Things Are Never Easy

Posted on Dec 06, 2016 @ 3:10pm by Ensign Sofia Andersson
Edited on on Dec 06, 2016 @ 3:10pm

Mission: Aftermath

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"Things Are Never Easy"
[previous post was "Goodbye Love" by the collaborating Sarah and Shawn]
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LOCATION: EARTH
SD [2.16] 1206.1357
SCENE: Paris, Underground Research Facility, Level 6 (Purple)

"Be careful," Shar'El instructed the two officers as they ventured beyond the door that had been reopened to grant them access to the next sub-level.

"You will need to close the door behind us," the Chief of Security said in return. "We can't have the creature go back up. If it decided to attack either Jayson or Sonja again I doubt that they would be as lucky as they were the last time, plus you did say that you did not want anymore injuries on this mission."

The ExO / ILO reluctantly agreed to the stated course of action. Despite the troubling memories that Shar'El had seen from Ya'Han it had been clear that the statement made had been that of a concerned Chief of Security and not that of a troubled, emotionally injured woman. "Stay in communication contact for as long as possible," was the last thing the Commander said before the heavy door was slid closed behind the two women.

=/\= Heading down the stairs, =/\= Maya reported over the comm channel, the amount of static increasing rapidly with each step down they took.

=/\= Just a few more stairs, =/\= Ya'Han added, the Chief of Security having for obvious reasons taking point. =/\= ... walls are red... dead... moving forward... =/\=

Although they had been only a dozen meters or so away, the communication channel had barely been able to carry the signal leaving the ExO / ILO to try and extrapolate what had been meant. Had the walls been painted red to identify the level as the wall colors had for the previous levels or had the Chief of Security meant something entirely more gruesome? Her stating 'dead' could have just as easily referred to the same carnage that they had witnessed on every other levels before. All that Shar'El could do was to focus on the tone of the words which had been perfectly calm meaning that whatever the officers had encountered it had not been troubling to them in the last.

"Where is Ya'Han?" the OPS Officer inquired as he joined the ExO / ILO with the help of the medical officer who had been tending to his wounds. Sofia had her arm around his waist but she had not been carrying any of his weight, the gesture having only been a precautionary measure.

"She went down to see what happened to the creature and hopefully get some answers," the Commander replied, looking at Jayson in a way that her position as First Officer had not permitted. It had not been her place to get involved in the personal affairs of her officers, whatever knowledge she might have gained through her having been Ullian. That is as long as said affairs did not interfere with the normal functioning of the ship and its crew.

"Let me go in after her," Jayson quickly offered in a way that almost hinted to his concern having been more than that of a simple fellow shipmate.

"Jayson!" Sofia objected well before the ExO / ILO could even began to formulate a reply. "You are in no condition to go down there. I have seen Ya'Han in action and I believe that she is very well capable of taking care of herself."

"Plus, she is not alone," Shar'El added. "Commander Maya went down with her."

The OPS Officer thought for a moment and abandoned his concerns accepting, although somewhat reluctantly, that the Shillian and Nylaan women would be a match for a great many trouble encountered anywhere in this galaxy.

"Miss Andersson, maybe you could lend your medical expertise to Doctor Doyanne. The injuries suffered by Lieutenant Paquette were far more severe than those Ensign Stark had," the Commander said in a tone that leaned far more on the side of an order over it having been a suggestion. Maybe if Shar'El could get a few seconds alone with Jayson she would be able to open his eyes to what he had done, bu she thought against it knowing that doing so would be a breach of confidentiality not to mention a drastic over stepping boundaries.

=/\= Heading back, open the door, =/\= Ya'Han said over the still open comm channel, her out of breath voice having come across far clearer than before hinting that she had been close. Without any hesitation Jayson rushed for the door and forced it open, the physical effort required to accomplish this causing him to wince in excruciating pain. The sound of his lamentations were more than enough to summon Sofia back to his side.

Shar'El had no idea what to expect, figuring that something had been encountered to hasten the return of the two officer. As soon as the door was opened the Chief of Security came into view, the creature that had previously attacked them in her arms, the Chief Science Officer not too far behind her.

The question from the ExO / ILO should have been more than expected by the two officers who had ventured to the next sublevel but she still felt the need to voice it. "What happened?"

"We were scanning the level and discovered the creature in a pool of green colored ooze," Maya reported as she closed the heavy door behind her. "We had every intention of performing a complete biological analysis on the corpse when it move."

"It?" Sofia asked while helping Jayson to stand, the blonde hair woman's gaze on the creature that appeared well beyond any ability to move.

"Not the creature," Ya'Han clarified, "the ooze. We figured that it might be safer to come back."

"Any idea what the ooze is?" the Commander inquired as she looked at the creature, getting for the first time a good look at it,

"No idea but the clues seem to point to the ooze having killed the creature," Maya explained as Ya'Han carefully deposited the creature on the nearest clear surface available.

"I'm fine," Jayson stated to the woman trying her best to hold him up. "Go help them figure out what happened.

Hesitantly Sofia let go of Jayson as if to insure that he would be able to stand without her help before making her way to the table where the creature had been brought. The blonde haired woman was quickly joined by the ANUBIS' Chief Science Officer, the two of them performing the examination that had been planned before the ooze had shown signs of life.

"Did the Thalaron radiation not reach that level?" Shar'El asked, trying to understand how a living ooze could have come to be on that level.

"No," Ya'Han confirmed, "Everything else down there was as dead as what we saw on the other levels. Somehow that ooze, like that creature, managed to survive the radiation, the only problem it seems was that they could not survive each other's presence," the Chief of Security further explained trying her best to ignore Jayson who had come to unsteadily stand next to her.

"Most interesting," Maya announced in what seemed to be complete surprise.

"What had you found?" Shar'el demanded turning her attention to the two women, leaving Jayson and Ya'Han to deal with their own issue as they saw fit.

"Commander Maya had earlier reported that the creature displayed signs very similar to that of Thalaron emissions, which led us to believe that it's crystalline biological structure had somehow been altered by the radiation," Sofia explained with a medical tricorder in her hands, obviously having been listening during all previous conversations.

"It was the only logical explanation to account for both the readings and the fact that the creature had survived being exposed to what would normally be a type of highly lethal radiation," Maya offered. "These readings also leave us with a single logical explanation to account for everything else we have observed thus far," the Chief Science Officer added.

"Which would be?" the ExO / ILO asked, not enjoying in the least having to fish for answers.

"The ooze is the cause of the radiation absorption," Sofia stated in a matter-of-fact manner. "The creature we encountered before had been altered by the radiation and likely it become an integral part of its new metabolism. So when the creature came in contact with the ooze, regardless of the speed at which it did so, that modified radiation was drained from its body, killing the creature within seconds from what we were able to see."

"Were you able to see or detect anything else?" Commander Shar'El asked as she tried to asset what they next best move would be.

"The tricorder picked up nothing other than the ooze which is covering a fair size of the lower level, obvious having used the radiation as a catalyst to promote its own growth," Maya offered, her theory having been easily acceptable by everyone present including Angelo Tannahill and Shiela Grant, both having remained as silent and out of the way as possible.

"If this is true," Sheila carefully began, not wanting to step into a discussion where she might not have a say in. "If the ooze does actually absorb Thalaron radiation, do you realize what this could mean to the restoration of Paris?"

"It is too early to make any such claims," Sofia quickly added, "There would be a need for extensive research, but I will admit that our initial findings do seem rather promising. All we need is to take some sample and gain access to a *good* science lab, one able to handle high intensity radiation research as well as secured containment facilities."

Maya grinned as she turned to look at Commander Shar'El, both of them having reached the same conclusion without having needed to say anything. "We have three people which damaged HAZMAT suits, which means that we cannot return to the surface as the upper levels of this facility are still irradiated by Thalaron radiation, not to mention the whole of Paris."

"We would need to perform some tests but given what we have seen, we should be able to use samples of the ooze to create some sort of radiation absorption field around individuals," Sofia suggested.

"If the ooze does absorb radiation on the scale we have seen here," Sheila jumped in with, her field of expertise making her feel like she could actually contribute in this conversation. "It is very possible that a small sample will be able to shield an individual."

"The problem will be the growth factor," Maya followed up with. "It is beyond certainty that the ooze did not start being the size that it currently is, so we have to consider that any further exposure will trigger some sort of growth in the samples we take."

"Nothing is ever easy," Shar'El sighed. "Let's get started on the needed research to getting us back to the ANUBIS *with* some of this ooze for further examination."

Just as everyone had been ready to get to work, Jayson took a bad turn and collapsed from the pain he inflicted onto himself, but instead of falling to the floor, the quick reflexes of the Chief of Security kicked in and he instead fell into her arms. Sofia immediately ran to assist the man leaving Shar'El to mutter to herself the same line she had just recently said -- "Nothing is ever easy."

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NM:

This post establishes the properties of the ooze, the fact that it is located on Level 7 (red) and that things are not going to be simple between Jayson and Ya'Han.

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Tiffany Reeve

Ensign Sofia Andersson
Currently sentenced to the
VERSAILLES Triage Center