at Norvan she comments, "I have the results of the body found and it is not all together pleasant."
"Ooh la la la," murmurs Moulin. "M'sieu," she gestures Kirkpatrick over. "I'm getting an excellent reading, but I don't know if I'm getting all the detail out of the data--my skills interpreting these things--" she makes a face and shakes her head.
Norvan glances over to Krylow, mulling over that question for a moment, before she turns to face the ADF officers, fighting a smirk as she watches Solange successfully distract one of them. "Chak Vetra, Chak Rimosi, we're going to cut through this grating so we can continue our--" She is cut off by Haven's interruption, and concern touches her features as she turns to face the doctor. "What seems to be the problem?"
Kirkpatrick takes the tricorder from Moulin in order to decipher the data, looking over at Haven for the answer...
. o O Krylow thinks, "The results won't be pleasant? I'm not surprised. I've yet to see anything on this planet that's close to pleasant."
. o O Krylow is wary, very wary, yet almost bored by all the science talk. Apparently someone isn't a science geek.
Kirkpatrick smiles, "Well, Ensign Moulin you have just found huge caches of worked metals. And the tunnel appears to be shaped in such a way that one could slide down it..."
Krylow nods not Norvan and moves to unholster his weapon. "Ensign Moulin, Ensign Arzt, Cadet Solange, Lieutenant Kirkpatrick, Doctor Haven, Chak Vetra, Chak Rimosi, I'd ask you all to take several steps back from the grating please," he says firmly. Even as he speaks he adjusts his phaser, increasing the power to maximum. After the waiting for everyone to clear the area the engineer finally raises his weapon and levels it at the grate.
Solange pauses just briefly in her flirting with one of the Andorians to comment,"We should probably secure ourselves with some climbing rope just in case it's too sheer to get up easily..." And then she's pursing her lips as she continues her chatting... albeit, several steps back from the grate.
Haven keeps her gaze on Norvan as she asks a question. "The first thing we need to ask ourselves is just what a male Tellarite was doing way out here in these parts. The second question would be why would someone one push him off that ledge up there? What where they protecting? Perhaps he fell but I find the location questionable for an accident given the range of his injuries." She consults her PADD. "You can make him as dead thanks to frostbite, gross physical trauma.. and a very slow radiation burn. Ruptured organs and broken bones where not the worse of his injuries. Either way, the slow death by radiation was anything but easy." Then she steps back as asked.
Kirkpatrick diverts his attention to Krylow, backing away from the grate so that Krylow can phase it.
Arzt backs up quickly, getting out of the way so Krylow can make his shot.
. o O Moulin thinks, "And thank you for the grisly, luridly detailed post mortem, Doctor. Zut alors!"
About 15 seconds later, the rodinium mesh grating is vaporized, and the edges cool enough to touch again. After a quick hail to Thomas Paine, and some nice words over the body by the Andorians -- they are fond of Tellarites, despite the public display of argumentative behavior Tellarites and Andorians seem to engage in around each other -- the 9 figures being their single file descent down the shaft.
The destination is a room. A big room. The acoustics tell that much before the eyes have even adjusted to the light. But then the eyes *do* adjust, and one of the Andorians turns on a light in the form of a low-power phaser on 'glow'.
It seems that 'worked metals' is an understatement. The Away Team and their ADF minders are now standing in a room the size of a sports field, a room of worked stone, ornately carved, and *hundreds* of metal rods, fulcrums, and cylinders like some cross between a mosiac, bas-relief mural, and sculpture garden. Glyphs on the walls. And the silence broken only by the gasps and oohs and ahs.
One thing is clear: No Andorian made this. Nothing known to the Federation *made* this.
So who did? And ... why?
Time: Wed Jul 13 19:46:41 2005
Stardate: 55112.7
Norvan slowly begins to look around the room, taking everything in at a very slow pace, as if she's afraid that she'll miss something if she glances about too quickly. Her dark eyes widen a bit as she surveys it all; then she finds her voice, although she can't quite conceal the awe and curiosity in it. "Alright, everyone. Let's get to work and figure out what we're dealing with here." And, in an effort to lead by example, she reaches for the tricorder in her hip holster, flips it open, and begins to scan.
Krylow reaches the bottom of the tunnel and after a blink in surprise begins to scan the room quickly. Its pretty clear he's not really trying to take in what's there, at least not yet. Once the scan is finished he reaches for his tricorder and flips it open. "Keep an eye open, every. These is the area the creature fled to last time," the engineer adds.
Haven steps in from the corridor.
Haven has arrived.
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Kirkpatrick lowers the hood on his parka and takes out his tricorder from his hip holster as well, his cornflower blue eyes as wide as saucers. He's like a kid in a rock collecting store, nearly skipping to one of the walls in a brisk jog to scan the wall litered with glyphs. "I'm going to try to uplink with the Paine's computer, and see if these glyphs match anything the Federation has encountered before," he informs.
Solange just sort of stares wide-eyed for a moment, before she comments rather inadequately,"Well now..." A heartbeat,"Isn't that impressive?" Raising an eyebrow, she /streeetches/ for good measure, so as to keep Vetra's eyes occupied (though she /is/ competing with a natural wonder),"Quite the sight, isn't it?" Still, her eyes scan over the room, obviously curious to get a good look around,"Help me out, mmm?"
"Natural wonder or not, Vetra's attention is currently occupied by the wide-eyed Solange. "It is," he agrees, giving her an unembarrassed once-over when she looks away to take in the room. "Give me your arm -- I couldn't have any of our guests being injured."
Natural wonder or not, Vetra's attention is currently occupied by the wide-eyed Solange. "It is," he agrees, giving her an unembarrassed once-over when she looks away to take in the room. "Give me your arm -- I couldn't have any of our guests being injured."
Rimosi steps into the room and begins to look around. He pauses for more than a moment with his hands on his hips just staring in awe at the surroundings.
GAME: Kirkpatrick spends a courage point.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Computer/Research vs Impossible and Fails.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Succeeds.
Solange briefly flits eyes towards her phaser when she is given that offer. Still, she's aware eyes are on her... how could she not be? She offers the man her left arm, then,"Good idea... the footing could be quite unsure in here. Your assistance is most appreciated, Sir..."
The Trill is clearly surprised by Krylow's words; enough for her to glance up from her tricorder, and over at him. "You mean you've seen this *before*?" Norvan inquires incredulously. Her eyes return to her tricorder, as she continues, "Were you able to gather any information about this place? Especially anything that might be important now?" After another moment or two spent studying the readout of her tricorder, she taps a few buttons, and announces, "This room is about one hundred and fifty meters in diameter..." She glances up with wide eyes. "That makes this place bigger than the Thomas Paine." She glances back down at the tricorder and continues, "There's a great deal of rodinium in here, that must have been what we were detecting earlier, and..." Another pause, and she taps a few more buttons before blinking a couple of times. "And latinum. Not just a little bit, either, but a *very* heavy concentration of it. Liquid latinum, too, not gold-pressed." She glances up and points to the center of the room. "Over there."
Vetra accompanies Solange as she proceeds into the room -- a room that he hardly notices, so intent is his focus on her footing. Or her feet. Or, perhaps, her legs. He holds her arm lightly, carefully, as if it were composed of a substance far more fragile than bone and flesh.
GAME: Haven spends a courage point.
Kirkpatrick shakes his head as the data is fed through his PADD. "Well the symbols aren't Siinogian...they are like nothing we have encountered, it would appear." He says, putting his PADD away and looking over at the Trill Astrometrics Officer, "Latinum?" he enquires, heading over that way.
GAME: Haven contests her Medical Sciences+A vs Challenging and Marginally Fails.
After a moment of scanning, Krylow looks to Norvan and says, "There is no sign of the creature. However in the middle of room there are biomatter traces, the same off biomatter that the creature was made of it." As he listens to Norvan he frowns a little. "What are the odds that the latinum and the creature aren't related? And no, I haven't seen this room before but the crevase we climbed down was chosen because it lead to the same tunnels that creature disappeared into. The same tunnels that apparently lead here."
Solange absently pats Vetra's arm with her free hand, and tries to not to concentrate on just /what/ he might be looking at,"Sir... If I may... is it possible to detect the most recent traces of biomatter to give us an idea of where it is or where it went, right now?"
Kirkpatrick overhears Krylow as he takes to the concentration of latinum. "We could scan the traces and find out their composition, as well as determine where it went, I believe."
Haven remains near the entrance of the new found playground and works over her PADD, a frown pulling her brows together. She takes another scan of the frozen body to confirm her findings then raises her voice so that Norvan and the others can hear her clearly in the open area. "I can tell you a few things about this body, Lieutenant. First is that I've seen a very similar radiation signature before and that was during the bombing of Bak'TUR. This body has been here for the better part of 170 years. I will take a cell sample with me to the Paine."
Having given Solange as long a study as he politely can, Vetra looks around at the room, his head tilting to one side. The longer he studies it, the more puzzled his expression grows until he catches himself and shifts a glance to Rimosi. A questioning glance.
Solange reaches up to her collar, then, tugging it, before she catches Vetra's attention wandering. "Mr. Vetra? Is my collar straight?" She makes a show of adjusting it?
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
Before he can make any sort of contact with his fellow guard, the Andorian is distracted by Solange's question. He stares at her for a moment before smiling and stepping forward to "assist." "Not quite," he murmurs. "Let me get that for you."
Solange leans her neck up then, just a bit, so Vetra can 'help her' with her collar, waiting for him to adjust it,"Thank you... You've been /sooo/ helpful." Flip the hair, and then she gestures over towards Kirkpatrick,"Shall we go look over there a bit when we're done?"
Norvan glances back over at Krylow. "It might be a coincidence, but I'd be inclined to think otherwise." And then she turns her gaze towards the middle of the room. "Traces of biomatter, in roughly the same location as the latinum... maybe it died in there? I suppose we're going to have to take a closer look to be certain." Even as she starts to take slow steps in that direction, she narrows her scan, focusing on the latinum and the biomatter.
Kirkpatrick is running his tricorder around, trying to determine the source, quantity, and if anything...a relation between the latinum and the biomatter. He nods to Solange, "Yes..." as apparently for the matter he is at a loss for words.
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Marginally Fails.
GAME: Kirkpatrick spends a courage point.
Vetra takes his time is assisting Solange, even going so far as to readjust her ponytail so that it's not caught within her clothing. "Anywhere you like," he agrees in husky geniality. "I won't allow anything to harm you." He puffs up a bit as he speaks, big-blue turning bigger and well... bluer.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Krylow nods a little to Norvan before he begins to move with her. "Taking a closer look would be good," he says to her, before glancing back to Solange. "We'll have to see what we can find, Cadet," he says, before looking to Vetra and frowning slightly, and then back to the center of the room as heads towards it.
Kirkpatrick tightens his gloves as he points his tricorder in the direction of the center. "I'll try and get it from here, sir," Kirkpatrick calls out to Krylow, waiting for the data to pull up on his screen.
Rimosi snaps himself out of his gawking and moves up the the leaders of this team, "What is this place?"
Solange nods to Krylow then,"Yes Sir." Smiling a little, she lets her eyes roam over the cave, humming gently,"This is... simply amazing."
GAME: Haven contests her Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Succeeds.
GAME: Vetra contests his Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Marginally Fails.
GAME: Rimosi contests his Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Succeeds.
GAME: Solange contests her Intellect/Perception vs Moderate and Fails.
Norvan glances over to Rimosi and gives the Andorian a wry grin. "You know about as much as we do... which is to say, just about nothing. This is going to make our research a lot more interesting than we expected." And then she looks down at her tricorder once more, speaking to Krylow now. "This is odd. That latinum... it's stable." And she looks up again. "Too stable. The only time you see latinum that stable is when it *is* gold-pressed. And this isn't." Her eyes turn back down to the tricorder. "It doesn't look like the traces of biomatter are actually *in* the latinum, but they are close. Just a few meters away."
If he notices Krylow's look of disapproval, Vetra gives no sign of it. His focus remains split between gazing around the strange room and watching Solange, activities that seem to be running a head-to-head race for his limited attention.
Kirkpatrick gives a report on his finding, "The latinum is...liquid but not moving, which is odd because unpressed Latinum has the consistency of mercury and it vibrates. But this cache isn't." He continues, "It's being held in place by some kind of field, and what's odd...it's almost /exactly/ in the center of the room. About point thirty-one degrees off the exact center." He turns to Norvan, "Sir, I don't think anyone who came up with this building would have made a mistake like this. The architecture is...amazing, which would be an understatement. Perhaps there is some kind of display or terminal in the center?"
Krylow nods slightly to Norvan, glacing down to her tricorder while his remains held at the ready. "That is really strange," he says, before glancing to Kirkpatrick. "Have we been able to date any of the material here? When was this contructed?"
Arzt steps in from the corridor.
Arzt has arrived.
Rimosi looks around once again ,"This place looks more like a museum then a sacred place."
Kirkpatrick takes a look at one of the shards of metal on the ground, and he picks it up. He places it in a chamber inside his tricorder, pressing the appropriate commands while speaking to Krylow, "I'll run a dating analysis right away."
Within a few more moments, pace enabled slightly by the continued phaser-light of one of the Andorians, the team moves in a trickle towards the center -- well, if Kirkpatrick is correct, the *near* center of the room. A small mosaic of latinum beads, kept in place by force fields, odd glyphs very similar to the ones on the walls, just 31 degrees off from the center, and about five or six meters away from a circular dias on the floor whence comes the traces of biomatter the others all seem to find so fascinating. But for these, this immediate area of the saucer-section sized 'great hall' -- the 'museum', as Rimosi has put it -- is clear. The nearest metal sculpture is a good six or seven meters off, as well.
GAME: Norvan has the merit of Pattern Recognition at 3.
GAME: Norvan contests her Intellect/Logic+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
As the Away Team approaches the center of the room, Norvan folds her tricorder up and puts it away; her eyes are flickering back and forth throughout the room, now, as if something's caught her attention but she can't quite put her finger on what it is, and she's trying to seek it out once more to jog her unconscious memory. Finally, she comes to a stop, and turns around in the circle, taking in the entire structure. And a bright smile comes to her lips. "Of course!" She whirls around to grin at Rimosi. "You were closer than you realize, Chak. It's not a museum; it's a planetarium." She motions to the latinum beads. "This, right here, this is Fimdaath. And this..." The Trill starts towards the closest sculpture at a quick clip. "This is Tathu. The closest planet to the sun. If the room's one hundred and fifty meters wide, and that's the outer edge of the solar system... then if you cut it down to scale, Tathu would be about seven meters away. Right here. And the point-three-one degrees... that's the degree to which the orbital paths in the Fimdari system are off-center." Renewed awe appears in her eyes. "So precise... and so ancient... this is an incredible find!" she exclaims.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Succeeds.
Krylow doesn't look to the latinum and the center where Norvan is, but rather he moves closer to the dais and lifts his tricorder again. "The biomatter is like sloughed off skins cells, and its on the edges of the dais. It looks like the creature crawled under or rose up from beneath it or around it, though I'm not sure how."
Kirkpatrick is in the process of running a dating scan on the shard of metal in his tricorder. His eyes gaze off for a moment from his tricorder as Norvan explains, "Then there must be a console somewhere which controls the alignment of these 'stars' depending on the date and time."
Rimosi looks on the artifacts with new eyes after this planetarium revelation, "This is incr..." He turns to Krylow. There was that word again."Creature?"
GAME: Norvan has the merit of Mathematical Ability at 3.
GAME: Norvan contests her Space Sciences+A vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Solange squeezes Vetra's arm gently, then, before she offers,"Vetra dear... I need to talk to someone... be a dear, and stay here. Watch my back, in case I trip over anything?" And with that, she treads more directly towards Norvan, disengaging gently.
Vetra listens to the observations of Norvan and Krylow, then gives the room a more careful once-over. One can almost hear things being ticked off inside his head as he nods once, twice, and again. When Solange makes her request, he looks back to her with a frown; he's clearly not pleased to be separated from her, but doesn't protest. With another nod, he fixes his eyes on her backside, as requested.
Arzt starting from her location in the back, the little research archivist starts making a her way into the big chamber. She very methodically and carefully starts scanning the room to catalog the precise locations of every metal rod, fulcrum and cylinder in the room.
Kirkpatrick continues his dating scan, smiling as he watches the floating orbs of latinum suspended in the force field, "If I were a Ferengi, I would think I have died and gone to the Divine Treasury."
GAME: Kirkpatrick spends a courage point.
GAME: Kirkpatrick contests his Material Engineering vs Challenging and Marginally Fails.
Norvan glances over to Krylow, a bit of concern appearing in her eyes. "That could be a problem, if the creature's under there, or something, and decides to pop out and surprise us while we're studying this. Could you try and find out if there's any kind of entrance or tunnel under there, to see where that thing might be?" And then her eyes turn back to the 'sun,' and the 'planets,' and she frowns slightly. "Huh. There *are* a few errors, here and there..." Her brow furrows as she motions to the various sculptures. "Some of the moons are out of their proper alignment... some of them aren't in the right point of their orbital paths..." She studies the sculpture of 'Tathu' for a second or two. "This one needs to be moved a bit. All of these are pretty well-balanced, so I don't think it'd be difficult to move them into place... but then, I guess, the question is, what happens if we 'fix' the model." As she muses over that, she notices Solange approaching, and turns to face her directly. "Do you need something, Cadet?"
Kirkpatrick removes the shard from his tricorder in frustration, tossing it to the ground back where it belongs. "I can't get a good date on this," he says.
Krylow nods to Norvan, though its an absent acknowledgement as he continues to study the dais and once again looks to his tricoder.
Solange nods to Norvan, before she coughs, and lowers her voice briefly, before continuing it,"Yes, Sir. Well, anyway sir... I should probably get back to work, sir." Followed by a subtle stretch for Vetra's benefit.
Vetra crosses his arms across his chest as he watches Solange's departure, but once she's no longer standing beside him, his interest begins to drift -- until the woman stretches, which brings his gaze right back home. Moons and planets, indeed.
Solange whispers to Norvan, "Sir... it's getting a bit harder to keep this Mr. Vetra occupied... and this Mr. Rimosi is... quite inquisitive... I'm not sure I can keep it up much longer."
GAME: Haven contests her Personal Equipment/Medical Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
Norvan whispers to Solange, "I appreciate the effort, Cadet... but for the moment, I think our surroundings are enough to keep our guests dazzled and out of the way. Don't worry about them for the time being; just see if you can notice anything about this place that we haven't seen already." She smirks. "That way, if we find ourselves in a position where you *do* need to start up that act again, it'll catch them off-guard."
Soon, the scanning of the room is done, and the analysis begins. In general, Norvan seems to be correct -- various points on various sculptures seem to be *designed* to be moved like levers or slide like plaques into place. Arzt's work in catloging makes it easy to determine which ones. Krylow continues to scan the dais, fascinatedly.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Moderate and Marginally Fails.
GAME: Norvan contests her Intellect/Perception+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
The Trill glances around the room for a few more moments, as if searching for another puzzle piece to plug into her understanding of this place; then her eyes fall on the latinum mosaic that represents the system's sun. She pulls out her tricorder and flips it open once more, running the device back and forth over its length. "Layers upon layers..." She glances back up. "This is an even *smaller* model of the solar system, two-dimensional, right here on the latinum." After looking around at the various sculptures, then back to the latinum, she turns her gaze on each member of the Away Team in turn. "This model has all of the planets and moons in the right places, too... so I'm even more convinced that these sculptures have been moved out of their proper places. But... why?"
Glancing to Rimosi, Krylow smiles slightly. "Not to worry, its nothing like the Hoarfrost Demon in your tales. Its something I saw on another mission to Fimdari, something I was able to communicate with," he says, before looking to his tricorder. "This is almost as big as the Paine's transporter pad," he mumbles. Then a little louder, "There is no circuitry on this side of the dais, nothing to directly trigger movement." That said, the engineer steps onto the dais, eyeing it curiously. Yes, Norvan's interested in the planets while the engineer is interested in his engineering puzzle.
Solange is meanwhile busy meandering about, having apparently lost interest... she instead begins examining what she can of the model/engineering puzzles. Not her area of expertise, but...
A moment or so after Solange moves away and begins interacting with the other members of her team, Vetra loses interest again and begins wandering about the room, taking a closer look at things. Still, he doesn't wander far, and every so often he looks back to check on the positions of the others -- after all, he does have a job to do here.
Rimosi smiles politely at Krylow and nods. He looks over to his partner, "Vetras" motioning him to come over, then walks up behind to Norvan. He clear his throat in s mild attention getting way,"Excuse me Ma'am but why do your /guests/ need to be dazzled?" he stands smiling and ready for any answer.
Kirkpatrick continues running his tricorder over the area, heading over to Krylow to see if he can offer a hand...though, considering his expertise in engineering, that can't be a lot.
Norvan turns around to face Rimosi with a small smile. "I prefer 'Sir,' Chak. And I was concerned that you might get impatient with an ordinary research expedition, and find yourselves in a hurry to return; that would have put us in a bad position, if your superiors had not been comfortable with the idea of leaving us alone here. But I think it's pretty apparent that this is no ordinary find, and I trust you're as interested as we are, now." And without further explanation, she turns back to the nearest 'planet' sculpture. "Alright... everyone, I'm going to try and push this into the proper place. Be alert, just in case there's any unexpected reaction..." With that, she begins moving the model of Tathu.
Arzt stands off to the side, watching Krylow and Norvan do their thing. When Norvan tells her to be careful, she immediately starts looking around, getting ready to jump out of the way if needed.
GAME: Norvan contests her Athletics vs Routine and Succeeds.
Solange just stands back to watch then, looking a tad bit nervous as she watches the sculpture. "Kind of elaborate as far as planetariums go."
Krylow glances over to Norvan, before stepping off the dais. "Do you need help, Lieutenant? I'm not sure what in line is, but point me in the right direction," he offers.
Vetra responds to Rimosi's gesture by slowing making his way to the other Andorian's side. He arrives just as Norvan replies to Rimosi; he listens to her words with a furrowed brow, as if he's having a bit of troubling following.
Rimosi smiles back to norvan, with a nod,"Sorry , Sir. We don't mean to be in the way. I wasn't aware that geoscience delt with this sort of thing," he backs off nudging his companion to follow.
It takes more than a single nudge to for Vetra to get the hint, but after a few pokes he falls into step beside Rimosi. Once the two are far enough away from the others for a semi-private conversation, he gives the other guard a questioningly look.
"Paleontology, not geoscience, Chak," she replies to Rimosi with a smirk. "And I'm an astrometrics officer, so this is, more or less, my specialty." After a bit of effort, Norvan pushes Tathu into its proper place, and the sculpture responds with a 'click.' The young Trill glances around, making sure nothing's changed... and, from all appearances, nothing has. "Well, this one seems to have locked into place..." She ponders for a second, and then begins tapping on her tricorder. "I'm sending all of you the proper orbital positions for each of these planets, and the positions for each of the moons as well. Help me get these things into their normal places." She lowers the tricorder and glances over at Krylow, giving him a smirk. "Lieutenant... you've dealt with this creature before, and you served with the Rapid Response Team. Out of all of us, you're probably the most likely to get a jump on that thing if it attacks us. I'd like you to keep watch while we do this, just in case. You're the most suited to deal with a threat if one presents itself, after all."
Krylow nods to Norvan and then slides off something long and phaser rifle sized that he's been carrying with a nod to Norvan. "I'm going to set up my emitter at the edge of the room," he informs her before moving off. As he does, he draws his weapon for a moment, checking it and then holsters it again and slides his PADD out of his jacket.
GAME: Solange contests her Athletics vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Norvan contests her Athletics vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Arzt contests her Athletics vs Routine and Succeeds.
With only the ladies doing this work ... Krylow watching the team's back after setting up the odd stake-like gadget he bears, for instance ... it is not quick going, but it *does* go. Within a few minutes, every 'wrong' model has been corrected. And as Arzt clicks in the last one, there is a sudden ... noise. And the dais starts to raise up, lifting from the ground to reveal ... a lift? Yes. That's clearly what it is. A hollow chamber, lit inside, with a control panel and a single button at the back of it. Clearly, whoever built this room wanted someone smarter than a Pakled to find the key.
Norvan starts, just a bit, as the dias begins to raise, but it doesn't take but a moment for her to steel her nerves. She glances over to Krylow and gives him a smirk. "Well, I think this explains how that creature might have come out of the dias," she calls to him. "If we take that lift, I bet we'll find it." She pauses, and then muses, "I think we should send another databurst to the Paine, just in case. Let them know what we've uncovered, before we continue." And she taps on the tricorder, preparing the data to send.
Krylow watches the lift and dais as they raise, and then nods to Norvan. "I don't doubt it," replies, turning back to lift his device again. Device in hand he moves back near the lift to examine it. He even withdraws his tricorder to run a scan.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Succeeds.
Solange is startled when things begin rising before her... Visibly so. Still, she relaxes a moment later, and just watches as the lift is revealed,"Hmmm... so... do we know where it leads?"
Meanwhile, the two Andorian guards are involved in a quickly-worded, softly-spoken conversation. Vetra appears to have forgotten about his new lady-friend, at least for the time being.
Rimosi whispers to Vetra, " Watch them. ANd not just the girl this time."
Arzt looks at the lift with a sort of fascination, as if she really wants to move forward. But she recognizes Norvan's caution as the proper method and spends her time running a scan over the lift to see if anything interesting comes off it.
Rimosi stands next to Vetra and taps his com badge, "Chak Rimosi to Shaklas Trae Kaleth."
Vetra watches the group as requested while Rimosi speaks into his com badge, his eyes now narrowed in suspicion and displeasure.
Krylow closes his tricorder after a moment and slides it away. "I'm not seeing any hazards, Lieutenant," he fires over to Norvan. "The atmosphere from the lift is as safe and fresh as the atmospohere here." He pauses slightly. "Either the lift makes this trip frequently, or the atmopshere below is carefully maintained."
Norvan frowns and glances over to the shaft. "Looks like we're not getting a signal down here." She holsters her tricorder and begins tapping on her PADD, walking towards the shaft that leads back up and out. "I'm going to rig this thing to send a tight beam signal up... that way, the Paine will hopefully get the message when they pass over." As she heads over, she glances over to Rimosi with a smirk. "I don't think you'll have much luck either, Chak."
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
Rimosi glances at Vetra,"I am not getting a signal."
Arzt frowns as she looks at her tricorder, "Sirs...I'm getting some radiation from the lift, very minute traces...but here's the odd thing, it's like something tracked radiation/dirt on a carpet...the pattern is strange."
Vetra utters a soft stream of Andorian curses at Rimosi's news. "One of us should go back, then," he declares, speaking with just enough volume for the other guard to hear him. "To the others. To tell them."
With her task complete, and the PADD configured for the desired task, Norvan sets it down near the shaft, and starts back towards the lift. "Alright, everyone, let's get ready to head on down." She glances over to Krylow. "Lieutenant, are you planning on leaving the emitter here, or taking it down with us?" And then, over to the Andorians. "Are you coming with us, gentlemen? There's enough room, if you're interested in seeing where this all leads."
Rimosi smiles back At the trill Lieutenant, and turns to Vetra,"You go with them and keep an Antenae on them I'll go back and get the others. Be careful."
And so, minus Rimosi, who hangs back to 'alert' his people, and minus Norvan's PADD, left behind on the ground right near the shaft which led into the chamber to begin with, the rest of the party enters the lift, and triggers it ... and descends.
The lift opens into a much smaller room, only about 20 or 30 meters wide. It is smooth-walled, from the vantage point of the lift when the lift first opens into it, and featureless except for an arc of at least 4 pedestals -- at least, four visible from the lift -- around it at 3m intervals. Even at the safe distance of the lift, it is easy to see that the pedestals have markings and glyphs on them.
Rimosi leaves the lounge through the sliding doors.
Rimosi has left.
Immediately, Norvan reaches for her tricorder, and flips it open once again. "Stay alert, everyone," she warns, as she starts her sweep of the room, cautiously stepping off the lift.
Krylow steps off the lift, a little in front of Norvan and the others. As he steps out he adjusts the emitter, which is again slung over a shoulder, and draws his Type II phaser. He doesn't actually lift it, but definitely has it ready. To Norvan he asks, "Anything on the scans, Lieutenant?"
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Fails.
. o O Krylow is wary as he steps into the room.
. o O Krylow thinks, "Anyone home? Yes, I bet you are. I have a feeling you're hiding down here somewhere."
Vetra lunge-steps off the lift after Krylow, then seems to remember something. Turning around, he offers Solange his arm again. "Stay close to me," he advises. "This... could be dangerous."
Solange slips in carefully, then. Surprised at the continued interest, she stifles a smirk and a laugh, and just takes Vetra's arm again, though she makes sure her right hand remains free for her phaser. She gestures then, muttering,"Let's go look at one of those pedestals..." Doesn't stop her from creeping oh-so-carefully, though.
GAME: Vetra contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Solange contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
"Not yet, Lieutenant," Norvan replies to Krylow, brow furrowing as she reads the display of the tricorder. "Nothing too significant, anyway. Just some minute traces of radiation around the lift." Apparently, her little trip to drop off the PADD upstairs took her too far away to hear Arzt's warning about the very same thing earlier.
Solange calls out softly to Norvan, then,"Sir... some kind of markins on these pedestals. Very regulated... maybe writing... but this one over here... It looks... un-finished..." She spends time then, examining that last closer, trying to rack her brain and discern just /what/ is missing.
Krylow nods to Norvan and begins to move further into the chamber, visually exploring it. "Let me know if you see anything," he murmurs.
Vetra frowns at the markings as Solange calls to her companions, but unlike her, he doesn't appear to be racking anything in his study. Instead, he looks away, frown deepening. His eyes shift around the room, then turn upwards. "Water," he notes. "Huh."
GAME: Vetra contests his Physical Sciences vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Norvan contests her Physical Sciences/Physics+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
Arzt looks up at Norvan and mentions, "Sir, something at least mildly radioactive passed this way...I mean, the patterns are consistent with a path of sorts. The radiation trail leads behind the lift as if the thing didn't wander."
Krylow continues around the lift, moving behind it. "There is water dripping down from the rocks above, back here. The rocks are moist. There's some type of drain grating too. The lift traveled down at least ten or twelve meters, since the ceiling is that high. Its too warm for this to be normal heat. These chambers are environmentally controlled, so there must be a power source somewhere."
Norvan nods to Krylow, then glances over to Solange as she's summoned, and heads over to join her at the pedestal. The Trill's dark eyes flutter over the symbols, taking them in. "You're right, Chak," she replies softly to Vetra's murmured word, as she turns to look at the symbols on the other pedestals. "Each one of these shows a molecule of water, and then other elements that turn it into various states." She pauses, and glances over at Krylow, then the rest of the Away Team. "I think this is a series of tests. A set of puzzles designed to determine our scientific knowledge, and prevent our advance unless it's sufficient." And she turns to glance back at the unfinished markings. "I think I can use a phaser to finish that marking. And I also think that might allow us to continue."
GAME: Krylow contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
. o O Krylow thinks, "Scientific tests? Why can't we fix something?"
Krylow pauses for a moment, looking at the back of the lift, before moving back to the front of the lift to look at Arzt. "Ensign, come off the lift please. This lift is directly over a second lift, and while this lift remains here we can't get to the second one."
Solange leans on Vetra's arm lightly... Nothing like testing one's fishing line, and comments,"Well... this would make a crackerjack holodeck simulation." And then she's peering at the patterns, her eyes rolling upward thoughtfully.
Vetra looks a bit amazed when Norvan tells him that he's right, and more than a bit pleased, too. He studies the Trill for a considering moment -- then returns his attention to Solange.
Arzt looks up at Krylow and flushes, "Umm, yes sir." Then steps off the lift so she can catalog this room as well, making sure to get every glyph.
Norvan glances around the room, giving everyone a wry grin. "Of course... all of these tests keep taking us further and further down, so I sure hope we don't find ourselves needing to get out of here in a hurry." She looks over to Krylow. "Lieutenant, if you could be on guard again..." And then she turns back to the unfinished pedestal, and thumbs her phaser down to an appropriate setting, before setting about finishing the carving.
Krylow remains near the lift entrance, making sure he's between it and everyone else. His phaser is still drawn, though not raised. Just ready.
Within a moment, Norvan has fired on the pedestal, but something is amiss -- as sure as she is, even on the lowest setting capable of carving the rock of the pedestal, the rock ... cracks open. The pedestal, right under wear the rest of the carving should have been, is a clearly hollow receptacle. How ... odd. Does this fit into the pattern somehow?
The Trill looks rather crestfallen as the pedestal cracks right open. "Oh..." For a moment, she doesn't react; that's definitely *not* what she expected to happen. But then Norvan tilts her head to the side, and blinks a couple of times. "Hrm." The phaser is tucked away, immediately, and the tricorder brought back out once more, as she quickly begins to scan the other pedestals.
Krylow glances back to note Norvan's progress, but otherwise remains quiet and waits on the other scientistics.
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Routine and Succeeds.
Arzt is monitoring the radiation levels in the room, doing frequent sweeps to see if anything increases.
Solange wrinkles her nose a little then, rather surprised herself, even as she peers into the hollow pedestal, as if trying to see what it contains,"That... is sort of a surprise..." She looks to Vetra, as if for some magical explanation.
Vetra stands and watches, arms crossed over his chest. If any sort of magical explanation is forthcoming, it certainly won't be coming from him.
For a long moment, Norvan studies the display of her tricorder, and the expression on her face is quickly becoming a familiar one, as she puzzles over what she sees, trying to make it fit together, searching for the missing piece. And then something clicks, and her eyes flash wide open as the lightbulb goes off. "Of course!" She glances back to the other team members. "Each of those pedestals contain their specific type of water. Ice, liquid, and steam. This fourth one... it's supposed to hold water in plasma form." She turns and motions towards the water dripping down from the rocks above. "We need to collect some of that, I think. And get it in there... and then heat it into a plasma."
GAME: Norvan contests her Energy Weapon/Phaser vs Routine and Marginally Fails.
GAME: Krylow has the merit of Engineering Aptitude at 3.
GAME: Krylow contests his Systems Engineering/Shields+A vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Unfortunately for Norvan, she can't modulate her phaser ... quite right. Perhaps not being a gun-slinger is the reason. But while Krylow manages to whip up a basic suspensor/stasis field, a clearly more primitive job compared to the ones built into the other pedestals, the Astrometrics officer and ground team commander tries valiantly to get the right phaser settings ... eventually, to no avail. It's clearly possible. She just hasn't managed it yet.
Now frustration manifests on Norvan's face, as she can't quite seem to get her phaser working right. But that only lasts for about half a moment, before she glances over to Vetra. "Chak... I imagine you have a lot more experience with a phaser than I do. Would you mind doing the honors here?"
Solange smiles softly at Vetra then, asking gently,"Please do... I would /really/ appreciate it if you wouldn't mind too much?"
While Norvan struggles with the phaser, Krylow takes a few moments to work on his portion. "I've got a stasis field ready, Lieutenant," he reports, looking up to the others.
Clearly surprised by the request, Vetra doesn't reply right away; perhaps it takes him longer than most to process such things. Just when Norvan might suspect that he missed her question entirely, he lumbers a few steps closer and casts Solange a crooked smile. "I will," he declares. He whips out his phaser and readies himself.
GAME: Vetra contests his Energy Weapon/Phaser vs Routine and Succeeds.
"Thank you, Chak," Norvan replies to Vetra with a smile, before turning back to Krylow and giving him a nod. "And thank you, Lieutenant. Good work. Sorry I couldn't hold up my end of the bargain there," she smirks, "but I believe our guest here will have a bit more success than I."
And as Norvan finishes her statement, Vetra seems to finish the task. The water turns to superheated plasma within moments, and then Krylow's stasis field kicks in. The result? The lift that just raised back into the ceiling above is replaced by one which rises from the floor below. Just like the last one, it is big enough for all, with a single panel at the back.
Arzt runs a radiation scan over this new lift to see if the levels are changing.
Norvan turns to watch the lift coming up out of the ground, a satisfied look on her face. "There we are," she nods. "Let's keep those scans going as we head down, just to be on the safe side." And as she steps onto the lift, she takes out her own tricorder, and begins to do just that.
Krylow finishes with the stats field, slipping his gear away and stands. Again he draws his sidearm before stepping onto the lift.
Solange comments jokingly,"At least it'll be easier getting back /up/." And then she's beaming a smile at Vetra,"Good going... Looks like you've got a lot of practice with that."
Vetra returns Solange's smile, looking all sorts of pleased with himself. "I do," he replies proudly. "I will defend you from the dangers with it."
Arzt files in after everyone else and mentions as she gets on, "I'm not seeing any changes in radiation so it looks like we're good right now."
"Ensign, Cadet, onto the lift now," says Krylow from where he waits beside Norvan. As for the ADF officer, well no doubt he will follow Solange.
Solange piles in as well, not one to be left out, and waits, humming gently to herself,"I'll settle for help defending us all."
GAME: Norvan contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Fails.
GAME: Solange contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Krylow contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Arzt contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Fails.
GAME: Vetra contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
The lift opens into another room now, that is completely empty, at least that scans and visuals reveal. But it is not blank. As the last of the team steps off the lift, it is easily seen that the mural which runs along the wall runs around the entire 20m diameter room, depicting a long and continuous loop scene of unusual ... carnage. One side of the battle is fought by tall, slender, graceful, androgynous humanoids with helmets obscuring faces and skull shapes. They are using odd, wand-like hand weapons, decorated in symbols. The other side of the battle are .. well, ghelnoids of a sort, the taxonomical classification to which Andorians belong. But they are ghelnoids like Terran chimpanzees are primates, though some are more advanced and closer to modern Andorians than others. This melange of 'proto-Andorians' are 'suffering' at the hands of the wand-bearing androgynes, and glyphs mark each separate picture, each separate image of suffering.
After a few moments, oddly, the next lift begins to rise from the floor ... automatically. Unfortunately, it is whisper quiet, and Arzt and Norvan, being The Science People, are so absorbed in what they are doing that they don't hear it. The others? They get to draw weapons at the sight of the strange proto-ghelnoid *things* in the lift. At least one of them is more advanced than the rest, and looks ... very familiar, at least to Krylow. Also? They don't look happy, or friendly.
As soon as the creatures are within his sight, Verta steps in front of Solange and readies his phaser again. "Stay behind me," he shouts to her, eyeing them warily.
"Lieutenant, we've got hostiles," snaps Krylow, even as he taps on his phaser and then raises it. No sooner is it raised than does he depress the trigger.
GAME: Krylow spends a courage point.
GAME: Krylow contests his Energy Weapon/Phaser+A vs Moderate and Succeeds.
Solange draws her phaser as well, though she doesn't fire right off, commenting to Krylow,"By the looks of those pictures, they might not like modern Andorians too much sir... Perhaps our friend here might be best advised to take shelter, sir? Either way... we're sitting ducks in this lift..." Still, following Krylow's lead, she sighs, and points her phaser at the first thing her eyes fix on... The front-man... Andorian.
Solange draws her phaser as well, though she doesn't fire right off, commenting to Krylow,"By the looks of those pictures, they might not like modern Andorians too much sir... Perhaps our friend here might be best advised to take shelter, sir?" Still, following Krylow's lead, she sighs, and points her phaser at the first thing her eyes fix on... The front-man... Andorian. (re)
GAME: Solange contests her Energy Weapon/Phaser vs Routine and Succeeds.
Unfortunately, Norvan is so busy studying the mural, and glancing down at her tricorder, that she's one of the last to notice the new arrivals. She quickly folds up her tricorder and tucks it into her holster, but she fumbles a bit, and has to spend an extra second or two putting it away.
GAME: Vetra contests his Dodge vs Moderate and Succeeds.
The blast from Krylow, fortunately, is a wide-angle shot, and the entire first row of the critters goes down with jangled nervous systems before they are even halfway out of the lift. The other two leap over the first three, but one of them is 'tagged out' in mid-air by Solange. The last goes for the ADF junior officer with the chivalrous airs. Fortunately, Vetra is not stupid or slow, and spins to one side so that the thing lands in a crouch between Vetra and Solange.
Vetra smoothly tracks the creature as it lands, not giving it so much as a second's pause before rounding his phaser on it and firing.
GAME: Vetra contests his Energy Weapon vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Arzt contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Succeeds.
And in a heap, the thing -- the most 'Andorian'-like of the things -- goes down.
GAME: Norvan contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Marginally Fails.
GAME: Krylow contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Fails.
GAME: Norvan contests her Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Fails.
Norvan takes a deep breath as the attackers are neutralized, and then quickly turns her eyes back to the mural, using her tricorder to record it and scan it at the same time.
After his first shot, and after seeing a proto-Andorian still on its feet, Krylows steps towards it as he levels his phaser. When Vetra downs the last one, Krylow moves to double check the stunned hostiles.
GAME: Norvan contests her Life Sciences+A vs Routine and Marginally Succeeds.
Solange meanwhile is a little less... well... composed. She yelps in surprise when the thing lands close to her, and fumbles to fire her phaser when Vetra brings the thing down quite smoothly. She finds herself shaking a bit, though she quickly does her best to smooth her features out and steady her shakes. The very 'green' cadet, says breathlessly, to Vetra,"Um... thank you. Very much." And just sort of looks stunned. Cough.
Arzt does the oddest thing. She sits down where she was standing and starts running her fingers over the PADD, rapidly inputting something and mumbling to herself as she works on something.
GAME: Arzt spends a courage point.
GAME: Arzt contests her Personal Equipment+A vs Challenging and Succeeds.
GAME: Krylow contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Fails.
"You're welcome," Verta replies to Solange as he lowers his phaser, but he isn't looking at her -- his eyes dart about in search of other potential dangers.
Arzt finishes her inputting and then looks up at Norvan and Krylow and announces, "Hey, I think I have enough here to do some translating...I'm going to run the glyphs through the translator to try to find out what they say." She looks up at them, "Is there anything you want me to look for?"
Norvan hrms quietly to herself as she looks over the data on her tricorder. "Interesting. These glyphs, that mark the different wands..." She reaches up to indicate them with a wave of her hand. "They link up with the different illnesses the wands cause." She examines the proto-ghelnoids in the mural, then sweeps the fallen ones -- the real ones -- with her tricorder. "Huh. These ones here..." She nods to the creatures on the ground. "These are... genetically speaking... more pure. Like they were better engineered than..." And she glances up, and nods to the ones in the mural. "Than those."
Solange takes a few deep breaths then, before she shakes her head, and straightens fully,"Wonderful... huh... So... they were... used for a specific purpose?"
GAME: Norvan contests her Personal Equipment/Tricorder vs Moderate and Fails.
Krylow moves through the five downed proto-Andorians, before looking to Norvan, brows furrowing as he listens quietly.
GAME: Norvan contests her Life Sciences+A vs Moderate and Succeeds.
"There's something off about their DNA... but I can't quite place it... this may take me a little bit." After several minutes of work with the tricorder, Norvan perks up a bit more. "Here we go. It looks like their DNA is specifically tailored... and there's a *message* in there." She glances up and over at Arzt. "Here, I'm going to send this to your PADD... see if that translation protocol will work on this."
In fact, in a second, the answer spits out. In a cool, feminine computer voice, Arzt's PADD recites: "Those who would be Gods must be prepared to sacrifice their own children, not once, but many times. Thus do the Gods hide their children among other children, and conceal themselves until their children come of age."
Krylow moves closer to Norvan, brow still furrowed a little. "This science is probably over my head, but is there anything I can help wit...." he starts, before looking to Arzt and her PADD.
With nothing currently attacking, Vetra returns to his former stance -- arms crossed, eyes wary, feet not far from Solange. When Arzt's PADD speaks, he lowers his head, brow furrowed as he listens.
Solange looks over as well, eyes widening just a bit,"That's... a little... intimidating. What, I wonder, do they mean by Gods..."
GAME: Vetra contests his Intellect/Perception vs Routine and Marginally Fails.
"Well, these creatures *were* genetically engineered, Cadet," responds Norvan. "Maybe this is a message from the people who did that. Maybe they were arrogant enough to actually think of themselves as gods." She shakes her head as she heads for the lift that brought their attackers up. "Hopefully there's only a few more levels," she murmurs, waiting for the rest of the team to join her.
Krylow purses his lips slightly as he follows Norvan onto the lift, phaser still drawn and ready.
Solange follows Norvan, then, to the lift, nodding,"Yes, Sir. But what does being a God constitute... What were they trying to accomplish... It just doesn't seem like this would be the end result of such a project. I suppose only patience can tell." She remains quiet after that, though she too retains a hold on her phaser. She looks towards Vetra expectantly, beckoning politely.
Entering the lift makes a few things fall into place, little things that went half-noticed as eyes swept the creatures and the lift earlier. The lift control looks different. It's the same panel, but instead of a single 'button', it's a palm plate, the kind you'd use to scan a hand. The design is that of a standard, four-finger-and-thumb hand, with a diagonal slash in the palm. Underneath, a single glyph.
Vetra re-enters the lift behind Solange wearing a pensive expression. "The sort of Gods who can be killed with a phaser," he mutters. He doesn't immediately notice the panel; in fact, he's not even looking at it.
Solange looks between them, before she asks rather cautiously,"Should we push it, then?" She gestures to it with her free hand, though after all this, it's no wonder she's a bit wary,"I suppose the only thing it could be is the lift control. Can we translate that glyph?"
Norvan holds her tricorder up to the panel, studying it for a moment. And then she frowns. "The glyph says 'sacrifice,' Cadet. That slash in the middle of the hand there... it needs to come in contact with blood, I'm guessing. And it has to be cobalt-based, or I'd do it myself."
Krylow eyes the panel for a moment and shakes his head, before taking a step to the side and out of the way.
Vetra is also standing out of the way, silent and waiting.
Solange eyes Vetra for a moment, and, feeling somehow briefly guilty, she wonders,"I don't suppose one of the downed... protos... No. I suppose they deserve the chance to make that choice too."
. o O Krylow thinks, "Sacrifice? How lovely. At least its only a little blood and not a real sacrifice."
Krylow frowns a little to Vetra. "Its a little bit of blood. Show the Cadet how tough you are," he remarks.
Norvan frowns, and turns to Vetra. "Chak, if you're not willing to assist with this, I understand. We can return with an Andorian in the party, or find another way."
Solange looks to Norvan, relieved at that, though she does nod to Vetra briefly,"Whatever decision you make, noone will think less of you."
After a moment's consideration, Vetra steps forward. "I don't," he notes for the sake of posterity, "have a good feeling about this." Regardless, he holds out his hand, then unsheathes his blade. "Here." He passes the curved knife to Solange.
Krylow rolls his eyes as he watches, shaking his head again.
. o O Krylow thinks, "Its a flesh wound. A minor scratch. I thought he was a soldier. Why does the Cadet need to the wield the blade?"
Solange looks decidedly queasy as she looks to Vetra, seeing the knife. "I never did much like blood..." Her hand does shake a little again when she takes the knife. A deep breath follows then, before she takes one of his hands, pressing the blade to his hand,"This won't... take but a minute..." She is quick about it... at least she has a steady hand. "Well... that only makes it that much more brave." She shoots a look to Norvan, as if for help. But nothing is said.
Once a thin stream of blood is flowing from his palm, Vetra clamps his hand against the panel.
"Thank you, Chak," Norvan murmurs softly to the Andorian, reaching up to gently pat Solange on the shoulder as she sees the Cadet's queasiness. "Let's get this thing moving so we can get you patched up."
The lift descends, and descends, and descends. A longer ride this time, like the first one. It opens into a chamber as high and wide as the first one. The room is almost completely dark, save for the light emanating from the cowled faces of three statues on very high pedestals. The statues are of short, stocky figures, but the cowls and the light from the cowls conceal their actual faces. At the pase of each pedestal is a series of glyphs which Arzt's PADD scans and translates: "As children of the body, so thoughts of the mind, so music of the soul."
The light, it must be noted, all falls like a spotlight, three beams concentrating on a single point where one last glyph, translated as 'Creation', is made in a mosaic on the floor.
But for these three statues and the glyphs, the room is empty and vast and dark.
GAME: Krylow contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Solange contests her Social Sciences vs Routine and Fails.
GAME: Norvan contests her Social Sciences/Anthropology+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
GAME: Vetra contests his Personal Equipment vs Routine and Succeeds.
Norvan steps off the lift and towards the glyph in the center of the floor, appraising the statues in silence for a moment. "It looks like... like some kind of judicial setting. Like those three statues are judges, putting... putting creation on trial? I'm not quite sure how it translates."
Krylow steps off the last lift, looking to the statues and then where the light falls. From there he turns to look over the whole room, before looking back to Norvan as she speaks. "Judges?" he mumbles before looking back to the statues and walking closer to them.
Solange looks over it, and comments to Norvan,"It's all Greek to me, sir." She continues to study the statues and pedestals, deciding to break rule number one... she reaches out to run a hand over one of the pedestals curiously,"Hmmm... It's kind of daunting, truth be told."
Vetra frowns as he studies the statues, his recently-cut hand presses against his trousers. "Judging a creation?" He's as much at a loss as the others.
GAME: Norvan contests her Intellect/Logic+A vs Routine and Succeeds.
Solange goes for a dermal regenerator, meanwhile, or something to staunch the light flow of blood,"Here, Chak... lets take care of that cut..." Still, she does cast a look about once more,"What do their faces look like...?"
Norvan manages a small smirk for Vetra. "Almost, Chak. Judging the *act* of creation; the glyph is the verb form, I believe." She glances around at the others. "I think.. I think it's another test. And I think we're... supposed to make something."
Vetra allows Solange to tend to his hand -- it's just a nick, really, and the wound is already clotting. At Norvan's explanation, he frowns. "Don't tell me," he rumbles with a sigh. "You need more blood."
"Like what?" asks the Krylow, looking back to Norvan. "I mean, we don't have that we can create here. Does it need to be something living, or just something?"
Solange continues to work, though she offers,"For all we know, it could need all our blood, or no blood at all, or a rock from across the galaxy... No way to tell." Shaking her head briefly, she concentrates,"But your blood seems... well... a good guess."
Norvan closes her eyes and shakes her head. "No, no, that's not it at all," she replies to Vetra, before opening her eyes and looking around the group. "They're spotlights. You know. For a performance. Acting. Or music, or something. They tested our scientific knowledge, and now... I guess they're testing our artistic development." She pauses, and then looks over the statues, and the glyphs translated there. "The body part... that was tested coming down here. And the mind... through the puzzles on the different floors. This one is a test of music. I think."
Vetra looks expectantly to Norvan -- she's the one with all the answers, and once again, she doesn't disappoint. He crosses his arms in front of his chest and moves a step back; clearly, he's not about to volunteer to dance a jig or serenade the group.
Krylow chuckles softly at that. "Well, there's an area I have no talent in. Do we need to create something now, or do you think we can play something we have? If we have something on our PADDs, anyway."
Solange frowns a little, before she offers,"We could all try singing songs we know... noone actually said it had to be good right? Only thing I really know is Frere Jaques, though. And I'm not all that sure about my voice, either. If we could simply key in some mathematically ordered tones... Well, music is really just a mathematical expression of sound, right?"
Norvan glances around the group, and shakes her head. "No. I don't think that would work." After looking everyone over, she murmurs, "I don't exactly have a great voice either, but if none of you have anything in mind..." She takes a deep breath. "I could try something."
"Maybe if we all sang together," the Andorian suggests. "The sum of four untrained voices might be... more acceptable than a single terrible one." He shoots Norvan an apologetic glance. "Not that your voice will be terrible, sir."
Krylow shakes his head a little. "I don't have any ideas, no. What are you thinking of? Maybe I can help?" he asks, even as he moves closer to both Lynzia and the spotlight.
Solange finishes up, patting Vetra's hand, before she turns, and wonders,"Well... if we can at least make a concerted effort... If nothing else we can pull a musician down here if we have to go back... Well... None of us have voices, but at the very least, we can churn something out. Joyful noise and all that. Well, sir... I'm willing to do what's needed, anyway..." She looks to Norvan expectantly. A subordinate, who expects a leader to make a decision. One of /those/ looks.
Norvan glances back and forth between the crew members. "We'd all need to know the same song, and I'm not sure we have the time to work that up now." After a gentle sigh, she murmurs, "I do know this... this one song. My father used to sing to me. But... like I said, if any of you can sing at all... that might be better."
"Four together can make very joyful noises," Vetra notes to Solange, but fortunately for the group, he spares them any elaboration. Instead, he look to Norvan. "Just begin," he suggests. "We'll blend in. How hard can it be?" He glances around at the rest.
Krylow nods a little to Norvan. "Well its either trying that, or I can play something out of the library on the PADD. Its your call, Lieutenant." He glances to Solange and Vetra and shakes his head a little. "No, she's right. Its better for just one of us to sing."
Solange nods to Krylow then, before gesturing to Norvan,"It can't hurt anything, Sir. It is your decision." She nods, trying to fix her face into a supportive smile.
Norvan closes her eyes with a smirk. "Give me a second to remember it. It's been a long time. But I think something live is going to work better than something from the PADD."
Vetra nods to the others and falls silent again, waiting for Norvan's song.
Krylow nods slightly to Norvan. "Alright, Lieutenant. I'll quiet the others so you can concentrate," he says before turning to the others and gesturing them to walk with him. "Cadet, Chak, lets give the Lieutenant some peace and quiet." He moves off to the side and stops to watch Norvan.
It takes the Trill a couple of minutes to get the lyrics back in her mind, and another few to work up the nerve to sing them. But then Norvan steps forward, onto the Creation mosaic. She takes a deep breath... and she begins to sing, in a simple children's melody.
The night's always dark back on Terra and Mars,
But the sun never sets when you're out in the stars.
Don't chain my heart down, leave my soul free to roam,
And out here in space is where I'll make my home.
The great rings of Saturn will make up my bed,
And Alpha Centauri's where I'll lay my head.
There's nothing else like it, life open and free,
The whole of the Milky Way calls out to me.
Singing sweet dreams, sleep tight,
Under the starlight.
Sweet dreams, sleep tight,
Tomorrow's so bright.
The song ends, and she looks rather sheepish, looking from one statue to the next, waiting for a reaction.
With the last moment of that artistic act of creation which the glyph seems to demand accomplished ... something happens. With a voice modulated of a humming, buzzing noise, the statues begin to speak, the sound echoing around the room, coming from everywhere and yet from nowhere. By now, the Universal Translators in your combadge have been updated by Arzt's PADD, and the words come to you: "We regret that we cannot yet return for you, our beloved children, but the time is not yet come. You are early, forty thousand years early, if your interaction with our astrolabe key in the uppermost chamber is any indication. This means you have exceeded our expectations, excelled beyond our wildest dreams, and yet you must remain as you are, hidden amongst the other races of peoples seeded by our enemies."
"You have deciphered the secrets we left behind on the new homeworlds we found and made for you to come home to this place, our messenger drones have adapted to the forms into which you have evolved to better draw you in to the most important of the labyrinths we have left behind, and you have mastered both the drones, and the puzzles we have crafted, bending them to your knowledge, your wisdom, your very blood."
"But this is, alas, not yet enough. Until we can return to you, teach you, lead you, it is not safe for you to reveal yourself to the Air and the Outer Darkness -- though we transplanted your seed to new worlds that would shape you, taking them from this place, it was our enemies who planted those seeds to begin with, breathing the essence of you into the worms and beetles and larvae of the dirt and oceans of this very world before we could move you to other worlds. And those enemies, those Princes of Chaos, may yet return to this world, and find the trail to the homeworlds we gave you, and you are not yet prepared for them."
"Yet know you this: As children of the body, so thoughts of the mind, so music of the soul. It is our highest law, our greatest gift to you. Though you were created for their mad and evil whims, so we then rescued you, and shaped you to our higher purpose. You are our children now, not theirs. The very elements of your blood vibrate to the higher music of our spheres, not to their discordance. We love you always, and we are counting each moment an eon, but each eon a mere moment, until we can return, your Gods no longer, but your mothers and fathers, not your masters, but your mentors. Have faith in this, children. The way to depart is now plain to you, and we will not bar the way."
The glow from their faces track away from the center