oops

" I guess I spoke to quickly. Let's go over. "


Hopefully we transport over now.

Starbird double checks his phaser rifle, making sure it’s set to stunning force.  Nothing worse than killing someone you wasn’t supposed to.

Once she beamed over, Quinn quickly drew her own hand phaser.

Elle trusted the security team, to be sure, but after the strangeness they'd already encountered in the Expanse, it was best to be ready for whatever came their way....
This message was last edited by the player at 16:12, Fri 21 Aug 2020.

The rest of the away team beams over to this new alien ship. It qualifies as 'alien' simply because it doesn't match any existing design in Federation records.

Once there, it appears even more alien. The design of the 'bridge' (for lack of any other reference) does not seem to be intended for humans or even humanoids.

“Looks like some rummies really rearranged the furniture in here.  Maybe tryin’ to keep pink elephants away.”

As soon as Koram materializes on the other ship, he scans around visually and audially with his own eyes and ears while he unslings his tricorder.

Silent as a tomb but an intriguing sight.

He begins scanning the floor first, but doesn't seem surprised by the readings he gets.

"The 'floor' is actually the control panel," he tells the others. "They are clearly not intended for human hands, however."

"They can also change configuration."

He then directs his tricorder to the 'ceiling'.

"Multiple interlinked video screens. I would guess that they can be linked to form an image of space in front of the ship. Pretty much any configuration we can think of is probably possible."

"That suggests that these aliens have similar if not the same visual perceptions as we do."

Starbird checks for doors or other possible entrance points, mindful of potential security threats.

"If you mean that they have eyes and see in the same wavelengths that we do," R.T. responds, "then you are probably right. The configuration of this screen, however, suggests that they might have compound eyes like an insect. Either that, or they have eyes all around their head."

"We'd have a hard time seeing all this at once. It also suggests that they probably aren't humanoid. This configuration of a control center would be very awkward for a humanoid."
This message was last edited by the player at 00:24, Mon 14 Sept 2020.

"You are probably right," Katherine agrees. "If you extrapolate that further, however, it might be that they communicate visually as well. Perhaps their language is chromatic... colors and pulses, perhaps shapes or even holograms."

"The Human eye can see one million colors, though some studies indicate it could be as high as ten million. It all depends on the parameters you are using."

Since there are only two 'surfaces'--the domed ceiling and the 'mechanical' floor, it follows that any door would have to be in one or the other. Since Pacomio can't quite reach all of the ceiling and presumably nor could the aliens that manned this ship, he begins by searching the floor. Also, he's not positive, but he thinks that beyond the ceiling is the cold dark emptiness of space. The ceiling seems to conform to the front of the ship.

He may have started out looking for a 'normal' door, but after only a few minutes, he realizes the absurdity of that. Without knowing what these aliens look like, it's hard for him to 'think like an alien'. Instead, he looks at the floor in terms of 'the big picture', and tries to figure out where it would make sense to put a door. In fact, a 'door' in the floor made little sense to begin with. What would normally be in the floor is a hatch.

The first spot he examines doesn't reveal anything to him. If there's a hatch there, he can't find it.

The next spot proves more successful. He's not sure if the hatch was intended to be 'concealed' as it seems to conform more to the equipment around it, but Pacomio manages to find the latch that releases it. It's a bit hard for him to manipulate the latch, but he manages it. He cautiously raises the hatch, prepared to slam it shut again if something crawls out.

Nothing does. What he sees is a 3-foot square shaft going down. Each corner of it seems to have been set up as a ladder--the rungs are set diagonally... and are rather narrow and shallow.

Does it look as though a human being could use the ladder with a reasonable degree of safety?

Yes, a normal human could use the ladder if he didn't hurry. The rungs are easily gripped by a hand, but footing is a bit tricky.

The thickness of the floor is only about three feet. Beyond that, two of the ladders continue down on a framework but the shaft opens out into a room... or corridor.

Starbird reports his findings to the landing party, and volunteers to go first in case they choose to climb down.

"Proceed, Petty Officer," Shard responds to Pacomio. "I'll be right behind you."

He doesn't need to tell the others what to do. The other two security crewmen would guard the rest of the Away Team until they all descended or split up. If some stayed behind here on the bridge, then security would remain as well.

This was standard operating procedures.

Starbird straps the phaser rifle across his back and proceeds cautiously down the ladder, remembering that time he broke into Uncle Al’s cellar and wound up taking a tumble down the stairs.  He might have ended up making his own bones!

Without any hurry, Pacomio has no trouble climbing down the ladder. Even as he reaches the lower level, he realizes two significant things: the ladder was meant for creatures considerably smaller than him and probably for creatures that may not necessarily have hands and feet but something else.

Reaching the lower level, Pacomio finds a very strange sight. This level not only has a low ceiling, but the floor and ceiling are as irregular as the upper level. Equipment sticks up out of the floor or hangs down from the ceiling everywhere.

There's only about a 4-foot clearance for most of the space. He can see what he takes to be partitions in a few spots.

He also realizes, now that he's down there and can look around, that it isn't that equipment sticks up out of the floor (or hangs down from the ceiling), it's that the equipment and machines and whatever have just all been stuck together to form the floor and ceiling.

Amid all this, he finally spots... the creatures. Well, maybe that's what they are. He sees about a dozen of them scattered across the floor, making a mental note that there is clearly gravity here. They are small creatures, about a foot in diameter at the head and maybe a foot and a half-long. The 'head' is a hemisphere covered in a dozen or so eyes. Below the hemisphere hangs several tentacles, at least six that he can see.

None of the creatures are moving. The nearest one is about 20 feet away.


Shard follows Pacomio down, and, at Shard's cautionary signal, the others remain above for the moment.

Seeing the life forms, the petty officer gives the landing team a heads up as he sets his phaser rifle to stun.  He hates having to squat down due to the low ceiling, but such is life.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:56, Sun 27 Sept 2020.

"Low ceiling down here," Shard calls up to the others.

"We've also spotted what we think is a lifeform, but it's either dead or... dormant, we think."

"As soon as we clear it, we'll need either Jillian or Koram down here. Maybe both."

He then turns to Pacomio.

"Cover me while I check it out."

He moves over to the closest 'life form' in a crouch and prods it with his foot.

Starbird obeys the order, ready to react with heater in hand should the situation turn threatening.  Just like standing guard at those bootleg whiskey trades back home.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:16, Mon 28 Sept 2020.

Shard pokes the nearest alien with his foot but that produces no reaction. He tries a couple of others with the same result.

He's joined by Jillian a few moments later. She scans the life forms with her tricorder and finds no sign of life. However, she realizes that they are not organic, so she isn't sure what would constitute a life sign.

When informed that these new alien life forms are not organic, he immediately assumes they are mechanical... some sort of robotic life form. He climbs down the ladder to the lower level, and, crouching down, makes his way to the alien bodies.

"They look just like their ship!" he says in surprise.

"On the one hand, that makes sense in a way, but form usually follows function. This ship just copied their form, even though it doesn't seem like the best design for a starship. You'll notice all the eyes--visual sensors--on their... um, heads? The dome ceiling up top now makes sense. They can see in nearly all directions at once."

He runs his engineering tricorder over the forms.

"I'm not finding anything unusual other than their forms. I'm detecting an artificial neural net that constitutes their brains, but there's been massive damage done to it. I suppose it could be a powerful EMP. An alternative might be a lethal computer virus. I'd have to examine them in the lab to be certain."

"While the EMP makes more sense to have killed all of them at once, and also explain why the ship is shut down, the virus could have been transmitted over a subspace channel."

He waits for Shard to decide whether it's safe to take one of the 'bodies' back to the Mongoose.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:33, Wed 02 Dec 2020.

“They built their ship to look just like them?  That’s like putting a hood ornament of yourself on your fastest getaway car.  I met a goomba back in the neighborhood what did that.  We all said there was a hood on his hood.”

As he yacks, he periodically looks over his shoulder, from side to side, etc. to make sure nothin’ was gettin’ fresh wit ‘em.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:17, Wed 02 Dec 2020.

"You'd know better than me if it was safe, Ensign," Shard replies to Koram. "If they were taken out by an EMP, could they wake up when they recover?"

"I'm thinking transporting it back to the ship directly into a containment field just to be safe."

"Now, with this low ceiling deck, I'm a bit confused at how many decks this ship has. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see that these aliens need 'personal space'. It seems to me they could all hang from the ceiling like bats... assuming they have to sleep or recharge or whatever."

"Speaking of which, Koram, can you determine what their power source is?"

"Meanwhile, the rest of us scatter around this deck and look for another hatch down below."

Starbird heads out, looking for hatches leading to the lower decks.  He wonders if that’s where these aliens stashed their booze.

Eclipse suddenly appears on the alien ships bridge, shi had been dealing with a minor issue on the Ancestor and hadn't been able to meet up with the away team in time to get transported over with the others.

Eclipse looked around the bridge as shi listened to what the others said over the comms and after one look down the shaft to the next level and that it too was a bit cramped shi elected to stay on the alien bridge for now, as yes shi was flexible, but in tight quarters shi could still easily be a liability.


"I think I'll stay here on the bridge, down there in cramped areas I'd be more a liability then an asset, but let me know if you find any other larger rooms as I can jump to them as long as there is an away team member there, I'll also try to use my astral projection to look ahead."


After saying this Eclipse sits down carefully to try to avoid anything and closes hir eye's to concentrate as shi uses hir astral projection to try to look around the ship, as this way shi could look beyond doors without having to open them.