Posted by Commander Michelle Allen (First Officer) in Post Sim - Science Labs, XO making rounds

Posted by Lieutenant Markus Woods (Chief Science Officer) in Post Sim - Science Labs, XO making rounds

Posted by Lieutenant Markus Woods (Chief Science Officer) in Post Sim - Science Labs, XO making rounds
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Things had slowly been getting back to normal, and Michelle was feeling like she was finally starting to settle in to her new home here on the Viking. She decided to take some time to visit with various department heads and inspect their departments. Today on her agenda was the science department.

She approached the main science lab and strode inside. She hadn’t had the chance to meet much of the science staff, so she looked around for someone who might be able to point her in the direction of the CSO.

-Commander Michelle Allen, XO

As the XO made her way in, there seemed to be no one about. Much of the labs consoles were dark, or in a few places where there should be equipment lay only blank spaces. The labs were eerily quiet. Only the faint rush of the life support systems and the occasional soft sound from the built-in computers came through.

While she moved deeper their came the faint sound of something scraping along a metal surface. Something or someone was definitely here though. A presence seemed to fill the space. It had come from a side doorway which was open, off to the left. The lab stations themselves lay in the middle of the room on top of standing work spaces with storage built in ostensibly for equipment and paraphernalia.

On the edge of calling out a head and shoulders appeared in the doorway to the left, some kind of storage closet. A seemingly human male, Caucasian with dark hair, mustache and goatee with dark eyes. The hair was within acceptable regulations, slicked back and neat. He stood an inch shorter than the XO but had a solid thirty fifve pounds on her and looked to be in shape which only accentuated the strong jawline and cheekbones. The science blues of the uniform marked him as belonging to the lab and the glint of lieutenants pips conveyed he at least had some competency within Starfleet.

If one had checked his service jacket, there was no mistaking Lieutenant Markus Woods, who’d already served six cruises and had proven to not only be a capable science officer, but cool under fire and able to handle himself. This was no timid lab rat, and the look of piercing intelligence in those eyes seemed to match. Like her, he was a head turner, but from all accounts, he was not the type to step on people to rise in the ranks. He put in the work, like her. Straightening up he slipped through the doorway. “Ah, Commander I thought someone was here,” he said with a small smile. “Lieutenant Woods. I was hoping to speak with you sooner rather than later.” His tone was friendly and welcoming. He offered her a hand, though in truth he didn’t expect her to take it. It was an older tradition of greeting not many observed these days, but was still customary among some humans. Deneva was a melting pot of cultures, but in some ways there was still a frontier mindset where a handshake and a person’s word meant something.

Lt Woods, CSO
(bump)

Michelle strode over to him, taking his hand with a firm handshake. “Commander Michelle Allen,” She said, by way of introduction. She looked around at the dark and somewhat sparse lab. “Where is all your staff?” She asked. Then she indicated with a nod of her head to an empty space where it appeared a console or workstation had been removed. “Why was that equipment removed?”

-Commander Michelle Allen, XO

“Staffing has been a problem for the Viking from what I understand. I’m still relatively new myself. From what information I’ve been able to gather there’s a lot of weird, unexplained stuff happening. Some say the ship is cursed. Or haunted. Or both. I don’t really buy into it. There may be some residual phenomenon that’s affecting it. Unfortunately with half the lab gone, there’s no way to verify anything. I can only do so much with a tricorder,” he said. “That doesn’t really answer your question though.”

Reaching out to one of the displays he brought it to life with a touch. Pulling up the previous science officer rosters, the screen glitched, then resolved itself after the man gave an annoyed sigh, but not before. Several of the officers simply showed as missing. Others were sudden transfers. “The staff either run away screaming from this post. Or they seem to disappear. Without a trace. They aren’t A.W.O.L. They’ve vanished. It’s happened with other staff too.” He shook his head. “So there’s definitely something weird going on. I lost a very good Ph. D just after getting here, during a weird spatial anomaly.”

“My equipment seems to be either finding it’s way to the black market, or it’s disappearing in similar fashion. I would think the missing crew were taking and vanishing with it, but it’s not that valuable, and it doesn’t coincide for all materials,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve put in requisitions for new gear the next chance we get to put in at Starbase. I would replicate more but the replicators are… not exactly functioning normally. Can’t trust them for sensitive scientific equipment.” He shook his head. “I’ve been considering doing what I can to deal with the replicator issue myself. I’m not bad at fixing things. But I don’t want to step on any sensitive engineers. Or risk making it worse.”

“So… I’m in a rock and a hard place, Commander. But it’s not the first time. Probably won’t be the last,” he said and shifted footing a little. “Also some of the equipment was damaged during that anomaly. I pretty much broke my tibia and suffered a minor concussion when a bunch of shelving fell on me in the storage closet. Luckily I didn’t have a chemical accident. So that’s part of it too.”

Lt Woods, CSO