Onboard the Helivan Starship
Posted on Wed Sep 20th, 2023 @ 12:12pm by Lieutenant Wara Tête & Commander Lorut Vila & Lieutenant Commander Sydney Reid & Lieutenant Commander Frasier Greene & Lieutenant Dovenice Nyx & Lieutenant S'Tera
4,564 words; about a 23 minute read
Mission:
First Contact
Location: Helivan Starship
Timeline: MD4: 1445 hours
Vila arrived at the docking port at a quarter to the hour. She had gone to her office, downed a bottle of water and some painkillers, and gotten her phaser and PADD ready to go. Since they were dock-and-towing the alien shuttle, an away kit wasn’t needed. Her head was still pounding but the majority of her hangover had passed. She swallowed the last of her coffee, and tossed the cup into a recycler.
She waited for the others, sending off a quick message to the Captain and another to the Counselor, telling her that they’d have to reschedule her session. Darn the luck. As the others arrived, she made sure they were armed, and prepared.
Once the meeting had concluded, and Sydney had sent Callan off to start working with Engineering to ready for the oncoming 'guests' they would be taking on, she stopped off on the bridge to personally make sure that everything was going smoothly given the coordination needed between the Flight Control, Tactical, and Operations officers on duty to ensure a smooth and seamless docking with the Helivan vessel.
After riding the turbolift down, finding a trail of various personnel either readying themselves or handing out supplies to the assigned boarding team members, the Ops Chief grabbed what little she might need and weaved her way up to the front to watch over the final steps of the docking procedure. As the console next to the airlock showed 'green' for a secure seal of the docking tunnel, Sydney turned to the XO and said, "Docking tunnel set, sir. Once everyone is ready, the order to move out will be on you," trying her best not to react to the haggard look of the woman.
S'tera sensed the Executive Officer was not feeling her best. She did not comment. "Alright! I'm ready!" What else could she say? She had her tricorder and her phaser so she was good to go.
Wara Tête arrived with the group. “Who’s not brought their own phaser?” she asked, her attitude professional but not accepting of any bullshit. Each of them should have their own, but half the crew usually forgot. “Just raise your hand if you need one.”
Sydney's brown eyes turned to the Bolian as she offered a slight grin. "Got everything I need," she answered before resting her right hand on her Type-2 and her left on her tricorder, both holstered on her hips.
Vila remained silent, but simply indicated the holster on her waist. Her phaser was actually a Bajoran militia style phaser, and she had a special dispensation to carry such. The captain had questioned it, but it was the only thing that she and the Fleet had ever agreed on - she was well trained on it and had a good kill record.
For the past hour, Nyx had been studying what she could of the sensor feedback the Intrepid had gathered on the alien ship. She had a good sense of where she was headed once they boarded the vessel but wouldn't know for certain until crossing the threshold. Following her closely as she approached the airlock, three fellow engineers were ready for the exploration also.
Edwena, Orob Ch'rhiaqos, and Leru had been on the ship for about four months each. They were instrumental in running the final shake-down exercises and installing various aspects of the ship's warp systems. Their work on the warp systems was why Nyx had selected them, specifically, for this away mission. She could trust their expertise.
As they joined the rest of the boarding party, a security officer handed each of them a phaser with a holster. Nyx turned it over in her hand, checking the safety and operating controls. It was a familiar piece of equipment for her to carry on her previous assignment and she fastened the belt around her waist, slightly displacing her tricorder. She moved the tricorder to her left side to compensate.
She bit her lower lip while inspecting the small gathering, then her grey eyes looked at the airlock controls in expectation.
Wara bit her tongue at the number of weapons handed out. Each one adjusted for the person using it and the team around them. She didn’t want a phaser ending up in the hands of an alien without proper permissions for use. That was like asking for a hostage situation, and it was just dumb to be honest.
Vila looked around at the gathered crew. "Thank you all for being early. We're still waiting on Science and Medical," she said. Per usual.
“Excuse me Commander, but perhaps you have forgotten I'm the CSciO now so science is here!" S'tera said.
Vila simply nodded. "I did forget. I apologize. Lieutenant S'tera is accounted for," she said. She tapped the screen on her PADD, and looked up just in time to see Doctor Greene arrive.
The Doctor flashed them a strained smile, realizing he was the last to arrive. Loaded down with med kits and a head full of as much info he could digest in an hour regarding the Heliv - ahead of the boarding had cost him time and he hoped Vila wouldn't add him into the book she mentioned.
"There is Doctor Greene. Grab a phaser, and we can get out of here," Vila said. Vila didn't much care about whether the man was a doctor or not, he needed to be able to protect himself, in case. A bit later, they were ready.
"Y-yes," Frasier replied caught off guard by the request and apparent displeasure at his tardiness despite making the agreed rendezvous.
“Actually, I have a team assigned with Doctor Greene,” Wara interrupted, her lips drawn and her look as fierce as her drawn eyebrow, if Bolians had eyebrows. “Now, if we’ve wasted enough time, let’s get this door open?!” She almost wished she’d brought a rifle just to make her point.
Sydney shook her head as she was unceremoniously shoved out of the way as the Security Officer took over and ordered her team to open their Intrepid's airlock and rush down the docking tunnel as if they were assaulting the Helivan ship instead of approaching to assist the aliens.
With a wave of her hand, a single security ensign moved forward and placed a Starfleet disk on the door lock. Backing away, Wara Tête cracked her neck and touched the controls on her handheld PADD. Symbols scrolled one after another until the six, presumably digits, aligned. With a small pop and hiss, the doors opened.
When everyone looked her way, she felt like asking if she expected an explosion, but she was above answering dumb questions. “Alpha team get that door open and get me a secure hatch.”
As the Security team rushed into the open alien airlock, Sydney gave Wara a disapproving look and a slight shake of her head as she almost casually walked up to the now-open Helivan door and looked at the foreign script upon it. Tapping her thumbs to her fingertips in a practiced pattern, the Ops Chief's eyes turned from brown to gold. Looking over the hatch with new context, she let out an unexpectedly surprised, "Hmmm?" before turning back to glance at the Bolian. With a point of her finger to one of the small rings of script on its surface, Sydney stated flatly, "You know that says 'Push to Open', right?"
Ten minutes later, a response called back through the hatches. “Secure for entry! All teams secure for entry.”
Relaxing her attitude only slightly, Wara looked at the gathered groups. “You all heard the man. Your teams have been cleared for entry, so why are you all looking at me with blank stares. Get your asses over onto that ship is what I’m sure the Captain would say.” She rubbed the polish of her nails on her jacket.
Nyx sighed silently. She rolled her eyes, making eye contact with her engineering team in the process. They gathered themselves to do as told and moved toward the hatch while the Ops officer still had more to say.
"Yes, I'm sure the Captain would have told us to forcibly breach their airlock and assault their ship like a bunch of jarheads..," the human said sarcastically as she unholstered her tricorder in preparation of entering the Helivan shuttle.
Sensing the two women were about to come to blows Greene felt a need to intervene before they crossed a line in front of the First Officer. "Th- !" he began before they jumped up a gear.
The Bolian’s eyes narrowed, and her eyes shone like death from on high. “Occam’s razor, Commander Reid. When faced with a lock, the easiest solution is to pick it. If you think that’s too much force, or inappropriate use of Starfleet’s UT to pick a lock, you go ahead and tell the Captain. But if you’re gonna call me out in front of Commander Lorut and the other department heads assembled, you’d best make sure you’re on the right side of that complaint.”
Sydney found the mention almost amusing, but held back a chuckle to simply offer rhetorically, "Why assume it was locked, Lieutenant?"
Turning to Commander Lorut, the Bolian squared her shoulders. “Commander, as per their training, my men chose to pick the lock using the universal translator and a lock pick algorithm to determine the latch’s lock code. As such, the alien vessels doors were opened with no, or minimal, damage. May we set this conversation aside for the moment and proceed with our jobs, please?”
"Please do," she said. "Or you BOTH will be on my list. How are you at scrubbing hulls with a toothbrush?" she asked. She wasn't kidding. It was a punishment that Vila herself had had to do once.
“I would be happy to go toe to toe with the Lieutenant Commander and yourself in a meeting with the Captain later,” Wara tilted her head and looked the Ops Chief up and down. Compare her picking the locks to blasting the doors like a Marine. The idiot probably bled green before putting on more mature colors.
"KNOCK IT OFF," Vila's voice piped up, holding her temple in her hand. "Both of you," she said. She made a mental note to keep these two apart from now on. "I don't care how we got in. Let's go rescue these dorks and get back to the Intrepid."
She could see the Bolian sizing her up; clearly acting in the way the majority of Security-types she met had in the past. In the end, Sydney knew there was no point arguing with a 'hammer' while she tended to approach obstacles like a 'scalpel'.
Waving off any concern to the XO, "I see no reason for such a discussion. The goal of entering the Helivan vessel was successful, despite the methods used. We should focus on studying their tech and securing transfer for their crew. That is the mission, correct?" She asked Lorut, but was already certain of the answer.
“While also keeping our crew safe,” Wara looked at Sydney and batted her eyes innocently. ‘What is this bitch’s problem?’ she wondered, nearly ready to punch her in the face. She could feel the blue blush in her face rising and the collar of her tunic felt hotter.
"Well it would seem you have it well in hand, then," Sydney stated to the Security Officer. Glancing around at the plethora of officers with their respective teams, the Ops Officer was left wondering if the crew would be better served with her monitoring mission progress elsewhere. Turning to the XO, "Commander, as I have completed my needed duties, shall I return to the bridge?" Sydney had no interest in continuing to antagonize the Bolian officer.
Clearly, there was going to be no peace. "No, Reid. I need you to disable the Stasis Pods. Tête, YOU go ahead with a team. Make sure there's no one else aboard. Fire at will. Lieutenant S'Tera, go with Reid. As soon as she has found the pods, meet with Doctor Greene on the best way to open them. Now, do your thing. I am headed to the labs," she pointed to a security officer. "You are going to come with me. Doc... Stand there and look cute until S’tera and Reid call you, I guess," she said.
"Commander," Greene spoke up, concerned he was to wait here instead of assessing those in stasis and in need of assistance.
"You mean we're NOT going to brute force our way through their locks…" Sydney muttered to herself through nearly-pressed lips as Lorut turned her attention to the Bolian.
"GO!" Vila’s tone said she meant it and meant it NOW.
With little more than a nod and a turn of her long neck, she indicated her teams should move first to follow their orders, clear the ship of dangers, fire at will. “Not to question orders, but wouldn’t it be wise to have the Doctor there in the event these people wake up and decide to punch is better than talking? Or what if they have some stasis psychosis?” Lieutenant Tête asked curiously.
"I agree. The Doctor should come with us. We don't know what kind of shape they'll be in when we wake them up!" S'tera said.
“Go on, Doctor,” Lorut agreed. They really didn’t know how the people in the pods would be found. For all they knew, the crew could be dead and the life signs residual.
Being shaken out of her personal moment of simultaneous exasperation and victory, "Right away, Commander," Sydney answered before looking to the Caitian Science Chief and offering for her to take the lead in their search with a flash of her open palms.
"Thanks!" S'tera took the lead using the schematic on her tricorder to guide her to the right place. It didn't take long to find the Helivans. "Okay, here we are. So guess we'd better get started opening these things and waking them up!"
Lorut could hear the goings-on, as they all had an open channel on their COMMs system. =/\= Slow down, Lieutenant. Let security check it, and Doctor Greene, too. Then you are on.=/\= Her tone was gentle; as a scientist herself, she could definitely appreciate S'tera's excitement for something new. She was finally in a lab room near the back of the small ship, which was actually not much more than a large shuttle.
"Okay, Commander, I'll stand by!"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves S'tera," Greene interrupted trailing behind feeling befuddled at whom was actually in charge. "Waking from stasis isn't that simple. We should transport the pods back to the ship and revive the survivors in a controlled manner to avoid unnecessary shock."
Lorut flipped on a light, and an audible gasp escaped her lips.
=/\= Lieutenant S'tera. Meet me in the back room. =/\=
Vila, a woman who was never usually at a loss for words, was dumbfounded. The lab was filled nearly to the brim with an entire ecosystem.
Greene exchanged a glance to Reid as the science officer was called away and nodded his approval signaling they'd manage without her as they continued to assess the pods.
Sydney seemed momentarily confused by S'tera being called away, but the glance from Doctor Green elicited a sharp nod from her as she started to scan the stasis pods with her tricorder, transmitting the data being received back to the Intrepid as she described what she saw.
"Pods are approximately 2.5 meters in length, 1.5 wide, and 1.5 meters in height, in a tubular shape like a large torpedo casing. It seems to have a transparent composite lid, and is resting on some kind of platform." Moving to scan various parts of the pod she continued, "There is an interface on each side that seems to be monitoring the occupant's status, and there is a large power conduit extending from the end of the tube into the wall."
Helivan Labs
"Okay! On my way!" Lieutenant S’tera made her way to the back room. Once she saw it, she was flabbergasted. In a room barely the size of a walk-in closet was an entire biome. Collected and coordinated animals of the most delicate nature.
Inside, the light reflected not from any source but the bioluminescent creatures and fungi. Add to that an explosion, not of massive life forms, but miniature- possibly microscopic. They would have to take great care in dealing with the animals, because despite the Commander calling them samples, they were all animals.
"K'tals claws! This is...unexpected! OK, this is going to take some study and we are going to have to revise our plans possibly! That is... amazing!"
Vila nodded. "Yes. I just wanted you to see it. I'll start transporting these. I'll contact the Intrepid, let the labs know I am beaming this all over. We'll use the Auxiliary lab. Should be quarantined until we can determine that it's all safe," she said.
"Yes ma'am. That sound quite prudent!"
"Lieutenant S'tera, please go back and check on the Stasis Pods-assist Doctor Greene however he needs." She tapped her comms.
=/\= Lieutenant Nyx report to the Pod room. Please prepare it for transport with Medical and Science.=/\= She closed the channel and opened a new one to the Bridge.
=/\= Intrepid, stand by for incoming transport to Auxiliary Laboratory One. Science, begin Quarantine Protocols.=/\= She clicked off, and then began to send each specimen to the labs on the Intrepid. What the HELL?! This was cool. She liked the days when she could be both XO AND scientist, though her training was in chemistry, not biology.
S’tera turned silently and headed back to Doctor Greene. A few few minutes later, she found her way back to the stasis pods. "Hi Doc, so what's the word? How do you want to handle this?"
Helivan Stasis Pod Centre
Lieutenant Tête made her way through the small starship. It felt a bit warm, but the people were from a desert planet. Still, she thought she would like the ship cooler even if she was a desert person. Even in their time, conditioned air had been invented and widely used.
She couldn’t use the universal translator to read the panels and she sure as hell wasn’t using it to open one of these stasis pods. She just sat in the cramped area in the small circular room.
"You alright there lieutenant?" Greene asked gently brushing past her as he assessed the pods and their contents.
“Doing fine, Doctor. Thanks for asking. Just a bit warm and cramped, but so far there’s been no obvious danger. I’d be interested to know what all the hubbub at the rear of the ship is about,” Wara answered.
"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Greene replied. "That's a point though," he added. "If the occupants are in stasis why is the environmental system still running hot? I would expect the ship to be much cooler to conserve power, unless there's a malfunction."
"No idea," the Ops Chief answered, "It could be a number of reasons. Nyx might have a better answer." Tapping her comm badge, Sydney called for the Engineer's attentions, =/\= "Reid to Nyx. Doctor is wondering why the ambient temperature is so high if they were trying to conserve power. Are you reading anything on your scans? Maybe a failure in the coolant system or something?"
“We haven’t heard from Lieutenant Nyx yet?” Wara said, a slight bit of worry in her voice. “I’m heading down to the engine room. It may be the source of this heat. If it’s hotter there, they may be in distress. I’ll keep the comms open.”
Glancing to the Doctor and directing him towards the interface, Reid brought a hand up to wave her finger through the air in front of her before a 'ping' sounded from Greene's PADD, as well as those of the rest of the boarding team. "Scan the interface with your tricorder, and it should translate the information onto your PADD. The syntax will not be perfect, but it should be good enough for now," she informed before turning her attention back to the pod.
"Excellent work, Sydney," Greene smiled after following her instructions. "That's very useful and maybe invaluable in repairing the ship later as well as communicating with our patients. Which on first inspection appear to be good health."
“Hell of a job,” Wara said, now able to read the information from every panel, link, tube, and intersection. She nodded her approval at Sydney.
"If your Romulan is just as good as your Federation Standard, I'd suggest switching your interface language to it. I only had time to get the U.T. to translate the Romulan Translations of the Helvian, so it's a translation of a translation, hence why the syntax is still messy," the Ops Chief noted to both of them in case it would serve them better as it was her.
"Don't sell yourself short," the Doctor said. "It's great intuition."
Focusing her tricorder on the power conduit extending off the back, Sydney studied the readings before calling back over the open channel, =/\= "Commander, if we wish to transport these pods to the prepared area on the Intrepid, we're going to need Engineering to connect a temporary power supply to disconnect them from the Helivan ship's power system. I'll continue to scan and prepare for transport, in the meantime." =/\=
"Didn't the sensors identify there were between ten and twelve life signs onboard?" Greene asked. "There's only three pods here, where's the rest?"
"Wasn't there mention of native animal life that was being carried mentioned in the briefing? Maybe that's what was picked up? We did have one of the auxiliary bays converted to confine and quarantine them," Reid answered, having ordered Armidale to coordinate with Engineering to do so earlier.
"Ah yes," the Doctor nodded having forgotten that fact. "I wonder why they bought the animal aboard and how they've faired over the last four months."
"Based on what we know, it was probably just a smaller sampling in case something happened to their main Arc Ship. I wouldn't be surprised if these are the prized specimens, given they are traveling with the species' ruling contingent," the Ops Officer answered as she continued her detailed scans to ensure seamless beaming of the pods to Intrepid.
Helivan Labs
=/\= Alright, I will contact the Intrepid. Thanks. =/\=
She paused her transferring of plants and animals to contact the bridge. =/\= Lorut to Culver. We need Engineering to attach a power supply. We have no power here; core's blown, lithium is gone. =/\=
“Sorry, Commander Lorut, Captain Culver’s been sent off shift. Commander Ripley speaking. I’m looping engineering in since you have them on the Helivan ship already. Lieutenant Nyx, the Commander needs you to the stasis pod so you can hook up some external power pods before transport to sickbay.”
=/\=Thank you, Ripley.=/\= Later, she'd make her displeasure known to the Captain.
“Acknowledged, Commander Lorut. We’ll keep lines open here, continue monitoring your progress,” Chet responded in kind.
Helivan Engine Room
“You have got to be kidding me...” Nyx cursed under her breath before calling to Edwena for help, “Edwena, my comm badge isn’t working over here, can you contact the other half of the away team and let them know that I’ve heard their continued calls and will be there in five minutes.” She was on the small side, a hair over 1.5 meters. The access tunnel she had crawled into was tight for her and must have shielding since no one seemed to hear her acknowledgements.
Reaching a control valve, she reset it. The ship hissed in approval and Nyx reversed to wriggle herself backwards, out of the tunnel. Sweat soaked her uniform and plastered her hair to her forehead and neck. Once she was standing in the engine room once more, she took a moment to talk to her team before leaving for the “pod room.”
“Things should start to cool down in a few minutes,” Nyx let them know. “I’m heading out to see why they keep calling me.”
Helivan Labs
Vila could hear everything as she pressed the buttons for transport to the Quarantine Bay. =/\=Need a power line to the the Pods for transport, Lieutenant =/\= Just then, a large rodent-type animal jumped at her. "AUUUGGHH," she yelled. A moment later, she calmed down-she just was surprised. How cute!!
At the sound of the commander’s scream, Wara was off with two people from her security team before anyone could say a word. She ducked down one tunnel and then another, phasers drawn.
Rounding through the door of the aft compartment, Wara noticed the commander was safe and slowed the two men filling her, “Stand down!” she shouted as the men charged down the corridor toward her.
A few seconds later, the Caitian caught up to the security team. Wara had noted the Commander was okay from a security standpoint and nodded as the female felinoid passed into the small room.
"Calm down, it's OK!! This little guy just jumped out and frightened me," she said, picking up the rodent. "It's Ok. Thank you for coming so quickly," she said. "Here, hold this," she handed the rodent to S'Tera.
"Oh…" S’tera stopped before she said anything else. Didn't want to get in trouble for insubordination She took the little rodent. "Hear now little one. It's ok. Not going to hurt you!"
Another set of footsteps sounded behind as Doctor Greene arrived on the scene. "I heard a shout, is everyone alright?" he asked his gaze passing over every present looking for obvious injuries.
'It's alright. This little guy startled the commanded by jumping out at her. That's all! I think he 's just scared."
“Of all the damn things on this ship,” Wara deadpanned, “it’s still the rats! Always the rats!” she exclaimed.
Helivan Stasis Pod Centre
"Okay, I'm here..." Nyx announced her entry. "What did you need doing?"
Having spent much time listening to Comms Traffic, Sydney flinched at the sudden, screeching scream of surprise as it came through her subdermal receiver, but didn't go rushing off like most of the others. Waiting the few seconds needed to be sure she was correct, the Ops Chief looked up from her tricorder to the Chief Engineer, "As she was saying, LT, we need you to figure out a way to fashion a temporary battery onto these pods for transport. Preferably ones that can then be interfaced with the ship's power conduits once we get them to Intrepid." Offering her tricorder to Nyx, its display showed the readings and scans that Sydney had taken with the hope the engineer would be able to think up a quick solution to their pod power problem.
To Be Continued…
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