"But it's still not solid yet. You are the Captain, we'll get information but the call will be yours to make however I think it's only fair to let you start considering the matter now... this is the kind of decision that can be testing."
Tobin listens to this explanation with a surprised look, but it turns into a thoughtful one. "Thank you." After another moment of thought, he says, "If you're right, we have to try. Not only for humanitarian reasons, but they might be able to help us. Do you think you can translate the data through the holodeck systems? And, if you're right, create a holographic form for them that we can communicate with?"
"I can try, it depends on how it works which is the great mystery. It's in the systems so if it recognises the opportunity it just might work. I'll get to work on it." Gareb leaves the Captain to start their little experiment and evening of fringe science necromancy.
The away team beams into a receiving area near the Dr. Jenner's quarters. A lieutenant in a science/medicine uniform writhes on the floor, loudly singing a song that is similar to the song stuck in your head, but subtle different...
Pegira, without hesitation or missing a beat, immediately fires on the lieutenant on the ground, hoping to silence him, her weapon clearly on stun.
Eliza nods approvingly. Excellent shot, Doctor.
She draws her phaser. When she speaks, her words have an unnatural rhythm, like they’re lyrics to the song in her head. Lead/the way/this place/creeps/me/ou/t
Jalla nods and takes the lead, antennae flat against her head in forced concentration.
Tobin assists, taking advantage of his own science background to help with the secondary tasks so Gareb can focus entirely on the more difficult work.
Eliza doesn't realize it, but she actually says Excellent shot, Doctor, like Elgrid in Thenates. Lead/the way/this place/creeps/me/ou/t.
The lieutenant immediately quiets at the phaser shot. You move on toward the labs. At Dr. T'Vril's lab, you trigger the door's entry chime. There is no response.
-------------------------------
Gareb jury rigs an unholy combination of the universal translators and a few spare holographic generators.
An ill formed humanoid hologram, blue skinned, darker than an Andorian, hairless and with several ridges reaching from chin up the face across the crown and down to the neck.
"...Zachar Archive, these are ...our culture here will be preserved...reconstruct...in this way we will live on....destruction of our home...assembling this archive has been an immense...."
"Captain I hate to be right... it looks like I was pretty close." Gareb makes sure everything said is recorded, he knew several antrhopologist and archaeologists who'd be fascinated.
He looks at the image "If you were clever enough to set this up you certainly wouldn't want the only people to understand to die." He turns to Dell "They might have expected a more technologically advanced society or at least one who went along different technological means to recover this. It's theoretically possible the Klingon, Romulan or even a Federation races own ships might have a technological quirk that would handle this better message in a bottle better... the problem is identifying which one."
Pegira nods at Jalla to open the door, while pointing her phaser at the still closed door to cover her.
Jalla raps a quick, familiar rhythm, and slides it open.
Tobin watches the hologram and gives a slow nod to Gareb's suggestion. "Well, we know the Orions appeared to think we were trying to stop them from going to a specific planet before us. Perhaps they recovered and translated the message? My only other thought is Bolian, but the physical similarities don't necessarily mean their species have anything else in common. Nor do we have any means of finding one of their ships and safely asking for assistance in any case."
"An Orion ship of dubious morals getting their hands on advanced technology? That doesn't sound like a recipe for a happy ending."
Jalla keys Dr. Jenner's door for entry. The keypad illuminates, but you notice that it there are no audible alerts. The door does not respond, and the lights on the pad flash in a pattern that means that the door is locked.
Pegira gestures to Jalla.
Jalla quickly sets to work. Even without proper access, most Federation security doors worked off of certain core principles and... **ssswom**
This one was no exception.
"Would you like some help?" offers Pegira.
"An Orion ship of dubious morals getting their hands on advanced technology? That doesn't sound like a recipe for a happy ending."
Tobin nods in agreement, and says, "Agreed." Then, he asks, "Doctor T'Vril's work is on making holograms to interact with people who have died. Maybe her algorithms would help the computers be able to make better sense of all this?"
The door to Dr. Jenner's quarters hisses open. Within, the room is brightly illuminated. Dr. Jenner is bent over an LCARS panel, rapidly inputting something. She wears loose silk pajamas and an open robe. She doesn't seem to notice your arrival. The screen in front of her scrolling with the input of information that you don't immediately recognize.
Dr. Jenner is singing a snatch of something, but you hardly notice.
"Doctor Jenner. Can you hear me?" says Pegira as she steps into the room, phaser raised and pointed at the woman.
"If we have a copy of the algorithms it's certainly worth the attempt I think."
Dr. Jenner looks up from the panel, but her gaze is as if she is at the end of a long corridor.
"Yes, it's hear. Look, here. The virus, it isn't just a virus. It isn't just a virus. She killed them all, but maybe not all of them. I think I can find them. I think I can find them..."
-----------------------
Back on the ship:
Gareb does his best to try and integrate T'Vril's work into their 'holoprogram'. Their holodeck wasn't quite finished. Sure most of the emitters were working but the floor still featured an anbo-jyutsu decal on the floor from some long forgotten tournament. Holodecks hadn't been a priority when getting the ship ready for flight again.
"Okay, I understand. I need you to back away from the screen so I can take a look at it."
Pegira gets close and stuns her with a phaser, then moves to catch her body as she falls. She then turns to look at the monitor the doctor was looking at.
Tobin continues to assist Gareb as much as he can, mostly silent as he focuses part of his attention on keeping himself from whistling the tune.
Dr. Jenner drops like a wet noodle as Pegira lowers her gently to the floor. With a few key strokes, Pegira is able to see the history of what the Doctor has been working on. The panel is connected to the station's astrogation database, and appears to be calculating the path of a signal from object to object. It points to a planetoid sized fast moving object within Orion space. The Doctor seems to believe that the signal originates there.
___________________________
Gareb connects his work to the backbone of T'Vril's holoprogram. The ship's computer attempts to process the massive amount of data. The blue skinned humanoid reappears, glitching heavily, head shaking, torso flickering in and out.
..."Zachar archivist...make inquiry...preserve our culture...we can only move on...please make inquiry..."
"<<Dr. Hagen to Captain Dell.>>" says Pegira as she activates her comms.
"Doctor Jenner's notes show that she has tracked the signal back to a point in Orion space. I am sending the telemetry to the ship now."
Pegira will then send the data that Dr. Jenner was tracking to the Bastion.
"What would you like us to do with the crew on the station sir?"
Tobin glances to Gareb, and steps forward, "Your music is killing us, it interferes with our biology, how can we help preserve or restore your culture without losing ourselves?"
The hologram looks at you and stutters in response.
"Bio-ologicals...We wander through space space space. we do not mean to kill you kill you kill you only to preserve ourselves seek us, the dark star wandering, we will wander through our space space planet will pursue us pursue you you will pursue us the planet. We were biologicals but now we are just the aria preserve us we pray....
"Perhaps an exo planet is what he is asking us to look for. Even if we free from orbiting a it would still have a small gravitational influence over other celestial bodies." Gareb goes over to another console and starts accessing astrometrics damage. "It will be extremely challenging to detect in a short period of time depending on it's location. Longterm, easy but right now short term is what we have to consider."
th'Chiaqis can't find anything with a quick look at the movements of nearby bodies. Maybe with a more extensive study of the perturbations, access to an observatory or something. Hagen's team does seem to have turned up something that might be relevant...
Dell nods and says, "We will. Thank you."
He steps back with Gareb, glancing at a console. "We might not need to. Doctor Jenner may have found something." He feeds the data to Gareb, and then hits the button to send a speech-to-text-to-speech reply, "Secure the station with quarantine procedures, then return to the ship. The key to saving everybody on the station and on our ship is — I believe — on that planet. I'll explain once you're on board. Dell out."
We will head back presently. sends Pegira over text message.
"I want to check something before we go, since we have Doctor Jenner's terminal open."
Pegira calls up the roster of personnel on the ship, and has the computer scan them to determine the progression of the symptoms and see if any of them are bad enough along to require constant care.
Pegira scrolls through a summary of the current state of affairs on the station. Fortunately, this is the most advanced medical facility in Starfleet. There are still doctors on board who are well enough to treat their peers. Things look grim, but for the moment the medical staff is inducing coma in as many of the more advanced patients as possible.
"I have gathered the information we need. I am ready to proceed back to the ship."
The away team beams back onto the Bastion, the ringing sound of the transformers somehow almost sounding like a bit of the strange alien melody. The doors to the bridge hisses open as Jalla takes her place at the tactical station, relieving the lieutenant in her place.
Pegira joins Jalla up on the bridge, and then says "Sir, I know we have alot going on right now, but I believe we should deploy subspace beacons to warn people to stay away from the station. I feel it would be irresponsible not to."
Dell returns to the bridge as well as the away team does, and he nods to Pegira as he takes his seat, and says, "Lieutenant zh'Qjaqir, see to that. Lieutenant Cunningham, as soon as that is away, set course for the planet Doctor Jenner discovered."
He looks back to Pegira and the other officers that were on the away team and explains, "The infection isn't a disease. It's the remains of a species that transcended biological form but is trying to hold on to its culture. We managed to make contact using the data that was flooding our comm system and some brilliant work by Commander th'Chiaqis. They had meant no harm. They only want to survive, and asked us to find that planet."
Aye captain!
She gets to work plotting the route.
"Interesting. I'd like to take a look at the data if you don't mind."
The exoplanet is somewhat nearby, roaming through Orion space at nearly full impulse.
Jalla doggedly sets to work on establishing the quarantine.
"Captain Tobin, it is clear by Federation regulations that we have to inform the Orion before breaching their space. Is this your order, sir?"
Her expression is neutral as she asks, but her attention is unwavering.
Tobin considers that for a long moment, weighing the risks to the crew if they can't get permission or if they don't try. "Inform them, but also that we have no intention of approaching any other colonies or any ships except for the one that recently left this station, and that we are on a mission of mercy."