The Beacon (Part One)

Posted on Tue Mar 12th, 2024 @ 7:52pm by Lieutenant Lily Marlow & Lieutenant JG Camelia Zamfir & Lieutenant JG T'seng & Lieutenant Siora Carberos

Mission: A New Beginning
Location: Computer/Holosuite lab
2508 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

In a room set aside for working on programs for the ship, and the systems which run it Camelia pondered over the project that she and Siora had been asked to look at. Oz was an odd sort of holoprogram, him being one that had gained sentience, along with several others. In a small holosuite, meant for experimental projects and adjustments for other programming, just off of Operation the holo person of which Oz had requested for some help to save said entity. Aurora was the holo being's name. Camelia marveled at the shimmering iridescent sparkling force field which surrounded the holoprogram.

"Aurora, such an interesting name for this holo person. I wonder if there was a meaning for that name." Camelia remarked aloud. " The name reminds me of Sleeping Beauty, it being the real name of the princess who lay in slumber waiting for true love's kiss. However from what I was told that the ship had already woken up another sleeping beauty, saving her life. Is this person representing something or someone?"

"Who knows..." Siora remarked as she was lost in her own thoughts for a moment. "Usually when you look at holo programming it is easy to see who they are, what their purpose is etcetera, but with these I can't make heads of tails of them." she wondered to herself. "Have you ever met the Doctor? From Voyager?" she asked.

"No I have not met him, but I've heard of him, he sounded like a remarkable being and I've read some of his novels." Camelia replied, then looked at Aurora. "Now just to find the key to unlock her from her slumber. I really wish that woman stayed with the ship. From her records she had been called, Splice." Camelia gave a slight frown at that. "Maybe we can see if she can come back? She is after all, the one who had been connected with the holo sentients and Guardian."

"Truly an amazing man." Siora remarked. "Just proof that even those that are set to predetermined standards can always grow beyond expectations and parameters." she smiled as she then listened to the rest of what Camelia said. "I'm sure we can find her. Hadir, well Lt. Prenar, I'm sure could find her and get her on board if she was willing. What do you think? I mean any help would be ideal, and I never turn away an extra pair of hands."

Camelia was quick to pickup Siora's calling Prenar by his first name. "Ohh... Hadir is it?" giving a little bit of a grin. "Sounds like a lovely romance between the two of you." she then pulled her Padd out to check to see about T'seng and smiled. "Well now we are in luck. She is listed on the manifest. I thought she had left."

"Yeah..." Siora waved a hand at her. "He's alright. Interesting people, Cardassians that is. Not as rough skinned as I thought..." her mind drifted. "Oh well that's a stroke of luck." She came back to the present. I guess we'd better get her down here. =/\= Carberos to T'seng, can you please meet Lt. Zamfir and myself in the hololab just off the holosuite please?=/\="

T'seng immediately tapped on her combadge and responded. =/\=I will be right there.=/\= immediately heading to the turbolift and making her way to the hololab.

The door opened and T'seng stepped through. "I had a call, how may I be of service?" walking towards where Siora and Camelia were at.

"Yes, thank you for coming. We are looking for some help with these holograms. I understand you have had a connection to them and may be able to help us reach this one. I've been told her name is Aurora." Siora gestured towards the woman in question.

Her eyebrows raised, and T'seng moved forward quickly. "She-she is alive still? That is wonderful! Well sort of alive that is, I mean when it comes to holo people. Last time I spoke to her was when I was in the device that I had been placed in. My consciousness had been able to connect to the network when we well they, well I don't know to explain it, but we had joined forces to fight Adna the program that went insane. I had the name of Splice."

"How did you manage to connect to their network?" Siora asked. "As a Vulcan I know you can connect to the minds of others, but holograms are quite different."

T'seng turned to look at Siora. "It might be better if I showed you." the blonde Vulcan hybrid answered solemnly. "If we were to beam what I call the sarcophagus here, I'll be able to demonstrate easier. It was a device made of some sort of crystal, and metal definitely of an ancient design. It worked in order to keep me alive but also my brain active."

"Is it safe?" Siora asked. She hadn't heard of this sarcophagus and the idea of moving someone's consciousness was an unnerving one. "I don't want to put you in harms way Lieutenant." she added placing a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"I was aware of my body being in stasis but was connected to the network. It was odd but I did like the fact that I could interact with the constructs whilst my body was inert. Life support you could say. I haven't had the chance to figure it out as to why it worked. I will be alright though I believe I will. You see that sarcophagus is what kept me alive until my heart was repaired."

Camelia listened to what T'seng was saying, " So, ancient tech kept you alive until there were advanced enough medical know how."

"I suppose that is the more logical explanation. Right now though, it is important to bring Aurora back into being, and that sarcophagus is the key. So... bring it here and maybe call in Lily so that she can be in attendance just in case? She was there and helped to heal my heart." the Vulcan hybrid responded.

Siora just thought of the Borg at the mere mention on it. It made her skin crawl, made her uncomfortable and she began to fidget and sweat a little. To be connected to a network sounded like a hive mind, sarcophagus an alcove and the mere thought of connecting with technology on that level gave her a bad feeling, even if it was safe.

"I think calling in the doctor is a good idea. I don't feel particularly comfortable with the idea of connecting to anything like that." Siora commented. Her hand had subconsciously moved to where a Borg drone had previously left its mark on her, her right shoulder. A piece, a reminder of them still under her skin.

Camelia gave a nod. "That would be rather helpful." she tapped on the combadge, "Lieutenant Marlow, would you come down to the operations lab please?"

=/\= Right away.=/\= came the quick response.

Soon Lily arrived and was a bit taken aback at the small gathering there. "What's going on?" she looked at the ladies there then at the area where Aurora was at.

"Lieutenant T'Seng is going to connect to something called a sarcophagus. Were you here went she did that last time?" Siora asked.

"I helped get her out of it, T'seng here, didn't suffer any ill effects from it. It did keep her alive until the damage to her heart was healed up." Lily looked over at T'seng.

"Please, I would like to help out Aurora, when I was a part of the system on Adna station there was something there, hovering just on the edges of the mind, a feeling that she was important. I need to link in as it were, and it is much safer here than when we were on Adna Station. A more controlled environment. I am certain that you can set up a safe zone. Just this is important for them to get home." T'seng pleaded with Siora, Lily and Camelia.

"Oh I'm not saying you can't use it." Siora calmed her down, the plead reaching her ears. "If you've used it before and it worked fine. That you suffered no ill effects and are happy enough to do so then I won't stop you. Also, if it helps here then I'm all for that... I never turn down help." She paused. "I just have bad experiences with machinery when it connects to people. Resistance is futile and all that." she hinted at the Borg connection.

Lily's eyes went wide when she caught the reference. Camelia gave a slight start when she heard that as well.

"Well, I hadn't felt anything like that, but as you have said, I can see the worry." T'seng replied.

Lily gave a bit of a nod. "I am going to have it beamed here, then we will proceed. Entering some codes, the sarcophagus shimmered into view inside the lab. It was made of a crystalline material almost reminiscent of the one that sleeping beauty was in. It has a 'bed' inside it. Tubes and what seemed to be some wiring, and circuitry was there as well, with the lower half being metallic.

T'seng gave a deep breath and went to open it up and started to climb inside.

Siora was taken aback by the look of the sarcophagus. It was delicate looking, fragile. A thought that even if the ship shook slightly it might fracture and break. "Be careful." she could help but say to T'Seng whether or not there was any danger to her or not. Siora's experience with biological beings interfacing with technology was giving her anxiety. She knew it wasn't the same but how did the Borg start? It all starts somewhere...

T'seng took a glance over towards Siora as well as Camelia, the back to Lily. "Okay lets get this done. I am certain that they would like to get home. I know If I were in their position, I would like that too." She layed down, adjusting herself then said, "You can close the lid now."

Lily reached out to close it, lowering the crystalline lid, as soon as the lid was shut, readings started coming up as the sarcophagus sealed itself. Upon a read out plate could be seen T'seng's vitals. Lily watched as T'seng's eyes closed and she seemed to go into rem sleep.

"Okay, body temp is normal, her pulse is a little bit high." Lily remarked. "She maybe a little bit anxious in doing this, I remember her saying she was glad to be out of that box." a furrow appeared in Lily's brow, seeing a symbol appear on one of the panels.

"Uh, I am unfamiliar with this symbol, it wasn't there when we got her out of that. " Lily looked over towards Siora.

The symbol looked like an hour glass, rotating around in a circle clock wise, like that of the hands of a clock.

"I think that means she is 'loading'." Siora scratched her brow. "Or maybe downloading is a better term." She moved to look over at T'seng. She looked morbid bordering on creepy. Yes she was asleep, her eyes rolling under her eyelids but it did nothing to stop the feeling in Siora's chest. "It was an old Earth symbol on much older systems than this... I find it strange its on alien tech."

"There is a mystery to be solved here as to where this came from along with the dragon in the cargo bay, Guardian. Much to be untangled and dug up in truth." Lily answered. Then her eyes widened, hearing a chirp, Lily tapped upon her commbadge and T'seng's voice can be heard.

=/\= Okay, can you hear me? I hope so, Lily's commbadge was the only one I had a frequency of, since I had connected to it before while we were on Adna Stations.=/\=

Lily stammered out. "I, that is we, can hear you."

=/\= Okay good. This is just so strange, experiencing this once again.=/\= T'seng's voice having a tinny sound to it.

Camelia reached out and placed a hand upon Siora's shoulder giving it a comforting squeeze.

To hear T'seng's voice but it not be her own organic sounding one gave Siora a chill down her spine. Even with the comforting touch of Camelia it still did nothing to make her think of events in her past. The somewhat inorganic sounding voice screamed Borg at her and she hated this very much.

"What do you see?" Siora asked. "Is it like seeing?" she also added unsure as to what the experience was like.

=/\=Its almost like, well for me, I am in a lobby with a door which I need to open. When I was on Adna Station there was a world for me to explore. Mock up of the station. Or if I was going on an adventure as in a fantasy roleplaying game. This is a closed system which is as I said a good thing. Okay I am getting ready to open the door.=/\= T'seng replied. Then she went quiet.

Lily glanced over towards Siora. "Are you going to be okay?"

"What?" she asked turning to Lily. "Oh yeah, I'm fine." she shrugged off the question. She didn't really open up about her Borg experiences. Even though they were over 100 years ago they still stung deep as it did with many of her people who were around at that time.

Camelia let go of Siora and glanced at the readings, "I wonder if it is possible to get a view of what is going on?" turning to Siora "If T'seng is sort of going um wifi, then possibly we can see what is happening, better to coordinate things with her. We are all trying to help out that person there." nodding towards Aurora.

"We could link up with her occipital lobe through the device then we should see what her mind believes she is seeing. I mean I'm not a doctor but I'm sure mechanically it is the same." Siora looked at Lily. "If we do that then we can display it on the console there on the wall. She'd be like a virtual tour guide."

"I agree, what do you say about that?" Lily queried of T'seng.

=/\= That makes sense, and it would be helpful for all of you as well as me. It is sort of what had happened before my friend had left the station and I went to sleep.=/\= T'seng stated.

"Okay lets do this then." Camelia responded with some enthusiasm. She'd not been a part of anything like this before.

Lily looked at Siora, "Shall we get this started?"

"No time like the present." Siora replied. "You do your medical stuff, I'll do my tech stuff." she added as she went to pick up a few pieces, cabling and such.

Lily gave a nod and she made her preparations.

TBC

(OOC: We can hold of on posting this part until Part Two is completed.