Training Exercise: Team 2

Posted on Sun Apr 12th, 2026 @ 10:15am by Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Cadet Sophomore Grade Gracelyn Shepard & Cadet Sophomore Grade Arthur Tyrell & Nicholas Mathias & Cadet Junior Grade Elaria Carlyle

Mission: Interlude
Location: Space Station
Timeline: While the Elysium is on transit to Teevs' home world
1280 words - 2.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Team 2 moved off down a sloping corridor, away from the airlock. The structure was made of an alloy they didn't recognise. It was dark but it had a strange element through it.

As Nicholas lead the team through the corridors, he took a moment to look over the strange metals and elements running through the walls and floors. "Any thoughts about what these streaks might be? I don't think I've personally seen anything like this come through before in a starship hull or anything."

Grace had her tricorder running. She ran it over the walls, avoiding touching it in case it might react negatively. She frowned at her readings, "Not sure, sir. Its coming back negative. Unknown. Maybe it was left behind by someone who made those grooves,

Arthur followed slowly, keeping his tricorder raised as he examined the walls, a quizzical expression on his face. Whatever the stuff was, it didn’t appear to be registering with anything in Starfleet’s database, which was hardly surprising. “I agree with Grace, sir. I’m getting nothing. But she raises the most logical solution.”

Elaria watched the adults closely. Recent events had screwed her view of the adults on the ship. She did, however, pay attention. She paused as she was at the back and turned her scanner on a section of the wall. "Sir," she said. "This is giving off a resonance."

"A resonance? What kind of resonance?" Nicholas asked, curious as to what kind it might be giving off.

She pressed a button on her tricorder and a soft buzzing sound filled their ears. It went Buzzz then zzze then Buzzzzzzzz. Then it repeated itself.

"That's definitely not usual background radiation, now is it? Thanks for letting us hear it. Any thoughts on what it could be or what could be causing it?" Nicholas asked to all of the cadets.

Elaria listened and then calmly, though rather recklessly, pressed her hand to the wall and there was a soft click and the section depressed inwards.

"What was that clicking noise?" Nicholas asked Elaria. He pulled out and pointed his own tricorder to where Elaria was and where the sound came from when she pressed her hand against the wall.

"Secret passage" she said as she shifted so he could see the wall had separated behind her.

"Secret passage? Does it say where it goes or how we might be able to get a look at it?" Nicholas asked as he turned to see where Elaria was looking at.

Arthur turned around, bringing his tricorder up to examine the resonance, before slowly lowering it as the wall slowly separated, raising an eyebrow, glancing around at the rest of the group. "Secret passageway? That's not... Creepy or suspicious at all." He said, unable to suppress a small grin.

"Yeah, totally not at all. Maybe lets see what we can get out of scans before we do anything else. I don't want to lose any cadets on this voyage," Nicholas said as he pulled out his own tricorder out and started scanning.

Elaria bit her bottom lip to stop a sarcastic comment from coming out. Instead, she began to do indepth scans. "Looks clear. Downward incline, about 400 meters."

Nicholas saw Elaria bite her lip and he said, "I know you were probably going to say something sassy. But, it's like those old time movies from Earth, of the horror variety. Usually the ones that jump in head first end up dying first. Don't want that for anyone."

Elaira took a breath "Its rare for adults to care about us cadets these days." was all she said.

"We're not like Kirk on the Enterprise....where the red shirts usually ended up being killed off first. Gotta make sure I take care of you guys!" Nicholas said with a chuckle as he thought back to his History courses on the Enterprise and early Starfleet and Federation exploration.

Grace listened to them talking back and forth. Scanning the tunnel, she read the same thing they read. With an exhale, she closed her eyes and listened to her inner demons. Klingon ones. Opening her eyes, she turned to them and snapped, "Area seems safe. You guys going to talk all day or go in? I thought we were the explorers? I'll go first."

Within a moment, she walked into the secret tunnel, turning on a flashlight and began to explore.

Elaria followed "No some of you are counselors who abandon Cadets during battle!" She shot over her shoulder and followed Grace.

Nicholas followed in next and said, "Hey, we won't be hashing out stuff while on an alien starship. There's a time and place for it and this isn't one of them. Hash anything out on your own time." Nicholas continued onward, flashlight shining down a corridor.

Arthur turned his own flashlight on, glancing between the group, raising an eyebrow at the comments. Something had clearly happened at some point, but Nicholas was right. This wasn’t the time or place to cause arguments. Raising his flashlight, he followed them into the corridor, raising his tricorder as well to continuing scanning as they walked.

The group moved down the passageway. When they reached the bottom, an open doorway welcomed them.

The room was huge.

And there in the middle of it, sat a suspended structure — a sphere nearly three meters across, held in place by thin, branching struts that looked more grown than built.
It wasn’t entirely solid.

Layers of translucent material folded in on themselves like petals, shifting slowly, rhythmically… breathing.
A soft light pulsed from within — the same uneven pattern Elaria had heard.
Buzzz… zzze… Buzzzzzzzz…

The sound wasn’t coming from their tricorders anymore.
It was coming from the sphere.

Grace’s tricorder chirped sharply, then went dead in her hand.

Arthur’s followed a second later.

Elaria froze. Her eyes narrowed slightly.“It’s not just emitting resonance,” she said quietly. “It’s… responding.” As if on cue, the sphere pulsed brighter.

The sound shifted.

Not random anymore.

Patterned.

Intentional.

Then—

A voice.

Not through their comms.

Not through the air.

Inside their heads.

Not words.

Not exactly.

But meaning.

A question.

Ancient. Curious.

Who… are you?

The light flared— —and for just a second, the surface of the sphere changed. Reflections appeared across it… not of the room— —but of them.

Distorted.

Fragmented.

As though something inside was trying to understand what it was seeing...and getting it wrong.

"That's definitely new....." Nicholas said as he studied what they were all seeing.

As they stood there taking it in, a call came in over each of the team's commbadges. "Reece to away teams, we have found a Borg drone. It is conscious and seems to be disconnected from the Collective Hive Mind. We have freed it from the prison it was locked in and have collected several pieces of its gear that had been removed by the residents of this station. We are beginning our way back to the runabout. Finish up your investigations and rendezvous back at the ship in ten minutes, Reece out." The communique then ended when Comnander Reece closed the channel on his end.

"Okay, we need to get out of here. Gather as much stuff as we can as we get out of here. All tricorders out. Scans EVERYTHING," Nicholas said as he grabbed his own tricorder and started to scan as much as he could. The sphere. The buzzing it was emitting. Whatever he could, he scanned.

Elaria did her scans and took samples from the walls before heading to the exit.

They finished up and made their way back to the shuttle.

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