Messages

I've spoken to CLOs about this already, just need the account reactivated

[[Shuttle]]

Lt jg Danjar-Torra Addams
[Shuttle]

Torra looked over towards the engineering crewman as he corrected her on a technicality of her medical advice.  His correction wasn't wrong but then neither was hers - the important part was to control any high-volume bleed immediately.  A glance towards Petty officer Graham showed that for him at least, that wasn't the case.

It was a bit soothing when Crewman Wynters got out of his seat and began talking about the planet that he came from.  Torra could appreciate the need to calm oneself with talk.  It was a common trait among Grazerites.  "I believe I would enjoy such a holodeck program, if you did indeed write one up." Torra remarked to the engineer before resuming her trek towards the Commander.

Torra turned back towards the Commander, intending to offer medical assistance, but that is when the shuttle's perch in the canopy of the trees slowly released.  Torra gripped onto a chair beside her fearing a sudden fall.. but the descent was oddly smooth almost like lowered from a cable.

Once the shuttle was fully on the ground, surprisingly having landed upright rather than nose first, Torra went to work checking the Commander.  Physically she had no major injuries other than a knock to the head... which could be rather serious.  Rather than get assistance moving the Commander to another location, Torra while she was retrieving the medkit from under the Commanders seat, reclined the pilots seat allowing more room in which to attend Torra's patient.

A scan of the Commander had Torra frowning.  "It looks to me that the Commander has entered a Vulcan healing trance.  I'm not certain how long she will remain unresponsive... but I do know it's not wise to wake them while they are in such a trance."

Torra considered what to do next.  She tried her best not to ponder it overly much - since she knew the perception of Grazerites as being slow thinkers.  She looked out the front viewscreen and saw only vines - they had been what had slowed their descent.  But now they were also what prevented them from exiting the downed craft.

"Crewman Gohun, if you would please focus your attention to cutting back some of these vines so that once Crewman Wynters has our systems working again, we can have a clear launch area.  Also, I need you to keep a close eye on our defenses.  We don't know what dangers may lie on this planet.   Petty officer Graham.  I'll attend your injuries next."

[Shuttle Tereshkova - Liega II]

Torra was indeed correct, the Vulcan was in a healing trance. Despite her bracing, the impact had thrown her head forward enough that it hit the front console, causing her to sustain a serious concussion. While the rest roused around her and began gingerly setting about their tasks, T'Lara remained silent and motionless as if in a coma.

[T'Lara's subconscious...]

Pain. A familiar feeling. The ringing came first, but it soon vanished as the trance took over.

Calm. Serenity. Words often used in consciousness, but only truly felt in trance or, T'Lara assumed, in death. There were absolutely no distractions, nothing to wait for, nothing to be busy doing. She did not even focus on the healing work her own body was enacting on itself, the minutes ticking by as the tense situation played out surrounding the shell of her being on the shuttle. Much as the mind gravitates toward the rhythm of waves crashing on a shore when in search of peace, the trance, though she was not directly aware of it, had a sound to it not unlike that of white noise. She did not see shapes or images of any kind, only brief pulses of light in varying colours. This continued for some time. When the ship was lowered to the ground, any jostling to the XO's body was thankfully unfelt. She continued existing, the process gradually reviving her...

[[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Bridge]]

Lt jg Danjar-Torra Addams
[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Bridge]

That both Nira and Don spoke up to wish her well as she rose to leave made her smile softly.  Though all on the ship she considered as her part of her upsol, these two were more than just family.  Don, her husband, she loved beyond compare, and Nira was her closest friend on the ship.

Though Torra would have preferred to have all three of them on a team together, she felt safe knowing both would be keeping an eye on things from up here.  She dipped her head first to Nira and then looked to Don and 'blew him a kiss' before taking the turbolift down to the armory.  She was surprised that Helga wasn't present but some other security crewman she didn't know.
.
.
.

[USS Discovery - Shuttlebay]

Torra nodded at the Commander's answer.  She had no other questions, and when it was time to board the shuttle Torra took up one of the back seats, her height and her horns making it difficult for others to see past her when she was seated in front, and knew that people often enjoyed the view during the flight down.    Torra, for her part, would be watching the sensors during the flight down, hoping to get a head-start on investigating this oddity.

Gohun received the hail to go to the transporter room. He was eager to visit another planet. While Gohun knew the planet was only vegetables he also knew of planets that had meat eating vegetables.  With that in mind Gohun took a standard phaser and a tricorder with him. With that he made it to the transporter room. As Gohun entered the tranporter room he remembered that they were actuality taking a shuttlecraft down. At that po[int he ran over to shuttlebay 4. When no one was in the shuttlebay he went to the correct shuttle bay.

[Shuttlebay - USS Discovery]

T'Lara waited for everyone else to arrive, Gohun making it to the bay a little later than the rest, then she gestured for everyone to board the shuttle and told Graham to begin preparing for departure. She sat down next to the flight officer, running through her own checks silently. She wasn't much interested in small talk and thankfully no one else seemed to be in the mood for it.

(Pushing this a bit)

[Deck 1 - Main Bridge - USS Discovery]

As the shuttle took off, it was all quiet on the bridge.  There was really nothing much they would be able to concentrate on.  From the vantage point above the planet, they could see the green, but nothing much in the way of details.  The quiet of the bridge, however, was disrupted.

The tactical console gave an alert of weapons fire, at least one shot.  Deck 10, section 21 alpha.

At the same time, there was a surge in the power systems on that deck, and a plasma conduit ruptured; its bio-gel pack exploding into the corridor.  A lone crewman was left, laying there.  With a phaser burn.

[On the planet below]

The shuttle ride seemed alright, at least while they entered the upper atmosphere.  In the smaller ship, they were able to read pockets of what looked like electromagnetic disturbances.  And at first, it was easy to map and avoid... but the pockets were constantly moving.  Shifting.  And then... altering direction.  At least two pockets seemed to just turn and start coming towards the shuttle.  Sensors had trouble even determining the boundaries of these disturbances, let alone what they could be.

Currently, the shuttle only had about 20 seconds or so before intercept.

Lt jg Danjar-Torra Addams
[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Bridge]

Torra having noted the electromagnetic disturbances when they first began to show in the sensors, had informed the Commander.   She was kept busy, calling out the ever shifting positions.  It was odd.  The disturbances seemed to not just move on air current or at random, but the Grazerite began to suspect that the shuttle was being targeted.  She was about to state this to the Commander when her sensors indicated an impending impact with two of these electromagnetic disturbances.

"Commander.  The shuttle seems to be targeted by these electromagnetic disturbances.  Recommend, shutting down all non-essential power.  Impact in 15 seconds."

Her hand hovered over her tertiary console.  Ready to shut down all power on the shuttle.

[Shuttle --> Liega II]

The XO watched as the green planet came into view. Then as they traveled closer she trained her eyes on the sensors, looking for items of interest or clues of anything amiss. She kept an eye on Graham's actions as he steered them through the disturbances, growing more and more concerned the more "close calls" were made. She was broken out of her intense focus by Torra's voice. This was one of the reasons why she had chosen the Grazerite to be on the team-she was already prepared to complete the task that T'Lara had only decided on moments before.

"Do it, Lieutenant," she looked back at the rest of the group. "All hands brace for impact."

There was nothing they could have done to prevent it, T'Lara was convinced of that. She did not yet know why this was happening, but the logic of knowing that they had done all they could do comforted her somehow. They were close enough now that if they were to crash they had a chance of survival, so she gave the order and waited. Just...waited.

[[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Bridge]]

Lt jg Danjar-Torra Addams
[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Bridge]

Hearing her name called to participate on the away mission, Torra's bovine ears flicked in surprise glancing towards her husband initially, before she collected herself and dipped her head and shoulders towards the Commander in acknowledgement.  "Yes, ma'am." she replied.

While being swift to assemble was not a Grazerite strength or usual trait, Torra managed to be ready with field kit and phasers enough for their entire team in advance most of the others.  Given that the Away Team had no assigned Medical personnel, Torra also took along a medical kit for herself to use.  She listened attentively to the Commanders' briefing and having been on the Bridge for the initial scans of the planet, Torra really had no questions at present - beyond the silently obvious one... Why assign her to a science-oriented away team when she had next to no usable experience in Science?   But the Grazer dared not ask such a question of her superior.

The Grazerite recognizing that it showed lack of participation if she said nothing, so Torra tried to come up with a reasonable question.  "Will the team remain together as we record our observations and collect samples, or are we to be assigned in pairs to cover more ground?"

Torra didn't ask about exploring solo because Starfleet safety protocols, and common-sense made that not even an option.

Crewman Helga Tragnar
[USS Discovery - Main Engineering]

Helga found Lek's lack of concern about the potentially uninventoried weapons cache a bit troubling.  He was 2nd officer after all.  Things like this shouldn't be left unchecked.   But as Lek continued on to comment about on his possible enjoyment of having her looking after his safety - up close and personal; well, she got a little distracted.  It was rare for Lek to talk amorous like this.  And never had it happened while he was on duty, so Helga was a bit flustered - and turned on.

She grinned toothily, giving Lek a pleased look.  "You should maybe put in a request to have me re-assigned to the Engineering security detail - or specifically to you.  That way I could act as your body guard.  No way any intruders would get past to me to harm you or your precious engines."

Quick glancing about to be sure they were alone, she reached out a hand towards his tempting lobes.  "Can't have you getting injured again.."  she growled.

[Shuttlebay - USS Discovery]

T'Lara perked up at the question from Torra. A completely valid one, though she had intended to elaborate on it when they got there.

"My intention is to split up, though we will stay relatively close so as to have security personnel at hand in case of trouble. This may change once we have arrived there and assessed the situation."

As they waited for the others to show, the XO adjusted her hold on the various kits and bags she had on her person, feeling completely at ease as awkwardness was not something she often experienced.

[It's that time again! Please post your submissions here.]

It's that time again! Please post your submissions here.

[Deck 1 - Main Bridge - USS Discovery]

Whether it was farmland or a town, the evidence was there... it was evidence of civilization.  So Starfleet was right; this was an inhabited planet.  The question was... where were they?  And how advanced were they?  The size of the marking indicated a large population, which ruled out pre-industrialization.  There were a couple of other indicators they could go through.

"Check carbon levels and radioactive isotopes," he stated, though he felt that second one was not as likely thanks to the amount of growth on the planet.  It was positively lush; almost enough to make Risa jealous.

After getting the answers, he sighed.  "If they reached fusion energy or antimatter, there would be no real evidence.  Commander, assemble an away team ad take the shuttle down.  See what you can find.  And see why it appears that the life on this planet is just... missing."

[Bridge - USS Discovery]

Without further ado, Tekin requested an away team. Many of the same questions were running through T'Lara's mind, though the captain didn't know it. It was up to the Bridge crew to answer them, and the XO's job to lead the team that would uncover more evidence.

"Understood, Captain. Danjar - Addams, you are with me."

The Vulcan wasted no time in getting the group assembled, telling Torra to equip herself with standard phasers and field supplies before sending out a message to the rest of the group, including Graham, Gohun, and Wynters. When they were all assembled outside the shuttle she gave a briefing.

"Sentient life on this planet appears to be missing, and it is our task to discover why. We will do this by recording observations of possible causes for this strange reality, and bringing back samples of various forms of life for analysis. Are there any questions?"

She assumed the ones who had not been on the Bridge had received more in-depth mission news on their PADDs, but as always she opened the floor up for further discussion. She didn't necessarily enjoy being the only one talking anyway.

[Lieutenant Nira Said | Bridge | Deck One | USS Discovery NCC-78393-B]

Nira looked up and smiled as Don and the Captain conversed, and talked about the old days. Then again, Nira wasn't surprised. This was the priority of exploration in Starfleet, as Zefram Cochran summed up: Explore strange new worlds, seek out new lifeforms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Nira had to smile further when she studied up on Betazed, to get to know her world of origin. She was certainly surprised to find that Betazed was exactly like Risa, albeit without the artificial weather controls; the difference was, in a nutshell, Betazed actually had real weather, real storms. No wonder Nira was partial to living near beaches back on Abu Dhabi. No wonder she loved Risa. No wonder she fell in love with a Risian so easily on her first ship. But in terms of history, Betazed had lagged behind in scientific development; odds were, Betazed were still emphasizing telepathic mysticism, combating non-coporeal beings of the caliber one would expect in mythological stories with their telepathy while Earth and Bajor were still discovering worlds through radio telescopes.

Nira was jolted back to reality, from her thinking of what Betazed was like in getting to know it from reading, when the Captain ordered Helm to stop the ship. The viewscreen pulled up something interesting. Perfect geometric patterns. That meant one thing:

"Farmland," said Nira at once. "Either that or geometric geo-physical artwork like Nazca lines or the Great Wall of China, but most likely farmland. And where there's farmland, that means farmers...therefore the planet has to be inhabited after all."

She furrowed her brow, the detective in her spinning gears. A new mystery seemed to present itself. Out here, this was the sort of mystery to discover something about a newly discovered planet, and other scientific mysteries, rather than a mystery of what was stolen or who was murdered. In this case, she wondered how the naked eye could see on a planet what the sensors could not.

[Bridge - USS Discovery]

They were now close enough to the planet to observe it, and they wasted no time in doing so. Tekin ordered a specific sector to be brought up for closer inspection, a section T'Lara realized from what she was seeing on her PADD was what the science officers on duty were currently interested in. And for good reason. T'Lara recognized the tell-tale sign of civilization, the presence of order. Nature had its own sense of order, but only sentient life could organize the land itself in this manner. At least, that was the common knowledge. They were exploring, after all. Technically, anything was possible. Nira voiced what probably most of them were thinking, a straightforward "if, then" hypothesis. Now all that was left was to test it out. She waited to see what the next orders would be.

[Bridge - USS Discovery]

T'Lara was pleased to be back on duty after a brief absence when she had to renew her status as active student at the Vulcan Science Academy. It was a tedious but necessary requirement to complete so she could have full remote access to the library there, and it was certainly good to maintain a presence there even from afar. Since she certainly still had the "smarts" to remain there, it made no sense to leave.

The tests and classes took a full month, by which time the Discovery's mission had ended and there was a little downtime before the next one began. T'Lara begrudgingly took even more time off, but chose to spend it working on some personal projects she developed in her studies.

Now, they had returned to the duty of exploration. The XO sat at her usual chair, though she was piped in to what Savar and the other science officer on duty were seeing. She kept her own speculations to herself for now, and remained silent while Tekin answered Addams.

Perhaps there had been an enormously catastrophic event here that wiped out the population. Perhaps something similar to Earth's "Big Bang" had occurred, and this planet was just now beginning to shows signs of life after being dessimated. Perhaps...a neighboring planet had devised a bioweapon to destroy intelligent life here.

As they pulled into orbit so sensors could get a better look, Discovery anticipated some answers to this pressing question.

Woohoo!!!!!!! (This message is more from Lisa than T'Lara lol) I actually remember the last mission we played together and I'm looking forward to the end of my LOA when I can get back to posting with you again

Hello again. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to extend this LOA. The kids are driving me bonkers and I just need time to myself after work. Since my next few weekends are also busy I can't even play catchup, so here we are. I would like to extend it for the rest of the month, but of course I might be back before then. Depends on how soon I can make this craziness my new normal Thanks, and love to you all.

Character(s) affected: T'Lara and Lisa Belmont
Assigned ship(s): Disco and Challenger
Period of time absent: 6 days
Date of last period of activity: 8/30
Date returning: 9/7

Any relevant comments: Work is getting crazy with the first week of school, so I might be posting but the LOA is there in case I don't get to

[Deck 1 - Conference Room - USS Discovery #1]

After everyone had arrived and taken their seats, Nevir actually struggled on how to start the meeting. Lieutenant Cadbury was in place of Halverstrom and with Lt. Banon, that made the entire staff.  Luckily, Lek decided to break the ice as it were, and though it was technically out of decorum, he was a bit relieved.

"Thank you.  This is certainly going into the record books as one of the.. strangest... events we have had to go through.  I want to know what you have all found so far.  First, Dr. Thane?" he stated, deferring to the medical officer.

"Thank you Captain.  Upon analyzing three of... the corpses, I believe I was able to find a cause of death.  In all three bodies, neural activity suddenly came to a halt, as well as the nervous system.  There were slight differences, but all three of them died at around the same time, and in the cold of the planet they were preserved within an hour or so." he said, looking at the others, but trying to avoid eye contact with the three he had been working on.

"I can say with certainty that they all died approximately a week ago.  My theory is that something drained our neural activity and bodily energy, leading to everyone practically shutting down."

The Captain nodded, expecting the next person to speak up.  "Do we know what caused it?"

[Conference Room - USS Discovery]

T'Lara listened to each of the away team members, finding that she had not much else to add. The theories offered were all valid ones with varying degrees of probability. She found herself agreeing with Lek as far as what they needed to do next going forward. The XO offered up her own piece so they could develop a plan.

"I gathered several scans from the bodies and compared them to Doctor Thane's. Being as we have slightly different tricorder models, I took a fair amount of scans with multiple calibrations. They all reported identical information, with discrepancies too small to be significant. All this to say that I agree with Doctor Thane's diagnosis. As to what caused it, my colleagues have devised many valid theories. I am inclined to support the suggestion that a powerful outside force such as the T'hunga are responsible. Whether it is the T'hunga or some other entity is something I believe we will discover quite soon, as these bodies have only been dead for one week."

T'Lara was no frustrated, as no doubt some of the others may be feeling. Being in the dark about the event that would end their lives was not a pleasant situation. What they needed to do was remain calm and test their ideas until they would likely need to confront whatever or whoever was the cause.

"In truth, Captain," she turned to address him directly, "we do not know for certain what caused this. My team has offered ideas, and our direct course of action should be to continue to investigate their probability. As we eliminate certain theories, we will be closer to a concrete answer."

Her statements made, she waited for new orders.

[Deck 9 - Main Sickbay - USS Discovery]

As the doors opened up and the Captain stepped through, Nevir quickly walked over to the Doctor.  The Doctor was over one of the main biobeds where the less iced body of... him... laid.  Nevir had to stop as he reached the best, and remind himself that he wasn't the one on the bed.

"That... is not something one should get used to..." he commented, looking back at Dr. Thane.  "You wanted to see me?"

"Aye... we have a mystery of how 175 people died suddenly with no tissue damage.  Everyone literally died at their station.  And on top of any investigating we do, there is also a temporal wrench to throw into the mix.  I can only give the best guess, but I think I found something interesting." he stated, bringing up the scans.

"There is a process that occurs upon death that creates a timeline of expected outcomes.  We can practically date each cell based on their functions and when those functions start and stop.  That brought me to this initial anomaly." he stated, showing the Captain the PADD.  Nevir shook his head in slight confusion.

"Cold... we were in an icebox, doctor, how does this help?"

"Like I said... there is a process. I can say with certainty that neither you, Commander T'Lara, nor Lieutenant Said ever made it to rigor mortis.  The cells were too cold within a few hours.  Outside of a harsh frozen condition, this wouldn't happen, and even so, the body is usually able to start rigor mortis.  Which means..."

"Which means the core temperature was already low, to begin with."

"Exactly.. either that or the core temperature was lowered extremely fast."

"Like a flash freeze?"

"Possibly, but not likely.  Their positions show that there was a gradual process to the freeze, it wasn't instant."

"I see..."

"And... I was also able to date them.  Which is perhaps the strangest part.  I can date their time of death and their place in our timeline."

"... gather everything you have.  I want a meeting with the senior staff in one hour."

"Aye, sir." Dr Thane stated, starting to get the rest of the data together. Nevir turned on his heels and started making his way back to the turbolift.

"Captain Tekin to all senior officers.  Please meet me in the conference room in one hour."

Almost an hour later, both the Captain and Dr. Thane were in the conference room, waiting for the others to discuss what they had.

[Corridors - Alternate Discovery]

T'Lara received the comm and in turn contacted the other away team members.

"Senior officers have been given orders to be present at a conference. Given that the majority of our group are senior officers, we will all return. Meet at the transporter room. T'Lara out. 

When they were all assembled, the first officer made the call.  "Seven to beam out." 

Upon returning, T'Lara and the other senior officers made their way to the conference room.

[Conference Room - USS Discovery]

The door hissed to allow Don, Nira, Lek, and T'Lara inside. The Vulcan took a seat next to Captain Tekin. The only things she had to say to him would likely be discussed in the meeting, so did not need to be voiced now. "Captain," she greeted with a nod.

T'Lara looked almost bored as she listened to the details. Her own life had little to no romance, and the resulting complications she was currently having to listen to were doing a great job of keeping her from wanting to pursue a relationship. As Sh'riall divulged even more details of the situation, the first officer took a breath.

"I believe you should discuss the details of your relationship with a counselor, as I am not qualified to give you advice on such things. There are most likely texts on the topic you are seeking, if I find any they will in turn find their way to you. I apologize, but I believe the questions you are asking are a matter of emotional opinion, something else I am not well-versed in. I can tell you the biological implications of a...gathering such as what you describe, nothing more." She made to leave, her human emotions battling with her Vulcan stubbornness as she wished she could comfort Sh'riall.

[Deck 1 - Main Bridge - USS Discovery #2]

Dr. Thane had his medical tricorder out by the time Nira got halfway through her explanation and immediately started scanning... well... her.  As his scans went through, however, he frowned.

"There is nothing to indicate anything wrong, either.  You just... stopped." he stated, shaking his head.  "You didn't even drop, just kind of... relaxed." he stated, standing back up.

He nodded when Nira went to call his newest officer, and decided to do scans on the Captain next.

"This one too.  Just.. stopped.  Alright, I want to take these three, you, Commander T'Lara, and the Captain.  I want to do a full atopsy on them in our morgue." he stated, pulling out tags and putting them on the three dead officers.

"Dr Thane to Discovery, four to beam directly to the morgue." he stated, as he and the three officers glowed and vanished back to the other ship.  Leaving just T'Lara, Don, and Nira on the bridge.

[Deck 11 - Main Engineering - USS Discovery #2]

As per ususal, the high traffic area that was Main Engineering did have corpses covered in frost.  And at this point, without further investigation, it would be difficult to see who each one was.  Slowly the computer itself came back online as the path EPSs from the impulse engines to both the primary computer core and main engineering defrosted as began shunting power again.  The controls from the compound core came back online, and thankfully showed that the magetic constrictors had actually held. There was just only one thing that would stop the core from being started; the dilithium chamber was noted as empty.  Removing the layer of frost that covered the front of the core would reveal that the entire dilithium housing was missing.

That housing... with the crystal still attached, would end up being on a workstation in the back.  In the hands of a slumped over small engineer.  With big ears.

[Lieutenant Nira Said | Derelict Bridge | Deck One | Derelict Discovery]

When Doctor Thane gave her his diagnosis, Nira suddenly felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold. They just relaxed? Their bodily systems shut down? But if they were relaxed do death...

Nira utterly shuddered, not with cold. Was it completely possible that the T'hunga's natural hypnotism, if it got powerful enough, would cause everybody to completely relax in hypnotism, even their bodily function, enough to stop their hearts, the one critical part of the body? It wouldn't be some kind of gas after all; it would be something worse. A lot worse.

Nira looked back at herself, slumped against the chair of Tactical station. Looking at her closely, she could see the serene relaxation...she shivered even worse. Was it possible she bore the full brunt of being hypnotized to death? She kept staring at the chair long after her corpse, along with those of T'Lara's and the Captain's, was beamed to the morgue. The pose she had of her dead self was forever imprinted in her mind, shelved away into the memory palace of her eidetic memory.

"Relaxed?" she said to herself, quiet, coldly and with overall quiet horror, shaking more and more, not the cold was getting to her, her teeth so set, any harder and they would break. "It has to be the T'hunga, with their natural hypnotism...we've all be hypnotized to death...they're evil. Too evil to exist..."
[Lieutenant JG Savar | Transporter Room >- Derelict Bridge | USS Discovery NCC-78393-B >- Derelict Discovery]

"You tell me," said Savar. "All I know was that Lieutenant Said has summoned me and requested your presence. It seems she has need of our expertise...Ensign Wentlock might be late, I'll have to let the Lieutenant know...Energize to Lieutenant Said's coordinates, Transporter Chief," he ordered.

In no time at all, they were beamed over to where Nira was...and for a moment, he thought there was a joke played when they arrived. They were standing on the Discovery's bridge. At least, it looked like the Discovery's bridge, but it was frozen over and...derelict.

Then, he got a look around. Dead bodies...and Commander T'Lara and Don in the room...and Nira staring over her station, looking as if she had a horrific epiphany, looking at her chair more like it was a coffin. Savar was instantly at her side.

"Lietuenant?" he said. "Nira? What's wrong?"

Nira perked up at Savar's voice. She turned to Savar and he flinched at seeing the expression on her face, like she discovered a cause of death to horrible to imagine...

"Mind-to-mind," said Nira, making a gesture like a mind-meld. "Hard to...explain...verbally."

Savar instantly knew what Nira was asking. She didn't want to explain verbally. She wanted to show Savar what happened. And a mind meld was a necessity, especially around other officers, rather than simple telepathic reading.

For a moment, Savar hesitated. He suspected earlier he was coming down with Pa'nar Syndrome, or a variant...but this was something Nira was desperate to show. Savar put a hand up to the side of Nira's face as she shut her eyes with an exhale, whether relaxed or relieved, he couldn't tell...

"My mind to your mind," he said. "Your thoughts to my thoughts..."

And with that, Nira showed him what she had seen...in fact, he was so surprised by what he saw, he broke the connection, but not before he had gotten everything Nira could tell him in the meld:

They've discovered themselves. Dead. Nothing wrong with them. Just relaxed...relaxed to death, it seems...

It has to be the T'hunga! Nira said in horror in the meld as she shared the thoughts of the dead selves. It has to be! They did it! They killed us!

"My apologies, Commander," said Savar, getting a grip on himself. "As the Lieutenant indicated, it's hard to explain. Maybe you'll better explain verbally than she could."

Turning back to Nira, he said, "Nira...there's no T'hunga now...but the question is, are we dealing with some kind of temporal event?"

"We must be, Savar," said Nira. "What happened here could happen to us! The T'hunga could appear at any time on our Discovery...OUR Discovery!...And h..."

"Well, it could be something else that caused us to...relax to death," said Savar, logically, thinking so much more logically, had he had any grip of emotion at the moment, let alone as much as Nira, he'd be in a state of near panic. His words were also coming across as a way to sooth Nira. "The question is to find out why. Now, is there a reason for me and Ms. Stark to be here, Lieutenant?"

Calming down, Nira nodded; getting a grasp of duty seemed to shake her from the momentary horror.

"Yes," she said. "I'd like you to assist here in any way, find trace amounts of potential gas, if it turns out the T'hunga didn't hypnotize us to death, maybe there's some gas that did the job instead. Ms. Stark?" she asked, turning to Ariste. "First, my apologies for the display. Secondly, will it be possible to see what you can make of the computers? And if possible, see if you can bring the EMH online, see how much it can tell us what happened here."

[Bridge - Alternate Discovery]

T'Lara observed as Dr. Thane conducted his scans and proceeded to take three of the bodies to Discovery. It was the best decision to make; if they couldn't find any answers here then the next step was to use all of their ship's resources. It was slightly strange to witness her own body leaving the ship. She wondered if this was what it would be like when her Katra left her body upon her death. Especially if she had no one to carry it for her. She believed that event was not to come for quite a long time, and this was just one of the thoughts she used to keep her emotions in check.

When he had gone, she took a minute to think about what Thane had actually said. Nothing wrong. Relaxed. Well, this explained some things, but what had caused this sudden loss of life? What could it have been, to not even show up on a tricorder? Her mind jumped to the T'hunga, but she felt relatively unattached to that solution, open to others. One thing was for sure, medical had their work cut out for them.

When Savar and Stark entered, she gave a bow to the latter and averted her eyes, somewhat uncomfortably as Savar and Nira engaged in a mind meld. To her, the act was deeply personal. It had always been that way in her culture, and so she treated it as such. Savar clearly had different ideas on the matter, but she was not looking to engage in any sort of commentary about it. Instead, she looked up when the male Vulcan addressed her.

"It is of no consequence, Lieutenant."

It seemed that Nira had things handled with her team, so T'Lara quietly left the Bridge. She had gathered plenty of data on the first deck, had sent her body to be autopsied, there was nothing more for her to do here. As such, an exploration of the other decks was her next task. She walked silently down the cold hard floors, scanning bodies and recalling details of her own Discovery. Perhaps she would check on Lek's progress when she reached him.