Suddenly, her chest badge buzzed. Alice looked to and fro, not knowing where this noise was coming from, before... She awkwardly pushed the badge, wondering if it was like a bluetooth thing or something. "Hello?" she haltingly said aloud.
"Ensign Carter to the 4th deck teleporter, please." Alice didn't know what that meant! Why was she being asked to go places? But maybe if she went, then she might figure out what the hell was going on. She left the room, the door opening automatically with a gentle hiss. She went out into the corridor, shrinking in on herself as she walked down it. Fortunately, the place was signposted and she could figure out where she was going... but people bustled past, all of them in similar uniforms to her, in an array of colours, even though the guys clearly got to wear pants. And some of them... well, some had pointy ears, some had green skin, they were aliens!
Eventually, she made it to the teleporter room, a few similarly uniformed ensigns already standing in it, a pissed off engineer waiting. "Good of you to finally join us, Ensign. Over there." Alice went to open her mouth, to ask what was going on, but he just pointed, "Ensign, we're waiting!" Reluctantly, she trudged over to a group of other similarly young people in red shirts.
"Now remember, we're just collecting samples. If you find any locals, don't engage. Got it?" He pulled the lever, and Alice found herself fading into pixels for the second time today, only this time she was even more terrified. Locals?! What was this guy talking about, who would they be running into?