The Goldilocks Two-Step

Posted on Wed Apr 7th, 2021 @ 8:59am by Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Commander William Gerhard & Ensign Elegy Nascimento

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis - Residential sector
Timeline: Day 163 - 13:30 hours
2440 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

A comforting glow radiated into the passageway from the moment the double-doors whisked open. The quality of the light was akin to that golden hour, right before sunset. It was only when Ensign Elegy Nascimento walked inside the compartment that he could see how it took up two decks, with a grand sleeping loft above them. The boots of his environmental suit landed heavily as he stepped inside. Like the scientist he was, his hand-scanner preceded him.

The purpose of the boarding party was to learn everything they could about the crew of this alien starship. Their mission was all the more challenging given there were no signs of the crew to be found by Atlantis' earlier away missions. Elegy's head pivoted from side to side as he took in his surroundings. The walls were dotted with glowing roundels that an earlier away team had seen in other crew or passenger quarters. The furniture in the compartment looked to be organic outcroppings from the ship itself, made from mixed materials of metal, wood and upholstery. At first glance, Elegy couldn't determine if any of the furniture was functional in nature, or if it was all simply sculptural art. The stairs looked as if they could be a musical instrument, like a xylophone; the sofa resembled waves at the shore, and the coffee table looked awfully like it took all of its design cues from a sailing ship.

Lexi had requested to come on the away mission on the pure chance of getting away from the routine of hearing the distress call over and over. She wanted to see what else the ship had to offer and she was not disappointed even if every accommodation compartment they had been in looked the same. “Are you not glad Sir that I brought something to mark off where we have been.” She held up her trust pen that she had been using to mark where they had been. “I am jealous of the space and comfort. You think the Captain would allow us a sleepover here?” She wondered sitting on the couch.

Padding across the room languidly, Elegy followed Lexi into the sitting area. All the while, Elegy couldn't take his eyes off the massive viewport set into the hull; from this vantage point, he could look down at the Atlantis. "We have a relatively small crew," Elegy proposed hopefully, "and a very many decks to explore on this ship. I assume something could be negotiated, perhaps in the name of a sociological experiment." He offered Lexi a lopsided grin when he spoke and he straightened his eyewear. Across the transparent lens, speech-to-text technology showed him what the security officer behind him was saying.

William followed the two officers into the room. He was probably one of the few Starfleet officers that had no problems functioning in an EV suit. He held his plasma rifle with one hand while he pulled his scanner out with the other. He had been assigned as the security escort for the science team that was investigating what happened to the crew of the alien ship. So far, they had found no evidence that would even begin to point them in the right direction.

"I guess you both didn't hear me when I said to let me clear each room before you enter," he said with a slight hint of annoyance. Even though every single scan had turned up no biosigns, William was still highly suspicious about the craft and its AI "crewmember".

Elegy was quick to reply, "My apologies, Lieutenant." Elegy's timbre was repentant, although it sounded awfully similar to the last time Elegy had spontaneously stepped into another room without warning. The small smile in Lexi's direction may not have helped either. Elegy pivoted on his heel to face William directly. "We can hang back," Elegy said, gesturing to the loft with his scanner, "while you clear the sleeping loft?"

Lexi did not comment. She had no shame about the fact he was reminding them for potentially the fourth time that they had just strode into a room without a care in the world. They were becoming compliant that the ship was abandoned apart from the AI but it was too vast for them to truly feel like that. "I will sit here and behave." The woman said quickly glancing up thinking all their noise would have surely created a stir if someone was up there but she was not going to voice that right now.

William sighed a bit, "No need to hang back Ensign. I'm sure that someone would've heard us by now. I'll sweep the upstairs for any evidence of the crew, though I'd wager that I won't find anything." He made his way over to the staircase as he switched his hand scanner to forensic analysis mode. As he came to the steps, he looked up at the structure and wondered not for the first time what sort of species had occupied this ship. The staircase offered no handrails and seemed to have an irregular step pattern. The steps themselves seemed smooth and have a downwards pitch to them. "This should be interesting," he said as he tentatively placed a boot on the first step.

"If you full down the stairs I am right behind you," Lexi commented with a smirk. The stairs were a lot more graceful than what she was used to. She could almost imagine someone elegant moving down them to the room below. It really felt like they were walking around the fanciest hotel she had ever seen just after it was abandoned or something. "This place really is beautiful. I'd give a lot to spend a night in one of these rooms." She murmured thinking of the bathrooms they had seen in one of the previous rooms. The pool would take away every ache and pain she had been feeling since being stabbed by the Vrav.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Lieutenant," Elegy said encouragingly, as he sat himself down on the sofa, beside Lexi. Without drawing too much attention to himself, Elegy briefly checked the bottom of his own boot, struggling to remember if their boot treads were particularly grippy. Quickly, Elegy moved on to snatch up what looked vaguely like a fork and spoon on the coffee table. He felt the weight of them in his hand, and as he examined them more closely, he couldn't identify enough context clues to determine if they were eating utensils, objet d'art, or computer control devices. Elegy returned them to the table and began to record their details with his hand-scanner.

Smirking in Lexi's direction, Elegy found he couldn't avoid speaking about the topic any longer. With William largely outside of earshot, Elegy asked softly, "Did you hear about Sovar?"

Lexi raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head as she noticed his glance up to where William was. "Nope. Have not seen him in a while but not heard anything. What is up?" She said honestly keeping her tone quiet so that they would hear if William needed help and support. She was the type to gossip but she normally at least listened if it happened but she had not having heard much about anything recently. She had not been around the majority of the crew much recently with trying to learn much Vulcan as quickly as possible.

Speaking of Sovar, Elegy said, "He's indisposed, temporarily. Unfit for duty, for a little while." He didn't say more than that about Sovar, not wanting to betray any confidences. As he spoke, Elegy kept his eyes on William too. "In the interim," Elegy said softly, his vowels elongated, "the Captain has asked me to serve as the Chief Science Officer."

Lexi had not known that at all and Darru had not mentioned it over breakfast or lunch at all. How Vulcan of them all? They still kept so many things secrete it was silly sometimes when they were all literally on the same ship lost in space. She opened her mouth a few times trying to decide how to react to that. "So our future children are going to have rank on their side. as they grow up" Lexi finally decided to tease a little to light the mood. It was only appropriate when it was them.

"Oh, no, the Captain didn't mention anything about rank," Elegy replied, teasing her back. He shook his head with a repressed smirk. "A hierarchy always needs ensigns," Elegy said sagely as if he was quoting an old Starfleet tome, "and it's not like we can import new ones." --He shrugged dramatically-- "At least not until our children are of age."

Lexi grinned and nudged his shoulder before turning her attention back to the Armoury Officer. "Are you okay Lieutenant?" Lexi called looking up not hearing anything from him for a few moments.

William focused on his scanner as he stepped onto the upper level off the stairs. He began making his way around to the far wall where there appeared to be a doorway into another small room. He could hear his colleagues talking behind him, but he chose not to inject himself into the conversation since it seemed to be of a personal nature.

"I'm fine," he said as he spotted a small desk with what appeared to be a small computer terminal on it. The desk was circular and seemed to be made of the same material as the stairs. It was also held aloft by a small bar that swooped down to the deck. "Looks like there's a computer terminal up here," he said as he approached and scanned for any residual DNA that may be present.

"Be careful with it, Lieutenant," Elegy called out to the security officer in the overhead sleeping loft. Bracing his palms on his thighs, Elegy got to his feet and took a few steps back, closer to the viewport. This vantage point provided him a better line of sight to the computer terminal William was approaching. "You may wake up our ghost."

Lexi grinned and glanced behind them to the open door and gasped in surprise as she saw someone passing in the corridor wearing black against the startling white. "What..." She whispered jumping up striding to the door. With no one out there she took a few strides in the direction she had saw the figure go but could not see where they had gone.

William chuckled to himself slightly as he reached the terminal. The unit appeared to be active as his scanner showed power was flowing to it. He changed the settings on his scanner and did a quick forensic sweep to see if any DNA was on it. The readout showed no DNA was detected. "No DNA readings on it, but it's been left on," he said as he closed his scanner and placed it on his belt. He then looked down to Elegy, "Might want to check this out Ensign and see what you can find from it."

When the sensor readings of the computer terminal had proven to be benign, Elegy had started to meander into the dining area. At first glance, he assumed the glassware on the table was a vase, but from this angle, it looked like a pitcher filled with juice. Narrowing his eyes on the pitcher, Elegy moved closer to examine the liquid, when William asked him to examine the data available on the computer. Tilting his head back, Elegy said, "I'll take a look, Lieutenant."

William then turned and began looking around at the upstairs loft. It was then that he noticed one of the group was missing, "Where is O'Connery?"

Tentatively, Elegy padded his boots onto the uneven-looking stairs up to the sleeping loft. At William's concern, Elegy looked back over his shoulder to the sofa where he had left Lexi. The sofa that was looking lonely without an occupant. Swiveling his head from side to side, Elegy couldn't land his eyes on Lexi anywhere. Striding toward the open doorway to the corridor, Elegy called out her name: "Lexi? We're supposed to wander off unexpectedly together."

Lexi turned at the voice calling out to her. “I saw someone.” She whispered pale as a ghost.

"Lexi...?" Elegy started to say. Plainly surprised by her restrained reaction, Elegy face twisted into a quizzical wince. Even if he didn't understand what she was telling him, Elegy at least recognized that Lexi wouldn't be hushed by a member of the away team. "Not a member of our crew then..." Elegy said out loud, mostly to convince himself. Every indication he had seen seemed to suggest there was no crew of the Caelestis on board the ship. The possibility of seeing someone had grown to feel impossible to Elegy. Only after he heard his own voice, Elegy muttered, "This is happening."

Elegy snapped his head back and shouted up to the sleeping loft, "Lieutenant, we have company!" Moving to stand by Lexi's side, Elegy tucked his hand-scanner into a pouch on his EV suit and he snapped open the holster for his phase-pistol.

William looked up when he heard Lexi's response. He made his way quickly down the stairs to the ground floor. He checked his plasma rifle was on stun and clicked off the safety. He motioned for the two to move out of the doorway and quickly checked his corners. He then looked to Lexi, "Which way?"

Lexi could only point forward and to the left. She had lost sight of them as they had turned the corner and she had not seen where they had gone after that moment.

William nodded in response, "Alright, you two stay behind me. Phase pistols on stun. If I tell you to retreat, make your way back to this room and call for an emergency transport out, understood?"

"I am not being transported." The young woman hissed.

William shot her a look, "That wasn't a request Ensign."

Elegy widened his eyes at Lexi in a pleading expression. Lexi, let's go, Elegy communicated to Lexi in sign language; his hands coming together in parallel and then one flying off on a diagonal. Trusting she would do the right thing, Elegy raised his phase-pistol, visually checked it was set to stun, and fell into a march behind William.

William nodded and shouldered his rifle. As he did this, he pressed the comm button on the front of his EV suit, "Gerhard to Atlantis, we are not alone on this ship."