Ethereal
Posted on 11 Oct 2020 @ 12:54pm by Captain Corvus DeHavilland & Master Chief Petty Officer Saoirse Barmeadow
Edited on on 14 Mar 2021 @ 3:59pm
Mission:
M1 - Emergence
Location: Engineering Sub Deck
Timeline: MD05 - 0645HRS
1829 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure
It had been a long time since she’d dusted off her carafe; certainly a relic from a bygone age but something she’d grown accustomed to as a child. The kind of places that her parents took her, and the facilities that they often lived on didn’t always have top of the line replicators and so they’d mastered the use of more archaic methods of refreshment. With replicators down (her’s was good for just the one cup of tea and then crashed, lacking power) she had to get her morning fix from the one galley functioning on the habitat ring. Thankfully, Corvus had a small obsession with tea and had a stash of her own in her things so she didn’t have to live on the powdered emergency ration variety being served. Of course, that wasn’t saying that breakfast was much better. Despite the ‘science’ behind the rations, they didn’t fill you up. At all.
Corvus stomached the breakfast and filled her dented dark gray carafe with hot water and tea of choice, sealing it up to enjoy later. As she headed back to the command level, she decided to drop by Engineering to check on how things were going. Thankfully the lift ride wasn’t long; though it didn’t stop at the right deck. She’d asked to go to Main Engineering, but the computer terminal had flickered after it had voiced its confirmation and when she stepped out of the lift she was on a subdeck of engineering - one that was more conduits and ducting than actual corridor. She sighed and turned back around to call the lift back, but the control console was just exposed wiring and an open space in the bulkhead.
“Great,” she muttered to herself.
Corvus turned around to try and figure out her bearings the stations and then nodded, identifying her location on the deck and thus where the next Jeffries Tube… well, emergency stair access was. She had to remind herself she wasn’t on a ship any more. Space wasn’t so much of a premium here. Like any ground based building, access between levels was via emergency stairs. Once she got back to the CIC she’d call Lieutenant Commander Quinn and let him know the lifts were on the fritz now too.
The deck was dimly lit, which is what she’d expect on one of the engineering sub decks. Really, she was just grateful there was atmosphere. She wondered wether the lift on the fritz would have let her out onto a deck that couldn’t support life. Corvus shook her head, getting that out of her mind and walked on. If she was honest, this looked like a corridor after a battle. Exposed wiring, panels free of the bulkheads, isolinear chips on display or on the deck where an engineer had left them.
She reached a t in the corridor and was thankful she was going left as the way right was blocked with crates of equipment that she would have to shift out of the way to get past. One was open showing a neatly arranged crate of bio-neural gel packs waiting to be installed. A couple were missing. She let out the breath she didn’t realize she was holding. If the crate was open that meant that there was someone working nearby; no engineer would leave the bio-neural packs in the open and out of their stasis if they weren’t actively installing them. That meant she wasn’t alone in this slightly creepy (maybe a lot creepy) deck.
Corvus turned about and walked on to the left as the corridor itself bent to the right. Ahead she heard something clank to the ground and then a muffled swear. She smirked. Someone was having her kind of day too. Curious, she picked up her pace a bit and just caught a glimpse of someone up ahead. She quick stepped to catch them, but as the corridor straightened out she saw that the person was gone.
“What the…” she muttered quietly. The corridor was a straight shot before it broke hard to the right and led to the emergency stairs at the end of that corridor. But there were no doors anywhere but behind her about ten feet. There was nowhere for the person to go. Was she letting her fear get the better of her? It was stupid wasn’t it? Grown woman having a ‘scared of the dark’ moment in a corridor. She laughed at her own silliness and just walked on.
The door hissed behind her and she spun around suddenly, carafe raised like it was a hammer, ready to skull bash whatever was sneaking up on her. The doors hissed closed again, like someone had walked through it. Swallowing hard, she kept her antiquated steel carafe of hot nectar up over her shoulder, ready to strike as she walked towards the door.
“…ing on sub-junction seventy-four,” a voice said. It erupted suddenly in the hall behind her and she spun on the spot again and watched in disbelief as a woman walked thirty yards in front of her across the hall and through the opposing bulkhead.
Corvus jumped a step back in shock, surprise and genuine alarm. What the hell had she just seen!? She wasn’t aware of any species in Starfleet being able to walk through solid bulkhead, which meant she was either really hallucinating or… or what? The station was haunted? This was a ghost of some fallen Starfleet officer from their trip into the void haunting the station still doings its job. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it but somehow she couldn’t.
She slowly walked towards the wall where the figure had vanished and touched it, just to be sure it was in fact solid. It was. Corvus let out a slow breath. There had to be a reasonable explanation. Truly. She was hallucinating. That was it. There was something going on with the environmental systems creating some sort of mental state that was allowing her mind to give in to the simple fear of an abandoned, somewhat derelict deck. She’d just imagined the crate and the gel packs. All imagination. That was it. Had to be.
“Has to be,” she said to herself, lowering her weapon a bit and adjusting herself. She let herself smirk at the absurdity of it finally. “You’re a Starfleet Captain, Amélie. You’re in command,” she tried to puff herself, finally nodding in self-affirmation.
Feeling slightly more sure of herself, she smoothed her uniform and headed on down the corridor. After a couple steps, she started to feel better. After a few more, even more stable. Fifteen yards later, she’d almost forgotten her school girl overreaction.
“See, Amélie. It’s no-,” she started to say, cut off by a sudden loud thud on the bulkhead to her left. She let out an involuntary shriek and jumped back to her right, carafe back up in defense.
There was another thud a moment later and she felt her heartbeat quickening in response, now edging along the corridor the way she was supposed to be going. She took more steps that way, trying to move quickly now. She did not want to be here any longer the she needed to be with nothing more than a hot cup of tea to defend herself. She was going upstairs to Engineering and the she was calling Winslow and maybe some of the MP’s to come down here with her and figure out just what the hell was going on.
The thudding had stopped and she’d gotten maybe ten more yards down the corridor. It felt like hours, but it had only been a couple of minutes she’d spent backing away warily. Her heart was still racing but she was almost to the break in the corridor that led to the stairs. All she had to do was get there and if she wasn’t terrified of turning her back, she’d have turned and sprinted for it. She made a deal with herself that she’d reach the break, then she’d cut and run.
Corvus glanced back to see how far she had to go. Thirty feet. She turned back to the spot on the wall where she’d heard the thud and let out another involuntary shriek, jumping back in surprise, carafe up once more.
A woman was walking through the bulkhead not five feet away, nose down in a data padd. She was a little bit shorter than her, with dark blonde hair bound back in a rough ponytail like she’d tied it back quickly just to get it out of the way. The woman was wearing Engineering yellow which made sense, considering it was an Engineering deck, but that didn’t make her any less terrified of what she was seeing.
The woman looked over as she shrieked, surprised at the sudden burst of sound. She cocked her head curiously, “Captain, everything alright?” She asked, turning towards her.
Corvus took a step back warily, carafe up, “… you’re going crazy, Amélie…” she mumbled to herself, swallowing the lump in her throat.
“Captain?” The woman asked.
“I… you just walked through that bulkhead…,” she replied. “Right. Let’s talk to the hallucination,” she chided herself under her breath.
The woman smirked, holding her hands up placatingly and approaching. “You’re completely sane, Captain,” she chuckled.
“You would say that,” Corvus replied, raising her carafe in warning, “Nope. Stay there!” She warned her. “I’m just going to get to the stairs back there… and up a deck to some clean air so this… hallucination… can go away.”
The woman laughed playfully, waving her hands as if to dismiss the thought, “I’m not a hallucination, Captain,” she chuckled, “I’m Chief Barmeadow. I’m here via holo-presence. That’s why you can see me walking through the bulkheads. I’m controlling it with this PaDD,” she said, holding up the device.
“…what?” DeHavilland asked sheepishly.
Saoirse chuckled, “Holo-presence,” she smiled, “I’m actually in a holo-suite near Killarney, Ireland,” she smiled.
“Right,” Corvus answered, remembering the conversation she’d had with Calliope about that. “Right. Right you’re the former Chief,” she said, her voice less shaky as she nodded. She realized she still had her carafe up, ready to fight and lowered it, now blushing with embarrassment.
“Sorry to scare you. I didn’t think anyone would come to this deck,” Barmeadow chuckled.
“No, I wasn’t scared…” Corvus lied, “Ok, fine, maybe a little.” She added, clearing her throat.
“I won’t tell anyone,” Saoirse smirked playfully, “Our secret.”
Corvus nodded, once more letting out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “Right. Totally. Our secret.”
