Season 16: Episode 2: A Night at the Opera

[Tanner Lachlyn]

[Erewhon - City Centre]

Amidst all that had happened, Tanner noticed her new cadet feeling a little green. After a short chat and a discussion with their host, they were returned to the ship. WIth that taken care of, she absentmindedly toyed with the flip phone before rolling her eyes.

"Commander, Lieutenant, may I suggest we try to search for a library of sorts in this town first. We could use its information to determine how accurate this simulation is to earth history and maybe even find information about this place in particular."

"I'm always down for a library, but.." Tanner paused and looked back, "Commander, since the cadet isn't feeling well and asked to return. Would you care to join us?"

[Rayek trLhoell]

NPC PO2 Elena Forscher
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]

{USS Discovery|Bridge|OPs}

Vila's transition to fight mode was instantaneous-truthfully, living outside of that zone was uncomfortable for her, even though she was making efforts. The Captain's mood shift didn't help, either.

She nodded. "McNair, move to my side. Abandon the Simulation for the time being," she said, opening a second console for the man to assist her. "Begin running diagnostics for the entirety of the affected sections, please. Forscher, please head down to Main Ops, and collect as much data from the diagnostics as you can. Send them to me ASAP, please."

Elena hesitated at Lorut's orders.  Unlike a naval ship, Main Operations on a starship was stationed on the Bridge.  But Lorut had clearly told her to 'head down to Main Ops'...  Oh! Lorut must have meant Main Ops on the Battle Bridge.

"Yes, ma'am - I'll head down to the Beta Hull."
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Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - City Centre]

[Erewhon - City Center]

Lek gave the hologram a blistering look as if she had just offered him a live vole, but he relented and took one of the antiques. He clipped it to his belt and waited to see if anyone in his group would lead them somewhere.

"Next thing they will come up with is a lava lamp He thought.

Rayek also selected a flip phone and then tried to make use of it to update the Captain. However first, he required T'Sana's help to operate the phone's text screen to call up the contact list and find at the top of his speed-dials was: Captain Tekin Nevir.

It felt odd as he listened to the subspace comm line ring on his end as he waited for the ship and Captain to acknowledge his communication.  When he heard the line connect on the other end, Rayek couldn't prevent himself from speaking words that had long become expected.

"tr'Lhoell to Tekin.  We've arrived on Erewhon.  The station is akin to the gates of the park.  We've been transported down to the planet via a matter transport beam and are just about to begin our... tour of the place."
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No sooner had Rayek closed the phone after his conversation then suddenly the cadet at his side wasn't looking so good.  A scan with Dem's medical tricorder showed nothing of note but that didn't mean there was nothing, since the equipment was circumspect after their transport.

[Erewhon - City Centre]

Amidst all that had happened, Tanner noticed her new cadet feeling a little green. After a short chat and a discussion with their host, they were permitted to return to the station. With that taken care of, she absentmindedly toyed with the flip phone before rolling her eyes.

"I'm always down for a library, but.." Tanner paused and looked back, "Commander, since the cadet isn't feeling well and asked to return. Would you care to join us?"

The cadet's sudden illness was suspicious, but as their hosts readily agreed to send her back to the ship, it gave Rayek the perfect opportunity to explore alone.  Or rather it would have... if Lieutenant Lachlyn hadn't invited him to join her and the others to go check out the Library.

Since he had agreed that no one should investigate alone, it would be inappropriate of him to turn down that offer to join along.  He smiled towards the Sec/Tac officer.  "Thank you Lieutenant Lachlyn, that is an excellent idea."

At his agreement to join with the others, the hologram T'Sana nodded and altered her direction. "This way to the Library, Rayek."

The hologram Pem who had been leading the others stopped until T'Sana and Rayek caught up, and then Pem disappeared leaving just T'Sana.  T'Sana then led the four disguised officers in the opposite direction from Malik and the others.

(Malik, Hansen and Broadshire)
[Market Place]

[Erewhon]

"Yes, it for sure is." He said with slight bewilderment. Sean Connery. Where had he heard that name before? "So, how did you end up on this planet? Were you just passing by like us?" He asked, curious at the large population in relatively remote space. He looked toward Malik with a puzzled expression on his face. Something was a bit off, but he couldn't quite place it.

[Erewhon]

Malik took one of the retro style communicator devices from Candy's tray. It was good they acquiesced to their request, but still rude to take their equipment without permission.

"Aye, commander. We'll be back here in an hour."

Their trio, himself, Dem and Hansen made their way over to another apparent guest of this place. An old man by the name of 'Sean Connery'. Sounded like an Earthling name.

Malik waited for Dem to respond to the old codger as he surveyed their surroundings for anything out of the ordinary. Candy was still there, apparently she wanted a piece of Risan. Shame she wasn't real.

Sean laughed.  "Just passing by? You must be joking, right?  We are in the middle of nowhere.  No one comes to this system unless they've been fortunate enough to have booked time at Erewhon.  I've been waiting two years for this trip, but it's been so worth it so far." he bragged as he wrapped an arm each around the waist of the two hologram women with him, he looked to first one then the other almost appraisingly.  They smiled at him unwaveringly.  "We are here to make your make your fantasies reality" they chimed in unison.

Mr. Connery, smiled at their response, then looked back to Dem and his group thoughtful for a moment.  "Dem you said?  Dem...  I'm not familiar with that name.  What show is it from?" he asked before he suddenly frowned turning his attention to the market stall owner..

"What do you think you doing?!" he questioned angrily to the man who was putting back on display the item they had been haggling over.  "I was buying that!"

Mr. Connery held out his hand towards the item, a tweed hat.  "Because of your rudeness, I expect to given that for free."

When the market stall owner balked at the demand, Sean raised his hand threateningly; and the owner quickly nodded.  "Yes of course, please take it with my apologies."
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(Ramort, Lek, Tanner & Rayek)
[Erewhon - Library]

It was a relatively short walk down the main street.  The building that she led them to was architecturally indistinguishable from the average library one could find in any mid-sized small town on Earth in the early 21st century.  Red brick, arched entrance, white columns and bold capital lettering above the entrance noting it as the PUBLIC LIBRARY.  The Romulan was quirked an eyebrow at this generic labeling.

In the gardens outside the library, they passed what appeared to be the local groundskeeper, who was mowing the grass using a combustible-fuel powered push-mower.  The male groundskeeper gave the group a slight nod as he paused the mower as they walked past him.  Rayek noted unlike themselves, the groundskeeper didn't wear a wristband, nor did he appear to be a hologram (there was a slight artificial quality to the holograms that this man lacked).

Curious, Rayek paused a little further up the walkway to watch the man work.  His observing must have been noticed by the man because the groundskeeper glanced back as he worked.  For a moment their gazes met, before the man quickly lowered his to the ground in a submissive manner.  A sudden shrill angry shriek drew Rayek's attention to a woman in a summer dress passing by the groundskeeper, who quickly turned off his mower; but the damage was done.  Some of the grass clippings cut by the mower had escaped the unit's bagging system and had been throw into the air to land on the woman's legs and sandals.

"Ooh you vile man! How dare you! Do you know how much I spent on these shoes? On this vacation?" the woman shouted as she confronted the groundskeeper.  "This sort of treatment is not what I paid for!" Then to emphasize her words the woman shoved at the man causing him to topple over the mower.  She then gave the downed man a parting kick to his ribs before she stalked towards the library entrance.

With a frown, Rayek moved to intercept the woman.

[Buck McNair]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

As soon as Lorut send him what she saw, he ordered it on the main viewer.  A 3D image of Discovery was displayed, with growing radiation spots on the side of the ship facing the system's star, but the largest zone of radiation was around the primary warp core.  A display of the shielding power showed it was already down 13% and falling.  Slowly but steady.

"You're right.. its not just Engineering, its the whole damn ship." he muttered, tapping his badge.

"Bridge to Engineering.  We are reading a drop in our radiation shielding, and levels are already climbing in there.  You have 3 minutes to either restore power or shut down the core before you have to evacuate that section."

"Red alert.  Evacuate the hull-side sections on the port side."

"Do it.  If things so sour, we might have to bring the ship in anyways.  I'm sure Commander Lek would love to hear that."

{USS Discovery|Bridge|OPs}

Vila's transition to fight mode was instantaneous-truthfully, living outside of that zone was uncomfortable for her, even though she was making efforts. The Captain's mood shift didn't help, either.

She nodded. "McNair, move to my side. Abandon the Simulation for the time being," she said, opening a second console for the man to assist her. "Begin running diagnostics for the entirety of the affected sections, please. Forscher, please head down to Main Ops, and collect as much data from the diagnostics as you can. Send them to me ASAP, please." She

She tapped her Comms badge.
=/\=Cadet M'Lenda-ii, abandon the Simulations for now. They will remain in the Holo-catalog for review later. Excellent work. You will return to the command of..whoever is in charge of Engineering currently. The cat person, I believe.

After she clicked off, she quickly rerouted the systems from the affected areas to "critical support only" to save power and hopefully not start a fire or something. She sent a ping to the away team's COMMs, just in case they were receiving them.

"Captain, further orders?" She asked, fingers flying but brown eyes looking concernedly at the view screen. "How did they fall so fast?" She muttered. Oh well. Not her circus, not her monkeys.

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

The atmosphere had shifted. Buck had noticed it and was sure that the rest of the bridge crew had as well, the orders had come from top down - radiation shielding was decreasing and whilst that was bad, it signalled that something worse could be on the way. They had the better part of three minutes (and counting down) to action what they could.

The captain had allowed him to hail the away team, and with that he dialed up the communications.  Bridge Ops to Away Team, do you receive?    Buck would wait as he pressed on with the message.  Radiation shielding on the Challenger is at critical, status report on the ground. 

Buck would repeat the message another time, waiting for any semblance of a reply from the team - a crackle, a croak, an angry outburst from the chief engineer who was down on the planet. "Message to the Away Team sent, on standby for the return transmission, Captain."

Something.

Buck's attention had been snagged by Lorut, requesting him to abandon the simulation and stand ready at her side. He nodded, swiftly positioning himself at the Ops station as he began to take over on the diagnostic dive. His eyes flickering and focusing on the data stream, trying to figure out where the failed shielding started. "Compound core on deck nine reads fine. No faults reported on deck seven, twelve, thirteen...fifteen at the time prior to this incident." All the storage rooms and containers on the ship were stable. At the very least.

Engineering would have to know more about it, they needed to. Their bread and butter.

Any drop in shielding would have to have been reported by now.

How did they slip the net?

He looked over at Lorut briefly before back to the diagnostic scan he was running.

[Lorut Vila]

{USS Discovery|Bridge}

The Bajoran's fight mode was now fully engaged, but she fought to keep her cool.

"Captain. Nothing from the away team. Not even the Commander," she said. "The Romulan, not..." she nearly said "mine" but recovered. "Not Grippen," she said, to clarify which commander she'd meant.

She looked to Buck.

"Hail again." She said, simply. Maybe it was just a glitch. She'd never had one, but no one was perfect. It was bound to happen eventually.

[Rayek trLhoell]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - City Centre] (after receiving the flip phones)

Rayek also selected a flip phone and then tried to make use of it to update the Captain. However first, he required T'Sana's help to operate the phone's text screen to call up the contact list and find at the top of his speed-dials was: Captain Tekin Nevir.

It felt odd as he listened to the subspace comm line ring on his end as he waited for the ship and Captain to acknowledge his communication.  When he heard the line connect on the other end, Rayek couldn't prevent himself from speaking words that had long become expected.

"tr'Lhoell to Tekin.  We've arrived on Erewhon.  The station is akin to the gates of the park.  We've been transported down to the planet via a matter transport beam and are just about to begin our... tour of the place."

[Tekin Nevir]

{USS Discovery|Bridge|OPs}

Vila's transition to fight mode was instantaneous-truthfully, living outside of that zone was uncomfortable for her, even though she was making efforts. The Captain's mood shift didn't help, either.

She nodded. "McNair, move to my side. Abandon the Simulation for the time being," she said, opening a second console for the man to assist her. "Begin running diagnostics for the entirety of the affected sections, please. Forscher, please head down to Main Ops, and collect as much data from the diagnostics as you can. Send them to me ASAP, please." She

She tapped her Comms badge.
=/\=Cadet M'Lenda-ii, abandon the Simulations for now. They will remain in the Holo-catalog for review later. Excellent work. You will return to the command of..whoever is in charge of Engineering currently. The cat person, I believe.

After she clicked off, she quickly rerouted the systems from the affected areas to "critical support only" to save power and hopefully not start a fire or something. She sent a ping to the away team's COMMs, just in case they were receiving them.

"Captain, further orders?" She asked, fingers flying but brown eyes looking concernedly at the view screen. "How did they fall so fast?" She muttered. Oh well. Not her circus, not her monkeys.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"Divert auxiliary power to the deflectors and flood the inside of the shields with ionized metals.  That should help block radiation from the star.  I need sensors to tell me what is being emitted from the sun and why its degrading our shields so quickly."

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

The atmosphere had shifted. Buck had noticed it and was sure that the rest of the bridge crew had as well, the orders had come from top down - radiation shielding was decreasing and whilst that was bad, it signalled that something worse could be on the way. They had the better part of three minutes (and counting down) to action what they could.

The captain had allowed him to hail the away team, and with that he dialed up the communications.  Bridge Ops to Away Team, do you receive?    Buck would wait as he pressed on with the message.  Radiation shielding on the Challenger is at critical, status report on the ground. 

Buck would repeat the message another time, waiting for any semblance of a reply from the team - a crackle, a croak, an angry outburst from the chief engineer who was down on the planet. "Message to the Away Team sent, on standby for the return transmission, Captain."

Something.

Buck's attention had been snagged by Lorut, requesting him to abandon the simulation and stand ready at her side. He nodded, swiftly positioning himself at the Ops station as he began to take over on the diagnostic dive. His eyes flickering and focusing on the data stream, trying to figure out where the failed shielding started. "Compound core on deck nine reads fine. No faults reported on deck seven, twelve, thirteen...fifteen at the time prior to this incident." All the storage rooms and containers on the ship were stable. At the very least.

Engineering would have to know more about it, they needed to. Their bread and butter.

Any drop in shielding would have to have been reported by now.

How did they slip the net?

He looked over at Lorut briefly before back to the diagnostic scan he was running.

{USS Discovery|Bridge}

The Bajoran's fight mode was now fully engaged, but she fought to keep her cool.

"Captain. Nothing from the away team. Not even the Commander," she said. "The Romulan, not..." she nearly said "mine" but recovered. "Not Grippen," she said, to clarify which commander she'd meant.

She looked to Buck.

"Hail again." She said, simply. Maybe it was just a glitch. She'd never had one, but no one was perfect. It was bound to happen eventually.

At that point the computer began to speak:

WARNING.  Elevated levels of warp radiation detected.  Radiation levels will become hazardous in Engineering in 2 minutes.  Levels in the rest of the ship will become hazardous in 35 minutes.

"Bridge to Engineering, you have one minute to shut down the core and get out of that section. Transfer controls to the Alpha Engineering section and evacuate as soon as possible."

He had concerns about the lack of comms, but just as Lorut stated to hail again, the comms chirped.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - City Centre] (after receiving the flip phones)

Rayek also selected a flip phone and then tried to make use of it to update the Captain. However first, he required T'Sana's help to operate the phone's text screen to call up the contact list and find at the top of his speed-dials was: Captain Tekin Nevir.

It felt odd as he listened to the subspace comm line ring on his end as he waited for the ship and Captain to acknowledge his communication.  When he heard the line connect on the other end, Rayek couldn't prevent himself from speaking words that had long become expected.

"tr'Lhoell to Tekin.  We've arrived on Erewhon.  The station is akin to the gates of the park.  We've been transported down to the planet via a matter transport beam and are just about to begin our... tour of the place."

There was a sigh of relief.

"Discovery here.  Proceed with your exploration.  Be advised there is something in the system that is degrading our radiation shields, possibly emitted from the star.  We may have to take a portected position or dock with the station depending on what the cause is.  No need for the away team to return for now. Tekin out."

"The away team is okay, so let's handle ourselves. Helm, let's work under the assumption that its an unknown radiation from the star.  Bring us to a stationary orbit on the far side of the planet.  Miss Lorut, begin assessing our power transfer and EPS conduit systems.  Mr. McNair, prepare and launch a level 4 solar probe.  Make sure Engineering doesn't try any last-minute heroics and inform Sickbay to prepare for radiation injuries and inoculations."

[Rayek trLhoell]

NPC Cadet M'Lenda-ii
[USS Discovery -  Deck 10 - Engineering]

As the alarms went off, M'nia went into crisis mode. Checking her console, "ktals claws! Losing radiation sheilding in several section. Not good!" when the cadet offered to take a look, m'nia hesitated but decided to give her a shot. "Ok M'lenda-ii. go ahead." Maybe it was the glasses but she seemed to give off an air of intelligence.

{USS Discovery|Bridge|OPs}

She tapped her Comms badge.
=/\=Cadet M'Lenda-ii, abandon the Simulations for now. They will remain in the Holo-catalog for review later. Excellent work. You will return to the command of..whoever is in charge of Engineering currently. The cat person, I believe.

After she clicked off, she quickly rerouted the systems from the affected areas to "critical support only" to save power and hopefully not start a fire or something.

M'Lenda-ii moved to stand over the engineer's shoulder, assessing the systems based on the diagnostic display and the alert codes given.  The drop in shielding was continuing steadily.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

As soon as Lorut sent him what she saw, he ordered it on the main viewer.  A 3D image of Discovery was displayed, with growing radiation spots on the side of the ship facing the system's star, but the largest zone of radiation was around the primary warp core.  A display of the shielding power showed it was already down 13% and falling.  Slowly but steady.

M'Lenda-ii knew that the materials that made up the radiation shields both around the ship and around the warp core varied because each material blocked a different type of radiation.  Lead was used to block Gamma radiation, and plexiglass the high energy Beta particles; but it seemed now that these traditional means of shielding were growing ineffective and breaking down the more, the longer they were exposed.

The cadet looked over to a side display and noticed that the power output for the warp core had increased despite attempts by other engineers to shut it down.

"I think both the warp core and our radiation shields are being affected by some outside influence to our portside -  most likely this system's star.  Unless we can find an effective means of shielding against this influence, our will core breach."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"Divert auxiliary power to the deflectors and flood the inside of the shields with ionized metals.  That should help block radiation from the star.  I need sensors to tell me what is being emitted from the sun and why its degrading our shields so quickly."

At that point the computer began to speak:

WARNING.  Elevated levels of warp radiation detected.  Radiation levels will become hazardous in Engineering in 2 minutes.  Levels in the rest of the ship will become hazardous in 35 minutes.

"Bridge to Engineering, you have one minute to shut down the core and get out of that section. Transfer controls to the Alpha Engineering section and evacuate as soon as possible."

M'Lenda-ii looked to Lieutenant M'Nia.  She didn't want to suggest ejecting the warpcore - that was a last resort move that would strand them in this foreign system.

Then recalling something she'd heard rumor of in whispers - a subject that was supposed to be never spoken of openly.  Risking it, M'Lenda-ii looked to the Lieutenant and hesitantly suggested."Subspace radiation.  It's very rare... but I think I read that it's blocked by multiphasic shielding.  Is Discovery equipped with such? If so I think we need to activate it immediately."

[Dem Broadshire]

NPC PO2 Elena Forscher
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]

Elena hesitated at Lorut's orders.  Unlike a naval ship, Main Operations on a starship was stationed on the Bridge.  But Lorut had clearly told her to 'head down to Main Ops'...  Oh! Lorut must have meant Main Ops on the Battle Bridge.

"Yes, ma'am - I'll head down to the Beta Hull."
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NPC Cadet M'Lenda-ii
[USS Discovery -  Deck 10 - Auxiliary Cargo Bay]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - City Centre]

Rayek also selected a flip phone and then tried to make use of it to update the Captain. However first, he required T'Sana's help to operate the phone's text screen to call up the contact list and find at the top of his speed-dials was: Captain Tekin Nevir.

It felt odd as he listened to the subspace comm line ring on his end as he waited for the ship and Captain to acknowledge his communication.  When he heard the line connect on the other end, Rayek couldn't prevent himself from speaking words that had long become expected.

"tr'Lhoell to Tekin.  We've arrived on Erewhon.  The station is akin to the gates of the park.  We've been transported down to the planet via a matter transport beam and are just about to begin our... tour of the place."
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No sooner had Rayek closed the phone after his conversation then suddenly the cadet at his side wasn't looking so good.  A scan with Dem's medical tricorder showed nothing of note but that didn't mean there was nothing, since the equipment was circumspect after their transport.

The cadet's sudden illness was suspicious, but as their hosts readily agreed to send her back to the ship, it gave Rayek the perfect opportunity to explore alone.  Or rather it would have... if Lieutenant Lachlyn hadn't invited him to join her and the others to go check out the Library.

Since he had agreed that no one should investigate alone, it would be inappropriate of him to turn down that offer to join along.  He smiled towards the Sec/Tac officer.  "Thank you Lieutenant Lachlyn, that is an excellent idea."

At his agreement to join with the others, the hologram T'Sana nodded and altered her direction. "This way to the Library, Rayek."

The hologram Pem who had been leading the others stopped until T'Sana and Rayek caught up, and then Pem disappeared leaving just T'Sana.  T'Sana then led the four disguised officers in the opposite direction from Malik and the others.

(Malik, Hansen and Broadshire)
[Market Place]

Sean laughed.  "Just passing by? You must be joking, right?  We are in the middle of nowhere.  No one comes to this system unless they've been fortunate enough to have booked time at Erewhon.  I've been waiting two years for this trip, but it's been so worth it so far." he bragged as he wrapped an arm each around the waist of the two hologram women with him, he looked to first one then the other almost appraisingly.  They smiled at him unwaveringly.  "We are here to make your make your fantasies reality" they chimed in unison.

Mr. Connery, smiled at their response, then looked back to Dem and his group thoughtful for a moment.  "Dem you said?  Dem...  I'm not familiar with that name.  What show is it from?" he asked before he suddenly frowned turning his attention to the market stall owner..

"What do you think you doing?!" he questioned angrily to the man who was putting back on display the item they had been haggling over.  "I was buying that!"

Mr. Connery held out his hand towards the item, a tweed hat.  "Because of your rudeness, I expect to given that for free."

When the market stall owner balked at the demand, Sean raised his hand threateningly; and the owner quickly nodded.  "Yes of course, please take it with my apologies."
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(Ramort, Lek, Tanner & Rayek)
[Erewhon - Library]

It was a relatively short walk down the main street.  The building that she led them to was architecturally indistinguishable from the average library one could find in any mid-sized small town on Earth in the early 21st century.  Red brick, arched entrance, white columns and bold capital lettering above the entrance noting it as the PUBLIC LIBRARY.  The Romulan was quirked an eyebrow at this generic labeling.

In the gardens outside the library, they passed what appeared to be the local groundskeeper, who was mowing the grass using a combustible-fuel powered push-mower.  The male groundskeeper gave the group a slight nod as he paused the mower as they walked past him.  Rayek noted unlike themselves, the groundskeeper didn't wear a wristband, nor did he appear to be a hologram (there was a slight artificial quality to the holograms that this man lacked).

Curious, Rayek paused a little further up the walkway to watch the man work.  His observing must have been noticed by the man because the groundskeeper glanced back as he worked.  For a moment their gazes met, before the man quickly lowered his to the ground in a submissive manner.  A sudden shrill angry shriek drew Rayek's attention to a woman in a summer dress passing by the groundskeeper, who quickly turned off his mower; but the damage was done.  Some of the grass clippings cut by the mower had escaped the unit's bagging system and had been throw into the air to land on the woman's legs and sandals.

"Ooh you vile man! How dare you! Do you know how much I spent on these shoes? On this vacation?" the woman shouted as she confronted the groundskeeper.  "This sort of treatment is not what I paid for!" Then to emphasize her words the woman shoved at the man causing him to topple over the mower.  She then gave the downed man a parting kick to his ribs before she stalked towards the library entrance.

With a frown, Rayek moved to intercept the woman.

[Erewhon]

Dem was slightly taken aback by the implication he had waited for years to visit this colony. He looked toward the resident party planet expert as the man wrapped his arms around the two ladies. Someone was getting some action, and Dem didn't really like the thought of it.

He was pleasantly surprised when Sean continued to talk to him, inquiring about his name. "Well, it's a tradi-"... Dem practically jumped back in surprise as he made unprovoked attack on a holographic storeholder.

After the scuffle, Dem thought to go forward to console the worker. But he was a hologram after all... who doesn't exactly experience emotions. This planet was an exemplification of the federation ethics that are so topical, in fact, he had met the infamous holographic Doctor on a few occasions who was heading the court proceedings on this very subject. He couldn't help but wonder his thoughts on the matter. Dem stood there, frozen, looking to Malik to find how to approach the situation.  

[Lek]

(Ramort, Lek, Tanner & Rayek)
[Erewhon - Library]

It was a relatively short walk down the main street.  The building that she led them to was architecturally indistinguishable from the average library one could find in any mid-sized small town on Earth in the early 21st century.  Red brick, arched entrance, white columns and bold capital lettering above the entrance noting it as the PUBLIC LIBRARY.  The Romulan was quirked an eyebrow at this generic labeling.

In the gardens outside the library, they passed what appeared to be the local groundskeeper, who was mowing the grass using a combustible-fuel powered push-mower.  The male groundskeeper gave the group a slight nod as he paused the mower as they walked past him.  Rayek noted unlike themselves, the groundskeeper didn't wear a wristband, nor did he appear to be a hologram (there was a slight artificial quality to the holograms that this man lacked).

Curious, Rayek paused a little further up the walkway to watch the man work.  His observing must have been noticed by the man because the groundskeeper glanced back as he worked.  For a moment their gazes met, before the man quickly lowered his to the ground in a submissive manner.  A sudden shrill angry shriek drew Rayek's attention to a woman in a summer dress passing by the groundskeeper, who quickly turned off his mower; but the damage was done.  Some of the grass clippings cut by the mower had escaped the unit's bagging system and had been throw into the air to land on the woman's legs and sandals.

"Ooh you vile man! How dare you! Do you know how much I spent on these shoes? On this vacation?" the woman shouted as she confronted the groundskeeper.  "This sort of treatment is not what I paid for!" Then to emphasize her words the woman shoved at the man causing him to topple over the mower.  She then gave the downed man a parting kick to his ribs before she stalked towards the library entrance.

With a frown, Rayek moved to intercept the woman.

[Erewhon - Outside Library]

Lek watched the exchange between the woman and the groundkeeper with growing anger until he couldn't stand any more and stormed up to the woman.

"What in the hell kind of guest are you? That man is doing his job and you're the one who wallowed her prodigious posterior in his way. This is supposed to be a place to be entertained, not where you get to abuse the staff and if you consider that entertaining, then you've got bigger problems than the size of your butt!"

[Malik Grippen]

[Erewhon]

"Mr Connery, you asked my colleague what 'show' he was from. What did you mean by that? Where are you from?"

He then turned his attention to Candy, their holographic slave.

"Candy, I am curious, do you consider yourself a computer program or a sentient person?"

[Lilly Hansen]

[Erewhon Station -> Transporter Site]

Dem could feel his hands shaking as he clasped them in front of him. He was cautious to speak or make any assessment. The commander will deal with the logistics and negotiation, while he will simply attend to someone if they get sick. It is as simple as that.

He walked up to the back of the transporter pad, taking care on the overly smooth steps of the very sleek station. Standing at the back (as it is customary for the commander to stand at the very front), he felt his entire body tension as he braced himself for what was to come.

Dem materialised near the rest of the away team, but the striking difference in appearance and clothing took him a while to identify them. Looking down, he too found himself dressed in a white button up shirt, with blue "speckled" pants. He noted that early humans wore them constantly, but he really couldn't remember the name. He assumed also that his subtle nose ridges were removed by the holographic generators he was wearing on his wrist. He suddenly felt a lot calmer. He knew it was a naive response, but this planet had a remarkably calming atmosphere.

Many young people came up toward the officers, welcoming them, and he soon found a young woman walk up to him. She was for sure striking, and he really hadn't looked at anyone that way since his academy days. Things onboard discovery had been a little – intense. She gave a very similar speech that the other "holographic servers" gave, yet slightly nuanced to presumably suit her unique programming.
"Take me to the nearest watering hole" Dem somewhat foolishly replied to her question of direction. He was ordered to explore, and that was exploring. He looked around for some physical company, spying Hansen nearby. "Hansen, care for a drink? We were just about to go to the nearest establishment."

NPC PO2 Elena Forscher
[USS Discovery-B - Deck One - Bridge]

Elena hesitated at Lorut's orders.  Unlike a naval ship, Main Operations on a starship was stationed on the Bridge.  But Lorut had clearly told her to 'head down to Main Ops'...  Oh! Lorut must have meant Main Ops on the Battle Bridge.

"Yes, ma'am - I'll head down to the Beta Hull."
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

NPC Cadet M'Lenda-ii
[USS Discovery -  Deck 10 - Auxiliary Cargo Bay]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - City Centre]

Rayek also selected a flip phone and then tried to make use of it to update the Captain. However first, he required T'Sana's help to operate the phone's text screen to call up the contact list and find at the top of his speed-dials was: Captain Tekin Nevir.

It felt odd as he listened to the subspace comm line ring on his end as he waited for the ship and Captain to acknowledge his communication.  When he heard the line connect on the other end, Rayek couldn't prevent himself from speaking words that had long become expected.

"tr'Lhoell to Tekin.  We've arrived on Erewhon.  The station is akin to the gates of the park.  We've been transported down to the planet via a matter transport beam and are just about to begin our... tour of the place."
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No sooner had Rayek closed the phone after his conversation then suddenly the cadet at his side wasn't looking so good.  A scan with Dem's medical tricorder showed nothing of note but that didn't mean there was nothing, since the equipment was circumspect after their transport.

The cadet's sudden illness was suspicious, but as their hosts readily agreed to send her back to the ship, it gave Rayek the perfect opportunity to explore alone.  Or rather it would have... if Lieutenant Lachlyn hadn't invited him to join her and the others to go check out the Library.

Since he had agreed that no one should investigate alone, it would be inappropriate of him to turn down that offer to join along.  He smiled towards the Sec/Tac officer.  "Thank you Lieutenant Lachlyn, that is an excellent idea."

At his agreement to join with the others, the hologram T'Sana nodded and altered her direction. "This way to the Library, Rayek."

The hologram Pem who had been leading the others stopped until T'Sana and Rayek caught up, and then Pem disappeared leaving just T'Sana.  T'Sana then led the four disguised officers in the opposite direction from Malik and the others.

(Malik, Hansen and Broadshire)
[Market Place]

Sean laughed.  "Just passing by? You must be joking, right?  We are in the middle of nowhere.  No one comes to this system unless they've been fortunate enough to have booked time at Erewhon.  I've been waiting two years for this trip, but it's been so worth it so far." he bragged as he wrapped an arm each around the waist of the two hologram women with him, he looked to first one then the other almost appraisingly.  They smiled at him unwaveringly.  "We are here to make your make your fantasies reality" they chimed in unison.

Mr. Connery, smiled at their response, then looked back to Dem and his group thoughtful for a moment.  "Dem you said?  Dem...  I'm not familiar with that name.  What show is it from?" he asked before he suddenly frowned turning his attention to the market stall owner..

"What do you think you doing?!" he questioned angrily to the man who was putting back on display the item they had been haggling over.  "I was buying that!"

Mr. Connery held out his hand towards the item, a tweed hat.  "Because of your rudeness, I expect to given that for free."

When the market stall owner balked at the demand, Sean raised his hand threateningly; and the owner quickly nodded.  "Yes of course, please take it with my apologies."
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(Ramort, Lek, Tanner & Rayek)
[Erewhon - Library]

It was a relatively short walk down the main street.  The building that she led them to was architecturally indistinguishable from the average library one could find in any mid-sized small town on Earth in the early 21st century.  Red brick, arched entrance, white columns and bold capital lettering above the entrance noting it as the PUBLIC LIBRARY.  The Romulan was quirked an eyebrow at this generic labeling.

In the gardens outside the library, they passed what appeared to be the local groundskeeper, who was mowing the grass using a combustible-fuel powered push-mower.  The male groundskeeper gave the group a slight nod as he paused the mower as they walked past him.  Rayek noted unlike themselves, the groundskeeper didn't wear a wristband, nor did he appear to be a hologram (there was a slight artificial quality to the holograms that this man lacked).

Curious, Rayek paused a little further up the walkway to watch the man work.  His observing must have been noticed by the man because the groundskeeper glanced back as he worked.  For a moment their gazes met, before the man quickly lowered his to the ground in a submissive manner.  A sudden shrill angry shriek drew Rayek's attention to a woman in a summer dress passing by the groundskeeper, who quickly turned off his mower; but the damage was done.  Some of the grass clippings cut by the mower had escaped the unit's bagging system and had been throw into the air to land on the woman's legs and sandals.

"Ooh you vile man! How dare you! Do you know how much I spent on these shoes? On this vacation?" the woman shouted as she confronted the groundskeeper.  "This sort of treatment is not what I paid for!" Then to emphasize her words the woman shoved at the man causing him to topple over the mower.  She then gave the downed man a parting kick to his ribs before she stalked towards the library entrance.

With a frown, Rayek moved to intercept the woman.

Before Encounter
Hansen nodded, a smile crossing her face. "Sounds like a idea"

Lilly followed Dem, her senses still on alert but allowing herself to be momentarily distracted. The establishment was a cozy, dimly-lit place with a welcoming atmosphere. Hansen led Lilly to a table, and soon they were seated with drinks in hand.

"So, Dem," Hansen began, leaning in slightly. "Tell me more about yourself. What's your background?"

Encounter

Lilly stood near Dem, The Holograms or whatnot seemed so real, She stayed at the ready, Just in case, She just watched all the others.

[Rayek trLhoell]

(Malik, Hansen and Broadshire)
[Market Place]

[Erewhon]

Dem was slightly taken aback by the implication he had waited for years to visit this colony. He looked toward the resident party planet expert as the man wrapped his arms around the two ladies. Someone was getting some action, and Dem didn't really like the thought of it.

He was pleasantly surprised when Sean continued to talk to him, inquiring about his name. "Well, it's a tradi-"... Dem practically jumped back in surprise as Sean made an unprovoked attack on a storeholder.

After the scuffle, Dem thought to go forward to console the worker. But he was a hologram after all... who doesn't exactly experience emotions. This planet was an exemplification of the federation ethics that are so topical, in fact, he had met the infamous holographic Doctor on a few occasions who was heading the court proceedings on this very subject. He couldn't help but wonder his thoughts on the matter. Dem stood there, frozen, looking to Malik to find how to approach the situation.

Encounter

Lilly stood near Dem, the Holograms or whatnot seemed so real, She stayed at the ready, Just in case, She just watched all the others.

[Erewhon]

"Mr Connery, you asked my colleague what 'show' he was from. What did you mean by that? Where are you from?"

He then turned his attention to Candy, their holographic slave.

"Candy, I am curious, do you consider yourself a computer program or a sentient person?"

Sean Connery lowered his threatening hand and took the crafted item as payment for being disrespected by the stall worker.  The balding vacationer, then turned back to Dem smiling apologetically.  "Sorry about that but history has shown you can't give these types even an inch."  The guides on either side of Sean, nodded their agreement before crowding close to him again, fawning over him.

When Malik asked where he was from, Sean chortled.  "Ha.. yeah I suppose you can't tell my real form with these holographic disguises. I'm Lyssarian." he answered expecting that to explain it all.

His attention then followed as Malik asked the most odd question to Candy.  "She's a hologram program, of course."  The man shook his head in bewilderment and laughed.  "As if they would be sentient."

Candy during this smiled up at Malik and placed her hand upon his chest lightly.  "What answer would please you more?"

Meanwhile the store worker returned to his task, calling out to other prospective customers to check out his wares.
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(Ramort, Lek, Tanner & Rayek)
[Erewhon - Library]

With Rayek's long stride, he managed gain on the woman and put out and arm to block her path.

The woman stopped abruptly, her eyes glancing momentarily to the wristband upon his arm.  Despite the annoyance of the groundskeeper, she forced a smile towards him.  "Yes, hello. Is there a problem?" she asked in a neutral tone.  Yet before Rayek could speak to question her on her actions, Lek arrived and verbally laid into her.

[Erewhon - Outside Library]

Lek watched the exchange between the woman and the groundkeeper with growing anger until he couldn't stand any more and stormed up to the woman.

"What in the hell kind of guest are you? That man is doing his job and you're the one who wallowed her prodigious posterior in his way. This is supposed to be a place to be entertained, not where you get to abuse the staff and if you consider that entertaining, then you've got bigger problems than the size of your butt!"

The woman looked shocked to addressed like that.  "Excuse me, that is no way to talk to another guest!"  She looked past Lek and Rayek to the hologram leading their group.  "You heard his insults to me.  I demand arbitration and an appropriate recompense!"
Their guide, T'Sana, looked to the woman.  She offered a slight nod towards her before setting her gaze on Lek's human-looking form.

"You have been accused of violating the Erewhon Terms of Service: section 9; sub-section 14 - Appropriate Guest Interactions with other Guests.  Do you wish to contest this accusation?"

[M'Nia]

NPC Cadet M'Lenda-ii
[USS Discovery -  Deck 10 - Engineering]

M'Lenda-ii moved to stand over the engineer's shoulder, assessing the systems based on the diagnostic display and the alert codes given.  The drop in shielding was continuing steadily.

M'Lenda-ii knew that the materials that made up the radiation shields both around the ship and around the warp core varied because each material blocked a different type of radiation.  Lead was used to block Gamma radiation, and plexiglass the high energy Beta particles; but it seemed now that these traditional means of shielding were growing ineffective and breaking down the more, the longer they were exposed.

The cadet looked over to a side display and noticed that the power output for the warp core had increased despite attempts by other engineers to shut it down.

"I think both the warp core and our radiation shields are being affected by some outside influence to our portside -  most likely this system's star.  Unless we can find an effective means of shielding against this influence, our will core breach."

M'Lenda-ii looked to Lieutenant M'Nia.  She didn't want to suggest ejecting the warpcore - that was a last resort move that would strand them in this foreign system.

Then recalling something she'd heard rumor of in whispers - a subject that was supposed to be never spoken of openly.  Risking it, M'Lenda-ii looked to the Lieutenant and hesitantly suggested."Subspace radiation.  It's very rare... but I think I read that it's blocked by multiphasic shielding.  Is Discovery equipped with such? If so I think we need to activate it immediately."

"No we don't! M'nia to bridge, acknowledged! Everyone out and report to alpha section engineering." she initiated shut down of the core. "That means you too cadet. Hopefully we get out of this with our tails intact!" She would eject the core if need be but hopefully it would not be! However she needed to make sure everyone got out ok.

[Lek]

(Ramort, Lek, Tanner & Rayek)
[Erewhon - Library]

With Rayek's long stride, he managed gain on the woman and put out and arm to block her path.

The woman stopped abruptly, her eyes glancing momentarily to the wristband upon his arm.  Despite the annoyance of the groundskeeper, she forced a smile towards him.  "Yes, hello. Is there a problem?" she asked in a neutral tone.  Yet before Rayek could speak to question her on her actions, Lek arrived and verbally laid into her.

The woman looked shocked to addressed like that.  "Excuse me, that is no way to talk to another guest!"  She looked past Lek and Rayek to the hologram leading their group.  "You heard his insults to me.  I demand arbitration and an appropriate recompense!"

Their guide, T'Sana, looked to the woman.  She offered a slight nod towards her before setting her gaze on Lek's human-looking form.

"You have been accused of violating the Erewhon Terms of Service: section 9; sub-section 14 - Appropriate Guest Interactions with other Guests.  Do you wish to contest this accusation?"

[Erewhon - Library]

Lek smiled at the threat and replied.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and guess you've never heard of the 17th Rule of Acquisition. 'A contract, is a contract, is a contract.' However, for a contract to be valid, it requires both parties agree to said contract. This requires  a signature, a thumbscan, or a retinal scan. As none of us provided such confirmation, you don't have a contract. In addition, you beamed us here without asking if we wished to participate in your simulation. Thus, you assumed all risk not us. Therefore you may stick your 'section 9; sub-section 14' so far up your anal orifice that you choke on it."

Lek had no idea who these people are, but clearly they'd never done business with Ferengi before.

[Buck McNair]

[USS Discovery | Bridge - Ops station]

Buck had been growing worried about the lack of communications from the away team, was it usual for them not to have checked in-?

"The away team is okay, so let's handle ourselves. Helm, let's work under the assumption that its an unknown radiation from the star.  Bring us to a stationary orbit on the far side of the planet.  Miss Lorut, begin assessing our power transfer and EPS conduit systems.  Mr. McNair, prepare and launch a level 4 solar probe.  Make sure Engineering doesn't try any last-minute heroics and inform Sickbay to prepare for radiation injuries and inoculations."

It seemed his questions and concerns had been answered as the captain confirmed the team were okay and that their current working theory for the radiation came from the star. "Aye, captain." His hands danced over the panel, bringing up the schematic of the Disco's solar probe, checking it for any cracks, faults that had been raised or anything that would hinder their deployment of the probe launch.

Ops to Engineering, sit rep once you all are safe and well 

He waited a beat, held his breathe and cracked on with the probe. "Class 4 probe is all ready and without issue, launching in five...four...three...two...one. Probe launched." Buck tracked it's launch path on his monitor. They would be getting a clearer picture soon enough once the probe found its natural resting location. "Deflector shields holding, readings should be coming through to you, patching it now, Captain."