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["Warning: Large file size detected. For faster rendering, use of your vessel's primary computer core is recommended."]

[Erewhon Station | Reception Area]
By the time T'Rea and Rajagopalan arrived a young Engineering ensign was working to set up a portable terminal. T'Rea removed the two data chips she'd brought with from the bridge and presented them to Ensign Kedan. "Here's all of Ensign Rajagopalan and I's datasets and analysis outputs from the bridge station," the Benzite may technically be equal rank with Rajagoplan and outranked by Lt. McNair, but Kedan was the only physicists here, and as far as T'Rea was concerned that meant he was in charge, "Be careful to check file sizes before trying to open them on this terminal." While she would not consider herself a computer expert, she was nonetheless slightly dubious of the small units memory availability and computational capabilities. Making further meaningful progress on shielding solutions was going to be difficult with such limited physical resources, but at least they did have the advantage of being physically in the same place to discuss and debate possible solutions--in her short time on the Discovery she had learned not to underestimate the power of 'brainstorming' between crewmembers.

"Is everyone feeling alright?" Rajagopalan asked as he surveyed the group. He didn't spot any visually obvious symptoms of acute radiation syndrome  like the Captain and a few others on the bridge (including himself) had been displaying, but that didn't mean everyone was in a fit state for work... and even if they were, the need to pause long enough for treatment was---biologically speaking---just a matter of time.

[Erewhon Station | Reception Area]

Working quickly, Devereaux set up the portable terminal and powered it on. This was far from the ideal setup for the level of computations required here, but then again it was a far from ideal situation. As the screen came to life, she listened to Kedan's brief explanation of the current plan and watched as the Vulcan who just arrived handed him another set of data chips. "Interesting. I'll load up that data," she replied, and accepted the full complement of crystals. She inserted them into their respective slots in the side of the terminal, which prompted a series of chirps and an audio message to be played.

"Warning: Large file size detected. For faster rendering, use of your vessel's primary computer core is recommended."

Devereaux rolled her eyes at this. Gee, thanks. I'll have to remember to take the entire computer next time, she thought, and tapped on the screen to dismiss the warning. They didn't exactly have the luxury of choice here. With a few more inputs, she set the terminal to start analyzing and rendering the outputs of the analysis that had already been completed by her crewmates. Once that was underway, she turned back to the group.

"If there's a way to rebuild the emitter to put out all of the necessary frequencies at once, then I'm not aware of it. However, I think I have an idea. We could have the emitter oscillate rapidly between all of the frequencies, assuming there's not too many of them. Oscillating thousands of times per second, that should create a very close approximation to the kind of pattern you're talking about. We'd just need to retune the flow regulators on the emitter itself to handle the increased output and program the shield controls to execute the pattern. However, we would need to move quickly on our way out of here. We'd really be pushing the operational limits of the shield emitter, and the last thing we want is a burnout."

She shrugged. "It's not 100% perfect, but it might be our best shot. Could you run the numbers and see if that will block enough of the radiation to get us out of here safely? Advanced field theory is a bit out of my wheelhouse," she admitted with a sheepish grin. "Assuming this bloody thing is up to the job." She turned back to the terminal which was still busy processing the large amount of data she had fed it.

It was at this point that she felt another wave of nausea sweep over her, just as Rajagopalan asked his question. She paused before answering, leaning against the terminal to steady herself. For a moment she was worried that if she opened her mouth she might be sick, but luckily the wave died down quickly. "I'm fine, just a bit of nausea. I can still work," she replied, hoping she sounded confident enough that she wouldn't be ordered to go directly for treatment. Now that she had been drawn into the discussion, she very much wanted to see it through.

[Ensign Kedan]
[Erewhon | Reception Area]

The sea of people around them had formed a bubble. Clusters were forming around the department's respective Officers. The doctors were organising a make shift triage area, setting up devices that looked like portable medical scanners and replicators, a group of engineers and scientists was gathering around platforms that looked like alien transporter pads, some security Officers were busy organising search parties for the captain (that one pretty sounded serious), but he had no time to pay any second thought to his surroundings.

The small portable terminal set up by Devereaux was beginning to run through all the data. Even while the device was spitting out errors, they had to keep using it to crunch the needed data.

Attempting to bring some order into the chaos, he ran some sorting algorithms to integrate the results of their simulations into the data brought over from the main science databanks station. The model proved to be quite dynamic. The output of the central star still not fully predictable by the control algorithms that would guide the shield harmonics.

"Crewman T'Rea, I believe you have a degree in Stochastic Simulation, any chance you can find a patterin this stars output I have missed so far?"

Making space at the console for he, he turned to Rajagopalan and Devereaux.

"Do you really think the emitters could bear such a load. Also we had some problems in the simulations with the high energy energons all around us weakening the molecular bounds of the hull and emitters, is there any way we can shields the emitters themselves against the effects. No sense in rebuilding the shield array if it simply will be blown away from the ships hull in seconds again."

"Vinod, could you gather some Tricorder Scans of the shields around this station for me, might just help us perfect our own versions. With so many of our people around, maybe the holograms do not notice if we take a closer look at their tech."

Devereaux did not look to great. Maybe the radiation was still affecting her. He made a mental note to pay close attention to her and call for the medics over, if she looked any worse.

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Docking Port 5]

Carried forth by the dozens of other Federation Members, Officers and Specialists heading for Port 5 he had no time to turn around and keep watch for anybody. Even if they all had trained multiple scenarios for evacuating the ship and were all knew what to do and where to head, there still was a different quality to the whole situation that separated the experience with ample time in the holodeck from actually having to leave the ship into another potentially hostile environment, all while being cooked by freak radiation from the inside.

All preparations had to fail somehow when confronted with reality, after all.

[Erewhon | Reception Area]

Spilling out of the ship, he found Discovery to be nested into the station neatly, the mass of Star Fleet Personnel filling a large, lobby like room in plain white in front of the ports. Navigating through the Crowd of Engineers, he pathed a clearing for M'Nia, McNair and himself to a spot of relative space.

As he had made half his way to the spot he wanted to take, all over the place, holograms emerged. Luckily he was in the midst of a group of Petty Officers at that moment, so there was no place next to him for one to manifest there too.

[...]
On the whole, it took longer than ideal, but they managed to locate the young Bolian's injured father, and deliver the child into the care of one of the nurses attending to his care, then snake their way through the crowd until they reached port 5. Rajagopalan appeared to be himself again by then (he hadn't needed her support since they left the ship), and T'Rea was still determinedly ignoring the lingering feeling of ice-water in her veins. That became much easier to ignore when she caught sight of a flash of blue-green skin, "Kedan! Ensign Kedan!" she called over din, trying to get the Benzite's attention and pointing out his location to Rajagopalan beside her. They pushed forward through the crowd toward their fellow scientist and the group of Engineering and Operations officers gathered there with him.

Hearing T'Rea call for him flooded him with relief. In hindsight, he felt bad for leaving her alone on the Bridge. Technically, Rajagopalan had been there too, but he never managed to figure out what made the human tick, and he wasn't the most sociable of the team anyway.

"Over here!"

Waving with both arms he signalled her to come over to their little group.

[...] Luckily for her, there weren't a ton of Benzites on the crew, so she spotted him easily enough. "Ensign Kedan! I brought the terminal. What else can I do to help?" she asked, joining the others that were gathering.

"I have to admit, I was never the best in getting these things to work. If you could lend me a hand with that, it would be much appreciated. After that, we are working on new shield modifications to prevent whatever happened to us before, repeating itself."

Handing her the data crystals with the data they had gathered, he pulled up the diagrams of the overlapping and modulating frequencies he had created earlier.

"Not sure if the emitters can be rebuild to emit such patters. What would be your expert opinion?"

[Erewhon Station - Waiting Area]

Lek looked up and was actually disappointed it was Rayek, he was ready to fight, he would lose, but he'd make them hurt. Now all he'd get was another lecture. Knowing arguing was pointless, he poured the coffees down the drain and threw his club into the bin. He stood and entered the Facility Manager's Office. Looking at the Manager with as neutral an expression as he could manage.

"I've been ordered to say hello, so hello. I will add that throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants for a contract to be valid, both parties have to agree for that contract to be valid. As no one stated the terms and, because you failed to account for our difference in visual spectrum, we could not see the terms to agree with them, there was no contract. As there was no contract, I am not bound to the terms of alleged contract. I therefore am not obligated to apologize or compensate anyone.

"As your treatment of your workers is reprehensible, I will not return, and I will make it my life goal to lobby before the Federation Council to have your planet declared off limits to all Federation citizens which will cost you billions in potential profits."

Lek stood stiffly and prepared to fight for his life, even though he had to do so unarmed. As he waited, he thought.

"You should know by now, you never allow me to speak if you don't want to hear the truth. Guess it's time for me to put in my transfer. Helga's gone to me and Rayek is no loner my friend. Discovery is no longer my home."

[Lt. Jg. James Ramort]
[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Managers Officer]

Upon hearing the Ferengis words it felt as if all his blood had frozen solid in an instant flash. This was on a trajactory to devolving into a very bad situation. His mind was racing with ways to yet again, find another save for the situation. But it ran blank. He simply lacked to tools. He had neither the autority nor the insight into Lyssarian Law to fix either side of the equation.

Collecting his thoughts again he drew in a deep breath. The clinically sterile air in the office not carrying any sent at all. It felt unnatural and further added to the unnerving feeling in his gut.

Before he could use this breath to set up another apology, seeeking to pave another diplomatic angle, he was cut short by the administrator.

[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Managers Office]

The Facility Manager's expression, being so alien, was likely impossible to interpret as it looked at Ramort with it's large ink black eyes.  After a moment of silence, it returned it's attention to the wall screen, which showed Rayek and Lek; the latter disassembling his weapon.

The tentacles raised up briefly before lowering again.  "It would appear he has been convinced."  Wrrhssrw commented to Ramort, before turning towards the office entrance to greet the pair of returning officers.

Lek's bluntness should have been expected, but Rayek was trying to give his friend every opportunity to 'be the better person' but it seemed like this was the one day he choosing to be the instigator.

"Lieutenant Commander Lek!  Your personal judgement of this species' culture was not asked for! " he snapped when Lek repetition of his 'not bound by the Terms of Service contract' rant.. spilled over into a more personal vendetta against the Lyssarians.

The Facility Manager however seemed unfazed by Lek's declaration, though he turned to looked to Ramort for a moment continuing his earlier statement.  "Or perhaps not."

His attention returned to Lek.

"You judge my people poorly because of how we treat our artificial life creations; yet I understand from your ship's database that your own people, the Ferengi,  have been known to capture free people and enslave them, selling them off for profit.  How should I judge you and you people for having done that?"

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."

The manager was right. The situation was not under control. They did not manage to present a united front. Not uphold a shared banner for Star Fleet and the Federation. They did not manage to convince him yet.

The request for the Captain to be transported to the office filled him with relief and resignation at the same time.
Relief because he knew the Captain had far more experience untangling such messes than him. If anyone could find a way out of this, it was probably him. On the other side it felt like a personal failure. The Commander had trusted him to lead the initial dialogue with a representative of an alien civilisation. A society controlling advanced technologies if their adaptive holo programs and cloning capabilities were anything to measure their remaining progress against. And he failed. Not as much as making things worse, but ultimately in finding a way to resolve the situation before there even had been the opportunity for it to devolve even further.

Maybe it was good the Captain would be arriving.

[...]
[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?"

Seeing the Captain taking charge of the situation immediatly filled him with a bit of hope again. He just wished he had a minute with him away from the Lyssarian to inform him of his observations. He didn't know what he might have already learned from Commander trLhoell, but he just hoped the full extend of the implications of their observations had been relayed to him and that he would try to bring the Commander back into Federation custody.

Given the Lyssarians treated even guilt free, purpose grown, fully sentient humans as nothing more than mere tools, he dared not imagine what their culture might think about aliens committing crimes within their sovereign territories.

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

[...]

The Lyssarian slid a pair of tentacles against the surface of what appeared to be its chair and suddenly Captain Tekin appeared.
.

The room now contained 4 Federation officers facing one Lyssarian, who was 'standing' on three of its tentacles, three others rose to wave above its head as it greeted the Captain.

"Thank you Captain Tekin Nevir, for allowing us to meet.  I am Wrrhssrw" the name sounded like a series of whistles. "I am the Facility Manager of Erewhon.  I am not a government representative of my people; however, I am the only lawful authority on this station and planet so it falls to me to greet you on behalf of Lyssaria."

The tentacles lowered and Wrrhssrw 'sat' upon it's oddly shaped chair.  A second later four human designed chairs appeared in the office facing the Lyssarian.

"Please sit while we talk.".  It gestured with a single tentacle towards the chairs and waited for them to sit before continuing to speak.

Rayek, who had taken a standing position the right of Captain, waited for the Captain to sit first before taking the seat beside his.  He faced the Lyssarian politely, while occasionally glancing towards Lek to be sure he didn't react with more paranoia to this request to sit.

After a moment, regardless of who sat or not,  the Lyssarian spoke. "The situation is that your officer confronted one of my Guests in an insulting manner - an offense on Erewhon.  He claims to be not responsible because the Terms of Service was not agreed to because of a misunderstanding of your visual range - something that will be rectified on our part hereafter.  However, the fact remains that I have a Guest who by our rules is owed reparation; a sincere apology at the least, though monetary compensation is also usually included.  In addition, he has repeatedly slandered our culture, claiming we are making up false accusations to gain money, constructed a weapon in my waiting room under some belief that we mean him harm and has claimed hereafter to petition your Federation to withhold further contact from my people.  I do not want this one incident to poorly represent all of Lyssaria; so, I turn to you, as his Captain, to be make a fair judgement on his behaviour.  If you deem his actions acceptable, I will abide by this and will refund our Guest their full amount in attempt to pay their reparation."

Ramort immediately noticed the shift in the manager's behaviour. His conduct with the Captain was a lot different from how he had treated any of the other officers so far in the office.

As the chairs appeared, took to the fourth chair, as was appropriate for a junior lieutenant in the presence of not only two Commanders but even the Captain himself. While he took his seat his mind already attempted to make sense of this new observation.

His immediate recognition of the Captains authority, while also the direct declaration of the scope and source of the Managers own authority hinted at a society built upon systems of ritualistic hierarchy. Such hierarchies would explain a lot of what they had experienced here.

First the strange simulation of a past history of earth. But earth, present and past (mostly) was known for comparatively loose structures of enforced hierarchy among the general population. It also explained the perceived gravity of the Commander's transgression. If one of undeclared stations, and thus potentially lower station, was to inflict a slight against one of potentially higher stations, such station might need to be defended to be preserved. An act of interfering with one of another station could be seen as a contest for such station.

Second their progress: The Federation had encountered civilisations before that applied systems of encouraged excellence among the population, maybe this was a case of requiring excellency too, to acclaim once station. That would explain the degree of sophistication in all technical systems they had observed.

He would need to file an extensive sociololgical report once he returned to the ship.

[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Managers Office]

The Lyssarian Facility Manager stared at Ramort unblinking after the science officer's request to 'release' the offender.

"Thus far I have seen no evidence of any disciplinary action on part of your leadership, nor any sign of apology or apologetic behaviour.  This 'Commander Lek' is your superior is he not?  How can you promise any discipline?"

A slide of a tentacle and the view screen zoomed in on the interaction between Rayek and Lek.

"Even his superior seems to have little authority over his actions."
.
[...]

[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Managers Office]

The arguments by the Manager posed a problem for Ramort. Because, fundamentally he was correct. Ramort was only a junior Lieutenant. Commander Lek outranked him in every regard. He would not be able to hold him accountable upon his own authority. Any suggestion things might be different, would amount to an insult to the Managers intelligence, an intelligence he had proven so far to be substantial.

Still, he had to believe in the rule of Law. Officers that violated the general orders governing Star Fleets conduct would be held accountable. No matter which rank the Officer was that reported the potential violation.

"True, I can not administer any consequences for action from superior Officers. But even if I were to outrank the Commander, our rules would still bind us all. Which Consequences are attached to which actions has been determined by the standing comissions and admirality or our Fleet and enacted Federation Council. No matter the rank an Officer holds, they are subject to these laws.

Even if it looks like Commander trLhoell is not asserting his rank right now, I can guarantee you. In the debriefing of our stay here, all issues in any potential offernders behavior will be brought to light and the necessary actions will be taken. Right now I am sure, the Commander is doing what is necessary to prevent any further missunderstandings. Obeying a superior Officer is one of our laws. So if Commander Lek disobeys Commander trLhoell, this would be added to the actions he will have to answer."

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

As Kedan tried to adjust some final parameters for a new high energy frequency for charging the ions trapped in the shield grid, hoping they could serve as a charged barrier absorbing the high energy particles, suddenly all displays began showing evacuation orders. The Captain's order soon following being announced over all speakers and combadges, announcing they had to vacate the entire ship.

This certainly was unfortunate. Without the help of advanced computing power, their work would be hindered. But he was beginning to feel the effects the radiation had on him too. All around him Crewmembers had been looking somewhat sickly for the past minutes, two even needing to be transported into the Sickbay to receive immediate treatment.

Acknowledging T'Reas call:

"Understood, we will be at docking port 5 shortly. 

Grabbing two data storage devices himself, he began to cast all data they had collected so far, including all their simulations and all the models and modifications they had finished so far. They could not afford to lose any of them. Once the ship was safe to enter again, they had to be installed as soon as possible to prevent another lethal build up of radiation.

As they already moved in the direction of the Door, he remembered something. Something so vital, he asked himself how he could have nearly forgotten to take one.
The models they were running were incredibly complex. Simulating 5 spacial dimension, including the malleable domain of Subspace and its interaction with the higher energy bands. Their standard PADDs and Tricorders were simply not kitted out for something of this order of computational power. His own hands already filled and the rest of the team busy carrying their own padds and data crystals, he stopped one of the new Ensigns on Board to ask her for help.

He had not had the opportunity to interact with her much yet, he barely remembered her name, but now was no time for social nicities or large introduction. They could catch up on all of those once they were not in danger of being grilled from the inside by lethal radiation.

"Ensign Devereaux, sorry to burden you, but we need your help, could you grab one of the portable terminals on the way to evac and follow us to Docking Port 5. We have priority orders to continue our work, and frankly, every extra pair of hands is greatly appreciated right now."

Being still pushed further by the stream of Officers in golden Uniforms, he had no time to check up on anything else and was instead pushed in the direction of Docking Port 5.

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

T'Rea immediately gave the doctor permission to inoculate her, "Go ahead, Doctor." She may have been lucky in regards the severity of her own symptoms so far, but Vulcans were no more resilient to ionizing radiation than any other species on the ship, and regardless, she had absolutely no interest in any of the slower acting side effects which would set in sooner or later without treatment.
[...]

[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 ship'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.
[...]

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

"All right. Brace, the double injection might leave you feeling cold for a few seconds. If you encounter any problems, please let me know. Do not brush it off as an emotional side effect, I had far too many Vulcans with worse symptoms than they would have needed to suffer simply because they would not acknowledge they do not feel good."

Knowing her words were true but most likely fell on deaf ears, always Vulcans and their logic, she quickly injected the Crewman with the necessary medications before quickly moving across the Bridge. Administering more doses to any of the officers present.

Two times she had to refill her hyposprays, but luckily the Bridges Med Kit was kitted out for exactly this purpose and had spare radiation meds in case of even more serious radiation events.

Finally, she arrived at the last person. The Captain himself. As the docking clamps extended, she lost her footing for a second. The inertial dampeners glitching out for a second as their own systems too suffered damage from the impact and the prolonged radiation bombardment.
Regaining her footing, she administered the final dosage to the Captain.

"There you go Sir, the immediate effects of the Radiation will be suppressed for at least 4 Hours, after that you will need another dose."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

[...]
"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 | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

[...]
She executed the code with a final double tap, removed the data chips from their slots, and then turned back to Rajagopalan.

"I've got our data. Looks like it's time to go, sir," she told him as she put the chips in her uniform pocket and took his arm to help him up. His complexion had returned to it's normal color, but he still seemed a bit unsteady of his feet, so she decided to keep hold of him for now as they joined the rest of the crew in evacuating.

Leaving the ship. All colour drained from her face. With how many patients they had down in the Med Bay, an ordered evacuation would be hard, if not impossible without potential long term damage. Hopefully the inhabitants of this station they had docked at would extend basic medical care to them.

Not allowed to resist such an order, she went over to T'Rea and Rajagopalan to offer her a hand in stabilising the ill Ensign.

Along the rest of the Bridge Crew they went into the Turbo lift to head to the nearest Transporter Pad.

{USS Discovery|Ops-Planet}

Vila knew that they were out of time. Damn it. She was CLOSE, so close! If only she could have a few more minutes!! But she also wasn't interested in dying-at least not in this way. She answered the Comms from below decks.

Do it, but fast, because we're about to lose power, Security. She could hold it as long as she could, but she was only one person, up against tech she wasn't very familiar with.

The Captain FINALLY issued the orders she'd wanted to hear.

"Yes sir, but no way am I going to leave YOU here alone," she said. Oops, that hadn't meant to come out like he couldn't handle himself but, really...she'd saved his life more than once, so could he?! She wasn't so sure. She retrieved a phaser from the little drawer under the Console before opening a line. If she were leaving the ship, she was going to be armed to the teeth, the stupid little Prime Directive be damned.

Security, please ensure that all personnel remains together. I will meet you at the transporter pads. Civilians, do not seperate from a Starfleet officer. All hands, go now.

Her militia training kicked in, and she ran at full speed to the Transporters.

"Two lines. Starfleet to my aft, civilians to the Starboard." She ran through the numbers in her head-minus the away team, they currently had two hundred fifty people aboard. She clicked her Comms again. Security. I have fifty beings accounted for. She clicked off, and then let them beam out, five at a time. It was easier to keep track. She knew she'd have to go soon; she was already sick, but she wasn't about to let Medical look at her. Yet. She had some things to do.

[...]

[Petty Officer Zull]
[USS Discovery | Deck 4 | Section 19 | Weapons Storage]

Finally, they had new Orders.
Her mind kicked into gear as training once again manifested into reality.

Turning around, she put in the lock out code into the access doors terminal. Now only Security Officers and Command Level Officers would be able to access this station. She knew, similar actions were taken all across the ship right now by her colleagues. Star Fleet had experienced hostile Aliens taken over ships that were abandoned too often to leave anything to chance.

Having successfully locked the door before power went out, they rushed to the nearest Transporter Pad. Armed they were beamed onto the station.

[Erewhon Station | Reception Hall]

There they were greated by a large white hall. The walls were slightly concave and intended at several locations. Looking like niches meant to hold vases or other artifacts. The hall was illuminated in a bright but warm light, seemingly eminating from all surfaces surrounding them. Star Fleet Officers and Crewman in all color of Uniforms were wandering through the room. No appearent leadership present as all Officers mostly tried to get a hold on where they were and what had happened to the ship.

Further back, a group of medical Officers were huddeled around Patients on strechers, calling out for help from unseen alien hosts.

Security Officers were attempting to set up a perimeter at the outside of the group, shielding it from potential aggressors. Most of them looked quite unnerved. Zull joined them, not happy about not having seen as much as a hairs width of their alien hosts.

As she heard Lieutenant Lorut request permission, she turned around immediatly. Leaving the group unprotected she offered her help immediatly.

"Requesting to accompany the Lieutenant. No one should be moving about unprotected until we can establish a proper perimeter."

Attention Discovery,

Even as we are drawing closer to the conclusion of our current mission, I am happy to present to you a new addition to our crew.
Please join me in offering a warm welcome to @Ensign Lauren Devereaux to the Discovery. She will be joining as our newest Engineering Officer.

Welcome to the Discovery!

[September & October : (#195 & #247)Crewman V'letr S't'kal T'Rea]

Greetings Discovery!

Once again, it is time to honour one among our ranks that has distinguished themselves through their posts in this ongoing Mission. Given we have once again fallen behind by a month, I will be announcing the Winner for both September and October simultaneously.

Please join me in congratulating:

September & October : (#195 & #247)
Crewman V'letr S't'kal T'Rea

She provided awesome posts in both months and has rightfully earned her Award for the Months of September and October!

# 195

[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 1]

Crewman T'Rea had been alone in Science Lab 1 since Ensign Kedan's abrupt departure to repair the forward sensor array some time ago. In her short time on the Discovery (and short time in Starfleet as a whole), T'Rea had found that very few things happening on the Bridge (or indeed anywhere else on the ship) had a direct impact on her day to day activities, and so far today was no exception. Her assigned duty for the day was monitoring Ensign Rajagopalan's ongoing experiment and preparing the relevant cell cultures which she diligently continue.... But really, the experiment nearly monitored itself, and it was only natural that her curiosity would eventually draw her across the empty room to Kedan's abandoned terminal, still displaying a live feed of data form the forward sensor array along side the historical data of a no-longer-transmitting probe.  Intriguing. She was by no means a physicists, but she had at least taken the mandatory introductory courses in quantum and particle physics during her time at the Vulcan Science Academy several decades ago, and that was enough to comprehend just how unusual the data in front of her was. She tapped on the screen and typed out a few commands to apply a fast Fourier transform the the final minute of probe data and---

The screen in front of her flickered and then faded to black, and the lab's ambient lighting followed suit. An eerie silence descended as at least a dozen different vacuum pumps, motors, freezers and the likes wound down to nothing or stopped outright. She sat silently for one heartbeat, two,... and then the single emergency light flickered to life, followed by an automated message announcing that power had been deliberately cut to non-essential systems. "Please enact any emergency shutdown procedures as stipulated in the departmental safety protocol," the computer intoned and T'Rea found herself automatically complying, making a circuit around the lab to engage manual hermetic seals on storage areas for biological hazards, and reactivating one of the EPS taps (which provided power to keep Kedan's latest materials experiment atomically stable via external cooling) with an override code.

Tasks completed, she was still for a moment, but there was nothing left to do here and soon she followed the illuminated path out the door and into the hall, similarly lit only by sparse emergency lighting. She turned left and tried not to think about how much of a relief it felt to see Kedan step out of the Stellar Cartography Lab (presumably now also without power) in front of her. "Ensign," she greeted him with a respectful nod, but the unspoken request for guidance was probably obvious. She'd never experienced a true emergency on a ship before.

# 247

[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?"

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Managers Office]

[...]

The Facility Manager kept its attention on Ramort as the science officer spoke.  At the Lieutenant's suggestion to offer apologies to the insulted Guest, several of the Lyssarian's tentacles swayed above its' head. Rayek wondered at its meaning.  Was that approval?

"That would be a start..."  Wrrhssrw's answered thought the tone sounded somewhat displeased. "Typically, a fine or community service is handed out to the offender as a deterrent.  However, as I understand it, the offender in this situation doesn't even acknowledge his culpability."

There was a pause in the Lyssarian's speech as it swiped at the wall.  The scene on the wall screen changed to show the waiting room.

"These do not appear to be the actions of someone who is apologetic."

Rayek took in Lek's resourcefulness - somewhat impressed with the engineer's inventiveness, but also fully aware at how poorly this looked.

Rayek looked to the Facility Manager.  "I'll go speak to him." He then turned to Ramort and risked a private aside. "See if you can negotiate to have him disciplined by the Captain, rather than Lyssarian law."

The Romulan then exited the office and returned to the waiting room.

"Lek, hate to build on your paranoia, but you're being watched and its not helping with our 'we come in peace' speech. How about you disassemble that and come say 'hello' and show you aren't a violent person by nature?"

[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Manager's Office]

The flailing of appendages reminded him of a sign for applause in one of earths sign languages. Usually he would guard himself against such "false friends" in comparing languages, but given the context and his own hopes, he chose to interpret the signal as a positive sign. Maybe he would be able to turn this around. The Manager's next words swiftly dispelled such feeling again.

A fine might be payable by the Federation, community service was something he could not easily agree too. Especially on behalf of another sentient being. And he had a feeling the Ferengi would have no love for the idea of doing work for the Lyssarians.

As the Manager showed him the next screen, clearly depicting the Ferengi building a weapon, only a couple of meters away from this very office, Ramort blood froze. Here he was pleading for leniance, while the one in trouble was doing his best to seem hostile. It also reflected badly on the Federation as a whole.

He was thankful for the Commander going out to him and cooling him down. The last thing they needed now was the Commander not only constructing, but also using the weapon.

"I am so sorry for this incident. I can assure you it is not part of our policies or politics to go about and craft weapons on diplomatic missions. If you would, allow me to make a suggestion. Commander Lek, on this missions, has violated our established codes of conduct and is thus subject to disciplinary actions by the Institutions of Star Fleet. If you release him to us, we can promise you he will be reminded of our codes of conduct and facing the adequate consequences. We also can promise you, for any eventual future contacts, to only sent you properly trained diplomats, which should avoid any future incidents. Of course we are still committed to make the necessary apologise!

[Crwmn. T'Rea]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10]

It was only a few hurried steps down the hall to Lab 2, and T'Rea didn't have the time to reflect upon the fact that she wasn't on duty and therefore wasn't necessarily supposed to be here before she found herself stepping through the doorway with Rajagopalan.

But despite the fact that she thought they had had a quite fast response time, any real danger (if there had ever been any present) seemed to be passed as she stepped into the expansive space. A few scientists were still finishing up pulling out the final system shutdown pins or frowning at terminals and Ensign T'lel was climbing back down the access ladder to what T'Rea assumed with the complicated systems primary view part. The newest memeber of the department opened her mouth to ask if there was anything they could do to help--but Lt. Ramort spoke up first.
His suggestion was immediately met by murmurs of agreement from most of the personnel present, and as the large group turned towards the doors back to the hall (where she and Rajagopalan were now standing) she abruptly found herself wishing she had not come down to the labs at all while off duty. Tondelier, who had given T'Rea her assignments for the preceding gamma shift, was gazing at the Vulcan with a perplexed look and T'Rea wasn't looking forward to having to explain herself over a cup of (unpalatable) coffee in the department break room.

[Ensign T'lel]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 2]

Neither her tricorder nor the inbuilt poison gas sensors reported any vapor more harmful than a bit of residual smoke inside the chamber itself, and that was quickly being ventilated away, even as she watched through the small viewport. By the time it was mostly clear she could make the sample itself, to the naked eye it looked no different then when it had first been inserted into the chamber, which was impressive in it's own right, considering the bow that had been directed at it.

T'lel leapt gracefully down the last step and quickly slipped through to Ramort's side. "We'll have to look closer later, but the sample looks basically intact, so you don't go worrying or wondering about it instead of enjoying your cup of coffee and taking a proper break along with the rest of our, Lieutenant," She told him with a fond half-smile that implied to knew him rather too well. Indeed, she had been at the Academy with him and had known him nearly the longest of anyone in the department.

[Lt. Jg. James Ramort]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 2]

He was thankful for her words. The mere thought of all the paperwork and explaining he would have to do if he had vaporzied a precious probe in an experimental high energy testing apparatus on an active duty ship with the room packed with distinguished scientists. Heavens forbid anything had happened to any one of them.

As the adrenaline set down, the full reality of the situation settled on him. What it meant if someone could have gotten hurt because he signed off on an experiment.

"I think I really need a Coffee now. This was so much closer than it should have been.", his voice not shaking too much, he hoped.

[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Break Room]

The Break Room was quite small, usually too small to house all the team. It had once been a spare storage room that was split in two after a remodelling of the ship's deck plan. He had been one of the ones spending their free time, making it into a cosy space for Scientists in between shifts. The walls were covered with a wild mixture of screens scrolling through recently published papers. Team photos from when they had attended conferences together or just some proposals for what to focus on next that any one of them could put there, mixed in between various replicated posters showcasing anything from a variety of Martian silicate formations to the larvae stages of a Vulcan Steam Fly.

Most important though, there were 3 large kettles of steaming hot coffee planted right on the center table. Paving his way through his colleagues, he poured two pots of coffee and brought one of them back to T'lel.

"A little thank-you. I guess the incident rattled me more than I initially realised. Do you want anything with it? Sugar, anything?
Any ideas what might have gone wrong? I would hate to turn the device back on and this time have it blowing up in our faces even more.."

[Ensign Rajagopalan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | In front of Science Lab 2]

Completely oblivious to T'Rea's predicament, Rajagopalan was deeply relieved to only find some residual plumes of smoke hanging under the ceiling and quickly being vented by the ships life support system.

On any spaceships, fire was the most dangerous thing that could occur. Flames eating up the precious oxygen and the systems being damaged by the heat. The very heat that would add another deadly layer to the trap all biological entities would find themselves in.

So some smoke really was the best thing that could have happened.

"Puhh, seems whatever went down here is already over. At least I got my cardio in for today already. Hey, how about we join the others in the Break Room for a bit. Our experiments are interrupted anyway, and I don't know if you had the opportunity to meet everyone yet."

Vila heard the counselor's voice in her ear once more.

Breathe, Vila. One-two-three-four.

She closed her eyes briefly, and did a few quick rounds of the box breathing exercises that the counselor had taught her. It DID help, sometimes, in most situations. This was the case now. Indeed, she was calmer now; the new arrivals back to the table had only shook her a moment.

"Lt. Nice to meet you," she said. She smiled tightly, but a quick glance to her right flank said that the child had settled in with his father, and was eating. Good. Another glance around the room told her it was still safe. Everyone remained in their clusters, conversations and laughter and general merriment going on. No one had stood, nor come or gone, in the last few moments since her last visual sweep.

A quiet "mmm" sound from the Commander had her nearly bust out in laughter, but she was able to catch herself in time. It was just a ridiculous sound coming from a Romulan, one that the Bajoran had never really gotten used to despite living with a Human for the entirety of her marriage. However, she recognized the subtle urge to get the child to eat something other than the potatoes. She had a vague memory of her own parents doing something similar, but Vila had been much less compliant, even at age four or five, and it took much more than gentle coaching to get her to do something she didn't want to. The later traumas would only make that part of her personality worsen.

She ate more of her salad; maybe the boy seeing the other adults also enjoying vegetables would get through. She didn't know. As much as she had once longed, and had nearly become, a mother, it hadn't been her lot in life in the end. She supposed, in hindsight, that might've been a good thing-she was far too gone in her own illnesses to have been a proper parent.

"Indeed," she said. "Crocodiles, and Alligators, for example. Earthen birds are also related to the Dinosaurs," she said. That was the limit of her knowledge on the large lizards, though, so she hoped that Fvienne wouldn't press her.

"So if Romulus, and Bajor, and all those other places didn't have such large creatures, I suppose your father is right. They're a Sol-centric species," she said. "Crewman T'Rea. What kind of science do you specialize in?" She asked the woman, recognizing the blue of her uniform as a science one. Certainly, they were a better color than her own gold. The ugly yellow tunic was one of the banes of Vila's existence.

[USS Discovery | Deck 6 | Officers Mess]

She mentioned the Birds.... oh no.

Of course he knew that birds were the most common clade of Dinosaurs alive today, if one wanted to call them that. But the boy probably didn't know that. And the Commander had picked out a chicken dish for him. And chickens were birds.

Usually Ramort was not one to pray but maybe he should start now. If Fvienns Brain made the connection between what he just learned from and what was in front of him on his plate..
He had to come up with something to distract from this situation and fast at that. Best something that featured neither food nor birds to prevent the Commanders son from making any connection.

Setting aside the spoon he had used for his soup he looked over to the Bajoran woman, hoping she would pick up the hint and dropping the matter of Birds. He there noticed a strange expression around her eyes. It was obvious something was up and she didn't seem to be too comfortable in this situation but he had no idea what might have caused it.

Still needing to defuse the situation he did the first thing that came to his mind. Shifting the Focus to another kind of prehistoric creature might do the trick. And if it could manage to shift Lorut Vila's thoughts from whatever was brewing inside her, all the better.

"I am sure many other planets have interesting prehistoric animals too. Maybe even something similar to Dinosaurs. Say does Bajor has anything similar. Were there found any traces of some terrestrial landstriders for example?"

[[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary engineering]]

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
So much for her attempts to avoid direct contact. T'Rea took a second to brace herself. The touch telepath strengthened her mental shielding as tight as feasible on such short notice, let out a careful breath, and then braced Rajagopalan's head between both hands as the doctor has asked.

It was impossible to completely prevent any transference of the Science Ensign's nausea under such circumstances, and T'Rea had to fight against her own body's instinctive attempt to react in the same way as Rajagopalan's had. The moment Dr. Phlome had finished administering the medication she released her hold on Rajagoplan and took a half step back. She flexed her fingers, rubbing her palms momentarily against her uniform as if to try and dispel the lingering sensations from the contact. "Thank you, Doctor," she remarked as she watched Rajagopalan out of the corner of her eye, trying to judgeefficacy of the medication based on his reactions. "While you are here, perhaps it would be wise to treat the captain and key bridge personnel pre-emptively, to minimize any potential disruptions in critical positions. If you have the necessary supplies, of course."

[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.

[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary engineering]

[...]

Buck looked over at the ensign with an encouraging nod. "Best we can do and hope for at this point is to play damage control. Keep at it and just keep an eye out when we're docked." He was looking over his stats and data as they continued onwards trying to find a solution. "Is there anything else we can do to reverse or slow it down any further?"

[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-B - Deck 6 - Officer's Mess]]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
and NPC Fvienn tr'Lhoell

[USS Discovery-B - Deck 6 - Officer's Mess]

Fvienn, of course, started first with his fries. A fact that had Rayek concerned that the boy would just fill up on the starchy food and ignore the chicken and vegetables.  Rather than direct Fvienn to eat a little of everything, Rayek attempted to lead by example.  He took a scoop of vegetables - carrots and peas, and as he ate he made a point of making a contented 'Mmm' sound to encourage his son to eat something other than fries.  It was a bit embarrassing to do so around his juniors but it worked at home to get Fvienn's attention on the preferred food.  Fvienn was still very impressionable.

Fvienn looked over to his father at the sound, and watched him take another bite of the vegetables.  Wanting to be like his Dad, Fvienn took a small scoop of the same and ate it.  It was good... but not fries-good.  Still to please his eneh, Fvienn made the same 'Mmm' noise.

Rayek smiled and nodded his approval.

With his attention on getting his son to eat something other than fries it took a moment for Rayek to catch up on the conversation.

"Romulus also did not have dinosaurs. Nor to my knowledge, did Ba'ku or Meridian." he informed his son.  "They appear to be an Earth-centric species."

[USS Discovery | Deck 6 | Officers Mess]

It didn't slip Ramorts attention how the little boy tried to imitate his fathers eating of the food. Even going as far as audibly expressing how much he enjoyed it. His face though betraying his real thoughts. He had to commend him for the effort though. Being able to put a face up when confronted with disliked food at his age was a sign of his intelligence and strong will.

"Indeen, Dinosaurs originated on earth. They evolved over a timespan of millions of years so there were a lot of different Dinosaurs around. Some of their descendants are even around today all around earth!"

Hoping the boy wouldn't press him about what kind of descendats those were exactly, last he wanted to find some images of comodo dragons that didn't look scary.

[...]
"Crewman T'Rea," she introduced herself to the Bajoran with a touch to her own chest (and a slightly passive aggressive use of her rank very much intended for the the Commander's ears. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I hope I'm not interrupting." Though, by the nature of the conversation coming from the first officer's young son it seemed it would be hard to be more of an interruption than Fvienn already was... Yiluv had once been as enthusiastic about the creatures adapted to survive in Vulcan's most volcanic regions as Fvienn seemed to be of old Earth creatures.

She hesitated before starting to eat--she needed no introduction to Lt. Ramort, but the same was not true for the table's youngest occupant, "Jolan tru; hello. My name is T'Rea. May I have the honor to know your name?" Aside from the languages in question, she greeted him in the same matter as she would have greeted a Vulcan child.

The appearence of Crewman T'Rea surprised Ramort for a second. But given there was no major issue with her presence here and the Commander personally invited her to the table, he sparred no more thoughts to the matter.

"Greetings Crewman T'Rea, how nice you could join us. I hope you found something nice in the culinary databank?"

Getting back to his own dish, he finally finished his soup, it had got somewhat cold over the course of their discussion, but it still tasted great.

[Fleet Applications - Join Here!]

[...]

Greetings Lauren Devereaux, I will be serving as your Instructor. I started your ATC, you can find it here: https://shadowfleet.org/forum/eng-and-ops/engineering-atc-level-1-lauren-devereaux/

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
T'Rea looked up at the doctor's arrival, "Ensign Rajagopalan. Over here," she answered promptly, gesturing her over and stepping away from the Science console long enough to explain the situation to the Denobulan.

Rajagopalan's complexion was somewhere between grey and green T'Rea thought as she watched the human waver where he sat. Cautiously, she laid a hand on his shoulder to help steady him, grateful for the protective barrier of his uniform. "He's showing classic signs of radiation sickness." The puddle of sick on the floor nearby spoke for itself on that front, the Vulcan thought.

Rajagoplan himself swallowed heavily as he blinked up at T'Rea and Dr. Phlome, "The artificial gravity's just not feeling quite as stable as I'm used to," he tried to excuse, "But I'm fine. It's started to stabilize a bit more." T'Rea's eyebrow raised. She was hardly an expert on the subject, but she suspected his last statement was a lie because he was still swaying a bit against her steadying grip and his eyes weren't quite focusing correctly on the doctor's face.

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

"I fear he isn't the only one, and like him most are not simply showing signs. The entire ship has absorbed too much radiation for our bodies to handle.", the Doctor lamented while taking out two hypersprays from the Med-Kit she had brought and loaded them with small glass viles, each holding a carefully meassured out chemical concuction.

The first one a deep blue and the second one red as blood. Their colours distorted by the flashing red lights on the bridge.

"Crewman, could I ask you to hold his head still while I administer the medication directly into his Aorta. I don't want him to breathe in his breakfast if another attack hits before I can cool him down.

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

The Simulations proved promising. If the Emitters could be reconfigured correctly and were fully controlled by the computer to emite gliding and overlapping frequencies they might just shave of the worst.

Just as he began drafting the necessary changes to the ships controlling code for the emiters and pulling up specs for the emitters to see what modifications would need to be done to make them fit the new shield patters and harmonics, a bad feeling began building in his stomache.

Looking around, some other people around him didn't look to great either. Some were holding their heads or stomaches as if they had eaten something bad or were falling ill.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon | Administrative Area]

After having his attempt to read the Lyssarian's mind be rebuffed so easily, Rayek focused on securing his own mind from what he suspected was a scan of his own thoughts.  Was that how the holograms knew to provide what they wanted.  He had initially assumed they were being watched and their actions and needs interpreted by the hologram's AI program, but maybe it was the Facility Manager just reading all their thoughts?

"First off Lyssarian law recognizes the right of our Lyssarian guest to discipline an artificial lifeform as she sees fit. That groundskeeper was no human but rather artificial life - a facsimile of human life - but without what you would call a soul. It has no free will."

"Secondly, your Commander Lek's choice of words was unfortunately extremely insulting to our Guest - implying that they have a sizable posterior.  That would be unbelievably demeaning to any Lyssarian."

[Lt. Jg. James Ramort]
[Erewhon | Administrative Area | Facility Managers Office]

Not Human? Not possessing a Soul? Just what were their standards for meassuring sentience. After what he observed, they were at least able to feel a certain degree of emotion and were capable of higher cognitive functions.

Taking another deep breath he reminded himself that he was a guest in an alien culture. Even if by Federation Standard the Manager had just demonstrate a school of thought in line with famous Warcriminals from History past, he could not do anything against it. Most important would be to get their Crew out of here and back into Federation Space.

"Allow me to once again apologize sincerely on behalf of the Federation. We didn't intend to insult your culture of physiology. Is there anything we could do to make this right. Would it help to show we really meant no harm if we apologised to the Guest that was insulted as well?"