Chapter IIb: On Your Own

This is the thread for the away team that was left behind: M1-K3 and Zephyr

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M1, you are still on the ships stripped down bridge with Ensign Myers and your hostage, if you want to consider the man that. You can hear sounds from outside the bridge that sound like an airlock. Someone is entering the ship and for whatever reason, they are not using transporters but instead are making the extra effort to enter manually.
The ensign with you lifts her phaser towards the door behind which the sounds are originating. About a minute later (Let me know if and how you want to prepare in that minute), three humanoid shapes in dark vacuum tight suits enter the bridge. They are all holding Consortium style laser rifles, aiming them at you but not firing right away. "Let our brother go and surrender. If you follow our orders, we will not end your lives!"
Myers looks at you, M1, silently asking you whether she should shoot or surrender.

Zephyr, you also hear the airlock sound behind you, outside the cargo bay. Lt. Felt looks nervous, his hands a re shaking as he lifts his phaser towards the door. You hear heavy steps in the corridor which abruptly stop right outside the cargo bay door. Two of the strange animals let out deep vibrating screams, as if to warn whoever is outside of your presence.
You hear a loud, heavy knock on the door and a coarse male voice, muffled by the door, yells: "Step away from the children, throw your weapons towards the door and put your hands behind your head. In five seconds, we will come in and shoot anyone who is still armed."
Felt’s eyes twitch between you and the door. With a shaking voice, he whispers: "We have a lot of cover in here and they’ll have to come through the door. We can take them!"

The door opens and two humanoid figures, one much taller and heavier than a human, the other around human height, dressed in black vacuum tight suits step into the room, both wielding Consortium issue phaser rifles.

The larger one quickly steps between you and the "children" as he called them, which are still larger than even him.
He turns towards his comrade and lets out a series of clicking sounds to which his comrade responds in the same fashion. Your universal translator lags slightly behind in the translation, indicating that this language is not in the data banks and it is deciphering the language at the same time as translating. The large humanoid ordered the smaller one to "handcuff the prisoners", which the other one confirmed. He is now stepping towards you, Zephyr, holding out a pair of maglock handcuffs.

The larger one bends over the "children" lying weakly on the ground to inspect them. He turns towards his comrade and explains: "We must perform the procedure soon. We might not have enough time to return to the station."

"Stop talking, meatbag!", the smaller humanoid suddenly barks at you. He puts the handcuffs around your wrists and closes them, then he turns towards Felt, who holds out his hands for him with an unsure expression. He quickly gets cuffed as well.

The larger one reaches into his pocket and pulls out what appears to be a Spacefleet Communicator. He activates it and says: "Two meatbags secured. Ready to beam them into a holding cell. We will join Tox and then climb back into our ship. The children are dying. We need to test the meatbags as soon as possible."

There is no further warning before you feel the characteristic sensation of a Consortium transporter and suddenly find yourself in a small room, not unlike an Ensign's quarters on a small Consortium ship like the Potential. It is completely empty, except for a simple bed. The replicator in the wall has been deactivated. Lt. Felt is not with you and you are still handcuffed. You can hear faint sounds from behind the closed door.

Outside of your cell door, you can hear some voices but they don't speak your language. It's the same clicking language that you heard before but without your badge, there's no translation. Suddenly, you hear a human voice, female. You think it's Ensign Myers' voice but you can't understand what she's saying. She sounds scared.

Laser Feeling: While you are inspecting the replicator, trying to figure out if you can get it back to work, you think about what your kidnappers might want. You remember those "children" and how they were dying. You realize that something was also very wrong with the man you encountered on the decoy ship. And you remember what your kidnapper said about testing. You realize that they must be trying to save their children from dying to whatever it is that's killing them and that the cure is related to the people they kidnap.
You don't know exactly what the procedure is that they were talking about but you are convinced that you don't want to find out, at least not first hand.

You don't get to think in peace for long. It took you a while to get the replicator working again and only ten minutes after replicating the tea, you hear steps outside the door of your "quarters". Someone will be coming in just a few seconds.

Lorq, it has been a few weeks since the attack on your ship. You have been serving for a few years now on the USS Sigma under Captain Ery-An and despite all the prejudices against your species, you managed to become the ship's doctor.
It had been a regular day when the Sigma responded to a distress call in an insignificant system. You weren't on the bridge, so you don't know exactly what happened but somehow, a boarding party managed to get onto the ship and took a large number of your crewmates captive, you among them. Since then, you've spent most of your time in one prison cell or another. You're only allowed to leave the cell rarely to help your kidnappers with medical exams on their people or other captives. You don't know exactly what they're doing to their prisoners but you've seen a number of your former crewmates join them, which usually results in them ignoring you and acting as if they don't even know you. You've also noticed that the entire pirate crew, including the people they took out of the Sigma's crew, seems to be stricken with some sort of disease. You've seen their conditions get visible worse even over just these few weeks. They turn pale, their hair goes gray and they grow frail, sometimes appearing as if they can barely stand upright. You've helped the pirates sometimes with decreasing those symptoms but most of the time, they rely on their own doctors.
Today, you have been taken out of your cell again and moved to the sickbay of the Consortium ship that you are held on. You have been told to perform the "standard tests" which means they have captured new people today. The standard tests are nothing complicated: a blood sample, a DNA test, hormone analysis...

As you reach sickbay, a woman is lying on one of the stretchers. She's wearing a Consortium uniform - yellow, to indicate security - but you've never seen her before.

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Alex, after being taken from your ship, you've been moved to another Consortium ship of different but similar design. There, you've been held captive for a few weeks by now. Occasionally, someone comes to the room you're held in to bring you food but that's it. Today, you heard unusual movements outside your room and, most surprisingly, from inside the room next to yours. Someone in there appears to have been working with electronics. They have also been speaking to themselves - in your own language, even, instead of this strange clicking that the pirates use to communicate amongst each other.
Later, you even thought you heard a replicator noise from that room, but that's impossible. The replicator in that room should be shut off just like it is in your cell.
Suddenly, theres steps outside your room and not long after, the door opens to reveal a pirate in a full-body vacuum sealed suit that hides his face. He points a rifle at you. "It's time to get tested again!", the man behind the mask says very slowly, almost as if he has trouble speaking or is in pain.
You've been "tested" once before when you arrived here. Not that you remember anything. They took you to sickbay, gave you some sort of sedative and you woke up back in your cell afterwards...

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Zephyr, the door opens and you barely have time to hide your replicated food before the pirate (it is the same large guy that you already met on the decoy ship, still wearing the vacuum suit) enters. He seems to not notice the reactivated replicator.
He's pointing a Consortium issue phaser rifle at you. "We need to test you, meatbag. Do not resist or I will be forced to stun you."

Alex, you are being led out of your room. As you leave the room, you see another pirate standing at the door of the room that you heard the noises from.
That pirate suddenly fires his phaser rifle into the room.

Zephyr, the man shoots his rifle, not quite at you but close. Definitely a warning shot. "Stop talking and come with us. We have doctors! We have another use for you."

As you follow him out of the cell, you encounter a woman who is being led out of the room next to yours by another armed pirate. Together the two of you are led through the corridor

Time has crawled for Lorq. He fears that his crew believe him a traitor, but he is only trying to help. Everyone needs medical help when they are sick.

When brought to the medway to do the tests he speaks to his patients hoping to calm them down.
I am Lorq. The tests I am doing are harmless. I am just doing baseline testing. I fear however that some illness is stalking this ship. I am going to try and neutralize whatever has you unconscious. Maybe we can make some plans.3d6

( 3, 3, 3 ) = 9

Edited as I put with instead of without