The Sandbox of Men (USS Oumuamua): Difference between revisions

{{Oumuamua-Nav}}

We have been brought to this distant world by data collected- in part- by our former Chief Medical Officer, Doctor [[V'Len Kel|Kel]], whose scans of the region pointed to the presence of ruins and data from our Long Range Multispatial Probes have corroborated this- and have identified that some of the ruins are over 60,000 years old. Our mission is exploration and discovery: to survey this uncharted world and discern what happened to the civilization that once called this idyllic world home here. On a personal note, as an archaeologist and anthropologist, this mission presents a unique opportunity to hone my skills.

Commodore [[Ossa V'Airu|V’Airu]] will remain in command of the ‘Oumuamua, with Lieutenants [[Aine Sherlock|Sherlock]] and [[Toz]], Captain [[Michele Winters|Winters]], and Ensign [[Lhandon Nilsen|Nilsen]] also aboard. They will provide logistical support from orbit, liaising with both teams on the ground to ensure our mission goes smoothly.

{| class="wikitable"

|+

*Executive Officer, Commander [[Etan Iljor]]

*Chief Science Officer, Lieutenant [[Peri Katsim]]

*Science Officer, Ensign [[Yinn]]

*Acting Chief Tactical Officer, Marine Captain [[Michele Winters]]

*Marine Officer, Second Lieutenant [[Arturo Maxwell]]

*Security Officer, Ensign [[Charles Tyber]]

*Tactical Officer, Ensign [[Carter Locke]]

*Acting Chief of Operations Officer, Lieutenant JG [[Toxin Arlill]]

*Acting Chief Engineering Officer, Lieutenant JG [[Josh Herrick]]

*Counselor, Lt. Cmdr. Alexander W. Brodie

Special Operations, Lieutenant [[Indah Nirid]]

Na’shaala

|}

[[File:Ancient City Ruins.png|thumb|Ancient Ruins of Alpha Brenkelvi II|left|222x222px]]

The crew of the USS '''Oumuamua'' find themselves deployed on an expeditionary mission to a system whose inhabitance have since all but disappeared. All that remains of this once prosperous civilization is the ruins they've been sent to investigate. Two away teams are deployed to sites in and just north of the ancient cities to investigate an unidentifiable energy source. Team A, led by Peri Katsim with Tyber, Alex Brodie, and Avander Promontory, find ruins that soon close them in after a mudslide seals the entrance of the already precarious structure. Team B, led by Etan Iljor along with Toxin Arlill, Arturo Maxwell, and Josh Herrick, land just north of the city, investigates the ruins they've discovered to find an explorer long since deceased and an Orb of unexplained origins.

Meanwhile on the mighty '''Oumuamua'', our ship-side heroes, including a bridge currently consisting of Aine Sherlock, Lhandon Nilsen, Elijah Kovacs, and Michele Winters, patrol the skies providing overwatch to their comrades below. It's not long, however, before they find themselves in a precarious position, their commodore is silent, their ship is hurt, and their away teams are silent.

Commander Etan along with Lieutenants Josh Herrick and Toxin Arlill as well as 2nd Lieutenant Maxwell fly sixty kilometres north of the city to study a strange low-level energy field that seems to appear and disappear randomly from sensors.  Arlill states he’s brought along a Mass Optical Orthogonal Monitoring and Oscillating Object (MOOMOO) system that a former roommate of his developed and could be useful. Arlill and Herrick scan while Maxwell keeps a lookout for danger.  Herrick notices that two tricorders, one medical and one engineering, get different readings, and Maxwell feels uneasy. Another reading appears and Arlill that same energy reading on both tricorders, but his tricorder also picks up something on the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_and_conduction_bands Valence band], which should only show up at a temperature of almost absolute zero.  The MOOMOO registers something far earlier than it should, and there’s an increase in electron activity.  Arlill wonders if atmospheric systems are symbiotic of the energies of the planet while Etan wonders if their biosigns are being reflected as they also read lifesigns.

After they finish speaking with the other away team, Herrick sees a vision of an old friend pointing at a symbol, and when he heads toward it, the symbol begins to glow. Arlill’s scans reveal nothing unusual save chronitons.  Arlill steps further away from the symbol, it grows dimmer.  Etan steps closer and it grows brighter, then dims when he moves away.  He instructs Arlill to run scans from the other side of the area, and its reaction indicates it responds to their movements. Something clicks, walls spin, and another passageway opens.  Etan sees a vision of his grandmother who walks down the revealed corridor.  The walls light up and he finds hexagonal cell shapes along them, and the passageway leads to an enormous hollowed out spherical chamber a mile and a half in width and depth.

Lieutenant Commander Katsim Peri and Lieutenant Commander along with Lieutenant Avander Promontory and Ensign Tyber take the Gamma Glider to explore the ruins and find out more about them and their past inhabitants.  Once there they begin to collect samples and theorise about the ruins.  After getting some samples outside, the group moves inside the structure just in time to avoid a complete downpour.  As Tyber collects wood and lights a fire, Katsim finds inscriptions on the back wall in between rivers of roots.  Suddenly, the ground shakes and a mudslide covers the door, and their exit.  Attempts to reach the ship fail, and Katsim starts to look for a way out.  The next room is blocked off as well, but there is a door on the back wall leading further into the structure.  

They head down and follow it, finding tombs with Bajoran writings.  Another section contains more tombs, but there is another passage that they elect to follow.  It eventually splits and they head on the path that angles down.  Eventually they come out into a huge cavern with an underground sea and begin to explore.  As they take samples and scans, Katsim climbs up onto an outcropping and something golden catches her eye.  After removing socks, shoes, and jacket, she jumps in and discovers a lightship, bringing up a piece of the sail.  Back on the surface, she shows Promontory and Brodie her find, then something catches her eye as Promontory begins scanning.  Following it, Katsim scrambles ahead and the two men hurry after her. Climbing up another outcropping, she discovers a cave that contains a number of boxes.  After opening one, she finds more ancient Bajoran.  Promontory manages to get it translated to modern Bajoran and Katsim reads an excerpt from Bajoran sacred writings.  

Commodore V’Airu remains on the Oumuamua with Lieutenants Aine Sherlock and Toz, Captain Winters, and Ensign Nilsen.  With V’Airu not feeling well, she directs Sherlock to take command with Winters as temporary XO and calls Doctor Toz, requesting assistance to help her feel better.  Toz gives her medication for a headache, suggests V’Airu moderate the practice of her telepathic and empathic abilities, and orders her to four hours of rest before she takes on bridge duty.  

Chronitons surge and Sherlock has a vision of her father and a Q she had run into on a previous mission.  The image of her father gestures to the area behind her, and this solidifies the idea for her that whomever is down there needs their help. She suggests they not raise an anyon field, but instead, collect chronitons and try to communicate using them.  Locke expresses concern that doing so could damage the ship.  They proceed with the idea, however, and Winters asks Locke to take over for her at Tactical.

After Toz calls Miash to tell her to prepare for incoming casualties, she and Kovacs use the Jeffries tubes to head toward the Commodore. As they travel through the tubes, Toz goes through a list of possible injuries V’Airu may have sustained and ponders how they’re going to get the Commodore to sickbay without transporters and the necessity of travelling through the Jeffries tubes.  Kovacs notes that transporters are working, but may not work well enough to transport the Commodore in one piece, and hopes they won’t need to resort to that.  He continues to ponder over options with the transporters. Toz asks if communications are working, but they no longer function by that point.  As they approach the door that will lead to deck 4, Kovacs notes it’s warm.  Grabbing an extinguisher, passes it to Toz, then prepares to open the door.

As they split up, Arlill asks Herrick what’s up between him and Nilsen, then he notices scans pick up trinary coding which leads him to suggest a non-axial codec to bypass the handshake protocols.  The two go back and forth between personal and work, but Herrick admits he thinks they got off to a bad start, and Arlill admits he’s cautious. Arlill tries to interface his tricorder with the system in the cavern and he discovers there’s more storage capacity there than in an entire Starbase’s capability. Suddenly, his tricorder gets hot and he drops it, and when the case splits open, they reveal partially melted innards.  They discover there’s an anti-intrusion program which melts the insides of the tricorder and burns Arlill’s hands, and they seek out ways to bypass it.  Suddenly, something happens to Arlill and an entity speaks in his body, but it is not truly him.  He asks questions of Herrick, but is most definitely not himself.  Herrick calls to Etan and Maxwell and they hurry to rejoin their fellow officers.  

The Quasi-Arlill speaks to the others, but is most definitely not the real Arlill and mentions the officers’ program allowed the connection, and also that they should not be here.  Etan and Maxwell assure him they mean no harm.  Suddenly, the real Arlill returns to normal and shares he experienced a vision of him in his mom’s kitchen, but there was a stranger there who kept saying ‘that’s not the right question’. Etan summarises what they’ve discovered, including what he suspects to be an ancient computer system causing the visions that has deliberately brought them there. Pointing at the strange floating structure in the middle of the cavern, Etan theorises if they can reach it, they can get answers.  Etan asks Maxwell if any of the hexagons come close enough to allow them to jump to the outpost.  Maxwell says he brought a cable and can attempt the jump, then tie it off to allow the others to cross.  After a couple of throws, he manages to get it latched to something.  Arlill asks if they can be sure they aren’t crawling into some weird time travel situation since scans haven’t been very fruitful, then offers to cross over first.

Winters states the charge is ready, Sherlock says to send it, and then tells helm to plot a course for the moon.  As they head out, Sherlock thinks they should take out the complex on the surface which will hopefully allow them to communicate with their away teams and Toz agrees.  She receives a vision where the golden woman confirms they have been fed, though she voices concern for the away team and confusion at who the people on the planet are.  Sherlock says they can’t wait for the others to return, declares the moon a free fire zone and tells the crew to prepare for battle.

As the transport begins, something goes wrong.  Nilsen finds himself at his family farm, in the kitchen.  Hearing voices, he opens the door and is reunited with Brzezinski and Rouiancet.  The scene shifts and while they remain in Gault, they are no longer on the farm.  They can not contact the Oumaumua, and Nilsen feels some pain from when he bashed his head, but says he’s okay.  Brzezinski offers them neuro-moniters and says they can help because she doesn’t think what they are experiencing is real and that it’s something mental because she’s picking up beta and theta waves with the monitor.  Nilsen decides to have the portable comms array go through every frequency possible and ping everything possible, even commbadges, to try and get a message through.  With his own vision still visible, he decides to try and talk to the image that has taken form of his father and feels like they’re being watched by others.  Rouiancet asks Brzezinkski what Nilsen’s neuromonitor registers and it matches the tricorder readings.  Though they can’t see what Nilsen sees, Rouiancet still introduces herself. Brzezinski continues to scan, notes it looks like they’re about to overload, and suddenly is blinded by bright light.  

V’Airu and Fer’at enter the mindscape together and once again find themselves on the bridge of the USS Crow Dog, but that time it is much calmer.  The commodore wonders why that is, and Fer’at focuses on the matter at hand then asks what her plan is.  She wants to move forward with learning to protect herself telepathically, and Fer’at notes that sometimes, the first place to defend one’s self is from within.  She acknowledges the wisdom in that, then they are both interrupted by the telepathic arrival of another mind - Ensign Nilsen.  Nilsen assures them he is whole and the people on the world have sent him to communicate, but they don’t know what will happen if the mindscape they are in closes, but promised to help get him back to his body should anything happen.  V’Airu decides to bring in Horque, Almor, and Nirid on the telepathic communique in order to have assistance as well as act as a diplomatic envoy, and asks Fer’at to leave, brief them and Sherlock, then return with the other telepaths.  While he does so, V’Airu and Nilsen prepare to welcome their telepathic guests.{{LCARS-bar-heading|Act III|10|COLOR=linear-gradient(to right, #bd2421, #520d07)}}

After a disembodied voice states it has locked away information about those who created the place beneath the ground where Etan and his team currently find themselves, they see the spirits part and a humanoid with iridescent scales and incandescent hair appears. Etan introduces himself and the other crew and the vision calls herself Na’Shaala and asks where they are from and how they came to be there.  

Just then, the commodore awakens and cries out for help.  As medical officers tend to V’Airu, Rouiancet focuses on Nilsen.  Brzezinski notes there is still no brain activity, and Almor and Horque sense something wrong.  Miash finds a song that Nilsen plays often and turns it on.  Brain activity registers then flatlines, and Toz tells her to turn it off and fears they may have fried his brain.  V’Airu forces herself out of her bed and stumbles to Nilsen, throwing herself over him.  As she’s pulled off, Rouiancet points out Nilsen has sustained brain activity and theorises there was some sort of energy transfer that occurred when the Commodore made contact with the Ensign. Toz has a vision of the Golden woman taking on the visage of V’Airu, smiling at her, and says ‘it is done’.  Nilsen regains consciousness and Arlill arrives in Sickbay to check on his Broomy.  

In the Mindscape, V’Airu and Fer’at are joined by Horque, Almor, and Nirid.  They speak with Mikal who urges them to run from the place lest they are destroyed, but V’Airu refuses as Nilsen is still there, and Torka states he would be welcome to stay, but they say they can’t do that. V’Airu orders Nirid and Fer’at to head back to the Bridge and inform Sherlock of what they have learned and that disarming, destroying, or disabling the weapons has become their top priority. As they depart, she asks Torka what he can tell them about the weapons.