A Web Unbound (Denali Station)
| Denali Station | ||
|---|---|---|
 ACTIVE STATUS | ||
| ||
Shore Leave on Denali Station is recalled after a sensor in the operations department picks up strange, possibly dangerous readings from somewhere within the Market District. Simultaneously, a door opens on the ominous spired building that doesn't look like any of the other buildings in the City.
Characters
| Senior officers taking part in the mission | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Position | Notes | |
| Oddas Aria | Captain | ||
| Kalia Qinn | First Officer | ||
| John Kendrick | Chief Security and Tactical | ||
| Dekas | Head of Infrastructure Development | ||
| Kettick | Engineering Officer | ||
| Sera | Engineering Officer | ||
| Tomas Falt | Chief Science officer | ||
| T'Lea | Science officer | ||
| Karise Indobri | Chief Medical Officer | ||
| Ashley Yael | Counselor | ||
| Zaaia Leix | Marine Major | ||
| PNPCs & MSNPCs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Position | Notes | |
| Stelek | Operations Officer on Denali Station | PNPC simmed by Oddas Aria | |
| Neshala | Helm & Comms Officer on Denali Station | PNPC simmed by Karise Indobri | |
| Wilhelmina Leynen | Security Officer on Denali Station | PNPC simmed by John Kendrick | |
Mission
Start
Lieutenant Stelek finally gets sensor data to the Upper Operations floor of the Station, only to get a strange, anomalous reading on one of the sensors in the Market District. She contacts Fleet Captain Oddas about it, who recalls Shore Leave to help figure it out. At the same time, a door opens on the ominous, spired building. No one knows why, and they don't know if it's connected to the strange reading.
The Market Plaza
Captain Oddas herself leads a team to investigate where the anomalous reading was found with Kettick, Sera, Tomas Falt, Zaaia Leix, Neshala, Wilhelmina Leynen, and Lumm. They take a shuttlecraft to the location, and within minutes find trace amounts of residual Carbon 14 and aren't quite sure what put it there.
There is a mention of possible dragons, however unlikely. Captain Oddas makes the decision to split the party. She herself with Ensigns Sera and Leynen to the ground floors below, and the other group of Major Leix, Lieutenants Falt, and Neshala, and Ensign Kettick to explore the corridor to the right.
Oddas and company struggle to find a way to the lower levels before finding an elevator shaft, and the elevator out of service. But there is a ladder. Leynen climbs down to make sure it's safe to climb on, and finds a locking mechanism blocking their way, as the others join her. Suggesting that perhaps they could go further down to gain access to the lower levels that way. Oddas and Sera see if they can bypass it, seeing as they're both Engineers by trade.
They find a way to use energy from their flashlight and some Engineering tools and the elevator opens to a humid area. As they carefully make their way into the humid room, Leynen hears what sounds like an unnerving purring noise in the dark. Or more accurately, a skittering. (A normal Tuesday in Starfleet.)
Oddas pulls out her phaser, and Sera notices reflective eyes, seemingly predatory. A screeching sound. Arachnoids, which can see that their phasers are able to harm them. They move quickly and Spider-nap Ensign Leynen. Oddas and Sera set phasers to stun and attempt to stun them before they can get away with her completely, but stun doesn't do anything to them. And in the process, they are unable to get Leynen back before she's out of sight.
While they discuss what to do next, they find they are cornered by these beings. And it doesn't take much to decide to set phasers to kill, they can't have another crew member taken.
They take down the ones cornering them, and the remaining ones run out for reasons unknown. The two engineers work on figuring out if they're natives of the city. A search determines with reasonable certainty that they don't quite match with the native flora of the Ring that they know of so far, but they also don't have an answer as to where they come from.
They decide to follow the archanoids. And specifically a trail of slime. Hoping to find their missing Security ensign, and maybe more information. They converse as they follow the trail, find a web-like veil, and working machinery as well as Ensign Leynen, who is in some distress. All of it points to the Arachnoids being intelligent beings as opposed to pests.
They make an attempt at communicating with them, announcing their presence, and offering to help. They get the screeching from before. The use of the universal translator begins to open up a line of conversation between them.
Mentions of a crash. Hull. Wasting time.
It's then that the Arachnoids realize they can understand are being understood. Leynen speaks, but is being held by the spider beings. Presumably they aren't trying to cause harm. At least they hope so.
As the UT works on translating, more is revealed. There was a crash, and a malfunction. Many children. Their colony is far away, and there is a leak of trilithium resin. Dangerous and very explosive, though there doesn't seem to be any bombs. The other team reaches out to Oddas, who steps aside to get the update, and the Arachnoids realize that Oddas and Sera can help them fix their scout ship, and begin bringing them toward it rather forcefully.
Something they're sorry for, but are desperately in need of that assistance. At the end of the journey is the crashed ship. And they expect it to be fixed.
On the team with Leix, Falt, Neshala, and Kettick they have similarly run into the arachnoid beings, and another crashed ship. The arachnoids here are armed. And similarly, they are waiting for the UT to translate the communication of not wanting to cause harm. The Arachnoids explain they that there was a malfunction, they got a signal from the ring, and were stranded when they crashed on it. This group of them also requests help to fix it. And communication with Oddas puts them in a space to begin that assistance as they're able to so long as the Arachnoid leaders agree to accept it.
The Spire
A team of Kalia Qinn, Stelek, T'Lea, John Kendrick, Dekas, Karise Indobri, and Ashley Yael take their own shuttle to investigate the open door of the previously sealed spire. A building that is ominous, and looks like it doesn't quite fit with the rest of buildings in the city.
Upon arrival at the Spire, they enter, and the door shuts behind them. T'Lea touches a wall, and a green light spans over everyone in the room, and all the technology they were using stops working. Including Commander Qinn's blindness accommodating tech. John Kendrick turns his tricorder off before the light can clean his technology. Suddenly there is another flash of light, and in front of them is an energy barrier, where a Bolian petty officer is unconscious behind it. No one recognizes him, and they can't tell if he is alive or not. But they cannot get past the barrier, as they aren't sure whether or not it will hurt them to do so.
Dekas suggests that maybe it will respond to thoughts as a few things on the Ring in general have. T'Lea touches the wall again, and the telepaths in the room feel a slightly telepathic response to touching it. Commander Qinn takes the initiative and actually touches the barrier itself, putting in mind her intent to simply get to the Bolian.
Another flash of light. And all except John Kendrick are outside on a semi-transparent platform on the top of the Spire. The Bolian is with them, but John is underneath them, and seemingly upside down.
In the middle of the platform is a console, whose controls are in an unknown language.
Stelek finds what looks to be a communication interface.
The Bolian wakes up and turns out to be a construct of the Spire. One that is having trouble working correctly for reasons they don't know yet. Yael helps to guide it to the console in the middle, the Bolian clinging tightly to the counselor's arm, and all but refusing to let go.
T'Lea connects to the Spire telepathically to speak to John, connected together through their minds and the spire, figure out that the Spire needs an avatar to properly communicate. And since the current avatar is not working correctly, the connection is trying to use them as avatars in its stead.
T'Lea can now somewhat interpret the console but tells it that she won't help until they get John back from the upside-down place.
John is given back, and learn that the Bolian construct and the Spire itself are something of one and the same, but are currently are divided. Whether through malfunction or a lack of use is unclear. But it's clear that they need to be reconnected somehow.
The Bolian reaches for a control. Upon activating it, it shows a schematic and Dekas asks the construct if it is part of the construct itself, and it affirms that fact in its own simple way. Never once releasing Yael's arm. Dekas realizes they may have to do some Robot Surgery to help.