Ghost Ship

Posted on Wed Feb 7th, 2024 @ 10:06am by Lieutenant Commander Deanna Celes & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr & Lieutenant Inara Senn & Ensign James Phoenix

Mission: Lost & Found
Location: USS Daystrom

The away team materialized in the aft section of the bridge. Deanna immediately pulled out her tricorder and began scanning, noting that Shon was doing the same with her medical tricorder. "Everything is just as internal sensor readings indicated it should be" Deanna remarked. "Air is a bit stale, but life support is functioning, albeit at 25%. It is as if nobody has been here in decades." She walked over to the nearest console, which happened to be one of the multiple science stations. "This station is still active. They were scanning an unknown phenomenon according to the data here. Something to do with the magnesite deposits in this field, and a strange benign radiation field."

"Strange benign radiation field." She sniffed the stale air. "And that would be from the galley. Twenty-third century ships carried food stores. Replicator tech was still being developed. Likely it has all decomposed and we now have a very self-contained bacteriological ecosystem on this ship. We're going to need to power this ship up one system at a time. Who knows what as shorted out in seven decades." Inara mentioned.

Shon looked at Inara, “no point in wishing problems Lieutenant. I am sure they will appear soon enough. My medical scans show nothing untoward. No signs of contamination bacterial or otherwise. It would help though if we could improve the air quality.”

James took a whiff of the smell and grimaced slightly. "Expired food is one thing I won't miss from back home" he said before making an attempt to scan the tactical stations. A few seconds later his tricorder beeped. "Tactical appears to be inactive and damaged, but I should be able to fix it sirs. After that I'll be able to run better diagnostics on the weapons and defense systems" he said to Deanna and Jon.

“I would like to study the medical consoles and find their sickbay. There I might be able to download something that might give us an idea what has happened here?” Shon said.

"Perhaps Jon can assist you with that" Deanna offered. "I'll remain here with Inara as we assess all the stations. I can also keep tabs on the engineering teams work from here."

"Strange." Inara noted. "She does not look like she's been drifting for seventy years. More like a couple of weeks. If it was seventy-five years, she'd be riddled with micrometeorite holes. My scans are not showing seventy five years. I think I will take a hull sample and use molecular dating. I don't believe these scans, as they are too preliminary."

Deanna scoffed at Inara's assessment. "The hull is made of duranium and tritanium lieutenant. It would take a micrometeor or anything else moving at speeds nearing that of light to do any damage, and that would only happen if the deflector field was deactivated. All signs show that the deflector has remained active, just as it is now. You are allowing paranoia to get the better of you. Trust your sensor readings."

"No, Commander. Scientists do not believe anything our sensors tell us, as we have seen evidence here, not proof. We have established that this is indeed a ship. And it may be an Oberth Class. That doesn't at all mean it's one of ours. Someone might have bought this hulk from a surplus yard, dressed it up, for a myriad of malicious reasons. I suggest you take this seriously, as we happen to be onboard the modern Mary Celeste."

Deanna shook her head with a wry grin. "Lieutenant, I'm as much a scientist as you, but you have a lot to learn about how things work on a starship, especially a Federation vessel. Focus your attention on looking over the actual data on these consoles and put those paranoid delusions of yours to the side for now."

'How dare you patronize me.' Inara thought inside. "I'll be in engineering. Getting main power back online. 'And this is why I don't like gods and people.' She thought as she moved to Engineering.

"Give Lt Antoinette my regards" Deanna quipped as she continued working on bringing up systems on the bridge and reviewing material.

Shon had set off to the medical bay with a slight niggling that began in her brain and trickled down in between her shoulders. Something was very wrong despite the fairly flat tricorder recordings. Her feet echoed in the corridor covered with dust and the observed detritus of the years. It looked, she thought as though it had been abandoned long ago but there was something that told her the ship was not abandoned. A slight noise that sounded like shuffling made her jump, she stopped and the quiet was unnerving. “Hello?” She asked as she directed her tricorder towards the sound, the noise of the instrument sounding out in the dark like a lighthouse giving her position. Shon shivered and walked on towards Sickbay.

Inara paced in the corridors. "Yes, we'll just scan something and then beam aboard. It's not like I was consulted for my very expert opinion before the decisions were made." She noted. 'Anyway, but to real science. not this nonsense they get from consoles.' Inara flipped open her tricorder and began to scan the ship. Its bulkheads and corridors. There had to be some kind of trace, and everything left a trace... everything. If Celes wasn't going to do true science, she was."

Deanna continued working and the systems on the bridge all sprang to life. She checked system status and saw that the engineering team already had all primary systems back to full working order. An hour or so more and they'd likely have the ship ready for service again. It was curious how easy this had been. She uploaded information to the computer to better scan the ship internally. Deck by deck she scanned, until she finally located something of interest. She hit her comm badge, =^=Deanna to Shon. Doctor, I am reading some odd energy readings inside sickbay. I see you are nearing sickbay. Please proceed with caution. I am on my way to join you. =^=

Inara followed a stramge reading towards the sickbay. "Hmmm..." She noted as she studied it. Finally main power came back online.

Shon reached sickbay, the doors open. As she entered her tricorder began to beep as she swept it around the empty, dusty sickbay. It was strange to see a sickbay like this, still, lifeless and…….another sound coming from behind a biobed made her turn as her tricorder warnings increased. “What the hell!”she exclaimed as something black seemed to encase her like a cloak. There seemed to be a lack of oxygen she thought as she closed her eyes and opened them again in case it was a problem with her Vision. It wasn’t and the darkness became deeper.

She fumbled and dropped her tricorder which she did not hear connect with the floor. She touched her badge =/\= Travis to away team come in=/\= the burst of static told her that communication was not happening. She clawed at her throat as what seemed like a hand grabbed her shoulder hard. She grabbed it and her fingers grasped her own shoulder the nebulous hand fading away. Oxygen depleted, Shon felt herself fall and fall, falling into nebulous darkness. In sickbay there was no trace of her apart from her shape in the dust on the floor.

Deanna rushed to sickbay cognizant of the panic Shon was feeling. As she turned the corner, she sensed Shon drifting away somehow and saw that the door to sickbay was open. She had wanted Shon to wait for her before entering sickbay, but it seemed Shon had gone in without her. She drew her phaser and entered sickbay and quickly spotted a humanoid shape of dust on the floor. She had detected a strange biogenic radiation while scanning on the bridge that hadn't been present when they had scanned from the ship. She looked around and saw what appeared to be a black nebulous mass moving towards her. She fired her phaser at it which only seemed to make the mass stop momentarily. She increased her phaser to full stun and fired again, stopping the mass, but again only for a few moments. She pulled out her tricorder and attempted to scan it while backing out of sickbay, doing her best to keep her distance. Her tricorder wasn't telling her much, but she was sensing an intelligence as well as detecting Inara approaching. "Lieutenant, draw your weapon. Full stun setting." Now in the corridor and with Inara in view coming for the other direction, the strange mass exited sickbay in full view of both women.

Inara ignored Celes and kept scanning it. "Not EM... Not subspace... Extradimensional...." She pondered as it closed in on her. "Hmmm. Curiosity..." The specter suddenly screamed as it began to become slightly disrupted. It then retreated.

Deanna looked at her tricorder. The readings had vanished. She looked up and over at Inara, "We should discuss the need to follow orders rather than indulge in scientific study when you or a fellow officer are in danger." She hit her comm badge, =^= Deanna to Jon. We encountered a lifeform in sickbay. I would consider it hostile. Shon is missing, presumably taken by the unknown lifeform. =^=

=^=Damn. Any idea where Shon was taken? =^=

=^=Not at this time. I'll investigate further and report any findings immediately. =^=

=^=Very well. I'll link up with Inara. =^=

=^=Unnecessary. She is with me. Perhaps you link up with Phoenix on the bridge. =^=

=^=Very well. Keep tabs on Inara and watch you back Deanna. =^=

=^=Always Jon. Always. =^=

The tactical station was now online and Phoenix began to run a tactical analysis on the Daystom's tactical and security systems to check for anything out of the ordinary. It would take a few minutes, but hopefully prove effective.

As the diagnostic was running, James took a moment to take in the sights of the bridge of an old Oberth class ship. It was interesting to see an old ship like this in near perfect condition that wasn't a museum piece or a mothball, mysteries aside. After that, he turned his attention back to the console, which was hammering away at the analysis.

Inara was not going to tell the response to that discussion. Only it would be heated, fiery, and there would be a furious amount of venom. She wondered if she could use this blunder to put Celes' incompetence on full display. "A metaphasic anomaly... Hmmm..." She checked the tricorder. "Time to work on a hypothesis... It may be on the quantum spectrum...."

Deanna was well aware of Inara's thoughts. She felt sorry for her in a way, but she didn't have time to coddle her. Her only option was laying out a bit of the hard reality. Inara would likely hate her for it, but she couldn't be concerned with that at this moment. As Shran often reminded her, it was part of the burden of command. She spoke frankly, almost scornfully, "Not an anomaly, an entity. Intelligent and dangerous. You can return to the safety and solitude of your lab and hypothesize, or you can focus on what is important here and now. That entity wasn't here when we arrived. It appeared after we began reactivating the ship. And whatever it is, one of our crewmates has been taken by it, for purposes unknown. You may not like how things work, but as long as you wear that uniform you will comply to regulations and standard practices. I don't want us losing anyone else, and certainly not because you are too afraid to do your job." With that, phaser and tricorder in hand, Deanna made her way into sickbay cautiously.