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Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #150 –
[ CPO Erik Randall | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Triage, K'Ren & F'Rell (Free Posting Order)

It was supposed to have been shore-leave, yes, but no... They were instead quarantined after a lethal accident in Main Engineering. Erik Randall - the Resolve's Chief of the Deck - had wished to step of the bloody ship for the first time in three gruelling years, but no... Quarantine, and he was back in the hangar, unable to go to the Promenade. He had just been about to leave, finished with giving his instructions to the repair teams from the starbase... and then boom! The repair teams he'd spent hours to help set up their work on the Mk II Valkyries and the Type-8 shuttles just left the Resolve on Havenborn's orders. All his plans had gone up in smoke with the alleged explosion in engineering, and there he was, going over yet another insane modification report suggested for the Tribble Squadron's shuttles, as if they had never returned to Federation space at all. At this rate, he was prepared to strangle Ensign Tancredi, the unorthodox change to the shuttles that had landed on his desk a couple of days ago being just the latest in a long list of things already done to the Type-8 shuttles. Usually, he could accommodate a variation of the suggested augmentation, but this? With the arrival to Starbase 84, he had hoped to avoid the argument altogether.

Fortunately, he found his weapons maintenance chief - Liam Herrold - first. The Tribble Squadron's shuttles were lined up close by, eight scorched and repaired hulls of what used to have been regular shuttles. Now, they were freaks of their original nature, just the hulls and the warp engines remaining from their original design. Randall tossed the PADD to Herrold, who caught it - wary of Randall's mood - and read it. A concerned frown came to him too. "Wait, wait, wait. She wants us messing with the phasers' photonic collection couplers?"

"Yup." Randall took the PADD back, tapping in his calculations. He was wearing civilian clothes, he realised, since he had thought he could have that shore-leave, and he had not changed back to his jumpsuit. Perhaps he was clinging to hope that he was actually about to leave ship, and hadn't thought to change back.

"That's nuts. They'll just burn out the phasers even sooner!" Herrold had begun to pace the deck, also at his wits end in regard to the shuttles.

"I know," Randall said, breathing through his nostrils. He was done with the calculations - the results no surprise - and tapped the red button in the corner of the touch screen. "Hence... I just slapped a big 'Denied' on it."

"Did the Squadron Commander actually approve this modification?" asked Herrold, scratching his blonde hair.

"Havenborn? Yup. He trusts Ensign Tancredi, the jokeys that fly for her too. They might be green shuttle pilots, but I suppose she has taught them well. None of them knows anything about the things they fly, though. Furthermore, we are hardly some R&D department. These things can't be done safely. I will let her and Havenborn work it out with the new repair teams."

"Okay, but perhaps we ought to tell her this? You know how she can be," Herrold said, and he was just such a suck-up for her. He likely fancied her.

"Right," said Randall and tapped his combadge... only there was no combadge there on his grey t-shirt. Swearing, he dug it out of his pocket and rammed his thumb into it. "Chief Randall to Ensign Tancredi, could you come to the hangar, please? It is about the modification. We can't make it. Come down here and I'll tell you why."

While he spoke, Randall watched how Chief Herrold returned to work, climbing up on a maintenance platform and buried himself in the guts of Ensign K'Ren's Valkyrie fighter. Little did he know that the halfblood Caitian pilot just entered the hangar, seemingly idle in her stride - as if she waited for something... or someone. His eye did not stay long on the pilot, for someone else just made an appearance. A sight often seen in the hangar because of the open space it provided her. Randall saw F'Rell emerge from one of the Jefferies tubes - many of the grates permanently open on the Resolve for the T'fanrell so that she could get around the ship without having to use the small turbolifts.

Running a hand over his short, grey hair, Randall realised that the rare sight might be the last he saw of the creature, now that they had made it back. Their long voyage had come to an end, and despite his every intention to leave the ship as soon as possible, he found himself already missing those odd, small things that he would never see again...

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #151 –
[Captain Tristan Kendrick | Briefing Room | USS Resolve ] Attn: DocReno, Auctor Lucan, and Arista + senior staff of the resolve.

Once they got all the details on the table Kendrick let out a long breath he wasn't aware he had been holding. He was thankful that Suq had done as he had ordered and saved his modified logs. There were as he saw it a few problems aboard his ship. Avura, Drauc, Silim, and Bradford. The ship would be searched deck by deck and if any of them were found then there would be a problem. There was no one he could message to stash the four people. No other ship would take them.

He had to find some place the four of them could hide. "When security arrives from the base we need a story. Any shuttle we launch would likely be apprehended, we have poked the bee hive with this, and while we must draw out the traitor in their midst we can't do that while everyone thinks that we have betrayed the Federation. At this point it will be clear to Starbase 84 that there is a traitor among us. These logs can be used to incriminate me, and only me."

He knew this was coming, he had known it since he had been informed of the virus. He looked to Ejek if things had only been a little different it would have worked perfectly. His glance carried with it an unspoken apology for what he was about to ask of her, and Lieutenant Suq. "When Security comes aboard, and they will... you two will meet them. Ejak, and Suq... You will take these logs, and explain that I ordered the progressive memory purge to erase all the work I had done with the Romulans. That in order to get us back to Federation space I betrayed the directives, that I have run this ship with an iron fist. All of you will collaborate in making a story that paints me as a monster, and make sure that every member of the crew can give these details freely. If you all work to hand me over, then all of you can survive this with rank intact, and then you can route our true traitor."

Prison was not the retirement that Kendrick had planned. He had pictured returning to Federation a dozen times and he didn't think his darkest imaginings could hold like this. Still if it was him or the crew, it was an easy choice. "Any order you have acted out upon in my logs you have done so under duress. Accept it and move on."

"But even with that... Silim, Drauc, A'vura, and Bradford... none of you can be found. If you are found aboard my ship in a search it will be proof that the crew has conspired with me. We need a solution to that problem as quickly as possible. A safe place to hide them while the ship is searched. Ideas?" He looked to the crew wondering what they could do to keep the four of them safe and out of harms way. "As far as finding our traitor goes, the three of you are our best hope."

He glanced towards the doctor. After all that Silim had been through with them accidentally abducting him it was a lot to ask for the man's faith.

[Lt Hi'Jak| going back to the science labs| Starbase 84] Attn: Brutus, Vistori, Auctor Lucan

Hi'Jak gave a curt nod when Six said that their head of security was breaking protocol. He had figured as much but was still worried for the outcome of all of this. When she said that it was foolhardy to send everything he had without keeping a copy there was a slight coy smile that the borg drone must have missed, because Jack glanced down to his PADD, and checked all the information he had on the case.

When he returned to his office and lab it was a mess, same as ever. He dropped his PADD onto his desk the screen turning off, and mixing in with a dozen others. It would take forever for someone to sort through all of his papers. Especially since he had hidden the evidence underneath several papers on his own PADD about relativity theories.

He let out a sigh as he returned his attention to simple puzzle triangle. He was keeping this thing. He wasn't sure how probably going to buy it off the woman once he saw her again. But as he turned it over in his hand he thought of other ways to try and crack the puzzle. It was like a logic game, and usually he loved those.

However at the moment he also just felt tired. The day was draining him and he felt a little chill running up and down his spine. A traitor captain... that was more than enough reason for him to stay away from this case.


Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #152 –
[Lt. Jg. Suq |USS Resolve| Briefing Room ] Attn: Briefing Room


He was tired. So, so tired. He broke into a yawn when he met the Capetian's eyes. He didn't mean to, he tried to stifle it, but he was so tired. His hands gripped the PADD, he felt like his face had gone warmer, or maybe he was just getting ready to throw up. Same feeling, really.
"Captain..." He stopped up. What could he say? He couldn't, in good conscience, do this. Ejek made a point though, it would be a lot easier to save their captain if they were not in a jail cell.
"What you're asking of us is...a lot. I am not a good liar. I'll do my best." What with his slow way of talking and difficulty getting to the point, it's possible he'd keep the security teams held up a few minutes. He wouldn't count on it, but he could try. He made a memo to himself to be extra putz-y later.
"I don't know if it will hide them from scanners, but there are enough...well, holes and creases of this ship that maybe they could hide there. Under the floor panels of the holodeck, I know those are loose, they weren't tightened after that one time with the holo-emitters...maybe we just move them around the ship so security never sees them. Or we could just say our transporter beams just aren't aligned very well and we picked up the wrong people. At least that part is true, anyone can tell."
It's only now, as he spoke aloud about their guests did he realize yes, they did have guests. There was a Romulan--how strange, and disconcerting. That'd be even more reason to suspect the Resolve was a ship full of traitors. Oh look, a Cardassian. He thought little of him, except that he had a very nice neck as far as Cardassians went. He yanked  his gaze away, as he realized he was staring at everyone again. He fidgeted with the PADD in his hands and hoped this meeting would be over soon.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #153 –
[ Krystal "Meony" Tancredi | Brig | USS Resolve ] Attn: CPO Erik Randall, Liam Herrold, K'Ren & F'Rell

[Show/Hide]


After depositing Officer Useless at the brig, the young woman made her way towards her personal quarters. Once inside, she decided a quick wash would be good, and proceeded to strip off her uniform and underclothes, tossing them onto her bed, she padded into the refresher and performed a quick rinsing. She passed by a small mirror when she was finished, and took a moment to study her own form as much as she could. Most of her back was a criss-cross of jagged, horrid scars, a memoir of her time at the hands of aliens who delighted in lashing her until she didn't have much of a back left. Her arms, chest and belly weren't without their own marks. She could easily have these removed if she really wanted, but Tancredi liked them. They made her her. Save for the hair on her head, her eyebrows and eyelashes, the rest of her body was curiously devoid of all hair, another strange result from yet another encounter with aliens. She had no complaints, honestly; Everyone on the Resolve carried scars like her.

Done with her self-examination, she proceeded to dress in her battered fighter pilot armour, the tough silvery plating had often proved to be a lifesaver, and bore as many marks as its wearer. Her uniform came with some customization, namely a pair of holsters on either side of her hips, to house her modified disruptor and plasma pistols, Flash and Burn respectively, the disruptor she got from a Klingon warrior on one world, and the plasma weapon from an unusual Romulan on another world. They carried the memories of their previous owners. "Howdy, li'l beasties," said Tancredi affectionately as she twirled the pistols with her index fingers before holstering them in a cross-armed manner, the same way she always drew them out. After that, she slid in her two retractable battle-swords into their sheaths along her back, and her boot daggers, and a knife in its sheath just in front of her left hip, close to Flash, and lastly, a standard-issue phaser, in a small holster right over her heart. She was loaded for bear, or perhaps, in this case, for Starbase.

If the lady had a sixth sense, it was for battle, and she knew there was one coming. It made her smile.

She headed towards the Fighter Assault Bay, where Chief Petty Officer Randall ought to be working on the modifications she had petitioned for her current fighter shuttle, the Fuzzy Flayer, a souped up bastardized-beyond-belief butt-kicking Type-8 shuttlecraft. Using her own engineering know-how, she worked on the Flayer personally with the help of other crew to turn a once normal shuttle into the first of Tribble Squadron's war shuttles. Armed with two forward-facing disruptor pulse cannons, mounted just beneath the cockpit, with an automated rotating dorsal tetryon turret, and a ventral torpedo launcher with its standard payload of eight shuttle-grade torpedoes, it was six meters and four tons of mean.

And she thought of ways every day to make it even meaner than it already was.

[ Fighter Assault Bay | USS Resolve ]

As she was about to enter the bay, her combadge went off, and she heard Randall's voice on it. Placing a palm to muffle the voice, she grinned with amusement, and immediately strode into the Bay with all the sway and swagger of one who owned the ranch...I mean Fighter Assault Bay. Hooking her thumbs into her belt, she headed straight for Randall, quietly approaching him from behind, and then quite loudly going, "Howdy, pardner! Ah got yer call. So why cain't ya make them mods Ah asked for?"

She was all room-brightening grins from a thousand shiny white teeth. And her favourite rancher's hat. The stupid thing that had survived all these years with her.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #154 –

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

What more could she say? What more could she do? That look, on the heels of what he'd told her before everything started falling apart, it devastated Komial. It was a struggle to remain professional but she managed it, by the grace of god if not her own determination. A sharp nod, and somehow, without her voice breaking, a concise "yessir".

There were orders to issue, assignments to give out, and Komial focused on that and not the disappointment that was ripe in Ian's tone. She bottled the anger and the fear and channeled it as she straightened her back. Six and Hi'Jak - they'd just left. Those little shits she thought to herself. On the one hand she found it hard to suspect that either were capable of being part of a terrorist plot. But then again, Six was part borg, and could Starfleet ever be truly sure where her loyalties lay? She wasn't like Jean Luc Picard, who'd only been assimilated for a short time. That woman - well. Mr. Hi'Jak - she  could use his name, she just chose not to - almost seemed too incompetent. But, what better cover?

Regardless, they needed to be dealt with, and fast. The video evidence was enough to merit bringing them in regardless. And so she tapped her badge and issued orders to her direct subordinate, the Assistant Chief of Security. She ordered him to be discreet, but to put the notice out that both Hi'Jak and Six were to be apprehended on site. Quietly, stressing that they should avoid a scene but to get them now. "Lock down their comm access. Shut them out of the system. I don't want them calling for help."

Swiftly, she exited the captains quarters, swallowing down tears and bile. It was all too much. They should have been heroes, that crew that had come back against all odds but now it seemed that she'd let them endanger her station, her people. Her responsibility.

"Lock down the docking bay. Have ops secure the pylon on the USS Resolve." She ordered, her tone brokering no dissent. Anger leaked through the comm channels as she called team after team, sending them out through the massive station. "Everyone from the Resolve every last crew member, I need to know where they are right this very instant. You and you," she flagged down two of her people on a routine patrol, "You're with me.  We're going to the docking bay, now."

Hopefully by going directly there, Komial could cut off Six and Hi'Jak. Hopefully her team could isolate the duo's comm access. Hopefully they could salvage this disaster.

Hopefully, she hadn't ruined everything with Ian, just as it was starting.

Hopefully.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #155 –
[ CPO Erik Randall | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Triage, K'Ren & F'Rell (Free Posting Order)

The young woman sure gave Randall a bit of a startle, rounding on her as he was when she spoke up. Erik gave her a once over and noted how she got her full battle gear on, only the helmet being replaced by her old-school civilian hat.

"Because," he said, putting his hands on his hips as he spoke to her, "if we did that mod, you'd get some more effect, but you's burn out your phasers after a few dozen shots, and the typical engagement sees hundreds. And before you say so, no, it is not because of the fact that I hate modifications, sometimes I don't. But over the past three years, these shuttles have become unreliable freaks. We cannot trust that they will hold together in all situations. Not any more. We need to keep modifications from the factory specs under control, that is our job, and we cannot do our jobs on these shuttles anymore."

As he paused, Erik noticed how Herrold had stopped working on K'Ren's fighter and was looking at his chief. Was not about to let Herrold side with Tancredi. Not again. So, he continued. "You are not getting this modification. This madness has been going on for too long, you doing things without supervision, and it needs to stop right now. I should have stopped this project right from the start if I had foreseen the liberties you are taking with things that you know too little about." He gestured as he spoke, making his point by clenching his fists before his chest. "Tight tolerances. These crafts were designed with every specification defined to very tight tolerances. Havenborn might have approved this mod, but this is my final word as Chief of the Deck. Neither of you are engineers, and he can be wrong, which in this case he was. That is precisely why I am supposed to be checking off the mods. It is easy for you pilots to miss the bigger picture, unable to see where popular theory doesn't rhyme with cold reality."

Herrold cleared his throat, having climbed down to stand next to Tancredi. "Are you sure the tech specs were wrong, Chief?" he said, raking back blonde hair dirty with grime from his aquiline features. "Krys- Ensign Tancredi have - so far - been right about the mods already made to these shuttles."

"Of course I am sure," said Randall and kept himself from rolling his eyes at how Herrold was looking out for the Ensign. "The photonic collection coupler is one of the more sensitive parts of the phasers. It's tuned the way it is because that's the only way you dissipate the heat the other parts of the emitters collect during firing. If she and those who are placing their lives into the hulls of these shuttles would have gone into combat with that mod done, they would all have found their phasers overheating, and either the safety interlocks would have prevented firing... or the phasers would have exploded. Tancredi, you need to understand this, these..."

He gestured towards the shuttles and the Mk II Valkyries both, "...are not yours, they are ours until the moment a pilot launches them. If we spot something off, we will deny it, and we have been far too lenient. It stops right now. I mean it this time, clear?"

As firm as he was trying to be with her, Herrold was ruining it again - siding with Tancredi as always. Erik Randall had told the pilots these things more than a dozen times, and yet he seemed to have to repeat himself yet again. The Tribble Squadron remained... as ever... the thorn in his eye. He actually believed that it was those shuttles that had made the temples of his hair grey, and not the fact that they had been surviving in uncharted space for three years.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #156 –
[ LT Daniel Havenborn | Briefing Room | USS Resolve ] Attn: Senior Staff & everyone in briefing room

Daniel listened to Captain Kendrick as he explained what the officers were to relay to the crew and while he didn't quite agree with the situation he understood it completely and would follow the orders given.  Even though he wasn't a member of the Neo-Eastern Coalition anymore he still remembered the three most important lessons that were drilled into him; always respect the chain of command, never disrespect your unit and always follow your commanding officer's orders, no matter how much you may disagree.  However like all rules there were exceptions, such as an unlawful order or extenuating circumstances.  However Daniel knew that he'd do the same thing for his pilots if he ever needed to; 'we sacrifice for the greater good' is what his Uncle Emile had always told him growing up.

Daniel thought of one way to hide A'vura, the Romulan, the Cardassian and Bradford from the prying eyes of the Starbase's Security forces, though he wasn't sure if it was a good idea.  "What about inside torpedo casings?"  He asked.  He knew that they could be modified to hold a person and he highly doubted that the Starbase's Security forces would search for them inside a torpedo casing, especially if said torpedo was stored in the magazine.  "Once they're modified and all four are in we could store them in the torpedo magazine."  Daniel said.  It was about the only idea he could come up with other than trying to run from the Starbase of course, though that idea wasn't really an option he'd consider seriously.
Defeat, Genocide; why quibble with semantics.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #157 –
[ Outside the Security Center | Starbase 84 ] Attn: 1) Drana 2) Vystori

With their orders received, Petty Officer Anton Gates and Crewman Roland Clarke exchanged a knowing look. Orders were to arrest the odd Borg in forensics, and neither of them had any compunctions about that. They rose from their table in the officer's lounge.

"This is Gates, Clarke and I will take care of it. I will let you know when she is in custody," said Anton with a winning smile after tapping his combadge. Roland was not the one to raise any issues, for certain, since Anton knew he had lost family and friends to the Borg. In fact, he might have to keep Roland from going too far when they made the arrest. "Set your phaser to highest stun, but keep it in your holster." They wouldn't want to startle the civilians on the base with drawn handphasers, after all.

Leaving the lounge, they consulted the base computer about the Borg's whereabouts - easily tracking her imminent arrival. In fact, they were able to set up an ambush, predicting her path towards the security centre. At the entrance of the Executive Officer's Complex, there was a wide and open reception area where the public aboard the base could make appointments with the present Starfleet divisions. This was where Six would arrive, and they could follow her into their shared work-place, the inside of the security centre the ideal place to apprehend her and put her in a holding cell. It would be away from the public, and the shortest possible distance to the cell that awaited her.

When the Borg arrived in the reception area, Anton swaggered over to the reception desk, winked at the brunette there, and pretended to read a PADD on the counter - all to avoid looking at Ensign Six as she passed them by. With a quiet smirk, he felt like he was in an espionage holo-novel, the lead character about to-

"You are under arrest! Raise your hands and keep them where I can see them! I mean it!" It was Clarke's voice, and Anton realised he had not shared his intentions with the crewman. He had thought Roland would follow his example, remain by his side, but no, as Anton spun around to see what was going on, the pockmarked, angry youth had whipped out his Type II phaser and brandished it at the Borg as if he meant to shove the muzzle into her face. Even worse, it just so happened that the Borg was not alone in Roland's sights. There was a blonde engineer in a yellow jumpsuit there too - right between Six and Roland - and as he was always keeping an eye for the ladies of his own rank, Anton knew the woman to be Petty Officer Melissa Wright. As much as he enjoyed the sight of her, he couldn't help thinking; What is she doing here?

Naturally, the busy reception area stirred in reaction. People swiftly cleared away from Roland Clarke and the two women he was pointing his phaser at. Anton was trying to get there, but people got in his way. The noise from the crowd drowned out his call to Roland to put away his phaser. Some child began to wail in fright. It was a bloody mess, the situation getting out of hand too quickly. "Clarke! Don't do it!"

By the looks of his subordinate's stance, he looked like he was about to fire his phaser - all his pent-up ire towards the Borg released. Six represented her collective species to Clarke, he had said so to Anton the other day, and Anton had merely ignored the bigoted farm-boy's words. The Borg was the very reason the orphan had enlisted. Now, with his chance at hand, Clarke was advancing on the women, reaching for Melissa Wright, and while Anton supposed Roland would shove her away from the Borg and get her out of his sights, it might not be so plain to either of the women what he was about to do...

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #158 –
[ Science Center | Lab 47 > Lab 17 | Starbase 84 ] Attn: 1) RosariaRosette 2) Kaligos

Simon Walt stepped out of Lab 47, adjusting his belt on his portly frame. He had just paused the holovid so that he could get something to drink, and to get another set of tissues. He had never expected the new additions of the USS Intercourse's crew to be quite so... limber. He just hoped Dr. Parnak would not catch the bat anytime soon so that he could finish watching the whole vid.

"Lieutenant Walt?" came a brusque female voice, giving Simon a start, and he spun around to see two security guards stepping into the corridor. Immediately, his heart was beating fast, and it had nothing to do with those Orion sisters he left projected inside the lab. He felt his neck heating up, but cleared his throat in a semblance of composure.

"Yes?" he said, dreading the answer, somehow thinking that he had been caught red-handed and that someone had decided to report it to Security. Surely they wouldn't send...

"We have orders to take Junior Lieutenant Hi'Jak into custody. Where is he at?" said the woman again, sharp eyes and lean in frame - much to Simon's dislike. He recognised her, and remembered that she was Chief Petty Officer Felicia Guerra. Before he answered her, he glanced towards her companion, a crewman named Kraig Tucker. He was twice the size of Guerra, well over two meters tall, and Simon disliked that even more - feeling inferior in the face of imminent arrest. Slowly, however, the woman's words caught up with his thoughts, and he realised he was in the clear. The rush in which he accommodated the good security officers made him stumble over his own words.

"Of course! Good riddance, I don't care what he did, I am sure he is guilty of it and then some. Never liked the youth, always knew it was something fishy about him. Lab 17, yes, indeed. Lab 17, there he will be. Come, I will lead the way. Did he have something to do with the bomb at the top of the base? I knew it. My father used to say I had an eye for these things, and I should have trusted my instincts. Oh, dear, oh, dear."

"We don't know why he is to be tak-" began CPO Guerra slowly, but Simon had already reached the lab, so he stepped through the sliding doors and pointed towards the young man with the Klingon ridges on his forehead.

"There! Take him!" he said, as if he was a battle commander sending the vanguard on a sortie, but his accusing finger drifted to the second person in the room when he saw her - eye-catching as she was. He did not even realise that he hadn't dropped his hand, for there was the Câroon pest of a beauty that he had spent the whole damn day with, dismissing her claims to have found something worthwhile for the Science Division. Was she still there? Of course she was, or has she just returned? Either way, if Hi'Jak was about to be arrested, Simon feared he would end up with her again. No, he would not let her ruin the rare chance to enjoy a holovid in complete privacy in the middle of his shift. He wanted the yellow-eyed scavenger gone immediately.

"While you are at it, take her as well," he said with a raised chin. "Her name is Aldnoah, I think, and some of those artefacts she tries to sell us are illegal, taken from sites where she had no business stealing from. I suggest you confiscate all those things. I will send you a list of planetary authorities who would like them back."

Nodding to the Chief Science Officer, Guerra and Tucker went for the two people in the lab, hands on the hilts of their holstered phasers.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #159 –
[ ENS K'Ren | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Triage, Randall & F'Rell (Free Posting Order)

With not much else to do aside from wait for the counselor to return her message, K'Ren found herself idly wandering into the fighter bay. She considered herself one of the lucky ones, flying one of the few remaining Valkyrie fighters, a true fighter and built to handle combat. The Type 8's by comparison were bastardized beyond belief, exigencies of the constant danger driving their design. Phasers slapped on with minimal thought to how they'd survive combat. She had to admit tho, as she slowly wandered towards her own fighter, that the pilots who flew those birds were ballsy.

Going up to her own fighter, she ran her paw along the smooth skin of the bird. The girl was tough and she could feel rough patches in spots where repairs had been made, but the fighter had survived along with K'Ren. A couple unofficial claw marks on the side below her cockpit attested to K'Ren's prowess in battle, her kills as the others called them. She let out a sigh. She'd been hoping to take leave from the Resolve, head back to Cait, maybe sign up as a fighter pilot in the local defense forces. Settle down on her home world, maybe even find a nice young Human or Caitian gentleman to bond with and have a few litters of kits with.

That hope though was dashed with the infection of this Romulan virus. At the very least, she'd be stuck aboard while Starfleet investigated but somehow her gut told her it wouldn't be that easy. Whoever planted the bug knew what they were doing and she had to admire the skill of whomever wrote this thing. Hacking into private logs and other secured areas in an automated fashion meant either the hacker was good, or somebody in Starfleet planted the evidence. That second thought though worried her. What hornet's nest had they walked into?

Settling into her fighter, easier as she wasn't in her flight suit just a non-regulation exercise wear she enjoyed as it made her feel sexy and feminine, a far cry from her bulky flight suit, K'Ren couldn't help but overhear the conversation between Randall and Tancredi. Another discussion about unauthorized modifications. She frowned as Herrold jumped into the fray. This was a matter for higher ups. She knew this, so why was he insistent on getting mixed up in something about his pay grade?

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #160 –
[ Krystal "Meony" Tancredi | Fighter Assault Bay | USS Resolve ] Attn: CPO Erik Randall, Liam Herrold, K'Ren & F'Rell

[Show/Hide]


It was going to be one of those days, and with her nerves somewhat on edge to boot. Tancredi was deceptively friendly and highly intolerant of anyone outside of the crew of the Resolve. In the crew, however, they could almost get away with murder, within reason. It was certainly why Erik Randall still had his teeth intact, and wasn't sporting a sword through the thorax thus far. But far more than that, she actually was listening to him. To the crew of this ship, they were the only people who might have said that Tancredi was a reasonable girl, because she listened, and considered what these people, her family, had to say.

Her cheery smile had been replaced with a serious, considering look, and she kept her eyes locked on Randall throughout the time that he spoke, one clenched fist planted against the side of her hip, while her other hand hung by her side, holding on to her flight helmet. Obliviously she leaned closer towards Herrold when he joined her, though at his calling her by her rank and surname, she gave him a slightly irritated glance, before returning her concentration on Randall.

"All right, Erik," said Tancredi in an unusually low, husky tone that she used when she was just feeling tired, and she was resigned, which was a rare expression to begin with, but it was the closest she could come to placating or appeasing someone. However, she raised and pointed her index finger at Herrold, "and Liam, how many times do Ah gotta tell ya? Jus' call me Meony, dat's mah name, saves ya a mouthful first of all, and Tancredi 'n' Krystal are names Ah hardly answer to any more." Then she patted his arm affectionately with a lopsided grin.

Sighing, she turned back to Randall, and placed herself next to him, so that he was forced to turn to look at her, or place himself in the same position that she was in: looking at the Fuzzy Flayer. "Look, Ah get it," said Tancredi, "and Ah even accept what yer sayin' - see, Ah'm not unreasonable - but ye're forgettin' that mah...well, our baby don't run on the ol' standard issues no more, right?"

She was referring to the fact that over the last three years - due to resource shortages and the losses of their Valkyrie fighters through various engagements with hostile forces - that some pilots had taken to using the shuttles to substitute as fighters, and as such, had begun altering their standard specs into something they were each more comfortable with. They'd done this by slapping on salvaged alien weapons, armour, shields, even engines and power cores to boost or increase the performance of the transport ships, since the standard issue phaser weapons were rarer without available replacements. Tancredi was no exception to this, and had replaced almost everything that was once stock issue on the Flayer.

"C'mon," said Tancredi, "as ya said, even Ah wouldn't know it as well as ya, but Ah do have..." she jabbed a thumb at her chest, "...an engineering degree, and while Ah'd never match ya in skill and knowhow, Ah can at least not look like a complete idiot, Ah mean, we did all three o' us work together on the Flayer didn't we? And it's served us fer years without killin' me. Call it luck, call it yer miracle hands, but it worked."

She offered Randall a small smile, her large eyes drawing him in with a look, before turning away to gesture at the shuttle, "Now, the Flayer ain't no bird...no doubt...it's a turkey. A killer turkey, but a turkey no less, and the disruptors, tetryons and torps all work jus' fine...but them phasers are just holy embarrassing! Ah swear, Ah have no idea how Starfleet's gotten by what with them Klingons, Romulans and whatever else and we have weapons like these. Look, if ya cain't upgrade 'em or Ah don' know, improve 'em in da least, maybe we jus' take the darned things off, make room for improvements on what's left, whaddaya think? That work better? And ya can ease the volume off the power feed to weapons, maybe give the engines a boost, and the auxilaries will get a kick out of the extra zaps, and Ah can shift some o' that into the shielding. Even at it's fastest, the Flayer cain't pull stunts like a Valkyrie, but Ah can make up for it with durability."

She cast a glance towards K'ren, who had settled into her Valkyrie, one of the lucky few pilots who still had a serviceable craft. Twisting her hat off from her head, Tancredi flipped it, twirled it between her fingers, and slipped it right back into its place, then winked at her. She always had to resist reaching out to pet the feline woman on the head, not sure if that would offend her. Her head abruptly snapped back to look right at Randall, fists planted on her hips, as she looked expectantly, and perhaps a little hopefully up at him, with a faint smile playing on her lips.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #161 –
[ Lt. JG. Zelosa Ejek | Briefing Room | USS Resolve ] Attn: Everyone in the briefing room

There was a message on her PADD, but Ejek had yet to find time to read it. A lot of information was to be taken in and processed in a relatively short period of time during this meeting. The Cardassian did not plan on letting anything slip her mind. Already was there so much she deemed important that she could impossibly address or talk through it all. Ejek sincerely hoped that she had her priorities straight.

"I, for one, have already made peace with the idea to have you court-martialled, Captain." Ejek said coolly after a quick glance at Suq. Maybe seeing him like this made her caustic. Maybe it was the plan itself, or the idea that she might have trouble making a necessary sacrifice, that ticked her off.
"But, with all due respect." The Cardassian got up. "I don't think this is going to work."

She walked up and down in a slow pace as she unveiled her thoughts.

"If we say you ordered the memory wipe, and we obeyed without question or hesitation, we incriminate ourselves. Even if we say you purged the memory, yourself, and we stopped you at the Captain's logs, there will be no explanation for the sudden Romulan in everything after the explosion in Engineering. We will face reports of that incident. As Lieutenant Havenborn has stated, there was station personnell present when it began. We also don't know when station security gets to us. We must calculate that we will most likely not have the time to hammer out and rehearse a well-elaborated story, let alone to let every single crew member know of it.

For all we know, there might also be a traitor on board, after all. We should not entrust more people than strictly necessary with our plan. Also, not everyone is a great liar. Some break under stress, some just don't get it right. The least we need is contradictions because our lie was much more complicated than necessary. We must simplify, gentlemen. ...And Ensign Zeshryr.

We need an easy explanation that answers all the discrepancies that will show up. The easiest that I can think of is that none of us knows exactly what's going on, either. We are still searching for answers. There was an upload to our database, a station officer died in an explosion, a virus altered pretty much every data on board, then the memory got wiped out completely. Suq was able to save the Captain's logs, but wasn't sure what to make of them. They incriminate Captain Kendrick, but that well may be an after-effect of the virus. He showed them to me, I suggested we show them to station security.

This way, if it turns out that some of the yet unread content on Suq's PADD incriminates more, if not all, of the crew, we can deny its accuracy. But we get the station in on our investigations and hopefully restore some faith in this ship, even if it's at our Captain's expense."
Now it was on her to shoot Kendrick an apologetic look.

"Is there any way we can get Zeshryr back? Meaning, can we make it look like she's been on our side all along, and, if we really want to blame it all on you, Captain, like you went after her for a reason? Killing her, for example."

The Cardassian looked at the Orion. "What did you escape from, anyway? Why are you covered in something that looks like Vulcan blood? I, too, have heard bathing in it makes one smarter, but I never took you for the superstitious type..."

Sighing, Ejek sat back down. She massaged her left eye ridge. What else? There had been so much on her mind, so much she had wanted to say...
Right. The Romulan across from her. She looked at Drauc T'Laus. How did he know her name? What had the Captain told him about her? She would ask one of them later, if there was still time.

"One more thing." She exclaimed before taking her PADD back into her hands. "Wherever you decide to put our guests, make sure to collect and destroy their commbadges - evidence - and mask their life signs."


____

OOC: I'm very sorry for the long wait. I've honestly thought I'd make it "today", and then didn't, for a good three or four days now...

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #162 –
[ Dr. Silim Parnak | Briefing Room | USS Resolve ] Attn: Everyone in the briefing room

People were putting forward their ideas on how best to solve this situation. Each with, in Parnak's eyes, varying degrees of success. It was when Ejek, as he had learnt her name, put that inclination on the word 'guests' did he feel that perhaps he wasn't as welcome as they had previously said. He couldn't work out why she wouldn't want to see another Cardassian and felt disappointed. Nevermind, he shored himself mentally, He had waited patiently and after all of the staff had spoken, now it was time for Silim to throw his options into the ring.

"While I think we all agree that your wish to sacrifice yourself for your crew is valiant..." He started towards Kendrick "... I wonder if it is needed."

Silim felt the lecturer in him becoming antsy, but resisted the urge to stand and present, instead keeping seated. "We know that the Starbase is going to wait to question you about the prison break and that the more they delve into the situation on the Resolve, the more they will question. We've also established that any shuttle launched from Resolve will be destroyed. So why don't we use that our advantage?"

As Parnak talked he gesticulated along. It was a habit he hated yet had not managed to shake. "With access to one of your laboratories, I could fill a bio-canister with enough components to approximate a body, whether Human, Orion or Romulan" He looked in turn to Kendrick, Zeshryr and T'Laus. "I'd then need some skin cells, hair samples and, of course, your combadges. What we then have is, well, for lack of a better term - Kendrick Soup." He smiled apologetically to Kendrick for the name. "We then load the canisters into a shuttle on autopilot and release it to be destroyed. I think if we were to load it with some form of detectable explosive and aim at, say, the starbase doors that should give them opportunity and motive enough to ensure its destruction. If they were to inspect the remains, they would find all the trace materials to ID our captain and escaped prisoners. With no one left to interrogate, it should prove easy for your crew to incriminate a renegade captain who is unfortunately no longer alive."

Finally he turned to Suq. "... And if your man here is able to transport without being detected, I think I have somewhere more spacious that Holodeck plating or a Torpedo magazine for us to hide. My quarters. So far no one knows of my involvement in your little scheme, not only would I like to keep it that way, but it could provide a useful hidden base of operations within the Starbase should we require one."

With that he finished outlining his plan and Parnak looked around expectantly awaiting the applause. Of course a standing ovation would have been too much, but not unwelcome. He supposed people would wonder why would a Cardassian with no real ties to the Federation want to help an innocent Captain from being wrongly accused? Well to improve Federation-Cardassian relations of course, that and having the favour of a starship captain is a useful thing.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #163 –
[ CPO Erik Randall | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Triage, K'Ren & F'Rell (Free Posting Order)

While Liam Herrold had looked a bit conflicted about addressing the redhead by her callsign given the situation, Erik took a deep breath and stilled the impulse to dissuade her from using his first name. After all they had been through on the Resolve, it had become more common, but now that they were back in Federation space, he did not find it appropriate any more. Perhaps it was wrong of him, but he was still frustrated about the modification request. Clenching his jaw, he remained where he stood when Tancredi came to stand next to him and looked at the shuttle. Herrold was not sure where he'd go, looking like he might return to the maintenance he was doing on K'Ren's Valkyrie. Randall heard the pilot out while she spoke, not agreeing on some accounts, but her suggestion had him mull it over a bit. He had tried to not be charmed by the young woman in her persuasion attempt, looking away when she tried to compel his decision. The pause that came made Herrold speak up instead.

"Meony, that is a great idea!" he said, not looking like he was about to leave any more. His blue eyes lit in excitement, he ran both his hands through his hair as he thought about it. "The extra energy from the removed primary phaser conduit can be used for any purpose as the pilots see fit! Be it the shields or the weapons, it should help stabilising the whole EPS grid in the shuttles! How much more power would that free up, Chief?"

Grudgingly, he give up the argument he had in mind about taking away the last piece of Federation armament not being sound. Randall realised it was a point of principle without any greater merit. With a deep breath, he raised his PADD and made the theoretical calibrations. "Impossible to say for certain at this point..." he said, raising an eyebrow at the crude estimate he was making. "It's not like anyone knows the tolerances in those grids at this point, bastardised as they have been by all the new, alien tech... I have an idea about what the tolerance ought to be, and without the primary phaser conduit in the way, grid stability might increase with 2 %... and the freed power might amount to 5 %."

"That is awesome, isn't it?" said Liam, grinning to the redhead, "I can help remove the phaser strips right away I just ne-"

"No, we are not removing the phaser strips on the hull," said Randall, clearing his throat. The youths were getting ahead of themselves again. "This, for the simple reason that we have no hull plating to put there instead. The strips will remain, deactivated, and instead we just bypass the conduit. It will achieve the highly theoretical result in the least amount of time. Liam, round up the deck hands still on the Resolve. It should be easy enough work to get this done on all of the freaks while we wait for this damn quarantine to be over. You however, Liam, will finish what you started on that Valkyrie. You can't just leave the maintenance access wide open like that."

"Oh, of course. I'll join you shortly, Meony," said Liam with a smile to her before returning to K'Ren's Valkyrie. While climbing up, he used his combadge to rally the deck apes and instruct them what to do. He was just finished when he came up next to the cockpit, about to walk across the fighter to the maintenance access when he was startled - seeing K'Ren in the cockpit without her exosuit. He was almost falling off the bird before he caught the edge of the raised canopy. Randall watched the younger man and shook his head, hearing the flat-cheeked maintenance chief apologise to the pilot that he hadn't seen arrive. "Sorry, I... did not expect you to sit there in your... Ahem... Anyway, I will just be back there and... finish up."

Bemused, Randall walked off, wondering how he had ended up approving another modification. Before he knew it, he had suddenly indulged Tancredi again, and the Tribble Squadron was getting another upgrade. Randall gave Tancredi a sour look when she wasn't watching, and the deck hands shuffled their feet and began to work on the Tribble Squadron's shuttles.


[ Drauc T'Laus | USS Resolve | Conference Lounge | Deck 01 ] Attn: All present

The kind of tactics discussed were not of Drauc's preference. Subterfuge. Deceit. Lies. On the battlefield, he could not hold faith to such things, and he believed in a more direct approach. However, some of those things did hold merit given the current terrain, and so he listened, and made his own suggestion. Doctor Parnak's methodology was sound, just short of a viable solution, so his amendment was more bold. Certainly so on his own part, for it was yet another way in which he could prove his merit to the human Captain. If her was to tread the path of the righteous, and ease the guilt in his heart, he would walk the whole mile. Only then could he earn trust, and perhaps... his old rank in the fleet. Better fight than flee. Better act than hide.

"Before our life-signs are detected aboard this starship," he rasped, raising his head and looking at the Efrosian engineer with clenched jaws, "I think a jamming signal must be activated now, well before the shuttle with the false life-signs is launched. Otherwise, our life-signs will be seen in two places at once - be it in Parnak's quarters or here. With an interior jamming signal on the Resolve... the starbase's sensors will not see that you remain aboard. If blame is to be cast on your name, Captain, then it would make sense that you'd order the jamming signal activated, as if you are trying to hide what you've done. Communication will be cut, sensors disrupted, and Parnak gains the time he needs to fill the bio-canisters."

Slowly rising to his feet, Drauc's threadbare cloak settled around his lean frame, and his gaunt face turned towards Kendrick. "A jamming signal will not, however, allow us to remote-control the shuttle from the ship," he said, knowing this because it was a raider-tactic of his. Decoy. Bait. Effective to lure, and to earn any prize. "Therefore, I hereby offer to pilot that shuttle myself, taking those bio-canisters with me. I can also take that datapad, should that be your preference. Either way, I will grant you the time you need to find the true enemy in this conspiracy. I offer this not because I crave to die..."

Not a lie, for he just craved the strife - a break from the idleness. To have his blood stir anew.

"...but because I doubt they will risk open engagement within the closed docking bay of this base. Should they open fire, they know that I - or rather you, Captain - might return fire... and there are many civilians aboard the base. My guess is that their first option would be negotiation lest they would cause a diplomatic incident across all Federation worlds represented among the population. As long as I remain within the docking bay, I will give you the time you need. If the opportunity presents itself, and they open the bay doors for me, I will attempt to put the shuttle on autopilot and send out in the base's weapon envelope. As for how I escape the shuttle... I have a few ideas in mind."

He fell silent on that note, for why should he hand out all his raider tricks? As he stood there after he had volunteered, he read the minds of some of those that had been silent, and he noted which ones that thought it was a splendid idea simply because he was Romulan, and they would be more at ease with him off the ship and on a suicide mission of his own choice. He noted them, but said nothing. Others thought he might use the opportunity to escape the base and the punishment that was due for him, and he noted them as well, but again, he said nothing. Let them think what they wanted, for he had just offered them what they needed to save their own skins. He could respect their opinions, for he knew they might not believe him capable of walking the right path... regardless how short that path might turn out to be.

"The only question that remains," he said to Kendrick, slowly flexing his hard and scarred hands inside the sleeves of his cloak, "is if I were you, would you take the aeroshuttle underneath the saucer of this ship, one of the Type-6 shuttles that I have gleaned in Lieutenant Havenborn's thoughts, or any ordinary craft in the shuttle bay? It is a question of might be plausible and what you are willing to jeopardise in this endeavour... for either of the three crafts would serve this purpose."

Right then, the sliding doors opened and the Captain's yeoman burst in. "Security is on the way towards the docking bay, and they are about to secure the pylon we are at! Also... all the crew still on the base are reporting that they're being followed... they think they might be about to be arrested!"

Drauc's hands became perfectly still. The time to act was now. He looked towards his Captain, hoping that the human would have faith in his fortitude... and that the exobiologist was capable of doing what he'd said.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #164 –
[ Ens K'Ren | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: Triage, Randall/Liam & F'Rell (Free Posting Order)

K'Ren smiled up at her bird's crewchief. She hadn't realized he'd never seen her wearing anything other then her flight suit, so perhaps it was a bit odd from his perspective. She liked to think she cleaned up pretty good out of the suit as the suit well, it was built for function, not style and here she sat, showing off what lay beneath it. "No worries Chief." she replied, a gentle purr rolling off her lips. "I'm off duty and with quarrantine in effect, I didn't know what else to do." She paused, an idea popping into her head. "Would you want some help Liam?" she asked, intentionally using his first name.

Not waiting for a reply, curiosity about what lay beneath the airframe getting the better of her, K'Ren used her agility and climbing experience to slip out of the pilots seat and onto the airframe itself. She plodded along the length of the bird till she found the open hatch Liam was working on. For some reason, despite the nightmares, she was in a flirty mood. Squatting before the open hatch she smiled at Liam. "So what's happening with my birrd?" she asked, genuinely curious.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #165 –
[Captain Tristan Kendrick | Briefing Room | USS Resolve ] Attn: DocReno, Auctor Lucan, and Arista + senior staff of the resolve.

Kendrick was impressed for a moment as all the plotting started to come together. Parnak's plan had merit and with the additions of Drauc, both at the helm of the shuttle and the jamming signals they had a good way of keeping everyone under cover. That said there was one major problem with the plan.

He knew from the moment he had taken him hostage that officer Bradford was going to be a problem. If he was found on the ship he would indicate that other members of the Resolve's team were to blame for the break in and not just the captain and the few escaped members. Then again there was one thing they could do with him.

"Parnak drauc... we are running low on time have the shuttle deployed ASAP.  Drauc take the Aeroshuttle, it's larger and provide more protection."

Honestly he wasn't sure that they wouldn't just blow it up. They would see the fleeing suspects and may try to detain them, or they may blow them up. He had no wish to see Drauc die, but at the same time this was an opportunity.

"All of the security on board the starbase will be focused on our ship, which means there will be lighter crews in less protected areas, if we can silently beam back aboard the starbase then we should have a chance to find out more about the various captains still docked here. One of them has to be our captain of captains, the away teams job will be to find them while security is checking over our ship."

Which of course meant they had to find a way to delay security for as long possible. "Ejek, Havenborn your new job is to stall as much as possible, give Parnak and Drauc enough time to make the plan work, and then keep the majority of security on board. If you have to fake some sort of epidemic do so... Use every trick in the Starfleet manual to make sure that the people who go aboard my ship do not come off my ship."

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #166 –
[Lt. Jg. Suq |USS Resolve| Briefing Room ] Attn: Briefing Room

He stood, listening to the collective planning of the group. Honestly, with two Cardassians and a Romulan in the room, he's not too surprised at how deceitful, how genius the plan was. He would have gladly clapped for the strange doctor with the voice that made Suq sleepy, but time was short. Startlingly short. The interruption in their talk drained Suq of the color in his face and his exhaustion.

But now was not the time to be afraid. Suq continued to hold the PADD with a grip that made his knuckles white. He should be afraid, but the only thing he felt was resolute determination.

"I will keep the PADD. Ejek is right, if this has something that incriminates somebody else on it, maybe it's just best to delete whatever data is on it. Uh...You." He pointed at the other Cardassian who's name he did not know, and would be referred to as You until further notice. "If I beam everyone to your quarters, I need to know where your quarters are. Ejek, just get the info from uh...uh, You" He pointed again at the Cardassian, " "and send it to my PADD. I'm gonna jam some signals. I'll be at the transporters next."

At that, he turned around, and off he went. He started at a brisk walk.

His heart was pounding in his ears. Walking would take such a long time. Maybe if he sprinted, he could make it up. He could probably run the whole ship twice, he felt. When he was fairly sure he wasn't being watched, he began to run.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #167 –
[ Outside the Security Center | Starbase 84 ]

So close. So very close, and that's right when it all went tits-up.

Melissa was mostly just here to do some scouting out, make sure of exactly where the right EPS conduit to blow out was located before enacting her semi-insane plan with Sera. It was an easy enough thing to pass off as regular maintenance; anyone passing by would see the jumpsuit and just figure she was supposed to be examining wiring down here. If they questioned it, she could always just say she'd taken a detour due to engineering being a bit short-handed. The maintenance department needing people to lend a hand wasn't exactly a foreign idea.

But of course it couldn't be that simple. Mel's head was snapping to attention when she heard something about somebody being under arrest; her first instinct was to assume that she'd been somehow found out, and security was here to arrest her. Yet before she could jump to respond in the worst possible way, the engineer found that some guy she almost vaguely recognized but couldn't quite place was aiming a phaser at her... and some other lady. Truth be told, the blonde didn't recognize either of them, but she sure as hell recognized a guy with crazy-eyes leveling a weapon at an innocent women.

Christ, did it have to be today?

He was advancing on the woman, even as a crowd gathered and urged him not to do it. Melissa had of course found herself in the worst possible position, right between the guy and his mark such that he'd have to shove past her if he wanted to grab the poor girl. So, standing between an armed loon and the object of his ire? She'd been in that situation once or twice before Starfleet, but never on a day when she'd been planning to commit grand theft starship, so... it was a new twist on an old experience, at least. That was the only good thing about this situation.

Alright, only one of two things. The good thing for the girl being threatened was that Melissa, while perhaps not heroic, had instincts screaming at her to intervene before she got shot herself. Wincing, the blonde tightened her grip on the small plasma torch she'd been picking up when Commander Nutso had started yelling, and with a small prayer to whichever deity might be listening, lept forward with (she hoped) enough suddenness to catch the guy off guard and knock him off his feet before he could fire at anyone. With any luck, she could at least throw his phaser aim off balance, but... since when had luck necessarily been on her side?

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #168 –
[Ensign A'vura Zeshryr | Briefing Room | Resolve] Attn:  Everyone in the briefing room.

A'vura had been sitting silently up until now. The idea of heading back onto the Starbase, left her feeling a little squeamish to say the least. She was disheveled, still covered in blood and gore, her uniform ripped and her Comm badge missing. Even Ejek had made mention of her state. Looking toward the woman she gave her a grim nod of acknowledgement before speaking, "I was attacked on the Starbase. Part of that.. explosion was something detonating inside of the man and taking his head off while he was..." she cleared her throat and looked away disdainfully a moment before continuing, "...while he was on top of me." If they were planning on any amount of disguise she would be a dead giveaway in her current state. "I... I don't mean to protest Captain, but are we certain that heading back onto the Starbase is our best option? If we're planning on hiding to any degree I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb Sir."

Her comment likely gave pause, drawing attention to her figure. At least Suq had already left the room to activate the jamming signal, but the looks from the rest? To cover her embarrassment, she said something else that stuck out to her because of her familiarity with sensor technology. "Also, if we beam out, it would look like we'd be in two places at once. Both on the Aeroshuttle and on the base. Outside the dampening field, we can't mask our life-signs."

Then at the same time, how were they supposed to expose any traitors on the base?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Ensign Six | Brig | Starbase 84] Attn:  Drana, Lucan, Brutus (and anyone I missed)

It didn't take a brilliant mind to know the man pointing the weapon at herself and the woman in front of her was actually pointing it more so at Six. His gaze in fact was firmly locked on her, but by the confusion in the other woman's eyes it was apparent that she hadn't registered that fact as of yet. It also didn't take a brilliant mind to be able to tell that the man was looking at Six with lethal intent. He had no intention of taking her in quietly. Fortunately for Six, she was a brilliant mind and had deduced the probability of her death rather quickly based on the man's actions, tone of voice, and other slight variances.

 As the rest of the room burst into chaos, Six's calm demeanor kicked into overdrive, her arm immediately rising with phaser in hand. She didn't need to check it, she had already done so in the hall, the phaser set to stun previously. Then it seemed as if everything around her got quiet, her focus pinpointed on Clark's obviously eager face, the room and it's turbulence slowing to a motion that would denote someone of a much faster ability. Within the span of a sharp breath in, she fired her phaser. Yet before the beam hit its mark, the woman in the yellow jumpsuit had decided to try and aid Six with a plasma-torch. People were screaming, and the security guard had tried to intercept the woman. The plasma-torch in the woman's hand got activated, and the bright light from the muzzle blended into the beam from Six's phaser. When the combined light vanished, the two-fold assault had a singular outcome. In that same span of a breath, Clark 's features changed into something akin to bewilderment, then emptiness, his body crumpling to the floor in a heap.

Immediately Six knew what had just happened, and cursing under her breath she waved the woman to herself, her voice overriding the audible fear that had risen in the area. This action would not bode well for either of them now. "I'll beam us out. Come with me, or die here." She made her way to computer console, and with her last step, her index finger extended to a port in the ship's computer, and a thin wire-like implant wormed from the fingertip and into the port, making quick work of the lockout that had been placed in order to transport them from the room they were in, and into the closest vicinity of the Resolve's Captain.

Her partially digital mind deduced that if she was being framed, then she would not be alone - the evidence having caused this reaction. Captain Kendrick could help her get to the bottom of it, now that she knew he was also a target of the Starbase and her crew. She was going to get to the bottom of this, and she was going to make sure that any innocent party was redeemed for these accusations. In another set of heartbeats, the realization settling, Six and the woman that had been caught in the mess were both beamed from the reception desk of the lobby, and into the briefing room of the Resolve - where the base's sensors told her the Captain would be.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Ensign Six and Ensign A'vura Zeshryr | Briefing Room | Resolve] Attn:  Everyone in the briefing room!

Before A'vura could get out much more on the matter, two women suddenly materialized in the corner of the room, not far from the door and where everyone stood. Her eyes widened as she noted that one of those women held a phaser in her hand, and was now pointing it directly at the Captain. Taking out her own phaser she lifted and aimed at the borg just as it made its way toward him. Starting to speak she was cut off, the borg curt and to the point.

"I believe I have something you may wish to hear Captain Kendrick. It seems as if we're both in the middle of the same issue here, and I believe I have something that might clear both of our names. A transmission was sent by a rank of Captain or higher on the Starbase within close proximity to the detonation at the top of the base. This transmission I feel certain is an integral part of what is now happening here with us, and is a direct result of our being targeted as... what's the term you humans use? Patties?" Moving away a bit she used her implant once more to leech into the ship's computer and uploaded a copy of the transmission, and all of her findings on the autopsy for them to look over. She then brought up the transmission specifically, the computer chiming as it had before, "Level 10 clearance required."

"I believe this will help us all if you would only clear it for us to hear who sent that detonation transmission."

It seemed as those A'vura's silent question had been answered. Apparently this... woman... had key components to exposing the true traitors on this Starbase. Having been highly present when the said detonation went off, A'vura remembered how the Romulan had been talking to someone, but that did not make her lower her phaser as she pointed it at the borg. At the same time, she kept the other woman in the jumpsuit within her peripheral vision - not knowing what kind of threat she might present. Softly, low, and only to her Captain, A'vura spoke the truth of what she knew, "When the Romulan attacked me, he stopped to talk to... someone... I don't know... but there was definitely a transmission I could not hear. Perhaps there is some truth to what this... borg says?"
"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 #169 –
[LT Keval ch'Rayya/ Briefing Room/ USS Resolve]

Keval's question was still unanswered as the ship's Chief of Tactical and Security lapsed back into the quiet silence that he got when he was trying to solve a problem but he was still aware of the conversation that was going on around him.

When the cute Borg (the term "cute" was subjective because of the fact of most borg being fuglier then sin) appeared in the briefing room combined with the information that was also presented that A'vura had heard a Romulan bomber talking to himself prior to the explosion and the arrival of the security forces and their efforts made him furrow his brow.

"Focus all efforts on getting an anti beaming field up at once." Keval said as he turned to the captain. "I don't have all of the information that I need to give you a full theory yet, Kendrick, but what I am seeing isn't a good thing."

The Chan stood up and placed his hands onto the table, "If they are already heading this way then we can only assume that they had to step up what ever they were going to do when one of our people was found near the explosion site," the pale blue skinned andorian stated as he turned his gaze onto the borg "And that's patsie..but you get a cookie for the effort provided we survive this mind you..but what do you have to add to my equation before we just allow you to willy nilly add stuff to our database?"

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #170 –
[ Liam Herrold | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: SummerDawn, Triage & Absinthe

When Neko, as she was called among the pilots, offered to help him, Liam was not entirely sure what to say. It didn't seem like he had to say much at all, since the girl with Caitian blood bounced up from her seat and followed him in no time at all. Liam was used to walk the slick and treacherous surface of the warp fighter's hull, but it seemed K'Ren had no difficulty following him. He had paused in his path towards the maintenance access panels in front of the twain warp coil tails of the fighter, and for sake of covering up the way he looked at her while she moved, he raised a cautioning hand. "All right, j-just watch your step so that you won't fall."

Perhaps a needless comment, since cats had a tendency to land on their feet, but he covered it up with his usual friendly smile. He turned back to the starboard panel which he had left open when he got down to talk to Randall and Tancredi. The opening was almost two meters long and more than half that wide, with hidden hand-rails below the edge to aide in climbing down in to the 'engine-pit', as he liked to call it. He got down there, where there wasn't that much room but where he could still stand and turn around to access the different propulsion systems in the fighter. Down there, however, he realised he was kind of trapped by the pilot - who was right above him as he worked. A quick glance upwards informed him about the fact of the view he got of her from that angle, and he cleared his throat in attempt to act like he didn't notice anything of the sort. That voice of hers certainly did not help either. Not at all. The engine pit suddenly felt quite warm, despite how it hadn't been powered up since the last patrol in Romulan space.

"Oh, I am just making sure she is all right," he said, trying to sound idle about it... betrayed by another glance towards her. The look lingered too long, he thought, before he cleared his throat and turned to calibrate the impulse engine output feeds. "I ran a Level 2 diagnostic just earlier and I'm just checking the curves... to see if they match the result, I mean. Sometimes its not enough to trust the scans, having to get your hands dirty and making sure she purrs the way she is supposed to when you turn her on."

He continued working, as best as he might, trying to not be too distracted by the pilot above him. At least the deck team was working on the Tribble Squadron, so his slight... predicament was not likely spotted by anyone save for Neko. He thought it odd that she had such a sudden interest in him, and he couldn't understand what she wanted yet - making him less at ease.

OOC: Waiting to post with Drauc until Julia, Arista and Kaligos has posted in the Briefing Room. :)

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #171 –
[ ENS K'Ren | USS Resolve | Fighter Assault Bay ] Attn: AuctorLucan, Triage & Absinthe

Following Liam up onto the airframe had been easy enough, her reflexes made balancing on the surface of the airframe easy enough. The hull was a little slippery from the special coatings designed to reduce atmospheric drag, something most modern fighter designs were equipped for, even if most combat happened in space it seemed. She took the chance to look over the bird, seeing her craft from an angle she almost never bothered to look at it from. But today the object of her attention was the crew chief and she followed him, noting where he walked along her hull.

Half squatting, half sitting at the entrance to the engine pit, giving Liam a good view of what was normally obscured by her flight suit, K'Ren looked down into the cavity inside her fighter where Liam was working. She'd noticed his glances, sensing his unease even as his eyes lingered on her body. She wondered if he was interested in her, and she wondered if Liam might be the one she let break her dry spell? "Is she alrright?" K'Ren finally asked, putting on a little bit of a sultry tone, "Her currves I mean? Orr do you need a little morre hands on diagnostics? Make surre she's purring?"

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #172 –
[Sera vers Aldnoah | Lab 17 | Starbase 84]

As Sera arrived at the lab she looked toward Hi'Jak she didn't have much time to get off the station. She didn't know how much of a fuss Melissa's distraction would cause or when it was exactly going to happen. She looked around the lab for a moment trying to find the rucksack she'd dragged into this place to display her findings to that moron of a science officer stationed here. It was a pity the man himself wasn't here she'd have loved to give him a good hit in the face with the bag. But unfortunately he was absent. "Well it was nice knowing you Hi'ja-" She was cut off as the door to the lab slid open revealing the very subject of her ire. Her fist clenched unconsciously now that she was looking at him she couldn't help but wish now that she could have slipped away without him noticing.

But as he entered pointing out Hi'Jak like he were some grand military commander of old she froze as his finger drifted towards her. Before he added that the two security officer that followed behind him should take her as well. She could feel her heartbeat quicken she could feel an entire myriad of things at the moment anger, fear, shock. Her fist tightened even more she could feel her anger overcoming her entire thought processes her yellow eyes narrowing at the man pointing at her. She could almost feel her blood boiling in her veins as she stared past the two security officers approaching her and Hi'Jak. Finally things in her life appeared to be taking a better turn and this son of a bitch had shown up and decided to turn everything upside down.

No that wasn't going to happen again. As the security officers approached Sera mouthed two words at the balding science officer "Your Dead." As the first security officer approached her she quickly swung the heavy bag of artifacts at the man's head letting it go before quickly sweeping past him to move behind his back one arm moving to wrap around his neck and the other moving up to lock the arm in place applying pressure cutting off his air supply before forcing the man's body between herself and the other security officer heading toward's Hi'Jak.

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #173 –
[Lt Hi'Jak| going back to the science labs| Starbase 84] Attn: Auctor, & Roaria

Hi'Jak was confused for a long moment. Why was Simon in his lab? Why was there a security team about to arrest him? His mind was like a computer at that moment struggling to update as the world around him seemed to fold in on it's self with one big revelation. The bomb had used a Starfleet signal, something only a captain could access. A moment ago he had sent off that evidence to the chief of security and the captain of the Starbase...

Now he was being arrested. Six had said that this investigation wasn't following proper proceedures. He wasn't just being cut out, he was a loose end, and he had read enough novels, to know that meant he would either rot in a prison for some crime he hadn't committed or he would be killed off. This just like an old noir... and he was the detective who in the third act was set up to take the fall.

When the men were ready to draw the phazer on him some part of Hi'Jak was ready to accept his fate, until Sera  went ninja on one of their asses. Hi'Jak bolted forward towards the other guard. He ducked under the man giving him as small a target as possible while putting his arms up. He had run so many different boxing programs over the years, having taken to the sport as a way to channel that klingon rage, and now he was ready to unleash it on a regular human. His first punch landed hard in the mans sternum, and the follow up was his left, a powerful hook that slammed into the mans jaw, all those muscles augmented with his half breed strength. Slamming into the guard hard enough that he heard something physically crack, and he wasn't sure if it was the guys jaw, or his neck, either way he slumped and wasn't going to get up a second time.

Jack stood angry, His glare turning towards Simon. Sera may have said the man was dead, but that wasn't her kill. He walked over the guard he had dropped and grabbed Simon lifting him and slamming him against the wall with one hand. His other one picked up his com badge off his shirt. "Thanks boss, I'm gonna need this along with your clearance codes, hand them over."

Jack's skin burned for a moment. It felt good to hit something once and a while. Normally he only felt like this when he was working on something that truly captured his attention. That klingon side of him that he usually ignored was right now begging him to break the man in half, but without something that could unlock doors the two of them wouldn't be getting far. "You are disgusting to me by the way, always have been, my biggest regret in coming to this piece of crap station, has been working under your pathetic ass, holding this lab together and letting it fall apart has been a joy because of every time you passed me over for someone with less experience it meant I got to continue making your life a living hell."

He turned to Sera, "Could you do me a favor and grab the PADD's on my desk,  they are kind of my life's work and I don't want to leave them behind."

Re: Chapter 01: Tensions Rising

Reply #174 –
[ Lt. JG. Zelosa Ejek & Dr. Silim Parnak | Briefing Room | USS Resolve ] Attn: Everyone in the briefing room

Quote from: Auctor Lucan on
"The only question that remains," he (Drauc T'Laus) said to Kendrick, slowly flexing his hard and scarred hands inside the sleeves of his cloak, "is if I were you, would you take the aeroshuttle underneath the saucer of this ship, one of the Type-6 shuttles that I have gleaned in Lieutenant Havenborn's thoughts, or any ordinary craft in the shuttle bay? It is a question of might be plausible and what you are willing to jeopardise in this endeavour... for either of the three crafts would serve this purpose."

Surprise. Outrage. The question how on Cardassia anyone could think it a good idea to bring a mind-reading stranger to their staff-meeting was the last that Counsellor Ejek's mind formulated in Standard. She didn't know if it would do her any good, but making a conscious effort to think in Cardassian from now on was the extent of actions she could take to prevent her mind from being read. As long as she was around the Romulan, the Universal Translator on board would translate her spoken language for her.

It seemed, though, that she didn't need a translator at all to face her next conversational partner. What the fuck, Suq?! Watching him leave, Ejek asked herself whether she had to thank him for making her day essentially better, or essentially worse. She'd bet her life on him trying to play match-maker, here. And it might turn out to be just the pretence she needed to approach the other Cardassian.

As Ejek made her way over to Parnak, Silim used the opportunity to eye her again. She was young, but not as young as that foolish child's haircut made her look. He couldn't help but wonder what had happened for her to befall such a fate. Stuck on a Starfleet ship many miles away from home. Standing, he extended a hand with a warm smile.

"I don't think we've had the chance to properly introduce ourselves. Dr Silim Parnak, Exobiologist and Chair at the University of Culat." When she was close, he breathed her in. She had a subtle yet slightly sweet smell with perhaps a dash of... how best to describe it... spice? Something was giving her just a hint of an earthy musk.

"Counsellor Ejek," the female Cardassian said with a composed smile. Shaking his hand she added, as an afterthought: "Zelosa Ejek." It seemed rude to not return the courtesy of a full name, even though she had grown quite accustom to not using her first name any longer. As she continued, she spoke in their mothertongue: "Apologises for my colleague. I assure you he is a better engineer than communicator. Hopefully you are not too averse to the idea of sharing the location of your living space with me."

Silim smirked, looking back toward Drauc and, before he continued, he thought back to his training. Like most middle and upper class children on Cardassia, he had been taken to extra curricular mental training classes. He could remember the lessons in that dark, humid classroom. He remembered the teacher, a stern shrill woman called Pakor with bad breath and greying hair. Every one of her lessons, alongside everything else he had experienced, was etched into his eidetic memory. As she had explained many times, though the training techniques against telepathy were effective against touch telepathy, the data about its uses against other telepathic and empathic abilities was inconsistent. Silim activated the technique anyway. It was better to be safe than sorry, or as Pakor used to repeat, it's better to be a Legate than to be a Gorr. He also followed Ejek's example and started to speak in native Cardassian. 

"My quarters are based on Habitat level 17, section 35. Perhaps after this all blows over we can get some..." The beam-in interrupted sharply. Ejek jerked at the sight of the Borg with the phaser. She let out a muffled scream and already meant to dive under the meeting table for cover when she realised the attacker had only eyes for Captain Kendrick. So she stayed standing, but on weak knees, supporting herself at the tabletop.

How embarrassing! She had lost her cool, and in front of the first one of her kind she met in seven years.
Outrage waved up in her once more as she followed the Borg with her eyes, trying not to lose sight of the other woman, either. How dared they confront her with her fears and triggers when she needed her focus so desperately? She had no time for a breakdown! - Oh great, add mental pressure. That will help, Ejek. That will help.

Being surprised by an armed opponent was just the kind of introduction she couldn't stand. It was bad enough on its own, but the battle of Cardassia had taken its toll on Ejek. In defiance of any attempt to keep her mind off the radar, she was temporarily unable to save Drauc T'Laus from stray impressions of great fear and danger, distant - yet by far too close! - screams of Cardassians, phaser shots, the upper left wall panel of a corridor in the basement of the former Cardassian Bureau of Information...
Stop, Ejek demanded of herself. Focus!
She was a proud Cardassian. She had mental control. She knew how to focus her thoughts, she just had to do it! Damn it! She wanted out of this room. Just out. Right now.

But she couldn't leave. She had a task to fulfil. Many, actually. Ejek inhaled and exhaled deeply. Focus!

Silim arched an eye ridge towards his follow Cardassian. She seemed to be struggling with the sudden appearance from the two new crewmembers. Was she emotionally unstable? Perhaps this was why she was out here? Or just maybe, she was suffering from some awful memory. Parnak felt a need in his heart to save this poor woman. He could be one of those heroes from the old epics. His hand moved into one of his pockets and he thumbed against one of the multiple tools within.

While most were innocuous scanning and lab equipment, hidden amongst them were the remains of Parnak's old service issue disruptor. Like most retired personnel, he did not hand back in the device before his discharge, instead keeping it as a memento. It was dismantled, so he could bring it across immigration lines and so far it had been undetected, but he could probably get it back together in a few seconds. He'd have to use the power cell from other of his scanners. It was a risky move, but possible. He looked to Ejek, concerned for her well being, but also trying to calculate how he could save the girl, kill the intruders and get away unscathed. "I think you might want to sit down? He suggested indicating her obvious reliance on the furniture.

Bristling at his offer, Ejek let go of the table. She crossed her arms and turned away from Parnak to face the other Starfleet officers. The anger that flared up in her gave her the emotional distraction and drive she needed to return her focus to the situation at hand.

"I think this is a splendid time for red alert," Ejek suggested drily. Anyone? Hello? It would set the shields and weapons to full power, too, and thus prevent beaming.

They were running out of options. And time. Ejek could only agree with Lieutenant ch'Rayya's assessment: she lacked the necessary information for a sufficient theory, too, and was wary about having a stranger from the base add anything to their ship's systems. Last time had not turned out too well for Petty Officer Sanford, or her crew.

"We don't have a database, as of now." Ejek pointed out in response to Lieutenant ch'Rayya. She was talking about the memory setback, of course. "But I intend to change that. Ensign Zeshryr. I want you to have a check-up in sickbay. Anyone who can blow someone up from inside has certainly had the chance to implant a fatal virus in them or anything of that sort. I also want a digital sample of your attackers' DNA, and a thorough analysis of anything that can be found on you and might help. Then," she disclosed. "You may shower. Please." If there was still time.

As Ejek promoted the finer points of personal hygiene, Silim took interest in the data placed up on screen from the Borg newcomer. Specifically the autopsy report, after all, it's not everyday that you get to look inside a Romulan. The most disappointing part was that the cranium had been completely destroyed in the explosion, meaning Parnak couldn't find out if Romulans really did have enlarged lateral ventricles and a smaller cerebral cortex, a possible reason for their constant paranoia. Nevermind, he consoled himself, if it was such a big deal he could always try to find the answer in that which was coating the Orion. Or inside Drauc.

While the Borg tempted Kendrick in what was the oddest version of Deus Ex Machina that Silim had seen since watching 'Thesmophoriazusae', he mainly felt relieved to get the situation resolved. It was fun with the traitors and exploding spies, but it would also be nice to save the day with his brilliant Kendrick Soup plan. Most people within the conference lounge seemed distracted meaning Silim ended up looking around in exasperation. Could someone PLEASE show me to the laboratory?...
 
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