Cold Realisation – Chilly reception
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Beq Marcus Quexana & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene

Post Details

Title		Chilly reception
Mission		Cold Realisation
Author(s)		HoD Ro' Matlh & Beq Marcus Quexana & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene
Posted		Fri Jun 28, 2013 @ 3:57am
Location		The Maego Bridge
Timeline		After the crossing

It was definitely the bridge of the ship. They were standing near the front, with the consoles arranged facing them. The figures behind each station were tall and slender humanoids ranging in height from around six to seven feet. Their skin was grey, eyes wide open and jet-black, lacking any discernible nose or mouth. Most notable were their legs, which were arched backward like a goat or deer. Each wore a simple but serviceable uniform with a different emblem, possibly denoting their rank or occupation, and each wore a strange crystal around their neck.

May'bel confirmed the suspicion HoS had voiced in the meeting, "They're Maego."

Each of the faces seemed serene and placid, as if unaware that anything had happened.

"Whatever happened here," he added, "it doesn't seem like they were prepared for it."

Marie walked over to the nearest console. She pushed and prodded but nothing brought it to life. She tried thumping it but to no better effect. She looked towards the others and drew a finger across her throat in mute description of her findings.

So where the hell is engineering?Tell asked herself just to hear her own voiceIt has to be around here somewhere She ran her hands over panels and buttons. Nothing, absolutely nothing. Everything's as dead as a door nail but I can't help but feel I'm in some kind of morgue, damn morgue creepy as hell places. She turned to see Marie's finger draw across her throat. She put a thumbs up back in agreement. Yeah, yeah, don't think much of yours either.

May'Bel watched the hand-signs and rolled his eyes slightly.

He pulled his helmet off with a twist.

"The atmosphere is breathable. The hand-signs were needed for the void outside. We can speak in here."

Marie pulled off her helmet, took one breath of the icy air and thought seriously about putting it straight back on again. Hand signals were infinitely preferable to freezing her throat. At least, she consoled herself, it was May'Bel who pointed the obvious out, not Tell.

May'Bel looked over the ornate structure and shape of the bridge.

"Airlock access directly to the bridge. Chamber looks like it was highly ornamented, but there's battle damage to that which hasn't been repaired - although the functional stuff HAS been fixed. I'm guessing these aren't a warlike people by nature, but it looks like they've seen some action in the last few years."

He looked around at the crew.

"No-one seems to be armed, unless those staves on the wall there are more than ceremonial."

He glanced at the F'Hew team.

"This place looks like it's been snap frozen. Any thoughts how?"

"Well they certainly weren't vacuum frozen," Marie said, seeing as how stating the bleeding obvious seemed to be the current fashion.

"Well they're dead, obviously," said Tell, shrugging her shoulders "Perhaps they were already dead before they froze. I do feel as though they are watching me...er, us, I mean."

Marie inspected one body then another. “I think May’bel is right. Snap frozen just about describes it. But that does beg the question...how? This temperature is Maego heaven. They build cities crusted with ice in the middle of steamy jungles.” She looked across at Tell. “And before you ask, I don’t know how I know; I just do. OK?” It had suddenly popped into her mind; a vision of a Maego city so clear and realistic that it could have been a holoprogram. “They live in temperatures anywhere down to 190K so this is positively balmy for them. That means that...whoever did this did it some time ago. The temperature has actually risen inside this ship, not fallen!”

"HiChop," May'Bel directed at the Klingon medic. "This is your field! What happened to these people?"

May'Bel turned, and looked into the Captain's eyes. He wondered how long this calm bridge scene would have stayed frozen in place if they hadn't come aboard.

"From what I heard about the Maego before we went to Iapetus, their weapons are effectively freeze rays with energy-draining capabilities. Could this have been a weapons malfunction, Tell? Or perhaps a critical hit from another ship? Conflict within their own ranks?"

Tell looked around at different panels and systems. "If it had been a weapons or an attack from another ship we would be able to see the damage here. Should be able to tell more from engineering where ever the hell that is."

Germite activated his tricorder to do a more thorough scan of the creatures. "This is odd," he said aloud. He looked back at the tricorder. "It appears that this was caused by an extreme temperature drop. Almost as if moving from one extreme temperature to the opposite extreme caused them to suddenly expire."

Tell continued to systematically walk around the bridge looking for any signs or clues that was out of the ordinary. She noticed what looked like scorch marks on panels and smoke damage on walls and relays. "Looks like there's been some sign of combat here and quite hasty repairs too, some aren't completed, some just left. This ship has been in a battle recently, could have been hours ago judging by what I'm seeing here," she told them all.

Tell bent low to look at the form of one of the frozen crew members. The fingers were still clasping a rectangular object of some kind inside a panel, either removing it or placing it she couldn't tell suggesting that the panel wasn't damaged or on fire at the time. It was the face that bothered her more, it showed anguish and fear. Those eyes, the windows of the soul, knew what was going to happen if she didn't move fast enough and she hadn't.

Something had been nagging at Marie, something Germite had said. “What if...?” she wondered aloud. “What if it wasn't cold that killed them? What if the ship was heated up then the temperature dropped to make it look like cold killed them?”

Germite continued to walk around scanning with his tricorder. He stopped and looked up when Marie posited her hypothesis. "That is an interesting theory." He paused and then drew in his breath as he found he was looking at the ship's captain.

"This is odd," He pointed at the captain.

"Most of them," he waved his arm around the room, "wear that crystal around their necks, but that one," he pointed to the captain again, "isn't wearing one."

Then he looked closer, "His seems to be plugged into the console."

Tell came across a door, frozen shut and sealed with a layer of ice. She felt around it looking for cracks or a weak point anything that would enable them to break through.

"Found a door," she told the others, then took her hammer and screwdriver out of her pockets and started to chip away at the ice. It wasn't going to be easy. Tell's engineering equipment was made of strong stuff, just like herself but by herself it would take time. "Could do with an extra pair of hands here," she called.

"Just talk to it," Marie suggested. "The hot air will soon melt the ice. Either that or smile at it. That would melt anything."

Nonetheless, she shuffled over to help.

The door took a little bit of work but the team were able to force it open with some effort. Germite collected the crystal device the Captain had been holding for examination later. They carefully moved out of the bridge into the body of the ship.