DAY 04: Aftermath [1300 hrs.]Captain's Log. Supplemental. After several hours where the Senior Staff have been talking with Base Commander Dewitt, we have managed to convince her of two things. First, given how we evidently are not conspiring with the Romulans, that we truly hold the Federation's best interests at heart, and that we do so in opposition of Starfleet - whom are following orders from admirals that are no longer themselves.
Recordings of Sonja Acreth served our arguments, and what was left to do - in order to abate her concerns about the ships we've destroyed during our flight from Earth - was to go over the tactical logs of every encounter, proving that whenever we could, we disabled our pursuing ships instead of destroying them. Something that had not been covered by the Federation News Network since they were fed by deliberate leaks from officers under Admiral Sankolov's command on the USS Archeron. I can hardly say I was surprised...
[ Deputy ThanIda zh'Wann | Quarters | Deck 05 ] Attn: FollowTomorrow, Kaligos & NolanWith a brisk pace, Deputy zh'Wann moved down the corridor - Petty Officer Cardamone at one side and another security guard at the other. While Ida wasn't armed, the other two had phasers holstered at their hips.
Usually, a change of guards did not require her to attend, but after some consideration, Ida had decided that she would speak with the one that the Asurian and the pinkskin - Crewman Larsson - were heading to. She had little to say to the officers, and while it might be the fact that the one placed under house arrest had killed someone - and likely being innocent of the crime - Ida was not very talkative for another reason entirely. Well, same reason, but she had a personal investment in the affair, and it was something that she wanted to sort out before there were any... misconceptions.
"Lieutenant Zaraq," said Ida as she approached the two guards outside Nathaniel Isley's quarters, "anything to report?"
"No, Deputy. He has been quiet," rumbled the shaved Klingon, and she thought that the former Master-at-Arms looked... uncomfortable - his hooded eyes purposefully avoiding looking at Dyan Cardamone. Ida was too focused on the task ahead of her to take notice, and had she not been distracted, she would have remembered that Zaraq had acted the same way down on the Black Opal, when the two of them had fought at her side. The pinkskin next to Zaraq - Petty Officer Tyson - said nothing, but stepped aside when Ida approached.
"You are relived, and the next change of guards will be in three hours," she said to the two as she approached the sliding door, "Officers Cadamone and Larsson, the watch is yours. Report to me every fifteen minutes after I leave, yet I will speak with the suspect first."
And then, after tapping in her security code, she stepped into the same quarters that she had visited quite recently, with a purpose entirely different than she had now. Behind her, before the sliding doors closed, she heard Zaraq speak with Cardamone. "I... do not know what to say, besides I am sorry. The shame... greater than I have ever felt, but I would speak with you in private, if you so wish."
Ida did not know what the Klingon had to be ashamed of, and if it was something that had happened during the mutiny, Wenn Cinn had not briefed her about it. As soon as she saw Isley, however, any thoughts of Zaraq and Cardamone vanished. She folded her arms, clenched her jaw. "How fare you?"
The lengths at which we had to speak in order to shed any doubts from Dewitt's thoughts concerns me, since at Starbase 84, we won't have that kind of time to convince those who will get the simulcast. The responsibility that will lie upon our shoulders, to spread the truth, has never been felt more keenly than today, when we've learned just how befouled our names have become across the entire Federation. While I hope our next of kin and closest friends back home may still hold doubts of the veracity of what the media is spreading... the fact remains that the absolute majority think that we are terrorists.
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Lone Wolves, CanadianVet & RosaraRosetteStepping out of the shower, skin still raising vapour from the sonic vibrations that had shed any dirt and grime from her scarred skin, Rawley towelled the dampness off her shaved head - looking around at the gathered pilots in the locker room. After a victory such as theirs, morale was higher than in a long time. It was a good sight. Though it was forced, she knew, because as trained as they were to accept the nature of their duty, they had lost a sister that morning. Hopefully, Maverick would be found without fault, though, and return to them.
Among her brothers and sisters of the Lone Wolves, Evelyn had long since shed any shame or sense of propriety when it came to her own nudity - just like many others present - and it was not at the forefront of her mind when she approached the new pup among them. Ensign MacTavish had hunted with them for the first time, and Rawley had been impressed with what she saw. So she put her towel behind her neck and grabbed both ends of it in front of her chest as she stepped up to the short-haired woman.
"For someone who has never sat in the cockpit before, that was damn bloody impressive, Gun-Shy," she said with a wolfish grin, and cocked a hip where she came to stand in front of her, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say welcome to the pack."
Then she turned her head to look at the other new pup, the one from the
Harbinger that had just flew the Mk II before they reached the Black Opal. "Hey! Same to you, Husker, but you are hardly as green as MacTavish here, so what you did was nowhere near as impressive. Seems like I won't have to kick your ass after all."
She would do what she could to keep her pack focused on the victory of the day... rather than the losses they'd suffered.
Outside the locker room, in the Fighter Assault Bay, Covington and Eun Sae Ji were conferring with Iron Fox over the new finds on the Black Opal. Ten new Mk III Valkyries and an altogether new Weapon System - the Twin Mount.
The second thing we had to convince Dewitt of was the necessity to destroy the Black Opal. That discussion wasn't nearly as difficult, and after some time, I was beginning to think that she was actually quite pleased about the idea to get rid of the place. Given the fact that the Romulans knew the coordinates, and how Task Force Archeron is on our tail and might use the base to restock its ships with all the ordinance that we cannot safely bring with us, the destruction of the Opal was the only viable solution. Early on, orders were passed that all personal belongings of the Opal's crew was to be taken aboard the Theurgy, and while they have yet to be enlightened about what Dewitt has learned - detained in Cargo Bay 04 or undergoing medical care as they are - they will remain on the Theurgy. Hopefully, they will come to see this crew of ours and my command the same way Dewitt had come to do.
[ Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt | Main Bridge ] Attn: AllWhen she stepped onto the
Theurgy's bridge after the long talks in the briefing room, Jennifer looked around as the relief officers were replaced by the Senior Staff of the
Theurgy-class ship. People that she had shared the last few hours with in that conference lounge, and come to understand were far more than the media and official reports said they were. She had already met the absentee First Officer, and the only ones she hadn't met at the briefing were the Squadron Commanding Officer, the Chief Engineer and the Chief Medical Officer, whom were all too busy taking care of operations concerning the Black Opal and those injured in the consecutive battles that had been fought.
Just as Ops and Conn took their seats - Stark and S'Iti, she believed their names were - and Captain Ives passed her shoulder, the turbolift doors opened to admit Commander Trent, Thea and Ravenholm too, three officers whom must have returned from the Black Opal right then. Then again, she was not entirely convinced that an embodied computer A.I. counted as an 'officer'..."
"I take it the Code Zero protocol has been prepared," asked Jien Ives - in his male form - when he took his seat in the Commanding Officer's chair.
"Yes, Captain," said Thea as she came to stand in the back of the bridge, her body-suit black in colour - something Dewitt did not know the meaning of, but she guessed that she wasn't acting in any particular department's interests at the moment. "All blast doors have been lifted and the charges will be enhanced by the placement of armed torpedoes within the base. With your command, the Black Opal will be destroyed. Also, I have asked Tovarek to raise a dampening field to contain the signature of the detonation - just to avoid any unnecessary attention outside this sector."
"Good thinking," said Ives, and Jennifer looked at the Russian man that sat at the Science Officer's station. From what she had heard, the man had been in Morwen's office, and the Romulans had come there to destroy evidence that Morwen had been gathering concerning the Romulan's source within Starfleet. Dewitt remembered that she had dismissed Morwen's concerns, and that was something she would have to apologise for, because the evidence had pointed to someone on Starbase 84 - just like the warbird's Captain had admitted to when Ives demanded it. Sadly, the evidence had been erased when Dewitt had purged the computer systems during the
Theurgy's arrival, so there was nothing left to include in the simulcast.
"Would you do the honour, Lieutenant Commander?" asked Captain Ives, and Jennifer looked his way before she nodded. It was fitting, in many senses.
Soon, at her word, the gathered people on the bridge watched the Black Opal as it exploded, and the conflagration lit their faces.
Lieutenant Lin Kae is still in the Brig, and I find myself looking for excuses to not visit him. I know I should also speak with the rest of the staff that were on the Black Opal, together with Dewitt, and I know that the more unruly ones are still in holding cells. Yet as I sit here - alone in my Ready Room at last - I cannot help but think about Ensign Skye Carver... and Junior Lieutenant Nathaniel Isley, whom are both victims of this raid on the Black Opal. And while one of them is still alive, I cannot help but wonder if he will ever be the same again.
Thea, end log.- Captain Jien Ives, Commanding Officer of the USS Theurgy
[Nathaniel "Maverick" Isley (https://img05.deviantart.net/d370/i/2015/303/8/7/nathaniel___maverick___isley_by_auctor_lucan-d9evi5n.png) | Senior Officer's Quarters| Deck 05 ] Attn: Lucan, Follow Tomorrow, & Nolan
Right now every member of the wolves would be feeling a victory, or morning the loss of Skye. His brothers and sisters in arms would probably talk behind his back as he had been separated from them all, and brought back to his room under armed guard. He supposed it could have been worse, he could have been in the brig. As it was being stuck in a room with a replicator, a shower and a bed really wasn't a prison but the solitude had allowed his mind to wonder off.
He laid back on his bed, the lights were off and the room was silent save for his breathing. He didn't expect any visitors. His room hadn't really recovered from the night before. He could still smell Ida on the blankets, which had been oddly comforting in the moments of solitude.
He had replayed the actions that had led to Skye's death more times than he could count. As soon as the crew found that his ship had been damaged in some way he would be free to rejoin the others, of course considering the weapons, and everything else that had come with the raid on Black Opal it was going to take them a long time before that investigation bore any fruit, and when they did would anyone had believed him? Nathan had now played a major part in the death of two Wolves. He wasn't going to be anyones favorite person.
When his door opened it came as a complete shock to the pilot. If he had been expecting anyone it was probably a counselor Iron had advised him to seek some sort of counceling and he had put in a request shortly before he had been shoved inside this room, but who actually stood in his door was none other than Ida.
A small smile graced his lips as he looked over the security chief. Thoughts of yesterday still strong in his mind as he reminded himself of the curves of her body, followed closely by the fact that this time she was here on business.
Nathan was in his normal uniform. He had ditched the armor as he had been told, but he hadn't actually changed. Part of him still expected to be on active duty as soon as possible.
"Greetings Security." He said with a small smile at this point unable to hide the small amount of happiness that Ida's visit brought with it. Even if it was official this time.
"You will have to pardon the mess. I have yet to clean up the place after my last guest." He said looking over the broken furniture he had cleaned up the glass from the lamp, but not much else. He sighed as he looked at Ida part of him wondered why she was here. The question she had asked about how he had fared was something he was still considering himself. At least she didn't seem like she was going to haul him off to the brig today.
"I feel like I just killed one of my best friends. Misery, anxiety, wishing I was more Vulcan so that I didn't have to be completely angry with myself and the world around me." He sat up in his bed and ran a hand through his dark hair as he sighed. He gave a stretch and felt his back pop. "So I'd say I fare rather poorly."
[ PO1 Dyan Cardamone | Quarters | Deck 05]Attn: Lucan, Nolan, Kaligos
Today was just another day at work for Dyan. She was aware that there was a death during this raid and that there probably should have been some sort of worry, or maybe sadness or something in Dyan's head, but she didn't feel anything. There were plenty of thoughts in her head, running around like wild children, but no feelings. Perhaps it was not something to worry about; after all, Vulcans lived their whole lives feeling like a black hole existed where their emotions once were, didn't they? Why couldn't she?
Though she was not a large humanoid, her posture as she walked down the hall suggested she thought herself large and strong. Her tail remained tucked in her uniform pants, her hair up in a tight bun that reveals her rather small and unimpressive horns. Her face remained set in stone, even as her posting came into sight. She frowned past Zaraq, not at him. He didn't exist, after all. The officers were relieved, she took her post, and stood. She registered Zaraq speaking, but elected to ignore him. Something about shame, speaking in private, things that didn't matter anymore.
Her tail betrayed her though. Despite being threaded into her left pant-leg, it twitched, creating momentary bulges around her shin. The rest of her just stared on past Zaraq.
[LT Lin Kae | Brig/Main Security | USS Theurgy]
Kae was laying on the narrow bunk in the brig of the Theugy, simply staring up at the cold metal bulkhead above him and for the millionth time in so many short hours why his mind had made him have the breakdown right then and there when the ship needed him.
He narrowed his eyes as his mind reminded him of *WHY* and he got angry all over again as his right hand clenched tightly as he recalled the message about what happened to Sky echoed in his ears, he had no more tears to shed as he had shed them all already hours ago.
Kae continued to stare up at the bulkhead, unblinking as he knew what he had done was betray the captain but he couldn't handle it anymore as ever since he'd been on this ship it had been one fraked up thing after another and it was causing him no end of stress but like any good officer in this form of situation, he was expected to deal with the stress and keep going no matter what.
Kae's narrowed eyes lessened just a little bit as he thought about all of the friends that he'd lost since this crazy mission began and it hurt him to recall the smiling face of Skye, it almost felt like a physical tearing as he thought about her.
But surely as it had every time that he thought about Skye, the memory of Oracle's naked and water slick body came into his mind as he recalled the woman in much vivid detail as there was something about her that made him feel alive and happy, much more so then Rihan for some reason and the fact that she was dead tore at him much more than anything.
At this Kae's eyes narrowed hard and he lashed his left fist against the bulkhead closest to him as he fought to get his emotions under control again.
[Aisha S'iti | Main Bridge ]
Watching the explosion S'iti couldn't help but sigh, after everything they had done, Attacked the station, prevented the crew of it from self-destructing it, repelling Romulan invaders in a state of the art modern Mogai class warbird here they were back to what they first had to prevent. In a strange way it felt like a mix of a shame and relief seeing it go up in a mix of conventional explosions, small stars appearing and disappearing as multiple Hydrogen fusion reactions instantly vaporized all but the most resistant of materials and matter antimatter annihilation reactions took the rest resulting in a near empty field where the station once stood. There would be no debris graveyard like the infamous one seen following the battle of wolf 359. No this was the self-imposed annihilation of what was a top secret base. A code zero protocol enacted, the very definition of making something disappear in a way that makes it as if it never even existed at all.
[Selena "Luna" Ravenholm | Main Bridge ]
The cyborg human turned to her desk as the explosion lit the emptiness of space, In the vastness of space there was hardly such as thing as noise as there were no particles of matter to vibrate and carry sound. Still there the dull sounds that existed, the only sound that really transmitted from it was a barely audible, even to her enhanced ears, splash of energy that came from what remained of the shockwaves reaching the outer layers of Theurgy's shields. It wasn't so much a definable sound really more a noise that could only be called a hushed shimmer that her enhanced aural receptors interpreted in a way not so different than waves breaking on a beach in the far distance.
[ Miles "Iron Fox" Renard | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: CanadianVet & RosaraRosette
Miles looked at the weapon system laying on the ground before him and couldn't help but smile. "I was wondering until now why those Reavers had portable railguns in them. Guess this answers that question." He said looking at the twin mount. "As for your question while I was talking to the captain about Mav. I assume you mean a time of the year that uses gift giving as a means of celebration, Yes we do. And I have to say if this is some kind of "secret-santa" thing then you went way over the spending limit, not that I mind."
[ Commander Carrigan Trent | Main Bridge ]
Had the Romulans not arrived, Trent would have had no reason whatsoever to remain on Black Opal once the surrender had been secured. However, events had decided otherwise and instead he stayed behind, starting as much of an investigation as he could. Which was not much, considering the state of the computer systems between the Tetryon weapon strikes and Dewitt purging the memory banks. These deep-space minor outposts never tended to get crewed by the best and brightest, but the information security protocols and emergency measures built into them were brilliant.
In fact, if anything as recoverable, it would take a crack forensics team with nothing short of a major starbase, or more likely a planetside facility's computer support to make it happen.
But despite those setbacks, he still found work to do as one of but a handful of officers in the massive away team. Of course, the security component was led by Commander Wenn and his chosen deputies and some of the pilots were also involved but the resupply mission was left to CWO Covington's expertise; and there was no way the XO would interfere with what was a very well-run operation.
And upon its conclusion, and not before he had ensured spent pods were towed back into hangar bays and Theurgy's torpedo magazines and tubes were all filled to capacity did he even consider coming back on board. And when he did, he was in the last wave of transports along with his ersatz command crew and when he stepped out of the turbolift, he handed his holstered phaser and tricorder to the Bridge security guard, just in time to hear of the planned funeral pyre of Black Opal and to witness the antimatter-fueled fire that reduced it to little but rapidly expanding plasma and extremely small wreckage that would be spread fast and thinly enough as to blend in with the background of space within the next day or so.
And only then did he speak. "Commander Dewitt, I'm glad to see you've chosen to be an ally instead of an enemy. I won't lie, I would much rather we'd have been able to keep Black Opal as an asset but we couldn't risk leaving you out there with the Romulans knowing where to find you, or members of your crew who might not share your opinion being in a position to report back to Starfleet."
But he left the implication of having left Task Force Archeron with one less facility to use unspoken. By now, they were bound to have mostly recovered from the cyber-attack that had crippled them, but the need for spare parts and replicator stores after getting back online was bound to be felt... and their supply lines just got stretched even more.
"But on the bright side, Mister Covington had people go through living quarters back on Black Opal and had personal effects packaged and beamed over. I believe they are all in Cargo Bay 8 at this time and once we get you and your people settled, we can arrange for their return."
[ CWO1 Sten "Papa Bear" Covington | Hangar Bay ]
The resupply operation on Black Opal had run smoothly, and just as he had predicted there were many things that had not been on the lists originally handed out that wound up being beamed back onboard. Among them had been vast stores of fighter weapons and ordnance and ten Mk III Valkyries but several other items found their way back as well. And one thing for certain, Covington did not envy the Chief Storesman who'd be tasked with getting everything organized and tucked away.
And upon his return, he did not waste any time in making his way to the locker room so he could get out of his line uniform and back into his favoured coveralls, at which point he sought out the SCO. But that search did not last long and the conversation went to the fighters that had been towed in and the weapons that had just been beamed over along with enough ammunition to start - and probably end - a small war. And his own comment regarding gift-giving came back at him. "Well Boss, then happy late, or early, Vulpinian gift-giving celebration," replied the grizzled Chief of the Deck with a grin. That kind of expression was rare on the veteran, but given the successful mission (and despite its cost) he allowed himself that much. "And I didn't think you would mind if I blew the budget. Especially since it came out of someone else's."
But then, his face grew serious again. "Boss, you were there when we started testing the M-142's. And last we heard they weren't slated to enter production for a while yet. Look at the serial numbers, those aren't part of a prototype line, they're production."
[ Miles "Iron Fox" Renard | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: CanadianVet & RosaraRosette
He smiled, "For future reference it's name is our word for what humans call Altruism. Its a celebration of our ability to think as more than animals through the most un-animal emotion that we believe capable of expressing, selflessness or as its also called altruism.
Looking at what Covington was referring to he nodded. "Honestly I am surprised we haven't seen any of them launched in action against us. Jaru and you had been sending pretty much daily reports on their performance prior to our flight from the rest of the fleet. Given the drills we had been preforming as well as the wargames we had been participating in against each other its not surprising there was sufficient data to attempt a production run. Especially given that if we were the only ship with mark threes the only means to counter us would be to rush production on them and hope for the best.
He smirked. "Of course more than half of the things you have done to ours have been done after we left and the first real tests of them were our own fights against Federation ships. Frankly I doubt these production models have half the fixes you have made sure to implement on ours. Hell remember when i nearly got killed by my old ship blowing up. the warp core couldnt take the rapid subspace bubble collapse caused by the Picard maneuver and my core breached on me. After they got me out of the transporter buffer and put me on your ground crew detail while my qualifications was reevaluated one of the first things i noticed was you had completely had the warp field bubble system tweaked to not fuck up when someone attempted micro-jump based combat maneuvers."
"I frankly doubt the eggheads that never see the flight deck even thought to test for half of the kinks you have worked out of these damned things for us. Frankly compared to the ships we have been flying I doubt these shiny fighters aren't even halfway to combat ready by the standards you have for our combat tested ones."
[ Lt. JG Zaraq | Outside Isley's Quarters | Deck 05 ] Attn: FollowTomorrow (I had to rewrite this post, the first apparently not here...)
When Dyan did not even deign looking at him, the shame Zaraq felt as he stood there in the corridor was unlike any he had felt before. Barring, perhaps, when he had been exiled from his people. Only then, he had been betrayed, so the hatred had consumed most of the shame in its flames. Now, as he stood there and looked at Dyan - making the humans present quite uncomfortable - he might have been betrayed by his former First Officer and made to do what he did, but the shame of forcing himself upon Dyan was consuming him instead. He was a Klingon who had been bereft of honour twice, and again, the idea to end his life resurfaced.
Yet the talks with Counselor O'Connor and the training he was giving Doctor Duv were tethers upon his guilt, keeping it from roaming free. So he chose not to lash out, to strike the bulkhead or cuff the closest human that had the nerve to stare at him so. He might have clenched his fists at his sides, and bared his teeth as he turned away, but he did naught. He had done the right thing to surrender his post as Master-at-Arms, and he clung to the truth of what had happened to Dyan and himself - that the Vulcan was the one responsible. Dyan might not have thought that way, at least not yet, but he was trying to repent.
He paused at the end of the corridor, giving the Asurian female another look. Then he stepped out of her sight, just like she wanted him to.
[ Deputy ThanIda zh'Wann | Isley's Quarters | Deck 05 ] Attn: Kaligos (I had to rewrite this post, the first apparently not here...)
Standing there, hearing him talk, it reminded Ida about the morning before, and how she had enjoyed herself in the pilot's intimate company. Yet the pinkskins words also reminded her, quickly enough, why she had chose to come there. She heard his regrets, and she did not like to add upon them, but she had no choice.
"Your actions today are under investigation," she said without any preamble, not daring to tread the slippery slope of offering her condolences for Skye Carver's death. Carver, the same pilot she had thought were one of the parasitically joined enemies. It was keenly felt how wrong she had been to make the accusation without proper evidence, and perhaps even more so now, since the two of them had never spoken again after that incident down on Theta Eridani IV. It felt like a lifetime ago, standing there with her arms folded behind her back. She had to continue. "As Deputy on this ship, I have been asked to lead the hearings of the Lone Wolves and Ensign Henshaw in her role as Mission Ops during the incident. It has fallen upon me to find out what happened, and I will come here again, on the morrow, when I have collected all the evidence from Thea's logs and the hardware on all the Valkyries - yours, Ensign Carver's and the rest. Tomorrow, I will question you, and it is in the crew's interest that I am impartial in my report."
She paused there, and having been looking at Isley, she now looked way - her chin raised as she stared into the bulkhead on the other side of the room. "Given the assignment, I came here to tell you that what happened between us was a single instance of no import. As far as I am concerned, it might as well never have happened. You should not expect any kind of leniency in my hearing, and if you seek to use what happened in some way - to undermine my position or cast shade upon the results in my report - I have come to tell you that it will not work. I have already told my Lieutenant Commander Wenn what happened between us, and he knows that it will have no consequence."
Having said this, she looked back at Isley - her tone still perfectly even. "Do you understand, Junior Lieutenant?"
[ Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt | Main Bridge ] Attn: All on the Bridge
To Dewitt, it was good seeing Commander Trent again since she had been given the chance to verify every word he had said to her down on the Opal. The past hours, her regard of the man with the bionic limbs had grown - seeing how he had been so respectful to her with the truth, on top of protecting her people.
When he also confirmed Ives' orders to have her personnel's possessions retrieved before the Code Zero protocol was issued, she smiled a little and inclined her head, brushing some of her red hair behind her ear. "Thank you, Commander. I am glad to hear it," she said, and then turned to address Captain Ives as well. "I will talk to my people first, before we go over the same things I was shown. I am fairly sure they will come around and see things the way I do, some more than others, but I know that I have an important role to play in that."
Nodding, Jien folded his arms across his chest where he stood on the bridge. "Perhaps you should speak with those that you believe are more open to the truth first, and then - together with them - you speak with those that may cling to doubt a bit more. Gradually, the the numbers will work in your favour, but you need to inform me and Commander Trent when you want us to get involved in the process. When you deem it is the right time, we will go over the logs again, and make them see the past the way we've experienced it."
"Aye.. Captain," said Dewitt, catching herself addressing her new Commanding Officer for the first time by decorum. She could not help the rueful smile at the realisation, before turning to the present bridge crew. her heart fluttered in her chest, but she bit down and made her address to those present.
"My name is Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt, and I have yet to be given a position here aboard the Theurgy, but I would like to take a moment to thank you all for the efforts you took to keep my staff on the Black Opal out of harms way." She put her hands on her hips and looked to the deck. "At the same time, I know that one of your pilots were killed in action, and for that I cannot do anything but apologise for the orders I gave, but at the given hour, I did not know better. I... will pay my respects to your Squadron Commanding Officer, and I will speak with the rest of the pilots when the time is right."
She took a deep breath before she continued. "My priority is that the integration of my personnel into this crew will be as seamless as possible, and with any luck, we will be able to assist during the mission to Starbase 84 - only a couple of days away. If anything, the fact that we have defected to the Theurgy will serve the message sent in the simulcast. Thank you, again. That is all."
OOC: I will be posting with Rawley again after Drana has posted, and I will be posting with Thea visiting Lin Kae in the Brig too. Time ran out here at work now, so I am heading home.
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-70854 | Security Center | Brig ] Attn: DocReno
There was another sound in the Brig shortly following the thud against the bulkhead. It was the whoosh of sliding doors, and a quiet word with the posted Brig Officer. Eventually, footsteps were heard across the deck, approaching Holding Cell B, where Lieutenant Lin was being held.
"Hi..." came the quiet voice, and while digital in origin, it was not without great emotion.
Thea saw her caretaker in the holding cell and could not understand what had motivated his actions. Every simulation she had made had yielded no answers, and while she could not grasp a motive that could be applied to her own functions, she could understand that his motivations were outside the logical appliance of reason and order. Constructive thought was familiar to her as well, but as far as she could glean, nothing constructive had come about from Kae's sudden demands. No, as she saw him in the holding cell, and with the memory of Captain Ives' personal log, all she could see was a destructive result. What motivated destruction? Texts on philosophy said that organics loved the things that destroy them, because in that destruction they truly felt alive. Other texts concerned her even more, and those were texts which said that it was in their nature to destroy what they created. She had not given those texts credit until that day, when her dear caretaker committed treason over the death of his friend.
"May I offer conversation... Or do you wish to be alone?" she asked Kae at first as she stood there in her black chameleon bodysuit, projected by the mobile emitter within her torso. The situation was unprecedented, and she did not know how to behave within social parameters. She ended up asking him with a quiet voice, and with her brown eyes searching him for his reasons. "Either way, I have questions, as you would imagine, about what happened. About what you wanted to happen in the face of such grave danger. When you made your demands.... When you reprogrammed me, taking away my freedom again - the very same freedom you gave me because you thought it was right."
What he had done to her felt... so wrong that her emotion chip could not convey a data-feed to match the implications she derived from his actions. Lin Kae had not just betrayed Ives, the people on the Senior Staff, and the whole crew aboard her. He had assaulted her integrity as a digital being, much akin to an organic might be assaulted - only she wore no scars from the ropes he had tied around her wrists. "I just... don't understand, Kae. Can you tell me, what made you do that to me?"
Somehow, she found herself clinging to the concpet called 'hope'. Hope, that she just didn't understand his motivations. Hope, that she could forgive him.
[LT Lin Kae | Brig/Main Security | USS Theurgy]
Kae looked over at Thea and his expression turned sorrowful as he moved to sit up on the narrow bunk. "I..I lost it, Thea." the young Bajoran said as he spread his hands out in front of him, slightly shaking from a combination of depression and stress almost as badly as his voice. "Everything that's been happening since this whole damned quest to save everything that we've fought for and..I've been trying to hold it together, waking up each day and putting on a brave face so that we can keep going and keep fighting because our fellow officers need me and my precious talents."
Kae's hands slowly, surely, and still shakenly as he tried to force himself to center so that he didn't sound as broken as he felt. "I thought that I was strong enough to handle this by myself and not see one of the ship's shrinks like Lieutenant O'Conner and I just kept going, through a succession of engineering and operations chiefs and mishaps aboard this ship..." Kae explained as he tried to look the ship's ACI in the eyes but instead found himself looking down in shame at what he had done to her because he had given her freedom to be her own person, despite her actual "physical" form was a several meter long warship of the line, she had the right to chose and make her own decisions.
Kae fought to look up into her face as he tried to keep from breaking down on her. "The hours prior to what Vassar set in motion, I spent the morning with a pilot from the wolves in the form of Soo Young Seung and...it felt different then the feelings that I have for Rihen..it didn't scare me or confuse me but I looked forward to finding out more about what those feelings could lead to...but before I could Thea, she was killed in the onset of the whole mutiny and I didn't even get a chance to say good bye to her or anything."
Tears started to fall from Kae's eyes as he tried to keep even harder from breaking down in front of Thea, so he clenched his fists tightly and tired to stand up straighter to look her in the face again, not daring to meet her eyes. "Did you know how much I am hating myself right now, Thea..I'm spilling my guts out to perhaps the only friend that I actually had left on this whole damned ship and you asked me a simple question which is why did *I* take away your ability to be free for something as petty like that..." he said, his voice tight as he finally found enough courage to look Thea in the eyes. "When I heard that Skye was dead...I...I lost it, Thea, and I can't even begin to start apologizing to you for what I've done but I..I'm sorry..."
[Nathaniel "Maverick" Isley (https://img05.deviantart.net/d370/i/2015/303/8/7/nathaniel___maverick___isley_by_auctor_lucan-d9evi5n.png) | Senior Officer's Quarters| Deck 05 ] Attn: Lucan, & Nolan
The smile faded from Nathan's lips, and any joy he had felt at the assistant security chief's visit was quickly turned to an ashen feling of anger towards her. It was pretty hard not to view it as a personal betrayal. Of course they had been pretty clear on the fact that their visit was supposed to be a one time thing, he had held onto some hope that there could have been more to the relationship than a mere one night stand. A friendship? Some form of connection, but no instead he was staring at someone who had basically just told him that any hope of personal relation would have been seen as a weakness.
"Fine." His voice was clothed in anger. It was clear that he wanted to say more on the situation probably even throw something towards her. Not at her, but definitely in her general direction. He understood her duty was to the ship, but at the same time he couldn't help but smile at the knife he felt sticking out of his back. "You know it's funny Ida... You are a better Vulcan than I could ever be. I know it was supposed to be a one time thing Ida, but it was most certainly of import to me."
He wasn't sure if it was a complement towards her, or an insult. Perhaps a bit of both. Though he did notice that she couldn't look at him while saying that it still stung. Perhaps it was as she had said, but it had still turned any and all hopes of a connection to something else. "I won't bring up our personal relations during the trial. Nor will I attempt to discredit you in anyway. When this gets ruled as an accident and it will because it was."
He let out a long sigh and tried to calm himself down he could destroy the room later, but right now anything he said or did would reflect poorly on him. He took a deep breath. "While you are collecting data on the case I suggest you look into my Flight Suite. I know it doesn't have a lie detector built in, but who knows maybe there is something useful on it. Either way the thing needs to be sent in for decontamination I threw up on it while I was on Black Opal."
He mentioned that last part just because he currently enjoyed the idea of Ida having to put up with something otherwise dirty. It was in someway the only serviceable means of revenge that he had.
[ Eun Sae Ji | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: IronFerrox, Canadianvet
Eun Sae had found a slight issue regarding the engines of the new Valkyrie MK-III fighters brought aboard after the incursion on the Black Opal munitions depot. It seemed that the propulsion systems on the engines had a limiter placed upon them to keep them in prime condition until they were deployed for actual combat. Unfortunately the removal process for the limiters was a long tedious process that grated heavily upon her nerves. Eun Sae muttered to herself in her native language as she reached deeply into the guts of one of the new Valkyries trying to grab hold of one of the modules that needed to be removed in order to get the system to full field operation capacity. Finally she felt her hand wrap around the module in question and with a slight pull and wiggle she managed to yank it free. "Ha!!" She exclaimed happily as she tossed the module onto her workbench.
"Good job Ji but that's just step one out of ten." One of the techs from her team said as he looked over a set of instructions. Eun Sae sighed glancing at the tech in question before walking over and patting him on the shoulder. "I'm sure I can trust you with steps two through ten." She said giving the man a small smile before stepping away. "Hey!" He called looking over his shoulder at the retreating woman before sighing and turning to look at the Valkyrie MK-III infront of him. Eun Sae wiped her hands on her coveralls leaving dark smudges on the rough orange fabric as she approached Chief Covington and Squadron Lead Renard. She nodded and both men "A bit of unfortunate news Chief looks like the new Valkyries have propulsion limiters fitted to their systems." Eun Sae said.
"It looks like these birds were in transit to someplace else but got dropped off at Black Opal instead. Usually I only find these fitted to birds that weren't meant to fly yet and it's kinda a long difficult process to remove them." Eun Sae added. She was quiet for a moment as she looked at the weapon that sat on the floor of the deck. "What...Is that?" She asked having never seen this piece of ordnance on the deck up until now.
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-70854 | Security Center | Brig ] Attn: DocReno
As she listened to Lin Kae, Thea first wondered how it could be that she hadn't foreseen all that she heard - the gradual deterioration of his confidence in the mission. Changes so small, yet so many, until the catalyst caused some kind of organic cascade failure. She was not entirely sure what had been the catalyst for Kae, Soo Young Seung's death of Ensign Carver's, or a combination of the two. Though it had to have begun before that, she knew, and that vexed her - how she had failed to aid him. To make him stand strong despite all that the crew had been through.
Indeed, first, she wondered how she could have missed it. Yet she surmised that to project the failure upon her own operations was not the solution. The damage was already done, whatever mistakes already made. So with the analysis abandoned, she was left with the datafeed of her emotion chip, and it was sending conflicting data. It was troublesome, because it made it harder to process it, and she was left in doubt of how to proceed. "I am sorry about the deaths of those who stood close to you. My condolences, and had I known what you felt for the one called Oracle among the Lone Wolves, I would have recommended that you'd take some time off duty. Instead, you have been spending more time in your hololab."
Admittedly, she had thought he had enjoyed working with her. She had false data, she realised, and that data was built upon a conversation she'd had with Kae in that hololab, only before the Calamity had attacked them the first time. Lin Kae had expressed feelings for her, and though she had no available parameters to judge what he had meant, she had thought their companionship held more than... more than his duty to care for her system integrity and runtime processes. What it was, she did not know, but they had been intimate back then, when she was given her new sensory mapping.
Though the recording of the memory was plain to her, and in retrospect, she had been the one who had initiated the intimacy, and she had used her mouth to give him sexual stimulation. Lin Kae had, however, not returned the gesture. Not like the two other organics Thea had been intimate with. So why had he said the things he did? Had he lied, and desired the organic women that had died all along?
"I had hoped our close working relationship would have helped you, but since Theta Eridani, after you completed the mobile emitter and Captain Ives gave his speech about my rights aboard as an individual, you have been... vacant. Was that when it began?"
She needed more data.
OOC: Another post with Ida coming up later.
[ Deputy ThanIda zh'Wann | Isley's Quarters | Deck 05 ] Attn: Kaligos
The pilot called her a Vulcan, and had she been more true to her Andorian heritage, indoctrinated in the cultures of Keth and ice castles of pride, she might have taken offence. Now, instead, she understood his sentiment perfectly, since she felt no joy about having to forego a personal acquaintance with him - however passing it might have been. No, she took no joy in upholding her duties right then, but it was a necessity.
If anything, given the current circumstances, she regretted having sex with him in the first place. It would have made things easier for the both of them. If he was found innocent, she doubted that he'd be interested in resuming some kind of relation to her - sexual or not - because she'd had to say what she just said. Few understood the burdens she took upon herself, the standard she aimed to uphold, but it did not matter to Ida. She would maintain her vigilance and protect Ives' crew, regardless what people thought about her. If she had been able to preform her duties after suffering the shame of what the Niga virus had made her do, then the shame of having to dismiss a single, happenstance lover paled by comparison.
"I am glad to hear we are in agreement," she merely said, when he grudgingly accepted the terms, so to speak. Then he began to advise her on how to proceed with the investigation, and she showed him cordiality by not dismissing the things he said, things she had already planned for simply because the exosuits that the pilots wore were advanced Starfleet tech with a muscle enhancement functions. Chances were that the suit could have malfunctioned too, even if it was a remote chance. Should that have been the case, Isley would likely have noticed it.
"Thank you," she said, inclining her head, "I will make sure the suit is examined before it is decontaminated." She said it in quiet affirmation, not the least derisive. She had nothing against Isley, and showed him respect even if the coming days might burn all bridges between them. She regretted her duty, but she would not hesitate for a moment in carrying it out.
"Good bye, Junior Lieutenant." Saying this, she slowly turned on her heel and left him and his quarters behind. She nodded to Dyan and Larsson outside before descending the corridor. She blinked once, slowly, and swallowed the regrets that had lumped in her throat. She would see her duty done, but she would take no joy in it. None at all.
OOC: Nolan, feel free to post with Cameron coming for a visit now! :)
[ Kanti "Gun-Shy" MacTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
First thing after stepping out of her fighter, Kanti had rushed to the bathroom and vomited.
Yeah, turned out that all those fancy simulations? They might have tried to recreate a lot of the feeling of combat, but the reality of sitting in a small packet of metal screaming through the void at high velocities, practically hearing the squeal of inertial dampeners struggling to maintain function, worrying every second that one of the countless guns strapped to her tiny ship could malfunction or blow early... there was an overwhelming terror that had, upon the pack's return to the Theurgy, effectively forced out Kanti's breakfast. Lunch wasn't even something she wanted to consider the rest of today.
Even some time later, with a quick shower to briefly unwind, Kanti's nerves were still rattled. They'd won, taking on a massive Romulan warship and kicking it so hard in the privates that it had run off with its tail between its legs. It was a testament to the value of fighter craft in combat situations, and a victory on her very first mission as a part of the squad. This should've been her cockiest moment, the afternoon that she started cracking wise and declaring that no power in the 'verse could stop her, yet the redhead was instead slogging through getting changed at her locker, head hung low as she remained on edge. All that ran through her mind right now was a sense of unease, a worry that hadn't tapered off since they'd returned, and the same constantly flashing image of those few seconds when she'd caught a glimpse of the damage that their weapons had caused to the Romulan ship.
She looked practically lost as Rawley came up to her, offering words of congratulations for surviving her first excursion. Kanti looked downright puzzled, eyes snapping up to her nude superior with a hint of shock behind them. "Um, but...." She wavered slightly through the thick Scottish brogue, "I got back and v-"
Looking up, she stopped short in realizing that Rawley was already talking to someone else. Probably hadn't even noticed what MacTavish had said. Fine by her - she wasn't in the mood to have a conversation right now anyway. Instead, she quickly finished putting on her uniform, the quiet creak of her metal locker closing before she started creeping towards the exit. With any luck, she could get out of here without needing to talk with anyone else. With what was bubbling in her gut right now... well, she couldn't imagine that talking to a bunch of people who were already veteran pilots in their own right was going to help much. If she actually admitted what was bothering her right now, to a bunch of people who were bound to be long accustomed to combat situations, it'd just be a fine excuse to turn her into the squad laughing stock. Other, better excuses would come in time without her trying to accelerate it.
[Ensign Christopher "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay] Attention: Gun-Shy & Company
Husker turned to look at Ghost as he held his shirt, his scarred upper body on display as he arched an eyebrow at the British pilot for a second before he snorted back a laugh. "Sorry about that boss, I promise to tear it up next time out." Husker tossed back with a playful wink as he took in the newst pilot and caught sight of how she was looking before he walked over to where she was.
"So how are you feeling, Kanti?" the Asgardian asked in respectable tone as he slipped his departmental undershirt and started to tuck it into the waistband of his pants. "Was this your first full combat op because if it is then I'll agree with Rawley's complament about a job well done."
[ Commander Carrigan Trent | Main Bridge ]
As Dewitt made her address, Trent nodded. She was, after all, addressing a good part of the senior staff and eventually those who were absent, from Lieutenant-Commanders Renard and Wenn to Doctor Nicander to Master Chief O'Connor would need to be briefed. And of course the crew in general. And there was the matter of finding her a place in the ship's hierarchy and to integrate those of her people who would choose to follow the Captain's lead instead of being dropped off safely at the earliest convenience. And that alone would call for some consultation with the woman, given that the personnel records from Black Opal was not something that was part of the download he'd taken from Archeron's database and that the computers had been thoroughly wiped from the redhead's most appropriate action. Mind, there was still that covert link to Starfleet he could use to pull in personnel jackets through, but there were plenty of things that the official records omitted but instead were kept in the local copy that followed any member around from assignment to assignment.
Once she finished talking, Trent let himself be heard. "Commander Stark, please have the Quartermaster arrange for suitable quarters for Commander Dewitt, as well as all the sundry stuff we need. For that matter, have him start preparation for all of her people and have their personal effects delivered. We can re-adjust if need be." That was a start. Yes, the former commander of Black Opal had gone over to them, but it would serve them very well to be able to show they were truly hoping to welcome them all as members of this crew instead of leaving them interned in Cargo Bay 4.
"Also, Jennifer, you and I will need to sit down for a little while. Of course you'll need to be debriefed but I'd also like to go over your people and their files, if only to figure out where we can employ them best, and who's likely to cause trouble down the line."
[ CWO1 Sten "Papa Bear" Covington | Hangar Bay ]
Sten chuckled with Renard explained the Vulpinian version of Christmas. Of course, that was a condensed version of things, but then again that was really all they had the time for as they stood there within the fighter bay. If they'd been sitting around a good bottle and didn't have a deck and a squadron to run at that exact moment, odds are there would have been more detail but for now he had to satisfy himself with that.
When he talked about production lines, Covington caught how he was referring to the fighters instead of the weapons. Indeed, the early shakedown of the Mk III birds had led to a lot of reports and a number of issues had been addressed along the way. But it wasn't until they'd gone into what could euphemistically called aggressive testing that the real issues hadn't cropped up and been addressed. And it was not to say that Papa Bear would not rather have had the late Reenan Cooper to back him up when he had to start designing fixes; that egghead knew his fighters all right and he was a wiz as a designer, but then again, the Chief of the Deck was more interested in practical fixes. So whereas his own modifications might have been inelegant and simplistic by the standards of the leader of the design teams, the grizzled veteran knew how to make things that simply worked.
"I can't speak for tactics, Boss, but I think you might be onto something. I think we'll still maintain an edge until they really get their birds worked out good and proper. But difference is, their deck gangs are going to have to figure it all out on the fly; but unlike me, they'll be dragging an anchor when the eggheads at the shipyards start arguing with their Deck Chiefs and insist on using proper design processes and testing instead of just doing it."
Then, the young Korean tech approached them with a report on the new fighters' propulsion system. Indeed, Sten had ordered a full-on inspection of every system and component to see how they differed from the ones that were already there, and what needed to be done to get them fully combat-ready. And the presence of a limiter on the drive components was something he found a little unsettling. "You're right, they'll often put a limiter on birds just being ferried by random people who just happened to be qualified to fly a small craft, or even crammed into a cargo hold. But there's another place I've seen them: flight school." Indeed, for pilot training there was a tendency to add a governor so trainees wouldn't be able to get too crazy. Those could be programmed, but only if the override codes were readily available. Without looking at the one Eun Sae had just pulled out, it would be hard to tell what he was dealing with. But then again, they didn't have the override codes to disengage them.
But then, he finished his thoughts. "What if they're starting to replace the birds fleet-wise? They'd need some live birds for the conversion training, and once they get the pilots checked out, they just disable the limiters and can forget they even existed until their Chief of the Deck has them pulled out and shipped back to the Academy."
However, what followed next was a damn good question, and the Brit answered. "That, Ji, is a M-142 rapid-fire mass driver twin-mount. Iron Fox and I were part of the group that tested the original prototypes, but we didn't embark any when we left Earth orbit because they were still working out some issues with the gimbals. But if the production-line serial number is any indication, looks like they might have fixed it. I'll be going over one of them with a fine-tooth comb personally, and we'll go from there."
[ Lt. Cmdr Natalie Stark | USS Theurgy | Main Bridge | Deck 01] :Optional tag: Henshaw, Covington, O'Connel
Natalie had spent the intervening hours since the Romulan warbird fled the system overseeing the continued transport of materials from the Black Opal base. As well as the personal effects of all the crew stationed on the base whom were now in the care of the Theurgy. After the first few moments of nervousness, the duties on hand fell into something of a routine for the Ops Chief, and she relaxed into the roll she'd been given.
Still, she was happy to turn over the center seat to Captain Ives when he returned to the bridge after his lengthy briefing with Lt. Cmdr. Dewitt. Silently, she took her own station back, settling into the far more familiar chair and readjusting the output of her console to her preferred settings. Looking over the logs - she already knew what had transpired but it was always good to confirm - she resumed her more normal duties at Ops. This time, bringing up the readings from the Black Opal base.
A base that was about to be reduced to its base atoms. It couldn't be avoided however, and for once Natalie was able to take some solace in the fact that there would be not further loss of Federation life today. For once at least, they were able to do what needed to be done with out more innocent souls weighing on all their consciousness.
Souls other than Skye Carver, she regretfully amended.
The the screen lit up with the destruction of the base. Thea's computers compensated well enough for the sudden flare, keeping the crew's eyes from being damaged by adjusting the visual output to allow the magnificent fury of the explosion to be captured - silently - but without any nasty side effects to the ocular organs of the various species collected on the bridge, and throughout the ship, monitoring the way that Black Opal was wiped from existence. She could almost swear she heard Aisha S'iti sigh as the base became no more, no trace of it left, and wondered at that, what thoughts were running through the Cardassian pilots mind just then. Did they mirror her own?
Natalie wasn't given much time to dwell on that as the Lt. Cmdr from the now nonexistent base addressed the bridge crew. With a glance at her console to confirm her readings, she politely turned her chair to face Dewitt, listening to the redhead. She listened with rapt attention, and was left with a sense of pity for the other woman - knowing the past few hours could not have been pleasant by any stretch of the imagination - as well as a feeling that given time, Ms. Dewitt might just fit in with the crew. It also left her wondering just what kind of roll would be assigned to the former base commander.
"Commander Stark, please have the Quartermaster arrange for suitable quarters for Commander Dewitt, as well as all the sundry stuff we need. For that matter, have him start preparation for all of her people and have their personal effects delivered. We can re-adjust if need be." She turned her head to meet the gaze of the soft spoken first officer and nodded to him, even smiling slightly. It would be a good start to getting them all settled in, for however long they would be on the Theurgy. After all, it wouldn't be long before they made their raid on Starbase 84; Natalie doubted that would go as...smoothly as today had.
"Aye sir," she replied to Cmdr. Trent before turning back to her console and quietly issuing the orders to begin the process of integrating the two crews, assigning many of the empty berths that the Theurgy had to offer, befitting a ship class of its massive size. Personnel space was one thing they certainly did not lack for, given the attrition rate the ship had suffered. Then again, even the junior officer and enlisted barracks on the ship had never been what one might consider small. While it was a grim thought, at the same time the COps was pleased to have something productive to do. Not that she'd been anything but productive while in command of the bridge for the past few hours, but all the same, she took what warmth and joy should could get from her duties, whenever she could manage.
[Lt. Cmdr. Miles "Iron-Fox" Renard | Hangar Bay ] Attn: Canadianvet, RosariaRosette
Miles nodded, hearing what the two were saying about the engine limiters and the crafts being probably bound for a transfer and had an idea himself, "They might have been destined to go to Task force Archeron, They certainly aren't that far away. and it would make sense to send them some Mark 3's in order to give them a bit more of an edge to try and take us out."
And If those guys got these mark threes with the twin mounts installed on them, we might have something bigger than the Calamity to worry about. If what I remember abut these things are right a squadron using hit and fade tactics and following up sustained tetrion blasts with volleys from the twin mounts could potentially surgically cripple key components on nearly any Federation Starship including ours."
[ Kanti "Gun-Shy" MacTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
So much for her speedy escape. With her head turned away to hide the wince, Kanti did her best to avoid getting into an overly-long conversation with Isley. On any other day, in any other state, she would've been willing if slightly reluctant to talk, but right now... right now she just needed to get some time alone. Right now she needed to be by herself as the same mental image played a thousand times over in her head on a loop that utterly refused to stop.
"Thanks," she said weakly in response to the compliment, all the while hoping that she didn't sound unappreciative. In truth, she didn't really feel that it was warranted - the novice Trill had done little of note besides firing off a couple torpedoes when ordered. Considering how erratic her flight path had been, criticism seemed far more appropriate. "First op. Sorry, I've, uh... sorry, I've gotta run."
[ Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Dewitt | Main Bridge ] Attn: All on the Bridge
"Also, Jennifer, you and I will need to sit down for a little while. Of course you'll need to be debriefed but I'd also like to go over your people and their files, if only to figure out where we can employ them best, and who's likely to cause trouble down the line."
Jennifer nodded and smiled quietly. "Of course, Commander. First, however, I would speak to my crew and try to make them understand, and it would be best to do so before they leave that cargo bay - a place where I would rather they didn't have to stay any longer than necessary."
"Of course," said Jien Ives, stepping towards the turbolift. His oaken eyes returned to her after he brushed his fingers across the button. "I will accompany you personally, and Thea will be able to show them all what you were shown these past couple of hours. I will do my best to make sure the number of people that would cause trouble down the line are as few as possible. With any luck, the entire staff on the Black Opal's will heed the call."
Jennifer felt relief animate her, because she knew that her people had due cause to dislike her because of the poor way she had held the position of command over them all. Ives, however... He might have seemed a demon to her based on what she had heard about him, but when he spoke... he had disarmed her entirely. Every vile accusation. Every scathing remark about what he had ordered his crew to do. It seemed to her now quite obvious why he had been sent to Romulus to negotiate a peace treaty. He was still a diplomat, only now convincing people of the impossible - giving voice to the resistance.
"Thank you," she said and followed, hoping he would succeed where she knew she would fail.
"The bridge is yours, Number One," said Ives to his First Officer, "Please make sure the preparations continue as planned until I return. In less than 72 hours, we will be about to pass through the tachyon defence grid, so there is precious little time left. We'll speak later."
The turbolift's doors closed, and Jennifer inclined her head to Trent before they did - a silent 'thank you' for the way he had handled things down on the Opal, before and after the Romulans arrived.
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Lone Wolves, CanadianVet & RosaraRosette
The new girl in the pack seemed nervous, and Rawley realised that she might be the cause for it. If not her, she imagined Gun-Shy had a lot to process after her first hunt. She could hardly remember the first time she had been in a cockpit for real. Shuttles were one thing, but the experience of a Valkyrie was quite another.
"Don't worry about it, run off, but hey, if you want to talk, we re here for ya,"she told the retreating Trill, giving her a wink before she turned away. As she did, she pushed Husker away a step as she passed him with a hand on his arm - a lopsided smile on her face as she left the two behind. "Hey, give her some bloody space will ya?"
She went to her locker and dropped her towel, starting to get dressed as well. With her knickers on, she looked around for Fasha and Tessa, whom she had flown with the most during the mission. Goldie had hesitated, and she wanted to know she were okay, and Morrigan... Well, she honestly just wanted to take the opportunity to look at her in the locker room to be perfectly fucking honest. The colonist was damn easy on the eye, and especially after a mission.
She should say something about Carver, but she was not the right girl for that. She had no fucking idea what to say. It was just so fucked up that she didn't know how to deal with it in any other way than pretend it hadn't happened. It was just so damn fucked up she was done in that way...
[ Eun Sae Ji | Hangar Bay ]
Eun Sae frowned as Sten described that there was one other place he knew used the propulsion limiters she'd found fitted to the Valkyrie MK-III's drive components. If what he was saying was true then the Theurgy was going to lose one of the edges it had over the opposition when it came to combat. "Well I managed to pull one of the physical components of the limiter out I had someone look up some old operational texts. It looks like Starfleet is still using the same kind of limiter they used a couple of decades ago." Eun Sae said jogging over to her workbench and picking up the component before bringing it back over to Sten. "Apparently we can physically remove the limiters but it's a long process and I'd need to quite literally take apart most of the bird to get to every piece I need to remove." Eun Sae said.
She blinked at the weapon sitting on the floor of the deck as Sten went into detail about the weapon. She crouched down beside the weapon it had been some time since she'd heard of Starfleet employing any projectile based weaponry other than torpedoes. She hummed as she looked at the connections along with the sensor built into the front of the weapon. "What was wrong with them? Targeting? Overheating?" Eun Sae asked as she stepped around the weapon looking for any flaws in it's construction or design. Weapons weren't exactly her forte but she'd done enough reading to have a bit of booksmarts when it came to them.
[ Fasha "Morrigan" | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
If there was anything that Fasha enjoyed after a mission it was most certainly a long shower hot or cold it didn't matter. It helped get her mind back on the right track. She ran her fingers through her hair tussling the long brown strands a bit as cold recycled water cascaded over her body. She was certain that most of the others were already out in the locker room. She raised her face into the spray of the shower letting the water pelt her face a bit the cold water washing away the tension in her limbs left over from combat.
The shower cut off leaving Fasha dripping wet a small sigh slipping past her lips. The showers had an automatic shut off to make sure nobody wasted more water than Thea could effectively recycle. Grabbing the towel she'd spread out over the shower stall door she dried herself off. There was something different about taking an actual shower that just felt so much more refreshing than sonic shower. As she stepped out of the stall she walked out into the locker room not bothering to cover up. Almost everyone left in the Lone Wolves had seen her naked at least once before so she didn't really have any issues walking amongst her comrades in her state of undress.
She continued to dry her hair as she stepped over to her locker setting the towel aside to open the locker up and begin dressing slipping her Starfleet issue undergarments on.
Lieutenant Lin Kae | Security Center| Brig| USS Theurgy]
Kae looked at Thea and saw the confusion that was lurking behind her electronic eyes before shaking his head before moving close to the force field, even though he could feel the energy crackling close to his skin, he needed her right now because he was lost..so very lost. "*YOU* did nothing wrong, Thea. In this great big cluster fuck of a situation, *YOU* have done nothing wrong. As a matter of point if anything you're becoming more perfect..."
He then looked down, his already frayed and shattered emotional center was already crumbling yet again as he tried to reassure her. "I..I was told once that it was crucial for a person to have a lot of social interaction with others at an early stage in their lives, Thea, and you know about my condition, how it robbed me of those critical interactions and my parents were more intent on making sure that I was protected didn't have the common base level of intelligence to make sure that I had those interactions which means that when I was able to be out here, I didn't have all of the data that I needed to make connections outside."
"Skye was like the big sister that I didn't have, Thea, and having a connection like that in this sea of shadows that we're in was helping me stay centered somewhat but the whole...thing that happened with Oracle, that caused me to have a confusion that I didn't know how to process as it would feel like my data was faulty or corrupt." he explained as he lifted his head and fought to look into her eyes again. "I was working in the lab so much because with you, I was calm and be in a place that would allow my mind to be quiet because there is so much more to do for you once you became your own person...but your right, I should have said something."
Kae then moved away and sat down on the narrow bunk again as it felt like his legs were going to give out from under him. "Thea, could I ask you a question that might help you understand all of this?"
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
When Tessa got her Valkyrie back to the fighter bay she parked in stall seven and went straight to the locker room. She removed her helmet and started crying. She had flown out of formation again! Again! She was going to get someone killed!
Someone had already been killed. That's what she was really crying about. She was transferring her emotions, getting upset at lesser things. But the truth was that Skye Carver was dead and Lt. jg Lance, callsign 'Goldeneye' couldn't handle it. Talk about pathetic. When it came to guts, Tessa May Lance was the most pathetic pilot in the Lone Wolves.
At that moment Kanti MacTavish rushed into the locker room, commandeered a stall and threw up.
Okay, Tessa thought as she dried her tears and started stripping off her flight suit. Maybe not.
As the other pilots crowded into the locker room, she jumped into a shower stall before they were all taken. She set the control on 'water' instead of 'sonic' to hide the fact that she'd been crying. She let the sound of the water and the sound of the other pilot's voices lull her into a state of relaxation.
Rawley sounded surprisingly positive. Tessa supposed that after the death of her brother Cale Winterbourne, she had just stopped caring and lived for the moment. Tessa felt a slight twinge of jealousy as she heard Ghost bonding with Husker. Why couldn't she do that?
When she got out of the shower and was getting dressed she noticed that there were only five pilots in the room. Five. Iron-Fox was still on the flight deck but there was no sign of Maverick and Kestrel was...
A painful lump formed in her throat as Ensign McTavish glanced in her direction.
Oh smeg, Tessa thought, she's looking at me. What to do? What to do? I can't let her see me losing it; she'll go back to shuttle piloting! We need every pilot in a Valkyrie as it is! Got to say something encouraging... what to say...what to say... Don't worry Gun-shy, you're not the worse pilot out there, that's my job! She'll think I'm mental... um... um...
Tessa's face suddenly became a cheery mask of optimism. "Hey Kanti, nice job," she smiled perkily.
[ William Robert O'Connell (https://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/219/f/7/oconnel_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n2x.png) | Main Bridge | Deck 01| USS Theurgy ] Atten: Carrigan Trent
It wasn't every day that the Engineering Department could get an after action report written up so quickly, but without all those officers to slow things down, it was amazing how fast the job could get done. Of course, it could also have something to do with the fact that the Theurgy hadn't taken any damage in that engagement when the Romulans decided to say 'howdy' and drop by.
When Master Chief William Robert 'Billy Bob' O'Connell reached the bridge, the brooding form of Commander Carrigan Trent was sitting in the captain's seat. O'Connell and Trent hadn't mixed much since commandeering the auxiliary bridge during the mutiny so Billy Bob decided to say hello.
"Here's the after action report from engineering Commander," Billy Bob said as he dared to be familiar enough to use Commander Trent's first name. "I'm happy to report that the Theurgy didn't take any damages during our little tussle out there."
[ Kanti "Gun-Shy" MacTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn:Doc M.
Oh God, maybe it was time to give up on an escape. So close to getting out of the locker room, and of course she had to glance up at one of the other pilots. Of course Tessa had to look back at her, and give her another congratulatory statement that the redhead felt was completely unearned. That was just her rotten luck right now.
She might well have just torn off without responding if she hadn't seen a glimpse of the other woman's face before the perky greeting was delivered. It was brief, maybe a couple seconds in passing before her expression became a merrily excited one, but in that tiny window she could see something all too familiar: worry. Over what, Kanti didn't have the faintest idea, but after more than twenty years of always being worrisome herself... she recognized the look of someone who was trembling on the inside.
Tessa was masking it pretty well, and any random person looking at her probably wouldn't have any idea what was going on inside the blonde's gut. Even Kanti might have written it off as nothing if she didn't know so well that sort of rush her fellow pilot was making to hide their nervousness, to bury all the worry under a mirage of perkiness. Underneath the friendly demeanor, the redhead was sure that she was trying to hide how she was really feeling right now.
It caught her off guard to realize that, at this moment, she might now be the only pilot in this room that was internally feeling like a train wreck. Everyone else always seemed so confident, so assured before and after every mission, yet here was someone who didn't look to be doing any better than MacTavish was. More skilled at concealing it, maybe, but the frayed nerves were there if one knew what to look for.
With all that in mind, Kanti stopped her rush for the exit, if only briefly, to respond. "T-thanks." Her tone was quiet as ever, but unusually, she followed it up with a question of her own instead of continuing to flee. "Um.... are you... doing okay?"
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-70854 | Security Center | Brig ] Attn: DocReno
It was true, she did know of her benefactor's early years, yet she had not the experience to estimate any social detriments that might have sprung from that time. Even more difficult since she had not observed at length or in depth how he treated her differently than organics. She had noticed how well at ease he was around her, yet beyond that, she'd had no means to guess at the fault-lines in his persona. Her understanding of psychology was on a statistical level, and it seldom applied perfectly to the individuals aboard her, much less to herself.
When he requested to ask her something, she had been searching her memory banks for something appropriate to say. Therefore, in lack of any viable results, she nodded. "Of course, you needn't ask," she said to him, looking at him where he had seated himself. "What is it?"
What overshadowed their conversation was the likely repercussions of his actions. Would he ever be allowed to calibrate her photonic projection again? Would he still have access to her systems, despite what he did? Would anything still be the same?
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves
It seemed something in Tessa compelled the new girl to linger, and Rawley glanced towards Goldeneye - unable to determine what it was. A stray thought, whisked away when she laid eyes on Morrigan.
The colonist had been in the shower, explaining why Rawley hadn't seen her at first, but once she emerged in all her damp glory, it was all Rawley could do not to let out a wolf-whistle. It was always like this after a dogfight. It left her wanting to... celebrate the victory. Fasha had always been a temptation at times like those, but up until the first time she got locked up in Sickbay - before that Niga Incident - Oracle had been Rawley's girl.
Oracle, however, wasn't there anymore. So many were gone, and yet that colonist remained - still tempting her despite all the hardships the Wolves had gone through. Part of her adrenaline-addled mind saw it as a sign, which was quite preferable compared to the grief that laid so close to heart.
"Hey," she said and walked over to Morrigan, unable to help herself, even less the lopsided grin she wore. Besides her knickers, it was all she wore, leaning against the locker next to Fasha's. "How would you like a drink in my quarters? Ever since the retired First Officer took over Below Decks, I can't help but feel like there is a senior officer there all the bloody time - giving me disapproving looks."
Which was quite the opposite from the look Rawley gave her.
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
"Um.... are you... doing okay?"
"What?" Tessa blinked. "S-sure," she stammered as she twitched like she was craving an addictive narcotic. "The mission went great. We beat the Romulans! We got the job done at Black Opal and everyone came ho--"
Her next words caught in her throat as her topaz yellow eyes blinked back tears. Everybody didn't come home. Kestral hadn't. Skye Carver had died shortly the Black Opal mission had begun, before there was any real resistance, before the Romulans had revealed themselves. How unfair was that? What the hell happened? Had Papa Bear's deck crew been so overworked that they missed something on Skye's Valk? Had T'Rena's malignant influence outlived the Vulcan witch and caused one of the Lone Wolves another? Or had a saboteur been interrupted before he could rig every Valkyrie in the fighter assault bay to explode? At this point in time Tessa had no clue. It was too early after the fact for even scuttlebutt to reach her, let alone an official report.
Tessa closed her eyes and trembled as she attempted to bring her emotions back under control. She couldn't lose it in front of the new girl. She had to foster the illusion of hope or else hope would truly be an illusion. She had to assure her that everyone in the squadron could pull their weight. Had anybody noticed? Rawley, bless her, was distracting Fasha with playful flirting. Evelyn wasn't bothering to hide her nude body under a towel and was in no hurry to get dressed, so it was a good bet that Husker was distracted too. Now if only Gun-Shy liked girls, Ghost would allow Tessa to escape without making a fool of herself.
"Ahem," she coughed as she tapped her collarbone with her fist. "Too much humidity when you use water in your shower," she grunted before closing her eyes and coughing again. "Some of it goes down the wrong pipe," she added lamely.
Would she buy it? Or would she be polite and pretend to buy it? Maybe Kanti just needed to reach out to someone who was honest and willing to say 'Yeah, I'm scared out of my mind too.' Or maybe she wanted to know if she should stay in the Lone Wolves or not.
[ Commander Carrigan Trent | Main Bridge ]
"Aye Captain." There was little else to be said when Ives turned over the Bridge to the Executive Officer. Once the turbolift doors closed, Trent seated himself into the center chair and regarded the situation around him. Having just secured from Red Alert, there certainly would be a number of reports being filed, and that meant he knew just how much would be filtering through his hands in the near future. However, he knew one thing for certain: Theurgy would be more fit for battle in the next seventy-two hours than she had been she dropped out of warp, weapons blazing, against Black Opal. The replicator tanks were full, and every spare part they could find that would work on this ship had been acquired. And that included components for her weapons system. Already, weapons tech crews would be hard at work bringing every system back up to spec, using parts that were brand-new and not reconditioned.
And as he thought, briefly, about the mountain of paperwork headed his way, the Chief Engineer himself entered and handed him a PADD. This was rather interesting the man would come up to do so. After all, he could have simply sent it via the communications system and leave it at that. "Thank you, Master Chief," replied Trent. "Good to hear we didn't take any damage. And now that we're swimming in spare parts, I take it you and your people will be busy making her as good as new, minus the new starship smell?" It was a small joke, one that the amputee would not have even thought of days ago. However, that time constraint ahead meant he needed to get the ship moving.
"Helm, we've been here longer than our original estimates. Lay in a course to the jump-off point for the next phase of operations; adjust our speed from out initial ops plan to give us thirty-six hours there for final preparations. Engage when ready."
[ CWO Sten Covington | Fighter Assault Bay ]
"Like I said, Boss, not my place to comment about tactics. But yeah, I remember the testing, and seeing what those thing could do the the kind of armour plating you'd find on a Defiant-class ship." Indeed, while Sten was familiar with the doctrine that had been theorized for the use of these mass-drivers, he only knew the broad lines. But he had witnessed with his own eyes the terminal effects. To say they were impressive would be a rather monumental understatement.
But when Ji started asking questions, trying to piece together the issue with the gimbals, and while she had good ideas she had not hit the nail on the head. "Fracturing, actually. The eggheads who designed this piece of equipment did a good job, but they did their testing and simulation without thinking of the internal vibrations of a live, powered fighter as opposed to an unpowered testbed or a fixed mount. If the impulse manifolds are at more than about fifteen percent or so capacity, there's a nasty bit of resonance between that and the gun itself when you start firing, and the harmonics get centered on the gimbals and they crack. And that stops the gun from being able to traverse, elevate or collimate, let alone track as it's supposed to."
That was the short answer. And for now, there was no real way to know if that had been fixed. "I guess I'll have to crack one of them open and compare with what I've got from the prototype phase, see if anything's been change before I'll sign off on these being fit for service."
There was another reason for Papa Bear's concern. It was lucky the fighter had been remotely operated during that test. Because in that one, doing a full-impulse run, not only did the gimbals fracture but the harmonics also disrupted the drive system and a capacitor ring blew out, sending a cascade up through the mounting point and overloading the breaker. Oh, it didn't feedback all the way back to the bird's power generating systems, but when that bus blew, it did take out the wing...
[ Lt Cmdr Miles Renard | Fighter Assault Bay ]
Miles nodded. "Yea I remember when that happened. Almost as bad as when we were testing out the Tet canon in atmosphere and we forgot to calibrate the fine tuning adjustments on firing calculations to compensate for atmospheric stresses. As soon as it tried adjusting its aim after the tetryon echo the damn thing was torn strait down and ended up ripping half the guts out from the prototype ship. Thank the mother we hadn't installed a warp drive in that version or we woulda certainly cracked the containment and we would've had a warp core breech and the pilot would'a been fried even after ejecting. Luckily, it only tore out the bottom and the wings were aerodynamic enough that the pilot was able to glide the prototype in for semi-soft landing."
He sighed for a moment. "As much as I would love to make the priority checking the new guns as well as 'the shinys' out, there's something we need to prioritize first," he said looking around and turning his attention to where Maverick's fighter sat. "I need a full diagnostic on that ship, as well as every piece of recording data that it has. Sensor logs, weapons fire data, telemetry sensor tags, the works. Then I want the same info from every fighter in the squadron. I want to know exactly how the hell we ended up with Skye's ship disabled in the middle of a battle. If it was a malfunction, I want the every bit of evidence to fully exonerate Mav and get him back into the cockpit ASAP. If it was just a horribly tragic accident of friendly fire that could have been prevented but wasn't, then I need to know exactly what happened so if Mav has a career on this ship to salvage, he will be allowed to." Miles then let the words settle before adding the other possibility. "And if this was on purpose, and he betrayed the Wolves, I want every piece of evidence to make damn sure he gets a room right next to that bitch in the brig."
"I don't want to even consider the need for speculation. We had multiple birds in the air when it happened, we had a multi vector starship in SOM mode with sensors on full and we have the downloaded logs from the Opal. We should have every view imaginable on the incident and if I give it to Thea, she should be able to put together holodeck recreation of the events in accordance to information that is unquestionably irrefutable, rather than based on what people think they saw happen. I want to make sure what Security gets from us is a fully objective and complete account of all the data we have on the incident."
"Right now this is an internal investigation and Mav has agreed to confinement to quarters unless he receives Security's approval for a visit to medical or other locations per their allowance, and as such I received approval from the Captain to keep this investigation internal to the fighter bay as far as evidence gathering goes. I know I could have Security do this but I want to make sure everything is done right myself. This is the first friendly fire death that's happened on my watch and I want to make sure I do everything in my power to make sure its the only one."
[ Fasha "Morrigan" | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves
As Fasha slipped into her Starfleet issue sports bra she glanced over as Ghost approached her. The woman wasn't wearing much in the way of clothing except for her undergarments. The grin the woman wore and her body language it wasn't hard to tell what was on Rawley's mind. She knew Rawley she was the kind of person to celebrate survival, to celebrate victory. She'd seen it before when Oracle had been around how the two of them would disappear into either one or the other's quarters.
Now Oracle wasn't here. Perhaps Rawley was looking for someone else to hold her celebrations with? As Rawley offered to share a drink in her quarters she thought about it for a moment not taking her eyes off the other woman. "Sure..." She said as she slipped on her a pair of form fitting shorts. To be honest she didn't mind all that much being Rawley's second choice with the lives they lead it was hard to get a clear idea of how long your life would run on for.
To Fasha she needed to enjoy the small opportunities life gave her while she still could.
[ CWO Sten Covington | Fighter Assault Bay ]
Covington had heard shortly after he'd returned on board how Kestrel had been hit from fire from one of his own birds before getting her cockpit holed by Black Opal's defensive fire. Even with her shields down, a Mk III Valkyrie ought to have been able to survive a direct hit from the supply depot's phasers, even at that short a range. Unless it hit the very small target her canopy offered. More than once, it had been suggested to fully enclose the pilot in the same armour as the outer hull and rely on optical sensors and viewscreens or a helmet-mounted display, but that particular idea had always been shot down, typically on grounds of situational awareness and reliability. After all, the Mk 1 Eyeball with unimpeded view could do things no viewscreen could.
And the trade-off was an area, quite small on astronomical terms but one that still represented a substantial fraction of the fighter's surface area, that was far more vulnerable than the rest.
But the real problem was the allegation that Maverick had been the one to fire the tetryon cannon shot that created the conditions for that single item of fluke gunnery. Granted, combat could be chaotic and it was possible Kestrel had simply wandered across his firing solution, or Isley hadn't paid close enough attention to his surroundings, at the worst possible time; after all, everyone could make a mistake at some point, and the Chief of the Deck was not immune to this himself. But it was owed to Kestrel's memory and to the remainder of Theurgy's crew that it be investigated fully.
"I'll go over both Kestrel and Maverick flight recorders, and I'll tear his entire bird apart and do a full diagnostic of everything that's connected to the weapons systems if I have to. If it was an accident, so be it; if it was a fault in the weapons system, it's one we need to identify and see if it's something new or one of my people screwed the pooch. And if it was deliberate, I'll be the first one to recommend a long walk out a short airlock."
While Sten did not command the pilots, every single one of the Lone Wolves was one of his pilots. And that meant his job was to look after them in his own area of expertise, and despite his gruff appearance and the fact he had lost more than he'd care to count over the long years of his career, he was still attached to them. But if one did deliberately drop a friendly's shields while receiving fire? He was no longer worthy of his support.
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves
Rawley had not been sure of what Fasha would say. Either she wouldn't get the hint, and if she did, there was no certainty she fancied dalliances with women. As it were, the Colonist agreed, but said little else - leaving Ghost in the dark about what she was really thinking. Of course, there had been no secret amongst the wolves that she and Oracle had been involved, and asking Morrigan so soon after the Betazoid's death could give them all the wrong idea since it was a far lesser known fact that they had broken up down on Theta Eridani IV. Rawley, however, didn't care the least. She was among the last who gave a fuck about the opinions of others.
"I'll go pour the drinks then," she said with a grin to Fasha, her brown eyes quite bold before she turned back to her locker. She glanced at the Colonist over her shoulder. "Cya there," she said and gave her a wink, then she got dressed. For last, she put on her Lone Wolves hoodie and thrust her feet into a pair of ankle-height boots. She wanted to get out of the locker room before thoughts of Kestrel led to talking, not caring to wallow in the grief for a bloody moment. Any second, anyone of her brothers and sisters would say something, and then she'd find herself in some happenstance group therapy thing. No, she'd have none of that.
With a last almost furtive glance towards Morrigan before she left, she stepped into the flight hangar, and saw Renard, Covington and Ji talking - likely of Maverick and Kestrel. She had wanted to have a quick word with Sten, but seeing their murderous SCO there was just as compelling as the talk about the incident. No, she'd leave before the Vulpinian saw her and got some idea about talking to her. With her small duffel bag over her shoulder, she went straight for the exit - hoping she'd get away.
[Lieutenant Lin Kae | Security Center| Brig| USS Theurgy]
"Have you ever had to form a institutional plot without having all of the data or you had data but your data stream was corrupted?" Kae asked simply as he looked at the hologramatic entity again. "I spent so much time working and focusing on everyone that we had lost that I think I lost track of what was I was supposed to do."
He stood up and moved as close as he could to her with the cell's force field in the way. "I started a situation on the bridge without all of the facts, I accused a fellow officer who may have had nothing to do with the situation without all of the facts, and I put this ship and more importantly *YOU* into danger without all of the facts which clearly shows that my logic is flawed on such a monumental level that I need to be stripped of my duties until a hologram can be made to replace my head because it is so firmly up my arse!"
Kae then turned away from Thea and started to pace again, but this time he moved with a much more angry and urgent energy as more of the emotions that he had buried beneath the surface of himself came bursting up. "I mean am I really that stupid to have pulled a stunt like that, am I really that far fucking gone, Thea?"
===========================
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: All Present Lone Wolves
Chris still hadn't finished tucking in his departmental undershirt as he returned to his locker as he looked around the room to see what Wolves where still around before he realized that even with the shit that was going on, he didn't feel like drinking alone in his quarters.
"Hey Tessa, you up for anything?" he asked the yellow eyed pilot from his locker.
[ Lt Cmdr Miles Renard | Fighter Assault Bay ]
The Vulpinian turned to the Deck-chief. " Agreed but as soon as our part of the investigation is done I'm presenting our findings to security and letting them handle it from there. I just want to make sure that the stuff we investigate is done right and I know I can trust you and the senior members of your deck crew to be as objective as myself and not hide anything no matter how bad it looks for anyone involved. Anyways Ive got an AI to ask to start pulling the data from a whole squadron full of flight recorders and compile into a format that can be displayed on the flag bridge for our report to Sec. I'll be giving the pilots the rest of the night off and I'll be on the bridge for a while then in my quarters trying to pull something sensible out of the flight recorders and mission ops data."
That being said he turned to where Rawley was and thought a moment about trying to smooth things over with her but doubted anything could be done about it that wouldnt make everyting worse. Instead he simply walked towards the locker room and directed his gaze to her. "Ghost," he said simply, "I know you dont want to hear anything from me but, you were alt lead this mission so here goes, the Chief and I'll be trying to figure out what the hell happened with Mav's ship. You'll be the first to know what I find out, aside from Papa Bear and whoever Sec decides to assign the investigation to. You lead the squad for the majority of mission time this sortie so at the very least you deserve to know first."
"On lighter news let the wolves know they officially have the rest of the night off and unless we get a red alert or special orders from the Captain official duty starts at 0900 hrs tomorrow. If anyone wants to mess with their fighters they are welcome to anytime after 1930 hrs that should give us all time to finish pulling the needed Intel from them. Same with the hard-suits I'll make sure they get back in everyone's lockers by then, hopefully. Anyways, squad's yours. Standing orders are to enjoy yourselves for a while and get some rest. "
[ Evelyn "Ghost" Rawley | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
When Miles spoke to her as she was making her way out of the hangar, Rawley paused her step, taking a deep breath. She turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye, and she couldn't help but think that he was trying to smooth things over with her. She did not care for the reminder about what had happened to Skye Carver either, but she reckoned that there was no avoiding it. She hoped that whatever the fuck had happened to Mav's fighter wouldn't happen again in the rest of the squadron's birds. Just as much as they had to rely on each other, they had to be able to trust their Valkyries.
Trust, ironically, which was exactly what she had lost in regard to Miles Renard.
"I will tell them," she said simply, even if she had a mind to tell him to go fuck himself and tell his squadron about the R&R himself. If he wanted her to be some bloody errand girl for him, he had another thing coming. As it were, though, she did not have the energy to raise an argument. Fuck she missed Iceman. She'd trade the back-stabbing mutt for their real SCO any damn day. "Sir."
Then she left the hangar, meaning to tell the guys and girls through her combadge when she'd been able to quell the anger that had risen like bile in her thoat.
[ USS Theurgy "Thea" NX-70854 | Security Center | Brig ] Attn: DocReno
Seeing Kae like this tore at Thea's digital soul, the emotion chip's datafeed unbearable to her. Yet his question did cue something from her memory banks, and perhaps it might help. It was recent too, pertaining to what she had done when they fought her daughter, Cala.
"I have experienced generating erroneous output because of unrelated cataloguing," she said quietly in the wake of his outburst, hoping that it might make him settle down. "I set a double standard for myself because I did not relate two social conventions in my memory banks. The data was uploaded separately and I did not process the the two bundles at the same time, using different meta values based on different amounts of accumulated experience - causing the output to not match in entirety."
Even though Lin Kae was more than qualified to understand what she had just said, she had not given him the specifics. "You see, I also failed to establish the correlating demands when I appropriated the Reaver in the Fighter Assault Bay and launched in hope to restore my daughter's programming. Doing so, I disobeyed direct orders and abandoned the crew. With the hologrid non-functioning, only my emitter was available to lend aid to those loyal to Captain Ives. Yes, you helped me remove any sensitive tactical data from the emitter in the case of Cala obtaining it and trying to use it to access the ship's systems, but that is beside the point. After hearing Ives' speech about my rights as a photonic individual, I believed I was entitled to independence and personal initiative. I am, but not at the cost of breaking the chain-of-command. For if I do that again, the crew will question the authority of Captain Ives and the Senior Staff. With a mutiny already made, a second one is too probable to invite doubt to Ives' command."
She had accepted that she had failed the crew, despite her feelings towards the loss of her reprogrammed daughter. With Kae's help, she had tried to do what was the right thing, but the cost and the ramifications of her actions had been too great. The situation had been difficult for her on a personal level, the chances of her success far too low to be reasonable and meriting her actions... yet somehow, she had a hard time to regret her actions even if she knew she had done the wrong thing. She had accepted it, however, and was trying to both make amends and rectify whatever schism she might have made.
"Before you untethered me, during the Niga Incident, I could impossibly ignore orders, but this experience with Cala has enlightened me how protocols and their implementation do not correlate when my data-feed of emotions present additional values. Your emotions got the better of you, and if even I can be subject to their influence, is it truly so surprising that you were too? You are an organic, after all."
She said this with a small, encouraging smile - a jest to try and penetrate dark mood her specialist was in. "Based on these facts, I don't think a holographic version of your head would have done any better... So perhaps there might be something to learn from this, and if you accept whatever disciplinary action the Captain decides for you... perhaps we can make amends for our failures together?"
[ Fasha "Morrigan" | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
As Rawley left the locker room Fasha met her gaze with her own one more time before quickly finishing dressing slipping on her uniform and throwing on a hoodie over it with the Lone Wolves motif printed on it. She quickly left before talks of their lost comrade could begin she'd done her share of mourning and no amount of dwelling upon their losses would ever make any difference. Fasha had already moved on Kestrel would be remembered in her mind but she wouldn't let her death drag her down.
As she left the locker room she managed to catch a glimpse of Rawley and Miles who appeared to be in the middle of a discussion. About what Fasha wasn't entirely sure she was too far to be able to eavesdrop and to be fair even if she had been close enough to listen in. She doubted she would do so. She trusted Miles as her commanding officer not to keep anything important from them no matter how much Rawley might despise the Vulpinian. Rawley had survived that was all that mattered by the end of the night.
She pulled her hood up over her head and tucked her hands into the pockets of her hoodie before leaving the hangar. She had a few more things to take care of before she did met up with Rawley tonight.
[ William Robert O'Connell (https://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/219/f/7/oconnel_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6n2x.png) | Main Bridge | Deck 01| USS Theurgy ] Atten: Carrigan Trent
"Thank you, Master Chief," replied Trent. "Good to hear we didn't take any damage. And now that we're swimming in spare parts, I take it you and your people will be busy making her as good as new, minus the new starship smell?"
"Aye sir, we'll do our best," O'Connell nodded. "We might even get Vector separation if we work hard at it."
Carrigan Trent nodded before addressing the Cardassian Conn officer. "Helm, we've been here longer than our original estimates." Trent said to S'Iti as he signed the PaDD and handed it back to O'Connell. "Lay in a course to the jump-off point for the next phase of operations; adjust our speed from our initial ops plan to give us thirty-six hours there for final preparations. Engage when ready."
Thirty-six hours! Billy Bob O'Connell paled at the thought. Somehow he had to get the ship ready in thirty-six hours. And stay sane. And not pass out. And make sure nobody in the engineering department went loco or passed out either. And make sure everyone was at their best when it was mission time. William O'Connell was starting to wonder if the previous chief engineers had been unlucky or committed suicide. He nodded and put on a brave smile as he accepted the PaDD from Trent before heading for the turbolift. By the time the doors closed behind him, he was lost in his own thoughts.
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Atten: Gun-Shy, Husker, anyone still in the locker room.
"Hey Tessa, you up for anything?"
"What?" Tessa blinked, grateful for the rescue from Gun-Shy. Kanti McTavish seemed to reflect too many of Tessa's insecurities. "Oh. Sure." It would be better to bask in Slayton's confidence and hope it was infectious. "We could continue the tour or see if the holodeck is available," she suggested as she straightened her blouse and brushed her hair. "Do you want to come along Kanti?" Abandoning Gun-Shy was just too cruel. If Kanti wanted some company, Tessa didn't want to leave her alone. Maybe she would open up and help Tessa to do the same. If not, well... Chris was awfully cute...
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Tessa and Gun-Shy
Chris gave the two ladies a smile, "Sounds like a plan but perhaps one of the holodecks are open if you're up for some fun instead of a tour." the Asgardian said simply as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he thought what kind of program they could run. "We could do one of the old Earth pool halls if you two want?"
Husker then looked over at Kanti, "Come on, who knows what'll happen..you might have some fun?" he asked with a playful wink.
Then he grew a little bit serious as did his expression, "Seriously Kanti, we do want you to join us for some fun."
[ Kanti "Gun-Shy" MacTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ]
"What?" Tessa blinked. "S-sure," she stammered, and Kanti could've sworn she was twitching. "The mission went great. We beat the Romulans! We got the job done at Black Opal and everyone came ho--"
And then she just stopped suddenly, looking as hellishly awkward as Kanti herself seemed to. The Trill couldn't help but look away - it felt almost rude to keep her gaze on the other woman when she was... so clearly not in a good place. "Ahem," she finally coughed as she tapped her collarbone with her fist. "Too much humidity when you use water in your shower," she grunted before closing her eyes and coughing again. "Some of it goes down the wrong pipe," she added.
"O-oh," Kanti said back quietly. "Yeah." She averted all urges to look up from the floor as she turned away, not even willing up the ability to say goodbye. Christ, what the hell had she expected? Tessa looked a bit nervous, yeah, but certainly not as bad as Kanti looked. On a regular mission she would've probably been just fine. MacTavish was the one who just couldn't keep her shit together, feeling like she was about to break down over something as stupid as... well, maybe she didn't think it was all that stupid, but it was part of this new territory. To think that she couldn't get over it was just downright pathetic.
But just as she was about to leave, Tessa spoke up, and Kanti heard her name - her actual name, not the callsign she managed to earn after some of her initial displays in simulations. There was a look of total shock as Kanti looked back, processing the question that the other woman had asked, along with Husker's insistence that she come with them. They... they... what? Huh? Kanti had known dozens of crewmates, and nobody had ever once invited her to come along. At most she might have heard them not-so-quietly considering it before deciding not to bring along Ensign Sad Sack. Closest she ever came was when a certain crewman had asked her out to dinner, and that was neither the same circumstance nor something she particularly wanted to be reminded of right now.
Floored at the prospect that not just one, but two people would want her on a social excursion, Kanti just meeped out a barely-audible "Ok," though in an instant she regretted the acceptance. Great. Shaking in her gut and presented with a guaranteed scenario for producing public embarrassment - this day found new and exciting shitters to hop into with each passing second.
[glow=red,2,300][Lieutenant Lin Kae | Security Center| Brig| USS Theurgy][/glow] Attn: Thea
Kae actually had to think about what the ship was asking of him before he slowly started to nod in agreement. "Yes, I would be willing if the captain wouldn't put a phaser bolt through my arse for making a grievous error in not seeking help sooner, Thea." he admitted before he stepped away from the force field that kept him in his cell.
"By all accounts, I committed a form of treason if I recall my training properly..or at the very least a form of behavior that could have me busted down in rank for my actions that was unbecoming of an officer of this ship..either way, I should've sought help..even if it meant breaking down in front of you, my lovely Thea." he said as he slowly turned to face the hologram with a shamed look.
- FIN
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | Fighter Assault Bay ] Atten: Gun-Shy, Husker, anyone still in the locker room.
"Let's hit the holodeck," Tessa suggested as she and Chris joined Kanti and strolled out of the locker room. "I'll suffer food poisoning if I ingest anymore synthahol and I want to escape from reality. Anybody got a program they want to run? It doesn't matter how stupid or embarrassing it is, the odds are the dumber the better. But it should be something to help us relax, so we don't use up all of our energy. Oh, who am I kidding? I'm starving! Let's get something to eat so we don't pass out. We put in a big day and it's only a few minutes after 1300 hours!"
The odds were that Skye's death was going to make it hard to taste anything and make digestion difficult but they had put in over five hours and burned a lot of calories. Tessa wasn't looking forward to toasting another comrade's memory after losing so many people already. It was getting hard to mourn a new loss when she was still trying to come to terms with everything that had happened so far. If she wasn't careful Skye would be the straw that broke the camel's back.
In some ways, Chris and Kanti were lifesavers. As the newest members of the Lone Wolves, they hadn't witnessed how much Tessa had fallen apart over the last few months. She had a fresh start with them. She could reveal facets of her personality to them that she couldn't to her veteran squadmates.
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Tessa & Gun-Shy
Chris nodded as he looked over at the blonde haired pilot, "I've got a program that might fit the bill, Tessa." the Asgardian said as he looked back over at Tessa and caught her at an angle where he could admire her figure just a little bit..before he shook his head to clear it. "Sorry, had a stray thought for a second there but the program that I've got involves playing an old earth game that my instructor back at the Academy said other pilots used to play."
He straightened up to his full height as his stomach grumbled slightly at Tessa's mention of food for some reason. "Um..the game is called pool or billiards if you've ever heard of that before." he said simply, feeling a little bit embarrassed by his stomach's actions.
[ ENS Chris "Husker" Slayton & Kanti "Gun-Shy" McTavish | Locker Room | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Tessa
"Oh yeah, I've heard of it," Tessa nodded. "There was a Vulcan aboard the James Kirk; he was a master of the game. It was funny, most of the Earthmen who served aboard the Kirk had never heard about it, but he was great at it." was Tessa's reply.
Kanti looked between the two other pilots and gave them a confused look. "I'll give anything an honest try at least once, but just as long as you don't mind me not being as good at it." the Martian born pilot stated as she tried not to feel somewhat still at ease in the presence of the towering pilot as she quickly moved behind her locker door to pull on a more comfortable tank top before slipping into her squadron hoodie.
"I wasn't as good at it at first but then things just came naturally when you think about it in terms of piloting a Valk." Chris said with a gentle smile to the shorter woman. "Sorry if I startled you earlier by the way."
Kanti let a nervous chuckle escape her as she looked up at the taller pilot. "It wasn't so much that but Ghost was right, you do tend to be crowding but then again I'm a mouse compared to you." she replied.
Chris smiled and draped a friendly arm over the younger pilot's shoulders. "Then come, let's go and enjoy as much ale as we can handle and play pool until either we get so blind drunk that Chief Cenn has to arrest us on the grounds of being that drunk...or the Breen create a line of summer shorts!"
Kanti's cheeks pinked in nervousness as she simply nodded and then looked over at Tessa as Chris unlimbered his arm from around her slim shoulders and looked over at the golden eyed pilot. "Are you coming, Tessa?" she inquired respectfully. "Be'd nice to have another for this I think."
////////////////////////////////////////////
OOC: Tessa's lines from from Doc M and used with permission & Gun-Shy is being ran by myself for the time being for this connected thread...or at least three ducks in a DocReno suit ;)
[ Tessa May Lance (https://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/219/0/d/tessa_row_01_by_auctor_lucan-d7u6mx6.png) | Fighter Assault Bay ] Atten: Gun-Shy, Husker, anyone still in the locker room.
"Sure but first let's hit the cafeteria and get something in us before we fall down," Tessa suggested. "While we're at it we can toast in Skye's memory until we fall down."
Tessa felt guilty about trying to have fun on the day that they lost a squad mate but Skye would've wanted her friends to have fun and not mope about mourning their loss. Skye had always been the class clown and the life of the party and had almost singlehandedly kept morale up after the Theurgy had gone on the run and the Lone Wolves started playing 'ten little Indians'. Skye wouldn't want her squad mates to lose hope. Chris and Kanti were the new squad mates and maybe Tessa could build herself up by building them up. It was worth a try, but not something she could do on an empty stomach.
~Fin.