Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03

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Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

January 08, 2018, 05:35:15 PM

CHAPTER 01: PROTECTORS OF TRUTH [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Captain's Log, stardate 57549.21. The Sabine has yet to return, and none of our hails have reached the away team.

They were sent to an old and abandoned Dilithium mining outpost that used to belong to the Klingon Empire. On the promise made by a scavenger that came aboard from Starbase 84, this Coreless Moon they set a course for could have been the answer to repairing Thea's defunct warp drive. With those crystals aboard, we could be ready to go to maximum warp, yet as it is, the dilithium crystals on the three vectors sustained hairline fractures when we escaped Starbase 84. While we managed to get to safety in thanks to the T'fanrell named F'Rell, and Vector 2's starboard nacelle has been repaired enough for testing, we are unable to leave the Azure Nebula. Currently, none of Thea's vectors can go higher than Warp 3 without risking that our current crystals shatter by the stress.

All we currently know is that a woman of the Klingon Empire hailed me personally from the IKS Hakkarl, and before she terminated the transmission, she said she would do what she could to spare the away team. I have no cause to believe that she was successful, or if there was even the slightest intention of hers to do so, and the doubt about their survival grows for me by the hour.

Furthermore, in the wake of the Devoted, the outbreak of Virus 117 and the difficulties of integrating the new crew, the Omega Directive was activated this day - a matter which I cannot detail further in this log. Sufficed to say, I should not be surprised by anything aboard this cursed ship and its mission. Not after all we have been through.

On a personal note, I made the mistake of....

Thea... pause log.

- Captain Jien Ives, USS Theurgy NX-79854

[ Captain Ives | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

After the Yellow Alert was sounded and she had paused her log, Captain Ives left her Ready Room and stepped unto the bridge. She made eye-contact with Natalie Stark, who'd had the conn by the time the Yellow Alert had been sounded. Jien already saw the reason for the alert being sounded, however, since it was quite plain on the viewscreen whom had found them. "Thank you, Lieutenant Commander."

While Stark returned to her Ops station - relieving Junior Lieutenant Nator - Jien's oaken eye took in who were present, seeing the bridge crew either being present already or taking their positions as they entered through the sliding doors. Next to Stark sat Junior Lieutenant Veradin, their new helmsman from the Resolve. Both Carrigan Trent and Cameron Henshaw were soon ready at Mission Ops, either of them no doubt ordering all Lone Wolves to prepare for deployment with their ear-pieces. Leon Marquez was at Tactical, with Arisaka and Yukimura seated behind him. Suq-Reylin-Efreya Xan - the Assistant Chief Engineer - was at the Engineering station, with O'Riley and Song seated behind him. Chief O'Connell was, of course, in Main Engineering, and the present engineers were his voice on the bridge, as he preferred it when the ship was in Multi-Vector Assault Mode.

At the front of the bridge, on the starboard side of the wide viewscreen, were the ranking Science Officers aboard in the form of Lieutenant Commander Martin and Lieutenant Tovarek. Sarresh Morali was likely in his lab, but Jien did know that their lookout - Stellar Cartographer ch'Xinya - was calibrating new sensors. She had yet to receive a report about him being finished. On the port side of the viewscreen was another Andorian man in the form of Lieutenant ch'Rayya, and seated next to him was Warrant Officer Ravenholm - a former civilian of many rare talents, but in present capacity handling encryption and having an affinity with Thea's functions after Lin Kae was put into stasis.

Thea - who also entered the bridge at that point - came to stand behind Jien's left shoulder and folded her hands behind her back. She was wearing her black chameleon body suit. "For your information, I detected phaser fire in Main Sickbay on Vector 2 a couple of minutes ago, but Security was informed, and the issue was handled on-site. No report on number of casualties yet. One of the Devoted, Captain."

Staring at the viewscreen, Jien didn't acknowledge Thea beyond a quiet nod - her eyes locked on their visitors even if the news were dire. The Devoted had been a big issue over the course of the past couple of days, but since it was only eighteen hours ago Jien and Trent spoke with their new visitors - this proud lot that had managed to find them among the densest pockets of sirillium gas in the zure Nebula - she found that she had to give them credit of being the most surprising lot. She had gravely underestimated their abilities to track down their prey in present nebula conditions.

On the screen were seven Overseer saucers, belonging to the Asurians. This people that had lent them almost the entirety of their defences in support during the battle at Starbase 84, only to have lost virtually all them in Thea's protection. The diplomatic incident with this new faction in the Alpha Quadrant had not been resolved, and the Asurian Queen had given leave to those of her people who desired vengeance for the loss of loved ones.

"Incoming hail from two of the Asurian ships, Captain," said Natalie Stark.

Remembering the agreement made with the Queen, Jien chose not to answer just yet. She had some orders to deal out first. "Bridge to Petty Officer Dyan Cardamone," she said, suspecting she would be in the Security Checkpoint just outside, "would you kindly inform Commander Wenn that some of your people have found us, and then you can step inside here. I am sure you might want to talk to them too."

Then she turned her head towards Suq, knowing from the day before how exposed some of her crew were out there. "Mister Xan, order all shuttles out there to return to their bays post-haste. Whatever repairs are underway right not must continue later, or they might be caught as easy prey if our new guests decide to open fire. Lieutenant Commander Martin, that goes for Irna'Shall ch'Xinya too. If he is out there, he and his team must return to the closest airlock. I am certain the new sensors can wait a little longer."

The fact was that the seven saucers, while armed with advanced weaponry, were still tactically inferior to the three Vectors that floated before them. With a squadron of Lone Wolves at the ready too, the Asurians that had found them would not survive an open engagement. Jien could but hope they knew this, and wouldn't sacrifice themselves in the name of vengeance. As slim as the chances were, judging from experience in dealing with them, she hoped for a better outcome.

"Split the screen between them," she said to Stark, leaning back in her chair.

OOC: Introduce your characters in this new Episode! If needed, reach out to me and let me know if you want me to tell you some ideas I have for the placement of your characters aboard the ship or on the repair shuttles. Separate threads will be posted for the Sabine and the Fighter Assault Bay as soon as possible.

Lastly, the Main Bridge, for sake of reference:

>> Click for Full Resolution

Main Bridge Staff:
Commanding Officer: Captain Ives
Mission Ops: Carrigan Trent & Cameron Henshaw
Tactical: Leon Marquez, Jonas Arisaka & Yukimura
CONN: Derik Veradin
Operations: Natalie Stark & Nator 159 in Support Staff area
Science: Vivian Martin & Simon Tovarek
Engineering: Suq, O'Riley & Morgan Song
Int. & Communications: ch'Rayya & Ravenholm

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #1 – January 09, 2018, 04:24:48 AM

[ Lt. Jg. Suq Reylin Efreya-Xan | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
Thea was there. Thea was there, Thea was there, Thea was there...

His hands had been shaky off and on all day that day. He hadn't slept at all last night, his body ached for sleep. He was past running on fumes by now, he had no clue what he was running on by now. Miracles, maybe.

Focus, focus, Ejek's calming tools. He focused on his body, skin warmer than anybody else's right now, hands resting on his lap as they quivered. The seat he was on was remarkably comfortable, compared to some ships he'd been on. It even adjusted so he could see the console. No more carrying around a cushion for the seat. He felt not eyes, but sensors boring into his skull. Thea knew what he was doing. Thea could see him. Thea could monitor his heart, his blood, his brain--

He hiccuped quietly. Sinead was here. He'd be safe. Now was the time to focus. The captain was here, next to Thea. A situation on Vector two—no structural damage to Thea. At the mention of an incoming hail, he lifted his head. He hadn't heard the name Asurians before...

“Oh damn.” He mumbled to himself. “If I could just get a piece of that...” His talent on the Resolve involved a lot of analyzing the chemical structure of and replicating foreign metals to suit the ship's needs. He probably didn't need to collect from the Asurians, but three years of hoarding scrap metal from ships embedded in him a keen urge to collect more, just in case.

He heard his orders and cleared his throat. He had to pause a moment to collect his thoughts before he spoke. Thea was less dominant in his head when he thought about scrapping, he felt like he could find his tough guy voice again.
“All shuttles, this is Assistant Chief Engineer Efreya-Xan, ordering you to cease repair work immediately and return to your docking bays.” Well, maybe it wasn't as confident as he used to be. How could he be? Thea was listening.

His eyes checked back on Sinead first, making sure she was still near. He'd probably panic if she wasn't, maybe. Then he checked on Morgan. An attractive dude, but Suq stared at him with eyes of a man who's Seen Some Shit and is expecting more. He definitely didn't feel sexy, not right now. When he confirmed they were still here, he could watch the shuttles return to their bays, listening to thoughts so loud that he knew she could hear. Thea is here, Thea is here....

[ P.O. Dyan Neleo, Sar-Unga Neleo | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Dyan Cardamone, or Sar-unga Neleo. She had not been grappling with this unpleasant choice until just a few moments ago, and she wished she didn't have to. It feels like an absolute. Damn whoever scheduled her to be here right now. She tapped her badge,
“Commander, it's Cardamone. Feel like meeting some more Asurians? Because they feel like meeting us.” Her clenched teeth were audible. Without much more of a delay, she stepped onto the bridge, grimace made plain on her face.

She surveyed the bridge crew. Looks like the Captain was a lady for now, and Thea was hanging out too. She saw Trent, and when she did she actually felt pretty bad about how much she had hated him earlier. He's just there doing his job. Is that an actual child in the engineering chair, swinging his stubby little legs around surrounded by some random lady and a total hunk? There was Derik. Some Tacticals she's not met and not interested in meeting. Their new chief of science was here she was...pretty. Too pretty. Dyan tried to quell her jealous. Ravenholm, pretty badass, she liked her being here.
Overall, a good set of people, or at least the ones she knew were. The rest, well, she could take them down. The 'Solvies could either assimilate or leave, and she would gladly assist them out the nearest airlock.

Having decided the bridge was a safe place to be, she focused her eyes on the viewscreen. All the saucers looked the same to her, she had no clue who was in there. A small part of her hoped that it'd be her father again, her brothers, even if she knew it wouldn't happen.

But the whole thing came back to the same decision. Should she stay and be Dyan Cardamone, or go, and return to being Sar-unga Neleo? Did she have a life to lead back there? Did she have anything in common with the people here?

Now what?

OOC: I'll fix the colors as needed. I don't actually remember which color is which...

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #2 – January 09, 2018, 09:43:51 PM

[ Sinead O'Riley | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @FollowTomorrow
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Sinead O'Riley pursed her lips as she studied the reports from the various screens in front of her, at the station she had been assigned to. Allowing herself a moment of distraction, she turned to regard Morgan Song thoughtfully. They'd only met yesterday, but she considered him a reliable man, if a little shy or even jumpy around her. Then again, her tactless honesty and forwardness tended to do that to most people she met. Returning to the monitors, she keyed up some commands for specific information, and frowned at the new reports that came up. This ship had been through considerable damages, with internal repairs conducted to maintain it, but in truth, Thea needed to be brought into a Starbase for extensive repairs.

That wasn't going to happen, obviously.

She wasn't sure if being on the bridge was the best place for her to be, as she believed in a hands-on approach, but Sinead would do her duty as ordered. Besides, she was with Suq, and she thought it would be best to stay close to the Efrosian, after what he'd been through no more than a day gone. When he spoke, she looked at him, then at the screen, where the Asurian vessels were hovering. She did not recall anything concerning Asurians, and was at a loss as to what they were or were capable of. Her eyes lit up with eager curiosity when the captain called for one Dyan Cardamone, who was apparently an Asurian by her guess, and she saw the woman enter soon. She realized quickly that the Asurian was dangerous. The subtle way in which she sized everyone up and seemingly assessed their threat levels. She could safely guess that this was what she was doing, because it was what Sinead did too when she entered any room that had other people in it.

She decided to keep a watchful eye on this Dyan Cardamone from now on. She was certain the Asurian would be doing the same thing in return.

She gave Suq a small smile when he turned to look at her again, as if checking to make sure she was nearby. As if she'd be all that far away from him. When his eyes were still on her, she reached out and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. She wasn't normally the one to offer warmth and support like that, but for Suq, she would make an exception. She then turned her attention back to her station, and read aloud the reports of the shuttles as they came in, corroborating whatever Suq could see, and so that Morgan would be aware, “Worker Bee two 's in. Worker Bee one...”

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #3 – January 10, 2018, 11:06:32 AM

[ Ens Cameron Henshaw | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

The tea she had produced out of a replicator nearby the Bridge had still been oozing it's essence from the bag as the yellow alert sounded. Cameron's eyes looked up at the viewscreen as a cold clench made itself master in her abdomen. She scurried over to her station, trying to not spill any hot liquid of the beverage she was holding before she arrived at mission ops. She plugged in her ear piece and pressed the button to alert the fighter complement to go into a ready to launch mode.

"Lieutenant Commander Ravon, can you hear me?" she asked as she saw Trent looming up behind her. She gave him a faint smile as she looked more presentable to the first officer than the last time they'd met. With a short nod she greeted him as Ravon remained silent to the ensign for now. She sighed softly as she figured this was probably his first rodeo as an SCO, giving the man some time to adjust to his new position.

In the meantime the captain arrived and Cameron kept her eyes trained on her as she appeared on the bridge and thanked Stark for the alert. She wondered how the captain would handle the situation. Last she heard, the situation with the Asurians was more than just volatile. Anything could literally spark and explode this powder keg... Not to mention the literal powder keg called Azure nebula.

"Wolf Zero-one to mission ops, we're ready to go on your signal."

Cameron nodded before acknowledging "Confirmed wolf zero-one. Stand by for further orders." she said calmly into the earpiece before she told Trent "Fighters are ready to launch sir." She opted to give this information to the first officer instead of the captain. She seemed to be buried deep in thoughts, thus she saw it fit to not disturb her with the rather official yet expected call out.

[ Lt Simon Tovarek | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Tovarek was idly glancing at his console on the bridge as the alert brought him out of his train of thoughts. He looked around to see who else was present as he had completely zoned out. His eyes registered the new faces and the old faces. Eventually his eyes came to rest on the Ops officer. For some reason, Tovarek saw Stark in a different light after his 'demotion'. He couldn't quite well explain it which bothered him.

Since the breakfast they had shared he seemed to have a certain want to see her more often. That didn't necessarily mean that he needed to talk to her or anything, just acknowledging that she was there and taking in her feminine forms was enough for the science officer to smile faintly and nod at her when they made eye contact for the first time. After that, he focused back on his job and hoped that Martin wouldn't have caught on to his lingering gaze.

He scrolled through some screens before he looked back at his CSO "Anything specific you'd like me to do ma'am?" he asked her before he looked at the captain and back to Martin.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #4 – January 10, 2018, 10:41:37 PM

[ PO1 Morgan Song | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | USS Theurgy ]
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Morgan had known Efrosians were short, but this one had to be setting a new record. The new assistant chief of engineering was sitting near him at the primary engineering station, along with Sinead, who he had known since yesterday. Something seemed to really be setting the new assistant chief on edge, but what it was Morgan had no way of knowing. As the reports of the worker bees filed in, he looked to his left at Sinead, and wondered what would have happened if the turbolift had not malfunctioned the other day. But no matter that, for now there was the matter of these "Asurians", and someone named Dyan Cardamone was supposed to enter the bridge in response to them. Based on their saucer-like craft, Morgan expected Dyan to look like a grey, clammy alien with an enlarged head and inscrutable eyes, but was pleasantly surprised when he saw that she was an exotically beautiful specimen instead. While she seemed to be much shorter than Morgan, the tail and white hair and horns were certainly not something he expected to see. But, he reasoned to himself, he shouldn't be thinking about that now, especially not with Sinead so near.

Morgan turned gave a nod to Suq. "Worker bees three, four, and six are docked." He reported, and then turned back to his console. “Worker bee five, what is your status?” He commed into the console.

[ Lt.Com. Vivian Martin | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | USS Theurgy ]
[Show/Hide]

These mysterious Asurians seemed to be the same people who attacked the opposing forces during the battle at Starbase 84, and if Dyan Cardamone was anything to go by then they were impressive physical specimens to boot. Dyan was a pretty one, and while Martin didn't care to admit it, she thought of the possibilities regarding Dyan's more exotic traits. Martin blinked a couple of times, clearing her head, before she turned to her console. "Aye sir," She said, and raised Shall on the comm. "Mister ch'Xinya, please return yourself and your teams to the closest airlocks immediately." Then, turned towards Tovarek "Coordinate with ch'Xinya to make sure that he makes it safely inside." Martin said to him.

Martin looked around the bridge. There were some faces she recognized and some she didn't. Suq was there, as well as Sinead and Keval and Leon and Derik. But then there were others who she didn't recognize. She wondered whether or not the Theurgy's crew would accept them as they were, but so far it has been so good. Sans her being attacked the day before, she felt fairly confident about her integration into the crew. Granted it wasn't without surprises, Thea was a thing, and the captain was some kind of... shapeshifter she had never seen before. But so far it seemed to be going well.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #5 – January 11, 2018, 02:35:55 AM

[ Cmdr Carrigan Trent | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

It was a quiet enough watch for the time being. And with Stark in the center seat, Trent was catching on his own obligations in his office, keeping an eye on what was happening on the Bridge while pondering what simulation he would throw That is, until security alarms sounded about weapons fire in Sickbay. And just as that was being passed on, even as he walked onto the Bridge himself shortly after the Captain, a group of Asurian ships let their presence be known. How did they find us here, thought the XO as he considered their arrival. Of course, the Queen had given them leave to hunt Theurgy if they were so inclined, but they had been careful with their communications protocols; which meant they had amazing packet-hunting capabilities to trace them so deep in a nebula that rendered sensors useless...

Making his way to Mission Ops, he received the report from Henshaw that the fighters were already prepared for immediate launch, and he offered her a nod in acknowledgement. "Very well, Miss Henshaw," he simply replied as he retrieved his own headset and connected it to the ship's communications system.

"Tactical, XO," he started. "Don't bother with EW; you are weapons tight, use of phasers is not authorized. Point-defence with mass-drivers only, and do not arm torpedo warheads at this time, reconfigure for strictly kinetic strikes." To say directed energy weapons and the Azure Nebula were a dangerous mix was much of an understatement. Which heavily limited Theurgy's tactical options. And even worse was the radiation.

The deflectors were not sufficient to keep it at bay, but a reconfiguration of the shield harmonics was sufficient to create a bubble of safety that would prevent rapid degradation of the crew and the ship herself. But on the bright side, it was a relatively low-power application and it required only one in four emitters to be active at any given time. However, that particular adaptation made the shields completely unsuitable for combat, and attempting to use a number of emitters for radiation protection and the others for combat caused the entire shield bubble to collapse and would require a solid half hour to bring everything back online... by which time most of the crew would be suffering from lethal radiation poisoning.

With some luck, the Asurians were in the same predicament; but regardless, an engagement would be short and brutal, and rely on the ability to pound each other to scrap.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #6 – January 11, 2018, 05:10:25 PM

[ Lt JG Nator 159 | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

The second half of hir second day was something Nator hadn't entirely been looking forward to. Bridge duty was always a nice change of pace from getting covered in graphite lubricant and plasma residue, or buried in Engineering PADDs when drafting a new round of components for stocks and spares, but now it seemed to hold a completely different feel. Not to mention the fact that s/he could barely get out of hir own head, when s/he should really think about helping to run the entire damned ship.

Occupying one of the forward stations had its benefits, though. Having to concentrate on voices instead of faces made everything smoother from hir end, and helped hir keep a track of who was present - and who s/he already knew. The Hermat had made the mistake earlier of glancing round to acknowledge one of Commander Stark's orders and had had to search for a bewildered instant for the woman before locating her exactly where she should have been; the captain's chair. It was just that the person occupying it hadn't been at all familiar to Nator.

As the Yellow Alert was sounded, Nator ensured the shield generators were taking the available connections to the wider energy grid perfectly, though s/he did wonder what their use might be. Currently they were keeping the crew from being cooked alive by the nebula, but the nutation required meant they were useless in combat. The number two nacelle was still stubbornly refusing to reignite, still being under repair. There were still a couple of teams inside the thing, though they were pulling out with the alert. The delicate scent of someone's tea tickled hir nose as s/he tapped away at the console in front of hir.

Asurian ships were inbound; thankfully, no real match for the Theurgy even in her current state. Not that s/he particularly wanted to test that.

Ives returned to the bridge and relieved Stark, who in turn came to relieve Nator. S/he slipped out of the seat and nodded to hir superior, then quietly moved to the aft of the compartment so s/he keep an eye on the ship as a whole via the MSD. There were still an unsettling number of amber tags on the plan marking various repair crews and the systems with which they were wrestling.

There's never enough time...

The voices around hir spoke with purpose; they'd done all this before. It was at once a comfort and a wrench - that they'd had to, and that s/he'd missed it.

S/he moved to the shield panel, and wondered if it would be possible to switch the grid between anti-nebula and combat configurations quickly enough that they'd be useful in a fight and so the functions wouldn't overlap and overload the generators... for lack of a better idea, s/he started work on an algorithm in a small partition of the computer. It might not help, but it won't hurt either.

Of course, 'potential live combat scenario' was hardly the ideal testing environment for such a plan, but beggars could hardly be choosers, either.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #7 – January 19, 2018, 09:37:37 PM

[Lt. Keval ch'Rayya | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
ATTN: @Auctor Lucan , @FollowTomorrow , @Triage , @Nolan , @Hastata-Nerada, @CanadianVet , @Top Hat , @chXinya

Keval was sitting at his station next to Ravenholm, his blue eyes scanning over all of the data that was crossing his systems when the yellow alert went up and automatically reflexes from years of being the Resolve's CTO started to kick in as he started to enter commands that would've brought up tactical sensor readings, readying the shields...

Keval's right hand then clenched tightly.

=Old habits...= Keval thought to himself as he started to delete the command prompts and instead opened up a sub-window on his screen to take in the view of the ships that were now hovering in the blued space before Thea and rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he studied these Asurian...ships as they had been called.

He heard the captain's orders and the comments of the others flowing around him as he kept his eyes on his work but a part of the Chaan's mind couldn't understand how they'd been able to hide in this nebula for the last couple of days and then out of nowhere, these ships appear and send out a set of hails from two of the ships...

Curious.

Keval kept his thoughts to himself as he looked over at his counterpart in Ravenholm as he stroked his chin before a thought crossed his mind. "Selena, can you tie in my station to the main viewer?" he asked in a low tone to the cyborged woman.

He didn't say as to why but there was something odd in two different ships belonging to the same faction hailing one ship at the same time and during a time when the Theurgy was hiding and in dire need of repairs, the last thing that they needed was another mystery.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #8 – January 22, 2018, 07:55:15 PM

[ Deacon | Conference Lounge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Triage

Deacon rubbed his eyes as he stared at the PADD, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration. He'd promised this report to the captain and gave his word that it would only take a few hours but he'd never attempted to actually quantify an entire fleet and its collected crew and armaments before, let alone define such things as weapon yields, shield nuances, cloaking devices... all of this was far beyond his expertise, leading to much of it noted as conjecture or anecdotal at best. But he wanted to make a good impression.

Fortunately, he'd been assigned a liaison to assist him in cataloging the details of the kzinti warfleet and to help him with the more troublesome numeric conversions between his native octal and the Federation's decimal systems. A female, of course, but such couldn't be helped on this ship it seemed and at least her green skin helped her stand out from the other humanoid faces that muddled together in his memory. Orions stood out from the others in that regard, at least. He'd spent some time during his training to learn their more common dialects and in the process, had reviewed as much as he could about their culture. Sadly, kzinti were less interested in anything that did not give them a solid understanding of another race's combat prowess -- anything beyond that was a waste best left to servitors and slaves to decipher.

The captain thought it a good idea that Deacon work in one of the conference lounges on deck 1 rather than head all the way back down to his quarters. It wasn't an unwelcome notion and appealed in part to some amount of inner vanity. Although he did not hold the same rank on this ship that he once did at home, his initial interactions with the captain had been quite agreeable and had gone a long way in a short time to ease his addled conscience.

He sat back in his chair. "Alright, we've gone over the fleets in orbit of homeworld, Ch'lat, Reesliu, and W'kkai; the ship yards hidden in the polar corona of homestar and Sårng; the mining operations on Meerowsk..." he paused, rolling his shoulder and kneading the trapezius muscle with a free hand. "Let's turn to other ventures that could play a part in the war effort. Kzinti genetic manipulation is well documented but of late, the Patriarchy has taken an interest in technology acquired as a result of the recent conflict with the Dominion. Three separate fields of scientific inquiry have opened up in response to this, including the development of a ketrecel white type drug to pacify, control and ensure the loyalty of any captured slavestock. Given our history with sthondat, I suppose that should come as no great surprise. Second, also thanks to the jem'hadar, is the artificial acceleration of aging of the young to create a large warrior caste. The offset to that, of course, is a shorter life expectancy, but let's be honest, what kzintosh wouldn't prefer to go out in glorious battle rather than wait around for old age? Third, this time in thanks to the vorta, is cloning. On its own, I don't see this particular venture going very far unless it is used to bolster the size of war caste... perhaps to compensate for the low birth rate among kzinti." It was a pattern that the two had fallen into as the report evolved, with Deacon spelling out several high level points while the orion noted down questions she would subsequently ask in order to help fill in additional details she felt could be useful.

Tapping his claw against the table, he continued, "Next, the Patriach has taken a particular interest in iconian technology-- especially their gateway technology. Although they've publicly disavowed the Kytharri, Lyran, Grond and Mirak prides, that was all part of long plan ruse to allow 'free agents' to act beyond the borders of Kzinti space. While the Federation might consider them pirates, back home they are heroes and privateers, securing artifacts, weapon, technology and information from the nose of the enemy. I don't believe they've made much progress in harnessing, let alone adapting the iconian research they've secured, but if they ever master it, nowhere in the galaxy will be safe. Now, third..."

There was a sudden shift in the lights as the yellow alert sounded. Deacon's ears folded back slightly and his tailed twitched as his eyes moved first to the orion sitting across the table from him and then, followed her own gaze, back over his shoulder. Where there had been only the dancing lights of the Azure Nebula when they'd first entered, several ships now stared the Theurgy down. "Those ships are similar to the ones that were assisting you back at Starbase 84," Deacon noted. "I believe someone in Below Decks referred to them as... asurians?" He cast a cautious glance back at the orion. "Do you often greet allies with heightened alerts?"

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #9 – January 23, 2018, 04:21:01 AM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Natalie Stark | Bride | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
Attn: @Auctor Lucan ; bridge et all
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Ives swept onto the bridge, making a bee line for the center seat as Natalie pressed both palms onto the hand-rests and pushed herself to her feet. With but a nod of acknowledgement to her Captain, Natalie tucked herself into the Ops station, pulling up status reads on the vectors of the ship as she replaced Nator 159, the hermit thorn in her side from the previous evening. A scowl washed over her face as she worked her jaw from one side to the other. This was not good. This was very, very not good. Way to understate things, Nat. she mentally chaffed as she dry swallowed and squared her shoulders.

She let her eyes sweep around the bridge, from the Trill helmsman next to her, working counter clockwise - though without turning fully around - catching a glimpse of a few others. Just in her range of view was the Science station, over the shoulder of Lt. Veradin - seated there were Vivian Martin, and the man she replaced as Chief Science Officer, Simon Tovarek. She dipped her head slightly as theirs eyes caught, and swiftly continued her circuit, noting the other officers present - including, just over her shoulder, Lt. ch'Reyya, the Andorian she'd spent an evening (alongside Silim Parnak) making a fool of herself with. And now the ships Intelligence officer. Replacing Cmdr. Trent....who replaced Cmr. Rez... Natalie shook off that grim line of thought. There was no time for that, not with a clear and present threat on the view screen out among they swirls of the Azure Nebula.

A threat that was calling.

"Incoming hail from two of the Asurian ships, Captain," said Natalie Stark. Her fingers splayed out, hovering just over the button that would open the channel, split screen, awaiting the order. But the order didn't come immediately, and rather than risk accidentally brushing her fingertip to the pad, Natalie shifted her hand to the side, tracing a different line of controls. She brought up a personnel list and began scanning it, swiftly, an idea forming. She remembered an announcement, during the morning staff meeting - ah yes, there was the entry.

Flagged for limited duty per order of Cmdr. Trent, related to injuries, Natalie read the notation on the duty roster, and keyed up the individual file. In stasis since Jupiter Station. Sole surviving officer of the Diplomatic Mission to Romulus. And now Acting Chief Diplomat. Poor girl. Nat knew how it felt to be thrust into the shoes of manning a department when you'd just been a cog in the machine before hand. That brief image of Cmdr. Hendricks flashed before her vision, his broad smile crinkling the corners of his eyes. He's gone, and so are all the more seasoned Diplomats. Tough luck kid...

"Split the screen between them," Cpt. Ives said to Stark, leaning back in her chair. Taking her queue, Natalie programmed the request, but before she excuted, she glanced over her shoulder.

"A suggestion, Captain?" She began, her voice soft, but steady and calm, carrying across the near silent bridge. The captain caught her eyes, and Natalie elaborated. "It may be worth bringing in the recently revived Diplomatic officer. This will be a tense enough situation. Anything that might help defuse..." She was going out on a limb - having no real interaction with the Ensign that now represented the entirety of Theurgy's trained diplomats. A week earlier, she wouldn't have dreamed of speaking up. But it had been an eventful week, and both Carrigan Trent and Jien Ives had shown a sense of faith in her ability to grow as an officer.

It was time to put that to good use. The captains only response was to nod her assent, a ghost of a smile on her lips before that oaken countenance froze back up. Captain has her game face on, Natalie thought. Very swiftly - and quietly - Natalie sent out the command.

"Bridge to Ens. Eloi-Danvers. Your presence is required immediately," she stated bluntly, before cutting the channel not waiting for a response. The diplomat would be there when she got there and not a moment sooner. Natalie sent a sit rep file to the girls quarters along with the summons, as short and simple summary of the current tactical situation. Odds are she could see the threat right out her own view ports the Ops Chief thought, even as she punched in the execute command, causing the view screen to ripple and resolve into two distinct faces.

OOC: I'll bring Faye up to the bridge in a separate post. Let her show up a few minutes into the conversation.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #10 – January 23, 2018, 08:58:35 AM

[ Lt. Cmdr Leon "Striker" Marquez | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

The Theurgy's Chief Tactical Officer arrived to his shift that morning with the resemblance of a smile on his stony face. He’d had some more Katheka for the afternoon, and that morning's breath of fresh air almost made him forget he was lightyears away from home in non-recycled or synthesized air. Marquez nodded at his former crewmates and current commanding officers on his way in earlier in the day.

The yellow alert situation reminded Leon Marquez of some of his old holodeck simulations of World War II Submarine combat. The trick to eluding these Asurians was to stay silent and to create a void, or a semblance of one. It didn't hurt to pull a 'Crazy Ivan'-- a random turn intended to spot any pursuers; not the CTO's call apart from casting random sweeps from all available avenues at the disposal of his console. In this case, Electronic warfare and the ability to jam sensors or intercept Asurian weaponry. That's what Theurgy's mass accelerators were for. "Aye, XO. Electronic Warfare on hold. Kinetic CIWS on standby."

One false move and it would be more of a world war three re-enactment with the potential for mutually-assured destruction. Fortunately, Leon "Striker" Marquez was an excellent shot. Last night, he got some needed rest (mainly for closure) reviewing the Battle of Starbase 84, as well as a brief dossier on the opposing species that slashed through Admiral Slayton's fleet at that battle. Yes, it was the battle where Resolve was destroyed, but there was absolutely no time to dwell on that. The future was the real mission objective, not the past. His job meant ensuring the next tense few moments were to be played out on favorable terms. Especially, given the relative ease and graceful coordination of these Asurians; He'd wanted to interview the resident aboard the Theurgy, but getting to know her species might come off as a debrief, rather than a conversation. One more reason to miss Jimmy, while Klex was operating his station on Vector 3 and Tarsi was somewhere on Vector 2's hangar. There were few others he could reasonably confer with.

Besides, Mariner, Salvo and Bremmer were out there as much as Capt. Ives' officers and crew, with a full force of fighters in need of point defense support. Sticking only to one weapons platform meant he had more responsibility at his direct control, and he was never one to let down his superiors. Neither was Jimmy. For all Marquez knew, Mariner had done his job whilst demonstrating why he was usually the first one to volunteer for an away team. Results.

"Inform the wolves: the den has them covered when the time comes to hunt.". Enough to drop a Borg Cube. Or at least a Parasite. Marquez had to match Kendrick in one aspect, at least.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #11 – January 25, 2018, 04:52:55 AM

[Ens. Irnashall “Shall” ch’Xinya | Outer Hull | Deck 15 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

If only I could do all my work out here. Shall said to himself, taking a moment to look at the swirling blues of the Azure Nebula through the faceplate of his EV suit. Watching space through screens and holograms, filtered through more sensors than more people can count was one thing, seeing it with your own eyes was quite another. “Ensign!” a gruff yell interrupted his momentary aside. “We’re just about done here, you plan to help out so that we can finish and get to the other vectors?” Stuffed into a suit much wider and shorter than his own, Shall was glad the reflective coatings on the faceplates made it that much harder to see CWO Luff’s craggy Tellarite face. If only the radio could do something about that voice.

“Hang on Chief, I’m coming.” Shall protested, ignoring the hand gesture his partner was giving him through the thick gloves. They were in the middle of tying the new secondary emitter array into the deflector systems. About a meter across, the flat dish had a wide, truncated conical protrusion in the middle to project the beam with the remainder of the disk acting as the sensor. The power taps were all connected, Luff was kneeling by an open panel that held the ODN relays to the computer system. Fat hands finished connecting the cables into their respective ports and it was up to Shall to run the diagnostics.

Pulling the tricorder off of the equipment belt, Shall knelt next to the Tellarite and started the checks. “Looking good so far, let’s close this up, we’ll have the full results by..” Without warning, Commander Martin’s voice flooded his helmet, startling him.

“Mister ch’Xinya, please return yourself and your teams to the closest airlocks immediately.” No details, no explanation, just a brunt order.

“What? What’s going on?” Before Martin or anyone else on the Bridge could respond, Luff was on his feet and turning his Andorian partner around. A stubby arm pushed into his field of vision, pointing to something off the bow. “Ensign, look!” Antenna shrank into his hair at the sight of seven disks settling into position. “Airlock’s one deck down, forget the gear, just get inside.” Magnetic boots hummed and thumped against the hull plates as two clearly mismatched figures in identical white suits hustled towards the airlock on Deck 16.

[Selena Ravenholm | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

Cybernetic fingers tapped up a storm on the console as Selena worked through the logs she’d “liberated” from Starbase 84 just a few days ago. The revelations in the deleted log she’d found yesterday were beyond disturbing and they needed to parse out any more detail that might be found in the other logs. The nature of the beast meant that she needed to do a deep search, one that was taking a lot of her skill to dig out obscure references, connect dots that didn’t seem to have any link. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that a sizable chunk of the logs were still encrypted. Thea was working on it, but it would still take time. Frustrating was an understatement in how this puzzle could be described.

It was the kind of job she lived for.

As soon as the lighting changed, Selena looked up in surprise. Turning to look at the holographic viewer in the front of the Bridge she could see the saucers floating in the nebula in front of them. “Ah hell.” she muttered. “A distraction is the last thing I need right now.” Setting her logs aside for the time being, she brought up the cyberwarfare systems and got ready to move. Word that two of the saucers were hailing was a boon, with a direct communications link she’d have a wonderful conduit to slip into the Asurans’ computers. Who knows what kind of nuggets were tucked away in those electronic pathways?

And then ch’Rayya had to decide to work as a pair. Without breaking stride, Ravenholm tapped a few controls off to the side and shunted the main viewer feed to the Andorian’s screen, giving him a direct tap into the data flow. “What do you see?” she asked, cybernetic eyes glowing in the subdued yellow light.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #12 – January 25, 2018, 05:28:44 AM

[ Lt. JG A'vura Zeshryr | Conference Lounge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @steelphoenix
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A'vura Zeshryr shifted subtly, hiding her sense of awkwardness as best as she could. Though relatively fresh from her experiences on Starbase 84, and still reeling from the assault on her person by a Romulan, she decided to go with a skirt uniform anyhow. She was a little amazed at how quickly the crew of the Theurgy had accepted her and the rest of the surviving crewmembers of the Resolve, and not only that, but she had been given more or less the same position that she held previously, only now as Assistant Chief of Operations. A duty no less important than acting chief of ops. She was determined to make a good impression.

Working with the Kzinti proprietor of the lounge, Below Decks, to determine the combat capabilities of his people's warfleet, was a little daunting, but not impossible. The humanoid feline was an impressive specimen, in her personal opinion, bearing a build athletes would kill for, and he had a manner about him that set you on edge and also at ease all at once. She wasn't sure what to make of it, but as it was irrelevant to the task at hand, she did her best to pay it little heed. At least, he wasn't making presumptuous statements about her and her race. That was nice. Usually, she couldn't go anywhere without at least one inquiry to her Orion heritage. She looked at him wonderingly when he pinched the bridge of his nose, looking a little pensive.

When he continued his narrative, she nodded and resumed jotting down notes, adding corrections where necessary. The Kzinti's monologue was impeccable, precise, and detailed, but not unnecessarily excessive. Her lips parted slightly as she concentrated on adjusting or making the entry more suitable to Federation basic formats of reporting and linguistic, pausing now and then as she processed what he said and then put it into words, sort of translating it, not that he was speaking a language she didn't know. She did look up silently at him when he mentioned the volume of interest that the Kzinti were taking in Dominion and Iconian technology or research. That was...alarming, at the very least. The other thing she noted was how frank he was, without a sense of hesitation to stating the truth. It was...refreshing.

But he was not given to idle chatter, which again, was fine by her. She preferred it, even, and couldn't stop a small smile from appearing as she continued to make her notations on the PADD, when the alert came, and the young woman flinched visibly, her eyes filling with panic and adrenaline kicking in. The traumas from her three-year journey through hell were far too recent for her to get out of the habit of racing for battle-stations or a battlefield, phaser in hand. She looked past the Kzinti, towards the nebula, and saw the ships. She nodded mutely at Deacon, then shook her head, “Asurians,” she said “yeah, that's 'em...”

She looked at him, her lips quirking on one side, “No, sir...we don't. I don't think the Asurians consider us allies anymore after what happened back at the starbase...”

She sighed and looked at the ships again, one palm lightly pressing on her lips as she pondered what was about to happen.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #13 – January 26, 2018, 10:53:15 AM

[ Captain Ives | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
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After Jien Ives had assented to summoning Eloi-Danvers, and the whole bridge crew acted on their orders, Stark lit the split viewscreen with the feed from two of the seven Overseers.

On the left side was a female Asurian, and unlike others of her kind, she appeared marked with age. She was even scarred, half her bosom flattened by some kind of injury, so Jien had so assume something had happened to her Velrsren sac. Nonetheless, she held herself with authority, shoulders back, and tilted her marked and dented horns in a scowl towards the Theurgy's bridge crew.

"I am Hara Sar-Dia," she said, as if she needed no further introduction. No titles, not rank, the name alone supposedly holding great meaning. "I speak for Asuria."

On the other side of the screen, a mountain of an Asurian male filled the whole feed, bare of torso and breathing hard through his nostrils. There was anticipation in his eyes, his thick tail whipping as if he was a predator scenting prey. When he spoke, his deep voice seemed to reverberate within his considerable frame. "Viel Erion," he said, looking at the bridge crew as if he saw weakness, and curled his hands into massive fists by his sides, "I too speak for Asuria."

He said it with such contempt, as if he saw no meaning with it, yet a smaller Asurian seated behind Viel Eiron - appearing to be the navigator or helmsman - did take great interest in the feed from the Theurgy, and he looked straight at Dyan Cardamone with an unreadable expression.

"Greetings," said Jien as she remained seated in her chair, her oaken eyes shifting between the two faces that dominated the wide screen. There was certainly no need for introductions on her own part. "Have you come to your senses since we spoke last? For you must surely see the futility in your endeavour."

Yet despite the overwhelming odds against them, facing the Theurgy and its fighters, neither of the Asurians ceded that point. The woman - Hara - shook her head, and even though she seemed more cautious than Viel, she did not appear concerned in the least. The navigator behind Viel did frown, but it was hardly noticeable when the large Asurian bared his teeth and tilted his curled horns. The ropes of muscles along his arms shifted as he stepped closer to the screen. "Blind," he said, making a grimace of disdain, "You were blind and craven when we fought alongside you. You are craven still, you remain blind, and you no longer have shields. You will all die for your cowardice."

Hara turned her stare towards Dyan Cardamone. "Sar-Unga Neleo. Do you stand with the craven? Would you die for the cowards, trusting their word, despite their weakness?" she asked evenly, the matter holding little import to her. There was no empathy, merely asking the other Asurian because her Queen had told her to. "Or do you wish to fight alongside us? You will not be asked twice."

Snarling, Viel Eiron stepped away from the screen, obviously indifferent, but that small Asurian in the edge of the screen... he still looked at Petty Officer Cardamone - never having looked away. He alone seemed to care what the Asurian on the Theurgy's bridge was about to say.

Jien turned her head as well, looking up at the profile of her officer. She had suffered grievous losses at Starbase 84, yet despite it all, she had continued her duties. Now, Jien no idea where the Asurian's heart was at - with the mission or with her people - but she did know that if Cardamone chose to leave... chances were she'd die if the Asurians made good on their claim. Jien felt she had lost any right to advice her in this decision... though she could not remain silent and let her put herself in harm's way. Regardless her decision, Jien felt responsible for forcing her to make it.

"Doubt, reason or heart," she said quietly, wanting to say much more, "no one knows your truth but you."

She could but hope the Petty Officer found peace in the battle between heart and mind. It was obvious, however, that Asurians didn't necessarily seek 'peace'.

OOC: One more intermediate post from @FollowTomorrow , and then I take us to the next phase with my post after that. No need for anyone to post now if you'd rather wait for this hail to play out in full first. It is, of course, perfectly okay to add thoughts and reactions to the first glimpse of the Asurians in this Episode.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #14 – January 27, 2018, 01:24:27 AM

[ Sar-Unga Neleo | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

Her people filled the screen. She'd heard the names Hara and Viel before; in a race as small as the Asurians, everyone knew everyone. She wondered how much they'd heard of her. Did they know what happened to her family? Did they know about her friendships? Did they know how stupid, even cruel these humans could be..?

They had to know. Ives had it on full display when she murdered so many Asurians that day. She was displaying it again as she spoke. She called the effort futile, but there was no futility here. She thought, but didn't know for sure, that maybe the saucers could raise their kinetic shielding and just tear through the Theurgy like wolves, and then they'd be gone before anyone could engage them. All it'd take was a few strategic hits. Even if they couldn't, they were fast, resourceful, and suicidally honor-driven. All they'd have to do is ignite the nebula around them, if they were really up in arms. It's what she would do.

Would she?

Hara was speaking. She focused on the ugly woman's face and voice instead of her own questions. She didn't want to hear questions. When the ugly woman turned to her, she stared back. It was her security face, no emotion...at first.

Viel stepped away and she finally caught a glimpse of whoever it was piloting his Overseer in the corner of the screen. Recognition lit up her face—Jaris-Al. Once, he pursued her. He wasn't quite so stacked back then. Her face softened, she bit her lip. They used to be so young, so much happier. The biggest problem she ever had back then was her father, constantly telling her what to do. She missed it, she missed those days so bad.

Her stoicism compromised, she turned to Ives. She spoke some sort of worthless wisdom she probably read in a book somewhere. Sar-unga wished she'd just shut up. What could she know of reason or heart when she had neither? She was done, she never wanted to see such a contemptible face again.
“Get me on that ship. Viel's ship.” She bared her teeth.

At first, Jien said nothing, just looking at her. Then, she turned her head away. The silence spoke for itself.

The Captain likely didn't want to do as she was asked. Perhaps she didn't want to put her life at risk? She might even be debating if she'd go back on her word, and not do what Dyan asked. Then again, she already knew Ives also felt responsibility for what had befallen Dyan's family. As much as the Commanding Officer of the Theurgy didn't want to, she would still stand by her word, and do right by her officer's wish.

"Thea, do as she wishes," she said quietly.

Thea turned to look at Ives, her eyebrows raised. "Captain?"

"You heard me," she said, and then rose to her feet. She turned to look at Dyan. "As much as I regret the hurt that has come to you, I also respect your decision. I know apologies are moot, but you have been an excellent officer, Petty Officer Dyan Cardamone. The Asurian people should learn by your example."

She extended her hand to Dyan. "Even if you fight me and the rest of this crew from this moment on... All of what I've said still remains the truth. Thank you for your service."

The Asurian woman stared at her hand, her tail whipping in agitation. She would not deign to touch the captain. Instead she glared, waiting expectantly for her one way ticket back home.

After a couple of seconds, Jien turned her head towards Thea. "Energise." Light and weightlessness replaced Sar-unga's being. She reappeared shortly on the side of the viewscreen bearing Viel's ship. She was still in uniform, still armed, looking so out of place in ship so alien as the Overseer. She breathed a sigh of relief through her nostrils, and breathed in. She opened her eyes and smiled at the brick wall of Viel and the thinner, sleeker Jaris-Al 2.0.
“<Jaris-Al, Viel, your hospitality's appreciated. Jaris-Al--I thought we'd never see each other again.>” She started to walk over to him. She wanted to hug, but...that might not be appropriate. How did he feel about her, anyway...? After all these years, maybe he forgot...?
“<Could you...tell me what's been going on? It's been a long time.>” She hoped he understood. She was full-fledged homesick. Finally though, she was home.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #15 – January 28, 2018, 03:13:27 AM

[ Captain Ives | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
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After Petty Officer Cardamone had vanished, Jien slowly turned her head and saw the Asurian on the viewscreen, in the back of the Overseer she had requested. She vanished into the back compartments of the saucer together with one of the bridge staff - back with her own people. She wasn't truly defecting, nor deserting the ship and the mission. Whatever chances there had been that Cardamone would consider herself ought else than the infiltrator she had been, the death of her family had destroyed any such hopes.

She is Sar-Unga Neleo, Jien thought in bitter regret. She always were.

Yet even worse... loosing Sar-Unga's voice, how were they to deter the Asurians?

"Will you not protect your own people, your Queen, rather than waste your lives in meaningless battle?" Jien said, rounding on the two Asurian commanders in a last effort to try and make them see reason. Doing so, she changed.... to his male form, his browridge lowered over his eyes as he tried to make them see their own folly. "Your fleet was decimated at Starbase 84, yet you risk even more lives coming here, leaving your habitats defenceless in the name of vengeance, knowing you are inferior and about to die. What is the meaning of this? Are you blind to reason? Do you think yourselves above common sense?"

Word of his shapeshifting would have reached these Asurians, since neither reacted to it. Hara Sar-Dia snarled in answer, yet offered no counterargument. Viel, however, looked overconfident in his disdain, denouncing Ives'claim with a loud voice. "I told you, craven! You... are... blind!"

"Captain..." said Thea, eyes wide as she stood next to him, but Jien could make no query to her...

....before the lights of the bridge dimmed.

"What's happening?" he called, looking towards his present bridge crew. Loud chirps of warning came from all stations - screens flickering. The LCARS interphases were scrambled and yet accessing sub-systems in rapid succession, without the officers touching their stations. Jien could see information on the corners of the main viewscreen, which also flickered. Communications between all three Vectors were offline. Thea's collective tactical systems had been deactivated, and all three warp cores were slowly powering down, along with auxiliary power systems. The radiation shields were about to give out.

"Thea," said Jien, all his theories coming up short of any explanation, "speak to me!"

"My CoMpUtEr cOrEs aRe CoMpRoMiSeD." Her paniced voice was a digital screech. Her projection was stumbling backwards, raising shaking hands to her head, "tHeY aRe... AcCeSsInG mY sUbRoUTInEs... My DeFeNcEs... ThEy oVeRwRiTe tTeM... ThEy aRe iN mY sYnChRoNiSaTiOn LiNk... I aM nO lOnGeR... I aM..."

"They? Who? The Asurians?" Jien demanded, even though he wasn't numb to the visible plight of the A.I. - quite the opposite.

On the flickering viewscreen, Viel had drawn back his lips from his teeth, donning an Asurian sindt on his forearm, and Hara looked as if she contemplated the fate of dying animals in a cage. Behind him, Jien heard orders shouted, attempts made to revert the sudden assault upon their computer systems, inventive means conjured to try and restore control. They needed no orders from him to save the ship, even if his mimicked heart rate beat in his ears, and alarm animated his thoughts. Thea was on her knees, holding her head in the dimmed, flashing lights of the bridge. Yet as Jien turned back to the Asurians...

...there was someone standing in the centre of the holographic display area.

It was a seven feet tall humanoid with big, arthropod eyes. The large orbs were dark and without pupils, iridescent when cast into light by the flashes on the bridge. With a small jaw, and big hands and feet - three fingers and toes on each - it seemed like something taken out of twentieth century media about what extraterrestrial life was supposed to look like. The humanoid was dressed in a black suit, and it folded its arms across its broad chest as it regarded the bridge crew and Captain Ives. Its features were so alien they were unreadable, but the humanoid did seem male, and none too interested in their plight.

"Identify yourself," said Ives, despite it all - remaining outwardly undaunted even though he felt far from it.

The tall humanoid with the dark eyes turned its dead stare towards Jien, and in the pause - filled by the chaos of the bridge behind Ives - it seemed as if the alien contemplated the merit of even bothering with an answer. The image of the figure fluctuated, revealing that it was a hologram. It was being projected by the emitters on the bridge, the feed forced into Thea's system. After a couple of seconds, the alien spoke in a quiet, contralto echo.

"I speak for the Vigilant of Sa," he said, the hushed tone unhurried as he remained where he stood. "I am Echtand qi Versant, the Voice of the Savi. We brought the Asurians to you, and in return, we are doing inventory on your ship. This, to see if you possess anything of scientific merit for our research."

"Research?" asked Ives, calloused hands now fists at his sides, but the representative of the Savi ignored him.

"When the inventory is complete... we will claim items and specimens of consequence, and leave the rest in Asurian care."

Behind the left shoulder of the Echtand qi Versant, Viel Erion had finished donning his sindt blade on his forearm. Through the static of the locked hail, his predatory grin could be seen, and there was little doubt what was in store for the crew on the three crippled Vectors floating in the Azure Nebula.

"The Sheromi speaks the truth," said Hera Sar-Dia, seating herself in her Overseer. "Today, you die for what you did to Asuria."

In the corner of the screen, it said that the warp cores would be completely powered down in 1 minute.

OOC: Everyone are locked out of their computer consoles, which remain unresponsive. All screens are flickering, doing things like searching systems folder by folder. If they have the presence of mind, have your characters attempt to revert the sudden assault upon Thea's computer systems. Utilise inventive means try and restore control to Thea before the three warp cores are powered down and the radiation shields drop. Have your characters work together, if you want, but all three Vectors are gradually being shut down. The time before the warp cores are shut down and the protection against the radiation vanish is 60 seconds. Sensors are locked down, but even if they were operational, the Precept ship is cloaked. Transporter systems are down too, so there are no means to travel between the Vectors.

Leave the results of all joint ventures and solo attempts open-ended, not mentioning if the outcome. Suggested posting order (but everyone can post ahead in this order if they feel so inclined):

1) @CanadianVet 2) @Doc M. (In Main Engineering on Vector 03, which is also affected) 3) @Brutus 4) @Top Hat 5) @chXinya 6) @FollowTomorrow 7) @Nolan 8) @Hastata-Nerada 9) @Triage 10) @Triton 11) @DocReno

The Main Bridge crew: [Show/Hide]

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #16 – January 28, 2018, 03:44:01 AM

[ Cmdr Carrigan Trent | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

For a bridge crew heavy with new faces, the transition from their current posture pretending to being a hole in space to clearing for action was remarkably smooth. In fact, he'd have to make a point to pass on his pleasure when he would have a chance. But for now, the threat of seven Asurian ships was a priority, even more so than the security situation in Sickbay. The latter was a strictly local issue that was already being responded to by Security; the former threatened the lives of everyone. Even if, even without shields or safe use of their phasers, Theurgy could turn them into expanding debris clouds.

The arrival of their Asurian crewmember took his attention for a while, and when she demanded to be beamed over, Trent's mouth narrowed for a moment. That was something he had only half-expected, truth be told. But in the end it changed nothing; if those ships became a threat, he would see to it they would be engaged and destroyed if need be. The loss would be regrettable, but the mission came first. The mission always came first.

As Ives attempted to reason with the Asurians, that was when all hell broke loose. As the lights dimmed and consoles started to flicker, Trent found himself staring at the master system display. It was probably the one thing that was still readable on the Bridge, without sub-catalogues to access but merely a current-state display. Power, weapons, shields, propulsion, computer, sensors. Everything was going down. The shields would be the real problem there...

Withdrawing a box underneath the tactical display table in Mission Ops, which has the only available emergency - computer-independent - communications link to engineering, the XO wasted no time connecting to it and speaking in his headset. "All engineering stations, emergency switch of all systems from computer to local manual operations. Now!" Trent's voice was no longer his normal near-whisper. His volume had gone up to conversational levels, and while his calm was still there, it was somewhat less so than it normally was. "Stark! Access the PA system this way, from below your station. Order the evacuation of all nonessential personnel to shelter stations deep within the vectors. Nator, Ravenholm, make your way to the main computer core and physically initiate a reboot, and bring up some additional firewalls."

Time. He needed time and there was no way to get it. And if the shields failed, they would have below five minutes until... and there they were, on Deck 1, the most exposed to radiation... And then, he had an idea. "Fighter bay, shuttle bay, scramble, scramble, scramble. Weapons tight. Disconnect your computers from Thea immediately! Use on-board computer systems to link up all available craft, answer on this low-band frequency, and extend your shield bubbles to cover the vectors as best you can for radiation protection."

It was far from perfect, but it would have to do for now...

OOC from Auctor Lucan: All duty stations on the bridge are in-accessible. Your characters cannot access the ship from the touch screens. Below the touch screens, however, in the base of the duty stations, there could beauxiliary, manual controls that are stand alone, but severely in what they might do since the computer cores are essentially offline while the Savi are making their inventory. Like Trent just did, there is a stand-alone, low-band access to the intercom PA system, but not to any combadges. Tagging @Doc M. here too because of Trent's orders to all three Engineering sections board.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #17 – January 28, 2018, 03:30:47 PM

[ William Robert O’Connell | Main Engineering | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy ]
Atten. 1) @Brutus 2) @Top Hat 3) @chXinya 4) @FollowTomorrow 5) @Nolan 6) @Hastata-Nerada 7) @Triage 8) @Triton 9) @DocReno 10) @Auctor Lucan.

Currently the situation in main engineering was pandemonium. “Master Chief, we’re losing power!” Chief Petty Officer Lavar Manfredi reported. “Everything’s shutting down!”

“Dad blast it!” Master Chief Petty Officer William Robert “Billy Bob” O’Connell exclaimed as he bent over the master systems display table. “None o’ this makes no sense! It’s as if we’re bein’ shut down by th’ main computer or somethin’. Contact th’ bridge…”

But before anybody could, the bridge contacted them. Commander Carrigan Trent’s terse whisper could be heard all over main engineering. “All engineering stations, emergency switch of all systems from computer to local manual operations. Now!” Billy Bob noted that he could hear the executive officer breathing. It was as if he was whispering on the bridge but had turned up the volume on the receiving end of his message to make sure everybody heard it. Almost as if there was someone on the bridge pointing a gun at him or something…

“You heard th’ man!” Billy Bob shouted as he dashed away from the master systems display table and headed for the warp core. “They’re overridin’ th’ main computer!” he added as he veered starboard to maneuver around the warp core, the power station conduits and the warp core monitoring station. O’Connell didn’t care to speculate about who ‘they’ were. That was Ives’ and Trent’s problem. His problem was making sure there was enough computer power to run life support, allow the hanger doors to open, and so on. “Disengage th’ main computer an’ execute all functions through auxiliary that we can!”

“Thea’s been compromised?” Chief Manfredi repeated in disbelief as he followed O’Connell around the warp core. “How?”

“It don’t ruttin’ matter how, Chief!” O’Connell growled as they ran in between the EPS trunks and the plasma coolant ducts. “It’s jest happened!” he continued as they reached the optical data network relay junctions that were on the forward wall right behind the main power regulators. “Don’t worry, Ah’ve got uh contingency in place jest in case this should happen, a plan 'B' that this,” he added as he started rerouting the Theurgy’s computer network. “After the folks from th’ Harbinger took control o’ everythin’ Ah created us a li’l ol’ backup plan!”

“Oh, no… Boss,” the coffee colored propulsion chief shook his head. “Operation Manta Ray? You can’t be serious!”

“Ah shore, Ah say, Ah shore am Chief!” Billy Bob replied as his large meaty hands darted across the manual switches. “Ah’m a severin’ all connections with Thea an reroute all computer functions through the Allegiant! Th’ Theurgy won’t be able t’ separate nor come t’gether an’ the whole ship’ll be slower than molasses but at least we’ll have enough control functions so’s we kin find out who’s doin’ this tuh us! It’ll be like operatin’ in ‘safe mode’. Only the most basic computer functions necessary t’ run th’ starship!”

“Boss, there’s no way the Alligiant’s computer will be able to control something as big as the Theurgy!” Chief Manfredi protested. “If we ask the ship to go to warp the wrong way the Alligiant’s computer could hang up! ”

“She’s hung up now Chief,” Billy Bob retorted. “An’ don’t you worry none, with our dilithium crystals cracked like a broken mirror Ah don’t cal’culate thet we’ll be goin’ t’ warp soon no how! Besides, with Thea in three pieces th’ way she is the ship ain’t all that big right now no how. Th’ way Ah see it, there ain’t, Ah say there aint no harm in tryin’.” He tapped his combage. “Engineerin’ t’ all three bridges,” he called out. “Operation Manta Ray is a go. Repeat: Operation Manta Ray is a go.” He lowered his voice to quiet murmur and added: “Manfredi’s a good engineer but he but he doesn't listen to a word you say."

These days starships were so complicated that it was impossible to fly them without any computer function, but after the short lived mutiny the Harbinger’s officers caused, Billy Bob and Carrigan Trent had rerouted some of the ship’s optical data network to run through the minor computers scattered all over the ship from sickbay to the ship’s replicators and make them slaves to the computer in the Alligiant while cutting out Thea and the four main computer cores entirely. If this worked the ship would be able to limp along as maneuverable as a brick, and actually fire their weapons if the enemy ships stood real still. Of all of the people on the bridge, only Trent, Stark, Ives, Henshaw, and Simon Tovarek were likely to know about Operation Manta Ray. It was a plan of last resort that had never been tested. The ship would either limp on or turn off.

Only problem was that Thea was in MVAM mode because of her repairs, and the Allegiant could only replace the computer core on Vector 3 via the ODN network. Could the ship even reintegrate without computer assistance? Another thing for the brass on the bridge...

OOC: Will Billy Bob’s desperate and paranoid plan work? Only Auctor Lucan knows for sure! Even if it does work, there will no doubt be a delay… and the ship will probably be on emergency lighting, the ship will react sluggishly, officers will only be able to communicate through hard lines like on TOS etc.

Auctor Lucan: Excellent! Added the last paragraph for guidance to all readers.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #18 – January 29, 2018, 10:08:02 PM

[ Lt. Cmdr. Natalie Stark & Ens. Faye Lintah Eloi-Danvers | Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
Attn:
[Show/Hide]

The lift access doors slid open at the rear of the bridge, discharging a hastily dressed and nervous Ens. Faye Lintah Eloi-Danvers onto the bridge of the USS Theurgy just behind the Science's station. She was able to see, across the bridge tucked in by the other lift, the face of the alien Petty Officer from the evening before - the Asurian, Sar-unga Neleo. She had to stop, just outside the lifts scanners, and brace her arm against the support column of one of the multiple secondary stations. A wave of tense emotion crashed down on top of Faye like a ton of bricks. The monitor on the side of her neck began to flash a bit faster, noting the sudden uptake in her pulse.

The Betazoid squeezed her eyes shut, and breathed in through the nose. Though she felt horrible for it, she focused and found a set of familiar thoughts - Vivian Martin's, whom she had met scant hours ago. Using the science officers mind like a crutch, she was then able to cast out and find the shifting, amorphous calm that was Jien Ives, taking refuge in her - his - murky depths. The solidarity and quiet her Captain offered anchored her in the moment of stress, and allowed her to stand up and collect herself, tucking a stray stand of hair behind her ear. Normally she'd have her hair up in a tail or bun while on duty, but the shoulder lenght locks hung loose, hiding the cortical monitor from sight.

During the upheaval in her mind, Faye had missed the discussion between the Captain, the Asurian Petty Officer, and the figures on the split view-screen She recovered herself in time to see PO. Neleo wash away in the bright beam of a transporter, and felt the torn presence of her mind vanish from her perceptions, even as the tailed figure appeared in the background on the view screen.

With so much hatred in her heart, can anyone blame her for leaving like a rat of a sinking ship? She wondered as she stood up straighter and tugged her jacket down. She tried to emulate Captain Ives, and Commander Trent, whom she sensed, more than saw, back behind in the support staff section. Cold and calm, she pulled upon her training, taking a few steps forward so that she would be just in view now of the occupants of the Asurian ships - and, if she'd not already noticed her, Lt. Cmdr. Martin.

Further afield, the woman closest to the view-screen did her best not to frown as she pulled her gaze from the figure of Sar-unga, and back to the two leaders of the Asurian battle fleet Natalie listened intently, but quietly, as Ives attempted to berate the two into coming to their senses. The truth was that Theurgy could easily handle the assembled flotila. Secure in that knowledge Stark pulled up another monitoring app, to track the progress of the crew still scattered on the hull's of the ships vectors. It wouldn't do to dwell on the acute fear that the larger Asurian stirred in her, the knowledge that he could crush her skull between his hands with ease. It would never come to that, as the angry alien would never get close enough to her, or the ship, to do any such harm.

Behind her, Natalie could hear what Faye saw with her own coal black eyes - Captain Ives had shifted to his male form, his voice hardening further still, his brow furrowed. He looked coiled, to the Betazoid, as if able to strike out at a moments notice, hand as flat and rigid as a knife. She could almost picture it, and wondered if this were her own imagination, or a stray thought she was picking up from other corner of the bridge.

So of course, that was when all hell broke loose on the bridge.

The Operations console flickered and spat, reconfiguring itself faster than Natalie could keep track of. She jumped in surprise, sparing a glance over her shoulder as Thea's impassioned, broken pleas filled the room. The bridge seemed to darken further, a strobbing affect causing Natalie to wince as the console lights became a bright dance of ever swirling changes. Even as she ran her fingers across the touch screens, she could tell it was to no avail. And then she heard someone else on the bridge gasp - Ens. Eloi-Danvers, who stared, along with so many others, at the towering figure that suddenly materialized on the bridge.

It took the telepath but an instant to realize that what she saw was a mere projection, and she muttered as much under her breath, likely unheard in the chaos engulfing the bridge. "Hologram," she whispered, eyes narrowing as she forced the fears of others from her mind and began to step, slowly, around the science station, towards the command chair where Ives stood, resolute.

The Savi? both women thought in unison with likely the entirety of the bridge crew. Faye racked her mind for anything that would surface, the name nagging at her. Natalie, far too busy with her useless console, glowered in frustration at the interloper even as she too combed her thoughts - but for a solution to the sudden cyber warfare strike. But with the offhand threat of 'collection' came the painful notification on the viewscreen - 1 minute to failure.

She swore and gave the console a good, firm kick underneath, on the off chance that it might jar some connection loose. If it isn't working, hit it with a hammer the old axiom went. Sadly it failed to be of any use, but thankfully Carrigan Trent was of use. The normally quiet man shouted (well, loudly spoke) out orders, reminding the crew of back ups. And before he finished, Natale was bent over in her chair, skirt riding up as she pulled out the box from its panel in the ops station. Mirroring her actions beside her, she could hear the Trill Flight Controller trying to wrestle the ship into doing his bidding.

Clipping the receiver into her Natlalie, she sucked in a breath and tried to quell her own fear. In a shockingly calm voice, she contacted the whole of the crew of the Theurgy, across all three vectors, even as she heard the voice of her engineering counterpart, MCPO William Robert "Billy-Bob" O'Connell reporting to Cmdr. Trent and Cpt. Ives of a possible solution.

"All hands, all hands," the cool voice of the Chief of Operations addressed her crew, "Emergency Radiation protocols are in effect. All non-essential personnel are to report to radiation shelters located in your current Vector immediately. Do not attempt to transport to another Vector. Repeat, all nonessential personnel are to evacuate to radiation shelters immediately." Even as she spoke, she knew that the bridge crew, and those down in the engine rooms of each vector would be hardening themselves for the possible fall out that was to ensue. The radiation that would cook them in their seats, at their stations, if a solution could be swiftly implemented.

The harsh fact of the mater was that, in situations like these, Faye was fairly certain she counted as non-essential crew. Her orders then, were to evacuate the bridge for a more centrally located shelter deep in the heart of the Helmet. From there, perhaps, she could be a calming influence on the huddled masses that would fill the room, and god help her, attempt to assist in running the ship from those remote locations. But in her mind, she saw another face than her own, or those on the bridge - hair a lighter brunett than her own, curlier, with beautiful eyes set in a grimly determined countenance Riley Patterson would not be heading to one of the shelters. As a nurse, she would be running into action, prepping a sickbay, doing her damnedest to save lives.

And so Faye turned her full attention to the being that shimmered in the dim glow of the wounded bridge, coldly looking over the crew as if they were ants, scurrying beneath an oncoming foot. In a flash of horrifying insight, realization dawned on Faye that these beings did not see the crew of the Theurgy as anything more than curiosities just as the European explorers of bygone era's had seen the apes on the human homeworld of Earth. Able to mimic, but not really worthy of consideration as equals. Alive, yes, certainly, and cleaver, but hardly could they be considered as true, thinking life.

Something tickled the back of the diplomats mind, from her days at the academy, one of the examples of diplomacy in the early years of the Federation. Some similar threat, where compassion communication, and empathy won out in preventing an all out war with a truly alien form of species that harassed the early Federation and its then neighbors. If the founding fathers and mothers of the Federation could find such a solution to their predicament then, how could Faye not attempt to do so here?

Banishing the fear she felt for Riley, and that which she could sense swirlling around her, Faye stepped away, back straight, hands out at her sides (palms up) and continued across the bridge to stop near her Captain. She caught his eye, and then tilted her head slightly, as if warning, or seeking permission. But time was short and she would have to hope Ives trusted her to do her job, as she turned to address the man.

"Do you not care," she called out, carefully, "That what you are doing will harm the inhabitants of this ship? You claim to be looking for specimens for research. Surely then, it serves no purpose to irradiate them, before you can collect any of worth?" She tried to engage the being on a logical level, and never mind how reprehensible she found his methods. "Is that morally acceptable to your people? To cause such wanton harm without regard to the sentience of the...curiosities you observe? Are not we just as alive and free thinking as the Asurains that you hold in some apparent regard? As you yourself?" She went out on a limb, unsure of how to convince the hologram that she were as worthy of life as it was.

OOC: Play ball ladies and gents. Let me know if anything needs a touch up.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #19 – February 02, 2018, 12:01:22 PM

[ Lt JG Nator 159 | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

Even with a computer core as revolutionary as Thea's, it seemed that one constant of the universe held that waiting for a simulation to finish was possibly the most tedious activity possible on a starship. Nator was attempting to find a way of keeping them protected from the nebula and the other occupants at once - and meeting with less than total success.

The radiation load on the ship was colossal. Once a humanoid got to 'minutes between exposure and death', exposing them at all was a death sentence. Their cellular structures would degrade to the point of no return on the way to sickbay, before one could even consider getting them treated. So hir original plan of 'switch modes as necessary when incoming fire was a bigger threat than the radiation' was inherently unworkable because there was no threat greater than the emissions of the nebula. At least enemy guns could only hit so much of the ship at once. There's a grim piece of arithmetic...

S/he kept half an eye on the rest of the bridge, perched at the aft as s/he was, but most of hir attention was focused elsewhere. The structural integrity field might be pressed into service; it had a subspace component, and so could be used to manipulate EM radiation in theory. Manoeuvring might have to be a little more sluggish without the full power of the SIF field dedicated to toughening their superstructures' support members, but if the force fields could handle the radiation from the nebula, their shield grid could be freed to perform its intended duty.

Alright, new simulation...

Someone was beamed off the bridge, and then a wash of binary flooded hir LCARS display as Thea screamed. Nator hadn't thought it possible. "What the f-"

The Asurians, it seemed, had some heavy-duty friends. One of them projected itself into their holocommunication volume; not a species s/he recognised. S/he simply stood there in blinking stupefaction as it delivered a 'Please Stand By' message. The noise on the bridge rose by an order of magnitude as orders began to volley back and forth, and the Hermat found a scowl of indignant anger answering the stress in the voices s/he heard. This was all so inconvenient!

"Nator, Ravenholm; make your way to the main computer core and physically initiate a reboot, and bring up some additional firewalls."

The voice belonged to the XO - but s/he didn't want to risk the confusion of trying to verify the face as there was little point. Instead, not needing to be told twice, s/he bolted for the exit. Skipping the turbolifts entirely due to Thea's... indisposal, s/he headed for the backup stairway. It would be cramped, but it beat trying to dive down a Jefferies' tube in a rush. At least it was only one deck down.

As the Hermat left the bridge, s/he went down onto all fours; the Hermat joint structure meant that a fit individual could reach forty kilometres an hour or more running in that fashion. More than once, s/he had to mount a bulkhead to help hir bank around a ninety-degree turn with the minimum loss of speed s/he could manage. When possible, s/he spared the attention to glance back over hir shoulder to see how Ravenholm was keeping up.

[ Primary Computer Core | Deck 02 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

A diminutive, blonde rocket skidded to a halt in the upper level of Thea's core, panting moderately after hir unplanned sprint from the command compartment above. S/he grabbed a case of pre-programmed isolinear chips on the way in and fetched up against the base of the positronic column in the centre of the room. S/he did hir best to stop counting down the seconds in hir head to the time their warp cores would quench themselves.

The chips meant that an engineer didn't need complete functional access to an interface - one could literally build a module to manipulate the data that went through it in any given fashion depending on the order and configuration of the rods used. First things first...

S/he popped one of the inspection panels off the base of the column and tossed it to one side like an oblong frisbee. Nator lunged for the power couplings, yanking them out to their stops, rotating them to their opposite position, and shoving them back in. "Stupid... fucking... redundancy..." s/he growled as s/he repeated the process.

Nator looked over at Ravenholm as s/he pushed the last one home. "I'll handle getting Thea back online-" a glance at her uniform, "-Warrant. If you can keep any intrusions out while it comes back up, we can add the firewalls as we go."

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #20 – February 03, 2018, 03:45:29 PM

[Lt. Keval ch'Rayya | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]
ATTN: @Nolan , @chXinya , @Top Hat , @Brutus , @Doc M. , @Triage , @FollowTomorrow , @Triton , @CanadianVet , @Hastata-Nerada , and @Auctor Lucan

Once he had the data from Selena followed by her question, Keval simply said "It's just a feeling, but as the head of intelligence for the ship it's my job now to check those feelings with cold, hard data." as he started to watch the events unfold.

Keval watched as the scenes unfold, his antenna dipping forwards as he started to see the warning signs before the officer beamed over to the other ship as well as the captain's counter arguement...then came Thea's comment.

A strange and yet familiar sensation started to tingle through his antenna at which point Keval quickly turned around and started inputting some commands into his station. "Selena, I need you to quickly save all current data to local stations and partition everything else off, I got really bad feeling..do it *QUICKLY*!" Keval stated as he started the process of saving what he could when moments later the entire bridge erupted into chaos.

"The timing is too perfect." Keval muttered to himself as he worked to try and get his station to work in order to save the information that they had as he saw what was being done as he watched as the entire data network of the ship was being scanned and so far nothing was being deleted which meant that the Asurians were confident in the Asurians destroying the Theurgy following this as the creature started to speak off to the side.

Then he heard the orders for Ravenholm and he had hoped that she had done what he said before moving over to her station as well and quickly start working there as well, quickly swapping out chips and inputting system commands as flashbacks of the last time that he had to do this started to creep into his mind which helped in a strange way to focus himself as he recalled the patch arounds the Cochrane had told him from his station from what seemed to be a lifetime ago.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #21 – February 03, 2018, 07:08:54 PM

[ Lt. Jg. Suq | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ]

In an instant, the lights were gone and Suq lost his controls. He did not outwardly appear to panic. In fact, he was not particularly panicked at all. It wasn't the first time. He tested his controls here and there, but there was nothing he could do but read out from the screen, when he could see something useful on it. Most the time, it was information. It went too fast for him to read out what kind. He recognized it as engineering files, data, mostly junk that wasn't too informational. Ooh, that looked like the Theurgy's blueprints. That was important. Whoops, there it goes, right into who knows where. All right, that's enough of that.

“Console controls lost. I'm not picking up structural damage. Warp core to power down in T-minus two minutes, we'll have one minute of protection against the radiation after that.” His voice was calm. He was only at his normal level of tension. Thea was effectively disabled, somehow, she was...not right. It eased his mind to know she did have a weakness. He took mental notes, in case he would need to learn how to do this to her later on his own.

First, he heard Trent speak. He heard a noticeable rise in his voice, and a nearly unnoticeable edge. He concluded without seeing him that he meant business. He heard replies from engineering, and it seemed like they were mobilizing without him having to give orders. It was nice not being the only engineer in charge. he concluded, and watched as his console displayed information whizzing off into nothingness. Hey, was that his personal logs? Uh oh, the Vigilant of Sa aren't going to like those filthy things...

Ah, but wait, there was something the others had not yet added. Federation built consoles had an...interesting way of dealing with failures such as these. He brought up his communications, his unique double voice automatically identifying who he was.
This is Lt. Jg. Suq. In case of critical console failure, do not use water. There will be dry chemical extinguishers, or CO2 extinguishers around the ship, particularly in engineering sections. The power failure will interrupt the automatic fire-fighting capabilities aboard the ship and you may see uncontrolled fires from a defunct console. Consider this a class C fire and approach accordingly. If you feel your console overheating, step back immediately and locate your closest extinguisher.”

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #22 – February 05, 2018, 07:52:13 AM

[ Sinead O'Riley | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nolan, @chXinya, @Top Hat, @Brutus, @Doc M., @FollowTomorrow, @Triton, @DocReno, @CanadianVet, @Hastata-Nerada & @Auctor Lucan
[Show/Hide]

Oddly, when Thea began to show distress, Sinead felt as if she were in distress too. But what was more frightening, more worrisome than that Dyan's choice to return to her people, was the other hologram that appeared, and what it had to say. Echtand qi Versant. She committed its name and every detail of it that she could see to her memory. Right now, it was endangering Thea, the crew within her, many of which were her friends from the Resolve, and some new ones from here, like Morgan Song. That made it a threat to be dealt with, hastily. She would hold back if Ives or other command personnel stopped her, but she thought that would be tactically unwise.

“Suq,” said Sinead, “do ye need me t' do anythin' 'ere?”

She leaned close to him, having left her seat to kneel next to him, and she whispered very softly, “If th' Vigilant o' Sa consi'er Captain Ives a specimen o' consequence, we will be needin' to prevent 'im bein' taken, aye?”

She lifted her PADD, having quickly separated it from any connection to the ship's computers and showed it to Suq, the PADD hidden from sight by the console in front of the Efrosian, “This be th' mobile emitter I worked on wi' Selena Ravenholm and Thea 'erself yesterday. If I can get 'old o' th' spare one in me quarters, I migh' be able t' make it into some sor' o' transport inhibi'or. Wha' d'ye think? I only be needin' yer 'elp t' figure ou' th' differentials 'tween a photon emitter an' a bio-shielding system. We canna lose th' captain. Not again.” She was thinking of Kendrick, and how she failed to secure his safety. Even if it wasn't her responsibility, the Bringloidi felt accountable for his loss. Now she didn't want to lose this captain too.

She would leave the negotiations to the diplomats, such as Faye, a Betazoid from the looks of it, and very capable by her guess. But she would deal with the tangible threats and anticipate the surprises. What she needed to know was what kind of capabilities did these Asurians have? They appeared to be like warriors. Even without seeing a demonstration, she suspected Dyan was a lethal melee combatant, possibly more so than Sinead herself. If this Vigilant of Sa wanted to leave them to the Asurians, and if that big Asurian male's threat was anything to go by, none of them were going to live very long in Asurian care. So while she was still able to do something, she suspected she ought to make known the available choices. But Ives was not Kendrick. He didn't know what capabilities each and every one of them had. Why Suq was in charge of Engineering and she had been in Security. It would be the right thing to do to let him know all his options. But until Suq spoke, she would hold her position, and she cast a glance at Morgan to see how he was doing, and she nodded reassuringly at him.

[ Lt. JG A'vura Zeshryr | Conference Lounge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @steelphoenix
[Show/Hide]

Lights dimming always gave A'vura a sense of panic. It meant something very, very wrong was going on. And there were few things left in this day and age that could do that to a Federation starship, especially one of this size and capabilities. “That's not a good sign...” said A'vura, glancing at Deacon with wide eyes. She got up and went over to the viewports hurriedly, looking at the Asurian ships wonderingly, her lips parted slightly, but she said nothing, and she looked back at Deacon again, “I've got a bad feeling about this...” quoting a line from a classical film made centuries ago. “We should get out of here. Come on.”

She started heading towards the door, and kissed hull plating when they didn't open. “Owph! What the...? Thea? Thea?” She looked up and around beseechingly, “Are you there? Thea?!?” She knew about the ship being akin to the infamous Captain Data of the USS Enterprise-E, possessing a positronic brain and so on, based on the briefing, and that it identified itself as 'Thea', but she never knew that it would go down in a time of crisis like right now. “Thea, please respond. Open the doors.” Was the ship computer systems and automations compromised? Were the Asurians doing this? “We'll need to open this manually, I hope the master control switch isn't someplace different.”

Fortunately it wasn't, but when her fingers went for the console, she didn't notice that there was a blue field of light glowing ominously around the controls, nor was she paying attention to the fact that the buttons were all blinking in random order...

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #23 – February 07, 2018, 02:17:25 AM

[ Deacon | Conference Lounge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Triage

Deacon railed internally against the alert, the flickering lights, flashes of another place, another lifetime threatening to swallow him again. Breathing ragged, he forced himself to focus on the PADD he held in his hands, finding the presence of mind to save the progress of his report independent of the uncertain fate of the Theurgy. He'd made a promise, committed everything he had and was to this cause and he would not lose it for the sake of a power outage or computer crisis.

He barely registered the command for non-essential personnel to seek shelter from the radiation, like a faint, half whispered echo that seemed disconnected from the actual emergency at hand. The female was moving in the corner of his eye, speaking... to him? She seemed frustrated. His eyes were coaxed from the PADD that he gripped tightly, tracing the line of the table's edge to the female, the orion, who had been silently digesting his recounting of the kzinti military forces for the past few hours.

A terrible drone emerged from his memories, the cracking of a bulkhead, the flicker of fire... no... not fire... His body moved before his mind had rationalized what he saw, displaying an uncanny sense of grace and dexterity that his muscular physique belied as he slid across the table top and wrapped his arm around A'vura's waist, hoisting her away from the console which he regarded with fangs bared as if the electricity behind the glass panel might leap out and attack at any moment.

Realization crept into his eyes, his uneven and anxious breathing managing to slow as he looked at the woman held in his arms. "You... could have been hurt," he said, his ears folding backwards as he lowered her back to the ground.

Re: Chapter 01: Protectors of Truth [ Day 03 | 1507 hrs. ]

Reply #24 – February 07, 2018, 05:31:27 AM

[Selena Ravenholm | Main Bridge | Deck 01 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

“Right, I know the feeling.” Selena responded to Keval, returning to her investigation into slipping into the Asuran’s computers. She listened to the conversation between the captains with half an ear in the meantime, in case her name came up. Barely registering the transporter hum, cybernetic eyes never looked up from her console as mechanical fingers glided along its surface. Probing the outer firewalls in the Asuan communications antenna, Ravenholm saw an opening and prepped her initial attack. It was only because of her being in the Theurgy’s communication system that she had a few microseconds of warning, nowhere near enough time to respond out here in the flesh.

Selena was already recoiling from her console by the time it lost control, intelligence files, computer access protocols, logs, and god knows what else downloading so fast even her skills were having trouble catching it all. “Who the hell…” she blurted, then her head snapped around so fast that a doctor would be wincing from the whiplash it gave them. “Thea!” Seeing the hologram is such severe distress was beyond concerning, Selena’s eyes grew as wide as they could and she was up and out of her chair racing to her side, ignoring whatever it was that ch’Rayya was ordering her. “Thea, if you can hear me, shut down your sync link. Do you hear me? Shut down the link!” Grabbing the projected shoulders, mechanical hands tried to steady simulated tremors, a detail lost to her in the chaos.

Selena was there for only a moment, Trent’s clear voice burned through the near-panic with orders to go to the computer to set up new protections. Knowing it was the only way to save her friend, Selena was off with a look of apology and strength to Thea. Diving down the emergency stairwell after the Hermat, she took a moment to admire the hermaphrodite’s form as s/he dropped to all fours and galloped off. Normal humans could never hope to keep pace, Selena just sent the command to release the limiters and her legs pumped harder and faster.

She still fell behind, rushing into the Computer Core just in time to dive to the side to avoid a flying inspection panel. Pivoting to the stand-up console along the wall she was already bringing up the cybersecurity controls, banging the wall in frustration as the Savi’s intrusions were hammering the controls hard. “This would be a lot easier if I could link straight in…” she muttered, pulling a small chip of her own out of her thumb. Loaded with several special anti-intrusion programs, it was her go to when it was time to put on the white hat, as the old saying went.

“Keep me in the loop with your progress Lieutenant, and if you see anything taking a hit call it out so I can cut them off.”

[Ens. Irnashall "Shall" ch'Xinya | Outer Hull | Deck 16 | Vector 01 | USS Theurgy]

It was quite difficult to move quickly in an EV suit. The heavy fabrics and interior shell made the blasted thing bulky, the extra mass taking extra effort to move. Microgravity didn’t help either, running would be suicide since the curve of the hull meant that as soon as both magnetic boots were off the metal you’d be flying off into space at the trajectory you pushed off with. All Shall and COP Luff could do was widen their stance and hustle their steps along. Thank Lor’Vela that the Deck 16 airlock was just a few dozen meters away.   Waiting impatiently for it the cycle open, Shall took one last look at the nebula before stepping inside, Luff a few steps behind. The lock was just cramped enough to make his antenna press against his skull in protest. Staring at the inner door, Shall couldn’t help but frown at the situation developing outside while the outer door closed and atmosphere started to flood in. “Of all the times they had to choose to track us down. How did they find us so fast?” he asked Luff, not caring if he responded. The panel counted up to a standard atmosphere, and since they were in gravity again both officer’s shut off their magnetic boots. Shall watched the display climb past .9 atm, and suddenly it went dead. Antenna already rising in surprise, Shall was about to reach out to tap it when everything else died, his eyes squinting shut when the commlink with Luff cut out with a digital screech.

That’s when the outer door slammed open.

Blown backwards and off his feet by the sudden explosive decompression, the airlock was a blur as the force flipped the Andorian antenna over toes. Instinct instilled from zero-G training at the Academy kicked in, and since his hand was still near his hip there was almost no delay in turning the boots back on, both feet clamping onto the ceiling with a pair of muffled clangs. Momentum flopped his torso forward, Shall had to catch himself from smacking into the ceiling with his helmet. Righting himself he was about to ask Luff if he was injured and realized that he was now alone in the airlock.

Standing up, blue eyes widened in horror as an EV-suit clad Tellarite drifted off into the nebula, flipping end over end with no way to arrest his motion.