Star Trek-- The Prime Directive!

[Kislath]

Here are the links to the related recruiting & OOC threads for this game:
Recruit thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15501010#post15501010

OOC Thread:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15521497#post15521497

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"Captain's Log, Stardate...*kaff-kaff* ..uhm..*cough..choke gasp wheeze*.. Ach..I don't know anymore and I don't care.
This whatev..*huuuurrrhhh* whatever it is that Mister Watkins brought onto my ship is highly contagious. Our Medical team hasn't been any help, so I and most of my Senior Staff Officers must be put into stasis. I'm leaving the ship to my Junior Officers, and we'll now depart for Starbase 281. The hospital there is our best hope."
.................................................. ...........................

"Chief Medical Officer's Log, Supplemental.--
My efforts to stop this infection have proved fruitless. I hereby relieve Captain Sifu, myself, and 16 others of duty and confine us to stasis quarantine until our arrival at Starbase 281, where a Doctor M'jok thinks he may be able to find a suitable treatment. I believe that the infection has been contained and should pose no further threat to the ship.

As our senior remaining ranking officer, Lieutenant Commander Varak Tucker will assume command of the Hudson Bay."

[Lentrax]

Engineering Log, supplemental.

Engineer's Assistant Aria Tenthos for Chief Engineer.

I have completed the level one diagnostic of all the transporter array biofilters. No anomalies detected. No trace elements, no particles, no anomalous readings at all. There should have been something in the pattern traces, but they were clean. I don't know how this virus got aboard the Hudson Bay, or why it was contained to the senior staff. I just thank Athena it was. We are too far out from Starbase to have made it had this thing hit the entire crew. I am having Ensign Sendal run a cross check on the life support systems, and the rest f the engineering team is making adjustments to the EPS relays to maintain the bioscreen around the quarantined area of the ship.

End log.

[Mr Stereo1]

Tactical Officer's Log, Lt. Commander Varak Tucker.

It seems I am now the acting-commander of this vessel. The majority of our senior staff have been incapacitated by an unknown illness. Despite the best efforts of our medical staff, we have been forced to resort to medical stasis to avoid fatalities. As the senior capable officer remaining aboard the Hudson Bay, I will serve as it's acting captain until we arrive at Starbase 281. I will be responsible for the lives of it's crew.

I have my doubts. I am a specialist, not a captain. Perhaps at the height of the Dominion War's manpower shortages I would be given a command, but during peace-time? I lack the diplomatic tact and culture of a true Federation commander. My colleagues were fine officers. Whatever our ideological differences, I will miss each of them greatly in these coming days.

Still, I must lead for the sake of the crew. With their senior command staff crippled I am the only officer they have left to look to for leadership. I have requested a meeting with the senior surviving personnel from each section of the crew to discuss our situation.

I hope that together we can guide the Hudson Bay and it's crew to safety.

[RossN]

Personal Log; Lt. Shanas

Disaster! Watkins is in quarantine! So much for that very special evening in the holodeck we had planned - and I *can't* keep the Romulan ale and Orion costume in my quarters; it could be days before quarantine is lifted and someone might find them!

Must go: Tucker, our acting captain (Tucker!) has ordered a meeting. I guess this means I'm (join) acting head of Security then...

End Log

[Venom]

Lt. Junior Grade Varik, personal log

Acting Captain Tucker, (Lt. Cmdr.) has called a meeting of the remaining officer corps as it seems some illness has debilitated the senior officers. They've been put in stasis, and a course has been set to Starbase 281. We're several days out from the Starbase and the crew, from what I've witnessed already, has a heightened level of anxiety. If they would refer to protocol they'd realize there are procedures for such eventualities...End of entry

[Lentrax]

Why do I always feel cramped on starships? I know the door is exactly 2 meters high, and that I am 1.9 meters tall. So why do I feel the need to duck?

Instinctively drooping her head as she steps off the turbolift, Aria swears she can feel her long black hair touching the upper bulkhead. As she straightens up, she heads to the Engineering station. Technically, She and Varik are both acting Chief Engineers, but she doesn't think the Vulcan has the right feel for the engines on the Bay. They are more temperamental than a Harpy, and twice as loud when you let the phase variance in the sunspace field get too far out of alignment. But, there it is.

Two Chiefs. One ship.

At least it's her shift. That means this console is all hers. Checking in on her shifts reports, she sees that the level two diagnostic of the port sensor array is behind schedule.

Gonna have to have a talk with Martinez again. And then deal with him staring at my butt as I walk out of the array. By Zeus, why do I have to deal with so many men?

[Randel]

Lt. Brenna Weaver, Personal Log (stored on an independent data pad)

Due to a recent outbreak by an unknown disease, Lt. Commander Varak Tucker is the acting commander. While I hope this is merely a mundane virus or microbe we've encountered, the medical team has had difficulty fighting it and had to resort to placing most of the senior staff in stasis.

I'm no medical expert, but I have read far too many reports about unknown radiations, energy beings, and temporal... stuff... to not think this could just be the first signs of something far more sinister. I'm going to recommend some strict preventative measures to keep any more people from getting infected and to make sure this "disease" isn't hiding something far worse.

<rough ideas>
1. See if any of the telepathic crew detect alien thought patterns.
2. Shut down the holodeck (can't hurt. Nothing good comes from those things)
3. Have all crew members wear medical monitoring devices.
4. Scan the area for cloaked alien ships.


Other than that, I'll have to keep meet with my fellow security crew to ensure everyone is healthy. Nobody needs a weakened security.

[Kislath]

-Boop-Boop!-

At the sound of the incoming message, a weary ensign springs back to alertness at his station and strains to read it.

Uh, oh.

"Sir, we're receiving a message from Starfleet Headquarters, Priority One; Captain Sifu's eyes only. What should I tell them?"

[Mr Stereo1]

OOC: Putting this up before I nod off, so the others have something to bounce off it required.

A Priority One message suggested an urgent assignment requiring the utmost discretion. Apprehension filled Varak, taking the edge off his fatigue.

"Inform them the Captain is indisposed, and patch the call through to his ready room. I'll take the call there and inform them of the details." Starfleet would have to make it's own decision on their capabilities, once it had all the relevant information. "In the meantime, contact the surviving department heads. I want them ready as soon as I receive our instructions."

[Kislath]

The message is patched over to the captain's office, and after a bit of explanation, the surprised and irritated Admiral on the other end eventually decides to go ahead and give Sifu's would-be orders to Varak Tucker:

Your sick people will have to wait.
There is a ship, the USS Vasco de Gama, last reported in your vicinity. Find it, intercept it, and arrest the Captain, Ivan Kincaid, and hold him, the ship, and the senior staff in custody until relieved by the USS Titan. All other details are on a need-to-know level, and my apologies,but that is all you need to know. You have your orders. carry them out. Good hunting.

With that, the screen goes blank until the Admiral's scowling face is replaced by the Starfleet logo.

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros, Personal Log. (Not secure at all, and in fact publicly accessible as a "Plog".)

The sick crewmembers have gone into stasis. Many of the crew seem to be viewing this as a sign of the severity of the situation, but I feel it's a positive. There have been no casualties from this outbreak and now it appears there won't be. Captain Sifu and the others will survive just fine until we make it to the medical facilities at Starbase 281, and even if they can't help they can easily organize a transfer to Starfleet medical back at Sol. All in all, we dodged the beam, and I'm confident that the worst is behind us.

It's also a chance for some of the more junior crew to prove themselves in higher grade. We've got a lot of talent there, and I expect they'll perform admirably.

I (obviously!) wasn't picked to advance to the head of the Science department. No one expects us to be making first contact or analyzing ruins until after we get to Starbase 281, and the sick crew are either cured or replaced. We're more likely to need a generalist, or a medical professional, or someone versed in astronomical phenomena. Not that my opinion counts for much, but I think Acting Captain Tucker made a good call.

I was going over the raw take from the ruins on LRF-47924-C. I missed it the first time because the universal translator picked up the language so quickly and I was not actually on the away team, but most of the written letters are based around spiral and whorl patterns. I've transmitted a request to Starfleet to see if the genetic samples we recovered code for radial, rather than linear, recognition in the visual cortex. If so, it could provide the clue I need to understanding their psychology and society. It'll be good for a half dozen papers, at least.

[Mr Stereo1]

The message is patched over to the captain's office, and after a bit of explanation, the surprised and irritated Admiral on the other end eventually decides to go ahead and give Sifu's would-be orders to Varak Tucker:

Your sick people will have to wait.
There is a ship, the USS Vasco de Gama, last reported in your vicinity. Find it, intercept it, and arrest the Captain, Ivan Kincaid, and hold him, the ship, and the senior staff in custody until relieved by the USS Titan. All other details are on a need-to-know level, and my apologies,but that is all you need to know. You have your orders. carry them out. Good hunting.

With that, the screen goes blank until the Admiral's scowling face is replaced by the Starfleet logo.

"Understood, Admiral." Varak replies, trusting that his superior had good cause for his behaviour. It troubled him, to have to take the ship on an assignment without it's senior staff, but if he had been given the order the stakes must warrant it.

He passes through the bridge on his way to the meeting with the senior officers, informing the current bridge crew of the situation and ordering the helmsman to set a course for the Vasco de Gama's last known location. Varak tries to project confidence, and doesn't allow himself to consider the dangers involved until he is safely in the turbolift.

Joining the acting command staff in the meeting room, he sits quietly at the head of the table. In Captain Sifu's seat. He finds it slightly unsettling, to see near-strangers rather than his erstwhile comrades sitting at the table.

"Thank you all for coming. I apologise for drawing you away from your departments so soon, but our situation has changed. A moment ago I received a Priority One message for Captain Sifu. The details are classified beyond our level - but we are to find and detain one Captain Ivan Kincaid of the USS Vasco de Gama, along with his senior staff and Vasco de Gama itself." He watches their reactions, trying to get a feel for the unknown faces. Varak recognised most of them in passing, but knew little of their personalities or skills beyond a glance at their files this past morning.

"I need to know how well your departments are equipped to fight a battle, or a boarding action, should it prove necessary."

[Lentrax]

"Lt. Tenthos, Engineering. Sir, engines Nd power systems are good to go. We'll manage should a fight break out, but are we really going to fight anther Starfleet vessel?"

[RossN]

"Shanas, Security." The Andorian officer was doing a poor job of hiding her excitement. If she had any doubts about chasing down a renegade Starfleet ship on the other hand she was doing an excellent job of concealing them.

"I can personally lead a boarding action sir; we'll hit them hard and fast."

[Mr Stereo1]

"Lt. Tenthos, Engineering. Sir, engines Nd power systems are good to go. We'll manage should a fight break out, but are we really going to fight anther Starfleet vessel?"


"Shanas, Security." The Andorian officer was doing a poor job of hiding her excitement. If she had any doubts about chasing down a renegade Starfleet ship on the other hand she was doing an excellent job of concealing them.

"I can personally lead a boarding action sir; we'll hit them hard and fast."

"I hope it won't come to that. The Vasco de Gama is a simple Oberth class survey ship. If Kincaid is in his right mind, he'll surrender his ship once we confront him. Then we merely need to station a garrison aboard until the USS Titan arrives to relieve us." Varak sighs, the only expression of stress he allows himself. The lack of information was problematic.

"That, however, does not mean we can afford to discount the possibility that he will resist. The Admiral ordered us to detain Kincaid and his senior officers. At a minimum, Kincaid and a significant portion of his crew felt strongly enough about something to disobey orders. Otherwise, they are compromised. I'm sure you've read some of the more outlandish incident reports from our deep-space exploration arm." It was unlikely to be relevant, but the cost of replicating the required equipment would be minimal compared to the risk to the crew if such was the case.

"Just in case I want the necessary protective equipment replicated for our security and medical staff. An away team needs to be prepared from medical able to provide aid on the De Gama itself. Should the worst case scenario be realised, we can't risk the Hudson Bay becoming compromised as well."

[Lentrax]

"Were we given a reason to take Captain Kincaid into custody?"

[Mr Stereo1]

"No, all of the details are beyond our clearance. All I know is what I've told you. The captain's name, the ship's name, it's class, and that we're to take them into custody. And, of course, that the details are classified. We're going into this near blind, so we need to be as well prepared as we can be for surprises."

[Lentrax]

"I'll get my team on trying to strengthen our shield harmonics. Maybe try and get a boost to our secondary processors too. If it comes to battle, by Hera, we'll give them a hell of a fight."

[RossN]

"My team know how to handle themselves in a boarding; I can have your garrison ready and eager Captain." Shanas said, looking like she was already spoiling for a fight.

Her confidence wavered slightly at Varak's suggestion they might be dealing with something other than just a mutiny. Medical emergencies were not exactly her specialty.

[Kislath]

-deet-deet-

"Ops to Captain; Brewbaker here, sir. We just received a coordinates package from Starfleet, but with no explanation of what its for?"

[Reltzik]

Meanwhile, WELL away from anywhere that important command decisions were being discussed, Ens. Katsaros pulled her tray from the mess replicator. Moussaka, a side of fasolakia, and a good vintage of white retsina. The retsina was a bit of an indulgence. She'd found herself slipping into odd hours, without a supervisor to report to and with a lot of scientific work but not any particular schedule to do it in. Shifts were for people who had to coordinate or share resources, not for a scientist churning over fresh data. But whatever the official shift change was (or, for that matter, whatever ship time was... and she really had no desire to check), she was coming off a long shift of work, and wanted the edge of alcohol to take her mind off it. And she'd made a breakthrough. She was entitled.

Thea carried her tray to an open mess table. Well, half of the mess table was open, the other half was occupied by two ratings and a chief discussing some technical doodad. Still, the place was reasonably empty, and those who were here seemed to be snacking or socializing rather than taking a meal. It must be the middle of a shift.

Deep down, in the part of her brain where a professional can't stop looking at the world in light of her profession, Katsaros knew that the stress of the plague and quarantine had to be effecting most of the crew, but would have done so in different ways. In her case, she now admitted to herself, she had responded with simple avoidance. She'd withdrawn. It had been reasonable enough, with the quarantine and a lot of work she could do from her quarters (private quarters, thankfully, but still of the sort rated for ensigns, senior chiefs, and brooms), but it hadn't been made for reasonable reasons.

Still, it was time for that withdrawal to end. Thea nibbled on her meal, but made a point of listening to the conversations around her, and especially their tone. It occurred to her that crew morale was likely shot, and as the only person on board with real psychological training, it was up to her to gauge it and, if possible, do something about it.

((Since I'm not in the staff meeting, I'll just busy myself with playing impromptu and unappointed morale officer.))

[Mr Stereo1]

"I'll get my team on trying to strengthen our shield harmonics. Maybe try and get a boost to our secondary processors too. If it comes to battle, by Hera, we'll give them a hell of a fight."

"That would be appreciated, Lieutenant. If you have the materials, try to produce some more scouting probes as well."


"My team know how to handle themselves in a boarding; I can have your garrison ready and eager Captain." Shanas said, looking like she was already spoiling for a fight.


Varak sighs internally at the concern his subordinate is showing. "I know that this is incredibly unhelpful to you, but the fact remains that we are either dealing with a large enough political mess to warrant a Starfleet crew to mutiny... or something else. Given the TItan's involvement and that we have been ordered to detain the De Gama and not to arrest it's crew, it is likely the former - but I have no confirmation on that."


-deet-deet-

"Ops to Captain; Brewbaker here, sir. We just received a coordinates package from Starfleet, but with no explanation of what its for?"

"Set a course for the coordinates, maximum cruising warp. That should be the last known location of our quarry. Hopefully Kincaid will present himself for detainment in the vicinity, and if not - we'll have to start our search from there."

"Now," Varak turns to the assembled officers. "Are there any questions? If not, you're dismissed."

[Venom]

Captain ,Lt.Varik finally spoke up. I would caution against a trap. Our quarry more than likely knows that whatever they've done has broken Star Fleet protocols. The Admiralty wants Captain Kincaid, and his senior crew badly enough to send not only our ship with half a compliment of crew, and the junior officers with little command experience to find the Vasco de Gama, but also send Captain Riker and the Titan to secure the situation. If I knew I were being sought after by Star Fleet, Captain, I would have set traps and false clues all about. I would be wary.

[Kislath]

Wooooooorrrrzszzzzziiii---pooom!

And you're off!

As it turns out, you are headed directly for the next star over from where you originally thought you were going. Kincaid must have been in one heck of a hurry to get there so quickly from where he was previously reported such a short time earlier. Why is a mystery, though; there are no planets around that star, and the star itself isn't noteworthy.

.................................................. ........................

After a tense day & a half, you start to closely approach the star in question.

[Mr Stereo1]

Captain ,Lt.Varik finally spoke up. I would caution against a trap. Our quarry more than likely knows that whatever they've done has broken Star Fleet protocols. The Admiralty wants Captain Kincaid, and his senior crew badly enough to send not only our ship with half a compliment of crew, and the junior officers with little command experience to find the Vasco de Gama, but also send Captain Riker and the Titan to secure the situation. If I knew I were being sought after by Star Fleet, Captain, I would have set traps and false clues all about. I would be wary.

"You make a good point, Lieutenant, but those coordinates are our only lead. We have to take their bait." However much it smarted.


Wooooooorrrrzszzzzziiii---pooom!

And you're off!

As it turns out, you are headed directly for the next star over from where you originally thought you were going. Kincaid must have been in one heck of a hurry to get there so quickly from where he was previously reported such a short time earlier. Why is a mystery, though; there are no planets around that star, and the star itself isn't noteworthy.

.................................................. ........................

After a tense day & a half, you start to closely approach the star in question.

Varak orders the system scanned for any signs of the De Gama.

[shugyosha]

Akira Kobayashi

The young man spent much of his time in sickbay. Not as a patient but as an assistant medical personal. His primary role only came into effect when they were exploring new planets or needed a liaison to a foreign party. None of which has happened since coming on board. Having had some medical training he offered his services to the Chief Medical Officer.

He was busier than he expected. 16 crew members including the Captan and CMO have fallen ill to some strange disease. While not physician or a surgeon, he has been going over starfleet's medical records for the last two decades looking for a possible cure.

While no cure was found Akira's findings did spur Doctor M'jok of Starbase 281 to develop a treatment. Seeing that this is the best course of action for the infected crew members the ship was speeding off to the starbase.

That was what he thought until he felt the ship change direction. Tapping on the comm channel, "Sickbay to Bridge, have we changed course?"

[Lentrax]

Minutes after the briefing, Aria was in Engineering.

"Hey, Everyone! Listen up! We're taking the Bay into a potentially dangerous situation! Simms, shore up the Aux systems. Rela, you're with me, we're going to retune the shield generators, try and squeeze a few more gigawatts out of 'em. Someone get Matinez down here, I'm putting him on Engine control. Let's move people!"

[Kislath]

Long-range sensors have detected something. From this distance, when shown on the main viewscreen, it looks to be a big hunk of something that could be a ship, emanating wildly fluctuating energy readings that frankly don't look good.

[Reltzik]

Aside from catching up on sleep, Thea spent the time in transit with her ear to the ground, so to speak.

She was good at socializing and had friends in every department. She didn't need a shipwide announcement to learn what was up. When that big a chunk of Security was prepping and running through tactical plans for boarding another Starfleet vessel, SOMEONE was going to talk, even if it was just with each other in a public area that they thought was out of earshot.

Ensign Katsaros had Ferengi ears. Half human or no, she completely redefined "earshot".

About twelve hours after they went to warp, she quietly forwarded her own file to Acting Captain Tucker, flagging her own background in negotiations.

[Kislath]

"Hmmm.. Sir! I'm detecting a huge energy wave coming at us.. it's too big to be coming from that ship... looks more like a-- SHIELDS! WE NEED SHIELDS NOW!"

An eyeblink later, the USS Hudson Bay is rocked by a violent shockwave of energy. Lights flicker, everything shakes, and smoke and sparks go flying. The Captain's Seat is awash in sparks as it's various panels short out, and unfortunately, Lt. Commander Varak Tucker is unable to avoid them. He is fried where he sits, and slumps motionless to the floor.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon goes flying off his bed slamming his head against the wall. "What the hell was that?!" he says as he grabs his head checking for blood.

[Lentrax]

Aria was sitting at her station on the bridge as the wave came in. She was trying to reroute power to the shields, but she was thrown from her chair when it hit. Panels exploded on the bridge, and eps conduits ruptured, sending the bridge into d ark ness until the emergency lighting flicked on.

"Captain?"

Seeing the captain season the floor, Aria takes his place, pressing buttons on the command chair.

"Engineering, we need shields back now! Damage control teams to the bridge. Tactical, status report. Commander song, to the bridge."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He was supposed to be off duty now but the life on a starship was abound with these surprises. He rushed to the bridge, putting on his duty uniform as he went. The chaos was palatable as he exited the turbo lift. He rushed forward to the conn but saw acting captain Tucker there slumped forward.

It wasn't a secret that Tucker and him didn't get along but this was something that Song didn't wish to see. He didn't move the body only called out, "Get a medical team up here! Is anyone else hurt?"

Looking around he saw people needed direction, "Stations people. Give me a status: Engineering go."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon takes his hand off his head and looks at it. He sees no blood. He quickly rushes outside his quarters still a bit woozy from the fall. He looks around to see if anyone is around and knows what is going on.

[Lentrax]

With the commander on the bridge, Aria dashes to the engineering station, her long legs making it a matter of three strides. When she gets to the console, she begins looking at the read outs.

[Reltzik]

Reasoning-process-fluff-that-isn't-very-important-spoiler-fu:
Ens. Katsaros pulled herself out of the mess hall corner where the shock had thrown her and rubbed the ribs that had been crushed against the data padd. Well, not really crushed, but they felt like it. Shaken and bruised but not injured. She had no idea what had happened, but anything that could grab this much metric tonnage of spaceship and shake it like a rag doll fell under the category of Not Good.

Several ratings were running to the viewports, trying for some visual on whatever had caused it. Thea almost joined them. But her mind was already running through its own mental priority tree.

What can I contribute?
For each potential contribution, in how great supply is it?
For each potential contribution, in how great demand is it?
For each potential contribution, what is my competitive advantage in offering it?

The gawkers where no doubt in oversupply, and while the ship certainly had a great demand for information, the newest and greatest in sensors (which is about what the ship was equipped with) had a far superior competitive advantage over the Mk I eyeball working through a filtered viewport.

Most of them were rushing off, presumably to their stations, without waiting for orders. Fair enough. But her assigned duty station in case of emergency was... basically a shelter. Attendance optional. Demand, minimal. But that also offered her a competitive advantage, in that she could place herself almost anywhere, with no immediate duties to constrain her.

What, then, was the point of greatest liability or opportunity, which was also most likely to be underutilized or understaffed, and which was also not accounted for in the typical chain of command? In which element of this society was the opportunity for catastrophe the greatest?

Sickbay, already missing the CMO, would be vomiting out its corpsmen. Understaffed and overworked in these past few days, the possibility for errors would be high. It would be quite likely that they'd leave only the EMH on site. And "out of sight, out of mind" was the watchword for most sapients. If whatever-the-situation-was went in the head, the last thing anyone would be doing would be watching indicator lights on routine medical equipment.

Thea lurched towards the mess cabin's exit. Her inner ear was still rebelling, but she was finding her balance again. As she went, she tapped her communicator. "Computer, whisper response", she ordered, which was a setting she'd programmed in herself. The computer would respond quietly, at a volume most human ears would have trouble detecting. "Report on status of EMH and sickbay stasis pods."

She wasn't a great expert on medical stasis pods, but they shared quite a few features with the sample containers she used for artifact storage. And if there was something wrong with the EMH, she might be able to fix it. And failing any of that, she could at least report any failures to Engineering before they would have learned about them otherwise. It wasn't much, just covering the bases as one ex-boyfriend would have said, but it was the greatest contribution she could make.

[Kislath]

Within a few moments the Medical & repair teams reach the bridge and set about their work.
Another wave of energy hits the ship, but it's effects are hardly even noticeable, easily brushed off by the shields.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

With the wounded , dead, and debris cleared he looks at a duty roster and then says into the comms, "The following people please report to the bridge. Ensign Katsaros, Lieutenant Bacon, and Lieutenant Varik."

He looks at Engineer's Mate Tenthos, "Recallable the sensors. I want to pick out every solar activity from that star. The De Gamma and this activity are probably connected."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon hearing his name rushes to the nearest turbolift so he can take it to the bridge. The door closes to the turbolift and he is off to the bridge. The door reopens and he sees the bridge in disarray. Medical teams looking after the injured and what appears to be Acting Captain Tucker dead on the ground. Ltd. Bacon tries to take in what's going on, but comes to his sense. Ltd. Bacon reporting for duty he says quickly as he rushes over to the Operations station. And begins looking over his station.

"Casualty report coming in Captain. Mostly minor injuries reported so far." Bacon says as he tries to figure out what is going on.

[Lentrax]

Aye, Sir. Recalibrating.

Making a General Knowledge roll for recalibrating sensors.
[roll0]

... As I recall 10 was instofail so I am probably still frazzled from the Death of our second captain...

[Kislath]

-zzzzzt-POP!-

The touchpad under Aria's fingertips not only fails to recalibrate the sensors, the resulting spark gives her a harmless, but annoying shock.

The sensors are still working, though, and while the image on the main viewer isn't the clearest, it's clear enough to show that the faraway ship could take no more of this stellar punishment, and has exploded!!

Big chunks of it are hurtling off in every direction.

[Reltzik]

Thea was twenty steps down the corridor when she got the call to report to the bridge. She immediately reversed course, heading towards the turbolift. If the computer reported any fault in the sickbay systems, she could easily forward that to Engineering.

Within a minute, she was on the bridge. "Ensign Katsaros, reporting as ordered."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song


Ltd. Bacon reporting for duty he says quickly as he rushes over to the Operations station. And begins looking over his station.

"Casualty report coming in Captain. Mostly minor injuries reported so far." Bacon says as he tries to figure out what is going on.

"Lieutenant Bacon, welcome to the bridge. As the highest ranking officer on this ship I here by promote you to chief of operations and 1st officer of the Hudson Bay. Congratulations."



The sensors are still working, though, and while the image on the main viewer isn't the clearest, it's clear enough to show that the faraway ship could take no more of this stellar punishment, and has exploded!!

Big chunks of it are hurtling off in every direction.

Song's mouth gaped at the sight, "And your first job is to verifiy that was the de Gamma and determine if there were any survivors, life pod, shuttles, whatever." He ends his sentence with a nod at the new first officer.



Within a minute, she was on the bridge. "Ensign Katsaros, reporting as ordered."

He looks at the ensign and says, "Your file says you are a cultural anthropologist, yes? Well, right now I don't need an anthropologist. I see you have excellent negotiation skill which means you have good communication skill. And that is what I need. Your my communications officer. You first job is to send a message to Starfleet Command apprising them of the situation, that Lieutenant Commander Tucker is dead and that I have taken command. Also hail any survivors out there."

[Reltzik]

Ensign Katsaros simply nodded, found a free station at the rear of the bridge, slotted herself into it, and called up the communications interface. Of the two orders, S&R seemed more urgent, so she tackled that first.

She didn't have much hope that the wreckage's subspace antenna was still intact, but pieces were still large enough to hold survivors in sealed compartments. Still, she typed out a hail and offer of assistance, and set the computer to transmit it repeatedly and alert her to any response. She didn't actually record her voice. The last thing the bridge needed right now was more cross-talk, and the computer could turn text into voice easily enough. Then she set the computer to ping and isolate any communicator signals (including any coordinates) anywhere outside the Hudson Bay's hull and automatically contact them, requesting a status update and offering rescue. Any responses would be recorded and flagged for her immediate attention. It wouldn't do much for someone dying in vacuum, but then, the communicators were audio-only, and no message of hers would have been heard in those circumstances. As an afterthought, she instructed the computer to copy the coordinates to the transporter bay of any communicator that responded (flagged as potential survivors, so lock on but await orders from the bridge), and forwarded all those communicator locations (user response or no) to Lt. Bacon's station. The shields might be up now, but if they could be dropped momentarily, having the transporter room on the ball might mean saved lives.

That done (or, at least, automated), she considered the task of apprising Starfleet of their situation. This was difficult, because aside from a dead Acting Captain (she didn't want to think about that too much) and some starship (she didn't know which one) being destroyed, she didn't actually know what the situation was. Thea was tempted to ask, but she seemed to recall from the Academy (not all that long ago) something about commanding officers NOT wanting to do a subordinate officer's job for her. That's what subordinates were for, after all. She thought about this for a moment, then pulled up the bridge log from the moment the Hudson Bay dropped out of warp, set the volume on low, and began bringing herself up to speed.


OOC: I have no idea how many rolls you want for this, or whether they fall under general knowledge or mental ability. (I'd guess the latter, but.)

OOC EDIT: Before anyone asks where Thea's crackerjack computer skills are coming from, I'm imagining there's some pretty standard software tools already in place for most of these tasks -- recording a message, sending an automated message to a list of communicators, locking on to communicator signals, etc, and all she's doing is some basic scripting and redirecting of outputs that I imagine all Starfleet cadets learn, given how much of what they do is on computers. If the communications station DOESN'T have that kind of software... well, Thea's toast. It wouldn't be the first aspect of Trek technology to make no sense whatsoever.

[Lentrax]

"Gah!" the shock from the console was enough to cause Aria to recoil in shock, though it did little else but sting. Shaking her hand for a moment, she soon went back to work trying to clear up the sensor signals she was getting.

Trying to roll the sensor cleanup again.
[roll0]
Against my General knowledge of 7 that's a success right? Just making sure.

[Venom]

Lt. Varik, Engineering

Tapping his communicator, Engineering to Bridge, he waits for an answer from the new Captain before continuing. Lt. Varik here sir. I've been able to track down most of our problems to two relay nodes that were damaged beyond repair due to that first energy blast. A small number of system resets need to happen in the interim, as well as a number of minor repairs. Give us two hours sir, and we'll have the Hudson Bay ship shape again.

Calling Engineering to attention he starts ordering teams to the affected systems, saving the most difficult job for himself and one "lucky" ensign.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas, Security

Shanas had been going over security drills with her team. They'd just completed another fire drill and the Andorian was idly wondering if Ensign Marquez had anything on his roster later when the wave hit the ship.

By the time she'd determined the worst injuries were some light bruising the news about Acting Captain Tucker had come through. Her attennae drooped in dismay.

"Shanas to bridge." She tapped her comm badge. "Reccomend my team report to the transporter; we don't know what condition those survivours will be in."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Take us to Yellow Alert," he says cooly. Looking at the science station he sees it vacant and then move towards it. "Get all the sensor telemetry on the star, We need to figure out what is going on here."


Mental skill: General Science 5
[roll0]
(there's a +1 as a listed skill right?)

[Kislath]

Katsaros has little trouble doing all of those routine things, and in fact it got considerably easier once Aria got the sensors tuned back to perfection.

Now that the sensors are back to normal, it quickly becomes clear that there were no survivors on the wreckage of the other ship.

Come to think of it, there are no dead bodies, either.

Even clearer is the fact that this was obviously not the USS Vasco Da Gama at all, or even a Federation ship. In fact, just a cursory glance at the now-clear image reveals that the other ship was a ROMULAN one.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon

"Thank... Thank you captain." Ltd. Bacon says with a nod while thinking to himself. 'I can't handle this.' But quickly trying to refocus knowing lives could be at stake. He finds himself lost in the screen of the explosion and notices Ensign Katsaros has set up communicator locations to be relayed to his console... Yet there doesn't appear to be any responses yet. He then looks up from his station to see that the debris isn't a federation ship at all. It's Romulan.

"Sir... That isn't the Da Gama." Bacon says obviously while looking at the view screen.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He didn't know if he should be relieved by that news, but words of Romulan activities drew a little more than just concern from him. "Can you determine what kind of vessel that was? If we can't do it by scanning, bring some of the debris on board and have our engineers take a look at it."

He pauses a moment then understands the limits of his knowledge. "Get Lieutenant Albrecht up here."

Looking at his 1st officer, "Find me the de Gamma and watch out for any other Romulans."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Will Bacon

"Aye Aye captain." Says Ltd. Bacon as he uses the sensors in hopes to pick up a Star Fleet warp signature.


Specialized Knowledge 5
Skill: Starship Sensors
[roll0]

If he does pick up a warp signature he'll than use the coordinates to see if that matches the previous location or a new location.

Specialized 5
Skill: Navigation
[roll1]

[Kislath]

Bacon scans the area and finds residual traces of the sort caused by a Federation warp signature. He also picks up traces of two other types, one of them Romulan. That's all he can determine, though, unable to make any sense of the jumbled mess.

[Lentrax]

A voice calls out from under the console, "Well? does it work? Good. Now would you mind moving so I can get out of here? Sir?"

[ArlEammon]

Lieutenant Albrecht
"Reporting for duty." Albrecht reported, waiting for the Commander's orders. Lieutenant Albrecht was inside of an experiment in a small chamber that was somewhat like a deprivation chamber. Thus, he was unaware of the total chaos that had transpired, except for what was obvious.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Damn it," he mutters as he hears of the other two warp signatures. "Find out how old they are and if those signatures are coming or going."


Lieutenant Albrecht
"Reporting for duty." Albrecht reported, waiting for the Commander's orders.

Moving away from the science station he says to the arriving officer, "Take the science station and tell we all you can about the star."

Song looks at the communications officer. Knowing the futility of the request he asks it anyway, "Send a message to starfleet requesting the full file on the de Gamma."

[ArlEammon]

Lieutenant Albrecht
Specialized Knowledge
[roll0]

"Commander:
This star, MGC221-B, was a normal type G star. Now it appears more like a proto-pulsar, gushing energy & particles from one large spot. These are being emanated from a huge damaged spot. The whole star is shuddering as well, releasing waves of energy all over at unpredictable, irregular times. It does not appear to be in any danger of collapse, although the situation could possibly degrade over time.

Judging from a pattern of scattered nearby stellar debris, it appears that the star suffered a massive internal explosion of some sort."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Will Bacon

"I'll see what I can do." says Bacon as he attempts to continue to scan in hopes of more information, but knows this is unlikely.


Specialize 5: Sensors
[roll0]


Bacon also begins to think about what is going on. Why are the romulans here? Who is the mystery other warp signature? Unfortunately all he can come up with are more and more questions, yet no answers. As a last ditch effort he scans the debris field in hopes of finding something unique to the situation. He attempts to filter out the stars radiation, and general ship materials in hopes it will turn up something, anything that might show why the Romulans were here. Bacon wonders if weapon fires was exchanged as he begins his additional scans.


Specialize 5: Sensors
[roll1]

[Lentrax]

Seeing her questions go unanswered, Aria decides to simply push her way out from under the console. Then, without a word to anyone, heads to Main engineering.

Someone has to get the Warp engines back online.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Will Bacon

"Captain!" Will Bacon says eagerly. "There was another ship that was destroyed here. Undetermined what it was... The federation leads away from this star... Right into the neutral zone." Will pauses and awaits the captains response.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Okay. It'll be two more hours until we have warp power. Swing around and collect some of the debris and put in cargo bay one. Maybe we'll get lucky and find out what the hell happened to the Romulan ship."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon

"Yes Sir." Bacon says as he attempts to navigate around the debris field collecting various samples with the tractor beam and pulling them into the cargo bay.

Specialize: Navigation 5
[roll0]
Not sure if I needed to roll for this task as it sounds simple, but just in case.

[ArlEammon]

Lieutenant Albrecht immediately conducted sensor scans through the science station, looking for any unusual properties.
[roll0]

[Kislath]

It takes awhile to figure it out, but the metallurgy and materials composition scans from the debris bits offer up a juicy bit of information.
There is wreckage here from TWO ships. One of them was decidedly Romulan, but the other is completely unknown.
Further scans reveal that both ships show some charring.

The unknown ship has some damaged spots on it which were probably caused by phaser fire. Federation phaser fire.
The Romulan ship shows evidence of Disruptor damage.

Judging by the stress patterns in the metal and charring on the interior surfaces, it appears that both ships ultimately exploded. You saw the Romulan vessel meet its end under the pummeling of the star, but there is no clear evidence showing what led to the fate of the other ship.

[Lentrax]

Engineering to Bridge. Warp Drive at your discretion, but the main energizers are more tangled than a Medusa's hair. I don't know if she'll hold up too long if it comes to a fight.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Very good. We have some debris in cargo bay 1. The science team gave me their report, I'd like an engineering team to take a look at it as well... for a different perspective."

He turns to the helm, "Alright, let's get after the de Gamma, warp 9, now."

Without looking at Thea, "Ensign, hows getting that file coming... I don't want to go up against a weapon that can do that to a star without knowing everything I can. I don't care if you have to trade your mother's last tooth for it. Also ask Starfleet if we are to pursue the de Gamma if it crosses the neutral zone."

[Reltzik]

OOC: Sorry, yesterday was busy.

Having brought herself up to speed, Ensign Katsaros fired off a very quick initial report to Star Fleet on the incident within 20 minutes of them warping in.

Starship USS Hudson Bay, upon arriving in MGC221-B system in search of the Vasco de Gama, has sustained damage from an unknown stellar disruption. Casualties include Acting Captain Tucker. Lt. Cmdr. Song has assumed command. Shields are now up and holding.

A Romulan starship was also in-system for unknown reasons, and was destroyed by the stellar activity. Initial surveys suggest that the ship had been abandoned.

Will report further as the situation clarifies.

When ordered to request the full file on the de Gama, Ensign Katsaros couldn't help but frown. She fired off the full request, but something was bothering her.

As the situation developed, Katsaros began putting together a more complete report, appending sick bay, engineering, and scanner data. But SOMETHING didn't feel right. She hesitated, her finger wavering over the SEND button, even as Acting Captain Song asked about the de Gama's file. And that's what made it click.

"It hasn't come through yet, Lieutenant Commander. ... sir, if I might ask, shouldn't those files have been uploaded with our mission brief? Why weren't they?"

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"The command package stated 'Need to know,' ensign."

[Reltzik]

"Respectfully, sir, I'd say we weren't given what we...." Thea trailed off, biting her tongue before she said something insubordinate. "Sorry sir. I'm about to send a more detailed report of this incident, and then I'll try some other avenues for the de Gama data. With your permission, I'll also copy the part of the report dealing with the star's destabilization, and our theory that it was likely artificial, to all starbases and Starfleet ships in this sector. If there's something cruising around here with a weapon that can almost destroy a star, they might need to know."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He just nods. The bureaucracy that was Starfleet was a head ache if it wasn't annoying. "Once Engineering has look at the debris I want a meeting with Tenthos, Varik, Shanas, Weaver, Albrecht, and Bacon in conference room 1. If you get us that report join us as well."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Will Bacon, Chief Operations Officer

Will Bacon gives Ltd. Cmdr Song an accepting look at continues looking over the ships system to determine what needs to be done and what he can do in the mean time. While Ltd. Bacon he starts thinking about this whole situation and what it could means... Why has Vasco De Gama disobeyed Star Fleet. Why are the romulans involves... What is the unknown ship that was destroyed... And what caused that Star to act like it did. He starts running various scenarios in his head, but nothing seems to be making any sense to Will.

[Reltzik]

Ens. Katsaros takes a moment to take the information on the Star's destabilization (including the sensor data and preliminary analysis) and address that to every Starfleet ship and base in the sector. As an afterthought, she adds a suggestion that the starbases start an analysis of what's in the path of that energy wave. Though not an astronomer herself, her background did tell her about civilizations wiped out by nearby gamma bursts from novas and supernovas, and she doesn't want a planet of billions sentenced to death in ten years because no one thought to check up on them. Only then does she send the information on to all recipients.

That done, she calls up what little information the ship computer has on the de Gama. It's not much. Class, hull number, some bare-bones notes on capacity and command staff. She was sure she didn't trust it. Starfleet Command (or, more likely, a small corner of Starfleet Command) was keeping a lot of things secret, and a refit with something highly experimental and classified sounds just right.

So. Information blackout from Starfleet, but no direct orders not to pursue the material. It was time to place a personal call.

((OOC: All right if I make a social roll to have a decently placed Academy buddy that I can call in a favor from?))

[Kislath]

( OOC ) Ha! That's an excellent idea.

[Reltzik]

Thea placed a call to a personal com unit and kept her voice low so as not to disrupt the rest of the bridge, but anyone straining their ears could make out her half of the conversation.

"Hi Chuluun, it's Thea... oh geez. Sorry, sorry, forgot you weren't on San Francisco time.... Heh, yeah, maybe you should. How's the new arm coming? .... Good!...good... not so good.... yeah, I'd probably be bored too. Say, how much free time does a convalescent on half-time desk jockey duty get, anyway?.... no, not counting physical therapy, you NEED that you idiot... well, yes, I do have something in mind... hah, I wish, I'm nowhere near Sol. Next time we're in the same star system, how's that sound? ... yeah, it's kinda business. I need a favor and I'm calling in my marker. ... because there's ALWAYS a marker ... yeah, that one.

"Look. My ship's out on some need-to-know mission, except we're not getting any of the data we need to know. So we need someone on the same planet as Starfleet Archives to poke around. ... no, DEFINITELY not, don't you remember second form? NOTHING classified. ... because I don't want you in trouble, and even if I did I wouldn't want you tripping any alarms either. .... No, I DON'T think that. Something's hinky is all, but I don't know what. ... no, this ISN'T another prank.... you know, a mark of maturity is that we don't focus on the irrelevancies of the distant past... okay, so maybe my profession DOES resemble that remark ... it was NOT that recent, Chuluun... look, here, look at this image. This was a G-class star less than a day ago. How's that for made up? ... yeah, I thought it would. ... No... NO. I mean it, no hunting around for classified stuff. Just get me everything you can that ISN'T classified. And maybe some idea of what parts have been blacked out. Not the contents, just the borders of where the classifications begin and end. And do it quietly. Can you do that? ... no, really, I'm serious. ... good.

"Right. We need as much as we can get on Vasco de Gama.... no, no, the starship... The CURRENT starship, hull number... yeah, that's it.... pretty much everything. Personnel files, refit history, mission profile. Ports of call, especially recent ones.... yeah, including any starbases it touched at, I'd like to be able to follow up with them... yes, but, use the Hudson Bay's public encryption key, I might not be on station when it comes through. And remember, NOTHING classified. I mean it. ... thanks. Just send it on with an urgent flag once you have it... Right, next time we're in the same port. I'd owe you one, if you hadn't owed me one. Thanks, Chuluun."

She'd noticed the signal from Starfleet command during the call, but had simply glanced at it and forwarded it to Lt. Cmdr. Song by keypad. It wasn't nearly enough information to call Chuluun off the hunt.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song


Commander Song enters the conference room and waits for everyone else.

[Reltzik]

Thea passes on the call for a conference to the named staff, downloads the Admiral's new data to a padd, and heads to the conference herself, perusing the download as she does.

[Kislath]

(OOC)
Heh,heh..okay that was pretty cool, but please, bear in mind that you guys are waaaaay out on the frontier, and the subspace Ping time is ridiculous. Live conversation is not possible. The gist of it, though, will stand, and your friend is now snooping around for information.

Wooooooorrrrzzzzzzziiii---POOOM!!

And you're off!
Following the warp trail of the ship you assume is the USS Vasco Da Gama, you forge ahead ever closer to the edge of the Romulan Neutral Zone. Eventually you cross the border, reeeaallly hoping that no one takes offense.

The trail is getting less degraded and fresher as you go, and thusly easier to follow. In fact... it's so fresh now that the ship that left this trail can't be very far ahead.


(OOC) The NPC's can fly the ship while you have your meeting.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd Bacon

Ltd. Bacon enters the meeting room. "Hello Captain." Will Bacon says as he sits down at the conference room table.

[Venom]

Lt. Varik, jeffries tube interior

Closing the final panels to the power network central maintenance console, Varik taps his communicator. Varik to Engineering, I've completed the repairs. You're clear to energize the network.

Yes, sir, came the reply from a hesitant Ensign. Um sir, you've been requested to meet with the Captain and the other senior staff when you were finished with your work.

Understood Ensign, Lt. Varik to Captain Song. He waits for the Captains reply. Yes sir, I apologize for my absence, I shall proceed directly to the conference room.

[Lentrax]

Aria walked into the briefing room ducking instinctively under the top of the door, still wearing her engineers jacket. Tools stick up from the pockets on the jacket, and a large tricorder sits on her belt. She finds a seat and with a nod for the other officers in the room, waits for the meeting to start.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

Once everyone is there he begins, "We have orders to pursue and capture the Captain of the Vasco de Gama, Captain Kincaid. During our pursuit we have found a star destabilized, debris from two ship, one is unknown the other is a Romulan V30 attack cruiser. What we can infer from this is that the Romulans were accidentally; they are up to something. Is there anything else, any ideas of how to approach this?"

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

The Andorian had entered just before Song started keeping. Now she spoke up.

"We should try and recapture the Vasco de Gama first Captain. The Romulans would outgun us if we tried to go after them alone. With two ships I wouldn't bet against us in a firefight."

[Lentrax]

"What about the Titan? Weren't they supposed to be en route?"

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Yes, we are currently in pursuit of the de Gama. We are also unsure of why it is heading towards the Romulan boarder. It certainly begs the question that if the de Gama has a weapon that destabilizes stars are they intending to use it on the Romulans."

He then answers Aria, "Yes, the Titan is on its way but we don't know it's ETA. So, lets assume we are on our own. Our current orders are to capture the de Gama and wait for the Titan."

[Kislath]

-deet-deet-

"Bridge to Commander Song; we're detecting something at the extreme range of our sensors, dead ahead. I think its the Da Gama. We should be able to confirm in about 4 minutes."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

The meeting was shorter than he wanted. "Alight, meeting dismissed." He looked at the Andorian, "Lieutenant Shanas, get your people ready. I'm going to send in a boarding party as soon as possible."

"Song to Bridge, on my way. Goto red alert."

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

"Aye sir." Shanas tapped her comm badge. "Shanas to security squads Alpha and Gamma: arm yourselves and assemble in the transporter room at once. This is not a drill, repeat not a drill."

The Andorian departed to her quaters to arm herself with a phaser and her own ushaan-tor (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ushaan-tor).

[Reltzik]

Thea slotted herself into the communications station and got ready to hail the de Gama if the acting captain ordered it. Then she double-checked that the boarding teams had their own dedicated, encrypted channels for squadron and team communications. It wasn't likely that the security department had neglected to do this, but she double-checked it anyway. Finally, she set the computers to monitoring the de Gama for any internal communications. She didn't think she'd intercept anything -- she was under the impression that this sort of thing required a trained signals officer -- but it didn't hurt to see what the computers could tease out.

[Lentrax]

Aria stands up and heads for the door. "Alright. I'm headed back down to engineering. Varik, you coming? Hera help us if that EPS relay on deck 7 goes out again."

[Kislath]

The Hudson Bay snaps to Red Alert, and the next few minutes are filled with tension. Eventually, the IFF transponder code can be read, and sure enough, it's your quarry. Catching up to her is pretty easy-- the Da Gama is not moving.

Uh, oh...

She's not alone.

The Da Gama is stationary, sitting nose-to-nose with a big Romulan D'deridex "Warbird."

Straining to hear anything she can pick up, Thea overhears only silence.

[Venom]

Lt. Varik, trailing after Lt. Tenthos, turbolift 1

Standing off to Aria's left Varik only starts talking once the turbolift doors close. Lieutenant, I've completed the repairs to the computer systems, power systems and finished your work you began on the transporters. Everything is back to operational status. And it's illogical to invoke Hera for assistance as she is no more likely to appear as she would be to help in such an eventuality.

[Lentrax]

Aria sighs at the very Vulcan response.

"It's just an expression, Varik. You know, like how keeps saying things like 'Your logic is faulty.' Or 'I fail to comprehend your use of colorful metaphors.' They're just phrases. Just things we say. Religion is is very important to my people. Even after all this time. Hades, I have a shrine to Athena inside my quarters."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He didn't like the looks of things. "Shields! Scan those ships. Tell me what's going on."


Are those ships fighting?
Is there any damage on them?
Are their shields up?

[Kislath]

Shields are down.
There is no exchange of weapons fire.
They are not damaged.

Thea is not picking up any communications from either ship.

More intense scanning may reveal more.

[ArlEammon]

Energy Scans
Lieutenant Richard Albrecht
"Running a scan to see if anything is wrong with the object's magnetic fields and other energy signatures." Richard was quite curious. What was going on here?
[roll0]

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

Hail them separately. To unidentified Romulan war ship, you are in violation of the neutral zone and the articles of treaty between the Romulan Empire and the Federation of Planets... any hostile actions will be interpreted as an act of war. You will be boarded. Acknowledge.
He looks at his Thea before starting with the second message.
"Vasco de Gama you are to stand down and prepared to be boarded. Captain Kincaid you are hear by relieved of command."

[Reltzik]

Thea suppressed a slight wince, but parsed those messages and sent them on separately. She also prepared a three-way conference, just in case it came down to it.

She also took the break in communications silence to check to see if there were any Starfleet comm badges on the de Gama, at all. (Just a ping, not actually contacting them.)

[Kislath]

Albrecht's scans reveal periodic peaks and valleys in the Da Gama's total energy signature. A little refinement shows that it is using it's transporters very heavily.
.................................................. ..............
Thea.. your pings are positive. The Da Gama is fully staffed.
.................................................. ...............

Incoming Replies:
From the Da Gama:
"What? Are you kidding? YOU'RE in the Neutral Zone! Trying to attempt any police action against my ship for being here is mighty hypocritical of you, don't you think?"

From the Romulan:
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. *ahem* Pardon me. I would advise you to stand down and maintain your distance, lest things happen that we would all find... regrettable."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Why didn't someone tell me we entered the neutral zone!?" he barks at the helm.

"Send to the de Gama, Captain Kincaid we are here on Starfleet orders to apprehend you and your ship. Entering the neutral zone has only compounded your troubles. Stand down."

When he hears the Romulan response, his first impulse is to fire at the unshielded enemy to show him what regrettable meant. Instead he replies "Unknown Romulan ship identify yourself!"

Pressing a button on his chair's arm he says, "Security, we'll beam you to the de Gama's bridge once we are in range."

[ArlEammon]

"The De Gama is using it's transporter very heavily." Richard Albrecht states in complete calm, still oblivious to much of the chaos that has occurred on the ship. "The energy signature is quite abnormal."

[Kislath]

Incoming responses:

Vasco Da Gama:
"Starfleet orders? What??... Very well. We're almost done here anyway. This better be good."

Romulan:
Greetings. I am Sirol, Subcommander of the Terix. ... Your ship is the ..Hudson Bay, yes? You must be Captain Sifu. A pleasure to make your acquaintance at last. So, my good Captain, what brings you here? I get the impression that you aren't here to assist your comrades?"

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

Song responds to Albrecht's report quickly, "Are the transports to or from the de Gama, and can you figure out what it is: life form, power source, star crippling device..."

He looks over his shoulder, "Lieutenant Bacon, take a copy of our orders and lead the away team to the de Gama."

The new acting captain pondered a moment and decided not to inform the Romulan who he was. "Send this to the Romulan ship: Sub-Commander Sirol, You intelligence is correct, this is the Hudson Bay. I must dispense with the pleasantries and inform you that Captain Kincaid has not been authorized to communicate with your or your government and we are here to bring him in. In the spirit of galactic harmony please tell us what are your dealings with the Vaco de Gama and her crew."

[Reltzik]

Thea forwarded the communications, and then turned to Lt. Cmdr. Song.

"Sir, if I might make a suggestion? I've managed to lock on to most of the de Gama's crew comm badges, and their shields are down. If we were to make a visual hail, we'd be able to identify by sight which one belongs to Captain Kincaid, and beam him directly to the brig. If we were to then immediately warp out at a pace the de Gama could follow, it's quite likely they would pursue us to our rendezvous with the Titan. And if not, we can return to deal with them once the Terix has moved on."

[Kislath]

Romulan Reply:

"... You don't already know why we are here, and yet you have come charging in to stop us? I must admit to a certain feeling of amusement from this. Very well.
If you must know, one of our ships was lost while lending aid to your Federation. Your Captain Kincaid has been gracious enough to grant us a favor in kind by returning the crew of that ship to us. A most serious offense indeed! You should of course seize him at once. heh,heh."

Smug little twerp, isn't he?

In under a minute you are within transporter range.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He considers Thea's suggestion for a second before answer, "Good idea but no. He's not putting up a fight and he is a starfleet captain and will be afforded the respect of the rank until otherwise noted.

Anyway respond to the Romulan ship: Our orders stand, if you wish to make a statement on behalf of captain Kincaid we will send you information on the appropriate diplomatic channels for them."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First Officer - Bridge

"Yes Sir." Ltd. Bacon says as he quickly hustles to the transporter room to meet up with Shanas and her security team.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas and her team are waiting in the transporter room, Shanas herself looking eager to get going. The Andorian tries to hide her dismay at Bacon's arrival - so much for leading the boarding herself.

"New orders sir?"

[Reltzik]

Thea passed on the communications, and chided herself for her very stupid mistake. Normally, she was at home in Starfleet culture, but... she wasn't a communications officer. That had her feeling out of place, and it was making her responses less Starfleet and more Ferengi.

Rule 52: Never ask when you can take.

But she wasn't among Ferengi, and she tried to force her thinking back into Starfleet patterns.

[ArlEammon]

Albrecht
"Checking that right now." Albrecht replied.
[roll0] Richard attempted to see what was at the heart of the matter. He hoped it wasn't some sort of cooperation between the De Gama and the Romulan vessel.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He had been using voice only communication to hide the fact he wasn't Captain Sifu. This ploy wasn't going to last much longer. If he was going to be interacting with the Romulans he needed to be better informed.

"That sub-commander isn't the captain of that vessel. I want to who runs the Terix. If you can, find out what starfleet knows of him or her."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First Officer - Transporter Room

"Our orders haven't changed. When we are within transporter range we'll beam over and are to apprehend the De Gama. We will place bridge crew under arrest. Be prepared to face resistance, although let's hope it won't come to that. Remember. We're dealing with our own people here, so use your best judgment." Ltd Bacon tells Lt. Shanas although he knows the speech wasn't needed.

[Kislath]

"We are in range and ready to transport," reports the Transporter attendant on duty.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Okay, get me a visual with Captain Kincaid and have the transporter team go."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First Officer - Transporter Room

Ltd. Bacon steps on the transporter pad ready to beam over.

[Reltzik]

Thea button-pushes. Visual, message forward to away team, etc.

[Kislath]

The image of the USS Vasco Da Gama's bridge and her Captain, Ivan Kincaid, pop up on the main viewer. He looks up, having just noticed you.

"Okay. What is this all about? What do you and Starfleet want with me? I haven't done anything wrong here, except for entering the Neutral Zone of course, but I had a good reason for that.. How did Starfleet even find out about that so soon, anyway?"

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"I don't believe it has anything to do with your crossing directly," Song says, "I am sending my first officer over with a security detail. With the orders from starfleet. Your crew can verify the authenticity. While I know that protocol gives me the right to take you to my brig and place my first officer in temporary command of your vessel, I think perhaps we can just confine you to your quarters and have my team secure you communication, information, and tactical systems."

[Kislath]

"You don't believe... you don't even KNOW why you're bothering me? Well, there's a fine how-do-ya-do."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"We are both officers, and we are subject to our orders."


Is the landing party there yet?

[Kislath]

"Well, we're done here, so let's get this over with."

No, no landing party beamed over. Everyone is on some sort of standby I guess, with no one having done anything yet.

"ENERGIZE!"

[ArlEammon]

Albrecht
"Sir, my scanning reveals that the things being transported from the Da Gama to the Terix are indeed Romulans."

[Kislath]

The landing party beams over, and the first thing out of the ordinary they notice is that, well, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. The ship is not on alert, and everyone is acting normally, almost casually, even. The crew of the Da Gama do regard the invaders with apprehension, but there is no hostility.

The Bridge is easy enough to find. Once on it, the party finds the same sort of environment.
Ivan Kincaid shoots a steely look to all.

"Okay, you got me. Now what's the meaning of this??"

.................................................. .....................................

Meanwhile....

"Captain, we are approaching the coordinates. Neither long range sensors or navigational transponder buoy telemetry data are detecting either the Da Gama.. or the Hudson Bay."

William T. Riker could not disguise his irritation.
"Where in the..?" Keep scanning, Ensign.

"Aye Sir.....The star is emitting very powerful bursts of energy, and I am picking up what may be a large debris field. We will have to get in closer for a better look, but I think the debris is what used to be a ship. Maybe two ships, Sir."

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas ordered her security detail to disarm the bridge crew in case any of them were carrying arms. She herself kept Kincaid under phaser.

"Captain Ivan Kincaid you are hereby placed under arrest. As a citizen of the United Federation of Planets you have the right to a fair trial and to answer your charges."

The Andorian's tone was icy but formal. She swiveled on her heels to face Bacon, waiting for the the senior Lt to read out the explicit charges.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First office, Da Gama Bridge


Ltd. Bacon turns to the bridge crew of the Da Gama "Captain Ivan Kincaid and Da Gama crew. Under Star Fleet orders we are to take control of this ship temporarily and you will be placed under arrest. I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything more than that. Don't make this complicated." Ltd. Bacon insists as he looks carefully around the room to make sure none of the Da Gama crew are ready to resist.

I guess this would be a perception check which would be a mental check?
Mental Ability(7)
[roll0]

[Kislath]

Everyone seems cool except one Lieutenant at the tactical station. His hand is casually poised over the button that would put the ship on Red Alert.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He leans back in the command chair to think. "Ensign, send a message to the Titan, tell them we have the de Gama and it looks like Captain Kincaid is cooperating. Give them our coordinates and ask them their ETA."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First Officer, De Gama Bridge

Will walks over calmly to the tactical station and tries to reassure the officer. "These are orders from Starfleet command, I'm sure this whole mess will be straightened out soon enough. So don't do anything we'd regret."

[shaken_bacon]

If a roll was needed.

Persuasion.
Social Skill (8)
[roll0]

[Kislath]

After a furtive glance to his Captain, the Lieutenant stands down and takes a step back from his console.

On the Da Gama's main viewer, the image of a Romulan appears.

"That accounts for everyone. Thank You, Captain Kincaid. I would invite you and your Senior Officers over for some Ale, but it appears that you are a bit indisposed at the moment. I will send my report of these events to the Federation Embassy at once. Perhaps that may aid you. In the meantime, you would do well to return to your own space immediately, before some of my comrades arrive. Good luck, and Jolan True."

The Comm screen blinks off, and for a brief moment before it vanishes in a cloaked ripple, the Terix is seen turning away and heading for home.

"I reckon we should get going, then?" asks Kincaid.

[Reltzik]

Thea replied to the command with an "Aye, sir". She dropped her present task of correlating bridge officer locations with comm badges (even if the order to transport one of them wasn't going to be immediately forthcoming, you never knew when that sort of information would be helpful) and sent out a hail to the Titan.

(Assuming contact can be established) "This is the USS Hudson Bay hailing the USS Titan with a status update. The Vasco de Gama entered the Neutral Zone on an apparent errand of mercy and thus delayed our mission. We have just rendezvoused with her at coordinates ______, and her command staff is cooperative. The Romulans are aware of our presence and are not reacting negatively. Acting Captain Song -" she didn't know if the Titan had been appraised of their command difficulties "- extends his complements and requests your ETA."

[Kislath]

"Acknowledged, Hudson Bay. We're not crazy about the idea of entering the Neutral Zone. Make for friendly territory immediately and with all due haste. We will move into position to assist if needed. We should be able to rendezvous in about 35 minutes if you proceed at warp six, or 13 if we have to assist."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Alright then; open a channel to the de Gama," he says then waits till the communication is set up. "De Gama, set a course to Federation Space. We will follow. Once we are safe, I'd like a meeting with Captian Kincaid and your science staff."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd Bacon, First Officer, De Gama Bridge

Ltd. Bacon hears the message from the Hudson Bay. He begins to walk towards navigation and then hits his combadge to reply back. "Will Bacon here captain. Orders received and I'll get the De Gama underway. An interesting development here Captain. The crew and captain have stepped down, but we have a situation... It appears the Romulans are working with the De Gama, I'm not sure on the specifics, but I don't think the Romulans wanted their own to know about the meeting either. I'll inform you when I know more on the subject. I'll assume your orders to get out of the neutral zone still stand. Will Bacon out." Will now attempts to set a course for federation space and get the De Gama out of the neutral zone.


Doubt I need a roll for this, but just in case. :P
Specialized Skill(5): Nav
[roll0]


While using the console Will turns to Captain Kincaid. "Care to explain what I just saw captain?"

[Reltzik]

Thea patches through, relays messages, etc as required, and as time allows also maps comm badges to individuals. Again, just to have a little something in the ship's bag of tricks.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Mr Albrecht, keep a look out for any energy anomaly out there," he ordered know that it was only a slim chance they might catch a signature of a cloaked ship before it was too late.

[ArlEammon]

Albrecht
"Aye sir. . . "
[roll0]
(+2)

[Kislath]

Tense moments pass, then minutes. After what seems hours, the two ships cross the border into Federation space. Up ahead, the Titan is patiently waiting.

The moment everyone starts breathing again is actually audible.

Anyone looking at the aft view can see a ripple in space as the cloaked ship following them breaks off and turns away. It might have been following the whole time, or it might have just arrived recently. Who can say for sure?
.................................................. ....................

Bacon, Ivan Kincaid never said a word the whole time, obviously too furious for words.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

The newly minted acting Captain breathes a sigh of relief. He looked around and shook his head. He really wanted to go but there weren't enough people he trusted at the conn. "Albrecht take our sensor data over to the de Gama and ask them about the damaged star and the other warp trail. I want to know exactly what happened. Thea go with him. He'll need someone who can negotiate with them, I can only assume that the crew and Captain really don't like us. You job is to get them to cooperate."

[ArlEammon]

Albrecht'
"Aye sir." Richard immediately took his sensor to the transporter. . . "Um. . .hmmmm I wonder what's about to happen."

[Reltzik]

Thea responded with an "Aye, sir," and requested relief for the comm station. She left her work open for her relief, grabbed a data padd, downloaded any messages for herself on the off chance that any more of her information requests had been filled. She also downloaded everything the computer had on the Titan and its captain. Then she headed for the transporter room, already reading from the pad.

((OOC: Is it unreasonable to suggest that we have a reasonable dossier on Titan and Riker? Not everything, no, but at least the highlights of Riker's career?))

[Kislath]

(OOC) Yes, that's perfectly reasonable.

ENERGIZING!
.................................................. .....................

The party beams over and quickly find it's way to the bridge where the others are waiting. After the reunion, it's time to get down to business.

With more and more people piling into his ship, Captain Kincaid's resolve starts to crumble. He finally starts to talk.

"Well, it all started a couple of days ago. We picked up a weak distress signal from an unknown ship, requesting immediate assistance. The message said they were trying to escape the Romulan Empire, and were being pursued. We warped over to help, and when we arrived, we found the Romulan cruiser engaged in battle with the other ship.
We weren't eager to get into a fight with a V-30, but we hailed them to demand an explanation and remind them that they were in Federation Space.
Right about the time they answered, we found ourselves under attack from the very ship we came to assist!
They were no match for us after the pounding they had already taken from the Romulans, and we were able to beat them into submission very quickly. Heh. Imagine that. At least that's what we thought. It turned out they had an ace up their sleeve, and they played it.
The Romulan ship had cloaked itself to get ready for another volley. Big mistake, since those old V-30's don't have any shields up at all when cloaked.
Suddenly, the other ship, which by the way we learned later was a Suuljhani ship, fired a torpedo of some sort at the star. You probably saw what happened to the star, eh?
Well, when the eruption's discharge hit, the Romulan ship, without her shields, was a sitting duck. It got heavily damaged, crippled, even, and the Suuljhani ship was destroyed. We got off easy since our shields were up to full at the time.
After that, we rescued the Romulans, who told us what the whole mess was about in the first place. Their ship was damaged so much that even the self-destruct system didn't work, so we had to leave it there in one piece. You might want to swing around and tow it home, by the way.
Anyway, it turned out that these Suuljhani fellas weren't refugees, but radicals. They had planned to attack as many Federation star systems as they could with their star-killer weapon, some sort of tri-lithium device, which we found out didn't work all that well this time. The explosion was supposed to be a LOT bigger. Lucky us.
The rest is History. We sent word to the closest big Warbird we could find, arranged a rendezvous to drop off the Romulan survivors, and then you guys showed up."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

Once his science officer and communication officer are gone he steps to the science station to take another look at the sensor logs. Then moves to the communication station, "Bridge to Engineering, if you have some time Lieutenant Tenthos and Lieutenant Varik come to the Bridge."

Once they get there he asks, "If I'm not mistaken you can tell something about a ship from it's warp signature right? Speed, size, even if it Federation or Romulan? What can you guys make out from these warp signatures. Can you conjecture what kind of ship it was? Best guess."

[Lentrax]

As the call comes over the Comm, Aria sighs.

You ever get the feeling that bridge crews like seeing if engineers can run? Why in the name of the Gods couldn't they ask us this while we were up there?

Rolling Specialized Knowledge and applying benefit of Warp Field Theory skill.[roll0]

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First Officer, De Gama Bridge

"Okay and where does Starfleet come in on this? Why would they be so against this enough to send us after you?" Ltd. Bacon questions.

[Kislath]

"I have no idea. You'd think we'd get a Commendation for it, if anything."
.................................................. ............................

Aria, your analysis shows that the residual warp traces in the area were caused by three distinctly different types of ships. One is obviously from the Vasco Da Gama, one is decidedly Romulan, and the other is unknown. Judging from the size of it, it's a good bet that the other ship, the Suuljhani one, made it.

[Reltzik]

((OOC: This post is without knowing if Thea's knowledge roll succeeded, I might add more once I have the results.))

Thea put on a comforting smile. Not condescending, not pitying, not even sympathetic. More along the line of recognizing that someone bears burdens that you can't begin to comprehend. Captains liked that smile. "Captain Kincaid, thank you for your cooperation, and I hope we can continue in that vein. I'm Ensign Katsaros, and I've been assigned as liaison to yourself and your crew. As far as is practical, I shall try to see that any and all of your needs are met.

"I've personally been told very little about the charges against you, though I understand they involve the Prime Directive. My understanding was that very little information was disclosed to my commanding officer, either, and that we're operating in the dark. Errand boys, I think the term is.

"That said, comparing the timing of your own encounter with the Romulans and the Sulljhani, and the timing with which we received our own orders... well, I might not be senior enough to have an opinion on this, but if I did, it would be that this whole thing stinks. The order for your arrest must have come almost immediately upon Starfleet learning of your encounter, and if you had not filed a report it must have come by way of the Romulans.

"We're currently on course to rendezvous with the Titan, Captain Riker commanding. I don't know if you're familiar with him; I've only now managed to review his record. What I have read is that he follows the rules strictly, but when he breaks them it is out of pursuit of a greater sense of justice. He himself was arrested on Stardate..." she paused to check her padd "...47457, for violating an admiral's orders and revealing that admiral's own violation of the Treaty of Algeron. I do not think he will presume you guilty simply because an admiral ordered you arrested, and if there is anything undue about these orders, then he may be exactly the person to appeal to for aid in getting to the bottom of it.

"With that in mind we'd like to go over the entire incident so that we can give Captain Riker as full of a report as possible upon our rendezvous with him. If you would be kind enough to ask your crew-" she didn't like reminding him that he was no longer in a position to issue them orders, but felt prevaricating on the subject would be even worse "- to extend their full cooperation, record full statements about these events, and also grant us access to your computers, it would be extremely useful to that endeavor.

"In addition, this threat of a Trilithium weapon is of overriding concern. We need to get every byte of information you have, however trivial disseminated to every Federation outpost we can, as quickly as we can, on the chances that the Shuuljhani radicals have another ship with similar armaments. I hope we can rely on your cooperation in this manner as well. From what you've told us, it seems likely that you and your crew, by providing early warning about this threat in general and destroying a force bent on destroying entire Federation star systems, will end up hailed as heroes. In which case, a commendation would be the least you are due."

Thea stopped talking long enough to let Kincaid think. She herself was a fan of 20th century cinema -- inevitable for anyone in the SCA, as that was when cinema began. Personally, she'd always liked the role of "good cop".

[Lentrax]

Going over the data, Aria quickly picks out the warp trail of the da Gama. Dismissing it, she concentrates on what is left. The neutrino pattern makes it easy to pick out a Romulan ship, and the last bits of trail must be something else.

Aria taps the display on the science station.
This must be the Suuljhani signature. Not entirely sure where she's headed, but you can bet there's something important on the other end.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Well, well, well, now that is interesting. Was any of the debris we found Suuljhani?" he asks as he moves taps into the astrometic charts to find a possible heading for the warp trail.


Astrogation 9
[roll0]

[Kislath]

The Suuljhani trail ends at the debris field where you found the wreckage. The odds are extremely high that the wrecked Suuljhani ship is the source of it. The trail no doubt ls the one left by this ship, leading back to Romulan Space.

Of course, "Romulan Space" is pretty big, with plenty of opportunities for making various twists and turns along the way, so trying to figure out where the Suuljhani ship originated is a mighty tall order.

.................................................. .........................

The USS Titan enters transporter range and stops.

Hudson Bay-- incoming hail:

"Hudson Bay, this is William Riker of the USS Titan. Congratulations, you managed to get the job done and stay in one piece, and do it without starting any major incidents with the Romulans. Well Done, sir!
Make preparations to beam Captain Kincaid and his senior officers over to my conference room in five minutes. You and yours should come as well."

[ArlEammon]

Richard Albrecht"
Using powers to determine if he is hiding anything in the story he's telling us. He probably doesn't know if I'm an Empath. "Tell me, Captain Kincaid, before we go. . . why are you just telling us this now?" Whether or not Kincaid had already said the reason was not the point, Richard was trying to distract his mind for easier probing.
[roll0]
+1

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas ordered a detail of security officers to disarm the da Gama crew. She returned to speak with Bacon. "I suggest we shut off all replicators aboard to stop the crew getting any ideas. Few things are easier to create than a knife after all"

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd Bacon. Acting First officer, De Gama Bridge

Ltd. Bacon pauses for a few seconds to consider Lt. Shanas request and then replies. "I hear your concern but, we don't want to make a tense situation worse. Besides I think any real criminals would already have weapons hidden. With that said, if there is some sort of way to track the replicator logs, do it."

[Kislath]

Kincaid pointedly ignores Albrecht's question. He doesn't need to be a Betazoid to sense the frustration, resentment, irritation, anger, and disgust.

[Reltzik]

Not receiving an answer from Kincaid, Thea simply gives him a respectful nod and moves on to his officers, working the same bit: Liaison officer, want full statements, need access to computers, might help the captain, oh and OMG STARKILLING WEAPON NEED EVERYTHING WE CAN GET!

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Hudson Bay acknowledge," Song says to the Titan. Then addressing his people. "Alright folks, get the good Captain and his senior staff to the Titan. I'll see you there in five. Hudson Bay out."

He looks at the Amazonian, "Let's go"

[Lentrax]

Aye, sir.

When they reach the transporter room, Aria nods to the chief. It seems not so long ago that she was a nervous young petty officer working the transporter on the Saratoga. Of course that was before Wolf 359.

That changed a lot of things. For a lot of people. So many dead, and almost three quarters of those that weren't killed in action may as well have.

Mind to the present, idiot!

Aria steps up onto the transporter pad, engineering toolkit in hand. She looks over at her now-Captain.

Ready.

[Kislath]

ENERGIZING!

An eyeblink later, Song & Aria find themselves aboard the Titan.

It's...very nice. Veerrry nice. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make the first impression this ship makes to visitors a mighty good one.
"Welcome aboard. I'll escort you to the Conference Room," chirps the perky goldshirt.

In about 45 seconds the party arrives at the Conference Room and is shown their seats at a huge oval table. Sitting at one end of the table are Captain Riker and a pretty Betazoid woman.
.................................................. ..................

Back aboard the Da Gama, Thea scours the databanks for all the info she can get, but finds that there really isn't much more to find that was already known, but at least it was all recorded fairly well. That should prove useful in filling in any details that oral and written statements omit.

At the 4 minute, 30 second mark, the Titan hails the Da Gama, asking if there is a problem.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon - On Da Gama Bridge

Ltd. Bacon receives the hail and is perplexed by its intention. Ltd. Bacon responds to it "No problem here, just holding down the fort until we're given further orders." Will quickly realizes he shouldn't use old earth sayings, but they still slip out from time to time.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas had moved across the bridge to monitor the Lieutenant who had nearly acted out earlier. The Andorian raised a puzzled silver-white eyebrow at Bacon, clearly as confused as him.

[Reltzik]

Thea looked up from perusing the computer files. She hadn't given the tactical or visual data of the battle much interest. Just a quick glance to confirm it was there, but that sort of thing was pretty meaningless to her. Instead, she'd been going through every shred of information (and it was only shreds) of direct data on the Suuljhanni. But now as the call came in from the Titan, she realized she might not have much time to do that, and instead did what she should have done upon sitting down: Downloading the data to her padd. And then, because that wasn't what she was really here for (however much she personally and professionally WANTED to focus on the new species), she also downloaded all personal and mission logs for the past month.

[Lentrax]

As Aria walks throughs the corridors, she admires the ship she finds herself aboard. It's just so well put together.

That admiration continues as she walks into the conference room and sees Captain Riker sitting there at the head of the table.

Captain Riker! The man is a legend! even the Amazonian woman, who was raised to believe that women were better at leading then males found herself in awe of this Man.

Knowing the proper protocol was to await being seated, Aria stands at attention next to one of the chairs near the middle of the table, suddenly feeling very out of place in her engineers jacket. It makes her feel like she is treating this too casually.

[Kislath]

"Have a seat while we wait for the others to arrive. They ARE coming, aren't they? I'm Captain William Riker, and this is Deanna, the Ship's Counselor, and coincidentally, also my wife. May we offer you a drink?"

[Lentrax]

After being given leave, Aria sits down.

Thank you, sir. Pleasure to meet you, Counselor.

EWhen Captain Riker asks about the others, Aria shrugs, then taps her combadge, speaking again.

Not sure, sir. Tenthos to Bacon. You on the Titan yet? Captain Riker is waiting.

After Bacon responds, and the comline switches off, she turns back to the captain.

Sir? I am not sure you remember me, but I was on one the evac shuttles the Enterprise picked up from the Saratoga after Wolf 359. Of course I was just a Crewman back then, but I just wanted to thank you again, sir.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, Da Gama Bridge

Receiving a request from Aria and from the Titan Will realizes he is suppose to be there. "I think there was some miscommunication, Lt. Shanas come with me to the Titan. I assume your security team will be fine here on their own?" Will says with a smirk.

Will makes his way to the Titan.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"No thank you," he says politely declining the offered drink.

Tapping his comm badge he adds, "Lieutenant Bacon, bring Captain Kincaid and his sensor staff as well." There is clear frustration in his voice as he lists the people he will have to reprimand: Helm for not notifying entry into the neutral zone, bridge specialist for not forwarding his message to the de Gama.

[shaken_bacon]

"Yes Sir." Bacon replies. "Lt. Shanas, we must get Captain Kincaid and his senior staff to the Titan." Bacon says to Shanas.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

"Understood." Shanas answered, and turned to one of her security staff. "Diaz, take Jones, Cheng and Horowitz and secure the remainder of Kincaid's command staff. We'll rendevous in the transporter room."

The Andorian turned make to Kincaid. "To the transporter if you please Kincaid."

[Kislath]

LATER:

Finally, everyone is assembled in the Conference Room.

Riker starts the show:

"Welcome, everyone. We'll get to the main reason we're all here in a moment, but first, What Happened??"

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He looked at Captain Kincaid to answer. When he didn't he said, "After we received our orders we head to the Vasco de Gama's last known reported location and followed it to a destabilized star. The star emitted bursts of radiation that damaged our ship and left us with an additional fatality. We discover debris of a Romulan Strike V-30 Cruiser and two other warp trails. We followed the only trail leaving the system across the Romulan neutral zone, where we found the de Gama transporting Romulans over to a Romulan Warbird, Terix. Once we secured the de Gama we were able to leave without incidence to Federation space and we are now here. Captain Kincaid and his crew have been extremely cooperative."

[Lentrax]

You forgot to mention the Suuljhani ship reportedly armed with a Trilithium weapon.

[Kislath]

"The WHAT?? Did the Romulans launch an attack on us?" Riker is visibly upset by this revelation.

"Well, I look forward to reading your report. It sounds like the Da Gama saved the day. It makes what I have to do that much harder.
Ivan Kincaid, you are charged with violating the Prime Directive, interfering with the development of a primitive people on Beta Myanamid Four, giving them access to advanced Federation technology and instructing them on it's use. You'll be taken to Starbase 228 for a formal hearing. You are relieved of duty and confined to quarters for the duration of the trip."

"What are talking about!?!?! We've never even been to Beta..whatever you said, and if we had, you can bet we would never have done any such thing. You're out of your mind! What possible evidence do you have to support such an outrageous claim?" Kincaid is extremely angry, and it looks like he is about to attack!

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

His brow creased as he heard the charges and Captain Kincaid's retort. While he waited for at least some evidence he tried to recall what he knew of Beta Myanamid Four.


[roll0] general knowledge 8

[Reltzik]

Thea was in the presence of two captains, one of them decidedly angry, and the other very senior and a living legend. She, herself, was a lowly ensign less than a year out of the Academy. The only thing that could make things any worse would have been the presence of a flag officer, and she resolved to stay as small as she could in her chair and keep her mouth shut, shut, shut.

But she did have the data padd that she'd downloaded the de Gama's logs into, and she didn't have to open her mouth to perform a search on Beta Myanamid Four.

[Kislath]

Beta Myanamid Four:
A little planet way out on the edge of nowhere, and the last place anyone would ever want to visit. The conditions are very harsh, with high temperatures, heavy gravity, a thin atmosphere that blocks very little radiation from the sun, and scarce plant life. How anyone could even survive at all on it is a wonder. There are oceans, but they are also not exactly teeming with life, and what little life there even is on this planet is primarily found only along the coasts.
A survey team discovered this world only eleven years ago. The presence of humanoid life on it came as a complete shock, and indeed was almost missed entirely since they were little more than cave men living only in a few small isolated areas.

A cross-reference with the Vasco Da Gama's logs does indeed put the the ship on the edge of the Beta Myanamid system, 32 months ago, but the ship never ventured any closer to that planet than the star's Ort cloud, where it suffered some sort of malfunction that knocked it out of warp for several minutes until the warp drive system was re-booted and warp power restored. The cause was never determined, but no permanent damage was done.

Albrecht:
Deana looks at you with that knowing look that confirms what your Betazoid senses are telling you: Kincaid is telling the truth, or thinks he is, at least.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

Looking over Thea's shoulder he reads the log report and then asks, "The de Gama was in the Beta Myanamid system. Do you recall what it was for?"

[Kislath]

"What? When? Let me see that!"

Kincaid snatches Thea's Padd from her and studies it.

"Oh. Okay. Yeah, I remember that now. We were just making a course correction at that system. Everything was fine until KERWHAM! Something knocked us right out of warp. It shook us up a little but we weren't damaged, and in about a half hour or so we had things back up to normal and were on our way. That's it. We were only way out on the very edge of that system and never went anywhere near any of the planets. Our logs plainly show that, don't they, so why are we all here? What's all this about giving technology to cavemen, anyway? Even if somebody DID do that, they'd never even be able to understand it. You know what? I'm suddenly looking forward to my hearing just for the opportunity to make somebody look awfully stupid!"

Riker answers the question.
"Four years ago, the survey ship Hector visited Beta Myanamid and found that everything was just as it was eleven years ago when it was first discovered. Five months ago it returned and found this:"
The viewer in the conference room hums to life, and the images of an early industrial society appear. Steel & brick buildings, electric grids, chemical plants, steam and electrical engines powering factories and a few vehicles, farms... all the very sorts of things that cavemen should not have or understand, and certainly not have been able to develop on their own in three-and-a-half years.
"Impressive, wouldn't you say? Now the fun part- the power signature that we detect from all that just so happens to match Federation Standard.
The Vasco Da Gama is the only Federation ship to have gone anywhere near that planet between the Hector's visits. You MUST have been responsible for this."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Begging the captain's pardon but while that seems the most likely explanation the real answer lies on the planet surface. Might I suggest a thorough examination of the de Gama's logs first and then a possible away mission with a minimum team to limit further contamination," he suggests politely while retrieving Thea's pad and handing it back to her.

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

"That's impossible," Thea muttered, in spite of herself and her own determination to remain silent. She was about to begin to perform some calculations on her padd, but before she could touch the first button it was snatched away from her. She opened her mouth to protest but thought better of it, instead staring at the padd intensely and fidgeting in her seat until it was returned. She didn't... quite... snatch it out of Lt. Cmdr. Song's hand, but her eagerness to get it back was obvious. The moment she got it back, she began entering data and performing calculations. She muttered to herself as she did, having forgotten propriety and, possibly, where she was.

"Population density of pre-agrarian cultures.... isolated communities... factor of specialization... overhead... rate of return..."

She looked up. "Um. Sorry, sir. Sirs. With your permission, I'd like to look over the data, and perhaps confer with the Titan's experts on cultural anthropology and archaic technology."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon, First Officer - Titan Meeting Room

Ltd. Bacon decides to open his mouth after taking in a lot of information. "While in some ways this does look bad on Captain Kincaid, a lot of things don't add up. Even if the Captain did give the aliens the technology, it would be pretty hard to believe that they would be able to do all that on there own without prolong help. How long was the De Gama in the system? 16 months? If not, something else is probably going on... Unless the Beta Myanamid's are incredibly quick learners that is..." Will Bacon says with a bit of a smirk at Captain Kincaid. Will continues "But even still, why would the Captain do this in the first place? I don't know what's going on, but it's got to be more than it appears. I agree with Lt Cmdr Song. We need to go down on the planet. Who knows what we'll find, perhaps someone stole federation technology and is leading this planet. At this point it's all speculation, we need to go down there."

[Kislath]

Riker sits in stony silence for a moment, but eventually his curiosity gets the better of him.
"Sending an away team is probably the very last thing we should do, but it might not be the worst idea. Still, it won't do any good to go in without some idea of what they'd be looking for. Go ahead and meet with our anthropology team. Maybe together you can make some sense out of all this.

Captain Kincaid, my wife is giving me a look which suggests that she thinks you're telling the truth. She has a knack for that sort of thing, and I've leaned to trust her, so, for now at least, you're no longer confined to quarters. Don't make me regret that decision."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He gives a stern look to his members, "We will do this by the numbers. Lt Bacon, take Shanas and scour their log files. I want to make sure they haven't been tampered with. Look for any one accessing them in the last four months and any abnormalities that might even hint at something."

He looks at Aria and Albrecht, "Science and Engineering go over their sensor logs when they got knocked out of warp. Sub-space fishers, tychion surges, chronoton bursts, whatever."

Finally he looks at the half-Ferengi, "Look at the Titan scans see if you can make sense of it..." the next part is in a quieter tone, "look for entry and egress points for an away team, figure out how might a group of 'strangers' get access to the historical records and if possible the power source."

He smiles at the captains, "While my team does that might I ask for a meeting with both captains."

[shaken_bacon]

Lt. Bacon - Titans meeting room

"Yes sir." He says to Song. Will Bacon gives a nod to Shanas and says "Meet me at the Da Gama's bridge when you're ready." Will Bacon leaves the room and heads over to the Da Gama's bridge.

When he gets there the first thing he does is attempt to look at open logs from various personnel from a few hours before and after the Da Gama fell out of warp. He figures if anything is off one crew member may give it away.

Investigation: (Mental 7... I assume this would be mental... If not my general skills are 9 and specialization is 5.)

[roll0]

[Kislath]

Bacon:

Most of the chatter in people's logs before the incident tend to focus on entirely routine, mundane things, with the exception of an upcoming surprise birthday party for one of the crew. Indeed, almost all aboard were in the mess hall attending the party when the ship got knocked out of warp. This broke the party up instantly and sent everyone scrambling to their emergency duty stations.
The only ones not attending the party were the ship's Second Officer and a navigator, who were on the bridge, and an engineer watching all the readouts in the engine room.
The engineer's report states that the ship did not collide with anything, but instead, the warp field just simply "lost it's traction" against subspace for no apparent reason.
A small piece of debris was momentarily spotted drifting nearby, and at the time it was thought to be a piece of the Da Gama. By the time the damage was assessed and the ship found to be complete and missing nothing, the debris was no longer in sight. A few of the logs make a reference to "the blue thing" that a few people spotted out the window during the party, but it was behind the ship and obviously didn't collide with it. A photograph taken during the party shows a glimpse of the debris chunk trailing very closely behind the ship, possibly caught in the Da Gama's warp field.

The engineer's opinion about the incident, according to the logs entries, is that the Da Gama hit a tiny pocket of anomalous space where unstable subspace resulted in warp drive failure. The ship incurred no real damage, and was easily returned to warp speed in 22 minutes.

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon - Da Gama

Will Bacon is surprised to say the least by the findings. 'If the logs have been edited, they've done a damn good job' he thinks to himself.

----

After reading through log after log he turns to Lt. Shanas. "From what I've found the logs seem to add up. According to the logs they were only in the system for 22 minutes." Will then sums up the rest of his findings.

OOC: Basically you know what I know from the previous post by Kislath.

---

"What do you make of this whole situation?" Will asks her.

[Reltzik]

"Yessir," Thea replied. "I'll look into it. Though I suspect it will be somewhat... lower in priority, once you hear Captain Kincaid's report."

She turned to leave, and then stopped at the threshold. Her earlier hesitance was gone. She wasn't a lowly ensign anymore, trying to crew a station well outside her specialty. She was a scientist in her prime with years more experience and training on the subject at hand than anyone else in the room or, possibly, within ten light years.

"One more thing, sirs. There's several scientific reasons why such a societal transformation is almost totally impossible in three years, based on only the short time the de Gama was in system, even with flagrant violation of the Prime Directive. But in focusing on that, I overlooked a simpler flaw in the case against Captain Kincaid. If the charges are based on the premise that the Vasca de Gama was the only Federation ship to visit the system and thus the only one able to interfere technologically, then that is in error. The Vasca de Gama was not the only Federation ship to visit that system. There was also the Hector herself. And while much of the scientific implausibility attached to a twenty-seven month transformation based on a brief contact with the de Gama is also applicable to a four year transformation based on intermittent contact -- or an eleven year one, if the Hector forged its data on the second pass -- I can tell you right now that the eleven-year scenario is orders of magnitude more likely. Still highly implausible, but much more likely. That's expert testimony, or at least it will be once my analysis is complete."

With that she left the briefing room, accessed the wall panel, used it to find the right department, and headed off to confer with her peers.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas's anttennae slupped in frustration. "It does look like Kincaid was telling the truth." The Andorian admitted, the disappointment evident in her voice.

"On the other hand logs can only tell us so much, I think we should ask Captain Riker for permission to interrogate... er... interview some of Kincaid's crew."

[shaken_bacon]

Ltd. Bacon - Da Gama Bridge

"I agree. I'm curious what the 'blue thing' the crew say was. Also, I'm curious what Lt. Tenthos and Lt. Albrecht will discover in the sensor logs... None the less, the least we can do is find out what the crew knows." Will Bacon says. Will then walks over to communications in attempt to get permission from Riker. He sends a message through asking permission and awaits for the response.

[Kislath]

Riker's response is a positive one.
"By all means, interview everyone. We would have to do it anyway later, so we might as well get started."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

After Thea's long expositino Song says to her, "I'm sure captain Riker and I are looking forward to your report. That is all." When she is gone he smiles and says, "She is very enthusiastic and is trying to impress you. You remember how it is being an ensign."


I'm assuming Riker and Kincaid said yes to his request to speak alone.


Once everyone has gone, "Sirs, I'm sure you are aware of the Hudson Bay's situation. We have lost 15 of our officers, including our captain, chief medical, senior tactical, engineering, and science officers. 14 of them are in medical stasis pods. I was wondering if the Titan could relieve us of them. The Titan is better equipped to support them, our Miranda class ship is wired like a Christmas tree and I fear we might loose main power or something equally bad. A doctor M'jok on starbase 281 says he might have a cure for them.

Also I you wish to replace me with a more senior officer I quite understand."

I hope we didn't loose our science and engineering team.

[shaken_bacon]

Lt. Bacon - Da Gama Bridge


"Riker has approved our request. Let's go to the conference room and call in crew one by one to question." Ltd. Bacon says to Shanas as he makes his way to the conference room.


---

Ltd. Bacon looks at the logs. Once Shanas enters the room Will speaks with her "I'll let you take lead on who we call up first. Who would you like to question first? Personally, I'm curious what the blue thing was some of the crew mentioned in their log, but the engineer might be another good choice as well. Of course it's up to you and if you have someone else in mind that's find with me, we have to start somewhere after all."

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas - Da Gama Bridge

The pretty Andorian smiles and nods, looking rather cheerful. "I agree we should ask the witnesses first. As you say it would be good to hear them describe it now, in there own words. Also... I've always been fond of blue things for some reason."

[ArlEammon]

Lieutenant Albrecht
Lieutenant Albrecht scans for all the aforementioned tachyion surges, chronoton bursts and whatever anomalies would point out the problem that they needed a solution to.

1d12

[Kislath]

Well, despite pushing the totally wrong buttons on the computer panel,
( OOC 1d12?? )
Albrecht catches a break. The sensor logs of the Da Gama have recorded a very localized Vertion particle burst. It wouldn't be unusual to find such a thing in the Ort cloud of a star as the ship's warp field cut through the gas and dust and excited it, but a thick enough burst could conceivably disrupt that warp field enough to knock a ship out of warp. Such a thick enough burst would be a very rare and unusual thing to encounter, though, so the engineer's theory of hitting a subspace eddy is equally plausible.

.................................................. ....................
That's the good news.
.................................................. .................
The bad news is that Riker will absolutely not take the sick people aboard his ship. he allows that it would probably be safe, but he isn't about to take that risk without it being absolutely necessary.

"I saw the situation report. I'm sorry, but I just can't do it. It makes much more sense for you to travel to Starbase 281 and deliver them yourselves. I agree that the sooner you can drop them off the better off you'll be.
This investigation can wait a little while.
Go ahead and take the patients to 281. Drop them off and then rendezvous back with us at Beta Myanamid. Maybe by then we'll have a better idea of how to proceed. We'll escort the Da Gama there as well in the interim."
.................................................. ................
and the even worse news
.................................................. ..................

Boop-boop "Captain Riker, there's a message coming in for you sir. It's on a coded channel.. but the code is old and invalid."

"Really? Hmmm... okay, patch it through."

A moment later a familiar Romulan face fills the screen on Riker's terminal.
"Ah, so it IS you, as I had hoped. How good to see you again. I see you've been doing well for yourself, Hmmm?"

"Sirol??"

"Indeed! I have to admit that every time I encounter you Starfleet personnel I have to wonder if some of the things we are told of them by our own High Command aren't just a little exaggerated. To wit, I would extend my personal gratitude to your Captain Kincaid for his assistance in the recent unfortunate matter, and offer a statement of evidence if needed. His crossing into the neutral zone has helped to prevent a war, not start one."

"So I gathered. I hope that you can do a better job in the future of keeping these Suuljhani contained."

"We do try. They aren't so impulsive as they used to be. Perhaps within a few more years we can finally have them acting civilized. Alas, they are prone to doing foolish things on occasion, and when some of them manage to steal a cloaking device, well, unfortunate events can occur. Those things really are more trouble then they are worth sometimes, wouldn't you agree?"
"Heh. Yes, I certainly would."

"HAHAHA! I'll take my leave now, and bid you well. --- By the way, that is one very lovely ship. Is it new? My compliments to it's designers. Our own new designs will be entering service this very year. I hope to get one. I've been up for a promotion ever since we last met, but alas, politics has been holding me in place. This latest turn of events should be enough to finally get me my full Commander's Rank, and once again, it would seem, you are involved. Perhaps you are my..how do you say it...lucky charm?
Fare well, William Riker. Jolan True."

The screen goes blank.

[ArlEammon]

Well, despite pushing the totally wrong buttons on the computer panel,
( OOC 1d12?? )
Albrecht catches a break. The sensor logs of the Da Gama have recorded a very localized Vertion particle burst. It wouldn't be unusual to find such a thing in the Ort cloud of a star as the ship's warp field cut through the gas and dust and excited it, but a thick enough burst could conceivably disrupt that warp field enough to knock a ship out of warp. Such a thick enough burst would be a very rare and unusual thing to encounter, though, so the engineer's theory of hitting a subspace eddy is equally plausible.


((Sorry, don't I get a +2 added to it? I read a post and thought +2 added +2 to a 1d12))
"Sir, sensor logs of the Da Gama have a record of very localized Vertion particle burst readings. It's not unusual to find it in the Ort cloud of a star. This ship's warp field cut through the gas and dust, thus causing it to excite. However, a thick enough burst can disrupt the warp field enough to kick this ship out of warp. This thick burst should be rare and not usually seen, so the engineer's theory of hitting the sub-space eddy is just as valid as my hypothesis."

[shaken_bacon]

Will Bacon requests one of the crew who saw "the blue thing" to come to the meeting room via the computer.

OOC: to Armin

it's 1d10 (-2 if you have a bonus) Also to roll it is [roll] openbracket/roll]

[Kislath]

Not one, but three people show up at the meeting room. Word travels fast on a small ship. They sit down and fill Bacon in on all the details. One even has a few pictures taken during the party which show the object in the background.

It is mostly blue, and a little purple. It is about one and a half times the size of a photon torpedo, and roughly the same shape. The surface is not as smooth, though, being very bumpy. A very close look reveals that the object resembles a cluster of tubes and pipes all balled up in a big knot. Very odd. It doesn't look like anything that would ever serve any sort of purpose, or even any sort of thing that anyone would especially want to make.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"You know the Sum Commander?" he asks incredulously.

[Reltzik]

((OOC: Long and not particularly advancing the plot, but K asked for an IC post, so here we are. In spoilers because, well, long and not important.)

Doctor Katsaros's Log, Working Notes

I have begun my analysis of the situation on Beta Myanamid. My original estimation that the situation was flatly impossible, I must now admit was in error, based on the false understanding that the entire planet was industrialized rather than a single site. I have already uncovered several unsettling details and likelihoods.

The first is that the Beta Myaranid "natives" do not seem to belong on their planet. I have yet to identify any precursor or cousin species which might suggest evolutionary origin, and they do not seem particularly fit for any of the biomes they occupy. Perhaps some ecological disaster changed the land under their feet, so to speak. I've asked the Titan's science staff to look into it further, as it's not my area of expertise. I am now considering the possibility that the Beta Myaranids are not actually native to their planet, but are instead settlers, or perhaps transplants or descendents of castaways.

Assuming they are native, or have at least lived on this world for a few generations, they would of necessity have adopted a survival strategy of dispersion. The land is simply too barren to support a high or even middling population density. A nomadic existence would have been required, ranging across a wide territory for the provender needed to survive. These communities would be small. In addition to loners, the most common level of organization would be immediate families, or perhaps tribes of three or four families. Two or three dozen would be a large community, I would guess, though I still need to hear back about their caloric requirements.

This would drastically affect their psychology. Outsiders would have been distrusted and seen as competitors. Territorial feuds and violence would be the common result of interunit contact. That would not be universal. Contact between tribes would also be essential for exogamy and trade of crafted goods. Yet such strangers, if not adopted by some form of marriage or slavery, would be encouraged to move on quickly, before they overtaxed the resources of their hosts. It is likely that the guest would be expected to offer a gift of food or goods to the host, beyond what was to be traded later. One can expect xenophobia and strong independence to be the norm. If there was an extraplanetary influence, they would likely have been forced to secure cooperation or obedience through gifts of food, goods, or medicine, or through force of arms. None of these options seem likely to have produced universal compliance, or peaceful cooperation with their fellows.

It is telling, then, that they are now concentrated in a city. If they are not recent transplants, then their every instinct should be telling them to disperse. The population density will strike them as dangerously high, and feuds between families would be normal. Their nomadic roots will urge them to keep on the move, yet their circumstances will force them to remain settled. It is possible that on a rational level they recognize the advantages of dwelling in a city, yet on the emotional and cultural level they should be dispersing as fast as possible. At the very least, many groups should have left the city. The fact that they haven't strongly suggests some external factor at work.

The city itself is strong evidence of extraplanetary influence. Not only would it be a technological impossibility for them to have developed, but as a matter of infrastructure it would have been beyond their capacity to build. Yet why would an outsider build it, or rather, build a city like it? The late industrial era would be one of the worst times to emulate for any practical purposes. It requires, on the one hand, considerable organization and infrastructure that earlier stages of development would not, and on the other hand, massive labor force and energy sources that computerization and automation would render irrelevant. Why someone would take the time and effort to create this city, yet do so with factories and chemical plants rather than a few replicators, totally escapes me. And why would they conform to Federation power standards and yet not use devices that can be found in almost any kitchen in the Federation? Even if they have no replicators, automation and synthesization should be well within the reach of any spacefaring civilization. For that matter, why farm at all?

Also troubling is the prospect of epidemic. These are not historically city-dwellers, and cannot be expected to have the appropriate antibodies. Consolidating an entire species with no history of use of sanitation facilities from around a globe into close proximity is a recipe for multiple simultaneous pandemics. That this does not seem to be happening suggests, first, a degree of decontamination upon relocation, such as with transporter biofilters; second, strongly enforced sanitation procedures that would run contrary to their traditional sanitary practices; and third, ongoing medical monitoring for any hints of an outbreak. The natives would likely resent much of this.

All told, the picture is a bleak one. The natives were likely forced into the city and kept there by force. Their existence there will likely be utterly counter to their psychology, causing no end of distress, making them irritable while at the same time forcing them into unaccustomed close proximity with those they would traditionally view as competitors. Widespread violence seems to have been kept in check, again possibly through the use of force. Medical and sanitary practices were likely implemented, quite possibly under threat of force.

All of this points to a significant and ongoing off-worlder presence. It is possible that the entire process is automated, but in general civilizations with large amounts of automation do not feel the need to consolidate populations the way this one has.

I am therefore beginning my analysis with what I consider to be the most likely scenario: Conquest. It is possible that the invaders have a benign or altruistic motivation, but the effect will be the same. Other candidates include: The possibility that this species is non-native, and were transplanted, castaway, or part of a failed colony. I hope that an analysis of their linguistics will be able to identify if they are of common descent, though this is not my specialty. As another consideration, I wish to analyze the possibility that an ecological or planetary catastrophe ruined their planet in the recent past, in which case they might have the technological capacity to rebuild.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

The Andorian conversed with Bacon over the object in the picture. The pretty Andorian had a confused expression on her face.

"What are we looking at? Could it be just a bit of space trash they ran into. What is it you humans say, uh, a dead herring?"

[Kislath]

"Sirol? Yes, I know him. He's a friendly enough sort, when he's not busy trying to seal you up inside an asteroid.
That's how we met. I'm not at Liberty to discuss it, but the short version is that he once waited until the Enterprise was inside a cavity of an asteroid, and then he sealed the cave shut with disruptor fire, trapping us inside it.
How we escaped is the part I can't tell you.

At any rate, he's a typical Romulan, and trusting him isn't wise."

[shaken_bacon]

OOC: Sorry, been busy last few days.

Lt. Bacon - Da Gama

"That is possible and on any other day I'd agree that's all it is, but that would be too coincidental wouldn't it?" Will Bacon says and then pauses for a few seconds. "I guess we could try finding a match in the database for an object that looks like this... Though I don't have a good feeling about that." Will Bacon steps over to a computer terminal and sets the computer to find similar objects in the database.

Computer Search (General 9, Specialized 5... Guessing this is a general skill)

1d10

[Kislath]

After checking through the available databases, Bacon comes up with nothing that looks like a match for the curious object. For all he can tell, it might as well be a piece of bad art.

OOC: The dice roller works on a forward slash, not a backslash.

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

There was mail in her inbox when Thea got out of the sonic shower. She wrote him a brief thank you note, and then after a bit of obfuscation to protect Chuluun, Thea forwarded the data to Lt. Cmdr. Song and Lt. Bacon. She took particular care to call attention to the times when de Gama was confirmed at some location by an outside party, before and after their episode in the Beta Myanamid system. Whatever lies might or might not have been entered into the de Gama, those two times would define the maximum length of time that the de Gama could have been in-system. She also brought the crew's personnel files to the top of the directory.

That done, she turned her consideration to the power plant... briefly... before deciding she didn't have the expertise for it. Obviously, it was beyond the ability of the natives to erect, even assuming a baseline technology of industrial era. She forwarded the data to the engineering teams ((OOC: Do we have any PCs left in engineering?)) for analysis, specifically with the question of what type of power plant was it.

Then she set the computer to matching the species to one already in the database on the basis of physiology. She didn't have high hopes for this, because the sensor data for the Hector was poor, but it didn't hurt to try.

Having done all of this, she began writing up her speculations. Her first and foremost scenario was that of castaways whose lifepods' supplies had been depleted, and who were forced to live off the land for over a decade (and possibly for many generations) before getting relief from a passerby. The Federation power standards, the more she thought about it, were less significant. All it would have taken would be someone -- the a Ferengi, perhaps -- selling them used goods of Federation origin. The bootstrapped approach could be explained by a sparsity of goods provided. She also included a few other scenarios -- a sublight colony ship that lacked the capacity to redirect itself to a new destination when this one proved inhospitable, a failed attempt at terraforming, some sort of disaster that left the world barren but also left no obvious trace -- but ranked them as considerably less likely. She considered dismissing the conquest scenario outright, but instead included the possibility that such conquerors had used cosmetic surgery or holograms to appear like natives, for purposes of manipulation. She also included her description of a likely set of cultures which HAD evolved on this society, but emphasized that these assumptions were unlikely to apply if these were castaways who'd been marooned for less than a century or two.

Importantly, she called attention to the main tests to perform to determine if these people were alien to their world -- genetic, linguistic, and archeological -- and noted that (depending on how long they'd been on the world) the Prime Directive's harshest clauses about noninterference in pre-interstellar societies were quite possibly not applicable to their circumstances.

Finally, she ranked a few other questions of utmost importance to answer before first contact was made. What manner of government did they have, and which individuals were at its head? What guesting customs were there? What was the disease situation like? What were their immediate needs, and how could the first contact team appear (at least initially) unable to meet them?

When it was written up, she forwarded to a few members of the Titan's science team for second opinions.

[Kislath]

After an exhaustive search, the computer was able to find a similar species, the Dynassians.
The planet Dynassia once applied for Federation membership, but due to hostility the world was not only not accepted, but quarantined.

Note that the match is not exact, but only very similar. The Dynassians have not been spacefaring for very long, so the possibility of the Myanamidians being castaway Dynassians is extremely questionable.

[shaken_bacon]

Lt. Will Bacon

With no luck searching the database Will felts like he was running out of ideas. Just then he received a report from Ensign Theodora Katsaros. As he starts to read it he turns to Shanas "I'm forwarding you a report from Ensign Katsaros." Will continues to read the report over the next minute or so.

---

"Interesting finding, hmm?" Will Bacon says to Shanas. "I'm not sure what to make of all this... I still think out best bet is to go to the planet itself. What are your thoughts?" He asks.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Well thank you Captain Riker, I'm going to get back to my team and see what they have found," he says and leaves politely.

He headed for the science team to see how they are doing and also to check the de Gama's logs during their encounter with the star killing device.

general science
[roll0]

[Kislath]

After a lot of cross-checking and time indexing and good old sifting through data files, it becomes apparent that Ivan Kincaid has been telling the truth. The Vasco Da Gama never went anywhere near any planets in the Beta Myanamid system, and was indeed only near the system for a very brief time.

As for the battle, again, the previous statements check out completely. The Da Gama rushed to the scene in response to a distress call, only to find the ship that called them embroiled in a battle with a Romulan cruiser. After Kincaid & Company attempted to lend aid, the Suuljhani ship attacked the Da Gama without provocation. A battle ensued, during which the Suuljhani ship fired a torpedo at the nearby star, causing a huge eruption which destroyed it and heavily damaged the Romulan vessel. After a brief conversation in which the Romulans apologized for the unfortunate incident, explained what happened, and thanked the Da Gama for the help, Kincaid offered to give the Romulan survivors a ride back to their own territory, which they surprisingly accepted.
The survivors and the bodies were collected and the Da Gama sent out a message on a frequency provided by the Romulans. The Terix responded, a rendezvous was coordinated, and then shortly after the two ships met, the Hudson Bay arrived on the scene.

Everything checks out perfectly. No records have been altered. Data points from multiple sources confirm the data collected from other points. The Betazoids detect no deception.

Ivan Kincaid and the crew of the Vasco Da Gama are obviously, completely innocent of all charges.

Nobody has any idea what the "blue thing" was, where it came from, or what, if indeed anything, it might have had to do with any of this. The best guess is that it was a piece of space junk that got caught in and dragged around by the Da Gama's warp field until it broke loose when the ship dropped out of warp.

So now what?

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

Once they were on their way to Starbase 281 the acting captain called a meeting of the senior staff. "I want a senior staff meeting to discuss our findings and what our next move is," he announced on the com.

He now waited in the conference room for the others.

[shaken_bacon]

Lt. Bacon

Hearing the acting captains orders he heads off to the Hudsons conference room.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas had still been mentally digesting the report and there was an uncharacteristically thoughtful expression on her face as she followed Bacon to the conference room.

[Reltzik]

Thea shows up, on time but visibly short on sleep.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Alright let's begin with tell me what you found and what you think it means, possible course of action we can take, your thoughts on the matter."

[Kislath]

OOC--
Well, you're here for a meeting, so meet already!

[shaken_bacon]

Lt. Bacon

Will Bacon waits for a few seconds, but sees that no one else is taking the initiative so he begins to speak. "Ahem. Well me and Lt. Shanas went through various logs on the De Gama to verify what Captain Kincaid said was indeed true. When verifying this we investigated reports of something strange and blue unidentified when the De Gama fell out of warp... Unfortunately we couldn't find anything conclusive that this was tied to the planets quick development. For all we found it could easily just be space debris. Personally, I still think it's worth the risk to go down to the planet in disguise to figure out what is happening there. Ensign Kataros wrote a very interesting report about why the development is so strange and also had great theories on what could be going on there."

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

Thea had set her data padd to record the entire meeting. Something told her that Captain Riker might want her summary, and she didn't feel like giving it twice.

"More hypotheses than theories, really. Questions to answer once we get there. The first is whether the natives might not be native. There does not appear to be a clear genus, class, or order of life on that planet in which to place them. The model that I have which makes the most sense is that they are castaways, or the descendents of castaways, and if so that could impact how the Prime Directive applies to them. There's a tentative match to them in the Federation's database: the Dynassians. I wouldn't give it too much credence, though. Goodness knows there's enough species out there that to all outward appearances are human.

"Every realistic model I construct for nomadic natives used to sparse living conditions being consolidated and constrained in one city like that ends in massive gang warfare, riots, and pandemics. This could be fought, in part, with intensive security and medical forces present. I'm talking about hundreds or thousands of personnel, or perhaps the equivalent in computerized drones or holograms. But there aren't any people of another species in evidence, unless they are disguised as natives. Another possibility -- one that I've yet to model -- is some sort of telepathic control. In any case, it would be well beyond the means of the Vasca de Gama.

"You asked me to look for records, sir. There is no apparent record building at all, at least nothing that can be flagged as obviously serving that purpose. As far as I can tell, these people didn't even have writing, and I doubt they picked up the habit in only a few years to the point where they're writing histories. Most likely they relied on an oral tradition, perhaps supplemented by pictographs.

"One facility I would call your attention to is this one." Thea tapped a few commands into her padd, causing the from-orbit image of the city to display on the wall monitor, and then highlighting a building in the water. "This is their power station, and it's located underwater. That's not technically impossible for late industrial era technology, but it would be extremely difficult and inefficient, and the current jump in capability doesn't suggest much extra slack to devote to boondoggles. There's only two reasons to do this, that I could think of. First, as a security measure. Someone wants to make sure the facility is difficult to reach, or possibly that it remains hidden entirely. Not unreasonable, considering that it's the lynchpin of their entire industrialization effort, and may well represent a means of control by a ruling or occupying class. Second, because the nature of the power they are generating requires it to be located there. Perhaps tidal or geothermal, or maybe something they want to be able to flood in an emergency. I'm afraid I haven't been able to identify the type of power plant. I was hoping I could get Engineering to help out with that. But if there is any outsider presence still here, it's most likely in this facility. Same with any computer records.

"I would recommend strongly against direct contact, at least immediately, even if it is in disguise. First, because there is much evidence that we can gather prior to contact. With the world population consolidated at one point, all of their old sites are now abandoned. From those sites, we can conduct genetic analysis to determine if they are native, or match any known species, along with dozens -- hundreds -- of other archeological techniques to understand them better, and thus conduct first contact on better terms. Also, if this is the result of outside interference, there could well be traces left by the outsiders at those sites, or pictorial records made of them. I think our best method for gathering information from the city itself without being noticed would be to beam down microscopic audio and visual recorders to select locations. In addition to giving us more information in general, gathering data like this would help us avoid giving some sort of mortal cultural offense in ignorance of their ways.

"Two final cautions, sir. First, the technology base detected by the Hector is contemporaneous in Earth history with telescopes capable of resolving large terrain features on planets in neighboring orbit. Though I suspect that building such telescopes hasn't been a priority for them, we should at least assume it's possible for them to make out a starship in orbit. For the second caution, the data from the Hector is months old. It's possible that they're no longer operating on a late-industrial era model, and that would have certain implications regarding what they are capable of. In gathering everyone up like this, it's obvious that they have, at the very least, biosensors capable of distinguishing humanoids at planetary ranges. Otherwise, someone would have been missed. That could also apply to starships in orbit, sir."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He ponders what Thea had said.


Question:
Does the shuttles we have, have transporters on them?
Can I get an NPC roll since we don't have a science/engineering team? The questions would be focused on the science/sensor/engineering logs during the break from warp (chronoton, tychon, etc).

[Kislath]

The Hudson Bay has 3 shuttles, two small ones and one large one. The large one has a one-man transporter.

Yes, you can get an NPC to make those science rolls.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Okay what about science and engineering, what did you guys find out?"


Since you didn't roll I assume you want me to roll the NPC's
[roll0] science
[roll1] engineering

[Kislath]

(OOC) You didn't ask any questions, so I didn't know what I was to roll for.

"Well, we know there was a large burst of Vertion particles near the ship when it dropped out of warp. Where they came from we're not quite sure. We suspect that nearby gas and dust got excited by the Da Gama's warp field, triggering the release, but that sort of thing is very rare, and to have such a concentration strong enough to disrupt a warp field? Very unlikely. Still, it is our best guess so far, aside from the ship encountering a strong subspace eddy. The only other possibility would be that the "blue thing" somehow emitted a localized burst of vertions, but we mention that only because it logically fits. We have no idea how it's possible for a piece of debris to do such a thing, or even why it would.

Logs reveal that the ship underwent minor repairs and restarts for 22 minutes, after which the ship was again able to enter warp, which is what it did. The Da Gama left the Beta Myanamid system 31 minutes after it first entered.

As for the situation on Beta Myanamid, we can only guess. Without actually taking a closer look I'm afraid we're not going to be able to make any real sense out of all this.""

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Vertion particles? I don't know much about them other than they can be found in white dwarf stars. What does it mean to have found a significant amount of Vertion particles?"

[Kislath]

"Well, that's a good question. While normally found in white dwarf stars, they can be artificially created by supercharging ionized gases. It's possible that the Da Gama's own warp field somehow charged a dense pocket of gas, triggering the creation and release of vertions in sufficient quantity to disrupt that warp field. Such an event would be highly unexpected, though. In fact, while some computer simulations have demonstrated the possibility, it's never been known to actually happen.
Again, I don't think that we'll be able to figure this out unless we go to Beta Myanamid and analyze the composition of it's Ort cloud. If it contains enough of the materials needed to create vertions, we'll have our answer. Going by old scans, which were not made at the resolution needed to be sure, mind you, it appears that the composition of the Ort cloud is not capable of producing vertions. We'd need a closer look to tell for sure. If the available composition cannot produce vertions, then we will have to look for another source of them.
My own personal opinion is that the Da Gama simply hit a strong subspace eddy, knocking it out of warp.

By the way, I wouldn't recommend going there until we unload the patients in medical stasis. If there is a danger of warpfield disruption, we would be putting the rest of the ship at considerable risk. We could lose containment if we suffered any damage."

[shaken_bacon]

Lt. Bacon

"I have to agree with that conclusion captain. We should drop off those in stasis and then go to Beta Myanamid. I don't think we have any alternatives. " Will Bacon says.

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

"I have to agree," Thea added. "The data on the disruption to Beta Myanamids native societies is months old, and suggests something that has been years in the making. A few more days shouldn't make much of a difference."

[Kislath]

And so it came to pass that the USS Hudson Bay did travel to Starbase 281 to drop off the infected crew. The Medical Team at the Base was unable to effect an immediate cure, so the sick had to remain there. To replace some of those lost, a few new crew were quickly assigned to the Hudson Bay, and the Ship once again got underway, this time warping to Beta Myanamid to further investigate the strange goings-on. ( But not before making a full report on the developments to the Base's Command Staff. )

"Now entering the Beta Myanamid system, Sir."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"Give me a sensor sweep of the planet. Check for artificial satellites first then the check radio or any other transmissions from the planet."


does the planet have a moon?

[Kislath]

Yes, the planet has a moon, but not a very good one.

Nifty postulate OOC: Most worlds with life on them have at least one big moon. Without a moon, the mantle goes cold from a lack of friction. That results in no magnetic field, which means no protection from the sun. Mars, for example, seems to have died when it's moon got busted into two big pieces.
Beta Myanamid IV here has only a small moon that doesn't have much gravitic pull on the planet, making it only barely capable of supporting life and leaving it radiated.

"Scanning, Sir...
uh, oh... I think we're being scanned! No, wait..it's gone. Maybe it was just our reflection. I am not picking up any identifiable signals. .. no sign of artificial satellites... there is a general haze of energy emissions in one localized area on the planet's surface, like from a city."

[Reltzik]

Thea sat at a spare station at the rear of the bridge. She wasn't going to run any scans on her own -- that was the sort of thing more senior heads than hers decided would happen when they wanted it to happen. But she was copying every bit of data from the scans that were happening, and feeding them into an algorithm designed to compare the new data with the old data from the Hector and highlight any discrepancies.

[RossN]

Lt. Shanas

Shanas looked both alarmed and excited at the news they were (possibly) being scanned. "Maybe we're about to be attacked?"

[Kislath]

Thea, there are some discrepancies. Lots of them. It would seem that your previous prediction was correct. Things have been developing at a rapid pace since the Hector left this world.

[Reltzik]

Thea isolated a few discrepancies at random for a closer look. She wanted something more to report than "there have been some changes".

In particular, she called up any changes in population size or distribution, any signs of space capability, and any signs of extensive electronics use or computerization.

[Mutazoia]

Lt. Dorn busied himself at the science station, running scans the moment the Hudson Bay breached the system. As the initial scan report was made he paused for a moment.

"Skipper," he said to Lt Cmdr Song "I don't think that was an echo. I've used the transit time between here and the star base to review all the pertinent data collected so far. From what I can tell, neither the Hector nor the De Gama are directly to blame for the current situation on the planet." He paused for a moment as the ships sensors continued their programmed sweep of the system. "If my theory is correct, and that scan we just underwent certainly seems to corroborate things so far, the blue object encountered by the De Gama is most likely a probe of some kind. I theorize that this probe was in system when the Hector made it's initial visit and scanned her as she warped in. They most likely either failed to notice the scan or if they did they assumed it was an echo like the ensign did. I'm sure we only noticed it as we were conducting multiple scans on multiple frequencies our selves." He began to pace slightly, as he laid out his theory, almost seeming to be talking more to him self than the Lt. Cmdr. "After the object scanned the Hector (it would have to be a very advanced scan to both avoid registering on normal systems and still get detailed technical information), I assume it relayed the data to it's maker's who, after the Hector departed, began to disseminate the information to the indigenous primitives. Whether malevolent or benevolent the purpose of such an act can only be surmised at this point in time. There are case histories found in the logs of both the Enterprise D and the Voyager of advanced alien life forms uplifting lesser species for reasons known only to themselves." Pausing, he seems to realize he's been rambling some what, offering a slight smile in apology before continuing.

"I would suggest we contact the Titan and the De Gama to see if their sensors registered a scan as they entered the system as well. I would also suggest, that finding this object be made a high priority for multiple reasons. Not only can a detailed analysis of the object tell us more about who or what we are dealing with, this object also seems capable of forcing a starship out of warp to conduct it's scans. As pockets of Vertion gas are rare and the exact conditions to ignite them have been, until now, only a theory, we can only assume that the object itself either produced and ignited the gas to force the De Gama out of warp, or is capable of producing a similar effect. Either way this could prove to be a very grave threat to the Federation. A hostile species could use this technology to force Federation ships out of warp into an ambush. Coupled with the Starkiller weapon entire fleets could be wiped out in an instant. With three Federation ships in system, it should be quick work to search the system. Even given the relatively small size of the object, it can't remain hidden from a detailed search. I would suggest asking The Titan and the De Gama to conduct the search for the object while we investigate planetside. The Titan is a newer vessel and her sensors will be better than ours. The De Gama is a survey ship so her sensors should be almost as good as the Titan's. While our systems are no slouch I feel our best contribution is planet side. Unless the De Gama or the Titan have a talented Anthropologist we don't know about."

OOC: Since the rolls on my scan's were mostly above the target number (what a time for dice rollers to suddenly like me) I'll assume that he missed some of those rolls due to his monologue)

[Kislath]

"Lt. Dorn, the computer has finished compiling the data from those scans you were running."

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

"Sir," Thea put in, "I can corroborate one of Lieutenant Dorn's hypotheses. The construction in the city has shown considerable development, from dozens of different cultures. While the population represents the consolidation of many disparate peoples, none of them had an architectural tradition, and their building styles should have evolved fairly homogeneously if they were in charge. Alternatively, if they were castaways with a cultural memory of their source culture, they should have recreated that particular culture's architecture. What we're actually seeing reflects the building styles already in existence on many worlds -- predominantly Earth and one other I've yet to identify -- in a very haphazard manner. Almost like a museum collection. It would seem that someone or something has been gathering cultural data and sought to recreate it here, and that agent is not one of this planet's humanoid natives.

"I'm also picking up extensive radio use for what looks like communication purposes. This represents a significant step forward for them, though not a severe of one as I feared. Most of it appears to be internal communications."

Even as Thea reported, she was piping the transmissions through the universal translator and preparing to sift through it. There was nothing quite like being able to "read their mail" when it came to a culture.

[Mutazoia]

Lt. Dorn busied himself at the console for a few moments, reading the results of his various scans.

"Sir, I am going to have to slightly alter my assessment of the blue object. While I still believe it to be a probe responsible for scanning the Hector and accessing her computer, I don't think it can actually intentionally knock a ship out of warp. After reviewing the logs of the De Gama, I noticed that prior to her stop over in the Beta Myanamid, she had been surveying a White Dwarf star. It seems likely that her hull attracted and became coated with vertion particles given off by the star. Although I'm not sure how the particles stayed with the ship through warp, I believe that they were ignited by the probe's scan, knocking the De Gama out of warp. This makes the probe less of a threat, but I would still place it's acquisition as a top priority. Also, I believe that this may actually make the object easier to locate. I'll have to consult with engineering before I can safely make proposal on this front."

Pausing for a moment, Dorn taps out a quick command on his console, forwarding a copy of the sensor scan result's to Thea. "Ensign, you may find a lot of this useful. I assume that replicator technology has also been utilized in addition to the Federation energy source. Not only would that allow them to feed a sudden influx of people, but it would also be the only way to construct such a large city in such a short time span. I would expect an away team to find industrial replicators as well as personal ones." He flashed Thea a quick smile "I'm sure we'll be needing you to come up with some rough estimate as to what we can expect from the natives if we beam down. Stone age people who have suddenly been given space age technology must undergo some pretty drastic upheavals."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

"So let me get this straight, we have an unknown probe out there that scanned us and we have the inhabitants using radio as a form of communication, now... no telling what they will come up with in a day or two."

He pauses to think, "Display me a map of their known surveillance radar systems; find me a hole that we can hide our ship in or Opportunity.* Lieutenant Bacon form a minimal landing party. I bet some answer will be down there."

* I've decided to give the names of the shuttles Opportunity, Curiosity, and Sojourner; where Opportunity is the larger one with a transporter.

[Kislath]

You get no response from Lt. Bacon. He seems to have vanished. Just vanished. *poof*
A heavy scan reveals that he is no longer on board. Also missing is the Andorian, Lt. Shanas.

Brewbaker reports no signs of any radar or other sensor sweeps on the planet. It should be possible to land the shuttle near the city and not be noticed.

Thea struck gold with her plan.
The translator has no trouble picking up on the language of these people. They not only look kind of like Dynassians, they sound like them, too. The language is very different, but shares enough words to form a framework for figuring out the rest. In a couple of hours it should have enough decoded to make sense of the intercepted messages.

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

Ensign Katsaros flashed Lt. Dorn a smile with the human-style dentures she usually wore to put humans at easy. To a Ferengi, or with Ferengi-style teeth (or the hybrid teeth she possessed), the look would have been more challenging, but she was certain it would pass for friendly.

She could have put it down to territoriality -- he was a newcomer invading her space -- or to momentary irritation -- she was already copying the sensor takes, and his copy had momentarily cluttered up her workspace -- or possibly any number of other things. But she needed to maintain a working relationship.

That didn't mean she couldn't assert the authority of her expertise, though, even if she was outranked.

"Thanks for the data," she replied. "I'd agree that replicators are quite likely, especially given how quickly they erected their buildings, but its also possible that their crops are more satisfying than they appear, or that their species can go longer on less food than average. As for the models, I've already constructed variations on about a dozen themes, none of which are consistent with what we're reading down there. In fact..."

Thea broke off, frowning as she examined the computer's reports. "... in fact, I don't think they're Stone Age natives at all." She pitched her voice louder, so as to be heard more than two stations away. "Lt. Commander? I'm running their communications through the Translator. It's estimating a few hours before it can sort out their language, but it appears related to the Dynassian tongue. At this point, it is quite certain that this species is not native to this planet, which in turn suggests that they are either an interstellar culture or descended from one." She felt quite confident that the implications regarding the Prime Directive would be obvious to all, and so did not elaborate on them.

[Mutazoia]

"Hmm....you may have already thought of this, Ensign so forgive me if you have, but have you cross checked this language with the Iconian language or those on Ikkabar and DiWahn? What we may be dealing with is another lost Iconian colony which has started receiving help from a yet unknown outside source. The conditions here are very similar to those found by the USS Clement on Ikkabar."

Jerran tapped out a few quick commands on his console. "I'm also checking Starfleet records for any vessels reported missing in this vicinity. The source of power could very well be a downed Federation ship. If a ship did crash, (or was forced down) and landed in the water off shore, it could have remained intact enough to have some systems remain operational. If the engineering section survived, that would give the "natives" access to Starfleet standard energy, as well as computer core access. In which case they may be producing items from the core's memory simply to see what they are. If they haven't been able to read anything due to the language barrier, they could simply be replicating things at random."

[Kislath]

"Ah, there they are," says Brewbaker. "Sir, the Titan finally noticed us, and is hailing."

[Reltzik]

Thea repressed a sigh and queried the UT to see if there was any overlap with the Iconian language. While that was working, she downloaded all the data the computer had on the Dynassians to a padd, and then knowing that would not be enough sent a request to Starfleet for all data on the Dynassians in the Archives, with an given to culture, architecture, psychology, and physiology.

"An interesting scenario," she told the lieutenant, keeping her best negotiating face and voice at work, while pitching her voice low enough so as not to disrupt the rest of the bridge. "How would you account for the failure of the Universal Translator in the computer core while the rest of the core remained fully functional? Or for that matter, the simultaneous failure of the UT in all combadges laying in stores or worn by the dead?"

A bit too confrontational, she judged. Time to throw him a concession.

"Regarding the Iconians, I haven't considered them specifically," she told Jerran. "Nor any of the other thousands of possible species who could have been marooned here for any number of reasons. I was just about to begin an analysis based on the assumption they are related to the Dynassians. I was originally planning to wait for firm genetic confirmation, but the combination of physical and linguistic similarity is too much of a coincidence to be dismissed."

Thea repressed a wince. That hadn't been nearly as much of a concession as she'd intended when she'd opened her mouth.

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

When is second in command didn't respond he looked around and Bacon was not anywhere to be seen "Where the hell is he, and Shanas?"

He was visibly shaken by this as the hail came from the Titan. "Put it on screen, Captain Riker this the Hudson Bay..."

[Mutazoia]

Jerran lowered his voice to match Thea's. "The core wouldn't have to be fully functional to pull data. Besides, even though Lt. Cmdr Data managed to reconstruct the Iconian language I don't think it was added to the universal translator...being a dead language and all that. Besides, the Bay's UT doesn't recognize that language, why should we expect any other UT to do so? As for the comm badges...they're pretty much useless if you don't know what they are. To a less technologically developed species they would just look like pretty jewelry..."

As he paused, he noticed Lt. Cmdr Song's distress. He visually scanned the bridge and then sent a query to the computer to locate Bacon and Shanas's comm badges as well as programming a full spectrum sensor sweep of the system.

"They don't appear to be anywhere on the ship, Skipper....Scanning the system now. I suggest raising shields to prevent any more unexpected field trips." Then quietly to Thea "Sorry Ensign. It looks like we'll have to talk shop later."

[Reltzik]

"I expect so," Thea murmured.

Her mind was racing at the sudden disappearances -- at least two that they knew about, and who knew how many others -- but then realized that she would be wasted on that task. That was something half of the ship's crew could do, and it wasn't a task she was uniquely suited for.

But it was looking increasingly like contact with the "natives" WAS going to happen. That, combined with the new revelation that they were at least related to the Dynassians, made her job clear: Studying everything she could, as quickly as she could, to better prepare herself and her colleagues for contact. Anyone could look for missing crewmembers, but this was her specialty, and that meant she couldn't leave it to someone else.

((OOC: Thea's going to bury herself in the data the ship's computer has on Dynassians, and wait for Archives to get back to her with more details.))

[Kislath]

The viewscreen hums to life, Riker's not-so-smiling face fills it. In the background behind him, it is plain to see that the Titan has gone to Yellow Alert. A quick check shows that her shields are up to maximum.

"Glad you could make it, although I'm afraid our reunion isn't a happy one. Some of our crew have gone missing, and we think they've been transported down to the planet. I'd suggest you raise your own shields immediately before you lose anyone. The locals have shield technology now, and some of their buildings are protected. It looks like we're going to have to get down there if we want to get our people back, and considering the circumstances, I'd say there's no more reason to worry about the Prime Directive.
I think we should discuss what we've learned about the situation before proceeding. I'd like to know what the devil is going on here before we walk right into the middle of it."

[Reltzik]

Ensign Theodora Katsaros

Thea's expression got more and more dire as she read. Then, suddenly, she started composing a message on her terminal.

Lieutenant:

For the next few minutes, I very strongly recommend against sending any requests to Starfleet that are in any way related to the Iconians or their descendent races. Or, for that matter, even mentioning them aloud where an open comm line might transmit the word over subspace. I'll explain when there is time.

She then caught Lt Dorn's eye, flashed him a look of pure (but carefully composed and projected) urgency, pointed at his console, and forwarded the message to him.

That done, she forwarded a request to Starfleet Archives virtually identical to the one she had sent before, but this time regarding the Ferengi and their cousin races. Then she programmed the computer to send a similar request regarding Bajoran colonies in another nine minutes, one regarding the T'kon in sixteen minutes, and a request for the last five issues of a research journal, Comparative Anthropology Digest, in twenty-two minutes.

[Mutazoia]

Reading Thea's message, Jerran caught her eye and winked. "With so many theories to choose from, it will be nearly impossible to know who, or what is responsible for all this."

With a few quick steps he was in front of the tactical console. Placing the ship on yellow alert and bringing up the shields to maximum, he programmed the computer to change shield frequencies every couple of minutes, just in case. Next he sent a command for all decks to do a head-count and report any missing personnel.

"Helm, bring us along side the Titan."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

At the recommendation Song orders, "Shields, go to yellow alert."

Then addressing Captain Riker, "As standard protocol, Sir, we are switching to encryption code three. We arrived into the system and were immediately scanned. We scanned the area and found Dynassians language used although we suspect Iconians. While they have shields on their building they don't have a satellite system up. I suspect we can get our ship or a shuttle craft close enough to disembark and away team."

[Mutazoia]

Jerran winces slightly. Quickly playing with the tactical console he begins to scramble and distort the comm signal between the Bay and the Titan. "It appears we're still experiencing some technical difficulty due to our love tap from the star earlier. Lt. Cmdr Song, Captain Riker, In accordance with Starfleet Regulation 46A may I suggest we continue this briefing in person? We should be within docking range of the Titain momentarily."

[shugyosha]

Lt Cmdr Song

He wasn't used to having his orders countermanded by a subordinate. With an extremely stern look he says, "We'd have to drop our shield against an opponent who has taken at least two our best officers and how many of Captain Riker's, no."

[Mutazoia]

Jerran pauses for a moment. Tapping a few commands on the console he splits the main viewer into two displays with Captain Riker's sunny disposition on the left, and Thea's message to his console on the right.

"I was simply thinking, sir, that docking with the Titan would not require us to drop our shields, and we could over-lap the Titan's shields with our own, providing us with an extra layer of protection. And with the problem with our communication array, " he fiddled with the controls a bit, further distorting the signal for a moment, "a face to face chat might be easier..."

OOC: Fortunately Dorn hasn't countermanded any orders, merely offered suggestions.