Lost and Confused and Creeped Out

Posted on Thu Apr 1st, 2021 @ 8:06am by Ensign Duncan McManus & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Lottie Daglish & Major Samuel King & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Annikafiore Szerda

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis - Engineering
Timeline: Day 162 10:00
1969 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

When the Captain had requested volunteers to go over to the strange ship Lottie has jumped at the chance to get off the ship for the first time in 160 odd days. She had enough knowledge to change a few chips, turn a hyper spanner, drive in a few self-sealing stem bolts. Certainly, enough knowledge to help fix some of the more minor problems on the ship but the vessel needed exploring and she had spent years exploring shipyards as a child.

“Did not expect to be exploring this place with breathable air.” She said shattering the silence as she placed her helmet down now that they were assured it was safe. It would make everything easier to work with especially for the two engineers.

Luca placed his helmet down next to Lottie's as he waited for the lieutenant to respond, taking up a secure position just in case they did encounter something.

This part of the ship was still dark, seemingly unpowered whereas other parts of the ship were still lit. They had done their flyby to found no signs of life through any means. Samuel had brought his rifle on board for purely defensive reasons, as well as a few trinkets should things get dicey. It was strange to have air so easy to breathe, almost as if it was designed for them.

"Yeah well... we really didn't expect a lot of things," Duncan replied as he took off the gloves as well in order for him to be able to handle his gear as well.

“Where too first Sir?” Lottie wondered shinning her palm light down the corridor. It barely pierced the darkness that was surrounding them but it did make her glad to have a Marine with them.

For a moment, the engineer looked at his scanner in silence as he thought it all through before he turned a bit and noticed the faint power readout. "Well... I would say we figure out how this ship works, and make sure that whatever automated system that is manoeuvring this boat doesn't decide to take off before we can dip out and still be able to make it back to Atlantis." He looked over at what looked to a console embedded into a near wall, in which Chris pointed at. "Let's see if we can pull up some schematic."

"I would have liked to have brought more marines on board for safety but given we cannot find anyone I hope we have nothing to fear," Sam said out loud as he scanned the darkness with the light from his own light. "We should move to engineering without wasting any time. The sooner we have an understanding of what has gone on here the more at ease I will feel," he said as his hand hovered over his rifle.

Luca shone his palm light down a corridor his phase pistol following the beam of light. "Shall we sirs?"

Lottie frowned shouldering the Engineering equipment that had been brought with them. As soon as they started in one direction the whole corridor lit up around them revealing how clean the lines and how bright the ship was compared to the grey of Atlantis.

Sam raised his rifle instinctively to the change in his environment and scanned the area. Seeing no threat to life he lowered his weapon and exhaled as he switched his light off. "Follow the well-lit road? As long as we watch out for twisters and flying monkeys I am sure we will be fine..."

"That's the spirit toto." Lottie murmured relieved the man had better reflexes than her in an EVA suit it was just not easy carrying all the stuff they needed plus a weapon. She would need to rely on others to protect all of them. "It's so bright. It almost hurts my eyes." She admitted taking a few steps down the corridor again as everyone started to move.

"Tell you right now, if we find winged monkey's with sunglasses or an old man behind the curtains..." Duncan remarked as they made their way through the corridor. "... we may be wishing we had our red slippers."

Luca chuckled to himself as he followed behind his head on a swivel. He got the reference but exploring a derelict ship such as this he would be more concerned coming across someone named Ripley.

"I'll take sunglasses if this place gets any brighter," Sam said with a laugh as they came to a set of rather large doors. "At least these weren't hard to find, it is almost as if this ship wants to help us."

Lottie frowned as she took in the large blast doors. They looked thick and well blast proofed. “Well, these look large and very blast-proof.” The nurse murmured looking at the Marine Commanding Officer with a worried looked. Everything on the ship was so strange compared to what she was used to. It was not even as if she had anything from a film to compare it with either, nothing had really been produced recently since the Xindi attack and she was not an old film nerd.

"Well, this ship seems to be quite open to us being here." Samuel gestured to the lights coming on, the panels that were in their own native languages. "I say we walk up and see if they open," he said as he did so. The large doors did not open and he stood back placing his hands on his hips. "Not so helpful," he muttered to himself. "I am open to suggestions. Blowing them open is not going to happen," he said feeling the door and giving it a thud to assess its thickness. "Anyone see access panels, either for personnel access or maintenance?"

Luca started searching the area checking various panels, and cabinets, as he moved. "Nothing over here." He called out as he moved towards the doors in question. "Why not try kicking that panel over there he indicated with the rifle.

"Voices! Human voices!" someone said. The voice was vaguely Scandinavian in accent and echoed from a cross-passage down the way. A flickering of light, projected an environmental suit's wrist lamp, appeared from a darkened corridor. As the sound of heavy boots on the deck grew closer, the ship's overhead lighting from that corridor activated to full strength. Petty Officer Annikafiore Szerda came jogging out of the corridor. "Thank god I found you, sirs," the engineer said, as she rounded the corner and approached the gathered crew. Annikafiore explained, "I got separated from my away team by a blast door. Didn't want to get left behind."

Lottie yelped and turned at the sudden voice that was not any of the men that was with them. She waited with bated breath for the person to appear. She turned and saw her fellow Petty Officer and grinned. “Lost again huh Szerda?” She teased just a little glad to see her even if it was because she had gotten lost from the other team. There was nothing scarier than being lost in the unknown. “Find anything interesting?” She wondered stepping back to look at the door intrigued by how they were going to get through.

As if the doors heard her thoughts they slowly started to open.

Raising an index finger to point over Lottie's shoulder, Annikafiore mouthed something soundlessly when she shook her head in the negative. "Nothing more interesting than that," Annikafiore replied, referring to the cavernous compartment that opened to them. The space was segmented off with various panels that varied between transparent material, black glass, or gunmetal grey. A sickly green glow filled the chamber, as did a powerful thrumming sound from deep within.

Duncan turned and looked at the door as it slid open. "Hmm... seems we just needed to ask nicely. Did not think of that at all." He said stepping into the Engineering compartment with his rifle raised. "Green is not my favourite colour at all." He said stopping to take it all in. It was impressive and just like the rest of the ship so much more than he was used to. "First impressions?" He wondered off the group seeing they now had more engineers than any other department. It would be good to get fellow engineers thoughts on it all.

Following Duncan inside, Annikafiore crossed to the other side of the spacious chamber. She moved to read from the nearest computer terminal, but the words were in a script she couldn't recognize. Striding from workstation to workstation, Annikafiore noted how even the waveforms and control menus on the screens were completely unfamiliar with the engine room she was accustomed to aboard Atlantis. As she approached a stairwell and large transparent panels angled towards her, Annikafiore only then realized that this compartment was only a viewing platform looking down on the truly cavernous engine chamber.

After casting a quick glance at her hand scanner, Annikafiore looked back at the rest of the away team. "With power like that," she said, "this ship can go a mite faster than warp five."

"We can go to warp nine." A voice called out from behind them. Turning with gun raised Duncan did not expect to come face to face with a woman who looked out of a sci-fi movie. She had long blonde, straight hair neatly coiffed with a thin black headband keeping it out of her face, cat eyeliner and a nude lip, it almost looked human in style, a homage to Earth’s hippie era apart from the outfit she wore was plastic and black. "And who might you be?"

" E.D.E.N. I am The Caelestis’ Emergency Disaster Engagement Network your friends on the Bridge and Hydroponic bay 2 told me to speak one language to you. Is that appropriate still?" She wondered looking them all over.

Sam turned to face this the newest member of their surroundings, he half raised his rifle but calmed himself as he saw the non-threatening demeanour of the 'woman' in front of him. The words of emergency and disaster rang alarm bells in his mind as to why would this thing need to be active if something hadn't happened. Warp 9 was also impressive and it spoke to the advanced nature of the ship and its equipment.

"Yes, this language is fine for most of us I think," Sam spoke. English was quite widely spoken amongst the crew. "Tell me, I can guess from your name what you are for, but what is your exact purpose?" he asked moving closer to the female image.

"I am a collective network," she answered vaguely. "I engage with crew members in an event of an emergency."

Those words in that order caused Annikafiore to scrunch up her nose in discomfort. She checked the readings on her hand-scanner again, but the equipment around her and even this collective network were all so unfamiliar to her. She didn't know the baseline data for any of the energy levels; it made it hard to know if anything was out of place. Looking right at E.D.E.N., Annikafiore asked, "Does that mean we're in the middle of an emergency? Are we in danger now?"

E.D.E.N. looked at the woman and nodded once. “Yes.” The AI said flickering a few times before disappearing leaving the engineering observation room in silence. Duncan gulped just a little. He had walked far too many horror films to not be alarmed.

“Yeah, that is not creepy at all,” Duncan muttered feeling his grip on his rifle tighten just a little. “Back to Atlantis.” He instructed.

Stepping closer to Duncan, Annikafiore muttered, "I'm staying close." --She shook her head with a worried cringe across her features-- "I'm not getting lost again with that over here."