Alleran Tan Posted November 3, 2021 Posted November 3, 2021 (edited) I just found this sim really well written and described, and the ending sold it. Great work doc! ----- ((Unfinished Hospital, Darime Colony)) The hospital was just a shell, unfinished and unfurnished. As they descended below the ground the sounds of the storm receded behind them and although their tricorders were not picking up any signs of life, Lox instinctively kept his voice low. It just felt like that sort of environment. Not helped by Ayiana labelling it as a horror holonovel as they entered. The quartet, dressed in borrowed replicated Romulan garb, followed the tracks into the darkness. Sevo: According to the plans, there’s just storage down that corridor. :: She pointed. :: Besides, there’s no supplies here yet, nor power. I’m not sure what you could get done without them. Loxley: Well these can’t be from Lady Frankenstein. These go into the hospital, not out. Could the tracks just be from one of the builders? Sevo: Doubtful. They cleared out when the storm was approaching. But the fact that these tracks lead *in* suggest a third accomplice. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response Lox paused at the lobby, shining his flashlight down the left corridor Ayiana indicated, but also spun and checked the right hall, pausing a fraction of a second longer. If he saw or heard something, Ayiana didn’t notice. Sevo: What is it? Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response Loxley: Just the wind? ::he didn’t sound convincing, even to himself:: Lox decided to go right, towards the wards. If there was a place to do makeshift surgery, it would be there. Sevo: Surgical wards? Think they might be in one of these? Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response They carefully scanned each room, but they all seemed empty. Most of them didn’t even have furniture yet. Lox shined his light into one of the final rooms and discovered a metal table covered in various items. They carefully entered, watching for ambushes or traps. Carefully, Lox approached the desk and a PADD laying on it. He picked it up and scanned it’s contents. Loxley: Here. ::he thumbed the padd on:: Schematics for a Romulan construction bee. Tools and parts… I think we’ve found the lair of our saboteur. Sevo: Seems so. :: She paused, looking at the table. :: Look! The stolen Romulan data chip! She pointed to a chip on the table. Opening her tricorder, she placed the chip in a slot, checking it’s contents. Sevo: Looks like they were able to reconstruct some of the data, but not enough to reverse-engineer the virus. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response Sevo: Anything else on the PADD, Lox? Do they know the...uh… “nature” of the disease? Loxley: Not on here. ::he shook his head:: This seems to be purely an engineering manual. If they have medical notes, they must be somewhere else. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response Ayiana looked over at a makeshift surgical table. Even without a tricorder scan, she could tell what it was used for. Sevo: Over here; blood stains. I bet that man and woman were on this table at one point. Lox, what do you think? The hybrid made a face as his torch beam joined Sevo’s in highlighting the table. What kind of sloppy surgeon didn’t clean down their surfaces after use? His professional pride bristled but rather than complain, he ran his scanner over the stains instead. Loxley: Looks that way. DNA matches with the scans we took of both the intruders, but there’s at least a third set mixed in, too. Could be one of the ‘donors’. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response Sevo: Thing is, where would they get the...uh...parts? I don’t see any bodies lying around here to harvest. Where did they get the organs and limbs from? Marshall/sh’Qynallahr: Response Loxley: They’d have to keep the organ in stasis unless they were going old school and using ice or something else to keep them cold. And a stasis field needs power, so that would show up if we were able to run a sweep of the complex? Or search for any areas with particularly low temperature spots. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response Loxley: They might have packed up and moved out, but if so, why leave the data chip after going to so much effort to get it? Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response Lox nodded. There was a feeling about this place, still. A feeling that they weren’t alone. Loxley: I hate to say it but the most obvious place to look would be the morgue. That would have the storage facilities required. And as long as we don’t split up to search, I’ve seen what happens in those horror holos. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response Loxley: Romulan hospitals tend to be built with wards connected in an arc with a small morgue located centrally. :: he looked at their expressions and gave a little shrug:: I read a lot of journals, there was a paper on how different species design their medical facilities and what that says about medical priorities in their cultures. It was really interesting, actually, there were some… ::he hesitated as their expressions changed:: …and this probably isn’t the right time, is it? Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response They passed a couple more small room to one side of the corridor, empty and blank like the earlier ones, but the passage soon ended in the doorless opening of a large ward. Beds were lined up against one wall, fresh out of a cargo crate and unused, waiting for mattresses and power before they could be of any use. No light, natural or artificial, illuminated the room and Lox was acutely aware of how big it seemed as they shone their torches around – plenty of shadows for someone to hide in. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response A large alcove took up a significant portion of one side wall. The desks and computer equipment neatly stacked there suggested it was intended for a nurses station or office of some sort. A doorway on the far side took them to yet another corridor but this time they were in luck – someone had managed to get as far as attaching signs and, prominently displayed above an arrow, in both Pelian and Romulan script, were the words Loxley’s tricorder translated as ‘deadhouse’. Loxley: Rather blunt. But descriptive. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response The sign led them around a corner to the first proper door they’d encountered so far. Closed, of course. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response With no power they slid it open by hand and shone their torches inside. Lox gave a small groan at what they saw – cold metal tables lined up on either side of the tiled room, almost all of them with a body concealed by a sheet, only the feet visible. And, Lox noted, in several cases only one foot, the other mysteriously absent. Loxley: I think we’ve found the source of your parts, Commander. He lifted the sheet from the nearest body, revealing the Pelian corpse beneath. One eye stared sightlessly at the ceiling, the other was missing, a gaping dark hole where it should be. Marshall/sh’Qynallahr/Sevo: Response Loxley: The question still remains – why? That was when, as if in answer to the hybrid's question, one of the corpses behind him sat up and stabbed him in the back. Lt (jg) Loxley Medical USS Gorkon R238401JT0 Edited November 3, 2021 by Alleran Tan 1 Quote
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