Bugging Out – The front door
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Lieutenant JG Linx Moonshadow & Ensign Israna Haan & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Ne' Michelle "Mike" Young & Ne' Mariaa'n Si'van & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' HIchop Matlh

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Title   The front door
Mission   Bugging Out
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Lieutenant JG Linx Moonshadow & Ensign Israna Haan & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Ne' Michelle "Mike" Young & Ne' Mariaa'n Si'van & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' HIchop Matlh
Posted   Mon Jun 23, 2014 @ 1:32am
Location   Through the airlock
Once the code was accepted the team could move through the inner bay door. This caused some frustration for HIchop who was forced to take off his giant armoured suit. Once all of them were in the airlock, Marie cycled the outer door closed and keyed the inner door to open.

This reveled a control room of some sort with four stations and monitors showing the airlock. At three of the stations sat figures of a species none of the crew immediately recognized. The continued their work as if a group of over ten heavily armed individuals had not just entered the room. At the fourth station was the remains of a body. It had been torn apart by something. From the spray of blood and the slump of the remains, it suggested something fast and strong had snuck up behind and torn the victim open. There was o sign of the attacker, and the remaining three figures did not seem even to have noticed, despite the fact that the nearest one was spattered with gore.

There is only one other obvious exit from the room, a large set of doors facing towards the rear of the ship and where the attacker probably came from.

Since the life forms did not seem to care about the group, Hichop looked over their shoulders to see what was on the screens. "Jared, what do you make of what is on these screens? Do you recognise the control's language and what they are for?"

Most of the screens showed sensor data; the long range view of the solar system, views of the external of the station, the docking bay. The fourth, near the body, showed various readout of power levels, oxygen, etc. It gave the appearance of an operation control deck, though not one large enough to control an entire station.

"Looks like some kind of local operations control," Jared said. He looked at the three figures with a strange frown.

"I... wonder if these really ARE people. They... don't seem to be totally aware of their environment. Like borg drones. Or androids."

He took out his tricorder and began scanning the remains of the... deceased alien.

Hichop was concerned about a lot of things. Why was there a 'back door' in the computer access and why would it open for Jared? Why is there a dead alien at one of the terminals? Why were the 3 unknowns not interested in us?

"Mike, scan the 3 aliens. What can you tell us about them? Are they under any influence that would cause them not to notice us?"

Mike clicks a small button on the side of her helmet, bringing down a screen in front of her eyes. She waits a moment. "Well, that's not....hmmm....they show minimal signs of life, almost like they were plants....There's something else...." Mike continues scanning, slowly edging closer.

The creatures do not react to her, even when she reaches out to touch one of them. They are cold, or at least have no discernible body warmth. Their skin was also obviously synthetic to the touch, like an advanced rubber. Underneath she could feel something similar to sinew, but thicker, and too rigid to be muscle, but too flexible for cartilage or bone.

HIchop continues, "Also I suggest we do not try to sit in these seats. My guess is that they are linked in some way to the race of these 3. I would imagine that is why this one ended up wall paint".

He paused, "So Jared. Backdoors; sounds a lot like you. Do all Vetus think this way?"

"It's kinda hard to say what 'All Vetus' are like anymore," Jared replied distractedly. "There's so few of us it's a little hard to make generalisations. I've met a total of two of my kind in the last five centuries. All we can say for sure is that apparently V thinks this way."

"I think it's more a matter of not expecting to face any of his own kind, than being partial to them. My kind... don't get on very well."

Jared took a look at the fourth station, and attempted to bring up an internal map. They couldn't be the only ones who'd visited this station without knowing their way around.

The interface was easy enough to work out but there appeared to be a glitch with the the software. He could bring up individual rooms or sections of the station but no linkages. There was no way to tell which rooms joined on.

His hand froze as the image of one room showed a large plexiglass container. Inside was a small child. Its species was impossible to make out but it appeared to be very young and playing with a doll. Occasionally the image would blur with static for a moment, but the girl remained quietly playing.

Israna wasn't really paying attention much, as everyone else seemed to have things covered for now. However, when Jared brought up the image of the girl, Israna couldn't help herself as she moved closer to get a better look at the monitor. The girl. She was happy playing with her doll. However, she didn't look..... Human..... The girl sitting there all alone reminded Israna of how alone she was, and knew the girls pain. That is, if she actually WAS in pain.....

"What species is she? Are we going to find this girl?"

Jared blinked. His gaze had been lingering on the screen, and odd expression on his face. Israna's words seemed to break some kind of spell.

"Uuuh... no. No, we're not."

He flipped to the next scene and kept looking through the internal camera views.

Images flickered one after another. A mess hall, corridors, a room with racks of rifles, a couple of angles of a large room with much like a construction factory, a room with a thing that looked like some sort of shaggy white bear, another corridor, a room full of bodies and blood, a bedroom, some sort of long rail track. The flipping view at last fixed on some kind of power core. It looked surprisingly small for a station this size, but it had a definite "Reactor" look about it, with thick power conduits leading out everywhere.

"Ah..." Jared exclaimed. "That's good. Looks like the station's power core - or at least -A- power core. I think if we can get to that... Tell and I might be able to fiddle with it and do something catastrophic. We just have to figure out WHERE that is."

He looked over at one of the figures at the controls, with a curious expression. After a moment, he approached one cautiously and tapped it on the shoulder.

"Excuse me. Can you... understand what I'm saying?"

The individual seemed did not react at first then it turned slowly on its swivel chair till it was facing Jared. The group noticed that the things eyes did not actually appear to be looking at anyone. It did not answer, but just sat there waiting.

Israna watched cautiously, positioning her hand over her gun, just in case...

Jared went on.

"Could you... tell us the way to the reactor core, by any chance?"

The figure stood and moved to the door. The opening panel was slightly higher than eye height for it and out of Jared's reach, though the others could reach it comfortably.

Something Jared had said had started something ticking over in Marie’s mind. It was unformed as yet and she knew she was not the person to carry it out. Nonetheless....

As they followed the strange figure, she moved over to Jared. “If we can’t destroy this station,” she asked him in a soft voice, “how about we make sure it doesn’t destroy us? If we go about it the right way....” She scratched the back of her neck, a bad habit she had when really thinking hard. “If you can fiddle with V’s little toys so they don’t work as expected then...maybe, just maybe.... Maybe V will be discredited and the Corporation will dump him....”

Jared frowned a little as they walked.

"Uhh... I can try. I'm just... not sure it'd be all that effective. In the last few weeks I've been looking through Jeeves's expended basecode - the modifications V made to his original program setup. And... kinda think V might be smarter than I am. I can't promise I can do anything to his toys that he or the original Jarvis program - that Jeeves was copied from - wouldn't be able to see straight through."