Star Trek: Foothold - To Relieve Paine

Séance

One of the joys of the technology aboard the Vellouwyn was that most of the junctions aboard, and many of the smaller appliances, were embedded with manual generators. Small, compact, and assembled with the combined ingenuity of twenty Federation member states and a consultation with the Romulan scientific collaborative corps, the devices had any number of means to charge, but the most common was a ripcord which, when pulled, would start a self-stabilizing magnetic repulsor reaction that could generate enough power to run various small devices. While the innovation itself was revolutionary, it lacked application beyond the scope of smaller equipment, as it could not produce the draw demands of anything more than a class one force field, and at least four of them were required to lift a basic anti-gravity sled. Maintenance of the devices required a little infrequent lubrication, and an occasional flush for component wear which built up as debris which produced magnetic interference.

On the other hand, a single device could run a sonic shower for fifteen minutes before running dormant, which was an incredible boon to the comfort of the spaceborne when things had gone to hell, and there wasn't enough grid to spare for common comforts. Whirrlers, as some had taken to call them, were running small heaters, personal stoves, and waste and water recyclers on all occupied decks, and in the comfort of a small isolated personal quarters reserved for a forlorn and quarantined first officer, one was running a small intangible holo-emitter so that Paine could watch some shows before going to sleep. It hummed along almost inaudibly as Paine reclined on her bunk, freshly cleaned and clothed in a simple off-duty singlet that she found more comfortable than sleeping in the nude.

In a rare show of exhaustion, Craith was a dormant presence in the back of her mind, exuding quiet and lethargy that was tangible, but somehow didn't wear on Paine's mind the way she thought it might, leaving her feeling like she was lying next to someone sleeping nearby in a way that was subtly comforting. Taking the opportunity to enjoy that sensation, she tuned into the Holocomb program through her padd interface.

Overhead a number of angles showed the scene of the room she'd left behind in the Holocomb, complete with a standing representation of herself, idly investigating something she'd looked at before leaving. Not being in the room, it turned out, did not mean she could not interact with the program, and there was a simplified interface that let her control her doppelganger in the simulation. She could not, as it turned out, leave the room, as the space had been considered 'cleared', but departing would cause the game to produce additional dynamic events, but she could take this opportunity to peruse her inventory, read through the game manuals, review her surroundings—and, as it turned out—investigate elements of exploration in the Séance room undisturbed.

There wasn't much left lying around for her to use after the fight, but the purpose of the Séance room had not simply been the encounter, as it turned out: the space had a purpose within the police station, after all, and it turned out to be a sort of record hall for duty shift officers to document their experiences and investigation notes. The alcoves around the room hosted machines which accepted orbs like the one she had collected at the reception desk on entering the hall, and most of them had an orb already slotted for review: apparently an investigation had been underway featuring one of the lead officers, and his records had been lined up for review.

When she approached the first machine, a small puzzle appeared on the screen involving redrawing some of the novel circuitry that was involved in the lock mechanism that restricted access to the equipment. She had it deciphered in short order, and realized that the crest she'd taken from the Cleric in the hallway allowed her access to review the contents of the sphere. Rather than being a data file like she expected, however, reviewing the report saw her analog in the program put its face up to the viewer, and suddenly she was treated to a voiced third person perspective of the report the device contained. It seemed that the Arcanians had mastered some method of telepathic holography, and the officer had been able to document his report with a mixture of third-person surveillance and oracular monologue.