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{Planetside}

Lorut looked from the woman to the Captain. She held up the phaser rifle she'd "borrowed" from the Armory. She'd take her brig time later. "I am hardly unarmed, Petty Officer. And trust me, I've killed more people than you have. IF you can keep up, fine, but I am not going to wait around for a perimeter sweep while our people are in there. I can DO it on the way," she said, moving forward. "Captain, your call," she said, over her shoulder as she set out. She should also find Lek, too, actually. If she could get into the actual walls, she could sabotage it from within. The Ferengi hated her, but she was betting on his loyalty to the crew.

She set off quietly, slinking about near the edges of the walls. The sheer noise was overwhelming and she fought back a flashback. She knew how to achieve infiltration without getting caught-and what to do if she WAS caught. She had a vague knowledge of the layout of this place from a quick review of the data the away team had sent back, so as she moved forward, she made sure she kept it in her mind. She was, hopefully, going the right direction.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Waiting Room]

As the Romulan waited for some response from Lek, the cellphone communicator rang and Rayek flipped it open and raised it to his ear.

Rayek grimaced and attempted to reply discreetly - despite knowing they were being monitored.

"Acknowledged, Captain. I would recommend limiting contact with the Lyssarians and their guests - who can be identified as those wearing wrist bands.  Their society doesn't put the same rights to all sentients.  The Human clones which are Erewhon's labor force are treated as lesser - which is how Lek got involved - defending a groundskeeper from verbal and physical abuse"

"Ramort is attempting to build a rapport with the Facility Manager in order to better negotiate any necessary fines or penalties against Commander Lek, who seems to have broken the Erewhon 'Terms of Service' when he insulted the guest by implying that she had a 'prodigious butt'.  Lek denies any culpability because the Terms weren't clearly pointed out to us, nor explicitly accepted.  Presently, he's armed himself and might be considered a threat by the locals."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain thought for a moment, looking at his two officers.  The welts on his face were already looking duller and not as harsh. Whether that was because they were now in the protective station shield or because of the anti-radiation injection was anyone's guess.

"Trust me when I say that I know Miss Lorut can handle herself very well personally.  The ridges were a dead giveaway," he stated, bringing his finger to his nose and tapping his own ridges.

"Still, try to keep everyone together, and do not allow them access to the facilities planetside.  We don't want to lose anyone else right now.  Secure the area around the crew, but be careful.  You both are dismissed." he stated when his comm answered from Rayek.  The Captain frowned, and shook his head, turning around the now empty bridge.

"Disarm him immediately; he is now in violation of Starfleet procedure.  This situation has already gotten worse, Lek's actions are not helping. I will be setting the ship up for decon and then I will be going to the station as well." he said, closing the channel.  He immediately went to work anticipating the actions of the Erewhon, assuming that they were honest about their ability to repair their ship.  The one thing he knew they would have to work on their own is how to withstand the radiation once they left the station; the Federation certainly didn't share technology so why would this species?

The Captain had just left the turbolift and about to reach the docking hatch when the next message came in.

But it seemed the question was rhetorical as he turned his attention to Rayek.

"Commander, contact your Captain, tell him to prepare for transport.  Inform him the station holograms will tend to your injured people but that I would speak to him in person."

Rayek knew if he ignored the request, it was likely possible for the Facility Manager to organize the beam over anyways.  The Lyssarian was attempting to give some heads up to the Captain - likely to avoid a security confrontation.

He flipped open the phone communicator and reached out to the Captain.

"tr'Lhoell to Captain Tekin.  I'm with the Facility Manager presently, they have requested to speak with you face to face.  Please stand-by for transport.  Also, I was asked to inform that station holograms will help tend to our injured."
"Turn back."

The Captain gave an audible sigh; mostly because there was no one left on the ship (he checked).  He was the last one to step off.  But if he was being requested, then the matter didn't seem to improve with Lek.

"Understood.  I am standing by." he said, and as he suspected, it didn't take long at all.

[Erewhon - Facilties Manager Office]

However he was brought in, it took no time before the Bajoran found himself facing one of the members of the species for the first time.  They already looked fascinating enough in another situation; it was nice to find species that didn't fit the 'altered humanity' that most of the species in the Federation seemed to have. The biggest gripe species like the Bajorans had with the Humans was their insistence that they were just "humans with prosthetics on their face".

Pushing that thought aside, he was currently the Captain in a devolved First Contact situation. Right now he was on damage control, and composed himself as such. His only regret was that the radiation burns did not have the time to heal yet completely; he probably looked better than he felt, but he pictured himself looking rather bad with injuries.

"Captain Tekin Nevir of the Federation Starship Discovery. I'm sorry that our First Contact had to be under this circumstance.  I understand there is a situation involving my officers?"

[Fleet Applications - Join Here!]

Greetings!

I am Captain Tekin Nevir, the science instructor for the Academy. Your ATC is ready, and it can be found here.

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
The captain's orders to begin docking procedures wasn't particularly surprising to Rajagopalan or T'Rea--the current radiation levels really left no other choice at this point, even ignoring the ominous sounds of their groaning hull--and instructions to security about arming didn't apply to either of the scientists, leaving them more or less free to continue their data collection and analysis. After all, there was a countdown on now to the time until they would reach the station, and that could mean a time limit on access to the Discovery's sensor feeds and analysis computers...

Now that the data was sufficiently down-sampled it only took the computers a few moments to perform the fitting. Accessing the goodness of such fits was generally tricky, but T'Rea didn't have the luxury of a proper review of the relevant statistics. She forwarded what she had to Auxiliary Engineering, "Ensign Kedan, I have something for you on the low-frequency tide-patterns in the radiation waves. It looks like the sum of 3 sinusoids: estimated freqencies of 0.27 mHz, 0.56 mHz and 4.1 mHz. Largest amplitude component corresponds with the 0.56 mHz component." Almost before T'Rea had had finished her transmission to Kedan, Rajagopalan let out a quiet sound of surprised realization as he checked the shuttle analysis. Instinctively, she took a step in his direction to get a better view of his screen, "Look at this," he told her, maximizing the primary graphical output of her code, "It's not just graviton shielding, it's--," but before he could say more his face abruptly acquired the colored of a Vulcan blush and he lurched to the side as he vomited. Reflexively, T'Rea reached out a hand to help steady him and keep him from toppling over entirely, and she visibly flinched at the resulting telepathic contact as his nausea and dizziness swept over her. There could be no doubt that he was suffering from radiation poisoning. Suddenly, the idea of docking inside the space stations shielding felt more like a relief than a disappointment.

"Captain, is medical prepared with hyronalin to treat acute radiation syndrome? If they have a sufficient supply, perhaps it's time to disperse into the ventilation system as a radiation counteragent. Or at least send medics with inoculation supplies to the bridge and any other high-exposure areas on the ship?" For the first time, the stress of the situation had started to creep into the Vulcan crewman's voice as she spoke.

Even as she was speaking she helped Rajagopalan to the nearest chair and then turned back to the science console to first press the emergency button that would alert medical that there was an officer on the bridge in need of medical attention, and then immediately send the details of the multi-layer shielding properties generated by analysis of the shuttle data to Kedan, McNair, and M'Nia, flagging the file with the highest possible priority until she had the chance to make a voice call on the topic. She checked over her shoulder. Rajagopalan still looked green, but he didn't appear at risk of fainting outright and there was little more she could do for him without leaving the Science station on the bridge completely unmanned.

[Dr. Phlome]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge]

The Hypospray discharged their payloads with a satisfying little hissing sound, indicating even to an untrained ear that the inoculation had been a success. one could almost watch on as Rajagopalans face took on a much more healthy colour, albeit he probably would take a couple of minutes before he was fully up again.

"Thank you for your assistance, Crewman, it is much appreciated."

Although her face had not even flinched when touching the Ensigns face, her medical training told Phlome she probably had experience at least a little bit of psychic backlash. Radiation poisoning could feel as if once innards turned to stew and the suffering person burned up from the inside out. In many previous encounters with radiation leaks or similar phenomena in space, they really had far too many of these, maybe she should suggest preventative inoculations next time they left space port. Usually the patients didn't care too much for reliving the experience but some had come back and told her how it felt, and she didn't want to experience it for herself.

Imagining that the Vulcan must have felt a fraction of this pain, she fully understood where from her sentiment came.

"Given the Ensign is out of the picture at the moment, you are actually the only Science Officer here right now, so you also count as Key personnel. If you want to, I can inoculate you. For the rest of the Bridge, I require the Captain's permission?"

The last part of her sentence directed at the Bajoran sitting at the heart of the Room.

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary Engineering]

Encouraged by the Lieutenants words, Kedan took to the data again. The Algorithms for rebuilding the shield frequencies now finished, he found himself at an impasse with another part of the Problem. Preventing most of the Radiation from hitting them was nice and everything but they also had to get rid of the Energons.

"There still is the issue of the Energons. If we can't deflect them, they will just continue to rip through the ship's plating and eventually our DNA. Any Idea how we might deflect them?"

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain turned towards the medical personnel, and a large welt had formed on his face above his eye.  It must have hurt, but he showed no sign of it.

"Take care of the bridge crew first.  Prioritize them.  I've been through worse.  You should see my back."

Inertial dampeners were starting to give as well as power was diverted from them, so the ships's movements were starting to be felt as the ship started docking procedures.  He had to brace himself as the ship stopped.  As soon as docking was completed, the shields stopped degrading as the station's own shields wrapped around the ship. However, as was noted, radiation levels were way too high to remain on board.

"All hands, evacuate Discovery.  I repeat, evacuate Discovery.  Proceed to docking ports or transporters."

He turned to the other bridge officers.  "T'Rea, inform McNair and the engineering team to continue their work off ship, and then join them.  Lorut, instruct the security teams to keep the crew together, and no one is to go to whatever recreation site the away team used.  Keep them in the waiting room if you have to. If you want, you can beam yourself and the bridge crew to the station, but I will wait until I am sure the entire ship is evacuated.  Likely there will be decontamination done on the ship itself so I will set the ship for such to protect our biologics.  I better inform the away team."

"Discovery to away team.  The ship is docked and we are evacuating the ship for repairs.  Hopefully they are good to their word and this isn't a trap, but we will be alert just in case."

[[USS Discovery | Bridge]]

[Ensign Rajagopalan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

"Thanks T'Rea, I'll give it a try." Rajagopalan answered. He had used the last few minutes to prepare the full catalogue of known decay signatures for all known subatomic particles. As soon as he got the renewed feed of data through on the bridge console he began a check against the catalogue and watched as the computer spit out a list of probably matches and percent certainty of each match.

"Captain, I can confirm the presence of hyper-energons." It was at the top of the list with a 96% certainty. "This variety seem to carry energy between 4 to 8 electron volts. That's the right range for any number of molecular bonds in the hull material--tritanium bonds are right in the middle of that range, so it will be particularly vulnerable.

"Rajagoplan to Kedan. I'm sending the energy distribution of observered hyper-energons your way. I recommend you check the peaks against the bond dissociation energies of the most common hull materials. They'll be most vulnerable, if there's anything you can do to stabilize those bonds specifically."

Even as he was still speaking, his eyes were skimming through the rest of the list. The percent certainty value next to the second particle on the list had been climbing steadily and had now crossed over the 80% certainly threshold. High enough to report. He kept the comm channel open with Kedan so he would be able to hear the same report he announced to the bridge. "I also seem to be detecting subquantum pulses." He hadn't been able to seen them before--at least pushing the sensor frequency to it's limits had paid off! "I'm not sure if our energy shields can catch that kind of ultra-short time scale burst without modification." But he certainly wasn't an engineer (or a particle physicist for that matter). Instead, he forwarded all the spectral details he had for the pulses to Kedan, M'Nia, and McNair in addition to displaying it on one of the bridge's forward displays for anyone here to see.

When he glanced up to check that the information was displayed properly his eyes couldn't help but slide to the radiation exposure display nearby and he found himself nervously glancing between it, T'Rea on his right, and the Captain on his left---Their total received dose since arriving in this system was still a fair way below lethal, but it was creeping up into the range for radiation sickness now. And considering the rate at which they had accumulated the dose was also high, more sensitive members of the crew would likely start to display symptoms any minute, if it hadn't already begun. He swallowed heavily. Was he nauseous or was that just his mind playing tricks on him? How much of the remaining 30 minutes would they actually be able to use?

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

"Thank you, Lorut." Buck replied as he pulled the signals up to his own work station. It was a bit out of his league, and he could manage with rudimentary sciences that the Academy had taught him but he hoped that all the data lined up - or at the very least made sense.

Well.

That wasn't a good sign.

Lethal levels in thirty minutes and they were already cutting into precious time. Buck's jaw clenched as he tried to think his way out of this. "It's worth a shot, cap'n," Buck ruminated, glancing over at the captain with a look that said he would just about try any good idea at this point. He began to bring up the shield frequency, getting a lock on it as he studied it and the radiation data that they had so far. "Well here goes nothing." He pressed a couple of commands on his work station and held his breath, wondering whether the frequencies would match or they'd land in deeper trouble.

"Should be able to match in a few minutes, according to our data."

Ensign, I'm en route.

Buck looked over to the rest of the bridge team, excusing himself as he transported his way down to Deck 5.

[USS Discovery | Deck 5 - auxillary engineering]

No sooner had he arrived in the makeshift work station, he had been hailed by Lorut, asking for an update. "Standby Lorut, just got down to Deck 5," Buck brought out his PADD to see how his previous work was coming along. "In relation to the matching frequencies, it should be all matched. At least that's what my PADD is showing me, please advise if it is not the case."

With that out of the way, Buck turned to Kedan and raised a brow. "So, what do we have so far? What can we do with the time we've got?"

{USS Discovery| Bridge}

The Ops officer was nearly bested. NEARLY. But she wasn't one to give up so fast. Just as fast as she'd connect to a signal, she'd lose it. She had tried all the tricks she knew, and even some she didn't, but had thought up in that very moment. She didn't do well with situations she couldn't a)code or b) shoot her way out of.

Maybe Malik or tr'Lhoell had learned something from her, and would use a small bit of force in the form of phaser fire against their holographic captors. Yeah, yeah, it was supposed to be a first contact situation, but the needs of the few and all that, or whatever it was. Bullshit is what it was-the greater good had never included HER or her people, after all. She was dwelling.

She looked to the Captain for orders as McNair spoke.

She glanced at her own console. =/\=You did well. Thank you. she said. She clicked off.

"Sir, what now?" She asked, trying her best to keep the frustration out of her voice but if he didn't make a call in the next twenty seconds, SHE would. And everyone on that ship knew that if Lorut made her own calls, intergalactic war could very well break out.

"Science, how's that probe coming? I am going to lose the connection any second," she said, trying to sound calm but urgent instead of the "slightly annoyed and panicked" she actually felt.

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
Both scientists were listening intently to Ensign Kedan across the comm and at his request Rajagopalan sent a meaningful glance in T'Rea's direction and she gave a nod of acknowledgement, "T'Rea's checking it now," Rajagopalan promised even as he watched the percent certainty of subquantum pulses displayed on his screen tick passed the 95% threshold and turn green on his display. The corresponding improvement in statistics also enabled the automatic generation of a number of associated properties. "In the meantime, I'm sending some additional info on the subquantum pulses. Their resonant frequencies are inherently random, but I'm feeding you the histogram of observed of pulse durations, if it's useful in adjusting energy shield parameters."
As if  queued by the Lieutenant's question, T'Rea received a call in report from M'ura informing her that the requested basic probe was prepared with lead shielding and loaded into a deck 5 launch tube. "Crewman M'ura reports that probe as loaded and ready to launch from tube 5P7, sir," she reported, deciding it was better not to mention that it was mostly luck that lead-lead bonds of the privative added shielding had turned out to be at the lower tail of the observed energy distributions of hyper-energons. It should indeed be enough to give the probe better longevity against that particular variety of radiation than the many other less-protected probes they had been utilizing up till now---even if it extremely limited the probe's other capabilities.

Information relayed, she turned her attention back to her console to try and assess the ebb and flow of hyper-energons concentrations over time as Kedan had requested. She quickly decided it was in fact the ultra-low-frequency/long timescale intensity changes they were most interested in, and now that she knew what to look for, they had a several hours worth of data she could down-sample and fit. She'd use a starting guess of 0.5 mHz in the fitting script... but the thought was momentarily interrupted by a quiet chirp from the console---her analysis of the shuttle's full scan dataset of the station shielding frequencies had either completed or self-terminated in an error state. "Ensign Rajagopalan, can you check on the shuttle dataset analysis?"

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

As the bridge worked, the Captain glanced down at his hand.  A legion was forming on the back of it; a telltale sign of radiation poisoning.  The Bridge was on the outside layer; above them was hull plating and then space.  Even if there wasn't a total collapse, levels rose on the bridge just simply due to proximity.

As McNair put in his newest changes, the shields around the ship crackled as they tried to adjust to the new frequency. The Captain looked over at the schematics where an estimated countdown clock was showing.  He watched their remaining time dip down, and then back up, and then slow... but it was still counting down.

"Bridge to McNair... it worked for a bit, but then the frequency changed again.  I think the frequencies are changing too fast, and our shields were not designed to rotate that quickly.  Even the Borg protocols can't compensate.  It just takes too long for our shields to compensate, and by the time it does, the frequency is moving on."

He frowned, but looked at the counter again.  Their time was just about up.  "Lorut, unlock the armories and get security armed.  We may have actual company after we dock, and I'm too burnt to play nice."

"Helm... take us in.  Emergency docking procedures." he stated, tapping the all comm.

"All hands, this is the Captain.  Our attempts to shield ourselves from the radiation have failed, and we do not have enough time to try and get away from the system, nor are we going to abandon our crew.  I have made the decision to dock at the station.  I am well aware that this may be a trap anyway, but the alternative is losing the crew, who frankly are more important than the ship.  Once we dock, I am ordering the evacuation of Discovery to the station.  Security, be on heightened alert. Our goal once we are on the station is to find out how they repel the radiation and apply it to our ship.  Good luck to you all.  Bridge out."

Finally, he tapped his comm for the away team. There was no guarantee they would hear him, but he had to try.  "Discovery to away team. Shields are on the verge of collapse.  I am bringing Discovery in to dock, and we will handle whatever these Erewhons want to throw at us."

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
Both scientists were listening intently to Ensign Kedan across the comm and at his request Rajagopalan sent a meaningful glance in T'Rea's direction and she gave a nod of acknowledgement, "T'Rea's checking it now," Rajagopalan promised even as he watched the percent certainty of subquantum pulses displayed on his screen tick passed the 95% threshold and turn green on his display. The corresponding improvement in statistics also enabled the automatic generation of a number of associated properties. "In the meantime, I'm sending some additional info on the subquantum pulses. Their resonant frequencies are inherently random, but I'm feeding you the histogram of observed of pulse durations, if it's useful in adjusting energy shield parameters."
As if  queued by the Lieutenant's question, T'Rea received a call in report from M'ura informing her that the requested basic probe was prepared with lead shielding and loaded into a deck 5 launch tube. "Crewman M'ura reports that probe as loaded and ready to launch from tube 5P7, sir," she reported, deciding it was better not to mention that it was mostly luck that lead-lead bonds of the privative added shielding had turned out to be at the lower tail of the observed energy distributions of hyper-energons. It should indeed be enough to give the probe better longevity against that particular variety of radiation than the many other less-protected probes they had been utilizing up till now---even if it extremely limited the probe's other capabilities.

Information relayed, she turned her attention back to her console to try and assess the ebb and flow of hyper-energons concentrations over time as Kedan had requested. She quickly decided it was in fact the ultra-low-frequency/long timescale intensity changes they were most interested in, and now that she knew what to look for, they had a several hours worth of data she could down-sample and fit. She'd use a starting guess of 0.5 mHz in the fitting script... but the thought was momentarily interrupted by a quiet chirp from the console---her analysis of the shuttle's full scan dataset of the station shielding frequencies had either completed or self-terminated in an error state. "Ensign Rajagopalan, can you check on the shuttle dataset analysis?"

As the ship started making its way to the station, with the groans of hull microfracture echoing through the bulkheads, there was sensor data coming in from the shuttle. It appeared that there were multiple deflector emitters aimed at the planet, and while the standard graviton pulses were there, there was another signature as well:

Half of the deflectors were emitting exotic particles instead of gravitons.  The shields were multilayered!

[[Erewhon - Transport Site]]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

The Romulan waited for a moment expecting some expression of disgust or outrage, but was surprised when his comment earned no reaction at all from the Away Team members.  Lek's silence he understood.  The Ferengi had said his piece and wanted nothing more than to quit this place - but the silence from the others bothered him.  Were they somehow also being affected by the same lack of emotion as the clones?  If so, then they did need to leave sooner rather than later.

By his reckoning, it was near time to check in with the ship, perhaps new orders would be received.

Motioning for Lek to cut the jamming, Rayek opened his own 'flip phone' communicator and attempted to contact the ship.

"tr'Lhoell to the Bridge." he announced, then waited until he heard the click of the 'line' connecting.

Away Team checking in.  Due to the earlier incident, we've been requested to await the Facility Manager's decision on whether or not we are bound by their Terms of Service, since it was only visible at a visual frequency our team members were unable to see, much less agree to before being beamed down to the planet.  How are things with the ship?  I have several team members that would like nothing better than to leave."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Before the Captain could really respond to the Bridge, the comms cracked and he heard the away team. He frowned, and answered.

"Be advised Away Team, we have reason to believe the facilitators have ulterior motives.  We are about to be forced to dock. We do not yet have a way to withstand the increasing radiation in the system and our shields are close to failing.  If we are forced to the station, we will continue work to break us all out of here."

He turned to the bridge. "Good work, Lorut. For the probe, to silence it, use the observation protocols. We can coordina-"

WARNING, deflective shield failure. Radiation levels rising.  Lethal levels in 30 minutes.

".. of course we are losing time. Even in the shadow of the planet.  Mr Graham, plot a route to dock with the station. Mr. McNair, we are running out of options.  Have we tried attuning our shield's frequency to match the radiation?"

[Ensign Vinod Rajagopalan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

"I am receiving Reports from Science that our Team that we have evacuated all Laboratories and reassembeld on Deck 5. Regarding the current situation: I don't see any way to weather the next time right now. But I find the whole situation very strange. If they knew we would be caught up in the Tide, why didn't they adequatly warn us, why didn't they provide us with some info on their shield tech so we can protect ourselves?"

Worry clouded his mind. It seemed almost like a trap. Putting a station here and inviting them while knowing they would be exposed to the tide, then inviting them to the Station and leaving them up to their hosts mercy. It reminded him of Drosera rotundifolia, a plant that attracted flies with a fluid that shimmered in the morning light like little diamonds while being placed in bigs where there were little other sources of safety. But the little dewdrops were a trap. The Drosera being carniverous catching its prey in sticky substances and them dissolving them alive with its enzymes. A harrowing fate for the poor flies that got caught.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

It was a chilling statement, but the implication was clear.  It was foolish to deny it.

"Because despite their pleas, their goal was never our enjoyment and recreation.  It is a trap." he stated, crossing his arm and shaking his head.  "And at this point, they have part of our crew on the surface and a ship about to reach critical tolerance.  There is no need for subterfuge.  That wasn't a plea, it was a threat."

{Discovery|Bridge}

Vila and Bosch were working in tandem to see if they could uncover the mystery of the glitching planet. She KNEW that it had to be something in the programming of the shields' system-but how and what was the question. It would take time to figure out. Time they may not have.

With the Lower Decks finally cleared, Vila was free to work at her pace. She opened a ship-wide channel.

=/\=All unnecessary ship functions will cease in five seconds. Civilians are advised to remain in their quarters. Fleet staff are advised to report to Yellow Alert stations.  Sure enough, the lights, computers, and etc in Science-and most of the rest of the ship-went dark.

"Rerouting power to the probes. Get me a Science officer up here. I don't care which," she said, jabbing at her Comms badge. She REALLY needed to talk to tr'Lohell about a subdermal communication device. A call from Science came in.

"Yes, Ensign. After you're done there, please join me at the Ops station. I have...an idea," she said. She raised her head a moment, realizing she should clue in the Captain.

-----

The other Bajoran spoke before she could, however.

VIla shrugged.. "I have an idea....but you'd really have to trust me," she said. "How difficult would it be to undock the Saucer? I am not saying don't go down there, but...if there's TWO vessels to contend with, it might buy us some more time."

She continued.

"OR...we can blast a hole in the shield with a missile or let me build some C-4. It'll take just twenty minutes, and a probe." She shrugged. Other than that, she was out of ideas. "I don't know about YOU, but I personally have had enough of clones to last a lifetime, so I'd really rather one of those two options. Then tractor beam out who we can. If I can somehow tap back into Commander Lek's signal again, we can let them know to meet back at the landing site. It's risky, and it takes time but it saves lives," she said.

She really wanted him to choose option B-the TNT, of course, but she was TRYING to come up with less lethal approaches to problems. Even if they were uncomfortable.

"One problem at a time... there is no point in trying to get the away team if we end up killing them with radiation.  How would destroying or even attempting to destroy their only protection help them or us?." he said, frowning.

"We have less than an hour before we die, which means less time than that to either find a way to save the ship or abandon it to the station. That is the priority. The first step of which is understanding what exactly we are dealing with."

"T'Rea, Lorut, Graham, work on the probes.  We need to gather as much data as we can about that shield and this radiation tide.  If you want to try to blow up a probe against the shield, I am confident that it won't do anything, but it can still offer us data on the shield tolerances.  That technology is much more advanced than anything we have here.  Don't underestimate it.

"M'Nia, Buck, work with Kedan on reinforcing our shields. As the data comes in see what we need to do to counteract the output of the star.  One civilization already figured it out, and since they aren't telling us we know its possible but we have to do it ourselves."

"I won't sugarcoat it.  We are trapped.  And we are likely going to have no choice but to fall into their plans to get us on the station. We may even end up where the away team is now.  That can't be prevented, but what we can do is plan for what happens afterwards.  If we are forced to dock and I am not able to give orders, your orders are to tear that station apart until you know how it works and how to reinforce our own ship. We're Starfleet; our job to do the impossible and innovate our way out of any situation.  We've been through a lot; I agree with Lorut... I'll be damned if I see another clone of myself or anything else that involves control.  But this isn't that kind of situation.  We've been able to be in contact with the away team.  Do what you do best and we can make our way out.  Sometimes the best way out of a trap is to spring it."

"Make it so."

[[USS discovery | Bridge]]

[USS discovery | Bridge]

Science had been one of Buck's weakest moments when it came down to the pathways that they could all choose from. He knew enough to get by and had spent enough time with the science crew that he could understand what they were speaking about (even if he had to ask them multiple times to slow down when they got overly excited about their field). It seemed that his mention had sparked something in the Captain, as if thousands of volts had shot through him as he went off on 'quantum frangibles'. Buck nodded, not wanting to interrupt the flow or be perceived to be a little slower on the uptake than expected - though grateful the captain had explained it to him as he descibed the situation and it seemed they were on the right track to coming up with a solution.

Buck nodded.

Attention to all lower decks, please evacuate. All non-essential systems will be going offline 

He allowed the message to be relayed to the rest on loop until he was sure that there were no crew or officers in the lower decks that could be put at risk through the manuever they were going to do.[

Buck's brow furrowed deeply.

The planet what?

He was pretty certain that large planets didn't just glitch out, especially if it were a simulation or hologram their crew were still down there.

That is....all received, Ensign. We'll conduct further investigation. Keep us in the loop.

Buck sharply glanced up at Lorut's outburst, seemingly all focused in on the new problem that they faced with a glitching planet. "Right, let's do it." He typed in basic commands, following the parameters that had been provided by the probe in order to assist with recreating the planet and surrounding atmosphere, sharing his screen with Lorut. "Have we had any further updates from our Away crew?" His attention mainly fixated on figuring out how the planet had 'glitched' as he opened up a comm line to the Away Team.

Bridge to Away Team, do you copy? Status report.

{USS Discovery|Bridge}

Vila nodded as the Captain issued orders.

"Yes, sir," she replied but her head was already bent, brain making plans that her fingers were struggling to keep up with. Soon, she was piggybacking on the various probes' systems. "I am in," she said, as she managed to corrupt the science probes with her own code. She'd apologize to Ramort later.
"No," she replied. She raised her head once more.

"Captain, you'll want to see this," she said, stepping sideways so the other Bajoran could see her console. "The hell does it MEAN?" She sighed. It was rhetorical; she knew what it meant. It meant that the Away team was in danger and she was HERE and it was useless. She tapped her foot against the metal of the console again, the urge to pace about becoming stronger. It was how she did her best thinking, after all.

"If we can't go, we should tractor-beam them back," she muttered to herself. She HATED the feeling of impotence. Sitting behind a computer wasn't "helping" anyone, including herself.

"Any luck with those probes?" She asked aloud.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain was standing, staring at the screen when he watched the planet shimmer.  No.. not exactly shimmer.  More like ripple.  Like the shielding network was trying to compensate for the increased radiation.

"Yes, I did indeed see that... that's the missing puzzle piece. This planet looks lush because it is covered in a shield that can withstand the radiation.  That's why we can't penetrate it; it is far too advanced for our systems.  But if we can figure out what the shields are using, maybe we can replicate it." he stated, turning back to his crew.

"We don't know where they are, just that they entered through the station.  They could be directly below the station, or on the other side of the planet.  And we are useless to them unless we can save ourselves."

As if the ship had an uncanny sense of humor, the computer spoke.

WARNING, deflective shield failure. Radiation levels rising.  Lethal levels in one hour.

"Is the evacuation done?  Shut down all systems in Beta and Gamma hull and divert all reserves to the shields.  This is probably going to get bad." the Captain stated, turning back.  Just in time to see the same hologram from earlier appear.

"Greetings again, Captain Tekin Nevir.  We understand your hesitation, but as you have no doubt noticed, your ship is not equipped to withstand the conditions of our system and we have already found widespread microfracture across your hull.  We have long since developed the technology and we invite you once again to the station for repair and relaxation. The system's output will continue to increase in cycle for another 2 rotations, and your ship does not seem equipped to even handle half a rotation.  We implore you to trust us."

The hologram then shimmered and vanished, leaving just a sigh from the Captain.

"I'm quickly finding myself in a position where I am running out of options... someone give me a reason why we can hold out and avoid the station."

[Fleet Applications - Join Here!]

Hey Marie, I'm Captain Tekin Nevir, the science instructor.  I have started your ATC, it can found here.

{USS Discovery|Bridge|Ops Console}

Vila had already settled in.

If anyone would know, it'd be him. She did sometimes, late at night when she couldn't sleep because of the night terrors, did kind of feel bad for the things she'd put him through. BUT then she remembered she saved his life and it went away. Ah, you win some, and lose some.

She heard the rest of the cacophony on the Bridge-McNair sounding off with some information, and Engineering from down below. Then, Commander Lek's voice. She'd never been so glad to hear the ear-grating drawl of a Ferengi before. "Captain, keep him on the line. I can maybe put a lock on his channel," she said, head bent, and fingers flying at a speed that would put anyone else to shame.

Brown eyes rose to check her screen. Excellent!!

"I am back in, sir," she said, pressing "send" to bring the channel lock information to the others' consoles. Thank the Prophets.

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

Buck grimanced, chewing on the inside of his lip as he thought about what Kedan had to say about the quantum fluctations. At least it showed that he wasn't seeing things and such that it was confirmed by someone not on the bridge and was qualified in reading the data sent back from the probe. Though it seemed that the Captain had something to say, and for Kedan, he went:  Standby Ensign

Buck didn't like the sound of it at all, their communications were patchy at the very best and that everything seemed to be compling on. The radiation causing fluctations and degrading ship systems, main engineering being out of use and they would have to resort to docking up at the station if they couldn't find a solution.

As a friend of his back on Earth would have said, the situation was 'no bueno'.

His head shot up to look at the captain who addressed him. "Cap'n," Buck took a breath. "The star system exists with this unknown radiation, but what I can't figure is the fact that there's life. We have a planet that seems to be existing with life when it should be the exact opposite-"

Hyper-energons.

Right.

Focus.

"There have been readings of Hyper-energons, these disrupt the molecules that make up our shielding when they collide causing rapid degeneration. Probably contributing to what we're seeing with our shields at the moment."

Buck's attention shifted once more as another alert came out about an emergency call-out.    Anyone not on duty or is a free hand, please can we have people go to assist.    Otherwise, he would have to abandon his own station to deal.  Lieutenant M'nia, please provide an update as soon as you can when on scene. 

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain stood up, looking at the dark side of the planet in their viewscreen.  It was completely dark.  No signs of civilization.  It just looked like a lush green uninhabited planet.  With a station in orbit of it.  And sensors that cannot penetr-

"The shield.  That's why our sensors can't penetrate; this shielding technology protects the planet from its star.  It might not even be natural, this could have been artificially populated for all we know.  Which means it is possible to deflect this traditional tide."

The ship's alerts went off at that point; the radiation levels in the region were starting to increase.  The sensor buoys launched sparked as the radiation reached high levels, and the buoys were destroyed. The shield degradation was starting to accelerate again, but slowly.  The Captain rushed back to the science station with McNair, while he handled the power systems that had caused an issue elsewhere on the ship.

"Hyper-energons.... Chrono particles... random sub-quantum pulses... quantum frangibles!" he said, taking a step back as if he saw something impossible.  Which he kind of did.

"Are you familiar with quantum frangibles, Mr McNair?  They are theoretical subatomic particles that could have any number of unusual properties imbued into the quarks that make up atoms."

"Alright, evacuate the lower decks and shut down all non-essential systems still activated.  Divert power from the Gamma hull to reinforce our shielding on the Alpha hull.  Strengthen the deflector shielding past its safety limits and watch for microfracture on the hull.  Once these particles find an opening through our shields they will start to affect the bonds of matter; and start weakening our structural integrity."

"When the radiation levels start to drop again, launch sensor probes to act as focus points for our own sensors.  Lorut, use that same chain to reestablish the comm lock.  We have a mission the away team.  In a little over an hour and a half, we dock the ship and hope that it isn't a trap.  Understood?  Make it so!"

{USS Discovery|Bridge}

Vila had managed to settle down a little when the Captain appeared again.

"I'm not most people, Sir," she said. Even in the Militia, she'd never had goals for command. She didn't mind being a low-level operative, free to build hand grenades and fire at Cardassians away from the probing eyes of higher-ups. Someday, department head would be nice, but she'd never captain a ship. Never mind that she was old, it just wasn't in her plans. Of course, joining Starfleet had never been...really. Nothing that had happened to her in her adult life had gone to plan. She just hadn't yet realized that maybe it was time to stop making plans.

"I will continue to run monitors. The buoys are holding....but we've lost any contact with even the Commander-his earpiece doesn't work out there," Vila shared. It was a bit of concern-not so much for the man himself, but for the situation. She felt useless without the distractions of combat situations. She was trying to remind herself that it was a first-contact situation anyway, and (hopefully) no combat would be missed, but still.

She settled back into the Ops console. "I'll send it to your view screen, sir," she said.

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

The captain had returned to the bridge, the order restored as Lorut returned to the operations station - Buck moved out of the way and gave the space as he looked up and nodded at the next bit of direction, "Aye, captain." He glanced over at Vila before cracking on with making sure that the spectro-analysis was going correctly. The probe was still playing up but he hoped that a deeper dive would come back with something more concrete.

Ensign Kedan had been quick on the uptake, confirming his suspicions and raising his curiosity.

He had been working on making sure things were running smoothly with the probe and them losing connection and contact was problematic. Buck leaned back in his seat as he waited for the results of the star coming through.

"Hyper-Energons..." Why did that sound familiar? He must have heard that phrase before but it was a while away. Hyper-Energons, subquantum particles AND chrono-detenators? A deadly combination and he was certain that the ensign could confirm his suspicions that the star system shouldn't be able to function with the combination of the amount of energies clashing with their vessel.

Ensign Kedar, I am patching through the results from the probe that we have obtained. Confirm to me that I'm reading these correctly. Surely the star system shouldn't be able to exist. 

[Erewhon - Library]

Lek nodded to Rayek and stepped away to try to contact the ship. He was greatly relieved to be leaving this planet, its very existence was an affront to his thoughts on business and morals, he couldn't leave soon enough. He pulled out the antiquated looking communication device he'd been given and hoped the ship would be able to hear him.

  "Lek to Discovery, Lek to Discovery. Come in please."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"No... I don't suppose you are." he commented back at Vila, as she took her place.  A check on the ship systems showed that the energy required to keep the shields up was taking a toll on the remaining systems.  He frowned, but there wasn't much that could be done.  It wasn't like they could leave the system.  That wouldn't be an option.

He heard McNair mention hyper-energons, and he would have liked to respond, but the crackle and heavy static of a message interrupted them.  He could barely make up what was said, , but he could have sworn he heard Lek's voice.  Must be an update.

"Lek, this is Discovery.  We can barely hear you, and I'm sure you can hear me.  There is an unknown radiation in the system that is degrading ship systems.  We are on the dark side of the planet working on a solution.  It removed the safeties from the warp reactor, so we've had to shut down the drive and evacuate Main Engineering.  At the present time the safest place for you and your team is to remain in the protection of the planet.  Whatever has been blocking our sensors also seems to block out the radiation."

He paused for a moment and took a breath.  He actually hoped Lek wouldn't get this next part he said.

"If we can't find a way to counter the radiation's degradation effects on the hull and shields in time, we'll have to dock her at the station to protect the crew and the ship's computer while we make repairs.  Discovery out."

Once the channel was cut, Nevir stood up.  "The station is shielded.  It is an unknown, but it is shielded. Our shields will fail in about 3 hours. We have that long to figure out how to protect our system, or we will have to risk the ship docked at the station.  They did offer repairs."

"Mr McNair, you said something about hyper-energons?"

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

Buck nodded, realising that he had made a mistake. "'Pologies, Lorut. I'll try not make that mistake again."

He went back to check on the status of the probe that he had sent out, his brow furrowing more as it glitched and crackled. "McNair to Ensign Kedan, confirm if the probe readings playing up for yourselves as well?"

{USS Discovery|Bridge|Vila mildly panicking}

The Bajoran ran herself through her lame breathing exercises to calm herself. Inhale-123-"picture a box in your head and breathe around it". Exhale-123...she nodded at McNair.

"I appreciate it. I forget that not everyone is aware of Bajoran customs," she explained. "Thank you for coordinating things." She looked around.

"Anyone else have news?" she asked. She paced a little-the movement helped her brain to slow down. She could visibly relax slightly. The danger was OUTSIDE. But outside was where the others were....she tapped her Comms as she moved about the Bridge in short steps, staring at the bulkheads as she did. It would appear that the woman had "checked out" but really, she was just repeating to herself some mantras common in Bajoran prayer. She wasn't spiritual or even religious, but she was learning to meditate. So far, it wasn't helping much.

=/\=Captain. News? She inquired in her usual nonchalant way. But at least she'd called him "Captain" this time instead of some insubordinate nickname, or "that man." Progress was slow but it was still progress...

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain stared at the monitor's readouts.  Bands and waves, numbers scrolling past while the probe functioned the best it could as it shields degraded and then fell.  It didn't seem very long at all until the systems fried and it stopped transmitting. There was a pattern... weird... unstable... but a pattern nonetheless.

With that, the Captain turned off the monitor and walked back to the Bridge as the call from Lorut came through. Instead of answering her, he walked out of the doors onto the bridge.

"Most people would love a chance at the big chair... you look about as comfortable as a little girl in her father's chair.  You can return to your station." he commented, walking over to take his place.

"There is a pattern... the radiation wasn't always at this level, and before the probe died it was showing a decrease.  I think this binary system is showing a fluxuating mixture of radiation and particles.  Increasing and decreasing... like a tide.  A radiation tide.  There is some sort of reaction that is taking place that is creating exotic particles.  We need to isolate what it is and what we can do.  Mr McNair, run a spectro-analysis of the radiation.  See what it is made of."

[Fleet Applications - Join Here!]

No issues with the character.  Character is approved for the SS Rosewood.

[[USS Discovery | Bridge - Ops station]]

"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.

[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-?

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."

{USS Discovery|Ops}

Vila was waiting for the Captain while they worked. "McNair, how are life support systems doing?" She asked. Of course, she knew the answer, but she was TRYING to include other people instead of just doing it herself.

Vila shot the woman a cold look. She had turned them off on PURPOSE, instead of diverting them-diverting them would suck up too much power in this old ship. Though the retrofitting had helped, it was still an older model, and sometimes-the machines just quit when they were overworked. Still. She didn't undo it. Let them learn. It was sometimes necessary to override certain things-something so minor was certainly one. Besides, even a small amount of power was a fire danger. But let HER explain it to medical and engineering.

She just nodded. "I hope a fire doesn't start," she remarked, but kept her tone even. It was true enough.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"Helm, switch to impulse engines and take us in at Full Impulse" the Captain ordered, as he watched the radiation levels reach critical in Main Engineering.

With the work of the few remaining personnel with warp core control, the shutdown sequence was initiated. Another announcement in Engineering stated that radiation levels were now at hazardous levels and gave a command to evacuate the section.

On the Bridge, the consoles flickered and the main lights went out, leaving only the glow of the red alert.  It took a few minutes before systems came back online as emergency power from the fusion reactors took over the power relay systems.  It did cost a few power relays as the emergency power was not able to compensate for the ships's defensive systems. But luckily, the sun's light was blocked as the ship passed into the umbra of the planet and took a position.

"Hold position here, and power down all non-essential issues. Get teams to assess damage and erect a containment shield on Decks 10 and 11, sections 15 to 20.  Are our shields still degrading?" he asked, hoping against hope.

The bad news was they still were.  The good news was that they had exponentially more time to determine what was happening. At the very least, Nevir could breathe a sigh of relief. The science officer Captain stood up, and turned towards his ready room.

"Miss Lorut, you have the Bridge, I'm going to do my own assessment of the probe data.  Mr. McNair, get science teams to analyze the solar winds and any system anomalies.  And keep that probe transmitting as long as possible; I'm not confident it will last with an unknown energy in the system." he stated, before entering his room and bringing up the science readings.

There was already one interesting thing to note, the ambient energy that was impacting their shields seemed to have decreased after they took cover.  It was still there, but very much diminished.  The second interesting thing was that the star seemed to have particles the computer could only classify as 'exotic particles'.  The general term for something unknown to the Federation or unobservable.  This was already an interesting star.

[[USS Discovery | 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." 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."

[[Erewhon - City Centre]]

All was going well with the Simulation, and the two other Ops officers were quickly figuring out her codes. I they knew much about Ops history, they could think on it for a second, figure out what someone like Lieutenant Commander Data, a former but still storied Ops officer would have done, and probably gotten a hint or two. She hoped they would work together to figure that out. She would offer it as a hint shortly.

She was interrupted in her thoughts, though, by the Captain's words.

Just as he asked, her own console buzzed. She raised her head. "No, sir, I'll check it out," she said.

Crap.

She pressed some buttons. "Sir...this is not great. Sending to your view screen," she said, pressing "send". She tapped her Comms.

=/\=Continue your efforts, please, Lieutenant, Cadet. But stand by.   she said.

She tuned her brain over to "battle mode" then.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - City Centre]

Rayek stopped short at hearing Lachlyn's statement.  No comm badges!?  How had he possibly missed that?
The Romulan did a cursor check, running a hand over his 21st century attire - and found that she was correct his badge hadn't just been hidden, which had been his first impression, it was completely gone.  He pressed behind his ear to activate his subdermal jaw mic and deep ear comm.  The triple beep indicated a lack of connection.

Nor did he have his Type 3 phaser.

"What's the meaning of having our communication devices and weapons confiscated?" He demanded to know, looking towards the hologram T'Sana.

"Items that are not in keeping with the era aesthetic have been removed and will be returned at the end of your stay" she assured him with a pleasant smile.

Both his Chief of Security and Flight Chief seemed to suggest that accepting their predicament and using a 'buddy system' was the viable course of action, so despite his strong misgivings, the Romulan First Officer nodded his acceptance of their suggestions.  "It would seem we have little choice in the matter.  Very well.  We will breakout into teams of three, three and two.  One security per team.  I'll take the cadet with me.  Grippen, Hansen and Broadshire will be a team of three.  Lachlyn, Lek and Ramort will be the other."

The Romulan had been tempted to break up the 'drinking team' but figured the others would be more effective with their investigation of the place if they weren't having to babysit those preferring to drink.

While their guests made plans to team up, the holographic servers after having provided their initial greetings and drinks, the excess numbers stepped away and disappeared.  Only three remained.  T'Sana,  Candy and a third server who had introduced herself to initially to Commander Lek as Pem.

"We meet back here in an hour." Rayek ordered before looking toward the sec/tac cadet to indicate they were heading out.  He then nodded to T'Sana to continue.

The hologram smiled.  "Of course, Rayek, Miraj... please follow me."
.
.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

Elena, on the bridge with Lorut and McNair, glanced to the latter with a slight look of concern.  What was going on?
.
.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

Cadet M'Lenda-ii, down in Engineering working from one other their spare consoles, was unaware of things happening on the Bridge.  She did however recognize hear it when several beeping alarms sounded.  Moments later the engineer beside her called out to the Caitian she met earlier.

"Lieutenant M'Nia, we have a problem.  The strength of the radiation shields around the ship are falling."

[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."

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

Buck looked over at the Petty Officer with a nod, knowing that Forscher was someone who stuck below the radar, her work ethic towing the line that showed she was keen but not so keen. "Good, keep at it. I'll double up on your-"

Buck's attention had been grabbed by the mention of the radiation shield being weakened. He hadn't remembered anything within the simulation that indicated their exercise was anywhere near touching the systems, but it seemed serious enough to draw pause from the junior lieutenant as his eyes flickered over to Forscher checking her progress. "Petty Officer, continue as you are, standby for further instruction."

He brought up his own readings of the ship, his access to the computer systems to run tests and ensure that what they were seeing wasn't part of the simulation training Vila had been running.

Ops to engineering, how long do we have of radiation shielding? 

He looked over at Vila, wondering if the simulation training they were running would take a back seat in the precedence of a bigger issue.

Buck turned his attention to the captain, knowing that the assistant chief science officer was down on the planet and as precedence, the captain was the one in charge. "Permission to hail the away team, Captain?"

"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."