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Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

DAY 05 [1200 HRS.] ASTRAL EDDY RELAY | THE INSIDE MAN, PART 4


[ Captain Ives | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: Away Team
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The sliding doors parted, and in his male form, Ives stepped into the small bridge. "Report."

Time was 1200 hrs., and according to sensors, they would have reached an area of space where subspace communication would have optimal conditions, and they would be able to access the distant buoy without actually coming near it. They had the frequency, and as long as they and the Admiral left recorded messages in the buoy - without establishing a direct link between Earth and the Allegiant - the suggested means of contacting Andersson shouldn't have to compromise the Allegiant. Ives seated himself in the command chair, relieving Lieutenant Vanya and letting her return to the science station.

Once the bridge crew had reported their readiness, Ives gave his orders. "Ives to Petterson, would you please join us on the bridge? Engineering and Security, report and please link up your vid-feeds to the bridge," he said after pressing a button in the armrest of his chair,and then turned his attention to those present. "Helm, drop us out of warp and maintain position. Tactical, scan the vicinity, and assess any potential contacts on long-range sensors. Ops, stand ready to allocate power to shields or the Reman cloak as necessary, in the event that this is a trap. Science, prepare your precautions in establishing the subspace link, and wait for my signal to execute the uplink. Contact will be made via audio only to begin with."

Once everyone were ready, Ives slowly rose to his feet, and walked up to the viewsport in front of them all. They were in a region of space closer to the Gorn Hedgemony than they had been when they left the Epsilon Mynos system, yet still shy of its border. The peak conditions of communications were due to a diminutive astral eddy in the distance off their port side. An astral eddy, being an extremely powerful and potentially destructive phenomenon formed in an interfold layer at the confluence of space and subspace, it would funnel their comm signal the adequate distance. While the eddy exhibited a temperature gradient of nine million kelvin, massive discharges of plasmatic energy, powerful graviton waves, it did have a calm eye at the centre, wherein matter was exchanged between space and subspace. That was the relay they would use. The target for their signal, before it was transmitted farther across the subspace spectrum. Ives turned his oaken yes to the port side, and the eddy appeared as a ring-shaped object emanating from a whirlpool center. Petterson had already arrived to the bridge. It was time.

"Enable uplink," he said, and changed... into her female form. She folded her hands behind her back, and spoke in a crystal clear voice across the hundreds of lightyears that separated them from the buoy. "This is Captain Jien Ives of the Federation starship Theurgy. In my company I have your former intelligence operative, Lieutenant Petterson. I answer your call and offer to speak, and I hope that you are available to leave a message back to us. We will be waiting for your answer, in hope that we finally have someone willing to hear the truth. Ives, out."

And then, they would wait, in hope that Rear Admiral Joseph Nerva Andersson would receive their call, and record a message of their own. If he did, the buoy would, allegedly, alert them of it.

"How does it look? Have we triggered any ambushes? Any traces made on our signature?" she asked as she turned to look at those present. She couldn't help feeling a little bit... giddy, at the prospect of a potential ally, even though it might just be a trap.

OOC: Seven days of posting begin now for everyone, and there is no set order as long as you post within that time. :) Oh, and for reference, here is the whole Away Team and some helpful notes about the past 2 days of travel that you can use if you feel so inclined! :) Click here for the suggestions: [Show/Hide]
With this starter, I also remind you that the above listed characters can write any threads they like on the Allegiant together, as long as you take into account the events described during the mission in the Aldea Prime Calendar. Here is also the info on the Allegiant, including the deck plan of the two small decks: Database Link

I have also opened up for threads aside from this one with Ives, so anyone who have ideas for one-on-one threads with Ives aboard the Allegiant set before or after this thread, please PM me!

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #1 –
Ensign Mektari Dumral | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @Jesaya @Zodiac @Masorin @Triage @Numen
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It was always an unknown what you were going to encounter on any away mission, even one that on paper was a simple fly here and fly back mission such as this. Mektari had volunteered for the mission to log a few more flight hours on her file and she had certainly been doing that now that she had a longer shift than she did on the Theurgy with only two pilots assigned to the mission and she hadn't been disappointed.

Given their somewhat covert mission, it was imperative that the Allegiant not be detected or scanned by any passing ships and while their planned route had reduced the chances of them being spotted, they couldn't avoid all the trade routes that was impossible, which for her meant keeping an eye on the sensors for any and all ships in the area and avoid them.

On the first day she'd had to alter their course to avoid a busy shipping lane, keeping them out of the sensor ranges of at least 20 cargo ships in a convoy. Even with their Aldean sensor scrambler active, a ship getting close enough for a visual inspection would easily be able to tell that they were clearly a Federation vessel, so she had played it safe and opted for a different route instead to reduce the risk. The deviation however had added an extra couple of hours to their travel time but it was certainly the better option over being discovered.  

Over the course of the rest of the day, they had a few ships that had gotten a little curious and had altered course to take a little look at them, forcing Meki to fly them close to a nearby nebula, allowing their proximity to it to cause just enough sensor distortion around them to convince the other ship that they had been a simple sensor echo caused by the nebula. The rest of her shift had been rather uneventful after that.

Off duty, she had ended up having a conversation with Salem in the mess hall which had been...interesting if somewhat a bit awkward considering that Salem was....well Salem but at least she had to give the man some credit, it seemed as though he was at least trying to get to know her, who knew how that would turn out in the future but it was something at least. She'd also ended up catching Captain Ives for a brief moment of free time for the both of them, in which they'd had a rather pleasant conversation about Captain Ziegler. Since she had never actually spoken to her new Captain before it was certainly a good way to break the ice between them and establish some sort of dialogue between the two.

The second day had been a little less uneventful at the helm, while the pilot had had to alter their course to avoid a couple of ships that had got a little close to them for her liking, their planned route seemed to be working out much better. That however changed several hours into her shift when sensors picked up a huge Ion Storm in their flight path, forcing her to alter course again to avoid flying straight into it, adding another several hours to their journey while also potentially increasing their risk of being discovered by a passing ship, fortunately however that would not turn out to be the case.

That evening Captain Ives had decided to host a poker game in hir quarters, and while she had never played the game before, she saw it as an opportunity to socialise with the captain and crew a little more, not that she knew who was going to be there either. After spending some time reading up on the game at the end of her shift, she made her way to the game.

Not to her surprise however, one brief study session into the game did not make her a good poker player and while her inherent deceptive Cardassian nature had allowed her to bluff her way through several hands by the end of the night she had ended up losing several replicator rations and a week's worth of holodeck time to the other players. Despite this however, the Cardassian would have to admit that she did have a good time.

Mektari was pulled out of her reminiscing of the last two days when her console beeped, letting her know that they were approaching their destination. As if on cue Captain Ives, in his male form stepped out of his ready room onto the bridge.

"We're approaching our destination Captain, no ships detected on sensors, it looks pretty quiet out there so far." she reported as the Captain made his way over to his chair, her own attention focused on the sensor readings until she was given the order to bring them out of warp. With a few taps to her console, she felt the deck plating vibrate under her feet as the ship transitioned to impulse. "Aye Captain, holding position. Impulse and warp engines standing by in case something tries to get the drop on us." she added.

As a Cardassian Meki always expected a trap or a double cross, it was part of their nature, so she was paying close attention to her sensor readouts, her fingers hovering over the controls, ready to power the engine's up and get them out of there at a moment's notice if necessary. For now though, she listened to the other members of the crew give their own reports and Captain's Ives' message, now in her female form.

When she finished speaking, it became a waiting game. Mektari hoped, much like she was sure everybody else present did that this wasn't a trap and that they had found another ally to help them in this crusade. Glancing down at her console, everything seemed to be okay.

"Still nothing on the sensors Captain and there are no inbound Warp signatures either, if this is a trap they're not springing it on us just yet." she reported.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #2 –
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @SilverShadow @Jesaya @Masorin @Stegro88 @Triage @Numen
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It had been a long and somewhat busy two days for Zark, as the the only security officer on the ship, the safety of the crew were her responsibility, not just to defend them if they were boarded but to make sure they were all prepared for such an event and how best to fight in that situation, should it arise. That was why, with the Captain's permission, she had held a few practice scenarios with the crew. Splitting their small crew into two teams, one team would be invaders boarding the ship, the other would be the crew tasked with defending it while she would observe and give pointers whenever she saw something amiss or that could be improved upon. The task was simple. The boarding party had to restrain the crew, seize control of the bridge and take control of the ship.

The second day, she held a similar drill, this time reversing the roles so that the team who had invaded the day before, now had to defend and vice versa, only to keep things fair for all, she had changed the new group's objective. Their task was to take the Captain hostage and sabotage the ship so that it couldn't pursue them, both task were theoretically possible, albeit difficult on a ship of such size.

On both days she had to admit that she was impressed with the efforts of both teams, regardless of the outcomes she was more than satisfied that were they to be boarded on this mission, they would preform admirably.

Outside of her duties as a Security Officer, the Andorian had also been helping Doctor Hernandez with the medical duties aboard. Most of her time had been spent giving the crew medical scans just to make sure everybody was doing okay. While she had checked everybody before they had left, it never hurt to double check, especially given the case with certain members of the crew, like the Captain, who was still experiencing the after effects of her time with the Savi.

While the Captain was fine for the most part, Zark had noticed a few irregularities in hir morphogenic matrix, nothing too serious in the grand scheme of things but still not back inline with what the Captain's previous data showed, which was what they were hoping to get back to. The end resulted in no more than some stiffness, no doubt the result of hir being forced to hold one shape for longer than normal. While the Captain's condition was certainly increasing each day, it was agreed between Dr Hernandez and herself that Ives should continue to shift between hir forms to alleviate the stiffness and help hir matrix return to it's baseline, especially considering the fact that with little to do outside of prepping for contact with the buoy, the Captain had more than enough time to follow the medical staff's advice without being able to use the "I'm too busy with Captain's stuff." excuse, to quote Hernandez.

Speaking of the Doctor, Zark had been warned about the man's personality and while it was true that he had spent a lot of his time with her telling jokes and regaling her with stories of his time in Starfleet, some more long winded than was necessary, she had to admit that she liked the man and some of his stories and jokes were pretty good...long winded but good.

At the end of the second day, she too had decided to join the poker game in the Captain's quarters and while she hadn't had as bad a luck as poor Meki had, managing to win a few extra hours on the holodeck the game soon became a little too rich for her blood and called it quits early, letting the others either win or lose whatever they wanted while she enjoyed her extra holodeck time when they got back.

Unlike some of the others, Zark was at the Security Station just off the bridge and was watching the events unfold through her monitor. By the sound of it everything was going okay so far, still she had the armoury unlocked just in case weapons were needed in the hurry, the last thing they needed was to be boarded and having to wait for the gun lockers to open up.


OOC: I left the training days ambiguous just in case we wanted to write them out in a thread.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #3 –
Lieutenant Vanya | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: Away Team
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Vanya had spent the majority of her time studying the schematics of the buoy that they had been sent, analysing it for potential threats but hadn't detected any obvious ones, not that she wouldn't be prepared of course. To play it safe she had safeguarded the Allegiant's computer core with numerous level 6 encryption algorithms and reinforced the firewall with her own personally designed Romulan coding, should any rogue data-packets or malicious code try to infect their system during the uplink and any potential transfer of data. In addition she had also partitioned off a sector of computer space for any downloads that might come from the buoy, insuring that those files would be isolated from the rest of the ship's computer to minimise the risk of infection. Finally, while she couldn't hide their location once they accessed the buoy, the Android had done the next best thing and reprogrammed the ship's IFF to broadcast an Aldean trading vessel transponder code, that way if anybody was trying to get their location, it would appear as though a random cargo ship had came across the buoy and was checking it out.

She had of course, run all of her ideas past Captain Ives who had approved of her temporary modifcations, on the understanding that she would rest everything back to normal once their mission was done, a simple task for her. It had also given her a chance to talk to the Captain about her former Captain and ship. Expressing to hir that while she worried about her former ship and it's crew, she was thankful for the trust in her position on the Theurgy as well as the opportunity to aid against this threat.

When she wasn't on duty, she had participated in Zark's training drills and was pleased to see her fellow former Cayuga crew member settling in on the ship, that she had ever doubted it of course and had even reported to her for her medical checkup, however considering the fact that she was an Android and Zark was a combat medic and not an engineer the Andorian had to pretty much accept her word that all her systems were functioning within normal parameters.

She had also gone to the Captain, requesting the use of the Science Lab for a movie night, after all they were going to be on this ship together for a few days in a much more confined space than the Theurgy and the monitors in there could easily be configured to display old 2D movies from the database, which the Captain had approved of. Providing a wide selection of genres from action and comedy to horror and romance to musicals, generally a vote was taken over which movie to watch so that everybody who wished to watch one, could enjoy it.

Now on the Bridge at the Science station, Vanya had set the sensors to active scanning, just in case they were flying into a trap, while simultaneously having the Reman cloak on standby just in case as she prepared to access the buoy. She looked over at Captain Ives when the man had stepped out onto the bridge.

"Standing by to access the Buoy on your order Captain. My security precautions are in place, the sensors are in active scanning mode and we're broadcasting a false IFF signature." she said and quickly double checked her security means one last time, giving a slight nod of her head to herself when they all seemed to check out. "Establishing uplink with the buoy now." she announced, her fingers already dancing over her console, giving the Captain a nod when the link had been established.

Watching Ives shift into her female form, she kept an eye on her console for any changed in bandwidth or traffic either from the buoy to them or from them to the buoy, so far however everything seemed to be going to plan.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #4 –
[ LtJr. Khelleshar sh'Zenne | Bridge | Deck 1 | USS Allegiant ]
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attn: @Auctor Lucan @Jesaya @Masorin @Zodiac @Stegro88  @Triage @silver


Shar repressed a yawn, stretched her long fingers over her console and looked up, trying to keep her attention on the captain's words. It had been a few long days. Very long. Her initial diagnosis of the small ship's systems as ready for the two-day voyage had been too naive. Yes, the Yatch Captain was far from being in as poor condition as the Theurgy, but it was nowhere near of the optimal shape. The young Andorian carried her hands through her short hair and pursed her lips in a bitter smirk. A fucking Borg virus. Whoever had occupied the science station at the Battle of the Apertures had purged much of the virus and had isolated what they had failed to eradicate during the combat. An intelligent exercise but with a fatal flaw. The virus had remained latent, even the Allegiant had left in a later mission without apparent problem. Yet the virus had been steadily spreading, subtly and insidiously across the starship.

Shar had discovered that threat by chance. It wasn't something she would confess out loud, but it was the truth. However, she had decided to adopt one of Vasiliev's teachings. 'Look, Frost-Leek' he often used to say 'There will be times when you encounter problems that you have no idea how to solve. So stay serious and act calm as if you knew what you were doing until you find out what the hell is going on. The best way to fight ignorance and incompetence is to work hard to wipe them out... but no one has to know the depth of what you don't know. Or panic about it.' Then he always burst out laughing and Shar couldn't help but wonder how much of what he was saying was a 'fake it till you make it' in Russian, or if it was some kind of joke she couldn't understand. Whatever the case, when she discovered a recurring delay in starboard nacelle energy management, the ops officer had requested a stop to make a system security diagnosis.

Under test, the error had been even more remarkable, which had prompted the Andorian to abandon her position on the bridge and crawl all starboard, removing the panels one by one in search of what the issue was. Her initial hypothesis had been a failure in the OPS grid, but soon the Andorian proved it wrong. After about an hour of testing and searching it was clear that the problem wasn't a life or death matter so they had resumed the journey. And that's when Shar's hunt had begun.

She had wandered over and over all the starboard gaps and nooks, disassembled each panel, studied each ODN juncture and found NOTHING. At one point, hours later, the gold-collared zhen had 'invited' her to pass by the little sickbay for a routine check. Shar had sent Zark packing, and had made her very clear where she could stick her medical tricorder and medical tests, accompanied by adjectives that would make half of Andorian Space turn purple. She had too much to do. And between the Savi and the events after her arrival at the Theurgy she had spent too much time in the company of doctors. Whatever it was, that little altercation spared her from participating in the zhen 'war games', faking that the ship was being boarded. She had too much work to do to play around.

The wee hours in the next day morning unveiled the nature of the problem. While discovering a latent Borg virus in the system was not something to be glad about, Shar was relieved. At least NOW she knew what she was up against. Once she found the first infected chip, the subsequent process was simple: trace where the infection spread from that chip, tear out the chip in question and destroy it, since she couldn't risk dematerializing it in one of the replicators since it could create another infection source. Replace the destroyed chip with one of the spare ones, move to the next infected chip and start again. It was tedious and repetitive work, which only varied when the affected chip was too important to be booted without having previously diverted its functions to another logical core of the ship. But that was the kind of work Shar loved: one that kept her head and hands busy and left little time for anything else. The perfect excuse to save her from socializing with the rest of the crew.

The only time that she had had an encounter with the rest of the crew that day was when she had ruined (momentarily) the movie night at the Science Lab because of a power flicker when she removed one of the last affected chips. That had prompted a strange conversation with the Science Officer, who had finished with the Romulan woman helping her to solve the problem as quickly as possible. The woman had been a great asset, even though Shar didn't recognize it out loud, and thanks to her she had solved the problem much faster. She had also suggested a few changes to her workflow to speed up the chip replacement process. The Andorian had no idea where Vanya's mechanical knowledge came from, but it was not typical of a teal-collar.

The remainder of the journey had gone on with little variation for Khelleshar, except when, the previous night, she had found a booze box in one of the cargo bays by moving a case to open the panel behind it. The young shen had hesitated for a brief moment, but she had finally resolved to make good use of the alcohol. If ever in her life she had needed a drink, it was at that moment, after the Versant, and Selh and... everything. She had sat on the floor between the crates and she had indulged in solitude and alcohol. When she had reached the bottom of the first of the small bottles, another person had stepped into the bay charge. Shar's heart had stopped for a minute, but the other crew member, instead of reporting her to the captain or getting rid of the alcohol case, had simply sat next to her and uncorked another bottle. At first they had drunk in silence, content simply with each other's presence. After a while, as midnight approached, Shar had spoken about the Versant and about her concerns for the egg that Shall had agreed to send to her home-moon. The other crew member had shared the problems that had experienced in the last week too. It had been... nice. Almost like finding a new friend.

Of course, that had consequences, and Shar had dropped into the mattress she was entitled to for the first time since she boarded the ship... just to check that SOMEONE was snoring. The Andorian had gone round and round in bed, trying to fall asleep, something she really needed. While looking at the bulk over hers, she had questioned whether to report the situation to the captain or go to the replicator to get a Ushaan-tor and end the matter in an honorable manner. She had finally opted for the first alternative, in order to avoid being involved in another death in less than a week. The captain's reaction, however, had been odd. Instead of doing something against the snoring monster, s/he had invited her to sleep on the couch in hir quarters. Her booze inducted brain had accepted without a second thought. The fact was that Shar HAD slept, but the next morning had been, to say the least.... Awkward.

So there she was at that moment, sleep-deprived and with the shadow of a hangover hovering over her head. "Report" suddenly came the captain's voice. "All systems in nominal values, shields ready, cloak device in stand by and ready to deploy" she announced after a small surprised jolt.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #5 –
[ Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson | Bridge | USS Allegiant ]
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The near two-day journey out into unoccupied space was an interesting change of pace given the last few days of action, suspense and mystery. Of course, that change of pace had come with a trip down memory lane as Donna worked to dredge up every memory of Admiral Anderson that she could remember. Which, given her near eidetic memory, was quite a lot.

So, when she wasn’t resting or taking her shift at the helm of the Allegiant, she was transcribing anything of interest that might prove useful in their dealings with the head of Starfleet Covert Operations. It hadn’t overly surprised her that her former boss, a man that always seemed to know what was happening wherever he went, would seem to know about this parasitic threat that Captain Ives had discovered 5 months earlier. The extent to which he had gone to secure a messenger, that was surprising to her.

And now, she was stepping onto the bridge of the Allegiant as they approached the decided upon location for their message. It was about as safe a place as they could get without being in a different quadrant of the galaxy. Or a different galaxy altogether.

“Lieutenant Petterson reporting as ordered, sir,” Donna said as she stood off to the side. Ives barely acknowledged her as he ordered the uplink be established. Now was their last chance. If this was some sort of a trap, they were about to trip it and see what happened. But that wasn’t her decision to make, Donna decided as Ives recorded their message and sent it off. She didn’t know how long the Admiral would keep them waiting. The variables judging the speed of their reply were two widespread to calculate an approximate time of reply. If one came at all.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #6 –
Lt Jg Salem Martin | USS Allegiant | Bridge]
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This away mission had been rather pleasant so far. He had tried to hold a conversation with the Cardassian on day one, and that had gone... better than he had originally thought it would. His meal with Durmal had not completely ruined his appetite, though he hadn't joined the poker game for not wanting to be in the same room as her a second time that day. Also Salem was hyper competitive in games and playing across from his captain probably wouldn't win Salem any good impressions if he had gone on a loosing streak and started to get salty. Gaming was best saved for when they weren't on such a small ship.

He had however joined in when the science bay had been turned into a movie screening room. He had always loved two dimensional films, and had a host of suggestions for ones that were good, but not as widly known. He had however taken several of his votes to try and get the crew to watch Akira, an odd animated feature that depicted a wildly outdated idea of earth future. Also some really trippy stuff about drugs, telekinesis, and lasers an all round great film in his opinion.

Despite the cramped living arrangement Salem had slept like a rock, he was used too bunking having worked his way up from a crewman, so the situation brought back some fond memories, though he was still trying to think about why he caught some people glaring at him in the morning, or why he had so much drool on his pillow.

Of course it hadn't all been fun in games, on the second day the weapons system of the Allegiant had fallen out of alignment some unforeseen damage had caused him to actually go to in person to the cramped weapons alignment room, and it had proven to be a two person job one that both he and the captain had ended up working on to get the weapons back in peak performance.

Thankfully till now those weapons hadn't been needed. He had only picked up a few things, the adjustments of various courses by Durmal had kept them out of weapons and sensor ranges of most other ships. His job had basically been to man the sensors. He had found the pod of space... whales? He knew they had a name but couldn't immediately recall it. The creatures they had spooked when they had popped out of the apertures finding them again was a sign of good luck.

Now however they were finally arriving to their destination. He really hoped that it wasn't a trap, but he was ready to raise the shields at a moments notice, or return fire on anything that decloaked.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #7 –
[ Lt. JG Sinead O'Riley | Engineering | Deck 2 | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Masorin, @Stegro88, @Numen, @Zodiac, @Jesaya & @SilverShadow
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Sinead opened up a video feed as instructed by the captain from where she sat at the main station in the engineering department. There was a smudge of grease right over her right brow, and there was patches of black in her auburn hair which she had yet to bother cleaning off properly. She had been in time to witness Jien shifting from his male form to the female form, which made the normally stoic woman blink, slightly disturbed by the transformation as always. She knew the captain wasn't human, and possessed both genders, likely in form and function, but it never ceased to unnerve her enough to make her react.

The last two days had been hectic enough for the Bringloidi that her self-control began to erode and from time to time, let her frustrations be known in a vast array of swear words ranging from Irish Gaelic to Romulan, with more than a few Klingon anatomical and familial references in the native tongue. Whenever she did that, the NCO with her would take a few steps back, wisely choosing to remain silent and letting Sinead work it out of her system. Reverse engineering Aldean along with Reman technology to fit and work alongside or with Starfleet technology needed nothing short of a miracle to pull off, and it was just up to one Sinead O'Riley to accomplish this.

The Reman cloak kept looking for a atificial quantum singularity warp core as a power source and stubbornly refused to accept the Federation-type warp core. At first Sinead had tried to understand the algorythms and calculations that the cloaking device used as its language and programing, but then she found that it was like trying to learn Romulan in two-days or less, and that was never a good idea. Universal translation was almost hopeless despite the fact that binary algorythms was within its capacity to translate. The risk was too high that she might cause an overload in the core and destabilize everything, creating a flaw, and the core would then shatter, and...well, the rest was history, while the Allegiant would be in pieces.

No, instead, drawing on her memory of the Apache's schematics and its actual singularity core, she adjusted the ship's warp core and fed a false information to the cloak, convincing it that the warp core was a singularity device, allowing the two to work as harmoniously as was possible given the circumstances. In between all this, Sinead had found the time to talk to Jien alone, and she confessed to the murder of Rihen Niyah. Despite the captain's assurances that she was not guilty of something outside of her control, it didn't make the Bringloidi feel better. If anything, she felt the chip in her brain was little more than a get-out-of-jail-free card and an excuse. She actually hoped for some kind of punishment for her actions, as a form of penance or restitution on her part, but the captain wasn't very forthcoming with ideas on that, believing they'd all been punished enough.

She participated in the drills with the Andorian woman, Zark. Having had a few years of experience as a security officer herself, she was more than familiar with a great deal of the ideas behind the training, and she did all she could to make the woman's life easier, so she offered her assistance to double as another security officer should Zark need extra hands, and shared her records as a testimonial for her accomplishments, strengths and weaknesses. The poker game with the captain was...interesting. Unfortunately the primary nuances of the game escaped Sinead despite her best efforts. Since having a poker face counted as lying to her, and despite her Vulcan training allowing her to be more unreadable, nobody could get her to understand that revealing or speaking of the cards in her hand defeated the whole point of her participation, so she bowed out early in the game to work some more on the gadgets entrusted to her.

There was plenty to deal with. For one, the repairs done to the Allegiant wasn't nearly as thorough as she liked, but it only began to show once they left the Theurgy and the Aldean spacedock. At one point, she almost thought the ship was going to shake itself loose of everything, including the crew, but it held together long enough for her and the NCO to slap on more emergency repairs. She didn't like the way certain places rattled, but there was little more they could do aside from noting the shoddy repairs and doing what little they could to keep the ship together. Then there was the Aldean sensor scrambler. It seemed so simple a device, but the complexity of its design and advanced system meant it was like trying to power a torpedo warhead with a 21st century outboard motor. It was probably doable, but required Sinead to somehow make the Aldean device dumber so as to accept the Federation's.

It had been literally a few minutes ago that Sinead finally worked out a way for the two foreign devices to co-exist without overloading the warp core. Now she had to keep that up for the duration of the mission. Ignorant of how filthy she probably looked, Sinead looked out at the bridge from the station in Engineering, eyeing the captain directly, and she announced, “Th' Aldean scrambler an' Reman cloakin' device be ready shoul' yeh need-it, captain. Warp engines be ready t' jump in t-minus thirty seconds.”

Allegiant Deck Layout
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Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #8 –
[ Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan 
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After Captain Ives message had been sent, Donna, much like the rest of the crew, could do nothing but wait. Donna could think of a dozen different reasons off the top of her head for why they might not receive a reply for hours. The Admiral was in a meeting, eating, at the gym, in transit. It could be as simple as he was asleep. She remembered that the man always seemed to be moving around, as if he missed the days when he was a field operative and was constantly being redeployed.

“Time and Patience,” Donna recalled, thinking about something Admiral Anderson had once told her, were the two strongest allies a person could have. In any situation, with them at your side, a person could accomplish anything. And as best she could recall, he had never been wrong. “Let’s hope that record continues,” Donna though to herself as someone called out that they were receiving a message. The former operative forced herself up from the wellspring of memories and back into the present as Captain Ives requested that they play it.


[Captain Ives. I must admit, I was beginning to worry that you had perished, or at the very least, were trapped within the nebula,] Admiral Anderson said by way of a greeting, his face appearing on the main screen for all to see and hear. [I would love to hear the truth of it. Lieutenant Petterson can inform you about my high regard for it. Admiral Sankolov has certainly presented a very compelling image of your dastardly deeds in destroying subspace in the region.]

“Challenge phrases!” Donna realised as she listened to the message. She had picked up one that was meant for her to respond to. “The Admiral always told me that the truth was a beautiful and terrible thing, and that it should be treated with great caution. But what other meanings is he sowing into the message?”

[I won’t insult your intelligence by asking where you are, we have no reason to trust each other in that regard. But I would ask about your ship’s current condition and if you have any immediate needs that should be seen too,] Anderson continued. [Between us we should be able to arrange a mutually safe avenue for the passage of aid. I know of one Bassen Bird that could be of use.]

“There is another. He has the Jade Falcon and Phrang at the ready,” Donna catalogued for later discussion.

[Before I sign off Captain Ives, you should also know that the barge to Tartarus has gone missing and that I am looking into the details of that,] Admiral Anderson announced. Donna wasn’t initially sure what he meant by that but hoped that Captain Ives would. [I look forward to hearing from you after the customary time has passed. Be safe.]

The screen went dark and Donna wasn’t sure if she should say anything directly or wait for Captain Ives' directive. Either way, they had time to put together a careful reply.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #9 –
[ Captain Ives | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: Away Team
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It had only been five minutes since they transmitted their message to Joseph Nerva Andersson when they got the notification that a reply had come. Ives had been prepared for a far longer wait, in which she'd have time to confer with the present crew as well as those outside the bridge. Unless there was some kind of foul play at hand, they had been fortunate in how the Rear Admiral had replied so soon - available as he had appeared to be at the given hour.

So Jien turned to look at the figure on the viewscreen, and began to read his vernacular as well as his body language - the latter being a matter of few tell-tale signs. Old training of Jiens, hardly as sharp as actively practicing operatives in Starfleet Intelligence. What Rear Admiral Andersson said, however, held plenty to consider. The most ominous piece of information was that of the barge, which had taken Jien a couple of seconds to decipher. Once she did, she turned to look at Vanya, Salem Martin and Mektari Dumral. No doubt the skillful Andorian at the Security station outside was listening as well.

"The barge of Tartarus has nothing to do with the barge in Klingon mythology. I am afraid that the prison-transport ship that held Captain Ziegler and her crew is gone. According to the intel we gained before we left the shipyards, Admiral Sankolov incriminated Ziegler for the part the Cayuga played in the battle at the apertures, using her previous affiliation with the Theurgy and its original crew to smear her and your former crewmates."

To say Ives was angry was a grave understatement. The Infested may just have destroyed the entire transport ship to silence the voices of the Cayuga crew. Convenient, for them. Neat and effective. An accident, that's what the reports would say. The conversation with Ziegler, brief as it had been, came back to Ives. She'd been on the bridge of the Versant, in her male form, and she had seen the burning bridge of the Cayuga on the alien viewscreen. She'd told her to save the innocent in Task Force Archeron from being trapped in the Azure Nebula, instead of urging her to follow the Theurgy through the new aperture. It had been the right thing to do... to save the ignorant, but had it been at the cost of Ziegler and her entire crew? Anya had been Ives' First Officer for over two and a half years...

"Too early to be certain. Let's hold on to hope, and ask the Rear Admiral if he knows ought else of the transport." Numb as she felt, the resolution in her words were as much for her own benefit as that of the present former officers of the Cayuga. After another moment of thought, Jien asked them all if they had anything in specific to add to the status report to Andersson.

"The word is free. Please, speak your minds, and I will make another recording. Do keep an eye on sensors though."

OOC: Another 7 days of posting begin now! No set order as long as everyone post within 7 days. :)

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #10 –
[ Lt. JG Donna ‘Chance’ Petterson | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Triage @Masorin @Numen @Jesaya @Zodiac @SilverShadow
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Donna internally debated waiting to see what everyone else would say about the message but felt that they should be informed about what she believed was important information concealed within it. Captain Ives had already deduced the meaning of the ‘barge to Tartarus’ portion of the message; which Donna herself agreed with as the likely meaning behind it. The FNN had announced that the crew of the Cayuga had been taken into custody following the Battle of the Apertures so Anderson looking into that made sense. Her gut told her there was more too it, but she didn’t think that anything should be said. Not directly at least. “Perhaps a word to the Captain later,” Donna considered as she formed what she wished to say.

“Captain,” Donna said, clearing her voice and pausing so that she had everyone’s attention. “When I was an operative, all messages, unless completely certain that the channel was safe, operated under the auspice of regulation 46A. I bring this up because I detected at least 4 different coded phrases in the message. You already picked out the Tartarus message and I agree that your interpretation in the likely meaning.”

“But he has also included a challenge phrase regarding his view of the truth. As it was directed at me, I will be expected to answer it,” Donna explained, trying to mind her place but needing to make sure she was understood. “There was also mention of a Bassen Bird. I believe this is a reference to an asset that I worked with on multiple occasions during my time as an operative. Dr Duv, err, Rez, has also met this person,” Donna revealed, wondering if Amelya wanted that mission brought to light.

“And lastly, as another means of confirming our status, we would have to wait a specific amount of time after a message before a reply was sent,” Donna continued. “This pause served as a way for us to validate our condition. My ‘customary time’ was 38 minutes exactly. A minute more or less and my status was deemed ‘at risk’ and subject to further analysis. But Admiral Anderson was addressing you at the time so, while I am not sure, I believe he was referring to your ‘customary time’. Sir, it is my understanding that we must send our next message at a very specific time.”

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #11 –
[ Lt. JG Sinead O'Riley | Engineering | Deck 2 | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan, @Masorin, @Stegro88, @Numen, @Zodiac, @Jesaya & @SilverShadow
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Sinead listened to the admiral as he delivered his message, it certainly didn't give Jien much time all things considered, which in turn gave her very little time to get anything substantial done in the way of maintenance and on-the-fly repair. Her displeasure at this realization showed by the downward curl of her lips and the faint creasing of her brows. There was also the interpretation on the status of some allies that they'd gained during the extended stay of the Versant captives that occurred with the various vectors. People that tried to help the Theurgy seemed to have an unpleasant side effect of running into extremely ill (or fatal) fortunes, or they eventually turned into enemies.

She also didn't like all this cloak-and-dagger games that Donna and the captain were engaging in. She believed everything went better if people just spoke their minds. Part of her understood the logic and even the necessity of it all, but she still didn't like it. In any case, she offered her input as far as she could from the perspective of the engineers.

“Captain Jien Ihves,” said Sinead, her accent altering the way the captain's name was pronounced, “much's we migh' be ready t' face down anythin' nowh, th' last repair job be showin' more'n'more rushin' an' shoddy work. If at all possible, we may wanna lemme try'n fix us up much as I can 'fore we try anythin' fancy.”

As if to emphasise her point, a ceiling panel audibly broke off and crashed onto the deck behind her, spraying sparks and wires all over the place, prompting the NCO nearby to cry out and rush over to assess the damage. Sinead's face had a pained and exasperated look as she turned away to assist, followed by some annoyed muttering and anatomical references as to where she wanted to shove the ceiling plate into the person who'd done the repairs before they left, all very clearly heard as she failed to turn off the screen while she worked.

Allegiant Deck Layout
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Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #12 –
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @SilverShadow @Jesaya @Masorin @Stegro88 @Triage @Numen
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Zark was at her station at the security checkpoint, watching the feed and heard the news about the Cayuga. It couldn't be true could it? All of them lost? A part of her felt like she should have been there, with the rest of the crew. She wasn't nieve enough to believe that she alone could have made a difference but considering she was here, Meki was here, Vanya was here and a few others from the ship back on the Theurgy, that was a lot of people to be missing.

If they hadn't been stranded maybe things would have been different. She certainly hoped that the Captain and crew were alright and turn up somewhere but she wasn't sure. Just being on this ship for the time she had, she'd seen plenty of death. Those damn parasites, whatever they were certainly didn't want the truth about them to get out and would do anything in their vast power to keep it that way.

Zark vowed to herself that if the Captain and crew were gone then by Lor'Vela as her witness she would make whoever  was responsible pay one day, honour demanded it. For now however there was little she could do and little she could think to say. As for grieving, there was a time and a place for that and it wasn't now.

Sighing sadly, she shook her head, antenna dropping slightly as she thought an Andorian prayer for her former crewmates and Captain.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #13 –
Lieutenant Vanya | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: Away Team
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Vanya was sat at the Science station, running scans on the probe, making sure that it wasn't scanning them or broadcasting a postion, satisfied that it wasn't while running a second scan on it's internal and external components, making sure that the wasn't any surprises waiting for them when they tried to access it. For now at least, it seemed as though the probe was clean.

Being an Android however, she was also listening to the Admiral's message and found the reference to a barge of Klingon mythology to be rather odd, no doubt a coded message that had an alternate meaning, although what that meaning was alluded the Romulan for now. However it would turn out to not allude her for long as the Captain would indeed tell them and it certainly wasn't something Vanya had been expecting.

Captain Ziegler and the others were gone? Despite all she had seen and knowing that it was something that the parasites would do to keep their secret she still found it hard to believe. So many thoughts ran through her head it was hard to keep up with every thought process. Luckily she could simply compartmentalise them. Captain Ives was right however, by the sounds of it nobody yet knew the fate of the transport as as such there was always hope.

"I would simply like to know what they mean by gone Captain. Gone as in destroyed or gone as in disappeared? Was there any debris or a warp trail, something? It is possible that Captain Ziegler and the others were simply taken somewhere off the grid, after all the Captain and the other members of the Cayuga are some of the few people who have relatively recent experience with us, to simply kill a source of such valuable intelligence would be rather stupid in my opinion."

Vanya wasn't entirely sure if she believed what she said, but she would  definitely take the hope that her somewhat reasonable theory to offered.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #14 –
Ensign Mektari Dumral | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan @Stegro88 @Jesaya @Zodiac @Masorin @Triage @Numen
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At the helm Meki was keeping an eye on the sensors just in case there were ships in the area and this was a trap, so far though there was nothing and the sensors showed nothing in the area either, all was looking good. The Cardassian was listening to the Admiral's speech along with everyone else on the bridge. She caught the coded phrasing in regards to the ship of Klingon mythology as well, being a Cardassians they were all trained to spot such things, although she wouldn't even know where to begin with the decoding.

The pilot felt her heart sink when Captain Ives told them that it meant the ship Captain Ziegler and the others from the Cayuga were on it and they were gone. it wasn't right, it wasn't fair and somebody had to pay for whatever happened to them. She was sure it was something that at least Zark would agree with her on, perhaps even Vanya too...hell probably Salem as well but who knew with him? And for what? Because they helped the Theurgy, who weren't even in the wrong?

Those damn parasites had a lot to answer for. Mektari was a mixture of anger and sadness but she knew she had to remain focused on her job, they weren't out of the woods yet and just because no ships had jumped out at them yet, didn't mean there wasn't any laying in wait. Burying her feelings deep down, she returned her attention to her sensor readout, still nothing there.

When Vanya spoke, Meki couldn't help but not, the Android made a fair point, hopefully it would turn out to be true. "If it is true and they were taken, I hope they can find out where and rescue them...and if not then we make sure we succeed, make sure whatever happened to them was worth their sacrifice." she muttered from her spot at the front of the small ship.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #15 –
[ LtJr. Khelleshar sh'Zenne | Bridge | Deck 1 | USS Allegiant ]
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attn: @Auctor Lucan @Jesaya @Masorin @Zodiac @Stegro88  @Triage @SilverShadow

Shar observed the brief words exchange engulfed in a surly silence. As one crew member after the other took the floor, she turned her head to observe their expressions. Once the pink-skin named O'Riley made her opinion audible through the communicator (an opinion that the Andorian was unable to decode entirely due to how thick her accent was), the rest of the bridge crew only raised their doubts and concerns about the whereabouts of the Cayuga and her crew.

Something inside Shar stirred and her antennae clamped tightly over her scalp and short hair. " Whatever, if we don't solve the gibberish that the Admiral has conveyed it doesn't matter if the Cayuga has been destroyed or if the crew members are sunbathing in Risa at this moment. We have to give an answer within the right time, whichever it is, and only then would it be useful to ask more questions about the Cayuga. The ice is thin under our feet, let's not waste time jumping over it" he said energetically. "Captain, if you and Liutenant Petterson have experience in such Word Puzzles, you should concentrate on that while the rest of us keep this ship in one piece and ready to bolt off if things go wrong," she advised afterwards. The young shen understood the need to employ subterfuge and double meanings to convey a message when one didn't know if their line of communication was being jammed. But at the same time she considered it a waste of time and an unnecessary headache and she didn't hide this fact.

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #16 –
Lt Jg Salem Martin | USS Allegiant | Bridge]
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The Cayuga's crew was imprisoned, and their prison ship had disappeared. Gone missing was not the same as destroyed, Salem and his sister had both gone missing at one time in their life. He wouldn't believe Zielger dead till he had a body, he had made too many escapes from death to believe anyone else would be taken out before him.

Of course Salem's first order of business was to keep the weapon systems warm, but he was trying to think of how to talk back. It kinda felt like a game, decoding a message, and then sending out one in a bottle for the others to find and make sense of. The deck was free and Salem sat back in his seat in thought for a moment as everyone spoke. For once he found himself agreeing with Dumral, he wanted to find out where the prison ship had been taken, and he wanted to launch a rescue effort.

"The Cayuga crew wasn't exactly small, a lot of the people on that ship had families on other ships or even outside of Starfleet, they arrested everyone? and then lost the entire shipment, someone has to be talking about that." Sure maybe not Federation news network, that was media run by the government, but there had to be smaller news outlets that would keep up with this kind of conspiracy throwing stuff.

There was no way they would kill the crew of the Cayuga, Vanya was one hundred percent correct on that. "There has to be a facility, some place where they could potentially house a crew of that size... It would need to have a lot of supplies, and isolated... probably a planetary base as prisons on a space station require too much upkeep." He looked to Dumral "You probably could think of a location or two."

... Did i just say that outloud? Maybe I can play it off like a professional inquiry. "I mean if we managed to get a sector location you'd have a better ease at reading the map than I would for such a place."

Smooth... Salem... Smooth
 

Re: Day 05 [1200 hrs.] Astral Eddy Relay | The Inside Man, Part 4

Reply #17 –
[ Captain Ives | Bridge | USS Allegiant ] Attn: Away Team
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Listening to the present officers around her, Jien shifted... to his male form, making sure to do so as per the recommendations of Doctor Hernandez and the present Combat Medic aboard. While he listened, he adjusted the sleeves of his mimicked uniform, deep in thought on the matters brought up. His oaken eyes rested idly on the astral eddy off to the side of the wide viewscreen, but his mind delved into the finer layers of correspondence protocols and current priorities.

"Do what you must, Lieutenant O'Riley," he said to the engineer from the Resolve over the comm link to Engineering. He turned his eyes to Salem, who seemed to have some idea that their helmswoman might have suggestions on where the Cayuga crew might be  kept. Why would she know anything of the sort?

"But unless we are assailed here during out communication with the Sol System, I have no ambitions to launch an uninformed rescue operation. We have neither the intel nor the room for the remaining crew of the Cayuga. First we need to know what happened, since we cannot commit resources in vain. Right now, our best source is the very asset that has reached out to us."

Jien hoped Rear Admiral Andersson would have more to give them.

The rest of the present crew had suggested that the death of the Cayuga crew wasn't a foregone conclusion - the present Andorian doing so in a very frank and colourful way, which earned her a blank stare from Jien - but these were essentially affirmations to Jien's earlier words. It was time to make a decision on the response time, his own or Petterson's, and formulate a reply.

"We have 27 minutes," he said, quite certain that Joseph would have access to his old profile as an undercover operative. That was the response time they would use. "Let's make the most of it, without risking interruption. We need the time, and cannot afford being detected. Activate the Reman cloak, and hold position here. Aid Engineering and Ops in order to have the ship remain cloaked without incident, until it is time to transmit again. Well done people. The talks have begun, and the coming hours will hopefully not just be informative, but lend us great aid in our mission. Lieutenant Vanya, you have the conn, and be ready to decloak in 26 minutes."

With a nod in Petterson's direction, signalling for the woman to accompany him, Jien led the way to the Ready Room adjacent to the elongated bridge.

Let's see how much our new inside man knows, and what he might do for us.

- FIN
 
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