Posted by Gamemaster Wookius Furrius (GM) in Main Sim- Pythagoras (COS branch)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Alita Claire (Chief of Security) in Main Sim- Pythagoras (COS branch)

Posted by Gamemaster Wookius Furrius (GM) in Main Sim- Pythagoras (COS branch)
Posted by… suppressed (15) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Nodding, Alita turned on her heel and made her way to the next deck.

• Alita, MO/COS

The lift was not far away and took Alita up to the next deck. It was an accommodation level by all appearances. Central was an open space design with curved seats, tables, a couple of holo gaming tables, several replicator units and the like. Moving out from this central hub fore and aft was a corridor from which were cabins to either side. There looked to be five cabins on each side both fore and aft.

The indications were coming from a cabin on the fore side of the deck.

By observation Alita would note that while everything looked pretty tidy at the tables and along one line of ‘bar’ seating that spanned one wall where a clear window looked out to space and planetside, there was a bit of a mess at one lounge table. It was on a round table which was the centerpiece of four semi circular couches that surrounded it. Each couch could comfortably seat 2. On the coffee table where the scattered remains of a foodstuff and a drink that was spilled. A fruity smell easily reached Alita’s senses.

Alita decided to make a more thorough search of this particular part of the ship later. In her judgement, dealing with the lifesign in a cabin was her first priority. She made her way there and scanned the door before attempting to enter the room.

• Alita, MO/COS

Apparently, while the Pythagoras was small it had single cabins for the crew. This one had a name plate, a Tammy Wilder. Being somewhat closer did not help in any kind of identification, though it did help to narrow and confirm that whatever it was was within. Previously the ID was less exact. Now Alita had a cabin. Whatever it was, it was stationary.
Wookiee

Alita opened the door, scanned again, and prepared to step in.

• Alita, MO/COS

The door slid open and the dim lights came on to full brightness. The air felt, not stale, but musky. She could have sworn she had heard something - a kind of growl or something - just as the door opened but it was cut short as soon as the door slid open. The cabin appeared to be a fairly standard design for a single dwelling. There was a main anteroom with a small couch, chair and table, a workspace to the left and a decorative screen - almost looking like a modification of the century back hexagonal mesh that formed may older wall dividers. Behind could be hinted at to being sleeping quarters.

Scans would suggest that whatever was the source was behind that mesh toward the back.
- Wookiee

Alita made her way into the room being certain to keep the door open and look carefully to either side.

“Hello? I’m Commander Claire, is someone here?” she asked approaching what might be the sleeping quarters.

• Alita, MO/COS

There was no reply to the introduction. The musky smell was stronger, animalish in nature. The only sounds was a low scratching sound which was brief. It did allow Alita to center the location toward the right side of the rear of the cabin behind the partition. It was in shadow, unlit, but would be enough for Alita to see any shadow of movement if there was anything of size.
- Wookiee

Alita advanced towards the partition phaser rifle at the ready using standard room clearing techniques. She sincerely hoped to find the owner of the cabin but, if the scent was any indication, she was guessing at a feral pet or some such other creature.

• Alita, MO/COS

The tense moments ticked by and whatever sounds were made had stopped. Had Alita heard a soft sniffing sound? Or was it her own breath?

Behind the partition was a locker against the left wall, a standard single starfleet bed along the partition on the right. Behind it the space was taken up by a waist high crate, the entry shielded by a gray translucent force field, evidently porous in some fashion if sounds had gotten out. One door of the locker was ajar, the bed ruffled as though it had been made but someone had sat on it. A pair of mauve slippers were on the floor.

Whatever it was, it was in a largish crate, animal wise. It was also a pretty solid looking crate. Scans would show it was made of a polycarbonate matrix that was radiation shielded. In short the pet/critter was more protected than the crew. At the first step behind the partition the subject let out a snarling screech and launched against the force field. All that Alita saw at this sudden motion that pushed the crate forward some inches were dark eyes, fur of a slightly lighter hue and particularly large fangs that made the force field sparkle with the contact.
- Wookiee

For a split second Alita wondered if she’d gone down the proverbial rabbit hole. Was this all a waste of time? Obviously this was no helpful member of the crew so she should probably move on but, now that she was here, part of her just had to know what the hell this thing was.

She did another quick tricorder scan of the furry fanged thing in the crate before commencing to search the quarters hoping that the personal logs might shed more light on the situation.

• Reia, MO/COS

There were no further life signs in the cabin. And, from a scan, in the area.

However, being in such close proximity to the crate, there was at last a positive ID on the critter. A Vulcan Sehlat. But, perhaps more of a curiosity, or perhaps concern, was that there was a power source of some kind separate from the power source of the crate, in the crate with the Sehlat. By all indications it was small - had to be given the limited size there - but was enough to show up. In Alita’s estimation it could be anything from a high powered piece of electronics to a photon grenade (didn’t entirely have that ‘feel’ to her but was so equivalency) to an explosive to a battery to a .. fill in the blank.
- Wookiee

Alita felt for the creature in the crate. She knew they could be vicious but she wasn’t fond of confined spaces. The small power signature had caught her attention and she went to investigate that further. She hoped that a visual observation and a more refined scan would help her find it and figure out what it was.

• Alita, MO/COS

=^=Alita, have you found anyone up there?=^= The XO asked, =^=We were about to go searching for you =^=. Bryson stated, as he held his position between the corridor and Engineering Room.

Erin (XO)

Alita realized that she hadn’t checked in with Bryson.

=^=Just a Sehlat who seems to be sharing it’s kennel with a small powersource of some kind. I’m going to investigate that right now.=^=

• Alita, MO/COS

If Alita had ever felt herself - outside of the barracks or bar - being stared as as though she were a tasty pork chop, she would feel it in spades here. Dark, round eyes fixed on her in predatory fashion and watching every move, the long fangs dripping with saliva, and all along there was a low growling, a menacing purring sound coming from it. Alita would have to take down the force field to go farther, and that was what was keeping it within. With a visual inspection she could see that by a hind leg a cylinder of dark grey metal, at least 8 inches long - hard to see past the Sehlat for a full view - and about 2 inches diameter, flat on the end that she could see. A pale blue light rimming the viewable end circled it, blinking rhythmically. It was the source of the power.
- Wookiee

After examining the situation again, Alita set her phaser rifle to heavy stun, dropped the force field, and fired at the sehlat.

• Alita, MO/COS

As the force field came down the sehlat launched itself at Alita. Even with the cramped space getting out of the crate, the sehlat’s animal wiles nearly evaded the shot. It caught a glancing strike at a shoulder and flank and dropped to the deck, twitching and panting.
- Wookiee

Alita quickly dropped to one knee, checked her kit for the relevant hypo, and administers an heavy anesthetic to the Sehlat before slowly getting up and making her way to the device emitting the power signature.

The animal really was beautiful, a distant Vulcan relative had one and they had spent several summers at the Califirnia house when she was growing up but, hopefully, this one would take a long nap.

Bending down, she scanned the item again before deciding whether to pick it up or not.

• Alita, MO/COS
  

It had taken the XO only a few minutes to locate the COS. “What’s that?” Bryson asked, watching the COS bend down to investigate an object. The XO also pulled out his tricorder to read the scans that the COS was collecting.

Seen more clearly now, the tube was less spectacular than perhaps imagined. What Alita had seen was the top of the unit where the blue trim was and the slowly blinking light atop. It appeared to have a curved display window stretching about 2 inches long just under the glowing blue trim. It was hard to say how wide it may be, but it was dark, almost of the same coloration as the rest of the unit, but for the display being reflective. Overall it was about a foot long, constructed of a dull gunmetal with the other end having a kind of cap on it.

It was emitting much more power than what it may normally have with it - for Alita would know a little about it, that being a heavy purpose data storage unit that would be found on outposts, field installations and the like. Sometimes too they would be used in a military operation as they were built to take punishment. The unit itself would not be unusual on a science ship like the Pythagoras. What was unusual was the power. In some way it was .. souped up or altered, or not what it seemed to be on the outside. While the power was quite high, the scan would come up pretty negative on it being an explosive.
- Wookiee

“Maybe I should have sent Petrov,” Commander Erin laughed, stepping forward to take a closer look. “There’s just an unusual amount of power in the data storage to not raise suspicion....do we think it could be transported back to the Wolverine for further analysis?”

Erin (XO)