(Untitled)

[gone_byebye]

Mid-January, 2008
RCMP/Ministry of Extraordinary Threats Emergency Hangar
Alert, Nunavut, CAEven in times of the highest tension and most danger, people find ways to keep themselves busy, and neither the Ghostbusters nor the men and women of the world's northern watch bureaus were any great exception. "Ray? Ray! Ray, check it out." Venkman shook

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Action Time: Team Submarine

[gone_byebye]

In the distance a small blackish smudge in the midst of the white and blue grows into a larger blackish smudge, and then resolves itself- a gap in the ice of a shape too regular to be anything but artificial. Huddling along one side are a group of about twelve humanoid figures; Tsybenko grunts. "You talk," he says as they draw closer. "I have no experience. Deep Ones are not so much my thing."

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

"I'm sure that they won't seem that difficult to handle once you get to know them." Jim is clearly quite sure of himself.

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

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"Americans are trouble enough," Tsybenko mutters, but he lets it drop as they pull up.

The Deep Ones present range in height from six feet tall to nearly seven. Their skin tones vary from dull greenish-grey to a grey-blue reminiscent of certain species of shark. Overall, their body designs are awfully similar- at least, to anyone who's read The Shadow Over Innsmouth and consequently expects a wider set of unwholesome mutations. Their eyes are too widely spaced to look them in both eyes at once comfortably, but it's obvious they have at least some degree of binocular vision, and they're all garbed in some form-fitting substance that hides the majority of their finnage from view.

Not the ones on their heads, though, or the webbing between their five fingers- one of the taller ones raises a hand in greeting. "Well, now," he says in passable English, "what do we have here?"

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

"This is...Cosmonaut Tsybenko, formerly of the Russian Federation, and I'm James Kirk of the United States. I guess you can say we're representatives of the Ministry of Extraordinary Affairs. Doctor Stantz sent us, to try to deal with the submarine."

Jim tries very hard not to look surprised. How many aliens has he met, after all? But there is something a bit strange, a bit harsh, and a bit familiar. These, he thinks, are not really aliens, are they?

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[gone_byebye]

Four hundred thousand years of evolution goes a long way in a species formerly immortal and ageless. It might be safest to say their ancestors were aliens.

The speaker nods, cocking his head to one side in an almost birdlike gesture so that one eye fixes on Tsybenko. "Comrade Tsybenko doesn't look very happy to be here," he observes. "Drafted?"

"Volunteer," says Tsybenko, and mutters something under his breath in Russian. A translator would be able to tell it was less than complimentary, at best.

The speaker shakes his head, his gill-slits flaring briefly, and turns back to Kirk. "Ah. The ambassador. All right. I am Lua'al-rei of the Greenland Shark Moiety of the Deep One people of Ahvenanmaa Province. We come to Beaked Whale's waters at Y'ha-nthlei's request, to find the humans who want to pry the walls open between this world and the one from which we came." He pauses. "Beaked Whale has had... rather more and closer contact with humans than we."

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

"And is there any update on the situation. Aside from that the skies are rather...foreboding?" Jim chooses not to offer a handshake of any kind. (That's one of those things you learn from years with a Vulcan - never offer any body contact without knowing what the response will be.)

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

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Lua'al-rei dips his chin, then brings his head up in something like a nod. "Beaked Whale's scouts confirmed the helicopter on the surface maintains contact somehow with the submarine below," he says. "The submarine moved from its linear course into a holding pattern a few minutes ago. Or so it looks to us; the sharks of deeper waters do as much when they have a school in sight."

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

"Then we should hold for the moment." Jim wonders how long he needs to wait to see the next move, and suspects it won't be long.

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

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"Our vessel is still rising anyway," agrees Lua'al-rei. "We have several in place already, monitoring. Moving the men may take several trips."

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

Jim sighs. He isn't a fan of waiting, but he knows he has to. "I guess we wait."

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

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"It won't be long," says the Deep One. "It has to take on more air before we can board. Neither you nor the Russians will be in our parts of the vessel." He looks pointedly at Kirk's neck, and its marked lack of gill slits. "Establishing an atmosphere is tricky business."

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

"Yes, I'd heard that. About submarines, that is. I've never been on one." Spaceships, yes. Subs, no.

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[gone_byebye]

"I understand Y'ha-nthlei's shipgrowers are- ah, there..."

The dark, dark water is beginning to roil and bubble, swelling like bulging green-black glass as something rises from below. Lua'al-rei gestures with one webbed hand to Kirk and Tsybenko to step back as the topmost edge of a streamlined, pearlescent shape breaks through the surface.

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

Jim is silent as he watches the ship emerge. It's unlike anything he's ever seen.

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

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Lua'al-rei eyes the ship with an expression that a human might consider one of guarded distaste. "Ship-growing is an old art," he murmurs. "It seldom means anything good, to have to use one. I only hope that we attract no notice by using these... well." He shrugs expressively and turns to watch several of his smaller comrades hop nimbly from the ice to the pearlship's top. When it slides open a moment later, the smell from inside is...

... well, remarkably clean, actually, with very little smell of fish or the sea. Only cold, cold air that sets Tsybenko to muttering about the heating system.

"We may be adapted to colder waters in Greenland Shark than the people of Y'ha-nthlei Province," says Lua'al-rei with some amusement in his tone, "but we are warm-bloods, to use the human term. You may not like the temperature inside, but no one will freeze or die of it. Are there any other questions, before we board?"

Re: Action Time: Team Submarine

[works_in_space]

He has many. None of which are relevant right now. "NO, I'm ready."