Meeting Jaivir Part 1

Posted on Thu May 9th, 2024 @ 3:54pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Commander Benjamin Jamesson & Ensign Alexandra 'Lexi' O'Connery & Warrant Officer Iryna Voznyuk & Lieutenant JG Halli Reex & Ensign David Kipling & Ensign Mercy Mourne & Captain Jaivir Vohra & Petty Officer, 1st Class Christian Tremblay
Edited on on Fri May 10th, 2024 @ 7:22am

Mission: Contagion
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Day 367 AM
3208 words - 6.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth had barely slept but she at the very least felt in tune with the away team who from the sounds of the reports she had received since she had finally given up trying at 5 am had been talking back and forth with friends and crew mates overnight on the ship. She stepped onto the bridge with decaf coffee in tow (for the taste) and took in the bridge and who was at each console. Reex was keeping their orbit around the base, Voznyuk was at the armoury console and Tremblay and Mourne were having a handover at science, leaving Jamesson sitting in her chair whilst observing Kipling but instantly rose on seeing her and O'Connery at communication. Lexi offered a worried glance before she turned to the communications coming back and forth from the base to the ship and vice versa.

"Good morning Captain," Jamesson said seeing the bags under the woman's eyes.

"Good morning Commander," Beth responded sitting straight down as the older man moved to the Engineering console that was going to be changed over for more operation functions. "Any change overnight?"

Mercy had tensed as the Captain stepped onto the bridge. Forcing herself to focus she kept her head down and eyes fixed on the information Tremblay was talking her through. Knowing she was going to be on the bridge she had taken extra care not to spill anything down herself, and had stayed up a little later than normal mending the latest mystery tear in her uniform.

As Tremblay finished his handover she gave him a small smile and stepped into place. “Thanks, Christian, I think I can take it from here, you should go get some rest.” Her tone had a hint of genuine concern. She then began the process of routinely checking the sensor arrays were working normally, all the while doing her best impression of a calm, competent officer.

Christian did not normally sit bridge watch, but occasionally he would find his name on the watch schedule, and he was just finishing up his handover when he had noticed Mercy tense as the captain had stepped onto the bridge. He tried to hide the small smile on his face. Captain Leroux was fairly relaxed in how she managed her bridge, and most of the crew had gotten used to her style off command, at least one would hope so after a year in space.

"Of course ma'am," Christian said before stepping back and taking the PADD containing his shift's sensor logs that he would then download into the main computer. He gave a brief nod towards the captain as he made his way around towards the situation room aft of the bridge.

Halli was, indeed, keeping the ship in orbit, but she was also daydreaming. She'd once seen an old Earth movie called "Top Gun" and she'd felt a bit jealous that she'd never been able to fly one of those planes. It looked like fun. Occasionally, she'd made whooshing noises as she maneuvered the ship-until she'd been given a few curious glances. Oops, she hadn't meant to do it out loud. She raised her head.

"Good Morning, Captain. Smooth sailing from the Helm," she reported. When she'd taken over just a few minutes ago from the Beta Shift officer, she'd set it to autopilot but kept her attention trained on the panels and gadgets that kept her afloat. She wasn't lazy, just a bit dumb.

“Good Morning Lieutenant,” Beth replied sitting down in the chair avoiding Voznyuk’s gaze. She was the only one outside of Hughes who knew her condition and she wanted to keep in that way until she had gotten her head around it enough.

“Armoury is within normal operating conditions, Captain. I have had a report from Commander Gerhard that everything is fine over there.” Iryna reported.

David was deeply engrossed in the Situation Room's display table when he noticed a shift in the room's atmosphere. Looking up, he saw Captain Leroux stepping onto the Bridge, ready to assume command for the day's operations. The sight of the Captain stirred up memories of a recent, brief conversation they had shared about the current state of affairs on Atlantis. It was a discussion that had left a lasting impression on David.

Suddenly, the routine sound of crew members reporting in jolted him from his reflective state. He was momentarily caught in a state of indecision, unsure whether he should join in or maintain his silence. After a moment's deliberation, he concluded that it wouldn't hurt to contribute.

"Damage Control - operations normal, Captain," David chimed in, his voice steady and clear, when his turn in the reporting queue arrived.

Once the last crew member had reported and the room fell into a brief, anticipatory silence, David allowed his focus to shift back to the task at hand. He found himself once again engrossed in the intricate schematic that was displayed on the "pool table" in front of him, his mind whirling with strategies and plans.

Beth glanced up as the Helm console started beeping and then the armoury console. "There is a ship on an incept course for us and the base," Iryna revealed.

"Red alert. O'Connery send a communication to the away crew and then try and raise the ship coming towards us." Beth ordered.

Christian had stopped his stride through the doorway when he heard the commotion from the front of the bridge. As the Alert tone sounded, and being the closest science division on the bridge, he assumed the secondary science station position in the situation room and input the appropriate console to indicate the station was manned and ready. Christian's normal battle stations posting was as a roving damage control party member, but the circumstances always meant his position changed.

As the ship moved into visual range, being bold enough to approach the starship from bow-side, it was immediately obvious that, whilst it was considerably smaller than the Atlantis, it was robust and compact in a way that rather flamboyantly declared its offensive capabilities. There was no indication that it had any weapons primed, however, and after a brief lull in response time, there was a stream of rather lyrical eloquence that the updated translation circuits experienced some delay in processing. The viewscreen flickered on and, before the decoding was finalised, the initial greeting was rendered unnecessary by the interruption of a man seen slipping into the central seat still buttoning his shirt. To his left, a vividly-azure alien, having just relinquished the command seat, sank into another and pulled the adjustable console closer. The only other visible crew member was a placid, pale humanoid at the helm.

"This is Vohra of the Kama Novus. We picked up a distress call, looks like we turned up just in time for the party."

The man, who appeared mostly humanoid, gave up on his shirt halfway and stood to approach the viewscreen.

"Do we know what stage the pod is at?"

Beth raised an eyebrow at the man appearing on her screen with only half his top done up. That was certainly a way to greet people and distract them for a moment that the man looked human compared to the woman who had moved from the central chair. “My name is Bethsabee Leroux of the Earth Starfleet vessel Atlantis. We are responding to the distress call.” Beth explained. “Pod?” She questioned.

An almost imperceptible change rendered the man's expression quizzically pensive. The dart of his eyes suggested he was re-evaluating the larger ship, and a slight lean forward tracked his gaze as it drifted from one visible Bridge crew member to the next. As a culmination, his eyebrow hitched.

"Our friend out there." The jab of his finger was roughly in the direction of the station, at least from his perspective. "Second growth stage moving into third, I'd say, by the size of it." Vohra paused then, appearing to clean something out of a back tooth with the tip of his tongue as he regarded Leroux and then added, "You didn't send anyone over, did you?"

Beth paled slightly of it was at possible as the man asked that question on whether there was crew over there or not. “Yes. But second growth stage does not explain much at all. There are thousands of people over there who are dying because of an infection onboard.”

A slow inhalation became an expelled hiss of revelation as Vohra turned to the woman by his side, swapped glances and then reached a hand up to rub the back of his neck. "Oh boy. Okay, we're going to need extraction back-up. Send a priority message through to Daskysh, let the Realians know we've got a gestational t'Sayxrosia with multiple tributes on board." Turning back to the viewscreen, his hands found his hips and formed a posed that might have been slightly humorous had the next words out of his mouth provoked any kind of snicker.

"Captain, you're going to want to extract your people if you're still able. Your space station over there is doing its very best to make you think its an abandoned construct but I assure you, that's an aggressive piece of space flora you don't want to mess with."

A gestational t'Sayxrosia with multiple tributes on board? What in the hell could that be when their scanners had revealed nothing about it.

“They are still in contact.” Beth turned to Iryna who was already bouncing on her feet. “Give them 1 hour to get out Warrant Officer before you go over there to get them. ” She said simply as Lexi started to send an emergency signal to the away team. “Tell me more about what a gestational t'Sayxrosia is because my people are over there as well as a species called the Luminari.” Beth watched as the cyan-coloured woman next to the Captain pass him a note.

Christian had listened to the exchange as he focused on his station, alarm starting to set in as he input the commands on his console to pull up the sensor logs. He could not see anything out of the ordinary on the logs.

Mercy had gone very still while this had all played out. She kept getting stuck on the word ‘tribute’. It implied someone had done this knowingly, had sacrificed thousands of people to this entity. Her next thought was to their own people. The Captain would do whatever she could to get them safely aboard once more, of that Mercy was certain. Finally her mind stuttered over the fact they had missed this. They had scanned the station, no the flora, the gestational t'Sayxrosia. They had scanned it and missed its true nature, but how?

Mercy’s fingers began to fly through the scanning data, looking at the type of scans that had been completed. Scientific curiosity and dread pushed aside any awkwardness. The gestational t'Sayxrosia must have a way of disguising itself? Like a protective camouflage found in some… no that’s not right. It was more like a lure, like a pitcher plant, or even an angler fish. Could it be presenting itself as something enticing simply to lure nutrients to it? Or were they pollinators? Vohra had said it was ‘doing its best to present itself’, which implied further evidence of deliberate behaviour and thought. Could the t’Sayxrosia be sentient? If not sentient did it have a level of awareness similar to other flora? It was all extraordinarily, dreadfully, curious.

Mercy hesitated a moment, not wanting to interrupt the Captain or undermine her in front of an alien presence, so she waited for a moment where she could pipe up. “C-Captain? I would recommend further scans, mimicking the approach we use for novel flora planet-side, once the away team is secure. It may be aware and any change in our behaviour might illicit a defensive response. P-perhaps we could also request information on how the Kama Novus were able to identify the gestational t'Sayxrosia so easily? If they are common in this sector of space then we will need ways of identifying them in future.” Normally she would be embarrassed about how she stumbled over her words, but right now her only thoughts were to how she might be able to help her colleagues aboard the sta- the space plant.

Having borne the interruption with reasonably good humour, Vohra's expression shifted towards an amused half-smile that culminated in a wink at the zealous scientist. Whether intentional or not, the Ensign's questions made a more than adequate segue into the information Leroux was seeking. "Well, the first thing they're not is very common, at least not in this sector. Certainly not of this size." He looked down then at the piece of paper he'd been handed and frowned. "Ships along this route were put on high alert a few months back, the Realians had pulled up a smuggling unit trying to peddle some of the dormant seeds. Early intervention usually stunts their growth, more your average house-plant. Makes them a lot easier to control if you're after a sure-fire way to pull one over your investors. They're semi-intelligent, far as I've been told. Metamorphic, they, uh, change appearance to adapt to whatever situation they find themselves in."

Continuing the read the report he held, Vohra moved back to his seat and flopped down into it. "Looks like they've been tracking this one for a while and lost it. It's...big. Really big." The Captain screwed up his nose. "And at the rate it's been attracting tributes, looks like it could be a breeder."

“One moment Ensign. Commander, Warrant Officer go get them back take Rhodes and whoever else you need.” Iryna nodded as she glanced to the screen again.

"A breeder?" Mercy breathed out the words with wonder, the implications swimming through her head. She quickly noted down the information. "Captain request to-" Her eyes widened as she realised she had quite forgotten herself in the revelation and scientific excitement. Her curiosity had landed her right in the centre of attention, she felt her cheek heat. She sent a nervous glance over to where Kip, the friendliest face on the bridge, before looking back at the Captain. "A-apologies Captain, I did not mean to interrupt." She hunched her shoulders, subconsciously trying to make herself smaller as she logged her questions in the data entry for the station. What was the life cycle of such a being? What was the nature of it's relationship to the offerings? Was there a safe distance they could observe the next stage of it's cycle? What did they look like in their natural cycle? Would Vohra be willing to share any data about the species? She also made a mental note to talk to Ensign Moore about this at the first available moment. The hydroponics officer would likely have a field day with a lifeform of this nature.

Beth was filtering the information as she saw Iryna disappear out of the Bridge with Jamesson in tow going to retrieve the group as Lexi gave the thumbs up that she had the away team in contact and was relaying everything to them “Go ahead ensign and start scans and then catch up with Jamesson and Voznyuk. Tremberly you are going to have to man science and Kipling get down to Engineering with Rhodes and McManus not around you are needed down there.” She instructed sitting back in her chair.

David had abandoned the pool table with his schematics and moved to stand near the Bridge. His mind raced as he listened to the alien captain explain about the t’Sayxrosia. He didn’t like the sound of “tributes” either…and it kept getting tossed out there nonchalantly. He felt his pulse quicken as he made the connection that this captain was talking about *his* shipmates.

He cheered just a bit internally when his new friend found her voice. She glanced over with a shaky smile, and David gave her his best, friendly “good for you” look of encouragement.

David took the three steps up onto the Bridge proper when he heard the Captain order the others into secondary positions.

“Aye, Captain - on my way now,” David confirmed on his way to the lift.

Mercy felt her head shoot up and look at the Captain wide-eyed as she realised she was being ordered over to the t'Sayxrosia with Iryna and Jamesson. Part of her wanted to order that there must be someone better suited, but her training and concern for her colleagues won out. Quickly she adjusted the scanners and began them. She then left them running with a small nod to Tremblay as she stepped away and went to follow Iryna and Jamesson, although she tripped over her feet slightly as she reached the exit to the bridge, she managed to catch herself on the doorway. Before catching up with them, she grabbed a portable scanner to take with her.

Christian nodded in response as he assumed sat down at the science station relieving Mercy as she hurried off after the other two officers. Christian's eyes immediately went to the readout before he rotated in his seat to place his eyes towards the scope as he used his fingers to scroll through the different types of scans.

The Earth Starfleet Captain had not seen anything like a space flora to that extent before but she was going to show any fear or frustration for the Luminari when it was starting to sound like they had no idea either. “Can you send any data you have across on this being Captain?” Beth wondered hopeful that they could get more information quickly to stop the situation getting very quickly out of hand.

"I can do you one better and hand-deliver it if you're up for some visitors." Despite the information he'd just imparted, Vohra seemed somewhat relaxed to the point of being unperturbed. Given his willingness to render aid, there was some comfort to be derived from the notion that this simply meant things weren't as dire as they seemed.

Beth narrowed her eyes just a little as the woman on the screen next to Vohra raised a perfect azure eyebrow at the man before rolling her eyes. "I will beam you across as soon as my escort team are clear," Beth said quickly. "Leroux out." She added cutting the communication and glanced around at the remaining crew on the bridge. "Reex you can have the bridge." She said organising the final piece in her plan to get people back where they needed to be. Lexi frowned thinking back to her conversation with William and rolled her eyes, trust him to get caught up with something like that.

"Me?" Halli asked. She shrugged. "Yes, ma'am," she said. She stood up. "Alright, folks. Steady as she goes," she said. She settled back into her console, maintaining orbit, watching for anything that may be amiss.

"Good then I had better go and see this Captain about a space plant," Beth said not at all feeling like this was going to be a good idea at all but needs must to get answers for what was going on.