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Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #50 –
[ Lt. Jg. Suq | USS Resolve | Main Sickbay ] Attn: Auctor Lucan, Havenborn

Suq waited until he heard the hiss of the hypo to turn his back on Sanford and open his eyes again. He let go of the breath he didn't know he was holding. He took a moment to swallow his emotions down. Right now was not the time. When he spoke, his voice sounded wobbly and uncertain, as if he was just now remembering how to talk;

"Mister Havenborn...If you would...that is, correct me if I'm wrong, but...it sounded like he said that he was going to...to download from the database, collect...collect something...

There was no download, he said, the ship...the ship uploaded something? There was a warning, then an overload...."

His voice trailed off. That explanation made no sense. What would the ship upload, and why would it upload something? Could it be that their systems carried some sort of alien virus, and it only just manifested now? That makes no sense, he's used that console before, so have many other engineers. Why would it only manifest now?

"This...This is troubling." He muttered, and turned back to Havenborn to hear his reaction. He didn't want to see Sanford, so he anchored his gaze on Havenborn. The effect was unintentional, Suq seemed to be staring at him with intensity.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #51 –

[Komial Dotnhil | Starbase 84 | Base Commanders Quarters]Atten: Lucan

It was all the Trill could do to keep the grimace from passing over her face as she saw Ian frown in turn. she knew the news wasn't good at all, and she waited on bated breath to hear the reprimand that was sure to come. He surmised - correctly - the reasons for why she had not yet interviewed their suspect - the delay, and the desire to report to Ian. Before she could answer him however, he leaned in to take the PADD - and kiss her. True, it was just a light brush of warm lips against chilled ones, and yet it was enough to tease the smallest of sighs from her mouth, and to allow the sudden tension in her shoulders to ease and fade away.

"If only your people were half as good as you, then you would have learned about this meeting before it even took place." It was a slap against her staff - or perhaps simply against her forensic specialist - while at the same time reminding her that he had confidence in her abilities. While things hadn't turned out great with the investigation yet, she was still in his good graces.

Which was where she loved being, as he teased his thumb across her lips. She opened those full lips in turn, and gently, oh so gently sucked on the tip of his thumb as she nodded in understanding, not trusting herself to speak for fear of how husky the words that would tumble out would surly sound. Her finger tips brushed against his, as he took her hand in his speaking softly - and placed the cool palm against his warm shaft, and then she knew what is was he wanted.

A smirk passed over her lips - she couldn't help it - as his words lead to inspiration. "Yes sir," she whispered softly, heavy with desire, as she sunk to her knees, hand gliding over his shaft. She listed - she knew how to multitask - as she wrapped her fingers tightly along that rod of velvety dark chocolate now placed before her hungry eyes.

He went on, reading and musing and Komial lodged away the facts in the back of her mind, how the suspect in question could very well be a spy planted on the Resolve or even by its crew. It would be disappointing if the returning heros ended up being less...heroic than she'd hoped. But she kept the frown off her face then as well, by simply opening her mouth and letting her tongue dart out. She licked, slowly, from base to tip along his curved shaft.

"Every precaution, sir," she murmured against his balls as one hand moved to cup them. Her mouth opened wider and she closed her lips over the swollen cock-head offered up to her. She hummed, deeply, as her cheeks hollowed out momentarily. A groan followed as her tongue began to flick out faster, and faster. Swirling around the swollen tip, around the ridge of it, then sliding down his shaft, slowly taking her commander deeper...and deeper.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #52 –
[ Captain Ian Hawthorne | Base Commander's Quarters ] Attn: Brutus

Ian let out a deep breath, shuddering as he did because of what Komial was doing to him. After the warm bath he had taken, the Trill's slightly colder-than-human lips and tongue felt quite divine - if one would be of the religious kind.

"Good, I know you won't fail me," he murmured, looking down into her eyes while his hardness was treated by her cool mouth. His pulse quickened at the sight alone, and he reached down to run his artificial fingers through her hair, making a fist and encouraging her movements with his grip. He had put the PADD aside, finished reading it, and focused fully on his Chief of Security.

"If it is indeed... Ensign A'vura that you have in custody... I think you will have to search the USS Resolve for more evidence," he said idly, swallowing before he could continue. The pleasure she dealt him made his mouth dry. "I will sanction it, of course... Captain Kendrick and his crew can speak with me if they raise any issue against the search. Times are troublesome... with the civil war and the renegade ships out there... so I am sure Kendrick will understand the necessity."

Wanting to proceed with the known little dance they were in, Ian urged her to stand with his hands. He kissed her, passionately so, and pushed her up on the edge of the washbasin with some urgency. Then his mouth travelled - hiking up any remaining clothes so that he could cover a roused peak with his mouth. He swirled his tongue around the nub, before descending the Trill's body with lips and tongue.

"If it was this Orion from the Resolve, let's hope it was just her..." he said in his deep voice, and then he put her thighs on top of his shoulders so that he may taste her sex - treating her for what she had done for him.


[ Captain Tristan Kendrick | Brig ] Attn: 1) Vystori 2) RedBaron 3) Absinthe

As soon as F'Rell indicated that she had found A'vura in one of the cells, Tristan took longer strides to reach her. Bradford was mumbling something behind Tristan, but he did not care - not immediately. His immediate concern was A'vura and her well-being.

Once he appeared in front of the holding cell, he took stock of her appearance, seeing dark stains of basil blood on a rumbled and askew dress uniform. She appeared unhurt, however, and that was a relief. Her raised voice had not indicated any injuries either, and Tristan let out a small sigh. "What happened?" he asked her, the worry plain in his tone. "Are you hurt?"

Why was there blood on her clothes? Had she been falsely accused for something that had happened when the bomb detonated? She had vanished by that time, so it was not that much of a stretch to figure out that she had happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not for a moment did he think A'vura had anything to do with it. He trusted her implicitly, and how could he not after all the things he and his crew had been through the past three years?

At one point when A'vura spoke, Tristan glanced across the corridor they were in - finding a mahogany-haired... Vulcan, or a Romulan. It was hard to see because of the surgical scars on his forehead, but he had the eyebrows and the ears. He met the man's gaze briefly, wondering if he had been arrested at the same time as A'vura was. He looked away soon enough, returning his attention to A'vura and F'Rell. The T'fanrell was an intimidating sight, and he nodded for her to interpose herself between Tristan and the straggling security guard. Tristan had no interest in letting Bradford interject while A'vura spoke.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #53 –
[Lt Hi'Jak|Science Center | Lab 17] Attn: Rosaria, Auctor Lucan

As Sera was called away Hi'Jak gave a small sigh so much for his lab assistant sticking around to help him decode the results. It was a shame her ideas had been rather handy so far, and as she moved to leave he watched her go with a pleasant smile. "Well hopefully you will be out of here before the shit really hits the fan then."

He gave a puzzled look as she turned back for a moment before handing him a relic she had found on her adventures. Just holding the thing he could tell that it was neat, it was a smooth triangular device, with several lines running along it, his first inclination was that it was a puzzle game of sorts. Like the old Rubrik Cubes only triangular and instead of colors there were symbols along each segmented line. They seemed scattered, but without knowing what they were and how they fit together it wasn't exactly going to be easy to solve it.

"Ooh I love puzzles. I'll take a scan of it sure." He said lightly, he almost immediately considered paying a price for the thing just because it was a neat little puzzle toy, he shook it around to try and hear if anything was inside of it, but it seemed pretty solid to him. Holding it in his hands it wasn't much more then a palm sized toy made of an older metal, at least he thought it was metal it was cold and smooth to the touch. He gave the triangle a twist just to see if the thing matched his theory and sure enough it moved like any other Rubrik Triangle

"Neat."

At that however there was a soft ding in the air that marked the finished scan, and he moved over to the consol putting down the puzzle until he could ask Sera if he could keep it later.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #54 –
[Ensign Six | Below the Sub-space Acquisition Grid heading toward Forensic Lab| Starbase 84] attn: Lucan, DocReno

Ensign Six nodded frankly at his explanation. She was going to have to get more used to these... idioms, if she was going to be more socially accepted as one of the crew. Perhaps on her next bout of free time she could take the time to look through a database and learn a few, or a few thousand.

When he changed the topic once more to the issue at hand though, she stopped to think for a moment. Keval was asking a lot of questions, questions she felt he likely knew she was not supposed to disclose at this time. But his operations officer /was/ missing, and they did have an Orian female in the brig at this time. Six couldn't say she blamed the Lieutenant for wanting answers if he could pry them from her. Everything was indeed becoming more and more suspicious, even to her. Six couldn't quite put her finger on it at this time, but something wasn't sitting right with her, and she would be determined to find out what it was.

Finally she nodded at him with firm regard. There had indeed been traces of Triceron found on and around the body, but she just wasn't able to disclose such information at this time. "I'm afraid, Lieutenant, that telling you anything further of my investigation at this point, would go against protocol. I do apologize. I know you must be concerned for your fellow shipmate and where she might be, and I can see the concern you have over this, incident here. I can assure you, that once you have the clearance and I finish my initial report, that information will be shared with you, but until I've reported to my own superior officer I just cannot disclose anything more. I would suggest that you wait the hour or two that it will take for me to perform my autopsy and testing, then speak with your commanding officer, as well as the Starbase commanding officer Captain Hawthorn, to find out the information you are seeking."

By the time she finished speaking they had made it to her forensics lab. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you here for now so I can complete my work unhindered. Should I hear anything, or be given permission to share any of my knowledge, I will come to you myself to fill you in on anything I am able." With a sort of forced smile, and a polite nod, she entered her lab and left the two standing where they were. It always bothered her to tell other higher ranking officers to bugger off as it were, but at this point she really had little choice lest she get herself into deep water by saying something she shouldn't.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
[Ensign A'vura Zeshryr | Detention Center | Starbase 84] Attn: RedBaron, Lucan, Absinthe

A'vura was more than a little relieved to see her commanding officer and crewmate come into the brig. No one had as of yet answered her and why she was there, and the longer she had been, the more concerned she had become. Stepping closer to the force field separating her from her ship's captain she spoke to him with certainty.

"I'm not sure what happened Captain. I mistook the Romulan for a Starbase crewman, and tried to ask him for directions after I became lost in their corridors. He ran from me. I tried to use my Comm badge but it hadn't been synced up properly yet, so I chased after him instead. I mean why would he run unless he was doing something wrong? So I thought to catch him and help turn him in. I followed him into the Jeffries Tubes and he attacked me. He.. " she looked down a moment, blushing as much as her green hued skin would allow, before clearing her throat and looking back up at him as she stood up straighter once more. "He put his hands on me. I tried to fight him off but he had managed to get the better of me. Before I knew it he was talking in a language I didn't understand, like he was arguing with someone, and then.. and then his head just sort of exploded. I left the tubes and entered back into the corridors, looking for anyone I could tell what happened two when this idiot halted me, guns a'blazing, without letting me get a word in edgewise. He spewed racist comments at me and when I tried to protest to him and identified myself as a Starfleet officer but he fired his weapon and took me down anyway. I've no idea where my Comm badge, but you might want to ask him if he's seen it."

As she spoke the last couple of sentences she nodded her head in the direction of Bradford and scowled at him to boot. He had been too gung-ho and trigger happy with her and she was not against showing her distaste for him one bit. Finally she looked back up at Tristan. "Please get me out of here Captain. I didn't do anything wrong. He attacked me. I don't know anything else about what happened to him or how."
"You wish to knock over cows? What is the significance of this? Do you derive pleasure from such things?" - Ensign Six

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #55 –
[ LT Daniel Havenborn | USS Resolve | Sickbay > Engineering ] Attn: Auctor Lucan, FollowTomorrow

Daniel had to admit that Lieutenant Suq was right, this was indeed troubling.  "I think he said chip though, not ship.  It makes far more sense that he was talking about a chip that uploaded something into the ship's database."  He said, but what did it upload and what caused the overload were the real questions.  "Let's head down to engineering and see if we can't piece together what happened."  He said as he motioned for the man to follow him.  "Computer, reactivate the Emergency Medical Hologram."  Daniel said as he watched the EMH materialize in front of him.  "I leave the patient in your care Doctor."  He said as he and Suq left the room and stepped into the corridor heading towards the turbolift.

He tapped his combadge to contact the onboard security personnel.  "Computer, use encryption protocol Alpha-Six-One, priority alert to all Security officers.  Message as follows: This is Lieutenant Havenborn, please escort all Starbase 84 crewmembers off the ship and place us under quarantine, also place the ship on yellow alert."  He said as the computer responded an affirmative.

He tapped his combadge and waited a moment while the computer processed his request.  "Captain Kendrick, we've had a problem onboard."  He said to the combadge as he paused for a second.  "There was an explosion onboard, so far Lieutenant Suq and I have determined that a Petty Officer 2nd Class Sanford whether deliberately or unintentionally uploaded something into the ship's database which caused an overload and an explosion.  I'm having the ship placed under quarantine and taking us to yellow alert."  He said.
Defeat, Genocide; why quibble with semantics.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #56 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Shuttle Bay 17-C | Starbase 18 ]

Sera's attention was drawn away from Sabine as a woman spoke up declaring her presence and from the sounds of it her annoyance with Sera's maintenance habits when it came to the ship. The woman came into view shortly after her words had reached Sera the woman was taller than Sera by quite a few inches and the sour expression on her face said even more than her words did. She wasn't happy and Sera could only guess that the weathered looking piece of machinery in her hands was the reason behind it. There was no lie to tell Sera was horrible at maintaining her own ship she couldn't count the number of times she'd had to bring it in for service and being that her profession wasn't the most well paying of things often the service she got consisted of temp fixes and shoddy thrown together work and the occasional jury rigged part that somehow didn't cause the entire ship to explode.

As the woman held up the part she began pointing out specific parts of the damage to be honest the entire thing looked so broken that Sera was having a spot of trouble seeing the things the woman was pointing out. She opened her mouth to speak but as soon as her lips parted the woman once again unleashed another no doubt frustration fueled tirade upon her. Considering the woman's anger and Sabine's condition she could only guess that she was responsible for Sabine's rescue from the brink of scrap which was likely one of the few reasons that Sera wasn't losing her cool at the moment when she normally would have. Sabine was her home now and the thought of losing her was a painful thought so in a way she owed the woman the right to a few angry words.

She was quiet as the woman finished her lecture wincing as the part clanged loudly against the hangar floor after the woman had thrown it. Sera blinked as the woman seemed to rein herself in from another angry lecture. She felt a smile cross her lips as the news that Sabine was once again hers reached her. Anger aside part of her wanted to hug the woman after receiving the news. As the mechanic mentioned the need for a few words between the two of them all Sera could do was nod eagerly "Alright definitely!" Sera said she wasn't against the idea of getting a better grasp of how her ship worked and how to make sure it didn't fall into the condition it had been in previously. "Can we see inside though?" Sera asked for so long she'd had to sleep in the dormitories on the Starbase and it would be nice to step foot inside her ship again.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #57 –
[ Melissa Wright | Shuttlebay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: RosariaRosette

By now, Mel's seething rage was subsiding, replaced by a melancholy resentment of current circumstances. The fact that Aldnoah was eager to learn about how not to screw up her ship again helped things quite a bit. If this had descended into a shouting match, Melissa probably would've ended up turning that into an impromptu boxing match, and then both of them would be out a ship as they simmered down in the brig. If anything, the cheerfulness that Sera was demonstrating helped the petty officer redirect some of her frustration back towards her superiors, the giant louts.

"Yeah, c'mon," she grunted while heading up the craft's loading ramp, signaling for Sera to come along. "Name's Mel, by the way. In case you wonder why it's scratched onto the impulse manifold."

Said manifold was out of view in the back as Wright waved her into the freshly-restored central area of the shuttle. Melissa had personally ensured that every surface was as shiny as if the Sabine had just rolled off the line at Utopia Planitia, every display and metallic surface cleaned to a perfect sheen. "We ended up replacing all the consoles with some that aren't older than dirt. Computer core's been switched out for a new one too, along with the shields and every centimeter of EPS conduit. It'll last for years, but you oughta run a diagnostic and some integrity scans a few times a year, just to make sure this thing isn't gonna fly apart at the seams."

The blonde was still fuming as she took a seat in one of the chairs at the front of the ship, where the main controls had been recently refitted to meet modern Starfleet standards. "Warp core should be online by the end of the day. Also installed a whole lovely bunch of new guns, but Security's gonna want all those ripped off before you can leave." She snorted audibly. "Because, y'know, isn't that just awesome?" Her words were punctuated by plenty of angered tapping against the currently inactive displays. "They have me bust my ass for weeks turning this thing into a gunship, and then it's just 'hey nope sorry take off all those sweet weapons now thanks bye'. Height of fuckin' fairness, am I right?!"

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #58 –
[ Captain Tristan Kendrick |Starbase 84| Brig ] Attn: Vystori, Red Barron, Absinthe, Havenborn.

Tristan listened to his chief of operations speak and immediately understood that this was a case of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He nodded and understood why she had done what she had, and as she spoke about the more traumatic parts of her event he had nothing but sympathy for her. "Don't worry we will get you out of there A'vura, and then you can work towards putting all of this behind you. For now I'm glad that you survived this encounter."

He gave her a calm reassured look they would find some way to get her out. He had some doubts that this would be easy but he could make a compelling argument and they would be back on the resolve-

His thoughts were cut off as Lieutenant Havenborn spoke to him. With the ship under quarantine there was no way for him or the people that had disembarked to get back onto the Resolve. "Understood Lieutenant, and keep the ship locked down. Make sure that Sanford survives and then place him under 24 hour surveillance. Also I don't think I need to tell you this, but get a team to find out what ever data was uploaded onto the Resolve and assess the damage." It wasn't a perfect situation they would have to enforce the lock down which meant that for the moment he and the other members of his crew were stuck with on the starbase which may as well have been enemy territory. "F'Rell my friend I'm going to have to appologize this may take longer then we originally anticipated."

"As for you, A'vura, sit tight, i'm sorry to say that we are a little stuck, even if I could get you out of that cell right now we can't return to the ship. I hate to say it but you may be safer here than out side of that force field." He gave her a sympathetic look as he wanted nothing more then to see her free. "Officer Bradford, since I need to leave the brig, and it seems that only two people can be admitted as visitors at a time I think I will tag out with the two officers who I brought with me. They are close friends of A'vura and won't cause any problems."

If he had to leave A'vura under guard then he was damn well going to have it be his guards and not some people that he didn't trust but he and F'Rell had a new job at hand.

"In the meantime, Bradford, I'd like to meet with your superiors as quickly as possible to get these matters sorted out. As far as I can see you are holding one of my crew under false charges which need to be dropped." Of course he had to also deal with the fact that someone had detonated some sort of bomb on his ship, but since he wasn't able to get aboard the ship while quarantine was in play that wasn't going to happen.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #59 –
[ Sera ver Aldnoah | Shuttlebay 17-C | Starbase 84 ]

Sera followed Melissa up Sabine's loading ramp tucking her hands into the pockets of her jacket "I'm Sera." She said as she took in the new finish on just about everything inside the ship. If she had to guess this was likely what Sabine looked like before she traded hands with about several dozen different owners and got stuck with her. To say that Sera was surprised was an understatement she'd grown so used to the old Sabine's dirty and rusted interior that she never really gave any thought to what Sabine might have looked like during it's prime.

As Melissa went down the list of changes that Sabine had gone through she nodded as she continued to look around. Everything seemed so different but definitely not in a bad way. As Mel took a seat in one of the seats in the cockpit Sera continued to wander around Mel's voice carried through the ship allowing Sera to continue listening in to everything the woman was saying. She was amazed that so much work had gone into refitting Sabine to be quite honest she thought that Starfleet would just end up giving her back Sabine in the same condition she'd brought her in.

She perked up as she heard mention of Sabine having been refitted to be a gunship. She walked back to the bridge "I'm guessing with all the nice additions they had you slap on they probably weren't planning on giving her back to me were they?" Sera said bluntly. Part of Sera wasn't surprised when she'd bought Sabine years go the owner told her it was an old Starfleet prototype it figured they'd want it back. She sank down into the seat beside Melissa turning to face the woman "Well if there's something Starfleet certainly excels at it's wasting the time of others." Sera said sighing "In this case, Yours and mine." She added as she looked over at Sabine's controls. She glanced at the controls and back at the woman seated beside her for a moment "Can we take her on a test flight? Y'know before they have you strip her down again?" Sera asked.

"It wouldn't be right if you didn't get to fly the ship you spent all your time and hardwork on right?" Sera said.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #60 –
[ Melissa Wright | Shuttlebay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: RosariaRosette

Mel was entirely prepared to respond to Sera's suggestion with a snippy remark, but she stopped just as her mouth was about to open. Test flight. Yeah, yeah, hadn't she actually been planning to do that? Bribed the pilots and everything. She'd forgotten while being immersed in her own rage at the higher-ups. The anger in her expression became mixed with cautious interest as she checked the time.

"Hm. Was scheduled for a test flight in a little bit." The blonde bit her lip, pondering whether or not it was worth going ahead with.... before making a decision in about two seconds flat. Hell yes, it was worth it. Security would be pissy about her taking the ship out for a flight without getting the weapons stripped off first, but they were probably going to be pissy in any scenario. At the very least, she could claim that it was just a part of the existing work schedule that they couldn't change at the last minute.

Her hands flew across the control consoles, firing up the main power systems of the Sabine. "Warp core needs to go through the initial startup sequence, but impulse is online. We can give the sublights a whirl while it boots up, then make a quick edge-of-the-system hop and back." She nodded to herself. She'd still be pissed off when they returned and the engineer had to rip off all these fancy weapon systems, but at least she could have some fun first. "Hell, maybe we can find a nice asteroid to test out all these new guns on."

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #61 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Shuttlebay 17-C | Starbase 84 ]

A grin spread across Sera's lips as Mel spoke she could see the blonde's resolve breaking as her angry expression lessened and eventually came to be replaced with a look of interest. And as the words about a scheduled test flight left Melissa's lips she knew what was going to happen next. As Mel turned to the controls and began firing up Sabine's systems Sera felt positively giddy in her seat.

She watched Melissa swiftly start up most of Sabine's systems far faster than Sera herself had ever been able to. Apparently in the period of time she and Sabine had been apart Melissa had grown more used to the ship than Sera ever had. Though that shouldn't surprise her considering it looked like the woman had spent the entirety of the past few weeks restoring Sabine to it's former glory. She smiled over at Melissa as the blonde woman mentioned testing the new weapons on an asteroid.

"Now your speaking my language." Sera said

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #62 –
[ Petty Officer Bradford | Detention Centre | Security Offices ] Attn: 1) Red Baron 2) F'Rell 3) A'vura 4) Kaligos

The blasted Orion girl was yapping like a whore, trying to incriminate him when though he had the best of the starbase at heart. The slattern needed to be shut up, but Bradford decided that instead of answering the accusations, he would remain quiet and let any guilt to be found reflect upon the green bitch. If he acted the way he was supposed to, then her story would seem less likely than his. So, he clasped his hands behind his back and raised his chin, trying not to be intimidated by the floating dragon in the detention centre, 'swimming' between him and Captain Kendrick.

"I am sorry, visitors are not allowed to remain inside the brig indefinitely. Your security personnel cannot stay, and visiting time is over," he said, clearing his throat. "If they are close friends of the suspect, as you say, then it is all the more reason why they cannot be left alone in here with her. My apologises, Captain, but security protocols are strict, and unauthorised personnel cannot remain. I am afraid you have to leave, all of you, until my superior officer says otherwise."

Gesturing with a sweeping motion towards the door, he stepped aside to indicate that Kendrick and the floating freak had to move towards the exit. "If you would like to meet with Lieutenant Komial to discuss the suspect, please do, but protocol dictates that she cannot be released without a proper hearing. The reason for her arrest should be plain by the state of her clothing, and the fact that she did not comply to instructions. When she did not raise her hands, my colleague and I could not risk a suspect of homicide from attacking us, and with her being Orion, she might have been able to twist our minds as well. You will find it in my report, if Lieutenant Komial chooses to give it to you. I have acted well within my means, Captain, so please, there are no 'false charges' until proven otherwise."

Strange occurrences, with the alleged explosion on the Resolve too, but Braddford was not involved in that yet, and he only needed to save his own skin, which would be quite easy. Oh, and as soon as Kendrick and his ilk left, he would make sure the Orion bitch learned her place...


[ Ensign Krystal Tancredi | Outside the Forensic Lab ] Attn: Ensign Six & Keval

When the Borg woman vanished into the Lab, Krystal and Keval were left outside with little more answers than they had when they found the bomb site. Through the conversation, Ensign Six had revealed little, but confirmed that there was an Orion woman in custody, which meant that Captain Kendrick would likely be there right then - having found A'vura in their stead.

"Come on, Keval," said Krystal, "at least we have a lead on A'vura, right? We might even catch the Captain as he gets her out of there!" Turning on her heel, she set off towards another part of the Security levels of the Executive Centre. The forensic labs were in the opposite wing from the detention centre, but with a brisk pace set towards the area, they soon arrived there... only to find the aide's desk empty.

"Hello? Anyone there?" asked Krystal and looked around, raking back red hair from her face.

"Ensign Tancredi? Over here," came a voice further inside the area, and as Krystal stepped over there, she and Keval found two of Keval's men posted outside the main doors to the holding cells. The two men nodded towards them both, and the left one directed himself to Lieutenant ch'Rayya.

"Sir, the Captain is inside, and so is F'Rell. They have not come out yet, but there is a Security officer named Bradford in there with them. As far as we heard, A'vura might be inside there too in one of the cells. What are your orders?"

Bradford... That was the charming ol' bastard that Krystal had chatted with the last hour, denying them info.


[ Computer | Science Center | Lab 17 ] Attn: Kaligos

As Junior Lieutenant Hi'Jak listened, the results were vocalised in the lab.

[Test results incomplete,] said the computer in a disembodied voice. It was, however, not finished.

[Tricobalt and triceron concentrate grades at 106 microns grind size, ranging from: 40,1% tricobalt at 92,9% recovery, and 20,12 % triceron at 87,5% recovery. 3,02 % of recovery was a composite material: calcium hydroxylapatite. Remaining percentage are residual sub-microscopic particles from inhomogeneity in the main charge of an explosive device, typical when the shock front is obstructed. Residue signature inconsistent with known Federation explosive compounds. Particle analysis inconclusive because of chemical reaction. Shock signature not found in any Federation database because of incomplete composition. More data required.]

It seemed there was too little shrapnel for a complete analysis, but with more of it, the shock signature might be revealed, and shed some light on what the residual particles might have been. Calcium hydroxylapatite, however, was an easy riddle to solve, because it was easily derived as bone fragments from the victim.

OOC: RedBaron, now would be the time to have Drauc speak up lest Kendrick will leave to find Komial (in a very compromising position). Kaligos, you can have Hi'Jak head over to Ensign Six now. DocReno, up to you what Keval orders outside the holding cells. FollowTomorrow, you can have Suq reply over intercom to Kendrick as well, revealing that Sanford died... which might have a reaction from Bradford if he learns about it from Kendrick's combadge.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #63 –
[ Melissa Wright | Shuttlebay 17-C | Starbase 84 ] Attn: RosariaRosette

Maybe this woman wasn't so bad. Terrible at starship maintenance, but not a terrible person. Mel was feeling a great deal more ambivalent towards Sera as the Sabine hummed to life, power systems fully engaging for the first time since the disassembly began a few weeks prior. In that time, they had powered up individual components and systems plenty of times, but until now they hadn't tried to fire up the entire craft at once. This was going to be... interesting, and hopefully not in an explosive way.

Nothing detonated, thankfully, as the impulse engines warmed up, glowing at the rear of the craft with a greater fire than had likely graced the ship in years. A little sigh of relief that they were in one piece exited Melissa's lips. All her effort to build a functioning starship out of a scrap heap with little of use beyond the frame itself had paid off, resulting in a craft that, if the console readouts were to be believed, could fly in open space without going up in a plasma fireball. Mel had done the exploding spacecraft shtick once; never again as far as she was concerned.

"EPS flow is good... power levels are stable...  life support, inertial dampeners, and propulsion green across the board."  Warp drive was flashing red, indicating it wasn't ready to engage, but they could work out the last kinks in that part after the test flight. Right now, her concern was on switching on the comm system, and opening a line to the boys up in CONN. "Station Flight Control, this is the Sabine, requesting permission to depart for scheduled test flying."

A response came back within a few moments. "Acknowledged, Sabine, you're clear for takeoff."

That was all the authorization Melissa needed to start gunning in. Ever the firm believer in getting straight to the heart of things, the engineer took perhaps three seconds to raise the craft several feet above the hangar floor before practically slamming the acceleration. A sudden burst of forward thrust sent the Sabine hurling through the force field of the bay and flying out in the void. That they didn't suffocate as soon as they left the station's atmosphere was definitely a good sign.

Not that it took long at all for Mel to feel off-kilter. Almost immediately upon departure, she felt an unease between her head and her gut, like something was wildly inconsistent between them. With her brow furrowed in curiosity, she tried to isolate just what this odd feeling was. Almost like her body wasn't under the same gravity all the way through, but how could that be? They'd replaced the artificial gravity field generator, hadn't they?

Her green eyes suddenly flew open as she realized what they hadn't replaced. "Dampeners!" The engineer shot from her seat, swiveling on one heel towards the back of the craft. "The dampeners were still good so we kept them in, but I didn't calibrate for the increased mass of the ship!" Stupid, stupid, stupid. So busy strapping new guns onto the ship that she hadn't bothered to ensure passengers wouldn't get queasy from any acceleration.

As she ripped open one of the interior side panels to access the dampeners directly her attention briefly turned back towards Sera. "Keep us moving, I can fix this in-flight." It wasn't a terribly good idea to do so, granted. Neither was trying to have sex with a Xindi-insectoid, but she'd done it successfully on several occasions. "Maybe while I get this patched, you can tell me where you found this old bathtub?"

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #64 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Space | Sabine ]

As power ran through Sabine systems, Sera couldn't help but smile even wider over the years she'd gotten used to less than positive noises coming from Sabine's systems whenever she powered up. But now it seemed Sabine was filled with new life as everything seemed to begin working flawlessly. "I haven't heard Sabine work this well since...Well ever." Sera said unable to ever recall a time that her ship had been in good working order.

It wasn't long before Sabine began to rise from the shuttlebay floor Sera's eyes looked over the dashboard as each light representing a different system aboard the ship lit up green confirming that each system was working properly. She could hear Melissa speaking to the station port authority. Suddenly in a split instant Sera flew back against her seat her eyes wide as the ship gunned out of the hangar at full speed. Her hands gripped the edges of her seat tightly slowly loosening as the inertia dampeners took effect lessening the effect of momentum within the ship.

Some part of her fell a bit strange though as if there was some sort of pressure was pressing down on different parts of her body fluctuating from a light push to something a bit heavier. She had no idea what was causing it but it wasn't long before her unspoken question was answered as Melissa suddenly shouted out the problem and got to her feet and heading toward the back of the ship. Sera turned in her seat to see Melissa tearing a maintenance panel off the wall of the ship. As Melissa turned her attention back to her for a moment she nodded and quickly turned back to face Sabine's control panel.

Sera took hold of the controls she was surprised by how much easier Sabine seemed to handle now. As she kept the ship moving testing the handling on Sabine with a few simple maneuvers she glanced back as Melissa asked her how she ended up owning Sabine. "I found Sabine in a junkyard on a planet I was doing a job on." Sera said the name of the planet long having been forgotten in her mind. "For a while I was planet hopping with any ship or crew I could find or relying on my employers to get me around. My latest job paid quite a bit so I decided to go shopping around and Sabine was what I could afford." She said.

"The guy who owned the yard seemed eager to get rid of it considering how easy it was to get him to drop the price." Sera said shrugging.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #65 –
[ Melissa Wright | Space | Sabine ] Attn: RosariaRosette

The engineer couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of a prototype Starfleet vessel being found in a junkyard. At one point in time, this thing had been the shiniest new toy to fly out of a Utopia Planitia yard, a beautiful piece of work explemlifying the Federation's top engineering works. Now, it was an aging spaceframe that had to be gutted and refilled almost from scratch in order to be even a reasonably spaceworthy craft, formerly occupying a spot as some scrap heap's least favored ware. Just made so much sense, didn't it.

"Sounds about right," she mused aloud as her adjustment on several components of the dampener were finished. With one final tap on the control panel, a wave of fluctuating pressure washed across the Sabine. It was... dizzying, at least for a few moments, but this wasn't the first time she had gotten to feel the unpleasant effects of recalibrating the dampeners while accelerating. No, the first time, she'd lost a lovely pasta lunch all over the floor. Trying to recalibrate it while at warp hadn't helped.

After a moment to regain her balance, the engineer hopped forward, returning to the pilot's seat feeling much more at ease. "Alright, dampeners should be okay now thrusters all look good... screw it, let's give all these new guns a spin." She ran a quick scan and located a suitable asteroid floating through the system a short distance away. "There, that looks good. Let's give her a whirl on that thing."

As they laid in a course for the chunk of lazily hurtling rock, Mel continued on from Sera's answer to her question. "God, I remember trying to find decent weapons for sale in scrapyards. Back before I joined Starfleet, I used to spend days on end digging through junk heaps trying to find a disruptor cannon or a phaser array that wasn't busted way beyond any use." Nostalgia was carried on an undercurrent in the small sigh that left her mouth. "Least back then nobody would order me to strip out every gun I bought after I spent two weeks getting them fixed."

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #66 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Space | Sabine ]

Sera felt the pressure inside the cabin of the ship fluctuate her grip on the controls tightened for a moment as she maintained her focus. As Melissa returned to her seat Sera released control of the ship back over to the blonde. She waited as Melissa went through another check on the ship's systems but smirked as the woman seemed to give it up in favor of testing Sabine's shiny new weapons. "Alright let's do this." She said as she powered up the tactical station along with Sabine's weapon systems. She could hear Sabine's humming rise in volume as power was directed to the ship's weapons.

As they set a course for a wayward asteroid Sera turned as Melissa spoke about her former pastimes of searching through scrapyards for weapons to fix up. "That must have been fun." Sera said sarcasm in her voice as the display for the tactical computer came up with statuses on the systems still booting up. She turned to look at Mel as she spoke about how much easier it had been in those times despite the fact she'd had to scrounge up her own materials. Sera frowned her fingers drumming on the arm of her chair as she turned her seat to face Melissa fully.

"So why do you stay? Considering you managed to make it look like you threw Sabine into a time machine I'd would think that you could be doing a thousand other things instead of listening to some tool in a fancier uniform and a title." Sera said.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #67 –
[ Melissa Wright | Space | Sabine ] Attn: RosariaRosette

For all of two seconds, Melissa's mouth hung upon as if to respond to Sera's question about what was keeping her in Starfleet. The moment ended with a quick snap shut of her jaw before she could speak a single word. What was she going to say, when the truth was that Mel had no idea what was driving her to remain in service? Her sense of duty was minimal, if she even possessed one. Success had met her in climbing the ranks, but adding more stripes and stars to her collar was no lifelong goal. Despite what propaganda bylines might have insisted was the case, the work proved to be an absolute bore, lacking in any true variety. It was always the same sort of phaser arrays and photon torpedo tubes breaking down or being worked on, in most cases with the same sort of constant recurring problems.

 So, what kept her in this position at all, when retiring to the life she used to lead would've allowed so much more freedom, so much more excitement? No more doldrum months at Andoria, trying to keep ancient vessels functional well past when they should have been scrapped. No superior officers too high and proper to settle their differences with a good, old fashioned impromptu boxing match. No orders or regulations to keep her from pursuing whatever business opportunity she fancied. It had been a long time since she'd led a life with that much about it to enjoy.

They were coming up on the asteroid as Melissa at last gave her response. "Don't know." Simple and honest, as she so often tried to keep herself. Staring into the face of all logic, she didn't have a damn clue what was preventing her from marching up to the station's XO, handing in her uniform, and never looking back. She was doing her best to avoid eye contact with Sera as she continued, "Guess I could leave, but... I don't know. I mean.... I guess I'd miss the showers?"

She shrugged, unable to offer a better explanation. "I mean, I'd have to wait until a freighter or some other ship came along anyway. God knows you don't want to be stuck on a Starbase like that with no job, no friends, and nothing to do for weeks until somebody who's hiring comes by."

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #68 –
[ Lt. Jg. Suq | USS Resolve | Main Sickbay > Engineering ] Attn: Auctor Lucan, Havenborn

Suq kept his thoughts to himself as he listened to Havenborn. Chip, not ship, he thought, so if a chip uploaded something to the ship, then it would be sabotage, or an attack, and who would go about attacking a Federation ship with a whole Federation Starbase ready to defend her? And who gave Sanford the chip? Did he do that to himself? If he did, this is one hell of a suicide attempt...
Havenborn began to take his leave, but it took Suq a moment of standing in place before he realized the Lieutenant was no longer in his field of vision. He glanced up to see the EMH activated. Suq felt safe in the conclusion that it was time to go. Without any acknowledgment to the doctor and his gaze directed at the floor, he turned around and left, following Havenborn to the turbolift.

He was silent in the turbolift too, listening to his messages to Security and Captain Kendrick. When his speech was over, he lifted his head and brushed some hair out of his face,
"I suppose we can tell him later that Sanford did not make it...Assessing the damage comes first"

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #69 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Space | Sabine ]

Sera scoffed "The showers? Really?" Sera asked she glanced back over toward the computer briefly to check the status of the weapon systems before turning back to Melissa who seemed to be purposely avoiding her eyes. "Are showers where you have to share hot water with dozens of other people really worth it?" Sera asked. Sera couldn't help wanting to persuade the blonde next to her that there was definitely better options for her out there. Over the years joining Starfleet had briefly passed her mind every now and again. But every-time she ever seemed to give it any serious though a blowhard moron like Science Officer Walt showed up to change her mind.

Then came the reasons that Sera could really sympathize with being stuck at the Starbase with no job and no one but boredom to keep you company. She drummed her fingers against the armrest of her chair again as an idea quickly began to formulate in her head. First of all Sera wasn't the best at ship maintenance that was already a huge given. Second of all despite first impressions Melissa didn't seem like a bad person to have around. "Well who says you have to wait? I might be looking to hire on some extra help around here y'know considering my inability to keep Sabine in top shape." Sera said.

"Okay well maybe hire isn't the right word to use...I'm not sure if I'd be any good at being someone's boss." Sera muttered. "More like a partner maybe?" Sera said. "I mean I can't offer showers but you can't tell me that adventuring around the galaxy for money doesn't sound fun right?" She asked.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #70 –
[ Melissa Wright | Space | Sabine ] Attn: RosariaRosette

The offer caught Melissa so off-guard that her initial response was a half-suppressed laugh. Not laughing at Sera, of course; it was just a gut reaction to so unexpected an offer of work. Partnering up with Aldnoah and taking off with her in the Sabine... that wasn't anything she had even remotely considered before the other woman suggested it. Rather outlandish, yet with an odd appeal as she took a few seconds to consider it.

"That's.... more tempting than I would've thought." Targeting programs below her were beeping as they lined up with the wayward asteroid. Tempting, but... no, no, she couldn't just run off on some strange woman's ship. "Look, I've got a career that I wasn't really planning to give up on here, so... sorry. I mean, God knows you could use somebody to maintain this bathtub, and I'd love to work on her some more, but...."

She stopped, sighing. But what? What kind of excuse was that? What career did she have, really, in Starfleet? Even when she was assigned under a captain who knew how to put her to good use, a reassignment to the latest ancient wreck of a starship was always imminent. Unless she surrendered her soul to the miasma of bullshit that was 'Starfleet virtues', she'd never rise to a high enough station to avoid getting tossed at random assignments every year. What she was doing with her life right now had nothing even resembling a future.

The blonde tited her head over to look at Sera, locking her eyes onto the other woman's gaze. "You know I'm gonna have to strip out all the defensive systems, right? You'll be lucky if they let you keep the shields, for fuck's sake." Her hand was hovering over the fire command, now that a lock on their space rock had been made. "This time tomorrow, the Sabine's gonna be defenseless, and I can't do anything to prevent-"

She stopped short, not because she had nothing else to say - quite the contrary, in fact. As she held her finger aloft, not quite unleashing the horde of guns that had been strapped onto the craft's sleek frame, Mel had an ephiphany. She was wrong; there was something that could be done to preserve the brand new arament. One thing so brazen, arguably so mind-numbingly stupid that to even attempt it would be taken as a sign of insanity.

"-we steal it." It felt absurd to say it, but... there it was. The solution to her frustration. "Security doesn't expect the ship back 'til tomorrow. We could sneak in tonight, tell Flight Control to suck a fat one, and high tail it the fuck outta here." She pulled her head back, blinking rapidly, though between the blinks her eyes were still honed in on Aldnoah's. "If we do it fast enough, we can be at warp, heading out of Federation space before they even know what the hell's going on."

A smile was slowly creeping across her face as she tapped the fire command, unleashing an ungodly hail of phase and pulse cannon fire at a soon-to-be-vapor chunk of rock.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #71 –
[ F'Rell of the 12th House | Detention Center | Starbase 84] Attn: Everyone in the brig

As the security guard spoke F'Rell found her disdain for him growing. He was the sort one should not leave prisoners alone with, that much she was certain of. However she lacked any real authority, she could no more order the man then any of the prisoners could. She could however make her own voice heard. She clicked off her communicator and moved closer to the man the captain had called Bradson.

As she approached her tendrils began to vibrate, the sound was subtle at first, but became more and more obvious. Each tendril seemed to vibrate on it's own at a slightly different pitch. From her research humanoids were susceptible to Binaural Beats and she was in fact capable of creating something similar, this notes would have caused gibberish to spout from the communicator as they were not thoughts and ideas that could be expressed in words, they were instead emotion. She kept herself a safe distance from the man as she did this, ready to react in an instant.

To add to the effect she began to change her biolumenesence so that several key points in her body began to change in color. The effect was subtle, but not unnoticeable. The combination of the sound and the change in her body was enough to overwhelm the senses of any who gazed at her body. She only hoped it would leave the man in some sort of stupor. She continued until the man relaxed. She only hoped that the Captain and the Operations Officer of her ship would remember her doing this not not look at her. She could not risk effecting their psyche as well.

OOC: Hey, yes she is attempting a form of hypnotism on Bradford. With any luck it should put him in a relaxed and suggestible state. I figure this could be interesting. I will of course leave it to everybody how their characters react or if they react at all.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #72 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Space | Sabine ]

Sera could see the gears turning in the blonde woman's head as she mulled over the offer. Unfortunately the answer she got wasn't exactly what she had hoped for as Melissa seemingly refused the offer. As Melissa seemed to trail off on her last sentence though Sera glanced toward the woman. It looked like Melissa was giving it more thought Sera kept quiet as she let Melissa think about her options. From what she'd seen so far it didn't look like the woman particularly enjoyed working for Starfleet. And she couldn't blame her on that note either.

As Melissa met her gaze with her own she listened as the woman mentioned that more than likely she'd have to remove everything that she'd spent all of her hard work fitting onto Sabine. Sera opened her mouth to speak but once again Melissa trailed off her sentence causing Sera's mouth to shut with a click as her teeth clacked together. Her eyes strayed from Melissa's face to the woman's finger hovering over the firing button. Her eyes glanced back up at Melissa after a short period of silence between the two of them Melissa finally spoke drawing Sera's complete attention.

The next words that came out of Melissa's mouth both surprised her and strangely didn't as well. "You want to steal it..." Sera said. As Melissa began to describe her plan Sera leaned back in her chair crossing her legs and her arms across her chest. "Alright then let's do it." Sera said smirking. She glanced out the window watching Sabine's weapons blast an asteroid into dust.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #73 –
[ Melissa Wright | Space | Sabine ] Attn: RosariaRosette

So that settled it, then. Even though this was among the most objectively terrible ideas Melissa had ever come up with, she felt nothing but enthusiasm about pursuing it. Even Sera seemed excited by the prospect. They were outright going to commit multiple criminal offenses including grand theft starship (of a Starfleet vessel, no less). Melissa herself was genuinely going to commit desertion, and possibly treason depending on how one wanted to interpret Federation law in this case. It was so completely insane a plan that, as the dust of a former asteroid harmlessly bounced off the navigational shields, the engineer decided that God, or the universe, or whatever powers that be would probably let it work out just for the sheer absurdity involved.

Leaning back in her seat, her gaze turned towards space as the wheels already began to rev up inside her mind. "Okay.... yeah, yeah, I can do this. Just need to set up a scheduled task in the flight control computers to open the hangar doors tonight, shouldn't be too hard. Maybe something to throw the sensors into a diagnostic when we're leaving, keep any tractor beams or transporters from locking onto us." It'd take her maybe an hour to whip up a program to handle that, plus all of two minutes to discretely upload it into the station's computer core. "By the time they get it back online, we'll be at warp heading far, far away from here."

Her eyes slid back over towards Sera - or more accurately, towards her apparent new partner in crime. "Just gonna need to pack up my shit, not too much stuff in my quarters. Clothes, some odds and ends, one small and unobtrusive pet. Maybe leave my boss a present before we take off." Rather fortunate that she didn't know anyone on SB84 very well - no goodbyes to say. "If you've got any business still on the station, you'll probably want to wrap it up real fast, because I don't think we're going back there after we do this."

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #74 –
[ Sera vers Aldnoah | Space | Sabine ] Attn: Drana Kalastria Asshole

Sera nodded she didn't know the ins and outs of a Starfleet Starbase like Melissa did so for the most part she was going to just go along with whatever it was her new partner had planned. All Sera knew was that she was getting a shiny new ship and someone to finally talk to when she ended up drifting about space other than herself. "Sounds like a plan." She said. Sera turned her seat to watch bits of space dust drift past the ship. Sera took a moment to think about everything that had occurred up to this point. When she'd woken up in the dormitories this morning she definitely hadn't planned on any of this happening but now that it was. She couldn't help but be happy it did after the shitty hospitality Starfleet had shown her up to this point she definitely didn't have any regrets about stealing Sabine from them. To be fair she didn't consider it stealing considering Sabine was her damn ship to begin with.

"I need to go pick up some things I left too." Sera said nodding. When she came to Starbase 84 there were three things Starfleet had taken from her upon arrival. The first being her ship, the second being her weapons, and the last being her artifacts. She'd gotten two of those things back her guns though were an entirely different story. When she'd tried to reclaim them they had confiscated her plasma rifle and disruptor pistol due to the illegal nature of her ownership of them. She thought for a moment of her chances of breaking into security and somehow making it out of there in one piece. "Fuck it..." She muttered sighing heavily as she wrote reclaiming her weapons off as a lost cause.

"It shouldn't take me long I'll just need to swing by the science center real quick and grab something." She said shrugging.
 
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